Shooting Schedule

Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

This is my preliminary task.

This is my final draft of 'Lethal Media'.

This shows that using the skills I have learned in editing, I have gained the ability to incorporate and produce opening credits, and then put them into iMovie.

This clip shows that I have learned how to add in opening credits (Artificial Eye and New Wonder Productions) to my media product. In my preliminary task, the video started off with just the footage, and no opening credits, because I did not know how to implement opening sequences in post-production. However, I eventually learned and improved on my editing skills, because I was able to incorporate opening credits into the footage for my group's horror opening sequence. This editing technique is a huge benefit to me, because the implementation of opening credits makes my media product look more realistic of a film, rather than have no opening credits and delve straight into the footage, which can be sudden and unexpected for the viewer, as they are used to seeing films begin with opening credits.






These are all three examples where I have used creative and imaginative camerawork for the opening sequence of my group's horror product

As well as editing, camerawork is another aspect of Media Studies which I have vastly improved upon. Although I feel that the quality of camerawork was at a decent standard, my preliminary task only features a diminutive amount of interesting and intriguing use of camerawork. For my group's horror opening sequence, I have incorporated a variety of interesting shots into the footage, to attract the viewer's attention. Like my improvement of editing, my improvement of camerawork has also served to be a huge benefit for me. I have learned how to use creative shots that intrigue the viewer, and help to build their anticipation for what is about to transpire next.

However, even though I feel that the complete version of my preliminary task may have been quite basic, it is of a decent standard, and I have used cinematography techniques in that task (as well as when my group produced the opening sequence to a horror film) which were the reason that my preliminary task reached a decent standard.


This shows that the 180 degree rule has been used in my preliminary task


This shows that the 180 degree rule has been used in my coursework task

The 180 degree rule is used to keep the audience from feeling disorientated. It is there to show continuity in the footage, and I feel that I have done good enough with the 180 degree rule in both my preliminary and my coursework task to make sure that the audience don't feel disorientated.


This shows that shot/reverse shot has been used in my preliminary task


This shows that shot/reverse shot has been used in my coursework task

Like the 180 degree rule, the purpose of a shot/reverse shot is to show continuity. Shot/reverse shots are used when two characters are shown facing opposite directions, in the midst of a conversation. The two characters are shown facing opposite directions because it is more of a help to the viewer to show that the two characters are conversing with each other, because the viewer will assume that when the characters are facing opposite directions, they are looking at each other.


This shows that match-on-action has been used in my preliminary task


This shows that match-on-action has been used in my coursework task

Just as the other two filming techniques are used to show continuity, match-on-action provides the same purpose. Match-on-action is the transition between one shot to another, whilst making sure that there is a continuity link between the two shots.

Overall, I felt that there was a noticeable progression from my preliminary task to when I was producing a horror opening sequence along with my group. It is evident that I have gained a much larger grasp on the aspects of camerawork and editing.

Question 5

How did you attract/address the audience?

Pie Charts

These pie charts both show how the audience feel about my group's media product. This is good, as audience feedback allows my group to focus on improving the critiques and modifying our product to assure that it is at a good quality. As evident from the pie charts, every person that we asked liked the setting that we used, as well as the titles. They also felt that our superimposed titles linked to our opening sequence. However, when asked about New Wonder Productions, over twenty five percent of the people asked disliked it. This shows that although there are a lot of people who like New Wonder Productions, the name is something which could be improved upon.

Vox Pops

This vox-pop also shows audience feedback based on the opening sequence of our horror film. It allows for us to know what we did well in the process of making the horror film, and what possible mistakes we may have made and how we may be able to correct them.

Director's Commentary

This director's commentary shows how me and my group aimed to appeal to our audience, and what we did in post-production in order to gain a desirable reaction from the audience.

Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

In order to construct this product for my coursework, I used many technologies from when I would plan on how to construct the product, to when me and my group would be in the midst of constructing our media product. During the planning process, my group incorporated many different pieces of technology into our blogs. We included slides from SlideRocket, spider diagrams from Bubbl and Prezi, shortened versions of videos from Tube Chop and verbal presentations from Go Animate. When our group would gain footage for our media product, we would use technology such as a moving image camera and a tripod. In post-production, we produced our film in iMovie. The non-diegetic sound included sound clips from Freesound.









The technologies that have allowed me to produce something creative was with some of the cinematography that I used. The videos above both show how I have been able to implement a creative use of cinematography into my group's media product.


This is my group's media product without non-diegetic sound from Freesound.


This is my group's media product with non-diegetic sound from Freesound.

From the two videos above, there is a massive difference between the creativity of the media products. The first of the duo of videos doesn't provoke any reaction from the audience. It doesn't make them anxious or scared, which is how the audience should feel when viewing a horror film. The second video does have non-diegetic sound, and because of that, the audience is able to react in a far more desirable way, and they elicit reactions of fear and anxiety because of the tensional music that is playing in the background. Because of Freesound, I am able to display my product in a creative way that will provoke a desirable reaction from the audience.

Tripods and moving image cameras are both technologies that require careful use. It is very easy to make mistakes when capturing footage using tripods and moving image cameras because they can jump very easily, and the shot will become unsteady as a result. Because of this, I have had to develop my skills when using the tripod and the moving image camera in order to carefully use them so the shots that would be captured were steady.

However, there have been multiple incidents where I hadn't used the tripod and the moving image cameras correctly, which required for me to film the same shot again, in order for it to become steady. In the long term, the mistakes that I have made with the tripod and moving image camera have helped me to develop my skills when using those pieces of technology, and have taught me to carefully use them to gain steady footage.

Lethal Media - Final Draft

Feedback

This is the feedback that my group's media product received.

Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product? 

This is a vox-pop produced by our group when we researched what our demographic liked to see in horror movies.

These are pie charts that display the results to a questionnaire that our group conducted to assist with our research.

As seen from the screenshots above, our group had carried out research to decide who would be the target audience for our media product.

                              

Facebook and Twitter are the most well-known sources of social networking.

My group decided to make the target audience for our horror film adolescents and young adults. Although most typical horror films tend to feature blood, gore and fatalities that are supposed to appeal to adults, our media product goes against typical horror films. Since our target audience consist of adolescents, my group felt that it would be appropriate not to incorporate these features so adolescents could feel slightly more at ease when watching our product. Our media product also aims to highlight the dangers of social networking, which is another reason that adolescents are one of the target audiences for our media product. A substantial amount of adolescents are believed to use social networking websites (such as Facebook and Twitter) frequently. This helps lure adolescents into watching my group's media product because social networking plays a big role in our product, and it will hopefully teach teenagers about the potential dangers of using social networking websites.

This is an example of who my group consider to be the target audience for our media product.

The main demographic of my group's audience are people aged between seventeen and twenty one years old. My group also envision our target audience to be female (through the use of the vulnerable female characters in the beginning of the film), although our group want to appeal to males also, which is why the genre of our media product is a horror. Since our target audience consists of teenagers and young adults, we expect our target audience to be students who receive very little, if any, income. As all of the characters in our media product are Caucasian, my group will mostly aim towards Caucasian adolescents, but we also want to appeal to other ethnicities also, so they too can learn about the dangers of social networking websites. Considering that my group are filming 'Lethal Media' in England, we will aim towards appealing to English teenagers. 'Lethal Media' will also aim to appeal to those who are skilled working class (who make up twenty one percent of the total population), as people in that class (as well as 'superior' classes, who our product will also appeal to) can manage to afford a computer and/or a mobile phone to use social networking on.

              

These are examples of films that our target audience are believed to like.

As well as deciding on the target demographic for our media product, my group also discussed what would be the psychographics of our target audience. My group feel that our target audience has a social lifestyle and enjoys socialising with friends, meeting new people and getting to learn about different cultures (partially through social networking websites). Our target audience is also expected to be fashionable, trendy and materialistic, and are intrigued in the latest trends and developments in technology. Genres of media products that are believed to be popular with our audience include horror, thriller, comedy, romance and any combination of the aforementioned (an example would be romantic comedies).

Lethal Media - Second Draft

Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

My group decided that the kind of media institution who would distribute our media product would be an independent distributor. The reason for this is because independent distributors generally tend to possess low budgets and therefore distribute films that don't have as much public recognition as mainstream films. Our media product has no budget, so as a result, it was clear that an independent distributor would be the most appropriate option.

My group also decided that we would use Artificial Eye as our distributor. This is an English distributor company that have films that produce films of many genres with hidden meanings. My group did some research on this company and found that many of there films are actually thrillers, mysterious films and horrors, with fits out opening sequence perfectly. Our media product also aims to highlight the dangers of social networking, so it is a suitable option to use Artificial Eye as they seem like a distributor who would distribute a horror film with a hidden meaning.



For the production company, my group decided that New Wonder Productions would be a suitable idea for our media product. This is because Lethal Media is a film that features very modern scenarios (such as the use of mobile phones and social networking), so the use of the word 'New' would be appropriate for our production company. As Lethal Media also incorporates hidden meanings into the product, it intrigues the audience, and makes them wonder about what these hidden meanings are and how they are implemented into the film. This shows that the use of the word 'Wonder' is appropriate for our production company.

Lethal Media - First Draft

This is our product for Media Studies coursework.

Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In my group's media product, there are two different types of social groups that we have decided to represent.

One of these social groups are heterosexual adolescent white females who are middle-class and are able-minded as well as able-bodied. All of these social groups are represented through the characters of Demi and Megan, the vulnerable duo of teenage girls seen in the opening sequence of my group's media product. One specific social group that my group decided to represent were teenagers. Teenagers are generally perceived to be care-free and prone to danger, thus making them perfect victims of a horror product. Also, teenagers are believed to spend a large amount of time on social networking websites (such as Facebook and Twitter), and my group wanted to represent how that has the ability to take their life away from them. As teenagers are prone to danger, this makes them vulnerable. We highlighted the vulnerability of Megan and Demi through a mixture of cross-cuts, that indicated to the audience that something major would transpire to them both, as well as simultaneously featuring close-ups, to show how they are doing when alone and more vulnerable than ever. The addition of an eerie non-diegetic score helps in indicating that something bad will happen to Demi and Megan, which not only showcases their vulnerability, but also shows that they are in grave danger.

These are the type of girls who our film appeals to. The film features adolescent female characters in the beginning, whom these girls and other heterosexual, able-bodied and able-minded girls can relate to. My group made sure that Demi and Megan would portray teenage girls in a way that could represent adolescent females without making that portrayal negative.

Whilst being heterosexual, able-minded and able-bodied like Demi and Megan, my group wanted to take the character of the antagonist of the film in a different direction. The gender of the antagonist is a male. His ethnicity, age and social class will remain unknown to the audience until the end of the film, when the antagonist's identity is revealed to them. The reasoning behind keeping certain aspects of his social group hidden is to keep a sense of mystery, so the audience will remain anticipated to eventually see who the antagonist of the film is. As the antagonist of my group's media product is a serial killer, he will represent criminals. Cinematography is used once or twice to show the presence of the antagonist. The shots that do show him are mid-shots that feature the back of him, so no clues are given to the audience and they will continue to make assumptions on who they think the antagonist is from the shots that feature him in the opening sequence. When Demi dies towards the end of the opening sequence, it is clear to the audience that she has been murdered by the antagonist. However, they only see Demi falling to the floor rather than seeing the antagonist that killed her. This shows that the antagonist is smart for remaining hidden, as well as being cold and calculated for coming up with a strategy to kill Demi whilst keeping his identity unknown.

Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

There are many typical conventions of an opening sequence that have been featured in some way in my group's media product.

Equilibriums are one of the many conventions of opening sequences that have been incorporated into my group's media product. The purpose of an equilibrium is to showcase the normality of the world of the film, so the audience has a good grasp of what the characters are usually like and therefore, have a better chance of relating to them after seeing them in normality. My group's opening sequence starts off with an equilibrium when Demi, one of the two female characters shown in the opening sequence, is looking at her phone, checking to see where her date (as well as Megan's) is.

Soundtracks are also a convention typical of opening sequences in real media products. Soundtracks help to set the mood/atmosphere of the action that is taking place in the film. My group has implemented a non-diegetic score into our media product in order to assist in setting the mood for the audience (and eventually the characters). As our film is of the horror genre, our incorporated soundtracks that make the audience fearful for the safety of the two adolescent girls.

Speaking of helping to set the atmosphere of the film, another convention that helps to achieve this is establishing the mood/atmosphere. This is another convention of opening sequences that have been placed into my group's media product. This is done not only through the soundtrack, but also through Demi and Megan's performances. When they act cautiously upon entering the forest, the audience should sense trepidation from them, and therefore, feel anxious for them.

Another convention that is typical of opening sequences that is evident in my group's opening sequence when Demi and Megan are in the forest are questions. Prompting the audience to ask themselves questions helps to build the intrigue of the media product, and as the audience are answering the questions in their head that relate to the action being shown on-screen, they feel more involved with the product that they are watching. One particular question that the audience should conjure up upon watching my group's media product may include "What will happen to Demi and Megan" when the focus of the camera frequently switches from Megan to Demi when both girls are alone in the forest.

Whilst equilibriums are there to showcase normality, establishing shots are there to showcase the location that will be seen in an opening sequence at some point. Establishing shots are yet another convention of real media products, and using them helps the audience to familiarise themselves with locations that will be used in the media product. My group has featured an establishing shot of the forest between cross-cuts of Demi and Megan walking to the forest and the forest itself.


This shows an equilibrium, as the two girls are just innocently going to the double date that they and their "boyfriends" had set up.

Titles are the last convention typical of real media products that have been incorporated into my group's media product. Titles and logos are featured in the opening sequence of real media products so the audience are fully aware of which companies have produced and/or distributed the real media product. My group's opening sequence incorporates titles throughout the product. Such titles that are featured includes the editor, producer, person responsible for the sound and the director.

As the genre of my group's media product is a horror, we've also incorporated conventions typical of real media products that are of the horror genre.

Vulnerability and isolation both play a big role in my group's media product, and are also well-known conventions of real media products of the horror genre. Vulnerability and isolation both help to establish an atmosphere of fear for the audience when watching the action on-screen. The whole purpose of Demi and Megan's characters were to show their vulnerability. This becomes clear to the audience when they see two young adolescent girls head into an eerie forest. The isolation comes into play when Demi and Megan go their separate ways. As they are alone and vulnerable, the mood is established for the audience, and they should feel incredibly anxious about the fate of these two young women.


After hearing Demi's scream of agony, Megan runs away in total fear. This highlights her vulnerability, as she knows that there's someone dangerous in the forest, but she doesn't know what, which makes her vulnerable to him.

The antagonist of the film is also another convention typical of real media products of the horror genre. As the antagonist of 'Lethal Media' (the title for my group's media product) is a male serial killer, he dresses in black to hide his identity. The mysteriousness from this intrigues the audience, as they want to find out who the killer is, but at the same time, the mysterious aura of his character also makes them feel anxious, as the audience don't know anything about him, thus becoming worried about what he does to Demi and Megan when he sees them arrive in the forest.

My group implements establishing shots of the forest in our media product. The presence of the forest is a convention of real media products. As forests are well-documented as being eerie and creepy locations, my group decided that incorporating a forest as a location of our media product would be able to provoke desirable reactions of fear and anxiety from the audience when they see these two young teenagers walk into the eerie forest.


The pan of the forest and its lack of colour helps to give off an eerie feeling, to distort the audience when they watch the opening sequence.

Editing is also a convention typical of real media products. When the audience witness the cross-cutting between Demi and Megan in the forest, the audience not only have a good idea of what to expect within the next minute (assuming that they are aware of the conventions of horror movies), but are also prompted to ask themselves which one of the girls will die first, and whether the other girl will survive or not.

Soundtracks are not just conventions of opening sequences of real media products, but they are also typically used in real media products of the horror genre. Non-diegetic scores that are quiet, yet audible to the audience will most likely provoke desirable reactions from the audience, because it isn't what they'd expect to hear, and therefore, it makes them feel uncomfortable listening to quiet soundtracks that barely pierces the silence. My group has incorporated a quiet non-diegetic score because we want the audience to feel uneasy when listening to the music and watching the action on-screen.

Animatic Storyboard

This animatic storyboard is essentially is a short animation that we created in iMovie. Our group produced this storyboard to give us more ideas on on what shots we should use in our opening sequence and how we should incorporate sound into our product in post-production. Creating this storyboard in iMovie was useful for various reasons; it allowed our group to get a better idea of how to work with iMovie, gave us a better idea of how long our opening sequence will be and helped us to determine which sounds would and wouldn't be appropriate in our opening sequence.

Storyboards

Casting

Firstly we have chosen Megan to be one of the main parts as she is a drama student.  She fits our idea of the character of the teenage girl. Megan is stylish and takes pride in what she looks likes, which is exactly what her character is like.

We also have Demi as the other main part in the opening sequence. Demi has the clothes to fit the stereotypical teenage girl. Demi also fits our idea of what a teenage girl should look like.

Charlie is going to be the antagonist of the film because he has an intimidating body structure. Charlie is 5ft11 which fits our idea of a man as he is quite tall. Also, Charlie has black clothing that he can wear so that when he gets filmed, he will have a mysterious look because of the black clothing he is wearing.

Titles

Titles used in our opening product:

- New Wonder Productions
- Working Title Films
- Casting by Demi Proud, Megan Harris and Charlie Price
- Edited by Mike Adams
- Music by David Laws
- Produced by Ann Lee
- Directed by Nikola Busonovic

These are the titles that will appear in order for our horror opening sequence. Our group chose not to include any more titles into the opening sequence because we wanted the audience to focus more on what happened in the opening sequence rather than looking at the titles that appeared on the bottom of the screen.

These are a few ideas of the fonts of titles we are going to use. We are unsure as to now of what one will be using.

Character Descriptions

Demi: A surprisingly mature fourteen year old girl. Demi has an older sister who she is inspired by. Despite the maturity she possesses, Demi isn't the epitome of smart, but she makes up for that with her bubbly charm and her love of sport. She likes to wear make-up as she feels better and enhances her confidence. It's through her bubbly charm that has gained her so many friends, and when she uses that bubbly charm, it's hard to say no to her. She often uses social media networks (specifically FaceBook and occasionally Twitter) to make more friends.

Megan: Even though they aren't related, Megan and Demi are very similar. Both incredibly mature for a fourteen year old girl and look up to their older sisters as role models. Megan, however, has common sense unlike Demi, so she is usually the more trustworthy of the two. Megan dreams of performing in the West End in a few years time, and will do everything she can to land herself in the main role of a West End musical. Even with the chaotic situations that revolve around Demi, Megan has enough trust in her friend to follow what she does, although bringing some sense and responsibility to the chaos.

John Slasher: Mysterious and unknown. There are very few facts known about John, but one of them includes that he is one of Britain's most intelligent and possibly most sadistic murderers in history. After the killing of over one hundred victims, John has somehow managed to emerge unscathed from authority. Whether or not the horrific slaughters of John's victims will come to an end or not is not known at this point in time, but one can only hope that the police eventually manage to provide justice to those that have been wronged by Slasher.

Location Permision

The Script

*Two girls are walking down a road, clear shot from the back of their heads* 

Megan- So where are we meeting them again?
Demi- Let me just check.

*Demi scrolls down her phone to look at the previous messages between her and John* 

Demi- Yeah, we are meeting them in the warehouse over there *looks to the left*.

*Panning/Point of View shot of the forest*

Megan- Are you joking?!
Demi- Does it look like I'm joking?
Megan- Look Demi, I've got so much homework to do and so many deadlines...
Demi- Oh come on! Don't chicken out! Come on...I set you up with his mate!
Megan- But I don't even know the guy!
Demi- Oh please Meg, it's going to be fun I promise!
Megan- ...Oh fine then.

*Walks into the forest*

*The two girls are walking through the forest, many different sounds occur, quiet music creeps in and is playing very quietly in the background. Demi secretly texts the boys typing in "where are you?"*

Demi- I think we're lost.
Megan- What do you mean we're lost?
Demi- Look don't panic. You go that way and look for the warehouse, I'll stay here in case the boys come out and look for us.
Megan- Okay.

*Megan departs to the left of the forest looking for the boys, Demi stays in the same place trying to call for the boys*

---

End of script (as the rest of the scene focuses on the tragic demises of the two girls. The only sounds that will be made during that will be non-diegetic sounds to build suspense, as well as Demi and Megan screaming in pure horror)

Props, Costumes and Locations

Props

The props we will be using for my group's opening sequence will include two objects: an asthma pump and a mobile phone. We will be using a phone as that is the object that keeps one of the female characters (Demi) connected to her 'boyfriend' (that she has met through social media). Funnily enough, it is through social media that Demi and her 'boyfriend' have organised their double date (as Demi brings her friend, Megan, whilst her 'boyfriend' brings his friend). In some of the shots in the opening sequence we will be showing the messages from Demi to the guy who she's meeting up with and as a result, we will show a shot of the phone with the message sent from the guy where he changes the location of their date. This therefore shows the audience the change of scenery and how the theme of horror comes into play in the opening sequence. Also we use the phone in the woods as well when the two girls split up and the phone rings, and it shows the person who is ringing the phone. 

The second object we are using is an asthma pump/inhaler. We will be using this because the other female character (Megan) is asthmatic, and when she is running through the woods to find the boys, she drops her asthma pump in the woods through panic and doesn't realise this until later on in the sequence. We will use a close up to show the asthma pump on the ground to show that she has dropped it. Later on, she stops as she does suffer from an asthma attack which makes her unconscious on the floor as she cannot breath, so the prop is a crucial part for one of the characters.

This is the asthma pump that will be used as a prop:

This is the mobile phone that will be used as a prop:

Costumes

The two girls (Demi and Megan): The two female characters will be wearing articles of clothing that relates to the Winter season (meaning that leggings, blazers, boots, jeans and winter coats will be clothes expected to be featured in the opening sequence). This is to show that the film takes place into the Winter season, so the audience can feel a sense of normality from roughly knowing the time in which the opening sequence was filmed. Normal clothes would be worn to show the normality they are in from the beginning and show that the would be doing something that is considered to be a normal thing among a number of teenagers. In their eyes they wouldn't expect this horrific incident to happen, which garners even more sympathy from the audience as they too would know the two female characters are vulnerable and not expecting any tragic occurrences. Additionally, these normal clothes replicate that they are just innocent young teenagers who didn't realise they were doing something wrong, therefore contrasting with the killers clothes as the killer would intentionally wear clothing that is fully black.

The killer: The male killer would be wearing all black clothes to essentially tell the audience that he is an evil character. Black signifies evil as that is what the colour is known to connote, as well as also connoting death and mystery, which are a further two elements that will be featured in some way in the opening sequence. Also it shows a type of camouflage as the sequence is being shot in the dark, which allows the killer to gain a chance of hiding and produce mysterious noises to frighten these young and innocent adolescent girls. Also, especially as it would be dark, the two females can't see him, so it would be much easier for him to stalk them without getting caught whilst doing so.

Location

My group decided to film in Malmesbury Park (the location of the three images above) due to the eerie vibes that we feel are exuded from this park. Considering the genre of our product will be horror, eerie vibes are exactly what our group wanted in order to scare the viewer, which is typically the aim of all horror movies. The only difference, however, is that my group has decided to film the footage for our opening sequence in daylight rather than at night, since our footage will most likely be more visible if shot in daylight than if shot at night.

Sound

http://www.freesfx.co.uk/sfx/snapping?p=1 - Horror Small Bone Or Finger Snap 003

This sound has been chosen because it is something I feel represents a twig snapping the best. will be used to show twigs snapping, which will be used by our group to build on the anxiety of the two female characters in the horror sequence, which will assist in producing suspense as a result. This sound effect will be used when the girls are hurriedly moving away from the forest, when a twig unexpectedly snaps, showing that the two girls are not alone in the dark location.

http://www.freesfx.co.uk/soundeffects/horror/ - Is it safe out

This piece of music has been chosen because it is something I feel captures moments of tenseness as well as making the viewer anxious due to how slow and deep the beats of the music are, which shows less of an indication as to what may happen at a further point in the film, giving the audience more of a reason to worry as they have less of an idea on how the action on-screen will unfold. This music will be used throughout the whole of the opening sequence as the scene progresses closer and closer until it reaches the dramatic climax that leads to the main plot of the film.

http://www.freesfx.co.uk/sfx/scream?p=2 - Scream, High, Female
http://www.freesfx.co.uk/sfx/scream?p=3 - Person Screaming With Fear

These two sounds have been chosen to represent our two female characters screaming with fear as they are the most believable sounds of women screaming in fear. These sounds will be used when the women meet their tragic demises, to highlight exactly how much horror they are in (which is fitting, as the opening sequence my group will be making is in the horror genre) and also to manipulate the viewer into feeling more scared as they will hopefully like the two female characters, and feel shocked (yet also terrified) that they have died so early on in the film. 

Plot Synopsis

Plot Synopsis:

Megan Harris and Demi Proud have organised to meet up in a double date with two boys over Facebook. However, things aren’t as sweet as they sound. After being made to travel through an intimidating forest, tragedy strikes, as Megan experiences a traumatic asthma attack and Demi is brutally attacked by a sadistic serial killer, much to her astonishment. This turns out to be ‘man’ that Demi has talked to on Facebook. Potential love turns into a tragic scene, as both girls die in the forest due to a shocking turn of events.

This produces enough intrigue from security services to make a court case that revolves around the court case of the murder of Demi Proud, as an attempt is made to find out who is responsible for Demi’s demise, and the reasoning for murdering her. Through this court case, shocking discoveries are made as the killer is eventually revealed, but it is not who is initially suspected.

Our film aims to attempt to provoke the audience into asking themselves mentally various questions after witnessing the events of the film. These questions that may potentially be asked during the duration of the film could include 'Who killed Demi?', 'Why did that person kill Demi?' and 'What will the final verdict of the court case be?'

Location Research - Three potential locations

In this post, I will be analysing the images I took below and explaining why I personally believe they would make good locations for a horror film.

Something to note about all three photos is that they have been taken in the dark, which is already a good start for a horror film as darkness creates vulnerability for the characters in the dark, which as a result, increases the anxiety for the viewer, as they worry about the fates of the characters who are involved in such a dark location.

As my group have planned for the first location of our opening sequence to be shot on a pavement, I thought that this would be a good location to be filmed in. I feel that this has a good look, and something that the audience could feel intrigued enough with due to the dark lighting that creates vulnerability for the two female teenagers that will be walking alone through the pavement to meet their 'dates'. Also, since there would be no-one out if this location gets used, isolation would also be created which makes the audience feel quite sympathetic for these girls, as with the exception of each other, they have absolutely no human being around them whatsoever. If this location is used, it would be used at the very beginning of the opening sequence, when the two girls are using their mobile phones, checking any personal messages they may have received from their 'dates'.

The second location that I feel could be used in the opening sequence of our horror film is next to the forest, which will be featured when Demi and Megan (portraying with the same name) look for their dates that are supposedly waiting past the forest. I also feel that this location would make a good horror location due to the dark lighting, but also due to the mysteriousness that is wielded by what could potentially lurk in the forest. This makes the two female characters even more vulnerable than they initially were due to what could unsuspectingly emerge out of the forest, which as a result, garners fear from the viewer, as they should be worrying about what could possibly jump out from the forest and frighten the two female characters, and how they will be affected by this unexpected surprise.

Finally, the third location that may be used in my group's opening sequence would take place inside the forest (which I unfortunately wasn't able to get an image of, as the image would have been way too dark to see clearly), where the girls face tragic situations that sees them both dying in the forest. I feel this would be a good location to film in as the forest exudes abandonment, darkness and fear, which all could be used to make the audience's intrigue raise significantly. The audience should feel enough fear-related emotions once the girls enter the creepy forest together, but that should increase exceedingly once the two teenagers go their own separate ways, which produces even more isolation for the characters as they are on their own, and even more anxiety for the viewer as they get a clear idea that something is lurking in the forest, and feel immense fear that it may be out to get one or possibly both of the girls.

Initial Ideas Storyboard

This is our storyboard which contains our initial ideas for the opening sequence of our horror film. As evident through the image, our group has discussed about what type of editing we would use, the type of cinematography that would be approrpriate for our opening sequence, the questions that our audience should feel tempted to ask themselves after watching the opening sequence, what sounds (diegetic and non-diegetic) that would be featured in our opening sequence and the plot of our horror film.

Audience Analysis through Pie Charts

In this post, I will be analysing in detail about the pie charts shown below that were made based on the audience survey that my group conducted recently.

In the audience survey that my group have conducted, we have made many discoveries that could influence the production of our opening sequence.

One of these discoveries is that people prefer to see bloody effects when the titles appear in our opening sequence, which has influenced our group to incorporate bloody effects into the font for our title sequence. The implementation of blood is typical of being featured in many horror films, as witnessed in the audience survey when most of the people we interviewed said that they generally would expect to see blood in a horror film.

Another discovery made by our group when checking back on the results of our audience to see that most of our audience liked watching horror movies. This is fortunate for my group as we were already set on producing an opening sequence to a horror movie, so to know that our potential audience are already interested in horror films is a relief for us, as our chosen genre is a preferred choice amongst our target audience.

A third discovery that was found by our group when we looked back on our results is that the audience prefer horror films to start out with an equilibrium (peaceful and balanced) rather than a disequilibrium (frightening and unbalanced). This is also fortunate for our group, as we already decided to feature an equilibrium in our opening sequence, which would however shift into a disequilibrium by the end of the opening sequence.

Finally, another discovery that our group has made when checking the results to our audience survey is that whilst the audience generally have mixed views about where they would like the titles to appear over, more of them prefer to see the titles to appear over a pitch black screen. However, as the audience have mixed opinions, we still may decide to feature the titles in our opening sequence as it seems like a more professional thing to do when incorporating titles into our opening sequence.

Vox Pops

This post will show Vox Pops about what our potential audience thinks about horror movies, what they generally expect to see in horror movies and whether or not they like the idea of cliffhangers being used.



Overall, this video shows that most of our potential audience likes horror movies, which shows that our group's idea of producing an opening sequence to a horror movie is a good idea (due to keeping the audience on the edge of their seats, as well as usually featuring twists, which are both reasons that are given by our target audience), as horror movies wield a certain amount of appeal towards our potential audience.

This video also showed that most of our potential audience generally expect to see a death of some form featured in horror films, as well as blood and gore. As most of our potential audience feels that death is a typical convention of many horror movies, this has inspired our group to consider implementing death into our opening sequence, as it would help to establish our film as a horror film so it can appeal to fans of the horror genre.

Finally, whilst our audience generally had mixed views on whether or not they liked cliffhangers, all of them stated that cliffhangers make them want to find out what happened next, which shows that whether or not they like cliffhangers, our potential audience are all interested by them. As most audiences seem to be interested by the concept of cliffhangers, it is enough to make our group consider implementing cliffhangers into the end of our opening sequence of our horror film.

Conventions of a horror film

This Prezi shows the typical convention of a horror film.

These are the types of cinematography that would typically be featured in a horror film:

Extreme Close-Up (used to show fine detail of the subject or items that has some significance to the subject):

Establishing Shot (used to show the location, and not to make the audience feel bewildered as to the whereabouts of the characters):

These are the types of characters that would usually appear in a horror film:

The male protagonist (usually attractive, to garner likability from the audience): 

The female victim (also usually attractive, to garner likability from the audience. They are usually the victims due to how vulnerable and weak females are generally perceived to be):

The supernatural villain (usually supernatural as it is something that is unexpected, so therefore more likely to produce a reaction from the audience rather than the stereotypical ugly male villain):

These are the types of locations that would typically be featured in a horror film:

Old-fashioned houses:

Graveyards:

Abandoned Warehouses: