My media product is of a horror film genre. This is incorporated in numerous ways throughout the opening two minutes of the film; one of them is quite a typical beginning to a horror film where someone gets murdered. The kill scene represents a teenager in front of a computer, the antagonist appears behind the victim which creates tension as the audience are unsure of what is about to happen, the antagonist then is shown as he goes for the victim and the scene is ended with a flash frame transition therefore the audience does not know what exactly happens and that’s why it keeps the suspense going throughout the rest of the film. Also, because the audience is left to figure out what happens to the victim using their own imagination it drags them further into the film. The kill scene is accompanied by tense, eerie music, which gives the audience a feeling that something is about to happen, and by doing this creates a scary atmosphere when the music suddenly builds up as the killer attacks the victim. The occurrences in the film can indicate a ‘paranormal’ horror film as the antagonist looks inhuman and has ghostly characteristics, in addition to that it would be almost impossible for one man to appear in so many places during one day.
My film has similarities to the Hollywood classic ‘Scream’ as both of the films represent teenagers and also in both of the films there’s a female character, which is being targeted by a serial killer, and her friends don’t believe her.
2.
The film represents teenagers around the ages of 16 – 19, in a social environment including both male and female characters. There’s no stereotype used in the male vs. female encounters, no one is more powerful or has more rights than the other gender representative. It could be argued that a stereotype has been used in the antagonist (murderer) character profile as the murderer is represented as a man, which is usually the case in real life as well as films. The characters in the film can sympathize with the audience as the target audience for the film are youth at the same or similar age to the characters therefore the target audience will understand the problems of the characters in the film.
3.
I would say my film could be distributed by a major Hollywood production company since as I mentioned, it has similarities to ‘Scream’ that has been distributed by Dimension Films, which is one of the biggest and well known distribution companies in the world. Therefore, I think my film could be distributed by a company like Dimension films due to the large horror film market as well as its similarities to ‘Scream’ which was a huge success worldwide. Also, like all other big Hollywood films, deceased.com offers a lot of franchise opportunities such as killer mask and accessories, creating an actual website that has been used in the film (chatter.com), personalized ‘missing’ posters and games which would bring a lot of extra profits to the film.
4.
The target audience for my film are young people aged 15-25 as they would be able to relate and sympathize with the film and its characters more than any other age group as the characters in the film are a similar age to them. Therefore, they would be able to understand the problems and fears of teenagers better. My film is has got a certificate 15 as it would not be suitable for persons under that age because it contains violence, gore and inappropriate language. I have conducted research throughout college and found out that most of people age 16-19 would be interested in deceased.com.
5.
I wanted the film to attract people between the ages of 15-25 therefore tried to relate the situations in the film to real life for example when Nina tries to convince Dave that the chainmail roaming the internet is true and he doesn’t believe her, this represents a form of social rejection as no one would believe Nina and everyone accuses her of lying, this can relate to my audience because everyone knew somebody at some point or has been in a situation where their peers didn’t accept them in one way or another and they felt like the ones being left out. This attracts my audience, as they would like to help or support Nina in some way because they know she is truthful and because no one believes her friends are leaving her out.
6.
To make the film we used Sony HD1000, which made the film look more professional due to the high quality of the camera. We also used the tripod designed for the HD1000 in order to keep the image still and avoid unwanted shaking of the camera during filming. We had slight trouble with the white balancing the camera and therefore we had to re shoot on a different day.
During filming we also had slight trouble with fitting the camera in one of the rooms, as we couldn’t get the angle we wanted in order to film. To get the right angle we had to rearrange the room and place the camera in a different position to get a similar angle to the one we wanted.
I edited the film on Final Cut Express using a variety of different transitions and effects in order to put different shots together and make the film flow smoothly. I have never used Final Cut Express before and it was quite difficult to get used to as it uses better technology than any other editing software I have used before.
7.
Thanks to the preliminary task I had a previous encounter with Final Cut Express and received support form my tutor whilst editing it, this was crucial in creating the final piece as I already had a basic understanding of the editing software which made making the final product a lot easier than if I had to edit it not knowing anything about the use of Final Cut Express.
Because the preliminary task made me realize how much effort and time is required in order to produce a presentable product I engaged in making extended planning for the final product by the use of shooting plans, storyboards, costume planning and film script amongst others. This allowed me to meet the deadline date for the product.
I think the film would be a successful one as the moments of suspense and the possibilities of relating to its characters would hook the audience into the film and make them keen to watch the rest of it.
