Analysis of Inoccence
To prepare our horror film, we started by researching other horror films to see what we could use for our own piece. “Hide and seek” was a film we analysed as a group and I picked up on some of the codes and conventions the horror film used. Costume throughout the film defined a very clear difference between the father and the daughter, displayed by the colours they wore.
The girl wore light and vibrant colours to reflect her innocence and youth whereas the father wore dark colours to symbolise his malicious character.
The mother went from lighter colours when she was happy, to black when she was in doors to emphasise her depression and make the audience aware of her illness.
We tried to use colours in our film for symbolism. Lucy has a red jacket on with white dots, which she wears at the beginning of the film, the red symbolises danger and blood which is linked to death and the white dots add a little innocence to her evil character. The audience might think when she is possessed it is not completely in her control, there is another force which has taken over. All three characters are wearing informal casual clothes and we tried to dress the characters in our film the same, to reflect the same class and that they are related.
I showed our film to a group of 16 and 17 year olds, they all found the ending of our film the scariest part because they didn't expect the camera to move the way it did. Like 'Hide and Seek' they found the idea of a young girl being the evil character as disturbing, normally she would be the innocent and vulnerable character instead she is the one they fear the most.
Props were also used for symbolism. At the end of the opening of “Hide and Seek” the scene in which the mother is dead in the bath she is surrounded by candles, this prop has two meanings simply to be a relaxation tool that she used before her death but once she’s murdered they have a religious connotations, you light a candle in church to mourn the dead.I really liked the idea of invading on a private space like a bathroom to create the tense atmosphere, this was used in both “Hide and Seek” and “Psycho” (Marion is murdered in her shower) but we felt as a group this would be too hard to portray, instead we stuck to a setting that is a convention in many classic horror films like “Poltergeist”, in a grave yard, enabling us to add the religious symbolism of death without invading on a private space.
With mise-en-scene we used the iconography of the angel and the devil, the angle being on the left and the devil being on the right, as the mother exits the park to try and find her daughter she looks to her left and then her right and picks a direction to go, she ends up walking to her right, which is the side of the angel highlighting her pure character and the fact she is trying to stay away from the devil and any evil forces, but unfortunately her daughter doesn’t. We tried to appreciate everything that is in the frameIn my own time I went into greater detail and looked at specific shots from different horror film openings. Every film I looked at used close ups or extreme close ups to build the tension and block part of the scene from the viewer’s eye, a technique Hitchcock uses in “Psycho” to create suspense in many of his scenes.
The extreme close up of Bates’s eye as he watches Marion undress, makes the viewer feel like they are on his evil side and it makes the scene even more uncomfortable. A variety of other shots were also used to keep the audience engaged. For example the use of mise en scene with the birds behind Bates to reinforce the idea of a bird and its prey
As we filmed the piece we tried to use as many different shots as possible, we have close ups of Lucy’s face and the jacket to make the audience aware of its importance, we then had establishing shots to show the audience the setting and a mixture of medium and long shots to tell the story. We used a medium shot of Lucy on the swing with bars falling across the screen, this symbolism challenges the ideas of barriers, to represent the idea that she is trapped.Every opening I watched also used very tense non-diegetic music; this was a very effective way of portraying the horror genre. As a group therefore, we decided to input non-diegetic music of the nursery rhyme ‘Twinkle twinkle little star’ but turn into a sinister sound by slowing down the track and adding an echo. These ideas came from “Hide and Seek” which is based on the children’s game hide and seek, what could be more innocent. It is a different way of portraying the horror genre because you are seeing a game everyone relates to from childhood made into something horrific and this is what we wanted to do with the nursery rhyme, evoking a sinister atmosphere to our film.
Many famous horror films also have a fast pace to sustain the attention of the audience and keep the scenes thrilling. In “Psycho” the shower scenes before she is murdered, uses a variety of different shots all cut very quickly one after the other to create suspense. In our film we tried to make the cuts in the park scene very quick to engage the audience right from the start and keep the fast pace even when the non-diegetic music was slow and sinister.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In our film our cast consisted of a young girl called Lucy and her mother; we tried to dress both the characters in clothes that made them look innocent and realistic. We wanted Lucy to look as vulnerable as possible so that when she is possessed it comes across as very sinister, we did this by putting her hair in pig tales to make her look innocent. We tried to dress the mum how a stereotypical mother would look on a normal day out with her daughter; she had a plain blue coat on and jeans, allowing the viewer to relate this film back to his or her childhood or parenthood. The iconography of our cast represents a middleclass life so the higher classes may not be able to link as much to the characters as a middle class citizen would but they could still relate to the protagonist Lucy as I think every child would have experienced the same feelings of fear or happiness. For example 'Paranormal activity' is based around a middle class family in America, this social group are the most likely to see the film and it gives them something to relate to, which will create more fear for them in the film.We purposefully gave Lucy no dialogue, to keep that part of her hidden from the audience, adding an unknown element to her character, another Hitchcock technique, he gave the dominant character the dialogue throughout the film to give them more control in the scene, so in “Psycho” as the power passes between Marion and Bates so does the amount of dialogue, as Marion is at her weakest when she is murdered she has no dialogue at all. We tried to reduce the amount if dialogue the mother had so that the audience mainly only heard sounds creating more suspense. We chose a setting that was very open to isolate the two characters, making them look small and intimidated by everything around them.
We also tried to link our narrative to current affairs, unfortunately stories of children being taken and sometimes never found is a common news story, so we tried to play on this fear parents have of losing their child to make our opening as scary as possible for a parent. We used a single mother again toying with the idea of vulnerability and it was a way of maximising the anxiety. Films such as 'Taken' also play on this plot line that their child is abducted, the audience are then interested to see if the girl is ever found.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I researched different film production companies and discovered ‘Blumhouse Productions’ who are a modern company that have produced many sci-fi and horror films linked to spirits, ghosts and the idea of being possessed. One of their most famous films is “Paranormal Activity” which had many ideas we could draw upon to cover the topic of death. Like our film, it also focuses on the middle class and uses the concept of religion, like we did by setting part of the opening in a graveyard. The audience age is also very similar to our film.
‘Blumhouse productions’ are a mainstream company with an excellent reputation in horror films, hence attracting more viewers as they already have an established target audience. If a company like this was to produce our film our initial sales and viewing figures would be high as the audience would know the type of film to expect. It is a relatively new production company, only being around since 2000, so it has a modern young dynamic feel to it which helps draw the younger generation in, “Paranormal Activity” was a big franchise and very succesful. This would have a knock on effect with our sales; the company would know exactly how to market our film to our target audience. The ending of our film is similar to the way ‘Paranormal Activity’ uses the camera as another tool the spirit moves sharply to startle the audience and make them feel as part of the film.
They have not released many other films that have been as successful as Paranormal Activity, except from one romantic comedy 'The Accidental husband' which started Uma Thurman and Colin Firth, telling the audience straight away this is a well received company.
4. Who would be the audience for you media product?
The target audience to this film is teenagers and young adults. We decided to make the film an age restrictions of 15 because students will be able to see the film at the cinema for a lower price than an adult would, this would hopefully again increase sales of the film and market research has shown 15-21 year olds are the most common age groups to go and see horror and thriller films in the cinema. This group have more leisure time then adults because they are still in education and not in full time employment. Going to see a film is a social activity, watching films with their friends, whether at home or at the cinema and buying horror films on DVD to watch in their own time. This again would add to our sales figures. The common use of social networking sites in younger generations would help publicise the film and many adults are also starting to use the sites, which would widen our audience and make the film a success.
Character profile
I created a character profile for our horror film to see which audience our film is aimed at. Darcy is 16 and is currently in 6th form studying for her A-levels, she enjoys going to parties and watching films with her friends and family, she also took media as an A-level. Darcy likes horror films especially psychological thrillers and her favourite horror film is Scream 4, she said she enjoys the suspense and anticipation horror films are able to make she finds that worse then something that makes her jump ' i like the adrenaline rush i get from watching a film like Scream'.
She told me she watches a horror film about twice a month with her friends and she also said she would be willing to pay £10-£15 for a DVD or her local cinema prices to see the next big horror film. She sees films advertised mainly on TV ' the trailer makes me want to see the film, if the movie isn't portrayed well in the trailer i probably wouldn't see it'. If we were going to publish our film, our trailer would have to entice the audience so that they would then be willing to go and see the film or buy the DVD. Darcy said she enjoys the way the music can create such a big atmosphere, Scream uses lots of non diegetic sounds to increase the suspense in a scene and long pauses to keep the viewer on edge. One of Darcy's favourite genres is horror and thriller and she said 'i hopefully will be watching horror for many years to come!'
Horror and Thriller films are also very popular in the 21st Century. With many horror films being publicised on a regular basis, one source from http://www.abcarticledirectory.com/Article/Why-Horror-Films-Are-So-Popular/91442 suggests ‘One popular theory is that horror films touch on emotions that other films don't.’ You can’t get the same adrenaline rush from any other genre.‘ people know exactly what they're getting and they know exactly what to expect. People also enjoy the fact that when they are watching a horror DVD they are completely detached from reality’ We like to watch films that scare us to make us feel safer in our own lives, the horror we watch can’t happen to us, but this is how films like Scream have done so well because they make it seem realistic which is another way of scaring the viewer. We tried to make our film realistic to maximise the audience’s anxiety.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
We attracted our audience by trying to use characters they could relate to and link back to their own childhood. The nursery rhyme we used throughout the opening would be a childhood memory, giving the audience a connection to the film before they experience the horror genre. The park and the swing would also link the audience back to when they were younger and they can imagine the fear they would have gone through if they went missing like Lucy, the audience would be aware that as a child you are most vulnerable.
Questionnaires
Interview about horror films interview about horror films 2
I asked a range of ages some questions to see what they enjoyed about horror films. The 15-21 group I asked had the majority saying 'yes' they enjoy horror films, although non of the group said it was their favourite genre of film, comedy and romantic comedies were there favourites. They enjoyed watching the tense parts of horror films and they liked the adrenaline rush 'they are a completely different genre to most films which makes them exciting'. The two people who said they didn't enjoy horror films also said the only time they watched them was when they were with their friends who wanted to see it. Advertisement is very important for any film as everyone I questioned said they would only pay to see the film at their local cinema if the trailer looked entertaining and portrayed the film very well. They also all agreed that the more believable the story line is the scarier the film is 'it means when i do day to day things i think back to the film and it scares me'.
I also asked these questions to adults (21+ year olds) who said they enjoyed mostly psychological thrillers and those that were realistic to them. They liked the bits that created suspense and made them jump. They said they would watch them with their families and they would pay to go to the cinema if the trailer looked very good.From my results we tried to use these findings in our film, we used realistic characters and developed music to create suspense and develop an adrenaline rush. We tried to add in aspects of a psychological thriller, with a spirit messing with Lucy's mind. We also tried to use similar structures of story lines that they enjoyed such as 'Scream' and 'Paranormal activity'.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Editing the piece has taught me how to use Final cut express along with the booklets we were given (in my blue book) and it has made me realise how much it takes to edit just a short part of a film. I appreciate media much more then I did now that I know how much work goes into a simple clip. I learnt how to use the HD cameras when we filmed the scenes I also learnt how it is not as simple as just filming the actor, every clip has mise en scene, camera angles, lighting and sound to consider and this means a lot of preparation has to be done before you can actually go out and film it, we had to create story boards and visit the areas we wanted to film before the day of shooting to get a feel of what angles we could shoot. I was pleased with many of the shoots we used in our film, including the canted angle of Lucy on the swing, it helped create the tense atmosphere and it disorientated the audience, it was almost like a warning to the viewer that something bad was about to happen. We had to use a stand to keep the camera steady, to not effect the frame. The final part of our film was also though through we put jumpers and bag on the floor as padding for the camera then dropped it on to the floor to give that shaky feel.
Coming up with the story line was also very difficult, it is hard to think of something that would scare a viewer and that has not been already done. So we ended up taking parts of different films and creating our own idea.
Finalcut express was an interesting package to use, I learnt how you can change the colouring of frames and add effects such as slow motion to a scene. It was also interesting to learn how to cut different scenes and adds music that fitted the different scenes well.
I think I have learnt a lot between the development of the preliminary task and the real film and my knowledge has greatly improved. Our group was very relaxed when we filmed the preliminary task, we decided what we were doing the day before we filmed it and we didn’t really think about anything except the camera shots we used. The surroundings we used distracted the viewer from the actors, bright posters were up in the school and it was obvious we were in a school building, which took away a lot of suspense in the scenes. Our time management was also very unplanned and we ran out of time in the hour we had allowed to film the piece, we had to arrange another time to finish filming which meant we then didn’t have as long to edit the piece and it made the final product very rushed, we didn’t have time to think of the symbolism in our piece or get any feedback from other people to see how they reacted to the film and to improve it as we were going through the editing process. When we started to plan for the real film, creating storyboards and scripts we allowed enough time to do everything before the deadline. This meant we had enough time to rectify any problems with continuity or other errors whilst filming to go back another day and this was the case when we went for one afternoon to look at different settings. We started to film the scene in the park and the camera ran out of battery before we finished our scene. This meant we needed to start all over again as the weather conditions needed to be the same to be able to carry the scene on without any continuity errors, as weather would show a real obvious difference. We thought more about the importance of everything in the frame to improve from the preliminary task, symbolism of colours like the red jacket to the tree Lucy sits in front off, the time of year meant it had lost all its leaves, it created another link to the idea of death.
I also learnt that it is a lot harder then I first thought to come up with good ideas for the film, so research was a vital part of the development to create a good horror film. I looked at other psychological thrillers and films linked to spirits and childhood to come up with our storyline and looked at books and articles to create other ideas.
I really enjoyed every aspect of creating the film; it gave me an insight into the professional development of a film and let me show the creative side to my personality.
