Monday, 27 April 2009

Genre Research and Intertextual Links

As we were making a horror genre production we researched books and films of the horror genre. One book that I looked at was Legacy Of Blood by Jim Harper. From this book i discovered a lot of useful information and common conventions of horror genres and we were able to apply some of them to our production. One common convention is for the main protagonist to be a girl. These protagonists normally have the characteristics of a "final girl" - strong willed, brown haired, not sexually active/ virginal and intelligent. There is normally a binary opposition of these characters "scream queens" the characteristics of "scream queens" are blond hair, stuiped, sexually active and busty, these "scream queens" are often killed off during the film where as the "final girl" normally survives and defeats the killer/antagonist.

Some common conventions of horror genre films include blue tinted lighting which gives of a supernatural chilling feeling to the audience. this effect has been used in almost all the famous horror films e.g. Halloween, Scream and Friday the 13th. Dutch tilt shots which give the audience a hint that something is wrong or out of place. Another very common convention in horror genres is to use a jagged cerif font in red which connotes to the audience that the film has some horror aspects to it.

Our production has intertextual links to films that involve teenage cast and stalking such as A Nightmare on Elm Street this film is about a stalker character who kills teenagers and the heroine is a typical "final girl" who is in the film from the start.

Sound and Music

From our research of other Horror films we noticed that in all of them the music and sounds used play a key role in the film, it is used to build tension and get the audiences heart beating. As any music we used was required to be copyright free, we researched some copyright free music sites as a group to look for possible sounds and music to incorporate into our film. This is a link to some of the music sites i visited.http://alexsmediawork.blogspot.com/2009/03/copyright-free-music-sites.html.

We included a couple of sound effects in the movie to build tension. One when you can see the stalker through the window and another when Emily climbs the stairs and there is a POV shot. We felt these creepy noises fitted perfectly into our production although we did consider the one on the stairs to be a little cheesey.

We found that we really needed some music to be playing throughout the film as their was not a lot of dialogue but we could not find anything which appealed to us on any of the sites. Therefore we made our own music on garage band. Ben and I did not know much about garage band or how to use it but George knew enough to make a great piece of creepy music which was perfect for our production. The music is slow paced and then gets faster as various instruments come in. The music is based on the original Halloween music/theme and gives the same effect building tension throughout the film.

Our Group

There are three of us in our group; me, Ben Garvey and George Needham. We are good friends and worked well together on the production. The reasons i choose to work with Ben and George are that one or both of them are in all of my AS level subjects so i know how they work and they know how i work. We all put a lot of effort into our media production and have enjoyed working on it together.

Production Schedule and Notes

Although we had the storyboard to follow when we were filming we did adapt some of the scenes and the camera shots used in them as we thought fit. We started filming on saturday 21st March. On the 21st we filmed all the scenes except the scene in the cellar. We filmed this on tuesday the 24th March. We edited these throughout the week and analysed them. We noticed that the shot of emily walking up the street to the house was too long and we needed a wider range of shots and we also needed to improve the scene in the cellar. We went back and improved the footage we had next weekend on the 28th March.

The reason the days we filmed on are so spread out is because there were only a couple of days a week when all four of us were available and we didnt want to film if one of us wasn't there as it would be unfair on them.

Production dates:
Saturday 21st March - Start up until beginning of cellar scene.
Tuesday 24th March - The cellar scene
Saturday 28th March - Reshoots and Improvments.

Feedback

Sophie 17: Loved the point of view shot at the stairs. it sent shivers down my spine.

Laura 17: The music was really effective, the framing of the over the shoulder shot looking out the window was really good.

Emily 17: I thought all the scenes worked really well together. the whole thing builds up tension.

Sam 16: I like the music at the start and i especially liked the shot where the stalker can be seen through the window and then when Emily moves into the frame and then back out of it he has disappeared.

Mrs Morgan: I like the start immediately - great music. Some of the shots are a little dark. Great range of shots - very typical of the horror genre. The tension builds really well and the scenes in the bathroom are excellent.

Sunday, 26 April 2009

Semiotic Analysis

Throughout the production a lot of non digetic sound has been used to add effect in the scene and build tension. An example of the non digetic sound used include the music played while Emily is walking to her house, this builds tension and denotes that the scene is building up to a climax. The music which is quite slow paced and creepy could also signify that film will be slow paced but also very scary. As the music is quite powerful the audience could get the feeling that Emily is quite a powerful figure in the film. The use of non digetic sound is also applied when Emily is walking up the stairs and there is a POV shot of her, the eerie music played reinforces the belief that she is being watched. The gate swinging shut as Emily walks up the steps to her house is a common convention of horror film and adds to the mounting tension.

When Emily is in her bedroom and she walks over to the window to put her jacket on the chair there is a narrative enigma; a mysterious non-digetic sound is played and we can see the hooded figure on the street then Emily steps in the frame of the shot and when she moves away the figure is gone.

The second shot is a long shot of Emily and behind her you can see a hooded figure dressed in black which signifies that she is being followed. The dark clothes and hood up connote villainy and this is anchored through the use of the menacing, non-digetic music. The next shot is an over the shoulder shot of Emily from behind the stalker this reinforces the idea that he is a villian and that he is following her.

There is then a high angle shot of Emily which signifies she could be in danger and shows her vulnerability. As Emily walks up the steps to her house the high angle of the shot lessens until it is almost a normal mid shot. This could show that now that Emily has reached the safety of her home she is more control and is not as vulnerable as before. This theme continues in the next shot which is a low angle shot of Emily climbing the stairs. The shot also seems to be a POV shot, this and the shaky camera work signifies that although Emily is less vulnerable she is still being watched and is far from safe.

There is another low angle shot of Emily as she heads down into the cellar to try and fix the fuses. This is an example that Emily is a binary opposition as typical girls would have no idea how to fix fuses and would leave it to a man. The low angle shot also reinforces the belief that Emily is quite a strong masculine character. There is a POV shot as Emily fixes the problem and turns the lights back on and they start to flicker. There is then a visual bridge as in the next shot which is also a point of few shot the light can also be seen flickering. This denotes that somebody else is in the same room as Emily.

There is also a two shot of Emily and Mark unfortunatly the lighting is not very good and we can not see Marks face at all. When Mark explains that he hasn't touched the lights there is a close up of Emilys face and we can see the confusion on her face as she realises somebody else has been in the house.

The preferred reading which the producers would prefer the audience to believe is that the person who was stalking Emily at the start of the production was not Mark and was an actual stalker who was responsible for cutting the fuses and is out to get Emily. This view could be contested as some viewers may believe that Mark was the one person stalking Emily and the threat is over. This reading however would not explain why the fuse wires had been cut.

When Emily walks down the stairs into the cellar she walks into the shot which shows that she is a dominant character. The clothes she wears also denote to the audience that she is an intelligent working woman. She does however have quite a low cut top revealing some cleavage which connotes that she is sexually available and will appeal to male audiences.

Friday, 24 April 2009

Rough Cuts

This is the original match on action shot of Emily opening the door. The problem was that the timing was out so it appeared as though Emily opened the door with the camera outside and then opened it again but with the camera inside.


This is the actual match on action shot of Emily opening the door. This time we have edited it so that the timing is correct.