Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 3: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages

Assailant involved a sophisticated use of programmes such as Final Cut Pro X and Adobe Photoshop and internet programmes such as Bubble.us and Scribd.

When planning my A2 Coursework I wasn't sure on what task I actually wanted to do-I was undecided between a film trailer and a short film. Therefore I brainstormed ideas on Bubble.us to get my ideas down on paper and review all my options. Bubble.us is useful because it allows idea bubbles to link off from bigger bubbles, meaning that I could put possible ideas within my main ideas, which made deciding a lot easier because it meant I could choose what type of product I produce within the possibility of a trailer or a short film. I also used Scribd to upload my script onto my blog, this is good for documenting my progress throughout the year, for me to refer to if I lose my hard copy of the script and also so audiences can see a preview of what I will produce. I used photoshop to create a mood board which was also a good brainstorming tool, photoshop was also used to plan my poster by analysing other poster through annotations.

Advanced skills in Final Cut were especially relevant to the making of my short film; for example, my scenes are very dark, therefore I had to greatly reduce the shadow in the clips and turn up the brightness to an extent. I also added a significant blue hue to the clips, this makes it more spooky, cold, and emphasises the night. I had to use was on-set lighting where the torchlight simply wasn't enough to light up the scene or the torch would drown out the whole set to just a white light in blackness, therefore I had to add even more lighting to the scene without turning the lights on. Therefore I used the light from the camera on my phone to improve the lighting. It would've been too noticeable and would've created shadow if I had shone it directly where I was shooting, therefore a lot of the time I would shine it on the wall behind or to the side where the reflected light would be just enough to improve the visibility without it looking obvious that extra lighting was used. I also used final cut to make my radio advert; this was a simple process of copying sound effects and moments from my final peace and editing them together as an audio piece, being able to put a soundtrack in the background and applying some narration to it.


Lastly, Photoshop was used to create my posters. When making my movie poster I have to remove lots of background from the images I've taken to make things look more realistic. For example having a man against a black background I need to cut him out of the original picture and insert him in front of a dark background. Photoshop helped to change the tone and the colours of the poster; my original image for the poster was to bright and colourful to match the Horror genre, therefore through photoshop I could make the image a lot darker and more foreboding. I also used cropping to make my film logo which was a variation of J.R.R. Tolkien's famous publishing logo: to make my logo say JP for Jackson Productions I had to crop out the two R's on the logo. This was a nod to J.R.R. Tolkien (As an inspiration to my AS work) whilst keeping the initials to my production name.

Evaluation Question 2

I screened my Short Film to a cinema audience and gave them questionnaires to give me feedback and published my results onto pie charts. This is commonly done in the movie business; film studies will show their product to a neutral audience or focus group to get their advice on it which they then use to improve the film.

Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My horror short film is conventional as a short film in that it has a brisk and simple narrative with some form of resolution at the end. The characters are not usually developed a lot in short films and there is more focus on the narrative and the setting. In my short film the audience can tell that the main protagonist is a young man in a big house due to the establishing shot at the beginning and the audience knows he is along because of the dialogue in the phone call and the fact that he is alone when attaching TV and going to bed. In the middle of my film there is a dilemma in that there appears to be someone else in the house which is the disequilibrium in the piece. The story ends with the main character being attacked and there is suspense because of the uncertainty that has happened, which is quite unconventional because there is usually a solid resolution at the end of typical short films, however my film can leave the audience guessing at whom the Assailant was and what happens to the protagonist.

As a Horror film, it is also quite conventional in that it has suspenseful scenes, mostly in the dark, a protagonist who is under threat and a clear antagonist who appears to be abnormal. As in most Horrors, the story starts with a peaceful setting with the slightest hint of uneasiness which is conveyed in Assailant through the camera angles implicating the main character is being watched and the ominous sounds which get progressively more threatening as the story develops. When its is established that something is not quite right in my film, the suspense truly starts with long shots of darkness which can plant fear in the audience; the audience is familiar with a situation of sheer darkness which prevents them from being totally aware of their surroundings, therefore unsettling them.

What is quite unconventional in Assailant is that there are two attempts at a climax, the first one leads up to an unthreatening situation with the dog, which the audience can also relate to in moments when we think we are in danger because the mind responds badly to darkness. However this anti climax gives the audience false reassurance which makes the second climax more effective and the sudden return to suspense (With the slamming of the door) more shocking. The true climax also aims to be unconventional in that it is not as predictable as the usual shocks seen in horror films, where the enemy would probably be waiting for them at the end of a corridor or inside the room. The audience is shocked by the abrupt appearance of the antagonist from behind the protagonist because the editing and the camera angles suggest the main character is about to investigate something. The film cuts out before the audience sees what happens to the protagonist which is again quite conventional because most horror films have some sort of epilogue. Lastly the film is not very conventional in that the main antagonist is not seen and could therefore be anything from a normal home invader to a shadowy spectre; the news report subtly hints at a mass murderer being on the loose which suggests that the Assailant could be some sort of psychopath on a murdering streak.

Behind the scenes: Radio Advert

I had to potential actors to voiceover my radio advert; I chose the American accent over the British one because it had a rougher touch to it and is more conventional with radio commercials.

Radio Advertisement

My other ancillary task is to create a radio advert for my short film, I analysed the radio commercial for Gravity and Pacific Rim to help me create my own one.

Assailant Movie Poster

One of my ancillary tasks is to create a movie poster for my short film. My main inspirations for the poster are The Strangers and Friday the 13th; I will properly evaluate the poster in a later post.

Assailant (Final Product)

Radio Advert Script

After analysing typical conventions of Movie radio adverts I have created a 30 second advert of my own. I have put in the timings of each input in the left hand column. (The name Bob from the actual movie script has been replaced by Sully, the name of the actor)

Stunts

In my short film the main character is attacked by the Assailant in his house. The attack itself is a figure spearing the main character into the room, the door slamming closed and the lights going out. This involves the main character being slammed into by the Assailant at a very fast pace. I wanted it to look as realistic as possible so I had my actors just perform the stunt as it would have been in a real situation. This would involve both of the actors crashing to the ground violently and could potentially lead to serious injury for either of the actors.

Therefore I laid out a bed mattress as a make-shift crash matt to cushion the fall of the actors and prevent injury. This meant that the actors could perform their stunt knowing that they were going to fall onto something soft, which in turn gave for slightly more realism because the actors are in the right mental state to perform the without hesitation, meaning the biggest impact possible was achieved, whilst preventing any serious injury.

Target Audience of Horror

I did research on the website about.com which gives decent profiles about different genre followings and demographics. My research on the horror genre showed that there is no specific or defining qualities about the horror genre; Horror's main following ranges from teenagers to late middle aged men and women. The specific audience depends on who is being asked. Middle aged men and women tend to prefer zombie and slasher films because of the large surge of successful horror films of those genres through the 1970s and 80s such as Friday 13th, Dawn of the Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Nightmare on Elm Street. Younger audiences like horror films because they are more likely to thrill seek and the shock factor of horror films gives home the adrenaline rush which young people like. However the dedicated followers of horror tend not to be largely outgoing or have a large social life. Hardcore horror fans tend to be enthusiastic about all forms of horror, including remakes which they inevitably hate, and when they run into a stranger who also likes horror they tend to talk enthusiastically about it together.


I created a survey and asked 100 people on their horror movie preferences. 33% of people said their favourite form of horror was physiological horror like films such as Black Swan and Silent Hill. Where as 22.2% of people said supernatural horror films such as The Omen and The Shining were their favourite. I also asked what people didn't like about Horror films; 43% of people said predictable endings and 30% of people said stupidity from the characters was the most annoying thing in Horror movies. Lastly, approximately 57% of people asked were under the age of 30 which shows that horror films generally appeal young people in the UK.

History of Horror

Horror movies are suspenseful films which intend to create fear and trepidation in the audience through undesirable situations (Murders, Sadistic torture), supernatural events (Ghosts, Possession) and grotesque monsters such as zombies or vampires. The first successful horror film was Nosferatu in 1922, a classic monster based story inspired by Dracula. Early horror is usually inspired by other books involving monsters such as Frankenstein and Faust. The introduction of sound and dialogue into film greatly improved the horror industry because scenes could be more atmospheric through music and sound effects which could include monster or ghost noises. Alfred Hitchcock revolutionised the Horror industries in the 1950's with Vertigo, Rear Window and The Birds, which culminated with his most successful piece in 1960, "Psycho" which to this day is considered a Horror classic.

Then in the 70's, the Horror genre saw a huge surge in popularity after the proliferation of good horror films such as The Exorcist, The Omen, Halloween, The Wicker-man, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Alien and Dawn of the Dead, with The Shining and Friday 13th Marking the end of this Golden Age in 1980, after this, Horror films had an unsuccessful period for the next two decades with the exception of Nightmare on Elm Street and Silence of the Lambs. This bad period lead to spoof and non-serious films such as Scream and Scary Movie.

Horror was revived somewhat in the late 90's and early 2000's with films such as Saw, The Blair Witch Project and Ring, and this period of decent Horror films has continued over the last decade with successful films such as Cloverfield, The Conjuring, Insidious and Silent Hill. This was due to advances in technology, being able to make more realistic monsters or ghosts and better script ideas which were more unorthodox and less predictable. Blair Witch project encouraged a large genre of found footage films within the Horror genre such as REC and Paranormal Activity. Horror films in modern times are generally hit-and-miss in terms of box office success with 2014 film Annabelle doing poorly but 2015 film It Follows doing well.

Radio Advert Analysis

Gravity
The advert starts with urgent sounding dialogue and a narrator quoting critics calling it a cinematic masterpiece. Dialogue in the advert alternates between the narrator describing how good the film is and quotes from the movie, usually building suspense. Half way through the advert suspenful music plays in the background which leads up to an explosion. Then epic music is played while the narrator talks about actors and directors.

Pacific Rim
This advert has a quicker beat which ends every bar with a loud explosion like sound with trumpets. The narration goes in unison with the music, the narrator says a line promoting the movie, then there is a quote from the movie which goes in time with the loud surge of noise. There is also the sound of monsters in the advert to show the genre. The advert also brings attention to a competition which the film company is doing where someone can win a prize.

Ancillary Task 2 (Poster Analysis)

Ancillary Task 1 (Poster Analysis)

I have chosen some posters of films from the same genre as my short film and analysed them to help me formulate ideas for my own poster.