Question Two: As we are doing the possession genre, we have looked at a few existing films to see the forms and conventions of this specific subgenre. After looking at films such as Amityville Horror and Paranormal Activity, we realised that possession horrors need:
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| Close up of hand on banister |
- a threat, in which we have used the doll. In our research, we found that they usually dont use an object as the possession, and tend to have a demon which is obviously not visible. We decided not to use it, as it could be quite difficult to make it quite realistic, and I feel the doll works well with the young girl.
close ups, especially on the possessed character, so we have incorporated a few close ups of Jane's face to reveal to the audience she is possessed, and close ups of other things, such as her hand on the banister to build tension.
- Similar to Amityville Horror, we have taken the idea of the flashing lights and used it in our Horror. We liked this idea is it creates mystery when the lights are not on. It also creates an unusual effect, and as the flashing builds up pace, it creates tension.
It is important to use research from previous successful films as it helps make our film more horrifying and it provides us with more ideas. I believe research is always best as it gives us an idea of what the film needs in order to work and be successful.
When creating our horror film, we have not challenged these conventions as although our film would be more unique if we did, we felt it would be safer to reinforce them as the conventions work for other horrors, so they should work for ours.
Question Three:
From doing IMDB research, we can conclude that the target audience for our Horror film is... females and males under 18. We have researched some of the films that influence our film and taken the user ratings to help determine the target audience for ours.
| Votes | Average |
| 18,860 |  5.8 |
| 3,830 |  6.2 |
| 338 |  6.8 |
| 242 |  7.0 |
| 94 |  6.1 |
| 14,926 |  6.0 |
| 12,225 |  6.0 |
| 2,666 |  6.4 |
| 6,395 |  5.6 |
| 5,483 |  5.6 |
| 855 |  5.7 |
| 1,002 |  5.4 |
| 808 |  5.4 |
| 183 |  5.5 |
| 401 |  5.2 |
| 7,517 |  5.8 |
| 13,901 |  5.9 |
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| I think that the audience will like this film because there is use of weapons (young men find weapons fun) and the use of young man actor to relate to. |
Here are the user ratings for our biggest influence, Amityville Horror. From reading the average, we can tell that this film was watched most by males under 18.
Votes | Average |
| 73,410 |  8.1 |
| 11,892 |  7.9 |
| 1,142 |  8.5 |
| 900 |  8.4 |
| 239 |  8.5 |
| 47,181 |  8.0 |
| 40,261 |  8.1 |
| 6,724 |  7.8 |
| 28,900 |  8.1 |
| 25,125 |  8.1 |
| 3,502 |  8.0 |
| 7,938 |  8.2 |
| 6,548 |  8.2 |
| 1,305 |  7.9 |
| 19 |  8.4 |
| 800 |  8.1 |
| 29,732 |  8.3 |
| 49,714 |  8.0 |
|
|
|
IMDb users | 106,761 |  8.1 |
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| I think females will like this because they can relate to the actress (makes more scary to believe can happen to women). The use of shadows is good, and the setting that it is simply a girls bedroom probably makes the females under 18 want to watch as they have bedrooms which makes it more scary for them. |
Here are the user ratings from IMDB of The Exorcist. From reading this, there are two averages that are highest are ages under 18 and females under 18.
After doing all five influences, Amityville Horror, The Exorcist, Devil, Paranormal Activity and The Shining, we have established that the majority of people who watch Possession/Psychological are under 18, and of both sexes. I think that under 18's are associated with horror films because they are usually the age at when people are most naive and probably believe that the threats in film actually exist. I also believe that the films are quite relatable, as some of them contain fairly young actors, which makes it more scary to believe that it could happen to them.
To make a more effective film, we have used some of the techniques that these films have used which we believe are used to help attract the target audience, such as using a child as a threat (like Exorcist), using housing which makes the horror film more personal (like Amityville Horror) and the use of weapons which attract the males of the audience.
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| Main Character out of The Exorcist, a young girl, like ours. |
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| The House from Amityville Horror. We also have used a house |
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| The use of large gun from Amityville Horror attracts males. |
Question Seven:
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| Musical Typing (simple keyboard) |
From creating our opening sequence, I have learnt how to use many different applications that I hadn’t even considered using before. The main three that had the biggest impact on our final product were:
BLOGGER
GARAGEBAND
iMOVIE
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| Our whispering using orion vocals |
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| Editing Clips changing Brightness and Contrast |
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| Increased Brightness and Contrast |
Firstly, Blogger was useful as it helped us gather our thoughts and present them in an easy and organised fashion. Garageband helped produced our non diegetic sound using various instruments and sound effects without being too difficult to use. As we both aren’t very musical people, we used the simple keyboard which helped us create the tune without having to know the exact notes. As well as creating the basic track, we used Garageband to create the additional recorded sounds such as the whispering in the opening 20 seconds. Overall, iMovie was the most useful technology as it helped organise the clips, including the order and splitting of them. Although it wasn’t required, iMovie helped edit our clips (such as brightness/contrast in the opening section) and add transitions.
I definitely feel that Garageband and iMovie helped me be more creative as they both offer lots of different things to create a good product using only a MAC computer. I think I will use both applications again as they are very easy to use and create a professional looking product.
Overall, on iMovie I feel like I’ve learned how to import shots from a camera, split them then edit them to create various effects and I know I will use it again in future. I also feel Garageband helped as I have now learned how to create music without real instruments, and it is very easy to layer the different tracks to create professional sounding music.
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| Layered Music on Garageband |
Question Eight:
preliminary
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=1695401048863777753&postID=6254059250410301976
or try
http://bilborough021.blogspot.com/
our final film
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5417479138662319363&postID=1219320615908155340
or try
http://bilborough501.blogspot.com/
By looking above, there are the two links which help me compare the preliminary assessment and our final horror film and how our skills have developed over the past few months. Firstly, the first thing I noticed was the shortening of the shots in our final film. In contrast to the preliminary task, the shots in our final film were all very snappy, only lasting a second or two long, whereas the preliminary had many shots that were around four or five seconds. The preliminary has no use of effects, whereas our final film makes use of video FX and transitions which adds more horror to the film and makes it more interesting for the audience to watch. I have now learnt more about composition as there were shots within the preliminary task where the objects weren't fully on the screen. I do feel though, that we did use a good range of shots within the preliminary task, like the quick cuts of the watch. I have also learnt from the preliminary that the shots needed to be cut down and not drag on as much, even though it made the quicker cuts more effective.
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It should have been more of an extreme close up or
the whole watch should have been in shot |
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Slightly canted angle, fridge isn't straight
.
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If we were to do the production again, I would have re shot some of the sections (for example, the kitchen scene because it is slightly canted) and focused the camera on the party scene better. And even though we were over by around 20 seconds, I would have made some of the shots longer as it was all too quick.
Question Nine:
MY CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS OUR FILM MAKING PROCESS.
Production: During the production process, we couldn't find an adult willing to act as mum in the film, meaning I had to step in. Obviously, this means I didn't film in the parts where I acted but I helped contribute my filming skills to the parts with marie (I filmed all of the opening titles and shots on the bed) and some of the party parts. Some specific shots that I filmed are:
For the production of the sound, I also created the lullaby at the start until the party scene begins in which I then contributed and it was joint decisions on the rest of the soundtrack until it reached the part where Jane opens the door to the party scene, and I created the rest of the sound.
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| The Lullaby |
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| During the fade to black transition |
Post Production: Once the film was all shot, I did the majority of the first splitting (getting rid of any unwanted bits but afterwards, we realised the shots were very long and dragging), and then Gemma took over and split the clips to more precise timings when we realised we were over our time limit by a minute. I then edited most of the clips, increasing the brightness/contrast on most shots as we sometimes forgot to focus the camera, so I added this video FX to add more detail. Whilst Gemma chose the transitions for the ending (the fade out) I added them to the shots.
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| Opening Titles |
Planning: During the planning process, I helped create the idea, along with Gemma, and I then I planned the opening titles and decided the first section of our film (from the first shot to where the mum starts making the food). I planned the shot types, angles and the order for the storyboard, even if they weren't used in our filming when we started shooting. When completing the planning folder, I did all the narrative research, and wrote the script, with some help of Gemma. I feel like I spent a lot of time and effort working on the planning folder, as once Gemma and Rubel had done the sheets they could, I went through the folder in thorough detail and finished any sheets.
As the older teenage audience liked suspension in their horror films. We had a variety of shot types also would make the film more interesting and varied. The films contrasting music with the lullaby and the harsher sounds would fit in nicely together as the overall mis-en scene with the flickering lights would feel quite daunting. And as the whole birthday cake idea is suppost to be cute and happy, although we show it as being the opposite as she wishes for them all to be dead.
The girl who inspired us from the Amityville horror, innocent looking, we wanted the girl to look similar to her as we used her as inspiration.
As the older teenage audience liked suspension in their horror films. We had a variety of shot types also would make the film more interesting and varied. The films contrasting music with the lullaby and the harsher sounds would fit in nicely together as the overall mis-en scene with the flickering lights would feel quite daunting. And as the whole birthday cake idea is suppost to be cute and happy, although we show it as being the opposite as she wishes for them all to be dead.
