EVALUATION

Ellie Sands and Hope Charman

 In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of media products?
The location we chose to set our film at was the village train station which can often be viewed as a
quiet and isolated setting even though it is regularly used. This is a popular convention within horror
films as it makes the audience feel apprehensive because it is somewhere that they are likely to go
and wouldnt usually associate with horror events. This convention is demonstrated in The Woman in
Black where the train station is a key part of the film ending.
Ambers costume was relatively casual which reflects what a typical teenager would wear. Although
this sort of costume has been used often in modern day horrors such as Split it also challenges what
the audience would expect to see in a film that is designed to scare them . However the killer wears
an all black outfit consisting of a hoodie and jeans which adds to the anonymity of the character as
black is generally associated with the unknown. This is similar to the film Hush where the
antagonist wears a similar costume.
We used establishing shots to address the mise-en-scene to the audience and to introduce the
location. This helps to familiarise the audience with where the scene is taking place so they feel
included and part of the experience which overall adds to the fear effect. We used a range of shots in
our opening to keep the audience intrigued and to make them feel as if they are seeing things from
different perspectives. We contrasted using a point of view shot and mid/long shot as the killer was
stalking Amber. This developed the typically used hand-held shot, for example in the opening of the
film Halloween and instead we combined it alongside another popular shot to make it original.
Our film opening has minimal dialogue in order to create suspense and focus on setting the scene
using the mise-en-scene as opposed to explicitly explaining what is occurring. This is displayed in the
films Hush and The Shallows where suspense is built up in a short space of time for a constant
period.
 Our narrative challenged a classic films order of events as we opposed Todorovs
Narrative Theory by deciding to not end with the restored equilibrium and instead
leave the audience on edge. However this technique is becoming more used in
the more modern horror films such as It Follows .
Amber acts as a red-shirt character meaning that she dies soon after being
introduced. This was shown in Scream which we found intriguing and exciting so
we wanted to incorporate it into our film. The use of this character helps to set up
a storyline and to further develop around this event. Ambers personality appears
innocent and sweet which is a common character personality for a victim in a
horror film because it forces the audience to like them and then not be prepared
for this characters departure. The killer stays anonymous throughout the majority
of the film in order to keep the audience anticipating the reveal of whos under
the mask. This is also shown in Scream when Billy, one of the main characters, is
exposed as the villain which was completely unexpected.

The Woman in Black: Train station

Split: Characters casual
clothing

Scream: Killer reveal

 How does your media product
represent particular social groups?

Class: Our film opening represents C1/C2/D social class groups mainly through
Amber who is portrayed from the C1 group. This is demonstrated by her popular
brand of trainers and the most up to date phone model she has.
Gender: The killer at the end of the film is revealed to be male which supports the
stereotype that males are the more violent sex and more associated with these
types of crimes, especially in the media today. Amber is a typical stereotype of a
young woman of how they are seen as being weaker and the less dominant sex. A
scene in our film opening demonstrates this when she sees the killer and screams
whilst running away.
Age: The main age range in our film is 16-21 which is in a similar age bracket to
our primary target audience. Amber s character supports one stereotype of a
teenager of being irresponsible through her naivety as she does not appear to
notice that she was being followed for a while. In addition, her first resort when
she felt she was in danger was to contact her friend through the use of her mobile
phone instead of the emergency services. The killer in our film opening is also
around these ages and stereotypically teenagers, especially teenage boys, are
known to enjoy playing violent video games. This can sometimes go on to
influence similar behaviours.
What kind of media institution might
distribute your media product and why?

Blumhouse Productions are an American film company. They have produced a number of
successful horror films such as Insidious, Sinister 'and The Purge franchises which
have grossed more than $2 billion at the worldwide box office. They are currently looking
at a 10 year first look deal with Universal Pictures.
For this reason we think that they would be best suited to distribute our film and really
benefit it. The films they have produced are in the same genre as ours so this shows they
are already familiar with the genre and have the knowledge to work with it. In addition
their audiences who have seen the successful films theyve produced are more likely to
be interested in seeing ours as they trust this company to support a worth seeing film.

Blumhouse Production Logo

Insidious Siniste
r
Who would be the audience for your media
product?

The primary audience for our film is 16-30 year olds, this is a common target audience
for the genre of horror films especially ones that include teenage characters as ours
does. As the genre can often include a lot of explicit violence and gore it wouldnt be
suitable for anyone under the lower bracket. Due to this, we would classify our film with
an 18 certificate so that legally anyone under this age cannot view it in public as we
feel it would not be appropriate for them to be exposed to.
We feel that there is no particular gender who prefer horrors so we decided to aim our
film at all genders. A well known stereotype is that women tend to have a more
emotional response towards the horror genre and they experience the fear of what the
film aims to do. The male often acts as a protector and could comfort the female which
makes them feel masculine. In addition, we want to reach the widest possible audience
and attracting all genders helps to increase the audience consumption.
We expect that the majority of our audience will be in C1/C2/D social class groups. This
is due to the location used of a small village where a large proportion of the population
are middle and working class families and they can relate to this.
How did you attract/address your audience?

The slasher horror genre is becoming increasingly popular due to films like Scream who
introduced this sub genre. The current teenage generation are still watching this film,
even though the original is twenty years old, proving the success of this genre. In
addition the killer wasnt revealed until the end of the film which sustained the mystery
and kept the audience intrigued. We used this concept in our film as we know it has
been proven to be successful in other films.
The film begins with establishing shots which help to set the scene and make the
audience aware of the surroundings of the film. We also used close ups which
introduced characters and let the audience make a connection with them. In addition
the use of over the shoulder shots makes the audience feel as if they are following the
journey with the characters and makes them feel included.
We used haunting music to manipulate the audiences emotions and create a sinister
atmosphere which is what we aimed to create. The audience can tell that something
horrific is going to happen anytime soon. Furth more the use of very little dialogue
makes the audience feel more included in the experience as it if forces them to engage
more and pay more attention to every little detail.
What have you learnt about technologies
from the process of constructing this
product?

YouTube contributed significantly to my film opening as I used it both in my research and as a platform
for my product. It was influential of my work as I was able to access hundreds of thriller films and
specifically their openings which helped me get a framework of ideas. I have learnt how to upload
videos onto YouTube which I was unable to do before which is now a skill I have.
Blogger.com was the platform we uploaded all our work on to which was convenient as well as useful
as we could access it both at school and at home. Also everything was all in one place and it could
hold multiple media platforms. Previously I have never used a blog so it is now something I will able to
use in the future.
We used the software Photoshop to create our production logo, we found this to be a good software as
uploading images was easy as well as adding text and using all the other tools. With only having a
short time frame to do it, this was very helpful.
We used the camera on our iPhone 6s smartphone to film our opening, as the quality is good at 12
megapixels. We found this to be successful when filming our opening as the sound quality and footage
was clear and it made it look professional. Also using the smartphone was feasible when needing to
upload it onto the computer to create the final cut on an editing software. All we needed to do was use
a lead to connect it to the computer and then we had clear, easy access to all our clips.
We used Power Director to do all our editing. At first I struggled to use it as I hadnt used it for a long
time, however I asked other students in my class to help me. We found the software quick and easy to
use, we could add sounds and special effects at the click of a button and easily delete and re-do parts.