AS MEDIA EVALUATION - INSOMNIA

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

Film and Title Our media production includes many conventions and forms which are found

in other productions of our genre. The genre we have chosen is horror as we, as a group found it to be the most interesting yet one of the most challenging genres. Although we have used many conventions such as tense music for example, we have also tried to be different rather than mainstream horrors.

The horror genre erupted in the late 19th century and started of with movies containing a lot of supernatural events. Early movies include ‘la manoir du diable’ aka ‘ the house of the devil which is sometimes said to be the ever horror film, starring the famous Georges Melies en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_M%C3%A9li%C3%A8s

During the early 20th century, monsters and ghouls etc were starting to be introduced in horror films, the first ever ‘monster’ to appear in a full length film is ‘Quasimodo’ in ‘The hunchback of Notre dame’. Most early 20th century feature length horror films were created by German film makers between 1910 and 1920. This was during the German expressionist films: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Expressionism

The 1930’s and 40’s was a period when the horror genre was popularized with films such as Frankenstein and Dracula and other science fiction/gothic horror. After this period in time, the horror genre was to expand with a lot more variance, for example zombies and alien invasions were introduced along with other threats to the human race (e.g. Night of the living dead) etc. The late 20th century and early 21st century introduced a new breed of horror films with a lot more gore and realistic plots for example Saw (2004).

The opening starts of with a pitch black scenery were all is visible is a set of lights, this creates a mysterious atmosphere where the unexpected can occur. The aim of our production was consistency and we believe that the production was consistent in keeping a mysterious feeling about it. Many other horrors have conventions which we have included in our production, for example

The font we have used is white and very plain and simple, we have chosen this style as we believe that it creates a mysterious effect as audiences don’t know what to expect, the film could be a comedy for all they know. Most horror genre fonts are quite detailed and some even display blood.

Plain white font

The grudge – Very mainstream horror font/colour

and style

Setting & location Our decision was made early on in the planning process when we had decided

to go for the horror genre. We had decided a graveyard will be a appropriate location to film our opening due to its intense atmosphere and also the stereotypical fear people have with graveyards, especially in the dark. A graveyard may seem very commonly used in classic horror movies, for example ‘night of the living dead’ uses a graveyard in its opening scene, however our effect is to create reality whereas people know that zombies don’t exist but mass murderers do. Therefore using a graveyard would show people what can really happen in such a location, so for all them audiences who believed that graveyards are safe, there proven wrong. The screenshot below depicts the setting we used, the gravestones clearly show that the location is a graveyard.

Alternative shot of the graveyard

Opening Story The story to our plot at first seems confusing, however later on into the

production, the plot seems a lot clearer and makes sense. Due to the fact it is a opening and is a horror genre, it is hard to introduce all the characters completely, only basic information bout them is available. For example we no that the main character has had a death in his life. We later know that he is chased by a outraged killer but we don’t know why. This assures that audiences are willing to find out hence they will watch the whole film. Similar scenes have occurred in other horror films, were a outraged killer/psycho is chasing down an innocent/innocents. Such films include the ‘Texas chainsaw massacre’ and also ‘Halloween’.

The opening shot shows an image of a church along with two floodlights on either side. Gravestones are shown in front of the church. This shot really does set the scene.

Costumes & Props We have decided to use various props and costumes as this is seen as a

media convention when it comes to filming a movie. The type of props we have used are for example the rose which is held by the main character , Joe Gorman. The rose represents the fact someone has passed in Joe's life and he has come to visit them and pay respects to them. Another prop used is the mask, this is worn by the murderer who is later slightly revealed in the opening. The mask worn is plain and white just like the font used in the film, it represents mystery and audiences want to know what is behind that mask. The costumes worn by both characters are perfectly fit, the reason the main character is wearing casual clothing is due to the fact that he went to the graveyard not expecting a murderer to jump out at him, to him it was a normal day, therefore he was wearing his normal day to day clothing. The killer is large white boots along with a sort of long duffle coat, the boots are white as we believe they looked better when worn with the white ask, and the coat just creates a sense of spookiness about the character due to his odd aesthetics.

The mask we used is plain white with markings of dirt. It shows none of the killers features except for his eyes which doesn’t reveal much about him, hopefully hooking the audiences and wanting them to no more about the killer. The jacket the murderer is wearing is long black and gives the person wearing it a mysterious look about them. The footwear we chose to use on the murderer was plain white boots, similar to those below, the reason being that they colour co-ordinate with the mask and contrast with the long black coat which seems to create a contrast, therefore giving the killer a unique but mysterious look about him.

Camerawork and Editing We decided to use various shots and styles of when it came to shooting our

production, the reason or this is so we could see every aspect of the opening from a different point of view rather than just one person. We used mostly medium and close up shots to create a Claustrophobic atmosphere , making it highly intense. The camera angles we used were simple but a times unrevealing which also added to the atmospheric feeling. Below is displayed two shots in out production which were used, the close up shot includes the murder and the other is a medium shot.

Close Up Shot Medium Shot

Character Introductions

• The characters in the introduction are introduced in a fashion which is quite simple and understandable due to the fact that there is hardly any dialogue in the opening. The scene is set in a graveyard where it is supposed to be silent hence the character has gone alone and has nobody to converse with. There are two actors who took part in the production, ‘Joseph Gorman’ and ‘Curtis Meredith’, each of there names appears on screen as soon as they do, this makes it obvious what there names are. The screen shots below show characters on screen with there character names also emerging along with them:

HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?

In our production we decided to have a antagonist to fit the stereotypical mainstream of a horror. The qualities of the murderer are similar in terms of appearance and also personality in terms of other similar horror movies. The expression on the mask of the killer is similar to that in the film ‘Halloween H20’, the reason they are similar is because they are both expressionless hence making the characters behind them unpredictable and generally making a film more atmospheric. Teenagers are not specifically targeted in this production however the main character is a young adult/teenager therefore this could represent teenagers and allow them to share relevance with the main character.

Insomnia Mask Halloween H20 Mask

WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY?

Various institutions will be able to distribute my media product from newspapers to more interactive services such as the television and the internet. My production can be distributed into the media through various methods for, for example posters, banners and also leaflets can be distributed in an area which contains my target audience.

Institutions such as film distributors (universal, twisted pictures,DNA) would be able to advertise my production on television, this is effective when targeting specific audiences as the adverts can be played at certain times, because my production is a 15, it will more likely be advertised on television between 5-9 o clock.

Adverts can also be distributed via banners and billboards, banners can be placed onto bus’s , this allows a wider public to acknowledge my production. Magazines and newspapers could also advertise my production through various marketing methods.

Money for funding can come from various production companies, for example paramount may be able to fund me if they are to produce my production. Other sources of funding are available for example national film organisations or regional screen agencies can also offer funding, along with private/commercial companies. My research into funding allowed me to come across this website: http://www.bradford-city-of-film.com/shared/cms/interface/view.aspx?id=54

WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?

Me and my group have chosen a specific audience in terms of our production, Because It is a horror, it contains scenes of violence which would not be suitable for those under the ages 15. It also contains scenes which may cause distress, such as images of the antagonist in his mask, This would not be suitable for those below the ages 15 also due to its explicit nature. Many other factors will decide my target audience, for example would they be male or female? We have not really suited our production to a specific gender, therefore it will be targeted at anyone above the age 15 regardless there background or gender. The rating of our production will be a 15. The reason our production cant be an 18 is because it does not contain full on gore or scenes of explicit sex etc. One method which we used to decide our target audience was our effort in creating a questionnaire, this allowed us to do a survey and gather vital information in which we could determine the perfect target audience. The

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES DURING THE COURSE OF YOUR PRODUCTION?

As an individual in my group, I have learnt how to use many different technologies in order to aid my production. For example the use of the tripod we used was beneficial as it allowed us to set up shots in order to pan smoothly in a shot.

We also used software called ‘Final Cut’ to edit our production once we had filmed it. It was very professional, allowing us to add effects such as sound and text. This gave our production a more industrial look and feeling. The software was installed on Apple MAC computers which were confusing to navigate at first but soon proved simple with practice. Apart from final cut we used other software such as Photoshop, which was used to create out movie poster, all the images and colours were made by our group. Our sound was also created using software which is called ‘reason’, the whole instrumental was produced by our group with none of the sound used from other copy right material.

During our period in which we were editing our production, we encountered an issue in one of our shots. The issue being that there was a unexpected character in one of the scenes, however we were able to overcome this problem by using final cut and cutting the character out of the scene so they could not be seen

Technology used in production

This is the tripod we used to allow us to create smooth pan shots

This is the camcorder we used for the whole of our production. It is night vision enabled.

This is the Apple MAC computer we used to do all our editing on

This poster was made using Adobe Photoshop

on a MAC computer

Software used in production

Photoshop allowed us to create our advertising poster

Reason allowed my group to create all our theme music by scratch

Final cut is what we used to put our production together, along with all the music and text

What do you think you have learnt from your preliminary task which has aided you in your main production

Previously, me and my group had undertaken a preliminary task which involved us containing various shots and dialogue in a short period. It involves me and my group undertaking various shots in our school canteen and is based on a competition between two of our group members.

We used various shots such as over the shoulder, close up, medium and short range shots. This allows audiences to gather every aspect making them feel as if they are within the production. We also used the 180 degree rule which states that two characters in a shot should have the same relationship to each other in terms of the angle etc. We also used match on action which allows audience to see two different aspects of the same action shot

The preliminary allowed us to plan our main production properly as we knew what shots we would be using and at what point in the production. We can say that the preliminary was a practice procedure before the real thing.

Demonstration of the 180 degree rule

Close up shot

Over the shoulder shot

Match on action shot

Creative Risks

As a group we believe we didn’t pose much risk towards audiences as we have set a suitable rating at which people should comply to, if a person under the age 15 is to view our media product and are to get offended, than they are at there own fault.

The fact we have used a graveyard to film our production may offend somebody who has had a loss in there family recently or perhaps could relate to such an event either in there past or of another's, however the odds are not very likely. For example if somebody has been chased in a graveyard or perhaps a similar location by someone who seemed intimidating, can relate to the events that occur in my media product.

Improvements and drawbacks

As a team, we believe our production overall has been a success due to the fact it has gone to plan, we followed our storyboard and succeeded, however we did have some set backs.

The most major set back which let our group down is the quality of our camera we had used. We had been given a camera by our school to use for our production, but its quality proved very poor. We only found out about this when we did not have enough time to film a second version on a different camera. The problem was that the whole video, once played, shows a series of wavy lines, this was not our intention and was definitely a drawback. However regardless of the lines, most everything else went to plan, all props and costumes etc were planned and gathered well advance.

If we was to improve our production we would perhaps use a camera with a high quality and also use production line our own production line at the beginning of the product. I have included an external source which includes the camera I would perhaps prefer to use for my production due to its high spec:

http://www.sony.co.uk/product/cam-high-definition-on-memory-stick/hdr-cx115e#pageType=TechnicalSpecs