Evalation - Question 1

1. Introduction: what did you make, who did you work with and where did the original idea come from?

 - Introduce the brief, what are you going to make, how will you carry out research into horror films and use the findings?
Our aim is to make the opening 2 minutes to a horror film. The genre we have chosen is zombie horror and we will be using the typical conventions of a zombie horror, such as blood, to make this clear. We have carried out research into various existing zombie horror films such as, Dawn of the Dead and 28 Days Later and we found that typical zombie films consist of the main character fighting for survival, as well as the stereotypical zombie image of ripped clothes and blood. We have used these findings by including these type of things in our own horror film, such as the main character being in a hideout and fighting for survival (as they are supposedly the last human alive) and the zombie being covered in blood.
- What as inspired your initial idea? Current events? Existing films? What are you trying to do?
Our initial idea was inspired due to us wanting to be more creative with our film. In our preliminary exercise we tested which genre we would use by trying out the psychological genre. After this we discussed that we would like to be more creative and experiment with things such as make up which led to us choosing the zombie horror genre. From then on we needed to create an actual plot line so we used our research to help us with this and created a character who was fighting for survival and a threat to them - the zombie.
- How has your production worked out? Who did you work with? Was this an effective relationship? How did you manage problems?
Our production has worked out quite successfully, however if we were to do this again in the future and make any changes, we would organize things better, such as when everybody is available to film, including actors not just us. Our group consisted of Hollie Smith, Tina Bozorgi, Lewis Jefferson and Laura Allitt, however we also worked with actors Lisa and Michael and make-up artist Lucy. I belileve this was an effective relationship as we were all willing to suggest ideas and consider everybody elses. We rarely had problems, our main one was finding time when we were all available to film. We managed this by making compromises.
- Link Trailers and images from films from your sub-genre to support your decisions?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eunaclr-WgU
this is the tralier for 28 days later, from which we got a lot of our inspiration.

JABS- Hollie

Evaluation: Question 2

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

• Throughout the introduction to our film you see many forms and conventions of the horror genre. For example, the titles are introduced in a deep red colour. This indicates blood and gore which is a common convention in the horror genre. Our film also consists of a few quick cuts which suggest sudden action and creates suspense and fear. The setting is located in an empty, dark and isolated area like seen in many horror films. We chose to film our sequence in an empty, dark and isolated area to outline that the main character is alone and scared. Another example could be the soundtrack we have produced using ‘Garage Band’. Our soundtrack begins reasonably slowly and friendly which juxtaposes the idea of a zombie horror film. This gives it a contrasting effect.  However, as the action begins to build up the soundtrack also emphasizes the action. Examples of films we have studied are: ’28 days later’, ‘Shaun of the dead’, ‘Resident Evil’.

• Our research has been very important throughout the process of producing our film as it was very resourceful in giving us an insight to the structure of a typical horror film. By watching a variety of sequences from horror films it helped us build ideas for our own film. For example, we researched a series of different types of horror films to help us decide on what type of horror we wanted. We decided on zombie horror therefore we narrowed our further research of sequences from different films to zombie horror films. We watched some zombie horror sequences from previous media students which helped us gain ideas on the setting, music and editing of our film. Examples can be, the empty, dark and isolated garage, the build up to the soundtrack as the action in our film builds up and the quick cuts used creates a fast paced, on the edge of your seat feel to the sequence.

• We didn't particularly challenge any of the typical horror conventions as a zombie horror movie is a common theme of the horror genre. The reason we didn't challenge the conventions was because we wanted it to be a realistic zombie horror that didn't exaggerate the surreal event of a zombie apocalypse actually happening. We are also only making the opening sequence of the film so we don't have enough time to properly convey different conventions without confusing the audience.

• Here are some links to trailers and images from films from my sub-genre to support our decisions:

-          -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEkJAaGhJhQ

-          -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1v0uFms68U

-          -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiS6gtClrqk

JABS - Tina 

Evaluation Question 4

How does the horror genre traditionally represent social groups and why?


The horror genre represents mainly the age group with younger people than older people because most younger people seem to get more scared than older people. The horror genre also represents the gender group with females playing the role of the victim as generally females are more venerable than males. This then can link with age to make the victim more venerable. The horror genre also doesn't particularly represent characters with a psychical disability unless they get injured in someway. This could be because people seen with a disability would have a disadvantage of an able bodied person. Also, people with a mental disability are represented as satanic spirits. This could represent that people with a mental disability are scary.

What did you do to accommodate these representations practically on your production? 

We accommodated these representations by having a young, female character play the victim and having  male playing the zombie. In terms of mise-en-scene, the lighting is reasonably balanced but will get dark at times which will stick with the general look of a zombie horror film. Also, the body language between each character will get aggressive which links back to how zombie survival horror characters act.  

As you can see from this picture from 'Shawn of the dead', the body language between the two characters seems tense as they need to decide quickly how they are going to get rid of the zombies that are seen in the background.

Heres an image from 'Resident evil degeneration'. The lighting used is adding to the the tense atmosphere of the film and also the body language of each character shows fear and confusion. This is the sort of body language that our main character should show similarity to when she hears a knock at the door.

JABS - Laura 

Evaluation: Question 3

''Who would be the audience for your media Product''

For our Horror film we found out through IMDB and User ratings that it is mainly targeted for 18-29 year old males.
VotesAverage
Males 81,215 7.6
Females 11,126 7.8
Aged under 18 952 8.2
Males under 18 800 8.2
Females under 18 150 8.0
Aged 18-29 58,213 7.8
Males Aged 18-29 50,702 7.8
Females Aged 18-29 7,246 7.9
Aged 30-44 28,720 7.4
Males Aged 30-44 25,353 7.4
Females Aged 30-44 3,083 7.6
This is the Demography from IMDB site for '28 Days later' which is similar to our film. 


I believe this is because men find the violence an important part of a film and also enjoy the suspense more than females especially at the age range between 18-29. The reason being is that men prefer more violent films where there is a struggle because they get into the film more.
We're going to use this information to make our film more effective by making it have a stronger story line so that the other members of the population can be dragged into the story line as well as using violence throughout to attracted our target audience.

JABS - Lewis

Shots

We have been discussing throughout todays lesson about arrangements for our next time filming. We have decided what we need to re-shoot and new things we need to include for the other half of our film. We need to include a couple of extra shots in our first half of our film introduction for example a blurred point of view shot for when she is reaching for her glasses. Also we have decided to include a wider variety of shots in the other half of our film such as close ups and point of view shots. We have also established where our 180 degree line is from our previous filming so as to make sure we do not break the rule when next filming. We have agreed for the title to appear at the end of our film introduction, this gives an effect to the audience that the introduction has ended however they want to continue watching.

JABS xx

Final Title

We have decided our final title, "The Last Pulse". We believe this title is appropriate as it fits to the content of our horror film. This is because the main character of our film is supposedly the last human alive.
We have now added this new title of our film into the film titles over our footage.

JABS xx