Thursday 20 May 2010
hello moderator
hello moderator, welcome to our blog, this is our a2 coursework. the reason the tab links are out of order is because the creator of the blog was a member of the group that left. thankyou.
Thursday 28 January 2010
final poster
This is our final draft ofour film poster. We have based our idea and concept on that of the "saw" film posters. We have done this by using photoshop to create a dull off white background,but then placing graphic imagery on top to create a focal point aimed to shock an audience. We will hopefully get feedback from peers to see how we could improve our work.
FINAL FINAL magazine cover!
This is our actually final copy of the magazine cover. We changed to background colour and text which we believe looks alot better. We also had feedback from the class and they also said that this copy is alot better.
All we need to do now is upload our music onto the macs and find a institution picture to put on the trailer.
Wednesday 27 January 2010
EVALUATION QUESTION 1
IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE , DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?
We did alot of research into existing media products that where similar to the ones we wished to create. This included looking at the type of "horror porn" films that already existed, the main ones being the series of "Saw" films and also "Hostel" parts 1 and 2. We did this to pick out the generic conventions of this type of horror film that we wished to create, as our audience would be able to recodnise the type of film that we had created and by the use of correct marketing for our product (e.g suitable trailer and movie poster and movie magazine cover) that we appealed to the right audience.
The generic conventions we found and used ourselves where;
-Themes
- torture, horror,murder and obsession.
-Gender
- Male killer/villain and female victims.
-Mise-en-scene
-Murder and planning space, the main charachter of the villain plans his murders in an organised office showing that everything he does is carefully planned. Adding to the eerie-ness of his charachter.
-Cellar (many horrors are set in places such as cellars or other out of reach places as it sets itself away from the "norm" which makes the victims but also the audience feel trapped, uneasy and uncomfortable.
-Establishment of the killer/villain
We used a shot of the villain (with rubber gloves on and using tweezers) to show that he was the villain and didnt want to be found, but also giving the audience insight into who is going to be his next victim by using a closeup of him circling his next victim. We also saw this in the trailer of "Hostel Part " in which we felt it worked very well, giving a clear image to the audience.
-Use of music
We found in other trailers that they used slow, eerie tension building music to really create atmosphere and tension very well. In many of the trailers the music could be described as distorted sounds rather than actual music. The music also starts quite slow but then as the tension gets stronger the music climaxes and usually ends on a bang. This makes the music memorable as trailers are meant to sell the film, so the music is very important in the production of the trailer.
Here are some still shots from our trailer;
This is an establishing shot of the villain preparing himself to make a death letter and decide on who his next victim is going to be.We decided to start our trailer with this shot to establish the main charachter and to try to portray his charchter and intentions so the plot is immidiatley coveyed to the audience. We used a office below a resturaunt as we believed the mise en scene was typical office and we where able to easily create an 'organised space' which we had found from our research that serial killers where usually very organised. The majority of the office 'colour' is white, giving a very 'surgical' feeling, giving the impression that the killer may also be a doctor. The man is wearing a labcoat and putting on latex gloves, again giving a doctor-ish feel. We saturated the colour using effects on the mac to make the footage dim and giving a more sinister feel. The music used in this 'slow part' of our trailer could be described as a montage of sounds which build tension.
This is an over the shoulder shot of the villain. This is to emphesize the fact that he is planning a death letter, but also the fact he is wearing gloves and using tweezers makes it obvious that the murder is planned and the murderer is using all precautions not to get found out. The lighting again is still quite dim, as we used an effect that we found on the mac to make the footage darker. The mise en scene shows pictures of young attractive girls that could be his victims. There is also floor plans, proving the charahcter to be organised. There is also a knife, which symbolises murder. The death letter states "youre next" proving that he is to murder again.
This is a still from the 'second' part of our trailer which we classed as the fast part as it consisted of short fast clips made up to montage together. This clip shows a birds eye view of a selection of grotty looking tools, the mans hand then sweeps across these weapons and selects the knife, this lets the audience know that that is the weapon the killer has selected. The work surface that the tools are set out on also looks really grim, adding the the uncomfortableness. Again we used an effect on the mac to make the colou
rs seem duller. We found that there was a very similar shot in the hostel trailer, which also worked very well.
(This is a still taken from the Hostel Trailer)
This is a close up shot of a injured hand with blood on it scraping down a wall. This closeup is successful in showing the pain and torture, as the nails are scraping down the wall it is meant to create a really uneasy painful atmosphere and is meant to make the audience 'cringe'. Again we desaturated the colour on our clips to give the skin a kind of greensish mouldy unreal feel, this is also seen in the saw films and gives the feel of unrealistic p
eople. We also did this as the effect of blood seemed alot more dramatic. We challenged forms of real media products by the angle we shot this at. We did it 90% to the left to give a feel of being trapped with a wall above her, not verticle as it could be done in other films. The lighting in this shot was quite bright as when we tried to make the lighting of the room duller the effect on camera did not work aswell. However we where happy with the way this shot turned out as the colour contrast between the brick wall and the hand and the blood made it stand out very well. This closeup of a traumatised body part is similar to a shot from a "Saw" trailer
(This is from a "Saw" trailer and is similar to a shot in our trailer as it is portreying violent injury on a body part to make an uncomfortable audience)
This is a high angle shot of one of the 'victims'. Initially we filmed this by just asking the actress to shake her head, but then we used an effect on the macs to speed it up a rediculous amount to give the effect that she was infact possessed or going crazy.
The mise en scene shows the cellar as being dirty and uncomfortable, and the high angle shot gives the connotations of the victim seem low and therefore helpless and worthless with lack of power. The colours again have been saturated to make her seem almost un human and ill. Also as she has blood and cuts on her face it all murges together to give a really gruesome effect. Also her mouth is fully open and looks really effective as it blends together. For this we took inspiration from a music video for Rhianna's 'Disturbia'. The video is the theme of horror and parts of the video is quickened up.
This mid-shot shows a weapon being
sharpened. We mainly did this because it shows the bright sparks coming off the blade and it is very quick moving which gives a vicious image, that looks like pain is going to uccur. We also made the colour of the shot really dull so the bright sparks coming off of the blade.
This is an extreme closeup of an eye, again which we quickened to make it look out of control and although the victim was possesed. We again used effects on this to make it look darker and a little bit fuzzy, asthough maybe even the killer had filmed it. We tried to use a varied amount of shots in our trailer and wanted to mainly focus on body parts to make the audience feel unease.
We did alot of research into existing media products that where similar to the ones we wished to create. This included looking at the type of "horror porn" films that already existed, the main ones being the series of "Saw" films and also "Hostel" parts 1 and 2. We did this to pick out the generic conventions of this type of horror film that we wished to create, as our audience would be able to recodnise the type of film that we had created and by the use of correct marketing for our product (e.g suitable trailer and movie poster and movie magazine cover) that we appealed to the right audience.
The generic conventions we found and used ourselves where;
-Themes
- torture, horror,murder and obsession.
-Gender
- Male killer/villain and female victims.
-Mise-en-scene
-Murder and planning space, the main charachter of the villain plans his murders in an organised office showing that everything he does is carefully planned. Adding to the eerie-ness of his charachter.
-Cellar (many horrors are set in places such as cellars or other out of reach places as it sets itself away from the "norm" which makes the victims but also the audience feel trapped, uneasy and uncomfortable.
-Establishment of the killer/villain
We used a shot of the villain (with rubber gloves on and using tweezers) to show that he was the villain and didnt want to be found, but also giving the audience insight into who is going to be his next victim by using a closeup of him circling his next victim. We also saw this in the trailer of "Hostel Part " in which we felt it worked very well, giving a clear image to the audience.
-Use of music
We found in other trailers that they used slow, eerie tension building music to really create atmosphere and tension very well. In many of the trailers the music could be described as distorted sounds rather than actual music. The music also starts quite slow but then as the tension gets stronger the music climaxes and usually ends on a bang. This makes the music memorable as trailers are meant to sell the film, so the music is very important in the production of the trailer.
Here are some still shots from our trailer;
This is an establishing shot of the villain preparing himself to make a death letter and decide on who his next victim is going to be.We decided to start our trailer with this shot to establish the main charachter and to try to portray his charchter and intentions so the plot is immidiatley coveyed to the audience. We used a office below a resturaunt as we believed the mise en scene was typical office and we where able to easily create an 'organised space' which we had found from our research that serial killers where usually very organised. The majority of the office 'colour' is white, giving a very 'surgical' feeling, giving the impression that the killer may also be a doctor. The man is wearing a labcoat and putting on latex gloves, again giving a doctor-ish feel. We saturated the colour using effects on the mac to make the footage dim and giving a more sinister feel. The music used in this 'slow part' of our trailer could be described as a montage of sounds which build tension.
This is an over the shoulder shot of the villain. This is to emphesize the fact that he is planning a death letter, but also the fact he is wearing gloves and using tweezers makes it obvious that the murder is planned and the murderer is using all precautions not to get found out. The lighting again is still quite dim, as we used an effect that we found on the mac to make the footage darker. The mise en scene shows pictures of young attractive girls that could be his victims. There is also floor plans, proving the charahcter to be organised. There is also a knife, which symbolises murder. The death letter states "youre next" proving that he is to murder again.
This is a still from the 'second' part of our trailer which we classed as the fast part as it consisted of short fast clips made up to montage together. This clip shows a birds eye view of a selection of grotty looking tools, the mans hand then sweeps across these weapons and selects the knife, this lets the audience know that that is the weapon the killer has selected. The work surface that the tools are set out on also looks really grim, adding the the uncomfortableness. Again we used an effect on the mac to make the colou
rs seem duller. We found that there was a very similar shot in the hostel trailer, which also worked very well.(This is a still taken from the Hostel Trailer)
This is a close up shot of a injured hand with blood on it scraping down a wall. This closeup is successful in showing the pain and torture, as the nails are scraping down the wall it is meant to create a really uneasy painful atmosphere and is meant to make the audience 'cringe'. Again we desaturated the colour on our clips to give the skin a kind of greensish mouldy unreal feel, this is also seen in the saw films and gives the feel of unrealistic p
eople. We also did this as the effect of blood seemed alot more dramatic. We challenged forms of real media products by the angle we shot this at. We did it 90% to the left to give a feel of being trapped with a wall above her, not verticle as it could be done in other films. The lighting in this shot was quite bright as when we tried to make the lighting of the room duller the effect on camera did not work aswell. However we where happy with the way this shot turned out as the colour contrast between the brick wall and the hand and the blood made it stand out very well. This closeup of a traumatised body part is similar to a shot from a "Saw" trailer
(This is from a "Saw" trailer and is similar to a shot in our trailer as it is portreying violent injury on a body part to make an uncomfortable audience)
This is a high angle shot of one of the 'victims'. Initially we filmed this by just asking the actress to shake her head, but then we used an effect on the macs to speed it up a rediculous amount to give the effect that she was infact possessed or going crazy.
The mise en scene shows the cellar as being dirty and uncomfortable, and the high angle shot gives the connotations of the victim seem low and therefore helpless and worthless with lack of power. The colours again have been saturated to make her seem almost un human and ill. Also as she has blood and cuts on her face it all murges together to give a really gruesome effect. Also her mouth is fully open and looks really effective as it blends together. For this we took inspiration from a music video for Rhianna's 'Disturbia'. The video is the theme of horror and parts of the video is quickened up.
This mid-shot shows a weapon being
sharpened. We mainly did this because it shows the bright sparks coming off the blade and it is very quick moving which gives a vicious image, that looks like pain is going to uccur. We also made the colour of the shot really dull so the bright sparks coming off of the blade.
This is an extreme closeup of an eye, again which we quickened to make it look out of control and although the victim was possesed. We again used effects on this to make it look darker and a little bit fuzzy, asthough maybe even the killer had filmed it. We tried to use a varied amount of shots in our trailer and wanted to mainly focus on body parts to make the audience feel unease.
EVALUATION QUESTION 3
"What have you learned from your audience feedback?"
After showing teachers and peers our final draft of the trailer the feedback we recieved was very useful. People found that some of the clips wernt fast enough and some were too long. So we shortened the clips and made the sequence more fast paced.
We also had feedback on our magazine and poster. For the poster the feedback was that we needed to have the text more central. Which was a minor detail but we still changed that on the poster.
The magazine was the most feedback we had on as people thought that the colours and text didnt look right on the cover. People suggested that we needed a darker background and chnage the colour and font of the text. We changed all the colours of the magazine and moved the photo around. We asked for mor feedback on the magazine and poeple said that it looked alot better than it did.
After finalising our trailer and tweeking fine details we asked people to view the trailer one more time. We recored their opinions of it to see what they thought.
feedback! by onetrickponyyy
After showing teachers and peers our final draft of the trailer the feedback we recieved was very useful. People found that some of the clips wernt fast enough and some were too long. So we shortened the clips and made the sequence more fast paced.
We also had feedback on our magazine and poster. For the poster the feedback was that we needed to have the text more central. Which was a minor detail but we still changed that on the poster.
The magazine was the most feedback we had on as people thought that the colours and text didnt look right on the cover. People suggested that we needed a darker background and chnage the colour and font of the text. We changed all the colours of the magazine and moved the photo around. We asked for mor feedback on the magazine and poeple said that it looked alot better than it did.
After finalising our trailer and tweeking fine details we asked people to view the trailer one more time. We recored their opinions of it to see what they thought.
feedback! by onetrickponyyy
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)