Evaluation Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product

Looking back on the preliminary task, I feel I have made a lot of progression on the editing skills as before my skills were quite basic and now for the main task I feel more confident with these using Premier Pro. When we filmed our preliminary task I had no previous knowledge of editing but I had a basic understanding after going on Premier Pro to edit it. My editing skills developed when we were editing the film as I was able to learn what function the buttons did as we were editing such as the transitions.

Looking back on the preliminary task,  I feel I have made a lot of progression on understanding of how to use the camera and have a technical understanding as out of 10 I would have given myself 4 out of 10 and now I would give myself  7 out of 10. I now understand the majority of the terminology such as panning and a close up camera angle. I also believe that I have shown these skills through our main film for example we have a close up at the end of the main character to show the shock on her face.

Looking back on the preliminary task,  I feel I have made a lot of progression on the ability to film steady shots as out of 10 I would have given myself 4 out of 10 and now I would give myself 9 out of 10. When we were filming our preliminary task we having the camera handheld, this meant that some of the shots were wobbly. However when we were filming the main film we used a tripod this meant that the shots were still.

Looking back on the preliminary task, I feel I have made a lot of progression on understanding of filming conventions as out of 10 I would have given myself 4 out of 10 and now I would give myself  8 out of 10. I was able to identify basic horror conventions before I did the preliminary task however now I believe I can recognise and effectively use horror conventions such as an isolated setting for example we have used a woods in our film when the main character is walking home.

Looking back on the preliminary task, I feel I have made a lot of progression on the ability to avoid continuity errors as out of 10 I would have given myself 8 out of 10 and now I would have given myself  9 out of 10. In our preliminary task and main film we did avoid continuity errors. We avoided them by making sure the actor wore the same clothes when we were filming and was in the same position as when we were previously filming.

Looking back on the preliminary task, I feel I have made a lot of progression on the ability to select mise-en-scene including framing and composition as out of 10 I would have given myself 3 out of 10 and now I would give myself  7 out of 10. In our preliminary task we didn’t focus on the mise-en-scene such as props or costume, however in the main film we made sure we picked mise-en-scene such as costume that was effective so that the audience can relate to the character.  We focused on framing more in our main film for example we included a close mid shot of the characters hand touching the tree.

Evaluation What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product

Hardware

From the process of constructing this product I have learnt how to use the Samsung NX100, as we used this camera for filming our main film. The strengths of this camera are that it has great video quality and is fairly simple to use. However a negative about the camera was the sound quality it struggled to pick up speech this could have been resolved with having a microphone near the actor but we were restricted as we were unable to get access to a microphone. But we resolved the problem by having the actor speak louder so the camera could pick up the sound.

From the process of constructing this product I have developed my knowledge of the computer we were using as all the software we needed was on this computer for example Adobe Premier Pro CS4, Internet and Microsoft. The strengths of this we were able to alter our work when we needed to as it was saved to the computer however sometimes the computer wouldn’t save my work and I would have to restart which is a big restriction on progression with the film but I overcame this by saving my work on a memory stick in addition to the computer.

Software

From the process of constructing this product I have learnt to use Adobe Premier Pro CS4, as this was the best software available for us to edit the film. A strength of using Adobe Premier Pro CS4 is simple to navigate around as I have never used it before, another strength is that the effects looked professional compared to software such as Windows movie maker which looks very amateur. However a weakness of using Adobe Premier Pro CS4 was that rendering and exporting was difficult as to begin with only rendered 20 seconds of our film however we solved this problem by dragging the timeline arrows in the correct places it then rendered and exported our entire film opening. Another weakness we encountered was how to increase the volume levels as it wasn’t to find this but we researched it on the internet and we were able to increase the volume levels.

From the process of constructing this product I have developed my knowledge of the internet by learning how to use Blogger to upload the planning, research and evaluation questions. A strength of Blogger is that is a modern way to upload our work, another strength was that we could edit our work and update changes we needed to make. It also helped me keep organised and it allowed me to keep a record of my learning journey.

From the process of constructing this product I have used Microsoft throughout as in the planning, research, production and evaluation stage as I have used word and PowerPoint to organise the film for example the shooting schedule, the analysis of the films we watched and to encode our film. I used Microsoft Expression Encoder 4 to encode our film however this was a weakness as our footage was temporarily lost as the camera we used automatically encoded our film this meant that we didn’t need to use Microsoft Expression Encoder 4 again.

Evaluation How did you attract/address the audience

One way we are attracting our target audience of 15+ year olds is through the use of mise-en-scene. The location of our film is in a school setting as the audience can relate to the setting as they are highly likely to go to school every day. This creates  a sense of jeopardy as schools are supposed to be a safe environment, however as our audience are highly likely to go to school every day so they will be more afraid as they could believe that it could be them in the characters position.  The costume we used in our film for the protagonist is the formal clothing for sixth form but she doesn’t appear to much like an adult this means our audience can relate to the character.

Another way we are attracting our target audience is through the use of mise-en-scene. We used young actors who are a similar age to the actor this means that the audience can relate to the character this means that the audience can feel involved in the film. Another way we attracted our audience through mise-en-scene is with the IPhone as most teenagers own an apple product of some description so we included an IPhone as our target audience can relate to owning this product therefore it creates a sense of fear for the audience.

We used horror conventions that target the fans of the horror by utilising the genre. For example we used woodland which is a typical horror location we did this to give the audience a secure feeling that it is a horror film.  We attracted our audience by using an isolated setting which was the woods that Amelia walks through as it is typical horror convention and our audience can relate to walking back from school as they are at the age when they regularly walking to and from school.

We have attracted our audience by using British signifiers such as the British countryside as we have used a British woodland which can be seen by the types of trees and weather. We have also used British actors to attract our audience this is proved when Amelia says ‘Is anyone there?’ in a British accent. We have also used another British signifier as the school is a British school, we have used British signifiers to attract our audience as our target audience is British therefore they will be able to relate to the film compared to if we set the film in United States of America as the audience can put themselves into that position.

We also considered Syd Fields’ concept of setup as Amelia is making her way home, then someone behind her grabs her shoulder and Amelia screams.

Evaluation Who would be the audience of our media product

Our target audience is a teenager aged above 15 years old to a young adult due to age restrictions. The gender of our audience is male and female; we have tried to avoid a negative representation of a female audience as our audience is primarily female. They would be interested in seeking thrill and be fans of the horror genre however it is likely that people that aren’t horror fans will see the horror movie as it could be the first horror movie they have seen or they have been peer pressured into watching the film.

Our target audience would be likely to shop at places such as ‘Hollister’, ‘Topman’ and looking for bargains in ‘Primark’ as all of these shops target a young audience when selling their products, by playing music that they enjoy and selling the clothes that are targeted towards young people. This means that we could advertise our product to our audience.

Our target audience  are also very likely to take part in activities such as socialise as if they are going to watch a film at the cinema then they are likely to be socialising with friends anyway.  They are also going to be interested in team sports such as football and if they are over 18 then they will probably enjoy drinking for socialising activities when they are with friends. We could use this to help advertise our film to our target audience as we can advertise our film in similar horror films at the cinema. We could also put film trailers on the adverts when the football is on as the target audience are likely to be watching the football match.

Our target audience will also probably eat at fast food chains or restaurants such as ‘Subway’, ‘McDonalds’ and ‘Pizza Hut’. These food chains are aimed at young people as are audience are likely to be energetic and have fast paced lives. This suggests that we could possibly have posters of our film in the food chains in order to increase awareness from our target audience about the film.

Our target audience will also have role models such as ‘Jared Padalecki’  because this actor appears in similar horror films that our audience usually watch for example he appears in ‘Supernatural’, ‘Friday the 13^th’ and ‘House of Wax’.

Our target audience will probably read magazines such as ‘Heat’, ‘Empire’ and other magazines that encourage gossip and what movies that could see to socialise with friends. We could use this to advertise our film by having an article about the film and exclusive interviews with the cast in order to gain interest and a ‘buzz’ around the film.
 

Evaluation What kind of media institution might distribute you media product and why

There are two distribution companies that we could use for our distribution company such as ‘Redbus Film Distributors’, and ‘Momentum pictures’. Both of them are British distribution companies and have distributed successful horror movies.

Out of these two distributors we would use ‘Momentum Pictures’ as they have distributed successful films such as ‘Sinister’, ‘The Woman In Black’ and ‘House At The End Of The Street’. These films are all successful horrors that are relatable to our film so we could achieve the same success as these films. ’Sinister’ and ‘The Woman in Black’ are both British films this means that our film can be distributed in the UK. ‘House At The End Of The Street’ is an American horror, this suggests that ‘Momentum Pictures’ we will be able to distribute our film in different countries. ‘Redbus Film Distributors’ was founded in 1997. They were the distributors of films such as ‘Jeepers Creepers’, ‘Cabin Fever’ and ‘House of the dead’. This wouldn’t be a good distributor as all these films are American horror films. As our film is a British horror and this film company have a history of distributing successful American films and not British horror films.

‘Cinema City’ distributes alternative films and they are mainly from small independent companies. ‘VUE’ distribute mainstream films and they try to target everyone with their film choices. ‘Odeon’ also distribute mainstream films but they try to focus on targeting young people with their films choices.

There is ‘Cinema City’ which does distribute horror films however I wouldn’t use this cinema as our audience aren’t likely to go to this cinema as they prefer mainstream films. There are two main cinemas chains ‘VUE’ and ‘Odeon’, 80% of the people I asked in my survey I conducted they said they would prefer to go ‘Odeon’ rather than ‘VUE’. The main reason was because young people the films that are shown at ‘Odeon’ as they are targeted at young people. Whereas ‘VUE’ do play similar films as ‘Odeon’ that are aimed at teenagers however some of the films are aimed at young children and some are aimed older audiences. I would use ‘Odeon’ to distribute our film as it plays mainstream films for our target audience.

‘Netflix’ is an online American film distribution company that has recently established itself in Britain and it is proving to be very successful in the UK.’LoveFilm’ is an  British distribution company it started off as just a postal service but it has expanded to online film rental. ‘YouTube’ does distribute a variety of mainstream and alternative of films. I wouldn’t use ‘YouTube’ to distribute our film as it is easier to make illegal copies of the film which means we wouldn’t gain a profit from people watching the film.

Using ‘YouTube’ as our online distribution company would be good as our target audience are likely to use ‘YouTube’ a lot as 90% of the people I asked in a survey said that they use ‘YouTube’ regularly, however it does raise problems such as the film is easier to make a pirate copy of, which means we won’t be able to make a profit. In a survey I conducted on our media class 60% of them said they preferred ‘Netflix’ rather than ‘LoveFilm’ this is because from the advertisements they got the impression that ‘LoveFilm’ had older films and films that weren’t targeted at them but at older people. Whereas the ‘Netflix’ has more recent films and films that interested them, this suggests that ‘Netflix’ target audience was the younger generation. Taking this into consideration I would use ‘Netflix’ as the online distribution company as it has the same target audience as our film and I believe it would successfully distribute our film. I believe ‘YouTube’ could be useful distributing trailers of the film as our target audience will be more aware of the film and more likely to watch it.

Evaluation How does your media product represent particular social groups

We aimed to follow the majority of the stereotypes as we didn’t want to alienate our audience by not making it explicit that our film is in the horror genre. However we did challenge some of the horror conversations to get an accurate representation of our audience so that they can relate to the character.

Our media product represents women as positively as the lead character is female and she is also the protagonist. My rationale is that by using mise-en-scene such as costume we have made the main character dressed in appropriate clothing instead of hypersexual clothing  as ‘Casey’ from ‘Scream’ answers the phone she is dressed to be presented hyper sexually and when she is asked about having a boyfriend she lies by replying with ‘no’, the caller knows she is lying as her boyfriend is tied up outside in her back garden.  Having our protagonist dressed in non-hyper sexual clothing allows the audience to connect with the character as she is more respectable. She also isn’t shown as the ‘damsel in distress’ as she calls out for the killer and goes up to the tree with blood to try and determine what is going on.  We were inspired by ‘Laurie’ from ‘Halloween’ as she defends the children she is babysitting from Michael and she believes she has killed him until Dr. Loomis shoots him six times we were influenced by women exhibiting strength and power.  Our film is quite feminist as the protagonist is female this shows we intending to have a feminist ideology.

Our media product represents the youth as innocent but clumsy. My rationale is that by using mise-en-scene such as the props for example we the phone we used has cracks on the screen which is a subtle message that shows the audience that she is a typical teenage girl. This was important as it is important to have our hero relatable to the audience so they can have a connection with the character. We have also presented the youth as being independent in our media product, my rationale is that she is walking in the woods without a group of friends or a sexual partner. We were influenced by ‘Samantha’ from ‘The House of the Devil’ as she is walking alone to her destination.

 

(Screenshot of 'Amelia' walking through the woods)

 

 

(Screenshot of  'Samantha' from 'House of the Devil' walking)

 

Our media product doesn’t represent men in the opening as they would have been too much going on in the scene however when we were planning for our other initial idea men were presented negatively as the male character was the antagonist. We would have represented men negatively in our film as we influenced by the two killers in ‘Scream’ and ‘Michael’ from Halloween as it is a horror convention to have a male antagonist.

(Screen shot of 'Michael' from 'Halloween')

 

Evaluate how much our media text uses, develops or challenges forms and conventions.

My vision of the horror conventions is that we stick to some of them for financial reasons, for example the woods are a horror convention and it is near the school. However we didn’t want to make a completely stereotypical horror film that followed all of the conventions as we wanted to stand out from other horror films and also to show that we understand the conventions of horror.  We also went against some of the horror conventions as the blonde girl being the victim is a horror convention to show we can make a mainstream commercial product without being to cliché. We made a mainstream film to target our audience as the majority of teenagers aren’t interested in art-house films due to them not being shown in cinemas such as Odeon and VUE. Therefore we have to provide a product that meets up to the audiences expectations of the horror genre.

One horror convention that is relevant in our film is the use of a conventional location. We chose to use the woods which are a typical genre code largely due to the connotations of isolation. We have used this convention as the woods are mysterious and isolated and they connote the fear of the unknown which is relevant to our film as the fate of the character isn’t known in the opening two minutes, and neither is the identity of the killer. We did this to create a sense of mystery and have the audience guess who the killer will be throughout the movie which means the audience will be more engaged in the film as they are constantly questioning who the killer to build tension, suspense and ambiguity as these are all common horror conventions. We used these conventions as the reason the girl is walking through the woods is to get home. This could make the audience feel afraid as our target audience are likely to walk home from school and this allows them to sympathise with the character by aligning our audience with the protagonist the sense of fear and jeopardy is being heightened.

 

(Screen shot of Amelia walking through the woods)

 

 

Another horror convention that is relevant in our film that develops these ideas is an isolated setting. We developed this convention as we have the main character alone studying in an empty classroom. Classrooms usually connote education and the audience will know it is a safe place to be as the majority of our audience have been in or will be experiencing still a classroom environment. We challenged this because we wanted to make the audience feel unsettled in what is supposed to be a safe environment to them as they are more likely to be frightened.  It also creates a sense of jeopardy as it is a horror convention that causes suspense and thrill for the audience. Although we felt we were developing with this, it should be noted that classrooms are a common location in some teen horror such as ‘Scream’ and ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’.

 (Screenshot from 'New Nightmare')

 (Screenshot from 'Amelia' - our film)

 

A third horror convention that is relevant in our film is a having a female character with blonde hair in the opening but we have challenged the stereotype of having this type of character dying first because we wanted to represent young women positively as she is the lead character we have done this by having her dressed in appropriate clothing instead of hypersexual clothing as we didn’t want to present her as a sexual object which can be a convention of horror films but we are challenging the male gaze theory as it you are also challenging the use of the male gaze, again a common convention of horror.  We also challenged this as the girl is on her own instead of being with a sexual partner or a group of friends. It shows that she is independent and isn’t the ‘damsel in distress’ it was important to do this as the audience will be able to relate with the character as they are likely to be independent.

Another horror convention that is relevant in our film is the blood, we used blood as it connotes violence and that someone has been injured or been killed. It connotes that there is something unusual in the woods and fear for the lead characters life. It was important to use this horror convention as it signifies to the audience that they are watching a horror film as in our survey most of them expected to see blood in a horror film. We made this decision to successfully target our horror audience.

Another horror convention is negative representation of a youthful character such as they are often outspoken, arrogant and they are also presented as stupid. We have gone against this stereotypical convention as our film has one teenage girl and she is represented positively as she is staying after school to study and she is presented as reasonably sensible, we did this as our target audience are young and they can relate to this character which means they are more likely to enjoy and be interested in the film as they can see themselves as that character.

AS Media Studies Horror Film: Amelia

This is our final main horror opening.

The British Board of Film Classification

The British Board of Film Classification states the guidelines for a 15 rated film are:-

·         No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate to 15 year olds.

·         There may be frequent use of strong language – the strongest terms are rarely accepted. Also continued aggressive use of strong language and sexual abuse is unacceptable.

·         There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

·         Sexual activity and nudity may be portrayed but without strong detail. The depiction of casual sex should be handled responsibly. There may be occasional strong verbal references to sexual behaviour.

·         Violence may be strong but may not dwell on the infliction of pain and of injuries. Scenes of sexual violence must be discreet and brief.

·         Dangerous combat techniques such as ear claps, head-butts and blows to the neck are unlikely to be acceptable. There may be no emphasis on the use of easily accessible lethal weapons especially knives.

·         Sustained or detailed infliction of pain or injury in horror in unacceptable.

·         Drug taking may be shown but clear instructive detail is unacceptable. The film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug use.

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/592478/index.html

The British Board of Film Classification states the guidelines for a 18 rated film are:-

·         There are no constraints in theme, language, nudity or horror. However the board can cut or reject content such as detailed portrayal of violent or dangerous acts that is likely to promote the activity.

·         The board can also instructive detail of illegal drug use which basically means the more explicit the images of sexual activity, unless they can be exceptionally justified by context.

·         When sex material genuinely seeks to inform and educate in matters such as human sexuality, safe sex and health, exceptions to the normal constraints on explicit images may be made in the public interest. Such explicit detail must be kept to the minimum necessary to illustrate the educational or instructional points being made.

·         Material which appears to be stimulated is generally passed at ‘18’, while images of real sex are confined to the ‘R18’ category.

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/592497/index.html

We need to take this into consideration to avoid creating a 18 rated horror movie as otherwise we would have cut our target audience so we have decided to have no sexual activity or visible violence as we would have run the risk of our film being certificated at a 18 which means our 15-17 year olds would be unable to watch the film as it would be illegal for them to watch it.

House Of The Devil opening Analysis

The ‘House of the Devil’ was made in 2009 but it is set in the 1980’s and it was directed by Ti West.






The first title is the film title, actor names but only the starring roles and the main characters , the casting director, the production designer, the original score, the sound designer, the director of photography, the executive producers, the co-producer, the producers, the writer, the director and then the editor. The film also pauses on the titles up until the casting director, this could be to allow the audience to read the titles. This will influence our film as this is as how it does professionally and we want to film to look professional.

The mise-en-scene is very effective for signifying that the film is set in the USA in the 1980’s because of the costume as this is something that people in the 1980’s would wear in America. This will influence our film as we would have to find similar clothing that British people would have worn in the 1980’s in order for it to be believable. The housing is good for signifying that it is set in the 1980’s as they are brightly coloured and they are quite old fashioned. This will influence our film as we will have to find an isolated house that was built in or before the 1980’s.

In the opening seconds there is a diegetic church bell ringing in the background this suggests that it is heaven at the moment as the main character has just looked at a house during the day however later on it suggests that the ‘devil’ may come later on in the film.  The non-diegetic  sound when the main character is walking is quite positive and hints at a sense of adventure for the girl it suggests that she will overcome future problems such as being haunted by the ‘devil’. This will influence our film as we could include non-diegetic music that sends subtle hints to the audience at what might happen to the character as it engages them.

The cuts between the over shoulder shots are quite slow, this suggests that it is a normal conversation and that the film doesn’t want to create much tension yet as the film is the equilibrium stage in ‘Torodov’s theory’. This will influence our film as we could also use slow cuts to show that the girl is in equilibrium when she is in her room.

When the main character is walking to her destination the camera is following her by panning walking. This suggests that the character is going on a long journey as the camera panning lasts about 2 minutes. This will influence our film as it is an effective way of following the characters story. There is also a distant over the shoulder shot when the two characters are talking by the side of the car this suggests that is a normal conversation between them and it allows the audience to feel part of the conversation.  

Location

At first you see the character Amelia in an empty class room. We chose an empty class room because emphasised the theme of isolation. The empty class room is used for deliberate effect as it creates a sense of the unknown, also a classroom is supposed to be considered a safe environment to be in this means it will create more fear for the audience as they may feel unsettled in somewhere they are supposed to feel safe and secure. We chose this classroom as it is one of the oldest classroom and the  décor is quite dark which means it is very effective for our film as it a contrast of a bright learning environment.

Next you see Amelia walking into the woods, the woods is considered to be a horror convention this also adds the effect that the film is sinister, as it signifies to the audience that this is a horror film.  We chose this as it was close to the school which meant it is convenient for filming and this woods also clearly signifies the film is set in Britain because of the scenery and weather. It is important to have  a British location as our target audience live in Britain therefore the audience can relate to the film more as it it set in the same country as they live in.

Copyright - Music licensing

"Music licensing is intended to ensure that the owners of copyrights on musical works are compensated for certains uses of their work. A purchaser has limited rights to use and reproduce the recorded work without a separatteky arranged agreement."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_licensing

Taking this into consideration it restricted us on what music could be used in our horror opening as it takes 70 years for the music to become copyright free. We then decided to find copyright free music as no of us are able to compose our own music. We used the website http://www.freesound.org/ as all the sound is copyright free and we were able to find music that created tension for our film.

Titles

In Prom Night the titles come up in this order:-

• Production companies
• Title of the film 
•  Actors names ( the most famous and main characters appear first)
• Names of the peope who casted the actors
• The costume designers name 
• Music supervision
• Who the music is composed by
• The editors name
• The production designers name
• The director of photography name
• The names of the executive producers

This will influence our film as we will base our relevant titles in this order to make it look professional.

Actor

We chose Ellie to be our main character as she is a similar age to the character, therefore she is better at representing a teenage girl. One of the main reasons we picked Ellie is because she has blonde hair and we wanted a character that would go against the convention that  of having a sexual convention so we didn’t want to have a brunette female lead character as it follows the conventions of horror. We were inspired by ‘Prom Night’ as the lead character ‘Donna’ is blonde but she doesn’t get killed in the film so she is the final girl.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Costume planning

We chose our character to wear this costume as she in sixth form therefore she had to wear smart clothing however not to formal as it may alienate the audience as they are less likely to relate to the character as they unlikely to wear formal clothing like an adult so it had to be something that the audience can relate to. As we are challenging the convention that blonde girls are presented as sexually orientated we picked modest clothing to signify that our character is going against this horror convention. We were inspired by 'Sidney' from 'Scream' as she is presented as a smart and respected character through her costume as when she was wearing appropriate clothing she was able to escape from the killer and the audience can also connect with her as they can imagine themselves in the same position by having a relatable character, we wanted to create this same effect.              

      

Scream analysis

In this essay I will be writing about what extent is ‘Scream’ is an example of a postmodernism horror by writing postmodernism in film, the horror genre leading up to ‘Scream’ and the need for a postmodernism film, identifying and evaluating how ‘Scream’ is a postmodern and how/what I can use in my own production.

Postmodernity means what we are surrounded by in today’s world, when the individual artist has been replaced by a non-fixed subjects who exists in a world of pluralism and cultural diversity. Intertextuality is one of the seven requirements needed to create a postmodern horror.  Intertextuality includes shaping a texts meaning by other texts, it can represent an author’s borrowing and the transformation of a prior text or to a readers referencing of one text in reading another. It is basically the relationship between texts. The process of knowledge to gain consciousness is called self-reflexivity; it is an act of self-reference where an artwork specifically gets attention to itself. The third requirement is pastiche and parody, pastiche takes different styles, forms, motifs and then combines them together  to form  a new production. A parody is something that intends to mock, comment or poke fun at an original creation such as ‘Shaun of the Dead’ is a parody of ‘Dawn of the dead’. The fourth requirement is the questioning of grand narratives this means that it pluralises the debate, it creates multiple sources of knowledge, diverse histories and offers many ways of analysing of modern society. The fifth requirement is simulacra this is when modern society has replaced all the reality and meanings with symbols and signs; they present the human experience as a simulation of reality rather than reality. The sixth requirement is late capitalism this relates to the general sense that the world has been taken over by the values of capitalism and that alternative choices have become extinct. This fear is backed up by the power of technology which creates the sense of horror that we are always being watched by evil. The final requirement is the breakdown between high and low cultural forms, this means that pop-culture is capable of an evaluation as high art. A postmodern artwork that employs pop and mass produced.

Before Scream horror movies were mostly aimed at teenage boys, as it is more commonly boys who enjoy risk, blood and gore. As they don’t want to show they are afraid of horror instead they want to show they enjoy watching horror. There was also more female nudity, lots of gore and the strongest characters are male, whereas in Scream there was less of this type of thing which will appeal more to the female audience. Also before Scream, everyone expected the same predictable movie for example They also all followed the typical cliché conventions such as running up the stairs, asking ‘who is there?’, get boxed into a corner (upstairs), stumbling, dark shadows, isolated location, female victim and disruption of normality. There was a need for a post-modernism in horror because all the horror film genre were the same and everything had been done, this means the horror genre stopped for a while as they had run out of ideas. But in December 1996 ‘Scream’ flipped horror upside down and changed people perception of horror.

The typical post-modern horror must include the following, the final girl which is Sidney, a frightening place which is a house when the teenager is left home alone which in Scream is in a remote area of America for example near a woods, the ominous mise-en-scene and narratives that move from equilibrium to disturbance and back to a new equilibrium (murder/normal day at school/murder). The stereotypical characters such as the blondes being stupid (first to die), the brunette girls being intelligent (usually final girl), the jockey’s being killed of first and the smarter boys surviving longer are used in the majority horror movie this is used in Scream:-

·         Sidney – the smart brunette, who is the final girl

·         Casey, Tatum – the flirtatious blonde’s who both die, Casey is the second to be killed.

·         Randy – the smart boy, who knows everything about horror movies stays alive.

·         Steve – the jock who is first to be killed.

·         Billy – loves the horror genre and later has to be told to stop stabbing his partner of murdering - Stu.

‘Scream’ has many inside jokes and references to other popular horror movies such as ‘Halloween’, ‘Pyscho’ and ‘Carrie’. The killer has a very good knowledge of the horror movie genre as when ‘Casey’ picks up the phone he makes her answer trivia questions about horror films, to try and save her boyfriend’s life (Steve). The characters are also very familiar with the rules as Randy explains that ‘there are rules for surviving a horror movie’, this includes suspecting everyone, never drinking, having sex, (as the virgin always survives in the 1970’s horror movies) and if you say “I’ll be right back” it is guaranteed  that they will be killed. The murderer tells a victim that “You might as well go outside to investigate a strange noise!”. It is a post-modernism  because it acknowledges that its audience will have watched horror films. It allows the viewer to comment on the predictability of the genre and it also offers the viewer a new, self-conscious, at other times it is funny and it is also frightening.  

In my own production I will be very likely to use the traditional horror characters such as the brunette girl being the final girl and the blonde girl who isn’t a virgin would be killed first. I also liked the idea of not knowing who the murderer is, as it keeps people engaged with the film. So in my production I could also create an illusion to fool the viewer by having the character they least expect to be the murderer or have a big twist.

Film title

Our original film title for our first initial idea was going to be 'Amazing Grace' because the lead female character was called Grace and the content of the film is also a play on the original meaning on the 'Amazing Grace' poem which denotes the message forgiveness and redemption are possible regardless of the sin carried out (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazing_Grace). This related to our film as the killer is seeking revenge by making other people suffer. However since we have changed our film idea we also decided to change the film title. We were thinking about calling the film 'You Can Run But You Can't Hide' but we decided that was to cliche and we didn't audience to get the impression that our film was a cliche and predictable film as they probably wouldn't be interested in watching the film. We decided to call the film 'Amelia' as that is the name of our lead female character and the film focuses on her life.

Prom Night Analysis

Prom night – 2008 - Nelson McCormick

The titles appear in this order; the production company, the name of the film, the names of actors come up with the most famous and main characters appearing first, the people who cast the actors for the roles, the costume designer name, the music supervision titles, who the music is by, the editor, the production designer, the director of photography and the executive producers. This will influence our film as we will put the titles in this order so it looks professional.

Mise-en-scene

The time of the horror is at night as there are a few street lights and the camera also pans over a large woodland that looks dark and mysterious the effect on the audience is that they recognise this is a horror convention.  This will influence our production as we will include some of the horror conventions such as the woods.

Sound

The non-diegetic music in the opening titles isn’t very unsettling or typical horror music, the effect on the audience is that they don’t immediately feel scared, they could have done this as later on, she finds out it is a dream. This will not influence our film as we want music that will cause tension as we only have two minutes to create this impression.

Camera shots and movement

The aerial view of the shot panning over the location in the opening titles is effective on the audience as it feels like they are being taken on a journey. This will not influence our film as we don’t have enough time to create this and it would also not be relevant to our storyline.

Urban Legend Analysis

Urban Legend – 1998 – Jaime Blanks

The titles appear in a specific order which is the two production companies, the producer, title of the film, the lead and most famous actors, casting, costume designer, the music, the editor, the production, the photography and the executive producers. This will influence my own film by having the appropriate titles in the right order.

Mise-en-scene

The weather in the opening is shown to be raining with thunder and lightning at night time when the titles are starting, it then shows a car driving through the woods, the effect on the audience is that it sets the atmosphere for the opening few minutes. This will influence my own film as we will include an effective establishing shot.  The colours are very dark for example the trees are dark shade of green and the car is black, the effect of the audience is that they should have recognised that the opening is going to start with something negative in this case the first victim of the film. This will influence my own film as we can use certain colours to send subtle messages to the audience.

Sound

The non-diegetic sound is an eerie sound the effect on audience is that it makes the atmosphere feel tense, this will influence my own film as we can use eerie music in order to make the scene tense. There is diegetic sound which is played in the car called ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ which contains the phrase ‘turn around’, the effect on the audience is that they will find it ironic that as the killer is at the back of her car. This will influence my own film as we can include a song that is ironic for the future events.

Editing

When the camera cuts to the close up man at the gas station up against the window, the effect on the audience is that the audience will be scared as they might have been startled by the man suddenly appearing and they also think that the woman is about to murdered by this man. This will influence my own film as we can use this editing technique to create fear for example we can cut to the killers face at the end of the 2 minute opening.

Camera shots and movement

The aerial shot of the car driving down the road in dark is effective on the audience as it sets the scene of the opening sequence which is set in a dark, isolated and dreary location. This will influence my own film as it is an establishing shot which we need to feature in order for the viewer to know where that scene is taking place.