AS FOUNDATION PORTFOLIO: Reflective Evaluation - IVANA TALBOTT

Question1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? - 

Our initial idea was to focus our product around the idea of an Ouija board as we both thought it was a good prop to use that would immediately signify the horror genre. We based the majority of our film around the idea of using a Ouija board and developed the idea of creating a typical ‘girly sleepover’ story line using vulnerable girls. However, we decided to add a different element by making one of the girls at the sleepover the murderer of another girl.

We looked at other horror films which used Ouija boards to get some idea of the atmosphere they created and the way in which they were used to show the horror convention. We studied ‘What lies beneath’ as one of the films. In one particular scene two women use an Ouija board to contact somebody. It wasn’t the storyline we focused on in this particular film it was the lighting used to create a certain atmosphere. They used candles, orange lighting and fog to give a really sinister feel to the scene, the candles also made the Ouija board stand out. Apart from the fog, we are using all of these elements in our horror film to create this atmosphere.

We also looked at the film ‘paranormal activity’ for inspiration. We looked at camera angles, within the scenes using an Ouija board, to see how they highlighted its importance. Many eye line shots were used with the Ouija board in focus and the dark background out of focus. This highlighted the significance of the Ouija board but also created tension as you expected to see something in the dark background. They also used many high angle shots looking down at the Ouija board. This is unusual because high angle shots are usually used to make someone/something look inferior or vulnerable. However, by using a high angle shot of the Ouija board it also created a high angle shot of the person next to it, making them look vulnerable as if somebody was looking down on him. We are using this high angle technique on the three girls surrounding the Ouija board; making them look vulnerable and also highlighting the importance of the Ouija board.

One of the horror conventions we used is flashbacks. We added this to show the memories of the murderer including things like: the girls funeral; a point of view shot of the murderer strangling the girl; happy home videos of the murdered girl to show guilt and memories of all four girls laughing. These flashbacks do two important things. One is to reveal the twist in the story line, that it was actually that girl that murdered her friend. These flashbacks also add a creepy element to the film because there are home videos of a little girl, which the audience know is dead, dancing in the garden. This also reveals that it is her who is being contacted through the Ouija board and she will come back to haunt them.

Some other horror conventions we used are dim lighting, to create a sense of the unknown and create shadows. We used churches and graveyards in the funeral flashback which is a typical horror genre. However, we thought this was too typical so we only did a 4 second shot of this to highlight it was a funeral. We also used the theme of death and possession, developed from the idea of a Ouija board, which is a typical horror genre.

We challenged some horror conventions by adding light and happy scenes but embedding them in a way in which makes it more creepy and sinister. The scenes themselves are light and happy but the reason we are seeing them is because we know she is going to haunt the murderer. Therefore this makes it feel more scary. We also plan to use a children’s nursery rhyme in the film, which could challenge the typical music used in a horror film but again we are using it in a way that makes it scary.

To provide something new we have decided to add a realistic touch to the film so the audience can relate to the film more. I think this is more effective than adding non-realistic elements like monsters or zombies because our story line is more likely to be real and that it could happen to the audience; therefore relating to the audience.

In our opening titles we have decided to keep it simple but effective by having slow panning shots of the Ouija board and the candles and using effects on the top of this to highlight the importance of the Ouija board. It also creates a nice contrast between the very action packed film and the slow, relatively calm opening titles.

 The ‘Dreamworks’ logo inspired me as the words are situated in the sky to imply that it’s a huge production. Therefore I used a picture of space to tie in with the word ‘Colossal’ to imply the same thing.

 The film ‘What lies beneath’ uses simple water movement for their opening titles with text occurring at certain points. This is simple but effective and creates a sinister but calm start. This is what I tried to achieve with simple camera shots of the Ouija board.

 These two images establish the sub-genre of horror. The shot of the Ouija board on my film shows satanic possession because they are trying to contact the dead. The shot from ‘What Lies Beneath’ shows that it is a psychological horror because the first shot in the film is of this girls face as she is the one that thinks she’s going insane.

 These two pictures establish character. In 'What lies beneath' this is the first we see of this character and she nearly just drowned in the bath so you know there is something wrong with her, this is shown by a close up shot. We used this close up shot in our film to establish our character by showing her facial expression as she is feeling guilty for murdering the girl.

 These two images establish mise-en-scene. The shot from What Lies Beneath shows a long shot of the bathroom where most of the weird phenomena happens in the film. We used a high angle shot of the three girls chanting to establish where they are and what they are doing.

 This low angle shot, in our film, shows a memory of the girl strangling the other girl. This is an important moment in the film because it reveals to the audience that it was in fact her that killed the girl.

This is another flashback of a memory, showing a home video of the girl that died. This is an important moment because you know she is going to come back and haunt the girl.

This is the last image you see in our film as this simple shot of the girl being strangled shows that she has come back to haunt her. 

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Age: Due to the fact that our cast were all teenagers it very heavily represents that age group. At the beginning of the film the teenage girls are talking about how they are not supposed to be doing the Ouija board but they are anyway. This is representing the teenagers as rebellious which is a common ideology of teenagers in society. 

Gender: All the cast are girls, they challenge the common ideology because they are being brave and doing a Ouija board. However, they are at a typical sleepover which is very typical for horror films. This is because at sleepovers they are usually all 'girly' and feminine which is a contrast to the 'horror' genre making a surprise element. The film represents these girls as being very vulnerable in the end as there are a lot of high angle shots, looking down on them making them look innocent. 

At the beginning of this clip you can see that the threat is the man. He looks like a typical country american man who owns a gun. However by his facial expressions yo ucan tell that he is about to do some harm to some people. The victims are little children, particularly a little girl. This is typical of a horror film to make a little girl the victim. This is because little girls are typically more vulnerable and the audience feel like they want her to be protected. The girl is also white with dark hair. This is also used a lot in horror films as the contrast between the pale skin and the dark hair makes the girl look more scary.Therefore this film follows the stereotypes of age, race and gender.

As we can see at the start of this clip this film also follows the stereotypes of the victim being a girl. This time the girl is a 19 year old. However, she is a student which implies she could be living on her own and could still be vulnerable. She is also white, which follows the stereotype of vulnerable girls. In this film there is no clear threat as it is a possession from something unknown.

Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

As a group we decided that Hammer films would be a good company to work with. This is because this company is not as big as film companies such as Universal so working with Hammer Films wouldn’t be too far-fetched for a small UK film. However, this company specialises is classics such as ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘The plague of Zombies’. These have very different horror conventions to my film, as they tend to use the theme of monsters, so it would be a very different film to what they usually produce. On the other hand ‘Hammer Films’ have recently produced a film called ‘The Resident’ which is a modern film that challenges the typical ‘monster’ conventions and did relatively well getting a user rating of 5.2 on IMDB. Hammer films more recently produced the film ‘The Woman in Black’ this also challenges the typical horror conventions used by Hammer.  This also has similar conventions to our film with the ghost and the murdering of different people. The fact that they have recently released this film is the main reason we decided to choose Hammer Films because they currently have a heightened popularity in the media due to this worldwide successful film.

Being as Hammer Films as produced some classics that have been successful worldwide they would know exactly what the audience like to see, so they can therefore apply this to our film to help us get the most money out of our film. They are also a relatively well known production company so they could probably afford to cast a well-known celebrity star in the film which will heighten the popularity of the film. They also have an existing audience so atleast a small number for people are guaranteed to be interested because they like existing films from this company.

To market our media product it would be a good idea to focus on the new media to target our audience, alongside the standard posters and trailers etc. Using new media such as social networking sites would be very beneficial as our target audience is teenagers and the majority of teenagers use some sort of social networking site. Therefore paying money to promote a ‘trending topic’ on sites such as Twitter or creating a page on sites such as Facebook would get our product well known and talked about, as shown on the screen grabs below using The Woman In Black as an example.

I would choose to release my film during the summer months, preferably the beginning of July. This is because my film is aimed at 15+ so by this time most schools will have broken up for Summer and will therefore go out more with their friends to the cinema. Also, a lot of horror films are released around September – November time so releasing it earlier will enable it to be out on hard copy in time for Christmas.

'The woman in black' has a twitter page in which you can follow and get involved with the latest updates.

As you can see on, 'The Woman in Black' has made a facebook page in which you can 'like' and people can get involved.

Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? - Ivana Talbott on Prezi

Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?