This shot is in between the institutions to split them up.It is between house of horror and hammer films.This is an establishing shot for the setting of the film. the nature of the house is there to break the stereotypical setting of a horror. We take our inspiration from other films that have done this.It is a quiet random shot but it is very eery and it sets the tone for the horror opening.
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This shows the bedroom setting, this shows what the character is doing and establishes some of the future story of the film. It shows that the opening is still quite normal and seems like things are fine, this helps the people watching for it to personalize with their own loves and think that the horror may happen to them.
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This is the first shit that we see the antagonist, this is very good as the viewers can predict the outcome and the story of the horror film.The crossed out name shows an eeriness of the viewers thinking why is the name crossed out and who can it be.The main character Eric does not see this doll which we purposely did so the character is in danger in our eyes but he is oblivious to the danger.
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This is one of the last part of the films, we used an handwritten mysterious font for the title and this gives a little edginess to the last part of the horror opening.The whiteness of the font represents purity and holiness whereas the black represents darkness and evil.This is the starting bit of the opening to whereas wind up toy starts in the sound of the scene. This creates a very scary and edgy tone to the horror opening and we put this last so it is the last thing that the viewers hear.
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This is the end to the horror opening and ends with a zoom close up of the doll on the stairs, we purposely did this so it is the last thing that the viewers see and they remember the film opening throughout the film that is is about a demonic doll.This leaves the viewers asking questions about the doll throughout the rest of the film.
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How does your product represent particular social groups?
Our two minute horror opening portrays the male social group.The main character is a young male called Eric who is moving into a new house. All of the authority is put into Eric's hands, he shoes strength in the fact he is moving all of the boxes by himself without any help;therefore reinforcing the stereotype that males are dominant. The way in which Eric just kicks off his shoes when he gets into the house reinforces again the stereotype of men that they are quiet careless.The main character being a male reinforces the fact that men are more dominant in the horror genre.The landlord who is shown in the opening is shown as being a social reject and unconfident hence the fact he had no shoes on. This then shows an element of horror because the audience will be questioning why is he like that.We used an over the shoulder shot to show the dominance of the male who is moving in compared to the landlord which can be portraying future events and what Eric will be like after he has lived in the house.
Age is presented in our horror opening. The main character is young and is independent in the way he has to cope with physical and mental issues such as moving into the house and the doll that seems to be into Eric's head. It represents how young adults who predominately are based at home for their early life go into the big world, for example Eric moving into his new house. The storyline goes that Eric's early life was quiet troubled and he is trying to escape the past. The landlord is shown as an older man who is clearly more wiser than the younger male by the way he says 'just watch yourself' and he says this in a stammered way like he is unconfident in himself. This could potentially show an intellectual difference which is challenged in the confrontation between Eric and the landlord.
Hero/Villains are unclear in our opening. We tried intentionally to make this as unclear as we can because we feel all good horror films leave the viewers uneasy and constantly on the edge of their seat and they are wondering who the villain and who the hero is. The hero could potentially be the landlord who is trying to warn the person who has moved into the house.
Which media institution might distribute your media product and why?
We have used 'Miramax Films' as our distributor as they have previous, successful experience in distributing independent and foreign films such as 'Reservoir Dogs' , 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Kill Bill Vol 1'. Miramax was founded by the owners of the Weinstein company Bob and Harvey Weinstein. It is a company which are known for distributing independent films. Miramax is now owned by Filmyard Holdings after it was sold by walt disney. Miramax would distribute the film to netflix, sky movies and other film websites and this would help a wider consumption of the film around the world.We have used UK National Lottery Fund this further amplifies our national audience of our media product. we the made our own institution, this is called House Of Horror productions. we named it this because it is the stereotypical scene for a horror film.The typography we used was 'Matura MT Script Capitals' as this font looks unique and has a harsh, sharp handwritten style. This proved beneficial especially in genre representation within our media product.
How did you find a target audience for your production?
We created a questionnaire which enabled our group to collect together primary research into who could be our potential target audience, therefore aiding our potential success of our final product. The BBFC rating for our production would be a 12, this is because of the horror and themes that are portrayed in the opening two minutes. These themes include that of violence and horror. But mostly we based our horror opening trying to cater for the audience we identified in our questionnaire. For instance we were trying to mainly cater for a teenage audience and therefore this was a very vast audience so we were able to widen what we used and what we didn't use for our opening.
How did you attract your audience?
We wanted to capture the audience's fears and create fear in things that are considered normal. The house we used is like a normal house which reinforces the fact into the audience that the following things in the opening could happen to anyone because it almost personalises the film with the viewers.The way the main character dresses sows how normal you can be to be haunting and it appeals to almost everyone because people think that this supernatural haunting could happen to them.
What have you learned about the technologies from the process of constructing your product?
After doing media studies for two years me, dan and ryan all had experience using the equipment, these shots of us are using the following equipment, a camera, a tripod, a PC (editorial processes). we used a panasonic HC V500 this was a vital part of us being able to use high quality camera work and smooth pan shots which were very useful in our establishing shots. We used a standard tripod which extended to 3ft to help stable the camera and our shots . The Editing software that we used for our production was that of windows movie maker for windows 8.1, this is because it simple aesthic and usability was just what we needed, though it has it's limitations, movie maker provided us with all that we needed to create a final product.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what have you learnt from the progression from it to your final media product?
In comparison to the very start of the year when we did our preliminary task i think that us a whoke in our group me, ryan and dan have all excelled in our editing processes, we developed our understanding of the programmes we were using and tried to make the best horror opening we could with what was at hand.I think that considering it was mostly self taught i think that us a whole group, especially ryan has tremendously improved our editing skills. Other things i fell i have improved at is planning as a whole and using the camera. As far as planning is concerned i think compared to the prelimary task i think i have acselled in the planning process being as our group were very focussed and got the work done with time to spare. Also using the camera has improved in my eyes as i have gradually learnt the different camera angles in the horror opening making and seen what effect it has on the viewers.
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