Group: Final Horror Opening Sequence - Conservatorium (all ammendments made)

TW: Evaluation - Question 3

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

Our media product can be classified as a low-budget British psychological-horror film. I would address potential distribution and exhibition in the following way:

TW: Evaluation - Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Social groups in relation to our piece and how they are represented

• Mentally ill - the antagonist is partially mentally ill, due to his OCD and meticulous nature revealed. However - portraying a mentally ill person as powerful and strong is reinforcing an emergent ideology which is the product of events such as the increased viewership of the Paralympic Games.
• Young - through the POV shot where the antagonist looks over his victim page, the majority of victims are young. This reinforces the idea that the young are the weakest social group, and can be exploited by adults:
  
• All - we made an effort to ensure that all social groups were represented on our victims page; inclding young, white, old, black, female, and male social groups. 
• Final boy - an archetypal horror character is the 'final girl', who manages to avenge past victims, display great strength, and overcome the brutal killer, leaving triumphant. However - in binary opposition with this, the final victim is a male who is completely powerless. This goes against a horror stereotype. 
  
• Females - during the POV shot of the victims, rule of two-thirds concentrates the viewers' attention on the two females encircled together. This gives prevalence to females - and attempts to evoke sympathy, which therefore implies and reinforces a residual ideology that females are less powerful than males. Moreover - as the females are young, blonde, and attractive - this reinforces the strategy that horror film-makers engage in to achieve a wide audience. Moreover - employing decorative females appeals to the core horror audience, predominantly males.
  
• Male antagonist - the fact we have a male antagonist reinforces a stereotype of horror that the killer is nearly always male, and reinforces the idea of a patriarchal society. This stereotype is reinforced by the film, 'House of 1000 Corpses' (Zombie, 2002) whereby women are presented as objects of male domination, an opening sequence contaminated with sexual bodily horror. Moreover - only men are pictured in dominant iconography, with two men in white waistcoats. This costume is an example of iconography which implies power and status, an aspect of costume which we included in ours also. Therefore - similarly to House of 1000 Corpses, our sequeunce reinforces the residual ideology of a patriarchal society. 
  
  
  

How these representations were technically constructed -

• Strength of mentally ill antagonist - is largely represented through mise-en-scene. Firstly - non-verbal communication from the final victim reveals the fear incited by the antagonist:
  
• Also revealed through camera work - the use of extreme close ups implies accuracy and precision; two characteristics not normally associated with mentally ill stereotypical characters. This proves that the word 'disabled' is ideologically loaded, as it has many conventional characteristics which are both reinforced and challenged by our sequence. 
  
• Canted angles - reinforce the dominant ideology that disabled people are marginalised and different. 
  
• Magnified sound effects - are important, as they emphasise the effect of the antagonist and portray him as more powerful due to the noises he causes being highlighted. 
• Lack of power - 'final boy' - this representation is constructed through an aspect of mise-en-scene, make-up. The lines across the victims face reveal that his destiny is pre-ordained, abd dehumanises the victims, as if they are a chunk of meat.Non-verbal communication furthers the powerless nature of the final victim. 

Potential improvements regarding social groups

• A dominant ideology regarding the elderly is that they are wise, and therefore powerful in that aspect. Therefore - if the antagonist was older, this would strengthen this concept. In binary opposition with this - younger people are marginalised and regarded as inferior and weaker than older people, therefore our text is potentially ideologically destabising, by portraying a younger man as the antagonist. However - if we had the choice, we would've chosen an older antagonist - which reinforces the stereotype of having a mid-thirty year old, white, male, antagonist.

Group: Final Horror Opening Sequence - Conservatorium

Below is our final psychological-horror opening sequence for the film - 'Conservatorium':

TW: My role in post-production

• Cutting  length down - by systematically going through each clip and cutting it down, as well as removing some clips altogether - the length was cut from over 5 minutes to just under 3. 
• Title work on After Effects - after identifying our main title style as being similar to Napoleon Dynamite; whereby they would be incorporated into the shot as if they were not edited in; I personally did work on After Effects to achieve this. 
• - Masking - in order for the titles, such as the title - 'Brad Warwick-Browne' to appear as if it is part of the set - any objects or movements needed to go over the title. This is shown in the screenshot below - where the scalpel masks the text; as does the antagonist's hand movement:

This involved dragging each yellow point in every frame

It achieved the professional look we desired

• I also used the masking tool on the title - 'Luca Besate' - in order to reveal the title as the antagonist's arm moves off screen:

• Title work on Photoshop - to further the feeling of the titles being integrated into the set - the titles needed perspective to be added to them. I did this through putting the titles into photoshop; rasterizing layer, and then altering the size, rotation, and perspective of each title. An example of the effect achieved is below through the title, 'Jack Sporle':

• - Tracking and sticking - contributing to our effect of having the titles integrated as part of the set - we wished to include a title in the same place for one tracking shot. I achieved this through After Effects by pinpointing spots which the title could stick to - 
  

Group: Audience Research II

In the last couple of days we have carried out a further audience research on our almost finished product, in order to find out where our strengths lie and how we could improve our final piece. Feedback is as follows :-

STRENGTHS:

• Great POV shot during the weapon selection
• A good use of props throughout
• Use of non-diegetic sound improves quality - particularly when the soundtrack almost crescendos when the radio is turned up
• Soundtrack generally works with action and creates a more interesting watch
• Close up shots are interesting and engaging
• Garage scene is "truly shocking" and "creates discomfort"
• POV shot through the sheet works very well to create tension
• A great range of shots used
• The fly and sheet sound effects work well.

 
 
WEAKNESSES/THINGS TO IMPROVE:

• A little too long spent in the greenhouse
• Some titles appear too subtly and quickly, and so are easily missable - 'Jack Sporle' title needs to be longer and 'Tom Whitson' title needs to be replaced as position doesn't work
• Opening shots are too quick into action, perhaps add another ECU shot
• Scene in garage could be made more menacing and in a sense grittier with a darker filter on
• Gong sound effect when title appears clashes with soundtrack
• Title itself seems 'clip-arty', size and position needs to be changed
• Wider range of dynamics of soundtrack at points to raise clarity, audibility and significance of other non-diegetic sound effects