Evaluation question 6

Question 6 from annabelwilford

Evaluation question 5

Evaluation question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

We decided that the target audience for our film opening would be males and females aged 15-25 years old, who had an interest in horror and thriller films. In the research that we conducted previously, we found that both genders are equally interested in the genre of our film as they enjoy the adrenaline that the tension and suspense brings when watching a film of this genre. The dual gender target audience will help us to widen the audience who experience our film, which in turn will help to make it more successful. 

Before we shot our film, we looked into the stereotypical conventions of the genre so that we could maximise audience pleasure and appeal to the target audience. Some of these features included POV
shots and a tense sound bridge to create the most possible suspense. As a result of theses findings we included them into our film opening and edited them to ensure that we had followed the conventions of horror/thriller. 

The characters in 'The Hunted' are aged 16 - 17 years, which is a similar age to the target audience for our film, and this was done deliberately so that the target audience would be able to relate to the characters and therefore be more engaged when watching. 

As our film is a horror we have had to ensure that there is a classification on the film to protect younger children from any effects that the film could have on them. The way that we decided on the type of classification was through the BBFC guidelines. The British Board of Film Classification is an independent, non-governmental body which has classified cinema films since it was set up in 1912. In order to protect children from unsuitable and even harmful content in films and videos and to give consumers information they might need about a particular film or video before deciding whether or not to view it, the BBFC examines and age rates films and videos before they are released.

The age classifications are Universal, PG, 12A and 12, 15 and 18. We felt that the most suitable rating
was a 15 as the guidelines are as follows:
strong violence
frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***').
portrayals of sexual activity
strong verbal references to sex
sexual nudity
brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
discriminatory language or behaviour
drug taking

Our film contains violence which is why we decided on this classification, in order to protect any possible younger viewers. 

Evaluation question 3

Evaluation question 2

Evaluation question 2 from annabelwilford

Evaluation question 1

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

Narrative
Our film narrative followed a stereotypical linear narrative which is a convention of most films similar to our genre; it follows a chronological structure that the audience can easily follow. However we challenged part of the conventions as we added elements of dual narrative/ flashbacks throughout the opening. As a result it develops the overall narrative by breaking up the story that fully explains the situation of the characters to the target audience. The idea of combining the different types of narrative were our own as we wanted to create something that other horror/thriller film haven't done before and that would appeal to the target audience. It challenges the stereotypes of horror which is something that we aimed to do.

Mise en scene
The lighting in the film opening was quite dark and bleak as we wanted to create a sinister and tense atmosphere that would appeal to the target audience. The shadows cast by the tress in the woodland helped to give this feeling, and represents a sense of seriousness. We desaturated some of the clips so that it would convey the dark atmosphere, and by taking out the brightness and colour it portrays that the main character is in a dark or dangerous place. The lighting is similar to other horror movies, for example the opening of The Woman in Black features an extremely dark and shadowing location which creates the horror feeling that is conventional.
The antagonist wore dark black clothing; a hoodie, coat, trousers, gloves and shoes. Through doing this we met the conventions of other media products where the antagonist does the same. Following this convention helps to create tension and the feeling of danger as black connotes death and danger, so the negative connotation links with the other horror films where people associate the person wearing black is going to do something bad that will affect somebody.
The female characters were dressed in casual, non representing clothes, that featured colour. This doesn't represents them as being vulnerable which is something that most horror/thriller films do. We wanted to present the females as being strong individuals rather than weak and open to danger as this would appeal to more females if they are aware that a normally degraded and victimised gender are being represented as strong.
By casting a female protagonist, we have challenged and defied stereotypical conventions of horror films, as they normally feature a male protagonist. By doing this and going against the normal form we hope to appeal to a wider target audience, which will make our film available to more people.

Sound
We used a conventional non diegetic tension builder sound track throughout our film opening in order to create suspense and to make the audience aware that something bad is going to happen. we added more soundtracks towards the end and overlapped them to signify that something imminent is going to happen; this is a stereotypical feature of most horror films, where the music comes to a climax when an event is about to occur. To create more of an atmosphere, we included some ambient sound such as the two girls laughing and the stick snapping when the antagonist steps on it, as this gives it a more real feeling and to add to the context of the situation.

Editing
When we were editing our film, we removed some of the colour (as mentioned above) in the
flashbacks to help notify the audience when the flashback begins and ends. Through removing the saturation and colour it also gives a tense and sinister atmosphere for the audience to feel. A conventional flashback in any film also does this, for example in 500 Days of Summer, a different coloured and saturation is used to define the flashback.
We also used a lot of quick cuts between shots to create more tension, and this is something that many other horror films do as it picks up the pace of the film and it builds up to the climax of the film.

Camera
When filming, we ensured that we captured a variety of different shots and angles so that we would have a choice of which ones we wanted to use when it came to editing. This conforms to the conventions of horror as many different shots and angles are used to build up tension and often to show points of views from the different characters. We did this in our film, for example the chase scenes where we had the camera shot from the antagonist POV and the protagonists POV. Having over the shoulder, high and low angles and shot - reverse - shots help to make the film more interesting for the audience to watch as they are aware of the events from a variety of perspectives.

Titles
One of the most important stereotypical conventions of any film, especially horror movies are the

titles. We decided on the name 'The Hunted' for our film as we felt that it fit in with the narrative of it it and described the basic plot of the film. It also creates a sense of mystery because it doesn't give away who  'The Hunted' is/are so will leave the target audience wanting to watch more in order to find out who it is. The typography that we used was 'No Fear' by Jonathan S. Harris, and this is because The way that the font sat on the screen made it look like it had been painted on - and with the colour red used it represents that it is blood being painted on. It is a stereotypical font as it relates to the genre because it looks like blood. It represents the narrative of the film, but also the colour red connoted danger and death, which relates to our film. Th white bordering of the title signifies the innocence of the two girls in the film, which presents them as the protagonists.

Location
Our film opening was set in Farthinghoe Nature Reserve, which is a woodland area close to our village. The wood setting is a conventional feature and setting in horror/thriller films because they allow no escape and there is no place of safety that the characters can run to; therefore it conforms to the features of the genre. The woods also creates an atmospheric feeling to the film as it is eerie which relates to our narrative. 

Post production - making changes

With our given feedback from our focus groups and the questionnaires that we asked them, we made various changes to the final film opening in order to improve it as much as possible. These changes were made after we produced the rough cut. The first change that we made was the fonts for the credits and the titles that the focus groups helped us to decide, and we also came to the conclusion that the titles would look better if they were on screen for a little bot longer, so we extended the time that they were on screen for. This would help to create more suspense for the audience as they would be anticipating what happens next; we also added a red shadow to the titles as this colour connotes danger and blood, which are both common themes in our film opening; though the blood representation is something that foreshadows what comes after the film opening because there is no specific mention of blood in the actual opening. The fade to black at the end of the titles signifies that the full film is about to start, and also the use of black connotes darkness and danger as what comes after the black is unknown.

From our audience research we also found that they thought the saturation levels in the flashback should be stronger, so this was something that we did in order to make the flashbacks more recognisable. The questionnaire also told us that the participants thought that we could add more sound into the film to increase the tension, and that this could be done by increasing the pitch of the music. So this was a change we made, as we want to create as much tension as possible. Megan and I also felt that the positioning of the credits could be better as occasionally due to the background they would disappear because they blend in. As a result we tailored each element of the credits so that it didn't go out of sight