Evaluation

In what way does your media production use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media productions?

On the 20th January 2009 my group created our opening sequence of a horror film, giving it the title of ‘Sold’ and it was directed by Amelia Corser. It’s based on a young girl whose soul is sold to the devil by her father. In the opening sequence we have the young girl, Sophie praying in a church. She then leaves the church and we cut to footage of Sophie on the swing being watched by her father. Soon after she disappears and we cut to Sophie going down into the basement of the house she is in. It is here where she encounters with the ‘Devil’. This sequence leads to the opening of the film where we see her father having to come to the awful situation of selling his daughters soul to the devil as he is bankrupt both fiscally and morally, and eventually how the young girl takes revenge – the film shows how a young girl’s naivety can be taken away so quickly.
Throughout our research, we looked into the main conventions of contemporary horror films, for example ‘Scream’ (1996 – Directed by Wes Craven) and ‘Evil Dead’ (1981 – Directed by Sam Raimi). As a group we had a few ideas to go with but were very unsure of what would work best. When we started to look for locations one of our ideas became concrete. Millie (the director) and I (the producer) came across the basement in our boarding house, after seeing the isolated location in a large old house. We knew then exactly where to take our idea. Both these are common conventions in this type of genre so we felt they would work well as long as we did not over use these main conventions. We also looked closely at their often being a female victim who is vulnerable in the situations, using Sophie as the young girl, who is seen as the weaker sex throughout, a stereotypical representation.
By opening our sequence with close up shots of religious iconography from the church, such as the crucifix, stain-glass windows and the alter, it gives the audience a sense that there is a religious depth to the storyline. It’s juxtaposing the main idea of the Devil being the ‘Holy one’, a reversal of traditional religious archetypes. We chose to use this type of iconography after we watched the opening of Omen (2007); John Moore the director shows utilisation of dominant religious iconography, specifically Christian iconography, such as the crucifix. By watching this we felt we could use these conventions in our own way, because we thought that this exhibited some of the main premises of the contents of our film such as religion and Devil worship. However, by basing our film around an idea that is rather stereotypical, we decided it was best to challenge these conventions by representing the Devil in a different way, someone who was suave, sophisticated and someone who people would aspire to be. We felt that it would work well with the antagonist appearing as the hero. By doing this we dressed our actor who was playing the part of the Devil in a suit and shirt, in order for him to look seductive and more like a sex object– more the protagonist rather than actually being the antagonist. He has blonde hair and blue eyes to highlight the notion that ‘good’ could be evil. We also researched into ‘The Exorcist’ (1973-Directed by William Friedkin); in the trailer – the use footage of a woman coming out from a shadow – this worked very well and looked extremely effective and creative. My group took this creativity on board and interpreted it in our own way when Sophie was in the basement scenes - she was walking into the light of the crack in the ceiling and then the shadow covering her when the ‘devil’ walks over the cracks above.
I feel that throughout our opening sequence there is a large amount of sustained fear, such as the eerie sounds we used versus the silence when Sophie is alone, using a mix of stings and woodwind instruments to create these eerie effects. By including the sounds we have used to in order to create this suspense have worked exceptionally well and will keep the audience anxious. Although this is a main convention used, we have used orchestral music to create this effect and mixed it with silence to emphasize the anticipation and tension. I believe we have a balance of main conventions of contemporary horror films but have challenged these conventions in the right way in order for our film to be successful and be effective, in terms of having a combination of challenging stereotypes and using stereotypical characters.

How does your Media Product Represent Social Groups?

Throughout our opening sequence a number of social groups are represented, for example we have a young girl, Sophie and her father. They are both quite clearly from a white upper middle class background, which is emphasised by the house they are living in. Also we have the ‘Devil’ – both the father and the ‘Devil’ give a strong representation of masculinity – all the way through there is a strong concentration on two rather dominant masculine characters.
We constructed Sophie, to be the classic stereotype of a young girl. We dressed her in a large jumper, black leggings and little ballet pumps – by wearing the oversized jumper it emphasised her naivety as it quite clearly wasn’t hers, its possible that it was her fathers and she is wearing it to feel protected from the cold – parental protection. She wore little make-up which showed her youthfulness – we wanted her to look pure and innocent but not to do it in a contrived way. Her behaviour and movements would also be of the way a young girl would act, the fascination of exploring – for example, wandering off alone into dark, eerie and isolated locations. Also, we can tell she is quite young from her tone of voice when she is praying in the church – her tone being fairly high pitched and also the emphasis of her gasp when in the basement sequence which highlights her purity. Whereas with the ‘Devil’ we created him differently to what you would think the stereotypical devil may look like, for example the importance of the colours often used for a devil – red and black. The devil in our horror film looks like a real person; we wanted him to look like a sex object, someone that women would feel attracted too. We dressed him in a suit and made him look more like the gorgeous business man than a devil, dichotomy of sexuality and power. He wore a black suit with a pink tie and shirt – this very much juxtaposes the idea of a devil. He looks extremely suave and sophisticated something that we wouldn’t expect a devil to look like. Although we do not hear him speak in the opening sequence, we can imagine from the footage we see for him to have quite a deep, intriguing, sexy voice. However, in the opening sequence it seems that being silent is his way of showing he has power. Again, we do not see him in the opening footage for very long but his behaviour and movement are very sly and seem somewhat secretive this is something we would maybe expect from a devil.
By casting the people we have and creating the horror film we wanted we have created both types, stereotypes and archetypes. Our type would be the father of the young girl, he plays the part of guarding, protecting his daughter something that we would expect from a father. Whereas, Sophie the young girl is more than just a type she is a stereotype – we have emphasised her youthfulness with heightening her naivety and purity. But we also have an archetype, the ‘Devil’ – he is bigger than a stereotype, the devil is a well know symbolic character he has more significance , by constructing him in a way that juxtaposes his usual stereotypical type puts more emphasis on his character. We spent a long time trying to create each character as an individual icon, in order for them each to have a – each character would give the audience some kind of intrigue as to how they would normally be perceived and whether or not we went along we the general stereotype or worked against it.
However, we could have challenged or changed the representations we used by putting more emphasis on the purity of Sophie, for example dressing her in white or even choosing a younger actress to play this part. Although this would have made the stereotypical naivety and purity of a child too obvious, hence why we kept it more subtle. I feel my group greatly challenged the archetype of the Devil, making him seem more like the protagonist rather than the antagonist – someone who was a sex symbol. On the other hand we could have played strongly up to the common archetype, but I doubt it would have less of an impact on the audience by representing him the way we did it makes the audience more intrigued and apprehensive and therefore more fearful.

What kind of Media Institution might distribute your Media Product and why?

The media product my group and I have created, ‘Sold’ would be a low budget Independent film, the reasons for this categorisation would be mainly because of finance. Being a group of students studying media we do not have the money to make a mainstream blockbuster like we wish to at this current time. Not having the money therefore also affects the cast and locations we are able to use. Therefore when developing our horror film idea we had to consider the finance side of things. When choosing a cast and location, they had to be of very little cost or of no cost at all, this being because being a group of students we didn’t have the money available to spend on these things. Our only cost was a donation to the local church we filmed in as we felt this was a kind gesture, for their kindness in allowing us to film there. I also feel we fall into this category because we were working under very tight deadlines, we only had about three and a half months for the completion of the product – a deadline which is a lot smaller than a huge mainstream film, therefore I felt it was necessary to be a low end independent film. For our production we didn’t do any marketing for our product, being an assignment we didn’t feel it necessary to make or create any extra products to market our product. However, if we were to market our product we would look at promoting our film along with viral marketing. Viral marketing can be a very cheap method of marketing, for example our production company could create a Facebook or Myspace webpage for the three main characters in our film – consumers could talk and interact with the characters as if they were real, being able to play games online with them and write to one another. By creating a webpage like this will be cheap but it will also be very beneficial for the film – if done correctly it has the potential to boost the number of consumers. Also, being a group of AS students our expertise is limited, we only have our existing knowledge and the experience we pick up along the way. As a result, our production can only be as good as we are – and not having expert expertise it is difficult to really fit into the mainstream blockbuster category – as we only had the four members in our group using no additional people for help. Also, as we all only had general roles – although we allocated more specific roles at the beginning to use as a guideline, when it came down to it we worked as a group with our main target as to complete the project to our best ability possible. I believe that ‘Sold’ would most definitely fit into this category as under the conditions we were working from it has very little choice to be anything else.
I feel that ‘Sold’ would be distributed by an Independent Media Institution, for example Hammer Film Productions is a legendary British Horror film company – the work they do fits into the category of the product we have made. We wanted our product to have a traditional horror slant to it. They only make horror films so it is the company’s expertise so consequently I feel they would do a very good job at producing my product. Also, they are a production company that produces films straight to DVD – I very much doubt that this low end budget independent film that I have created would go to the cinema, I feel it would work best if it just went straight onto DVD and be made more of a success if done like this. I feel that Hammer Film Productions are likely to offer our product a distribution deal because of our themes and generic content of our film, the idea of people’s souls being sold to a devil. The representation of the devil being worshipped also fits into the category of the type of films they produce and distribute. Also, being a low end budget film it will be easy for Hammer to market the product as it will be quite cheap and therefore easy for them to do. Being a UK based distributor it is also keeping our film to its roots-being a British film itself-and trying to succeed in getting the target audience that our production team wished for.
The only way I believe our product could change into a different category would be if we were to distribute it across Europe – broadening out into a larger market. Although it would still be a British Low End Budget Independent film it could have the potential of becoming successful internationally. For example, we could try to find a European Distribution Company or allow Hammer to distribute into the European market.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

I believe that ‘Sold’ would be a 15 certificate, I think this because the theme of our product is quite dark and mysterious something that someone under the age of fifteen may not understand and may be affected by it. It also has adult themes and content, the idea of having to sell someone’s soul because they do not have enough money to get by, this is something that a young teenager may not be aware of, therefore it would be necessary to keep the certificate of this age. Also, the fact that it is a horror film pretty much means it is vital for the film to be of this certificate or an 18 certificate, but I feel that we do not push the conventions to such extremes, I believe people of the age of 15 and above should be able to handle the content.
Considering our film deals with finance, religious and Satan issues I feel that our media product would be aimed at the A and B audience demographics, Class A are looking at high management people – people who may be working in the finance sector such as banking, accounting etc. and also class B as they are the creative and media people. Both these groups of people I think will be interested in this product because it has themes that I feel they can relate and understand with. These demographics are based on socio-economic grades. However, these demographics only look at the main earner in the household so for example, the young people in a home are not included– and older teenagers may be the ones who are spending the time watching the films – so although both A and B demographics are good to aim our product at they are not the only groups of people buying or watching our film. Also, because we are a group of students I also feel that the group E demographics will be a group that are interested in our product, I think they may support our product as they too are in the similar situation we are in and understand where we are coming from. I have also looked at the 4C’s Marketing Model to help establish my target audience, and to help specifically market my product at our target audiences. I believe that ‘Sold’ would be aimed at the ‘Explorers’ and the ‘Reformers’. The ‘Explorers’ being a group of people who seek discovery, they are individuals who often like to try new things out, they are often the younger demographic students. Whereas the ‘Reformers’ seek enlightenment, they are free and have a social awareness and an independent judgement, they often look for the quality of a product not worrying if it is highly popular. I think there are a few different target audiences we are trying to aim our media product at, high end money making people as there is a finance theme that they can relate to, creative people as there are religious themes which coincide with spirits and beliefs which these people may share similar views with, and then young people – often students who are intrigued in new films or have comparable ideas or whom are interested in media or the horror genre. Knowing that we have three distinct target audiences makes it more accessible to market our product to them.
With our target audience in mind, I doubt that our film would be released in the cinema; I feel it will go straight onto DVD. I think this because of the genre and the content of ‘Sold’, being a low end budget independent film we are not aiming our product at a mainstream target audience so I feel that it is necessary to only release the film on DVD in order to maximise sales. I reckon that the film would be released around the end of the autumnal season and going into winter, as this time period is when this theme of finance (and lacking of) is quite apparent so therefore it could be popular around this time, as it will be something that people will relate to and understand more during this time.
Taking into consideration that our media product is a low end budget independent film, I think that the cost of our whole production will cost just under £1,000,000 and we expect to get back double what we paid for it – so around £2,000,000. Most of this will be from our DVD sales – targeting three different distinct targeting audiences should hopefully enable us to have a large profit as we are selling our product to a larger market than expected and therefore maximising our sales and therefore profit.

How did you attract/address your audience?

If I was to promote my media product, I would use a number of different marketing techniques. I would begin by using standard marketing tools in order to promote my product, for example I will create T-shits with our tag line on it ‘Every soul has a price’ along with other merchandise such as mugs, towels, badges etc. with our tag line on it. By making this merchandise readily available it should increase the awareness of the film – which should eventually make it better known and therefore should increase sales in the DVD. To push the promotion of the film even more, I would also use viral marketing. As I previously stated, I would create character based web pages on Facebook, this is an easy way for the consumers to correspond and interact with characters. Also, this method would be cheap to make however I am sure it will be rather time consuming, as someone will have to take the time to respond to the fans in the role of the character. I may also organise events to promote the product, for example having a party in Ewhurst Place, the house in which the filming took place – this could also be a tool used to promote ‘Sold’.
I feel there are a number of appropriate images from the basement sequence that could be used in the marketing campaign. All the shots of either Sophie or the ‘Devil’ coming into the light under the crack in the ceiling in a pitch black room, these frames are each very simplistic yet very effective. If these images were to become posters they would definitely stand out and hopefully entice an audience, and if placed in places where our target groups would specifically see them then this would be even more beneficial for the sales of our product.
Hopefully, with the marketing techniques I have suggested will help to attract and address our target audience. Also, if promoted strongly alongside our DVD release date then our sales should be high and we should exceed our expected revenue. Once the film has first been released then we hope to have positive reviews in magazines and online that advertises and promotes horror films – this should therefore be free publicity of our film and hopefully increase the awareness of our product.

What have you learnt about Media Technologies from the process of constructing your product?

All the way through the construction of our product, I feel I have learnt a lot about media technologies. To begin with I learnt how to use the camera creatively and effectively, learning how to use some of the conventional rules that you can apply. At first, we would set up the camera at each of the different locations, ensuring that this is done correctly – once the camera is placed on the tri-pod we would move the cameras height and position in order to obtain the footage we wish for. But before we can actually film there a few more tasks that need to be completed before filming - firstly you need to bubble the camera, this is where you ensure the camera level is balanced. Then there is the aperture, this is the amount of light the shutter permits into the camera so you have to ensure this is set correctly, then you must focus the camera to guarantee focused shots throughout your filming, lastly you then must check the tape is in. However, on the shoot day I actually learnt some very useful techniques – the 180° rule, this is something I was continually made aware of but we broke this rule in order for our sequence to work correctly. I also learnt about the rule of thirds – this is something we applied and considered throughout our filming in order to captivate the audiences’ attention. We mainly used natural light for our shoot day, however I was very much aware of three point lighting but it was not necessary for our piece to use this – nevertheless we used intensifying lights to help generate the mood. Also, throughout the day we I used the rifle microphone to ensure we picked up the ambient sounds clearly as they were something we wanted to focus on – I learnt where to place the microphone correctly to ensure we picked up these sounds perfectly. (Refer to shooting day blog – Shoot Day 20.01.09 for more information)
Whereas, I feel I definitely succeeded my expectations when it came to editing – I learnt how to use the Final Cut Pro software extremely effectively and creatively. When beginning to edit I created a number of different bins, titling them each with the different locations we filmed at, I was then able to log all our footage and drop them into the appropriate bins. When doing this I learnt the short cut of pressing ‘i’ when I wanted the footage to start logging and ‘o’ when I wanted it to stop. Once we had logged pretty much all of our footage – we began placing the relevant footage along the time line where we began to edit and piece together our final product. Once we had a rough cut of our final piece we began to really get into the editing stages, learning how to use each of the tools effectively. Learning what effects to use, for example using the ‘cross fade’ tool on the transitions of footage and sounds, ‘cutting’ the clips in order to blade the footage, along with a number of other tools such as being able to change the speed of footage, learning how to reverse footage and being able to mark the footage in order to help us cut the shots correctly. Also, once the footage had been edited we often had to render this learning the short cut ‘Apple R’. Then we began to modify around with sounds, using the same techniques we had learnt from editing the footage, just putting the same effects on the different sounds. However, during this we learnt how to change the levels of volume – this was quite an easy process as we just had to click on the sound clip and then move the mark on line appropriately until we had the right levels of sounds for that particular piece of footage. We understood how to mix the sounds with different sounds and mixing sounds effects with silence – which worked extremely effectively. Then our final touches had to begin once this was completed, our credits had to be placed in correctly. This was something that I worked extremely hard on as I did not wish for the credits to look very simplistic – so I decided to put a twist on them. Once the legible font was put in place I then made it fade into a Greek style font which would flash for very little time and then ripple out – this process was extremely fast but was very effective once done. This was very time consuming but I just played around with all the different effects available and eventually came up with something that worked, once I had the credits in place for the first title I was then able to copy and paste them throughout just changing the lettering to ensure that all the credits were the same. The credits were something I personally worked extremely hard on – I wanted them to be unique and very creative something that I feel I have achieved. Throughout the whole editing process I feel I have learnt how to use the software to my advantage – by playing around with different effects and trying new things is the only way to learn and create a piece that I feel is worthwhile, something that I believe I have achieved.

Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt about the progression from it to the finished product?

When I first began studying AS media, as an introduction to the course we were set a preliminary filming task. It was a continuity exercise involving filming and editing, which involved two characters in a conversation within an interior set – this being anywhere of our choice. One of the characters had to open the door, cross the room to establish themselves opposite another character and they then were to share a few lines of dialogue before the first character was to leave the room again. When we were first given this task, we were given a very basic storyboard and script to guide us, also including very strict instructions of the specific camera angles we were to use, therefore restricting us greatly as to where we could go with this task. However, this task was mainly to help us in our understanding of how to use the cameras and how to edit. Since then I feel I have achieved greatly, something I never thought I would have done when we were first given the task to create an opening sequence of a horror film. I honestly had no idea where to begin, as I knew that organisation and thorough planning were crucial. I have always been a rather organized person, so from the beginning I took up the role as the producer, ensuring that we completed our work and stuck to deadlines – I felt that I could undertake this role as I had successfully completed this role when doing the preliminary task and I also quite enjoyed it. In order to achieve a fantastic finished product, we as a group were going to have to work extremely hard together, I, personally enjoy working in a group, I like taking peoples strengths and working at them to the groups advantage making sure we achieve something of an extremely high standard.
Being the producer, although it was very important that I somewhat took the lead in the pre-production stages of our product – I didn’t, I found it difficult trying to make people do the tasks required. In the beginning I tried very hard in ensuring my group got on with the specific tasks but I was starting to get angry and it was bringing the groups morale down and we somewhat came to a working block. However, in time we began to rejoin as a group and got on with tasks as asked using everyone’s skills to benefit the group. I have a serious problem in just doing other peoples work as well if I do not like what they have done with it, but I learnt not too – I learnt to appreciate other peoples hard work and allowed them to get on with it. Once our individual research was completed, we began scripting and storyboarding our idea – these sections are really not my forte so I left these up to the other members of the group to finalise these areas as other members in my group are very creative and articulate so therefore, I felt they would have been done better this way. However, once we had got underway with our filming and began editing, this is where I really succeeded, during the preliminary task I found it extremely difficult to edit – not being able to use the tools effectively and always forgetting what each tool does. I feel that I defiantly put in a lot of time and effort in the editing of the product, although I was intimidated at first, once I began to get the hang of the software I spent every spare minute I had editing our final product, trying to make sure we completed ‘Sold’ to a very high standard – which I feel we have achieved. I believe that some of my group took a back seat in the editing of the production, however being someone who is somewhat of a perfectionist I was very happy to take the role into my own hands in completing this product. Although I was intimidated to begin I felt that once we were underway our group really began to thrive from it and worked very concisely to ensure we completed the product for our deadline.
I definitely believe that it gave me an insight into the film industry, although not quite to the extent of what it’s really like but it gave me an idea of the style of work and hard it is to complete deadlines. However, I did very much enjoy being a part of it – even though I was under great pressure, I fee like I have achieved something I never thought I would have before. Our final piece ‘Sold’ is something I am extremely proud of; I feel that we accomplished what we set out to do and more. I, personally spent a very long time on the credits of the opening sequence, these are something I am very proud of as I honestly didn’t believe that I could create something as artistic as they were before and I defiantly believed they word extremely effectively. Overall, as a group I feel we worked very well together and completed a task to a very high standard, something that we are each very proud of.