Sunday, 1 May 2011

Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

When thinking about the audience for my media product we needed to consider the age and gender of our target audience, as we have decided on our film being certified as a '15' it is obvious that our film will not be aimed at anyone under the age of 15 due to the use of blood, violence and threat (which are stereotypical conventions of a horror genre)

By having the protagonist in our media product as a teenage girl this will automatically create verisimilartude also through the use of the photos at the beggining we tried to follow stereotypical guidelines of a teenage girl to create verisimilartude to our audiences lives, we hope this attracts teenage girls to our film and through use of this technique create the hyperdermic needle theory and create a scary film for teenage girls to watch.

However this film is also aimed at the older generations the age of our target audience could be any age we did not base our audience profile on age more on whether the audience enjoy the horror genre so we followed generic guidelines and conventions of a stereotpyical 'slasher' horror movie as we have done this our basic target audience will be anyone who enjoyed such films as scream 3 (2000) as we follow these stereotypical conventions eg the stalker and victim.

Through research using various websites I found that the horror genre is more popular within the male gender, this can relate to our film through the use of the male gaze theory when looking through the photos of the young girls in the opening of our film.

Overall through the use of stereotypical guideline horror genre conventions with the blood and murder and the use of the male gaze theory leads me to conclude that this particular media product will be more specifically aimed at the male gender.

Our film relates to other popular horror genre movies for example scream (1996) this film was aimed towards the same target audience as ours through the use of teenagers as the protagonists and stereotypical horror genre conventions for example the use of blood and a stalker/murderer adding a scary atmosphere to the teenage population through the use of verisimilartude in the film for example witht he house partys shown in the film or in the opening when the girl is home alone.

Now it is clearer to see the type of audience I expect to take interest into my media product the product will be aimed at more towards the male genreration but most certainly towards the teenage population. The type of audience this film would be aimed at would be a teenage boy from social demographic groups C and D this is because after research from various websites it was found that horror genre films are aimed towards lower social demographic groups as they are seen as 'less sophisticated' or 'immature' for a higher demographic group to watch research shew me that the more preffered genre of higher demogrpahic groups was 'Drama'. The teenage population will relate to this media product as it involves teenagers and will create verisimilartude and the hyperdermic needle theory towards their own lives.

Tuesday, 12 April 2011

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

We wanted to make a film that fit in with the conventional horror genre after research of recent releases of horror films it appears there is a lack of mainstream horror genre films compared to other genres such as Comedy. However although the decrease of releases of horror films is occurring after research on the internet I still found a large target audience that favour the horror genre, this is proved with Dawn of the dead (2004) which was shown on 2745 screens on its opening weekend and a more recent film ‘Paranormal activity 2’ (2010) was shown on 3216 screens on its opening weekend. This shows that there is still a large target market for the horror genre, however these films are of the same genre but do not particularly link to my own film so I researched a film that was like ours to see the popularity of this certain type of horror I looked at the popularity of the film ‘Scream’ (1996) this film links strongly with our film as both involve a antagonist in a mask murdering/stalking a female victim, our film follows the same conventions as this film with the stereotypical use of blood, darkness and murder. I did not look at the first scream as this was released in (1996) so I looked at the third scream ‘Scream 3’ (2000) this way I have a more recent outlook on the popularity. ‘Scream 3’ (2000) still shows signs of popularity with it being shown on 3467 screens on its opening weekend, this shows that this type of horror genre ‘slasher’ is still a popular type of film for this reason I believe our film would be released to a mainstream audience as we follow the same conventions as other horror genre films that have become big famous titles. Our film because it follows these stereotypical conventions could be produced by such companies as Evolution entertainment which is an independent American film production company, we could use this company as our film is like other films released by this company such as SAW (2004) which is like our film through the use of a psychotic male antagonist and the extreme use of blood.
As our film follows stereotypical conventions of a horror ‘slasher’ genre and as there is large popularity for these types of films our film will be distributed to a mass audience, our film will be shown to a mass mainstream audience so I needed to research into mass mainstream distributors and cinema lines to enable I distribute the film correctly and aim towards my target audience. I feel the most successful distributors to use would be ‘Entertainment film distribution’ this company is very successful and has distributed other horror films that have the same convention as ours for example Halloween 2 (2009) SAW (2004) and are yet to be the distributors of Scream 4 which will be released later in 2011. As my film is alike these films in terms of conventions it is clear that this distribution company are successful at ensuring the films reach the correct target audience proof of this is that the film SAW (2004) was shown on 301 screens in the opening weekend, this is not a lot compared to some films but it obviously hit the correct target market, I can tell this by looking at the sequel to the film SAW 2 (2005) was shown on 2949 screens in the opening weekend, so clearly when the first SAW (2004) was distributed, it was done well to the correct target audience leading to the success of the second film. The film would be distributed firstly to cinemas, the cinemas I chose to distribute too were Cineworld and Odeon as these are the two most famous cinemas in the UK gathering thousands od customers a year between them, by distributing my film to these cinemas it will enable my film to be shown to a larger amount of people, my target audience will use these cinemas to watch films as they are the most popular in the UK so by distributing my film to these cinemas I will defiantly hit my target market.
After a while of my film being shown in cinemas I will distribute my film to famous video stalls such as HMV. I would also distribute my film online and on I Tunes, I feel by releasing my film online as my target market is mainly the teenage population by distributing online I will reach to them and therefore they will notice my film more if it is advertised and sold on their favourite popular websites. The reason for distributing my film on I tunes is because my target market will be lovers of music and will therefore probably have an I pod as this is the most popular music player, so if they have an I pod they will have access to I tunes and will notice my film so this will help me when distributing to reach my target audience.

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

It represents particular social groups through the use of verisimilitude, the photos of the young girl links to the social group of a teenage girl it relates to real life in the pictures through the clothes worn and poses shown, Teenage girls can relate to this character which will add a more scary and worrying atmosphere to the film as they can see the story occurring in real life. The news report also uses verisimilitude the clothing and location we chose to shoot our news reporter scene are life like, he target market can relate to this news report as if it is real, this is the same with the choice of location and props used in our opening, for example the television, people will relate to these as regular house hold items and therefore will relate to the film more creating a eerie and worrying atmosphere.

Representation of gender

The male gender is shown to be the holder of power in our opening, he is shown to be feared of compared to the female gender shown in our film, the female’s are represented as innocent and naive, the clothes they wear signifies the age of the girls, they are shown as young and the hair styles and make up they have along with the clothes worn signifies the innocence of these girl and also creates the male gaze theory when looking thought the pictures of the girls. Throughout the film the camera shots used when showing the girls will be a high angle shot to signifies they are weak and innocent, this will create a more terrifying tone to the film as the audience will see that this girl will be helpless. Although the male character holds the power he is shown in a negative light, the blood on his hands signifies he is a violent character, along with him watching the news report on his own murder signifies he is a twisted man who should be feared. Throughout the rest of the film this character will be shown using a low angle shot to signify he is in power of the situation that he is the more dominant character, this will scare the audience and make them fear this character more. The use of a man in a suit for the news reporter signifies that the male gender is the dominant sex and will come across as more important this was unintentional however this may be how using a male news reporter may come across to the audience. It is very stereotypical for the man to overpower the woman with the male antagonist and female protagonist.

Representation of Age

The younger age is represented as nave and innocent in our film opening it shows that the male antagonist holds power over the female protagonists you can see this through the picture scene on the wall, this scene also represents the younger generation as careless just out to have fun and party this will relate to the younger viewers of the audience. The way in which our antagonist is watching his own news report signifies that the man is clever that he is not getting caught for what he is doing, this represents the older generation as wiser than the younger.






Representation of disability

Disability is not referred to Marjory in our film opening however the scene in which the male antagonist watches his own news report on the murder he committed shows signs of mental disability which creates a more terrifying effect on the audience, this scene signifies that the killer shows no regret or mercy for what he has done. This links in with the SAW (2004) in this film the male antagonist also shows signs of mental disability through torturing the victims and showing no mercy.

Representation of sexuality

Sexuality was not touched on during our film there is no reference of sexuality shown in our piece however the male is shown as dominant over the female and the male antagonist only attacks younger girl, by making the photos of girls as realistic to real life as we could we hope to create verisimilitude and create a scarier effect on our target audience as they will link what happens in our film to their lives.

Our film is shown through a male point of view in the opening however circumstances throughout the film change and it switches through the eyes of the girl.

I feel our film links well to our target audience by as I mentioned earlier it has similarities to the popular SAW (2004) films, it also follows the stereotypical background of a horror genre, it does this through the use of blood and darkness, it has a stereotypical ‘slasher’ theme to it with the male antagonist stalking/murdering the protagonists, this is like a lot of other famous popular horror genre films such as scream (1996) this film includes a male antagonist stalking/murdering victims and has the use of blood and also our film relates to scream (2004) through the use of the younger generation being the victims (teenagers) so as you can see the two films are quite similar.

Monday, 11 April 2011

Question 1 - In What ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our media piece incorportates generic conventions of the horror genre throughout the film and even shown in just the opening with the immediate sense of threat with the news report changing to breaking news this shows that what is being said is a massive threat to the community. Also a stereotypical convention of horror is the use of blood there is a clear use of blood in the opening of our film with flashing pictures of young girls that have quite clearly been abused and the use of blood threat and murder when our obvious antagonist rubs blood on the picture of the young girl. The setting of our film also contributes to following generic conventions as the setting is constantly dark throughout the opening creating a sense of fear and worry. Our film relates well with the popular film scream (1996) as we followed these generic conventions with the use of blood threat and a murderer/stalker this shows that we followed the stereotypical generic conventions of a horror genre and attract that certain target audience ones that enjoy the simple stereotypical horror genre guidelines.
The use of these conventions clearly showthat our main and only genre is horror however there are various uses of other generic conventions in the film that could link towards the thriller genre like the use of murder mystery how the killer is unknown however the use of this is not enough to create a sub genre.

Sunday, 27 February 2011

Times of Titles in Horror Genre opening

I needed to watch a Horror opening and list the times the titles are shown.

The film opening I chose to use was The Grudge (2004)



00.05 - 00.23 Universal Pictures

00.28 - 00.37 Ghost House Pictures

02.21 - 02.24 Sam Raimi and Columbia Pictures Presents

02.25 - 02.28 A Ghost House pictures production

02.30 - 02.34 A Film by Takashi Shimizu

02.35 - 02.39 Sarah Michelle Gellar

02.54 - 03.00 The Grudge

03.01 - 03.04 Jason Behr

03.05 - 03.08 Kadee Strickland

03.09 - 03.12 Grace Zabriskie

03.13 - 03.16 Rosa Blasi

03.18 - 03.21 Ryo Ishibashi

03.21 - 03.24 William Mapother Ted Raimi

03.25 - 03.28 Yoko Maki Takako Fuji

03.30 - 03.34 With Clea Duvall

03.35 - 03.37 And Bill Pullman

Film Begins to Play in Background

03.45 - 03.48 Casting by Nancy Nayor Battino Kelly Wagner

03.49 - 03.54 Music by Christopher Young

03.58 - 04.00 Editor Jeff Betancourt

04.05 - 04.08 Production Designer Iwao Saito

04.11 - 04.14 Director of photography Hideo Yamahoto

04.20 - 04.24 Co-Producers Michael Kirk Aubrey Henderson Shintaro Shimosawa

04.28 - 04.31 Executive Producers Joe Drake Nathan Kahane Carsten Lorenz

04.41 - 04.45 Executive Producers Roy Lee Doug Davison

04.53 - 04.57 Produced by Sam Raimi Rob Tapert Taka Ichise

05.00 - 05.04 Based on 'JU-ON: The Grudge' Written and directed by Takashi Shimizu

05.08 - 05.11 Screenplay by Stephan Susco

End Of Credits

From this i can see the order of which credits appear. I will need to apply this to my Film opening to ensure it is succesful. The Credits will need to only be up for a short amount of time appart from maybe the title of the film in which that can stay up for a slightly longer period of time.

3 Film openings from my chosen genre 'Horror'

My group have chosen to film a horror genre opening for our film opening. To more clearly understand the requirements intended to make a succesful horror genre opening I needed to evaluate 3 horror genre film openings to see the techniques used when filming for example sound and costume and apply these to my film to create a succesful horror genre opening.
The first horror film opening I watched was Shrooms (2006)



Right away there is fear shown which automatically puts the audicence on edge. A girl shows running through the woods , the girl signifies inocence and the woods is an eerie and scary setting it creates a wondering and frightening atmosphere as to what can be in there. A clip of a scary broken down factory is shown this also adds a fearful atmosphere having the same wondering on edge effect of what it means and what is in there. There is use of blood signifying violence and threat this creates a scary atmosphere for the audience. There is a shot of blood and a human hand which then links back to the girl running scared through the forrest this makes it clear to the audience that the violence is linked to humans that there will be murder and signifies that the girl in the forrest is not only running scared but is actually running for her life, this quite obviously sets a dark and scary atmosphere to the film. Shadows are shown with non diegetic screaming setting a scary atmosphere of violence and terror. A man with a sack on his head is shown, this signifies that this character is the murderer and the character appears as scary the costume used adds a really chilling effect. The non diegetic sound use of the voices speaking unable to make sense of it but creates a worrying terryfying atmosphere, also the use of non diegtetic sound througout the piece involves high and low pitch it has an eerie effect. The lighting is low key and is constantly dark, darkness is used to create threat and fear.

The second film opening I chose was The Ring (2002) i only analysed the first 2 minuites of the clip as this will be the length of my film opening.



In this clip even the logo of the film 'Dreamworks' has been created in a horror genre it has been made darker and portrays a much more scary effect. A shot of a house is shown the house as a whole has an eerie effect , this was a good choice of location the setting already keeps the audience on edge. The low key lighting of the girls in the room adds a scary atmoshere the two girls signify innocence and creates a threat. The lighting flickers this effect is used well as it signifies that the tv is being watched whilst creates a scary worrying atmophere. The diegetic converstaion mentions a video tape 'that kills people who watch it' this scares the audience and they begin to understand the plot of the film and creates a threatening and worrying atmosphere. 'Someone knows youve watched it' and 'you will die in 7 days' This diegetic quotation adds a worrying scared atmosphere to the audience. an immidiate scary atmosphere is created when one of the girls diegetically says that they have watched the tape last weekend, this worrys the audience as they fear what will happen next.

The Third Horror genre opening I chose to analyse was Wrong Turn (2003) Once again I only analysed the first 2 minuites of the clip.



A aerial shot of a forrest is shown at the beggining of this clip this has a scary effect on the audience from the start as the location of a forrest has an eerie worrying atmophere. The high pithced non diegetic sound when the two people are climbing signifies something bad is going to happen, also the female character is portrayed as weak when she is shown to be struggling to climb the rock, this from the start conotes to the audience that if something bad does happen to the man she is with she will be useless and vunerable this therefore leaves the audience in anticipation and wondering what will happen. When the girl is shown to be the weakest climber of the two she signifies innocence and when she slips off the rock this signifies threat and danger to this 'innocent' charcater. The man diegetically quotes 'Were 50 miles from anybody who you screming for' this sets a scary threatening atmosphere as it shows they are far from help or safety. A non diegetic low pitched sound is made when there is a shot of the woman alone climbing the rock this signifies danger and threat. The titles that come up have a very horror genre to them they appear to be eerie and scary the way they flicker off like ghosts.

After watching and analysing these three Horror genre film openings it i now have a clearer understanding of what needs to be done in order to create the right atmposhere 'fear and worry' of a horror genre. I need to use low key lighting in order to add threat mystery and worry to my audience and i need to use low key non diegetic sound when signifying danger and high key non diegetic sound when adding an eerie scary effect. It is clear that location is important for my horror genre and from watching these three clips it is clear that the forrest is a good location for a horror genre as it is eerie and adds an immediate worrying wondering yet scary effect. When creating my opening I will need to create tension to the audience make them feel scared and uncomfortable. My opening will need to have a threatening worrying and scart effect on my audience in order to be succesful. Death is frquently used in Horror film opening as it is clear from the three above so my film opening will need to include violence and blood to create the right atmosphere for a succesful Horror genre opening.

Wednesday, 2 February 2011

Analysing the Genre of film openings

I watched various film openings and analysed the genre of them. This was to find out just how much you can tell about a film from just viewing the opening credits. Watching these openings from all types of genres will help my when creating my film opening.

Pineapple Express



The genre of this film is quite clearly comedy, this is shown the the use of obvious humour and the extreme use of juxtapostion between the two characters shown, there is a character who is to be taken in serious note, he is shown to be a high rank in the army and has a sterotype of a serious man compared to the other charcter who is shown to be silly, he is messing around and taking a very laid back approcach the huge obvious differene between the two creates an obvious humour which signifies that the genre is comedy. The use of random elements also signifies the comdey genre for example the scubadiving, full body suit.

Social Network



Genre: documentry/biography, character adds slight humour. intelegence is shown through diegetic dialogue. Complex. the way the charcacter is dressed signifies the 'nerdy' sort of film it shows the main character as a 'geek' and that the film will be based around computer technology this is also shown through the use of diegetic sound through dialogue.

The Godfather



Genre: The genre is a ganster crime, you can tell thisfrom the non diegetic sound it is slow and classical with a mix of high and low pitch this creates the atmosphere being eerie and mysterious. the clothes they wear are stereotypical gangsters/mafia with the suits jewelry and cigars. The non diegetic subject they are discussing also suggests they are gangsters.