Our media project incorporates filming techniques well I feel as, we kept it in mind to always use these tips and tricks in order to create the best film we possibly could, I feel that in our production we have tried not to follow the conventions of our genre completely as this would be a samey, boring horror where you know exactly what is going to happen, instead we tried to make sure that our project broke the norm of the horror film.At a 'Micro' technical level, I feel as a group, we tried very hard keep the continuity of the film our top priority , as it is a key part of making the film as it gives the plot it's stability, we did not use harsh/ inappropriate language in our film as we all thought that, it would be appropriate, but we thought as a group that the actions of the film are grotesque enough to speak for the language.We did not make many mistakes in our film, as everyone had a good understanding with each other, we knew about every shot we were filming and how to film them well enough that if a mistake had been made, it would look good in our shot list. In comparison to our Preliminary task, our final product is vastly superior to the earlier project, we have upped our game with the final production in terms of continuity as in the preliminary task i feel that we were sloppy in keeping everything in order.I feel by the time we started to shoot the final Production, the whole group had looked at the Preliminary task and realised that it could have been a lot better, so we tried hard to improve in all aspects of filming.We followed some of the conventions of the genre of horror e.g. deserted forest, mask but we did not hold on to these conventions completely as I feel as a group we were trying not to make it a badly made cliche of a horror film. we tried to keep some of the basic conventions to initially make it a horror film, but I feel that we went of at a tangent into a thriller, we showed Anika's corpse at the beginning which links to the thought of 'who is the killer' so therefore it is under the conventions of a thriller, but we have broken off of the chain of what you would expect from a horror. We have tried to weave the scary mask from THE STRANGERS into our movie as we all felt that a mask realy brings the fear alive, as a mask hides the wearer's identity so there is a real feel of mystery, our mask had a blood stained hand-print on the eye, it was also a homemade mask, this shows the killer's mental stability, but it is portrayed through the condition and quality of the mask, one eye of the mask was significantly bigger to show the psychopath's imperfections. The music that we used was significant to our piece as I feel it really boosted the tension and fear that the action was promoting.
Professional Practice
I think that my media product could be distributed in media institutions like HMV as it isn't a terrible piece of work, time has gone into it, with the resources that the group was using i feel we did well and I am more than happy with the end result,I feel that if the whole film was produced it would be a success.As a group we decided to do all the filming in the same location, but on different days, we all arranged to travel together with all the equipment, as this was beneficial for us all, as it allowed us to be sure that we had all the resources that we were going to need for filming.We did not really come up against many problems during filming, all that we made sure to do was as we applied the blood to Anika we made sure not to put it in her eyes and mouth, in terms of logistics, we didn't have much of a problem have much of a problem, we each carried a piece of equipment, and wore costumes to the location, and as minimal props were used, it was not much of a problem. Basically we solely worked within the group as not many extra character are in the actual production, so no crew members were used and we as a group were at the location twice and finished filming then. We mainly had an outline of what we wanted to do in terms of a strategy, we followed the storyboard and shot list, and using my establishing photos we saw what types of shots we could make have by looking at the type of environment we would be dealing with, so if a shot could not be achieved we had to compromise with what we had, luckily in the end all the shots we filmed could be found without trouble. The project was fairly easy to storyboard as we had a basic idea of what we would like in the final idea, I showed the establishing shots that I had taken to the group, we then drew up a script and storyboard over the following couple of lessons.
Creative Tools
We have used cameras to capture our movie well, we also used a cameraphone to shoot stills to be put in our movie, we then edited using Imovie which we used with reletive ease.
We used the Macs easily to create the movie, editing was made easier through the use of these, we had a few troubles with the transitions of our movie but these were resolved in the end to give the production a sharper timeline.
Making meaning
We were aiming at the age limit of fifteen years old and above, as this gives us a wide enough audience and yet still retains the violence needed to make it a successful horror. We knew that we wanted to make a horror from the beggining, as we were all passionate about the shooting and framework of horrors, with the audience in mind we decided to start to write a horror script. We mainly knew that we wanted to create a thriller or a horror, but the analysis of research into the genre helped us to incorporate the conventions of a horror. By using tension building music and using such iconic props and locations, the genre of the film can be seen quite easily. We had a very good idea of the shot types that we wanted to use; by storyboarding, script writing and questionnaire collation. I personally thought that the initial screening of our film clip went well, we had lots of positive feedback from our class as an audience, it was helpful to see our project stand up against other pieces of work as it helped us improve on our own. I feel that our opening sequence may be interpreted in a way that will hopefully shock the viewer senseless, we tried hard to make our shots and clips flow in order to build tension.
Constructing 'the real'
Our production represents a kill from the point of view of the psychopath, I feel it shows the fear well from the victim, but the still shot sequence of the corpse shows the killer's state of mind well, as seeing the corpse in so many angles highlights that someone is watching and enjoying his work. We chose to shoot it as modern day as it shows the horror well, it shows how any situation can be dramtically escalated, so a better understanding of horror can be conveyed, we also chose to set it in a isolated forrest, that the victim knew well as this shows that bad things can happen to anyone at anytime. We chose not to put the names of any cast members in the actual production, this was so we could have a much more naturalistic feel to the movie. We haven't really tried to show any form of naturalistic/non naturalistic styles, we were just trying to show that psychopaths exist in the world and are meaning to harm and destroy people's lives.
The mise en scene of the film helps a lot, it is a must have in any film, it was essential part of our film as it adds to the construction of the horror, props are a key point of our film, the mask of the psychopath hides the wearer's identity and is a convention of the genre. The acting of our production helps to develop the horror of our film, although there is a limited amount, this was because we wanted to create a naturalistic feel for the production, this helped to create verisimilitude. With the dialogue of our production we deliberately made it limited, this was because we wanted to give a feeling of isolation and loneliness. We wanted to build tension by having suspense music, although this deconstructed the verisimilitude as you don't walk around with tense music on your mind all day. The style of camera was naturalistic at times, we had first person view shots which could be shown as a view from the psychopath, we also had close ups of a conversation which shows the contrast of shots, altogether it helps the construction of verisimilitude.
