Evaluation Question 1

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

At a technical level, how well did you observe the conventions of continuity, and the language of film and editing?

Continuity is used in films in order to smooth over the discontinuity of editing. When producing a film, scenes are not always recorded in chronological order, and filming is done over a number of days. This was a problem for us when filming our initial idea as it was in the woods and we found that some of the shots had different amounts of light, we also found that some had more wind noise than others. These two factors meant that in our film the conventions of continuity were not followed and although sometimes film makers decide to go against the usual conventions for certain reasons, in our case it lowered the standard of the film dramatically therefore we decided to change our film idea so that we could follow the conventions of continuity in order to produce a better film. Continuity in a film can increase the standard of the production and can also make the film look more realistic to the audience, we decided to try and follow some of the conventions as we wanted our film to look realistic so the audience could connect with it better and there is more chance of it having a greater effect on them.

Sometimes film makers don’t follow the conventions of continuity and instead have parts which are discontinuous. Sometimes this is deliberate and sometimes this happens by mistake, however if it is done right it can have a great effect. Horror films may often have discontinuous editing in order to create a sense that something is not right as the film isn’t running smoothly which could reflect something bad happening in the storyline.

One of the things we wanted to control was the lighting in the shots. After the first attempt of filming outside in the woods we realised it would be difficult to maintain continuity due to how fast we lost natural light outside, therefore we decided to change the storyline to something we could film indoors so that we were able to control the light better. After filming our new idea, we put the shots onto the computer and realised that a few of the shots were too dark therefore we had to reshoot them. As filming took quite a few hours it was light when we began and dark when we finished meaning that we did not have natural light coming into the house for all of the shots. Also, due to the nature of our film, we did not want the shots later on in the film (when the action started to happen and the girls were getting murdered) to be very light as having them darker creates more ambiance. Therefore, in order to be able to film without having the main lights on, we used a few filming lights which we could place around the room where we wanted to in order to control the lighting ourselves. When we got round to editing, we found that a small number of our shots were still too dark therefore we used a colour corrector on them in the editing process so that the lighting on each shot matched and was how we wanted it to be.

In our first year of studying A-Level Media we learnt about continuity so in our second year we were able to develop our knowledge and put this into practice for our short film. One of the things we used in our film was the 180 degree line rule, this is something which we learnt in our first year therefore it was relatively easy to put this into use in our film. We used the 180 degree line rule in order to enable to audience to visually connect with unseen movement happening around and behind the characters. A rule that I learnt from this year is the 30 degree rule, which states the camera should move at least 30 degrees between shots of the same thing in a row, for example if there is a medium shot of a woman, then the next shot is a close up of the woman’s face, the camera should move at least 30 degrees for the close up shot. Although this is one of the techniques I learnt in my second year, it is not something which we implemented in our film as we did not have 2 shots of the same object in succession.

One editing technique we used in order to have a specific effect was the pace of the editing. Often, in horror films you would have static shots with slow paced editing in order to represent the calmness and then when the horror begins you would have an increase in movement and fast paced editing, this is so that the audience gets used to the calmness then the sudden change unsettles them and creates more fear. Having calmness then horror is often used in order to have a greater impact on the audience, and this is what we intended to do in our film. We used this throughout our film, in particular before the first killing as we have some still shots of the girls watching the film which are slow paced and then when the horror begins (when she is being murdered) the pace of shot speeds up and there is more movement in the shots.

Slow paced still shots:

 Fast paced shots after she has been murdered:

Close up shots are very common in horror films because it can heighten the audiences emotion, show the importance of whatever the close up is of and makes the audience feel closer to the action which increases fear, therefore we decided to include a lot of them.

One of our close up shots

One of the conventions of horror films is that the villain wears black gloves. An example of this is the serial killer in 'Dexter' and the stalker in 'Pretty Little Liars'.

Stalker in Pretty Little Liars

Serial Killer in Dexter

The use of camera angles in films can also have an effect on the audience, for example low angle shots are often used to portray someone as the more powerful and dominant character, or if it is a point of view shot then it is as though we are seeing things in the eye of the victim where as high angle shots can be used to show a character as being the victim/ weak, or as though we are looking from the villain/ powerful characters point of view. An example of when we used a low angle shot is at the beginning of the film during the flashback when we show one of the characters rejecting a gift from Ben- the person who later becomes the villain. At this point in the film the three girls are portrayed as being the dominant characters as they are mocking Ben and they walk off, the angle of this shot is low to show they are superior at this point. However as this changes later on in the film as this character is the murderer, we use a low angle shot of the murderer to show his dominance and power and this is from the point of view of the victim, this shot also creates a scarier atmosphere for the audience as it they are watching it from the victims point of view so it is putting them in their situation which can make the film seem more real to them.

Lighting can also play an important part in films and from my research I found out that the whole mood and feel of a scene can be changed due to the lighting. An example of a style of lighting we used in our film is low-key lighting/back lighting which we used to create a shadow of the killer as he is about to murder the final victim. Low key lighting can be used during slow dramatic action in a film, it is also usually dark meaning the audience can not see as much and these factors create more suspense. The scene where the murderer is about to kill his final victim is also a pastiche of a shot in the film 'Psycho' , the shots look very similar as the same lighting is used giving the murderers a shadow/silhouette look and we copied the way the murderer in Psycho is holding the knife to make them look similar.

Scene from Psycho

Our Pastiche

We also use pastiche in other parts of the film, for example while researching similar short films I found a shot I liked in the film 'Maniac' where the serial killer drags the knife down the wall. We imitated this in our film and got our murderer to do the same. Another part of the film we copied was when Ben (the murderer) is walking down the corridor to kill his next victim, he starts whistling 'Twisted Nerve' which is also used in 'Kill Bill' when the woman walks down the corridor of the hospital and kills a woman in one of the rooms she is also whistling this sound. From our research into horror films we noticed certain elements that stood out to us and we wanted to imitate some of these in our film and because they are quite popular we thought that the audience may recognise them and make the resemblance. We also noticed that in horror films characters often hide in places which are considered to be silly as they can easily be found, therefore we copied this as a parody rather than a pastiche and used places such as a cupboard and a shower rather than the characters running out of the house to escape or locking themselves in a room.

Kill Bill - Twisted Nerve

Shot in Maniac

Our Pastiche

A theory often followed in slasher films is Carol Clovers 'Final Girl' theory which refers to the last character alive in the film that is left to confront the killer. Clover suggests that in these films the viewer begins by sharing the perspective of the killer but experiences a shift in identification to the final girl partway through the film. Some examples of films that do this are 'Scream', 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' and 'Friday the 13^th'. However we decided to do things differently as we deliberately subverted expectations. The final girl is often seen as virginal and sometimes has a unisex name. We tried to get the audience to think our main character 'Alex' is going to be the final girl as she seems to be virginal as she rejects the gift from the male character during the flashback so she is portrayed to have no interest in relationships at that moment, 'Alex' is also a name that be given to a male or female. We tried to get the audience to think that she would be the final girl however our intentions were to shock them as we challenge the conventions of slasher films. We save Alex to be the last person to be killed so that we build on the audiences expectations that she will be the person to confront the killer and survive, however the last girl is murdered and we hoped this would have a bigger emotional reaction.

Final girl in Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Final girl in Friday 13th

'Alex' The expected final girl in our film

According to Rick Altmans Genre theory, Genre offers audiences a set of pleasures, these can be emotional, visceral and intellectual. Our film contains a wide range of emotional pleasures: we aimed for them to feel fear which was hopefully achieved due to the nature of the film and the ambience we created, upset due to the innocent characters being murdered and hatred towards the murderer for his actions.
An example of emotion that audience experience in a horror film could be the feeling of upset, such as in 'Orphan' when Esther (the orphan) kills the Dad very graphically by stabbing him multiple times as he refuses to engage in sexual activities with her, also, she kills the orphanage nun who takes cares of the children, by hitting her on the head with a hammer as she tries to warn the parents about Esther.
We also use intellectual pleasure as we surprise the audience with the unexpected as we challenge the final girl theory and subvert expectations. They may also make the link that the person who is seen at the beginning of the film, the person who is trying to give Alex the gift and the person 'Ben' who they mention in the car is the same person and that he is the one who will go on to murder the three girls. If the audience make this connection from early on and suspect that he will be the killer they may feel pleasure from making the intellectual link. Richard Dyers entertainment and utopia theory can explain these pleasures, he suggests that people consume media products with a clear set of pleasures to draw from their experience and it allows people to escape from their real lives to feel part of the film. We aim to provide intensity which links with Rick Altmans theory of emotional pleasures as the intensity is due to the emotions the audience experience. By providing intensity we are able to entertain people and this is what we intended to do. An example of someone wanting to watch a film which provides intensity would be someone who is bored and is therefore looking for something to do which will provide them with entertainment. Another element would also be to provide the audience with a sense of community. An example of a horror film with a good sense of community would be 'The Wicker Man', it is a film about a Pagan community who work together to trick a police man into thinking a girl has gone missing so they can kill him as their sacrifice. Although this film has a very strong community presence it depends on the audience as to how they interpret it. For some people it may provide them with a sense of community however some people may look at the community negatively due to the nature of the film and therefore it wouldn't be providing them with the sense of community.
We do this as we try to involve the audience in the film to make them feel part of it. When the last two girls are staying together in the garage in order to try and survive there is a sense of community which the viewer may feel part of as they are also wanting the girls to survive. People often seek to feel a sense of togetherness if they are feeling lonely themselves.

The final two girls hiding together to survive