EVALUATION QUESTION 1

IN WHAT WAY DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

One of the first tasks i did was look into codes and conventions of short films so i could apply them to our film. It was important that i understood the codes and conventions of short Horror films as this would determine whether our film would turn out good or bad.

To gather these codes and conventions i searched for short films on google where I was able to find a very useful channel 'Future Shorts' which has lots of short films made by directors all over the world and with many different genres . The company Future Shorts is a well known distributor of short films whose main aim is to further the short film industry by promoting the films at Film festivals they host. For more info on Future Shorts click HERE.


After watching and analysing some of these films i was able to create a list of codes and conventions i could apply to my film:

• There are usually only about one or two characters in a short film.
• Short Films tend to have a very low budget.
• The central protagonist will always remain center screen when possible.
• Short films always have a twist to them, by having a immediate narrative change at the end to shock the audience.
• There is not much dialogue in short films.
• There are lots of camera angles used, a popular camera angle choice is point of view.
•  Usually short films use the cheap option of black background and white font for titles
•  Voice overs are a popular method of sound in short films.
•  Mainly the narrative is centered around a central protagonist.
• Short Films usually last about 1-5 minutes.
• .The point of view angle shows the world from the central protagonists view.
• A lot of short films simply show real life with one change that is then portrayed as normal.

Here is how we tried to apply these codes and conventions to our short film:

• There are usually only about one or two characters in a short film - We only use four characters in our movie,two which are dead bodies so the characters of Norman and the tied up girl are the main ones the audience should follow.
• Mainly the narrative is centered around a central protagonist - The Narrative revolves around the character of Norman who is the central protagonist of the film. We use his name as the title and keep him in the center of the screen at all times to connote the importance of the character to the audience.
• The central protagonist will always remain center screen when possible- Our central protagonist remains center screen when possible at all
• Short films always have a twist to them, by having a immediate narrative change at the end to shock the audience -Our short film does this as it signifys all the way through that Norman is innocent by implying that he only just finds the bodies when the audience sees them on the screen but when it goes to the house scene the audience immediately puts the pieces together in their heads and realises that Norman is the killer. He changes his clothes and his attitude to connote the narrative change.
• A lot of short films simply show real life with one change that is then portrayed as normal -We did not include this convention in our film as we believed that having our film set in reality would be more appropriate and make it more scary due to the fact of it being set in reality. The voicover radio broadcasts anchor this fact of reality too so the audience knows that the film is not set in another world.
• There are lots of camera angles used, a popular camera angle choice is point of view-We used this in an intertextual reference to the movie halloween at the start when he walks into his house but also we used it a bit to show the central protagnists point of view as he was moving around so the audience could see what he was seeing and try to connect with him.
• Voice overs are a popular method of sound in short films- We used voice overs in the form of radio news reporters in my film. They were designed to put the audience into a false sense of security like this guy cannot be the killer and anchor the preffered reading of the film that he is innocent.
• There is not much dialogue in short films- We used this convention as we felt that if the character said to much it would give away too much of the plot which would create an oppositional reading and that sense of mystery like who is this guy and whats going on would also be lost.
• Short Films usually last about 1-5 minutes- The film lasts just over 5 minutes but this did not happen to challenge the conventions. We felt that when we were editing the film needed more time to build up tension but if we decide to re submit our coursework we may end up shortening the film.
• Usually short films use the cheap option of black background and white font for titles- We decided to ignore this convention by using Red coloured Font from Livetype for our title, This signifys that violence will occur in the movie which fits in with the theme of our film. Also we felt that the black and white titles were boring and would not fit well with our film.
• Short Films tend to have a very low budget- We had a very small budget for our film as we borrowed cameras and equipment to film from school. the most we spent was about £15 on the props for the house scene and Normans costume.

Genre Research and Intertextual References
As we developed our ideas we looked at many different Horror movies to find Codes and Conventions of the genre and get some Inspiration. For more detailed analysis into the Horror Genre Click HERE.
Here are the two main Intertextual refernces we used in our film:

• We made an Intertextual Reference to the Film 'Psycho'. We Based the character of Norman on Norman Bates from the film as he is seen as an Innocent throughout but at the end of the film 'Psycho' it turns out that he is the killer and not his mother. We have used this idea in our film as it turns out Norman is the killer at the end too. I also made another Intertextual Reference to Psycho when making the film poster as i overlayed a skull over the top of Normans face to get a more evil look which has been used in this picture too. (see above)

•  We made an intertextual reference to the Blair Witch Project. Most of our Camera Shots were quite shaky and we used a lot of point of view shots which are used in the Blair Witch Project to make the whole movie seem more real and disturbing.

EVALUATION QUESTION 3

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

The Audience Feedback is Crucial if you want to make a great film.

After we had finished each cut of the film we showed it to a target audience to see what they thought could be made better:

• We could not understand why the Central Protagonist wanted to go to the house - We added the Clip of the crow to show that the characters eye was drawn to the house by the crow  so he decided to investigate it. Also the Crow signifies death so it linked into the Genre of our Film.
• Why does the character run away from the house for no reason? - We added the Sound of the Dog and the farmer to show that The central Protagonist was running away from this and not from nothing. It also gives a preffered reading to the audience that Norman is innocent as they could think that the farmer is the killer.
• The Preffered Reading (he is innocent) is not anchored enough - We added the Radio Station news voiceovers to strenghthen the preffered reading that the Central Protagonist is innocent as he is finding the bodies so he cant have killed them.
  

EVALUATION QUESTION 2

HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN PRODUCTS & ANCILLARY TEXTS?

For some of the tasks we had to create a set of media products that linked into our production. The Products we had to create to go with the short films were a Film Poster and a Review Page of the film we were making. We did these two tasks alongside filming the Product so we could get photos too and help link  them together to make the final product feel much more real. We tried to keep our narrative enigma in all of the texts we made so that it was obvious that they all went together but obviously in the real world these products would all be made by different companies so they would not be directly linked together only through business unless these companies were owned by the same conglomerate e.g Twentieth Century Fox or General Electric.

For the film poster we placed the central protagonist in the center of the poster to connote the importance of this character to the films plot, to signify hes the most important person in the film. The poster promotes our film by attracting our target audience and peaking there curiosity, making them want to watch the film. The film poster anchors the genre of the film as its quite a scary image showing the charater standing over a dead body but this also helps appeal to the target audience as it connotes that it will be a horror movie.

Our Magazine review relates to the target audience by using quite formal language but its easy to understand so a fifteen year old could read it. The article is aimed more at Boys/Men as this is the Sex that mostly watch Horror movies but there may be features that appeal to Women too. We intertextually referenced the Film poster from Friday the 13th when we made ours as we felt it was quite relevant to our film showing that he is a mysterious figure.

EVALUATION QUESTION 4

HOW DID YOU USE NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES?

To create the Final Product we used a variety of New Media Technologies to help us Plan and Create the Final Cut and now im using one to help me Evaluate the Film i have created. Here is a List with Notes on how i used these Technologies to help me:

• Blogger - Blogger was the main Technology i used as i stored all of the Research and Planning i did over the period of time that we were doing the Project on here. It was very useful as if there wasnt this facility available i would probably have ended up having to write it all down on paper which can be lost/damaged compared to the blog where it can be saved directly online so others are able to access it. Also with the fact that its an internet based program meant that i can attach media to my posts to give an example of what i mean and show something relevant to my project. For each Pre-production task i made a seperate post (where relevant some posts were joined together) with the research i did or planning on that specific point making it much easier when it came down to filming as we new exactly what we had to acheive. This is a Link to my Blog.
  
• Final Cut Express 4 and iMovie 06 - Final Cut Express was the main Program we used to edit our Final Cut. Its a very useful piece of software as you can do so much more with it compared to iMovie. For instance Final Cut Express 4 has 99 video tracks with support for nesting sequences whereas imovie HD has only 1 video track. Just small things like this meant that we could achieve so much more with this program in terms of editing and other technical adjustments like tweaking the Brightness/Colours of some shots and also the Audio for the clips could be removed and changed appropriately. Due to Problems with temperamental Macs we ended up having to upload the basic footage onto iMovie 06 then Importing it across to the Final Cut program. This did not take long but it was quite frustrating and annoying as sometimes the uploading straight from Camera to Final Cut worked and sometimes it didnt. For more detailed Info on this visit my Software page.
  
• Dv Camcorders and Tripods - These were provided by the School and we used them to film the footage that we used for our Final Piece. They were quite basic cameras compared to some of the other cameras available on the market but they were very reliable and did the job. We acheived quite a lot with the cameras and they were fairly easy to use but in certain cases a bit more research on the internet was required for instance with how to use the white balance and how to turn the camera from auto focus to manual focus. The Hardware page on my blog has more detailed information on these pieces of equipment.
  
• Mac Computers - We used the Mac Computers which are owned by school and housed in the school buildings to do most of our blogging (split between home and school) and all of our editing as they contained all of the appropriate programs to do this. I dont think there is many advantages of using a Mac over a PC but it was easy to use anyway after using a PC for so many years. If we hadnt had the Macs or the Computers we basically would not have been able to create the films as no editing would have taken place so we would just be stuck with the raw footage with no soundtrack and the scenes would not fit together properly. Using the Macs gave us access to the internet to via Safari so we could look up any problems and also blog too. Some Specifications and Features of the Macs.
  
•  Social Networking Sites (Facebook) - We used Alex Jowett's (my partner in the Project) Facebook page to advertise for Actors/Actresses and Audience Feedback. This was very useful indeed as we didnt have to ask lots of people individually, we just made one group which people could reply to if they were willing to play the part and with audience Feedback we simply uploaded the Film to the Site and left a message asking for Audience Feedback which people could comment on with helpful criticism on how to improve our film.
  
• Photoshop - We used this program to create the teaser poster and the Ancillary text movie poster. It was a very useful program to use as it enabled us to select certain parts from photos we had taken cut them out and arrange them onto one poster in the correct positions. We then changed the colours or added effects to make the posters look proffesional like something that would be actually used to advertise a Blockbuster movie being released at the cinema.
  
• Pages - We used this program on the Mac to create the basic Template for our magazine article (Ancillary Text 2). It was a fairly straightforward program similar to Microsoft Publisher but the Mac Version. We basically made a template then added pictures and appropriate text to it that we had prpared beforehand. If we hadnt had this program we would have probably had to use photoshop or make it by hand but both ways i dont think it would have looked as good as using Pages.
  
• Scanner - We used the scanner just once to scan our storyboard so we could post it onto blogger. The scanning machine was very straightforward to use, just place the sheets into the scanner and press the button then they appear in your computer. Without this i dont think there would be any way to display the storyboard on blogger other than creating it somehow on the computer.
  
• Search Engines and Information Sites - We mainly used google and imdb.com for these. Google beause it has links to basially everything on the internet so you only need to type in a search term and lots of pages will appear that are relevant. Imdb.com because it has an extensive library of information about film from the past, present and future and lots of information about them suh as who direted them and what the budgets were etc. I used google mainly for tutorials on how to use or do things ranging from on the Camera to Final Cut Express whih helped a lot with technical difficulties. I used imdb.com to find information about films that i was intertextually referencing and about the short films which i was finding codes and conventions for. Its a very useful sites as it contains a lot of detailed information about any film you can think of and was very useful as a source. Without these websites i think we would have resorted to using books more but this would have taken much, much longer.
  
• Document/Audio/Video Hosting Sites - The sites we used were Scribd, Photobucket and archive.org. Scribd is a useful website for uploading documents such as powerpoints and word files and then embedding them onto my blogger pages. It sets everything out much clearer and you can print it out much easier if you need it quickly. Photobucket i used to upload Film clips to help out with my intertextual references. It lets you host videos and pictures on its site for free which is useful. Archive.com i used to upload audio files which i then embedded into my blogger page. We uploaded the podcasts onto this site.
  
• Portable Digital Audio Recorder - We used this to record Podcasts and the Voieover for the movie. It was basically a Microphone with a built in recording device which we talked into, recording our voices and transferred it to the computer as an mp3. Without this equipment we would have had to use the camera and take the sound from the recording to make the voiceover and podcasts but this would have taken much longer.
  

GENRE RESEARCH & INTERTEXTUAL LINKS

The genre we have decided to use for our short film is Horror. Before we start to film im going to have an in-depth look at the Horror genre to see what its really about and how i can use it to develop my idea.

Horror Films are unsettling films designed to , cause dread and alarm,frighten and panic, and to invoke our hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale, while captivating and entertaining us at the same time in an Intense experience. Horror films effectively center on the dark side of life, the forbidden, and strange and alarming events. They deal with our most primal nature and its fears: our nightmares, our vulnerability, our alienation, our revulsions, our terror of the unknown, our fear of death and dismemberment, loss of identity, or fear of sexuality.
Whatever dark, primitive, and revolting traits that at the same time attract and repel us are featured in the horror genre. Horror films are often combined with Science Fiction when the menace or monster is related to a corruption of technology, or when Earth is threatened by aliens. The Fantasy and Supernatural film genres are not synonymous with the horror genre, although Thriller Films may have some relation when they focus on the revolting and horrible acts of the killer/madman. Horror films are also known as chillers, scary movies, spookfests, and the macabre.
Horror films go back as far as the beginning of film making, infact centuries before that. From a young age we have all imagined seeing 'something' out of the corner of our eye, shadowy shapes/ghostly images and have come to fear the unknown. Horror films give shape to this fear, an outlet for the essence of fear itself, launching us into a terrifying and disturbing world without ever being in danger at all.
Horror films, when done well and with less reliance on horrifying special effects, can be extremely potent film forms, tapping into our dream states and the horror of the irrational and unknown, and the horror within man himself. For example the Blair Witch Project which was a film that was created using only hand held cameras and no special effects whatsoever. It played on the fact that at the time no other films had ever been made like it using just hand held cameras. Also its storyline was developed on and incorporated the legend of Elly Kedward, a woman banished for witchcraft in 1785 in the Blair Township (latter-day Burkittsville) where the film was set which fooled the audience into thinking "could this actually be real?". The way it was amateurly filmed just added to this sense of ultra realism which opened the audience up to a whole new level of fear. I think that we will use some of the camera techniques from this film to try and recreate that sense of realism and fear in our own short film.
Horror films developed out of a number of sources: folktales with devil characters, witchcraft, fables, myths, ghost stories, Grand Guignol melodramas, and Gothic or Victorian novels from Europe by way of Mary Shelley or Irish writer Bram Stoker. In many ways, the expressionistic German silent cinema led the world in films of horror and the supernatural, and established its cinematic vocabulary and style.

Another film i feel builds up tension well is The Ninth Gate directed by Roman Polanski featuring Johnny Depp.(Based upon the novel The Club Dumas (1993), by Arturo Perez-Reverte)
Brief Synopsis: Dean Corso (Johnny Depp) is highly skilled at his work - locating rare books for wealthy collectors - a position that requires dexterity, cultural expertise, nerves of steel ... and few scruples. Corso is hired by eminent book-lover and scholar of demonology, Boris Balkan (Frank Langella), Corso's mission: to compare Balkan's newly acquired edition of the legendary manual of satanic invocation, The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of the Shadows, with the two remaining copies located in Europe, and ascertain the authenticity of the three books,

From New York to Toledo, Portugal to Paris, Corso immerses himself in a labyrinth full of pitfalls and temptations, disturbing encounters, violence and mysterious deaths. Protected by an other-worldly creature (Emmanuelle Seigner) and guided by a force more powerful than himself, the hunter solves one by one the mysteries of the dreaded book and discovers the real purpose of his mission ...(Quote from: http://www.movieweb.com/movies/film/FIqx9tvsQqritw/synopsis)

It uses a Great Soundtrack with lots of low sustained notes which makes the audience hold there breath subconsciously and builds the tension as it gives a sense of foreboding, like something terrible is lurking just around the corner...

Above is the Soundtrack from this movie.

Another movie which i feel is relevant is John Carpenters The Thing.

Brief Synopsis:

A group of Norwegian scientists in Antarctica chance upon an alien spacecraft buried in the ice. Near the strange craft is the body of an alien being, frozen solid. Thinking they have made the find of a lifetime, the scientists bring the alien body back to camp and thaw it out. The alien awakens and proceeds to take over the identities of the scientists, the remaining humans try and destroy the creature before it reaches another camp but ultimately fail. Now the members of Outpost #31 soon find themselves in the same situation and must discover who among them is human and destroy "the thing" before it takes them all.

While the Scientists are trying to find out who the alien is impersonating the tension increases until it climaxs with a scene where Kurt Russell,the main character, forces everyone to take a blood test to make sure they are not "The Thing". I think that the special effects used in this are excellent but this isnt really that relevant for our film as we dont really have a creature in it.

The feeling of being isolated and alone with the tension building is relevant to our film though and i think this is another thing this film does well.







This is the Scene from the movie which i have uploaded.(Copyright of David Foster Productions,Turman-Foster Company and Universal Pictures) (Contains Strong, Bloody Gore)





  I took inspiration for the Severed limb part of our Film from the Evil Dead movies by director Sam Raimi. 
The way that he still creates the scariness of a Horror but it has comedy elements in it too. This is why they have become cult classics as they are so original and at the time they were made they were unique and mind-blowing to the audience as nothing like them had been made before. Here is a Definition of Cult Films.
An Example Scene From The Evil Dead 2.







(Copyright De Laurentiis Entertainment Group DEG and Renaissance Pictures)
Another bonus to adding a Comedy element to the Film is that it attracts a Comedy Audience too as it would appeal to them. This would lead to more people viewing the film and if we were making it for real to gain a profit we would make more Money.

 Top 20 Shockingly Chilling and Tense Horror Movies
This is an extensive top # list of the best scary movies ever made. The list was made after hours in dark rooms in front of big and small screens. It has been compiled with critic reviews and best-movie lists. Some are box office hits and some you may only find on VHS at the local rental store. If you like the feeling of being truly terrified and surprisingly startled check out this list of the top 20 scary movies of all-time.

1.	The Ring
2.	The Exorcist
3.	Campfire Tales
4.	Silence of the Lambs
5.	Seven
6.	Saw
7.	Mothman Prophecies
8.	The Blair Witch Project
9.	Exorcism of Emily Rose
10.	Scream
11.	Friday the 13th
12.	The Shining
13.	The Sixth Sense
14.	Texas Chainsaw Massacre
15.	Alien
16.	The Others
17.	Rosemary's Baby
18.	Hostel
19.	High Tension
20.	American Pyscho

(Extract from ListAfterList.com)
Judging by this list it shows just how crucial a good Plot is for the Horror film to be Great as none of these movies have the same storyline unlike many other horror movies who use an already existing Horror Storyline but just change an aspect slightly. For our movie we have tried to come up with an original storyline so the audience will be intrigued and not be able to just guess what will happen and become bored straight away.

A useful website for Horror Movies is http://www.allmovie.com/explore/genre/horror-654
It has an extensive list of Major Horror movie works which might be useful to look over at a later date.

PODCASTS

From now on every week we will be publishing a podcast of the progress we have made every week to keep you updated.

Podcast 1:



The rest of the Podcasts are in audio format due to the video podcast not being great quality.

WEEK 2


WEEK 3


WEEK 4


WEEK 5


WEEK 6


WEEK 7

ANALYSIS OF SHORT FILMS

What is a Short Film: A short film is defined as a motion picture that is not more than 40 minutes in running time (including all credits). (definition courtesy of - http://www.henrymiller.org/shorts.html)

Some Analysing.

The Black Hole

Directed by Phil and Olly (No Surnames Given)/UK/2008
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5_Msrdg3Hk&feature=channel_page

•  Not high budget film as distributed via youtube by Futureshorts but some nice special effects used (the black hole effect).
• The whole movie has a grey effect which reflects the characters mood but when he decides to rob the safe the tint goes slightly darker to show his change in mood.
• The first character shown is the central protagonist (i.e. the office worker).
• The photocopier acts as the office workers heartbeat.
• There is a slight dutch tilt to the camera signifying somethings not right or something will go wrong.

 Maybe One Day

a Rankin & Chris Production / Directed by Chris Cottam / UK / 2009
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn0lhsXHEhc&feature=channel

•   An inspiring film that tells us to break out of the regular life and live if only for a day.
• Starts off with quite a dark blue tint to signify the characters sadness but when he escapes the tint turns to bright and yellow to show his change of mood to happiness.
• A steadi-cam is used to show everything from the characters point of view.
• The whole film is like in a Documentary style of the characters everyday life.
• The non-digetic music used in the background at the start is quite slow and sounds like a lullaby sort of and the narrators voice reminds me of a schoolteachers in a history lesson where it makes you feel tired.
• When the character decides to escape the non-digetic music becomes faster and more lively plus the Narrators voice becomes more passionate which draws you into the film and you can relate to the characters emotion.

Taken

Dir. Adam Phillips / Australia / 2008
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q7vqvRZg4M&feature=channel

• Starts off slow and simple. The character has no expression on his face due to the film being an animation so its hard to tell what they are feeling.
• The way the monster/creature smashes through the window and grabs the man is shocking as its totally unexpected.
• Has an unusual storyline.

2 Truths + 1 Lie
Dir. James Coulson / twenty120 / USA / 2008
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6CKYU1LCQ4&feature=channel

• Strange, not really any storyline, more like a documentary.
• Digetic sound in the background is the sounds you would hear in an office so i guess its meant to be like getting to know your fellow office worker.
• Quite unnerving as people are revealing there secrets whereas this would only normally happen if you knew the person really well so i guess this is Binary Opposition too.

Nov 14 2003

Dir. man vs magnet (Matt Smithson) / USA / 2008
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQygBM8Hcr8&feature=channel

• Documentary style animation.
• Digetic sound of the Camera film rolling makes it feel like the film is old but it was made in 2003.
• No real storyline.
• Quite strange/confusing.

Wrong side of the Bed
Director: Not Stated.Winner of 2006 One Minute Wonder Competition.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR_PzFZgsHU&feature=related

• Binary opposition shown by the split screen. One screen is fine, the other everything is going wrong.
• Split screen shows characters alternative motives.
• A simple title sequence is used overlaying the bottom of the first shot.

This is Me
By Sam Arthur / UK / 2006
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrcMDsmc_Dc&feature=channel_page

• I expected it to be sad as it started off in a hospital ward but it turned out to be a comedy.
• Its not a very low budget film as they used a lot of people to help make it and also the location must have been hired out but its not as much as a huge blockbuster film.
• The london accent of the narrator and the main character (who are the same) add to the comedy element of the film as the cockney accent is assoiciated with cheekiness (like Derek Trotter off Only Fools and Horses). 

Summary of The Common Codes and Coventions of Short Films

From all the Short Films I have watched these are the Common Codes and Conventions ive seen:

•  Short films tend to take one or more aspects of a real life situation and alter it in a way that seems surreal making the films seem stranger than normal or alternatively there is some sort of twist at the end of the film.
• The short films usually have non-digetic music made by an indie artist playing through the whole time in the background to add to the atmosphere/emotion of the film.
• Short films tend to be between a minute and 10 minutes although some can go up to 40 minutes (this is due to a difference between the North American definition of short film and the British definition).
• Normally the first character shown is the Central Protagonist.
•