Evaluation video

This is my evaluation video outlining the good and bad points of filming our videos.

Question 6 Prezi

Technology on Prezi

This is my Prezi about how technology has facilitated me in making my short film.

Question 5

How did you attract your audience?


The Others (12)
The Others is rated a 12, this shows that the film obviously doesn't contain  any very scary threats and that there are no scenes of strong violence, sex or nudity. As this film is classed as a thriller it has no actual frightening images. The film is more a sense of the unknown and a building of tension caused by lighting, music and build up. IMDb shows that this film is watched by a very large audience ranging from 12-45+ I believe the film was created on purpose for a large audience so they could make a lot of profit and let people of many ages enjoy the film.



Paranormal Activity (15)
Paranormal Activity is rated a 15 as it shows a lot more disturbing images and violence. This film is mainly hantings therefore it will show many threats and quite evil characters and scenes of possession. Although is has no scenes of sex, violence or mutilation therefore it is not an 18. The target audience I believe for this film because it is a psychological horror will be around 15-30 year olds male and female.







The Human Centipede (18)


The Human Centipede is rated an 18 because it shows disturbing scenes of violence, mutilation and high levels of gore and torture. The plot of the film is three people who are surgically attached to eachother against their own will and then tortured and ordered around like slaves. It is a very disturbing film which is quite rightly rated an 18. IMDb shows people aged around 18-29 watched this film the most and surprisingly a lot more males than females watched and rated this film, therefore from this information I believe the film was aged at people aged around 18-29 and mainly males because stereotypically they watch gorey films a lot more than females.



SAW (18)
SAW contains high levels of gore, violence, torture and suffering. Much like Human Centipede therefore it also rated an 18. The main plot of the this film is victims have to play the 'game' which usually contains self harming to win and if they win they are freed but at the cost of usually losing a limb. If they lose they are brutally killed by the mechanical contraptions the main evil character has created. SAW is very similar to The Human Centipede in IMDb user ratings as many more males watched the film than females and again the film was most likely aimed at 18-29 year olds as they seemed to rate it a lot more than other ages.



Insidious (15)
Insidous contains quite evil scenes of demons and poltergeists. The film is mainl about hauntings much like Paranormal Activity yet it is said to be quite scarier. Yet it doesn't contain any scenes of sex, violence, nudity, torture or gore. Therefore it is classed as a 15. The target audience I believe for this film because it is a psychological horror will be around 15-30 year olds male and female.

Question 5 How the do the credits and music engage the audience?

There are two themes in which we have chosen to base the credits for our film on.The first one is an ominus character lurking in deserted locations.

 These stills from the credits represent suburban darkness in, a subway, church and woods. There is a figure stalking these images, making the audience feel watched and perhaps panicked.  This figure is wearing black, their face is hiden, making them seem mysterious and perhaps evil. All the areas look seclude, which should make the audinece feel unerved when they spot somebody acting suspiciously.

However, the second theme of our credits is ruin and neglect. The doll is to symbolise the innocence of children and how its come to be neglected and discarded. There's mud and plants encasing it, showing how its gone to ruin, the audience may possibly feel as though something strange is happening.
The book makes is filmed at a high angle, suggesting that this hold some power and significance. This book is also featured in the opeing of the film, the strange occurences begin when this book is found in the box. The wind flickers through the pages and the audience may interpret this as  ghostly.
The final image shows a tap dripping, this gives off an airy sound. The sink is half full, which shows this has been happening for a while, this could raise the question of why hasn't it been turned off. The audience my find this image strange, and that this place has been abandoned to fall into ruin .

 

Music

The music used in the film creates tension and build up, the use of strings makes the clip seem airy. This music is frequent all the way through the film, louder in the credits and dropping in volume into the opening of the film. The audience should feel the constant tension in the air from this, that the threat is always there, represented in the music.

Question 3 advertising campaign

 This is a sample poster, made from a still from the film. This will not be used in promoting the film, it was just something that helped us get an idea of what we would like for our final poster. The things we liked was having the threat as the main subject, it being at a low angle and having trees or woodland in the background, also the fonts.

Our final poster that we have chosen to promote our film with shall appeare in cinemas, on buses, phone boxes and in magazines. This is where a lot of the film promotion posters i have seen to feauture the most frequently. The poster has had a lot more work go into it, for example special effects and extra details.

Our advertisements including trailors would be feautured on prime time telly vision, and before films of the same age rating in cinemas so to grab the wider audience range. Durring this time and places, the more people will be seeing the advertisements, therefore getting more viewers.

Question 3

Release Diary:
USA Cinemas: 28th March 2012
UK Cinemas: 28th March 2012
Europe Cinemas: 30th March 2012
Asian Cinemas: 5th April 2012
Australian Cinemas: 29th March2012
African Cinemas: 5th April 2012

USA DVD: June 1st 2012
UK DVD: June  1st 2012
Europe DVD: June  5th 2012
Asian DVD: June 12th 2012
Austrialian DVD:June  1st 2012
African DVD: June  12th 2012

Who would be the audience for your media product (Question 4)

Our main audience for our film would be men and women aged from 15-30 as they are the most common ages of people that watch psychological horrors.

Our film is rated 15 by BBFC standards as it has no gore yet it is slightly too dark and scary for 0-14 year olds.

Guidelines and Classifications from BBFC

www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines

Horror films rated as 12 are allowed when the theme of the film is quite mild scares and the scares aren't that frequent throughout. Minor use of violence of sexual themes are allowed, also drug use shouldn't be used to give instructional detail. Explicit language mustn't be commonly used throughout the film. 







The horror content in a 15 rated film is allowed a quite appealing and evil threat, without use of sexual acts or sadistic scenes. Drug use is also permitted but should not be encouraged in any way. Gore is not permitted but strong language is allowed to be frequently used.







Any horror themes are allowed to be violent, sexual scenes, nudity, torture and sadistic scenes if the film is rated an 18. Yet scenes that breach criminal law for example detailed scenes of sexualised assault are most commonly unacceptable. Gore is acceptable also in this genre. Most extreme scenes are allowed to be 18 as people over 18 are allowed to choose what they watch.

Question 3; Our poster

This is the poster we have created for our film, it foregrounds the threat in the same way other posters like the one for Shrooms, has. The fonts and colour scheme coincide with what was used in the opening credits. The darkness is symbolic of the dark themes and unknowing within the film. The photo of the house is taken from a low angle, suggesting that it holds power and makes the audience feel lower in status.
 It conforms with the conventions of a horror film poster, it has star ratings and quotes from well known newspapers. The production company and age rating is also displayed clearly in the bottom corners.

Our Film Poster (Question 3)

This is our sample film poster, it follows similar conventions of other horror film posters as it shows the main threat in the image which in our the film is the house. We chose to make it black and white as many horror film posters don't have much colour in their posters to make them more intense and give a stronger feel. 

I inserted the films BBFC age certificate and inserted our production logo at the bottom (LastMinuteFilms) I also included the release date at the top to show the audience when the film will be out in the cinemas. I also included two reviews from top newspapers about the film to lure the audience in and I have seen this a lot on film posters therefore we decided to add it in to our poster. 

Release Diary:

Cinema Release: 28th March 2012

DVD Release:  20th July 2012

This is our production logo which follows certain conventions for horror production logos as the text is quite splattered and almost represents blood apart from it not being red. We decided to make it more of a dirty brown colour because red is very commonly used in production logos. We also used a black background to allow it to stand out as it would be crowded with a detailed background.

This is 'Twisted Pictures' logo who play with the name of their company within the logo by making what is almost barbed wire twisted around the text and use the big spike in the middle to separate the two words. This keeps it very simple and down to earth, the black background helps the logo stand out much more as it wouldn't stand out very well with a coloured background.

Here 'Lionsgate' use a very dark, striking, horror looking red. The typeface is very big, bold and square, it stands out to the audience it is almost very serious as a font. The layout is simple as the title is big and bold in the middle surrounded by dark red clouds, this makes the title very iconic as almost straightaway the logo is recognisable without even properly reading the text. The logo establishes the scary horror theme and the stone coloured text suggests the realism and seriousness of the company and sets quite a mysterious tone

Question 5; Attracting the audience

 The Others (12)

The Others is rated a 12, this is probably because the themes of the film only contain mild horror. There are no scenes of strong violence or nudity, which would normally increase the rating. This film is a thriller, it does not contain any frightening images. The horror is stemmed from the build up, background music and lighting which creates a sense of unknowing.

 Paranormal Activity (15)

Paranormal Activity contains stronger themes of haunting. This shows scenes of  actual horror, for example possession, poltergeist activity and intense levels of distress of the victims. However, it does not have any sexual content or scene of violence or mutilation, therefore it doesn't have and 18 age rating.

 The Grudge (15)

The Grudge is a film based on the idea of a ghost seeking revenge. The film shows the threat to be of a sinister appearance, stalking its victims which could be seen as frightening. Through out the film we do not see the victims dyeing in a way that displays high levels of gore. There are also no sexual themes and nudity within this film.

SAW (18)

The SAW films however contain, themes of stalking, high levels of gore, violence, torture, suffering and nudity. Therefore this film is deemed to be an 18. The main plot is for victims to free themselves from death by torturing themselves, here we see scenes of people cutting off there own body parts, burning and stabbing themselves. 

 

Hostel (18)

Hostel is a film that consolidates all the themes of an 18 rated film. Within the film, scenes of torture and torment, sex and nudity and the threat is displayed in a frightening way. The main idea is to mutilate people to harbor their body parts.

Guidelines and Classifications from BBFC

www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines

Any horror that is in this certificate is allowed as long as the themes are moderate and its infrequent throughout the film. Other guidelines that the film has to follow include minor details in violence and sexual themes, not glamourising the use of drugs or giving instructional detail and explicit langauge must be rare and infrequent.




The horror content in a film thats been rated a 15 is allowed to have a stronge menacing threat,as long as this is not sexualised or sadistic in anyway. Drug use is allowed to be shown but shouldn't be promoted, stronge gorey images are not allowed but the use of frequent strong language is acceptable.

Any horror or gore in these films are allowed to be stronge, violence and language maybe frequent and detailed. However acts that breach criminal law like detailed sexualised assult are likely to be unacceptable. Stronge language and nudity are all permitted, people of the age of 18 are allowed to choose their own entertainment.