Media Evaluation
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The document summarizes a student media project creating a title sequence for a horror film called "Hypnosis". The students researched existing title sequences to understand effective techniques. Their sequence introduces a mysterious man walking in the woods holding a knife. Footage shows photos of friends being destroyed, representing how each character dies. The students aimed to convey mystery and intrigue rather than directly showing the narrative. They used short clips, blood/fire imagery, and unsettling typography and editing to set an ominous tone for the genre.
Media Evaluation
- 1. Media evaluation hypnosissequence lasting around 2 The brief was to created a genre specific title minutes long. Our film is called “Hypnosis”. In short, it is a horror film about a group of teenage friends who venture into the woods on a camping trip. A mysterious killer who can control minds then starts killing off the teenagers one by one. We chose this name for the film because it means 'a state of consciousness where a person loses the power of voluntary action.' Which simply means a person can't control their own actions. We thought this to be a suitable name for the film as this happens to the characters in the film. We also thought that the name gave quite a mysterious and spooky feel, which was ideal for the horror genre. In the actual title sequence, the audience are introduced to a mysterious looking man wearing dark clothing walking through the woods holding a knife. In between these clips, footage is shown of the destruction of five photos of the same group of 5 friends. Each one is destroyed differently, representing how each of the teenagers die in the film. At the end of the title sequence it pans from the man cutting a rope, to the characters walking into the shot signalling the beginning of the film.
- 2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? We did lots of research into title sequences before we even begun to develop our idea. We watched loads of existing title sequences to get ideas of what makes a good and interesting one. We found that the best types of title sequences weren't showing a narrative, instead the better ones conveyed different ideas that suggested things about the film and used the footage to create enigmas in the audiences mind about what happens later on in the film. We found this in the title sequence for 'Halloween 3'. The use of editing, footage and colour suggested and symbolised many things that may be in the film later on. Such as the use of orange linked with halloween. Also, the image of the pumpkin at the end of the title sequence is slowly revealed throughout it. This could suggest how the narrative will work throughout the film. This creates enigmas in the audiences minds, which is also what we wanted to do. We did this by creating a sense of mystery as we only saw the body of the man and never his face making us wonder who he is.
- 3. Another feature that we noticed is that you don't have to have long clips in your title sequence to convey the message and make it look effective. An example of a title sequence that does this is 'se7en' . Throughout the title sequence we are shown very short clips that quickly cut to another clip. But from these short clips, which also have low lighting, we are able to feel the tone and genre of the film. We wanted to do this in our title sequence. We used short flashes of the destruction of the photos and the mysterious man walking through the woods, when watching it though the placement of these short clips together allow there to be a link between them and therefore allowing the audience to piece together what is happening and what will happen further into the film.
- 4. We used blood and fire in our title sequence which is often associated with horrors. For example in the 'Cabin In The Woods' title sequence there are clips of dripping blood suggesting the violence yet to come in the film. There is also a firey looking scene with bodies in a mangled pile, suggesting the danger and gory death that will occur later in the film. The use of blood and fire in our title sequence suggested death too, as the burning of the photo symbolises a way that one of the chracter will die.
- 5. We also noticed that typography and animatics were an important feature of title sequences as the right font can give the right feel to the title sequence. Also, the right sort of animatics can really give a tense feel, especially in horror films (distorted, dripping etc). Again, 'se7en' was a good example as the typography was very scratchy and handwritten and it moved very creepily and distorted giving the feeling of unease.
- 6. We did want to challenge some of the conventions of horror too as we wanted to add something a bit different from other horrors to differenciate it. We filmed in the daylight on purpose to make the audience feel tense from the very beginning. Typically, horror films use dark lighting to give a sense of mystery not being able to see what is going to jump out at you. We wanted to create a sense of unease as you don't particularly see a lot of daylight in horrors and when you do things don't usually jump out and scare you. We wanted to change this, so audiences didn't know when something was going to jump out.
- 7. Who would be your target audience for your primarily males aged 15-25. We imagined We decided the target audience would be product? the film would be rated a 15, hence the minimum age being 15. Our secondary audience would be females aged 15-25 too, we also thought that couples on a date would be a possible audience as there is an element of romance in the film as well as the violence. They would fall under the group E, being students as typically they have more money to spend leisurely. Their interests would include social networking, theme parks for the adrenaline rush, music, going out with friends, cinema, horror films and gaming. We done a number of audience research tasks to aid us in making the right decision when choosing typography, colour and animatics. We compiled a number of surveys and showed members from our target audience band different fonts and colours and asked them which ones they preferred . We then tallied the numbers up and looked at the results. We agreed with results from the research that we did and we incorporated the results into our title sequence.
- 8. What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why? into what studios had When choosing a film studio we researched previously produced similar and successful films. We wanted one that was also notorious for producing horror films. The two that stood out the most were Hammer films and Lionsgate film studios. We thought that hammer looked like a good studio because they produced lots of horror films such as 'The Woman in Black', which was quite successful. However, saying this, we thought that Hammer seemed like a more unknown company and we may not get the budget we needed. We looked at Lionsgate and we preferred this studio as it was a more well known company that had produced really successful films like 'The Hunger Games'. They also produced successful horror films such as 'The Possesion' and 'The Last Excorcism'.
- 9. The possession Distribution of The Possession. Lionsgate distributed 'The Possession', which made a profit of around $64 million. The film was based around an allegedly haunted 'dybbuk box' story, meaning that it may have attracted audience this way as it was based on a real life thing. To market the film the film was premiered at the “Film4 FrightFest”. This created buzz about the film and attracted audiences. Trailers and posters were used to promote the film too.
- 10. The Last exorcism Lionsgate distributed The Last Exorcism. With its budget totalling only $1.8 million, its $65 million profit could be said to be a success. With the extreme success of thr 1973 film 'The Exorcist' this film almost had a pre-sold audience as Lionsgate knew that films of this subject in the past have been successful. With room for a sequel to this film too, Lionsgate knew that the money would be well invested.
- 11. How does your media product represent certain social groups
- 12. How does your media product represent particular social groups? We were lucky enough to have a choice in what camera we used to film our title sequence. Our school, if needed, provided us with a flip camera to record our footage on. However, I also had a Fujifilm camera that we could use too. We discussed what camera we wanted to use and we all decided that my camera would probably be the best camera to use as it has a better quality image for our title sequence, which we wanted. This is because we wanted it to look as professional as possible. We did look into using the flip camera to record foley sound on, however, after filming we realised that we didn't need to add any in as we had all of the sound that we wanted.
- 13. We used Mac computers to upload our footage on. We found that they are the easiest quickest computers to use when editing and making different parts to our title sequence. The Macs at our school have all the available programs that we would need to use such as Photoshop, After Effects and Final Cut Pro. Using all of these we werea able to create the most professional looking title sequence possible. To make some of the animatics we used Adobe After effects which enabled us to create our 'Hypnosis' title; the distorted beating effect. It did take a lot of time to do, so in the end we wound up using final cut pro to edit the text. Final cut pro was the program we used to edit all of the footage together. During the process we did learn new techniques to make the title sequence look more effective such as bringing down the opacity allowing two shots to be seen at the same time. We did, however, know how to use the very basics of final cut pro such as the cutting tool and the sound volume.
- 14. We used some online websites to choose our font and to choose our music. Dafont.com was very useful as the tabs at the top of the web page allow you to choose what type/genre of font we wanted. We went on the 'horror' theme and searched through to find the one we eventually chose. We also used audionetwork.lgfl.org.uk to choose our music. This website is available for schools to use copyright free music on what they choose. This website also had themes such as horror/dark/creepy. We went through lots of the soundtracks until we narrowed it down to a few.
- 15. Some problems that we faced was that we didn't get enough location shots the first time around therefore we had to go back. We had to use a flip camera this time though as I'd forgotten my own camera. In the future I think we would plan better and get as many shots as possible. Another problem we faced was the stiffness of the tripod that we used. It gave it an unprofessional look to it therefore in future we will check equipment before leaving.
- 16. How did you attract/address your audience? audience as we have I think we have successfully reached our target used all of the main codes and conventions of successful horror films.we have used them to the best of our ability to produce something that is different, tense yet conforms to the main conventions of horror films. From the audience feedback we received we received mostly positive feedback with most people saying we used the build up of tension really well and it was well edited. We did receive some constructive critisism though, which was only welcomed, as we wanted to get the most out of our title sequence. The comment that mostly came up was about the pace not being consistent or some of the clips being too long. This was easily solved by removing or cutting down clips.
- 17. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? The preliminary task was to create a fight sequence with lots of different camera angles. I feel like we made a successful fight sequence due to the many camera angle used and the use of foley sound. I felt like we made quite a professional looking fight sequence in a fairly short amount of time. We didn't do much planning to our fight sequence either, so I think that with that taken into account, we did a fair job. We also learnt a lot about foley sound when doing this task. We learnt what objects we could use to make effective sound effects for example, slapping raw meat for the slapping effect and breaking celery for breaking bones. We learnt how to record these sounds and then transfer them into final cut pro too. So in doing this task we learnt lots of important skills we could impliment into our final product. However, saying this, the fact that we didn't plan made the filming slightly more difficult as we had to think of different things to do on the spot. Whereas if we had made a plan/storyboard of the shots and performances we were going to do it would have made it a lot easier and quicker to film. Also, as we all had different ideas about how to edit the fight sequence, it was difficult to encoorporate all of our ideas into it.Iwe had taken it in turns instead of doing it all at once, we would have been able to get more of our ideas into it.