Magazine

 Above is my annotation of a magazine front cover by Four Four Two. Below is my annotation of a contents page of a magazine. 

This is my magazine front cover. 

Original Story and script

                                   Original Plot

As this was the original plot, it was clear that it would change by the end of making the final product. In the original plot, the protagonist is a girl as this would be a convention of the horror genre. Like in Scream, a girl dies in the opening scene which was what is intended for my film. 

A girl is in a forest on her phone with her friend, who she has just been at her house in the local village. She is getting followed from Nafferton and she puts the phone down. She hears a noise from behind so she turns around. She turns around and sees a figure; she starts to walk faster and then eventually turning into a run. The figure starts running after her as she runs into the main forest. When she turns around there is nothing there, she starts slowly walking backwards looking for the figure and accidently falls over. The killer then stabs her and runs away. The body is lying on the floor. A man walking with a torch finds the dead girl and calls for an ambulance.  

The Film Title

As a group, we decided to call the film The Wrong Tracks. This was due to the fact that the killer kills his victim near a train track. Also, the protagonist walks across a train track which suggests that trains are significant in the film. 

The Wrong Tracks Final Cut

This is my final cut of my product. The film is called The Wrong Tracks and the genre is horror. 

Evaluation Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?     

I     In the preliminary, the camera shots were very basic as we weren't experienced with the camera and making a film. The shots that we did use were predominately mid shots through the corridor, close ups of Jack's face and the door handle, a two shot of the two teachers and shot reverse shot of the three people engaging in a conversation. As the location was in a little room and not the woodlands like for my final product, it was difficult to accomplish a good film in the space that we had. 

      

       The editing software that we used for our prelim was Serif Movie Plus. The software was very basic and it was easy to edit the film, it took us around an hour considering it was new to us. We just needed to drag the shots together to create the film. We didn't use any effects or transitions during the film and we also didn't have any sound to go to the film, although we didn't think we needed any. However, for the final product we used Adobe Premier Pro CS3. This was a lot more better to use because in my opinion it was better to use. Premier Pro gave us what Serif Movie Plus had but more advanced as it was more professional compared to the "GCSE style" Serif. The availability of transitions and effects for our film were at our fingertips and with the help of sound improved the film enormously. We could also create effects like slow motion that we couldn't use on Serif.   

Evaluation Question 1

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

As my film is in the horror genre, I decided to use the woodlands as a good place to use as a setting. This is very like other horror films especially Friday the 13th (1980) as the woods are secluded and the killer can easily kill someone without anyone knowing. It also gives a sense of tension for the audience and the woods have always been a scary place, as you don't know who is watching you. 

Like in Friday the 13th, we use many shots from the perspective of the killer to show that the character is being watched, so that it creates tension for the audience. I also used many wide shots to give the audience a sense of what surroundings they were watching the character in. 

Near the end of the film I used some fast cuts which heightens the tension for the audience and helps to build the climax at the end of the scene, where the hooded person kills the boy.

To challenge the horror film conventions I decided to give the killer a change of clothing. This was to show and go against the normal convention, which is seen in the Halloween and Scream franchises. Michael Myers for example wears dark clothing and a mask to hide himself and Ghostface does also. However, for my killer I didn't want to make him create a mask, as it was typical of the genre. As many horror movie killers are remembered for their mask I needed my killers clothes to be memorable. I decided to give him a blue jumper, jeans and white trainers as it was very unique in the genre. The clothing is also typical of what a person between the age of 16-25 would wear. 

Another horror convention that I developed was the fact that the killer kills someone in the first scene. Like in most horror films including Scream and Halloween do this. This means that the makers of the film want the audience to go straight into the film as the action has already started. Horror films need to start going from the very off and my film does that. 

The Wrong Tracks Final Cut

The video is the final cut for my final product. My film is called "The Wrong Tracks". 

Prelim Video

This is my video for my video preliminary. It is 36 seconds and consists of four characters. As an audience we follow Jack, who has been told to go see his teacher, and he doesn't know why. He then walks past a boy who had also been and is very unhappy. Jack is nervous as he walks through the door. Inside are his teachers, Mr Ibbetson (who he refers to as Sir) and his assistant Mr Sizer. They discuss Jack's grades in English. The film ends on a cliffhanger, with the final shot of Jack in a extreme close up of his face asking "my grades?". This was to show his emotion to the audience at the end, and to suggest to the audience what will happen next to Jack.  

I chose to do this film as it was a very simple story, which could be very easily shown onto film. I used a range of shots including an extreme close up of the door handle when Jack walks through the door and a two shot with the two teachers. As it was my prelim, I think that I did a good job considering it was the first time I had ever filmed a film before. 

Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I have learnt a lot of things while completing my full product. Comparing my two videos, my full product is much superior to my prelim video. I have made a lot of progress from the first time that I did the prelim because I have learnt about what is the right thing to do and what is the wrong thing to do. I know what makes a shot what it is and I can successfully deliver a range of shots shown in my finished product. 

The script on my prelim was very simple and very small, as my film was very short. Comparing that to my final product, the script was very thorough as it was a longer film and also because I knew what I was doing more because of my experience on the preliminary.

As I starred in both of my films, I feel like I have made a lot of progress in my acting skills. On the prelim, I couldn't stop laughing as I never really acted before. My lines weren't the best and my face wasn't in proportion to the film that I was in. On the other hand, the final product I thought that my acting was a lot better. Although I was hooded and didn't speak, I thought that my body language was significantly better and that I focused on the film in hand. 

In my preliminary I used very basic camera angles which included extreme close ups of the door handle and Jack's face, a two shot of the two teachers and also a mid shot of Jack walking through the corridor.

There is also no credits in my preliminary which showed how basic the film was. Comparing that with the final product, the credits are nicely embedded on a black screen with one being on the shot of the train going past the killer. Also, when the killer starts hitting the boy, the text of the film appears. You can hear the boy screaming, but the title of the film "The Wrong Tracks" is in red and not white. This is to show the red of blood and danger and that the boy has died. This is very effective in the final product which wasn't evident in the preliminary. 

Overall, I think that I have made substantial progress in AS Media after looking back on my preliminary. The skills that I have gained since the preliminary has been shown in the final product that I have created. 

Evaluation Question 5

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Hammer Films

Hammer Films was founded in 1934 and are based in the UK. 

The company was best known for their Gothic horror during the 1950's and 60's. Although they made their films on a very tight budget, usually with the same actors and directors, they dominated the horror film 

market during the 50's and 60's. 

Hammer's first significant horror film was The Quartermass Experiment (1955), which was the adaptation from the television series. Hammer then adapted Universal's old monsters from the 1930's, Frankenstein and Dracula. Both starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, (who were Hammer icons) The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and Dracula (1958) would become big successes from the company, as they were made on a shoe string budget. 

After relevant success in the 1960's the company went into decline during the 1970's and production ceased in the 1980's. 

However, in 2007 the company was back and started to make new films. These included The Resident (2011) and The Woman in Black (2012)

I think that my film would be perfect for Hammer films to distribute it because my film is a low budget British Horror film which Hammer specialise in. Although the film has unknown stars and, it could still make a profit from limited release. As the film has a very small budget, if it wasn't very successful at the box office then it wouldn't be a big deal as Hammer wouldn't lose much money anyway. With the budget of The Wrong Tracks and a production company like Hammer, I think that they have nothing to lose. As the main target audience of the film are for teenagers, like Hammer's The Women in Black (as it was a 12a) it is relevant to their other films. Also by using social media to increase the anticipation of the film can also bring in profit for the film. Release the trailer or several trailers onto YouTube and then the film will be talked about on all the social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. As the film is low budget has a lot of action, it will bring the audience in as teenagers like to see these type of movies. If the marketing for the film is outstanding, then it will make a huge profit at the box office.  

Movie Classification

Every film that gets released at cinemas have a classification (shown as a symbol) to tell people if they can watch the film or not.
These include: U, PG, 12, 12a, 15 and 18

15

The "15" symbol means that no one under the age of 15 is allowed to watch the film that is shown.

What makes a 15 stronger than a 12 or a 12a include:

• strong violence
• frequent strong language (e.g. f***)
• portrayals of sex and some sexual nudity
• strong verbal references about sex
• some scenes of sexual violence or verbal references about sexual violence
• some drug taking
• discriminatory language or behaviour

The majority of horror films have a 15 certificate. In most horror films, they have or a set around teenagers, this means that they are more likely to have a lot of sex and taking drugs. This is because there are some sexual nudity and sexual scenes in the majority of horror films. This is also because the film makers target a teenage audience for the film, as there are many teenagers in them. They have also got a lot of strong language as there is someone going around killing people. However, there can be some gore but not an exceptional amount, this is inappropriate for a 15 certificate film and is used for a 18.

What certificate did I use for my film?

For my film, I decided to give the certificate of my film as a 15. This is because there is a lot of violence in my film as the killer goes on a killing spree. There will also be some strong language and sexual references like in other horror films like Scream (1996).

The Wrong Tracks Rough Cut

This was my rough cut for my film "The Wrong Tracks". The genre of the film was a slasher horror films as the many conventions of a horror film are shown. The idea of a secluded location to show tension is what I wanted to show in the film. The audience is rooting for the boy as he is the main protagonist in the film. However, the audience knows but the boy doesn't know that he is being watched.

To improve my film I needed to

• Explain the need for the bag pack and the tent in the scene and why that was significant in the film.
• I needed to use another film company other than the one that I created so that they could distribute it.
• Make the genre of my film more clear.
• Why is the boy walking through the woods on his own?
• What is he doing in the woods.

   

Horror Movie Codes and Conventions

In every film genre, there are many different types of codes and conventions which you find in many of the same films in that genre. Like in all genre's, horror films have many too.

Secluded Location

In many horror films, the characters are placed in a location where they are far away from somewhere where they cannot get help, or are in a location which they are not used to. These can include a summer camp, a house in a remote location or a wood. In my film I chose the location of a wood because the character is very isolated and isn't sure of his surroundings. This means that he is very vulnerable and therefore gets murdered by the killer.

Someone inventigates a strange noise

When someone hears a noise in the distance, they usually go and see what it is. As humans, we like to find things out and this is shown in many horror films. This can usually happen before a group of people get killed because it is more obvious that a person would check it out. However, when they does so they, the majority of the time, get killed. However, in my film this is different. The boy hears the noise and does the opposite to what many characters do in horror films. However, this comes to no avail because the boy ends up getting murdered anyway. This shows that when you hear a noise, you will get killed anyway.

The victim falls over

Even though it sounds stupid, many people in horror films fall over before or when they are getting chased by the killer. In my films case, when the boy hears the noise from behind he starts to run away. However, momentum makes him fall over. This shows that the killer is watching him and due to horror film codes and conventions, the character is about to die.

Someone gets killed in the opening scene

In many horror films, especially "slasher" films, someone dies in the first opening scene in the film. For example in Halloween, Michael kills his sister when he is a boy. This is to show a little bit about the character and the killer and also sets the mood for the rest of the film. The scene can be highly significant for the rest of the plot of the film or may be just a sign of how dangerous the killer is. Our my film, the boy gets killed in the first scene also. At the ending of the film we see that the killer wears a blue hoodie and that he kills people in the wood, as it is isolated from everywhere else. This sets the mood for the rest of the film which may include a back story of the boy that gets killed and someone looking to find the killer.

Why I chose to research this?

I decided to research this because I needed to know the horror codes of conventions so that I knew what other horror films were like. This meant that I could develop or challenge these conventions into the horror film that I make. 

Horror Sub Genres

There are four Horror sub-genres that I focused on for my research. This was because they were the most popular and the most popular of mine.   

Slasher

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) 
Halloween (1978)
Friday the 13th (1980)
A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)

Most slasher films have one main killer throughout the film. They usually don't die or they come back to life so that there can be a sequel so that the people who make the film can make more money. This is why slasher films, and the four most famous slashers have spawned many sequels and remakes made in the 2000's. 

Psychological 

Psycho (1960)
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
The Shining (1980)
Saw (2004) 

Psychological horrors need to make tension and The Shining does that. Also, some psychological horrors have a lot of gore which can put off some audiences if they don't like a lot of gore. However, the success of the Saw franchise has shown that a lot of gore is a good thing and that people like to see psychological horrors. 

Supernatural 

The Exorcist (1973)
The Omen (1976)
The Amityville Horror (1979)
Paranormal Activity (2009)
The Woman In Black (2012)
The Conjuring (2013)

Supernatural horrors are usually involve haunted houses, ghosts or the devil. In the 70's, these films were usually about the devil, who possessed children or impregnated women. In The Exorcist and The Omen however, children were possessed by the devil to do awful things that you wouldn't expect from children, which is why it is more chilling to watch. In the last few years the supernatural horror has come back, with the recent success of Paranormal Activity (on a budget of around $15,000) get millions at the box office. This has led to other supernatural horrors including The Woman In Black and The Conjuring. 

Science-Fiction

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
George A. Romero's "Dead" Series (1968-) 
Alien (1979)
The Thing (1982)
World War Z (2013)

Science-fiction horror films involve aliens in some way. We have no idea what they look like or even if they exist but for about eighty years cinema has given us an idea of what they might be like. They teach us about how we overcome zombies or aliens. Because of Cold War paranoia and the atomic bomb, most horror films made in America during the 50's were sci-fi films or mutated people, animals or plants to show the worst that could happen with society at that time. This led to films like the Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Hollywood blockbuster Alien (1979) gave the most realistic look at aliens and have spawned three sequels and a prequel. John Carpenter then remade The Thing based by The Thing From Another World (1951) from the sci-fi hay day in the 50's. In the late 60's, George A. Romero re-created zombies for today's societies, and does his "Dead" film every decade. 

Sequels and Remakes 

The horror genre like making sequels. Nearly every successful horror film has a sequel. Which is why the villain in horror films don't usually die, because then there wouldn't be a sequel. Especially with slasher films like A Nightmare On Elm Street, they remade many horror films in the 2000's for a new audience, suggesting that Hollywood are running out of ideas and using their old films for solutions.

History of Horror Films

Horror films have always been a part of cinema and have been around since the early stages of film. They have made a big impact on cinema in the twentieth and twenty-first century. 

1920's 

The first horror films were silent films. The German films, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and Nosferatu (1922) influenced many other films. Hollywood followed suit, with films including Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1920), The Phantom of the Opera (1925) and The Unknown (1927), all starring Lon Chaney. Chaney was Hollywood's first horror movie star. 

1930's - 1940's 

In the early part of the 30's, Universal Pictures in America began a successful Gothic horror film series. These included Dracula (1931) starring Bela Lugosi and Frankenstein (1931) starring Boris Karloff. Frankenstein was the first in a series which included the monster, with Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Son of Frankenstein (1939). Other films in the period were Freaks, The Invisible Man (1933), The Wolf Man (1941) Cat People (1942) and The Leopard Man (1943).  

1950's - 1960's 

With advances in technology, the genre focused more on contemporary themes in American horror. Many films focused on humans overcoming threats from aliens and mutations of people, plants and insects. These films included The Thing from Another World (1951), Tarantula (1955) and The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). In Britain, Hammer films focused more on Gothic themes from the thirties and re-created Frankenstein (1957) and Dracula (1958) and made successful sequels going into the sixties. In 1960, Alfred Hitchcock made Psycho, which is birth of the modern horror film. Hitchcock then followed Psycho with The Birds (1963). By the end of the 60's the counter-culture was building, and Rosemary's Baby (1968) and George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968), with Romero creating his his "Dead" series, were influential and successful and showed what was coming in the seventies. 

1970's - 1980's 

Following the success of Rosemary's Baby, many similar films followed suit including The Exorcist (1973) and the The Omen (1976) which saw the Devil as the villain impregnating women or possessing children. The ideas of the 60's started to influence 70's horror, with the counter-culture the focus in The Last House on the Left (1972), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and The Hills Have Eyes (1977). Romero created his 70's zombie film with Dawn of the Dead (1978) set in a shopping mall. Stephen King's novels started to be made into films with Carrie (1976) and The Shining (1980). By the late 70's, the "slasher" film was coming in with John Carpenter's Halloween (1978), Sean Cunningham's Friday the 13th (1980) and Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) were significant for horror movies. These films created many sequels, remakes and even a join up in Freddy vs Jason (2003). The films Jaws (1975) and Alien (1979) saw horror films start to become Hollywood blockbusters and not just 'B' movies. By the end of the 80's the low-budget gorefests became popular, with Sam Reimi's Evil Dead movies, Gremlins (1984) and Fright Night (1985) being prime examples.  

1990's - 2000's 

The 90's saw many sequels of the slasher films A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th and Halloween although The Silence of the Lambs (1991) was hugely successful. Other films including Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994) and Scream (1996) mimicked other horror films and made a lot of references to other films, especially Scream. These films were also teenage influenced and other films like I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and The Blair Witch Project (1999) were like this also. As CGI had advanced and special effects were better, some horror films that used CGI included Blade (1998) and House On Haunted Hill (1999). At the dawn of the new millennium, Hollywood decided to re-create the hay day of horror films, so remakes of Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Dawn of the Dead and Friday the 13th were made. Final Destination (2000) dawned more teen-focused horror like the Scream sequels. However the more successful horror films were the new genre known as "horror porn" with a lot of blood and gore. These include Saw (2004), Hostel (2005) and The Human Centipede (2009) which spawned many sequels. Zombie films have been reborn in the 2000's starting with the British films 28 Days Later (2002) and the comedy Shaun of the Dead (2004). This led veteran zombie director George A. Romero to make Land of the Dead (2005), Diary of the Dead (2007) and Survival of the Dead (2010). The films I Am Legend (2007) and Zombieland (2009) also helped the rebirth of zombie films which had disappeared in the 90's. 

2010's 

The 2010's have seen a fond for supernatural horror films including Paranormal Activity (2009), Insidious (2011) and The Conjuring (2013). Other supernatural horrors include The Women In Black (2012) and The Cabin in the Woods (2012) These have spawned many sequels due to their successes. There have also been remakes of Carrie and Evil Dead. There have also been a Hollywood blockbuster zombie film World War Z (2013) continuing the zombie rebirth from the 2000's and also many more sequels from the successful horror movies of the 2000's. 

Camera Shots

The different shot types I used in my video. This is to show when I used them and why I used that specific shot. Every shot that is used is significant during the film.

Shooting Schedule

On Thursday 9th January, we went out to start filming and get a taster and ideas about where to film our film. On that day we decided where we would film each cut. We also did a couple of cuts on the day which appear in our film. On the 10th we went to same location again. However, this time was to do the rest of the film. After filming we would look at the footage over that weekend and start editing the film on the following Monday and Tuesday. After editing the majority of the film on Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday would be going out filming again if any more improvements are necessary. 

Risk Assessment

The location that is being used for the video is in the woods. There are many hazards that could be at risk during filming, these include:

• falling in a river
• trip and break something, e.g. leg, arm, foot
• a tree or a branch falling over
• crossing a road
• crossing a train track