Towards the end of our film we were trying to create horror by having Lucy sat with her friend Emily-Jane and the camera is a mid-length shot of them both, then cut to the teacher Simon and then back to the shot before but with Lucy sat on her own. This is like at the end of the film The Uninvited where the girl is stood with her sister and then the camera cuts to her dad and then back to her on her own covered in blood and holding a knife.
‘The Theory of Entertainment’ by Richard Dyer states that a person picks films that show or give them something they don’t have at the time. For example if a person is lacking abundance then they will watch a film with lots of money, cars or clothes in it. This is a film that shows wealth.
We were trying to achieve a sense of fear, confusion and suspense with the audience when making both our film and our two sources of advertisement. It was reflected in our poster by the way we used dull colours but with a splash of white around the main character Emily-Jane to make her stand out, as we were hoping she did in the film. Also, the old fashioned writing may imply it has something to do with something from the past. We decided to have Lucy and Emily-Jane on the poster as they are the main characters and this is how most posters are set out. This is shown in the poster for the film ‘Date Night’. It is an image of both Steve Carell and Tina Fey who are the main characters in the film. We then repeat the writing ‘chasing her ghost..’ all down the left hand side of the poster. This is to show an annoyance or something that is in the film that the character may not be able to get rid of. In our film this would be her mental illness.
Our other source of advertisement was a radio trailer. We used a piece of music which was performed by only a piano. This same piece is repeated over and over which creates a creepy feel to the audience. We used voices of the same pitch so that it creates a better sense of panic when we use the extracts from the film. This is due to the big difference in the tone of voice. We then added an echo on to the voice of the character; this dragged it out and enforced a sense of confusion and suspense on to the audience as they aren’t sure what’s happening but will want to find out by seeing it.
The film Law abiding citizen uses music from a piano at the beginning of the trailer. When a climax occurs though the music changes and speeds up. The music is usually background music on a trailer so that the voice of characters or the narrator can still be heard. But the music plays the biggest past as it implies to the audience the type of film it’s going to be. In our trailer it is the same all the way through which will cause confusion as it gives nothing away about the film.
When we first got our brief we decided we wanted to make a storyline with a twist at the end of it. This way they will think they know what’s happening all the way through the film and then at the end it will get them thinking as they realise they are far from the truth. To help us with our choice of film I conducted some research using a questionnaire. It consisted of questions that would help us with our choice on what genre to use. In my results I found that most short films were seen on the internet site http://www.youtube.com/ by the audience. It then came to my attention that within horror films was murder and rape. Second to this was sex and drugs. Therefore we had to make up our own mind as it would be virtually impossible for us to include any of the other 4 aspects in a five minute film. We then asked the same question but with what they don’t like to see and the results showed that they didn’t like to see what they previously liked. This implied to me that the people taking part in my questionnaire were either not taking it serious or just ticking any of the boxes.
So that what was happening in the film was apparent to the audience we took several different shots every time we filmed. These included shots from different angles, with different amount of lighting and in different parts of the room or college. We used cuts of previous parts of the film to represent Lucy’s flashbacks. We also used special effects to make Emily-Jane disappear then re-appear in the room with Lily. Finally we experimented with saturation and colour effects. This lead to the decision that we would change to a three or four toned colour then change it back to its original colour. This caused it to look like a flash and created a spooky effect.
Our film was aimed at teenagers so we used characters of the same age so they were easy to relate to. For example, Lucy being the victim of a bullying problem meant that any teenagers being bullied could relate to her and it may encourage them also to talk to someone. This made the characters easy to understand as they were teenagers suffering real life problems. Although, the older generation who like psychological thrillers may also be classed as our target audience. In my opinion our film was easy to understand all the way through until the end we intentionally set out to confuse people with the twist. We found out that this technique worked when we got audience feedback. The participants said that they thought it was ‘unpredictable’ and a ‘good idea’.
A problem with our film may be the regional accent. Although, there are no regional words used but the pronunciation of words may be different to how others say them. This may lead to a mixture of interpretations with the audience or for them to be confused with what the characters are saying.
When I was planning and researching before the film making process I used the website http://www.blogger.com/. I created an account and posted all my research and planning on the site. We used http://www.google.com/ to find out any information we needed for the film. An example for this is when we were deciding on a certificate. I also posted my poster analysis, the poster I designed, my analysis of a five minute film and all the diary extracts I wrote after days of filming. Apple Mac’s were the computers we were on to do all our planning, research and any other work that was needed. Photoshop was another computer programme which helped us with our other advertising product, our poster. We had several lessons to give us information on how to use this programme and what tools to use for best results.
The video recorder we used was a Sony HDV 1000. A tri-pod was used as a stand for the camera so that it was a still and even shot. To make sure of this I would check the spirit level on the top of the tri-pod and alter the legs until the bubble was central. For our radio trailer we used a H4 zoom recorder. This was easy to use; although we were given a sheet with the instructions on to prevent us making any mistakes.
When editing our film we used software called ‘Final Cut Express’ this was very useful with the production of our film and made it a lot easier for us. Garage Band was a programme we used to add audio clips to the film such as the alarm clock.
All the technology we used was a big attribute to the production of our film, poster, movie trailer and the research and planning we did. I found the website http://www.blogger.com/ difficult as I didn’t know how to make my name visible on the blog’s wall. I used the camera a lot so I found this was the easiest source of equipment for me. I developed my filming skills, using a variety of shots and techniques such as zooming and panning. I also liked to get a number of different shots so that there would definitely be one that we liked and wanted to use. The programmes on the computer played the biggest part on helping us develop our film as they made it possible to add special effects, such as audio clips and change of colours on certain shots. It also let us cut off parts off the shot we didn’t want.
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