Foundation Portfolio: Reflective Evaluation Question 1-Emily Pyrek

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

The following images are for our sub genre of our horror film. I have used them to give me an idea of what we could use for our own title sequence.

1 image of a logo from an existing film:

Below is an image of the logo from the film 'The Ring'. This logo is shown on the DVD front cover. I think it represents the film very well as the bright white light shows that there is something underneath the black hole that is bursting to get out (this represents Samara wanting to come out of the well). The black and white colours and the fuzzy lines across the centre of the picture show that the main character may come across as quite dark and mysterious (like her hair and make-up) but may be quite bright and bubbly personality wise (like her white night gown/dress). The squiggly, choppy lines across the screen represent the television screen when it is static (after the characters watch the film and then the telephone ring and that appears on the screen before an image of the well that Samara is in pops up. The writing is in a 'chalk-board' style font because it is representing Samara's child like hand writing as she is a young teenage girl. This shows that she is the main character that is taunting whoever watches the film.

The ring Logo:       
                                    
 







  






 Our Logo:

                                                                 

Above is an image of our logo, we wanted a tea stained background to create a strange feeling as to why/what made her spill her cup of tea, did someone scare our character? We wanted our logo to have a 'type writer' kind of font as that fits in well with our story line of the character being a student journalist/writer in which she needs a ink filled type writer. The red full stop at the end is to symbolise a danger or warning what the character may come across. It is a full stop because that symbolises the end of something. What happens to the character at the end?

1 image of titles from an existing film:

Below are 3 still images from The Shining, Paranormal Activity and The Bourne Identity. The first image shows a ELS with a car going on a long empty road. This shows that the people in the car are going somewhere that is quiet and noone visits because up in the mountains and isnt really people friendly. The writing is bold and in capitals so it sticks out-you are able to read the titles clearly whilst being able to see what is happening behind the text. The second image is very basic, the background is black and that represents darkness and mystery withing the film. The red writing represents blood and gore and all the horror that may happen in the film. The blurred effect means that the film may not come across as clear and that you will have to concentrate on what is actually happening-the brain will have to think. The third image also has a black background that could mean the same thing as what is happening in the second image. The black is questioning your thoughts. When the titles come in the letters are all mixed up which could symbolise that the film is unclear at the beginning. The blue represents coldness of the people in the film.

Our Own Title Sequence:

Above is an image I took from one of our own title sequence. We wanted the shot to be at eye level so you are able to read it as soon as it came on the screen. We chose to split the titles up in seperate parts as we wanted it to be quite simple yet unique, without ruining what is actually happening in our film. Instead of over exposing it with SFX and computerised graphic design, we chose to keep it quite subtle but with a unique, artistic swist. At the beginning we looked at our title sequence unedited but decided that it looked quite bland and boring, so we added a slight touch of SFX of jump cuts and scratches to the shots, to create a different opening to our film and to keep our audience interested.

1 image from an existing sub-genre:

The still image below from The Shining automatically tells you what the sub genre is. The two girls show that they are vulnerable and scared as they were happily playing in corridor outside their hotel room. The chair on the far left hand side shows that somebody must of been sat waiting for the girls to come out of their room, the way it has fallen to the ground shows the person sat on it, got up in a rush to do what he did. The axe and the blood symbolise what the mass murderer did to those girls to end up in a way that they did. The killer must have used the axe and cut the girls up to make their blood splatter on the walls and on the floor in a disgraceful way. The murderer must of panicked and ran away which is why the pictures on the walls are slanted and the axe is left in the middle of the floor.

 

1 image from our own sub genre film:

Below is an image of our subgenre from our own film. The canted CU represents our sub genre very well as it shows facial expression, especially in the eyes that she is feeling fear, you notice this because it is well in line with the rule of thirds, so then the audience is forced to relate with her emotions. The CU feels quite tight as it closes her in making her feel chlostrophobic and that she is trapped by the threat and she cant do anything about it. The canted angle makes the audience feel abit uneasy and confused-the same way the character feels, because of this you know that the threat is all in the mind, so you expect that the subgenre is pychological.

 

 

1 image from an existing film:

The image below instantly recognises itself that it is a zombie horror film. You can notice this by the way the characters are dressed and the background of where the film is set. You know the main character in this film is a zombie is because of their make-up (green, mouldy looking skin colour, flesh and blood on their skin and drooling of the mouth and walking in a strange way) The clothes are falling to pieces and the environment that they are in is scruffy and polluted with rubbish thrown all over the streets. It looks as though the zombies are all chasing the same thing as they are all going in the same direction.

1 image from our own film:

Above is an image from our own film, the MLS/MS show her body language on how she is acting. The dark smart/casual costume show that she is intelligent yet mysterious at the same time, she is hiding her dark side. Her posture and the way she is standing (legs closed stood tightly together, arms held close to her body) show that she is insecure and uncomfortable towards her surroundings. Although she is on the phone, her facial expression reveals that she feels quite scared. The shot shows her on her phone, this shows that she is quite popular and that she is socialising, she is telling her 'friend' that she has a deadline so she doesnt have the time to see her friends, as she is well motivated towards her work. As she is socialising this fits in perfectly with the stereotypes of teenagers/young adults as how people see them as 'stuck to their phone'. Although the character doesnt fulfil all of the teenage stereotypes , she fits in perfectly with our sub genre, as young teenage girls are often seen as the victim as they are naive and vulnerable.

1 image of mise-en-scene from an existing film:

In the image below The mise-en-scene in this particular scene shows that they are in a corridor of what looks like a old hotel of some sort as there are rows of doors and a basic colour scheme of peach with a floral blue wallpaper. The OSS and the angle of the camera shows that it is in line with the little boy and is showing where he is wanting to go and what he is looking at. The lighting is quite dull over the little boy as he is not the main priority, however, as the lighting is mainly focused on the twin girls stood at the end of the corridor, it shows that they are the most important. Because they are stood up and the little boy is sat down on his tricycle, it symbolises that the girls are over powering the little boy by forcing him to cycle over to them as there are two of them and the little boy is vulnerable as he is on his own with only the tricycle to back his status up. The red jumper that the little boy is wearing symbolises torture and blood that may happen to the boy later on in the film. The blue dresses what the girls are wearing and the blue carpet and wall paper symbolise fear and coldness of the atmosphere.

1 image of mise-en-scene from our film:

 Above is an image of mise-en-scene from our own film. The setting shows that it is quite a large home, as the room is quite big. The furniture in that room show that it is dated so maybe it is passed down from older generations or she is living with her parents/grand parents at the time. The way she is reaching for her cup of tea show that she is comfortable in her own environment as she looks quite relaxed by the way she is slounching in her chair. The MS of the character show her costume, we are able to see that she is the average girl, so doesnt feel the need to dress up like most teenagers, she is wearing smart/casual clothing to show that although she is doing quite a professional job role, she isnt actually in a professional environment, this shows she is well driven and very committed to her profession. The reason we have chosen to shoot our film in a house is because when looking at other sub genre's, we have discovered that most psychological horrors are shot in the home as this is where the character feels relaxed and safe, but as the threat develops they discover that they have nowhere to hide so therefore are no longer 'safe' in their home. The lighting in our film is very appropriate throughout the whole of our film. In the beginning the lighting is quite natural as the threat hasnt arrived yet, however, later on when the threat is introduced the lighting becomes more artificial as we use shadows and flickering to show that the threat is there.

4 key images from an existing film:

The 4 still images below represent adults mental stability within a film. This film is very stereotypical as it shows males as the powerful, dominant ones. In this case, the male is the one with the axe which shows that he is in charge and has the main priority as he has the weapon-he is wanting to scare the woman he is trying to get at. The next image shows that women are the weak and vulnerable ones yet still powerful even though she is sat on the floor scared for her life as the axe comes through the door, she is gripping on to her knife to show that she has some sort of power over the male. In the next clip, although you cant see the mans weapon, you can see it within his body language. The look of threat in his piercing eyes and the grit of his teeth show that he is angry and his adrenaline is rushing through his body as he is trying to lure himself into the bathroom where the woman is sat fearing for her life. However, in the next clip, the woman seems as though she has all the power and mental stability as she is fighting back to regain her status as the strong, dominant female. She is holding the baseball bat as though she is ready to hit whatever may come in her way but still looks uncomfortable to do so. Her facial expression looks as though she is scared of what she is about to do, however her body language is still quite close to her body so she doesnt look as keen and confident as she may look with the bat in her hand. The bat makes her look stronger than what she is. 

4 key images from our own film:

                   

 

 

Unlike the 4 key images from The Shining, our film doesnt actually show the threat physically, instead ours show the threat mentally as you are not able to see the threats face. We have used a wide range of camera shots and angles to create fear and to help the audience relate to the character. The use of canted angles make the audience feel confused and uneasy as the angles question your mind. The use of camera shots create mixed feelings towards the character as different shot create different meanings, for example, in order to relate to how the character is feeling we have used CU and MS to be able to see facial expression and body language and LS to show setting. We have used a variety of shots to not only to make the audience engage with the character but to also make our film more seem less boring and more interesting and enjoyable to watch.