Final Evaluation Section 1

Our media product used and developed the forms and conventions of real horror movies. One stereotypical plot was teens getting lost in a remote environment and being killed off one by one.

My first example shot was chosen because it is set in a village in the afternoon which gives a feeling of security which will contrast with the later location, emphasising the darkness of the forest which aims to create a more tense atmosphere. In particular the afternoon sun light and the houses, which give a sense of safety. The teens getting into the car gives the audience a suspicion that the car may later crash or break down .This is dramatic irony (when the audience knows something the characters don't) which adds to the tension. The music starts off after the diagetic sound of the car being loaded up so that the loud slam of the doors shutting is emphasised to add confusion to the safe environment at the beginning.Once the music fades in it is calm, adding to the atmosphere of normality.

The next shot, of the car turning the corner, represents the characters going off the main road to a more remote place, which adds to a feeling of isolation and helplessness. The car music can be heard over the soundtrack which shows that the teenagers are careless, as well as not indicating when going round the corner, This makes them running out of oil more believable.The shadows show the sun going down which represents a transition between the safety of the day and village and insecurity of the night time and the forest. There are no other cars on the road which shows they are alone.

The low camera angle in the next shot emphasises that they are off a normal road, in the mud and isolated. Voices can be heard over the music which allows the audience to hear clearly that the characters are in trouble. The music is beginning to speed up at this point, gradually increasing the tension. With tensions between the characters they are in a more vulnerable position. The character in the green hoodie is not included because that way the clothing is darker reflecting the change in mood.

The mist in this shot adds mystery and the idea that anything could happen. It also suggests that something or someone could be hiding in this dark, obscured woodland. The lighting has trees silhouetted against the light which makes a contrast. The panning shot allows the audience to get a better sense of their surroundings which are crucial to the feeling of eeriness and they are surrounded by water which gives a sense of isolation.
Because of the hand held camera they relate more with the characters so they feel more scared. This technique was used in "The Blair Witch Project".

The sudden change of music in this shot, along with the word "Alone" helps the audience empathise with the characters to realise just what a bad situation they are in. The combination of the change in music and the word alone adds to a shift in the mood which creates tension.

This scene was filmed using a low angle shot. We used this angle because the axe was hanging high up in a tree. By having branches behind the axe instead of simply just plain sky it creates more uncertainty for the auidence because the shot only lasts for a few seconds it is unclear whether it is an axe hanging in the tree or just a pattern made by the branches. When editing our production we faded the corners of the shot. This was to emphasise the fact that it was getting dark and also make it seem like the dark was closing in on the characters. 

To get enough light into the shed that we filmed this part of the trailer in we had to use a torch and light the candles. Instead of pretending that the torch was not there and that it was just providing light for the scene, we included it as a prop earlier in the trailer so it seemed deliberate. We used a hand held point of view shot in the shed so the audience could witness the unusual objects which were on the shelf but they could do so from the point of view of one of the characters from inside. The diegetic sound of the door slamming at then end of the shot leads the audience sharply into the next scene.

The hand help camera technique shows one of the characters running through the forest. This technique makes the audience unsure on what could be chasing the character. We decided to aim the camera at high up so the shot did not look too dark. Also by doing this it showed the over hanging branches, which gives an air of spookiness. At this point the music is at its quickest which shows this is the climax of the trailer.   

Our poster

Here is our final poster that would be used to advertise our film.  The poster has been made up from two different pictures that have been layered on top of each other and with changed transparency levels so that one shows through less. We chose to use this effect because while researching posters we found a number of different posters which had done it and gave a strong visual effect, for example "The Abandoned". By layering the photographs in this way it creates a ghostly effect, this makes the poster seem more eery and therefore relate to the genre of film we are trying to advertise. The clearer picture of the pond and the trees was taken from the same place that we filmed a scene in our trailer. This will suggest to our audience that the water may be a significant part in our film, even though we have not made this obvious in our trailer, so as not to spoil too much of the plot.

The typical, generic conventions we found when researching posters were: they all include the title of the film, a portrait layout, the production companies and distributors names, usually an age rating and all of the posters linked to the genre of film they were trying to advertise. The conventions that were specific to the horror genre were: they had a tag line that would be catchy, scary fonts were used for wording and most of them were not just a clear image. For example some of them were masked by fog, darkness, another image layered on top or simply distorted. So far we had applied almost all of these factors to our poster so that our end result would be more likely a success. However we chose not to set out poster out in the typical portrait style but instead to do the opposite and have the lay out landscape. We thought by simply having the orientation different to most other posters it might help to draw in the potential customer more, because by seeing a different style of poster they may then think that our film is going to have something different about it compared to all the other films in the horror genre.