1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products
In our media piece, (The Woman in White), we stuck to the conventions
of having the woman dying and then using lots of blood and a knife to conform to the horror genre. However, with mise-en-scene, we subverted lighting and setting as we did not use the dark lighting and it was not set in an isolated building or house. This shows that we subverted the genre as we decided to go against the traditional views of Gothic Horror and decided to put our own spin on it to show that we understand the genre and would have been able to change some things within the conventions and still make the film work. We also did not conform to the typical gothic fashion of having dark clothing, we only used dark clothing for one character, which was the murderer, for the rest of the characters, we used light colours - for example, the bride was in white which would have made her look pure and innocent. With character, we still had an antagonist but no protagonist, which would have gone against the traditional gothic horror conventions. With the camera work, we did match the conventions of gothic horror as we used Close-Up Shots on the characters faces so that we could show their emotions and also show their reactions to things within the current scene. This shot can also make the audience feel uncomfortable, especially if you have an extreme close up on a character. We also used Long Shots to show what was going on in the scene and also show that we could show the audience the surroundings and establish what could be happening next. Our Handheld Shots were used to add a sense of reality within the scene and make the audience feel like they are there with the characters, this can then also make the audience feel like they are on the edge of their seat because they do not know what is going to happen next to the characters they are currently seeing. Also with sound, we stuck to the to having the non-diegetic sounds throughout which would then increase the fear in audiences as it would make them feel uncomfortable as the music would make them feel uneasy about the film itself. This is evident at the very beginning of the video when all the characters are introduced - this uneasy music plays right up to the death of our female character. Sound can also be used to emphasise the sub-genre that is being used which can also increase fear within the audience.
Our product has conformed to the conventions of gothic horror with the camera shots as they show the audience the different feelings and facial expressions each character may have and can also show the setting around the characters. We also conformed to the gothic horror conventions with sound as it was used to make certain points of our film to scare the audience. We wanted to use some traditional conventions because we wanted to have a traditional side to the sub-genre. However, we also did not conform to the traditional gothic-horror conventions as we wanted to change things around a bit and make it different to all the other gothic-horror films that are around. With changing the conventions, we changed things to do with setting and lighting as we did not have any dark lighting within our piece nor did we have any isolated settings to make it a traditional gothic-horror. We did this because we wanted to make this film our own and be completely different to any other gothic-horror which had already been released previously.
We matched specific conventions with the camera shots, for example, we used close up shots when trying to make the audience feel uncomfortable at the very end of the film when Emily's face was extremely close up with the camera, we also had a specific convention with the hand-held camera movement so that there would be a sense of realism within the film, making the audience feel like they were there with the characters. We used these two conventions because they were two of the main ones that are used within gothic horror and camera work is one of the main things that people focus on when they are watching films as that is also something that makes them feel on the edge of their seat, or uncomfortable, which is something that every person who makes a gothic horror film wants to have. We also used an antagonist within our film which made up our storyline as he was our killer in the beginning.
Questions in the Vox Pops
1. Do you enjoy watching Gothic Horror?
2. What do you think of The Woman in Black?
3. What do you think of our film idea?
4. Do you think the killing of the woman will be too soon?
5. Would you change our film idea?
6. What's your favourite part of our idea?
7. What's the worst part of our idea?
8. Do you like the storyline so far?
9. Do you think the setting matches the genre?
10. Out of 10, what would you rate our idea?
11. Would you watch our film opening when finished?
After we received the answers for our questionnaire, we found that they were mostly positive with only a few things they thought that needed to be changed throughout the whole thing.
In the first question, when asked if they liked watching Gothic Horror, most people said that they did like watching that type of genre because of the 'gripping storylines' and 'strong plotlines' that are within the films. This was quite positive for us as a group because it made us think more that Gothic Horror was more popular with people around the age of 16 - which is the target audience that we have gone for.
In the second question, when asked if they liked the film 'Woman in Black', the people we interviewed said they were first of all surprised at the age certificate that it was rated at but also did really like the film because of the fact that it was based on the book and also because it was quite different to other Gothic Horror films they had seen beforehand. However, there was a little controversy within this question as one person thought it was a film that started to 'show cracks' as you watch it more than once. This was also quite good for us because it gave us an insight into what people actually thought of Gothic Horror stories that are originally based on books, whether it was positive or negative.
In the third question, when they were all asked what they thought of our film idea, they told us that they thought it was a good idea because 'everyone loves a bit of revenge' and another said they would like to see how it would unfold, others seemed to think it sounded pretty cool and 'badass'. These responses are quite good for us because it shows that people think we have developed a good idea and would in the future, want to see how it unfolds.
In fourth question, we asked them if they thought the killing of the woman at the beginning of the film was too soon, some said that it's never too soon in a horror film to kill someone, as it could still be a good film and drag you in to then watch more of it, however, one person told us that it was too soon to kill someone at the beginning because "you need build up" and "to establish a proper plot before you go in with the gore". Despite the different opinions, this was a good response for us because the majority of people thought it was fine to kill someone within the first scene as it could still create tension for the rest of the film and also make it a little creepy.
In the fifth question, we asked them if they would change our film in any way, positively, they all said they would not change it as it sounds like a 'pretty solid idea' but some people said they would like to know all the detail first before they could make a decision about whether they would change anything at all. This response was good for us because it made us a little more confident about our idea and it also should that people liked the idea we had thought of and didn't really want to change much about it.
In the sixth question, we asked these people what their favourite part of our idea was and they all said that the revenge was a good part of the film as it runs all the way through the film and is quite significant throughout. Another two said that the plot twist at the beginning was good as it shaped the whole piece. The fact that they thought that their favourite parts of the film were mostly the tension and revenge as that was one of the main things we wanted to focus on throughout.
In our seventh question, we asked what the worse part of our idea was, for some, the music as it wasn't quite eerie enough and it didn't quite set the scene for them as much as it could. After we had the feedback from them, we did go and see what kind of music we could use to make it more eerie.
For our eighth question, we asked them if they liked our storyline so far and they said it was very gripping because it makes you want to find out what's going to happen and it is also developing to be a good story . This is good for us because they made us feel positive about what they said about our film piece.
When they were asked if they thought the setting matched the film genre, they said that it depended on what the actors, directors and producers made use of what was around them and another told us we needed to use more of the forests that were around us to make it more creepy.
We also asked them what they would rate our film out of ten, the most common answer was 7 and that it could potentially change if they saw the film once it was completely finished. Getting this number was good for us because they had given us a high rating before we had even finished the whole thing and that they could potentially give us a higher rating if they saw it again.
And finally, we asked them if they would consider watching our film, and thankfully, they all said they definitely would, which is very good for us as we already have people who want to see if even though they have just heard snippets from the film idea.
In our film, we start off with a wedding in which you see both the bride and groom getting ready to go down to their registry office type thing, as you see Emily just finishing getting ready, she is then told she needs to go down as she only has five minutes left, as they start to walk downstairs, you hear a bang and then Emily stops and looks around, then all of a sudden Tommy comes out of the lift and slits her throat, then it moves on to 5 years time and you then see a relationship between myself and Tommy, you also find out that my character was behind the whole murder situation as she was a jealous sibling. This then moves onto both of those characters being stalked by Emily as it is the five year anniversary of her death.
This is our filming schedule which shows all the dates in which we filmed all the scenes and all that would be involved during these shoots.
Locations
This picture shows the different locations which we filmed in and who we would then need permission from and when we would be filming each of the scenes.
For the costume, we chose to have Emily look like a traditional bride and wear a white dress, we made her look as if she was a pure character as she is wearing white.
However, her costume changes during the film as she is killed and has been dead for five years and has now come back to haunt two people who were around at the time of her death. With her costume, we used make-up to make her look dead and we also dirtied her dress to make her look like she had been in the ground for a long time.
We also used fake blood to make Emily's wound on her neck look even more real and then allowed the blood to trickle down her neck onto her dress before we then filmed any of the scenes with her in.
This font would be good in horror film which is less scary and has both the genre of horror and comedy. However, you could also use this font in a horror film as it could still work as you could have the dripping down parts as blood which would be quite scary and could potentially make people feel uncomfortable.
This font would be quite good for a horror film because, where it has the cuts in the font, it makes it look like it has blood spatters (the white parts of the font) which would reflect the thought of death and the horror genre as death is a re-occurring convention in the horror genre. In addition, the broken text also reflects on the word 'Imsomnia' as when someone has imsonia they cannot sleep a full cycle and therefore have a broken cycle and therefore feel broken, similar to the font.
