Typical Convention- Use of the mirror

This is a you-tube clip showing a montage of how many films use the scary, behind-the-mirror technique. It's a convention that is so over-used that films are making parody scenes of it. I am considering using this technique- to follow conventions so that you know something is going to happen, but also to make a twist on the technique.



Why do people enjoy being scared? Joe Bob Briggs, noted "drive in movie" critic, says that "We like to frighten ourselves so that everything else in our lives seems less frightening" Roger Ebert states that good horror movies "can exorcise our demons" ("The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"). Horror movies affect the watcher in tangible physical ways, as well. Fear stimulates the 'fight or flight' response, which kicks off with a rush of endorphins that make the body more alert, tighten the muscles, and slow down nonessential functions like digestion.

It is possible that the screen acts as a mirror to the audience, who is, after all, deceived as it believes the narrative it sees on the screen to be true when in fact it is merely another well constructed deception. The camera is able to go everywhere, see everything, and ultimately has no limits. The audience's feeling of power is enhanced further by the fact that they are sitting in a darkened, relatively unexposed, 'safe-feeling' auditorium, passively watching the lives of others.

So, what effect does it have to use mirrors within the film itself? Well, some would argue that through the use of mirror in film, the spectator itself is exposed and thrown into the action, no longer just a passive viewer of the action, but an active part of the action, rudely revealed or harshly thrown into the light and action. The safety and comfort of the auditorium is shattered as they become aware of their own vulnerability. Therefore, the cinematic screen becomes the 'mirror of childhood' described in Lacan's mirror stage. This awareness consequently produces an anxiety in the subject who is unsure whose point of view is being depicted, the on-screen characters or their own. This is made worse as the audience relates this experience to its childhood, where they may well have felt even more exposed and vulnerable. This could be the cause of making mirrors scary in film, and why it has been used so often.

Scariest film scenes:

http://www.filmsite.org/scariestscenes3.html

Focus Group

A focus group is a form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes towards a product. My focus group will include roughly 3-4 people, ranging from 18-45, some fitting into my target audience, and one that isn't- to determine their attitudes towards my trailer and whether they would pay to watch it or not. I will be examining their responses and asking them their thoughts about my storyline, techniques used in my trailer, poster and webpage. I have recorded an question and answer session in my focus group, where the focus group will ask me whatever they need/want to know.

Synopsis

'Son Of Perdition' is a thrilling horror, jam-packed with drama and theatrical psychology. We follow an 18-year-old male, Matthew Jones, as his life is intruded by a mysterious spirit when in the forbidden forest. It begins to possess him and his haunting obsession is revealed shockingly towards the end. With the help of an old, creepy medium, will his life ever be the same? And Is this spirit even real or the act of imagination? 

Representation of women

"The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object - and most particularly an object of vision: a sight" - John Berger in 'Ways of Seeing'. I think what he is saying that men objectify women when they look at them, and women watch themselves being looked at. The pleasure of looking is called Scopophilia. In my media product, I have unknowingly decided to use moderately attractive women through a fault of lack of choice. However, this may attract more males as a audience. I may also relate my trailer product with the Oedipus complex because it involves a brief connection between mother and son. Laura Mulvey (1975) states that psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud associates Scopophilia with "taking other people as objects, subjecting them to a controlling and curious gaze... at the extreme, it can become fixated into a perversion, producing obsessive voyeurs and Peeping Tom's whose only sexual satisfaction can come from watching, in an active controlling sense, an objectified other".
She argues that the environment of the cinema a "hermetically sealed world which unwinds magically" with its lack of light and inability to interact with other spectators produces the ideal environment for voyeurism where spectators can look in on a "private world". She also argues that the gaze of the male spectator is united with that of the male protagonist. They become one man, looking at women. As I am using a male protagonist, this may happen but hopefully the main content of horror will distract and take-away from this.
'Rear Window' by Alfred Hitchcock has influenced my product of representations. Although I have a male protagonist, he is also the victim which deliberately goes against the traditional representations. Similarly to this film, I previously decided I could of added an extra female to the trailer to represent how the camera will not embody the males 'gaze'. If I add in the main characters partner, there will not only be intertextual romance but similar to Rear Window, the man will be more occupied/disturbed by his observations than that of the girlfriend. I would use this if I was making an extension trailer or the whole film.

How the character changes

'1408' is about a man who specializes in debunking paranormal occurrences checks into the fabled room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel. Soon after settling in, he confronts genuine terror.

In films like these (another example is Phonebooth) the main male character is introduced as selfish and arrogant. Freytag's pyramid diagrammed every story's plot. However, In my opinion, I think one can similarly do this for a character and how what they've been through has changed them from start to finish. Perhaps the character deserves the incident they are placed in, and this is the purpose of the stories; to change morals. For example, the protagonist's mother told him not to go in the woods, yet he lied and he did enter the woods. Thus, he perhaps caused the 'problem' himself, like walking into a fire or the boy who cried wolf.

Freytag's pyramid consists of:

1. Exposition: introduces the characters and setting, providing description and background. (setting the scene).

2. Inciting Incident: something happens to begin the action. A single event usually signals the beginning of the main conflict. The inciting incident is often referred to as the complication.

3. Rising Action: the story builds and gets more exciting.

4. Climax: the moment of greatest tension in a story. This is often the most exciting event and the rising action builds up to this, and that of which the falling action follows.

5. Falling Action: events happen as a result of the climax and we know that the story will soon end.

6. Resolution: the character solves the main problem/conflict or someone solves it for him or her.

7. Denouement: the ending. At this point, any remaining secrets, questions or mysteries which remain after the resolution are solved by the characters or explained by the author. Sometimes the author leaves us to think about the theme or future possibilities for the characters which could result in another film.

The highlighted points are ones I will use in my trailer. As it is only a teaser trailer, these points will be brief and I will not reveal the ending or how to solve the problem.


Source: http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/freytag.html

Representation in 'This is England' compared to my own media product

I think This Is England is a gritty social realism film, which partially covers racial aspects through their culture. The main themes in the film are racism, violence and the 80’s skinhead society in which they live. These aspects are portrayed through their masculinity stereotype. A character that is strong, racist and violent and follows the masculine stereotypes is Combo. He acts like a father figure towards Shaun, by buying him new clothes and when they get close, Shaun shows his trust in him when they are racist and steal from a man’s shop. The rest of the gang see him as superior (he has been in prison which makes him more menacing). The director Shaun Meadow’s has constructed Propp’s hero and villain theory where each character is shown in a hierarchy status showing the individuals level of masculinity. It is clear that there is no prejudice portrayed through the representation of age as the young boy easily enters their gang and even has an older girlfriend. However, the representation of race is a highly controversial and important content. Although there is a man of different race in the gang, Combo deliberately intimidates ‘Milky’ when talking about England and the economic crisis. Combo is proud of his country and thinks that foreign people are taking white peoples jobs. I think Combo beats up Milky near the end because he is jealous. He realises that Milky has a nice, big family, where as Combo never had this or a dad to look up to. Because of this, he blames Milky’s race and this is the aspect which he takes his anger out on.




Unlike This Is England, my media product will not have any racism in it because my horror genre is all about the future, and I think many things have changed since the 80's. My product focuses more on the genre than its themes. However, similar to This Is England, I will be using violence. The type of violence and how it is used will be different. In This Is England, the violence includes destroying and vandalising houses (even though my character is a teenager he will not be doing this because it is not central to the plot) and fighting eachother, such as when Combo beats up Milky. My trailer will be targeted at niche audiences and therefore apart of arthouse cinema, as is This Is England. One way we can tell this is because there are no (extreme) special effects.


Representations in my media product:
Genre- A horror genre will be conveyed by the build up of tension through the clip. This will be shown by the use of dark lighting, shadows, edgy music, sound effects, vulnerability of the victim and fast cut editing.
Class- The small sized house represents working class. 
Gender- The gender representation is not stereotypical for a horror. By challenging conventions, I will make the male the victim. Also, a male is taking the dog for a walk, not a female which shows how the hierarchy of gender has changed from what it would have been in the 1980's.
Age- The teenager is the one to take the dog for a walk, while typically the mother of the boy tells the boy to be careful (stereotypical caring mother). 
Race- White-British.
Disability- None.

Health & Safety



I have visited http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/filmmaking/guide/production/health-and-safety in order for health and safety advice during filming. I have outlined in red the most important advice I need to follow. Because it will be getting dark in the forest, I will be bringing extra lighting equipment such as a torch. It also says at least one member of the crew needs to have an awareness of health and safety issues- ironically, last year I took part health and safety programme/course lasting for about half a day. It poses that horror films and films involving animals are most risky. As I am taking on both these assets, I will discuss with the actors/actresses the dangerous possibilities to be avoided. For example, the dog I will be using needs to be supervised at all times.

Five steps to risk assessment aims to help assess health and safety risks:

1. Identify the hazards
2. Decide who might be harmed and how
3. Evaluate the risks and decide on precaution
4. Record your findings and implement them
5. Review your assessment and update if necessary

Camera types and Iconography

Camera work is expressive rather than naturalistic. Using weird angles and canted cameras are common in horror films. They also contain, like most films and trailers, close-ups and point of view shots to express the characters fear/worry and to make the audience involved, intrigued and tensed up. For example, 'The Blair Witch Project' repeats the use of the close-up to examine the horrified expressions, and 'Cloverfield' uses point of view and canted angles to make it seem like the audience is there.
Iconography: Visual aspects can signify and determine the genre. Red and Black colours are used on horror film posters usually, and blue filters are added to fit the genre. Blue filter is a digital colour correction used in the editing process for an outcome of an eerie effect. Film makers used to go through the process of using filters on lights and camera, or get the footage exposed just the right way. It was expensive and difficult so there was a limited amount of people who could use it.

Questionnaire response

As you can see, 56% were females and 44% were male. These responses may be biased as most of my friends are female. It may also be because females are stereotypically more likely to help.
The majority of the people are in the 15-20 age range which means I need to target this age group. My questionnaire was clearly targeted at a small demographic of people, therefore my audience targeted will be a small amount of people (niche audiences).
Most people visit the cinema once a month according to these results. This is what I expected because when people go to the cinema, it is for an occasion or it is just to go with friends for something to do.
I got some detailed responses for number 4. Most of the audience like horror films, with some exceptions.
Overall, to determine a good trailer I need it to be an insighting storyline but not giving too much away, fast paced, intense music that gradually builds up and perhaps a voice-over so that it speaks the audience and involves them more.

Music rights

://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/filmmaking/guide/before-you-start/music-rights
This website outlines music rights in films, and this has helped me to understand incidental music, who owns the right to the music and legal guides.

diegetic and synchronous sound: speaking, car engine, footsteps, wind, leaves rustling, dog barking, screaming.
non-diegetic and asynchronous sound: voice-over, music, sudden jolts of sound.

I have considered using http://freeplaymusic.com/ to find and use music for my piece.
By searching in "horror" this is what I have found:



 


I have recently received an email from Vimeo, and it explains a new feature of theirs; a music store. I have looked on this website and I am considering using this to get my music for my media product.

Sound Effects

 

This is soundsnap.com, it is free to browse and preview all sounds. By looking on here, I have found some good sound effects and sounds I may use.



Exhibition and Distribution

The UK Film Council work to make non-mainstream films more accessible in three ways:

• Improving access – our Digital Screen Network is made up of 240 digital screens across the UK that now show non-mainstream films regularly.
• Raising awareness – Our Prints and Advertising Fund provides £2 million every year to help British distributors promote non-mainstream films.
• Increasing information – our website, http://www.findanyfilm.com/ is one of the UK's leading websites for film fans looking to watch, buy, download or rent great films

Unfortunately, the UK Film Council has been abolished, transferring it's responsibilities to the BFI. "From 1 April 2011, the British Film Institute (BFI) has become the lead body for film in the UK. Most of the UK Film Council's core functions have transferred to the BFI - including the distribution of National Lottery funding for the development and production of new British films, as well as audience development activity through supporting film distribution and exhibition."
This is revelant to my media product because I will have a low-budget, therefore my film will not be as mainstream as other, high-budget films. This is because I will not be able to afford professional editing technology, actors or distribution themes.

Channels for exhibition and distribution:
Broadcasting, cable, satellite, theatrical, non-theatrical, home video, audio, multimedia, corporate and in-house.

Once a film is made, these are some of the people to consider when I sell it to audiences, via cinemas, retailers and rental films across the UK:

McDonald and Rutter
One of the leading practitioners in the specialised world of film PR, it will champion a new feature in all areas of the media in a bid to give it as high a profile as possible to cinemagoers. McDonald and Rutter will also help with a film's UK launch. This means sitting down with the film's UK distributor and talking through the film's appeal and devising a media strategy. Would the film benefit from a lot or a small number of screenings? Once this strategy is in place, the company will then arrange press interviews and photo shoots to boost the film's profile.

Julia Short, Head of Marketing
Julia Short is a partner in Verve Pictures and a film marketing specialist, with credits including 'Silence of the Lambs' and 'Bullet Boy'.

Susan D'Arcy, Unit Publicist
"My remit includes working closely with the stills photographer, captioning all the photographic material. I work with the documentary team making the EPK (Electronic Press Kit) ensuring they get the material they need. I also write all the publicity material for the film. This involves interviewing all the actors and key crew to produce production notes for the press that explain the film and profile the people making it."

Here is a website to help what to do when exhibiting a film and how to, and if your eligible to, require a cinema licence;

Cinema City (Norwich) is an arthouse cinema, showing independent films aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. I have a low budget, which contributes as to why I will be using Cinema City to show my trailer and film.

Casting my actor

I have been organising which actors and actresses to use in my trailer. The main character role was the most important, so here's my procedure, expectations and who I have chosen, and why.
I began exploring profiles on Facebook, to see who looked the part. I narrowed it down to a few males and then contacted them in person and asked them if they would be available, and what acting experiences they had. Fortunately, I found Matthew Jones. He seemed intriqued into the film when I explained it to him, and he was available on the dates of the shooting. Although he hasn't had professional/paid acting experience, I can not afford to pay these type of actors anyway. Luckily, he had studied Drama at GCSE and gained a B grade.

Matthew is quite tall, with short brown hair and a medium build. This was perfect as I didn't want anyone who was too skinny because I wanted to challenge conventions; therefore wanted to cast a stereotypical male figure ('manly') so that I could turn conventions on the head and use him as a victim, rather than the villain. The last thing to do was getting him to sign a form, and begin filming.

Storyboard 1st draft