A New Year

A New Year has started and i am happy to post that Me and my teammates (Mediatronics Productions) have already started creating the prototype of our next short film this year. We have gone through a lot together and i personally believe that this years short film will be more professional , enjoyable and of better quality than our last short film "Sweet Vengeance". This short film will be of the Thriller genre. We have just made out a rough outline of our story and characters yet, but having time , we hope that our film will be fully ready in two months time. The software that i am planning to use for Video Editing this time around would be Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 and Adobe After Affects CS5(Since my laptop can now support the Creative Suite 5 Versions now). Sony Vegas Pro for Audio Editing etc.We have decided that this new short film of ours should not only be fiction itself but a mixture of Fantasy and Reality. We want this short film to be appealing to wider audience and thus we have decided to make this film on a topic that can be understood by all.(We have a few ideas but our topic is not final yet). We have moved on from the horrifying clutches of "Sweet Vengeance" to a more ground reality (non-fictional) world of Thriller and Suspense.

Furthermore , our teacher Ms.Fauzia gave us a marked assignment of analyzing 3 Media Products (short films in our case) , related to the same genre that we plan to make our movie on. (Thriller).

NEW YORK(2009)
Being closely related to our genre , New York is a 2009 Bollywood Thriller Film on the cruelty on Muslims in the U.S.A after 9/11. Mostly , Thrillers films follow certain conventions such as quickly cutting and changing shots in action sequences and juxta-position , which is followed in New York as well. The main protagonist and the FBI have all been shown MALE. This is a popular code/convention of Thriller movies which many do not seem to notice.(Most characters in such films are Male , rather then female). This film has used a variety of shots , which are noticeable in movies of the same genre. For example : at one point (Climax) the action sequence is slowed down to create enigma among the audience. This is popular among other Thriller films such as SALT(2010) and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE(1996). Point of view shots are also common in Thriller/Suspense films which are plentiful in New York(2009). Inspired from this film and some others , we plan to use the Point of View/Masking technique to our fullest in our upcoming short film. New York and other thriller films also quickly switch scenes and the pace of the film. For example : The character may be talking to a couple of buddies in one shot and the next scenes may be a car chase. New York also displayed this characteristic by switching back and forth between action sequences which made the film more interesting to follow and watch till the end.

SALT(2010)
Salt is a film about a Russian spy(Angelina Jolie) sent to the US to infiltrate a covert operation. It has broken many conventions. Firstly , usually in films , the female gender is shown weaker than its male counterpart. This is not the case in Salt. Angelina Jolie(Salt) has been shown leaping across rooftops and ledges throughout New York City. In one scene, She jumps off from a bridge to escape. This is a convention broken by this film. Salt's action sequences are top notch and completely follow the codes and conventions of Thriller/Action movies. They involve Salt fleeing the scene with FBI patrol after her. She reaches a point where she has to face the FBI in hand-to-hand combat. (Strangely enough) , the FBI does not seem to fire at her when she is at her most vulnerable. Salt is probably the most diverse thriller film i have seen to date in terms of Camera Movements and Panning. The panning and the variety of shots in Salt in both conventional and beautiful. I am planning to use some of those shots in our upcoming short film.

THE GODFATHER(1972)
The famous Godfather is more of an epic crime thriller but contains all the important characteristics of a regular thriller/action film. The Godfather has a different story to what we are planning to make in our short film but the codes and conventions of the film are whats inspiring. Firstly, a convention has been followed that the main gangster(The Godfather) is always of male gender. The powerful male is shown to beat up his wive(s)/mistress(s) , (yes , he has more than one wife) probably as a sign of superiority over the female gender. This convention has been followed in the Godfather. In thriller movies , the usage of Point-of-View Shots and Over-the-Shoulder shots are very common , which is what has been put into the Godfather, the opening sequence of The Godfather begins with an Over-the-Shoulder shot of a man begging for the Godfather's help. In particular crime/thriller/action movies , the dominant male(gangster/don) has been shown to have mistresses/prostitutes and surprisingly the wive(s) do not mind. Scarface(1983) is another example of such a film.

Sweet Vengeance

Final Film Sweet Vengeance


Premier of our Film

Nearly done with the Final Project and Storyboard

Shooting my final film

Final Started my final Project

Experimenting with Camera Angles (implemented in Sweet Vengeance)

Adobe Premier Pro (Implemented in Sweet Vengeance)

Final Film Logo

Film Film Logo

This post contains the logo of my final film (compared to the logo of Twisted Pictures) the company responsible of many successful films of the horror/slasher genre. We decided to make one for our team and final film. (Sweet Vengeance). We made the logo on Adobe After Effects CS4.

Audience Research

For our target audience , we carried out a group interview to find out which age groups are more interesting in watching films of the slasher/horror genre. The result was that mostly young adults tend to watch movies of the genre.
It is particularly true that we are also in the age group (age 15-21) and so we were able to relate this to our own personal preferences as well. Lastly , we were able to create a media product very similar to what we(as an audience) would also enjoy and like.
Also during the interview we also noticed that young teens and people in their early twenties were actually not irritated/annoyed/bored throughout the movie but they themselves wanted to sustain the "frightening feel".
Although most teens enjoy movies of the horror genre but there are still some older people(middle aged etc) who still enjoy the movies of the slasher genre to date.
Below is the result of our interview:

Premier of our Film

23rd of February 2011,

We had a screening of our final film along with other classmates films in our school conference room. It was a pleasant experience of us as we were first time makers. We also noticed the audience's reactions and analyzed them. We came to know that even though most females do not like films of the slasher/horror genre , most of the females still liked our films. They were involved in the action and seem to "go with the flow" , this means that during the scenes where we tried to create enigma (we could actually see enigma building up by analyzing the audience's reactions. This was very motivating and encouraging for first timers like us , we could actually see our hard work paid off finally. Me and my teammates were very happy with our film but still some changes needed to be made. (Updated) : we have corrected our film again and i have uploaded the final edited film on my blog.

Furthermore , we also distributed questionnaires after the premier of our film. I have uploaded them(below).

Final film "Sweet Vengeance"

This is our final film:

Evaluation of the Final Project (QUESTION 1)

Q.1 In what ways does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media

products ?

There are indeed many forms and conventions used in our final project, which are also seen in real media products. For example: in many movies of the slasher/horror genre the "action" is not fast paced and is more moderate paced. Some scenes indeed lack action and it is the skill of the filmmaker that is

put to use in these kind of shots(to build up enigma in such shots).

Firstly, in most slasher movies enigma builds up when the "victim" (which in my case is a male)

has no clue of what will happen to him. He is going on with his everyday life when the viewers are

shown "Semiotics" or signs which help them identify that something will happen to the victim.

There are many examples of such films for example House of Wax, Glass House: The Good Mother,

Saw 2 and Saw 3. But the movie which most closely resembles ours is Glass House: The Good Mother.

The opening scene begins with the Victim (male) going about his everyday life with his wife. The use of

Semiotics can easily be identified for example: the first shot begins with the wife cleaning the sink and we can clearly see

 blood which develops tension in audience's mind(they are sure that something is just not correct about the woman) / gives the impression of a sociopath.

(when the victim is about to put fresh fish for his wife to cut in the same sink we saw earlier, the wife does not approve. This indirectly tells the audience that the woman may be disagreeing because of a number of reasons.Some strings are left unattached so that the audience can make up their own story(on a number of occasions).

This gives the audience a sense that the "killer" is either mentally disabled or is

a "sociopath". The killer is of course the woman , as semiotics have been used to "display" her as a unique character.

We have also used various semiotics in our movie to create enigma so that the audience

Won’t be able to take their eyes off the screen, for example: when the victim of our movie returns home, his

television set is already running and also the signal has been disrupted. This alerts the audience to ask themselves whether someone

 is hiding in the house waiting to strike. This results in enigma and a sense of horror and anticipation. (also the disrupted signal on the TV has been used in a number of movies before so that in itself is a code for the audience and when they see it they know something is wrong- and it symbolizes the isolation of the victim.)

Above: A screenshot of the television signal disruption from our movie. When the victim enters the house, the

television is already on and the signal is disrupted. A sign that somebody may have already intruded into the

house before the victim.

Secondly, sound is an extremely important component in horror films. Thus we took plenty of time

deciding on the sound. I have followed the conventions of real media products with my sound effects/tune which is similar to Glass House:

Good Mother and the Saw series. The sound treatment of these films starts off with a soothing tune and slowly develops

into a more deep and menacing track which increases anticipation of the audience in the film.

Thirdly, most of our time was spent in deciding on treatment of the shots of our film. The shots have a major impact in affecting

what the audience will think of our film. Many shots closely resemble the shots in real media films, for

example: this is a comparison of the opening shot from our video and of the movie "House of Wax".

Above: The opening shot from Glass House: The Good Mother and a similar shot which we used in our

film.

Shots like these usually have a slow accompanying soundtrack. This is the shot which gives the audience a

rough idea of "WHERE" the scene is taking place, the surroundings, day or night etc. Shots like these are

usually set at night but we broke this convention because we wanted to make the audience think of early

dawn when we shot this. (The victim of our film is back from partying probably at a nightclub or bar).

We have shown high class society and thus we have shown a south asian whose nickname is Henry ,  his age has been shown roughly in his early 20’s. 

We also focused greatly on the logo of the other production companies. We observed that although the logo of the production company is shown usually in the very beginning of the film , the names of the team appear a while later. We decided to follow that convention. The first image you see below is the logo of our media team , while the second shot of a widely recognized institution "Twisted Pictures".

Codes and conventions challenged: 
One of the very main conventions of the horror/slasher film genre which we broke was that we did not show the male as the killer. Although this has already been done in Glass House : Good Mother (shown the female as the killer) , it is common to show the male as the killer in the genre. We did this because we thought that this would attract females to watch our film , most females may not watch the film from the slasher genre because most movies show the victims of the plot to be females. We , on the other hand , chose to make the female gender "stronger" and more influencing in  our movie as compared to the male victim. We thought that females would enjoy watching "their" gender in power which is rarely seen in the genre.


Another convention which we broke was that mostly these films represent white people as the actors etc. We decided to represent and chose South Asian actors as we belong to a South Asian Country and we wanted to represent our people in the film.