Saturday, April 9, 2011
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:
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:
Thursday, April 7, 2011
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).
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).
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
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 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".
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.
Evaluation of the Final Project (QUESTION 2)
Q.2 How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The title of our media product is "Sweet Vengeance”, as the name suggests it is about vengeance to right a wrong. Our product mainly represents two social groups. Firstly, it represents females
who are usually either betrayed or cheated. Such women (like the killer shown in our film) are
more likely to become mentally challenged and thus commit crimes at least according to certain gender stereotypes- the kind of stereotypes one finds in slasher films.
From our movie, we have tried to
make our audience more aware that the crimes which those women commit are to be blamed on the
people who cheat on them. We have used silent semiotics in various parts of our film to make the audience
understand the story.
Above: The female killer has been shown as a damaged person in our film. She is mentally not stable, which explains
why she seeks revenge from our male character. We have tried to explain that this happens in real life as
well and should be stopped before more people harm each other.
Secondly, our media product also represents the young generation. Mostly, people from the age 18-26
are in a very fragile state mentally. And if such people consume an excess of alcohol and drugss they commit crimes which they later may
regret. We want to make society aware of the consequences of such freedoms at this age. This mostly
happens in the elite class of society who have a lot of money to spend. They are usually the ones which
can afford to go to expensive nightclubs etc.
Above: A screenshot of our victim. We have made him look rich. He is shown getting out of his own car
with his personal driver. Only people who have a lot of money can afford such luxuries.
Our point was to criticize, what our society is going through. What we have shown is very
common amongst a certain class and, we have tried our best to deliver this message to the audience.
Above : People traveling in public transport in Karachi , Pakistan unlike our main character. This shows that our main character is of high class society as the majority of the people in our country do not have the money to afford car and driver.
We have also tried to show infidelity and betrayal in high-class society and eagerness to get revenge.
We especially wanted to stress on the "high class" because such incidents usually occur with people who
have a lot of money and thus have a lot of leisure time to spend.
Below: a shot of our male character (HENRY)’s house.
Below : A shot of Burns Road , Karachi which shows a busy street with multiple apartments. Burns Road is usually occupied by poorer people (usually living on rent) nowadays. The majority of the population in our country lives in such small apartments and busy streets. On the other hand our character "Henry" has been shown living in a peaceful suburban residential area without traffic etc.
Henry also has an answering machine which is uncommon and most people do not cannot afford it. This is another indication of high class society.
Furthermore , Henry receives messages from two girls on his answering machine. This is very uncommon in Pakistan. Pakistan is a religious state and the majority of people here are Muslims. Muslim society does not allow young men and girls to interact with each other. In fact most girls do not even attend Co-education schools as it is the decision of their parents not to let them. The girls are shown to be fluent in English which is a privilege only the high class society can afford as most girls do not even get the chance to get higher education due to the early marriage customs in Pakistan.
Above : Girls in a classroom in Pakistan (Only Girls School).
The names of our characters Henry and Ria are acually the character's nicknames. Since we have represented high class society our characters have nicknames and want to be called or known by those names. This is true in modern society of Pakistan. They are basically Muslims but they want to be called by only those names which they like.
Our female killer character "Ria" has been deliberately shown a killer to attract female audience. Since most girls in Pakistan are not like that , we thought that they may be fascinated to see how some girls even may react to male. So we broke this convention of showing the killer as male and victim as female.
Our film also has a South Asian Cast. We wanted to represent our country so we decided to cast South Asians in our films. Secondly , since most films in the slasher/horror film genre have scarce South Asian cast , we thought that it would be a good idea to implement this new idea and we thought it would attract South Asian audience greatly.
Henry also has an answering machine which is uncommon and most people do not cannot afford it. This is another indication of high class society.
Furthermore , Henry receives messages from two girls on his answering machine. This is very uncommon in Pakistan. Pakistan is a religious state and the majority of people here are Muslims. Muslim society does not allow young men and girls to interact with each other. In fact most girls do not even attend Co-education schools as it is the decision of their parents not to let them. The girls are shown to be fluent in English which is a privilege only the high class society can afford as most girls do not even get the chance to get higher education due to the early marriage customs in Pakistan.
The names of our characters Henry and Ria are acually the character's nicknames. Since we have represented high class society our characters have nicknames and want to be called or known by those names. This is true in modern society of Pakistan. They are basically Muslims but they want to be called by only those names which they like.
Our female killer character "Ria" has been deliberately shown a killer to attract female audience. Since most girls in Pakistan are not like that , we thought that they may be fascinated to see how some girls even may react to male. So we broke this convention of showing the killer as male and victim as female.
Our film also has a South Asian Cast. We wanted to represent our country so we decided to cast South Asians in our films. Secondly , since most films in the slasher/horror film genre have scarce South Asian cast , we thought that it would be a good idea to implement this new idea and we thought it would attract South Asian audience greatly.
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