Our Film - By Rachael Whittaker

This is link to our final film uploaded on youtube.com

Welcome to the Circus

Media Evaluation Images - By Rachael Whittaker

Media Evaluation - By Rachael Whittaker

1.In what does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of media products?

Our production film is based in the horror genre and more precisely psychological horror sub genre. I do think we did create our ideas round this genre and made at fits completely as you can see from the film. Instantly from the beginning you know what film you’re in for as we portray the right elements we need (clown mask image), this photo was taken whilst filming the title sequence so you know what genre it is from the start. We looked at other clown films such as Stephen King’s It but we didn’t want our character to be too clown with all the costume and make up so we just had the mask but I still think this is very affective. Majority of horror film title sequences are usually the same kind of style with starting off black and hardly anything showing to show the illusion of that there are many possibilities of what is to come.

2.2 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The gender in the film is very stereotypical as the female being the victim and the male character are all in power whilst the female is weak. The female character is shown as isolated, lonely, afraid and this is how they are usually shown as in horror films and she looks more vulnerable with being a teenage girl. Well out target audience is 15+ so I believe they would understand more about the stereotypical situation where as people of younger age may be a bit confused and frightened by this.

3. 3. 3. What kind of media institution distribute your media product and why?

I believe our production could have the potential to be distributed by a big production. I think a distributor could be the Liongate; they have done some horror films such as ‘Saw’. I do believe that our film we produced could be successful if we were to create it all. I think if the film wasn’t good enough to hit the cinema screens that it could be a TV movie as if it was an internet release it may be easier for people to find ways of illegally getting the film so it would cut down on profits of producing the film. So I think TV movie would be best if not in the cinemas as if it was to be in the cinemas it would create the write atmosphere to get the full thrill of watching the film with being in pitch black, music at you from every angle and the big screen to capture the moments. I believe there could be merchandise but like the film having a 15+ audience the merchandise would refer to the same audience. I think a good merchandise to sell could actually be a replica of the clown mask maybe for Halloween purposes or just for the fun of it. If that was to be successful may be figures could be made of the characters or more so the clown figure.

4. 4. 4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our audience certificate is a 15. This is due to our film being horror, it doesn’t necessarily show the violence but it shows that some could have happened in the story lines so this could be upsetting towards a younger audience. They reasons for some films to be put as a certificate as is strong threats involved minor violence without really much gore. So our film doesn’t actually show the violence or any gore it just refers about what has happened which shows the psychological side from what has happened which some people could find quite disturbing. Other horror films that have a certificate 15 are ‘The Omen’ (2006), ‘The Exorcism of Emily Rose’ (2005), ‘The Fog’ (2005), ‘Dark Water’ (2005) and ‘The Ring Two’ (2005). Another film that is also certificated 15 is ‘The Wolfman’ which is the film I did my analysis on. http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ this site is about the bbfc which stand for British Board of Film Classification. This is a company that looks at safety of viewing films and many other relevant film matters.

5. 5. 5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Our audience are focusing on the Rachael character as she is the victim of the events in which have happened. At the beginning she narrates a couple of sentences to say a bit to draw you into the film to see what exactly has happened when, where, what, who and why? The Him character follows the victim so it shows more focused on her as to why is she the victim, why was she chosen. There would have been point of view shots from the him character if we were to do the full film rather than just 2 minutes. The audience are following the life of Rachael, at the beginning there is an eyeline match shot from Rachael looking at a photo frame so the audience are following her lead to get more onto her frame of mind. We have feedback from our film from the audience of people in our class, I'm really pleased with the feed back as people seemed to enjoy the film with quotes of 'font really fitted at the beginning', 'quite creepy', 'music tense, builds up', 'creepy vibe' and other good comments. Here is a link to the review. welcome to the circus review

6. 6. 6. What have you learnt about technology from the process of constructing the product?

Well for our production we used a HDV 1000 camera which does a built in microphone which made it easier as we only needed distant voices not too close as pre mic recorded as it might have looked silly and harder to sync with the film. Although one time when filming our microphone was unplugged from the camera so we had to redo some scenes which were frustrating and wasted time that we didn’t have much of. Another weakness for us that it rained very heavily every time we seemed to have planned to film, de us postpone filming a lot as the majority of our film is outside so this also wasted time for us. So although we had some complications I am very pleased with the result we ended up with our film. A strength I do know is that I created the music for the title scene with help from my brother and I do think the music really fits in with the genre we are giving off. Also the narrator from Rachael was recorded with a microphone then soothed down so that the voice didn’t sound harsh as it needed to be a voice to draw you in to what she has to say. The software we used for editing made it easier as we could change things so then the film would look very smoothly cut together and that the sound does sound correct and in sync. It gave us great effects to make our film more complete together such as our last scene, it’s actually two scenes crossed together sort of with the him character fading in and out, which I love that it does because it really could boost the film ratings from the audience.

7. 7. 7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Well our preliminary task was a lot of fun to do and we even used them skills into out full product more than we’d all actually realise. Such as the 180̊ rule and reverse shots, both in the conversations between the therapist and Rachael, also between Rachael and Laura. The preliminary task gave us an insight of working around the equipment on positioning of the camera with how you want to present your scenes and the people in them. For our preliminary we used a smaller simpler camera which means the quality wouldn’t have been as good as the HDV 1000 video camera that we used for our full product so that would be a huge difference to see if you watched one straight after the other. I believe that our shots in the full produce are so much more smoothly cut together than the preliminary just due to having more experience and knowing more about the software rather than just the basics.

Film Analysis - The Wolfman (2010) - By Rachael Whittaker

The Wolfman (2010)

The film starts off with the full moon as the full moon for what everyone knows that it supposedly brings out the worst in people and may give off a creepy vibe that sends a shiver down your spine. The scene moves down from the sky into a dark gloomy forest setting which can refer to our forest scene as there are similarities. Personally I would like our forest setting to be more similar to the Wolfman one as it gives off a nervous vibe of the forest being scary at night with fog floating along the floor which means that things could be hiding in ready to jump out to get you. There is a high angle shot looking down at a man walking into the forest which means that he means little and something could happen to him. In our film we have a similar shot of the him character looking down on Rachael as he is belittling her as he has stronger power although this could also seems very stereotypical but for the Wolfman the man is being looked down on but there is no woman in the shot to do a gender comparison. The man in the Wolfman is walking in the woods with a close up on him to show his fear expression especially when you have a sudden burst of birds flying which could make you jump, such as in our production when there is an extreme close up of Rachael when we suddenly wakens from her nightmare which could make you jump just from it being a sudden movement that the audience weren’t expecting.

Something then strikes the man (in Wolfman) but you don’t see what which makes you wonder what it is then you see the claw. We wanted to show bits of our bad character but our main focal was the mask so we showed it but that’s all you see so that will make the audience think who is this character underneath the mask. The Wolfman title comes up then, for ours we had it at the very beginning in a style of maybe olden fashion letters stuck together as if advertised, where as for Wolfman it is on a gravestone which also looks old fashioned.

Now after the name title came up on Wolfman there is a woman narrator who speaks in fear, it is a plea for help. Rachael narrates at the beginning of Welcome to the Circus in fear it is not quite a plea but a statement. They both talk in a sense of feeling isolated from what has happened in the surroundings. Although in Wolfman her narrator is a letter written to her fiancée’s brother so this is a direct plea for somebody. Rachael has no one to write to, she doesn’t know who she can trust anymore ever since the incident.

The setting house of in Wolfman is very old fashioned big mansion but it looks disserted with dust and cobwebs around, this could give off a dramatic gothic theme. For our production we have kept things modern which made it easier but didn’t really make out film at a disadvantage or anything so it still turned out okay as we planned and we stuck to our plan to get the results we wanted.

There are shot reverse shots with Laurence and his father character with still a very dime and dark setting around then with only light that seems to be coming from the windows, the atmosphere around them seems cold and dead. For our product there are reverse shots with the Therapist and Rachael which seems to have a secure atmosphere around them, a place where Rachael feels safe and comfortable to say what she is truly feeling as when she is having a conversation with her friend Laura she seems to have a front on, that she is also wearing a mask but not in the same sense as the him character.

Laurence in Wolfman goes into town to see his dead brother. Although the scene is in outside daylight it is still dime as though there a sheet of clouds covering the town, it fits in with what has just happened of Laurence’s brother being killed and just been found recently. For our film the only lighting we used was daylight and used it to our advantage, such as for the forest scene we checked to see what time the sun would be setting so we went to film whilst the sun was setting but not too dark for us. As if it was too dark the quality would be bad and look fussy which, is not an effect we wanted.

The next scene cuts that Laurence is sat in a local pub with people theorising about the possibilities with what is behind the attacks of what have been happening around the town. I would imagine that this scenario would be in the full extent of the film if it was made that this would be involved. A modern version of children talking about it in the canteen maybe when Rachael walked past and people judging and coming up with their own remarks. As people always seem to want to be involved, to be in the know of what has happened and a school would be a great one for the Welcome to the Circus as it is an everyday typical scene that children go through. Then usually there is always one person that speaks out from the crowd that people listen to then follow along with their theory as there is the Wolfman with a man talking about a similar incident that happened 25 years ago.

Laurence then returns to house where he introduces himself to his brother’s fiancé, where he gives his word to her that he will find out what happened to his brother which is where I think the main plot begins of him then on a quest to truly know what happened to his brother. For our product I think plot looks like its going to thicken when the jack in the box is placed on Laura’s doorstep because it makes you budge to the edge of your seat to know what is going to happen next, who placed it there? Why?

I analysised the first 10 minutes of Wolfman to show the comparison and how the ideas build together. The thing that got me most about Wolfman is the theme of it, the way it’s always dark from the lightness to the colour of the characters clothing as there is really no colour at all that stands out. Although with our product you can feel the darkness more than see it, our film has more colour due to it being more modern where as Wolfman is set in a older century than what we are in now so it makes it more affective.

Evaluation - Brett Cooper

Media Evaluation

1. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of media products?

The film that we created is a Horror and its sub genre is a Psychological Horror we put it in this sub genre because after creating the story one of our key elements was to make it that the audience didn’t know if the ‘Stalker’ was a real person or in the characters head. This is shown in the final scene when we have a shot of the Stalker following the characters into the woods, we have a long shot showing the walk to the entrance of the woods but however by using a four way garbage matte we were able to make the stalker come in and out of shot so he looked like he was jumping time and becoming closer to his victims. This is giving him some human features and some unrealistic features. This all puts our film in the Horror genre. Before making our film we looked at many horror films to get some idea of how to film it and what styles to film it in, the film that mostly relates to ours is ‘The Strangers’ and the director of this film also gave little away to whether the characters were real in that film and he did that by having them wear mask which our character does too. This I believe is a very important element because it dehumanises a person because they lose their human features.

The films that relate to our film that we have looked at are:

· The Strangers

· It

· Scream

· Copycat

· The Eye

When I analyzed The Strangers opening sequence it is very much similar to ours because they give as less away as possible but at the same time it lets the viewer now what type of film it is. Also the sequence is very dark like ours which shows again that this is a horror movie and both ours and the films we looked at don’t give much away about the film.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our film males dominate the film because we have a very masculine character which is our stalker and nobody crosses him. As appose to age there is not much difference in age between the characters in the film. However we are unable to identify how old the stalker actually is because he has a mask on and is not baring any flesh. By having a very male dominated style in our film we link it into our target audience because they even though it is aimed at both males and females when we have looked at Horror films they dominant character is usually male.

3. What kind of media Institution might distribute your media product and why?

I believe that our film could be produced by a major Hollywood Studio because many Horror films that have been produced over the years are all depend on what the public fear at that time, for example back in the 80’s it was all about aliens. However now it is a lot to do with psychological thoughts, so we followed that pattern and I believe that with a good backing our film could become a major blockbuster. I believe this because even though we were unable to show it in the opening two minutes we created our stalker character to make people unsure if he is a person or not human at all, we did this to give people a false sense of security and for people watching they would find it interesting because one minute they would think they knew what was scripted to happen but then there would be another twist in the tale. Also even though we have said that The Strangers is very much like our film this is only because of their inclusion of clown masks, our film is very unique and could add something different to the film industry.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our target audience is 15 – 40 year olds when we decided what our target audience was going to be we began to look at events in the film that we could create that would appeal to this audience so this is why the girls are heading for the woods to a party because it is something that especially our younger end of our target audience will be doing so they can relate this to their everyday life. All the films that we looked at relate to the same target audience because Horror films have a very wide age audience but it comes down to the person if they like the genre of film. The films that we look at with the same target audience were:

· The Strangers

· It

· Scream

· Copycat

· The Eye

The classification criteria that I would give our film is a 15 and that is because it does not have any sexual scenes or many gory scenes but the film been a very psychological film I wouldn’t advice people under 15 to see this film and that why I am giving it a 15 certificate.

5. How did you attract your audience?

To attract our audience we tried to make the a film that people would watch and try to work out what is to come and why the guy is doing what he is, but then just as they have worked it out there would be a twist in the tale. We wanted to do this because it makes the film more interesting and people have to think deeply about the events to pick up clues. Also we had to create a fear for the stalker character in the film because it is a Horror we need the character to be feared when he is on shot so to do this we used the camera shots to determine what feel the audience would get from him. So we us ed a lot of low angle shots and point of view shots to create this fear, also if we were to film him from the front we tried to show a less as we could of his face to again make the audience work out what he actually is.

after the production of our film four people analyised this and we filmed them as they spoke about our film a few of the comments that were passed were 'I like the text that was used in the titles' 'i like the clown character' below is a link to the video on youtube and you can see the four people reviewing our film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcTtvQNDvUA

6. What have you learnt about technology from the process of constructing the product?

Throughout conducting the film technology has been a big factor of making the whole process a lot longer if the technology for editing would have been better and faster the whole process would have been better and gave us more time to be able to create a better look for the film. Also because most of our filming was outside and we began film at the end of winter there was lots of rain around and stopped us filming on certain days. We were able to use a good quality camera ‘Dv1000’ which really helped enhanced our film but however this camera could have gave us the opportunity to film in HD and I would have like to have done so. We did face one major problem towards the end and that was that the title sequence that we had filmed was out of focus and couldn’t be resolved so we had to film the sequence again but even though it caused us some time issues it turned out to be a better title sequence.

After using the editing software I have learnt how to edit two shots together when we first started but however by the time we got to the last shots of the film we used a very good effect called ‘4 way garbage matte’ this enabled us to create two shots into one making our stalker look like he was following two characters in the film when actually they were filmed in different shots. To use these effects we used Final Cut Express on the Apple Macs.

7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

When we filmed our preliminary task we didn’t really plan all the shots and storyboard everything like we have for the main project and it showed because we didn’t get as good standard as we could have done but however without doing this task we wouldn’t have been as good for our main task. Having the shot lists and storyboards when we were on set for the main task enabled us to film straight away without spending valuable time discussing where we needed to shoot from especially when we were wanting to film at dusk and we were constantly loosing light. My specific shot types have improved because I can identify what type of shot we need when trying to create a mood atmosphere and feelings for a person. Also after this task I feel very confident with the equipment and would like to do more in the future. Our end product is exactly what we set out to achieve and I am very happy with it and believe it meets the requirements to the task.

Film Photo Sequence - By Rachael Whittaker

This is our film sequence from print screen shots from the film. Again trying to keep it very similar to our drawn draft version. As you can see there are some shots are not been put on, this is due to us having a time limit of about 2 minutes allowed for our film. So with only being limited little it wasn't possible to fit in everything that we wanted so we stuck to the main ideas.

Title Photo Sequence - By Rachael Whittaker

This sequence is a image print screen version of the film we created, I tried to get the images as close to the drawn version as much as possible.

Film Evaluation - By Melissa Erwin

1. Our film incorporates generic conventions of a horror film as in the first scene, Rachael wakes up to see her stalker standing over her bed, which the audiece will then later find out that is a nightmare. This looks like a typical scene from a horror film as the lighting is very dark and the stalker looks very intimidating as opposed to rachael who is alone in bed, vulnerable. We have also added sound effects to add a dramatic tone. However, our film does challenge these conventions as the girl is not always alone, whereas normally in horror films, the vitim is usually isolated. I think our use of conventions indicates to our audience that it is a psychological killer, because although we do not see his face, you can tell that it is a normal persons body. The audience may also think he has a mental problem or seeks revenge as it is strange that he has killed, or wants to kill 5 best friends. Our clown-type mask may indicate that to our audience that we have been influenced by the film "It", as it is quite similar. It is also similar to "The Strangers", as they stalk the victims also; this is to keep the audience on edge.





The opening sequence from “It”, is fairly similar to our opening sequence of “Welcome to the Circus”, as both start with titles at the very beginning, in black and white and with music is playing. However, in contrast with our film, the titles in “It”, last for about ninety seconds, whereas ours last for about ten, as it is a smaller production. “It”, uses a lot of establishing shots to set the scene straight away and the audience know where the film is set, because one of the characters says the town name, whereas the town is not said in our opening sequence.

2. Gender is represented stereotypically in the first two minutes of our film. In our film, we are showing that the man (the stalker) is dominant over the women as he has already murdered 4, and wants his next victim (Rachael). This is very stereotypical and shows that the man/stalker always wins. In our film, the stalker (Brett) is dressed in all black with a coloured clown-like mask as the focus of the outfit. “The Strangers”, also wear masks to cover their identity however there are 3 of them and they are dressed slightly differently. The victims in both films are dressed in ordinary clothes, to show normality and vulnerability.




3. I think our film would be produced by a smaller, independent company as films that ours are similar to, were also made by smaller production companies; such as “The Strangers” (produced by Rogue Pictures) and “Copycat” (produced by Regency Enterprises).
I don’t think our film would be a TV series as most horror movies aren’t with the odd exception, such as Stephen King’s “It”. As it would probably be produced by a smaller company, it is most likely that it would not be an internet release where people can watch it free, as we would lose out on a lot of money. Our film may be an art-house film because if it was produced by an independent company, then we may not be able to afford to show the film in bigger cinemas. Our film probably wouldn’t offer opportunities for franchising/merchandising as it will be produced by a small, low-budget company. However, this is not final as if we could afford to, then we could sell copies of the mask as merchandise and/or copies of the jack in the box.


The company that would distribute our film would probably be
Warner Home Entertainment.

4. The audience for our film is mainly men, as it shows that men are dominant over women, and men tend to like horror films more than women.
Films that are mostly similar to ours are “The Strangers” and “It”, however these are more likely to attract adults, whereas our film features younger people, so may attract a younger audience. These films will also probably appeal more to men, as they are again, seen as the more dominant character. I think a classification certificate of 15 would be suitable for our film because it is a horror and include scenes of stalking, and maybe violence later on in the film. Although it does not show scenes of drug taking or sexual references, I think a 15 certificate would be most appropriate, as it may frighten people under the age of 15. http://www.bbfc.co.uk/. We asked twenty five, different aged people to fill out our questionnaires, to get a range of opinions. We found out that just under half of the people who we asked, preferred a psychological killer in a horror film and a lot of people are afraid of clowns, instead of ghosts etc.

5. The audience for our film is mainly been asked to put themselves in the position of the stalker, as it follows Rachael’s life, and this is what the stalker will be watching. This may create uncertainty for the audience as the young girls are very vulnerable. The scene in the woods will appeal a little more to men than it will women, as it shows the man (stalker), is dominant over the two girls. This scene may also frighten some children who are younger than 15 as it shows an unknown person, stalking two young girls. This relates back to the fact that our film is a horror and this is partly why our film is a 15 certificate.

This particular scene may engage our audience as it shows a long shot of the man stalking the two young girls. This relates to the fact that men would more likely see our film, than women, as it shows that the man is dominant over the girls.

We asked 4 people what they thought of our film to get audience feedback/response. This was very useful as we got to find out what our audience, (over 15's, mainly men) thought of our film "Welcome to the Circus". Feedback we got was that the titles and the camera shots fitted the genre of the film and that the makeup/mask was good. We also found out that they liked the idea of a clown, as it was quite creepy and a lot of poeple are scared of clowns. The shot-reverse-shot's were useful as they captured the therapist scene very well and at the end when the stalker keeps on re-appearing was effective also. They thought the editing was very good and seen as "smooth", which was our intention and the use of different locations fitted the genre well. From our audience response we found out that the music fitted the horror genre very well and was "tense and built up". Overall, our audience thought that it was a "good film" and "really enjoyed it", and we are very pleased with this result.
"Welcome to the Circus review" = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcTtvQNDvUA

6. The main problem we faced when wanting to film was the weather (rain), so when the weather was bad, we filmed our inside shots. When filming the nightmare scene at the beginning, we filmed Rachael waking up from a dream and rising up. However we wanted it to look faster to have a better effect, and so when we were editing on “Final Cut Express”, we speeded the shot up to look of better quality and we were really pleased with the end result. Another problem we faced was when we were filming the scene at “Laura’s” house (my house). We filmed some of the shots that were needed and then realised that the microphone wasn’t plugged in, which meant that we had to film the shots again. This wasn’t that much of a problem, however it wasted our time. We were really pleased with “Final Cut Express”, as there were effects that enhanced our film; I have also learnt more about editing.
As we used HDV cameras, we were able to shoot in widescreen, which improved our shots. Although the cameras were bigger and heavier to carry, the quality of the filming was much better than in our preliminary task, as there is better zoom control, which allowed us to show shots in more detail. The sound on the HDV cameras wasn’t as good quality as we expected, however when adding music and sound effects, the film, as whole, sounded better. We created our own music for the titles of our film, and were inspired by “Enter the Circus” By Christina Aguilera. We used sound effects and music throughout the rest of our opening sequence, from CD’s provided by college, to create our desired effect.


“Final cut express”, was the software that we used to edit our opening sequence.


This was the HDV camera and tripod that we used to film our opening sequence.

7. The research into the genre helped us as we looked at what is typical of a horror film. We decided on a psychological killer, and chose a clown type mask, as films in the past which feature clowns have proved to be successful because many people have a phobia of clowns. The storyboard also really helped us as it planned what shots we needed to use, so we could get straight on with filming and didn’t have to decide at the time. I feel more confident when using the equipment now as I can produce smoother shots. I am really pleased with the end result of our opening sequence as it has created the desired effects and I believe that it would target an audience of ages 15+. Even though there have been difficulties, I feel that we’ve been very successful and that I have learnt a lot in the process. I feel that I have come a long way since our preliminary task as the shots and framing are of a better quality in our opening sequence, as you can see below. The over-shoulder shots and close-ups, especially, are much better than in our preliminary task because we have had more experience using the cameras, and the quality is better (because of the HDV cameras).


Print-screened images from our preliminary task.



Print-screened images from our opening sequence.

Questionnaire Results - By Melissa Erwin

The first question we asked was "How old are you?". We asked quite a lot of 15-23 year olds, as this is would be our target market, however other ages as well to get a wide range of opinions.

We asked more female than male as we thought that male would be

more attracted toward our film, and we wanted to know a more about women's opinions. This is to find out if they would watch our film or not, and why.

These are a few of the films that are similar to ours, and the rest are just general successful horror films. This was to see what was the most popular horror film (of the 25 people we asked), and this was "

The Strangers". Our film is kind of similar to "The Strangers" as they both invol

ve stalking, so hopefully our film will attract a wide array of people as well.

The

next question we asked was what sub-genre people preferred in a horror film and a "Psychological" killer came out top e.g the films "Psycho" or "Hostel". This is bril

liant for us as the killer in our film is Psychological, therefore should appeal to our audience.

We then asked people what their preferred storyline in a horror film is, and featuring an isolated group was the least popular, while centered around an individual and set in a normal town were close. Our film is both centered around an individual and set in a normal town, however we do not show a scene that shows the town in our opening sequence of "Welcome to the Circus", although this should still attract our audience as it looks like a normal town. This is to keep the audience guessing as to the surroundings/location.

We then asked people what they find more scary as the main character in a horror film, and Clowns were the clear winner. We decided on a clown-type m

ask at the very beginning of our resear

ch into our film, as films that feature clowns in the past have proved very successful e.g. Stephen King's "It".

When asking people how often they

watch horror films, the answer "rarely" was the most popular. This isn't the best answer that we could have hoped for, however people are different and the people we could have asked m

ay not have been big horror movie fans.

The main reason that people went to see the last horror film they saw, was the storyline. If we market our fil

m correctly, and make sure the plot sounds appealing, then people should be interested in our film, and want to come and see it.

When given a brief plot of our film, 75% of the people that we asked, were interested in our film. If we then went on to have appealing adverts, hopefully quite a wide range of people (our audience), would watch our film.

When asking the question, what 3 words to you associate with the title "Welcome to the Circus", the most popular answers were:

• Clowns
• Funfairs
• Scary
• Bright Colours
• Wierd

Therefore, the title of our film gives a feel that it is to do with clowns/circuses, however does not give anything away and doesn't really give away that it is a horror film. This is good as it leaves the audience guessing throughout the film, as it doesn't show that it is a horror in our opening sequence.

Media Evaluation

1. The film we have created for our media short film has the genre of horror and the sub-genre is psychological. In our film we have included a number of the conventions horror films, these included fear and terror. With our film being a Psychological Horror film we used the simple style that usually features a normal person or a story that involves revenge or somebody who is mentally ill for example films like Psycho and Hostel. Our film challenged these conventions by adding a new twist by setting the story in an ordinary person’s life. Our character Rachael seems like quite an ordinary person, but we added the unique twist of her best friends suddenly dying and their deaths being described by the police as “suicide” which Rachael thinks is totally wrong. Our conventions do hint what our main and sub-genre is because our film is quite stereotypically, although like I mentioned it does challenge the conventions. The conventions we used do indicate our films inspiration as it is quite similar to the storyline of The Strangers, IT by Stephen King and Scream 1. You can see the similarities between Scream and our film are because it uses horror and threatening behaviour. The opening sequence of Scream is similar to ours because the phone call in Scream is the threatening scene like in our film where the stalker is standing above Rachael. Another similarity is the main character in Scream is a women and she seems to be leading a normal life. Scream’s opening sequence differs from ours because the phone call she receives is from someone she doesn’t know, but who has a threatening voice. In our film you get to see the stalker within the first few seconds. Another difference is it takes a while before you actually realise the guy in Scream is watching Casey with the line “I wanna see who I’m looking at!”, whereas in our film you establish this straight away when the stalker is stood above Rachael in her nightmare.

2. In our film we stereotypically showed our main character, which was a female as quite passive and easily frightened. This is quite a stereotypical of women in some peoples opinions, we then showed our stalker character as a “male” who is very dominate and controlling. In the film Scream this is a similar sort of reaction, the main female character is quite scared and easily frightened, whereas the main male character is quite dominant. Also in Scream the storyline follows a normal group of students, which again is similar to our film as well. The only difference is in our film we have shown no blood our guts on the first two minutes, whereas in scream in the first ten minutes two people die in horrific ways. Our target audience was mainly males, aged between 15 to 40 years old. We aimed at film at males because the stalker character is most likely to be male which would attract a male audience. In Scream the main female character in the opening is older than our main character so this is quite a big difference from our film as it shows our film is aimed at a lower age range than Scream.

3. Our film would be an independent film, so it could be distributed by a company like Warner Home Video. From our research into films of a similar genre and similar sub-genre we found that Strangers and IT are made by much smaller companies like Vertigo and then distributed by companies like Warner Bros. It would be released into independent cinemas like “The Showroom” in Sheffield, then put onto DVD and then shown on TV or digital channels like Film4. I think that our film would offer opportunities because in our film we have used a specially designed mask for a main character. On release of our film we could then offer this mask to the general public and this would also offer us a chance to make more money from our film. This is quite similar to scream as it also contains a mask that was merchandised and is frequently used as part of Halloween costumes.

4. The target audience for our film is 15 to 40 year old people who would be interested in the horror of genre or even the genre of thriller. We would mainly aim our film at males this is because stereotypically men would be more interested in the story which surrounds the issue of being stalked and the main stalker character is also a male. We showed our film to a selected group of our target audience and we received these comments " the editing was really good", "the scene where clown disappeared and reappeared was really good" and "the film was typical of the genre". This feedback was really helpful because it helped us find out whether our target audience did like our film. From the feedback we received they did. The films that we choose as quite similar to our own is The Strangers and IT, both films surround the fear of the unknown and also the psychological fear of clowns. Films like these generally appeal to people who like horror and thriller films that play with people’s minds. We think that our film would be classified as a 15, this is because we use strong threat and menace e.g. the stalker situation is showing Rachael being threatened. This differs from Scream as it is classified as an 18 certification, this is because it shows blood, horror, threat and uses strong language.

BBFC Classifications Webesite = http://www.bbfc.co.uk/

Our Feedback = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcTtvQNDvUA

5. As I mentioned we are aiming our film a 15 to 40 year olds who are mainly male. We attracted our audience by at first showing normal people who are 16, which would appeal to the lower end of our target audience. Also the use of real life settings would be aimed at the whole age range because it makes the film appear all the more real. The use of a male dominant character also attracted more males to our film because females would probably be unnerved because a female character is being stalked which to a women would be more threatening. We used some point of view shots to put the audience into Rachael’s position, this is because we wanted the audience to feel sorry for the main character and be interested in her story. We also used lots of extreme/long shots this was to show the main character and her friend being stalked, this was a good shot because the audience they felt part of the story as they could see the stalker, but Rachael and her friend couldn’t. This created an element of suspense because the audience didn’t know what was going to happen to the girls and the girls didn’t know they were being stalked by the killer. Shots like these are often used in horror films because they engage the audience and allow the audience to feel “part” of the story.

6. When we filmed our film we used a HDV1000 camera which was some new equipment college had got, the strengths of this particular camera are you have more control over the shot which means you can change the settings a lot more to get the best shot and this new equipment really enhanced the footage we got. You have a lot more control over the white balance as well which enables you to get a very high quality shot, which looks real. You can also film in widescreen on that camera so we got some very good wide angle shots which helped to establish our settings. The HDV1000 also has a very good zoom, so when we couldn’t get close enough we could use the zoom to get a high quality shot. The weaknesses of the HDV1000 was that with the size of the camera it was very hard to travel around with so when we were bringing the equipment home it was a very hard process because of the size of the camera ad its bag. Another downside was the HDV1000 had quite a poor sound quality even though it has a microphone fitted; we then had to get another microphone to film some sound sequences separately. One of the problems we faced during our filming process was that on one occasion we forgot to plug in the camera’s fitted microphone so we then had to film a complete scene again because of this mistake, this cost us quite a lot of time and effort. To edit our film we used Final Cut Express, I learnt a lot during our editing process as it helped me to understand how important creating smooth matches on action and consistency throughout our film was. In our film we use quite a lot of fades which was a video effect on Final Cut. We used this effect because in our film a lot of time had passed between some shots, so this effect was very handy to show this. For our sound we asked Rachael’s brother to create some music which was like music from a circus, we also took some music from the CD’s within college which were horror sounds as this fitted with our genre.

7. Looking back at my preliminary task, I think I have progressed quite well. When we started to plan for our film, I discovered how much planning goes into a short film never mind a full length feature film. The research into our chosen genre helped me to get a deeper understanding of what goes into a horror film and the storyboarding helped me to visualize what our film would or could look like. With this through planning it helped us organise what shots we needed to capture, the order to edit in and the effects we needed to add. This helped a film appear quite smooth. From our first task I have developed my editing skills quite a lot, my matches on action and my deeper understanding of continuity made our film look really good. With using the HDV1000 I have become a lot more confident with the equipment and by using Final Cut Express I can edit much better as well. I think that our final product is very good at fulfilling the tasks requirements as we featured all the things we wanted to, we incorporated all the conventions we needed and developed our filming and editing skills along the way.