Animatic

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our target audience is predominantly male taking up 55% of the overall figure whereas females is 10% less with 45%. These statistics are derived from figures from the film-The Grudge a horror genre with similar stylistic conventions in regards of Zoe one of our key main characters ( alongside me). Fundamentally our audience profiling caters from an estimation of 17 years to middle aged, again  predictably male . This may be due to the stereotypes which suggests that chick flicks are typically feminine whereas Horror/action is targeted towards masculine identities. Horror is a genre whom attracts a vast type of audience, often the people who watch and enjoy horrors may surprise you, perhaps subverting against traditional expectations. In regards to shopping and music i feel that this is severely dependent on the gender that they hold. For example male citizens will as an estimated guess shop in  the menswear section of Primark, Topshop and Next  whereas Females may shop in the same places but perhaps (particularly  if there in the early 20's) in New look and other feminine associatiated shops. In terms of  the music which they listen to this again dependent on both age and gender thus differentiating.For  males (17-25) i feel that the music will essentially be rap/urban/ chart music with artists such as Eminem/Tinie Tempah/ Professor Green as these are typically associated with musical masculine identities. For the upper age range (25-40) i feel the music will perhaps be either more subcultured (e.g. Rock/emo as they do not feel the need to keep in with the latest music) or more subdued with music from the likes of Westlife/Take That/ Micheal Jackson. For  the earlier age range of females the music will usually be chart/ Pop/Rnb with artists such as Rhianna/Adele/ although 

  mainly pop music would suit this target audience.For the upper range of the audience profiling music may be outdated or again subcultured , following the same artists as the upper ranged males. Another assumption is that hard core horror genre lovers will listen to rock music such as My chemical Romance/ Muse with Music channels such as Kerrang and Mtv Rock. The younger audience will essentially listen to music on Youtube/ MTV Dance/Kiss/MTV Base/4 Music. The older audience may listen to Channels such as Magic

In regards to our film it effectively attracts its target audience as it contains many stylistic horror stereotypes which  include the following:

•  an innocent girl whom posesses purity with such good characteristaion that the audience knows that she will either die or become possessed
• The monster who strikes slyly but some how always seems to be just out of the picture.
• lastly  eerie suspending music that gets you through all the jumps and jolts from start to finish.

Props

 Camera - used for filming

 Tripod - used to put camera upon it so we could take a shot which was steady

 Charleys bed - Which Ana slept in for setting up the dream sequence

 My Picture - My character (the creator) drew in which would happen in Anas characters dream sequence

Our group - Me, Ana, Zoe and Charley

Hannah Evans

Hannah Evans (The Creator)

Frame 9

This frame is taken from one of the final scenes of the film, as Ana's character desperately  and urgently tries to escape from Zoe as she runs terror and fear. Costume in terms of  Mise-on-scene elements is the same as previous: the same PJ's, messy curly  hair and little makeup merely used to amplify the intensity of Ana's gaze, which is very apparent within this shot as well as evidenced through the use of positioning. This frame also shows off the location well, showing the isolation. Ana is off center to make the shot  appear more intriguing as well as highlighting the remoteness and seclusion which Ana is in. This is also reinforced by the gathering of trees which transcends well from the previous frames as it looks like she is looking back towards Zoe which also correlates with the next frame of Zoe's feet, making it seem as though she is coming towards Ana. The mid-shot suits the horror conventions very well as it show her facial expressions in a manner which expresses the significance. Fade effects have been used as transitions between the dream sequence to differentiate from the other secenes as well as maintaining a fluid flow throughout the scene, making it seem more dreamlike. The music slowly begins to fade out here, as well as the contrast darkening to show that it is near the end of the clip.

Frame 8

This shot has been captured from a low angle, to demonstrate the dominance of Zoe's character and how the power increases as the film goes on. The frame has been stopped suddenly just as Zoe grabs for the camera, this displays her animalistic nature as if shes about to pounce on her prey . The natural lighting of the scene proved effective when transferred to black and white, as it makes the background seem as though  it is glowing, contrasting against the sinster framing/ mise-en-scene of Zoe. The camera also has the use of a  mid-shot to show both  the actions surrounding the character as well as the emotional facial expressions. This also sets the last scene up as well as Ana turns and stares at Zoe's wild like character before running away in terror.  I like how the frame position of the hand which seems almost clawed and very barbaric. It also reinforces her desire for catching her prey (Ana's character)

Frame 7

Setting for this frame is made to look as if Zoe's character has travelled for some distance as it is a different location to the other frames (shown by the sparsity of the grass as well as the twigs). The costume uses rugged old boots. Before this shot the camera takes the foot steps from a low angle  to clearly represent the dominance of the power that she holds over Ana's character. This was especially hard even when using a tripod, to make the shot seem smooth as when turned the tripod often squeaked.The frame was enabled to  stop just as Zoe's foot smashes down onto the branches which made a sharp snapping sound.

Frame 6

This shot is one of my preferable as the framing is excellent and for the first time displays her true character, capturing the her gaze tinted with curiousity which may suggest that she is looking on towards Ana's innocent character. As you can determine from this shot the postioning is again hunched over from the previous frame grappling in the grass, perhaps signifying to the audience that she is searching for something. Once again this frame is set in the long grass, which has  proved a very useful method as well as enabling the provision of giving us a large frequency of usable shots. In terms of costume the cape was used once again with the hood up for Mise-on-scene, however we can notice that now her face is no longer hidden, which expresses that she is revealing her true form to the audience to evoke fear. Because Zoe was so low on the ground our orginal midshot can probably be considered as a form of her closeup due to the specific angling of the camera. The frame uses Rule of thirds to focus onto character reactions as is evidential by this shot and can perhaps be classed as fantasy genre at this particular point as she does not look like a tradtional villian and the cape perhaps gives a sense of the supernatural and unknown.

Frame 5

The location for this frame is the same as the previous frame before it to diplay continuity editing as well as some elements of Mise-on-scene. Within this shot it is most likely that that the Props in this frame are the most influential as they provide a sense of surrealism as well as the positioning of the camera behind her. Zoe is wearing  a homemade cape of coloured yellowly green fabric with holes and ragged edges which signifies her animal like character. This creation of costume was done before we decided to use the black and white so that it would blend in with the background and becoming more in-conspicuous.

The Rule of thirds is not used once again to draw your attention to the scenery as effecively we are providing specific emphasis on the rural nature of the environement. Our representation of Zoe is a subvertation against traditionally tailored horror roles as we felt that we wanted to enforce the hybrid genre, due to it being something which is rarely attempted. The postioning of  Zoe is done to provide an abstract sense of surrealism as her back is facing the audience, as well as being hunched over, as though she is ready to jump and again is enforcing her animal-like personilisation.

Frame 4

The setting for this frame has been changed to express the seclusion and isolation of the dream sequence through the use of the wild grass which suggests that the dream is disorderly as well as giving the feeling of being unatural. The focal point of the frame is Ana's character, shown through the use of the centered high angle shot, but we feel that the surrounding  environment extra emphasis to Anas isolation. This shot has been edited to black and white to clearly express the typical horror style conventions as well as contrasting against the latter shots, which we feel is effective. Another important aspect is the use of costume which are fully grey pyjamas, bare feet (to tie in with the setting) and unkempt hair to express that Ana has been asleep. The positioning of the character is clearly identifiable with a victim who is helpless and inferior through the hunched position, legs clenched as well as the obscurity of Ana's face. This is believed to be a traditional representation of victims and we are therfore following traditional conventiions of a horror with our own little twist. 

Frame 3

This shot entails the usage of the Rule of thirds, which really helps to allow the audience to focus on the most significant areas of the frame. Again this was shot in the location of Charley's house but this time in her bedroom, to represent that Ana is asleep dreaming through the use of facial expressions which represents her feelings as to what is happening, as well as her movements which are jerky as though she is experiencing a nightmare. The lighting we had to have an accurate reproduction of someone being asleep, though one of the problems was maintaining how dark the lighting should be . To resolve this we used the dimming lights to create an atmosphere and to set the tone of the scene. Towards the end of this clip we used a fade in of our music soundtrack titled 'The haunted Music box'  to show that the dream sequence is about to happen and because the music is quite eerie, it makes the audience wonder as to what is about to occur.



Frame 2

The effect of titles in the film where achieved by alternating which side they were placed on , ensuring that it switched from each slide that it was on, whilst making sure that it wouldn't distract the reader from the footage which was on screen so we had to choose an apropriate size font.

We filmed this scene in Charley's dining room, we created the scene by ensuring that we shut the curtains as well as dimming the lights to display the theme of mystery within this frame. The props used, was a easel and a pencil as I "The Creator" is sketching a premonition  of what is about to happen in the future. Camera work had the usage of a  Zoom in  that had transcended from an over-the-shoulder shot before concluding with a close up. This was both on the page and the words "Its coming.." We found that despite the simplicity of the shot that holding the camera steady proved difficult (though this could be due to being one of the first shots we had ever recorded). The darkness of the lighting is also effective as it clearly suggests to the audience that  not all is quite right in this setting. My character is introduced in a traditional introduction. A frame where I am wearing all black clothing as well as being hidden by my hair, which clearly blended in, by camouflaging her within the background. For the writing upon the easel we orginally were going to entail a voice recording of someone scratching hard on a piece of paper, so that it appears to the audience that I am allowing the pencil to communicate to the audience what is about to happen.

Frame 1

This blank shot used white writing on a black background, this provides the method of catching the readers eye with it simply having a contrast between the two neutral colours.This was especially effective with the fading of the text on and off the screen. The font was specifically chosen using standardisation  by making it very easy to read, but possibly could be changed to fit in a bit more with the Mise-on-scene as well as appearing more professional. This opening clearly to us coveys the speech associated with Horror elements and provides an intriguing start to the film as well as already introducing the tension. It also allows the audience to immediately engage with the film and to allow individual perception as to what is happening.

Evaluation 7

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Camera and Tripod, We have learnt the following:

•   how to film
• upload footage 
•  adjust the camera setting,e.g colour
• transition from the camera to the tripod allows the unrestricted freedom of the movements between the shots as well as increasing fluidity of the fianl piece

YouTube
We have discovered the following

• learnt how to create and maintain a YouTube account
•  how to upload and publish the videos we made.
• the addition of the process of adding speech bubbles/annotations

Blogger, From using Blogger we have learnt the following:

• How to provide a detailed analysis of our constructions of all the media element in regards to the context within our film e.g camera composition
• to accurately write a 'diary' which talks indepth about what we have done in this particular moment

Adobe premier 
We have learnt the following:

•  to perform a variating mixture of basic and complex editing which I had no prior knowledge of beforehand and is a skill which can be used consistently
• how the enablement of sound and video can be layered and blended 
•  how to perform transitions and effect to improve the quality of what we filmed.

Paint, I used the Crop option in paint to modify my screen grabs to the correct size.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Our final youtube video includes annotations which vaguely explains how we attracted and addressed our audience

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Taking our narrative, theme and genre into consideration we believed that Working Titles would be the appropriate choice in terms of our production company. This is because:

It holds particular emphasis on films institutionally which entails the same genre as us such as My Little eye (hybrid genre) released in 2002 the synopsis being that five adults agree to spend six months together in an isolated mansion while being filmed at all times.This film was also distributed by Universal studios and cost only $3 million dollars to make. The idea for the film came from reality television shows such as Big Brother with the  title referring to the guessing game I spy.

 Another similar film is Long time dead also filmed in 2002 where a group of students hold an ouija board to hold a seance triggering a chain of violent deaths containing elements of  a physcological thriller as well as horror again conforming to tradtional stereotypical conventions.Both these films subvert against traditionally genred working titles as they usually produce chick flicks such as 4 weddings and a funeral. However we desired that our film came across as typically English conventionalised through the use of realisim and characterisation instead of conforming to the typical American horror such as the exorcist which over exagerates characters in terms of mise-en-scene (though we did have elements of surrealism but contrasted it against realism to balance the film out). 

It also contains elements of a low budget film such as amatuer camera work/ shots which enable the useage of both still and jolty shots. The best example would be the 1999 American horror Blair Witch Project which shows clear evidence of the previous statement.

   The fundamental job of the Working Titles production company is to decide on the set budget for the film  

• How much gross revenue they feel they can accumulate on estimation ( in terms of the Box office)
• What is their target audience? For example Somers Town directed by Shane Meadows was an independent film which decided to be realistic and just appeal to a british audience as worldwide a documentary style film will not generate much profit

They are also responsible for making the decisions that include choosing the cast, directors, editors and photographers which they feel will convey the films elements most effectively as well as their own individual  repertoire. In terms of our distributor we chose Universal studios as they are a large American company who would be willing to fund low budget British films such as ours and have done on numerous occasions increasing in dependability. It also allows better recognition of the film as well as being able to have enough financial income for advertising purposes such as trailers and posters.

 During our opening scene most of our film titles make an appearance, typically against the characters themselves as a form of identification.Traditionally films follow a particular discourse convention of: Producer, Distributor, Director and then the list of the cast which we have subverted against as we started with actors names, camera person followed by the title at the end of the sequence.

as well as providing the financial income that they need for the film in terms of the following factors:

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I have chosen to look at Zoe's character from our opening sequence, which is the controlled monster.

We can notice quite a similar comparison in these two pictures. Takako Fuji is the actress who plays the ghost character from The Grudge who we can be greatly compare to Zoe's possesed character. These two characters are both seen to stalk their victims, and who have a omninous and dazed lost look in their eyes when on screen, a sense of need. Both characters have dark hair and very pale skin (the undead look). Unlike in the opening two minutes of this film you actually do see Zoe's character, where as The Grudge stalks silently and is rarely seen. We only get the quickest glimpse of the two character, adding effectiveness to them.  Zoe's character starts through the dream sequence as a victim of 'The Creator'.

In terms of costume we both wore suitable clothing , however 'The Grudge' character wore normal yet ragged cloths whereas, Zoe wore a cape which included several holdes, which can be compared with the Grudge character who wears these stereotypical clothing from a horror genre. The cape proved to be very useful at it emphasized Zoe's movements and covered  her body (especially as it was windy when we filmed it created a great effect.) Also the grudge character keeps them self very close, so not running around freely, thoughtful slow movements.

As for Roles there aims are very similar, find the prey as if like a chase. This is meant to make the audience feel uncomfortable as it is a Horror/Fantasy film. Our clip as well as The Grudge is meant to attract audiences slightly more male and mainly middle aged.



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

Evaluation of frames in later posts!

Finished Result - Puppet Strings