Evaluation 1

L1)

In what ways does your media product use, developor challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)

In our film opening we have tried to be as simplistic as possible with certain aspects as the genre of our film is gothic horror, and in a Victorian era. We didn’t want much to distract from the plot.
 

THE TITLE.

 

We chose to call our film opening ‘Chapel Lane’. We did this as it is a common theme with Victorian based media to call it after the place it is set or something of the sort. Eg The popular Victorian crime drama- ‘Ripper Street’.  We liked the title as it incorporates the setting also as it is set in front of a chapel/church. Also the Victorian era was known as a very religious time so it fits in with the conventions of the era as well. And in general horror/thriller films do have some elements of religion; the exorcist, the devil inside… 
 

SETTING/LOCATION.

Our opening is set in a graveyard/church environment. This created an eerie atmosphere, as a lot of other movies of a similar genre also take place in a churchyard. However this did come with some troubles filming as it is a public place, so we had to stop and start filming, to allow passers-by to walk in our shot frame. Specifically, our opening shot is of a church door. We decided to film against an old decrepit church as it fits very well with the conventions of our film. It looks very authentic also as if it were filmed in that era. The door luckily was a heavy oak door, so that slowed down the pace of the shot as it took longer to open etc. The door also had meticulous detail, including a pattern, and many dots on it.This created a darker atmosphere so was a lot easier to film, and also look very good on camera. The style itself is very gothic, and it is not often you come across such a detailed door- so to the audience it is unusual and unfamiliar.

THE COSTUME AND PROPS.

The costume is essential to our film opening. We needed to get the costume right or it would have undermined the whole film opening. In our voxpop we found that our target audience focus on the costume as a main part of a gothic horror. We chose dark colours and old fashioned style. The man wore a top hat and smart suit whereas the girl wore a dress and hooded cloak.. Some props we used were the hand mirror for the end  scene, and we also used cigarettes to shoot a certain scene of him smoking. Smoking was very popular at the time so links to the era, and also is generally seen as quit e a mysterious/ moody thing to  do. But we couldn't get any cigars which would have been preferable as the ones we used were a lot more modern that what would have been available at the time. 
 

CAMERA WORK/EDITING.
 

In general I believe that our camera work was very good, but we did have to allow for some interference as we were again,filming in a public place, and also had the wind to deal with.This cause some of the shots to be slightly shaky, but in the point of view shots we incorporated I think that was a happy coincidence and looked quite good not completely still. We also took into consideration how it is going to look to the audience; who don’t know the plot at all for example: At the beginning we have the main character come through the door; this adds a sense of mystery, as we don’t know what to expect of him yet, we haven’t got a feel of his character. From a completely objective point of view we don’t know if he will be the protagonist of victim. When it came to editing we changed the saturation and colour of the film to make it black and white- we thought that this made the film opening more old fashioned and believable as if it were filmed at the time. We also had to edit  some non-diegetic sound over the top. We did this as it is commonly seen in thrillers, and adds to thesuspense of the moment. Although this was previously planned it proved to be a good idea because we didn’t account for background noise, especially in a busy high street. So by muting the diegetic sound to put music over it, we had also stopped any prominent signs of modern life being brought into the frame eg. Cars revving, children screaming, general chatter form church goers…
 

TITLE FONT/STYLE
 

We wanted the title of our film to be a reflection more of the era in which it was set, than the typical thrillers and horrors conventions and codes in relation to titles. As it is set in the Victorian days, we wanted to use beige-y colours to make it seem more ‘vintage like’, and as if it has changed colour due to aging. We also chose a silvery colour to ‘pop’ off the background. This silver colour denotes aspects of class, and a rich life (which our characters have).The font also look like writing on a letter, especially as the writing itself looks hand written, this adds a personal touch so it can draw the audience in as if it were a letter to them especially. We didn’t want to choose such stereotypical colours as black and red because our film isn’t a typical horror/ thriller; there isn’t much gore so the red would be pointless to use as a connotation for blood. And despite the fact that black would have worked, we went against it as it seemed almost too dark to fit in with our film opening.

STORY AND HOW THE OPENING SETS IT UP

In this opening we can immediately tell that it is not set in modern day times and that it is of a different era. We know this through the characters costumes, and the obvious fact that it is in black and white tells the audience that it is meant to be in a time that coloured filming simply did not exist. We also get a feel for the characters and what they are like, and their roles in the plot. We learn that the main male is the ‘baddy’ in the situation and is going to be the one that is crucial to the storyline; the audience follows what he does. The audience also have preconceived ideas of him due to his suit and his high class status, but as the plot goes against what you would expect of this type of character. Any expectations of the plot past the end point are destroyed. The audience knows that he is obsessive, violent, and has obviously ‘stalker-ish’ tendencies.