All - Acts of Repulsion Final Cut

The following is the opening sequence of a new horror film, Acts of Repulsion. Produced and Directed by Oliver Preston and myself.

Evaluation - Question 1

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

Evaluation - Question 2

 How does your media product represent particular social groups?

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Evaluation - Question 3

Evaluation: Question 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Evaluation - Question 4

 Who would be the audience for your media product?

We consider that the BBCF Certificate would be an 18 because although the opening contains no violence and the killing is off screen there will be violence later on in the film. We have targeted ‘Acts of Repulsion’ for 18 to 24 year-olds although there will be a secondary audience from the slasher genre fans. We also think that ethnicity is not relevant to our plot and the film would appeal to a mixed audience. This is because we have tried avoiding a specific socio economic group by using teenagers as our cast. We believe late teens would empathise with the cast. As well as this we assume a higher percentage of males would form the audience. We have taken inspiration from Hostel (Eli Roth, 2005), Friday the 13^th (Marcus Nisthul, 2008) and Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978) and feel that the film would appeal to their audiences. Using stereotypes people associate with Britain, we have tried to attract more British fans towards the Slasher genre. These include: teenagers being rebellious and always causing trouble. Another way we are trying to attract a British audience is by using a British cast. Our target audience is also well represented in the feedback we have received.

Evaluation - Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

 

We have used blogs to attract an audience to the film. We both our personal blogs and also made a blog for specifically for ‘Acts of Repulsion’. As well as these we have both uploaded our pitches, rough cuts and final cut to YouTube and Facebook. This allows people from all over the world to post feedback on our videos as well as friends and family. Discussing the feedback together enabled us to respond to it and if we both think it is appropriate include it into our work. An example of this was the decision to change the internal location to produce wider variations in shots.

We have also tried to engage the audience by including a narrative enigma of the identity of the killer, - this is not revealed in our opening and would not be revealed until the end of the film therefore keeping the audiences attention. Another technique we have used is to include a false scare at the beginning of the film to frighten the audience. We built up tension and suspense by adding music that suits the sequence. As an indie film company with limited recourses we have used a local cast but to reduce the effect of West Yorkshire we have tried to avoid using slang or colloquialisms.

We have tried to attract audiences from the Halloween, Hostel and Friday the 13th franchises by using these to influence our ideas. We have added in an intertexual reference with the only victim in the opening scene by calling him Jason – a direct reference to Friday the 13th. We aimed to access a secondary audience by placing the film in the horror/slasher genre therefore attracting fans of those genres.

Evaluation - Question 6

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

The technologies that I have learnt from this process are how to create, set up and use a blog for coursework and general use. It has allowed me to inform people on what we have produced as well as seeing what our classmates have produced. The comment space on the blog has also been useful because I have been able to retrieve feedback on my work. This is the first time I have ever used a website like this and I have found it useful for publishing coursework on.



The Internet Movie Database logo

Another helpful technology was the internet. This helped because I could find out about new feature films released or in development on the website internet movie database (imdb). The Guardian website has been useful for research as well because every Friday it has a section on media.

As well as this, I have also uploaded videos onto YouTube, again a thing I have never done. I have found this useful to receive feedback from people across the world as well as to link it onto Facebook to gain feedback from friends. By receiving feedback we have been able to and incorporate it into the product to produce a better quality product. As well as using YouTube and Facebook to publish work on the internet I have also use sites such as Scridb and Divshare. I have found these two websites incredibly useful. Scridb has been useful because it allows Microsoft Word documents to be uploaded to blogs. Divshare has enabled me to upload the podcasts.

LiveType Logo

iMovie Logo

By doing this coursework mainly on Macintosh Computers I have been able to use programs I have never been able to use on a PC. By using the Macs I have been able to use programs including iMovie and LiveType. We used iMovie for uploading and editing our media project and improve it after receiving feedback. We used LiveType for creating the idents.

Another program I have used for the first time is Sony Vegas Movie Studio. I have been using this at home when I have not had access to the Macs. I used the program for editing the first two evaluation questions as well as editing a few clips that I personally recorded for the project including a lighting test and the walking cemetery scene (below).

I have used two camcorders to film the project which use different technologies. A Canon mini dv camcorder using tapes was used for the internal shots. A Sony Handycam DCR-SR32 Hard Disc Drive Camcorder was used for the external footage. Using the Sony and filming handheld on autofocus produced the blurring/focusing effect which was more atmospheric than filming with a tripod and using zoom for the cemetery scenes.