Captured- Final Finished Opening Sequence

Evaluation

This is my final evaluation for our Opening Sequence. The evaluation really gave me an insight into ways I could improve and ways in which I have made progress. It was definitely necessary for tying up all the loose ends that I was still thinking about. It made the progress I have made clear to me.
[Teacher note - moved from 8th April so it appears at front of Blog]

Typical Conventions of Horror Films

-Dark Colours and Lighting
-Male Murderer
-Female Victim
-Some sort of weapon
-Scary music/sounds
-Creepy?


As a group we have been discussing conventions of horror films and these are a few of the ideas we came up with.
In our opening, we were saying we would like to involve some of these, but to make our opening different, also challenge some of them.
For example, we will be using the dark lighting and female victim, but instead of having a male killer we also have a female one. We hope that this difference will make the reader feel like this film has never been done before and they will therefore want to see the rest of the film.

Costumes

In our opening we want to create the right atmosphere in a number of different ways, and one of these ways is with the costumes. We want both of our 'killers'/'baddies', (Jade and Efosa) to be dressed in dark clothing to highlight that they are up to something, the dark outfits hold negative connotations and will immediately allow the audience to point the finger at who is who.

We would like Jess on the other hand to wear something white. We felt that white holds connotations of purity and innocence, which will help the reader empathise more with the character Jess has to play. Also we can show how Jade is corrupting Jess' purity (white) by covering her in red lipstick. Red holds connotations of hate, but can however be linked to passion and love which would be quite disturbing for the audience.

We have decided that costumes play a very big part in what you are trying to put accross, and these subtle hints will be what will make our film great. Fingers crossed!

Research on 'Why people love the 'Horror Genre'

Why Do People Love Horror Movies? They Enjoy Being Scared

ScienceDaily (July 31, 2007) — A bedrock assumption in theories that explain and predict human behavior is people's motivation to pursue pleasure and avoid pain. How can this be reconciled with the decision to engage in experiences known to elicit negative feelings, such as horror movies" It certainly seems counterintuitive that so many people would voluntarily immerse themselves in almost two hours of fear, disgust and terror.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070725152040.htm

This piece of research is from a scientific website and shows the mental and psychological reasons for people liking horror  movies.

I believe it's because it's a way of escaping from real life into a temporary, fantasy world where horrific and terrible things happen to normal people like you and me, with otherworldly sites and sounds we would not be experiencing in our everday life.


We know that what we are seeing is "not real", that we are in a "safe zone", yet we can experience the feeling of knowing what it might be like if these things we see and hear could actually happen to us...this is our imagination at work


It's normal human behavior to seek "thrills", and these things projected on a screen are emotionally "thrilling" and yet physically harmless.
Summed up in one word: ESCAPISM

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060808201355AA3SoXM

This research is from a website called Yahoo which is a place where people ask questions and anyone can put their own opinion, so this is from a person's own point of view about why people like horror movies.




The reason I chose to do this research is so we can look at the reasons people love the genre and make sure that when we watch our movie over we feel those same feelings inside.

Production Logo Research

Whilst researching production logos to get ideas for our own, I came accross this image which shows a variety of production logos around at the moment. As you can see there are a variety of different colours and images used on each, but as our opening is based on the genre of horror, we are looking more at the darker logos to add to the whole atmosphere of the film. I felt that if we used a brightly coloured production logo, it would take away from the whole effect that we are trying to get across to the audience.

We based our logo on mostly the darker examples above as we felt it was most appropriate for our opening. As you can see from the examples our uses elements from both MIRAMAX Films and Twisted Pictures.

Feelings about the Project as a whole- Evaluation

Looking back over the course as a whole I feel like I have learnt a lot about a lot of different elements of media. I have also learnt skills I can take on to later like working independently and also working as part of a group. Despite being quite stressful it has been extremely enjoyable and helped me to form good friendships. As I had never done media before, it was all new to me so I didn't know what to expect, this was another way the course has been quite difficult for me but I feel I have adjusted to it well and have done quite well.

I have also had to work on various different programs like Flash, Final Cut and Garage Band, which will help me with other things in different lessons, and also later on in life if I am asked to work with some of this software I will feel confident as I have already used it before. 

The creation of our product has helped me vastly in many different ways.