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

‘The Chain Mail’ is a mix of the openings of horror films over time: Halloween II and Saw VI. The conventions of both films are different in the opening sequence with Halloween II creating suspense and a supernatural feel with the shooting of a man who then disappears after falling from a balcony. Saw IV attempts to satisfy modern conventions of a horror with gore. We also researched some thrillers such as What Lies Beneath. The opening minutes of this film contain a task from Jigsaw, which leads to two people cutting off their flesh in order to survive.
At first we wanted to challenge the modern convention of gore and stick to the suspense and supernatural element of Halloween II. We therefore created the clown character and discussed him being a supernatural figure rather than a conventional thriller serial killer. This was our aim throughout principle photography, however when we reviewed our footage it looked more like a thriller as it was lacking the gore modern audiences associate with a horror.
On our second shoot we succeeded in adding the gore element using red paint as blood. Using this modern convention helped us to create a sense of horror rather than a thriller. We then developed them in post-production editing, mixing the two different conventions from the two films to create a new horror.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In the opening minutes of ‘The Chain Mail’ it is clear the target within the film is teenage girls. Although class is not particularly denoted in the film, social networking is. Social networking is a modern phenomenon, with 250 million people using sites like Facebook.
‘The Chain Mail’ keeps a modern feel to it with the messages appearing on phones and laptops. The phone message is received on BBM or Blackberry Messenger which is available to anyone who has a Blackberry as a way of free messaging. The message on the laptop was originally filmed on a Facebook page. However we felt we needed a closer shot of the writing so this part was cut out. The use of networking in the film represents the modern dependence on social networks.

The use of social networks and modern communication can also connote how dangerous certain sites can be, especially with media coverage. Everyone takes the risk when using a social network, obviously there are going to be unpleasant people, it is the responsibility of the user to keep themselves safe. The danger of social networks is aimed at teenagers when in the media spotlight. This directly links with the convention of teenage suffering in horror films as many main characters in horrors are in a younger age group.

Teenagers are stereotyped as spending all their time on social networking sites and using their phone to communicate with friends. This, for us, created a perfect narrative, using the media’s negative spotlight on social networking and the lack of control people have from keeping their children safe from unknown dangers, linking with the supernatural convention of a horror.

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

Twisted Pictures - A production company well known for its horror films, especially the Saw films.

Why would they be good for our film?

Lionsgate is an independent company, like our independent film. Both companies are well known for the genre of horror, especially the Saw films, which were successful with the horror audience.

Lionsgate - An American/Canadian entertainment company, most successful in North America and associated with the Saw films.

Here you can see their most recent films:

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The success of a film depends on many aspects of release strategies, which, along with the cost of production can be very expensive. Every film wants to be the one in ten that makes a profit; therefore it is crucial that the film makes enough money to pay the financers, cast, crew and any other funding and labour. A film is also looking to make extra money to invest into potential projects in the future.

The important part of a film’s success is ‘has it reached its target audience’? The first graph is from a film website, giving the percentages of audiences that go to see certain genres. The first graph clearly shows:
More men go to see horror films than women.
The two age groups that go to see horror films are 18-34 and 35-49.
After uploading my film to Youtube for research it is clear that the gender that watched The Chain Mail the most is male and the age is 13-17.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Here we have compared stills from our film with other media products. It is clear that we have developed conventions to create a wider audience, using conventions from newer and older horror films. Suspense and gore have been mixed together from our research of Saw and Halloween II. Having a balance of conventions means our film is not too extreme, not too old, not too new, so more people may enjoy the narrative.

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

From the preliminary task especially, I have learnt how to adjust sound levels so that they are effective and fit with the narrative. When I first used Final Cut I dipped the sound completely in the last seconds of the footage, creating a strange gap between sound and no sound. When I returned to Final Cut for my coursework I focused on using the pen to gently alter sound levels to balance diegetic and non-diegetic sound. In the early stages when we were looking at sound in terms of our coursework, we decided to have no dialogue and include music to add to the suspense.

One part of the construct I am pleased with is the titles. In the preliminary task I had no need for titles, whereas the opening of a film does. Learning how to add these effectively to fit with the action on screen proved to be a challenge. The text had to be right, as did the font, size and time it appeared on screen. We used AppleGothic as it suited our genre best and put the titles in before the action came to a climax so they didn't distract the audience.

Another aspect we had to alter in post-production was lighting. When we reviewed our footage it was a little dark. We also wanted to enhance the features of the mask. Using colour corrector helps us achieve this. Looking back, if I had explored this option when editing my preliminary task, it would have made that footage a little darker and easier to see with the sun in shot.

Overall I believe I have explored and progressed with the technology side of the course, learning how to use software such as Final Cut to enhance a film, rather than simply cut it up and put it together. Using more features of Final Cut helped to improve the on screen atmosphere and, hopefully, improve the quality of viewing.

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

I believe I have progressed from preliminary task to coursework successfully. The main areas I feel I have improved in are: editing in terms of sound and narrative, principle photography framing and time management.
When producing my preliminary task, time management was not a key issue. The filming was completed in lesson time and editing in an afterschool session. When it came to coursework, a lot more planning was needed as well as time to film and edit. Research into genre and audience was needed before any storyboarding and filming could be done. Therefore we needed to focus on our work and have a time limit for each area. In total we had 9 weeks to complete the pre production (research and planning), production (principle photography) and post production (editing).
I followed the pattern of the preliminary task, allowing myself the most amount of time for editing. This would only work if I kept within the time limit for research and filming. In the preliminary task, principle photography took longer than expected as our planning, particularly script work and storyboarding, did not work out as planned, leading to a change in camera angles and many takes due to the script.
I am particularly pleased with the framing of the coursework. When filming the preliminary task we went for basic camera angles and shots. Over the time period between the tasks we picked up various shots and techniques that enabled us to vary our shots and frames to create different angles of viewing the film.
Overall I believe I have learnt from the preliminary task and developed skills into the coursework.

Director's Commentary

Horror - A Popular Genre

The success of a film is determined on the opening weekend, here it is clear that the top 5 films had very strong takings on their opening weekend, showing a clear target audience and the film’s achievement of reaching them.

The following charts show how much each film made in their opening weekend and overall.

Taken from boxofficemojo.com

'The Chain Mail' Stills

First Reactions

After watching 'The Chain Mail' for the first time I am really pleased with the final product. The re-shoot paid off, making it look more like a horror than a thriller and the post production process improved our original footage. This was mainly the issue of lighting. When we first watched our footage it was quite dark and difficult to see what was going on, with colour corrector we were able to manipulate the images to make the mask the focus of the screen.
I am also pleased that the change of actors playing the clown isn't noticeable. We were first worried about the height difference between Mark and Faye, however the change female lead helps to disguise this.

The part I like the most is the beginning with the 'Twisted Pictures' introduction. It helps to make the film look more professional when the film begins. I am glad the killing of the first girl looks realistic as we used red paint for the bloody scene. With a little colour corrector it looks realistic and adds to the modern horror convention.Using colour corrector to alter the footage helped to bring the mis-en-scene into focus for the audience. The black and white wallpaper in the second half stands out with the colours drawing out the red of the mask.

Overall I am relieved 'The Chain Mail' looks good and sounds good because it shows my progression from preliminary to coursework. The sound element has improved as I was more aware of background audio. Also the chance to add music added to the suspense of the film. Obviously this would not have been suitable for my preliminary task as it was a conversation, the lack of dialogue in 'The Chain Mail' left a gap for some element of sound to help explain the narrative.

Looking back at editing....

Here are some screengrabs from the editing process.

The Name

The name for our film was chosen at the last minute as we were not sure if the name should be simple or complex. As the focus of our film is teenagers being sent a chain mail we have decided to call it 'The Chain Mail'. Although the name is simple, it is clear to the audience what the film is about.

In on time?

Although we had the problem with with software shutting down, we have managed to edit our music again and finish on time.

Problem

While editing the software suddenly closed down. We had not saved all of our work, meaning when we managed the restart the programme we had lost all of the work we had done on the music.

Film Distributor

One institution we have seen when researching horror is Twisted Pictures. Along with Lionsgate, Twisted Pictures is associated with the popular Saw films. As this is a widely distributed series of films we have decided to use Twisted Pictures as our institution.

Why did we limit our titles?

We felt we didn't need many titles as it would distract the audience from the action on screen and take away some of the suspense. Therefore we stuck to the basic film titles. The only title we are considering is a film distributor.

Titles

The titles we have added are:

The names of actors -
Mikki-Leigh Gant
Mark Price
Robyn Green

Directed by -
Sophie Stacey
Faye Ratliff

Music Supervisor -
Ebrahem

Produced by -
Danny Boyle

Titles

It is now time to add titles to our film. We have an idea of where we want them to go as we have been placing slugs in our work to remind us. The time of the film is currently 1 minute and 50 seconds, so we have time to add titles and possible an introduction of an institution.

Nearly Finished

The video editing is complete, now we can put the music back in. With the newer footage we will need to edit the levels of sound with the water running to slowly introduce the music to create suspense.

Editing Issues

As we edited the music with the earlier footage it doesn't quite fit the new footage. Therefore we have decided to take the music out and put it in when we have finished all of the footage editing.

Where will we put this new footage?

While editing the new footage we have decided it will fit the narrative best if it is at the beginning. The early gore will create a shock at the beginning, making the audience wonder how much worse it will get.

New Footage

We have uploaded our footage and started editing it. We will need to cut more of our original footage for it to fit the two minutes. One problem we are currently facing is where will we put this new footage?

Interior Location

Actors

Post Filming

Again, the filming went really well and was done with speed. We managed to get the shots we wanted and from watching the footage back, feel it will give the film the gore needed to make it a horror.

Actors

We have decided to use new actors for the second half as it is easier due to the location and creates a story of two characters rather than one.

The new actors will be:

Girl - Mikki-Leigh Gant
Clown - Faye Ratliff

New Props

For the second part of filming we will need:

The mask
A knife
Red paint

Extra Filming

We now have another idea that will link in with the first part of the narrative and hopefully make it look more like a horror.

New Storyboard

(to be uploaded)

Problem

We have nearly finished editing but, on looking at the footage, we have decided it looks more like a thriller than a horror. We feel we need more footage, containing gore. We now need to storyboard an idea.

Music

With editing of the footage nearly finished we are starting to edit the sound levels of the music taken from Youtube. Trying to find the balance between the diegetic and non-diegetic sound will take a little more time than the footage as it is difficult the get the levels to a perfect balance.

Music Update

We have heard from the account holder and they have given us permission to use their music as long as we credit them in the titles.

Editing

Due to the speed in which we are editing we are currently choosing the music to go with our film. Looking back at the songs from Youtube we have decided we would like to use 'Best Horror Music Ever'. The next stage is emailing the account holder to get permission.

Editing

Editing is going well and at a good pace which mean we have plenty of time to correct any mistakes and re-shoot. The footage is currently 2 minutes and 30 seconds which means we need to cut more out but keep the narrative flowing.

Editing

We have started putting our footage together, cutting the scenes that didn't work and trying to keep within the 2 minute limit. Slugs are being used as a temporary filler for where we think titles should go.

Possible Music

Footage

We have uploaded our footage from the SD card to the computer and from what we have seen the filming definitely went well. I am particularly pleased with the framing. One thing that needs to be improved when we edit is lighting, in the interior scene. This will help to emphasise the mask.

Post Filming

We have finished our filming for the evening and hopefully have all the footage we need. I was pleased with the speed in which we filmed and from the bits I have seen I am confident it will look good when we upload tomorrow.

Filming

Interior Location

Exterior Location

The Day of Filming

I have managed to get hold of Robyn and she has found someone to play the clown. Their costume is sorted and they will be arriving in Stansted on time ready to film.

Girl - Robyn Green

Clown - Mark Price

Exterior Location - Water Lane

Interior Location - West Road

The Day of Filming

PROBLEM!

The locations are sorted, the camera is charging and we have the girl but, hours before filming, Lauren has been taken ill. It is now lunch and we need to find a new clown, with costume, for 16.00.

Day Before Filming...

The mask has not arrived so, at the last minute, Faye has purchased a plain white mask for 50p and painted the features like the one on eBay. We now have everything sorted and the camera is booked.

The Mask

After an earlier discussion about costume, focusing on the clown, we have been looking for a clown mask or face paint. Faye has found a mask on eBay and it should arrive before we film.

Preparation for Filming

The new filming arrangements are:

Girl - Robyn Green
Clown - Lauren Geddes
Exterior Location - Water Lane
Interior Location - West Road

Filming will take place on Tuesday 18th January

Solution!

A friend has stepped in and offered to help with the location. We now have an interior set that is closer to Water Lane.

Problem!

The interior location is no longer available, a week before filming. The actor is still confirmed but another house is needed.

Preparation for Filming

When we had finished storyboarding our ideas we decided to ask friends about locations and actors. During early planning we had discussed the exterior scene and chose Water Lane in Stansted. In our later conversation we thought an interior location near Water Lane would allow us to film the scenes and keep the continuity of the fading light. Once one of the actors confirmed they also allowed us to use their house for filming. All we needed now was the clown. After a discussion about costume, we decided the clown need to be tall, to lean over the victim.
Pre-filming arrangements:
Girl - Robyn Green
Clown - Lauren Geddes
Exterior Location - Water Lane
Interior Location - Burnells Way

Storyboard

Narrative Structure