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

Horror films are very popular in the cinema and TV. There is even a whole channel dedicated to horror films, Sky Movies Horror, which shows films such as 'My Bloody Valentine', 'Jennifer's Body' and 'Paranormal Activity'. Main TV channels such as BBC One, ITV and Channel 4 occasionally show films, but they are normally shown late at night because horror films are not suitable for the young audience the channels have.

We aim to show are film to big cinema chain for example, Vue and Odeon are the main cinemas we would aim to have our film shown in. Vue cinemas are not as well-known as Odeon but they are still well respected and show the same films as Odeon. Odeon cinemas are the largest cinema chain in Europe and so we would love to have our film ‘Knock, Knock Who’s There?’ in these big film cinema chains.

Our local Odeon cinema, in Guildford, is currently showing all the new films such as, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, The Tourist and Monsters. The genre of horror is very common in cinemas as it is an extremely popular genre because people like having the adrenaline rush of being scared and on the edge of their seat.

Horror film festivals are held all around the world, for example, New York. The New York City Horror Festival shows horror films that have been made by hopeful film directors. Awards are then presented such as best feature film, best special effects and best screenplay. Film4 Fright fest is an annual film festival held in London. Fans gather for five days of premieres, previews, personal appearances, signings and surprises.

On the whole, we as a group would love to have our film shown in the big cinema chains such as, Vue and Odeon. But we wouldn’t mind even if it only got to the stage of being shown at the horror festivals for example, New York City horror festival.

Evaluation Activity 2- How does your media project represent particular social groups?

Here are a couple of screen shots to show the similarities and differences between these two characters.

In our film ‘Knock, Knock Who’s there?’ the character ‘George’ is presented as an innocent young man who is dramatically chased around his house by masked Psycho’s. The character ‘George’ is shown to the audience wearing casual clothing which connotes a real life feel to the audience. In the film ‘The Strangers’ the main character ‘James Hoyt’ has the same issues in which ‘George’ has. However, the character ‘George’ is a lot younger and is left home alone whereas, the character ‘James Hoyt’ isn’t left home alone he is in a holiday home for his honeymoon with his wife.

In the first screen ‘James Hoyt’ is dressed up in casual clothes which shows to the audience that he’s relaxed and isn’t worried about anything. The second screen shot from our film shows the character ‘George’ in a relaxed position lying on the sofa watching television. The second screen shot also shows ‘George’ dressed in casual clothing which also shows to the audience that he’s relaxed.

Evaluation Activity 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Here is a screen shot of the opening scenes of our film, 'Knock,Knock Who's There?'.

The first scene of the film shows the genre of the film and how the different characters are being introduced.The genre of the film is horror this is shown throughout the film to the audience.The first scene shows a masked man sitting at the top of the stairs looking at the main character 'George' waiting for him to turn around and look straight at him. This scene also introduces the other main character 'Nut' because the audience can now see the whole body of the masked man. The character 'Nut' is in a mask to show to the audience that hes one of the scary characters.

The second screen shots is a shot of props in which we have used in the film.This is shown to the audience through the use of close-up camera shots. This camera close-ups of the props give the film a horror feel to the audience for example the subliminal image of the knife and the hit list show the audience that something bad is going to happen.The piece of paper with names written on it, with names crossed out shows to the audience that something bad is going to happen to 'George' because his name hasn't been crossed out on the hit list.

The third screen shot is of the main character 'George' on the sofa watching television. Hes very nervous and quite boy, this is shown to the audience when his mum leaves to go out. This suggests how the opening scene starts as hes left at home alone, when his mum goes out and you almost start to realise something is going to happen to 'George'.

The forth screen shot is of the main character 'George' again. This screen shot shows the atmosphere being relaxed because 'George' is lying down on the sofa minding his own business, But the whole atmosphere changes when the stone is thrown at the door.

The fifth screen shot is a picture of a knife, hit list and a mask in which one of the scary men uses 'Nut' . These items are flashed to the audience subliminally to create a scary atmosphere and to make the audience feel like something bad is going to happen.We use props in our film to create a tense effect to the audience and music over the top to make it more scary and effective to watch.

The sixth screen shot shows to the audience the typical conventional domestic setting of a horror film. This shows to the audience that it may be real life and lulls them into feeling a false sense of security. For example,  the film The Strangers has the same device.

The seventh screen shot shows special effects and sound effects to make the audience feel like its real life. As a group we added the light turning on sound effect to show the audience that it makes sense for ‘George’ to go into the bathroom and the continuity of the film makes sense.

The eighth screen shot shows the font for the titles we chose. As a group we chose this font because it was simple and looks hand painted similar to hand written note all of which connotes the anonymous amateur character of ‘Nut’ our villain.

The ninth screen shot shows the title of our film ‘Knock, Knock who’s there? ‘. We decided to choose this as our title because it shows to the audience what’s to come in the film. We also decided to choose this plain font because its effective and contrasts with the feel of the horror film we have made.

Research on Texas Chainsaw Massacre:
this research on 'the Texas chainsaw massacre' will benefit me and our group immensely because of the different shot types, lighting ect. This will also help out the group so we know how to scare the audience.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a 1974 American independent horror film directed by Tobe Hooper and written collaboratively by Hooper and Kim Henkel. The film stars Marilyn Burns, Gunnar Hansen, Teri McMinn, William Vail, Edwin Neal, and Paul A. Partain. While presented as a true story involving the ambush and murder of a group of friends on a road trip in rural Texas by a family of cannibals, the film is completely fictional. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is the first of the six films in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre film franchise, which features Leatherface, a character modeled after the Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein.
Hooper produced the film on an estimated budget of $140,000; he used a cast of relatively unknown actors, drawing people mainly from the areas surrounding the Texas filming locations. Principal photography for the film took place between July 15 and August 14, 1973. When the film was completed, Hooper struggled to find a distributor willing to release it due to its graphic depiction of violence; when he eventually secured a distributor, the Motion Picture Association of America gave the film an R-rating instead of the PG-rating Hooper had hoped.
Bryanston Distributing Company released The Texas Chain Saw Massacre to cinemas on October 1, 1974. Initially, the film drew a mixed reception from critics regarding the atmosphere, story, characters and graphic content, and the film was banned in many countries; nevertheless, it became a strong commercial success, grossing $30.8 million at the United States box office. Despite the lack of critical unanimity, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has gained a reputation as one of the most influential horror films in cinema history. It originated several elements common in the slasher film genre, including the use of power tools as murder weapons and the characterization of the killer as a large, hulking and faceless figure.

My Prelimenary task

In the preliminary task we were asked to make a sho-rt film an edit a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chairopposite another character when whom she/he then exchanges a few lines of dialogue.
Filming:
You had to include up to three different shots. these shot are, match on match action, shot/reverse shot and 180 degree rule. We prepaired for this task by making a story board and choosing a location to shoot the film. In the film we normally had the main character centre screen. But sometimes we had them slightly of to the side.My role in this film was to be one of the main characters.
Editing:
On the whole i was happy with the main result of the film but it would be better if we had three or more differnt types of shots. I also feel that we could of made the speaking more clear throughout the film. I think that our group on the whole worked very well together because we were confident of our own abilities and felt comfitable so it was easy to work together.i also find it very easy to work the camera which makes it easy for everyone and i can also work with Imovie because i have the feature on my phone.

CASE STUDY: The Dark Knight
in our lesson today we looked at the film industry, the jobs required in the industry. In the main part of the lesson we looked at the 'dark knight'.

Directed and co-written by Christopher Nolan. Writen by Jonathan Nolan. Produced by Chuck Roven. Music composed by Hans Zimmer.

This film was funded by Warner Bros, the homepage can be visited for further information. There is much information provided on their homepage. There are many hyperlinks, for example: videos and photos, synopsis, cast, downloads.

this film has lots of different types of shot styles for example, shot reverse shot, match on match action and the 180 degree rule.

comparing the thrillers 'memento' and 'Insomnia':

 Thriller Conventions for 'memento':

s
• Fight scenes and violence
• 'hard men', villains and heroes 
• foreign cities
• sound effects and fast pase music, explosions and gun shots

A man, suffering from short-term memory loss, uses notes and tattoos to hunt for the man he thinks killed his wife.

Director: 

Christopher Nolan

Writers: 

Jonathan Nolan,Christopher Nolan

Insomnia (2002) starring Al Pacino, Hilary Swank, Robin Williams
ABOUT:

Two Los Angeles homicide detectives are dispatched to a northern town where the sun doesn't set to investigate the methodical murder of a local teen.