Ex-Terminate Final Opening

Evaluation Question 7: Looking back at your premliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Evaluation Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Evaluation Question 5: How did you attract/adress your audience?

Evaluation Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

In this video I cover the overall characteristics of our target audience, but not the specifics. I have covered the specifics are in the presentation below. I have also included pictures of what I think our target audience would look like.

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

Evaluation Question 2: How does your media group represent particular social groups?

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

Chase Scene
 

The biggest horror convention we incorporated into our movie was the chase scene. Chase scenes are used in horror films because they create a sense of fear for the audience and the character. They also display the characters helplessness in the situation. An example of  a movie that uses chase scenes is Scream 2.

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This scene is taken from the opening of Scream 2. It is similar to our opening in the way that the character being chased is confused and unaware of why they are being chased, which also causes confusion for the audience. The scene, accompanied by fast paced music further excites the audience and keeps them intrigued. This is what we hoped to achieve within our opening. Also, the female being chased is a popular convention we have conformed to as females are stereotyped as weak and unable to defend themselves.

Todorov's Theory
A convention we subverted from in our movie opening was using Todorov's Theory as a structure. The theory can be found below.

Many films use this structure to create a balance between positives and negatives within a film. It gives the audience a sense of safety to know there is a restored equilibrium at the end. However I find this structure quite unrealistic and overused which is why we didn't use it in our opening. In our opening, it begins with a disruption instead of an equilibrium. This allows the action to take place straight away and keep the audience intrigued from the beginning. An example of a horror film which conforms to Torodov's Theory is Paranormal Activity 4, which can be seen below.
I find an opening like this quite boring and cliché as it is a structure used in many genres and I believe horrors should be more exciting. In this opening, the characters are at the equilibrium stage; they are happy and unaware of any problems that are going to occur. However, with our opening, Sarah is at the disruption stage as she is aware she is being followed right at the start.

Music/Sound Effects
The use of music/sound effects help set the mood for the movie and acts as a catalyst for the tension build up. Our movie opening includes a fast paced track that is used while Sarah is running away from Danny. This track is appropriate as it excites the audience and anticipates them for what is going to happen next. It isn't a scary track but it still builds up the tension. Saw slightly varies.

In Saw's opening, an slow and eerie track is used in the background, which intensifies at the end when the character is pulling the chain. This opening also includes loud and screechy sound effects when the dead body holding the gun is shown. The music and sound effects used in this opening varies to our opening as the music is  a lot slower and creepier but it still builds tension due to the storyline and location of the opening, as does ours.

Change of location

Here we are filming the opening scene of our movie.

As you can see in the pictures above, we are filming our movie opening in the park. We have done this as we wanted a wider variety of locations in our opening, we felt only filming in Kiera's house was limiting the variations of lighting and shot types we could use. This location was also convenient to us as it is less than a minute away from our school, so there wasn't trouble when it came to travelling with the camera and the tripod. Although, we did encounter some problems with the camera while filming. We also felt the park would add create more of a scary atmosphere for the audience as it is a place people go to as a leisure activity. This makes it more relatable to the audience. We are creating a discomforting scene which will put doubt in the audiences mind, as it is a location they go to to enjoy theirselves. It wasn't dark when we filmed this scene but we aim to edit the lighting once we begin to edit our opening.

Possible Production Names

As a group, we brainstormed possible production names for our movie production company. We decided to make a chart consisting of three words associated with our film and list synonyms of the words, in hope of finding a production name we liked.

 

As you can see, this method wasn't suited to us. We couldn't think of many words asscoiated with the topics we had chosen. Also, we had to take into consideration that the name of our production company didn't have to have anything to do with the genre and storyline of our movie. Due to this, we also came up with these three names:

• Flashlight Studios
• Tunnel Vision Studios
• Skyhigh Studios

We liked these ideas as we felt they were original and had significance to film production and editing, rather than our movie. We also had an idea of how we would edit these names into our movie. These production names seemed stronger and more memorable to us than the ones we had on our chart.

Overall, our favourite production name was Tunnel Vision, as it infers that our movie is the only thing we want our audience to focus on. Also, it infers that we are a fully focused production team.

tunnel vision

n

2. narrowness of viewpoint resulting from concentration on a single idea, opinion, etc, to the exclusion of others

 

Although we wasn't concentrated on a single idea at the beginning, we now are and are now giving it our full attention. Which is why I think Tunnel Vision Studios will be an appropriate and suited name for our prodution company.

Music and sound effects ideas for movie opening

After doing some research, we have found free, non copyrighted horror sound effects and music which we think will be appropriate for our movie opening.

This video consists of a variety of different sound effects which include ones which would make the audience jump, there are also some very good tension building sound effects. They are very appropriate and match the genre of our movie.

This is a very long piece of music, lasting almost 10 minutes. It is very dark, starting off slow then gradually getting higher and faster, raising the tension. It is the type of music that would excite and scare the audience as they would be waiting for the climax to happen.

This mix consists of 13 horror instrumentals. Not all of these are suitable, as some of them climax too late or seem to be aimed at a different sub-genre of horror than ours. The tracks which we thought could possibly work were track number one: Moonlight and Roses by Lee Rosevere, track number 8: The Crazies Are Out Tonight by Dylan Palme and track number 13: Awaken From A Nightmare by Silver Process.

Production Schedule

Production Scheduling

Script for Ex-Terminate

Here is the script for our original idea for our movie. However this is no longer our script as we have made changes to the treatment. We wasn't very fond of this script because it involved too much dialogue, which decreased the scary mood for the audience. Also, it took up too much time, it overrun our time limit of two minutes. There wasnt' enough of a tension build up which there should always be at the beginning of a horror movie.

For our new treatment, we decided not to have any speech. This is because the opening of our movie changed to a chase scene which does not need dialogue. We believed that less speech and more tension music would have a scarier effect on the audience. The lack of speech confuses the audience more, as without speech they are almost unable to identify exactly what is going on and why.

Old and new Storyboard for our movie

Here is the storyboard we began to create for the first treatment of our movie. However, this had to be changed as we changed our treatment. The new storyboard for our movie is below this one.


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Here is the storyboard for our new movie opening
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Target Audience Feeback

This post consists of the target audience feedback of our old treatment and our new improved treatment. While collecting the new feedback, I asked people from a wider age range (15-19), whereas with our old feedback, we only asked teenagers between 16 and 17. The variation of age ranges is more accurate to our target audience, which is 15-21. The new feedback is more positive than the old one as we received more praise and less constructive criticism, which shows our new treatment was an improvement compared to the old one.

 Here is the feedback for our original treatment:
Here is the feedback for our new treatment:

Treatment Changes

While filming our opening, we decided to change our treatment in order to involve a wider variety of shots. We also decided to add a scene in the park, so the opening wouldn't only be in one location. Here are the two other ideas we came up with; they are pretty much the same but only have a slight difference.
 
Idea One
Film opens with Sarah at home, talking to her friend over the phone. In this part of the video we plan to add information that will help set the scene for the audience however this is going to be all one-sided conversation and will follow Sarah’s speech. She then tells her friend about how with the recent breakout from prison by her ex-boyfriend she feels like she’s being watch/followed. The scene will show a flashback of Sarah walking home from work through the park and in the distance she sees a hooded man off the path near the trees. She stops to stare however is interrupted by a passer-by asking politely for her to move which she obliged. When she looks at the position the hooded figure was in, he is nowhere to be seen and she decides to ignore it and walk home however a hooded man comes into view of the camera unseen by Sarah. The scene then then changes back to Sarah at home on the phone to her friend. It is clear she is wary that the person in the park could have been Danny, but she tries to brush it off. She then hears an unusual noise coming from her hallway. She goes to investigate it and finds nothing. She is then grabbed by Danny from behind and strangled. The screen fades to black as we hear Sarah’s muffled scream. The title Ex-terminate then comes into sight.
 
Idea Two
Instead of Sarah being on the phone to her friend in the first scene, the film with open with Sarah in the park making her way home from work. She sees a hooded figure watching her from the trees. A pedestrian walks by, and in that second that she looks away, the figure disappears. She is confused, but carries on walking. She then hears a rustling noise behind her, and then footsteps. The footsteps get closer and closer and the pace picks up. It is clear she is being chased. She begins to run as the hooded figure chases her through the park. She makes it to her front door, but struggles to find her keys. In this time the character catches up with her and strangles her from behind. The screen fades to black as we hear Sarah’s muffled screams. The title ‘Ex-terminate’ comes into view. Later on in the film the audience would learn that the character chasing Sarah was her ex-boyfriend Danny.

Chosen Actors

This is Jovinie Carter. She is 17 and our chosen actress to play Sarah. She wasn't our original choice as she is part of our group and wanted to be more involved with the filming. However, the original actress we chose was unable to make it at the times we requested. We found that having the actress in our group made things a lot easier as she was always present at the same time we were. She adapted to her role quickly and confidently. We felt she was fully capable of playing the role of an older character as she is a mature person and the age difference wasn't too big. Jovinie's character is bubbly, popular among friends and concerned with her education. These are all attributes that Jovinie already had so it was easy for her to play the character.

This is Debo. He is 18 and our chosen actor to play Sarah's ex Danny. Like Jovinie, he wasn't our original choice to play Danny as Debo is also a member of our group, but it was very difficult to find a male actor who was available at the times we needed them. Debo wasn't as comfortable with acting  so we tried our hardest to avoid shots of his face when it wasn't necessary. Danny is a very violent, angry and psychotic person. Although Debo obviously doesn't hold these characteristics, the opening only involved him chasing Sarah so it wasn't challenging. Having the actor in our group was an adavantage for the same reasons having the actress in our group was an adavantage.  

Our inspiration

Equipment

Equipment from kierajaffas

Costume

Costume from kierajaffas

Props

Props from kierajaffas

Location

Location from kierajaffas

Character / Location Search

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