Final Export Of Unknown

Official Radio Trailer for 'Unknown'

Official Poster for 'Unknown'

Evaluation: Question 4

Evaluation: Question 3

 Here is the evaluation based around audience feedback:

Evaluation: Question 2

Evaluation: Question 1

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

I feel that we've successfully observed and understood the conventions of things such as continuity and editing and this is evident through our final products. Not only did we understand the importance of these technical elements within our short film but we also maintained this idea of continuity throughout our poster and radio trailer. Within our film we used editing effectively as we used a range of fast and slow paced editing. This is common within our chosen genre (horror) as it helps create an uneasy atmosphere within the audience as the pace if the editing is constantly changing. Therefore the audience aren't given the chance to feel comfortable while watching our film. This use of editing helps create a sense of intensity which is one of Richard Dyer's Utopian Solutions which features within his theory of entertainment. This constant change of pace within the film connotes that the character on screen is experiencing a large amount of fear and because of this intense emotion within the film, it provides a sense of entertainment for the audience as in the real world, it is rear for the audience to experience such a large saturation of emotion in one moment, therefore providing a form of escapism from reality. A film that uses the pace of editing in a similar way is 'Drag me to Hell' and one scene that stands out is the ending. At the beginning of the scene, it is connoted to the audience that the equilibrium within the narrative has been restored so therefore, slow paced editing is used, making sure that there is no tension in the audience whatsoever. Then, later on it proves that it was a false sense of restoration as the male character pulls out a button that is cursed and this is where there is a very obvious change in pace and this is constantly changing throughout the scene, changing from fast to slow paced editing and this makes the audience feel uneasy and this is what we did when editing our film to help make the audience feel uneasy and frightened.

Another element that we used within our film that compliments the conventions of the horror genre is the idea of an anti-climax. In every film ever made, no matter what the genre is, there is always some form of climax and in the horror genre, producers, directors and editors like to experiment with climaxes and also anti-climaxes.  An anti-climax is where there is some form of build up within a film (this is generally done using tense music or the pace of editing) and after this build up, there is an underwhelming event that ends the build up. We use an anti-climatic moment within our film as we use tense music to build up the tension and fear within the scene and this is used as the main character walks towards a door in which a figure is stood on the other side. Then as the door is opened, the figure turns out to be a pizza delivery man and the music cuts. This creates and anti-climax and creates a false sense of fear within the audience. This appears in many horror films as it stimulates the imagination of the audience, making them feel scared of something that actually isn't very scary. This helped contribute to making a successful short film from the horror genre.

Protagonist walking towards the door - Music is building
setting up for a 'climax'

Music cuts when pizza guy is revealed - anticlimactic

Another feature that we decided to use within our short film is the idea of a twist at the end. Many horror films tend to use twists to conclude their film as it can usually lead onto sequels. However, short film makers tend to use them to make the audience think about what could possibly happen next, stimulating their imaginations once again. We decided to use this as we thought it would be effective to not reveal what is ultimately causing the knocking. Within our film, we make the audience think that the knocking that is being heard throughout the film is being caused by the pizza delivery guy. However at the end of the film, after the pizza guy leaves, the knocking is heard once again and the films ends. This creates a sense of mystery as the audience perception is changed. This use of narrative is used in the previous clip from the film 'Drag me to Hell' as the audience believe that the main character has finally been freed from the curse but then it turns out that the cursed button has never left her, which ultimately leads to the protagonist being 'dragged to hell'. 

After using all of these elements that usually appear in horror films, I feel that we have created a very tense and gripping short film. We maintained continuity throughout and we've used iconic conventions of narrative and editing as well as mise-en-scene such as a night time setting and a single character on her own throughout the majority of the film.

Evaluation Question Four

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

To begin with, we used blogger to create a blog for our group. Putting our work on a blog makes it easy to have both individual and collaborative work all In one place. Google Blogger's tagging system allows the people in the group to all work on one post together on one person's account, and yet still share credit for the collaborative post. The blog also allows us to embed photographs and videos, making our blog multi-media and making it easy for people to find links to other sites without having to leave the blog. This allowed us to put all our research and ideas together in one place that we can go back to and revisit whenever needed.

We also used google's search engine for our research as it is an easy search engine to use and has a very large amount of information for us to look through. Having such a large search engine to look through meant that as a group we could gather lots of information in our research and were well prepared when it came to putting our film together and creating a story. It allowed us to build up a large log or information and research that we can use to out into our film and make it the best we possible can. When we had an idea for our film we used Celtx to create a professional looking and easy to follow script.

Once the film was scripted to began filming. We used digital cameras to film as they are high quality and create professional looking shots for our film. They are simple to use and it is easy to look back on what you have shot. We also used them to take still photographs for our poster as the high quality made our pictures look professional and are a good at taking clear, crisp photographs. When filming with the cameras we found their light weight and small size incredibly useful for transporting it to and from our location and setting the equipment up in preparation to film. We also used a zoom recorder to record the knocking noise for our film as it meant that we could alter the volume to fit the tension levels and where about in the house the main character is at the time of the knocking.

To edit our film we used Premier. It is very user friendly and easy to understand, making it ideal for a student film like ours. Using the razor tool, it was very easy to cut shots down and put them together in an order that made sense. Being able to link and unlink sound was very helpful as it meant that we could cover and replace sound within our film to make it as professional as possible. We also used the available tools on premier to colour correct scenes that had a yellow hue to them in order to keep continuity throughout the film and to darken scenes with too much light, as our film is set at night.

Evaluation Question Three

Question three from RachelLucrezia

Evaluation Question Two

This is the script for the video i will film for my evaluation question two:

Evaluation Question One

(1) In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I believe that I observed the continuity and language of film and editing to a reasonable extent at a technical level as our film itself was well edited and put together in a way which avoided errors in continuity, giving the film a story that was not too hard to follow, yet still had an heir of mystique to it. We made our film look professional from a cinematic point of view by using a tripod to keep the camera steady and to make sure our framing remained straight throughout the shots. In order to do this we framed up a shot with the people in it before filming, ensuring they were fully in shot.

Our film fits its genre conventions quite well. As a horror film, it is quite a common theme to have a girl alone, making her look vulnerable which is how our film starts out. She picks up a weapon to show the audience that she doesn't have anybody there to defend her, and that she is all alone with whatever is causing the knocking noise. We also have music in our film which builds up the tension and makes the audience feel uncomfortable as it is often a sign that something bad is going to happen, however they are surprised when we subvert genre conventions by having something non threatening at the end of the constantly building music.

In our film, using the ukulele is a link to another horror comedy film. In Scary Movie, a female is alone in a house being hunted by a killer. She has a lot of weapons liked up and instead decides to use a banana to defend herself against the knife wheedling serial killer. We also have hand held shots that are sped up to create an almost inhuman look. These are a reference to Evil Dead, giving our film links to both horror and horror comedy. Further more, the knocking noise is used in many horror films as it makes the audience curious as to who is on the other side of the door.

Our main audience pleasure is entertainment as our film is not an educational one, and is purely for the audience's enjoyment. We believe that we have done this well due to feedback that we have gathered from our target audience who have all enjoyed watching the film and found it entertaining. Our film could also be a place to find role models as the main girl in the film is clearly an intendant and strong woman who is not afraid to face the dangers alone. She either lives alone or is home alone, either displaying that she is independent as she does not need someone else in the house to look after her. The pizza boy is also a good role model as he is clearly young but is out in the world earning money instead of relying on adults for it. Richard Dyer's theory says that there are certain pleasures that people can get from watching films. One of these is intensity. Our main character's facial expressions hsow extreme fear throughout the film as she doesn't know who's at the door. This mirror's the extreme fear in Drag Me To Hell when Christine has been cursed by the gypsy woman and does not know what will happen to her. We also have transparency in our film as the use of weapons, slow walking and jumping at every noise illustrates the fear that the main character feels. According to Dyer, having these things on our film will make it entertaining to our audience.

Richard Dyer's theory states that there are certain things that people lack in their lives and seeing them in films makes the film more entertaining for them. Our film has Energy due to it being a horror. The tension and excitement of not knowing wo is behind the door is something that an audience gets a thrill from, making the film more enjoyable and entertaining for them.

I have studied many real media texts in my research for “Unknown” one of which was “Psycho” for the harsh music used within it. It has very high pitched and loud music which we decided to use in our film too with the stressful tension music that builds up before cutting of quickly for the sound of the knocking or the pizza boy dialogue. Alfred Hitchcock had major influences in our film with close ups of female faces, harsh music and a constant mystery shrouding the film. We also looked at Shaun of the Dead, which is another film which uses makeshift weapons as a form of comedy. I also spent time researching “The Tea Chronicles” which is similar as it has long periods of time without dialogue to build up tension.

Evaluation Question Four

Evaluation Question Four from RachelLucrezia

Evaluation Question Three

Evaluation Question Three from RachelLucrezia

Evaluation Question Two

Evaluation Question One

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

I believe as a group we have observed the conventions of continuity very well. Throughout our film we made sure our continuity flowed well without showing any major mistakes. Our efforts to make sure our surroundings and the actors appearances didn’t change while filming as we had to shoot on numerous occasions, especially when some parts had to be re-filmed at a later date are evident throughout. In editing we made sure that our edits such as match on action was clear and fit fluidly together helping to keep the illusion of continuous action throughout the film.

Given our genre is horror I feel that our film reflects the conventions of the genre on the whole with a few minor parts that may be seen to subvert them. Due to the dark lighting and eerie knocking from an unknown source the film seems to fit well to the horror genre. Given our protagonist is a female on her own at night it serves as a symbol of isolation and causes the audience to feel sympathy for her. With the film starting with her in bed it gives some vulnerability to the character because of her situation. This reflects the conventions of isolation and vulnerability in horror well as stereotyping women to be weaker and easily scared is common in horror films.

In our film there is a scene where the protagonist hears the knocking sound at the door and opens the door to see who is there. She seems frightened and cautious when opening the door but is relieved to find nothing but a pizza delivery guy at the door. This could be seen as a spoof moment or comedy moment as it gives a little humour to the film and gives the audience to relax before the film continues on to the next knocking sound to ramp up the tension once again.

As previously said we use a knocking noise to build tension and mystery within our film. This helps keep the audience interested in the film. Because of the building of tension within the film we can link Richard Dyer’s Utopian Solution of Intensity to the film due to the large amounts of emotion that we wish to invoke in the audience. These emotions include fear because of the knocking noise coming from a mysterious source and sympathy for the protagonist because of her isolation and the fear she is feeling herself.

Our film can be compared to the film Strangers due to the use of knocking. This is because the killers in the film knock on the door of houses to see if anyone is in the house. If the door is answered then they commence with their sadistic plans. With our film ending with a knocking noise instead of a happy ending it gives space for more of a story to develop which could possibly be something like that of Strangers as the cliff hanger gives away nothing of what happens next and lets the audience some to their own conclusion.