Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

One of the recent trends amongst films in the horror genre is the hand-held camera technique. This convention emerged after the success of the independent film, The Blair Witch Project. Since then, various other films have also incorporated this concept of found footage such as Rec, Cloverfield and Paranormal Activity. My film Live Evil also conforms to this convention, but I decided to develop the way it is used in order to provide my audience with something new and interesting, in order for my film to stand out amongst other films using this technique.. Instead of filming the entire film using the hand held camera, I decided to only use this technique for the footage inside the DVD found by Rebecca. This will allow there to be a clear distinction between what is happening in the DVD and what is happening in real life since that was filmed using normal camera shots and angles.

In relation to the use of camera angles and shots, I decided to conform to the convention but at the same time develop the use point of view shots in my film. I developed this technique by combining it with the hand-held camera footage in the DVD. Usually you wouldn’t expect to see this kind of shot in a found footage film because it should contain only the recordings done by the protagonist/victim. However by adding in this POV shot it makes it seems as if there is something alive within the film and that the original footage has been meddled with. This helps to reinforce the fact that the DVD in the movie was created by amber the antagonist as a death threat, a warning of what Rebecca would soon be experiencing.

Another convention of horror films that I have conformed to is the use of high angle shots. In the beginning of my film a high angle shot is used to show Rebecca picking up the DVD on the floor, this is followed by the camera tilting upwards, this movement is used to represent that the evil present inside the DVD has risen from below and the unfortunate events will now begin to take place. A low angle shot is also used to show the footsteps of the killer and the victim when they are walking. This is used to build up tension in the scene since the audience are able to see that from the pace both characters are walking in, one is closing in and speeding up (antagonist) and the other is hesitant and unaware of what is coming behind them (victim). This offers the audience knowledge the main character doesn’t have so they feel more engaged in the film.

The setting where most of the actions sequences take place in my film is also a conventional location found in many horror films such as the pet cemetery and Drag me to hell. I decided conform to this location because it would help create a horror film atmosphere since it contains various old and worn out grave stones scattered around the cemetery. It also contains lots of trees- like a forest; both of these characteristics allow the cemetery to seem large, abandoned and old with a lot of history. This helps to create the impression that the main character is lost and helpless since there is nobody around to save her. It also provides a suitable location for her to die in since that it is a place associated with death.

An additional convention that I conformed to in Live Evil, is the used of eerie non-Diegetic sounds and sound effects. Throughout my film I applied various different sound effects in order to emphasise the importance of an object, person or action. For example in the scene where Rebecca opens the DVD case a sound is used in order to represent the fact that something evil has been released. Likewise, a sound effect is also applied to the shot where the killer turns away from the camera, this sound is synchronised with the movement made and helps to illustrate the importance of that character as well as create tension since it shows that they are a threat. However I did not conform to the convention of amplifying diegetic sounds to show their significance, instead I replaced these natural sounds with sound effects, for example when Rebecca is hit with a torch light the sound of the torch hitting her is not heard but the physical impact is still expressed through the use of sound.

One of the conventions I challenged in my film is the fact that when Rebecca is killed in real life, the murder takes place during the day instead of the night like in the DVD. This comes as a surprise to the audience since they would expect her to be safe during the day however things don’t turn out that way. Similarly my film doesn’t incorporate a lot of shadows and dark places, the audience can clearly see the things surrounding the main character and the villain. However the use of shadow to conceal the true identity of the antagonist is still used.

Another convention I challenged is in relation to the genders of the characters. Usually females are presented as the victims in horror films, but in the case of Live Evil only one female is killed compared to two other males victims. This convention is further challenged by the fact that the villain in my film is also female.

Overall I decided to conform to certain conventions because they complimented my film's narrative and image. Other conventions I chose to develop or challenge in order to provide my audience with something new and enjoyable that would allow my film to stand out in the market. 

Q2. How Effective is the Combination of Your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?

Film producers often create ancillary products in order to support and promote their main product and attract a wider audience. I have created both a radio trailer and a movie poster to support my film ‘LIVE EVIL’. This is because both products carry a different style of media language; the poster communicates meaning to the audience visually while the radio trailer produces meaning using words and audio. However these differences help them support each other as well as the product by giving them each a unique way to represent the product and engage the audience, for example the tagline ‘keep your enemies away but your friends even further’, is present on both ancillary products, but the effect it’s direct appeal has on the audience differs. In the poster the tagline is placed at the top where it acts as a title to the overall visual image on the poster. Its position causes the audience to try and draw a link between the meaning of the tagline and the imagery on the poster since it reveals something about the narrative. On the other hand in the trailer the tagline is heard rather than seen, this has a bigger impact on the audience because the serious tone of voice used and the emphasis placed on the word ’friends’ makes the tagline seem like an advice that should be taken seriously, which directly links with the main cause of disequilibrium in the film.

An additional way in which both ancillary products help to support the narrative of my film is through the way they both demonstrate the importance that the DVD has to the film’s storyline as well as emphasis the darkness within it. In the poster the DVD can be clearly seen on the top left corner, this product introduces the DVD to the audience and allows them to see that a suspicious person is holding it. The trailer expands on this by revealing that this suspicious person might be the sender of this DVD “There was a knock on the doors........nothing but a DVD was found”. Both of the difference ways the DVD is referred to allow the audience to conclude that this suspicious person has some kind of connection with the DVD and this DVD will be the starting point of the unfortunate events within the film, since they both present the DVD at the beginning/top.

Within my film poster red and black are the predominate colours used. I chose these colours because the meaning they both connote are directly linked to my film’s storyline and genre. Red stands for danger and hate which is why I made the hand behind Rebecca’s back this colours, in order to represent the motive behind the murder in the film, which in this case is felt by the owner of this hand. Red blood is also used on top of two mysterious figures placed on both sides of Rebecca to symbolise the danger they offer to the main character in the film. Likewise black is used because it represents death and evil which is why I placed it in the background where the images of the  cemetery are found, this is to symbolise that death will take place within that location.

One of the most important figures in my poster is the image of Rebecca watching the film on her laptop. However since the laptop is the same colour as her clothing, it remains camouflaged which prevents the audience from knowing what she is staring at. This causes an enigma since the audience are left wondering what her gaze is focused onto and why does it cause her to wear such a shocked expression. This is further supported by the screen placed in the centre of the poster where the main antagonist and location are shown and acts as a projection of what is present in the screen of Rebecca’s laptop. This highlights the importance the footage present on the screens has to the overall storyline as well as the location.

However rather than making the Rebecca the main focal image of my poster I decided to give the spotlight to her silhouette instead which is where the previous image is placed. In the poster the silhouette of her walking figure represents Rebecca walking towards her death which will take place in the location shown on the screen placed behind it. But the main purpose of this image is that it looks like a doorway into the screen where something, the red hand, is coming from in order to drag Rebecca into the fictional world on the screen. These images help to reveal an important aspect of my film’s narrative, which is the idea of not being disconnected from the events on the screen. This allows the audience to have a feel of what the film will be about and helps to engage the audience because it explores the experience of watching films in a darker way and successfully enhances the films message..  

The sound effects used in the film trailer also helps to support the film because they all suggest that the film’s genre is horror. Furthermore some sound effects and sounds in the trailer can also be heard in my film such as the ‘breathofdeath’ sound effect that comes after the scream in the trailer and the background music heard in the beginning of the trailer, this helps to create a link between them and allowing the audience to become familiar with these sounds when they finally watch the movie.

In conclusion I believe that the ancillary products I created together with my partner are consistent with my Live Evil movie because they all share similar characteristics and meaning that allow them to support each other and engage the audience by offering them a different experience of the film. The trailer provides the most room for interpretation since no images have been given, it is only based on what the character associates with the sounds, one is visual but static which gives the audience room to imagine and interpret and another that is also visual but dynamic giving the audience everything they expected and more.

Q3. What have you learnt from the audience feedback?

Q3. What have you learnt from the audience feedback? from mseabarbosa
The brackets with the times but no link means it's a scene from the final cut version of live evil.

Q4. How did you use media technologies in the research, planning, construction and evaluation stages?

Q4. How did you use media technologies in the research, 

planning, construction and evaluation stages? 

from mseabarbosa

LIVE EVIL [FINAL CUT]

Production Schedule

Production schedule from mseabarbosa

Live Evil: Extended Version Complete

Today I finally finished editing the extended version of my film Live Evil.
I added various different sound effects that were missing to add tension and create a horror film atmosphere in my movie. Some of the sound effects were also used in the trailer for continuity and in order to make a link between both of the products which helps to create brand recognition . This was further reinforced by the company logo that I placed at the end of the credits in the film, since it is also found on the film poster.

One of the changes I made to the sound in my film was to remove the audio in the scene where Rebecca watches the movie on the laptop since it wasn't very clear and slightly squeaky, then added the original audio from the scene edited earlier over it.

Like I mentioned in the previous post, me and Cherry Whipp re-recorded our lines for the end scene because the dialogue couldn't be heard very well. However before replacing the old file with the new one, I decided to look through the different audio options on Finalcut in order to see if there were any tools that could make the dialogue clearer.
This is the version with the original audio after using the 'Voice enhance' option on FinalCut.

This is the extended version with rerecorded audio.
After receiving some feedback from my target audience I decided to use the original for the FinalCut version of my film audio instead.
This is the final entended version of my movie. It is 7 minutes long, howerver due to the time limit I had to remove some of the scenes in order for my film to only be 5 minutes long. This included the last wcene where the relationship between Amber and Rebecca is further explored through the use of a voiceover. This might create some confusion in relation to the films narrative but I decided to end the film after Rebecca is killed for a second time since that scene was already powerful enough and provided a good enough ending for my movie.

TRAILER: The Final Version

This is the final audio trailer for my film. The only difference this trailer has compared to the new version we did yesterday , is that we separated the scream at the end from the sound effect that overlapped because it lost some of its impact.

TRAILER: Recording Day 3

Today me and my partner Anika stayed after school in order to complete our radio trailer and make some modifications to the previous version we created in our second recording day.

One of the major changes we had to make was to re-record the dialogue from our movie, used in our trailer, since the audio wasn't clear enough because of the noise in the background. In order to do this we had to schedule this recording session according to the times our main actress was available. Unfortunately the actor whose voice is also heard in the trailer could not make it because as an external student, he wasn't  able to come when the studio was available to us.

An additional change we made was to apply the sound effects I found on the incompetech website, onto our trailer. Previously the radio trailer only had one background track and a few sound effects, so I decided to find other royalty free sounds in order to make my trailer sound more interesting and intense.

Another change we made was to add silence after the character says:"dead!", so that the echo applied to that word can be heard slowly fading away and act as a smooth transition between one sound track to the other. In addition to this, this silence also offers the audience a tension reliever, a calm before the storm.

Besides finishing off our radio trailer, we also used this opportunity to re-record the dialogue from the last scene in the movie. We needed to record this lines again because they turned out too quite as a result of us not turning on the correct microphone. This resulted in the scene losing some of its impact, which is very important especially since it is at the end of the film. In addition to this the lines pun the name of the character.Her surname is lucky and the killer asks her if she is feeling lucky before killing her, causing it to seem ironic.

TRAILER: Recording Day 2

Today was our second day working on our audio film trailer in the recording studio. The first thing we did was to listen to everything  we had done last Thursday to see whether we were still satisfied with the order and effects of the audio files and how the voiceover sounded.

After doing this Mr Mcintosh added some extra effects that we wanted in certain parts of the trailer, for example adding an echo to the door knock at the start of the movie in order to make it more smooth and distant. He also added the same effect to the scream at the end of the trailer in addition to lowering its volume, in order to make it sound like the person screaming is in an isolated locations. 

After doing this we once again went onto the PremiumBeat.com website to listen to the top two background tracks we decided on previously by playing each of them together with the movie trailer in order to decide which of them would fit better with our trailer. In the end we decided to use the 'Journey to the end of the universe' track.
This is what our movie trailer sounds like so far.

REVIEW: Evil Dead (2013) - Trailer #2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHDJm1D2ELw

I reviewed this trailer only using the audio, without watching it.

The first thing we hear when the trailer starts is the sound of a rain storm which is a horror film convention that I have also incorporated in the extended version of my film. This helps to set the scene since the audience become aware that the film will take place in a rainy day. This could also suggest that the characters might take refuge in some kind of house in order to not get wet, which will be where the action takes place. Rather than having a narrator tell the story this trailer  uses the dialogue from film.The opening dialogue "please......get me out of here" helps to engage the audience since they begin to wonder why the person wants to escape. This dialogue is followed by an eerie and distorted static sound effect that repeats several times in the trailer and each time the distance between them is shorter which helps to build up tension in the trailer.

However the dialogue used half way into the trailer "I think its in here with us...NOW" acts as an explanation for what is going to happen and why the women was so scared to begin with especially since this is followed by various gory sound effects such as blood splashing, a chainsaw and screams.

The tension is increased when the sound effect of three consecutive bangs begins to repeat, replacing the previous repeating sound.The pace of these sounds speed up along with the background music and is companied by various other sound effects from the movie which overall creates a very hectic atmosphere in the trailer, which could suggest that this film is all about action and gore rather than having a deep meaning.

A significant characteristic of the dialogue used at the start of the trailer is the fact that the women whispers slowly and hesitantly, which allows fear to be clearly evident in her speech. 

POSTER: Creating my Version of the Film Poster

Today I was finally able to finish creating my version of the "LIVE EVIL" poster.

This is my final finished poster.

Production Meetings

Production meetings from mseabarbosa

This is the production meetings log that I completed for our group.

Our Thoughts On Arriving to the Final Stages of Our Film

In this video me and my partner Anika talk about the things we think went well and the things that we could improve on in regards to our film project.

A small list we made of things we could talk about in the video.

TRAILER: Recording Day 1

In this video me and Anika highlight the two major problems we faced today, while recording our audio trailer.

Today was our first day recording our film's audio trailer. As we expected, during the recording process some changes were made to our script in terms of what audio extracts we would use and where they would go. We were also able to add special effect such as echos to some audio extracts such as when the male character says 'Dead'. We did this in order to make our trailer sound scarier and professional as well as add more power and significance to certain words .
The first thing we did when we got to the recording studio was listen to the full audio file of our film which I extracted during my last media lesson using the share tool on FinalCut. By doing this we were able to find the sections we singled out on our script as well as find other audio clips that we and Mr Mcintosh liked the sound of, for example the part where one of the characters say "This people are dead".
One of the things we noticed while finding the dialogues we wanted was that one of the lines we included in the script "Rebecca are you feeling lucky?" Wasn't clear enough to be used in a trailer because it had too much background noise, which is something we will be fixing on our film as well. 

This video shows Mr Macintosh attempting to do the VoiceOver for our film for the first time. He was trying to get a feel of what his voice should sound like, see what tone of voice was most suitable for each line and see how certain words should said.

working on the trailer - slideshows
This is the slideshow I created to show all of the photos me and Anika took while recording the trailer.