Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups? - Eclipse

Here is a video i have uploaded from my sub genre, which i will analyse in relation to age/gender and race.


 Here they challenge the stereotype for age as they it is different as they are very young and getting married, however they don't as a lot of vampire films are based around older teenagers and such.  This challengers gender as the red headed vampire is the threat, or the girl in the valtory, and usually it is a male vampire which is the threat, however they still use a female victim like most vampire films, as they are usually seen as more vulnerable. Also like most vampire films the cast is mainly white such as Bella and Edward, who are the two main characters, and as usual there is a black character, but he isn't as important in the film and isn't seen as much, and does get killed off.

Question 1: in what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? - Katie Smyth

Here is my question 1, in this i am comparing 9 key shots of my film with 9 shots of existing films, i am also answering 2 questions which are: 1. how does the image use, develop or challenge existing conventions from you sub-genre? and 2. how does the titles and company use, develop or challenge existing conventions from you sub- genre? This will help me with my film as will give me a lot of different ideas.

This summit entertainment logo is similar to the twilight logo as the writing is white and slim.

Twilight logo

This is dark and shows night, which relates to vampires, however could be seen as challenging our genre and doesn’t look very spooky like a horror film.

Titles from true blood

These images develop existing conventions from my sub genre as it’s about vampires and blood and such as there is an image here of teeth with red around them which implies blood and that there with me blood and biting and such in it. Also there is an old abandoned car which creates a spooky atmosphere and a good place to have a good vampire location. 

Image from twilight, which is a vampire genre but also a romance.

This image develops existing conventions as it is a vampire however they have developed it into a romance, and it’s a different setting to usual so challenges it as its not some castle or woods it is at a school dance, and a vampire is dancing with a human, and normal they would be killing them, so is more every day, and normally in camera shots you would like have close ups of vampires teeth and such where as in this it is of both of them and he’s not trying to kill her. So the company is challenging existing conventions as it is more of a romance, which is difference to normal vampire horrors.

Image from van helsing.

This image uses existing conventions as it is villages and a dark, grey miserable background and quite olden days setting, however it develops it as van helsing has more modern weapons, and the woman character is also dressed slightly more modern clothing compared to other village women characters.

This is an image from van helsing of mis en scene, as you can see the main character, and he is holding a weapon so you can see the props used, which they kill the vampires with. You can also see how even in day light it is still very dull, and gloomy and miserable, rather than sunny.

This uses existing conventions as he is killing the vampires with a cross bow, which is used often in vampire films such as Buffy the vampire slayer, however the weapon looks more advance so also has developed existing conventions. They also have used the same conventions as in the setting, which is a grey, miserable gloomy atmosphere, which makes it more spooky.

Buffy the vampire slayer the movie

Here is a key image as she has just killed her first vampire.

This uses existing conventions, as is in a graveyard with a steak to kill them, which is used a lot, as many vampire films are set in grave yards and use that weapon and such. However it challenges existing conventions, as it is a girl who is the main character and the one who kills them unlike, in others like blade where it is a man and van helsing that is a man that kills vampires, so it challenges it as if different.

Here is important as she is killing a vampire.

This also uses existing conventions as again she has a steak and is stabbing him in the heart, which is away most vampire films use to kill the vampires, as they normally aim for the heart, and also the setting looks like it in the woods and at night which is also an existing convention, however this challengers as again it is a women who is killing them, which is different to others which usually use males, also very young as in school still as normally it is an adult killing vampires. Also it is more modern, such as their clothes, compared to existing conventions which are can be set in more olden days.

Here in the film she is training to fight the vampires, so you know there is going to be a fight.

This challenges existing conventions as the woman is very strong and athletic and good at fighting, where normally it is usually a man, and women at normally seen as weak and defenceless and are normally they ones that need saving. Also challenges existing films as set in a school gym, where most aren’t set in schools.

Here she is in her normal life, which makes it seem more real to the audience.

This challenges existing conventions, as it is an everyday life of a high school girl, which is not normally used in a vampire film.

 

From My Film: 

Here is a image of my opening logo, in it, it says the name of our production company. Here we have also used a vampires mouth as the background to show our sub genre of a vampire film , as it relates to our film, which follows the existing conventions for a vampire film and you can see there teeth/fangs which most vampires always have. The font used for OPAC productions will be the font we use on our other film logo's and such so there all similar and show our production company. We used white as the font as it shows up best so it stands out, even when our logo is smaller, you will still be able to se the name of our production company, also we will use white whenever our production company name is used, which will show up on most backgrounds. The Font could challenge existing conventions, as most would use reed for blood and such, but we thought it looked best white and clear and more professional, and still looks scary. 

Here is an image from our titles. Here the writing titles and company use existing conventions from my sub genre as the writing in a in a creepy horror film font which goes with vampire.  Also the titles she is in a grave yard which uses existing conventions as this is where a lot of vampire films are based, also our sound when you can hear church bells, a lot of other films use this to crete and ire vibe and build tension and to show she's in a church yard in vampire films. However in the titles it shows the two vampires are female, which challenges existing conventions as most vampire films the vampires are males, so we thought this would be good as different. However it does follow existing conventions as we use a female victim, like most vampire/horror films as females are seen as more weaker and more vulnerable, so we fear for them more. Also our editing here uses existing conventions as just before the vampire bites her, the vampire suddenly appears, which a lot of vampire films use to make the audience jump.



This image establishes our sub genre of vampire, as you can see the vampire bite and blood, which every vampire film has, so this mis en scene follows existing conventions. Also the sounds builds tension like most existing conventions in this shot.

This image establishes character of our films. As you can she that she is changing into a vampire, as she has one eye changed colour and her teeth are coming through, these follow existing conventions as every vampire film they have vampire fangs and a lot of vampire films they change eye colour, but we developed it as we chose white not the usual red and we thought it looked better for our film and creepier.  Also the sounds follows existing conventions as she is grunting and deep breathing like most vampire films. 

This image establishes mis en scene and uses most existing conventions as it helped us create a good vampire setting, as it is dark at night, which is spookier and you can see she is in a grave yard as you can see the head stones.

Here are four key images from my final film:

I think this is a key image as is a high angled master shot to show her location in a room and where she is to the vampires that are asleep, which helps the audience to understand the setting.  Here you can see the 2 female vampires which challenges existing conventions as they are usually male vampires.  This shot is a key image as you can have a good look at the room and can see its a mess and obviously where they live and pretty dull, so gives a good idea of the location and where she is positioned in the room so it doesn't confuse the audience in the rest of the opening to our film.

This is a key images as it is the first image of the vampire, as if passes the camera, so the audience can see how there's something following her, but they don't know what it is yet. This uses existing conventions as in many other vampire films, the vampire normally follows the victim for a while first, which builds up the tension and fear of the audience so it scarier.

This is a key image as, here she has heard a noise, and is looking round, this uses existing conventions as normally they here something, when the vampires following them and is also set in a graveyard and uses existing conventions as she is female which most horror film use as the audience sees her more vulnerable than you would a guy.

This is a key image as it is the bite seen, which every vampire film has, so this uses existing conventions, however it is by a female which develops the idea of being bitten and challenges as usually the vampire is male.

So these are lots of different screen grabs from my film there a key images and are important in my film.

Chariss- Question Two

In question two i have uploaded a clip from Let Me In and underneath is a paragraph analysing the representation in the film to give me inspiration when filming. I have spoke about the age and gender.





This is a clip from 'Let me In', i have chosen this particular part because it shows the age and gender of the vampire and the victim.
Usually with most vampire films the main vampire is male aged 18 and above, for example Dracula and Twilight, but in this case they have challenged stereotypes of a 'vampire' and used a young girl aged 14. Also victims in the films are normally any age and gender, but by having a 14 year old girl vampire you would not expect a full drown man to be the victim, however the way she played the victim by pretending to be a victim shows she has a lot of power and can set anyone in her trap.
Males are known to be stronger, quicker and more athletic/fitter than girls, so this is common to make a male the attacker.
Females are said to be more vulnerable and have a lot less strength then men, so this is common for females to be the victim.
So by this clip totally swapping stereotypes, it shows that you do not need to be male and strong to be the attacker.






QUESTION 2 PART 3

The image below are a variety of words that were repeated in our feedback sheets.

Social Groups...

OUR FILM

Teenage Female Victim

Teenage Female Vampires

TWILIGHT

 Female Teenage Vampires.

Teenage female Victim.

In the film twilight there are female teenage vampires as well as male teenage vampires, so we decided to create a film having a number of female teenage vampires. Also our victim is female which is also shown in the film twilight, when Bella is fooled and attacked by a vampire as she tries to go save her mum at her old ballet school. In the film, the Twilight characters became very popular to viewers and people fell in love with each one of them, both male and female. We wanted to use girls in our film to show females have as much power as males.

Chariss- Question Two

In question two i have uploaded a clip from Twilight and underneath is a paragraph analysing the representation in the film to give me inspiration when filming. I have spoke about the age, gender and race.




This clip is from the film Twilight, i have chosen this particular scene because it shows their ages, gender, race. All the vampires are shown coming together as one and shows you the seperation between the good vampires and the bad vampires. In my film we show the 3 vampires that go capturing their victims, and then we show one of their victims becoming a vampire, but something is different with her. She does not want to go round killing humans, so she escapes.
Also the Cullen's family are shown, and the main characters out of this scene are young adults, around the age 17-19.
The victim in this scene, Bella, is a human, so when the 3 vampires come, the Cullen's know she is in trouble. This relates back to our film because our victim is female. Having the female as the victim is original, so is the main vampires being male, however Twilight is quite balanced out by how they have use female vampires with each group of vampires. The female vampires have as much control as the male vampires throughout this film which is not known in many vampire films- they challenge stereotypes by using females.
In this clip, most of the vampires are mainly white however when the bad vampires are introduced, there main leader is coloured. The mojority of vampire films i have watched use a lot of white actors and very few coloured people.

Chariss- Question One

In question one i collected a number of images that will be used to give me inspiration/ideas for my own film, for example my logo, title, mise en scene etc. Below each image will be a short paragraph explaining why a certain font, costume prop etc have be used.

Logo: 

Here is a logo from Van Helsing. This logo is very simple but tells a lot about the genre of the film. The font is bold and because of the background being black and it being in capitals it is very tense and in your face. The image used also relates to the font that is used because the I in the title is the same as the image in the background. Universal and Van Helsing are very similar logos by them using a bold font shown in capitals. I like how capitals are used, this makes the image stand out a huge amount and is very in your face.

Our Opening Logo For Our Film.

Here is our logo, we chose a font that is bold and stands out. We chose white because it is a colour that stands out on a dark background and also our company name is in capitals so your eyes are drawn to OPAC. The pale skin and fangs show the genre of our film and gives a clear understanding to the audience that we are making a horror film. 

Title Sequence:

Here is part of the title sequence from the film Blade II. As you can see there are a lot of dark blues and blacks used which represents darkness and fear. The sub titles are written in red which may represent blood. The image in the middle shows a batch of blades which not only relates to the title of the film but can hint to the audience that their may be a lot of violence in the film.

Titles:
Here is a image from our film titles. We chose a bold font because we wanted the titles to stand out and be noticeable, we also chose a font that has jagged edge because these are the type of fonts used in horror films. When choosing a colour font we decided to do the titles white, this is because  when creating our logo it was the only colour that stands out from the picture and any other colour (e.g. Green, Blue) will be way off when relating to a horror film. We wanted to have a colour theme throughout our title sequence.

Sub-genre: 

The genres of this film are comedy and horror. This image is from the film The Lost Boys, straight away you know it is a vampire film by the blood around the mouth and on the body, however by their body language/ how they are stood, they can not be taken to serious because they look like some kind of boy band.

Sub-Genre:

From this image you can see the genre of our film is a horror from the blood smothered on the face and the vampire bite on the neck. This image shows her going through changes of her becoming a vampire and becoming confused because she is in pain because her teeth are changing.

Mise en Scene: 

In this image you see a lot of blood around the mouth and on the clothing. The clothing is very casual, jeans, t-shirt, shirt etc and this is shown by a long shot- introducing characters. The costume used in the film can give you a strong view on the genre film without even watching it. The location shows they are at a barn which are normally way out of the way from a neighborhood full of people. This can create tension because they are in the middle of no where and there will be no where to run.

Mise en Scene from our Film.

In this image from our film you see their costume and make-up, we wanted to keep the clothing casual because the majority of vampire films these days are dressed in casual clothing. The location of our film is the vampires 'hide out'. A small room that is only used to bring back their food and nothing else so by old chairs being shown and random mess all around the room shows the do not take care of their environment because they are not in it the majority of the day. They blend in well with other people but what singles them out are their fangs and blood around their mouth and on their clothes.

Key image:

Here is a image from Twilight. This image shows their relationship with each other which is a big part of the storyline in Twilight. By the way she is on his back shows they are both comfortable with each other also with them being at the top of the tree and her holding on to him shows us she trusts him.

Key image: (Twilight)

This image is from the baseball scene, here is where Bella spends her first time with the Cullen's. This images shows the relationship between the Cullen family and Bella and how they protect her when she is sussed out by the bad vampires. This tells the audience that they are a very protective caring family. The weather is looking very glum and dull which creates a gloomy atmosphere.

Key image: (Twilight)

This image is from the very beginning of the film when Edward meets Bella. He looks like any other teenager in the college, casual clothing and no one knows he is a vampire and either does Bella at this point. He doesn't have any signs of being a vampire here, such as the different coloured eyes, pale skin and blood all round his mouth.

Key image: (Twilight)

This image shows Bella in danger, we know this because of their body language and how he has his arm to her throat. His facial expressions show he is enjoying every minute and she is showing she is scared and vulnerable. The way he is staring right into her eyes and she is looking away instantly shows he has more power. 

Here is a image from the film Let Me In. The way this is shot in a room that looks very dull and run down with her behind him and him looking very suspicious and worried about what he will see when he turns around shows that she has more power than him because she has no facial expression to show she is worried or scared. Also with her being covered in blood and it being all round her mouth shows this film is a vampire film and she isn't as innocent as she may make out to be (with her being very young).

Key Image:

This image shows Stevie being followed by a stranger but she doesn't have a clue a vampire is behind her. She is walking at a fast pace because when visiting her close relative at the graveyard she hears a noise coming from the trees and starts to get freaked out. She has her hands in her pockets and her head down looking at the floor, this is to show she is tense and just wants to get home.

Key image:

This image is taken from our title sequence, this is a key part in the film because this is where she is bitten and where the drama begins. She is in a vulnerable place and because she is on her own there is no-one there to help.

Key Image:

This image is taken from the film when she is bought back to the vampires living area. She starts to feel a difference in the way she is acting but can not stop her self from the bizarre things that she is doing. Here she is shown licking her blood because she like the taste. This image is showing the start of her transformation.

Key Image:

She doesn't want to be kept hostel and become one of them, so this image shows her escaping and making a run for it. This is a key image because after this scene the vampires are tracking her down to finish their job from trying to kill her, to making her one of them. 

scary music

we like the start of this music, as it would be good for when she's walking to the graveyard and enters the graveyard, as it creates a spooky atmosphere and builds tension.

Best Horror Music Ever!

Sound Inspiration for our Horror.

Diegetic:
*heavy breathing
*grunting
*TV
*footsteps
*ipod music coming from headphones
*whispering


Non Diegetic:
*ticking clock
*creepy music
*owl

Filming.

Dates of filming:

5th February: opening. 5pm till 7pm

8th February: Titles. 4pm till 7pm


What we need to organise:
*the garage we will be shooting in needs to be reorganised, so it is the setting that we want.
*costumes for each cast member and the makeup
*the time and date that we will be shooting
*decided what equipment we will be needing

What we need to take:
*video camera
*tripod
*video tape
*battery charger

Title Template Sequence.

Permission From Actors parents.

Storyboard.

Here she is waking up after being bitten, and is slowly realising where she is. She looks around the room to find the vampires asleep.

Here you can see she is very scared against the wall and feels a sharp pain from her neck, and reaches for her neck. Then you see her slowly changing into a vampire, as she starts sniffing and licking the blood of her fingers.

Here she notices that she has grew scabby long nails, and is confused to what is happening to her. Then her teeth her hurt as they grow into vampire teeth. Then she notices the door, and makes her way to escape.

Here she stands from a crawl to the door, and exits the room, then beginning to run away into the darkness which will carry on the rest of the film as her being a vampire.

We have a lot of close-ups and extreme close-ups this is because we are wanting to create tension and make the audience feel what emotion the victim is going through also our shots are between 1 and 3 seconds, our longer shots are used so the audience can understand what is happening and don't get confused.