Media Studies Evaluation

Introduction
 As a group we aimed to create a opening sequence to a film that was experimental, professional and one that challenged the predetermined roles of women in horror films. Our film was a bout a teenager who after a car accident her scientist father turns her into a cyborg to save her life, this is the backstory to our film and would be explored in the rest of the film. Our opening sequence was about a cyborg who wakes up in a forest then hunts down her boyfriend, who she then find with another girl. In the  group we all had different roles; Polly Hindle was the editor, Steph Bolton was in charge of costume and props, Katherine was the Producer and I was the Director. I was also the primary camera operator, in charge of applying Special Effects to the opening sequence, for instance the red filter POV shots and the red, cyborg eyes, and the Location Manager. To fufill my role as the Location Manager I found three out of the four locations that we filmed in; such as the Lammack Forest, my own house that we filmed the indoor shots in and the rundown shed in Revidge that where the protoganist found the weapons.

GenreFor our film we had to create an opening sequence to a film that belongs to the thriller genre. The main convention of the thriller genre is to, as the plot builds towards a climax, keep the audience at the 'edge of their seats' and they usually achieve this by ending the sequence on a cliff-hanger. We replicated this by placing in our opening sequence multiple enigmas, such as ‘who is that strange woman?’, ‘why are her eyes red?’ and ‘what does she want with that couple?’ We ended our opening sequence on a cliff-hanger, with the protagonist slowly, knocking on the teenage couples door, weapon in hand.
Thrillers are often hybrids; we chose to produce a hybrid genre that was a sci-fi/ horror/revenge thriller. We tried to incorporate the different sub-genres used into our film. For instance we incorporated the sci-fi element into our film through our choice of protagonist who is a cyborg, we demonstrated this by adding a red filter to the P.O.V shots, as well as a close up of her where, through the use of Photoshop, her eyes flash red. This is effective in telling the audience that something is not quite right, not human, about the protagonist. We also made sure we included some of the conventions of a horror genre such as the P.O.V shot or the 'stalker shot' which we was shot with a hand-held camera . We used a handheld camera throughout in order to give the film a gritty, British feel. Particular 'mise en scene' in the horror genre are dark clothing and fake blood, we defied this particular convention by dressing the villain in white. We also decided that fake blood was unnecessary as the red used in the P.O.
V shots would have connotations of blood.
Conventions of the horror genre are that they are set in isolated locations such as the woods or quiet villages. To incorporate the sense of being alone and isolated through the setting, we filmed it in a dark forest. Also films belonging to the thriller genre contain ominous music to build tension so we included an appropriate and relevant soundtrack. We also used naturalistic lighting throughout,but used low-key lighting to add a sense of danger and create a dark, sinister atmosphere. We created a contrast, through our use of lighting, between the cold, outdoors where the protagonist was and the warm indoors that the girlfriend and boyfriend inhabited. The warm colours of the lounge, such as reds, pinks and oranges, along with the bright orange/yellow lighting gave the setting a safe, cosy feel. This was then juxtaposed with the blues, whites and other cool colours that made the outside setting of the forest look cold, sad and lonely. This is a common technique used in horror films, along with the cross cutting between the safe world of the victims and the impending danger of the villain.
RepresentationsThe way our opening sequence will be 'the same but different' is changing the typical convention in the horror genre where the victim is female because in our film the villain is female. We also defied the horror movie convention of the villain wearing black, instead opting for a white dress, that typically represents purity and innocence, and covering it in dirt and making it look distressed. This gives the audience the impression that she has been through a traumatic experience, but her cold, blank facial expression is also s little unnerving as if she was the victim she would be upset and crying. Females are often represented as the ‘victim’ in horror films, so we defied this key convention by making the villain female and the chief potential victim male.
The teenage boyfriend and girlfriend are quite a stereotypical teen couple, this is shown through their actions and movements such as kissing and hugging. The male in the relationship also gives the girlfriend a necklace as a Christmas present. The media typically represents the teenager as shallow, sex-obsessed individuals. We have conformed to this stereotype by the fact that the present was a necklace, which could suggest that woman are superficial and all they crave are pretty things. Also when the girlfriend is worried when she thinks she may have seen something at the window, the boyfriend is unsympathetic and just tries to carry on kissing her.
Our choice of protagonist is a cyborg, we demonstrated this by adding a red filter to the P.O.V shots, as well as a close up of her where, through the use of Photoshop, her eyes flash red. The second main stereotype is loosely based on the monster/zombie stereotype that applies to the vengeful cyborg. This is shown through her appearance, as her red eyes are clearly not human and have connotations of love/danger/blood/passion. In addition, her red P.O.V shots show that she sees the world differently to us.
As we have made a British independent film, which do not use stereotypes, we have instead created a original, new character, adding interest to a familiar genre.

Representation of place is also very important to the feel of our film and as Location Manager I made sure that through the use of place the background to our film is sucessfully established. There where four key settings in our opening sequence; the brook at the very beginning of the film, the forest, the boyfriend's house and the rundown shed. The brook setting and the forest setting are actually different places, but as we forest where the majority of the outdoor shots are filmed did not have a suitable establishing shot we used two different settings. When we did an establishing shot of the forest, there where too many houses visible, which went against the sense of isolation that is found in horror movie settings. So we found a secondary location for the establishing shot and the scenes of the protogonist emerging from a brook. Also when we had filmed the establishing shot we discovered that in the background was a sinister looking factory and the bright lights that shone shone out of the darkness coming from the building had connotations of the sci-fi genre. The use of colour in our opening sequence is very important, in the forest scenes the cool colours, such as white, grey and pale blue created a sense of loneliness and also showed the cold, robotic nature of the protogonist. This juxtaposed with the warm coluors, such as orange, pink and yellows, that were present in the indoor shots create a contrast between the cold, harsh outside world that is dangerous and the indoor world of the secondary characters of the teenage couple, that is cosy, safe and warm.

In our opening sequence we set up stereotypes, such as the classic horror victim through dressing the protogonist in a white dress that connotates purity and innocence and initially using a high angle shot for her, that showed her as a victim. However then went on to break this stereotype through the use of mise en scene as the white dress was dirty and distressed that had connotations of corruption and that the protogonist has been through a trauma. You would expect the typical horror movie female to be crying or screaming so we had a close up of the protogonist's blank, emotionless face which is unsettling. Then we included a slow motion zoom shot of the protogonist, one that is commonly used for male heroes as explosions are happening all around them, this had connotations of her being a woman on a mission and  presented the protogonist as a 'kick ass female'.
Also in order to add mystery and enigma's surrounding the protogonist we had shots of her with her face covered by hair as well as the blurred shot.

Institution
We decided that we would like our film to follow the British Independent institution; we have decided this as our media text rejects some of the typical horror conventions, as we aimed for it to be more original. The British Independent film institution is a lot different from the Hollywood institution, this is because Hollywood institutions have very big budgets to make their films (100 million) whereas the British institution uses smaller budgets (5 million) as they are not broadcast as much as Hollywood films. We decided that our chosen film company will be Cipher Films. Other similar products from this type of institution are films such as ‘Kidulthood’ (Stealth and Cipher Pictures) and the sequel ‘Adulthood’ which even though isn't a thriller it is a British film. Their websites are: - ‘http://www.stealthfilms.co.uk/’ and ‘https://www.ukdata.com/company-credit-reports/CIPHER-FILMS-LIMITED.htmll’. We chose this film company because in the film it shows the characteristics of the institution such as, they use simple settings as they only have a small budget, but these simple settings work really well in the film. This taught us that you do not need a big budget to find a good location. Also the actors are not very famous, a common thing in most British films as they cannot afford a-list actors. In addition to this, most British films have quite original plots and the independent films made in Britain are even able to compete with Hollywood ones, because although the audience is niche it still attracts a lot of people to watch them.
We studied the Blockbuster film ‘The Terminator’ in order to get some ideas about how to successfully make a sci-fi hybrid film, it was from this that we got the idea to have a POV shot that reflected an abnormal character.
Hollywood films can also afford to have up to date special effects, we wanted to have some special effects in the film to conform to the conventions of the sci-fi sub-genre. However, as we did not have millions of pounds to spend on state-of-the-art effects programmes, I took a still close up photo of the protagonist then edited it so that her eyes would be similar to that of a robot. We then put the still photo in our film.
We conformed to the conventions of a british film by casting unknown actors, having gritty handheld camera shots and using natural lighting in our film.

Target Audience/ reaching the target audience
When we researched to find out the demographic for films similar to ours we discovered that 16-25 year old males were the ones who our film would directly appeal to. However, due to the including of a empowered female protagonist, along with the plotline that is about retribution against a cheating boyfriend, females would equally enjoy watching our film. Taking this into account, we made sure that the characters in our film were of a similar age to our audience, as this would allow them to easily relate to the characters. Our film appeals to all ethnicities to keep audience viewings wide, and the same applies to socio-economic status, though the people in the A-E field are the ones who would be able to purchase the film.
Learning about technology/ Skills you have gained
The main thing a have learned is how to successfully operate a hand-held camera as I had no prior knowledge beforehand. Being the main camera operator, I have learned the simple uses of a camera such as zoom, basic camera movement and inserting the battery. Furthermore, I have also learned how to execute more difficult shots, such as the high angle shot I took when up a tree, P.O.V shots, establishing shot and more. I have in addition learnt how to work a Mac and how to use the editing programme, as well as how to edit the media text to the best of my ability. I also learnt different functions on the Mac such as screen shot that is press the ‘command key, shift and 3'which we used when getting the still image in order to add effects to it. I have become more media-literate and can now blog successfully.
Preliminary TaskLooking back on my preliminary task I have improved in regards to the smoothness of operating the camera, I have also learnt to be more experimental with my shots and discovered the importance of lighting in a film. Since then we have also acquired more knowledge on how to edit, thus making the editing in our film smoother.There was one shot in our preliminary were the editing was not continous and smooth because we stopped the camera then started it again and the actors were in a different position. We learned a valuable lesson about continuity from this error, when we paused filming we made sure that when we started again everything was in the same position.
Conclusion
Overall, our opening sequence was successful and it turned out how we wanted it to. I think that the editing was smooth and made the film work really well. I think that our choice of locations was very effective in setting the scene as well as conforming to certain genre conventions. I was particularly pleased with the red filter POV shots, as they matched horror and sci-fi conventions and the colour red connoted both love and danger; something essential to our plotline. There were, however, things that could be improved. For instance, many filming days were ruined due to adverse weather conditions, and since we were filming at different times of day, the lighting continuity was not perfect.