Evaluation

As part of a four person group I have completed the filming and overall production of a short film called “Fatality”. It revolves around the theme of fate and includes horror aspects with a clown figure present. In the production of our film we made use of many forms and conventions in varies aspects of filming areas.

In my film I made use of a large proportion of mid shots in order to show facial emotions and part of the background to give an overall sense of madness provided by the actions. We also used close up shots to reveal finer facial details and movement to create a greater felling of fear or confusion depending on the section. Long shots began every day’s events showing the main character walking along the sea front this shot was held to show that he’s alone and perhaps vulnerable for the films narrative and with the use of backtracking initiates suspense. In addition we used both dominant and submissive angled shots throughout to mediate the changing fate of the central figure. A sense of ambiguity is given by a shot revealing the clown as a reflected image upon the male figure so the viewer doesn’t initially know about the fate machine which is the following shot making sense out of the images.   

The lighting that we used was mainly direct light given naturally by daylight progressively fading showing time passing with the narrative; however we did include additional light provided by a torch covered with red Perspex. The torch was positioned below the clown in most of the clown’s appearances giving a reddish spot light symbolising a bad character and showing the clowns facial features clearly.

Our short film does not depend upon dialogue but a short passage taken from the Bhagavad Gita relating to the films fate theme has been incorporated into the mugging scene. This statement implements that of Pulp fiction used by Tarantino to shock and confuse the audience, as well as to go against the typical film convention and so mediating a well-educated violent character.

We filmed our film at Felixstowe sea front with the majority of it outside the Forum amusements. These settings are ironically used because they are regarded as a fun place but our narrative portrays them as places of horror and violence. The end scenes take place in a house with the character seeking refuge in the bedroom as a place of sanctuary.

In order to maintain an eerie sensation we used tracking shots to create suspense as implies the character is moving towards trouble. We also used pans with a slow pace to give a creepy impression and fast paced pans to show frantic movements of reaction shots.

We used two soundtracks within our film which were creepy carnival and original low base scary clown. Both are united with the narrative by the clown theme. Both tracks accompanies sections of film that relates to their pace and tempo. We also used distortion on the tracks in places to aid the confusion and weird atmosphere generated by the clown’s manic movements. A sound bridge appears so that the sound track could be heard before an image can be seen and bell sounds kick in when the main character is first made apparent. The second track includes sounds produced by a cello indicating darker moments of the film. We added a sound effect over peeling the parking ticket off the window signalling to the audience what it is. We did encounter a problem with the natural wind we tried to quieting it down but because the sound over sees the biblical speech and dubbing that wasn’t possible we left the original sound track.  

The large prop of a box that resembles a fate telling machine consisting of a clown handing out written tickets was created by Barry Hyde to a high quality. The box looked natural in our settings and gave our film anchorage in the fate theme and scary clown narrative.

We made used of the icon clown costume used in many horror films as it has become a symbol of fear with the introduction and increase of coulrophobia the recognised phobia of clown’s. Our main character appears in a suit to symbolise that he is on his way home from work, and a series of different ties over the course of the film showing time passing and indicating another day with a different tie worn for actions of each of the four days. The two muggers have brightly coloured hoodies on to disorientate the audience in their attentions, the framing used on the muggers suggests that both characters are of equal importance with a close up ending the speech showing the actors sinister stare.

We had to change the lighting of some of our shots to maintain continuity in the gradual darkening showing time passing. We also had to speed up the clown footage to create the frantic movements we desired to un settle the audience, and slow down some shots so that their actions can be seen more clearly. In addition to this we added another special effect of zooming in and out on the clown’s face and the faces of the two muggers.  This meant facial actions could be seen striking fear with the viewer.

The opening to our film sees a title sequence over the image of a clown with distorted sound effect providing a mechanical feeling which increases in volume revealing the film title fatality. These titles set the tone for the rest of the film of disturbance and confusion as shown through a series of dissolves. The films credits follow the classic film titles of white text on a black background with the credits scrolling up. This indicates to the audience that it is a typical film for entertainment and doesn’t address an issue. We made use of word play revealing the title fatality from the word fate in a bold impact font. Day markers were used to narrate the film a tradition used in silent films and by the well-known director Quinton Tarantino.

Whilst filming and editing we made used of a master shot of the actor walking along the amusements anchoring the settings. The actor has an image that first appears ambiguous as his role seems hard to judge due to him not possessing stereotypical characteristics which identifies him as a heroic or villainous personality.  We included many edits of actions from different angles and reaction shots to the events. The scenes in the house were edited together to perceive a fast pace and so frightened movements and actions of the character. 

Repetition plays a major role within our film with repeating actions of the days event and sound track across the footage providing a rhythm to the film. Repetition is traditionally used in literacy and film providing security to the audience. Our repetition changes the expectations of the viewer by showing the ticket has a relationship with the following actions.

Our film is a typical short film with the fact it contains little dialogue of which the film does not depend. The film is a showcase displaying our talent across many areas of film and is within the stylings of Spin, in the fact it is indeed rather pointless but provides joy for any viewer.

We gathered a mixed gendered audience consisting of the films targeted audience of teenagers and young adults and sat them down in a darkened room to watch our short film so that we could gather their thoughts and get audience feedback about how well we have portrayed the theme and narrative. In conclusion of the viewing it was clear that our film was found to be more enjoyable for females as their reactions were more profound. The commonly shared opinions about the film was that it caused them heightened emotions of confusion and fear with the understanding of the narrative being fate and not being able to escape. A direct quote of music was used well across the entire film with it giving a feeling of increased intensity same as in the narrative let us know the audience felt all senses which were intended by us as the film producers. I am aware that the feedback that was shared by our audience may not be a hundred per cent representative of the entire targeted group due to possible dishonest responses in coherence with their relationship to each member of the group, personal differences in opinion and the role of the environment in which the viewing took place.

Each member of my group produced a movie poster for our short film “Fatality”. Mine in summary consisted of a dark sombre coloured background with an overall layout of a clown image vertically central on the left hand side with a heading title and underlining billing block. The large side view image of a clown’s face anchors the fact it is a psychological horror of a serious nature and provides clues into the films narrative by the generic link as an icon of horror film. Film posters come in variations of form this poster has the conceived purpose of advertising the films DVD release as shown clearly by text footing the poster as in all five movie posters that I analysed. The text that I used has a large impact font which is white in colour so that it is displayed clearly on the dark background as well as colour coding of an innocent perspective. The posters billing block is the only place actors and the directors name can be found because none of which are well known and so will not play a role in attracting an audience so are not displayed largely like the film posters that I looked at. I used A tag line of “you can’t escape your fate” which appears to the right of the image indicating the films theme of fate. The poster with the clown image targets a teenage and young adult audience as mediates being similar to a horror genre which is enjoyed largely by teenagers. This poster that I produced follows similar patterns used in the posters that I analysed such as a large central image having priority over all text, a heading title, underlining billing block constituting in the typically included information, and fonts and images giving genre coding.

All members of the group also had to create a film review concerning “Fatality”. I produced mine with a two column structure to resemble actual film reviews that appear in empire film magazine, with the title and star rating at the head on the left and an image on the right and an overall layout including a footer with page number and a side bar of colour to act as a marker of reviews within the magazine and boxes to indicate the magazines title and the fact the page contains a film review. My review consists of a number of paragraphs addressing various features of the film. It opens with a film summary and is followed with text concerning factual and opinion areas of cast, camera, highlights and weaknesses. Each paragraph uses slightly formal language of a light hearted tone to produce a review for an entertaining read but whilst expressing the writers individual opinion maintaining a friendly persona with knowledge of film meaning the reviews targeted audience is also a fan of film so that they will know the references to other films and directors made within the review article. The references that I included were to Stephen king’s novel, TV series, and film IT based on a horror clown and to Heath Ledger’s iconic role as the Joker in 2008’s the dark knight. The text generally states the film is of good quality and would be enjoyed by the targeted audience of teenager and young adults it comes across literately and in an understated friendly manner. This review that I produced follows similar patterns used in many reviews appearing in magazines and newspapers, including typical topic areas and knowledgably language about the specific form of entertainment.

Our project was influenced majorly by new media. In comparison to old media which is linear and means the producer can dictate the way that the audience experiences it is largely interactive with digital technology becoming increasingly flexible and providing instant consumer feedback. It means that us as the producers decide when ever thing including the film and blogs are completed because there are many means to continuously change and add additional pieces of footage or blog posts. Our film Fatality was designed with new media in mind with the proposed distribution of our film on a popular video sharing website YouTube. Media democracy is that everyone has the right and now the ability and quality to produce media texts and distribute them on the internet this has resulted in a shrink in the distance between amateurs and professionals and has increased the amount of media noise so that the internet is filled with many free films so that any one particular film may not be seen be a large audience. This means new media is not the big solution with today’s viral community providing evidence of the extreme qualities.

The three texts of a short film, poster and review which I produced are pieces of combination texts with the film poster being typically produced by the film’s producers with the intention of anchoring the films genre and target audience of teenagers and young adults. The poster limits the thoughts concerning film narrative and has a positive relationship with the film with the conceived purpose of advertising the film in a positive manner in order to attract an audience. The film review however is produced by an independent company and so is free to display an individual opinion which could be either negative or positive towards the film. The film poster is a similar text to the review in the fact it shares information about the film but the review may not be a parallel text as could aid the advertising in attracting an audience or could display the film negatively having a decreasing effect on a possible audience. Rupert Murdock on the over hand holds ownership of a film studio and newspapers in which film reviews are included meaning the review is not dependent and so may not be reliable. Viral reviewing is the expression of people’s views about a film they have seen on the internet these are becoming increasingly popular in decision about whether to view a film.      

Throughout all stages of our project we made use of different means of media technology. Whilst researching into the short film area of media we analysed digital texts found on YouTube and located information form the internet concerning what should be included in film titles, posters and review. During construction we used a small hand held camera and editing programme pro 11 to record, combine and include special effect with sound producing a complete short film. Planning our project meant looking at possible locations and costumes on the internet as well as taking photos to   ensure where appropriate and would be of quality for our film. Evaluations of forms and conventions used in our film, film poster and film review constitutes the entirety of my blog account with the inclusions of research in to media areas, production of three texts and evaluations of all areas.  This use of media technology meant all areas of our A2 project was able to be completed to a high standard.