The Intruders: Final Film

The Intruders - Radio Trailer

This is the radio trailer that we made to advertise our film. We made it on Final Cut Express by dragging sound used in our film, sound effects such as hanging noises, music we will include in our film and a voice over done by the protagonist, Agnes.

Final film poster

Our final poster 

For the film poster i analysed different types beforehand to get a feel of what should be on a film poster. I mainly looked at horror based film poster because i wanted ares to show what genre it is to the audience. I also incorporated main key colours such as black red and white that symbolise the fact its going to be a scary film. I added our rating as well of 15 years old that we decided on earlier in our blog using our research.

Evaluation Question One

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

As a result of experiencing some continuity issues whilst filming the footage for our foundation portfolio film, this year we took precautions to make sure we did not encounter any major problems by creating a filming schedule, character profiles, and a detailed list of all the props we would require for every scene. This kept us organised throughout the production of the film. At a technical level, we made sure to maintain the 180 degree rule throughout in order to not detract the audiences' attention from our dramatic story line as it demands their concentration. Also, we edited various angels and different shots from the some scenes that were filmed at alternate times of the day- which therefore sported differentiate lighting- together in Final Cut Express by playing around with the contrast and brightness, in order to make the different clips appear as though they were all filmed at the same time.

Nevertheless, despite our efforts we did inevitably experience some minor continuity issues in the process. Examples of this was how the snow disrupted our filming during the month of January. A high percentage of our footage needed to be filmed outside, however the snow being featured in some shots and then not in others would have resulted in  some major continuity errors when attempting to make our film run smoothly; it simply would not have made sense to the audience. This meant that we had to wait lengthily time periods in between filming to give the snow opportunity to melt before we could recommence. However, this established continuity problems in itself considering the hair of the actors, especially that of the females actresses, had differed in colour/length since their previous scene; which in some cases was filmed two or three months prior. We tried to edit this as craftily as we could using a variety of wide shots, establishing shots an close-up shots so that no continuity errors were noticeable. One problem we faced as a result of not filming our footage in correspondence to the development of the plot was that the actor who was playing our protagonist Agnes had altered the length and colour of her hair in the midst of filming our footage. Instead of re-shooting what we had already done, we resolved this by plaiting her hair to conceal the fact it had differed.

The minor continuity errors which we experienced did not particularly effect our production in terms of how successful it was, but in my opinion if we were able to have had a larger time period to produce our film we would have had the opportunity to re-film some of the scenes that we occurred problems in, in order to make the continuity perfect. 

INTERTEXTUALITY

This year we also tried to experiment with a variety of new shots to develop our creative skills. We were inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's 1960's thriller, Psycho when looking at ideas of how to film the scene where Agnes is hanged by her parents. We knew we could not use an establishing shot nor a full-length shot of the actress physically having the noose tied around her neck as obvious safety hazards would be raised; nonetheless, we still wanted to shoot this scene in a way that was gruesome and detailed enough in order to stand at chance at being believed by the audience. The iconic shower scene in Psycho creates the impression that Marion Crane is viciously being stabbed to death, without even showing it. Hitchcock combined an array of fast-paced shots of the knife quickly dashing around the actresses flesh and synchronized the stabbing motions with a stabbing sound affect. There were no actual scenes of the knife entering the flesh, however this smart technique creates the illusion that she is being stabbed. 

We took inspiration from Hitchcock and filmed the footage for the scene where Agnes is hanged using the same technique as the shower scene above. Fast, quick-cut shots of the noose being placed around the actresses neck, her fidgeting feet as she struggles for her life, and lastly a shot of her dangling from the tree branch with the rope tied around her neck all create this illusion. We teamed the shots with a sound affect of a weighted rope to add to the verisimilitude (0.25). Despite the abrupt murder being portrayed in the scene, alike to Psycho the actress was not harmed and the 'hanging' is completely fake. The only time the actresses feet left the ground in the entire scene was when another actor, Jack, held her in the air whilst we filmed the footage of her feet having a spasm. We created the illusion of her 'hanging' from the rope by filming the shot from a low-angle.     

Another element of Hitchcock's shower scene that we wanted to use in our own film was the dissolve effect transitioning between the shot of the plug-hole at the bottom of the shower and Marion Crane's eye as she is lying on the floor having collapsed in the shower after being murdered. We felt this shot would add dimension to our film, whilst representing how Agnes suddenly remembered her murder and came to the realization that she is a ghost in her own home. We filmed a head shot of Agnes' shocked face whilst she clasped her hand around her neck, imitating the action of the noose being tied around her neck. We edited this to slowly dissolve into the actual shot of her hanging by the noose, to show this was what she was remembering. 

        

  

                       

One particular shot we knew we wanted to incorporate  into our film from the beginning was a pull focus shot. This type of shot has become renowned in Hollywood cinema, and has been famously used in successful films such as Jurassic Park (1993) and Jaws (1975). Apart from generally liking the overall appearance of the shot considering it adds dimension to our film, we wanted to use it during a scene to attract the audiences attention to a particular object. This type of shot can be used in a positive way and is by no means only associated with horror films like ours, but we knew that paired with some sinister music this shot would create suspense when used. We conducted research in the connotations of the shot to make sure it would present the desired outcome, and then watched a YouTube tutorial of how to create the shot on our camera.

We feel that the example of a pull focus shot in our film, adheres more to the one demonstrated in the YouTube clip above of the pull focus in Jaws rather than the one used in Jurassic Park merely due to the fact that the director in Jurassic Park uses the focus pull to present a positive image and to convey feelings of hopefulness; whereas the shot in Jaws provides the same feelings of tension and suspense as we conveyed in ours. We decided to use a pull focus shot in the kitchen scene at the beginning of our film. We begin to show how Agnes is preparing to make a cup of coffee; she boils the kettle and places a coffee cup on the kitchen cabinet beside her. We shoot this action from several different angles, demonstrating our creativity. Furthermore, Agnes turns way from the coffee cup for a few seconds as she is distracted by a flower display and is seen to read a sorrowful note attached to the flowers. When she turns around to recommence making her coffee after the kettle has boiled, she notices that someone had suddenly moved her cup to the other side of the kitchen, (this action is demonstrated from (5.38 on wards). We use a wide shot to show how the mug has moved, making sure Agnes was in focus whilst the coffee cup was out of focus. This could also be named as a shallow focus shot. We then twisted the lens of our camera as Agnes walked toward the cup, gradually creating a deep focus shot by involving everything in the shot in a full focus.

     

Considering the fact that all four members of our group each had unique story line ideas- along with contrasting genres to suit each plot- we determined it suitable for each member to present their story line to the rest of the group. The ambition was to sell our idea as much as possible. Emma chose thriller, Amber chose a psychological plot, Alice chose action and I chose romance. After being enthralled by each presentation, we concluded that it would be fair to evenly split the story line between us all. This was achieved by taking ideas from each story line; combined, they created the genre for our group film: a horror.

We injected elements of the thriller genre considering that our protagonist, Agnes, is murdered. This supports the typical 'thriller' stereotype as deaths are commonly used in this genre to create a sinister atmosphere and cause tension, whilst supporting Richard Dier's theory of intensity as we portray our characters to experience extreme lows: Agnes' parents drug addiction becoming so overpowering that it impulses them to murder their own daughter.

Evidence of a psychological plot is the climax in the narrative caused by the menacing music to build tension throughout the film and the flashbacks of Agnes' abusive childhood. The flashbacks adhere to Dier's theory of transparency considering that the use of flashbacks allows the audience to be informed of our protagonist Agnes' inner thoughts feelings.

The action aspect is presented through the fast-paced cutting between shots of sinister happenings taking place as a result of Agnes thinking her house is 'haunted'; when in actual fact it has merely been inhabited by new home owners, and she is the one who is haunting it. This adheres to Dier's theory of energy. We give the audience energy through our editing; the quick cutting of various shots between dramatic scenes. We teamed this with a loud sound affect of a heartbeat beating loudly over said scenes- gradually getting faster and faster to evoke the feeling of a palpation in the audience as our plot starts to unravel before their very eyes (5.07). 

My idea of a romance genre presents itself in the characters Agnes' mother and father as they are married in the film, and the romantic relationship between the 'ghost girl' and 'ghost boy'. The romance element evokes empathy in the audience; creating emotion when something negative impacts on them, such as the interrogation scene where we view the characters in a distressed state.

From observing several films produced by AS last year, the films with a horror/ thriller genre appear to have gained the highest grades- therefore, we felt that filming a horror genre would guarantee us a better grade rather than something like a comedy, for example.

An advantage our group had to filming a horror is the fact that a couple of the group members, myself included, have previous experience in this genre as I produced a film with a similar genre (a psychological thriller) for AS media which shared the same conventions and iconography, such as knifes and blood. A psychological thriller is also a sub-genre of horror: therefore, by choosing to film a horror allowed me to apply my previous experience and knowledge of this type of genre, and helped develop my skills in this particular area.  

This was our final story line: please click here to view.

Whilst creating our story line, we were inspired by horror films such as The Others (2001) and Shutter Island (2010). We decided that we wanted to subvert the stereotype of a psychological horror film centering around a male protagonist, as demonstrated in Shutter Island, and base our film from the point of view of a strong female protagonist instead: Agnes. This relates to Richard Dier's theory of community, as viewing the plot unravel from one particular persons point of view creates a personal tone. We were inspired by the female protagonist, Grace Stewart, in The Others when creating the character profile for Agnes. Alike to Grace, Agnes too discovers that she is a ghost at the end of the film. The majority of horror films feature a young, attractive female actress who is scared and, more than likely, seen running away from the antagonist (which is usually a male criminal or monster). We invert this stereotype considering our female protagonist Agnes is abused and eventually killed by the dominant male figure in the film: her father. This is a representation of how women and males are presented in horror films- for example, representing women as the weaker sex while men remain as the superior one. This supports Laura Mulvey's theory explained in her 1975 novel 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' that, in films, women are viewed as objects; for example, Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman is portrayed as a sexualised object. I explore the ways in which women are presented in film further in one of my blog posts when I was in the process of gathering research before the production stage of our film: please click here to view.  In addition to this, one of our other female characters- the 'Ghost Girl'- believes she has seen a ghost (Agnes) in the house that she has just moved into, and immediately calls for her boyfriend. He dismisses the 'Ghost Girl's' allegations, even going as far as telling her "don't be stupid" (4.44) which creates a sense of the female character being naive and subordinate to the male who is so intent that she is letting her imagination run away with her. We were inspired by the idea of featuring flashbacks based on the protagonist Agnes' memory in our film after discovering how Martin Scorsese used them in his film Shutter Island to gradually leak clues of protagonist's (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) true identity. Therefore, it could be argued that Scorsese uses flashbacks as semiotic technique to help encourage the audience to 'click' onto the fact that the world the protagonist thinks he lives in is in fact a lie. 

Originally, we intended our film to be a horror. However, after conducting an audience questionnaire on what people thought the genre of our film was, our data was split into two categories: 50% of the people guessed it was a horror whilst the other 50% thought it was a thriller. This is understandable considering our non-linear story line and use of flashbacks, as well as the climactic narrative towards the end of the film, are all conventions of the thriller genre as well as horror. Despite not reaching 100% of the audience guessing it was a product of the 'horror' genre, the result still made us feel confident in achieving the scary tone we set out to create with our film. The answers did not stretch as far to genres that have nothing in common with horror, such as romance or comedy, which evidently means our film still projected the theories we wanted to considering that a thriller is a sub-genre of horror. Overall, we felt positive about the results; our film thankfully portrayed the major message we wanted it to: fear.

For the link to our final audience questionnaire responses that illustrates this, click here.

CONCLUSION

Overall, I feel that we provided the audience pleasure that we set out to achieve through our use of interesting shots, editing techniques and our dramatic, non-linear narrative- which provides our audience with the opportunity to delve into our protagonists point of view; sympathising with her and accompanying her on the emotional journey she encompasses throughout the film. 

Evaluation Question Two

Evaluation Question Three

I have presented this question in a Prezi presentation. Please click here to open.

Evaluation Question 2

Slide share presentation:

Our Radio Trailer:

The Intruders radio trailer 

The woman in Black:
We used this radio trailer as a model for our radio trailer for our film is quite similar to The Woman in Black, and wanted to approach the same type of audience.
http://mp3.radio-ads.co.uk/cd/Cr01B12A5EB_128.mp3

Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Due to difficulties with continuity of filming the footage for our film in the foundation portfolio, this year we made sure we created a filming schedule, character profiles, and a detailed list of props we would require for each scene, so we didn't face any major problems again. This meant we were able to be organised throughout the filming process. Although we thought we were fully organised for the filming, we did still face some minor issues, these being: snow interrupting the filming throughout the whole of January, meaning if we had continued to film on these days we would've broken the continuity of the film as there would be snow in some outdoor shots and not the others. because of this we had to wait for long periods of time while the snow thawed so we could finish off the filming. then again this created continuity problems in itself due to actors hair changing in colour/length since previous filming; which in some cases was 2/3 months previous. To overcome these changes we tried to edit the film as craftily as we could including some wide shots, close up shots and establishing shots in able to dodge these changes in the continuity. An example of these changes was that the actress playing our protagonist 'Agnes' changed the length and colour of her hair so rather than shooting all the scenes we decided to put her hair in plaits so that this problem was unnoticeable. Extending the time we had to produce the film would have meant we wouldn't have has to risk the continuity change and would've has time to re-shoot some shots. Although this would have been ideal we managed to edit the film so these differences were corrected.

Intertextuality
This year we wanted to try a variety of new shots so we could develop our creativity. Alfred Hitchcock's 1960's thriller, Psycho included a shot we were inspired by and thought we could use it to show that Agnes had been killed by her parents. Obviously we couldn't physically show the actress hanging from the noose without creating some major hazards and difficulties; but we still wanted to shoot this scene in a way as gruesome and detailed as we could to give a greater effect on our audience. the spectacular shower scene in Psycho creates the impression that the actress is being viscously stabbed to death, without even showing it. By creating an arrangement of fast-moving shots of the knife quickly dashing around the actresses flesh and synchronised the stabbing motions with stabbing sound effects. his scene was very realistic although no actual knife entered the actresses flesh.
We took great inspiration from this scene and filmed to footage for the scene where Agnes is hanged using the same technique. Fast, quick-cut shots of the noose being placed around the actresses neck, her fidgeting feet as she struggled to breathe, and a shot of her dangling from the tree with the rope around her neck all create the illusion we wanted. We added a sound effect of a weighted rope to add to the verisimilitude (0.25). Despite the murder being portrayed in the scene, the actress was not harmed and the 'hanging' is completely fake. Another actor, Jack, had to lift the actress in order for us to be able to shoot her feet fidgeting. The illusion of her 'hanging' from the rope was created by simple shooting from a low angle.
We used another part of Hitchcock's shower scene where he uses a dissolve effect transition between a shot of the plug hole at the bottom of the shower to the actresses eye as she is lying on the floor having collapsed in the shower once being murdered. This shot adds dimension to our film, whilst representing how Agnes suddenly remembered her murder and came to the conclusion that she was in fact a ghost in her own home. We filmed a close up shot of Agnes' face whilst she clasped her hand around her neck, imitating the action of the rope being tied around her neck. When we edited this shot we added a slowly dissolving effect into the actual shot of her hanging from the noose, we did this to show this was what she was remembering.
We had seen a shot in Jurassic Park from 1993 and Jaws in 1975 which was a pull focus shot. Apart from the group generally liking the look of the shot, we knew it would add dimension and creativity to our film by including this shot; we also thought that because this type of shot had drawn our attention we thought we would add more audience interest to the particular object. By no means is this shot only associated with horror films like ours but we knew that we could create an effect on the audience by using it in a creepy way; by adding some sinister music to the scene including this shot we could create some suspense. As we didn't quite know how to create this effect when filming the shot we needed to do some research on how to make sure it would present the desired outcome, and also watched a YouTube tutorial of how to shoot it on or type of camera.
The pull focus shot is shown in the kitchen scene near to the beginning of our film. Agnes is preparing to make a cup of coffee so she boils the kettle and places a mug on the kitchen side next to her. As Agnes turns away from from the mug for a few seconds to look at a flower arrangement and is seen to read a sorrowful note attached to them, she turns backs around to continue asking her coffee and notices that someone has moved her mug to the other side of the kitchen. (this scene is from 5.38 onwards) We uses a wide shot to show how the mug has moved, making sure Agnes was in focus and her mug was out of focus. This is called a shallow focus shot. We them twisted the lens on the camera as Agnes walked towards to mug, gradually creating a deep focus shot by involving everything in the shot in a full focus.

Because we have four members in our group we obviously all had different ideas for the storyline so we wanted to include a part of each members story line. Our main ambition was to sell our idea as much as possible. Emma chose thriller, Amber chose a psychological, Ellisha chose a romance and I chose an action. After looking at everyone's idea and presentation of their storyline, we concluded that it would be fair to evenly split the story line between us all. After taking ideas from the combination of story lines we created our film genre: a horror.

The thriller genre was added into the storyline seen as our protagonist Agnes is murdered. This supports the stereotypical idea of a thriller as deaths are commonly used in this genre to create a sinister atmosphere and also create tension. Richard Dier's theory of intensity is supported in our film as the characters to experience extreme lows; such as Agnes' parents having a drug addiction and it becoming so overpowering that the end up killing their own daughter.

The psychological plot in our film is the climax in the narrative caused by the music to build tension throughout the film; and including the flashbacks of Agnes' abusive childhood. The flashbacks also relate to Dier's theory of transparency, as the flashbacks are used to give the audience to be informed of Agnes' inner thoughts and feelings.

The action included in our film is where we have fast-paced cuttings between shots of sinister happenings as Agnes is beginning to realise that her house is 'haunted', when actually it is the new owners of the house and she then realises that she is the ghost 'haunting' her house. Dier's theory of energy is represented at this point of the film. We give the audience energy through the editing; the quick cutting of various shots between dramatic scenes. By adding a loud sound effect of a heartbeat to these shots ads to the feeling of palpitation in the audience as our plot starts to unravel.

The romance presented in our film is between Agnes' parents as they are married in the film, and the romantic relationship between the ghost man and woman. Empathy is revealed to the audience by adding this contrast of romance and creates emotion when something negative impacts on these two relationships shown. For example in the interrogation scene we have shown the characters to both be distressed which creates the empathy for the characters although they are in the wrong.

After viewing some high graded 5 minute films from the year before we found that those who presented a horror genre tended to get a higher ark than those who did a comedy for example; therefore this persuaded us to make a horror film as we thought we would be able to all achieve higher grades from this. An advantage with doing this genre for our film was that some members of our group have previous experience in making a film of this genre. Ellisha and Emma had made a psychological thriller last year for their AS media production and therefore knew the conventions and iconography such as knives and blood; and with psychological thriller genre is a sub-genre of horror by choosing to film a horror it allowed these members of the group to apply previous knowledge of this genre into our film this year.

Here is our final film idea storyline.

A film we were inspired by was 'Shutter Island'. We decided we wanted to change the stereotype of horror and have our protagonist as a woman rather than a man. By unravelling the plot from one characters view we were supporting Dier's theory of community which creates a personal tone. Most horror films often feature a young, pretty female who is scared and seen running away from the antagonist (usually a male); from this we inverted this stereotype considering our female protagonist Agnes is abused and eventually killed by the dominant male in the film: her dad. This is evidence of how women and men are represented in film; we have represented the women as weaker while the men remain as the superior one. Laura Mulvey says that women are viewed as objects, this is called 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema'. To add to this we show how the female ghost believes she has seen a ghost (Agnes) in her new house and immediately calls for her boyfriend, he then tells the female ghost "don't be stupid" and dismisses the subject. This creates a sense of the female character being naive and him telling her what is right. We liked the idea of using flashbacks based on the Agnes' memory in our film after seeing how Martin Scorsese used them in his film Shutter Island to give away to the audience about Teddy's real identity.

The initial genre of our film was aimed to be a horror but after creating an audience questionnaire we discovered that 50% of people thought it was a horror and the other 50% thought it was a thriller. We understood this outcome because of the non-linear story line and use of flashbacks, as well as the increasing narrative climax towards the end of the film, these are all conventions of a thriller genre. Although is was 100% accurate to our intended genre from the questionnaire we still felt confident in achieving the scary tone we set out to create. We were encouraged by the questionnaire as the thriller genre still holds conventions similar to horror, whereas if we had answers including comedy we would've been a lot more worried about our film and would've had to reassess our film. Overall we were happy with the audience questionnaire results and our film portrayed the message we wanted; fear.

Conclusion
Overall, I felt that we created a film which gives the audience pleasure which is what we set out to do. By adding interesting shots, good editing techniques and a non-linear dramatic narrative, we gave our audience a chance delve into our protagonists point of view which helped them to sympathise with her during her emotional journey throughout the film.

The Intruders - final cut 

Evaluation Question Four

I have presented this answer on a Prezi presentation. Please click here to view.

Evaluation Question 4

Location photos

House:

1. garden - from conservatory door. the conservatory door inside and outside the house. trees. from trees facing house. 
2. bedroom - little bedroom. from bed looking out of the door. 
3. hallway - facing open toilet door. 
4. bathroom - full image
5. kitchen - kettle corner 
6. living room - sofa and tv in shot
7. landing - wash room door open, dark
8. drive and road - establishing shots

college:

1. reporters - spacious room in college/classroom/tv studio
2. interrogation room - small lighted room
3. agnes hiding room - dark small classroom

Reporters

We decided to use this space inside college for the reporters to do the news report because it is decorated well to match what a reporters room would look like. This place in college is also rather quiet so it will be easy to hear the sounds on the film.










Hiding Room

We found this small room in college to film agnes hiding in because with it being so small we managed to get good lighting. I took a picture of the room in the dark and light so we could make a decision which to use when we filmed. Because of the way the door opens, we knew we'd be able to fit the lighting well when Emma was sat in the corner of the room.













Agnes' bedroom

We used this room in the house as Agnes; bedroom because its all pink and girly and so it shows that she never really had the chance to grow up because her parents weren't bothered about her. Also this room is small meaning we could clutter it well making the mise en scene create a realistic view on the family.











The landing

We decided that this part of the house would be a good place to drag Agnes so we were able to show the transition from the landing to the hiding room without making it obvious that the rooms were in separate buildings.














The living room

This is how we set the props for the living room scene because we thought that because it is a nice house it needed to look messy to fit in with the story and therefore put props on the floor in places you wouldn't usually expect to see these things in a living room. The good thing about this living room was we were able to create some effective shots with the glass doors to create a more sinister feel to the film.











Interrogation room

This is the room which we used for the police interrogation scene because we though that as it was small it created a more intense atmosphere and also the walls didn't have anything on them at the time so we were able to add posters around the room so the mise en scene created a more realistic view to the audience of a police interrogation room.












Kitchen

We used the kitchen for one of the main scenes in the film because it is quite open and dark so we thought it would create a more spooky atmosphere and add to the horror genre of the film.













Woods

The part of the woods which we found to film our hanging scene in was a suitable place as this bit of land is attached to the garden and owned by the house, therefore we didn't have to worry about any onlookers thinking we were conducting unsafe act.











Drive and front of house

Here are pictures of the driveway and the car, which we used in the film, from the front door of the house. We decided to use the BMW in the film because it matches the style of the house more rather than using the Peugeot.














Garden

This is the view of the garden from the house. The garden path leads to a get which enters into the woods where we filmed the hanging scene.
The garden adds to the entire atmosphere of the film because it is rather big and having all the darkness from the trees in the background makes the garden look mysterious and sinister. 

Evaluation Question 3

How did you respond to the original brief with the audience in mind?
Our brief was to create a short 5 minute film of whatever genre we decided as a group. We chose to do a horror/psychological horror. I liked this idea because it was different from the film I produced last year. Because of this I knew that my target audience would be also be different from last year. Once we had created a storyline for the film we had decided, we then created an audience questionnaire in order for us to gather some feedback to help with the development of our film. 

Our storyline 
The film begins show the protagonist (Agnes) being killed, although this is shown as a nightmare when Agnes wakes up in a panic. Throughout the film the people living in the house begin to believe the house is haunted as they keep seeing ghostly figures and find that things were going missing or moving places. Agnes also experiences flashbacks of memories where her parents were abusing her but can't remember why... As the film progresses, it is reviled that Agnes' parents killed her which makes sense later on when you see previous times where Agnes has found her parent taking drugs. Finally we showed the new family moving the last few boxes into the house and them finding a ghostly figure in the window and on the stairs etc. Agnes sees them and tries to speak to them but when they don't respond and continue talking to each other, she then realises that her parents killed her and she was in fact a ghost herself. 

Audience research
We created a treatment on blogger which we developed as a group which is where we identified our target audience. Our certificate was raised to at least 15 because of the drug abuse and violence throughout the film. So that we were clear about the rating of our film we did some research on the BBFC website to look at regulations. We discovered that a 12 rating would allow mild use of swearing, drug usage and sexual references; although a 15 certificate allows heavy use of drugs and violence, strong language and sexual activity throughout the film. Therefore we decided to make our film a 15 certificate because although we haven't got use of strong language, we thought the amount of violence and drug abuse in the film would push it up to an age rating 15. As a group we decided that by doing this we could portray the message we wanted to without having to worry about the serious issues we encounter throughout. 

The research into our audience was important because we needed to make the film appropriate to our target audience and their responses to our film idea were a great impact on the production of our film. After doing the research we were then able to change parts of the film which they either didn't quite understand or found it hard to follow so we changed these bits to what they had said and then created another questionnaire for online in order to make us completely satisfied that our film would be successful. 

Video Questionnaire:
https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8560808824225504586#editor/target=post;postID=3002558196365746949;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=5;src=postname


Results:
https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8560808824225504586#editor/target=post;postID=8494744610283480545;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=4;src=postname

Online Questionnaire:

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8560808824225504586#editor/target=post;postID=7788229585310261098;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=3;src=postname

Finished Film:
https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8560808824225504586#editor/target=post;postID=7499804683643125792;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=7;src=postname

Music:
Choosing the music for our film was important to us because we wanted to find the best music and sounds to create suspense on the audience. The sounds in our film help to build up the story and the events which happen throughout the film. The sound effect we used when our protagonist 'Agnes' is hung and dropped was put in to make a gasp from the audience, as it sounds as though her neck has broken. All the sounds and music in our film create an effect on the audience which intensifies the suspense and tension in the storyline. 

What we wanted the audience to take away from our film/what they could take away from the finished film:
As the genre of our film is horror we wanted to scare the audience and make them feel uncomfortable. However, the serious issues included in our film such as drug and child abuse create a horrific and shocking effect so we wanted our audience to go away from our film thinking about it.

EVALUATION QUESTION 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary texts?

In our main production the main concept of it was to scare the audience and coax them into believing that Agnes is still alive and use psychology to keep them excited and on the edge of their seat. The main themes of our film contain drugs abuse, superstition and family relations. For our two main advertising products we chose to make a main film poster and a radio trailer both that will be seen and listened to by the public. By making these we wanted to convey the storyline through these two products in creative ways. 

Initial Research

Firstly for our poster we did some background research on the history of posters and existing ones. I decided to look into sin city posters in particular because they stood out to me because they contained the three main colours that we wanted to put into ours from our colour scheme research that i did earlier on in our product. The three main colours being red, white and black. To add to this another factor that we found was that most posters just contained one main character from the film and was featured as the biggest image on the page, a good example of this was the Gangster Squad poster that i analysed also. I also though that looking at the sin city poster material was a good idea because they are aimed towards an older audience like our film the Intruders because some of the images are quite scandalous. From researching these posters not only did it give me information of what should be on a film poster but it showed me how it needed to be spaced out and not have too many details to confuse the audience of lose their interest. 
Then to contrast this style of poster i decided to look into a film that was the total opposite and instead used graphics to achieve a more sinister look. This film poster is more suited to our genre and I think gave me inspiration of what to do to add shock factor to our poster for the Intruders. The theatre bizarre photo had blood in it and we plagiarised this in our own film poster which the spattered blood near the title. 

Our final film poster
For our film poster we wanted to  incorporate all the necessary information  such as the certificate, cast, crew and film title. In addition we included a star rating from well known trusted resources such as ‘Daily Mirror’. High rating are often how audiences establish an idea of the film and can base their decision on whether or not to go see the film on these. To make the poster we used photoshop elements by adobe to create our finished product. I didn't find it that hard to use as we did a tutorial in class to help us understand more how to use it. We decided to include all the characters on the front and edited them to make them look ghostly and faded into the background. For the background image we used a screenshot took from our film of the forest it was filmed in, because we thought it gave it an edge and we made the background dark and then used white writing to make it really stand out. 

What our audience thought of our poster?
To confirm that our poster gave off the right idea about our film we asked some people in our class what they thought by asking three simple questions.
1.What genre do you think the film is?
2.Would you go see this film after looking at the poster?
3.On a scale of 1 to 10 how professional does this poster look?
By asking people these questions we got feed back and most answers said that our film would be a horror and scored 8 out out of 10 on average. I think this was a good way to help us make any last minute improvements to our film in order to make it the most suitable for The Intruders. 

Initial Research: Radio Trailers
Another project we created was our radio trailer, before we started making it we had to do some research into it and we chose to look specifically into the Woman in Black trailer that can be heard in this link http://mp3.radio-ads.co.uk/cd/Cr01B12A5EB_128.mp3. We chose this radio trailer in particular to explore into what should be included in a horror based radio trailer we took into consideration the order of what information was delivered and the music that was played in the background. We had to take all these elements and put it into creating our own radio trailer. The main focus of creating one was to attract an audience. 

How we created our Radio Trailer? 
We decided to create our radio trailer by using final cut express and a voice over, we didn't want to give away too much of the story line and wanted to represent the genre of our film more. We decided to have Agnes breathing heavily in the beginning to create a tense atmosphere, we also thought by using Agnes' voice would be a clever way into introducing the main character without actually seeing the character. I believe that this would interest the audience and make them want to find out more. We used major sound effects such as a tree snapping and the rope sound to create a scary atmosphere so the audience know that its going to include violent and horror based qualities. Below is the finished product of our radio trailer. 
The Intruders radio trailer 

Conclusion 
To conclude our ancillary tasks i think that we achieved our aims as a group and produced a successful radio trailer and film poster. 

EVALUATION QUESTION 1

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

Continuity
From AS level to A2 i have understood more what continuity means and how important it is in a film this is why as a group we looked carefully into it and made sure we had planned out our shots using a storyboard before we started filming. With our media product this year we wanted to make sure that continuity and conventions were a major factor and have to be carefully focused on in order to make a successful film. At a technical level we stuck to the conventions of editing and filming, such as not breaking the 180 degree rule and making sure our shots would flow when put together on final cut express. We did this to prevent the audience from confusion and make the film more clear to view. We had problems however because the first rough cut of our film a lot of things in it did not make sense and the film was raising a lot of questions regarding the storyline  in particular. To correct this we ended up changing the boyfriend character in the film of the couple that move in after Agnes has died, and we ended up re shooting a total of three times to get the story and shots looking just right. We had to break continuity a couple of times though throughout the film especially with the time jumping of Agnes finding out she's actually dead and no longer lives in her home in which she is seen as a ghost by the new couple who move in. However knowing we broke this helped us to create a more interesting story line and keep the audience wanting to know more about our characters. Despite this up until this point our film is very focused on Agnes and her story with what happens to her because of her parents. Another part of the film that doesn't include continuity is the beginning where Agnes is in bed and wakes up from a 'dream' she has. Another factor that effected how continuous our film was, the time period of which we filmed because of peoples appearances such as hair cuts and colors so we had to even change the date of a hair cut that Emma was meant to have due to her role as the main character Agnes.

Elliptical Editing
Elliptical editing is a technique used to create an ellipse in the plot and effects the story duration, these can be done by using different elliptical editing such as jump cuts and dissolving the scenes from one to the next. By using a combination of sound and the dissolve effect we managed to create a scene that jumps from Agnes feeling uneasy in the kitchen to her walking into the living room an example of how we used elliptical editing to our advantage. This can be seen in the first minute of our film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyTp5zcvBes 

Conventions

Conventions of a media text are things you expect to find in a certain genre of film, this was a major factor for us in making our genre noticeable. In terms of the concept of our film I think that in the end it was meant to be a ghost horror based film but because of the story and Agnes getting killed by her own parents I think it did subvert the expectations of the overall film just adding elements of crime and drama in it. Because our film was based around scaring the audience and giving them a thrill we did look closely at traditional horror films such as The Others. We wanted to quickly scare the audience and make them jump, like the rocking chair scene which can be seen in the film, The Woman in Black, we recreated this by putting our own twist on it where only Elisha can seen Emma (Agnes) in the film where the couple are moving in, this would shock the audience and this would be expected as it is a convention of horror films in general. Another convention we included in our film which we spent a lot of time on and even included tutorials in our blog work was costume and make-up. Due to drug abuse being a big part of our film, because of Agnes' mum and dad, We wanted to them to both look washed out so we used pale make-up on them both compared to their natural shade, we did this because we took inspiration from the look created for the film trainspotting in which the main character a heroin addict looks ghostly white just like we tried to made ours look. Steve Neale a theorist who looks into the topic of genre stated that ' genres are instances of differences and repetition' and he also added that ' difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre'. We agreed with his opinion and to change our story from the typical horror film we added unexpected characters such as a police woman and a innocent couple that have nothing to do with Agnes' story. In addition to this we also chose to keep the story under wraps until the end when the audience finds out that Agnes actually died quite a few years ago so it wasn't set in the present day as originally thought. Despite this we did take some typical conventions such as a dark scary forest in which Agnes is killed by her parents, this can be seen in other films such as Blair witch project which takes place in a forest. Another iconic film we took inspiration form was Alfred Hitchcock's 1960's film in which he creates the shower scene where the actress is stabbed to death however the stabbing is never actually witnessed just like our scene where Agnes gets hanged by her Father. Using a combination of sound effects and fast-moving shots we were able to make it look realistic and gruesome for the audience to experience pure shock when seeing it for the first time. Another comparison that can be made is the blood flowing down the shower to the plug hole as the last scene from Psycho where the woman is stabbed to death, this is recreated in our film, The Intruders in which there is a shot where Agnes' feet are seen just dangling and fidgeting as she is portrayed to be struggling for her life. We added a sound effect of a weighted rope to add to the verisimilitude (0.25). Despite the murder being portrayed in the scene, the actress was not harmed and the 'hanging' is completely fake.

Scene from Trainspotting which we used for make-up inspiration for Agnes' Mother and Father. 

The woman from Psycho when she is being attacked by her killer. 

The iconic plughole scene in which we tried to recreate with Agnes' hanging feet. 

Conclusion for our Film the Intruders
The Intruders in terms of the question does successfully include good continuity and typical conventions, for a horror film. I think that because this is our first five minute film it was a challenge to incorprate everything into it but i think overall we included enough and didn't over do it. By looking into other films that were similar to ours it helped us to gain ideas and recreate scenes as a sign of idolization. We also looked closely at film theorist and tried to add their ideologies into our film so we didn't fall into the trap of filming a story that completely imitated another film that is already out there. To add to this the combination of good props, mis-en scene and shots used i think we achieved all we set out to do when we first got together to start our project. Below is a link to our final film The Intruders.

Final film

Evaluation Question One

Evaluation Question Two

Our radio trailer:




The Woman in Black radio trailer:
This is the radio trailer example we researched

Evaluation Question Three

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

How did you respond to the original brief with the audience in mind?

Our brief was the create a 5 minute film of any genre that we wanted. My group chose a horror/psychological horror, as it was similar to what we created last year. This meant we already had an idea of who our audience would be and what we needed to include to satisfy them. We thought that because our story line was fairly dark, its certificate would either be a 12 or 15, but we would have to conduct further research. Once choosing a story line, we did some research, and developed some questionnaires for our audience, for us to gather some feedback.

Our story line - The film begins with the protagonist (Agnes) being killed at the beginning of the film, but it is portrayed as a nightmare. Throughout, Agnes lives in her house believing that it is haunted as she keep on seeing ghostly figures and things move from places i.e. the mug in the kitchen scene. Agnes also experiences strange flashbacks of her parents abusing her, but is unsure why. We used a black and white effect for the flashback's to represent that the events really happened, and to also create a creepy atmosphere to scare the audience. As the plot progresses, it is said that Agnes' parents killed her which is later shown as the protagonist confronts her parents about their drug abuse problems. To finish, we see the new homeowners moving the final boxes into the house but noticing a ghostly figure at the window and the bottom of the stairs. Agnes sees them and tries to confront them to leave, however they do not appear to acknowledge her, and she suddenly realises that her parents killed her and she was in fact a ghost. We understood that this story line could be quite confusing to accomplish without giving away too many spoilers early on which was why we found that it was important to get audience feedback through our online questionnaires to see what they thought/were getting from our film.

Audience Research:

We created a treatment on Blogger which helped us to identify our target audience. As we were touching upon serious issues like drug abuse and murder, we knew that we would be looking at a certificate of a 12 or a 15. To make sure we were correct, we did some research on the BBFC (The British Board of Film Classification) website to look at the regulations needed for our film, and what age rating our product would be. We found that for a 12, the film can include mild swearing, sex references and drug use but in a very discreet way. Whereas in a 15, there can be strong language, portrayals of sexual activity, nudity and drug taking. Although there is no strong language or portrayals of nudity or sexual activity in our film, several serious issues are encountered such as child abuse, drug abuse and murder. We decided as a group after undergoing research on the BBFC website, that our film should be a 15 so that we could send out the messages that we wanted, and we would be able to target a specific audience. We made sure that we identified our target audience from the early stages of planning so that everything we did that effected our film would suit our audience and make them intrigued.

Why identifying our audience was important:

We knew that targeting our audience from an early stage was important as we could plan and research around them and their needs. We wanted to create a horror film so our main aim was to scare the audience, but we wanted them to include the issues of drug and child abuse so that the audience would be able to take those serious matters away with them.

During the filming and editing process we knew that we had to make sure the meaning of our film would be apparent to our audience. We created a script to help us when filming and so that the storyline would develop and flow. However, when we shared our rough cut and our online questionnaire, we got feedback from our target audience stating that our storyline was a bit confusing to follow and they hadn't completely grasped the concept that we were wanting to express. Our target audience had not understood that the protagonist was actually a ghost in her house as we had not given them enough clues; from this feedback, we knew that we needed to re-shoot some scenes, amend the script and make sure that the audience would be able to understand the meaning of our film and be able to follow the plot. To achieve this, we added flashback scenes in such as Agnes being dragged down the hall by her father which gave the audience clues that she had been abused so they killed her. We added a black and white affect as well as a vignette around the edges to make it appear like a flashback, which hinted to the audience that everything that had happened to Agnes was true, and she didn't dream it. Also, during the scene at the bottom of the stairs, the new home owner is holding a mug which links into the kitchen scene as Agnes' mug moves by itself. Finally, also on the stairs scene, Agnes has some dialogue which helps the plot develop and ties together the loose ends of the film. All of these factors give the audience vital clues throughout our film so that they will be able to understand the meaning and ending and will not become confused.

Online Questionnaire:

We created an online questionnaire on Google drive to get some feedback about our intended story line. We also did a video questionnaire to see the type of people who could be our target audience, but we thought that an online questionnaire would be beneficial also as it would allow people to think about their answers and possibly be more descriptive. The main answers we received showed us that they understood the genre we were aiming for, but they stated that the story line could be a little confusing to follow. This allowed us to prepare to write our script, and we had to try and avoid making our plot too confusing.

Video Questionnaire:

When we came up with our story line, we wanted to get some feedback from people to understand what they thought of our plot, what genre it was, if they had any improvements for us etc. This was helpful to us as we were able to see what people thought of our story line and how we could improve certain aspects. It also gave us an idea of who our potential audience was and what they would expect to see.

Rough Cut:

Before we had completely finished editing our film, we wanted to share a rough cut on YouTube and then through the social media site Facebook to see what they thought of our progress so far. We obtained some really helpful feedback as we discovered that our story line didn't make complete sense and they had not understood the meaning that we were hoping to give off. Our audience hadn't understood what the plot of our film was which allowed us to re-shoot some scenes and amend the script so that it would work. This was helpful as we could give the audience clues throughout our film and then at the end reveal the ending. As we hadn't added music or effects either, we could ask them what music they could suggest for us to create a horrific atmosphere. 

We knew that we wanted to scare our audience as well as promote serious issues of drug and child abuse. We used audio and music to create our desired effect, as well as create a sickening atmosphere. An example of this is the tree snapping sound used in the hanging scene for the added sickening effect. We also used creepy music to build up the tension which is vital in horror films. After we added our music, we noticed that our film looked and appeared to be a lot more creepier. We used freesound.org  to gather our music, which was really beneficial in the overall result of our film.

Creative decisions we made that were influenced by our senses of audience:

We used certain effects and shots in our film to make the audience think specific things and feel different emotions. We used slow editing to build the tension which is important in horror films, and we did this initially to scare the audience. The music we used, was included to also add tension and to make our audience afraid. From the feedback we received we knew that our audience thought that our film would be a horror and that it would most likely be a 15.

Finished Film:

This is our finished film. We took on board the feedback that we gathered through our online and video questionnaires to make our film fit the horror genre, make the story line make sense and also to scare or creep out the audience.

Online Questionnaire for film:

We created another online questionnaire once we had completed our film to get some audience feedback and to see if our hard work and research had paid off by our film achieving what we wanted.

Audience Feedback: Questionnaire Responses

The feedback we received from a wide age gap from 17 - 41. This was helpful to us as we could see what different age groups thought of our film. The genre that our audience assumed it to be was mainly, horror, psychological horror and thriller. This told us that we had succeeded in representing our genre through the use of mise-en scene, shots, story line and music. The certificate that they chose was mainly 15 but there was one 18. This showed us that we had created a scary/creepy film which people believed to be disturbing, so we achieved our aim. Also, the main emotion that people experienced was shock, which is another positive as our aim was to shock as well as scare the audience. We discovered from our rough cut that our plot could be a little confusing to follow; we took the feedback into consideration and made the story line more simple and included more clues throughout. This paid off as every one who took our questionnaire stated that they understood the plot easily. Finally, we asked if there were any improvements that they could suggest to us. A lot of people couldn't think of anything, but someone said that maybe having an effect at the end to make Agnes transparent and really show that she is a ghost. If we were to create this film again, we would definitely look into including this effect. 

What we wanted the audience to take away from our film:
As the genre of our film is horror we wanted to scare the audience and make them feel uncomfortable. However, the serious issues included in our film such as drug and child abuse create a horrific and shocking effect so we wanted our audience to go away from our film thinking about it.

Film poster and radio trailer:

We created a film poster for our film along with a radio trailer for advertising products. We wanted to express the films genre through these mediums and give away some detail about our story line without revealing any major plot points. From the feedback we received, we understood that they represented the films genre well as they were scary. They achieved their task, as when we asked a member of our target audience if they would go to see the film after looking at and listening to our advertising products, they said they would be encouraged to go.

Similar films:
By intriguing our audience, we did some research into similar films to gain a similar group of people. Our film was like, The Others and The woman in black. We used similar shots and music to represent our genre and engage with the audience. However, we wanted our film to look scary also, therefore we looked at Sweeney Todd and took make up ideas from that film as the character's looked creepy and ghoul like. I believe that this factor really added to the mise-en scene and suspension of disbelief.