Born to Kill: Main Task

This is our final main task. It is the opening sequence of a psycological horror which we named 'Born to Kill'. In our introduction the audience gets a slight preview of what the rest of the film will be about and acknowledges that it is about a girl with some sort of mental disorder. We got the idea of the close up shots over the girls face from Alfred Hitchcocks film 'Vertigo'. I think we showed that it is a psycological horror relatively clearly in this sequence as the main girl is showing abnormal facial expressions and looks threatening, she also has cuts and blood on her face which makes it look scary. We used a dark background so the audience only concentrates on her and shows how its mysterious and the auidence wants to know more about her and carry on watching the film.

Preliminary Task

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oEldPNlqEw&feature=related

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

In our main task we used close up shots to portray the genre and show the bruising and cuts on her face which shows that it is a psycological horror. We used 'Vertigo' by Alfred Hitchcock to emphasise the horror, he does not show the womans whole face just her facial features to make the audience on edge and make them want to continue watching. We tried to base the mise en scene as a horror to make it clear to the audience what genre the film is. The girls costume; a plain white gown; we researed on google what someone in a mental institution would wear and it said a plain gown which is stereotypical and tells the audience she is in a mental instiution. We used dark lighting, black, stereotpye of a horror as it makes it more scary and mysterious, and the audience only concentrates on the main thing being shown on screen. The music used is echoey and creepy; as it would be in a horror, we also blurred someone speaking to add a frightening effect. When the girl screamed we shook the camera to make it seem more psychological, we got this idea from a pscycological horror film named 'Orphan' which is shown in the trailer below. We also used close up shots of her arm which showed she had been self harming which also adds to idea of it being psycological. I think we used many different effects to create a conventional real media piece.

                              'Orphan' trailer;

'Vertigo' opening sequence;

 

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

media product only represents one social group; people who have a mental disability. We have included the stereotypes of those with a mental disability in our film. We have constantly represented this throughout, we have used many different drama techniques to portray this. For example, in the first short scene there is a camera shot of the girls eyes and lips, we used this camera shot to create distress and make the audience feel on edge and uncomfortable. This idea was taken from Alfred Hitchcock's 'Vertigo'. We chose to set the film in a dark room as it clearly states that the movie is a horror. In terms of costume, we researched into Google what people in mental institutions are likely to wear and it said white gowns etc. therefore we did so and used a white gown. We used purple makeup around her eyes to emphasis the bruising which shows the psychological side of the genre. We have just used one character in the whole opening sequence as we think it would make the audience understand the type of genre more.

This is a picture from 'The Uninvited' . About a girl who 


has got out of a mental institution after recently trying to commit suicide. This character links to the character in 
our films as they are both mental and delusional.

Another film we looked at was 'The Orphan' which also shows psychological horror and helped us with our film making. As in the orphan, our media piece also shows the dark side of mental illness which makes the movie more scary as you do not know what they are going to do next.

Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The genre of our film is psychological horror. Psychological horror tends to be subtle compared to traditional horror and usually contains less physical harm. As this sub-genre works mainly to mentally affect the audience rather than the display of graphic imagery seen in the slasher sub-genre.We have decided that our film is going to be mainstream and have a mainstream audience therefore it would be shown in cinema's such as 'odeon'. Media distribution is really important on how successful the piece of media is, where and how we distribute our music is a key factor. DreamWorks pictures is a distribution company, it produced a psychological film named 'Paranormal Activity', after finding this I looked more into DreamWorks pictures to see if I could find that they have made anymore psychological horror/thriller films. I found 'The Ruins' and 'The Ring' which are both horrors that DreamWorks pictures have distributed. 
Another distribution company I looked at was Warner Brothers. They created horror films such 
Nightmare on Elms Street' and 'The Exorcist'
  

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

For question 4 we had to get some primary research about what kind of audience is suitable for our media piece. We asked five different people of various ages to get their opinion. We asked them, what sort of genre films they enjoy watching, how do they feel about watching people who have mental disorders in films and if they liked or disliked horrors. The five people we interviewed all felt very differently about the questions and all had their own opinion and views.

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

This is the poster we made for our film - Born To Kill. We used dark colours in the background so the viewer only concentrates on the main image, we also edited the lighting on her face to make it stand out more and appeal to the audience. The bruising under her eyes shows really well and tells the audience that it is some kind of horror as it looks scary. I think the red bold font also emphasises that it is horror. I think this really cleary appeals to an audience who like horror, as soon as you see it you recognize straight away what genre it is and someone who enjoys horror would be interested.