Evaluation task 1 - How does my product use, develop or challenge conventions of real media products?

Designing the title for my film - font and image

I knew that I wanted to incorporate the spider mark that I created and drew on the actors' necks in my film so I decided to try and create the same mark as an image on the computer. I started by finding an image of a spider that looked like a tattoo template.

I then found an image of a skull to copy into the body of the spider, which would match the one that I drew on the necks of the actors. 

Using a photo editing website, I edited the spider image and managed to paint the skull into the body of the spider.

I then started working on the font for the title and came up with the font of Houlter Gothic. I chose this as I thought it was quite a ghostly type of font, perfect for my supernatural thriller.

Adding in the spider mark image, I got this result

However, I was not yet satisfied and thought to adding in some effects.

I started by getting rid of the white background. As it is a supernatural, ghostly film, I decided to add in some smoke to really give it that ghostly effect.

I am happy with this title and shall be using it in my thriller.

The first girl and final girl

In many thrillers there are social groups who we know will not make it out alive by the end. This happens in the sequence of "The Final Destination" films where one of the friends has a vision of a dangerous event occurring, killing all of them and shortly after, that same event happens, killing few and the surviving ones die in an order following the event.

There is also a 'first girl' who gets murdered at the beginning, and a final girl who manages to survive. Typically, this is a young fair-haired girl who seems popular and loved by many so we feel sympathy for her death. A good example of this type of girl would be Drew Barrymore in 1996's "Scream".

Along with this, there is a 'final girl' who struggles to survive, but in the end she fights for her life and succeeds, living to tell her story. These girls would usually be a virgin and avoids pressures from other victims. She would usually have a name for both sexes and will show intellect and curiosity. However, counter-typically, she is now extremely feminine, has a female name, has sexual relations with men and is just as popular as the 'first girl'. A good example of this type of girl would be Mia Alen in 2013's "Evil Dead".

Account of shoot day

As we were worried that the weather was going to be bad, we decided to film at my house. This was completely different to how we had planned to start the day as we had planned to shoot in the park. However, it was effective as it made it more realistic. The day started with Gabriel coming to my house at 10am and helping set up all the equipment needed. We set up the camera on the tripod and wheels, we created the set with the crime scene tape and attempted to set up the light but were not able to. We got all the props in the briefcase ready and the table set up and told our actors to get changed to be ready for filming when the other crew members arrived. Cesare and Mishel then arrived and Mishel did the make-up for the actors, drawing on the spider marks on their necks. We made sure that the marks were visible as they are the most important part of the film, revealing that Claire is one of the victims of the case.

We began shooting with both detectives walking up the driveway of the house from a close up of their feet to give a sense of mystery right at the very start as you don't quite meet them just yet. The diegetic sound of them walking up the pebbled driveway also created tension as it was a sort of crunching sound, which sends chills up peoples' spines. We then did some shots of Detective Seth and Claire talking from different angles but had to be extremely careful that the camera wasn't shown in the reflection on the window next to us. This was a challenge as it limited our range of shots that we could do. In the end, we stuck to the basic shots from the preliminary task. However, this was effective to our piece as it allowed us to show more camera time on Detective Seth, portraying him as an important figure and  allowed us to clearly show that he was talking to himself. One of the most important shots that we did was the long shot of my dad talking to himself as this was the moment of realisation that he is in fact talking to himself/a ghost. Another important shot in which we had to take was of the marks on their necks to fully signify that the two girls are victims of the same case and so we films close ups of these. Originally, the dead girl on the floor was not going to wear a coat as she was meant to be killed in the garden of her own home. However, as the weather was too cold, it would have been unethical to force her to stay out in the cold for hours without a coat and even with a coat, she was still shaking. One thing that we realised would affect our sound was the extremely loud wind. Despite this, we knew we could edit the sound and alter the volume of the wind.

We managed to create a mise-en-scene that was eerie but natural as we had the natural lighting from outside. As the sky was white, there was no sun shining through the clouds and so this gave a serious mood to the set. Overall, I feel that the shoot day went pretty successfully with a fair amount of shots. We realised afterwards that we had missed out on a couple of shots but we were able to shoot them another time separately and add them in. Furthermore, the day had few similarities to our original storyboard as we were in a different place and had to change the shots due to the reflections on the window. We were not as prepared as we were before we changed the location, but we managed to do everything we wanted to do by the end of the day.Additionally, we added in an extra match on action shot of the Detectvie Seth dropping the gloves on the floor, conveying how Claire isn't actually there and that he was giving the gloves to no one. This improved our film as it made it clear that he doesn't realise that she is a ghost. but we do. However, if we had the choice, we would have shot everything inside so that we would not have faced the loud sounds of the wind. Nevertheless, this added a supernatural effect as the wind sounded quite ghostly. We were going for quite a thrilling, ghostly, supernatural effect which is a good effect for our target audience of 18-60.

Risk assessment

On the day of shooting, we could have faced some risks. As it was lightly raining, we could have had water damage to the equipment but we put plastic over it all while we were filming outside so that nothing damaged it. We could have left the equipment out on the street or outside, but instead we made sure that one of us was always standing next to it at all times and when we went inside, we would bring it inside too. Equipment could have been stolen from us and broken when transporting it from school to the location but we were extremely careful and my parents helped me load it all into the car and into school safely. There were other risks of members of our crew getting ill on the day and not being able to film, the actors not being able to come to the filming day, someone losing/forgetting the props. Luckily, no one was ill and everyone was able to come to the filming day. However, one person did forget to bring a prop but it was not as necessary as we thought it was as we managed to film without it.

Shooting schedule

1. Set up equipment and wait for everyone (10-12)
2. Shoot entrance of detectives (12-12:15)
3. Shoot conversation of detectives (12:15-12:50)
4. Shots of dead girl (12:50-1:00)
5. Shots of location (1:00-1:15)
6. Shoot briefcase scene (1:15-1:50)
7. Lunch break (1:50-2:50)
8. Shoot search of dead girl (2:50-3:30)
9. Shoot finding the mark (3:30-43:50)
10. Shoot finding mark on Claire (3:50-4:00)
11. Shoot Seth alone (4:00-4:20)
12. Check all shots and clear up (4:20-4:50)

Last minute changes

Not long before filming, we decided to tweak a few things. First of all, one major problem was the weather and we did not want to risk anything, living in harsh weather conditions during this time of winter. We were originally supposed to be shooting in the park, where the grass can get damp and squelchy and on a Sunday, many mothers bring their young children there to play. As it was a risk of us facing these obstacles, we decided to shoot in the garden of my house where I have a wooden deck outside so that we wouldn't have challenges such as mud and so that we could sit inside when having a break or if it started raining heavily, we could resort to the inside of my house. Another last minute change was parts of the script; one of the actors, played by my father realised that some of the lines sounded unnatural and so with his advice, we cut out and changed a few words. Lastly, we changed some of the shots as we couldn't take the same ones in a different location and there were problems with the reflection of the camera from the window, so some angles and shots were altered.