'The One That Got Away'
My product follows typical horror conventions such as the tension and suspense build up. It has developed techniques throughout as of practice, prior knowledge and research. My opening could have been developed further with more time and effort but it still uses different camera shots as well as sound to emphasise the build up. Similar to other horror movies, my opening uses typical conventions such as: pathetic fallacy - the murder takes place at night time; as well as a character being home alone. This clearly states that something bad will happen as the audience are assumed to have prior knowledge about other horror movies and conventions and know just from the opening few scenes what genre the movie is.
The representations in my opening of the typical 'teenage' social group are shown using body language and expression; her reacts in the opening are what teenagers would usually do if they were in the situation shown. Mise en scene also shows typical teenage stereotypes such as the ashtray on the chest of drawers next to the bed and the pink spotty dressing gown worn; she's a typical teenage girl. Also, the 'villain' in the opening is seen to be sort of delerious and creepy as an extreme close up of her face tilting, staring straight in to the camera is to show her mentality.
The type of opening my product is, would be distributed by a major as the rest of the film would use conventions and techniques of higher standard produced movies by a company such as Sony or Universal. A high budget would be used to include a few thriller scenes as well as to clearly show other horror conventions such as fake scares. I'd want it to be distributed by a major as it would get more publicity and advertisement as people with prior knowledge about the distributors and previous movies made by the company would want hopefully want to see the film because of the distributor as well as other things such as known actors/actresses.
My aimed audience is certificate 15 although the age variety of my audience aim is 15+. The reasons of this being that you can use more scares/gore in certificate 15's than certificate 12's, as well as the fact that certificate 12 is aimed more at a younger audience with less variety of conventions. I aimed to attract my audience by using typical teen stereotypes as well as trying to create suspense and tension to make them want to watch on and find out what happens next. Action and Enigma codes in the my opening are also used to try and entice my audience; for example they will want to find out who the girl is, who the murderer is and also what the murderer wants/why she kills. In aim for my movie to appeal to a wider variety of people, the themes throughout the opening are not continuously typical teen stereotypes, but they are techniques that many people will be able to relate too, wether aged 15 or 50.
Whilst processing this opening, I have developed skills within use of technology with the use of editing software that i was not used to before. I've learnt how to: edit clips, how to use editing techniques such as cuts and transitions, how to add stings and various different sounds/stings to clips. Using the editing software enabled my opening to seem more realistic and add suspense and tension via the use of stings and sound, without it, it wouldn't have the same effect on the audience.
When filming our preliminary task, it enabled me to get used to different camera shots and what uses were needed in order to create the certain camera shots that were needed. When filming for my opening, I was enabled to use the skills that I had developed from the preliminary task and apply them to the use of camera for my product. Mistakes were made throughout the preliminary task that I was able to avoid when creating my product as I had practise. The preliminary task taught me about continuity errors as well as other techniques to use when using a camera. The camera used in my product was not as clear as I would have liked it to have been but the shots used and most things that I would like to be seen are still quite noticeable. The use of diegetic sound in my opening such as the opening shot with the background television sound was used to add the sense of reality as well as 'the norm'.
Non diegetic sound I used was to add emphasis to certain points as well as getting the audience entertained and interested in what was going to happen next. Over all I think there are some positivites with my opening as well as quite a few negatives that I would have liked to change if I had the opportunity; such as different dialogue, different shots and possibly a different strory line that was based in a different setting. If I had taken my time with my opening to get it up to the standard that I imagined and hoped it would be, I would've been happier with my produced product, but I'm still quite happy with the progress I made whilst filming it and everything that it taught me throughout.
