Evaluation 4

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

We took ideas and conventions from real media products when making our product. One example being when India holds the camera to her face while running, an idea which was inspired by The Blair Witch Project. 

Ouija shot

Blair witch project shot

 

We attempted to improve the shot from 'The Blair witch project' and adapt it to suit us and place our own style on it. We achieved this by setting this shot in an area with sufficient light but also a chilling background of trees surrounding the character. 

We used a lot of action in the start of our opening sequence with little dialogue to build a tense atmosphere, as when we watched other films the opening sequence there is usually a small amount of speech between the actors to show the tension between them. In our opening sequence we used this so that the only dialogue there is, is when India starts to panic and starts talking into the camera, portraying her emotions, this also builds the atmosphere. We also put an effect over the darkness to make the screen fuzzy and to bring out the small amount of natural light in the surrounding area. Some horror films also use this technique and we believe it suits our opening sequence very well. 

These are four frames that we have put together from our opening sequence 'Ouija' which is a thriller/horror film that we made. We filmed from various different angles to achieve the best quality and express our ideas without breaking any filming rules. We used lots of close up shots to build tension and to express the feelings of the characters without directly using words. We believe this works well as we are able to create an atmosphere of fear for the viewers simply by showing the expressions of the characters. 

Frame 1

This frame was taken from the end of the opening sequence. This title was created in final cut pro by using some of our footage from the forest. We then used a text tool over it to create the effect of the text being a small section of changing forest. We decided to use this technique as we see it to be unique from all other film titles. We have also kept a dark background to keep an atmosphere of mystery by blocking out all light colours and only allowing the viewer to see what we want them to see.

Frame 2

This frame was taken from the second half of our opening sequence with all of the teens sat around the Ouija board. In this frame we see all of the key characters surrounding the board with a background of darkness behind them. We believe that this builds tension and allows the audience to make a connection with the characters as they are not distracted by anything in the background and must place all of their concentration on the characters. We used a wide shot to include everyone into the frame and show their connection as a group.

Frame 3

This frame was also taken from the second half of our opening sequence when the teens are sat using the Ouija board. We used a mid shot here to get in all of the characters hands around the board but kept the Ouija board in the centre to keep the audiences focus on it. We also used the rule of thirds here to bring the audiences focus to the glass used on the Ouija board. 

Frame 4

This frame was taken from the start of our opening sequence and is taken from when India was talking to the camera about how scared she is. In this frame we used a close up to portray India's fear and to help build a connection between the audience and the character. This close up was used early on to set the atmosphere for the rest of the opening sequence and we believe it successfully makes the audience empathise with the character.

In conclusion we believe that we have taken and used conventional approaches to media but also developed them to create an original piece of work.