Evaluation

Hello once again, here is my evaluation for the G321 practical (The Eleventh Testament).

First and foremost, I would like to evaluate exactly how my production has used, developed, and even challenged the forms and conventions used in real horror films of the 80's. I have used the demonic-of-horror sub-genre, which incorporates demonic inhabitants and uses them to hook the audience in with fear. This was extremely popular in the 1980's and is starting to make a comeback today with documentary horror films such as Paranormal Activity and Grave Encounters. Conventions of this genre usually use a religious figure, an outlook of spirits and demonic possessions. I have used a priest as the religious figure but also for the demon transformation to give it a twist, although this is also fairly common with religious horror films, and as for spirit life, I have a special effects scene of the demonic priest taking the boy's soul. It would have been stereotypical if I used one of my female actresses to play the part of the 'damzel in distress' so in this respect I challenged how women are represented by using male characters for the powerful and vulnerable roles. If you ask anyone what kind of music they would associate with church and horror, they would usually say something involving the organ, and I used this style of music as the non-diegetic soundtrack. I also noticed that most horror and even other genres that were produced in the 1980's were usually rather slow in pace, so I assumed that this was another convention used and I caught on, that's why my production is fairly slow paced. Another convention that has became so cliche in a sense, is the subconscious fear that we have of the dark. From infants ourselves, we are usually afraid of the dark etc. So I played on this fear and used colour correction to make the inside of the church seem darker.

My media product has 3 types of character: The powerful priest, the vulnerable boy and the girls that are apart of the priest's 'army' so to speak. You can also categorise the two female actresses to be a representation of the stereotypical teenager in the way of which they are dressed. I chose for them to wear normal casual clothes as I wanted to show that they were once 'normal' teenagers and the priest took them just like he does with the boy, who is also casually dressed. The priest is also dressed in a make-shift clerical costume, but this was necessary to show that he is indeed the priest, but also the main character at that time of the film, as he is the only one who stands out in terms of costume. The way that the boy and the two girls are dressed also hints towards the fact that they don't normally go to church, because churchgoers usually dress in their 'best' clothes. This could lead to the assumption that teenagers aren't represented as religious followers.

If my media product were to be distributed it, I would assume that somewhere like "Warner Bro's" would distribute it, as they have a good representation for horror of this type (for example, The Exorcism, Final Destination etc.) Warner Bro's is also an American institution, and I think that my film would be far more successful over in America due to the fact that the character casting would contain actors/actresses with primarily a British accent (there would be dialogue later in the film). American's usually like British horror and one of the reasons is because of the British accent. The British work vice versa also, American movies like Paranormal Activity are also very successful over in the UK.

The target audience from the beginning of my production has been people born in the early 70's because they would have grown up around this style of demonic horror, although it would be expectant that the youth would catch on to my product also, because the whole 80's style horror is still successful today, this is why I chose to use a teenage cast, to bring in a larger target audience. I think the majority of the audience would indeed be female, but males usually prefer movies with faster pace, whereas females usually go for something with more of a background story to it. My product is of moderate slow pace because this appeared to be a convention of 80's horror.

I attracted my audience with things from the location (the church) and a good storyline, but also with other details like special effects (although I only essentially used one, I intended on using more and if i were to continue and make this into a full feature film, I would use more). Addressing the audience was more of a challenge at first; I had to think about how I could involve the audience in my film and keep them hooked aswell as keeping them fearful and emotionally intact with the characters. To do this, I included POV shots to let the character empathise with the characters through their eyes.

I have learnt a lot about each stage of film production, from the planning right up to the editing of the film. I have learnt how a cinematographer would transform the storyboard from paper to camera, I have learnt a vast amount on recording equipment and how expensive it is also, but the two favourite parts that I did were directing the OTS and editing the OTS. It gave me creative control over every scene, although i'm not the greatest cameraman in the world, I still had control over how the shots were to be filmed, and then how I would edit them and incorporate special effects. Throughout the journey of creating this OTS I self-taught myself how to use programs like Sony Vegas Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects. Of the programs just mentioned, I would easily say that I prefer working in After Effects, as I am more of a special effects person really and I enjoyed playing around tweaking things, and building the soul removal scene from the ground upwards. While researching other similar styled films, I experimented in After Effects and tried to recreate some of the effects such as the demon warp, magic fighting scenes, and even the soul removal scene. I enjoyed this extensively and have learnt a lot about non-linear editing facilities.

While filming the preliminary task, I had no prior experience to directing or even planning a film, so using the camera and producing the final product was all new to me. If I take a look at the milestone I feel I have progressed, I can now say that I am experience in operating a camera, planning a storyboard, editing the product, producing the product and all of the stages inbetween. I learnt a lot about audience theory, and about camera shots also and how both shot type can actually effect the audience. I guess I knew this slightly before from first hand experience through watching films, but I never knew how it worked and how to even recreate the same style scenes. When I look at the full product, I see how my confidence as a director and an editor have grown substantially. I usually lack confidence and I see it as a huge achievement for me to have been able to plan all of my film, and even work with the acting staff to arrange the scenes. Although I feel I could of done some things better (such as more special effects like the demon warp), I know that due to the resources I had available to me I worked to the best of my ability at the time. I am confident that I could continue to make better OTS's and even short films.

Also, before I forget to mention, the rest of my evaluation is located at the top post in video format. I don't like Prezi so I used After Effects to brighten things up etc. I hope you enjoy. I thought it would be too boring to include this 'essay' in the video so that's why I did it separate. Thanks.