Evaluation Questions

Question 1:

Question 2:

Question 3:

Question 4+5:

Question 6:

Question 7:

Opening scene feedback and improvements

What went well

Our stab match on action scene was especially commented on, complimented by a lot of the audience. Many people said it looked very realistic and looked very professional. They also said they liked the look of the blood on the knife from the stab wound, which they also liked, and the blood in the water. A lot of people also liked our use of sound, particularly the distorted music and ringtone. They also liked the sound editing when the headphones fell out and the music cut out but was still playing very quietly. Overall, I think our sound was especially effective. People also positively commented on the location, saying it was suitable for the genre and concept and worked well.

Improvements

A common improvement we were given was overuse of the waterfall shot. The feedback suggested we remove a couple so give the same effect but not as overwhelming, so Josh did this. We were also told our title screen was too short for the audience to read, so Josh made this longer to make it easier to read. Another criticism made was on the lighting, saying that it was too bright and needed to be dimmer to give the effect that the scene is set in the early evening, and also they said the blood on the jumper was too pink. Both of these were fixed by Eve adjusting the exposure and saturation of the clips. There were some comments saying that the Blumhouse production company was unsuitable for our genre, and also that the logo that we did use was out of date. Chloe was given the job to research more into this, by looking at her blogs and also doing extra research. Finally, we were told to remove the wind sound in our opening to create a more professional finish, as well as to add in a sinister typical horror movie sound when the killer is shown to add drama and suspense to the scene for the audience, both of which I did. We were also told to add in a sound when the killer is scraping the knife on the fence to mimic whats happening on screen, again which I did. 

Killer age in slasher horror films

In The Texas chainsaw massacre the killer is middle aged and is called 'leather face'. This is because he wears a leather mask on his face to disguise his identity. This is a common convention of a slasher film for the killer to be of this age.



Another slasher film that has a middle aged killer is 'My bloody Valentine'. As shown below, again this conforms to common conventions of a slasher genre by having a middle age killer.



Throughout of the film the killer wears a gas mask over his face so that you can't see his identity till the end of the film when it is revealed.

Finally, in the film 'Hatchet' the killer is also middle aged as shown in the picture below, therefore conforms to common conventions of a slasher genre.

Comparing the difference between a 15 certificate rating and a 15

15 certificate rating

Discrimination

The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour, although there may be racist, homophobic or other discriminatory themes and language.
 

Drugs

Drug taking may be shown but the work as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse (for example, through instructional detail). The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.

Imitable behaviour

Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Whether the depiction of easily accessible weapons is acceptable will depend on factors such as realism, context and setting.
 

Language

There may be strong language. Very strong language may be permitted, depending on the manner in which it is used, who is using the language, its frequency within the work as a whole and any special contextual justification.

Nudity

There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context. There may be nudity in a sexual context but usually without strong detail.
 

Sex

Sexual activity may be portrayed, but usually without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.

Threat

There may be strong threat and horror. A sustained focus on sadistic or sexual threat is unlikely to be acceptable.

Violence

Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but the depiction of sexual violence must be discreet and justified by context.

18 certificate rating

Exceptions are most likely in the following areas:

• where the material is in breach of the criminal law, or has been created through the commission of a criminal offence
• where material or treatment appears to us to risk harm to individuals or, through their behaviour, to society. For example, the detailed portrayal of violent or dangerous acts, or of illegal drug use, which may cause harm to public health or morals. This may include portrayals of sadistic or sexual violence which make this violence look appealing; reinforce the suggestion that victims enjoy sexual violence; or which invite viewer complicity in sexual violence or other harmful violent activities
• where there are more explicit images of sexual activity in the context of a sex work (see below) or where the primary purpose of the images in question is sexual arousal In the case of video works, which may be more accessible to younger viewers, intervention may be more frequent than for cinema films.

Sex education at 18

Where sex material genuinely seeks to inform and educate in matters such as human sexuality or safer sex and health, explicit images of sexual activity may be permitted.

Sex works at 18

Sex works are works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation. Sex works containing only material which may be simulated are generally passed 18. Sex works containing clear images of real sex, strong fetish material, sexually explicit animated images, or other very strong sexual images will be confined to the R18 category. Material which is unacceptable in a sex work at R18 is also unacceptable in a sex work at 18.
 

AS Media - Opening Scene Feedback and Improvements

The Brief:

- To consider the audience feedback and implement any changes necessary.

After reading the comments regarding improvements needed, there were significant consistencies such as the too repetitive nature of having a shot of a waterfall as a break between the main narrative. With this in mind I decided to remove the beginning waterfall as in the space of three clips there are two waterfall shots, making one unnecessary. Hence, below, I deleted one of them.

After this, we gained feedback on the length of the typography appearing being too short, therefore I had to change this, I started by deleting the original transition between the typography and the first scene as seen below.

After this I attempted to extend the length of the clip further to fill the time necessary, however this did not work.

Therefore, I had to re-import the text into final cut and select the 8 seconds of footage needed. Using CMD + I to import I then highlighted the text and dragged and dropped it into the correct position.

After this I re-applied a different effect that shakes the screen slightly with a blur as the original radial blur was seen as unconventional.

After this I addressed the improvement necessary of adding sound over the title, as seen below i created a fade out and fade in from the highlighted green audio clip of a stream running to the start of the film.

Opening Scene Evaluation and Improvements

After publishing our first draft onto YouTube, we showed it to an audience where they gave us feedback on things that they liked and constructive criticism.

What Went Well

One of the most common 'good/effective' comments that were made was for the match on action for the stab scene. A lot of people said that it looked very realistic and professionally done. As well as this, they like the use of the blood on the knife, stab wound and in the water.

A lot of people also liked the use of sound, especially the distorted music and ringtone and they also liked when the music was cut off when the headphones fell out. I believe that we were very effective with our sound. 

Another positive comment was on the location. This was seen to be suitable for the genre and concept and seemed to work well. 

Improvements

One of the most commented criticisms was that there was too many waterfall shots. To improve this, our audience suggested that we remove one or two of the shots.

Another comment was that the title screen was too short and needed to be much longer in order for audiences to be able to read it. This will be easy to fix.

Another criticism made was that the lighting was too bright and needed to be 'dimmed' and also that the blood on the jumper was too pink. This can easily be fixed by experimenting with the exposure and saturation.

Some members of the audience also commented that the Blumhouse production company was not suitable for our genre and that the logo that we used was out of date. To solve this problem we decided to look at Chloe's production company research blog and also to do some extra research.

The final comments made was to remove a 'wind' sound to make our opening scene seem more professional and also to add in a sinister sound when we see the killer to make it clear to the audience that something will happen and also to make it seem more dramatic. It was also suggested to include a sound effect when the killer is scraping the knife on the fence.


As a group, we split up the constrictive comments to help us improve our final piece. My job was to dim the lighting throughout the opening scene and to also adjust the colour of the blood on the jumper where the fake blood looked pink on camera.    

Improving the Opening Scene

Firs of all, I decided to change the exposure an saturation of all of the shots. I needed to make the lighting darker and seem more mysterious and scary as originally it was quite light and did not look scary enough. 

To do this,  I reduced the saturation down by -32% and also decreased the exposure down by -19%. As you can see from the screen shots down below, the lighting is much dimmer and the colour is much more washed out, giving a sinister and dusk effect. I applies these settings for most of the shots.  

The only shots that I did not apply the exposure to was the stream shot at the end and the blood dripping on the leaves. First of all, I edited the blood on the leaves. To do this, I reduced the global exposure down by -2%. Then I reduced the global saturation down by -32%. However, when I completed exiting this shot, it did not lo right so I then changed the global exposure to -19% and the highlight exposure to -10%. This looked much better.

The other shot that I did not apply the -32% saturation and the -19% exposure to was the end shot of the blood in the stream (the second shot).This was because it was quite dark anyway.  For this shot I reduced the saturation down by -10% and the exposure down by -10% as well.

When I looked back on the shot of the fake blood that looked pink, after I had changed the saturation and exposure to -32% and -19%, it looked more realistic. 

Here is the final draft of our opening scene:

Audience Feedback

What went well:

• One of the things that went well in our audience feedback is that most people really liked the blood in our clips. They thought that it was really realistic and looked really effective.
• People also liked our use of sound manipulation
• They also liked that you could still hear the sound of the music playing through the headphones really quietly, when the phone was dropped onto the floor. 

Improvements:

• Make the title screen longer 
• Another improvement that our group needs to make based on our feedback is that we need to cut out some of the waterfalls at the beginning of our opening scene as they are not needed. However, we are going to keep the ones that build up tension before the victim is stabbed.
• Some of the feedback that we were given is that our professional production company logo, Blumhouse, is used more for psychological horrors rather than slasher horror films. 
• People also said that the Professional production company logo was the out of date version, therefore our group decided that we would change it to Lionsgate's horror version of their professional production company logo.
• Another thing that our group needs to improve is the brightness. In the feedback that we got they think our film opening will look more effective if it was darker and it will also make it creepier.
• Some of the blood colouring in some of our shots is quite bright red therefore we are going to adjust the lighting and saturation to try and make it look more realistic. 
• As the killer walks up the steps following the victim, he scrapes a knife against a chai link fence. In the feedback that we got the audience think that it would sound more effective if we added a scarping sound of a knife to the clip.
• There was also some background noise of wind in our clip, which we need to cut out.

We divided up these improvements within our group so that we all could improve our film opening. I changed the production company logo to the Lionsgate horror professional company logo. I also deleted the wind background sound in one of our shots of the victim in the alley. Below our screenshots of me completing these improvements.