The document summarizes a student film project about a serial killer who stalks ballerinas. The killer carries a music box with a ballerina inside that he uses to torment his latest victim. As the film progresses, the victim becomes increasingly aware she is being stalked and fears for her life. The film is meant to be tense and keep viewers guessing about what will happen next. It also includes a "24 hours earlier" scene to provide context and build-up to the chase scene.
2. Storyline. Our film is based around a serial killer who’s hobby is to stalk ballerina’s. The character (played by Billy Jarvis) is a twisted rapist who comes across his latest victim who has just left her dance school and is on her way home. He keeps a music box with a tiny ballerina inside it, almost like a voodoo. Every time he slams the box, the ballerina falls to the ground, every time the music box is near her, she instantly knows he is around. As the film progresses, the two characters become extremely aware of each other, and the ballerina begins to fear for her life. The film is an action packed, heart jumping movie, making you want to watch more as you do not know whether the ballerina escapes from the rapist. Your mind boggles as to what happens next and so we added a “24 hours earlier” scene to the end of our film, allowing the viewers to see the previous 24 hours and the build up to the chase.
3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challerngefomsand conventions of real media products? Use – In order for our film to produce conventions of real media products, we added scary, thriller type fonts to our production names. I also edited the American ‘green screen’ to our film to make our film seem more like a film opening. E.g Develop – We developed Claude Levi Strauss’ theory of ‘Binary Opposition’ in our film between our two characters. We did this to engage the viewer and involve them more in our film and to understand the thoughts and feelings of each character. Challenge – In the opening of our film we purposely secluded any blood or typical jumpy scenes. We subtly introduced each of the characters and the build up to the final ‘tense’ scene. Ths thrill is used to make the audience create their own image of what happens next.
4. How does your media product represent particular social groups? Ballerina (victim) - Dressed in ballet clothes, to represent the killer’s obsession with ballerina’s, also to mimic the ballerina inside the box. She wears a big black coat on top – possibly to suggest her vulnerability, hiding inside her coat and hood. Killer – Played by a scary, Hench looking man, as most girls fall victim of men and are scared of being raped by any sort of older looking man. He wears dark clothes to represent his eeriness . Men are usually stereotyped and in O’Sullivan’s theory, they are superior and dominant to woman, making woman feel vulnerable; like the ballerina is to the killer.
5. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? After some research on film distributors, I feel that ‘Original Film’ and ‘Newmarket Films’ would be the right companies to go for. They produced thrillers such as ‘Stealth’ and ‘Prom Night’.. Prom Night being a story line like ours, with a girl being stalked and raped/killed. The films are also rated a 12, like ours a 12a, just like other films produced by this company; such as ‘Death of a President’ After the screenings in the cinema’s, our film will be distributed onto DVD and Bluray making it available for all audiences to watch at home Due to this, the film will be rated as a 15 with a possible alternate ending for the older viewers. The film will be available to buy online on Play.com and Amazon, along with HMV and other leading high street stores.
6. Who would be the audience for your media product? Since our film is more psychological harm than actual physical violence, we have been able to rate our film 12A following the guidelines of the BBFC. We rated our film 12A as we wanted to extend the range of viewers watching it, to inform and entertain different audiences. Our film was too disturbing and the plot line was too confusing for a PG rating so we feel a 12A certificate will enable us more viewers and hopefully make our film more popular,
7. How did you attract/address your audience? By using the title ‘The Music Box’ it implies that the film could either be a horror, chick flick or even romcom. The audience is baffled as to what the film could possibly be about and if it was a horror/ thriller what could the music box have to do with it? We made a typical horror/thriller cat and mouse run, with the victim fearing for their life running away from the killer We included Jump cuts and close ups in our film to create the tension, and also used low key lightening and filmed in dark alleys around Town to ensure the audience can relate to the film and show that murders can happen anywhere around you.
8. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Construction – During our construction of our film, we have learnt how to use a camera and how to create different camera shots to fit our scene. We have also learnt the different effects a tripod has on the construction of a scene making it look more professional as you can do a pan shot following really smoothly and steady. We also learnt a significant way to make the audience feel more involved in the film; by using a handheld camera, in our case, we used a handheld camera during the chase when the ballerina and the killer were unconsciously running towards each other. This definitely gives an unsteady yet nervous approach to our film making everything seem unsteady and eerie. Editing – We have learnt a lot using iMovie and Garageband. We have learnt how to make a film, by changing the tone, contrast and length of a clip to fit to what we want. We have also learnt how to make music, adding and deleting bars in the music we no longer need or want. Overall, we can effectively make our own music and create a semi professional film by adding and deleting scenes and transactions making sure they all fit continuously.
9. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? The Preliminary Task was useful as it was our first time filming and so we had to stick to the basic 180 degree rule. This was crucial as you are only allowed to film on one side of the characters body(180 degrees) in order to keep the audience out of confusion. With this we also realised the continuity of the characters position and mise – en – scene was vital as without the same clothing, facial expression and position, the film will no longer be continuous and run smoothly without any changes. I also realised that the location and lighting were also significant to making a good film as without them, the continuity was poor and the different scenes didnt fit together, For example, when Sophie sat down at the table she sat on the left, yet in the next lesson, she went to sit on the right hand side of the table. This of course wouldn’t work as it was not the same as the lesson before. I will take all this information and use it next year for my music video hopefully create something even more successful than this year!
