Paranoia

Production and Evaluation

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

a.     In what ways does your opening film sequence of a new fiction film use Horror forms/genres/conventions?

The opening of my film sequence utilizes the forms and conventions of established horror genres in several ways.

One example of the ways it uses sound, for instance, has been established from as early as Halloween (1978), but especially influenced by the newer horror film Insidious in the way that, when the title of the film appears during the opening titles, it cuts to it being there rather than a slow fade, and a harrowing scream can be heard, which sets the scene for later scenes of the film.

Other than this though, I have utilized even more modern media methods to entice the audience, as both the plot and sound effects are heavily influenced by the experimental horror game Korsakovia by The Chinese Room, which utilized sounds specifically engineered to produce a fear response from the audience by using certain bands of pitch, intermittently broken by white noise, as well as a major inclination towards a plotline from the viewpoint of a protagonist viewing the world in an alternate perspective caused by mental illness, in this case being schizophrenia causing a broken reality, where only certain events are remembered, with others forgotten, seeming never to have happened.

The film is set in a small, run down town, and a house that is close to falling apart, with a protagonist who’s own mind is the antagonist, while the camera techniques which include POV and handheld camera shots allow the audience to better see the world from his perspective. The iconography includes white titles with a red aura, which suggests purity hiding evil, or even that evil is slowly enveloping the good of the character, these are in keeping with the conventions common with horrors, as even modern movies such as Insidious uses red text in their titles.

Horror narratives and themes that are in line with the codes and conventions of the horror genre include mental illness (in this case schizophrenia), monsters, hallucinations and a vulnerable protagonist.

b.     In what ways does your opening film sequence of a new fiction film use, develop or challenge form/genre/conventions?

There are several ways and methods with which the film opening both develops and challenges the codes and conventions of the horror genre.

One way in which it challenges the genre is that the protagonist is mentally instable, rather than the antagonist, which I will elaborate on later in this essay; the protagonist is a male Caucasian, which, while deviating from the traditionally weak female, gives more sense to the plot when used in context, due to a higher level of socialised aggression in males, which can easily be exploited by his illness.

The antagonist in horror genres are usually some monstrous creature, murderous sociopath or deceptively innocent child with untold destructive powers, such as Resident Evil (2002), Friday the 13^th (1980), or Carrie (1976), this production instead uses an immaterial antagonist, where the protagonist’s mind is against him as his perception grows gradually more and more abstract and disjointed, his paranoia growing and hallucination more frequent and intense.

Another way in which it challenges usual conventions of the genre is that the camera angles never reveal the protagonist’s face, only ever his arms, which provides further opportunity to relate with the character by not seeing his face, as it allows them to imagine themselves in that position, as most of the angles are POV, and only some are handheld.

The production also develops on the theme of paranoia, in which case the usual tropes and conventions are used, such as indistinct voices, subtle whispers and hallucinations are used, but while most films vilify drugs, this film actually elaborates on the consequences of not taking legally prescribed drugs, such as the intensification of hallucination and distortion of reality.

2.     How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The movie opening portrays some of the lesser-publicized social groups, mainly being that of the mentally disabled or disturbed.

It does this because the main protagonist of the film is part of this group, and suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and audio-visual hallucinations, but he is not inherently evil, as many films portray people with mental illnesses to be. Instead, it challenges the forms and conventions by portraying mental illnesses as something more malicious and subconscious, uncontrollable by the human mind and willpower, so that it corrupts perception so that they don’t hear/see/feel the same as a normal person would.

However, other than this, to provide a sense of aloneness throughout the production, there are no other actors other than the hallucinations, which are, in reality, immaterial and unreal, but according to the viewer, they seem terrifying and strange.

3.     What kind of Film Studio, TV company might distribute your film and why? – What studios would release a typical horror film, a Rom-com, a thriller film? Is your film a big budget venture or a smaller independent film?

Film studios that might choose to distribute the film include Alliance Films, who distributed Insidious, a mid-range budget horror based on ghosts, demons and spiritual projection and well known for it’s sudden movements and lighting, Paramount Pictures, who distributed Paranormal Activities, a film based on malicious ghosts targeting a series of connected characters, encouraging the feel of anxious tension and claustrophobia, and Columbia Pictures, which produced The Grudge, a well-known horror film with emphasis on the fact that almost every witness dies alone.

These studios have a monopoly on horror films, and are constantly looking for new material to revitalise the different genres, and a controversial product such as Paranoid would make for an enormous press release and publicity, which in turn brings in profit and popularity.

4.     Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audiences that the production would likely attract range from 13-24 year olds in general would be attracted to the horror genre, as it is something that is “not for young teens” and “too scary for adults” in many cases, and so they want to set themselves apart from the younger ages, establishing independence as well as experiencing something new and strange, or at least this is what Hollywood seems to suggest. The audience wants to be scared, “creeped out” and exhilarated, which extends into the primal, instinctual part of the brain, which seeks to master threatening situations, because although the audience can logically tell themselves that they do not experience danger, the brain and body reacts as if they are in fact, in danger, and to come away unscathed rewards them with a feeling of accomplishment. This effect is most potent during puberty and shortly after, while some may find themselves conditioned to have a positive reaction after repeated exposure to horror movies.

5.     How did you attract/address your audience?

The certificate of the film is to be a 15, as the film, although being about drugs and the consequences surrounding them, does not contain much strong language, references to sex, sadistic menace or glamourize the misuse of drugs. This will likely attract the audience for a number of reasons:

·       Larger demographic

o   While some parents would let a 15 year old watch a 18 horror film, others are particularly strict and will not likely allow their children to see an 18 rated DVD, and by the time they are 18, the film will most likely be forgotten or replaced by a newer, higher budget, 3DHD alternative, so it is often important to appeal to as large an audience as possible.

·       Less “dangerous” content

o   For this reason, audiences are more likely to be less scared to watch the film, despite it being classed as a horror, it may seem less intimidating.

Another way the film may attract audiences is by the storyline and even the title.

It does this by taking a lesser known illness, and showing just how bad it can be. While being quite controversial, this controversy often leads to publicity and by this, more viewers and more money. The name Paranoia tells the audience already that the film will contain a lot of nervous tension, a massive attraction to horror movie-goers, who are tired of cheap jumps and tired tropes.

Some of the marketing strategies I would use to publicize the movie would be to upload several anonymous trailers under different usernames to YouTube with names from the film, such as “HelpMeImGoingMad”, or “TheyWontStopFollowingMe”, a year or so before the actual film, making sure to post on larger forums such as 4chan or /b/ to increase the amount of “underground” viewers that are aware of the film, a publicity stunt to attract those who enjoy solving conspiracies or following breadcrumb trails, much like the film Super 8, or even the game Portal 2, which gave players a chance to participate in the press release before it went truly public.

Doing this encourages the audience to spread awareness of the film via word of mouth, which increases grassroots support for the film. Around a month before the film is publicly announced, trailers would be released on IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes to another select audience, which would be a much larger, discerning audience with an invested interest in films, and are more likely to talk about new films, further increasing knowledge and popularity. After the film is publicly confirmed, trailers would be released on television, the internet and radio, as well as posters and point-of-sale displays to bombard the public with the film’s image, increasing the attention it gets, and the amount of people who want to see it.

6.     What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During the process of constructing the film opening, I have learned a lot about the different technologies utilized in the creation of a film.

I learned how to use multiple monitors on a Mac computer to perform more than one task a time, mainly being modification and preview of a scene.

Other technologies I have learned how to manipulate is the Sony HD touchscreen camera for filming, and Adobe Premiere Pro for editing the footage, and using several royalty-free music sites to add soundtracks to the production, then using BlogSpot to upload all my work to the internet.

Having done all this, I feel capable to extend onto other, larger projects.

7.     Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Since the preliminary task, I have learned that asking others to be actors or help to produce the final product often results in unreliable support, and that a film may have to be produced without such assistance. To combat this, I have filmed mainly from a first-person perspective and provided a voiceover to assist in the explanation of the plot's beginning, and used props and lighting to create silhouettes for use as characters.

However, I have also re-learned my camera angles and rules, including the 180^o rule and match-on-action, establishing shots and different camera angles, even if I was not able to implement many of these techniques.
As well as this though, I have learned about socio-economic demographics which allowed me to target a specific audience with which I can generate the most profit.

Storyboards

Questionnaire answer analysis

Favourite villains:


Micheal Myers (Halloween) (Horror)


Al Capone (The Untouchables) (Action)


Jeremy Irons (Die Hard 3) (Action)


Zerg (Toy Story) (Family)


The Kurgen (Highlander) (Action)


Red Mist (Kickass) (Action)


The Joker (Batman – Dark Knight) (Action)


Jigsaw (Saw) (Horror)


From the looks of things here, many of these characters seem to be selfish, psychopathic, and have few redeeming qualities. However, it can also be noted that this seems to be the stereotype for action characters, and if we look at the horror characters, they seem to be "born evil" and don't seem to stray from this; although, having said this, in comparison to the horror genre, the only Family Film antagonist aids the protagonists at the end of the film.


Favourite Heros:


Woody (Toy Story) (Family)
Spiderman (Family)
Superman (Family)
John Mclane (Die Hard) (Action)
Oh (Year One) (Comedy)
Jason Bourne (Bourne Trilogy) (Action)
Robert Neville (I am Legend) (Horror/Thriller)
Graham (Red Dragon Rising) (Horror/Thriller)


It seems here that the favoured protagonists here seem to be family film characters, closely followed by action and Horror/Thriller heroes. In family and films, the hero is seemingly invariably "good", and always survives the film with a soaring rise in popularity and/or power. Having said this, it is worth comparing those characters to that of Robert Neville and Graham, who are vulnerable throughout the film and have questionable ethics and a deep history.

Favourite Genre:
Horror – “Gets heart pumping, stays in mind longer” “I like suspense and gore!” “I like films that make me scared”
Rom-Com
Thriller
Action/Adventure – “They are entertaining”
Comedy – “It’s funny” “It makes me laugh” “I like to laugh”

Horror title colours: Red, black, grey, white


Rom-com title colours: Pink, white, red


Comedy title colours: Purple, orange, green, colours not associated with gender


Action title colours: Red, orange


Thriller title colours: Black, silver, gold, white






Whether people prefer linear plotlines:
7:2 people preferred a linear plotline in their films, and this means that disturbing this would disorientate the audience and cause them to feel unnerved.

Favoured underlying themes:

All the participants of the questionnaire prefer an antagonist with a detailed past, so it is best that the character made should be a complex, 3d character, rather than a character put in place for the express purpose of making a movie. 

This indicates that despite the difference in releases, Horror made, on average, less than Romance, this could be argued that the Romance are often predominantly family films, meaning they have a larger audience, whereas Horror films are generally 18+, and therefor have a far smaller audience.


Combined with this, the top performing title for Romance is the Twilight Saga, which is built upon the foundation set by a series of books and therefor had a pre-existing fan-base to cause additional profits to offset the cost of expensive special effects given from the massive budget ($68m). On the other hand, Paranormal Activity had an extremely low budget for special effects, and had no pre-existing fan-base, which meant that the fact that it succeeded to become the top performing title of its genre implies that it made massive profits despite the low budget ($3m), which is what we will have to work with.


Paranormal Activity 2 grossed $177,512,032 so the film made $174m profit from a very small audience and almost no special effects.


Eclipse grossed $698,491,347 so the film made $630m profit from a far larger audience, being a family romance suitable for all audiences with powerful CGI.










In conclusion, I have decided to film a psychological horror with relatively little violence and a main concentration on camera angles and sound to create tension. This is due to the relatively large profit made from the smaller audience while using a low budget.


This would likely obtain a 15+ certificate from the BBFC for several reasons:
The film contains a several scenes about taking drugs, but the context is medical and does not encourage misuse or glamourise the use of easy-to-get drugs.
There is a strong theme of menace and/or threat throughout the film, but it is not sadistic or sexualised.
Dangerous behaviour is either so low that it does not create a lasting impression on the viewer, or does not exist at all.
There is no "Frequent use of strong language", there is little enough dialogue at all.
There is no nudity, sexualised or otherwise.
There are no references to sex.
Scenes which include violence do not dwell on the infliction or pain of the subject and there is little gore, as well as this, none of the violence is sexualised or is in a sexual context.


This would be beneficial for profit, as it advertises that the film is not something for children to watch, so adolescents which are likely to be emerging from childhood into adulthood will be pushed to watch more "grown-up" films, such as Paranoia, as well as established 18+ year old audiences. 
The fact that the film would receive a 15 certificate would mean that the image below:

would have to be printed on each and every copy of the DVD, Blu-ray, Video Cassette, and poster for the film in order to make the rating available to the audience to induce the correct response.
Until the certificate is confirmed however, they would have to be printed with 

Which means "To Be Classified", meaning that the film has yet to be formally recognised as a film to be released with any particular certificate.

Questionnaire

Character Profiles

Character Name: Mary

Age: Late teens
Gender: Female
Occupation/Part Played: Antagonist, hallucination, stalker
Appearance: Pale, long dark hair conceals her face for most part, bare foot, white clothes.

Characteristics: Hallucination, moves slowly when seen, disappears and reappears closer when unseen.


Character Name: Michael Jones
Age: Late teens
Gender: Male
Occupation/Part Played: Protagonist, POV, Student
Appearance: Jacket, t-shirt, jeans, trainers.

Characteristics: Twitchy, scared, hallucinating schizophrenic.

Mindmap for film

Task 3 - Research into the Genre

Christian Metz created a model for Genre Development which he used to catagorize horror genres.
He believed there were 4 Phases which films fit into.
These phases were:

• The Experimental Phase
• Where the earliest films experimented and explored with horror in their film narratives.
• These were often created by method of German Expressionism.

Films that fit into the Experimental Phase include Nosferatu (1922) and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1919)

• The Classic Phase
• Where the genre is truly established, cementing the narrative conventions of the horror genre in it's most successful, and possibly its most defining period.

Films that fit into the Classic Phase include Frankenstein (1931) and Dracula (1931)

• The Parody Phase
• This is the phase where the genre has been mimicked in such a way as to make it comical to the audience.

• The Deconstruction Phase
• These are films that have taken the generic elements of horror, blending it into an amalgamation of sub-genres

However, it could be argued that during the 1970's-1980's, there was a rebirth of re-imagined films, a new age of classic films such as Psycho, Halloween and Friday the 13th were created, these do not fit into the model, and it can be argued that the model needs expansion to allow for these new-age films.


During the 50's, Hammer Films churned out a number of Horror "Classics", featuring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee together in a number of films with numerous sequels, these often featured graphic violence such as staking vampires, setting Frankenstein on fire, and shooting the Mummy to pieces.

Mood Boards

Rom-Com

Horror

Thriller

Task 2 - Research into existing products: Comparing and Contrasting Romantic Comedies

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
Right from the start, during the Paramount studio logo, there is an upbeat pop song from a recognized artist, this acts as a soundbridge from the logo, to the opening titles, and from the opening titles to the film.
The opening credits are comprised wholly of magazine articles and article titles for the woman's magazines written by the female protagonist, this is easily told by how there is a picture of her in each article, a brief scene where she is talking her way out of a parking ticket, and then a freeze frame of that, dropped onto another article, making it seem like the article is being put together by editing software. During the film, the titles continue to progress, appearing on the screen even though the story has begun.
The female protagonist is introduced early on as a writer for a magazine, but she wants to produce more political stories, as is evidenced by the article on her computer, which a colleague says won't make it into the magazine, demonstrating both a glass ceiling and an aspiration, though she is already in a highly glamourised job, writing articles for a woman's magazine, and getting tickets to the NBA finals for free, whereas most people will pay hundreds of dollars to get in.
In contrast to the female protagonist, the male protagonist (the first man to be shown), is seen riding a motorcycle through a traffic jam in a black leather jacket and a black helmet, creating the ensemble of a "cool" rebel. He is spoken down to the women outside of the company building, despite the fact that they hold the same job. The women are all wearing proffessional clothes, this is called "power-dressing", whereas he is more flippant with his clothing, prefering to wear casual clothes.

Just Like Heaven
Again, the film begins with the studio logo with an overlaying piece of music, the song "Lust for Life" by Iggy Pop, which carries over to the film, becoming a sound-bridge. The titles continue on in the film for a long time, considering they are only opening credits.
The scene begins with an aerial shot, above a low cloud cover, floating down and rotating, as it goes through the clouds. This alludes to the title "Just Like Heaven" as it opens up on a rose garden in warm sunset light. The female protagonist is wearing a long dress and is sitting in a plastic chair, the first sign that something isn't right. A hand reaches across and touches her shoulder, saying "Wake up."
The scene cuts jarringly to the female protagonist in scrubs, wearing a stethoscope around her neck. She asks how long she was "out" and is answered with "six minutes", signifying already that she doesn't get enough sleep, which is then further shown by her copious coffee consumption. As a doctor, she is well payed for her work, and is a consumate proffessional, acting calmly and quickly in emergencies and well versed on procedure, she is looked up to by many of the staff, as they often ask her opinion or for her help in their jobs. Her boss confirms this as she obtains a position as "attending physician", when he comments that she spends a lot of time caring for patients. 26 hours of time. He tells her to go home, and before she goes, she has a phone call from her sister. Her sister is a housewife with two children, a typical nuclear family with an a-typical 7 room house, she also plays the part of match-maker for the female protagonist.
On her way to her sister's, the female protagonist is on the phone again, driving at night and in the rain, the audience already knows that she is going to be in an accident, as the scenario is a familiar one.

Task 2 - Research into existing products: Red Dragon

Red Dragon was directed in 2003 by Brett Ratner, featuring Anthony Hopkins as the infamous Hannible Lector. It builds on a series of thrillers featuring the psychopathic cannible as he manipulates and confuses professionals through his dizzying intellect and method of thoughts.
I will be analysing the opening sequence in several parts: The Opera House, the Dinner Table, Special Agent Graham's visit and the Actual Titles.

Opera House
Mise en Scene

The scene begins in the Opera house, with extravagant architecture, and an orchestral symphony playing to a crowd of upper class gentry. This sets the scene as an upper class location where people have highly refined tastes.
As the camera turns to a Flutist, you can see and hear him play wrong notes, his facial expression is annoyed, and when the orchestra finishes it's piece, he lays down his instrument and looks around at the other players resentfully, as if they were playing the wrong notes, not him.
However, as the camera focusses on Hannible Lector, you see him in central juxtaposition, surrounded by extras and wincing at the wrong notes, as if it is physically painful, meaning that either his predatory nature has given him inhuman senses, or he is very knowledgeable about music, and he recognises the man as an amateur. He tilts his head, as a canid does before attacking, this alludes to him being a predator, and the flutist is his prey.

Editing
In terms of editing, before the Opera House scene, there is a black background with red and white text, a single word being red and the rest is white, this alludes to purity being corrupted, the red text relates to blood, violence, and evil. Put together, the text already alludes to purity being corrupted by evil, while the black background already creates the idea that the movie is a thriller or a horror film.

Sound
The first sound the audience hears is quiet, eerie orchestral music, then at the scene cuts to the Orchestra itself, the music volume spikes in a rather shocking conjunction with the sudden light and colour. The only sounds that do not fit in with the music are the off-notes played by the flutist.

Camera Angles

Task 2 - Research into existing products - Halloween

Came out in 1978, directed by John Carpenter, an iconic horror director, makes his own soundtracks.

Halloween is a 1978 American independent horror film, set in a fictional suburban town of Haddonfield on Halloween.

A psychotic murderer who was institutionalized since childhood escapes on a rampage while his doctor chases him.
It was argueably the first of a long line of slashers inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), which founded many of the clichés used in low budget movies for the next three decades. However, very little graphic violence is actually shown.

Mise En Scene

• Pumpkin - deranged, mad, not right
• Night - shadows, hidden
• White wooden house - American suburbia - well furnished
  

Editing

• Seamless
• Opening titles - Fade to and from screen - red, orange, yellow, pause, orange, red, fade.

Camera Angles

• The clip begins in the opening credits, zooming slowly on a Pumkin, then the scene dissolves to black.
• Pan to white house, then the clip uses a POV camera of Michael Myers for most the duration, the age of the character is percieved as a lot older than he is because of the hight of the camera, decieving the audience to think the character is an adult until he walks outside and his father takes the mask off, changing the camera position to a high angle crane shot of Michael Myers holding a knife, zooming out to see his parents looking down at him.

Sound

• The non-diegetic music used in the clip is high-pitched, repeating music loops and low pitched, loud noises.
• The non-diegetic sound includes children singing, dialogue, the sounds of a clock and an owl, and heavy breathing when Mike puts on his mask.
• The sound of children singing is synonymous with innocence, which, when combined with the fact that the audience is aware that it is a horror movie, makes it disturbing.

Preliminary task

Preliminary task

We learned the basic rules of filming, such as how to execute the 180 degree rule, Match On Action, and Shot Reverse Shot .

180 degree rule

As seen here with an image courtesy of (LINK), the 180 degree rule allows for 180 degrees of movement horizontally between two characters in order to allow film coherency. If this rule is broken, it leads to a confusion of character placement where one character who WAS on the left of the screen in comparison to another, changes to the right side with seemingly no reason. One way to get around this is to pan from one side to the other.


Match On Action
Match On Action is a simple technique where one cut is seamless with another, such as a close shot of two hands exchanging an item, leads to a medium/dual shot, one of the hands still moving, holding the item that was exchanged.
This leads to deeper immersion.


Shot Reverse Shot
An SRS is when the camera goes from one character to another, usually during dialogue.
It usually uses the same camera angle for each cut of the same character, which makes it more simple to film and watch.