Evaluation

For our second film project we decided to create a title sequence for  horror/thriller film called November 13th, which we based on the month it was shot and the unlucky number 13 which is commonly used in horror films

Our film uses the common forms and conventions of horror/thriller films, because we wanted to keep our film traditionally scary, to do this we used:

• pyschological factors, the fact that we hardly see the stalker or what happens to her, allows the audience to use their imagination to work out what happened, this fear of the unknown is commonly used by filmakers to increase suspense
• remote location adds to her sense of innocence, the woods are huge and make her seem small in comparision, they are also easy to get lost in and in the end to she is trapped and isloted with only the stalker for company
• vulnerable characters, make easy prey for the stalker, and the audience, especially girls can empathize with her

We chose to stick to a conventional horror film because this is our first project and we didn't want to take on too much, which may have compromised the quality of the film, and also horror/thriller films are hugely popular so we thought it would be a good choice when considering the size of the target audience, which should be as large as possible to increase
profit margins.

November 13th has a stereotypical representation of social groups. For example, it is more common for women to be abducted then men, and are often seen as weaker, which is why they are often portrayed as the victims in horror films. This is a slightly sexist attitude so if we were to continue and create the rest of the film we would be sure to add in several female characters that hold positions of power, so we would have a Chief Inspector or detective who was a women. For many women, especially young, teenage girls, older men are seen as more threatening and so I used my dad to play the creepy stalker', although he is not a stalker or murderer for that matter, it was more convincing then if we had a 14 year old playing the stalker, because they wouldn't have the physical strength and presence to be scary.

If we completed the film, the most likely distributors would be smaller, 'indie' companies such as Warp Films, because the film would be short and low budget, so it wouldn't be able to compete with the big horror blockbusters such as the recent Cabin In The Woods(2012). We chose to give our film a rating of 15 which would enable us to make the film scary enough to attract a large audience and to be spread around by word of mouth, the main target audience would have to be teenagers, of both sexes between the ages of 15-20. This also enabled it to become a family film for those with older children aged 15+.We chose to not use the 18 rating because this would cut out 50% of our target audience, which would decrease profit.

We addressed our audience with a simple plot(girl gets kidnapped in woods) and quirky camera angles, which we would need to market correctly in order for our film to become popular.

We would attract our audience by launching a large marketing campaign, to make up for the low budget of the film. To do this we would:

• Create posters to be put up in towns, near schools and colleges
• Create a trailer to be shown on the films website and on the producers and distributors website
• Do interviews with the cast on Youtube to or on small websites such as www.indiefilms.com which aims to help market small films
• Try and get our film to be shown at smaller film festivals such as the London Independant Film Festival and the Raindance Film Festival
• Hopefully this would encourage cinemas to exhibit our film

Whilst doing this project I have learnt that technology plays a major part in the production of films. If we had had the technology we could have created a much slicker final production for example, the use of a track or dolley shot would have enabled us to film the chase much more smoothly. For our priliminary task we were unable to use a tripod to film our clip with, but in this task we did and the improved quality was very noticeable and made our title sequence look much more professional.Another lesson I learned whilst filming our preliminary task was to make sure the actors we needed were available, to make the acting consistent between to two actors, because whilst filming The Interrogation (our first task) we had to find and actor at vedry short notice, and her acting wasn't of the standard we were hoping for, so we auditioned our two actors for November 13th, and I used my dad as back up, which was lucky because we couldn't find anyone else to play the part, luckily he only had a second or two on film, and this didn't effect our end product. 

Also, if I had the skill and experience I would have used a more advanced editing software such as Final Cut Pro so I could enhance the colour of our production and make it much more dark and gloomy which would have added to the sinister plot of the film. If we had the funds or the time I would have shot the whole sequence at dusk with lighting to give a spooky effect like this

This would have made the film more convincing and made it more scary for the audience.