EVALUATION ANALYSIS

EVALUATION– Film Studies 

Horror is a genre which is designed to trigger and challenge the audience’s senses. It heightens the audience’s level of agitation when watching the film. It was especially important for me during the process of my short film to create an intimacy between actor and audience. My initial passion for the gothic genre in particular arose from watching ‘The Fly’which used visual effects to make the audience feel uncomfortable, however personally I would have cut out the dialogue and used sound and editing more as an advantage as well as th

e visual effects, this is something I incorporated in my own short film.

GENRE 

I think genre I am demonstrating in my film, is identifiable through the micro elements. Sound and editing are two big areas, which can clearly identify a particular genre. In my film, I created a glitching effect as well as strobe effect, which I overlapped on the footage in particular areas. This enhances the tension in the film, and makes it more aesthetically pleasing for the audience. In ‘The Fly’there is no visual editing techniques similar to mine, Jack Doolan uses editing techniques like match cut and cutaway in his short film. From watching past professional films, I already had a clear idea in my head of my final outcome. The editing techniques you use in a film, depends on the genre. You wouldn’t use glitching and intense strobe lighting, in a romantic comedy, therefore it depends on the type of film and its content. 

Using sound in a film, depends on what genre you are producing. I used sounds like dark ambient sounds and creepy lullaby lyrics, which normally would only be used in thrillers or horrors films. This challenges the film ‘Tight Jeans’which includes no additional sound like I did, it only includes dialogue which I didn’t include in my film. This picks apart the genres, showing what suits what film. 

 

Using props for instance, teddy bears and dolls makes it seem like it links to a childhood, however when we show other props like the gun, it automatically makes it seem more terrifying for the audience, showing signs of death. This develops the film ‘The Fly’which uses props like the masks and guns towards the end, illustrating a violent and aggressive genre. 

Another micro element like makeup, is very noticeable for the audience towards the end. I created a sewed mouth makeup look which the audience reacts to as the evil in the film. This makeup look links to the horror genre showing something that is not normal in other genres. The makeup distinguishes the difference between the two characters, developing separate personalities to show the audience. Linking to ‘The Fly’this film uses makeup to show visual effects for the audience, these effects make it uncomfortable for the audience to watch. 

NARRATIVE

My short horror film challenges and develops its conventions, as it starts in middle of a dream. It demonstrates a linear-narrative, showing the audience the dreams, this character is having. This challenges the film ‘Over’which is shown in reverse chronological order, this type of film is a real-life crime, demonstrating the death of man. 

My film demonstrates two different worlds, the real world and the world within her dreams, which creates fear for the character and audience. Lullaby also demonstrates binary opposites, for example good vs evil. These particular opposites produce a plot for my film and structure our understanding of the story. I have created these opposites using micro elements for instance costume/makeup, which pick apart the two characters, showing the audience the difference between evil and good. Including the good vs evil is what makes my film a horror film, as without the evil there wouldn’t be a horror storyline. This develops the film ‘The Ellington Kid’this short professional film demonstrates binary opposites similar to mine for example, good vs evil, black vs white and strong vs weak. This social realism film demonstrates a strong plot that could happen to anyone, as my film, is unlikely to be real. 

 The idea and structure of my film demonstrates a high level of thought and planning into the making of the film. The idea Is similar to other horror’s for example the Blair witch Project. The short professional films we watched influenced my structure and idea, especially ‘Over’which was a short film about a real-life event. The no dialogue made me think that not every film necessarily needs dialogue to make it better. The short film ‘The Ellington Kid’helped with the structure of my film. Once watching this film, the flashbacks made me think of dreams. How they kept going back and forth from the flashbacks to him telling the stories, is where I thought of an idea about the structure and narrative of my short film. 

The ‘Ellington kid’is based in one setting but in two time periods. My short film illustrates two settings, one in a dream and one in real life. These two films are very similar when it comes to time periods and the structure of the narrative. The kebab shop and the forest are public settings, illustrating intense and dramatic atmospheres. 

My film slightly links to the Vladimir prop structure, where a specific character links to one of the eight characters he insists every film includes. My plot also follows the three-act structure, from exposition (setup) to falling action (resolution). 

REPRESENTATION

The young female as my main role in my film, shows representations of gender and equality. A young female is known for being vulnerable and innocent. In horror film, having a female lead, makes sense, as females are known to be more petrified and endangered than men. Men are mainly used for the confident and manly films like superhero’s, which demonstrates men as strong and brave. A female character also makes the audience react better to what is happening, as an audience we feel sorrier for a young innocent female character being chased by someone, rather than a young male character being chased by someone, as females are more likely to get caught in the film world. This develops the existing short films like, ‘The Arrival’which maintains a female role, demonstrating innocence and vulnerability. The audience especially the female viewers/audience would agree with the message ‘The Arrival’is demonstrating about pregnancy and female equality. 

Other representations like age also demonstrate more innocence. Younger and elderly people in films, seem to be the ones who the audience feels sorry for, these are the age groups which should be used as a good character, to get the audiences reaction and make them feel something towards them. However, the film ‘ECHO’challenges my thoughts on this, due to the young 17-year-old female who should normally be a character who the audience feels sorry for, this film represents this character in a different way, making us have mixed feelings and thoughts on her. Class also creates a different reaction. People who are lower class, often get more sympathy than people who are rich and upper class. In my horror film, the way the character has dressed, makes her seem more vulnerable to the audience. ‘ECHO’demonstrates a Negotiated reading, making the audiences reaction partly agree and respond to the what media producers expected from the audience. We as an audience have two different views/feelings on the main character, one be sympathy and sorrow and the other being be disappointment. 

AUDIENCE

The Target audience for film, would be a 15+ as it demonstrates mental health issues and suicide, which is not suitable for under 15’s. it shows some very graphic clips which could be disturbing for the audience. The main character is a young female, which illustrates the gender and age for this type of horror film. It’s aimed at a younger female audience; however, this doesn’t mean other genders and age group can’t watch it. As a producer I wanted to create a film which would be engaging and not to be cliché all the time. Most horrors can be all the same and contain jump scares. However, these jump scares can be predictable most the time, which is what I hate when it comes to watching a horror. Jump scares demonstrates a preferred reading, when we respond to the scares in the way they want us too. 

This film is made for purely entertainment for the viewer’s; however, I personally think it was made for creativeness and art, due to the aesthetic effects of the film. 

The difference between the spectator and the audience is that the audience is when you’re watching and hearing either a film, concert etc... where as a spectator is when you’re at a show or game event, observing something. Audience comes from Latin meaning, ‘hear’ where as spectator comes from Latin meaning ‘observe/gaze at’.