Evaluation

Below is my evaluation  which I have published on Issuu.

Analysis Of My Magazine Cover

Click on the link below the image to take you to Flickr where you can hover over my magazine cover to view my analysis of it.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/94397512@N03/8682361598/

My Magazine Cover

Final Cut Of Our Trailer: Blank

Here is the final cut of our trailer. I have also added an alternative cut of our trailer on a separate post. This is because we aren't so keen on the soundtrack in this cut but prefer when Blank is on screen as we have taken out the "wobbly" effect.

Alternative Cut Of Trailer: Blank

Here is an alternative final cut of our trailer. This differs from our final cut by having the "wobbly" effect when Blank appears on screen. We prefer the soundtrack from this as it included less of the teddy bear lyrics and overall sounds more creepy and contrapuntel.

Focus Group Video Screening

Here is the video from our final focus group screening. The comments that were made afterwards can be viewed on a separate post.

Feedback From Final Screening

We asked our class what they liked after seeing our final screening of Blank and this is what they said:

Soundtrack was good x6

Jump scare at the end worked well

Jumps throughout were good x2

Camera angles- close-ups and canted angles x2

The wobble effect when blank shows up x3

Wide variety of shots

Heartbeat pulse works well x3

Inter-title font looks good x3

The music changes were great – real horror feel

Sound effects were really well done

Collision cuts were awesome

Really cool villain x2

We then asked what needs to be improved and here was the response:

More horror conventions needed x3

Didn’t like the inter-title text font

Lack of low key lighting x3

Slender in the road – didn’t really make sense

Voices are too quiet x3

Dialogue is too quick

Don’t understand plot of going to the woods – not enough narrative to explain – more inter-titles needed x 2

Would have worked better at night

The blurry effect doesn’t work so well

Original Photos For My Magazine Cover

Here is a slideshow from Photobucket to show my original photos for my magazine cover.

Real Magazine Cover Analysis

Click on the link below the image to take you to Flickr where you can view my analysis of the real magazine cover.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/94397512@N03/8678221900/

Favourite Image Analysis

I have chosen this as my favourite image analysis because it embodies the genre of psychological horror in one single screenshot. It is taken from The Woman In Black (2012) directed by James Watkins. The main male character, Arthur Kipps, presses his hand against the misty window and looks into the foggy marshland conforming to the typical horror conventions of having a creepy location. There is no dialogue and no other diegetic sounds so the audience are left in suspense, wondering what is going to happen. After a few eerie seconds of silence, the face of the woman in black suddenly appears at the window and then disappears just as quickly forcing Arthur to shudder his hand away in shock. As the woman's face appears, there is a momentary burst of non-diegetic sound; a combination of instruments to form a medium pitched screech.

This is the first real scene of us seeing the woman in black up close, even if it is just momentarily, so as an unsuspecting audience, this shocks us causing us to jump as well as the character himself. Her face is only apparent at the window for just over a second, but this quick montage shot is long enough for the target demographic of psychological horror films to gain a clear image of the dreaded woman in back. We see her withered, colourless face with her long, scraggly black hair giving us a chilling sensation as we feel a sense of fear of her. The use of make-up cleverly makes the woman in black look old and haggard and gives the desired effect of being frightening.

The end result is that this clearly establishes her as the unconventional psycho/serial killer, fitting an archetype often found in psychological horror films.

Analysis Of My Poster

Click on the link below the image to take you to Flickr where you can hover over my poster to view my analysis of it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/94397512@N03/8615468871/

My Poster

Final Cut Of Our Trailer: Blank

Here is the final cut of our trailer. I have also added an alternative cut of our trailer on a separate post. This is because we aren't so keen on the soundtrack in this cut but prefer when Blank is on screen as we have taken out the "wobbly" effect.

Alternative Cut Of Trailer: Blank

Here is an alternative final cut of our trailer. This differs from our final cut by having the "wobbly" effect when Blank appears on screen. We prefer the soundtrack from this as it included less of the teddy bear lyrics and overall sounds more creepy and contrapuntel.

Focus Group Video Screening

Here is the video from our focus group screening. The comments that were made afterwards can be viewed on a separate post.

Feedback From Final Screening

We asked our class what they liked after seeing our final screening of Blank and this is what they said:

 

Soundtrack was good x6

Jump scare at the end worked well

Jumps throughout were good x2

Camera angles- close-ups and canted angles x2

The wobble effect when blank shows up x3

Wide variety of shots

Heartbeat pulse works well x3

Inter-title font looks good x3

The music changes were great – real horror feel

Sound effects were really well done

Collision cuts were awesome

Really cool villain x2

 

We then asked what needs to be improved and here was the response:

 

More horror conventions needed x3

Didn’t like the inter-title text font

Lack of low key lighting x3

Slender in the road – didn’t really make sense

Voices are too quiet x3

Dialogue is too quick

Don’t understand plot of going to the woods – not enough narrative to explain – more inter-titles needed x 2

Would have worked better at night

The blurry effect doesn’t work so well

 

Here are the scores we received:

10, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 8, 8, 7, 7, 7, 6

 

The average score was = 8.17

 

DOTD (2004) First Image Analysis

This still image is from the opening credits. It shows a scene of a mosque with lots of people kneeling down and praying. It is filmed on what looks like a video phone as if it is a news report from a Middle Eastern country. The tragedy of 9/11 was still fresh in everybody’s mind because it was filmed in 2004, so historical context plays an important role in the film and especially the opening few minutes. We see short flashes of zombies attacking and we also see the White House being ambushed with what we presume are the zombies. This is suggesting that the virus which causes the zombies to form, originated from the Middle East as this is where the bombers of 9/11 came from.

The soundtrack to accompany the opening is “Man comes around” by Johnny Cash. The tune is seemingly contrapuntal but the lyrics cleverly relate to biblical Armageddon of how the dead are rising to come and punish the sinners. "And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts. And I looked, and behold a pale horse, and his name that sat on him was Death, and hell followed with him." These lyrics are an example of the biblical references to the dead. The soundtrack also links to the original DOTD (1979) as its tagline is “When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.” This connotes that there are too many sinners in hell so they have come back as zombies to walk the earth. It shows that the director, Zack Snyder, respects the original DOTD (1979) and wanted to include some of its core aspects in his version of it.

 

DOTD (2004) Second Image Analysis

 

This screenshot shows Ana attacking the vicious looking female zombie. It clearly shows the amount of body horror included in the film. Since the original Dawn of the Dead (1979) was filmed, audiences have become more desensitised to blood and gore so they expect more of it in a gory horror film nowadays than what would be expected in the 70’s. Also, censorship is more relaxed now. To prove this, a lot of films in the 70’s/80’s that were banned or cut are now out on DVD. For example, Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1973) and Evil Dead (1981).

Compared to the original, there are many more deaths in this 2004 version however they are shorter, sharper shocks as the modern day audience’s attention spans are much shorter. This is done through cleverly edited sound effects and restricted narration. The zombies in this are much more real looking and they are a lot quicker than the original slow moving zombies in the original. They are more realistic and are harder to escape but this is more suited to the action-horror style. There are more zombies than the original and they are constantly attacking, making it a faster paced film. We are completely unsympathetic towards these zombies whereas in the 1979 version, Romero reversed the character stereotypes so that we did feel sympathy for the zombies. This film had a higher budget than the original and we see this impact through the effects, the speed of the editing and the sheer amount of zombies surrounding the mall.

 

 

 

DOTD (2004) Third Image Analysis

 

This image is one of the last shots we see from Dawn Of The Dead (2004). Here we have Ana, the final girl looking back from the boat to the destruction they’ve escaped from. Ana is foreseen to have a tomboy, slightly hardened personality. She is blonde, however has her hair tied back so suggests she is not the stereotypical blonde, hopeless character normally seen in horror films. Ana is a nurse and we clearly see this through her intelligence and caring nature. She is also connoted as a tough character, proven when she recovers well after the gruesome death of her husband at the beginning of the film. She is very focussed on survival and can definitely fend for herself when she confidently uses a gun to shoot Steve. Her intelligence is demonstrated when she is the first to figure out that the bites spread the virus but her kind heart appears when she is compassionate about Frank and the situation. She is an authoritative figure and the voice of reason when she cleverly stands up to Michael, Steve and Kenneth. In comparison to Fran in the original DOTD (1979), Ana is a lot tougher, for example when she is threatened with a gun she exclaims “Get that gun out of my face” whereas Fran would not have had the backbone to defend herself so assuredly.

Since 1979 there has been a big rise in feminism and horror embraces the strength of women by having positive, strong female leading characters, such as Ripley in Alien (1979). The horror genre is very forward-thinking in terms of characterisation, strong women and black heroes would have not have been received so well in the 60’s and 70’s. In 1968 when Night Of The Living Dead was released in drive-in cinemas, the film was often greeted by racial abuse in the southern states of America. This image clearly has patriotic resemblance with the American flag in the foreground, showing that America is very proud of their country and Zack Snyder – the director – also wanted to show the brilliance of the country by placing many not so subtle iconic hints in throughout the film. It also connotes freedom and mainstream action horrors are very pro America. They often reflect the audience they are trying to attract showing the vital importance of historical context. Janet Staiger is a critic who obsessed over this and explains it in her book “Interpreting films” 1992.

 

Real Poster Analysis

Click on the link below the image to take you to Flickr where you can view my analysis of the real poster.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/94397512@N03/8616775326/

Original Photos For My Poster

Here is a slideshow from Photobucket to show my original photos for my poster.