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

For the first question in my evaluation I have chosen ten different screen shots from my film and decided to analyse them. This will allow me to link my film opening to my chosen genre of horror.

Title of my film

My film is set in a hotel in Seefeld which is a small town in Austria. The title of ‘Insoluble’ allows the audience to gather that the film will feature something that is almost impossible to solve. This lets the audience know that because it is a horror genre, there is unlikely to be an explanation for the attacks that keep occurring around the hotel. My film opening therefore provides the audience with an insight of what is to come in the rest of the film which intern helps the audience to identify what it is that they are about to watch.

Camera work and editing

My two minute opening to a film features various editing techniques as well as camerawork. My third scene is a traditional conversation where I was able to apply the 180 degree rule alongside a shot reverse shot technique. In terms of editing, I used a number of fade in and

fade outs during scenes such as my between my first scene of where the member of staff is clearing the snow and the close up of the fire inside the hotel reception. This made my film opening a lot more fluent and smoother to watch. At the end of my two minute opening I decided not to use transitions as the camera cut from the new arrivals on the coach to the character that has just been attacked unconscious on the floor. I feel that the decision not to use transitions made the ending have increased suspense levels as the cuts between scenes happened quickly.

Title font and style

Choosing the title for my film opening was a fairly easy task to do. I made the text bold and blue to refer back to the cold and snowy location that my film opening is set in. The colour blue also adds a cold tone to my film opening and brings about a sense that something heartless or mysterious will happen during the film opening. I decided to use the effect of the icicles on the bold text to again enhance this further. I then finished with an image of a red enclosed flower, covered in spikey ice crystals, to represent the characters within my cold location and storyline. The colour red therefore implies that they could be in danger as the storyline progresses.

Storyline – How the opening to my film sets this up

My story begins with a member of staff at the hotel clearing the snow away from the entrance. This first shot establishes to the audience the location that the film is going to be set in. My third scene introduces two characters having a conversation about their day out in the snow. Introducing the characters allows the audience to establish who the film is going to be about. This in turn provides them with the information of the type of film that they are watching. Around half way through my film opening one character gets up and announces that she is going up to get ready for the evening meal. At this point there is a sudden change of pace to keep the audience interested and engaged from the start. This change of pace is provided by the intense music that fades in. In the horror films that I researched, something usually happens fairly quickly to allow a sense of mystery to accompany it. From my research I was able to incorporate this idea of something happening very quickly into my own film opening in order to engage the audience and leave them wanting to know what or who attacked the character in her room.

How my film opening fits its genre

Within my film opening I have tried to demonstrate the horror genre that I researched during my pre-production task. I found demonstrating this harder than expected as it is difficult not to give two much away in the opening of a horror film. The most obvious point that identifies the horror genre is the attack that happens in the bedroom which comes with no explanation into who or what did it. The quick cuts from the attack to the new arrivals is intended to create fear amongst the audience and unsettle them with the thought of what might happen to the young boys that are excitedly jumping off of the coach ready to begin their Christmas holiday. I intended for the audience to imagine their worst nightmare occurring when staying in a haunted hotel creating fear and panic.

How the characters are introduced

The characters in my film are introduced at the same time in the shot reverse shot scene. The names of the characters are not mentioned in their dialogue as these are established later on in the film. The characters are shown to be of a normal intelligence within a relaxed environment on a Christmas holiday. As just two females of different ages are interacting, it could be assumed that they could be Mother and Daughter. Therefore more family members are still to be introduced later on in the film as they are all on a Christmas family holiday together. This lets the audience know that a family could play a huge part in this film.

Special effects

I did not use many special effects in my film opening for the simple reason of not needing them. However, I did use special effects when making my titles. On reflection I feel a font more suited to the horror genre could have been used to write who was starring in my film. However I was pleased with how I managed to get this writing to fade in and out at the beginning of my film opening. The music and sound I used was very important as it helped me to set a tone to my film and even the horror genre at some points. I imported the sound of a fire crackling in my last scene to really block our any background noise that was on the original clip. This allowed a real focus to be put on the fire crackling away. The hardest effect

to get right was the voice over that I was required to place over my first clip of dialogue. This was because it was very challenging to match up the recording with the voice on the actual clip. However I feel using this voice over did improve the clarity of the clip.

Setting and location

I chose to set my film in an Austrian hotel because I felt that it would provide a real and visual location for my film opening. From my horror research in my pre- production I found out that a lot of horror films are set in real hotel locations. This medium shot shows that the film opening is set in an actual hotel which creates a sense of realism amongst the audience. Using a snowy location also adds to the Christmas feel of the film as it provides a sense of a perfect traditional Christmas that could not possibly go wrong.

Costumes and props

As my film opening is set in a hotel, before an formal evening meal, I wanted my characters to be dressed comfortably and casually to reflect this. I also wanted the character that played the hotel staff to be dressed appropriately too. This shot shows a waiter in formal attire and a female member of staff dressed in a traditional Austrian dress. The background

props include the comfy seating and fire utensils to really set the scene of a relaxed hotel environment.