Evaluation Activity One - Screenshots Of Final Piece

Title of our film - For our title, we decided to use a medium camera shot as we wanted to include our antagonist and location in the title to hint to the audience more about the plot. We also liked the unique idea of flashing our it with an 'inverted' effect quickly and suddenly to make the audience feel alert; building up their adrenaline for the final shot. The text was placed on the right hand side of the screen as we felt this is the area where it contrasted best against the white as the clip flashed, we also decided to put it here because it is metaphorically representing the distorted events that happen in the film. We found this shot effective as the title looks like the trees in the background so the theme is consistent.

Costumes and Props - We wanted our antagonists costumes to be simple and easy looking to achieve, this makes the audience feel on edge because it shows that anyone could be the one causing the haunting events. The masks and hoodies hide the identity of the characters creating more enigmas which leads to the audience wanting to see the entire movie to answer their questions. Our main antagonist has been put into a different mask to the other two characters, the darker coloured hoodie and mask, is meant to show that this particular antagonist is more evil and mind controlling to the other two, as the colour black connotes a more sinister character whereas the grey hoodie and white mask represents the opposite; as though the other two antagonists were possessed to act this way in the film by the main person. This shows there is still some innocence in these two antagonists even though they're committing crimes, leaving the audience to wonder. You can also see from this medium shot, the main antagonist is being followed by the other two, showing his/her dominance. 
The protagonists were put into casual outdoor clothing, this is to show their relation to the audience as they will most likely be working/middle class. The blonde hair and pink scarf will show the innocence of the characters, allowing the audience to know that they are the protagonists and will be victim to the events of the film.

Setting/location - We decided to locate our film in a woods because of the repetitive surroundings wherever you go, leaving the idea of you feeling lost and trapped. This would leave an effect on the audience as they would all be experienced with what a forest is even if they've never been inside one; horror movies such as The Blair Which Project would give them the idea that woods are more of a negative setting choice when it comes to horror films. The way in which the trees covered the sunlight made the clips atmospheric and haunting, so we tried to film later in the day to ensure the sun was lower behind the trees. The idea of the forest was also meant to be use of mundane realism as many people that live in the suburban area or country side will most likely live near a forest, leaving more of an effect on them as they can relate and see the forest they live near as the one in the film. 

How Characters are Introduced - We decided to introduce our characters with the stereotypical idea that all teenagers have an attitude and are selfish. The clip we included of the car playing the loud music shows that the people inside must be young, as the music is created for the teen audience. The conventions of teenagers in horror films shows them as annoying kids that don't have any morals, which means the most annoying one usually dies first, leaving less sympathy for him as he isn't as likable compared to the characters that will make it through the movie. 
We introduced our antagonists by dragging an ax along the floor, causing a grating sound, this will create enigmas for the audience as they still wont be completely sure what genre this movie is as this is the first piece of evidence to them that it is a horror. It also creates an enigma on who this person will be, are they part of the friendship group? Do they know the girls?

Genre of Film - By this part of the trailer (final shot) the audience will most likely understand that the genre of this film is horror, in case they haven't we decided to add this final shot as a conclusion of suspense in which we built up through out the trailer. The close up shot of the young girl hides her surroundings creating an enigma, which already makes the audience scared to see whats going to happen as the suspense and unknown is a convention of horror and usually happens just before the jump. The sounds we used are also responsible for this buildup, as we echoed the sound of the lighter flickering in the first couple of seconds, then as the girl gets grabbed by her mouth a loud bang echoes through the end of the shot, leaving a lasting effect on our audience. All of these effects and techniques get the audience to know the genre of the film. 

Camera work and Editing - We decided to do a variety of different shots at different camera angle and views during our fast paste editing, this was to quickly give snippets of our film without giving too much away; we still made sure that the roles of the antagonists and protagonists was clear. In this screen grab, we used an over the shoulder shot to show the antagonist running towards the person in the girl while holding an ax, the aim of this was to put the audience in this persons point of view and to feel the same fear and adrenaline in which this character would feel. Each fast paste shot fades in and then out to the next one lasting only a couple of seconds each, this is to create enigmas on what happens in each shot to the characters, such as this car shot. As the audience, we don't know what happens when the antagonist gets to the car as we used a faded transition just before we would know, leaving the audience wondering and wanting to see the film to answer these questions.

For this shot, we used a low angle to show the power that the antagonists have in this movie, by using a low angled shot it shows the dominance they have over the antagonists making them stronger characters. We slightly increased the exposure on this shot to show a contrast between the darkness of the trees and then pale sky in the background. This bold background means we all of our attention goes on the movements of the foreground, as we wanted to show the how sinister the location of the film is. The diegetic sound was taken out of this clip so the audience could only hear the non diegetic sound of the heartbeat and dreary music in the background. These sound effect will build up tension more than the diegetic sound of the ax hitting what it will be hitting.