The Scarecrow Evaluation

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

 

Our media product ‘The Scarecrow’ mainly conforms to conventions and themes set by existing products. The end shot of our develops a convention seen in paranormal activity 4. The protagonist is confronted by the antagonist in their own bedroom. The protagonist is confronted by a lesser problem when, in our case the lights turning off, the antagonist then comes into frame when the protagonist’s back is turned. We have paranormal elements in our film like unexplainable movements and noises and lights turning off. But we challenge this convention by adding another element in the scarecrow. This already has connotations of  causing terror. These elements combined build a complex monster figure cementing the horror genre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is particularly affective as the horror occurs in the protagonists bedroom. This is a place associated with solace and security so has a greater affect on the viewer.  This idea of horror in your household, in a supposed safe suburban haven was first developed in Halloween.  

 

We used an existing monster figure in the scarecrow that has been displayed most notably in ‘dark night of the scarecrow’ (1981). There is a similar extreme long shot showing the scarecrow in arid surroundings implying that he’s surrounded by death. He is also far away luring the viewer into a false sense of security that the danger is far away, which later is dispelled with the terror it ensues.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The most we deviated from codes and conventions of classical horror films was having a young girl as the main protagonist. Young girls are portrayed as being vulnerable and naïve. We challenge this my making her more cautious of her surroundings in comparison with her brother when he teases her when she is scared at the film and her dad when he dispels her claims that the scarecrow has moved. The normal female protagonist in a horror film is aged 18-25. This gives empathy to the viewer as they are similar aged. But our film will still entail empathy from the viewer especially if they a younger female relative. 

 

In zombieland (2009) the older female protagonist is able to fend for herself but much like our film in the exorcist (1973) the younger female protagonist is unable to defend herself.

 

Who Would Be The Target Audience For Your Media Product?

The main target audience for our film are 15-25 year old males and females and mothers aged 25-35 That are working class and lower middle class. This is because horror films are most viewed at the cinema by teenagers and young couples. Young mothers would also appreciate the message of the film as they would feel empathy for the protagonist as they would have children of a similar age.

 

I think that the working class viewers would enjoy the film in particular because they have a firm grasp on reality so would appreciate the escapism that our film offers with it’s paranormal mysterious themes in a recognisable household setting.

 

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The main representation in our horror film is of the middle class Caucasian family unit. The film undermines this family as they are all ignorant to their surroundings apart from the young girl.

The Father is portrayed as being hard working as he is in bed in the early evening implying he works irregular shifts. The house is filled with luxury items such as large tv’s and with the lack of a mother figure, he will be the sole earner that provided the luxuries.

 

The older brother is portrayed as being disobedient as he was supposed to put his sister to bed much earlier. He is also shown to be uncaring to others. He shows this when his sister runs to bed because she is scared. Instead of comforting her he teases her.

 

 

What Kind of Film Studio Might Distribute Your Media Product And Why?

The kind of studio that would distribute our product would be a small British film studio such as Hammer studios. This would be a good company to distribute our film as they are a renowned horror studio. Their most famous works are gothic horrors from the mid 1950’s to the 1970’s involving the Dracula and Frankenstein franchises. This is very fitting with our film as the antagonist is also a monster figure.

 

Our budget is quite small so a smaller film company would be more likely to distribute our film. A big company would not distribute our film because it lacks an A-list cast and sophisticated effects such as pyrotechnics. If we did have a big budget so could include these elements then a company that could distribute our film would be Universal. In Hollywood, Universal is considered the classic horror studio and pioneered the genre in the 1930’s, inspired by German expressionism films such as Nosferatu.

 

How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?  

We attracted our audience by using the paranormal horror genre which is currently very popular as shown by the franchise ‘Paranormal Activity’. The most recent film grossed over $50 million. If we had more resources available to use we would of attracted renowned British horror actors such as Christopher Lee. He pioneered British Horror in the 60’s and 70’s working for Hammer Horror most notably in their Dracula deconstructions. This would attract Horror fans to the film as Christopher Lee would only work on films he considered to be good to maintain his immaculate reputation.

 

The titles we used fit the horror genre and the storyline well. They are made on fontspace.com and have the effect of looking like wicker, tying in with the scarecrow convention. The font used on the titles would be used throughout the marketing to imply the nature of the film to the audience. We also left the name of the film to the end of the sequence proceeding a dip to black transition with a sound bridge of the protagonist screaming to maximise it’s effect to the audience.

 

We used classical music in the first section of our film as a representation of the classic horror conventions we conformed to. All the music me used was non diegetic, highlighting the unlikeliness that these events could happen and at the same time making the sequence much more edgy and scary to the audience. The last music we use when the scarecrow comes close to the house isn’t classical and is high pitched and disjointed, foreshadowing the dark nature of future events.

 

For a traditional marketing campaign I would release official trailers to be played before screenings of similar films such as ‘IT’ that has a remake coming out later this year. I would also have billboard posters showing the scarecrow from far away with no details and slowly zoom in releasing new information about the film. Eventually The scarecrows face will be visible with release dates and details of the cast. We would also place scarecrows in city centres across the U.K. and gradually add details of the film with them. This ambiguous poster is inspired by The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
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We would also implement technological marketing by releasing teaser trailers on the internet. We would add a technological element to the scarecrows in city centre by putting a QR code onto the scarecrow. We also took inspiration from clover field’s mock news broadcast campaign and post mock videos of a scarecrow moving by itself online.

 

We would hold a Premiere at the Odeon at Leicester square in London. We would invite celebrities and actors that are similar ages to our target audience. This would make the film more attractive to our target audience, making them more likely to watch it, increasing our box office figures.  

 

  

What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process Of Constructing This Product?

The most important tool we have learnt to use are the Sony HD 1080i video cameras. These are good point and shoot cameras as they require very little set up. Because of this we were able to experiment with tracking shots, different focuses and lighting conditions. The footage is saved onto an SD card. These are good as they are compact and have lots of memory, the SD card we used had a 32 gigabyte capacity. But they are fragile and susceptible to corruption. We transferred the footage onto an Apple Mac that we used to edit our footage. There is a SD card input on these machines so it is easily transferable.

 

The editing software that we used was Adobe Premiere. This programme met the demands of our needs with it’s wide range of effects and transitions. We were able to fade audio channels using exponential fades. We were able to apply transitions to our sequence such as cross dissolves. Dissolves are used to show a passage in time. Adobe Premiere also allowed us to use fast colour corrector. We used this to add a blue filter to our sequence. This gives a cold dark feel to the sequence implying the callas nature of the scarecrow. It also adds a feel dusk to our film adding an eerie effect for the audience. 

 

 

To organise our footage we saved it in a raw footage file before importing it into our project. We also saved our footage onto an external hard drive to ensure it’s safety.

 

We created a blog on blogspot.com composing research into existing products, audience wants and preliminary work for our film.

 

Looking Back At The Preliminary Task, What Do You Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To The Full Product?

One of the key skills that we learnt from the preliminary task was working as a group. Working in small groups we found that the best way to work was not to have allocated roles, but work democratically and share the workload. Although on the titles we were credited with individual roles. We all made communal decisions about what effects to add and how to film each shot. We shared filming responsibilities.

When shooting the preliminary task we were unsure about how to use the Sony HD 1080i video cameras and even how to use a tripod. We learnt to use the spirit level on the tripod to ensure the camera was level. We also learnt how to record and watch footage back to check if we need to redo certain shots.

 

We learnt about the 180 degree rule during the preliminary task. This is where you shoot from the same side to avoid confusion to the viewer as it can appear that subjects have changed position. We avoided breaking this by planning what shots we would use in advance by using a story board. We also learnt about match on action in the preliminary task. This is where an action started in one shot is completed or mirrored in the next one. Again the solution was to plan using storyboards to prevent mistakes.   

 

 

target audience

As a group we each did one questionare covering the three genres we could make our film about. My questionare was about rom coms. I found That girls prefered rom coms rather than boys and generally people prefered rom coms that had more comedic elements.

When we feedback as a group we found that horror was universally more enjoyed by our audience. In particular we found that they prefered a female protagonist and that they enjoyed psychological horrors and gory horrors.

To make a gory horror look genuine and scary you need a large budget to pay for prostetics and special effects. We did have this budget so we decided to make a psychological horror with a female protagonist.

We also discovered that our audience prefers horrors that are set within a house hold and that have a monster figure. We encorporated these elements into our film with a twist as the house hold is in a rural environment. Continuing with the rural environment we decided to have the monster figure as a scarecrow.

the scarecrow film

characters

The main protagonist is Bethany Weir playing herself. She is an 11 year old Caucasian female. She is the only character that is aware of the scarecrow. This makes her appear wise and alert to the audience. Ultimately her knowledge of the scarecrow is her downfall when he comes into her room. Because she is a young female the audience feel lots of empathy for her. The main antagonist is the scarecrow played by Toby Jobburns. He has an air of mystery as until the end of the sequence you never see his face. This highlights his role as a monster figure. This is elaborated by the mysterious events that he makes occur like unexplainable movements and lights turning off. Bethany’s brother is Jordan Weir playing himself. He heightens the empathy for his sister by teasing her. Her father is Stuart Weir playing himself. He implements the idea of ‘boy cries wolf’ by ignoring her claims about the scarecrow. Again this increases the empathy for Bethany by the viewer.

plot

The basic plot of ‘The Scarecrow’ is that Bethany Weir stays up late with her brother and watches a horror film against her dads wishes. The film scares her so she goes to bed. When she gets to bed she sees a scarecrow, thinks nothing of it and goes to bed. She is later woken by a tap on the window. She looks out and the scarecrow has moved. She goes and tells her dad who dispels her claim saying ‘it’s just a dream’ so she goes back to bed. Later she is woken again by the same ominous tapping and the scarecrow is even closer. She rushes to her dad in a panicked state to tell her dad who again ignores her claims. When she goes back to her room the lights switch off, the scarecrow emerges, the door slams and a scream is heard.

script

(Jordan and Beth sat on the Sofa watching a horror film at night)
Jordan: I’m letting you stay up but dad said I had to put you to bed at 10, but I’m letting you stay up. Ok?
Beth: Ok
Jordan: You’re not going to be scared are you?
Beth: No I won’t be scared
Jordan: Promise?
Beth: Yeah, I won’t be scared
Jordan: Ok (gets darker and get further into film)
Beth: It’s scary (loud squeal from the film, Beth screams)
Beth: This is too scary, I’m going to bed. (Beth goes upstairs to bed)
Jordan: Why? (teasing) He’s gonna get you! (Beth goes to bed, looks out the window, sees the scarecrow but thinks nothing of it. She wakes up and finds the scarecrow has moved and runs to her dad)
Beth: (panicked) The scarecrows moved!
Stuart: What? What you on about, go back to bed. (Beth goes back to bed but is eventually woken by the same knocking, she looks and the scarecrow has moved even closer she rushes to her dad again)

Beth: (panicked) Dad, it’s getting closer!
Stuart: Look Beth it’s three in the morning bab, go back to bed it’s just a dream (Beth goes back to her room, the lights switch off, she turns around, the scarecrow emerges, the door slams and she screens. Dip to black and titles roll)

story boards