The document provides details about a horror film title sequence called "Hypnosis" that was created for a media assignment. It describes the content and meaning behind elements in the title sequence, which introduces mysterious man in the woods holding a knife and shows the destruction of photos representing how each character dies. The document also discusses how the title sequence draws from conventions of the horror genre through its use of mystery, tension, blood, and fire while also trying to challenge conventions through its use of daylight filming.

1. Media evaluation
hypnosissequence lasting around 2
The brief was to created a genre specific title
minutes long. Our film is called “Hypnosis”. In short, it is a horror film about
a group of teenage friends who venture into the woods on a camping trip. A
mysterious killer who can control minds then starts killing off the teenagers
one by one. We chose this name for the film because it means 'a state of
consciousness where a person loses the power of voluntary action.' Which
simply means a person can't control their own actions. We thought this to
be a suitable name for the film as this happens to the characters in the film.
We also thought that the name gave quite a mysterious and spooky feel,
which was ideal for the horror genre. In the actual title sequence, the
audience are introduced to a mysterious looking man wearing dark clothing
walking through the woods holding a knife. In between these clips, footage
is shown of the destruction of five photos of the same group of 5 friends.
Each one is destroyed differently, representing how each of the teenagers
die in the film. At the end of the title sequence it pans from the man cutting
a rope, to the characters walking into the shot signalling the beginning of
the film.

2. In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
We did lots of research into title sequences before we even begun to develop
our idea. We watched loads of existing title sequences to get ideas of what
makes a good and interesting one. We found that the best types of title
sequences weren't showing a narrative, instead the better ones conveyed
different ideas that suggested things about the film and used the footage to
create enigmas in the audiences mind about what happens later on in the
film. We found this in the title sequence for 'Halloween 3'. The use of
editing, footage and colour suggested and symbolised many things that
may be in the film later on. Such as the use of orange linked with
halloween. Also, the image of the pumpkin at the end of the title sequence
is slowly revealed throughout it. This could suggest how the narrative will
work throughout the film. This creates enigmas in the audiences minds,
which is also what we wanted to do. We did this by creating a sense of
mystery as we only saw the body of the man and never his face making us
wonder who he is.

3. Another feature that we noticed is that you don't have to have
long clips in your title sequence to convey the message and
make it look effective. An example of a title sequence that
does this is 'se7en' . Throughout the title sequence we are
shown very short clips that quickly cut to another clip. But from
these short clips, which also have low lighting, we are able to
feel the tone and genre of the film. We wanted to do this in our
title sequence. We used short flashes of the destruction of the
photos and the mysterious man walking through the woods,
when watching it though the placement of these short clips
together allow there to be a link between them and therefore
allowing the audience to piece together what is happening and
what will happen further into the film.

4. We used blood and fire in our title sequence which is often
associated with horrors. For example in the 'Cabin In The
Woods' title sequence there are clips of dripping blood
suggesting the violence yet to come in the film. There is
also a firey looking scene with bodies in a mangled pile,
suggesting the danger and gory death that will occur later
in the film. The use of blood and fire in our title sequence
suggested death too, as the burning of the photo
symbolises a way that one of the chracter will die.

5. We also noticed that typography and animatics were an
important feature of title sequences as the right font can
give the right feel to the title sequence. Also, the right sort
of animatics can really give a tense feel, especially in
horror films (distorted, dripping etc). Again, 'se7en' was a
good example as the typography was very scratchy and
handwritten and it moved very creepily and distorted
giving the feeling of unease.

6. We did want to challenge some of the conventions of
horror too as we wanted to add something a bit
different from other horrors to differenciate it. We
filmed in the daylight on purpose to make the
audience feel tense from the very beginning.
Typically, horror films use dark lighting to give a
sense of mystery not being able to see what is going
to jump out at you. We wanted to create a sense of
unease as you don't particularly see a lot of daylight
in horrors and when you do things don't usually jump
out and scare you. We wanted to change this, so
audiences didn't know when something was going to
jump out.

7. Who would be your target audience
for your product?
We decided the target audience would be primarily males aged 15-25. We imagined
the film would be rated a 15, hence the minimum age being 15. Our secondary
audience would be females aged 15-25 too, we also thought that couples on a date
would be a possible audience as there is an element of romance in the film as well
as the violence. They would fall under the group E, being students as typically they
have more money to spend leisurely. Their interests would include social
networking, theme parks for the adrenaline rush, music, going out with friends,
cinema, horror films and gaming. We done a number of audience research tasks to
aid us in making the right decision when choosing typography, colour and animatics.
We compiled a number of surveys and showed members from our target audience
band different fonts and colours and asked them which ones they preferred . We
then tallied the numbers up and looked at the results. We agreed with results from
the research that we did and we incorporated the results into our title sequence.

8. What kind of media institution
might distribute your product and
why?
When choosing a film studio we researched into what studios had
previously produced similar and successful films. We wanted one
that was also notorious for producing horror films. The two that
stood out the most were Hammer films and Lionsgate film studios.
We thought that hammer looked like a good studio because they
produced lots of horror films such as 'The Woman in Black', which
was quite successful. However, saying this, we thought that
Hammer seemed like a more unknown company and we may not
get the budget we needed. We looked at Lionsgate and we
preferred this studio as it was a more well known company that had
produced really successful films like 'The Hunger Games'. They also
produced successful horror films such as 'The Possesion' and 'The
Last Excorcism'.

9. The possession
Distribution of The Possession. Lionsgate distributed
'The Possession', which made a profit of around $64
million. The film was based around an allegedly
haunted 'dybbuk box' story, meaning that it may have
attracted audience this way as it was based on a real
life thing. To market the film the film was premiered at
the “Film4 FrightFest”. This created buzz about the
film and attracted audiences. Trailers and posters
were used to promote the film too.

10. The Last exorcism
Lionsgate distributed The Last Exorcism. With its
budget totalling only $1.8 million, its $65 million profit
could be said to be a success. With the extreme
success of thr 1973 film 'The Exorcist' this film
almost had a pre-sold audience as Lionsgate knew
that films of this subject in the past have been
successful. With room for a sequel to this film too,
Lionsgate knew that the money would be well
invested.

11. How does your media product
represent certain social groups

12. How does your media product represent
particular social groups?
We were lucky enough to have a choice in what camera we
used to to film our title sequence. Our school,needed,
used film our title sequence. Our school, if if needed,
provided usus with flip camera to to record our footage on.
provided with a a flip camera record our footage on.
However, I also had a Fujifilm camera that we could use
However, I also had a Fujifilm camera that we could use
too. We discussed what camera we wanted to to use and
too. We discussed what camera we wanted use and we
all we all decided that my camera would probably be the
decided that my camera would probably be the best
cameracamera as use as it has aquality image for our titleour
best to use to it has a better better quality image for
sequence, which we wanted. This isThis is because we it
title sequence, which we wanted. because we wanted
to wanted it to look as professional as possible. We did look
look as professional as possible. We did look into using
the flipusing theto record foley sound on, however,on,
into camera flip camera to record foley sound after
filming we realised that we didn't need to we didn't in as we
however, after filming we realised that add any need to
had all any in as we had all of the sound that we wanted.
add of the sound that we wanted.

13. We used some online websites to choose our font and to
choose our music. Dafont.com was very useful as the
tabs at the top of the web page allow you to choose what
type/genre of font we wanted. We went on the 'horror'
theme and searched through to find the one we
eventually chose. We also used audionetwork.lgfl.org.uk
to choose our music. This website is available for schools
to use copyright free music on what they choose. This
website also had themes such as horror/dark/creepy. We
went through lots of the soundtracks until we narrowed it
down to a few.

14. Some problems that we faced was that we didn't get
enough location shots the first time around therefore we
had to go back. We had to use a flip camera this time
though as I'd forgotten my own camera. In the future I
think we would plan better and get as many shots as
possible.
Another problem we faced was the stiffness of the tripod
that we used. It gave it an unprofessional look to it
therefore in future we will check equipment before
leaving.

15. How did you attract/address your
audience?
I think we have successfully reached our target audience as we have
used all of the main codes and conventions of successful horror
films.we have used them to the best of our ability to produce
something that is different, tense yet conforms to the main
conventions of horror films. From the audience feedback we
received we received mostly positive feedback with most people
saying we used the build up of tension really well and it was well
edited. We did receive some constructive critisism though, which
was only welcomed, as we wanted to get the most out of our title
sequence. The comment that mostly came up was about the pace
not being consistent or some of the clips being too long. This was
easily solved by removing or cutting down clips.

16. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do
you feel you have learnt in the progression from
it to the full product?
The preliminary task was to create a fight sequence with lots of different camera
angles. I feel like we made a successful fight sequence due to the many camera
angle used and the use of foley sound. I felt like we made quite a professional
looking fight sequence in a fairly short amount of time. We didn't do much planning
to our fight sequence either, so I think that with that taken into account, we did a fair
job.
We also learnt a lot about foley sound when doing this task. We learnt what objects we
could use to make effective sound effects for example, slapping raw meat for the
slapping effect and breaking celery for breaking bones. We learnt how to record
these sounds and then transfer them into final cut pro too. So in doing this task we
learnt lots of important skills we could impliment into our final product.
However, saying this, the fact that we didn't plan made the filming slightly more difficult
as we had to think of different things to do on the spot. Whereas if we had made a
plan/storyboard of the shots and performances we were going to do it would have
made it a lot easier and quicker to film. Also, as we all had different ideas about how
to edit the fight sequence, it was difficult to encoorporate all of our ideas into it.Iwe
had taken it in turns instead of doing it all at once, we would have been able to get
more of our ideas into it.