This document discusses the production of a horror film called "Dolls Domain". It aimed to challenge conventions in the horror genre by having an all-female cast and a female antagonist. Research was done on other horror films with female leads like The Woman in Black. The production also sought to avoid needless sexualization of women seen in other films. Feedback was gathered from a focus group of peers to help shape the film. As the camera operator, the author learned techniques like using different shots and lighting to build tension. Social media was used to promote the film and attract a target audience of teenage girls interested in horror and independent films.

1. Main Task
Evaluation
Of Dolls Domain

2. ❖ In early years of horror, male
characters were stereotypical
antagonists e.g Friday the 13th
(1980) and Psycho (1960), however,
in more recent years this stereotype
has been challenged with the use of
‘scary’ or ‘creepy’ women and
children in horrors as the main
antagonist instead e.g The Woman
in Black (2012) and Dead Silence
(2007). From the research we did as
a group on such horrors helped to
influence the female antagonist in
our production - and thus challenge
this male convention of horror.
media product use develop or challenge forms and conventions o
Psycho 1960 (IMDB)
The Woman in Black 2012 (IMDB)

3. ❖ Not only was a female our main antagonist,
our cast was an all female cast, this worked
as a form of breaking inequality barriers
within media. Many feminists would argue
that females are misrepresented in the
media, for example 28.8% of females are
presented to be wearing sexualised
‘revealing’ clothing as opposed to only 7.0%
of males, and how 26.2% of females are
practically naked as opposed to only 9.4%
of males; these statistics are based on the
top 500 films from 2007-2012. (link)
❖ Within our production we wanted to break
the convention of the sexualisation of
females in media, such as Catwoman in The
Dark Knight Rises (2012) - a character that
is needlessly sexualised. We wanted to
prove that a female can be both the
antagonist and the hero. Though our scenes
with our hero, Lucy, were cut within the
opening, she was still a vital part of our
planing process and our film synopsis (link)
Catwoman - Dark Knight Rises
(“cat got your tongue?” scene)

4. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
❖ In my option our media could be suited to a few of
the cultural consumers of Young and Rubicam’s
study.
❖ Firstly, it could be said that our media portrays
those of ‘The Mainstream’ culture. This is because
of the recent hype in the 2000s with supernatural
horrors such as Insidious (2010), Annabelle (2014)
and Paranormal Activity (2007) ETC. With this
growing supernatural horror ‘hype’, those of The
Mainstream culture may identify this, and thus
follow the trends and what their peer groups are
enjoying. As stated by Young and Rubicam “Their
core need in life is security” hence following their
peers this may provide a form of social security
and make them able to relate to their fellow social
peers, e.g by being able to contribute in
discussions about supernatural horrors.
❖ As shown in the chart of Facebook research from
nanigans.com, clearly the supernatural Paranormal
Activity tops the Top Grossing Horror Film
Franchises, thus furthering the idea that ‘The
Mainstream’ consumers would be interested in our
production.

5. ❖ It could also be said that our media production
contributes to the social group of ‘The Explorer’
those who are out to discover something new. This
is because supernatural horrors are relatively new,
gaining popularity from just the 2000s unlike classic
horrors that have been around for centuries such as
Frankenstein (1931) or Dracula (1922).
❖ Supernatural horrors aren't scared to push the limit
and try something new, whether that be demonised
dolls in films like Annabelle (2014) and Dead Silence
(2007) or documentary styled productions that
include ‘true life’ events such as paranormal activity
(2007).
❖ These supernatural horrors not being scared to push
boundaries on their productions, exceeding to the
absolute limit to produce the scariest media in order
to please their consumers and bring new ideas to
the horror genre completely - this wholly speaks out
to ‘The Explorer’ social group.

7. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
❖ In my opinion, our media would be distributed by an
independent film company such as BBC Film. This is
because BBC Film has created supernatural horrors such as
The Woman in Black (2012), a film in which our production
was highly influenced by.
❖ As our cast does not include any ‘Hollywood’ actors, this
lowers the marketability and would affect the sales within the
international distribution, thus targeting a British distribution
company, such as BBC Film, are more likely to give unknown
British actors, and our media production a chance.
❖ Other independent British film production companies such as
Film4 have been especially known to distribute films with
unknown actors, such as Slumdog Millionaire (2008), in
which children from the slums of India were hired to play
main roles within the film - this film gained major world wide
success and the fact that the children were ‘unknown’ did not
affect the distribution whatsoever.

8. ❖ Another way that our media production may be
distributed could be through international film
festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, Sundance or
Toronto. Whilst it is incredibly tricky for a film to be
selected by these festivals, they do provide a
‘shop window’ for global distribution markets.
❖ In the UK in 2012 over 600 films were distributed
theatrically which means that there is intense
competition for screen space amongst these
festivals, however this number compared to how
many features are made every year globally
means that at least 10% of features produced will
be seen inside of the cinema.
❖ Whilst it might be a bit ambitious to aim for our
production to be shown and distributed through
such ‘A-List’ tim festivals, there are other festivals
that are especially for independent productions
that would also help with the distribution of our
production, such as the British Independent Film
Festival, whilst this festival would not specially
target such global distribution companies, it may
target independent British ones such as BBC
Film.

9. Who would be the audience for your media product?
❖ For our production our audience would be mostly
females as they are likely to relate to the doll
aspect of our production, perhaps reminding
them of their childhood.
❖ It would be suitable for people aged 15 and up
because of the horror themes surrounding it, and
according to BBFC, in classified 15 horrors
“there can be strong threat and horror as long as
there is no sustained focus on sadistic or
sexualised threat.”. This fits perfectly with our
production as we included no sexualisation at all,
there were purely ‘horror’ themes used.
.
’15’ year old girl example.

10. ❖ With the use of a traditional segmentation model, the idea of our audience being 15+ is
furthered.
❖ for example, as our main protagonist is in the teenage consumer range, at 17, this would
reach out to class E - as shown in the chart being “casual or low grade earners” as the
majority of our consumers are likely to be students. This furthering ‘The Mainstream’
audience and the need to keep up with the latest hype, much like you stereotypically do at
school.
❖ However, it could be argued that in order to consume our production you need to be able
to afford the rights to watch it, such as through the cinema, DVD, Blu-Ray, iTunes etc. This
would mean that on the other hand, our consumers would be able to purchase these rights
- perhaps from this perspective it could be argued that those from C1 down could also be
an audience for our production - workers who have the ability to purchase and watch our
production.
Traditional Segmentation Model:

11. ❖ It could also be said that another type of audience for our production could be those that
have an interest in independent films. For example, as stated previously our film could be
distributed through promotion at a film festival, such as the British Independent Film
Festival.
❖ Those who have an interest in such festivals, or an interest in new independently made
horrors are likely to gain interest to our production through such platforms.
❖ This also ties in with ‘The Explorer’ social group - those who are seeking something new
may be found at these film festivals, and thus gain an interest in our production.
Jalopnik Film Festival

12. How did you attract/address your audience?
❖ We decided, as one of our main audiences was
‘The Mainstream’ and those of the teenage
market, it would be a good idea to start up
some social media pages in order to get our
production some more attention and to get
people talking about it. We decided that we
would create an Instagram and Twitter page -
the Instagram page helped us to include screen
shots and images of our production to keep our
audience guessing and to get ‘hype’ around it,
and the Twitter page helped us to get updates
on how our production was getting along.
❖ We asked our peers and those with an interest
in media, such as some of our classmates, to
have a look at the pages and quickly our pages
began to gain followers. This was a really useful
tool to attract them as the majority of our
teenage peers or those of ‘The Mainstream’
social group as the majority of them were
already on these social media platforms this
helped us directly speak out to them and grab
their interest.
Our Instagram Our Twitter

13. ❖ Link to our Instagram page
❖ Link to our Twitter Page
❖ Here are some examples of our ‘tweets’
❖ As shown, we really wanted to speak out to the audience and get them involved in the
creation process, we knew that our peer group would be really interested in our production,
especially considering we targeted those with an interest in media
❖ We made our posts interactive by posting links to our youtube page and posting
images/screen shots of our production - this really helped to make our audience feel
involved in our production and put media ‘out there’

14. ❖ Another way we attracted our audience was by conducting a
focus group - we asked a group of 5 of our peers, again with an
interest in media, 10 questions that related to what they would
prefer in terms of “what they found most scary between….” etc. It
was a really useful process as the majority of our peers within
the focus group really helped to influence what and what wasn't
included in our final cut.
❖ This really helped us by getting direct answers from people we
would consider our target audience, teenage girls with an
interest in media and horror.
❖ Here are the questions we asked:
❖ 1. what do you think about the idea of dolls in a film?
❖ 2. What do you think about our storyline?
❖ 3. What type of music puts you on edge?
❖ 4. What is your opinion on horror films with or without blood?
❖ 5. Do you prefer physically jumping films or psychologically
thrilling?
❖ 7. What do you expect from a horror film?
❖ 8. What do you think we should include on our dolls to make
them scarier?
❖ 9. What do you think we could include to build up tension?
❖ 10. Screaming noises or nursery rhymes?
❖ From the responses we got from these questions, our peers that
were involved in the focus group got a first hand experience of
what is to be included in our production - this gained hype
amongst our peers as they really felt like an influencing part of
our final piece, making them excited to see the end result.
❖ Link to our focus group
Our focus group members

15. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
❖ Being the camera woman helped me discover what worked well and
what didn't within out production. An example of me discovering what
worked well and what didn’t, was during in our forest scenes. We tried
out several different shots with our ‘victim images’, these shots included
pan shots, slow zooms, hand held shots and shots with a tripod.
❖ We tried to film some of the ‘victim images’ using the ‘hand held’ style
shot on the ground, however our flaw in this technique was how we were
using natural lighting as we were in a forest, mid day. This meant that
every time I tried to film the images on the ground my shadow kept
getting in the way of the shot, and even on the parts my shadow wasn't in
the way, the light from the sun reflected off the images and made them
overexposed and barely visible on screen. Also, the ‘hand held’ affect
made them a bit too shaky and thus even less visible.
❖ However, from this flaw I learnt that trying out different shots/reshooting
scenes a couple of times in order to perfect them, when we placed the
‘victim images’ in a tree and filmed them with a tripod in a mid shot, this
ensured that they were 100% in focus and clearly visible, especially
considering our image was hanging in a tree, there was a bit of wind
blowing the image lightly, however the use of a tripod helped to focus the
image despite the wind blowing it - unlike if I had used the ‘hand held’
effect for this shot too. It also helped us to balance out the lighting there
wasn't any harsh overexposure on our images
❖ We didn't want the lighting to be too bright because we wanted our
production to have an eery feel to it - this was later changed and
darkened in the editing process.
victim shot

16. ❖ Another thing I learnt whilst being the camera
woman of our production was how to create tension
and a ‘horror’ like atmosphere with the use of
different shots. I found that the use of close up shots
were the most suited for creating tension, for
example when we were recording the scenes with
the dolls - I focused on showing their ‘evil’
expressions with the use of close up shots. I did this
by focusing on parts of their face such as their eyes
- slowly looking away from the camera and then
looking dead towards it, or slowly closing their eyes
then quickly opening them to create tension and
make the audience jump.
❖ A difficulty I came across when filming these close
up shots however was getting the camera to focus
on the particular thing I wanted it to focus on, for
instance the eyes of the doll - a way this problem
was resolved was filming just a bit further away from
the feature I wanted to focus on to ensure it was
clearly visible and in focus, we then in the editing
process we zoomed into these specific areas and
made them the main feature in the production.
eye scene

17. ck on your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the f
❖ From our very first preliminary task, ‘Sisters’, up to our
production of ‘Dolls Domain’, I think that as a group we
have improved majorly.
❖ I was also the camera woman for this production too, I
think that my skills and knowledge in the role of a
camera woman have improved a lot. For example,
when we shot ‘Sisters’ I had little knowledge in different
camera shots and how they worked, I had no idea how
to improve the shots that weren't perfect because I
wasn't sure how to do them correctly. However,
between the shooting of this production and of the
shooting of ‘Dolls Domain’ I studied the different shots
and how they were executed, I learnt how to improve
the ‘zoom’ shot, as in ‘Sisters’ when i tried to zoom into
zoom into Hannah’s face, however this shot had a
noticeable jolt in it because her face wasn't fully in shot
- I now know to test my shots out before I execute
them, and always rerecord sections 2/3 times in order
to get the perfect shot. An example of my improved
‘zoom’ shot was during the ‘dolls house’ section in
‘Dolls Domain’ - I used a ‘hand held’ style of shot to
zoom into a window, this really helped to make the dolls
house seem eery and add thrill and tension to our
production, especially considering this shot was slowed
down.
zoom shot in ‘Sisters’
zoom shot in ‘dolls domain’

18. ❖ Another factor that I have learnt from our production of ‘Sisters’ to our production
of ‘Dolls Domain’ is the importance of planning and time management.
❖ For our production of ‘Sisters’ the planning behind it was extremely late notice, the
script was written extremely close to our filming process, this meant that the actors
struggled with their lines and often changed some of the words, as the sound was
recorded on a separate microphone to the camera in order to ensure that the
camera and sound quality were on the same level. However, we struggled to sync
the pair together as the actors had changed certain words in their scripts, meaning
that time was wasted reshooting certain scenes in order to be able to sync both
the sound and the video.
❖ When we were filming ‘Dolls Domain’ we made sure that our cast was fully
prepared, we made it clear that from early on the only speech in the production
was to be narration, this meant that we didn't have to worry about sync acting with
audio as it was to be played over the different scenes.
❖ I was too in charge of the audio of our production, when recording Kaya’s speech I
asked her to try different tones of speech, we tired a fast-paced, panting style of
speech in order to make her seem scared, a whisper which made the audience
feel fear and tension, and her speech slowed down. It was really useful to try all
these different styles of speech for our narration as it helped us to narrow down
what sounded the best against the editing, we opted for the whisper as it gave a
really eery affect.
❖ As I was in charge of the audio, there were also sections where we needed Kaya
to scream, we tried her screaming in the Media Studio, however as the walls were
sound blocked we didn’t capture an echo in her screen which we desired,
therefore we tested her scream outdoors, as the outdoors had much more space
this helped us get the right echo within her scream that we needed.
❖ The use of time management and planing helped us ensure we had plenty of time
to try all these different techniques out, the crew were clear of what was to be
done so whilst Fern edited the video me and Kaya had plenty of time to test out
different styles for the narration.
reshot clip from ‘Sisters’
audio from ‘Dolls Domain’