Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 5

The Cellar - Final Cut

After 6 months of preparing and planning our film opening, we have completed and published our final cut of 'The Cellar', we hope you enjoy our final product.
(Please watch in 1080p HD, for the best quality)

Deciding how to present Evaluation Question

Whilst planning our evaluation question, we decided to research into different, creative ways to present our answer. During my research we came across the following ideas:

• One-minute post it note film
• Podcasts
• Behind the scenes videos
• E4 type filmed interviews
• Pieces to camera
• Short film of them cut with bits of their projects and a voice over
• Short film using text messaging
• Annotated presentation uploaded via Scrib’d

After researching into various media presentation sites, many critics Prezi, as it offers a modern, easy-to-use way of presenting information clearly.

Preliminary Task

Since doing the preliminary task, we have learnt alot about how to vary angles and shots and edit the footage to make the transitions between shots smoother and clearer to watch. If we were to do this again, we would make sure the shots were better quality (less blurry) and use a wider range of shots and possibly use non-diagetic music to make it more interesting. 

Questionnaire

We have created a questionnaire which will be filled out by people watching the first draft of our film opening. From this we will be able to find out the audience's reactions and feedback so we can change things that aren't so good, improve our editing and alter other aspects.

History of our genre

1890's - 1920's

During this time, films created within the horror genre were mainly based around supernatural occurrences. Many people credit Georges Melies 'Le Manoir du Diable.' Films around this time were mostly silent and black and white in colour which meant that the horror genre had to be created using limited sound effects and music.

1930's-1940's

By this time, the American movie studio universal pictures had began a successful Gothic horror film series. For example, Tod Browning's 'Dracula' (1931). 

1950's-1960's

With advances in technology, the tone of horror films shifted from Gothic towards contemporary. 

1970's-1980's

in 1973, The Exorcist was realised and was a massive commercial success. It still included the idea of the devil represented by the supernatural evil. 

Film certificate research

The BBFC (British Board Of Classification), create strict age guidelines on films which must be followed by law.

These age ratings are the most com
The certificate we feel that is most appropriate for 'The Cellar' is a 15. However, to be sure our film opening and our film storyline as a whole meets the strict guidelines of a 15 age certificate instead of an 18 certificate, we did some background research on the guidelines of the included content in a film rated 15. These included:

• The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.
• Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. Promotion of drugs which are easy to obtain are unlikely to be allowed.
• Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.
• Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) can be allowed provided the detail of such is low so that it can not create too much of an impression of the viewer. Abuse of weapons which are easily obtained will not be tolerated
• Frequent use of strong language can be permitted, although very strong language needs to be restricted and would have to be seen as reasonable in the context. Frequent usage of very strong language would be seldom allowed
• Nudity in a sexual content must be restricted however nudity in a non-sexual content does notSexual activity without strong detail would most likely to be allowed
• Some strong sexual references may be allowed to, but very strong ones may not, unless used within reason
• Sexual acts or references with the intention of causing arousal is not likely to be permitted
• As long as the film is appropriate for 15 year olds, no certain themes are prohibited
• Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. The same applies to references. Any sexual violence should be discreet and be strongly justified

After reading these guidelines, we feel our film would classify as a 15 age rating but not a 12A or 12 due to the adult theme and psychological abuse our audience is presented with. 

Schindler's List Inspiration

Schindler's List

We found inspiration for our film opening in this editing technique used in this scene of the black and white film 'Schindlers List' (1993). The effect is the girl being the only one dressed in visible colour (red), whilst everyone else and the setting is black and white.

How could this link to our film opening?

We have thought about using this editing technique with a totally black and white picture of an eye with a red eyeball to emphasis the anger in the evil twins eyes. Red is a very bold colour to use as it has many connotations such as anger, death, lust and passion ,which would keep our audience guessing. 

Discovering our Audience

Whilst creating an answer for evaluation question 5, we had to consider who our audience is and who our film opening is most suitable for. Because of this we explored some other psychological horrors and unique films which have attracted a similar audience to ours which is explored further in evaluation questions 4 and 5.

I

These films helped us decide that our main audience will be ages 15-25 and we are aiming to attract an audience who understands and appreciates the complex underlying psychological side to our film opening, as opposed to a younger audience who may want more action found in a typical horror slasher.

Mood board

We created a mood board with the theme of horror and gothic style. We did this to allow us to find inspiration and give us more ideas as to how we can portray our genre and create the audience reaction we wanted to the best of our abilities.

The mood board includes themes and ideas such as twins, cellars, black and white filming, black gloves and gothic make up style.

Films with similar representations of women

Within the horror genre, women are stereotypically represented as the victims to a male, who are weak and vunerable. 

However as we researched further, we discovered one particular film which represents women in a similar way to our film opening. 'Inside' is a horror film with a pregnant female victim who is being hunted down by another women who wants to take her unborn baby away from her. This inspired us as it represents women as being in both the position of the victim and the position of the villian which subverts peoples expectations which may intrigue the audience further.