A common element that my group’s short film
Possessed took part in was the representation of a certain social group and
social issue(s). In our piece of work, we primarily represent the social group
that is teenagers/ young adults who are just bored looking for an adventure.
All four of our characters that follow through our story are all around the
same age, 16 – 17. It so happened to be this social group because our group collectively
decided that we were going to be the ones who participated as actors and due to
us falling within that age group and is who we thusly represent. However practically
anyone could be put in our characters shoes and reacted to the peculiar
experience just like our young characters did. A couple of social issues are
clearly represented in our short as well such as peer pressure and unity. Our character
Ava was extremely hesitant and skeptical about entering the mysterious abandoned
house, but her friends peer pressured her into coming inside and she didn’t feel
comfortable enough to say no due to the pressure she felt from her friends. If
this issue wouldn’t have happened, then the horrific mess they encountered could’ve
been avoided. Unity was heavily represented as well. Without Morgan and Jake coming
together to figure out what had occurred with the mirror and Ava then the
secret might’ve never been revealed, and they wouldn’t of been able to save their
friend Ava. This shows just how crucial teamwork can be and what a difference
it makes.
When creating our
movie package products: our short, social media, post cards etc. we developed
all of these for the sake of our brand. We wanted all of them to connect to the
idea of a teenage horror film. A big way we did this was in the first presentations
of our movie. In our post card, we decided to put photos of our main character
Ava in the moments of her possession. When the incident first occurred with the
mirror and after her destructive actions have already unfolded. This creative decision
was made because that is the main event
of our film and is really on brand with what our movie that because of this, is
named Possession. Another main element that we chose to represent that we used for
branding was the old creepy mirror. This image of a mirror is everywhere in our
marketing and appears like that to get it across that it plays a major role in
our film that is horror. We used cliché lighting, fonts, and music that we were
all connected and on brand so that it was clear to all of our audiences.
A significant component that my group and I
kept in mind when creating our AICE Media short film, was to ensure that it
somehow engages with the audience that we are targeting, because at the end of
the day that is who we are selling our product to so we want them to feel as
involved as possible. We achieved this goal in a couple of different moments
throughout our short film. For instance, several of our camera shots from start
to finish are trailing shots from the front or behind. The purpose of doing
this was to allow the viewer to follow right along with the characters, as if
they were actually with them in the haunted house. We also incorporated a Point
Of View camera shot in the scene of my character, Alex, right before she is
attacked by her friend Ava. In this particular clip it shows Ava from Alex’s
view as Ava’s hand intensely goes to grab her neck. This utilization allows for
the audience to experience that same intensity and shock as our character Alex
did. Our film Possessed also engages with the audience by having some diversity
in the character’s personality. Some more skeptical than the others, some more
brave and adventurous than the others, and some more intuitive than the others.
With this variety it allows for an opportunity for the audience to have a character
that they could possibly relate with somehow based on their personality and therefore
builds a connection between them and that character. We wanted our viewers to
feel connected to our work and that’s exactly how we did so.
Each genre of film has its own individual set
of clichés and conventions. Before starting such a major project like ours, we
wanted to make sure to conduct thorough research on our short film’s genre:
Horror. We researched several other horror movie packages to deepen our
understanding of the conventions that make up the kind of film we want to make.
We researched older and newer horror films and took ideas and styles from both
that we thought would fit for us. Doing this intense research heavily
influenced our own horror movie package in several ways. It is cliché for
horror movies to have striking, gruesome, or eerie titles at the start of their
film and that was a major cliché we thought was important to stick with, so we
used this red blood drip font to add some of that horror movie character. Another
convention we stuck with was the low lighting. Our film was set in an old and
dark abandoned house so we didn’t want to turn on and use every single light
that we owned or else the scenes would feel lighter and happier, rather than
intense and mysterious. Another convention we applied was the style of music we
chose to utilize. The music was eerie and would build with intensity through a
scene to add some suspense to really get that edge of your seat effect on the
viewer. We used spooky horror music, not cutesy coming of age montage music
because that’s what fit our genre and our vision for the film.
