Evaluation Question 1: Posters

When creating our posters, we came up with several different ideas. Our first poster (left) took its influence from the movie poster for The Last Exorcism. Both characters in each poster are standing in a similar (unnatural)position, with similar costumes: an old, blood-stained dress. One major difference between the two is the colour scheme. Whilst they both consist of dull, grey colours, our own poster consists of low key tones, which is a common convention amongst horror posters. Our poster gives a sense of mystery and foreboding; things can be hidden by darkness. On the other hand, The Last Exorcism seems to break this convention by using high key tones, giving a sense of a harsh reality. The fonts used for the titles are distressed and ragged-looking, and the individual letters are different sizes, connoting a sense of unbalance or that something isn't quite right.

For our second poster design, we were inspired by The Ring Two movie poster. Both characters have the same overall look: an over-sized, dirty, white dress, and messy, dark, long hair which hides the face. The main difference between the two photos is that The Ring post features a long shot of the antagonist, whereas in our poster, only the head to the waist can be seen. Both posters use low key tones, connoting something dark and sinister. Judging by the fact that everything bad that is happening is coming from a young girl, it makes it even more so. Another interesting similarity between the two posters are the titles. Both titles feature numbers: Last ONE Out, and The Ring TWO. These numbers seem to be the focal point of the titles because the font of the individual words are of a larger scale than the rest of the title.- Hayley

We chose to base our teasers on ones such as 'The Ring' and 'The Last Exorcism' not only because they are both very popular movies but because they had the kind of emotion behind them that we wanted to portray in our movie posters.

As a group we sat down and looked at the possible poster ideas that we could use. We noticed that a minority did not have the protagonist or antagonist in the center of the poster. The rule of three was not in use here and we liked the thought of creating a slight stir in the audience psyche by having the model at the side of the poster.

We also looked at the posters of protagonist females and discovered that they are often shown in a medium shot to extreme long shot.

It was also observed that they stand in either very provocative positions or in a fright filled one with there head turned slightly to the right so the target audience can see the emotion on their faces. We decided to imitate the movie poster Perfume (seen above); however, the focal point of our poster is the protagonists face due to the low key lighting that we used.
It was decided that we should use very dull dry tones for the poster and so it was edited in Adobe Photoshop CS3 to have a more pastel look than vibrant which in horror is not a popular colouring scheme.

As with many low key posters we chose to use gray and white for the anchorage of the posters. The credits below were also created with the same idea in mind. As a group we decided that we should not use colours that were too bright and unmanageable for an epileptic audience however we did not think of this when we had created the poster.

If I had the chance to create these posters again, i would dedicate a little more time to them and have been a little more experimental than i have been. - Swarica

Age restriction

In the UK video games that have any form of "violence", "sexual content" or "techniques likely to be useful in the commission of offences" has to be classified under the British Board of Film Classification's (BBFC) film rating system under the Video Recordings Act of 1984. The Act claims that it is an offence to supply a game to anyone below the age rating. This offence is punishable by a fine of up to £5000 and or up to six months in prison.

Majority of games are rated under the Pan European Game Information System (PEGI). Under this voluntary code games producers self-certify the content of their games by giving them an age rating as well as a series of symbols which represent various types of content. All games applying for a 12+ age rating under this system are retrospectively reviewed and can be assigned 16+ or 18+ ratings. These ratings are then checked by an independent body before being confirmed. However, the PEGI rating structure lacks teeth because, as a voluntary system, it is not an offence to sell a PEGI rated game to someone under the age rating. Further, research indicates that most UK consumers are unfamiliar with the PEGI ratings system and often find the symbols more confusing than helpful.

Patricia Hewitt who is a Former Trade and Industry Secretary said "Equally parents need to know what they might be buying for their children. Video games are different to films or videos, and not all parents have grown up playing games in the way our children do." Furthermore she states adult games and videos should have a clearer warning to stop parents buying their child a 18+ game and letting their child get their hands on one."We need to look carefully at how we improve content warnings and strengthen sales enforcement."

She was backed by Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Tessa Jowell who said: "You wouldn't let your child watch the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. You wouldn't let them go to a strip club.

"So you shouldn't let them play an 18-rated game. It's the same principle - adults can make their own informed choices, but children can't always and need to be protected."

Social media – age restrictions

Here’s a list of online apps (games, chat, forums, social networks, blogs) with the age restrictions as seen in the sites’ terms of service/use.

Must be at least 16

* Friendster social network

Must be at least 13 and in high school

* Facebook social network

Must be over 13

* Bebo social network
* Blogger weblog publishing tool
* Chamber of Chat Harry Potter multiplayer RPG (no private chat, moderators)
* Gaia Online community with games, message boards etc…
* Hi 5 social networking site
* IMVU chat with friends in 3D
* Jaiku microblogging
* MySpace social network
* Ning social network created around an area of interest (can be open or private)
* Runescape multiplayer game
* Tokbox video chat (works with Twitter & others)
* Twitter microblogging Twitter is now for over-18s. See comments to this post.
* Vox weblog publishing tool
* Weebly website creation tool (includes blogs, forums)
* Wetoku video interview tool (requires parents’ approval)
* Wordpress.com weblog publishing tool
* Writeboard single wiki pages for writing activities
* Xanga weblog community
* 12Seconds video microblogging
* 43 Things microblogging site based around personal goals
-Andy

Hypodermic needle theory suggests that the media injects its messages straight into the passive audience (Croteau, Hoynes 1997). This theory implies that the media show the appropriate messages to an audience who is then influenced by them and therefore think in the way the media wants them too. It is thought that the media can be extremely dangerous as the public is powerless to escape due to mass media and lots of media material being “injected” into them, and so people are end up thinking what they are told to think.
 The expression “sitting ducks” is used to describe the affects of the mass media on the public as people are passive to the massages given by the media and therefore the media can shape the thoughts and views of the public to the direction they want this theory is why most horror films are rated at 18 because it is much easier to influence young children and films like saw, human centipede etc you can argue that such films use the Hypodermic needle theory, but because there are mostly viewed by adults it is more difficult to influence them. - Swarica

Final Costume - Ghost

Because we initially wanted to do a supernatural/psychological trailer we didn't want to have a physical killer who you could see, therefore we wanted to have a ghostly figure or presence. Therefore we decided to go with what the japanese call a Yurei which is a spirit bound to the earthly world because of a strong emotions that do not allow them to pass on.

Below are some photos that Hayley took of me as the ghost girl in a victorian dress stained with fake blood.

To do the shoot we had a blue background in order for us to put it on photoshop and to manipulate it. For the make up I put on black eyeliner, and applied talcum powder on my face to make it look pale and lifeless. I back - combed my hair to make it look fuller, and pulled it all to the front to show the length of it, because all Yurei's have long black hair. The entire photo shoot was done with low light to create the typical horror movie darkness and eeriness, also the light was shone at me from the side majority of the time to create shadows.

Last day of shooting

For our last shot we needed Swarica running down a long hall way, the one we chose was in the middle of the college and is always very busy so we therefore needed to do it at a time that was suitable to avoid interference. Below are some back stage photos.

Update

This week we focused on getting our magazines and posters finished. We had booked a camera for our next lesson. Once we had that media lesson we went into the classroom to use the blue screen and took pictures of Thuy.

Here are some of the pictures we took





After we had taken the photos, I(Andy) would open the chosen picture into photoshop and then started making either a poster or magzaine.

Inspiration for our trailer - Scary Little Girls

Before we came up with the story line and plot for our trailer we first looked into other movies we had seen and drew up some ideas from them. We came to the conclusion that we wanted to do a supernatural thriller which involved a young girl murdering people in a college library because she died with a grudge. The first movies that came to mind were The Ring and The Grudge, two very popular and famous movies for the use of two scary young girls with long black hair and a white dress. We decided that in order for our trailer to be a success and to help the audience relate we made our own scary little girl in a white dress too.

Below are images of The Grudge Girl and The Ring Girl.

The 'scary little girl' movies such as the two mentioned above and others like R

osemary's baby, The Exorcist, The Shining and The Orphan. Generally the girls are of a relatively young age, and are either ghosts or being possessed by one. Why little girls are scary, you can't pinpoint but I believe that it is because when you see a little girl you think of them as being innocent and sweet, however in these movies they take on completely

different roles. Also children are frightening in the sense that you don't know what they are capable of and how far they would go, and when they do how beyond our expectations would it exceed?

Animation of logo

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