Evaluation: Jamila

Our final opening sequence fits in the sub genre of J horror haunting. The main ideas were inspired by The Ring and the narrative of Black Swan.

We followed most of the genre conventions seen in most movies which being in the sub category of our opening scene.

The setting we decided on was a theatre because it seemed to have the feeling of loneliness when it was isolated which is normally a convention. Our lighting in the theatre was very controlled so that we could darken the background because of unwanted props which we decided not to include. One of the conventions to a horror film is low key lighting which was hard to achieve because our perception of a low key lighting was too dark for the camera used.

During research, we found that there's normally 1 prop that drives the narrative (Such as the video tape in the ring or a camera in Shutter). The prop we chose was a manga book because it was popular in Japan and it was relevant to how we show that our sub genre is J horror.

Foreshadowed's antagonist (Yuuki - Jamila) had use of heavy make up and a white dress (although our original idea was to use a white sleeping gown). This idea for her costume is taken from J Horror The Ring and The Grudge. White is also a symbol of innocence and is normally used while representing ghosts.

One of the conventions we didn't follow is the build up of most horrors movies. We decided that we would shoot the ghost in the intro of the movie however most horror movies, it's rare for the ghost to show up in the opening sequence; contrasting the pace of J horror which normally has a slow build up. 

As our film belongs to J horror, social background is not represented as much as social realism. Normally the characters belong in middle class. We followed this convention to represent Natsuko. Yuki however as a ghost does not currently belong in a social class however in the narrative in her life, Yuuki did belong in the upper class.

In our opening, we didn’t involve any male actors. However when the narrative progresses, we will likely introduce a male character possible the heroine of the story. And normally in haunting, the protagonist and the antagonists are both women and the heroine a guy contrasting most genres such as action films.

The only ethnic group represented in J horrors are Asian so we decided that choosing 2 Asian people would be the most sensible choice for our genre.

One of the major distributers in Japan is Toho Co. They distribute films of different genres from drama to horror. They also distributed Ringu which was the original version of the Ring. It is likely that they will distribute this because Japanese are known for anime and horror. Also most of the films that was distributed by Toho made was publicised to a very large audience which would benefit us.

American remakes are also popular for Japanese movies especially horror. Movies such as Ju-on was remade in America a few years later and proved to be popular with the niche audience of horror seekers. Columbia Pictures helped distributed this movie along with other American remakes.

Our target audience would be from the age 15+ for both male and female. Thought this narrative is sort of similar to Hollywood horror films so the age range the movie will appeal to is most likely to be 15-21 although it may appeal to some audiences older. Movies such as The Audition are a Japanese horror but its narrative and script is aimed for 21+.

Our questionnaire and bbfc research lead us to think that this movie will be classified to be 15+ as it does not involved gore or anything inappropriate. Since this film is based mainly on The Ring (15) and Black Swan (15), the contents will be similar

From our questionnaire we inferred that the audience of this product will likely to have manga or anime interest, horror film extravagant or interests to the Japanese culture.

By knowing who our audience itself is a huge step to attracting them. Using the questionnaires, we were able to know what they expected to see in a horror movie and what interests our audience. We chose this genre specifically because it was the highest rated in our questionnaire.

We attract similar audience to the Ring because of the narratives so if they audience had enjoyed watching the ring, we sure will attract them

We were a novice group when we did our preliminary task and we were without experience apart from 1 or 2 people who had done media last year for GCSE. The preliminary task was a huge task for us and a great experience to learn some techniques and skills in terms or angles, camera shots, sounds and editing.

Planning was also one of the skills that we lacked. Back when we just wrote our own story and story boards and somehow try and estimate how long each shot would take. Once we edited our Preliminary task, it stretched out to 2 minutes which was 4 times longer than requires. For our opening sequence, we had a solid script on our hands however in the process of filming, we realised we had to make some changes such as shots or even the story line more than a few times. But we realised that by making these changed, we improved the quality and narrative of our opening sequence.

We also learned to use iMovie more fluently my using the software to edit our preliminary task. In our film intro the group had the basic idea on how to use iMovie and how to edit which made it quicker for us to edit our opening sequence.

In our preliminary, we had lots of takes on videos which are worth seconds and our decisions took longer when we were visualising which angle shot looks better. But after our research was done on intros and why certain movies use certain shots, we became more confident with what shot to take to create which effect.

Also, one of the required camera movements was to take a 180 degree shot which we had trouble with doing in our preliminary short because or how smooth and steady the shot was suppose to be. After a few tries, we grasped on how to do the shot and in our opening sequence, we decided to use a 360 degree rule which was taken in 1 take.

In our preliminary task, I took the role of directing and filming the shots which was valuable experience for me. In our opening sequence, I took the role of being the antagonist considering I was one of the two Asians in the group. The role was different. It was less stressing compared to actually directing the actors, narrative and the camera. But I also took some shots along side Reuben and Diamond. During the editing of the preliminary task, I watched Diamond navigating around iMovie and from there I picked up some skill. The editing was done by me and I learnt more and more about iMovie and the effects and transitions which can be used. Continuity was a skill that I had not much of.

The opening sequence definitely had more freedom but it came with great responsibility as we had to plan the details, narrative, shots etc. unlike the preliminary which had some requirements which made it easier on us to decide what should and should be included. We definitely gained lots of valuable skills from our preliminary which was a great help for us to project those skills in the opening sequence