Hush Hush dvd evaluation

Evaluation
The aims of the production have been met because I have produced a piece of film that has stuck to the conventions of horror which were aimed at a specific audience demographic. My production has extreme close ups to emphasise the subject and has an establishing shot showing the location. Establishing shots show isolation which is a convention of the horror genre. Point of view shots make it more realistic and allow the audience to feel immersed in the film by seeing what the character sees. There’s dark non-diegetic music to create a scary atmosphere and there’s a theme of death and the supernatural. A character is killed within the first 5 minutes of the film and this happens in almost all slashers and it is effective in setting the mood for the rest of the film. Long shots have been included to increase tension and put the audience on edge and short cuts are used to speed the action up and create panic. There’s a clear binary opposition of good vs. Evil and a revenge plot. The sound of the heartbeat (non-diegetic) represents the fear the protagonist is feeling when she realises she is about to die and when her heartbeat stops it not only represents her death but also connotes the loss of her innocence.
The product represents children as being powerful and evil. Childhood represents the ultimate good, the corruption and destruction of that good is the most extreme form of evil. The protagonist is a female child/teenager and her representation is a convention of horror. In the horror genre, the killer’s identity tends to be hidden to create that unnerving feeling in the audience but in my production these typical conventions are broken because the audience know their identity. The school is represented as the place of evil. In the toilets it creates a claustrophobic atmosphere. There are bright lights which again breaks the conventions of horror because stereotypically the killings in horror films take place in a dark place to make the character scared. The chase scene takes place in the red corridor; red has colour connotations of danger, anger and blood which are fitting for a horror film.
My production will be exhibited during the holidays because this is when the target audience will have the freest time. The production will be advertised on the internet because the target audience are teenagers and they tend to spend a lot of time using it which means they are very likely to see the advertisement.
There are a number of controls that may apply to the production. The British Board of Film Classification decides the age certificate of the film and in order to get your desired age certificate, they may ask you to make cuts. The age certificate of my production is 15 because this allows me to include the conventions for a slasher sub-genre. In the production, we were able to imply violence to avoid making the film too gory. Additionally, teenagers tend to watch horror films with their friends for the ‘cool factor’.
A strength of the production is that it appeals to a wide audience. The horror film appeals to men because they stereotypically enjoy the gore and violence in a film more than men. Females are also part of the target audience because they may feel a maternal bond to protect the child. It is set in a school; teenagers will be more likely to watch it. They may want to seem ‘cool’ amongst their friends. In terms of meeting the audience needs, one strength is that the production has a ‘thrill factor’; there’s dark music to create suspense and sudden noises to make the audience jump and feel unsettled.
One weakness is that the audience know the killers identity which breaks a convention of horror, making the production lose some mystery and the audience may feel less scared. It won’t leave a distinctive image in their minds; the killer is less likely to be memorable. The killer is usually strong and sometimes very big, making it almost impossible to kill him but in this film, the killer isn’t any of these things. Another weakness is that in horror films, dark colours are used to create a more sinister feel. Dark colours can represent evil within characters but by using more of a white/lighter colour scheme, the film seems to focus more on the innocence. It’s usually the victim/hero who is surrounded by light. This convention has been broken.
Before starting our production, we decided to carry out a questionnaire to see what people expected from a horror film. We decided to stay behind afterschool to film. This is because it would allow us to capture the silence and isolation that would be experienced by the protagonist. If we had filmed it during school time, it’s likely there would be background noise.