Media Language

Below you can find how I used combinations of technical elements in my film opening to create meaning.

Reflection: this helped me explain meanings better and understand my project more. It also prepared me for my exam and improved my analysis skills, even though it was hard. I learned that meetings can be different so finding the right one isn't always easy. Overall, this really helped me and prepare me for the exam. 

Typeface Development: Title + Credits

Here is our blog post on research development about different typefaces and our title ideas. This was made by me (Kristine). I also decided to talk about our final decision in this blog

These are some examples that I liked

1. [⏺REC]

I liked this idea because the font and style stands out from other found footage titles, making it a unique feature. The idea of using the red dot and bracket helps convey that the movie is related to a recording, signaling to audience that it is a found footage film. In the second version, blood splatters suggest audiences that the movie may context murder, death or gory scenes. However for this title card, it was seen at the end of the film. This was because the filmmaker still wanted to maintain the realism and managing to incorporated the title card.

2. The Blair Witch Project

The opening scene for this movie was really short since the title did go before the movie start. This is because a found footage typically does not require an opening scene to maintain realism. The way the title was presented was simple, but it has many strong points to support the reasoning behind it. Incorporating a small title makes audience feel like they are watching a raw, unedited footage to which helps keep an immersive feel.

3. GRAVE ENCOUNTERS

This was a great way to sneak a title card because it didn't really feel like one. It made the found footage seem more like a YouTube vlog, which might make the audience feel like the movie was edited, slighting reducing its realism. However, it was an effective way to incorporate the title card without making it feel too planned. This font also differs to what most found footage films use and it also can be an inspiration. This distorted font gives audience an unsettling emotion which could suggest paranoia or hallucinations.

4. "CLOVERFIELD"

This title card is short and lacks a typical opening scene because they decided to follow the conventions of a found footage film. This could also be an idea we could incorporate to help maintain a realistic feel to the audience. What I like about this is the way the editor used different technological fonts to create the connection to a recording. I think the time-stamp helps enhance the feature of this technique and the use of inserting the title card in the document name is such a great way to sneak in the title without intended to do so.

5. Spree

This is similar to the example from Grave Encounters, where they sneaked the title card into the scene to maintain the realism effect. I found this opening scene really sick and smooth because of the transition is created as the name of the app is also the name of the movie. This could be an inspiration to us since we could use the title of the book as our title card. I also like the use of a simple, clean font with a red coloured title, which helps make it feel like part of the recording and brings audience attention because of how bright and alerting the colour red connotes.

What credits / names will you include

Starring: Actors

         - Drew: Panji Wiradharma

         - Carrie: Kellie Collins

         - Lyla: Lamiya Zara

Editor: Maisie Halomoan

Director: Kristine Lambert

Found footage films often don't include opening credits to keep the feeling of realism. Since we wanted to keep that same style, we chose not to include any credits at the start. Doing so would break the immersion and make it feel less authentic. 

10 Typeface Choices

credits: dafont.com, capcut fontsDiscuss Connotations

VCR

The VCR font makes the movie feel old, eerie, and realistic, like a lost VHS tape. It adds a creepy nostalgic vibe and is often used in horror to make the footage seem mysterious or haunted. 

What I like about this font:

- It's a typical found footage font, which aligns well with the genre conventions. We could use it to stay true to the found footage style. 

What I dislike about this font:

- The font looks too digital. Our goal is to make the film feel realistic, not technologically advanced. We don't want to incorporate too much technology, as it could break the illusion of realism

How it will look like in our product (brief idea)

Punktype

The font looks glitchy and creepy, making it feel like a corrupted or haunted message. It gives a sense of mystery, fear, and something being worn, perfect for a horror or eerie digital themes.

What I like about this font:

- This font is commonly used in found footage films because it looks handwritten. This gives the impression that it was made and meant to be "found", which fits the genre

What I dislike about this font:

- The font appears too old for a modern found footage film, so it doesn't logically connect with the setting or time period (2019). It feels out of place. On its won, the found looks strange and may require vintage filters to bring out the desired realism. Without those, it could disrupt the overall authenticity.

How it will look like in our product (brief idea)

The overall meaning to both of these title card helps make the movie feel real, especially if it's made for a found footage horror. It looks like a police report or a warning, telling people what happened before the scary footage starts. Because there are no pictures, it makes people feel nervous like something bad is coming. This simple look makes it seem like nobody edited it, like a real tape someone found. This tricks people into thinking the story really happened, making it even scarier.

Experiment

Here are quick experimental pictures that I did to get a better look on how each font would look like

Title Ideas

Opening Text Ideas

Our Final Decision

We took feedback from our teacher because he suggested that our font was too cliche and we should change the typeface. He suggested to use a serif font and I've found an approved font that we'll be using. 

Our title is going to be 'the unread' in lower capitals with the Punktype font

Reflection: This was an easy task because found footage doesn't really require much fonts and effects because that would destroy the illusion of realism. But this was challenging because not much found footage films have title cards or opening scenes. Luckily, as media evolved, more found footage films have been subverting this convention. Finding and choosing the fonts was easy for me because there was a feature in the dafont web where they had specific fonts for horror / typewriter.

Screen Test: Audience Feedback

This post explains how we showed a rough draft of our film opening to some members of our target audience in order to receive helpful feedback. This blog was created by my team member, Maisie.

The purpose of a screen test is to gain audience feedback about our work and see if there are any improvements that can be made. We decided to use Google Forms to create a survey to share with our audience because it is very quick and easy to use for both me and the respondents.

Here is our questions:

1. What do you like about the video?

2. What improvements can be made?

3. What do you think of the effects so far? (sound, lighting, coloring, etc.)

4. If you rate it low, how do you think we can improve?

5. Mention 3 words to describe the cursed book.

6. Mention 3 words to describe Drew (the boy).

7. Would you watch the rest of the movie?

8. Which title is better?

We specifically chose these questions because we want to make sure that all of the elements and techniques we chose to implement into our opening scene successfully reaches and affects the audience correctly. At the same time, we are also making room for improvements by directly giving the respondents the freedom to express their opinions and thoughts. Furthermore, we chose these questions to further understand the extent of how immersed our respondents feel while watching the video, as it is one of our main goals (to make the audience feel like they're a part of the events).

We showed the clip to three members of our target audience to ensure that the feedback we receive is appropriate. Finding people for the screen test was easy, because we used social media (Instagram story) to spread the word and ask for volunteers. Thankfully, due to how quick social media connects us with other people, we got three different volunteers to help us out in no time. 

Here is the draft video we used.

Here are the results from the audience feedback:

1. What do you like about the video?

2. What improvements can be made?

3. What do you think of the effects so far? (sound, lighting, coloring, etc.)

4. If you rate it low, how do you think we can improve?

5. Mention 3 words to describe the cursed book.

6. Mention 3 words to describe Drew (the boy).

7. Would you watch the rest of the movie?

8. Which title is better?

From the feedback, we learned that our opening scene needs to have more prolonged suspense to make the events more intense and unpredictable. However, we also learned that we have successfully conveyed some of our messages to our audience. For instance, we've succeeded in making the cursed book seem creepy and unsettling. We can tell from the words our respondents selected when asked to describe them. 

Since this is only a draft, there are many things missing in this opening scene. We are going to change some of the edits, because a respondent suggested to add more quick cuts involving black/blank screens. We will also change the coloring of the whole video, as it has been our plan from the start to make the opening scene seem more eerie. Lastly, as suggested by one of our respondents, we will also add more background music to help increase the thrill and suspense. 

This screen test was a useful part of our process because it helps open our minds towards broader aspects that can help us improve our project. Opinions from different people are really important because it helps us think of things that we couldn't think of ourselves. By being open to feedback, we are exposed to constructive criticism and advices that will help us better our project.

Reflection: This was an easy task to do because the questions we made were more towards the 'how can we improve' questions, This really did help get more ideas in to help reach the audiences satisfaction because that is what makes a good media product. Thankfully I had friends that wanted to answer our feedback form but they were all girls, making it less reliable. So next time, we might need a man to help give feedback.