MEDIA EVALUATION Lorna Inglis

The Haunting

I looked at existing documentaries based on ghost hunting such as ‘Most haunted’ and ‘Ghost Hunters’ to get a feel of how a documentary is set out who is used where and how. I also looked at some horror films such as ‘Paranormal Activity’ and ‘The Blair witch Project’ to get to know the paranormal/ghost genre and how they film the ‘paranormal’ using what techniques to show up ‘ghosts’. In all my research I found they use night vision settings on cameras. In our filming we took aspects of all these, such as the night vision. But we had a few difficulties with that due to cameras not having these settings so we improvised with green light in a drama studio which lit all the people and angled the camera so it didn’t look like a room light and then used after effects on the footage. In experimenting with night vision I felt this method worked the best on emulating the

night vision, we also tried using torches and other lights but we nothing else lit enough of the people and room. We used the green light along with camera tripod and sound kit to create the affects through the ‘night vision section’ in majority of our filming we used a

microphone on a boom except in the interviewing scenes where we used tie clip microphones.

For the opening shot of the presenter I used a medium shot with the pub setting in the background. We used this to establish presenter and setting in the first shot and so the presenter could talk about the surroundings. For this we used natural light and angled it so there wasn’t too much and it was on the presenter nicely. To introduce the ‘paranormal expert’ I used lots of short cuts from medium shots, over-the-shoulder shots, extreme close-ups and low angled shots to include his knowledge with the book, quirky personality and interest in the paranormal. In the other shots with the presenter I used a close-up shot and we used a little torch to light but had a tiny bit of reflection in the glasses which is what we tried to avoid. We lit it so it was quite dark and mysterious as he talks about the night.

In the green room it starts with a close-up of the paranormal expert to explain what is going on in the room with the group. Then to a medium shot to establish all of the people in the room. The lighting is used to emulate a ‘night vision’ camera setting but done with green strip lights in a studio. Also in editing the colour is slightly adjusted with video effects in premiere pro. Then in the ‘reviewing’ section of the film I used a variety of shots like over-the-shoulder and some close-ups but also a cut back to footage being spoken about fitting with the script and a zoom on the footage over-the-shoulder to get a better feeling of the technical jargon they are using. Then it goes back to green room where the camera follows the upset girl. This makes it seem more real as someone is clearly scared by the ‘paranormal’.

After filming and reviewing all of the footage in place with majority of editing done we found watching the documentary it didn’t flow as well as we wanted it to and not everything was clear. Then we recorded a voiceover straight into garageband and added it to the film just to carry over from one scene to the next. We used the presenter for the voiceover so he could carry the whole documentary and the audience got used to his voice. Also at this point found a sound clip to be the soundtrack for the documentary which was at the beginning and repeated at the end for the title sequence and end credits.

Researching the documentary style I found most had a presenter who lead the whole documentary through, and introduced the people in the documentary and spoke about a brief history of the setting. They also used an investigating team consisting of camera men, paranormal experts, technical experts, and in some they take in the public to scare them. In our film we choose a small group of people to feature in it being a presenter, paranormal expert, a ghost, a member of the public and the technical team. This group of people made it seem more like a documentary and having a ‘member of the public’ in the group made it seem more realistic and also made it so we could include the horror and fear element.

For the ancillary tasks I made a radio advert and a newspaper advert. It was extremely difficult to find examples of these in the right context but I ended up just looking at newspaper advert for sports programmes and channels, how big the adverts were and how they were laid out and what information they have on them.

For the newspaper advert I used the presenter as the main subject of the image. I used photoshop to put it all together layering 2 images (establishing shot of pub, presenter). I used straight forward text just to get the basic information about the documentary across to the audience. And to keep in with the documentary genre it is factual. Then I decided how I would like to display the text in the most clear way and using the font from the filming. After reviewing the first few attempts I then made the image darker using the ‘brightness/contrast’ tool on photoshop and ‘burn’ tool in some areas.

For the radio advert then looked on youtube and used the teaser trailer conventions and what information they include. For the first draft of the radio advert I used garageband and recorded straight into garageband using the presenter of the documentaries voice so the audience has a clear link if they hear the advert then watch the programme and it will reassure them it is the same thing. I just used sound clips to create the eerie feeling behind the voice to create suspense and an uneasy feeling. On reflection it felt more like a horror film advert than a documentary advert so I then redid it making the sounds a bit more paranormal and the script more direct and factual like a documentary. The three tasks work together as a marketing strategy by all linking with the presenter so the audience knows they are all about one documentary and all back eachother up using the same times channel and information as eachother and the same theme and setting.

All of my audience feedback mentions the how ‘the script is well written’. Where as I feel we could’ve spent a bit longer perfecting the script before hand although I feel it worked well with the documentary as it was factual. ‘You observe the conventions of the “Most Haunted” or “Ghost Hunting” documentary skilfully with the transition from the spooky presenter on location to the experts analysing the footage well managed’. I feel this is something we paid a lot of attention to and I am glad that people picked up on it to make it flow we spent a lot of time establishing each character and what role they play in the documentary.

Overall I think our documentary followed typical conventions of a ghost hunting documentary by following techniques displayed in the research footage. I also think it worked well as we had good audience feedback. The three tasks all worked well together and linked appropriately. Working with another person also was a good experience as we both had ideas but were able to rule out the bad ideas between us.