Tanya's Foundation Portfolio 2008-09

Closing Post

2009-02-01T10:35:00.001-08:00

It's the end of the project now and I've really enjoyed it. I'm really pleased with the final piece, even though we did have quite a few problems with it along the way. However its turned out great and I've had so much fun working with my group.

Anyway its been a long but fun project (with a lot of work!) and I've learnt so much.
Thanks to my lovely group members Ben and Selina for being great to work with and to everyone in the Media Department!

This blog is now closed!

Evaluation - Question 7

2009-02-01T10:18:00.003-08:00

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Preliminary Brief: Film and edit a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character. A couple of lines of dialogue must then exchanged between characters & match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule should be demonstrated.
Video Brief: The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes (all video and audio material must be original, produced by candidates, with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source).

I feel I have learnt a lot since completing the preliminary task and I think my skills have developed.

BRIEF.
The brief to the preliminary task seemed quite simple and had a main objective of making the continuity successful during filming and editing. Therefore during the preliminary task, the sequence was kept uncomplicated and controlled, as we concentrated largely on continuity.

The brief for our opening sequence was much wider and required me to be controlled as well as creative. We had to think of an opening sequence that included aspects from the preliminary task, one that worked well and was interesting. For this brief, I was aiming for perfection, and saw the preliminary task as a learning process that prepared me for this stage.

After reading the brief, the next stage was the PRE-PRODUCTION; research & planning.
This stage was kept fairly short for the preliminary task due to time constraints, however I still learnt a lot from it.
Before we could begin shooting our short sequence, we were able to produce:

A storyboard
Shooting script
Dialogue script for our final idea.

These proved to be really helpful and had a huge impact on our final piece. The storyboard allowed us to visualise the sequence and ensured that every member of our group had the same vision for the sequence. The shooting script meant we could order to shoot specific shots, ensuring we used our time efficiently. We were also able to do location reccys for the preliminary task.

This planning prepared me for what was essential for the opening sequence. However it was necessary to go into more detail for the film brief and the preliminary task didn’t prepare me for this. As a group however, we knew that it would be more complicated and required more planning to save time and make fewer mistakes, and we were therefore organised.

PRODUCTION.
At the production stage of the preliminary task we could not have a test shoot or reshoot due to shortage of time. This meant we just had to shoot the final piece, allow no space for big mistakes and really think it all through thoroughly.

However we had produced a:

Shooting script and arranged the shot order of how we were going to shoot. This organisation meant we saved time and knew every shot that we had to shoot, ticking them off along the way.
The process of running a shoot used during our preliminary task was very efficient. Before we shot each individual shot, the director would say “sound ready, camera ready” and then name the take and then say “action.” We carried this method into the production when filming our opening sequence to a film. It meant we could check everything was ready before we shot and when we came to editing, we would be aware of what take and shot it was.
We also allocated roles to each member in our group and therefore made running the shoot a lot easier. Everyone knew the role they had to play and this made it a lot more efficient. We used this method during filming of our film opening sequence and this really helped as it took a lot shorter to shoot than it could have.

From the final opening sequence however I have learnt that a location reccy as well as a test shoot and re-shoot is important. It allows you to correct mistakes or change things that you didn’t notice whilst filming.

From the progression from my preliminary task to the full product I have learnt in this stage that:

We need test shoots
Re-shoots are really important
There needs to be time allowed for more takes of shots so that you can pick the best take
I have also learnt that it is useful to shoot with more shot types of angles and distances; this was especially worthwhile for our nightmare sequence.

Overall time was a main factor in both and I have learnt that allowing more time for shooting can really improve the quality.

Once we had all our footage, we could begin the next stage; POST-PRODUCTION/EDITING.
During the preliminary task our main aim was to construct something that makes sense. We didn’t have to consider a story behind it, it didn’t have to be a film opening and restricted time meant we just had to keep it as simple as possible. This editing process reminded me of the basics needed when editing, such as capturing, adding onto timelines, unlinking, razoring, chopping up clips and re-ordering the sequence.

From this experience, it meant I could save time whilst editing the final product of the opening sequence. However I did learn that constructing a narrative is quite hard, especially since I assumed that the simple sequence of the preliminary would be easy when it wasn’t. I also learnt that footage looks different on the camera to when you put it on the computer and you must therefore take this into consideration whilst filming so as not to encounter too many reshoots.

The final stage of both projects is the FEEDBACK & EVALUATION.
For the preliminary task, there was no need to consider the target audience; it was just constructed for media students’ learning experience with a theoretical approach. Therefore it taught me the technical side and meant I could take into account factors that went wrong in the preliminary task for the real full product. This included noise such as camera noise which was difficult to solve and also other people that aren’t involved in the piece.

For the final opening we had to find a location that wouldn’t have this problem or was easily solved. As we were made aware of how it takes longer than we think and doing it on a strict time basis isn’t suitable, we knew to allow ourselves a lot of time for the various parts of the project, without leaving it to the last minute. I have also learnt however that target audience and appeal is an extremely important part of making any part of a film, especially an opening. Receiving feedback throughout the whole project is really important to keep improving it and finding out if it attracts the audience.

The preliminary task also showed me how working as a team was extremely important when it came to all stages of the project.

Evaluation - Question 6

2009-02-01T10:18:00.001-08:00

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
From the process of constructing this film opening sequence I have learnt a lot about specific technologies.

Shooting
During our shooting days I furthered my knowledge of the hardware used. We used:

A Cannon HD mini-dv camera to film the footage. Despite the fact that we shot on a HD camera, we didn’t use HD. Along with the camera, I had to learn about using the batteries and tape.
The camera could then be attached to the tripod, which I had to learn how to use effectively whilst filming. It gave us a wider range of shots, such as more movement, different angles and distances. This variety of shots enabled us to make our opening sequence more interesting.
During filming, we also had to use lights if it was too dark. We used a pag light just to add extra light; however we didn’t have much of a problem with lighting as we filmed during the day.
During the filming process, we used two types of microphones; an external mic and a tie clip mic. We didn’t use the other type of a microphone; a boom mic, as we filmed in a house and didn’t need it for long distances. We started by using an external mic for the dialogue when the character is on the phone to his mum, however as this dialogue turned out unclear, we re-shot using a tie clip mic. This gave much clearer sounding dialogue. I also learnt however that microphones often pick up unwanted sound and camera sound. The camera sound could be decreased during editing; however we had headphones attached to the camera so that the sound technician, allocated to someone in our group, could check the sound whilst filming shots. The other person in our group concentrated on directing and filming the shot. This was done to make the filming process as efficient as possible.

Editing
Once we had finished the filming process, the next step was editing. This meant we had to learn about the technology of software.

Adobe Premiere Pro was the main programme used to do the editing and we used non linear editing.
We also used After Effects and Photoshop to design the titles that we placed throughout the sequence. The newspaper articles and images featured in places of our opening were also done on these programmes.
Fireworks was used to produce our company name and logo, ‘Unplugged.’ We had quite a few problems with this but we finally got it to work and feedback told us that it was a good design.

Overall my skill in the programmes that we used throughout the project developed hugely and I learnt that you can improve a lot of things and solve a lot of problems using these technologies.

We used a lot of techniques with the technology available whilst both shooting and editing.

During filming, the hardware we were using meant we could record sound effectively without it being unclear.
We also could include camera movement such as pans and tilts as we had the tripod.
We could also portray with lighting what we were trying to achieve of 3 point lighting to make it look as professional as possible.
During editing we could use techniques such as capturing footage, rendering clips, adjusting speed and duration, cutting up clips, adding audio (soundtrack and non-diegetic) and also including visual and audio effects and transitions.

As well as technologies from shooting and editing, I learnt other things such as how to use Blogger as I hadn’t used this before. I learnt a lot about these techniques and realised that these technologies can have a huge positive impact on our final product.

On summary what I have learnt is:

I have reminded myself of non linear editing on Adobe Premiere Pro. I’ve also advanced my knowledge of it from before as we experimented with more techniques this time such as with sound and the pace of shots. Also how to edit it things that we haven’t filmed such as the newspaper articles and images.
I have also learnt more shot types and advanced my camera skills such as with movement and continuity.
I have also learnt that health and safety is an important factor and this must be considered with things such as leaving the lights to cool down after you’ve turned them off as they get hot.
I am much more comfortable with handling the equipment whilst shooting and my easy of use has improved. Also small issues such as portability of equipment is important and it is most practical to use a car to take the equipment as there is quite a bit of it and it can be quite heavy.
I have also learnt that there is so much scope for creativity despite our low budget and limited equipment. I learnt that once you’ve understood all the technology it is so easy to use and you can create so many different effects.

In Hindsight...

To minimize the amount of shoots that we need and reduce the re-shoots, we should watch back footage on location and look out for mistakes that we might not have noticed while filming. (this was a huge problem as when we got to the edit suite and watched it on the computer, we kept noticing small details that caused problems and meant we had to reshoot.)
ALWAYS think about sound as we had quite a few problems with this and in the end had to reshoot some dialogue with a tie clip mic. Some was done on location but we also did some at school.
Always consider mise-en-scene as we had to re-shoot for problems such as bed sheet covers being too feminine and therefore unrealistic.
Sometimes we had a problem with camera focus such as with the feet shot so if we were to do this again we could have tried it on the manual setting.
Could have used a few more interesting shots such as at the start of the opening not revealing the protagonist’s face until we see his reaction to the news broadcasting. This would have built up tension and made the nightmare sequence more disorientating.
We could have used more experimental shot types such as more movement or interesting angles. However we struggled with this as it was filmed in quite a small space in a house.

Overall if we were to do the project again, I feel id be a lot more confident to make these improvements and therefore increase the quality of our final product.

Evaluation - Question 5

2009-01-31T10:17:00.000-08:00

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

We decided to stick to certain conventions of thrillers and appeal to what the audience knows and will therefore enjoy. It is also a genre that is popular with our target audience; therefore this will also gain their attention. However we also challenged and changed some conventions in order to create further interest and curiosity among the viewers. We also drew on people’s likes, fears and real life experiences.

As our opening sequence is a thriller, we mainly tried to create suspense to interest the audience. We built it up to the moment in the sequence where we intended for the audience to be shocked. We also tried to achieve suspension of disbelief and get the audience into the world of the film. We wanted them to see it as realistic as possible.

We then wanted to build up the audience’s anticipation as the protagonist leaves the house. The audience is now aware that he is the villain, but become anxious as to what’s he going to do and who’s it going to happen to.

We also wanted the audience to ask questions and therefore to create and build up enigma in order to interest the people into watching the rest of the film. This was successful as many of our audience at the screening commented that they would be interested in watching the rest of the film. Also many wanted to know why he was carrying out these murders, which would be revealed later on in the movie.

Everyone fears a serial killer. Our main character is killing innocent people for a decision that wasn’t made lightly and was out of their control (deserting him during a battle.) There is this notion of realism that it is actually possible for this to happen to someone and for them to be so deeply affected by a certain experience that it changes them forever. It is also ironic that he joined the army to prevent further upset and worked as a team with these people who he is now killing for revenge.

In the market, there have been a lot of films released relating to war such as Apocalypse Now (1979) and Saving Private Ryan (1998) and we therefore thought we’d use this theme but add a twist to it. I thought this interesting take on it and overall film image would appeal to people.

As the main storyline involves actions that have taken place as part of a recent issue; the war, we thought it would relate to people who have had real life experiences in the war and understand how that may affect people and cause them to do things that they normally wouldn’t do.

We also drew on what the audience knew and therefore made the setting of our opening sequence familiar and realistic. It is in an ordinary suburban house which many people will be able to relate to.

Overall I think we successfully addressed our audience and attracted them to watch our film.

Evaluation - Question 4

2009-01-31T10:14:00.000-08:00

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The primary target audience that we have aimed our media product at is:

People of ages 17-30.
Both genders – we originally thought it would appeal to males more as it is stereotypically a ‘male genre.’ However after we conducted our audience screening, the feedback that we received was positive from both gender and the majority of males and females said they would watch the rest of the films.
Of all ethnicities, but mainly British audiences as it is more familiar to them.

We chose this range because we believe the film will appeal to a younger audience as they can relate to the main character and the themes and topics of the film as they are recent and modern (Iraq War.)

From audience research, we discovered that younger generations of people tended to like psychological thrillers and intriguing plots, and we therefore decided to base our age around this similarity in interests and therefore draw on what they know. This was also proven in our audience screening of 15-17 year olds where the majority were interested in the film.

At the start we believed the audience may have been slightly older, however as our plot progressed and we began to make changes, such as making the protagonist an ex soldier, we changed it as we think it will appeal to this core audience more which was proven in the feedback at the audience screening.

Our secondary audience is:

Both genders aged 16-35.
We chose this wider audience as we believe anyone with interests in the theme of our film would be interested at these ages and of any gender – people interested in war-themed films, but this is with a twist (attracting niche audience). Also people that have actually participated in the war (majority men.)
We also believe our film could appeal to families as it has an interesting storyline and all generations of people would understand it.

Evaluation - Question 3

2009-01-31T09:45:00.000-08:00

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

As our film is a low budget student production it would struggle to achieve a place for viewings in large chain cinemas. It is not really blockbuster material as it doesn’t have that image normally associated with blockbuster movies. It is therefore likely to be distributed on a much smaller scale. Without much exposure, it would struggle to gain a cult status (where the film is low budget but successful), however there is a possibility of this being achieved.

The type of media institution that would consider distributing our film would be a distributor such as Dogwoof. It’s a UK based film distributor and “is renowned for supporting independent film in non-traditional ways.”http://www.dogwoof.com/

They have set up Dogwoof Indie http://www.dogwoof.com/indie/ “to support independent filmmakers and promote fresh talent in the film industry.” They launched it after the success of a film and now aim for Hybrid Distribution (cinema, DVD and internet VOD).
They help filmmakers by giving them direct access to professional film distribution services and offer “a choice of the services they need, whilst letting them retain the rights to their film, controlling costs, and actually having the chance of seeing revenues and profits.”

Another example of a potential distributor is Guerilla Films http://www.guerilla-films.com They have continued to support British and Irish films through distribution and intend to increase their output over the next few years. They are happy to consider any completed film looking for UK distribution, especially British or Irish ones.

The distributor plays a really important role in the film industry. It offers exposure for films and gains larger audiences to improve how successful it is. Once the film is delivered, the distributor determines the release strategy and release date. The distributor then presents the film to exhibitors and negotiates agreements to have the film shown in cinemas. They then develop a marketing campaign to interest the target audience and then launches the film. Our film could be shown at independent cinemas, such as the Phoenix cinema in East Finchley. It offers regular events, festivals and one-off screenings which would be ideal for distributing our film as we could have a one night screening at a student film festival for example. This would be most likely to attract other students, scouts for young filmmakers, people interested in the genre (thriller) and generally local people attracted to watch the film. From this, it would help generate further interest, and if successful, there could be additional screenings more regularly for an extra few days.

However it could also be at a film festival such as Exposures, the UK’s largest festival of student image work, which takes place every year in Manchester. Another example is Screentest, a UK’s National Student Film Festival that helps promote student films and film-makers throughout the UK. Every year they host a three-day film festival in Bristol, with celebrity speakers, screenings, workshops and an awards ceremony. This would probably be the easiest way to screen our film; however the distributor may be able to gain interest from old, independent cinema such as Phoenix Cinema which is likely to appeal to a wider audience.

Another method that could be used to distribute our film would be the internet. This method is a lot cheaper and can achieve popularity quickly through word of mouth. The internet is also a cheap way to market our film and get more people attending the viewings. An example is http://www.undergroundfilm.com/ who concentrates on independent film distribution through the internet. They intend to “create a digital film library with the widest breadth of content possible and broaden exposure by making hard-to-find works available through Internet distribution.

Our Production Company – Unplugged Productions
would make mostly independent films on a low budget, similar to ours. There it is most likely trying to reach people locally and possibly nationally. However as it is an independent British film it would not make sense to try and distribute it on an international scale.

Evaluation - Question 2

2009-01-30T07:47:00.000-08:00

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product focuses on a few certain social groups. This includes young males and soldiers currently in the war, over-protective mothers and news reporters.

Characters commonly associated with the thriller genre would be the male villain and killer. An example is Norman Bates in Psycho (1960), a young male psychological affected and killing people dressed as his dead mother. The main character in our opening sequence is:

White, British male
Young, aged 24 years old
Occupation – recent ex soldier in the Iraq War
Still obsessed with the war – get the sense that he hasn’t left his experience behind and has affected him irreversibly. This is shown in the fact that he still dresses in army clothes, has photos related to it and refers to the war during phone conversation.
He appears normal, but is mentally unstable
We are made aware from the opening sequence that this man was originally a hero in the eyes of society as he had recently taken part in the Iraq war and received a war medal. However, the audience soon find out later on in the film that his fellow soldiers let him down by deserting him during a battle and leaving him to die. This experience has made him revengeful and now this hero has a twisted mind and it’s his participation and experience in the war that has turned him into this villain. This is therefore breaking conventions and exposing the darker side of the war and its negative effects that can effect one’s mental health

Other social groups that are represented are the stereotypical, over-protective mothers. This is shown in the protagonist’s responses in the phone conversation. We are made aware that the mother is anxious about her son’s safety due to the recent killings and the pattern forming from this of war soldiers being murdered. Her anxiety and concern is a complete contrast to the killers as she is unaware that it is in fact her own son committing these crimes.

During our search for someone to do the voice over for the news report on the television, we had to take a lot of factors into consideration. The person had to represent and be similar to real news reporters. We made a decision to use a man’s voice as we wanted the story to sound as serious, intense and powerful as possible. In order for the person to be suitable for the role, they had to be able to speak as clearly and as comprehensible as possible, with no comical effect.

Setting:
We chose to place our main character in an ordinary house in the suburbs of London. It’s not overly-furnished and appears completely average to reinforce the image of a single, middle-class man that lives alone and therefore adds to the realism.

Overall I think our film opening sequence represents particular social groups effectively and therefore appeals to people, especially those who belong to these social groups.

Evaluation - Question 1

2009-01-30T07:44:00.000-08:00

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our film opening sequence follows the forms and conventions of real opening sequences, but it also challenges and develops some of these conventions. ‘Remembrance’ is based around the genre of a psychological thriller; however it has aspects of horror due to the murders that will be committed. We therefore constructed an opening sequence using some conventions of these genres to make it familiar and recognisable for the audience. However, we wanted to keep the genre fairly unknown to the audience until the end, when they get a shock.

Our opening sequence follows the same form of most openings by:

Introducing the main character
Introducing the narrative
Indicating the themes
Including titles throughout
Incorporating music
Having a visual reference to the film title.

Despite the fact that our opening sequence follows the conventions of the forms of opening sequences, it has its own style. Throughout our opening sequence there are several hints as to the themes of our film which are similar to many themes of other thriller/horror films.

Typical themes include:
Murder
Revenge
Mental illness
Jealousy
Obsession
Fear

Our film follows many of these conventions with some illustrated in our opening sequence. Common themes include murder, revenge and mental illness. Ours is a combination of these, with murder being extremely obvious in our opening sequence. It is shown in the newspaper articles, telephone conversation and the news broadcasting on the television. This is used as the solution to revenge which is also hinted at and will become much more obvious later on in the film. This is common in other psychological thrillers such as Memento (2000) where the film centres on this theme. Mental illness is also a large part of our film as our protagonist has been affected mentally by his experiences and this has caused his to commit these murders. This theme is also common in Psycho (1960) with Norman Bates who is psychologically affected.

The other major theme that the audience is likely to notice is that of war and battle, which isn’t that common in thrillers or horrors and therefore challenges conventions. This starts immediately from the beginning where we hear non-diegetic sound of gun shots, bombs and screaming. This theme is continued throughout with the characters costume; green shirt over white top, camouflaged trousers in wardrobe, dog tags. We were inspired from films such as Jarhead (2005) for the stereotypical image of a war soldier. There are also the newspaper articles and images concerning the modern issues of the Iraq War. This is also shown in the close-up pan across the shelf where there is a photo of the main character in military uniform, a war medal (to suggest a hero) and a photo of his battalion with some faces circled in red and others crossed out (to signify death and murder). This is when the audience may realise that he is the murderer and out for revenge but are again made confused when the main character has a conversation on the phone with his mother who is unaware.

Our film challenges the conventions of typical thriller movies with regards to characterisation. The main character plays a hero and villain. In the eyes of society and everyone around him, even his mother, he has done a heroic deed by participating in the Iraq War. We make the audience feel sympathy for him at the start while he is having his nightmare. The audience believe the war, his experiences and what he has seen has affected him deeply, made him unsettled and disrupted his life. However, as he goes about his daily routine, the audience soon seem to notice that his heroic gesture has had an even worse effect on him and has twisted his mind, affecting him mentally. This is seen when he grins at the news broadcasting of a murdered soldier nearby. This could be an example of the ‘false hero’ character role, as identified by Propp with regards to narrative theory. Thriller movies conventionally have a hero and a villain. We have incorporated these characteristics into one person making him more deceptive and sinister as the audience will see two different sides to him, demonstrated in two contrasting scenes in the opening sequence where he has a seemingly genuine conversation with his mother, but then picks up the knife and poppy. This is similar to Patrick Bateman in American Psycho (2000) where he appears normal sometimes (during the day) but then becomes a killer. The visuals generate questions and this creates enigma as the audience are intrigued as to what will happen next. When the people in the film discover that he is really the killer, they will be shocked. This is similar to Dr. Hannibal Lecter (the cannibal) in The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Hannibal (2001) and Red Dragon (2002). He was a brilliant renowned psychiatrist but turned infamous psychopathic serial killer. Hannibal Rising (2007) is a film that portrays Hannibal Lecter’s journey and how he became this serial killer. He was driven to madness and was now out for revenge. In the start we see that he too was affected by the war (WW2) which is a common factor that affected both Hannibal Lecter and the killer in our film, Remembrance.

We also challenge conventions of typical victims in thriller/horror films. They are not innocent looking, vulnerable, young females such as Marion in Psycho (1960). In Remembrance, they are male, ex-soldiers who are stereotypically seen as strong, tough characters.

The soundtrack is quite sinister, dark and depressing and resembles marching in some parts. This tone of music is conventional of the thriller genre and is used to keep the audience on edge and build up the suspense. In our opening sequence, it leads up to when the main character opens the drawer and the audience see a knife and 5 poppies.

We also challenge a lot of the conventions usually associated with a thriller to create interest among audiences. A main part is lighting as we filmed in daylight, we do not get that eerie atmosphere that the audience would get if it was filmed using darker lighting. Also as the main character is in a normal suburban house, there aren’t any props or typical iconography to suggest it’s a thriller until the audience sees the photo of the battalion with crossed out faces and the knife at the end. The camera movement is also quite slow paced in order to build up the tension to the point of the opening of the draw.

Our opening sequence follows a classic narrative pattern, showing the character waking up, getting ready and preparing for his evil actions that will follow in the rest of the film. The sequence shows normality and equilibrium, set in a normal suburban house. However, throughout our sequence there are indicators of disruption, such as the nightmare, the news broadcasting and the grin at it, the newspaper articles and images. Despite the fact that the character is doing everyday ordinary things, it is edited in a way to make the audience feel insecure. This was common in thriller movies, where they turned everyday circumstances into a frightening situation, putting the audience on edge. At the end of the film, order is restored but it is not the same as the beginning as events have taken place and people have died along the way.

As our opening sequence follows a classic narrative pattern and is a linear sequence, similar to other real film openings, we tried to create a seamless effect with continuity. Various narrative techniques were used in order to achieve this as effectively as possible such as transitions of fades and dissolves during the nightmare to convey a slight passing of time. We also shot the nightmare from varied angles and distances so that we could edit this together and communicate the idea of disorientation and make it quite jumpy for the viewer. Also the technique of eyeline matching where the character looks out of frame. This was done where the character turns on the television. We then used a shot-reverse-shot in order to show his reaction to the news and literally place the audience in the action. Before he enters the living room to turn on the TV, we used a match on action when he opens the door, in order to continue the flow of the scene. We used an ellipses of when the main character has got up, looked in his wardrobe and is about to get ready to move the sequence forward. These ‘gaps’ in the sequence were filled with images to signify the passing of time and therefore not to disrupt the viewing of the audience.

Summary Of Our Film

2009-01-29T10:37:00.000-08:00

Film Title: Remembrance

Film Genre: Psychological Thriller/Horror
Production Company: Unplugged Productions
Film Company: Mindset
Location: House in Southgate, North London
Edited at: The Latymer School
Start/Finsh Dates: 10th November 08 - 13th January 09
Crew (camera, lighting, sound): Tanya Kenan, Selina Mir and Ben Tucker
Cast: Ben Tucker

Summary of our Opening Sequence:
Our film opening sequence begins with a man having a nightmare and you can really see that he's disturbed by it. He wakes up from the nightmare breathing heavily but gets up normally to prepare for the day ahead. He gets dressed, goes downstairs and turns on the TV to find news headlines, which report that another dead ex soldier has been found, which is suspected to be linked to the recent ‘Poppy Killings’. The man grins at this, then goes into the kitchen and makes himself a cup of tea. The phone rings, the man answers it and as he picks it up we see a photo of him in a soldier’s uniform, a medal and a picture of a battalion, with some faces ringed and crossed out. The soldier is revealed to be speaking to his mother and he returns to the kitchen. After a brief conversation with his mother who is concerned for his safety due to the recent murders, he explains that he needs to go out. Just as he says goodbye, he opens a drawer, revealing a knife and 5 uniformly spaced poppies. It becomes clear that he is the 'Poppy killer' mentioned on the news broadcast. He pockets the knife, takes a poppy and leaves the house…

Summary of our Film:
Remembrance is a film about revenge and betrayal. The protagonist has returned from a tour of duty in Iraq after being betrayed and left for dead by members of his Battalion. Upon returning home he begins to kill those who let him down, one by one. We join the storyline after he has claimed 4 victims and it is shown he is about to kill again. However will he manage to kill the 5 remaining? and what might stop him?

Reflections on Audience Screening

2009-01-22T10:00:00.000-08:00

I am really pleased with the feedback we received and the majority of people seemed to enjoy watching it.

Music, plot and title of the film were amongst the favourite aspects of the opening sequence. I agree with these points as I think the title really ties in with the plot and the music really fits the tone of the film. The plot is also something new and therefore offers something different to the audience.

Out of the 34 respondents, only 3 wouldn’t have liked to watch the film, but this was generally down to those specific people not liking this genre of film. Features that were suggested to be improved on included the location, building more tension, the nightmare sequence not realistic enough and the knife in the back pocket made it slightly comical (people suggested he should have put it in his coat pocket.) I agree with these points; however we wanted to make the house seem as normal as possible to reflect the main characters initial fake persona of being normal. Therefore we chose a house that would be realistic and believable for a young male living home alone.

The genre of the film was easily picked up on as most people classified it as a horror or thriller. Overall I am really happy with the feedback and with the majority of ratings between an 8 or a 9 out of ten it makes me feel more confident about our project.

Audience Screening and Feedback

2009-01-21T13:45:00.000-08:00

Today we had our audience screening which was really useful and gave us some good feedback on how our opening film sequence was received. A total of 34 people responded to our questionnaire; giving us a very useful insight into audience tastes and reactions.

The group of people ranged from 15-17 years of age; this was helpful because they were a mixture of our core and secondary audiences.We split the data into two categories, based on gender. We then divided this up further, looking at the different ages in each specific gender. Here is what we found:

FEMALES:

15 years old (4 participated):

The average rating given was 8/10
3 classified it as Thriller, 1 as Horror
Majority commented on good music, plot, character and title
They all understood the sequence and picked up the name of the film
Main areas for improvement were location & building tension throughout the scene
3/4 wanted to watch the rest of the film, saying they were interested to find out what happens next

16 years old (11 participated):

Average score of 8.5/10
All classified it as either Horror or Thriller (some even put both)
Again, they most liked the music, plot and also liked the news broadcast
10 wanted to watch the rest of the film because "it would be interesting to see the plot develop", "it's creepy" and it "holds in the viewer". The other 1 person didn't want to watch the rest of the film because they are simply "not a big fan of Horror/Thriller"

17 years old (9 participated):

Average rating of 8/10
1 girl didn't understand the significance of the poppy, the rest did
Again, it was classified as either a Thriller or a Horror
Music, plot and title were amongst the favourite things in the sequence
Several commented on the knife in the back pocket; saying it was a little comical and could've been placed inside a jacket pocket instead. Also someone mentioned that the music could have been a bit scarier, and that the pace of the sequence could've been faster, to create more suspense
8 of the girls said they would be interested in watching the rest of the film, because of its enigmatic qualities, with an "interesting and intriguing plot". The other girl did not want to watch the rest of the film because she said that she is not interested in the particular genre.

MALES:

16 years old (4 participated)

Average score 9/10
3 classified it as a Thriller, 1 as a Horror
They mainly like the music and plot
They would all like to watch the rest of the film
One area of improvement - acting in the nightmare sequence (not realistic enough)

17 years old (5 participated)

Rated 9/10
4 classified as Thriller, 1 as Horror
Liked music, character, title and plot
All 5 want to watch the rest of the film
Lighting and location are amongst the things to be improved.

Questionnaire for Audience Screening

2009-01-20T13:55:00.000-08:00

Age:
Gender:

Please list your 3 favourite films:
1.
2.
3.
What is your favourite genre of film?

Did the sequence make sense? YES / NO If ‘No’ what didn’t make sense? Why?

What was the title of this film?

Which genre would you classify this film as?
Comedy / Horror / Rom-com / Thriller / Action / Adventure / Sci-Fi

What did you like about the film?
Music / Character / Title / Plot / Location / Other (Please specify) __________

Does it remind you of any other films you have watched?

What do you think we can improve on?

Would you be interested in watching the rest of this film? YES / NO Please specify your reason(s):

On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the sequence? (Please circle):
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Editing Continued…

2009-01-13T01:26:00.001-08:00

Today was our final day of editing and despite the fact that we have a few tiny things to change/add in tomorrow, I am really happy with the sequence. It has all come together well and from the feedback that we received from other students and the teachers; it is more or less finished. Feedback from teachers included changing minor things such as slowing down a shot (where he opens the drawer), removing the first shot from the nightmare sequence (framing wasn’t good) and using the close-up instead, and improving some of the newspaper, photos and headlines shots (pace was too fast etc.) We also had some problems with our Production Company name and logo, it went slightly blurry when played, however we improved this as much as possible and it still works well.

Tomorrow is our final deadline and after a few small tweaks and a test screening tomorrow to receive more feedback, the sequence will be completely finished! I am really happy with how it has turned out.

Editing

2009-01-12T11:44:00.001-08:00

It’s the second week back from our break and we’ve been extremely busy with editing. Last week we spent most of our time editing after we captured the footage we took in the holidays. Now we’re on our last few days of editing and the sequence has finally come together. We have edited all shots together, now we just have minor bits and pieces to add and edit in.

Last week we were really busy trying to edit in the shots that we retook on the Friday in the Holidays. These thankfully worked and we had no problems with them. I think the sequence now looks a lot better with these shots. We reshot the whole of the nightmare sequence, the news broadcast on television, the character’s reaction to this and the kitchen shots to get the dialogue right. We also re-recorded the dialogue of Ben whilst we were at school last week. This was put in the shots where he first answers the phone but we don’t see him.

Today we recorded the dialogue of Mr Michael to use as the speech for the news report on the television. This worked much better than expected when we matched it to the news broadcasting. Today we have also been working especially on sound and trying to get our credits to look right. I think the font that we have chosen for our title works really effectively and we have had good feedback about this. We are using the same font for the credits, how these were said to look quite flat so we are going to add an outline around it to improve it.

Last week and today, we have also been working really hard on the newspaper shots, photos and headlines. We have two points in the sequence where these shots fade in. We have finished the first ones where they fade into the sequence, which I think looks really good, but we are struggling a little with the second one. Therefore we have to work really hard tomorrow to finish it. We also have the credits to finish, but these are all in the sequence, so it’s just a matter of making them look good. Finally we have to improve sound by testing out different volumes, speeds etc.

So far I am really happy with the project and hopefully the final piece will be finished by tomorrow.

News Report Script

2009-01-09T14:05:00.000-08:00

Below is the script for the dialogue that will take place when the main character turns on the TV to the news. We will use a teacher in our school who we believe will fit the role perfectly as his voice resembles many news reporters.

The body of another ex-soldier was discovered this morning in North London.

The victim, identified as James Palmer, recently served in the Iraq War as part of the 5th Infantry Battalion.

Police believe the murder to be linked to the recent ‘Poppy Killing’ across the area.

Final Shoot

2009-01-06T11:43:00.000-08:00

During the two week Christmas holiday, we had a final re-shoot to film a few shots that didn’t work in our sequence due to problems such as lighting, continuity and general mise-en-scene.

Re-shoot List:
-Nightmare Sequence (problem with bed covers, need white plain ones)
-Conversation in the kitchen (problem with sound)
-News broadcast on TV (problem with colour before)
-Reaction shots to the TV
-The stairs shot (we changed the shot)

We managed to shoot all the footage in one filming session so it didn’t take as long as we thought it would. Now we have solved those problems with new shots, we can start capturing and editing these shots in order to make the sequence better.

Things we have to do after we have captured the footage:
-Choose the shots we like and edit these in.
-Add in all the credits with our chosen font.
-Finish all the newspaper shots and photos to help people understand the storyline more.
-Record the newsreaders voice to play over the news broadcasting on TV.
-Work on sound, dialogue etc.
-Finish name and logo for Production Company.
-Put in title of the film.

Christmas Break

2008-12-19T12:45:00.000-08:00

It’s the Christmas Holidays so this Blog is closed for two weeks!
19th Dec – 5th Jan

My Opinion on our Fonts and Sound

2008-12-18T15:03:00.000-08:00

We have chosen our final font which I am really happy with. It looks like something that would relate to war with the imperfect looking letters. They look old and scratched with gaps in them which could signify gun shots or knife wounds that our main character uses to kill his victims. We have decided to use this font for our title of our film, as well as the titles and credits that will appear throughout the opening sequence. We have therefore chosen the colour black for practical reasons; so that it stands out in front of the action that will be going on in the foreground. We also chose this colour as when we tested a colour such as red, it looked to amateur and unprofessional.

The music that we have chosen for our soundtrack is Dark Wastelands by Tillman Sillescu. This was chosen as we believe it fits our sequence well. Some parts of it resemble the sound of marching soldiers which again relates to the prominent theme of war. The start of the sequence is also perfect for the beginning of our opening sequence as it’s quite subtle and we are going to have non-diegetic sounds of gun shots, screaming and bombs over the soundtrack while the protagonist is having his nightmare. It is also possible to increase the volume in parts where it is more important such as when the main character opens the draw in the kitchen and reveals the knife and poppies. This builds the tension. We can also decrease the volume where it needs to be less obvious such as when there is dialogue taking place, for example during the news broadcasting and when the protagonist is on the phone to his mother.

Overall I’m really happy with our chosen font and soundtrack and I think it fits really well with our idea.

Re-Shoot

2008-12-16T08:39:00.000-08:00

We have decided to have a re-shoot which will be done in the Christmas holidays. This was done after we put the whole sequence together and realised that a few shots didn’t work well once in the sequence. We also had a few problems with lighting in the last few shots of the sequence because we ran out of time and it had got dark by the time we shot these.

We also had other problems such as the bed covers being too prominent and feminine. So as have decided to re-shoot the nightmare sequence with plain white covers so as not to distract the eye of the viewer and fit with the masculine view of the main character.

As a group, we have decided to change the shot of the character going down the stairs to make it shorter and therefore less boring. We chose to shoot the last few steps of the stairs and let the character walk into the shot and then pan across to the door of the bedroom. This takes out unnecessary footage that isn’t needed. The other shots that we have to re-shoot are the shots of the news broadcasting on the television and the reaction to this of the main character.

We have arranged 2 shooting days just in case we don’t finish in time on the first day. Hopefully this should be our last re-shoot and then we can just concentrate on editing.

Editing

2008-12-15T08:54:00.000-08:00

We have managed to put our sequence together but have decided to reshoot some parts to improve the shots. We’ve still got quite a bit to do but we’ve added a soundtrack which I think works really well and ties in with the sequence. Once we’ve reshot in the holidays and replaced some shots with better versions, I think the sequence will look a lot better. We still have to add in all our titles, record the news broadcasting and design and put in the newspaper and image clips into the sequence. This will all be done when we return from our break. So far though it’s going well and I’m looking forward to seeing the finished piece.

Second Shoot

2008-12-08T04:53:00.000-08:00

We had our second shoot on Saturday which went really well. We arrived at 12 and began filming straight away. This gave us loads of time to shoot every shot in our opening sequence, and also meant that the shots filmed last week could be re-shot, giving us more choice. We had planned already to re-shoot many shots, such as the waking up scene and the rummaging in the wardrobe, therefore it was very useful.

We started by recording the dialogue that Ben will say while he is on the phone to his mother. This means that if the dialogue is unclear in the shots we film, we can add this in after.

During filming, we managed to get more successful shots in less takes due to more organisation such as a shot list that we followed well, which meant we had more time to finish and spend longer on other shots. This also meant that we could film some shots that weren’t planned, such as from different angles and distances. This gives us a lot more variety and makes it much easier when editing.

We also filmed other types of shots such as altering the first few shots to the man having a nightmare and we see this while he’s sleeping as he’s twisting and turning. Then as he wakes up and sits up abruptly, it cuts to a shot directly in front of him and he’s breathing heavily. We also thought of an idea to have sound such as bombs and gun shots while he’s having a nightmare and this also stops suddenly when he wakes up. The soundtrack would then gradually fade in. This was just an idea that we thought of on the day, therefore we will see how it turned out during editing, and make a decision of whether to include it in or not.

Lighting in the house was a lot brighter than last week. This means the shots we film will be lighter, clearer and of better quality. Then if we want to darken any shots, we can do this on the computer whilst editing to get the effect that we are aiming for.

Shots that we couldn’t do last week due to not having the props were done today, such as the pan of the war photos and medal.

After receiving feedback yesterday from Mrs B about the poppies in the draw, we decided to line the draw with black material, and have five poppies lined up extremely neatly in a line under the knife, signifying that he has five more to kill. This would match the five men not crossed out in the photo, but circled in red.

Overall the shoot went really well, just hope its all ok when we edit. [There are a few photos on the group blog]

Next Week:
-Shot of the news on the television.
-Any re-shoots.
-Lots of editing.

Script

2008-12-04T14:08:00.000-08:00

Below, is the final draft of our script; which takes place between the protagonist and his mother, over the phone. We will only be able to hear his side of the conversation, therefore we didn't write out a script for the mother.

[phone rings]

Killer:
[picks up the phone]
Hello...? Oh hi mum, yeah I'm fine.

The camera pans across the window-sill to show the blacked out photograph of his battalion, and a war medallion.

It then cuts to the killer again, tracking him as he heads towards the kitchen

I just saw it now; [ironically] it's awful how they keep finding more bodies...

[Pauses in wait for his mother's response]

I'm not a soldier anymore mum...[shows slight sign of distress] I left that behind years ago.

[Assertively; almost resentfully] Look, I'll be fine; if there's one thing I learnt out there, it was how to look after myself

[Turns to look at the drawer]

I'm just on my way out, can I call you back later?

Okay, take care, bye mum.

As he puts the phone down, he moves towards the drawer. On opening it, we see a close up of several poppies and a knife inside. He places the knife in his back pocket, picks up a poppy, and leaves the house.

Anticipation of Problems Summary

2008-12-02T14:15:00.000-08:00

In the lesson today, our group came up with a list of things that we have identified as our strengths and weaknesses so far in the project. In summary, we found that:

We thought our organisational skills were pretty good. We had one incident involving equipment, where Selina forgot to hand in the Group Folder along with the camera. However, in general we tend to plan things out beforehand, therefore we are very well organised on shoots; so as to assure that no time is wasted etc.
Initially, we had a slight problem with communication. For example we had made plans without getting the teacher's approval. Also one of us was absent without informing the rest of the group therefore it was difficult to organise things. Nevertheless, we have all learnt from these errors and have improved our communication. Now we are extremely good at communicating with each other - we say how we feel, we update our blogs with thoughts and reflections and we all have each other's phone numbers, in case of emergencies. We feel that communication is now really one of our strongest points.
We are particularly good when it comes to the technical side of things. Whoever is in charge of returning the equipment always knows to fully charge the batteries and lights, ready for the next shoot. We all know how to use the equipment we were given and we all have a very decent knowledge of camera techniques (i.e. framing, shot types, continuity etc). This makes the shoots run smoother and more efficiently as we all know how to use the equipment.
Finally, and probably our strongest area, is the group dynamics. Because there are only three of us, it would be difficult for us to form 'divisions' within the group etc. Also because there are always so many tasks to be carried out, we all make sure we contribute as best we can; be it with the planning, shooting, editing or blogging. Whenever there is a problem, we usually all see it and try to tackle it together, respecting each other's opinions without being rude or getting personal. We have had no fights so far and we are really pleased with our progress.

The Real Shoot

2008-11-30T05:53:00.000-08:00

We had our real shoot yesterday which went really well. We all arrived at 12 to finish paperwork for an hour or so. This was really helpful as it meant we could finish a script for Ben, with his dialogue on the phone to his mother. We tried to make it as realistic as possible and avoided the comical effect that we got when we did it during the test shoot.

We did manage to shoot quite a few shots, however we didn’t shoot all the shots for the opening sequence. This was firstly down to time, something as simple as a feet shot (when he got out of bed) took nearly 20 takes to get it perfect. Also the shot of the character going down the stairs was quite difficult as Ben is so tall, he kept banging his head on the ceiling above the stairs, this took another 12 takes. The lighting was also different to the test shoot, it was darker, therefore we had to use the lighting equipment which took quite long to get looking perfect in the shot. Apart from this though, we did take some good shots that will hopefully work, looking forward to watching it properly next week.

Another reason that we couldn’t shoot all the shots was that we didn’t have all the props necessary, such as all the poppies for the draw and the photo of the battalion and war medal for the pan across the shelf. However we plan to do these all next week.

Overall the shoot went really well and we know exactly what shots we have left to film, and hoping the shots that we took yesterday turn out good. There are also a few photos on the group blog.

Meeting Before Shoot

2008-11-28T05:26:00.000-08:00

In our lesson today, we were preparing for our real shoot tomorrow.
A rough idea of what we did:
-Ben managed to complete a rough storyboard that we can follow for the shoot.
-We started our script, which we plan to finish and finalise before we shoot tomorrow.
-In the lesson, we also developed the war idea further, by thinking of props that we could add in, especially relating to war.
-We’ve decided to add in shots such as, a track along a shelf, showing a war medal, a photo of a battalion with certain faces marked out with a cross on the photo. Also a shot of the character opening the wardrobe to get changed and the audience seeing a solider uniform. This is right at the start so it will immediately give a slight clue to the audience.
-We’ve decided to film slightly later in the day, to get less bright daylight into the shots, in order to create the right atmosphere.
-Changed the shot of where he picks up the knife, to a shot of him taking it out of a draw in the kitchen.

I feel prepared for the shoot tommorrow, I think we have done everything that we need and that is urgent, we just have to complete the script for dialogue and finalise our shooting script, and we'll be ready to go.

Props

2008-11-28T05:15:00.000-08:00

Props List:
-Knife
-Photos (of a battalion with marked crosses through some faces)
-War Medal
-Solider Uniform (hanging in wardrobe)
-Dog Tags
-Poppies
-Phone
-Mug of Tea
-Newspapers (added in on the computer)
-Ben’s Costume – white t-shirt, jeans (a normal daily outfit, again emphasising the fact that he is an average guy, therefore becoming more shocking when we discover that he is the killer. The colour white also means the dog tags stand out.)

The war signifiers are what the audience see glimpses of throughout the sequence, which shows them who he is and also makes them aware that he is the killer, after hearing the news broadcast on the television and seeing the newspaper headlines.

Images in Jarhead, typical images that represent war:

Test Shoot Sequence

2008-11-27T05:13:00.000-08:00

After watching the test shoot sequence, it gave me a chance to see what our final sequence will look similar to, what worked well and what didn’t work so well. It was quite simple to edit together as it is a continuity sequence. There were parts that I was very happy with, but I also noticed quite a few problems with it.

Problems we came across were:
-A few issues with continuity – some parts of the sequence don’t flow so well and it therefore looks unrealistic. The shots in the real opening sequence can be cut up with the shots of the flashes of newspapers and headlines; this could avoid any continuity problems that make the sequence look odd. We also need to watch for other continuity errors, such as the kitchen light was off in one shot, and the next shot it was suddenly on.
-The time of day - we shot the sequence during the day, which meant it was very bright. Despite the fact that we want to make the guy seem quite normal, with a normal day and starting off with him waking up, and then a shock at the end, we thought the sequence was slightly too bright, which didn’t fit the atmosphere that we wanted to create. For the real shoot, we can film it later in the day, to make it slightly darker.
-The script – for the test shoot, we didn’t have a proper script ready for Ben to read off of. Therefore it was made up on the spot, for the shots of him on the phone to his mother. This made it come across as quite comical and cheesy. For the real shoot, we will have to write a real script for him to learn and read off of.

Main Character Profile

2008-11-26T14:18:00.000-08:00

This is the protagonist in our opening sequence - the infamous "Poppy Killer". He is an ex-soldier; having served in the Iraq War, where he was stranded by his battalion and had to fight his way out of the war zone alone. On returning back home, he makes it his mission to track down those who betrayed him, and seek his revenge...

We have decided to leave his name unknown, possibly throughout the whole film, but definitely in the opening sequence to emphasise his mystery. He will be referred to as The Poppy Killer, in the news broadcasting and in the newspapers. This is the only information that people know about this murderer as after killing his victims, he leaves a poppy by their side (a signifier of death and related to war.)We thought that Ben would play the role of him well because on the surface our character needs to represent a normal man but on the inside lays his dark secret.

This photo shows that this character will be wearing a green shirt over a white top which resembles the sort of clothing worn by soldiers whilst off-duty. His dog tags are a reminder of the war he was in and he is wearing a poppy in honour of those who were killed, and those who will be killed...

Test Shoot

2008-11-24T05:07:00.000-08:00

We had our Test Shoot today, we shot both original ideas that we had and have made a decision to go ahead with the idea about a killer getting up, getting ready and off to kill another. We made this choice because we came across many problems with the other idea. I’m happy with this decision and think this opening sequence could work really well.
On the Test Shoot, me and Selina shared the roles of camera person, director, sound and production assistant. This was because Ben was in all the shots. We shared the roles fairly equally, and managed to shoot roughly the same amount of shots, giving us both practice for the real shoot.

The problems with my idea were:
-Location. The garage was too cluttered to get to the corner and we couldn’t find another one to film in.

-Acting. During our test shoot acting was a struggle and we thought it would be difficult to find someone who was suitable and wouldn’t mind acting in it.

However, whilst filming the other idea, we didn’t really come across many problems and discovered that it was fairly easy to film. We also timed what he had filmed and it came to 1min 45secs, therefore with credits, titles and other shots added in, such as newspaper articles, it should be close to the 2mins. We have also developed the idea further and made decisions of things that we could add in, such as the man having a conversation on the phone with his mother, in order to add in some dialogue. It will also make it quite creepy as the man will come across as a ‘mummy’s boy,’ having a larger impact on the audience when they discover he is in fact the murderer. Also the shot of where he picks up the knife, we decided to change to him taking it out of a draw, whilst in the kitchen. We thought this would look more effective, as it shows him opening the draw, and he audience are unsure what for, them see the knife.
We have also had an idea to develop the plot, about maybe something to do with the Iraq War. The killer could have been involved in the war, and now he is out on revenge to the other soldiers who gave up.
This gives us potential to add in slight hints related to the war, such as a solider uniform, dog tags, poppies, photos of a battalion (marked crosses though them to signify who has been killed). Then the clips and flashes of newspapers and headlines will make the audience completely aware of who he is. The newspapers will be in black and white, therefore we could add the red poppies to make them stand out.

Before the real shoot we had to have:
-Storyboarded our final idea with all the detail and changes, this will help us visualise it on the real shoot and therefore help with the shots.
-Decide on an icon that will signify the murders and be left with the victims (possibly a poppy)
-Research into newspaper things – headlines.
-Write the script for the conversation on the phone.
-Think about the overall idea and develop it a little.
-Decide on all the props needed for the real shoot.
-Maybe start thinking about possible soundtracks.

My Responsibilities

2008-11-23T14:40:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is going to be our first shoot as a group and I’m looking forward to testing out both of our ideas. Hopefully, from this we can make a final decision about which idea we shall go ahead with.

Tomorrow we will be arriving at 10am to Selina’s house and it’s my responsibility to bring the tripod and the mic. As Ben will be acting, it is mine and Selina’s role to direct, film and check sound during shooting.

Meeting

2008-11-19T05:01:00.000-08:00

Next Meeting
During this meeting, we still couldn't make a decision on what idea to go ahead with. We gathered feedback from different people but they all had different opinions. We agreed with the positives and negatives that they put towards the ideas.
We have therefore decided to Test Shoot both ideas on Monday. From this we will see what types of shots work and which ones don't work so well. We can also test lighting and the location ideas for both openings.
From this Test Shoot, we hope to make our decision based mainly on what we found.
After we have made our decision, we will work towards finalising the location and sorting out the shots that we will do. We will also finalise our actors. If we choose the idea with just one character, we will just use Ben. However if we choose the other idea with the two main characters (the boy and the girl) we will also use Ben but will have to find a girl that will fit the role and can also act. She'd have to look like a typical, innocent female, that has got caught up in this situation that she doesn't want to be in. We would then test out the actor/s, take pictures and make them act scenes out. If we use the boy and girl, we would have to make sure they work well together and fit the idea.

Idea For Film Opening

2008-11-18T10:15:00.000-08:00

I had an original idea which is slightly similar to the idea below, but changed bits after talking to Miss and realising that something simpler and easier to shoot would be more suitable, and also effective as an opening. It has the same overall concept and themes, but the idea that would be shown in the sequence is different. My original idea involved the same start, but had a different flashback that was all one sequence. It involved the killer following and stalking the girl and killing her. There was also another character involved (the girl’s boyfriend.) However we decided that this idea was too complicated to shoot and difficult with a lot of camera movement, point of view shots etc. It also seemed extremely time consuming, especially as we only have a limited amount of time to complete it. We therefore came up with another idea which I like more and think is a lot better.

The idea:
It's based around an obsessive killer, whose fixation causes him to do something he may regret. The scene would open on a male character sitting in the corner of a dark, empty room (however we just need to show the corner and could have a prop like a tray of food.) He seems quite disturbed and is therefore rocking back and forth, shivering, mumbling to himself and generally acting like he’s not quite right in the head. Then there can be a close-up of his feet (bare foot, dirty etc.) and it tilts up to introduce him properly as a character. He’s looking down at first but then looks up, straight into the camera. We will then enter his thoughts (zoom into eyes?) and see what he is thinking about. It will cut to him and this girl together, hugging, seeming happy but there is something going on. During this it will cut back to him in the corner. From the shots of the boy and girl, it will gradually begin to show them arguing, (she’s dumping him, but it’s completely unexpected to the boy). The boy is so in love that it has turned into an obsession and he can’t accept or understand why she is doing this. It then starts to get increasingly violent between the boy and girl, where the boy starts to get frustrated. Example of a shot could be she touches his arm saying “I’m sorry,” and in return he grabs her arm violently. There can be dialogue added in such as, Girl – “you’re hurting me,” “what’s wrong with you?!” “get off!” He’s silent. Throughout these shots, we will inter-cut with the shots of him in the corner, getting more and more uncomfortable, upset, distressed, seems like he’s suffering a lot. Eventually he kills the girl, and it abruptly cuts back to him in the corner, where he is sweating, breathing heavily. The final shot will be of the sound of the door opening and a woman (nurse?) entering and saying something like “here’s your medication,” and then it shows how the man is reluctant to take it.

The shots of the boy and girl could be shot in one sequence and then cut up into different shots that we will flash back to in the opening sequence. The shots of the boy in the corner can also be shot as one sequence, or a few and then cut up. For location, we would just need one room for the boy and girl and just a dark corner for the boy.

“If I can’t have her…no one can”

Possible Titles:
Obsession
Fixation
Love Obsession

Meetings

2008-11-18T08:37:00.000-08:00

Second Meeting:
Our second group meeting didn’t have Selina; therefore we didn’t have her idea to compare. However, Ben and I went into more detail with the other idea and researched certain aspects of the opening sequence. We decided on parts we could add to the sequence to make it even more effective and planned some shots that we could test on our test shoot. We mainly concentrated on the shots that could be used in detail, and used the storyboard as a basic outline. We also thought about dialogue and sound effects. For the next meeting, we plan to make the choice of idea final and start going into more detail with that idea, for example different shots. This will then prepare us for shots that we could test on the approaching test shoot.

Group Meetings

2008-11-17T09:46:00.000-08:00

First Meeting:
During our first group meeting for this project, Ben, Selina and I were concentrating on ideas that could be used for the opening sequence and whether it would fit our chosen genre of thriller/horror.
We had a few ideas that would work and managed to cut them down to my idea and Selina’s idea. However, we could not make a decision on which idea to go ahead with. We therefore decided to go off and consider our ideas in more detail and roughly storyboard them to make it more visual. We did this to make the process of choosing an idea easier.

Group Discussion – Initial Ideas

2008-11-17T09:00:00.000-08:00

During our first lesson as a group today, we brainstormed some possible ideas and storylines that we could use for our film opening. As we were all interested in the thriller/horror genre and thought this could be the most effective as an opening, we developed ideas based around this. It has very specific generic signifiers so we thought we could produce something effective and recognisable for this genre.

As a group, we started by identifying and listing significant conventions generally seen in thriller and horror movies. This included:
-Typical themes – revenge, obsession, murder, stalking, being watched, fear
-Characters – male villain, woman victim
-Locations – ordinary home, abandoned buildings, alleyways, dark isolated places
-Key iconography – weapons (knives), blood, shadows, candles
-Lighting – dark, low key, unnatural light
-Camera movement - canted angles, zooms and jump cuts to create sense of disorientation, fear, paranoia
-Editing – alternating the pace of cuts to create and build tension
-Sound – screams, heartbeat, breathing, creaks, weather, creepy music

By the end of our discussion, we had produced a few ideas. The two that we most liked and thought would be the most practical are:
''Rose Killer'' idea - day in the life of the notorious killer, except we don't know it is him until the end
''Obsession'' idea - based on an obsessive man who killed his girlfriend out of his love-fueled fixation on her

We will develop these ideas further in a group meeting later.

Preliminary Task - Evaluation

2008-11-13T09:41:00.000-08:00

1. Who did you work with and how did you manage the task between you?
My group consisted of me, Aarti, Nick and Simon. We split the tasks between us and mainly stuck to those specific roles. Planning and shooting jobs were shared quite equally. During shooting, Nick and Simon were the main actors, and Aarti and I split roles in the production process. We tried to split the roles of Director, Production Assistant, Camera Person and Sound Technician equally between us. During shots where one actor was not needed, they usually contributed to the shooting aspect by becoming a camera person. During editing, we also shared the jobs equally, with each of us spending the same amount of time on it each. We’d spend about 10 minutes editing and then rotate, so the next person could try.

2. How did you plan your sequence? What processes did you use?
During planning, we all made contributions to the ideas for the short clip and techniques to use when shooting and editing. We decided on a location and then we all created the shot list between us and placed them in the order they would appear in. We did this with the help of a basic diagram of the location. We then shared the storyboarding of the shots, each drawing a specific amount of shots (4 each as the total was 16). Nick and Simon then created the script for dialogue. We then had a walkthrough of the action and dialogue to make sure it worked and looked right. The planning process meant it was a lot clearer and we were very prepared when it came to filming it.

3. What technology did you use to complete the task, and how did you use it?
During shooting we used a digital, mini-dv camera, tripod and a microphone with headphones. The camera was attached to the tripod in order to manipulate it into different positions, angles and distances. A microphone and headphones were attached to the camera and the mic was pointed in the direction of the action. This gave us clearer sound and helped mainly with dialogue in the scene. During editing, we used the programme Adobe Premier Pro to do non-linear editing. It was fairly simple to use as we just used cuts and had prepared the order of the shots beforehand. The shots were based on a timeline that we could zoom into and cut up the clips. We added a title to the start and also added a fade effect at the end to make it less abrupt.

4. What factors did you have to take into account when planning, shooting and editing?
When planning, shooting and editing our sequence, there were many factors that we had to consider. Firstly we had to think about the brief and plan something around this basic outline. We also had to think about our limits on time and therefore we needed action that would be able to be shot in the allocated time, and we also needed simple editing. With the location, we had to consider its suitability and whether it would fit with our sequence. With this, we had to take into consideration any background noise and how we would control it, this also includes keeping the area we needed clear so that no one walked into our shot whilst we were filming, that weren’t actors. We also had to consider whether lighting would be a problem; however it wasn’t as we chose to film in the media block which was brightly lit anyway, and this also meant weather wasn’t an issue. During planning, we had to produce a shot list and therefore consider angles, distances, camera movement and continuity techniques such as the 180 degree rule. During editing, we cut up the shots with about 1 second free either side, to make sure we didn’t cut off too much. This technique was also used in shooting, where after ‘Action’ and ‘Cut’ we would leave a couple of seconds.

5. How successful was your sequence? Please identify what worked well, and with hindsight, what would you improve/do differently?
The main aim for this task was to present good continuity, and I think we did this quite well with our clip. I thought our match on actions in the sequence were very successful and flowed well. This happens when Nick is entering the room, from pushing the door handle, we see his hand, entering the room, placing the bag on the table, opening the book, Simon looking over his shoulder, and then showing Simon’s POV of the book. The acting by the two actors comes accross as quite natural, which we wanted to show. There is also no issues with lighting. There is a bit of camera sound, however this is extremely difficult to avoid. Also I thought the dialogue was clear enough anyway, so the extra sound didn’t really affect the sequence much. In hindsight, I would make the initial pan slightly smoother, however I don’t believe there were any obvious continuity errors that we could have changed.

6. What have you learnt from completing this task? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing the rest of your foundation coursework, do you think?
From completing this task, I have learnt that continuity is an extremely vital part of any piece of film. We tried to keep the sequence simple as we had to follow the brief, whilst still expressing the use of good continuity techniques, however it has shown that planning and preparation for this before shooting is very important. I noticed that if you plan all shots; the types of shots, the order to shoot them and where they will be edited together, it results in clearer and smooth shooting and editing. When I come to do the rest of my coursework I think this learning will be significant, as it has shown me what sort of planning I should do, techniques I can use during shooting and has reminded me of editing techniques.

Horror Film Posters

2008-11-04T14:34:00.001-08:00

These ‘Saw’ posters definitely represent a horror movie. The main focus of them is the body parts displayed; part of an arm and part of a leg and foot. Both posters anchor the title and therefore give an idea to the audience as to what the film is about. The title of the film is pretty self explanatory; however the body parts anchor the meaning further. The arm and leg are also very repulsive and disgusting, showing people the genre. At the top of each poster, there are also parts of an image of a saw, again representing the title. The use of blood which is associated with death also shows what may take place in the film. Despite the fact that the main colour used in the background didn’t really follow the conventions of other horror posters I looked at which mainly used black to make it a dark background, it is still effective in representing a horror movie.
Every puzzle has its pieces...

This poster for the horror movie ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ represents the film well. The main image shows one of the main characters with their mouth covered up by an odd looking hand. This immediately alerts the audience that the characters will be in danger and there will be enemies to fight. She has blood on her face which emphasises the fear further as this colour is related to death and danger. The woman’s expression also shows extreme fright, and this can especially be seen clearly in her eyes. The background helps set the scene and this is related to the title as it is hills. This shows the audience where the film will be based and an area like this seems quite isolated. Overall, I think the poster represents the film well and the feelings/themes that will be conveyed, especially fear by the characters and audience.

The lucky ones die first...

This horror poster of ‘The Ring 2’ is different to the previous ones as it doesn’t really reveal much to the audience. It features a young girl sitting on a seat and looking down towards the floor. Her face is concealed by long black hair, leaving the audience unaware of what she looks like, possibly ready to shock them in the film. She seems quite isolated in a deserted room, leaving the audience feeling quite sorry for her as she is highlighted in this dark, empty room, but seems trapped. This use of lighting creates mystery and the use of black was a common convention that I saw associated with horror films. This sinister and mysterious atmosphere created by the poster all creates enigma as the audience are unaware as to what will happen. The use of the ring above the girls hard relates to the actual title, and the font relates to a child’s handwriting. The overall feeling of the poster created is quite mysterious, setting up a feeling within the audience that will make them want to watch the film.

Fear comes full circle...

Film Scriptwriting

2008-11-02T12:31:00.000-08:00

Things to think about when Scriptwriting:

1. Every scene should have a purpose and move the story forward
You should be looking to achieve something with every scene. Every scene should also move the story forward in terms of both the plot and character and each scene should connect and develop to the last scene.
2. Don’t tell when you can show
Movies are a visual medium, so be as visual as possible. There are times when it is more appropriate to tell. If you’re reaching the climax of an action packed scene then telling the reader makes events seem more sudden and gives them an instant impact.
3. Walk and talk
Wherever you have dialogue the characters should also be thrust into action. The audience's attention should be kept throughout the short time available to tell the story.
4. A scene should have a beginning, middle and end
A good scene should stand alone as dramatic while tying into the previous scene and leading to the next. Have a character with a goal, setback and some sort of conclusion while leaving a loose end for the next scene to take up.
5. Avoid unnecessary scenes
Don’t have any unnecessary dialogue or action scenes. The best way to achieve this is to start each scene as close to the end as possible.
6. Pace your scenes
“Never blow the world up in the beginning of the scene or you’ll have nowhere to go.”
While it’s perfectly acceptable and even advisable to start a scene with a big event to grip the reader/viewer you want to save the biggest and best until last. The closer to the story climax the quicker the pace should be. Keep throwing obstacle after obstacle at your main character.
7. Finish the scene dramatically
When you reach the end of the scene you should always aim to leave the main character with some sort of decision. Make the viewer want to know what is going to happen next. Use a cliff-hanger, a reversal or a revelation to raise their interest level. This adds twists and makes a story captivating.
8. Transition smoothly between scenes
The best way of creating a smooth transition between scenes is to finish on a certain image and then start the new scene with a similar image. A good transition allows the story to flow smoothly and can add a certain level of cohesion.
9. Define an emotion or mood
In a screenplay every main character should have some sort of ultimate goal. Each scene should work towards that character achieving their goal. Sometimes the attempt will fail or not work as planned, leaving the character frustrated and angry. Other times they will succeed and be driven on to push towards their goal even harder.
10. Have a motivated conflict
Conflict drives a story forward, no matter how big or small.

A good script has the following:
· A main character who is driven towards achieving a goal
· An opposition to your main character who will hold your main character back from achieving their goal
· A fight (literal or metaphorical) between your main character and their opposition
· An ending which answers the questions "Can the main character achieve his goal?"
Scripts should present such a story, along with a well thought out main character who the audience can relate to.

The opening of a film is extremely important and should setup the rest of the script, capture the mood of the story and hook the reader right away.
Here are several types of opening that you can use to start your film, which can also be combined:
The Blatant Opening - Within a few moments you know exactly who the hero is and what the movie will be about. For example The James Bond series use this type of opening. The blatant opening works particular well for action films, a fast, intense opening will hook the reader and keep them flicking through the script.
A Regular Day - In this opening you will put over the pace of life in a regular day for your main character. Then an event will happen which breaks the normality of your character’s life, one which they will need to rectify for their life to return to the way it was.
True Beginning - The script starts right along with the start of the story for the main character.
Dramatic Irony - This is the only beginning that won’t contain your main character. Instead you give the audience some information that your main character won’t know and will soon affect his/her life greatly. Dramatic irony allows the audience to be in a superior position and sets up both tension and anticipation.
Foreshadowing - This opening takes place before your main story begins and anticipates what is going to happen later in the story. Like the dramatic irony opening the audience is placed in a position to predict what is going to happen. This is often used for doomsday and horror movies.
Narrator - The narrator can be the hero, a secondary character or just a stand alone narrator. The narrator tells the story of the events which happened to the main character at an important time in their life.
Flash forward - The flash forward has two stories running side by side simultaneously. The A story is the main story; the B story is of the narrator looking back. The B story has a narrator who tells the main story, which has already happened. At certain points in the story there’s a flash forward to the narrator who continues with his tail.
Montage - This is a useful type of opening if you have a lot of information to get across before the main story begins. Also known as a shotgun, a collection of short clips that accelerate through the information until the story properly begins. Then the speed of the story can slow down to a regular pace. In a matter of minutes you can explain years of your main characters life.

More info on Scriptwriting: http://www.filmscriptwriting.com/

Film Budgeting

2008-11-01T04:55:00.000-07:00

Budgeting is an important aspect of film production.

During script development, filmmakers produce a rough budget to convince film producers and film studios to give them a greenlight for production. During pre-production, a more detailed film budget is produced.

A budget is typically divided into four sections:
Above-the-line (creative talent)
Below-the-line (direct production costs)
Post-production (editing, visual effects, etc)
Other (insurance, completion bond, etc).

Elements of the Budget:
Story rights: The right to produce a film based on a play, novel, or new story. Can be paid on average £15000-£100000.
Screenplay: An A-list screenwriter can be paid roughly £25000-£50000 to write the first three drafts of a script.
Dialog writer: Can be paid £25000-£50000.
Director: The minimum they can usually be paid is £250000 for one movie up to 1st release, for a minimum of ten weeks' work. Traditionally, a director's salary is about 7 percent of the final budget.
Cast: An A-list actor can ask for hundreds of thousands of pounds, but this usually moves into the millions if they are very successful. The rest of the cast, often come out much worse with many being paid the Screen Actors Guild minimum. Sometimes an actor will accept a minimal fee in exchange for a lucrative share of the profits.
Production costs: The cost of shooting the film including sets, wardrobe, location filming, hotels and transportation. The most prestigious productions will often employ the most successful, and therefore most expensive crew.
Visual effects: If required can cost hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Music: The top film composers can ask for a six-figure salary, so if the music is original in the film it can be very expensive, with all the expanses, rights etc.

The budget can also be used as an advertising tool. For blockbuster movies, high budgets are advertised to imply that the film will be worth watching. People would trust in watching the film more if they knew it was very expensive.

Going over budget:
In the US film production system, producers are not allowed to exceed the budget. Exceptions have of course been made, one of the most notable examples being Titanic.
In other countries, producers who exceed their budget tend to eat the cost by receiving less of their producer's fees. While the US system is profitable and can afford to go over budget, other countries' film industries tend to be financed through government subsidies.

For our project of filming an opening sequence, we do not have a large budget to contribute to producing it. Therefore we have to rely on other methods to keep our sequence looking as professional as possible.We will not be spending any money on people involved in making it, as we will be the main crew, and we will choose some people to help as the cast. Choice of locations are also limited, therefore we have to use places where we do not have to pay, but are still suitable for our shots. Special effects does not really need to be taken into consideration as we will not really be using them as our budget will not reach this. A small amount of money may be spent on costume, make-up, backgrounds and props but this will be kept to a minimum and in most cases it will be borrowed.

Beginning Of 'The Descent'

2008-10-31T04:28:00.000-07:00

The opening sequence begins with titles introducing the production company. This text is displayed using a wipe effect against a dark background and flashes of lights are seen occasionally. This sets the tone of the whole movie, where the girls are eventually stuck in the dark in a cave, have slight glimmer of hopes, but can’t seem to find an escape route and encounter dangerous situations. It is accompanied with quite creepy music, which seems to show an approaching disaster.

The film begins with a family and their friends on a trip doing white water rafting. There is screaming and laughter, but the audience still seems to get a feeling that an accident and tragedy will take place now. This is down to the camera techniques used, for example the hand-held, jerky movements of close-ups in the boat. There is also a use of wider shots to set the scene.

As we are introduced to the characters, we are also shown that the man and little girl standing on the rock are related to one of the women, as the little girl shouts “mummy!” at 0:36. They are shown again at 1:15 clapping and waving. This shows that the women in the boat are out of danger, for now, as the audience are unaware as to what will happen next, but are relieved for the moment.

The use of slow motion at 1:02 builds tension as it shows they are falling clearly and keeps the audience, as well as the occupants of the boat anxious. This also shows that they are heading for disaster.

The next few seconds of conversation and laughter shows the strong bond between the people, but as it reaches 2 minutes, the audience are made aware that something is not quite right, and possibly, one of the friends likes the other’s husband or is having an affair with him, this is shown at 1:55, 2:01, 2:10 and 2:17. The third friend notices this at 2:12, but as the man returns to his family at 2:14, the disappointment is shown on the woman’s face. This all begins to show the breakdown of friendships that will occur as a main theme throughout the film, due to the situation that they find themselves in.

At 2:33 the scene changes to the family returning home in their car. There is no music, just the background sound of the car and conversation between them. The conversation between the mother and daughter portrays happy family life, but this soon changes as the woman turns to her husband who replies quite bluntly and seems distant. This is to be their last words, as the man isn’t watching the road, we hear the breaks of a car and there is a car accident, where the poles go through the car killing the man and daughter. There is then a crane shot which moves out to show the disaster of the accident and the shot fades to black. This portrays the death of the characters.

The next scene then enters the dream of the woman, who is currently in hospital. The music used is very eerie; the shot begins out of focus, showing just the candles on the birthday cake of the daughter. This again symbolises the darkness they will enter. As the camera tracks in towards the cake, it becomes in focus and we are able to read the writing ‘Happy Birthday Jessica’ on the cake and are made aware that it would have been her fifth birthday. We then hear the little girl blowing out the candles, and this sound is enhanced and exaggerated, making the shot seem unnatural, and therefore a dream. It then cuts to the woman lying in the hospital bed who is shown to be disturbed at this memory, but the audience are made aware that it is still part of her dream due to the use of low key lighting that doesn’t look very natural. It is then cut back to the little girl who is shown fully in this shot and all the candles are blown out, moving straight to a black shot, again signifying the darkness that surrounds the woman at the moment, and what she is going to encounter in the future.

At 3:43, it cuts back to the woman at a medium close-up, who we believe is beginning to wake up, as she looks around the hospital room. The audience hears the sound of hospital the machine beeping, which becomes a consistent sound as the woman removes the wires and we feel the sense of her urgency.

At 4:11, it cuts to a deserted and dark hospital corridor, as the character moves into the shot at a medium shot and calls for her daughter. It then cuts to an extreme long shot, and we are shown just how isolated the woman is. This signifies the people she has lost (her family) and how she now feels alone. The corridor frames the shot as a tunnel, and in the distance, we see darkness approaching and closing in on her as each light goes out. As she turns and realises this, it cuts to a medium close-up at 4:22 and we see the character’s expression of shock and horror. This shot is quite strange as the camera doesn’t seem to move, but the background seems to be moving, this gives the effect that escape is further away.

At 4:25 it cuts to the woman looking back into darkness and realising that she has to run to avoid this darkness. As she runs and passes under each light, they turn off and it turns black, giving the feeling that she can’t escape the darkness and it feels very claustrophobic. It seems the faster she runs, the faster it closes in on her.

At 4:38 however, it cuts to the back of her and begins to give a bit of hope. The camera stays in the darkness, but shows the woman heading for light. However the darkness catches up and the screen goes pitch black again.

At 4:45 it then cuts to the woman running into the arms of her friend and the audience are made aware that it was a dream. This next scene is very emotional, as the woman grieves for her lost loved ones. She completely breaks down in tears and falls to the floor. The camera then circles her, showing that she is in this nightmare that never seems to end. This is shown when the film ends in a cliff-hanger, and she is still stuck in the cave.

At 5:07, it then cuts to a close-up of her friend also crying, this really conveys the emotion felt by the characters. At 5:09, it then cuts back to the woman crying on the floor and reverse tracks. This shows the same corridor as before, one of the friends leaving, and the woman distraught on the floor with her friend.

It then fades to black and at 5:20, it introduces the title of the film ‘The Descent.’ This is in white font, but is wiped off the screen, leaving the screen black again. This again conveys the darkness, and we see a torch light effect again as before with the credits, signifying the whole theme of the film.

At 5:29, it cuts to a helicopter shot of a forest, which sets the scene and the audience is told that is in the mountains in the USA. The music hear is eerie again, which alerts us that another disaster might strike. We are also told that it is one year later, therefore we know time has passed since the accident. The area is shown to be deserted, emphasising their isolation when they are alone in the cave, or so they believed.

We then see the car they are travelling in, as the music changes to a slightly happier tone from the radio, and the woman talking. Then they turn off the radio and we are shown bullet holes through a road sign. The music changes back to the eerie type and we are shown their destination, ‘Chatooga National Park.’ However the fact that this sign has bullet holes through it, already signifies the danger they are entering.

As they approach the house they are staying in, the music changes to more adventurous music, to seem as if they are going on a journey. The rest of the scenes are just of the women meeting again and having conversations, seeming in a good mood, but unaware of what is going to happen.

The feelings sensed in the opening sequence are also conveyed in the trailer, as it states

Claustrophobia, Disorientation, Hallucination and Fear.

The Trailer:

Costume & Make-up in Horror Films

2008-10-30T13:16:00.000-07:00

Costume, hair and make-up are often a huge part of horror movies. They are part of what makes the films successful and as scary and shocking as possible.

An example of good costume and make-up is in the horror movie, ‘The Descent,’ (2005).

Plot Synopsis:
After a tragic accident, six friends reunite for a caving expedition. Their adventure soon goes horribly wrong when a collapse traps them deep underground and they find themselves pursued by strange, bloodthirsty creatures. As their friendships deteriorate, they find themselves in a desperate struggle to survive the creatures and each other. With a lack of supply, they fight for survival and they face the hunger and savage breed of predators.

SCREAM YOUR LAST BREATH!

Characters:
The whole construction of characters and their appearance is used to heighten the shock and fear in the film. The villains in the film are created as strange, unrecognizable creatures, and the dark cave adds to the mystery as to what they exactly are.

As well as these villains, the make-up of the main characters (the six friends) is essential, as their situation is shown to gradually deteriorate and a lot of make-up such as blood and slime is used to add to the fear.

Another example is in ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ (2006)

Plot Synopsis:
The Carters, an idyllic American family are travelling through the great American southwest, but their trip takes a detour into an area closed off from the public, but more importantly from society, due to being misled to a shortcut going to nowhere by the owner of an isolated gas station. An area originally used by the U.S. Government for nuclear testing that was intended to be empty...or so they thought? When the Carter's car breaks down at the old site, they're stranded...or are they? As the Carters may soon realize that what seemed like a car casually breaking down, might actually be a trap. This trap might be perpetrated by the inhabitants of the site who aren't pulling a prank, but are out to set up a gruesome massacre. Absolutely trapped by the psychotics, they have to fight to survive.

THE LUCKY ONES DIE FIRST…

Characters:
The group of deformed cannibals that begin to attack this family were created well using skilfully designed costumes and make-up. They are made to appear very savage and threatening, frightening the audience who are watching. This adds to the experience of watching a horror movie. As the audience feel for the main characters (the family), they realise that they are in danger as the creatures are unwilling to give up and determined to kill them. The villains’ appearance emphasises this feeling and the family find themselves in numerous dangerous situations.

The family member’s costumes are originally normal holiday makers clothes, but are also adapted as time passes. Time, attacks by the villains and injuries all affect the costumes, therefore they have to be changed to fit the storyline. For example there is use of a lot of blood and dirt added to garments.

Below is the trailer, which shows some of the costumes and make-up of the characters:

Sound

2008-10-29T12:24:00.000-07:00

Diegesis means the ‘world of film.’

Diegetic Sound: Sound that is part of the action is called diegetic sound and whose source is visible on the screen or whose source is implied to be present by the action of the film. If something seems to be part of the world of film, it is called diegetic (what we’d hear if it was in the film world.). eg. wind noise, screeching cars etc. They may also be added in after filming, or may be exaggerated for effect, eg. louder footsteps. The audience are aware that there are things taking place in the diegetic world around the edges of what we actually see on the screen.

Non-Diegetic Sound: It's not part of the film world and is added on. Sound whose source is neither visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in the action. For example a narrator's commentary, sound effects which are added on for the dramatic effect, mood music etc.
Sound is often added to create mood or atmosphere.

Sound Bridge: This is when the sound from one scene continues into or over the next scene. The images we see change but the sound is still from the previous scenes. A film will be very disjointed if there were no sound bridges. They create a wider, more coherent diegetic world. Gives the film a sense of linking and joining together – part of a film’s continuity.

On Screen: You can hear it and see it at the same time.

Off Screen: You can't see it, but can hear it, often in a sound bridge. Sometimes used to give us clues as to what is going on around us that we cannot see.

The use of on screen and off screen diegetic sound helps to create the sense of our viewing a three dimensional world, rather than a flat screen.

Contrapuntal Sound: This is when we hear sound that doesn’t really match what we are seeing.

Parallel Sound: The music tone and mood matches the action on screen.

Foley Track: Sound effects track. Some sounds need to be made from scratch and others enhanced. Foley artists enhance and create sounds to be added after filming.

Film Crew

2008-10-28T10:25:00.000-07:00

During my time when working on the ‘Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince’ film set, I also worked as a set runner where I worked under the direction of the 3rd AD. This gave me a chance to watch how the film was made behind the scenes and who was mainly involved.

A film crew is a group of people hired by a production company for the purpose of producing a film. Crew is distinguished from cast, the actors who appear in front of the camera and is also divided into different departments, each of which specializes in a specific aspect of the production.

There are many people on a film set, however I have just summarized below the main Film Crew involved when making a film:

Producer:
A film producer creates the conditions for making movies. The producer initiates, coordinates, supervises and controls matters such as raising funding, hiring key personnel, and arranging for distributors. The producer is involved throughout all phases of the filmmaking process from development to completion of a project.

Production Manager:
The production manager supervises the physical aspects of the production (not the creative aspects) including personnel, technology, budget, and scheduling. It is the production manager's responsibility to make sure the filming stays on schedule and within its budget. The PM also helps manage the day-to-day budget by managing operating costs such as salaries, production costs, and everyday equipment rental costs.

Director:
The director is responsible for overseeing the creative aspects of a film, including controlling the content and flow of the film's plot, directing the performances of actors, organizing and selecting the locations in which the film will be shot, and managing technical details such as the positioning of cameras, the use of lighting, and the timing and content of the film's soundtrack.

First Assistant Director:
The first assistant director (1st AD) assists the production manager and director. The ultimate aim of any 1st AD is to ensure the film comes in on schedule while maintaining a working environment in which the director, principal artists (actors) and crew can be focused on their work. He or she is in charge of overseeing the day-to-day management of the cast and crew scheduling, equipment, script, and set. A 1st AD may also be responsible for directing background action for major shots or the entirety of relatively minor shots, at the director's discretion.

Second Assistant Director:
The second assistant director (2nd AD) is the chief assistant of the 1st AD and helps carry out those tasks delegated to the 1st AD. The 2nd AD may also direct background action and extras in addition to helping the 1st AD with scheduling, booking, etc. The 2nd AD is responsible for creating Call Sheets that let the crew know the schedule and important details about the shooting day.

Production Assistant:
A production assistant assists the first assistant director with set operations. Production assistants, almost always referred to as PAs, also assist in the production office with general tasks.

Script Supervisor:
Also known as the "continuity person", the script supervisor keeps track of what parts of the script have been filmed and makes notes of any deviations between what was actually filmed and what appeared in the script. He or she makes notes on every shot, also keeping track of props, blocking, and other details to ensure that continuity is maintained from shot to shot, and from scene to scene. The Script Supervisor's notes are given to the Editor to expedite the editing process. The script supervisor works very closely with the director on set.

Stunt Coordinator:
Where the film requires a stunt, and involves the use of stunt performers, the stunt coordinator will arrange the casting and performance of the stunt, working closely with the director.

Director of Photography:
The director of photography is the chief of the camera and lighting crew of the film. The DP makes decisions on lighting and framing of scenes in conjunction with the film's director. Typically, the director tells the DP how he or she wants a shot to look, and the DP then chooses the correct aperture, filter, and lighting to achieve the desired effect.

Camera Operator:
The camera operator uses the camera at the direction of the cinematographer, director of photography, or the film director to capture the scenes on film.

Production Sound Mixer:
The production sound mixer is head of the sound department on set, responsible for recording all sound during filming. This involves the choice and deployment of microphones, operation of a sound recording device, and sometimes the mixing of audio signals in real time.

Hair and Make-Up:

Make-up artists are beauticians that apply makeup to anyone appearing on screen. Their role is to manipulate an actor’s on screen appearance whether it makes them look more youthful, larger, older, or in some cases monstrous. The hair stylist is responsible for maintaining and styling the hair of anyone appearing on screen. He or she works in conjunction with the makeup artist.

Costume

2008-10-27T10:17:00.000-07:00

Costume is a vital part in any film and the types of costume used can make a huge difference to a film.

During my work experience, I managed to work in the costume department and as a set runner on the ‘Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince’ film set. I mainly worked with Set Costume who stay on set at all times. This gave me a chance to see how a film is made behind the scenes.

Whilst working in costume, I saw the process of making garments, the different effects that could be added, the process of breaking it down and how they were changed to fit the storyline. The main effect that they used was the process of making the clothes look quite old and worn, in order to look as realistic as possible. Also, during a scene such as a fight, the clothes would gradually be torn, ripped and dirty, therefore many copies of the same garments are made, and the clothes are broken down in different stages, to also add realism.

I also saw other aspects of costume such as continuity, where they had to concentrate on making the costume identical if the same scene was shot at different times. This was vital, in order to not incur continuity errors.

An example of costume in a different Harry Potter film is in ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,’ where the director has given a brief and direction to the costume designer to place Dolores Umbridge (Senior Under-Secretary to Minister for Magic) in pink constantly. The garments change, but the colour is consistent throughout the film. This could be seen as ironic as pink generally represents girly, fluffy, soft etc. but Umbridge is not seen to be this type of character, in fact the opposite. Therefore this colour could be used to fool the audience into a false sense of security and add a twist.

People involved in Wardrobe:

Costume Designer :
The costume designer is responsible for all the clothing and costumes worn by all the actors that appear on screen. He or she is also responsible for designing, planning, and organizing the construction of the garments down to the fabric, colors, and sizes. The costume designer works closely with the director to understand and interpret "character", and counsels with the production designer to achieve an overall tone of the film.

Costume Supervisor:
The Costume Supervisor works closely with the designer. In addition to helping with the design of the costumes, he or she manages the wardrobe workspace. He or she is responsible for supervising the construction or sourcing of garments, the hiring and firing of support staff, the budget, paperwork, and department logistics.

Key Costumer:
The Key Costumer is employed on larger productions to manage the set costumers, and to handle the Star's wardrobe needs.

Costume Standby:
The Costume Standby is present on set at all times. It is his/her responsibility to monitor the quality and continuity of the actors and actresses costumes before and during takes. They will also assist the actors and actresses with dressing. This person is also known as a 'set costumer'.

Art Finisher:
An Art Finisher may be employed during the pre-production stage to "break down" garments. This specialised job includes making new clothing appear dirty, faded and worn. They are also known as breakdown artists.

Buyer:
On large productions a Buyer may be employed to source and purchase fabrics and garments. A buyer might also be referred to as a shopper. This distinction is often made when the lead actor in a production has control over their wardrobe, and they may personally hire this person.

Cutter/Fitter:
A costume technician who fits or tailors costumes, usually on-set. They can also be called cutters, seamstresses or tailors. Some celebrity actors have favorite cutters, and larger productions may hire several and have them on set at the same time, particularly in period film projects that might have complicated or extremely expensive extras wardrobe.

Horror Genre

2008-10-23T10:28:00.000-07:00

GENRE – Idea of repetition and difference

Horror Genre Conventions:

CHARACTERS:
Victims - Female
Male villain/killer - (distorted image? monster? demon? mask? psychotic?)
Human heroes
Children are common

THEMES/FEELINGS:
Eerie
Suspense
Shock
Secrecy
Fear
Anticipation
Tension
Jump
Heart Race
Nervous
Disturbing
Claustrophobic
Dramatic

COMMON NARRATIVE:
Stalking
Being watched
Obsession
Death/impending
Killing/murder
Psychopathic behaviour
Chase
Being Trapped
Superatural
Revenge
Jealousy
Lust/crimes of passion
Torture
Mutilation
Spying

LIGHTING:
Dark
Low Key Lighting
Unnatural light

ICONOGRAPHY/PROPS:
Blood
Gore
Mist
Shadows
Silhouettes
Weapons
Candles
Cloaks
Mask
Bloody Dagger

CAMERA MOVEMENT:
Distorted – different angles
Fast paced - action
Slow movements - tense moments
Tracks
Hand-held
Point Of View Shots
Enigmatic Shooting
Use of lots of close-ups

LOCATIONS:
The ordinary – home (bedrooms, bathrooms, basements)
Deserted/abandoned buildings
Forests
Hospitals
Dark Alleys
Dark Places
Haunted, isolated places

SOUND:
Screams
Heart Beat
Creaks
Weather – Thunder
Breathing
Silence
Creepy Music

Characters and Plots

2008-10-20T09:14:00.000-07:00

For this task, we were given 11 plots and had to pick two of them to use as examples of who we would cast in the films and why.

Plot Four:
The story is about a woman in London who is very wealthy.
Instead of spending money and sitting around all day, she has an ordinary job, does charity work, and enjoys being helpful and caring. Basically, she is a wonderful person who helps people because she wants to. She enjoys having money, but wants to feel normal, so she gets the tube to work every day. She gets the tube at the same time every morning and every evening. This is observed by her train driver.
He is a disturbed man in his late forties with an unhappy wife and an illegitimate 8 year old son who the man ignores. The train driver watches the woman every day, and becomes really intrigued as to what her life is like. He therefore begins to stalk her.
He finds out where she lives, and steals small, personal things from her, and his favourite item is one stud earring. One day he sees her get on the train with a man, who she kisses as she gets off the train. This makes the train driver go mad with jealousy and he decides to fulfil her wish of being normal – murderers go after “normal” people.
He waits until one day when she is alone in her carriage. At the next station, he tells everyone to get off the train, but doesn’t open the doors to her carriage. He takes her close to the end of the line, where he ties her to the train track. He attaches a note to her body – “bad things happen to good people, so why be good?” He leaves, and when the next train comes into that station, she is crushed.
You then see him get back into his driving pod and put the single stud earring on his dashboard. The camera pans to show rows of other single stud earrings sticking out of sponges. Each one is different and symbolises a woman he has stalked and killed.
The next day, the train driver notices another nice woman and his obsession continues…

Characters:
I chose to cast Nicole Kidman as the wealthy woman.

I made this decision because I believe she would play the role well. She has an appearance that represents the characteristics of the woman in the story.

She has an image that shows elegance, sophistication and wealth. Whilst at the same time, she looks ordinary, approachable and seems kind. She is also attractive and therefore likely to attract male attention; therefore it is believable that the train driver spots her out of others. As well as these characteristics, she also looks quite innocent and naïve, making her an easy victim to choose.

She has had successful appearances in many films and remains to be an extremely good actor. She starred in ‘The Others’ (2001) which is a horror film, where she played Grace, the main character, a mother who isolates her two children in a Victorian mansion on the British isle of Jersey near the end of World War II. It is said to have been “an ice-cold grabber of a performance by Nicole Kidman.” She has also starred in many other successful films such as ‘The Hours’ (2002), which is a drama, and ‘Margot at the Wedding’ (2007) which is a tragicomedy.

I chose to cast Sean Bean as the other main character (train driver.)

I thought he fit the character perfectly as he has a slightly sinister and distrusting appearance, and would be convincing playing a murderer driven by depression, obsession, boredom of day to day life and troubled family life. I think this would all be conveyed well by Sean Bean and therefore make it scarier for the audience.

Also he is an actor who usually plays a villain, which he has done in many of his films which were successful, for example ‘Lord Of The Rings’ - Boromir, James Bond's adversary in ‘GoldenEye’ - Alec Trevelyan, Nicolas Cage's competitor in ‘National Treasure’ - Ian Howe, IRA fringe terrorist out for revenge on Harrison Ford in ‘Patriot Games’ - Sean Miller.

Therefore I believe Sean Bean would be perfect for playing the villain, and a dark character to use in this plot.

The other plot i chose was Plot Two:

This is a sci fi thriller based in modern day New York. The film follows a middle-aged man suffering from total amnesia as he attempts to retrace back his life, relying fully on an official government badge stating only his name. The man discovers he was part of a secret government organisation whilst finding his way inside a government building, but when found unrecognised, he is interrogated and misjudged to have forged his badge (the only way of entering the building) using the name of an existing employee of the organisation.
After lengthy prosecution, the man and employee are discovered to be the same person through genetic testing, and little by little, with the help of the agency, the man’s existence is uncovered to strangely be a future version of the current employee.
In a shocking resolution, the man is forced to recapture his memories revealing a stunning truth – that he was sent back 2 decades in time to deliver a message to the present world and prevent the future from happening; a future that would inevitably lead to the destruction of mankind itself.
The man is ‘the rectifier,’ and holds all the answers the world needs to help maintain the existence of the human race. The problem is, will he be able to reach these answers from the deepest corners of his own confused mind, or will the unseeable flaw of “time travel caused amnesia” be the ultimate downfall for planet earth?

Characters:

I chose to cast Will Smith to star in this film.

I thought he would play an extremely successful role in this movie as the main character, and fits the description perfectly.

He has experience in a large number of different genres of films, and has played similar types of roles.

In 2004, he starred in ‘I, Robot’ which was a science fiction. This shows he plays roles similar to this well, as this plot is partly a science fiction film.

In the ‘Men in Black’ films, he played agents, which would link to his role in this plot as a Government agent, and was also a sci-fi, but showed his comical side as well.

The extremely successful 2007, ‘I Am Legend’ was a post-apocalyptic science fiction film. It starred Will Smith who portrayed the story well, and showed good acting. Confusion was a feeling felt by Will Smith in the film, which he would also show in plot two.

The 2008 ‘Hancock’ was an American superhero film, which starred Will Smith as a vigilante superhero, John Hancock. This would link to the part in the plot where they realise he is ‘the rectifier’ and will help maintain the existence of the human race.

As well as these successful films, he has also starred in more subtle genres, such as ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ as Chris Gardner, with his son Jaden Smith which was quite an emotional film.

He has starred in many different films, and this shows he is very adaptable and has shown qualities in his previous films that would be useful in this plot. He is also the perfect age of 40.

Psycho

2008-10-15T09:49:00.000-07:00

Psycho was a horror film made in 1960 by the extremely well-known and successful director Alfred Hitchcock. He was an iconic and highly influential British filmmaker and producer. Psycho was a powerful, complex psychological thriller and is seen as the "mother" of all modern horror suspense films.
Despite the fact that the stark black and white film was low-budgeted ($800,000), it was brilliantly-edited and shocked audiences when it was released in 1960.
The master of suspense skillfully manipulates and guides the audience into identifying with the main character, luckless victim Marion, and then with that character's murderer - a crazy and timid taxidermist named Norman.

Main Characters in Psycho:
Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates.
Janet Leigh as Marion Crane.
Martin Balsam as Detective Milton Arbogast.
John Gavin as Sam Loomis.
Vera Miles as Lila Crane.

Plot:
The movie opens in Phoenix, Arizona, where discreet lovers Marion Crane and Sam Loomis, want to get married but cannot due to financial problems. Unhappy and desperate to improve their situation, Marion steals $40,000 from her office and drives to California, where Sam lives. All the while, Marion is nervous and apprehensive; eventually arriving at the Bates Motel, but this choice is proven to be an extremely wrong decision. The Motel is isolated and out-of-the-way, with no other guests staying; however she wanted to avoid a suspicious policeman.
She is greeted by the young, boyishly handsome and innocent-seeming owner, Norman Bates. Norman does what little work is left, and also looks after his mother in a sinister-looking house on top of a nearby hill.
Forgetting the problems that plague her for the time being, Marion takes a shower. Suddenly, a human figure enters the bathroom, shadowy through the shower curtain, and brutally stabs Marion to death (the famous shower scene.)
Meanwhile, Marion’s friends, relatives and a private detective are growing increasingly worried as to her whereabouts. The detective, Milton Arbogast traces her to the Bates Motel and questions Norman, who lies poorly. Arbogast sneaks into the old house to question Mrs. Bates, but is stabbed to death and falls down a flight of stairs.
Lila then sneaks into the house with the intention of talking to Norman's mother. Furious and panicked, Norman knocks Sam unconscious and races to the house. Seeing him come through a window, Lila hides from him in the fruit cellar, where she discovers that Mrs. Bates is a semi-preserved corpse. At that moment, Norman (wearing his mother's clothes and a wig) enters, screaming and holding a knife. However, Sam has regained consciousness and arrives just in time to save Lila.
At the end of the film, we realise that Bates's mother, is dead, but is still living on in Norman's mind. When his mother found a lover, Norman became jealous and murdered them both. He was so dominated by his mother while she lived, and so guilt-ridden for murdering her ten years earlier, that he tried to erase the crime from his mind by bringing his mother back to life. In effect, he is half Norman, half mother.
The last scene shows Norman Bates seated in a cell. The physical shell of Norman Bates sits unmoving, as "Mother's" thoughts dominate the mind, free of "Norman's" mental presence. We hear "her" internal voice as a voice-over. She blames Norman, and plans on demonstrating to the authorities that it was Norman who did the crimes, whereas she is utterly harmless. She knows that people must be observing her, and will show them what kind of a person she is. As a fly appears, Mother continues, "I'm not even going to swat that fly. I hope they are watching. They'll see, they'll know, and they'll say, 'Why, she wouldn't even harm a fly'". We see "Mother" give a smile of satisfaction, which shows through Norman's demented stare. The film's final shot is of Marion's car being recovered from the swamp.

Many of Hitchcock's films contain cameo appearances by Hitchcock himself. In Psycho, he makes his cameo appearance 7 minutes into the film through a window, outside Marion Crane’s office.

To view the trailer, click here

The original trailer of Psycho made in 1960 has extremely different conventions to the trailers being made presently. It features the director of the film, Alfred Hitchcock, giving a visit of the set, it begins with “The fabulous Mr. Alfred Hitchcock is about to escort you…on a tour of the location of his new motion picture, ‘PSYCHO.’” The main difference that I can notice is the length of the trailer, it is six and a half minutes long, compared to the average of one and a half minutes that we see nowadays during advertisements of films. Hitchcock’s continuing commentary throughout the six and a half minutes implies that what he is describing is a real incident that has taken place. As he takes us on a tour of the house, we are immediately informed of the house’s sinister feeling. He drops little hints to the audience of what’s to come, for example “the bathroom, well, he cleaned all this up now, big difference, you should have seen the blood.” Also the trailer doesn’t follow conventions and is the opposite from trailers nowadays as it is a continuous structure, where it doesn't follow a narrative and usually just features different parts of the film. The trailer then ends with a shot from the famous shower scene, of Marion screaming and part of the music used in the scene.

My Opinion:
Overall, I thought Psycho was quite a good horror movie. I think it was extremely successful for the time period it was produced in, despite the lack of technology and knowledge of other effective techniques in the 60’s. Psycho is generally identified as the ‘mother’ of horror, as it established the genre and no similar film had been made previous to this.
I thought the shower scene and ending scene were extremely effective in the film. The shower scene was really disorienting for the audience, with the use of frequent cuts, fast pace and the sound. The combination of music and Marion’s screams really adds to the fear. Music is also used effectively in the scene when Marion is driving, before arriving at the Motel. This music adds to the suspense and alerts the audience that something is going to happen. The shower scene lasts three minutes and features fifty cuts with various different angles. The use of many close-ups is really effective as the audience feels closer in the shot and can clearly see reactions of the character, making it more intense. I also thought the ending scene was extremely effective and successfully finished the film. Instead of using violence to put across the idea of horror, Hitchcock effectively uses psychological horror to scare the audience. Anthony Perkins plays this character extremely well and displays good acting. The audience is aware of Norman’s problem that he has, after the explanation from the detective, but after being lead by the camera into an empty room containing Norman, they are scared once again. We hear Norman’s mother’s voice and then Norman bows, giving a creepy smile.
“As if I could do anything except just sit and stare--like one of his stuffed birds. Well, they know I can't move a finger. And I won't. I'll just sit here and be quiet, just in case they do suspect me.”
“They're probably watching me. Well, let them. Let them see what kind of person I am.”
“I'm not even going to swat that fly. I hope they are watching. They'll see. They'll see, and they'll know, and they'll say...'Why, she wouldn't even harm a fly!'”

Horror Moodboard

2008-10-12T12:54:00.000-07:00

Iconic characters and shots depicting well known scenes from Horror movies:

Notes On Continuity Techniques Used In The Pursuit Of Happiness

2008-10-06T12:41:00.000-07:00

I have decided to analyse a clip from 'The Pursuit of Happiness' (interview scene) in order to demonstrate continuity techniques.
[I am analysing from 0:23]

The clip begins with a tracking shot of Will Smith (Chris Gardner) running very quickly. It is a medium close-up and profile shot. He is running down a busy street and this is shown effectively as objects wipe the foreground of the frame, which gives a sense of speed. Despite the fact that it is a busy scene, the camera always keeps the focus on the main character.

There is a good transition into the second shot, which also uses a tracking shot but changes to a long shot. The viewer’s eye is not disturbed as he is still running at the same pace and the area is still busy. This shows good continuity as the audience does not notice a change.

Towards the end of the second shot, it becomes less busy and therefore making it easier on the eye as it cuts to a medium long shot. This shot does not involve as many objects or people but due to a good cut, this goes unnoticed. This shot contrasts to the previous two shots as it is handheld and from behind the character, giving it a sense of urgency and realism. It places the audience in his situation. The framing in this shot is also done effectively, as the camera uses the wall and road to create a feeling of perspective, meaning he is going somewhere and there is a focus point. The lighting has also stayed the same throughout the three different shots, as the sunlight is in front of Chris Gardner.

All throughout these three shots, the feeling of importance and desperation is never lost. This is down to the timing of each cut and the continuity of the shots’ composition and contents. The use of cuts and match on action also add to the pace.

The next shot is a medium shot and despite the fact that he has a different pace, the frantic feeling is not lost. The people in the foreground and background walking at a normal pace emphasises his hurry. The use of a pan and tilt effectively follows his path up the stairs, leading to the building. This emphasises his destination and establishes a change of location.

The next shot is handheld and a medium shot. This is the first time the character and camera come to a stop, as well as the fast paced music. However, similar to the previous shots, this sense of urgency continues to be present. In the build up to this shot, the audience believes that the character has not stopped running. This flow and camera movement shows good continuity. Also the use of shot order throughout this part of the clip takes the audience smoothly through the narrative.

The sixth shot is a huge contrast to the previous shots as it is a big change. There are no props, different lighting, different camera movement and no sound. However, even though these have all changed, that sense of urgency is still conveyed through the use of a close-up shot, the camera tilt and zoom, and the character’s expression. The tilt up and slight zoom of the camera resembles the feeling in a lift. Also the tilt up shows he is still going somewhere and the close-up creates the feeling of pressure and stress. Despite this big change in mise-en-scene, the continuity is still successful from the previous shots.

The next shot is a long shot and contains no camera movement. This represents the passing of time. This contrasts to the other shots where there was the sense of speed and movement; however it still shows stress as he is waiting. This shows that it is still continuous but we have hit a point where he has done all he can and now must wait.

The shot at 1:05 is a close-up profile of the character and shows his expression and hand gesture clearly. The audience concentrate on him mainly, however when the door opens, the attention is diverted to the door which is framed in the centre of the shot and Will Smith goes out of focus.

1:14 uses a tilt up of Chris Gardner, emphasising the fact that he is rising to challenge and is on the move again. He walks towards the camera as a medium shot and exits the frame to the camera’s left. This matched cut changes the shot to an over the shoulder shot as the camera moves behind him; however the timing of the shot causes the cut to go unnoticed by the audience. This change in shot means the audience can see from his perspective as we enter with him and therefore the audience has the same feeling of apprehensiveness. This feeling has been built up by the previous shots which didn’t include much movement or action but have led up to this point and always kept the audience’s attention on the room.

The shot continuing from 1:16 uses a steady-cam. It is 15 seconds of camera movement, following the character as a medium shot. However he is slightly out of focus to draw our attention to the busy and hectic surroundings. Towards the end of this shot, the music becomes noticeable and creates a sense of achievement.

The next shot is a close-up, to show the expression of the character and his reaction to the previous shot. Now he is in focus and the background is out of focus, in order to divert our attention to him. The cut works well as it is a continuation of his movement through the busy place, using a steady-cam but in a reverse direction.

The next shot is a point of view shot, therefore the audience can see what he sees and are placed in his position. The cut is timed well as he looks to the left, this POV matches his view. 1:35 uses another point of view shot. It is still the use of a steady cam but pans right matching his head movement which leads on well to the next shot which uses a steady cam and close up of the character.

There is another POV shot at 1:52 but this time is tracking to the right, which creates the effect of physical movement. This shot is different as there is a change in the setting. The continuation of the previous six shots, which used POV’s and steady cam, lead on well to this new setting.

As he enters the interviewing room, the shots show a conversation between Will Smith and four men. This part of the clip includes shot-reverse-shots, placing the audience in the action. It is also a conversation which is shot over the shoulder to allow both characters to remain in the shot. The 180 degree rule is also considered in this part and it matches on action, allowing the dialogue to flow consistently.

Continuity is good down to well timed cuts and the use of a combination of effective shots. These all create the ‘invisible’ editing which allows the audience to see the narrative clearly and establishes a plausible, professional scene.

Notes On Analysis Of The Departed Trailer

2008-09-30T12:30:00.000-07:00

I have decided to analyse the film trailer of ‘The Departed’. It is effective as it uses varied shot types, with clips from the film.

The trailer begins by introducing Jack Nicholson using a tracking shot as he is talking. This shot is very sinister as it just shows the silhouette of him and the viewers are unaware of who it is.

After ten seconds, there is a medium close up of Matt Damon, ‘Colin’ as a police officer, just after Jack Nicholson, ‘Costello’ says “you become cops” and then it flashes to a shot of Leonardo DiCaprio, ‘Billy’ in prison and it pans to the right across the cell, as ‘Costello’ says “or criminals”. This is extremely effective as the shots that are shown quickly of the police officer and criminal relate to what ‘Costello’ is saying and this is seen later in the film. Therefore these shots help to anchor part of the plot of the film. The viewer believes that this clearly lays out the ‘goody’ and ‘bady’ in the film; however this is proven wrong later on.

As Jack Nicholson continues to talk, this effect is used again at 0:15, where we see a slightly low angle close up of ‘Billy’ looking worried, and it flashes to a close-up of someone cocking the trigger of a gun. Then as ‘Costello’ says “when you’re facing a loaded gun”, there is a whip pan shot reaching a police car, and then a medium close-up of a police man firing a gun. This is quickly followed by another close up of a gun being fired twice. These various shots help to anchor the line used by Jack Nicholson, and alerts the viewer of what’s to come in the film (confrontation between two sides.)

As the trailer reaches 20 seconds, the character of Jack Nicholson is revealed using a medium close-up of him saying “what’s the difference” with a slightly different tone of voice. This is related to the fact that there are the previous shots of both criminals and police officers using guns.

At 25 seconds, the viewer is shown flashes of various parts of the police uniform, including close-ups of hats, police badges etc. This is then revealed as medium close-ups of police men lined up, including ‘Colin.’

The next shot is a crane shot, behind a man wearing a suit. This shot is used in order to give a clear idea of the setting and viewers can assume it is the police department, as the shot is used with the line “this is the State police.” The next shot reveals the character from the previous shot with a medium close-up, who is ‘Colin.’

Next is a medium shot in a police briefing, which moves into a close-up of the main picture on the board. The viewers are then shown who it is with a medium close-up of Costello and are officially introduced to him as a character as they state his name. We are then shown a close up of an exchange of money, followed by a two shot which is a long shot of two bodies lying on the ground. This implies that ‘Costello’ set this up, and is therefore the reason that he is wanted.

These shots are followed by an introduction of another character, using an extreme close-up, followed by a tilt up of the character as a police officer. This is then followed by an arc and medium close-up of him pointing a gun (in practice.) In the next shot, it is the same character, but this time in an office. It is first a medium shot, followed by an over the shoulder shot, and then a zooming shot as he asks a question, this is used to get a better idea of his reaction and expression.

At 0:40 there is another pan to the right across the prison cell, containing the character that was just introduced to us, about to be released.

At 0:45, there is a two shot with a slight arc, followed by an over the shoulder shot, and another two shot of the characters in the previous shot. This shows the audience that they are quite important in the film.

0:53 is a bird’s eye view of the character that has just hurt his arm. This gives the viewers a full view of what has taken place. This is followed by various two shots and medium close ups of characters.

1:03 is an extreme long shot of offices with the two main characters in the centre. This gives the audience a wider view and helps give a better idea of the setting.

1:10 is an over the shoulder shot, which shows us that there are two characters, however it gives us a better view of the one that is talking and her expressions.

1:24 is a low angle shot, and makes us feel as though we are in the shot, as the actor is looking directly into the camera. This adds realism to the shot.

At 1:36, it is a slow tilt upwards and gives us a clear view of the character’s expression as he looks anxious.

1:42 is a forward track, following a character that is running. This also makes the shot seem realistic, as we feel present in the scene.

1:45 is a crane shot, giving us a wider view of the setting and showing us the direction that one character is moving in.

1:46 is a reverse track, moving along with the character, and again feeling as if we are there.

Extreme long shots are used in many places to help us see the action taking place in the film clearly over a wider range; 1:51, 1:53, 1:59, 2:02, 2:10.

1:52 is a low angle shot, as one of the characters is about to punch another. This gives us the point of view of the character that is about to be punched and helps us feel fear for them.

2:01 is a high angle shot, directly above the character, as he looks up straight into the camera.

2:17 is a close-up of Matt Damon holding a knife, which immediately alerts the audience of his intentions, and then tilts up to his face, with his poised expression. The next shot of him stabbing a man is less of a shock as we are warned before that he is ready to do it.

This is followed by an extremely fast-paced sequence of various shots and ends the trailer with the same character that it started with (Costello).

BLK feedback

2008-09-29T13:56:00.000-07:00

Excellent analysis and reflections on your horror shot - super work Tanya!

Great choice of trailer and very thorough analysis notes too - excellent work.

Your blog looks great and includes all the essentials, plus a great 'moodboard' of stills, so well done so far.

Notes On FDA Videos

2008-09-26T11:50:00.000-07:00

These are notes on the distribution of film, after it has been through the production phase. It is based on the information found on the clips on: http://www.launchingfilms.tv/

1. Release of a film:
First, consider its marketability (who is it going to appeal to and who its audience is).
Then develop a campaign that will best communicate and appeal to that audience. Start by calculating how much money will be spent on marketing the movie.
From that they can set an appropriate budget that will enable them to reach the box office potential that they believe the film has got.
Then plan the methods of marketing. Considering options such as whether they will develop working with 3rd party promotions, media partners in radio, newspaper, publicity angles for them eg. is the talent in the movie, are the actors willing to work to help promote by travelling, speaking to the media, doing interviews. Will there be a premier.
Advertising – media spend, eg. outdoor posters, television advertisements, newspaper, radio, internet. There are many options open.
Choosing primarily who will this appeal best to and what are the best communication routes to reach these people in the most effective way.

2. Positioning and Audiences:
Define who the audience is.
Identify the specific genre of the film, eg. thriller, horror, action, comedy etc.
Decide whether it appeals to a certain age group eg. child, teenagers, adults etc.
Who directed the film, eg. in specialised films, they appeal to a more cine-literate audience, therefore they tend to know a lot more about whom certain directors and actors are. Therefore you would specifically target your film to that audience.

3. Target Audience:
Being very clear who your target audience is is important.
People know how to identify their target audience, by using past films that are similar as examples and doing large amounts of research to gather information about this audience.
There is an element of risk as you only have a certain amount of money, and you must use this correctly to appeal to that audience in the right way that will urge them to watch the film.
Different audiences and different age groups react differently and need to be targeted differently. Their whole decision making process, what film they will see and when they will see it, is very different.

4. Competition:
Film distribution is based around competition.
There are many films out there, therefore you need to ensure that your film will stand out beside them, to make yourself noticed.
You have to consider why people will want to watch yours and why is your poster more exciting than the others.
There are many different factors that need to be considered, for example holidays, weather, audience patterns. You have to consider what the audience are most likely to be doing, for example in the winter they will watch more TV, however in the summer, they will see more advertising posters outside.

5. P&A Budget:
This consists of the cost of all of the prints of the film itself, technical elements of the film, shipping it to other places. As well as this, they must also consider what is regarded as the most important part of the budget, which is marketing. This includes everything from designing posters, press ads, gaining television spots, producing trailers.
Then the location of the advertisements must be decided, thinking about who is the target audience and where are they going to see it.
The distribution of the money must be considered carefully.
Television advertising is very expensive, therefore people can use other methods of marketing their film, for example radio advertising is a lot cheaper and still reaches many people.

6. Word of Mouth:
Word of mouth is critical. When you want word of mouth to happen will depend on the movie.
Sometimes word of mouth can be very strong - if the film is early, then lots of screenings can be done before releasing the actual movie. Also if it is early, and they believe it will play very well for the target audience, then they will work with media partners, eg. newspapers, radio, television programmes, cinema chains, and will run advanced screening programmes, which will develop word of mouth. Word of mouth in films that have their screenings very late means distributors have to rely on their advertising money.
Word of mouth is seen to be the most important and credible as it will be your friends’ opinions that you are more likely to believe.
Opening the movie at the opening weekend, then it is down to word of mouth of the public. This determines how long the movie is going to play for. Word of mouth is extremely crucial in marketing, as it can simply ‘make or break’ a film.

7. Marketing Plan:
There are many methods used to publicise a film, the main ones through advertising and through press.
Advertising is the more expensive method. Adverts would be placed into magazines, newspapers, on the television, radio and on the internet. Then there are more free forms of advertising, which is done through publicity and the press, where you look to get the support from the director and the cast of the movie.
Features and stories about the film can be placed into newspapers and magazines. Interviews can be set up with the directors which can take place on television shows or over the radio.
There is also outdoor advertising which is also an expensive way to advertise a film. This includes methods such as big billboard advertising, adverts on the side of buses or bus shelters etc.
Word of mouth, developed through screening programs, which is a better form of free advertising.
The internet can also be used through email - viral campaigns where you can use something interesting to provoke an interest in the film’s subject matter and again enticing people in to watch the film.

8. Film Trailers:
In the movie industry, the trailers are the most important key for selling the film.
It’s the public’s first and only exposure in the cinema to what they are actually going to buy into - the audience’s first ‘taster’ of the film.
They would be in the same environment that they would see the film in, and on the same size screen that they would watch the film on, so it’s very important that the trailer has the right impact and conveys the right message, including graphics, sound and the concept of the film.

9. Digital Marketing:
Digital marketing can help build word of mouth.
Viral marketing is simple. It is where you create something in the element of a game, a piece of video, a quiz etc. and that because of its nature and the fact that it is good enough, will ensure that when it is sent to someone, they send it on to someone else.
This causes people to talk about it and means the most effective marketing of word of mouth can be used. This is because it is the best piece of communication that will mean more to the person and they find it more reliable.

10. Test Screenings:
Research is important and can be done well in advance of testing materials such as poster ideas, trailers, concepts of movies, ideas of visuals for the trailer, making sure it is meeting people’s expectations and delivering to the audience what you want it to, in the way of communicating the things that you want it to.
When the movie is finished, test screenings of it can be done in advance, where they get a recruited audience of what they believe is the target audience, to see the film and then fill in questionnaires at the end. They can also stay to talk about the film in more depth about some of the issues, and what they liked or didn’t like. Then the studios may look at this and can change parts of a movie to apply to peoples thoughts about the film.

11. Persuading Cinemas:
The exhibitors – the actual cinemas must be convinced to take the film, especially if it is one of the more difficult films, like an independent film.
You must use persuasion to find somewhere to put the film.

12. Opening Weekend:
In the cinema industry, the exhibitors work on the important 3 day figure, your opening day which is always on a Friday, and the Saturday and Sunday figures.
By the Monday morning, the film has to have been successful and made more money than others, it’s the ‘make or break’ period. If it makes the least money, the film is removed from the cinema. This is called a holdover and is usually why some films are only shown in the cinema for one week.
Therefore the money made and how successful the film was in the opening weekend is extremely important and determines whether your film will have another play date.

13. Piracy:
Piracy in the UK has increased in the last five years.
In 1996, piracy accounts for 20% of all DVD sales in the UK. This is a huge number of illegally sold films to the British consumer.
It’s a big problem, despite the fact that the British consumer may feel they are getting a bargain, in many cases they are not getting their money’s worth due to the poor quality of the films.

THR Feedback

2008-09-21T07:26:00.000-07:00

A great start! Your posts are very detailed and very clear on the analysis of effects. Well done - very promising for the future!

Analysing Horror Still Shot

2008-09-21T06:32:00.000-07:00

1. Describe your shot and identify in what way it could be seen as representing ‘horror’
This shot that we created could represent horror, mainly for the use of lighting and expression, which are key elements in the genre. The medium shot includes a boy (victim) in a dark room who is extremely scared of something, however we do not show the audience what that is. It is left to the audience’s imagination to identify the second character; however we did use a claw/monster hand created in a shadow to add to the horror element of the shot. The positioning and size of the hand is quite distorted to look unnatural, which immediately connotes something scary and something to be feared of. The reaction of the boy, with his action code and facial expression add to the fear. The shot is also quite tightly framed and dark, in order to create the shadows, however it is still clear enough to see the character.

2. What did you actually do to achieve the effect?
To achieve the effects, we used different techniques. For the setting, we found a dark area and plain wall to place the actor against. We then shone one light from underneath the victim and one from further, on the right side. This light was used to create the shadow, which was created with someone’s hand in a weird position, to make it seem larger and distorted. The actor then made a scared facial expression and hand gesture to add to the effect of horror.

3. What is successful about your shot?
In representing horror, I think our shot is quite successful. It creates the feeling of fear and apprehension within the audience, which is important in horrors. The expression of the actor clearly represents this feeling, which immediately shows the audience that they are scared. As well as the expression of the actor, their action code and hand gesture also shows the fright. The use of low key lighting means shadows could be cast on the actor, adding to the sinister atmosphere of the shot. Also the fact that it is a dark room brings in the element of mystery and tension as the audience are unaware of what will happen next. We also created a shadow in the shape of a monster hand, which the audience would identify as the enemy, and the man in the shot as the victim; therefore there is a sense of two characters. The shot is also quite tightly framed, which connotes entrapment and the feeling of claustrophobia. All of these points help the shot look scary and contribute to the elements of the genre of horror.

4. What would you do differently in hindsight?
In hindsight, I would make some changes in order to improve the effect of the shot. I would have used more lighting, or more powerful lights on the face, in order to create a stronger contrast in light in the shot. Increasing the lighting would have also made the shot slightly clearer and therefore easier for the audience to see the character’s expression. This would have made the shot more intense. I would have also liked to make the setting and character slightly more dramatic by using make-up and props. I also could have changed the angle of the shot to make it more distorted and unusual.

Shot Sequence Analysis - Sin City

2008-09-20T03:36:00.000-07:00

Shot 1:
This shot is a medium close-up and is taken from a high angle. It uses low key lighting which causes small shadows on the character. However the expression on the man’s face is still clearly shown and it seems to represent fear. His body positioning shows vulnerability as he is lying on the ground, with his enemy almost directly above him. The angle that this shot is taken from emphasises his entrapment and gives us the point of view of the other character. Also his uncomfortable positioning and gestures also suggests struggle as he’s holding the side of his face, which can also imply that he is in pain or is injured. However, despite this and the fact that he is trapped, he seems reluctant to give up as he is holding a gun in his right hand and aiming at another character, which is out of shot. The character and the gun are central within the frame which focuses our attention on the character’s actions and emotions.

Shot 2:
This shot is a long shot and is also taken from a high angle. The second character is introduced in this shot as the camera zooms out, however his identity is concealed from the audience as his back faces the camera, which adds mystery. He is standing over the character on the floor, with his gun aiming in their direction. His positioning seems quite threatening and powerful, which adds suspense and tension for the audience. The other character is clearly shown as a victim here, as he lays defenceless and open. The long shot establishes a better idea of the surroundings and it seems to be a wooden pier/bridge over water. There is also blood beside the character on the ground, which is emphasised by the use of lighting and stands out. The costume of the character standing relates to the genre and theme of the shot as he is wearing a long coat.

Shot 3:
This shot is an extreme long shot and is taken from a side angle. It reveals another two characters into the scene (a young girl tied to a post and a tall man wearing black and a long coat, standing behind the other man, both watching the confrontation between the two men). This angle gives an even better understanding of the surroundings as it is a wider shot and shows further into the distance. The abandoned looking warehouse behind them adds to eerier feel, as well as the fact that it is dark (night - streetlights). The main lighting in the shot highlights where all the characters are, in the centre of the image, which keeps attention on characters and shows the audience where the action is taking place. The use of lighting also highlights the gun in one of the character’s hands, the one wearing the long black coat. This shot also extends the idea that the central character is powerful, as he leans over the defenceless one.

Shot 4:
This shot is a long shot, taken from the same angle as the previous shot, but more zoomed in, with a tighter frame. This results in more focus and emphasis on the two main men and the action taking place there. The use of lighting also highlights the characters, acting nearly as a spotlight. The main man holding the gun has raised it, aiming it at the other again. This develops the tension and suspense within the audience as they wait to see what the result is. The position of the man on the floor can imply that he has already been shot or is panicking a lot. The other character seems much calmer about shooting and his long coat blowing in the wind adds to the atmosphere. This mist and city lights in the distance emphasise the element of isolation that these characters are in, as it is far from this action which seems to be in an emptier area. The little girl is not in the main part of the shot, however we can see that she has turned her head, facing another direction, implying that she is trying to avoid seeing what is happening.

Shot 5:
This shot is a medium close-up and therefore catches the strong emotion of the girl clearly, as we can see that she is crying and extremely upset. From this reaction, we can tell that something has just happened, possibly that the other man has been shot. We feel the girl’s emotions of distress and this helps the audience identify with that. This presentation of strong emotion using a clear expression is an extreme contrast to the other shots, where we had less of an idea of what the other characters were feeling, resulting in us making assumptions. The use of low key lighting casts small shadows over the young girl which makes it more dramatic. She is looking slightly to her right and downwards, implying she is looking at the lying man, with whom she may have a link.

Shot 6:
This last shot is a long shot, taken from a slightly low angle. The man lying on the floor seems motionless, implying he may have just been killed. The man standing over him appears to be in pain, possibly has also been shot; we can see this in his expression and the way he is standing. The man furthest in the background seems extremely relaxed and calm, however we can not see much of the little girl in this shot. The use of low key lighting again highlights the pier and action that is going on in this shot. Further in the distance, we can see smoke and mist, which adds to the sinister and mysterious atmosphere.

As a Sequence:
As a sequence, these shots work well together, as the audience can gradually gain an idea of the narrative and what is taking place. Throughout the sequence, the distances and angles of the shots are constantly being changed; this gives the viewer the chance to see it from another perspective. Also, as more characters appear in the shots, the viewer is unsure as to what will happen, this adds to the suspense. This gradual development of shots keeps the audiences interest and adds to the tension which is very important in a thriller.