Our film starts off filmed on a Dutch angle, this is done deliberately to create a sense of something not being right and to give the audience a chance to see the location. It then zooms into the window where the next scene is filmed, this is a visual bridge. The slow zoom onto the window also gives a feel that someone is watching the house, which fits into the narrative. The music we chose throughout the opening credits and first scene was chosen as we felt it had a mysterious air to it yet it also represented a dreamy feel. For the first shot of the girls watching a film, we filmed from a high angle as they are vulnerable characters, we also framed this quite well as both characters are in the middle of the frame.
It then cuts to a mid-shot of the girls who the audience gets to see a different angle of, this was chosen as the audience can get a sense of the mise-en-scene of both of the characters and the camera is in perfect frame for the 'mum' to walk in. The camera then moves to a over the shoulder shot of the mum, this has been specifically chosen as the 'mum' character has a knife in her hand for offering cake and we wanted this to be a signifier of the genre of the film. After the 'final girl' has walked out of the room its a mid-shot of the mum, we felt this was the best shot as no exterior mise-en-scene was needed for this and it gave the audience a better view of the 'mum'; it also enhanced her facial expressions. It then goes to a quick shot of the 'final girl' replying back to the conversation before there’s a black fade out. We chose the black fade out as we thought it would be more effective than her taking time to walk to the door as in the next shot she’s already at the door. However to keep good continuity between the over the shoulder shot of the 'final girl' replying back and the girl opening the door we kept the camera in the same place and just cut out the middle bit.
We added a close up of the door handle to fit in with the 'match on action' shot we were trying to achieve; this gave greater shot variety to our film. There is then a long shot of the 'final girl' walking out the door this was to ensure that the audience were aware that it was the same house that was in the first scene as they could see the same location; it helped with our narrative. It was also done in ' slow-mo' to enhance the idea of a dream. The next shot was to highlight the fact that the character was walking down a lonely, dark road and was done to help create tension. We didn’t add any music in here as we thought that it would help create more tension if it was silent. The camera waits till the point where the character walks past the tree, it then cuts and is behind the tree, we felt this edited together nicely and started to give more of an impressions that someone is watching her. As the camera is following the character its jerky so it can be signified to the audience that someone is following her, this is also shot in a high angle to show that she’s a vulnerable character. The slight blurd tint on the film fits in well with the narrative as the audience is about to find out it hasn’t really happened and was a dream. Once the hand reaches the 'final girl' it then goes to a quick shot of her reaction, this builds up tension within the film as when she turns round nothings there.
We chose to go to a black fade after this scene to demonstrate the end of the dream; it also added more atmospheres as we played a heartbeat sound effect at the start of the black fade. A mid-shot of the girl waking up was done so that the audience had a chance to see her surroundings, it also allowed the 'final girl' to have more room within the framing to be dramatic.
Friday, 24 April 2009
Tuesday, 7 April 2009
Evaluation
On the whole as a group we are generally pleased with the end result however we feel that there could of been many chances to improve our film opening.
Our media product uses, develops and challenges forms of conventions of real media products. It does this by using intertextual references to such films as Scream (1996) and The Ring. It starts off on a Dutch angle to represent that something’s not right, a knife is visibly seen which is a common signifier of danger and this has intertextual references to Scream. We develop forms and conventions of media products by starting off with a slow scene but then cuts into fast pace clips whereas typically horror films tend to have a long slow start. However we also challenge the norms of horror films, as it doesn't feature a stereotypical blonde haired character instead has two brunettes. We also took an intertextual reference to Bride of Chucky as a heartbeat is played in this; the heartbeat is done at the end of ours to ensure narrative enigma is present. Our media is different from other film openings as until the night vision scenes which are set slightly blurred, it looks like its happening in real life then later on she wakes up from the dream, this is a nice twist to the film opening and has been mentioned from our audience feedback.
My media product represents different social groups such as lower middle class and working class (C2DE), this is done by using cast which are of this social grouping and therefore the audience can relate to this. However regional accents could suggest it represents Yorkshire social groups more than others. The kind of media institutions that might distribute our media product are such company's as WarpX, working title 2 and film 4.These institutions would fit our product as they deal with low budget films such as ours is, they are also funded by the UK film council. As our product is a Yorkshire based film it can be used by screen Yorkshire for publicising and the film festival as well. As many of these films are produced by the above company's they get known about through the Internet as its a cheaper way of getting to their target audience therefore to promote our film I would use Internet websites such as Myspace and Youtube.
The audience for our film are both genders, our film features the 'male gaze theory' therefore the final girl will attract men and women will also see the strong female headed final girl as an inspiration. The target audience age is around 15-24, we tried to attract our audience by using a scenario which these aged people will do often; watch films with their mates. We also dressed the actress's in 'up to date' fashion and used moderate language therefore the BBFC rating had to be a 15.Although our film opening only involves white Caucasian characters if we were to carry on the film we would bring in different ethnic minority groupings which would attract a wider range of ethnic audiences.
I have learnt a lot about technologies from the process of constructing this product. Apart from the preliminary task and earlier micro drama I was new to Mac computers and such things as Imovie player and Garageband.Therefore everything that has been done in the product I have had to learn from scratch, however our strength was the different range of abilities within our group which we were able to help each other out at different parts of the film making stages. I feel I have learnt that when working in the film industry everything has to be planned and our production schedule needed to be in a lot more detail than it was in. I have learnt how to add transitions, cut and add music to our media product although the preliminary task did do this.
I think what worked well for our product was the blurry night vision of the outside shoots, this fitted in to our narrative, as it is a dream to which the audience later find out. I also feel the music fit in well with the genre and idea of the film and the framing of characters on screen were quite central. We also worked well in a group and took time to discuss everyone's ideas, as we are all friends before we didn't have any problems discussing things that we felt needed to be changed by it.
However I think we could improve our product by having a better production schedule therefore we needed to be more organised. We could of also taken into account how to attract wider audiences such as different ethnicity's or the pink pound, which we would have done if carried on the film. I feel the heartbeat could of been played for a bit longer on the clip its played on however the way the clip needed to be cut it wasn't possible. Overall me and my group and proud and relieved with our final product.
Our media product uses, develops and challenges forms of conventions of real media products. It does this by using intertextual references to such films as Scream (1996) and The Ring. It starts off on a Dutch angle to represent that something’s not right, a knife is visibly seen which is a common signifier of danger and this has intertextual references to Scream. We develop forms and conventions of media products by starting off with a slow scene but then cuts into fast pace clips whereas typically horror films tend to have a long slow start. However we also challenge the norms of horror films, as it doesn't feature a stereotypical blonde haired character instead has two brunettes. We also took an intertextual reference to Bride of Chucky as a heartbeat is played in this; the heartbeat is done at the end of ours to ensure narrative enigma is present. Our media is different from other film openings as until the night vision scenes which are set slightly blurred, it looks like its happening in real life then later on she wakes up from the dream, this is a nice twist to the film opening and has been mentioned from our audience feedback.
My media product represents different social groups such as lower middle class and working class (C2DE), this is done by using cast which are of this social grouping and therefore the audience can relate to this. However regional accents could suggest it represents Yorkshire social groups more than others. The kind of media institutions that might distribute our media product are such company's as WarpX, working title 2 and film 4.These institutions would fit our product as they deal with low budget films such as ours is, they are also funded by the UK film council. As our product is a Yorkshire based film it can be used by screen Yorkshire for publicising and the film festival as well. As many of these films are produced by the above company's they get known about through the Internet as its a cheaper way of getting to their target audience therefore to promote our film I would use Internet websites such as Myspace and Youtube.
The audience for our film are both genders, our film features the 'male gaze theory' therefore the final girl will attract men and women will also see the strong female headed final girl as an inspiration. The target audience age is around 15-24, we tried to attract our audience by using a scenario which these aged people will do often; watch films with their mates. We also dressed the actress's in 'up to date' fashion and used moderate language therefore the BBFC rating had to be a 15.Although our film opening only involves white Caucasian characters if we were to carry on the film we would bring in different ethnic minority groupings which would attract a wider range of ethnic audiences.
I have learnt a lot about technologies from the process of constructing this product. Apart from the preliminary task and earlier micro drama I was new to Mac computers and such things as Imovie player and Garageband.Therefore everything that has been done in the product I have had to learn from scratch, however our strength was the different range of abilities within our group which we were able to help each other out at different parts of the film making stages. I feel I have learnt that when working in the film industry everything has to be planned and our production schedule needed to be in a lot more detail than it was in. I have learnt how to add transitions, cut and add music to our media product although the preliminary task did do this.
I think what worked well for our product was the blurry night vision of the outside shoots, this fitted in to our narrative, as it is a dream to which the audience later find out. I also feel the music fit in well with the genre and idea of the film and the framing of characters on screen were quite central. We also worked well in a group and took time to discuss everyone's ideas, as we are all friends before we didn't have any problems discussing things that we felt needed to be changed by it.
However I think we could improve our product by having a better production schedule therefore we needed to be more organised. We could of also taken into account how to attract wider audiences such as different ethnicity's or the pink pound, which we would have done if carried on the film. I feel the heartbeat could of been played for a bit longer on the clip its played on however the way the clip needed to be cut it wasn't possible. Overall me and my group and proud and relieved with our final product.
Monday, 6 April 2009
Sound and music
I researched copyright free music and found these 5 useful sources:
www.akmmusic.co.uk
www.numdigital.com
www.freeplaymusic.com
www.audiojungle.net
www.trackline.com
The audio aspect of the film is very important, it can immediately let the audience no the genre of the film. The opening of Kidulthood is used effectively for this, when the production titles are coming on gun shots and a knife sound are made to signify the violent side of the film. In Trainspotting it is used to show the upbeat lifestyle of the characters and to get the audience in the right frame of mind for the film.
For our film opening we would like to achieve getting some 'spooky/dreamy' music for the titles, we intend to get something off Garageband for this. We would then want a heartbeat sound effect we got this off one of the sights mentioned above. However for when the camera was being jerky to represent someone watching the character we wanted a sound effect of someone breathing, however when the cameraman tried to make the noise it was too quiet (a boom mike would be appropriate here) and when we got it off a website we felt it was too loud and wouldn't really fit with the scene.
As we were filming at night on a quiet location we didn't really have a problem with any ambient noise so therefore when it comes to editing we wont have to dub-over any unwanted dialogue or unwanted sounds.
The choice of music isn't intend to appeal to a particular audience; we just wanted it to fit with the genre of our film which it does do.
www.akmmusic.co.uk
www.numdigital.com
www.freeplaymusic.com
www.audiojungle.net
www.trackline.com
The audio aspect of the film is very important, it can immediately let the audience no the genre of the film. The opening of Kidulthood is used effectively for this, when the production titles are coming on gun shots and a knife sound are made to signify the violent side of the film. In Trainspotting it is used to show the upbeat lifestyle of the characters and to get the audience in the right frame of mind for the film.
For our film opening we would like to achieve getting some 'spooky/dreamy' music for the titles, we intend to get something off Garageband for this. We would then want a heartbeat sound effect we got this off one of the sights mentioned above. However for when the camera was being jerky to represent someone watching the character we wanted a sound effect of someone breathing, however when the cameraman tried to make the noise it was too quiet (a boom mike would be appropriate here) and when we got it off a website we felt it was too loud and wouldn't really fit with the scene.
As we were filming at night on a quiet location we didn't really have a problem with any ambient noise so therefore when it comes to editing we wont have to dub-over any unwanted dialogue or unwanted sounds.
The choice of music isn't intend to appeal to a particular audience; we just wanted it to fit with the genre of our film which it does do.
Friday, 3 April 2009
Thursday, 2 April 2009
Genre research and intertextual references
Due to research done on film openings, there are many signifies of the genre of the film within the first couple of minutes.
For the opening credits most films I researched had red lettering in a sharp cerif font (scream), which signifies blood. In scream this was later linked together by a red flash over the screen just 13 seconds into the film before any narrative had started. When the production company's name is played on the screen a sound relating too the movie is normally played e.g. a non-dijetic sound of a knife which was demonstrated in Kidulthood through the credits although this isn't a horror film it is a common convention of horror films.
The music of the start of the film is crucial; as in Scream (1996), the non-dijectic music is a long sustained note this helps to build up the atmosphere. There is also a fast heartbeat, which is another non-dijetic sound which helps to build up tension; this has an intertextual reference to our film as we play a heartbeat and a sound effect of a man breathing over the top of scenes. Bride of Chucky (Rony yu) also includes the heartbeat therefore i have noticed that this is a common convention of horror movies. From researching on the Internet it seems to be apparent that common codes of horror includes the victim seems to scream at some point in the opening before anything happens as what happens in ours, it is commonly located in more rural areas as well; again this links to our film.
Blue tint lighting on the screen is another popular way of signifying the genre of the film as done in both films mentioned already plus Friday 13th.This particular lighting connotes the idea of danger that something’s not right, in the dark scenes it also makes lighting look more 'spooky' while giving it a supernatural feeling. In many horror films some shots are done on a Dutch angle, which illustrates a strange atmosphere to the film and is a common code of horror.
Many horror films have a hybrid genre-most often a horror/slasher aswell, as a horror Friday 13th is a slasher/sci-fi/ comedy. This is used by filmmakers to appeal to more audiences and put an interesting twist onto the film. As for intertextuality it is a post modern view that it is impossible today to be original, for example Jason x includes a killing scene which includes a move which is a direct lift from American wrestling; this will appeal to the male audience which they would recognise this.
It varies in how much of the narrative is revealed from film to film, sometimes the longer this is left the more interesting the film becomes and has polysemic meanings. For example in Scream its around 12.24 seconds before the narrative is assured. From the research done i have found that some directors put in post modern humour or puns that will appeal to audiences from other films they have directed before. Again scream is a good example of this- 'The first one was good but the rest sucked' here the character is talking about films which the director of scream has produced himself, unexpectedly he directed the first film out of the set. Post modern humour is also used in Scream as the girl is making popcorn which people in the cinema will also be doing, the popcorn rising when she’s on the phone is also a visual metaphor which illustrates the strange but flirtyness of the conversation.
In horror films stereotypical characters are also heavily used- it usually starts off with a blonde haired girl, which could be seen as sexually available who ends up dying (scream queen). There is usually a binary opposition of a brown haired girl who is seen as a 'final girl' by her mise-en-scene this character is usually presented as being intelligent and may be a survivor of the film.
Overall in the opening of a film we tend to find an active question which will leave the audience intrigued for more, Film producers tend to use signifiers to give the audience a view on the genre and possible narrative enigma all of which is effectively done to keep the audience watching.
As researched from Legacy of blood (Jim Harper 2004), A Nightmare on Elm Street seems to have intertextual references to our narrative; it has reliance upon the stalking and slaying of teenagers and has the presence of a typical slasher heroine; who in ours is a brown haired purely signified girl who is in the film from the start.
For the opening credits most films I researched had red lettering in a sharp cerif font (scream), which signifies blood. In scream this was later linked together by a red flash over the screen just 13 seconds into the film before any narrative had started. When the production company's name is played on the screen a sound relating too the movie is normally played e.g. a non-dijetic sound of a knife which was demonstrated in Kidulthood through the credits although this isn't a horror film it is a common convention of horror films.
The music of the start of the film is crucial; as in Scream (1996), the non-dijectic music is a long sustained note this helps to build up the atmosphere. There is also a fast heartbeat, which is another non-dijetic sound which helps to build up tension; this has an intertextual reference to our film as we play a heartbeat and a sound effect of a man breathing over the top of scenes. Bride of Chucky (Rony yu) also includes the heartbeat therefore i have noticed that this is a common convention of horror movies. From researching on the Internet it seems to be apparent that common codes of horror includes the victim seems to scream at some point in the opening before anything happens as what happens in ours, it is commonly located in more rural areas as well; again this links to our film.
Blue tint lighting on the screen is another popular way of signifying the genre of the film as done in both films mentioned already plus Friday 13th.This particular lighting connotes the idea of danger that something’s not right, in the dark scenes it also makes lighting look more 'spooky' while giving it a supernatural feeling. In many horror films some shots are done on a Dutch angle, which illustrates a strange atmosphere to the film and is a common code of horror.
Many horror films have a hybrid genre-most often a horror/slasher aswell, as a horror Friday 13th is a slasher/sci-fi/ comedy. This is used by filmmakers to appeal to more audiences and put an interesting twist onto the film. As for intertextuality it is a post modern view that it is impossible today to be original, for example Jason x includes a killing scene which includes a move which is a direct lift from American wrestling; this will appeal to the male audience which they would recognise this.
It varies in how much of the narrative is revealed from film to film, sometimes the longer this is left the more interesting the film becomes and has polysemic meanings. For example in Scream its around 12.24 seconds before the narrative is assured. From the research done i have found that some directors put in post modern humour or puns that will appeal to audiences from other films they have directed before. Again scream is a good example of this- 'The first one was good but the rest sucked' here the character is talking about films which the director of scream has produced himself, unexpectedly he directed the first film out of the set. Post modern humour is also used in Scream as the girl is making popcorn which people in the cinema will also be doing, the popcorn rising when she’s on the phone is also a visual metaphor which illustrates the strange but flirtyness of the conversation.
In horror films stereotypical characters are also heavily used- it usually starts off with a blonde haired girl, which could be seen as sexually available who ends up dying (scream queen). There is usually a binary opposition of a brown haired girl who is seen as a 'final girl' by her mise-en-scene this character is usually presented as being intelligent and may be a survivor of the film.
Overall in the opening of a film we tend to find an active question which will leave the audience intrigued for more, Film producers tend to use signifiers to give the audience a view on the genre and possible narrative enigma all of which is effectively done to keep the audience watching.
As researched from Legacy of blood (Jim Harper 2004), A Nightmare on Elm Street seems to have intertextual references to our narrative; it has reliance upon the stalking and slaying of teenagers and has the presence of a typical slasher heroine; who in ours is a brown haired purely signified girl who is in the film from the start.
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
Logo and Poster
My group chose this logo as 'omg' is a young slang saying that we thought would appeal to our target audience.Its written in black to represent death written in a slight sharp cerif font which is common convention of horror movies.However if we were to go on and produce othe films we would change the colour and the style of the lettering to suit the style and genre of the film.
For the poster we used red lettering to signify blood,we were going to use blue as blue tinted lighting is commonly used in horror films however we thought that red stood out from a black ground more and would attract someones eye.It is also displayed in quite a sharp font,we used the picture of the cloudy sky as it was in black and white which goes with the theme of horror and clouds link to the idea of a dream.'Or live in fear' was produced in white font so that it also stood out from the black background yet didint take too much attention away from the main title,the follwoing dots were used for a mysterious effect.
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Hardware
We used a camcorder MV920:
. Powerful Canon 25x zoom lens
. High resolution 800k pixel CCD and DiG!C DV for image quality,however in a practice run through of the film there was a slight grainy affect on the camera to which we had to adjust the white balance to get right.
. Compact, designed for simple operation, this helped with carrying the camera around and moving it to other locations.
.2.7" Wide screen LCD and Real Wide screen recording for playback, this feature made it easier to be able to re-film things as we could easily see what we had just filmed.
It also had a night vision setting, which was necessary for our filming as we were filming outside and although this may not of been as clear as possible due to the camera limits it fit in with out narrative well as the film is actually about a dream.
We also used a tripod which made it easy to focus the camera, it also put a more professional and realistic touch to our film; the tripod was useful to adjust to a Dutch angle for the opening of our film.
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