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.
Friday, 27 March 2009
Microdrama and narrative theory
For the micro-drama task we included Todorov's 5-part narrative formula, his theory was that every narrative can be broken down into three basic stages; Equilibrium,dis-equilibrium and new equilibrium.
1) A state of equilibrium - This was included when we first saw George getting ready for his date with his new girlfriend.
2) A disruption of the equilibrium by some action- George goes on the date with his girlfriend even though is already going out with two of her mates without any of them knowing.
3) A recognition that there has been a disruption- The two other girls see George on his date and meet his girlfriend to discuss it.
4) An attempt to repair the disruption- The girls decide George needs teaching a lesson and plan to get revenge on him.
5) A reinstatement of the equilibrium- All the characters agree to make friends at the tasks ends with them all singing.
In our task we also used the Thulow theory of the active question, some examples of the active questions that could apply to ours are; Will the other girls find out George is two timing them? Will George admit it? Will the girls get George back? Will they resolve their differences?
Saturday, 21 March 2009
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Target Audience and BBFC
Our target audience is 15-24,therefore it would be a BBFC rating of 15. Through research of the BBFC we have decided this as it contains strong language, Contains strong threat and intense disaster scenes along with gory details. However younger viewer's can relate to the narrative through such things as watching films with friends and going to school, younger audiences maybe then attracted and try to reach the film through sources like downloads. The first opening two minutes don't include music for tension effects however if we were too produce the rest of the film we would include popular music to reach out to our target audience. Although our opening two minutes doesn't include any non-Caucasian characters; we hope that the narrative and youthful cast will attract some multi-ethnic audiences.
Although many horrors are seen as male gendered we also wanted to be able to appeal to a female audience. Therefore we included girls that we felt would attract the male audience by their clothes and personalities they would be signified as being heterosexual this would help with the male gaze theory. The 'male gaze' theory by feminist Laura Mulvey suggests that the film industry concentrates on the body of women rather than the skill of the actress and this is done for male pleasure. In "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema", Mulvey calls for a destruction of modern film structure as the only way to free women from their sexual objectification in film. In addition to this at the same time we included a girl, which the female audiences can relate too and see her as a strong and powerful female, known in horror as 'the final girl', this has intertextual reference to Laurie Strode in Halloween.
In terms of class, we have decided that the socio-economic groupings that would best suit our film is C1C2DE; this is due to the idea that it is a conventional slasher and involves lower middle class characters. We feel it would reach the C1's as we are using a countertype of a strong brown haired girl, which they may be able to relate too. We recognise that the cast have regional Northern accents, however we are hoping to tap into a UK wide audience by the narrative but understand that this may affect foreign sales. However, such films as Full Monty which was filmed in South Yorkshire have been successful; with just over £2.5 million pounds film budget it made just under £2 million in its opening weekend, even with regional accents. Similarly budgeted films such as Son Of Rambow which was based in the South of England highlights advantages of regional films as it had an estimated film budget of £4,000,000.Things which could go to our advantage for filming in the North of England are such things as the amount of countryside, even though it is being filmed in the dark the audience will get a image of the surrounding areas and the outside of the house illustrates the area as well.
We would expect our audience to be fans of such films as scream, prom night and the grudge, which has a 3rd sequel coming out this year. Within our film there will be intertextual references to the film scream therefore this is something 'scream' fans can relate too and if we were to package and advertise this film we may look at the packaging of scream to try and reach out to the same audience's.
For our psychographic profile we would hope to achieve interest from both genders. For women; A wine drinking,partying, sex and the city obsessive. For the male audience; A larger drinking sexually active sky movie subscriber. Looking at recent box office films, One Missed Call is a film with similar narrative to ours; it involves a mid 20's cast and people die because of a phonecall, this relates to ours, as people will be in jeopardy because of a dream. In the opening weekend this film made in the UK £432,327, however this was an American produced film.
Although many horrors are seen as male gendered we also wanted to be able to appeal to a female audience. Therefore we included girls that we felt would attract the male audience by their clothes and personalities they would be signified as being heterosexual this would help with the male gaze theory. The 'male gaze' theory by feminist Laura Mulvey suggests that the film industry concentrates on the body of women rather than the skill of the actress and this is done for male pleasure. In "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema", Mulvey calls for a destruction of modern film structure as the only way to free women from their sexual objectification in film. In addition to this at the same time we included a girl, which the female audiences can relate too and see her as a strong and powerful female, known in horror as 'the final girl', this has intertextual reference to Laurie Strode in Halloween.
In terms of class, we have decided that the socio-economic groupings that would best suit our film is C1C2DE; this is due to the idea that it is a conventional slasher and involves lower middle class characters. We feel it would reach the C1's as we are using a countertype of a strong brown haired girl, which they may be able to relate too. We recognise that the cast have regional Northern accents, however we are hoping to tap into a UK wide audience by the narrative but understand that this may affect foreign sales. However, such films as Full Monty which was filmed in South Yorkshire have been successful; with just over £2.5 million pounds film budget it made just under £2 million in its opening weekend, even with regional accents. Similarly budgeted films such as Son Of Rambow which was based in the South of England highlights advantages of regional films as it had an estimated film budget of £4,000,000.Things which could go to our advantage for filming in the North of England are such things as the amount of countryside, even though it is being filmed in the dark the audience will get a image of the surrounding areas and the outside of the house illustrates the area as well.
We would expect our audience to be fans of such films as scream, prom night and the grudge, which has a 3rd sequel coming out this year. Within our film there will be intertextual references to the film scream therefore this is something 'scream' fans can relate too and if we were to package and advertise this film we may look at the packaging of scream to try and reach out to the same audience's.
For our psychographic profile we would hope to achieve interest from both genders. For women; A wine drinking,partying, sex and the city obsessive. For the male audience; A larger drinking sexually active sky movie subscriber. Looking at recent box office films, One Missed Call is a film with similar narrative to ours; it involves a mid 20's cast and people die because of a phonecall, this relates to ours, as people will be in jeopardy because of a dream. In the opening weekend this film made in the UK £432,327, however this was an American produced film.
Monday, 2 March 2009
Prelim task
Prelim Task Evaluation
We had a German exchange student in the task who was one of our stereotypes we had planned to put her in German clothing and music to denote her nationality, but we realised after we didn't have time, which we learned from and as she didn’t have anything with her we also needed to organise when we would buy clothes which signified her nationality and how we were going to arrange the money for them .
We also had another stereotype of a northern cleaner. Planning the scenes before hand helped us although when it came to editing; the match on action didn't make sense. So we had to go back and add a clip in so it flowed, but we had a problem finding the same mise-en-scene that was used in the previous filming as we needed the transactions to be clear to be subtle.
We also learnt that working in a group of four people wasn’t as easy as anticipated because there were so many different ideas and opinion's it took double the time, also everyone wasn't getting a go at filming. To improve on this criticism we could of organised who did the filming when we were deciding the camera shots to make the task fairer and easier on all of us.
We hadn't taken into account the lightening, in some lights shadows appeared on peoples faces and when we wanted to add a few scenes in the next day that we felt we needed the lighting was different from the previous day. In our real task this shows that we will have to do all our filming at the same time and day as we are hoping to film outside and the weather can be un-predictable which could stop our coursework piece from flowing.
The transitions were too fast for the pace of the task, this cut dialogue short and gave it an amateur feel, although putting the transitions in gave us experience using imovie player which we can take advantage of when it comes to our final piece.
Overall the prelim task was a good exercise to give us practice with the camera that will save time when filming our real coursework task, we found many faults with this task that can help us to improve our final piece.
Thursday, 26 February 2009
feedback
After showing people our final product we received some very positive criticism however also felt rewarded by people for our work.Some of the following comments were made;
- Our target audience was 15-24, this was recognised by our audience, they felt it was meant for a youthful audience as the actors were young and they felt the editing was fast pace. They also felt that it was intended for a middle class socio-economic grouping due to the mise-en-scene of the house and the actors regional accent. However it was expressed that it could gain audience of an older age as in the early twenties due to the narrative.
- As the cast were women that were shown, it was commented that the beginning could be signified as being a chick flick and if we were to do it again this is something we would need to work on. The fact that it had no men in as well meant that it was questioned that women had no male gaze theory.
- The lighting of the outside shots were effective and worked well with the narrative
- The narrative enigma at the end pf the film was said to be a 'good unexpected twist'
- The jerky camera style while following the 'final girl' made it more believable
- When the camera was following the girl it was effective and built tension how there was no sound yet you could still hear the footsteps.
- However comments were made that the wind was picked up by the microphone which gave unwanted ambient sound.
- Watching the girl walk out of the house signified that someone was watching her and set up the narrative well
- Our target audience was 15-24, this was recognised by our audience, they felt it was meant for a youthful audience as the actors were young and they felt the editing was fast pace. They also felt that it was intended for a middle class socio-economic grouping due to the mise-en-scene of the house and the actors regional accent. However it was expressed that it could gain audience of an older age as in the early twenties due to the narrative.
- As the cast were women that were shown, it was commented that the beginning could be signified as being a chick flick and if we were to do it again this is something we would need to work on. The fact that it had no men in as well meant that it was questioned that women had no male gaze theory.
- The lighting of the outside shots were effective and worked well with the narrative
- The narrative enigma at the end pf the film was said to be a 'good unexpected twist'
- The jerky camera style while following the 'final girl' made it more believable
- When the camera was following the girl it was effective and built tension how there was no sound yet you could still hear the footsteps.
- However comments were made that the wind was picked up by the microphone which gave unwanted ambient sound.
- Watching the girl walk out of the house signified that someone was watching her and set up the narrative well
Rough cuts
We decided not too use this clip as we started the recording too early on so therefore the audience had to watch more of the film on television than intended.We could of cut it shorter however we noticed the lighting didn't match in the following scene so we decided to re-shoot.
This cut we decided was amaturely filmed, we could hear footsteps on the camera which we could of blanked out but we wanted to put a synchronous sound over. The camera was also jilting too much and the picture quality wasn't that good on he night vision mode however it is meant to be a dream therefore the blurriness did work for us.
This is going to be our first scene for the film, we decided that the zoom into the front room was too sudden for the music that we are going to play non-dijectically over the scene.However we liked the idea of the canted angle and will use that in the real film
the group
We chose a number of three as in our preliminary task there was five of us and we found difficulties in getting the work done as everyone had a different opinion and we had to make time to make sure everyone had a go with the camera.Although there are four of us, one is a German exchange and therefore wont be with us for the full process of the filming.We are all friends therefore we are comfortable to be able to discuss ideas and are all in easy touch of each other if extra filming is needed.
Cinematography and editing
1-For the view of the house we put the camera onto a Dutch angle with a slow zoom in into the window of the house to which the next scene was going to be located in. The Dutch angle signified the genre of the film and set up the unsettling atmosphere.
2- For the next couple of shots we used two shots as we needed to fit both of the actress's into the frame. We also used a shot reaction shot and over the shoulder shot to give a variety of different angles into the film and to give the audience a wider sense of the location of the scenes.
3-We used a long shot when the girl leaves the house too signify that at that point in the film she is a vulnerable character. We rejected the idea of a close up as she walked out the house so the audience could see her mise-en-scene and get a sense of what the character was dressed like.
4-However in a later shot the girl walks out of the house and the camera is at a Dutch angle, we chose this to represent that someone could be watching her.
5-For the next shot the girl is again walking away from the camera to illustrate she could be vulnerable, this is also done in a long shot so the audience can see the outside location which helps set the scene as its a dark lonely road.
6-For the next shots the camera follows her still coming from behind, it gradually gets into a close up from a long shot as you can see a black hand reaching for her shoulder. We chose a close up for this so the audience could concentrate and be easily able to see the hand. The camera then goes to a mid-shot of the girl from front on- this shows her reaction to the hand, we chose this so the audience can see her expression on her face.
7- For the last scenes of the girl in bed we start off with a mid-shot which slowly zooms in as the girl wakes up, this again is to show the actress's expression and to slightly shock them as she jilts up suddenly.
We did add a clip of the hand reaching the girl from a slightly high angle, this made the actress look in danger, it also suggested it was a taller person than her behind her which could signify it was a male.
2- For the next couple of shots we used two shots as we needed to fit both of the actress's into the frame. We also used a shot reaction shot and over the shoulder shot to give a variety of different angles into the film and to give the audience a wider sense of the location of the scenes.
3-We used a long shot when the girl leaves the house too signify that at that point in the film she is a vulnerable character. We rejected the idea of a close up as she walked out the house so the audience could see her mise-en-scene and get a sense of what the character was dressed like.
4-However in a later shot the girl walks out of the house and the camera is at a Dutch angle, we chose this to represent that someone could be watching her.
5-For the next shot the girl is again walking away from the camera to illustrate she could be vulnerable, this is also done in a long shot so the audience can see the outside location which helps set the scene as its a dark lonely road.
6-For the next shots the camera follows her still coming from behind, it gradually gets into a close up from a long shot as you can see a black hand reaching for her shoulder. We chose a close up for this so the audience could concentrate and be easily able to see the hand. The camera then goes to a mid-shot of the girl from front on- this shows her reaction to the hand, we chose this so the audience can see her expression on her face.
7- For the last scenes of the girl in bed we start off with a mid-shot which slowly zooms in as the girl wakes up, this again is to show the actress's expression and to slightly shock them as she jilts up suddenly.
We did add a clip of the hand reaching the girl from a slightly high angle, this made the actress look in danger, it also suggested it was a taller person than her behind her which could signify it was a male.
Software
We used Imovie o6 as the main software although Imoive o8 was available its a step down from Imoive o6.The software we used had great advantages in my opinion, it was easy to drag the clips into the editing bar and it was useful to be able to see all the clips in the same window.It has a wide selection of ways to edit and many options within the sub-headings: themes,clips,media, editing and chapters. Imovie has in particular helped our group as we are including music from garage band which was easily accessible from imovie player 06.To upload videos,presentations and documents onto my blog i also used scribd which is a publishing software that gives a URL code which can be entered into the blog which allows it to be displayed on blogger.
However with all the many choices of the software this also proves to be quite complicated at times as there are many different ways to do the same thing. For example i found when cutting clips its hard to copy and paste to keep the rough cuts aswel; although i was helped with simple plans like this by the videos on the apple website and the prelim tasks as well.
However with all the many choices of the software this also proves to be quite complicated at times as there are many different ways to do the same thing. For example i found when cutting clips its hard to copy and paste to keep the rough cuts aswel; although i was helped with simple plans like this by the videos on the apple website and the prelim tasks as well.
Locations, Mise en scene,costume props
For the first scenes the two girls are in a living room, we have chosen the living room as its an easy room to adjust lighting in, its easily available and doesn't let too much light in through the window which is good for setting the genre of the film. It also links the first and second scenes together by an outside zoom in of the living room.
For the walk home we have two locations in mind, both are woody, dark quiet paths which we can easily get too and have street lamps near by so that the lighting wont be too dark. Both places are also very quiet as that's essential to the atmosphere of the film. We ended up choosing the above location as it was close to the house so we were able to achieve good continuity in shots.
The final scene of her waking up is going to be filmed in the same house as the one where were filming the living room, this has made it easier for us with time and the equipment. As the scene will be a mid shot the audience wont be able to see a full view of the room although you will be able to see pink walls and girly bed covers to signify the personality of the main character.
We have an intertextual reference to scream using props, as there is a shot where a blonde haired girl is framed with a stack of knives, when the 'mother' figure enters offering cake she also has a knife on her cutting board.
Casting
For the casting we are representing lower middle class social groups due to the actress's within the film however our audience will go into working class as they can relate to the mise en scene of the film, accents and storyline as well. Through the narrative of the film we attracted the audience by featuring 'nice on the eye' girls. We achieved this look by making them a countertype and a stereotype as they both have brown hair. The stereotype ( a brown haired girl in slasher/horror movies is usually clever, least sexually available dressed and stays alive until the end of the film) so therefore we have clothed her in jeans and a Conservative top with little makeup, this character is going to to play the 'final girl' within the film and we have intertextual references to Sian Breckin within the film donkey punch.
The second girl is a countertype of brown haired girls stereotypically as she is dressed in fun flirty bright clothing and also appears to be scared hen the two girls are watching the film. If the movie were to carry on the first girl would dream about the second girl dying which would come true. For the third casting you only see a hand, this we wanted to be a male hand for the size however they are wearing a black glove and as there is only one person on screen at the time one of the other group members will play this short part. For the last casting part in the film we used a 40-year-old blonde haired woman who we asked to wear an apron so that she could follow the stereotypical stay at home housewife mum. Both the mum and the second girl appeal to the male audience using the 'male gaze theory', the 'final girl' appeals to the female audience as she manages to stay alive and could be seen as an inspiration to women.
Initial group idea
All four of us decided we wanted to do a horror,we decided that it was going to be rated a 15 ad that our target audience would be 15-to late 20's. We decided to call it 'Dare to dream'.
To keep it aimed at a youth audience we are going to use people in their late teens to act for us.Were going to start off with a shot of two brown haired,pretty girls watching a scary movie which will denote the genre of the film. The girls who's house it is, her mum comes in offering cake with a knife which we thought would signify also a horror film. The first girl then realises that shes got to get home and the mum offers her a lift to which she declines as she only lives 2 minute's away.
She tries to use a phone, her battery dies to which she gets herself worked up about. Walking in the dark alone she hears bushes rustling and turns around but no-ones there.The audience sees a hand coming towards her and as she turns round the screen goes to a black fade and a heartbeat which started playing as she turned round gets faster and faster. Its then to a shot of her jolting up in bed as it was a dream, the whole scenes before are filmed with a slight blurred vision on so therefore it makes audiences aware it could be a dream.
If the film was to carry it on the plot would show that the girls dreams come true and her family and friends lives are in jeopardy.
My initial ideas of film opening
My initial idea:
Genre:Horror/slasher
Audience:15-18
BBFC Rating:15
Starts off with a pitch-black room, a blue tint light flashes and a disturbing silhouette figure is shown filmed from a low angle, which makes the character look more powerful. Then straight away a girl with blonde stereotypical features (cleavage is on show, short skirt and loads of obvious makeup) is in a long shot which enables the audience to see her mise-en-scene, she is denoted being popular by having loads of Friends around her and illustrated in the dialogue, using depth of field a blurd black clothed figure is in the background, unable to tell the gender of the figure. The camera then becomes shaky as if someone is watching this blonde haired girl as she is in the centre of the frame with close ups zooming in and out. There is then a mid shot of the girl saying 'ill see you tonight' which is echoed using sound effects to add tension and effect. It then straight goes into a long shot of the house party that their going to which is on a slow zoom filmed on a Dutch angle with gradual shake of the camera. The screen then suddenly goes to a black fade out and a loud drum noise is heard. This is where the 2-minute opening ends on a narrative enigma. The film goes on to explore the consequences of high school bullying and to show the strengths of stalking someone.
The main scene of the blonde girl using depth of field to show a dark figure is going to be located in school grounds, this is done so the audience are aware of the age of cast, it sets the scene and also relates to the target audience.
The blonde haired girl would be in a girly costume such as pink clothes, manicured nails etc. Ive chosen this look as through my research of Slasher films the first blonde haired girl in the film tends to get killed first, this has intertextual references to scream as this happens in there. As the first 2 minutes will only include two characters i would cast two girls (as the black figure turns out to be a girl) that can be easily available to film and confident in the roles they will have to play.
Common codes and conventions of film openings
From the opening of a film, audiences of any genre want to see the narrative enigma. There should be something in the film opening, which makes the audience want to carry on watching. However it varies from film to film on how this is done; Scream (1996) left 12 minutes of the beginning of the film before the narrative was assured.
Different genres use different codes and conventions for their film. In horror films its common for their to be blue tint lighting used; it is also common for the first girl to be seen on screen to be blonde who is more than likely going to die first. Generally speaking horror films try to target a middle class audience. In contrast to this social realism films tend to target a larger number of the working class audiences. In the opening of a social realism film we expect to see working class accents and locations, which is shown in Trainspotting (Danny Boyle), in that particular film the narrative enigma is used by people injecting heroine while a baby is in the room to keep the audience watching. It also begins very fast paced with fast music and a voice over of a working class accent while the main characters are quickly running. This all adds to the pace of the film and is an effective quick start to the film.
Romcoms have a different style to their opening scenes. Usually it is started off with a voice over of one of the main characters, this is done on Bridget Jones and Love actually.Romcoms openings tend to signify a feel good movie; in Love Actually this is done by clips of people meeting at Heathrow airport who they seem to not have seen for a while. There is also non-dijetic music straight away, which is slow and romantic signifying the genre of the film. Romcoms also usually produce a soundtrack from the film of the music this was also done for the two films Ive mentioned. Their target audience tends to be middle and upper lower class, there appears to be less obvious narrative enigma in this genre, as the opening of the films tends to set up the narrative for the rest of the film.
Different genres use different codes and conventions for their film. In horror films its common for their to be blue tint lighting used; it is also common for the first girl to be seen on screen to be blonde who is more than likely going to die first. Generally speaking horror films try to target a middle class audience. In contrast to this social realism films tend to target a larger number of the working class audiences. In the opening of a social realism film we expect to see working class accents and locations, which is shown in Trainspotting (Danny Boyle), in that particular film the narrative enigma is used by people injecting heroine while a baby is in the room to keep the audience watching. It also begins very fast paced with fast music and a voice over of a working class accent while the main characters are quickly running. This all adds to the pace of the film and is an effective quick start to the film.
Romcoms have a different style to their opening scenes. Usually it is started off with a voice over of one of the main characters, this is done on Bridget Jones and Love actually.Romcoms openings tend to signify a feel good movie; in Love Actually this is done by clips of people meeting at Heathrow airport who they seem to not have seen for a while. There is also non-dijetic music straight away, which is slow and romantic signifying the genre of the film. Romcoms also usually produce a soundtrack from the film of the music this was also done for the two films Ive mentioned. Their target audience tends to be middle and upper lower class, there appears to be less obvious narrative enigma in this genre, as the opening of the films tends to set up the narrative for the rest of the film.
Coursework Task
The brief set for our AS coursework production is as follows:
Preliminary exercise:Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character,with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action,shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.
Main Task: 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 the candidates, with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source.
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