Evaluation Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our film opening has two specific social groups, professionals and teens.

Teens

We were able to represent the main character as a teenager mainly by the way she dresses. Her costume was typical of a teenager, with her jeans (which are an icon of youth) and brightly colored head band. This shows that the character likes a little bit of attention (due to the head band) however is a little bit of a follower in fashion with the cut of the jean. They were skinny and a quite modern color. 

The girls body language also shows how she is a 'teen'. This is because she is quite closed with her hand in her pocket. As well as the hand being in the pocket, the way she walked is rather stereotypical of a teenager. This was because she was walking with a slump in her back and quite sluggishly.
The makeup of the girl is extremely stereotypical of the teen look. This is because of the amount she is wearing and the type of make up there is. There is a little foundation and concealer as her face is clear, however there is the odd blemish. There is obviously some cheek bone definition with the blusher highlighting this. As well as the girls skin having make up, her eyes are highlighted with eyeliner and also her lips with a small amount of lipstick. This is extremely stereotypical of the social group of teenagers and the typical girl next door look.
Finally the use of headphones also shows that she is a teenager. This is because it is very typical of teenagers to be listening to music wherever they are going. 

Professionals 

We showed the stereotype of a business/ professional woman with her costume. The costume we chose was a pencil black dress with a white blazer. This shows that she is very professional and looks like a typical businesswoman you would have seen in the city. The colour was very important of the dress, this is because we wanted it to gave an impression of the woman. The colour was meant to show how dark and mysterious the character is and the white was meant to be a contrast and a slight hint of irony in the mise en scene. 

Evaluation Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

What do distributors do?

Distributors are companies that help you show and sell your film. there are two different types of distributors. there are conglomerates and independent distributors. Conglomerates have a global and tent-pole target audience, whilst independent distributors have a small localized target audience. This is mainly because of the differentiating budget these two distributors have. A conglomerate will have millions of pounds that it can spend on making and being able to get the film to every edge of the planet. Where as an independent distributor will only have a few thousand to distribute the film. An independent distributor will most likely distribute my film. This is because my film is a low budget film and a conglomerate would not want to sell or show this film due to it not making as much money as they need it to make in order for them to get a good enough profit from it. 

BFI - British Film Institute

As the biggest distributor of cultural cinema BFI supplies films to over 600 venues right across the UK. The BFI also works through key partnerships. As the lottery distributor for film, the BFI provides funding for film development, production and distribution. 

The Film Fund is the production and development heart of the BFI. Who support filmmakers in the UK who are emerging and capable of creating distinctive and entertaining work.

The Distribution and Exhibition department works to widen the choice of films available to cinema audiences across the UK in 3 key ways:

Raising awareness: our Prints and Advertising Fund provides £4 million every year to help British distributors promote non-mainstream films.

Improving access: our Digital Screen Network is made up of 240 digital screens across the UK that now show non-mainstream films regularly.

Increasing information: our website Find Any Film is one of the UK's leading websites for film fans looking to watch, buy, download or rent great films.

With these three points in mind and a well known status BFI would be an ideal distributor for our film. 

Entertainment Film Distributors

Entertainment is the UK’s leading independent distributor. The company was founded in 1978 and has showed continuing growth and success since that time distributing a wide range of product and building a significant film library. Highlights for the company have been the release of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Run Fat Boy Run and Hugo.

Entertainment Film Distributors operates both in the UK and the Republic of Ireland and distributes in theatrical, DVD rental and retail fields as well as licensing a substantial catalog in both Pay-TV and Free-TV sectors.

Entertainment films offer innovative and flexible distribution deals that are results orientated and film maker friendly. this distributor would fit in well with our film as it would use its efforts to increase its popularity.

IndiePix

IndiePix was founded in 2004 to bring film fans the very best of independent cinema. Today, IndiePix is  home to the broadest online selection of indie films from around the world, including the latest award-winning titles from the festival circuit, popular indie classics, foreign, documentaries and more. IndiePix also offers a service in which customers and audiences can buy a DVD online or get your film on demand by either streaming or downloading a high quality film, without the wait.

Indiepix is also committed to the spirit of indie film and provide filmmakers the opportunity to distribute their projects while maintaining the rights to their work furthermore they work closely with filmmakers to individualize packaging and marketing plans, and offer the most generous revenue share in the industry. 

Evaluation Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Who would be the audience for your media product?

This is Jenny Bailey. She is 17 years old and lives in the suburbs of London.
She dresses fairly straight forward as she wears jeans and a t-shirt. She enjoys playing socialising with hers friends, some of this is done through social media, her mobile phone and social meetings.
They types of films that she enjoys include the A- team, Italian Job (2003), the oceans trilogy and also fast and furious. She enjoys watching these films in the cinema when first released with her friends but often watches them online on sites like Netflix or buying them latter on for DVD.
Some of the Television programs that she may watch could include, CSI, NCIS, BBC TV series Hustle, Live at the Apollo, Rustle Howards good news, however will also occasionally watch soaps. The main channels that she will watch these programs and others that are similar to this may include BBC 2, BBC 3, FXUK, Channel 5 and Horror Central.
The type of music that this girl would listen to would be chart hits, as well as a little bit of rock.
I believe that our film would appeal to this person this is because he is a stereotypical "gal" who enjoys typical female things, therefore if our film was to be shown in her local cinema or even distributed online this may appeal to him. Our film may also appeal to her as it is similar to other films that he likes for example The Woman in Black.

BBFC Rating

We decided to give our media product (film) a 15+ classification rating, as we felt that the contents didn't contain any violence or scenes of a sexual natural, and therefore suitable for a slightly younger audience instead of 18 and above.Our film contains more psychological events, than gore and slasher, with it building the tension throughout till the end climax.We wanted it to be structured in this way, after looking at many different examples of films with the same genre, such as Paranormal Activity and Mama, because we felt like this way was the most effective in engaging our audience.

As mentioned before, by making our classification 15 and above, helps us relate more to our audience, with us being the same age as our targeted consumers, we believe that we can add and give all the desires they expect, as we know what our generation appeal to.

Evaluation Question 5: How did you attract/ address your audience?

Target Audience

The target audience for this film opening is young adults and teenagers. We have appealed this to our target audience through the location, location and filters we have used within this film opening. The location we used would have appealed to the target audience, because it was set in a place where most teenagers and young people have been. Most teenagers have either been on a walk or walked their dog through a field. As well as the field, the indoors scene is also one of which the target audience as the house is a typical one that they would live in. Therefore we though that it would have been appealing. As well as the location, the costumes we wanted to be appealing to the target audience. therefore the girl and main character was wearing clothes we thought were typical and stereotypical of both the genre and the target audience. The plot of this film beginning was a little stereotypical of the target audience because some teenagers have the extreme view that some adults are out there to get you and have gone mentally mad.

How could I have done this better?

We used many long camera shots and this would not have kept the target audiences. Therefore we should have taken a more varied amount of shots. As well as this being more appealing to the target audience, it would have made our lives easier as we would have then had more of a variety of shots to pick from and would have been able to have made the best quality of film opening we could have done. As well as more shots to build up tension to the body, the interior shot could have been more varied and have been more interesting for the audience with hints as to who the person is and why they were there. For example we could have had a little shot reverse shot and a close up of the knife to give some hints.
Some more interesting shots we could have taken were ones of family pictures and the stairs to build up an understanding of the girl. So that there is a little more of a connection and emotion for her.

Evaluation question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout the process of making our opening sequence we used different types of technology to make it at a high standard, where I have learnt lots of techniques and lessons to take on board for the future to do with the technology we have used to make our opening sequence possible.

Apple Mac's/Mac Book-

We used theses Macs to make our opening on. This is because the high quality and speed of this model which was important when using certain programmes and software to make the process quicker. This model of computer helped with the speed of rendering files and importing/exporting to blog, allowing us to save time focus on the elements of our opening rather than the problems with the device it’s on. I have learnt about the machine itself but also gaining knowledge in a range of new programmes to improve the quality of my opening. I have also discovered the battery charge for the Mac books it short therefore I had to ensure I had a charger at hand when needed to save the hassle of losing work and wasting time. From the Macs I have also learnt to remember to have a card reader (USB format) to plug in as the Macs don't have a SD Card slot available. This manage to delay us a couple of time due to the fact our footage was save on the SD Card we had to work on other elements instead of editing our opening a couple of sessions. One other element I've learnt is to ensure I saved my footage on the Desktop before opening it up on an editing software such as Final Cut Pro as it doesn't locate the files if the footage is straight off the memory card. Overall I feel this model has helped with making our opening professional and at a high standard.

Programmes/Software-

Final Cut Pro

This was one of the main editing programmes we used to edit our opening on. I felt it was a quick and easy programme to work and had an easy layout to follow. I feel I'm more confident with the process of cutting shots and deleting footage we didn't need, making our opening flow more to shot to shot. The rendering process took a long time as we had a lot of files and footage to change. I've learnt next time to ensure to convert it into Apple Intermediate Codec format so it doesn't need rendering. This will save time where I can spend it on more editing to improve my work further.

LiveType

We used this programme to titles for our opening film. I felt it was an effective and easy way to produce good quality titles. I learnt that once the title was made the title will automatically connect to the final cut pro programme, making it quick to edit in and less time to look for the file, import and rendering. This programme allowed us to edit titles with realistic font and sizing to match the conventions of our opening film. I manage to learn how to add special effects on the titles to match the conventions and make our opening look more realistic. We used a fade in/out effect which showed a ghost present to the audience. Learning this technique of added effects will help me in the future when making a movie as it flows more easily with effects.

Websites

YouTube

My group used YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/, frequently throughout our project, to upload any new footage or feedback we had produced. We found it easy and efficient to use, and as By the end of the editing stage I was confidant at using this site, being able to add annotations and titles onto the videos/footage independently.

Blogger

My group used Blogger, https://www.blogger.com, throughout our project to record and document all stages of our film opening. It also helped us to become more organised and aware of the deadline dates. Blogger was a key piece of technology used in our project. I was taught how to operate and navigate myself around the site at the beginning of the project. I later learnt how to change the template and layout of my blog, making it appear more professional and easy to use. I also learnt how to embed videos and photos into my posts into the HTML tab, which was a very useful skill to learn, as almost every post contained a video or image. By having these skills it made it very easy and quick to create posts at a detailed/high standard.

Tripod

Standing tripod

I was aware of how to use this equipment from taking photography so I took very little time connecting the camera and ensuring it was stable which allowed us to spend more time on the production and ensuring the camera was safely on the tripod to risk breakages. I feel I was very confident at knowing what to do in this area.

SD Card and Card Reader

I realised that I needed to be more organised with bringing in the memory sticks due to the fact our footage was saved on the Cards so it delayed our progress for editing when we didn't have them for a certain lesson. We had a problem with one of our hard drives; unfortunately the device broke where we saved our footage. Eventually we managed to backup the files and get the footage back we needed however we were lucky. We have definitely learnt a lesson to backup our files onto other devices to ensure we have saved copies in case we lost work. This saves time doing the work again and having to re-film. We found the rendering process took a long time due to the amount of footage we had on our opening, also putting the Card in to the Macs and opening our film on Final Cut Pro was a challenge at times due to the reconnecting process. We have learnt for the future to save the footage on the desktop in the Mac so the program can locate and connect the footage when the Card is removed. 

Conclusion

Overall, I felt I have learnt a lot from the different technology that helped make our Opening film possible. I feel I will learn from my mistakes for the future to save more time on other key elements but I know I have also created a successful final film as I used all the above technology to improve our opening further. I have picked up some key and useful skills to help me in life such as: Card readers, new programs I've discovered and working on new unfamiliar computers. Comparing digital, modern technology to analogue puts the element in a whole new perspective, as digital technology is a lot more advantaged and gives the ability for producers to create for possibilities in film making. From using the above technology to help produce an opening film I can now see why film companies rely on digital technology to keep them in the media industry and on top. From the production to the final editing of a film, technology takes a huge role in making the processes possible to come out with a final product worth distributing for audiences to consume. 

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

The preliminary task was set introduce us to the equipment and process a film maker has to go through to create a product, therefore ensuring that a quality product is created when it comes to filming the final opening scene of our film.  I feel that I've been able to build on my knowledge gained from this task that was set to get us used to the equipment and software and feel that I have made a quality final product that shows all that I have learned.

Planning and research

Barely any planning was done for the prelim task. It was mainly a task that would allow the group to get an idea of how the equipment works and how to get the best possible quality footage for the film in which we have created, therefore I feel that I have learned a tremendous amount about planning and research into making a film. This includes everything from research of similar films that already exists within the genre, but also story boarding and the staging of the shots themselves, as well as the lighting and position of the camera.

Filming

Having been able to see what the camera and equipment is actually able to do this opened a wide variety of possibilities to me and the different types of shots that I could use within my film.

Quality of the image can be affected by a number of things. One of the main problems that our group faced was the lack of light that we used during the filming. This meant that the quality was not as good and therefore required us to re- film in order to get the better quality.

Editing

Editing was the skill I was least sure about after our preliminary exercise because I had not done as much of the post production editing as I’d have liked to and having never used the software before meant that I was inexperienced about this stage. However after doing a large amount of editing for our film opening I’m much more comfortable with the editing software Final Cut Express and although I’m clueless still to some of its advanced facilities, I would now be able to take production footage and create a finished media product that was edited sufficiently and with some detailed work within the edit.

More edits have also been used in the final product compared to the standard transitions that were used with the prelim task. Some of these effects include the use of slow motion, transitions, title screens and even adding sound effects and sound tracks over the top of the film. All of these effects have helped to enhance the film to make it more appealing to the audience but also help to make the film make scenes. 

Going into the future I hope to further develop any film making skills mentioned and to keep learning from my mistakes. Also, as our film opening showed, to continue to exploit new technologies within our media products in order to either enhance the film or to make film making easier.

Equipment and Camera Skills

In our preliminary task we used a flip camera and tripod. This made the footage good and still, however the quality was not that good due to the flip camera. My preliminary task was very simple in the shots that I took, for example we did some long shots to mid long shots. As well as that, there are a couple of tilts, at the beginning there is a tilt down to the feet. We were trying to get an impression of the people in the short video.

In the film opening there is a bit of difference between the camera skills that we used in it compared to our preliminary task. We did not use the tilt skill as much as in the preliminary task. We decided to have more effect with the editing then the actual camera skills. We did use a panning and tilt at one point in time. As well as that we looked at using over the shoulder shots and a variety of different shots that could be used in the editing process.

Sound

In the preliminary task we decided to not use and sound, however use dialogue. This was not as good as we thought it would turn out to be. Therefore we decided in the beginning of our film we would use sound and not dialogue. We chose sounds that built up suspension and made the viewer feel really uncomfortable.

Titles

The preliminary task had no titles in it at all. After looking at different beginnings of films, we thought that it would be a really good idea to put in titles to tell the user who  was in the film and who helped to make it. 

The film - Pretichor

Within this film I completed all of the editing, titles, effects and assisted with the sound.  

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

Evaluation question 1 from Megan Fulham

Research - Genre Analysis 2 - Insidious

Introduction to the film/brief background

The second Psychological Horror film opening I chose to analyse was Insidious (2010). Directed by James Wan, staring Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne, made by alliance films and stage 6 films.The film is based on a family looks to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose child in a realm called The Further.The film was budgeted $1,500,000 and received £1,441,292 for the opening weekend in the UK.
As for critical acclaim Roger Ebert gave the film 2 1/2 stars out of 4 saying, "It depends on characters, atmosphere, sneaky happenings and mounting dread. This one is not terrifically good, but moviegoers will get what they're expecting". The film also received several awards, such as The Empire Awards in 2006 and The Young Artist Award in 2012.

Key characters/Stock characters

After watching the first scene of Insidious, the first key character is immediately identifiable by a medium eye-line match shot .With one of the first shots/settings being in bedroom, with a child ling in bed peering up at the camera .By using direct mode of address, it engages the audience, as they feel some involvement into the film.Although this character cannot yet be classed as either a protagonist or antagonist for Insidious, it is clear, given it's the first shot, that this character is critical to the plot/narrative of the film .Also emphases the importance of this character.
However, as the audience, we can infer that this key character is perhaps the protagonist in the film. As immediately we can see that it's a male child, which is represented to appear young and vulnerable. Peering up from behind his covers, showing connotations of fear, linking back to idea of vulnerability. As stereo typically society see children as being fearful, using their imagination to fear the worst, such as supernatural occurrences.

The film is also using a key convention of the genre here, as conveniently supernatural Horror movies use children as their key characters, which usually involves the child being a victim/ companion, sharing some relation or emotion towards the supernatural being.Which not only helps create tension due to the child being in danger, but engages the audience.

The antagonist is also shown in the opening scene, as the non-diegetic increases as the character is relived.This key character also follows the key convents of a stereotypical horror, through both mis en scene and sound.The female figure appears as a stereotype of a witch, dark, eerie and of course supernatural.The opening contains several shots of the characters shadow passing from wall to wall, suggesting she is searching or investigating the setting and adding to the idea of the character being supernatural.With the final shot of the character confirming this, as she is almost transparent, showing the light from outside the bedroom through the keyhole.From this the audience can instantly understand the type of narrative this film would follow and the danger the protagonists will encounter.
No other stock characters are shown in this first opening scene, as the majority of the scene is a added climax of the appearance of the antagonist.

Narrative/Stock situation 

Through the use of different shots, the audience are able to establish the main setting/location of the film.With long shots and eye-line matches of the character's bedroom.We can only assume that this film will follow the stereotypical conventions of a supernatural genre film, with it being based in normal environment
, in this case a home.Given this, the film's narrative would appear to be fairly stereotyped, with the idea of a child being vulnerable , controlled and in danger, with little knowledge of the parents, leading to frightful and severe consequences, resulting in ether revenge or defeat by the protagonist or antagonist.

Genre Iconography

By using iconography in this scene helps the audience establish the genre of the film.The music is a huge part of this, with consistent non-diegetic music played throughout the clip, with increases in tone to add to the tense atmosphere.
Several conventional icons are used, such as shadows and dark lighting/filter, linking to Horror.Using the child's bedroom shows clear representation of vulnerability, showing to the audience that the supernatural being is present, as the character appears frightened and tense.
The mis en scene used is very dominantly ideological of what a young boy's bedroom should look like, which makes the film seem like its based in a innocent location.
The muti-coloured quilt/bedding of the character also makes the child seem of a young age,showing icons of immaturity and youth, aswell as using icons such as a teddy bear, stereo typically linked to a child.
They have used iconography such as a old grandfather clock, a photo frame of the main protagonist's family, and a crib to indicate that young children are involved in this film.Low- key lighting is used to, again, representation the genre of Horror.
All in all the mis en scene used is basic, yet sets up the films location well, showing key convention to the Horror genre.

Themes of genre

The main theme of the film, after watching the opening scene, is Good vereus Evil.This is present throughout the scene, with the idea of the family and home being good and the supernatural occurrence being evil.At the beginning of the scene I also recognized a theme of the unknown, with knowledge of a supernatural being , yet not yet reviled 

Score

As Insidious is a supernatural horror non-diegetic incidental is a vital part to build up a suspense  for an audience member.The creepy music, makes you feel uneasy and uncomfortable as the presence of the supernatural appeals, as the tone increases.

Typography

The transitions in the opening are very smooth and they connect with one shot well.The colour red is used a lot throughout the title sequence, connoting blood, danger and love,  which fades in and out quickly, engaging the audience.When the insidious title appears on the screen the 'I' is shaped like a devil which foreshadows the events of the film, and can let the audience know what the film's antagonist may be (The Devil).The title sequence flows well, ensuring the shot change after 15 seconds, meaning the audience can get a glimpse of the location and a few main characters, but not enough to give away all of the narrative.This is effective because it encourages and entices the audience to continue watching.

Insidious has an effective title sequence, due to the sound, mis en scene, cinematography and editing.

Research - Film opening 3 - The Lion King

Introduction to the film/Brief background

The third film I am analyzing is The Lion King (1994). Directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, staring Matthew Broderick and Jeremy Irons, made by Walt Disney Pictures.The film is about a young cub, who is tricked into thinking he killed his father, he flees into exile and abandons his identity as the future King.The film was budgeted at $45,000,000 and received $1,586,753 in the UK on the opening weekend. As for critical acclaim, Lion King received several awards, such as three Oscars in 1995 and a Golden Globe.

Opening Narrative

The scene shows a selection of different animals surrounding a reservoir gathering together to join as celebration of the lions birth.
The scene shows several characters, showing Mis En scene of a animated film , with a target audience of young children.

Representation 

Incidental music is used to help engage the audience and to immediately establish the audience and genre of the film.Fitting well with the visual and effective to entice the target audience.
The main subject used are the lions, which are presented in a positive way, as perhaps more dominant as the others and  are some kind of authority figure for the other character.

Characters/Social groups and Mis en scene- numerous animated characters are shown heading towards one another.By using stereotypical animals in Africa this also helps the film relate to the audience and genre of the film.

Props- There are several props throughout the scene which both suggests the movie's genre and audience, with generalized settings and locations of Africa and how we would assume the animals would be portrayed, such as the lion as a high authority figures, 'King of the jungle'.

Costumes- As the characters are animals, costumes are not used, however the appearance of the animals are stereotypical, following the main conventions of a animal kingdom.

Accent- Again the accent is not established, due the opening being based on the setting, continuing several establishing shots.However the audience can infer that the accent of the characters are both calming and content.
Makeup- No makeup is used in this scene and i'm assuming that none is used throughout the movie, as it is animated and they are animals.
Sound- The sound in this scene helps to portray the characters emotions.The incidental music is used throughout and the tone increases at the end, which emphases the events and visuals in the scene, adding to the excitement and climax.

Location

The location is very stereotypical, with the majority of the scene having shots of the setting, showing the audience the location.The setting is based in a African reservoir, surrounded by trees, mountains and cliff tops.A stereotypical location for animals, all living in harmony/together.

Sound 

The sound used helps illustrate the emotions and thoughts of the subjects in the scene, with the whole scene having the same sound, yet the tone increases, making the audience more engaged in the content and links to the personalities of the character, due to the light, elegant music which is enforced on them.

Titles/Typography 

The titles are very basic, with institutional information shown, such as the producers and the actors in the animation.These appear in the scene quickly and have stereotypical typography of a title aimed for the younger generation/audience.

Camera shots/Movements

Several establishing shots are used throughout the scene , this gives the audience an insight into the setting and location of the film.Mid-shots are used , which illustrate and show the characters to the audience.
Fade in and out are used in the beginning and the end of the scene, which allows the audience to infer a change in scene, breaking the movie up.
Extreme -long shots are used, for example Simba being raised to the sky, which shows the importance of that character and highlights the main focus.This shot also has low-angle shot, showing again, Simba's importance over the other characters, with his body position being raised above the rest.Showing his higher level of authority, being positioned on the cliff top.

Mood/Atmosphere

The mood is very positive, uplifting and emotional, with the music setting the tone throughout.I personally believe that the use of music helps engage the audience into the visuals and helps create this atmosphere, of both a positive and inspiring feeling towards the characters and movie.

Planning - Lighting

here is some of the lighting that we may need to use. This equipment is professional lighting equipment which we can use backdrops if we want, however we don't think we will need them, because our location is really good. 

Research - Film opening 3 - The Woman in Black

Woman in black was originally made in 1989, however I will be analysing the 2012 version. When this new film was released on the opening weekend it made $20,874,072 in the USA. The budget was $17,000,000, meaning that there was monetary success in the way that there was $3,874,072 profit within just the first weekend. The overall gross was $54,322,273 resulting in a massive profit. However the critical acclaim was not very good for the film, with the film getting a slashing from critics that the effects weren’t realistic and Radcliffe’s acting was not up to scratch. The director was James Watkins and the film was set and filmed in Sussex, as well as other parts of the UK.

The opening of this film takes you straight into the story of the film. There are three girls all sat in a play room quite happily having a tea party with their dolls and toys. Then suddenly the girls drop everything and all walk towards the window, which is divided into three, one for each of them. Whilst they are walking to the window they tread on their crockery, which then smashes into pieces. This then shows that they are possessed, jumping out of the window to a scream from the mother saying “My baby.”

There are only the three girls in this opening scene. They are represented to be very affluent. This is shown in the connotation of them wearing ankle length clean pastel dresses. As well as the dresses, they’re wearing clean crisp white aprons. This gives the denotation that they’re innocent and only children.   

Research - Timeline

Planning - Titles of film

Horror in the Wind
Petrichor
Transcendental
Here are three different titles that we came up with as a group. We then used social media (Facebook) to get feedback from out target audience about which title the liked the best. They then chose Petrichor because it had a uniqueness to it in the way that the target audience was intrigued into what the film was about. Again already building tension with them. 

Production - Typography

Each member of our group came up with a different title, instead of using the name of the film, we decided to use our own names. Unfortunately Tayla's title wasn't able to screen shot so i don';t have any evidence of her title.  

This is Beth's title, she has used a simple indented script, with only a fade in and a fade out. We decided not to use this typography as it was too simple and didn't represent our genre as well as the other two titles. 

This is my title which was picked in the end.I decided to use Dust Sans. This was a font I found on the internet and I liked it a lot, because it represented the title really well and fitted with our genre. The movements I used was a simple fade in and out, however in the middle I used a highlighting movement that went through each letter lighting the back of it. The positioning of this title was important to me, because i wanted it to be at the bottom in the right hand side. This was because i wanted it to be subtle and not look like a trailer.  

Here is the final motion that we chose after discussing the different options as a group. 

Production - Rough cut

This is our rough cut of our Film opening. There unfortunately isn't

Production - Call Sheets

Production - Day 2 Filming - 26/02/2014

On this day of filming we mainly focused on extreme close ups of the headphones in my ear. Both Tayla and Beth shared filming of the close ups as i was in the film, on the other hand i did have some say as to how zoomed in the camera should have been and if to include the background or not.

Production - Day 1 filming - 20/02/2014

Our first day of filming went well. We were able to film a vast majority of all the outside shots. Beth was shooting for the whole day as I was acting. However I wasn't actually filming I had a big say as to what shots we were filming, how the camera moved, it it needed to pan of zoom. I also pushed for us to take as many shots as possible so that we can then pick the best shots.

Production - Day 3 filming - 27/02/2014

Today we plan for this to be the last day of filming, however that may change when we review our filming in a few days. Today we filmed the inside shots of the girl running into the house shouting "Mum" and seeing the possessed woman standing opposite her. We took a wide variety of shots for this part of the film as I was filming. I wanted to take as many shots as possible so that then we have a wide variety to choose from when it comes to making the making of the film.

Production - Day 4 filming - 20/3/2014

This was our last day we could have filmed. On this day we were re-filming about two thirds of the film. This was because the shots we had taken before weren't of a good enough quality. For example we had to re-shoot the scene where the girl runs into the house and sees the possessed woman. This was because the shots we took before were too dark and you couldn't see the woman's face. As well as the possessed woman, the shots we took before were too shaky and the continuity didn't run smoothly enough.

Here is me filming the possessed woman part with the lighting equipment we used. 

Production - Rough cut feedback

We chose to bring a couple of our target audience together to analyse our rough cut. Their comments were extremely helpful with giving us ideas of ways to improve our film. We valued and took on bored all of their comments.

Production - Changing Title

Due to our target audience feedback we decided to move our main title to the end of the opening, instead of in the middle. We did this quite easily by just moving the clip to the end of all the others and placing them all together.

Production - Adding sound

 Here are the sounds that we searched for online. There is no Copyright as we made sure that we used Copyright free sights and songs that were also Copyright free. Out of the three sounds we short listed we decided to use Gohstpocalypse - 2 The Call. We liked this music the best out of all the music we short listed, because it went really well with the film opening with the timing and the way it brought a different element of tension to the film opening.

Here is us showing how we embedded the music into our film opening in Finalcut Express.

Planning - Casting

Possessed Woman

We chose Beth Evins to play the possessed woman, because she has the blond hair which fits into what we want. This is because the blond shows more of a business look then brunette, and the character was in business ware. As well as that Beth fitted the part because of the colours of her eye and we really wanted the actresses' eyes to be penetrating. 

 Innocent Girl

The innocent girl was played by myself, because i fitted the correct criteria in the way i was obviously feminine, however could be made to look a little more masculine with my short brunette hair.  

Planning - Storyboard

Planning - Make up

The girl

Our first character is a protagonist female with feminine trates. However she may have feminine trates, she has an extremely natural look but with a bit of colour on her lips. We want to have this look, because she is portrayed as the sweat and innocent character that has to battle with these creatures. 

The Possessed Woman

We want the possessed woman to have a dramatic and effective make up. I have chosen close-ups of the lips and a picture of two women to show the effectiveness of the makeup on the portrayal of the women.The possessed woman will have smeared lipstick across her face to refer back to the dead body and the way that it was layed on the floor. the eyes will be black and smudged, again to put an emphasis on the eyes and the way that she looks possessed. 

Planning - Costume

We started our research into costume by looking at and analyzing different costumes that other psychological horror

Planning - Health and Safety

Hazard	Rating	Controls
Mud/ slippery surfaces	Medium	Sturdy footwear Suitable clothing
Motor vehicles	Medium	Use road crossing High Vis
Other animals	Low	Keep dogs on lead at all time
Wet equipment	Medium/ High	Waterproof covers Umbrellas

•  Risk asses the field and how wet it is to reduce the risk of slipping.
•  Taking a first aid kit in case of an emergency. This will include a blanket, to reduce hypothermia, as well as bandages.
•  Every person will have a mobile phone on them, which will have all members of the group mobile numbers on it as well as a local resident’s phone number.
• The battery will be fully charged on the camera.  

Planning - Mood board

This is our initial mood board for our film. It shows what a viewer of our film would be looking for whilst watching the film.

Planning - Location

A typical psychological horror typically takes place in an area which is derelict and traditionally an uninhabited place. Such as an old barn or house which has been left to rot itself away. As well abandoned buildings, horrors typically take place in fields as well. Horrors take place in these locations, because it adds to the tension which is building up in the film. The way that no one will possibly be around makes the viewer more jumpy, because they make know that something is there, yet you cannot see or hear it.

Our film is going to be set in two different locations. The main part of the opening is going to take place in an empty dark field. And the second half is going to take place inside a house, where the girl is going to run in and it is empty apart from the woman. We have chosen our locations to be these, because they suit our genre, because the field is just a normal field. Therefore you wouldn't expect to see anything dramatic. Having more emphasis on the viewer and it makes the story line more effective.

This is the field we are going to use:

Preliminary Task

Brief of task

Our first task that we were told to do in our Media AS was a continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room, sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. I decided to work in a group of three which included made by myself, Taylor Griffiths and Beth Evins. 

We first decided to spend some time planning on what shuts we could use and what the plot was going to be. We thought about the different rooms/locations, subject’s etc. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot, reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.

What went well?

Working as a team worked well in some aspects of filming the preliminary task. This was because we were able to get on and do it without having to rely on anyone else to be used as actors or actresses. We were able to get a good range of different shots, especially when I was walking to the door. We also tried very hard to keep within the filming rules, such as the 180° rule.

What could have gone better?

Working in a group was good in some aspects, however not in others. Whilst working in a group you d have to rely on each other to work sensibly and too keep up to deadlines, however sometimes that does not happen. Some people take things way to seriously, whilst others think that it’s time to mess around and have a laugh. Therefore sometimes there were heated moments, meaning that less work was done in the amount of time we had. This then impacted on the amount of shots we took and the time we had to edit sound and titles.

180 rule

In film making, the 180-degree rule is a basic guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object within a scene. An imaginary line called the axis connects the characters, and by keeping the camera on one side of this axis for every shot in the scene, the first character is always frame right of the second character, who is then always frame left of the first. The camera passing over the axis is called jumping the line or crossing the line.

Research - Genre analysis 1 - Paranormal Activity 3 analysis

The paranormal Activity series of films are well known for their gripping story lines. This is because they scare people to death. The key character types in Paranormal Activity are families that have suspicion that their house or someone is haunted. The key character types in this Paranormal Activity trailer are the typical family that think one of their daughters is possessed. This then leads them to get cameras and film everything they see themselves. This is a typical psychological horror way of filming. It gives the viewer a sense of how this could be them and scares them even more. The genre typography is very iconic I this trailer because of the typography. The typography is very typical of its genre. There is a black background with white faded writing.  

My Genre

The genre I have decided to choose as my film opening is a psychological horror. This is because of a few reasons. One of those reasons is because how much I like psychological horrors. Horror is my favourite genre as I love the gripping story lines and being scared stupid. As well as the story lines, there are also some logistical reasons as to why I have chosen a psychological horror. Psychological horror does not need any real big special effects or edits that need to be done. As we don’t have a massive budget we won’t be able to use big and fancy effects.   

Research - Genre

There are many types of genre. Genre is the profile of what the film is. Meaning that a film has a title of what is happening in it and the narrative. Some examples of genres are western, horror, romance and drama. The genre is very important to the audience, because then they can decide if they want to go and watch the film in the first place or not. As well at that it is important for the institutions to know what genre to film to so that they can construct their budget and script.

In different genres there are protagonists, antagonists, stock characters, narrative and stock situations. The protagonists are the recognizable lead characters that are the positive characters that want to win the day or be seen as the saviour. However the antagonists are the baddies of the film. For example in a romance film there is traditionally either a parent or jealous lover that gets between the couple. The stock characters however are still recognizable yet they don’t have such a main role in the film, basically meaning that they’re minor characters. The narrative and stock situations have to be relevant to the genre otherwise the audience will be going to a film which they thought was a specific genre, however it’s another.