What have we learnt?

Now we have completed our Opening sequence,we have to evaluate our work,in order to decide what we have learnt and how we have progressed,we looked at how we have developed since our preliminary task.We brainstormed as a group and here are a few basic ideas we have come up with,now we will focus on making a slide show evaluation as this is an important aspect of our coursework to....

• Camera work
• Creativity
• Working toward deadlines
• Using editing software
• Analysing other peoples work
• Importance of Mise-en-Scene
• Importance location and characters
• Using Mac software
• Using garage band
• Taking other peoples ideas on board
• Independent learning
• Feedback to the group

Audience Response

Before we called our product completely finished we showed it to a selection of our target audience 15-24 year olds,and asked them what they thought of it. Some improvements they suggested were:

• Make the lighting the same as the clips change from dark to light
• Add more transitions
• Change the size of the titles

To amend these mistakes we continued to play around with the contrast of the clips until they looked as in sync as we could make them. To the comment about transitions we added more fades and wipes to just make our sequence link together and look more realistic. Also we made the titles smaller and made the font look authentic to opening sequences. These audience comments helped us to be sure we were targeting them and listening to their suggestions. We did this to establish whether the product would be a success, and the majority thought it was good, and they all said they would like to watch the whole film. Some positive points the audience come up with were:

• The sound fxs build tension
• The camera work was successful
• The music works well

As a group we tried to incorporate all the suggestions that the audience come up with in their questionnaires as well as the ideas they told us after watching the trailer. This allowed us as a group to make the criticism we recieved postive and made our product better in the long run.

Filming and Editing

Filming:
We used a script as guidance but allowed our actors to improvise if need be. We have now finished filming in Epping Forest. We filmed our whole opening sequence over 3 days. On the first day we went out with the aim to get a lot our filming complete, therefore only leaving us a couple of days to finish the scenes of where our characters would be covered in blood. Hovever, it didn't work how we anticipated and we left it quite late and it got dark very quickly. This then left us with limited visibility on the camera, and we couldn't see what we were filming at times, so we called it a day and went back a few days later.

We had to make sure our characters were looking exactly the same as before so the film would look as realistic as possible.The light difference between the three days was obvious so we decided we would get the filming finished and play around with tones on the macs later on in the editing process. The second and the third days of filming went well and we followed our storyboard as well as adding in some shots we thought would work well with the film. We got the whole product finished to the point where we were happy.

Editing:

We imported all our filming onto the Macs and put it into a sequence similar to our storyboard. We deleted the many unusable scenes, and began changing the tones of the lighter scenes to darker. This was harder than we thought but we got it to a point were the film looked like it flowed together and the light contrast wasn't obvious. When changing the contrast of the clips we encountered a bigger problem though. We realised on one of our clips that someones legs was in the frame and it disrupted the whole mis-en-scene. We tried to cut the clip down and cut parts out, as there was no way we could film it again as the clothes holly was wearing by the end were completely ruined. In the end we had no choice but to add a letter box affect to the clip, which just simply gave the illusion that the film was filmed through a letter box, therefore cutting out the legs. To make the film more authentic and realistic we added the letterbox affect to all the scenes from the killers point of view which added to the theme of him wearing a mask so it didn't ruin the film at all and we managed to over come the problem.

We added the music of Imovie and added different sound effects to parts of the sequence that needed them, for example thunder and heavy breathing, which are common codes and conventions of the horror genre. The thing we found hard about the sound fx and music was making sure that it was un-copy right, but we managed to find some in the end that suited it. We found the Apple Macs were quite temperamental and they changed our titles around many times which disrupted our work, and they also commonly crashed and closed without saving. Therfore we learned to save our work reguarly throughout the editing process. Also, we all had a go of editing and gained experience by doing so.

Choosing an Institution

When deciding what institution we would choose to distribute our product we firstly had to research into some,we looked on websites and just got some brief introductory information about them off of wikipedia to give us a brief idea of what they are about.Therefore we choose four and researched two each to give us a brief idea of the ideology of each of them.The four we looked into were New line cinema,Columbia Pictures,Universal and Twisted Pictures.

New Line Cinema:
New Line Cinema, often simply known as New Line, was founded in 1967, is One of the major American film studios. In 1996, though it initially began as an independent film studio, it became a subsidiary of Time Warner and is now a division of Warner Bros. New Line continues to market, produce and distribute its films; however, it does so now as a part of Warner Bros.





Some Films they have distributed:

• Friday the 13th
  

• Hairspray


• Mask


• The Butterfly effect

After reviewing this institution and researching it online,we decided as a group that it wasn't suitable for our film as it isn't specific to our genre and focuses on the mainstream market and we want a institution that focuses on horror or thriller films.

Columbia Pictures:

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. (CPII) is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies in the world, a member of the so-called Big Six. It was one of the so-called Little Three among the eight major film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age.

Some films they have distributed:

• Ghost busters


• Stuart Little

• Charlies angels


• Hollow man

We decided this institution wasn't for us because it has been around for years and we wanted a new,fresh one that targeted out audience properly and went along with the ideology of the opening sequence we created.

Universal:

Universal Studios (sometimes called Universal City Studios or Universal for short), a subsidiary of NBC Universal, is one of the six major American movie studios. Its main motion picture production/distribution arm is called Universal Pictures. Its production studios are located at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California. Distribution and other corporate offices are based in New York City. Universal Pictures is the second longest-lived Hollywood studio; Viacom-owned Paramount Pictures is the oldest by a month.

Some films they have distributed

• Casper
• Bruno
• Bride of Chucky
• 8 Mile
  

After looking at the list of films by universal pictures there was many we hadn't heard of or that wern't in sync with our genre.We thought the institution was better for maybe a comedy or something of that nature Rather than a horror movie,so we decided not to go with this one

Twisted Pictures:

Twisted Pictures is a production company, mainly creating films of the horror genre. It gained wide attention through the production of the Saw series.There wasn't a lot of information on twisted pictures but they are fairly new,and had the sort of ideology and the same audience we wanted to attract .The list of films were mainly horror and spoke for themselves we therefore decided to go with this institution.The logo and animation also attracted us to this particular institution as it fitted in perfectly with our genre

Some films they have distributed:

• Saw
• motel Hell
• The tortured
• Catacombs

The logo has connotations for the horror genre as it is black with thorns and a dagger, and these objects are symbols of the films that twisted pictures represent, also the name itself is quite dark and mysterious.

This introduction animation has the correct ideology for our film it goes well with the sequence and relates in with our narrative and genre. It makes the start of our film look professional and gives it more of an edge than the other 3 institutions.

After we chose Twisted Pictures,we needed to look into if they work in conjunction with another company. After researching on Internet movie database, we discovered that Twisted Pictures worked alone, so we decided to just have that as our institution which adds more emphasis on the ideology of the film

Filming

We have gone back to the forest twice more this week to complete our filming. We also had to re film part of it as when were editing it, it came out too dark and we could not see what was happening on the screen. Therefore we had to go back at earlier times and and get as much done as possible as it got dark very quickly.

Script for our film

Before we start filming, we wrote a basic script for our actors and actresses so that they have something to follow. However we will tell them that they can elaborate on it to make it sound more realistic. We also wrote it how teenagers talk now days so our target audience can relate to it. Here is the scrip that we came up with:

1)
Ruby (girl on phone): Hi, you alright?
Yeah, not bad we're in the forest
You should come down here (laugh)
Just the usual lot
Oh my god, really!

2)
Ruby: Who are you with? (laugh)
Why you with them?
Alright, hang on (shhh to other people)
Oh they won't shut up, I'm just walking away

Other People
Lucy: Oh don't you just hate coming to the forest?
Grace: Yeah my new shoes are ruined
Lucy: Ellie always brings us here and she always just listens to her ipod
Grace: Yeah, there so embarrassing, I swear there always high on drugs!

3)
Ruby: That's better, I'm away from them now
So, hows it going?
Oh really?
I know can you believe that?
Katie is really winding me up today
She keeps talking about me behind my back

4)
Ruby: How pervy has Lucy's boyfriend got?
I know, he's getting so annoying
I think she should dump him

5) -

6)
Ruby: Screaming

7)
Ruby: Screaming, what do you want?
Please, don't hurt me!

8)
Ruby: Screaming

9)
Ruby: Who are you?

10) -

11) -

12) -

13)
Katie: Ruby, where are you?
Ellie: She's always on that phone
Lucy: Ruby!

14)
Ellie: Shall we split up and look for her?
She's probably just attention seeking

15)
Ellie: Ruby, where are you?
This is getting stupid now

16)
Ellie: (muffled sound)

Cast list

We have now found all the actresses and actors that we need to film our trailer and have all decided on days that we can all film.
Here is the cast list:

Killer - Tom Axon
Ruby (girl on phone) - Holly Rawlings
Ellie - Natalie Jackson
Katie - Georgina Cook
Lucy - Becky Kemp

Storyboard

Here is the brief storyboard of our opening sequence. However it may change slightly when we are filming/editing our product if some shots look better switched around or from a different angle. First of all, we came up with a draft stryboard which is in our folder, then we made some changes to it to improve it.

Shot 1: Long shot of the characters in the forest, drinking and talking.

Shot 2: Medium shot of the girl talking on her phone

Shot 3: Long shot (tracking) of the girl talking on her phone and walking away from the group

Shot 4: Long shot of the girl talking on the phone

Shot 5: Close up (point of view shot from the killer) of the killer wearing a mask

Shot 6: Close up of the girl screaming

Shot 7: Point of view shot from the killer chasing the girl

Shot 8: Long shot of the girl falling over

Shot 9: Point of view shot (high angle) from the killer looking down at the girl

Shot 10: Long high angle shot looking down at the dead girl

Shot 11: Close up of the the killers hand wiping the blood of the knife

Shot 12: Zooms in on the phone ringing

Shot 13: Medium shot of the other girls looking for their friend

Shot 14: Point of view shot from the killer looking through the bushes

Shot 15: Long shot of the girl looking for her friend

Shot 16: Close up of the killer covering the girls mouth

Shot 17: Medium shot of the girl hanging

Shot 18: Title of the film

Starting to film

Yesterday we began our first part of filming in Epping Forest, which is the ideal setting for our horror opening sequence. We have followed our storyboard, making slight changes to adapt the setting and timing. We already knew how to use the camera from our preliminary task,but we wasn't as strong as we hoped and didn't feel completely confident with the camera.We had a practice for about half an hour just to get to grips with the equipment.We filmed some basic practice shots,before going in for our first scene.We began and got of to a good start,but then we noticed the camera had a white fade in when we started recording this went on for about 5 seconds.We stopped and had a muck around with the camera but couldn't solve the problem,so we continued but had to work around the long fades in and out.And decided we would edit them later.It took a long time to perfect a sequence of a few seconds and it got dark very quickly.We had got through our first three/four scenes when it was too dark to continue as we couldn't see the footage.We decided we would go back another day to get the majority of our filming done.

Location Shots

We came up with a storyboard for our opening sequence. Which we then adapted to the timing limits and the storyline.
This enabled us to have guidance as to what we were doing when filming. We also came up with a draft cast list and script which will be posted on the blog later on. This gave us the chance to get together with the cast and decide filming times and the script let the cast know where to be, what they were doing, and what they need to say.
Here are some pictures of the location of our opening sequence. We decided to film it here because the location is deserted and a popular setting for a horror film. Also it is a big forest so it is easy for the characters in our film to get lost, which makes it more realistic. The pictures of the lake are where we filmed the beginning of our opening sequence, where the teenagers were hanging out. The lake looks dirty which gives a gloomy atmosphere and sets the scene.

This is of Epping Forest, where we decided to do our filming. It will be darker when we go out to film because this will create an atmosphere. We chose this spot as a possibility because it looks deep in the forest and deserted, and the trees give an eerie feel to the area.

This spot is ideal to film because it fits in with the ideology we are trying to create, as a forest is a code and convention of our chosen genre.This area can possibly be used for a running sequence in our film opening .

This photo looks dark and eerie and therefore fits in with the mood we want to portray, this can be a good establishing shot because it shows areas we may want to use when filming.

This is similar to before and just shows the location in general, which will help us when planning because it allows us to get an initial idea of the set before we go out to film.

The jetty is where teenagers hang out so this could be a good place for us to film a part of our sequence. It makes the film realistic and by choosing this place, it makes it a relatable location.

Costumes and Props

We have come up with a list of props that we will need to take with us so we do not forget anything:

• Mask
• Fake knife
• Rope
• Phone
• Drink bottles?
• Fake blood
• Dirty rag
• Camera
• Tripod
• IPods

The costume for the killer will be all black so he does not easily stand out, and the costumes for the rest of the characters will be casual clothes (jeans, t-shirts etc) so our target audience can easily relate to them.

Film Analysis

Each member of our group have analysed three opening sequences to horror films.
This allows us to see the codes and conventions of a horror film and apply them to our film, helping us to create a better opening.We created a folder with all our detailed analyse in as we felt this was an easy way to present it as we would have things on the blog in brief and written down on paper (detailed), to easily refer to.

Gemma analysed;:
Scream:

• Establishing shot-House
• Music -Builds up tension
• P.o.v Shot
• Close up of Killer

Jeepers Creepers:

• P.o.v shots
• Close ups
• Through the widescreen-frame shot

Creep:

• Quick camera movements
• Close ups
• P.o.v Shot

Danielle analysed;
Halloween:

• P.o.v shot-killers P.o.v
• Framing Shot
• Zoom in
• Hand held camera
• Crane shot

Silence Of The Lambs:

• Establishing shot
• Tracking shot
• Close ups
• Over the shoulder shot

IT

• fade outs to black
• Zoom in
• Low angle shot
• Quick shots
• Tracking shot
• High angle shot
• Close up of faces
• P.o.v Shot

Migrain Model

This is what each letter of the migrain model means and we have related it to our media product:

M: Medium. This is what the type of media the product is, for example magazines, films, trailers

Ours is an opening sequence to a film.

I: Ideology. This is the values, beliefs and ideas that people have in society.

Our product will challenge these as murder is not a common belief.

G: Genre. This is the type of film that it is for example horror, comedy, action and thriller.

Our product is horror

R: Representation. This is what is portrayed in media products. For example in films, the director represents the characters how they want the audience to see them.

In our sequence, the main character is represented as a murderer and the other characters are represented as vulnerable.

A: Audience. This is the type of people who will be interested in the product for example the age group.

The target audience for our film are teenagers, aged 15 - 24.

I: Institution. This is the company that produces and distributes films, for example Lions Gate, Columbia pictures and twisted pictures.

We have not decided yet which one we will use, however, we think we are going to use one that specialises in the horror genre.

N: Narrative. This is the story line and the events that happen.

The basic storyline for our sequence is about a murderer who kills lots of people.

Killers Motivation

After looking at different horror films and opening sequences, we came up with a list of reasons of why the killer in our film is killing. Here they are:

• revenge - Parents, brother and sister
• bad childhood
• boredom
• strives for control
• psycho killer
• jelousy
• like the attention
• gaurding someone
• self defence
• told to
• admiration of fomer killer (copy cat killer)
• cannibal
• possesed
• punishment (promiscuous teenagers)
• urge to kill
• mental patents
• imortal
• psycho boyfriend/girlfriend
• serial killer testing peoples lust for life
• evil child/person
• insanity
• recluses
• poltagist/ ghosts
• accident

In our opening sequence, the killers motivation will not be shown as it will give the storyline away. However we have decided that the killer in our film is a serial killer and kills teenagers. It is impotant to bear the motivation in mind whilst filming as we can make our film relate to the correct sub-genre of Horror.

Our Questionnaire

This is the questionnaire we gave out to people of our target audience to decide which genre to choose,and what our opening sequence needed to be successful

1. What is your favourite genre of film?


2. What is your favourite film?


3. What do you look for in an opening sequence of a horror movie?


4. How many times do you go to the cinema, a month?
0-1 1-2 2-3 3-4 4-5 5+


5. Who is your favourite Actress or Actor?


6. What is your favourite comedy movie?


7. What would be your favourite setting for a horror movie?


8. What’s your favourite Musical?


9. What to you aim to get out of a film when you watch it?


10. What do you think would be an appropriate name for a horror movie?


11. Have you seen saw, if so what do you think of it?

12. Do you like historic or war films?
YES NO

13. Do you like Disney Films?


14. Who's your favourite director, if any?


15. What is the scariest film you have ever seen?


16. What would you say the difference between Horror and Thriller are, if any?


After giving out our questionnaire we realised that we generated far to much information that wasn't necessary,It was clear in our minds that we wanted to already do a horror genre so some of the question we asked were of no use.Therefore we decided to make a more specific questionnaire to help us improve our product and relate it to the horror genre more successfully.


1.What is your favourite Genre of film?

Action Horror Comedy Romance Fantasy War Sci-Fi Other


2.What is you favourite Horror film from these?


The Ring Halloween Scream The Blair witch project other


3.What do you look for in the opening sequence of a horror movie?



Tension & Suspense Location Characters Death Camera Angles Gore Music Other



4.What is the best setting for a horror movie?


Forest Graveyard Big house Street Other

5.What do you think is the best name for a horror movie?


Deathwatch Don't make a sound The coming The Asylum Massacre Escape Other

6.Which do you think is most important in an opening sequence of Horror movie?

Music Characters Dialogue Setting Camera Work Other



What did we find out from the second Questionnaire?


Our Sample was 30 people of a selection of ages,both males and females.

Question 1:

This shows Horror is the most popular genre,this therefore shows us that this is the best genre to choose,because we have a bigger majority to target.

Question 2:

This response showed us that films shot in forests are popular, and as a group we felt the ring was to hard to recreate because it is a psychological thriller. Therefore we went with the close second option of shooting our film in a forest, but making it different to all the films we have named.



Question 3:


















This shows us we need include tension and suspense to make our opening sequence successful, but all the other options need to be taken into account because this would make a well rounded opening sequence.



Question 4:



















This showed us our location must be a Forest,we had these ideas anyway but our target audience confirmed these ideas we initially had and made us sure we chose the right location.

Question 5:






















After doing this question we decided that Don't Make A Sound was our favourite name,and we are considering using it but to be more sure of this we will give out a bigger list of brainstormed names to get the best for our film.



Question 6:

















The results showed we don't need to include much dialogue but the rest of the items are important with music and camera work being the most important, therefore these are the areas we have to focus on.

Moving Image Genre.

Our initial ideas are to go with the Horror Genre,we have brainstormed rough ideas as a group,to establish the necessary codes and conventions.Here are some we thought up.....

• Music-tension building for example the psycho shower sequence
• Location-graveyard,Forest,House
• Weapon-Texas chainsaw massacre-chainsaw,saw-range of devices,etc
• Blood-gory scenes in saw etc
• Nighttime-the strangers whole film was at night
• Teenagers-portrayed in scream (stereotypical)
• Screams-Halloween bedroom scene
• Running-Blair witch project
• Death/murder-psycho shower scene,saw "games"
• Red-associate with death or blood
• Black-darkness,mystery
• Hero-Rachel in the ring,police in saw
• Moon-American ware wolf in London
• Sound fxs-breathing
• Abit of a love story-scream boyfriend and girlfriend or boy trying to "woo" girl
• Isolated areas-well in ring,Blair witch project
• eerie atmosphere
• tension

When creating our horror opening sequence, the music we are going to use will be non- copy right as will the sound effects,this allows us to be individual and not copy other films but instead use inspiration from them.

We have been looking at the opening sequences of some horror films, this is so we can see what sort of camera angles and techniques to use and to see the codes and conventions of a typical horror film. Here are some openings we viewed as a group!

THE RING

• Dark lighting
• Close ups show emotion
• Pathetic Fallacy
• Eerie Music
• Girl teenager-on her own
• High angle shot shows vulnerability
• extreme close ups to put emphasis on objects
• Scream and zoom in

• THE GRUDGE
  
  
  
• Dim lighting-whole scene lit by a flickering light which is a convention for horror genre
• Close up to reflect mood
• girl alone
• close up of grudge
• Quick transitions

FREDDY VS JASON

• Institution shown at start
• Dark lighting
• Establishing shot
• introduction of weapon
• scary location
• Doll in the fire-symbolic
• Close ups
• Fire-connotations of danger
• Young child-girl reflects innocence
• Newspaper clippings-adds narrative
• Extreme close up of eyes
• We choose to watch a trailer also because we wanted to get a overall feel of the genre.

NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET

• Weapons
• Narrative text
• Extreme close ups
• Dark lighting
• Girl wearing white-symbolizes innocence
• Nightmare
• Use of shadows
• Introduction of antagonist

Research

We have decided to do moving image for our coursework and we have begun our coursework by handing out questionnaires to the sixth form students of West Hatch. These are our the age group of our target audience.

We have based our questionnaires around the interest of genre, this will help us to choose the right genre for our moving image and a suitable media piece for our target audience.

Define genre ->

"Genre is a loose set of criteria for a category of composition; the term is often used to categorize. Genres are vague categories with no fixed boundaries, they are formed by sets of conventions, and many works cross into multiple genres by way of borrowing and recombining these conventions."

Example of Genres and films:
horror- The silence of the Lambs
Romance- Romeo and Juliet
comedy- Hot Fuzz
War- Pearl Harbour
Sci-Fi- Star Wars
Rom-Com -Bridget Jones Diary
Fantasy- Narnia
Musical- Hairspray


Horror:
As a group we instinctively knew initially that we wanted to go with the horror genre, but to be sure we gave out questionnaires to consolidate our ideas. However we researched into the horror genre to find out more about it and make sure we had a sound understanding of the genre beforehand.

Definintion of Horror films->
."Horror films are movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Their plots frequently involve themes of death, the supernatural or mental illness. Many horror movies also include a central villain."

Countdown of the top ten Horrors of all time:

According to---> http://www.best-horror-movies.com

10. Evil Dead (1981, Directed by Sam Raimi)

9. Friday the 13th (1980, Directed by Sean S. Cunningham)

8. Psycho (1960, Directed by Alfred Hitchcock)

7. Nightmare on Elm Street (1984, Directed by Wes Craven)

6. The Shining (1980, Directed by Stanley Kubrick)

5. Night of the living Dead (1968, Directed by Dean Lachiusa & George Romero)

4. Halloween (1978, Directed by John Carpenter)

3. Dawn of the Dead (1978, Written and Directed by George A. Romero)

2. Alien (1979, Directed by Ridley Scott)

1. The Exorcist (1973, Directed by William Friedkin)

This shows that these films must have had good trailers to persuade people to go and see these films. Therefore, we are going to look at some of these film trailers later on to see what a successful horror film trailer includes and write down the key codes and conventions.