Instruments
As sound effects we used sound effects that created the mood of a typical horror movie. For example we used an eerie noise all the way through the sequence to create tension. Also we used louder noises and additional sound for the footsteps and the wind to create an exterior at night which should not look peaceful.
We keep noises such as the ripping of the sheets and the cracking of the chair because we felt that those noises together with the eerie noise would create a mystical mood and made people focus on the sharp diagetic sounds.
When the sequence came to the end we used no sound and worked with silence (as it was done in Psycho) to deliver the message that something is going to happen soon.
With this we were trying to make the audience feel scared and create tension to then prepare them for the huge shock effect when Alabama screams at the end.
With the help of our sound, which just was noises we led the audience into a typical direction and create the mood of a horror movie.
Titles and Graphics
We chose to do our titles in a very simple way, to not distract the movie. However this was difficult because we had to find the right size and style for it.
We placed the titles in the given order, starting with the distributor.
We placed the titles usually somewhere on the side of the frame to not distract the frame. Also we made them fade because our thriller production isn’t that sharp, but rather flows towards the actual action and therefore we made the titles fade in and out to make it look smooth.
We again, also due to the fact that our sequence is a rather slow sequence, we made the titles come very slow to not break the tension.
However we put them somewhere, where they could surprise the audience, for example when Berika opens the trap door, the title appears as he opens it.
We chose to do this, because then the titles belong more in the scene and are not “just there”.
We chose to maintain the front style we chose the same one throughout to make it look professional. Also we kept the “fading-style”.
Analysing – Audience Appeal
I think our product appeals to our targeted audience, teenagers and horror fans, not only because of its storyline, but also because we created a special mood through the use of sound and titles.
The sound made the sequence more appeal to the teenage audience, because we only used noises instead of sound and I don’t think people would be that attracted if we would have “scary” violins or anything like that. I think the simplicity of the sound created a huge amount of tension, and the fact that all the noise is gone before she starts screaming makes people concentrated on the movie and they know that there will be something happening – a moment of shock.
I think the titles also help to create a product which directly appeals to our target audience because we again used simplicity, and out less educated audience would not have to concentrate a lot on the movie or the titles but can just sit back and enjoy out production.
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
Thursday, 25 March 2010
Audience Feedback - Peira
Tom Barton – very suspenseful
Clare Dodkins – I liked the pace of editing as it un-nerved the audience and tightened
the tension of the piece
Will Berril – very dramatic
Leaya Hatzakis – cast perfectly, great choice of location
Lara kufferath – I liked the way of creating tension with the use of silence
Dan Ash – nice contrast between Alabama and Berika, also according to status. I liked the mask and the mise-en-scene. The basement gave a nice contrast. Alabama reinforced the society we live in with children getting captured, and the canted angle shots of Berika gave a sense of peculiar.
Clare Dodkins – I liked the pace of editing as it un-nerved the audience and tightened
the tension of the piece
Will Berril – very dramatic
Leaya Hatzakis – cast perfectly, great choice of location
Lara kufferath – I liked the way of creating tension with the use of silence
Dan Ash – nice contrast between Alabama and Berika, also according to status. I liked the mask and the mise-en-scene. The basement gave a nice contrast. Alabama reinforced the society we live in with children getting captured, and the canted angle shots of Berika gave a sense of peculiar.
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Task 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Part 1
Our exterior Location was Leith Hill and we had a shot of this old boarding house with Berika walking towards it. This house reinforces the image of a dark building within the horror genre, as it was used in many different movies such as The Orphanage and The Others. We took this image and copied it because it is very effective within the horror genre because a house looks as if nobody lives in there and therefore it created tension and the audience directly watches out.
Part 2
This Screen grab shows Berika walking down the staircase, holding a candle in his hands – then he walks off into the dark. This gives a first impression of the bed guy and I think our media product developed this image because usually the creepy guy in the horror genre is very scary indeed, however mostly he is not attractive as in The Silence of the lambs or Red Dragon. However our actor is attractive and handsome and I think that makes it even scarier, because he can be seen as the schizophrenic, attractive business guy, who then becomes the evil. Also this subverts the usual image of the "bad guy".
The fact that you see him in a dark surrounding, alone, using a trap door shows that this is going to be a horror movie because this image is very stereotypical and doesn't show happiness or anything like this.
Part 3
This close - up of Berika shows him during his work. The fact that is goes in and out of focus is reflects the movie Halloween where you always have the male following and he is shot in a close up. This was also particularly used in The Silence of the Lambs and is very effective. Proof for this is, that the main actor Anthony Hopkins is on screen for only 16 minutes, but still won an Oscar, because he is mostly filmed straight on in a close up and therefore you keep remembering that image and when somebody tells you that he has only been on screen for 16 minutes you won’t believe it because you feel his view almost “in your neck”. We used that and demonstrated that in our production as well, because then the audience sees every single detail of the actors face, and you keep having it in your head and therefore it is really scary.
Part 4
The close up shows Alabama’s face. She is a young, innocent looking girl with blonde hair and we used her as a copy of other media products, however her case is very wide. First of all we showed her as the poor girl being raped and therefore we reinforced the image from loads of other movies such as The Orphanage and Hide and Seek where little children are being presented. However there they are presented in an evil way, where they turn bad in the end.
We subverted this image because in our case the child is actually the victim who is being captured and tortured.
Part 5
The fact that Alabama’s hands are in chains also reinforces the image of our little girl being kept against her will, which makes the whole thing more cruel.
As well as this the chains reinforce the fact that our Production is a Horror/Thriller Production.
Part 6
When her face is forced into the mask it is done in a very cruel way and when she screams it is shocking. With this we subverted the image of the happy child as we find it in adverts for chocolate etc. In those advert the child is represented as something funny and entertaining which lightens up life and we subverted that image by having the child being captured.
However as well as this, we also reinforce the child as it is represented in newspapers, where you hear of children being raped and tortured etc.
This is a stereotype from others movie which we took over.
Part 7
This is the masked we created for Alabama. This mask is similar to masks used in Friday the 13th and The Orphanage. However we challenged those masks because in most of these movies, potato sack masks were used. However we used a mask made out of bed linen to create something different and because it fits into our environment. For example in Friday the 13th a potato sack mask was used because the movie’s location is somewhere around the fields. However our location is much more modern in an actual building in an empty place and therefore we took material which fits to that image.
Part 8
This is a picture of Alabama and Berika together which shows the contrast between the creepy guy and the innocent girl very well. This contrast is also seen in the movie Hide and Seek where the father is the contrast against the young girl and she starts seeing all these weird things but in the end the audience figures out that she is being tortured by his schizophrenic side as well. I think the contrast works very well, because the audience is used to it and we conformed this image (child-adult) from various different horror movies because it naturally scares people.
Part 9
This is a screen grab of our set design in the studio. The fact that we used candles is very similar to loads of other horror movies because it creates a flicker lighting which is very scary because those candles can get out at any time.
This Screen Grab also shows our use of titles and shows the name of our actress Alabama Jackson.
ALL IN ALL these screen grabs show that our media product uses different media products to get the right effect, challenges them and subverts them to make an individual product that is only influenced by others.
Monday, 22 March 2010
Task 2 - How does your product represent particular social groups?
Our Media Production, which is called “Mind”, represents young people within the horror genre.In our Production we have a little blond girl who is captured by a man in a cellar. Her hands are tied together with chains and she is wearing a dirty white dress and no shoes.Therefore she represents young children and shows some kind of innocence that exists to them like in “Hide and Seek”, where Dakota Fanning is having an imaginary friend, who kills people and she can’t stop him.
She also represents the innocence and childishness of a twelve year old, which is captured in her own mind. However the interesting thing about our particular social group as young children is, that it also represents fear as in “The Others”, where a mother loses her child to a group of people, who capture children and tries to make their family members forget, that they ever existed.
Therefore we care about the child in the movie, as in our production the scene is even more horrible and terrifying because it represents the helpless young child, who is being captured and needs care because she can’t help herself.This is also due to the fact that nowadays in the newspapers we hear a lot about children being kidnapped and captured and we used this influence as a basis to lay out our production because this is a natural thing that scares the mainstream audience, because they have brothers or sisters or might even start to think about getting children.
For example the accurate example of the Pakistani boy who had been kidnapped at the age of 11 and now the family tries to get him back, but still he his hopeless in the power of the kidnappers.As well as this there are an awful lot of cases that are re-opened from children being abused, for example a girl called Laura Scheider, who had been captured by her father since the age of 6 and was raped millions of times and got 8 children. She was never allowed to leave her cellar and never actually had the experience of seeing the world. This is a terrific example of child abuse that we also show in our media product when we show the innocent, blonde girl being captured and being on her own just with the kidnapper.
However we also subverted the image of a child, as it is represented in television where a happy child usually adverts for chocolate or something similar and therefore showed the dark side to a happy child in our production. Even though our production, because of the fact that the man puts a mask over the child’s face in the end, might seem similar to “The Orphanage”, it differs a lot because we want to audience to engage with the child and feel the need to protect her, while the media product
“The Orphanage”, represents the child as something evil and uncontrollable that we have no power over. In our Media Production we also use a creepy looking guy, playing the kidnapper, who has dark eyes, is dressed in black and constantly has the same evil facial expression.
This represents the kidnapper and evil character in the genre of horror movies like it was used in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho”, where a man is constantly following the victim. This is also represented in “Halloween” and “Friday the 13th” and therefore the audience is used to the bad guy having dark colored hair and its emotionless facial expression that we are afraid of because we can’t identify what’s behind that.
The fact that the social groups young children and the kidnapper contrast each other makes a Media Product work effectively, again shown in “Hide and Seek”, because you get engaged with the situation, again due to the fact that we are used to such stories, because we hear from them every day in our daily newspapers, television, radio and word-of-mouth.
She also represents the innocence and childishness of a twelve year old, which is captured in her own mind. However the interesting thing about our particular social group as young children is, that it also represents fear as in “The Others”, where a mother loses her child to a group of people, who capture children and tries to make their family members forget, that they ever existed.
Therefore we care about the child in the movie, as in our production the scene is even more horrible and terrifying because it represents the helpless young child, who is being captured and needs care because she can’t help herself.This is also due to the fact that nowadays in the newspapers we hear a lot about children being kidnapped and captured and we used this influence as a basis to lay out our production because this is a natural thing that scares the mainstream audience, because they have brothers or sisters or might even start to think about getting children.
For example the accurate example of the Pakistani boy who had been kidnapped at the age of 11 and now the family tries to get him back, but still he his hopeless in the power of the kidnappers.As well as this there are an awful lot of cases that are re-opened from children being abused, for example a girl called Laura Scheider, who had been captured by her father since the age of 6 and was raped millions of times and got 8 children. She was never allowed to leave her cellar and never actually had the experience of seeing the world. This is a terrific example of child abuse that we also show in our media product when we show the innocent, blonde girl being captured and being on her own just with the kidnapper.
However we also subverted the image of a child, as it is represented in television where a happy child usually adverts for chocolate or something similar and therefore showed the dark side to a happy child in our production. Even though our production, because of the fact that the man puts a mask over the child’s face in the end, might seem similar to “The Orphanage”, it differs a lot because we want to audience to engage with the child and feel the need to protect her, while the media product
“The Orphanage”, represents the child as something evil and uncontrollable that we have no power over. In our Media Production we also use a creepy looking guy, playing the kidnapper, who has dark eyes, is dressed in black and constantly has the same evil facial expression.
This represents the kidnapper and evil character in the genre of horror movies like it was used in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho”, where a man is constantly following the victim. This is also represented in “Halloween” and “Friday the 13th” and therefore the audience is used to the bad guy having dark colored hair and its emotionless facial expression that we are afraid of because we can’t identify what’s behind that.
The fact that the social groups young children and the kidnapper contrast each other makes a Media Product work effectively, again shown in “Hide and Seek”, because you get engaged with the situation, again due to the fact that we are used to such stories, because we hear from them every day in our daily newspapers, television, radio and word-of-mouth.
Task 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
. I think if i was to promote and distribute my product i would do it the same way it was done with the new Horror movie Paranormal Activity. Paranormal Activity was done by a newly formed independent company and then they presented the movie on the Slamdance Film Festival. It was so successful that Dreamworks saw it and decided to do a remake. So Paranormal Activity is an example of an independent film made without any studio funding. Another example of this would have been the movie Colin which is a zombie movie that was made for 5 pounds, but people talked about it and therefore it made a huge profit in the end.
However it is very difficult to be lucky enough to get accepted at a film festival so that your film will actually be seen, but still I think it is a great idea because you do the movie the way you like it and then the Media Institutions can think of whether they believe it’s worth to do a remake. Personally I like the „platform release“ because if it develops all over the world you know the movie is great. I think if I would show my film at a film festival an American Institution which would appeal to it is New Line Cinema because they do movies like Final Destination and our movie also deals with the „supernatural“. I believe as our film is a low budget feature that an independent company would be more likely to take a risk on picking up our film provided they had a major studio backing. An example of this would be Fox Searchlight who took a gamble with the 6 million production of Juno knowing that it was, in Hollywood terms, not a great deal of money. However it became a sleeper hit growiong through positive reviews and word of mouth feedback which added to its attraction along with the taboo subject matter. Our film deals with taboo issues and though more thriller like with the right backing has possibilities of being a sleeper hit. Also, Fox Searchlight would recoup the limited budget through DVD sales and selling of the film to its subsiduary television companies such as TCM. Fox are part of the media conglomerate owned by Murdoch who also owns Sky in Britain this would enable our film to be advertised through Murdoch's many media outlets and successfully recoup and make money.
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Task 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?
"I think the audience for my Media Production would be female and male but mostly males because I think when the movie is completed it will not only be scary but also bloody and males prefer such movies.
I think my age group will be teens at the age of 15 to adults at the age of 25 because they are the age group that spend money for movies that are entertaining, so called „fun-Films“. But still for the 15 year olds it could get problematic because I feel that the age limit is going to be 18. As the main audience is 15-25 males ,
I think the secondary audience would be 25 to 34 year old who enjoy watching horror movies and are maybe even huge fans. Another secondary audience would be 16 to 25 year old females, who are taken to the cinema by their boyfriends. And then maybe people that have seen and liked movies like “The Orphanage” and “Final Destination” or any other horror movie that deals with the supernatural and is bloody because then they would like to go and see our movie as well."
--> These were my original thoughts, however now i think that there is lots to add to that :
I think the kind of person that would watch my media product would be rather young and the age of the mainstream audience – 15 to 25.
I also think that this audience would mainly be males and I claim that there would be more people less educated watching this movie because I don’t think that the horror genre is a typical genre for educated people. However educated people are still a secondary audience because there are definitely some horror fans within that group of people.
As well as this, people who visit universities are in our age group 15 to 25 and some of those might still choose to go and see a horror movie. I think poor people will watch the movie more than rich people, however I think rich people will spend the money on going to see other forms of art, such as the theatre, while poor people rather see it in the cinema or choose to get it from pirate-bay.
Therefore all in all the target audience for my media product will be aged between 15 to 25, less educated and poor males, however there is a secondary audience of random aged and class people who are horror movies and enjoy watching movies within the horror genre. As my target audience includes working and lower middle class and less educated people, I think the way we sell the movie should appeal to the mainstream, who likes more formulaic films.
The psychographic profile of these audiences is basically that those people love horror movies, and enjoy watching them, in the cinema and at home. Also they are fans of dark clothes and some of them wear make-up and are named “Emo’s”. I guess they also like to listen to heavy metal music and enjoy getting together and listen to it together.
I think as a large part of our audience would be rather mainstream, including the lower and middle class people, we should advert our movie on McDonalds packages and on coca-cola cups, because this would have an impact on how good the movie will sell itself, because I believe, that the mainstream audience drink a lot of coke and like to eat at McDonalds.
Task 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
This is our Video, however you can only see half of it. To see the annotations made to explain what and how we did it click on that link please -->
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyJa-D_jLbE
Task 7 - Look back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
--> These are pictures of our more advanced Thriller Production
--> This was our simple Preliminaty Task
Preparation
The process of preparing for our preliminary was way easier than preparing for our actual Thriller production.
We started to plan our Preliminary task about one week before the actual shoot day. However a storyboard was already given to us and therefore there wasn’t a lot of planning to do, because the storyboard is the most important part in it.
Also we were given groups randomly in which we had to film.
We started off practising for it, by filming a simple sequence without a conversation to practise shooting movies. Then we started off to think about actors. However as it was only a simple production we weren’t allowed to get people out of classes for one hour and therefore we had to find people that were free at that time.
Even though the storyboard showed that there were supposed to be one male and one female we chose to take two females and made it work with them. Then we started to prepare the cameras, or better said we decided where we wanted to shoot and which lighting we would need and who would help us on our shoot. Then we prepared the storyboard and figured out which shots we had to film in which sequence.
We started to plan our actual Thriller Production six weeks before the actual shooting. However it was way more complicated, because first of all we had to decide for a special idea and get together in groups. Everyone had to present its idea and then we had to vote for which idea to take and form the groups.
When we sat together in groups we had to start off making the original idea better and give it an order. Before creating the actual storyboard we had to talk our idea through with our teachers to make sure that it is possible to film this, or if not, to change it to an idea we could make possible.
Then we started to produce our first draft of the storyboard.
This was very hard because we had to imagine how long each shot would take and where the credits come in as well as sound and the sketch. Our first drafts were changed around a lot and the end version was only finished one day before the actual shoot day, because we always wanted to make it better and more authentic.
Then there was a whole folder to be produces about the Shooting Schedule, Cast List, Props List, Sound List etc. and we had to plan all of this to guarantee that we are well organized. Also we had to find the actors and sign blue-cards for them to get them out of school for that day. We need to make sure we have our equipment and means of transport to get to different locations. As well as this we had to find all the props we needed and buy them if they weren’t available in this school.
Also we had to get permission for exterior shots and book the studio to film in it.
As well as this we needed to tell the set designed how we wanted the studio to look like and had to help creating that environment.
Another thing we had to do was drawing the actual pictures onto the finished storyboard which was quite a lot of work, because it had to show exactly what would be seen in the shot and none of us was an actual great drawer. However we managed to do this as well as finishing the cast list and getting permission from teachers and parents to use the actors.
Development of film making skills
When we shot our Preliminary task our film making skills weren’t that great. We only had an introduction to the video camera and tripods and only one practise of actually shooting something. Therefore, when we shot our Preliminary Task we had to rely on some advice from our teachers to help us frame the shot and we constantly had to be reminded of the 180* role.
As well as this, we had to be constantly reminded of simple things like making sure our shadow isn’t in the way, shooting the shots in an intelligent order, care for the battery of our camera and having the camera straight so the picture won’t be wrong or out of frame.
Also we had to cope with the dialogue existing in our preliminary task and had to record it, without having the microphone in the frame.
When we shot our actual Thriller Production, we were much more experienced, knew how to deal with a storyboard and things like keeping quiet etc. were not a problem any more because we watched many examples of movie sequences from which we could learn. Also we had a look at the Thriller Productions from the old year and they gave us advice as well.
Use of Camera
The outcome of using the camera in our Preliminary task was alright, but there were loads of things that could have been better. For example some of the shots were slightly crooked, blurred or had vague outlines. Also the lighting wasn’t as professional, because we only used one key light to light our production. Also the dialogue and the storyboard were very scripted and basic. It was one room, one script, everything basic and not even sound. Also the camera angles were very simple and basic and not really challenging in comparison to our Thriller Production.
To this our Thriller production was very different. We used the same camera, however we were now able to use it perfectly without constantly being reminded of not crossing 180degree lines etc. Even though sometimes we weren’t sure, however we still knew that we had to watch out for this. Also we used different sources of lighting and way more different camera angles. We had a light bulb, blue moon light and a blue screen, extra lighting from above etc. As well as this we used candles as a light source.
Also we shot in different locations and learned how to still frame the shot and have great lighting even at night.
The camera angles also differed from our preliminary task, because in the preliminary task we used over the shoulder shots, close ups and wide shots. However now we used a wide range of shots that made it effective and even used tilts and tracking shots with the help or railways.
Also there was a huge difference between the two because this time is was much more us actually doing the filming and planning and we didn’t rely on helpful advice from teachers.
We moved from a basic continuity sequence that everybody shot, lacking in sophistication to a production where we had free license to come up with whatever we wanted under the horror/thriller genre and we told a story with visual means.
Also, because we didn’t use dialogue, we used shots and action to create characters and making the audience understand and this was much more challenging than having a scripted dialogue.
Therefore we had to think through our Thriller production on our own, while the Preliminary task was prepared for us and was only a basic, simple, continuity task.
Use of Sound
In our preliminary task we only used basic sound of dialogue. We let the actors speak the given dialogue and recorded it with a usual microphone. The only other noises we used were the footsteps and door, however it wasn’t important to that task and therefore we just kept the sound as it was.
In our Thriller Production we used a wide range of sound, recorded sound in the moment, and added sound and music later. This was way more challenging, and we learnt more from it because we had to think about how we wanted to create the atmosphere from a thriller without using dialogue as in the preliminary task.
In our Thriller Production we had loads of ambient, diagetic sound such as screams, footsteps, wind blowing and eerie noises. Those were recorded during the shoot day, however in our post-production we added more to that, to make it louder and more effective, for example her scream then became much louder and shocking then as if we would just have taken her actual scream which was a little weak.
Final Cut Pro
When we started the process of editing in our Preliminary Task we got an introduction into how to use Final Cut Pro. However this introduction wasn’t that useful because if you work with those products, you can only fully understand and deal with them, if you play around with them for long enough and get secure.
When we then edited the Preliminary Task we just had to log the shots and put them in an order, without the need to check sound or anything else. The only thing we really needed to care about was to check which shot was the best one of ours. To do this we just deleted the ones we didn’t like and then put the shots in the order in which they belong according to the storyboard.
Basically then this work was done, because we didn’t have to add any credits, nor put music or cut together anything.
Therefore this process ended there.
When it came to the process of editing in our production we had to use the technology in a much more advanced way than in our preliminary task.
It started off the same, by simply logging all the bits and pieces, however there were so many more that this was hard work. Naming them all in a different way even though most of them were the same wasn’t easy either.
Then we started to delete the ones that were unnecessary however it was difficult as well, because some shots looked great but the sound wasn’t good enough, for example the screaming bit, and some were bad, but the sound was great. Therefore we needed to keep those as well, to edit them together later.
When we got into our next stage, we had to put those bits and pieces onto the timeline in the order according to the storyboard. When we finished that, we had to cut it together so it looked smooth and the timing was right.
The next step was to add the sound.
First of all we started to make sure that in none of our shots you could hear anybody say anything like “cut” or “action”. Then we looked which noises we already had and figured out the ones we wanted to add. Then we cross-cut them, for example we took the shot of Alabama, but the scream from another shot and added another scream we found in the sound library on our apple to make it effective.
When we finished this, and added our noises such as footsteps and wind, we started off putting in the credits.
We didn’t want the names to just arrive, and therefore we made them fade in and fade out using the given programme. Matt showed and explained how to do it and then we applied it to our process. We put the titles in, in the right order as they should appear and took the names we made up before in our media folder (e.g. – a milano production).
As well as this we gave them a meaning, for example the actors names arrives when he walks into the shot etc. however we couldn’t make all of them fit, but we made sure they are in the right place, not disturbing the picture and you could read the text 3 times quickly.
We finished by checking the whole sequence looked good and fixed the last problem, which was that one shot gave away that we were filming in the studio. Therefore we changed the frame size and it looked good again.
The process of preparing for our preliminary was way easier than preparing for our actual Thriller production.
We started to plan our Preliminary task about one week before the actual shoot day. However a storyboard was already given to us and therefore there wasn’t a lot of planning to do, because the storyboard is the most important part in it.
Also we were given groups randomly in which we had to film.
We started off practising for it, by filming a simple sequence without a conversation to practise shooting movies. Then we started off to think about actors. However as it was only a simple production we weren’t allowed to get people out of classes for one hour and therefore we had to find people that were free at that time.
Even though the storyboard showed that there were supposed to be one male and one female we chose to take two females and made it work with them. Then we started to prepare the cameras, or better said we decided where we wanted to shoot and which lighting we would need and who would help us on our shoot. Then we prepared the storyboard and figured out which shots we had to film in which sequence.
We started to plan our actual Thriller Production six weeks before the actual shooting. However it was way more complicated, because first of all we had to decide for a special idea and get together in groups. Everyone had to present its idea and then we had to vote for which idea to take and form the groups.
When we sat together in groups we had to start off making the original idea better and give it an order. Before creating the actual storyboard we had to talk our idea through with our teachers to make sure that it is possible to film this, or if not, to change it to an idea we could make possible.
Then we started to produce our first draft of the storyboard.
This was very hard because we had to imagine how long each shot would take and where the credits come in as well as sound and the sketch. Our first drafts were changed around a lot and the end version was only finished one day before the actual shoot day, because we always wanted to make it better and more authentic.
Then there was a whole folder to be produces about the Shooting Schedule, Cast List, Props List, Sound List etc. and we had to plan all of this to guarantee that we are well organized. Also we had to find the actors and sign blue-cards for them to get them out of school for that day. We need to make sure we have our equipment and means of transport to get to different locations. As well as this we had to find all the props we needed and buy them if they weren’t available in this school.
Also we had to get permission for exterior shots and book the studio to film in it.
As well as this we needed to tell the set designed how we wanted the studio to look like and had to help creating that environment.
Another thing we had to do was drawing the actual pictures onto the finished storyboard which was quite a lot of work, because it had to show exactly what would be seen in the shot and none of us was an actual great drawer. However we managed to do this as well as finishing the cast list and getting permission from teachers and parents to use the actors.
Development of film making skills
When we shot our Preliminary task our film making skills weren’t that great. We only had an introduction to the video camera and tripods and only one practise of actually shooting something. Therefore, when we shot our Preliminary Task we had to rely on some advice from our teachers to help us frame the shot and we constantly had to be reminded of the 180* role.
As well as this, we had to be constantly reminded of simple things like making sure our shadow isn’t in the way, shooting the shots in an intelligent order, care for the battery of our camera and having the camera straight so the picture won’t be wrong or out of frame.
Also we had to cope with the dialogue existing in our preliminary task and had to record it, without having the microphone in the frame.
When we shot our actual Thriller Production, we were much more experienced, knew how to deal with a storyboard and things like keeping quiet etc. were not a problem any more because we watched many examples of movie sequences from which we could learn. Also we had a look at the Thriller Productions from the old year and they gave us advice as well.
Use of Camera
The outcome of using the camera in our Preliminary task was alright, but there were loads of things that could have been better. For example some of the shots were slightly crooked, blurred or had vague outlines. Also the lighting wasn’t as professional, because we only used one key light to light our production. Also the dialogue and the storyboard were very scripted and basic. It was one room, one script, everything basic and not even sound. Also the camera angles were very simple and basic and not really challenging in comparison to our Thriller Production.
To this our Thriller production was very different. We used the same camera, however we were now able to use it perfectly without constantly being reminded of not crossing 180degree lines etc. Even though sometimes we weren’t sure, however we still knew that we had to watch out for this. Also we used different sources of lighting and way more different camera angles. We had a light bulb, blue moon light and a blue screen, extra lighting from above etc. As well as this we used candles as a light source.
Also we shot in different locations and learned how to still frame the shot and have great lighting even at night.
The camera angles also differed from our preliminary task, because in the preliminary task we used over the shoulder shots, close ups and wide shots. However now we used a wide range of shots that made it effective and even used tilts and tracking shots with the help or railways.
Also there was a huge difference between the two because this time is was much more us actually doing the filming and planning and we didn’t rely on helpful advice from teachers.
We moved from a basic continuity sequence that everybody shot, lacking in sophistication to a production where we had free license to come up with whatever we wanted under the horror/thriller genre and we told a story with visual means.
Also, because we didn’t use dialogue, we used shots and action to create characters and making the audience understand and this was much more challenging than having a scripted dialogue.
Therefore we had to think through our Thriller production on our own, while the Preliminary task was prepared for us and was only a basic, simple, continuity task.
Use of Sound
In our preliminary task we only used basic sound of dialogue. We let the actors speak the given dialogue and recorded it with a usual microphone. The only other noises we used were the footsteps and door, however it wasn’t important to that task and therefore we just kept the sound as it was.
In our Thriller Production we used a wide range of sound, recorded sound in the moment, and added sound and music later. This was way more challenging, and we learnt more from it because we had to think about how we wanted to create the atmosphere from a thriller without using dialogue as in the preliminary task.
In our Thriller Production we had loads of ambient, diagetic sound such as screams, footsteps, wind blowing and eerie noises. Those were recorded during the shoot day, however in our post-production we added more to that, to make it louder and more effective, for example her scream then became much louder and shocking then as if we would just have taken her actual scream which was a little weak.
Final Cut Pro
When we started the process of editing in our Preliminary Task we got an introduction into how to use Final Cut Pro. However this introduction wasn’t that useful because if you work with those products, you can only fully understand and deal with them, if you play around with them for long enough and get secure.
When we then edited the Preliminary Task we just had to log the shots and put them in an order, without the need to check sound or anything else. The only thing we really needed to care about was to check which shot was the best one of ours. To do this we just deleted the ones we didn’t like and then put the shots in the order in which they belong according to the storyboard.
Basically then this work was done, because we didn’t have to add any credits, nor put music or cut together anything.
Therefore this process ended there.
When it came to the process of editing in our production we had to use the technology in a much more advanced way than in our preliminary task.
It started off the same, by simply logging all the bits and pieces, however there were so many more that this was hard work. Naming them all in a different way even though most of them were the same wasn’t easy either.
Then we started to delete the ones that were unnecessary however it was difficult as well, because some shots looked great but the sound wasn’t good enough, for example the screaming bit, and some were bad, but the sound was great. Therefore we needed to keep those as well, to edit them together later.
When we got into our next stage, we had to put those bits and pieces onto the timeline in the order according to the storyboard. When we finished that, we had to cut it together so it looked smooth and the timing was right.
The next step was to add the sound.
First of all we started to make sure that in none of our shots you could hear anybody say anything like “cut” or “action”. Then we looked which noises we already had and figured out the ones we wanted to add. Then we cross-cut them, for example we took the shot of Alabama, but the scream from another shot and added another scream we found in the sound library on our apple to make it effective.
When we finished this, and added our noises such as footsteps and wind, we started off putting in the credits.
We didn’t want the names to just arrive, and therefore we made them fade in and fade out using the given programme. Matt showed and explained how to do it and then we applied it to our process. We put the titles in, in the right order as they should appear and took the names we made up before in our media folder (e.g. – a milano production).
As well as this we gave them a meaning, for example the actors names arrives when he walks into the shot etc. however we couldn’t make all of them fit, but we made sure they are in the right place, not disturbing the picture and you could read the text 3 times quickly.
We finished by checking the whole sequence looked good and fixed the last problem, which was that one shot gave away that we were filming in the studio. Therefore we changed the frame size and it looked good again.
Friday, 19 March 2010
Account of editing process
When it came to the process of editing in our production we had to use the technology in a much more advanced way than in our preliminary task.
It started off the same, by simply logging all the bits and pieces, however there were so many more that this was hard work. Naming them all in a different way even though most of them were the same wasn’t easy either.
Then we started to delete the ones that were unnecessary however it was difficult as well, because some shots looked great but the sound wasn’t good enough, for example the screaming bit, and some were bad, but the sound was great. Therefore we needed to keep those as well, to edit them together later.
When we got into our next stage, we had to put those bits and pieces onto the timeline in the order according to the storyboard. When we finished that, we had to cut it together so it looked smooth and the timing was right.
The next step was to add the sound.
First of all we started to make sure that in none of our shots you could hear anybody say anything like “cut” or “action”. Then we looked which noises we already had and figured out the ones we wanted to add. Then we cross-cut them, for example we took the shot of Alabama, but the scream from another shot and added another scream we found in the sound library on our apple to make it effective.
When we finished this, and added our noises such as footsteps and wind, we started off putting in the credits.
We didn’t want the names to just arrive, and therefore we made them fade in and fade out using the given programme. Matt showed and explained how to do it and then we applied it to our process. We put the titles in, in the right order as they should appear and took the names we made up before in our media folder (e.g. – a milano production).
As well as this we gave them a meaning, for example the actors names arrives when he walks into the shot etc. however we couldn’t make all of them fit, but we made sure they are in the right place, not disturbing the picture and you could read the text 3 times quickly.
We finished by checking the whole sequence looked good and fixed the last problem, which was that one shot gave away that we were filming in the studio. Therefore we changed the frame size and it looked good again.
It started off the same, by simply logging all the bits and pieces, however there were so many more that this was hard work. Naming them all in a different way even though most of them were the same wasn’t easy either.
Then we started to delete the ones that were unnecessary however it was difficult as well, because some shots looked great but the sound wasn’t good enough, for example the screaming bit, and some were bad, but the sound was great. Therefore we needed to keep those as well, to edit them together later.
When we got into our next stage, we had to put those bits and pieces onto the timeline in the order according to the storyboard. When we finished that, we had to cut it together so it looked smooth and the timing was right.
The next step was to add the sound.
First of all we started to make sure that in none of our shots you could hear anybody say anything like “cut” or “action”. Then we looked which noises we already had and figured out the ones we wanted to add. Then we cross-cut them, for example we took the shot of Alabama, but the scream from another shot and added another scream we found in the sound library on our apple to make it effective.
When we finished this, and added our noises such as footsteps and wind, we started off putting in the credits.
We didn’t want the names to just arrive, and therefore we made them fade in and fade out using the given programme. Matt showed and explained how to do it and then we applied it to our process. We put the titles in, in the right order as they should appear and took the names we made up before in our media folder (e.g. – a milano production).
As well as this we gave them a meaning, for example the actors names arrives when he walks into the shot etc. however we couldn’t make all of them fit, but we made sure they are in the right place, not disturbing the picture and you could read the text 3 times quickly.
We finished by checking the whole sequence looked good and fixed the last problem, which was that one shot gave away that we were filming in the studio. Therefore we changed the frame size and it looked good again.
Thursday, 18 March 2010
Reviewing our Shoot Day
Our Shooting day was on the 21st of January.
We shot our Thriller Production called "MIND". We met with our group(Storm-Director, Amy-Producer, Tom-Editor) and our actors (Berika + Alabama) in front of the Studio.
Berika, our main male protagonist was already there, but we were missing Alabama Jackson who was supposed to play our little girl. We chose Berika because he looked really scary and is a good actor. He has extremely dark eyes and has a wonderful terrifying expression when he looks natural and therefore I felt he would have this natural scary image that audiences can easily believe because it is real. We used Alabama because she is an innocent blonde little girl-exactly the way we wanted her to be, because we felt that it would be very effective to have a little girl that represents innocence like in “Hide and Seek” because this makes audiences even more engaged with what is happening.
We were aware of the fact that it is difficult to work with little children because they are difficult to focus, but Alabama did a really great job. With her we weren’t sure if she’d be able to come and we had to wait for a call from her father Ted Jackson. After 10 minutes of waiting, and us already trying to organize who else we could use (we were thinking of Hermione Cameron) Ted finally called us and we were happy that Alabama was able to come.
Another problem was that even though we brought all the tools we needed, like knifes, bed linen and candles we forgot to create the mask and didn’t have a needle.
However Storm and me quickly went up into my room and took whatever we needed and Storm started to make a mask that fit to Alabama’s face. When we were in the Studio Amy and Storm went off to put make-up on Alabama’s face. We made her eyes really dark to represent that she had been there for longer because this creates a typical atmosphere in the audience like in “Friday the 13th” where a girl had been captured.
Alabama wore a white dress to underline the fact that she is kind of innocent. Berika wore black dark clothes and leather shoes because audiences are expecting dark appearance to signify the horror genre.
At the beginning there was only a table, a chair and nothing else so we wanted to create a better feeling and therefore we put broken Carpet in the Studio, put holes into the window to let moonlight shine through, put the tools onto the table and designed them with blood and mud. We took the bed linen outside and put leaves on it and then we started to burn off candles which we got to stand on the table with the help of a lot of wax.
This helped creating a more authentic atmosphere which worked very good with the lighting as well and I think that candles, because they are easily blown out, create a sense of waiting for what’s happening for the audience like in “The Unborn”. One candle was given to Berika.
For the lighting we used blue moonlight coming through the broken window, a light bulb hanging from the top of the room and the candle light. In some sequences we used extra light, for example to put Alabama into the foreground or to put the focus on different points in the room. Alabama was supposed to be sitting in the corner and a circle of candles should be around her which wasn’t really possible because of the carpet. Therefore we took a wood, put 5 nails in it that stock out and then put this under the carpet with only the nails looking through and then we put the candles on them.
When this was finished I started telling Berika what he was supposed to do and our group practiced with him how to rip the bed linen and how to stitch the mask. This was very important because to make the audience believe that he is actually somebody who does this often for children like in “The orphanage child”, we had to make it look real and not as if it was Berika trying to stitch.
One problem with the candles we had was that they burned off quickly and we needed to make sure that they still have the same length on the tape, because we shot for a whole day but the clip is only going to be about 2 minutes, however we managed to get around this by using new candles and blowing them out again quickly after each shot.
After all this we discussed our storyboard and made sure that everything we wanted to achieve, such as making it scary and authentic as well as realistic and not ridiculous, was ready to be achieved.
Some of these changes were for example differences is lighting Alabama at the end because we wanted a candle to go up to her face, but she was sitting on the floor, therefore we had the idea with the candles around her that were lit. And instead of her wearing the mask right from the beginning, we made Berika get it and then put it over her face.
Then we finally started shooting.
Tom was doing the camera, a PD170 (same as we used in our Preliminary) which was standing on a Tripod and when we had to do a tracking shot it was standing on rubber tracks. The problem in using rubber tracks in our case was that they are created to go round, but we needed them to shoot a straight line and we had difficulties getting them straight. However - it worked ;).
Storm was helping Tom and giving advises to the actors as the Director. Amy was doing the lighting, looked for the health of the actors and checked the extra monitor where what we were shooting was shown. I wrote down all the shots we got and the ones we still needed and helped the actors.
At Lunch Time we were basically good in time and only had a few more shots left to do, however we could only take a break of 45 minutes.
After this we came back together and finished shooting in the Studio. According to technical devices and lighting we had no problem in the studio because we had enough energy supply and the 180 degree rule didn’t make any problems to us.The only difficulty was with the candles because even if Amy and me could see on the monitor what was going on, it was pitch dark on the camera so Tom sometimes could see where he was focusing to. However we then just switched on the lights, helped Tom to focus and switched them back off.
After finishing in the Studio we packed our stuff together and went off to Hurtwood. We took the lights with us and the camera as well as the Tripod. Arrived in Hurtwood we figured out that the cable of the light wasn’t long enough because it had to be carried all the way down the trap door and the stairs, so I quickly run back to the Studio to get a longer cable.
One issue that was really worrying was that in the cellar we could use the candle for too long because there was gas in the air that could easily burn, therefore we had to be very careful. Another problem was that this is a corridor that is used a lot by students and we had to make sure that not too many crossed this corridor while we were shooting, to prevent noises. We did that by putting up warning signs to show people that we were filming and I checked that we would stop filming if there was anybody who couldn’t read and had to walk through anyway.
In Leath hill, our last location we found an energy supply and a huge window where we could put the light out to the grass and quickly took some Exterior shots before we needed to go back to Hurtwood House.
Another aspect that we didn’t use a lot was Sound because the only sound we used was the sound of the ripping of the sheets which was easy to get, but we wanted to work with silence a lot like it was done in “Psycho” and the candles also represent that feeling of pure silence that is then broken by Alabama’s scream.
I feel it was successful in achieving its goals because the candles and the little girl Alabama was really effective and I feel we have achieved our goal because we wanted to have a supernatural and scary Thriller.
This task differed a lot from our Preliminary task because it was much more advanced and we had to make sure that everybody knew what was going on as well as organising the set and everything else. I learned that there is much more to do with doing a movie that just setting up a camera and filming some sequences but it was very exiting and I really enjoyed working with the whole crew.
Tuesday, 16 March 2010
How does our Media product represent particular social groups?
How does your product represent particular social groups?
àOur Media Production, which is called “Mind”, represents young people within the horror genre.
In our Production we have a little blond girl who is captured by a man in a cellar. Her hands are tied together with chains and she is wearing a dirty white dress and no shoes.
Therefore she represents young children and shows some kind of innocence that exists to them like in “Hide and Seek”, where Dakota Fanning is having an imaginary friend, who kills people and she can’t stop him. She also represents the innocence and childishness of a twelve year old, which is captured in her own mind. However the interesting thing about our particular social group as young children is, that it also represents fear as in “The Others”, where a mother loses her child to a group of people, who capture children and tries to make their family members forget, that they ever existed.
Therefore we care about the child in the movie, as in our production the scene is even more horrible and terrifying because it represents the helpless young child, who is being captured and needs care because she can’t help herself.
This is also due to the fact that nowadays in the newspapers we hear a lot about children being kidnapped and captured and we used this influence as a basis to lay out our production because this is a natural thing that scares the mainstream audience, because they have brothers or sisters or might even start to think about getting children. For example the accurate example of the Pakistani boy who had been kidnapped at the age of 11 and now the family tries to get him back, but still he his hopeless in the power of the kidnappers.
As well as this there are an awful lot of cases that are re-opened from children being abused, for example a girl called Laura Scheider, who had been captured by her father since the age of 6 and was raped millions of times and got 8 children. She was never allowed to leave her cellar and never actually had the experience of seeing the world.
This is a terrific example of child abuse that we also show in our media product when we show the innocent, blonde girl being captured and being on her own just with the kidnapper.
However we also subverted the image of a child, as it is represented in television where a happy child usually adverts for chocolate or something similar and therefore showed the dark side to a happy child in our production. Even though our production, because of the fact that the man puts a mask over the child’s face in the end, might seem similar to “The Orphanage”, it differs a lot because we want to audience to engage with the child and feel the need to protect her, while the media product “The Orphanage”, represents the child as something evil and uncontrollable that we have no power over.
In our Media Production we also use a creepy looking guy, playing the kidnapper, who has dark eyes, is dressed in black and constantly has the same evil facial expression. This represents the kidnapper and evil character in the genre of horror movies like it was used in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho”, where a man is constantly following the victim. This is also represented in “Halloween” and “Friday the 13th” and therefore the audience is used to the bad guy having dark coloured hair and its emotionless facial expression that we are afraid of because we can’t identify what’s behind that.
The fact that the social groups young children and the kidnapper contrast each other makes a Media Product work effectively, again shown in “Hide and Seek”, because you get engaged with the situation, again due to the fact that we are used to such stories, because we hear from them every day in our daily newspapers, television, radio and word-of-mouth.
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