Monday, 27 April 2009
Friday, 3 April 2009
Draft Final cut
This was our draft final cut. We then re filmed some of the shots in it such as taking out the school scene with Theo and replacing it with a scene of the protagonist in bed with someone else. We also added a shot of a mans hand, the antagonist, going through a womans handbag finding condoms, showing she's sexually available and then finding the lipstick. We also took out some of the many jump cuts as we thought we had to many of them in and our audience feedback also told us this.
Evaluation
In our media product we have used, developed and challenged forms and conventions of real media products. Our research showed us that in the openings scenes of slasher films there is always Narrative enigma. This is used to grab the audiences attention and get them engrossed in the film. This then makes the audience want to carry on watching in order to know more about the film, therefore answering the questions that the opening sequence has aroused. For example, in Scream where Drew Barrymoore is on the phone to an unidentified man, the audience wants to know who he is and why she is talking to him. We demonstrated this as we only showed the killers face at the end of the opening sequence and then the picture of the protagonist and antagonist comes up, explaining why he killed her.
We decided to have a quick killing, as it is something that happens a lot in slasher films such as Scream.There is also an aspect of sexual tension/references. For example, in Halloween when Micheal Myers sees his sister in her underwear. This was also included in our production when you see the protagonist in bed with another man. The protagonist has to hold the duvet across her chest to give the illusion she is naked, you can also see the mans bare chest. We decided to do this as the sexual characters in films are typically the ones which are killed first. These strong sexual references also appeal to the target audience which is a youth audience.
We decided the location of the house should be in a middle class area with a large detached house. This is what is expected in the slasher genre as it gives the illusion the no neighbours or passers by can hear the action or anybody scream.
We stuck to these common codes and conventions as we didn't want to confuse the audience to which genre the film was. We could have made the film more original as we used lots of inter-textual references but even if we planned not to use inter-textual references this would have been virtually impossible from the amount of horror films there is. Therefore we used the post-modernism idea that all media products are recycled to create new ones.
In our film we have mainly focused on one social group which is a ‘youth’ audience as all the characters are of a youth age (17-20). We decided to target a youth audience because we are youths ourselves, so we know what factors youths enjoy watching in the media. We decided to have the main protagonist a brunette to give the impression to the audience that she wont die as its usually blonde characters which are killed first. We also did this to stop the audience from being bored and sick of seeing the same stereotypes. We thought a brunette character might also bring in an ABC1 audience by a brunette protagonist as its going against the stereotypical blonde character which is typically seen in horrors. The protagonist represents typical females as she is interested in fashion by what she's wearing and takes care with the way she looks. An ABC1 audience is also brought in by the location of the house. We chose to have Will, the character who the protagonist is cheating on, because he is older then Mandy and Matt (shown by his hairy chest) therefore younger audiences may aspire to be like him as he is moral by telling Mandy he wants to end there affair. We decided to delete the school scene where Mandy dumps Theo as it wasn’t creating the right impression to the audience as some people found his character humorous when we wanted them to find him ’cute’ and ’geeky’.
We had initially chose to have his character portrayed that way to bring in the pink pound audience even though it is know deleted, the pink pound audience may like just as much seeing Will topless.
Our media product also represents Northern England, signified by the accents, and when Mandy is caught cheating on the antagonist, when she is leaning against the window sill you can see out of the window which is fields. Stereotypically, characters in Northern films are portrayed as being Working class, thick and common (through aspects of nudity). Our film doesn’t fit with the majority of Northern films such as Full Monty (Pete Cattaneo, 1997) and This is England (Shane Meadows, 2006) due to the middle class location. We decided not to exaggerate the Yorkshire setting, even though it may have worked in our favour with our potential Yorkshire audience, as we have noticed in other slasher films that the State (as they are normally set in America) of the film is not an important factor as it is typically just a town in America. We did this because we didn’t want this to harm our potential prospects with a national or international audience or go against typically codes and conventions.
Although, This is England only featured northern characters and focused on the mass unemployment in the north of England, it still was highly received at the international film festival. Our primary target audience for our film would be teenage boys as there are 2 character personality types in our film which they can relate to. The prop of the knife was used as it helps bring in a male audience as it is seen like a phallic object. Also, boys tend to dominate horror films.
Even though our film has a narrow representation, it doesn't mean film wont have a wide appeal across a socio-economic spectrum.
The type of distributor that would distribute our film would be a small budget company because we are unknown and it is our first production. They should also have previously distributed horror's before so they know advertising techniques etc. Production companies such as, Warp x as they did Donkey punch which is similar to our film. Warp x also focuses on producing and distributing British films. ‘Screen Yorkshire’ May also distribute our film as it normally funds regional films. It would then be likely for it to get shown at ‘Leeds young people’s film festival’. Studio Canal is another option we could use as they typically distribute British films.
“This year's festival will present the very best new and unseen films made for and by young people from all corners of the globe. A range of free hands-on workshops and master classes will also enable young people to find out more about film making and the industry.”
www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/features/The-Knowledge-Young-People39s-Film.5117219.jp
We decided to have a quick killing, as it is something that happens a lot in slasher films such as Scream.There is also an aspect of sexual tension/references. For example, in Halloween when Micheal Myers sees his sister in her underwear. This was also included in our production when you see the protagonist in bed with another man. The protagonist has to hold the duvet across her chest to give the illusion she is naked, you can also see the mans bare chest. We decided to do this as the sexual characters in films are typically the ones which are killed first. These strong sexual references also appeal to the target audience which is a youth audience.
We decided the location of the house should be in a middle class area with a large detached house. This is what is expected in the slasher genre as it gives the illusion the no neighbours or passers by can hear the action or anybody scream.
We stuck to these common codes and conventions as we didn't want to confuse the audience to which genre the film was. We could have made the film more original as we used lots of inter-textual references but even if we planned not to use inter-textual references this would have been virtually impossible from the amount of horror films there is. Therefore we used the post-modernism idea that all media products are recycled to create new ones.
In our film we have mainly focused on one social group which is a ‘youth’ audience as all the characters are of a youth age (17-20). We decided to target a youth audience because we are youths ourselves, so we know what factors youths enjoy watching in the media. We decided to have the main protagonist a brunette to give the impression to the audience that she wont die as its usually blonde characters which are killed first. We also did this to stop the audience from being bored and sick of seeing the same stereotypes. We thought a brunette character might also bring in an ABC1 audience by a brunette protagonist as its going against the stereotypical blonde character which is typically seen in horrors. The protagonist represents typical females as she is interested in fashion by what she's wearing and takes care with the way she looks. An ABC1 audience is also brought in by the location of the house. We chose to have Will, the character who the protagonist is cheating on, because he is older then Mandy and Matt (shown by his hairy chest) therefore younger audiences may aspire to be like him as he is moral by telling Mandy he wants to end there affair. We decided to delete the school scene where Mandy dumps Theo as it wasn’t creating the right impression to the audience as some people found his character humorous when we wanted them to find him ’cute’ and ’geeky’.
We had initially chose to have his character portrayed that way to bring in the pink pound audience even though it is know deleted, the pink pound audience may like just as much seeing Will topless.
Our media product also represents Northern England, signified by the accents, and when Mandy is caught cheating on the antagonist, when she is leaning against the window sill you can see out of the window which is fields. Stereotypically, characters in Northern films are portrayed as being Working class, thick and common (through aspects of nudity). Our film doesn’t fit with the majority of Northern films such as Full Monty (Pete Cattaneo, 1997) and This is England (Shane Meadows, 2006) due to the middle class location. We decided not to exaggerate the Yorkshire setting, even though it may have worked in our favour with our potential Yorkshire audience, as we have noticed in other slasher films that the State (as they are normally set in America) of the film is not an important factor as it is typically just a town in America. We did this because we didn’t want this to harm our potential prospects with a national or international audience or go against typically codes and conventions.
Although, This is England only featured northern characters and focused on the mass unemployment in the north of England, it still was highly received at the international film festival. Our primary target audience for our film would be teenage boys as there are 2 character personality types in our film which they can relate to. The prop of the knife was used as it helps bring in a male audience as it is seen like a phallic object. Also, boys tend to dominate horror films.
Even though our film has a narrow representation, it doesn't mean film wont have a wide appeal across a socio-economic spectrum.
The type of distributor that would distribute our film would be a small budget company because we are unknown and it is our first production. They should also have previously distributed horror's before so they know advertising techniques etc. Production companies such as, Warp x as they did Donkey punch which is similar to our film. Warp x also focuses on producing and distributing British films. ‘Screen Yorkshire’ May also distribute our film as it normally funds regional films. It would then be likely for it to get shown at ‘Leeds young people’s film festival’. Studio Canal is another option we could use as they typically distribute British films.
“This year's festival will present the very best new and unseen films made for and by young people from all corners of the globe. A range of free hands-on workshops and master classes will also enable young people to find out more about film making and the industry.”
www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/features/The-Knowledge-Young-People39s-Film.5117219.jp
During the construction of my micro-drama, preliminary task and film opening I have learnt how to cut, edit, add sounds, transitions and titles. All of which have been used in all 3 projects I feel that I have been able to progress on the skills needed for this throughout the tasks. An example is in the micro-drama the camera was unsteady and shaky and the framing of characters was off but through re-filming and the preliminary task, by the time it got to the film opening we knew how to keep the camera still and frame properly.
During the micro-drama we didn’t use a storyboard or screenplay or production plan and to then use one in the film opening showed us how much easier and quicker it is then to make it up on the spot. I have also learnt how to use the camcorders. I feel I have progressed in filming point of view shots as there was a tricky sequence in our film where it was a point of view shot of me walking up the stairs. We had to re film this a number of times as the camera was to shaky but in our final piece its not very shaky and you can tell its supposed to be someone walking up the stairs. Although, a steadi cam, like the one used in Halloween, would have been a lot better to use.
During the filming process I felt I didn’t film as much as I would have liked to, due to the fact that I was the protagonist. But whenever I wasn’t in the shot I did film them scenes as shown in the production plan.
From doing the preliminary task I have learnt that planning is essential. In terms of location being adequate, the shots being set out and planned. Also, that ideas may seem good in your head but when you come to try set it out and plan filming it, it is to confusing.
During the micro-drama we didn’t use a storyboard or screenplay or production plan and to then use one in the film opening showed us how much easier and quicker it is then to make it up on the spot. I have also learnt how to use the camcorders. I feel I have progressed in filming point of view shots as there was a tricky sequence in our film where it was a point of view shot of me walking up the stairs. We had to re film this a number of times as the camera was to shaky but in our final piece its not very shaky and you can tell its supposed to be someone walking up the stairs. Although, a steadi cam, like the one used in Halloween, would have been a lot better to use.
During the filming process I felt I didn’t film as much as I would have liked to, due to the fact that I was the protagonist. But whenever I wasn’t in the shot I did film them scenes as shown in the production plan.
From doing the preliminary task I have learnt that planning is essential. In terms of location being adequate, the shots being set out and planned. Also, that ideas may seem good in your head but when you come to try set it out and plan filming it, it is to confusing.
We also decided to design a advertising poster to show how we would target our audience. We put a knife going into a bra as the knife is a phallic object and represents a penis. The bra emphasises the aspects of sex within the film.
Deconstruction of media film:
The establishing shot is of a tap being turned on then followed by a knife being placed down. This is the set up for the fake suicide.
You see a mans hand writing “I’m sorry” on the mirror in lipstick. This automatically gives a narrative enigma to the audience as they wonder what he’s done and what he’s going to do. ( Although there is one spelling mistake here as he writes “im sorry” not “I’m sorry” but this was only realized after we had filmed and edited so had no time to re-film)
It then goes to a flashback, shown by being in black and white, of someone walking into a room and seeing a boy and girl kissing in bed with the illusion that there naked. The girl then leaps up and says “Oh my god Matt, I thought you where going to call first?” This dialogue shows she knows who the man is but the audience doesn’t see him. “I thought you where going to call first?” shows how she doesn’t really care that she’s hurt him. We decided to use a point of view shot here as it looks like this is an insight to his memory and how he recalls things.
We then decided there to be a cut here as this is supposed to be where Matt leaves the room but the conversation still carries on.
We used shot-reverse-shot to show the dialogue between the 2 characters and because it is a common code of convention. Will then says “I didn’t know you had a boyfriend” which is anchorage to the audience that the protagonist has been caught cheating on her boyfriend. Her reply gives more exposition to how she really doesn’t care about her boyfriends feelings. The way that she is getting dressed in front of him shows how she is sexually available. We then used the 180 degree rule to show the conversation between the 2 characters. We used inter cutting of scenes as it is similar to The Warriors, it helps get the film straight into the action and introduce the protagonist and antagonist.
There is then a shot of someone going through a handbag and finding condoms, again exaggerating the fact that the protagonist is sexually available, and finding the lipstick.
The flashback has then ended and there’s a tracking shot of the protagonist walking down her street and into her house. We used jump cuts here as its more fast pace editing which appeals to a youth audience.
Then as the protagonist walks through the door we should have used a variety of shots to emphasis the door was already open.
Deconstruction of media film:
The establishing shot is of a tap being turned on then followed by a knife being placed down. This is the set up for the fake suicide.
You see a mans hand writing “I’m sorry” on the mirror in lipstick. This automatically gives a narrative enigma to the audience as they wonder what he’s done and what he’s going to do. ( Although there is one spelling mistake here as he writes “im sorry” not “I’m sorry” but this was only realized after we had filmed and edited so had no time to re-film)
It then goes to a flashback, shown by being in black and white, of someone walking into a room and seeing a boy and girl kissing in bed with the illusion that there naked. The girl then leaps up and says “Oh my god Matt, I thought you where going to call first?” This dialogue shows she knows who the man is but the audience doesn’t see him. “I thought you where going to call first?” shows how she doesn’t really care that she’s hurt him. We decided to use a point of view shot here as it looks like this is an insight to his memory and how he recalls things.
We then decided there to be a cut here as this is supposed to be where Matt leaves the room but the conversation still carries on.
We used shot-reverse-shot to show the dialogue between the 2 characters and because it is a common code of convention. Will then says “I didn’t know you had a boyfriend” which is anchorage to the audience that the protagonist has been caught cheating on her boyfriend. Her reply gives more exposition to how she really doesn’t care about her boyfriends feelings. The way that she is getting dressed in front of him shows how she is sexually available. We then used the 180 degree rule to show the conversation between the 2 characters. We used inter cutting of scenes as it is similar to The Warriors, it helps get the film straight into the action and introduce the protagonist and antagonist.
There is then a shot of someone going through a handbag and finding condoms, again exaggerating the fact that the protagonist is sexually available, and finding the lipstick.
The flashback has then ended and there’s a tracking shot of the protagonist walking down her street and into her house. We used jump cuts here as its more fast pace editing which appeals to a youth audience.
Then as the protagonist walks through the door we should have used a variety of shots to emphasis the door was already open.
There is then a point of view shot from the protagonist walking up the stairs. It would have been better if we had used a steadi cam like the one used in Halloween see link.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKLlcI0cWI0
The music, long drawn out strings, comes in louder as you see the antagonist come out from the other room and follow the protagonist down the corridor. We dressed the character in dark clothes, similar to Micheal Myers in Halloween.
The protagonist is then knocked out with a baseball bat and dragged to the bathroom and placed in the bath. In hindsight, it would have been better to see some pieces of clothing being removed.
We shot the slitting the wrists scene from a variety of angles to create tension. The protagonist is then left in the bath, while the antagonist leaves and as he walks past the camera, smiles as if to say he’s done nothing wrong.
There is then a picture of the protagonist and antagonist together, which shows the audience that they were in a relationship and it was him who caught her cheating on him.
The protagonist is then knocked out with a baseball bat and dragged to the bathroom and placed in the bath. In hindsight, it would have been better to see some pieces of clothing being removed.
We shot the slitting the wrists scene from a variety of angles to create tension. The protagonist is then left in the bath, while the antagonist leaves and as he walks past the camera, smiles as if to say he’s done nothing wrong.
There is then a picture of the protagonist and antagonist together, which shows the audience that they were in a relationship and it was him who caught her cheating on him.
Thursday, 2 April 2009
Group Scenario
Our group scenario is about a man who goes around killing people who he thinks are doing things wrong and taking things for granted but he makes there deaths seem like a fake suicide. In the rest of the film the killer will carry on killing girls and will never get caught.
Cinematography and Editing.
The establishing shots are 3 close ups, firstly on the tap, then the knife, then writing on the mirror. We used a close up here instead of a pan across the room to show the audience these aspects were important. We used close us so they had to focus on the items and not misread the importance by looking at something else. Then its cut to the flashback. In the flashback we used 180 degree rule, shot reverse shot, and mid shots. We used 180 degree rule so it was obvious to the audience the characters were having a conversation and mid shots were used to get the other characters, who stood behind, into the frame. The characters were all centered in the middle. 
As the protagonist was walking down the street we used a tracking long shot as the camera was following her, We used jump cutting here as it creates tension and cuts down the time on a potentially time consuming shot. The angle was also at a dutch angle to signify that something is wrong. We used a mid shot of the protagonist getting her key out but then to see it had already been opened. Looking back, we could have used a close up here to emphasis the fact the door is already opened. There was a mid shot of the protagonist walking into the house. We used this as we wanted the setting of the house to be in the background giving more exposition to the audience of the house and setting used. This then follows onto a point of view shot as the protagonist walks up the stairs, this was used to also build tension and links into Halloween as the point of view shot is also used in the introduction to Halloween.
There is then a mid shot of the protagonist walking into the bathroom to be able to fit the setting and character into the frame. The camera the pans around the bathroom to show the audience this is the bathroom they first 3 clips are from.
There is another mid shot as the protagonist and antagonist walk down the corridor, again jump cutting is used to add tension. Then when the protagonist is on the floor, there is a birds eye view shot of her to show her vulnerability. The camera then tracks her as she is being dragged back to the bathroom. A high shot is then used over the antagonists shoulder to be able to see the action. Then as the antagonist leaves the room the camera tracks him.
We added a slow mo effect, transitions and fades to create a sense that some of the footage was supposed to be previous to the rest of the film or flashbacks. This is an inter-textual reference to the ring. We also used inter- cutting as it is used in The Warriors and this creates a sense of fast pace movement.
There is then a mid shot of the protagonist walking into the bathroom to be able to fit the setting and character into the frame. The camera the pans around the bathroom to show the audience this is the bathroom they first 3 clips are from.
There is another mid shot as the protagonist and antagonist walk down the corridor, again jump cutting is used to add tension. Then when the protagonist is on the floor, there is a birds eye view shot of her to show her vulnerability. The camera then tracks her as she is being dragged back to the bathroom. A high shot is then used over the antagonists shoulder to be able to see the action. Then as the antagonist leaves the room the camera tracks him.
We added a slow mo effect, transitions and fades to create a sense that some of the footage was supposed to be previous to the rest of the film or flashbacks. This is an inter-textual reference to the ring. We also used inter- cutting as it is used in The Warriors and this creates a sense of fast pace movement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTDWyTJDaec&feature=related (the Warriors intro)
We composed the sound for our film on garage band which is an application from the Mac computers. We decided it would be a better idea than using copy right free music as it then fits more with the narrative of the film.
Audience feedback
26th March 09
We showed our target audience a rough cut of the film. The feedback we got was...
Lucy, 17
"Really good, found it scary and got creeped out! but the point of view shot going up the stairs is a bit shaky and doesn't then fit in with the speed Lucy is walking at when she comes up the stairs"
Dave, Teacher
"need to re-shoot the hello hello bit as the camera is too jumpy. Add multiple pauses to create tension, blood needs to be more obvious as it loses social realism. Longer pause when walking to door to emphasis more somethings not right. Avoid long takes and shoot from a variety of angles"
Final cut 2nd April 09
George, 16
"Like the music links in really well with the genre, liked the variety of angles"
Andre, 16
" I really enjoyed the inter-cutting and slow motion. The music was really scary! and the variety of angles were great"
Catherine, 17
" It looked really realistic and scary, i enjoyed the acting and felt scared for the character!"
Final Cut after re-filming 28th April 09
Laura, 17
good titles signfies blood. Music adds tension.Catherine, 17
Alot better than before. Good how its in black and white can tell its a flashback.
Andy, 17
Music is really tense.
Emma,17
Scary! like how you've done the titles and slow mo adds tension.
We received the feedback throughout the editing progress right until the final piece. We did this because we had to constantly make sure the audience understood and followed the story. The audience feedback really helped and was an important aspect of the film. If we hadn't have got all the audience feedback then we probably wouldn't have re-filmed which looking back, was essential.
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
Sound and Music
After searching through many copyright free websites such as,
http://www.creativecommons.org.audio/
http://www.ccmixter.org/
http://www.copyleft-music.com/
http://www.audiojungle.net/
http://www.on-holdmusic.co.uk/
http://www.creativecommons.org.audio/
http://www.ccmixter.org/
http://www.copyleft-music.com/
http://www.audiojungle.net/
http://www.on-holdmusic.co.uk/
We still hadn't found the perfect sound to fit with our film. We then found out we could use garage band, which is an application on the Macs. We sat down with Rob who knows how to use the garage band application thoroughly, and showed him our film and explained to him what we wanted. We decided it would be easier to have Rob put the sound together as we had never used the application before. We decided on a 'heartbeat' sound to begin the music with to m
ake the audiences heartbeat beat faster therefore making them feel tense. Then when the antagonist hit the protagonist, long drawn out strings were added. We did this as it is a common code and convention from real media products such as Halloween. We chose the music to sound like this as it appeals to the type of audience that watches horror films. Also, the audience that watches horrors expects to hear music similar to the one that we have used. We chose not to go against this expectation in order to not confuse the audience.During the filming process there are some scenes we had to film again due to sound. Such as when the camera was too far away in one of the school scenes. We wouldn't have had to re film if we had a boom mic but as we don't, re filming was essential. We could have dubbed over, but as we weren't used to this process we thought the best idea was to re film.
Locations, Mise-en-scene, costume, props
Location:We always knew it would be easiest to film the school scene at our school but the time and part of the school was harder to find the we thought. Because we had to film at lunchtime due to the only available time convenient for the cast, the issue of noise was a problem. From a school setting you would expect classrooms or play courts but because these were being used at the time, we had to settle for a 'path'. We chose the school setting as it signifies the age of the characters and it is a general location which the audience can relate to. We decided to have an urban setting for the rest of the film in a middle class detached house. We chose this as it is a similar setting to nightmare on elm street as they use a detached house as it makes the characters look more alone and like no-one can hear them if they scream etc. We initially thought the bathroom scene would be difficult to film then in other locations due to bathrooms tend to be smaller. But to get around this, we kept the door open and filmed from standing out of the room, and used mid/close up shots.
Mise-en-scene:The first part of the house you see is the door which is unopened. The protagonist has her key out ready to go into the house this signifies that she was expecting the door to be locked so there must be someone in the house. As you go into the house there is just stereotypical items such as coats, shoes ornaments and pictures. This makes the audience relax as there is nothing out of the ordinary to scare them.
Costume:
The first male character in the school scene was dressed in high jeans with his t-shirt tucked into his jeans. This conotes he is a 'geeky' character also by the glasses he is wearing. We dressed the protagonist in a pink dress to show the audience that she is a girly, bitchy character. The antagonist was dressed all in black as he is the killer to show he is trying to hide himself. By having his hood up throughout the film was his trademark sign. Costume is a very important aspect as they are unsaid factors which affect how the characters are portrayed.
Props:The 2 main props we used were a baseball bat, used to knock out the protagonist, and a knife. The knife was chosen as it’s a ‘phallic’ object and has inter-textual references to ‘I know what you did last summer’.
These are photos from the bedroom scene. We chose this room as the duvet and walls are white signifying pure which in contrast it was there opposite as the protagonist is cheating on the antagonist in the bed.
Overall, the locations we chose were good locations as they were easy to film in. We did encounter problems with the props though. As obviously we couldnt see the protagonist being hit over the head with a baseball bat so it was difficult to film it without actaully hitting her whilst looking realistic. We then decided to this footage off screen but we didn't see this as a problem as it has been used in other films such as Halloween.
Hardware
The camera we used was the Canon MD205.
Features of this camera are:
Canon 36x Advanced Zoom
True Wide High Resolution 16:9
Instant shooting with Quick Start
Microphone input connection
Joystick interface for easy control
DIGIC DV for true-to-life colours
LCD video light
Easy Mode and Program AE modes
Features of this camera are:
Canon 36x Advanced Zoom
True Wide High Resolution 16:9
Instant shooting with Quick Start
Microphone input connection
Joystick interface for easy control
DIGIC DV for true-to-life colours
LCD video light
Easy Mode and Program AE modes
We became familiar with the hardware during the micro drama and preliminary task.
Before taking the shots we tried out the zoom on the cameras and how easily the camera moves on the tripod. We also did the white balance test to check the settings. This includes getting a white piece of paper and holding it infront of the camera so it picks up what white actaully is.
In the first school scene which is now one of our rough cuts, a boom mic would have been essential as the reason why we have refilmed it is the camera is to far away to pick up the sound.
Software
The software we used for our production is imovie 06. As I have only used this programme briefly with the micro drama and preliminary task I went on the imovie tutorial to ensure I was getting the most out of the software used. The tutorial gave step by step guidance and really helped me come to grips with the new software i was using.
From using imovie I found it is clear and simply set out. Especially how all your clips are down the right hand side and you can chose and drag the clips you want into the bar at the bottom. This stopped there being confusion with the clips you didn't want are deleting clips by accident as there was a clear divide between them. The effects were also easy to find and apply to the clips. Although, at first we thought that you couldn't apply an effect and a transition to one clip. But once we had realised that you could just split the clip into two, apply one effect to the first part and the transition to the second it cleared our problem up. But it still would have been easier to be able to apply more than one effect to a clip.
The effects we used were jump cuts, where you simply cut out small sections of a long clip. We did this to create more tension and stop the shot being to long and continuous. For the part where the antagonist hits the protagonist with the baseball bat, obviously we couldn't have him actually hitting her so we later filmed hitting our hands loudly on the table and then extracted the audio to fit with the hitting of the bat on the film. We put some of the shots into black and white to emphasis to the audience that they were flashbacks. We also added a slow mo effect to create tension.
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Rough Cuts
This is one of our rough cuts. We have decided to film it again as the camera is two jumpy and doesn't need to move to follow the protagonist's actions as she will fit in the screen without the jumpiness.
This is another rough cut. We had to delete this scene as a Sophie on the far left is in this scene and when it goes back to this scene in the shot reverse shot, she is not there. See clip below.
We have had to re-film this shot as its supposed to be an over the shoulder shot of Peter, not Matt so were re-filming it from a over the shoulder shot of Peter/Point of view shot of Matt. Another reason why were re-filming is you cant actually hear what Peter is saying, so a boom mic would have been essential here.
This is the school scene which was in the draft final cut. We then decided to take it out for the official final cut as the audience didn't react to it as we expected them to, they laughed at his character. This is then replaced by the scene of the protagonist in bed with the male character.
Monday, 30 March 2009
Our groups initial ideas
Long shot of a door at the end of a coridor, camera moves towards the door, the door is opened to find a boys feet dangling from a height. You hear his mother shouting from downstairs " Tom...You need to get up now! Don't forget your dad is picking you up with his new tart of a girlfriend!" It then cuts to a news clip of a woman saying that a young boy of 17 has commited suicide in his house with no further information given. It cuts again to Tom, the unidentified boy, walking around school with a voice over saying " Im Tom Schofield, this is my story, this is my life..." Then further on it shows you Tom getting bullied by other students being pushed around and teachers paying no attention of him and just sending him out of class. He then goes into a toilet cubicle,you see him going mental hitting things, screaming and throwing toilet paper around. He is then sick from all his built up anger and frustration, he stands up turns around to the camera wipes his mouth and then a close up of his face shows tears rolling down his face and then the screen fades to back. At this point fast paced music is used and the credits appear on the black screen.
We then changed our idea as it didnt fit into a specific genre and we would have struggled to fit it in to 2 minutes. Also, 3 cuts in a 2 minute opening would be to confusing to the audience.
We then changed our idea as it didnt fit into a specific genre and we would have struggled to fit it in to 2 minutes. Also, 3 cuts in a 2 minute opening would be to confusing to the audience.
Micro drama Narrative theory
This is our micro-drama. We filmed this in october 08. This film, and the preliminary task is what we used to research the equipment and come to grips with the software.
The task was to create a micro-drama, a short fictional text of around 1 minute. To then be introduced to 4 key theories and to explore these theories then apply them to our own fictional narrative. The Theories are:
Propps character archetypes
Todorov's model of narrative structure
Levi-Strauss' Binary opposition concept
Barthes' narrative enigma idea
When we were filming this we weren't particularly focusing on camera angles and including these theories but they are still applied.
We used Propps character types in our media. Lucy was the villain, the hero was Lauren and the false hero was Sophie as she ran back to help Kristie just so she didn't get into trouble. Kristie was the victim.
Todorov's 5 part narrative formula consists of,
1. a state of equilibrium at the outset
2. a disruption of the equilibrium by some action (wanting to steal the phone)
3. a recognition that there has been a disruption. ( arguing)
4.an attempt to repair the disruption ( running back to help)
5.a reinstatement of the equilibrium (calling an ambulance)
There are binary opposistions between the 3 bullies and Kristie by the way there dressed, there actions and the way there speaking. We did this to make it clear to the audience who's on which side.
There is narrative enigma as you don't know if Kristie will survive and what will happen to the bullies for stabbing her.
Production plan
http://www.scribd.com/share/upload/11248945/2gsiujguxrkgey3rij7c
Production Schedule 2nd Below is the production plan before we made changes to the film. Above is the link to the changed production plan.
Storyboard
This is the correct storyboard for our production after the changes have been made.
Below is the 1st storyboard before we changed some shots.
Logo
This is our groups logo.We decided to use a simple and accessable logo as when people look at the logo it is obvious its a film company. We chose the name 'tracking' as its a filming technique. I googled our production name and it isn't being used by anybody else.
Casting
We decided from the beginning we would have a brunette as our protagonist to go against the stereotype of having a blonde protagonist who is killed straight away. Also, our character has similar looks to Lisa (Sian Brecklin) from Donkey Punch who is the final girl. We did this to give a twist to the story, to make the audience think that she may get away and not get killed.
The Protagonist and the Antagonist
For the main characters we did not hold a casting session as we thought it would be to time consuming and we had a few ideas of people we knew who could play the parts. We had already decided to use a group member as the female protagonist.
The main male protagonist in the school scene was chosen because he creates a binary opposition between himself and the female protagonist, Mandy. This is because the girl is pretty and 'cool' as she has a group of friends surrounding her and the guy is not as attractive and 'geeky' by what he is saying and his mannerisms, in contrast to the female who seems cold and not as interested in the fact there splitting up.
The antagonist was chosen because again, he is binary opposition to the other male and female as he is a lot taller and bigger then the other two characters. It conotes he is more powerful and strong, making the female look vulnerable.
The main male protagonist in the school scene was chosen because he creates a binary opposition between himself and the female protagonist, Mandy. This is because the girl is pretty and 'cool' as she has a group of friends surrounding her and the guy is not as attractive and 'geeky' by what he is saying and his mannerisms, in contrast to the female who seems cold and not as interested in the fact there splitting up.
The antagonist was chosen because again, he is binary opposition to the other male and female as he is a lot taller and bigger then the other two characters. It conotes he is more powerful and strong, making the female look vulnerable.
Our cast is quite a narrow representation of the general public as all the characters are 17 years old, appealing to the youth audience. The characters are also all white, and middle class characters. But this doesn't mean it wont appeal to a wide audience as most productions who have no non-Caucasian characters, don't suffer for it commercially. Horror films which do include ethnic minorities, such as Scary Movie with the character 'Shorty Meeks' who dies in the first half of the film. This could show that films show a negative representation of ethnic minorities.
Eventhough we have a narrow representation of the public, we decided it would be more accessable to have teenagers playing teenagers, as it would be more realistic than having teenagers playing a doctor or police man. Although, it is not a big problem that we have only representated teenagers as many other successful films have done the same, such as Final destination.
A conventional slasher with middle class characters targets C1C2DE audiences. Films that generally appeal to a ABC1 audience are high budget with no teenagers, as our film is low/no budget and is based and teenagers, this may mean we have no appeal to ABC1s audience.
We could have gained a cross over appeal to an older audience by featuring a parent, even for a short amount of time just till the audience feels they can relate to the character. Or by using a song from the 70's/80'/90's era but due to copyright complications, this wasn't possible.
The Protagonist and the Antagonist
Mandy: 
Matt:
Matt:
Dead End Poster
This is the poster which would be seen in advertisments for our film. The poster was edited on photoshop. The font was serif, as similar to Halloween, and the first and last letter was bigger, as similar to Halloween. The knife was centered and the biggest image on the poster as its seen as a 'phallic' object and signifies death. The knife was put into the bra to signify that its woman that die, and its also an intertextual refernce to Scary Movie. Our logo is also in the corner to show its a 'tracking productions' film.
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
Genre Research
To gain genre research I used the book 'Legacy of Blood' by Jim Harper. We specifically researched two topics, the Heroine and the Killer.
The Heroine
We used a counter-type as the girl who gets killed first is almost always a dumb blonde, but we went against this as our girl was brunette and there normally portrayed as intelligent, smart and resourceful but our girl walks straight into a death trap. The fact that our protagonist has a had a boyfriend makes her look like she's not a virgin therefore not innocent and pure, adding to another reason why she should die and could be seen as one of the killers motives as sexually active characters are normally first to be killed.
'Burning' and 'Friday the 13th' are the only 2 films that have a final male so we decided to carry with the stereotype of having a final girl (not seen in the 2 minute clip) so its easier for the audience to relate to the characters as that's what there used to seeing in horror films. We decided to use the name 'Mandy' for our protagonist as it is a feminine name and means 'lovable'. John Carpenters Halloween's final girl was called 'Laurie' which is quite a masculine name, it reflects how she has lasted to the end by the masculinity in her character, which our character has non of. Also, the final girl normally has a degree of psychic ability, being able to avoid the killer, in contrast to our character who is killed in the first two minutes.
The final girl is not usually seen in any sexual/shower scenes as they are normally portrayed to have a lack of male gaze. But a film who went against this stereotype is Nightmare on Elm street as the final girl is seen in the bath. The final girls boyfriend usually tries to help to but he is usually killed. The police, who normally have a strong authority in society, are always killed and are never able to help the characters no matter how hard they try and are normally shown as being stupid and making wrong decisions. An example of this is in 'John Carpenters Halloween' as the police attempt to help but end up getting killed. Characters tend to be most vulnerable when in a bath or shower scene, this is why we decided to have the protagonist killed in the bath to emphasis her vulnerability.
The Killer
Weapons and equipment used by the killer stick in the audiences mind. For example, Jason with hockey mask and knife in Friday the 13th. The killer is normally a male who acts alone but there is a few expectations, as in Urban legends there's two groups. Something has normally affected them to create a motive for the killings as all teenagers in slasher movies are naughty and are punished for breaking the rules of society.
The knife, constantly used in horror films, acts as a 'phallic' object when its penetrated by a man in a woman acts a symbolic rape. Emphasising the masculinity of the male killer and the vulnerability of the female.
I also researched Carol Clover for her ideas on the 'final girl'. From her book, 'Men, Woman and chainsaws'
Most theorists label horror films as a male driven/ centred genre, Clover believes that "in most horror films, especially Slasher, the audience male and female are 'forced' to become attached to the young female, the final girl, who survives the serial attacker and normally puts an end to the killings. So while the narrative dominant killer's subjective point of view may be male within the narrative, the male viewer is still rooting for the Final Girl to overcome the killer." Examples of this are within Halloween with Jamie Lee Curtis, Friday the 13th with Betsy Palmer and Nightmare on elm street with Heather Langenkamp.
What is expected from a horror genre opening scene?
For further research we asked a number of teenagers (our target audience) what is expected from a horror opening scene. We found that:
Tension music
Jumpy parts
Narrative enigma with the protagonist and antagonist
Victim
Subtle references to plot
Immoral activities
Exposition
Nudity
Masks/Concealed identity
Night/Darkness
Equilibrium
Weapon
Gore
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Target audience and BBFC
We decided to rate our film 15 as the themes and context could be deemed as inappropriate for an audience which is any younger. But things such as piracy and downloads may make this inevitable, but a rating needs to be applied for the box office and when it goes to the video store. The source www.sbbfc.co.uk showed us the guidelines to which films have to stick to in order to fit into that classification and we also compared it to other films similar to ours in terms of themes, language, nudity, sex, violence, imitable techniques, horror and drugs.The is only a small amount of nudity in our film. When the protagonist is in the bath, she is covered up but the audience know that she is naked because she is in the bath. We decided to have the character naked in the bath as when characters are naked they are most vulnerable. Following BBFC guidelines, "the violence in our film is strong but does not dwell on the pain and suffering of the victim." The same applies to imitable techniques, as self-harm is included but it is not dwelt on and you can't fully see it, but the audience knows what's happening. We also had to consider laws such as The Video Recordings Act 1984 which requires there to be
"1.No harm to any of those likely to view the video.
2.Any harm to society through the behaviour of those viewers afterwards."
The 2nd factor here could be debatable, as it has been argued that violence in films is what society is influenced by in a real life setting.
Due to piracy etc. we have targeted our film at the youth audience of 14-34 as the characters in our film are reflective of our target audience from there age. Even-though they are all the same age most horror films generally target the youth audience.
Our production doesn't include any non-Caucasian characters, but if we did this would reinforce its appeal to a multi-ethnic audience . However, this does not mean our text only targets a narrow Caucasian audience as many other productions continue to sideline non-Caucasian talent and still are successful. Such as Donkey Punch is a successful british horror which just feature white characters.
Our production doesn't include any non-Caucasian characters, but if we did this would reinforce its appeal to a multi-ethnic audience . However, this does not mean our text only targets a narrow Caucasian audience as many other productions continue to sideline non-Caucasian talent and still are successful. Such as Donkey Punch is a successful british horror which just feature white characters.
The slasher genre is typically a male dominated genre but to avoid only appealing to half of the target audience, a tough, resourceful 'final girl' character helps to draw in the female audience. Many films such as Halloween with Laurie Strode, Donkey Punch with Sian Breckin use the final girl theory. The final girl is not present in the 2 minute opening but in the rest of the film there will be one. The protagonist is like a 'scream queen' character apart from the fact she has brown hair instead of blonde. We did this to give a polysemic meaning to make the audience think she's the final girl then be shocked when she gets killed. Also, we didn't go along with the stereotypically blonde girl as it is often looked down upon by feminists but by doing this we may have lost some of the 'male gaze theory'. We considered the movie-as-date factor as the couples going on dates are predominately teenagers so even though horror films target males more, there needs to be characters which the female audience can relate to. There is a contrast between the two male characters as the first male is seen as 'geeky' and could make the female audience sympathize with him as you'd expect to see a boy splitting up with a girl not the other way round. The antagonist is big and strong, emphasizing his masculinity, so the male audience may aspire to be like him. This is similar to Micheal Myers in Halloween as he to is big and strong.
From our research into Horror films we found that most horrors are aimed at C1C2DE which use stereotypes, but as we have used counter-types this may bring in a ABC1 audience. Also as it is using middle class characters and a middle class setting this will also guarantee a middle class audience. To bring in ABC1s we could have used a adult for them to relate to but because of the time restrictions, we didn't.
Even-though Northern films struggle a lot at the box office we still decided to keep with the northern accents and settings as there isn't a lot of dialogue in the film anyway. However, there is advantages to using southern English characters and settings as it has an hegemonic status. Films such as Notting Hill, which is set in London, makes it accessible for a UK wide audience to relate to as its the capital of the country, therefore making it successful. Using northern England stereotypes could jeopardize the foreign sales as the southern England stereotype is normally the one given out to other countries. But there are successful Northern films which have overcome this such as Full Monty and This is England as the main themes in the films are accessible to all audiences. For example, the main theme in the Full Monty is unemployment, and the main theme in This is England is Thatcherism ( a prime minister which has been described as a dictator) Warp X and Redwave films chose such broad themes as everyone can associate to a time where they or there country has been unemployed or had a high unemployment rate, and the audience all know of a country which has had trouble due to the countries leader. After considering our options, we still decided to keep to keep our northern accents as we don't see it as a great problem. Also, if we had decided to use southern accents, then there would be the problem with sounding realistic etc.
Even-though Northern films struggle a lot at the box office we still decided to keep with the northern accents and settings as there isn't a lot of dialogue in the film anyway. However, there is advantages to using southern English characters and settings as it has an hegemonic status. Films such as Notting Hill, which is set in London, makes it accessible for a UK wide audience to relate to as its the capital of the country, therefore making it successful. Using northern England stereotypes could jeopardize the foreign sales as the southern England stereotype is normally the one given out to other countries. But there are successful Northern films which have overcome this such as Full Monty and This is England as the main themes in the films are accessible to all audiences. For example, the main theme in the Full Monty is unemployment, and the main theme in This is England is Thatcherism ( a prime minister which has been described as a dictator) Warp X and Redwave films chose such broad themes as everyone can associate to a time where they or there country has been unemployed or had a high unemployment rate, and the audience all know of a country which has had trouble due to the countries leader. After considering our options, we still decided to keep to keep our northern accents as we don't see it as a great problem. Also, if we had decided to use southern accents, then there would be the problem with sounding realistic etc.
We would expect our target audience to be interested in films which are similar to ours, especially the horror classics. Such as Halloween, Scream and Friday the 13th. This may be because these films are the ones that got our target audience interested in horror films in the first place. Friday the 13th and Scary movie are films which carry out the post-modernism theory, as they both recycle ideas from other films. Post modern films tend to target a younger audience such as 14-24. Our promotional poster has reference to Scary movie and Halloween as it has a knife going into a bra.
We decided to have Theo, the boy that the protagonist splits up with, as he would bring in the 'pink pound' audience. Because he is 'geeky' and they may think he is cute.
Screenplay
Above is the correct screen play altered because we changed some of the shots. Below is the old screenplay before we changed some of it.
During the filming process, we then changed some of the dialogue we initially put on the storyboard. This was because it was to lengthly and didn't fit with story. for example, we took out the scream as the killer was behind the girl so she didn't know he was there or what was going to happen.
Final Synopsis/The Pitch
"Dead end" is Saw meets Aprils fool's day.
It also taps into the Zeitgeist by linking into the news story about the canoeist who faked his own death.
There are inter-textual references to Saw because the killer kills the victims because they haven't appreciated their life. There are similarities to this in our film as the killer kills the victims as he believes they need to be punished for their actions resulting in their death.
In Aprils fools day the characters fake there own deaths as a joke but in our film the murder makes the deaths seem like a suicide by the way its been set up.
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Preliminary task
This is my edited version of my groups preliminary task. The task's criteria was a "continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule"
To make our task successful , we had to think about a number of questions such as audience. The audience should be targeted by being able to relate to characters, plot and setting. To make it easier for the audience to relate to the characters, we used characters that are the same age as our target audience. There could be a cross-over appeal by music used to appeal to a older/younger audience but then a problem of copyright free music occurs. We also had to consider the shot types used to ensure there was a variation and used the shots in the criteria.
Shots we included were close ups to show emotion, medium shots used to show action and emotion. Tracking was used to follow a character walking across the room, and a dutch angle to imply tension and that somethings wrong. We used a low angle shot on the bully (brown haired girl) to emphasis her power and a high angle shot on the victim (blonde haired girl) to show her vulnerability. A match on action shot( this is when an action that begins in one shot is continued or completed in the next) was used when the bully was opening the door, and shot reverse shot(where one character is shown looking at another character and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. The viewer then assumes that they are looking at each other), the 180-degree rule(this states that 2 characters in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other) and a over the shoulder shot was used during the dialogue. Below the 180-degree rule.
We decided to shot it in the toilets as it was an accessible location to all audiences and had artificial light as there was no windows. We story-boarded the task before hand to make the filming as quick as possible, and so everyone knew what they were doing and what was going on. The storyboard included the shot types and dialogue. We also wrote a screenplay going into depth on the characters age, gender, ethnicity and stereotypes.
We repeatedly shot scenes to ensure we got the best from the acting and the camera angles then during the editing process we individually chose the best shots of each scene. The slap scene was filmed the most as its a critical part of the task as it emphasises the bullying of the story and the equilibrium/ disequilibrium between the two characters.
Problems we incurred were the first time we filmed it we accidently filmed it horizontally instead of vertically which meant it was the wrong way round, we then had to quickly film it again which made us have a shorter amount of time to edit. We also should have put the characters in school uniform as a polysemic meaning could have occurred because the uniform would be anchorage to it being set in a school. In normal clothes it isn't as obvious to where the setting is.
This task reminded us how important classic continuity editing is, when the editing looks invisible or un-noticable. Because we only had one camera, it is easy to film a scene then cut, then try to film another scene but realise the characters have moved. Then when the shots have been put together it is obvious and doesn't flow correctly.
Problems we incurred were the first time we filmed it we accidently filmed it horizontally instead of vertically which meant it was the wrong way round, we then had to quickly film it again which made us have a shorter amount of time to edit. We also should have put the characters in school uniform as a polysemic meaning could have occurred because the uniform would be anchorage to it being set in a school. In normal clothes it isn't as obvious to where the setting is.
Friday, 27 February 2009
Codes and conventions
The codes and conventions of a film should be ones to let the audience know the genre and purpose of the film. It needs to draw the audience in and give them a sense of what the films about and give the audience a taste of the film.
We researched numerous films, mainly horrors, from a range of eras and directors and watched the opening scenes to see how and what successful horror films had done in the first 2 minutes to help and give advice to our production.
Touch of evil (1957) Orson Welles
Establishing shot of close up of a bomb then tracking shot of a man running with the bomb.
Genre- thriller
Music- non diegetic with quick pace to add tension.
Narrative enigma to who the man is who had the bomb.
No anchorage to where film is set.
Jazz music becomes diegetic, over exaggerated and loud.
No cuts yet, one long shot.
'Stop' sign in English narrows down to where its set, Anchorage.
Focus changes from car to pedestrians.
Target audience- Men and female as they both feature and both attractive so has sexual appeal.
Jazz signifies older audience post teen.
Characters go off screen for a small time, unusual if you tracking characters.
Psycho (1960) Alfred Hitchcock
Titles are cross cutting signifies slasher.
Also signifies a-list star in film.
Either says a film by.. or Alfred Hitchcocks shows directors cut.
Production companies and producers name also on opening sequence.
Jerry Braickenheimer famous as a producer of action films, can buy box set of his films which is unusual for producer.
Music is called score.
2 shots dissolving on each other.
Trick or treat (1985) Ned Morehead
Narrative over the titles
Black screen white titles signifies cheap, low budget film.
Slight lower angle shot to make actor look fierce.
Heavy metal rockers, bare chest long hair, make up.
Dark voice follows our cultural expectations of scary.
Font - Sharp edge
Starring Ozzy Osbourne and Gene Simmons.
Target audience male more likely then female.
15-24
Books in background called Rock and Rock-on.
Studded belt and wristband, fake skull.
Judist Priest poster and Wasp, classic rock metal band.
Large speakers, audio and turntables.
School setting, anchorage.
Bride of Chuckie (1998) Ronnie Yu
String music to signify horror, clear anchorage conotes genre
Font, uneven letters suggests chaos.
Drum and guitars makes heartbeat beat faster leads to an alteration in your mood, audience feel tense.
Universal pictures present... associated with horror.
Producers name
Directors name
Sharp abrupt noise
Blue conotes supernatural and cold.
American flag signifies its a public building.
Dutch angled shows somethings not right.
Never have high hopes from police, never intervene never solve case always die.
Source of light from lightning.
Inter textual reference to Friday 13th with a hockey mask, links into post modernism.
Inter textual reference to Halloween mask worn by the Shape in Halloween.
Fast pace editing signifies target audience -15 to 24+
Depth of focus- Dutch angle.
Name dropping of sony erricson product placement.
False scare
Representation, using stereotypes or counter types like 2 opening sequences.
Leprechaun (1993) Mark Jones
Titles offer black background Incorporated in opening scene.
Misleading signifiers that its a fantasy which sounds like child leprechaun.
Celtic style writing.
Stereotypical Irish drunk.
Stereotypical Irish name O'Grady.
Trainspotting (1996) Danny Boyle
Young characters so reflects in target audience.
Represented as stereotypical drug addicts, poor house working class.
Women represented as counter types as not there for males gaze as drug taking.
Contrast song "lust for life" playing to actors actions.
Set in Edinburgh mise-en-scene to phone number 013 Edinburgh code.
Binary opposition to the outfits there wearing.
Social realism film, shaky camera fast pace editing suggest younger audience.
Cross over appeal by song as older songs appeal to older generation.
Only male characters named so male target audience.
28 days later (2002) Danny Boyle
20th century fox.
Documentary style.
Narrative enigma to what’s going on.
Animal liberation group.
Denoted it’s a laboratory by white coats and glasses.
Dutch angles and blue tinted lighting to signify something’s wrong.
Counter-type of woman, she opens the cage door over the man, braver then the men.
Piano music playing signifies horror.
Scream (1996) Wes Craven
Siren noise signifies danger.
White writing changes to red, signifies blood or danger.
Font changes.
Phone links straight into action, no titles.
Quick editing signifies young target audience.
The use of the phone in slasher films comes from ‘when a stranger calls’ 1978 inter-textual reference.
Sound of prison door shutting.
Long drawn out string notes, inter-textual reference to Psycho.
Sound of a heartbeat makes your own heartbeat beat irregularly .
Light flashes same speed as heartbeat sound.
Blonde and busty character, background out of focus so she’s the main character.
Narrative enigma to her and his identity.
Brings in Propp, he’s the villain, she’s the victim.
No exposition.
Close up to show emotion on her face, tracking shot makes you think she’s being followed.
Deep and sinister male voice, Basic stereotypes for male.
No curtains even though its dark, glass signifies vulnerability.
Pan across her face, Close up.
Swing is swinging by itself, supernatural.
Middle class, large detached house isolated.
Woman say’s her favorite horror film is Halloween, then picks up a knife inter-textual reference.
Freud, psychologist thinks a knife is a ‘phallic’ object.
Saying she doesn’t have a boyfriend shows she’s sexually available.
300 (2006) Zack Snyder
Smoke shows gritty era.
Warner brothers style changed to fit in with the film.
300 sign written with blood signifies death and danger.
Lightning signifies danger.
Skull denotes death.
Close up on baby to emphasis vulnerability and innocence.
Framing cuts of head, makes him seem like a monster.
Jarhead (2006) Sam Mendez
Blank screen, no titles voice over.
Talking of war signifies action.
Youth target audience 15-35 more male audience.
Opening shot close up of character hint of main protagonist, commutation test if no close up was used then protagonist wouldn’t have been noticed.
Conote from eye movement he is unsure about something.
Font like a type writer, connotes serious and formal. Also, looks like a documentary style.
Exposition of his father by saying he used to be in the army too.
Comic effect by whistling music over violent act.
Irobot (2004) Alex Proyas
No titles.
Water effect is futuristic, working with robots being futuristic.
The music gets louder and quicker to create tension.
A part of the story is explained, exposition.
Cuts to alarm clock, false awareness.
Target audience, 15-45 mainly males as full of action but Will Smith is a well known attractive actor so brings in sexual appeal. He has a positive representation of black males.
Hybrid genre, not fully explained.
Wakes up with a gun next to him, narrative enigma, is he a criminal, gangster or police man?
Equilibrium and disequilibrium conflict between Will Smith and Robots.
Sin City (2005) Frank Miller
Based on a graphic novel.
Red title signifies death and blood.
Well known actors.
Caricatures link to comic books.
The film is based on 4 stories of Millers work.
Complex- multi layered narrative.
Narrative enigma to why he killed, who are they?
Only the females dress and lipstick is in colour - red signifies violence and blood.
Inter-textual reference to Kill Bill and Saving private Ryan.
Shot in Black and white.
Music is piano, slow and calm you don’t expect something bad to happen.
Constant sound of police sirens in the background denotes there’s a lot of violence and crime in the city.
Gladiator (2000) Bradley Scott
Slow and quite sounds which signifies something bad will happen, music gets louder increases heartbeat.
Slow editing - older mature audience.
Woman speaking over the top over action signifies death and in his head.
Gold letters connotes class. This is also applied to the producers logo’s and Universal logo. Signifies genre of the film.
Russel Crowe creates cross over appeal to woman in a generally male targeted film.
Action on screen creates preferred reading of a action/war film.
‘Set in Germania’ creates exposition.
Dark blue world (2001) Jansverak
Dark screen links to title.
Text is in font of WW2 propaganda style.
Music ‘big band’ what was listened to in 1940’s and 50’s. Denotes set in past and creates cross-over appeal to a older audience.
Read tint creates polysemic meaning, romance or blood.
Wimbledon (2004) Richard LongCrane
Music is cheerful suggest’s rom-com genre.
Cross over appeal from rom-com as based on tennis players.
Pathetic fallacy as weather reflects mood of characters.
Product placement.
Follows male gaze theory by young actress, Kirsten Dunst.
High school musical 2 (2007) Kenny Ortega
Close up of school clock with over-exaggerated ticking sound.
Music links in with genre of film.
Sequel so already got large fan base.
Title of film gives anchorage to genre.
3 shots fade into each other.
Names of actors come up in white serif.
In obtrusive editing.
Not much exposition to story of film yet.
Accent provides anchorage for setting.
Skull in school classroom is inter-textual reference to hamlet.
Over sized clock emphasizes students are more interested in the time than there teacher.
Clock gets bigger shows time is important.
John Carpenters' Halloween (1978) John Carpenter
Opening music similar to exorcist.
Builds tension.
Slow zoom.
Serif font.
Characters names' link to other films.
Blue tinted lightning, conote something is wrong.
Hand held camera.
Verisimilitude- creates a sense of realism within diegetic world.
Friday the 13th (1980) Sean S. Cunningham
Slasher, sci-fi, comedy
Hybrid genre to appeal to a wider audience.
Inter-textual reference to WWF by moves used, and to Lara Croft by using 2 guns.
Aspect of post modernism.
The Warriors (1979) Walter Hill
Each character is individually introduced.
Repeated inter cutting, sense of movement.
Small conflicts between gang members.
Derogatory comments about women.
Anchorage by close up on train stops.
Inter cutting shows sense of fast pace editing, so reflects target audience.
Our research into film openings shows us that it is expected to see a number of cuts to give exposition to the location, characters and target audience. For example. The Warriors used close ups on train stops to give anchorage to the location of the film, the characters are all introduced individually, again giving exposition to the location from their accents. Their ages, genders and ethnicity reflect the target audience.
There are many parallels between the horror films i have researched these include Narrative enigma, Non-diegetic music and sexual tension.
There is always narrative enigma in the opening sequence, as the audience is unsure who the characters are and what their role in the film is. Narrative enigma is used to grab the audiences attention and get them engrossed in the film. This then makes the audience want to carry on watching in order to know more about the film, therefore answering the questions that the opening sequence has aroused.
In the majority of horror films, the non-diegetic music over the opening sequence is long drawn out notes, which adds too and creates suspense and tension. There is also a beat which mimicks the sound of a heartbeat, gradually getting faster. This then makes the audiences heartbeat beat in time, as a result also getting faster. This brings the audience into the film making them feel part of it. This subconsciously makes the audience feel tension as they feel part of the film, and therefore making them feel subject to the dangers that may befall the other characters in the horror film. For example, this occurs in the beginning of Scream just before Drew Barrymoore is on the phone. The non-diegetic music creates tension in this way. As it creates tension which signifies to the audience that a scary moment is about to occur, the audience having this knowledge, creates tension in itself.
Sexual references are also made in the opening sequences, for example in Scream when Drew Barrymoore is on the phone to the killer, there is flirting which coincides with the popcorn that's being made, as it's bubbling up. This represent the sexual tension building and the heating of the popcorn mirrors the heat the characters are feeling. In the opening sequence of Halloween, Micheal Myers walks in to his sisters room and kills her whilst she is topless just after she has had sex with her boyfriend. These are strong sexual references as they appeal to the target audience of the youth audience.
We noticed from The Warriors that they had used titles which were red therefore looking like blood. We thought this was a really good idea as it signifies to the audience that the film is a slasher genre. We decided to use this idea with our titles.
The writing we used for the Title saying Dead End was a sharp Serif font. We used this as it is similar to Halloween.
We researched numerous films, mainly horrors, from a range of eras and directors and watched the opening scenes to see how and what successful horror films had done in the first 2 minutes to help and give advice to our production.
Touch of evil (1957) Orson Welles
Establishing shot of close up of a bomb then tracking shot of a man running with the bomb.
Genre- thriller
Music- non diegetic with quick pace to add tension.
Narrative enigma to who the man is who had the bomb.
No anchorage to where film is set.
Jazz music becomes diegetic, over exaggerated and loud.
No cuts yet, one long shot.
'Stop' sign in English narrows down to where its set, Anchorage.
Focus changes from car to pedestrians.
Target audience- Men and female as they both feature and both attractive so has sexual appeal.
Jazz signifies older audience post teen.
Characters go off screen for a small time, unusual if you tracking characters.
Psycho (1960) Alfred Hitchcock
Titles are cross cutting signifies slasher.
Also signifies a-list star in film.
Either says a film by.. or Alfred Hitchcocks shows directors cut.
Production companies and producers name also on opening sequence.
Jerry Braickenheimer famous as a producer of action films, can buy box set of his films which is unusual for producer.
Music is called score.
2 shots dissolving on each other.
Trick or treat (1985) Ned Morehead
Narrative over the titles
Black screen white titles signifies cheap, low budget film.
Slight lower angle shot to make actor look fierce.
Heavy metal rockers, bare chest long hair, make up.
Dark voice follows our cultural expectations of scary.
Font - Sharp edge
Starring Ozzy Osbourne and Gene Simmons.
Target audience male more likely then female.
15-24
Books in background called Rock and Rock-on.
Studded belt and wristband, fake skull.
Judist Priest poster and Wasp, classic rock metal band.
Large speakers, audio and turntables.
School setting, anchorage.
Bride of Chuckie (1998) Ronnie Yu
String music to signify horror, clear anchorage conotes genre
Font, uneven letters suggests chaos.
Drum and guitars makes heartbeat beat faster leads to an alteration in your mood, audience feel tense.
Universal pictures present... associated with horror.
Producers name
Directors name
Sharp abrupt noise
Blue conotes supernatural and cold.
American flag signifies its a public building.
Dutch angled shows somethings not right.
Never have high hopes from police, never intervene never solve case always die.
Source of light from lightning.
Inter textual reference to Friday 13th with a hockey mask, links into post modernism.
Inter textual reference to Halloween mask worn by the Shape in Halloween.
Fast pace editing signifies target audience -15 to 24+
Depth of focus- Dutch angle.
Name dropping of sony erricson product placement.
False scare
Representation, using stereotypes or counter types like 2 opening sequences.
Leprechaun (1993) Mark Jones
Titles offer black background Incorporated in opening scene.
Misleading signifiers that its a fantasy which sounds like child leprechaun.
Celtic style writing.
Stereotypical Irish drunk.
Stereotypical Irish name O'Grady.
Trainspotting (1996) Danny Boyle
Young characters so reflects in target audience.
Represented as stereotypical drug addicts, poor house working class.
Women represented as counter types as not there for males gaze as drug taking.
Contrast song "lust for life" playing to actors actions.
Set in Edinburgh mise-en-scene to phone number 013 Edinburgh code.
Binary opposition to the outfits there wearing.
Social realism film, shaky camera fast pace editing suggest younger audience.
Cross over appeal by song as older songs appeal to older generation.
Only male characters named so male target audience.
28 days later (2002) Danny Boyle
20th century fox.
Documentary style.
Narrative enigma to what’s going on.
Animal liberation group.
Denoted it’s a laboratory by white coats and glasses.
Dutch angles and blue tinted lighting to signify something’s wrong.
Counter-type of woman, she opens the cage door over the man, braver then the men.
Piano music playing signifies horror.
Scream (1996) Wes Craven
Siren noise signifies danger.
White writing changes to red, signifies blood or danger.
Font changes.
Phone links straight into action, no titles.
Quick editing signifies young target audience.
The use of the phone in slasher films comes from ‘when a stranger calls’ 1978 inter-textual reference.
Sound of prison door shutting.
Long drawn out string notes, inter-textual reference to Psycho.
Sound of a heartbeat makes your own heartbeat beat irregularly .
Light flashes same speed as heartbeat sound.
Blonde and busty character, background out of focus so she’s the main character.
Narrative enigma to her and his identity.
Brings in Propp, he’s the villain, she’s the victim.
No exposition.
Close up to show emotion on her face, tracking shot makes you think she’s being followed.
Deep and sinister male voice, Basic stereotypes for male.
No curtains even though its dark, glass signifies vulnerability.
Pan across her face, Close up.
Swing is swinging by itself, supernatural.
Middle class, large detached house isolated.
Woman say’s her favorite horror film is Halloween, then picks up a knife inter-textual reference.
Freud, psychologist thinks a knife is a ‘phallic’ object.
Saying she doesn’t have a boyfriend shows she’s sexually available.
300 (2006) Zack Snyder
Smoke shows gritty era.
Warner brothers style changed to fit in with the film.
300 sign written with blood signifies death and danger.
Lightning signifies danger.
Skull denotes death.
Close up on baby to emphasis vulnerability and innocence.
Framing cuts of head, makes him seem like a monster.
Jarhead (2006) Sam Mendez
Blank screen, no titles voice over.
Talking of war signifies action.
Youth target audience 15-35 more male audience.
Opening shot close up of character hint of main protagonist, commutation test if no close up was used then protagonist wouldn’t have been noticed.
Conote from eye movement he is unsure about something.
Font like a type writer, connotes serious and formal. Also, looks like a documentary style.
Exposition of his father by saying he used to be in the army too.
Comic effect by whistling music over violent act.
Irobot (2004) Alex Proyas
No titles.
Water effect is futuristic, working with robots being futuristic.
The music gets louder and quicker to create tension.
A part of the story is explained, exposition.
Cuts to alarm clock, false awareness.
Target audience, 15-45 mainly males as full of action but Will Smith is a well known attractive actor so brings in sexual appeal. He has a positive representation of black males.
Hybrid genre, not fully explained.
Wakes up with a gun next to him, narrative enigma, is he a criminal, gangster or police man?
Equilibrium and disequilibrium conflict between Will Smith and Robots.
Sin City (2005) Frank Miller
Based on a graphic novel.
Red title signifies death and blood.
Well known actors.
Caricatures link to comic books.
The film is based on 4 stories of Millers work.
Complex- multi layered narrative.
Narrative enigma to why he killed, who are they?
Only the females dress and lipstick is in colour - red signifies violence and blood.
Inter-textual reference to Kill Bill and Saving private Ryan.
Shot in Black and white.
Music is piano, slow and calm you don’t expect something bad to happen.
Constant sound of police sirens in the background denotes there’s a lot of violence and crime in the city.
Gladiator (2000) Bradley Scott
Slow and quite sounds which signifies something bad will happen, music gets louder increases heartbeat.
Slow editing - older mature audience.
Woman speaking over the top over action signifies death and in his head.
Gold letters connotes class. This is also applied to the producers logo’s and Universal logo. Signifies genre of the film.
Russel Crowe creates cross over appeal to woman in a generally male targeted film.
Action on screen creates preferred reading of a action/war film.
‘Set in Germania’ creates exposition.
Dark blue world (2001) Jansverak
Dark screen links to title.
Text is in font of WW2 propaganda style.
Music ‘big band’ what was listened to in 1940’s and 50’s. Denotes set in past and creates cross-over appeal to a older audience.
Read tint creates polysemic meaning, romance or blood.
Wimbledon (2004) Richard LongCrane
Music is cheerful suggest’s rom-com genre.
Cross over appeal from rom-com as based on tennis players.
Pathetic fallacy as weather reflects mood of characters.
Product placement.
Follows male gaze theory by young actress, Kirsten Dunst.
High school musical 2 (2007) Kenny Ortega
Close up of school clock with over-exaggerated ticking sound.
Music links in with genre of film.
Sequel so already got large fan base.
Title of film gives anchorage to genre.
3 shots fade into each other.
Names of actors come up in white serif.
In obtrusive editing.
Not much exposition to story of film yet.
Accent provides anchorage for setting.
Skull in school classroom is inter-textual reference to hamlet.
Over sized clock emphasizes students are more interested in the time than there teacher.
Clock gets bigger shows time is important.
John Carpenters' Halloween (1978) John Carpenter
Opening music similar to exorcist.
Builds tension.
Slow zoom.
Serif font.
Characters names' link to other films.
Blue tinted lightning, conote something is wrong.
Hand held camera.
Verisimilitude- creates a sense of realism within diegetic world.
Friday the 13th (1980) Sean S. Cunningham
Slasher, sci-fi, comedy
Hybrid genre to appeal to a wider audience.
Inter-textual reference to WWF by moves used, and to Lara Croft by using 2 guns.
Aspect of post modernism.
The Warriors (1979) Walter Hill
Each character is individually introduced.
Repeated inter cutting, sense of movement.
Small conflicts between gang members.
Derogatory comments about women.
Anchorage by close up on train stops.
Inter cutting shows sense of fast pace editing, so reflects target audience.
Our research into film openings shows us that it is expected to see a number of cuts to give exposition to the location, characters and target audience. For example. The Warriors used close ups on train stops to give anchorage to the location of the film, the characters are all introduced individually, again giving exposition to the location from their accents. Their ages, genders and ethnicity reflect the target audience.
There are many parallels between the horror films i have researched these include Narrative enigma, Non-diegetic music and sexual tension.
There is always narrative enigma in the opening sequence, as the audience is unsure who the characters are and what their role in the film is. Narrative enigma is used to grab the audiences attention and get them engrossed in the film. This then makes the audience want to carry on watching in order to know more about the film, therefore answering the questions that the opening sequence has aroused.
In the majority of horror films, the non-diegetic music over the opening sequence is long drawn out notes, which adds too and creates suspense and tension. There is also a beat which mimicks the sound of a heartbeat, gradually getting faster. This then makes the audiences heartbeat beat in time, as a result also getting faster. This brings the audience into the film making them feel part of it. This subconsciously makes the audience feel tension as they feel part of the film, and therefore making them feel subject to the dangers that may befall the other characters in the horror film. For example, this occurs in the beginning of Scream just before Drew Barrymoore is on the phone. The non-diegetic music creates tension in this way. As it creates tension which signifies to the audience that a scary moment is about to occur, the audience having this knowledge, creates tension in itself.
Sexual references are also made in the opening sequences, for example in Scream when Drew Barrymoore is on the phone to the killer, there is flirting which coincides with the popcorn that's being made, as it's bubbling up. This represent the sexual tension building and the heating of the popcorn mirrors the heat the characters are feeling. In the opening sequence of Halloween, Micheal Myers walks in to his sisters room and kills her whilst she is topless just after she has had sex with her boyfriend. These are strong sexual references as they appeal to the target audience of the youth audience.
We noticed from The Warriors that they had used titles which were red therefore looking like blood. We thought this was a really good idea as it signifies to the audience that the film is a slasher genre. We decided to use this idea with our titles.
The writing we used for the Title saying Dead End was a sharp Serif font. We used this as it is similar to Halloween.
To decide on the title of the film we looked at other films and how they got there title. Sin city is a nickname for Vegas due to the various forms of adult entertainment. Halloween got it's name as everyone knows what Halloween is therefore its accessible and all audiences can relate to it. We decided on the title Dead End as it is predominantly filmed in a cul-de-sac and it links in the the narrative of the film as the protagonist comes to a dead end.
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