Friday, 19 February 2010
Thursday, 18 February 2010
Question 2
When planning to create our film, we looked into the representation that is shown in horror films. We gathered this information from doing a target audience profile that showed who the film is aimed at. We both started by looking at what gender the film would be aimed at and discovered that males watch more horror films than women. However, when researching online I found that there is, more recently, an increase of women watching horror films who enjoy the thrills and excitement.
In horror films males are normally portrayed as being of strong character and not being scared. However, in our film opening, we see the opposite of this. We chose a male actor for the opening scene of our horror film because by showing the male character scared, running and ultimately dying in this sequence, we hope the audience will feel that there is no hope of the other characters who appear later in the story.
We aimed our film at the age group 15 – 21. From our research we discovered that this age group watch horror films as they enjoy the thrills and excitement. However, we could not make our film too gory, as this would change the censorship category, making it an 18 and therefore we would exclude some of our audience who would be in the 15-18 year old age group.
Our film is viewed from the eyes of both the protagonist and the antagonist. The beginning of the opening shot is viewed from the protagonist’s point of view. This enables the audience to pick up on the fear and isolation he is feeling. His expression and body language give the impression that he is being chased …but by whom? Some parts of the opening scene are shot as though the viewer were the protagonist. For example, when he sees the body in the trees. The point of view changes towards the end of the scene, when the audience takes on the role of the protagonist. This gives the audience the feeling of both good and evil.
Question 1
Generic conventions of Horror films are shown as gory and low budget. When watching the horror film that we created, I feel that we have filled the conventions shown in horror films. Our film can go into different sub-genres such as Supernatural Horror Film and Psychological horror. We set our film late at night because night is stereotyped as being forbidding and mysterious. We also set the action in an empty field that makes the audience think they are lost or they have no escape. In our film we make the camera come close the actor’s face so the audience can see the emotions on his face.
When we were planning to create our film we wanted to keep the same type of title sequence that is shown in horror films. We wanted our institute logo to be shown first, followed by the director and co director titles. After this, the actor’s names appear.
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Movie opening
Sunday, 10 January 2010
Locations
To find what location would be suitable for our filming, I explored, the local farmers’ fields that are located near the school (about a 5 minute walk). We both wanted a dead wasteland that included an eerie looking tree. I found a possible location that has a willow tree, with twisted metal and large girders lying next to it. This could tell the audience that there had been human present in the past but that the area was now derelict.
Costumes
I did not create the costume document. However, I had input on deciding what costumes the male character should wear. In our film we only have one main character. I felt that the male character should wear casual clothes to help make the audience feel that was happens could happen to them. However, we could not decide what type of upper clothing the male character should wear. When we come to film, we will be in the middle of winter and therefore we wanted the male character to be wearing warm clothes. I said he should wear a jumper but Mat wanted him to wear a hoodie. We came to the conclusion that the male character should wear a hoodie because this film is being aimed to appeal to the younger viewer (15+). Please see the group blog for more information.
Casting and audience
When casting for our film, we held auditions so we could choose the best actor. Our film has a small script but a lot of stage directions. So, we asked the actors to play the opening of our film that had very few in it. We wanted to look out for the actor who showed the best emotion and body language. We gave each actor 20 seconds to show us his or her best performance. Mat and myself both agreed that Tayo was the best actor by far.
Similar media works
As a team, we created a PowerPoint slide show that looked into similar media work that was related to our genre, which was horror. We took it in turns in creating each slide. To see the slides that I created, please see the PowerPoint in the bottom right hand side of the slides - my name should be shown (“Matt Thomas”).
Target audience
To see who our target audience is for our film, I researched to find the right age group who would get the most enjoyment from it. We analysed our research to determine what was the correct age group for our film and what rating we should give it. We both decided that the film would be rated at 15. I created a questionnaire that I asked twenty people within our target audience age range to fill out. This was very useful information because we have backup on our research.
Storyboard
When creating the storyboard, both Mat Bigg and I worked together. We decided that I would mainly do the drawing on the storyboard. We worked together discussing what each shot should consist off. We changed the ideas used for the opening of our film a lot while we where creating it. We jointly discussed our ideas and I was pleased that I had many of my shots placed in our film. I wanted the male character to sit up from a laying position and to then have his face fill the screen. Please see the storyboard that is on our group blog.
Initial ideas
To create our film we needed ideas. We created a mind map on Word containing our ideas. We both had different ideas for what we should create. Consequently, we found it hard to decide what idea we should use. My idea was involved someone waking up in the middle of nowhere and seeing a beam of light. The male character runs towards the light and then the viewer is given the feeling that something dramatic happens. The viewer doesn’t see what happens. Matt and I combined our ideas, which we considered created a scary story line.
Sunday, 22 November 2009
The Shining Remake
To practice creating a horror film, my group attempted to recreate the hallway scene from the cult horror film "The Shining".
On watching our final film, I felt the end result came out very well. From doing this, my knowledge of media has widened enabling me to understand camera angles, filming techniques and editing techniques. I will take this together with what I have previously learnt to apply to the opening scene of the horror film that I will be creating. From doing this remake, I also found problems that I will look out for when making our horror opening. The main problem that I will look out for is the audio. When filming our remake we filmed it inside a school corridor, with classes taking place. We found we picked up background noise from the classes that made the main audio hard to hear.
Thursday, 12 November 2009
Mise-En-Scene: The Shining (1980)
I watched an extract from the film and analysed the mise-en-scene. At the start of the clip the audience hears extra-diegetic sound of wind. Wind sound denotes the scene as being spooky and eerie to the viewer. The first shot of the clip is a mid shot of a man talking. Throughout this clip the camera does not move making the audience pay full attention to what is being said.
When the audience first sees the male character, he is wearing a blue shirt underneath a red jacket. The red jacket denotes the sign of blood, death and hell to the viewer. This could also tell the viewer that he may have been planning to go out side. The blue colour of the shirt makes the red fabric of the jacket stand out because the colours clash together. In doing this, Kubrick has led the viewer to believe that this could be a bad character.
The lighting in the scene is shown as low, dim and dark giving the impression of menace and fear. Around the male character are shadows. The closed door is illuminated by the lamp, making it lighter than the other objects in the shot. Consequently, when the male character is shown standing in front of the door, his shadow creates a dark and menacing silhouette. The lighting looks realistic; the lighting angle giving the impression that the room is being lit by a lamp.
In the first scene the male character uses large facial expressions to demonstrate his feelings, almost looking like an actor from the silent movies. He uses exaggerated eye brow movement to show the emotions of the character. He does not move his body, just his face. His eyes never leave the door, giving the impression that he his watching the female character behind the closed the door. The male character uses the well know story of the Three Little Pigs to terrorise the female character. He uses a deep voice that is very quite and soft at the begging of the shot but then becomes louder as the scene progresses. His voice and facial expression give this fairy tale a very sinister feeling. The role is completely believable.
The second shot is of the female character that is in the bathroom. The bathroom is a small place but is shown as being very bright. The female character is wearing light coloured clothing to give the impression to the audience of her innocence. The woman is shown to be very pale in the face demonstrating how scared she is of the male character.
The lighting in the bathroom is very even and there are no bold shadows in the location. It is a stark, bright light in comparison to the lighting used in the previous scene. The cold effect of the light and the expression on her face tells the audience that she is terrified. The lighting looks realistic throughout the shot.
The viewer hears very little sound from the woman. The only diegetic sound is of the knife being grabbed from the bathroom sink. The extra diegetic sound of the music becomes very eerie, making the viewer feel anxious. The sound used plays a big role in the scene because it builds tension and atmosphere.
Camera angles play a major part in this shot because they show the fear in the woman. The camera tracks the left hand throughout the shot. Her left hand is in the centre of the scene the whole time. This use of camera angle allows the audience to clearly see the woman use her left hand to snatch the knife from the sink. It uses eye line match between the shots of the male character and the female character on either side of the door.
This bathroom is a very small and confined space. This makes the viewer feel small and trapped by the sound of the man ranting the other side of the door. This scene could have been filmed in a real location as the set used was very realistic.
The female character plays a very realistic role. Her facial expressions and body language make her appear to be terrified through the shot. When she grabs the knife, she is seen to move very fast and with force. The viewer can see the panic in her eyes as she makes a grab the knife. By the end of the shot you can feel her fear and panic as she buries her head into the corner of the wall as if trying to hide herself.
The third shot is a continuation of the first shot showing the male character. The music used in this shot is very unnatural with high and low pitches of musical instruments. The sound gets louder and louder reflecting his voice getting louder and louder. The male characters voice gets deeper in pitch as he talks. This makes the viewer feel small and weak in comparison the male character. When he first swings the axe into the wooden door you can hear the cracking of the wood. As the wood splinters you can hear the woman scream “nooo”. This is repeated another three times in this shot. The wood cracking makes the viewer think the woman has not got a chance of survival and it gives the viewer a feeling of being chased and trapped and of needing to escape – causing an adrenalin rush.
The costume used, along with the use of the prop of an axe, showed the male character dressed as a lumberjack. The costume looks like it has been worn for sometime as it looked un-ironed.
The lighting in this shot is from a bed side lamp making a soft light. The light given off from the bed side lamp is a reddish colour, lighting the walls with red light. This has an impact on the audience because red gives the impression of death, blood and hell. The back lighting from the lamp makes the male character look dark and sinister.
Camera angles are used very effectively in this shot. The first shot is of the male character facing the door; the audience can now see that the character has the intention of smashing through the door. A side shot of the character is used while the camera is panning with the axe as it is travelling through the air. When the axe hits the wood the camera shakes and comes to an abrupt stop to give the impression of how much force is being used to cut through the door.
The male characters’ body language is very aggressive and can be seen as being a psychotic. His eyes are very wide and when he is axing the door his expression makes him look like he is enjoying it. The viewer has no sympathy for the male character because he is being aggressive towards a woman. The role is very believable; the posture of the male character is seen as aiming an axe aggressively.
After the axing of the door we see the female character still in the corner of the bathroom crying for help. The sounds used throughout the shot give the atmosphere of extreme tension. The viewer can hear three multiple sounds. Firstly, the woman was screaming for help; secondly, the sound of wood cracking from the blows of the axe and finally, the music playing. The woman screaming makes the viewer feel scared and upset. The sounds and the images of the wood cracking play a big role in this shot. From the start of the shot the wood cracking is a thud, by the end the wood sounds like its tearing apart. The extra-diegetic sound of the music builds tension in the clip. In doing this the viewer feels more scared about what’s happening.
The woman is evenly lit from one side, to create a more 3D look to the face, and thus making her emotions clearer to the viewer. The lighting is hard - there lots of hard edges in the scene.
The camera does not move at all in this shot which shows just the door and the woman in the frame. The female characters’ body language in the shot is terrifying to watch. Her emotions are very realistic. You can see so much fear in her eyes while she is screaming as the axe smashes through the wood next to her.
In the last shot we return to the male character. After the male character has made the hole in the door, beams of light from the bathroom shine through and this gives a feeling no hope for the woman. Although looking tired the male character walks up to the door. The next shot is in the bathroom where the female character is. The camera does a close up shot of the mans face poking through the hole in the door, his face being illuminated by the brightness of the lighting in the bathroom. As he says his line a close up shot of his facial expressions are seen as terrifying. Although we cannot see the woman in the corner, the viewer is given the sense that he is looking at her by his use of expression and eye movement. The camera does a close up of the male character putting his hand into the bathroom to open the door. As he does so, the female character uses the knife she had grabbed to cut his hand. A great tension was created by the careful use of lighting, camera angle and music, making the viewer anticipate a major injury. Although the audience had been made to expect a deep cut, the injury was very small.
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Preliminary Task Evaluation
I believe that the film that our team produced demonstrates good continuity throughout the piece. The continuity worked well because we managed to create an effect of smoothness between shots. One particular sequence which I feel particularly demonstrates where continuity worked very well was at 0.10 when the wallet was passed along the desk. This had been mainly difficult to achieve because we had to edit at just an exact point so there was a smooth transition between the master shot and cut away shot. We experienced this problem throughout the whole film but mainly in the closing scenes. The final scene was filmed twice because the actor got his lines muddled. As a team, we had to decide upon a certain point where the two takes looked identical. We finally made it appear to be one continuous scene through the process of precise matching.
2,
We filmed each shot twice; once as a wide angle shot and then again with close ups of the actors to show expression. We jointly decided to do this in order to solve the problems caused by the room that we were working in being rather small and cramped. Another problem we encountered was when we needed a pan shot of one of the actors. We discovered that we could not film the close ups with the wide angle shot at the same time due to the room being small. We used the 180 – degree rule throughout the film. We made an invisible line that we created while filming. We used a low angle shot to give the impression of power in the actor at the begin scene. of he was the main However this was effect was lost once the main character sat down as both he and the other character became on the same eye-level.
3,
The group I was a part of worked very well together and each member of the group contributed ideas throughout the making of the film. After working with them I can now recognise each person’s strengths and understand what each one may have found hard to achieve. We supported each other throughout the project, teaching each other new things. I feel that my strongest achievement was the video editing. I have background knowledge of the software we used and do video editing for a hobby.
4,
If we were going to make this film again, I consider that we could add in more scenes to make the plot stronger. The film is very short however I feel that the addition of an introduction would improve this, enabling us to show the location and more information on the characters lives.
Another possibility is to work on the sound. The sound produced from having to use three cameras caused the continuity of the audio to be varied. Some shots echoed whilst others were very deep in base. We could over come this by using a shotgun microphone plugged into an audio recorder. We would then be able to sync the audio with the film. This would have taken longer to complete but would have created a better sound.
5,
As a team, we feel that we planned the film well. Although we used a script that was given to us to work from, we had to make some changes script, for as it was intended to be acted by a man and a woman. However, because our group included two male drama students, we decided to take advantage of this and to use them as the actors, and so changing the cast to two men.
6,
In our film we used transitions at the beginning and the end. We successfully used a fade in and fade out for the title of the film and the end credits. We experimented with different transitions to fit into our work but jointly felt that these spoilt the mood and effect of the film.
7,
I have learnt a lot about Adobe Premiere Elements 7.0, I had a large amount of knowledge of the software already because I use it at home on my short films. I showed my group how to use the software including the basics and short cuts. However, I have definitely widened my knowledge of the software by using the audio effects. I took the lead role in working on the audio in the group, making sure that I made good use of their opinions. As I have already discussed, it was hard to do because the sound quality changed from camera to camera. To overcome this problem I taught myself about how to use treble, bass and pitch effects. I felt satisfied with what we had managed to achieve.
8,
The process of making this short film has given me the opportunity to use different technologies. The cameras we used to create the film where made by Samsung and we found them to be easy to use. However, we needed to record the film three times because one of the cameras was faulty. We did not know this at first and thought that our problems were caused by the SD card. We put a new SD card into the camera and re-filmed but again it did not work. We deduced that the camera was defective and used a new camera to complete our work.