Location Scouting

This is the area that we filmed on, we scouted the area first to see where we were going to film. This  is because it would move along the process of the filming alot quicker and it helps us plan the shots to more detail to make sure the shots all make sense.

Media Evaluation

Media Evaluation

Ths is the written evaluation that we completed from the question given in the video, everybody in the group did their own individual written evaluation to show that everyone knew what to do, the written evaluation is used because it shows more detail than the video and gives a better understanding of what we were trying to achieve in the film opening, also there is no time limit to how long the answer was like the video so there is much more detail.

Media Product Video Evaluation

This is the video evaluation that we used to explain what our film opening was about, we did this by filming ourselves answering the questions given to show that we know what we were filming through out the whole time. This tells that we had planned everything out and that we knew how to use the equipment and we know what the audience is for our product.

Media Product Audience Review

This is the audience review of our film opening, this is what a person who watched our film thought when we asked questions about it, the person is withion the age group that we have made the film for so we can see if we have achieved that goal and the person is answering our questions to see if the film opening was made to a good standard or not.

Media Product, Media Film Opening Wrong Direction

Now the final product of our film opening is finished we have improved the sound quality and changed some of the shots around to make the storyline better and more clear to the viewers. In the draft the scene of Dean being lost was too quick and couldn't be recognised properly so we fixed this with the matter of placing a phone on the floor to be found and then saying it was Deans.

Media film opening production draft

Wrong Direction: Media film Opening Draft



This is the film opening draft, this is the first thing that we came up with and have posted it so that we can compare it with the final product to show how we have improved the shots and even the storyline.
Showing the comparison between the two videos shows the improvements we have made.

Animatic video

Animatic for our movie opening



This is an animatic that our group has created from scanning images from our drawn up story boards onto a computer then improving on them making them move by using 'paint', when we were creating the animatic we pieced all of the images together using 'windows movie maker', using this we were able to edit the amount of time that each image spent on the screen and then add effects to each one to make the animatic.

Questionnaire results

Using this question we have found out that there are three main types of settings that people like to see in a horror film we know it is this three because no one answered with the 'other' option, so if we were to make a horror film perhaps one of these settings will be good to ensure that it will be a success.

From this question we can determine what kind of horror film people like or whether or not they actually like them, 1 person answered with 'none' but it would not stop us from creating a horror film because the rest of them gave an answer to the question and then we would base our horror film around this idea.

Using this question we find out what genre is favoured, from this you can see that horror is tied with comedy with the most amount of people liking it, so from this it is easy to see that if we were to make a film using one of these genres then there is a chance of the film being a success.

This tells us what to focus on when presenting a film to an audience.

This question shows that the majority of people dislike the 'lack of story', with this information we know to prioritise a story is shown to make our film more popular with the horror audience.

Using this question we can tell that in a horror peopoe tend to focus more on the evil/villain character, now we know to focus on how he looks and acts.

This is a good question because using this we have found out what every one looks for in a horror film and using it would improve our production significantly.

Now that we know what the favorite type of killer is in a movie we use that to make our killer characters actions, basically creating our evil/villain character for us.

Now we can go all out in a horror film knowing that it will not affect the majority of people 9/10.

The ending in a film is important and must be good as it tells you whether people want the film to end or whether they want there to be more like it after, this was almost an equal vote but in the end most people prefer for the villain to be killed or taken away.

Animatic Diary Entry

Today when creating our animatic we had to finish off drawing our storyboards and then adding colour to them. We created five storyboard pages which all had to be scanned so that we could edit them in paint and then add them to windows movie maker. In paint we made the colour stand out more and made the outline for the characters. Using movie maker we can put one image after another to make it seem as if they are moving.

The good things that happened on the day were that we could get on with work eventually when we had the colours and other utensils.

The bad things on the day were that as soon as we got into the room the power was off in the room and none of the computers would come on and we could not get on with the work, another bad thing was that it took another thirty minutes after the hour that it took for the computers to come on, and finally because there were so many storyboard pages and so many things going on it took a while to do the drawings and to get every picture coloured in.

Preliminary

This is our preliminary video which we created to test our skills on using different camera angles and other camera uses. (e.g. zoom) We used a variety of different camera angles in the production with only two characters these characters are Ryan Rheeston and Lauren Powell, using the camera was Craig Fallows. When the preliminary was made all we had to do was edit it using the software final cut express. The best aspects of the preliminary were the camera angles because there were a large variety which showed our skills and knowledge of a camera and how to use it, examples of the camera angles were zoom and over the shoulder shot, we got both of the characters involved by going over the shoulder of both the characters.

The bad aspects of the preliminary were the sounds in the background of people and other noises outside, also in the act it lacked dialogue which meant that the storyline was hard to follow and it made the whole seem meaningless. There were plenty of things that could of been improved in the preliminary like the way everything was put together and the sounds in  the background could of been removed or there could of been another sound over the top of it, also before everything was recorded there could of been a script put together to add more dialogue to give a stronger structure for a storyline.

Prelimanary research

Continuity Editing: This is when one shot moves onto another will a smooth clean change, that is very unrecognisable to the audience, and doesn't create disorientation. One example of filming that does not do this is Discontinued filming, used in foreign films mostly, and shows the change of shot very clearly, causing somewhat confused to the narrative.
It includes two different categories of cutting; one is Temporal cutting, which connects shots together to support the narrative development. It may be linear progression or not, and can include flashbacks and flash forwards, these are both used to establish the progression of time.
The other category is Spatial cutting, which creates unified space through editing the shots from different angles and framing. This includes things such as shot/reverse shot, the Kuleshov effect, and parallel editing.

Spatial Editing: This is the act of placing the shot of one location, with a shot from another, and using them to construct film narrative in any imaginable way.
Within this form of editing, there is the 180 degree rule, which states that, in the 360 degree radius of the set, when filming direction interaction between 2 characters, that all cameras and camera movement mist be on one side of the set only, covering '180 degrees'. Within this side of the set, there is two cameras, one behind each character that will film the opposite characters reactions, and can be edited to make a short interaction/conversation. This is done to prevent disorientation of the audience, and make the scene look natural. Another form of editing that is used in Spatial editing is the shot/reverse shot, which is a little similar to the 180 degree rule, as two cameras are placed behind each characters that are having a conversation, and the whole conversation is filmed over the shoulder, but is kept stationary.
The last form of editing that is used in Spatial editing is the Match on Action shot, which is when an action shot is filmed, possibly a character reading a book. And the shot is cut half way through the action, and another filmed shot is placed directly after this cut, showing the certain action carried on, but in a different shot, often zoomed in.

I think that continuity editing is important when filming because it is essential that the transition between shots is as smooth as possible to ensure that the audience has maximum enjoyment form the film and that no attention is drawn to the change in shot.

Developed Treatment

The setting for our groups horror film will be a large patch of woods, the reason the woods are a good idea for a horror is because anything could live in there and who knows how large it is while you're in there. The woods that we are filming in will be described as dark, enclosed and isolated from any kind of help. The dark will help our film because it is the natural lighting for a horror film and it creates tension.

Little bit of lightdark

The protagonist of our group will be the main character, however there will be some side characters such as a sidekick the character who helps the hero, a donor this is a character who helps the hero by giving him something whether it is an object or just a piece of advise that will help him later on, in our film the donor will be one of the heroes friends who sacrifice themselves to help him out and ensure that he survives, there will also be a prize for the hero at the end and this is just the simple prize of life, then the final character is the villain who always conflicts with the hero. The adversary/adversaries are a group of physically deformed people who were removed from society because of their differences and forced to live in an isolated area a large distance away from any other people and because of this they have had to revert back to animal instincts to survive the environment where they live. The protagonist is the complete opposite of the adversary where as they do anything to survive he takes life for granted.

HeroVillain

There are three theories to our groups film these are; binary opposition, character types and the equilibrium theory. First of all the binary opposition is how the two characters are different in our production the idea is based around regular vs irregular, from this there is a clear opposition between the two. Second there are the character types which are not just the hero and villain there are a variety of characters that each have their own roles in the production, these have already been mentioned in the previous paragraph, but to sum up they are the hero, villain, donor, sidekick and a prize. Finally there are three parts to the equilibrium theory which consist of equilibrium, disequilibrium and a new state of equilibrium. Equilibrium is how the character starts off in the film and how we see the character personality wise, in our film the hero will start off as an easy going character who likes to play the joker in the group, so he has many likeable traits and many downfalls to his character. The disequilibrium is what happens for the character to suddenly change his/her personality drastically, in our production it is a case of displacement and fear which drives the main character to start taking things seriously and figure out what is really going on, this horrible case is the hero and colleagues being lead completely astray which presents a challenge on finding the way back. Last of all the new state of equilibrium is how the heroes personality changes to adapt to the situation that he is presented with, which in this case means not taking life for granted any more and going from being harmless to doing what's necessary to live.

Design Decisions

Costumes
In horror films the costumes are important as they show what type of characters they are, that's why in our film opening we are using costumes that best describe how the both the adversary and the protagonist live their lifestyles. The adversary/adversaries clothing will be kind of old fashioned and the clothing will age as well, so they will appear as tattered and ruined and maybe too small or large for the character as if they were hand me downs. The Protagonists' clothing will be more up to date and will gradually change through out the rest of the film.

Lighting
In our film the setting will asisst how the lighting comes through, our film is set in the woods where the trees will block light and produce some natural low key lighting which will emphasise the dark atmosphere of the film. With low key lighting there is a contrast between the light and dark where most of the area will be extremely dark and then there will be a light that pokes through highlighting the character.

Mis-en-scene
Mis-en-scene is how the setting is used to emphasise the genre of a film and we are using an area that produces many different lighting shapes that can confuse the audience on where the characters are hiding because of how shadows are bouncing around. The woods are an ideal area for horror because anything could be lurking around in them whether it's animals or psychopathic people who make a home out of the woods.

Props
Props are ideal for a horror movie because they are mostly weapons and the more unique of a prop the scarier the character holding it will appear. The weapon prop is to show how dangerous the character is and this proves that he can cause some harm and this scares the audience a little more, a unique weapon that will be used in our film will be a pair of shears because it is original and no one would expect to see them as a murdering weapon.

Narrative Theories Research

Narrative is the telling of a story, which is important because it tells the audience what exactly is going on throughout the story, a narrative can be found describing fictional or non-fictional events. In media terms, narrative is the coherence/organisation given to a series of facts. The human mind needs narrative to make sense of things. We connect events and make interpretations based on those connections. In everything we seek a beginning, a middle and an end. We understand and construct meaning using our experience of reality and of previous texts. Each text becomes part of the previous and the next through its relationship with the audience.
To find more about this check here; http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/alevkeyconcepts/alevelkeycon.php?pageID=narrative

There are three different parts of the first narrative theory these are; equilibrium, disequilibrium and a new state of equilibrium. These are the stages that a character go through, the first equilibrium is what the character or characters start off as, the next disequilibrium is what drastically goes wrong for the character to begin to start changing his ways and the third theory a new state of equilibrium is how the character has changed. For example a film like 'Transporter 2' the character begins as a basic chauffeur working for a rich family and he is treated like the family by the mother and child, the second part then kicks in where the child that he is chaperoning for is kidnapped under his watch, this starts to bring in emotions in to the character which then allows the last part to kick in which is the new state of equilibrium, the character because of the kidnapping now becomes a unstoppable force hunting for the kidnappers, this is a complete change of character. After the new state of equilibrium the character may sometimes return back to how they used to be, however sometimes it is a large change and it now becomes their type of personality and the third part becomes the first part.

When creating an opening scene for a film I believe that the first theory must be used this tells us what the characters personality is like at the beginning of the film, this gives us a brief description or narrative about whether the character is a hero or a villain. The best theory is equilibrium because it is good for an opening where as the other theories tend to kick in over short period of time through out the movie, this brings us to the storyline of the film as it is usually determined by these theories.

Bibliography
Information for the first paragraph from http://www.mediaknowall.com/

Filmography
Transporter 2      (2005)     Director: Louis Leterrier

Alien Movie - Final Cut Production

This is the final cut of our project where we filmed ourselves in front of a blue screen reporting on a event that will later on be edited into the video because of the blue screen, what we were reporting about was the alien spaceship hovering above the white house and then we would have to time the explosion and react as if it was actually behind us even though there was only a blue screen behind us,l we encountered a problem with this but this is our final cut, while trying to convert the film the final few seconds were missing and this explains the lack of movement whilst the explosion is happening, this is because we had to edit the explosion to fit that anyway.

Final cut introduction

In our group we have recorded a scene with a blue screen behind us with a video of a scene from the movie independance day. The scene was 29 seconds long and it the majority of the scene was frozen so that the picture of the white house would remain in the background for a certain amount of time that we feel that we can introduce what is happening behind us. We recorded a final cut of the scene that we had done, the scene had consisted of me (Ryan Rheeston) and Cezary, it was a basic scene with a reporter interviewing a protestor about the aliens in front of the white house before the huge explosion had happened that was caused by the giant alien spaceship that hovered above it.

To make our final cut we can edit it so that everything pieces together properly. The recording the video was the easy part of the task because we only had to choose our roles for the final cut and we had to prepare a script that we could say within the 25 seconds before the explosion takes place and although we reacted to the explosion we had to time our reactions properly because we could not look behind us and see the what was happening. Using the camera for our group was Craig Fallows.

Now that we have recorded the final cut we now had to go onto the apple macs to use a software on there called 'final cut extended edition' using this we had to set up the name for our project set it up for rendering, but we could not do this because there was a problem with the file types of the videos. The file type that was recorded on the camera was not the right file type for the editing software.

Film Treament Draft

The main theme or idea of the film opening that my group is creating is horror, we have a different selection of conventions for our film these are; murder or cannibalism, insanity, disfigurement and displacement or being lost.

The main character of the opening will be the survivor, him and a few other friends will be the survivors for the beginning of the film, the majority of the people who begin in the group will be the characters who die to show the main theme of the movie opening, the survivor should be a believable character as he will be the one taking the lead and making most of the judgments to make the decisions throughout the few minutes of the opening, because of all of these actions he should be classed as a believable main character because he shows that he is in charge.

The characters goal in the film is to escape the area that they are lost in which in this case is a forest or woods, the reason why this is such a challenge is because of the murderers who are trying to stop them. The murderers are psychopathic because they have many things wrong with them, like the four conventions of the film, they are all murderers for the reason of cannibalism, they must kill and eat them for survival, they are known as inbreds  so they have major disfigurements and refuse to interact with people and this leads to the insanity of the characters because they enjoy what they do and are good at it.

Throughout the entire film the characters lives should all be at stake.

The characters of the film are all friends just taking a stroll through an area that they don't recognise, but they don't care because they are all just trying to have a laugh and enjoy themselves, but they will all be picked off until someone realises.

primary research task

Questionnaire- Horror

(Circle the answer)

1. What type of setting do you find most scary?
A. Graveyard  B. House   C. Abandoned area   D. Other
2. What is your favourite type of horror Film?
A. Slasher B. Haunting C. Psychological D. Crime/Mystery E. None

3. What is your favourite genre?

4. What is your favourite film in this genre and what draws you to it?
Favourite Film:
A. Advertisements B. Actors/Actresses C. Trailer

5. What do you most dislike about this genre?
A. Blood/Gore B. Lack of story C. Characters

6. What elements do you expect to witness in this genre?
A. Hero/Survivor B. Villain/Killer

7. What do you believe to be the best thing about horror movies?
A. Story line B. Blood/Gore C. Suspense D. Setting E. Acting

8. What is the best type of killer?

A. Mysterious    B. Public   C. Serial

9. Are you affected by horrors when you watch them?
A. Yes B. No

10. What do you expect to see at the end of a horror film?

A. The evil character is killed or taken away    B. The evil character gets away and continues what                                                                        he’s doing

                             

audience research

Audience research is important because without an audience to watch a film there is no need to make a film that will cost millions of dollars or pounds, because there will be no chance of it winning an award if the effort was not put in to find out what the most popular film genre is out there.

For audience research the people  are labeled,  they are labeled in the demographics table.
Grade- Class- Description
A- Upper middle- Higher managerial, administrative or professional. (Doctors/Lawyers)
B-Middle-Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional. (Teachers)
C1-Lower Middle- Supervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professional. (office/ Nurses)
C2- Skilled Working- Skilled manual workers. (White Collar)
D- Working- Semi-skilled and unskilled workers manual workers. (Blue Collar)
E- Lowest level of substance- Casual workers, unemployed, state pensioners, students.

Audience Theory
Two Step Flow Model
http://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/Levels%20of%20theories/macro/Two-Step%20Flow%20Theory.doc/

Bibliogarphy
www.utwente.nl

Mood Board

This is my mood board. This is based on our film explaining all four of the key concepts which are; Cannibalism, Disfigurement, Displacement and Insanity. They are all shown in the mood board separated into different sections.

Cannibalism is shown in the mood board in the bottom left hand corner, where you can see body parts spread out showing that they have been tore off people,also in the corner you can see two people gathered around a body picking at it, so this clearly shows the concept of cannibalism and if the pictures don't explain enough for you then the word 'cannibalism' is used as a sub-title for that section which draws you to look into how it is cannibalism. We have chosen cannibalism because it is scary the fact that people would be willing to kill other people then eat them, it is a good concept for horror.

Disfigurement is shown in the bottom right hand corner of the mood board where you see lots of different faces either clearly disfigured or hidden behind a mask, in the corner you see a person being murdered and he is surrounded by the disfigured faces which proves that they have a murderous feel to them. We have chosen disfigurement because some people being disfigured draws them closer to the point of murdering others so there for it is a good concept for horror.

Displacement is shown all along the top of the mood board page, with mostly images of lots of different places all different in looks showing that if a person was lost then there could be lots of places wher they could be, this makes someone feel as if they will never be found which then brings the genre into it (horror). There are also pictures of signs pointing in all directions showing choices and decisions, right or wrong which could lead to something drastic.

Finally the concept of insanity is seperated around the whole of the mood board, there is insanity in the left, right corner and in the middle. The reason for doing this is to show a mix up in the mood board to symbolize how an insane persons mind is mixed up. If you look in the bottom middle of the page you see a man on an operating table and then a person cutting the top of the head off. There are different types of insane people like the person on the left wearing lots of make-up which means that he wants people to see who he is, he wants to draw attention to himself, on the right there is a person wearing a mask which means that maybe he wants to remain hidden and doesn't want people to notice him. Most murderers do it because they mentally unstable and people worry when around someone who is insane because they worry when they are about to crack, thats why this is good concept for horror.

The main title is in the centre of the page which tells you what the main point of the film.