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