Evaluation Activity 7: Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

I will be comparing my Preliminary task and my Opening two minutes and talking about the camera work an editing.

Here is a shot called a close up, where the camera is close to a object or a subject, The first photograph is of a close up shot from my preliminary task, and the second photograph is of a close up shot from my opening two minutes. as you can see the camera work has vastly improved, instead of being plain and flat in the first photograph the second photograph with the remote almost seems 3 Dimensional making it seem that the remote is popping out of the screen at the audience.

These shots are called match-on-action where one shot matches the shot before it, for example; opening a door and then closing it behind you. the first set of photos shows myself in my preliminary task with a close up shot of the door closing and a full length shot in the second photo of me closing the door behind me, thus being match on action. the second set of photos are from my opening 2 minutes, where george gets up to turn the tv off, and then goes to a shot of a close up of george trying to turn the tv off, matching the action he was just about to do. the preliminary task match on action was good but the opening 2 minutes was better than expected, its not the usual door match on action its better than that, its using different objects and subjects.

For the preliminary task we had little dialogue  we had words such as 'So', But for our opening 2 minutes we had no dialogue what so ever, which fits in with the genre of horror leaving the audience in suspense.

the editing has changed for the better, For the preliminary task all we had for editing was jump cuts, where the shot cuts straight away to the next shot. the opening 2 minutes editing is much better, we added special effects while editing, apart from the fast paced jump cuts in the fighting scenes, we used an effect at some points called a crash zoom effect, where you move the camera towards the subject while zooming out giving a warped and wavy effect, the other way of doing a crash zoom effect is by moving away from the subject while zooming in, giving a reversed crash zoom effect which i would like to use in the future.

Evaluation Activity 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

By using a nikon D3100 14 megapixel, 1080p HD camera we found out that using a high quality camera means that we were able to shoot in high defenition making our film opening clear, crisp and a making it to a high quality standard result.  By using this camera i have learnt that using a high quality camera means that i will get the best result when filming, i now know how to work and use a professional camera within my own home. 
the top four pictures is of the people in my group. George, Jasmine, myself and Hannah are trying out the Nikon D31000.

We then edited using Imovie, it was only the second time i had used the editing software so i was alright using it, we used the software on a AppleMac- which im not used to because i have always worked on a laptop with windows, so using something that is completely foreign to me was difficult at first but getting used to it was easy and with the help of Hannah i was able to breeze through editing.


Using garageband was easy, selecting the instruments to use was quick and putting the whole piece together was simple.

The use of youtube was very handy throughout my blogging process, i was able to Embed videos onto my blog so that i can analyse clips from movies and take clips.
I used youtube to upload my preliminary task and my opening 2 minutes online. youtube is a good source to upload too, this being because mostly everyone can see it. the annotation tool was also handy to use for my opening 2 minutes for evaluation task 5 where we had to add annotations throughout the opening commenting on mise en scene and comparing to other films.


Using Blogger as a blog source was a good choice to record everything about my media products online.
it has all the tools i need for my media. for example; letting me embed videos straight from youtube so that i can analyse them.

Evaluation Activity 5: How did you attract/adress your audience?

How did you attract/address your audience?

(You may have to pause at some points to read the annotations because they are quite fast, And its slightly out of sync, sorry!)

"

• The use of this distribution company shows that the genre is horror seeing as 'Twisted Pictures' are associated with  and distributed  such films as The Saw franchise, so using Twisted Pictures you automatically assume  that the film you're about to watch is a horror.
• The use of editing with this distribution by making it more pale and having a wavy effect relates to the opening and how the killer takes the victims to an alternate reality.
• The use of using a horror film making The character jump is a good reference to the genre of horror. we found that the less lighting we used the more effective it is making it look more like a generic horror film. 
• The use of loud noises suddenly rising from dead silence shows that by doing this it builds up tension and then suddenly making the audience jump. making them scared in the first few second of the film, basically preparing them for whats to come.
• Using a close up of the remote almost gives a 3 Dimensional effect, if the film was in 3D this part would most definitely be coming out of the screen.
• The use of having the actors and people working with the film being displayed on the bottom of the screen means that it is relating to generic horror films, for example; Scream had their credits rolling in their opening at the bottom.
• by making most of the rooms dark, it sets the setting to be scary and gloomy, making the audience wonder what is lurking in the shadows of the victims house.
• This shot is a good shot, by placing the camera inside a fridge means that not only can we see the character from a perspective that is normal in most films, but we get a sense of seeing the character from a different view, a view being from the fridge almost making it seem we are in the fridge.
• the use of using different camera shots is effective, for example, having alot of close up shots of the character doing certain things means that the audience can relate to the character, this can also be because the character is doing normal things that a normal person would do. ie, getting a glass of water. making the audience relate.
• for a split second, while the character is drinking the glass of water, we used a crash zoom effect, which means zooming out while movie the camera towards the person.
• Again making the surrounding setting dark shows that the film is linked to darkness which links to horror, which is our chosen genre, making it fit.
• This is where the music starts the music that we made on Garage band fits very well with the opening, it makes it seem eerie, creepy and scary, thus fitting in with the genre, this type of music is also similar to the soundtrack for the horror film Psycho.
• here is where we added loud footsteps, this being because the killer is important and we wanted to draw the attention of the audience to whatever the killer does seeing as she is the main protagonist in our opening.
• here is where we see the victim being attacked by the killer, as you can see they are wearing dark costumes/clothing which blend with the dark and dull backdrop. we kept the noise level to a minimum and slowed it down to show how fast the fighting is, making it seem more real and believable.(but with the music very loud,creating an eerie atmosphere)
• Having this white part in our opening builds tension in the audience because having a plain setting/ screen usually means that something is about to happen, and that it is preparing them for whats about to happen.
• Panning down to another place slowly and blurring at the same time gives the effect of someone opening their eyes and looking around for the first time, the lighting is now lighter and the time of day is now daytime; referring to the synopsis of the rest of the film where our killer takes their victim to another world/ an alternate reality.
• The victim is now in the alternate reality, this relates to the film Silent Hill where the main character Alessa takes people to an alternate reality where there is no escape, We also used a special effect called crash zoom which is shown between 1:38-1:40, where we moved the camera towards the character while zooming out, creating the effect.
• Now the Action movie-style music comes in, the killer is now attacking the victim, we thought it would be appropriate to use fast pace music that we created in garageband  doing this gives the audience a feel of adrenaline pumping through them while the fight is going on leaving them to wonder who is about to win or die.
• The unique selling point for this opening would be the use of the crash oom effect and how we used it quite frequently throughout the opening.
• The lighting is very bright thus referring to the world being different to the other one, the other world was at night, it was also gloomy and dark. this new world seems to be daytime, light and bright. which contradicts with itself by showing that the light world is where all the dark and twisted things happen.
• The characters fighting show that not only does this film relate to the horror genre it also relates to the action genre, mostly the chosen genre was horror, but somehow we slipped in a little action. 
• this can differ to some horror films because usually right before the killer kills the victim the screen goes black and you hear a scream, this kind of scene is what we tried to stray away from, so we then made our own cliche horror move by blurring instead of going straight to black.
• The victim now loses is life, we show this by having the killer do an almost 'slit throat' action, to make this more believable we added a blur at the end to show that his life is slipping away from him.
• but we did add a thud making it seem that the victim fell from a high level and landed on something very hard.
• this shot is really effective, by having the camera below the killer, shows that the killer has power and dominance over their victims and that they are below the killer.
• This part shows the victim to be truly dead. this is shown because of the fake blood that we used, this part is something that is used alot in horror films, where they show the victim dead after all the dramatic parts in a peaceful state- while looking/ being dead, and also using fake blood out of watered down paint to give the blood puddle effect.
• doing this will attract the right audience because once they know that there will be blood, the gore loving people will want to watch the film.
• The title then brings the whole piece together, 'no sympathy for the dead' could mean that the victims of the killer have done wrong in their lives. The use of font and colour of the title is simple and minimal, relating to such films like: Scream and The Awakening. the eerie music then picks up again just for the title creating a scary atmosphere for the audience.

"

Evaluation Activity 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The Target audience for my opening 2 minutes would be young adults.

The kind of taste in movies they would have might be quite different, the female might have an interest in action films and superhero films and the male might have an interest in comedys and rom-coms, but the both might have something in common, the both might like horror films. The female stereotypes of what interests she would have are; She would shop at shops like TopShop or Urban outfitters, She would listen to music such as rihanna and One Direction, And she would watch TV shows such as 90210 and The Vampire Diaries(this is just sterotyping).

The male stereotypes of what intrestes he might have are as followed; He would shop at shops such as TopMan and Game. He would listen to such music like Muse and Nirvana. He would also watch Tv shows like Top gear and Whos line is it anyway(Again this is just sterotyping).

They would both watch my film because it applies to both gender roles and their interests.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evaluation Activity 3: what kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

what kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Script:

Abbie(Me):  The production company that we chose to use was twisted pictures.

by using twisted pictures as our production company and logo means that the audience can associate the film with other films that twisted pictures are involved in such as the saw franchise. 

a production company essentially helps to create the film, it assists in the budgeting, scripting, casting and more. 

an idea for a distributor would be lionsgate, seeing as they have worked with the production company twisted pictures on many films. 

The money for my film would have come from the production company, if they liked the idea of the film enough they would pursue on making the idea of the film become a reality. or it could come from a partner or a private investor interested. it would be highly unlikely if a major company or a private investor would fund the movie because it is very low budget, we would have to get funded by a company, for example, how somers town was funded by eurostar.

the various people are named in the titles because those are the people associated with the film, the most important names would come first, the actors who are a big part of a structure of a film, without them it wouldn't work. secondly the directors/producers and anyone who helped would come after. this is reflected in my opening because of the way the names are ordered, actors first and so on.

the film is similar to the film paranormal activity, it was made with a little budget, but still made it big at the box office making over 19 million dollars. i think that with a little budget our film would do well at the box office. 

Feedback

R&P = 14
Production = 32
Evaluation = 6

Total = 52 D

Targets:
Complete evaluation activities
Audience profiling post - ensure you explain how you intend to appeal to the target audience in your opening 2 minutes.

Evaluation Activity 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

key character- George.

 

This key character relates to the characters at the beginning of the scream franchises.

 For example:

Casey (Drew Barrymore) Scream.

Sherrie & Trudie (Lucy Hale & Shenae Grimes) Scream 4.

 

The key character relates to these characters from the scream films because of how the all die in the opening, They are all home alone and vunerable.  They also fit into the social group of teenagers,and are similar in terms of roles and costumes. they all play the helpless character who is about to get murdered. their costumes are similar and different, they are all wearing laid back clothing that normal teenagers wear, except george who is wearing male clothing.

The main difference is that we didnt use a phone or a phone call in our opening.

The killer in the opening relates to Alessa from Silent hill, this is because both are creepy. Both characters have supernatural abilities that they use in unpleasent ways to kill their victims, they relate because they pull their victims in to scary aleternate and warped realities. the only difference is that Alessa from silent hill in the end protects her mother at the end of the film, unlike the killer in my opemning two minutes where she never uses her abilities and powers for good and only uses them for evil and her own gain.



Evaluation Activity 1:In what ways does your media product use , develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In what ways does your media product use , develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Production company.

 

Using Twisted pictures as a distribution is a form of real media products because many horror films use twisted pictures as a production at the beginning of the film, for example the SAW franchise uses.

The Title of the film.

In my opinion this is a typical opening title of a horror film, plain white text on a black background is mostly used for simplicity in horror films, for example;

 

So by making the title of the film look like this, we are following in some footsteps of some major horror films just like V/H/S, Sream and The Awakening. But just doing this plain old title isnt very interesting, lets be honest plain old white text on a black background is abit boring, but sometimes boring can be just right, for example my opening 2 minutes is full of action and murder, so having a plain title balances it all out.

Setting/location

The settings and locations are similar to real media products, this is because some horror films use dark and empty streets or mild-gloomy foggy places as settings, this creates a gloomy and scary feel while watching. For example:

This picture is of a street scene in Silent Hill, The setting is foggy to create a feel of suspense, making you wonder what could be lurking in it. It realtes to one of our locations because it was a cloudy day while filming, giving a sense of fog, the colours are almost similar, they are washed out and bland, giving the feel of being in another world, which you are when the main killer in our opening takes the victim to another world/realm, which also relates to Silent hill because once you're in Silent hill you're in a different world.

Costumes.

The costumes that we used for my opening 2 minutes are pretty typical cliché, george is wearing clothes that represent a teenager pretty well, a jumper and jeans.

This picture is of a character from the movie Scream. as you can see he is wearing a casual jumper, and seeing as george is in his casual clothing it can relate to the film in a dress sense. 

My character will be wearing dark clothes, to blend in with the dark and to become more scary.

what my costume is like relates to the main character from the film The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, which is basically a girl biker outfit, with skinny jeans, a hoodie and a leather jacket, wearing these sort of clothing gives a sense that the villain is bad-ass and has a good sense of style!

Camera work

 The camera work for this scene isn't a very typical shot that is used in common horror films, this shot consisted of putting the camera in the fridge on a self timer, pressing the timer and then recording, which was George opening up the fridge to look inside, which was a medium shot and a close up (the medium shot is when he first opens the fridge and the close up is when he looks in the fridge with his face being very close to the camera)

Props.

 the props that we used are typical, you can find them in most movies, if someone is watching TV they are obviously going to be using a remote to turn it on and off (just like we did) and if someone in the movie is thirsty or if they're in their kitchen im pretty sure a glass with be visible to sight. conventional-what people actually do

 Editing.

 the editing in the opening is pretty typical, from fading to black to jump cuts, most horror films use a fading/fading black transition, this is because the more space between each thing the more suspense it creates, wondering whats going to happen next, and in that fragment of a second in the transition you can think or guess whats about to happen.

Title Font and Style.

the title font we used is pretty typical, plain white text on a black background is mostly used for simplicity in horror films.( for this screenshot, read back to The Title of the film) 

Story and how the opening sets it up.

 the opening sets up the story pretty well, it shows a sneak peek of whats to come, by showing what the killer actually does, by doing this it builds up to the main story, which is a killer taking people to an alternate universe and killing them, this means the structure is put together well, because usually in a horror film the opening is where a teenager/young adult is home alone watching a horror film, and then later on is killed, for example; Scream, where drew barrymore plays a young woman who is murdered by the killer Ghost face, which leads up to the phychotic murders in the movie.

Genre and how the opening sets it up.

the opening sets up the genre pretty well, by killing off a young adult shows that we followed the cliche of horror films where someone is killed off in the opening. the use of using a horror film being shown in our opning (scream 4) is an obvious point in the film being a horror, and one main point that our opening sets it up to be a horror is the use of fake blood by the victims head to show that he has been killed, thus reffering to horror.

How characters are introduced.

 the first character introduced, the victim, is introduced by him falling asleep watching a horror film and is then later on woken up by someone who is being murderd in the film, this is showing foreshadowing the character because later on he is killed. The second character is introduced, the killer, by watching the victims house in an earie way, then walking towards the victims house with very loud footsteps.

special effects.

the special effects that we used were very simple, we did a effect called a stabelizer crash zoom effect, which means walking towards the subject while zooming out, by doing this crash zoom effect it gave a really cool feel to the opening making it seem believable that the killer actually took the victim to an alternate universe.



 

Opening 2 minutes first Draft

Opening 2 minutes.

Feedback

Research and Planning: Level 3 13/20
Time management is good
Proficient organisation of actors, locations, costumes and props
Proficient research into similar products and a potential target audience.
There is a good level of care in the presentation of the research and planning

To progress to level 4, make sure you have explained how your research impacted your decisions (for example in your audience profile posts, explain how you intend to address the potential target audience in your opening 2 minutes)
Work on scripting and a storyboard in vital

Film Diary

 

Day One:
28/1/2013

Filming at hannahs house.

Firstly we started to film our opening 2 minutes, in a non chronological order, because one of us was absent and was unable to film certain scenes.

We started to film the fight scene, where i (Dressed in all black with a hood, so you couldnt see my face) Kick george (who is wearing casual clothes) into a door and then strangle him up towards the ceiling. The part where i kicked george was tricky to film because i had to make it look realistic without hurting him, we filmed that part in various ways and in various shots, such as; a low angle shot and a medium shot.
We then filmed the part where i have my hands around georges neck lifting him up against the door, this was tricky because george is taller than me so we had to make george crouch down a bit to make him look smaller. Again, we did this scene in various shots such as close ups of my hand around his neck, And to make it more effective,we had george balance on two chairs with his hands so that his legs dangled,but while doing this we had myself stand in front of him so that we had good continuity.
After this scene we filmed the next part where George gets out some keys from his pocket and keys my face. for the shot where george fumbles around in his pocket for his keys we did a close up shot, and then a long range shot for when he actually keys my face.
Then we did a shot where i fell backwards holding my face because i am hurt.
We then filmed the first scene that will appear in our opening, which is where george is half asleep while a horror film is playing, during the horror film there is a loud and violent which wakes up george and he tries to turn off the tv, these shots at first are close ups and medium shots.
 

 

Animatic of Opening.

Opening 2 mins Script.

Sound Effect []-camera movement ()-stage directions {}-other directions not involving a character

No Sympathy for the Dead

 

[George sits in an arm chair; the TV is on and of a violent film]

George: *gasps*

(He sits up and composes himself)

*breaths heavily out*

(Slump’s back in his chair, He tries to turn the TV off)

*groans*

(He stands up, and moves towards the TV and throws himself to the floor)

*mumble*

“How to turn this thing off?”

(He rides his hand along the edges of the TV to turn it off, he turns presses the button)

Click Click Click

{TV scene is getting louder and quicker}

“Turn off….”

(Pressing the button numerous times He sits back up; gritting his teeth he crawls behind the TV)

“ piece of sh(TV switches off)”

{We see the image on the TV disappear}

(He lifts himself off the floor moves into the next room towards the kitchen)

[Living room is dimly lighted]

(He turns on the kitchen lights)

[Camera from inside the fridge films him]

(He glances through the fridge moving items, he settles on a drink)

[He moves toward the hallway so his face is up close with the camera]

(He appears suspicious, he goes upstairs)

*Creak* (staircase)

[Camera follows him upstairs past his sister bedroom, the light is on]

(He goes to the bathroom and brushes his teeth; there is no toothpaste so he goes through the shelves, with no success he go to his sister)

Our house is falling apart seriously, first the TV no

(He stops talking and goes to back out the room unaware that she is dead)

[The camera shows an over the shoulder shot of the body showing George in the back ground]

(He turns of her light)

Or not

(He goes back to the bathroom)

{The tap is dripping}

[Facing him as if the camera is the mirror]

(He walks out and goes to his room)

[Shows him from the end of the corridor walking towards his room]

{Door creeks behind him}

Creek

(He gets changed into his P.J’s and turns the lights off; as he turns to walk towards his bed he can hear someone on the other side of the door)

{A shadow under door}

(He presses his ear up to the door, then pulls the door open)

[From the end on the corridor at a high-angel shot making him look venerable]

* Laughs at himself *

(he walks towards the bed and is dragged, when he reaches the step he crawls back but is yet again dragged back)

(He sits up and is kicked backwards so he falls backwards so he’s leaning on the door)

[Over the shoulder shot]

(Abbie grabs George by the neck and lifts him up; George grabs her hands in attempt to release himself)

(George scratches Abbie’s faces, to which she drops him)

Abbie: * scream *

(Abbie grabs her face)

[George crawl out his bedroom and escapes down the hall]

(George throws boxes on the floor to block the path)

[George is now in his sister’s room, its dark so you cannot see anything]

George: * panting *

(George turns on the light, he has his back to the door, and he takes a moment to breath, and then quickly moves to wake up his sister)

George: you need to wake up there someone

(He rolls her body towards him to find out she’s dead, he falls back in shock)

* Abbie’s foots steps show she’s getting closer *

(George wipes his face to wake himself up and runs to the books case to retrieve a torch)

George: ok, just move.

(George exits the room and onto the roof)

{Lighting from room lights up the roof, its windy}

(After closing the window George backs away from the window and realizes he will have to get off the roof)

[Panning, following George pacing back and forth contemplating jumping off the roof whilst muttering to himself]

George: no, I’m not doing it, no, no

[George paces towards the camera into a close up]

(he’s on the floor lowering himself down muttering to himself)

[close up on Abbie’s hand grabbing Georges leg]

[showing George from the side]

(George gets dragged off the roof)

sounds of George bodying falling off the roof

{everything goes silent, apart from the sounds of the wind and the tree’s}

(Abbie’s exit)