'How did you attract/ address your audience?' (Activity 5)

I believe there are many aspects of our film that are much similar to the opening scenes from the horror film 'Scream' Straight away when the film begins you hear a scream and the title of the film is displayed in red. This gives the viewer a clear indication that the film is going to be a horror. This is extremely silmilar to our film which also begins with our logo: C+H Productions (in red, black and white font)


Typical conventions of a horror film:


Sound - Unusually a sound track is not played at all in the opening sequence but builds up suspense and tension in the way and form of diegetic sound, which Scream does. However, this is a contrast to our film which has music played through majoity of the time. Throughout the opening sequence of Scream, the phone continues to ring. This creates a short but effective adrenaline rush for the viewer and predicts in a way the future of the film. We have also been able to create this through the use of loud banging noises, which alert our character to have a look around the house.


Mise-en-scene - Dark and typically scary all round. These are all seen in the opening sequence and all are very sterotypical of a horror. The rain and dark atmosphere gives off uncertainty of what may happen. It sets the scene and allows the audience to establish what genre of film it may be. The location a typical scary house. Very open plan and surrounded by windows to extenuate the horror and fear from the outside and bring it to life. In comparison to 'The Dark' it is simliar because we have also used dark settings, as well as a open plan form of house.


Editing - Editing within 'Scream' is slow paced to start with, then gradually building up to quick shots when the character is on the phone, or when locking up the house: building up tension. This is again similar to our film as we used simliar shots like the character checking the window etc. Easily creating suspence.

Like 'Scream' our film is also a horror and both appeal to the same type of audience. Most would consist of viewers seeking a thrill and not many who would be following a particular actor and actress or necessarily a director, but these workers would usually specialize in Horror when being part of these films. As we are an independent company and this is our first product we will only be appealing to the thrill seekers and Horror fans, but with a good distributer we should gain some more recognition and attract other whom may not of watched our film at first.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFCStOMqpfk

'Looking back at your preliminary tasks, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?' (Activity 7)

Looking back from our preliminary task we have learnt a lot. We learnt many practical skills like how to edit a sequence and match the continuity and this was of great help in our finial piece. As the preliminary task was really short we were able to make sure everything matched the action. These precise skills made us think harder in our final film, as we knew what we had to look for and make sure it worked. This help greatly when we needed to consider the 180-degree rule when our character was watching TV, if we cut back to this scene and the camera was on the other side with the TV and character swapped this would confuse the audience and potentially detract from our sequence. 

Two Shot

Extreme Close Up

Part of Match on Action

 Establishing Shot

'Who would be the audience for your media product?' (Activity 4)

The Target Audience for our film will be young adult males. We made a questionnaire to get a better idea of this audience and when surveyed; males preferred Horror, Thriller and Action genres of films, where as most females preferred Romantic and Realistic films. To add to the fact our film is based towards a male audience is that we are using a female character as our protagonist. This, although fits in with our stereotypes of a babysitter, also could have sex appeal for a male audience.

'How does your media product represent particular social groups?' (Activity 2)

Our character - The babysitter, can be compared to Casey Becker, from Scream. She is a young teenage girl who in the film recieves a taunting and threatening phone call, and is ordered to answer horror film trivia to save the life of her boyfriend. I believe she is a good comparison because she is the stereotypical portrayal of your average vunerable character. She is a hard working woman , and most of the time, they bth do not depend on others to influence thier decisions. However, she does go under your more modern female as she is also inquisitve, strong minded and independant. She also represents middle class as they live in a wealthy area, in a nice house and is slightly isolated from other communities.

'What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?' (Activity 3)

 I think a film company such as Working Title would be best to distribute my film. C+H Productions is an independent British film company whose main genre of film is Horror and Thriller. This is similar to the bases of how Working Title works. Working Titles are distributed by Universal and I believe this is the institute we would use to distribute our films. This is due to the fact that Universal are a film company who are renowned for producing Horror an Thriller films so our company would co-inside with their productivity already. Another reason why I believe they would be a great company to distribute our films as we are also a British company like Working Title who they already partnered with and we not pose much threat to their productivity as Working Title do not produce Horror or Thriller film, and when they have these have not been of good success. As Universal as a huge American institute so there would not be too much issue with money, however they would obviously not want to lose money but that is a decision only the company could make of distributing our films or not.

'What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?' (Activity 6)

We used a HD Camcorder to create our film similar to this one. It was good to use and had great sound but we found that the image quality looked good on the camera's screen, however, when it was blown up on the computer screen it looked quite fuzzy and there were some shadowing issues, for example when the babysitter walks along the lamp lit street

We had to use a tripod for all of the shots to keep the shot steady and well produced.

We used GarageBand to make the music of the film. Once I had found out how to use it properly, the actual creation of the tracks was easy and comfortable to use.

Like i have written, i used iMovie to create our whole film. Once I had used iMovie for the first time and had been shown how to use the different effects possible, I found it quite simple to use.

We began the editing of our film on iMovie using one of these Apple Mac's from at school. However, due to lack of time and organisation in lessons we decided to do editing on home computers as well. We did use this for the GarageBand and found it easy to work with.

Analysis of 'The Dark'

I am happy with the outcome of our opening title sequence to “The Dark”. Through a combination of sound, lighting, camera work, editing and mise-en-scene, which have all worked well together, we have created a good thriller/horror atmosphere. To get a realistic yet scary and surreal setting can be hard to convey to the audience, but I believe we have managed to do this through the majority of the film. However, at times I believe we could have done more things to improve our filming, lighting, or sound, I do not think this has effected how the audience views our film, and if we did make these changes I do not imagine our film would become any better or be enhanced in a huge way. 


Most aspects of our film is just how I imagined, which I believe fits the genre well but could have been improved at sometimes. This is mainly because there are not enough unique shots, more the usual standard filming. If we did include some shots, for example a Dutch tilt or a low angled, these scenes would probably become more memorable. I am also not so pleased with the resolution of some of the shots. These are mainly the outside shots where this is moisture in the air and this effect how the camera has focused. Also the lighting affected the picture, in future we could prevent this problem by using flood lights or shooting when it wasn't quite as dark. However I am pleased with the angles we did use and the close up shots worked well.


In terms of editing, we were quite brave in the fact that we used a jump cut from when the babysitter is walking down the stairs to then sitting in the living room watching TV. This is quite risky in terms of showing the audience what has happened but this still not to distract them. Unfortunately we were not able to use many shot reverse shots as when coming to edit we realised the door in shot in one side of the filming but open in the other as we filmed through it. This was unfortunate as we were unable to film these scenes again in the exact same condition so unable to perform this skill. However when the mother walks out the door we do show our ability of performing this edit as the door closes.


In my opinion, the sound within our film is good. We we able to create verisimilitude when the babysitter walks down the roads, and also sounds like the television help create this too. However there is definitely room for improvement. I am extremely pleased with the sounds used when our logo appears, as this is in direct timing with the flashes and adds to the thriller/horror genre of our film. However I believe the sounds used in our montage of ensuring her safety, by locking the doors and windows, I believe is a bit too upbeat to fit in with the genre. We realized when watching the film from start to finish to gain the whole feel of the film. Another sound in our film I am exceptionally pleased with is the screaming at the end of the film. I performed this, and I believe is great for the genre and timing in the film. Ending our film on this note and cutting to the title of the film, creates an extremely questionable and cliff-hanger ending for the audience leaving them wanting more.

Music Choices for 'The Dark'

Once completing editing and doing the final touches to our movie, we needed to decide which shots we want to have music over. Other than shots with dialogue in (babysitter arriving at house) We then created two tracks. One to use when the babysitter arrives at the house/ walking around the neighbourhood at the beginning, and one to use during the inside scenes to attempt to make it more scary. I then created both tracks amd layered them together to put onto my film on iMovie Maker, however we both realised that the soundtrack wasnt eerie enough. To overcome this, I cut the two tracks up separately and combined parts from both to make two new, more appropriate tracks to fit our story and it's genre. As well as adding highpitched noises behind to create an even greater spooky effect.

The Dark - Finished Opening Sequence

Cast

Caledonia Quigley
Actor: Babysitter
Director

Max Hill
Actor: Stranger
Director

Phillipa Hill
Actor: Mother

Target Audience

The Target Audience for our film will be young adult males. We made a questionnaire to get a better idea of this audience and when surveyed; males preferred Horror, Thriller and Action genres of films, where as most females preferred Romantic and Realistic films. To add to the fact our film is based towards a male audience is that we are using a female character as our protagonist. This, although fits in with our stereotypes of a babysitter, also could have sex appeal for a male audience.

Treatment: Filming Coursework - The Dark

For our coursework we had to film a 2 minute opening sequence of a movie. With my partner Max, we chose to make a horror/ thriller film called 'The Dark' which is loosely based on the short American novel that begins with a house being broken into whilst a girl is babysitting.

Our first scenes show her going to the house to babysit but it set in and eerie manner. After she has checked the baby and is then watching TV, these loud noises start to occur, she ignores them at first but then as they become louder she begins to panic. After ensuring her safety by locking a few of the doors, she climbs the stairs again to check the baby. However this time the baby is missing.

We have decided to make a brief plan as to what would happen later on in our film if we were to continue and produce the whole thing. After she does not see the baby where it was before she starts to panic but chooses to ignore it. Later when checking the third time the baby is replaced and all is fine. However strange unexplainable things happen throughout this girl’s life, similar to this, which end in twisted ending that will explain all.

Location and Risk Assessment

Bedroom

Living Room

Living Room

Living Room and other Interiors

Hazards:

·         Electrical hazards

·         Tripping hazards

Who might be harmed and how?:

·         Either of the actors – could trip and fall on cable. 

·         Director/camera man - could trip and fall on cable

Evaluate the risks:

·         Move electrical hazard to a higher surface or out of the room completely

·         Hide as much cable as possible or tape it to the floor so there is no possibility of tripping

Staircase

Staircase

Hazards:

·         Tripping or falling hazard

Who might be harmed and how?:

·         Actors – could trip and fall down

Front Door

Hall

House

Driveway leading to house

Road

Path lit by Street lamps

Hazards:

·         Uneven path

·         Moving Traffic

·    When shooting at night time - not being able to see completely 

·         Icy/slippy conditions as we shot in winter

Who might be harmed and how?:

·         The actors – may trip and fall

·         Director/camera man – may trip and fall also

Evaluate the risks and decide on precaution:

·         Closely watch footing when moving around on path

·         Keep a close eye on traffic and cars, change location if this becomes a big problem

·         Stay closer to street lamps for lighting, or bring your own floodlights

·         If there are icy or slippy conditions, change date of filming until these conditions disappear.

Road lit by Streetlamp

Our chosen location was a normal house on an average street in a quiet, unsuspecting town. We chose to film at Max's house as the film begins with the girl arriving at the house to babysit. We wanted to create an homely atmosphere as possible to make the story realistic and believable so the interior of the home wasn't changed much.

Production Logo

We designed a logo for our film company; C&H Productions. As we are producing a Horror/Thriller film we decided to cover it in blood splatters to highlight our chosen genre. The C stands for Caledonia, and the H for my partner's last name, Hill. These letters worked best from our initials, as the plus sign is able to slot into the C and become the cross bar of the H.

Animatic: The Dark

This is Max and I's animatic of the story board we drew. It is just a brief outline of what will happen in our opening sequence. The pictures are drawn in pencil and then outlined in a dark pen. We then captured each picture on a camera, uploaded them onto the Apple Mac's and turned all the pictures into an animatic using iMovie.

Preliminary Task

For our coursework, we have to create a short film opening of our own. This task was the foundation for our editing, filming, directing and even acting skills. In this task we had to film a conversation between two people as well as showing camera and editing skills like, walking through a door, and using shot, reverse shot in the filming of the conversation which i did with my task partner Max. We named it 'Rendezvous By Text'

The Black Hole

Short Film Research

We looked at three short films in a lesson to gain some knowledge on music and sound effects in a film clip. Firstly 'The Black Hole', 'The Otherside of the Lens' and 'Occupied'. I chose to look at 'The Black Hole' in more detail even though it wouldn't have a very interesting music time graph. However, it can help us to understand how it works. It tells the story of "a sleep-deprived office worker who accidentally discovers a black hole - and then greed gets the better of him..."
The main sound effect through out it is of a photocopier, when the noise is being used the graph would have a small raise in the it. This is continuous throughout the film so the graph would have little bumps for the beep all the way through. Another noise we hear often through this short film is the noise when the 'black hole' is being used, the zorbing. This is then set in our minds when the hole is used, so we may not even have to see the hole being used but hear the sound and we will know what is happening. Toward the end move and more is happening so the noise level is raised, so our graph will start to look as if it is climaxing. And this is where it finishes, at the peek of the climax, the loudest point of this film is the point of which it ends.

Garage band Lesson

In one of our previous lessons, we were taught how to use garage band. The programme helps you create music or various sounds to add into a film or short clip. Using music to create an atmosphere or just add to an action. For example music can create dramatic tension by the use of one instrument, a single drum beating as an example. In this lesson we drew some graphs to represent what is going on in the music in correlation with the film. Along the x axis would be the time of the film, and the y axis would be the volume of the music, in my idea of the graph, you could change the y axis to pitch but I will stick me volume. So the total graph length is the total time of the film including the highest peeks to be the loudest points in the music and the lower one the quieter parts.

iMovie Lesson

What I learnt on iMovie.
Firstly I have learnt how to upload a film clip. This may seem really straight forward but I can be quite complicated for a first time user, as I have never used it before. After getting all my clips on screen, I then learnt how to view my videos and able to select which clips to use and which clips not to in a new project. After this I was shown how to crop and cut my shots, which was extremely straight forward compared with the uploading. After editing my clips to the standard I wanted, and then added the finishing touches like credits and an title opening title.