Cinematography created in our film.

In the production process of making our film we decided to largely focus on the cinematography side.

Costume 

 

For Jess' costume we decided she needed something bright that would stand out but not too bright like pink. We decided on a dark blue colours that could be enhanced later on in the editing stages. However we also decided she needed black to portray her introverted characteristics.

 

For Chloe's costume we decided she needed to be in all black or just about that with only a little bit of colour. We decided on black jeans and a black top or black coat, with possibly some white it. This would display Chloe's depression and personality. It also would show how it didn't take her long to change from the clothes she wore with the gas mask (she changed her coat).

 

The gas mask person needed to be in all black to show they are a villain. We also decided on the Gas mask from Millie's original story, we also added gloves to show how Chloe had planned the escapade.

 

 

Lighting

 

We decided on almost all natural lighting to suggest realism throughout our film. We felt like this would transfer to our audience as they would notice the verisimilitude. However in the kitchen scene we use un-naturalistic lighting to symbolize how homely it is, but also this symbolizes the falseness of Chloe's character.

 

Camera Shots 

 

We used a lot of medium shots and long Shots. However we also used a crane shot to show the chase scene. These gave us variation in our shots and also makes the audience more aware of what is happening, furthermore making them enjoy it more.   

What do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking back at the preliminary task I feel that the editing seemed slow- paced and very generic, in our own film we did different camera angles to give a variation to the audience watching. We also had a more intriguing storyline to attract an audience and make the film more interesting in general.

By adding in the opening titles our 2minute opening felt more of a project than the preliminary task, this made us work more closely as a group and also find more interesting places to shoot, the difference in settings gave the film and edge I felt as it seems less bland. I think we have got better at working as a group to create something we all like and also got better at using the cameras to our advantage.

Overall I feel that the way we created our 2 minute opening went well and appeals to a wide audience and also fulfilled what everyone wanted out of the experience. I think the reviews from the audience are good and also that they enjoyed it. I think our film could match up to some horror films  that have been released into cinemas due to the suspense we have created.

(1:07 Gas Mask Film) , (0:09 preliminary task) These 2 shots are both of our short films, they are both Medium shot. This is one of the only shots these films shared as the genres are different. The preliminary task as of an interview, the shots mainly consisted of over the shoulder shots which weren't shown the horror as it was clear Jess was scared of the person in the gas mask as she didn't know them, but also that her and Chloe were too close to sit opposite each other.

How did you attract/address your audience?

The rating of our film is a 15.

As the genre of our film is horror this will attract a wide audience as it appeals  to lots of different people, the sub-genre is gore which might not appeal to everyone but is still quite popular. The distributor of Amicus will attract fans of their previous horror and the full story has been influenced by today’s technology.

I feel that the production process has been successful however this does not help the audience apparel, not everyone understands the storyline  from out opening sequence however most people felt it was enjoyable and would watch the rest of it.

In the future we could improve on putting across more of a story line to begin with and also by choosing a genre that could appeal to a wider audience rather than being limited by our 15 BBFC rating. Also we could have a larger age range in cast so that it appeals to a older audience.
Whilst planning our production we did not necessarily think of the audience that we would target it at however I feel this worked well because we understand younger viewers would not enjoy this genre.

Our film has several close up shots and also long shots these show the intensity of the film. we also use natural lighting to make the film seem more realistic to attract an audience. We use lots of dark blues, greens and blacks to convey the dark themes throughout. This would attract an audience as it would show them it was  horror film and could appeal to a wide audience range, 15-45.

An audience could be intriged by not knowing who is behind the mask. We use natural, colloquial language to show the age of our characters, this could also appeal to younger audience members as they will find it easier to relate to the characters.

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

Our 2 minute opening to our film both supports and subverts conventions of horror films. This is shown through both language and props used in our film. Normally the conventions of a horror include dark colours, low key lighting and a monster of some type: Internal, External and man-made. 

When Jess sees Chloe she automatically calms her down, this subverts horror conventions as it come across as being a friendly gesture and doesn’t seem to create tension between the characters, however before this scene we see Jess being chased by someone in a gas mask. This could make the scene confusing for the audience and build up a chaotic feeling.

The scene when we see Chloe pulling out the knife from underneath the gas mask supports horror conventions as it shows the weapon and give the audience a sense of insecurity as Chloe is supposed to be Jess’ friend.  At the end of this scene we here jess’ scream which confirms for the audience what has happened but leaves them with an enigma of what could happen next. This also supports horror genre.

Despite this our product does challenge what other products of this type would show. A clip like this could be expected at the end of a horror movie and no the beginning. I think this challenges forms as this could lead the audience to different scenarios to follow, all of with we considered in the process of creating a full storyline.

However in the end we chose the line of Chloe the serial killer to carry though the theme of close enemy’s, this could make people think about the danger around them and further become a social realism film.

Which is similar too...

This is from Friday the 13th. Our films are similar because of the villain's, both are wearing masks to intimidate their victims. This is a Medium Close-up of the 'monster' in what seems to be a deserted woods. This makes the scene more scary for the audience. Our film also has a deserted woods however we do not show our villain in a one shot in this setting. We show the protagonist to belittle them and also to show how alone they are.

Our film shows Chloe with the gas mask on, this happens at 0.36 in the video, at this point we don't know it's Chloe, which provokes the audience to wonder who it is and why they have a gas mask on. This mirrors the effect of the villain on Friday the 13th. 

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our film we have suppressed some of the typical teenage stereotypes; the girls seem more grown up, however we do use some to show the age of the characters. For example the way we dress the use of technology and also the reference to Jess’ mother. This would appeal to a teenage age group because of the age of the characters, girls could sympathize with the characters better, however the horror genre would still appeal to men.

We had both girls wearing jeans to symbolize youth however had coats to show the climate and differences between them. Chloe (India, picture above) is wearing a black and white coat suggesting her character has different personalities however Jess (Me, picture below) is wearing a navy coat to show how she displays her personality. The use of colours also contrast with the back ground to make the characters stand out. We want our audience to be able to relate to our characters as they seem very normal.

However we do not introduce characters of any other ages so do not represent any other social group.
This shot shows Jess wearing a dark blue coat, it contrasts with the green and brown background, this could appeal to audience members as it shows the quality of the picture and makes audiences wonder why she is there, making them want to watch the film. We were originally going to keep naturalistic colours in this scene however we ended up making the saturation higher to try and achieve a Pre-Raphaelite type shot, enhancing the characters confused nature.
I think the genre of horror will attract people to cinemas because of the atmosphere, I think our film would bode well in this as teenagers go to the cinema quite a lot and this is our target audience.

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

Whilst making our 2 minute opening I feel that we have learnt a lot about technology.

First of all we made our own accounts on Blogger, this has enabled us to decide on what our film should be about and also to publish our ideas.

^Click to follow link.

We created a script on Celtx which made it look more professional and also helped us to learn lines as it was in an easier format to read.

^Click to follow link.

When we began filming we all learnt how to use the camera safely and practically so that we could all film at different point and use lots of different camera angles to make our film better and add suspense where we needed it.

After re-doing some of our clips because of the sound quality, this taught us about the level of noise in the background that the camera would pick up and also helped us decide on clips where the sound was better. This is something we were less successful with but practiced at.

^Accessible on Apple Mac's.

We used Final Cut Express to edit our film and make up tutorial. From this we learnt different uses of transitions and also how to cut certain bits of our film. We also learnt how to put the necessary  text on our film for titles and credits. This made our film look more professional.

^Click to follow link

To get feedback on our film we posted the link to the video from YouTube on to Facebook to people of our target audience and some people who weren't.  This got our film noticed and gave us the feedback that we could improve upon should we do it again. This helped us learn that technology was a good was of marketing our product, which was successful.

We used a zoom recorder to get the diegetic sounds of the deep breathing (From the person in the gas mask) and also to record the scream at the end of our film. We were less successful with this as it took us a few tries to get it right so that it would fit the time frame we needed for our film.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

We have rated our film according to the BBFC film rating. We have given it a 15 certificate. The BBFC say that for a film to become a 15 it will contain: “at 15 violence may be strong. it should not dwell on the infliction on pain or injury, however, and the strongest gory images may be unacceptable." We originally wanted it to come under the 12/12A category however the use of the knife made this un-acceptable.

Despite this setback we believe that this is a 15+ film and is appealing to most people over the age of 15. As a storyline like ours has not been done for a horror film before I believe it will make people who are interested in the horror genre and interested in a gore element would be the main audience.

I think, depending on the distributor, our film could be shown in a magazine for the uniqueness and also for the controversial storyline of a friend being the murder, this deals with the issues currently facing society as it mentions Facebook and cyber bulling. This could make it more appealing for teenager as they could feel a personal connection. The main audience will probably be girls as these are the main characters giving them a sense of identity as they could relate to the characters.

In our survey we asked 4 people of varying ages if they would watch our film. Out of the 4 we had 2 ‘yes’ answers, one from a girl aged 16 and one from boy aged 17. This confirms the age range for our film and who it appeals to. One of the other people was a girl aged 16 as well however she answered the questions differently and said she was not usually attracted to horror films, further proving our theory.

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

The genre of our movie is a horror. Because of this several companies may not want to produce this, this could include large conglomerates like Disney and Universal, however this genre will appeal to lots of other companies.

 

A good distributor could be Warner Bros, Warner Bros have previously produced horror films such as The Conjuring and Orphan.  But Warner Bros is a conglomerate, they probably wouldn’t distribute our film as it is low budget, if they had produced it the setting would have probably been more isolated and Hollywood stars would be cast – the budget would have been higher (e.g. $3 Million). Despite the bigger budget, the film would probably appeal to people of 15 + because of the BBFC rating.

 

Another distributor could be Hammer. The Hammer Company isn’t well known now a days however were a big part of horror films in the 80’s. They produced series such as Hammer House of Horror, known for their plotlines and gore. This fits with our film as there is quite a lot of gore in the storyline, and can be quite controversial. Other than this, the storyline follows modern technology which may not appeal to the company.

Yet another distributor is Anchor Bay Entertainment. They have produced films such as Inferno and The Walking Dead TV Series. They usually have low budget films with could include ours and have produced horror before. However with the types of things they produce now, they may want to evolve the storyline into something different that could appeal to a wider audience. This could be helpful to our film however it could also take away from the effect it has on the audience.

 

Feedback on our film

Matthew Lister
Very nicely done. The shot at 0:39 sent a shiver down my spine.

Ross Walker
It fits with the genre. I like the fast editing during the chase. I like the hand held shot from behind. Kettle shot. The abrupt cut off at the end fits the genre.

Emily Spawton
Awesome short film, really well acted and filmed.

Michael White
well filmed and acted

Danny Gruff

Awesome! Well shot as well :-) 

Mark Pestell

Excellent short scary film, I will never look at a gas mask in the same way again.

Hand Tutorial

We decided to make a tutorial of how we created the dead look for the hand in our film.

Gasmask Final Film

Pre-Raphaelite Effect

By putting on this effect we can  make it look like some parts are more fairytale than other. This not only enhances the colour but also brings out the colours of the woodland.
This will also engage the audience as they want to know why some parts look different.
By enhancing the woodland features it also gives a sense of foreboading and danger as an audience wont know what is round the corner.

Saturday shooting pack

For Saturday we need:

Script

Gasmask

Camera

Tripod

Rucksack

Phone

Jeans (For both)

Girly top

Band top

Hoodie

Boots (For both)

Coat

Umbrella 

Location Photos

 These are the photographs of the location we're going to use. We will use different parts of the location for different scenes in the film.


Scene one: This is the scene in which the first girl to be murdered is walking down a footpath before getting lost in the woods. We will use these parts of the location for this scene to resemble a footpath, but with it being quiet we will not have to worry about getting in people's way.

These parts of the location will be used to show Jess getting lost in the woods. This is because there is a large woodland are and it will be easy to make her look isolated and scared.

This part of the location will be used to show how close the masked character is. Jess will run up the stairs past the camera and the masked character and the masked person will be stood at the other end of the bridge.

Filming shots

Shots

P.O.V - when Jess is on her phone.when Jess sees the figure in the woods. When Chloe picks up the Knife.

Long Shot- Jess being followed.  Jess meeting Chloe. Chloe's house.

This creates the effect of an establishing shot and also makes the characters sound lost. This also gives a sense of disorientation to the audience making them confused and building tension.

Match on action- Jess dropping her phone. The hand dropping on the floor.

This shows the audience what is happening and will also creates more suspense, supporting the horror genre.

Mid shot - Jess running. Jess sitting in Chloe's house. Jess just walking.Jess calling mum.

This shows the characters expressions but also gives their body language. It will also give a sense of continuation to the opening and make it seem more realistic.

Cantered angle- audience seeing figure for the first time.

We will use this to give a sense of tension to the audience and also to suggest dis-equilibrium.

Close-Up- kettle. Jess lost.

This will show the characters facial expression and details to make the audience wonder what will happen next.

This will give us a variation of shots to keep the audience engaged. This will also support the conventions of the horror genre and suggest this to our audience.

Preliminary Exercise

Titles

Opening Titles

The "Game of Thrones" opening titles are fully animated. Something like this would work for our film as it doesn't give away any of the plot but keeps the audience intrested by showing parts of the setting.  As well as this the building come up mechanically from the ground which could make the audience wonder what will come up next.
The title sequence relates to the series as it shows the development of an empire over a country.  The titles show a map of the country and the way the building turn up like clockwork show how the empire is rising.

The "Sherlock" opening titles use several time lapse's which keep the audience interested and this is something that could easily be done. Also the several objects create enigma, posing the audience to continually have questions about what relevance they could have to the story line. As well as this the music timing fits to the images.
The opening titles are relavent as it shows that the programme is about a detective solving mysteries, and the elements he could use to solve them.

The "Murdoch Mysteries" opening titles use several bodies and murder scenes. This would work for ours as we also want to include mystery. The use of focal blur and focus pull also keep the audience enthralled so would be good to include. The last the we could include is the sepia tone that makes it seem old would show that the murder was in the past and bring out the red and black tones that we use, supporting the horror genre conventions.
This is relavent to the series as it shows the consepts consided in murder which is what the series is about and how the detective solves them.

The opening titles from "Gone with the Wind" are simple yet effective, something we could easily achieve. a simple setting is shown that is relavent to the story line and the information is posted as text on top. This is effective because it gets the audience in the mood for the story through scenery and music.  Having character names at the beginning also gets f=your audience familiar with the name they will be hearing in the film.

Locations and Props

Possible Locations

Derelict Park/woods - Langsett

Possible location because it is derelict and supports horror conventions, pathway already there making there less risks for actors running. trees make some areas darker than others helping to create a chiaroscuro effect, use of shadows makes audience more tense. This could also be used for filming Film noir, however I feel this wouldn't have the same effect as the audience could feel disengaged from the film.

 

Living Room idea- 

 

Something simple with a sofa and space, gives a homely feel to subvert horror conventions and make it look like Jess is safe. Room needs to reflect Chloe's chirpy personality, possibly have a-joining kitchen to make Chloe seem closer to Jess and show how close the friends are suppose to feel to each other. However we wouldn't want it to be this light as this would break the ambiance of the film as we want darker colours and low- key lighting.

 

 

Props

 

Mobile Phone-

 

Mobile phone needs to be older, a older Nokia would probably fit Jessica's personality best also the phone has to be dropped and an older phone is less likely to break. However this could be hard to get a hold of, in which case it could be something newer but not anything too expensive such as an android or IPhone. If we did manage to get a Nokia this could break the verisimilitude of the film as it isn't a phone that is very common now.

Gas Mask-

 

An old grey/ green gas mask to cover Chloe's face and make her look ominous, supporting the horror genre. This also mirrors one of the names we were think of for our film. It would be better if the gas mask we used as black as this is a colour associated with horror and help with the cinematography we are hinting at.

 

 

Knife-

 

Just a general steak knife would be best to show Chloe is just a normal person and hasn't murdered before making her seem innocent, looks like something she could find in her house. This makes the film seem more realistic and could make the audience more aware of our story line, this also adds verisimilitude to our film.

 

 

Questionnaire

Questionnaire 

(1) What genre do you think it is?

(2) Who do you think it's aimed at?

(3) Do you understand the story line?

(4) where do you watch films the most?

(5) where do you expect to see such a film?

(6) What kind of music would you expect to see in the film?

(7) What would you call our film?

(8) How often do you watch horror films?

The Blair Witch Project - 15 Minute Analysis

The Blair Witch Project- First 15 minutes Analysis

The first thing shown is the company who helped to distribute it's logo, in this case is Lionsgate.
This then fades out into the smaller independent distributor Haxan Films.
Typed information shows up on the screen to give context to the film to the audience and inform them of what the film will be about.

The audience will first notice the shacky camera work. This is made obvious through the dialogue "You look Blurry. I'll Zoom Out." This is non-diegetic audio however it seems as if you know the current camera person, despite not seeing them. The dull colours would suggest to the audience that it is film on a camera that isn't very good and would could suggest it sticks to the student budget. This would re-enforce the characters and enhance their stereotypes. The mise en scene such as clothing and props (furniture) is typical of the time period- 1990 and subverts the natural conventions of horror. This gives the audience a false sense of security and gives them further information into the film, that it could subvert the genre conventions easily.

 

 

When the girl (Heather) shows us the old book about "what happened at Coffin Rock" the audience get a feeling of the supernatural which follows horror conventions. The cuts between the bits of film seem to jump suggesting it hasn't been edited, this would follow the storyline displayed through out the film.

The film jumps to a man exiting a car. The car used would be one used by students as it would be cheap, also it is a typical car of the 1990.The sound of the car is diegetic, usually in films this would be done by a folley artist however to add realism this was most likely done on set.

The dialogue is chosen to bring out the student characterisation including abriviations of words. This helps the audience to relate to the characters and sympathise with them. This adds to the cinematography of the shaking camera.

The supermarket location subverts the horror genre and helps the audience to empathise with the characters. This also deviates from the storyline as it has no real relevance. However by this point the audience are probably hooked on the unravelling storyline and the characters. The fact that the film was marketed on realism is also a hook which helps this scene in the supermarket to make sense to the audience.

Later on the screen goes grainy which would support the characterisation of students and the technology available at this time. This adds to the editing post production however this isn't evident as it is clearly visable the audience making them think that is a camera glitch which is feasible. This is more clear later on as these bits show where the documentary starts and where the footage begins. This helps the audience to follow the changes in the storyline.
The use of children supports to horror conventions of childhood innocence.

The cuts between the different interviewees show editing however this doesn't seem evident to the audience at the time who become engrossed in the back story of the Blair Witch.

The introduction of the character Mary Brown makes the audience feel less tense as she seems mad and supports the folklaw. The fact that she seems older than the other interviewees makes her seem less reliable, also her costume shows her to be skittish.

The props in the hostel scene support the characterisation of teens as they have alcohol and Heather says"after I call my mom." this shows she is still dependent on her family, it also adds a sense of innocence to her character. Also the attitude they have to alcohol shows naivety.

The next location used is a derelict woodland. The fishermen carry on the story of the Blair Witch, the fact that one of the men describes seeing her is unnerving for the audience but keeps them wanting to watch the film. The fact that the men are in the foreground keeps the audience aware of the background making them wonder if they are going to see something paranormal. The sound begins to breakup slightly suggesting some type of interference. This stays true to the overall story line.

The wobbling shot of the woods suggests dis-equilibrium and supports the genre type.Next the audience see the derelict wooden building which also supports this.

The seasonal colours also give the audience an uneasy sense helping to support the horror genre. the colours of clothing also support this as they are dark, typical of the horror genre.