Scapegoat - Opening Sequence

Shoot 3 - Evaluation

This was our final shoot. To ensure that all actors were on time and able to attend, I called all actors on Monday, then again Friday night, and the following Saturday morning as we really needed to get this shooting done. To get Sophie to the shoot I had to pick her up at her house for 10, then, met Tim at the Pembury bus stop at 10 past 10. Tom then arrived at 20 past 10 which was a little late. I then received a call from Shaun saying that he couldn’t attend, so I asked him whether he could leave his jumper in his porch for me so that I could pick it up and use it, so my little brother could wear it and look like Shaun to the audience. After this I then heard from George that he could not come either. After this quite stressful turn of events we made our way down to the location, being the shack for the end scene.
When we got there we had to clear a good opening to get to the shack as in the first shot Tom had to lift his leg quite high to get there which kind of spoilt the mood I was going for.
In the shack the camera gave a snowy effect inside the shack, I overcame this by hanging my coat over a hole in the wall, stopping some of the light from coming into the shack, this seemed to solve it and made the shot inside the shack a lot clearer.
I then tried to get a shot of Sophie, Tim and ‘Shaun’ in the shack all in the same shot without panning, This was very hard as I had to do a lot of takes to frame the actors right, but still get a reasonable amount of each actor in the shot, I then settled on all three crouching in a corner.
After this I then filmed Sophie and ‘Shaun’ doing a variety of creepy looking actions. These included twitching, moving their hair with their hands slowly and looking up jerkily in synchronisation.
I then filmed Tim reading the book with a jerky head movement, and made him look creepier by getting him to open his eyes really wide giving him a more possessed look. I then panned down during this shot to show him reading a book with words associated with horror scratched on. Then I filmed him turning the pages of the book, to the last one saying ‘They’re here’ which I thought causes suspense and adds a little more to the enigma. I also added fake blood to give a scarier effect to the scene.
After this I decided to get a shot tracking into Tim’s face. I went from a low shot to over Tom’s shoulder then into Tim’s face, with him then quickly looking up into the camera for a shock value. I did a smooth, and a shaky shot of this both in steadicam. The shaky shot will look good with music building up behind it and the smooth shot can maybe sped up and look more fluid so I did a couple of takes of both style.
After I got the end scene done, we walked down to the graveyard to get Sophie’s ‘corpse’ scene done. To not mess with continuity too much I re-filmed Tom entering the graveyard and had a variety of shots of him walking through the graveyard, using tombstones in the foreground for the variety of the shots to give a good effect. I then filmed Tom walk past Sophie laying on the ground with two takes of Sophie in the lower left hand corner, and one of her in the upper left hand corner. This was to get either the tombstone in shot, or something in the foreground. This can then be chosen later in editing.
After that I got a montage of Sophie’s face in a variety of CU shots to then later be edited, and I had finished for the day.
From this last shoot I learnt that you can ‘cheat’ continuity if you have to and that using cheap methods to get shots you want can still leave you with quality footage.
We were very happy with this last shoot and are pleased with the footage we have collected.

Shoot 2 - Evaluation

This shoot turned out to be a very disappointing one. This was due to one of the actors we needed not being able to turn up, and only being told at the last minute. This meant that we had to do another shoot after this one.
Since we couldn’t do the end scene without Tim there we decided to re-do some of the footage that didn’t look as good as we had hoped in the editing. We also decided that instead of having a montage of the corpses when they were alive, we decided to have a montage of the dead body. For this we had to amend our storyboard.
The first shot we did was in the opening scene, We shot a montage of a CU of Shaun’s face, then filmed Tom sitting up from the log, as in editing it wasn’t clear he was getting up from the first shoot. We didn’t have any problems with this, as since only a portion of Shaun is shown form the first shoot, we got him in relatively the same position and he was wearing the same clothing so we didn’t have a problem with the continuity. This was the same with Tom.
When filming Tom getting up off the log, we filmed a variety of different angles, but when looking back on the shots we found a branch was in the foreground of the shot. This gave the shot a great effect.
After this we decided to at least film Tom entering the barn for the last scene. We filmed him going into the barn for a few takes, and found they didn’t really look as good as we had liked. This was mainly due to the cars being in the way, which spoilt the shot. We fixed this by bringing the camera closer and putting the cars out of shot. This made the shot look a lot better, but still not good enough. From this we then decided to use a different location that we had seen before and thought of it as a second option. From this we had to amend our storyboard.
We also found that our ending won’t fit as well in the new location, so, to overcome this we decided on a new ending where the corpses will be shown at the end of the film, in the shack ‘alive’ again to get the audience thinking and make our opening more enigmatic.
From this shoot, we learnt to organise our actors better and putting things in the foreground makes the shot look so much better than without. We weren’t as happy with this shoot as we only got a small amount done. However we were a lot happier with our new ending and location and now knew exactly what we had to have done.

Shoot 1 - Evaluation

On our first shoot everyone arrived on time and we arrived at out first shooting location a little later.
Our first shot would include Shaun and Tom going from an ECU to a LS. This presented a few problems, first one being I had to walk backwards, so I couldn’t see where I was walking. We overcame this by having someone lead me while I kept the camera in position. Another problem was there was a lot of debris on the ground, We solved this by clearing the area of things big enough to trip over. Lastly, we found that we had to move the actors to lots of different locations to get the shot we wanted. After about 7 different takes I found the kind of shot I wanted to use. I chose this shot as it had very good framing for both actors shown, and was relatively easier to walk backwards down that line.
Another shot we had problems with were the scene with Tim sitting in the river. This was a difficult shot to do as we had to get Tom in the shot and framed to be in the upper right corner, to then pan downwards and left to get Tim framed in the lower right hand corner, This was hardest because we weren’t sure whether to use steadicam or use the tripod for this shot. We decided to do both, and found that the tripod being used made the shot look smoother, and so we used that.
After this we suggested that if Tim lay in the river that this would give a very disturbing look and so tried that. We tried this shot with both shirt on and off. We only did two takes of this as the river was very cold. A problem with this was that the shot with the shirt on gave his shirt an air bubble and didn’t look as good, so we had to use the shot with his shirt off, for this we had to amend the storyboard to include another body on the same stretch of river, occurring after the image of Tim lying against the bridge.
After we were finished in the woods we went to the graveyard to get Sophie’s corpse scene. First we filmed Tom entering the graveyard through a gate this presented a few problems as it was very hard to frame him correctly and still get the gravestones in. We decided to overcome this problem by shooting it again in another shoot.
When we finally got to Sophie’s scene we discovered that we had no battery left, this left us with no options but to do another shoot at a later date.
From this shoot we learnt the effectiveness of the leading lines and how to frame a shot correctly. If done again I would have tried to keep the walking back shot steadier and would have taken more batteries. However we got the majority of our filming done and were on schedule to get our opening sequence done by the deadline.

CF feedback background research

Excellent work. You have met all deadlines and this blog demonstrates that your research is clearly informing your creative process and that you are using ICT to collaborate as a group. I am particularly impressed by the discussions you are having on costume and lighting and how your reccie has informed and improved your concept. The pitch was excellent - well planned, informed by research into target audience, possible locations and generic conventions through film analysis. Your treatment was very convincing. Your storyboarding, scripting and location reccies show that you are carefully planning your work in advance of shooting.

Your planning mark currently stands at a level 4 - well done.
To achieve this overall, ensure that your time management and shoots are well organized and that all deadlines are met.

I’m looking forward to the gore and the scare!

Mrs Fernandez

Group Discussion - Props and Lighting

 

 This week George and I have been discussing props we may need to use during our filming of our opening sequence. We have decided we may have to incorporate a sign reading ‘Sorrow Falls’. This should make the audience identify the location as being called Sorrow Falls, which gives many horror connotations and is a conventional location name for horror films. This also has connotations of a small rural village or town. We may also need to set up a tent to illustrate that these people have been camping in this location. This will mean setting up a campsite which should be easy and inexpensive to do as we both have tents we could use for this. We can also lay empty drinks cans and bags next to the tent to connote that they have been there for a while.

 George and I also discussed the problem of having to film a dark sequence as most of our opening sequence is. We have sorted out this issue by us either filming on an overcast day, then touching it up a little with the editing software on the computer to darken the picture. Or by shooting our footage at the evening, or early in the morning. We may be also able to get the effect we want by shooting in daylight, then putting a blue filter on in the editing software. This will contrast well with the yellow filter we plan to use when cutting to out montage shots. This is the most likely option we are going to do.

 We have also been discussing how we are going to do the lighting in the barn scene where an orange light is seen coming out of the barn opening. So far we have been thinking of using large torches for this and using an orange filter over them to give the orange effect. We were going to be using some bigger lighting equipment from the media department, but after visiting the barn again we found there are no wall sockets to plug the lights into. I then found a man who may let us use his studio lighting as he has his own portable generator so the lack of wall sockets wouldn’t be a problem. However, we are unsure as to whether we will be able to use them when we begin shooting. So for now we plan to use some high power torches with orange film over them. This should be inexpensive, but still provide the effect we are looking for.

Group Discussion - Costumes

 Recently George and I have discussed the importance of costumes in our opening sequence. So far we have a pretty good idea of what we want from the costumes. We are going to have the actors wearing clothes that the audience should associate as being middle-classed teenager’s clothes. This mean we will be using hoodies, jeans and plain t-shirts. We think that the hoody idea for the costume is useful as it can be used to hide the faces of the extras so that only the people’s faces tat are visible will cut to montages of life previous to the incident. For this we are also going to be having so mud/dirt on the clothes. This will help to identify the characters as having a struggle in the wood, and when cutting to a montage the mud/dirt will not be on the clothes and will help show that there is a time change. 

 We have also been thinking about make-up and think will be using very little, but may use some blood effects e.g. blood capsules which we have found work well after experimenting with, and can purchase easily and cheaply at a known store. We also may put some dirt on the faces of the corpses to again illustrate a struggle, and may whiten their faces and darken their eyes to further connote that they are dead. These effects will also be useful for the time changes as they will be gone when cut to a montage.

 We have informed our confirmed actors and extras that we may be doing this and have no problem with the make-up or the costume ideas, and are eager to participate.

Scapegoat Pitch

 

 The beginning of our pitch started out to more or less set the mood for our film and introducing it. We did this by creating a CU shot of a woman crying blood against a black background done in photoshop, giving many horror connotations to our viewers. At the top was the chosen title of the film, and at the bottom, the chosen one-liner. The title and one-liner received a lot of positive reactions from the group, as did our background.

 Next we talked about what genre and sub-genres our film were going to be. We explained that we are going to be filming a horror film in a mainly supernatural sub-genre. We then explained that we were going to be filming with the teen and psychological sub-genres due to the protagonists being teenagers and so much of the dialogue would conform to the teen sub-genre. Also that the supernatural sub-genre wouldn’t be extremely evident for a lot of the film, and the antagonist will seem to have more of a psychological menace to her than a supernatural motivation.

 After this we spoke about our target market. We said that our target audience would be mainly young adult males ranging in age from 16 to 30 as from research we found that this was the demographic most likely to go to the cinema to watch a horror film. We also said that our target audience would mostly be for middle-classed British and Western cultures. This is because this is also the demographic that purchases the majority of cinema tickets and merchandise for a horror film.

 We next spoke about the people directing, producing, editing and acting. We said that both George and I would be doing the directing, editing and producing, while George would be doing the majority of the editing, and I the majority of the producing jobs, with both of us sharing equal directing responsibilities. We also gave a confirmed list of actors and extras, explaining that the extras would be playing the parts of dead bodies, not requiring any acting skill. The confirmed actors would be required to do some actual acting, though not much as there is no dialogue in our opening sequence.

 We then presented our rough budget to be about £10.00 and explained why we were planning to use this as a budget. We said that we would need to spend some money on effects for the extras playing corpses and gave blood capsules as an example. We also said we may need to purchase some sound effects and may need to purchase some inexpensive props like for example, drinks cans or a painted sign to illustrate the name of the location. We also said we may need to purchase some lighting equipment, but have now found someone who is letting us borrow some equipment and so has reduced our potential budget.

 After that we spoke about the synopsis of the film. Here we outlined what was going to happen in the film, introducing where the majority of the filming is going to be done being the woods, and who the protagonists are going to be. We also spoke of the dilemma the protagonists faced in the film, then ended with an open ended question leaving an enigma for the viewers which had some positive responses.

 It is then that we read the film treatment. We outlined the motivation behind the antagonist and went into further detail about the ‘mysterious town’ in the woods that was mentioned in the synopsis. It also went into more detail about the ending of the film, also explaining more about the problems the protagonists have to face. Our feedback from this was that the treatment may be too detailed, and could have been shorter to not give away so many details.

 Lastly we discussed our opening sequence idea. We explained we would be having one character exploring a wood, with parts of a graveyard and a barn at the end, while exploring there are corpses littered around the location. We then stressed that the character does not seem to be concerned about this and is strangely calm about this. We also said that when a corpse is brought into shot, it would cut to a montage of what is to be presumed life before this situation occurred. At the end we then said the character would walk to a barn seeing a shadow of a small girl on the side. Light is shining out of the barn. We then hear dying sounds and creepy laughter from the girl’s shadow. It then cuts to black and the title ‘Scapegoat’ fades in.

 However we still need to work out exactly which person is playing which character and exactly where each corpse is going to be. We also have to work out how we are going to be doing the lighting and will have to experiment to get the barn shot the way we want it. We also need to figure out whether we are going to include diegetic sound, and if so, what volume to put it up to, which is same as the music we are going to use. Lastly we need to figure out what time of day we should be filming. We need to have a relatively dark scene, but it will be hard to film at night, so we may be able to fix this in the editing and film on an overcast day, or at dusk.

 The feedback we received was that the treatment should be less detailed, and that our one-liner and title were enjoyed by the group. It was also said that they enjoyed we included modern day problems the protagonists face in the outline of our story and so was relevant to present day which lets the audience relate to the protagonists. Lastly we found the viewers liked that we chose to use so many horror conventional props, locations, stock characters and that the eerie approach to the opening ‘walking around slowly and calmly’ was disturbing. Which is what we were trying to do, so we were very happy with how our pitch went. 

Survey Evaluation

 For our survey we decided that we should ask mostly young adults as we found from researching the horror film industry that teenagers and young adults were the most it was relatively easy to find people to answer our survey for us. We also chose to ask more males than female young adults as from researching the topic we found that more males go to the cinema to watch horror films. We found this also true in middle-classed families and British and Western cultures. We chose to approach this by asking for occupation along with gender and age.

 After asking whether they like watching horror films, we asked which aspects in a horror film that they appreciate most. We chose this question as we found, occasionally some aspects have to be sacrificed for another, e.g. you can either have lots of action, or have an eerie scene. You cannot have both in one scene. Form the results of this question we found that suspense, eeriness and shock value. Also that we should sacrifice action for a more eerie scene and that character exposition wasn’t as important, neither was special effects or darkness. This was a successful question as it told us exactly what we should include at the expense of another. However it could have been improved by having more than 8 aspects to choose from.

 The next question we asked was what their favourite film was. We got a mixed result form this and it seemed people preferred either psychological horror films e.g. ‘Silence of the Lambs’ or supernatural horror films e.g. ‘The Exorcist’. This was useful as it gave us examples of films that we should take into account when creating ours, so we decided to incorporate psychological and supernatural elements into our sequence. This could have been more successful if we had given them a selection to choose from, as it would narrow what films to take into account over other ones. 

 Our next question was finding out which, from a selection of possible one-liners did they think were the best. From the results we found out that ‘In the dark, there is everything to see’ was the favourite, and ‘You can’t escape. It won’t let you.’ Was the runner up along with ‘Sin from the darkness.’ This was extremely useful as it helped us choose which one liner to attach to our opening sequence. This question could have been better by using a better selection method than just writing in a number next to the line they liked.

 After that we asked which horror themes people enjoyed the most. This helped us choose which time period to set our opening sequence as well as selecting which kind of plot they liked most. From the results we found that historic, religious and supernatural themes were most popular. This helped us to decide what time period to 

consider, and what themes to think about, and so was a useful question. Could have been improved by using a better method for selecting favourites.

 Next we asked whether they would like to watch a psychological horror or a ‘slasher’ film. We asked this question to find out whether to have many, less meaningful deaths as in ‘slasher’ films, or to have a few more meaningful deaths as in psychological horrors. In our results we found that the large majority liked psychological horror films more due them being generally scarier and ‘mess with your mind’, and that ‘slashers’ become boring quickly. This was a successful question as it helped us decide what kind of attitude to take towards our opening sequence, and to lay down an enigma instead of showing the audience everything. This question could have been improved by being more detailed about why they preferred either style.

 The next question was finding out which title, out of a possible selection that they liked the most. This was a very useful question as it helped us decide what to name our opening sequence. From the results we found that ‘Scapegoat’ was the favourite, followed by ‘Sorrow Falls’ and ‘Town Comforts’. Since ‘Sorrow Falls’ came second we decided that this would be the name of our fictional location, and chose ‘Scapegoat’ to be our title. This was a very successful question, and only could have been improved by having a better method of selection, as it was very cramped in the answer space.

 The final two questions was what they expected from the protagonist, and what they expected from the antagonist. This was going to help us decide what kind of characters to portray in our opening sequence. These questions were fairly successful as the answers were generally agreeing with each other saying that the antagonist should be clever, and sadistic while out for revenge. While the protagonist should be a ‘sexy woman’, should have depth and have an explanation for their actions. This was good as it gave us good framework to build general characters from. The questions could have been improved by giving choices instead of asking the person to write down what they felt.

 We found our survey very helpful for deciding what to include in our opening sequence and were very pleased with the results that we received. Here is an example of the typical response that we got back:

Group Discussion - Music

 Cameron and I have been discussing music to use in our opening sequence and are both still in agreement that ambient music will be the most suitable. To not narrow our options too much we have also been looking at other styles of music to consider them as alternatives. Here are some of the tracks we have been listening to below:

Half-Life Soundtrack: Track 14



This track is a very plausible option seeing as it consistently ambient throughout and slightly dark and mysterious.

Half-Life Soundtrack: Track 5



This other track from the Half-Life Soundtrack is another plausible option; the only drawback may be that it is quite short.

Requiem for a Dream



Although this track is very good and would suit our opening sequence perfectly we have decided against using it due to that fact that it is already so widely used.

Manipulated Living



This track is very ominous but may be a little too fast for our sequence.

Scapegoat Pitch - Sales Treatment

A group of good friends decide to go away camping for school break like they do every year. As they have all just turned sixteen they decide to go on their own and further afield than their usual camping spot to prove their independence to their parents. After searching for a while they find a small remote village called Sorrow Falls which would be perfect as it is positioned right in the middle of a wood. They all decide that Sorrow Falls would be a suitable place to stay but little do they know that the town has interesting history. Early in the 1700’s the village was struck by a series of terrible events causing many of the villagers to be killed, every time there was an accident someone was killed a little girl would be seen skipping around outside their house the next day. This led the villagers to believe that she was the cause of the events and a demon in the form of a little girl. They locked her up in the local prison to try and stop the mysterious deaths but to no avail. In the end they resorted to burning at the steak to remove the demon. But after the burning the situation only became worse and deaths more frequent. The legend goes that the girl still haunts the woods leading deserving souls to their death. Once the three friends arrive at Sorrow Falls they go to the local market to stock up on food supplies before setting off into the woods, after talking to the locals they hear about the legend but dismiss it thinking that the local tales are only trying to scare them off and continue on their journey into the woods. A few nights pass in the woods and all is going well until the third night when one of them goes mysteriously missing. They wake up in the morning to find he is gone and in a mad panic decide to rush back to the village to get help. After finding out none of their phones have signal and they can’t find their way back to the village they head back to camp for the night. After trekking for hours on exactly the right compass bearings they finial come to the conclusion, although none of them want to admit it that they are lost. They spend the night terrified in the woods hearing strange noises and screams until it becomes too unbearable and they decide to run. Whilst running they get split up and one by one they are brutally murdered by a mysterious force inhabiting the woods. Each of them discover the true mystery of the woods just before they face their fate.

Group Discussion – Final Story Idea

 

Over the last week Cameron and I have been reviewing our old story ideas and trying to improve on them. We started off by going to our chosen locations for inspiration and after only a few minutes had loads of ideas. We started to narrow down our latest ideas and referring to our questionnaire, adapted them to our target audiences needs. Our final idea was to set up the enigma in the opening sequence by choosing a non-linear story and showing the end of the movie at the start. Because of this our opening scene will focus on a character who is the only one left alive of the group that he was staying in the woods with. The opening sequence will show him stumbling around the wood finding his friends dead throughout the wood. Every time he sees one of his friends there will be a quick flash back showing them alive and well enjoying their holiday in the wood. After stumbling through the wood this character will walk into a graveyard where he will see another of his friends laying there dead before moving on frantically to a clearing where there is an old barn. There will be a dim red light shining out from within the barn and strange noises. A shadow of a little girl we be cast across the back wall of the barn. The character will walk inside the barn and out of view, after a quick scuffle and screams the screen will cut to black and the title “Scapegoat” will appear.

Preliminary Task

 

 For the planning of our preliminary task we discussed what we would like to have happen in the short film to begin with. Noting down in words what sequence of action we would like, and what dialogue should be used. After deciding on the action, we drew up a storyboard to decide what angles will be used, and set out to find a location for our filming. For this we needed a vacant corridor and room.

 We found finding a location very hard to do as most rooms were either filled with people, or locked. We eventually found a vacant room we were allowed to do some filming in, and started. 

 To start with I filmed George walking down the corridor, in a tracking shot of his feet tracking right. We decided to do this 3 times to get enough footage in case we needed extra. I found this shot hard as it was difficult to keep the camera in the correct shot (MCU) while holding on to the end of the tripod and having to look at the LCD screen.

 Next we decided to film George opening the door and walking into the room. We encountered one problem here, as when panning his entrance to walking to the chair, the white wrist-hold got in the way of the shot, and so we had to discard that shot and went for another. (We only discovered this in editing) We also found it harder to do this MCU shot as it had to be taken from the floor, and was at a slightly canted angle to give an uneasy feeling. We took 4 shots of this 

 After this we filmed George walking and sitting on the chair. We took 3 shots of this, and found it a relatively easy shot to do. The only difficult part of this shot was judging whereabouts George’s feet would be once he has sat down as we weren’t going to be using any camera movement. This again was an MCU.

 Next, George filmed me struggling in a chair, bound with some wire, in an MS. This was an easy shot to do as it didn’t require for the camera to be moved. We took 5 shots of this, as we needed extra footage from this to include in editing.

 After that, George and I set up the camera so that both of us were in view for the first shot of dialogue. This was difficult as we had to predict where we would be in shot once we sat down. However this turned out to be a good shot as it applied the rule of thirds and kept both characters in shot, while keeping the hooded person’s identity a mystery. (CU of George and an MS of me)

 Then we set up the camera so that both of us were in view, but both from the side in an MS. This was good as it established the location and showed the distance between the characters.

 Finally George filmed me in the chair in an MCU at a high angle while I spoke. This connoted that I was a ‘weaker’ character, George took 6 different shots of this, as it was hard to get the effect that we wanted for this shot.

 In editing we added a backing track to our shots. We decided to use a track from a game called ‘Half Life’ it gave a very eerie effect and we were very pleased with it.

One problem that occurred with this is that we had to put the volume of the backing track to a suitable volume, loud enough so you can hear it, but quiet enough that you can still hear the dialogue. Another problem we had with sound is that some of the other classes were heard during our filming of the corridor scene. The last sound problem we had was that we needed a scream when transitioning to the title screen. We hadn’t done this during our filming, so we had to go out and film a scream, we did two takes and chose the second, we then removed the picture, and cut the scream to fade in as the title screen comes in.

 During editing we arranged our footage in the correct sequence that we wanted. This meant that we had to be splitting different clips. We found this easy, but was difficult to choose how much to cut off, this mainly happened when cutting from the corridor to the struggling scene.

 After we had the correct sequence and sound we decided to add an effect. We decided we wanted our sequence in black and white, which was relatively easy to do and gave a good effect. However this did not make it as dark as we wanted, so we decided to alter the contrast. To get the correct amount of contrast that we wanted we had to fiddle about for a while with the degree of the contrast. After we found the degree we wanted we added a title screen by using a black background and fading in ‘The Room’. 

 From this task we learnt to do lots of experimental footage, and to do lots of the same shot to be sure that you get the best one possible. We also got some experience with the editing software and got some experience of using steadicam and panning and general use of the cameras. Overall we found this task very useful and will think about what to avoid in our opening sequence from our errors in our preliminary task. 

Technical Shot Analysis - Resident Evil: Apocalypse

'Resident Evil: Apocalypse'

2004, Alexander Witt'

 For my technical shot analysis I chose to analyse Resident Evil: Apocalypse as it is a very conventional horror film, so will be very easy to see what kind of shots I should be thinking about when filming.

 Whilst I was analysing the shots I described the camera movement in most parts (as this move was very common in the opening sequence) as crabbing while keeping same shot size and keeping the camera focused in the midpoint, giving the illusion of rotation. When I was describing this I should have been calling it a (correct angle) degree pan, e.g. when the camera give the illusion of a full rotation this is called a 360 degree pan. This is a mistake I made frequently when noting down the camera movements.

 From the results of my analysis I found having an opening shot of something iconic can be effective, as this can form immediate expectations. e.g. a shot of a cross. This can then be corrupted in some way to form a variety of more connotations. e.g. a cross shattering. I may think about this for my opening sequence while filming.

 Alexander Witt then goes on to create an establishing shot as a BCU of a woman's eye. This is an effective technique as it shoes who the main character is going to be in the narrative.

 The sequence then goes on to show montages in different parts of the same shot. This is useful as it creates connotations of chaos, speed and multitude of information. This again is a useful technique as it shows the audience what has been happening previous to present day in a short amount of time.

 While the montage is being shown, the selection of screens being shown are violently swish panned and crabbed left and right, up and down pausing for moments on each screen. While also being quickly tracked in and out. This again creates connotations of chaos and speed, while also giving the added impression of progressing along the story. This is an easy technique to use, and could be a key aspect of my opening sequence.

 I found that low angle shots are mainly used for the main character and authority figures. This connotes power. High angle shots are used for the 'weaker' characters.

 Many birds-eye or very high angle shots were used in the opening sequence to give an establishing shot of locations. This is useful as it shows the audience exactly what is happening from all areas of the room, however it is hard to see emotions and distinguish characters. This may be good to use in a few shots as a character enters a location.

 Many CUs were used in the opening sequence to depict the character's emotion, mostly being either disturbingly vacant, or in a state of terror. CUs will be used a lot in my opening sequence. Tracking in or out from a CU gives a good visual effect and Will also probably be used.

 Worm's-eye view from a POV shot is also very effective as it creates a feeling of the character looming over the audience.

 Overall from this I have learnt that quick tracking/panning/crabbing can create a sense of chaos and speed relatively easily. Also using BCU's as an establishing shot can be useful, and Bird's-eye or High angle views are a good way to establish a location. Lastly, montages are an excellent way to display information quickly, and can create connotations very effectively. I plan to use this to establish main characters quickly, and create time-switches in an easy to understand and uncomplicated way.   

Technical Shot Analysis - Ironman

Evaluation

In conclusion to my technical analysis of the film “Ironman” I found out several techniques used in certain situations to enhance the film. For example I have learnt that in the opening sequences of a film there is usually an extreme long shot, this is used as an establishing shot to show the watcher the location and sometimes other key elements to the movie. The next technique used which I think is successful is cutting to smaller shot sizes to draw the watcher into the scene. Usually after the extreme long shot there will be a medium long shot and then a medium close up to achieve this technique. From this technical analysis I have also learnt that during conversation there are many shots of each character up to 20 shots and more for one conversation each shot lasting only 1,2 or 3 seconds so the watcher is able to see both characters reactions and actions during the conversation as if they were there in person. The best shot for these specific of conversations are medium close ups and are used consistently throughout conversation. Another successful technique I have learnt is that before the characters are introduced the camera focuses on a relevant object that they may be holding or nearby, this can be used to convey certain emotions or a certain situation or social group and I find this technique very successful and would think about using it in my opening sequence.

Institutional Research - Part 1

Firstly someone gets an idea for the film which is inspired by everything around them, then that person goes to the producer who decides wheatear or not the idea will work. If the idea is good enough the director will start to transform the script so it will work well onscreen. The writer then takes the idea, defines and clarifies it turning it into something tangible. After that is complete the treatment is produces, the treatment is a one page description of the main story and the characteristics of the film. Once this is done the pitch is created which is used to sell the idea to potential financers.

After this first stage is complete the producer sets out to get development finance for the film from companies. Sometimes they will offer the future sales and broadcast rights to the film in return for investment. The producer can also apply to the UK film council for a grant and even go to private investors for money.

After the producer has got the development finance he or she will start the script development process. The writer will produce a synopsis and the producer will agree or disagree on key scenes. Part of the writer’s fee will be conditional on the delivery of their first draft; this can be the hardest part of screen writing. Once both the producer and the writer are happy the idea is sent to financers all of which have their own ideas. Once everyone is happy with the script it becomes locked off and the writer is paid. The treatment is then written.

The producer and director now package the film to make it ready for financing. They make the project more commercial by attaching well known actors to it. The director will then work out a rough budget for how much the movie will cost. Once that is done the investors are told what their money will be spent on and how the producer will pay them back. Now that the producer has packaged the film it is time to see what people think of it.

This is where the financing stage begins. The producer will travel around the world to find investors. Once potential investors have been found the producer’s lawyer draws up contracts to seal the deals with investors. There are actually specialist departments of banks which invest in film and commercial projects. Once the essential insurance and funding parts are completed the producer relaxes.

Then the pre-production begins. All of the heads of department are hired and the shooting script is passed between them. The casting director then begins to identify and cast the actors. The storyboard is made explaining all the shots throughout the film and the special effects shots are planned. The planning of these special effects shots can take months to design and build.

Institutional Research - Part 2

7 – The Shoot

 Key moment in production, shooting begins, funding released.

 Camera department get all footage the director and editor need.

 Once mise-en-scene is set up, shot can begin.

 Special effects are organised for minimal risk.

 Time is organised extremely carefully

8 – Post Production

 Editor creates a rough cut.

 Sound is added.

 Digital effects and title screens are added.

 Grade and colour is edited.

 Sound and picture are synchronised and edited.

 Final cut is created.

9 – Sales

 Producer employs sales agent.

 Trailer is made to show most marketable aspects of the product.

 Producer and sales agent collect everything to begin selling film.

 Producer goes to great lengths to attract consumers.

 Screenings are shown.

 Producer negotiates deal with distributors.

10 – Marketing

 Marketing team runs test screenings to see how product is received.

 Product is advertised in posters, trailers, magazines, radio etc.

 Internet provides niche marketing.

 Deal with cinemas negotiated to screen it.

11 – Exhibition

 High-profile premier with celebrities attending, provides a media explosion. (lots of media coverage)

 Distributors supply exhibitors with prints of the product.

 Exhibitors take share of box office receipts, distributors recoup marketing costs, financiers recover investments as in recoupment schedule.

12 – Other Windows

 Hotel and in-flight entertainment can bring in lots of revenue.

 DVDs are sold and bought by consumers.

 Film rights are sold to TV stations for additional revenue.

 Rights for video games and other product licences are sold.

 Once profit is made, producer and key creative people reap the rewards.

 Final income is not known, additional sales, re-releasing etc.

Feedback #2

Well done - this continues to be a high level 4 planning blog. You are clearly working well as a group and your research is relevant and focused.

I would like to see the evaluation of your preliminary task - however excellent work - keep it going!

Silent Hill Opening Analysis

‘Silent Hill’ 

Christophe Gans, 2006

 ‘Silent Hill’ is a modern horror film. The opening screen is first black, with the name of the director shown in white lettering; the font connotes that it has been typed. This is a motif font for horror as it suggests a grimy and imperfect feel to the text. Yelling can then be heard over the black, of a woman and a man. With the woman asking if the man can see anything. It then cuts to an image of a house at night with a low angle shot of a young woman, dressed in pyjamas, screaming a name. This fulfils generic expectations of a horror film, as the establishing shot of the young woman introduces her as the protagonist, commonly used in modern horror films. The time this takes place in is night. Which is also classic for horror films and conforms to the generic expectations of the audience. This connotes more fear and mystery as the audience can see little of what is happening and creates an enigmatic scene. The woman later runs down a pathway in the dark, past silhouetted trees, to pick up a stuffed bear. This creates an assurance in the audience that this is a horror film, as the trees silhouetted against moonlight are a motif amongst most horror films, and so create a certain connotation with horror. The stuffed bear has a connotation to children, especially female children; this also conforms to generic expectations, but suggests more of a psychological horror. This is because stuffed bears connote children, and innocence, which would normally challenge expectations, but doesn’t, as the rest of the mise-en-scene and the woman’s reaction to finding the bear suggest fear, and a sinister meaning to it. This conforms to psychological horror as it takes something the audience normally connotes as something safe, and turns it into something evil, and to be afraid of. Displaying a motif ironically. Near the end the audience is shown an image of the girl and the woman hugging, this takes place on a cliff, with a burning cross shown in the background. This fulfils more generic expectations of a horror film, specifically a psychological horror film as the cross connotes the church, and Christianity, however the fact that it is burning suggests an evil association with the symbol. This turns the symbol of something normally associated as safe and wholesome into something bad and evil. It also suggests a religious theme to the film, and treats religion ironically, which is popular in most horror films. One part of the opening sequence depicts a girl on top of a cliff, swaying as she stands. This connotes that she is possessed, which is very common in horror films and so the audience’s expectations of a horror film are further fulfilled. The shot then dissolves to what the audience is shown as what the girl is seeing in her mind, as a tall structure tinted red, with black pieces. This conforms to generic expectations, as these are classic camera styles and filters used in horror films. Lastly we are also shown the woman in a tunnel with graffiti inside it. This connotes fear again as the tunnel is dark, and the sound of running water can be heard, moving vehicles above can also be heard, but echo in the tunnel and have a warped sound to them. This sound technique is used in many horror films and so generic expectations are fulfilled to the audience.  

 Mise-en-scene conveys meaning in the opening sequence by using darkness and the use of symbols. At the end the audience is shown the woman and girl embracing, with a burning cross in the background. This suggests an evil meaning in the text as a burning cross has connotations of the ‘KKK’ which are depicted as evil in society. The burning cross also has meaning behind it as a cross symbolises Christianity, which is thought to be a good thing in society. However the cross being shown as burning connotes a demonic feeling and corruption associated with the symbol. Or that God is absent in this location. Another symbol used is the stuffed bear. This has wholesome connotations with it as it symbolises children and innocence. However this is betrayed by the woman finding it discarded on the dirt floor. This connotes that something has happened to the owner of the bear, probably being a child, and that there is a loss of innocence, which creates an enigma. Showing the woman pick up the bear also suggests that the woman is the mother and that she is looking for her child. When the audience is shown the image of the girl wearing a one-piece set of blue pyjamas with a white butterfly on it, the audience assumes the girl is innocent and good through iconography.  This is also exaggerated as there is a bright white light shown on her face to make her seem more angelic, severely contrasting with the burning cross. The butterfly icon also symbolises youth, as does the one-piece set of pyjamas. The colours used during the girl’s vision also conveyed meaning as the director used black and red colours when the camera tracks down in a bird’s-eye shot. This forms connotations with hell. Which again conflicts with the girl depicted as innocent and suggests more corruption within the girl. This occurs again once the downward tracking stops at an image of the same girl, but instead of her being covered in white light, she is covered with a dark red light, suggesting evil and corruption once more and forming connotations with hell and a demonic feel. This creates an enigma as to who the girl is, or which one is the real girl, and what the significance of this is. At the beginning the audience is shown a house. The style of house suggests it is an American, family home as the connotations with the size, style and lights shown suggest so, e.g. the audience is shown a white picket fence which forms classic American family home connotations. The camera techniques also convey meaning. At the start the audience is shown an MCU of the woman’s face. This is used to show her expressions, which convey fear and looking for something as the camera goes close to show her looking around. A later ELS is shown of the woman running through the woods, this is shown to the audience to depict how vast the area she is searching is, and let the audience see the environment, to receive the connotations of the location. Also at the beginning the audience is shown a low angled MLS of the woman, this makes the woman look more powerful to the audience and establishes her as the protagonist. This is in contrasted with the man on the balcony in the background, out of focus, depicting him to the audience to be not as important. When running along the pathway, the camera films the woman running along the leading line. The camera then pans right to a new stretch of pathway, this suggests to the audience that this is where the woman is about to run along, and creates a new leading line. The audience is also shown the image of the girl on the cliff. The camera then crabs and pans left to the woman emerging from the woods. This shows the distance the woman is from the two characters and gives a smooth effect, making the audience feel like observers. Also when the woman turns to a new leading line, the camera pans very quickly as a swish pan. This makes the scene seem more frantic. The director uses a steadicam when circling the characters, and when panning. The camera never tracks with the characters. This makes the audience feel as if they are observing the situation without making them feel as if they are in the scene. Another angle is where the audience is shown a bird’s-eye view of the girl on the cliff, this shows the audience the environment, and connotes the girl to be less powerful and insignificant. Lastly the director uses an MCU at the end of the two older characters to show expressions of the characters clearly, and lets the audience focus on dialogue easier. Sound anchors the image connotations effectively in this sequence. As at the beginning crickets can be heard, this enforces the connotations of night, and the woodland location. This is further enforced with the sound of running water connoting a stream nearby. Car sounds also enforce that there is a road above the woman while she is under the bridge, which then echoes when shots under the bridge is shown, warping the sound and creating a mysterious effect. ‘Whooshing’ sounds are used to indicate the speed of the cars. A deep rumbling sound is used to anchor the image of a waterfall being shown. When shown the girl on the cliff a music track starts of a male groaning voice, with deep music behind it, this connotes sadness and darkness which anchors the image as having evil connotations. When shown the ‘vision’ of the girl the audience hears metal bars hitting one another, this anchors the image of the structure and connotes that it is unstable, and also makes a high pitched noise indicting the speed at which the vision is being shown. At the beginning the woman is shouting ‘Sharon’ this suggests that the woman is searching for a girl named Sharon. She also begins to look around frantically, this suggests that she is worried and anxious about the whereabouts of the girl. It is also clear to the audience that the man and woman have a romantic relationship through the way at the end they speak close to each other, hugging one another. It is also clear later that Sharon is their daughter as when she picks up the stuffed bear, suggesting to the audience that Sharon is a little girl, as she shouts ‘Honey’ which connotes that she is their child. This is later enforced when she says ‘wait for mommy’ which shows they are one family. From the girl we also learn that she has been sleepwalking as her body language suggests so to the audience, and through incomplete sentences. We also learn that she is scared of a place called ‘Silent Hill’ as she screams when she says it. Lastly we learn that this has been a problem from some time as the parents say that ‘she said it again’.

Other techniques the director uses is fading in and out of black at the end and beginning of the opening sequence to have a smooth transition between scenes. He also uses some shots starting high, then coming down low, so the audience feel they are being put into the action.

 The narrative is organised chronologically with some fast forward cuts, to switch to different parts of locations without spoiling the continuity. The audience is placed mainly with the mother throughout the opening sequence, but are placed out of the scene for the majority, by the use of bird’s eye shots and static shots, and panning instead of tracking with the character. The scene also cuts to what other characters are doing for small amounts of time so the audience can see what is happening altogether. Another example of this is that the director chose the camera to track into the vision, past what the girl’s viewpoint was. This gives the audience a more in-depth view of what is happening. But sacrifices being closer to what the character is seeing. The audience identifies the woman as being a young American mother. This is because of the clothing that she wears, which are a white tank top and a pair of shorts. This is the kind of clothing an audience associates a young woman to wear. And identify her as American through her accent. The audience also identifies her as a mother through her body language with the child, as she embraces the child, and calls her ‘honey’, then refers to herself as ‘mommy’, which is stereotypical American parental dialogue. The audience also identify the girl as being her daughter, and alienation is employed as the audience discover there is something mentally wrong with her. This is shown by the audience being shown her ‘vision’. Where a series of demonic connotations take place, alienating her from stereotypical depictions of little girls.

The audience is shown that this takes place in America through the iconic image of an American styled house, and through showing what cars are going past over the bridge, being mainly SUVs. Also the trees added with the stream and waterfall connote that it is a small town and therefore suggesting the location as an American village. The major themes in the narrative are mystery and fear. This is because the audience are not shown what the woman is looking for, for a duration of the opening and are left at the end with the enigma of ‘Silent Hill’ and what has happened in the past, as this clearly has happened a number of times. The theme of fear is created by showing a great deal of CU shots of the mother’s face when she is looking for the girl. Also, created when the girl is screaming on the floor the fear is created by showing how scared she is, the audience then empathises with the character and becomes scared also. Tension is created by hearing the screaming at the start, but no visual idea of what is happening, this pulls the audience in, waiting to see what is going on in the scene. This is then maintained as the audience follows the mother to see what she is looking for. Once she sees the girl, even more tension is created through the ominous music, and the threat of the girl falling off the cliff. This then comes to a climax when the girl begins to tilt forward, exciting the audience, but then the woman tackles her to the ground, shocking the audience.

 Parents and young children are represented in this sequence. The parents are represented by the two adults. They are represented to be caring and loving concerned parents as they are shown at the start and the end of the sequence to be concerned for their daughter’s health. They are also shown to care more for their daughter than for their own safety, as the father is shown running across a road with cars driving fast towards him, and only nearly missing hitting him. This shows that they value their child a great deal and so the parents are put in a  positive light with the audience. They are also depicted as being the ‘heroes’ as the mother saves the girl from falling off the cliff at the last second, clearly saving the girls life. This connotes that the mother is heroic and protective. It represents small children as people who cannot help themselves, and are helpless without adults. This is shown by the girl screaming about the vision, and almost falling off the cliff, but being saved by her mother. Later on both mother and father are shown hugging the daughter in a protective stance, lowering the audience’s view of her independence.  The ideological discourse created in the opening sequence is challenging the stereotypical view that men are the heroes, this is challenged by showing the shot of the mother getting to the girl first and the mother saving the daughter, without the help of the father. It is also challenged by filming the majority of the film with the woman, this connotes her acts to be more important than the male’s actions. Lastly this is also shown with the camera angles as the woman is shown with a low angle and in front of the man in the establishing shot, this connotes her to be more powerful as she is at the front, at a low angle, and the man is out of focus in comparison. Another ideological discourse in the sequence is enforcing that children need their parents for protection, and are not safe without the parents and are not independent. This is shown by the director showing mostly what the parents are doing throughout the sequence. Without showing what the child is doing, and she remains an object for the majority of the narrative. This is also shown by the parents comforting the daughter while she screams. This connotes that the parents are more in control and that the child cannot handle the situation whereas, they can. The parents are also shown hugging the child, this is a protective body language and connotes that the child needs protection form the outside world. The use of semiotics is employed to identify  how the characters are represent by for example giving the audience an image of a burning cross the audience connotes that the child is or has something evil to do with it. Also the child is represented as young and innocence by the use of having a butterfly on her pyjamas. But combined with her sleepwalking, this connotes that she is not in control and is in fact helpless. The woman’s tank top also is used as a device to show her role in the sequence as white tank tops are a classic symbol of a female that takes control through action. This is true as the audience is shown her saving the girl from falling. Lastly the symbol of a stuffed bear signifies that the woman is looking for a child, through connotations. This gives the audience a steady flow of clues as to what is going on in the sequence.

 The target audience for this film is young males. This is because horror films try to mainly target young men as they as a majority are more likely to enjoy a horror film. Probable readings of the text are that the girl had been sleepwalking and is having visions of hell, and the parents saved her form falling to her death, and that Silent Hill is a place where they can stop this from happening. Another probable reading is that the girl is possessed and that the thing that is possessing her wants to try to kill her, and that Silent Hill is where this can be stopped. A negotiated reading may be that the parents are the ones doing this to her and that the parents are trying to kill her. An abberant reading may be that the woman is from the future trying to save herself as a kid. As a British teenager I read the text as the girl being possessed by something to do with a place called ‘Silent Hill’ I enjoyed the text as I found it ominous and enigmatic. My age may have influenced my reading as I am neither a parent, adult or young child and so cannot relate to the characters as well as someone else could, this may have made me miss certain clues within the dialogue in reference to explaining the enigma further. My gender may have influenced my understanding slightly as I may have not identified with the main female role in the sequence and saw the man as more of a hero than another might. My cultural background influences my reading of the text as many religious icons were used, and so other religious backgrounds may not have understood those references.

 

 

 

 

Amityville Horror Opening Analysis

‘Amityville Horror’

Andrew Douglas, 2005

The ‘Amityville Horror’ belongs to the genre of Mystery Horror, the opening sequence is set in the 1970’s and the storyline is clearly linear. The generic audience’s expectations are fulfilled in the text as in the opening scene ominous music is playing, it is night, lightning is striking constantly and there is a yellow filter used whilst the original colour is slightly washed out. The evil character “Ronnie” is male and the innocent characters are mainly females which reinforces the generic horror movie expectations. ‘The Amityville Horror’ conforms to the characteristics of the genre because it is produced by American’s who conform to the conventions of the genre. They stick to the classic style horror intended to unease viewers so that they jump at anything. The sequence is action charged and fast pace employing many of the classic conventions of horror including lighting, location, sound etc.
In this opening sequence mise-on-scene is used to inform the audience of certain things without explaining them in dialogue within the film. Firstly we can tell that the sequence is set in the 70’s due to the clothing worn by the characters. We can also tell by the text’s font which looks like a typewriter’s font that the sequence happened a long time ago and that it was a documented event. The items lying on Ronnie’s table also convey a sense of evil to the viewers. By showing a quick shot of the items viewers only have a split second to interpret them. Cigarettes are shown which have unpleasant connotations and are usually associated with criminal people. There is also a book lying on the table which title reads “EVIL is PROOF of GOD” this instantly gets the viewer thinking about evil, god and other powerful forces that may be at work in this scene. An establishing long shot is then shown of the basement which Ronnie is in, we know it is a basement because of the mise-on-scene of the location showing a low ceiling, staircase and old basement boiler. This is another example of how mise-on-scene explains certain things to the viewer without presenting them in dialogue form. The way that Ronnie’s hair is long and partially converging his face connotes that he is a rebel and that he doesn’t follow rules which adds another level of fear to this sequence. The pictures of Ronnie on his shelf show him at graduation which conveys the message that he was once a good person and that something has changed. The layout of the house once Ronnie starts to walk through it shows that the family is wealthy and large and from pictures hanging on the wall look happy, this adds a great contrast as the family is at peace expect one family member, Ronnie, who is presented as evil. The camera work in this sequence is also used to convey meaning by using different camera movement and different shot sizes. One of the first shots of the sequence is an extreme long shot of the house. This establishing shot sets the scene introducing the location. Then extreme close up shots of Ronnie are shown, this is to convey his emotions which at this point in time are possessed. A very fast cutting rhythm is purposely used to add tension to the sequence and emphasize the action. The shots usually start at a medium long shot to establish whereabouts a character is an then cuts to a closer shot such as a big close up to firstly add tension and secondly show the emotions of that particular character. The angles used a very deliberate, When Ronnie is shown in the shot the camera is at a low angle which shows him as big and powerful whereas when the rest of the family are shown the camera angle is very high which shows them as weak helpless and defenceless. There is a mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic sound used in this opening sequence to anchor the images shown. Firstly the non-diegetic sound, throughout the whole sequence ominous and ambient music is playing. This music creates and maintains the tension within the sequence and makes sure that every shot is seen in an evil light. The only change to this music is that with the action it speeds up and gets louder to emphasize fear and tension. Other noticeable non-diegetic sound is a deep bass boom and camera click. The booms happen in synchronisation with shocking elements within the sequence to enhance them and cause an increase in tension within the audience. This works very effectively and also coincide with the fast cutting rhythm to add to the fast pace of the sequence. The camera clicks are played as the shots cut to convey the message that this is an event that has happened in the past and to help the fast cutting rhythm flow well. There are many diegetic sounds within the sequence one of the most important being the voice over. This voice over is diegetic because it is actually a somebody’s voice coming from the house, the voice is in a whispering tone but loud in volume so the audience can clearly make it out, the voice speaks the words “Catch them, kill them!” which reinforces the sense of evil within the scene and adds a very sinister level to the sequence. There are also many conventional horror sounds within the sequence which also conform to the generic expectations of the genre, these include lightning strikes, creaking doors etc. We also learn things about the characters through their dialogue. In the opening sequence there is only two lines of dialogue spoken by two individual characters, this happens right at the end of the sequence when Ronnie is about to murder the last family member Jodie. She asks him “What’s wrong Ronnie?” which is spoken in an innocent quite voice. This explains to us the characters naivety and also her innocents. Ronnie then replies “I love you Jodie” before killing her, this shows that Ronnie does not want to kill her and is being made to do it by something else. This idea is also reinforces by the tear that is running down Ronnie’s face at the point. The director uses many visual techniques to connote subliminal messages in the sequence. Firstly he washes out the colour and uses a yellow tint, as well as making the sequence feel slightly surreal it makes it feel old conveying the message again that this is an event that has happen in the past. He also uses lots of flashes and black screen to increase the cutting rhythm even more to action charge the sequence and to avoid showing gory parts so that the viewer assume what has just happened. Another visual technique used is a light ray effect. This is used when the light source is positioned behind Ronnie, what it does is cast Ronnie completely in shadow causing him to be a silhouette, this silhouette of Ronnie has connotations of evil and the light source behind him connotes the fact that there is some good in him.
In “Amityville Horror” the audience are not positioned within the narrative, they are a spectator who is shown everything that happens to each character. Even though the audience is positioned as a spectator they are set up to feel emotion for certain characters as if they were positioned within the narrative. The director has used the fact the Ronnie lives down in the basement on his own to alienate him from the rest of his family and to raise the audience’s suspicions of Ronnie himself. He also used old clothing on the characters so that it is easy to identify them as from the 70’s.
In this sequence there is an ideological discourse because of representation of social groups on a macro level. The ideological ideas of capitalism are reinforced by “Amityville Horror” because it shows how wealth leads to a happiness and success in life. The ideological ideas are also challenged in the sequence because family idealistic views seen in the photographs on the walls show a happy family whereas the truth is that there is something going horribly wrong within the family. This also challenges capitalism because even though this family is wealthy and supposedly happy in reality something is going horribly wrong. This can also be seen as challenging capitalism as it can be trying to show how capitalism can blind you from the truth as Ronnie’s family members could not see him changing into the evil possessed character he is. The semiotics in the scene work as a framework to show how capitalism is good, for example the pictures on the walls of the house show how the wealthy people are also happy and live a healthy lifestyle. There are also other symbols to show characters profession, for example Ronnie is wearing a checked shirt which would connote that he was a manual labourer.
I believe that from watching the opening sequence of “Amityville Horror” the target audience is young males aged between seventeen and thirty. The audience could read the text in many ways that differ from the intended reading. The preferred reading of the text is to show how a wealthy, successful and happy family is destroyed by paranormal experiences experienced a young male in the household. This is the preferred reading but people may interpret the text in other ways for example they could read the text as trying to challenge capitalism. As a young British male I interpret the text in my own unique way, I do understand the text in the preferred reading way but I also do not feel completely connected to the text because it is set in America with American actors. This means that the text is actually more powerful when shown to American young males as opposed to British young males like myself.

Group Discussion - Story Ideas

Over the last few weeks George and I have narrowed our story ideas into two different concepts. 

Our first idea was to have an image of someone at night, and film this person running away from something that the audience cannot see, the person eventually runs into a barn and closes the door, the scene goes quiet, then banging is heard on the door, then more silence. The person finally turns around and a CU is shown on the persons face, the person screams and a flash of black is scene across the camera, taking the person out of view from the camera. And the title screen will appear.

Our second idea is to show a low shot of a hooded person, you cannot see the face, the person then looks around. The camera, after this then cuts to a birds eye shot, and shows there are dead people on the floor (location undecided) the person seems not to take notice. The person then starts to walk into the camera while the camera tracks back. While walking POV shots are shown cutting constantly to a montage of what is to be assumed as life before whatever has happened. E.g. Cutting from the image of a dead boy, to him speaking into the camera, from dark to light, and grainy. The person then comes to a door with red/orange light coming out of the window. The audience cannot see through the window and have a side view LS. The person then opens the door, screaming can be heard, he walks in, and the door closes, then silence. The title screen will then come up. 

We are undecided with which idea to use and will probably use a mix of the two. 

Group Discussion - Music and Locations

Toady Cameron and I discussed music and locations for our opening sequence. We both agreed that the music we chose for our opening would have a dramatic impact on the feeling and effectiveness of the sequence and therefore decided to look into the genre of ominous ambient music. We chose ambient music because from our initial story ideas the opening sequence is not likely to be action charged so slower tempo music would be fitting. This presented us with a problem because we both didn’t know of any ambient and ominous music tracks. We decided to do a bit of research and after a couple of minutes found loads of ambient ominous tracks to choose from. The music which we found put us on edge when listening to and had an eerie feel to it so it was perfect. For locations we thought that it would be a good idea to find deserted, dirty and old locations as from my locations mood board we had seen that these locations were the scariest. After a few minutes we realised that there was a perfect location in Pembury at the farm, this would be idea as we both live in Pembury and so filming would not be an issue. It was an old deserted and dirty barn which would be perfect. After asking the farmer for approval to use it for filming we would like to somehow incorporate it into our opening sequences.

Here are some photographs of the barn:

Psychological Horror Moodboard

Psychological Horror Moodboard Analysis:

This moodboard shows that psychological horror is more about being disturbing than being an adrenaline rush of shock. Psychological horror tends to be more subtle compared to other sub-genres of horror. It creates discomfort in the viewer by displaying common psychological fears society represses or denies. Or conveys something society finds safe and innocent as something to be afraid of, making the audience feel vulnerable, e.g. showing the church as location for evil doings, or a child as a killer. A good example of this is in the image above of the little girl with no mouth. The lighting and costume connotes her to be innocent, but the missing mouth suggests there is something severely wrong and disturbing about this girl, betraying the previous connotations, as most psychological horrors do. Psychological horror also creates fear in the audience by using dark, blue, red and green filters. This connotes death and evil as occurs in most horrors. And includes most stock locations associated with horror, like in the moodboard below. Psychological horror tries to take something society sees as safe, and turns it into something to be afraid of, challenging certain connotations. 

Horror Locations Moodboard

Location Mood Board Analysis:

From this mood board I have learnt that darkness is very important in creating an ominous atmosphere in a location. In nearly all of the pictures darkness is used along with a high contrast which connotes a sense of evil, portraying whatever objects are in the picture in an evil light therefore giving the location a scary feel. For example if a grave was shown in a bright picture with flowers on it, it would be interpreted differently from if it was shown in darkness. In many of the pictures the colour is washed out and they have a red or blue tint to them. The ones with a blue tint feel very cold and evil whereas the ones with a red tint have a sense of evil or anger to them. One thing which instantly sets of connotations of evil in all these locations is iconography. The use of gravestones and misty woodland is particularly effective but even the general mess shown in some of the locations sets of connotations. So when I set out to find locations for my coursework I will look for deserted locations preferably slightly messy with an ominous feel to them. Then after shooting I would decrease the brightness and increase the contrast and maybe put a colour filter over the top in editing to really make the location feel scary.

Horror Characters Moodboard

Character Mood Board Analysis:

From this mood board I have learnt that there are many techniques used in all these characters pictures to connote evil and to scare people. The first most obvious technique is that all the characters eyes have been made very wide and distorted, this removes the characters personality making it very hard to know what the character is thinking, we interpret the unknown as a threat and therefore the characters are scary. Much like the locations, the characters have a blue or red tint to them; this connotes the cold for blue and anger for red. The characters are in uncomfortable poses often an aggressive stance which creates discomfort in the viewer. The use of unpleasant things such as damp and dirt are also used to put the viewer on edge and make them feel uncomfortable. Another technique used here is to make the camera shot cantered, this gives a sense of unease in the picture and connotes a feeling of no control. When I set out to create horror characters I will look at trying to distort their eyes and making them dirty, I will also make sure there pose is awkward and threatening.

28 Days Later Opening Analysis

'28 Days Later'

Danny Boyle, 2002

“28 Days Later” is a modern horror film that falls under the genre of post apocalyptic British drama. This instantly sets the audiences generic horror movie expectations and 28 Days Later fills all of those expectations by sticking to the successful horror movie formula. In other words it doesn’t push the bar by straying from the classic horror film form. The opening sequence also conforms to the characteristics of the genre, presenting something intended to be scary with all the conventions of a horror film instead of playing with contrasting entities. For example when the infected monkeys escape later in the opening sequence, dramatic music starts playing instead of calm music. From the first scene it is obvious the film has a linear storyline and that the introduction is the cause for the rest of the movie. The character exposition in the first scene introduces two sets of people, an animal testing scientist and a group of animal cruelly extremists. It is obvious straight away who the characters are because of the use of stereotypical views, the scientist is dressed in a lab coat and the extremists are wearing balaclavas. To make the characters deeper than the stereotypical views that the scene first portrays, the use of verbal and non verbal language is key. The extremist’s voices are loud and delivered in an aggressive, their posture is also aggressive and movement is fast but have a naivety about them as they are in unfamiliar territory. This portrays them as tough characters but also blinded by their aggression and naivety. On the other hand the scientist non verbal language clearly shows he is scared. This is backed up with his voice which unlike the extremist’s is quite stuttering and quite but he is presented as knowledgeable talking in a formal way using scientific terms.
The style of “28 Days Later” has many aspects. Firstly, the camera work is quite unique. During the eerie slow parts a very slow, panning, wide long shot is used to set the scene and convey the idea of a relaxed atmosphere. The shot usually includes something at the edge in the foreground which is not important to the scene but used to convey mise on scene and give a sense of scale. Then during the more action orientated parts a steady cam is used with a medium long shot but doesn’t move much at all. The use of the medium long shot combined with steady cam put us into the scene more to give a more immersive experience. From analysing this sequence I can see some camera techniques used to build tension. In some shots the camera angle is cantered to convey the feeling of unease. This is particularly effective when used in conjunction with darkness. The audience is generally positioned within the narrative as a spectator getting to know people and feel emotion for them, yet again this gives a more immersive experience for the watcher. When the woman extremist starts to turn towards the end of the scene a big close up is used so that we can see her emotions. The use of steady cam rather than handicam keeps the watchers calmer and able to focus on key events in the scene. The lighting is very dark throughout the scene which connotes a sense of evil, the unknown and mystery, the scene seems to have a high contrast which also makes the shadows more dramatic. Colour is also used to stylize the sequence, to do this a blue filter is used in calmer parts to keep watchers clam but still on edge with the sense of cold and a red filter is used in heavy action parts to connote the message of anger, rage and action and other associations made with the colour red. The most used non-diegetic sound is the music which is constantly ambient throughout maintaining the tension of the scene. This ambient music is slow in tempo through the low action parts anchoring the images to the feeling of mystery and eeriness, this conveys to the watcher mystery and eeriness as they interpret all the props in the scene such as the monkey heads which is another techniques used to build tension in this sequence. This is a great example of how the feel of a scene can be changed by the music. When the action starts the music continues but another non-diegetic sound begins. This is a fast pace, pulsing, heartbeat type sound which connotes fear, adrenaline, etc adding tension to the scene during these parts. The original ambient music also speeds up connoting the feeling of tension and subconsciously putting the watcher on edge. The diegetic sound which stands out to have the biggest impact on the scene is the screams of monkeys; this yet again connotes fear and the sense that something isn’t right. For the setting, a stock location lab is used; the lab is presented as very high tech which connotes the idea of modern, advanced complicated science. The use of modern clothing on all the characters also tells us that the film is set in the modern world.
There is a lot of ideological discourse even in just the opening scene of “28 Days Later” so I will explore some of this discourse on two layers. Firstly the social groups within the text are represented in a certain way. One of the extremists has long hair which would connote that he is a rebel and doesn’t abide by rules, this also reinforced with his swearing. On the other hand the scientist is pale faced and very skinny which connotes weakness and poor health. On a bigger scale the views shown in the text such as the extremists who are against animal testing can be interpreted as all people with anti-animal testing views are rebels who don’t follow rules. This is also true for the Scientist, which represents all scientists as skinny and unhealthy. The ideological discourse also reinforces the set of beliefs that animal testing is wrong and also dangerous. The monkeys are kept in very bad conditions and the extremist woman reacts to that by crying. This reinforces the idea that animal testing is morally wrong. The sequence also reinforces the idea that animal testing is dangerous rather than beneficial.
In this opening scene the mise-on-scene is also important. The props lying around the lab include test tubes, vials and parts of monkey. This conveys the idea of experiments and scientific work and reinforces the stereotypical views of the lab, backed up with the ambient music these items in the scene feel eerie. The way the characters are positioned in the scene is also significant. The extremists are shown in a group in a small area whilst the scientist is shown on his own in an open plan area. This shows that the scientist is completely outnumbered and doesn’t stand any chance of stopping the naive extremists.
From the opening sequence of “28 Days Later” I believe that the target audience are males ages between 18 and 30. As a young British male myself I interpret the text in a certain way because of my social background. As the film is set in modern Britain and I live in modern Britain I believe that I interpret the text just as the director intended me too. If I were of a different nationality I would have to look deeper into the social situation of Britain before making my interpretation of the text.