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.