Sunday, 20 December 2009
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
Monday, 14 December 2009
evaluation Part 4
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Document/video/mp3 hosting/ upload sites such as youtube, idrive.com and archive.org
We could not have been so efficient in the production process without the internet. As me and my partner live a distance from each other, we sometimes had to work from two different locations and send accross work we did individually and criticise each others work and put new ideas towards them, which at the end of the day actually made our coursework excellent quality and hopefully a good grade.
Blogger itself
This enables us to share both the print products and the written work so we both work together. Bloggers comment application also provides an excellent service to get audience feedback from anyone accross the globe.
Search engines and probably specific sites such as Wikipedia, imdb, guardian, BBC, amazon.co.uk, play.com
Search engines provide us both with a powerful tool to find new material and useful sources we can use to help us develop new ideas etc. Wikipedia provided us with useful material into the history of horror films and also with facts and figures of how much films such as Friday the 13th made at the box office as did imdb.com.
Photoshop
This was the software I used to develop my ancillary tasks. To begin with my knowledge of this software was not familiar. But as I gave it a head on approach, my skills began to develop with my work.
imovie 06, final cut express 4, Sony Vegas
We used a number of video editing software, as you can see we used Imovie 6, we only used final cut express 4 for a little bit and then also Sony Vegas.
Here is an example of what Sony Vegas looks like...
Sony Vegas provided us with better technology to give the production a less 'amateur' feel. For example more flexibility with the fade in and fade out transitions. We could put more impressive editing into the project as me and my partner are much more experienced with Sony Vegas, for example, in our product we,ve got the Freeze frame at the beginning, allowing us to stop part of the film in order to focus on a creepy face using a close up shot.
We ve mainly stuck to a linear narrative combined with parallel editing to create a powerful order of events with some suprise quick shots completely out of the blue to surprise the audience and get them excited.
iDVD 06
audio software - Video Copilot
The audio software we used for the project was 'Pro scores', this was alot of audio clips royalty and copyright free which then we put into the product and edited to make them unique and more effective on the clips.
portable digital audio recorder
We kept a few podcasts to let people know how we were getting on with production using a recording device installed in my partners mobile phone, we then sent this to the mac computers using Bluetooth connectivity.
DV camcorders
Obviously we couldnt have done the project without the sony camcorders provided. Im familiar with these camcorders as with other technologies I have used for this project because I used them for my AS production. The SONY DV camera we used, isn't a professional piece of equipment, but as we are amateurs it was suitable and straight forward to use.
Scanner
The scanner came in use for getting written work up on my blog.
Macs
The Mac computers we used suited the type of production very well, as they are more high tech and have more upto date technologies such as bluetooth, as compared to other computers around the school.
Social networking sites for getting audience feedback.
I placed the final cut on my facebook profile, making it visible to 324 people and we got some good feedback...
George Needham - 'Looks pretty god damn sweet Toby'.
Aswell as 3 likes.
And several other comments.
If my production was to be a real life product, it wouldn't be a low budgeted and heavily marketed film. We would be more likely to work with small 'indie' company's such as WarpX. The marketing strategies we would use would be below the line marketing, low cost marketing, such as newspaper ads and online campaigns such as mass emailing and cheap ads on sites such as Facebook, where you can specifically target your audience straight to them. We would apply for money to invest in the film, to cover production costs from The British Film Council or Channel 4 film who sometimes also fund low budgeted British films.
The ad campaign, for example, on Facebook, are very useful at targeting your specific audience, as they have a system to achieve this. The site is also used by the youth, so it would be a very good place to attract our young target audience.
Obviously, are marketing couldn't compete with the likes of conglomerates such as NewsCorp, as they even own Myspace.com which they use constantly to market their new film releases.
British Cinema has always had huge competition from Hollywood, especially as Hollywood has a much larger home audience.
Many British films influenced by political history, such as the 1980's, Shaun Meadows ' This Is England' was set in the times of when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister and it was the Falklands war.
Useful link on British Cinema History :
New technologies such as digital technologies have allowed small British film production companies to create quite a name for themselves. It has also allowed us to gather much feedback from various age groups, especially by embedding our trailer on facebook. New technologies especially the internet has allowed us to market our film for free. Obviously we could not afford to pay for advertising and like companies in the real industry that only have small budgets, the internet has opened up many more advantages for them to make successes out of their productions without spending big budgets. Big blockbusters have the funds to use media campaigns such as magazine covers and tvs ads (above the line marketing) however small companies such as WarpX can compete with this using websites and they may not be able to afford magazines campaigns but they can re-create their own budgeted version using e-newsletters and message campaigns.
Evaluation Part 3
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
The target audience : The audience for our media product would be people aged from 15 to 24. We attracted our audience by the content of the film, although 'illegal' until 18 alcohol is praised upon by the youth, aswell as sex and violence, these things attract the attention of the audience and keep them drawn in. Also attracting our audience is made easier as we have used similar aged characters to our target audience. The mise-en-scene we used specifically interests the audience e.g sex, violence and alcohol. Not only do we try to attract a young target audience in the teaser trailer, but also in the ancillary tasks aswell, for example the magazine cover would be that off a magazine thats readers of a young age or people who specifically by the magazine because they are into the latest films e.g Empire.
I jotted down notes of the feedback, which we then used when editig the rough cut.
An example of audience feedback for us was 'The begining clips need to edited down as they are a bit too slow', 'the clips dont work very well as a sequence'. We took the feedback very seriously as it means alot to us, as its external views and opinions not biased by us.
Audience feedback is very important as it provided us with external views and opinions which is crucial for us to develop forms and conventions that attract are target audience, as we got feedback from people who fit the criteria as the target audience.
We also got feedback from professionals who can provide excellent points that helped us to develop are product and also to make use of the clips we shot in a more
effective way.
I am very pleased with my Final Cut, alot of effort has been put into this project and its been a rollacoaster. However obviously there is some bad points, such as some of the clips could may be shortened down a bit more and the trailer itself could have a bit shorter.
We provided a quick narrative that didnt give the story away however it makes the audience want to see it. Throughout the film there is much intertextuality as it conatains many refernces to other films. We editing it with different clips so its starts off with equilibrium however with a couple of jump cuts in and then towards the end of the trailer it enters a state of complete disequilibrium. We also put in a couple of freeze frames just to give the audience a break and let them experience a little equilibrium and then dive straight back into disequilibrium to get there hearts racing.
The sound we used also is very important and influences many of the clips. One of the main feedbacks was that we dont have much digetic sound, however this was always the plan, as of course we used a bit especially at the beginning but you notice how it sounds a bit quiet because the cameras dont really pick up the noise very well, however with non- digetic sound in the background and which gets louder as the trailer goes on its provides a tempo throught the production which takes the audience with it.
The target audience : The audience for our media product would be people aged from 15 to 24. We attracted our audience by the content of the film, although 'illegal' until 18 alcohol is praised upon by the youth, aswell as sex and violence, these things attract the attention of the audience and keep them drawn in. Also attracting our audience is made easier as we have used similar aged characters to our target audience. The mise-en-scene we used specifically interests the audience e.g sex, violence and alcohol. Not only do we try to attract a young target audience in the teaser trailer, but also in the ancillary tasks aswell, for example the magazine cover would be that off a magazine thats readers of a young age or people who specifically by the magazine because they are into the latest films e.g Empire.
I jotted down notes of the feedback, which we then used when editig the rough cut.
An example of audience feedback for us was 'The begining clips need to edited down as they are a bit too slow', 'the clips dont work very well as a sequence'. We took the feedback very seriously as it means alot to us, as its external views and opinions not biased by us.
Audience feedback is very important as it provided us with external views and opinions which is crucial for us to develop forms and conventions that attract are target audience, as we got feedback from people who fit the criteria as the target audience.
We also got feedback from professionals who can provide excellent points that helped us to develop are product and also to make use of the clips we shot in a more
effective way.
I am very pleased with my Final Cut, alot of effort has been put into this project and its been a rollacoaster. However obviously there is some bad points, such as some of the clips could may be shortened down a bit more and the trailer itself could have a bit shorter.
We provided a quick narrative that didnt give the story away however it makes the audience want to see it. Throughout the film there is much intertextuality as it conatains many refernces to other films. We editing it with different clips so its starts off with equilibrium however with a couple of jump cuts in and then towards the end of the trailer it enters a state of complete disequilibrium. We also put in a couple of freeze frames just to give the audience a break and let them experience a little equilibrium and then dive straight back into disequilibrium to get there hearts racing.
The sound we used also is very important and influences many of the clips. One of the main feedbacks was that we dont have much digetic sound, however this was always the plan, as of course we used a bit especially at the beginning but you notice how it sounds a bit quiet because the cameras dont really pick up the noise very well, however with non- digetic sound in the background and which gets louder as the trailer goes on its provides a tempo throught the production which takes the audience with it.
As my film is a slasher and after doing research into many slasher films, I began to notice a certain theme of the target audience for many of the slasher films I researched. The target for my film would be people between the age of 15 and 24, this is because the contents of the film, such as alcohol, sex and violence attract this target market and these are the things most young people express an interest in.
Another reason why I decided to target this young audience of people between 15 and 24 is because many intetextual references in the film, such as 'Jennifers Body' and 'Halloween' both target a similar young audience. Also the BBFC rating for my film is 15 so legally only people from 15 up can watch the film but again, people who are younger dont necessarily not watch a film because its not 15 so on the other hand the film could have an actual target audience of people below 15 to 24.
The trailer and initally the entire film would feature also many elements to suit the target audience, for example, the fast pace editing, which attracts youth as its unsettling, scary, exciting compared to films that attract an older audience for example, 'Love Actually' which is a complete opposite of genre and editing technique as it is targeting an older and different audience, so for example, its not got fast pace editing.
The characters of the film are all, what would be seen as middle-class, immediately you would think this would only attract a young middle class audience however, the characters aren't upper class and don't necessarily differ alot from working class people and also many of the actions of the characters fit with working and middle class youth stereotypes, such as drinking and have sexual intercourse.
The ethnicity of my character choice may also have an impact on my target audience, as I may miss out on modern Britains huge and growing ethnocentric culture. It may deter a non-caucasian audience from viewing my film as they not feel as it relates to them and even take an offensive view and may even see it as discriminating.
Evaluation Part 2
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
We spent a huge amount of time conducting research and producing the production and ancillary tasks. It was very important to us to tie the film and the ancillary tasks together as they could be used as a marketing campaign for the film, just like it would if it were a real industry product. Looking at the magazine cover, you can see how they all relate to form one big product which would easily attract our target audience. To get them to relate, we used simple but effective signifiers such as they red writing.
Ive also used stills from the actual production, so for example, you spot the poster on a bus stop, you go into a shop you see the magazine front cover, you go home you switch on the television and you see the trailer which hopefully added together creates a powerful marketing strategy which gets your target audience to see the film.
THE MAGAZINE FRONT COVER : There is two main colours I used in the magazine front cover, red and white, this is becuase I want the cover to connote to the audience that the red connotes the genre of slasher to the audience and that the white refers to a mental hospital, where there is padded white walls. This could then be used to connote to the audience that the basic storyline is that somebody who is mentally ill or somebody's go on the kill. There is also some pictures edited onto the main picture showing the cast, this is basically just to show the inside contents of the magazine, a common code of the real movie magazines such as Empire. There is also an offer on the front to encourage the target market to buy the magazine, the free poster inside not only merchandise its good advertising and as teenagers stereotypically and usually do put posters up on there bedroom walls, this could be used to promote the movie because it provides word of mouth adveristing, there friends see it and tell other people about it.
THE POSTER : The poster was edited many times, as each time there was something missing. I used photoshop whilst my partner used another software from home in order to create a better poster. The poster relates too the forms and conventions of the real media products as it contains many of there features.
We spent a huge amount of time conducting research and producing the production and ancillary tasks. It was very important to us to tie the film and the ancillary tasks together as they could be used as a marketing campaign for the film, just like it would if it were a real industry product. Looking at the magazine cover, you can see how they all relate to form one big product which would easily attract our target audience. To get them to relate, we used simple but effective signifiers such as they red writing.
Ive also used stills from the actual production, so for example, you spot the poster on a bus stop, you go into a shop you see the magazine front cover, you go home you switch on the television and you see the trailer which hopefully added together creates a powerful marketing strategy which gets your target audience to see the film.
THE MAGAZINE FRONT COVER : There is two main colours I used in the magazine front cover, red and white, this is becuase I want the cover to connote to the audience that the red connotes the genre of slasher to the audience and that the white refers to a mental hospital, where there is padded white walls. This could then be used to connote to the audience that the basic storyline is that somebody who is mentally ill or somebody's go on the kill. There is also some pictures edited onto the main picture showing the cast, this is basically just to show the inside contents of the magazine, a common code of the real movie magazines such as Empire. There is also an offer on the front to encourage the target market to buy the magazine, the free poster inside not only merchandise its good advertising and as teenagers stereotypically and usually do put posters up on there bedroom walls, this could be used to promote the movie because it provides word of mouth adveristing, there friends see it and tell other people about it.
THE POSTER : The poster was edited many times, as each time there was something missing. I used photoshop whilst my partner used another software from home in order to create a better poster. The poster relates too the forms and conventions of the real media products as it contains many of there features.
Once again, we can heavily relate our whole production with similar techniques used by small 'indie' production companies such as Warp X, they just use them on a larger scale. An increase in technology has allowed many small film companies to be able to produce professional products such as posters, you can even download free editing software from the internet.
Evaluation Part 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
In the trailer we contain many intertextual references, such as halloween, jennifers body and black christmas. We also use a common code used by many horror films production teams in there trailers which is a Linear narrative, for example, in the black christmas trailer, the story is roughly told chronologically.
We ve also used quiet a sophisticated piece of editing software ' Sony Vegas ' allowing us to look less amateur by using visual effects. We ve also used similar techniques of successful low budget horrors such as match on action shots.
Throughout the project I have researched many trailers to find out just what makes a good teaser trailer. By viewing about thirty and making notes on them, you begin to spot similarities between them and a general theme, the forms and conventions seem to have a general code in the horror film teaser trailer industry.
Our media product develops forms and conventions of real media products such as the scene of the stabbing, when one character(sophie- Rosie)stabs another(theo-Matt) the stabbing involves some quite graphic detail e.g coughing up blood, this could be seen as forms and conventions of real media products such as the film ' Dressed to Kill' or other slashers such as 'Scream' and 'Halloween'.
The type of media institution that would distribute our media product would be a small indie company because of course we ourselves are just beginners and could not afford to even try and attract one of the big 5 conglomerates, our best and cheapest option would be to go to an indie company e.g Icon Film Productions.
Editing
The editing style we chose for our teaser trailer relates to the forms and conventions of real media products greatly. We felt we needed to edit it this way to give it a less amateur look and feel to our audience. We've also used similar shot types to those real media products use in their trailers, for example, close up shots to show expressions/emotions of the characters, these shots can be very useful in teaser trailers, as it provides anchorage for the point you want to get accross to the audience when you have little time to do it. Another shot type we've used would be a tracking/POV shot, this connotes to the audience along with the digetic and non digetic sound that someone is being approached in order to be attacked, especially with the pace the camera is going at.
Cinematography
We used many different shot types to give the each shot what it needed to give the audience the feeling we wanted to. We had to shoot and re-shoot almost all the shots as we didnt always get them right and also if we didnt notice the shot was wrong we have no other shots to choose from and it takes alot of effort to get the cast together as people have other things to be doing in there spare time. We used many close up shots as these are a form and convention of many teaster trailers for horror/slasher films.
Lighting
We use a variety of lighting types in shots for our trailer, to create all sorts of connotation, denotation and anchorage to show the audience whats the films all about. The two main types of lighing we use in the product are low-key, which is a much more pronounced shadows and dramatic contrasts and colour FX(mainly used in our rough cut) such as cold and blueish lighting, quite dark so it connotes a sense of cold emotion.
Characters
The characters choice was very important to us for creating the right forms and conventions of real media products but also challenging them. Instead of having a brunette female as the antagonist instead of the conventional blonde, busty, sexually active female. We challenged the real codes and conventions by mixing things up a bit, we want our production to be different, to stand out as we're not a big budget film we need something cheap and effective to make it stand out and attract an audience following. We have also chosen characters in the same social class group and age to the target audience as they can relate themselves to the film. The audience for our media product would be people aged from 15 to 24. We used methods of attracting our audience by the content of the film, although 'illegal' until 18 alcohol is praised upon by the youth, aswell as sex and violence, these things attract the attention of the audience and keep them drawn in.
Representations
We represented many of the productions features using stereoptypes of which everyone can relate to, e.g young people binge drinking. We tryed to represent things as obviously as possible however in such a short amount of time we can only connote representations to the audience through fast paced shorts montage of clips not denote apart from anchoring the point thats its at a party and theres going to be killings involving alot of graphic violence using mise-en-scene and other useful materials such as fake blood.
Mode of address/language(especially for print products)
We mainly stuck to language which was simple and easy to understand, aswell as bold words because the target audience isn't well educated, upper class intellectuals, its lower class people who are a broader more common market and we felt the need to use a common code of language for them to be attracted to the marketing campaign.
Narrative
Propp, was a Russian formalist scholar who analyzed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements. His theory is now used in media eduction. By breaking storys down into there simplest forms as we did with our project, you can arrive a typology to its narrative structure, this included the following...
ABSENTATION, INTERDICTION, VIOLATION of INTERDICTION, RECONNAISSANCE, DELIVERY, TRICKERY, COMPLICITY, VILLAINY and LACK, MEDIATION, BEGINNING COUNTER-ACTION, DEPARTURE, FIRST FUNCTION OF THE DONOR, HERO'S REACTION, RECEIPT OF A MAGICAL AGENT, GUIDANCE and many more.
Propp also came up with what virtually all films have in them, with their characters...The 7 broad character types... The villain The donor The (magical) helper The princess The dispatcher The hero or victim/seeker hero [False hero]
More info from the source is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Propp
Layout(Print)
The layouts of my print products relate very much to real media products. I have written mainly about these in my audience feedback section of my evaluation. I researched through alot of magazines and posters to spot the general forms and conventions of these.
Titles
The titles were used to connect with the audience through point blank communication. For example, we used effective ways to interact with the audience for example, 'YOU'RE INVITED TO A PARTY' 'YOU WILL NEVER FORGET'.
Soundtrack
We used a product which is completely royalty free from a software company called 'Videocopilot'. The product we used was 'Pro-scores' http://www.videocopilot.net/products/proscores/
Accents
The accents of the cast in the digetic sound is very important as they match the target audience and therefore will attract them, they specifically dont speak formal 'proper' upper class English as the audience would simply not feel connected with the characters and therefore would share no similarities and interests.
In the trailer we contain many intertextual references, such as halloween, jennifers body and black christmas. We also use a common code used by many horror films production teams in there trailers which is a Linear narrative, for example, in the black christmas trailer, the story is roughly told chronologically.
We ve also used quiet a sophisticated piece of editing software ' Sony Vegas ' allowing us to look less amateur by using visual effects. We ve also used similar techniques of successful low budget horrors such as match on action shots.
Throughout the project I have researched many trailers to find out just what makes a good teaser trailer. By viewing about thirty and making notes on them, you begin to spot similarities between them and a general theme, the forms and conventions seem to have a general code in the horror film teaser trailer industry.
Our media product develops forms and conventions of real media products such as the scene of the stabbing, when one character(sophie- Rosie)stabs another(theo-Matt) the stabbing involves some quite graphic detail e.g coughing up blood, this could be seen as forms and conventions of real media products such as the film ' Dressed to Kill' or other slashers such as 'Scream' and 'Halloween'.
The type of media institution that would distribute our media product would be a small indie company because of course we ourselves are just beginners and could not afford to even try and attract one of the big 5 conglomerates, our best and cheapest option would be to go to an indie company e.g Icon Film Productions.
Editing
The editing style we chose for our teaser trailer relates to the forms and conventions of real media products greatly. We felt we needed to edit it this way to give it a less amateur look and feel to our audience. We've also used similar shot types to those real media products use in their trailers, for example, close up shots to show expressions/emotions of the characters, these shots can be very useful in teaser trailers, as it provides anchorage for the point you want to get accross to the audience when you have little time to do it. Another shot type we've used would be a tracking/POV shot, this connotes to the audience along with the digetic and non digetic sound that someone is being approached in order to be attacked, especially with the pace the camera is going at.
Cinematography
We used many different shot types to give the each shot what it needed to give the audience the feeling we wanted to. We had to shoot and re-shoot almost all the shots as we didnt always get them right and also if we didnt notice the shot was wrong we have no other shots to choose from and it takes alot of effort to get the cast together as people have other things to be doing in there spare time. We used many close up shots as these are a form and convention of many teaster trailers for horror/slasher films.
Lighting
We use a variety of lighting types in shots for our trailer, to create all sorts of connotation, denotation and anchorage to show the audience whats the films all about. The two main types of lighing we use in the product are low-key, which is a much more pronounced shadows and dramatic contrasts and colour FX(mainly used in our rough cut) such as cold and blueish lighting, quite dark so it connotes a sense of cold emotion.
Characters
The characters choice was very important to us for creating the right forms and conventions of real media products but also challenging them. Instead of having a brunette female as the antagonist instead of the conventional blonde, busty, sexually active female. We challenged the real codes and conventions by mixing things up a bit, we want our production to be different, to stand out as we're not a big budget film we need something cheap and effective to make it stand out and attract an audience following. We have also chosen characters in the same social class group and age to the target audience as they can relate themselves to the film. The audience for our media product would be people aged from 15 to 24. We used methods of attracting our audience by the content of the film, although 'illegal' until 18 alcohol is praised upon by the youth, aswell as sex and violence, these things attract the attention of the audience and keep them drawn in.
Representations
We represented many of the productions features using stereoptypes of which everyone can relate to, e.g young people binge drinking. We tryed to represent things as obviously as possible however in such a short amount of time we can only connote representations to the audience through fast paced shorts montage of clips not denote apart from anchoring the point thats its at a party and theres going to be killings involving alot of graphic violence using mise-en-scene and other useful materials such as fake blood.
Mode of address/language(especially for print products)
We mainly stuck to language which was simple and easy to understand, aswell as bold words because the target audience isn't well educated, upper class intellectuals, its lower class people who are a broader more common market and we felt the need to use a common code of language for them to be attracted to the marketing campaign.
Narrative
Propp, was a Russian formalist scholar who analyzed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements. His theory is now used in media eduction. By breaking storys down into there simplest forms as we did with our project, you can arrive a typology to its narrative structure, this included the following...
ABSENTATION, INTERDICTION, VIOLATION of INTERDICTION, RECONNAISSANCE, DELIVERY, TRICKERY, COMPLICITY, VILLAINY and LACK, MEDIATION, BEGINNING COUNTER-ACTION, DEPARTURE, FIRST FUNCTION OF THE DONOR, HERO'S REACTION, RECEIPT OF A MAGICAL AGENT, GUIDANCE and many more.
Propp also came up with what virtually all films have in them, with their characters...The 7 broad character types... The villain The donor The (magical) helper The princess The dispatcher The hero or victim/seeker hero [False hero]
More info from the source is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Propp
Layout(Print)
The layouts of my print products relate very much to real media products. I have written mainly about these in my audience feedback section of my evaluation. I researched through alot of magazines and posters to spot the general forms and conventions of these.
Titles
The titles were used to connect with the audience through point blank communication. For example, we used effective ways to interact with the audience for example, 'YOU'RE INVITED TO A PARTY' 'YOU WILL NEVER FORGET'.
Soundtrack
We used a product which is completely royalty free from a software company called 'Videocopilot'. The product we used was 'Pro-scores' http://www.videocopilot.net/products/proscores/
Accents
The accents of the cast in the digetic sound is very important as they match the target audience and therefore will attract them, they specifically dont speak formal 'proper' upper class English as the audience would simply not feel connected with the characters and therefore would share no similarities and interests.
Teaser trailers were only usually used in big budget blockbusters, however due to the birth of technology and the internet, it has allowed small budget films to market there productions to large audiences on a low budget, for example, placing the trailer on a site such as Youtube.com.
The point of a teaser trailer is not only to tell people that the new film is coming out but also to add hype leading up to the films release and also to give them a bit of knowledge of what the film is actually about.
One of the main points of a teaser trailer is to add hype to the release of the film, to get people talking about it and get them excited to see about it. If your trailer gets people gossiping about the film, it allows word of mouth advertising and will get more people wanting to be paying for a ticket to see your film.
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
THE Final, Final Proposal
Antagonists
- Victor Ramone - Schitzophrenic Killer, fostered when family died, abused by foster parents since the age of 8.
- Rosie Brown - Secretly sister of Victor, fostered with another family, sexually abused by parents since age of 7 also, mentally disturbed. Involved in planning and carrying out the killings. Clever and keeps herself to herself.
Matt Smith : Generally nice down to earth guy, intelligant, likes partying but doesnt ever get to drunk or embarrass himself, more into school and sport. Good friends with the rest of the five but always finds Joe a bit annoying. Trys to help save the day, works out whats going on.
Middle people.
Charlotte Crocombe : Friends with the two main characters, clever, into her studies. Get far too drunk sometimes at parties, making herself vunerable.
Rachel Manning : Friends with the two main characters, Blonde, busty and ditzy party girl.
Joe Jenkins : Generally a mess around, big ego, drinks to much at partys, always in trouble. Gets on with the other 5 but finds Matt a bit of a loser and a bit boring.
Its the anniversary of Victor and Rosie's families death(Only they know). They are both mentally ill. Victor believes hes hearing voices ordering him and Rosie to find four souls to harvest in order to resurrect their family from the dead. He tells Rosie that its there parents telling them to do this.
They decide the best time for them to kill their four friends would be at a party they are going to on the friday night, as they will all be intoxicated by alcohol and drugs aswell as being able to spike these drinks making them more easy to get out of the party to kill in private.
The group are all staying at Victors house, the perfect spot for them to harvest there friends souls.
They organise a plan of how to get each victim somewhere private or to Victor's in order for them to kill them without being caught.
Rosie is taking care of the boys, the main idea being she offers them sex, leads them back to Victors and kills them.
Charlotte realises this, only thinking Victor is the killer and sees Rosie at the party and says they need to hide quick, Rosies acts worried, really Charlotte is walking herself into a trap and Rosie kills her and hides her body in a wardrobe upstairs.
Victors trick is make sure the girls are heavily intoxicated and make up an excuse to them to get them back to his, for example, take them outside and say the rest have gone back to mine, we'll get a taxi together.
However this plan may trick the more vulnerable but will Matt Smith fall for it, as hes generally not a drinker and isnt stupid.
Matt realises whats going on only after having his drink spiked and only after Rachel and Joe are dead. He is heavily intoxicated by his drink and cant seem to work his mobile. Almost unconscious upstairs at the party, Matt trys to get downstairs to get somebody to call the police to Victors house. He notices that his girlfriend Charlotte is missing. He notices alot of blood coming out of the wardrobe in a room hes past out in, he hears footsteps coming up the stairs. He fights off Rosie and manages to struggle downstairs.
The ending is that the police do get called, Matt is saved but the rest are butchered up at Victors house and Charlotte at the party. Victor and Rosie are put into a mental institution.
Intertextual references : Jennifer's Body, Black Christmas, Halloween.
Inspired by : Jennifer's Body - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYQ19JM_M1g
Black Christmas - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l2qxzJWKXs
Halloween - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXYRoMS8lX4
Codes and Conventions :
Ideology : Rachel Manning, blonde with big bust, stereotyped in many horror films as stupid, a bimbo and a 'slutty'. Rosie Brown, dark haired brunette, stereotyped in many horror films as clever, pure and sensible. Matt Smith, good looking, athletic physique and a hero, as he trys to save the day, a stereotype in many horror films of the antagonist male.
Anchorage : As this is a teaser trailer, we have little time to anchor the genre and what this films about to the audience. This is why we have alot of quick but effective shots to enable us to tell the audience what we want without giving too much away. We do this by using mise-en-scene, props and different types of shots to anchor the point accross. Anchorage is a fixing device, so are text needs to direct the audience through the signifiers of the image towards a meaning chosen in advance by us the producers.
Connotation : We ve provided many shots that could mean many things. Examples of shots we have used would be a bloody knife being dropped into a sink - this could connote that somebody has been stabbed or could it mean something else? We dont know because we have not seen anything behind what caused this.These are used to get are audiences minds thinking about what happens in the film as hopefully at the end of the day, the teaser trailers function is to get people to see the film.
Denotation :We ve provided many shots that refer to the simplest and most obvious level of meaning. For example, a long shot of a man being found dead in a bath, he is dead because mise-en-scene is he is covered in blood, hes not moving and we ve used a girl screaming as this digetic sound siginfies that she knows he is dead and is shocked.
Monday, 16 November 2009
Initial proposal 2
5 Characters : Joe, Matt, Victor,Rachel, Charlotte and Rosie.
Its a friday night and theres a house party going on. The group of five are getting ready at Victors house, drinking and listening to music. Joe and Matt are similar down to earth guys, Victor is kind but likes to keep himself to himself. Rachel is a blonde, busty female, Charlotte is a brunette, party girl, very much into her drink and drugs and Rosie is quite a shy, timid brunette girl who like victor likes to keep herself to herself.
The group set off to the party and get more intoxicated on drink and drugs throughout the night. Charlotte and Rachel decide enough is enough and mention getting a taxi home soon. However Victor and Rosie seem desperate for them to come back to sleep at Victors, ' Dont go, the parties not over yet'.
Victor and Rosie are actually brother and sister, which they keep from there friends, seperated when there family died when they were 7 and 8, eventually adopted by their abusive foster parents. Both mentally disturbed. Tonight is the night of the anniversary of their parents and older brothers deaths. They schitzophrenic thoughts tell them that they can have their families back if they harvest there friends souls in return for their family.
Rosie spikes the drinks to make the killing of each person easier for Victor. Victor's weapon of choice is the biggest kitchen knife he could find in his foster parents house. Rachel goes outside the party for a cigarette, Victor comes up behind her and tells her they need to go back to his because the others have already gone, she gets in a taxi with him and they arrive back at his only for him to kill her and place her in his wardrobe.
Its a friday night and theres a house party going on. The group of five are getting ready at Victors house, drinking and listening to music. Joe and Matt are similar down to earth guys, Victor is kind but likes to keep himself to himself. Rachel is a blonde, busty female, Charlotte is a brunette, party girl, very much into her drink and drugs and Rosie is quite a shy, timid brunette girl who like victor likes to keep herself to herself.
The group set off to the party and get more intoxicated on drink and drugs throughout the night. Charlotte and Rachel decide enough is enough and mention getting a taxi home soon. However Victor and Rosie seem desperate for them to come back to sleep at Victors, ' Dont go, the parties not over yet'.
Victor and Rosie are actually brother and sister, which they keep from there friends, seperated when there family died when they were 7 and 8, eventually adopted by their abusive foster parents. Both mentally disturbed. Tonight is the night of the anniversary of their parents and older brothers deaths. They schitzophrenic thoughts tell them that they can have their families back if they harvest there friends souls in return for their family.
Rosie spikes the drinks to make the killing of each person easier for Victor. Victor's weapon of choice is the biggest kitchen knife he could find in his foster parents house. Rachel goes outside the party for a cigarette, Victor comes up behind her and tells her they need to go back to his because the others have already gone, she gets in a taxi with him and they arrive back at his only for him to kill her and place her in his wardrobe.
Thursday, 12 November 2009
Meet The Characters
Matt Smith : http://mattsmith1.blogspot.com/
what is his role in film.
Victor Ramone : http://victorramone1.blogspot.com/
17, keeps himself to himself,
Joe Jenkins : http://joejenkins1.blogspot.com/
Charlotte Crocombe : http://charcrocombe.blogspot.com/
Rachel Manning : rachelmanning1.blogspot.com
what is his role in film.
Victor Ramone : http://victorramone1.blogspot.com/
17, keeps himself to himself,
Joe Jenkins : http://joejenkins1.blogspot.com/
Rosie Brown : http://rosiebrown1.blogspot.com/
Charlotte Crocombe : http://charcrocombe.blogspot.com/
Rachel Manning : rachelmanning1.blogspot.com
Friday, 6 November 2009
Wednesday, 4 November 2009
Research Of Horror Films
Horror Films - Colin Odell & Michelle Le Blanc 1999
Long history of horror film making as follows naturally from a heritage of imaginative literature that runs the gamut of quality from the heights of Shelley to the weekly Penny dreadfuls that so outraged the middle class Victorian society even as they were eagerly devoured by the newly literature working classes.
Early British horror films tended to appear on the bottom half of double bills or as shorts or serials.
Universal films from America that really kick started the horror industry in the UK; a common language meant that Hollywood films were accessible and popular with British audiences in the early days of the talkies.
Horror in Europe - Europe has always been in turmoil, a collection of tribes and civilisations rising, falling, fighting, absorbing for thousands of years.
Writers of horror have invested in Europes bloodshed lit by light with human torches, genocide, pandemics, religious persecution, the inquisition, torture and slavery.
The Encyclopedia Of Horror. Edited by Richard Davis. Foreword by Peter Cushing
From the earliest times we have sought to explain strange things by ascribing them to the supernatural. We have a fascination and enjoy the sensation of being frightened, particular if we are secure in our own homes or hidden behind a large audience e.g in a cinema.
AQA media studies
Horror genre is often associated with low budgets but major studios and well-respected directors have made films in the genre. The horror genre is almost as old as cinema itself and contains a number of sub-genres and repeated themes: slasher themes, vampire themes, zombie themes, demonic possession, alien mind control etc. Horror is a feeling of dread and anticipation that occurs before something frightening is seen or otherwise experienced, a feeling of fear, revulsion and helplessness. Its motivated by the darkness of the cinema.
Long history of horror film making as follows naturally from a heritage of imaginative literature that runs the gamut of quality from the heights of Shelley to the weekly Penny dreadfuls that so outraged the middle class Victorian society even as they were eagerly devoured by the newly literature working classes.
Early British horror films tended to appear on the bottom half of double bills or as shorts or serials.
Universal films from America that really kick started the horror industry in the UK; a common language meant that Hollywood films were accessible and popular with British audiences in the early days of the talkies.
Horror in Europe - Europe has always been in turmoil, a collection of tribes and civilisations rising, falling, fighting, absorbing for thousands of years.
Writers of horror have invested in Europes bloodshed lit by light with human torches, genocide, pandemics, religious persecution, the inquisition, torture and slavery.
The Encyclopedia Of Horror. Edited by Richard Davis. Foreword by Peter Cushing
From the earliest times we have sought to explain strange things by ascribing them to the supernatural. We have a fascination and enjoy the sensation of being frightened, particular if we are secure in our own homes or hidden behind a large audience e.g in a cinema.
AQA media studies
Horror genre is often associated with low budgets but major studios and well-respected directors have made films in the genre. The horror genre is almost as old as cinema itself and contains a number of sub-genres and repeated themes: slasher themes, vampire themes, zombie themes, demonic possession, alien mind control etc. Horror is a feeling of dread and anticipation that occurs before something frightening is seen or otherwise experienced, a feeling of fear, revulsion and helplessness. Its motivated by the darkness of the cinema.
Friday, 23 October 2009
Coursework Task
A promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer, together with two of the following three options:
a film magazine front cover, featuring the film;
a poster for the film.
Working Title
Are productions current title is 'Quarantine'.
17/11/09 - Changed to 'Party from hell'.
17/11/09 - Changed to 'Party from hell'.
Thursday, 15 October 2009
Idea 2
Idea 2
He got away with his first kill, he got away with his second, will he get away with a third? Over the space of ten years a man has killed2 children, snatched them from outside there schools. He plans to do the same again. However this goes wrong and he ends up being spotted snatching the child.He plays a game with the police, after being chased he leaves a recording of him saying if they want the child back then they will have to find a royal flush of cards, each card placed at different spots around the town.
However these are know ordinary places and before cards come traps.This film will contain many intertextual references to saw.Nobody ends up being killed but however many people end up badly injured and the killer escapes.
Monday, 12 October 2009
Ancilliary Texts Final Product 1
Here are my products for my ancillary task. They go from one to another as I continuously changed them to fit the criteria of the task better and to show off mine and my partners skills. The third one down looks just like a real magazines as it has stuck to the typical forms and conventions of a typical movie magazine.
Final Magazine
The Final Magazine front cover
Rough Cut using Imovie
Here is our rough cut using Imovie. Sorry it has no sound we are using as I didnt have the music files with me at the time.
Audience Feedback
- Good editing, just need to edit down to make clips a bit finer.
- Could do with more digetic sound.
- Good pace but need to cut a few slower clips out or shorten down.
Ancilliary Texts Ideas and Research 2
Looking at these poster, they arent just pictures with writing on, they are heavily edited images, usually not just one image but many images, they all contain reviews and star ratings. There is also the building block which contains many details about the cast, production companie etc.
A common feature in a poster would be the building block, this is usually situated at he bottom middle of the poster and in small writing as the lines go on with cast names, producers names, director, production company, musician names and so on.
The common theme for posters is that they usually contain the central protagonist or main characters, for example the Batman poster, where Batman is placed in the centre with a low angle shot to show he has power and is important, therefore providing anchorage for the audience.
Ancilliary Texts Ideas and Research 1
Looking at these film magazine front covers, it is easy to see that there is a definite link of similarity between them all. The all have the bar code on, they all have bold coloured text usually on the left handside of the page but also in other places and they all have a clear picture of the main character of the latest blockbuster that has been released when the magazine is printed. There is also the title of the magazine boldly shown at the top in the centre of the magazine which seems to change to relate to the film shown on the front cover.
Also notice how the colour mainly used on the front cover match with the genre of the film, for example, a slasher movie would use 'red' colours to connote and anchor the genre of the film across to the audience.
Also there is ideology used, for example the 'total film' magazine above has a picture of a globally known character Batman, look at his figure, a muscular well built male, this is how the audience is meant to interprete a super-hero.
Looking at Empire magazine with 'Hellboy' on the front cover, look at how binary opposition is used, the protagonist, Hell Boy himself is made to look like an antagonist, as he is the devil, muscular and smoking a cigar, not the everyday look of a protagonist, however in the film he is a super-hero.
Soundtrack
We will create our teaser trailer soundtrack using the software application 'Soundtrack Pro'.
Costumes, Props and Set Dressing/Mise-en-scene
Costumes need to reflect the age of our characters, so we need to get the style right, i.e not dressing them in our grandmothers clothes. Also getting the outfit right is important as it appeals to our target audience. So generally we will ask the cast to wear their own clothes. As its a horror film props such as knives and fake blood will be needed as they provide important anchorage and connotation to the audience, we need to make these obvious as its a teaser trailer and clips and cut are very fast and we have little time.
Locations
My house, as this would be a good place to show a party. We can also film in another room, to show Victors house. Create to different settings.
Casting
The cast needs to be 16 to 18 years old as these will appeal to the age group we are targeting with our film. Also the storyline fits in with people are age, as certain things such as getting drunk at a house and going out to an abandoned hospital is more teenage behaviour rather than adults.
Our cast...
We needed a girl to represent a blonde haired, sexually active female, a stereotype in many American slasher movies. Aswell we need to create a 'male gaze'. We feel the girl who would best fit the role would be Sophie Brear.
Another stereotype in American slasher movies is a good looking, inteligent female and not sexually active and made to look a bit 'nerdish' and pure(virgin). We feel the girl who would be ideal for this part is Sophie Gannon. Her dark brown hair would also provide anchorage for the audience that maybe she is evil.
To add a touch and go against ideologies and conventions of the norm and stereotypes of typical American slasher films, we added another character with dark brown hair. However, this character isnt a 'nerd', shes actually a party girl providing a 'male gaze'. Emiy outterside will play the part of 'Charlotte'. This is also to help confuse the audience throughout the film.
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