Risk Assesment

Planning for production: Advancements to film poster

Planning for production: updates to film poster

Since the first attempt of the film poster I have made some small differences; production details have now been added as well as actors names, and web address details for the movie and a date change. I have also changed the positioning of the movie name as I feel it is more attention drawing at the top of the page and the brighter shade of red makes it more eye catching

Planning for production- movie poster

 This is the beggining of our film poster, we are yet to include a picture, production details and final touches but this forms the basis of a horror movie poster.

To get inspiration for our film poster, I decided to look at other horror film posters in order to help us include the correct features and conventions that  a poster should include. When researching we came up with the following: typography/font of  a horror poster is generally distorted, suggestive of death/blood (through use of red) or a bold, block capital font that connotes danger e.g. JAWS, other features include a tagline which is implicative of the moral/message of the film e.g. ''You have been warned'' ''If something frightening happens to you today think about it'' in The Omen poster, a frightening image containing horror iconography or an enigma code. e.g. a silhouette, a scary figure ect, the use of monochrome or dark colours and red. 

More generally, all film posters happen to contain iconography which show without telling- the themes are presented as opposed to directly saying what the film is about, imagery is used to establish the film's plot e.g. one simple graphic which gains attention and interest in one go. e.g. the use of the red lips and tongue dripping with blood in Jennifers body which allows you to understand what the film is about- would appeal to horror fans as it immediatly connotes some kind of violence/blood lust and offers sex appeal. Secondly, a style is developed that is consistent with the film e.g. stylized imagery should be used which is reflective or even used in the movie. A film poster should also have recognisability- meaning it is relveant and uses features from other posters of the same genre, using the same style and design allows fans of the horror genre to identify and develop interest in the poster if it is relevant to what they have seen before.

Along with this production company name, the name of directors, starred films and the name of the actors should also be included.

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Production: behind the scenes filming

 This shot was taken during filming the establishing shot of the house for our trailer.











Here we are preparing the room ready to film the setting up of the surveillance camera shot.

 

Planning for production: Screenplay for trailer

 This is our script we plan to use for our horror trailer, we created it using a software called Celtx which allows you to add notes to different parts of your script where additional information is to be added for the directors purpose. For example we have used the wardrobe note (shown below) to add an important item of clothing for our character Sarah (a blood stained white top). Another note we have made is the sound effects note (the brown highlighted text) in which we have decided to have howling sounds of treets and wind to create an eerie, chilling atmosphere.

We have also added actors and details about the characters:

Character profiles for our trailer

Possible idea for company logo

We chose the name 'Deceptive pictures' as it is fitting of the horror genre- the word 'deceptive' along side the dark colours and bleak image immediately suggests an element of horror and shows all the films made by this company are likely to be horror. Therefore, audiences can familiarise and recognise the logo when they see it as being part of horror genre.

Final idea for Film title

Possible fonts for our film name

I have been experimenting on photoshop with a variety of different fonts suitable for the horror genre to use for our ancillary texts (film poster, magazine cover)

We have decided on the name Excidium for our film trailer, which is Latin for destruction. The reason behind this is the fact we are focusing on split personality disorder and our protaganist (Cameron)'s mind is slowly being broken down and destroyed by the other side of his personality (the dark side) who is convinced everyone is out to get him and he unravels into a state of madness engaging in a killing spree along the way.

Semiotics terminology

Iconic signs and codes/ symbolic codes

In our storyboard so far we have employed certain codes in order to create the horror genre, for example the use of blood on the hand in the opening which is a typical iconic sign of a horror film as it suggests there has been some kind of violence/ attack or injury and symbolises life/ mortality of a person showing that they can go experience pain or death in their life.

Other technical codes used in our trailer is the low key lighting which creates a dark, mysterious atmosphere, the shot types; over the shoulder shots and fast pace shots starting from the development of the trailer which creates panic, thrill and leaves the viewer on the edge of their seat.

Indexal Signs
In terms of indexal signs we have used a shot of Cameron (protagonist) walking through a puddle in a jump cuit and then using a transition for the next shot to show him walking through the same puddle in a suit- the denotation of this is the fact he is wearing pyjamas, however what is open to interpretation is what he is getting up to in the night and why he is walking around at night, barefoot in pyjamas. This therefore suggests he is up to something. The use of the feet walking through the puddle in pyjamas is also an enigma code as although some viewers may realise it is the protagonist as the next shot is obviously him in his suit, people may wonder who and what the person walking through the puddle is doing.

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Shot types

Shots for our trailer on Prezi

Permission to use Mad world

We have recieved permission to use the song Mad world by Gary Jules in our trailer today!

Camera practice in The Void

Narrative theory- Applying theory

Vladimir propp suggested that the characters took on the role of narrative 'spheres of action' (which allows the story to move along) or functions. From a study of folk stories he came up with the following different character types:

• The hero, usually male, is the agent who restores the narrative equilibrium 

often by embarking upon a quest (or search). Propp distinguishes between 

the victim hero, who is the centre of the villain's attentions, and the seeker 

hero who aids others who are the villains victims. The hero is invariably the 

texts central character.

• The villain who usually creates the narrative disruption.

• The  donor gives the hero something, it may be an object, information or 

advice, which helps in resolution of the narrative.

• The helper aids the hero in the task of restoring equilibrium.

• The  princess (the victim) is usually the character most threatened by the 

villain and has to be saved, at the climax, by the hero. The father's (who in 

fairy tales was often the king) role is usually to give the princess away to the 

hero at the narrative's conclusion. He may also despatch the hero.

• The dispatcher sends the hero on her or his task (who can typically be the 

princess father) 

• The false hero appears to be good but is revealed, at the narrative's end, to 

have been bad 

Characters can fulfil more than one sphere character type, for example; a princes

Applying the theory to trailers:

Camera controls

Today in class we learnt about the different camera controls and lens functions to create various different effects such as deep focus, shallow focus ect.

The F Stop is a measure of the size in the opening in the lens, which affects the amount of light that can pass through. The smaller the F stop the larger the lens opening- large f numbers relate to small openings/apertures in the lens. Below is a diagram of the f stop function:

We also learnt how to pull focus, pulling focus means shifting the lens to keep a subject sharp. You do this by using the focusing ring at the front of the camera lens which moves the lens elements inside the lens. pulling means shifting the lens to keep a subject sharp. To pull focus a the camera needs to be on manual focus (m) rather then auto focus (af) to engage the focusing ring. 

Below are the examples of our groups practice of using the camera, we have included shots using the f stop to create deep and shallow focus and a short clip in which we pull focus over the duration of it

 SHALLOW FOCUS

 PULL FOCUS

Levi strauss- Binary opposition

Good vs Evil
Light vs Dark
Love vs Hate
Stillness vs Movement
Quiet vs Loud

Levi Strauss suggested many narratives can be understood by considering conflict created between two opposite forces. One example of a binary opposition is the relationship between the protagonists and antagonist.
In the horror genre Good vs Evil is the concept that applies (the killer vs the victims), this can be linked in terms of our horror trailer as we are going to have the killer against the stock characters therefore it reinforces good vs evil.

Plot Synopsis

Local journalist Cameron James Castle is brought in by the poilce to help aid their investigation of the disappearances of 19 year old Alice Clarke, but as the evidence begins to unravel so does Cameron. While the tally of killings increase, Cameron becomes increasingly obsessive about attention to detail, while those close to him begin to question his mental state. Cameron's greatest fear becomes a reality; with his wife in the clutches of the suspected killer, it becomes a race against time to protect everything he cares for.

Permission letter

We have sent a letter to the owners of the song Mad world by Gary Jules requesting permission to use the song in our trailer for non commercial purposes.

Planning: Storyboard updated

put  pictures of story board up

Initial ideas for synopsis

We have developed a basic plot line that we are looking to use within our trailer, it is as follows:

• A Man who works in a journalist agency, who is reporting on kidnappings of children coincidently wakes up each morning to find to find himself feeling an overwhelming feeling of guilt and abhorence following the events of the night before which he cannot recolect. The motivation for these events are caused by his alter ego or other side of his personality, which he is not aware of.

General ideas include:

• Night vision cameras showing recordings of the protagonist lashing out, 
• Him having flashbacks- recollections of what he did last night as well as memories from his childhood (stock footage of children)
• Children's toys found in his room
• Bites or scratch marks (evidence of nights events) 
• A shot of him looking in the mirror while getting a haircut and seeing himself moving (something that he isn't doing in real life) but is visible in his reflection
• Camera edits: rewinding of footage (him crawling) to make the shot look distorted (similar to the Grudge)

Character Development:

• Double barrel name (helps illustrate the plot line of having a split personality)

Planning: Target Audience

Film's Cool- Session 2

As I said last week, we had the privilege of being able to work with professional scriptwriter Jesse O'Mahoney, who's written scripts for successful television programs such as Sky 1's 'Dream Team', who gave us a tremendous amount of help in creating a idea for our film and without his contribution I feel we might not have advanced to such a stage in our planing right now.

However, we were once again blessed as this past week we not only had Jesse O'Mahoney back to help us, we also had professional scriptwriter/ producer Ben Harris and also the head of media and film studies at LaSwap Kate. They were here this week to give us some help on creating our storyboards and helping us transfer our synopsis into a storyboard, as well as giving us a oppurtunity to ask them questions at the end of the session.

Again my group worked closely with Jesse O'Mahoney who gave us some very important tips on what we should do before creating the actual storyboard. He said that although we already had the synopsis written out we should make sure we knew exactly what was going to be in the film like settings, props, portrayal of the killing scenes etc. As with that knowledge it will become much easier to then draw out the storyboard, He also stressed the importance on imputing Todorov's narrative, that we recently learned about, into our trailer as it will give a nice structure that audiences can recognize to our trailer. These are all tips that we though deeply about and made sure we imputed in to our work when creating our storyboard the day after. So not only did this help with the creation of the storyboard, it also helped us gain a further grasp on what our film is actually about, and what specific details we are planning to include in it.

Afterwards, towards the end of the session we were lucky enough to have a Q&A session with Jesse O'Mahoney and Ben Harris who answered any queries we had about how we are going to go about our work, and also about the film industry itself. This was beneficial in allowing us gain more of a insight into the film industry, as well as helping with the advancement of our work.

Killers in Horror Films

Stock characters in Horror

Stock characters in Horror from Da_Bhoy

Conventions of horror posters

Conventions of Horror Posters on Prezi

Film's Cool: Christine Blundell Makeup tutorial

As part of our introduction to Film's Cool, BAFTA Award winning make-up artist Christine Blundell (of Christine Blundell's Makeup Academy for TV and Film) who has worked with the likes of Daniel Craig, Robert Downey Jnr came into to share some wise words of advice and give us a few tutorials to show us how to create effective horror make-up.













Although Christine has access to some of the most expensive and best equipment in the industry, we are working on a smaller budget for our trailers which means we will have limited amounts of money to spend on hair and make up  However, Christine showed us that you don't need tonnes of money to create realistic and dramatic horror make up and all the products used by the professionals can be created at home using normal products from the supermarket. For example food colouring and golden syrup can be mixed together to make great fake blood, or using blue or yellow food colouring and a dark eye shadow can be used to highlight and contour certain areas of the face to make them look bruised or darkened.

Below are some of the pictures from our groups experimentation with our own home made horror make up.

Trailer Analysis

Testing Burtons Theory

Burton's theory from Da_Bhoy

 In class we looked at commenalities found within film genres and the various elements used which defines and helps us identifies specific genres. To help us with this we looked at Burton's genre theory, which sets out five key elements that make up the horror genre:
 1) The protaganists in the film (main characters)
 2) The stock characters
 3) The plot and stock characters (how the stock characters all fit into the pliot/story line)
 4) Iconography- icons we associate with the horror genre e.g. An isolated, old house.
 5) The setting of the film and how it used to suggest a certain theme or genre.

Does Burton's Theory work?

 In looking at conventional elements there are a number of commonalities for the horror genre. This proves te theory of repetition and variation as well as genres having specific features. A balance of repetitiona nd variation is vital to the sucsess of a movie. From looking at 5 different movies I have concluded the following; all five horror movies focus greatly on the appearance of the protaganist (mainly disfigurements such as Freddy's burns or claws)which highlights their derangement and seperation from society as they are considered monsters and outcasts among normal people.
All protaganists have a back story also, e.g. Esther from 'Orphan' is actually a 33 year old woman named Leena Klammer who has a condition called hypopituitarism.
This therefore gives the protaganists motives to do what they do, almost as if they are getting revenge on soceity for their misfortune, this theme is common in many other horror movies (Saw, Nightmare on Elm Street ect.)

 Secondly, Stock characters are generally used as a representation of society as a whole, for example typical characters can be noted such as the The popular girl, the jock and the final girl (the Scream films provide a good example of this- the popular girl is the ditzy, big boobed blonde , a character for males to admire(Mulvey's male gaze) who's time in the movie is short lived as she is often caught out by Ghostface at the beggining of the movie. The wanderer in these movies shares a similar fate to the Popular Girl in that they try to take on the killer but go in the most dangerous of places (in the woods, upstairs ect) and end up getting slaughtered. The icons used in the horror genre, are generally tools that are used to disguise or mask an individual's (the protaganist's) identity. For example Ghostface's famous scream mask is used a key part of the movie as it has the role of hiding the killer and therefore creating fear of the killer and getting the audience questioning and thinking about who the killer is.

Although the movie has the same plot each time, the main thing that changes is the fact the killer is different each time- the stock characters are very much the same and aid the killer in getting what they want. The fact the killer is behind a mask provides a fear of the unknown. The settings used in horror films are normally a danger in themselves, although somewhat different from each other e.g. a normal high school with average teenage kid's is used in Scream 4 whereas films like Saw focus predominantly in isolated chambers or cabins which are full of dangerous objects and very isolated in a place where no help can be recieved (the chamber's are isolated in Jigsaw's lair)

Distribution

Film poster conventions

The Apparition trailer analysis

Genre: The Apparition is a paranormal/supernatural thriller.

From the trailer their are some typical horror iconography used; pov shots, woman trapped alone in a house, mysterious hauntings, dark colours, flickering lights, a crumbling house and flashing images of ghosts/ other supernatural creatures. This makes it clear to us that it is part of the horror genre

Female in danger

Narrative: A group of people set up an expreiment to test whether paranormal activity is real or if it is only a product of the mind, the experiment proves their is supernatural existance and they become victims of what they refer to as 'it'

Unique Selling Point: Recorded style shots, hand held camera use

Target Audience: Those interested in the paranormal/supernatural, thriller and horror movie fans aged 16+ (characters are roughly in their 20+s therefore it would most likely be appealing to a primary audience of this aged range.

Music: Non diagetic- deep horn sounds (possibly signifying the presence of the paranormal creature), thudding and banging.

Diagetic- screams and banging

Voiceover: Sci fi,  deep serious male voice

Special effects: Scientigic x ray images, flickering lights, smoke, infared camera detection, xray affect ghost flashing on screen.

Credits and intertitles: Voiceover at the start of trailer is shown on screen

Warner Bros logo, Dark castle.

Applying Mulveys Male gaze

Recognising film Trailer structure

In order to help us on our way to creating our own film trailers, we looked at the genre conventions and structures of different trailers. Here is the analysis of the new James Bond movie Skyfall, this task helped me to recognise the structural conventions of trailers in depth and really understand how each section within the trailer plays an important part in which gave a better insight creating a successful trailer that effectively promotes the movie.

Trailer analysis

Analysis of Tucker and Dale vs evil Trailer on Prezi

Analysing Trailers-
In class we begun analysing trailers and drawing out the specific codes and conventions used in trailers and what purpose they have. The trailer we analysed was called Tucker and Dale Vs Evil- a comedy-horror film,  by devising a prezi I have showed all the different comonpents of the trailer and how they come together to make an effective trailer..

Applying knowledge of trailers and target audiences to 'Skyfall'

Here I have applied my knowledge of trailers and how they appeal to their target audiences through uses and gratifications to the Skyfall trailer which we have been analysing in class

Todorov's Theory

A trailer does not follow a strict linear pattern, instead using clips of the best/most entertaining bits of the beginning/middle/end to try and promote the film using the highlights or noticeable moments of the film without giving the story away.

Todorov's theory states that all films follow a specific pattern which can be broken down into 3 stages:

1) An equilibrium
2) A disruption of the equilibrium
3) A new equilibrium

However, trailers generally do NOT include the new equillibrium or at least the whole of it as this gives away the plot and leaves nothing left to raise our curiosity. This task therefore highlighted that trailers are not infact smaller, sped up versions of films as many people assume but rather a taster of what is to be expected, raising our curiosity and expectations for the film with the ultimate goal of promoting and getting an audience to watch the film.

Analysing Trailers- Who are trailers aimed at

In class we began to explore and analyse different types of movie trailers and the specific conventions of trailers that are used to appeal to a specific audience (for example specific themes used to employ different type of genre- eg enigma codes are typically used in horror, for intense a masked man lurking in a dark shadow is bound to raise the viewers curiosity therefore tempting them to watch the film whilst also nailing in the fact that the film is a horror film. Other ways in which trailers secure and categorised their films into specific genres is through the use of logo's, credentials and inter titles. Examples of this include Disney- a company in which we associate its films with family, adventures, humour animation ect. While Lionsgate has connotations of horror films for example the Saw sequel. Therefore, just from seeing the studio or company that is behind the film immediately gives us an idea of what type of film we should expect.

Below I have attached some analysis of target audience for a range of different trailers and the different uses and gratifications that each trailer offers to it's target audience.

The Meeting task (continuity editing)

As a class we begun to look at using continuity editing (a style of editing in which everything flows in an consistent, smooth and orderly manner) as practise for vital skills that would come in handy in future when making our own promotional film campaigns. In small groups we were asked to do as follows; construct a story board between us with the title 'The Meeting' in mind- where effectively this would allow us to test and put our continuity editing skills to practise as we would only be editing a basic sequence of simple but well thought out shots, plan and prepare for filming the meeting, and finally film the meeting.
 The sequence consisted of different shots and angles for example long shots of a girl walking towards the male character. then a reaction shot to emphasize the emotion between the two and the idea that action is constantly happening within the narrative. We also used basic editing rules such as shot reverse shot- to show the action and reaction between the two characters and the 180 degree rule to create a realistic and believable sequence. Below you can find the story board my group orignally created:




And here is the short film we constructed (need meeting film)

.Although the overall piece came out fine we learnt that planning is key for a successful edit as we had failed to plan throughoughly which left us at a disadvantage due to not thinking enough about how/ in what way we would shoot the film, this meant we had to come up with new, spontaneous ideas on the day of filming providing us with a jumbled mix of shots in which it was very hard to piece together effectively and provide a continuous style of editing. If we had spent more time in thinking about specific types of angles, camera movement ect we would of been able to edit the overall sequence better and create a much higher quality piece of work then we had the first time.

Another problem we had was not sticking to our original story board- we had changed the narrative from what we originally decided to plan shot's for in the beginning therefore had to quickly prepare another set of shots for which would fit the changed narrative. Therefore, the piece lacked true continuity as each shot didn't lend into each other enough and the transitions weren't very smooth.

So, although the final sequence didn't reflect good continuity editing it was a great learning curve for us as it showed the importance of good planning which we will remember in future.

Foley Sound

Another important technique used in film production that we learnt about is foley sound. These are sounds which created by people behind the scenes which are used to enhance certain actions/ motions that cannot be picked up by the camera's microphone or simply need enhancement. For example sound such as footsteps, clothes rusting, doors opening, punching and hitting. As the sounds are added to film during post production actions can be exaggerated and intensified- therefore a simple sequence (such as one person punching another can be turned into a slapstick comedy through use of Foley sounds.

In class we put our own sound production into practice by creating our own Foley sounds added onto a short  film of two characters punching/hitting one another.

Here you can see how a simple action such as a fake punch can be turned into a humorous and exaggerated film clip, this therefore reflects how useful and important sound production/ foley sound can be in film.

Introduction

My name is Rachel and I am an A2  Media student. The reason I chose to continue on to A2 Media from AS is because I find Media to be a very enjoyable and interesting subject, mainly because it is very interactive and a lot of your work is judged on practical efforts rather then essays. However, it does incorperate english and writing which is another area I enjoy. This year I hope to get more skills in filming and editing as this is an area I am not particularly strong in.