Group 10- Planning update

What we've done:

• Filmed murder shots
• Added changes to storyboard

Things to do:

• Upload new footage
• Edit new footage
• Update blog (developments)

Once we have uploaded our new footage and incorperated it suitably within our production it should extend the duration of our film opening to 2 minutes which is the required amount of time allocated to meet

AH- Storyboard changes

Here are the overall changes that we have made to our original storyboard:

 

Group 10- Shoot Feedback (Tuesday 26th March)

Where, when, how, with whom did you go?

• Where- Ide Hill- woods
• When- Tuesday 27th March
• How- Car
• With whom- Nathan Mckerlie, Adam Howland, James Stone, Martha Mckerlie

What was successful about the shoot? Outline any particular creative shots?

• The panning shot, good use of close up to shown dead person
• Good variety of shots to show different angles

What was least successful? Why?

•  Despite the fact we tried to change the shot through the use of zoom, one of the shots did not look much different

How important was your story board in this filming process?

•  It was important in terms of narrative, however we created different shots to use rather than conforming to original ideas

What will you be shooting next and when?

• We have completed all of the filming for our production, therefore now we need to finish editing the footage

Group 10- Planning update

What we've done:

• edited all the footage we currently have on the system
• Finished all of the film titles

What we need to do:

• Add in and edit new footage of dead girl
• Download and import soundtrack

Changes:

• We've decided that we will no longer film within the conference room

AH- Questions on Animatic

What is the purpose of this task? Go through the process in detail.

• The purpose of this task is to film our story board in order to create an animatic
• This allows us to see what shots we are going to use within our production
• To do this we had to film each of the clips on the storyboard individually, then put the footage onto premier elements. After this we cut the clips down and put them into chronological order so that we know exactly what we are going to film.
• We also incorperated sound over the top of it to show that the opening will create tension throughout
• This is very helpful as it allows us to know exactly what we need to film in terms of the narrative, also what atmosphere is building through out

What have you learnt?

• First of all i've learnt about the significance and relevance of the animatic in terms of producing a film opening
• How to plan our various shot techniques, as well as consider what shots we may use in between our planned ones
• The significance of how the subject is placed within a shot, as well as what is in it to make sure it doesnt complicate the film or there's any unrelevent information included.

Group 10- Planning update

What we've done:

• Finished what we think we will use for the main titles of the film
• Editted our footage
• Began to Incorperate our other titles into the production

What we need to do:

• Update blog
• Add photos onto some posts
• Finish adding in the titles as well as the main ones
• Film murder part

The title idea we have used can be found on our blog, which creates a 'flickered' image

Changes:

• We have now decided that we are no longer going to film the police station scene as we will have enough footage to use and we believe that it is uneccessary  to use now

Feedback on planning - March

Adam, Nathan and James, well done on some very good posts. You must all ensure you are up to date though as there are still a number of tasks missing on this blog. These must be done by this evening otherwise you will lose marks from your planning grade as i will be doing the grades tonight. One of you needs to go through the blog today with the list and ensure everything is up to date, post images and clips as evidence for posts, comment on each other blog posts and highlight key media terms throughout.

Group 10 - Treatment Update

Because we thought that our original idea was too long, we have had to revise our treatment.
This is the new treatment:

• Shots of inside the serial killer's house, various shots will be used to show his tools and weapons and the final shot will be of the serial killer. The titles will flicker in and out after these shots.
• The detectives go to the serial killers house. There is a girl lying dead in a field and therefore we will show various clips of the dead body looking at a number of different angles. She will be wearing normal clothes and her hair will cover over her face.
• There will then be a fade to black and the title 'Deranged' will appear in a 'flickered and distorted image' this will have a soundtrack that will help to match the visuals that the titles will show.

Group 10- Animatic

This is our animatic for our production. It shows the main shots in terms of narrative which will be used within our production

Group 10- Rough cut feedback

Positive

• Relevant costume
• Good use of location
• Variety of shots used effectively

Points to consider

• More dialogue?
• Straighten up one of the shots
• Remove the first shot due to sign being in the way or cut it out
• Change shot going up the stairs so their not casually walking

Group 10- Planning update

What we've done:

• Last lesson we were unable to upload or edit any material as we watched other groups rough cuts and gave feedback

What we need to do:

• Upload footage
• edit material (cut down clips)
• Start to make titles for our film
• upload animatic to youtube so we can put it on our blog

After starting the titles the following clip is an idea of what they are going to be like. This is what we have done so far:

Group 10- Shoot Feedback (Saturday 16th March)

Where, when, how, with whom did you go?

• Where- Ide Hill- house location
• When- Saturday 2^nd March
• How- Car
• With whom- Nathan Mckerlie, Adam Howland, James Stone

What was successful about the shoot? Outline any particular creative shots?

• Close ups of weapons
• Tracking shot of props on table
• panning shot of room
• Smashing lightbulb

What was least successful? Why?

• Only problem was that we filmed during the day, however we managed to block the window

How important was your story board in this filming process?

• Very in the sense that it helped us to know what we needed to film, however there was a lot of other shots we carried out as well

What will you be shooting next and when?

• Shors of the murder victim (26th March)

Group 10- Planning update

What we've done:

• We've currently had to do an idividual task each, therefore we have not editted any of our footage lately
• We will be doing a rough cut to get feedback on what we've done so far so we have exported our production
• Here are some of our shots we have done within our production so far:

Things to do:

• Due to the fact that we lost our footage as the SD card corrupted we will be filming our next shoot tomorrow (Saturday 16th March)
• Print and find props for Mondays shoot (Monday 18th March)

AH- Institutional Context

Institutional Context

 

     'Seven' (Fincher, 1995)

Has a star been used in this film? Why is this important?

• Yes, Bradd Pitt and Morgan Freeman. This is very signinficant, due to the fact that it helps to attract consumers into watching the film as their both popular actors, therefore more people will want to come watch them.
• Many will come watch their favourite actor regardless of what the film they are starring in. Therefore its important a film tries to incorperate well known people as it will appeal to more people, however this is a very important process in order to afford high budget actors.
• Furthermore, the use of stars within films, also help to enforce the characteristics of the type of film it actually is. Most horror films do not use high budget actors, as a lot of them are normally independent films. On the other hand some of them place stars as they can afford much more expensive content within the film as they are much more tentpole type films.
 

Which studio produced this film? Is it an industrial or independent film?

• This film is produced by New Line cinema.
• This company was established in 1967 and since then it has relseased many significant and notable films such as: A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre(in corperation with Platinum Dunes), The Lord of the Rings trilogy (in corperaton with WingNut Films and The Saul Zaentz Company) and many more
• This studio works in many filming industrys that are responsible for theatrical distribution, film production, marketting, as well as home video
• In 2008 New Line Cinema merged with parent company Warner Bros.
• The company is an independent studio
• Independent films are sometimes distinguishable by their content and style and the way in which the filmmakers' personal artistic vision is realized.
• Usually, but not always, independent films are made with considerably lower film budgets than major studio films.
• Generally, the marketing of independent films is characterized by limited release, but can also have major marketing campaigns and a wide release.
•  Independent films are often screened at local, national, or international film festivals before distribution (theatrical and/or retail release).
    

What strategies were used to market the film?

• This film was relseased on 22nd September 1995 in the United States
• Synergystic promotional activity is evident in the marketing of this film, this can be shown by the release of the book in 1995, the same year, of which was based on the original film.

Is the institutional context evident in the production values of the opening?

• In my opinion the institutional context can be see as evident within the production of this film, due to the fact that the beggining does not use any visual techniques or other conventions which signifies it is much more of a low budget film.
• Furthermore, evidence of this being an idependent film with low budget can be seen within the original production ideas, due to the fact that this opening is different from what they first suggested, however they didnt have the budget to stick with the original script so therefore this film opening was made instead.

AH- Media Audiences

Media Audiences

'Dawn of the Dead' (Snyder, 2004)

 

 Who is the target audience?
In the UK, the BBF gave this film a certification of 15 for both the theatrical and unrated version. Therefore, it's apparent that this film is focusing on a fairly young audience, however mainly one that conforms to the core audience, between ages 16-35, mainly male, due to the fact that this is the typical audience for a horror film. It is evident that many horror films focus on a much more male based audience, as they use a lot of blood and gore, and males usually tend to watch aspects of this as opposed to women.

What are the probable and possible audience readings of the text?

From my point of view it is evident that this production can be seen from the audiences perspective as a preferred reading. This means that the audience is in agreement with the codes  within the production, due to the fact that various conventions are made apparent which we would relate a horror film to. For example the use of blood and gore can be seen through the text which is formatted in a red font to make it look like blood, as well as the use of prosthetic for the zombies also to sustain gore.

How do you, as a British teenager, read and evaluate the text? to what extent is your reading and evaluation influenced by your age, gender and background?
Personally, I believe this text conforms to the various aspects of horror in which you would expect to see in this genre of film, therefore I would perceive it in typical manner. The use of blood and gore within this helps certify that it is unacceptable for younger children, especially because the use of zombies are placed within the narrative. As a young male I believe we watch horror films for the tension and excitement of which helps to build up the audiences adrenaline.

 

AH- Film Language

Film Language

 

'The Ward' (Carpenter, 2010)

 

How does mise en scene convey meaning in this sequence?In terms of location it conforms to a typical horor convention, due to the fact that we see a tracking shot of a empty corridor, which is in an asylum. The use of low key lighting is also a conventional aspect of this film, shown by the dark corridor, as well as the flashes of lightening. This helps to establish a much more eerie and dark atmosphere for the audience and hopefully create tension.

How does camera shot size, movement and angle convey meaning?

The tracking shot in terms of movement helps to establish a long isolated corridor which is an apparent convention of the horror genre. In terms of shot and angle, the camera has no specific subject to focus on which enables us to focus on isolation as well as the darkness within the shot.
 

How does sound anchor the images?

The soundtrack within the film opening is continuous throughout. This involves a repetitive chorus. Due to the fact that this film focuses within the location of an mental asylum, this may help to set a tone as the continuos chorus of voices may connote how the people within the asylum are almost brainwashed. The sound also creates a creepy effect amungst the audience.  

What do we learn about the characters through dialogue and non-verbal language?

This opening sequence does not feature any characters, which is very significant. This is because we are only presented with a location, as well as pictures. Therefore, it allows the audience to think more and to interact them more into the film as they will want to find out the answers to questions such as: where is the characters? why are there pictures of people getting tortured? where is this corridor location and whats the significance of it? This is a very cunning way of drawing in a media audience within this film as it helps them to interact with the pictures shown on screen.

What other visual techniques does the director use and why?

The director also uses aspects such as still images within the production, some use panning in order to show them, and these visual techniques are to establish a horror tone, due to the fact that they are of people being tortured. Also the effects evident along side these images, involve them breaking into pieces which shows corruption as well as destruction.

 

Group 10- Call Sheet (Filming Day 3)

NM: Institutional Context

Smokin' Aces (Carnahan 2006)

Has a star been used in this film? Why is this important?
This film has many stars in it and well known names as actors nowadays. The bankable stars that appear in this film include Ryan Reynolds, Alicia Keys and Ben Affleck. The significance of having these actors is that it will bring in consumers that would not view the film without them starring, for example the genre of Smokin' Aces may not appeal but they pay to see the production because of the actors. Furthermore the type of actor that is used in films can often help the audience establish what genre film it is, for example low budget independent films do not tend to have famous actors as they often don't represent the correct genre, where as high budget tent pole films can afford to have actors that enhance the critical acclaim and attract a wider audience.

Which studio produced this film? Is it an industrial or independent film?


What strategies were used to market the film?

Is the institutional context evident in the production values of the opening?

NM: Media Audiences

Who is the target audience?

What are the probable and possible audience readings of the text?

How do you, as a British teenager, read and evaluate the text? to what extent is your reading and evaluation influenced by your age, gender and background?

JS- Script

• N- There's been another murder
• (throws File on top of the others)
• J- Thats the 6th one
• N- Good news though, we know who it is
• (throws picture of murderer at the other detective)
• N- Put these out yesterday someone called in
• J- You know where he is?
• (Throws map down with a circle of where the house is)

This will be a rough script we will be using in order to recreate the police scene. This point in the narrative is where the police discover exactly who the killer is.

NM: Film Language

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

 

How does mise en scene convey meaning in this sequence?
The characters and objects filmed are covered in a black paint or oil liquid this conveys a sense of mystery among the characters as we can't see their faces properly. The Meaning of this is to reflect the film and its secrecy as the opening title doesnt give any information away.

How does camera shot size, movement and angle convey meaning?
The different camera shot sizes, movement and angle convey the meaning of the film. We see lots of close ups again showing the mystery and creating drama in the title sequence. Furthermore all camera shots are moving which means the audience has limited time to view the character, this creates mystery.

How does sound anchor the images?
A very Famous song is used in the opening sequence of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'. The immigrant song by led zeplin is a loud powerful soundtrack that builds the tension.

What do we learn about the characters through dialogue and non-verbal language?
There is no dialogue in the opneing sequence of this film which has been done on purpose too create a sense of mystery and build suspense.

What other visual techniques does the director use and why?
The director uses other visual techniques such as panning shots and zooming shots, this is used by the director to keep the clip fast pace and keep the mystery. For example there might be a shot of one of the characters but a zoom or pan is used to hide their face so that no information is given away.

Group 10- Planning Update

Things to do:

• Individual Tasks
• Refilm our footage of serial killer as we lost it
• Film police scence (Thursday 14th March)
• Prepare a script for police scene
• Prepare some props for refilming of serial killer to improve it

Group 10- Production information

After filming more of our footage on Saturday 9th March, today after loading our footage from the SD card we managed to encounter problems, due to the fact that the SD card has corrupted, so therefore for the time being we have lost some of our footage and unable to incorporate it within our production. We are currently trying to recover that footage, however if not we will have to film the scene again. The date we have set to redo this if necessary will be Wednesday 13th March.

Group 10- Planning update

What have you done?

• We managed to film more of our production on Saturday (9th March) evening
• We filmed the murder scene, which consisted of panning shots around a room and a tracking shot of the murderers props.
• We have wrote up the feedback for the shoot

Things to do:

• Update blog- Format each post, respond to comments by making amends to our blog
• Try to recover lost footage and if so upload and edit it
• Film the police scene sometime this week, dependent on when the conference room is accessible 
• If we need to redo the shoot then we are going to make some props by printing of maps and photos to add into the screening. 

Group 10- Shoot Feedback (Saturday 2nd March)

Where, when, how, with whom did you go?

• Where- Ide Hill- house location
• When- Saturday 2^nd March
• How- By train, then car from Sevenoaks station
• With whom- Nathan Mckerlie, Adam Howland, James Stone

What was successful about the shoot? Outline any particular creative shots?

• Panning shots of the room
• Tilt shot of the murderer sitting in his chair
• Tracking shot of murderers weapons and props

What was least successful? Why?

• Everything went fine

How important was your story board in this filming process

• Very in the sense that it helped us to know what we needed to film, however there was a lot of other shots we carried out as well

What will you be shooting next and when

Ide Hill, serial killer 16th March

Feedback - March

Well done Adam, James and Nathan, there is clear evidence of progression of ideas on this blog. You seem very organised in terms of shooting material and getting the blog posts done. As a group this is a level 4 blog although this week's blog director needs to go through and ensure that formatting is uniform throughout, there are some areas where text is centred. You must also include director and year for all film references and don't just upload material like the call sheet without an introduction. In this case, it is, what the purpose of the call sheet is and why it is useful as a planning task (or not if you feel that).

Group 10- Planning update

What we have done:

• Finished animatic- put a sountrack over the background as well as cut the clips down
• Made our props better- altering the police documents to make it look more realistic
• Editing- We have had to make amends to part of the production by cutting our a clip in order to create better continuity

What we need to do?

• Carrying on editing
• Upload the animatic to youtube so we can put it onto the blog
• Filming tomorrow (Saturday 9th March)

Group 10- Planning update

What we have done:

• Edited more of our footage, we have cut the clips down so that we can minimise the duration of our production so far, therefore this gives us more opportunity to add more content.
• We have edited our pruduction down to roughly 50 seconds so far
• Put on the call and risk assessment for filming day 2 (Saturday 10th March)
• Finished the animatic

Things to do:

• Export, as well as upload the animatic
• Edit more of our footage (cutting only)
• Look for a good sountrack to use for our production
• Look through blog to add more detailed posts

Group 10- Planning update

Friday 8th March planning information:

• We have decided that we will film the murder scence on Friday evening (8th March), as therefore it will be dark and create a more realistic narrative.
• For this part of the film the characters that we will need will be; The serial killer (Adam Howland) and the murder victim (Faye Watson)
• The props we will need will be: a mobile phone, a plastic knife
• The costume for the serial killer is the same as before (leather jacket, black trousers, glasses)
• The costume for the murder victim is just casual clothes

Saturday 9th March planning information:

• In order to film the shots of the murder victims house we are going to film on Saturday (9th March), as similarly a dark effect will help to create more tension in our film sequence.
• The character needed for this is just the serial killer (Adam Howland)
• The props needed will be: Weapons (chainsaw, saw, knife) tools, table and chair
• The costume needed: leather jacket, black trousers, glasses

Tasks for today:
• Do call sheet for seconds day of filming
• Edit film (cutting to reduce time of clips)
• Finish animatic

Group 10 - Call Sheet (Filming Day 2)

AH- Title Effects

This is the idea we are going to create for the ending of our film title effects:

• We will use this for the main titles of the film
• The text that we will have for these titles is 'Deranged' therefore we think that this effect would be suitable, as it creates a weird type of effect that will therefore suit the typography we are going to use
• The main titles will be placed at the very end of our sequence
• The font we will used is named '1942 report'

Group 10 - Filming Day 2 Props

• The second day of filming will be in the conference room at school, because the room looks like the type of office you would have in a police station.
• To make the room look more like a police office we have made some props.
• These props are going to be used within our production to look like the police are investigating various murders that the serial killer within our production has carried out.
• The Box's in each of these pictures are going to have a picture in them

The picture in the black box will be of a girl, therefore it will look like they are a murder victim



The picture used within this template will be of the serial killer. This creates the impression that the police know who the murderer is and therefore fits in with our narrative of the police trying to catch him. 

 

Group 10 - Planning update

What we have done

• Edited our first shoot.
• Got a good idea of the title ideas that we will use.
• Have soundtrack ideas which we will trial and see which one is most appropriate.

What we need to Plan

• When we are doing our next shoot
• If we are doing all of the shots on our story board, or if we are going to cut some out because otherwise the opening will be too long.

JS- Title Ideas

Titles
Before Clip:

• 20th Century Fox

During Clip:

• A Film by -
• Directed - Adam Howland
• Produced - Nathan Mckerlie
• Starring - James Stone, Nathan Mckerlie, Adam Howland, Fai Watson, Martha Mckerlie, Amy Mckerlie, Niamh Kennedy, Alice Deacon, Emily Hudson, Tiffany Pocock.

After Clip:

• Main Title - Deranged
• "One Year earlier"

Titles that Will be used:

20th Century Fox

We are possibly thinking to use a clip of a professional production studio at the beggining of our film opening to make it look more professional and realistic

During the Clip title Ideas

The Fall Opening titles

The way the titles appear alongside the shots, is what we are looking for in our clip.

AH- Wilderness Woods Feedback

This is our edited footage from wilderness woods

Feedback:

Over the course of the day we managed to learn more aspects of filming in order to carry out the various shots required for the task. Doing this task has helped to develop our camera skills, as well as give us ideas to take into considertation during our prouduction such as shots we may want to use, as well as giving us experience filming a location reccie. The use of camera tracking has helped to inspire ideas for our production as originally we had not considered it, now we are going to incorperate it however. The day also gave us a duration of time in order to film the shots, so once again it tested our organisational skills, which we coped with efficiently with the use of good teamwork skills, good planning and valuable ideas.

AH- Location Pictures

• This outside location will be very effective for various shots in order to establish contextual information, due to the fact that theres lots of elements that will fit in well such as rusty equipment, run down garage and sheds, old signs, narrow footpaths etc.

• The inside location is also very effective in our production especially at night time, due to the fact that the house is completely empty which fits thriller conventions of abandoned houses for the location.

Group 10 - Risk Assessment (For all filming days)

TWGSB Media Studies Film Production

Risk Assessment

You need to consider all the potential risks at each location shoot and outline how you will work to prevent any accident or injury to you, your cast or the equipment. This risk assessment below has been compiled in order to take into consideration the various factors that may be dangerous when filming at various location, which will therefore help to reduce risks and give us the awareness we need in order to avoid any potential risks

Group 10 - Call Sheet (Filming Day 1)

7TWGSB Media Studies Film Production

Call Sheet & Shot list

 

Date:2/3/13      Location:Ide Hill

Meeting Time:10:30     Group:10     

Crew & Cast Contact details:

Adam Howland                  Phone: 07931502180

Nathan Mckerlie               Phone: 07825152633

James Stone                   Phone: 07503218385

 

Props & Equipment                               Crew responsible

Science Lab white coat                          Adam Howland

Materials used for murders                    Nathan Mckerlie

Map                                                        James Stone

Torch

Coffee