Planning: Initial ideas To A Sixty Second Pitch

We were asked to come up with an entire plot for a whole horror film instead of only devising the opening 2 minutes which would have no real plot to work with. We did this by creating a mind map, on which we brain stormed all of our initial ideas for the plot of our film. This mind map was split into six different sub-genres that you would most likely find in a horror movie. For example, we thought of different ideas that we could use to create a plot for a movie based off true stories and urban legends by researching old news articles and old-wives tales. After brainstorming our ideas, we decided that every horror film should be based around some form of villain or threat/danger, whether it be a psychotic killer, possessive demon or a bloodsucking vampire. As a result of this, we decided to narrow down our ideas and began to think of something more specific. We wanted to create something different; something that other groups were less likely to have thought of. 



  

Once we had came up with the complete idea for out film, we then began to think about what our production company name and a working film title was going to be. We came up with the idea of 'Ragged Crimson Productions' as our production company name by thinking of adjectives/words that you would usually associate with horror. The fact that the main events in our film take place on the 29th February, we thought that 'Leap Year' would be an appropriate working title for our film. 
Our final 60 second pitch can be found on the embedded video bellow:

            

Research: The Importance Of Sound In Horror Films

Music has the ability to set the tone for how a scene will play out. Horror films generally rely on music to set the mood of a scene; if the desired feeling is tension then low drum sounds would be used at a slow tempo that gradually speeds up to the desired point when the suspense is over.

Different sounds and music, which creates certain atmosphere, allowing us to experience movie more deeply and emotionally. In horror movies, music is very important to create that certain atmosphere of tension and suspense. The first 'talkie' horror movie was also only the second sound film made by Warner Bros – The Terror (1928), which used a Vitaphone sound disc, filled with effects such as creaky doors. So the importance of sound in establishing mood was never in doubt within the film industry, and it continues to work in such well-crafted films as The Babadook (2014). 

       

            

Lots of voices in horror films have been chosen to reflect fear and panic. An example of this is Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street. Freddy's voice is deep and scratchy, which doesn't sound natural.

            

Sound is very important in all types of films, if you can't hear what's supposed to be happening in the film, then all you're watching is a series of clips put together. If you only hear the sound, then you can only picture what may be happening. But with the both of them together, it creates the emotions that the director and composer wants you to feel. The steady increase of the strings in this clip of 'The Dark Knight' highlights the tension and unease that the scene is supposed to create.

            

Scientists have found that many of the emotionally-evocative moments in some of the most popular films are enhanced with a sound score that exploits the human brain's natural aversion to the "non-linear" sounds widely used in the animal kingdom to express fear and distress.
Sounds are classed as non-linear when they become too loud for the normal musical range of an instrument or an animal's vocal cords. Alternatively, they can be produced by the sudden frequency changes of acoustic instruments.
The film Psycho uses these techniques to create petrifying scenes.

                            

Alfred Hitchcock used sharp, high-pitch, non-linear sounds in order to replicate distress calls of wild animal. This triggers a distinctive fear within the human brain.
Fear is also activated through the means of:
Isolated Instruments - which are often used before a key event and links the idea of vulnerability to the audience.
Long, suspenseful notes - This increases the audiences anxiety levels as the tension gradually increases (this also increases adrenaline), when long notes are contrasted with short, sharp notes, it shocks the audience.
Pitch tone changes - For instance, low, sustained strings which suddenly change to sharp, high-pitched notes - this makes the audience feel immediately tense.
Rapid sound sequence - This conveys the feeling of stress and panic. It also results in the audience being anxious.
By using a combination of these techniques, producers are able to create musical scores, which the audience then associates with fear, such as Jaws and The Exorcist.
When the non-diagetic sound is removed, the tension and fear is also lost. This highlights the significance of sound within horror films because it determines how scary the film actually is.

Research: The Importance Of Opening Titles

My Notes:


TITLES THAT APPEAR


Time                 Title
00:04                 NEW LINE CINEMA PRESENTS
00:06                 AN Arnold Kopelson PRODUCTION
00:10                 A FILM BY David Fincher
00:14                 Brad Pitt
00:18                 Morgan Freeman
00:24                 SE7EN
00:30                 Gweyneth Paltrow
00:33                 Richard Roundtree
00:39                 R. Lee Ermey
00:42                 John C. McGinley
00:46                 Julie Armstrong     Mark Boone Junior
00:54                 John Cassini    Reginald C. Cathey    Peter Crombie
00:57                 Hawthorne James    Michael Massee   Leland Orser
01:04                 Richard Portnow      Richard Schiff      Parnala Tyson
01:11                 CASTING BY  Billy Hopkins    Susanne Smith    Kerry Borden
01:16                 MUSIC BY    Howard Shore
01:22                 COSTUMES DESIGNED BY    Michael Kaplan
01:25                 EDITED BY     Richard Francis-Bruce
01:27                 PRODUCTION DESIGNED BY     Arthur Max
01:35                 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY    Darius Khondji
01:40                 CO-PRODUCERS      Stephan Brown      Nana Greenwald     Stanford Panitch
01:43                 CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS   Lynn Harris   Richard Saperstein
01:54                 EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS   Gianni Nunari  Dan Kolsrud   Anne Kopelson
01:59                 WRITTEN BY    Andrew Kevin Walker
02:04                 DIRECTED BY     David Fincher


TYPEOGRAPHY


The writing looks handwritten or childlike, it looks creepy and it is also bold for roles of the people such as the director or producer. The writing is either in the corners of the screen or off centre. The text also flashes and jolts around the screen, and the colour of the writing is white.


VISUAL ELEMENTS


At the start of the opening titles, there is an old book which is shot from the side to show how thick the book is, and pages turn.
You can also interpret that the person whose face you do not see, is the villain in the film Se7en because the person is shown to go through books blanking out words and cutting things out of the book with a razor. This person is also quite creepy to add to this element.
The lighting is dark to add mystery to the person, and it also adds an element of danger.
He has dirty fingernails which makes you feel disgusted.
It also makes you think that the person has an obsession with medical testing/experiments or just torture in general.


ELEMENTS OF SOUND


The techno sounds mixed with drum sounds makes you feel tension and adds an element of suspense, you can also feel the sound on your chest.
There is also a point where it sounds like a woman is singing choir, which adds to the suspense and tension in the opening titles.
The sounds are non-diagetic.


Explanation of My Notes:


TITLES THAT APPEAR


I have made a note of what titles appear in the opening, which is a total of twenty-six. It is also a prime example of roles that are in films and that they are important enough to make the opening.


TYPOGRAPHY


I have made notes on the style of writing and where it appears on screen, the colour and


VISUAL ELEMENTS


I described what I saw in the opening titles and how it may look to the audience.


ELEMENTS OF SOUND


I only listened to the sound and did not watch the clip and I made a note of how the sound made me feel and what type of sound it is.

Research Essay: Codes And Conventions In Existing Horror Films Aimed At A Teenage Audience

Codes are systems of signs, which create meaning. Codes can be divided into two categories – technical and symbolic. Technical codes are all the ways in which equipment is used to tell the story in a media text, for example the camera work in a film. Symbolic codes show what is beneath the surface of what we see, this is usually used through Mise-En-Scene which in means ‘Put in Scene’ in French, these are used through costume, make-up, props and set. For example, a character's actions show you how the character is feeling. Some codes fit both categories – music for example, is both technical and symbolic. 

Conventions are the generally accepted ways of doing something. There are general conventions in any medium, such as the use of interviewee quotes in a print article, but conventions are also genre specific, such as, in the first five minutes of a horror film, someone dies or in a horror film, it is usually set in an isolated area.

Dead Wood's Conventions Are:

-          *Somebody dies within the first five minutes.

-          * A character falls over during a tense part.

-          * A secluded location, no help within miles.

-          * The male becomes extremely close to safety but doesn’t reach it, as he dies.

-          * A chase scene, with the killer right behind him.

-          * Separation between the characters.

-          * The woman is wearing clothing that shows a lot of skin.

-          * The audience is unable to see the killer but they know it is there.

Dead Mary’s Conventions Are:

-          * The location is secluded, no help within miles.

-          * There is no signal which is shown by the use of the radio and her phone.

-          * The car won't start.

-          * The audience is unable to see the killer but they know it is there.

-          * The characters separate and the female is left by herself while the male has gone to get more petrol.

-          * The woman is wearing clothing that shows a lot of skin.

Wrong Turn’s Conventions Are:

-          * Secluded location, no help within miles.

-          * The audience is unable to see the killer but they know it is there.

-          * The characters separate and the female is left by herself.

-          * A character falls over during a tense part.

-          * Somebody dies within the first five minutes.

-          * A chase scene, with the killer right behind her.

-          * The woman is wearing clothing that shows a lot of skin.

-          * The female becomes extremely close to safety but doesn’t reach it, as she trips and dies.

Dead Wood Synopsis-

Four friends head into the woods for a vacation, but events turn sinister when a girl arrives and a mysterious force starts hunting them.

Dead Mary Synopsis-

A group of young friends, including former lovers Kim and Matt; married couple Dash and Amber; Baker and his girlfriend, Lily; and seventh wheel Eve, gather at a remote cabin in the woods. While playing a seemingly innocent, supernaturally themed game, the friends accidentally awaken an evil spirit, and must then fight off both possession and murder.

Wrong Turn Synopsis-

Friends Jessie and Carly are traveling with pals Scott, Evan and Francine when they have car trouble in West Virginia. Moments later, motorist Chris crashes into their disabled vehicle. Stranded, the friends discover that they're being stalked by a horde of backwoods cannibals. The woodsmen are hungry and fierce, and they'll be eating well unless Jessie and pals can outsmart them.

Analysis

All of these films have things in common, such as; it is set in an isolated area. In Dead Wood, the isolated area is the woods, in Dead Mary, they are on a stretch of road 100 miles from the nearest petrol station and in Wrong Turn it is set 50 miles from the next town. Another similarity between these three openings is the separation of characters. In Dead Wood, a man is running to try and warn a girl of the danger in the woods, but is then killed, in Dead Mary a woman is on her own in the car waiting for someone to return with the petrol to get the car moving and in Wrong Turn, a girls friend makes it to the top of the cliff before her so that leaves her separated from him, this separation is highlighted when he is subsequently killed, leaving her alone. The women in the opening of these films, are shown to be wearing clothing that shows a lot of flesh, highlighting the film industry’s need to show women in an objective way, to show the stereotypical woman that would most likely appeal to the males watching the film.

The use of camera angles and movements in Dead Wood are fast paced, such as the Point-of-View shot, which makes the audience feel tense as it puts them in the man’s shoes and makes them feel as though they are the ones running away from the danger. The high angle shot makes the man seem small and insignificant compared to the danger within the woods. In Dead Mary the use of camera angles and movements are slower compared to Dead Wood, such as the extreme close-ups of the sign swinging which gives the audience some sense of location, but the isolation is shown through the sign as it states that they are 100 miles from the next petrol station. Close ups of items such as the keys, her phone, the radio and the flare gun highlight to the audience that these items may be of significance later in the film and that them being shown early on, makes you forget about them until they are used later in the film. In Wrong turn however, there is a mix of both slow and fast camera angles and movements, such as the establishing shot is moving above the forest very quickly, showing to the audience that something is about to happen very quickly, and an example of where the opening has a slow pace, is where the dialogue takes place between the boy and the girl emphasising that the time they are spending together is about to be cut short.

Codes And Conventions Of Horror Films

Codes

Codes are a system of signs which create meanings. There are two types of codes, Technical and Symbolic. An example of a symbolic code is the colour red as it is usually seen as a colour of danger. An example of a technical code is camera angles, if the camera is looking up at a character, that character usually is in a position of power. 

Symbolic Codes

Symbolic codes are usually shown through Mise-En-Scene, the actions of the characters show what the character is feeling during important scenes. Props are used as symbolic codes, such as when an object is shown early on in the film, it could be used later on as a weapon of some sort which shows it's significance. 

Technical Codes

Technical codes are the different ways the equipment is used to tell the story. Sound is used to create tension within a scene and the camera angles shows a different perspective of characters, scenery and objects. 

Conventions

Conventions are ways of doing something which is accepted by the people either watching or making the film. In horror films there are many widely accepted conventions which are commonly used in the films, such as a death within the first five minuets into the film and an isolated area where there is no possibility of getting help if it is needed.

The History of Horror

Introduction To Main Task

Preliminary Task: Evaluation

Describe The set breif for the perliminary task. What was it you were asked to create? Use the correct media specific vocabulary and show that you understand the meaning of these terms.

The preliminary task involves the filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Explain everything you did leading up to the point when you started filming (pre-production). Discuss this process helped to prepare you for filming.

We started by brainstorming ideas for our preliminary task, we figured out everyone would be doing some sort of interview so we thought we would do something funny like an older student making a younger one feel awkward so that's where we came up with the idea of an older student stealing the younger one's carton of milk. Then we had to find people to fill these roles, so we decided to ask the schools drama teacher to recommend a student in year seven to us to fill the place of Rob, Mrs Childs kindly said we can use a student in her form called James Helps, we then had to decide on who would play Henry. After much deliberation, we decided to ask around in our sixth form and George Hales said he would do it for us. After deciding on our characters and who would play them, we moved on to planning where we would film the scenes and because the school was the best place to film this and it would make more sense, we chose to film the outside of the school as the establishing shot, the corridor as the build up and the food tech room where to action would take place. after deciding that that is where we wanted to film, we had to plan our storyboard and what camera angles and movements we would use.
This helped prepare us for filming because we knew what we had to do and where it would take place and who was able to act it out for us. It also meant that we wouldn't have to stress out over what he was going to say and what was gong to happen in the scenes.

Describe the filming process itself (production). How did this go?

Before we could film, we had to get James out of his lesson and film the scenes with him in first so that he could get back to his lesson. We filmed the dialogue first and George drinking the milk from the carton. it was easy doing this but then we realised that we had to film the rest, so essentially we were filming it all backwards. Which in hindsight, is not how we should've done it. Then after James went back to his lesson, we started the establishing shot and the entrance into the school, and then we were filming the crab shot of George walking down the corridor to the food tech class room.

Explain the editing stage for your preliminary task (post-production). This should include how you applied new skills you have learned.

While we were editing, we shortened the corridor scene with the razor and we added transitions to make it flow and show that time has moved forward since the last shot. We also added music to create tension and suspense in the scene.

Evaluate your finished preliminary task. How well does it meet the expectations of your set brief? which parts of it do you think are particularly strong? where are there weaknesses? what can you identify as being an area of development when it comes to producing your main task?


I think that the Preliminary task went better than I expected as I thought that it wouldn't work as well because we had a younger student with us and he didn't really say much at all. While we were editing, we realised that we should not have filmed it landscape and should have filmed it portrait instead and the sound went weird and we couldn't change it and the background noise was more prominent than the voice of the actors, however this gave it a comical twist which helped as our Preliminary task was meant to be humorous in the first place, although I would have preferred it if the sound had not messed up in the first place. A strong part in the finished product was the camera shots such as the extreme close-ups and the tracking shots as they were filmed in time and filmed in one shot. An area of development would be what way the scenes are filmed, such as not portrait and filmed landscape instead.

Preliminary Task

AS Media Studies: Preliminary Task: Filming Schedule

AS Media Studies: Preliminary Task: Filming Schedule: Preliminary Task: Filming Schedule from Amanda_Liepina

Learning To Edit With Adobe Premier Pro

Today I have learned how to edit clips together to make a short film, and how to keep the music behind the audio and make the audio louder than the music. 

Planning: Mise-En-Scene: Casting

Henry (age 16) is a sixth-former. Henry loves playing football and he is quite tall. However he is also a bit rude. Henry will be played by George. He is a good choice for this role as he is confident, not shy in front of cameras, he is in the same age group and also he is quite tall as well.





                                     





Rob (age 12) is a student. Rob is shy and slightly awkward and he likes to play video games in his free time. Rob will be played by James. He is a good choice for this role because he is similar age to Rob and he is also a bit shy.

Planning: Mise-En-Scene: Location Planning

The first shot of our storyboard is a establishing shot of the school. We have chosen our school for this shot because we have an easy access to it and it is not far away. It will be suitable for the scene because it will clearly show for context that the following scene will take place in the building.





















The second shot in our storyboard is a long shot of the food tech corridor. We have chosen this corridor because it will show the audience that Henry is in the school and is on his way to a class room.This shot will be suitable because it is in the school and from this angle it will be easy to understand that Henry is going to the class room. 





Our next location will take place in the food tech room. This is the room where the main plot of the scene is going to be set. The room will be used for different shots and angles.We have chosen this room because in our storyboard it is set in a food tech room, and because we have one in our school, it is easier for us to use it. It will match to our storyboard because the audience will be able to see the ovens in the background, which will prove that it is a tech room.

Preliminary Task: Creating A Storyboard From Initial Ideas

12 shot powerpoint from Colleen1999




Our group have created a 12 shot story board for two minuets worth of film. this film will consist of two characters (Henry, 16, and Rob, 12) exchanging a few lines of dialog and will be located in the food technology room. We've decided to film the clip in this location as it would make it more simple and realistic. The 12 shot challenge has helped us to carefully identify appropriate camera movements, angles and shots and when to use them within out film. this will make it much more straight forward when it comes to the actual process of filming our video clip.


I have learnt how to use camera angles and shots effectively and how to edit a storyboard to use these camera angles/shots/movements to fit in with a scene. I have also learnt about Mise-en-scene and how it means 'put into the scene'.

Preliminary Task: First Ideas

Henry, 16, opens the door to the food tech room, walks in and sits opposite Rob, 11, and then steals his carton of milk. The theft of the milk is discussed through two lines of dialogue. 

Understanding And Applying Basic Terminology

This is a Close Up shot

This is an Extreme Close Up 

This is a High Angle 

This is a Low Angle 

This is a Mid shot

This is a P.O.V shot

This is an Establishing shot

This is a Long shot

This is a Two Shot

This is an Over the Shoulder Angle

                                                         This is a Panning Movement.

                                                              
                                                              This is a Tilt Movement

                                                            This is an Arc Movement.

                                                       This is a Tracking In Movement.

                                                      This is a Tracking Out Movement. 

                                                       This is a Side Tracking Movement.