Candidate names and numbers

William Holland - 6337

Kathleen Joyce - 6220

Georgia Marchant - 6231

Emily Matthews - 6235

Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Will's Prelim Response



Katie's Prelim Response

Emily's Prelim Response


Georgia's Prelim Response

Evaluation Question 6

Evaluation Question 5

Our target Audience was mainly girls ages 15-20 however males may also want to watch this film as men, stereotypically would rather watch an action or a horror over a rom-com or other such genre.
To attract the audience our main character was a girl ages 17 meaning our target audience would be able to relate to her easily. The mockumentary part of our opening would not usually appeal to the target audience however we used contradicting views between her peers and her teacher which would be more realistic in the way a girl this age acts in front of teachers and people her own age making it more realistic and believable. these contradicting views also create an enigma for the rest of the film about the real identity of the victim.

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question Two

Evaluation Question One

In what way does your product use, develop or or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?




How we have used, developed or challenged conventions through camera work and editing:

At this point in the opening i created a zoom into a moving light behind her, this is the first clip to show something following her, as this is an unknown and anyone could be behind the light it uses the codes of a horror film, using the audiences minds to create different ideas of the protagonist for each viewer.



Haunted Battle Website

9 Key Frames

 To support Evaluation Question One I have created a series of 9 key frames from the opening showing how they apply to and challenge codes and conventions of real media products. rollover the images.

Final Opening

Limitations when filming

Point of View Shot

Point of View shots are used to look through the eyes of a character, making the audience see what they see. This creates a sense if realism for audience. Horror and thriller genres often use this technique, to suggest someone spying on someone else, while withholding the identity of the 'spy'. 


We use a mobile camera to generate the POV. The use of our hand-held camera mimics the movement of our observer. However we used some shots of the observer to confirm whose POV it is.

Response

What we need to change based on the feedback from our draft screening:

Sound

Sound is the most important part of our film opening as we use it to set the scene, create and build tension as well as insinuate when something bad is going to happen.
Here are some of the sounds we used for the opening:

            

Sound at the end, There are lots of layers to build tension and make an impact

Sound bridges of interview over the main shots

Layers showing how tracks are faded into each other

Directed Improvisation Post 2

We decided that we wanted an element of directed improvisation in our film opening, we had to cast people who were good at acting as they would be able to portray the naturalistic style we wanted. By giving the actors guidelines on what to say they were able to say it in a way that they normally would, making it more freely flowing, less forced and more natural.

Documentary Filming

• medium close shot

• rule of thirds

• high key lighting

• not looking straight into camera

• setting that reflects character

• fades between cuts in speech

Images:

http://archives.library.yorku.ca/pchp/?p=262

http://www.eidolonfilms.com/2011/05/19/three-point-lighting-for-interviews/

Survey

As part of researching audiences for evaluation question 4 I have created this survey. If you could fill it out it would be highly appreciated.

 Target Audience Survey

Credits and Titles

The way we have decided to put our titles is as follows. 

• Name of distributing studio

• Name of production company

• A film by

• Sound and Music

• Edited by 

• Filmed by/ Cinematography / Director if photography

• Screen play 

•Produced by

• Directed by

• Starring

• Film title

Normally the starring title would come after a film by however we want it later on as our main actress does not appear fully until later on. 

Target Audience of Blair Witch Project

We got a lot of inspiration for our film opening from the Blair Witch Project. It is a 'mockumentary' like ours, and in the same genre of horror. We hope to appeal to the same sort of audience as they did. Therefore, we can learn a lot about our target audience from this film.

I've established that the target audience of the Blair Witch Project is mainly young people 15-30 who enjoy horror and thrillers, and in particular have an interest in film-making and/or supernatural things. The Prezi below explains this in detail, and how they marketed the film to these people.

Story Board Images

First Screening

We screened our first draft to a large audience to gain some feedback on what we could do to improve our film opening.

We created a questionnaire for people to fill in, which we handed out at the screening. In the Youtube video below we discuss the questionnaire results.

 

Costume

Our Facebook Page

https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=739515732742835 

We are using the social media site Facebook as a media platform to address our target audience effeciently.

Music Consumption Survey

If you can complete this survey your help would be much appreciated. 

Music Consumption Survey

Filming Day 1 and 2

Here are some photos I took when we were on location at Battle Abbey.

First Time Filming

Last night our media studies team travelled through to Battle in East Sussex to film for the first time for our trailer. When we arrived at Battle Abbey School we immediately encountered problems. After setting up the camera and tripod to film our establishing shot of the building we found that due to the poor lighting the camera picked up nearly nothing. 

We tried various ways of lighting the building such as hand held torches and even trying to use a car headlights. We then moved on to trying to film the 'action' for our trailer. This too was a disappointment and we found that to pick up our actor she would have to stand less than a three meters away from the camera. Although we did not manage to film much we did get a feel for the building and thought of some new ideas. 

After the poor nights filming I went home and researched different ways of filming at night. Unfortunately the researched made me realise that it was going to be difficult for us to film at night due to lack of lighting and ability to light the Abbey grounds. However my research did open me up to ways of filming in day time and using editing to make the footage look like it had been filmed at night time. In response to this we have decided to film tomorrow evening and edit the footage and see what results we get. 

Where Else Are We?

If you want to see us on other social media sites, we have set up accounts on Instagram and Facebook so that we can reach a wider audience.
Instagram: Lighthawkproductions
Facebook Page: Lighthawk Productions

Prelim Tasks

Here are our Prelim Tasks.

Emily and Katie's Prelim:



Georgia'a Prelim:

Wills Prelim

Sound Effects

The music and sound effects of our film opening will be extremely important in creating the right atmosphere. The sound elements of it will help set the tone and hopefully they will make the film much more tense and scary.

Famous examples of the use of sound -

- Jaws theme tune



One of the most famous theme tunes in film for creating a sense of tension and fear is the theme song for the film 'Jaws'. The music makes the viewer feel on edge and uncomfortable and foreshadows a traumatic event - usually a death.

 - The Wilhelm Scream



The Wilhelm scream is an iconic sound effect that has been used in over 200 films since 1951. It is mainly used when someone falls a long way, get thrown back from an explosion, or is shot. It can now even be downloaded onto your phone.


Types of sound you would hear in horror films -

- Heavy breathing
- Doors creaking
- Wind/Rain
- Footsteps



We have decided not to include many, if any, vocal sounds from the actress (including screams) as silence can be just as effective if not more than speech. It lets the audience come to their own conclusions.

Casting

For the type of film opening we want to create the actor will have to trust us, because of this we have to cast someone we know but that will also take the role seriously as well as being good at acting and improvisation.

This is Joely, we have chosen her as our actress for our 'scared girl'. we she has a very unique look, she does not look too young or too old as we want people to think she is around 17, yet still vulnerable. We have seen Joely in an out of school drama class as well as in school.

Sophie: Girl attending Josephine's school. 

Bethan and Grace: Girls attending Josephine's school.

The three girls we have chosen to be interviewed we saw perform other pieces in drama and saw that they would be able to act in the naturalistic way we wanted. We also wanted them to be able to play the part of a stereotypical teenage girl, listening to rumours and wanting to gossip and be involved.

Neil Holland :Teacher at Josephine's School

Interviewed in an office to show he is an important authorial role which is also shown through the suit and tie. 

Copyright

Copyright is a legal concept which allows the person or organisation who created the work to have all of the rights to its use and distribution. This is normally just for a set period of time, and aims to allow the creator of the content the right to get compensation for their work and gain financially from the distribution of it. Copyright is a form of intellectual property, which includes trademarks and patents. 

Youtube

Youtube cannot stop a copyrighted video from being uploaded, however if it receives a complaint from the owner of the copyright it has the right to remove the video from Youtube. This helps to stop illegal copies of songs from being on the website, and means that the creator of the song or video will be the one to benefit financially from its views and sales. There are many websites and downloads available which allow you to download songs from music videos on Youtube, however in the terms and conditions of the website it states that -

"- You agree not to access Content through any technology or means other than the video playback pages of the Service itself, the Embeddable Player, or other explicitly authorized means YouTube may designate.

- You shall not download any Content unless you see a “download” or similar link displayed by YouTube on the Service for that Content. You shall not copy, reproduce, make available online or electronically transmit, publish, adapt, distribute, transmit, broadcast, display, sell, license, or otherwise exploit any Content for any other purposes without the prior written consent of YouTube or the respective licensors of the Content."

This means most Youtube videos cannot be legally downloaded and used. The only exception to this is if the video has been uploaded under the Creative Commons (with attribution) licence. Youtube allows video uploaders the option to allow other users to use their content however they would like using the Creative Commons licence, provided they provide a link back to the source, as opposed to the standard Youtube licence mentioned above. This means that some of the content on Youtube may be available for us to use in our film opening.

Itunes/Apple

Music from iTunes is subject to copyright and it is illegal to use any song bought on there, other than for personal use, without permission from those with the rights to the track (usually the record company or artist). However, the music, jingles and sound effects that come with iMovie are allowed to be used royalty free. Music created in garage band is also copyright free and therefore we would be able to create sounds and music there and then use them in our film. 

Royalty free music

Some websites provide royalty free music. Some are free, and others you have to pay for. This could be a good option, although the range of music can be quite limited. Some websites which offer this are -

http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/

http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/free.html

http://www.themusicase.com/

Copyrighted 

-iTunes music

-Normal Youtube videos

Not copyrighted

-iMovie sounds

-Garage band

-Youtube videos with Creative Commons licence

-Royalty free music download websites

Directed Improvisation

Improvisation: Something that is improvised, in particular a piece of music, drama, etc. created spontaneously or without preparation.
We have decided that we want an element of improvisation to our film opening to get the mood and atmosphere we want to portray.

After looking at how the Blair Witch Project was created we found that the film was unscripted other than a short back story the cast were given, the director would plant objects to scare the actors, resulting in naturalistic acting and genuine fear.

Structured Reality

Structured reality programs are based around real people, put into pre-arranged situations and filmed talking naturally. For this sort of filming to work well, the filming and production team have to be trusted by the cast, so that the cast feel comfortable talking in front of the cameras as if they aren't there.

The constructed situations have to be planned well, as they have to respond to previous happenings and events, the situation also has to have an interesting result for example two people meeting after having an argument or after a party. These situations won't be scripted but it may be easy to predict the nature of the conversations which has to be taken into account when devising situations.

These sorts of shows are currently aimed at a younger demographic as the sorts of people and situations may appeal more to them and as a result of this are only shown on digital channels.

Target Audience

The target audience of our film opening is going to be mainly young people. This means we will have to cooperate with the relevant legislation enforced by the British Board of Film Classification.





The 15 label means nobody below age 15 can buy, rent, or watch the film in the cinema. The Prezzi below displays what the British Board of Film Classification states is not allowed in a 15 rated film.





The 18 label means no-one under the age of 18 is allowed to buy, rent, or watch the film in the cinema. The Prezzi below shows what the British Board of Film Classification states an 18 is not legally allowed to include -

Why Horror?

Why we have chosen Horror as the genre for our film opening.
Inspiration: We  have been inspired by Films such as the Blaire Witch Project and Paranormal activity to create a 'Mocumentary' style Paranormal found footage Horror. 
Costs: the costs of filming something like this is very low, the Blaire Witch Project was filmed on a very low budget compared to other films and made a lot of money despite this. for us, using handheld camera work is not only the look we are going for but would also be very cheap.
SFX: We have dicussed filming in black and white or putting a night vision effect onto the footage which we feel will enhance the look and feel of our work.

Horror Research

Horror Genre Research

Typical Features of the Horror Genre:  Horror films have certain codes and conventions that can be used to define the genre of film. Such as Low key Lighting, fast paced cuts and things such as quotes from interviews and there is always a threat and occasionally investigation of sounds or noises. 

We are going to create our film opening in the Horror Genre and to do this we plan to include; Flashbacks from Characters, Fast paced cutting as well as cross cutting, using Handheld camera work to make the audience feel like they are a part of the action and put them closer to what is happening as well as highly naturalistic acting to create the look that we are going for. we also want to create an Enigma for the audience which will make them question what is to come.

Night vision

This is used in many films to create a 'real life' and 'home made' feel to the film. Connecting with the audience more creating a more tense atmosphere. We think we could use this in our film opening as it reinforces the conventions from other films we have researched. 

Possible Filming Location

Location: Battle Abbey School

Battle Abbey is a historical building located in East Sussex. As well as the medieval architecture the Abbey contains 'the ruins' from the collapsed church. The Abbey has been investigated in recent times due to paranormal scares and ghosts. 

Typical locations of horror films: Typically horrors are filmed in and around historical or deralict buildings and 'haunted houses'. They may also be filmed in places that we see as safe such as homes or schools, which shows the audience that anything can happen, this adds fear.  

Possible Filming Location

 Location: Stacklands Retreat, West Kingsdown

Abandoned Church beside Stackland Retreat House in West Kingsdown. This church and house has been left for many years. It was part of Bromley Church estate and is said to be haunted. It was a purpose built retreat house offering facilities for residential or day training events, conferences, quiet days or retreats.

Possible Filming Location

Location: Bodium Castle, Robertsbridge

Bodiam Castle is a 14th-century moated castle near Robertsbridge in East Sussex, England. It was built in 1385 by Sir Edward Dalyngrigge, a former knight of Edward III, with the permission of Richard II, ostensibly to defend the area against French invasion during the Hundred Years' War. Of quadrangular plan, Bodiam Castle has no keep, having its various chambers built around the outer defensive walls and inner courts. Its corners and entrance are marked by towers, and topped by crenellations. Its structure, details and situation in an artificial watery landscape indicate that display was an important aspect of the castle's design as well as defence. It was the home of the Dalyngrigge family and the centre of the manor of Bodiam.

Features of a Film Opening

We have composed a short movie demonstrating the typical features that we believe are common in film openings.

WARNING: Some content may be unsuitable for sensitive viewers.

Gender representation in adverts

Genre: a style or category of art, music, or literature

Genre: a style or category of art, music, or literature


Genre can be defined by mise en scene, lighting, sound: diagetic and non diagetic as well as editing and camera movements, shots and angles. This can be seen in television and movies.

Sone typical features of the comedy genre are shown below.

Typical Features of the Science Fiction Genre.

Blog Intro

Hello examiner 
We are Georgia, Katie, Will and Emily. This is our blog, we are going to show you the process towards the production of our movie opening. We hope you enjoy it. Thanks.