Tuesday, 28 January 2014

Friday, 17 January 2014

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. 

Tuesday, 14 January 2014

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


Monday, 13 January 2014

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. 

Thursday, 9 January 2014

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 -





Copyrighted 

-iTunes music
-Normal Youtube videos

Not copyrighted

-iMovie sounds
-Garage band
-Youtube videos with Creative Commons licence
-Royalty free music download websites

Sunday, 5 January 2014

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.