Wednesday 15 December 2010

Editing.

We now have the basic editing complete. The shots have been cut to size, and we have put them together. The sound still needs to be added, but Curtis and Joe should be sorting that out tonight. Arjinder did a VERY rough version, complete with really dodgy sound effects.

Thursday 2 December 2010

Shooting Report

On the Monday of this week, we shot our film opening. We went to a local graveyard to record the shots. We thought that it went pretty well, but we have only seen a few of the shots at the moment, so we can't be sure. It took us about an hour to film the shots, that includes measuring-up and re-taking shots. We are going to start editing today. I reckon that editing will go well, I'm quite looking forward to it.

Friday 19 November 2010

Blue Screen Test

This is a video of Tom and I, playing about with a blue screen.

Monday 11 October 2010

Final Decisions

Soundtrack.
We were thinking of having a mix of both fast-paced music and standard atmospheric music. For instance, fast-paced Drum and Bass would make a chase scene seem faster, and it would make the scene seem tense and it get your heart beating fast.

Sound effects.
For sound effects we would need things like , blood splatters, screams, sliceing sounds, footsteps and heavey footsteps. As we are doing a horror, this would seem rather appropriate. these are all sound you expect from a horror film.

Costumes.
For costumes, the character being chased would need normal clothing, as he is just a normal person. The killer would possibly need a mask and a hood. This makes the killer seem like he is isolated, like you know nothing about him, and not seeing his face makes it more of a mystery. You feel like you don't know the killer, so you can't feel sorry for him because of his background. This forces you to empathis with the victim.

Props.
We would need a mask and an object to be used as a weapon. This is fairly simple as we only need two minutes of footage, so props aren't a major issue. But we were looking at using a weapon that hasn't been seem in a horror movie. This could give a feeling of authenticity.

Lighting.
For lighting, we will proably use night vision and spotlights, this is because we are going to be filming in the dark.

Wednesday 6 October 2010

Narrative Theories Research

 Narrative is a message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio or television program - Found on http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&safe=active&q=define%3ANarrative+&meta


Without narrative, the story cannot progress.
Narrative drives the story forward, forward into something worth paying attention to.
If a story's narrative is slow, or just badly made, it's not going to drive the story forwards.
You'll probably turn it off... Or walk out.


Vladimir Propp
Propp was essential interested in the narrative of folk tales. He identified a theory
about folk tales were similar in many areas. They were about the same basic
struggles and they appeared to have ‘Stock Characters’. He identified a theory
about characters and actions as narrative functions; they provide a structure for the text
  • The hero – a character that seeks something
  • The Villain – who opposes or actively blocks the hero’s quest
  • The Donor - Who provides an object of worth
  • The Dispatcher - who sends the hero on his/her quest via a message
  • The False hero – who disrupts the hero’s success by making false claims
  • The helper - who aids the hero
  • The princess – acts as the reward for the hero and the object of the villain’s plots
  • Her father – who acts to reward the hero for his effort
Christopher Vogler
Chris Volger is a story analyst for Disney, Warner Brothers 20th Century Fox, and many more Hollywood production companies. He explored the construction of narrative from a character driven perspective. His theory is called The Hero’s Journey.
  • Ordinary world
  • Call to Adventure
  • Refusal of Class
  • Mentor
  • First Threshold
  • Test, Allies, enemies
  • Approach to the inmost cave
  • Ordeal
  • Rewards (seizing the sword)
  • The road back
  • Resurrection
  • Return with the Elixir
Vogler also claimed that there were eight Archetypes within Hollywood narratives
  • Hero
  • Mentor
  • Heraid
  • Shape Shifter
  • Allies
  • Shadow
  • Trickster
  • Threshold Guardians

Levi Strauss
Meanings, including narrative, depend on binary oppositions – he explores these in terms of underlying typical themes, rather than events. Conflict helps to drive the narrative.
  • Man Vs Woman
  • White Vs Black
  • Young Vs Old
  • Hero Vs Villain
  • West Vs East
  • Good Vs Bad

For our film opening, I think Vladimir Propp's theory is the most suitable.
It will work because it has many of the key ingredients for a Horror movie.
You have the Hero, The Villain, The donor, The Dispatcher, and The Helper.
This suits our opening, becuase we will have limited actors.
It will create an effective narrative because it's what you're going to expect from a horror film.
The Hero is always the guy who makes the end of the film.
The Villain is often tough and has to be killed in an elaborate manner.

The Donor, when I think of a donor, is usually an old inventor with lots of weapons and gadgets.
The Dispatcher is usually also an old person or authoritive figure.
The Helper is usually stupid and dies around the end of the film.
These aspects are going to make our opening worthwile.
But, bearing in mind it's only an opening just 10 minutes in length, we won't get to see much.






Horror Mood-Board


This is a mood board, made by Curtis Meredith.
It shows what we imagine when we think of horror.

:)

Tuesday 5 October 2010

Film Opening Analysis - 28 Weeks Later.



This is the opening scene from the survival horror movie '28 Weeks Later'. The film is a sequel to '28 Days Later'

The film is set 28 weeks after the rage virus has hit London in '28 Days Later'. In '28 Days Later', many people died, and there was gallons of bloodshed, so in this film, providing you've seen the films forerunner, you're going to expect twice as much.

The very obvious part about this opening, is the low-key lighting. This could symbolize many things. One being isolation, the characters in the scene could be feeling alone, it also gives people the feeling of vulnerability. There are a lot of candles in the scene, this could symbolise hope. The key aspect of the film itself is relying on hope, hope that the rage infection is dying out.

The people seem very scared, apprehensive, yet very alert. This shows that they are going through something really traumatic, but are ready for anything worse to happen. When The male character 'Don' opens the door to see the little boy, it shows a glimpse of the female character blocking out the sun from her eyes. This shows that they have been in the dark for a long time, maybe suggesting they are in hiding.

When Don opens the door to the little boy, he has a crowbar, poised to attack any unwanted visitors, namely, the people infected with the dreaded rage virus.

The films target audience is more than likely people aged 16+. Survival Horror films have become really popular in the past 10 or so years, and after seeing clone after clone, '28 weeks Later' is really something different. It's scenes are gruesome and tense. You find yourself screaming 'RUN!', or 'GET OUT!' at the screen. And that's really what you want from a Survival Horror. I can't say I got that same feeling from films such as 'Dawn of the Dead' and 'I am Legend'.

This opening says a great deal about what is to come, as the chase scene that follows it is tense and fast-paced, just like the rest of the film. It really is one of those 'RUN!' moments that get you clenching your butt-cheeks and sitting on the edge of your seat.

The movie is a classic.

Genre Analysis - Horror

Recently, I recorded a video of Joe and Curtis discussing the Horror genre.
The video isn't great, but it's a start.
I haven't uploaded the video's because at the moment Joe and Curtis did, A lesson was about to start, the links are here anyway.

What we expect from a horror...
http://joegormanmedia.blogspot.com/2010/09/what-we-expect-from-horror.html

Why we chose horror...
http://joegormanmedia.blogspot.com/2010/09/why-we-chose-horror.html

:)

Wednesday 29 September 2010

Audience.

Audience research is the most important part of the media industry as a whole.
For instance, media producers tend to think most about their target audience.
Target audience is important because it can set you up for the production of the media itself.


If your target audience are teenage girls aged 14-17, you might consider making a magazine about thing which the stereotypical 14-17 year-old girl would like, e.g.


  • Celebrities
  • Gossip
  • Fashion
If your target audience is 30-45 year-old males, you don't want to make a T.V. show about furry ponies named Daisy, Coco and Bubbles. It's not grabbing your target audiences attention.

'Family Guy' is a good representation of this fact.
'Family Guy' is a cartoon. 
You may think cartoons are for children, but Family Guy plays upon this stereotype and intends it for older audiences, it contains sexual representation, violence, bad language and everything children shouldn't see.
This is good because adults, as much as they will deny it, like to watch cartoons, because it takes them back.
So therefore 'Family Guy' is a cartoon intended for adults. 

Audiences are categorized using 'demographics', which are peoples different characteristics. People can be categorized by things such as:

  • Age
  • Gender
  • Interests
  • Musical tastes

Media producers have many methods of attracting audiences. This is by building a relationship with the people they want to send messages to. One method is called 'The Hypodermic Needle Effect'.
The Hypodermic Needle effect, is effectively a way of making your audience believe what you say. This method relies upon building trust with your audience first.
An example of this is the 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds, which caused MASS hysteria. The broadcaster made he listeners believe that the world was under attack from aliens. They believed this because they saw the broadcaster as an authoritative figure, therefore believing that they couldn't possibly lie to them.


Saturday 25 September 2010

Toy Story Opening Scene


This is the opening scene for the movie 'Toy Story'.
The film is an animated, family, fantasy, comedy, adventure.
The conventions of an animated adventure movie are:

  • Characters have a set time to accomplish an act or task
  • Comedy moments
  • Catch-phrases
  • Heroic acts/stunts
  • Big Set Pieces
The opening for the movie shows us that the film itself is about toys.
I have seen this film more times than I can count, but if I had just watched this opening for the first time, I'd expect the film to be family friendly.
From the opening, the film looks like it could be really entertaining, and it's practically saving you for something magical.

The target audience for this film would appear to be children aged 5-10, but really it is intended for all ages.
For children, it's a fantasy that toys really do come to life when they aren't there.
For teenagers and adults, it's them reliving their childhood days, and missing their favourite toys.

The film is an absolute classic, and the opening has inspired many remakes on youtube.
The opening scene for Toy Story 3 is also a remake of the scene.
Time has been kind to it, and future years I imagine will still be kind; a classic is forever.

Analysis of a movie poster.


This is the poster for the movie '28 Days Later'.
'28 Days Later' is a Survival Horror.
The film involves a shed-load of zombies and guns.
The conventions of a horror film are to make you scared.
You might also expect to see people die, get injured, or break down.
If we go into specifics, you also tend to expect:
  • You may not survive the movie if you have sex. 
  • You may not survive the movie if you drink or do drugs. 
  • You may not survive the movie if you say "I'll be right back." 
  • You may not survive the movie if you ask "Who's there?"
  • You may not survive the movie if you go out to investigate a strange noise.
The poster doesn't specifically prove this point.
Although there are some signs which indicate that this poster is designed for a horror movie.
For instance, the colour red.
This can indicate a number of things, such as:
  • Blood
  • Stop
  • Danger
  • Evil
  • Fire
  • Hell
The title for this poster is an important key signifier.
The font that the title is presented in was actually designed for this movie and is now used a lot in titles for indie films.
If you look closely, the font is cracked and broken.
This could represent the cracks that have appeared in society throughout the film.
The characters all 'crack' during the film, they all have key moments during the film where they just change.
The title could represent this.

The designer seems to have gone for a minimalistic approach for this poster.
The poster doesn't display much.
In fact, this is key to the film, although there are hundreds of zombies, there are only a select number of characters within the film that we pay attention to.
We don't see inside many of these characters, and some of them can seem like strangers when you watch this film.

Although it's very obvious, another pointer towards the fact that this is a horror, is that at the top of the poster it says: 'Danny Boyle re-invents the Zombie-Horror, and It's scary as hell'.
Like I said, this is obvious, but really helps people to understand what the film is about.






 

Wednesday 15 September 2010

The Descent movie still analysis.


This is a still from the movie 'The Descent'

The shot is a medium long shot.
Low shot

The still is set in a forest.
A forest is usually the setting you would expect for a horror film... Usually.

The girl in the still is covered in blood.
This is another stereotype for horror movies.
You wouldn't expect a girl crawling out of the ground covered in blood from a  Romantic Comedy.

The girls facial expression suggest that she may be in agony or is trying really hard to escape from wherever she is.
It could also represent the fact that she is very scared.

Although the lighting doesn't really reflect that of usual lighting from a horror movie, you can still see that it's from a horror because all of the other ingredients for a horror are there.



Monday 13 September 2010

Camera Shot analysis.


Close up shot.

A close up shot takes you into the mind of the subject in-shot.

The camera angle is neutral.

This subject is possibly feeling angry, or happy at the fact that they are angry. Maybe they like being angry because it means they can go and kill somebody... I don't know.

But this picture scares the hell out of me.

Friday 10 September 2010

Sorority Row Trailer analysis.

















This is a good film with an interesting plot-line.
The serial killers image could be used in our film.
And maybe some of the plot.

Our group members and film ideas.

The members in our group are:
  • Me
  • Curtis Meredith
  • Joseph Gorman
Our current idea for a film is a horror.
We are currently looking at a plot-line for the film.