G321 Jan10: Billy, Gina, Jason & Melissa

Remember? evaluation Billy.

2009-12-15T01:58:00.001-08:00

Billy Liu Yu-Chien

Remember?

Our film is called ‘Remember?’ The opening of our film started with a dream, to start the narrative of the story, so the whole story will base on the dream. The dream started with an unknown girl asking whether James (main male character) remembered her and James is really confused about this random girl in his dream. The whole idea of this opening scene is to confuse the audience and create an effective enigma surrounding their past together, this can make the audience wonder who that girl is, and what is the relationship between them and make them create a development of what the story is going to be like in their mind. This will make them get into the film faster as they think, as the film goes on, the audience will find out why she was asking some random question to him in the dream. Some audience might have the same experience before in their life, so it can make them want to know more about what is going to happen in the movie

This is our both characters meet each other in the dream.

The challenge in this film is the end, which is the car scene; we tried to make the audience know James saw the unknown girl in the car, but because the timing problem, the film has to be 2 minutes exact. So we have to cut the important part together, which mean the part that can clearly outline what we are trying to show or make the audience know what we are trying to present. The ability of buy the professional filming equipments we have was very limited, which means we are a low budget film and this will be a challenge for us as well. We managed to overcome this situation by using parental and school resources, such as a car and locations in school. The camera and the tripod are all sponsor by the school, which is a good thing, so we don’t have to spend any money on the camera; if we do, it will cost a lot and we might not be able to do the filming, we gain our skill when we are doing our filming. We give each other some idea of how the shooting angle should be and what kind of shot we should use in different situation. For example, we use close up shot for the shocking face and we use panning to show the location. The music of our film was really bad; we made some mistakes while we were editing our final product concerning the background non-diegetic music. The sound effects were all moved forward about 2 seconds and 2 second for any film can course a big different. For example, we have a scene of James waking up in the room from his nightmare by his alarm; accidentally the sound effect moved 2 seconds forward and it made the alarm go off earlier than it was supposed to be, so the action didn’t match up with the sound. Music and sound effects are the most important things for a film, music can make the scene become emotional, and a good sound effect that goes all the way through the movie can make a big difference. Romantic music can give the audience a feeling of falling in love and a scary music or sound effect can make the audience feel tense. When we are using Garage band, we think of the genre in the film, which is kind of supernatural, so the music has to be quite slow and the rhyme can’t be too heavy, so we follow our rule to create the music that we special need in our film.

This is the scene that James though he saw the random girl in the car.

The age group that we are focusing on for our target audience in the film are teens to adults in their late twenties in Britain. Because the film is made in Britain, so the locations are typically British and all the characters that are involved in the film were all British, so we are trying to represent British in this film. The original language is in English, so the first target audience that we want to focus would be teens in Britain. The characters in the film have the similar age as the audience, bout 16/17. This mean our audience would be surround about the age between late teenagers to late 26 adult. As this age, the audience would have the emotion of some emotion in the film or they can image them in this situation and how are they going to face this situation that James has in the film.

This is a supernatural and romance film; we think this kind of mixed genres would attract the audience, because supernatural films are not as scary as horror films. Typically, the film often involves ghosts or gods and the story often appears to have a lot of confusion and contains an object that doesn’t appear in our world. Most of the audience are interest in romance film; this is the idea of why we mixed these two genres together. The locations that we used in the film are all good quality and suited the genre well, which means the background views are beautiful. The reason why we used these locations is because we want to attract the audience, so they can enjoy the film with a beautiful background view and the background are suitable in our film, which means it makes the atmosphere stronger. There’s the other actor, which represent James’s mum and she has to send James to school

This is the image of the company 'Summit Entertainment'.

There are two media institutions I think would be interested in distributing our film; one of the companies is Horizon Pictures. Horizon Pictures is one of the famous British companies in Britain, it’s known as GB production, the films they have produce was The Night of the Generals (1967) and The Swimmer (1968). The reason I think this company would buy our film, it’s because this company is an old British company and our product is a British film and Horizon Picture would be interest in British film. The other production company is Summit Entertainment, although this is an American production company. The well known films they have produce are Step Up (2006) and Red Cliff (2009), our film is supernatural and romance, one of the well known films of Summit Entertainment is Twilight (2008). Twilight is kind of similar to our film: the genre is romance and supernatural fantasy; both Twilight and Remember? have plots that concern a teenager girl and boy who fall in love with each other, and they both overcome the supernatural situation they have got in front of them. Twilight gives audience the feeling of supernatural, because the way they film Twilight and the location, lighting are all quite dark. When the main character came out, it’s always raining day or cloudy day, so it can give audience a feeling of scary and the movie has some romantic scenes, so we got these genres fit in our film, so I think Summit Entertainment would be interested most in our film.

When we were editing Remember? we used a lot of new technological items that we have never used before. The major editing machines that we used were eMac and iMac, these two items make our work become so easy, I couldn’t imagine not using these items. The sound effects and Garage band that we used on the new iMacs helped us a lot; all of the sound effects in the film and all other transitions in the movie are produces within iMovie. There are two way of sound that can be preset in the film, one is diegetic sound, which means the sound that came of from the character when they are talking and the background music. Non diegetic sound means the sound from outside that actual movie, which means the effect. For example the heart beat in remember? We used iMac software to make the title (Live Type), we choose the background effect, which is the gray colour at the back and the reason we use this background effect is because of the colour and the wave make the atmosphere feel more like scary and it suit the genre. The transitions of the letter remember? is go from the left to the right, after the transition, all the audience can see is the gray colour light but there’s a bright light in the middle, his give the audience a feeling of cross into our film. We also crop a few wider shots to close-up shots of our characters (on iMovie). We use a lot of transition effects during James’s dream with the mysterious girl to show this part of the film is a dream. When we were filming two characters having a conversation, we had to film it twice with each character talking to the other one, before this, we must obey the 180 degree rule of the two characters. This was very important for the direction of the rest of the scene, because if the 180 degree rule is filmed from the right, then the rest of the scene needs to be on the right side. During editing of the conversation, we needed to cut exactly to the right timing, so the whole conversation scene can goes smoothly. Without the technology of iMovie, we wouldn’t be able to do the editing. We got some long shots, medium shots in the film; we also took some close up shots and different kind of angle of two characters. The close up shot can make the audience know that we are focus on the face, because the reaction on the face is the most important thing in that part, and the long shot is when we try to show what the actor is doing. For example, long shot in remember is when the random girl walking next to the river.

This is the title that we did on the iMac’s, using Live Type.

We used the natural sunlight for our film, because we don’t have the ability of getting professional lighting. The idea of using sunlight for our lighting works quite well, the time that we were filming was about 4 to 5pm, as soon as the sun goes down, we lost our natural lighting and that’s the bad thing about natural sun light. The advantage of the sunlight is it makes everything look natural, if using the professional lighting, the light might be too strong and it might look a bit unrealistic. It also creates a sense of verisimilitude to the scene, as it is natural and realistic, yet also haunting in its dark shadows to give the supernatural effect more clearly.

The audience feedback was quite negative, because most of the audience didn’t really understand the story; we noticed that the audience are more interested in action within their film openings. So our media production didn’t attract most of the audience. we think the audience don’t understand the story, it’s because the car part scene, which is the scene that we have limited time to present or send important massages to the audiences. If we were to complete the film Remember?, from the start to the end, they would have actually understood our movie and the feedback from the audience would have been positive.

Comparing our film Remember? to the preliminary task, Remember? is much more professional than the preliminary task. Because of the experience that we gained after the preliminary task, we leant more ways of filming and how to do it in professional way. For example, we have to count the lighting and the angle when we are filming. We did a lot of research before we filmed Remember?, the research helped a lot, such as the idea of what each character should wear, what kind of weather will suit the genre and what background music that we can use and don’t need the copyright for. When we were filming the preliminary task, we only used a few angles, a few transition effects and we didn’t add any background music in it. The story was easy as well, but for Remember?, we tried a lot of different angles and we put a lot of transition effects that made two connected clips run smoothly. In Remember?, we actually create a background music in our film, which is we have never tried before.

This is our preliminary task.

(http://www.youtube.com/user/jbrogden#p/u/13/NMRv6sexFEM)
This is the link on you tube.

Evaluation- Melissa Benson

2009-12-15T01:58:00.000-08:00

Evaluation

The film that we created was called ‘Remember?’. It is of the supernatural genre. The generic conventions that I found to be associated and incorporated within this genre are dark, mysterious, unexpected events. To incorporate these different conventions into our film we decided to film in late afternoon when it was just going dark, to create a mysterious atmosphere, which would, set an enigma for our film. This setting would be similar to the setting of the film “The Ring”(2002).
We were drawn to the supernatural genre as we all enjoyed watching films within this genre and also because we had no money to do stunts or special effects we thought that this genre would be relatively easy to create using the equipment we had.

Most supernatural films are associated with death and evil like in “The Sixth Sense” (1999). When choosing characters for our film we decided to create a change from the generalised enigma associated with the supernatural genre, by the ghost in our film being portrayed as a character that is there to save the main characters life. This is like the film ‘Just like Heaven’ (2005) where the ghost character is not there to harm anyone. The mysterious start to our film creates suspense for the audience, as they do not know whether the girl is there for a good or bad reason, this generates tension within the audience, as they want to know why the girl is present and what she is going to do. Usually the audience’s enigma for the upcoming events of a supernatural film would be if a mysterious character enters a scene the immediate suspicion is that they will be a bad character. As the film is of the supernatural genre the audience will expect the ghost character to be there for a bad reason. An example of this perceived enigma from an audience is in the film “The Haunting” (1963) this involves the ghost being a bad character and present to scare the audience and harm the other characters in the film. This influences the audience’s interpretative vision of the enigma until they watch more of our film and then there view is totally changed.
Tzvetan Todorov’s theory states that there is two theories one of equilibrium and one of disequilibrium. A state of equilibrium means that there is a state of balance in the film. As our film starts with a state of equilibrium the audience create there own perceived enigma of what is going to happen but when storyline becomes more apparent the equilibrium becomes unbalanced creating a different atmosphere for the audience.
Darkness is another generic conventions associated with the supernatural genre. Darkness creates a sense of the unknown and as most people do not feel comfortable in the dark alone the audience can associate with situation well. We utilise this characteristic in the flashback scenes and the scenes involving the discussion between the two main characters to intensify the atmosphere for the audience and create a build of tension.
We also challenge this characteristic by having the non-flashback parts of the film in natural daylight, which was relatively bright when we were filming. This emphasised the fact that the flashbacks were flashbacks but also creates a slight disequilibrium as the scenes go from very dark to bright. We did this because it creates an air of confusion for the audience, which replicates the confusion felt by the main character, as he does not know why a ghost is speaking him to. The audience can then relate to his situation.
Unlike most media products like “The Eye” (2002) and “The Grudge” (2003) in the supernatural genre our film is not intended on being scary. Most supernatural films have unexpected events and this is our take on this characteristic which plays on the audiences minds. Even though our film involves a ghost her intentions are good, which I think challenges the audience’s judgment on the supernatural genre.

We are aiming our film at young adults and to people in their early twenties.
The narrative of our movie would also appeal to a much wider audience as a lot of people find the supernatural genre very intriguing and interesting as some people believe ghosts to be real, along with other paranormal activity . The actors in our film are around the age of 16/17, this means that it will appeal to people of that age as they can relate to them and understand certain emotions that they are feeling. As most of film of the rest of the film would be filmed inside a school this will give young adults something else to relate to. Audiences tend to get attached to characters with similar personalities to themselves this means the audience can sympathize and empathise with the characters.

Our film will be given a BBFC rating of 12A. The ‘12A’ category exists only for cinema films.
As our film may be found slightly disturbing for younger children a certificate of 12 A would be most appropriate. Our film does not contain any sexual activity and no violence so the certificate would not need to increase to a 15. Supernatural films with the same certificate include “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince”(2009) and “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” (2009). These films were classified similar to ours as they have only moderate levels of violence and no sexual activity.
Our film is classified as a 12A not a 12 purely because some children may find it disturbing and with a 12A they have to be accompanied by an adult which can cause less discomfort for younger viewers.

Media conventions that would be beneficial in producing our film are production companies like Warner Bros and Film 4.
Warner Bros is an American producer of film and television entertainment. Its films are known widely across the world and are very successful. Warner Bros produced “Harry Potter” also of the supernatural genre. The use of a strong male lead in the film is similar to our film, which creates someone for the audience to really become attached to throughout the film. I think that in an ideal world they would be the best option for producing our film. Their use of excellent special effects would create our desired atmosphere for our film but also create a level of excitement and thrilling experience for the audience.
Film 4 would also be another option for the production of our film I the real world.
If we wanted to keep the film strictly British this would be the best option as they are a British company. Films 4 tend to screen lower budget films than producers like Warner Bros but are still very successful.

Also as Warner Bros are a well-known production company, people automatically recognise the name. I think this would be a good company to work with in producing our film as they have lots of expertise and as they are well known a lot of people will be attracted to our film. For example Warner Bros produced the film “Twilight” (2009) which made $70.6 million dollars in it’s first weekend of opening along with “Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix”(2007) which made nearly $930 million overall this shows how there experience creates amazing unforgettable films the audience can not wait to see.

After discussing what sort of film we wanted to produce we decide that most people like the thrill of supernatural films and are very fascinated by the genre. Also they are enjoyed by both sexes and appeal to most age groups. We thought that a supernatural film would be fun to make and be what the audience are looking for, as films of this sort are very popular at the moment. Films like “Paranormal Activity”(2009) and “The Fourth Kind” (2009) got great reviews and encouraging millions of people to go to watch them. Both these films play on the audience’s minds in their realism as verisimilitude is created, especially in the documentary style of filming in the film “Paranormal Activity”(2009).
Even though we knew that supernatural film were very popular we didn’t want to make it like every other film on the market which involves a scary character doing something harmful so we decided to create a twist by our ghost character not being a harmful character similar to the film “Just Like Heaven”(2005). I think this attracts the audience because they don’t expect what is going to happen and then are intrigued at what is going to happen next.
We are tried and create verisimilitude in our film with the ghost character appearing real for the audience to start off with. We tried to create this in our film as it gets the audience questioning whether the film may contain some truth and causes the audience to become interested to watch sequels to the film to find out more about the supernatural events.
I think that in the opening to our film we have displayed our interest in using lots of effects like dissolving effects to create and mysterious transition between shots and during the flashback scene where we used an effect that made it seem to audience they were experiencing the flashback as the film flashes in and out of colour. We also demonstrate our interest in using different camera angles like extreme close ups to create a strange and luring effect for the audience. I think that this attracts the audience further as it makes them feel empathy towards the film we created this by our choice of setting and actors. Also a feeling of suspense and anticipation is created for the next part of the film.

Whilst producing this product I have learnt many different new techniques. Using the eMac software we got to use different effects and we also used live type to create our title. I found using the software very easy and using different effects like fading and dissolving became very useful in creating our desired effect of Elizabeth the ghost character disappearing. We also took some risks with some challenging camera angles which after editing came together really well. At first we didn’t want to use that many effects within our film as we thought it would detract from creating a sense of verisimilitude for the audience and seem fake, but after playing around on the iMovie using different settings I found some really interesting effects. Changing the film to black and white and different using transitions available for our film in the end looked great and influenced the atmosphere of the audience greatly. I especially liked using the different diegetic sounds like the sounds of the trees moving in the backing of the conversation scene, and non-diegetic sounds like the use of the alarm clock sound and the music we overlaid from the programme Garage Band within our piece as it intensified the atmosphere of the film and also enhanced the storyline.
There is a part in our film where the main character has a flashback of his dream. Here swapped and changed between a black and white background to colour. We also added the sound of a heartbeat, which intensified the situation and leaves the audience in a state of suspense as they wonder what is going to happen next. Also as the heart beat sound is quite loud the audience associate it with feeling scared where you can hear your own heartbeat this fives the audience something to relate to.

In our preliminary task we used basic camera angles, which had a good effect but didn’t create an infectious atmosphere for the audience. I think I have learnt to be more experimental with the different camera angles such as high angled shots and the use of panning and tracking. I have also learnt to be more imaginative in creating different scenes.
I have learnt that planning ahead is very important especially planning the mise-en-scene. I learn that every detail should be considered for example, including the location of each scene, the costumes worn by the actors, along with lighting and props needed for the intimidate details of each scene. Consideration of the mise-en-scene was very important in the production of our film, as we had limited time to film our piece. Planning ahead allowed us to know exactly what each scene was going to look like and how we were going to create each scene.
I have also learnt that even adding the simplest sound track to a film can completely change the mood and tone of the film and make it more interesting for the audience. We used Garage Band to provide some soundtracks to edit into our film to intensify the atmosphere and create and feeling of suspense for the audience. I found that adding different types of music could completely change the message given to the audience so we had to choose our music carefully so it went with our supernatural genre and provided the mysterious effect we were looking for.
I think that our opening to a film worked really well and I really enjoyed every part from the filming to the tiring editing. I think that in the end our film was not quite what we had in mind originally but transformed into something a lot better than we thought using the different effects and music. Our plans deviated because we had a real struggle finding actors for our piece, which gave us very little time to film. Also our title sequence was very imaginative and had to be changed this was because we could not get the effect we wanted using Live Type. Even though we had a few miner technical problems with our film I am very pleases with our overall result and I think that it represents the supernatural genre really well.
Mel

Evaluation - Gina Ferri

2009-12-14T07:07:00.000-08:00

Remember? – Evaluation

The ways that my media product uses, develops or challenges form and conventions of real media products.

Our media film, ‘Remember?’ is in the supernatural genre. Certain conventions that I researched within this genre are using dark lighting so that things are obscured.

This technique is used because it gives off an enigma to the audience, some things are hidden and therefore this symbolises the anonymity of what the storyline the film will develop into to the audience. We decided to use this convention and film the dream sequence as it was just going dark because it added suspense.

The film originally starts with the title sequence which is leads to a sense of equilibrium when James is asleep but this soon changes as the scene alters its atmosphere within the dream sequence – disequilibrium.

This is following Todorov’s narrative theory where there is a neutral sense of equilibrium within the film, there is then a state of disequilibrium (when James sees Elizabeth) following that is a recognition of the disequilibrium (for our film, when James realizes he is being followed by Elizabeth) The characters then attempt to repair the disruption and as a result they are lift with a new found equilibrium – where everything is settled and neutral again, though not exactly the same as it was before. Many supernatural films have sequences in the dark as it offers a lot of mystery to the audience, this is again because things are obscured and it is felt that the truth is unknown. Another shot that I thought would work well within our film was a hand held shot that meant I would hold the camera steady and walk around the characters a full 360º. It didn’t necessarily matter if this shot was steady or not, I think that the fact it was a bit shaky worked well as it looked more like we were seeing things through the eyes of another person or a spirit that was present at the time rather than it just being an alternate camera shot. This shot was played just before the two main characters had their conversation and again (in black and white) when James has a flashback, remembering his dream. This is how we developed this convention of obscuring things as it shows how you cannot see the faces of the two characters at the same time, therefore you can only ever see half of what is happening – creating yet another sense of enigma.

Isolated setting and haunted houses are said to be other generic conventions of our supernatural genre. Due to our lack of budget a haunted house seemed to be a bit too ambitious, even though if we did have the access we could have made this location work also. Instead we opted for an isolated location; we chose a small pathway that was surrounded by trees and foliage. In my opinion, isolated settings are key to supernatural films as the sense of being alone and having no one to turn to is something that the audience can relate to and empathize with. At the beginning of our film you can see that there are in fact two characters within the isolated location, the thing that adds suspense is that you know neither of them are aware of the other one being there. I think that the enigma grows throughout this opening walk sequence as you can see that they both start off out in the open and make their way into the secluded pathway. The suspense then grows when Elizabeth leaves James on the pathway alone, as you have no idea what is around him and what could be in the woods behind the pathway – having the scene very dark at this point also adds to the enigma.

A lot of supernatural films contain victims, and that could be said to be another convention of the supernatural genre. The audience I think, immediately see James as the victim within our opening. I think that this is made apparent by the fact that he does not understand what is happening to him and doesn’t know what Elizabeth is talking about, he is in the unknown, as is the audience and they therefore empathize with him over that. It is usually the women that are the victims within movies as they are seen as the weaker sex, but within ‘Remember?’ we have challenged this convention – we did this to try something new and see if it would affect the audience watching it and see how this would change the mood of the dream.

Another film that does this is ‘Over Her Dead Body’ (2008) where it has both supernatural elements and romantic elements fused together, here the female character is the most dominant in the film and the man could be said to be the victim. ‘Ghost’ (1990) is another example of a film where female characters are the ones that have to make choices and are the main protagonists that the story is based around. I think that these two films work by having a female protagonist and I would like to think that this challenged convention would work within our film and intrigue our audience.

Unexpected events were something that I wish we could’ve had more of within our opening. I think that if the film developed then there would be more times when this convention could be used but as it happens we wanted to have the dream sequence as a very calm and quite a slow scene to show the variation of it from real life. We did this by having Elizabeth moving in slow motion a lot of the time and adding a ghostly glow behind her to add to the enigma. We did this by looking at the effects on iMovie, we chose an effect called ‘ghost trail’ that meant there was a dragging effect and almost a shadow coming off Elizabeth every time she moved, we also changed the speed on iMovie so that things were going at half speed. We then contrasted this by having James wake-up late for school and therefore having to rush down stairs and into the car. The pace of the rest of the movie would be within both of these paces as the scenes involve both Elizabeth and James.

How my media product represented particular social groups

‘Remember?’ has three main characters that we see within the opening few minutes. Elizabeth is the first person that we see, we find out that she is no longer a part of James’s world but if the film developed longer then we would find out how Elizabeth knew James back when they were children. After the opening two minutes James goes to school, but keeps seeing Elizabeth out of the corner of his eye, every night when he goes to sleep he has the same dream that is being showed from different angels. As the story develops James realizes that Elizabeth is trying to warn him that he is heading towards the same fate as she is. Together they have to fight against James’s fate and warn off the murderer that is after James because. As they discover the reason as to why Elizabeth was killed James falls in love with her. It was therefore necessary for Elizabeth to be the same age as James and also you can see that she has missed out on the majority of her life so far, she died when she was five and has aged as a ghost to be the sixteen year-old that she is today. This is not a typical convention of a supernatural film and I cannot think of another film where this feature is used. We thought that we would challenge this and have Elizabeth ageing at the same time as James, we needed them to be the same age for the romantic element and the clarification behind this would be to say that Elizabeth has died but she has not completed what she has to do, she still has to save James and therefore she is will continue to age and wonder around on earth until she has done so. Elizabeth is an elegant girl that could be seen as both innocent and mature. When Elizabeth is walking through the pathway she looks lonely and therefore innocent, by wearing a white dress she also appears guiltless and holy. We can tell when she begins to talk that she is fairly manipulative in the way she talks, Elizabeth is making James feel pressured and insecure – therefore letting the grown-up side of her show through. Elizabeth is the dominant character within the partnership between herself and James, she is the one that knows the information that people do not and therefore even the audience see her as an intimidating character. We showed this by having her further up the path than James was, this meant that she was taller than his and therefore could be seen as intimidating to James. We also made sure that she started the conversation this means that she has the most confidence and self-pride. I think that the way she ignores James’s last question shows that she is again more dominant as he asks whether he has ever met her and she just walks away, showing that she feels she has the power to ignore him when she pleases. Within the shot where she walks away from James she is closer to the camera, this makes her appear much larger than James is in the distance, therefore we see her as the stronger character between their partnership, and hopefully these techniques used also make that clear to the audience.
James could be described as a typical teenage boy within our film, in most films there is a character that would not be described as being in a certain stereotype of people. The reason for this is that the audience watching the film would be involved in different social groups and by having someone who is not in a certain group means that anyone can relate to them. With the character of James we dressed him wearing a fashionable shirt with standard blue jeans, this immediately takes him out of the ‘jock’ category and ‘nerd’ and means that a much larger audience can relate to him. I think that both boys and girls or his age could relate to his character due to this because anyone could see themselves as him. Boys would want to empathize with him and could understand what type of person he is, probably seeing themselves as the main protagonist. I think that girls would be more interested in the relationship between Elizabeth and James as females are often drawn more towards the romantic elements in films and this is why his character would appeal to them. Another film that has this ‘average’ character would be ‘Twilight’ (2008) both boys and girls can relate to the main protagonist of Bella Swan.

James’s mother Jane, is an authority character within the story. She always likes to think that James’s life is perfect, the type of mom who doesn’t like to think of anything ever being wrong. It is important to have a character like this as it offers a different element and dimension to the film. Having characters of the same status offers no diversity within the film and its often boring to watch when there are no conflicts to the protagonists. We showed that Jane was of a higher status within the car scene. First of all, she owned a car and had to drive James to school every morning. This automatically gives her an importance in her role and makes sure that people know her dominance over her son within the film. I think that if we could develop the film further I would have James and his mom clashing in characteristics. I think an opportune moment to do this would be when James goes to tell his mother that he is seeing a ghost and I would have her denying this. This would show her different personality and would again knock James’s confidence making him of much lower status as he is being doubted. Due to an older character being involved in the story line means that the film could potentially appeal to an older audience, as they can relate to a character of their own age – i.e. Jane.

The media institution I might distribute my media product to and why

A supernatural film that has recently become very popular is ‘Twilight’ (2008) I think that there are many similarities within the two films, the ghostly element and the different paces running through the film. The main difference would be that ‘Remember?’ would be a English film. It would be this way as we have filmed it aimed at an English audience, the school that we would have filmed in would be an English high-school, the car was right-hand drive and all characters have an English accent. All of the characters would be said to live a typical English school life and the scenery and landscape throughout the film would be clearly noted to be English. The reason we wanted the film to be English is because England is a country that has a bigger history. When looking at ghosts and supernatural events they are often linked to things hundreds of years ago, England’s history goes further back that America’s does and is still a large market to distribute to. I think that it would work well as an English movie, as people would be able to relate to it and it would not be a huge big international hit as it is low budget. I think that ‘Harry Potter’ is the most similar film to ours and that was distributed by Warner Bros. I would want to approach them with our movie as they know how they would go about distributing our product and have worked with our genre successfully before and therefore know how to advertise and distribute the movie.

The target audience for my media product

As I have said our film would be aimed at an English audience, due to some of the conventions and themes that run through our film. We aimed to have our film appealing to young teens (12+) to people in their early twenties. After looking at the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) website I think that our film would be set as a 12 classification. I think this would be appropriate because there would obviously be a supernatural element that would not be appropriate for very young audiences and – just like ‘Twilight’ (2008) - a supernatural film that is aimed at young teenagers could easily cash in on things such as merchandising as it is this audience age range that normally get targeted. I have said that people in their early twenties would find this film appealing as there is a deeper romantic element to the film that would appeal to them perhaps more than the supernatural element that would automatically grab a younger audience. story line has the potential to appeal to a much larger audience but there are certain things that make the film more associated with our chosen age range. We made sure that our actors were around their late teens, this means that it will automatically appeal to people of that age as they can relate to the characters and understand certain emotions that they might be experiencing. If the rest of the film could be filmed, one of the main locations would be within a school, a familiar environment that a young audience would appeal to as they would be very aware of the location and the feel of school would not need to be explained as much as an unknown location would have to be. The audience often get attached to characters similar to themselves and they will find that they use roughly the same language – meaning the audience can not only sympathise, but empathize with the characters. The fact that we are trying to lighten the mood of the film, by not making it too scary and more supernatural has hopefully been achieved by the lighting and atmosphere we have created. The lighting in films such as ‘Sleepy Hollow’ has been tinted blue to give the movie a cold and ghostly feel.

Our film has a very dark scene at the beginning and then the rest of the movie, after he has woken up, the scene becomes a lot brighter. We shot the dream sequence at four o’clock, just when it was getting dark and then the morning shot was filmed in the middle of the day so we could get a contrast between the two scenes.

We have a flash back scene where the camera is spinning between James and Elizabeth; we decided to have the scene flashing from black and white to colour. This is showing that the scene was in the past, but symbolizing that it may re-occur in the future and that the problem will still reappear.

How we attracted/addressed our target audience

We had to address our certain audience and make sure that it appealed to our desired age range. Everything in the mise-en-scene affects the target audience, the costume had to be of a certain style to make sure that we didn’t stereotype, it also had to be modern and fit in with the scenery and school setting – having the main protagonist dressed as a casual boy whilst the others are dressed differently would make James stand out. This could be seen as a good thing, but we wanted to make sure that he fits in and appears inconspicuous – therefore all actors should be dressed to the same standard. We would also attract our target audience by the language we used. The characters spoke as normal young adults would speak, using the same vocabulary. This increased the verisimilitude of our film and made it easier for our audience to engage with. I think that if a trailer of our film was made and distributed then it would have to contain scenes that young adults would be familiar with, for example a scene in the school or in a bedroom as again it is a location that our target audience could relate to.

Then there would have to be some element that suggested the film is within the supernatural genre and there must be an enigma to the film which would make the audience want to come and watch the film. I think an ideal scene that could be used would be the flashback scene, this is in black and white and 360º two-shot that disorientates the audience by this constant movement– which all adds enigma to the film.

The things that I have learnt about technologies from the process of constructing my media product

I have learnt a lot about the technologies that we used, not only the actual filming equipment but also the editing software that was used after we had completed filming.

The camera was very simple and easy to use; I thought that the location we chose to film the dream sequence in was one of the hardest locations we could have selected when thinking about using our tripod. The ground was extremely uneven and making sure that the shot was steady was virtually impossible at times. I think that if we could have predicted this problem we could have easily solved it by using a stable board to stand the tripod on. I think we used the camera and tripod best when James was waking up, we used both handheld and tripod shots in a match-on-action shot which I thought worked really well. I think that it would have been nice to do a tracking shot as Elizabeth was walking in the first scene, but unfortunately we didn’t have the equipment we would have needed to create an even ground by the pathway we were filming in - this tracking shot would have symbolised that we were about to follow Elizabeth on her journey throughout the film.

As for the editing I got an opportunity to use a lot of unrealistic transitions and effects. We did not have the opportunity to use these in our preliminary task as it was fairly realistic, within the dream sequence we used a lot of fades and dissolve transitions to make everything flow and appear more ‘dream-like’. I think that one effect that we used worked really well – ghost trail - as there was a blurry shadow behind her – this shows that there is something wrong with Elizabeth and there is a sense of enigma about that character herself. I think that we used the effects well within the dream sequence, but we then had to show a contrast between that and real-life. We did this by having simple cuts from one scene to another, with no fades or extra effects.

The sound was very hard to get grips with; I think that Garageband took some time for me to understand but after spending a few hours on it, our group found the sounds that we were looking for. We chose reflective strings as they sounded very creepy, although these were not our original choice. At first we had a piano playing through a simple melody, but after playing the dream sequence through a few times with this sound we realized that it sounded too romantic for what we wanted. As the film develops there would be a romance between James and Elizabeth but we decided that it was too soon to introduce this element. Another change to the sound that we made was that we were originally going to have diegetic sound (radio) playing as James woke up, this would then fade to non-diegetic as he left the house and got into the car. Instead, we chose to have silence as he was waking up, this therefore contrasted the dream sequence which was full of sound and we could also differentiate the flashback by having a soundtrack to that.

Looking back at my preliminary task, this is what I have learnt in progression from it to the full product

From our preliminary task I feel that I have learnt a lot, as well as transferring some of our skills we learnt from the first film into our second. For example, match on action is something that we used in our preliminary task and we used that again for when we had James walking through a door only this time we developed that skill and had a close-up of his hand reaching for the handle as part of the match on action. I think that we improved our pace within ‘Remember?” because there was more of a story line to develop and work with, something that was missing within our preliminary task.

The thing that I enjoyed most was the way we could experiment with our new films, when filming our preliminary task we were constricted to a certain time limit, but with ‘Remember?’ we had much longer to work on it. We were able to try out long shots when Elizabeth began to walk at the very beginning, past the camera as we were filming in a more appropriate location and we could also have a score that ran alongside the dream sequence. The shot when James was running down the stairs worked really well.

This was a panning shot as James ran past the camera, this was an easy but effective way to get a 90° angle of what was happening in the shot. This shot also went from having a close-up of James’s feet to a long shot as he ran further away from the camera. There was also a shot that I experimented with, when the camera is rotated around both characters stood facing each other. This broke the 180º rule as it was moving around both characters. The main reason for the 180º rule is so that the audience does not get disorientated by the positioning of the characters, I think that this doesn’t really apply within this scene.

It is good for the audience to get disorientated and feel uncomfortable when watching the flashback scene as it is meant to be very abstract. I didn’t think that this shot was going to be used, but after looking back on our footage I could see how it would be effective in a flashback, so the audience could see how both characters remembered the meeting. We then had this scene flashing from black and white to colour, symbolising how the scene was in the past but the event was far from over. This took a while to work out in the editing and I was really pleased with the outcome. I think that we developed our skills in editing also as I learnt how I could fade a character out, as if they were disappearing into the distance. This worked well within our film as it was based on a supernatural event with ghosts and this was one of the shots that we knew we were going to have in our film at some point.

‘Remember?’ was a much more enjoyable film to shoot and edit. Experimenting with new shots was fun to do and finding out what worked and what didn’t work was part the main part of this film, fingers crossed we selected the right clips and created an ideal atmosphere for our supernatural genre.

Gina Ferri

Gina - final film - 11.12.09

2009-12-11T04:04:00.001-08:00

Here is a link to our finished film, now uploaded on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pjN7anSEBY

Audience Feedback - Gina, Billy amd Mel

2009-12-11T02:21:00.000-08:00

How many people provided feedback? - 68 people
People who liked it - 54 - 80%
People who didnt like it - 14 - 20%

Best rated thing in our movie - The start
Worst rated thing in our movie - The end

Comments - Best thing about our project; start, transtitions, music, pace, mise-en-scene
- Worst thing about our project; end, sound, titles.

We were pleased that people commented on the effects as we spent valuable time creating these to fit the conventions of the supernatural genre. As our film is aimed at a 12 + audience, this might account for some people not engaging with the film, and some of the supernatural elements could be conveyed better with sound.

Gina - White Dress - 19.11.09

2009-11-19T01:35:00.000-08:00

We found a white dress which would be perfect for Elizabeth to wear for the part of the ghost. We knew we wanted a white dress because white symbolises a heavenly character that is very pure and almost holy - how we want Elizabeth to be percieved. We know that Elizabeth has previously been killed/murdered and therefore we wanted to show there was something no quite right about her appearnce. Therefore we decided to stain the dress with mud and grass stains to make it look like she had been around for a long time and had spent her life walking through the pathway that appears in the dream sequence.
Gina

During the Filming

2009-11-19T01:34:00.000-08:00

We had a scene of James woken up by the clock alarm and nightmare, during that; we saw there was a water bottle next to James, which is in the shot. We though it could be the advertising replacement, so we found another bottle which doesn’t have any logo on it to replace it.
In the professional movies, if they want to use any brand in the movie, such as Nike. They will need the permission or agreement from the company and sometime it will need to pay money for it, which is we don’t have the ability to do that.

Billy.

Progress since half term 19/11/09

2009-11-19T01:28:00.000-08:00

After half term we had everything organised ready to film. Our whole group were confident that our propsed idea would be a success but after a couple a of weeks we still have'nt done much filming. Our struggle with finding actors continues! We eventually got to film a scene when we mananged to get our actor in his free time. After editing the scene it worked really well and turned out exactly how we imagined if not better, creating the right atmosphere and stlye we wanted.
As filming in school time is a bit caotic, filming at the weekends would have been a better idea for us but as people have other commitment we have to get as much time with our actors as possible in the school day and after school.

We have found the perfect white dress for our female lead. We decided to make the dress dirty so her character is even more intreeging and strange!
mel

Gina - So far so good - 19.11.09

2009-11-19T01:26:00.000-08:00

We have recently completed filming our first scene in our movie. I think that it went really well and it only took us forty mintues to film quite a large chunk of the film. We were only working with one actor so it was less directing and therefore ran very smoothly. I am really happy with the shots that we got and i think they looked really good when we watched them back. We then edited our footage and are currently trying to download the song that we have found fits this scene. (Jack Bulme - Hideaway)
The one thing that i am finding hard about this filming process is managing to find a time when everyone is free. Oliver Strong and Philippa Bussey are in different year groups at school and therefore have completely different timetables to eachother. We are trying to arrange an activites session where we could complete the filming process and then all we would have to do is complete the editing. Right now making sure that we can find a time where we are all free is our main prioirty.
Gina

Jason: Filming Completed for Scene 8

2009-11-19T01:13:00.000-08:00

Our group has completed the filming of Scene 8.

This scene is filmed inside a bedroom where James has just woken up from his nightmare and is late for school. We used a high angle shot of the boy sleeping on his desk, then there is a down tilt of the boy standing up collecting books, walking towards the door and eventually opening it.

I came up with the idea of doing an extreme close up on James opening the door knob; which we will then cut the him opening the car door and entering the interior of his mother's car for school. Below is a brief explanation in diagram form of what I have in mind:

We also filmed extra footage of James rushing down the stairs in his house.

All clips have been uploaded to the movie editing program.

Jason.

Research and Planning Presentation - 'Remember?'

2009-11-10T03:45:00.000-08:00

Jason: Progress after Half-term

2009-11-10T02:34:00.000-08:00

Here is an update on our group's progress regarding the foundation portfolio. We have done our presentation and Q&A Session with the class about our film, the choices we have made and inspirations for our idea.

We have also choosen and confirmed actors and actresses for our film. Today, we experminated filming/ fading effects and will begin to edit them on Imovie in the next lesson.

Jason.

Drag me to hell

2009-11-10T01:53:00.001-08:00

Drag me to hell

Drag Me to Hell is a 2009 horror and supernatural film, directed by Sam Raimi, with a screenplay by Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi. It distributed by Universal Picture and the running time of the movie is 99 minutes.

The first scene of the movie is in 1969 a young Spanish couple rush to the mansion of wealthy medium Shaun San Dena. Their son had stolen a necklace from a wagon of gypsies three days ago. After that, he keeps complaining hearing or seeing weird voice or sounds. San Dena tried to help the boy, so she started communicated with the demons in the séance. Shaun San Dena and the boy’s parents got attack by an unseen force and the boy is grabbed by a demon and pulls into the hell in the séance.

In 2009, back loan officer Christine Brown hopes to be promoted to assistant manager, she is compete with Stu Rubin, who is a co-worker. Her boss, Mr. Jack wants her to show and demonstrate that she can make good decision to get the job. The first customer after the conversation is Sylvia Ganush who asks for a third extension on her overdue mortgage payment. She wanted to prove to the boss that she is good enough for the assistant manager, so Christine decided to not give Ganush the extension. Grauch wasn’t happy with this decision, so she started beg her for help and complain bitterly to about bring humiliated. Ganush pull Christine’s shirt and she feels uncomfortable, so she called the security. So the security guards sent Ganush out and Mr. Jack was compliment Christine on how she handles the situation.
After Christine leaves the back, she got attacked in her car by Ganush. After a flight between them, they both got hurt by each other’s struggle. Ganush removes a button from Christine’s jacket and read some line to the button, whish is the curse. Christine’s boyfriend, Clay Dalton, tries to calm her down. On their way home, Christine feels uncomfortable with what Ganush had down for her, so they went to a fortune teller’s store, where they meet the fortune teller Rham Jas and he tells her that she is being haunted by an evil spirit. On the way back home, Christine is attacked by the dark spirit, cause minor injuries and also she dreams about Mrs. Ganush attacking her in her bed. On the next day at work, she has a nosebleed soaking a horrified Mr. Jack in blood, the nosebleed didn’t stop for a long time, Mr. Jack’s shirt is all over the shirt. After work, Christine decided to visit Ganush and her granddaughter Ilenka’s house; Christine found out that Ganush died the night before and she holding a memorial service for her. Christine went back to Rham Jas to ask him to explain what the meaning of the memorial service is. He found out the spirit haunting her is a powerful demon called the Lamia that will torment for three days before taking her to hell. Rham Jas suggests a way to appease the demon, which is killing Christine’s pet, he though this could work from stopping the demon to disturb her. At a dinner with Clay and his parents, Christine can still hear the weird noise which is only she can hear it and she knows that she is still tormented by the Lamia. Clay’s parents got frighten with the situation and how Christine behave.
More and more attacks from Ganush’s curse, so they went back to Rham Jas for better way of help, which is the idea of spending $10,000 to enlist the help of the powerful medium Shaun San Dena. Unfortunately Christine doesn’t have enough money, so she started to sell everything that she has to get $10,000. The money stills not enough after she sold everything. Clay saw Christine was really upset about it, so he decided to pay $10,000 for her. San Dena accept the help of Christine, so she start prepare a séance to trap the Lamia’s spirit in a goat and kill it, vanquishing the spirit. The Lamia makes a lard noise as he comes, this make everyone feels uncomfortable and they miss the good chance to kill the goat when Lamia is trap in a goat. So the plan fails as the Lamia attacks Rham Jas and Christine. The Lamia says it would not rest until it takes Christine’s life to hell. After and log struggle, San Dena banishes the Lamia from the séance, but she dies in the end of the process. Rham Jas tells Christine there’s a last thing that she needs to do to get rid of the curse, which is give the cursed item to someone as a gift, thereby passing the curse to that person. So Christine put the button in an envelope but during the car journey with Clay, she mixes the envelope with other envelope that looks the same. She tries to find the recipient, so she decides to give the envelope to Ganush. So she drives to the cemetery where she found Ganush’s grave and start digs the grove. Christine jams the envelope in Ganush’s mouth. The next day, Christine and Clay decide to go on a trip during the weekend in Santa Barbara. As the train approaches, Clay gives her the envelope with the button in it and says she had dropped this envelope in the car. Christine was shock and she realises that she mixed up the envelope in the car at the night that she jams in Ganush’s mouth. Then she keeps moving back, unfortunately she falls on the train tracks as the train barrels towards her. Just before the train hit her, the demonic hand rise from the hole in the ground. Clay watches Christine get pull into the hole by the demon, which is the hell.

The audience that they are trying to target on is the age 17 to 25, because the way they make the sound effort and the way the make the film is attract by these ages, where people do believe there’s demon and the curse will approach when we do something bad with no kindness. The end of the movie I though Christine is already got through the curse and will have a good ending, but in the end she still can’t get rib of the curse, this tells the audience that anything could happen when the movie is still playing.

Location
The location of drag me to hell is place in Los Angeles, California, a back company. The story develop on this back company, because of this back company, Ganush place a curse on Christine, so it cause Christine has to face the dead in the end. The situation of Christine in the back is the main reason as well, because she wants to fight the position of assistant manager, so she has to make hard decision to Ganush. This situation could happen in the real life and in this point which can attract more people to watch the film.

Billy

Analytical essay - Just Like Heaven

2009-11-09T14:00:00.000-08:00

Just like heaven

Background information
Just Like Heaven is a romantic comedy film which was released in 2005. The film was set in San Francisco, it was directed by Mark Waters and stars Reese Witherspoon, Mark Ruffalo, and Jon Heder. It is based on the novel If Only It Were True by Marc Levy.
Plot
Elizabeth Masterson played by Reese Witherspoon is the main character in t he film. She plays a young doctor is involved in a car accident on her way to a blind date. Three months later, David Abbott played be Mark Ruffalo is recovering from the death of his wife and moves into Elizabeth’s apartment. Elizabeth appears to David at the apartment. This appearance of a deceased character makes it similar to our proposed film. Similar to our film the ghost character is a good character and is not around to bring harm to others.
Elizabeth has other abilities though, she can suddenly appear and disappear, move through walls, and once takes over Davids actions. When they meet, they are both surprised, as Elizabeth is not aware she is dead yet. For the most part, David is the only one who can see Elizabeth, leading others to believe that he is going mad and is talking to himself.
It is later revealed that one of Elizabeth's young nieces can also sense her presence although she cannot see her. At the start of the film, Elizabeth does not remember anything about her life, and refuses to believe that she is dead. Her memories then return to her gradually. Together, assisted by psychic Darryl played by Jon Heder, she and David find out who she is, what happened to her, and why they are connected. Eventually, David discovers that the reason why he's the only one who can see Elizabeth is because he was her blind date.
The story the transpires that her body is in a coma in the hospital. In accordance to her living will, she will soon be taken off life support. Elizabeth's spirit and David, who have fallen in love, manage to prevent this just in time, and she miraculously recovers.
When Elizabeth has recovered she does not remember anything that happened during the coma or any of the events with David, which leaves him heartbroken. Elizabeth goes up to her roof and sees David, who got in with the spare key and is finishing up the garden there. Just as he is about to leave, she asks for her key back, their hands touch, her memory is restored, and they kiss. Before the credits roll, Darryl is shown looking at them in a crystal ball.
I think that this film is a good representation of our genre of super-natural/ romance as both of these traits are delivered in the film.

Target Audience
Just like Heaven is a family film aimed at the whole family being able to watch it together with light humor and romance involved. The film is easy enough to be understood by children but can also appeal to adults. As our film is more mysterious and the intensions of the ghost are unknown and may be found scary for younger children our film has a different target audience.

Location
Filming was done in San Francisco and mainly centres on Elizabeth’s old apartment and the hospital she used to work in. The film is set in the city as well. This is similar to our proposed film as we only have a few different main locations for our scenes.

Music
The music in this film is non-digetic and digetic because there are soundtracks and scored music laid over the acting along with natural sounds that occur in the usual busy city life. The style of music varies throughout the film but mainly changes between lively and happy music to gloomy and miserable music to represent the sad and happy times the couple have together.
Recognisable and well-known music tracks are also used throughout the film to help the audience to relate to the situations in the scene.

Lighting
The lighting in the film is mainly natural light during filming in the apartment and outside. The scenes filmed at night are enhanced by artificial light and other props are used like lamps etc. During filming in the hospital artificial light is used. The film mostly has a light and bright atmosphere portrayed to the viewers to represent the growing romantic relationship between David and Elizabeth.

Mel

Story development

2009-10-22T07:04:00.000-07:00

James and Elizabeth know each other since when they are small; they were really good friend and good soul mate. Unfortunately they lost connection after they grow up. James has been looking for her and he has forgotten how Elizabeth looks like. He never knows Elizabeth died in a car accident. Elizabeth realises there’s something bad is happening to James and it might course James’ life, so she is trying to help James to get through it. Elizabeth couldn't speak, so she has to use non-verbal way to warn James about it.

Billy

Gina - Ideal costume images

2009-10-20T02:34:00.001-07:00

These are rough ideas of what we want our two main charaters to wear - the boy is fairly casual whilst the girl is more old fashioned and fairly plain. (read Jason's blog below for more)

Jason: Decisions for Filming

2009-10-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

Please note that the decisions below are subject to change:

ACTORS (Who, Why, Representation, appeal to audience)

For the opening two minutes of our film we would need three characters. This would be the boy, the girl and the mother. We will choose actors to represent these characters carefully; as we want to make sure they best portrait the appearance of reality and appeal to the audience at the same time. The group has not choose the actual actors that will be in the opening of our film yet; however we have agreed on what the “ideal actors/ actresses” should look like and we will try to cast best matches to these actors/ actress from our school.

Boy:

This is Marshall Allman, in an ideal world we will choose him to act the role of the boy because of the appearance he portraits matching the character of boy. We want the boy to look around 17 years old, average build and average height; he should also have brown hair. This is to represent a typical/ average teenage boy. It appeals to our target audience (16-24) as they can feel a sense of connection with the characters due to the similarity in age, and also due to the fact that the boy is “average looking”.

Girl:

Our actress in an ideal world would be Dakota Fanning; this is due to her “sophisticated” look. The character of the “ghost” girl is indeed a complicated one: she has to look cold yet approachable; mysterious yet not scary. We feel that Dakota Fanning’s appearance suits our needs. Her blonde hair gives somewhat of a “cold” feel; but the green eyes symbolizes safety and warmth. The appeal is similar to that of the boy’s; it is mainly the age factor.

Mother:

The role of the mother is far less important; she is more of a supporting actor. The mother just has to be in her 40s. We will choose Bonnie Langford as our “mother” in the ideal world. Our target audience will be able to connect themselves to Bonnie Langford as many from the target audience we have a mother of a similar age themselves.

PROPS

Our film is a low budget one, thus we will minimize the use of props. Apart from the bedroom scene where the boy “flashes back to reality” and wakes up – we do not need any props. For the bedroom scene props needed would be textbooks and folders.

SETS

Sets are unnecessary up to date.

COSTUMES/ MAKE UP

Costumes and make up will be kept to a minimal level for two reasons. First it is because we have limited resources. Secondly, it is due to the fact that we want our audience to be able to connect with our “everyday looking” characters. We will consider applying some make up onto the girl’s face; to make her slightly paler signifying she’s a dead person.

MUSIC

We will be making use of both diegetic and non diegetic ound in the opening two minutes. During the initial scene which will be filmed along the pathway, we want mysterious guitar music to create a sense of enigma. Moving on to the morning scene where the boy is getting ready to school we will use diegetic music for example TV/ Radio sound to show that the boy is “back to reality”. Towards the end when the boy sees the girl through the car mirror violin/ string music will be played again to provoke mystery.

LOCATIONS

Our film opening will be filmed in three main locations. This will be the pathway with trees on both sides and orange leaves covering the ground, a bed room and the interior of a car.

LIGHTING

For a low budget film we want to create professional effects within reason. Obviously, we do not have access to fancy lighting equipment thus we will capitalize on nature sun light. We of cause cannot control the weather we get; thus I have devised a lighting plan for both SUNNY and MISTY weather.

Sunny:

The start of the opening two minutes is filmed in an outdoor pathway. If we end up filming on a sunny day we can:
1. Experiment with the effect of sunlight on tree leaves amongst other shiny surfaces.
2. Filming one shot under bright sunlight and the other under dark shadows for a contrast.
3. Try filming shadows (on puddles or on normal pavements). Shadows are longest at the beginning of the day.
4. A nice “iris glare” effect can be obtained by filming against the sun. An example is shown below:

Misty:

This is what we can do if we are filming on a misty day:

1. First of all the nature of a misty/ foggy day creates a mysterious ambiance which is appropriate for our film.
2. If there is a low lying mist in the morning the effect above will be amplified.

Gina - Generic Conventions

2009-10-17T07:22:00.000-07:00

Generic Conventions of horror movies:

• Darkness
• Storms
• Chase sequences
• Gore
• Violence
• Screams
• Ghosts

Generic Conventions of ghost/supernatural movies:

• Death
• Victims
• Haunted houses
• Isolated settings
• Evil
• Myths/legends/stories
• Mist
• Darkness
• Mystery – sense of the unknown
• Unexpected events
• Revenge

Gina - Development

2009-10-17T07:10:00.001-07:00

Development =

We originally wanted to film our scene is a field-like environment, having a very large – yet private – open space. We did have a location set out for this, but we decided to change this as it was more practical to have a location within the school campus. This change didn’t really alter our plot in a big way, but it will just give the opening scene a different mood.

We have more recently changed our set for the house and have decided not to have this shot at all. Instead we are going to cut from James leaving his room, straight to when they are sat in the car. We did this again because of the difficulty in finding a suitable location to film in. I think that having the conversation in the car rather than outside the house will work fine, and not affect the story in any way.

Gina - Influences

2009-10-17T07:09:00.000-07:00

What influenced our decisions =

There are certain things that we know work within our genre. A strong enigma is what keeps the audience hooked and intrigued as to what is going to happen. We have created this by having the ghost (Elizabeth) answer James’ question of “Have I ever met you?”By saying, “Not Yet.” The audience knows therefore that the ghost knows some vital information about the story line and the audience are waiting to see what that might be. You also assume in a ghost story, that the ghost is there for a reason and as we are not going to state what that reason is in our opening scene the audience will be waiting to find that out also. We have also taken shot ideas from films, such as Sleep Hollow, as we know that these shots work within our genre and they give a good effect to the audience.

Planning process - Mel

2009-10-16T10:07:00.000-07:00

initial ideas:
We all decided relatively quickly that we wanted to do a film involving a ghost character. After a lot of thought we all agreed that the ghost would be a good character and the film would be under the supernatural genre instead of a horror.
As we have limited equipment like special effects etc we decided that the ghost would be protrayed as a person, making the viewers think that she is real but as the opening scene continues they realise tha she must be a ghost. This solves the problem of trying to create an animation.
We also thought it would add to the mystery of the opening scene if it was misty but as we do not equpiment for that we decided that we would either film in the morning when it is foggy or find an alternative way of causing a misty atmosphere.
The only slight problem we have is our choice of actors. Gina and I have a image of what we would like the female lead to look like and it is proving quite hard to find an actress that meets or criteria so we may have to comprimise in this area.

Rough outline of main task:
Our film starts with a boy having a dream about a girl who asks if he remembers her. The boy wakes up from the dream confused but gets himself ready for school as he is going to be late. He gets in the car with his mum feeling tired but as he looks in the rear view mirror he sees the girl in the back seat. Looking back she has disappeared. The boy then realises that it was more than just a dream and the quest to find out who the girl is continues for the audience.
We chose style of film because it will appeal to most people as in is not scary so could be watched by the whole family. Our target audience is teenagers as i think that the mystery will interest them the most.
We chose this idea over others because it was very versitile and there is a lot of scope to do a lot of different camera effects and techniques and make the film really effective.

Influences which filtered into the main task:
I think the main influence to our task is the film the sixth sense. The general plot of the film is similar to ours and the idea that the ghost is percieved as a real person is like our idea. The sixth sense is a very successful film and is a very good representation of the super-natural genre.
I think a romantic style works well in this genre because the use of romance can play on the audiences emotions.

Development of the planning process:
After refining our location and script i think we will get a successful outcome to our task. We now have a clear idea of what our opening is going to look like and i think this we help us with the filming and editing process as we organised.

Mel

Gina - 16.10.09 - Initial Ideas

2009-10-16T04:45:00.000-07:00

Initial Ideas
I think we knew that we wanted to do a ghost film from the beginning and it was our first initial idea that we had. Obviously we had no access to any special effects and we would have to have a very realistic plot line – we couldn’t be too outrageous or too supernatural. I had an image in my head of what the ghost would look like. We couldn’t really have a ghost looking too abnormal so I think a girl in a white dress (especially in winter) would look really spooky and irregular. I thought that our scene would work really well in a field, but this was extremely difficult to film in and would not have been the best chosen location, so we decided to change our idea of having an open scene to have a closed tunnel/pathway.
Gina

2009-10-16T04:06:00.000-07:00

This is The Sixth Sense, the movie Jason was talking about. Here is the video, so everyone can watch it in the blog. Enjoy.

Billy.

Gina - 16.10.09 -Target Audience

2009-10-16T04:02:00.000-07:00

Target Audience -
We are defiantly aiming for our film to appeal to young adults (15+) to people in their early twenties.
The story line of our movie would appeal to a much wider audience, but the certain things that make the film more associated with our certain age range. For example our actors are going to be around the age of 16/17, this means that it will appear to people of that age as they can relate to them and understand certain emotions that they are feeling. If the film developed further the then the majority of it would be filmed inside a school, another environment that a young audience would appeal to as they would be very aware of the location and the feel of school would not need to be explained as much as an unknown location would have to be.
The audience tend to get attached to characters similar to themselves and they will find that they use roughly the same language – meaning the audience can not only sympathize, but empathize with the characters.
The fact that we are trying to lighten the mood of the film, by not making it too scary and keeping the lighting itself rather bright (this is going to lure the audience into a false sense of security) this will lower the target audience age to what we want.
The music that we are going to use, will be a fairly modern style, again something that would appeal to the young audiences.

Just like Heaven-trailer

2009-10-16T03:54:00.000-07:00

I post this Movie, Just Like Heaven for Mel, So everyone can see the Trailer in the Blog.

Billy.

About Supernatural film.

2009-10-16T03:24:00.000-07:00

Supernatural film are films the including god, ghost,spirits or other objective that doesn't belong in the world. The supernatural films can include other genres, such as comedy, horror.

This film is called: Drag me to hell
Its about a guy called Christine Brown (Alison Lohman), he is an ambitious L.A. loan officer with a charming boyfriend, professor Clay Dalton (Justin Long). Life is good until the mysterious Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver) arrives at the bank to beg for an extension on her home loan. Should Christine follow her instincts and give the old woman a break? Or should she deny the extension to impress her boss, Mr. Jacks (David Paymer), and get a leg-up on a promotion? Christine fatefully chooses the latter, shaming Mrs. Ganush and dispossessing her of her home.

The genre of this movie is: Supernatural Horror, Horror.

Billy

Gina - Screenplay - 15.10.09

2009-10-15T01:00:00.000-07:00

1. EXT. PATHWAY. DAY.

ELIZABETH is in a white summer dress is walking next to a tree lines path, dragging her hands over the long grass, walking through puddles whilst the title sequence is playing over the scene

2. EXT. PATHWAY. DAY.

The camera follows JAMES walking down a old path covered in orange leaves. He is wearing a plaid shirt and jeans and looks content. The camera is behind the trees watching him from a distance.
ELIZABETH walks down the other side of the path and meets JAMES

ELIZABETH
Do you remember me?

JAMES
No should I?

ELIZABETH
Do you remember me?

JAMES
(Slightly agitated)
Who are you?

ELIZABETH
(Clearly saddened)
Why don’t you remember me?

JAMES shakes his head and squints, studying ELIZABETH’S face

JAMES
I don’t know.

ELIZABETH begins to walk back down the pathway

JAMES

Wait!

ELIZABETH stops and turns back around to face JAMES

Have I ever met you?

ELIZABETH smiles and continues to walk away from JAMES, he watches as she gets further and further away from him

ELIZABETH turns her head over her shoulder

ELIZABETH
(Under her breath so JAMES cannot hear her)
Not yet.

ELIZABETH keeps on walking and slowly fades away until she has completely disappeared

A persistent buzzing is heard

3. INT. JAMES’ BEDROOM. MORNING

JAMES is sleeping at a desk with his head resting on his arm, papers are strewn over the table and a pen is in his hand suggesting that he fell asleep whist doing some homework. He lifts his head up abruptly and turns of his alarm clock. JAMES runs his fingers through his hair before grabbing a pile of books up off the desk and running out of his room. He is wearing the same blue jeans but a different jumper/hoodie

4. EXT. OUTSIDE JAMES’ HOUSE. MORNING

JAMES runs out of the house, followed by his mom – you get the impression that they are running late. As JAMES’ mom – JANE – locks the front door JAMES runs around to the passenger’s side of the car.

JANE
Books?

JAMES
Yes.

JANE
Phone?

JAMES
Yes.

JANE
That form you needed for Mr…. Whatever his name was

JAMES
Yes. Mom I have everything, trust me.

JANE nods her head before running to the driver’s side of the car. Her face suddenly becomes very panicked as she looks down at her self. She puts a hand in one of her pockets and shakes her head.

Keys?

JAMES throws a set of keys over the bonnet to JANE and they both climb in the car. JANE starts the engine.

5. INT. JANE’S CAR. MORNING.

JAMES puts his seatbelt on and tilts his head back before looking into the rear view mirror. You cam see ELIZABETH’S eyes staring back at him. JAMES looks away then back at the mirror, to see that nothing is there. JAMES rubs his eyes as the car begins to reverse.

6. EXT. THE DRIVEWAY. MORNING.

You can see JANE’S car driving down the driveway and pulling out into the road. ELIZABETH walks back into shot, watches the car turn onto the road – follows them and disappears.

Gina - Location shots - 12.10.09

2009-10-12T10:18:00.000-07:00

I really like the location we have chosen for our opening scene, it looks like a very limited space and does resemble the location within the Sleepy Hollow trailer - which we all liked. I think the red autumn leaves look good aswell, you asume that this place is a very rural setting with hardly any people present - this gives a sense of isolation, which is a typical genetic convention of horror films, especially ghost films where there is always a character fighting against something that is presmed to be stronger than them.

There are alot of trees around the scenes so we should be able to film behind them, this will make it seem like someone is watching the characters - we can see them but they cant see us. The middle shot is showing that there is a slight platform that we can film from which we give us a arial shot, again as if someone'something is watching over the scene.

Gina

Just Like Heaven - sorry I couldn't post the link

2009-10-12T06:17:00.000-07:00

Just like heaven is a different take on the ghost/ supernatural film.
The bright lighting gives a happy feel to the scenes and is quite light-hearted.
Reece Witherspoon dies and comes back in the form of a ghost because she is a friendly character the music and scenes are set in a romentic way with her being percieved as a nice character from the moment she appears in the scene.
I really like the aprt in the scene where she appears in the reflection in the mirror . I think something like this would look really good in our task.
Mel

Jason: The Sixth Sense - An Analysis of a film of the same genre

2009-10-11T11:21:00.000-07:00

The film I have chosen to analyze is The “Sixth Sense” (1999). This film falls into the “ghost/ supernatural” genre; its specific category is psychological thriller.

In many ways both the opening and the overall plot of the film we are going to produce is similar to that of “The Sixth Sense”. Below I have highlighted some key similarities and links, as well as features from “The Sixth Sense” our group can implement and use during the production process of our opening.

Similarities and Links

Setting the mood

In many ways, the opening scene is used by directors and producers to set the mood for the film. I have looked at “The Sixth Sense” opening 10 minutes and I believe the Todorov theory is followed. The scene starts in the living room of a couple, the heating is on and the two are drinking to celebrate the award the husband just won. However, just about 7 minutes into the movie the equilibrium is broken as the couple discovers a man who has broken into their apartment, whom later shoots the husband. This opening sets a tense ambiance which helps connect actors to the film.

Our opening would be less physically thrilling then that of “The Sixth Sense”, however, that does not mean we will not add twists and mystery to set the mood and to stimulate the audience’s interest.

Below is a direct link to the opening 10 minutes of "The Sixth Sense":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE7M9tBwx5c

Season

From the research I have done, quite a few ghost films are filmed in the autumn season. We are lucky that our film opening will also be filmed in the autumn season. The reason for ghost films to be set in the autumn is mainly to provoke a sense of coldness and isolation. For example, the imagery of the chilly autumn wind swaying the trees in a dark grey sky helps to amplify and emphasis the enigma and mystery of whatever’s happening.

Extrasensory perception

In “The Sixth Sense”, Cole who is one of the main characters has extrasensory perception. This is similar to our main character that can see and hear dead people and communicate with them. We will make use of editing techniques to show the dead character, by making them “disappear” through the use of the “fade” technique. The image below shows dead people which Cole sees in “The Sixth Sense”.

Symbolism

“The Sixth Sense” makes extraordinary use of symbolism to encourage audience to think and use intelligence in understanding the film. These symbols can be very simple; an example would be as such. Cole’s mother, Llyn constantly feel’s “cold” in the film. This happens right from the opening till the end. She crosses her hands together when it’s “cold” which in terms of body language signifies insecurity, confusion an a sense of fear.

In our opening we can perhaps incorporate some sort of a symbolism which can be maintained throughout the film. This does not have to be complicated it can be a simple habit the main character has such as rubbing her hands together, sniffing or scratching when she is nervous.

Camera Angles, Shots and Speed

Great detail is placed into the thought process of camera angles and shots in “The Sixth Sense”. In ghost films, the eyes of characters often shows how the character is feeling. Therefore, close ups on the actor’s face is often used amongst other features. The speed is also important in ghost film as the camera often tilts slowly when the image/ scene it is about to show is going to be fearful. This provokes fear as the audience has to wait for the camera to slowly tilt to the next scene.

Our group should pay attention to camera angles and speed when we film the opening as it impacts the way audience feel and sense the image or scene.

Gina - 10.10.09

2009-10-10T05:37:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYHt8SdUj-U
(sorry, for some reason i cannot embed a the trailer, but please click the above link.)

Sleepy Hollow trailer -
It is hard to find a film that has the same tone as ours hopefully will. This trailer certainly has the supernatural feel to it but it is set in a different time period. I really like the way Tim Burton (the director) has animated the smoke over the lanters, a really good effect - i think that if we had the technology and the budget to do something like that, it would tie in well with our film. I like the way that everything within the frame is tinted blue, again giving a ghostly theme to this film. I think we could easily give a blue tint to the film by using the effects we have available to us of iMovieHD, considering the fact that we are filming our opening in the autumn we could give an orange glow to the film, just to make it tie in with the time of year. I think also, if we do make the film more orange than blue it would tell the audience that the film is more lighthearted than something like Sleepy Hollow - which is aimed at an older audience that what we are aiming for. Our film will be aimed at young adults, it will not be too dark or gruesome but more intriguing than anything else. Our main actors are going to be between the ages of 16-17 so again this will attract the audiences of that age as they can relate to the characters emotions.

Alot of the shots within this trailer as filmed within a tree lined pathway, very similar to the location we have already spotted. I like the way that Burton films behind some of the trees, it shows that someone/something is watching and keeps the audience encapsulated - something we could do with our chosen location.

Hopefully my other group members will think there are some good ideas within this film and that we could possibly use some of my above points mentioned.

Gina

The Abduction (film)

2009-10-06T02:11:00.000-07:00

I saw the film that Jason just post. i thought it was really good, the background music fit really well. The film make me want to continue watching it.

we will make our film that way. which means the background music, the story and the quality is going to be good.

I'm sure the film will give us a lot more ideas of how to make a good film.

Billy.

Jason: Ideas for the Next Task

2009-10-04T08:16:00.000-07:00

Our group have began brainstorming ideas on the next piece of work. So far we decided it should be a Supernatural/ Horror genre - however the final decision is yet to be confirmed.

The below is an AS level coursework. The film is called "The abduction" and I would like to share this with my group as I found the quality of the clip to be simply stunning.

2009-09-28T13:04:00.000-07:00

Preliminary task evaluation

Our preliminary task is finally finished. After days of editing to make it perfect our group were very proud of the final result. The most rewarding part of the process was watching our piece completely finished and seeing how it all fitted together. I think the final result was very realistic and the use of shot-reverse-shot and matching on action worked well within or piece.
Even though the parts of the task that included shot-reverse-shot and the dialogue were very time consuming to film and edit, it all turned out brilliantly. I believe we captured the tension and anger between the characters, making the viewers anxious as to what was going to happen next.
If we did the task again I do not think we would change that much. When planning our task we were quite ambitious and next time I think we would try and make it not as complicated. Our end result was very good but it was very time consuming to edit as we did so many takes of the shot-reverse-shot sequence from different angles.
The only other thing that I would have done differently was to find a more realistic location for or scene. Our original location had to be changed which I do not think affected the quality of the task but just made it not as convincing.
Doing the task has definitely improved my technical skills. I feel more confident using the camera whilst filming different shots and I have a better understanding as to how to set up the camera and tripod. I have learnt how to shoot different shots and how to cause different emotional reactions from the viewer. I have also learnt how to perform basic camera shots like shot-reverse-shot, panning and matching on action. These skills allowed us all to improve on our task and will let us be more ambitious with our main task.
After performing the task have better understanding as to the importance of the 180° rule. Without the using the rule the confusion and disorientation is given to the viewer so without this rule the scene doesn’t really make sense. We incorporated the rule into our filming which made it pleasing to watch by viewers. We included shot-reverse-shot and matching on action into our scene. The 180° rule had to be come into effect when we filmed the dialogue with shot-reverse-shot.
Our group chose Gina and Nick as our actors. We chose them because they both study drama and were comfortable with the acting out the scene. As they know each other already, there was a good chemistry between them during filming which made the scene more convincing.
When we were due to start filming we discovered or preferred location was occupied so we had to choose somewhere else. This was to our advantage as the final result turned out really well in the different location. We chose to have our actors sitting down for the dialogue as it would be easier to film as they were on the same level. The establishing shot of Nick walking in the room and Gina sitting angrily at the table create a tension for the viewers which believable.
I really enjoy horror and thriller films so for the main task I would like one of these genres to be used.
Mel

2009-09-28

2009-09-28T05:53:00.000-07:00

Our complete film is out!
We finished our last task: editing. It took a long time to edit the film and we have to watch over and over again to find out any mistakes. We did it. The film is about 35 second long. It included shot/reverse shot, 180 degree roles, match on action, different kind of angle and median shot. When we were filming, it took about 40 minutes to record, but when we actually choose the best parts and put it together. It only has second long. So I can imaging those professional director or Hollywood movies, how long do they take to film the whole thing.

They need to have great lighting included, great filming skills, volume has to be the same and the angle has to be the same. Or else the scene will look different. We used imovie to edit our film, and then posted on Youtube. Imovie is a really good program to make a professional film. You can add the effect; you can cut the scene that you don’t like.

Our film will have titles in the beginning of the movie and our group’s name, Me, Gina, Jason and Mel. Then our film will started from the wife sitting down and waiting, then change to the position of fingers making noise. The husband will come into the room and close the door. We film two angles in this. One is an angle took from outside of the room, so we can see his foot walking. The other one is an angle that took from inside the room to film the face of him walking to the chair. And in the case, we chose to pan to 180 degree after he sits down. It works really well. Then they started having conversation, asking him why he came back late and he’s trying to explain to her. But she doesn’t want to listen. In this part we used shot/reverse shot. We film the whole conversation from the wife side and the whole conversation from the husband side. Then we cut some parts and put together. So now I know how the movie actually film. I thought in the movie, they will have two cameras, one is in one side, and then the other one is in the opposite side. But now I understand.

After that scene, we have to film Gina (wife)’s mouth, for I’m leaving. Because we think that will make everything look scary and the scene will end after that. So basically this scene is the last one. We film our beginning scene in the end. So we just put it in the beginning. This is almost everything about the movies. If you want to watch it, we posted our film in our blog already. So you can have a look and comment on it after you finished watching.

The thing we can improve. I think is the skills. Because this is our fisrt time to work as a team, so we don’t really know each other’s ideas. But if we get more experiences and communicate more to each others. We will get better in this. I definitely think that we are going to make a better film next time and we can improve a lot from our last task. For example, the lighting or the volume. If we can make these two thing better, then I think our film will be even better.

Now we will have to think about our next task. I think we have to make a thriller.
Our group is thinking of making a scary thriller. I’m not pretty sure.

Billy.

2009-09-27T12:48:00.000-07:00

AS Media Studies – Evaluation of the Preliminary Task

Over the course of the last three weeks, my group and I have worked on our AS Media Studies Preliminary Task. We were asked to film a clip of a character opening the door, crossing the room, sitting down opposite to another character and exchange lines of dialogue.

Holding our tripods, camcorder and filming equipments, heading to our “venue”; we encountered our first problem; the venue is not available for filming. But as we got on with the task, the filming, the editing and the delivering of the final product; we realise challenges were bound to be present.

FILMING

Challenges, Difficulties & Solutions

Having decided on a venue for the filming to take place, our group made our way to the “Sixth Form Centre”; which we, naively believed would be “free” for us to use. Mistake one. We however reacted spontaneously and found a replacement which was even better than the initial venue – the “Career’s Department”.

As newbies, we were unfamiliar with the filming process. Thus, setting up the venue and fitting the cameras on tripods plus all the other minors required to prepare the venue for filming took us seven minutes. We made silly mistakes like forgetting to insert the tape into the video recorder. However, we eventually got around the challenges and were ready to film.

We expected there to be props such a clock and a cup which we could borrow for filming purposes, however they were no where to be found, and we simply couldn’t include it in our piece. This was a great experience as we learnt to not count on our personal expectations when it comes to props.

We did not put too much attention into the mis-en-scene. Costume was not needed as business suits our actors were already wearing were fine for their characters. We were lucky that the mis-en-scene was not affected too much by the change of venue as well as the lack of props.

During the process of filming we realize time is something that we have to keep an eye on closely. There’s a limitation to the time we have with the equipment and actors thus we had to get it done in the time we were given. We learnt to save time by not filming everything in chronological order – i.e. film all of one actor’s dialogue first; then do the dialogue from the other actor after. This helps us save time as we do not have to keep changing the side of the camera whilst filming the conversation.

What we learnt

This filming exercise was also a great opportunity for us to get in touch; physically with the filming techniques and play around with them. Previously, we have read about the “extreme long shot” or the “over-the-shoulder” shot but learning the vocabularies and learning how to execute the actual technique was different to say the least. We especially found “tilting” difficult as our actor entered the room and sat on a chair, meaning he changed levels. It took us a while before we managed to take a shot of that without cutting his head off the footage.

One of the requirements of the task was to display the use of the 180-degree rule as well as continuity editing. This meant the usage of “shot/ reverse shot” as well as “matching on action”. In our clip, we used the 180 degrees rule for the conversation between the two characters. We shot used an “over the shoulder” shot to do so. As for matching on action, we used it when the man entered the room. We took a shot of him entering the room and him inside the room with the door closing behind him. Please look at the screen shot and commentary below:

This is an example of "Matching on Action". The first shot shows our actor entering the room from outside the room, and the next shot shows the actor inside the room and the door shutting.

This is an example of an over the shoulder shot. It demonstrates the use of the 180 rule. We have choosen to use such a shot for the converstaion scene.

This, by far is my favourite shot. It is an extreme close up of our actress saying "I'm leaving".

Here is a list of points of improvements in which we can focus on next time we are filming:

1. Make sure the venue is ready prior to filming.

2. Save time by filming by order of venue rather than by order of plot.

3. Ensure all props needed is present and don't expect it to be in the venue "automatically"

EDITING

Challenges, Difficulties & Solutions

When we have imported all the clips on to the iMovie Maker, we first had to sort it out into the chronological order of events according to our story plot. We than began the selection process and selected the best footage for each scene. This process was not easy as different members of the group preferred different scenes, but at the end we found one which we all universally agreed on.

Soon we found that some parts of one scene is better than the other, therefore we began to combine and merge clips. A problem came, we simply can't expect to be able to put clips taken at different time of the same scene together and expect it to run smoothly. We then came up with the solution to import transition effects. We found one effect which allowed us to merge the scenes together making it look much smoother and flow well.

Our finished product was praised for its spontaneity. Our group's final product was not long - it was only thirty-six seconds which the credits included. However, it was successful because of our good use of verisimilitude and its truthlikeness. This, we understand is vital to the success of any piece of media work.

What we learnt

One of the things we all learnt was that the editing process takes a lot of time. Also, a perfect piece of film work will take more than one person to help during the editing process. Luckily, in our group, we have individuals covering every aspect needed for editing. We have someone who's good with the editing program, two members who are good with the assisting role with the running of the program and me, who spots out the odd mistake to make the film perfect.

We also found out how little of the many clips we filmed is needed and included in the final product. Therefore, we should film more footage during the filming process to ensure that our piece can be appropriately long and there will also be more clips to choose from.

Furthermore, we learnt how to make use of colour effects. This is to ensure colour consistency through out the film, as we take bits from each footage filmed from different time and merge them together. For example, one of the parts are too blue, we would add some red into it so it turns brown. We also changed the brightness for the same purpose.

Lastly, we learnt how important the position of digetic sounds is. Our "door squeak" sounded great and added verisimilitude to the final product.

Here is a list of points of improvements in which we can focus on next time we are filming:

1. Take more footages from different angles of the same thing.

2. Do not edit out digetic sounds. Sometimes they are better than non-digetic sounds as they give the appearance of reality.

3. Always have the whole group looking at the clip. More opinions always helps and more people looking out for mistakes is never a bad thing.

As a conclusion, I think what the preliminary task offered us is experience. Experience gives us an idea of what mistakes we will encounter and challenges we have to face. It allows us to have area's in which we can improve on and in turn, progress forward.

Gina - 24.09.09

2009-09-24T11:05:00.000-07:00

We have finally finished editing our preliminary task. Two major things that we had to include were the 180-degree rule, match on action and shot/reverse shot. The 180-degree rule was fairly straight forward for us to follow. We had our two main characters sat opposite each other at a table and to abide by the 180-degree rule we had to simply keep Nick (our male character) and myself on the same sides of the table. We did this by making sure that the camera was always to the actors left, rather than moving around. This made sure that the shot had a certain credibility to the audience and overall gave made the video much simpler to watch. If we ignored the 180-degree rule then the audience would be confused as to where the main characters were within the scene.
The match on action was something else we found easy to do. I initially thought it was going to be hard, matching up certain movements, but using IMovieHD made the whole process a lot easier. We chose to do have the door opening and half closing in one shot, finishing off its action within the next shot. I think that this worked well and was clearly vital for the scene to become believable. Without having matched this action it would appear obvious that two different shots were filmed at completely different times, it ruins the scene of continuity.
Shot/Reverse shot was probably the hardest element to include. We knew that we were going to have a conversation between the two characters and that was the ideal place to include shot/reverse shot. Because we chose to do an argument we often found it hard to match the vocals as the two characters would talk over each other a lot. When we finally made the correct cuts I was very happy with the results, the conversation flows well between the two characters, without any stutters or pauses.

We originally wanted to shoot out scene in a room that resembled a lounge, as the storyline was having two people arguing after he arrived home, late from work. There was no appropriate place that we could’ve filmed at school so we had to settle with the careers department that didn’t exactly give the right mood that we were looking for. Considering we had to improvise with the location we ended up with I think we did really well. We decided to have Nick and I as the two main actors. This decision was based on the fact that we are both in the media class – therefore it seemed like the most logical thing to do and we also do drama, meaning that we are used to performing in front of crowds/cameras.

Due to this preliminary task I have learnt how to use and operate both the video-camera and the tripod. Because we tested out so many different angles we know which ones look more effective than others and how to film a steam video by using the tripod appropriately. I also enjoyed learning how to use IMovieHD on the Apple Macs, it was different to any other programs that I have previously used and thought that it was fairly straight forward with great effects.

The most difficult thing to do within this task was not in the actual filming process but within the editing. It was really hard to match the sound on the shot/reverse shots, but the hardest thing was to making an over-the-shoulder shot match with an extreme close-up of my mouth halfway through the sentence, “I’m leaving.” This was probably the thing that took us the longest time to sort out and edit, but we got it in the end.

The most rewarding thing about this process was watching through the final project, it showed how all of our hard work had come together and worked. It was great to hear the other members of our class comment on our video and hear the good feedback. I think that at one point within the editing process I thought that it was too fiddly and an extremely intricate process, but when watching the finished product you could see how our attention to detail paid off.

I think that next time we do a project we will plan our location better and finalise whereabouts we are going to film before the day we need to. I will also consider different costumes (etc) that we could have, setting different moods and developing the film as a whole. If we had a large budget for the film I would defiantly invest in lighting and sound equipment as some shots didn’t match the other with vocal and light quality.

Overall, I enjoyed filming and editing and look forward to our next task.

Gina.

Group 1 Preliminary Task - FINAL PRODUCT.

2009-09-24T06:59:00.000-07:00

This is our final product for the preliminary task:

Please enjoy,
Jason.

2009-09-18 Movie.

2009-09-18T03:53:00.000-07:00

Today we did our first filming. It went pretty well. Our group was the first group to film and we went to library student centre for filming. We were going to film in the 6th form centre, but there were some 6th form student in there. So we couldn’t know where to film, then we figured out that we could film in the student centre.
The main actors were Nick and Gina. Nick acted as a husband that went on a date with a woman and came back home late, and Gina acted as a wife that is waiting for her husband to come back. She is not happy with it. First we used an angle of the corner of the door, so the audience can only see the husband’s legs walking towards the door and open it, then walked into the room. We took a lot of times so we can pick the best one and edited in the film. But before we were film it. We got a problem; the problem was that we couldn’t record! But then we found out the reason. It’s because we didn’t put the TAPE in the camera! I totally forgot about the tape when I was holding the camera. After that, we put the camera in front of the door, to catch the scene that the husband walked in the room and toward to the chair to sit down. We used tracking shot when he was walking toward the chair. Then we used the 180 degree rile of wife and husband sitting opposite of each other. But I think the table was too long, so if we want to put both of them in the camera screen, we have to move the camera backwards. So it makes the people look small and far away. That’s what I think we should be careful next time, after that. We have the shot/reverse shot; Started from the wife. Then we took an angle of shot/reverse shot form the husband, and we film a lot of time on it as well. The last one was filming the mouth of the wife while she is saying that she wants to leave him. We used zoom in to catch the angle of her mouth.
This was what we want the film to be like and I think that we did it pretty well. The last thing that we need to do for this shot movie is to edit the best parts together.
The parts that I think we have space to improve are the parts that the wife and husband have an argument. I think we should make it more verisimilitude by adding the volume or some body movement to show she is really angry about he came back home late. So the audience can feel that they had the same experience before. But they were pretty good for the first time. I was thinking about if I’m acting for the shot movie, I’m going to mess up.
So the last thing that we need to do is the editing. Make the film look better.
This was a really good experience to me. I’m looking forward to next lesson.

Billy.

Jason: AS Media Studies Preliminary Task - After Filming

2009-09-17T07:02:00.000-07:00

We filmed our preliminary task today. The process was very different to how we would have expected it to be; however, we did successfully execute the key ideas and themes.

Challenges, Difficulties & Solutions

First of all, the location we wanted to film in was occupied and not suitable for filming. Thus we had to look for another venue. Luckily, we found a replacement quick enough and the environment was suitable for filming.

Setting up the venue and fitting the cameras on tripods plus all the other minors required to prepare the venue for filming took us, newbies a while. We made silly mistakes like forgetting to insert the tape into the video recorder. However, we eventually got around the challenges and were ready to film after around seven minutes of preparation.

We expected there to be props such a clock and a cup which we could borrow for filming purposes, however they were no where to be found, and we simply couldn’t include it in our piece. This was a great experience as we learnt to not count on our personal expectations when it comes to props.

During the process of filming we realize time is something that we have to keep an eye on closely. There’s a limitation to the time we have with the equipment and actors thus we had to get it done in the time we were given. We learnt to save time by not filming everything in chronological order – i.e. film all of one actor’s dialogue first; then do the dialogue from the other actor after. This helps us save time as we do not have to keep changing the side of the camera whilst filming the conversation.

This filming exercise was also a great opportunity for us to get in touch; physically with the filming techniques and play around with them. Previously, we have read about the “extreme long shot” or the “over-the-shoulder” shot but learning the vocabularies and learning how to execute the actual technique was different to say the least. We especially found “tilting” difficult as our actor entered the room and sat on a chair, meaning he changed levels. It took us a while before we managed to take a shot of that without cutting his head off the footage.

Evaluation and Targets for next time

I believe our group performed well as first-timers. The mistakes we made were minimal and over time our skills can and will be polished with hard work. We certainty did not get as many shots as we should have, but this was because we failed to fit it into our tight filming schedule. It would be smart to keep a list of “tasks” to bring to the filming venue. Besides that, we also have to remember to bring props, if we wanted to include it in our piece.

17.09.09 Mel - Preliminary task

2009-09-17T06:59:00.000-07:00

We did our preliminary task today. It went well with only a few hick-ups.
Our location had to be changed because the room was occupied. When we had decided on a alternative location we started planning our scene. This didn't start quite to plan because after five minutes of trying to film we discovered we had not put the tape in the camera :) .
We didn't have any problems setting up the camera and tripod and filming was easy. Billy, Jason and i all took it in turns to film whilst Gina and Nick acted out the scene.
I liked our use of close-ups the most after reviewing our filming, as they give a sense of tension.
When we eventually started filming everything came together. We managed to incorporate all the different types of shots we needed.
After playing the tape back i think after some editing our preliminary task will be really entertaining.
Mel

17-11-09 Gina - filming the preliminary task.

2009-09-17T06:58:00.000-07:00

Today we filmed our preliminary task. It didn't go as we had previously planned, for starters we had to change our location due to our choice room being occupied. The room we eventually settled with did not have the right atmosphere that we were looking for. Our storyline was set in the evening but the location we changed was lit very well, this is something we would take into consideration in our next task.
Another thing we could have considered was the costume as that didn't help set the scene either. (We will also remember to put the tape in the camera next time.)
Once we began filming I think the process went very smoothly. We each took it in turns to film a different shot and I think we all had different inputs to the final scenes that were filmed. I would like to be more behind the camera when we move onto our next task as I only got to see what was being filmed after the process was completed, but enjoyed the experience nonetheless.
I look forward to editing the shots together next week and anxious to see the final product.
Gina

Jason: AS Media Studies Preliminary Task - Plot

2009-09-14T12:19:00.000-07:00

Outline of Story and Plot

Our group’s plot is based on the failing relationship between a couple and the conflict between them.The story will very much follow the Todorov theory. This is our idea up-to-date. The film will start in a stage of equilibrium with the couple living their normal lives; doing ordinary things a married couple will do together. There will be a disruption to the equilibrium when the husband find’s out about his wife’s affair. The resolution of the story will be them splitting up, which leads to a new equilibrium.

The story however is only the chronological order of the events. We will give an interesting start to the plot to engage our audience and to allow them to better enjoy the film. The start of our film (which is all we have to do for the preliminary task) will therefore be the husband entering the house at night; clearly later than he should have. The wife, followed by the accumulated suspicion and her husband being late – again will take action and a dialogue will take place. The scene will be filled with tension and somewhat fear and confusion. Such an atmosphere and enigma in the initial scene will stimulate the audience’s interest. This is one of Robert McKee’s principle as he states that audience concentrate on the moment in which an action or response which is of surprise takes place. If we were to film the entire move, we will than take the audience back a few months time in the live of the two characters to explain what and how events occurred to have lead to the current situation.

Characterisation

The character’s personality will very much be shown and revealed through the dialogue they exchange under a tense atmosphere and pressure. Our initial idea is that the man has a slightly “softer” personality than his wife. The woman on the other hand is easily angered; she is capable of displaying both words and physical abuses. We will therefore be once again following Robert McKee’s principle as our audience will learn about the characters through their decisions.

Mis-en-scene

The mis-en-scene will be chosen carefully to display an appearance of reality. The location will be a dark room, ideally with no windows to symbolise the “trapped” situation the characters are in. The two characters will be in business suits to show that they are wealthy, upper-class. Prop will be minimal.

Camera angles

Appropriate camera angles will be used throughout the filming process. We can begin with an establishing shot using an extreme long shot. It will show the woman sitting on the dining table waiting for her husband to come home. A medium shot can then be used to show the woman’s body language and that he has been waiting for a while. Close-up’s and extreme close-up’s will then be used to show that she is getting impatient. The camera will zoom in on her finger and foot tapping, and him looking at his watch.

When the man enters the room, there will be an extreme close up on his foot. Then there will be a pan over to the woman, showing an extreme close up on her eyes portraying his anger towards the woman being late.

The woman and man will then be sat down and engaged in a conversation. Ideally, a bird eye view shot can be taken showing both of them sitting down and ready to talk. However, this might be a difficult thing for our group to do due to our limited resources. During the conversation, medium shots will be used, we will incorporate over-the-shoulder shots to show to further engage our audience. The shot-reverse-shot technique will also be used and we will follow the 180 degrees rule to ensure the film is clear and easily understood by the audience.

Towards the end of the opening of the film, the woman will get angry and will take physical action, i.e. leave the room. This is when an oblique/ candid angle will be suitable to portrait the imbalanced and instability of the situation and characters.

Jason.

14.9.2009 Mel

2009-09-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

We have been set our preliminary task which is a short opening to a film. I am in a group with Billy, Jason and Gina. The task had to involve a few different elements. One character would start the scene by entering the room through a door, walking through the room and sitting down. After much thought about what we could do for the scene we all decided that the scene would involve a husband and wife ahving an argument. The scene will start with the wife staying up late waiting for her husband to come home again as he often came home late in recent weeks. Getting suspicious the wife waits staring at the clock and turning to a glass of wine for comfort. Close-ups of the clock and of her hand tapping on the table will emphasise the anticipation in the scene. The husband then comes home a long shot will be used to show the hole profile of the man entering the room. An argument will start staright away as to where he has been. He will then walk across the room - a panning shot will be used here and then a matching in action shot. The husband will sit down opposite the wife at the table and they are still arguing. Shot-reverse-shot will be used in this part of the scene to show the two sides of the argument. The wife then decides she has had enough as she descovers he worst fears are true that her husband has been seeing another women. She says some harsh words which will be filmed in an extreme close up of her mouth and a long shot of the wife will end the scene as she storms out of the room and slams the door.
Mel

2009-09-12 Billy

2009-09-12T14:08:00.000-07:00

Our first task is to make a short film!!!
Woo~ I’m so exciting. I can’t wait to make the best short film with my group. Jason, Mel and Gina are my teammates. They all looked very professional, so I’m sure that we are going to produce a high quality film. We are new to each other, so when we first discussed, it was very silence. I was very nervous, so I didn’t really talk much. But after a few minutes, I started giving my own idea, and we very soon have the idea of how we want the movement or scene to be film.
We are thinking about a film have the situation of a wife and a husband are having an argument, and she is really angry about the husband came back home late and she found out that, the reason that he’s been late, it’s because he went out with another women. So they women started getting crazy after they have a little talk, and he was trying to explain. But she didn’t want to listen. So she stands out and walks out the room and slam the door very hard. The husband will be very shock and don’t know what to do, so he will be setting there.
The equipments that we will get are a table and two chairs in a room, so first the wife will be setting down on a chair waiting for the husband to come back, and she is really angry. Then the husband will walked through the door and while he is walking through, we will have the scene of a clock or a watch to show the time and the Tip sound will match with the sound of the footsteps.
These are the ideas that we had planned so far (if I missed something, then blame on me, and sorry.) I’m looking forward to the film that we are going to make in less than 100 hours! I’m very excited, I hope I can fit in the group and go along with them. We are all going to be very professional!

Billy

10.11.09 - Gina

2009-09-10T14:17:00.000-07:00

Today we started to plan our pleminary task. We were told that we had to film a simple scene where someone enters through a door, walks across the room and then has a short conversation with another person. Billy, Jason, Mel and I all agreed that an argument would be an interesting piece of dialogue for the two characters and this in itself sets the scene and mood for the rest of the piece. We chose to have two characters - a man and wife - that were arguing, we did think about having a boyfriend and girlfriend but came to the conclusion that the argument would be more forceful between two people that are legally committed to each other.
The story that we are going to try and convey is that the husband has been out late with another woman and the wife has been waiting for him at home - within the dialogue we are planning to suggest that this has occurred multiple times in the past. Mel and I thought that the wife should be in control of the situation and be the more dominant character as she is the one who starts the argument and clearly has a lot of problems to address to the husband. I think that an up-angled shot could be used when the wife is talking to show that the husband is feeling intimidated by her and that she is agian the dominant one within the argument.
We are going to have the location in what would appear to be a lounge, we haven't decided where abouts on the school campus we are going to do this yet but we hope to have a room with sofas and chairs - preferably quite dark to symbolise how late the husband is back home (e.g. dim lighting suggesting the early hours of the monring.) The costume is going to be quite straight forward, the wfe can be wearing either a nightgown (again symbolising the time) or a simple tracksuit and the husband could be dressed in his work suit maybe with his colar un-done and a loose tie around his neck.
I personally like the idea of having a few extreme close-ups at the beginning of the film to set the scene and really build tension before the dialogue had started. A way I thought we could do this was by having a close-up of a watch, cutting to a close-up of the door opening and feet walking across the floor - perhaps to the same rhythm as the ticking second hand to set the pace of the scene and add tension. Over-the-shoulder shots could be used quite a bit to show that both of the characters are addressing each other, perhaps having more over-the-shoulder shots towards the husband so that the audience side more with the wife as they are seeing the argument from her point of view. The closure within this scene is that the wife says she wants a dvorce and it is her that walks out of the room, the scene fading to black as the door slams shut.
The idea is to have the audience originally side with the wife but then after she had left, question whether the wife is right or the husband has just had a normal long day at the office - showing a contrast within the scene and a turn in events with a resulting equilibrium.
I look forward to our next lesson where we will develop the dialogue, characters and improve the current concept that we have.
Gina.