media studies 2009-2011

Prior to any Film production you will have to establish who your main Target audience is so you are able to work this to your advantage; with Horror films they have a large audience so stereotyping one particular group can be difficult. 

The above Photo was procured from Google, and it presents a stereotypical audience member to our film. I chose this particular person as a representative because they are around the age of 17-25 and normally Horror/Thriller Movies are given a rating of 18, I feel our Movie contains criteria of an Interest to an older audience and I would suggest the rating would be 15-18. Another reason I designated this particular image representative of our film is mainly due to his appearance as it portrays an average person who enjoys the horror Genre because they would probably be defined under the social group Emo or Goth on account of his hairstyle and clothes choice. The clothing Brands they would customarily wear would be Vans and Criminal Damage. Although the spectrum of people who fall under this category is substantial I think this person sums them up best. They would enjoy films such as The Saw sequel, the grudge, Halloween and many other popular Horror/Thriller Titles. Also the typical Television programmes they would watch would probably be Skins, CSI, Dead Set, Being Human and Supernatural, as these all feature tension building storylines which are expected and associated with Horror Films. Characteristically they would shop at places such as HMV and GAME because Horror films are popular among film fanatics and predominantly males. Also there Music tastes would conventionally be Metal or Rock music, this type of music occurs in horror films very often as it sets the thriller scene and appeals to the typical audience, Bands such as Metallica and Motorhead.

 The audience would not be focused at girly girls as normally these would not consider Horror as their chosen genre probably due to the amount of Gore, violence and suspense.  Furthermore people under the age of 17 would not be as much of an enthusiast of horror films as they are too young to fully understand some of the complex storylines and will be affected by the disturbing scenes to a greater extent than an older audience. Also audiences may be aficionados of famous Horror film directors for instance Sir Alfred Hitchcock who pioneered the beginning of the Horror Genre creating legendary Titles including Psycho, Birds and Vertigo. Fans of these films are likely to also enjoy more modern Titles that can be compared to these original renowned movies, and observe how the Horror Genre has altered over the years. However contemporary Horror films will probably not be enjoyed by people over the age of 40 as they may not understand or appreciate the modern take on the Horror genre and prefer more romanticised Movies, such as popular Bette Davis films including the celebrated ‘Whatever happened to Baby Jane?’.

This is a clip of our finished movie with commentary. I then added annotations over the top using youtube to show how we portrayed the genre of our assignment which was was Horror, in order to portray our chosen Genre there was many aspects we had to take into consideration such as the use of music, similarities with other movies and we had to include a unique selling point of our film. Music has a huge impact on the genre of a film, without it, it would be extremely difficult to set the right atmosphere and build tension for the audience. The music we chose to incorporate into our film manifests the tone of the short piece and addresses the Horror Genre to the audience.  We felt it had an unsettling quality, and enhanced the eerie ambience we were trying to create.  There are many films that inspired us when planning our own film opening, and we tried to integrate several techniques and ideas we received from the research we carried out, such as Halloween, Friday the 13^th and the Scream trilogy. They are all extremely popular films and their audiences never fail to be taken aback when they view these Films, I feel they really sum up the Horror Genre.

 This is a Link to the annotated version of our opening sequence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj7JfTqOj9c

When you open it in apture embed it does not show the annotations so adding the link address is the best alternative so you have to now copy and paste the link to access the annotated version. I also included the apture embed of the opening sequence of The Ring as I compared it to the opening of our movie, and the Titles especially show several similarities. It is also aimed at a similar Target audience.

To begin with in our media course we were asked to produce a short exercise to help us with understanding how to use the camera equipment and to practise accomplishing the editing process. The preliminary was a much shorter piece and there was minimal planning or research achieved before hand, contrasted with the effort that went into planning and researching for our final film. Also there was little thought gone into the shots and angles we used in the preliminary unlike our final film when an extensive amount of time and effort was put into deciding which shots we were going to use to achieve to our highest potential. Another problem that arose during the preliminary was the several continuity errors that occurred, such as in one shot you see the briefcase being passed along the table but then in the next shot it is again back in Jack’s hand. Continuity was extremely important in our final piece when we had to ensure no errors transpired, and we managed to achieve a much smoother film. 

 This Frame is taken from our preliminary exercise and is an example of one of the errors that occurred during the exercise, it shows a jump cut presenting a continuity error. Also we did not have time to add audio on over the top and at the time we were still adjusting ourselves to getting used to using the camera so we did not include any speech. However for our final piece the script was well thought out beforehand and any extra audio we wanted could easily be added over the top using Adobe Premiere which were not confident with doing during the preliminary.

  This shot shows how bad the quality was of our preliminary, you can see the image is very blurred and there is far too much head room above Jack, when there should be little or no space here.

Now I feel I am much more confident  then I was during the production of the Preliminary exercise, I have learnt to use a wider use of shots and vary which shots we choose instead of using the same or similar ones, particularly the use of over the shoulder shots to tell the story to make economical use of the frame. Also during the editing process to begin with I knew little about this process and lacked the skills needed; now I know much more about the proceeds and different techniques to improve our film such as the different transitions you can add in. The preliminary exercise shows a much more basic film then our most recent one which includes several uses of a range of shots and transitions. In our film we knew we had to take into considerations several issues such as the 180 degree rule. Unlike the preliminary exercise we also included the use of a shot reverse shot which i think really improved our final film. Another major improvement we encountered was with the editing process; we were much more competent at understanding the process and quickly picked up new techniques we were able to incorporate into our final film such as dissolves to make transitions smoother. Also our group were much more organised this time and we all put in a greater effort then during the preliminary exercise when our attitude was far more relaxed and our lack of organisation resulted in us not having enough footage to make a flowing film. For our final piece we certified that we had more then enough footage by repeating each shot several times untill we were happy. The work load was evenly shared between the three of us, I think it was an advantage that we had worked together on the preliminary though as it gave us the experience of working well as a group. We also put much more time and effort into deciding what location would be most suitable, whereas last time we merely chose a location with easy access. Overall we were all able to learn from the mistakes we made during the Preliminary exercise, and we put all our effort into acchieving a film that showed our new skills and it allowed us to be creative and become essentially more confident in this field of Media studies.

Directors Commentary Script.

Evaluation Activity 3 Directors Commentary

Our film company was Named JJF, after the three producers, Joanna Byrom, Jack Young and Flora Simpson. The Logo is a fairly simple but classic design. JJF are a fairly small company who mainly specialize in Horror Films.

They work in connection with the company ‘Young Films’, the distributor is the corporation that works with the film company and they distribute the film to Cinemas and then onto DVD, ‘Young Films’ mainly only works with in the UK but occasionally films will be distributed worldwide, depending on their initial success. They also have to assess the likely market and potential financial success of the film. Hollywood distributors adopt a hard-headed business approach and consider factors such as the film genre, the target audience, the historical success of similar films, the actors who might appear in the film, and potential directors.  Their main aim is to make a profit, and Horror films are widely popular with audiences everywhere. For example the Exorcist that accumulated a gross profit of $440,000,000 worldwide, making it one of the most profitable horror films. ‘Tracker’ was unlike many Movies today, filmed at one main location In the UK. This was Elstree Studios situated in the heart of London, which has produced some of the most famous films around such as, ‘The shining’ and ’Indiana Jones’. Apart from the cost of hiring the studio and the money spent on advertising the film was produced on a fairly low budget, due to the ‘new to film’ cast.  The Gross profit the film accumulated during the first week came to £300,000 at the Box offices, which is a fairly respectable amount although in comparison to The Ring which made $8.3 million during the first two weeks, it seems almost insignificant. Considering films such as Halloween and Friday the 13^th made extremely high profits we are hopeful ours as a classic Horror film storyline will have the same reception from people.

The Titles we included consisted of the Writers name, the names of the two actors’ and finally the film title itself.  Normally in films there are many more titles then this but we decided to keep ours to a minimal amount.  We worked with the Writer Peter Stones who was very competent and thorough when it came to producing the script the most common and important Titles you will see are:

• The Director who is primarily responsible for the storytelling, creative decisions and acting of the film.
• The assistant director (AD) manages the shooting schedule and logistics of the production, among other tasks.
• The casting director finds actors to fill the parts in the script. This normally requires that actors audition. Lead actors are carefully chosen, often based on the actor’s reputation or “star power.”
• The location manager finds and manages film locations. Most pictures are shot in the controllable environment of a studio sound stage but occasionally, outdoor sequences call for filming on location.
• The production manager manages the production budget and production schedule. They also report, on behalf of the production office, to the studio executives or financiers of the film.

• The composer creates new music for the film. (usually not until post-production)
• The production designer creates the visual conception of the film, working with the art director.
• The costume designer creates the clothing for the characters in the film working closely with the actors, as well as other departments.
• The make up and hair designer works closely with the costume designer in addition to create a certain look for a character.
• The storyboard artist creates visual images to help the director and production designer communicate their ideas to the production team.

Bibliography:

- Wikipedia

 This is the original script I wrote out but when It came to recording the Commentary I realised that I could have to cut out a considerable amount as It was far to long to match up with our Film. If I had of kept this script I would of ended up with a substantial amount of time at the end that was merely black screen with the commentary over the top. The process of editing the script was fairly easy though and I manage to shorten it to the essential parts I needed in the commentary.

The Equipment we used during our final film consisted of:

•  Adobe premiere editing Software
• Photoshop
• The camera and Tripod
• Microphones

We used ‘Adobe Premiere’ for the editing process, and also to add special effects to improve the quality of our film, such as various transitions and fade to blacks to show a elipsis of time.

This is me using the programme Adobe Premier pro. We used this to edit our film and add any special effects to acchieve a higher quality piece. It didn’t take long for us all to become accustomed to the process and we were soon all competent enough to successfully edit our film.

This Picture shows me setting up the camera ready to be used, we had to ensure that we had correctly set up the camera by monitoring; The white balance, the range of mobility of the Tripod and sound levels.

The Screen grab below was taken from our Adobe premiere computer screen, this allows you to see our perspective of Premiere. The top left corner shows the shots, effects or audio that can be dragged down into the timeline below, and can be edited in any way you choose. The Timeline is placed at the bottom part of the screen, here you can easily move around shots and cut shots down to your desirable size, also you are able to enlarge each shot to make it clearer to see what you are doing. The screen at the top on the right hand side shows the captured recording, and allows you to play your film to see any mistakes that still need to be edited. Then lastly the box at the bottom left of the screen displays the range of effects you can include for example slow motion.

 To achieve the Logo for our film and make it appear as proffesional as possible we used photoshop to design the company Emblem.

 Jennifer Chandler

 Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween)

Jamie Lee Curtis is the central teenage female role in Halloween, like our main character she is a young girl who’s friends have gone missing in unknown circumstances she is the lone heroine. The character she plays is similar to Jenny in our film as they are both left as the leading female role in a position where they have no one else to depend on. We decided to use Jenny for our leading role as she is a sterotypical young girl and presents an innocence that is normally associated with the leading females in horror films such as In ‘Friday the 13th’ where the main character is a young girl who portrays an innocent teeneager, unlike many of her friends in the movie. Also In John Carpenters ‘Halloween’ Jamie Lee Curtis finds herself being stalked by the infamous Michael Myers and throughout the film her and her friends have the feeling they are being watched, which is comparable with our own storyline where many of our shots were POV to present the perception of them being watched. Jennifer conveys her character well, as she portrays the young girl who is extremely scared and feels panicked when she finds herself alone. Visually her image portrays a certain innocence and a relaxed attitude, wearing a simple and practical outfit of leggings a plain top and coat. Similar to the image portrayed in 28 weeks later, the young girl Tammy played by Imogen Poots, wears simple outfits such as Jeans and tshirts and has to maintain a mature personality, much like Jenny. They both have a likeability factor as teenage girls will be able to relate to them. Although our film does not involve mass killings dissimilar to ‘Twenty eight weeks later’ it allows us to see another side to the horror genre, and the characters fighting to survive.

Another character that shows similaraties is from a more modern horror film, Sidney (Neve Campbell) from the Trilogy ‘Scream’. She is presented a the hero of the films and like our charcter is the leading surving female. Although she portrays a stronger more confident character then Normally seen. She is more sure of herself and manages to shows he is more then capable of looking after herself, remaining courageous even when she experiences her friends her family being murdered around her.

As well though she is able to still presents an average teenage girl who finds herself in the centre of several related murders, and is the main target for the killer. ‘Scream’ did influence us during our research and planning, and our opening was shaped by ideas we gained from ‘Scream’. Our film does not follow all of the typical horror film rules and does not include the usual cliches. Sidney is a more complex character and has a complicated background, the film revolves around her past. She shows intelligence as she survives untill the end of the trilogy and is not a superficial character. The audiences empathise with her character and the situation she is in, this is how we have tried to portray our main charcter so that the audience feel they are able to interact with her. Many people find ‘Scream’ to include a humourous side by using a basic concept with a tongue-in-cheek approach and it revitalised the horror film genre. Its shows how producers can have different impacts by changing the way horror films are normally perceived and therefore shocking viewers with there new ideas.

Frame one: The first shot was the Location shot we chose to have this of the Building we filmed in as it presents the idea of someone watching over the location as the camera pans across and introduces the location to the audience and sets the scene.

Frame Two: This Displays the main characters names, they are set on a black screen and the technique used on the font I feel is very effective and relects the Horror/Thriller atmosphere. This font style mimicks other famous titles, such as ‘The Ring’, this also shows the titles brightly lit up set on a dark background and flickering relating to the television which is a key motif throughout the film.

Frame Three:  The next shot shows the two girls being watched as they walk away, this builds suspense for the audience. Also it gives the first indication that the two girls are being watched by someone, and on the basis that this person is hidden you begin to speculate about the preceding events and the suspicous circumstances. 

Frame four: This Frame shows the shot presenting the writers Name, we added the effect of a flickering light bulb over the top to create the correct atmosphere reflected in our film and the matching audio adds to the impact it makes.

Frame five: This demonstrated the use of an over the shoulder shot, this shows the range of shots we used, the frame also introduces the main characters and the storyline for the film. You can see the girls costumes, they dresses ordinarily and portray two average teenagers. The mise en scene for our film was not very well though out as you can see form these shots there are few props, the phone probably being the main one.

Frame six: This shows the two girls reaction after having heard a loud noise behind them, this creates tension and presents the Suspicion that they are not alone but the suspect is unknown. Also there characters become more Naive and Innocent to the audience as they move towards the noise interpreting it as one of there friends.

Frame Seven: This shot manifests the climax of the opening sequence of our horror film, where one of the girls goes missing this presents the genre of the film. The special effcts we used mainly consisted of different transitions to make the film flow better and mostly fade to blacks to show a time elipsis. A very cliched idea used generally in Horror films is that one of the girls is always the first to go missing, such as in ‘Scream’ or ‘Friday the 13th’ which we also interpreted in our Film to portray the idea of a classic horror movie.

Frame eight: In this frame we again see a point of view shot from who ever has been watching the girls, which relates to the Title of the film ‘Tracker’ and again builds the suspense up for the rest of the film. Suspense is what the audience looks for when they watch a horror or thriller movie, they want to be scared and probably one of the first directors who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological  thriller genres was ‘Alfred Hitchcock’, for example in ‘Psycho’ where the audience only discovers who the actual killer is right at the end of the film.

Frame Nine: The Title of our Film (Tracker) Is displayed on our final Frame, and It is presented on a black screen. The font syle we chose to use is strange and eerie and looks as though it is glowing, this is in relation to the horror atmosphere. This stlye is fairly common in a typical horror film. For example In the popular film ‘Aliens’ the Titles also appear to be Lit up:

Risk Assesment of Filming Location

As the location for our Film could of been potentially highly dangerous, a risk assesment was extremely important. The ‘Utility’ is a derelict building and no longer occupied by anyone, we had to think about what areas we would be entering during the making of the film and the risk each of these places held. We identified each Hazard. how they could harm us and the actions we would need to take. We had to discuss the condition of the site and general precautions.

The main Hazards involved were:

• It was an unfamilar building to all of us
• Working in a building that had not been in use for several years
• There was a danger to us of falling or slipping over, so we had to be fully aware of these areas and ensure we stayed away from them.
• One of us could of fallen into one of the water holes
• In the case of Evacuation of the location in event of fire or another emergency. The Emergency services not knowing if personnel are not accounted for.