Media Studies 2009-2011

We have chosen to do a horror/thriller for many reasons,

The first being we have a perfect location to film at we will be using Hannah’s house which is very old so will look scary which is what we need to create a scary atmosphere.

There is alot off trees around and woods which is a perfect horror spot to create a film at as many films are set around the woods for example; when someone is walking in the woods on their own and get followed this is used in many films.

We also choose a horror as we thought it would be quite straight forward but from all the planning we have been doing it is looking to be the complete opposite as we need many shots (about 40) to be successful and to get a good grade. This means we are going to have to work very hard to produce a good standard film.

Horror/thriller is our strong points too as we all enjoy them which really helps as we all have watched a horror so we know what to include: Fast movements/shots…

If we put the work in we should succeed with a good grade.

The titles that start this film is “Warner Bros Pictures” Then the title comes up “Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix”. The theme music then starts which is on all the Harry potter films. The establishing shot is up in the sky and looks down and zooms down into the park where the setting is set. We see grass swaying in the wind this gives an eary effect. We then see a shadow this makes the audience feel abit uncomfortable and on edge the tension builds. Then we see the main character Harry Potter. We then have a wide shot of the round about moving on its own this is creepy as we think something scary is going to happen. We then see a wide shot of 5 boys been horrid and there is a zoom in on Harrys emotions. The sky then goes black we deffinatly know something bad is going to happen now as the atmosphere suddenly changes. Harry threatens the boy. Scary music is played. This creates dramatic tension. There is the a shot looking down on the two boys then a weather shot. This is the end of the starting scene.

The titles that come up first is “Universal Pictures and Studio Canal present” “A working title production” “In assocciation with DNA films” This starts of with happy music the happy music tells the audience that it is going to be a happy film and it also shows people hugging this shows the plot “LOVE”  and it also tells us it is not going to be a horror. The quote that is in this when this happy scene has finished is “Love Actualy is all around” Then the film title is shown- “LOVE ACTUALY”.

The first scene opens and starts with a man singing a song about love “All you need is love” Then a wide shot. Then the actors in the movies names are shown while this scene is in motion. This doesn’t happen on all films as I found out watching “The ring” The camera moves all around the singer it pans. There are not many camera movements in this.

This is a Romantic Comedy.

This starts with the title “Dreamworks” which is of a little boy fishing on the moon. Like all films it starts with an esablishing shot which is of an old spooky house in the night so it is quite dark from this start we know it is going to be a horror as the setting is spooky! The rain also set the horror scene, the sound of it makes the tension rise. There was then a wide shot of two girls sat talking but sat in the dark watching TV this also gives us a clue that it may be scary as they are talking about what happened to a gril when she watched a video (she died). It zooms in this creates tension. They have a conversation about the plot of the film this gives us an idea of what it is going to be about. It sets the scene/plot. It zooms on speech to the girls. All through the scene we hear rain this makes it more scary as if it was sunny and daylight you wouldn’t be too scared. It creates an atmosphere of horror. The phone then rings. There is silence- this makes the audience on edge they don’t know whats going to happen next they think of things that may happen if they answer the phone. There is a close up on the girls scared face. The TV suddenly comes on with no warning- silence again- the tension rises much more. There is a zoom in of the TV. Then the secen jumps to the next scene.

 This is our preliminary exercise. It could have been better as we had to redo it twice as we wern’t happy with it.

There were alot of bad points:

We didn’t check the sound before we started so it was very loud when we played it back,                               We didn’t have enough material so we only were able to use what we filmed, we know now for next time to create alot more footage than is needed. We only have 20 seconds so we could do with some more footage. We didn’t create mindmaps before we started but we did create a few storyboards so our organisation level was very good, this is one of the good point.                                                                                                 We had problems with continuety as the actors didn’t wear the same clothes on the days they should have which meant we had to retake our film.                                                                                                          We also began filming to soon which meant when we edited it cut off the dialogue which is shown in our video.                                                                                                                                                                Some of our angles were good like the door handle shot this was a very good close up and really looked good the effect was good too. The shot of Laura walking into a shot wasn’t very good though as she suddenly dissapeared, we could improve this now we know.

You need lighting so the audience can watch the film clearly so you can see the actors.  You do not want the character as a blur or so the sun is on them so the camera picks that up. You want a good clear shot with good lighting that either shows a meaning or has to have a purpose to be there.

In cinematography, the use of light can influence the meaning of a shot.

E.g. film makers often show villains as shadowed or veiled usualy a dark character.

A video shot log is a written record of the shots on a tape or disk.

This can be made either as the shoot progresses or after the shoot finishes.

In it you include: Date its shot, Location shot, Who operates the camera, Other people around (Staff), And additional comments.

Below this you have a time code, Take, Duration, Description and Audio along in a graph. This sets it out neatly for you so you can add to it underneath.

Some bad points of the video was:
The noise in the background we could hear lots of background noice which made it hard to hear the dialogue or concentrate. The video was very quick we couldn’t really focus on something for a long time it was over so quick. Microphone clip was too close to Mr Mannix it was right up to his face which made his speech very blury and very loud.
Positives to it were:
It had a story and was well structed alot of thought must have gone into it.
There wernt just one perticular shot used all the time there was a variety and in the right order.