Feedback

On Friday we had to show our film to the whole class and then they had to write a review on it on the feedback sheet. I actually like that idea because it will tell us how to improve and it told us what we did well, it can help us next time in making a film.

This is the feedback sheet that David gave us to comment on other peoples films.

This is the feedback sheet that David gave to the class for them to comment on our film.

Location

This is pictures of the locations that we took, and this is where we are going to shoot our horror film.

These two pictures is the bedroom and this is where we mainly filmed for the most part of the story. This is where the scary part happens when the monster is seen. Also the girl will be on the bed sleeping until something happens.

These two pictures is the bathroom and this is where the girl will start seeing things like writing on the shower window and she gets frightened.

These two pictures is the kitchen, where we are gonna start filming in the beginning of the film.

Hue and saturation

In Martins lesson we have been learning about hue and saturation, and that it changes the colour of your original image.

                 
       This is the original photo of the man before using hue and saturation, so its the original copy

This is the picture after when i used hue and saturation and it changed the colour of the original image. I also like this colour with the image as it makes it look different and unique.

Stanley Kubrick Archive trip

We had a trip last week Friday and, we were travelling to London college of communication its part of the UAL (university of arts London). We got there by train to elephant&castle and we walked to the university which was like 3 minutes. We went to see Stanley Kubrick's archive, on the exhibition there was a table in the middle of the room full of things to do with Stanley Kubrick.There was also a shelf with so many photos and there was a tun of books and DVD's of his films. On the table i remember there was a mould, a jacket that was used in the shining, paper work, a mask and there was typed writing in German and also location pictures.

The most interesting one i liked the most is the photo of when he made London into New York. I thought that was a smart idea as he didn't want to waste time or he was probably on budget to fly to New York so, he just changed some of the buildings and cars to make it look like New York. That was the Panorama of the whole commercial road and the photos were taken with a camera and he used a ladder too. When you take a panorama he said you have to keep it in the same angle and direction to avoid not accurate panorama. After that he perfects the photos then the cuts and sticks them together to make a long panorama. The Panorama is actually 6 metres long in reality, on the table we only saw half of it. The least interesting thing for me was probably the typed writing with the different languages.I didn't find it that interesting because i saw other things that were better than it.

Stanley Kubrick uses both Primary and Secondary research and also Pre-production.He uses Primary research to take pictures of locations so he can decide where he's gonna film.He also takes pictures of props to help him later of when he views the film. In the film "full metal jacket" he took photos of the locations of Vietnam so he knows how he can make London look like Vietnam. He wanted it to be during war in that country,the props were taken so he knows where to continue from so there's no errors. He used Secondary research for his panorama of London into New York. He used photos from a researcher to cut and stick the photos together in order to create the panorama.

A Kubrick research method i would use in my work would be location scouting. I think this method is very important because its giving you so many options of where to shoot your film and you can get an idea of what you want your film to be about or look like. Looking at locations will also define the genre of your film and its like a guide line to shoot your film. Also when you take photos of the props it will help you avoid errors that could be made on continuity.

Exhibition and Evaluation

From this whole experience i have learned so much from these past 5 weeks. I can say that now i understand fully of how media production works and i have built skills and good knowledge through out. Through my own primary research i was looking for different locations to shoot the film. I had to see the appropriate and suitable place for a horror film to be shot. We also showed our film to the class and we saw there reactions. Through secondary research it was not my script to film, it was Jamie's and we were in his group. Also we got reviews form the class from the feedback sheet and that tells us what we did well and how to improve. It will tell us how scary our horror film actually is by looking at the audience reactions and if they looked scared than we have met the horror genre successfully.
The past research has helped me with this whole project, things like urban legends helped me because i got inspired by one of their stories such as 'hairy monster' and it helped us to get an idea of what we want our group film to be about. Also in Martins lesson we made our own horror poster on Photoshop and that helped us because you can make it in your own creative way of how you want the horror film to look. Also with Sally we took different photos around the college give us an idea of possible locations to shoot a horror film.

The first week was kinda challenging as we had to write our own script, and i have never done that before so i had to really engage myself into doing this by thinking of a story that i could come up with. I had done the script and gave it to David as he was gonna give me feedback. He said he liked the idea of my story but i had some errors in the script which i had to fix. We also had to pitch our script which i was kinda nervous about but at the same time it did make me feel more confident. My script was not chosen which i didn't mind because this was my first time pitching and i knew there would be better scripts out there. After that we were put into groups, and who had the best script was the leader/director of the group. I was in Jamie's group which was just me and Maria. I felt alright with the group because we had one experienced student which was Maria who's done this before.Me and Jamie have never done a film before so we were learning during these weeks.

The second week was very busy as we had to as a group decide who's doing what for Pre-production. I had to create a time plan, Maria was creating the storyboard and she used Celtx and Jamie was organising his script to see if maybe he could change somethings.

The third week it was production week and, that's when David introduced us to the video camera, lights, tripods and the boom pole mic.He even showed us how the boom pole mic works and we hear people speaking through headphones. When we were ready to film we borrowed the equipment from the technicians room and we went straight to Jamie's house to start filming. As we took out the equipment's out we noticed that there was no cable for the boom pole mic and that kinda frustrated me because our film will have no sound and i know that 50% of a film is sound. We couldn't do anything so we filmed anyway hoping that the video camera could get the sounds.Other than that we did film really well and we had fun doing this together.

The fourth week was post production which is when we start editing our film.Since we knew our film had no sound we wanted to do voice over for when the actors are speaking. We did one for Aaingel and Maria but then we decided to take of the voice over as we thought it sounded and looked weird in the film. It looked very unnatural so we left it out. It was kinda like a silence film but it did have music and sound effects. We added that to the film, we used the editing software Adobe Premiere which i had no idea on how to use.Maria would do most of the editing at the beginning as she is more experienced then me and Jamie.I saw how she was using it and looking at what she was doing and i learned so much on how to edit using that software. Its actually easy and i think i could actually make my own film and edit it myself. Overtime me and Jamie would take over the editing as we have learned on how to use it. We added special effects like "glass jar opening and closing", "phone put down" etc. I was the one who researched what horror themed music we should use for our film and i found lots on you tube. We all picked and agreed on one so we used that one only. When we finally showed our film to the class we got feedback from the different groups and some of them said it good and others said it was ok, but i could agree as our film didn't really have a story plot to it in the end part, because it looks like it just skipped into another story. But we tried and this is our first film so it wont be perfect but i have learnt a lot and i know what to do next time to improve.

Overall, i can say that this was a stressful, fun working experience that i will never forget. Me and my group have worked really hard and were constantly worried if our film was bad as it had no sound but then we realised its ok as this is our first time and i'm just happy that we at least had something to show to everyone.

Case Study/2 Features+Associated Marketing

CASE STUDY – Short written piece about audiences. How and why do they like horror? Analyse 2 features and associated marketing

In this report I will be analysing 2 horror features focusing on how and why these features attract an audience. The first feature I have chosen to analyse for this report is horror film ‘Scream’ from 1996, directed by Wes Craven.  Scream revolves around a female protagonist named Sidney Prescott, a teenager coping with the mysterious death of her mother while her friends are being stalked by an unknown killer in town.

The sequence in the film I will be analysing is the ‘chase’ scene towards the end of the film. This scene sees Sidney and Billy having just slept together, Sidney cautiously interrogates her boyfriend leading up to a chase between Sidney and the killer. In Scream, the part i'm talking about is set in the bedroom in Sidney's house.The location of the house is set in Calistoga road, Santa rosa, California, USA. The killer wears a mask throughout the whole film until the end we see his face and that is a prop the main prop in the film. For hair and makeup in this scene Sidney is wearing minimal makeup and her clothes are quite casual.This could relate to the audience because most people wear casual clothing and the audience could feel what she's feeling, such as feeling scared.

In this sequence we see a wide shot of the two characters in the bedroom. Sidney has been positioned closest to the camera whereas Billy can be seen in the background out of focus. This gives the suggestion that Sidney is the main focus, Billy asks her “are you okay?” which only emphasises her dominance in the scene. The camera then cuts to a close up shot of Sidney placing the comb down on her side table, beside it the audience can instantly see a red telephone which completely stands out from the other neutral objects surrounding it. This may have been purposely done as a red phone can be suggestive of danger or calling for help.  It may also give the audience an idea of what’s to come. The camera then cuts to a medium close up of Sidney with the background music slowly fading in as Sidney asks Billy a series of questions. In cuts between medium close up shots of Sidney and low angle POV of Billy. Billy at this point is becoming more agitated with her questioning; this is accompanied with violins heard in the background. As the conversation between the two characters becomes more intense the music changes, the violin becomes harsher and piano is now heard throughout.  The camera goes from a medium close up to a close up shot of Billy saying “what do I have to do, to prove to you that I am not a killer”. This shows that he looks guilty and the audience could not be convinced by his innocence. After he says that, the camera cuts to Sidney’s face and you can see her scared reaction when the killer comes in. The camera cuts back to Billy and now the audience can see the villain behind him. As this is happening the music builds up then Billy turns around then the killer kills him. The music at this point gets louder and jumpy like a pounding noise. The camera cuts to Sidney’s face to see her expression and then back to the killer. This can be effective to the audience as they will feel the way Sidney is feeling.

Scream marketing

Scream have Halloween costumes that people could wear. The mask in the film is the most famous prop. People will instantly know it’s from the movie scream.

Scream the chase scene-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMv6sYvRtFk

The Second feature film I have chosen to analyse is Saw from 2004, directed by James wan. Saw revolves around two strangers that have woken up in a room asking themselves on how they got there and why. They soon discover they are pawns in a deadly game perpetrated by a notorious serial killer.

In this sequence we see a shiny necklace floating about in the water. It then cuts to the strangers face as an extreme close up, he gets out of the water and you see the necklace again and it goes down the pipe. This tells the audience that the necklace means something, its valuable in the movie and the director wants you to remember it because it could be important. The stranger falls to the floor and the music gets louder in a scarier tone. This can make the audience feel tension because they are feeling like the stranger and the music really gets your attention because it makes you feel like you’re in the movie. The camera is always on the stranger and it’s in medium shot, they want us to see where he is from the background and that it is dark. He then hears a voice talking to him while he can’t see anything as he says “who’s that, turn on the lights!”. This makes a mystery has to where he is, why and how he got there. The camera cuts into a high angle shot filming the lights turning on drastically. The camera moves into each light that is switched on while it does that it cuts back to the stranger who is blinded by the light. He tries to open his eyes and we can see what he sees which is blurry. This shows the audience how he is feeling and they can reflect on him. The camera then cuts to another stranger who is on the other side of the room. The camera zooms out of him and you can see the expression on his face. This implies that the stranger there before was not alone and that there is somebody else going through the same thing. The first stranger walks towards the other one, he is walking towards the camera and this makes it look like he is walking towards the audience. The camera then moves down to a dead monster on the floor with blood. They did it this way because they knew you weren’t expecting it they want you to be scared. Also the music had a loud bang and a screaming voice which could make the viewer jumpy. A close up shot of the monster on the floor, they want you to see what he looks like in detail, also a close up shot of the recorder and gun in his hand. This tells the audience that the dead person on the floor has probably been in the same situation as the two strangers have.

Saw marketing

Saw has their theme park attractions such as Thorpe Park. That is the most famous and scariest ride in the park. They also have it in Alton towers a different version of it. This is way of advertising a movie since lots of people go to theme parks.

Saw clip-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNSN6QhIWeA

Overall in comparison, they are both pretty similar films because they both have that similar music. When something is building up in a scene that upbeat loud music will come up to get the audience attention and to warn them that there something scary about to pop up. They are both killing horror films which was typical in those days, there were many of close ups of particular objects. Such as the phone in scream there was a cut scene just of the phone. That was telling you that this part is important. In saw it was the necklace that had a close up shot because it wanted to show you and tell the audience something. They both involved blood, they are bloody horror films. In terms of lighting i think saw had better lighting because you can see clearly of the characters when the light is turned on. In scream the lighting looked dimmer as maybe to give it a more scary look. In my opinion i personally like scream film as it has more action and horror at the same time which is interesting.