Group: Questionnaire

This is the questionnaire we will give to our pilot target audience to see what they think:

Group 10 Questionnaire – Inside

1. Rank our film opening on the scale provided. (circle one from each line).

Boring         1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10   Entertaining

Too Short    1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10   Too Long

Humorous   1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10   Serious

Amateur      1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10   Effective

2. How well do you think the soundtrack goes with the opening? (tick one option)

[  ] Very Well

[  ] Well

[  ] Okay

[  ] Not very well

     3. Do you find both characters realistic and convincing?

[  ] YES                         [……………] ONE BUT NOT THE OTHER (which one?) 

[  ] NO

4.      Rank the different aspects of our production in order of how effective each one was (1 being low, 6 being high)

[  ] Location    [  ] Shots / Techniques          [  ] Acting

[  ] Costume   [  ] Soundtrack                       [  ] Other ………….

5. On a scale of 1 – 5 how frightening was the final part of our sequence? (circle one- 1 being not very frightening, 5 being very frightened)

          

1          2          3          4          5

6. In a short sentence what do you think of the antagonist (man in gas mask)?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

     7. Finally, please comment on what you thought of the ending of our opening.

     _________________________________________________________________

     _________________________________________________________________

     _________________________________________________________________

Group: Evaluation Planning

Question 4 & 5
- We will answer these questions on a Prezi Slideshow to present our audience feedback from the questionnaire we handed out at our screening
- We will also access how we managed to attract and address our target audience

Question 7
- We will make a video with shots from our preliminary task and shots from our final piece to show how we have progressed
- We will also add a voiceover to explain how we managed to improve our skills and how we were able to overcome any problems we faced

Group: Lesson 23/03/12

In todays lesson (deadline day) we have added our titles and soundtrack to the opening, thus completing it. We have changed our choice of font, and also changed the layout and nature of the titles. There is now no black background, just simply titles layed over the scenes, including the names of people who were involved in the production. The name of our film has changed from "Lights Out" to "Inside" as the previous title actually had no relation - because the power no longer goes out.

In previous lessons we also slightly changed the plot of the opening, to improve continuity and enigma. We felt that it was essential to make these changes for the success of the opening, despite our concept development not being the same as our finished product. We have encountered issues and alterations that we would expect to see occur in the development and production process of a real horror film, which we feel we have dealt with effectively.

Group: Lesson 20/03/12

In this lesson we have almost finished the opening in terms of order of shots and events. We must now add the soundtrack (which we are looking at changing from our original choice) as well as transitions and effects that must be put over the opening.

Therefore in the lesson we have also been looking for soundtracks, as well as testing titles and effects on the footage.

Group: Evaluation of audience feedback

• Evaluate your progress so far considering your original ideas and how you have developed these:

Overall, we feel that rethinking and changing our original idea was a beneficial decision as now our shots are more definite and varied, due to the use of static shots rather than handicam, keeping the audience more interested. Using static shots rather than handicam was also easier for us because when it comes to editing, we will have more than one shot for each event. We also think the audience will sympathize more with our new idea rather than our original as there is only one protagonist so he is more isolated and vulnerable. We will still be using the same soundtrack and fonts for the titles, and we also kept the costume of casual clothing, the main character as a teenager, the location and finally the antagonist the same, meaning that all of research for our original idea was still valid for our new idea.

• What positive feedback did you get from the sample target audience?

We put together a rough cut of our opening to show to a sample target audience to see what they thought so far of our opening. Our feedback showed that changing our idea from handicam to static shots definitely paid off as they commented on the amount of different camera shots we used. They particularly mentioned our use of a birds eye view above the protagonists head as he goes to unlock his front door. They also mentioned how the continuity of the opening was very good.

• What recommendations did you receive from the feedback?

Our audience thought that we needed to edit the length of our shots as some were too long but some were too short. For example, when Dan is coming up his drive, we have several different shots of him riding his bike where, in the audiences point of view, need to be slightly shorter. On the other hand however, they felt that the extreme close up of the note that his parents left should be a bit longer as not everyone read the note in time.

• What advice are you going to take and what is your strategy for meeting the deadline?

We will take all advice that our sample audience give to us into consideration in order to satisfy the needs of our target market and make our opening as effective as possible, for instance, our first task is to edit the length of the shots we have included so far. We will continue to present our ideas to groups of our sample target audience in order to achieve this.

Group: Evaluation of first shoot

We have had to make some serious alterations with our opening. The handicam idea hardly worked, due to the camera hardly working in the poor light, but also because of little planning of shots. We have re-shaped the opening to it now being about a boy who comes home in the late afternoon, his parents have left a note saying they have gone out. He sits around watching TV and doing the usual things until he starts to hear noises and strange goings on. It will end with the camera zooming down the corridoor to display the man being inside the house, hopefully shocking the audience.

We are keeping the same costume and location. Just changing the storyline and actually using a proper chain of events and proper techniques/shots. For example long shots, tracking shots, close ups, etc (like in our preliminary) and wilderness woods. The titles will be changed to actually being on screen with the scene, but we do not know which font and what colour etc. to use yet. We believe that this way we will be able to complete the opening in time for the deadline next week in good quality, if we work hard enough. 

This has come as a shock to us and we did not forecast this happening at all. Having said this our research and pitch have been really helpful to lead us in the right direction and generate ideas. We will completely re-shoot the entire opening tomorrow (wednesday the 13th).

Group: Title analysis

We took inspiration from amateur film title sequences because they make the events seem factual and realistic; which is what we wish to achieve with our opening.

This use of titles has been recreated from Paranormal activity (Peli, 2009). It makes the footage appear as if it really happened.

Here is another from Amityville Horror (Douglas, 2005) again we like it because of the formal font and simplicity. We wish to use white font on black background in our opening.

This if from The Blair Witch Project (Myrick & Sanchez, 1999) It puts information accross in a factual way, to make the audience believe the events they're were witnessing were true.

There must also be insserting titles such as "starring Dylan Smart" "A Dan Wiles film" etc. Other roles include the producer - a ....... production, brought to you by, cast and so on.

This post is unfinished, it will be updated when Alex has completed some title examples in Premiere.



AH: Opening sequence analysis

28 Weeks Later (Fresnadillo, 07)

Film language:

• The location of this scene is in a typically British rural house (reinforcing the fact it is a British Film). The lighting is minimal (candle lit) and darkness is usually to imply depression in films. The consideration of costume shows them as dirty and un-hygienic, as if they haven’t washed in a while giving the impression they can’t risk and are hiding from something.
• The camera shots within the opening are a mix between static and moving shots. When the boy is banging on the door to get in the camera begins to shake and connotes panic and fear.
•  There isn’t any music until the boy is at the door. When he does start banging, its one noise getting louder and louder until the door is opened and he gets in. The dialogue shows many accents found in Britain, Scottish, northern and southern English. Selective sound is used to highlight the fact they are eating and portraying it as a luxury.
• From the characters dialogue we learn how they have come to terms with the situation around them. You hear aggression form one of the men and weakness in the all the women’s voices, showing that it is a violent and brutal situation. Also from body language, all the characters appear to be exhausted.
• The director emphasises sharp sounds, this creates tension and scares audiences. It is very successful in the opening as it helps set the film up.

Institutional context:

• The most well known actor in this film is Robert Carlyle; he isn’t huge but has appeared in the huge film ‘Trainspotting’. This makes him a star and makes audiences more likely to go and watch it.
• The studio that produced it were Fox Atomic, owned by industrial giants 20^th Century Fox. The company has now shut down.
• On 13 April 2007, 28 days before the release of the film in UK cinemas, a huge biohazard warning sign was projected against the White Cliffs of Dover. The sign contained the international biological hazard symbol, along with the statement that Britain was "contaminated, keep out!” Removable chalk-powder graffiti was sprayed in locations around London and Birmingham featuring the web address 'ragevirus.com'. However, the web address was found to be unregistered and was quickly snapped up. In May 2007, 20th Century Fox posted a free 28 Weeks Later-themed flash game on their international website, foxinternational.com. In the game, the player can play one of the infected in three parts of the city.

28 Days Later (Boyle, 2002)

Film Language:

• The use of clips of past events that have been significantly violent adds to the realism. As the chimpanzee is relieved it is noticeable that it is strapped down and unable to move, this gives an impression of quarantine. This is further reinforced by the location, a scientific testing lab, typically known to be the source of infections in such zombie films.
• Some of the shots show the activists in balaclavas in the perspective of a CCTV camera; this shows a breach in security. This can be referred to the sequence of riots at the beginning, as they are all evidence of rebellion or chaos. The use of tracking shots help show the discovery of the ‘chimps’ and the conditions they have been kept in, the audiences still sympathise with the ‘chimps’ as they appear harmless.
• The music is slow and low pitched whilst the chimps watch the now ‘infected’ women kill the professor, this gives the impression it is only the beginning and that there is an ironic calm within the potential apocalypse.
• Through the characters verbal and non-verbal dialogue we learn the naivety from the public towards the so called ‘rage infection’. Once the women is infected we see a complete change in character, the audience now is in fear of the unknown.
•  The editing within in the clip is typical of a zombie horror. Beginning with a montage edit linking the scenes of chaos together. When the girl gets attacked there is a very fast cutting rate, avoiding the need to film the actual bite of the ‘chimp’. The fast cutting rate is used to help reinforce rear and the potential anarchy.

Institutional context:

• The main character ‘Jim’ is played by star Cillian Murphy, whos has also appeared in the Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. The film for him was the break to Hollywood.
• The film was produced by DNA Films which is a British film production company founded by Duncan Kenworthy and Andrew Macdonald. The company is an independent production company.
• There were no big splashy publicity events. No magazine covers. Instead, the Fox unit worked the Internet, spending $1 million on banner ads on such well-traveled Web sites for movie buffs as AOL and Yahoo! and a six-minute blood-splattered trailer on Apple's QuickTime site. To generate word of mouth, the studio brought the film to the Sundance Film Festival in January and made sure that Internet denizens like aint-it-cool-news.com's Harry Knowles saw it. As hoped, Knowles' site gave the movie plenty of free publicity.

Wolf Creek (McLean, 2005)

Film language:

• The typography is in small white (typewriter) font with a black background, it reads, “The following is based on actual events”. The typography firmly reinforces this as it’s in a report style font, creating the sense it has happened. The location of the Australian outback is perfect as then states that 30’000 people go missing in Australia every year, this inserts fear and anticipation amongst audiences. Later the date 1999 is stated giving audiences temporal cohesion.
• The uses of close-ups in the beginning help audiences create a character exposition and familiarise with the characters. Then the long shot shows a beautiful view of the beach, giving an impression of natural beauty and we begin to question the genre.
• The only use of music is when they are partying on their last night before the trip. Apart from that there is only dialogue anchoring the shots. The dialogue helps build a story around the characters; all the dialogue is typical and doesn’t connote any fear.

Institutional context:

• No star has been used in this film as it is low budget and is very common in big horror films, if huge stars are used in horror films it subtracts fear as people still look at the character how they have in previous films.
• Produced by Dimension Films which is a motion picture unit currently a part of The Weinstein Company. It was formerly used as Bob Weinstein's label within Miramax Films, to produce and release genre films.
• The 'based on a true story' tag is part of the films charming little ad campaign that attempts to portray the film as a new kind of horror film.

Group: Considering first shoot

We have now changed out plans and will not be renting a camcorder. We have decided it is too expensive and difficult to rent a camera and it is not practical considering we may need to re-do some shots if we are not happy with them. This Friday and Saturday (9th and 10th) we will be shooting (mainly on saturday) at Dan's house in the countryside. We are using 7 actors, who must make sure they are wearing the same clothes on both nights. If we use any props on the friday they must be in the same place for saturday, although this is doubtful because we plan to only be shooting outside Friday. The motorbike is serviced and ready to use.

Group: Considering sound

Our opening will have a lot of dialogue. The only possible diegetic sound will be the sound of the motorbike, girls screaming and perhaps music at the party. We are attempting to use the boom mic for some scenes, to capture dialogue more clearly. The only non diegetic sound we intend to use will be the soundtrack, having said this we may add effects in post editing if we feel they improve the sequence. But for the meantime we do not plan to do this.

It may be difficult to record the sound well enough during handicam scenes. It is essential therefore to ensure there is no background noise that will affect the recording. To try and avoid this issue in the static shots we will use the boom mic as much as possible. It may be wise to use a dictaphone to test some dialgoue first before we start shooting. Our soundtrack is Symphony no.3 Passacaglia - Allegro Moderato (link below), it is very evil and dark, we feel it will fit in well with the black title screens coming up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebeiX7HIsw8

Group: Film Pitch

Film Pitch Group 10

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MG: Technical Analysis

Paranormal Activity (Peli, 2009)
Link not found


1. Transitions between shots are as if the handicam has been paused and resumed between the small scenes:

Camera	Duration	Mise-en-Scene
Handicam	Throughout whole opening	Inside a modern house
Pan to left about 90 then back half way	5 seconds	Used to set the piece: begins with a shot of the television and pans round to the stairs and then back halfway and the person with the handicam is walking - very realistic situation.
Mid Establishing shot	3 seconds	Shows a man holding the camera in the mirror - introducing the protagonist - he is wearing a casual t-shirt and has stubble presenting the fact that he is just an average young man.
Low angle shot	2 seconds	Looking up the stairs to the landing, lights are all off upstairs, modern banister.
POV shot	14 seconds	Bleeping noise, his hand reaches out and holds down a button on a phone and says ‘Hey Babe, What’s up?’ and he releases and walks towards a door and goes outside as a white convertible car pulls up into the driveway. Text comes up on screen saying ‘San Diego CA, September 18th, 2006’. The car parks and a girl asks ‘What is that?’ referring to the camera that her boyfriend is filming her with.
Zoom	14 seconds	Zooming in and out on his girlfriend’s face as she gathers her stuff from the seat next to her and sits in the car watching him as she continues to ask him about the camera he has bought. She has long dark hair with sunglasses balanced on her head and is also wearing casual clothing again showing that she is just an ordinary woman.
Long shot	8 seconds	The girlfriend walks into the house and is still asking about the camera as her boyfriend walks towards her telling her to kiss the camera. The light on her face gets brighter as he walks towards her which she then states is from the light that is on the camera.
Close up	9 seconds	She is looking at her boyfriend and not directly into the camera as she asks in a quiet voice how much it cost, connoting that maybe money is an issue with them. He continues to ask her to kiss the camera but she refuses and kisses him instead whilst he turns the camera round to film the kiss.
Mid Close up	5 seconds	The camera has been paused and then resumed again in another part of the house but still with the girl in front of the camera. She is still intrigued by the camera and is looking at it and is trying to look from the other side of it.
High angle shot	5 seconds	The camera tilts down towards the floor as her boyfriend shows her something on the camera.
Canted angle	3 seconds	The camera then tilts on its side slightly, again because he is showing his girlfriend something on the camera.
Low angle shot	7 seconds	The camera then tilts up showing the lights on the ceiling and the stairs and the bannister on their landing again as he talks about how they are going to film ‘the paranormal phenomenon’.
Long shot	6 seconds	Of his girlfriend putting something in her handbag. As she continues to question how much the camera cost, he zooms into a mid close up of her.
Tracking shot	10 seconds	Filming behind her as she walks up the stairs, presumably to her bedroom, laughing at him filming her and asking him if he’ll cook the dinner - average conversation in an ordinary home.
Mid Long shot	7 seconds	The camera is positioned on the kitchen worktop showing the man preparing food. His girlfriend then walks into the shot and pours them each a glass of wine.

2. There is no musical soundtrack - just direct and diagetic sound to make the piece more realistic, for example, the dialogue between the two characters. Selective sound is also used to increase the realism, such as the door opening when the boyfriend goes outside to meet his girlfriend and the engine of the car as it pulls up onto the drive.  

3. The way that this opening is so realistic and looks very spontaneous is very effective as the audience are led to believe that the rest of the film is true. This is the effect we want to achieve with our opening and we will possibly use some of these shots to make our piece look more realistic, for example, the high angle and the canted angle one after the other whilst the man is showing his girlfriend how to use the camera. We could use this when someone picks up the camera at the party and doesn't know how to use it to make the piece look more natural.

Group: Location Reccie

We want our opening to look as realistic as possible and so we did a location reccie of Dan's house. We thought this would be most appropriate due to the fact a lot of the walls are glass and it is positioned in a very isolated location. These aspects are conventional to a horror films and so we feel this will be most effective for our opening.

These pictures show the outside wooded area which we will be using in the opening. It is dark and eerie, poorly kept and there is also a feel of isolation. Again the space is very open and easy to utilise in terms of both acting and filming.

 

• These pictures show inside the house we are using as our set. They have been taken with flash on to make the lighting have a more moody feel about it, as we plan to on the night. There is plenty of space to use. The open plan of the house is a convention of horrors, also. It is difficult to see from the pictures but the house is a bungalow and has many huge glass walls/windows, which we felt would be interesting to film in.
• The lighting is dim and moody and sets a relaxed vibe for the opening. The picture on the bottom left shows the courtyard, another interesting set feature. We are unsure whether to use this or not, the courtyard is boxed in the middle of the house surrounded by glass walls.

Group: Audience Research

From what we have gathered in our audience research (survey) we have come to these conclusions:

• The majority of participants were 16-17 (our age).
• 80% of the participants were male (main horror audience).
• It seems that it is important for our sequence to be set at night (conventional of horrors).
• To a certain extent it matters to not reveal the full identity of the antagonist.
• The most popular choice of disguise was a gas mask.
• The title that was most popular was ‘The Unknown’. However we had not added our new idea of ‘Lights out’ to the survey.
• The audience believe it would be scarier to have a tall, menacing antagonist.
• Also it is recommended that we use a set/location that audiences can relate to.

From this research we can improve the concept behind our opening. We know that it will appeal mainly to males our age. We will definitely be filming at night in our chosen location – an isolated modern house. The antagonist will be wearing a gas mask and will be kept as unrevealed as possible, he must be tall and sinister to give the best effect. Therefore our audience research, although ideally we would have wanted more data, has helped us confirm our ideas.