Final cut of film
Preliminary Task
Animatic
Wilderness Woods
Location Reccie
Pitch
Audience research and feedback:
1.Concept to green light
2.Rough cut
3.Final Cut
Monday, 30 April 2012
Tuesday, 24 April 2012
AH: Question 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of making your film opening?
- This is the first time I have ever used a blog to submit work. I have previously always used text books and a folder to keep track of my work, using the blog is a modern and unique way to portray my learning in a scheduled process. As a group we were set individual tasks in which we all had to carry out and we were also set group tasks to carry out as a group.
- Dividing the work between us was never a problem as we utilised our individual skills to tackle tasks before us. For example; Dan was keener on doing the analysis tasks, as he was very good at this. Molly preferred doing the frequent uploads of explaining what we were doing each lesson and our plan for weeks to come. Finally I found the technical work and multimedia work more interesting; I also carried out the general up keep of the blog. For example making sure the same font is maintained throughout the blog and there were no blocks of boring text.
- I believe the blog allowed us, as a group, to work more closely and collaboratively towards one objective, a high mark.
- It was also a tool for communication between us; this was present on each of our individual tasks where we were urged to comment on the posts giving constructive criticism. From this we updated our work with higher levels of detail and more media terms.
- Before we had begun filming we came to the conclusion our main aim was to achieve a high level of screen quality throughout our final opening. So when filming started we ensured we had all the appropriate equipment to achieve a good visual quality. For example we made absolutely sure the tripod was at the exact height and angle to capture the shot we wanted. We also used equipment such as the dolly, which enabled us to create moving shots that weren’t shaky, without the use of any tracks.
After filming our production we began to edit it on the editing software provided by the school, Premiere. Before I started media I had never used premiere but I quickly got to grips with it due to it being such a straightforward programme to use. However the effects and transitions you could do were great in helping us to portray the exact storyline we had proposed. The editing stage of our sequence was the most vital and by far the most time consuming.- Once we had completed the editing of the film opening we exported it and uploaded it up to YouTube. From there we embedded it onto our blog, thus allowing anyone following our blog or YouTube channel to view our piece.
AH: Question 3
- The overall budget for our film if we were to fully produce it would be a relatively low £50’000. This figure has been made by estimating tax bills, location permits and all the other costs involved in the production of a film. One way we planned on reducing costs would be by employing amateur actors who would be willing to be paid very little in order for them to get their names out there, also the film on their CV.
- The cost of make-up and costume would be minimal as we wouldn’t be employing make-up artists and costume designers. The audience we will be targeting our film could vary, for instance if our film ends up being as good as we believe it could be we may get high levels of investment. This would allow us to do much more with our film in terms of production then will before have not been possible (due to a small budget). However this is very unlikely as it is our debut production.
- The equipment would be the most expensive part of our production and take up the majority of our provisional budget. As we firmly believe the actual screen quality of the film will be the unique selling point (U.S.P) of our production.
- The cinemas we plan to release ‘Inside’ in would be predominantly ‘art-house cinemas’ and cinemas specialised in playing amateur productions.
The two companies we would ideally like to work in coalition with are; Dogwoof Distribution Company who are based in the UK London Europe in the hope of being accepted and selling the rights to distribute our film.
AH: Question 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
- In our opening we only have two characters; a white teenage boy and a person in a gas mask. We do not include a female nor do we include any ‘adults’. The teenage boy is represented as being your typical teenage boy and doesn’t have any outstanding characteristics, therefore keeps the audiences attention on the story line and not him.
I don’t feel as if we are depicting teenage boys or teenage people positively or negatively. Although many people stereotype teenage kids to having parties and trashing houses when there parents are out, our character doesn’t do this. He is mature and simply goes about his evening the same, waiting for his parents to return. So you could say we represent them as ‘positive’, however through the opening there are examples of how the antagonist is watching him and yet the he doesn’t have a clue, suggesting he is vulnerable and weak. - The antagonist represents no culture, ethnicity or gender as its identity is never revealed. The sense of not knowing who the antagonist is leaves the audience guessing and imagining the appearance of it. The use of an anonymous antagonist is also included in Super 8 (Abrams, 11) the film tells the story of a group of young teenagers who are filming their own Super 8 movie in a small town in 1979 when a train derails, releasing a dangerous presence into their town.
Monday, 23 April 2012
MG: Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Once a film is ready the production company need to secure a distribution agreement offering a cut of the box office/DVD sales – it will be then up to the distributors to invest in designing the marketing (posters, trailers), print copies of the film and distribute to cinemas. They must clearly recognise the target audience and make a decision on how much to invest in promoting it, whether to go nationwide to all the big multiplexes or to target a niche “art house cinema” audience.
We would like a British independent distribution company to distribute our film, as they will deal with low-budget films, so we chose Dogwoof Pictures. This suits our budget of £50,000 and they will distribute our film to independent cinemas, such as Curzon, and to local theatres to be screened, for example, Trinity and The Assembly Hall, both in the centre of Tunbridge Wells. However, to appeal to a more mainstream audience, we would launch a viral marketing campaign online, for example, creating social networking pages such as Facebook and Twitter and also continue with showing our opening preview on Youtube to create buzz among our target market and then we would distribute it online.
MG: Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of making your film opening?
We used ICT continuously throughout our project and in order to work successfully as a team, we used a blog to collaboratively present our ideas and concepts of our project in the planning process. We uploaded research of other horror films which we could draw inspiration from and our progress throughout the project. We posted our preliminary task video and also a collaboration of our practice shots from Wilderness Wood, which were both uploaded from Youtube to present this progress. - I feel that the way in which both of these were on Youtube was beneficial for us as we were able to send the links to others in order to get some feedback, therefore potentially improving our final piece; as well as using an online survey, ‘surveymonkey’. We also used ‘slideshare’ to upload our pitch onto the blog to present our ideas and intentions.
Originally we filmed our whole piece using handicam with a few static shots on tripods to divide it up a bit. However, we found that when it came to watching our footage back, the handicam was too jolty and was often filming the character's feet rather than their faces and therefore not portraying the story very well. - We then re-filmed the whole opening with a slightly different concept and all in static shots. We found this much easier, and we felt that we could achieve much better continuity this way. We also used the ‘Dolly’ this time which made some shots look really professional.
- The lighting that we had in our location was not particularly ideal all of the time. For instance, outside in daylight, we had very high quality footage, however, as we went inside and used artificial light, it didn’t work quite as well and almost looked amateur. Despite this, we wanted our opening to look as realistic as possible so this lighting almost contributed to this aspect.
When we got all our shots and it was time for editing, we used a programme called Adobe Premiere Elements 9.0. Firstly, we watched back all our shots and then put them together in an order which we all felt worked best. We then cut each shot to the appropriate length and added any titles or transitions which we wanted to include. - We used the transition of ‘fade to black’ a few times throughout the montage as this showed the realistic time change throughout the evening. We also made our titles move either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally in our piece so they would become part of the content.
DW: Evaluation Part 6
- During this project was the first time I’d ever used a blog. In order to produce the best output as a group we decided that we should split up work into even sections, we also agreed that it would be beneficial to do the tasks that we were best at, i.e. Alex favoured digital and imagery tasks, Molly preferred writing up on our progress etc. and I preferred to do analysis tasks. Doing work this way meant that we not only completed the work on time, but also to the best of the group’s ability.
When filming all of our work we made sure to use the tripod and steadying equipment as much as possible – to achieve the clearest and most stable shot possible. We liked testing as many different shots and angles as possible and all agreed that “the more footage we get the better”. We aimed to use lighting to our advantage in as many shots as possible as we felt lighting really helps create mood and atmosphere on camera. We used Premiere Elements 9.0 to edit our footage. During editing of our footage we tried to only use subtle and simple effects features, we felt that over-doing it on the effects can often make sequences suddenly become amateur and perhaps poor, which we decided would be even more so with our limited knowledge of special effects. Having said this we liked to use changes in contrast, transitions and also key framing when possible to help improve our footage.
Any problems encountered whilst shooting our work we tried to overcome as quickly and as easily as possible, due to the little time we had to shoot most of our work. For example – if we were filming a tracking scene and felt that the camera tracking was unsteady and jolty then we would use a dolly or tripod to try and improve on this, if we wanted to use a high angle shot in a sequence then we would find a location where we could easily and safely position ourselves high up enough to capture the footage we wanted. On another occasion we had problems illuminating locations or objects in the dark and therefore brought suitable lighting with us to the shoot. Problems such as these were often encountered – like in most production processes; we felt that you just have to combat them as quickly and easily as possible, preferably without affecting the end result.- When editing our piece we first compiled a sequence of every shot we had captured in the correct order of events. We then began to cut out parts that were irrelevant, too long, or had background noise in etc. This then meant that we were left with sequences in the correct order, with a decent amount of different shots that we could play around with e.g. putting effects and transitions on them, switching them around, adding sound effects and so on. We liked transitions where it would dip to black or white, we believed that these look professional and not too “in your face” but for many of the scenes we just used simple cutting techniques. For our titles we tried out different fonts and colours before we decided on a certain one, we also experimented with transitions and effects on the actual titles. (image below shows an example of effects and contrast changes in premiere elements).
- For me I felt that choosing soundtracks was the hardest part of the editing process, especially for our final piece. I feel this way because to give the optimum effect of a sequence – the music has to fit the series of events perfectly, tension must build with music as well as on screen, the same for emotion – it must be conveyed by the activity in the scene but also by the music accompanying it. This was particularly hard for us because we could not create our own soundtrack to fit our sequences due to little knowledge of how to go about doing so, not being helped by lack of time.
- Once we were happy with how it looked we would then watch it over and over, showing it to others too so that we could see what we should cut or add to finally finish it off. We feel that editing it this way allows optimum viewing of each and every scene, in a mixture of different formats before choosing how each part looked best.
Once our piece was completed we rendered and exported it onto the D-Drive of the computer, where it could then be put on memory stick, burned onto a disk or even put on the internet for example using YouTube to upload it.- In my opinion, our production process is extremely similar to that of a real film in that – you learn from your mistakes. There are some things that just don’t go the way you planned and often when you are putting everything together; the actors, the location, maise-en-scene and so on it can be very difficult to obtain the effect you were hoping for. You learn from this and therefore can help yourself combat, or work around it in the future. This process has also showed me that producing a film can be exciting and thrilling, you can put your ideas and concepts to full effect, you can then test them, alter them and develop them to produce an end result. On a real scale film production there would also be many more people involved, each department would be catered for (depending on size/budget of the film) for example a group of people would be working on sound and music, another on effects and editing, another on the actual shooting, actors… The list goes on; we had to do each of these roles ourselves at one point or another during the project. Although obviously the timescale and money involved is nothing like that of a real film production, the process does allow you to learn in a reasonable amount of depth around many parts of the real production process – from the green light to the final cut.
DW: Evaluation Part 3
After a film is made, the production company need to secure a distribution deal. This will involve offering a cut of the box office/DVD sales to the distributor. It will then be up to the distributors to invest in designing the marketing campaign (posters, trailers, synergistic promotional activity etc.) both the logistics of distribution and the P&A for the film. They must also print copies of the film and distribute these to cinemas. The producer and distributor will need to clearly identify the target audience and make a decision on how much to invest in promoting it. Further decisions must also be made such as whether to go nationwide to all the big multiplexes for example Odeon Cinema in the UK, or to target a niche “art house cinema” audience that would be more focussed in independent cinemas.
For our film we believe Dogwoof Pictures would be a suitable distribution company, they specialise in low budget, independent British films. In terms of release we would like to release the film using a blanket release across as much of the UK as possible, screening in independent and lower cost cinemas for example Curzon or even local theatres like the Assembly halls in Tunbridge Wells. We feel this type of release and market strategy would suit our low budget of £50,000. We would also need to consider the marketing and promotional strategy; paying for posters, trailers, logistics of the film and so on. Due to our low budget production these components of the campaign would have to be as reasonably priced as possible. Although our film is targeted more towards a mainstream audience, due to lack of funding it will have to be screened in venues which specialise more in art house, specialist films. This could be interesting because it may mean our film is viewed by a more niche and perhaps critical audience, as well as the target audience of males aged between 15 and 24.
DW: Evaluation Part 2
The only exposed character in our opening is a white British male. In my opinion he is represented neither positively nor negatively, he does not do anything out of the ordinary for a teenage boy – we were trying to make his activity as normal and familiar as possible, tying in with gender stereotypes/roles which conform with social norms. We did this because we wanted the audience to familiarise and sympathise with the character as much as possible. Because there is only one real person in our opening it means that many social groups are completely left out, however this does not mean they cannot position themselves with the boy. In the modern, cosmopolitan society that we live in it is perfectly common for people of all ages and races to relate to characters in films regardless of their social group or ethnicity (so long as they do not do anything controversial within the film).
Relatively innocent and usual teenage behaviour e.g. phone call helps give the character a positive construction to the audience as his behaviour is perfectly normal. His body language isn’t out of the ordinary and shows little fear, this is often looked upon as positive in horror films. Camera angles and shots involving the boy are plain and simple, perhaps connoting the same applies for him. Shots involving the intruder are slow and involve movement of the camera; this could be seen to be reinforcing his intrusive role. His costume and physical positioning within the scenes (e.g. on the roof) add to this and confirm to the audience that he is an antagonist. This man could belong to any ethnicity or background for all the audience know as he is behind a mask.
There is no conflict within our opening. In many horrors the opening involves conflict of some kind between protagonist(s) and antagonist(s). The “home alone murder” type genre is quite common in the horror film industry. In most of these sub-genre films, the protagonist is female, aged around 20, attractive, American etc. (for example Scream Craven 1996). However our opening involves a young male, who seems to show no genuine concern for the few events that occur, this could be perceived as challenging the ideological discourse behind this sub-genre. It shows audiences that males as well as females, can be victimised and alienated within a horror film.
Link to the scream opening: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a_1T4tBWoE
DW: Evaluation Part 1
- The film opening is about a teenage boy who comes home late one afternoon to find his parents have gone out. He goes about his usual activities until realising he is not alone and is being observed by a masked intruder, which the audience also come to realise. The opening ends with a final sudden shot exposing the masked man.
My film opening is somewhat conventional of a real horror film. It uses a tense and ambient soundtrack to give a sense of mystery and uneasiness, common in the horror genre. The use of diagetic sound such as the bike passing over gravel, the TV with no signal etc. is clear and adds verisimilitude. This is added to by the non-diagteic sound of the intruder breathing – you would not expect to hear this sound and therefore helps frighten the audience and add to enigma. This type of both diagetic and non diagetic sound is often heard in horror movies for example The Strangers (Bertino 2008) which uses diagetic sound heavily in the opening sequence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWp14gtZ-u0 The strangers opening
- The plot is also conventional; it uses isolation of a young boy as well as a sinister masked attacker, accompanied with the eerie music and slow paced transition editing, this concept is very similar to When A Stranger Calls (West 2006) however this could be seen as challenging the codes and conventions of a horror as the lone protagonist is male.
- The font used for the titles is old and rustic, juxtaposing the somewhat modern feel of the opening, this may confuse audience slightly. The editing pace builds as the opening continues, the transitions start off slow and calm, but towards the end the cutting rate becomes faster – to display shock and perhaps fright, common in opening sequences of horror movies for example Dawn Of The Dead (Snyder 2004). The opening uses a mix of continuity editing and montage edits to convey a relaxed and unaware mind state of the boy, and also to convey passing of time.
Location and mise-en-scene of a large, relatively modern house allows the audience to relate to the character as he is in familiar surroundings – audience positioning. Costume and props are quite irrelevant in this opening however we feel the phone helps construct enigma. The fact that we see very little of the intruder also creates enigma (see Ils/Them Moreau 2006) the audience are not sure what will happen to the boy or why the masked man is there etc. which, in a real film you would find out after the opening.
The opening includes a wide variety of camera techniques and angles, some of which are iconic of horror films for example the POV and handicam shots used as the vision of the antagonist. This can also be seen in many horror movies such as Halloween (Carpenter 1978). We used this technique to show the audience that the protagonist is not alone hence conforming to traditional horror movies. However we also used some shots that perhaps aren't so common in horrors, for example a birds eye view shot, we did this to make the opening slightly different and unique.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxRGw0l-b18 Halloween 1978 opening
Wednesday, 18 April 2012
AH: Question 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
- The opening sequence we have completed is titled ‘Inside’, it is based on a teenage boy who comes home to find the house empty and a note from his parents saying they are out for the evening. As he is settling down for the night the audience realise he is not alone. Later the boy gets suspicious of something on the other side of the house, as he investigates his room he realises he isn’t alone, with the TV on and window wide open he goes to call for help. The phone isn’t working. The sequence ends with a sudden shot of the antagonist in the house.
Throughout the opening there are examples of enigma both conventional to horror and unconventional. The first is when the boy enters the house as there is a point of view – long shot of what seems to be someone watching him enter the house. This is conventional of horror openings as it injects initial fear and suspense; these types of shots set the foundations for the rest of the film. 
Another example of enigma within our opening is when the boy is seen within the house (on the phone) in another point of view shot. But now the shot is accompanied by the antagonist breathing, this shot has now built upon the initial POV, creating a theme. Following straight from this shot the audience are introduced to the antagonist in a mid-shot then panning downwards. This shot allows the audience to create a character exposition, which they have already done with the teenage boy. - Finally the last example of enigma is near the end when the boy comes to investigate the suspicious noises to find his TV and window wide open. This is very conventional of horror openings, an example of this is in the opening of ‘The Ring’ (Verbinski,) when the women comes into the living room to find the TV on.
- As for our font and title screens we did a lot of research into this as we felt it really was a fundamental part of our opening. The results of the research were that we going to break the sequence up by black background titles, this was to help build tension.
The font we originally went for was called ‘X-files’. This ended up not working as we just feel as if it conveyed the message we were hoping too. Finally we ended up putting our titles on top of three shots (no black background). The reason for this was not only because our sequence was a bit too long, but also that we felt the overlaid titles help reinforce the plot we had created. 
The final title is at the very end of our sequence, however this final title (title of our film ‘Inside’) did have a black background and wasn’t overlaid upon shots. We did this because we felt the actual title of the film is a huge factor in creating a representation to later be upheld in the film.- Continuity editing is a huge factor in determining whether the piece will look amateur or not. In our sequence we display continuity editing mostly in the front part of the sequence. This is when the boy is arriving, on bike, to his house. The audience see a range of different shots in a short space of time, all portraying the same thing (him riding the bike up to the house).
Also the mise-en-scene of the production is very conventional of horrors, the antagonist is in a gas mask and his identity isn’t revealed (further example of enigma). An example of another horror where the antagonist is in a mask is in all of the 'Scream’s. In this horror the antagonist has a mask, which the film made from scratch and looks like a ghost screaming. - Following on from mise-en-scene the props we used were used to full effect I believe. For example the gas mask was crucial in injecting fear and suspense into the audience. Also the bike played a big role in introducing the teenage boy and setting the scene.
- The setting of our sequence was in a small village called Blackham, the house is all one level and has windows that cover the whole wall in the majority of the house. This desolate and remote location was perfect and is a strong convention of horrors. This house and location is much like that in the film ‘When a stranger calls’ (West, 06).
Referring back to mise-en-scene, the costumes included in our opening are the teenage boys outfit and the antagonists. The teenage boys clothes were that of a typical teenage boy and conventional of horrors, this is because the costume on the victim shouldn’t take audiences attention away from the film.
Whereas the antagonists costume was thought out a lot more, we had to get a completely black outfit and a gas mask. The whole point of the antagonists costume is to inject fear and build tension.- The first 30 seconds when the boy is cycling up to house is a great example of diagetic sound and has no soundtrack in the background, so the diagetic sound adds to the realism of the opening. Further examples where diagetic sound is present is when the boy turns the kettle on, the sound is loud and is the first of all the shots when the boy has realised he’s home alone. A great inspiration in the use of diagetic sound for us was 'Harry Brown' (Barber, 09), the beginning of the film has huge amounts of diagetiv sound.
- The soundtrack we used suits our opening and was imperative to get right as all horror films have brilliant soundtracks to reinforce the storyline. The soundtrack we picked was very ambient, which is conventional of horrors. Our soundtrack is a lot like that included in ‘
Shutter Island
Thursday, 12 April 2012
MG: Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In our piece our two characters are both male. Our protagonist is a white, teenage boy and is portrayed positively as he just seems like an ordinary boy, getting on with his day-to-day activities. He represents traditional male roles by having the courage to look round his house when he hears strange, suspicious noises. - However, he could be seen as challenging social norms in the way that he is seen as very vulnerable, alone and almost weak as he is completely powerless in this isolated house whilst being watched by a man in a gasmask.
- This is emphasised with mise-en-scene: the way he comes into his room and the TV has lost signal, his window is open and the phone line has been cut dead. It is also shown with our end shot which is a tracking shot down the corridor which then turns a corner and sees the man with a gas mask in the house.
- This helplessness is similar to that in Paranormal Activity 2 (Williams, 2010) where the kitchen cabinets and cupboards all suddenly open simultaneously, on their own, making a huge clattering noise whilst the protagonist is sitting eating her breakfast. In our opening, this is also highlighted with the eerie soundtrack we have included, suggesting something bad is going to happen.
On the other hand, our antagonist is an older man, but age, race and social status could be interpreted as anything the audience wants them to be as he is covered with a mask. He is portrayed negatively as he is disguised with a gasmask making him seem more brutal and threatening. - The way he is a tall, male antagonist all dressed in black follows traditional conventions in horror films as male enemies always seem more aggressive and therefore more frightening than female enemies. For example, in Amityville Horror (Douglas, 2005), the antagonist in the opening is a male, here his face is shown but is partly covered with a beard and his eyes are almost demoniac making him very unapproachable and intimidating. We made our antagonist seem as threatening as possible by making him stand very still in each shot that he was in, making him seem committed and focused on watching the teenage boy. We also increased this by included heavy breathing over each of his POV shots.
- Our film opening reinforces traditional ideologies of terrifying, disguised, male antagonists. This is because each film which also includes this ideology, is very successful at alarming the audience due to the fact that they are unrecognisable, such as Scream 4 (Craven, 2011).
- It also reinforces the brave, male protagonist ideology in some ways, for example, trying to get to the bottom of the situation. However, we also wanted to show that boys can be seen as helpless and vulnerable as well as the traditional female ‘damsel in distress’ ideology. We did this by making our teenage boy protagonist frantic and worried at the same time as having quite a bit of courage.
MG: Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
We have incorporated certain conventional horror film aspects into our film opening. For example, the way that the protagonist was alone and isolated in our film opening, making it more scary, just like in When A Stranger Calls (West, 2006) where the babysitter is on her own throughout the suspicious noises and movements she was experiencing. - Our location was also similar to this film as it is a very isolated house in a field, emphasising how powerless the protagonist is, increasing the enigma.
- The way our protagonist was an ordinary teenager is a conventional horror technique as teenagers are seen as more vulnerable and helpless than adults. However, in horror films such as, Final Destination (Wong, 2000), the teenage protagonist is usually a girl as they are seen as more defenceless than boys. However, we decided to go against this convention as the audience would be less sympathetic towards a boy and therefore not expect what happens later in the film.
- Another conventional aspect we included was the antagonist wearing a gas-mask, disguising him so he would be seen as inhumane and unidentifiable. This is an iconic technique used in horror films such as, The Strangers (Bertino, 2008) and Scream (Craven, 1996) and we wanted to achieve a similar iconic result.
- We continued with antagonist conventions by including Point Of View shots and also less character exposition, which are also shown in these two horror films. This created enigma throughout our opening.
- Another way that we created enigma in the piece was by having a montage of short shots of our protagonist doing day-to-day activities in his house whilst experiencing strange happenings simultaneously. This was to show how time had passed throughout the evening. We took inspiration from Paranormal Activity (Peli, 2009), as they have been frequently used here to look like the handicam has been paused and then resumed again in another circumstance to look realistic. We wanted to achieve the same realistic approach but without using a handicam so we decided to use montage editing.
- We researched titles and we especially liked the way in the opening of Panic Room (Fincher, 2002) the names of people involved were on screen as it set the scene. We also liked the way that they went against usual conventions and didn’t include any titles such as ‘Starring’ or ‘Directed by’ as we felt this didn’t fit in with the simple, realism of our overall opening. This is unconventional of horror films but we felt that it fitted better with our style.
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