Feedback - Miss Spencer

First Cut Feedback

There are some fantastic elements to this film, the pace is excellent, giving a feeling of a slow start with a build up towards the end of the opening. There is a variety of camera shots, angles and movement and your narrative is starting to become clearer.

In order to help with progress think about the following:

• Sort out the sound glitches and differences in volume.
• Think about adding some more ambient sound to the opening
• the music makes it feel too much like a trailer - think about losing this entirely and replacing with interesting sound effects
• build up your flashback scene, using an aftereffects zoom into the eye. This will help the narrative flow better. Ensure that this part has a clear colour differentiation so it is clear this is a flashback.

First Cut

With our first cut what we have done is that we have made it so that we have then been able to add effect's to our film so that we can get an idea of the opening scene of the scenario. By when we have done this we have also made sure that we have conventions of horror in the film for example we have sound which add's a dramatic effect which may make the audience tense.

First cut review:

The first thing we had to do with our film is to get all of the clip's sorted we had over 50 clip's of footage of what we had recorded and we needed to reorder them to what was a usable clip and what wasn't a usable clip. Doing this we found out  that alot / majority of of clips wasn't usable however this we useful doing it this method as we then could go out and refilm clips on which we knew we needed, 

Effects:

While editing our film we tried to add a numerous of effect's to then make it more fitting in with the convention of horror by doing this we had know what effect's were good to use and for what scene and we have added a tint to the whole of our film therefore we now meet the convention's of horror in our film. We had done this by adding a tint to our film and then added it to every clip of what we have used so far so we have a similar color effect on every clip so we don't have clip's looking like they was filmed at a different time because of the light in the scene.

Sound:

In our film we have added sound to then remove the audio on which we did have which was poor quality and didn't make any sense in the scene. We have also done in the first cut is that we have added sound affect's of a bird which is normally used to symbolism when something has gone wrong in horror. We have also tried to make our film have an eerie sound affect to our film to make the audience to have a chill to their bones which then add's up tension with the audience when the first cut start's to get to a certain scene.

Editing

Putting a tint on the media for our edit so all of our scene's look the same color so far looks so good however we need to get the color scheme sorted for the whole film. Luckily you can save a preset then we can add it to the whole film.
We are doing this so we can add a tint to our film so when we have produced our film we will of then got the whole color scheme matching instead of the background color and scenery not matching at all.

Also in our film we have also started to add sound to the film which we have found free sound effect's for us to use. Also with this we have also made sure on that the sound is at the correct timing in the film therefore we now have sound matching the opening scene.

 In the screenshot above what we was starting to work on was we was trying to be able to add an effect to our clip's we was doing this to make sure on that all of the clip's looked the same and that they was then able to have the same colour's so it doesn't look as if it was from a different scene or filmed at a different time. We also made it so the Colour Matte slightly changed every few couple of clip's meaning on that we have a different effect on some clip's to make it look like a flash back in the clip's meaning on that the audience can then understand what would happen before the person had died meaning on that it would then make the audience hooked on how did he die?

At this point of the editing what we had done was created our own Colour Matte to put on each of the clip's so that they all looked the same this helped a lot as it then made it so that we could easily look at the footage and watch it continuous and look as if it was filmed all at the same time we no problem's at it all with the colour's / contrast of the scene.

At this point we was trying to make the colour scheme as dark as we could however to make it so that it would of been viewable as it would of helped loads to keep the audience then to be engaged as it would of meant that with the colour scheme it would make the audience be more scared and more drawn in and also it would fit in with the convention of horror more.

 

Representation

Representation is how characters and places are depicted. It is usually something that has already been presented in media. Therefore characters are often represented with stereotypes so that the viewer can have initial expectations of how the character will act. There are seven areas of representation:- age, regional identity, sexuality, gender, physical ability/disability, ethnicity and class and status.

In World War Z representation is happened a lot with when we get to a certain part of the film (Jerusalem Wall) we can see the image of the ill kid which show's to us that most of the people would of thought he would of been attacked as well however because he has a disability it is wrong and this is a crucial point in the film because on how then we understand if you are ill you don't get attacked by the zombies because you are considered healthy.

The Shoot

When we went out filming what we had done is that we had taken pictures of us using a mobile camera to show different camera angles and shot's which we had been taking while filming our footage this helped us to remember on what shots we had done in the film.

In this shot what we was about to film was a hand held close up shot to show him walking in the wood's to the body which is later on in the film because of this it mean's on that we was able to then show what shot's we had taken which worked successfully in our first cut.

In this shot what we was doing is getting a close-up of the killer's face for the audience which is used at the introduction of that first cut however at this point we still don't know if he was the killer meaning on that is he the killer? Or did he just find a body?

Film titles & logo's

In the film Se7en we can see on that the film title show's two sides which might because the two people have their back's to each other it might possibly represent that they are enemies. Also from this we understand with the word's separating them it give's the audience of the title on an idea on what the film is about however this doesn't give us a full idea on what it is about therefore we then know on that the audience may be enticed to watch the film due to what they have seen from the title.
Also from this we get the idea on that the people could also be similar to each other and we get this from this because on how they are back to back and because the of the words "Gluttony","Greed" in the middle it could be a similarity of what both of the people in the film have with each other. However if you was to look at the film title we wouldn't from first impression get on what genre the film is which is a good and a bad thing at the same times as it therefore mean's on that people would then have mixed opinions about the film therefore meaning on that people would then if they wanted to know more about the film research about the film.






We will also be looking at "The Dark Knight's" -2008 film title by this we then know on that the word Knight suggest's action as the definition for knight is ."A knight  is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a monarch or other political leader for service to the Monarch or country, especially in a military capacity."
By when we see the picture we see below we first thing we see is the bat symbol in the background we then know on that this is then linked in with the film as it is used twice as it is seen on the building in flames which suggests on that "The Dark Knight" is marking his symbol which could also mean his territory which then suggests on that he only protect's a certain area on where the crime rate is high. By also seeing this red burning bat symbol in the building it automatically get's the film into the genre of action as then we also see that when we see the dark knight himself that their is pieces of the building falling around him however he isn't getting hit symbolizing  that possibly nothing will bring him down. Also with the colors  of the film title quite vibrant with the red and the dark blue we also see like a flash light from the back of the dark knight showing a white background on the dark knight possibly showing us on that the dark knight is quite a good person which then makes it so that the villains had toke the building down.

Representation in Horror/Thriller including characters in your film

Production Schedule

Production Schedule / Filming Schedule

Production Schedule – (Film Title)

Date	Task	Complete Y/N
W/C: 3/11/14	Complete filming.
W/C: 10/11/14	Editing.
W/C: 17/11/14	Creating graphics & titles.
W/C: 24/11/14	Continue creating graphics & titles.
W/C: 01/12/14	Sourcing sound/music.
W/C: 08/12/14	Blogging all stages of filming. Uploading all elements from Foundation Portfolio onto blog.
W/C: 15/12/14	Film to be handed in to be marked over the Christmas Break.

Recce

Role allocation & casting , filming schedule

Role allocation & Casting

Planning

Roles:

Director                -               Joe Hinton                         

Actor                    -               Conor Hanlon, Jamie Cartwright  

Cameraman        -               Jamie      

Producer             -               Jamie & Joe

Editor                  -               Jamie, Joe & Harry

Researcher         -               Harry

We believe that our friend Jake Taylor will act as the serial killer and our friend Connor Hanlon will take the role of the victim. In terms of our group roles, we believe on that Joe will take the role of director as he is an organised person and would be suitable for the role ensuring on that we will get the camera angles in relation to our storyboard, which he took lead on. The camera man with be Jamie Cartwright with assistance from the director to ensure that the right camera angles is then recorded. Harry has taken a lead role in researching the conventions of horror/ thriller film and came up with the name and a plot twist in the story. All of us will be producers of the film as we have a direct knowledge of what we wish he outcome to be and we can make decisions on whether to reshoot certain shots. In terms of sound, Joe will be selecting music and various sound effects.

The props we will need would be the clues that the killer leaves behind with the murder. This will include the R.I.P. sign.

The location we were thinking initially was Hopwas woods, as the woods are a convention of horror and the trees can be used to build up tension.  We would not need any permission to shoot on this location. 

Storyboard

Script

Widows Creek - Script

It begins with an establishing shot of the woods. The camera then slowly tracks past the trees to see a small figure sitting cross-legged.

There is then an extreme close up of his face, as his eyes are closed. The sound at this point is silent and we slowly start to hear the sounds of the forest (leaves). We also hear sound of a woman shouting, which is his wife. This sound comprises of echoes and is eerie

.

Wife: “Yes! I will” “What are we going to do? We cannot afford this” “This is not working we cannot keep going like this!”

 This sound slowly starts to get louder and louder. Then his eyes open quickly and the sound is loud at this point.

 He gets up and looks very scared and starts walking around the forest. You can see that there is fear in his eyes. There will then be some P.O.V. shots of him walking and he will come across the dead body.

There will be close up of the murder victim and then the camera will then pan up to the tree that has a message on it saying “Rest in Peace”. The camera will then cut back to the murderer with a low angle shot. He starts smiling and walks towards the victim, with his footstep stepping on the camera and the screen will cut to black, to which the titles will appear.

Mind Maps

The pitch.

Kid drinks an energy drink – monster or something and basically where it is made it is next to an experimental company for health problems and they create something called serum 707 and basically the company (same company who produce monster) accidently put serum 707 in the drink and then the kids starts to go insane and start’s to go on a killer rampage.

The opening sequence shows an establishing shot of the woods and the guy is just sitting cross legged just looking forward. Then suddenly another person is walking in the woods and his eyes follow them. He then creeps behind them and then the titles will display.

The unique selling point to our film is perhaps that we delve into the mind of someone who is insane.

The main character would be a young adult, around 25 year old male, who works at an old people’s home. He acts in a very secret way and every month goes out into the woods and the first person he sees he kills, as he sees them as trespassers.

Then one time on when he goes out to the woods he gets caught and followed.

We are thinking that Norman Reedus would be a great actor to play the serial killer, as he has played roles in which he has been secretive, like Daryl Dixon in the Walking Dead.

A film that has inspired me personally is the silence of the lambs, as the opening sequence is also set in the woods and it uses some great camera angles and music along with it. Also, Anthony Hopkins’ performance as Hannibal Lecter is a great showing of a serial killer and has inspired the character we have created in the way he acts.

 As well as a male actor’s we would like to introduce a female character into the film however we was thinking Jennifer Lawrence as from Hunger Games she could show survival skills if she would be deep in the wood’s / forest she could show skills on how to survive.

 Another unique selling point to the film is that we wouldn’t give too much of the storyline away at the first 3 minutes, however we would make it so thing’s wouldn’t be expected which would make the audience surprised and might want to watch more.

Feedback - Miss Spencer

Horror Genre feedback - There is some good detail in this research Jamie. You have thought about the lighting, sound and some examples of the genre. In order to improve I would like to see:

• Discussions of sub-genres
• The history of the genre
• more detail about locations
• images to illustrate your point

Level 2/3 border

Thriller genre feedback -  This is a short piece of research, but as it is not your main genre I think you can leave it. However I would like some images to illustrate your points.

Risk Assessment

Organisation name: Medium Carmine Productions

In the location on which we are filming we have explored the surrounding's area's in the film to check on what might cause problem's with our film therefore to overcome this what we have done is came with the risk assessment below with the location we have used has had the lowest risk assessment and can do the least harm to us if anything was to go wrong.

What are the hazards?	Who might be harmed and how?	What are you already doing?	Do you need to do anything else to manage this risk?	Action by whom?	Action by when?	Done
Slips and trips	Staff and visitors may be injured if they trip over objects or slip on spillages	We can look at the surrounding area we are going to use and remove any sticks or twigs that may be a trip hazard.	Have spatial awareness.	All of the film crew.	20/10/2014
Weather	The weather may be rain on the day of filming, which could cause an issue as the filming equipment could be damaged.	We have looked at the weather forecast to determine the best day of filming.	We can choose to film on a different day	All of the film crew.	20/10/2014
Objects falling from the sky	One of the crew members could be harmed and it may cause head injury.	We are looking at the surroundings and seeing what objects could fall.	We could wear hard hats to reduce the damage they can cause.	All of the film crew. (except actors when on air)	20/10/2014

Horror conventions

Horror:

Our film will be a thriller horror, the conventions we have researched including using a filter to make the scene then to look darker to get an eerie effect to the film. We also have been researching the conventions on using non-diegetic. sound within Horror by this we mean on that there could be something which then put’s the character’s at risk in the opening to our film and by when we mean by this we can include a twig snapping and then the wind picking up at a certain part’s of the film where it would be effective and make the audience drawn into the opening to our film.

The setting in the wood’s for both of the film’s is also a good convention to then have in our film due to on how it then gives the film an isolated theme to the film and makes them think that they are abandoned in the wood’s by themselves however the audience don’t know this.

A film similar to this Cabin in the wood’s where in all one night everything goes wrong and that you can see that the wind picks up when it is found just to be a sacrifice of the people in the film. Unfortunately I couldn't get film clips of this however will try to do.

Another film similar to  this is Silence of the Lamb’s which is also set in a wood’s and uses some great shot’s / camera angles which make the audience then to be seemed isolated and nobody around to help them when everything goes wrong. It also have many conventions in the Film.

Typical theme’s for Horror:

Revenge

Haunting

Demons and Exorcisms

Gore

Serial Killers

Religious belief

Ghosts

Themes notably turn into sub genres within horror films for example.

Gothic Films- This is a type of story that contains elements of Goth and horror for example of films Let me in, The woman in black, The mummy.

Slasher film- This is a type of horror film usually involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a violent overlap with the crime and thriller genre. Examples of films is , The Texas chainsaw massacre , Nightmare on elm street.

Psychological horror – This sub genre relies on characters fears, guilt, and eerie sound effects.

Examples of locations which match into the horror convention are an abandoned house m creepy forest and a warehouse.

The history of horror: Horror is known as an ancient art form. People have tried to terrify each other with tales that trigger the less logical parts of our imaginations for as long as we've told stores. From the ballads of the ancient world to modern urban myths, audiences willingly offer themselves up to sadistic storytellers to be scared witless, and they are happy to pay for the privilege.

In today's society people like to scare each other by film's and using mythical creatures or other thing's such as Ghosts , vampires , werewolves or other mythical creatures which then could mean on that people are then are able to have the idea of that it is true that the horror film is real because on how it is included in an everyday scenario however in the past people used to scare each other by telling's myth's / stories on that someone or something was going to kidnap someone or their would be a mass killings.

Thriller Genre convetions:

Thriller Genre Conventions:

A generic thriller film story plot often has a protagonist who is somewhat heroic, or if he's not heroic then he is there to keep the plot going but will usually do good. The antagonist's identity is usually hidden and will uncover as the film goes on. He usually has something to do with the protagonist and his life story. However, this is only an example of generic thriller films, sometimes they are a lot more complex and have much more complicated stories.

Other classic thriller film characters are ones like psychotic killer, spies, assassins, detectives and a lot more. These character are in the film to build intensity for the audience, it's supposed to make it feel like it could happen to the audience. A thriller film's goal is to make the audience feel anticipation and uncertainty whilst at the same time excitement. 

Some of the main themes of a thriller are things like terrorism, political conspiracies or a chase and suspense.  

Thriller films add non diegetic music in the background to build up the situation and add intensity. The music will often get louder and faster in situations that's meant to make the audience feel like thy're not going to get out of the dilemma they're in. Some films get their own soundtrack made for them which helps make the film it's own.

Feedback - Miss Spencer

You have completed a good variety of film analysis Jamie, although I now need to see a Rom Com analysis.
Your work does have some detail, but I would like you to revisit the DISTINCT approach we discussed when looking at the conventions of horror. If you go through and apply this throughout you will have more detail to your work.
You MUST also embed the film opening and a variety of screen shots throughout your work. This would lift your work out of the level 2 it is currently sitting in.

• Your images need to be JPEG's - at the moment they are not showing up. Talk to me about how you can fix this.

Task 2.1. World War Z

World War Z opening Scene.

At the start of World War Z we start with a high angle view looking down at the car’s which are on the road by this we know that they are stuck in a traffic jam as none of the cars are moving which also tells us that this may have been done for a reason.

After that we get questions of the mother to the child which is done non-diegetic this is because by when the first speech we see “does it life in the jungle” this can be ironic to later on in the film because on how we then see on that there is a zombie’s in the film which we know that it could be ironic to this. Also when this is happening we see the mother happy when she says it then we go onto the child which we get a close up of her to see the facial expressions of her which is possibly to show on how scared she is and maybe that she possibly knows something on what the other’s don’t know.

While this is all going on we can hear on that there is a non-diegetic  sound of a helicopter going on which you can hear as if there are multiple which then immediately signal’s danger in the film and we know this because on how we get a medium shot of inside of the car which then we can see all the family and how confused they are because on how many helicopters they are which we can tell that they might already assume that they are in danger. 

After this we then start to here a non-diegetic sound of a siren happening and at this point we get the character’s point of sight by this we see what the character is seeing and in this case scenario we see on that we see the taxi pulling out however we can hear the siren’s going at the same time.

Also at this point we can see on that people seem to be in a hurry even though it is blocked which could represent on how much people are in danger to come however just don’t realise it.

After this we can see
on that a close up of the man in the car who has not yet been identified however we have a close-up shot of him which he looks like he is worrying and by this in the background we can almost see the shadow of a helmet which I have circled which show’s that people are in a rush and something bad is going to happen.

After this when see the window-mirror of the car which has a mirror inside of it however by this what we see is that there is something in the reflection however at this point we don’t know what the it is however we assume something is going to happen to the window-mirror which then gets smashed up and we get a close up of that.

We then get the same picture as the start with the traffic jam however this time we see on that people are starting to manic and all walk one way this is a bird’s eye shot and is used to show the surroundings of the area of which they are in.

After this we then see the man in the car get out and by this we get a long shot of him coming out of the car we then see on that he is then confused on what is happening and that he is possibly starting to panic about the situation of what is happening because it isn’t an everyday thing on which this then happens. Meanwhile while this is all happening we can hear that there is more and more siren’s and helicopter’s going on which is non-diagetic sound because we cannot hear it.

After this when he walk’s about and see’s nothing wrong we then see and hear an explosion happen which we then know on that there is danger and we see this by the long distance shot of the explosion happening which we know that something is happening.  At this point we can also see on what is happening around and we can see on that the sky is going dark which is normally used by director’s to show something bad is going to happen and maybe to represent that a evil horde is coming.

By this time we then see on that people start to panic and we can start to hear people scream and the camera pan’s to the left to see the people running on which we can see their facial expressions on their face and which we can also see that they are running from the danger.

This could of also be done by the director to show the facial expressions on the actor’s and on how people want to just do anything they can to stay alive by just running.

We then get another police officer telling them to stay in their car which we then know that something maybe possibly coming towards them however at this point we get a over the shoulder shot and by this we can see on that the expression of the police officer and how scared he is however we also know at this point on the view on what they are feeling in the car as if we are in the car with them and feel the tension and danger on what is about to happen.  While this is also happening we also hear on that there is a truck moving pretty fast and also in the direction on what they are moving which we then know by the next scene when we get a close up of the man then flying through the air when getting hit by the truck.

We then get the closeup of the truck while is pans to show on a path on which they can follow with the truck however we also get a glimpse of a shadow on the truck which look’s  as if it is a person.

Later on in the film we then get a backwards track by this we know that they are moving pretty quick and that they are also getting followed also by this we can then see the people who are chasing them which we can see that they are being chased by other humans however we don’t know what they are.