Evaluation Part 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our opening sequence we wanted to make it clear what part each of the characters played so that the audience will immediately know what genre we have chosen for out open sequence. We based our idea of the villian on the villan of Scream. We based it on there as the opening sequences are similar, for example they both get in contact with the victim first by phone. Due to our knowledge in media films, we have watched alot of horror films so we can gain an overall stereotypical view of a villian. The main conventions we have found of a villian is that they wear dark clothes, and could have a mask so this gives them a hidden identity. Also, they usually have a weapon ready to show their dangerous and again reinforce that they are a villian. 


We compared the similarities and differences between our 'Over Time' villian and the 'Scream' villian. The similarities between these two characters, is that they both have a hidden identity this is so that they create a negative affect on the atmosphere and that they wont be easily seen, both the characters are wearing black. Another similarity is that they both target a vulnerable woman, this is maybe because they may feel like they have authority over the woman. Our third similarity is that they both spy on the character beforehand, in our opening sequence we do not see that our character is spying however we are given an indication that they are as the phone call beforehand reveals that the villian was ringing her and then hanging up making sure she was alone, in Scream we can see that the villian spies on his victim beforehand as he also rings her and talks to her and then also we can tell by the use of over the shoulder and point of view shots he has of the young victim. Our last similarity between these two villians is that they both target in an isolated setting, this is very stereotypical as no villian would target there victim in a crowded area unless they wanted to get caught! Our villian captures the victim in an empty eerie school where she is working overtime, and in Scream the villian targets their victim while she is alone in her house watching a film. 


However, there are also some key differences between these villians, for example our villian does not wear a mask, we chose for the villian not to wear a mask as we didn't want the character to come across too stereotypical, we just wanted to keep it realistic with just a little bit of hidden identity to create a sense of mystery, however, in Scream their villian is wearing a mask, this may relate to their genre more as the genre of Scream is a horror, whereas we wanted to have our genre as a psychological thriller. Another difference between these two villians is that in our opening sequence our villian is shown to have no weapons, we decided against this for the same reason as before with the masks as we wanted to keep a sense of mystery with the villian character and keep the audience guessing with what could happen to the victim after the opening sequence and how the villian tries to attempt to create danger for our victim, however within Scream they use a weapon which helps us follow the narrative as we also know what is going to happen and the villians intentions. Our last difference is that in our sequence our villian doesn't talk, we wanted to keep our opening sequence mysterious but with a sense of vulnerability, we wanted to have the non diegetic music playing as if you have a lot of talking then it could take away from the sense of fear, as the audience will find out too much. However, in Scream, we hear the villian talking to the victim on the phone, this gives us an idea that even though we havent seen the villian that someone is watching the victim, however it also starts to scare the victim even though nothing has happened yet so it feels her with vulnerability and dread. 

Second evaluation task -Homestudy

Evaluation activity two-

How does our Media product represent particular social Groups ?

Pick a key character of our opening , take a screen grab of a reasonable size image of them ... think of 1 or more characters from other films, and the simularities and differences that they share.

Find an image on the web , of that or those characters from the web , put them in photoshop together  as a split screen.

Export the split screen image as a jpeg, and drop onto our blog, where we then have to write about the simularities and differences in terms of characters , appearence ,costume , role in the film ect.

By Evie Mullahy & Louise Jarvis

Evaluation of Editing

First session: (Old sequence) For our first session, we all split up to do the editing, Jamie Hutton was in charge of sound. Yharnna Joseph was in charge of font, and Evie Mullahy and Louise Jarvis was in charge of editing the clips. For Evie Mullahy and Louise Jarvis, we found the editing worked alright, we first placed all the clips together, and for the flashbacks we made it clear that they were a flashback by changing the colour of the clips to sepia, the only problem we had with editing was that we wanted to have a 'flash' of light, and that was extremely hard to find as we had to try and create it. Our inspiration came from the opening sequence of Seven when the flashes of still images appear on screen. However, it was impossible to create the effect on iMovie HD. 


Second Session: (New sequence) Evie Mullahy and Louise Jarvis were editing the new clips and Jamie Hutton was doing sound, however we found it extremely different as some of our extremely good shots were not long enough, so we found that we had to re-film some of the shots. However, we put all the shots in order for the sequence to make sense. However, there was not much we could do as alot of the shots were too shot to be used. Jamie Hutton was creating the diegetic and non-diegetic sound for our new opening sequence we created. the use of garage band was useful as it helped to put different sounds together. some of the diegetic sound had to be edited out which i  erased as it made it sound un professional, overall the sound is excellent.


Third Session: (New sequence) Evie Mullahy and Louise Jarvis, after we have finished re-filming the new clips, we have come in to put the clips on to the computer, however the camera has not been working properly, as it is taking along time to import. So we are presently waiting for the camera to get working, so we can start putting the new clips in to the sequence and in to order and we can start doing the transitions.


Fourth session: (New sequence) Louise and Evie completed the sound for the film and moved on to creating titles for our opening sequence. As the film is psychological thriller we had to look for disturbing writing which will identify the genre of the film, we found many different ones to choose from after choosing them we chose a front called 'all over again' however we decided to put the titles at the end of the sequence and one where the first character is shown. We had some difficulty with this as the font would load but we over came this problem and the title sequence worded well with the film creating a spooky but clever effect. For our last bit of editing we had to incorporate a production company logo at the start of our opening film for it to seem professional. We done this by getting a clip off of youtube and cutting and editing it in to our clip. This became a problem however, as we didn't do this when we uploaded it before to youtube, so we had to upload the clip with the production logo in and then upload it to our blog. 


(We all changed roles in the end and Evie Mullahy and Louise Jarvis were in charge of cutting the continuity editing, inputting the sound in to our sequence and the titles, Yharnna found the sound, and Yharnna and Jamie also carried on with the evaluation tasks on the blog)


By Evie Mullahy,Louise Jarvis

Evaluation of Filming

First session: (Old sequence) For our first session of filming, Evie Mullahy and Louise Jarvis went to Physicals gym to film the self video of Louise (the victim) walking out of the gym, and the villian following where she went, this worked well and we done two shots of this so we can choose the best one, however our first shot we saw we left the umbrella on the floor, so we chose to use the second shot. For the next part of the sequence we wanted to get a shot of Louise walking in to an alley way so this would create an isolated setting which fits the conventions of a thriller. We tried this shot several times from different angles, and we had some complications for example there was people coming through the alleyway at one particular time. However, the weather was good for our genre as it was raining which showed a negative setting. We then thought that we recorded over the first lot of footage coming out of the gym so we had to go back and re film that, however, the lighting was correct, luckily we realised that we didn't film over it. 


Second Session: (Old sequence) For our second session, Evie Mullahy and Louise Jarvis, filmed the part of the film where the villian is looking in the mirror and getting ready to capture the girl and also when he has captured the girl, and he is in the shed and toturing her. We filmed this at Evies house, Phil was our villian and we prepared by doing all the makeup for both of the characters. We found it hard to film as we had no tripod, as we used a different camera which wouldn't fit on to the tripod. Overall, the session worked quite well, and we were very pleased with all parts of mise-en-scene and the footage that we collected. 


Third Session: (Old sequence) For our third session, we all worked together here, and our objective was to show that the villian had been stalking the victim for some time, we printed out about 30 pictures of Louise who was the victim and cut them out, drew on them and stuck them to a piece of wood in Evies shed. This footage was very time consuming as it took a long time to gather all of the pictures, however when we eventually filmed it, we felt it looked really effective and we achieved our objective.


Fourth Session: (New sequence) As previously explained in another post in the blog, we felt that we should re film our sequence and change the story line as there was not enough content. So for 2 hours, Evie Mullahy, Louise Jarvis and Jamie Hutton, re filmed a different sequence. Our villian was Marie Browning, it took half an hour for us to eventually start filming as we had to create the correct lighting, so we stuck black sandpaper on the walls so that we could create a midnight effect, we also had to organise the office, we made it look like the teacher was very messy and also in a very stressful position by putting papers everywhere on the desk. This filming session was pinochle as we needed to complete all filming by the end. We felt we worked really well as a group and all contributed to all decisions that we made and made sure everyone was happy so that we didn't make the same mistake again. 


Fifth Session: (New sequence) This session of filming was not planned, as we thought we captured all footage, however, when we put it on to the computers to start editing we found that the shots were all just a little bit too short, so we had to re-film bits. Evie Mullahy and Louise Jarvis were the ones filming this session, and we filmed a total of 8 shots. This was hard to do as we had to make sure that every aspect of mise-en-scene was correct from when we previously filmed. However with the lighting this time it was much more beneficial as it was dark outfit which is what we wanted to achieve. It took about half an hour to film the final few scenes, and we were extremely pleased that we re-filmed again. 


By Evie Mullahy and Louise Jarvis

Photography-Preperation for filming by Yharnna Joseph

Louise Jarvis - camera woman
Altering The camera settings, for filming.

Louise Jarvis - To the left hand


Evie Mullahy - To the right hand


This photo displays The set up of the filming in the corridor , since we needed the corridor to be dark to create the idea that it's late , the lights had to be turned off. However with the lights turned off , we were unable to film to a high quality , so we improvised , and used a lamp shade to release an effective yet suttle shade of light .The light enabled , the character to be visible in the dark , when being filmed.

Louise Jarvis - setting up the Tri-pod

                                                                                                                                      

Treatment

Synopsis/Plot:  Our opening sequence will revolve around , a teacher who is working overtime , by herself in her secluded office in which she is writing a witness statement relating to a murder incident which she had previously witnessed. The main character appears to be becoming increasingly aggitated whilst writing her statement , this can be seen through her eratic and irrational movements and fustration exerted throughout her facial expressions.
The main character becomes alarmed as she hears suspicious noises outside of her office,she then walks outside to the corridor to investigate the noises she heard , as she does this the lights turn off instantly , where we see a slow shot of her face. The main character slowly turns around , where we then see a long point of view shot of the villan.


Setting :  An enclosed school office , in the upper floor of Trinity House. The setting appears to be rather isolated with nobody but the main character who plays the role of a victim. An empty corridor will also  feature in our opening sequence. The idea of lonliness is particularly emphasised through the use of our quiet and isolated setting.


Genre: thriller 


Characters : Marie Browning (main character ) - Mrs Edwards


Atmosphere : The atmosphere is both lonesome and isolated, which helps evoke a gloomy feeling amoungst the audience , This correlates to the theme and genre of our opening sequence so therefore works very well.


Tone : There is a rather negative , and glum tone.


Sound: Slow, classical sad music to emphasise on the plot of ur opening sequence 


Lighting : Medium , with dark moments to create the idea of the time being late.


Target Audience : Mature audience 15 onwards 


Location : The top floor in Trinity house, a private office and a lonely corridor 

By Yharnna Joseph

Change of plan

After filming our opening sequence , unfortunately... once we uploaded and viewed our footage  , we were far from satisfied with what we had filmed .Which therefore meant that we either had to re-consider our story line plot , as it simply didn't make logical sense to the viewer , whether or not it was edited or re-arranged. Another Issue that was brought to light was the 'lack of shot variety ' throughout the course of our opening sequence, our footage appeared to be dominated by one shot type, which was by all means  nowhere near effective, and wouldnt have gained us sufficient marks.
As a group , we decided that our best option , was to completely re-construct our opening sequence which in effect , meant refilming our whole project and altering the story line.


By Yharnna Joseph

Researching and Experimenting with Title fonts

This font , master plan was the first font that I'd researched , What particularly caught my eye , and stood out , was the eroded look about this font. I think that the distorted and worn away effect works well , with the our story line , a young vulnerable girl who has experienced a distressing kidnapping.
However , although I like the distorted text effects , I think that this image lacks  scary and horrifying features, it's almost too casual, so therefore as a group we've decided not to choose this font as our main title font .

Following on from the previous text I'd researched , I took a deeper look into the Idea of eroded and distorted text types as I thought it was extremely Effective , I particularly like the top font '28 days later' It carries a real sense of agony and apears like a Font type that you'd associate with our opening sequence's genre .
  I'm not too fond on the second text , as I don't find it has any form of impact of relates to our genre.  It reminds me of some form of graffiti or texts that represents an urban lifestyle. It's not very serious looking and looks considerably childish, which is therefore inappropirate for our selected genre.


The last text 'Project Y ' I believe is also effective but yet again lacks scary features , so there fore won't evoke a creepy feel amoungst the audience.


Since our Chosen title is "Infatuation" I have researched several font types which I feel are particularly effective , and have used them in Photoshop to give a preview of what the font may look like in our actual opening sequence .


Font 1. In Cold blood -

 

 by Yharnna Joseph

Title Ideas

Since our opening sequence revolves around a girl , who has been Stalked by a mysterious character for some time , We've decided that it would be most appropriate to centre our title around the theme of Obsession . We believe that the theme of obsession is ideal as the mysterious character has been recollecting images and footage of the victim , which has collated to such extent , that it appears as abnormal . Although the title name ' Obsession ' is completely relevant to our opening sequence we feel that it's almost too simple in the sense that it reveals too much about our story line/plot. We were looking for a title slightly more sophisticated, a title that wouldn't reveal too much about our opening , before it was even viewed. 

Title ideas , that we have collated are as follows :

1. Fixation

2. Infatuation

3. Trapped

4. Tracker

5. Compulsion

By Yharnna Joseph

Preparation for filming

Evie and Louises preparation -
Louises make up (Victim) -
 
For Louises make up we wanted her to be quite pale and disturbed, for the face we chose to not use much make up for the face however for the eyes we put mascara on the then got a cotton bud and smudged it so it would seem like she had been crying. For the blood, we didn't use any fake bloody so we improvised and used red lipstick mixed with water, we mixed some of the 'blood' in with the mascara so it looked like it had been smudged together. On the neck we wanted to make it seem like Louise has been violently hurt, so I put the red watery lipstick on my fingers and smudged it across her neck to make it seem like she had been in serious pain with a gash across the neck. Along the hairline we also put smudges of the lipstick so that again it looks like she has been beaten up. 















For the hair we wanted it to just seem like Louise had had her hair up and it had been made loose from being pulled around everywhere by her psycho killer. I basically put Louise's hair in a loose bun and then messed her hair up on top and pulled some of her hair out of the bun. I felt this look worked well, as we wanted it to seem like Louises hair had not been brushed for day and I think we accomplished this look!













Phils Make Up (Villian) -

For Phil's makeup we wanted him to seem tired as in our film he was going to come across as psycho. We also wanted him to have a beard so he came across as being unshaven and not taking much care of himself. For under his eyes we put a bit of black eyeliner on for him to seem like he hasn't been sleeping and that he has bags under his eyes. For his beard we put alot of a bronzer/blusher Dallas on his chin so it would be quite dark, and this look worked really well. We put smears of blood on his face for him to seem like he has had a rough background and been in fights. For Phils hair we didn't need to do anything to it as he would have been putting his hood up for a hidden identity. However, if we didn't want him to put his hood up we would of messed it up alot. 




Both of them -

Done by Evie and Louise