Friday, 28 January 2011

Evaluation Activity 4

Evaluation Activity 4

Since our Movie genre is a psychological thriller, with plenty scary elements, we believe that our movie would most likely attract a target audience of around the age of eighteen and onwards; The reasoning for this is because at the age of 18 + , the audience are able to grasp , the sophisticated concepts which are presented throughout our movie. For example a twelve year old would not be able to absorb and appreciate the frightful nature of our film and is instead more likely to become distressed and uncomfortable whilst watching the movie, whereas an adult is mature enough to appreciate the contents of our movie. After carrying out a survey amongst 18 -40 years old, it shows that the most popular stores to shop at are HMV, WH Smiths and Blockbusters. Most people who answered my questionnaire said they pretty much so , just listen to music played on the radio which could consist of ; Rock , pop, and R&B , however the older end of our target audience said they enjoyed listening to classical music.
                                                                            
By Yharnna Joseph
                                                                                                 

Evaluation Activity 3

Evaluation Activity 3

A production company is responsible for the physical production of film , television program or any form of media whether it be a radio station, performing arts ect . A production company will also be responsible for raising or funding for the production however they can also acomplish this through an emissary. The production company could be  a small or  large company.
A production company  sells its products to a film studio or presents it at a theatrical venue, or, in the case of film and television, it may be the studio itself. A coproduction is a theatrical presentation or film made by more than one company or a Conglomerate of multiple companies. It is common for actors to form their own production companies so that they can have more control over their own careers.

Since our opening sequence overtime shares huge amount of simularities with the film scream  In terms of the storyline, which is almost identical meaning that both films would attract the same audience . I have therefore researched the production Companies that produced scream which are two companies called Dimension Films and Woods Entertainment.

Dimension films is a motion picture unit which is 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. could be a possible production company for our sequel Dimension Films shares half the proceeds from the Scary Movie flicks and any other future installments in pre-existing Dimension franchises.
Dimensions Films have produced well known films such as :
A film distributor is a company or individual responsible for releasing films to the public either theatrically or for home viewing (DVDVideo-On-DemandDownloadTelevision etc). A distributor may do this directly (if the distributor owns the theaters or distribution networks) or through theatrical exhibitors and other sub-distributors.
Appropirate Distributors for our film would be :




  • Kinowelt Filmverleih (1997) (Germany) (theatrical)



  • RCV Film Distribution (1997) (Netherlands) (theatrical)


  • Alliance (Canada)



  • Asmik Ace Entertainment (Japan)


  • Becker Home Video (Australia)



  • Cecchi Gori Group



  • Cipa (France)



  • Dimension Films



  • Filmes Castello Lopes (Portugal)



  • Fox Network (1999) (USA) (TV) (broadcast premiere)



  • Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2005) (Germany) (DVD)  



  • Laurenfilm (Spain)



  • Les Films Number One




  • Since they're all successful Distributors , who have Distriubuted successful films , I believe that any of these Distributors would be Ideal for our sequel .

    Thursday, 27 January 2011

    Pros and Cons of a horror/Thriller

    Pros of a horror/Thriller :
    • Horror films Captivate the audience with excessive suspense and fasted pasted scenes , causing the audience to be more alert and engrossed into the film.
    • Some of the most successful films ever to be created; such as exorcist and saw , were of a horror genre , which suggests that horror films are popular amongst the Film market.
    • Horror films often focus on good Vs evil , which intrigues and attracts viewers
    • Because of the extreme suspense , and fast paste throughout a horror film , the audience are always excited and anxious.
    • Horror films can be made to a good standard on a low budget.
    • There is usually a satisfying ending to a horror film due to the fact of suspense, tension, heart-racing action throughout the film.

    Cons of a horror/Thriller :

    • Horrors often cause dread and alarm.
    • Horrors also expose our worst fears
    • Horror films can often cause nightmares
    • Horror films can create people to fear death 

    Conventions of a Horror/thriller Film

    Context of a Horror film:
    Centering on the dark side of life ,essentially Horror Films are designed to terrify and panic the audience , leading them on through the use excessive suspense,whilst also evoking their most dreaded horrors.
    Horror films captivate and entertain the audience in a cathartic experience. 

    Characters:
    Within a Horror film there is always a dominant character throughout the film who , in other words is the lead character who is always destined to survive until the very end , Leaving the film as the hero. The monster often carries a unique trademark characteristic in the way of which they  murder their Victims.

    Existing Horror films which Inspired our group to create our opening sequence are as follows:
    • The scream
    • Scary Movie
    • Saw
    • Texas Chainsaw Massacre
    Factors to Consider when creating a horror are:
    •  Mise en cine
    • Cinematography
    • Apparel/costumes
    • Captivating storyline/Plot.
    Additional conventions to consider when creating a horror film are the non-digetic and digetic sounds within the film. Throughout a horror film the non-digetic music is usually used to create suspense and fear amongst the audience , this is usually created through the use of increasing tempo's throughout the film , which correlate to the current event in the film. For example in a typical horror , if an attack is about to commence the non-digetic sounds usually increase in tempo which adds anxiety amongst the viewers. Music is essential In horrors and often helps evoke a frightening experience for the audience.

    Establishing the setting for our Filming

    This image to the left
    Is a photograph of
    Mrs Edwards office
     where our opening
    sequence will commence.
    The Desk , office chairs
    and filing cabinets are all
    part of a typical office.
    The mise en scene works perfect
    with the office environment we are
    trying to create.


     This is a photographed image
    of the desk that Mrs Edwards
     will be working on. It has been
     shot from her perspective ,
    creating the idea that she's
    looking down onto her desk.
    This image includes all the
    props which will be used to
    create the correct office environment.


    I have also photographed the
    desk that Mrs Edwards  will be
    working on , again but from the
    perspective of the audience
    looking in at Mrs Edwards.





     This image displays the corridor
     that will feature the longest
    throughout our sequence .
     The Villain will appear towards
    the end of the Corridor. I believe
     that this corridor has an isolated
    and cold look to it, which works
    very with our story line plot.

    Costume and Props


    Character profiles:
    The story line for our opening sequence revolves around a teacher who is Working past school hours to mark books and write assignments. However In order to construct an effective opening sequence is  Vital that we are accurate when arranging and designing the costumes for the characters. There will only be two characters present throughout our film which are the teacher and the Villain.                                                   
     

    

    Name : Marie  Browning                                        Name :   Jamie Hutton
    Character Name: Suzanne Edwards                 Character Name: Unknown?
    Occupation : School teacher                             Occupation : Murderer
    Age In Film : 24                                                Age In Film : 30+
    Characteristics: Friendly, Hardworking,            Characteristics: Obsessive, sinister,
     Considerate & Punctual.                                          Malicious, Vengeful, Corrupt


    Researching Character Costumes :


    • Suzanne Edwards (teacher) :

    I have used Google to research the general way in which female teachers are expected to dress . After research I chose & collated three pictures which I felt best represented teachers dressing style. My research shows that the typical attire for a female teacher is as follows: Formal , Smart , No revealing or Low cut tops, suit trousers or skirts . 

    Suzanne Edwards - School teacher

    After researching Appropriate Teacher clothing                       
    Our group had worked hard , to ensure that the
    main character represented a female teacher
    In the correct way. In order to do this we dressed
    Marie rather formally , In a Grey cardigan,
    White shirt and a black three quarter skirt. The 
    effect of this formal dress code , caused Marie
    to look mature, in age and meet the age
     specification which had been stated ;
    that her character will be 24 years old.




    To the left is a screen grab of two Victimised characters
     Pamela Anderson (Left) and Jenny McCarthy (right)
     From the film Scary movie , which is of the same genre
     of ours, with a similar story line. Clearly we can see an
     immense difference in the character clothing and
     appearance.The two characters are dressed rather seductive
     and sexy , this idea has been created through the use of their
    Low cut & revealing tops. The simple fact that these characters
    look seductive, automatically causes them to look younger.
    However we have tried to avoid this type of clothing & appearance
    to create a more realistic teacher appearance for our main character.

    Villain :
    In order to successfully create a costume or a scary appearance for our Villain , we will need to research other Villains from films similar to ours with the same genre . Researching other Villains will give us a clearer idea as to what conventions work well with each other to make a scary Villain, and evoke a frightening feeling .

    Villain Research :

    This character is from the film 
    Texas chainsaw massacre. He
     is a cold-hearted , vicious villain
     Who Brutally murders people with
     a chainsaw. As we can see his face
     is disguised by a horrific mask
     which has been constructed with
     Human skin from his victims. His
     Disguised appearance causes him
     to appear more scarier , and adds
     a mysterious feeling.

    The character to the left shows the
    Villain from the films 'Scary Movie'
    And the 'Scream' The fact that the
    Villain wears a scream mask , and
    hides his identity adds a sense of
    secrecy to the film , which contributes
    to the daunting feeling throughout the
    film .

     


    Jamie Hutton-Villain










    What we could of improved and what worked well

    The improvements that we could make to our opening sequence if we had more time would be that we would plan each individual shot so we knew exactly what we wanted, we didn't have enough time to do this as we had to change our opening sequence last minute. Another improvement we would make is that in one of the shots the teacher is seen looking at the camera, however we were unable to cut that bit out as it wouldn't of flowed with the rest of the sequence so we had to keep it in, however if we could do it again we would film it so that she wouldnt look at the camera. The last improvement I felt that we could of made is that on one of the last scenes where the camera shakes when the light is turned off, however again we couldn't edit this out as we wouldn't have the footsteps in sync again. 


    What I felt worked well was that when the teacher supposedly hears the noise the sound in the non diegetic music changes quickly, we didn't mean for this to happen as we planned to put a noise at that point however we felt that there was no point as the sound within the music worked extremely well. Another thing I felt worked well is the lighting, as we filmed it in daylight we had to cover up the windows with black sugar paper however we didn't want this to be obvious, after we done the lighting it was too dark so we had to use different sorts of lamps to get the correct balance of light in which I felt we accomplished. The last thing I felt worked well was the sound when the teacher is talking on the phone and also when she comes out to peer round the door, we made the volume of the non diegetic music quieter so that we will be able to hear the dialogue, after the dialogue was said we gradually increased the music again, I felt this gave the opening sequence more effect. 

    Wednesday, 26 January 2011

    Fonts - Experimenting

    When we changed our opening sequence we also had to change our font that we chose and the name of the film so it would fit in with a different genre. We wanted to create a clever/intelligent however creepy effect so we did limit ourselves alot! It was hard to find something that we wanted however, we downloaded a few fonts as we didnt want to use a font already on the computer, and tried them out to see how they would look and how the font could help relate to our opening sequence. On the website it was extremely helpful as it had categorized different fonts in to themes so we could quickly browse through the themes. We picked out three main fonts and then cut them down to just one. We used a website called 'dafont'.

    'Face your fears'
     This was our first font that we had found, we liked this as it gave a realistic effect and it looked very 'school' like as it could either look like paint or it could look like smears of blood which relates to our genre. 




    'All Over Again'




    This was the second font we found, again we really liked this font as it looked like someone scribbled it in a rush, like a child had at school, this relates to the setting and location of the opening sequence. 




    'Quid Pro Quo'




    This was the last font we found, we liked this font as again it looked like handwriting, however, we felt that this font was too neat for the selected genre of our film.










    We decided to choose the second font 'All over again' as it was exactly what we wanted as we felt that it relates to the genre of the film and the location of the film well. 

    Certificate 15


    We decided that the age certificate for our film overall would be a 15. We thought that this would be a suitable age as in the rest of the film we would plan to have scenes of violence and horror. However, the violence and horror wouldn't be too much. Also within our film we will be having frequent use of strong language, this would not be acceptable in a certificate of a 12. We wanted our film to appeal to a mainstream audience, as if we put the certificate at 18 then we wouldnt get any teenagers going to see the film, and mainly teenagers are the people consuming films and going to the cinema. We felt that if it was a 15 then it appeals to our target audience, and it would be suitable for the age of 15 and above. 

    Shotlist for Over Time

    • Dreamworks production (Horror version) 
    • Panning medium shot of Mrs Edwards
    • Titles with above clip (Starring Marie Browning)
    • Close up of the paper with the teacher writing furiously
    • Over the shoulder medium close up shot of slamming the pen down and screwing the piece of paper up
    • Medium shot of teacher throwing it towards the bin
    • High angle medium shot of teacher angry and fed up
    • Close up of the phone ringing
    • Medium close up of the teacher talking in to the phone 
    • Low angle medium shot of teacher looking through a pupils work.
    • Point of view close up shot of clutter on the desk (fuzzy perspective)
    • Point of view long shot of the clock
    • Close up of the clock
    • Medium low angle of teacher looking at the clock
    • Long shot of teacher walking towards the door after hearing a noise
    • High angle medium shot of teacher peering round the door
    • High angle medium shot of teacher walking
    • Long shot of teacher walking along the corridor timidly
    • Close up of the teachers feet
    • Close up of teachers reaction when the lights are turned off 
    • Long shot of the villian
    • Title 'Over Time'
    • Title 'Directors/Editing Evie Mullahy and Louise Jarvis Camerawork/Sound Yharnna Joseph and Jamie Hutton'
    • Candidate numbers.