Production Diary

Production Diary

11/11/2014 - Today we got ready our film ideas so they were ready to present for Thursdays lesson to the rest of the group. We all created PowerPoint's as this was the most suitable format. On our presentations we collected different inspirations and ideas and talked about what we would include in our opening scene.

13/11/2014 - Today we pitched our different film ideas to each other to decide what film idea we were going to go with. Jack pitched a drama film to do with a man being convicted of a murder and the film was to ponder on if he committed the murder or not. Tom's idea was a teen drama evolved around drugs and crime which he gained his influences from Noel Clarke's Kidulthood and Adulthood. Then the final idea came from Connor which was a horror which based around a couple who are not able to have children. From this the couple went to take other children to be theirs. We agreed finally that Connor's idea was the best and we decided to go for that for our concept.

14/11/2014 - Today not in our groups we started to do our Title Tasks. This involved watching many different clips and reviewing them. This included a history of film openings and a interview with a man who is very big in the film industry. Our final task was to take screenshots from three film openings and annotate them for every title that appeared such as actors and production companies.

17/11/2014 - Today we adapted the film concept and slightly changed the main story of the film. We took the concept away from the couple who were not able to have children and changed it too a boy who went missing on a winter evening in a park. We then went on too reviewing different film openings as a group to gain inspiration from a number of different films. (In the Picture we reviewed the opening of Casino Royale)

18/11/2014 - Today Connor was creating our marketing ideas to promote our film in a PowerPoint presentation which you can see him doing below. In the presentation he included how he would advertise our film and what he would do to promote it in the best way. Meanwhile Tom looking at our target audience which he was doing by reviewing films in our category and our style of film and comparing them with what audience the films were most popular with.

Audience Reserch

Target Audience

The target audience for our film is going to be aged between 15-40, the ceritifcate of the film is going to be from 15-40. From looking at previous horror films which have a similar sense to ours, I gathered some information from films this year which have appealed to the similar target audience which we are trying to gather. I started looking at a website which showed the 25 top Netflix horror's which are frequently shown. As netflix has become a much larger network this year for younger a younger audince of around 17-18 this would fit perfectly for some key statistics which may help our film.

5. The Cabin In The Woods

Year: 2011
Director: Drew Goddard
For a movie chock-full of twists, perhaps the biggest is that despite all appearances to the contrary, The Cabin in the Woods is a heartfelt love story. Mind you, not between any of the young and pretty college students who tempt fate at the cabin in question. No, this romance is between creators Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard, and the scary-movie genre as a whole. A ménage à terror, if you will. Like Scream before it, the film is a simultaneous dissection and celebration of all the tropes to which it pays homage, while also managing to be a superb example of the genre in its own right. The script is vintage Whedon—smart, funny and surprising. Thanks to Goddard’s direction and staging, and despite the film’s very focus on the formulaic nature of horror, it still manages to be tense, atmospheric and jump-out-of-your-seat scary. The Cabin in the Woods may very well be the ultimate schlocky little horror movie.—Dan Kaufman

4. Nosferatu

Year: 1929
Director: F. W. Marnau

F.W. Murnau’s sublimely peculiar riff on Dracula has been a fixture of the genre for so long that to justify its place on this list seems like a waste of time. Magnificent in its freakish, dour mood and visual eccentricities, the movie invented much of modern vampire lore as we know it. It’s once-a-year required viewing of the most rewarding kind.—Sean Gandert

3.Let the right one in

Year: 2008

Director: Tomas Alfredson

Vampire stories are plastered all over American pop culture these days (True Blood, Twilight, The Vampire Diaries), but leave it to the Swedes to produce a vampire film that manages to be both sweet and frightening. The friendship between Oskar, a scrawny, 12-year-old outcast, and Eli, a centuries-old vampire frozen in the body of a child, is a chilling but beautiful story to behold.—Jeremy Medina

 

2. The Silence of the Lambs


Year: 1991

Director: Jonathan Demme

In the face of grotesque sequels, lesser prequels and numerous parodies, The Silence of the Lambs still stands as a cinematic work of art among crime dramas. Winning the five gold rings of Oscar-dom (best picture, best director, best actor, best actress, best screenplay) Anthony Hopkins’ portrayal of the murderous Hannibal Lecter proves the worth of surrounding one of cinema’s greatest thespians with a stellar supporting team. Director Jonathan Demme deftly wields the brush of that talent to bring audiences into the dark, sadistic world of Dr. Lecter while leaving them gasping at the twists and turns of novelist Thomas Harris’ gruesomely wonderful story. As what happens with all great films, second and third viewings fail to diminish the ride.—Tim Basham

1. Rosemary’s Baby


Year: 1968

Director: Roman Polanski

The most famous of Polanski’s paranoid thrillers, not to mention the most inviolable. The film infiltrates a privileged space of middle-class entitlement and pollutes it with the most extreme evil possible: sweet, unassuming Rosemary (Mia Farrow) is pregnant, but could her baby already belong to someone else? The volatile climax has an answer, and the sequence has remained one of the most celebrated in horror history for good reason.—Sean Edgar

As you can see the films which scored the highest is a rather old film, and this is the most viewed film of 2014 on Netflix, obviously our target audience typically prefer a much newer horror film compared to an old one produced in the 1960s. Statistics show that 17 year olds specifically prefer jump scares rather than scares which are less startling.

Gone Title

Marketing Campaign

Prelim Self Evaluation

Self Evaluation

Who did you work with and how did you manage the task between you?

I worked with Archie Edmonds and Tom Wise. We went with my idea and storyline of 'Broken Brothers' and we worked extremely well together and I think this was because we were all really confident with the film idea. Before we filmed we outlined each scene, each shot and the script and this made us very organised so we could quickly get on to the filming. Me and Archie took the roles of the two brothers whilst Tom filmed us. After we had all of the shots that we all needed, we individually edited our own opening.  

How did you plan your sequence? What process did you use? What theories did you try to take into account?

To plan our sequence we had to create a specific storyboard which included the different shots which we needed in order to make it look good. We did this in chronological order so we didn't get confused and we annotated it to make sure we knew exactly what we were doing.

Prelim Task

Juno Practise Task

This was our first filming task and we had to try and copy and recreate our own version of the Juno 'All I want is you' video.

This is what we had to match:




This was our best effort:

Juno Storyboard

This was the storyboard that we followed whilst filming for the Juno task. It was quite hard to film as some of the shots were difficult to take and timing was also an issue.

Title Sequences Task

Title sequences task

History of title design: The first video in which I watched was a Brief History of Title Design. This video consisted of a lot of famous film titles which were intelligently crafted such as one of my childhoods favourite 'The Pink Panther'. The video definitely inspired me to think of clever titles in which I can use in my production because the video gave us an overview of how special effects and animation have changed over the years of producing film titles and now I can see the amazing thing in which I can do with my film.















Richard Morrison's Interview: One of the first things that Richard Morrison talks about is not over complicating an idea to start with. Our group should keep this in mind as we do not want to over complicate the storyline of the film because it could come across as confusing to the audience. We also want to leave lots of enigma so the film comes across as interesting and mysterious.
He goes onto talking about having a basic storyline for a film and over time you should work on it, collectively taking bits away and adding bits on. I think this is a perfect lead in example, because it means that we can adapt and evolve what happens in the story and we can keep making it better and better.
Finally, near the end of the video, Richard Morrison talks about communicating the vision and getting the ideas together for the film. This is vital for our group because we need to make sure that what is happening in the opening sequence is clear and isn't interpreted in the wrong way. Also, we need to work together as a team by communicating our ideas to each other and giving feedback to each others work.

My Film Pitch

My Logo

Marking Student Film Openings

I would rate this film 56 out of 60.

The genre was clear to being a thriller/sci-fi and the conventions which were used were used well to show this genre. The music linked in extremely well with the video and stayed the same the whole way through until the end when it stopped and then the girl vanished and it slowed down and loud bangs were made when she reappeared and the film name came on the screen. I liked the use of special effects and future theme. A lot of good shots were made and it was exciting as it was a chase scene.

However, I think that the titles could have been used better in linking in with the genre. The titles were quite plain and boring. Also, the target audience was unclear as there was violence but usually sic-fi films are ranged to target all sorts of audiences.

Overall, it was a good opening sequence in which left a lot of enigma.

Marking Student Film Openings

I would rate this film 30 out of 60.

The music did fit in to what was going on, however the genre was very unclear. Also, the film came across as really boring and slow. The titles were also plain and simple and were not linked in with the film very intelligently. They were just white in a plain font in the corner of the screen.

Marking Student Film Openings

Other Student Film Openings

In today's lesson we watched some video openings from previous years and in other schools and we marked them and said what we liked about them and what we didn't like about them.

We went through the mark scheme.
Level 1 0-23 marks
Level 2 24-35 marks
Level 3 36-47 marks
Level 4 48-60 marks

Here are a couple of the videos:



This was the best video that we watched by far. The Edge showed to be an Action. Titles looked professional which meant they were used effectively in the video. All of the shots that were needed could be seen in the video and conventions in the video meant that the genre could be identified easily. Music was appropriate and fitted in with what was going on. The fast going pace and mysterious characters left a lot of questioning.

I gave this video a mark of 57 out of 60.




This was one of the videos which wasn't so good because it seemed to be boring. Roses Are Red showed to be a teen girl film. Also, the music was a bit corny and gradually got annoying as time went on. The scene of getting up and doing tasks such as make-up and getting dressed is common in film beginnings so there was nothing really that I hadn't seen before. Nothing exciting happened in the video but the titles used were put together with thought and came across cleverly. All of the shots were also quite well planned out and put together effectively.

I gave this video a mark of 36 out of 60.




Level 1 0–23 marks The work for the main task is possibly incomplete. There is minimal evidence in the work of the creative use of any relevant technical skills such as:
• Producing material appropriate for the target audience and task;
• using titles appropriately according to institutional conventions;
• using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;
• shooting material appropriate to the task set; including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot distance and close attention to mise-en-scene;
• using editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions and other effects.

Level 2 24–35 marks There is evidence of a basic level of ability in the creative use of some of the following technical skills:
• Producing material appropriate for the target audience and task;
• using titles appropriately according to institutional conventions;
• using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;
• shooting material appropriate to the task set;, including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot distance and close attention to mise-en-scene;
• using editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions and other effects.

Level 3 36–47 marks There is evidence of proficiency in the creative use of many of the following technical skills:
• Producing material appropriate for the target audience and task;
• using titles appropriately according to institutional conventions;
• using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;
• shooting material appropriate to the task set; including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot distance and close attention to mise-en-scene;
• using editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions and other effects.

Level 4 48–60 marksThere is evidence of excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:
• material appropriate for the target audience and task;
• using titles appropriately according to institutional conventions;
• using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;
• shooting material appropriate to the task set;including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot distance and close attention to mise-en-scene;
• using editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions and other effects.

Low Budget Film vs. High Budget Film

Premier Practise

My Premier Practice

This was my first time using Premier so I had no idea how to use the software but gradually as I learned new techniques and skills I discovered that I could do a lot of things with editing video. We were told in this task to mix film and sound to come up with a video of dancing animals and the city with a variety of music.I think that the music went well with the video but to make it even better next time I should put transitions in between the blackouts to make it more professional. I learned how to use Premier and how to edit video and sound which I can use in the future.

Narrative

Narrative

Vladimir Propp - Characters

• always a hero
• helper
• villain
• princess

Levi - Strauss - Binary oppositions

• 'good vs evil'
• 'black vs white'
• 'rich vs poor'
• 'country vs city'
• 'girl vs boy'

Todorov:

1. Start at an equilibrium
2. obstacles put in place that have to be overcome
3. End at a different equilibrium

Roland Barthes:

• Symbols
• action
• enigma (mystery)

Enigma of the trailer of 'The Prestige'

• Who is the old man?
• Who was the random man in the audience?
• Who was the little girl?
• Why did the magic trick on the stage not work?
• What happens next after the man is trapped under water?

Denotations and Connotations

This is the poster for the third series of Geordie Shore which is set in Cancun as you can see in the red border. It is a modern programme in which a set of 9 lads and lasses from Newcastle are put in a house which results in arguments, drama and a lot of drunk and sexual behaviour.

Denotations: A group of young people standing on a beach in a hot country.

Connotations: We can see that each character standing on the beach is individual as they are all wearing different clothes and standing in different postures and positions. In contrast we can see that they are a close group of friends as they all stand close together with some characters leaning and putting their arms on or around other characters. In the middle of the picture we can see one of the lads sitting in a wheelchair with a cast around his leg which shows us that while the group of friends are in Cancun, this particular character has injured his leg through immature behaviour. We can see this as he seems to be wearing tight blue jeans and a red cape, a sort of superhero costume. This would deem to be immature so we can see that the injury on his leg has been self inflicted. We therefore presume that the rest of the group are also immature and this is further backed up when we can see the lass on the far left is holding a pinhata.

Semiotics

Semiotics:
- the study of signs
- also of anything which stands for 'something else'

Denotation - what we see when we look at an image (what it is)
Connotation - what we understand from this image (what other meanings it has)

Film language: Opening Scene Task

Film Language: Opening scene task

Film language helps us understand characters and why the film is being shown a certain way.

There are four different parts to it:

• Camera
• Sound
• Editing
• Mise En Scene

Camera - FAM:

• Frame
• Angle
• Movement

Sound - MCDOVED:

• Music
• Contrapuntal - contrast
• Diegetic (what actors can hear)
• Offscreen/Onscreen
• Voiceover
• Emotion
• Dialogue

Editing - TOP:

• Transition
• Order of Narrative
• Pace

Mise En Scene - CLAMPS:

• Costume
• Lighting
• Actors
• Makeup
• Props
• Setting

Up:

Camera - There is a long shot when the couple are walking up the steep hill and then when they are on the hill, they look up to the sky at the clouds and the scene uses birds eye view to look at the couple lying down looking up and then it uses worms eye view when they look at the clouds.

Sound - The music has the same tune the whole way through the scene, however changes speed and pitch depending what is happening in their lives. There is hardly any diegetic sound - we never hear the couple speak. However there are some sound such as the camera taking a picture right at the start, the thunderstorm and the jar smashing - the actors can hear key points in the scene.

Editing - The scene covers 50 years of a couples life in just 3 minutes. It shows time passing when the wife is doing up her husbands ties and the jar money keep smashing.

Love Beats All - an outline for a film with the genre Rom-Com

This is the Rom-Com film outline that we presented to the class and after receiving some high scores, we were very pleased with what we had come up with. The pun intended title that I came up with was given generally a lot of credit for and this, as well as the unique mix of characters featured, pushed our scores highly to make them fantastic. We also received some criticism with our presentation however, as people had picked out that we hadn't written too much about how we were going to market and advertise our movie. I feel that if we were to include more information and ideas about marketing that we would have recieved near-to-perfect marks.

Genre Picture Task

We were given another genre for the genre picture task and the genre that we were given this time was sci-fi so we took a picture of someone with a street cone on his head to try and show a supernatural human. The picture does look like the genre would be sci-fi but it doesnt look that realistic if you were to say that it was an alien. Next time, to make sure the picture looks more realistic, we shall put a better effect on the image to make it look effective.

Genre picture task

We were given a genre picture task, in which we took pictures to show a certain genre. The genre that we were given was disaster so we took a picture and tried to show a motorcyclist stuck in a tree. Unfortunately, a lot of people thought it was funny so mistakably thought the genre was comedy. Next time, to make sure it is seen to be disaster instead of comedy, is to maybe show that the person in the picture is actually stuck and we could use an extra prop and show that the motorcyclist has a gun to make it look more serious.