Monday 6 December 2010

CHARACTERS

I have thought of characters that are similar to the actors in our film. These are characters that play similar roles, i.e killer, hero.

 Ben ( Hero/Good guy)



 Emma (Victim)


 Bel (Sister/Friend)


 Bayman (Killer)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
comparable
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
agegender
4-60%male46%
7-110%female54%
12-140%class
15-2490%AB17%
25-3410%C124%
35-440%C234%
45+ 0%DE25%
The audience for this film is 15-24 females.
 The film has similar features we will be using in our film, diagetic and non diagetic sound etc.
 The film is aimed at over 18s and looking at the results has the same target audience as the short film we will  be making.
This is a script my group have wrote up, it may not be the final script but it helps to visualise what it will turn out like. We have included props and actions within the script.


Emma: (Nudging Ben) wake up, wake up

Ben: What's wrong, what is it?

Emma: The phones ringing

Ben: Oh just leave it and go back to sleep


Emma: It keeps ringing, it may be important (Emma gets out of bed and goes downstairs) 


Emma: (Emma answers phone) that's really weird........


(Door bell rings)


Emma: Ben, come downstairs!!


(Ben comes downstairs) 


Ben: Are you alright, who was on the phone?


Emma: Ben someone is at the door, this is really starting to freak me out


Ben: Your being stupid Emma, I'll get the door (Ben opens door to bell) 


Ben: Bell?


Emma: BELL!!??....What are you doing home, where is your key?


Bell: I came home early, I've been waiting outside for ages trying to find the spare key and no windows were open so I had to ring the door bell, sorry did I wake you? AND why has the phone been engaged for ages, I've been trying to get hold of you


(Bell walks into house) 


Ben: Why don't we go into the living room now that we are all up

Emma: Yeah, I won't be able to get to sleep now

Ben: Emma why don't you see if there are any good film's on, on sky at this time of night and I'll go and get a drink for us all

Bell: I'll come with you as I need some food, I'm starving

(- Bell and Ben walking out of living room towards the kitchen)
(- Phone starts ringing and Emma walking over to the phone to pick it up)

Killer: (Emma hears breathing) killer breaths heavily down the phone

(-Emma puts down phone)
(-Door bell rings and Emma jumps)
(- Emma walks out from living room and open the front door, looks around outside)
(-Emma walks back into the house and sits back down on the sofa in the living room)
(- Emma gets up from sofa to look at the death threat) 
(-Ben walks out of kitchen and walks over to Emma)

Emma: Ben, what is this? Someone has just rung the door bell, I opened it but know one was there. The person who's been ringing the phone is doing these things. What's going on Ben, why is someone doing this to me?

Ben: what is that?

Emma: What does it look like, its a death threat to ME!!!! Who is doing this to me?

Ben: This is all in your head, I haven't heard the door bell ringing or the phone ringing again. Look outside, I'll show you that there's nothing out there and as for the death threat, it will just be one of our friends playing a stupid joke on you!

Emma: NO!! I'm not going out there, can't you see what someone is trying to do to me?

Ben: Emma seriously you are being stupid, just look through the letter box

(-Emma looks through letter box)
(-Killer pops up from the letter box)

Killer:''HELLO EMMA''!!!!!!!

Tuesday 30 November 2010

I have researched into the types of film that are similar to my own. This survey is from the film Sorority Row which shows a similar target audience that we would use for our own film. This is what we found;
comparable
Scream
agegender
4-60%male52%
7-110%female48%
12-140%class
15-2457%AB21%
25-3431%C137%
35-445%C218%
45+ 7%DE24%
From what we can see it shows that our audience would be mainly male aged 15-24. The females in the film are targeted to a male audience by how the characters are portrayed for example, what they are wearing.

Monday 29 November 2010

MAIN CHARACTERS

Ambrose will be playing the character BEN ( Emma's boyfriend)

Bel will be playing the character of Emma's Sister

Emma will be the main character and the attended target of the killer

Bayman will be the KILLER

Wednesday 24 November 2010

PHOTOS

In one of our media lessons our group decided who was going to do what. I was assigned the task of taking the photos, Emma was completing the storyboard and Sarah was thinking about the music we could use behind the film and also costume ideas.
I took the photos in locations up my road. Some of the photos were just objects however I edited the pictures to give them a 'darker ' look. I took a picture of a gate but made it black and white so the effect was more powerful. Another example is the picture of the letter box with eyes peeping through which was edited so the picture was red therefore implying danger. The picture of the footprint is effective as it suggests that someone is around and the shot of the footprint will be a close-up shot.
The pictures are just ideas for where we might locate the film, we may end up not using particular locations however it was good to have a idea of what we could possibly use. We will definitely be filming in the night for our short film similar to the photos taken however we will have to take into consideration the weather.

Monday 22 November 2010

Location ideas for filming




Brief summary of the plot

Emma and her boyfriend Ben decide to have an early night in, until they are woken by a mysterious phone call and appearance at the front door from Emma's sister Bel. All may seem like a normal night to Emma and Ben , but they are mistaken as they start to receive more than one mysterious phone call and numerous door bell rings..this night could possibly become the night of HELL!

Possible Names for our film

  • Killer
  • Night of HELL
  • Paranoid
  • Two Girls, One boy and A Killer
  • Somebody is watching you

Shots

Today in the lesson we went over various shots we may be using, this isn't definite but its a brief idea to help the film making process.

1. Establishing shot of house to show where the film is taking place

2. High angle shot of Emma and Ambrose asleep in bed

3. Close-up of phone ringing to build tension and mystery

4. Medium shot of Emma picking up the phone and jumping when she hears the door bell

5. Long shot/zoom o0f the killer going through the alley way

6. Over the shoulder shoulder shot of Ambrose opening the door to Bel ( Emma's sister)

7. Arc shot of the action in the living room

8. Long shot/tracking to show Emma getting up and going into the kitchen

9. Medium shot from behind the the killer walking towards the house

10. Cut to close-up shot of the killer scrolling down the contacts in his phone

11. Close-up of Emma's phone ringing

12. Extreme close-up  of Killer's finger on the door bell

13. Over the shoulder shot of Emma opening the door but finding no-one is there

14. Long shot showing the killer

15. Close-up of the letterbox

16. Medium shot showing Emma holding a letter and facial expression scared

17. Extreme close-up of whats written in the letter

18. Long shot of Ambrose walking out the kitchen

19.  Medium shot of both Ambrose and Emma hugging

20. Extreme close-up of the killer's eyes

Sci-fi Cliches

There is always something out there in the classic science fiction film. No one knows what is out there, or where it comes from, or what it wants, but it is out there. As a rule, it will continue to stay out there for a long time, because the film-makers understand that letting the audience think about what may be out there is a lot scarier than actually seeing what is out there.
Women play an important role in sci-fi movies. Feisty, resourceful, indomitable women have pivotal roles in all the Star Wars films, the Aliens franchise and the Terminator movies. Since women are far less visible in conventional action films, this suggests that armed women get more dangerous as they gravitate away from our galaxy.
As soon as the aliens start killing humans, the heroes seal off parts of the spacecraft, but that never works. Somebody always gets left behind. A similar problem arises when a member of the crew, against the wishes of his colleagues, ventures outside to make repairs to the spacecraft. Always a bad idea.

Romance Cliches

According to popular lore, the romantic film is based on a simple formula: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy finds girl again. But that is not true. For the most part, the boys have nothing to do with it. The cliche that actually serves as the infrastructure of the classic romance is that the female lead almost never ends up with the man she was originally supposed to spend the rest of her life with.

Romantic films wend their way to the altar as inevitably as action films lead nowhere. Powerful, ubiquitous cliches associated with the genre include the bride or groom suddenly getting ditched at the altar (The Philadelphia Story, The Graduate, Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Runaway Bride.)

Romantic films frequently feature the pushy but lovable mother, the harried, befuddled father, the fat, mouthy but highly supportive girlfriend who wears glasses and has never had a date, and the gay neighbour or co-worker who knows what you're going through because he's had his heart broken so many times himself. In a number of contemporary romances, the male lead has a best friend who is a lovable slob.
Teen romances have their own separate cliches. Actually, they have one separate cliche: teens from out of town find it hard to fit in so they start hanging around with social misfits or goths or beatniks or vampires suffering from social anxiety disorders. In teen romances, the jocks are invariably portrayed as cruel, self-absorbed idiots.

Crime Cliches

Most of the essential,indispensable cliches in films about crime - the police are as bad as the gangsters, just try find an LA cop who's not on the take-were established many, many years ago, and films that ignore them rarely succeed in the box office.
Crime movies almost always have a rat, and sometimes several. Gangsters have a hard time identifying the rat in the crew, even though the rat is always the newest and best looking member of the gang, and never seems to belong to the same ethnic group as everyone else in the gang.

Gangster movies often include a scene in a restaurant or nightclub where somebody says the wrong thing to the wrong guy and later regrets it.
In crime movies, there is usually one straight arrow whom the gangsters respect because he is not completely crooked like them.
The crime genre must also be looked at from the perspective of the cops. For a crime film to work, there must be a wizened, cynical cop who is close to retirement and has seen it all. There must be a young cop who just got married, and who will almost certainly die. There must be a full-dress funeral service, preferably in the rain.

Finally gangster movies would not be gangster movies without the crucial scene in the hospital where a good looking young cop comes on duty to replace the cop who is guarding an important witness, and then turns out to be a hit man.

Action Cliches

Many cliches in action films are too obvious to mention however here are some.
The Classic action film features a small group of world-weary asassins or Green berets or Navy Seals or mercenaries who assemble to pull off one last suicidal mission,after which they will retire.
In the contemporary  action film, the villains are either heavily accented Russians, Serbs, or unidentified, all-purpose eastern European sociopaths.
The women in action films tend to be promisicuos femmes fatales or crusading journalists or medical support staff or hapless rebels or vitims or miscast.
Nobody drives a car in action films:off-road vehicles only.

Tuesday 16 November 2010

PICTURES

Tonight I will be taking pictures of the main settings. The pictures will be an alley way, the outside of the house, another alley way near a motorway and the inside of the house.
I will be uploading them and putting them on my blog.

CHARACTERS

In our film the characters will be played by either ourselves or drama students at our school.  If we used drama students the film may be more effective although if we needed to rehearse or schedule times to do a scene it may be harder to gather everyone.
We are asking George Bayman to be the killer in the film as we feel he would carry out the role the best.
There will be two girls in the house acting as the scared,vunerable teenagers. The characters will be played by Emma and a drama student to balance out the acting and they will be the lead roles in the film.

Monday 8 November 2010

Different Film Genres

We've been looking at different genres in film such as horror, romance,action and crime. We will be looking at sci-fi next lesson. It is helpful as each group doing a different genre has an idea of the stereotypical features of that particular genre.
As our film is a horror movie we have been looking at the typical cliches included in the film. Horror movies divideinto several different categories : slasher,zombie,vampire,mainstream horror and Asian horror.
All of the subgenres rely on worthy,battle-tested cliches. Horror is the one genre in which the absence of cliches would ruin everything.

Cliches in a horror film is that the children are often evil and the setting is rural. The resason for this is because rustics are scary in and of themselves, and because there are lots of frightening farm tools on hand, and also because there are no neighbours to beg for help. It is always a bad idea to go to sleep in horror films, or accept a ride from strangers, or respond to a personal ad. It is an even worse idea to get in an elevator , a popular hideout for the promiscuously dead.

Horror movies do not work well in places like Holland, because horror films require basements. Linen closets and tidy storage areas are suprisingly common in Asian horror films, which may have cultural ramifications that go over the heads of moviegoers in the west.
These were some of the cliches we had been looking at.

Monday 18 October 2010

SORORITY ROW



This clip is the opening four minutes of the film Sorority Row. We will be using a similar opening as the girl's start off normal but then gradually realise something bad is happening. This is stereotypical for a horror movie as it's often used to build tension. The audience know there watching a horror movie so the happiness and laughter will not last.

The age of the girls will be similar to the age we will use in our film so the target audience will be teens to adults. The purpose is to scare and the clip is very fast paced. We will also use fast paced clips as it creates a sense of mystery however it also ensures the audience is captivated.

The girl's in the clip appear confident and carefree. This is a good feature for an opening seen to show the character's free and happy as most probably it wont stay like that for long.
Close-ups are used to show the emotion on the character's faces and synchronous sounds of the keyboard and car.
Long shots are often used so it looks like someone is watching what is happening which is a feature my group will use as it is very powerful. It gives the sense that although they do not know they are being watched they most likely are. This is common in horror films.

Establishing shots are used showing the sorority house and also the stranded park. The stranded park is stereotypical with horror films as it shows anything could happen when no one is watching. Rural settings work best for horror films.
Murders happen quickly in the film which is a feature my group will be using as the main storyline is quickly introduced. It also ensures the audience is enthralled straight away.
The characters personalities are conveyed quickly. There is the vunerable girl, the bitchy girl, the follower and the 'normal' girl. This is so the audience have an idea of who is likely to survive and who will end up dead.
We will be introducing our characters personalities quickly in our film.

The costumes present the girls in an attractive and seductive way cosequentley appealing to the male audience. The lighting is mostly dark throughout reflecting the horror vibe. There are some light scenes at the start of the movie but it only gets darker. Most of the murders happen at night which is stereotypical in horror movies. The setting is always in one place which is the soriority house, we will probably be using the same idea. The setting also appeals to the teen audience.


I have used this trailer to help see the features of a horror movie. We will use synchronous sound when using murder weapons in the film as the massacre did with his chainsaw. Zoom in and close-ups will also be used to show the emotion on the charachters faces.
Dark lighting will be displayed throughout and also non-diagetic sound to build tension and help convey the horror of the film.
The part where they show the hook and then the girl being dragged towards it but don't actually see the outcome is a feature we will use as it gives the audience a question of what happened but also is extremely scary.

MIND MAP

Thursday 14 October 2010

Horror Movies

Main Task

Today I have been creating a mind map so I have an idea of what our group should include in our film.
We have discussed what the genre of our film should be and decided on a horror film. In my group there is Sarah, Emma and myself.
In my mind map I have thought about the aspects of a stereotypical horror film therfore I have included, the purpose, setting, music, costumes and much more. We discussed the setting and decided that it would take place in my house as it has access to woods and alley ways which would be useful for a horror film.
We thought about horror films that our out now or have been out for a while and extracted ideas from them.
Over the next couple of months we will be foccusing on this task.

G321: preliminary video

KATIE COOMBS- G321: preliminary video

Monday 11 October 2010

Further Editing

Today we looked over our preliminary task and decided what to change about it. We decided that we should include a shot-reverse-shot between Sarah and I.
The problem was that Sarah had on a different top so we could not film the extra footage today as the scenes wouldnt match. Sarah will bring in the top she had on previously so we can film tomorrow and then our preliminary task will be finished.
We edited more on the scenes we had, cutting some scenes so the overall effect was better. Unfortunately one of the group members has left school so we had to get use to the group being just the three of us and consequentley finishing the task without Yaz.
Overall the lesson went well and we managed to decide what needed to be done and acting on it. The task will be finished tomorrow ready for showing it in the upcoming lessons.

Wednesday 6 October 2010

Editing

Last lesson we edited our scenes for the project we were given which was to create short film clips. We used the editing software on the computer at school and were able to edit our scenes well. It took an hour to decide what clips we wanted and consequentley what footage we would use. We were able to finish our project last lesson.

Wednesday 29 September 2010

Video Work

Yesterdays lesson we were given the assingment to create scenes on the video camera that had to include, shot-reverse-shot, the 180 degree line, someone opening a door and dialogue between two or more charachters. My group includes Emma, Sarah and Yaz. We work well together as we all make sure we have an input on how to create the scene. As we have only just decided what shots we will be using and what diologue will be said we will be shooting the scenes next lesson. We will also be using props to help set the scene more effectively.

Sunday 26 September 2010

Kidulthood

We were told to analyse the first five mintes of the film Kidulthood. We did this by Mise-en-scene.


Lighting
Dark
Dull
Lighter in the classroom

Costumes
School uniform
Untidy
Big hoop earing
Tracksuits
Stereotypical chav costumes

Facial Expressions
Close-up on faces to convey the emotion
Hand held-camera effect
Agression

Setting
School playground, all children shown in different groups

Extra Information
Dramatic
Tension building sounds
Teachers are intimadated
Stereotypes

Analysis

Last lesson we were given the task to construct four different scenes. The four different scenes consisted of a disruptive class, a dentist waiting room, a romantic evening and a busy office.
We were in groups of five and had to figure out which role each person would play in the scene. Our main aim was to think of Mise-en scene. Once we decided on the role each would play we got into charachter and one person out of the group would take a picture, using the different shots such as high and low angle shots.
I think everyone worked well together, deciding quickly and effectively what role they were going to play.
As a group we could of improved on thinking about the backgrounds of our shots, keeping in mind which scene we were carrying out. For example, a romantic evening cannot have a school poster behind the charachters in the shot as it looks false.
After we took the photos, they were uploaded to the computer and as a class we looked at each groups attempt of the scenes. It helped to talk about what others thought went right and wrong about each others shots. Overall I really enjoyed the lesson as it helped to develop my knoweldge of the different shots and angles used in media.

Definitions

Track- Movement which stays a constant distance from the action, especially side-to-side movement

Tilt- Vertical moveement of the camera angle, i.e pointing the camera up and down ( as opposed to moving the whole camera up and down

Pan- Horizontal moveemt, left and right

Zoom- Camera moves in to a close up, often used to focus attention on a relevant detail or emphasises a charachters reaction

Arc- Camera moves around the subject like a tracking shot

Diegetic sound- Music/Sound that comes from a scene of the film

Non- diegetic sound- Music/Sound that is added to the film during editing

Mise-en-scene- Everything in the frame, i.e, colours, lighting, costumes, props and the setting

Long shot- Shot showing a charachter or setting in the distance

High angle shot- Shot taken from above looking down ( makes the audience feel powerful and the actors small and vunerable)

Low angle shot- Shot taken from below, it is as if the audience are being looked down on

Close up- Shot showing the charachter from the neck up, it is used to show facial expressions

Medium shot- Shot showing charachter from waist up, often used to show sociable shots also allows other charachters in view