Monday 20 February 2012

Main Task Filming Progress

Monday 13th Febuary- 

This was the day my group and I aimed to film the scenes featuring all our actors as well as all the scenes including our main prop , the car. We began early and almost immediately ran into problems as we could not film in all areas we wanted due to unforeseen circumstances ; Along with this in the run up to filming 3 out of 4 of the original actors specified in our pitch either pulled out or were unable to film and so we subsitituted with our new charater's Lizzy and Huw as well as  Tabatha from our group who subsituted for us to see if we could complete filming.

Tuesday 14th Febuary -

I was unable to film this day as i was Ill but my group were amazing and got a good bulk of establishing shots filmed which has given us a good amount to work with for the final cut.

Overall we decided that the footage we got from the 13th was not appropriate and that we would have to refilm it with better planning , although this is unforseen and pushes back editing slightly it is key to improve the quality of our finished product.

Sunday 12 February 2012

Main Task Film Pitch

As part of our task we had to picth our film to the class , below is the Prezi presentation we created to go along with our pitch.

http://prezi.com/qjacuaap-i8h/media-pitch/

Main Task Costume

We did not do a great deal of research into costume as being teenagers our selves we felt that our actors own choice of clothes would be appropriate seeing as it would suit the background of our characters as they are the average teenagers just like ourselves.

In our film will feature the actors wearing their own clothes which will be of a regular standard feauturing modern styles , nothing too out of the ordinary , just regular clothes to suit the seemingly regularity of our character's in the peice.

Wednesday 8 February 2012

British Board of Film Classification Ratings (BBFC)

In the world of film it is important to classify who the film is suitable for in order to create a sense of organisation and to make sure the audience watching the film is suited to it's content.
In order to guide our opinion on what we should rate our film as we decided to research the classifications and there definitions; below are the classifications.

UUniversalAll ages admitted, there is nothing unsuitable for children over 4.
PGParental GuidanceAll ages admitted, but certain scenes may be unsuitable for
children under 8. May contain mild language and sex/drugs
references. May contain moderate violence if justified by
context (e.g. fantasy).


12A12ACinema only. Introduced in 2002.Films under this category are
considered to be unsuitable for very young people. Those aged
under 12 years are only admitted if accompanied by an adult,
aged at least 18 years, at all times during the motion picture.
However, it is generally not recommended that
children under 12 years should watch the film. Films under this
category can contain mature themes, discrimination, soft drugs,
moderate swear words, infrequent strong language and
moderate violence/sex references.
1212Home media only since 2002. 12A-rated films are usually
given a 12 certificate for the VHS/DVD version unless
extra material has been added that requires a higher rating.
Nobody younger than 12 can rent or buy a 12-rated VHS,
DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game. Films in his category
may include infrequent drugs, infrequent use of strong
language, brief nudity, discreet sexual activity,
and moderate violence.
1515Only those over 15 years are admitted.Nobody younger
than 15 can rent or buy a 15-rated VHS, DVD,
Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game,or watch a film in the cinema
with this rating. Films under this category can contain
adult themes, hard drugs, strong language and one use of
very strong language, moderate-strong violence/sex references,
and undetailed sex activity.
1818Only adults are admitted.Nobody younger than 18 can rent or
 buy an 18-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game, or
watch a film in the cinema with this rating. Films under this
category do not have limitation on the bad language that is used.
Hard drugs are generally allowed, and strong violence/
sex references along with strong sexual activity is also allowed.
Scenes of strong real sex may be permitted if justified by
the context.





We decided as a group that our film should be classified as a 15 as that is the market in which we want to target , along with this it will allow us a bit more of an open range on what we can include without having to censor anything to suit a younger audience. With that in mind we felt our film would not be able to be classed as an 18 as it would not feuture such stong gore references.
Also if we made it an 18 alot of our target market would not be able to view the film which would defeat the point.



Monday 6 February 2012

Main Task Dates For Filming

The dates we have chosen for filming are:

13-14th February-  We have chosen to film the bulk of our task on these dates , by booking the camera out for two days it will give a good amount of time though we will try and film all on one day in order to keep consistency in our mise-en-scene. By doing this we will have time to look over our footage and will be completed by the end of half term allowing us a good amount of time to edit.

 We also did some test shots on The 30th of January to try and work out what type of shots we would be able to achieve as well as this some shots will be able to go towards our final peice.

Sunday 5 February 2012

Main Task Script Ideas

We decided against a rigid script for our peice as all our actors are friendly with eachother we decided to set out a loose guidline which will encourage natural conversations and "banter" which will suit the character's we are trying to portray.

Saturday 4 February 2012

Main Task - Name Of Film

As a group we have decided to name our film Out Of Service. I suggested this name to the group as i felt the idea of the phone going missing as well as our character's being stuck in the woods linked into the idea of being out of main areas thus loosing service.

This title came about after we developed our ideas of plot linking it more to the idea of threatening texts which would suit the teen aspect of our genre really well. Often in these times unfortunately cyber bullying can happen , we have tied this in to our film in a much more sinister way and i feel the title shows influence from our idea's in an interesting way.

As well as this the title gives the suggestion that our protaganists will be unable to call for help and are truely isolated from the modern world making the storyline more thrilling and horror like.
We feel our title creates enigma but suits the type of film we aim to make as for example it is not a one word title that is common with hollywood hit movies.

I am very glad we came to this decision and feel the title has a good amount of depth to it.

Main Task Location Research

With our story board in place we have been looking into locations ideas , as you can see from our storyboard below we feuture opening shots of woodland areas as well as the fact our driving scenes and layover location will all be in wood like areas.

For our opening shots we have decided a large woods named The Thicket will be a good place to get a good range of shots as it is such a large area with many different area's; as well as this it would be easily accesible for us to film but with this in mind we would have to avoid capturing the genral public on camera as it would ruin the isolated feeling we want to create in our opening.

For the more wild areas of woods we may feauture we woud go deeper into the less frequented areas in order to craete an even more isolated horror feel. When it comes to ideas for filming our car scenes there is another area we feel would be perfect as there is a long straight road as well as a pull in area , the only concequence is that this area is very popular for dog walking and so we would have to be very careful to not capture the public as it would ruin the eery feel we aim for.

Here are some pictures of different areas within the thicket.




Main Task Music in Horror Films

Tabatha has found an interesting peice of writing about music and sound effects used in stereotypical horror films , i found this very interesting as it could help us make some decisions as to the type of sound we want to use in our opening.

http://www.eng.umu.se/monster/john/sound_music.htm

Friday 3 February 2012

Main Task Animated Story Board

Before going into more detail of our film below is an animted version of our storyboard which has also acted for inspiration purposes as the animation format has helped up visualise our film opening better and has given us a wealth of ideas.

It is important to plan the opening so we make sure to include everything we would like as well as the fact it will make our filming process more efficient in the long run as we will have a plan to stick to , although with this in mind spontanious decisions are also welcome in the filming process to help us keep our ideas as fresh as possible.

We put together this story board after going through our initial notes on themes and choosing to base our film upon a group of teens who set out on a roadtrip but an unexpected pull over results in a situation they never imagined.

Below is the story board.

Wednesday 1 February 2012

Teen Horror Film Deconstruction 2



I Still Know What You Did Last Summer

00:49-3:41

I still know what you did last summer is the sequel to a teen horror classic , the 1997 hit “I know what you did last summer” , this film series is so well known that it has been parodied and referenced many times over the years in pop culture.
The basic storyline follows two teenagers who were lucky enough to escape the fisherman they thought they had killed by accident in the first film but may not be so lucky this time as the villain returns to seek his revenge once more.
The film begins with the opening titles stating “Columbia Pictures Presents” from the very beginning background non diegetic sounds of screaming can be heard which creates a tense atmosphere and implies the genre of the film immediately.
As the title of the film appears in fractured white text against a stark black background sounds of what seems like flashbacks of dark conversations can be heard vaguely as they have a disjointed effect as well as use of echo to create a jumpy horror feeling to the film.

As a final non-diegetic sound of a knife slicing echoes out an establishing shot can be seen at 1:08 of a religious figure, as the camera pans downwards a figure of Jesus can be seen and non-diegetic music begins to play; as the scene moves on the clip cuts to a close up shot of a pair of female feet in a church walking through the centre of many pews.
Diegetic sound of her feet moving can be heard clearly notifying the audience to just how silent the surroundings of the church are , as the shot pans up to reveal the back of a woman she appears to be in complete darkness creating an enigma into who this mysterious character is.

The scenery of the church often connotes ideas of isolation and silence which could put the audience on alert to a possible scary situation, creating tensions which are an important factor of a successful horror.

As the shot changes to that of a bird’s eye view it gives the audience a sudden sense that this character may be being watched as it pans towards her briefly before her full face is shown in a mid-shot at 1:37 , by revealing the identity of this character first it can be assumed that she is one of the main protagonists of this film along with this the fact that her face has a heavy focus on it and the background seems to have gone slightly out of focus shows her importance in the scene.

As the shot smoothly cuts once again to the back of the character suddenly a change of scenery and a close up shot of the character in a confession booth puts the audience on edge once again as it is unclear what will happen next, this creation of the sense of enigma is key in teen horror films as it keeps the audience on their toes.

This shot is filmed through the barrier to create the idea that we are seeing the protagonist from the view of whoever is listening, as the character voices “forgive me father for I have sinned” she begins to divulge into the guilt she feels for the death of the man who had died the previous summer.

Throughout this prose the shot changes from through the barrier at a close up to a mid-shot of the character in profile, this again creates the idea that the character is being watched as well as the listeners face not being revealed creates a sense of nervousness to the scene as anyone could be on the other side of that barrier.

A diegetic sound of a male saying “yes” in reply to the female is the first interaction given which seems to lull the character into a sense of security as she continues her story and confession, by doing this it not only creates a ambience in which something bad can be felt it also fills the audience in on the theme of the film from the start.
As the female finally voices the name of the man she killed the second character can be heard to say “I know”, as confusion crosses the protagonist’s face the shot switches back to that of the second character viewing through the barrier as suddenly it switches so we can now see the face of a man from the protagonist’s view creating a sense that this man is not someone to be trusted.

As he states “I know what you did last summer” the shot switches to a close mid shot and the man is seen to plunge towards the camera with a fishing hook as a loud diegetic crash can be heard.
With the use of slow shots and the small range throughout this opening it is the perfect build up to the horrific end which starts the film off perfectly as it is clear what is to come.