G321 Jan10: Eddie, Harriet, Philippa and Sophie

Philippa : The Last Breath

2009-12-15T02:39:00.001-08:00

Harriet: Evaluation

2009-12-15T02:03:00.000-08:00

Foundation Portfolio: The Evaluation
Our film ‘The Last Breath’ was of the slasher horror genre. The typical conventions of a slasher horror genre involves one of the characters been violently killed through a series of events which climaxes in death. Usually there is a beautiful young woman seen from the point of view of the killer who is preyed upon This is linked to the theory of Carol J. Clover, an American professor of film studies who believed in the ‘final girl.’ It is a woman character has appeared in the whole film and is “the last alive to confront the killer, and the one left to tell the story. The final girl theory has been used in lots of films, including The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Alien, Halloween Scream, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Clover suggests that in these films, the viewer begins by sharing the perspective of the killer, but experiences a shift in identification to the final girl partway through the film” .The audience is both attracted to and supports her plight against the often psychotic killer. The killer is usually someone that is some what connected to the victim or community which makes the story more sinister.
As well as this slasher horror films usually include teenagers. The audience are most affected by teenagers as they are on the brink of sexual development, and since a slasher horror is a moral film, that kills characters according to their particular vices or sins, teenagers are the perfect example as during night out they will have sex for the first time.
We used a mixture of both girls and boys and although most victims are usually girls, we decided that the victim would be male. We did this because although the story involved the death of Elizabeth’s boyfriend the main character would be Elizabeth and the film would be based on the life before and after the death of her friends.
The story of ‘The Last Breath’ is based around a group of teenagers. They are very typical of their age range (16-18) and when characterising we used stereotypical characters of a modern day friendship group including: A geek, a sports player and a Plastic Fantastic Girl. In our consumer society, female teenagers are obsessed by shopping and constantly looking good; this character would have a mass appeal to not only the female audience that can some what relate to her but also the make audience who would be attracted to her.
Consideration went into the target audience as we wanted parts of the film that would relate to all target audience ages. The group represents young British teens, enjoying their summer holidays. The ages of characters were crucial as we wanted to make the film as real as possible. The story is set during the summer holidays and the reason for the camping trip is in celebration of exam results, suggesting that they are 16 years of age and they are developing from school children. We used both females and male as this would create more of a story. If we had based the group been all males, we could not have brought aspects of relationships and sexuality into the film unless characters had been homosexuals. We decided to base the story around British teenagers as we could all personally relate to them and help build each character. To portray a British atmosphere we used classic British locations basing it in a corn field in the middle of autumn when the leaves are falling and the weather is dropping. The group is part of middle class society, attending private school and enjoying a comfortable life. This will be shown to the audience through the designer clothing that they will wear and their posh accents. We wanted to make the characters with totally different personalities and although none of the group was ‘snobby’ Daisy will show aspects of this in her speech.
When considering film distribution companies we focused on British companies. This was because our entire film was based around the idea of classic British-ness.
Hammer Film Productions is a film production company based in the United Kingdom, founded in 1934. ‘Hammer horror’ was publicized in 1955 they created iconic British films including: ‘The Curse of Frankenstein’, ‘Dracula’ and ‘The Mummy’ All characters that have become classic horror figures. With Hammer been relaunched in 2007 they have been able to advertise themselves again. With a British based story, Hammer could distribute ‘The Last Breath’ and create the iconic figures of characters that they have previous produced.
When considering the target audience, we considered all aspects of what different age ranges appeal to. We decided to focus on 16 to 28 year olds as they could mostly relate to the story. ‘The Last Breath’ tells the story of a young group of teenagers that are enjoying the summer holidays and celebrating end of school. After the age of 16, you are allowed to leave compulsory full-time education to take a job, a British audience could relate to this, attracting them to the film more. Their actions also show the development from adolescence into maturity through their experiences, which the older audience can could identify with and engage with more as a result. Empathy is vital in a horror film. Looking at the BBFC I would make the classification for this film a 15 as the story is aspects of a sexual nature and deaths of characters.

The reality of the films attracts the audience as they can feel like they are in the film. With creating such a familiar story line, the audience will remember situation they have been in like the film which will appeal to the audience. We wanted to make the chapel scenes into black and white in order to enable the audience to imagine the scene themselves. Funerals are never a happy time and with the right music we could create this atmosphere in the cinema. To the end of the film we had the woods scene with Elizabeth’s reading imported over to top. What the audience could do was listen to the words yet watch the story unfold, without finding out what entirely happened. This would keep the audience attentive and concentrated on both visual and aural aspects of the film. What were wanted to do is make our black figure an iconic horror figure that could be merchandized. The illusion of the figure would be what was under the hood, was there a face or a horrific image that haunts the consumer.
. This would publicize the film and advertise the cast. This advertisement campaign has been previously used with many films including: the ‘Saw’(2004) Jigsaw, the ‘Scream Face(1996)’ and the ‘Friday 13th’(1980) hockey mask. These successful techniques have been able to advertise the film and still make money through the sale of the merchandise. If we were to create merchandise for ‘The Last Breath’ I would focus on the black figure with a hood, the consumer would be attracted to finding out what is under the hood. To make the figure more frightening I would have the face of the murderer, covered in blood with one glass eye and minimum teeth. He would have black greasy hair and numerous scars. The whole idea of his image is to scare the audience and be what the public imagine as haunting.
To create the film we used a Sony HC51 camera. We filmed half the scenes in a field and the other in a chapel both of which were on level ground. We wanted scenes to be perfectly straight; in order to do this we used a tripod, this enabled all of our shots to be precise. We wanted to show different ways of filming including tracking, panning and zooming with a consideration to the lighting as this contributed highly to the atmosphere of the film. By using natural lighting shows more aspects of reality; however where we filmed of scene was a dark area from all the tree’s around so we had to use a small artificial light in order to show brightness on characters faces.
After we had filmed all the footage we needed, we then imported all our work onto a Mac computer; where we used the iMovie programme. iMovie offers a range of applications in order to produce a film. We were able to cut and edit footage, change contrast and brightness levels, use effects and transitions including fading into and out of each scene. I found the editing of footage the most enjoyable aspect as I was able to try out new ideas and see our final piece come together. Using iMovie enabled me to try using a Mac computer. I found using a Mac difficult as I wasn’t used to the software however once I was used to it, I recognized that this was the best software for what we were trying to achieve. To create the titles, we used a newer model of iMac for the programme, LiveType. Using this programme we were able to create titles using different fonts, colour schemes and sizing. We also looked at the transitions in the titles appearing and disappearing. I found the titles harder to produce as I thought the programme was not set out as well, however I thought our final titles matched the footage well and helped create the horror aspect of the film. Using a cloudy background it would suggest to the audience dark and confusing atmospheres and by making the text blend in with the background it was show that there are secrets beyond the surface, which depicts the actions in the film.

To make the music for ‘The Last Breath’ we used GarageBand, This was the hardest part of bringing the film together as we had to get the timings with the scenes correct.
We mainly used diegetic sounds as they were most relevant to scenes. However we used a small amount of music that we had made ourselves during Elizabeth’s speech as this would help towards the emotion of her speech. Music is a vital part of all horror films as this creates suspense and can account for aspects of horror in it.

When creating the title for ‘The Last Breath’ we looked at the different styles we could use in order to contribute to the atmosphere of the film. With a cloudy background, the film will seem confused and dark. However with including parts of white in the title this would brighten the picture and show that there is ‘light at the end of the tunnel.’
The opening shows people standing outside a chapel; they are wearing black and generally look upset. We decided to use a black and white effect through iMovie as this would show the emotion of the scene and make the scene more dream like. We applied this monochrome scheme to all chapel scenes in order to portray this throughout the film.

The film then flashbacks to a group of teenagers walking through a field. The picture then changes into colour, changing the emotion of the scene and showing the difference in location and times. The scene starts by filming out from a black figure that is in the film with the group: although they can not see him behind them. This creates the first feelings of fear which is complimented by the suspension music. “Tzvetan Todorov formed the theory of the narrative. He believed that a narrative came in three stages, opening with a form of equilibrium, thus getting disrupted and then the equilibrium later getting regained and either a new or the opening equilibrium is returned." As the film zooms out we see a larger picture that they are walking across a field, happily in conversation; unknown to the figure behind them.

The flashbacks continue then the film reverts back to reality. What the audience will find disorientating is that the reality is in black and white however by doing this the audience will stay alert and understand that the black and white effect contributes more to the emotion than the reality.
This shot shows a full view of the chapel pews, which will help the audience understand the settings.
The two of the characters from the field scene are the focus in this shot
which raises the first question, where are the other group members? This creates initial tension and the audience will sympathize as the girl nearest the camera is crying.
The following scene shows a long shot of the chapel with people spread all through the pews. The focus point of this show is the stained glass window; it is in the centre of the shot and shows the audience exactly where they are. We worked on the rule of thirds in this shot in order to discourage placement of the subject at the center, Although nothing much happens in the scene it helps the audience work out the storyline. This re-established the shot of the inside of the church, the mis-en-scene is based around the funeral, the coffin is directly below the stain glassed window and the pews side evenly on each side.

We wanted to make the next shot simple as this scene was the one that helped the understanding of the story. Through Elizabeth’s speech we learn what has happened. The final scenes show what happened in the wood, Elizabeth’s voice has been imported over the top of these scenes, this is connect both the reality and flashbacks together, and the story will unfold. The focal point of the wood scenes are the fire as this is the main lighting for the scenes helps show the audience what they are doing in the wood. The group sit closely together, talking and laughing which the audience will react to as they know this group has been separated. The fire is the focal point of the scene as this depicts the danger that follows.
The plot of the story is the group go out for a camping trip and each member of the group is violently killed, Elizabeth and Todd are the only friends to survive. The story ends at the funeral where the black figure appears at the back of the chapel

Eddie : Evaluation

2009-12-15T02:00:00.000-08:00

Media evaluation for final piece

For my production piece we were asked to film the opening two minutes of out film , after much deliberation we decided to do a Slasher horror. Slasher horror is a sub genre of the well known horror genre, typically involving a killer killing many people in sequence .Typically slasher horrors build up suspense from the outset. This suspense is created by using effective camera shots, effects, music and sound effects and play upon our own ideas. Effective camera shots in slasher horrors are often not focused or can be hand held. Slasher horrors also like to play on our idea that everything is based upon survival of the fittest, in most film such as The Strangers (2008) or Friday the 13th (2009)we see all the weaker characters to be killed or abducted by the figure of horror first. In the piece we see Jacob die , in the piece we see him to be the most innocent witch seems to go against the recurring theme of innocent surviving commonly used in Slasher horrors, we did so because it scares you more, the innocent one trying to help the group is killed really does show that it can be anyone and this ideas scares us. Why not any of the other characters we think, no reason the selection was completely random furthermore creating this fear. Using Tsvestan Todorov – Equilibrium, we can say that our piece does have an equilibrium , beginning is calm , then the scream disrupts this calm , Jacob dies . It also agrees with Levi-Strauss’s – Binary opposition’s narrative theory in witch there are opposites , for example rich/poor , we can relate this to our piece with , brave/cowardly , clever/ not clever , couples/ non couples.

Our film ‘the last breath’ creates a little suspense but poorly. Suspense is created in our piece mainly through camera effects, eerie music and effective editing. More hand held shots and oblique shots should have been used in the filming and more thought put in to the climactic scene which was meant to be Jacob running. The effects used in slasher horrors can vary from a simple but effective black-and-white to more complicated effects: for example, distortion in the picture to hide a character and so on. We used black-and white effects in the chapel scene to create suspense, although this effect is commonly associated with flashback scenes; our piece did not follow this trend because the woodland scenes would have been less effective in black-and-white. We decided the chapel scene needed to be more mysterious and gloomy for suspense purposes. Ideally, we would included a scene in which we (the audience) see the killer; but only subtly to keep the enigma and suspense we would have used more effects but due to a time limit on the piece we had no time to use these scenes - useful effects to create suspense include flashes, fog, slowed speeds, rain, electricity and many more. Music varied from scene to scene as we cut back and forth from clip to clip (chapel to woods). Music always plays a huge role in the build-up of suspense, along with sound effects; commonly an eerie sound will be used rising in volume or tempo toward the climax of the scene.

We made several changes to the original ideas such as a heart beat between changes of scene and some of the camera shots. These changes were all made for the greater good; not only did we test the heartbeat idea but we nearly put it in before deciding that it had no dramatic effect and that it did not help create an enigma or suspense. If we had more time and a bigger budget we would have been able to accommodate the heartbeat idea but shots would have had to be filmed differently and many more of them taken as building up tension in this way is difficult. We would of ideally used point of view shots or over the shoulder shots as these are commonly used in slasher horrors for example above the point of view shot used in Friday the 13th of a girl looking at her killer but can only see up to his thighs, the heartbeat effect can create a great amount of suspense because as the heart beats become more regular and fast it creates that needed suspense although it is great for creating suspense you don’t often see it used in horror films , sound effects tend to be more eerry in horror films , its doesn’t conform with many other existing horror films but is used in a handful of other genres. A perfect example is ‘the strangers’ using all of the above to create suspense and building up to a climactic horror scene , but instead of using heart beats it uses a sound sample of a song that is playing almost all of the time in the actual film Knowing this we still decided to continue with this

Our film was made to appeal to an age group of 16- 28 due to its horror factor, you rarely see younger people watching slasher horrors especially not slasher horrors which usually involve violence. The reason why it is appealing to this age group is because generally they seem to be thrill seekers, any less than 16 are too scared to watch horror films and after the age of 28 they seem to become more mellow and watch more mellow films because they seem to lose the love for an adrenaline rush, which any kind of horror movie can provide. According to the BBFC we would classify our final movie as a 15 certificate , the official guide states that there may be frequent use of bad language, nudity is allowed, sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail, violence may be strong, dangerous techniques can be used, strong threat and menace may be used and drug taking may be used. Our piece would fall into all of these categories, although generally slasher horrors are rated 18, for example Halloween and Scream are both rated 18 - I used these to portray the general market of slsaher horrors. The violence in the film will appeal to the lower classes whereas the enigma will appeal to the higher classes, catering for the majority of the market. The stereotypical ‘upper class girl will make up the majority of the people that don’t watch it as they seem to be less interested in violence and more interested in love and romance, although there is young love in our piece it has little appeal to girls who have no interest in horror.

Media institutions looking to distribute ‘The Last Breath’ would be a British institution that specialises in horror; horror institutes usually have higher budgets to make the films because of the high costs of special effects. Institutes such as FilmFour, who can accommodate for this higher budget, would distribute our film. The reason for using a British institution is because it will appeal to an English market due to the filming being completed in England, all the actors are English and due to fact the narrative is continuing a traditional English myth. For example FilmFour have recently brought out the sequel to The Descent; the reason why this is a good example is it is a ‘sequel to the smash-hit Brit horror’ it shows that if ‘The Last Breath’ was a success they could create a franchise from it as they have with The Descent.They also are an excellent institution to represent our film as they have good marketing potential, they are able to advertise on all Channel 4 channels which will appeal to a larger market.

The improvement in skill from the preliminary task to the final piece has been huge. The use of effects and editing is minimal in the preliminary task where a simple match on action is used and credits. Whereas in the final piece we vary from using black and white effects , to switching shots and use of music and sound effects within the piece. We opened the final piece with some titles - we also used a monochrome effect in this to create an enigma, it created a mysterious atmosphere mainly due to the smoke, we interpret this as mysterious because it is calm, yet hiding something. This mystique is carried over to the opening chapel scene which is good as it helps with the mystique we crate with the black and white. We also used this effect in the chapel scenes this use of technology enabled us to have more suspense in the piece. Other technologies used in the editing processes was the use of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds for example the sound in the background of the final shots, we crated this to make sure the audience were able to understand what was happening, within the description they talk of the teen life this is also good for appealing to different markets or have a bigger impact of the target market because of the ‘teen life’. The voice over is not only useful for helping the audience understand but also has an erry sense about it and portrays Jacobs character perfectly not only to attract the thrill seeking horror junkies but also the loved up girls witch Jacobs appealing personality and looks.

Progressing from the preliminary task I have learn the importance of the correct shots and camera angles used to create an enigma, which is needed a lot more in our piece to appeal more to the audience. Along with a greater knowledge of how to use sound effects, diegetic and non-diegetic sounds and a improvement in use of the camera for example the panning shot (woods) used in the final piece is a great improvement on the shots used in my preliminary task. All the above were used and their improvement on the piece was vital, without the use of good camera shots we would have not been able to have such an effect on the audience, likewise with the sound effects and editing.

Although the editing skills were developed we lacked in actor names in the titles, the reason for this is because we did not want to ruin the mise-en-sense interrupting the piece. The post filming planning was carefully structured; we had previously decided how the shots would come together, the music and the transitions. To put all the pieces of the puzzle together and finish the piece off adding the music and editing the shots, for example editing to match on action. We used Imovie as it is the one used by the school , ideally with a bigger budget we would of used final cut pro with a wider range of effects and transitions along with generally much better editing software. To do the music we also used another product used by the school on mac’s, garage band again this restricted us to what was possible ideally we would of used reason or another much more vast programme with more instruments and loops, this restricted us greatly to what music we could use therefore making the build up of tension harder.

Sophie- Evaluation

2009-12-15T01:58:00.000-08:00

Our task for this term was to produce a two minute clip to a film of the genre of our choice. The film that we produced was called ‘The Last Breath’; it is of the horror genre, specifically of the sub-horror Slasher genre. We decided to produce a Slasher horror film as we felt that this would be the most interesting of the genres, as it is not clear about what is going to happen. Typical horror film conventions have mystery and various enigmas which add suspense to the film and are always key to keep the audiences’ attention. We thought this was vital to incorporate into our own production as we wanted the audience to know straight away that our film is of the horror genre. In order to make the audience want to watch the whole film, having a strong and interesting start is crucial as it sets the tone for the whole film. For example, in ‘Prom night’ (2008), the lead character starts off dreaming of what eventually happens throughout the film. We thought about this and wanted to ensure that the audience would be gripped throughout the first two minutes to leave the audience wondering what would happen next. This is important as we wanted to portray the effect of the rest of the film, it is a horror film and we needed the audience to be on edge. The BBFC classification for our film would be a 15, as “strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.” This is suitable for our film, as our film has the threat of violence but no violence is seen and there is nothing sexually explicit.

Our film agrees with the conventional ideas of a typical Slasher horror film as it revolves around the death of a character, with the result of a “whodunit” effect at the start. This is key in the development of tension and to widen the enigma of ‘what is going on?’ to ‘What has gone on?’ Another feature was the use of teenagers for our film. A lot of films of the horror genre use teenagers for example “Blair Witch Project”, as they are easy to relate to, they aren’t complex unlike adults, they are usually just out for a good time and on the brink of sexual development, this makes them easy targets and therefore easier to use in a film of the slasher horror genre, This is highly conventional for a slasher horror genre and we felt that it was important to clearly define our film as this genre so that the audience had some idea what to expect. Tzvetan Todorov’s narrative theory states that “stories begin with an equilibrium or status quo where any potentially opposing forces are in balance. This is disrupted by some event, setting in chain a series of events; problems are solved so that order can be restored to the world of fiction”. In our film, the equilibrium is the teenagers going on their camping trip, where everything is happy, and then Jacob’s investigation of the noise in the woods is the event which starts off the chain of events. This theory flows with our narrative well as they put Jacob to rest which starts a new equilibrium.

British teenagers of mixed gender are the social group our film focuses on, from around the age of 16 up to about the age of 19. We did this by using actors of that age group and we depicted stereotypical characters that most people can relate to. We had the stereotypical “girly-girl”, the “jock”, the “geeks” (male and female), and the “tom-boy”. The stereotypical characteristics we chose for our characters included long, bleached blonde hair and pink colours for our “girly-girl” character, Boyish clothes for our “tom-boy” etc. Our characters also had stereotypical attitudes, which we felt would back up the idea of the teenage social groups. As British teenagers, they are all thrilled about finishing their GCSE’s, an emotion the audience could empathise with. Additionally, the attitudes and behaviour they display when threatened engages the audience, for example, one of the group follows the sound to find out what’s going on, then one by one the others follow until only two of the group are left alive. In a stressful situation, people respond differently, these teenagers react differently. As a director, we decided to make this link to the old fashioned conventions of a horror film being a morality tale; two of the characters respond according to hormones, having sex, so as a result they are first to be killed by the murderer.

The media institute most likely to distribute our project would be Film 4, we feel this as they are a British film institute, which represents our film perfectly as our film represents British social groups. As a film of the slasher horror genre, it is a low budget film, like many horror films are. Although film 4 would be able to accommodate a higher budget, we felt a large budget would not be necessary for our film as we did not want a “polished” effect for our film. This is key as if the film was produced on a low budget, the result of a higher budget would certainly not have the same effect and may look too over the top, therefore it would not have the same effect and could eliminate the frightening result. Other Media institutions for example, Dreamworks, would not have been suitable for our film as it is and American film studio and the films they produce are usually aimed at children, cartoons and family movies for example, Shrek and Madagascar. As our film is neither American nor a light hearted family film, it is obvious that Dreamworks work would not apply to our particular film. Paramount is another film institute which distributes Dreamworks, it also would not be appropriate for our film, Paramount have produced many films, which include films such as Transformers, Star Trek and GI Joe. These films are more of a sci-fi genre so therefore again they do not apply to our film. We needed an institute that would represent our film accurately.

The audience we are targeting for our film are between the ages of fifteen and twenty eight, we feel this is appropriate as teenagers of around fifteen will be able to relate easily to our film, as many of them will be familiar of relaxing with friends and chilling out, and would probably be familiar with the sexual development as they may be experiencing it during their current lives. We feel that adults over the ages of twenty eight may not be as interested as many will have children and may not be looking for the qualities our film has, such as the fear factor combined with an element of a thrill. We targeted our audience by the genre of our film; we knew that young children would not be watching a slasher horror film as a result of their age. We also knew that by branding our film as a slasher horror film, and then audiences who weren’t keen on the genre itself would not watch it either. We felt that by making the black masked figure an iconic horror figure that we could merchandise, this has worked well for other horror films such as the Hockey mask in “Friday the 13th” and the scream mask from the film “scream.”

We used the Sony HC 51 to shoot our film, we used the same camera all the time so we got to grips with it and knew how to get the best out of it. We uploaded our footage on to the Mac computers, where we used iMovie to edit it into a film. We did this by splicing the footage up into suitable scenes and using various effects to fit in with our genre, for example, during the flashbacks we used colour, whereas in the present we used monochrome. We used the different colour themes as we found that it showed a distinct difference in the scenes, ensuring the audience knew that there were two temporal shifts. The diegetic sounds in our film are the sounds which are naturally heard in our scenes, in our films case, these include the sounds of the cast walking through the woods, the fire, the dialogue between the actors and the sound of the actors and actresses walking into the chapel. The non-diegetic sounds were the music we lay over the scenes. To make the music for our film, we used the programme Garageband as well as the iMovie sound effects as we found some appropriate music which added suspense to our film, this we felt was vital as throughout many films, it is the music that grabs the audience’s attention and keeps them gripped.

Looking back to our preliminary task at the beginning of this year, I feel that we have all grown as individual people and as a whole group. At the beginning, none of us had any real experience with a camera and/or shooting a film. Our preliminary task helped us all to get to grips with a variety of different camera techniques, this was vital to our film as without it we would not have been able to make the transitions into the making of our full pieces. I feel that now we are all more familiar with using the camera, and can use it comfortably knowing what we can do with it. The various techniques and the various shots which we are able to use now, for example match on action, shot-reverse-shot and zooming and panning smoothly are key in the production of a good film, they give the professional effect that we were aiming to achieve.

Evaluation : Philippa

2009-12-14T13:09:00.000-08:00

Evaluation – ‘The Last Breath’

Our media production piece is the opening two minutes of our film, ‘The Last Breath’, which is of the genre Slasher Horror. A Slasher horror typically involves a psychopathic killer stalking a group or people with some sort of cutting tool, this being violent and concluding in one or more deaths in a gruesome manor in the myths of a particular night time engagement.

Our media production piece uses many of the stereotypical Slasher horror conventions, death being one. The audience can understand by the funeral that there has been a death; ‘Elizabeth’ speaking also creates an image of a death as she is speaking about ‘Jake’ and about what happened. . We included this in our opening as we wanted to create an enigma for the audience, who’s died? What happened? And where is the rest of the characters? This also foretells something dark and horrible will be coming throughout the film.

A killer or stalker is normally present in a Slasher horror and in the flash backs at the beginning you can just make out a mysterious figure in the background, which we assume the group of people don’t realise is there. We can develop this image by staging noises throughout the film which the characters notice but don’t act upon, and then realise it was this mysterious man. This figure can also create an enigma for the audience, who is this character? And why is he there behind these particular people?

A group of people are also normally the main focus in a Slasher horror, and we decided to use teenagers as we realised from other horror films, such as the ‘The Blair witch project’ (1999), that teenagers are normally present as they are seen as more vulnerable. Teenagers also can depict some moral compass for the director; a classic slasher horror will have the last person alive to be the sensible girl yet the first to die to be the ones who smoke, drink alcohol and have sex, teenagers are perfect to create this image as this is the social groups you can have in real life. We use the group of people in the flashback scenes, however when we go forward to the funeral you only see two of the characters in the group in the church, again an enigma is created of where are the rest of the teenagers?

Our location was also chosen based on other typical horror films, in particular the woods in the flashback scenes. The woods are seen as the perfect horror setting, as in the woods you could get lost easily, again this is apparent in ‘The Blair Witch Project’ (1999), and anything could be lurking in the bushes or trees. We also made sure our opening was in the night as it is a time where people feel unsafe because they feel unaware of there surroundings because you have impaired vision, and this can be a way of tapping into the audience’s psychological fears, which is all a slasher horror wants to create, you want to get into the audience’s state of emotion and fear.

Blood, death and violence are also normal factors of a Slasher horror; however we don’t view these particular images in the beginning. However it is implied you will see these further on in the film as the funeral obviously means there was a death, and it is normally assumed in a Slasher horror that it was done violently and normally involving some bloodshed, these factors are classed to the BBFC would be inappropriate for a 15 however as they wont be direct images, we can still set are age range to 16-28’s

Our final production piece can be linked with many social groups from our characters. The main six in the group of people being stalked are very stereotypical characters and this might help reach out to the groups we have stereotyped. Firstly the characters Bradley and Poppy are classed as the ‘popular’ two, they are both aesthetically pleasing and this might attract people who find the characters physically attractive. Samantha and Todd are the stronger characters who could attract the ‘sporty’ social groups as they wear trainers, tracksuits and act in an irresponsible matter. Elizabeth and Todd are the couple and the ‘geeky’ two, we represent this by their body language and what they wear, this could attract their social groups and couples as it make the film sadder as some of the audience could sympathise with Elizabeth with the loss of her partner and friends. Over all the moral of the groups is apparent because Elizabeth survives at the end, she is seen as the moral one she doesn’t drink, smoke and is still a virgin even though she is in a relationship, this is a classic depiction for a slasher horror as the most immoral characters normally die.

One of our representations would be the British public. It is noticeable that the film is British as the accents of the characters are all British. The flashback scenes also represent British locations as they are based in a typically British field, it’s very bare, the weather is also gloomy on that day as it is getting darker, and it is also about to rain, these will all help attract a British audience.

Film 4 could be the media institution that would distribute ‘The Last Breath’. The reason I have chosen Film 4 is because they produce many British films. I think this would be suitable as we are a low budget film and it might not be the right choice to be distributed by a big American Company because there use to produce big Hollywood blockbusters. However if there is a good reaction for ‘The Last Breath’ Film 4 are prone to do sequels for example ‘The Descent: Part One (2005) and Two (2009), and this would be a good idea for our genre as there are normally a chain of film to form a horror franchise once the initial film succeeds.

We decided against another institution like DreamWorks as their main focus is on a younger age range and in the animation genre, which we use none of in our film, this is also the same as Paramount as their main focus is on action films, film 4 don’t focus on these sort of films they are have a wider variety to distribute. There also big American companies and are into blockbusters for example ‘transformers’ – our film is a low budget film and wouldn’t be compatible with DreamWorks or Paramount as it is with Film 4.

We aimed ‘The Last Breath’ at the 15-28 age range and can be attractive to any gender. We chose this age range as it would be unsuitable for any age under 15, and these ages can understand more of the phrases, and situations better. The film would be a 15 according to the BBFC; it implies many situations however it doesn’t use any direct drug use or sexual scenes, we were encouraged to use these situations as morals are involved in slasher horrors as the immoral people normally are first to be attacked.

To attract the audience we created enigmas and tension, we did this by starting with flashbacks. The flashbacks are very brief and this creates an enigma, asking ‘what are they doing out in the woods?’, and the figure in the background also attracts the audience as you don’t know who he is or why he is following this particular group of people, you can tell he’s a murderer because the music tended to get more mysterious and he was also in black, we chose a male character to play the murderer as other slasher horrors use male figure as they tend to be seen as a more dominating sex. The music builds up the tension as it’s done with violin stings and this gives a sharp noise which builds up the suspense of why their going into the woods.

The modern day setting and the characters may attract the audience as it creates a Verisimilitude, and the modern day setting would be more popular with the 16-19 ages in our target ages, because they could relate to particular buildings and situations. The audience might also understand the situation of the teenagers in the film as many would have been in a camping situation before, and this might create more tension as it could in fact happen to them, therefore this can build up the mise-en-scene.

From the planning to the post-production stages of ‘The Last Breath’, I have personally learnt to use technologies in much more depth than in my preliminary task. During the editing stages we learnt how effects can be used at different stages, our main effect was used in the chapel scenes as we changed them into black and white, this worked well as it made the chapel seem duller and we wanted this melancholic atmosphere as there are murders in the whole of the narrative. However we were told as feedback that because the chapel scene was in black and white, it looked more like the past therefore making it confusing for the flashbacks set in the woods, if we could change this I think we would have no Black & White effect as it could ruin the mise-en-scene. For the title we used Live Type on the iMacs to create a mysterious title with a foggy background as this make the appearance of night, it also linked in with the black and white effect on the chapel scenes.

The Sound was mainly created on Garageband; I created the bell ringing, with musical typing, at the beginning with the title and the chapel. This worked well as it creates mystery with the fog in the title, but with the chapel it is a non-diegetic sound as it does not have the same tonal qualities of a chapel bell; this may affect verisimilitude, but creates a darker ambience, more like a funeral. During the flashback change to the chapel the music changes to quieter, sad music for the chapel to create the funeral mood, and then violin strings for the flashback to build up suspense. For example with the first flashback when entering the field, the strings build up suspense because it makes the audience feel as if they’re making a bad decision in entering the woods. Elizabeth’s voice over the top of the scenes was possible the hardest thing in the editing stage because it was difficult to configure extracting the audio.

From the preliminary task we use some camera shots in particular the long shot,
Throughout the characters are talking we use 180 degree rule and Match on action when Harriet enters the door, these help establish the scenery, however we didn’t use some effects like black & white in the preliminary task as it wasn’t a needed effect to use in the scene, we didn’t include credits because it was a smaller project and the actors we on a different scale which was harder to organise as there were more people to control, we also thought as we wanted the beginning to be more mysterious we thought credits would ruin the mise-en-scene.

Philippa : Audience Feedback

2009-12-13T02:26:00.000-08:00

How many people provided feedback: 56

How many people liked it: 44
How many poeple didnt like it: 12

Best Rated: music & sound
Worst Rated: The start

Positive comments: Black & White, Flash Back, Actors, Speech, Opening, Pace, Music, Funeral.
Negative Comments: Wobbly Camera, Speech is too long and Voice over.

Sophie- Filming pt2

2009-11-26T01:18:00.000-08:00

We have now finished the filming stage. We have shot the chapel scenes and re-shot Jacob's running scene as it had not come out at all before, the re-shot was very successful and fits in perfectly with shots from our previous filming.
We are now in the editing process of our film, which is going very well. Philippa, Harriet and I are editing the film and Eddie is in charge of the music.

Sophie- Filming pt1

2009-11-17T02:16:00.000-08:00

On Saturday 14th November, we filmed the majority of our film. We all met in Hagley, and we filmed our production. Our film was set at Wychbury Hill, which is actually supposedly haunted. The filming went very well despite it getting dark much faster than we anticipated. As a result of this, a couple of our scenes will have to be re-shot and we also still have to film our chapel scene. The weather held up nicely and this made it easier for us to film.

Sophie and Philippa: Finalised Props and Costumes

2009-11-12T07:19:00.001-08:00

Props:

Torches
Camp fire
Matches
Wood
Cigarettes
Beer bottles
Organ
Coffin
Black Sheet(draped over coffin)
Rucksack
Speakers

Costumes;

Todd: red hoodie from Superdry, jeans and black trainers.
Elizabeth: plain black top, shirt and jacket, grey-ish jeans, plimsolls
Poppy: pink top, skinny jeans, and bally pumps. A lot of long necklaces and bangles and a jacket.
Samantha: grey jogging bottoms, a long top under a short sleeve top, plimsolls
Jacob: Jeans, standard shoes. Plain top and a shirt over the top.
Bradley: t-shirt, jeans, shoes, dog tag, jacket

Sophie, Philippa and Harriet: Break down of each scene

2009-11-12T07:12:00.000-08:00

Breaking down of each scene:

Scene One:
 12 Random people including the 6 friends-Poppy, Bradley, Jacob, Elizabeth, Samantha and Todd.
 All Cast in black, some with hats on, and someone holding an umbrella

Scene Two:
 All characters in the scene, and Eddie in black stood at the gate behind the field
 Props: ipod, portable speakers, cans, cigarettes, rucksack

Scene Three:
 Elizabeth and Bradley only in the camera view, and other random cast
 Elizabeth needs to be wearing a hat and have tissues

Scene Four:
 All characters are in the scene
 Props: equipment to make a fire, cigarette, wine glass with rose wine in

Scene Five:
 12 people scattered in pews
 Organ is to be playing

Scene Six:
 Fire should be blazing, all characters are in scene

Scene Seven:
 Four men in black suits carrying coffin. Coffin made from boxes and a black sheet covering it
 All cast should be sat in pews

Scene Eight:
 All characters are in the scene, BUT NOT JACOB,
 Fire is burning out

Harriet: Script

2009-11-12T01:48:00.001-08:00

Establishing Shot: Church Doors

1. Ex. Outside Church. Day.

Many people gather outside of the chapel all dressed in black. The weather will be gloomy and dull.

PERSON ONE
Such a young life has been taken.

PERSON TWO
I know, and one of the worst ways to go.

The Bell is ringing. The church doors open and the crowd walk into the chapel two-by-two.

Non-diegetic Bell is ringing.

2. Ex. Field. Night

Characters walking through a field towards a wood. There is a mysterious figure in background of shot behind gate, characters do not see the person and continue towards the woods. They singing and talking and in the fading shot the figure by the gate has displayed.

BRADLEY:
I’ve got a feeling tonight’s going to be a good night.

Girls start to sing Black Eyed Peas Song.

They singing and talking and in the fading shot the figure by the gate has displayed.

Non- diegetic music is playing through speakers that BRADLEY carries.

3. Int. Church. Day

Camera closes up, focusing on ELIZABETH crying. Behind her shoulder BRADLEY can be seen. There are actors scattered in the pews.

4. Ex. Camp Fire. Night

All characters are sat around the camp fire. They are enjoying the moment. BRADLEY is seen kissing POPPY. TODD is sharing a cigarette with SAM, whilst ELIZABETH is enjoying a glass of rose.

BRADLEY
(to POPPY)
Told you tonight would be fun.

POPPY laughs.

CUT to: TODD and SAM, they share a cigarette

SAM
Yeah Todd, give us another drag.

He passes the cigarette to SAM, she inhales.

TODD
Easy.

Zoom out where the whole group can be seen.
At the end of the scene, noise of the group fades into silence.
Non- diegetic sound: Heartbeat.

5. Int. Church. Day

The camera is at the back of the church focusing on the cross above. Characters are seen in the pews.

Non-diegetic sound: Organ starts to play.

6. Ex. Camp Fire. Night

The characters are all sat around the camp fire. Rustling is heard in the trees, the group panics, and then a scream is heard. Jacob stands.

All group members are talking to someone. A scream can be heard.

BRADLEY
Shit! What was that?

JACOB
It came from over there (pointing)
I’ll go and look guys.

ELIZABETH
Are you sure?

JACOB
Yes I can always call you, I’ve got my phone.

Non-diegetic sound: Scream from in the trees.

7. Int.Church. Day

Four people walk down the aisle carrying a coffin on their shoulders
Characters in the pews turn to watch the coffin.

Non-diegetic sound: Organ continues to play.

8. Ex. Camp Fire. Night

Characters all show panic on there faces, they continually turn to each other.

TODD
This is too scary, guys.

They all get up and run.

Non- diegetic sound: Heavy breathing.

9. Ex. Woods. Night

JACOB is seen running through the woods. He is panicking and looking around as he can hear strange noises.

Non- Diegetic sound: Heavy breathing, Birds and Owls.

10. Ex. Woods Night

JACOB trips over a rock and falls to the ground.

Non- Diegetic sound: Cry for help.

11. Ex. Woods. Night

Camera shows a worm’s eye view of the trees above before focusing and fading into the moon.

Eddie : Filming date , Time and Location

2009-11-12T01:20:00.000-08:00

We will be filming our final peice on 14th November at approximitely 3.30 due to the limited natural light as some of our shots are filmed in the day with no ambient light to create a gloomy effect. Meeting location will be at my house .

Adress : 56 Newfeild Rd,
Hagley ,
stourbridege ,
DY9 0HY ,

Research and Planning Presentation - 'The Last Breath'

2009-11-10T03:51:00.000-08:00

Eddie - Preliminary Task

2009-11-06T11:34:00.000-08:00

As I joined Media Studies late, here is my preliminary task.

Philippa, Edward and Sophie : Genre

2009-11-01T04:26:00.000-08:00

The genre for our film opening is a Slasher horror, a Slasher horror typically involves a psychopathic killer stalking sequence of victims, we portray this will a close up of a mysterious figure in the background while our group of characters walk into the woods.

Sophie-End of Planning stage!

2009-10-22T01:31:00.000-07:00

We have chosen the characters for our film and we emailed them all saying:

"Hi guys! Hope you’re all good.

After much deliberation we have chosen YOU LOT! To be in our media film!! You all will have parts written for you and we have chosen you as you all have aspects to your personalities and looks that would suit the characters. Our film is basically a horror slasher film based on the blair witch project. And its going to be a lot of fun!
So email back if you’re man enough lol!

Love Soph, Philly, Haz and Eddie!

xxx"

All of them replied with a yes! So the official cast for our film is;
Daniel Gaffney playing Todd
Dan Richards playing Bradley
Corrie Raine playing Elizabeth
Gina Ferri playing Popppy
Toby Gatehouse playing Jacob
and
Eliza Cowen playing Samantha.

Now we have chosen our cast, we can start writing our script!

Sophie-Initial Ideas

2009-10-20T02:34:00.000-07:00

We've been planning our film for around 2weeks and overall i think our group have made lots of effort and we have all worked hard on the planning process. we have all taken eachother's ideas into consideration which i feel is a key part of team work. All along, we have had a very clear idea of what kind of film we wanted to make and the storyline for our film was discussed and decided upon almost immediately. We have decided to do the end of our film at the beginning and then do lots of cuts and flashbacks for added effect of an enigma. Our enigma for our story is the wonder of who the funeral is for? and what happened in the woods? We hope that our enigma codes will keep the audience hooked and on edge throughout our film.
The film is going to be in media res, starting the narrative in the middle of the plot. We will continue to work hard and as a team in order for success in the production of our film.

Philippa : Initial Ideas

2009-10-20T02:26:00.000-07:00

Throughout the planning of our project we have had many ideas and thoughts on how we are going to set the scene for the rest of the film. As our film would be horror genre we have to make it mysterious and creepy. At first there were ideas of doing a funeral scene and showing people upset entering the school chapel, implying that someone has obviously died. Then the idea came about to show the mid part of the film, when they realise someone has followed them, at the beginning. After a while we decided we could come to an agreement, therefore we collaborated the ideas and we all decided that the best way to set this atmosphere would be to start the movie with flashbacks. However flashing from present day (the funeral) to the flash back of the night, so we will be going from the funeral to the start of the chase. The aspect of this is to get the audience asking questions of what is happening, and then it will all piece together throughout the film.

Harriet: Location Consideration

2009-10-15T07:14:00.000-07:00

We have decided to shoot our film extract in the school chapel and in the woods of Wychbury Hill Hagley, Stourbridge. We have chosen the chapel because it is easily accessible and can be used at anytime of the day. Some of our actors are boarders at the school and wont be able to leave school easily so by filming on campus it will help get filming together quickly. The school chapel is a holy place and will depict a perfect funeral scene. There is an organ which can be played and also a bell which can be rung in order to make a more realistic funeral. The woods in Hagley are perfect for filming. They are overgrown and spooky. They woods are concealing and claustrophobic which will create the tension of the scene. There is an open space where we can easily light a fire and a brook which our main character will fall into in the closing shot.

Harriet: Initial Idea's

2009-10-15T06:55:00.000-07:00

We have now been looking at the planning for our film for 2 weeks now. I am pleased with our group and the efforts we have been putting in to the planning process. We had a clear idea of what kind of film we wanted to do and the story of the film was thought up quite quickly. After more consideration we decided to change to change the delivery of the film slightly. We would be foreshadowing the end of the story at the begining and then doing flashbacks as to what the story is about. This would mean our story would be in media res, starting the narrative in the midst of the plot.

Our enigma is concerned with who the funeral is for? what has happened in the woods? and did it result in the death of someone?

We hope this enigma code will keep the attention of the audience. We will continue to work at a consentrated pace in order to succeed in the production of the film.

Eddie : Inital Ideas USP

2009-10-15T06:50:00.000-07:00

As a group we decided to do a slasher horror, after much debate we decided that the slasher horror would be based around a group of teenagers celebrating for a friend’s birthday on Wychbury hill, when something goes horribly wrong.

The idea of the chapel scene was thought of to create some initial suspicion and atmosphere to the piece. The location was chosen for its resound history (in previous post) this story will be explained in the titles .The reason why the story and history is curtail is because it create verisimilitude - the appearance of reality - which is essential to create an effective, shocking horror story. We can say in the Titles 'Based on a True Story' as our Unique Selling Point, For example Texas chainsaw massacre is based on a true story, about the serial killer Ed Gain who murdered a group of Teenagers. This USP will help draw crowds who are attract to real-life horror.

Another initial idea that we toyed with is the same story line but set in 'Grafton Manor', imagining this as a run-down house with the same slasher storyline based upon strange occurrences ending with a tragic death. Grafton Manor is a local hotel built in 1742 this would create a more Gothic theme , Gothic culture is strongly associated with horror due to its darkness and its use of the supernatural. This also has a good USP , but in the end we chose Wychbury hill due to the shocking history witch has such a strong USP that would appeal to a wider audience.

Harriet: Audience

2009-10-15T01:25:00.000-07:00

If we were to studio produce our film, there are different production companies that would be most useful to the kind of film we are producing, Slash Horror.

Lionsgate is a film production company that specialises in Horror.

Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation is an American entertainment company that originated in Vancouver, British Columbia and later based in Los Angeles, and is now headquartered in Santa Monica, California, USA. As of 2007, it is the most commercially successful independent film and television distribution company in North America. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions_Gate_Entertainment

Lionsgate have produced such film as My Bloody Valentine, Horsemen and all Saw films.

Eddie : Props

2009-10-13T02:06:00.000-07:00

The props will be used to create effect, for example on Halloween people put pumpkins outside their house to create a scary atmosphere. In our case we will be using a variety of props to create a variety of atmospheres, and as the video progresses the atmosphere will change and along with other things we will use the props to change this.

The beginning atmosphere in the chapel will use a coffin prop , to create a spooky atmosphere and a suspicious one , following on from this the camping props used will be used to create a party atmosphere and as this piece moves on the props will change to more violent horrific ones , for example weapons and mud.

The weapons will be used by the murderer out to get the young campers, to create fear. And finally as a last shot we plan to shoot a hand falling and screaming, the hand will be covered in mud, although it seems strange it is not something you would want to get in this creates the feeling of desperation as someone would have to be desperate to get muddy.

http://www.businesspundit.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/pumpkin.jpg

Sophie-Target Audience

2009-10-13T02:05:00.001-07:00

Our target audience for our film is teenagers upwards, from the age of about 16 to the age of about 28. We aim to target our audience by making our film something for people of these ages to relate to, as our film is of a supernatural genre, I have researched the BBFC classification system and it will fall under the '18' category. This is because our film contains elements that would not be suitable for a younger audience, it has mild swearing and the after math of violence which may unease younger people who may not be able to distinguish between reality and fiction.

Other films of a similar theme include:

http://www.dixieshorrormovietomb.com/OlderReleases/BlairWitchPoster.jpg

http://eu.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/22/A70-11008

http://garycortez.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/watch-free-the-unborn-movie-live-streaming-video-download-online1.jpg

Philippa : Costume

2009-10-13T02:04:00.000-07:00

When considering our costume choices it is good to see what the character is like as a stereotypical person. In our film we will have a preppy girl, a geek, a tomboy, a , a sporty guy, a sidekick and the boyfriend. This will help us decide what each character should wear and why. Therefore we have decided each character should wear something along the lines of this:

Poppy (Gina Ferri) - As she is the classic blond teen, she will need to be wearing something which you wouldn’t wear into the woods, Classic Preppy. Tight skinny jeans with some elaborate belt, sandal shoes, and on top she will have lots of layers a tight T-shirt underneath a baggy pink jumper and a boys hoodie on the side just in case she gets cold. She can also have a lot of jewellery one long chunky necklace with one other small necklace and 5 or more bangles, and of course she must have a bag carried as if she was in a shopping centre, so she can be the typical girly girl.

Samantha 'Sam' (Samantha Smith) - She will be the tomboy of the girls, therefore she will have to wear tracksuit bottoms preferably from Primark as there cheap and baggy, white pumps for her shoes, and on top she will have a long thermal (to keep her warm) underneath a pink(to try and make her look girly) polo top which is baggy. She can’t wear any jewellery and has to have her hair tied up also!

Elizabeth 'Lizzie' (Corrie Raine)- As she will be the geek of the group, I think she should wear jeans which are light, with a plain top and a shirt over and a baggy jacket because she doesn’t really care as she has a boyfriend (Jake) but she still wants to look nice. Her shoes will be standard plimsolls. Her hair can be down but messy,one necklace and a scalf.

Bradley 'Brad' (Luke Sparrow) - As he will be the Sporty, typical guys guy, I think the appropriate dress would be some grey Nike / Canterbury track suit bottoms, with some plimsolls and a tight-ish short sleeve top (preferably blue), he will also have to have a hoddie in hand, just in case he’s cold but he properly wont wear it.

Todd (Dan Gaffney) – His stereotypical role will be the sidekick; the typical practical joker who everyone is friends with, I can imagine him to follow the crowd in what he wears. In particular I would like to see a Superdry Top and hoddie over the top, some standard jeans and some light colour trainers Nike preferably.

Jacob 'Jake' (Kristian Marcus) – As he is the boyfriend of Elizabeth, I think they should be wearing similar things so they look more of a couple. Therefore Jake should wear a plain top, with a shirt over the top, and a hoodie in hand. Standard jeans and plain plimsolls.

Philippa : Photos of location

2009-10-13T02:03:00.001-07:00

This Photo would be perfect for the very start, as we need the opening to be on the doors of the chapel closed and then fade in to the next view.

This view of the chapel would be perfect for the second clip as the location had to be something dull, boring and quiet, but peaceful. The chapel seems the perfect place too shoot it as it’s in the school and we can film it in study periods, activities or after school – what will happen in this scene is that there will be a lot of people entering the chapel (in black), the bell will be ringing and hopefully we can film it on a dull day or if not edit it to look depressing so the audience will understand why there is a Chapel in the scene (because there is a funeral).

Eddie : Music and sound effects.

2009-10-12T06:20:00.000-07:00

Music and sound effects play such a large part in horror films used to make tension or atmosphere , they can range from simple effective effects such as a creepy door opening , to screams and such. Music can also play a huge part in creating tension . Within the link is a perfect example of how music and sound effects can make a film much scarier .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1TBlPelvbE

throughout our final peice we will have the sound effect of a heart beat , beating faster and faster , untill the climax at witch the beating wil be silenced by a scream . Both i will sample from garage band. The other sound effect in use will be an effect of someone dashing past the camera .

The opening and the camp fire will both use music to create atmosphere the organ will be used in the chapel in the opening shot to create a creepy atmosphere , and music around the campfire just in the background to create the party atmosphere .

Sophie

2009-10-12T06:18:00.000-07:00

'The Exorcist' and 'The Sixth Sense' are examples of other horror films with a supernatural feel to them, they also involve sound FX, including; footsteps, heartbeats and heavy breathing. i have noticed that the majority of supernatural films are in fact, portrayed through the eyes of children. We will be linking that to our film.

Eddie : Film Name.

2009-10-12T06:14:00.000-07:00

Torn between the two titles for our supernatural horror , 'The Last Breath' or 'Bella' .
The last breath would be effective as we could use sound effects on thwe trailer . And Bella relates to the Wychbury hill history witch is already blogged.

Sophie

2009-10-12T06:11:00.000-07:00

This is the trailer for the horror film, 'The Others'. the music and the SFX creates the effect of horror, perfect for matching this genre's conventions, for example, heavy breathing, tense music (mainly made up of string instruments) and a slow heartbeat. This is what we will be doing in our film to help portray the enigma of 'what is going on?'.

Philippa - Preliminary Task Evaluation.

2009-10-08T07:21:00.001-07:00

For our Preliminary task we were filming a murder interrogation between a police woman played by Harriet and a murder suspect played by myself, and filming the short video was mainly Sophie (however me and Harriet did have a go). For location we decided to film in a small room right at the bottom of TC, this is because it is very bare, like an interrogation room would be. In the task I really liked our story line as I thought it was quite funny, however I didn’t like our idea of an American accent because while we were editing we realised it sounded cheesy and not fitting to the situation. A personal criticism is also at the end when I say ‘really did you find it…’ I put my hand over my neck in an awkward way and I think that this makes it a bit hard to hear me because I’m nervous! The lighting was also not amazing to where we were sitting and doesn’t make the scene clear.
What I thought worked really well was the shot reverse shot when Harriet starts to be more intimidating and I keep repeating ‘no comment’. Also our match on action I thought was very good when Harriet is opening the door at the beginning, I think in the editing we got that pretty much perfect. Next task we have though I would rather not do a comedy as I find it hard to get jokes on paper! I think a romantic, horror or action genre would be best!

Harriet: Main Task Planning

2009-10-08T01:34:00.000-07:00

Our group have decided that for our opening of a film task we will be using the genre of horror. Horror will keep our audience gripped and wondering what happens next? The film will be shot in a number of locations. The opening of the film will involve a number of people standing outside a church; they will all be in black and depicting the scene of a funeral. We will be using the school chapel to film the funeral scene. The establishing shot will be of the chapel on a dull day with the bell ringing. The doors will open and the crowd will start to walk in, there will be candles lit and the organ will be playing. The scene will close in darkness.

The next scene will open with a group of younger teenagers walking up a hill
[We will be using Wychbury Hill in Hagley, Stourbridge. The hill with a history of horror!]

They are celebrating one of the boys, Toby’s 17th Birthday. They assemble their camp at the top of the hill out of the way of been caught. They start a fire and have the necessary props of a camping trip. They have music playing, drinking, smoking and enjoyment of the party atmosphere. Toby tells the group that he is going to the toilet but the group are so happy and loud that they don’t hear what he says. Seconds later they here a cry for help and then a scream. The group go into silence before laughing that it must be a practical joke. They continue to party and the scream is heard again. This time someone realises that Toby has disappeared; everyone panics and gets up to start looking for him, the scene closes with friends running through the woods, with heavy breathing and calling out Toby’s name.

The intensity of the ending scene will attract the audience and make them want to find out what happens to Toby and what relevance it has to the opening scene of a funeral

Eddie: Location

2009-10-08T01:31:00.000-07:00

The opening scene will be filmed from the outside of the chapel , the chapel is there to represent commisoration although this will not be obvious untill the end of the peice , The reason the chapel was selected was because it will create tension as the audience wont be sure weathar the people are there to comisorate or commemorate , And genrally chapels are associated with horror as it is a place were dead people go to rest.

The chosen location for the camping scene, has a renound history for being haunted . This is the perfect location to film the final peice due to its history , it is also a perfect place for actually camping which is the reason why the group of friends are there. this artice was sourced from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wychbury_Hill and outlines the history of wychbury hill .

A woman's body was discovered inside a wych elm tree in a wood, on Wychbury Hill on the Hagley Hall estate during World War Two, prompting the intriguing graffiti "Who put Bella in the Wych Elm?". This message has reappeared in a variety of local places at intervals ever since, and as of 2007 the obelisk bears the slightly different message "Who put Bella in the Witch Elm" (no question mark). The victim was never identified. It has sparked a lot of media interest over the years, featuring on the BBC's Inside Out TV program in the West Midlands.

Sophie

2009-10-06T02:44:00.001-07:00

evaluation of our Preliminary Task

In our lesson today, 24th September. we reviewed our preliminary task. We filmed an interview between a police woman (Harriet) and a murder suspect (Philippa), our story was that a woman had murdered her husband with a Jimmy Choo and she was being questioned about it.
We chose Philippa as the suspect and Harriet as the Police woman. I was in charge of the filming. We chose the downstairs day room in Thomas Cookes as it is a fairly empty room, like that of an interrogation room, with only a table and chair in it. It also has a solid wooden door which we all thought would be suitable for this scene.
The technical skills we used during the filming the task were; shot reverse shot, when Harriet is interrogating Philippa, and then when Philippa replies. Match On Action, where Harriet is first opening the door, then the next scene where she finishes opening the door and enters the room. During the next scene, we used diagetic sound, which was Harriet and Philippa’s dialogue.
We used shot reverse shot during both Harriet and Philippa’s dialogues for added effect. We learnt about the 180degree rule- whereby, objects and characters in a shot should always be shot so that their left/right relationship to one another is kept as seen from one side of and 180 degree arc. If ‘crossing the line’ then the tracking shot should be shown in the edit. In the case of our task, Philippa was always on the left and Harriet on the right.
The most difficult thing to do, in my opinion, was the editing, as we had to make sure the cutting on action looked effective and in synch with the previous scenes. The most rewarding thing about the whole process was watching our finished and edited clip, as we spent quite a while making sure it’s as good as it could be. Next time, as I now know how to use the video camera properly, I would most likely work on the lighting in the clip as I think it affects the overall clip. I would also ensure the picture was continuously clear, as I think that is also an important factor the production of a film.
Overall, I am very pleased with our finished product, as I feel that we worked hard and I think Harriet and Philippa acted the clip very well.
I think that the most effective kind of fiction film to make would be a horror film; I feel this because horror films can start in any way, they could start with what seems a nice a friendly scene, but throughout the film, and the scene can develop and can dramatically change from what was the original thought.

Harriet: Preliminary Task, The Case Of The Jimmy Choo

2009-09-25T04:03:00.000-07:00

The video above was our finished task.
I was pleased with the acting in our video. Sophie was assigned as the camera controller and shot many scenes which helped when choosing our final takes. She also looked at different angles of shooting. There was one part in the video where Phillipa says 'No Comment', when we looked back we hadn't filmed the scene enough times because the quality of the takes wasn’t good enough and if we were to do it again we would make sure we took multiple takes of each shot. The lighting wasn't very good causing Phillipa's face got lost in the darkness, also her dialogue wasn't loud enough to be clearly heard by the audience, fortunately we were able to amend and resolve these issues in the editing stage. I was pleased with my acting as I felt all my speech was clearly heard and loud enough for the audience. However, now looking at the video I think it was a bad idea performing with an American accent. It didn’t work well and sounded squeaky when played back; it also took away the sense of reality and if I was to do this again I would stick to my natural accent. Over all I was pleased with the filming, I think that we shot the video at good angles and used techniques which fitted well with the scene. I was particularly pleased with shot-reverse-shot technique that we used. It was well filmed, concentrating on the camera positioning and contributed well to the integration feel of the police officer!
I enjoyed editing our video and it was interesting to see how editing is done. When we uploaded the takes onto the computer we firstly eliminated the film that we thought was scrap to us, this was film that we had either un-controllably laughed or film that was shot at the wrong angle. We then put the film we wanted to use into the timeline which played the takes together. It didn’t look like a proper piece of film to start because the changing of scenes was all over the place! We had to cut parts of the takes that were not going to fit in too make a smooth sequence. Also match the scenes together so that in the scene where I opened the door, on the next scene where we filmed the door opening from a different angle matched accordingly. I found this quiet easy but I had to concentrate to make sure wrong parts of film weren’t deleted. The only other amendments we had to make were lightening the scene on the interrogation scene between both characters. This was easy to do on the Mac iMovie application that we were using. Finally we increased the audio sound, it became clearer and louder which helped the audience and contributed well to the finally piece

Harriet 2

2009-09-22T11:06:00.000-07:00

Thursday, 17 September 2009

In our lesson today, Thursday 17th September, we filmed our preliminary task. Our initial idea of filming in the media room wasn’t going to work because it looked so classroom like. After considering possible places as to where we could film our short scene we decided on the day room in Thomas Cooke’s house. There were tables in the room which enables us to make a more interview like room. Phillipa has joined our group. She played the part of the criminal, I played the part of the police officer and Sophie filmed the scene, Although Phillipa and I did shoot certain camera views. I had arranged a dialogue before the lesson but it was too long so we cut it down and edited it slightly before producing our completed script. The filming went well; we used precise camera techniques like shot-reverse-shot and match-on-action which defined dialogue. Because of the way we were positioned we were constantly aware of the 180 degree rule which we succeed. In our next lesson we will look at editing our scene.

Harriet

Harriet

2009-09-22T11:03:00.000-07:00

Sunday, 13 September 2009

In our lesson on Thursday 10th September we started planning ideas for our preliminary task. We have been asked to create a short film lasting no longer than a minute, including 2 people. There to walk into a room and have a conversation with each other. Our class has been separated into two groups. I am in a group with Sophie, Gabriella and Holly. We based our planning around the questions: Who? What? Where? When? and Why?

The scene is set in a police station with dim lighting and nothing other a table and chairs. We wanted to convey a mysterious setting which would reflect the atmosphere. The scene involves two people, an interrogating police officer, and a woman who is believed to have murdered her husband. The costumes will be very straight forward; the police officer will be in a suit and the person in question, dark, depressing clothing.

I would like to use the shot-reverse-shot action as this will create tension and focus on the interview. We may use the extreme close up technique as this will magnify and examine the criminal’s facial expressions whereas when the camera focuses on the police officer we could use a medium close up shot to show the difference between characters. When filming a two shot, we must obtain the 180 degree rule as the audience will not achieve full concentration.

The next step will include our group discussing dialogue, positioning of characters and possible filming techniques.

Harriet