Wednesday 9 December 2009
Questionnaire to target audience and evaluation of results
Questionnaire Results
Male- 14
Female- 26
1-9 10-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 51+
0 28 3 2 6 1
Once a month- 16
Twice a month- 10
Once a week- 2
Other- 12
Horror- 10
Comedy- 12
Romance- 3
Sci-fi- 2
Adventure- 7
Fantasy- 1
Rom-com- 2
Action- 2
War- 1
What is your favourite genre and why?
A lot of people voted for horror films and the reason for this was because they like the thought of being scared. There were also a number of people who voted for comedy because they like being entertained and they like a laugh. Adventure films are popular as they are interesting to watch and grab the audience’s attention. However the majority of the questionnaires were from the females.
Who would you go to the cinema with? Does it change what genre of film you see?
Out of the males, some went with friends, however it was common for them to go with close family members. This reflects their ages because they’re family like wives and children. Where as half of females mostly go with friends. As an overall most questionnaires said that whoever people go with has an effect of what they see.
What is your favourite horror and why?
The results show that most people have stated that they enjoy films that have an interesting solid story line, because they are not just about death or gore yet they keep the audience interested. The majority also like films that give the sense that it could really happen to you.
Describe what you look for in an opening scene of a horror film and why?
There were many different views about what people look for but an idea about what the film is going to be about, but without giving too much away, was the most apparent. There was also popularity in being introduced to charters as well as the actors playing them. Background knowledge also came up a lot. In the editing scene scary music was well-liked as was flashbacks.
Male- 14
Female- 26
1-9 10-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 51+
0 28 3 2 6 1
Once a month- 16
Twice a month- 10
Once a week- 2
Other- 12
Horror- 10
Comedy- 12
Romance- 3
Sci-fi- 2
Adventure- 7
Fantasy- 1
Rom-com- 2
Action- 2
War- 1
What is your favourite genre and why?
A lot of people voted for horror films and the reason for this was because they like the thought of being scared. There were also a number of people who voted for comedy because they like being entertained and they like a laugh. Adventure films are popular as they are interesting to watch and grab the audience’s attention. However the majority of the questionnaires were from the females.
Who would you go to the cinema with? Does it change what genre of film you see?
Out of the males, some went with friends, however it was common for them to go with close family members. This reflects their ages because they’re family like wives and children. Where as half of females mostly go with friends. As an overall most questionnaires said that whoever people go with has an effect of what they see.
What is your favourite horror and why?
The results show that most people have stated that they enjoy films that have an interesting solid story line, because they are not just about death or gore yet they keep the audience interested. The majority also like films that give the sense that it could really happen to you.
Describe what you look for in an opening scene of a horror film and why?
There were many different views about what people look for but an idea about what the film is going to be about, but without giving too much away, was the most apparent. There was also popularity in being introduced to charters as well as the actors playing them. Background knowledge also came up a lot. In the editing scene scary music was well-liked as was flashbacks.
These results showed us that the genre of film we chose (horror)
Recent films from the horror genre
Research into our genre
Because our film genre is horror, and we agreed as a group that rather than being a slasher horror with a lot of blood and gore our film will be more physiologically scary. I thought of some other horror films that do this:
The Blair witch project
www.blairwitch.com
This website was released after the film to up the fan base. It’s informal and tells us the history of the Blair witch.
* Produced by Haxan films
* The budget was between $20-$25,000
* The film was shown at the 1999 Sundance festival
* It’s the most successful independent film of its time- It grossed $248,639,099 worldwide!
* After watching the film, I noticed that the film contains no blood and gore but the scariest part of it was that it was filmed on a video camera- These are things we should include in our filming. For example use the fact that we only have a camcorder to our advantage and make it seem like the viewer is watching real life footage, similar to how they make the footage seem like its been found in The Blair witch. I think if we include blood, it will make our film look fake and unrealistic.
Paranormal activity
www.paranormalactivity-movie.com
* The film was written, Directed and edited by Oren Peli
* The film was recorded over seven days in Oren Peli’s home in 2006, with a crew of just three people!
* These people were Peli, his girlfriend and his best friend
* Peli constructed the Ouija board that stars in the film himself
* He said “Similar to films like ‘the Blair witch’ and ‘open water’ I wanted there to be very little blood in the movie; you don’t have to go over the top”
* It was edited on Peli’s home computer
* It was debuted at ‘Screamfest’ Then after this people bombarded the small website asking how they could see the film.
Because our film genre is horror, and we agreed as a group that rather than being a slasher horror with a lot of blood and gore our film will be more physiologically scary. I thought of some other horror films that do this:
The Blair witch project
www.blairwitch.com
This website was released after the film to up the fan base. It’s informal and tells us the history of the Blair witch.
* Produced by Haxan films
* The budget was between $20-$25,000
* The film was shown at the 1999 Sundance festival
* It’s the most successful independent film of its time- It grossed $248,639,099 worldwide!
* After watching the film, I noticed that the film contains no blood and gore but the scariest part of it was that it was filmed on a video camera- These are things we should include in our filming. For example use the fact that we only have a camcorder to our advantage and make it seem like the viewer is watching real life footage, similar to how they make the footage seem like its been found in The Blair witch. I think if we include blood, it will make our film look fake and unrealistic.
Paranormal activity
www.paranormalactivity-movie.com
* The film was written, Directed and edited by Oren Peli
* The film was recorded over seven days in Oren Peli’s home in 2006, with a crew of just three people!
* These people were Peli, his girlfriend and his best friend
* Peli constructed the Ouija board that stars in the film himself
* He said “Similar to films like ‘the Blair witch’ and ‘open water’ I wanted there to be very little blood in the movie; you don’t have to go over the top”
* It was edited on Peli’s home computer
* It was debuted at ‘Screamfest’ Then after this people bombarded the small website asking how they could see the film.
History of the horror genre
History of Horror genre
Horror is an ancient art form. We have tried to terrify each other for as long as we've told stories. From the ballads of the ancient world to modern urban myths, audiences willingly offer themselves up to sadistic storytellers to be scared witless, and they are happy to pay for the privilege. The aim of a horror film is to strive to elicit the emotions of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Many horror movies also include a central villain.
Early horror movies are largely based on classic literature of the gothic/horror genre, such as Dracula, Frankenstein, The Phantom of the Opera and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
More recent horror films, in contrast, often draw inspiration from the insecurities of life after World War II, giving rise to the three distinct, but related, sub-genres: the horror-of-personality Psycho film, the horror-of-armageddon Invasion of the Body Snatchers film, and the horror-of-the-demonic The Exorcist film.
Group meeting 1
`1`Decisions made about genre and why
Firstly we made a spider diagram on the different genres we could choose from, and narrowed our choices to either a comedy or a horror. After deciding that a comedy would be alot more difficult to have good productoion value, a horror was the genre we chose because we all enjoy watching them and have seen alot so know what makes a scary film and what doesn't. After seeing films like Paranormal activity and Blair witch project that are know for using little or no blood and gore we thought using none in ours would also make the film of a better quality. Another film that we used for inspiration for our ideas is 2008 film 'the strangers' with the idea of a group of people at home and them being terrorised, strange events in the opening such as a phonecall and the sound of the ringing match similar events in the strangers.
Plot for opening sequence
Three girls are moving into a new flat, whilst they are walking in with all the boxes, a strange man is watching them- they don’t realise. When they get inside, they celebrate the move and listen to music. (Superimposed images) One of the girls walks back down the stairs to collect another box, she sees an old lady and she stops and talks to her about the flat that the girls are moving in to. The lady seems worried and makes a quick exit. The girl is left wondering. (at this point we will see superimposed image of the man standing over a girl at the bottom of the stairs) Back in the flat, the other two girls are still celebrating, one looks outside to see a man looking up at her, she alarms the other girl and they ignore him. The one who was by herself walks back into the flat to find the door left ajar, and the other two girls not there. She starts to worry and rings the two girls to find that they are not answering, it goes to answer machine. She hears the doorbell go and is reluctant to open it. When she does, it is the other two girls at the door then the door closes and the titles come up on a black screen.
Conventions of an opening sequence
Conventions of an opening sequence
Wrong turn- Horror
Camera
-First shot- est. shot of area, sets the scene of the whole film. At this point we see some titles of studios etc.
- Rock climbers, close up on foot, hand, then shots from all around, side, long shot, close up
- MCU of dead mans face- Blood
- When the girl runs, the camera is free hand so it appears we are running with her
Sound
- Non-diegetic music- spooky
- When we see rock climbers, deeper sound
- Hyperbolic scream
- Hyperbolic laugh
- Noise of a sword it heard when we are shown the spiky rope she falls over, exaggerated.
Mise-en-scene
- Rock climbers; he disappears then falls off the rock over her. She cuts her rope and we see his face- Lots of blood
- we don’t see the person that has killed the man, but we see the trees move and an evil laugh
Editing
- When the girl is dragged backwards, it goes onto black and white photos and newspaper cuttings about missing people and what we assume is the forest where the two people have just died
Wrong turn- Horror
Camera
-First shot- est. shot of area, sets the scene of the whole film. At this point we see some titles of studios etc.
- Rock climbers, close up on foot, hand, then shots from all around, side, long shot, close up
- MCU of dead mans face- Blood
- When the girl runs, the camera is free hand so it appears we are running with her
Sound
- Non-diegetic music- spooky
- When we see rock climbers, deeper sound
- Hyperbolic scream
- Hyperbolic laugh
- Noise of a sword it heard when we are shown the spiky rope she falls over, exaggerated.
Mise-en-scene
- Rock climbers; he disappears then falls off the rock over her. She cuts her rope and we see his face- Lots of blood
- we don’t see the person that has killed the man, but we see the trees move and an evil laugh
Editing
- When the girl is dragged backwards, it goes onto black and white photos and newspaper cuttings about missing people and what we assume is the forest where the two people have just died
Sunday 13 September 2009
AS Media Preliminary Task
Brief
Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demostrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.
Continuity Definition
www.dictionary.reference.com/browse./continuity
The state or quality of being continuous.
A continuous or connected whole.
A motion-picture scenario giving the complete action, scenes, etc., in detail and in the order in which they are to be shown on the screen.
The spoken part of a radio or television script that serves as introductory or transitional material on a nondramatic program.
Continuity Production Techniques
180degree rule
The 180° rule is a basic guideline in film making that states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle.
Match on action
Reference: David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson. Film Art: An Introduction, Sixth Edition. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001).
A match on action, a technique used in film editing, is a cut that connects two different views of the same action at the same moment in the movement. By carefully matching the movement across the two shots, filmmakers make it seem that the motion continues uninterrupted. For a real match on action, the action should begin in the first shot and end in the second shot.
Shot reverse shot
Reference: Bordwell, David; Thompson, Kristin (2006). Film Art: An Introduction. New York: McGraw-Hill
Shot reverse shot (or shot/countershot) is a film technique wherein one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking "back" at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.
Following this research, the information I found out about Shot reverse, Match on action, 180 degree rule helped me film the preliminary task because
Camera Movement
Framing
Shot sizes
Plot of Preliminary Script
The day after a party, at Emma's flat. Tom is asleep on the sofa after staying at her house, she comes and asks for his help with tidying up and when he refuses she threatens him with something he has done the night before, after denying it he then realises he has cheated on his girlfreind and Emma is right, the scene ends with Emma leaving and Tom getting angry.
Script
Shot List
Storyboard
Location Recce
Risk Assessment
Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demostrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.
Continuity Definition
www.dictionary.reference.com/browse./continuity
The state or quality of being continuous.
A continuous or connected whole.
A motion-picture scenario giving the complete action, scenes, etc., in detail and in the order in which they are to be shown on the screen.
The spoken part of a radio or television script that serves as introductory or transitional material on a nondramatic program.
Continuity Production Techniques
180degree rule
The 180° rule is a basic guideline in film making that states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle.
Match on action
Reference: David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson. Film Art: An Introduction, Sixth Edition. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001).
A match on action, a technique used in film editing, is a cut that connects two different views of the same action at the same moment in the movement. By carefully matching the movement across the two shots, filmmakers make it seem that the motion continues uninterrupted. For a real match on action, the action should begin in the first shot and end in the second shot.
Shot reverse shot
Reference: Bordwell, David; Thompson, Kristin (2006). Film Art: An Introduction. New York: McGraw-Hill
Shot reverse shot (or shot/countershot) is a film technique wherein one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking "back" at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.
Following this research, the information I found out about Shot reverse, Match on action, 180 degree rule helped me film the preliminary task because
Camera Movement
Framing
Shot sizes
Plot of Preliminary Script
The day after a party, at Emma's flat. Tom is asleep on the sofa after staying at her house, she comes and asks for his help with tidying up and when he refuses she threatens him with something he has done the night before, after denying it he then realises he has cheated on his girlfreind and Emma is right, the scene ends with Emma leaving and Tom getting angry.
Script
Shot List
Storyboard Location RecceRisk AssessmentMise-en-scene
Lighting- We will only be using the natural sunlight that comes through the big window, so we will have to film in the morning, possibly on a sunny day. If it is too dark we’ll use a small lamp.
Make-up and hair- Messy hair and no make up, as both characters will just have woken up.
Costume- Because the scene is set early in the morning, EMMA will be wearing pyjamas and TOM will of slept in his clothes.
Props- Around the flat will messy so we’ll need beer bottles, wine bottles, takeaway packaging; pizza boxes and burger boxes, cigarette packets, lighters, bin liner, rubbish, a quilt cover.
Character Movement- At the beginning of the scene TOM has just woken up so he will be tired, EMMA is angry when she walks in but then at the end of the conversation TOM is frustrated.
Set design- The room will be a mess (Props) and TOM is asleep on the sofa. EMMA is sat on the other sofa and the rest of the furniture is as normal.
Evaluation
Evaluation
We edited the film and then watched it through to see what was good and what we could do better next time. We used the techniques, the 180 degree rule and shot-reverse-shot which worked well where we use them to show the conversation. However the technique we didn't use was match on action next time we will make sure we use this, it will probably be used in the middle of the conversation. The television sound in the background worked well as it was just the right volume and didn't over power the voices of the characters. We use natural lighting, so that made it easier as we didn't not need to turn on any lights or place them around the room, we use natural lighting as it was set in the morning. I think we worked well as a team as Charley and Toby who done the acting played their part well and Natalie and me who done the camera work, worked together to make sure we got the right shots of the characters and used the camera correctly also used the camera techniques. Things we could change in the film next time are, we could experiment with the lighting more as the only thing we used was natural lighting and didn't use any thing else so we didn't know if natural lighting was the best type for our film, if we was to film again and the only time we could film it was in the evening in the dark we would have to use different lighting and see what was best for the type of light we needed so we would need to find a light that looks like it was being filmed in the morning. Also we could film it in a bigger room so we have more space for camera movement and for the actors to move around in. The thing i thought worked well was the props that we set out as they were relevant to our story line and also were placed in the right place making sure they didn't get in the way of acting or when moving the camera around. Another thing we could change was as we done a extreme close up of one of the character their head moved out of the frame a bit, so next time we need to make sure we keep within the frame. This was a good experience as its good to try new things and it made us think about how to construct a film by ourselves with no help, and we worked well together as a team to put our film together.
At the start of the project i found the definitions of the Continuity Production Techniques, 180 degree rule, match-on-action and shot, reverse, shot. With these techniques we had to learn how to do them and find out how we could use them in our film. We had to look at our storyboard and see where we could use the techniques and if they would work in the sence we put them in. Overall i think where we use these techniques they work well and made the film flow well. Also we did not cross the line (180 degree rule).
Depth of field
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