Own film brainstorm

These are our ideas for our film shown on a spider diagram. Most of them we have adhered to such as, terrifying screams, deserted woods, female victim, surprise attack, identity of murderer hidden, murderer, shots through trees and blood. However some we couldn't adhere to such as darkness as we found that it when we filmed in the darkness we were unable to see anything clearly. We also could not have darkness in our opening because of the little filming time we would of had so by the time we filmed some parts it was already getting pitch black. So as a group, we made the decision to film in the light which would increase filming time and allow clearer shots, it also makes the film more realistic as you wouldn't necessarily go for a walk in the woods that late at night.

Research and planning provisional mark

Name of student: Abigail Dentus

	Done?	Comment/target
RESEARCH
Genre Research and mind-maps	Yes
Uploaded YouTube videos of openings - analysed	In progress	Missing 3 posts – upload ASAP
Opening titles analysed in detail – font researched	In progress	Missing 3 posts – upload ASAP
Uploaded YouTube videos of similar genre openings analysed in detail	In progress	Missing 3 posts – upload ASAP
Costume and location research – google earth and pictures you’ve taken.	Yes costume	Upload location ASAP
Actors and props photos and interviews	No
Soundtrack research (non-copyright music)	No
Audience Research and Profiling (typical audience member and similar films)	No	It is ticked on your check list but I cannot see the post?
Institution research (Paramount etc)	Yes
Certificate research	Yes
PLANNING
Own film idea brainstorm	Yes
Own film treatment	Yes
Relevant Online Tutorials and Comment	Yes	Upload a second tutorial and explain how it has helped your understanding and your film
Documenting of influences on production
Shot lists	No	Upload ASAP
Consideration of representation in your film and stereotyping – use theory from G325.	Yes	Link to the characters in the films that you researched in your opening two minutes analysis – how do your characters conform to the stereotypes?
Questionnaire (and feedback) Get some feedback on your initial ideas!	Yes
Diary of filming/editing etc with photos and screen grabs	No	Upload ASAP
Mood board	No	Upload ASAP
Script	No	Upload ASAP
Practice titles created and uploaded	In progress	Finish ASAP
Storyboard – animatic.	NO	Upload ASAP
Time Management Schedule	Yes	Explain your next filming session – when you filmed in the light

 

 

 

Research and planning mark scheme:

 

Level 2

8–11 marks

Planning and research evidence may be partially incomplete;

There is basic research into similar products and a potential target audience;

There is basic organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props;

There is basic work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding;

There is a basic level of care in the presentation of the research and planning;

Time management may not be good.

 

Level 3

12–15 marks

Planning and research evidence will be complete;

There is proficient research into similar products and a potential target audience;

There is proficient organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props;

There is proficient work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding;

There is a good level of care in the presentation of the research and planning;

Time management is good; there is a schedule of filming

There is no animatic storyboard and/or mood board

 

Level 4

16–20 marks

Planning and research evidence will be complete and detailed;

There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience;

There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props;

There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding;

There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning;

Time management is excellent.

 

Research and planning mark      11  /20     Level 2

 

Sound Tutorial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0IFprHpSaA

From watching the online sound tutorial, this has helped us with editing our film as it had as enabled us to undertand how to get the sountrack we want to be able to play in the background to our film at certain points. The tutorial shows us how to play a soundtrack with narration and the genral noise in one and how to line them up so that we get the best sound of them all together and so that all the peices dont sound like one big mess, it will also help as it will hopefully make the noises in our film clearer, especially as ours is by a train station, so if a train happens to come past at a time where we would like the soundtrack music to be louder than the background noise of the train we are able to do so, and we can follow the tutorial to help us do this. By watching the tutorial we can also see that at different points in our film we are able to drag a line of the soundtrack music to either make it louder or quieter so that it suits what is going on in our film at the specific time. Doing all of this doesnt seem to hard as we will be able to follow the tutorial, and do the same but with our own film, although we havent used premiere elements 10 so it may be harder than it looks, but the tutorial seems pretty clear and easy to follow and the man that made the video also talks you through it step by step which is also a big help.

we found that following this tutorial really helped us as we had very little understanding on the premiere elemenst 10 porgramme, it helped us understand what buttons did what, which means when it comes to doing out soundtrack music it shouldnt take us too long to sort out and apply to our film.

Time Management Schedule

After deciding that the genre for our film would be horror we starting arranging times to film. As it was a horror we decided that we would need to film when the lighting was fairly dark so it would create a scary atmosphere. On our first day of filming we went out at about 4:15pm to film. Upon arrival at our designated destination we began filming. As this was our first day of filming we weren't entirely sure about what we were doing because we were only just getting used to the camera. This meant that it took a lot longer than we thought and we had to call it a day fairly shortly after we began filming. We had to stop filming because it got too dark to film. A few days later we decided to go out again and film. We went at about 4:15 again and began filming, but again, we had to stop relatively shortly after as it got too dark. We realised that this was a big problem for us. As it got dark at around half 4 and we only get back from school at 4 we only really had a half an hour window to film, sometimes not even that. Due to other commitments we were only really able to film on weekdays which was not very practical as we would only have half an hour slots to film and we would only get this half an hour slot once or twice a week. This meant we were very limited on our filming time so when we did have the time to film we would end up rushing through the filming which then ended up in the scenes not looking very good. After watching the scenes we had filmed we realised it did not look very good and came to the decision that we should begin filming again. Obviously there would be no point filming in the same conditions as before so we decided to completely change our idea. We came to an agreement to film in the light so we would have an extremely significant amount of time longer to film. This then meant that we did not have to rush our filming and also the shot types we would be using will be much clearer. Also, because we are now going to be filming in the light it means that we will be able to stay out filming for longer so it will be easier to keep track of the shot types and hopefully everything will flow more.

Own Film Treatment

The beginning of our film opens with four friends walking away from a train station after being on a day out together. We have decided to use this as our opening shot because it shows the audience that they are all very close friends as they have all gone out together. They then split off different ways, two friends walking through the woods and two walking in the opposite direction. We have decided to use this particular scene in our film because we wanted to show the audience that the friends do not go in the same direction and that they do not expect to see each other again for the day.

As we get into the middle of our film opening we see the two friends walking through the woods having a general chat. We have used this scene because we want to show the audience that the friends have no idea what is about to happen. We then begin to see that other people are in the woods with them but they don't want to be seen as we see them sneaking through the woods. During this scene the audience aren't actually shown the identity of the people following them. This leaves suspense as the characters walking through the woods and the audience have no idea who the mysterious people might be. As the friends then realise that someone else is in the woods, watching them, they begin to panic. However before they have the chance to panic too much we realise it is just their two friends playing a practical joke on them. The friends all laugh about it and then continue walking through the woods.

The two friends who played the practical joke then run on ahead for another attempt to scare their friends. As they continue walking up ahead the audience are then shown shots from in the bushes which show someone is watching them. This leaves the audience feeling perhaps scared but also maybe they think that this time it is now the other two trying to scare them. This also leaves the audience with a sense of the unknowing. As the shot switches back to the two innocent friends walking through the woods we hear terrifying screams coming from the two friends. Automatically the friends assume its just them playing another practical joke on them and continue walking to find them. However when they reach their friends they find them lying dead on the floor covered in blood. The friends now realise that this isn't a joke and begin panicking. They decided to run back through the woods to try and find help. We then see the bodies being dragged into the bushes. However we don't see who they are being dragged by. This leaves the audience feeling on edge as they have absolutely no clue who has taken the bodies.On returning they find that the bodies of their friends have disappeared. This is where the opening of our film ends. We believe this is a good ending for our opening because it leaves it on a huge cliffhanger and the audience will be left with lots of unanswered questions, such as 'who did it?', 'will there be more murders', will the bodies be found', and they will assume that these questions will be answered in the rest of the film.

Questionnaire findings

Questionnaire findings

Question One asked what the participants favourite genre film is. The options were Comedy, Romance, Action and Horror. Three of the participants opted for for Comedy, Two for Romance, Four for Action and 5 for Horror. These results have led us to the decision of definitely choosing Horror as the genre for our two minute opening to a film. The majority of the participants who took part in our questionnaire prefer Horror to Comedy, Romance and Action. This means that if we make our film genre a horror we will have a wider audience because lots of people enjoy watching horrors.

Question Two asked if the participants enjoy watching horror films. 11 out of the 14 people taking part said they do enjoy watching horror films. This therefore shows that choosing the genre of horror was the right decision because many people enjoy watching horror films so will have a big audience.

Question Three asked if participants watch horror films with friends or alone. The options were friends, alone and N/A. 12 out of the 14 people opted for friends, 2 opted for N/A and nobody opted for alone. This result shows that none of our participants would watch horror films alone.

Question Four asked where the participants would associate a horror film setting. The options were an abandoned house, woods, in their own home and a hospital. 3 people voted for an abandoned house, 8 people voted for woods, 2 people voted for in their own home and 1 person voted for a hospital. This shows that the majority of our participants associate a horror film with woods. Our original idea was to set our film in a woods and our results now back up this idea. As most people chose woods it suggests that if we filmed in a woods it would be most likely that we would have a bigger audience.

Question 5 asked if the participants preferred the victim to be male or female. 12 out of the 14 participants said they wold prefer to see a female victim. This means that our decision to give the role of the victim to a female was the right decision as the audience would prefer to see the victim being a female. This decision to use a female to play the role of the victim will increase our target audience because we are taking into consideration what they like and what they want to see. However, despite the audience wanting to see a female victim we are also using a male victim. This is perhaps something the audience isn't used to and what they are expecting. As we are subverting the usual stereotype of women being the victim it means the audience will probably be inclined to continue watching because it isn't the usual horror film which conforms to usual stereotypes and representations so it will perhaps be something the audience haven't watched before.

Question 6 asked the participants how often they watch horror films. The options were once a month, 2-3 times a month, more than 3, other and never. 3 participants chose once a month, 1 participant chose 2-3 times a month, 3 people chose more than 3, 6 people chose other and 1 person chose never. This shows that at least 7 people watch horror films at least once a month. This can be a good result as we know that the participants do actually watch horror films. However, 6 out of the 14 participants chose the option other. This isn't as helpful in our research because it could either mean that the participants watch less than 1 horror film a month or it could mean that they watch more than 3 a month but we don't know exactly how many. This is not helpful to our research because it means we don't have a clear answer as to how many times our participants watch horror films every month.

Question 7 asked the participants what lighting they expect to see in a horror film. The options were dark, light and other. 10 out of the 14 participants chose dark. Despite this, we have decided to film in the light. We made this decision because after previous filming attempts we realised we only had a short amount of time to film before it got too dark to film. This made it extremely hard to keep on track with filming because we could only film for half an hour periods each day and due to other commitments we were not able to film every day which meant we were very limited on filming time. So, in order to have significant filming times we made the decision to film in the light which meant we would have longer periods to film. Even though it is clear that the majority of the audience would prefer a dark setting we do still believe the audience may enjoy our film because it is different as it isn't conforming to the usual conventions of a horror film.

Question 8 asked the participants what props they would most likely want to see in a horror film. The options were a knife, a noose, a gun, rags with blood and other. 5 out of the 14 participants said they would want to see a knife, 1 said a noose, 3 said gun, 5 said blood with rags and nobody went for the option 'other'. This shows that the audience would most want to see a knife. Despite an equal number of people choosing the options knife and noose we have decided to use a knife as our main prop in our film. We have decided to use a knife because in our film murders take place and it would make sense if we just used a knife as it will come in more useful than a bloody rag.

Question 9 asked the participants what they would want the female victim to do when face to face with the murderer. The options were run from the murderer, hide from the murderer , fight the murderer or let the murderer kill them. 4 people went for the option run from the murderer, 9 people went for hide from the murderer, 1 person went for let the murderer kill them and nobody went for the option fight the murderer. This shows that the majority of people want to see the female victim hide from the murderer. Despite this our film does not involve the female victim being able to make this decision as she is murdered without having the time to make a decision to hide or not. This means the audience will perhaps not expect the murders to take place because it is not something that usually happens. This therefore means our films contains the element of surprise as the audience may not expect any murders to happen.

Comment from Miss McKinney

Well done Abi - you have worked methodically through the research and planning tick list, completing tasks to a good standard. Remember the final deadline for research and planning is January 27th.

Halloween 4 Opening Credits.

The opening credits start off with a black background. The date of the event appears to be in white writing which is effective as you can see it clearly and suggests that we are about to go back to the date of the 30th October 1988 which is the day before Halloween, also the fact we are shown a date could suggest that we are going to see something from that time. The non diegetic music starts off quiet and slow, and creates a sense of curiosity towards the audience as they want to know whats going to happen. The image shown in the background looks deserted and lonely and you cant see or hear anyone around suggesting that no one may live there, however subverting this is the fact that there are pumpkins in the background suggesting that someone must be there to of put them out. We are shown yellow writing for the credits linking to the title and theme of the film 'halloween' as the yellow and orange colour relates to the pumpkins. As we are getting shown the credits we see a mail box with a skull on it suggesting some kind of danger of death that may occur in the film later on.

We see an establishing shot of the set location which seems to be in the middle of no where as there are not many houses around and there is a massive field next to the house suggesting the location is pretty open. As the main title of 'Halloween 4' appears on the screen it is shown in the same yellow and orange colour but in a bold font to make it stand out more, this is effective at it catches the audiences attention to the theme of the film. When the title appears we hear diegetic music of laughter which sounds sinister, this is also effective as it makes the audience think that something bad is going to happen and that someonemay be there, it also makes it sound scary which links into the film title of 'Halloween' as its meant to be scary. The music also gets louder as the title is shown also grabbing your attention to the film as is makes it stand out, as the film title disappears the music then becomes quite and settles back down to being sinister.

As the credits continue, we are shown more images of things relating to Halloween, all the pictures that are shown look abandoned and lonley which are effective as it shows there may not be any around or that there may be someone in these abandoned places hiding. All of the images are dark and look lonely as you can hear the diegetic sound of the wind and leaves in the background creating an abandoned feeling, some of the shots are of forests and trees and empty structures to sheds which are normally seen as a stereotypical scene for a horror. We see shots of barbed wire and objects such as axes and a garden fork which are all shown using a close up shot, this is effective as it makes the object have a meaning and they are link into danger and death which also relate to the genre of the film 'horror'. The pumpkin that we are shown is seen to be smiling which creates a sinister feel toward the audience and is creepy, as it is just sat there by itself, all of these denotations could connote the fact that some kind of danger or gory scenes will occur due to the objects being shown.

After the last image from the location we were shown, the non diegectic music fades out and then focuses on the diegetic music of the rain and the truck driving towards the screen. The shot is a long shot which is effective as it shows the audience that there is a new setting and you are able to see a long road they are driving on and the fact that there are no other cars suggests that place is quite derelict. As the truck drives around the corner you get a close up and can see that is an ambulance, straight away the audience's reaction to this is that something bad has happened to someone and could mean blood and gore, it also leaves suspense to whether it was an accident or murder.

Questionnaire

Questionnaire

1) What is your favourite genre film?

A. Comedy
B. Romance
C. Action
D. Horror

2) Do you enjoy watching horror films?

A. Yes
B. No

3) Do you watch them with friends or alone?

A. Friends
B. Alone
C. N/A

4) Where do you associate a horror film setting?

A. Abandoned house
B. Woods
C. In their own home
D. Hospital

5) Do you prefer the victim to be male or female?

A. Male
B. Female

6) How often do you watch horror films?

A. Once a month
B. 2-3 times a month
C. More than 3
D. Other
E. Never

7) What lighting do you associate horror films to have?

A. Dark Lighting
B. Light
C. Other (Please note)

8) What props do you expect to see in a horror film?

A. Knife
B. Noose
C. Gun
D. Rags with blood
E. Other (Please note)

9) If they victim was female what would you rather they do:

A. Run from the killer
B. Hide from the killer
C. Fight the killer
D. Let them kill you

intial plot ideas

Initial Ideas: Our horror film begins with a teenage girl walking through the village with her friend. However, she does not know that she is being followed by a mysterious figure. The village is busy so our victim has no idea she is being followed. As the victim and her friend approach the woods, our victim decides to take a short cut through the woods as it is a cold night and she wants to get home quicker. Despite her friend advising her not to take the short cut she goes ahead and takes it anyway. As she walks further down the path she begins to get the impression someone is following her. She keeps glancing round to see if anyone is there but she cannot see anyone.

We have two main ideas as to how our opening two minutes should end. Our first idea is that the girl is murdered in the woods and our second idea is that she is followed all the way home and her and her house is being watched by the villain. We are still not entirely sure which ending to go for but we are going to film both scenarios and see which we prefer.

A Boyfriend and Girlfriend are walking home through the woods. The Girlfriend breaks up with boyfriend and he gets really angry. He forces her against the tree. The force is so hard she starts choking and blood starts spewing from her mouth. She is lying on the floor when two girls walk past. They notice her covered in blood but run off and leave her as they are too shocked to do anything. They don not even call for help, they just leave her. The boyfriend then realises she is dead and tries to wipe away the blood with a rag and drag her body under a bush so no one finds her. The two girls walk back to their houses but what they don't notice is that the 'dead' girl is not actually dead, she is watching them both. She appears in different places as they walk home.

Consideration of Representation and Stereotyping

We are representing the villain in our film as quite sinister and mysterious. This will conform to the usual stereotype of villains. The villain will be a male. This is conforming to the stereotype of men being more powerful- he is the murderer, not the victim. He has full control of the situation which shows he has all the power which again, conforms to the stereotype of men being more powerful than women. This therefore means that the female victim is conforming to the stereotype of women being weak and vulnerable. Just the fact she is alone in the woods shows she is quite vulnerable. Also, as she has no idea what is about to happen it could perhaps represent her as quite ditsy and unaware. This then conforms to the stereotype of women being much weaker than men. However, we have not subverted the stereotype in any way as we have only conformed to the stereotype.

characters and costumes

Characters:
Georgia: The Victim

Ben: The Villain

Helen: The Vitcims Friend

We will also need some extra characters to walk around in the background as the victim and her friend are walking through the village. We need these extra characters to show that the village is busy.


Costumes:

Georgia: Normal, everyday clothes such as, jeans and a plain t-shirt. The victim needs to wear these clothes to represent how normal she is and also to represent an ordianary day. This will show to the audience that the victim isn't going to expect anything will happen because she is just going about her normal day.

Ben: Dark clothing such as black tracksuit bottoms and a black hooded jumper. The villain needs to wear these clothes because they need to be portrayed as sinister. Also they need to hide their face because it makes the scene much more tense and scary if the villain's identity isn't revealed.

Helen: Normal, everyday clothes, such as jeans and a plain t-shirt. She needs to wear these clothes to show it is just a normal day for her. This will show the audience that herself and the victim will not be expecting what is about to happen.

Initial Ideas

Initial idea:

We have chosen Ashtead to be the location for our opening two minutes. We decided to choose this location because it is quite busy as you can see from the picture. As it is busy it means that no one would expect they are being followed, like the girl in our horror film is. This is effective as the audience will know what's going on but the characters won't. This will leave the audience feeling tense and scared for the victim as the victim doesn't have any idea what is going on. The main part of our film will be filmed in Ashtead common. As Ashtead common will be really quiet at night it will be good to contrast the two different locations, one being busy and the other being really quiet. This will emphasise just how alone our main character is when she decides to take a short cut through the woods. This is effective as it will show the audience that something is going to happen because it is dark and she is alone. Our starting location is Ashtead train station. This is where we will be first introduced to our antagonist. We decided to introduce are antagonist here because it is busy so no one would think that they are being followed. This means that when the girl chooses the walk through the woods it creates tension for the audience because they know something will happen.

Final idea:

We have now decided to film the whole of the two minutes based around Ashtead common rather than the victims house. This is because it will be more frightening for the audience if the murder takes place in a deserted woods rather than in the comforts of her own home.

Targets

Targets:

After filling out the check list i can now evaluate and assess my targets. My main target it to go into more detail with my posts and opening two minute clips as i have only vaguely analysed them, i could also do more research on things such as the sound tracks and the audience research. I am lacking posts on youtube clips and Tutorials, and reasons to why all the research i have done helped with ideas to our filming. Due to insufficient number of posts and research done, we  have found it harder to do our film and get ideas as don't have much knowledge on topics such as the costumes, props and typical locations for horrors, i believe this is another reason for our filming being delayed and taking a lot longer than expected. Another big target for me is to try and find some of my time to sit down and finish the posts that i have started to get them finished and uploaded especially posts such as my two minute openings, however due to the fact i have such a massive commitment outside of school its hard for me to fit in the time to do the posts and therefore it puts me behind but a lot. We didn't prepare for filming very well as we forgot some props the first time so we had to miss out a few scenes and then forgot the story board so we didn't know for sure on what we were doing which made it hard for us to tell the people in our film what they were suppose to be doing. So our target for next time is to make sure we are more prepared and think it through more thorough so that we know exactly what we are doing and then are able to get on with the filming straight away.

blog list check

	Done?	Comment?
RESEARCH
Genre Research and mind-maps (3 posts)	yes
Uploaded YouTube videos of openings – analysed (10 openings)	no	I need to watch some more openings to film and then analyse them, and when I do analyse them I need to make sure I do in detail.
Opening titles analysed in detail – font researched	no	I only have a little bit more to add to my paragraph. And I need to do research on the font.
Uploaded YouTube videos of similar genre openings analysed in detail (3 posts)	no	Ive only the most ive done on one genre is two opening same with action. The other genres have only got one.
Costume and location research – google earth and pictures you’ve taken. (At least 2 posts)	Yes costume research is done.	I need to finish off the location and add some more google earth pictures.
Actors and props photos and interviews	no	We have done one interview on our victim I just need to upload it and same with the pictures.
Soundtrack research (non-copyright music)	no	I need to do some research into this.
Audience Research and Profiling (typical audience member and similar films)	no	We have done some brief research on this we just need to go into a lot more detail.
Institution research (Paramount etc)	yes	But could go into more detail and more research on it.
Certificate research	yes	But we could of gone into more detail and needs more research .
PLANNING
Own film idea brainstorm	no	We had loads of ideas but have them written on paper so we just need to type them up.
Own film treatment
Relevant Online Tutorials (on filming and editing) and Comments (At least 2 posts)	no
Documenting of influences on production	no
Shot lists	no	We also have these written on our story board so we just need to write them up.
Consideration of representation in your film and stereotyping – use theory from G325.	no
Questionnaire (and feedback) Get some feedback on your initial ideas!	Yes we have done the questionnaire.	We just need to write about the feedback we were given.
Diary of filming/editing etc with photos and screen grabs (At least 3 posts)	Yes we have done some diaries about the film setting.	We need to edit and upload the photos. We need to do the screen grabs.
Mood board	no	I’ve started but just haven’t finished it yet.
Script	no	Our script is on our storyboard we just need to add a few things.
Practice titles created and uploaded	no	We need to watch some horror titles to get an idea.
Storyboard – animatic.	yes	We just need to re draw them and upload it.
Time Management Schedule – what you did& when, problems you encountered& solved	no	We roughly know our time management we just need to go through our film and finalise it. And we need to write it all up.
Codes and Conventions featured in your Opening Two Minutes	no	We need to finish our film completely too then see the codes and conventions used.
Ensure that all posts have a title, detailed comments and relevant pictures which are commented on.	They all have titles	I need to have detailed comments and more relevant pictures.