Our teacher's feedback

Today we got some feedback from our teacher about our nearly finished work. She told us the camera work and the editing were very good and the length of the piece is ok by now, as Tom shortened the title. However, our music caused different reactions, some people liked it and some -our teacher included - thought it was a bit too sentimental for a horror film so we want to use the few days left changing the music and we might add some more sound effects as well.

Roles

Actors: Tom - Max
Ben - Ben
Cameraman: Phil
Editor: Tom
Producer: Tom
Director: Phil

Todays Lesson

In today's lesson our teacher showed our rough cut to our classmates so that we could get some feedback on how to improve it.

We discovered that so far there isn't enough tension, so music or quick cuts could improve this. There also needs to be some titles to make it feel as if it is a film opening and also they thought that the title of 'Sinwood' may have been a bit too long.

Editing

Today i have been editing the short film. where i was able to cut shoots together to maintain the continuity. Overall i think it is beginning to take shape well and hopefully will be finished as soon as possible.

evaluation on 2nd shoot

On Sunday we shot our whole footage again. It was cold but not raining this time which made filming a lot easier. We had enough batteries and our tape worked. We experimented a bit more filming from different angles and using different camera movements. We tried to have a variety of shots such as POV, panning, tracking etc. Sometimes it was difficult to follow the 180° rule when we were experimenting with shots that are not on our storyboard. So I had to move the camera to a different position. Doing the camera work this time went smoother because I did almost the same shots last weekend, so I think they look a bit more controlled.
Also we had some one who helped us carrying our equipment and backpack which saved us interruptions and thereby made the workflow smoother.
The only problem we had this time was that we were pressed for time because one of our actors had to leave early. But we managed to shoot everything in time and before it started to get dark.

Opening Sequence Animatic

Opening Sequence

Seeing as we had lost our footage, I decided to use the pictures from our storyboard to create the story with my title I previously created. This has helped to see how long our opening will go on for, and gives us a rough idea to the order the sequence goes in.

Evaluation of first shooting... and a fairly bad experience

Yesterday, we had an extremely annoying experience. We couldn't see our footage properly, sometimes there were black lines on the screen or it was completely black. So there were only very little parts of quite bad qualitiy left. We will have to shoot everything again next weekend which costs us a whole week of our time. We have to use our time left effectively to achieve a good opening sequence.
At least it wasn't our fault and we learned some things that we can improve. Our fake blood looked very real and our location is a good one for this genre, because wehn you are there you really feel something like our story could happen at this place. Next time we can concentrate more on the technical aspects because we know our location better and the workflow will also be more effective. Since the weather was bad and the ground was moody we will be prepared for another day with bad weather conditions. We solved this holding an umbrella over the camera but since we couldn't see our footage we don't know if the raindrops falling on the umbrella will disturb the sound or if it doesn't matter.

Shoot

Today we shot the footage for the opening. However, the conditions of weather were poor and it only seemed to rain when we filmed. Atleast we have some footage to edit with. The more time I have to edit, the more i can play around with it to get it to what we wanted.

Shooting #2

I booked the equipment over the weekend so that we can get our footage. We will go on Sunday and hope that the conditions won't be too bad. Since we had enough time the last two lessons Tom spent this time on creating a special title.

Opening Title

Today's lesson involved me creating the opening titles sequence. I have included the music and title in order so that all we need to do is add the filming we will do this weekend.

CF feedback background research

Well done Tom/Phil. This blog demonsrates how your research is clearly informing your creative process and that you are using ICT to collaborate as a group. I was particularly impressed by your pitch and treatment. I think the narrative concept has been well thought out. Your storyboarding shows that you are setting out to carefully plan your work in advance of shooting.

Your planning mark currently stands at a low level 4. There will be a slight variation in score due to differences in standard of film analysis – Tom, yours is still brief, however this is the only area. As a group, you are working extremely well.

To achieve this overall, ensure that your time management and shoots are well organized and that all deadlines are met.

I’m looking forward to seeing how you manage to establish and maintain tension in your sequence!

Mrs Fernandez

Presentation

Technical analysis

guys - you need to be sure that this is completed by Friday - Phil, you post is missing and Tom you need to extend yours.

Shooting

Tom and I agreed to shoot our footage this weekend to have enough time left for our post-production. Since if we can shoot or not depends on the weather this is another reason why we want to have it done early. We have to shoot all our footage at the same day to ensure continuity (especially light).

Audience Research

Following the reasearch for our target audience, we found out which were the most important ingredients they thought would be needed for a psychological horror film. The results showed that a murder was the most frequent to be most important with a mystery shortly after and blood and a male hero to be almost as important. After this we could then finally decide our film opening to include these ingredients, so the audience would want to see it.
most of the questions i used were open styled so i could get more detail to the answers other than closed questions. however i did use a closed question for the ingredients so i could collect the quantitative data and put it into a graph, which is on the slideshow. I also asked the types of films they had seen so I could see what type of horror they are into.

The last question i asked them was about our film title; Sinwood, and what they associated with this word. Most of the feedback was a woods with a murder or strange goings on. This was exactly what we were going for and so stuck with the title.

Reactions to our pitch

On Friday before the holidays we had to pitch our idea to the class. This included our title and one liner, treatment, audience research, product research and opening idea.
The comments were mainly positive, "Sinwood" is a good title for our piece because it goes well with the horror genre and our story.
However, to convey the story in the right way our actors would have to play their parts good, especially because we have dialogue, said our teacher. Also we should take some pictures of the location on the blog which Tom has done by now.

Treatment

A treatment is a short article about the story of the project that should hook the reader so that he/she wants to see the film/read the book/play the game etc. Here's my treatment on Sinwood.



Sinwood

It’s a day like any other when Ben and Max, two teenage friends, walk home from school together. They are joking talking about school and their last party which was awesome! Suddenly Max panics for no visible reason, runs off desperately screaming for his friend to come with him. Ben considers it another joke and shrugs it off with a smile. A mistake with consequences.
Max keeps on running. He hyperventilates, all his senses blinded by an overwhelming fear. He doesn’t dare to stop and yet he must because he’s completely exhausted.

The sound of a branch cracking in the silence. He spins around… hears fast-paced footsteps through the fallen leaves on the ground. His eyes widen in panic when he spots the source of the sound. Then darkness.

Later Ben finds his best friend lying dead on the forest floor. He’s got strange marks on his body.
What did his friend run away from? What did he know that he wouldn’t share even with his best friend? What matters is that some one’s taken an important part of Ben’s life away and he wants revenge!
But the more he finds out about the circumstances of Max’s mysterious death the nearer he draws to a dark secret he had better not disturbed. Because knowledge is dangerous, especially when it concerns an enemy you can’t assess.
You might think you are in control of the situation soon. But that’s just what your enemy has waited for.

Location

Our filming location is a woods in Sevenoaks. These are some reccie pictures of our location:

Our FIlm

'SiNWoOD' will be the title for our film.

The one liner for our film is 'It's awake............let the hunt begin'

Fake Blood

Phil and I have decided we need to make some fake blood for our film opening, and so I found a recipe for some on the Internet. The recipe is:

Realistic Recipe

2/3 c. Golden Syrup
1/3 c. Warm Water
5 Tbsp Corn Flour
4 Tsp red food coloring
1 Tbsp Powdered Cocoa
2 drops of green or yellow food coloring

Mix the corn starch with the water in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the golden syrup. Add the food coloring slowly, checking for color.

Evaluation on technical analysis

Through my technical analysis I've learned that cutting from still images to still images creates a certain mood and helps to show the nature of something calm for instance of a countryside. However, to create this effect you need time and zou may use some long takes. But we only have two minutes so this is nothing for our opening sequence.
Also, I learned that a mix of different shot sizes, angles and movements such as LSs and CUs is important for the audience to see the action from different points. Having a variety decreases the risk that the film gets boring. The rate of cuts should also be considered as this gives the film its speed and mood, too. For a chasing sequence the shots must look quite messy just like the nature of the action so there handicam would be best along with fast-paced cuts.
Something else I've noticed is that there's not only for example a typical CU/tracking in/ eye-level shot in films but sometimes the camera moves from one position to a different one so that shot size, angle and focus change without using a cut. I like contrasts in films, be it in cutting rate(fast/slow)or music(harsh/calm), if one of this follows the other because it creates a fairly good mystery. It awards it an unreal look. So we will definitely use that.
Again, as in my first product analysis, I realizied that we don't need sound all the time to create our preferred mood, so we will have a mix of pure, natural sound with other parts where we will use something of the music we selected and Tom has posted.

Technical Shot Analysis of "Disturbia"

1. Black screen FADES TO
2. CU of Water.PEDS UP
3. LS of two males.CUTS TO
4. CU of Fish.CUTS TO
5. Switch Back to shot 2.CUTS TO
6. And back to shot 3.CUTS TO
7. LS of two males from different angle. CUTS TO
8. Shot half in water/half out. CU of fish jumping out.CUTS TO
9. Splash Sound.MCU of males. Steadicam.CUTS TO
10. MS of water and fish. Follows.CUTS TO
11. Back to shot 8.CUTS TO
12. MLS of males.CUTS TO
13. CU of older male from behind younger.
14. Motivated cut, to younger male from behind older male.

From this analysis I have found out they use the same shot more than once but at different times. There is also proof that each shot is quite long, as there are only 14 different types in the first two minutes of the film. This is for establishing shots, to introduce the audience to the film. There is many different changes of distance in the shots, this creates different views for the audience to see the scenes and focus in on the most important things going on. The different shots are effective as cutting in towards the characters from a ELS will focus the adience into what the characters are doing instead of the surroundings.

Institutional Context

To start the making of a film, you start with the idea. This involves a source of inspiration, where you get the idea from. e.g. a book, a conversation or something that has happened to you. Then the producer decides whether to make the idea into reality. After that the director can visualize how to put the script onto the screen. The writer then defines and clarifies the idea, the story and main characters. The relationship between the producer, writer and director is the key creative triangle in the film business.

You then move onto the development finance and pitching the project to raise funds to make it happen, also approaching production companies. The producer can offer future sales in return for money to develop the script. The producer can also pitch the film to private investors in hopes to support the project.

After that, the writer has to put together the product the financiers and producer want. Firstly the writer creates a synopsis which is the first step to a good script. Most writers create a step outline to help them with the script. The draft is done next and can be the hardest part of screenwriting as the writers fee depends on their first draft. Once the writer and producer are happy, it is sent of to the financiers, whom all have different ideas of their own. Only after everyone is happy it gets locked off and the writer is finally paid. After, the producer will create a sales treatment.

With the script complete, the director and producer decide how they want to film it, and who they will employ to help them. The financing is sorted out and the cast is chosen as well as the head of departments. To turn the film into a proper business proposition, the producer must know how much the whole project will cost. The potential investors would want to know how the producer will raise the money and how they will get paid back.

There is yet again more investment searching, and the producer most likely has to travel to find some money. However this is difficult as there are many others doing the same, with sometimes the same package as them. Once all the essential funding and insurance is secured,the film gets the 'green light' and the producer can celebrate.

After the head of departments are hired, the script is passed round. The casting director, with producer and director, starts the process of casting the actors. Then the storyboarding takes place by the storyboard artist, with sometimes the DoP (photography) present. The production designer plans every aspect of how the film will look and hires people to design and build each part. The special effects are also planned carefully.

The filming can then start, and the filming team are responsible to capture everything the director and editor need to tell the story. Once the sound are lighting have been set up and the hair and make-up have been checked, the shot can begin. The actors need to be good to make the film a success, as they are the only ones being seen on screen by the public. Every special effect is carefully constructed and must be filmed with minimum risk of injury to anyone. Film productions need to be kept on schedule, otherwise they may go over budget and the insurers and financiers may step in.

The editor then makes a rough cut and puts the scenes into order. In post production sound and special effects are made and added, as well as the credits and titles. The colour may be tinted to establish the aesthetic of the film, also in the post production. After the final cut, the film reaches full cut and the film is ready for duplication.

The producer then secures the services of a sales agent to help sale the finished product. A trailer is made and highlights the most marketable aspects of the film, to make it appealing so people go to see it. The producer and sales agent collect everything together they need to sell the film to the distributors. The producer must go to extreme measures to attract attention for their product. As it turns into a hot product, the producer can negotiate good deals with distributors from around the world.

For marketing the marketing team runs test screenings to see how the film is recieved, knowing the audience is essential. The potential audience of the film are targeted with posters, cinema trailers and adverts. Also with newspaper reviews and T.V and Radio can help make a film a success with good reviews. To get the films to audiences the distributor must negotiate with cinemas to screen it. Then a premiere is used to boost the appeal with the stars that have feature in the film. With being shown in cinemas for the audience, the exhibitors take their share of the box office receipts, after which the distributors recoup their maketing costs.

There are then other windows the product can be taken. For example DVD and Video, being the most likely, but also a video game of the film or inflight movies, and the last source of revenue, terrestial tellevision or pay-per-view.

Music Ideas

Phil and I have been talking about the music tracks we may use in our film. We have decided to used two different types of music to contrast the horror to the psychological aspect.

The first track is Rammstein - Mein Teil http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lk06_ll_vgo

The second track is The Kooks - Seaside http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=z8OLb1DK9HY

The third track is an instrumental we may not use, but will see if it fits in with the film and would only use the first bit. Ophidian - Butterfly Vip http://uk.youtube.com/watch?feature=related&v=KddV9Hq9P8Q

Planning information

Tom and I are preparing our material for the pitch on Friday right now. We decided to split the work so that he did the audience research and is preparing the Powerpoint layout and I wrote the treatment. Together we fill the rest of information. We agreed on a title and a one liner and have a clear idea what will happen in our opening sequence. During half-term I will do our storyboard.
On Friday we will see how the others react on our idea, what they find good or what should be improved. After the pitch we will post different parts of it to show our final story and all the other thoughts we have at the moment.

Analysing preliminary task

In our preliminary task we had to take the camera, go outside the classroom, take some shots of a conversation and edit it in post production.
You see a CU of a doorhandle when it moves down, we track out and tilt up to watch our character coming back from work in a MCU. We stay with him to see the shock coming over his face. This connotes that he's seen something scary. When he says "what are you doing here?" we realise there is another person on the other side of the room. We then cut to an over-shoulder shot of this person to not reveal his face. We use rule of third placing him in the right bottom corner and the other guy's face in the left top one, so we can watch his body language when the mysterious person says in a dark voice "I've come to see you!" He is filling one third of the corner whereas the other character has a bit leading room left. We had some problems situating our characters in the right positions after each shot so that it was easier to produce continuity editing. We have to be more careful with that when shooting our final task.

We tried different methods to make it look like the door shuts itself and the first attempts pulling it with a line from outside didn't look good so I just pushed it with my foot which you don't realise when you don't know so it looks much better.

As we only used diegetic sound we realised that we don't need extra sounds for everything to make it sound real. For example I liked the creaking of the door handle when it gets pushed down or the banging at the door when it's closed later.
Unfortunately the chatting from the other classrooms around disturbed a bit but we couldn't help it. When shooting our final task we have to make sure no one's around or if it is a busy place that we're just pacient and wait for the right moments.
The voices in the video are quite clear so we had no problems like wind with that.

The most difficult part to achieve was probably continuety editing. We already had our piece finished in the lesson after shooting it but there was a incident so we had to re-edit everything again and it looked different after the second time. This is why we had to do the fade to black transition so it looked at least better than the pretty harsh cut we had before. For next time we must shoot more footage to have a bigger amount to choose from, but for the first time we are pleased with the result and it was fun to make it.

Feedback #2

Tom/Phil,

You show real creativity in your preliminary task and your research is focused and informative, but not always complete. You must fill in the gaps.

Also - I would like to see more evaluation of the preliminary task, how you used continuity editing and issues with filming.

2nd analysis

13 GHOSTS

directed by Steve Beck

2001

Watching the opening of “13 Ghosts“ you realise that it is a horror film with an action element. The conventions are the deserted junk yard at night and the title which is blended on the dark images in a fire-coloured, slightly moving scripture. The contrast makes it appear more powerful. It looks like it is glowing and something is in there since there are beams of light coming out of the letters connoting evil and danger. This is supported by non-diegetic sounds like strange screams and camera movement such as steadicam tracking back instead of tracking in shapes the film to be a horror. Reading the title in this mysterious scripture the audience creates an image of ghosts as evil creatures, as they might have seen in different films.

In the first part of the opening Beck lets us get familiar with the stock location to feel the atmosphere. Cars are piled up very high, plastic bands are rustling in the wind and between all the junk there are ways where the camera moves connoting narrowness and mystery. The ground looks wet and not as if someone has been there lately giving the effect of loneliness. So the audience work out that this is an evil place to be or that something evil lives in it. Through non-verbal language we learn about the nature of our characters. Cyrus’ movements seem to be controlled and connote power and self consciousness. He doesn’t wince when one of the cars of the junk yard falls down right in front of him whereas Dennis screams and backs off. Through this one scene we learn that Cyrus is very calm and can judge situations. When he talks to Dennis after their arrival Dennis sits leaned to the car and Cyrus stands next to him connoting the power who has the power. The other men running around setting the material look very cautious as they watch out for something. They work and move very quickly connoting that they don’t have much time. Another example for the calmness of Cyrus is that his car drives into the scene very slowly compared with the impressive appearance of the rest of the crew in the big trucks. His face looks confident. But you get to know his other side when he kicks Dennis’ medication away. This connotes a lot. Not only that he doesn’t tolerate unconcentrated action but also that if necessary he doesn’t wait for others to help him and demonstrates not only psychological power. Cyrus’ costume, a large black and red coat, and his classic car make him look like a baron. The men wearing black suits with a plastic cover are identified by the audience as a special unit. The stereotypical image of the person wearing classes as being weaker than others is put on Dennis who is represented as an assistant.

The light is set very carefully used since in the darkness every lit part becomes even more powerful. The natural light of the location comes from the moon connoting that it is night. This is another convention for the horror genre and makes the whole scene look eerier. When Cyrus arrives his face is half lit, the other side left in shadow conveying that he is a man with two sides. Whereas Cyrus’ face is especially exposed the faces of the other men aren’t but their plastic jackets are. In this way we realise among other things that he is the main character whereas the light focus on the other men’s clothes connotes that these people work for him. When the cars arrive there’s fire on each side of the way which creates a frame on our screen to focus on them but at the same time make them look more dangerous.

There’s diegetic sound used e.g. the waving plastics bands rustling in the wind as well as a lot of non-diegetic sound e.g. we feel like some one is rushing past the camera even though we don’t see anyone. Right at the beginning there is a thunder used as a sound bridge from the “Dark Castle Entertainment” symbol to the first image which connects the two images audibly and adds to the horror feeling. Sometimes diegetic sound is exaggerated to enhance the dramatic effects. Beck uses this for example when the first truck breaks through the gate in the fence by letting the sound last longer than it would have done in reality and making it louder. The music comes from an orchestra and is dramatic and fast-paced displaying the speed of the images seen. We realise that the men are working very fast. To increase tension, for instance when something significant is just about to happen, the music gets louder.

There are many CUs of the main character’s faces in the opening which concentrate on their reactions and feelings, like in the conversation between Dennis and Cyrus. To make the junk yard look more bizarre swaying camera is used in canted angles for the first images. Another unusual element adding to the sense of obscurity is that we have a steadicam tracking out very fast instead of tracking in which gives the strange effect of walking reversed. To get a view over the location we see a panning over the junk yard as an ELS. When the special unit arrives the men’s lower legs are framed and we see them running. Their equipment is shown in CUs e.g. the control desk and the “cube” so we work out that they are trying to trap something or some one. Knowing the title and hearing the dialogue between Cyrus and the two captured activists the audience can work out that Cyrus captures ghosts but we don’t know the reason. When he is in a dialogue with Dennis walking through the junk yard the camera distance changes frequently from MCUs to ELS to be with the characters but at the same time see what is going on in the environment around.

Supported by camera angles, sound and verbal/ non-verbal language Beck presents us Cyrus as a powerful man who enjoys the action by climbing on top of the junk to have a good view about what’s happening. Hearing his voice giving commands you realise that he enjoys his work and being in that mighty position. Also we see that he is ruthless as he doesn’t care about other peoples opinions which disturb his work. Another negative feature of him is that he has concealed to Dennis that there is a 13^th ghost to capture, and Dennis thought the 12^th ghost was the last one.

The narrative is structured in the order that everything happens; there are no flash-backs or flash-forwards. In some parts the director uses jump cuts, however, they don’t bridge too much time. The narrative style is objective, sometimes we have shots that are similar to POV of some one lurking through the junk but most of the time the story is objective, like an unconcerned narrator in a book who just tells the story. We get dragged into the story by being shown the creepy junk yard and the feeling of some one being there in spite of the silence. This hooks us so we wonder what happens next. Tension is kept by putting action in the following scenes which shows the capture of a ghost. When we see Cyrus the first time we do not know if we should like him or not but slowly getting to know him better we alienate from him maybe because of the slightly mad expression on his face and his will to show his power. When the two activists criticise his work we wonder if what he does is ethnically right and we sympathise with them.

Ideological discourse such as male dominance is reinforced by showing men in almost all significant positions, like Cyrus in the role of the powerful ghost hunter, but no women. One of the two activists is a woman and later she cries for help like she doesn’t know what to do when the other male activist is injured.

In my opinion the target audience are men from the age of 15 because that’s the age level. Men are more likely to watch horror and action movies than women and this it what “13 Ghosts” is about. The preferred reading is that if you keep together as a family in troubled times you will surmount difficulties, even if it is a hard way. Ghosts are presented as cruel creatures that used to be human but are now dead.

Priliminary Task