This is our two minute horror film opening...
Aftermath
Thursday 31 March 2011
Evaluation questions:
Q7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
There were some big differences between our preliminary task and our main project. These were mainly through the differences in dialogue, the actual plots, the lighting and colour, the genre etc. Although these are some of the key elements in filming, there were a couple of similarities between our two tasks. I learned alot from the continuity exercise in the fact that we actually used many of the strategies and techniques in order to make a continuity exercise work properly in our main film opening. This was not just through the use in camera but in fact, is all to do when you finish the task, it is the editing stage that is the main similarity between these two projects.
In order for a continuity to work in any film, the cuts between scenes, dialogue, scenery etc. has to be smooth and accurate so that the audience know what is going on. I learnt that if there are too many jump cuts in any particular scene, it doesn't matter what genre the film is but too many of them looks cheap, rubbish and can upset and confuse the audience and storyline/plot. If this happens then another problem maybe that the dialogue between the characters can overlap. Although in some cases jump cuts are acceptable because they explain the story better than if it were just an ordinary straight cut. I learnt this through the continuity first when we came to the editing and then we used the advise in the actual, final film opening.
Finally, the last thing I learnt from editing the continuity/preliminary exercise to applying it into the final piece was the idea of the 180 degree 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. The 180 degree rule enables the audience to visually connect with unseen movement happening around and behind the immediate subject and is important in the narration of battle scenes.
The 180 degree rule
There were some big differences between our preliminary task and our main project. These were mainly through the differences in dialogue, the actual plots, the lighting and colour, the genre etc. Although these are some of the key elements in filming, there were a couple of similarities between our two tasks. I learned alot from the continuity exercise in the fact that we actually used many of the strategies and techniques in order to make a continuity exercise work properly in our main film opening. This was not just through the use in camera but in fact, is all to do when you finish the task, it is the editing stage that is the main similarity between these two projects.
In order for a continuity to work in any film, the cuts between scenes, dialogue, scenery etc. has to be smooth and accurate so that the audience know what is going on. I learnt that if there are too many jump cuts in any particular scene, it doesn't matter what genre the film is but too many of them looks cheap, rubbish and can upset and confuse the audience and storyline/plot. If this happens then another problem maybe that the dialogue between the characters can overlap. Although in some cases jump cuts are acceptable because they explain the story better than if it were just an ordinary straight cut. I learnt this through the continuity first when we came to the editing and then we used the advise in the actual, final film opening.
Finally, the last thing I learnt from editing the continuity/preliminary exercise to applying it into the final piece was the idea of the 180 degree 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. The 180 degree rule enables the audience to visually connect with unseen movement happening around and behind the immediate subject and is important in the narration of battle scenes.
Evaluation questions:
Q6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
From completing the final project, I have learnt many things about the type of technology that we used that I didn't know before. Firstly, in terms of the camera that we used to actually film our opening to our horror, it was not a fancy, expensive one but it was sufficient. We did not use any tripods as we wanted to keep our ideas simple but effective so for the subjective shot, it is better to not have a tripod than to have one. Through this new form of camera I learnt how to zoom in and out with a steady hand whilst recording. Although the most important thing I have learnt from the camera side of things is that you should always plan your surroundings. If the area you are working in is too bright/dark then it could change the overall mood of your piece and ruin your final idea but if you plan, your end product will really work.
Another key element to all media is the editing stage. In the editing process of our project, I learned a huge range of new skills and ways in which to improve a piece of film simply through the click of a button. It was the first time I had ever used a Mac so I knew it was going to take some getting used to. On the Macs was a programme called iMovie where you load up your filming and edit the stuff out that you don't need or things that didn't work. I had never done editing before but it was surprisingly easy and I picked it up very quickly. Within the editing process was where you could choose the piece of music to play over your film through a programme called Garageband. You could either pick a selected song or write your own.
This is the camera that we used on the tripod with the handle that allows you to tilt up/down and/or pan a particular scene.
From completing the final project, I have learnt many things about the type of technology that we used that I didn't know before. Firstly, in terms of the camera that we used to actually film our opening to our horror, it was not a fancy, expensive one but it was sufficient. We did not use any tripods as we wanted to keep our ideas simple but effective so for the subjective shot, it is better to not have a tripod than to have one. Through this new form of camera I learnt how to zoom in and out with a steady hand whilst recording. Although the most important thing I have learnt from the camera side of things is that you should always plan your surroundings. If the area you are working in is too bright/dark then it could change the overall mood of your piece and ruin your final idea but if you plan, your end product will really work.
Another key element to all media is the editing stage. In the editing process of our project, I learned a huge range of new skills and ways in which to improve a piece of film simply through the click of a button. It was the first time I had ever used a Mac so I knew it was going to take some getting used to. On the Macs was a programme called iMovie where you load up your filming and edit the stuff out that you don't need or things that didn't work. I had never done editing before but it was surprisingly easy and I picked it up very quickly. Within the editing process was where you could choose the piece of music to play over your film through a programme called Garageband. You could either pick a selected song or write your own.
A screen grab of us editing the differences in sound for the music box scene and our chosen song to use in our film from Garageband.
I already knew alot of different shots, movements and angles before the whole process begun but I had never looked into the idea of panning through movement in the camera with detail. The idea of the pan shot became more effective as we progressed in our final min task/project and we used it alot more frequently. We cut down the number of scenes with Pan's in them through the Macs but one scene still has this and this is the scene filmed in Abby's bedroom where Chloe's character is opening the music box and she has a violent breakdown from remembering sharing it with her sister. In this scene where she is hitting the walls and knocking books off shelves, the camera is following her through a pan shot to keep the audience in the action.
In terms of angles, where we did use a tripod, you can change the camera using tilts by using a handle attached to the back of the camera. This was the first time I had used it in this way and you can also use it for panning but mainly tilts (moving up and down). We used alot of angles and framing in our opening to our horror film as horrors use what is sometimes called off screen sound. This is where you here something that you know is there on screen but you cannot see it. For an example, if someone was screaming in fear up a tree but you cannot see the person, the camera can tilt/pan upwards towards the person. Voiceover's were useful too through the planing stage and eventually in the editing. In the film were Chloe whispers Aimee's name and her face appears is an example from our film of this type of sound.
This is the camera that we used on the tripod with the handle that allows you to tilt up/down and/or pan a particular scene.Evaluation questions:
Q5) How did you attract/address your audience?
In order to attract and/or address our target audience, we set about doing some questionnaires in order to receive feed back on our film to get a general idea of what our target audience were expecting. We did two separate questionnaires, one at the beginning of the planning stage where we were getting a general feel for the horror genre and what our target audience required from us and the other one at the end. The questionnaires we did at the end were focused on how our audience felt about the finished product and whether it had met our aims/goals that we set ourselves at the beginning. Here are some of the results that we got from our first questionnaire before the filming stage regarding the horror genre:
In order to attract and/or address our target audience, we set about doing some questionnaires in order to receive feed back on our film to get a general idea of what our target audience were expecting. We did two separate questionnaires, one at the beginning of the planning stage where we were getting a general feel for the horror genre and what our target audience required from us and the other one at the end. The questionnaires we did at the end were focused on how our audience felt about the finished product and whether it had met our aims/goals that we set ourselves at the beginning. Here are some of the results that we got from our first questionnaire before the filming stage regarding the horror genre:
In terms of our second and final questionnaire, the answers we got were very reliable. This was because of the fact that our film's target audience was youths and the respondents we actually asked were youths meant we could get a clearer picture and understand what they were talking about. The answers complimented our aims as our film opening (Aftermath) was a horror that represented youth culture so to get people of that audience to answer the questions gave us ideas for the future. What also helped was the fact that a lot of the questions from the survey specifically looked at how we could improve our film in any way, shape or form.
Depending on each question, there were a set of answers that had different options in which we could improve our film for things like the dialogue, acting, scenery, use of camera use of editing etc. Having people of the target audience answering the questions and advising us on giving room for improvement taught us what to include to next time round. Overall, the general feed back we got back from our second questionnaire was positive and fortunate. There were not a lot of suggestions for improvement but the advise we did get was very helpful.
One respondent said that the music we chose from garage band to play over our opening to our film (Conspiracy) over-shadowed the sound of the music box. This was understandable and plausible as this was the scene where Chloe's character opened her music box after having a breakdown but you could not hear it very clearly. Another respondent said that the 'Conspiracy' music was a bit weird and did not really go with the plot but also the fact that it did not sound very much like horror music but more like sci-fi.
Evaluation questions:
Q4) Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our film is a horror which specifically looks at youth culture and how horror represents youth as a whole. Our aim was to only use actors who were youths themselves so that people who watch this opening can attach to the characters and understand what is going on in their minds. So our target audience was youths but it is not that simple. Although we wanted to appeal to youths, not all of our characters are youths, Chloe's character and her sister Aimee are both meant to represent and portray youths but there is a third and final character. You never see him/her because they remain anonymous throughout the film. This third character is meant to be left to the audience's imagination as to who they are exactly. All we know is that this character is the reason why Aimee is missing, maybe they are a murderer or have kidnapped her.
We did not want to convey the idea of youths as the anonymous character because we realised that to have an adult villain was much more effective and scary. The fact that you do not see them makes the audience feel both uneasy and sorry for Chloe and Aimee. Another element is that if there is a significant age gap between the characters but it is clear that the older character is distinctively the evil one, it helps the story. Many modern day horrors use older villains than the people involved who are meant to be trusted by the audience. It also makes the story more sinister. Although we did have an older more sinister character in mind, we did not use any actors to represent this character as we had to stick to our aims in simplicity but also to keep on track with the forms and conventions of traditional horrors.
This is the image of the sisters sitting together to show and portray both youth and vulnerability
We really liked the idea of vulnerability in horrors through the characters. The fact that we had sisters to use in our story always helps because if they are by themselves with nobody to care for them they can be seen as vulnerable to the outside world and what makes our story sad is that Chloe's character loses her sister. Many horrors dig deep into the ideas of being vulnerable and this is usually represented through sisters or twins. For an example, in The Shining, the two little twin sisters are holding hands to portray their vulnerability but because it is a horror, they are seen with a bloody axe and they are dead.
Finally, in terms of gender, we did not have a specific gender audience because the majority of horrors are aimed at both males and females unlike action movies (boys) and princesses (girls). Gender plays a big role in horrors because girls can quickly change from being all cute and vulnerable to being scary and evil, depending on the film and plot. We wanted to represent youths so horrors that use girls in their youth, tend to focus on the girls being all shy, cute and vulnerable to everyone but hiding a darker inside, this could be good or bad. We portrayed this idea in our film because physically Chloe's character was meant to look shy and vulnerable but she was brave and adventurous in trying to find her sister. Girls in their youth who are goths, emos (generally like horror) etc. are stereotypically shy, cute, vulnerable etc. We represented the vulnerable side by using the sisters holding a flower.
Aimee holding the flower to represent her vulnerability
Our film is a horror which specifically looks at youth culture and how horror represents youth as a whole. Our aim was to only use actors who were youths themselves so that people who watch this opening can attach to the characters and understand what is going on in their minds. So our target audience was youths but it is not that simple. Although we wanted to appeal to youths, not all of our characters are youths, Chloe's character and her sister Aimee are both meant to represent and portray youths but there is a third and final character. You never see him/her because they remain anonymous throughout the film. This third character is meant to be left to the audience's imagination as to who they are exactly. All we know is that this character is the reason why Aimee is missing, maybe they are a murderer or have kidnapped her.
We did not want to convey the idea of youths as the anonymous character because we realised that to have an adult villain was much more effective and scary. The fact that you do not see them makes the audience feel both uneasy and sorry for Chloe and Aimee. Another element is that if there is a significant age gap between the characters but it is clear that the older character is distinctively the evil one, it helps the story. Many modern day horrors use older villains than the people involved who are meant to be trusted by the audience. It also makes the story more sinister. Although we did have an older more sinister character in mind, we did not use any actors to represent this character as we had to stick to our aims in simplicity but also to keep on track with the forms and conventions of traditional horrors.
This is the image of the sisters sitting together to show and portray both youth and vulnerability
We really liked the idea of vulnerability in horrors through the characters. The fact that we had sisters to use in our story always helps because if they are by themselves with nobody to care for them they can be seen as vulnerable to the outside world and what makes our story sad is that Chloe's character loses her sister. Many horrors dig deep into the ideas of being vulnerable and this is usually represented through sisters or twins. For an example, in The Shining, the two little twin sisters are holding hands to portray their vulnerability but because it is a horror, they are seen with a bloody axe and they are dead.
Finally, in terms of gender, we did not have a specific gender audience because the majority of horrors are aimed at both males and females unlike action movies (boys) and princesses (girls). Gender plays a big role in horrors because girls can quickly change from being all cute and vulnerable to being scary and evil, depending on the film and plot. We wanted to represent youths so horrors that use girls in their youth, tend to focus on the girls being all shy, cute and vulnerable to everyone but hiding a darker inside, this could be good or bad. We portrayed this idea in our film because physically Chloe's character was meant to look shy and vulnerable but she was brave and adventurous in trying to find her sister. Girls in their youth who are goths, emos (generally like horror) etc. are stereotypically shy, cute, vulnerable etc. We represented the vulnerable side by using the sisters holding a flower.
Evaluation questions:
Q3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
In 2009 Dogwoof distributed the documentary Age of Stupid The End of the Line, Burma VJ, We Live in Public and Afghan Star. As well as doing foreign films, british films they also include documentaries that link into specific socal problems and issues. These social-issues documentaries such as Dirty Oil, Food, Inc. and Burma VJ are the most famous that they have distributed for.
Our
"We are uncovering better ways of working with movies, doing it and helping others do it. Through ourwork we have come to value: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools ethical filmmakers over get rich schemes, audience collaboration over old school marketing, innovation and failing over tradition and playing safe, responding to change over following a plan, that is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more."
Films and documentaries that you may have heard distributed by 'dogwoof':
Our media film was never going to be a big budget Hollywood style film as our budget was very small because we only bought two items as props. Our film is more of an independent, typically british low budget film. In terms of the type of media institution that might distribute our film, there is one existing company which is called, 'Dogwoof' pictures. Dogwoof was created in 2004 by Andy Whittaker and Anna Godas, which originally focused on foreign films. They recently began to distribute documentaries such as Black Gold, Crude Awakening, and The Devil Came On Horseback. In 2005 Dogwoof launched the UK Digital Screen Network DSN at the Curzon Soho cinema, where political thriller King's Game was shown.
In 2009 Dogwoof distributed the documentary Age of Stupid The End of the Line, Burma VJ, We Live in Public and Afghan Star. As well as doing foreign films, british films they also include documentaries that link into specific socal problems and issues. These social-issues documentaries such as Dirty Oil, Food, Inc. and Burma VJ are the most famous that they have distributed for.
Colin is an example of a low budet, British horror movie and apperently the budget was £45
Our project would be a good film to be distributed into Dogwoof. This is because our film was a horror but it was an independent horror that did not just focus on the gore but also on how people's lives can change. Our film ticks most of the boxes that Dogwoof looks for in a film as their main aim is to distribute films and documentaries that portray social issues. Our film does this through how Chloe's character faces alot of issues regarding herself and her sister.
This is taken from the dogwoof website;
Our Ethical Policy...
"We are uncovering better ways of working with movies, doing it and helping others do it. Through ourwork we have come to value: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools ethical filmmakers over get rich schemes, audience collaboration over old school marketing, innovation and failing over tradition and playing safe, responding to change over following a plan, that is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more."Films and documentaries that you may have heard distributed by 'dogwoof':
Wednesday 30 March 2011
Evaluation questions:
Q2) How does your media product represent particular social groups:
In Aftermath, we wanted our film to focus specifically on youth culture and how horror as a film genre represents youths. Before the filming stage, we all agreed as a group that we would only choose actors that would appeal to a youth audience but not only for the audience but also to represent youth culture. Youth is a hard section of life to use in terms of representing certain charactersistcs through actors on a screen but it is not impossible. We chose to represent youths partly because we are youths ourselves but also the fact that everyone can relate to them and understand what is going on as adults were youths once as well. We decided to use Chloe as our main character of the two/three.
Chloe's character has alot of issues to deal with which are shown through her thoughts in our opening to the film. She has to deal with the loss of her sister, the possibility of her sister being dead and also to find herself as a person. Maybe not the first two but certainly the third point about youths trying to find themselves and trying to figure out who they are in society is all to do with this period of time. Youth is a time for learning about yourself, who you are and/or who you want to be but it is considering learning about life itself. This idea of trying to find yourself as a person can lead to the issues that everyone faces in life.
This is the theory that we wanted to represent youth culture in our particular film with. Youth is not only the time for learning who you are going to become and life but it is also about learning about other people friends/family. In Chloe's character's case, it is hard for her because she doesn't know (just like the audience) whether her sister (Aimee) has run away or has died both tragic things to think about your relationships but it is also issues in life that we must learn from. The message of the opening credits is unclear but the audience may think have to use their imagination for the story but for the representation of youth cultre, is very clear.
In Aftermath, we wanted our film to focus specifically on youth culture and how horror as a film genre represents youths. Before the filming stage, we all agreed as a group that we would only choose actors that would appeal to a youth audience but not only for the audience but also to represent youth culture. Youth is a hard section of life to use in terms of representing certain charactersistcs through actors on a screen but it is not impossible. We chose to represent youths partly because we are youths ourselves but also the fact that everyone can relate to them and understand what is going on as adults were youths once as well. We decided to use Chloe as our main character of the two/three.
Chloe's character has alot of issues to deal with which are shown through her thoughts in our opening to the film. She has to deal with the loss of her sister, the possibility of her sister being dead and also to find herself as a person. Maybe not the first two but certainly the third point about youths trying to find themselves and trying to figure out who they are in society is all to do with this period of time. Youth is a time for learning about yourself, who you are and/or who you want to be but it is considering learning about life itself. This idea of trying to find yourself as a person can lead to the issues that everyone faces in life.
This is the theory that we wanted to represent youth culture in our particular film with. Youth is not only the time for learning who you are going to become and life but it is also about learning about other people friends/family. In Chloe's character's case, it is hard for her because she doesn't know (just like the audience) whether her sister (Aimee) has run away or has died both tragic things to think about your relationships but it is also issues in life that we must learn from. The message of the opening credits is unclear but the audience may think have to use their imagination for the story but for the representation of youth cultre, is very clear.
Evaluation questions:
Q1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real life media products?
In the very beginning of our planning stage, we set ourselves specific goals and aims to achieve at the end of the filming and everything else. One of these aims was to write, film and take part in a traditional horror that ticked all the boxes of the norms that can be found in horror films. We wanted to be as close and as accurate as we could to the horror genre. In the planning stage of our media product, we did not have a clear idea of what our film was meant to be in terms of a genre but we decided to go with horror. This was because horror is not just shocks and gore but can be split into many different sub genre's to. For an example, you can get psychological horrors, your plain gory ones etc. but the great thing is that thrillers come into the idea as well. We based our film choices on this basis so we decided to study films to give us ideas that were specifically horrors but also shared distinctive conventions of thrillers.
One film that we looked at was Memento. This is a psychological thriller that plays with your mind and toys with the ideas of confusion and desperation. Memento is not seen as a horror but there is no clear line as to how horrors and thrillers should overlap/counter from each other. Although this is the case, Memento does have scenes of violence in it which is always the key element to horrors and most thrillers. We wanted to portray and use this idea throughout our film opening because we wanted to stick with horror but also the fact that we did not want to concentrate or even use gore at all as our film is much more of a psychological horror than a gory thriller.
In the very beginning of our planning stage, we set ourselves specific goals and aims to achieve at the end of the filming and everything else. One of these aims was to write, film and take part in a traditional horror that ticked all the boxes of the norms that can be found in horror films. We wanted to be as close and as accurate as we could to the horror genre. In the planning stage of our media product, we did not have a clear idea of what our film was meant to be in terms of a genre but we decided to go with horror. This was because horror is not just shocks and gore but can be split into many different sub genre's to. For an example, you can get psychological horrors, your plain gory ones etc. but the great thing is that thrillers come into the idea as well. We based our film choices on this basis so we decided to study films to give us ideas that were specifically horrors but also shared distinctive conventions of thrillers.
One film that we looked at was Memento. This is a psychological thriller that plays with your mind and toys with the ideas of confusion and desperation. Memento is not seen as a horror but there is no clear line as to how horrors and thrillers should overlap/counter from each other. Although this is the case, Memento does have scenes of violence in it which is always the key element to horrors and most thrillers. We wanted to portray and use this idea throughout our film opening because we wanted to stick with horror but also the fact that we did not want to concentrate or even use gore at all as our film is much more of a psychological horror than a gory thriller.
Another key element, form and convention to the majority of horrors is the idea of shock-tactics. This is where there has been a long period of time that has been dialogue and not much movement or action but suddenly the film shows alot of movement or violence to shock the audience. A great example of this is the scene in The Shining where Johnny is on his tricycle moving down a hall way where he sees two twins holding hands with each other to show vulnerability, the editing then changes and cross cuts between the two sisters as they were and to them lying dead on the floor in a pool of blood with a huge axe by their side. Although this is a very common convention in horrors, we challenged this as we disagreed with the use of it in our film. We wanted to portray a more psychological horror more than a gory horror filled with shock-tactics.
Our film (Aftermath) uses many examples of 'subjective' camera work, where the characters on screen know alot more about the situation than the audience giving a sense of confusion and desperation to find out the answers. Subjective camera work is another key convention of horrors and it is also used to create restricted narration which results in a mystery. This is partly through the fact that our film is an opening but also because we did not give the audience alot of information, there were more camera shots/angles/movement than there was dialogue. This keeps the audience intrigued and wanting to know what is going to happen to the people involved in the film. Subjective camera work can be done through editing, angles, movement and shots but the most important thing to remember is that for it work there needs to be close-ups and extreme closeups in order to confuse the audience as they can't really tell what is going on or who is involved in the scene.
This is an example of subjective camera work in our film as the camera is focused on the feet and you cannot see the character's faces so you are confused and do not know what is going on, this is a key element to horrors/thrillers.
Things that didn't work/fit and the problems we faced
Music:
In order to get some music to play over our opening we chose to use garageband. Garageband is a website which has music that is not copyrighted meaing that we could chose any genre of music we wanted for free. There was a wide range of music on this particular website but we wanted a certain type to emphasise, and portray a sense of sadness, distress and loneliness but also to sound scary and mysterious. We narrowed it down to 5 that we liked that unfortunately sounded pretty similar all together. These were not songs written but noises that conveyed a certain message.
Music plays a key role in horror films as it can act as the heart of emotion for both the characters and the audience. Depending on the music being played can result in a sudden or gradual change in the mood of the characters and can change the story all together. This can be through synchronous/asynchronous sounds or contrapuntal sounds etc. Our overall thought regarding the music to include in our film was that we wanted it to be non-diegetic meaning that you could not see the music being played and also for it to be sychronous to what was going to happen on the screen.
In order to maintain the ideas, codes and conventions of traditional, modern day horrors, we had to keep in mind the fact that alot of horrors have the same music being played all the time in the opening credits. This is so as to not confuse the audience but to make them feel uneasy because if the scene was a sad scene where someone has died for example but the music being played is content then this can be seen as wierd and/or freaky. On the other hand, if there was a happy scene so in this case, Chloe's flashback of her and her sister Aimee playing in the park but the music being played is distressing, scary and generally opposite to the pictures on the screen then this can have the same effect or if not can create a feeling that everything is not right and the characters should not be doing what they are doing.
In order to get some music to play over our opening we chose to use garageband. Garageband is a website which has music that is not copyrighted meaing that we could chose any genre of music we wanted for free. There was a wide range of music on this particular website but we wanted a certain type to emphasise, and portray a sense of sadness, distress and loneliness but also to sound scary and mysterious. We narrowed it down to 5 that we liked that unfortunately sounded pretty similar all together. These were not songs written but noises that conveyed a certain message.
Music plays a key role in horror films as it can act as the heart of emotion for both the characters and the audience. Depending on the music being played can result in a sudden or gradual change in the mood of the characters and can change the story all together. This can be through synchronous/asynchronous sounds or contrapuntal sounds etc. Our overall thought regarding the music to include in our film was that we wanted it to be non-diegetic meaning that you could not see the music being played and also for it to be sychronous to what was going to happen on the screen.
In order to maintain the ideas, codes and conventions of traditional, modern day horrors, we had to keep in mind the fact that alot of horrors have the same music being played all the time in the opening credits. This is so as to not confuse the audience but to make them feel uneasy because if the scene was a sad scene where someone has died for example but the music being played is content then this can be seen as wierd and/or freaky. On the other hand, if there was a happy scene so in this case, Chloe's flashback of her and her sister Aimee playing in the park but the music being played is distressing, scary and generally opposite to the pictures on the screen then this can have the same effect or if not can create a feeling that everything is not right and the characters should not be doing what they are doing.
Things that didn't work/fit and the problems we faced
Plots:
There was alot of confusion between our group over what to include in our plot which made this particular category hard to pick a distinctive final idea. On the basis of this we left the plot to the very end. The problems we faced were that we couldn't get everyone in one place to shoot our film at the same time. As there were only four of us in the group and only one actor, we needed other, extras to be in it which was difficult as nobody we asked was around at the same times as our filming schedules.
However this did not matter as we wanted our finished product to be focused on Chloe's character but also her sister who is actually her sister in real life. Our original plot was that Chloe's character had gone mad at the idea that her sister (Aimee) had gone missing and presumed dead. She comes to the conclusion that she must be dead but thinks that some man has killed her. She decides to go to the extreme and hunt down and kill the man she thinks abducted Aimee. Our original plan regarding this particular plot was that the last scene would be of Chloe walking towards a small room where a man would be in there tied up and blind folded but the screen fades to black where you here the man screaming and preferably dies. The idea is that Chloe gets her revenge, which meant that the ending of the film was shown in the opening credits but the idea was to have the story of how aimee disappeared and how chloe lost he way shown after and then have the ending at the end again.
Although this seemed like an acceptable plot as it fitted well with the codes and conventions of a typical horror and it had taken into account the popular answers that we got from our questionnaire in which there were things that our target audience required, we decided against it. This was because not all of us agreed with the ending how ever plausible the build up to the climax sounded. We decided after deliberation that the ending was very typical and too predictable and went against one of our aims in which we wanted to make a unique ending and in general unique horror opening. Alot of openings to films show the end of the film first to give the audience the feeling that they want to find out more and what happens to the characters, which we didn't want.
There was alot of confusion between our group over what to include in our plot which made this particular category hard to pick a distinctive final idea. On the basis of this we left the plot to the very end. The problems we faced were that we couldn't get everyone in one place to shoot our film at the same time. As there were only four of us in the group and only one actor, we needed other, extras to be in it which was difficult as nobody we asked was around at the same times as our filming schedules.
However this did not matter as we wanted our finished product to be focused on Chloe's character but also her sister who is actually her sister in real life. Our original plot was that Chloe's character had gone mad at the idea that her sister (Aimee) had gone missing and presumed dead. She comes to the conclusion that she must be dead but thinks that some man has killed her. She decides to go to the extreme and hunt down and kill the man she thinks abducted Aimee. Our original plan regarding this particular plot was that the last scene would be of Chloe walking towards a small room where a man would be in there tied up and blind folded but the screen fades to black where you here the man screaming and preferably dies. The idea is that Chloe gets her revenge, which meant that the ending of the film was shown in the opening credits but the idea was to have the story of how aimee disappeared and how chloe lost he way shown after and then have the ending at the end again.
Although this seemed like an acceptable plot as it fitted well with the codes and conventions of a typical horror and it had taken into account the popular answers that we got from our questionnaire in which there were things that our target audience required, we decided against it. This was because not all of us agreed with the ending how ever plausible the build up to the climax sounded. We decided after deliberation that the ending was very typical and too predictable and went against one of our aims in which we wanted to make a unique ending and in general unique horror opening. Alot of openings to films show the end of the film first to give the audience the feeling that they want to find out more and what happens to the characters, which we didn't want.
Things that didn't work/fit and the problems we faced
Dialogue/script:
In order to maintain the idea of simplicity throughout our film we decided to keep the script to a minimum. Our original idea was to have Chloe's anonymous character leaving an answer phone message to the sister's mum saying that she had done something wrong and that she was confused both mentallyand physically. Our other idea was to have a scene right at the very beginning of the clip where Chloe is seen walking up and down a balcony (Abby's house) where she begins to have flashbacks and screams out, "AIMEE!!!" Although this was a good way to keep the plot simple but effective as both the phone message and the fact she screams Aimee tells the story, we decided against this. This was both seperate scripts made the opening to our film very confusing, it was hard to tell what was going on or who was involved.
Another problem is that many horrors use dialogue to emphasise someones feelings so they maximise the potential that the dialogue has on the audience. The fact that we only had two separate scripts where only Chloe was talking made the film confusing as the scream was at the beginning and the phone message is right at the end. In between these two pieces of dialogue is just various different shots of the locations and the characters body language.
In order to maintain the idea of simplicity throughout our film we decided to keep the script to a minimum. Our original idea was to have Chloe's anonymous character leaving an answer phone message to the sister's mum saying that she had done something wrong and that she was confused both mentallyand physically. Our other idea was to have a scene right at the very beginning of the clip where Chloe is seen walking up and down a balcony (Abby's house) where she begins to have flashbacks and screams out, "AIMEE!!!" Although this was a good way to keep the plot simple but effective as both the phone message and the fact she screams Aimee tells the story, we decided against this. This was both seperate scripts made the opening to our film very confusing, it was hard to tell what was going on or who was involved.
Another problem is that many horrors use dialogue to emphasise someones feelings so they maximise the potential that the dialogue has on the audience. The fact that we only had two separate scripts where only Chloe was talking made the film confusing as the scream was at the beginning and the phone message is right at the end. In between these two pieces of dialogue is just various different shots of the locations and the characters body language.
Sunday 27 March 2011
Final ideas
The dialogue:
The music:
We decided that in order to maintain our simplicity idea throughout our clip, we wanted to keep the dialogue to a minimum. The only dialogue we hear is through flashbacks. The first piece of dialogue is through the underpass where Chloe's character shouts (non-diegetic sound), "I can't do this anymore". We are made to think that we don't know what she means until the end. The next piece of dialogue is one word, in the middle of the clip, Chloe's character whispers the word Aimee (sister's name) and Aimee's face appears on the screen with an extreme close-up with the park behind her. After this is the scene where they are in the park together and they are sitting on the bench where Chloe goes to touch Aimee and says, "sometimes, I think she is still here." Aimee then disappears. The final part of dialogue is the final shot where Aimee walks off leaving Chloe holding the flower and saying to the audience looking away, "Well, I guess you want to find out how my sister disappeared?"
- I cant do this anymore
- Aimee (WHISPER)
- Sometimes I think shes still there
- I guess you want to know how she disappeared
We decided that in order to maintain our simplicity idea throughout our clip to only use two props, which were the flower at the beginning and end of the clip and the music box. We thought that if we added the baby photo of Chloe and Aimee would be too much and would go against our aim of simplicity. Also a common answer in the questionnaire regarding props was that they should not play a big part in horrors because the audience should be made to focus on the dialogue, facial expressions, and body language portrayed through the character's emotions using close/extreme close-ups.
The music:
The final element to our finished product was our music of choice. Using garageband, we had narrowed it down to four songs that unfortunately sounded very similar to each other. They all had an eerie feel to them which was great but the problem was that they did not compliment the mood of the film and each one by itself changed the mood all together. Although this was a problem, we all came up with the same idea this was that if we narrowed it down even further to the three we liked best but then we mixed and played them over the top of each other, then we could get an appropriate, overall feel for the film. We did this and miraculously, it worked, there was the eeriness of the low cello in one of them to symbolise Chloe's distress of loosing Aimee, the guitar/drums that gave it a bit of a cheesy but effective feel then lastly, the sound which (on garageband) was called 'Alien' this was a very effective piece as it gave a sense of confusion which worked really well and ticked off our aim to create a unique horror/thriller.
This is a screen grab of the period of time when were choosing songs from garageband to use in our final opening to our horror film. In the end, we all agreed to use 'Conspiracy' as it ticked all the boxes. and also went really well with the shots and angles in the film.
Final ideas
Name of our film:
After the planning stage we decided to call our horror film 'Aftermath'.
The plot:
The plot is all about an anonymous girl who we never know the name of who is looking for her lost sister. Chloe's character and her sister (Aimee) had a really good, loving relationship but Aimee was kidnapped and Chloe's character fears the worst has happened. The opening scene begins with the anonymous girl holding a flower that she drops standing on a wall but you don't see her face, the screen fades to black and, "One week later" appears on the screen.
The next shot is of her turning and twisting a music box that we are meant to think she shared with her sister. She opens the box and the music plays she then violently hits the bedroom walls with her fists and knocks off some books on a shelf. The vision switches to the girl walking by herself, drunk in an underpass where the visions are still happening but she appears to be confused and hits the walls again, on the other side of teh underpass, she nearly gets run over and the music box appears again, she whispers, "Aimee" who is her sister.
The final clips are of her with her sister in a small park, we don''t know if she is dead or is Aimee is back but they seem to have a good time together. the very last shot is of chloe's character looking away as Aimee walks off into the distance.
After the planning stage we decided to call our horror film 'Aftermath'.
The plot:
The plot is all about an anonymous girl who we never know the name of who is looking for her lost sister. Chloe's character and her sister (Aimee) had a really good, loving relationship but Aimee was kidnapped and Chloe's character fears the worst has happened. The opening scene begins with the anonymous girl holding a flower that she drops standing on a wall but you don't see her face, the screen fades to black and, "One week later" appears on the screen.
The next shot is of her turning and twisting a music box that we are meant to think she shared with her sister. She opens the box and the music plays she then violently hits the bedroom walls with her fists and knocks off some books on a shelf. The vision switches to the girl walking by herself, drunk in an underpass where the visions are still happening but she appears to be confused and hits the walls again, on the other side of teh underpass, she nearly gets run over and the music box appears again, she whispers, "Aimee" who is her sister.
The final clips are of her with her sister in a small park, we don''t know if she is dead or is Aimee is back but they seem to have a good time together. the very last shot is of chloe's character looking away as Aimee walks off into the distance.
Final ideas
Target audience:
After much deliberation and in terms of our questionnaire regarding the people we asked, we had finally come up with our target audience. We agreed that because our film featured two girls who looked around about 17-19 years old we would focus on portraying youth through horror/thriller genre. We decided that our target audience would be aimed at people between the ages of 15-25 which is pretty much when youth begins and finishes.
I believe that the reason why we chose this particular age group and period is that our film not only features youths but also portrays them in a certain manner. I think that youth is heavily regarded as the time of issues and trying to find yourself and realising who you are. Our film focuses on that as Chloe's character is confused and sad through losing her sister but is also realising her potential.
After much deliberation and in terms of our questionnaire regarding the people we asked, we had finally come up with our target audience. We agreed that because our film featured two girls who looked around about 17-19 years old we would focus on portraying youth through horror/thriller genre. We decided that our target audience would be aimed at people between the ages of 15-25 which is pretty much when youth begins and finishes.
I believe that the reason why we chose this particular age group and period is that our film not only features youths but also portrays them in a certain manner. I think that youth is heavily regarded as the time of issues and trying to find yourself and realising who you are. Our film focuses on that as Chloe's character is confused and sad through losing her sister but is also realising her potential.
Final ideas
Locations:
After all the planning, we decided that in order to keep to our aim of the film being simple, we agreed to only use four locations as the main idea in terms of the audience was that they had to concentrate on the characters' emotions through their body language, facial expressions, and dialogue. As we had narrowed it down to five places originally through our plans, we knocked off Leigh Woods as no one could be there at the same time in one place and it was too predictable a place to use. This was due to the fact that a forest is a predictable place and it did not feature in our popular answers for the questionnaire.
However, the places we decided to use instead were, Abby's house, the underpass, and a small park by block of flats. In Abby's house, we would film the scene where Chloe's character goes mad, hits walls with her fists and knocks a stash of books off some shelves but calms down after the music box with a low-angle/worm's eye shot all of this will be filmed in a small bedroom, made to symbolise Chloe's and Aimee's room. In the underpass would be the scene where she is presumably drunk but it is hard to tell but she is walking through it and comes out the other side about to get run over. Finally, the small park will feature the scene where at the end of the opening clip where she sees her sister and they appear to be playing with each other but Aimee is not actually there. This scene also has most of the dialogue in it.
This is us filming in the underpass for Chloe's drunk scene;
After all the planning, we decided that in order to keep to our aim of the film being simple, we agreed to only use four locations as the main idea in terms of the audience was that they had to concentrate on the characters' emotions through their body language, facial expressions, and dialogue. As we had narrowed it down to five places originally through our plans, we knocked off Leigh Woods as no one could be there at the same time in one place and it was too predictable a place to use. This was due to the fact that a forest is a predictable place and it did not feature in our popular answers for the questionnaire.
However, the places we decided to use instead were, Abby's house, the underpass, and a small park by block of flats. In Abby's house, we would film the scene where Chloe's character goes mad, hits walls with her fists and knocks a stash of books off some shelves but calms down after the music box with a low-angle/worm's eye shot all of this will be filmed in a small bedroom, made to symbolise Chloe's and Aimee's room. In the underpass would be the scene where she is presumably drunk but it is hard to tell but she is walking through it and comes out the other side about to get run over. Finally, the small park will feature the scene where at the end of the opening clip where she sees her sister and they appear to be playing with each other but Aimee is not actually there. This scene also has most of the dialogue in it.
This is us filming in the underpass for Chloe's drunk scene;
Friday 25 March 2011
Things that didn't work/fit and the problems we faced:
Locations:
As a group we decided to keep the 'underpass' as our main location but also to use Abby's house where Chloe's (anonymous) character would have her violent breakdown. These two locations, the sixth form car park and the little play-park by some abandoned flats were our best shot but also really worked because they perfectly fit our aim (simplicity yet keeping a sense of uniqueness) and also the fact that the majority of horrors use derelict, unused, abandoned areas. These choices also mixed well with the fact that this is what our target audience required through the results that we gathered in our questionnaire.
However, there were some setbacks as one of our locations was Leigh Woods which we really liked because we wanted a chase scene at some point in our clip. Although this sounded like a good idea, both Miss Davis and us as a group realised that having a chase scene and especially in some woods was a bad idea. This was because it linked back with the idea that horrors always use chases and dark woods. It is a very predictable location as it has already been used so many times. We wanted to keep it simple so we decided to only use 4-5 locations and make the underpass and Abby's house as the main ones.
As a group we decided to keep the 'underpass' as our main location but also to use Abby's house where Chloe's (anonymous) character would have her violent breakdown. These two locations, the sixth form car park and the little play-park by some abandoned flats were our best shot but also really worked because they perfectly fit our aim (simplicity yet keeping a sense of uniqueness) and also the fact that the majority of horrors use derelict, unused, abandoned areas. These choices also mixed well with the fact that this is what our target audience required through the results that we gathered in our questionnaire.
However, there were some setbacks as one of our locations was Leigh Woods which we really liked because we wanted a chase scene at some point in our clip. Although this sounded like a good idea, both Miss Davis and us as a group realised that having a chase scene and especially in some woods was a bad idea. This was because it linked back with the idea that horrors always use chases and dark woods. It is a very predictable location as it has already been used so many times. We wanted to keep it simple so we decided to only use 4-5 locations and make the underpass and Abby's house as the main ones.
Final decisions based on the questionnaire results:
Decisions we made based on our results from our questionnaire:
Based on the results from the questionnaire, as a group, we had gathered some good ideas based on what people regarded as typical of a horror film. We looked at the questions that specifically looked at the horror genre and decided to use the answers from each question in our final piece so that we could be as accurate to the required conventions of horrors as we could. The fact that we also asked a wide range of people from different ages and ideas about horrors helped us alot as we had not yet decided on the distinctive age group for our 2 min opening to our film.
For an example, the question where we asked them, "How often do you watch Horror films?" the general answer that we got from the majority of people that we asked was monthly. However, this was not a great help as we needed evidence that showed us the best things to use in our piece. In the question where we asked them, "which of these aspects do you think are the most important in making a horror scary?" the main answer(s) that we got were lighting and use of camera (i.e. movement shot etc.). Fortunately this linked well with our aim and also the fact that most horrors dwell and heavily depend on the use lighting and camera. Lighting plays a key role in the traditional horror because the mood of the film can change dramatically depending on the lighting. For an example, a haunted house during daylight is much less scary than during the middle of the night.
We wanted to make sure lighting and use of camera (angles, movement, shots etc.) were he main focuses throughout our opening. We decided to use lighting as our main theme and we wanted a variety of shots that implicated the change in light based on the mood of the character(s) and also the mood of the scene. The other question we wanted to focus on in order to get an idea of what to use was question 8. This was when we asked our target audience, "what makes the best setting in a horror?". The common thread that kept coming out was that people wanted the setting to either be ordinary places such as offices bedrooms or derelict, abandoned houses. This was also helpful as most horrors are set in places you least expect and are usually very simple as the director wants the audience to concentrate on the scene and/or the characters emotions portrayed through their facial expressions, body language etc.
We wanted to keep and maintain the idea of simplicity throughout our film but we also agreed to try and make it unique and not like traditional horrors. This complimented the results we got from our questionnaire as the other options were all too predictable and had already been done in proper horror films. For an example in question 8 which talked about which setting is best to use, the other choices were a haunted house, 'scary' castle etc. These two other choices were very plain and had been done many times before in real horrors. Thankfully, the most popular choices (abandoned buildings etc.) were not common in horror films which went by our aim, which was to keep the plot simple but maintain a sense of uniqueness.
Based on the results from the questionnaire, as a group, we had gathered some good ideas based on what people regarded as typical of a horror film. We looked at the questions that specifically looked at the horror genre and decided to use the answers from each question in our final piece so that we could be as accurate to the required conventions of horrors as we could. The fact that we also asked a wide range of people from different ages and ideas about horrors helped us alot as we had not yet decided on the distinctive age group for our 2 min opening to our film.
For an example, the question where we asked them, "How often do you watch Horror films?" the general answer that we got from the majority of people that we asked was monthly. However, this was not a great help as we needed evidence that showed us the best things to use in our piece. In the question where we asked them, "which of these aspects do you think are the most important in making a horror scary?" the main answer(s) that we got were lighting and use of camera (i.e. movement shot etc.). Fortunately this linked well with our aim and also the fact that most horrors dwell and heavily depend on the use lighting and camera. Lighting plays a key role in the traditional horror because the mood of the film can change dramatically depending on the lighting. For an example, a haunted house during daylight is much less scary than during the middle of the night.
We wanted to make sure lighting and use of camera (angles, movement, shots etc.) were he main focuses throughout our opening. We decided to use lighting as our main theme and we wanted a variety of shots that implicated the change in light based on the mood of the character(s) and also the mood of the scene. The other question we wanted to focus on in order to get an idea of what to use was question 8. This was when we asked our target audience, "what makes the best setting in a horror?". The common thread that kept coming out was that people wanted the setting to either be ordinary places such as offices bedrooms or derelict, abandoned houses. This was also helpful as most horrors are set in places you least expect and are usually very simple as the director wants the audience to concentrate on the scene and/or the characters emotions portrayed through their facial expressions, body language etc.
We wanted to keep and maintain the idea of simplicity throughout our film but we also agreed to try and make it unique and not like traditional horrors. This complimented the results we got from our questionnaire as the other options were all too predictable and had already been done in proper horror films. For an example in question 8 which talked about which setting is best to use, the other choices were a haunted house, 'scary' castle etc. These two other choices were very plain and had been done many times before in real horrors. Thankfully, the most popular choices (abandoned buildings etc.) were not common in horror films which went by our aim, which was to keep the plot simple but maintain a sense of uniqueness.
Initial thoughts and ideas:
Music/sound:
For our project (two minute opening to film genre of our choice), we had to think of the different types of sounds to use in our film to convey separate messages to both the characters and the audience. Firstly, we obviously already had the sound of the music box in our clip but we realised that this was not enough if we wanted to get enough music and examples of how sound can be used in order to relate it to a typical horror. We went back to the four films that we studied and specifically concentrated on the types of music used. We found out that for a horror to work, you definitely need some sort of sound or music because this element of media plays a huge role in most films but in particular, horrors.
A common factor with the ways in which music can be used in horrors is that the mood of the music can change very suddenly or gradually change at a speed that keeps up with the situation going on screen. For an example, if somebody in a horror movie was being followed/stalked by a killer, the music may start off very quietly and slowly but gradually build up to the climax where the music can be very fast and 'highpitched' where on screen, the killer has met his victim or the victim runs away.
In terms of the sounds that can be used in horrors there are many examples. Alot of modern day horror films use a technique that is called 'non-diegetic' sound. This is where you see a scene of a film but the sound you hear cannot be seen on the screen. For an example, a voice-over can be used to talk about a flashback or narrate someones story in a film or in a horror film, the use of non-diegetic sounds is usually the screaming of a character being killed but what you see on the screen is totally different. We wanted to use non-diegetic sound in our film because we wanted to keep as close as we could to the horror genre.
This is the fight scene at the end of This Is England where before it gets violent, Combo and Milky are having a great time talking about families and meals and laughing but the background music is a piano playing sad music to convey to the audience that Combo is getting angry but Milky has not noticed. This scene is an example of contrapuntal sound as it is contradicting what is going on in the scene.
Another common use of sound in horror films is asynchronous or even more commonly contrapuntal sound. This is where a piece of music or a sound is played over the top of a scene that contradicts what is going on in the scene. For an example, if a couple were arguing but it started to escalate violently, the director might choose to tone down the dialogue and play ambulance sirens over the top to signal to the audience that everything is not alright. We liked this idea so we chose to make the music box the key to the use of contrapuntal sound in our clip. We decided to use a scene where Chloe's character is having a violent break-down but the sound of the happy music box is still being played to contradict what is going on.
For our project (two minute opening to film genre of our choice), we had to think of the different types of sounds to use in our film to convey separate messages to both the characters and the audience. Firstly, we obviously already had the sound of the music box in our clip but we realised that this was not enough if we wanted to get enough music and examples of how sound can be used in order to relate it to a typical horror. We went back to the four films that we studied and specifically concentrated on the types of music used. We found out that for a horror to work, you definitely need some sort of sound or music because this element of media plays a huge role in most films but in particular, horrors.
A common factor with the ways in which music can be used in horrors is that the mood of the music can change very suddenly or gradually change at a speed that keeps up with the situation going on screen. For an example, if somebody in a horror movie was being followed/stalked by a killer, the music may start off very quietly and slowly but gradually build up to the climax where the music can be very fast and 'highpitched' where on screen, the killer has met his victim or the victim runs away.
In terms of the sounds that can be used in horrors there are many examples. Alot of modern day horror films use a technique that is called 'non-diegetic' sound. This is where you see a scene of a film but the sound you hear cannot be seen on the screen. For an example, a voice-over can be used to talk about a flashback or narrate someones story in a film or in a horror film, the use of non-diegetic sounds is usually the screaming of a character being killed but what you see on the screen is totally different. We wanted to use non-diegetic sound in our film because we wanted to keep as close as we could to the horror genre.
This is the fight scene at the end of This Is England where before it gets violent, Combo and Milky are having a great time talking about families and meals and laughing but the background music is a piano playing sad music to convey to the audience that Combo is getting angry but Milky has not noticed. This scene is an example of contrapuntal sound as it is contradicting what is going on in the scene.
Another common use of sound in horror films is asynchronous or even more commonly contrapuntal sound. This is where a piece of music or a sound is played over the top of a scene that contradicts what is going on in the scene. For an example, if a couple were arguing but it started to escalate violently, the director might choose to tone down the dialogue and play ambulance sirens over the top to signal to the audience that everything is not alright. We liked this idea so we chose to make the music box the key to the use of contrapuntal sound in our clip. We decided to use a scene where Chloe's character is having a violent break-down but the sound of the happy music box is still being played to contradict what is going on.
Initial thoughts and ideas:
Props:
As a group, we did not give a lot of thought for the types of props to use as we wanted the audience to focus on the character's feelings through her body language, dialogue etc. Although this linked into the simple structure that we required, many horror films emphasise props to convey particular messages to both the audience and the character involved. In order to maintain the idea of vulnerability for Chloe and her sister, Adeline had a little music box which sounded really good as we realised we could use it to contradict the scene which is going on-screen.
For the idea of contradicting the difference between happiness and being sad, horrors dwell on this as a vocal point to create tension and suspense. Chloe had a sweet photo of her and her sister playing together and looking really happy. We decided to use this as a means of making it more 'freaky' if there was say, scary music in the background or something terrible had just happened to one of the characters.
As a group, we did not give a lot of thought for the types of props to use as we wanted the audience to focus on the character's feelings through her body language, dialogue etc. Although this linked into the simple structure that we required, many horror films emphasise props to convey particular messages to both the audience and the character involved. In order to maintain the idea of vulnerability for Chloe and her sister, Adeline had a little music box which sounded really good as we realised we could use it to contradict the scene which is going on-screen.
For the idea of contradicting the difference between happiness and being sad, horrors dwell on this as a vocal point to create tension and suspense. Chloe had a sweet photo of her and her sister playing together and looking really happy. We decided to use this as a means of making it more 'freaky' if there was say, scary music in the background or something terrible had just happened to one of the characters.
Initial thoughts and ideas
Types of camera shots/movements etc.:
In our film, we decided that we wanted to have alot of 'close/extreme close-ups' of the main characters. This was because in order to maintain the key conventions of horrors, we needed to create suspense through the emotions that the characters face throughout a film. From the ideas that we had collected as a group, none of us liked the idea of 'long-shots' as this stops the suspense in the film as the audience are drawn away by the scenery instead of the characters.
Through our ideas, we came to some conclusions on different shots to use throughout our two-minute opening to the film. When we were studying particular films to give us ideas in terms of horrors, we noticed alot of similarities regarding shots. In most horrors, (and also many thrillers), 'subjective-shots' are used. A subjective shot is where the characters in the film know more than the audience, which is the opposite to objective where you know something is going to happen before the characters do, it is a way to create confusion for the audience. We really liked this idea so we decided to make it one of our key elements to have in our film. An example of where subjective shots are used is at the opening of 'Se7en', another film we looked at. The opening supposedly of the murderer making his/her plans for his next victims but you never see his/her face or quite get a glimpse of what he/she is doing.
We also really liked the use of the, 'over-the-shoulder shot' this is where the camera looks over one character's shoulder to another character or location. In terms of horrors, over the shoulder shots are used to maybe portray a psychopath/murderer stalking someone and following them. Finally, in terms of camera movement, we only wanted to keep it to a minimal so decided to use 'Pan' to show where the character is and when and the other one we wanted to use was 'match-on-action'.
In our film, we decided that we wanted to have alot of 'close/extreme close-ups' of the main characters. This was because in order to maintain the key conventions of horrors, we needed to create suspense through the emotions that the characters face throughout a film. From the ideas that we had collected as a group, none of us liked the idea of 'long-shots' as this stops the suspense in the film as the audience are drawn away by the scenery instead of the characters.
Through our ideas, we came to some conclusions on different shots to use throughout our two-minute opening to the film. When we were studying particular films to give us ideas in terms of horrors, we noticed alot of similarities regarding shots. In most horrors, (and also many thrillers), 'subjective-shots' are used. A subjective shot is where the characters in the film know more than the audience, which is the opposite to objective where you know something is going to happen before the characters do, it is a way to create confusion for the audience. We really liked this idea so we decided to make it one of our key elements to have in our film. An example of where subjective shots are used is at the opening of 'Se7en', another film we looked at. The opening supposedly of the murderer making his/her plans for his next victims but you never see his/her face or quite get a glimpse of what he/she is doing.
We also really liked the use of the, 'over-the-shoulder shot' this is where the camera looks over one character's shoulder to another character or location. In terms of horrors, over the shoulder shots are used to maybe portray a psychopath/murderer stalking someone and following them. Finally, in terms of camera movement, we only wanted to keep it to a minimal so decided to use 'Pan' to show where the character is and when and the other one we wanted to use was 'match-on-action'.
Initial thoughts and ideas:
Actors:
This was a hard choice for all of us because we wanted to maintain the simple, initial thoughts for the plot meaning that we could not have too many characters. The idea of anonymous characters began to appear into our plans for the people involved resulting in possibly having two to three actors involved in this. We realised that alot of openings of horrors had a very simple structure regarding the actors. This meant that most of the time there was 'off-screen' conversations happening between characters or if someone was being followed, then the audience do not necessarily see the pursuer of their preferable victim (depending on the context and/or plot).
This was a hard choice for all of us because we wanted to maintain the simple, initial thoughts for the plot meaning that we could not have too many characters. The idea of anonymous characters began to appear into our plans for the people involved resulting in possibly having two to three actors involved in this. We realised that alot of openings of horrors had a very simple structure regarding the actors. This meant that most of the time there was 'off-screen' conversations happening between characters or if someone was being followed, then the audience do not necessarily see the pursuer of their preferable victim (depending on the context and/or plot).
We really wanted to have a female lead character because this can have a negative or positive effect on the audience and, depending on the plot, having a female lead role could make her and the audience feel vulnerable or invulnerable. We agreed that having a male lead role in a horror is a very predictable choice to make as a lot of horrors who have the lead character as a male make out the idea that they are either sinister or are definitely going to die. We finally made a choice and Chloe did not mind taking the lead role. Chloe fitted the role perfectly as it was hard to tell whether she was trustworthy or evil. We all really liked this idea that Chloe's character was going to be a character that you were not sure whether she was good or bad in simple terms or whether the audience should be on her side or not.
We wanted Chloe's sister to be in the film even though she was not in our group because the idea of vulnerability came into our project. The idea of sisters being together can be used in a positive way or a negative way, for an example, they can be seen as scary like in 'The Shining' where Johnny sees two girls holding hands down the corridor when he is a child. On the other hand, the audience feel scared for sisters or sorry for them when they feature in horrors.
This is the scene with the sisters in 'The Shining'
Thursday 24 March 2011
Initial thoughts and ideas:
Locations:
As a group we had a wide variety of suggestions for possible places to film our project. We were not allowed to film in classrooms but were allowed to film in the building, the surrounding areas and places of our choice (locations that were completely away from the college). We narrowed it down to around about ten places. We agreed that because of the fact that our aim was to shoot a horror/thriller we wanted to follow specific rules in terms of how and where to film to make it look like a typical horror. As a result of the questionnaire, the question that asked what type of location is best suited for horrors, the majority of people answered a derelict, unused, spooky atmosphere. Fortunately, alot of thrillers and in particular the three that we studied, included scenes where the camera focused on the characters involved a derelict, spooky area.
We ended up with around about five potential locations for our film, all in Bristol. These were Leigh Woods, an underpass leading into a road across the sixth form, Abby's house, a small park by some derelict flats and the car park outside the sixth form. We tried arranging a time to film in Leigh Woods but nobody could make it as it was during a half term, this left us with four locations to use. We finally agreed to stick with four locations as they fitted the conventions of horrors i.e. derelict, dark, abandoned areas. Although we only had four locations to film our project, all four of us decided that it was for the best because we wanted to maintain the idea of simplicity throughout our film and an over use of too many locations could result in confusing the audience.
Finally, we all agreed to not use any 'establishing shots' in order to keep the simple locations to a minimal to create a sense that the audience had to concentrate alot more on the characters and not the scenery. This could be on the body language, the facial expressions or merely the dialogue happening in the scene between two or more characters. Location and scenery is not a huge aspect to horrors at all.
As a group we had a wide variety of suggestions for possible places to film our project. We were not allowed to film in classrooms but were allowed to film in the building, the surrounding areas and places of our choice (locations that were completely away from the college). We narrowed it down to around about ten places. We agreed that because of the fact that our aim was to shoot a horror/thriller we wanted to follow specific rules in terms of how and where to film to make it look like a typical horror. As a result of the questionnaire, the question that asked what type of location is best suited for horrors, the majority of people answered a derelict, unused, spooky atmosphere. Fortunately, alot of thrillers and in particular the three that we studied, included scenes where the camera focused on the characters involved a derelict, spooky area.
We ended up with around about five potential locations for our film, all in Bristol. These were Leigh Woods, an underpass leading into a road across the sixth form, Abby's house, a small park by some derelict flats and the car park outside the sixth form. We tried arranging a time to film in Leigh Woods but nobody could make it as it was during a half term, this left us with four locations to use. We finally agreed to stick with four locations as they fitted the conventions of horrors i.e. derelict, dark, abandoned areas. Although we only had four locations to film our project, all four of us decided that it was for the best because we wanted to maintain the idea of simplicity throughout our film and an over use of too many locations could result in confusing the audience.
Finally, we all agreed to not use any 'establishing shots' in order to keep the simple locations to a minimal to create a sense that the audience had to concentrate alot more on the characters and not the scenery. This could be on the body language, the facial expressions or merely the dialogue happening in the scene between two or more characters. Location and scenery is not a huge aspect to horrors at all.
Sunday 6 March 2011
Target Audience questionnaire
This is the group of questions we chose to use for our questionnaire in order to find out which conventions to use in our main project. We concentrated on questions that focused on the genre of horrors/thrillers so each question would feature an answer that you could tick that only went by the rules and conventions of horrors/thrillers. We did not have a specific age group in terms of our target audience so we asked a range of people of different ages. However we found that this was more helpful as we wanted our film to appeal to a wide range of ages but mainly youths and young adults. Here are the questions that we chose to ask and the answers that we received:
Audience Research (results)
Audience Research (results)
(Key - blue numbers = how many people answered that Q)
1. What age range are you in?
- 16 – 18 9
- 19 – 25 1
- 26 -30 1
- 31 – 40 1
- 41 – 50 1
- Are you male or female?
Male 5 Female 8
- What in a movie keeps you interested in it?
(With number next to it is how many people said it, without a number means only one person said it)
Plot x5, characters x3, setting, empathy with characters , suspense x2, fast pace, romance, flashbacks, dramatic effects, emotional issues, psychological x2, unusual out of the average x2, music, prospect of a happy ending, good acting, intense
- What’s the most memorable opening you’ve ever watched? What do you think made it memorable?
(With number next to it is how many people said it, without a number means only one person said it)
Funny games - Sound track, juxtaposition with mundane images
Homecoming - how the beginning is the middle section of the film
Two men jumping from a car to a tanker – unexpected and dangerous
Love actually – happy and fast paced
Zombie land – the violence
Amelie x2 – subtitles, French narration, the visuals, effective dialogue, mise-en scene
The mummy – great scenery of Egypt, good music
Dream girls, suspense, music, flashing pictures
Dear John – conjured up loads of questions
Atonement – starts off getting straight into the issue which makes you interested
- How often do you watch horror/thriller films?
- Never 2
- Rarely 1
- Weekly 1
- Monthly 7
- Once every 6 months 2
- 6. Which of these aspects do you think are the most important in making a horror scary?
Lighting 6
Colour 2
Sound 5
Facial expressions 5
Use of cameras 6
No 7
Yes 6
...If YES, which are the most effective type of music?
Rock 1
Ambient 3
String music 7
Electro music 2
...If NO, would sound within the film world work better? E.g. singing, crying, heavy breathing
Yes 5
Silence/dialogue throughout would be best 2
Silence/dialogue throughout would be best 2
- What makes the best setting in a horror?
(With number next to it is how many people said it, without a number means only one person said it)
Ordinary everyday places e.g. office, house, bedroom, park x7 (realism)
Spooky castle,
Derelict house x3,
Claustrophobic spaces,
Derelict village
- In your opinion, is having a female villain more effective than a male villain
Yes 7
No 6
10. Who’s the scariest horror villain you’ve seen and why?
(With number next to it is how many people said it, without a number means only one person said it)
(With number next to it is how many people said it, without a number means only one person said it)
Father from butterfly effect - sick in the mind villains x2
Stranger from when a stranger calls
Old lady in drag me to hell – old women are typically meant to be vulnerable x2
Jigsaw –creepy and not a typical villain
Villains in familiar settings
Someone sick in the mind e.g. scientist in human centipede
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