Evaluation

'THE SCARECROW'

For our media project we were set the task of creating the opening scenes of a film, this needed to include titles and last between 1 and half and 3 minutes. We were given the choice to produce a horror, thriller or romantic-comedy. Before we decided which genre would be most effective to produce we set about researching existing films and analysing the opening sequences to get an idea of typical conventions. We decided to make the opening of a horror film influenced by the film ‘Halloween’.

1.      In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our film would fall under the typical ‘horror genre’ with elements of thriller conventions included as well as many of the typical horror conventions. With our choices in selecting the right shots, camera angles, movements, editing and sounds we used a mixture of inspirations to model our piece on to get the most effective overall production.

For the music we used the thriller element from the film jaws as our plot shared similarities with the antagonist moving closer, so the effectiveness of the dramatic jumpy music inspired us to use a similar style to create the tension and build a sense of anticipation as the scarecrow moved closer, this helps to make the whole feel of the film more scary therefore making it more conventional as a horror film. We also used eerie music in the background building up to the approach of the scarecrow this was inspired by the music played over the opening credits of ‘Halloween’ this was because we felt it was effective as horror music and created the type of feel we were looking for in the opening of our film. We looked for similar music that would help us get a similar effect and not to challenge the conventions but to stick to them. On the other hand including two different styles of sound in a short period could be looking towards developing the convention to create a more effective outcome. The use of sound is also effective where we used the conventional ‘knock’ or ‘tap’ on the window and there is nothing there this adds to the dramatic rise in tension and gives it a scary element.

When planning we looked closely at writing a plot with the bigger picture in mind we wanted to create the start of a film that had as much horror conventions in as possible but would be realistic in the possibilities of it being a full film. For the plot of the opening sequence we thought that ours was most similar to ‘Halloween’, this is because we wanted to use the convention of the typical ‘childhood experience’ that would later lead onto a gory horror that Halloween had used. We used the film 'insidious' as inspiration for the final scaring scene as we felt it was a good scary shot.

Throughout the majority of the opening scenes the screen has a blue tint to it this along with the overall darkness of the screen is a convention we chose to follow as it is very effective in creating a mood and atmosphere that fits the genre and plot.

Our film challenged the conventions of a typical horror by having a young girl as the protagonist as females in horrors are normally much older, however, in ‘Paranormal Activity 2’ the girls are also of similar ages too our protagonist and also challenges the conventions. We challenged the conventions of a horror with the title style and colour; normally in a horror the titles use colours like black and red, for our titles we thought it would be more effective to use a yellow/orange as it represents the scarecrow more than red writing would.

2.      How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The protagonist in our piece is a young girl who becomes scared when she wakes to a knock on her bedroom window to find that the scarecrow in the field behind her house had become substantially closer to her house. When she suspects it’s strange she does a grown up thing to spot it and tell her father, however her father thinks he knows best and tells her to go away. When it is repeated she once again goes into her father’s room where she is once again told she’s being stupid. This could be due to the girls age and gender, the girl is at the age where her mind is easily influenced and so the father merely thinks the girl has created this in a dream after watching a scary film, however he is wrong and ironically pays the price for his laziness as he didn't want to get out of bed to check for himself. The protagonist being a young girl makes her seem vulnerable and an easy target for the antagonist.

3.      What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The most likely film studio to distribute our film would be ‘Hammer’ studios. Hammer studios is known for producing the classic horrors ‘Dracula’ and ‘Frankenstein’ but also more recently ‘The Woman in Black’. Hammer films are respectable but not always massive budget films, I think that our film could be done on a medium to low budget and still be effective. Therefore there is no need to take it to a studio such as ‘Warner Brothers’ as they don’t particularly specialize in horror’s and there money isn't vital to making it successful. Following the success of the woman in black it shows that big film studios aren't always needed, especially for low budget films.

4.      Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience we would be looking at targeting is both male and female teenagers ages 15-19 and the early twenties, this is because these are the people who typically watch and enjoy horror films more and like the buzz of being scared and boys like acting as if they’re not scared to impress girls, also the films popularity would grow as hype and word of mouth in schools and colleges will boost the cinema and box office sales. Also working/middle class people would be the most realistic target audience if it was going to be a low budget film as DVD’s etc. would be cheaper and more affordable for the wider audience.

5.      How did you attract/address your audience?

To get the film advertised I would use viral marketing as in the modern day sites like YouTube and Facebook will attract the most views on a trailer. Also id put the trailer on before another Hammer horror film at the cinema, that way horror fans will see the trailer and become interested. By saving money on the production I would try and get a famous actor or actress in the film to attract a bigger audience, this will then open the opportunity to have a movie premier and raise awareness of the film and therefore increase the profit margin.

As a traditional marketing technique I would use billboards to put images of a lone scarecrow with no film name, this is a technique used to advertise many films such as ‘the dark knight rises’ people will know just by seeing the image that it relate to the film and also ads an element of mystique and excitement as the might be intrigued to find out what it’s all about.

6.      What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing this product?

The main thing I have learnt about the technology in this process is that it is very easy to manipulate the shot and change it to fit what you want it to fit but only if you shoot enough good footage.

Using the Sony HD camera I learnt that it is important to shoot more than enough of one shot as it makes life easier when editing later on in the process. I also learnt that it can look unprofessional if you haven’t mastered certain movements such as zooming and panning but I think after the filming process I am a lot more comfortable around the camera and using the camera.

Using the Adobe Premier program for editing made making the opening sequence a considerable amount easier, in or film we had a few problems when reviewing the footage but by experimenting with the different tools Premier offers the majority were fixable and improved from using it. For example, when filming a shot through a door the shot didn’t look straight and was too light, using the program we were able to rotate the shot to a straight position and using the ‘fast colour decrease the light intensity to a more suitable shot.

 To make the piece more fluent we added active dissolves and cross dissolves this showed that something so simple can make all the difference in what the end picture would be like. For future it will help me because my knowledge of the different effects and capabilities of the software means that when filming I know what will look good and what won’t work when transferred on to the mac.

During the period that I have been blogging I have learnt many things about the site we use (Blog Spot), learning how to set up the page, import videos, write in a way that’s easy on the eye and move around posts in the blog by changing dates. This has showed me that making a blog is easy when you know how to use the site effectively.

7.      Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it, to the full production?

After doing the preliminary task it gave me a sense of understanding about how to go about filming. I knew that we needed to over film the footage as it was easier to edit it and cut out the pre-shot footage and get more than enough than to not have enough and have to re-shoot the footage. I think that I have learnt the importance of mise en scene to making the end product look professional and realistic, it is important to get them right as there is no way of changing it with technology, you can’t edit acting ability or the place your filming on a computer so you need to ensure it is the right place before setting about filming. I also learnt that it was important to keep the cast small; this helped to make the filming process easier as organizing everyone was a lot less of a task. As a team we worked well sharing the roles, I found that working in a group of three was good as we all contributed ideas and this made the overall process less straining.

From the preliminary task I took away filming techniques which I learnt how to master and improved to add into our main product, in our product we used a match on action, we learnt how to do them in the prelim task and this helped us to develop the skill further. We also learnt how to avoid breaking the one hundred and eighty degree rule and this helped us in filming as we stuck to the rule meaning the piece was more professional and no errors were made. I feel like since the prelim my ability on the mac has improved dramatically and this helped my group as I understood the capabilities of what the mac could do and how to do things such as use fast colour corrector. Iv also learnt the importance of finding the right music for the piece, this is a mistake I think we made in the prelim task due to rushing, instead we took our time to ensure it was defiantly the fitting music for our piece. 

The Script

• (Jordan and Beth sat on the Sofa watching a horror film at night)
• Jordan: I’m letting you stay up but dad said I had to put you to bed at 10, but I’m letting you stay up. Ok?
• Beth: Ok
• Jordan: You’re not going to be scared are you?
• Beth: No I won’t be scared
• Jordan: Promise?
• Beth: Yeah, I won’t be scared
• Jordan: Ok (gets darker and get further into film)
• Beth: It’s scary (loud squeal from the film, Beth screams)
• Beth: This is too scary, I’m going to bed. (Beth goes upstairs to bed)
• Jordan: Why? (teasing) He’s gonna get you! (Beth goes to bed, looks out the window, sees the scarecrow but thinks nothing of it. She wakes up and finds the scarecrow has moved and runs to her dad)
• Beth: (panicked) The scarecrows moved!
• Stuart: What? What you on about, go back to bed. (Beth goes back to bed but is eventually woken by the same knocking, she looks and the scarecrow has moved even closer she rushes to her dad again)
• Beth: (panicked) Dad, it’s getting closer!
• Stuart: Look Beth it’s three in the morning bab, go back to bed it’s just a dream (Beth goes back to her room, the lights switch off, she turns around, the scarecrow emerges, the door slams and she screens. Dip to black and titles roll)

Storyboard

The Pitch

MIND MAPS

PLOT

The plot of our opening sequence is set in a rural house that backs onto a farmers field. When a young girl (Bethany) stays up late to watch a scary film with her brother (Jordan) the night becomes a lot scarier than she thought. When she decides the film is too scary she goes to bed, when shutting her blinds she sees a scarecrow in the near distance but takes no real notice and goes to sleep. During the night there is a tapping noise on the window which wakes her up, she opens the blind to see the scarecrow considerably closer. She  thinks its strange so tells her dad who tells her shes being stupid and to go back to sleep so she does. The tapping occurs again later in the night and she re-wakes to find the scarecrow alarmingly close, she runs to her dads room where he tells her shes just dreaming. When she goes back into her room the lights on the landing turn off and as she turns to look who it was the scarecrow steps out behind her. The door slams and Bethany screams to end the opening sequence.

CHARACTERS

The scarecrow- Played by Toby- Main antagonist

The young girl- Played by Bethany- Main Protagonist/victim

Brother- Played by Jordan- Highlight the girls age and act as bad influence

Father- Played by Stuart- Doesn't believe daughter, isolates her from the family

Target Audience

For our research we made a questionnaire in which we was able to find out peoples opinions, preferences and thoughts on thriller films. See below:

We discovered that 80% of the people we asked watch thriller films at least once a week, this gave us confidence that something with thriller conventions would be a popular film to create. 

We asked what the most important component to the opening sequence of a thriller was, with 60% answering with 'the music' we knew it would be something we needed to get right.

Another question was 'what is your favorite thriller sub-genre?' 90% said psychological this also influenced our choice to do a film that would play with the mind.

Overall we decided not to do a typical thriller but to do a horror with some thriller conventions in order to relate to a wider audience and cover the most components that people want in a good film.

Christian Metz's Model Of Genre Development-Horror

Christian Metz's Model- History of Horror

Christian Metz developed the idea that every film genre had passed through four phases. The four phases in the horror genre started with the experimental horror's which then led onto the classic horror, parody horror and the final stage of deconstruction horrors.

Experimental

The experimental phase of film is the first phase and is the often the making of the genre through trial and error in films, seeing what worked well in films and what wasn't successful. A lot of experimenting was done around the horror themes in its narrative. The experimental horrors started being created around the time of the first world war, this was a time of darkness and gave inspiration to directors who were making films. Many of the early experimental films such as 'Caligari' and 'Nosferatu' used German expressionism which is the use of art and shadows to create the scary scenes in the film.


Classic

The Classic phase of film is the point where the narrative convensions were established and the horror genre was successfully defined. This phase was the period of the hollywood film studios, specifically the Universal studios creating the classic horrors such as 'Dracula' and 'Frankenstein'. When the television came into the scene the art of cinema took a decline and so English film studio Hammer took on trying to reboot the horror scene and recreated the classic 'Dracula' films using iconic actors such as Christopher Lee and Peter Jackson.


Parody  

The parody phase of film is where films use previous successful films to create a comical version often mimicking the original. Examples of parody's include the 'scary movie' films which has gone on to create trilogy of films soon to release the 5th.

Se7en Opening Sequence

The film Se7en is a thriller with some elements that could be classed under the horror genre it is hard to classify it under just one genre as it challenges the typical conventions of both horror and thriller individually. The film was made in 1995 and starred big Hollywood actors such as Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. It was directed by David Fincher who had already built a relationship with Brad Pitt in the films Fight Club and the curious case of Benjamin Button.

At the start of the film we see a black male in a kitchen making a hot drink that we can assume is coffee, this along with the ambient noise of a busy city in the background helps us build the assumption that the man is in New York City. We also hear the diegetic sounds of people living in close proximity suggesting that the man is living in a flat. The flat looks to the eye like it is just used as a place to sleep, it looks bland and colourless suggesting that he doesn't care much for his house, also we can gather that there are no women living there as it lacks the feel of a woman's touch.

The man is wearing a suit in the opening sequence which suggests he is well educated and likes to be smart, both these theories are reinforced by evidence later in the sequence. There is a chess board on the table in one of the scenes which suggests he's strategic man and also has patience. We see the man's well presented side again when we see various objects such as pens in a regimented order and a perfectly made bed suggesting that he could be from a military background.

The shot changes to a long shot, the man (detective Sommerset) is wearing a trench coat and trilby styled hat, this is representative of the stereotypical detectives clothes. With Sommerset is a new character named David mills, he is also a detective but you can tell who is the more experienced and professional by there appearances as Mills is wearing a scruffy shirt and tie and isn't clean shaven.

When Mills and Sommerset enter a crime scene containing a dead man who is in a real bad state, Summerset's lack of reaction shows his experience in this field and how he is used to seeing dead bodies and the experience is nothing new to him. We later hear that Sommerset is approaching his retirement which confirms his level of experience in his field.

The titles are very clever in including hints as to the content of the film. They show clips of the murders steps in setting up and planning the killings, this becomes clearer after watching the film and you can reflect back and pick up extra notes on the motive of the killer.

Just Like Heaven Opening Sequence

Just like heaven by 'Dream Works'.

The film starts with a soundtrack named 'just like heaven' this is played over the iconic 'Dream Works' logo the song has a gentle romantic and dreamy tune enlightening the audience of the genre of film they are watching. The audience would pick up on the genre through the music as it fits that of a typical Rom-Com.
The camera tilts down through the Dream Works clouds into the film. As the camera travels through the sky pink, purple and yellow coloured titles fade in and fade out onto the screen, these colours are very typically 'girly' and resemble that of a Rom com film.

The view then comes to a fairy tale looking lady sitting on a chair in a place that resembles that of some peoples opinions of heaven with warm coloured flowers and areas of clouds. After the camera pans around the lady the song lyrics reflect the onscreen action when it says the word 'dream' a hand shakes the woman's shoulder to wake her from the dream. There is a jump cut which takes us from the 'heavenly' scene to the 'real world'.


The lady wakes up and we see her wearing a doctor/nurses uniform, she looks worn out with messy hair in a rough ponytail and with little effort made with her appearance, this could be because she doesn't have time to make an effort or she doesn't care about what the people at work think of her. After she wakes up her life goes from the artificial dream world her brain had created to reality-a rushed and hectic hospital. We hear later on in the scene a fellow doctor say that she'd been working for 23 hours and at 26 hours she was sent home this shows that she is a workaholic. In a scene at the hospital a conversation between the lady (Elizabeth) and some of her co-workers where we learn furthermore about her personality and that she doesn't have a great social life and that the 'workaholic' lifestyle takes its toll on her love life. We hear through the dialogue that she is single we then see her through an over the shoulder shot in the mirror putting lipstick on this could be because she feels like she needs to make more of an effort in order to get her social life back on track.

Halloween Opening Sequence

 Halloween was released in 1978 and directed by John Carpenter. It was set in the suburban town of ‘Haddonfield’, in the state of Illinois, USA.

The opening sequence starts with iconic horror music playing over the titles of the studio the film was made in, the colours of the title are red yellow and orange over a black background to give off the illusion of fire relating to the fire within the mans heart and also the fire within a pumpkin. A pumpkin then appears and is also in darkness, the camera then zooms in onto the face of the pumpkin to show the horror of the face in relation to what the film will entail.

Sound bridge of children singing, still with a blank black screen building the tension a caption saying ‘Halloween night 1963’.

                                                                                               

The scene starts with a forward tracking shot going towards a large white suburban house, white being a pure colour suggests that the house is pure. This is ironic as it is revealed that it clearly isn't as the film goes on. A handheld camera is used giving off an edgy feel and a sense of being watched. Only diegetic sounds are heard until a non-diegetic screech is added to add to the uprising tension and mystique, it is jumpy and makes the audience expect something scary to happen, the anticipation makes the scene feel more edgy. 

The whole scene is done in the way of a point of view shot and shows the persons process and vision as he proceeds to kill his sister who could be seen as immoral for going upstairs alone with a boy implying that they were going to have sex. As he draws nearer to committing the murder he picks up a mask and the screen changes to the shape of the mask to continue the sub POV shot. Through the mask we see the girl sitting brushing her messy hair naked and with her bed behind her that looks used, suggesting that the girl had just had sex. When the boy enters the room the girl turns and and around and addresses him as 'Micheal'  is stabbing the girl his vision takes us to the knife to see him thrusting the knife down towards her body, we don’t actually see him stabbing her clearly. 


We then see the murdered view as they leave the house, the opening sequence continues to be shot through a point of view right until the end when the shot reverse tracks away from the boy as he takes off his mask and we finally see that it is the little boy, he if wearing a clowns costume which could mean that he things its all a joke however the serious look on his face suggests otherwise.

The Dark Knight Rises Opening Sequence

The opening to The Dark Knight Rises starts with a very mysterious eerie feel built by the music and the very dark colours such as black, grey and dark blue this shows the gloom and dark atmosphere that covers Gotham due to the death of Harvey Dent. It could also resemble the dark gloom that covers Bruce Wayne as he is in a state of depression.















The shot then zooms into a close up of cracking ice and the cracks form into the shape of the iconic 'batman' symbol, this represents the rising of the dark knight from an almost hibernated state and the audience relate this to the title of the film 'The Dark Knight Rises'. However, the bat symbol is the only indication in the opening sequence of the films name. Christopher Nolan chooses to not follow the normal format of an opening sequence and to not include titles such as the actual films name or the starring cast members. This could be down to the directors choice to carry over the tradition after the past two films in the sequel have also not shown titles, due to the arrogance of the director as he knows that people know the film so don't need to see the title.


The first shots of human activity is a low angle shot of a CIA agent which shows his superiority and power in comparison to the other men around him, the agent is wearing normal clothes where as the other men are in military uniform suggesting he is more important as he doesn't have to wear a uniform, his body language suggests he's an arrogant man who thinks very highly of himself. Three men are brought to him with sacks covering there heads, obviously being transported by the plane they are in front of.

There is an aerial shot to establish the planes surroundings as its flying over a mountain range. Inside the plane the CIA agent hangs two of the hooded men out of the plane and  interrogate them for information about the main antagonist Bane. As the plane door is open the agents voice is quite quiet, this makes it obvious that the voice of Bane is entered after the filming and altered in post-production due to how clear and different it sounds in comparison to the agents. After we hear Banes voice and know the antagonist is in the plane the camera pans around to the final hooded man and starts to forward track towards the back of Bane putting him in a vulnerable position. The shot switches to outside the plane and we get an extreme long shot of another plane over the top of the CIA plane representing the change in power as the new larger plane is the dominant plane.


The scene speeds up as Banes men hijack the plane, lots of fast cuts helps to build a sense of the speed and a non diegetic beat building a sense of urgency. The hijacking was almost military like with an efficient well executed, well planned procedure showing a potential input from ex-military, the men go on to perform a transition of blood from a scientist into the body of a man who the men had brought with them, further suggesting the pre-planned nature of the scenario. Bane shows his power as an antagonist by openly telling one of his men to stay behind and die and they agree. The sequence ends with a high angle shot looking up at Bane dangling from a rope from the plane showing he's fearlessness.

Prelim task

The 180 degree rule is an imaginary line which cuts through the middle of a scene from side to side of the camera. It means things can only be filmed on one side of the line in a 180 degree field, if you cut to a shot from the other side of the line it changes the viewers perspective and causes confusion about the direction the actor/actress faces. If you need to shoot from the opposite side of the line you should ensure that you show the camera crossing the line in one shot this helps the audience make sense of it. In our prelim task we stuck to the rule by staying on Jack's left side for the majority of shots and if it changed then we showed the change and ensured we made it look smooth and the correct way to be filmed.

A match on action is when a shot switches from one view of something to another, using different positions and camera angle to give a sense of real time. We used the match on action in our task when handing over the box, we shot the hand over from one position and then moved the camera to another position to get another perspective, when we edited it we made it look like it was shot with two camera's by cutting and placing the shots next to each other.

An eye line match is when the shot is normally over the shoulder and shows two characters eyes at the same level, this shows a relationship between the two characters and is shot in a way that makes it look as if there the same height. We incorporated an eye line match in the scene where Phoebe and Jack exchange words, we tilted the camera over Jack's shoulder in a way that made their heights and eyes look on the same level. This was well executed as eye line matches with people of different heights can be hard to do.

The overall film making experience went well due to detailed planning and careful filming. As a group at the start of the process we discussed different ideas before agreeing on one final plot. We then went on to storyboard the idea shot by shot, when we had the shot by shot guide we started filming and stuck to the storyboard shooting all the planned shots. When doing the filming we made sure we filmed every shot various times to ensure we could avoid continuity errors when later reviewing the footage. This made the editing process a lot simpler by offering a wider choice of shots to minimize mistakes. We used the program Abode Premier in which we were able to tidy up the film, straightening, zooming and cutting to get the best possible results. To make the piece flow we used dissolves and transitions to avoid straight cuts.

Throughout the whole film we tried to maintain the idea of not showing too much of the main characters face to add a feel of mystique, the choice of shots often reflected the characters thoughts such as the extreme long shot at the start showing how far away he is from knowing what awaits, handheld showing his anticipation and shots from behind.