Wednesday, 25 March 2009
Audience Response - James Hadfield
1) Which, of these, do you think this film would categorise under? Which would you use it for?
A. Diversion - A form of escape or release from everyday pressures
B. Personal Relationships - Companionship through identification with characters and sociability through discussion about TV with other people.
C. Personal Identity - The ability to compare one's own life with the characters and situations portrayed and to explore individual problems and perspectives.
D. Surveillance - Information about what is going on in the world.
2) Do you feel compelled to watch the entire film? Why?
No because it's not my type of genre.
3) What part scared you the most and why?
The chanting, it was sinister and reminded me of little girls singing.
4) How Effective do you find the specific conventions used?
Sounds - It was effective as it was dark and created a lot of tension.
Costume - Knew who was who at the very beginning, that something wasn't right.
Action - Yes, the eye bit especially as it was really creepy.
A. Diversion - A form of escape or release from everyday pressures
B. Personal Relationships - Companionship through identification with characters and sociability through discussion about TV with other people.
C. Personal Identity - The ability to compare one's own life with the characters and situations portrayed and to explore individual problems and perspectives.
D. Surveillance - Information about what is going on in the world.
2) Do you feel compelled to watch the entire film? Why?
No because it's not my type of genre.
3) What part scared you the most and why?
The chanting, it was sinister and reminded me of little girls singing.
4) How Effective do you find the specific conventions used?
Sounds - It was effective as it was dark and created a lot of tension.
Costume - Knew who was who at the very beginning, that something wasn't right.
Action - Yes, the eye bit especially as it was really creepy.
Audience Response - Kendall Leaper
1) Which, of these, do you think this film would categorise under? Which would you use it for?
A. Diversion - A form of escape or release from everyday pressures
B. Personal Relationships - Companionship through identification with characters and sociability through discussion about TV with other people.
C. Personal Identity - The ability to compare one's own life with the characters and situations portrayed and to explore individual problems and perspectives.
D. Surveillance - Information about what is going on in the world.
2) Do you feel compelled to watch the entire film? Why?
Yes, because i want to find out what happened and why.
3) What part scared you the most and why?
'I Found You' at the end because it was eerie.
4) How Effective do you find the specific conventions used?
Sounds - Really effective, fit theme.
Costume - Went well with rest of film, the dark.
Action - Makes it all make sense.
A. Diversion - A form of escape or release from everyday pressures
B. Personal Relationships - Companionship through identification with characters and sociability through discussion about TV with other people.
C. Personal Identity - The ability to compare one's own life with the characters and situations portrayed and to explore individual problems and perspectives.
D. Surveillance - Information about what is going on in the world.
2) Do you feel compelled to watch the entire film? Why?
Yes, because i want to find out what happened and why.
3) What part scared you the most and why?
'I Found You' at the end because it was eerie.
4) How Effective do you find the specific conventions used?
Sounds - Really effective, fit theme.
Costume - Went well with rest of film, the dark.
Action - Makes it all make sense.
Audience Response - Paige White
1) Which, of these, do you think this film would categorise under? Which would you use it for?
A. Diversion - A form of escape or release from everyday pressures
B. Personal Relationships - Companionship through identification with characters and sociability through discussion about TV with other people.
C. Personal Identity - The ability to compare one's own life with the characters and situations portrayed and to explore individual problems and perspectives.
D. Surveillance - Information about what is going on in the world.
2) Do you feel compelled to watch the entire film? Why?
Yes, because i want to find out what happened and why.
3) What part scared you the most and why?
The bit with the eye and after because it was scary.
4) How Effective do you find the specific conventions used?
Sounds - It was effective as it was freaky.
Costume - It let you know who was who at the beginning
Action - I felt Eve could look round more at the beginning because there's somebody in the house.
A. Diversion - A form of escape or release from everyday pressures
B. Personal Relationships - Companionship through identification with characters and sociability through discussion about TV with other people.
C. Personal Identity - The ability to compare one's own life with the characters and situations portrayed and to explore individual problems and perspectives.
D. Surveillance - Information about what is going on in the world.
2) Do you feel compelled to watch the entire film? Why?
Yes, because i want to find out what happened and why.
3) What part scared you the most and why?
The bit with the eye and after because it was scary.
4) How Effective do you find the specific conventions used?
Sounds - It was effective as it was freaky.
Costume - It let you know who was who at the beginning
Action - I felt Eve could look round more at the beginning because there's somebody in the house.
Jade Kelly
1) Which, of these, do you think this film would categorise under? Which would you use it for?
A. Diversion - A form of escape or release from everyday pressures
B. Personal Relationships - Companionship through identification with characters and sociability through discussion about TV with other people.
C. Personal Identity - The ability to compare one's own life with the characters and situations portrayed and to explore individual problems and perspectives.
D. Surveillance - Information about what is going on in the world.
2) Do you feel compelled to watch the entire film? Why?
Yes, because i want to find out what happened and why.
3) What part scared you the most and why?
The bit with the eye because it you don't know whats going to happen.
4) How Effective do you find the specific conventions used?
Sounds - It was effective as it was gripping.
Costume - Good, it was everyday costume, easier to relate to.
Action - It made everything clear.
A. Diversion - A form of escape or release from everyday pressures
B. Personal Relationships - Companionship through identification with characters and sociability through discussion about TV with other people.
C. Personal Identity - The ability to compare one's own life with the characters and situations portrayed and to explore individual problems and perspectives.
D. Surveillance - Information about what is going on in the world.
2) Do you feel compelled to watch the entire film? Why?
Yes, because i want to find out what happened and why.
3) What part scared you the most and why?
The bit with the eye because it you don't know whats going to happen.
4) How Effective do you find the specific conventions used?
Sounds - It was effective as it was gripping.
Costume - Good, it was everyday costume, easier to relate to.
Action - It made everything clear.
Audience Response - Jade Williams
1) Which, of these, do you think this film would categorise under? Which would you use it for?
A. Diversion - A form of escape or release from everyday pressures
B. Personal Relationships - Companionship through identification with characters and sociability through discussion about TV with other people.
C. Personal Identity - The ability to compare one's own life with the characters and situations portrayed and to explore individual problems and perspectives.
D. Surveillance - Information about what is going on in the world.
2) Do you feel compelled to watch the entire film? Why?
Yes, because i want to find out what happened and why, also everything that's going on.
3) What part scared you the most and why?
The bit with the eye because it was creepy, the silence from the chant added to this.
4) How Effective do you find the specific conventions used?
Sounds - It was effective as it fit with the theme and played at the right times.
Costume - It let you know who was who at the beginning
Action - The way the doors were opened were creepy, let you know something bad was going to happen and theres nothing missing, it all flows.
A. Diversion - A form of escape or release from everyday pressures
B. Personal Relationships - Companionship through identification with characters and sociability through discussion about TV with other people.
C. Personal Identity - The ability to compare one's own life with the characters and situations portrayed and to explore individual problems and perspectives.
D. Surveillance - Information about what is going on in the world.
2) Do you feel compelled to watch the entire film? Why?
Yes, because i want to find out what happened and why, also everything that's going on.
3) What part scared you the most and why?
The bit with the eye because it was creepy, the silence from the chant added to this.
4) How Effective do you find the specific conventions used?
Sounds - It was effective as it fit with the theme and played at the right times.
Costume - It let you know who was who at the beginning
Action - The way the doors were opened were creepy, let you know something bad was going to happen and theres nothing missing, it all flows.
Friday, 20 March 2009
Evaluation :)
Charlotte Cooper
PSNM
Evaluation
Our film opening is set in a normal suburban area, with a young female babysitter looking after a young child. The film would go on to show the child, having been kidnapped, being rescued by his parents who, after returning home, have to perform several tasks to make up for their absence from the son’s life. In the opening sequence, a dark, mysterious figure enters the house and slowly makes her way upstairs and into one of the bedrooms, after a screech the babysitter, stood tidying in another room, decides to see what is happening. As she leaves the room, she sees the female creeping out of the child’s room and so goes back into the room to hide. However, the woman sees the door close and goes in to find out who’s in there. She slowly walks past a slit in the cupboard doors, where a point of view shot – that of the babysitter’s – sees the woman walk past and then back, showing her eye through the slit. The scene cuts to its title, ‘I Found You’, and the words are spoken simultaneously. Throughout the piece, there is an eerie song playing, that we chose specifically to fit with the sinister theme. There is also a child’s chant playing, which plays at specific times to create suspense and tension in the audience.
Throughout our film, we used different shot distances, this was included when the Murderer walks toward or away from the camera – the shot changes form close to mid to long, or vice verse. To make sure our aim was apparent to the audience during editing, we re-recorded different shots. After we had done all the editing of the shots we had, we watched through it all and decided that certain parts were unclear so we went back and did some more filming. As well as getting some new clips to edit and put in, we re-recorded others so they looked better in conjunction with the entire opening. Also, to make the aim clear, we had creepy music that had a crescendo – so the music kept building up and building up, creating more and more tension, so the audience knew that something was going to happen.
Within our opening we incorporated certain representations. The first is of a normal suburban family. Although it isn’t obvious within the first 2 minutes, it is implied within the other characters. The fact that the house is detached, with 4 bedrooms in the suburbs demonstrates that it is going to be a typical family. Then the babysitter is introduced, which connotes a busy family also, with the parents having to hire somebody to look after their child. This representation is shown in relation to the setting and the other characters because the family, as a whole, is not introduced until later on in the film. Another stereotypical representation is that of the babysitter. In typical-style horrors, the babysitter is always female, as she is in our piece. We showed her social group by giving her trendy costume and an attitude – showing that she doesn’t want to be there. We also represented babysitters by demonstrating how they just do the job because it gets them money; we did this by using exasperated facial expressions.
Although the representation of the murderer was different to its stereotype, seeing as it was a female murder, the use of costume and camera angles helped to portray this status of the Murderer. We used bird’s eye and worm’s eye shots of the Murderer so that her face was never shown, this left the element of mystery and fitted with the typical representation of a murderer who is sneaky and unknown. We also used dark coloured clothing to connote evil and darkness and to demonstrate the fact that the person is a mystery – there’s no reason, yet, as to why she is doing this.
The film begins with an establishing shot of the house, where the production company – Ashfield Cube Productions – comes up in the bottom left hand corner. The text is a sort of smoky fog design that we picked and changed specifically to aid the horror theme, we also faded it in and out to add to this effect. There is then a vertical tilt up to a bedroom window where a young girl closes some curtains, at this point a child’s chant begins that says ‘1,2, I’m coming for you’ which we timed to fit as the young girl – the babysitter – comes into view. Each part of the chant fades in and out so that the sound flows and fits with the rest of the filming and sound. This gives the effect that somebody is watching, from the position of the camera behind a plant pot, also that they are coming after the babysitter. As the bedroom light turns off the scene fades into a shot of the murderer creeping up to the door, as the shot changes from close to mid to long. As this shot begins, so does the music, which is an eerie piece that resembles sounds under the sea, it’s sinister as it sounds like music a children’s TV show would use and so adds to the horror genre. To fit with continuity, there is then a cut to an over the shoulder shot of the murderer opening the door, with match on action as the camera switches to the other side of the door, inside, as a birds eye – where the murderer opens the door and closes it, then walks past the camera. Simultaneously the second part of the chant plays which states ‘3, 4, better lock your door’, is significant as the murderer just walks through the back door. This bit specifically doesn’t show the Murderer’s face, to stick with the mysterious theme. A pan, as well as establishing the area, follows the Murderer across the kitchen to a door. Another cut, also match on action, and the camera is at the foot of the door – worm’s eye – showing the murderer walking onto the landing, through the door. We used 180° rule to show the murderer walking past the camera and up the stairs, starting by focusing on her feet then, as she climbs the stairs, comes to a full body shot – although the face is still not visible. This still leaves the murderer’s identity a secret and fits with the horror genre as it keeps the audience in suspense and keeps them tense.
A cut to the murderer’s perspective shows the Babysitter coming out of the room and closes the door, keeping the audience tense as she’s watching her and they know something bad is bound to happen. The third part of the chant plays which sings ‘5, 6, pick up sticks’ to symbolise child’s play, indicating that that is who she is after. Now a bird’s eye shot, from the top of the stairs, pans to follow the murderer round and up the stairs, then cuts to a short clip of the Babysitter putting away some clothes in a different bedroom. From there, it cuts to an over the shoulder shot of the Murderer entering a dark room then closing the door, and then quickly cuts back to the Babysitter who is still folding clothes. Whilst the Murderer enters the room the fourth chant is played that says ‘7, 8, stay up late’, connoting that the Murderer is going to wake up the kid. She hears a short scream and a quiet bang, and turns around thinking what it could have been, whilst there is a close up of her face. As she walks towards the door, the shot changes from long to close, and her expression expresses anger because she is fed up of looking after this kid. It jumps to an over the shoulder shot of her opening the door and turning the light off – as she intends to leave the room, then a perspective shot as she sees the Murderer backing out of the other bedroom. From here the door closes and the camera moves to the Murderer’s point of view to show her closing the door. There is then a fast pan and focus pull on the bedroom door slowly closing where the Babysitter was. This then cuts to a steady shot of the Murderer walking up to the bedroom door and going inside, where the jump shot produces a cut away - going from the Murderer's perspective, to what the Murderer can see. With the right amount of time elapsed, the camera cuts to inside a cupboard, which is the perspective shot of the Babysitter – who is sat inside hiding. There is a slight shake on the camera to show how scared the girl is. As the Murderer walks past the slit in the cupboard doors the final chant plays, which states ‘9, 10, never sleep again’, which fades off for longer in a melancholic tone. The Murderer walks back and puts her eye up to the slit, this establishing shot shows the situation – with the Babysitter trapper by a stranger, whose face has still not been seen. The camera zooms and the focus pulls to show a close up of the eye. There is a loud bang as the clip cuts to the title which reads ‘I Found You’, simultaneously the words are spoken in the same child-like chant as before. The main title is still creepy, with child-like writing, and if faded red and grey on a black background. The red connotes blood and murderer, as the black connotes evil – demonstrating to the audience that this is a horror film. As the text fades out the opening finishes.
Before we began filming and even planning, we did a lot of research into the horror genre. We watched a couple of films, each of us analysed two and then compared notes, and noted any common factors. We especially realised that the transitions were jumpy and cut from one scene to another, making the film face paced and scary – therefore we incorporated this into our piece and cut from scene to scene, with one or two fades. We also noticed that the light and setting played an important part in the horror theme. We wrote down the common settings for horror films, which often included a normal setting – such as suburbia – as the audience could relate to it, making it all the more frightening to watch and think about. With the lighting, it was always dark, specifically if something bad was about to happen. Because we couldn’t make a set darker, we decided to wait until it was dark and use natural light for filming. Whilst filming we realised that a light was needed to make the last shot, that of the eye, visible – so we placed the light under the face so it illuminated upward, giving the creepy effect seen in many iconic horror films. A thing we took on board and developed was the use of camera angles. In horror films the camera is often at a point of view shot, over the shoulder and involves a lot of close ups for emphasis. We, however, used these techniques but also used a lot of birds eye and worms eye shots, which enabled us to keep the Murderers face hidden throughout and added to the creepy ambiance by giving the opening a sense of mystery. We knew what kind of sound we wanted before researching, and found that it was commonly used during researching anyway, and we had decided on a slow tempo, low song that resembled fair ground music. But once we started looking, we found a piece of music that was perfect, although it wasn’t fair ground music, it was still slow and resembled a sea side rhyme, therefore would add to the sinister theme of the text.
To make sure we were organised for filming, we produced a time management scheme. We produced a shot list to make sure we incorporated all camera angles and shots we wanted, we also produced a camera map to help us during filming to know where each shot came from. To keep in time, we made a time plan to keep to schedule and had a story board, one of the film opening and one of the entire film, to help us keep to our theme. For organisation purposes we had a script, with little dialogue, and a list of actors and props needed – both were limited, but kept us ready because we could plan what we needed before filming.
The mise-en-scene was key to getting the genre across to the audience, so whilst planning we thought about the costume and setting. Colour was important in connoting the fact that something bad was about to happen, therefore we used dark clothing for the Murderer. The lighting also helped to connote evil and mystery, by making the colour of the set dark. This was planned in advance as we chose to shoot during the night so that the natural lighting made the filming dark. The setting, include all the objects within the house, were there to show a normal, modern household, which many of the audience could put themselves in.
Dark Castle Entertainment, Ghost House Pictures teamed with Warner Bros. Pictures is a common distributor of horror films; therefore, if we were to sell our piece, they would be the likely distributor as they are known for their horror film branch. They are famous for certain horror films such as Boogeyman, 30 Days of Night, Gothika and Dreamcatcher. When looking into the total gross for different distributors, I found that Warner Bros. were top, with a total of $444.9 million and a recorded 15 tracked movies – more than any other company in 2009. Within the horror genre our film opening is categorised under torture, therefore I looked under this section. When doing so, I noticed that the widest distributor of horror films was Lionsgate and Newline Cinema, not Warner Bro. Pictures. However, the films I have studied were all Warner Bros. Pictures and I feel that our piece would be better represented by them.
I found the following worldwide financial figures for similar horrors (torture horrors):
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - $80, 571, 655
Saw - $55, 185, 045
Hostel - $47, 326, 473
· The Devils Rejects - $17, 044, 981
As a result of this, the audience would be more limited, as Warner Bros. give suitable certificates and so would make the film a 15, so the audience would be from 15 upward – although, I would suggest there be no people over about 24-26 watching it. We also, before everything, did a survey and asked people – namely the students at Ashfield 6th Form – which genre was their favourite and, within that genre, what would they like to see happen. The two main results were comedy and horror, but we felt it would be better to do horror as its challenging yet achievable. The majority of people we asked, we asked twenty people each, which replied horror said they wanted to see a murder, preferably one that made you think about it. We took this one board and came up with the idea to leave the opening on a cliff hanger so the audience had to think what had happened in the dark room and what, although it was obvious, was going to happen to the Babysitter.
In doing so, I felt we addressed the audience as we used their ideas to construct the film. Whilst filming we took a common theme and situation and turned it into a sinister horror – therefore making the audience feel uncomfortable as it’s relatable. Some of the viewers could have children and have left them with Babysitters, the others could have even been Babysitters and so can put themselves in that position easily, making their feelings evoke easier.
Throughout the process of making our film opening, I learnt a lot about the technologies I need to use. I have learnt how to fully operate Adobe Premiere, including how to time stretch each clip and sound, how to add a sound clip or song and how to change the speed or volume of a clip. Also, through Adobe Premiere, I found out how to add titles and change them to suit us. With putting a song onto our piece, I learnt how to use Audacity to change the pitch and make a certain sound more dominant than the other. Before we started filming, we watched back our preliminary task and noticed a lot of continuity errors, therefore we were very careful during filming not to let this happen. As a result, we watched our piece over and over again during editing. For this piece of editing, I figured out the extent of Adobe Premiere’s use, helping me to add sounds and texts – texts that could be change to fit our genre – which I couldn’t do when editing our preliminary task. We didn’t use any particularly difficult equipment, as it was not necessary, but used an MP3 recorder and microphone to record our sounds – which we did not use during our preliminary task.
PSNM
Evaluation
Our film opening is set in a normal suburban area, with a young female babysitter looking after a young child. The film would go on to show the child, having been kidnapped, being rescued by his parents who, after returning home, have to perform several tasks to make up for their absence from the son’s life. In the opening sequence, a dark, mysterious figure enters the house and slowly makes her way upstairs and into one of the bedrooms, after a screech the babysitter, stood tidying in another room, decides to see what is happening. As she leaves the room, she sees the female creeping out of the child’s room and so goes back into the room to hide. However, the woman sees the door close and goes in to find out who’s in there. She slowly walks past a slit in the cupboard doors, where a point of view shot – that of the babysitter’s – sees the woman walk past and then back, showing her eye through the slit. The scene cuts to its title, ‘I Found You’, and the words are spoken simultaneously. Throughout the piece, there is an eerie song playing, that we chose specifically to fit with the sinister theme. There is also a child’s chant playing, which plays at specific times to create suspense and tension in the audience.
Throughout our film, we used different shot distances, this was included when the Murderer walks toward or away from the camera – the shot changes form close to mid to long, or vice verse. To make sure our aim was apparent to the audience during editing, we re-recorded different shots. After we had done all the editing of the shots we had, we watched through it all and decided that certain parts were unclear so we went back and did some more filming. As well as getting some new clips to edit and put in, we re-recorded others so they looked better in conjunction with the entire opening. Also, to make the aim clear, we had creepy music that had a crescendo – so the music kept building up and building up, creating more and more tension, so the audience knew that something was going to happen.
Within our opening we incorporated certain representations. The first is of a normal suburban family. Although it isn’t obvious within the first 2 minutes, it is implied within the other characters. The fact that the house is detached, with 4 bedrooms in the suburbs demonstrates that it is going to be a typical family. Then the babysitter is introduced, which connotes a busy family also, with the parents having to hire somebody to look after their child. This representation is shown in relation to the setting and the other characters because the family, as a whole, is not introduced until later on in the film. Another stereotypical representation is that of the babysitter. In typical-style horrors, the babysitter is always female, as she is in our piece. We showed her social group by giving her trendy costume and an attitude – showing that she doesn’t want to be there. We also represented babysitters by demonstrating how they just do the job because it gets them money; we did this by using exasperated facial expressions.
Although the representation of the murderer was different to its stereotype, seeing as it was a female murder, the use of costume and camera angles helped to portray this status of the Murderer. We used bird’s eye and worm’s eye shots of the Murderer so that her face was never shown, this left the element of mystery and fitted with the typical representation of a murderer who is sneaky and unknown. We also used dark coloured clothing to connote evil and darkness and to demonstrate the fact that the person is a mystery – there’s no reason, yet, as to why she is doing this.
The film begins with an establishing shot of the house, where the production company – Ashfield Cube Productions – comes up in the bottom left hand corner. The text is a sort of smoky fog design that we picked and changed specifically to aid the horror theme, we also faded it in and out to add to this effect. There is then a vertical tilt up to a bedroom window where a young girl closes some curtains, at this point a child’s chant begins that says ‘1,2, I’m coming for you’ which we timed to fit as the young girl – the babysitter – comes into view. Each part of the chant fades in and out so that the sound flows and fits with the rest of the filming and sound. This gives the effect that somebody is watching, from the position of the camera behind a plant pot, also that they are coming after the babysitter. As the bedroom light turns off the scene fades into a shot of the murderer creeping up to the door, as the shot changes from close to mid to long. As this shot begins, so does the music, which is an eerie piece that resembles sounds under the sea, it’s sinister as it sounds like music a children’s TV show would use and so adds to the horror genre. To fit with continuity, there is then a cut to an over the shoulder shot of the murderer opening the door, with match on action as the camera switches to the other side of the door, inside, as a birds eye – where the murderer opens the door and closes it, then walks past the camera. Simultaneously the second part of the chant plays which states ‘3, 4, better lock your door’, is significant as the murderer just walks through the back door. This bit specifically doesn’t show the Murderer’s face, to stick with the mysterious theme. A pan, as well as establishing the area, follows the Murderer across the kitchen to a door. Another cut, also match on action, and the camera is at the foot of the door – worm’s eye – showing the murderer walking onto the landing, through the door. We used 180° rule to show the murderer walking past the camera and up the stairs, starting by focusing on her feet then, as she climbs the stairs, comes to a full body shot – although the face is still not visible. This still leaves the murderer’s identity a secret and fits with the horror genre as it keeps the audience in suspense and keeps them tense.
A cut to the murderer’s perspective shows the Babysitter coming out of the room and closes the door, keeping the audience tense as she’s watching her and they know something bad is bound to happen. The third part of the chant plays which sings ‘5, 6, pick up sticks’ to symbolise child’s play, indicating that that is who she is after. Now a bird’s eye shot, from the top of the stairs, pans to follow the murderer round and up the stairs, then cuts to a short clip of the Babysitter putting away some clothes in a different bedroom. From there, it cuts to an over the shoulder shot of the Murderer entering a dark room then closing the door, and then quickly cuts back to the Babysitter who is still folding clothes. Whilst the Murderer enters the room the fourth chant is played that says ‘7, 8, stay up late’, connoting that the Murderer is going to wake up the kid. She hears a short scream and a quiet bang, and turns around thinking what it could have been, whilst there is a close up of her face. As she walks towards the door, the shot changes from long to close, and her expression expresses anger because she is fed up of looking after this kid. It jumps to an over the shoulder shot of her opening the door and turning the light off – as she intends to leave the room, then a perspective shot as she sees the Murderer backing out of the other bedroom. From here the door closes and the camera moves to the Murderer’s point of view to show her closing the door. There is then a fast pan and focus pull on the bedroom door slowly closing where the Babysitter was. This then cuts to a steady shot of the Murderer walking up to the bedroom door and going inside, where the jump shot produces a cut away - going from the Murderer's perspective, to what the Murderer can see. With the right amount of time elapsed, the camera cuts to inside a cupboard, which is the perspective shot of the Babysitter – who is sat inside hiding. There is a slight shake on the camera to show how scared the girl is. As the Murderer walks past the slit in the cupboard doors the final chant plays, which states ‘9, 10, never sleep again’, which fades off for longer in a melancholic tone. The Murderer walks back and puts her eye up to the slit, this establishing shot shows the situation – with the Babysitter trapper by a stranger, whose face has still not been seen. The camera zooms and the focus pulls to show a close up of the eye. There is a loud bang as the clip cuts to the title which reads ‘I Found You’, simultaneously the words are spoken in the same child-like chant as before. The main title is still creepy, with child-like writing, and if faded red and grey on a black background. The red connotes blood and murderer, as the black connotes evil – demonstrating to the audience that this is a horror film. As the text fades out the opening finishes.
Before we began filming and even planning, we did a lot of research into the horror genre. We watched a couple of films, each of us analysed two and then compared notes, and noted any common factors. We especially realised that the transitions were jumpy and cut from one scene to another, making the film face paced and scary – therefore we incorporated this into our piece and cut from scene to scene, with one or two fades. We also noticed that the light and setting played an important part in the horror theme. We wrote down the common settings for horror films, which often included a normal setting – such as suburbia – as the audience could relate to it, making it all the more frightening to watch and think about. With the lighting, it was always dark, specifically if something bad was about to happen. Because we couldn’t make a set darker, we decided to wait until it was dark and use natural light for filming. Whilst filming we realised that a light was needed to make the last shot, that of the eye, visible – so we placed the light under the face so it illuminated upward, giving the creepy effect seen in many iconic horror films. A thing we took on board and developed was the use of camera angles. In horror films the camera is often at a point of view shot, over the shoulder and involves a lot of close ups for emphasis. We, however, used these techniques but also used a lot of birds eye and worms eye shots, which enabled us to keep the Murderers face hidden throughout and added to the creepy ambiance by giving the opening a sense of mystery. We knew what kind of sound we wanted before researching, and found that it was commonly used during researching anyway, and we had decided on a slow tempo, low song that resembled fair ground music. But once we started looking, we found a piece of music that was perfect, although it wasn’t fair ground music, it was still slow and resembled a sea side rhyme, therefore would add to the sinister theme of the text.
To make sure we were organised for filming, we produced a time management scheme. We produced a shot list to make sure we incorporated all camera angles and shots we wanted, we also produced a camera map to help us during filming to know where each shot came from. To keep in time, we made a time plan to keep to schedule and had a story board, one of the film opening and one of the entire film, to help us keep to our theme. For organisation purposes we had a script, with little dialogue, and a list of actors and props needed – both were limited, but kept us ready because we could plan what we needed before filming.
The mise-en-scene was key to getting the genre across to the audience, so whilst planning we thought about the costume and setting. Colour was important in connoting the fact that something bad was about to happen, therefore we used dark clothing for the Murderer. The lighting also helped to connote evil and mystery, by making the colour of the set dark. This was planned in advance as we chose to shoot during the night so that the natural lighting made the filming dark. The setting, include all the objects within the house, were there to show a normal, modern household, which many of the audience could put themselves in.
Dark Castle Entertainment, Ghost House Pictures teamed with Warner Bros. Pictures is a common distributor of horror films; therefore, if we were to sell our piece, they would be the likely distributor as they are known for their horror film branch. They are famous for certain horror films such as Boogeyman, 30 Days of Night, Gothika and Dreamcatcher. When looking into the total gross for different distributors, I found that Warner Bros. were top, with a total of $444.9 million and a recorded 15 tracked movies – more than any other company in 2009. Within the horror genre our film opening is categorised under torture, therefore I looked under this section. When doing so, I noticed that the widest distributor of horror films was Lionsgate and Newline Cinema, not Warner Bro. Pictures. However, the films I have studied were all Warner Bros. Pictures and I feel that our piece would be better represented by them.
I found the following worldwide financial figures for similar horrors (torture horrors):
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - $80, 571, 655
Saw - $55, 185, 045
Hostel - $47, 326, 473
· The Devils Rejects - $17, 044, 981
As a result of this, the audience would be more limited, as Warner Bros. give suitable certificates and so would make the film a 15, so the audience would be from 15 upward – although, I would suggest there be no people over about 24-26 watching it. We also, before everything, did a survey and asked people – namely the students at Ashfield 6th Form – which genre was their favourite and, within that genre, what would they like to see happen. The two main results were comedy and horror, but we felt it would be better to do horror as its challenging yet achievable. The majority of people we asked, we asked twenty people each, which replied horror said they wanted to see a murder, preferably one that made you think about it. We took this one board and came up with the idea to leave the opening on a cliff hanger so the audience had to think what had happened in the dark room and what, although it was obvious, was going to happen to the Babysitter.
In doing so, I felt we addressed the audience as we used their ideas to construct the film. Whilst filming we took a common theme and situation and turned it into a sinister horror – therefore making the audience feel uncomfortable as it’s relatable. Some of the viewers could have children and have left them with Babysitters, the others could have even been Babysitters and so can put themselves in that position easily, making their feelings evoke easier.
Throughout the process of making our film opening, I learnt a lot about the technologies I need to use. I have learnt how to fully operate Adobe Premiere, including how to time stretch each clip and sound, how to add a sound clip or song and how to change the speed or volume of a clip. Also, through Adobe Premiere, I found out how to add titles and change them to suit us. With putting a song onto our piece, I learnt how to use Audacity to change the pitch and make a certain sound more dominant than the other. Before we started filming, we watched back our preliminary task and noticed a lot of continuity errors, therefore we were very careful during filming not to let this happen. As a result, we watched our piece over and over again during editing. For this piece of editing, I figured out the extent of Adobe Premiere’s use, helping me to add sounds and texts – texts that could be change to fit our genre – which I couldn’t do when editing our preliminary task. We didn’t use any particularly difficult equipment, as it was not necessary, but used an MP3 recorder and microphone to record our sounds – which we did not use during our preliminary task.
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Final Editing
We finished editing and so had to burn our finished film opening onto a disk.
Before we did this we had to check that everything was right and that there was nothing else to tidy up. We watched it back again a few times, until we were positive that there was nothing else to add, also that the continuity fit. Once we were sure of this we encoded the finished product and burned it onto the DVD disk.
Because we had finished, the class watched our piece on the screen and we watched there reactions, to give us a general view of what reception we would recieve, although a few people laughed most found it scary and said that they liked the music as it made it even more eerie - which is what we were trying to achieve, so we were very pleased with the outcome :)
Before we did this we had to check that everything was right and that there was nothing else to tidy up. We watched it back again a few times, until we were positive that there was nothing else to add, also that the continuity fit. Once we were sure of this we encoded the finished product and burned it onto the DVD disk.
Because we had finished, the class watched our piece on the screen and we watched there reactions, to give us a general view of what reception we would recieve, although a few people laughed most found it scary and said that they liked the music as it made it even more eerie - which is what we were trying to achieve, so we were very pleased with the outcome :)
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
Editing - 3rd, 4th and 6th of April
Before we began editing, we recorded some more sounds to put over our clips. Once we had recorded all sounds needed we put them into place on our timeline then changed the volume and pitch, plus faded them in and out, to make it sound eerie. After fitting all these sounds in we started to notice that the diagetic sound had different acoustics to the recorded sounds, with muffled noises, so we spilt the clip and audio and deleted the sound.
The next two days we started to search for music that would add to the horror opening, for this we searched on freeplay.com a website with available music to download without the risk of copyright. We played around with the sounds on audacity, and with the clip called 1619 Broadway created a fitting song that was creepy yet etherial. However, when we saved the piece, it saved in a format that was incompatible with our footage and so we chose to use Floatate instead, as a whole song. Because the song was too long, we cut it down to fit and faded it in and out.
We listened to our piece, checking that the song and recordings fit the filming, although, we realised that the song was too loud and our recordings could not be properly heard and that we had two more clips to record.
The next two days we started to search for music that would add to the horror opening, for this we searched on freeplay.com a website with available music to download without the risk of copyright. We played around with the sounds on audacity, and with the clip called 1619 Broadway created a fitting song that was creepy yet etherial. However, when we saved the piece, it saved in a format that was incompatible with our footage and so we chose to use Floatate instead, as a whole song. Because the song was too long, we cut it down to fit and faded it in and out.
We listened to our piece, checking that the song and recordings fit the filming, although, we realised that the song was too loud and our recordings could not be properly heard and that we had two more clips to record.
Monday, 2 March 2009
Editing - 24, 25th and 27th February
The first week back after half term, and we had some new footage to llok through and edit in.
On the 24th we basically went through all the clips and made sure they were saved to our Z drive and were filmed alright. We also deleted the bits of filming that were not ours and that did not film properly.
The next day, the 25th, we started editing the shots into our opening so far. We watched each clip to see which would work best and cut it so that the continuity fit and the timing. This took a while because we had to keep watching it from the very beginning to watch if it fit with the entire opening. If we made any mistakes, for example; cutting the clip too much, we had to delete it and put it back in and start cutting again.
Once we'd finished editing our clips, we started to think about sound. We had planned to have a little rhyme playing over the film at certain points - sung by young children. So we got a MP3 recorder and went to a quiet room. Here we recoreded our song, a scream and a muffled one to see which worked best, then a door opening/closing - as these were the only sounds missing from our film. When we got back to the room we realised that we had not turned the microphone on and the sounds hadnt recorded - as it was the end of the lesson we had to leave it untill next time.
On the 27th we attempted to record our sounds again. We did eactly the same recordings, with the microphone on, but when we uploaded them onto the computer the sounds didnt show up. So we tried it with a different microphone, recoreded the same sounds, uploaded them to the computer and listened back to them - because they worked this time. We added them to our film and put them into the places we needed them then watched the entire opening back to see what it was like.
On the 24th we basically went through all the clips and made sure they were saved to our Z drive and were filmed alright. We also deleted the bits of filming that were not ours and that did not film properly.
The next day, the 25th, we started editing the shots into our opening so far. We watched each clip to see which would work best and cut it so that the continuity fit and the timing. This took a while because we had to keep watching it from the very beginning to watch if it fit with the entire opening. If we made any mistakes, for example; cutting the clip too much, we had to delete it and put it back in and start cutting again.
Once we'd finished editing our clips, we started to think about sound. We had planned to have a little rhyme playing over the film at certain points - sung by young children. So we got a MP3 recorder and went to a quiet room. Here we recoreded our song, a scream and a muffled one to see which worked best, then a door opening/closing - as these were the only sounds missing from our film. When we got back to the room we realised that we had not turned the microphone on and the sounds hadnt recorded - as it was the end of the lesson we had to leave it untill next time.
On the 27th we attempted to record our sounds again. We did eactly the same recordings, with the microphone on, but when we uploaded them onto the computer the sounds didnt show up. So we tried it with a different microphone, recoreded the same sounds, uploaded them to the computer and listened back to them - because they worked this time. We added them to our film and put them into the places we needed them then watched the entire opening back to see what it was like.
Re-filming
After looking through our clips and starting to put them together, we realised that timing was slightly off - and so more clips were needed to fill the gap. We also felt that certain parts didnt fit with the continuity.
Over half term we re-filmed some footage, at exactly the same time so that the natural lighting was the same. We filmed another clip for the beginning of our opening and re-worked the shot where the murderer walks into the house because the make up and costume was different and this shot was prominent in showing that.
After beginning editing we found that the shot of the eye was too dark, and so filmed it again with better lighting - strategically placed to fit with the horror genre (underneath so the light shines upward into the face). Just to make sure that we would have enough footage to not have to film again, we took a lot of shots and some in different places, so we had a variety to chose from.
Over half term we re-filmed some footage, at exactly the same time so that the natural lighting was the same. We filmed another clip for the beginning of our opening and re-worked the shot where the murderer walks into the house because the make up and costume was different and this shot was prominent in showing that.
After beginning editing we found that the shot of the eye was too dark, and so filmed it again with better lighting - strategically placed to fit with the horror genre (underneath so the light shines upward into the face). Just to make sure that we would have enough footage to not have to film again, we took a lot of shots and some in different places, so we had a variety to chose from.
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