Some Setting Ideas

Many of the settings we have been looking at are set in  remote areas and one which is very dark and shaded and next to a graveyard. We are planning to shoot at round 3 to 5 each day where it will be becoming dark and murky. Also the top picture is very remote and it would be very unlikely to see people or a car, creating more of a impression of our character being lost and threatened. And also with the snow, it will make it even more remote. We will have to make sure all of our actors are able to get there on time. It will also, be more likely that it is very icy, so we will have to make sure it if safe and that we do not drop of break our equipment. A advantage, however is that all of these photos are above are right next to each other, which means it would be easy to shoot all of these in the same area.

Misfits E4 Opening Scene

One of my favourite opening sequences is from Misfits E4. It uses a range of medium shots and close up to show general appearance and emotions. The opening shows a range of 6 characters (4 males and 2 females) wearing orange jumpsuits about to start community service. This furthers the stereotype of teenagers being troubles makes considering they are about to start community servicefor there crimes. The fact that they are wearing orange jump suits furthers the impression that they are being forced to help in the society and that they are clearly forced. Around the first 30 seconds, it shows the 6 characters and all of the camera shots are filmed in slow motion. The fact that it is shot is slow motion gives more of a impression about the characters personality for example,

• one (male) is shown smoking,
• another(female) is caring allot about her appearance and isn't really in a rush to be on time
• one male, the audience can see straight away that he is nervous, well dressed and looks very out of place with the rest of the group
• however, the other 2, seem quite low class. e.g.lots of gold cheap jewelry

After, all of these small introduction, the 6 are shown shot outside. The shot of them all stood together in a line, emphasises the fact that they are likely to become a group, but it may not come across straight away because they are so different. And the end of the 2 minutes, two of the main characters have already got in to a fight, showing a immediate class of personalities. Also as the character's where males, it could also be a sign of males having big egos and male dominance.

Audience for our final piece

Audience

 

Our movie is aimed at the slasher horror genre film and is clearly has an audience of 18+ (rating). The past, violence was one of the most problematic aspects when passing a film with an 18 certificate was fantasized violence. Horror films were often the culprits for depicting graphic violence and this often results in a lot of grief to the examiners.

Even though we are only shooting the first 2 minutes, we will try and get a few certain pieces across to the audience that will clearly signify that is an 18 rated horror for example, blood, murder, frightening settings and a large period of the opening will be likely to be shot in the dark.

Our audience wouldn’t be just aimed at male or female as they are both a huge audience to horror, but it might be likely that there is slightly more of a male audience, as there is a larger audience in male video game violence that are 18 rated also.

Saw 1 - Opening Scene

Saw 1
Studio - Twisted Pictures  -  Evolution Entertainment  -  Saw Production
Sidtributed by - Lions Gate Films
Budget - $1,100,000
Gross Revenue - $103094345
It is the first installment of the Saw film series.  The film's story revolves around two men who awaken kidnapped and chained in a dilapidated industrial bathroom. They are each given instructions via a micro cassette recorder to kill the other man in the room as that is the only "rule" of their "game".

At the beginning of the scene, it is a close up of a tape recorder ( it uses a close up to show that the tape recorder is relevant in the further storyline). It then shows the first of the 2 males characters. The first, who is shoeless, chained by his left foot to a metal pipe and even though you get the impression he has just woken up, his clothes give the impression he has been there for while, as there are incredibly dirty, unclean and the buttons are undone. It then however, turns attention to another character, who looks much cleaner, awake and has clearly been there for a shorter amount of time in comparison. the first male, sees an tape and then has to lie down to reach the tape player in the middle of room.Then revealed to the audience, is that the take recorder is help by a dead man in the middle of the room. This will be very disturbing to the audience and also the fact how relaxed the two men are about a man covered in blood in the room. When he is unable to reach the recorder and the two men figure out how to reach it, you get the feeling that they do not no each other, but are very willing to work together to save them both. At this point, there is a low angle shot of the character, making the audience think they have a even smaller chance of getting out, or being ok.

Sorority Row Opening Scene

Sorority Row

• is a 2009 American slasher film
• Summit Entertainment
• The film is a re-imagining of the 1983 slasher film The House on Sorority Row
• budget  -12.5 million
• Plot -

The college sorority is home to seniors and best friends Jessica, Cassidy, Ellie, Claire, Chugs and Megan who, constantly throw wild parties. During one of these parties Megan discovers her boyfriend Garrett is cheating on her. As payback she and her friends decide to pull a prank on him. Megan fakes her own death while she is making out with Garrett. With the sisters, Garrett brings Megan out to a steel mill, intent on dropping her body down a mineshaft. After the sisters (jokingly) mention they need to release the air out of her lungs so her body won't rise to the top, Garrett stabs Megan through the chest with a tire iron, actually killing her for real. Panicking, the group dumps Megan's body in the mineshaft, vowing never to speak of the events that transpired ever again.

The opening to the scene is very average and has various shots of people having fun, couples, drinks, dancing etc, and just by the opening you wouldn't associate it with the "slasher genre of horror". Also the main gender is female and women are generally seen as not as violent as men, which makes the next couple of scenes even more disturbing. There is also a lot of bright lights at the begging and "modern" music, making the setting have a much higher verisimilitude of a party. the camera then focuses on one character (female) and uses a tracking shot to follow her around the house and up the stairs. The character is then dragged into a room and then the camera looks over down onto the rest of the people at the party having fun, the camera angle also makes them look vulnerable, as if they are being watched from above.

"The Grudge" - Opening Scene

Distributors - Ghost House Pictures

At the beginning of this movie, before any subtitles, a short phrase comes up reading "when someone dies in the grip of a powerful rage. A curse is born. the curse gathers in that place of death. The words then blur out, yet the word "Death" remains on the screen and becomes bold and turns from white to red, most likely representing blood. The camera then does an upwards tilt across an average looking city e.g. rivers. housing flats and then focusing in on our certain apartment, which also emphasises they are up a height. As it camera keeps tilting the shot upwards it then zooms out and the back of the character is now in the shot, as we cannot see his face, this also adds some more tension. when the shot finally lets you see the character, the audience can see quite early on that the character looks worn out, tired and quite lost. As the shot changes it then shows his partner who's appearance is completely different as she generally looks happy and relaxed. The males character's clothes look very worn out and are mostly blacks and greys, which furthers that he isn't happy. As his partner talks to him , yet he seems very uninterested. the male character gives his partner one final look and turns back around, raises himself up and falls of the balcony. The horror is this is shown even more, as there is no screams or struggle, which gives the impression he couldnt handle it and it has been planned.

"Scream " Opening Scene

Scream is a 1996 American horror film directed by Wes Craven from a screenplay by Kevin Williamson. It was released by Dimension Films. Filmed mostly in Santa Rosa, California, the film tells the story of the fictional town Woodsboro, California being terrorized by a masked killer who enjoys tormenting his victims with phone calls and movie references
The font of the title of the movie is white and could be connected to the white scream mask. At the beginning of Scream, the setting is very important because it is set in a average looking home on a evening, when the main character is alone cooking. This opening has very high verisimilitude as the audience can connect with a very realistic evening. About 1 minute into the movie, the main women character ( which is also quite stereotypical of women being vulnerable) receives a phone call. Also another stereotype is that the main women is blond and  furthers the "stupid" stereotype of blonde's. At this point the representation of the women presents her as being quite "dumb" and no very sensible in a panicked situation.  We are going to use this part of the movie for our inspiration for when the fear kicks in. In the shot below, more fear is being built up for the audience, as they can see the killer/unknown man behind her and she cant. It also makes the audience more likely to like the character and not want her to get hurt. At this point the audience wouldn't be worried or think that any think bad is about to happen. It is then reviled that it is a strange, you can tell this also by the women's extremely worried facial expression. As soon as "the villain", starts to ask suspicious questions, such as "are you doors locked", the audience will connect more as they will being imaging this could happen to me as it is so realistic.
Scream - Production Budget: $14 million
              Domestic Total Gross: $103,046,663

Research for final Project

Me and Imogen has thought about different categories of horror such as

• The hills have eyes
• Scream
• The grudge
• Amityville horror
• Halloween

We know that some of these horrors will be harrd to create ourself such as amityville horror as it has many affects such as someone ontop of the roof, spirits etc. However, a film like scream would be very easy to act as the opening scene only involes to characters, a mask, a phone and a house. The opening scene to that film is more about building up the tension for the audience. Even though these film still cost alot of money, there storyline is gernally quite easy to make and doesnt involve alot of technology that we do not have, as for our horror film we can get fake blood, a house and outside settings as well.

After some more research, we have found that many of the horrors that build up alot of tension, the main killers/murderers as wearing masks such as in

• Halloween cost around Production Budget: $17 million
• Friday the 13th - (in 2009) cost Production Budget: $19 million

Which are generally aimed at the teen slasher horror movie generation. Even though it would be quite easy to shoot, the camera's we are using shoot very poorly in the dark and as we are generally shooting a horror, it will be quite a problem. However after we have planned out alot of our plan and script, we will think about the problems and try to avoid them.

Evaluation

Our movie was mainly aimed at drama/Crime watchers as a large  part at the beginning was aimed to build up the drama for the scene. We also used a lack of sound and dialogue, shot in a dark, murky environment and also used many long shots to get the audience familiar with the setting and "the house". The lack of sound at the beginning gave an impression that the character in focus was not meant to be their and they were up to no good. As young people are a huge audience to television drama, having a young character will make them more likely to connect with the opening shot. However, we didn't realise until after shooting, that is was portraying "young people", in a negative image. It showed the main young character committing a crime. Our movie unfortunately gives the impression of "thug teenagers".

From this experience, we have learnt that shooing at particular times of the day is important, as it is now winter, it becomes dark very quickly and makes shooting on different days very difficult. we also learnt that we should let the camera run 5 seconds before and 5 seconds after the needed clip, as it can be very irritating if some footage is lost. For our final piece, we will make sure to create a more detailed log of when actors are arriving and times, so the shoot flows better and also start researching our props now, so we are sure to be ready for the next shoot.

Final Continuity Task Finished By Stephanie Martin and Imogen Moore

POV for our first shot

Media script

Stephanie Martin

Continuity elements will feature, actor opening a door with their right hand and then getting a shot from the other side and still be using the same had
Other would be also using our shot/reverse shot, when the two actors are talking, we will have to make sure to keep the continuity as both are using a lot of props, such as sunglasses.
As our film stretches over around 3 days because of different actors, we will have to make sure they have the same clothes, hair style etc. as we filmed on different days we had to make sure we shot at round the same time of day so that the weather and lighting outside is the same.

Media planning

• Planning and camera Steph Martin and Immy Moore

• Immy Moore – Actor 1 – Burglar
• Immy Rush – Actor 2 – Home owner
• Steph Martin  - Camera shooting

Basic Plot

Actor 1 enters the unknown house and goes and finds what she needs. After a period of time after she has found them and replaces them with a false alike object. The actual home owner returns “actor 2”, to find that there house has been entered.

After a short period of time, actor 2 finds actor 1 and knocks them out. The next mid shot is actor 1 tided to a chair and asked the dialogue. Soon after actor 1 escapes either running out the house of in a getaway car.
As we have to include our 3 rules, our shot/ reverse shot is very simple as it just has to flow well and keep the continuity the same, as it would just involve a character 1 walking into a room (opening the door with their right and it is the same as they come through) and having a conversation with the other actor, using shot reverse shot.
Our action match is going to be a tackle between the 2 characters. We were going to a fighting scene, but it would be difficult to make it look realistic.
finally the 180, is going to be clearly scene as we are going to have exactly 180 degrees turn as we use a tracking shot on one of the characters.
And we will also be updating some pictures of the setting and some sketches of the 3 rules.

Dialogue

Actor 1 opening their eyes

Actor 1 – wha...where am i?

Actor 2 – what where you doing in my house?!

Actor 1 – I...i... I wasn’t.. I was sent hear.

-”Panicking”-

Actor 2 – “looks confused and more worried”

-There is a knock at the door-

-panicked both actors look, and then actor 1 starts to escape-

Actor 1 runs out, running or then gets in the car

In our shooting, we decided not to use that much dialogue as a lot of our project (opening and closing mainly) is there just to build up the atmosphere and get the audience familiar with the setting early on)

Problems while shooting

We had quite a large range of problems because of changing lighting because of the weather, muffled sound and unreliably of actors.

As we were shooting this in the house, there were a lot of noises in a house such as people arriving in, talking elsewhere; dogs barking etc. we overcame this by shooting at a period were people were still at work, so the sound was at its minimal.

Shooting and actors	8th November	9th November	9th to the 12th Editing
Imogen Moore (actor one)	Only one actor needed to meet at 4 for opening sequence	Both actors needed to shoot main dialogue	Needed in Media Lessons
Actor 2	Not needed	Need to meet a 4pm for around 2 hours	Not needed for editing
Steph Martin Camera	Shooting	shooting	Needed in media lessons for editing

Location

we have already discovered that one area we wanted to shoot in is already unavaible which means we will have to change a small bit of our storyline.

Our Next Project

In our next media studies project we have to included the 180 degree rule, action match and shot and reverse shot. We have to make use the video has good continuity to make it look more realistic and believable as a Movie clip. We will have to includes all of our shots and make sure the editing runs well. We have a idea of it being in a abanded dark room/area, with one main character who is threw the whole short opening. We are hoping to involve some other good affects to make it stand out from other videos.
We will have to make sure that the lighting will be appropriate and as we aim to set ours in a small room, we have to keep a eye on the sound to make sure there is no echoes.

Unable to upload Video

Our video had lots of problems which means me and Immy were unable to upload our video

The Prisoner - Steph and Immy

There were many different directions we could go with the genre of 'The Prisoner'.
However me and Immy decided we were going to make a comedy rather than making it a serious thriller, as the other students are doing the same script ,we wanted our to stand out by being different.

Another method we used to make the video has a better flow, was instead of stopping and then restarting( making it look jumpy and unprofessional ), we decided to have a
shot where it was the characters POV, making the audience feeeling more invovled.
Our story has two main characters, where one of them is portrayed as being a "victum" and one gives the impression of being a villian.
To make video have a be flow we used cutting,
Our main problem surprisingly wasn't the camera or unwanted sound, but was trying to get our actor out of  his lesson as he is in year 8. However some teachers did cooperate.
On our last lesson, we could not get our tripod and so we struggled to find a way to balance it wihout effecting the video.
In the future, we would be sure to always have a tripod at all times, and use our group members insteed of other actors for better accessibility with our movies.

Camera Shots steph and immy

Immy and Steph camera movements

The Movie treatment

Me and Immy Moore are doing a gangster and screw ball comedy for our media project. The plot has to be based on where Person A wants somthing person B has. In our plot person b is a blonde bimbo and has stolen money of person a.

Person A - David

Person B - Brittany (Blonde Bimbo)

The beginning would be small action scene with the 2 main characters, and it would start with the two characters splitting up and Person A being kicked out.

 it would also be shot in extreme close up of the two characters eyes to make the audience feel uncomfortable like the characters in the story, involving them more.

The main action scene (main plot ), would be a large bank robbing scnene were Person A is trying to get money after person B has all of there after the break up. It would only involve Person A in the main action scene and large numbers of gangsters (relating to the gangster side of film) 

The closing scene would be a final chase to get the money back of Person B, would has hidden some diamonds and drugs (which she bought with Persons A's money), which she has hidden in her boob implants (relating back to screw ball comedy)

The very final scene would be A extreme close up of Person A eyes as he shoots Person B and the bullet is absorbed into her implants ( Screw ball comedy)
Our movie pitch is going to have alot of action scenes where person a is after person b, it also has too include gangster and screwball comedy to attract to different audiences.
ideas that our film plot is like is for example eg scary movie and other screw ball comedy's.

Difficulty while shooting

while we where shooting in our group we had some difficulty. One was we didn't have a tripod so many of our shots where hand held and were shaky and not stable, or to the correct angle/degree. We over came this by resting the camera on stable objects to make it look better and by choosing the person in out group who could hold the camera the steadiest

Media Shooting angles

Me immy and rachel have finally finished all our shooting for media and now finish editing :)

Due date 2010 Nov

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGpJUh9j-jU

Films this year i have seen and need to see :)

My favourite films this year that have came out are
Inception
The last exorcism
Piranha 3D
The final destination
Shutter island
The hangover
and waiting for this year
1 - Jackass 3D
2 - Due Date
3-Cyrus
4-Sherlock holmes 2
and many more

what are yours??? <3