Setting for Our Piece

This is a location in Durham which is what we called in the description of our piece as 'the dark alley'. Obviously it's not dark on the picture, as I took it during the day, however we would preferably like to film when it is dark, in order to match the description of the 'dark alley', and also to provoke fear among the audience, and create a sense of fear and horror.

My Set Tasks

I have been set the task of creating a production schedule over the holidays, and also producing call sheets. I have already done both of these, and posted them on my blog. I will also be taking photos of potential locations over the holidays.

Call Sheet

This is an exemple of a call sheet we may find useful when in the process of filming:

Name
Photo
Contact Number
Meeting Times

Production Schedule

Production Schedule

By:

30^th November – Plan genre and ideas, decide group.

14^th December – Research into existing opening sequences, analysed in detail, notes on how it may be useful to you.

11^th December – Pre-production planning completed. Must include: storyboards, production schedules (this), call sheets, script etc.

1^st February – all material shot and uploaded onto media server.

17^th February – Rough edit completed and uploaded to blog.

15^th March – Final edit completed and uploaded to blog and media server.

22^nd March – Group presentations of video and evaluation.

15^th April – Blog entries answering evaluation questions, plus a video commentary.

Wednesday 5^th (first day back of term) – Book Camera.

Week beginning January 10^th  and week beginning January 17th – Shooting Footage.

Week beginning January 24^th – Edits.

Planning Our Piece

We've produced an idea of what we want to do for our opening of our horror film, which Hannah will post on her blog: http://hannahharveyasmedia.blogspot.com/ . We've decided to avoid writing a script, as we've found that previous pieces we have filmed have seemed to planned, and the lines haven't been natural. It is essential that the impression of false speech is avoided, especially concerning horror, as horrors are designed to provoke your worst fears, and this can't be done if there is a low verisimilitude. We have allocated tasks to ourselves to do over the Christmas holidays in order to complete our planning, ready for production when we return. I am producing a production schedule, and also taking photos of potential settings. Hannah is writing up the plot in detail, and Chloe is going to produce a storyboard to go with the plot.

Production and Distribution Companies

I've done some research on which companies produce and distribute companies, and I have found that Lionsgate is well known for it's horror movies, it released the Saw films  . I also found a blog on myspace with some horror film production companies, including: K Studios, 500 Pieces Films and Silver Bullet Pictures. I also found that Warner Bros Pictures were part of the production for the teen horror film ''The House of Wax'', which I have previously analysed the opening to. Prom night, another example of a teen horror film, was produced by Alliance Films, Newmarket Films, and Original Film. Through my research, I have also discovered that there are many film producers and film distributors involved with just one film. For example, The Strangers     was produced by the following:

• Rogue Pictures (presents)
• Intrepid Pictures (presents)
• Vertigo Entertainment
• Mandate Pictures

and distributed by the following: 

• Alliance (2008) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Cascade Film (2008) (Russia) (theatrical)
• Distribution Company (2008) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Frenetic Films (2008) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• Odeon (2008) (Greece) (theatrical)
• Presidio (2009) (Japan) (theatrical)
• RCV Film Distribution (2008) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Rogue Pictures (2008) (USA) (theatrical)
• Sandrew Metronome Distribution (2008) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Shaw Organisation (2008) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• Universal Pictures (2008) (USA) (theatrical)
• Alliance (2008) (Canada) (DVD)
• Bazuca Films (2008) (Chile) (all media)
• Blue Sky Media (2008) (Czech Republic) (all media)
• Gativideo (2009) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2009) (Germany) (DVD)
• Paris Filmes (2007) (Brazil) (all media)
• RCV Home Entertainment (2008) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Sandrew Metronome Distribution (2009) (Finland) (DVD) (blu-ray)
• Universal Studios Home Entertainment (2008) (USA) (DVD)
• Universal Studios Home Entertainment (2008) (USA) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• fX Network (2010) (USA) (TV)

Opening Sequence of ''House of Wax''

The melancholic and eerie music used in the opening of this film immediately sets the right tone and atmosphere, as it is effective in building up tension and expectation among the audience. A high angle camera shot is also very effective, as it creates a sense of detachment from the scene, as the audience aren't made to feel as though they are in the scene, but in fact watching from an outside position. The fact that you can't see the characters faces intrigues the audience, but also inflicts fear, as they are blind to the situation and the people involved. The music which is played at the same time as the boy is being strapped into the chair using leather straps is fast paced, and consequently creates a sense of desperation. There is apparent violence in the opening scene suggesting that the age restrictions are quite high for this film. The dip to black is very effective in changing the scene, as it happens just after the woman hits the little boy, indicating that maybe the child has been knocked out. The technique of not showing the characters face is something that may be of use in our piece, as it is very effective in creating a sense of ''the unknown'' and therefore creating fear.

Opening Sequence of ''Scream''

The use of titles and sound together at the beginning of this film are very effective, as they immediately set the scene. The font of the title of the movie is white, and is noticable against the black. This font then changes colour to red, which has connotations of blood and death and danger. This alone begins to create a tense atomosphere, but the sound accompanied with the title further exaggerates the atmosphere, as it consists of a heartbeat, screams, and a telephone ringing. The heartbeat sound signifies panic, and consequently this feeling reflects in the audience. The screams signify terror, and torture, and fear, which again sets the scene. The fear is also increased due to the fact that the girl can't see who's calling her, which makes the scene more tense and edgy, because the audience don't know the face that matches the voice. The repeated ringing of the phone builds up this fear, and effects the audience more and more every time. The shot of the house after the first two phonecalls builds up the tension and expectation, as it implies to the audience that the caller is outside, watching the house. This shot is very effective in introducing this fact to it's audience. This fact is verified when the caller says ''I wanna know who I'm looking at''. The house that the film is set in has a lot of windows and doors, which creates an atmosphere of tension as the feeling of being exposed is created. The tension created is always built up by the clever use of a close up of the popcorn ready to pop, like tension ready to explode. The use of music at the point in which the girl is rushing to lock the doors is very effective, as it adds a sense of drama to the scence, and makes the audience panic. The close up of the girls face when she says ''What kind of game'' is effective in inflicting fear on the audience, as the girls fear is magnified by the close up, therefore the audience immediately feels everything that she is feeling. The audience to this film would be an older audience, with a high age rating, as the use of sound and camera angles is effective in creating a high fear factor. This is useful to us as a group, as our desired plot is going to be in a house, with someone being watched, and therefore we can use a lot of the skills and techniques that the producers and directors have used in the opening to this film. This film is also useful as it is of the genre we have chosen - teen horror, and therefore various techniques such as the feeling of being watched will prove to be very useful when it comes to  actually filming our piece.

Opening Sequence of ''Evil Dead''

The use of typography for this opening is effective as it immediately introduces the genre of the film. It's red and messy, connoting blood and violence etc. The setting of the opening sequence also immediately indicates how the film is going to be, as the setting is foggy, and murky and eerie. The scene suddenly changes from this setting, to the viewing of a car passing by, with someone singing. This scene does not match with the previous one, suggesting to the audience that something isn't right. The chopping and changing from these two scenes further emphasizes that something is wrong. The music played during the scene of inside the car also does not match, as it is upbeat and intense, suggesting something is approaching. The tracking shot of the car suggests to the audience that something is following the car, thus increasing the fear factor. The close up of the seat outside of the cabin indicates to the audience that it plays a significant role in the opening sequence. 

The use of camera angles and movement is an effective element of this opening sequence, as it builds up tension and fear. This type of horror is the kind of horror my group and I would like to create for our final piece. The audience this film is aimed at seems to be teenagers, as it's about a group of young people. This is the audience our film will be aimed at, as we are going with the genre of teen horror. The camera angles in this clip will be very influential on what we decide to use, as they create the feeling of being watched, and help to build up the feelings of fear and tension.

Opening Sequence to ''Night of the Living Dead''

The music is effective in the opening of this film, as it is eerie, and gradually builds up, and therefore effectively building up the tension of the scene. The length of time in which the camera films the car driving is quite long, which again builds up tension and the expectation that something is going to happen. The eerie music being played on top of quite a normal situation subtly suggests to the audience that something is wrong. Overall the most effective element to this particular opening is the use of music. From the opening of this film, it would be assumed that the age restrictions for this film wouldn't be very high, as the fear factor isn't high, and also there is no content in the opening that would be suited to an older age. The only effective element to the opening would be the eerie music, as it builds up tension and expectitation, and sets the desired tone.

Opening Sequence of ''Halloween''

The use of camera movement in the opening scene to this particular film is very effective in creating an atmosphere of fear, as the point of view camera movement creates a sense of someone watching, and therefore has an effect of the viewer, making them edgy and tense. The use of sound in this opening also contributes to the atmosphere, as the off key piano music sets an eerie tone, suggesting something is not right. The close up of the knife signifies it's importance, and indicates to the audience that it will be significant in the scene, again increasing their sense of fear. Due to the fact that the intruders face can't be seen, because of the point of view shot, the audience become even more edgy and fearful, due to the unknown identity. This also allows the viewer to create their own image in their head of what the intruder looks like. The mask the ''intruder'' puts on blocks the audience's view slightly, however this is effective, as it introduces an element of curiosity and makes them eager to see the full view. This opening scene includes an element of shock towards the end, as the image the viewer will have created in their head is completely different to who the intruder actually is - a child. The way in which the opening is filmed at the beginning of this clip will become very useful when we are producing our own piece, as the camera movement, being a point of view shot, is the kind of thing we are aiming to create, in order to demonstrate an tense atmosphere, and the feeling of being watched. This film is likely to be aimed at an older audience, due to the scale of gore in the opening scene, with the stabbing of the woman. The content is also quite disturbing, due to the fact that the killer is in fact a child, who people would usally assume to be innocent.

Opening Sequence of ''Ghost Ship''

This film is most likely aimed at an older audience, as the opening scene conatains quite gory content, which implies that as the film goes on, the content will become even more gory. The opening to this film is very effective in provoking fear in it's audience. It starts off with a calm and relaxed environment, with the characters slow dancing, and a woman singing a soft, slow and relaxing song. The use of titles is also effective in contributing to the relaxed tone, as the font is pink, connoting innocence. The scene suddenly changes, and things start happening on the ship without anyone touching anything, and the sound of the singing becomes distant, creating a sense of detachment, and changing the relaxed tone to a disconnected and disorientated tone. The fast camera movements also indicate that the relaxed mood has changed. The lingering close up of the wire with blood and flesh stuck to it magnifies the shock and horror the audience will be feeling at this time, and therefore exaggerating their fear. The lack of sound coming from the people, with a creaking sound in the background creates an eerie atmosphere, and a sense of abandonment. The screaming child at the end of the opening scene highlights her vulnerability and helplessness, as she is the only one left. The opening is extremely effective overall, mostly due to the juxtaposition of the tones included in the scene. We will include the unexpected element of this opening in our own if we feel the need, as it has an excellent shock effect on the audience.

The Opening Sequence of ''Blade''

This is the first opening sequence to a film of our chosen genre (horror) that I am going to analyse. 

The music in the opening of this film is loud and overpowering, maybe to create a sense of danger and an overwhelming atmosphere. The darkness and the use of flashing lights further contributes to this sense of danger and overpowering atmosphere, as the lack of sight indicates an element of the unknown and of danger.   The amount of people in the opening scene also develops a sense of claustrophobia, again creating a sense of danger, as the feeling of claustrophobia provokes peoples fears, therefore creating an effect on the audience. The use of titles is effective in terms of indicating which genre the film is, as the font is red, connoting danger, blood, fire etc. The red liquid spraying from the ceiling also projects these connotations to the audience. Overall it's an effective opening, as the use of sound and imagery clearly declares which genre the film is, and straight away has an effect on the audience by creating fear. The audience of this film is obviously an older audience, due to the fear contained in the opening sequence. I assume from the opening that it's aimed at teenagers, as the opening doesn't contain content that is too scary, and also the setting is a place in which teenagers might be seen. This film was in fact created from a low budget, proving that effective horror does not need money. This will give our group confidence and belief that we too can create effective horror when it comes to creating our piece. As a group, our chosen genre is teen horror, and therefore some of the content in this opening will be used as a useful reference for when we are planning our own opening. The immediate introduction of the horror genre is what we are aiming to do, in similarity to this opening .

Research Into Our Chosen Genre

I'm starting to analyse some opening scenes of our groups chosen genre, which is horror. Obviously there are various sub-genres to horror which I have found in my research to be teen horror, slasher, satanic, vampire, alien, evil children etc. I also discovered that the genre of horror is regularly crossed with other genres, the most popular being science-fiction. Horrors are designed to provoke our worst fears, but at the same time entertain us. A man called Tim Dirks published a quote on his website of films saying ''the best horror films only imply or suggest the horror in subtle ways. I also found out that the earliest horror films were gothic in style, and usually set in mansions or haunted castles. The characters generally included vampires, devils, ghosts, monsters, mad scientists etc. During my research, I also came across a list of notable horror film directors:
- Dario Argento
- John Carpenter
- Roger Corman
- Wes Craven
- David Cronenberg
- Tobe Hooper
- F.W. Murnall

Final Product

For a final product, my group members and I have thought about producing the opening to a horror movie. I already have some possible storylines/settings in mind, and am hoping to take photos once the snow clears and I can actually get to the locations!

Evaluation

As a whole, we were happy with what we produced as the final video for the coninuity task, as we believe that it covered every aspect that was required. However, there are a number of things we could have improved upon to inprove the quality of the video. For instance, in a number of places during the video, the camera was slightly shaky, which we did not intend. To avoid this from happening in our final piece, we will need to ensure that the camera is loose enough on the tripod to manouver, in order to produce a fluid tilt/pan. If this was still not possible, we will use the method of cutting between shots, instead of filming a continuious movement. This will avoid any shaky cam issues when filming a pan or tilt. Due to some comments we have recieved of our video, we are informed that there is a slight breaking of the 180 degree rule. In our final piece, we will ensure this rule is not broken, by fully revising the concept of the 180 degree rule, and practicing it further. We are also aware that the fade we used during the conversation between the two characters implies a passage of time, which we did not intend. This has been noted, and will not be used in our final piece if we do not intend to create the effect of the passage of time. The framing in our piece is an issue at times, as at one point the actors head is cut off slightly. Although this isn't a major problem, we will ensure that this does not happen in our final piece, in order to create a better overall effect. In terms of audio, there were points in which the sound wasn't very clear. In order to avoid this in our final piece, we will use edits such as cross fades to make the sound clearer, and flow more smoothly. We have also noticed the fact that the zooms in our video haven't come across as good, as on the cameras we are using the are often quite jerky, and therefore we will not be using zooms in our final piece unless it is absolutely necessary. Apart from these errors, we are happy with the effect our camera techniques and shots have created overall, and are therefore generally happy with our final piece. The errors we have made during this continuity task will be taken in to account, and practised, in order to avoid making the same mistakes in our final piece.

Continuity Task Final Video

This is our final video for the continuity task. Overall, we're happy with it. We've aimed to include all three of the criteria (180 degree rule, action match and shot reverse shot). We also aimed to make it more entertaining, and therefore decided to add music to the final piece. We had a lot of editing to do after the footage was shot, for example cuts and fades, but we managed to succeed in the end and achieve what we wanted.

Log Sheets and Hand Drawn Storyboard

In the next couple of days I will be scanning/photographing and uploading the evidence of my planning, including the log sheet and the storyboard. The log sheet helped a lot, due to the fact that when it came to editing, we immediately knew which clips we needed, and which ones were useless. This helped to speed up the process of editing, instead of having to go through each video and watch them separately. The storyboard was also a huge help when filming, as we knew exactly what shot came next.

Editing the Footage for the Continuity Task

We have just made edits to the footage we shot, and it's now rendering. If we find that any more edits need to be made, we will make them, and then render the footage again. The edits we made today include:
- cuts
- dissolves
- fades to black

Uploading Footage to the Media Server

We have just uploaded the second lot of footage to the media server, and have found from out log sheet that the following files have no use to us due to reasons such as actors laughing, wrong dialogue and wrong actions:
- file 0120
- file 0121
- file 0122
- file 0124
- file 0125
- file 0126
- file 0127
- file 0128
- file 0129
- file 0130
- file 0131
- file 0134
- file 0136

The majority of files were discarded due to bad acting, and had to make sure we shot the scene numerous times in order to achieve what we imagined the shot to be like.

Script

Script

Holly Embleton

Location: classroom, corridor, common room

Actors: Holly and Chloe

Camera woman: Hannah

School bell goes, pupils run down the stairs.

Holly walks down the corridor and opens a door into the classroom. (action match)

Holly walks across the classroom and sits down at a desk next to Chloe. (180 degree rule)

Chloe is in detention.

They begin talking. (shot reverse shot)

Holly: Hiya.

Chloe: Hi.

Holly: What are you doing here?

Chloe: I’m stuck in stupid detention.

Holly: Oh, well I’ll just wait for you in the common room then.

Holly walks out of the room and in to the common room and sits down.

She puts in her ipod. Camera zooms in on ipod, volume of music increases and then fades out.  

Production Schedule

Production Schedule

Week 1 (20^th October)

Book the camera on Friday 22^nd for week beginning 1^st November.

Begin basic planning.

Week 2 (27^th October)

Finish planning (location, actors etc.)

Week 3 (2^nd November)

Shooting over the full week.

Update blog.

Upload footage on to the media server by the end of the week.

Week 4 (9^th November)

Shoot version two.

Upload to the media server.

Edit the footage.

Complete and upload on to blog by the end of the week.

Week 5 (16^th November)

Present task, and evaluate.

Update blog.

Review of Shots

We have reviewed the shots we created last night, and have come to a desicion to film again, due to the fact that we are aiming for a high level and want to create a higher quality piece of video. We ticked the boxes in terms of what we needed to include, however we would like to extend our film, and therefore we are going to film on either Monday or Tuesday night. We found that file 103 is completely useless to us, as it wasn't how we imagined it to be. The actor, (me) started laughing, and also as the camera was filming the door it was very shaky, as we didn't use the tripod. The majority of the clips need improving, as the camera wasn't as steady as we wished it to be, due to the lack of the use of the tripod. On Monday/Tuesday we will aim to:
- use the tripod when appropriate
- include the three critera of the continuity task (action match, 180 degree rule, shot/reverse shot)
- we will have changed our script and production schedule slightly, as we are aiming to add more length to the clip, and more of a storyline, therefore we will need to choose another day to do more filming
- we will create an extended video with more conversation and a range of shots

Shooting

We successfully shot the footage for our continuity task last night, and are about to upload to clips on to the media server. If we find that we aren't happy with some of the shots, we will rearrange our production schedule and find another time to re-take our shots. However, if we are happy with what we have produced we will begin to edit them in order to produce a short clip displaying continuity skills.

Xtranormal Storyboard for Continuity Task

This is one of the storyboards we have created for this task. It only shows the conversation element to the continuity task, and demonstrates the use of shot reverse shot. We will also be creating a storyboard on paper to show the full duration of the clip, demonstrationg camera angles etc.

Planning

We are currently finishing off our planning, which includes the script, the storyboard and the production schedule. We have the storyboard left to do, which will be done on xtranormal.com. Tonight we will begin our shooting, and then load the footage on to the media server and proceed with editing the clips.

Our Final Video

This is the final version of our video. Overall, we're happy with it, however there are some continuity problems, and also other errors for example people in the background who weren't supposed to be in the shot. Also things like eye-level match and lighting were a problem. We also had problems with loacation, as it was hard to find a location that matched the script we had to base our video on. The wind also caused some sound problems, as the microphones on the camera we used was very sensitive and therefore picked up a lot of unwanted noise. We also had a little trouble with acting, as it took many takes to get the shot we were after. As for the continuity issues, we are hoping to eliminate those errors from our final piece by practising with a continuity task.

Shooting and Uploading

We successfully shot our footage using facilities in school, however we had a lot of takes and therefore whilst uploading the footage to the media server, we had to delete quite a lot of scenes. The reason we had so many different takes was because the actors we chose had trouble with keeping a straight and serious face whilst filming, so we had to film a particular scene many times in order to get the one we wanted. We've deleted all the takes we don't need, and we now have all of the footage we need uploaded onto 'the prisoner' on the media server, and we will edit the shots using the adobe premier software to make it flow into a movie.

My Storyboard

This is the storyboard I created for my movie. I chose to make it on a website called xtranormal.com. It was a simple website to use and I enjoyed making it. I was able to control the dialogue, camera angles, and body language of the characters. The storyboard will help to create an understanding of what we need as a group in our movie.

Movement Shots

Editing and labelling this video was much easier than the last one, as we knew how to do everything. We had a slight error when rendering, but we solved it by closing and reopening the software, and then it rendered successfully and we were able to upload our final video.

Still Shots

This is our video of still shots. We had a lot of problems with the software at first, we couldn't get the hang of labelling or editing, but we did eventually. However, the computer and the software kept freezing, which made it quite difficult, and wasted a lot of time. We managed to get there in the end though. Hopefully we'll have better luck with the movement shots!

Editing and Rendering

Finally finished editing our still shots, after a lot of stress cause by the software, and the computers. We didn't know how to do anything at first, but we finally got the hang of labelling and editing, and have now finished editing our still shots. They're currently being left to render, and once they're finished we'll move on to movement shots. Hopefully we'll have more luck with the software this time!

Edits

On Tuesday, we edited the clips we produced outside, which included extreme long shot, medium long shot, long shot, mid shot, close up, extreme close up, high angle, low angle, etc. It was difficult at first when I didn't know how to do certain things or what certain buttons did, but once I got used to the software it was simple. As a group we edited the length of our clips, and also added special effects to make the clips flow together.

Opening Scene to My Movie.

Steve and Dave are studying in their free period at University. Steve is updating his hard-drive, and Dave is thinking of ways to distract him, and steal the hard-drive he wants. Along comes Sally, a perfect distraction for Steve, considering a girl has never properly talked to him before. Steve is taken by suprise when she asks him out on a date, and Dave sees it as a perfect opportunity to steal the hard-drive, now that Steve has an excuse to leave it unguarded.

My Movie Pitch

Genre - geek chic

Steve and Dave are both geeks. Steve has the hard-drive that Dave wants, but Steve loses it whilst on his first date, and they both must find it again, as it contains the information on how to contact aliens in further galaxies.