Coursework feedback

Research and Planning – 8

Research and planning is partially incomplete, however there is proficient research into similar products. This is let down by no research into potential target audiences. There is virtually no organisation of actors/locations etc, but there is a risk assessment and some excellent research into conventions of the genre. There is a film pitch which is proficient, but no storyboard or script. There is clearly some good work here, but it is limited.

Main Task – 35

Many technical skills are shown, but generally at a basic level. The film is appropriate for the task on the whole, but elements like the continuous music at the start to make it feel a little like a trailer. Although the shots are well framed and there is some use of camera movement like pans, there is little variety in camera shots, and many shots go on for a long time on a wide, meaning that it looks dull and lacks the depth of a film with sophisticated sequences built up. The narrative is clear through the use of camera/editing, but again it skims over the plot. There are times when the continuity doesn’t work, and a few sound issues with dialogue being cut off when run under different shots. There is good use of shot – reverse shot and a good use of after effects to create a ‘CCTV’ feel.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media products and why?

The kind of institution that would want to distribute my film would be by the likes of Warner Bros.
Warner bros are known for making films in similiar genre's to mine a long with other genre's.
The highest grossing horror film in 2014 was 'Annabelle', this was distributed by Warner Bros.
They grossed $84,263,837 by December 2014.
Distributes by Warner Bros however produced by New Line Cinema, Evergreen Media Group, The Safran Company and RatPac-Dune Entertainment. This is a classic example of what would happen if my film were to be distributes. Warner Bros would distribute my film from my production company, Vortex Productions.
Warner Bros would distribute my film as most horror-thriller films are very similar and although mine is quite similar, it has its own unique factors. Because of the massive success of Annabelle and other films they have distributed, mine would be more or just as successful. So companies like Warner Bros are the likely institutions to distribute my media product.

My media product is similar to Annabelle and other popular horror/thriller films as we have incorporated lots of different conventions into our film. These include having the mysteriousness of the unknown character but also the amount of deaths and the gore within the film. This can be similarly associated with various other popularly distributes films. This means that institutions such as Warner Bros will have full confidence in my media product by becoming successful and gaining a lot of money by getting a high gross amount.

Look back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

My opening sequence

How did you attract/address your audience?

The film is set in a familiar environment to the teenagers/young adults attracting them to the film. They've experienced recently or are still experiencing high school so it makes them slightly scared to see this normal girl, just like them, be involved in violence, deaths and shows they could be stalked/blackmailed too. They relate to the character because she is the same age as them, and most of the audience will be females, so this could lead to them sympathising for her and becoming worried about how this could happen to them. The music in the opening of the film is similar to most older thrillers which doesn't really relate to our target audience, but it creates tension by the alternating notes and the music getting gradually louder. To advertise to my audience i would use social media marketing e.g Facebook, twitter, tumblr to attract the right audience, whom spend a lot of their time on these social media networking websites.

I attracted my audience for my film through various different area's within the film such as the characters used, the theme of the film itself and the topics which have been covered.
The characters used are stereotypical in horror-thriller films. Our main character, the protagonist is a teenage girl. In many other horror-thriller films the female character is often a main character who does end up dying in some way or another. I think this attracts our audience as this appeals to the  horror-thriller film audience by the use of this character. I think because the character in our film does actually end up surviving and with some sort of happy ending, this sort of is a unique selling point as not many horror-thriller films have this sort of ending however I think because of the nature of the film, although she survives people still die which obviously, horror-thriller fans love to see but the fact that she survives and finds out who the character is gives our film an edge over other films therefore attracting our audience in which we aimed to attract.
We also attracted our audience through the topics of our film. The film I produced is about a girl who has a stalker who is watching her every move, murdering those around her and leaving her by last by scaring her. Which leads to her finding out who it is. The topics therefore include being stalked by a mysterious character who nobody knows who it is all film as it could be anyone, even one of her closest friends. The aspect of mystery appeals to most audiences who love the thriller genre and more particularly the mystery thriller aspect with the addition of the horror genre. So the audience we aimed at will find our storyline and topics involved very interesting and more attracted to watching our film.
I also think the name of our film attracts the audience. The name of our film is 'Shadow'.
The use of the word shadow appeals to our targeted audience as the word shadow itself gives the impression of being followed and constantly behind you watching every move which is our storyline. I think this is thought out cleverly as with a bit of thought our story can be mirrored by the name of our film. Shadow itself can be scary and with that aspect of horror and thriller through the name it particularly does attract our audience we aimed at.
Although our film is very much unique with our stalker being found out, it can also be similar to other successful films in different aspects of what we included.
One aspect may be by the use of pov shots. This is very similar to the film 'Halloween' as the opening is purely a pov shot which gives the audience the suggestion that they are watching the film through someone elses eyes which gives the audience that interaction within our film which may also attract them.
Another film that is similar in some aspects is 'Hide and Seek'. This is not really about a stalker as such but the mysterious character in that film is not unveiled until the end where he is shot dead which is very similar to ours as our antagonistic mysterious character unveiled and also killed at the end. Both of which are not shown on screen (knowing of them being that mysterious character) until the very end.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

I think the main age range that our film is aimed for is older teenagers/younger adults. This is because its main character is a teenager, and most of the other characters are aswell. Also, the rating of the film is a 15, due to gore and violence throughout the film, supporting the target audience being older teenagers/younger adults.  It is also based around her school life making it more relatable to teenagers. I think our film is aimed at mostly females, because the main characters and her friends are mostly female also. I don't think our film is aimed at a specific class of people as all classes will be able to relate to the high school setting and main character.

The audience for my film is the thriller/horror film lover.
Not just that but also the audience age range is between 25-39 meaning we are targeting the young adults/middle aged audience. The use of younger characters however does add to the target audience of teenagers, preferably the older teenagers between the ages of 16-19 due to the graphic images which are in our film.
Additionally in their lifestyle, their favourite sports are mainly boxing and snooker. Boxing for example can be a very violent sport meaning blood can be the end result and can be gory. Therefore because are film is about the violence and the killing of close friends/relatives the fact our audiences favourite sport is boxing helps aid to the fact we know they will like the film.
Also one of their favourite activities is video games. Video games in particular nowadays have amazing graphics and with the violent games out now shows they love the gore and violence meaning they should be attracted to my film.

The personality of our target audiencesThe majority of our target audience describe themselves as 'Barmy', 'Easy to talk to' and 'Barmy'.
This shows that they are crazy people who love to have a laugh and love conversation. The fact that our film is a very crazy, all over the place thriller/horror adds to the attraction to our film.

What our target audience likes
- The fact our target audiences favourite films include; Final Destination, Nightmare on elm street and The exorcist. This shows they love the horror and the blood and the gore which is all included in our film meaning they would be very much attracted to my film.
Our target audience are varied people but have clear tastes and likes which we incorporate in our film. E.g. Boxing which shows violence which is also showed within our film. This shows that our film has the likes and wants that the audience want in these films meaning they would like to watch our film therefore our audience is clear and would have been achieved as our target audience.

Risk Assessment Task 10

What is a risk assessment?

A risk assessment is a process of evaluating the potential risks that may be involved in a projected activity or undertaking. It’s a big step in protecting workers and business as well as following the law. For most, this means simple, cheap and effective measures to ensure your workforce is protected. Risk assessment in the film industry complies with their legal duties to eliminate or reduce risk from their work. These include: 
Defining responsibilities and duties
Having a system for managing health and safety
Assessing and manage risks and
Regularly review the process and procedures for managing risk.


Why have a risk assessment?

If an incident should occur on set of making your film that leaves someone that you have working for you injured mentally or physically it can mean that you could personally be fined or even potentially go to prison because of it! Where as if you have a risk assessment in means that you have taken into consideration everything that could go wrong and write up how you would plan to resolve them so that no one got injured.

Who uses a risk assessment?

The producer is the main person to use a risk assessment as they are the ones who actually produce it. They use it to analyse the risks that may occur within the filming of the film.

Risk Assessment

Hazards:
Slips and Trips
Road

Who might be harmed and how?

Actors and crew may be injured if they trip over objects or slip on spillages
Actors and crew might slip and fall into the road

What to do to manage the risk?

Be careful with spillages and keep wires and objects out of the way to reduce the risk of tripping over.
Stay away from the edge of the path and avoid any objects that you could trip over

Feedback - Miss Spencer

Your conventions of thriller work follows the sme format as the horror work, again I would like to see some specific examples along with a look at the history of the genre. AS this is the genre you are working on I would also like you to connect this to your own work.
Level 2/3 border.

Conventions of the Thriller Genre Task 2.2

A thriller usually consists of a battle between the protagonist character and the antagonist when there is a disruption in the equilibrium. Then the story shows a chain of bad events building tension and suspense for the climax. The aim of the protagonist is to restore justice, while the antagonist seeks to destroy it. Thriller films usually include:

- low key lighting

- shadows
- tension music - building up
- diegetic sound of breathing
- quick/jump cuts
- black and white shots
- montage shots
- close ups
- silhouette
- cross-cutting
- dark clothing
- excitement

- investigation
- violence
- public services - police, army, government
- secretive

The protagonist is often a brave male an the antagonist will have a hidden identity that the audience uncovers as the film progresses. The storyline will be designed so that the audience will think that the events could possible happen to them making them more scared.

Feedback - Miss Spencer

Your conventions work shows promise. You have clearly understood manyof the conventions. However to take this above a level 2 I would like to see some look at the history of the genre, and some examples of this and the conventions.

Your pitch also shows promise. It does seem to fit into the thriller genre, but ensure that there are many conventions within the opening, including your characterisation, setting etc.

Film Pitch - Shadow Task 4

A teenage girl called Mollie is being threatened and followed by an anonymous stalker, who knows all of her deepest secrets. She receives constant text messages, emails and notes manipulating her into doing things to hurt her family, friends and herself. If she doesnt obey this mysterious sender, her loved ones will die. At the same time of doing as shes told, she is investigating who this could be tormenting her and why they are after her.

The whole film is a complete mystery as you dont discover who the stalker is till the very end. This will create a lot of tension throughout the film because you will be suspecting everyone who interacts with the main character. The constant secrecy makes the audience feel on edge as they cant trust any of the characters.

The main character is called Mollie and she is a 16 year old girl. She is a student at sixth form. She is seen as a vulnerable character at the beginning of the film as she gets easily scared and paranoid about this mysterious stalker. But as the film develops she grows into a strong, confident and fiery character as she has to strengthen herself to deal with these threats and messages. If I could choose any director to direct our film, it would be Drew Goddard. He is famous for directing the horror/thriller Cabin In The Woods and has written thrillers like World War Z and Cloverfield. The ideal actress to play our main character Mollie is Amanda Seyfried. I think she will be perfect for this role because she is an actress that usually plays innocent characters which is how we want to portray Mollie in the film. The only difference with the role that I would want Amanda Seyfried to play is the fact of being innocent in the beginning but completely changing how the character acts throughout the film as in the beginning she is all sweet and innocent but gradually progressing through the film she become fiery and determined to catch the culprit behind the stalking's and murders of her close family and friends.

The typical conventions of a thriller film that we plan to use are point of view, deaths, gore and CCTV shots. Point of view shots connote that someone is being secretive and hiding something, in this case they are hiding their identity from the audience. CCTV shots also support the fact that the main character is being watched and spied on. The deaths and gore wont be in the opening of our film, but if we were to film the whole of it it would include these conventions. Furthermore, the use of the pov shots and the over the shoulder shots help show to the audience that they are seeing everything from potentially, the stalker/killers pov which can help create tension as the audience can tell what is about to happen whereas the characters in the film do not so clear conventions of horror/thriller are to be shown throughout.

Function of Opening Sequences Task 2.1

An opening sequence rarely has much happening in dramatic terms, so the job of the opening sequence is to establish:

• Character and/or setting - establishing shot for setting and introducing a character through an action/dialogue
• Narrative context - storyline of film
• Enigma or mystery - suspense and foreshadowing

For example, in the opening sequence of Jaws, there is an establishing shot showing the audience that the scene is by the coast. It also introduces the sort of characters that will be involved in the film - young teenagers. The storyline is also shown in the beginning of the film as Chrissie is attacked by some sort of sea monster and killed, foreshadowing the film is about deaths and this mysterious creature. Normally dramatic things dont really happen in the beginning of a film, but this death really shocks the viewers and gets them prepared for the rest of the film.

Conventions of a Horror Film Task 2.2

Conventions of a horror film:

• point of view shot
• long shots
• supernatural
• children
• blood and gore
• deaths
• stalkers
• violence
• abandoned house
• woods
• tense music
• fast editing
• dark
  
• weapons
• black and red
• masks
• blue filter
• cliffhanger
• villian/antagonist
• hero
• revenge

A genre is essentially the type of film, The various aspects of a film decide which genre the film is. Some films can fall into more than one category e.g Horror/Comedy, Horror/Thriller. Horror films are designed to frighten and to invoke our hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale, while cpativating and entertaining us at the same time in a cathartic experience. Horror films feature a wide range of styles, from the earliest silent Nosferatu classic, to todays CGI monsters and deranged humans.

Typical Settings, Iconography, Characterisation and Themes:

• abandoned house, the woods, after dark, old buildings 
• knives, colours (black and red), masks, blue filter
• evil character, damsel in distress, hero, sidekick
• mental illness, revenge, religious belief

Feedback - Miss Spencer

Well done Jodie, you have made a good start to your coursework blog. As well as the analysis you have added other posts that enrich your research evidence, like the opening sequence post. At the moment this work is at a level 2/3 border, and in order to improve you should think about these suggestions:  

• If you comment of an element, then make sure you also discuss the effect on the audience and whether or not it is a typical convention of the genre.
• Remember DISTINCT, (Don't Ignore, Setting, Technical Code, Iconography, Narrative, Characterisation, Theme) Ensure you cover all of these areas in each analysis.
• Embed the film opening in each of your analysis and a variety of screen shots throughout all of your analysis.
• Ensure each post is using the same font
• Can you delete the empty posts and only put them up when you are ready to write them?

Maze Runner - Thriller Analysis Task 2.1

The film starts off with complete darkness but the sounds of machinery and clanking is getting louder. This leaves a lot of mystery straight away as you can hear that something is going on but cant see anything. After a few seconds light emerges and you can see industrial lights through a cage and them moving past, showing that this cage is going up like a lift. A male figure appears and is coughing violently and looking around. This shows he may have been harmed or someone might of done something to him to get him to go into the cage, suggesting he is in danger.

He is looking around the cage and around him showing he is completely clueless and doesnt know what is going on around him.He opens some sort of crate and something starts squealing at him making the character jump. None of this really makes sense at this point, because not even the character knows whats going on and we are not given any background information about the setting or the situation.

He starts screaming 'Help Me' because of his fear for the squealing animal who he is trapped with. He is also scared because he doesnt know what is going on, and you find out later on that he doesnt remember anything, not even his name, so he is completely confused and scared. The cage is approaching a red light which makes the boy panic even further, seeing there is an end to where the lift goes. Red connotes danger and violence, foreshadowing future events in the film. When the lift comes to a halt, the red light then turns green telling the lift to continue going upwards. The screen then flicks to being black again, showing the mystery as the audience doesn't know whats happening. The young male is panting because of him panicking but eventually he starts to breathe at a normal pace, meaning you can barely hear anything.

Suddenly, some gates open above the lift, letting in the sunlight, temporarily blinding the man. The camera is at a high angle, making the young male look vulnerable. He covers his eyes with his arm as the light is shining directly on him foreshadowing he could be the hero of the film. The next shot is a low one, from the males point of view. He is looking up through the cage and there are silhouettes of men looking down at him. This could suggest they are more dominant than him and they are looking down on him, showing more experience.

Hansel and Gretel - Horror Analysis

Hansel and Gretel

At the beginning of the film, the music consists of low, sustained notes creating the feeling of darkness and evil. Gradually a quiet beat comes into the non-diegetic music. This can show that tension in the film is building like the music is also building. Also high pitched sounds are introduced into the music which makes the music sound scary. The first clip is a shot of a dark sky and the moon in one corner. It quickly pans vertically, giving a high shot of some trees and then homing in on a house.

 Crickets can be heard which connotes it is set in countryside and could possibly be in the summer. Also crows can be heard and crows are normally associated with evil. Still panning, we follow a silhouette up the path to a house whom is holding a light source to guide his way. The shot jumps into the next and the man has now walked into a dimly lit, small house. A middle-aged woman is looking out the curtain when the man walks in, and jumps away quickly in surprise when he walks in. 

She has a very serious expression on her face which could show she isnt very happy to see him or something bad is happening. The furniture around the small house is quite worn which could suggest the owner doesnt have much money and has to do with what they can get. The next shot is a straightforward shot and its of the two peoples shadows talking to each other. This is where dialogue is first used and she uses command words such as 'take' and 'now' to the man. This could show she is the dominant character between the two as she is taking control. 

Red Dragon - Thriller Analysis

Red Dragon

At the beginning of the sequence, an orchestra is playing. This is a diegetic sound, which means that the music is part of the film and all the characters can hear it. The lighting is very bright on the orchestra showing that they are the main object of the night but it dims when you see the main character in the audience suggesting he is a dark character and that he is evil. The setting of the orchestra concert shows the audience that all of the audience, including the main character, are very wealthy and in the upper class

A close up of the main character Lecter shows that he is almost wincing at the music being played by a musician which could suggest he is a very judgemental character and isn’t very friendly. This shows his annoyance with this musician, immediately saying he doesn't like him. The scene fades in from black after the credit titles and an establishing shot can be seen to show the audience where the opening scene is set.

The pace of the camera shots is quite fast when watching the orchestra play because it matches the fast pace of the music and the movements of the orchestra. But when it zooms from in front of the conductor and behind him to a specific person in the audience the pace is very slow.

This is to emphasise the characters importance in the film and almost compares him to an animal. When an animal is hunting for its prey, its slow and steady like its waiting for the right moment. This suggests that Lecter is doing the same thing – that he is checking out what to have next and is thoughtful about how to carry out his plan.

When the scene changes to the big house, the orchestral music stops completely to show that the show has ended and you can hear Lecter talking very calmly before you see the inside of the house. This is where the dialogue starts between the characters who are all sitting around a dinner table suggesting it is in the evening.

The costumes the characters are wearing connote that the characters are wealthy and like to afford nice things.The golden lighting of the dining room also connotes wealth and royalty and the flames around and on the table could connote evil. The change of scene from the theatre to the house is very fast paced, it happens almost suddenly to show the quick change and how quickly the characters are moving on.

Lecter is shown as the dominant character as he is standing up around the dining table whereas the rest of the characters are sitting down.  The camera follows Lecter around the table while he is pouring the wine and goes over the 180 degree line to the other side while following him.

Feedback - Miss Spencer

An good prelim task Jodie, however your evaluation could do with being better organised and a little more detailed.
Can you split the writing up under headings (use the questions in the evaluation)
I would like a little more reflection on what you did well, as well as what didn't work.
Can you also give specific examples of the the new software you have learnt about. EG what functions on Adobe Premier worked well for you.

Thanks

Preliminary Task - Evaluation

In film, the 180-degree rule is an essential guideline respecting the on screen dimensional relationship between a character and another character or object within a scene.  We used this rule in our preliminary task by sticking to the one side of the character, even though it didn't matter too much as there was only one character in shot at one time. Matching on action refers to video editing styles where the editor cuts from one shot to another aspect that matches the first shots action. We used a match on action at the beginning of our preliminary task where a note is passed through the car window to the young man.

The filmmaking went very well as we got all the shots we needed and wanted to edit together to make the film. It was a bit difficult to film in college because it was a very busy and noisy but we tried to use the quietest places we could. It took us a while to grasp hold of how to use Adobe Premiere but when we learnt how to use it, we put the film together quite quickly.We added music which was very low and had sustained notes which made it sound very negative and scary. The musics tempo then built up as the young man speaks on the phone to the other young man.

If we could do this film again, we would add in some transitions between camera shots so it blends together better and we would add in titles. I think we used the 180 degree rule and the match on action shot well and the music fitted in with the genre of the short film.