Main Task

Preliminary Task

Evaluation Question 7: Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task What Do You Feel You Have Learnt In Progression From It To The Full Product?

Through completing our Priliminary task, we all have learnt a lot of vital skills since doing so, which have then helped us in our Main Task. Before we started our Priliminary task, most of us were not aware or familiar with the equipment that we had to use. So before we actually got to work, we decided to have a test run before hand to get us used to the features and technical aspects of the camera in hand.

Before we started our title sequence we were given the Genre that we had to create in our sequences. After being given the news of the genre Horror we sat down as a group and shared our ideas professionally. Working in a group I think has helped us all in different ways. Some maybe for the guidences and other the reassurance that they are learning and beng independent with the facilities we were using. We were all playing with our strenghths to help eachother with their weaknesses, this got us very far and progressivly got us to where we are today, with an amazing final piece.

From the Prliminary to the Main task this whole experience has taught me the importance of PLANNING. Planning before hand prevents time wasting and also allows you to be more imagitative with the ideology that you want to put across.

Our filming always went really well as I feel we worked well as a team as we all took turns in most activities. The locations in which we decided to use were

Priliminary Task - We stayed in the College's grounds as it was a goof real life setting to use.
Main Task - We used a bedroom in Sophie's house, which we thought complimented our style of filming. The dark shadows in teh corners really helped with the effect we wanted to portray. Also we used and empty playing field and park, this enabled us to represent her childhood.

In our main task we used continuity editing. This allowed is to represent the unstableness of a young girls mind and how her re-occuring memories are effecting her sanity. By using continuty editing we have created the increasing pace of the opening sequence and hopefully have put our message across to the audience. The shots in the bedroom were filmed in night mode which enhanced the effect we wanted to portray even more the 'gothic eerie effect'

The editing process took us much longer than we all anticipated. This is due to teh fact that we were all so pleased with the shots that we had captured that we wanted to spend a lot of time and effort choosing the right shots to use. Our group dicussions always worked out to our advantage as our opening was slower to begin with, But as a group we all thought that the pace did not create the tension that we wanted. In order for the audience not to loose interset we decided to increase the pace, which to this day we all feel that it was the right move to make. As we got nearer to the end of finishing our final piece, we felt it was lacking abit in effects so we decided to add some into our piece. We were very carful to which effects we decided to incorperate into our shot film because we didnt want the final outcome to look tacky. We really wanted the effects in the shots to signify and suggest how the character is feeling and her emotions. How her past is taking over her present and future and soon to be her mind.

Overall through the course of two projects, I feel my ability to use the equipment and programmes have really improved and I can see a substantial difference between my ability in the Preliminary task to the Main task. Both projects have really helped me to understand the different forms and conventions that are needed to be used to mae an effective piece like ours. I am very pleased with the whole expereince and I am very proud of myself and my group members. Overall I am very happy with the final outcome!

Evaluation Question 6: What Have You Learnt About Technologies From Process Of Constructing This Piece?

Through out the process of making our film I have come across various Programme and Technologies that I have never come across before.

- Digital Camera recording
- Main editing programme - Adobe Premier Pro
- Also the shots had to be logged.
- Blooger.com

After finishing our final piece I am now confident with hand held camera's and the technical aspects to make a great film. For exaple all the different shots we were able to incorperate by putting the camera on tripod to help with the tilt. Also the panning of a shot which enabled us to reveal a lot of senery. I feel very happy with what I have learnt by using the camera in our main task, as I was unable to use the camera in our Priliminary task because I was acting alongside Johnny. I feel I am confident with using a camera now and how to use them professionally.

To edit our main task, we used a programme called Adobe Premier Pro. I have had no previuos recolation with this, apart from a brief encounter I the Priliminary task with our short film. Here is a screenshot of the programme we used. Use the link below.
http://heavenmetal.com/images/adobe_premiere_pro.jpg

The logging of the shots required a Firewire. This enabled us to log the shots of our footage onto the Programme. I didnt have much of an imput with the logging in teh main task, however i've had previous experience in our Priliminary task with logging the shots of our short film.

We all agreed before hand to plan what we wanted to do in the order that we wanted to do it in. This helped us work more like a team and by working together it has really showed me the importance of respecting eachother and having an equal imput. Due to our planning before hand we had a clear picture in our minds of how we wanted our main task to be like, and with the preperation before hand it enabled us to have a lot more time capturing and logging our footage, because we were not rallying around not knowing what to do next.

I've also come into contact with www.blogger.com. This was very new to me. I like the fact that we had to logg everything we have done within our main task in detail, because this programme compliments all the technological devices inwhich we have used. By writing and evaluation on a blog really does finish our main task off. I am now a very confident user of Blogger.com and I find it very easy to use. I can now confidently embed images off of 'Youtube' and also add photos.

Previously due to my lack of experince with computers, I am now confident with particualr computing programme because of the excessive use which I am pleased!

Evaluation Question 5: How Would You Attract/Address Your Audience?

I feel this question leads back to question 3 as in the distribution and exhibition of a film. From showing and presenting a new upcoming film well, then you'll have a lot of the audience on your side and egar to watch the film. After completing our film we then needed to decide on how we were going to market it to attract our target audience.

A marketing campaign can ensure the awarness a film holds on its audience. This can encourage them to go and watch the film at the cinema if they see an advertisment time and time again, which would hopfully egage their attention to wanting to know what happens and how the film ends.

By boosting awaness of a new upcoming film their are varies marketing techniques that can be used for a film:
Poster
Trailers on Tv and in the cinema when watching a different film.
Billboards
On the side of busses
E-mails - Details of new upcoming films etc
Friends.

I think one of the most important techniques to the marketing world is to impress and intrigue someone so much that they go and tell their friends and relatives about a specific film. I think this holds one of the most strongest roles in marketing a film today. This is what I would like to happen to our film. I want the Trailer to appeal to someone so much that they tell all of their friends about it as our film is most appealing to the student/younger worker audience. However to target a whole nation for example we need to target a different area to inform people. I think the internet would be our best option as thousands of young people spend a lot of their time on there. We could place advertisments on websites such as facebook and other social networking sites that are widely used. This will help boost the coverage.

Another eligable marketing campaign used nowadays is the Tie-in campaign. This can be found as very successful.
A Tie-in is where a certain brand or competition is used to link with the film being advertised. For example when Sex and the City was being released, Warner Bros teamed up with Galaxy Chocolate to promote the film and it will support the launch of the film and will also drive customers to purchase.
Their prizes included seven indulgent trips to New York and 200 pairs of fabulous shoes. To also encourage women to go and watch Sex and the City the gold foil on the Galaxy 150g bar was replaced by a "typically female, hot pink colour" The colour matches the Sex and the City logos and was an incentive to buy as they stood out in a shop. This promotion was only on for eight weeks which meant a lot of people going out and buying the galaxy bar in hope that they would win.

Every family household in the UK alone has atleast one TV, where its a great place to advertise a new film. However due to the Horror Genre of our film we would have to take in mind the certificate of our film and the time in which we would show the trailer on Television because of young children at home. Our film would be advertised after the national cathment time of 9:00pm in the evening.

To conlude I feel these methods of attracting and addressing our audience would work really well in getting their attention and enticing them to want to watch our film

Evaluation Question 4: Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?

Before making our title sequence, we agreed as a group who would be deciding the audience for our film. I think in the end we decided to leave it down to the demographics of the film to decide for us. A demographic is a particular segment of a wider audience which are mainly based on a viewers Age, Gender, Status or Income, Race/Ethinicity and Location.

To help define the demographics codes are used, these are as follows:
A= Top Management, Doctors, Lawyers and professionals
B= Middle management, Teachers, Graphic designers etc
C1= Office supervisors, Junior Managers, Nurses and Clerical staff
C2= Skilled workers, Tradeworkers (white collar)
D= Semi Skilled and unskilled manual work (blue collar)
E= Unemployed, Students, Pensioners, Casual workers.

From educating myself with this system, I think our opening title sequnece suits best in both catagory B and C1.
The Norm is for Horror films to usually appeal to Teenagers especially teenage boys. However I think that our film is more stylized for a female sophiesticated audience. This film is definlatley for the more mature teenagers/adults as the ideology can maybe scare or offend younger teenagers judgement towards violence, torture and unhappiness.

Catagory C1 I think the audience can relate to the film the most as I think they can connect on different level. They've left school or college and have entered into a entirly different world of realism. More specifically I honestly think the age group/or catagory could aim towards the middle or working classes of 16-25 years olds. This is a responsible age group I think to introduce our film to. Hopefully this catagory of audience will feel that our film appeals to them the most and that it will engage them into wanting to know more and even buying the film afterwards. (Leading back to question 3)

Evaluation Question 3: What Kind Of Media Intitution Might Distribute Your Media Product And Why?

To best suit our film and convince us into releasing our film into the Mainstream Film Industry, we would need to have a well respected film distributor. The only way I think that we could decide on a distributor is to look over the individual films that each have released. This way we could have an accurate judgement on which distributor our film suits best. Throughout the whole of the UK some of the biggest distributors ive researched include:
20th Century Fox
Paramount
Warner Bros and
(MGM) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

However along side these huge companies there are many smaller distributors that have released many well known and recognised smaller films. Such as:
Blue Dolphin Films and
Axiom Films

The film industry consists of the technological and also the commercial institutions where the likes of distribution comes in. The Film Industry of filmmaking consists of these technical easpects:
Film Production Companies
Film Studios
Cinematography
Film Production
Screenwriting
Pre-Production
Post Production and
Distribution

After researching the Distribution has the role of pursuading exhibitors to show the film being distributed. This is done by holding screening for the film being distributed and also showing the exhibitors the plan for the marketing scheme, this is intended to show the exhibitor that the film is very capable of making a profit.
After doing some research of the types of films that different distributors have released I think our film would definalty suit a bigger wellknown company.
Here is some of the research I have found on teh distributor and the films released or are due to be released:

Warner Bros: Sex and the City - May 27th 2010
Valentines Day - February 14th 2010
Nighmare on Elm Street 2010 - 7th May 2010

20th Century Fox: From Hell - 19th October 2001
Omen - 06/06/2006
The Hills Have Eyes - 10th March 2006
Taken - 30th January 2009

MGM - Jeepers Creepers 2 - 29th August 2005
Black Christmas - 25th December 2006
1408 - 22nd June 2007

The bigger the company the higher the chamces are of sealing and securing bigger deals. Which means for our film the distribution it deserves and profit hopefully on top og that.
The next step in which we would have to take in our decision to release our film is to find a large distribution Company that has had success in the past with Horror Genre films.

Due to some Primary research I have come to the conclusion that 20th Century Fox would be the best film distributor for our film as it best fits the genre that we disire our Distributor to be familiar with. Films sich as The Omen and The Hills Have Eyes; both these films have similar trates which relate to the themes produced in our opening title sequence. 20th Century Fox is professional in the way they handle their distribution, they are highly respected both Nationally and Internationally.

Evaluation Question 2: How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

In our opening title sequence, it is very clear from the start that there is only one character/actress in the sequence. She is an attractive young female who's very seductive with the way in which she moves. From this the young girl can hook and invite the audience to go through a journey with journey with her in a mysterious and disturbing manner. The views on the sequence and the ideas that it gives are that women are sexual objects and gives the sense of over powerness as there are no men. That women in their right mind should be desired. The young girl is dressed in very bold and expressive clothing.
The white dress that she wears suggests the purity of her youth and I think expresses her naivety and being easily influenced (possessed). The other dress represents her childhood and proves that she is still intouch with it due to the contemporary patterned style.
Even though the actress is acting very seductivly and sexual her facial expressions counteract with her body language. This contradicts the illusion of her being vain and flirtatious. This then I think challenges the ideas, values and beliefs that all women are seductive and alluring towards the opposite sex.
Our actress had the common ideology of a typical dumb blonde and unable to think for herself, with her blonde hair and nice features. This suggests that women are easily influenced and naive which indicates them as to being the victim all the time. In some shots the Ideology of the typical dumb blonde is challenged as she is portrayed as strong in some shots. The two moods of feeling strong and then weak and possessed, suggests a hidden side to her.
Our actress seems to be quite content with being my herself, however the audience may see her as being alone a lot and secluded, however not so much of an Emo. Through-out our title sequence the viewers can see a lot of visual anger and anxiety. The shots we have produced of the deformed and tortured baby, mirror the unhappy and and tortured childhood she may have had. She is presented as very troubled through the ideology she presents and can come acrosss to most people someone they can relate to on different levels of emotion.

Evaluation Question 1 - In what ways does your Media Production use, develope and challenge forms and conventions of real Media Products?

The final outcome of our film was designed andexpected to be professional, a product that could sucessfully progress into Mainstream Film Industry.

I researched the standard format of a horror genre's opening title's and found we were well established thoughout the whole film industry into the context of a standard horror opening. A definate impact was recognised from our own experiences of horror films dur to our own personal preference. My group and I had an idea for a stalker like film which we though was appropriate to the horror film climate the resources we used were (e.g. Scream, One Hour Photo, and Fatal Attraction)
However due to the investigation and integraty of the downhill of recent popluar releases lacking this theme, my group and I therefore decided to change our ideas towards a more supernatural/paranormal direction with the realeses of 'Drag Me To Hell' 'The Unborn' and 'Nightmare on Elm Street 2010' The plot of these new releases all have the supernatural/paranormal element we want to maintain and include in our premise.

At this point we were inticed and the introduction of the 'Cursed' element was reinforced as a more tandemic route which we thought suited to our premise.

'Hitchcock' inspired us with the ides of a continuous shot for our opening title, such as 'Rope' and 'Touch of Evil' Both films give the notion of a continuous shot taking place which also places the action in realtime.
Our final outcome of our premise was built upon a one shot constant focus on a singular figure. W e wanted this to build tension with the continuation of one constant shot much like 'Rope' and 'Touch of Evil'
It's very easy with our premise to produce an agressive opening title from due to the sucession of shots and jump cuts that are being used, and thid could have formed a premise much like 'Dawn of the Dead'
With our shots, we've managed to sway away from aggression which could have easily happened when we interelated our shots together.

Textual Analysis of 'Suspiria' 1977

The film 'Suspiria' came to my attention when i did some research through horror music. The non-diegetic use of the voice over is in tandem with a percussionist, which gives it the dream like effect and the music is a visage to the narrative format which creates a fairytale facade to this film. The odd framing choices can be simultaneously linked with the constant lullaby we hear. The camera is clearly decending from a crane which gives the audience a sense of authority because of the posision the camera is in, to give them the sense of freedom and space due to the smooth pan across the screen. However the framing of the people on the screen is some what awkward due to the really high cutoff which is below their shoulders.

Textual Analysis of Candyman Opening Titles. Main Task

'Candyman' is a 1992 horror film which is based on the idea of re-constituted urbanlegends and their realization in a contemporary reality.
The of the first things that cuaght my eye about the opening titles was the use of one continuous shot. Instead of using quick cuts and fades to empathise tension, the films reality is of the constant pace of the tracking of the camera
is a reasonable device to build its own tension through the constant tracking and being coupled with a dramatic change.

The icongraphy of the slow car moving is suggested although we are not even in a car the longvity of the grey mass which is laid out in front of us is very duanting, maybe more so to being an English audience due to the volume of the road presented. Suggestivly and subconsciously a road will represent a journey taken. The journey the audience are forced along in 'Candyman' is elegant and undeniably a metaphor for the effortless motion and strength of a character we are going to be introduced to. The tunnel, brige and water bellow and the complexity of the road junction, creat imagery of a tunnel with illumination of learning something
the fall form a tunnel, the bridge and its water bellow and the complex road junctions. The imagery of a tunnel is the illumination in learning something but in compensative use with the water's meaning of death and the imagery of a heart of cardio-vascular system the ideas of flesh and being form.

Something that caught my eye was the use of sound which can be presumed to be diagetic or non diegetic. There is a male voice which can be heard that could correspond to a sound inside a vehical or maybe an additional exterior sound to the scene. From teh scene we have established there are no characters so far being introsuced so it should be taken as a non-diegetic sound coupled with music. We then are presented with a combination of the stactic radio and gothic cathedral-esque eitha with a chior or organ. This gives it a dark era which is relative to the folkore premise and the story like realism of the film.

The Cursed Main Task

The Cursed | Upload Music


After a lot deliberation John decided that the other music in which he composed was too drama based, so he decided on chaninging the structure and re-wrote the music to a completley different song. We are all now very pleased with the new piece and how it fits effeciantly with our opening title sequence.

Samara Song - The Ring Main Task

Contemporary horror films which have inspired myself and my group members is 'The Ring'. The main theme in the film is sung by a small child, who actually is a dead girl. John who composed our music thought that the happy use of lyrics in juxtaposition to the atonal melody which then gradually descends, and is recapitulated in a circular fashion provoked him into wanting to use the similar technique, however to traslate it onto the the instrumentation and its playing. I think John thought critically and efficiantly. He produced an amazing piece and the inspiration he recieved from 'The Ring' i think helped and motivated him very much.
In our piece there are a lot of rise and fall intonations which reflect and compliment our music a lot. John though it would be best to included a female vocal to reflect our premise, but however using that would seem as a predictable device.

Our music Main Task

Cursed | Upload Music

This is the music which John composed for our opening title sequence. After comparing the footage to a gothic horror film like that of Hammer Productions he decided that more drama was needed in our soundtrack. 'The Horror of Dracular' has a full orchestural score and also 'The phantom of the Opera'. We thought the use of strings and the voice was truly revalent and also created a lucious cocophony on dissonance untouched in John's original composition. Although we though there is no real use of dissonance in these examples, the idea is more contemporary and the mixed frequencies produced, created a scream like timbre to all the instruments.

Final Post Main Task

We have now completely finished our main task, which was to make an opening title sequence. The music goes well with our piece and we are all very satisfied! As ive posted the music certainly does compliment the footage that we have capured and has given it the theme and feel we wanted to achieve. The footage is effective and to the satisfaction we required our piece to be like. 'The Cursed' is chilling and ghostly, which represents her past and I feel the opening title sequence in which we have created significantly proves that.

Editing progress - Final day of our Main Task

We have spent hours this morning editing to which we can be satisfied with to a very high standard. The music will be inserted tonight by John as the music in which he has composed is on his computer at home. We will then have the final piece tomorrow by 4 o clock.

Analysis of the music Main Task

The music which we will be using for our opening title sequence was composed by John Vallis. The music is very atmosperic and ambient which fits with the ghostly and disturbing images in our film. The texture of the piece creates the feeling of loneliness ans isolation as it's very thin and sparse. The sound which is panned which creates and adds depth to the stereo field and would give the audience a feel of an overwhelming desolate landscape. The piece is also full of repetetive motifs which also gives the audience an uncomfortable and droning sense of impending doom. The use of repetition is heavily influenced by Steve Reich's minimalist compositions.
The steve Reich influence can also be hard in the use of odd time signatures and dissonance. Both these things make the piece uncomfortable to listen to and therefore make the piece perfect for a psychological horror film. This is due to odd time signatures dont sound natural of which are hard to follow, this leaves the audience with a sense of consusuion. The use of dissonance also sounds disturbing and can create a subtle inferrence of a human scream. This should slowly cause a sense of fear and discomfort to wash over the audience.

Day Three of filming Main Task

On the third day of filming we filmed all the shots that we wanted of the melting doll. The intention of these shots is to represent the degregation of innocence in the film. The device we used to melt the doll was a heat gun, it became very hot so we used a well ventilated area in order to successfully disfigure the doll. We taped the dolls mouth and hands to signify the sense of inprisionment and helpnessness, in which this is a reaccuring theme in our film. The burning of the rose has a strong and vivid sence of harm and corruption and the strong oxymoronic connotations with the juxtaposition of the beauty that contrasts with the harshness and destructive properties of fire. This would suggest a theme of lost beauty and this is metaphorical for how the characters once ideal life quickly descends into chaos. From melting the rose we successfully portrayed the images of a burning rose gradually getting more disfigured, which lead to the audience's perception of the characters sanity at certain points in the film.

Title order Main Task

We researched on youtube the standard structure of an opening title sequence, which helped and guided us for our opening title sequence - the standard order is

Prince Studios Presents
a Vallis Williams production
Sophie Thomas in
The Cursed
Phillip moore, Michael Jones, Stuart Cocker
Casting by - Penelope Hurst
Music by - John Vallis
Cinematographer - Stacy Williams
Art Director - Helen Austin
Editor - Liam Greenfield
Production Designer - Jane Matthews
Screenplay by - Micheal Gregory
Produced by - Sam james
Executive Producer - Jane Phillips-Smythe
Directed by - Simon Snow


This is a clip of Catch me if you can - directed by Stephen Spielburge. This shows the standard title sequence opening credits should have.

Continuing the editing process Main Task

We have now come to the decision of changing our title names (e.g. Sophie Thomas) from a flashing image to a still image. We think this is more effective and professional.

Editing progress Main Task

We are now over half way through our editing process. We've spent a lot of time whilst editing because we did'nt want our piece to look like a music video. Our aim is for an ambient, distressed look, which I think we are achievig. We recoreded in night vision, as we wanted to emphasise the ambient and grainy effect of our opening title sequence.

Logged Posts- DAY TWO

3.35-3.45: PAN 1 YES
3.45-4.03: PAN 2 YES
4.03-4.09: PYLON SHOT NO
4.09-4.51: WALKING TO CAMERA YES
4.51-5.01: BACKWARDS WALKING YES
5.01-5.11: EMPTY SWING YES
5.11-5.35: SOPHIE SWING YES
5.35- 5.47: SOPHIE TREE YES

Logged Shots- DAY ONE

1.24-1.59: OTS MIRROR SHOT YES
2.00-2.12: OTS MIRROR SHOT LIPSTICK YES
2.12-2.20: OTS MIRROR SHOT YES
2.22-2.32: CU MIRROR SHOT YES
2.32-2.44: CU MIRROR SHOT YES
2.44-2.51: MIRROR SHOT NO
2.51-3.16: MIRROR SHOT YES
3.16:3.20: MIRROR SHOT MAYBE
3.20-3.25 HAND MIRROR SHOT NO
3.25-3.35: HAND MIRROR SHOT YES
3.35-3.49: CU OF EYE YES
3.49-4.06: BED SHOT MAYBE
4.06-4.19: SIDE OF BED NO
4.19-4.34: BED POLE YES
4.34-4.47: KNEELING SHOT NO
4.47-5.03: CU OF EYES YES
5.03-5.21: CU OF FACE YES
5.21- 5.50: CU OF FACE YES

Horror Opening Main Task

Here is a really good example of a modern british horror opening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peggLQ1fLg8

In this clip i found it to be very unsettling which is also the theme we would want when creating our own horror opening sequence.......TBC

Photo Main Task

One of the members of the group found this image on the internet which is related to our premise. This picture is an optical illusion which can be interpritated as a skull or of a woman looking at herself in the mirror. The iconograpy of death which is portrayed through the skull and the regulat intervals of the woman, creates the knowing of something thats going to happen (foreboding) which we want to re-create in our opening sequence.

Initial Quote - Main Task

'An orphan's curse would drag to hell, a spirit from on high; but oh! more horrible than that, is a curse in a dead man's eye!'

We have decided to create a opening frame which depicts this famous quote from Samuel Taylor Coleridge as it establishes our premise and is refelctive on the device used by films of the past.

Kill Bill Opening Title. Main Task

This example shows that the match between the proposal of a woman seeing revenge and the tesion which is created by the lack of detail.