Final ancillary texts and trailer

Evaluation

• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I feel that our trailer and ancillary texts use many of the conventions of real media products because throughout the production we have looked at similar media products to give us guideline and indication of what are the typical horror conventions. In the trailer we have used many transitions to make it continuous and engaging like other horror trailers. We have used lots of fade to black as well as quick cuts between shots because while analyzing the trailer for Eden lake we found out that the trailer is constructed using lots of quick cuts instead of long scenes. Moreover, the music we have used is very typical for horror trailers because of its tempo and eerie, scary melody. This shows how we have used conventions of horror trailers because we have used a Remix of Halloween- a well known horror production.

We have also developed some of these conventions by using music effects downloaded from youtube such as screams, thunder, heartbeat etc. Similarly, we have developed conventions through the use of special effects such as slow motion and video filters. These techniques are not so common in horror trailers, however they made our trailer more brutal as the viewer feels the horror and terror in the story. One way in which we have challenged trailer conventions is through the use of JPEG images in the video. We have used Kenny's scary portrait for several times as well as a black background with blood drops. In-cooperating a JPEG portrait in the trailer is very unusual but effective as it creates tension and suspense among the audience. The pictures are very effective because they make the trailer more visually attractive and interesting.

Our magazine front cover is uses conventions of other magazine front covers mainly through its layout and main image. They layout is very typical for magazine covers because the mid shot image is positioned centrally and all the text is positioned centrally so that the image is the focal point. We have also included text which is very appropriate for magazine front covers as we have used emotive words and film terminology. For example there is an article for the best horror previews of 2011. We have developed and challenged magazine cover conventions by inserting a blood drop into the second 'O' of the title of the magazine. This is challenging the conventions because not many magazines use special effects like this. However, I believe it worked well for us because the blood drop connotes danger and horror as well as links to the genre and title of the film.

We have used many conventions associated with horror film posters including the layout, colour selection, font and text and central image. However, as the poster is created to advertise the film and reach its audience we had to make it different from other posters so that the film is more competitive and successful. We have therefore chosen a landscape format instead of an A4 portrait because the picture looks more detailed and effective in landscape. Another way in which we have developed horror conventions is to include a sell line- a powerful statement in the poster. This feature is sometimes included in posters to convey the genre and reflect the story of the film. I think that by including such a statement we made our poster more scary and mysterious which fits in with the horror genre. We have also tried to challenge the conventions of horror posters by using a macro lens to capture the eye in more detail. Looking at other eye posters I realized that most of their images are close ups, however not as extreme as our.Moreover our image has another image inside which connotes that the girl in the eye cannot escape from the boy watching her. This is liked the narrative of the film because our story evolves around voyeurism, obsession and escape.B challenging this visual aspect of horror posters we created a media text that is more attractive and reflective of our film.

• How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

I feel the combination of our main media product (the trailer) and  ancillary texts are very effective and successfully advertise the film.
 We ensured there was continuity between all three pieces such as the protagonist Kenny who has a split personality and is main focus on both the poster and the magazine.For all the pictures taken during the project we have used the same make up and hood for Kenny to ensure that these elements help the viewer recognize him. To make our main character very shocking and iconic for the film we 'gave' him diabetic retinopathy- a diabetic illness which leads to eye bleeding. This element of a bleeding eye is reflected in all of our productions as we used fake blood in all the media texts, to suggest that Kenny is crying blood. This is also iconic because blood is a symbol for danger and terror .

It is clear that our ancillary texts support the trailer because besides the common picture of Kenny, we have also used the same colour selection in all three productions- red, black and white. This will eventually help the viewer connect the three pieces and link them to the film. Furthermore, we have ensured that the title of the film is clearly visible in all three pieces. This explains why we have chosen to select not too complex and confusing font. Furthermore by including a tagline on the poster we have reflected the scary aspects of the film i.e. voyeurism and obsession. 

  

Evaluation - Audience Feedback

 What have you learned from your audience feedback?






We showed our trailer and ancillary texts to many people who reflect our demographic - young people aged between 15-26 who like films about students and university love, and asked them for their opinion about the movie. However no people under the age of 15 would be allowed to watch the film . The feedback we gained was important to us because these people represented our target audience.





We interviewed people after showing them the video and asked them questions about the continuity, sound, filming techniques and atmosphere of the trailer. Here you can see some of their recorded comments.

"Good use of transitions, clear understandable storyline, good lighting and use of music"
- Jodie Smith ,19

"Good acting skills, technically good, good story behind it"
- Vicky Barret ,18

"Creative story boarding, good editing, well constructed, clearly torture horror" 
- Kenny Williams

 "Scary parts, good voice over and music, attracts the audience want to watch more"
 - Burcen Ahmed, 20

"Well thought out story, could have been shorter, doesn't give away whole story so good, leaves mystery"
- Tahsin Guzel, 20

"Very good use of special effects and filming techniques. I actually wanna see this film!"
- Gabbi Doneva,  21  

Overall, the feedback we have collected indicated that people liked our trailer and thought it was effective. All of them focused on positive aspects such as the good use of special effects, lighting and music and modern intriguing story.  However, I believe that by interviewing people face to face might have caused them to give unreliable, untruthful responses (similar to the problem of demand characteristics) because they did not want to say anything bad about our trailer. I wanted to collect valid and truthful feedback on my publications so I created a simple and easy to use questionnaire using Survey monkey. I asked some students at college and my older friends to fill it in after they have seen our trailer, poster and magazine front cover. In order for them to access it I embedded it onto the blog and linked it to Facebook . The questions I have used address various aspects of the productions including the music we have used and how scary the trailer was.  I have also used different type of questions and responses such as multiple choice, rating scale, open and closed questions, because this made the questionnaire more easy to fill in and more interesting so that people would not be bored while filling it in. I wanted the questionnaire to be straightforward and easy to moderate, fill in and analyse because this enabled me to collect more responses as more people to be willing to fill in the questionnaire.

 In this picture you can see the positive results for the first two questions. I have inserted my comment (circled in red) on the actual image.

 This figure shows peoples responses to the question : What did you like about the poster. The results show that all the viewers liked the layout as 100% ticked the answer box. Overall, the results show that people liked all the aspects of the magazine as they voted for all of them with higher than 65%. 80% of the people liked the main image used
which I am happy about because we took the image in the Photography studio and spent a lot of time thinking about the make up and shot perspective.

 This question relates to the magazine cover and uses a rating scale to find out what people enjoyed about it. 100% of the people picked the image which tells me that the central image is the most effective feature of the magazine. Moreover , viewers were also happy with its content and design as 83% of them selected.

 This print screen shows the responses to the most important question. If people want to see the film this means that the trailer and ancillary texts were effective and advertised the film so that people would  be interested in watching it. 100% of the viewers indicated that they would like to see the film which suggests that they were happy with our productions.

 The figure above shows peoples comments and suggestions. I have used an open question to allow the viewers to write their personal comments about out project. These are some of the responses I have collected. Overall , the results show that people enjoyed the media texts and thought they were scary and good. The second comment is well detailed and shows that the person was actually thinking that we are making a whole A2 media horror film because he said that he would like to watch the film. This makes me very happy because it shows that people are interested in our project and really liked it. I believe that we achieved our initial aim to create exiting, horror media texts which reach our target audience and look professional and of a high quality.
I am pleased with everything we did because even though we could improve a lot of things, we learned how to work together towards and exiting, effective and productive outcome.

Evaluation - Technology

• research and planning stages? - 

As a part of my research I have used various resources and modern technology to help me find information about the horror genre and its typical conventions. I begun by watching some of the best known horrors including The Shinning and Saw, After watching the films I used the Internet to find some more information about their production and other aspects such as production, music, ancillary texts and their use of the audience theory. For example I have used websites such as facebook , twitter and wikipedia to find information about different horror films and relevant audience feedback.  The most useful website in my research and planning stage was Youtube because it allowed me to watch various trailers and video tutorials about making a horror trailer such as "A trailer for every Oscar winning movie" ( for more information about research influence click here ). I have also used the Internet to research various topics including famous media theorists, narrative structures and information about pathological illnesses, unisex names and horror sound effects.

Moreover, I have also used The Internet and We media to research and plan the production of our magazine front cover and film poster. I researched similar ancillary texts using Google image search and the business websites of other magazines such as the Empire and Total Film. This helped me understand the conventions of magazines and horror film posters in order to enable me to produce my own ancillary texts. I have also used other technology to plan the production of the poster and magazine front cover such as Microsoft word which helped me plan the layout of the magazine .

• construction stage? -  

Technology was very important for the construction stages of my trailer and relevant ancillary texts because it helped me make my publications look more professional and of high quality. I have used a Canon EOS 30D professional camera to ensure that the quality of our taken pictures is high as well as their exposure and deth of field. The camera was essential for our project because we used it to take pictures for the book diary we have created, in the trailer where Kenny takes pictures of Ash, in the production of our ancillary texts where we used to to take pictures of Alex in his role as Kenny. 

We also used the camera throughout the whole project as a way of capturing the stages of our work and using the pictures in our blog to explain the stages of our work. Studying Photography was of a great advantage for me because I was able to apply my knowledge in media as well as to use other technological equipment from the photography studio and resources. For example we have used the Photography studio to take all the pictures as well as to film the Tent scene using the lycra frame in the photography room. This involved using a lot of artificial lighting and projectors which are hard to set up, as well as background sheet and stabilizers such as a tripod. Furthermore, we have used a special professional Macro lens to take photos of Alex's bleeding eye for the poster. The lens is very complicated to use because it's hard to adjust and focus it. However it was of a great benefit for us because the poster looks so effective and detailed. Throughout the project we have taken more than 200 pictures and only used about 10 of them in our publications. This shows how we have used technology to ensure that our work was recorded accurately and our media texts are of good quality.

For the production of our trailer we used Imovie - a proprietary video editing software used for the construction and continuation of video texts. By producing a chase sequence as a preliminary task we learned how to use Imovie and got used to it pretty quickly. When we edited our horror trailer we already knew how to do the basic things such as selecting the right footage, inserting text, image and sound and cutting and cropping the video image. However we spent a long time looking at Imovie tutorials on their webpage. This enabled us to use some advanced options of Imovie such as adding special effects and filters, and adjusting the colour levels and contrast. The video below shows how we have used Imovie to edit our footage and make it look continuous, effective and terrifying. 



For the construction of our ancillary texts we have mainly used Photoshop - an image editing software which enables professional image manipulation and adjustment. I am very familiar and confident with using Photoshop because most of my A levels require me to use this program a lot. This was very helpful to me because i knew how to achieve the desired effect and manipulate my images effectively to get good perspective shots of high quality and good exposure. 

For the magazine we used a single mid shot ,taken in the photography studio. We then used Photoshop to create an A3 document and insert the main image in it. After this we edited the image so that it's colours were contraster and well saturated. Some of the tools  we have used include Dodge and Burn, Colour curves, Layer Transformation and sharp etc. 

The film poster was designed using Photoshop to make it look scary and eye catching. We have used a landscape format because we thought that it would be better as the audiences' attention is drawn to the detailed eye in the center. We used various tools such as smudge, blur, burn, saturation , colour adjustment and selection to create all the visuals in the poster. The poster was harder to create compared to the magazine because its advertising purposes meant that the visual pictures were more important than the text content, whereas film magazines don't usually use strong powerful images but emotive language and lots of text. For the creation of the poster we also used dafont to get an eye catching, gothic font for the title our movie.

• evaluation stage? - 

In the Evaluation, I exploited through the use of images, video and links to on-line resources in order to show that I was aware of the huge potential of Blogspot. My evaluation is mainly in a written format, where I tried to address each key question as well as reflect my personal feelings about the whole project. I have used a lot of links by editing the HMTL and URL, so that the links allow the viewer to access relevant on-line material. As well as links to other websites i have also included links to some of my previous blogs which show relevant information. This has helped me because it improved my knowledge of HMTL and hyperlinks. Moreover, I have embedded videos from youtube to show how I have used youtube for research and planning as well as using pictures to make my evaluation more visual and interesting, so that the viewer is more concentrated and motivated to read it.

One of the aspects I evaluated was audience feedback. I have created an on-line questionnaire using surveymonkey and embeded it on my blog so that it was easier to collect responses. I asked my friends and some students at the Sixth form to fill in the questionnaire. I have then used surveymonkey to analyse and print screen some of the results charts and inserted these JPEGs in my blog. In addition I have also used Photoshop to create evaluation documents which consist of my ancillary texts and analysis of their construction. After analyzing each production, I increased the size of the document so that it would be more clear and visible, I then saved the doc a a JPEG and uploaded it onto the blog. This shows how I have used various technical aspects in my evaluation.

Furthermore, we created a video presentation which reflects the construction process of the horror trailer. To do this we have used Imovie voice-over option and recorded our evaluation over the actual trailer. We spoke about how we have reflected conventions of horror trailers in our own work and the ways in which we have challenged typical horror elements. I think that this was an effective and original method of presentation because it looks like a video extra for our film. After completing the task , I have uploaded the video on Youtube and then embeded it onto my blog. This shows how e have exploited through  the used of video in our evaluation.
How did you use media technologies in the:

Questionnaire

Film Poster

Film posters are primary designed to advertise/popularize the film and attract wider demographic. There are any different types of posters including remix poster, motion poster, character poster and teaser/advance poster. As a part of our portfolio , we were assessed to design a Promotional film poster which usually contains basic image or design without revealing too much information about the plot and characters. The purpose of a teaser poster is to increase awareness of the film so that more people are likely to see it when it comes out.  The text on the posters usually contains the film title in large lettering , names of the director , characters and release date. Advance posters are also associated with a tag-line which is an emotive mysterious statement reflecting the film. We want the image of the poster to be an extreme close up of Kenny's eye because it related to his obsession for Ashley. I will now analyze a few effective horror posters in to help me understand the general conventions of horror posters and approach the design of our poster in a more creative and challenging way. 

Candyman

On the right you can see the poster for Candyman, a 1992 horror film. The poster looks very attractive and eye catching which is important as its purpose is to advertise the film and sell it to people. Its in a portrait view and has one main image and little text which suggests that the image is more important. The picture is a close up of an eye positioned centrally in the A4 poster. The image has clearly been manipulated to achieve this terrifying effect. There is a scary silhouette of the killer in the pupil surrounded by dark red. Red is a colour which is commonly used in horror posters because it connotes danger, blood, sorrow and torture. There is a bee stuck inside the eye. This is quite unrealistic which suggests to me that horror posters must include a surreal elements. The poster is not too colourful and bright, the use of warm similar colours works very well as the viewers' attention is not drawn to the colours but to the man inside the pupil. A different font and text size is used for the title positioned centrally to stand out. The other text included in the poster is the tag line- positioned on the top, featuring actors positioned underneath the title, and the credits which are included in all posters. Although this poster was done nearly 20 years ago, it is a very effective and eye catching publication which is successful in conveying a message about the film and advertise it to its chosen demographic.                



                                 The skeleton key 

This is another horror poster which uses a close up image of an eye to attract its audience and sell the film. It is contrasted to Candyman because of its colours and content. It uses natural colours which are neutral and not as scary and dramatic as red. However the overall effect is terrifying because the pupil is missing and instead there is a whole new image in the eye. This is very unrealistic and scary because of the dark colours and burned out parts of the image. The poster is clearly a horror poster which is important because the main purpose of film posters is to convey the genre of the film.  There is not a lot of text, except the title, famous actress and the credits. The shot is excellent because it a perspective extreme close up and the camera is positioned slightly underneath the eye which create the illusion that we are looking up to the eye. An image editing software has been used to , adjust and desaturate the colours and tones, manipulate the eye and transform the image. A special effect has been added to the title where the E in Key has been manipulated to create the illusion that there is an opening door which connotes escape. This is a very smart technique as iconography (a key, opening door) to make the film seem more intriguing and scary.




The eye
 The poster of the horror film 'The Eye' is very close to the effect we want to achieve in our publication. The central eye close up is of a very high quality which suggests that a special macro lens was used to capture the eye. The colours are kept very realist which in this case is scary because the hand stuck in the eye looks so real. Overall, the poster is very simple and easy to make but its so powerful and effective. The lack of text make you focus on the eye and the abnormal hand coming out of it. The only text is the title positioned centrally underneath the picture and Jessica Alba's name which is very important because she is a famous actress which is important because Jessica Alba is not a typical horror actress but plays mainly in romantic comedies. The font colour is black and eye is in bold which suggest that the word is iconic for the film. I reserched it and i found out that the story evolves around a person who gets a cornea transplant and starts seeing dead people. This explains why the producers have chosen this particular image for the film. The lay out of the poster i very similar to the one of Candyman with the difference that this poster is of a better quality because of technological advances.

Magazine front Cover

As a part of my A2 Media Portfolio I was asked to produce a trailer as well as two other publications- a magazine front cover and a movie poster. There are many differences in the visuals of a poster and a magazine some of which are the layout, the extent to which they tend to advertise the media product, the colors, shot angels and text. Before producing the magazine I looked at some other film magazines and analyzed their conventions and typical layout. I have looked at magazines such as Empire, Total film and Sight and Sound. Empire and Total film use similar layout and shot types as the cover usually consists of a single central shot of the main character. In order to make their cover more visually stimulating and appealing to the audience they use lots of professional image manipulation and editing, as well as strong contrast and bright colors which make the image seem more unrealistic. 

This picture is an example of a good front cover by Empire magazine. A high angle close up of the main character is positioned in the centre of the cover. The slightly saturated colours are brilliant as they create high contrast which attracts attention. The image is a professional studio shot of the main character in role which is quite typical for film magazines like Empire and total sound because their main purpose is to advertise the film to its demographic. The text is in three contrasting colours- black, white and bright green which work as a direct link to the film as the main character has a white face, black make up and green hair. This creates an important connotation as the producer uses colour to direct viewers attention to the film featured in this issue. Furthermore the empire has used emotive language to attract its audiences. For example, statements such as 'makes our day' are used to convince viewers to buy the magazine. 

Sight and Sound is a very different magazine compared to commercial magazines such as Empire and Total Film. This magazine is directed to a different demographic of people who are more interested in films and want to learn about the technical aspects of filming and representation techniques. The magazine has more informative  purposes compared to commercial magazines which use the magazine front cover to advertise the film and convince viewers to watch it. The front cover is therefore very different as it looks far more realistic. The shot is very differents as well, as its not a studio shot but an imaje extracted from the actual film featured in the issue. The overall look of the image is not as professiona which connotes that the magazine dont not focus on visual aspects as much as on information provision about the movies.

For our Front Cover we decided to produce a magazine which is commercial and has advertising purposes. Compared to Sight and Sound our magazine will have a studio shot which is taken specifically for the magazine. We decided the shot to be of Kenny because he is the darkest character fo the film. We wanted to use one picture which is a close up of Alex in his role of Kenny in the Woods. The picture would have props from the film such as the make up and hoody he was wearing. The ideal image is a high contrasted, good quality and well exposed close up of Kenny. The figure on the right shows how we have planned our cover to look. The layout is pretty simple and typical for front covers as the close up is central and all text is positioned on the sides. The title will be in slightly different font compared to the writing and bigger text size so that its eye catching. The colours we will use are mainly going to be cold colours i.e. dark colours such as black, dark red, and blue. The magazine will be not as informative as Sight and Sound but as entartaining as Empire so we want our icture to be eye catching and visually attractive.

While filming the trailer we decided to go to the photography studo and take some pictures of Kenny and eventually incooperate them into the trailer. As i am studying Advanced photography, I could use my photography knowledge and equipments for the production o our media publications. I have a professional camera which enabled us to get pictures of excallent ISO exposure and quality. When we went to the studo we decided to take many pictures of Alex as we knew we would need them at some point . I took various of shots from different perspective and angles. We wanted to take as many close ups of his face as possible so that we could use one for a central shot for the magazine and poster. You can see some of the pictures we have taken below.

Bloodshot

This is the final version of our Horror Trailer. Overall, I am pleased with what we have done because the trailer uses many of the conventions of horror trailers. It looks professionally done and is interesting and attracts viewers' attention. Personally I feel that i would have watched a movie like this because it has an interesting story and good potential.I hope you enjoy watching Bloodshot trailer!

Evaluating trailer - Edditing

We filmed a lot of footage as we wanted to film every scene from different angle to ensure that every scene would be captured in the best possible way. We experimented using different shots, angles and mise en scene. After filming we had to edit our footage to ensure that it was continious and of a high quality. We therefore uploaded the video onto Imovie and spent about 10 days edditing it and adding special effects and features.

Throughout the trailer we used a variety of transitions including fade to white/black, dissolve and cross dissolve. This made our trailer continuous and smooth. This was also done through using quick cuts, which would engage  the audience and make the trailer more dynamic and fast paced. This increased the horror atmosphere as short, quick cuts are associated with danger as well as not giving away the whole story so the audience would be intrigued to watch the film.

For the part where Kenny is watching Ash and taking her pictures in the car park, we added the Black and White effect, this made it different from the whole trailer, which was the only point of view shot. This point of view shot is very interesting because b/w effect creates realism and the illusion that the audience see through Kenny's eyes.

We used different video effects including the 'romantic' filter to make the film look professionally done. For example we used the romantic filter when Kenny attacked Troy int he forest. The filter made the scene look like in slow motion mode, where shadows were highlighted and color was desaturated.
  
One way in which we have challenged the connotations of horror films is the scary close up of Kenny with the blood and make up which appears numerous times throughout the trailer. This is a constant reminder that something bad will happen and highlights Kenny's creepy personality.  However, the other half is not visible to stays a mystery for the audience to discover his darker side throughout the film. This connotes that Kenny has a dangerous split personality. As the image appears at random times it creates tension and suspense as the viewer expects to see it again and again, which was our initial objective. Using still images in video trailers is something very unusual and atypical for horror productions.

We included texts giving hints on what the film is about without fully giving it away. We used the words "Love" to symbolize Troy and Ash's love for one another which something bad happens to. "Obsession" which is Kenny's role as he loves Ash so much and wants her so badly he gradually becomes obsessed with her. "Regrets" by the end of it Ash regrets being the popular ignorant girl she was, Troy also regrets punching him which triggered Kenny's rage and anger to follow them to the forest. The final word was "Revenge" this is directed to Ash getting her revenge on Troy as he betrayed her and gave her away to save his own life and killing Kenny who ruined her life. The text at the end saying "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer" is a phrase which is simple yet so strong and very meaningful and almost the moral of our film. This powerful statement is very typical for horror film which shows how we have used horror conventions of other media texts..
 
For all the spoken parts in the trailer we recorded a voice-over using Imovie application. We did this because the spoken parts were very unclear when filming. We decided to records them again as well as record the  narrative voice which reads out the text as well as the final statement. This is another way in which we have used horror film conventions because a narrative voice is quite typical for horror texts.

One of the most important element of the trailer is the music. We spent a long time traying to get the right music for our trailer which would reflect the story as well as direct to our chosen demographic. We needed a track which was high pitched, dynamic and scary as well as modern and fresh as the film is about young people. We found a remix of the Halloween soundtrack which was horror classical music mixed with R&B motifs.We also used other tunes for the film such as the song in the begging which is melodic, lyric and melancholic. This song is not that scary because its the opening music track which is supposed to engage the viewer not scare him/her. We also done the same for some of the sound effects, for example, the stabbing, scream, rain and thunder, camera shutter sounds. Most of the music we got from youtube using youtube converter website to download the mp3 and insert it onto Imovie. We spent a long time editing the music as well as cropping some selections so that the music is synchronous with the trailer scenes.Overall, the music we have used is typical for horror films with the exception that we have used multiple tracks and sound effects instead of one long song, which indicates that we have developed the conventions of horror trailers.

I am pleased with the trailer because it looks attractive, scary and mysterious which is very important for horror films. We included a variety of shots and different formats such as text, backgraund images, music and special effects. The trailer is very effective and reflect our initial idea about the movie. It works well in attracting and engaging our demographic as well as not giving away the whole story so that people would want to watch it. Throughout its production i developed various skills such as creativity, organization, team work and technical skills. I think this was a rewarding and enjoyable experience which was so valuable for me and my studies. 


 

Shooting Schedule and Commentary

Before we started filming we looked at our storyboard and wrote a list with all the different locations we wanted to film. This was the most important part of our planning because we decided what we were gonna film on each day depending on the location, weather and our timetables. At the end we came up with a plan consisting of four days of filming, each day filming scenes which had common props and similar locations. This helped us so much as we used our time effectively and we used the filming schedule as our guidance.

Day 1 - Selin's house and car + Wood Green Car par

The first scene involved Ash and Troy talking in Troy's car. The scene was important as it tells the narrative- it tells the viewer that Ash and Troy are going to the forest in order to get away from Kenny.

STRENGTHS- Although the car was steady, the camera angle makes it seems as if Troy is actually driving. This makes the scene more realistic

WEAKNESSES- Daylight was very bright. It was very hard to find the correct position for the camera as filming from the outside was impossible as window reflection made it unable to see the characters in the car. We overcame the problem by opening the side window and filming from the outside.

The second scene was taken in Wood Green car park. It was the scene of Kenny watching ash and taking pictures of her. This idea of voyeurism and observing people was inspired by the Saw Movies ( see post about influence). The shot was important as it shows Kenny's mad obsession and split personality.We were scouting for a location the the car park, looking for the perfect place. We found a stairs spot which was good as it was both int he corner of the car park where light was appropriate. The high angle was good as it allowed me to film both Alex and Selin, and at the same time creating the illusion of a point of view shot. First of all i filmed Kenny hiding behind a red car taking pictures of Ash. We used a canon professional camera which allowed us to use the multiple shooting mode which enabled multiple flashes. I then filmed Ash as if it was a point of view shot taken by Kenny.

STRENGTHS- We took a lot of pictures of Selin/Ash which we used for Kenny's diary.

The location gave us the perfect shots and lighting. High angle was good as it links to voyeurs watching you from above.

WEAKNESSES- Automatic light in the car park was a problem as we had to be as steady as possible so that lights did not go off. People driving and walking past were a problem as we did not want them in the shot.

Third scene- High angle shot filmed from top of the car parked. We filmed a black car and then zoomed in to make it seem like it was Troy and Ash driving away to forest.

WEAKNESSES- Bad quality camera which could not capture a clear movement. The shot was blurred and unclear. We had to edit it later on.

Day 2 - Filming in Photography Studio

We decided to go to the photography studio because the room was very big and dark. We wanted to build up the tent and film the shot as if we were int he forest because it was raining and we were not able to used the tent in the rain because it was muddy and wet.

WEAKNESSES- We had a big problem as we spent about an hour trying to built up the tent. We were unsuccessful so we had to either ignore the tent scene or come up with an alternative to it.

STRENGTHS- Instead of using a tent we used a wooden frame covered in lycra sheet. The frame gave us brilliant reflection. We positioned Two large projectors behind the tent to get better shadows. This alternative worked so well for us because the final shots look so interesting and scary.As well as filming we took some pictures of Alex wearing make up and having a bleeding eye ( see Kenny's eye condition described in Character Profiles).

Day 3 - Vessy's house + Trent park

We filmed all the accommodation scenes( diary scene, punch scene, reaction shot) at my house because it was easy and my room was appropriate for the shots.

Book- I used pictures of Selin to create a diary which was iconic as it showed Kenny's obsession and madness. I used red and black pen to draw and write in the book. I made every page very different and typical for love diaries. You can see some of the pages below.

After filming at my house we went to Trent park. We went there just before dawn so that the lighting was not too bright or dark. We carried two light projectors so that we could film in the forest.

STRENGTHS- All shots at my house worked very well. Lighting was good. We took a high angle shot to show Kenny's vulnerability and weakness after being punched. We took a long shot of the dark forest.

WEAKNESSES- When we went to Trent park we realized that filming in the dark was impossible. Although we were prepared to use strong light projectors they were not strong enough so we decided to go to the forest on another day and filming before sunset.

Day 4 - University scene , Long Establishing Shot 

+ Coldfall Forest

School scene showed a juxtaposition between Ash's and Troy's popularity and the isolated lonely life of Kenny. The shot is good as it tells the story of the main characters.

Filming in the forest took a long time because we had a lot to film. Overall, everything worked well as we planned it.

STRENGTHS- We bought 2 glass bottles to make sure that we could smash it properly. We found the perfect high tree for hanging scene. The forest was good as there were not many people walking through. Everything went well.

WEAKNESSES- Although filming in night time was impossible, filming in bright day light was still not good enough as we wanted our shots to be darker to create scary, spooky atmosphere. Shots of phone texts were not good as the camera could not capture it in good quality. Due to heavy rain on the day before we were filming, the forest was very muggy which made filming harder as it was difficult to stabilize the tripod. It was also hard to walk and run on the ground. We also wanted to put the running scenes together using a three park split screen to show all the characters running at the same time. This would have been so good as it made the viewer think about who is after who. However we found that this feature was not on Imovie so we could not use it. We filed the running scenes separately.

Research Influence

Saw and Voyeurism - In class we watched the first part of Saw- a horror film known as torture porn. I was amaized by the brutalism and frightening atmosphere which build up ension and suspense. Saw is a type of film that you will either love or hate. Although , I am not a big fan of brutal imagery I enjoyed the film so much because of its clever storyline and twists. The music and shots add to the horror and made me feel so terrified and shocked. I think we should use some ehorro elements of say such as the idea of disguise and voyeurism vecause they are both very typical for horror productions and our audience would enjoy it. We incooperated the idea of voyeuriam and observation in our film where Kenny is watching and following Ash while taking pictures of her and sticking them in his diary. This is one of the scariest elemt of the film because Kenny is so obssesed with Ash that he is ready to do everything to get her- and he actually does it!

Trailer for every Oscar Winning Movie 
Our media teacher introduced us to this video which was very helpful and valuale because it contains important features of good trailers and details about their content. The video is actually very funnybut if you listen to it carefully you will realise that almost all Oscar Movies' Trailers use these common connotations such as a conflict, powerful statements, introduction to the characters and famous directors/actors, interrupted statements etc. When we finished filming we looked at this video and wrote down all the things we want to include in our trailer so that it looks like professional trailers for modern movies.

Eden Lake Trailer Analysis - In class we watched Eden Lake which is an amaizing British brutal horror. I liked it because if the high realism and clever representation of collective identity - mainly class and gender. We then watched its official trailer and analysed it. We found out that in a standart 4-5 minute trailer there are about 150 shots and quick cuts and a variety of shot types and angles. This means that for our trailer we should aim at having about 50 shots , including nearly all possible shot types. Most of the shots in Eden lake trailer were close ups and mid shots. The trailer is almost in chronological order and it dows not give away the whole story.

The Unborn Film and Sound Techniques 

I watched the film unborn in my own time. Its my favourite horror film because while i watched it i almost felt my heart stop which is such a keen element of horror. The story s not that brutal, its more of a psychological horror film. However the sound effects and music were amaizing as they were so synchronomous to the film and built up tension and spooky atmosphere. I also liked the camera angles because every shot was captured perfectly to reflect the terrifying atmosphere. The lighting was also very good because most of the scenes were very dark which confuses the viewer as he does not know whats going on but expect something terryble to happen because the music is going faster. I want to use an effective music for our trailer as well as many sound effects because as the UNBORN indicates good scary music is essential for horror trailers.

Relevant Media Theories

The final girl is a horror film term used by Carol Clover in her book about gender in moren horror. It refers to the last woman alive to confront the killer and tell the story. The final girl is usually sexually unavailable and typicaly has a unisex name. The theory states that audience identification is vital for horror films. Women are more likely to support the film if they see a virginal female character who becomes masculine, herroic and powerful. Young male viewers are prepared to identify themselves with the female.  The theory has become very controversial because of its transexual suggestions and masochictic identification. However, It has ben observed in many popular horror films such as The Shining, Eden Lake, Halloween, A nightmare on Elm street, Allien and Scream.

While disgussing the theory we desiced that it would be good if we could incooperate the final girl theory in our film. We were almost finished with the treatment when we started thinking about what exactly is going to hapen in the forest- will troy die? what would happen to Ash? In the beggining we decided that kenny will kill both of them but then we decided we wanted our story to be complex and interesting. This  is why we decided that Ash will seduce Kenny and make him think she loved him. His vulnerability and desparate love towards Ash would make him kill Troy. As we were influenced by the final girl theory we desiced that Ash would be the one to survive after stabbing Kenny in the tent. This is linked to the final girl because we have a female character with a unisex name (Ashley) who uses a weapon to confront the killer and become the dominant figure in the movie.

Other theories we have looked at are the feminist film theory which is a film criticism of the way females ar eportrayed in horror films and the male gaze that predominates modern horror films.  The male gaze occurs when the audience is put into the perspective of a heterosexual man. The male gaze is linked to our film because although 2/3 of our characters are male, the final dopinant one is a girl which is portrayed in a heroic, confident way.

Storyboard + Planning material

 We produced a storyboard to help us navigate our filming and organise our shots and props. Besides shot sypes and camera movements, our storyboard contains detaills about muse-en-scene, narrative and scene script. I think that the storyboard was very useful and essential to filming because it helped us create a filming timetable which made the whole process much easier and quicker. Although we followed our storyboard, we sometimes changed the shots while filming as we experimented taking some shots from different angles and perspectives. For example, the shot of Kenny on his desk was meant to consist of multimple zoom ins and out. However we decided that a high angle shot much be more effective because it portraits his uncontrolled obsession in a vulnerable and weak way. Here you can see our storyboard and planning sheets.

 

Actor Profile

We deliberately chose these three actors for our film because they were very committed and prepared to do their best for the horror film. Moreover their flexible timetable made it possible for us to film at various times before and after our lessons at college.

Alexander Dann
Alex was very focused actor and as he was one of the producers he knew what was needed to get the best results. It as very important that the actor playing Kenny had good acting skills as Kenny was the hardest role in our movie. He has a split personality and confused mind which made it very hard to copy and act. Alex has the ability to adapt to different environments and situations so we thought he would be perfect for the role. His appearance was appropriate as his dark hair and eyes would look well when wearing dark make up and eye liner.

Selin
We thought Selin would be appropriate for the role because her personality was quite similar to Ashley's. She is a popular girl at school who is always surrounded by lots of friends which shows that she is aware of how Ash would act in different situations. Selin has a lot of knowledge about filming and camera angles so she knows where the character should be positioned in the frame and how to move in order to get the best perspective shots. She shared with as that she acted in another film produced by A level students and looking at the film and her acting skills I was able to say that she would make the best Ashley.

Ivan Bockukov
We deliberately chose Ivan for the role of Troy because his creative and helpful personality ensured us that he is motivated and determined to help us. His flexible work timetable gave us a lot of opportunities to film in both day and night time. His appearance and manner was quite similar to our perception of Troy's character because he is a good looking boy who is very confident and charismatic. He has great communication and social skills which made him a good actor. Furthermore, his personal interest in horror movies was beneficial for us as he was able to advice as on many horror conventions such as lighting, sound and camera angles.

Narrative structure

In class we learned that the narrative structure is the structural framework that underlies the order and manner in which the story is presented to the audience. The Three-act structure was defined by the French filmmaker Yves Lavandier and includes three main actions: setup, confrontation with an obstacle and resolution culminating in a climax. I used The dramatic narrative structure to define the structure of our film in order to make it more controlled and continuous.

Inciting incident: When T sees Kenny's diary and finds out that his roommate is fanatically obsessed with his girlfriend Ash.
Protagonist: Kenny in the protagonist in the beginning. However later in the story, Ash becomes our protagonist as story is told from her point of view.
Objective: Kenny gets the girl he is in love with.
First act/ Second act transition: The couple going off to the woods
Internal Obstacle: Kenny is not as popular as T. He is shy, timid and his personality is stopping him from getting the girl of his dreams
External Obstacle: Troy. He is confident, aggressive and popular. He is everything a girl lie Ash wants.
Climax: Kenny is chasing the couple. Troy decides he doesn't need Ash and is not willing to die because of loving her.
Dramatic Answer: No (Kenny does not get the girl)
Twist: Ash find out about Troy's betrayal. She decides to take control over the situation and becomes stronger and independent of Troy. There is a protagonist shift from Kenny to Ash.
Ash's objective: She doesn't want to be with either of them. She want a revenge.
Third act: They are in the forest, chasing around, trying to kill each other.
Third act climax: Ashley pretends she loves Kenny in order to survive. She helps him kill Troy. At the end she kills Kenny.
Dramatic answer: Yes. Ashley achieves her objective to survive and get out of the forest.

Script

Scene 4:
Kenny whispers, under his breath to Ash
"i can see you"
"I've got you now"

Scene 7:
T (angrily)
"what the hell is this..."
T: (showing Kenny the book- shouting)
"what the fuck is this?
T punches Kenny

Scene 10:
Ash: "T, where you taking me"
T: "we need to get away from this pycho"
Ash: "where we going to go?"
T: "lets go to the forest, for the weekend"
Ash: "Ok"

Scene 19:
T to Kenny
"please don't take me, just take the girl"
Kenny: "you've got 5 minutes to be gone"

Scene 22:
Kenny with higher authority over T, cutting out T's tattoo says:
"there's no need for that no more"

Scene 25:
Kenny engraving Ash' name in his arm
"she's mine now'

Proprs and Locations

Props used in film:
Kenny's Glasses
Camera and Video Camera
Tent
Chair
Lunch box
Tripod
Light projector
Make up inc. eye liner, white powder
fake blood
Glass bottles
Rope
Diary
Balaclava/ black jacket


Locations:
At University/ Fortismere school North Wing
At the car park / Wood Green car park
In Kenny's bedroom / Vessy's House
In the car, on the way / Selin's Car
At the forest / Trent park and Coldfall Wood