Agenda Setting Theory

Agenda Setting Theory 

This particular theory was suggested by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw in 1972. It was originally suggested that the content that is presented in the media created a general public idea, in the sense that they can influence what to think, but they may also tell you what to think about. Within particular news displays, by editors and broadcasters, individuals can play an important part in shaping the view given to certain events in reality. Is often used in political ads, campaigns and news.

There are in fact two levels of the agenda setting theory:

- First Level:

The idea that the media uses objects or issues to influence the people what people should think about and this is mostly studied by researchers, 

-Second level:

Media attempts to depict focuses on the certain characters in society and influence peoples view about them.

Research into Blumhouse productions

Blumhouse Productions

Blumhouse productions is an American television and film company, which was founded by Jason Blum. Blumhouse Productions are the known producers of Paranormal activity, Split, Get Out and insidious. We had to decide if we wanted to use Blumhouse Productions or Twisted Research. As we wanted out opening to maintain professionalism and be a success, we based success off of revenue as we thought that a successful film would gross more. On a whole, Twisted Pictures averaged a higher revenue which is one of the reasons we prefer it to Blumhouse. Also, because our film opening is an independent, low budget project, we could like as much assistance in terms of production as we can get.
However, Blumhouse Productions are known for their extremely popular but low budget films. As mentioned previously Get Out and Split being the most recently popular ones. Both films received high ratings for the intensity but intellectual plot lines.


Get out revenued over 30 million dollars in its first weekend alone on only a 4 million dollar budget. This shows the company's strength and ability in terms of producing films. However, as a group we decided that Blumhouse had great strength in psychological horrors, but Twisted Pictures seemed to be the stronger company in terms of our supernatural sub-genre. Therefore, after much thought we decided that it was best to go with the company that would be more suited to us, which was Twisted Pictures.

-Tibet Keskin

Final Piece- The Crypt

The Crypt

Shown below is our final piece. We were all very pleased with the final product and believed that we had achieved what we had planned to and more.

In terms of the process, we believe that our biggest struggle was creating a plot with smooth continuity that would make sense to the audience. It took us around four drafts to finalise our ideas and begin fully editing the opening. Another obstacle of ours, was the flashback. Primarily, we struggled to make the flashback look obvious to the audience without it seeming too exaggerated. So we played around with many effects and transitions to make sure we found the perfect one to portray our flashbacks. A final important obstacle of ours was music, we ended up having to layer multiple sounds to create our final piece, including low toned music, whispers, rain drops and tension building music. This is because our initial music was almost perfect, however, we all believed it didn't have enough tension or trepidation behind it, so we had to layer numerous sounds to create our desired effect.

Despite our obstacles however, we were very pleased with our improvements in our skills in Final Cut Pro and how the overall opening turned out! And we are looking forward to what we can learn, improve and create next!

-Caera Mendez

Uses and Gratifications Theory

Uses and Gratifications Theory 

The uses and gratifications theory is the study of the way the general public consume and react to media. It states that "consumers use the media to satisfy specific needs or desires." Meaning that many people will use social media, such as Twitter, to seek out entertainment along with the finding of information and to communicate with those who have also watched the programme, for example. Or alternatively, to show expression and opinions of a programme. The use of the social media after watching a programme or film, determines the reaction to the media and determine the way it is used.

A typical study of uses and gratifications explores the reasoning behind media consumption coupled with the consequence associated with it. For example, a strong example to use is the use of Twitter during the Britain's Got Talent live final. Many will often tweet their thoughts on each act and interact with others, doing the same thing. It has been identified that this media consumption is done for many purposes, including, relaxation, social communication and entertainment.

-Caera Mendez

Preliminary Story board

Storyboard for the Preliminary Task

Before creating our preliminary task, I decided to draw out a basic storyboard with sketches and notes to mark out our shots, ensure we include a match-on-action shot, dialogue, the 180 degree rule and a shot-reverse-shot.

Storyboard

Storyboarding our Final Piece

Before starting our final film opening, we decided that we wanted to create a brief storyboard of our plot and camera framing.

I made a template using a computer and hand drew a series of images that we wanted to replicate in our film opening. I also listed the actions and camera techniques used alongside the drawings.

Character Costume Deconstruction

Freddy Krueger - Deconstruction

Make up:

As seen in the photo the SFX make up and mask is one of the most distinctive things about the character.

It is clear from this image that both masking and SFX have been used to enhance fear in the audience and create realism that he was actually burnt in a fire. 

The use of the fake teeth helps to accentuate the rotten look he implies, however, it also helps to show that he is still human and still withholds human features, so makes it more scary for the audience as it creates realism.

However, the obvious reasoning behind the mask, is to show that he has been burnt in a fire and make the storyline seem as believable to the audience as possible. 

Clothing:

In terms of clothing, Freddy Krueger is always framed wearing the same clothes; the stripy jumper and dark trousers/jeans. This allows him to be distinguishable from others for the audience, but also helps him stand out easily as the colours of his top, do contrast to create quite a bright look.

Also, because the predominant colour is red, this signifies blood, danger and along with the black and dark colours, death. This assists in the foreshadowing of the character and his role in the film, although it may be seen as pretty obvious from the onset!

The hat, is to presumably to help cover his scaring on his head, and make it a little more watchable for the audience. But it could also accentuate his human features, and how he went from being a normal living man to a murderer, creating more fear and weariness among the audience.

The hat also often shadows half his face, creating low key lighting focusing on his face. This creates an ominous effect and makes him more fearful to the audience as they can not see directly what he is. 

Hand:

Finally, the hand is one of the most important aspects of the character of Freddy Krueger in all films. The four knives which are attached to a plastic glove, is definitely what completes Freddy Krueger's frightening image. It creates the feeling of brutality and fear among the audience, as they begin to see no one is spared. 

The discolouredness of the glove, also suggests it has been used plentiful times giving the impression that he has killed many.

Also, the concept of the knives replacing the nails creates him to be much more powerful and able than the average human being and almost unbeatable. 

Finally, it is a distinctive prop of the character, so assists to keep the brutal reputation of Freddy Krueger going.

-Tibet Keskin

Location Scouting - Bexleyheath Church

Location Scouting - Catholic Church in Bexleyheath

After a period of deliberation, we eventually decided on our final location being in a church in area close to our school: 

Pros of this location: 

• Supplies a vast amount of mise en scene to work with so we could gather the best shots 
• It is in an accessible location near to our school so we wouldn't have to travel far with the equipment
• Provides toilets meaning we could work for extended periods 
• No noises or disturbances during our filming hours so it is completed without interruptions
• Permission to use this church was easily granted
• In a safe location
• Has prominent stained glass windows which work perfectly to gain some effective shots 

Cons of this location:

• A lot of natural light which could vary throughout the day
• The church was only open for particular hours of the day meaning we may have to alter our school scheduled in order to go there
• Services and masses may effect the timings and availability of the church
• Lack of electricity to charge our equipment

It is evident that this location provides far more positive aspects rather than negative thus it is likely that we will use this for our final location to film in.

Film Title

Film Title 

After completing our film opening, we were left with an immensely difficult decision of what to name our sequence. After hours of deliberation, we formed a spider diagram containing a huge variety of possible options:

We analysed all of our suggestions and formed a list of the top 5. We then did a survey for people to vote between our top 4 which were:
-The Crypt
-Possessed
-The Martyr
-The Sacrifice 

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/L3NZVD6

We then gathered the results from out survey and discussed the outcome to help influence out decision:

From analysing our results, we could see that 'The Crypt' was the most popular option followed by ' Possessed'. We thought 'The Crypt' was very fitting as a 'Crypt' is an underground room underneath a church and since we included a lot of religious imagery in our sequence this name complements the theme perfectly. Additionally, there were several shots of our protagonist in an isolated underground location which could represent some sort of crypt too. Therefore we settled with this option and used this to name our opening sequence. 

Editing Research

Research on Editing 

Editing software

Normally I would use Sony Vegas Pro but seeing as Final Cut Pro was the only available software within the school computers, I had to adapt and research ways to edit, as I was familiar with editing techniques but the methods in which I could achieve these techniques were completely different. Editing research was useful to me , as final cut pro was not an editing software I was familiar with.

Visual effects

A 'fantasy eye effect' on my eye to highlight the 'unknown' essence within the scene. This could have be done via Photoshop for every single frame within the short shot but that would be extremely time consuming, so using Final Cut Pro and I assigned two glossy eyes to some frames which tracked accordingly with the eye. Points were added on my eyelid so that when my eye opened, the glossy eye showed up with it. This ensured that the effect looks realistic and subtle. I found that the close up shot of my eyes coupled with the 'fantasy eye effect' had the most effect on the audience as I had asked several people if it was better with or without the effect and if it should be in a different camera frame.

Flashback

 I also had to research what would be the best way to represent a flashback and found that the 'flash' effect on Final Cut Pro would be the best to show a flashback. I also discovered via editing that a slight change in the colour, saturation and hue would be best to convey a flashback. Near to the end of the scene we thought that it would be most suitable to use quick cut editing using short clips as a montage to increase the tension in cohesion with the music. 

Transitions

The definition of a transition is 'the process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another'. In the context of film making, a transition is what the editor shows between 2 shots. The connection of the scenes is the transition. Transition can be the next consecutive scene, or it can be a fade or image change. To create our flashbacks we had to use transitions to change from one scene to another.

Target Audience

Who is our Target Audience?

Seeing as how it is typical the younger generation that enjoy watching horror films, we decided that our target audience was going to be that of teenagers and young adults.

Certification

However, seeing as our film fit the criteria for being an 18 certificate, we had to debate whether a film aimed at teenagers yet is an 18 certificate is a contradictory statement. After discussing whether we thought this would be an issue, we decided that a vast proportion of our audience would be teenagers aged 18 and 19, and young adults in their early twenties. Furthermore, we subtly acknowledged the fact that although slightly younger audience's would not be able to view our film in cinemas, the unfortunate inevitability of younger audiences viewing our film at home is apparent.

What do our target audience want to see?

Costuming

• subtle costuming
• realism rather than extravagance
• casual, stylish clothing
• modern, contemporary clothing

Imagery

• visceral yet thoughtful
• controversial (perhaps a focus on taboos)
• set at night-time
• violent scenes
• lots of tension build-ups and releases
• unpredictability 

Casting

Casting for the Role of our Protagonist

Actor 1:

- subverts the stereotype of the main victim being female

- of a young adult age range

- more experienced acting skills

Actor 2:

- conforms to the convention of the main victim being a young female

- would allow us to experiment with innocent, natural-looking makeup as opposed to heavy makeup

- of a young adult age range which would appeal to our target audience

 Actor 3:

- again, conforms to the stereotype of the main protagonist being a female

- feminine features and long hair

- developed acting skills

 Actor 4

- subverts stereotypical feminine victim

- of a young adult age range

- limited acting skills

Conclusion

In conclusion, we as a group decided that actor 1 was going to be our actor of choice. The fact that he is a member of our group means that he will have a similar creative vision to us when acting and portraying his role. Although actor 2 was also a member of our group, we liked the fact that actor 1 subverted the stereotypical gender roles often displayed in horror.

18 certificate films - survey monkey

SURVEY MONKEY

After we decided to certify our film as an 18. We decided it would be best to research what makes an 18 certificate differ from a 15 in terms of horror, so therefore we made a survey monkey to ask general members of the public. We initially thought to only ask over 18s, because we believe that it would only be appropriate to ask them, however, after much thought, we decided it would be best to ask people of all ages. This is because it will allow us to know why someone of a younger age would not feel comfortable watching an 18 and we believed it was best to find that out from the younger generation themselves. Here are some of the questions we asked and their results. 

From the results of this question, we inferred that our film definitely certified as an 18 as it included challenging and taboo themes, such as controversial religious aspects etc.

We were slightly shocked by this result, as our film does not include any extremely violent or fighting themes. However, we decided that not all 18 certificate films had to include this and as nearly half voted "only the majority of them". 

From this result, we were able to reinforce our decision of making it our film an 18 certificate. This is because our opening does include taboo and challenging themes such as stigmata.

This really assisted in our research, as it allowed us to differentiate what we need to do to make sure our film is correctly certified.

-Caera Mendez

Pre-Lim Task

Pre-Lim Task

In our evaluation process, we decided it would be a useful to watch our pre-lim task to see our improvement. It is obvious from this piece that we have made vast improvement in our variation of cinematography, for example angles and movement, as well as our actually skills involving holding the camera.
Another great improvement that we saw, was our confidence when it came to post-production. We are now much more confident to add special effects and music. As well as, creating over shoulder shot reverse shots and match on action, has appeared to become much easier for us to do, due to our on going practice.

-Caera Mendez

Permission for Filming the Church Scenes

Obtaining Permission to Film in the Church

Before we had finalised a location, we drew a list of possible Churches we could film in. We chose Churches that were local to our school, so all members of our group would be able to visit them easily. 

I began by phoning the number of Church. If they seemed interested, I asked for their email address and sent them an email following this format:

Dear Mr/Mrs

I spoke to you earlier regarding a group of four of us using your grounds and interiors for a few hours to film a scene for our A Level media project.

The filming would last approximately 1-2 hours, and would involve us talking a few shots of the general interior of the Church - the stained glass, the decor etc.

We aim to film at some point across the next week, however we are fully flexible as to exact timings - we would be extremely grateful for your help!

The filming has been approved by our teachers from Townley Grammar School.

To contact us, please either phone on 0*********1 or email a*******************s@gmail.com

Thank you so much for your cooperation. We look forward to hearing back from you.

Kind regards,

Anna 

Three of the Churches I phoned either didn't answer or were unable to allow us permission due to the vicar not being present. The fourth was happy to let us film, but was only available during hours in which we had school.

Eventually, we came across a small Church near our school. We went in and verbally asked for permission as we had our camera equipment on us due to filming a few test shots prior to finding the Church. Our request was granted and we filmed there and then, spending a few hours perfecting shots and angles.

The aesthetic of our final location was actually the best we had seen, due to the fact that that particular Church was Catholic, which means it had more vibrant decoration than the other Protestant Churches. 

Typography

Credits and Typography within our Film Opening

Due to our sequence being the opening scene of a film, we will need to include a set of opening credits

via GIPHY

The Credits

Before starting our typography, we made a draft list of all the credits. To find out an appropriate order for the credits we watched a few film openings to record how the credits are shown. The list runs as follows:

• A Twisted Pictures Production
• Directed by...
• Produced by...
• Edited by...
• Screenplay by...
• Casting by...
• Costuming and Make Up by...
• Director of Photography - 
• Music by...

The Typography

We wanted to use typography that was clear, attractive and professional.

Eventually we settled on this style - it is simple and clear. We wanted to avoid cliche horror fonts with blood drops and special effects, as we wanted a more understated font to gently compliment the visuals on screen.

The Animation

We wanted our text to have a flickering effect. Initially, we did not know how to get such an effect, so we researched on the internet to see if there were any online applications to download animated text. After an unsuccessful search, we decided to create the font manually. To do this, we created multiple layers of the text and resized each one, flipping some of them upside-down or at an angle. Once we had created this multi-layered text we simply spliced each of them to be visible for only a short time (a fraction of a second). When viewed in normal speed, this gives the effect of flickering.

A still image of some of the rotated text.

Audience Feedback after our Final Piece

Consumer Feedback After Release of our Final Piece

How did we spread the word of our opening and promote it?

Due to this being a small project, we mainly targeted our film opening towards our friends and family - however this is justified due to the majority of our peers being teenagers and therefore members of our target audience.

To raise awareness of our video, all four of us shared the link on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. Doing this invited people to watch, like and comment on our video which made us realise the effect social media can have on the promotion of real media.

The Feedback

The audience feedback was mostly positive for the opening. As you can see we have got almost 430 views and we have got 34 likes and zero dislikes. There was also 14 comments.

Upon reading through the comment section on our video, we realised that people found our video suspenseful and scary, which is what we wanted. We also received positive feedback on our overall editing, highlighting parts such as the music, framing and sound effects.

Overall, we have come to conclusion that our film opening was a success, as many members of our target audience gave incredibly positive feedback. We also received verbal compliments from members of our school community as the link to our video was shared around.

Costuming Research

Costuming Drafting and Research

Colour

There is only one character in the opening scene of our film, thus leaving us only one costume to think about.
In the end we decided to use all black clothing for the costume. Black is usually associated with formality, mystery, death and evil, which is all closely relevant to the opening scene. The colour black is also associated with the unknown and usually has connotations which are negative. Death is usually also associated with the colour black as usually you would wear all black to a funeral. Due to the simplicity of the opening, we decided to use black and make black the only colour within the costume. Seen in the gif, the all black shoes and all black coat shows uncertainty and is mysterious. On the jacket there is a small laurel wreath which was something given to victors in ancient Greek Olympics. All black Air Max 93's are also used which had a Nike logo on it which had no relation with Jesus Christ or our genre of horror and we found that if the Nike logo was visible that it would take away from the mystery of the opening so using lighting and camera framing, we decided not to show the Nike logo.

We also thought that black would blend in well with our low-key lighting in the cellar, and would not distract the audience in the way white or pale-coloured clothing would.

Style

The jacket is very simple, with a plain cut and hood - typically associated with the teenage generation. We wanted a costume that would not be distracting, as the protagonist is supposed to be representative of a 'normal' teenager.

We chose our final costume because the target audience of our film is predominately teenagers. We wanted our protagonist to be a character the audience can relate to, so we felt that it was important to dress him in stereotypically teenage contemporary clothes.

Use of Photoshop within our Project

Use of Photoshop within our Project

For the film logo, I used Photoshop and DaFont for the text available. The logo initially consisted of the writing only but after some serious consideration, another addition was needed so the symbolic image of Jesus Christ was added. The 'T' in 'The Crypt' seemed the most suitable place for the image to go as the 'T' is very similar to the cross of Jesus Christ and seeing as the whole of the project is about Jesus Christ and stigmata, it was deemed suitable. 

The first image did not fit so I had to use photoshop on the image and use the warp tool to stretch the arms and legs so that it would fit on the whole of the 'T'. To maintain professionalism the black background within some of the text had some white in it which contrasted which disrupted the consistency of the colours. 

For the shot above 'The Crypt' logo, there is what is called a 'fantasy eye effect' on my eye to highlight the 'unknown' essence within the scene. This could have be done via photoshop for every single frame within the short shot but that would be extremely time consuming, so using Final Cut Pro and I assigned two glossy eyes to some frames which automatically moved with the eye. Points were added on my eyelid so that when my eye opened, the glossy eye showed up with it. This ensured that the effect looks realistic and subtle.

Mise en scene

Mise en scene

In our film opening, there is two locations. One is in a church and the other is in an unknown cellar-type location. Considering the horror genre of our film, after some further research, we decided to
keep the mise en scene subtle but effective.

Candles

As you can see from this image, a few candles would have added to the eerie atmosphere within the church.The candle would symbolise light within the darkness of life and would also represent illumination. It it the symbol of holy illumination within the spirit of truth. Candles were normally lit in times of death as they signified the light in the next world, Christ being the light. Due to the candles actually being a source of light itself, it also inputted to the lighting within she scene even if it was a small factor. Due to the candles being associated with Christ, we thought it to be a suitable prop for our film opening which is a reason why candles were used in both the scene in the church and the scene in the unknown cellar

Props within church

Due to one of the scenes being inside of a church, some of the mise en scene was already there but we had a choice of which things we deemed suitable for our scene and some of the images on the wall were what we used. There were also large wood carvings and showed this in our opening in the short flashbacks to maximise the tension felt by viewers. A religious symbol belonging to Christianity is the cross. The Cross is used religiously to represent the crucifixion of Jesus Christ but used correctly in horror films  and it can be used as a force against evil. The cross works well with out opening as it relates to stigmata through Jesus Christ. Due to this, the cross was used in both the church and the underground cellar scene. As there was imaginably many crosses in the church, unlike the underground cellar, we didn't have to make one ourselves so we just used the ones maybe in pictures in the walls or the ones in the wood carvings.

Rosary Beads

Here is a Rosary bead necklace with a  cross. A rosary bead is used by Christians and is used as a form of prayer in the Catholic Church. The beads are used to count the component prayers. People devote their lives to the rosary bead and Pope John Paul II called it "among the finest most praiseworthy traditions of Christian contemplation". Popes and scientists have highlighted the meditative and calming values and elements of the rosary bead. We thought rosary beads would also be suitable as it also directly relates to Christ and is a form of prayer and plays a big role in Catholicism .

Research into colour after opening

The importance of colour within film

Natural colour

The further research done on films, the further the knowledge on the importance of colour expanded and the group quickly came to a conclusion that colour played a significant role in film production and film development. Colours convey emotions usually either subtly or very explicitly. Light and colour go hand in hand, seeing as colours are the components of light. Anything that is a source of light or reflects it has an effect on what it's seen on and on the colours of the scene. We thought about our scenes we were going to film in and the lighting that they were going to be in. After some serious consideration we decided that we would use dull colours like grey or black, very simple colours not many bright colours in the scene. The way we could implement these colours is via props and costuming. Colour is vital as it can divert the way someone thinks or cause certain reactions. Certain colours can even suppress your appetite or raise your blood pressure. Colour can be used as a form of communication as the colour black universally has connotations of death and the unknown.

Colour in costuming

For costuming we found that all black clothing was suitable as we thought it would be best applicable for our genre of horror. Due to the simplicity of the costume, this allowed us to manipulate emotions of the viewer using colour. By only using the colour black in the costuming, we expected a uncanny atmosphere from the scene and a sinister nature of the costuming itself.

Colour in editing

We found that the most effective way to set a mood was actually post-production editing by editing the hue, contrast and saturation of the scene to generate a 'film look'. This film look allowed the film opening to maintain professionalism. Several people were asked about the opening with or without the change in contrast and saturation and they said that they preferred it with the change in both contrast and saturation. Changing the saturation can make the scene more vivid or muted.  

Arrangement of our Film Opening

Problems with the Arrangement of our Film Opening

After filming the entirety of our footage, we began to edit our sequence following our storyboard. We  arranged the sequence starting with the cellar scenes, with the Church scenes featuring as flashbacks.

However, we began to notice that the narrative was unclear, as we struggled to highlight how the Church scenes are in fact merely visions. To solve this, we played around with moving the Church scenes to the very start of the sequence. This gave a completely different feel to the piece, yet didn't help much with the narrative clarity.

We then decided to try again with using the Church scenes as visions appearing later on in the sequence, using different techniques to clarify the nature of the scene. One method we used was using a blurring transition between scenes of reality and flashback. Although this increased the clarity, the transitions themselves looked unprofessional and amateur. We agreed on the fact that cleaner, simpler transitions are of a better aesthetic standard.

Finalising our arrangement is an ongoing process, and one which will require much thought from our team.

28 Weeks Later - Deconstruction

28 Weeks Later - Opening

Mise en Scene

Lighting:

• The lighting is low key to show how they are hidden out of the natural world and natural light.
• The room seems to be candle lit to show how they are living with the bare minimum with no electricity.
• When ever natural light seems to show in the sequence, the zombies make an appearance, perhaps suggesting that the natural world is dangerous and the must hide from it.
• Harsh lighting only ever appears on the zombies enhancing their features and their fearful appearance.
• Also, when the characters first open the door to the young boy, they seem to be blinded by the light, implying that they have been away from natural light for a while maybe due to them being in hiding. 

Location:

• The location seems to be completely boarded up by wood, this symbolises their want to conceal from the dangerous, outside world. 
• If you look closely to the mese en scene of the house, it shows quite normal day to day items to make the story line seem as believable and life like as possible.
• When the door is opened an you see outside, the location seems to be isolated in fields which conforms with the conventional horror genre of attacking those isolated and desolated.

Clothing:

• All of the characters' clothing seem to be in harmony with the rest of the mese en scene. dark, plain, yet effective in showing the little the characters have, as well as presenting, once again, the chilling atmosphere.
• The young boy's clothes are covered in dirt to symbolise his struggle and his fight against the zombies. 
• The boy is the only character wearing white perhaps foreshadowing that he is the only one with life or youthfulness left, and maybe the only one destined to survive.

Hair Styles and Make Up:

• Both make up and hair of the living humans is kept minimal to connote them living with the bare minimum.
• On the other hand, the make up used on the zombies is strong and lurid to the viewer. The zombies are shown covered in blood to promote fear as it shows how they eat human flesh. They are also made to look pale to signify that they are "dead". They also have red eyes to also make them look inhumane and obscene.
• The hair on the zombies is often made to look back combed and knotted, to imply their disarrayed way of living, as well as their lack of life. 

Camera - Framing/Angles/Movement:

• The extreme close up shot of the boy eating really emphasises his facial expression and how hungry and fearful the boy is because of the zombie apocalypse.
• The gif below shows yet another fearful facial expression, using a head and shoulders shot to emphasise it.

• Throughout the sequence, point of view shots are used to create a more ominous and fearful effect on the audience, as well as a sense of realism almost as if it is happening to them.
• The over head shot of the new zombie attacking the male character assists to prove how fearful the attack from a zombie is, as well as see how, up close, the strength of the SFX and how effective it.
• The low camera angle of the zombie, when her eyes turn red, is a really effective shot to create trepidation and shock within the audience. 
• When the older male character is being attacked by the zombies at the end of the sequence, the camera angle is high and over the top of the male character to highlight the violence of the attack. The camera is also jolting during this part of the sequence to create the effect of the audience being part of the attack and maybe even doing the attack themselves.

Editing:

• The editing is very quick and fast paced, especially during the attack as it creates a more dangerous effect and fearful atmosphere.
• Also, it is very effective as the audience is unable to see what is actually happening exactly creating an unnerving and ominous effect. 

Sound:

• The off-screen non-diegetic sound effect of when the boy is allowed into the house, gives an almost angelic effect, perhaps suggesting that the boy may be a hero in the film.
• The diegetic sound of the zombies, helps to create trepidation and fear within the audience. It also gives the zombies life as if they are real for the audience.
• The diegetic sound of the walls crashing when the zombies break into the house, are harsh and generate a restless feel for the fear of being made jump for the audience, making the film much more scary as it always keeps the viewer on edge. 
• The off-screen diegetic sound of when the zombies bite the characters arm makes a repulsive and sickening sound for the viewer and is very likely to make the audience squeamish, making the film much more effective in its genre.

-Caera Mendez

Review of Filming - Day 3

Review of Filming

After arriving to our location, we were able to set up our camera and begin filming straight away. We began by getting shots of the mese en scene of the church. For example, the stain glass windows, the crucifix and the pictures on the wall.
Because the church we were given permission to use was catholic, it was highly decorative so proved really useful to our filming. It was decorated with beautiful stain glass windows which the light shined perfectly through for our shots. (As shown below)

We were able to really play around with shots and lighting with our camera and stabiliser. We filmed many low shots of feet and high shots of the stain glass windows to vary our shots, to make our film as professional as possible. We also filmed two match on action shots so that we can show our professional editing skills to the audience.

-Caera Mendez

Warner Bros Research

Warner Bros

We wanted to ensure we had a variety of options of production companies to choose from before settling on a final decision. Therefore research on a major company such a Warner Bros was useful to expand our knowledge within this area. 

Warner Bros. Entertainment inc. is  an American entertainment company, head quartered in Burbank, California and is one of the "Big Six" major American film studios. It is responsible for the development and production of several blue -ray, digital distribution, comic books, video games and broadcasting with its most successful project being the eight Harry Potter films. 

Being one of the most prestigious and valuable companies in the world, it consists of more than 75,000 hours of programming, along with almost 7,000 feature films and a huge 5,000 television programs which are individually comprised by multiple of thousands of individual episodes. 

Warner Bros demonstrated its potential to create a huge revenue in 2015, as it was it's fifth consecutive year to reach over 3 billion receipts.  

This company have produced various horror films which is the genre we are interested in. These consist of 'Annabelle', 'The Conjuring', 'Lights Out' and 'The Exorcist'. This is useful to know as this makes it a strong option that may be suitable for out film opening.  

Below is the Warner Bros. Pictures introduction:

Final piece- Lighting

Lighting in our final piece:

The location of our final piece was in an underground cellar which provided us with no natural light. This worked to our advantage in a way as it meant we would not have to worry about the changes in light, which would occur throughout the day. However, this meant we had to use our creative initiative to provide our own lighting. 

We gained the majority of our lighting through candle light as this granted a natural, warm glow which made the location seem more realistic:

This was effective as the warmness of the candles produced an eerie atmosphere due to the shadows created which highlighted the authenticity of the walls and the cracks within them. However, this candle light was not powerful enough to light the whole room so we had to improvise. We did not own any professional lighting equipment therefore we resulted to the torch on our phone. However, we realised that this created a light which was too white and dissipated the warm tones we were aiming for. Therefore we covered the light with a piece of yellow paper to act as filter. This ended up working very effectively and lighted up the whole environment fully whilst giving it an eerie appearance. 
We also liked the fact that the lighting produced many shadows around the room giving it depth which ensures some areas are darkened making it compliment the genre perfectly.   

Filming Schedule - Day 3

Filming Schedule

For our final day of filming, we have been able to get permission to go off site during school hours, to go to a church when it is open, so that we can film from inside. By doing so, we will be able to complete our montage editing part of the sequence. 

The day we have chosen to film is 31/1/17. Our aim for our final day of filming, is to get as much footage of religious imagery such as stain glass windows and crosses as possible. Our main aim, is to get as big as a variety as possible of camera angles, movement and framing.

The filming schedule for 31/1/17:

0745: Meet at location (church)

0800: Set up camera equipment

0810: Film as much religious imagery as possible

0900: Review our shots

0930: Try various camera angles, framing and movement of different shots

1000: Re-film any necessary shots (both inside and out of the church)

1030: Review shots again and re-film any necessary shots

1100: Back to school

Hopefully, by following this schedule, we will be able to achieve all the shots we wanted with the diverse use of camera framing, movement and angles. And by doing so, finish our editing of our film opening. 

-Caera Mendez

Film Deconstruction - 'Halloween'

'Halloween' -Opening Scene Analysis And Deconstruction

Directed by John Carpenter, the 1978 slasher film, is set in a small suburban town in western Illinois. It strongly sticks to the conventions of a usual slasher films by including gore and a masked killer.

Mise en Scene:

Location:

• The house is filled with normal day to day items to create the sense of realism for the audience.
• Also, as it is the victims home, it is more close to home for both the victim and the audience so therefore creating a more sympathetic and fearful feel from the audience. 
• For example, it has furniture which is usual and common to that time period which not only creates realism but also the thought that it can happen to anyone amongst the audience
• The house is also decorated modernly to incorporate the sense of realism again
• The house is shown as friendly family home to prove the innocence of the victims to make the audience sympathise with the victim more.

Furniture and interior 

• The house shown at the beginning of the scene contains muted colours for a  homely feel
• The decor is basic and simple with no extreme tastes or styles which may be distracting. This also keeps the scene relatable to as wide of an audience as possible.
• There is a large dining table which suggests the building is a family home.
• Also, in part of the sequence, there are children toys visible once again promoting the concept of a family friendly home. 

Clothing

• The characters are wearing very typical teenage clothes which makes them more relatable
• Towards the end of the scene the girl wears very little clothing, which may hint at her promiscuity. The conventions of slasher films mean that often the flirtatious female character is killed, so clothing her in this way foreshadows her death.
• At the very end of the opening, the boy is shown to be wearing a clown costume. Clowns are a common fear of many, so the use of this costume plays on the contemporary audience's fears. However, clowns are also often use for fun and pleasure for children, thus subverting there normal use.
• The young boy carries a knife which informs the audience that it was he who previously killed the woman.
• The two men surrounding the young boy are wearing smart suits, which is a symbol of their authority and power over the young boy. This is interesting because it is actually the young boy who has the power in this scene as he takes the life of another.

Hairstyles and Makeup

• The scene features very little evidence of creative hair and makeup design - the costumes are kept simple to make the characters as relatable as possible.
• The 'killer', when shown has a mask on, perhaps hiding not just his identity but also his age as he is such a young child.

Lighting:

• The scene is set at night time which gives an eerie low lighting effect.
• The house, when the killer enters, is shown to be low lit, so therefore, also low key lighting, so continuing the eerie atmosphere of the scene.
• There seems to be full shadow over the victims face, using backlight only; thus promoting her insignificance and lack of sympathy for her death to the killer.

Camera Framing and Camera Angles:

• When killing his victim, a point of view shot is used to create an ominous effect for the audience. Also, the framing of this shot seems to be quite low down, perhaps foreshadowing for the viewers that the killer is a child.
• Also, in the final scene, the dolly shot moving away from the child, also creates a foreshadowing effect for the audience as it leaves an unanswered question as to whether or not the child actually committed the crime. 
• The point of view shot, also implies that the crime was committed purposely by the killer.

Editing:

• During the murder scene, there is an effect to show that the killer is wearing a mask perhaps to hide his identity and human like features from the victim. - However, it later shows that this does not work because of the the victim then questions his identity.

Sound:

• The off-screen diegetic screaming of the victim promotes her fear and terror as she is being killed.
• The off-screen non-diegetic music has a slight build up to create tension for the audience. It is also very much the stereotypical slasher genre music, making it obvious to the viewers the type of film and what to expect. For example, gruesome and gruelling scenes.
• The off-screen diegetic sound of the crickets the desolation and isolation of the location and how far they are from everything else and therefore conforming with the slasher genre. 
• The off-screen diegetic sound of the knife coming into contact with the victim accentuates the gruesome extent of the attack. It also makes the scene quite difficult to watch as it sounds so life like, making the audience quite uncomfortable. 
• At the end of the opening, the music builds up greatly to emphasise the significant of his crime as well as who the killer is himself. 

-Caera Mendez