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: