Feedback

Feedback- These are two of the feedback that we gained, i chose these pacifically because one is a negative feed back and the other is a positive reflection of the production;

NEGATIVE“George : yeah its good, it’s a bit jolty between some cuts and the and was a bit jumpy, bit blurry on the Cu of the picture, not sure if you were going for it or not but yeah other than that its pretty good, I really like your production company.”

POSITIVE“Nice one. I like the subtle pink colour that's in the first few shots and then gradually disappears - don't know if you intended that. And the sounds make it really creepy, but without ever actually revealing why it's creepy. Great stuff.”

Feed back.

On Wednesday 3rd February, our class had a gathering, to gain feedback on our opening sequences, so that we can make changes if we agree with what is said on the feed back sheets, the sheets contained three tables, basically a tick list that each of the groups have to tick of and mark appropriately, for example of the tick list questions was asking whether the editing was appropriate to the sequence, tick if it is there, then mark in the next box M (minimum) up to E (excellence).
From the feedback that we gained, we felt that the opening sequence that we created, had got alot of good feedback, the only negative feedback that we received was a note saying that our opening sequence needs to make more sense, i feel this was inappropriate compared to their opening sequence, i feel ours holds the tension to make the audience want to watch more to gain more knowledge of what is happening. But feedback is feedback from another point of view so i will except this maturely and take on board what the feelings are from one in 20 people are.

Research and planning

BBFC; British Board of Filming Classification

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), originally British Board of Film Censors, is the organisation legally responsible for film classification within the United Kingdom. It was believed to be responsible for video and some video games until August 2009. The director of this organisation is David Cooke, the president; Sir quention Thomas.

The film we are producing, will be rated as a 15, the reason for this is becuase it contains some disturbing scenes, and some strong language. So it is recomended that the audience watching is NOT under the age of 15, for your own benifit.

Research and planning

PG; also known as Parent Guardian, this certificate is used on producitons that recommend the following audience to have a parent with them whilst watching the production, as it may contain substances that the child, underage dont reconise.

15; This is used to persuade the viewers to be this age before they continue to watch the production.

all ages addmitted, anyone can watch the film/programe, as it does not contain anything unsuitable for children.

12 and 12a; 12 the is the certifiacte that implies that the production is only suitable for 12's and overs. where as 12a implies that it is not suitbale for children under the age of 12 to watch, and those under 12 can only watch is admitted by an adult at all times during the performance.

distributer

There are many productions that I feel may suit our film genre, the psychopligical theme of the thriller genre reflects on many films like; Psycho and The Shinning. Even though our genre is a psychological horror, i do think that the film overall reflects to the film 'The Ring' being haunted by a young girl. These key films i have just mentioned have three different prioductions teams.
Psycho;Paramount pictures, and Universal Pictures
The Ring; Dreamwork Pictures
The Shinning; Warner Bros

My feelings

Overall, there are some negative aspects about the creation and planning of the production, but also a lot of positive objects. For example, the few negative things were that the team wasn’t as strong as expected, because at the beginning i felt as if i was doing all the work and planning everything, but half way through the planning and constructing we all came together and realised how important it is to work together and motivated each other, we held lots of meeting minutes that gained more ideas and schedules, which was going smoothly. The shooting came along and the first shooting was the granddad scene were me and Tisha were filming on our own, i didn’t feel it was successful because the other members didn’t turn up, and we needed to be directed on the filming, but the next time round we completed the girl scene, everything was running kindly, but we managed to lose the shooting of the girls scene, so we had to reshoot, but this was partly a good thing because we got to correct the mistakes. On the positive side of things, i learned the obvious, that the more you put into something the more you get out of it, i put my sweat and tears (literally) into the production and planning, i felt i played a very important role in the team. The production logo was perfect for me, it was simple but it looked very good, our team member created this by doing an installation on the production team that we came up with; ‘screwed productions’ this was a good idea to call it that, because it reflects on our genre, ‘screwed in the head’ is a saying that we implied as the meaning, it’s a definition of mental action, so it suited our genre very well. The music was a huge success; we kept our construction simple because we knew it wouldn’t go wrong, the song was a young girl singing a nursery, simple yet scary, the background music was creepy and effective. Overall i loved the whole process of creating the opening sequence and planning it, i am very proud of the overall object, and what it represents, i have learned allot more than i knew was to know, for example i never knew about the process of the film industry.

Evaluation

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

I have learned more about how important a shot is, and what is represents, i have also learnt more about filming, because it wasnt my key skill in media i have to admit, but i feel i have successfully grown more attention, and want to gain more knowledge in filming, i have learnt more about how important it is to organise and put everything you have into a peice of work. I think that this product creation has changed my way of working in media, its all about documenting and gaining feedback, each day i found myself wanting to change things because i learned aspect of media that day, so i think that is why our product has been a success because our minds have been rapped round it continiously. It also taught me about motivation, because that is key in team work.

Evaluation plan

What have you learned about the technoligies from the process of constructing the the product?

On the technology side of it all, i think I have gained a little more on production computers (imac) than i originally knew, because i had already taken media as a subject in my GCSE course i already had knowledge on the computer side of it all, which i think is a huge benefit for the team, because i was teaching them and i had control over the imac, as selfish as it sounds they didn’t mind because they wanted the production of the opening sequence to go well, they told me what they feel would work with the sequence for example how the shots should be, for example overlapping, fading, and so on, i already know the inside and outs of the computer. I learned about the shots and how to use a camera, because this isn’t my strong point i feel i have learned more on that side of the media, because it once was my weak point and if i were to film more in the future i may have to practice more, because i noticed that during the shots i did the camera was not held steadily, the good side of this is that the shots that i did could have been purposely like this, for example i filmed the over the shoulder shots and this could be a view point from the dead child.

Evaluation plan

How did you attract your audience?

We attracted our audience by setting the video up on the largest video sharing system in the world; youtube. So we loaded the opening sequence on to the internet and we gained loads of viewers, adding up to around 53, but then the video got erased and we had to replace it, the next time we uploaded we gained 122 viewers. To get feedback we asked friends and relatives to give feedback on the opening sequence we produced, we gained feedback from other students in our class, teachers, and friends from each member of the group, feedback comes in handy in the media, it helps to improve, and teaches you what to do next time round when making another form of media.
“George : yeah its good, it’s a bit jolty between some cuts and the and was a bit jumpy, bit blurry on the Cu of the picture, not sure if you were going for it or not but yeah other than that its pretty good, I really like your production company.” This is a quote from one person in particular, I didn’t recognise the some of the problems that was pointed out, but it is good to gain some bad feed back as well as good feedback on our opening sequence, although we felt very positive about our production, and although this made us think twice, we do feel we did do a good job. People pointed out how good the sound effects were, which I felt was a good reflection because we spent a long time planning the music and making sure it was perfect.
“Nice one. I like the subtle pink colour that's in the first few shots and then gradually disappears - don't know if you intended that. And the sounds make it really creepy, but without ever actually revealing why it's creepy. Great stuff.” I like this feedback the most, because it reflects positively on the production.

Evaluation plan

Who would be the audience for your product?

Our targeted audience is from the age of 15 up to the mid forties, the reason for this is because at the teenage stage it is common to enjoy watching horror films, finding the story line interesting and up for judging the film theme, this is similar to the older age in our target audience profile, the elderly audience will not find this suitable for them because they tend to enjoy films that are revolved around drama, love and so on, because our film is set out to create a different emotion to the audience other than just jumping at the screen and screaming, ours contains more than that the storyline is a way of making the audience bight their nails as well as hide under a pillow. The psychological horror is a good way to attract a wide range of the audience, because it isn’t about shooting people or torturing people, it’s about harming them mentally and physically, the fear and worry behind it all, not only does this film scare the audience but it keeps them interested in the story.

Evaluation plan

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

Our film genre is defiantly a horror genre, but I think it is a bit more on the psychological side, because the film is about a double personalities and psycho views. Both psychological and horror films are distributed by the Universal Pictures, because it is a big company and I feel this is what are film idea would deserve, I feel our film reflects on big film like ‘The Shining’ and ‘Psycho’ and ‘The Ring’ because they are all reflecting on the same form of genre. Universal studios are a huge distributor founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle it is one of the 6 oldest American movie studios.

Evaluation plan

How does your media product represent particular social groups?


For both characters introduced the props we used and the way they acted helped represent their own social groups, for example the little girl, who is just an ordinary young girl oblivious to the big wide world not knowing how dangerous it is, holding a lot of imagination, playing with barbies. A girl who’s life will change very soon, the young girl safe and sound in her pink room, spoilt as ever with a double bed, teddy bears and objects to keep her company, this young girl stereotypes her generation, the young girly world all pink and full of barbies.

Whereas the man is not a stereotype of his ‘kind’ for example granddads are all about spoiling there grandchildren and loving them there the top of the family tree and should be someone who their loved ones go to, to talk to about their problems but in this case this man is out for revenge and all the good things he has done are fake, he wants revenge not a happy family. Granddads usually have a dark and gloomy house if they are depressed about losing their wife, but this character is dark and gloomy because he wants revenge.

Evaluation plan

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

For the first few shots, a creepy nursery rhyme is being played in the background; this makes the opening sequence what it is I think, the nursery rhyme is called “Rock a bye baby” a very common nursery rhyme, this song is sung by a young girl. For example one of the shots is of a young girl looking outside the window; this shot is taken from the outside looking in at the young girl, which I feel forms a sense of fear, because of the way the reflection of the outside world is reflecting on the young girl as she looks out into it; what’s the thoughts that are playing on the girls mind, what has the big wide world got in store for this young girl.

Throughout the opening sequence, we aimed to set a creepy theme, changing the emotions that would originally appear when viewing simple clips like a girl looking outside the window, but the effects and use of lighting create different meanings. I think the main priorities are the lighting and the use of music that make our opening sequence what it is. I would like to think that our opening sequence is different than any original opening sequence when it comes to codes and conventions.

The mise-en-scene of our opening sequence works well, because it is set in the best place, both inside and closed in, both scenes were giving different meanings, but had the same feeling of fear. The opening sequence gives clues to what the rest of the film may be like and what to expect throughout. The titles of our opening sequence reflect on the genre of the film, especially how they fade off, and appear, in white giving a ghostly effect. Overall i feel the effects that were present were appropriate for the genre, and theme that was set out.

Our opening sequence

opening sequence, 122 views on youtube

Journal

Due to technical problems we had to reshoot the little girls bedroom scene again. My personal opinions on reshotting something we had already filmed, i feel it was a good opertunity to fixate the shots we felt werent as strong, one problem that occured was that during the filming the time was meant to be quarter to six,but in the previous shooting the time said quarter to seven, so we corrected this.

Although we aimed to refilm the whole scene exactly the same as the original filming we shot, we did feel that it was best to make the scene make more sense, because originally the little girl would climb of the window seal and grab two barbies of her bed then play, drop one of the barbies, then play with them on the window seal, knealing on the floor, then the camera, follows round the room to a teddy bear in the corner and zooms into its eye. But we reshooted the scene to; a shot of the house on the outside, then the little girl on the widnowseal, the girl climbs of the window seal, as usually planned, she then picks up the two barbies from the bed side table, climbs onto the bed, drop the barbie, picks them up, and places them on the bed, she then walks over to the teddy bear in the corner and as she picks it up the camera zooms into the eye. which leads to the other scene.

These are the images of the movements we changed in the scene, we decided that the room looked too much like it was owned by a teengaer, so we wanted to make it a little more suited for a younger girl, so we attempted to draw like a little girl, whihc wasn't too hard. But we had to think of what a young girl would draw, i.e a farm, or a typicall family, overall i feel that the idea of the drawing of the family is rather effective.

this is what our animation is at the beginning of our opening sequence, we wanted our logo to be annimated, so Adam created an animation for it.

storyboard

this is our story board for our opening sequence. we took a long time planning what we wanted our shots to look like and what we wanted in the shot, example props. and when we wanted the music to stop and start. We hope to stick to this as i feel it works rather well.

Shot list

Shot 1- Long Shot - Girls bedroom - House
Shot 2- Mid Shot - Girls Bedroom - Girl looking outside window
Shot 3- Long Shot - Girls Bedroom - Girl gettinig of window seal
Shot 4- Extreme Close Up - Girls Bedroom - Girl picking up barbies
Shot 5- Long Shot - Girls Bedroom - Girl playing with Barbies
Shot 6- Close Up - Girls Bedrom - Barbie dropping
Shot 7- Long Shot - Girls Bedroom - Girl putting barbies on bed
Shot 8- Close Up - Girls Bedroom - girl walking towards teddy bear
Shot 9- Extreme Close Up - Zooms into teddy bear that the little girl picks up
Shot 10- Extreme Close Up -Grandads house- Zoom out of a christmas ball
Shot 11- Long Shot -Grandads house- Shot of christmas tree
Shot 12- Mid shot -Grandads house- Overlap of christmas tree and fireplace shelf
Shot 13-Zoom in shot- Grandads house- photo of mum, dad, and twin babies
Shot 14-Birds eye shot- Grandads house- Candle being lit
Shot 15- close up- Grandads house- tendant swaying one way to another
Shot 16- Over the shoulder shot- Grandads house- man cutting round a small photo of twin babies
Shot 17- Close up- Grandads house- tendant of a clock swaying one way to another
Shot 18- Over the shoulder shot- Grandads house- man measuring up locket to picture
Shot 19- close up- Grandads house- man closses a jewlerry box with the locket inside
Shot 20- close up- Grandads house- man reaches for a photo of mother and daugter in a memory box
Shot 21- over the shoulder shot/ close up- Grandads house- man rips up the photo
Shot 22- Over the shoulder shot- Grandads house- man blows out candle
Shot 23- title of film- 'Spirit of Christmas'




keys- When nursery song is being sung, yellow writing.
keys- when creepy music is playing purple writing

Order of Credits,

This is the order of our credits,

Holli Francis, little girl
Linda Mathews, mum
Andrew Bibs, dad
Alfie Wright, grandad
music by Gerry Mcflow
produced by Tiffany Raj
directed by Jonathan Whit

But on problem occurred; we aimed to have our credits at the most effected shots, so some were close together, and some were set quite apart, for example, there was two names at the beginning, and the rest of the names appeared about 15 seconds after.

Planning the Plan

Characters
We have 4 main characters in our film..
Mum-who faces a rough life, just getting on with what she has left when her own dad sets her up, and makes the rest of her life a living nightmare.
Dad./Grandad- jealous, psycho, and a man ready for revenge, doing what ever it takes to get his own back on his own daughter.
Dead twin- hasnt even lived a life that any child/baby should live. died due to cot death, then her grandad being a psycho takes care of her, and persuades her that no one loves her, so he tells her to haunt her own family.
Living Twin- living twin, with no understanding of why she hasnt got her twin sister, then gets haunted by her own sister, through jealousy and revenge.

Props
neckless.

Setting
girls bed room; the room when we first see it in the film is carm, and clean, and friendly looking; what i mean by this is that the room looks as if has been taken care of, which means the room is owned by someone who will grow to respect the world around her.
front room/dinning room; this is where the old man chnages someone life forever, destroying it with their own love. this room is meant for socializing and just eating and watching tv, what ever it is known to be used for. but now the theme has changed, with a little help from how it is lit, with little light, and

General research into opening sequences

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3GWzLpkVdg#watch-main-areaThe opening of love actually is one of my favourite openings of a film; it covers the genre in every part of the opening. The fact that the opening doesn’t just shows the characters doing the everyday thing like driving or a scene from a house or the setting. The opening of love actually is at the airport where there are realistic clips of people seeing each over again; hugging, kissing, running into each other’s arms, greeting each other in all sorts of ways, the shots of the people are focused, there are lots of people in the airport which is obvious but the clips are focused on the people greeting each over. Even though the clips are based on the loving that is being made, within the focused clip you can see people waiting for their loved ones. Which i think is really nicely done, plus the opening tells me that the film isn’t just going be typically about the relationship LOVE because of the title; love actually I assumed it was going to be about relationships and break ups, but from the opening it clicked to me that the film will be more involved with other kinds of love like; family love, friendship love, and so on. The reason why it is my favourite opening is because the opening proves that the film will relate to us. During the opening Hugh Grant spoke a perfect speech that really touched me, so I know it would be very effective to many other members of the target audience as it takes a lot to get me in the mood. Hugh Grant spoke of many different themes. The way in which he spoke of the connection between different relationships, in such a tendered respectful way which also showed me that the film will be touching. The speech spoke of the world and about hate and anger, he goes on mentioning about the Twin Towers and how that affected the nation. Hugh Grant basically talks about the wonders of different love, and the connection between all of the different kinds of love. Which then as targeted sets the audience in the mood to watch the film. The music is silent and settled right at the start of the opening/film which makes us suspicious and relaxed in a way, and then Hugh Grant says his speech. The opening sets that good loved mood for film. At the end of the speech (which is the end of the opening) Hugh Grant leaves the audience saying that ‘love actually is all around’ which leaves us the audience effected by that quote and the opening, so this means we have high expectations for the rest of the film.

credits

The Incredible Hulk

Other Stars

Casting By

Music By

Music Supervisor

Visual Effects

Supervisor

Associate Producer

Editors

Production Design

Director Of Photography

Executive Producers

Produced By

Screen Story and Screen Play By

Directed By



These credits were presented in this way by the film Th Hulk, the hulk is a horror/drama, but doesnt completely link to our film, this may be so, but it does still give good ideas on how to present our credits.

production breif

Project name- Spirit Of Christmas

Length- Two minutes

Deadline- 22 January

Group Members and their roles- Jessica, Organizer, director, editor. Adam, camera man. Lawrence, the director. Latisha, director. (we all play mixed parts and work together)

Bried overview of content- typical family, with allot of history between the grandad and his daughter, she is a mum of two in which one died, and the grandad seeks revenge by haunting his daughter with her dead child, how does she come to a conclusion that her dad did this to her.

Target audience- 15 and over, with in the teen years, ready for a mind boggling horror.

what comparable products have you researched? i have researched into different horror film opening sequences, for example final destination, saw 2, and Kill Bill volume one.

What is the rational behind this? to create a unique and interesting film that will be watched for its unique storyline, an emotional roller coaster.

How will you test whether the product is successful? question are to viewers.

How will you check that it accomplishes the intended effect?share production with the rest of the class.

What generic codes and conventions will be operating in your text? the lighting not only

represents that it is night time, nightmares etc, but it suggest a dark and mysterious theme to the opening sequence.

what are the obvious messages incorporated in the text? someone setting up an object which about to enter such an innocent life, and destroy a strong family that has been through enough.

Are there any hidden messages incorporated in the text? the Shadow reflecting of the Christmas tree, casting a evil theme.

Identify any resource constraints (time, money, equipment, human resources) that might affect your production and your hopes for your product? both need to be at the same time, because of the lighting.

research, genre

Research and planning

Music, although the idea of the background music being a nursery rhyme does appear to be very effective. I do feel that the background sound being the action that tales place instead of music, does hold a very effective and uneasy feel to the opening sequence. Although we will most probably stick to the original plan, i do feel a bit curious about this idea.

detsiled analyses of a title opening sequence

Saw 2

The famous horror that gets everyone on edge and nail biting right from the beginning. For example at the beginning of Saw 2, a quick glance of a light in a blacked out room, the light appears to be green, maybe because green is a representation of freedom, and wavelength, so maybe this is a way of saying the opposite, so that when ever the light flickers, its a representation that freedom fades away. The next shot that appears is a shot that introduces the production, burg/koules/haffman, the font is presented in capitals and bold, not too bold, i have noticed the opening sequence of the film sticks to green maybe this is because green is known as a gory colour, so this shows that the film will contain gory substances, the writing exits the shot by disfocussing and begins to separate and enlarge, so it is in begins to feel as if it is humiliating the audience, from my point of view, the idea that the font grows and enlarges holds a very effective feel. Then the flicker of the light bulb appears again, I think that the idea of the light bulb in itself is very creative, I like how the look of something so simple can freak the audience out, the bulb doesn't look expensive, the bulb disfocused and then shines, which reminded me of the "light being at the end of the tunnel" saying, giving the feeling that the film may contain hope. As the light flickers off, another title appears which says 'a film by Darren Lynn Bousman' this title appears from left to right, then i feel that the way it exits the shot is rather effective, the title fades the same time as it grows whilst turning to an angle. In a hypnotising way, it forms that kind of spooky theme.

Then the camera starts looking around the room, as if it is from a persons body, as the camera work is not perfected, i know that the camera is purposely doing this because of the heavy breathing, so it is obvious that me as an audience is looking through the characters eyes. The character is looking around the room at all these lighten up objects, that are in green yet again, makes me feel rather curious to why the objects are green, or lighten up in green, maybe to be unique, or to represent something that will later on happen in the movie. And for everything lighten up in green, that catches the characters eye, which allows us to see, is dangerous. So you can sense that something bad will happen in this very room. Then a small mirror on a stick, which looks like a car mirror, is spotted, the character grabs this, which makes me wonder why is it so important to grab this mirror so viciously, when the mirror faces the camera, the man then starts panicking and looks as if he is threatened by what he is seeing, which is understandable from my eyes because his eye looks extremely painful, suddenly he looks down in the mirror to find that he is wearing a color, not just any color but a color that looks as if it will cause death to him, the color maps his face, on bother sides. He grabs it, as if he don't believe what he is hearing. In the mirror you can see a terrified young man, someone who now appears to be a no body, it looks as if he is living his worst nightmare, and as an audience i feel the pain myself.

All of a sudden the camera comes away, so the camera no longer represents the character, and now is a whiteness.The camera shows the position of the man, and shows that he is on his own wearing nothing but pants, which means he is exposed, the could represent that the expose is not just of what he is wearing but of him in himself, maybe he has done something, and now someone is getting there own back on him.

Now the camera creeps up on him, from a long shot to a birds eye, the man looks up in pain, then 8 different shots show, moving closer and closer to the victim, the the shot appears of the color the victim is wearing, it appears to be a mask, made out of steal with nails facing the inside. Someone obviously wants something bad to happen to him.

The man then awkwardly removes himself of the chair, the mask is obviously very heavy because he is wobbling all over the places, looking around the room, his attention is caught by the television in the room that turns on, a china doll that looks really out of place and in a strange way, looks as if it has been man made, the doll then instructs that he knows everything about the victim and then shows him a clip of what he has done to him when he was unconsciously, what he did was cut his eye open and place a key inside of it, the man then releases what has happened to his eye. The man then experiences a wave of anger, not only hatred but confusion, why him? He See's himself being tortured and tries to hold himself together, looking as if he is about to cry. Me as part of the audience, feels a rush of sympathy for him, and imagines myself in that position.

The victim then acknowledges of what he has to do now, and is completely terrified. He then rushes towards the television and pushes it over, whilst doing this i pulls a string which then sets a timer off, now the man panics knowing that he is being timed and is in a rush to get this off. There is no going back now, so he grabs a box and opens it, to find a tool, which looks like a small knife, then a quick shot of an xray of his eye appears, i think this is what the man is thinking when looking at the knife. He grabs the small car mirror and uses one hand to hold his face and another to cut his own eye open, the victim then starts loosing his self confidence and starts going mad, now the camera work is going faster and faster, different shots of the victim and timer and the xray, repeating faster and faster. The victim is so mad that he throws the knife in disbelief, as he does this he dives on his knees, as if he is begging god for forgiveness. A shot of the timer appears, this made me skip a beat in my heart because the time has nearly run out, the close up of the mans eyes, proves that he has seen the timer himself and knows he has failed, he now screams continuously for help. Screaming and screaming and screaming, the camera work, works wonders, the different shots surrounding him, with pressure;suddenly the mask snaps on him, closing on his face.

Now there is no victim just a stranger, a masked face standing with no hope in the world. Hopelessly, a close up of the mask, shows him wearing the mask of death. Then a long shot of the man standing, and wobbling, the man then falls, and a shot of the man laying on the floor with blood pouring out of his head.

The background sound add to the theme of the film, the echo of sounds that are surrounding the audience, the sharp sounds of a squeal from tools, after seven seconds of the opening sequence the sound of heavy breathing appears, there is not any background music, just the sound of screaming and pain, which i feel adds to the genre of horror.

This opening sequence is a very powerful opening sequence, although it doesn't have any credits that introduce the characters in the film, it does announce that the film, is gory and what to expect through out the rest of the film.

journal

shot of the problem that occured.

this is a shot i took of the little girl playing with some dolls house stuff, two problems occured. One of which was that when i asked the young girl to present the stuff in the box out, like a young girl would, she basically did the complete oppisite, it was set up to neatly and looked as if it was set up by a teenager rather than a young one. The other reason which was explained origanly, is that this didnt work well with the rest of the filming, so i feel overall the barbies worked much better.

journal

The spirit of filming

We started of buy filming the outside of the house looking looking in, showing a shot of the only light that was on in the house at night time, effective enough as it was the shot consisted of the young girl looking out the window into the big wide world, in which she lives in. The camera zooms from the house the girls window, i feel this works smoothly. we then film this in the bedroom of the little girl looking out the window, from the teddy bears perspective, this is were the over the shoulder shot of the teddy comes in, i feel this was a successful part of the filming because the house represents that the little girl is safe.
Then we filmed the young girl awkwardly getting of the windows seal and grabbing to barbie dolls whilst sitting on the bed, then 'accidental' dropping the doll on the floor (later on we got a worms eye shot of the doll dropping) then she picks the doll up and plays with it them on the window seal, kneeling on the floor. We played about allot with the angles of this scene, for example i hung outside the window and filmed the scene looking in to the room, another example of how we shot this scene from different angles, is that we got a shot from the opposite corner of the the room, this camera was on the tripod which meant the camera was high up, this meant that we got a birds eye shot of this scene. We also filmed the scene from the nearer side of the room, this meant we got a side shot of the girl in the scene.
Originally we aimed to have the girl climbing of the window seal and getting her barbies out of a box, then sitting back on the window seal, but when we got to the filming this didn't feel as successful, and through honesty we begun to panic, because when this idea came to a conclusion it didn't work out as well as we hoped. So after yet another discussion, we came up with the conclusion of the young playing with her barbies. Then another problem came our way when the young actress couldn't understand what she had to do, so I announced the moves that she had to do, and when it came to it, after many practices, the actress realistically made it work.
The probelms we came across, was that when I did the camera shot outside the window I panicked a little and felt as if i was going to fall out the window, so i begun to shake a little which i knew wouldnt look right in the opening sequence, so i called in Adam who was origanlly filming, but being me i forgot to turn the camera of record so when Adam film, the part that he filmed was cut out, because he turned the camera of record, thinking he did the oppisite.
our plan is to blend both scenes (girls bedroom, to grandads house) together in a unique way, so what we plan to do zoom into a teddy bears eye, which will end the girls bedroom scene and zoom out of the christmas trees ball, the only problem that I know we will overcome is that when we zoomed into the eye of the teddy bear the screen of the camera disfocussed and turned white, where as with the ball on the christmas tree the camera disfocussed and turned black.

journal

shot one; the child's Teddy's.
this is a shot i took of what we had filmed during the production of part one in our opening sequence we are creating. The idea of the teddy bear seemed very 0obvious to us as a group as we want to show the age of the young girl, in an obvious way, the teddy bears sitting on the dressing table was an idea i bought up, because not only does the teddies look neatly presented, which shows that girl is very clean and not lazy. But from the teddy bears perspective the teddies look as if they are looking after the little girl, like they are the young girls guarding angel, but it might be looked at another way, the teddies may be setting the complete opposite of that. why this came across to me was because of the use of different shots we used, for example over the shoulder shot, looking in to the little girls room, at the young girl. so it feels as if someone/something is looking in/spying on the little girl. which suggests that this may happen during the rest of the film.

shot two; filming different shots of little girl

Through out the 2 hours we filmed, we managed to film as many different shots of the little girl as we could. worms eye, birds eye, close up, long shot, mid shot, and so on. i feel that the shot birds eye holds a lot of creation behind it. For example it represents the idea of being looked down on, theme of danger and being scared.

Research and planning

ring around the Rosie
pocket full o'poises
atch chew! atch chew!
we all fall down .

The idea of a nursery rhyme is very effective, the reason for this is feel is because it's every part of a child's life. But the use of this sing is also very creative..why?because this song reflects of a disease that caused death of children many years and years ago. The idea that such a sad song gets sung so happily by young children these days is effective, i feel this works a treat. Children sing the nursery rhymes so calmly and don't even think of the meanings behind the words, and what the songs are actually about. But i think if the background music of our opening sequence is sung as if the singer means every word, and really means it in a hurtful, rather than heart full way. i feel that this will really creative that uneasy, and uncomfortable feeling for the target audience.

Research and planning

Opening Sequence;
Must does..1. Eye Catching2. Interesting3.Different/Unique4.Little Clues to what the film will be 5.Mysterious..matching the theme of the film6.informative7. Effective towards the audience8. Memorable9.can include props10. Needs to set a mood11. original
Opening Sequence;
Must avoid..1.Being Too Long2. The having the title3. Revealing too much4. not Being related to film5. Be Boring

meeting minutes..

MEETING: 18/01/10-
during this meeting we discussed alot of things and it gained our confidence again.. i feel that having meetings does help glue things back together and grow new ideas. we haven't had a meeting for such a long time, so it really helped the production...

in the meeting we discussed new ideas for the opening sequence. we notified the good and bad about the opening sequence development so far.. for example, that we might need to re shoot more shots for the dad scene because this is one of the main priorities of filming; which is to contain many different shots.

we also discussed the background music, whether it may be a calm and relaxing tune to catch the audiences minds and force there emotions to be spooked out, ready for the film, or to have extreme jump and over exaggerated music in the background, a theme that will really liven up the audiences emotions ready for the rest of the film. but in conclusion we as a group decided that the idea of the lively, rock music wouldn't suit the shots and clips in the opening sequence its just like having a romantic film disturbed by extreme rock in the background, it would not feel right for the target audience. so we discussed the ideas and themes that the calm and relaxing music would give compared to the rock and extreme music, and even though it came up positive that the calm and relaxing music would spook the audience, we felt as if the music had to hold a huge effect and really scare the audience so that they are keen and ready to watch the rest of the film, so sticking to the theme of creepy, yet not gory, and keeping to the fact that the film is about trust, death, and haunting. also baring in mind that the film will also consist of a child dying, we felt that a young girl singing a nursery rhyme would be most appropriate for the opening sequence, the reason we felt this was, was because the music will still be calm bit with a pinch of curiosity, and also this is a clue of what may happen in the film. the song we felt had most background was "ring around the Rosie" because the song imply more than what is sung..

we also discussed the bedroom scene that were going to do the next night. we discussed the props and whether we would redo some of the shots of the scene we first did as we felt it was not as successful as we hoped. so after contributing thoughts we then decided that maybe we could make this scene much better than the other scene we created, so it competes with that other part of the opening sequence, and that scene would be more focused on the story line, where as this one would ideally be more on the techniques we put into it, for example we would mirror what we feel didn't work and make it better this time we film the next scene. for example we found that the camera work was very basic and didn't focus as much, we also found that even though the opening sequence is set in the night time, the lighting should be consistent,so this is what will concentrate more on the next time we shoot.

Props, tous as a group we feel that the props and the scene that we film the opening sequence in are strictly placed, for example with in the first part we filmed of the grandads house, we made sure that all the clues of a grandad living there were presented,and anything doesnt look realistic was erased from the scene. from putting slippers out to making sure there was no knickers on the line, so for the other part of the opeing sequence we made sure that the room/scene setting examplifiies of a little girls bedroom, the filming will be taken palce within my house and in my bedroom. we discussed that there should be different clues and props to present and prove that the room belonged to a young girl and not a teenager, so we decided that the props would be:
*young girls clothes
*teddy bears
*barbies
*babies blanket laying on the bed
we would also a clock in the bedroom that says the sametime of the clock in the grandads house -quarter to six.

good and bad.

Good>so far we have edited the part 2 of the opening sequence.. it starts with zooming out of a ball ball on the christmas tree, then shows the christmas tree, and in the background is a cast of the shadow on thinck marroon curtains of the christmas tree. then there is a close up pan shot of the shelf, it slowly follows the clock and zooms into the picture. then it goes straight to the over the shoulder shot of the man cutting and placing a picture of twin girls in a locket and then placing that into a jewlerry box, then ripping up a picture of his wife and daughter. in the backgorund of the locket fixing scene there is clips of different props, for example clock ticking, necless broche and so on.. i feel this holds a good effect, because on that scene of this part of the title sequence the images are overlapping eachover..

Bad> one bad thing that i feel stood out quite alot that i think should be left how it is, but i think should be left and we will make up for it in the other part of the opening sequence.. is the shot of the grandad (over the shoulder shot) and i feel there should have been a little more effort on this shot, even though we did do well for the one chance we had to do it..

journal

this is an image of the coffee table by the fire, although we set it up and made it look as least comfortable as possible, but after shooting it, i dont think it holds anything clever or effective theme.. so in the editing i dont think we will include this clip.








this is a shot of the the dining room table, the memory box was my idea, to have a bunch of memories of the past behind whilst the future is being formed (haunting set up).. baring in mind the table was fully decorated and was in a happy enviroment i think the table has over all improved. but i feel the candles let it down a bit so we moved two of the candles away and already the table looked better.. we placed on next to the memory box, the other near the scissors. the table scene was just one camera shot, and that was over the shoulder shot, of my dad doing as he is told. but i do think this was a success..

journal

on this very day, me and Latisha (girl one) waited or the day to turn to night, the reason for this is that we wanted the scenery to be perposly light up, in other words we wanted the dark and scary night to be featured..and because the sun goes down rather early in the winter, we set up round five and started shooting at aound half five.. it took quite a long time to set up because my house was rather spiritual for the christmas period, so the house looked very happy.. and we aim for our chaacter to be desturbed and pretty much oppisite to that. So we took down most of the cards, changed the look of many different things, because to us every little thing counts. we set us four main things, the chrstms tree, the shelf bellow my mirror, fire pace and table, dinning room table.. because the house belongs to a lonely man we erased every lttle clue that suggested ladylikeness, even the washing line, that may sound silly but if that was in the backgound and there was a skirton there, the whole shoot would look silly, so that seemed rather a good idea.. also because the man is anonimous we wanted to set out little slues that it was a man, hints that were provided will be noticed but not too obvious, for example slippers by the fire, newspaper on the table, and doul colours.


this image hasnt been taken very well, but this is a shot of a prolem that accured, looking at the cenre of this you can see a snow man, this looked as if it had been pt there on perpose and attracted my eyes to it, so it was obvious that the audience would get confused of why this is here, so we had to swop that for a imple golden ball, which i prefered, as this is ideal, because the shot will be zooming into a teddy bears eye in the girls bedroom, and out o see a christmas tree in a completly different settig, this is how we are connecting bot parts together, then the christmas tree appears having a shadow being casted behind it, which shows the dark side of christmas..












this an image i took of one of the key images i want to include in my video, this was placed on a shelf, and is important to us.. we origanly aimed to have a picture come to life, as part of a memery theme, but we then decided this would be too techniquel, although i would have liked to do that, as it would have been more effective. this shot unpurposely became very suyccessful, the aim was to shot the whole shelf, going one side to the other, simple. but because i filmed it over and over again, in different ways.. one stood out the most which was, the camera going the oppisite side to this frame and as soon as the camera faced this photo is zoomed in towards the photo, and even though it wasnt meant to happen the camera disfocused the slightly focused as it focused on the photo frame, half the candle was in the shot and mostly the photo was in it, which i like, here we aim to put a cast name.. the photo itself wasnt put in perfectly, which even though was not meant to happen, i think it holds a convention because it looks like it isnthandled with care.














this was origanly another clock, a modern clock, but i think this just transformed the whole look of the shelf. because this clock is old it is another hint that this is an old person home.

production logo

screwed productions.. this image was produced by Adam Mathew (boy 2) in the group.. he came up with the idea of the screw, screwing through the name itself.. i knew that his creativity would make up.. i think it would look even better if it was animated, and not still. but that is just a impossible proposal..

research and planning

Both parts of the title sequence are being heald in my house, and both characters that in the title sequence are organised by me... the little girl is going to be played by my cousin, who is mainly revolved around drama. the grandad is played by my dad, who is never too shy, so it came in handy, as no one else knew a man that would play that part.. so i feel i have played a good part in the process of the title sequence.

Production Schedule

Monday 4th January- Grandad scene,
tuesday 19th January-Little girl Scene, and Background sound

monday 4th January, is the day we set up the christmas scene, in the grandads house and film the grandad and the main clips in the room we feel hold an effect of horror thriller. and shoot as many different clips... it is important to get this bit done on this day because, its the day before all the decorations get taken down, and put away for another year. and the only day we can get the grandad to play his part.

Tuesday 19th January, is always vital time, as it will be a week fom the day that we created the other part of the title sequence, htis means we have one week for part one and one week for part two. to get them perfect... this is also a stricted time to do it because the girl we are going to have in our video, can only make this time..

My Personal Schedule

My personal Schedule..

My target is to complete all tasks, so i aim to spend at least 5 hours outside of school on the blogspot.
I feel the best way to organise things is to set up dates and hours-

monday- 4-6
wednesday- 4-6
sunday 12-4

But i know i will work on my blog more than this.. becuase i am keen to complete the researching and planning and concernetrate on my opening sequence..

Meetings

the meetings our group had, gained developements of the ideas, and settlement of what we were to do.. were we are setting it.. how we are going to progress the portfollio all together.. when we are going to shoot.

meeting one; in conclusion of this meeting we had straighten our feelings towards the genre and the thoughts on what and when we are going shoot.. the meeting lasted 2 hours, which proves that we had a lot of problems to solve.. although everything was originally going smootly, and we knew the genre, we were not to sure, as most of the class were going to do horror/thriller as their genre too. so as a result we didnt feel were could cope with the competition.. but i ensured the group that our techneques would help us make this opening sequence unique from the rest of the group... we was going to change the genre to comedy/romance; along them lings.. but i as part of the group didnt feel this was a good idea, i wanted us to shie upon everyone.. as we all have different parts that worked well for the genre.. Latisha Bibianni (girl 1) in the group was creative, Lawrence Salsbury (boy 1) had experience in media and new the expectations wanted, Adam Mathew (boy 2) in the group had an artist and creative side and works well with the camera, me on the other hand (girl 2) experience in media, creative, organized, and can work the imac... so i knew we could do it.

meeting 2.. this meeting was 20mins, held on a wednesday morning; through this i organised a scheme for us to work on, this was 2 weeks before the christmas holiday, so i insisted that the three weeks would be on blogspot work. researching and so on.. then when we come back we plan and shoot. and a week before the deadline we edit. so this in a strange way motivated us.. so this resolved the confusion and presure we had..

through out every lesson we have had a meeting, even if it is for 5 minutes, just so that we know what is going on. but these were the meetings that i feel stood out, and helped us mostly thoughout the research and plannign of the video..

research and planing

what genre can we focus on in the opening sequence? what is popular and well known but what we can make unique? what can be exciting in all areas? tensed, nail bighting, painful, edgy...the answer to that is horror.. it keeps the audience on edge right from teh beggining and it suspects us all as the target audience.. horror is a brilliant genre and it will keep me on my feet, as well as the rest of the group.. we have a good spirit for this theme and all have many ideas to put towards it...

research and planning

We thought of different titles for the name of our film, from Christmas song names, to mood setting names.. but none of them felt as if they worked for us so we started looking into what you would write in cards, for example season greetings, and we felt as if this had a good mood to it, so we thought of more, and the one which i felt as well as the rest of the group was Spirit Of Christmas, not only is it catchy, you can also read this in different ways,for example a spirit can be defined as a ghostly figure, yet it can also mean spirit as in the feelings and emotions...

opening sequence elements..

as always we need to include cast and crew and of course the title of the film must be included in the title sequence, in our sequence we are going to hint the character in its context, for example fire stands for hell, and death,and pain, so we may put the name of the bad guy here..
the next most important thing i feel is the indication of the place were bad things happen, or the lifestlye... information regarding mood and tone is also known as key to the rules of our title sequence, as well as anyother title sequence, the reason for this?.. because you need to set the mood before you show the film, comedy is cheerful so you would put cheerful music in the opening sequence, and for us creepy and slow is tensed in the media world this is key for horror.. the opening sequence must get the audience thinking why? how? what? who? then this will advertise the target audience to want to know more about the film, and what will be in the end.
patterns and types of editing that will be echoed in the remainder of the film, for example, a clock stands for time, and this may consist through the film, patience might be key in the film, or at certain times something will happen.. mise en scene and cinematography that will be echoed orelaborated upon later in the film..

Detailed Annalisis of an opeing sequence

The opening sequence of Kill Bill Volume one holds the attention of every audience member, the opening sequence creates a unique characteristic for the horror theme from the very first second.
The first shot is a close up of a scared girl, cut up and beaten, and her face looks completely damaged which makes me as a member of the audience feel uncomfortable. The woman looks as if she has been kidnapped or taken away from were she feels comfortable, she looks very uneasy, as if she doesn't want to be there, the reason why i know this is because she doesn't look tidy, for example her hair is not clean, she looks like she has looked after her self in anyway what so ever, but from the expression on her face being completely terrified, seeming like she knows something is going to happen, or that something bad has and she doesn't want it to continue.

Through the whole of the sequence there is no music or effect tuning in the background, the sound you can hear is only of the woman breathing, with sympathy and shock, the tone of her breathing sounds very dry, which means that she is defiantly not being looked after. Suddenly her reaction changes she looks up as if she can hear something that she is totally terrified from, her eyes widen, the breathing starts to pace up, the woman looks like she is in a nightmare, and may just wake up any second. she continuously stars at were the sound she feels hatred for is coming from. As if she is begging that this is not happening to her. Foot steps casually walking in suggest that this is someone/something that knows that the victim is in this room completely terrified.

The next shot is of his feet making the noise, the stranger is smartly dressed in a black suit, the blazer/coat comes down to his knees, the feet smoothly stroll across the floor, making foot steps that echo through the corridor or house. But the look of the floor, is unclean, this could mean that the accommodation is abandoned, and hasn't been looked after for a long time. This makes me think even more that it is a kidnap, or is meant to happen. The creaky door opens.

The next shot is a close up of the woman again, she knows that it is him and reacts traumatically, strangely the woman doesn't move, although it doesn't look like she wants to be there, so maybe she has been drugged, or tied down to wear she is laying, the man then walks over, and wipes the ladies head, with a hanky that says 'bill' on it, while he is wiping the blood away form her face he says the following;
"Do you find me sadistic? You know, I bet I could fry an egg on your head right now, if I wanted to. You know, Kiddo, I'd like to believe that you're aware enough even now to know that there's nothing sadistic in my actions. Well, maybe towards those other... jokers, but not you. No Kiddo, at this moment, this is me at my most... "
This could mean that he is trying to help, or is still victimizing her, in a bribing way. The heavy breathing continues and she looks as though if she does move he will hurt her, so even though she is terrified, she does know what she is doing, so maybe this has happened to her before, or she deserves this and does it herself. This opening sequence gets me thinking curiously about the millions of questions that surround why this is happening to her.

The opening sequence is presented in black and white, the background sound is only of the actions that accrue during the sequence.

genre title sequences

The opening of The Shinning seems so simply made, and doesn't feel as if it has much energy into bringing the target audience into it, that's what i thought when i first viewed the sequence for myself, but if you look into the theme of the opening you notice that the little things in the sequence are rather important... from the start of the opening sequence you feel like you are viewing an outlook of the scenery and the beauty of the nature surrounding you, but then the camera/you as an audience follow a car in its journey to were ever it is going, approaching someones journey of life maybe. The shadows on the trees that cast over the car in its journey almost suggest that in there life they have of they will experience darkness/danger. the use of the forest and trees that are there for nearly the whole of the journey could be suggesting the idea of being lost, or it may be the opposite trees are usually a carm image, but the knowledge that the trees cast shadows onto the car in its journey, doesn't make me as the audience feel this way, about the use of nature in the shot.
although the act of nature appears in a bad motion in the opening sequence. i feel that the scenery of the river and mountains plays the beauty in the opening of the film, the creation of how the deep, and dark music plays with different ways to disturb the beauty in the sequence, looking at the scenery on its own, the film would seem carm and fantasized, but the music creates a disturbing motion.
the deserted land that the lonely car drives in is rather interesting, how the land comes across unknown to its audience and carrying the interest of what will be coming to the journey of the film, where are they driving, why are they driving there, are they driving back or to the accommodation, will they make it there, or will something bad happen...
the unique vibes of the camera work, works wonders, i love the way it creeps up on the car it after it had stayed far away, keeping distance, the camera gradually shrinks to the cars level, i then as part of the audience think that the characters will be introduced, and we will see who is in the car, but when the camera turns and flies of to show the scenery, this could mean that the feel will contain privacy, or secrets, as the camera tempates us to see who the people in the car are, then rushes of. so the film could contain privacy..

suddenly credits appear, blue capital blocked lettered, which both suggested cold and dangered, so maybe from this a cold hearted something will happen, i know it is bad, as the music creates this suggestion, if the music were different then i would feel different, i would probably think that this journey will end good, but the music sets the depressing and odd feel, the text and music work well together to create this emotion...

the continuous drive starts to become more impact, the car now is higher into the mountains, after driving up from the ground, the journey then has tunnels that the car disappears into and others cars oddly appear every now and again. the weather appears colder, i notice this clearly through the snow that starts to appear on the mountains, which suggests worry, and maybe even death..

Then a house that looks like mansion appears, yet it is in the middle of no were seeming deserted, yet you know that it isn't as it looks new.. the accommodation that had appeared looked camouflage, as it has blended in with the mountians that are behind it.. the house immediately because a threat to me...