Wednesday, 22 December 2010
Planning - Actors
Spoke to people who i want to feature in our opening sequence and they have agreed to take part. All that remains is to set dates which can be arranged at a later date. I am currently looking at possible locations to film of which i will also post on my blog.
Thursday, 16 December 2010
Planning - Scenario
House Scene
Distributor and producers shown at the beginning of the scene we have decided on Paramount as the distributor and the producer is currently being decided and discussed. At the start the screen is black as the two company logos appear, there is the use of ambient sound in the form of footsteps in the background at which till the point whereby they will suddenly stop. There will be a brief couple of seconds pause, until the first camera shot a close up of the light switch being switched on which is also the signal of the beginning of the movie. Next the camera sweeps across a bench revealing an assortment of tools that range from simple bread knives the meat cleavers, these are being used to directly set the ominous feel of the scene but also to create enigma in that it will draw in the audience making them want to watch. The camera fragments to reveal the whole bench and the whole collection of tools. At this time we either will be playing a heartbeat that will have started from the sweep across the bench or show a radio being switched on and a piece of classical music playing over in the background. Next shot will reveal water tap being turned on and the protagonist washing his hands before he moves over the knives taking one of them to his finger and slicing it open, simply watching the blood trickle down his finger before bandaging it up. Now a sudden change of atmosphere a crazy fitz of the screen causing a face of a victim to be shown on a photograph. The back to the kitchen where the camera simply watches his footsteps to another bench before blood in seen dripping on the floor in tiny amounts. Camera focus on the blood on the floor lingers before moving to a shot of underneath his hands revealing his bloody rubber gloves and evidently something in his hand. Begins to prepare this unknown object with a knife, must be very brutal, the way the knife is sliced makes direct links to the way Dexter was filmed. Cooking it in red wine, use of the red wine clearly as of his taste for blood and the obvious connotations of blood to do with the colour, then sits down to eat there is slight glimpses of his meal but not excessive amounts. Then he goes to leave the house, and as he leaves there is a dead body clearly shown through the front door as if someone were looking in, it specifically being a women creating the motif for the character. Then a close up of the door being locked.
Outside Scene
Simple following scene, just concentrating on his bottom half specifically the boots. Until he arrives at a house, upon which a knock upon the door, comes to the door as she walks back into the hallway and out of sight and after she has invited him in, obvious consequence to this being he is a killer and a cannibal. Close up of the knife slips down his sleeve, turns around to check the street, finally a part of his face is shown when he shuts the door. camera focus's on the door, and begins to slowly zoom out, then a scream, black screen title of the movie appears.
Extras
Throughout the whole of this until the point where the killer enters the house there will be occasional fades to black whereby the names of people such as producers/directors/writers/actors excetera will appear.
Distributor and producers shown at the beginning of the scene we have decided on Paramount as the distributor and the producer is currently being decided and discussed. At the start the screen is black as the two company logos appear, there is the use of ambient sound in the form of footsteps in the background at which till the point whereby they will suddenly stop. There will be a brief couple of seconds pause, until the first camera shot a close up of the light switch being switched on which is also the signal of the beginning of the movie. Next the camera sweeps across a bench revealing an assortment of tools that range from simple bread knives the meat cleavers, these are being used to directly set the ominous feel of the scene but also to create enigma in that it will draw in the audience making them want to watch. The camera fragments to reveal the whole bench and the whole collection of tools. At this time we either will be playing a heartbeat that will have started from the sweep across the bench or show a radio being switched on and a piece of classical music playing over in the background. Next shot will reveal water tap being turned on and the protagonist washing his hands before he moves over the knives taking one of them to his finger and slicing it open, simply watching the blood trickle down his finger before bandaging it up. Now a sudden change of atmosphere a crazy fitz of the screen causing a face of a victim to be shown on a photograph. The back to the kitchen where the camera simply watches his footsteps to another bench before blood in seen dripping on the floor in tiny amounts. Camera focus on the blood on the floor lingers before moving to a shot of underneath his hands revealing his bloody rubber gloves and evidently something in his hand. Begins to prepare this unknown object with a knife, must be very brutal, the way the knife is sliced makes direct links to the way Dexter was filmed. Cooking it in red wine, use of the red wine clearly as of his taste for blood and the obvious connotations of blood to do with the colour, then sits down to eat there is slight glimpses of his meal but not excessive amounts. Then he goes to leave the house, and as he leaves there is a dead body clearly shown through the front door as if someone were looking in, it specifically being a women creating the motif for the character. Then a close up of the door being locked.
Outside Scene
Simple following scene, just concentrating on his bottom half specifically the boots. Until he arrives at a house, upon which a knock upon the door, comes to the door as she walks back into the hallway and out of sight and after she has invited him in, obvious consequence to this being he is a killer and a cannibal. Close up of the knife slips down his sleeve, turns around to check the street, finally a part of his face is shown when he shuts the door. camera focus's on the door, and begins to slowly zoom out, then a scream, black screen title of the movie appears.
Extras
Throughout the whole of this until the point where the killer enters the house there will be occasional fades to black whereby the names of people such as producers/directors/writers/actors excetera will appear.
Planning
In the group i have already began designing the general scenario of our project this will be copied up onto my blog soon after tweaking it a little more, i have also being given the task of organization stuff such as organizing dates and events to be arranged.
Thursday, 9 December 2010
Analysis - Seven Opening Scene
Seven - Opening Sequence
Seven is a thriller made in 1995, is was produced by New Line Cinema and it cost $33 million to make and earned $100,12,643. The first thing on the shot is just a book with the pages turning, alike to the genre this immediately draws the viewer in, they have no clue where they are at nor what is going on in the scene. Straight away it creates the element of fear taking someone out of what they know and placing them in a world where they do not know where they are who else is there, or indeed what they are doing. The multiple close ups , like used in "dexter", again do show bits of what is happening but even combined they do not create any sort of picture as to what is going on in the scene, the short snippets that are shown give only hints as to what is going on. Generally the images shown are not things that typically a person would be scared of more so as an example the beginning shot which simply shows the opening of a book. However progressively throughout the course of the opening the images appear to get more and more sinister and more and more ambiguous as to what is actually going on, there are a few time throughout the clip where by shots of drawings of the human anatomy are shown, but again as a common play on the feature of gore horror the picture appears to have the hands twisted in some sort of way. Also another thing which makes these seemingly normal things become in a way disturbing is the way the lighting and the camera is used. The way the camera flickers it appears to fragment the scene and break up giving it that feeling of uncomfortableness and makes the viewer immediately begin to feel uneasy. The first real thing which plays on the mind is the use of what appears to be a small blade to chop the fingerprints of the characters hands. This would obviously strike straight away as weird and rightly so. This uses the element so prevalent in psychological horrors the idea of exploring the part of the human psyche that scares a person that side that most people tent to push aside and pretend not to feel and pretend it doesn't exist, however psychological horrors show this side of which terrifies people and that is why. When they are showing just normal people doing these things it makes it so that it gets to the viewer. This is what we are attempting to create with our project as well the idea of exploring someones darker side, but also the use of camera in seven with the fragmented style of it to create and aura of discomfort. The camera effects used the sort of blur and move the images out of focus is used again to create the same effect on the audience, whereas this does in a way so that it becomes difficult for the viewer to concentrate on one particular part of the clip when it is fading in out of focus, this relates back to the way the aura of discomfort is created by this. The general colour of the scene is very melancholic in the way it is all very dark grey colours very bland, however for a split second at 00:47/48 seconds there is a tiny splash of red which falls on the paper, this is extremely important, it conveys the message straight away that there is going to be some sort of violence in this, and the fact that it is so difficult to spot makes it even more prevalent that it is a subtle thing so if it does catch your eye you will not even be sure of what you have seen further reinforcing this aura of discomfort. However later on the scene just becomes more and more accustomed to having the colour red, with its obvious connotation of blood and danger, this creates a very specific foreboding effect that there is going to be death it pretty much confirms this by showing this amount of red. Towards the end of the piece there is a shot of a picture on the desk this picture shows a nail through the back of someones head this obviously is a slightly creepy sight and will evoke particular emotions from the viewer those emotions being that of fear confusion and (for the type of person who will be going to see this film as they will enjoy seeing that type of gore and scene of disgust as it is their favourite type of films very similar to the audience of dexter if not more serious as dexter did certainly have a air of tongue and cheek about it whereas Seven certainly does not) interest. As the clip comes nearer and nearer to end a simultaneous speeding up of the clip is easily heard the music speeds up and the rate at which images are being flashed across the screen are also being sped up, particularly this being used as an introduction does not have too much of a particular effect on the audience mainly used to let them know that it is getting closer and closer to the beginning. But the way everything speeds up does create a sense of urgency especially the way the music and clip are use to create the effect it the gives the appearance of the video itself speeding up as an overall. The use of this will put thew audience on the edge of their seat, so to speak, and really draw their attention to the screen drawing all focus in. Also with the short snippets being difficult enough to decipher without them being sped across the screen now that they are will make it even more confusing and disorientation for the viewer to sit and watch, this could certainly be an option for a way to close our project using the speeding up of the clips in order to create the sense of tension and as if it is coming to a definitive climax. Furthermore there is even more things in the clip that lend themselves to create the desired effects on the audience, on of these is the words that a put across the screen these being things such as names of actors director and producers etc. The typography used for these words is very abstract almost scratchy the idea of scratching names or words Also, alike to the images shown, the words often flicker repeatedly and are sometimes even difficult to first see when they come up on the screen as they often twitch around slightly before they stay still, this again has the idea of being erratic linking to being insane or crazy they seem almost unpredictable and clear link to the character himself. An imprortant point about the character is that you don't see his face, while this may seem very trivial we will be working extremely hard with planning in order to ensure that this is also true with our final project. the way that his/her face is not shown creates a high sense of mystery about the scene and certainly adds the element of horror straight off it almost similar to having a masked killer. Not seeing the face of someone is also another thing that has psychological implications withing it, for all the audience know this person could be seriously deformed (as James discussed in the Hannibal trailer the idea of body horror) this would also scare the viewer as they would obviously begin to worry why isn't there face been shown and getting the feeling that there must be a reason for this hiding of the characters face. Finally the music in the video creates a highly creepy atmosphere, this being because it is very quiet, and almost inaudible as to what it actually is, it also has a running theme through it a constant beat almost like a heartbeat, and as it goes thought he scene it gets quicker as mentioned before. The type of audience to view this would be the same that we would be targeting with our project, they like to be kept in the dark, they like the way his face isn't shown, they enjoy the fear this creates and it makes the film just more and more interesting for them. They feel clearly that this element of mystery is what keeps the film alive and keeps them drawn in making them watch to find the answers.
Seven is a thriller made in 1995, is was produced by New Line Cinema and it cost $33 million to make and earned $100,12,643. The first thing on the shot is just a book with the pages turning, alike to the genre this immediately draws the viewer in, they have no clue where they are at nor what is going on in the scene. Straight away it creates the element of fear taking someone out of what they know and placing them in a world where they do not know where they are who else is there, or indeed what they are doing. The multiple close ups , like used in "dexter", again do show bits of what is happening but even combined they do not create any sort of picture as to what is going on in the scene, the short snippets that are shown give only hints as to what is going on. Generally the images shown are not things that typically a person would be scared of more so as an example the beginning shot which simply shows the opening of a book. However progressively throughout the course of the opening the images appear to get more and more sinister and more and more ambiguous as to what is actually going on, there are a few time throughout the clip where by shots of drawings of the human anatomy are shown, but again as a common play on the feature of gore horror the picture appears to have the hands twisted in some sort of way. Also another thing which makes these seemingly normal things become in a way disturbing is the way the lighting and the camera is used. The way the camera flickers it appears to fragment the scene and break up giving it that feeling of uncomfortableness and makes the viewer immediately begin to feel uneasy. The first real thing which plays on the mind is the use of what appears to be a small blade to chop the fingerprints of the characters hands. This would obviously strike straight away as weird and rightly so. This uses the element so prevalent in psychological horrors the idea of exploring the part of the human psyche that scares a person that side that most people tent to push aside and pretend not to feel and pretend it doesn't exist, however psychological horrors show this side of which terrifies people and that is why. When they are showing just normal people doing these things it makes it so that it gets to the viewer. This is what we are attempting to create with our project as well the idea of exploring someones darker side, but also the use of camera in seven with the fragmented style of it to create and aura of discomfort. The camera effects used the sort of blur and move the images out of focus is used again to create the same effect on the audience, whereas this does in a way so that it becomes difficult for the viewer to concentrate on one particular part of the clip when it is fading in out of focus, this relates back to the way the aura of discomfort is created by this. The general colour of the scene is very melancholic in the way it is all very dark grey colours very bland, however for a split second at 00:47/48 seconds there is a tiny splash of red which falls on the paper, this is extremely important, it conveys the message straight away that there is going to be some sort of violence in this, and the fact that it is so difficult to spot makes it even more prevalent that it is a subtle thing so if it does catch your eye you will not even be sure of what you have seen further reinforcing this aura of discomfort. However later on the scene just becomes more and more accustomed to having the colour red, with its obvious connotation of blood and danger, this creates a very specific foreboding effect that there is going to be death it pretty much confirms this by showing this amount of red. Towards the end of the piece there is a shot of a picture on the desk this picture shows a nail through the back of someones head this obviously is a slightly creepy sight and will evoke particular emotions from the viewer those emotions being that of fear confusion and (for the type of person who will be going to see this film as they will enjoy seeing that type of gore and scene of disgust as it is their favourite type of films very similar to the audience of dexter if not more serious as dexter did certainly have a air of tongue and cheek about it whereas Seven certainly does not) interest. As the clip comes nearer and nearer to end a simultaneous speeding up of the clip is easily heard the music speeds up and the rate at which images are being flashed across the screen are also being sped up, particularly this being used as an introduction does not have too much of a particular effect on the audience mainly used to let them know that it is getting closer and closer to the beginning. But the way everything speeds up does create a sense of urgency especially the way the music and clip are use to create the effect it the gives the appearance of the video itself speeding up as an overall. The use of this will put thew audience on the edge of their seat, so to speak, and really draw their attention to the screen drawing all focus in. Also with the short snippets being difficult enough to decipher without them being sped across the screen now that they are will make it even more confusing and disorientation for the viewer to sit and watch, this could certainly be an option for a way to close our project using the speeding up of the clips in order to create the sense of tension and as if it is coming to a definitive climax. Furthermore there is even more things in the clip that lend themselves to create the desired effects on the audience, on of these is the words that a put across the screen these being things such as names of actors director and producers etc. The typography used for these words is very abstract almost scratchy the idea of scratching names or words Also, alike to the images shown, the words often flicker repeatedly and are sometimes even difficult to first see when they come up on the screen as they often twitch around slightly before they stay still, this again has the idea of being erratic linking to being insane or crazy they seem almost unpredictable and clear link to the character himself. An imprortant point about the character is that you don't see his face, while this may seem very trivial we will be working extremely hard with planning in order to ensure that this is also true with our final project. the way that his/her face is not shown creates a high sense of mystery about the scene and certainly adds the element of horror straight off it almost similar to having a masked killer. Not seeing the face of someone is also another thing that has psychological implications withing it, for all the audience know this person could be seriously deformed (as James discussed in the Hannibal trailer the idea of body horror) this would also scare the viewer as they would obviously begin to worry why isn't there face been shown and getting the feeling that there must be a reason for this hiding of the characters face. Finally the music in the video creates a highly creepy atmosphere, this being because it is very quiet, and almost inaudible as to what it actually is, it also has a running theme through it a constant beat almost like a heartbeat, and as it goes thought he scene it gets quicker as mentioned before. The type of audience to view this would be the same that we would be targeting with our project, they like to be kept in the dark, they like the way his face isn't shown, they enjoy the fear this creates and it makes the film just more and more interesting for them. They feel clearly that this element of mystery is what keeps the film alive and keeps them drawn in making them watch to find the answers.
Wednesday, 8 December 2010
Analysis - Dexter Opening Scene
Dexter – Opening Sequence
Dexter is not the opening of a film, but the opening titles of a TV show. However it done along the lines of the genre we wish to research into. The first piece of specific evidence relating to the genre is the showing of the actual title of the show, the typography of these title relates itself connotations of blood with the deep red colour and the small splatter just underneath the final letter almost making it seem as if it has been wrote and then spilled slightly or splashed. Instantly this lets the reader know what genre it is by the obvious connotations from the title. Again then when the names of the editors and producers are shown they are again in the block red styles writing which again connotes the idea of blood due to its colour. Also the extreme close ups which sow very little of the scene create tension because you don’t know who it is or what is going on, in a way spoon feeds the audience information ensuring that throughout they do not fully find out what is going on and so are left in a feeling of suspense and terror at being kept in the dark. Further more and extreme close up is shown when “Dexter” is shaving and he nicks himself with the razor, the shots shows blood slowly tickling down his neck, and then into the sink. This re-enforces the idea of the shows genre with it being a serial killer type “slasher” idea. The focus on the blood also emphasises the genre of the show. Prominently through the opening credits the colour red is shown consistently and repeatedly with its obvious connotations of blood and death. The clip shows a close up a knife being used to cut meat with the close up being so extreme it seems extremely ambiguous as to what is being cut up, linking to the idea of the genre being a mystery and the idea of the unknown and being afraid of that unknown. While the scene goes about making a breakfast, still it has very violent connotations, whereby when “Dexter” is eating the sandwich his bites seem very sharp and powerful, then when the beans are being grinded even the use of the grinder links to the representation the shows wishes to create. Primarily the representation is that the serial killer is just a normal person. Finally the blood orange which has dramatic connotations the representation that the guy being shown definitely is up to no good, straight away they want to let you know what he is actually doing and create a specific representation of him and his character the violent actions are immediately connoted to him and create his character effectively. Also not only just the images but the music in the background of the scene adds a very different atmosphere to the opening credits, the non-digetic music gives a "tongue and cheek" sort of atmosphere where it appears to be not completely serious, this combined with the images and connotations of the colours in the shots create a very misguided atmosphere. Its almost as if the viewer is not entirely sure what is actually going on or who the person actually is, the music could make it appear that indeed this character is not even a serial killer as the music would seem to give them aura but at the same time the things he is shown doing certainly seem to say the opposite creating that element of uncertainty that is important in the psychological horror genre. Overall the general representation shown in this clip is that of the character simply being a normal person, while yes they may be a murderer and a serial killer, but the way it is done seems to add an edge to the normal things a person would do. Such things as the blood orange, the way he fiercely ties the rope around all has very violent connotations but these are all things that normal people do which adds the element of human psyche that scares people that idea that anyone could be a serial killer they necessarily are crazy inhumane people, this is what truly scares the audience. The type of person watching this would certainly be someone who enjoys a bit of gore this is shown immediately by the blood at the beginning of the shot, not only this but they are certainly the type of person that seeks to be scared. Also generally this person would not frighten easily they will be use to this type of genre, being scared, being unsure what is actually happening in the scene. Hence why the audience watching this show would be very similar to those who would watch and enjoy such films as; The Shining, Seven, silence of the lambs, Hannibal and The Omen. Dexter is not an actual film it is in fact a cable drama this means that generally they can get away with twisting the codes and conventions slightly to achieve what they want. But overall it uses the codes and conventions of a psychological horror in the way it opens the show and scares the viewer by immediately creating an element of mystery and horror.
Initial Research
Psychological Horror- Research into the genre.
The idea of a psychological horror is often to terrify the audience generally making them scared at what is on screen rather than actually making them jump. The idea is to show emotions and feelings that are often repressed by people and what scares people even more is that psychological horrors often are not based on monsters, they usually depict normal people who have undergone some sort of mental horror and further turning them insane and causing them to become what could be called a “monster”. Psychological horrors also differ from what is known as “splatter films”, another subgenre of horror. While these rely on blood and gore to frighten the audience psychological horror refers to such conventions as fears, guilt, beliefs, emotion, eerie sound effects and emotional instability to create and build tension.
Typical techniques of a psychological horror:
· Shows the shadowy parts of human psyche of which people repress and deny
· Exposes normal people has having an evil within
· Frighten the audience mentally make them think about what is happening and why
· Create a feeling of unease
· Explore such things as abnormality
· Often depicts peoples sufferings and diseases
· Expose common fears and vulnerabilities
Examples of Psychological horrors are:
· The Blair Witch Project
· Come and see
· Darkwater
· The Exorcist
· Gothika
· The Haunting
· The house of the Devil
· The Omen
· Paranormal Activity
· Silent Hill
· Sixth Sense
· Whatever happened to baby Jane?
Thursday, 2 December 2010
Continuity Project - Evaluation
Overall our project was considerably better than the last one in many ways, the most obvious being the increased variety of shots we were able to use effectively. Partially this was due to the fact that a lot more planning went into this project contrary to the last one, however even with all the planning there were still some points of our project that we did not plan out well enough or that had to be changed as a result of external factors. A prime example of this is the lighting, when we shot our project we had no idea how dark it would get and how quickly it would get dark. This meant by the time we had filmed the indoor shots at the beginning of the film it had already gotten dark outside, the primary factor of this was that we had to change location. Luckily we found a tunnel next to the Arnison centre that was reasonably well lit, however the lack of visibility is still present in the shooting, this screenshot effectively shows this:
The problem was that with the lack of light in the shoot the camera attempted to compensate for this, this only added the sort of reddish tint that are visible in most of the shots. Moreover from this we have learnt how the camera reacts to darkness and realised that filming at night is not practical when we do not possess the equipment to make it possible.
Also another result from the planning was our shot/reverse shot, in the film we had originally intended to use a phone call rather than an actual face to face conversation, we did not think to make sure the characters where facing in reverse directions and so when the shots were uploaded we realised both of them we talking in the same direction and not to each other. Upon further inspection of this we realised (with outside help) that this was not unfixable, we learnt how to reverse shots on the adobe software enabling us to make sure that the two characters were indeed facing in reverse directions.
Finally we had to also face one continuity error with our project, with a certain part of the film were James is pinned against the wall there is a camera cut, in one cut the monster has its hood up in the next it does not. Due to the amount of takes it took to actually get this scene we figured we may have been able to scavenge something that we could have used, we could not and so had to use the shot where the hood had come down. These screenshots accurately depict how this happened:
Despite this there were some very successful elements of our project, we made effective use of our specific genre, that being horror. From what we knew of horror films we implemented it into our project using some of the most popular horror conventions. One of which we feel was done particularly well was the way we gave the idea that the monster could just disappear assimilating an element of fear and mystery. We did this by having peter walking through the tunnel but showing the monster in the background, then as peter turned around the change in shot allowed the monster to move and disappear or at least creating that effect.In some genres this would seem to be a continuity error the way the character seems to disappear almost instantly, however using the horror genre this works well as the monster is assumed to be some sort of creature that has supernatural properties. We used this horror genre function in order to create atmosphere in out project.
The audience we intended this to be aimed at was someone who enjoys a horror movie, but not a die hard horror lover who enjoys movies that are relentlessly scary. They want to jump at a film, but at the same time be able to watch it without cowering behind the sofa.
To conclude, this piece was improved from our last piece in many ways also our research is present in the way we have incorporated horror techniques in order to make it fit with the genre. Use of planning has certainly improved this piece, but we still did not plan enough there are still points whereby the lack of planning is obvious such as the time of filming. Also another important thing we took from this is to take multiple shots. We realised that by doing this we would have been able to correct many of the errors that have taken place throughout the filming by scavenging it from other shots. So when it comes to the final project we will ensure that we take multiple shots of each piece of dialogue and action in order to rinse out any errors or problems in the shoot. If we had done that with this project it could have been massively improved in many ways and it would have perhaps flowed more continuously and seemed more professional.
The problem was that with the lack of light in the shoot the camera attempted to compensate for this, this only added the sort of reddish tint that are visible in most of the shots. Moreover from this we have learnt how the camera reacts to darkness and realised that filming at night is not practical when we do not possess the equipment to make it possible.
Also another result from the planning was our shot/reverse shot, in the film we had originally intended to use a phone call rather than an actual face to face conversation, we did not think to make sure the characters where facing in reverse directions and so when the shots were uploaded we realised both of them we talking in the same direction and not to each other. Upon further inspection of this we realised (with outside help) that this was not unfixable, we learnt how to reverse shots on the adobe software enabling us to make sure that the two characters were indeed facing in reverse directions.
Finally we had to also face one continuity error with our project, with a certain part of the film were James is pinned against the wall there is a camera cut, in one cut the monster has its hood up in the next it does not. Due to the amount of takes it took to actually get this scene we figured we may have been able to scavenge something that we could have used, we could not and so had to use the shot where the hood had come down. These screenshots accurately depict how this happened:
Despite this there were some very successful elements of our project, we made effective use of our specific genre, that being horror. From what we knew of horror films we implemented it into our project using some of the most popular horror conventions. One of which we feel was done particularly well was the way we gave the idea that the monster could just disappear assimilating an element of fear and mystery. We did this by having peter walking through the tunnel but showing the monster in the background, then as peter turned around the change in shot allowed the monster to move and disappear or at least creating that effect.In some genres this would seem to be a continuity error the way the character seems to disappear almost instantly, however using the horror genre this works well as the monster is assumed to be some sort of creature that has supernatural properties. We used this horror genre function in order to create atmosphere in out project.
The audience we intended this to be aimed at was someone who enjoys a horror movie, but not a die hard horror lover who enjoys movies that are relentlessly scary. They want to jump at a film, but at the same time be able to watch it without cowering behind the sofa.
To conclude, this piece was improved from our last piece in many ways also our research is present in the way we have incorporated horror techniques in order to make it fit with the genre. Use of planning has certainly improved this piece, but we still did not plan enough there are still points whereby the lack of planning is obvious such as the time of filming. Also another important thing we took from this is to take multiple shots. We realised that by doing this we would have been able to correct many of the errors that have taken place throughout the filming by scavenging it from other shots. So when it comes to the final project we will ensure that we take multiple shots of each piece of dialogue and action in order to rinse out any errors or problems in the shoot. If we had done that with this project it could have been massively improved in many ways and it would have perhaps flowed more continuously and seemed more professional.
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
Continuity Project- Script
This is the script we used for our continuity project, as whole we did not follow the script exactly and changes have been made and these have been made in this edition as this is not the original script:
J: (Answers the phone) Any luck Peter?
P: I think I am closing in on him. (Quick movement across background and Peter turns around quickly)
J: What was that?
P: I don’t know I heard something
J: What was it?
P: I don’t know, give me a minute, (Movement across background again)
I heard it again!
J: Peter stay on the phone I am on my way now! (Makes to move and goes through a door showing an action match shot)
P: Ok hurry……. (Static cuts him off)
Who’s there!
Peter goes to move out of the tunnel but camera shot shows Craig in the background. Peter quickly turns around, close up to peters face shows him confused. Peter walks away (eerie music begins to play)Craig suddenly appears behind Peter, Camera switches to Peters point of view and then Craig lunges at Peter. Screen fades to black, Peter screams.
James comes running round the corner only to witness Craig hunches over Peter and Peter covered in blood.
J: PETER, PETER, HEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO HIM!?!?
James runs towards Craig and attempts to grab Craig but he is overpowered and pushed against the wall. Suddenly Dan runs in and throws Craig off James, again Craig pins him up against the wall looks twice and runs off into the night…
D: Was that him?
J: Yeah (exhausted holding throat out of breath)
D: Well we need to get him!
J: Yeah you go that way and I’ll go this way!
D: Ok good luck!
They both run off in different directions James in the direction of Craig and Dan in the other.
Continuity Project Uploading the video
We have finished the editing of the continuity project, we would have finsihed earlier than this but we had technical problems regarding the computer, during one of our editing sessions whereby we had completely finsihed editing all the film and had only the titles to add in when our computer crashed without saving any of or previous work. Regarding our actual project we have encountered many problems regarding it, the first of which being the filming in which when we went to film we underestimated how dark it would get so quickly, therefore this resulted in us having a problem with the lighting in some of our shots. However overall this project was better than the last in that it was distinctly better planned and thought out, therefore it meant we had more shots to use. Even with this there was still some problems with our shoots, in one scene where james and I are doing a shot fight scene my hood is suddenly shown to have fallen down we tried to remedy this but did not have a shot to replace it with and so just decided to use the shot anyway.
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
Continuity Project
So far in our project we have successfully attained all the shots with ones demonstrating Shot/Reverse shot, 180 degree rule and action match. We are currently on with editing the shots and and making all of the shots flow together. As mentioned before we are having a problem with quality due to the time frame in which we initially filmed our shots, due to the darkness it is often difficult to make out and due to the camera trying to compensate for this the shots look very grainy which is something which we will have to mention in our evaluation.
Thursday, 4 November 2010
Continuity Project
We went out as a group yesterday after school and managed to get alot of shots taken we have uploaded them to the server so that we can check the shots and see how they look. The shooting last night was good we managed to get a few shots of everything and a few different senarios to choose from, however this lesson we are checkng to ensure that the shots do look good enough, last night we did not expect it to get so dark so quickly which could have possibly posed a problem to our shot quality. If the shot quality is not good enough we will have to make sure that we go out and shoot again, this time making sure we shoot in the light to improve the quality.
Tuesday, 2 November 2010
Continuity Project
Over the week i have looking into the location that we had considered used for out project and inquired about using it. However we have had to rethink our script and use our contingency plan due to the fact that the place we wanted to use had very recently become unavailable to us as it was being knocked down. Therefore we have reconsidered out place to set the project which has admittedly set our project back slightly.
Friday, 15 October 2010
The Prisoner Final Cut
This is out video of "The Prisoner", made by our group consisting of Craig Mullen, James Corker and Peter Chive's. At the beginning things were going quite well we got the shots we thought we wanted quickly shot and used a lot of different camera movements and upon reflection we were reasonably happy with the shots we took. However as we began to upload our shots onto the computers we definitely began to notice that there were many errors in shooting, there were parts that just cut off and left Major continuity errors and other parts of which we would have one shot and then not have another to make it seem realistic the best example of this was when, we had a shot of a door opening then thinking we had a shot of it closing we began to upload the shot but then found out we had no shot of the door closing and so this created a massive continuty error for our project and resulted in us having to reconsider how we were going to show the scene on our movie. The best part of our movie in my opinion was the use of non diegetic sound when james is walking across the field the use of the music track "Hunter" has a eriee effect on the scene creating an ominous atmosphere accurate for the effect we wanted to achieve. However we even had problems with this in the way that we had to try to time it perfectly which was difficult. Also the use of our camera angles in the interrogation scene whereby the low angle appeared to make me look more inferior to james. Overall we did a good job in filming the shots getting the correct shots and using the correct camera angles but simple mistakes let us down next time we will definately create a checklist in order to ensure that we get all the shots we need and leave out any continuty errors.
Thursday, 14 October 2010
The Prisoner - Editing
Today we have uploaded all of our shots and edited them to the way we want them. Throughout the course of this project we have realised how important planning was, progressivly we have noticed that we were missing the most simple shots and creating continuity errors. These were just simple things such as doors opening and then not closing or footage of people walking through the doors of which orignally we thought we had. Also i have noticed that planning would have enabled our shots to look better as it would have allowed us to make sure that we were usding the correct camera angles and not just making it up on the spot. Currently we are finishing up editing the video by implementing music into the opening scene of out project. The main reason we have decided to do this was mainly to add more atmosphere to the shot but also because we filmed the opeing scenes outside it meant that diegetic sounds from the shot of which we did not want people to hear could be cut out such as the sound of the wind or breathing from the camera people. We noticed this alot when we listened to shots we realised just how many sounds the camera picked up. By implementing music into our scene it allows us to control what the audience hears in order to add and even higher effect to our project. The final part we need for our project is the manic laughter that features at the end of the clip, we are planning to use audacity to mix a different amount of different "manic laughs" together and create an overall better effect.
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
The Prisoner - Media Project
Today we managed to finish shooting and upload the shots onto the media server on the computer. We began to look at our shots and determine which ones were suitable for use.
Thursday, 30 September 2010
AS Media Movie Pitch
Brief Description
The movie is a costume drama set in the Victorian era, it is based around two people called Charles Phenton and Edward Sullivan. They are both secret agents for a kings own royal secret service called Royal King's Service. On a mission to attain a priceless artifact, Edward betrays Charles and the RKS taking the artifact for himself seeking riches beyond what he could ever imagine. Charles is then hired to track and Edward and take back the stolen artifact, but when he finds Edward he claims he was set up and that he was blackmailed into taking it and persuades Charles in helping him relocate the artifact. When they finally find the artifact it is revealed that Edward was actually double crossing Charles and tricking him into helping him find the artifact. When they finally find the artifact this is revealed to Charles, he chases Edward to the train station and across one of the newly developed steam trains which is where the movie began.
Introductory Scene
Starts at the end of the movie with the movie being a flashback of what has happened to get them to this point. It starts with the two men being in different compartments. Charles finds Edward and they talk discussing what has happened, this suddenly breaks into a fight between the two men forcing their way throughout the whole of the train's compartments. The scene changes when Charles is knocked to the floor and Edwards attempts to make his escape by climbing onto the roof of the train, unknown to the both of them the train is steadily approaching a low tunnel spelling both of their imminent doom. As the two men struggle on top of the train they notice they low tunnel at the last minute, as Edward exclaims "TRAIN" the scene cuts to the flash back.
By Greg Wilson, Peter Chivers and Craig Mullen
The movie is a costume drama set in the Victorian era, it is based around two people called Charles Phenton and Edward Sullivan. They are both secret agents for a kings own royal secret service called Royal King's Service. On a mission to attain a priceless artifact, Edward betrays Charles and the RKS taking the artifact for himself seeking riches beyond what he could ever imagine. Charles is then hired to track and Edward and take back the stolen artifact, but when he finds Edward he claims he was set up and that he was blackmailed into taking it and persuades Charles in helping him relocate the artifact. When they finally find the artifact it is revealed that Edward was actually double crossing Charles and tricking him into helping him find the artifact. When they finally find the artifact this is revealed to Charles, he chases Edward to the train station and across one of the newly developed steam trains which is where the movie began.
Introductory Scene
Starts at the end of the movie with the movie being a flashback of what has happened to get them to this point. It starts with the two men being in different compartments. Charles finds Edward and they talk discussing what has happened, this suddenly breaks into a fight between the two men forcing their way throughout the whole of the train's compartments. The scene changes when Charles is knocked to the floor and Edwards attempts to make his escape by climbing onto the roof of the train, unknown to the both of them the train is steadily approaching a low tunnel spelling both of their imminent doom. As the two men struggle on top of the train they notice they low tunnel at the last minute, as Edward exclaims "TRAIN" the scene cuts to the flash back.
By Greg Wilson, Peter Chivers and Craig Mullen
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