Group Progress - What Makes Our Opening Unique?

As our opening is set in a school we needed to make it look creepy to show that we did not pick the easiest location to film and we put the effort into making the corridors dark and making it match our genre. This makes our sequence different as we waited for everyone to leave and turned the media room dark and creepy by putting static on the computer

Something notable about our character is that she doesn't talk. Although we will have a voice-over the character is never seen speaking in our sequence. She screams, gasps and mutters the words "Stop!" she never says anything more than one word. I think this makes our character more enigmatic as all the audience will know about her is what the voice-over tells them throughout the opening and most characters in other people's sequences have at least one line.

 

 

Many other media students use the theme of a stalker we wanted to make ours different by making the stalker keep disappearing and will only attack when provoked rather than killing randomly. We want our genre to stand out amongst the other horror opening sequences as a psychological horror. We have not seen another psychological horror so we think this could set us apart from the other sequences in our class.

Group Blog: http://shotgunproductions.blogspot.co.uk/

Who Would Distribute Our Film?

Distribution is the main part of a film and every film needs one if they are going to make their film available to the public. The larger and more well-known distribution company that I think should distribute our film is the company Paramount Pictures or Lionsgate. Paramount Pictures distributed Paranormal Activity which was a hugely successful indie horror film. Paranormal Activity was on a small budget and I think that our film would also be a low-budget indie horror film. As Paramount Pictures managed to make a film that not many people had faith in a huge hit which went on to have several sequels I think that it can do the same for our film as it has a lot in common with Paranormal Activity.

Lionsgate has distributed many famous films such as the Hunger Games series but also produced the horror film Saw. Although Saw is a more brutal than our film I still think it resembles some similarities and, like Paramount Pictures, Lionsgate managed to make Saw a success with several sequel being made after. They distributed the film to be a success and that is what I would want for our film.

Although these companies are large and would probably be hard to get to distribute the film but I think that if they decided to do it they could make our film have a fan base like they did with their own horror films.

An indie distribution company that I think would suit our film is Artisan Entertainment. They distributed 'The Blair Witch Project' and is a lesser-known company compared to Paramount and Lionsgate. The Blair Witch Project was a popular indie film that managed to create a buzz before it had even been distributed. Artisan Entertainment distributed the film after the film had been marketed in such a successful way that the audience thought the film was a true story, Artisan Entertainment could then distribute the film in various ways and the target audience would watch it. I think that as our film is a psychological horror, just like The Blair Witch Project, Artisan Entertainment could distribute our film in the exact same way as the other films they have distributed as they are all small budgeted indie films similar to ours.

Group Progress - Continuity Editing

Ever since we showed our first draft to the class we have been touching up the editing making sure that it is smooth and no cuts are obvious. Continuity editing is important when telling a story through the footage, if it fades in out then the edits can be a little more spaced but when together the scenes need to match each other in order for them to tell the story. Our sequence needs the continuity editing to be perfect in the shot with the stalker. As the stalker disappears after grabbing the main character we need the shot to zoom out from before but match the other shot. I spent a while trying to get this as accurate as I could and I think I did a good job. Together, as a group, we watched this scene over until we were satisfied with the end result.

 

We decided early on that we would be using mostly continuity editing but we have used some establishing shots of the hallway and media room so the audience can see where the character is in more detail. As our opening focuses on only one character we had no reason to use parallel edits or a montage as we are simply following the character where ever she goes.

Group Progress - First Draft

Today we finished and showed our first draft to the class. I was quite pleased with what we had done in the time we had but I knew their where still many issues with the lighting, skipping shots, music and I was not happy with the ending. However the teacher feedback was positive and they offered some constructive criticism which will be extremely helpful when we resume editing again.

 

One of the main pieces of advice that was given was to include the antagonist more often but keeping it subtle. I think this is a good idea as it will show our genre more clearly in the opening. This way our audience would know what to expect during the film as an opening is suppose to prepare the audience and give them a hint at what the film will be like and this is what I want our sequence to do.

 

Group Progress - Editing

Today I had three study lessons in a row which I spent editing. The group and I had exported the footage together and decided that I would edit in my free periods and then show it to them so we could go over it together. I touched up some of the old pieces of footage and put in the ending and overall I think our sequence is quite good. However there are some slight issues such as the lighting in the outdoors scenes where they do no match and one shot that is missing so the character suddenly teleports to a different place. These issues will likely be changed after our first draft is shown to the class.

 

After showing our first draft we have to create the music and voice-over and learn how to do the credits as everyone in the group is unfamiliar with the program we have to use to make them. We will watch some YouTube Videos to learn the basics and follow the credit titles that are in all films to make sure that the order is correct.

Sound - (Children of Men)

Sound can make or break a film and is one of the most important factors to consider when creating one. Whether it's music or sound effects everything that can be heard when watching a film should match what the audience can see on the screen. Sound needs to be consistent from the beginning of the film right to the end. A film that has good sound at the beginning is 'Children of Men'.

 

 

The Outside Scene - Sound of Driving is Loud

It starts as a completely black screen followed by a woman's voice. The first sound heard is the woman talking about the death of the youngest man alive. As the screen is black her voice has to be focused on and she is clear and easy to understand. The tone of her voice shows that it is a newsreader and she is reciting the most important piece of news, giving the audience a insight into what's happening. A male voice then continues the story while the images on screen begin to play.

Explosion Scene - Causing a Loud Break in the Sound

There are faint building work sounds in the background showing that the place the characters are in needs fixing or updating hinting that the place is not as secure as it should be. A character then comes into the coffee shop and speaks, asking for a coffee and the sound of his change can be heard over the news story. When the screen focuses on the TV news story muttering from the people can be heard. This shows that everyone is listening intently on the story and muttering comments to those near them. Crying can then be heard to inform the audience that the story is deeply emotional to the people listening to the newsreader. The newsreaders voice begins to echo when the character begins to walk as there are several TV's in the room causing there to be more sound. The closer the character gets to the door the louder the sound of the traffic gets showing that the next location will be outside. When outside the only sound present is the traffic and it is loud and clearly sets the scene. This sound continues for a while before a sudden explosion breaks the calmness and triggers many other sounds associated with panic such as screaming, alarms and the sound of rubble falling. These sounds create a distressing scene without even looking at the film on screen.

 

The sound makes this film much better as it creates a quite tone with natural sounds such as traffic and people muttering which is interrupted by a sudden sound that no-one was expecting.

Group Progress - Media Room

Today we filmed the last scene in our opening sequence which took place inside our media room. The plot behind this ending is: the protagonist runs into a media room to hide from the antagonist however when she enters the room around 15 computer screens are static. The sound overpowers the protagonist and she cries for the noise to stop and to her surprise it does. Except on which remains on. She goes over to this computer and turns it off. She sighs in relief but someone begins to approach her. This figure raises a pair of large scissors in attempts to kill the protagonist however she turns around just in time to see the figure. In attempts to get away from the figure, the protagonist runs but gets herself cornered and then the figure kills her. However the protagonist wakes up back in the science room where she started and the whole experience starts again.

The death of the protagonist is key to our opening as she needs to be able to wake up back where she started and she can not do this unless she is knocked out or killed. Our weapon choice is a giant pair of scissors. We chose this as a weapon it matches the school theme and is unique to our antagonist.

The static also worked out really well, each computer had the static video playing and it looked great both on and off camera.

 

Overall I think the footage looks good however the ending was rushed due to a class wanting the room for their lesson. Other than that everything else worked out well and we got many great shots, using many different camera angles to make our sequence more interesting to watch.

How Gender Stereotypes are Presented - (Beauty and the Beast)

(Representations of gender in horror films is all ready on the blog)

Stereotypes are ways that people see a certain gender or race and except them to act in a certain way and are used in many films but are overlooked by the audience as they have become almost a default setting for films to include. Gender is one that is used frequently to make it clear to the audience what the character is like straight away through their speech or appearance. One company that plays on gender stereotypes is Disney. Even through animation, rather than using actual people, they show gender stereotypes and represent their characters in the same way. Although this is slightly different to horror or action stereotypes it is where the cliché of gender stereotypes became recognised. Disney has created around 12 princesses for their Disney princess movies and each one shares something with the other. Each princess is considered, by other characters in their film, as beautiful and in some ways, helpless. Disney made the princesses to be role models for young children that will watch the movies by making them the stereotype of a woman: beautiful and depend on a man. This is not the case for some of the more modern princesses but the first 6 all had those two qualities in common. However the men in Disney films are also represented in a similar way. The princes are muscular, charming, handsome and always showing up in the princesses time of need. The male villains are vain and want the beautiful princesses even when they can't have them. One good representation of this is the opening to 'Beauty and the Beast'.

This opening sets the plot for the film by giving the audience some background information. In this stained glass window art style, the prince is shown in rich clothing and is described as spoiled and unkind. This is the stereotype of a rich prince or villain and the audience immediately knows what to except from this character. A beggar woman is then shown to the audience and her appearance is described as haggard matching what people would usually associate with beggars or poorer people. The prince's reaction to the beggar is that he is repulsed by her appearance and turns her away. The narrator explains that the beggar tells the prince that beauty comes from within but even then he dismisses her. However the beggar woman turns out to be a 'beautiful enchantress' that is disgusted by the prince's attitude. The enchantress is then given long, golden curly hair and a large green ball gown to show the audience that this woman is beautiful compared to the beggar and puts her into the stereotype of women. The prince begs for forgiveness when he sees her beauty almost sending the message that beauty can make people forgive them and will favour them than people that are considered as 'ugly'. The enchantress then puts a spell onto the prince to teach him a lesson by turning

him into a beast.

 

The stereotypes in this opening are there but are shown to be almost backwards as the beast/prince starts as a vain villain but turns into what people see as the official Disney prince stereotype and the enchantress disguises herself as a beggar which is something new but then turns out to be a beautiful woman just like all of the other women in Disney.