Practice Time Lapse

This is a practice time lapse we did by the river so we could test the camera and see if the camera was good enough so we could speed up the video. What we found out about the camera that we were using is that it dropped frames if we made the time lapse too fast and so for our final time lapse we had to time the filming right otherwise the time lapse would have been too long for our movie.

The Unexpected Final Film

This is our Final Version of our film- The Unexpected.

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience

We attracted/addressed our audience in our media product by having a similar social class in our film so they could relate to the situation and feel for the protagonist. We have put a working class female babysitter trying to get some extra money for shopping and other leisure activities. Our audience can relate to this because the target audience age range is 15-30 and the younger people of our target audience can relate to this because most of them would have done this before to get some money and the older generation would have done this when they were teens. 

The antagonist in our movie is about 40-50 years old and our audience cannot really relate to him and have no feelings towards him, as he is the mysterious character, which no one really knows what he looks like. Our antagonist is from a working class background as you can tell by the way he is dressed but that is the only connection the audience has with him, which isn’t a strong or certified one. Also having an antagonist and protagonist is typical of the horror thriller/horror genre so they can build suspense, which we have done by intercutting scenes and using music. This technique will let the audience build a relationship or some sort of connection with the protagonist before we went into the dramatic scene where the antagonist confronts the protagonist. Using music and intercutting scenes kept the audience interested in the movie by giving the audience the knowledge that she is in danger but she does not know it yet and as the intercutting progressed she starts to catch on but she only knows what is going on just before the antagonist jumps out at her threatening her with a pitchfork. We also used a CCTV, which was a shot where we felt we could make the audience feel that they were spying at the antagonist, which would make them feel apart of the film. 

We have used many different techniques and ways to attract/address our audience using the four key elements mise en scene, camera, editing and sound which helped involve the audience and build a dramatic suspense which we tried to involve them as much as possible.

Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

We have decided that our film is going to be independent because it is a low budget film with no special effects. What company we are targeting to distribute our media product is Studio Canal or Pathé as they have distributed films to a similar genre to ours such as ‘Orphan’ and ‘Attack the Block’. Or we were thinking of releasing our film at a film festival (BFI London Film Festival & Raindance Festival) where we could get some attention for potential distributors. 

For our distribution campaign we were thinking of having a similar one to Attack the Block where we are going to release advertisements around where our target audience lives. We are also going to release trailers in theatres where we will be showing our movie and we may go and release a few teaser trailers on social networking sites where we would have a page set up. On this social networking page we will also have some competitions so we can get our target audience to enter so this will get them excited for the release. 

If we are ambitious we could get our movie noticed by a big distribution company where they will be able to release our movie in a few mainstream cinema’s and they will also be able to get a better advertisement campaign than our initial one.

Overall we hopefully will be able to get a secure distribution deal and get a good company backing us.

In what way does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of a real media product.

Our film “The Unexpected” combines both conventions and both challenging forms of media.

Firstly, our film is targeted at the traditional horror market, 15-34 this is usual of most horror films as it appeals to them. The target audience is predominately men  (70%-30% ratio) from all classes and regions of the country. With a traditional audience, we wanted to produce a film that would appeal to their natural viewing, and also challenge the genre of Horror.

“The Unexpected” includes the most traditional convention of in plain terms, a perpetrator and a victim, in this case a venerable young female babysitting. Babysitters have been used as victims in many horror films because they are realistic and defenceless, however “The Unexpected” brings in a new twist, the babysitter is stalked and set up without her knowing, and the perpetrator does not make their presence or identity known, the short opening scene does not also explain their intentions for the girl either, or why they did it. This will allow a deeper plot to untangle thought the whole film .

The opening scene ending is also challenging typical horror conventions  by  leaving the fate of the girl totally to the imagination of the viewer, they do not know if she was murdered, wounded or even harmed at all. This creates more mystery around both the victim and the perpetrator, viewers are constantly having to think and give full attention to the movie. Typical horrors use what is scene of screen and the Mis En Scene to scare viewers with death and blood. “The Unexpected” challenges this by using the power of imagination and one of the strongest senses, sound. The sounds of a spade being dragged intercut with the voices of innocent victims, and young girl, and possibly boy...

“The Unexpected” challenges the evolution of the horror genre. Horror is becoming an increasingly more popular genre, and the horror market is shifting towards supernatural and fictional plots . “The Unexpected”  creates a realistic sense, as it could happen to any one. This is shown in the plot and shot angles. We tried to keep a both realistic and both unnerving setting for the film, a farm house was chosen, as it is both urban and rural at the same time, due to roads. This adds to the sense of realism in the film. Farm houses are old and dark, which immediately brings fear into the viewers. The family interior and setting juxtaposes the genre and mood of the film, which is rarely done in films. The intercutting of a warm light family environment and a dark cold perpetrator unnerves the viewers and challenges typical conventions.

The iconography of the film uses with typical and challenging conventions. Both a dark and light colour pallet are inter cut and are heterogeneous of media convention. The possible weapon used is also challenging, a well known and owned by a large percentage of the population, but never used as a murdering devise. A garden spade.

“The Unexpected”   branches out to challenge most horror conventions, whilst keeping typical and traditional roots intact to create a realistic and scary film. The film was not to overly challenging as to risk losing a large audience base. It was challenged to the extent where the product was new but also popular, allowing us to remain profitable.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product.

To make my product unique i used a range of media technologies. The list below names all the  technologies used in the creation of “The Unexpected”.

-Macs

-Pc

-Internet Explorer (Research, blogger, YouTube, Sounds)

-Garage Band

-Final Cut pro

-Sony Vegas Pro 11.0

-Adobe After Effects CS5.5

-Digital video camera

-Microsoft word

As you can see, we uses an extensive range of media technologies to create  “The Unexpected”. We learnt a large skill set, and that although we were not always getting results we wanted, prevalence and the willing to learn allowed us to achieve what we wanted.

Our group is made up of 3, Oscar, Pattipan and Alex, neither of us do/have ever owned a mac, this was a large initial challenge to us, as we were not used to the layout and how macs operated. Out final editing and work in school was done on Macs, so we had to familiarize ourselves with them quickly. We learnt that they are very good for creating any form of media, and all the programs interlink, which made the whole process a lot easier and fun, as we got to learn new skills and tryout new things.

We used Pc’s to download software more suitable to th3 operating system of Microsoft, such and sony vegas and after effects. This is because we needed to learnt to use them effectively to produce certain aspects of the film, and most guides are on Pc. Pc’s also render quicker, so we increased quality and the FPS of our product on sony vegas to save time.

The internet is an obvious technology, but it was a key asset to our group, we could research films on youtube to generate ideas and also target marketing using websites. The internet offers a large knowledge and information base which we had to learn to use to out advantage. We also learnt to use Blogger, which was new to all of us. This is where we uploaded our final video and all work due for the course. We also took advantage of Instant messaging , we could all communicate and discuss ideas together, while sending  essays to be analysed and improved by other members of the group. Parts of editing were also backed up and sent to each other using the internet. It is the basis for most of our product, as it distributes and exhibits it.

We also learn to use garage band, it is a program on macs that let you create music and beats. We used garage band to make non-diagetic sounds for our media product, this gave it more professionalism and a more defined and pronounced scene.

Final Cut Pro additionally is a mac program, that we produced the main bulk of our media product on. We leant many skills in editing and trimming on final cut pro, it shows the importance of editing to distinguish films with good plots. Our main editor learnt more technical skills with Final cut pro that allowed us to create a USP for our media product. Final cut pro was used to upload our finished product and combine all three of the editing software’s used together along with sounds from garage band.  It was a key aspect of our success in out film.

Sony vegas was a program downloaded into our Pc’s, it is  slightly more advanced in some aspects of editing. We used it for our initial attempts at introductions and for increasing the quality of our final product. It was an important key contributor to the final media product.

Adobe After Effects CS5.5 was used for our final introduction,  it is an advanced piece of software that we innately struggled to use. We practiced, and eventually cam to understand concepts to movement, dimensions, CGI and more. It also has the ability to help create more advanced future products that we will create. Although challenging, the whole team enjoyed learning to use Adobe After Effects CS5.5.

We used a digital video camera to film out product, this required a large skill set. We had to leant how to control the camera and use a wide range of shots to go with it. From this you can see the importance of props and lighting, as it can overbalance the shot. We also had to upload the shots onto the computer or macs.

Microsoft word allowed us to create the written part of our overall product, and the basis for all essays. It is easy to use, and was also valuable as it was compatible on both Mac and Pc.

Overall, technology has helped us greatly to create out film intro more advanced and unique. It allowed communication aswell as the nitty gritty editing and final touches for out film. There was not a single aspect that we did not use/require technology for. Our skill set and understanding of how important technology is to ever aspect of media had increased vastly.

Analysis of the conventions and media language in a horror opening.

Strangers, Horror, Opening scene, 0-2:30 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWp14gtZ-u0

Strangers was released in 2008, the plot follows A young couple staying in an isolated vacation home are terrorized by three unknown assailants. It was directed and written by Bryan Bertino.

The film opens with a pitch black screen, eerie ambient non diegetic sound is played, the viewer is quickly recognises that the film is a horror from this dark sound. The music continues as the production and distribution companies names appear on screen. They are kept simple so as to create a sense of reality. This sense of reality is further implicated by the writing that appears next, “what you are about to see is inspired by true events” , the world are read by a narrator with a very monotone voice, this chills the viewer, and thoughts that this could happen to them appear in there mind. The man goes on to read facts about violent crimes in the USA to scare the viewer, and show how common  it is, nearly 1 in every 300 people. He tells the viewer where they were coming from (a wedding) and where to ( family summer home) and that the brutal events that took place there are still unknown. This helps the viewer understand what is going to happen on screen, and where it is.  The main characters are also identified early as well.

The screen fades, and a diegetic noise of an car engine is heard, with a soft undertone of non diegetic eerie sound , of a synth. The next scene is a a slow montage of shots, from the perspective of someone within the car looking outside, the shots cut after every house they pass, the colour tone is quite bleak, the houses slowly get more and more rural, to show how isolated they are.

The screen then fades black, the viewer hears the police pick up a phone, with a distraught young boy quivering on the phone, you immediately recognise that he is in trouble, whilst crying he tells the police officer on the phone that they need help, as there are people there, but he does not know where they are. The viewer is scared by the mere thought of this. Whilst the he is on the phone, the camera is panning across to a car with a love heart shaped smash in the window, it the boy and his friend earlier,  discovering what had happened, blood is splattered across the walls, whilst showing a gun on the counter. The shot then fades, and scene ends, with the world “The Strangers”.

The opening uses very little shots, and there is no dialogue on screen, only narration, the small amount of shots gives the film a very realistic feeling, and sets the film up later for an exiting plot.

Filming Locations

This is the House we are filming in and it is an old farmhouse which is ideal for our film opening.

This is the sitting room where we are going to be filming the babysitter watching TV and on her phone

This is the kids bedroom and we can add some toys to make it even more childish

This is the farmyard where we could do some filming as it would be easy to give it a scary  atmosphere

This is the spot where we filmed the time lapse from and that is the field where  the antagonist is walking

This is the bathroom where we have decided now to do some filming in.

Storyboards for Main Task

Child's (Ben) Costume

Child's Costume

We have chosen for the character Ben in our film opening who is a child to be wearing his pyjamas because we are going to have a scene where the babysitter is putting him to bed and we are having the scene to establish that she is a babysitter.
                                         

Here is the pyjama top that the child is going to wear and we have chosen this particular top because it is casual and doesn't attract attention. We have also chosen some pyjama bottoms as well even though you will not see them in the scene we may change our minds during filming.

Production Audience

Who would be an audience for our media production?

 This is my personified target audience, who was created in open office by me. His name is Alex Williams and he is 22 years old. He is the average person we have aimed our opening sequence as a specific target audience is key to create a well-constructed, effective opening sequence. He is composed of many factors that we considered in order to create an opening sequence that appealed to a varied audience in order to earn as much money as possible in the industry.

The first thing that we considered was his occupation, shown by his belt. He is a skilled working class manual labourer, more informally known as a plumber/handyman. I have chosen our characterisation of the target audience to be a plumber, as this shows motivation towards money, as he has put in the time to learn the necessary skills needed, in order to become a plumber, which is a fairly highly paid job. Our opening sequence being a horrorfilm is likely to appeal to someone like 'Alex' as he will enjoy the type of story that engages him- normal family being terrorized. It’ll also allow him to relate to this modern day setting in a house.

Secondly, I have considered his clothing. He is wearing highly fashionably clothing and therefore he is likely to take pride in his appearance, but more importantly, it shows that he is just an average person living in London. He is likely to appreciate the story behind our sequence, as our main character is dressed similarly to him, and this will allow him to relate to our story, perhaps making it more engaging as he will feel that this could happen to him which will make him feel more scared when watching our opening because this is happening in today’s society therefore this could happen to him. So maybe by having the murderer’s clothes similar style to the audience clothes will make our opening seem more realistic and therefore will make the opening more terrifying. The aim of our horror is to frighten the audience and the choice of clothing plays a big part in our production.

Also, 'Alex' is holding a newspaper, which is in fact The Sun. He enjoys to read tabloid newspapers and this represents the fact that he is likely to enjoy a good story in which he can speak to his friends about, and this will mean that our story will not only be a good 'gossip' story that he can talk about, but also be an effective means of advertisement for our sequence as word of mouth is the most effective method.

Shooting Schedule

Shooting Schedule

Scene	Date/Time	Location	People	Equipment	Props	Notes
1	17/03/2012 3pm-7pm	Field	-	Camera, Tripod	-	Time lapse
2	17/03/2012 7pm	Field	Antagonist	Camera, Tripod	Pitchfork, antagonist costume	Shots of antagonists feet walking towards the house from the field
2	17/03/2012 7.10pm	Farmyard	Antagonist	Camera, Tripod	Pitchfork, antagonist costume	CCTV shot (wide shot, low angle)
2	17/03/2012 7.15	Old Milking Shed	Antagonist	Camera, Tripod	Pitchfork, antagonist costume	Long Shot-mid shot
2	17/03/2012 7.20	Old Milking Shed	Antagonist	Camera, Tripod	Pitchfork, antagonist costume	Match on action of opening door
3	19/03/2012 7.00pm - Finish	House	Babysitter, Child, Antagonist	Camera, Tripod	Pitchfork, antagonist costume, babysitter costume, child costume	Fake blood needed

Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment

Date	Location	Potential Risk/ Hazard	Level Of Risk (L/M/H)	Action Needed to reduce Risk
17-03-2012	Field	Bumpy ground and someone could injure themselves on the pitchfork	L	Wearing suitable footwear
17-03-2012	House	We are filming out the window so camera could fall out	L	Put the camera on a secure tripod
17-03-2012	Farmyard	A shot requires a high position which could potentially end up someone falling	H	Make sure the high ground is secure and stable. Also have people spotting the cameraman.
19-03-2012	House	Someone hurts themselves on the pitchfork	M	Do not run with the pitchfork and hold the prop properly
17-03-2012	Old Milking Shed	Hurting yourself on debris	L	Clear the debris before filming
19-03-2012	House	Trip on wires	L	Tape the wires down
19-03-2012 & 17-03-2012	House, Field, Farmyard, Milking Shed	The mask reduces the vision of the actor and may trip.	M	Clear the pathway for the actor

Script

The Unexpected

Script:

1.     INT. NIGHT – FARMHOUSE – BEDROOM

Babysitter walks in the bedroom and sits down on the bed and takes the games console off the child.

WS

OTH

BABYSITTER [JESS]

Go to bed now

CHILD [BEN]

Oh!

POV

Babysitter gets up and walks towards the door

BABYSITTER [JESS]

Night!

CHILD [BEN]

Night!

…

CUT TO:

2.     INT. Night – FARMHOUSE – BATHROOM

MS

Babysitter walks into the bathroom and there is writing on the mirror in blood [Turn Around]. The babysitter turns around and the antagonist comes in grabs her by the throat quickly and then puts her against the wall.

CUT TO:

OTH [BEN]

 The child then is standing in the doorway looking at the action.

BABYSITTER

[Shouts] Ben run

FADE OUT.

Babysitter Costume

Babysitters Costume

Here I have chosen to keep the babysitters costume casual so we could have a calm atmosphere so we can build tension starting with a calm atmosphere

Here we have chosen for the babysitter to wear a simple white top which is casual. We also chose this because it is a typical top that a teenager would wear for a casual evening.







            Here we have chosen a pair of black leggings and we have chosen clothes which are plain so the audience will not be focusing on how nice the clothes are but what is going to happen next.















Here we have chosen ankle socks for the babysitter to wear because she is going to be inside and she wouldn't be wearing shoes inside so these socks will also add to the calm atmosphere.

We have also given the babysitter a phone so it will make her oblivious of her surroundings and will give the antagonist a chance to get inside the house.

Antagonist Costume

 This is the chosen mask for our main task and it has been chosen because it has scary features to it and it is realistic which will scare the audience when watching the movie.

This is the chosen shirt and we have chosen it because it fits the scene as it is checkered.

We have chosen some old jeans for him to wear a pair of old jeans as it will fit the scene and our character will seem as a demented farmer.

Our chosen weapon is a pitchfork and we had to think a lot about the weapon as there is such a wide range to choose from but we settled on a pitchfork and we also thought of him using multiple weapons but as we are just doing an opening we just chose one.

We have chosen old boots to go with this costume as he will be walking on bumpy terrain and it fits the characters image.

Film Actors & Costume Research

Film Actors & Costume

Our movie is based around a farmhouse which is in a secluded area and I have decided to research into characters which will be entailed in our movie. I have chosen to research antagonists of horror movies and the venerable people in the horror movies. This is because in our movie we are going to have a babysitter looking after a child which is the vulnerable characters and a threatening suspicious character.

Antagonist Research  1. Strangers – In this movie there are three killers and they are terrorising a couple that are trapped inside a secluded house which is surrounded by forests. What is good about these antagonists is that the masks are scary and the two women have china doll masks on which is stereotypical of horror/thriller movies

 

2. Saw – This horror movie only has one antagonist which again has a doll character but this time it is not just the mask the killer is a small person which has a prop of a tricycle. What is good about this killer is that they have made it scary by giving the doll red eyes and exaggerated its facial features.

3. Scream – This movies killer has a black cloak with a white mask and is taken from a famous piece of art called the scream by Edvard Munch. This adds to the scariness and his weapon is a knife which is stereotypical but I don’t think it will fit the character in mind for our main task.

Decision - After our research into our inspiration for our antagonist we did a survey in the class and got them to choose which character will suit our movie the best. The movie that most people thought would suit our movie the best was option 1 (strangers). We are only going to have one character antagonist though in our movie instead of three because it is hard to get people to act for us.

Vulnerable Character Research

1.       The Hills Have Eyes – All these characters are young around 18-25 and there is a dog as well which is always a bonus in a horror movie as they seem to be the protagonist of the movie but the problem is that you will need a trained dog to act if we were to get one. What we are mainly looking at is the women and the baby because a typical babysitter is a young woman/teenager wearing casual clothes and a baby/child is key in the movie as there screams can add tension.

2. Scream 4 – In this movie there are mostly older people who are the vulnerable but they are women and the older men try and be the protagonists. These people are also wearing casual clothes which seem to be a key aspect in horror movies to have a relaxed atmosphere so they can have juxtaposing scenes.

3. The Cabin in The Woods – In this movie to is a group of teenagers which go to cabin in the woods and there are two girls and three guys and they are all wearing casual clothes. I think it is a must to have a young actor such as a teenager in our movie.

Decision - Our decision for our vulnerable people in our movie was chosen by another survey that we have done in the class and most of the people chose option 1 (the hills have eyes). So we are not going to include all the characters just a young girl and a child/baby. Also a lot of people said that we should have a dog in our main task but it might be difficult to get a dog to act in our movie.