Tuesday 22 May 2012
Friday 30 March 2012
Question 5
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| This is a wordle document |
The playground is a location that people with children can resonate with. The storyline can be easily related to by anyone who has had the death of a child as the story line is about a man, who lost his daughter.
To entice our audience we have opened a cinema screening at screen on the green in angel Islington where we played the first two minutes of the film.
Q4 of my media Evaluation "who would be the audience for your media product"
I think the audience for my opening thriller would be aimed at middle-aged females between the ages of 21 onwards because of the location and mis-en-scene.
The location of my opening thriller was in a park where you would normally expect mothers to be playing with their children as it is more commonly known for women to take their children to parks. the image below shows the image of the location of where i filmed the opening of my thriller.
The park below gives off an innocent feel to the opening of my thriller in the beginning.
Another mise-en-scene which shows that the opening of my thriller is aimed at middle aged women is the push-chair which shows up in a few scenes of my thriller. the image below shows the push-chair which featured in the opening of my thriller.
The older male actor would also convey that the thriller is aimed at middled aged women as the older male would symbolise that he has a wife and his own family, this would have an effect on women as it would make them feel sympathy for the father of the child. The image above shows the male actor in the opening of my thriller .
In conclusion I believe that my opening of my thriller is aimed for women but to be specific women aged 21 because I believe that the opening of my thriller is family orientated.
Thursday 29 March 2012
Q6 of my evaluation- GoAnimate presentation
GoAnimate.com: danielladaiuto's Animation by danielladaiuto
Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com
Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com
Thursday 22 March 2012
Question 1 Evaluation
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
To answer this question we must first have a look at the conventions of a film opening. Conventions of a film opening change dependant on the genre/sub-genre of the film. These are the general conventions of a film opening although not all films conform
-Production company logo
-Distribution company logo
-Title sequence
-Sound and or video to help entice the audience
-Key characters are introduced
As you can see in our film opening we do conform to these conventions. Although I do feel that the sound could of set the mood of the film a little better.
I have created two scrapbooks using beeclip in which I show the title sequence used by the thriller movie se7en and our own movie Imogen. I did this so that it would be alot easier to compare the two, as you can see our title sequences are very similar although there are some slight differences, but only slight. As well as this in our title sequence the titles are low down so that the audience does not get distracted from the video whilst in se7en we see that the titles are in the middle as the editor wants attention drawn to the titles. In our film opening we obey the conventions of title sequences within films.
To answer this question we must first have a look at the conventions of a film opening. Conventions of a film opening change dependant on the genre/sub-genre of the film. These are the general conventions of a film opening although not all films conform
-Production company logo
-Distribution company logo
-Title sequence
-Sound and or video to help entice the audience
-Key characters are introduced
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| Production company logo |
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| Distribution company logo |
I have created two scrapbooks using beeclip in which I show the title sequence used by the thriller movie se7en and our own movie Imogen. I did this so that it would be alot easier to compare the two, as you can see our title sequences are very similar although there are some slight differences, but only slight. As well as this in our title sequence the titles are low down so that the audience does not get distracted from the video whilst in se7en we see that the titles are in the middle as the editor wants attention drawn to the titles. In our film opening we obey the conventions of title sequences within films.
EVALUATION: Q7
EVALUATION: Q7
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I have created a clip on GoAnimate to demonstrate the skills which I have learned both during and after my preliminary project -EVALUATION: Q5
EVALUATION: Q5
How did you attract/address your audience?
For this question I have created a short movie on Final Cut Pro to demonstrate what aspects of my film -including mise-en-scene, actors, location and film title - might appeal to my target audience.
I am now going to compare my final film to my rough cut edit. My rough cut was extremely unorganised, and had my final film been in any way similar, it wouldn't have been a good outcome. The rough cut had no sound; had no titles; had clips which weren't in the correct order and had gaps in between each clip. The advice my teacher gave me was extremely useful because she was able to point out mistakes and areas for improvements. In relation to how my film appeals to my target audience, this was important because it made the film better and allowed it to flow more, and a film which flows nicely and makes sense appeals to an audience much more than a film which doesn't.
So far, I have reached my audience through vimeo, through the cinema screening of my film, through facebook and the film would eventually go on to be released on DVD and would be displayed at independent film festivals in London, such as London Short Film, FrightFest, Raindance Film Festival and BFI.
So far, I have reached my audience through vimeo, through the cinema screening of my film, through facebook and the film would eventually go on to be released on DVD and would be displayed at independent film festivals in London, such as London Short Film, FrightFest, Raindance Film Festival and BFI.
EVALUATION: Q6
EVALUATION: Q6
What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
The two most important technologies which I used were Final Cut Pro and the JVC Camera, because without either of these products I wouldn't have even been able to create the first stage of my media product. I used other, less important technologies along the way (such as the iPAD 2 for research and flip cameras for filming evaluations amongst other things) and they were important for me to produce my thriller film, however they weren't crucial like Final Cut Pro or the JVC Camera.
Before this course I was entirely unfamiliar with the JVC Cameras and Final Cut Pro, and so it was important for me to understand how to use these products before producing my film so that I was skilled enough to make it look decent. I enjoyed learning about the camera and the editing software because it was a new skill I learned which was an important aspect of the project.
The two most important technologies which I used were Final Cut Pro and the JVC Camera, because without either of these products I wouldn't have even been able to create the first stage of my media product. I used other, less important technologies along the way (such as the iPAD 2 for research and flip cameras for filming evaluations amongst other things) and they were important for me to produce my thriller film, however they weren't crucial like Final Cut Pro or the JVC Camera.
Before this course I was entirely unfamiliar with the JVC Cameras and Final Cut Pro, and so it was important for me to understand how to use these products before producing my film so that I was skilled enough to make it look decent. I enjoyed learning about the camera and the editing software because it was a new skill I learned which was an important aspect of the project.
EVALUATION: Q4
EVALUATION: Q4
Who would be the audience for your media product?
My thriller film was originally targeted at 15-24 year olds, however since the development of the opening and the style of the final product, it seems much more appropriate for it to be aimed at a more mature audience. Although the film would still be rated 15, I don't think younger teenagers would be interested in watching the film because no aspect of the film relates to teenagers - it deals with a man who has lost his child and is attempting to cope with his grief. My new target audience would be 21+, because they are old enough to understand the mature themes within the film and also may have children of themselves, so they are more likely to be enticed by the themes of the thriller.
After showing the rest of my class the final product, we all agreed that not only was it aimed at more mature people, but it also would appeal to the female gender more. This is because men are more interested with thrillers which are either fast-paced, such as action and crime thrillers, or those which have elements of horror in them too, because gore tends to attract males more than females. Our film does not encompass these elements, and so it would appeal to females more.
I created a questionnaire as a way of discovering what people thought of my film opening. Here is a short powerpoint movie to show my results -
My thriller film was originally targeted at 15-24 year olds, however since the development of the opening and the style of the final product, it seems much more appropriate for it to be aimed at a more mature audience. Although the film would still be rated 15, I don't think younger teenagers would be interested in watching the film because no aspect of the film relates to teenagers - it deals with a man who has lost his child and is attempting to cope with his grief. My new target audience would be 21+, because they are old enough to understand the mature themes within the film and also may have children of themselves, so they are more likely to be enticed by the themes of the thriller.
After showing the rest of my class the final product, we all agreed that not only was it aimed at more mature people, but it also would appeal to the female gender more. This is because men are more interested with thrillers which are either fast-paced, such as action and crime thrillers, or those which have elements of horror in them too, because gore tends to attract males more than females. Our film does not encompass these elements, and so it would appeal to females more.
I created a questionnaire as a way of discovering what people thought of my film opening. Here is a short powerpoint movie to show my results -
EVALUATION: Q3
EVALUATION: Q3
What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?
question three on Prezi
I have created a small prezi document to present this question. It encompasses the names of the production and distribution companies of my thriller opening, and explains that these companies are small independent companies, unlike major companies used to produce/distribute major, popular films.
As I have used THE SECRET WINDOW as a comparison before, I will use it again to show the differences in companies. For example, major companies will not only have their name titles, but also their company logos. For example -
My own thriller has a production company logo as well, but the production name does not come up twice. Instead, we see 'Premiere Films 7', the distribution company.
I have created a small prezi document to present this question. It encompasses the names of the production and distribution companies of my thriller opening, and explains that these companies are small independent companies, unlike major companies used to produce/distribute major, popular films.
As I have used THE SECRET WINDOW as a comparison before, I will use it again to show the differences in companies. For example, major companies will not only have their name titles, but also their company logos. For example -
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| PRODUCTION COMPANY LOGO |
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| PRODUCTION COMPANY TITLE |
EVALUATION: Q2
EVALUATION: Q2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
I have created a couple of collages on beeclip to show my understanding of different representations of social groups. For example, I took one social group - 'teenagers' - and looked at three different ways in which they are represented by the media. The first representation that I looked at was the wild, uncontrollable side of youths. It shows them to be constantly partying, engaging in sexual activities and just generally being out of control. The second representation that I looked at was the depressed side of teenagers, in particular young women, and the third was looking at the sub-culture label of 'chav', showing teenagers to be no good for anything, trouble-making and intimidating. All of the representations of teenagers are negative, which is a common stereotype used for teenagers by the media.
Although my own film did not focus on teenagers, I found this analysis useful for reinforcing the notion of stereotypes used in films and in other media. My own film opening looked at a man dealing with the loss of his young daughter. This is an interesting representation because it shows the man as weak and vulnerable, whereas men are stereotypically represented in the media as strong and tough, not being stumped by emotional difficulty. It is usually women who are shown to be vulnerable, and so we have challenged general media stereotypes.
I have created a couple of collages on beeclip to show my understanding of different representations of social groups. For example, I took one social group - 'teenagers' - and looked at three different ways in which they are represented by the media. The first representation that I looked at was the wild, uncontrollable side of youths. It shows them to be constantly partying, engaging in sexual activities and just generally being out of control. The second representation that I looked at was the depressed side of teenagers, in particular young women, and the third was looking at the sub-culture label of 'chav', showing teenagers to be no good for anything, trouble-making and intimidating. All of the representations of teenagers are negative, which is a common stereotype used for teenagers by the media.
Although my own film did not focus on teenagers, I found this analysis useful for reinforcing the notion of stereotypes used in films and in other media. My own film opening looked at a man dealing with the loss of his young daughter. This is an interesting representation because it shows the man as weak and vulnerable, whereas men are stereotypically represented in the media as strong and tough, not being stumped by emotional difficulty. It is usually women who are shown to be vulnerable, and so we have challenged general media stereotypes.
Monday 19 March 2012
Q1 of evaluation
The opening of my thriller 'imogen' target audience was aimed for the ages of 21+. This target audience was chosen because our film is based around the lost of a child and the father is grieving, also the audience for our film 'imogen' is also aimed women.
My opening of my thriller will be shown below and I will take clips of our opening and analyse how the conventions have been followed.
The conventions of the titles have been followed as the production company logo came first which was shown at 00.15 secs in our opening which usually comes first in the openings which is then followed by the production team which shortly followed by the main actor which is shown to the right. the main character of the film in our opening of our thriller was shown at 00.38 seconds.
My opening of my thriller will be shown below and I will take clips of our opening and analyse how the conventions have been followed.
The conventions of the titles have been followed as the production company logo came first which was shown at 00.15 secs in our opening which usually comes first in the openings which is then followed by the production team which shortly followed by the main actor which is shown to the right. the main character of the film in our opening of our thriller was shown at 00.38 seconds.
Evaluation Question 4
This photograph shows what age group of people go to watch thriller films. As we can see people aged 15-30 are the most likely to go and watch a thriller film. I extracted this information from a reliable forum in which users were asked their age and which film type they most liked.
The sub genre for my film is crime which is predominately watched by men as they often involve violence justice system and villains. Although in recent years woman have been drawn into crime with the escapism element it entails.
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| Target audience |
EVALUATION: Q1
EVALUATION: Q1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Film openings often follow certain conventions to convey meanings or messages embedded within the films, or they challenge conventions to propose new ideas or notions. Conventions can exist within different genres and sub-genres. For example, the conventions used in horror films are different to the conventions used in comedies.
The screen grabs above are taken from my own film opening. They are quite bright and light in comparison to the ones in ARLINGTON ROAD; this was a device we used to lull our audience into a false sense of security. We wanted the opening of our film to be quite positive in contrast to the creepy music in the background and the revelation of the death at the end. The contrast in film opening title sequences (between ARLINGTON ROAD and IMOGEN) is also down to the fact that ARLINGTON ROAD uses a stylised title sequence, with distorted colours and images to add to its thriller genre.
Above is the first ten minutes of THE SECRET WINDOW, a psychological thriller, however I am only focusing on the title sequence. My own opening is very similar to this opening in that, similar to ARLINGTON ROAD, the titles come up over footage and not a blank screen. This is important because it shows you what the film is going to be about - for ours, our titles came up over shots of a park, suggesting that there will be something to do with a child. Similarly, in THE SECRET WINDOW, the titles come up over the house, a place which comes to be very important to the film's plot.
Other conventions of film openings are the positions of the titles within the film. In my own opening, the title, IMOGEN, comes up at 0:49 seconds. The length of my own title sequence is 1:39 seconds, so the title is right in the middle of my opening. This follows conventions because to have it too late during the title sequence is not conventional, as the film title is one of the most important titles a film will have. Other conventions of film titles show contrast between my opening and the opening of THE SECRET WINDOW; THE SECRET WINDOW stars Johnny Depp, a famous Hollywood actor. Because of his fame, his name is shown early on in the titles before the actual film title as a marketing tool, enticing Depp's fans in. Because my own film is produced by a small independent company and does not, therefore, star any famous actors, our main actor 'Aaron Meller' comes up after the title and quite far into the title sequence.
The screen grabs above are taken from the thriller ARLINGTON ROAD. We have followed very similar conventions used in these titles; we have our titles come up over footage instead of having them appear over a blank screen; they are over clips of significant things instead of characters (for example the house and the swings). We also followed conventions by starting off with our production and distribution company titles, before anything else.
Above is the first ten minutes of THE SECRET WINDOW, a psychological thriller, however I am only focusing on the title sequence. My own opening is very similar to this opening in that, similar to ARLINGTON ROAD, the titles come up over footage and not a blank screen. This is important because it shows you what the film is going to be about - for ours, our titles came up over shots of a park, suggesting that there will be something to do with a child. Similarly, in THE SECRET WINDOW, the titles come up over the house, a place which comes to be very important to the film's plot.
Other conventions of film openings are the positions of the titles within the film. In my own opening, the title, IMOGEN, comes up at 0:49 seconds. The length of my own title sequence is 1:39 seconds, so the title is right in the middle of my opening. This follows conventions because to have it too late during the title sequence is not conventional, as the film title is one of the most important titles a film will have. Other conventions of film titles show contrast between my opening and the opening of THE SECRET WINDOW; THE SECRET WINDOW stars Johnny Depp, a famous Hollywood actor. Because of his fame, his name is shown early on in the titles before the actual film title as a marketing tool, enticing Depp's fans in. Because my own film is produced by a small independent company and does not, therefore, star any famous actors, our main actor 'Aaron Meller' comes up after the title and quite far into the title sequence.
Evaluation Introduction
Over the next few weeks I will be working on my evaluation for IMOGEN, encompassing my answers to 7 questions represented in a visual way, using different media products. In my answers to these questions I will analyse several different aspects of my film opening, such as the conventions of film openings; the target audience of my thriller; the technologies I used; what I have learned overall.
None of these questions ask me to evaluate my film opening in an overall way, and do not ask me how I think my film opening went overall. For this reason I thought a quick blog to introduce the evaluation process would be appropriate, in which I will explain how I think my film opening went in my own words, without attempting to answer any formal questions.
I think IMOGEN was an overall success, and I think that the final product went better than it could have done. This is because I don't think we had an extremely secure idea, and I think that our idea could have either been really good or really bad. As it stands, I think it turned out to be somewhere in the middle. I think it achieved its genre of psychological thriller and reflected the hard work we all put in as a group.
Tuesday 6 March 2012
09. Karen, Joshua, Anisha, Mohammed from
As part of my media studies course I am going to evaluate some film openings from previous students at my college.
I think that this film opening works very well because it creates a false sense of security as it seems like the main character is having a normal day, this is very similar to what we are going to do in our film opening (creating a false sense of security) this is why I believe we can incorporate some of these ideas into our own film.
I also think that this film opening works well as it is simple yet effective, they also did well in keeping the identity of the person who posted the letter a mystery.
this person has also added foley sound into their film opening making it sound more attracting to the audience
My evaluation on rough cut of editing
I think the rough cut of the the edited 'Imogen' is good although there were a lot of sequences that were missed out due to the fact that this was our first attempt at blogging. We used miniml effects in the rough cut to give the audience the idea of what our film will look like, these effects were the colour tint and the layering two sequences together so it looks as if the two sequences of the opening are mixing in with each other.
I think what could be improved in the rough vut of our editing is more clear sequences which would make the whole opening look more clearer to the audience and i think we should aim to make the rough cut a bit longer in length to give an idea to the viewers what our film is going to be about .
I think what could be improved in the rough vut of our editing is more clear sequences which would make the whole opening look more clearer to the audience and i think we should aim to make the rough cut a bit longer in length to give an idea to the viewers what our film is going to be about .
Thursday 1 March 2012
Rough Cut of Imogen
This is our rough cut of our final film opening. We were slow on getting the editing running smoothly and so our rough cut is only the first few clips of the opening and not the opening as a whole. There are also black gaps in between each clip, the first is to mark where our movie title will appear (IMOGEN) and the following ones are to remind us that we still need to include transitions between our clips. We also need to mute our clips.
Our teacher, Rebecca, gave us some tips to help us with our editing process. The following is a list of things we need to work on -
- plan on paper the rest of your sequence
- edit the clip of the roundabout (person and tripod visible in background)
- limit amount of layers used in clips
- plan where your titles are going to appear
- reduce the lighting in your clips
In response to what feedback our teacher has given us, we are more prepared and know what we need to do over the next week to get our opening completely finished. We have decided not to stick to our storyboard as we feel that the opening works better and is more creepy in a completely different order. For this reason, like Rebecca said, we need to plan the rest of our sequence in more detail so that when we next edit we aren't spending time worrying about what is going where.
Sunday 26 February 2012
Filming Day 2
THURSDAY 16th FEBRUARY
Today was our second day of filming, and here's an insight as to how it went...
Today we had one of our props prepared today (the pushchair). Unfortunately we still haven't managed to get a doll, however I hope to have bought one before our next day of filming, which is on Saturday. Today went better than our first attempt at filming because we had more shots which we could take because of the addition of the pushchair, and we also had a lot more time to film as well. We still didn't manage to get as much done as we wanted to, however, because of the absence of the doll. However, overall I think our second day of filming went OK and we hope that Saturday will go even more smoothly.
Filming Day 1
MONDAY 20th FEBRUARY
Our first day of filming didn't exactly go to plan...
We didn't get as much as we wanted to get done, due to a couple of reasons. The first and most important reason was the fact that we didn't have either of our two props (a doll and a pushchair). Because of our disorganisation as a group, we spent a lot of time today talking about what we would do if we had our props instead of actually doing it. This was a huge waste of time for all of us, and we only filmed 2-3 clips. We have learned from this mistake, and we all realise now how important it is to be prepared before filming.
Another problem with our filming was the location. Although we had to stick with it as we had no plan b, it wasn't as great as we thought it would be because the park we have chosen to film in has turned out to be quite popular. Whereas we were looking for the desolate, isolated and quiet feel, our chosen park is often busy and lively. This changes the whole atmosphere of our film, and we hope that the footage that we have so far and will have in the next few days will still be suitable for a thriller film. Our next day of filming will be on Thursday and I hope that that goes better than how today went!
Filming Day 3
SATURDAY 25th FEBRUARY
Today was our third day of filming and it went really good! We finally have a doll to film with (woohoo!) and so a lot of our footage was filmed today instead of on Monday or on Thursday. We didn't get everything done today, however, because we didn't have the pushchair seeing as we borrowed it from someone, and we weren't able to borrow it today. However, by next Monday we will have both the pushchair and the doll and so we can get the remaining scenes filmed and then we can start our editing process.
Thursday 23 February 2012
Props
After two days of filming we are quite far into our project now. We shouldn't need too much longer to get it finished filming-wise, and we will post as a group soon regarding those two days and how well (or not so well!) they went.
There has been a slight problem over this past week, however: we were not able to get hold of a rag doll which was crucial to our film's storyline. For this reason, we couldn't shoot several scenes of our opening which needed to be shot. Luckily I managed to pick one up today and so we can film with it on our third day of filming - however because of this slight hiccup we have been behind schedule and we should have got these scenes finished by now.
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| the doll which will feature in our film opening |
I have definitely learned from this mistake - it was a problem for us to assume that we would be able to buy a rag doll from anywhere, and it was certainly a problem that we spent a lot of filming time searching for shops to buy one in instead of being able to get on with our filming. It's something that we've all learned from - we must remember to be prepared in the future, and have all props ready before they're needed.
Sunday 19 February 2012
Ideas for our soundrack .
I have made a post on Facebook asking people if they know of any "eerie" or "creepy" soundtracks which will be useful for when we produce our own soundtrack for our thriller. I will make a list of the songs people have suggested
- Moby - " First cool hive "
- Flying Lotus " MmmHmm
With these recommendations of soundtracks and songs I hope that they will inspire us when making our own soundtrack for the opening of our thriller
Even though that both songs are a different genre of music, they might be able to help us to bond different sounds together so we will be able to make our own soundtrack.
Filming Schedule outside of college hours
The filming schedule above shows the dates and hours where we are hoping to film, however if we have to change any of the filming dates or hours this blog will be updated .
The Storyboard in more detail .
The reason why we produced a storyboard is because when coming to filming each scene of the opening of our thriller, it would help us to make our scenes more clear and helps us choose which camera shots we will be using in each section.The story board has each section of our opening of the thriller.
Part one of the storyboard sets the scene of the camera shots in the park, for example we will have a close up shot of the signs in a park for example "Children's play area ", this would make it clear to the audience where we are filming, I also feel that it will create an eerie atmosphere . The image below is part one of the storyboard.
Part two of the storyboard shows the camera angles in more detail, for example there is a over shoulder shot of the doll being pushed down the slide and a close up of the buggy wheel whilst it is being pushed in the park. Having a story board at this scene will be very useful as we might forget to film that as I feel that is a significant part of our opening thriller.
The third part of the story board is the most important part because it's the scene we film where a bus drives past and reveals the man, this is the most important part of filming because it sums up what our thriller is about.
Risk Assessment
As I am going to be out of college whilst filming in a different location, there will be possible hurdles whilst on our travels which may enhance some danger.I will be going through a short risk assessment where I will be identifying any possible risks and saying how the risks could be avoided.
Risk 1 : There might be people in the park at the time during our filming hours where a piece of the filming equipment could be a danger towards them (i.e the tripod could fall on them ). This could be avoided by making sure the filming equipment is in our possession at all times .
Risk 2 : The second risk could be that there is a possibility that the filming equipment could get stolen. To avoid this, again we will ensure that the filming equipment is in our possession at all times.
Risk 3 : The third risk is that if it happens that there is bad weather, the camera could get damaged as water may enter which could damage the filming. This could be avoided by making sure that when we are not using the camera, it will be in the camera bag provided .
Risk 4 : The finally risk is that myself or others in my group could have an accident whilst filming or during our travel to the location, to avoid this from happening we will ensure that we act mature and safe at all times .
Risk 1 : There might be people in the park at the time during our filming hours where a piece of the filming equipment could be a danger towards them (i.e the tripod could fall on them ). This could be avoided by making sure the filming equipment is in our possession at all times .
Risk 2 : The second risk could be that there is a possibility that the filming equipment could get stolen. To avoid this, again we will ensure that the filming equipment is in our possession at all times.
Risk 3 : The third risk is that if it happens that there is bad weather, the camera could get damaged as water may enter which could damage the filming. This could be avoided by making sure that when we are not using the camera, it will be in the camera bag provided .
Risk 4 : The finally risk is that myself or others in my group could have an accident whilst filming or during our travel to the location, to avoid this from happening we will ensure that we act mature and safe at all times .
Saturday 18 February 2012
Target Audience
The target audience of a film is hugely important because it determines who watches it and who doesn't, based upon the content of the film. As a group we decided that our film would be targeted at 16-24 year olds, because we think that the younger generation would enjoy it more. Therefore overall I would rate it as a 15 because although that is one year below our suggested age range, rating it 18 would prevent 16 and 17 year olds from watching it and also would suggest that it would involve a lot of violence, drug abuse, sexually explicit content etc etc which it will not. A 15 is therefore appropriate because it prevents young teens from watching it but opens the film up to older teens as well.
Possible film ratings -
- U (universal)
- PG (parental guidance)
- 12A (12 accompanied)
- 12
- 15 - "these films may contain offensive or emotionally harrowing scenes or strong language and violence"
- 18 - "These films may contain extreme gore/violence and/or sexually explicit content"
- R18 (restricted 18 - these films contain sexually explicit content and are sold only in licensed sex shops/specially licensed cinemas)
Risk Assessment
I am going to complete a risk assessment for my group's thriller opening because as we are filming outside in a public location we need to be aware of potential risks and problems that could arise. We are filming in a park and so for this reason we need to be aware of certain things. The two most important things which we as a group need to take care of are -
- other people who may be in the park at the time (though we aim to film in an empty park)
- the filming equipment being stolen/lost
We will overcome the potential of lost equipment by making sure that we are always with the camera so that it doesn't go missing, and we will prevent it from being stolen by carrying it around in the camera bags so that we don't ever have it on display whilst it is not in use.
There are other things we need to be careful of, for example making sure that we have permission to film in our chosen park and also that we do not annoy other people by accidentally filming them. This will be overcome by filming in a park which is not popular and by not doing it during hours which children will obviously be there (i.e. after school times).
Friday 17 February 2012
Intertextuality in films
In this blog I am going to be explaining what intertextuality is and give some examples from fairly recent films.
But first of all, What is intertextuality?
Intertextuality describe's the visual reference between films. Films sometimes borrow aspects of one film and incorporate it into their own. This could be the mise en scene, sound, editing, characters etc. A viewer would need to see a certain film or text to understand the intertextuality.
Some examples of intertextuality?
Spoof films such as Scary Movie, are great examples of intertextuality because these films would not exist if they did not use intertextuality. A lot of the jokes from this film rely on the viewer having watched other films or texts.
But first of all, What is intertextuality?
Intertextuality describe's the visual reference between films. Films sometimes borrow aspects of one film and incorporate it into their own. This could be the mise en scene, sound, editing, characters etc. A viewer would need to see a certain film or text to understand the intertextuality.
Some examples of intertextuality?
Thursday 9 February 2012
Research into film audiences
As part of my research i am going to have a look at which age group of audiences attend which genre/sub-genre of films. This will be essential to marketing my movie as I need to know who the film is being made for. To find out this information I am going to use the Film Distributors' Association yearbook 2011.
According to this book the highest no. of people that go the the cinema are from the ages between 50-59 and 0-9. Because we obviously cannot make a thriller for 0-9 year olds I think it would be best to target a middle aged audience.
The Genre of thriller films takes in 4.2% of all years box office increased from 4% in 2009 and 2.7% in 2008. The top 3 films in the thriller genre in 2010 were Shutter Island, The Town and The Wolfman. The top 2 Genre's in film is action(which takes in 26.4% of all years box-office) and drama(which takes in 18.1% of all years box-office) this is why I have been thinking to broaden my audience even further it would be a clever idea to make the sub-genre either Action or Drama.
According to this book the highest no. of people that go the the cinema are from the ages between 50-59 and 0-9. Because we obviously cannot make a thriller for 0-9 year olds I think it would be best to target a middle aged audience.
The Genre of thriller films takes in 4.2% of all years box office increased from 4% in 2009 and 2.7% in 2008. The top 3 films in the thriller genre in 2010 were Shutter Island, The Town and The Wolfman. The top 2 Genre's in film is action(which takes in 26.4% of all years box-office) and drama(which takes in 18.1% of all years box-office) this is why I have been thinking to broaden my audience even further it would be a clever idea to make the sub-genre either Action or Drama.
Sunday 5 February 2012
The Park
As a group we are going to need to decide which park we are going to film in, because there are certain requirements which the park we film in needs to meet. For example, for our storyboard we have included "close up of swings" and "close up of see-saw". Therefore, the park we choose to film in will need to have both swings and a see-saw.
Also, the park we film in will need to be completely empty. This could be a potential problem because parks are public spaces and therefore we cannot guarantee that any park will be completely available at any time. There are ways of getting around this; we could try to find a park in a desolate location which not many people use, and we could also try to film at a time when we think children would not be in the park.
Outline of Opening
In this blog I will outline what exactly will happen in the opening of our film, IMOGEN. We have five main scenes/clips which we will use and collaborate to create the opening as a whole. These five areas include -
- Cinematics of the park
- Rag doll being played with in the park
- The footsteps of an adult
- Pushchair being pushed
- The revelation of the adult
CINEMATICS OF THE PARK
This scene will be roughly 30-40 seconds long, and we will be filming it from a low point of view to give the impression that the park is being observed from a child's perspective.
Shots we will use here -
- Pan of the park
- long shot of the park
- close up of any signs in the park (i.e. the park's name, "no dogs" etc etc)
- focus pull of swings (background blurry)
- close up of the empty roundabout spinning
- cinematics of empty pushchair
- low angle of the pushchair (being looked up at from child's perspective)
RAG DOLL BEING PLAYED WITH IN THE PARK
We intend on this scene being anything from 40-60 seconds, and this is also where the credits will begin to take place. We are going to use a discrete title sequence, and the following images will play in the background:
- Rag doll being pushed down the slide (over-the-shoulder shot of the rag doll)
- Camera at the bottom of the slide - rag doll hits camera on its way down
- Rag doll being pushed on the swings (camera just behind swing from a low angle, as if from a child's perspective)
- Camera on one end of the see-saw; rag doll on the other seat.
THE FOOTSTEPS OF AN ADULT
This will be a rather short clip, and it will show a man walking towards the pushchair. It will last 2-5 seconds, and the reason for it being shot is to lead the audience into believing that the father of the "child" playing is going to pick her up and take her home. (Whereas it was actually him playing all along).
PUSHCHAIR BEING PUSHED
Again, this clip will be short (roughly only 2-5 seconds long) and it will show the character leaving the park from a child's perspective. This will be done by shooting the park getting smaller and smaller in the distance.
THE REVELATION OF THE ADULT
This is the most crucial clip of the whole opening as it will reveal that the man was the one playing in the park all along. We will do this by shooting at a crossing (the man on one side; the camera on the other). The audience will be able to see the man with a pushchair, and will expect it to be carrying a little girl. A bus will pass, revealing the fact that in the pushchair is the rag doll and not a child. We are anticipating this clip to be roughly 10 seconds long, making the whole opening (if our outline is accurate) approximately 1 minute 50 seconds long.
Wednesday 1 February 2012
Ideas of Locations where my Thriller could be filmed.
I took this photo of a canal which I thought would be a good possible location of where my thriller could be filmed. I think this location is suitable because filming in the night in this location could have a really good effect on the final product of the opening of the thriller.
I also chose this location because it is very close to the college which could be a pro when come to filming . This location has got a lot of spots where it would be very nice to film the opening of the thriller, I think it would create an eerie feel to the thriller and would create suspense .
My prelim evaluation
After reviewing my Prelim video for the second time I feel that there were a few areas of the video that could have been improved . The first area that could be improved was the amount of technical aspects that were in the video, meaning that I thought the video didn't withhold much of zest in the film itself. Another fault that was made in my Prelim video was the 180degree rule was broken whilst making the film. The picture below shows the 180degree and I will be explaining how it was not carried out in my Prelim.
The 180degree rule is a simple guideline which states that the two characters which are in the same scene should should always have the same left/right correlation between each other whilst filming, If this rule is broken it is known as the 'reverse angle'which is when the camera passes of an imaginary axis which connects the two characters .
It is clear to see in the two images on either side of this text the 180degree rule has been broken, as the first image on the left is filmed on the left shoulder which quickly switches to the right shoulder in the same scene.
It is clear to see in the two images on either side of this text the 180degree rule has been broken, as the first image on the left is filmed on the left shoulder which quickly switches to the right shoulder in the same scene.However even though my prelim had a few faults, I believe that there were many positive outcomes whilst filming. The first positive outcome was that Foley sound was used which is natural sound which made our prelim seem more realistic and added more effect to the video. The second positive outcome was that I feel that the editing of this video was really good which made the whole video run smoothly and also made the video more effective.
Tuesday 31 January 2012
IMOGEN
After deciding to scrap our last idea, we came up with something completely new and fresh. This was because our last idea was quite complicated, and we didn't think that it was simple enough to be able to shoot as a opening which would last only two minutes. Our new idea incorporates the loss of a child, and the film would go on to show the struggles the parents face after such a tragic experience and also the police investigation as to how the child died/was murdered. Our film is entitled IMOGEN, and we are doing it in the style of a psychological thriller with elements of the crime thriller also.
The opening of our film will take place in an empty park, where the audience are able to see a "child" playing with a rag doll whilst the discrete titles are taking place. The camera will never show the person playing with the rag doll, however, and at the end of the opening it will be revealed that the person playing in the park is actually an adult and not a child (the father who is grieving over his lost daughter).
The opening of our film will be thrilling because we will lull the audience into a false sense of security; they will be led to believe that they are watching an innocent child playing in a park. However, when they are shown it is an adult male, they will become confused and intrigued. We decided to name our film IMOGEN because we wanted to use a female name (the name of the dead child) for our film title, but we wanted a unique name which is not common or cliche (such as naming her Emily or Lucy, for example).
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