Risk Assessment

We have completed a risk assessment, in order to determine the level of risk to other and ourselves, which our teacher has approved and signed. Below we have a copy of the risk asessment form.

Joe Mark

Our First Shoot

We encountered some major issues in the process of our first film shoot in that we couldn't project enough light onto the scene using the torches we had, and when we could a spotlight effect was produced which made for poor quality footage. We have however obtained a couple of shots which are of a good enough quality to use; however because these are shot in the darkness and the rest will be shot in lighter conditions, this will ruin the continuity.
Therefore we intend to go and re-shoot most of the footage in better light conditons; we feel this will be a compromise between using complete darkness as a way to build tension and shooting in better light in order to produce more usable footage. We will upload some of this footage asap.

Joe Ryan Mark

Animatic

We made an 'animatic' to show how we intend our finished film to look; we did this by filming each picture on our storyboard for three seconds and then playing each shot in sequence.

Ryan Joe Mark

opening sequence analysis

We are going to analyse a number of different horror film opening sequences and to look at their conventions and function.
The first opening we will analyze is Scream.


The opening to Scream is scary because even from the very start it builds tension even with the title as it turns from white to blood red and then starts to beat like a heart.
It also begins making it seem like everything is fine and nothing is wrong as Stacy chats on the phone to her friends while walking around her house which then makes things even more tense and scary when she gets the the freaky phone call .
The phonecall makes very good use of sound and mystery due to the fact that you as the audience do not know who the person on the phone is and the way that his voice is used because it creepy and instills fear in the audeince . Also the way they show a lot of close ups on the face to show the emotion and fear on her face .

Planning

Props we will need for our film:
-Fake Blood
-Vodka Bottle
-Torches
-Mobile Phone
-'Torture Instruments'; Knives, Pliers, a Drill

We intend to dress our characters in their own typical casual clothes; ie t-shirts, joggers, trainers, etc.

Feedback - 6/12/09

See my previous post! Good progress and nice charts- good research on genre also! However you will need alot more on here to get a decent coursework grade group!

- you should now be working on this (research) as homework and all the planning you are doing in class should be put on here also.

Research : essential = research on opening sequences - choose some of your favourites and put them on your blog and analyse them in relation to their typical conventions and function.

Planning ( see the 'Before you Blog' handout - last 2 pages)

Include..

- storyboards and animatic

-location shots

-props/costume list

etc...

Also make sure you are all contributing equally to this blog - to ensure you all get a good grade!

Miss McNulty

Target Audience

We can use the acronym GRASS in order to discern what kind of people we want our opening sequence to appeal to. We think the product should appeal to males and females equally, although our research showed that generally males watch more hostage thriller films overall than females. We aim our film at no particular race as there is no reason for our product not to appeal to anyone of a certain race. The age range of our target audience will be between 14 and 25, as people of this age are the people that hostage thriller films appeal to most, and also because our features characters of this age and so our target audience will be able to relate to the characters. Our film will be aimed at any viewers with a socio-economic status between B and E; near enough everybody.

We can use Maslow's hierachy of needs to find out whether or not our product will appeal to our target audience; the film illustrates the friendship between the three characters; this fulfills the love/belonging level. Also it challenges the security of the characters as the protagonist is gravely injured, and as the fate of the other two characters is left unknown. This is part of the 'safety' level of the hierachy; we intend to challenge this need in order to scare and also to entertain our audience.
Mark ryan joe

Research

We conducted some research around our college to find out what kind thriller films our target audience enjoy, and what kind of characters they like to see in these films. We found that the majority of our audience that watched thriller films was male and that their favourite type of protagonist was the stereotypical fit, athletic, attractive male. Most people watched between 5 and 10 horror films per month and that these films were almost always 15-rated.

Feedback - 28/11/09

A promising start group- but you need to do more work at home on this blog- on your research.

The first thing you should be analysing is opening sequences - outline the conventions and then look at examples - videos from youtube etc...

- Do they follow typical conventions of opening sequences? If not why?

- Who is the target audience (GRASS) and how have they been made to appeal to them?

- Do they successfully make the audience want to watch on?

- why do they work?

In research you need a little more on audience - who is your target audience (Demographic - GRASS and psychographic profiling - Young and Rubicon) Also how will your product appeal to its audience - use MAslow too.

questionnaires are needed - to your target audience - and feedback on this - charts and graphs are always good!

Go onto the imdb/ the numbers websites to find out audience/box office figures for your genre - is there a market out there for your product?

Now move onto planning this week - ( see the last two sheets on the 'before you blog' handout) Start your storyboards/animatics, location shots, props list, shooting schedule etc....

'filmsite.org' describes horror films as unsettling films designed to frighten and panic, cause dread and alarm, and to invoke our hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale, while captivating and entertaining us at the same time in a cathartic experience. Horror films effectively center on the dark side of life, the forbidden, and strange and alarming events. They deal with our most primal nature and its fears: our nightmares, our vulnerability, our alienation, our revulsions, our terror of the unknown, our fear of death and dismemberment, loss of identity, or fear of sexuality.

Typical locations used in horror films would isolated and secluded locations such as dark woods, a haunted house on a hill, or perhaps a basement or cellar.

Typical characters used in this genre are vulnerable victims, usually female, and also the 'monster' which can be anything. We also see a hero, and sometimes we see the 'law'; police etc.

Typical media language is very important in the typical horror film; using low-key lighting and use of close-ups/point-of-view(stalker) shots, low and high angled shots and canted angles to build tension and suspense. This is also established with use of sound, usually orchestral and dramatic strings and non-diegetic sound.

Typical mise en scene featuring in films of this genre would be weapons, often very gory weapons such as blades. In almost every horror film we see lots of blood and perhaps entrails would be used in order to produce a very graphic scene.

We are also going to follow the typical narrative structure, whereby the protagonists will be reeled into a precarious situation leading to a shocking and terrifying revelation, which the characters will then react to.

We can break this formula down into a variety of sub-genres as listed here:
-Gothic Horror
-Techno-Horror
-Body-Horror
-'Stalk&Slash'
-'Torture-Porn'
-Psychological Horror

We're going to use a combination of the 'Stalk&Slash' genre, whereby a group of teenagers are attacked by a monster, and the 'Psychological Horror', whereby the identity of the monster will remain unknown so as to build tension and fear.

Other films that use these conventions are horror flicks such as 'Scream' (pictured right) which is effective because the villain's face always remains unknown, which is scary because the villain's identity is left purely to our imagination.

Ryan, Joe, Mark

Preliminary Task

We were required to produce a short film sequence featuring a character who would open and walk through a door, sit down and exchange a few short lines of dialogue with another character. The first issue that arose for us was that we didn't actually include a shot of our protagonist approaching the door. By the time we could rectify our mistake our protagonist was unavailable, so we had to use a different person to play the same character. However, the person we used to play the part after the mistake was wearing similar clothes to the original actor, and so it's not completely noticeable. We're pleased with the shots however, because they flow well and there are no jumps. In our final project we ensure we plan more effectively by using a storyboard and shot list to ensure we know exactly what we're doing.

Ryan, Mark

Introduction to our group

We're Joe, Ryan and Mark and we're going to create a two-minute opening sequence for a thriller movie.