Question 7 Post 12.7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Since the preliminary task, I have most definitely improved my skills in filming and using the camera appropriately.

During the main task, I successfully captured some amazing and effective shots (Featured below) that go well with the genre of our film:



I also improved my editing skills with the help of Adobe Premiere Pro:



This haunting screen capture is part of the establishing scene that I both recorded and edited. I am proud to say that it is the perfect picture for our genre and storyline.

Question 6 Post 12.6

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



1. The 'Flip' cam was used to film the feedback and focus groups of our opening sequence and the previous rough cut. I have learned how use one of these throughout the process.

2. All the tripod isn't seen as 'Technology', it was a hand piece of equipment that boosted the efficiency of other technology. It was used to help us film the footage of our opening sequence. It was easy to use and very helpful to keep the camera steady and also handy when spinning the camera round on the estblishing shots.

3. Microsoft Word was used when logging all of our shots so that we could tell what footage was being used and what wasn't.

4. Adobe Premiere Pro was used to piece all of the footage recorded together. It was also used to add special effects, sounds etc.

5. Youtube was used a great information source whne researching other horror film opening sequences. It was also handy as our roughcut, feedback and fina sequence was uploaded to Youtube so that we could have access to the videos whenever needed.

6. The Sony Handy Cam was our main camera used to film all the footage. It was good to learn how to use it properly throughout the process.

Question 5 Post 12.5

How did you attract/address your audience?
We used many unique selling points such as special effects, haunting locations and terrifying character actions and sounds that would keep the audience feeling terror throughout. One of our main Unique Selling Points was that it is simply a British horror film.


We used an unknown abandoned shed to create a sense of the unknown for the audience. They would question who or what lives in there and why the girls took note of it before they entered the forest.


The girls run into the forest whilst laughing which creates a sense of terror as the audience could tell this would be the last time any of them would laugh again.


The first time the audience realises the girl isn't alone they see a hooded figure run past her. Something that the character herself doesn't notice.

To gain feedback from our audience we took out a questionairre and filmed them with a camera. We learned that they enjoyed the opening sequence and they noted a great improvement from the original rough cut.

The BBFC Rating of our film would be a 15 due to the fact it contains violence in a non-sexualised why and would have a lot of harsh swear words but they would be justified with the context of the storyline. This rating attracts the audience as they can tell that it must be somewhat shocking if people under the age of 15 are prevented from seeing it, something that people between the ages of 15-24 would thrive on.

Question 4 Post 12.4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for our film would be a male or female 15-24 year old that would still be in education or living at home. This age/social group would be suitable as they are still looking for cheap thrills when watching a movie. Below is a typical member of our target audience.



This is Rachel. Rachel is a fun loving college student who studies Travel and Tourism at college. She enjoys shopping with her girlfriends and going to the cinema. Rachel also likes to enjoy nice food and to swim as her form of exercise. She enjoys clubbing, going to the pub and flirting. She is an opinionated yet kind girl who just wants to have fun. Rachel still lives with her parents as she is only 18 years old.

Question 3 Post 12.3

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

It is obvious that when producing a low budget film you will be taking many risks. One of these risks is that you will not have a 'big name' media institution to distribute your product thus you will have to market your work the best and most unique way possible. 'The Blair Witch Project' and 'Paranormal Activity' relate to our film as they both came from 'low budget' producers and distributors.

To get funding for a film, production companies would have a notoriously difficult job as funding opportunities generally come from organisations such as regional screen agencies or national film organisations, but can also come from private individuals or commercial companies.

We would have Artisan Entertainment distribute our product as it is of a similar genre and theme to 'The Blair Witch Project' which was distributed by Artisan and became a financial success. It was also a low budget film which proves Artisan Entertainment would be perfect to distrubte 'The Forest That Lives'.

Queston 2 Post 12.2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?


The two school girls from our sequence


Two school girls from American film 'Scream'

Both films above feature the same social groups, just different nationalities. The reason for this is so that the audience of horror are attracted and can relate to the characters due to the fact they would be of a similar class and social group. All characters are shown to have taken care in their appearance as a typical teenage girl would.

Teenagers are known to find excitement through things that scare them hence why the characters are female as they would be more helpless than male characters. The school uniforms represent the immaturity due to the fact they are somewhat scruffy and they show they are somewhat rebellious, almost as if they are asking for trouble. The naivety shines through due to the fact they could both be seen as 'dumb blondes' who are notable for their deaths when it comes to the horror genre.

Queston 1 Post 12.1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Structure of sequence

The structure of the sequence is overall fairly conventional. We started off by establishing the scene without the introduction to any characters and just a few credits saying who produced the film, then revealing the title of the film once the scene had been set. (We had previously left the title of the film until the very end of the sequence but later on decided to bring it forward as we felt it looked too much like a trailer. Appropriate actor name credits are revealed during the beginning of the first introduction to the characters so that the audience could understand who plays who.

Style of presentation

We chose to present the opening sequence without colour during the 'scene establishing shot' due to the fact it would appear lifeless and more haunted. We would introduce full colour to the film once the characters first appear.

Style/colour of font

We chose to keep the same style font throughout the opening sequence (titles, credits, etc.) as this font suited the horror genre and being white it stood out on the dark background. The font was jagged and had a complete eerie feel to it, resembling the fonts used throughout another 'forest based' horror film 'The Blair Witch Project'.

Genre

Being a tough and slim audience, horror is a tough genre to pull off so by researching into the correct and successful conventions, we managed to create a successful opening sequence of this genre. To ensure the audience could relate to the characters, we created the characters to be around the age of the target audience. We set the sequence in a forest which is a typical yet successful horror setting.

Narrative enigma

The narrative enigma is created by the 'fear of the unknown' playing a huge role in this sequence. Nothing is known about the forest or what lurks within thus creating a mysterious atmosphere; our goal was to sppok the audience but also to keep them guessing by not revealing too much information during the opening sequence. This is a very effective convention in the horror genre.

Introduction of characters

The introduction to the two girls starts off by the viewer watching the mwalk towards the camera linking arms which immediately reveals a close bond between the two. More about their personalities are reveals when they starts discussing the forest and they begin to dare eachother to run in their, both showing a naive yet courageos nature. When the girls are sepearted, the girl searching shows to be very concerned for her friend.

Camera

We used camera cuts and jumps to create a sense of confusion and frenzy within the forest and the girl searching. This was purposely done which conforms to the horror conventions. Close ups were used of the girls face to show her terror and panic when searching for her friend. We used long shots when introducing the two girls to get a sense of their age and to show their full outfits so that the audience could see they werre students and relate to them more.

Sound

We used a copyright free horror track to set the mood and atmosphere. The sound and tempo builds up along with the action of the sequence which is a huge horror convention. Using the amount of dialogue isn't always a convention but within horror films such as 'The Wrong Turn', dialogue is used effectively within their opening sequence so we decided to go with frequent dialogue to cause the viewers to feel more emotion for the characters.

Editing & Special Effects

We used special effects during the establishing shot (this was the only time we used them due to the fact we wanted our sequence to be as believable as possible) to make the setting seem more spooky. We made the scene black and white and slightly blurred.

Mise-en-scene

To make it clear that our characters were school girls, we made them dress in full school uniform with school bags. This conforms to the horror conventions as school girls are used frequently throughout horror of any nationality.

Audience Feedback Post 12a

Audience Feedback on Rough-cut:



Audience Feedback on Final film:

(Questionairre based on majority)

Q: Was the genre (horror) obvious throughout the opening sequence?
A: Yes.

Q: Was the editing (mainly at the start) suitable for the genre and story?
A: Yes.

Q: At any time did you feel as if the camera work was cheap/low standard?
A: Not really.

Q. Did you feel scared?
A. Some of the time.

Q: Would you want watch the rest of the film?
A: Yes.

Q: Would you reccomend the film (based on opening sequence) to friends?
A: Yes.

Overall, based on the audience's feedback, the opening sequence was a success.

Final Opening Sequence Post 11

The Forest That Lives: Final Cut



It is out of sync due to a problem when uploading with Youtube.

Post-Production Post 10

Above is the 'Rough Cut' of our opening the Sequence: 'The Forest That Lived'. Overall, we are happy with the outcome so far. We have taken note that in order to have an effective sequence, music is vital and we will eventually cut out some of the lenghty shots to speed up the footage and to create a spooky atmosphere.

We logged our rushes so that it would be a lot more efficient for us to edit and piece together our footage:

Production Post 9

We decided to shoot our footage during the morning during schedule problems but also because the weather was holding out so we had to go with it. We didn't achieve our desired affect of an 'evening time' but it didn't matter as you couldn't really tell due to the trees enclosing on the set. It looked like a realistic time the girls would be walking home from school, and no too cliche with an obvious use of pathetic fallacy but we would need to use some editing to dim the light during parts.

We were generally pleased with our rushes and the overall outcome. We did however cut out some of the dialogue to speed up the action and remove anything that seemed unecessary. It worked out better in the end and was still appropriate to our original ideas and genre conventions. We also removed many clips and scenes of the girls randomly running about due to the fact they just felt useless and inapropriate. Obvious jump cuts were removed also.

We reveresed roles from our preliminary task, I filmed the majority of the footage (with the help of Jack) where-as Lucy starred as an actress in the film. We worked well as a team and got a great taste of what it's like to work in every area of production throughout the year. Our great team work shines through in our captured footage.

We decided that to create a scene in black and white would create a gothic and horror-like atmosphere and to add a haunting song playing through the whole sequence would cause terror and panic in the audience's mind.

Pre-production Documenatation Post 8

Synopsis of whole film
A scout group go on a trip to a mysterious forest for a weekend of survival skills, they do not know that the forest has some very strange attributes; all unaware that it is haunted by an angry demon in which killed a young school girl many years ago. The story continues and the scout trip is going fine, until the 3rd day when one of the children go missing, bringing tension to the camp. In this case, the leaders hunt the forest day and night until the boy or a clue is found, yet none of the four leaders return. Luckily one of the scouts phoned their parents because of suspicion and all of the remaing scouts escaped from the unbearable fear.


Synopsis of opening sequence
Two schoolgirls are walking home from school when they see a strange path leading to a mysterious forest. Daring eachother, the girls stupidly go and explore the forest when strange things begin to happen.
One of the girls disappears and the other girl starts to panic; as she begins to run out of the forest she trips over a log and then the demon drags her back into the depths of the forest before the visual blacks out.

Treatment




Shot List



Risk assessment

As the setting is in a forest location the health and safety is very important, there is a barb wire fence surrounding the path, we will have to be careful when filming near the path to ensure that the actors do not collide.

There are large logs on the floor in the deep forest so we will also have to watch when the actors are running so that there is not an accident.

We need a risk assessment so that we can see what risks there are during the filming and how we can avoid any injuries.

Shooting schedule

Our shooting was organised in a lesson and we decided as a group that we would start shooting on the 23rd of february during the school half term. The location was organised previously and we agreed that the forest was the best location for our horror genre.

Mise-en-Scene

Lighting:

The lighting in the forest is very mild as we are filming in a night-time enviroment the only light being provided will be that of the moon, we hope to film on an evening where the moon is bright to ensure there is enough to capably see the characters.

Props:

We will only be using a small number of natural props which are in the forest, the first being the log that the character trips over in the opening sequence. The other prop will be a small rotted cabin, this will be used for effect in emphasizing our horror genre.

Costume:

GIRL A: School trousers and white shirt, in school uniform with shoes.

GIRL B: School trousers and white shirt, in school uniform with shoes.

DEMON: It will be wearing dark clothes to camoflage its appearance to the girls.

With these costumes it fits the theme of the characters and makes the sequence more authentic and realistic.

Hair and Make-Up:

GIRL A: Hair will be messy, face will look excited as she enters the forest but sharply changing, this is to represent that she is a school girl and also she is young and excited..

GIRL B: Hair will be curly, maybe glasses to emphasize character that she entails which is a young school girl.

DEMON: hair will be unseen due to hood to make the audience see that he is a dark demon.

Set Design:

The room is spacious and sets a good atmosphere for a horror dark forest. The bright light coming from the moon will give the set a futuristic look but at the same time it will be dark and evil. We will film by the rotted cabin to emphasize the gothic genre we have given the film. The path will also be used which will lead the girls to the forest.

Character Movement:

The two girl characters will be walking towards the camera whilst in dialogue, one of the girls then goes and explores the forest, the girls continue walking and they come to a shed, they then move away from the cabin and move deeper into the forest. The girls are then seen running through the forest, one og the girls begins to slow down as she realises she has lost her friend, she then begins to run again and falls over the log on the floor she is then dragged back by the demon.


Storyboard





Location Recce:

Our chosen location is in Chipperfield, and being a natural exterior environment we have nothing to manipulate. We will be using the areas of the forest as photographed for the main section of the shoot, alongside the shown abandoned shed. Among the areas of the forest that we have captured in the photograph is a small pathway, which will also be used as a location in our opening sequence.

Focus Group Post 7

We discussed the films plot and script with a Focus Group. Below is their feedback:

Group Meeting Post 4

Putting together all our research taken out indivualy, we had a group meeting and discussed the overall plot, location etc. of our film:

Liam thought the intial setting of the opening sequence would be effective within a frightening woods in the local area, immediately setting a gothic tone to the rest of the film. Liam then also thought of some ideas for the main plot of the film; where we settled on his idea of a scouts weekend trip in the forest. As a group we agreed with Liam's idea, because we thought it would me more frightening knowing that the film would be about children.

Lucy then thought of the physical characters within the production; where we would use the gothic idea of a demon to create an unknown atmosphere. She thought adding another character that isnt seen throughout the opening sequence would create a sense of mystery and tension for the audience.

Jack then gave his ideas on the editing part of the production. He thought the credits should appear slowly at the bottom of each shot in a scrappy, handwritten font. He then discussed his ideas with music; and how gothic, high pitched music would add tension and thrill to the piece as a whole.

Then as a group, we thought we needed to post some type of link to show the danger this forest without introducing the scouts in the opening; which is where we came up with the idea of two young school girls.

Decided Plot of Opening Sequence: Two school girls are walking home from school when they begin to dare eachother to explore a strange looking forest. When they enter, strange things immediately begin to happen. When one of the girls disappears, the other panics and attempts to run out of the forest before tripping over a log and falling face down. With the constant feeling of being followed throughout her experience in the forest, the girls' body is dragged backwards by an unknown person.

Choosing Your Genre Post 2

Worldwide highest-grossing films of all time (click on the picture to view in HQ):



From this data, it is clear that the top selling genre of film is in fact Action & Adventure films with a heavy underlying fantasy theme. Also, it is obvious that it is not just about the genre but how well and expensively made the film is produced and distributed.




Although, the highest grossing genre from 1995-2010 is in fact Comedy. It shows that even though Action & Adventure films earn the most money, Comedy has the widest audience.

As a group, we made a questionnaire consisting of the following questions:

1. What is your favourite film genre and why?
2. What is your favourite film and what genre what you categorise it under?
3. What do you expect to see in an opening sequence?
4. Is there a genre you would like to see more of?
5. What makes you interested in a film?
6. What is your gender?
7. What is your age?

From this, we learned there was a gap in the market for a new horror movie as 'Horror' seemed to be the most popular genre within the people we questioned.

Conventions of an Opening Sequence Post 1

The Ring

The Ring's opening sequence is that of a short story in itself. It doesn't conform to every convention when it comes to opening sequences in general, but in terms of horror, it does. It remains without titles to leave the opening sequence's story as your main focus. The titles come after. It has a lot of dialogue which again isn't usually the norm when it comes to opening sequences.

Lolita



Lolita's opening sequence is the ideal example of a stereotypical opening sequence with titles. It is in black and white which adds an extremely 'classic' feel along with the style of font. It is basic, yet elegant with a very standard almost motionless picture as the background.

Other Targets

Beyond learning what skills I have developed through the preliminary task, I also became aware of things that are in need of developing in order to be successful on my main coursework task.Firstly I want to improve in the area of lighting. This is a key area I want to develop in mainly because our group had problems with lighting in issues of continuity in our preliminary task, and it makes a huge effect on the outcome of the piece. I will assure that continuity factors to do with lighting is avoiding by watching making sure the camera is not moved within filming at a certain angle, and logging exactly where it is if moving is necessary. Also, if possible, I will avoid filming on different days, therefore the natural light will be near enough the same in each shot that is filmed. If as a group we do this, when at post production stage our shots will run smootly and will avoid any situations that we encountered in that we had to add extra shots to avoid the audience drastically noticing.Another target I want to set myself is with blogging. I want to not only become more urgent with my blog, in the sense that I will spend more time on it so all of my ICT is verbally correct and it is of a high standard, but I want to get my blog finished quicker so I can spend more time on the production stages itself. Doing this will allow me more time to perfect the visual side of coursework, yet gain high marks on my blog due to the standard of my blog. This target should be done weekly; I will dedicate more time to my blog so that everything is completed in more time.Another element I feel can be improved in is team organisation. We worked well as a team, yet at times lack of organisation confused situations and wasted time. Therefore, if as a team we are more accurate and precise when planning a task and dedicate certain jobs to certain members of the team, we will be making good use of our time and will have a good outcome on our final piece. This target will have to be performed by all members of our group to assure that it is done well, therefore will start immediately. I also feel I can improve at the stage of logging rushes. We encountered a problem when logging rushes on our preliminary task; although we had a clear understanding of what we had to do, we didn't ensure our shots were visually perfect before logging therefore we wasted alot of time logging irrelevant footage. To avoid this in the future, I will ensure that our whole team is present when watching the final rushes, so that we can stress our concerns and re-shoot the footage if necessary before logging the rushes. This will be done within the production stage of future projects.The final area in which I would like to improve in is script writing. Initially the group was unsure of creative ways of portraying our chosen genre, alongside acheiving the dedicated layout of a script. Therefore I will go over and learn the ways of setting out the script so that this is not a problem when writing one. However my main target for script writing is to get more creative within the script itself so that our genre is presented adamently.

Post-Production

Final cut of Preliminary Tast - 'Doctors'

• The preliminary task has been a success in the way that it has broadened my knowledge and developed my skills in understanding how to produce a short piece of film. This is the case for technical skills, creative skills and personal skills.

Evaluation of skills developed

The preliminary tast has helped train my skills within the technical areas, particularly within editing. Although within the production stage itself, I had a small input when it came to the filming but still had to make sure the shots were accurate. I already knew the basic skills in making sure continuity factors wouldn't affect the audiences' viewing, however I now know that it can happen with even tiny factors. Not only with visual elements; hair, costumes, setting and props, but with the shot styles and lighting. Now I have had the experience and moreso dealt with issues of continuity on the preliminary task, I know that more planning and concentration is needed in order to avoid these issues in the first place. Also it has developed my skills in using acting infront of a camera, and gaining an understanding of what angles and positions make a good shot. Particularly, however, my skills in using the editing suite have been developed. As a group we used alot of elements in the editing suite therefore became aware of the types of things we could manipulate within the programme. My creative skills have developed in a way that within the preliminary task we tried to think outside the box and avoid stereotypical shots within a genre. Creativity has broadened in the way of music choices, and more than else elements within a sequence that portray the chosen genres.

Production Report

After viewing all the rushes, we were satisfied with how our footage turned out. We booked the editing suite and began logging the rushes. We hit a few problems after logging all our rushes as we realised we needed to re-shoot some of our shots. With this in mind, many of our logged rushes became irrelevant and time became limited. We logged the rushes in table format with seven different columns, making it easily identifiable and straight forward. Beyond doing this, we went through the footage and constructed a rough cut of the visuals, alternating between the two video tracks again making the editing process easier. We alternated between the group members to ensure that all of us could have a go on the editing suite, and as a rough cut we were pleased with the outcome. We did have some issues of continuity, such as the lighting in many of the shots. Some shots went from very light then to immediately very dark, something which as a group we werent happy with. To solve this, we added short shots in the places where lighting changed, making the difference less obvious to the audience. After adding transistions between each shot on our rough cut and making it visually pleasing, we added the title at the beginning of the piece and credits at the end. To fit with the mood and tone of the piece, we wanted simple titles consisting of a plain black background with white captial letters. this gave no distraction to the mood we wanted to acheive when watching the piece. Similarly to create a more intense mood, we searched for some appropriate eerie music to add to the opening titles. When we found our chosen music, we added it to the audio track, fading up and down between the shots at the opening of the piece and the end. By doing this we acheived the genre and mood that we aimed for when planning the preliminary task and we are all pleased with the final outcome.