Magazine Deconstructions

For my film I am also creating a film magazine review so to do this I looked at magazine reviews to get the idea of some generic conventions.

Film Poster

I took in some of the feedback of my film poster and worked on it to make it better and follow more conventions of a horror film poster.

Target Audience research - Short Films

To do more research into my target audience, I looked at who actually watches short films. In my last post about my target audience I ignored the factor that not everyone who watched horror films will watch short films that aren't readily available to them.

Rough cut of short film

I showed the a rough cut of the latest version of my film to my media class to get their opinions on it.

My auddience gave me some useful feedback in which i can use to improve my short film. A list of things they said that i could improve are:

1. The prop I used for the knife was just a small butter knife and my audience did not find it scary or appropriate for a horror film.
2. They also said that the beginning of the film she walks for too long and they found this boring.
3. Lastly my audience found my shots too repetitive and i used the same shots too much and that.

To fix these issues I will re-film the shots where I use the knife and use a much bigger knife to connote more horror. I will also add music to the opening walk of the film to make it seem less boring and help build tension, I will also use much more quick shots as again this will build more tension.

Front Cover

For my short film i also had to create a movie poster for my magazine, to first go about this I looked at current film posters of a similar genre to mine to get an idea of the usual conventions.

I then created the first draft of my movie poster, I think the first draft is good but I don't think i stuck to the usual conventions of a horror poster for example my movie poster isn't as dark as most horror posers they usually have a thick border surrounding the whole image. I also think the stars are too big and look out of place.

I then started on creating my second draft of the movie poster, i used the same image from the first picture but cut around the girl and made the opacity a lot lower as i have noticed that a lot of movie posters are using this affect.

There are still something that i need to improve on in this second draft for example, i need to improve the writing under my title 'Bella' and use a different font for that. 

Horror - Genre

To help me with my short film I wanted to take a closer look into my genre of horror to get a better idea of the conventions that it consisted of. I looked at some popular horror films to get ideas of locations: Small isolated communities - villages/town. Abandoned Houses and Hotels. Underground Train-stations I also then looked at some words associated with horror by using a thesaurus.

Leonard Cohen - Suzanne

We wanted to use this song at the end of our film. As this is a copyrighted I had to send an email to Columbia Records to ask there permission if I could use this song on my blog.

'Bella' - New Title

Looking into the narrative of our film, we are looking to include more of a meaning to our film. We are renaming our film to 'Bella' because it is enigmatic. We are using the name because it relates to the Genette Tate story and other similar stories where girls go missing. We choose to use the name 'Bella' as it is not in direct relation to any other story so it would not be seen as offensive.

Cast Change

We have now changed our cast, before we were using James Hawkins but due to him being unavailable for the filming, we changed to using Harry Bird for our filming as he was more reliable and available for our shoots. He connected well with the camera and has had filming experience before.

Filming Delayed

We planned filming on thursday, but due to severe weather conditions, and constant rain and high winds the location of where we are filming was flooded and not possible to use until earlier next week.

Codes and Conventions

A major part of creating a film and making it successful is to understand codes and conventions of the genre.

It breaks down into 3 parts, being the;

sign - small, insignificant detail - e.g. wearing a coat
code - slightly more important than a sign, the connotation of the sign- e.g.  their cold
convention - what it menas in relation to the genre/topic

If you are to change certain bits from the convention it can change the whole meaning of the code.

Knife + Women + Bright Dress = mum, making sandwiches
Knife + Guy + Dark Coat = murderer, horror


The whole genre can be changed by the signs and codes you use, so you need to understand what codes create your genre such as the first choice above.

Directors Commentary with Audience Feedback & Improvements

This is the first cut of my film with directors commentary.

 Audience Feedback

I showed my film to my media class (a group of 17-18 year olds) and got feedback on the first 50 seconds of my short film and they gave me some improvements that i needed to make.

Improvements

1. Make the film darker either in editing or filming (lower ISO or change aperture)
2. Reshoot the opening shot where it gets shaky and her feet move
3. Improve the continuity of where she puts her phone away
4. Make sure all the shots have the same lighting as one of the shots is very dark
5. In one of the shots we need to make the antagonist more out of shot as he is too visible

180 Degree Rule

The 180 degree rule is important when filming anything, as if you break this rule even in the slightest it will completely ruin the continuity of your film because the characters you are filming will have appeared to have flipped.  We don't have to worry that much about the 180 degree rule as we have no dialogue in our film and little other opportunity to break the rule.

Preliminary Filming and Directors Evaluation and Reflection

Before starting our actual short film we started with Preliminary Filming which gave us an idea of what we will need to do for our short film.



After looking back over our preliminary filming we have noticed some parts we need to improve on for example our continuity editing wasn't the best as at some parts in the video you might notice the actor jumping back from where he actually got too, this can be fixed with better filming or even editing and cutting at the right time. We noticed at the beginning of the film that the lighting was not great as the main source of light was from behind the actor which gave him a silhouette effect which didn't look good and didn't fit the type of shot we were going for and other than that light the film was dark which made the actor look out of focus. Another problem we had with this filming was the top plate of our tripod wasn't fitted properly so the first few shots were wonky and we didn't notice this until we got into editing.
          The main thing we have gained from doing the preliminary filming (and editing) is that we learnt that the filming isn't just point and shoot you need to carefully think out the location you are shooting in and check for noise and light. Another important step in getting good shots is that all you equipment is set up correctly.

Anamatic

Using my storyboard i created a anamatic to show how my film shots will flow, this didn't really work as my storyboard I didn't include each and every shot so it jumped around a bit and the quality of the pictures were not great. I still think it will be useful though as it did show how my short film will progress.

'The Good the Bad and the Ugly' - Presentation

How to get the most out of your practical (Pete's Media Blog)

Presentation nov 4 from petefrasers

I read through this presentation and I found it very helpful to my work it reminds me of simple things that I need to remember and do before going out and filming and then editing. It gives you small reminders such as timing, getting used to your equipment and knowing your location.

Target Audience

My short film has a large target audience like most other horror films that are released. The age range varies from around 15-40, Horror can be enjoyed be teens but then can also be enjoyed by older people as well, but to gain this you need to choose your story line well and not use lots of modern slang and a modern storyline that older people may not understand as well. I believe I chose my narrative well and it doesn't favor any age group and can be understood and enjoyed by any age group (15-40). Out of my age range It is more likely younger people will watch my film because people of an older age don't tend to have the time or money to go out and watch films at the cinema.

This is Rob and he is 18 and enjoys horror films, he isn't the typical person you would see who would watch horror films such as someone into more Gothic clothes and songs, but he still enjoys watching horror films which shows they can suitable for a very wide audience. He more enjoys realistic horror films instead of using a monster or creature as the antagonist he prefers having real danger which can be related to in real life.

I also videoed some more people from my target audience, to get an idea of what conventions they expect to see in a horror film, what horror films they enjoy and what they think of our idea. What we found good was when we asked them about a 'chase' horror film they said it would of actually been scary.

Filming Techniques

We recently went out with Cameras and started doing our preliminary filming which gave us a great feel for the camera and new techniques. I practiced lots of shots that I will use in my actual film so I could get an idea of how to shoot these shots without just going to my location and having to learn there as this will save a lot of time in the long run.

This is a picture of me practicing one of our shots we will be using in our film, this will definitely help when it comes to filming as know i have a feel for the camera and also techniques on how to shoot this shot.

We also experimented with using tripods and then not using tripods but we found it much harder to not use a tripod as even the smallest shake could ruin the whole shot, so we decided we would use a tripod in every shot it's possible to use it for.

Directors

Whilst in the planning stage of creating my short film I also looked at directors who work on similar types of films and genres.

Scott Derrickson

Scott is one director who is very popular at the moment in the last 3 years he has had over 4 successful films and his films always tend to be of the horror genre, some of his biggest work is, Paranormal Activity, The Exorcism of Emily Rose and he also has a new horror film coming out this year called Sinister.

Eli Roth

Eli is another director who's work is a good inspiration to do this short film, he started making short films when he was just 8. Cabin Fever is one of his films which is good to help me with my short film as it is a horror based in the woods and uses innocent protaoginsts who are just having a laugh and then it all changes which is great to get some ideas to help me create my short film.

Horror Deconstruction - Stay out of the woods

This short film is probably the one that relates most to my short film, it is called 'Stay out of the woods', It is based in secluded woods with only 2 girls and then the antagonist which will be very similar to mine and I will be using the lonely convention to help create horror in my short film. In the opening scene you can hear crows in the background which really connotes horror and death.

They even use similar type of protagonist as i will use in my horror film, young, stereotypical looking girls, who talk about 'chasing after boys' and 'smoking pot' and this just sets them up for being vulnerable when alone in the woods.

This is one shot i really liked from this short film they use a point of view shot from the antagonist which really builds tension and sets the film up for horror.

They use lots of shots from other the shoulder of the antagonist which I have included in the storyboard of my horror film which is a good shot in horror films.

They also use a mask on there antagonist which i have planned to use as well which really makes an ordinary antagonist a lot more scary, and they use a knife as a prop which again can turn a normal, non supernatural antagonist a lot more scary.




The music used throughout is also very good for setting up the horror conventions and it's constantly music that just builds up tension and then it goes a lot louder and then it goes back to building the tension again.

Dark Comedy (Horror) - Deconstruction

To help me create my short film I looked at other short films with similar genres to help me with ideas and the conventions of horrors.


This short film is called 'Brutal Relax', and it is more of a Dark Comedy than a horror film but it does use a lot of the stereotypical horror conventions (just over exaggerates them). This short film starts off by using the stereotypical conventions of horror for example, it starts off in a scary, quiet, secluded area, in a doctors surgery is seen as quite scary. In the opening scene the main character has a very serious, evil look on his face, But in the next scene it changes to him  wearing a colourful shirt and the music has changed to a very upbeat,  happy and cheerful song, which completely converts the first scene.

The location used is also very different from a horror film it's a very crowded beach with lots of people having fun, but then the music changes from something up beat and happy with lyrics, to a deep beat which builds up a lot of tension and you can tell that it's going to take a more scary approach from here. The film then goes back to the horror conventions and used typically scary monsters, people covered in scars and dis formed, and there is a lot of blood which is conventionally used to portray horror.

Horror Deconstruction - Lovely Monster

I looked at other horror films and deconstructed them to help me get an idea of horror conventions. The reason i chose this film is because it is in the style of a documentary which was one of my original ideas for my horror film but since then I have changed this idea, but I still thing this is a good film to look at as it is a very stereotypical horror film so great for looking at the semiotics.

 This short film is called 'Lovely Monster', right from the title sequence you can tell it's a horror film, the music is already building tention and the font is a very bold font on a black background so it stands out which is used a lot in horror films.

Depth of Field is used a lot in this short film and is used in nearly every scene and has a good effect on the overall 'horror' feel to it and also the documentary theme running throughout. Another thing I noticed from watching horror short films is they tend to use a lot of swearing, because it's a great way to get across the anger and violence behind the genre and makes them seem more real as most people who are scared and worried for there life don't worry about keeping it PG. The scenes and locations are almost empty and quiet, they never tend to use areas filled with people as that would convey an idea of security which is not what they want, they want to put the person out of there depth. Another convention I liked is when they put the main character up against the wall and there was a sign that said 'Warning', which is great as it's using the location to the best possibility.

Documentary make great  horror films, a lot of popular horror films use the documentary idea such as the paranormal activity films as it makes it a lot more scary as it makes it so much more realistic.

StoryBoard Plans

For my short film i created a story board, and this will probably be one of the most useful things when it comes to filming and editing my film. Without my storyboard I wouldn't have an idea of what shots I want and what shots I need so i would probably end up going out and taking a lot less shots than I need and forget a lot of shots and not really have an idea of where everything is going. With the storyboard I will know what shots I need, when to film them and were.

Risk Assesment

This is the risk assessment for my main location which is a forest which is in the middle of no where and we chose this location because it really conveys the horror conventions, the problem with choosing this location and having to film in the dark is there is some risks that is why we created the table below to help us keep everything safe. We only use one other location and it is only for one scene right at the end which is a bedroom, so we did not feel it was necessary to create a risk assessment for this as it is an empty room with just a bed.

Risk	Solution
Filming from a car	Wear a seatbelt at all times, try not to go too quickly as it could lead to dropping the camera out of the window
Not being able to see due to dark environment	Bring a torch and possibly use headlamps from the car to light up the location
Equipment being knocked over	Check that all equipment is stable and set up correctly using tripods for the cameras
Falling over because of a slippery surface	Wear sensible footwear and watch wear we’re going
Getting lost	Make sure that we check out the location before hand to get to know the area, possibly take a map
Tripping over sticks or roots	Be careful and look where we’re going
Falling out of a tree whilst taking a high angle, or birds eye view shot	Use safety equipment and be careful
Falling over the cliff	Stay away from cliff

Cast/Costume/Props (Representation)

My short film consists of only 2 characters my young, innocent, protagonist and my older, scary antagonist, I've followed the typical horror conventions with this choice.  

Protagonist
For my protagonist we are using the stereotypical female you would usually see in horror films, the sort of vulnerable girl who comes across as innocent  and is easily scared and doesn't make clever decisions when panicking. We will also use lots of high angle shots to make her look small and scared a lot of the time. We are portraying here in unrevealing clothes to make her look as innocent as possible, we also are making her walk to meet her friends which should make the audience like her and can relate.

Antagonist For the antagonist we are again using a stereotypical antagonist in a horror film. The antagonist is about a foot taller than our protagonist which we think will help connote the idea of horror. We will also use low angle shots to make him look even bigger. We are representing the horror film antagonist in a stereotypical way. The actor we are using for this role is a drama a-level student so should be good at acting and also was in a film when he was younger so know he will be good at taking directions which will make the filming a lot more straight forward.


  



Costume
 For our antagonist we had a few ideas for costume to start with we were going to use quite stereotypical clothes, just a plain or checkered shirt with baggy blue jeans which were dirty and had holes in to connote the lack of caring and how rough and scary he is, but we had another idea to subvert the genre and dress our antagonist in a suit (still use dirt and mud to convey the horror genre).

For our protagonist we want to use the very stereotypical costume of a young girl who looks easily scared and comes across as innocent. For example in the first scream movie in the opening scene it's an attractive blonde women who looks very innocent.

Props
For my movie we are going to need a few props but not that many. We are going to need a plastic knife for our antagonist to hold and carry around which definitely connotes and conveys the horror conventions and makes an UN-supernatural antagonist appear much more scary. The only other prop we will need is a noose which again conveys the horror conventions as nooses are usually used to hang people so it is very scarey and is used it a lot of horror films to build tension and can be very jumpy.

MoodBoard Evaluation

For my project i also created a moodboard which helped a lot with ideas and really get the conventions of the horror genre solid in my head. This is a picture of me giving a presentation of my moodboard to my audience.

After doing my presentation of my mood board i got feedback about it and it really helped me come up with better ideas. I got told that in my mood board i put more the conventions of horros in general rather than actually telling the story of my short film which i see that i did do which i dont think its necessarily bad as it just helped me get the conventions right which will help later on.

This is my actual mood board and you can see i have used lots of pictures of similar horror films with the chase idea (thats what i'm doing), i have also shown that i am going to subvert the genre by using pink writing in my moodboard.

Location Shoot

My genre of my short film is Horror, I am adhering to the genre theory and setting my short film in a dark, secluded, spooky forest. Below are some pictures of my location taken at night with some light being used by car headlights which I think really creates the horror effect and just from these few pictures you can tell that this location will work well in a horror film.

Famous Photographer Amanda Norman

For my video project I looked at some famous Photographers to get the idea of how to shoot some scenes in my short film. I looked at Amanda Norman as she takes horror pictures which fits with my genre and can definitely give me some ideas to work off. Amanda is a UK Photographer and is a fan of classical horror.

I like this picture because of the low angle it was taking at and the really low lighting they use just gives an overall scary and lonely feel to the whole picture.

Again I like this picture and how the background is distorted which again makes it look very scary and the use of trees with no leaves just connotes death.

I liked the technique they used in this photo as well and I will try to use it in my short film, where I will just show the side of my characters face and then show something in the background as it just creates a sense of horror as the character does not see.

I like the use of this shot again which uses a low angle shot again which shows the item you are shooting (the evil character in my film) to be important and big. I also like the lighting and how they have blacked out and distorted the character so you can't quite make it out and it's a good idea which i will most probably use.

What I propose to do

Carly Rae Jepson - Call me maybe

I looked at this music video to break it down into Genre, Narrative, Audience, Representation and Media Language. The genre of this music video is romance and we can tell this quickly and it goes throughout the music video. Right from the beginning when you see her looking out the window at him you can tell its romance and that she likes him from the music and camera angles. Also at 00.13 of the film it has a close up on the table where there are romance novels which give connotations of love and romance.

At 2.19 the narrative changes from linear slightly as she passes out and then goes into a dream and it shows her like in love with him and then kissing him. Which is a different narrative in the music video as a flash back kind of convention.

The audience to this music video Is very wide and it's not very restricted from the video and it's sort of to anyone who's ever experienced a romance.

Short film Tips

Title Sequence: When choosing the title sequence, be careful and make sure you choose the write colour tones and how much information you want to give and to make sure you don't bore the person with lots of text. 50% of the experience is the music so make it suit the genre and orignal music is better. When writing the script don't be afraid to re-write,re-write until you have it nailed, and it's better if you can write from some personal experience as it will make the whole feel more authentic and will help the idea come more fluently. Start to choose a genre after you know what conventions are usually portrayed.

Pre Filming Tips on Prezi

Audience Theory: Uses and Gratification

Uses and gratifications

View more presentations from ryansoanes.

Narrative Theory

Narrative Theory and Vladamir Propp

Narrative theory

View more presentations from ryansoanes.

Short Film Analyzation

In this short film, the main representation is the teenagers and it kinda reinforces the sterotype that teenagers are lazy and try to avoid work by showing them as living in a messy house and even the title 'Lazy teenage superheroes'. It also shows them as getting high, drinking and doing drugs which also inforces the stereotype of teenagers who do nothing and break the law and only care about having fun. It subverts the normal super hero stereotype as they seem incompetent and some of them are useless where in stereotypical stories of super heros they are always perfect and know what they are doing which is different to this short clip and it really challenges what makes a superhero and that not just anyone can be a super hero. This is a real contrast from other super hero films where just ordinary people some how gain a superpower and then are talented and know what they are doing in this it shows them as incapable and even though they have this super power it's useless as they don't know how to use it. They have also took a comedy approach to this genre where as before it was done more seriously.

Briefs

1. A promotion package for three release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options: - a website homepage for the band; - a cover for its release on DVD; - a magazine advertisement for the DVD. 10. A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both, together with two of the following three options: - a poster for the film; - a radio trailer for the film; - a film magazine review page featuring the film. Link to Genre, Narrative, Representation, Audience, Media Language.