Revenge - Film Opening

Here is our final finished Foundation Portfolio, we hope you enjoy watching it!

Evaluation Trailer

Horror or Thriller?

When we set out to make our film opening, we planned to do a horror genre. We did extensive research on the horror genre including looking at the opening of other horrors and anyalysing them, looking at the key conventions of a horror film to include some of these in our film opening and looking at the history and directors of the horror film genre.

However, looking back on our film opening and our storyline, we feel that our film fits into the thriller genre more than horror because there's a general feeling that horror films contain a monster and make the audience fear for their own safety, whereas thrillers are more about suspense and making the audience fear for the safety of the protagonists. 

Although we did our research on the horror genre, elements which are found in both film genres such as suspenseful music, darkness, stereotypical 'bad' characters such as Nicky and his 'chav' outfit, flashing images, fast-paced editing, a contrast between calm and chaos were also included in our film opening. Just like one of the films that we researched and watched, Eden Lake, our film could fit into both the horror and thriller genre because of these elements. 

Breakdown of Lessons and What We Did

Lesson 1:

We chose our groups and decided we were going to base our coursework around the horror genre.

Lesson 2:

We brainstormed potential ideas for our coursework.

(upload brainstorm)

Lesson 3:

After evaluating these ideas we came with the storyline. However we realised our storyline fitted into the thriller genre more than the horror genre. We also asked friends and family of their opinions on our storyline. They were pleased!

Lesson 4:

We made a spider diagram on the different areas we would need to consider when planning. This was over a few lessons as this took longer than we expected.

(Upload spider diagram)

Lesson 5:

We started storyboarding out our idea. This took longer than expected as working out the order was essential to help us with actually making the opening of our film. (Upload storyboard)

Lesson 6: 

Whilst discussing our ideas we realised location was an important factor. One of our chosen locations was at a petrol station however after discussing this we found this was not be ideal. The next lesson we carried on discussing location and also talked about characters. By the end of the lesson we decided our chosen location would be Abbie's house and our characters would be Nick an Mrs Williams.

Lesson 7:

After deciding Abbie's house we visted and practiced shots just to ensure this was the right location. It worked very well. Here is a practice of what we did!

(Upload video)

Lesson 8:

After uploading our practice shots at Abbie's we asked our teacher and friends to receive feedback. From this we concluded things we needed to add. Such as shots from different angles ect.

Lesson 9:

Our second location was the school. So practised shooting here as well.

Lesson:

We decided to carry out our risk assessment.

Lesson 10:

After discussing our storyline in further detail we decided to add a twist to make it slightly more thrilling. (add notes - typed) Lesson: We discussed the idea of flashbacks within our opening to add to the effect.

Lesson:

We researched what we needed for flashbacks. We searched for adoption papers and baby scans to prepare for tommorow when we were going to film the flashbacks.

Lesson:

We filmed our flashbacks are they were short.  We used the sick room at school to represent a hospital and a dolls from the nursery for the baby. The complicated part was trying to film the doll and make it look real but thankfully we managed to pull this off!

Lesson 11:

We arranged a day to film. We planned everything we would need. For example:

-       Equipment (Cameras, tripods, )

-       Characters

-       Mise en Scene

-      Availabilty of location (Abbies house and the school office)

Lesson 12:

We decided to film all in one go to avoid continuity issues. This went well, despite the bad weather! As the evening went on we became more familiar with what we wanted in the shot. For example no unneccessary headroom. 

Lesson 13:

 We uploaded our film opening onto the mac and started selecting what we wanted into a new project on IMOVIE. 

Lesson 14:

 In this lesson we decided to edit our film in Final Cut. This took up to a week.

Lesson 15:

 All the editing was complete! Now was the tricky bit ... adding sound! We used the website freeplaymusic for sound effects such as heaving breathing and footsteps. However we also used the natural sound from filming i.e. Car driving. We spent another week doing this!  

Lesson 16:

We mapped out our titles for the film.

Lesson 17:

We added our titles into our film. 

Lesson 18:

We reviewed our work and showed friends!

Evaluation Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

For our preliminary task, our brief was to film someone walking through a door, sitting down opposite someone else and exchanging a few lines of conversation. Before filming our preliminary task we had to create a story board for the different shots we were going to use in our filming. We found this helped a lot because we included more shots following the story board than we would have done just from memory

When looking back at my preliminary task, these were the main points I needed to take into consideration:

·         make sure that I moved the camera with the person walking and not just keeping it in one fixed position.

·         make sure I didn’t leave too much of a gap between the two people talking when filming shot-reverse-shot as in the clip, you can see quite a lot of the background between them and so there is no unwanted space.

·         tilting the camera down when the person sat down as it looks a bit odd in the clip

·         make sure I don’t leave too much headroom above the people talking whilst they’re seated or standing up.

·         make sure their eye lines match up to the camera and I’m eye-level with the people sitting down opposite each other whilst filming shot-reverse-shot.

·         make sure the actors are the same size in the frame (unless I’m wanting a dramatic change)

Before filming the opening 2 minutes of my film, I looked back at the bullet points above to check what I needed to improve on from my preliminary task. This therefore made me aware of what I needed to improve on for my opening 2 minutes.

I think that we learnt a number of things in the progression from out Preliminary task to our full 2 minute Film Opening including:

• Headroom - we learnt about not leaving unnecessary headroom in order to frame our shots more appropriately. 
• When we had finished filming, we used basic editing skills such as cuts.
• Editing techniques - we learnt how to edit sound for our 2 minute Film Opening which we did not know how to do for our preliminary task and manipulate images, for example when our character is having flashbacks we edited the images to make the look slightly distorted and so it make you feel like you are in her position, looking down at the baby.  
• Continuity - from editing our Preliminary Task we learnt how important planning was to preserve continuity in our film. Therefore we filmed everything on the one day, this is because we needed to make sure that our actors were wearing the exact same outfits and had their hair and make-up done in the exact same way each time. This is why we decided to shoot in one evening as we would not then have any problems with different coloured shoes for example.
• The three camera rules (match on action, shot-reverse-shot and the 180 degree rule) - even though we did learn these rules for our Preliminary Task, we learnt how to apply them more effectively in our 2 minute Film Opening. 

The top picture is of my preliminary task and as you can see, the shot is framed badly due to there being a lot of headroom above both the character. However, as seen in the picture below, our character fills the frame much better as there is not much headroom above her.

Evaluation Question 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this film opening?

Evaluation Question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your film opening?

This is a typical member of our audience. Because our audience is quite broad, we made sure we showed our film to both men and women, young and old. However, our protagonist is a teenager for the majority of the film (our film opening shows her in the present, then we move into her past) so younger teenage girls would be able to relate to her. 

 

 

 

 

 

After asking four different people who watched our trailer we decided to ask the audience to fill in a questionnaire on their opinions. These were the questions as followed:

 

• Effectiveness of overall film
• Effectiveness of music
• Effectiveness of setting and actors
• Likely to watch

     After receiving this feedback we gathered all the data and placed it in the form of a bar chart.

From the bar chart we can conclude, overall the areas mentioned in the questionnaire were positive just as we hoped! This clearly suggests that our film opening was successful as we have met the audience requirements and provided them with a thrilling opening.

It’s evident that the most effective element of our opening 2 minutes were the actors and setting.

These are both are essential factors when producing a thriller/horror film! 

 

 

Evaluation Question 3 Continued... - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

We further discussed kind of media institution might distribute our film...

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

Evaluation Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

When choosing the protagonist for our film we decided to choose a woman in her late 30's as this was a similar convention in other films.  We wanted to take a character who appeared to be very conventional and respectable and then gradually expose her seedy past.

This character is similar to those in many other thrillers and TV dramas, for example Last Tango in Halifax (2012) and the character played by Sarah Lancashire. They share many similarities such as they are both head teachers and appear to do everything by the book. However they both have secrets they don't want their families and work colleagues to discover.

Evaluation Question 1 - In what way does your film opening use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real film openings?

Whilst watching a few opening Thriller films, we noticed that the titles were often one word. We therefore decided to follow this convention by giving our film a one worded title to create the effect of tension and mystery. We chose the colour red to make it stand out and because the colour red has connotations of danger and risk.  

This is a shot of the main setting and location of our film opening. We chose this location because in the drive, there was a big enough space for us to move and pan the camera while filming and film several shots from different angles. This location was also ideal because it had the scope of the long gravel path around the house which created a superb crunching footsteps and creaky gate sound effect which are conventional sounds of the Thriller genre. 

As our film is about a teenage son who is seeking revenge on his mum, we chose to stereotype his clothing. Therefore his costume was tracksuit bottoms, trainers and a hoodie.

This shot shows our main character dressed smartly in typical work dress. This stereotypes her to fit in with a career woman who works in an office. The colour black also foreshadows the dark nature of the film. We restyled the actor's hair and makeup to reflect our ideas of a conventional mid 30s suburban woman who has been quite successful in life. The mise en scene of the large, spacious kitchen and stylish accessories adds to the effect of the affluent lifestyle.

We decided to do several cut away shots to help increase the pace of our film opening. We wanted to create a sense of calm everyday life and so we focused on ordinary household objects. To create tension we juxtaposed these slow moving shots filmed on a tripod to keep the camera steady with the handheld chaotic shots of the boy running.

We chose to shoot our film opening around twilight to create a sense of fear and to build tension. We chose to do this because we noticed when watching other Thrillers most were filmed in the dark to make them more eerie.

We chose this special effect for the flashbacks because it gives the impression that the audience is in the mothers point of view and gives a slightly blurry picture as if she has tears in her eyes. It is conventional to show the transition between the verisimilitude of the clear shots showing the present time to the less clear images that show the woman's memory.

Film Poster Analysis

Here are two film posters which we have analysed. This includes the analysis of design, colours, characters portrayed, atmosphere, fonts, audience expectations and connotations of images.

Iconic Sounds for a Horror Film

The majority of horror films all use iconic sounds which help to create an unusual atmosphere. The main function of the sounds are to build up suspense which therefore make the film seem a lot more scary than if there was to be no sound at all. Some films only use diegetic sound, which therefore creates a more realistic feel to the film, and others use non-diegetic sound, which builds up fear. For example they may play a piece of creepy music or have instruments make a big ‘clashing’ sound, usually when an evil character appears.

Diegetic sound

This is sound which you would actually be able to hear in real life if you were there.

E.g.

       voices of characters 

       sounds made by objects in the story 

Non-Diegetic 
This is sound which you wouldn’t actually hear in real life as it has been added on top to create fear. 
E.g.
       narrator's commentary
       sound effects which is added for the dramatic effect
       mood music 

Typical Sound Effects Found in Horror Films

Thunder 

This is a typical non-diegetic sound effect because most horror films are filmed when it its dark and by using thunder, it makes the atmosphere eerie and scary. 

Screaming

This adds tension and makes the audience aware of the fact that the actor is in despair and needs help. It can also make the audience jump out of their seats if they are not expecting it. 

Creaking

This gives an un-easy atmosphere and makes you as the audience feel like someone else is in the same building. This is often used when an actor is in an isolated building by him/herself. 

Silence

This builds up the suspense of what’s about to happen. You often have silences before a loud scream or before a shooting scene takes place as you audience are in a state of harmony and they are least expecting it.   

Footsteps

This builds tension and makes the audience think about who could be coming round the corner. You can also emphasise this sound by adding on no-diegetic sound which will make the footsteps louder. 

Title Sequence Timeline

This is a Title Sequence Timeline of the horror film 'A Nightmare on Elm Street'. It shows the titles and times that they appear up to 3 minutes 20 seconds.

9 Frame Analysis

The first 9 Frame Analysis is of Eden Lake and the second Hannibal. Both of these are horror films to fit in my chosen genre. The 9 Frame Analysis' show the first 9 different shots of the beginning of the film with their times

Audience Expectations

We spoke to 5 people about what they expected from our horror film. This is what they came up with.

Practice Shots in Chosen Location

This is some practice shots at our chosen location of the character's workplace

Practice Shots

We practised some of our storyboarded shots - here are the results. This was at our first chosen location (character's friends house) but after watching it and thinking about it more, we decided that it would fit in better with our storyline to film the opening shots at the character's workplace.

Risk Assessment

Planning: Target Audience

We spent some time, after having done research and got our audience expectations from our focus group, discussing how best to target an audience and who our audience would be.

Planning: Location

To fit in with our storyline, we wanted two locations for our film. The first at the characters workplace and the second at the characters home. We needed to find a suitable work and home location for the type of character we wanted to create which was a successful career woman. After considering our options we chose the front office of an independent school which was well presented and an affluent suburban home. Added benefits were that there was enough space in both locations for our film crew to operate comfortably.

Planning: Props

Planning: Hair And Make-Up

Planning: Costumes

The boy antagonist - to illustrate his character and bad teenage nature, we wanted to dress him in dark tracksuit bottoms and hoodie with trainers. This would characterise him to be maybe up to something bad which would be reinforced by him wearing black gloves.

The woman protagonist - to portray her character, we wanted to dress her in a plain and simple yet smart and sophisticated typical work dress. The idea was to show that today is just a normal working day for her and nothing, to her knowledge, out of the ordinary was going to happen. We also did this to make it seem to the audience that this lady is a very successful, hard working person which fits in with the background to our storyline that the reason she gave her son up for adoption was to have a successful career and carry on with her life.

Planning: Characters

Choosing our characters:

• The woman protagonist - Helen Williams. We need a woman protagonist becuase we noticed that in other Horror/ Thriller films that we researched, the protagonist is nearly always female. Not only to stick with the convention of having a female protagonist, we also thought that we should choose a female because men think they are more able to overcome threat more easily than a woman and so our audience would be able to relate to it more this way. Also, our storyline is about a mother putting her son up for adoption to continue with her life not knowing that he is coming to seek his revenge. Therefore, our protagonist had to be female to fit in with our storyline.
  
• The boy antagonist - Nick Webber. We need a young teenage boy to fit in with our storyline because the background to our Film Opening was that the boys mother (main woman protaganist) put him up for adoption at birth and is back 15-16 years later to seek his revenge. Therefore, we need a boy who looks 15-16 who looks like a typical teenage boy to fit in with his characteristics and the storyline.

Planning Our Characters, Costumes, Hair and Make-Up and Props

Before setting out to film our 2 Minitue Film Opening we need to plan our charaters and their costumes. We knew from the planning of our storyline that we need two actors and roughly what we wanted them to be dressed in to portray their character efficetlively. However, we have to plan this in more detail ready for when we film some of our practice shots to see if our characters and their costumes are the right choice. We also need to plan their hair and make-up, any props that we wanted to use and find a location that would best suit our storyline. We need to do this all by the 28th February as this is when we plan to practice some of our chosen shots.

Over the next week, we will plan all these things out in greater detail.

Storyboard

This is the storyboard for our 2 minute Film Opening; Revenge. 

Sub-Genres of Horror Films

1. Monster-Horror

A Monster film is sub-genre of Horror that centers on a struggle between human beings and a monster. The monster usually serves asa villain, and the film portrays a hero or heroine that ultimately saves theworld from the monster. (Examples: Aliens, Godzilla, Creature from the Black Lagoon.)

2. Teen-Horror

Teen-Horror is asub-genre that revolves completely around a teenager or a group of teenagers.Typically, these movies have a large cast and a clear hero or heroine.Teen-Horror films often play upon traditional teenage issues and turn them intosuspenseful and thrilling situations. (Examples: I Know What You Did LastSummer, Scream, Texas Chainsaw Massacre.) 

3. Slasher film

Slasher film is a sub-genre of Horror filmthat revolves around a psychopathic killer. This killer stalks and murders hisvictims in extremely violent and memorable ways. Though it centres on aspecific killer, the violence is what sets Slasher films apart from otherhorror films. A Slasher film will devote more screen time to portray murder andmayhem than a traditional Horror film. (Examples: Friday the 13^th, My Bloody Valentine, Black Christmas.) 

4. Zombie-Horror

Zombie film is asub-genre of Horror film that portrays mindless human beings who are raisedfrom the dead. These films often include a Zombie invasion and revolve aroundthe struggle between the living, and the living-dead. Zombie film not onlyfalls into the Horror genre, but Sci-Fi, Thriller, and Comedy as well. (Examples:Night of the Living Dead, Shaun of the Dead, 28 Days Later.) 

Information from: http://thescriptlab.com/screenplay/genre/horror 

                              http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_film#Sub-genres 

Examples of the four sub-genres:

Certificate Ratings

Universal - Suitablefor all ages, there is nothing unsuitable for children.

Parental Guidance - Suitablefor all ages, but certain scenes may be unsuitable for young children. It isthe board's policy that movies rated 'PG' should not disturb a child of about 8years of age or older. However, parents are advised to consider whether thecontent may upset young or more sensitive children.

12A(cinema only) - Filmsunder this category are considered to be unsuitable for very young people.Those aged under 12 years are only admitted if accompanied by an adult, aged atleast 18 years, at all times during the film.

12 - Recommendedfor 12 years and older. Nobody younger than 12 may rent or buy a '12' ratedDVD.

15 - Suitableonly for 15 years and older. Nobody younger than 15 may see a '15' film in thecinema. Nobody younger than 15 may rent or buy a '15' rated DVD (These filmsmay contain offensive or emotionally harrowing scenes or strong language andviolence).

18 - Suitableonly for adults. Nobody younger than 18 may see an '18' film in a cinema.Nobody younger than 18 may rent or buy an '18' rated video (These films maycontain extreme gore/violence and/or sexually explicit content).

Restricted18 - Tobe shown only in specially licensed cinemas, or supplied only in licensed sexshops, and to adults that are older than 18 years old. (These films containsexually explicit, pornographic content).

I think that our film would have a 15 rating. This is because there may be scenes which contain adult content and strong language which would not be suitable for a 12 year old. Our film would not be an 18 rating either as the content is not as explicit as an 18 would be. 

History of The Horror Film Genre

• The horror genre is one of the most popular and profitable film genres for cinemas today. However for much of the twentieth century it wasn't and the horror genre has moved in and out of cinematic vogue over the last one hundred years. It is only really in the last forty years that this genre has been established as being one of the main genres in cinemas.

• In the early years of the film industry, pioneering directors began to experiment with supernatural events and creatures and in the 1910s and 1920s, many famous literary monsters cross over to the movie world, for example, Frankenstein, vampires and the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

• It wasn't until the early 1930s that horror began to be seem by a mainstream audience, with the release of Universal Pictures' famous versions of Dracula and Frankenstein in 1931. 

• After the Second World War, the horror genre became less popular with mainstream cinema audiences and as technology advanced, low budget monster movies increasingly became unsophisticated. Even though several remarkable films were made during the 1950s, like Invasion of the Body Snatchers in 1956, it wasn't until the end of the 1950s that the horror genre really began to re-emerge as a popular genre again. 

• The British company Hammer Film Productions were largely responsible for making monster movies popular again by making films like Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy and more up to the early 1970s.

• During the late 1960s, horror once again entered a slump, even though remarkable movies were produced around this time, like George Romero's Night of the Living Dead and Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby in 1968. 

• The mid-1970s marked the start of an era of blockbuster horror as films with large budgets and very high productions values, like The Exorcist in 1973 and The Omen in 1976. 

• In the twenty-first century the horror film genre has been introduced to a new generation by the new DVD releases of older movies. This has allowed the horror genre to blossom even more now with things like merchandise and zombie walks.

Information from: http://laurenthomas.hubpages.com/hub/A-Brief-History-of-Horror-Movies