Health and Saftey

we have had to consider our heath and safety for our project, this because we are using realistic weapons in a public place. we have considered members of the public being scared or worried about the goings on in our horror (e.g. the kill scene). to combat this problem we will have a member of crew,l wearing a high visibility jacket with a dedicated phone line on the back (a mobile number, where they can call for a brief description of what we are doing); along with that the in tire crew will be wearing a high visibility jackets that say crew on the back. we will also ask Scott if he will over see our shooting as a responsible adult. we may also consider having a trained first aider on set.

we have also got in contact with the local police dept. and are awaiting for a response to our phone call to set up a recorded meeting to explain our project and our intentions. we have also written a letter to inform them of our goings on. this is shown below

9^th December 2010

To Whom It May Concern

I am writing to inform you that we will be shooting a horror film sequence for our AS Media Studies Project.  This will include the use of realistic looking weapons (e.g. knife). This will be shot around dusk/ night near Olympus house. We will inform you of the dates nearer the time of shooting this. We will also inform Olympus House of these events.

This is part of our Media Studies course and it involves filming an opening scene for our chosen genre. We have selected the Horror genre. We have planned out our script and costumes for this over the last few weeks. All members of our group will be wearing high visibility jackets during filming.  Group members include: Connor Page, Francesca Williams, Ryan Newson and Liam Oliver. Also Sophie Stokes will be involved as an actress on this day.

We will have a dedicated help line displayed around the set where any member of the public can call to be informed of the current events in place.  A risk assessment will be carried out prior filming.  We kindly request your Consent to these events; if you have any queries please contact Connor Page on  07807 070458 or contact Roberto DeVita at Ken Stimpson Community School.

Yours sincerely

StandHardProductions                      R De Vita

                                                          Media Studies Teacher (KSCS)

Analysing 'The life of a bullet' Lord of War intro.

I've chosen to do a quick analysis of this as we plan to attempt to do a POV (point of veiw) shot of a weapon in our project.

The POV of the bullet, adds more drama into the images, and involves the audience with the action more, making them feel like its them in the images place. This added depth. Putting this into an intro sequence is a very good way to create enigma and draw the audience in making them wanting to watch more.

In 'Lord of War', we follow the life of a bullet, from production, to shipping, to usage. The usage of it, shows it contact with someones head, kiling them instantly. The end of the bullets life, and the persons. We watch the bullets whole life, beginning to end and, essentially, how it was 'born' just to kill. This could, in some way, relate to the soldiers, or insurgents?

Following the life of just one single bullet, and that being the one and only bullet to contact with, and kill the person could relate to showing how much difference just one person/thing can make. Possibly, also, just how much destruction/devestation one person/thing can cause.

Storyboard referb and Shooting Script

Ryan and myself met up on Monday the 6th, this was to turn the ruff draft of our storyboard {image to be added} into a finalized and presentable format. We did this by: first of all reprinting the templates on A3 paper, then we went over the draft shot by shot. Ryan then drew out the shots as they were described and shown; we strongly thought about shading to show the lighting techniques. 
 {image to be added}
Once we we happy with how it looked we showed it to our group, after getting the go ahead, we handed it over to liam. he then turned this storyboard into the shooting script, this will then be used whilst filming.
{image to be added}

Codes and Conventions of horror.

This type of genre strives to educe fear and apprehension from their viewers by colliding supernatural into reality situations. Everything a normal society values is systematically destroyed throughout the film. It often can be completely paranormal without any reality whatsoever and are based on classic literature of the gothic/horror genre. They can also incorporate elements of other genres such as science fiction (sci-fi), fantasy, black comedies or thriller. Modernized horrors usually contain graphic violence or bloody gore. Horror films differentiate due to the years and so it is much harder to compare or group them largely and so contrasts between them become very clear.

  o Preliminary introduction into ordinary lifestyle
o Type of bizarre murder/death – killer maybe known or unknown
o Credits follow horror theme – creepy font, title movement, image eg pumpkin, weapon, etc
o Main characters introduced – young/ youthful
o Teenage kids – easy target also vulnerable – home alone
o Teenagers usually a couple – football jock boyfriend and cheerleader blonde bimbo girlfriend.
o Mysterious phone calls – dubbed sinister voice “Who’s There…?”
o Family ties broken
o Sisters killed by brothers e.g: Halloween
o Sometimes unsuccessful acts of heroism
o Victim unprotected
o Superhuman killer – doesn’t die successfully = sequels

-Source; http://smay-fuller-suttonmediaas.blogspot.com/2008/12/codes-and-conventions-of-horror-film.html

Meeting

 Liam and myself had a meeting yesterday after school at Olympus house (the location of where we will be shooting) to go over ideas and give ourselves a brief idea of how they would play out. Whilst doing this, we planted a few more ideas and tweaked a few of the other shots. Our product will now be more finalised with the new ideas we came up with to close off the scene.

Clothing research

We have started research into clothing for our Opening Scene. We have also looked into buying hi vis jacket to alert members of the public that we are part of the filming. The below print screen shows that 4 high vis jackets would cost £5.20 and 4 Jackets with print on the back would cose £16.20.

The i-pod we will have to borrow of someone and the Machette we will eaither had to  borrow or buy.

The below screen shot shows the estimated price of buying a Machette:

Becasue of the weather being cold we have done some research into buying a read coat for the actress, below is a print screen of the estimated price for this, the price would be £3.69 including postage;

 We have experimented with various fonts for out titles, these are shown below:

We have decided on the last font. We will do this in red and white so it flashes on the black background like a heart beat. The sketchy text indicates the disturbed mind of the killer, and the red colour indicates danger.

Analysis

MISE EN SCÉNEMise en Scéne is a Frecnh term meaning what is put into the scene or frame. What is put in or left out can make a big difference to the signals we, the audience, receive about what sort of film it is and how we are supposed to feel at this point.

A simple shot of a tree can be made to look threatening by stripping it of leaves, adding a vulture and some lightening and shooting it in darkness. The same tree can be given a very different look by having children playing beneath its sunlit branches. As an experienced film audience we are able to read these hidden signals of lighting, colour, props and characters and add these to our understanding of what will happen in the film.

In this way, the elements of mise en scéne are an indicator as to the genre (type) of film we are watching. We have certain expectations of the mise en scéne in different genres of films; e.g. Horror; Dark, creepy, evil.
Comedy; Bright, colourful, lively.

The elements to consider in the mise en scéne are:
a) settings & props
b) costume, hair & make-up
c) facial expressions & body language
d) lighting & colour
e) position ing of characters & objects within a frame

Heres a brief look at each of these in turn;
SETTINGS & PROPS

SETTINGS:
The settings used in a film are very rarely just backgrounds to the characters' dialogue and indeed we will often see shots of places without any action taking place. In this way the setting of a film is far more significant than the setting of a theatre and is almost always infinitely more detailed. Filmmakers can choose to build a setting from scratch using the bare walls and floor of a studio set; alternatively, a great deal of time and effort is put in by a location manager in the initial stages of making a fil;m to find a setting which already exists. Invariably this location will then be altered further to reflect exactly what the filmmaker wants to convery.

Settings can be used to manipulate an audience by building certain expectations and then the action takes a different turn, for instance, a tale of horror set against the familiar background of modern everyday urban life is showhow more disturbing than one set a century ago in a house in the wooods. This can be particularaly effective if the setting goes against what we would expect from this genre of film.
PROPS:
Props is the term we give to objects in the setting which play a part in the action, rather than just being part of the background, for example, the glass containing the poisioned wine.

COSTUME, HAIR & MAKEUP

COSTUME:
Costume plays a large part in the mise en scéne because it can be an instant indicator to us of a character's personality, social status and job. It tells us immediately whether the film is set in the present and what society and/or culture it will centre around. It may also provide a clue as to the part of the caracter will play in the action. Certain types of costume are identified closely with indicidual genres, for instance, the black cloak of the vampire with a horror film.
MAKE UP:
In the early days of cinema, make-up was used to highlight facial features as black and white film stock could not register detail very well. Certain genres traditionally use make-up more than others.
LIGHTING & COLOURLIGHTING:
Lighting can aim to give a particular scene a very realistic look or to bring out the dramatic nature of it and we associate these different lighting styles with different genres. It can be used to achieve a variety of a effects, for example;

• To highlight important characters or objects within the frame by drawing our attention towards them with a bright light source.
• To make a  character look mysterious by shading sections of the face/body.
• To reflect a character's confused state of mind may be suggested by alternating bright and dark light quickly as in a strobe effect.

COLOUR:
The connotations that colour carries with it are an important influence as to the mood of a scene. We tend to associate certain colours with certain genres particularly with reference to film posters and publicity materials which rely on the public quickly being able to identify with a film even from a distance.

POSITIONING OF CHARACTERS & OBJECTS WITHIN A FRAME
There are various ways in which the filmmaker can use positioning within the frame. For instance;

• If the filmmaker chooses to position a character or an object in the foreground of the shot we know that we, as an audience, should attach importance to this character or object; the mise en scéne is being used to direct our attention towards them. Likewise, we recognise that background events have less significance at this particular point in the narrative.
• A moving body or object placed against a stationary background will immediately draw our attention as it would in real life.
• If characters or objects are positioned evenly within the frame this will give a balanced feel ot the shot. If all the figures are at one end of the frame for example, this will create an imbalance for the eye by making the shot feel heavy on one side. These different types of spacing within the shot can be used to make the audience feel settled or unsettled, thus involving them in the action.
• If the positioning of figures and objects draws our atttention to the diagonal lines of the frame, this will help to inbalance the eye, especially if the lines of the background follow horizontal and vertical planes. This can be used to make the audience feel uncomfortable about the action that is taking place.
• The filmmaker can use positioning to indicate relationships between people, for example, if lovers are having an argument they will often be placed at the outside edges of the grame so there is a lot of physical distance between them to reflect the emotional distance they are experiencing at this point.

God of War 3 (trailer)

The opening is a blacked out frame, which has the sound of violent waves breaking. A non-dietetic voice over rolls over as well, it uses a deep voice, to symbolise the power and importance of what the narration is saying.an ELS/ES (establishing shot) is used to show that the tidal sounds used before are dietetic sounds. Far away into the distance you can make out a mountain, that appears to be on fire, the wave break covering the mountain. The powerful narration carries on throughout this shot and the rest of the media. Ambiance lighting is used as the wave crashes over; a lightning bolt far away in the distance illuminates the lightning from behind. This gives you a sense of distance between: the crashing wave, and the towering mountain. This occurs on a “keyword”, “CHAOS”. 

The shot changes to a MS of the shell of a tree, captivating the majority of the frame. Many bolts of lightning hit around the tree, illuminating it from different angles; as this happens the shot pans in a circle, revealing the mountain slightly closer than before; this gives the affect of destruction. With the panning camera angle suggesting that something to do with the mountains, is something to do with the destruction; the viewer might consider this to be an evil place by the lighting choices. The shot following is of a building collapsing, with what seems to be fire encroaching from behind, this makes the viewer think of a riot/rebellion, the dietetic sound of boulders falling, clarify the importance of the building in the shot. The shot is a long shot of the building sowing it crumple, however, there is and extreme long shot of the mountain in the back. It looming over the shot (in the same way it did with previous) combined with the strategic bolt of lightning at the peak, triggering the buildings collapse; strengthens the opinion that the mountain is the cause. 

 

Throughout these scenes there is non-dietetic sound (a voice over) the first being “our victory brought order to the land” and the second “prosperity to mankind” these refer to the shots as the first has a tree in the frame, and the second has a “man” made building. However the voice over juxtaposes the images, as the first is of a burnt, shell of a tree, and the second is the remnants of a building. This is almost foreshadowing events to happen or it is being used as a flash back. 

TO BE CONTINUED

Deadlines

Today we recieved our deadline for our post production work.


It needs to be completed by the 10th of December - 4 days from now.


This includes, Storyboards, Shooting list, Scripts and Research.


Storyboard ruff draft is complete, and Research is continous.

Recording the Backing Track (Possibility-Sophie Cover)

For our final production, we wanted to use a song called Possibility, by Lykke Li. This song uses an acoustic piano and vocals, this gives it a slightly eerie affect; this will add a great atmosphere to our thriller/horror.

Problems
we encountered some inconveniences such as:

• Copy right issues
• How to alter a single level (e.g. piano)
• How to alter the intire song

the way we overcame these problems was to, ask a musician to preform a cover of the song and give us permission to use it; This will also allow us to control the audio editing. after asking Sophie if she would preform the cover, Liam and myself set up the recording studio (with the guidance of Scott). We used ...... mics to record the audio, allowing us to alter the recording circle. We also decided to record the in tire recording session on a camera, documenting the event; i then took this fotage, and mixed it with the audio that we recorded. This was using premire pro, this gave us a profetional looking, behind the scenes video. {as shown bellow}

Possibility-Effie Cover-Behind the Scenes (low res)

This video shows the audio in the raw format, it hasn't been enhanced. Before we add this into the back of our video we will add an echo, this will depend on weather it works/sounds good.

Group Meeting

We have been having multipul group meetings recently to keep up our progress on our post-production. Our storyboard is currently in draft form with the final peice being drawn up.

We had a group meeting today to go over our final draft of the storyboard to make sure all ideas are included before the final copy is drawn up by Ryan Newson.