Final piece

recent Activities

On the 10th of February we filmed our piece in kenley, in an old station house. this took us around 3 hours to complete all our the filming, and get all the footage that we needed. next lesson we started editing our footage, and putting it in order to make a good sequence. once this was completed, we started adding editing techniques to increase the atmosphere of the piece. we used some techniques that we said we would in the analysis, such as use of lighting buy changing the color correction and making the piece darker. another technique we used that we discussed earlier in the analysis was jump cutting this is used when the main character is walking away to give the shot an edgy feel. we have now finished all of the editing, although we did have a problem originally. the piece was to short so we had to add in extra footage, and use footage twice to increase the length. we also used the credits separately while originally we had planned to superimpose the credits over the footage. now our piece is completely edited and is the write length. we are now working on the soundtrack.
Amy

Prop List

Scissors

Scalpel

Music box

Contact sheets

Negatives

Gaffa tape

Doll

Bandages

Fake blood

Dan, Rachel, Amy, Jason.

Filming Meeting

After the bad weather over the last week missed our scheduled filming day, so we have had a meeting to day. We have come to the conclusion that we will be filming next Tuesday, and will meet at Kenley station where we will film in an old train station building.

SNOW!

(^ A picture of the snow that struck England)

Due to extreme wether conditions over the last few days colleges and schools have all been closed all over England including Reigate College. We originally planned to book out our equipment on monday and film our sequence yesterday, however as college was closed we couldn't get the equipment and not film. Also today (wednesday) i was the only person in my group to have made it to college so we cannot have a meeting today to plan when we will film. So now we will have to organize a date and time to film in the next lesson on friday.

Dan

The Credits

This is a preview of the credits that we will use in the opening sequence. We created the flicker effect as it creates a sense of disturbance or an unsettled feel. We then had the title fading away with the gaussian blur effect, this gives a empty atmosphere and makes the viewer feel like the titles are fading away which could represent how the film is mysterious and dark. The title tracking adds movement to the text bringing it alive and stopping it look plain and boring.

We looked at this film on youtube and thought that it was a good example of something we would like to create. It is a AS media group doing a similar project. This influenced us because it was created with exactly the same equipment available to us and give the mysterious montage effect that we are planning on creating..

Production company logo

This is the logo that we will use as our production company. We have kept it simple as it can be used small or big and can be put easily in different places. The logo represents the ethos of the company a young exciting company who create 'edgy' and 'daring' productions. This will be the first thing on scene in out opening scene.

Analysis of questionnaire responses

Age: 18

Male

What is your favourite genre of film?
Action/Thriller

What is your favourite horror film?
Seven

Which opening sequence from our blog did u think was the most
Exciting?
Seven

Entertaining?
Saw

Scary?
Seven

Which did you prefer overall?
Seven

Having watched the opening sequence from Se7en what do u think that the montage of images worked well to engage the audience?
Yes

After seeing this would you want to watch the film?
Yes



Age: 18

Male

What is your favorite genre of film?
horror

What is your favorite horror film?
strangers

Which opening sequence from our blog did u think was the most
exciting?
the first one...

Entertaining?
seven

Scary?
saw

Which did you prefer overall?
fargo

Having watched the opening sequence from Se7en what do u think that the montage of images worked well to engage the audience?
very mind-blowing

After seeing this would you want to watch the film?
yes

Which did you prefer overall?
Seven

Having watched the opening sequence from Se7en what do u think that the montage of images worked well to engage the audience?
Yes

After seeing this would you want to watch the film?
Yes




Age:18

Female

What is your favourite genre of film?
Horror

What is your favourite horror film?
The strangers

Which opening sequence from our blog did u think was the most
exciting?
Saw 1

Entertaining?
Saw 1

Scary?
Seven

Which did you prefer overall?
Saw 1

Having watched the opening sequence from Se7en what do u think that the montage of images worked well to engage the audience?
Yes

After seeing this would you want to watch the film?
Yes



Age: 18
Female /

What is your favourite genre of film?
Comedy / action

What is your favourite horror film?
SCREAMM!!!!!

Which opening sequence from our blog did u think was the most?
Exciting?
Saw

Entertaining?
Seven!

Scary?
Saw

Which did you prefer overall?
I’m going to say the 1st and last :D

Having watched the opening sequence from Se7en what do u think that the montage of images worked well to engage the audience?
Yes

After seeing this would you want to watch the film?
Yes!

From this data we can tell that overall, people seem to like horror films, and in particular like the opening credits for seven. This is fortunate for us and our prject, as we are going to do a horror themed opening sequence, which is looosly based on the seven opening sequence, we found out from the analysis of the sequence what effects and techniques they use to make the [peice effective and we could reflect this into our work. the questionnaires prove this is a good idea as our target audience have voted horror their favorite type of genre. From ou7r research we also found that the montage of clips used in the seven opening sequence is generally apreciated buy our target audience. we will include a montage of clips in our opening sequence, because of the research we have collected we know it will be popular and enjoyed buy our audience. the evidence for a horror film being the most popular type of genre is unlear in the catogory of gender. we could collect more data to disifer which gender our peice would appeal to more and use advertising to aim it mainly at them to make it more sucesful, although horror in generally though to be a genre that appeals to both sexes. our audience though that saw had the scarist opening sequence, because we want our opening sequence to be scary we could use elements from this to increse the tension and atmosphere. a good tenchnique used in the saw opening is the use of lightin, shadow and darkness are used to increse the forboding feeling, and we could use low lighting to make our peice more scary.

Titles order

After lookign at a few opening credits mainly lookign at seven, we decided the order we will be having the credits that will be apearing on the scree.

Production company (Before any shot)
Producer
A film by _____
Main actor 1
Main actor 2
Another few charactors
Editor
Writter
Producer
Director
Film title

Dan

Analysis of saw 2 intro

The scene starts of with a low flickering light almost like lightning through clouds and a low rumble of thunder is heard, this instantly informs the audience that the film will be dark and miserable throughout. The title then flies on making a crashing noise as is it appears to hit the screen this is important because they want the brand to have an impact. The title disappears  leaving the audience in darkness emphasizing the darkness of the next shot. There is a high pitch screeching noise in the background to emphasis the eery atmosphere. The titles fade in and out returning to darkness this could represent the characters within the film struggling to escape darkness. The first shot opens up on a flickering lightbulb it moves in and out of focus perhaps used to disorientate the audience, it is then shown again after another set of titles and becomes brighter and then return to darkness this could be used to show the irregular content of the story. The third time this is shown the light becomes so bright and fills the whole screen with a blinding light, possibly used to show the pain which the characters go through. The shot then pans across to reveal the room this is a point of view shot to to show the fear from the person. the shots are jerky and unsteady. A hand then comes in from behind the camera and turns a mirror toward the viewer, you then se a reflection of a worried looking person out of breath with blood down the side of his face. The shaky camera and lack of breath shows that the charactor has just suddenly got into a panic which could show how he is unaware of where he is and how he could have just woken up to a mysterious place.  The camera then zooms out at a high speed the fly above the person and shows him screaming loudly. we then zoom into a contraption around the guys next that has nails showing how it is some kind of killing device. A small TV then turns on and a freaky child's toy mask, and a deep scary voice. 

Dan, Rachel, Jason

Story Board

Here are some images of our story board showing some of the key shots from the opening sequence.

This is an over the shoulder shot of our mysteries unknown figure dementing a toy. It is a key shot in the opening sequence as it shows how demented and mental the antagonist of the film is, this creates suspense as the viewer then cannot relate to the character leaving him unpredictable and allows him to do more radical things throughout the film.

This image shows a shot that will be broken up and placed in our sequence. It is a long corridor with a dark mysteriose room at the end of it, the camera will slowly zoom into the room. It create questions, as to what could be in the room. The shot is split up and put at variose intervauls along with our other shots to make the whole sequence flow and gives it more of a meaning than just a sequence some freaky guy doing creepy things. I feel that this shot will create suspence as just as it brings up questions the shot cuts away to give the feel that you might never find out whats in the room.

Dan Martin

location inspiration

this is a graveyard to create a spooky atmosphere we could possibly use this as a setting within our opening sequence as a flash to confuse the audience and give the sequence a mysterious feeling. the effects used on this picture reinforce the spooky feeling because it increases the darkness and shadow. the light used on the gravestones makes them stand out more.

this is a spooky run down house that is dilapidated this makes it more obviously abandoned,abandoned house seem more scary because no one knows what is inside this increases the danger. it is grainy and black and white which gives the house a rough feel doubling its intensity.

this mist in the woods makes this setting scary because it reduces visibility around the woods creating a dangerous atmosphere. from this point of view the woods are never ending again increasing the danger feel because it could be in the middle of no where.

Target audience Questionnaire

From this questionnaire we aim to gather information about our target audience in order to  influence our opening sequence.

 

Age:

Male             Female

 

 

 

What is your favorite genre of film?

 

 

What is your favorite horror film?

 

Which opening sequence from our blog did u think was the most 

Exciting?

Entertaining?

Scary?

Which did you prefer overall?

 

Having watched the opening sequence from Se7en what do u think that the montage of  images worked well to engage the audience?

After seeing this would you want to watch the film?

Rachel

Ideas for shots

We have been looking at different objects to use with in our sequence. We want these to build up a perception of this character and the audience to be disgusted by his behavior. By using objects such as chains, old creaky doors the audience should quickly establish things about the character. Other objects we are considering using are; an old music box, rusty gardening and work tools, we will show the character with black and green nails which we shall use nail varnish to depict. We will also show the character creating a ransom note to bring context to the sequence.

Rachel

Analysis of Fargo Opening Sequence

the main colour used in the opening sequence is blue although blue can be used to show serenity and calm in this opening sequence it seems to be used to show sadness this is obvious because of the music which reinforces this idea, the music is slow and down beat giving the whole sequence an overall feeling of misery. the way the writing is spaced out gives a sense of loneliness and isolation, they must have been trying to give some sort of emotion across other wise they would have regular spaced lettering, this feeling of loneliness links to the colour blue to reinforce the sadness created within the sequence. the way the black colour contrast against the blue background makes it clear and obvious to the audience it could also symbolise darkness within the sadness in the sequence. the car appears from the blue which is now clear that it is snow because the blue now turns to white also the music has increased in volume giving the scene a more dramatic atmosphere, the car driving towards the camera creates drama because it creates a feeling of danger and uncertainty because you can only see the outline of the people in the car which will also intrigue the audience and make them think what is happening and encourage them to watch the rest of the film. moreover the mist used within the scene makes it more mysterious. the last words shown are the letters of the name of the film this is clear because they are bigger and stand out more then the other words used within the scene again they are spaced out further creating the feeling of loneliness there is a cross fade to the start of the which is a good way to introduce the film in a less sudden way.

this relates to our sequence because they are both ransom situations are film is mainly revolves around a ransom situation whereas Fargo contains ransom situations.

amy and jason

Sound effects

This sound effect is what we propose to use with our opening shot from inside the building of the door shutting. By adding the sound we hope that this shot will capture the audiences attention and set the pace for the rest of the film.

Dan & Rachel

User ratings review

Seven, user ratings

Saw, user ratings

Hostal, user ratings

We decide to look at user ratings for films similar to ours.We looked at seven Saw and Hostal. After looking at the link above we have decided that our target audience is males from the age of 18 to 29. we came across this data by compiling the evidence from the three sources. we decided that it was males because more males voted on the website because it is thought that they are more attracted to these types of films then females are. We also decided the age range by looking at the data, it shows that people in this age range gave a more positive rating of the films, this implies that they are the more targeted audience for this film, this reflects onto our film as this would be the age range for our film.

Dan, Jason, Amy, Rachel.

Synopsis

Our sequence is a montage of clips showing a creepy mysterious figure creating a ransom note and other creepy things.

The rest of the film is about the man shown in the opening credits committing a series of kidnaps and torturing his victims.

The film cuts between the action going on with the kidnapper and the families victims and how they deal with their loved ones being kidnapped. The durations of each scene becomes shorter and shorter to build up the tension until it reaches its climax.

Production meeting 1

This is the opening credits to the film Se7en.
This inspired our idea, which is a hostage situation horror.

The lighting is dark to give the feeling of gloom and depression throughout the piece, close up shots show detail and keep us from the whole story, creating a feeling of sincerity. The music intensifies the action and attracts the audiences attention whilst building up tension throughout as the action builds. Selective focus issued to add mystery to the areas not in focus, making the audience intrigued. The writing used is mirrored to suggest out of the ordinary or something backward is going on. The color red is used to signify danger or death, giving the clip more impact to an audience. The other colors are dark adding to the mystery of the clip. The clip flickers like an old film this makes the clip unclear at times so that the audience cannot grasp exactly what is going on. The ammeter style of the old films suggests to the audience that the killer is ammeter. The reference to God contrast to the rest of the scene making it more intriguing for the audience. THe objects shown throughout the clip show a creepy side to the character and through a collection of objects we begin to see into his messed up world. The hands shown in the clip are light and dark, this could reflect on his personality, perhaps a good and bad side. A dutch angle is used throughout the piece this is used to show an unsteady mind, in the case of the kidnapper.

The effects used in this sequence will influence our piece. We will use the same lighting techniques to create the same atmosphere of darkness and danger. we may also use the same sound and music as the way it builds up creates tension and we hope to successfully create tension in our piece. we will use the same shots as in this aka close ups as they show detail and let the audience understand more easily know what is going on in the sequence, we will use close ups when the ransom note is being cut out, this will let the audience see the mans dirty hands portraying to them that he is a bad person.

Rachel, Jason, Amy, Dan