Thursday 19 December 2013

Practice Shoot

Me and Sarah have shot and edited our practice shoot. We did a practice shoot to test angles of the camera and as a practice for the real shoot, so we can see where we can improve on the real shoot. This helps us make a better film and link better to our genre.

Here is the practice shoot:


Wednesday 18 December 2013

Intertexuality vodcast for our movie opening

This is our vodcast talking about intertexuality in our movie opening and how it links to other movies (such as Scream) that also involve intertextuality heavily in their movies.



Intertextuality: the relationship between two texts.

SDB: Location and Props

Before...
... and After
We chose the bedroom location in our film opening, based on the main character - the blonde scream queen. We needed the bedroom to emphasise the stereotype behind her character, by using a pink, teenage, girly room. The room is almost entirely pink, however the bedding was not pink before so we changed it to a pink duvet. The room was also quite cluttered with school work before hand, so we tidied these away as they would not of worked well in the mis-en-scene, as it did not fit with the representation of our character- as she is not perceived as studious, but a more "dumb blonde" character.

SDB: Actors

For our film opening there is five main characters; a girl running in the opening scene (film within a film), the murderer also for the opening scene, the scream queen for the actual film, the scream queen's boyfriend, and the masked killer. 

The outfit used for the second scream queen
Firstly for the girl running in the opening we needed a blonde scream queen, who was willing to wear figure-hugging clothing, heavy makeup and would run through a field. We actually chose Poppy Potts to do this, the producer of our film opening, as she fits the scream queen representation and was willing to act. Poppy also knew of a good location to film this opening scene so this was very helpful. For the murderer who chases her, we needed a fairly tall, lanky actor (preferably a boy) to represent an initimidating character, even when masked. Poppy decided to use her brother for this, as he fit the representation and was accessible easily, and is also knowledgable with filming, so was able to help film the footage aswell.
 
For the actual film, we needed a blonde scream queen who was also willing to wear heavy makeup, revealing clothing - and also needed to be confident with acting skills, as this role includes a lot of speech. Poppy and I wrote down a list of possible girls to fit this role, we had a choice from about 5 people. We then asked the first girl on the list, Kathy Allen, and fortunately she was willing to participate. We tried out a practice shoot with Kathy and her acting was a success.  Poppy and I both agreed we would not need to ask any of the other girls.
  We used the same technique when choosing the actor to play the scream queen's boyfriend, and fortunately again, the first boy we asked was willing to take part, Alex Osborne. For this character there wasn't too many specifics required for representation as the actor is not shown up close, but only on CCTV. We just made sure Alex was wearing suitable 'teenage' clothing, such as a t-shirt, jeans and trainers. This was easily acssesible as Alex himself owned many of these clothes.

Tuesday 17 December 2013

Genre Research: Scream

Scream  
Wes Craven, 1996
 (prod.)


Budget: $15M; US box office: $162M

Rottentomatoes.com 80%; IMDB 7.2.



Synopsis: A killer known as Ghostface begins killing off teenagers, and as the body count begins rising, one girl and her friends find themselves contemplating the "Rules" of horror films as they find themselves living in a real-life one.


The film links very closely to ours, in the plot, and in other ways too. Here are the ways in which our film links to Scream:

The film is post-modern, and so is ours, it has a film within a film.

It has lots of strong intertextual links to other movies, such as Halloween and Terror Train.

In the opening, a scream queen and her jock boyfriend gets killed off by a murderer with a mask on.

The murderer contacts the scream queen via a phone with a distorted voice.

Narrative vodcast for our film opening

This is our narrative vodcast, discussing the narrative (storyline) of our movie opening, characters in our story and how they are represented, and clothing and props choices.




Thursday 5 December 2013

Mise-en-scene vodcast for our movie opening

This is our vodcast talking about mise-en-scene in our movie, and what we would be doing to make it appropriate for our movie, and locations.


Mise-en-scene: the arrangement of scenery and props.

Saturday 30 November 2013

Final Cut Pro X (Pt 2)

I have continued using Final Cut Pro X since the microdrama editing, and feel like I have improved. I am more understanding of some of the more complicated tools in the program. I also feel able to experiment more confidently with different sections of Final Cut.
I have learnt that you can find the more complex tools you might need by a simple google search or through youtube videos. This is useful if I want to try a new technique, as I can watch and learn how to do it independently.
I have learnt how to use keyframing this way, and although I haven't got complete grasp of it, I know the basics of how it works and how to create simple effects this way. This is very handy for if I get stuck, I can just go back on have a quick look on how to do it, and this helps me learn better too.
Another new thing I have been experimenting with is the effects that you can put on the video. We used the day to night effect to see what it would look like at the start of the forest scene of our film opening and it was very effective, with a few tweaks from me and Sarah.
Overall, I think that I have become more confident with the program and feel like it will greatly help how our movie opening looks and the general ease of access to quality, but simple, editing equipment will help me with making our movie opening look as good as it can do.

Thursday 28 November 2013

Alternative endings

The ending of our movie opening is at the moment going to be killing the scream queen who stars in the opening.

However, another idea would be:

The girl goes to the garage as would happen in the normal opening, but then instead of being killed, the girl jumps because someone grabs her shoulder. The girl turns and realises that the hand on her shoulder is her boyfriend's best friend. She sighs and hugs him saying 'omg i was so scared!' and the friend says 'what are you on about, aw, come here its ok' (because she is crying). The friend then gives a look signifying he is the killer or knows something (over her shoulder) or he sees the mask and smiles or something showing he is the killer.

Tuesday 26 November 2013

Draft of movie opening

Opening title card: 'production company' presents
                               a ******** film
Girl is running through a forest, medium shot of her back as shes running, she looks back at camera.
Switches to els of her running through forest past camera side on.
alternating between shots, infront of her and behind, keeps looking back
girl trips, switches shot to floor see her hands hit the floor
pov shot she looks up and sees someone

phone rings in the real world
diegetic sound. girl on bed jumps, pink bedroom
shot of phone, pic of boyf and her, ringing
mcu of girl 'phew!', picks up phone (shot of her picking up phone then turns back to her answering it)
talks into phone 'hey alex, omg this movie is so scary!'
lights go off, tv goes off
phone creepy voice 'this isnt alex'
tv goes back on. cctv of alex in garage tied up. table of knives or something similar. person with scary mask pops up on cctv obviously holding phone
(cuts between cctv on tv and girl mcu)
girl 'what, is this a joke, stop messing around' etc getting more frantic, nervous laugh etc
phone voice: 'you have got one chance to save your boyfriend, so listen carefully'
girl: 'what? who is this? this isnt funny anymore'
phone voice: 'i'll give you one question and you must answer truthfully, if your answer is correct, he's free to go. if not, say byebye'
girl: 'please, stop, seriously, this is sick, not funny, ill call the police!'
phone voice: 'how many times have you cheated on alex?'


girl: 'what? no, i... i haven't! i haven't...'
phone voice: 'liar'
hanging up noise on phone
girl saying no no no wait no screaming down the phone to stop
on cctv you see the person killing the boyfriend
girl gets close to the screen and realises *gasp* its her garage

she runs out of the room down the stairs etc to garage, over the shoulder/behind shot following her to the door of the garage
cuts back to cctv footage, see girl walk into room, looks around then looks at camera
you see the killer walk up behind her and grab her

title: LIAR with screams as diegetic sound





titles:
Playground Productions
and Sliding Dog Studios
in association with Green Apple Productions
a Sarah De Biasio film
Alex Osbourne
Poppy Potts
introducing
Kathy Allen
edited by Poppy + Sarah
produced by sarah and poppy


LIAR - blood trickles down screen then liar comes up with screaming

Wednesday 20 November 2013

Pitch: Backing Video and Feedback




WORKING TITLE: The Shed

SYNOPSIS: Horror opening, a girl is trying to escape her killer, only to find herself back in her killer's arms without even realising.

COMPARABLE TO: crywolf/babysitter wanted

PLOT: A girl is tied up in a woods/shed and she unties herself and starts running away, gets to a road and starts running up it. all the time she is looking behind her and still running. A car drives by and she waves it down and gets in. She says drive and the man in the car is going no whats the matter? He doesnt drive and someone else walks in to the light of the car lights. The girl is getting frantic and shouting and the man in the car drives off. Looks like she is safe, she is thanking him. She gets out her phone to ring her friend. They pull up to the shed again and the girl is really confused and then horrified because she realises she isnt safe. The man reaches over and then it cuts to titles and screaming.

Target audience: teenagers/young adults
Setting: forest/creepy road (near roses house). Secluded and unclear where she is. Quiet/idyllic. Dark/nighttime. Shed/building/outhouse
Props:
clothing: white dress, ripped, blood?, revealing, running makeup
killer clothes (black, signifies evil)
man in cars clothes (brown, boring, normal person)
phone (pink, girly), car (bland)
Cast: blonde girl, older man in car, second antagonist


Pitch Feedback:
Generally good feedback saying it was a good idea although needed some developing such as sound effects and what will be needed to create these. Also the actors would be very important to create a convincing portrayal of the characters. There were questions regarding costume such as will the man in the car be wearing black too, to which the answer was yes, he will be wearing black, but could also be wearing ordinary clothes to not let on to the audience if he was bad. The video worked time-wise.

Thursday 14 November 2013

ALL Genre Openings: Codes and Conventions

This is our vodcast on the codes and conventions for the openings of horror films.



P: We looked at 6 film openings: I looked at Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Lost Boys, and Ginger Snaps 2.

S: I looked at I Know What You Did Last Summer, Psycho, and Trick or Treat.

P: There are usually about 2 idents at the beginnings of the horror films. They are either about 15 seconds long for studio films such as the Warner Bros. ident in The Lost Boys, or shorter for indie movies, such as I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.

S: The titles are almost always white or light writing on a dark or black background. There is usually red accents in the main titles or in the background. The red makes the audience think of blood and is a signifier of the horror genre. For example in The Lost Boys, the titles are shown over a dark sea and are white, and the main title has red accents on it. 

P: The titles are often seperate to the film, for example in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the titles are yellow with a black background or with a black and red background and are seperate from the main film footage. 

S: The titles, and also the opening, are usually split into two sections. There is usually 2 or 3 titles at the very start of the film, followed by a short first section of footage, then a second set of titles with the cast and crew names, then a second part to the opening.

P: The two parts of the opening are usually very different. The first section often shows the creation of a disequilibrium, usually in the form of someone being murdered or going missing. This goes against Todorov's narrative theory, as there is a disequilibrium from the outset of the film, rather than an equilibrium first. EG

S: The second part of the opening is usually after all the titles are shown, and introduces the main character. The character is unaware of the disequilibrium already created. EG

P: Usually a narrative enigma is created in the opening too. We don't know who has committed the murder or who the antagonist is, but we are usually introduced to the antagonist by way of the crime they have committed. For example in The Lost Boys, we see that the security guard is taken up into the sky but we don't see who or what does it. 

S: The opening shot is usually one of two shot types, either extreme long shot or extreme close up. The extreme long shot is used for exposition and shows the audience the setting, such as in ********. The extreme close up shot is used to create a narrative enigma because you only see certain parts and don't get the full picture, for example in Ginger Snaps 2, you see the close up of the razor and the girls hand, but not her face which makes you wonder who she is.

P: The representation of characters is usually very obvious and you can tell easily who is good and who is bad. For example in Trick or Treat, you see that the boy is an outcast through his bedroom, the fact that he has rock posters stuck to his walls and is writing to his hero also showing he is different to the other kids. His clothing and his haircut especially also shows he is an outsider.

S: There is usually an audio bridge between the idents, titles, and opening in general. It is usually non-diegetic music that is quite eerie and has long drawn out notes and sounds that mimic heart beats or footsteps. In Ginger Snaps 2, screams can also be heard which puts the audience on edge. The music is very jumpy and is designed to manipulate the audience's heart rate and breathing pattern to make them feel more scared or tense.

P: In the second part of the openings, however, the music is often cheerful and reflects the mood of the protagonist because they don't know about the disequilibrium that has happened in the previous scene. 

S: The main purpose of the openings is to set up the disequilibrium and introduce the main character. This immediately sets up a problem or binary opposition and makes the audience want to continue watching to find out how the problem is resolved.

Slasher Audiences and Target Audience

Male gaze in Psycho: scream queen in shower
Summary of Research into Slasher Film Audiences
 
Often a movie's main characters reflect their target audience, and the slasher film is a prime example of this. The characters are more often than not teenagers/college students, and there is usually a couple. This reflects the target audience. A slasher film's target audience is usually 15-24 year olds. The primary audience is men as they are more likely to be able to interact with the characters on screen. Women can also interact with those on screen but they react in a different way to men. Laura Mulvey's theory of male gaze is very heavily supported in the slasher genre, with the scream queens often objectified through the use of costumes, shot types, script, etc. Generally there is usually a romance subplot or love triangle or couple within the main characters of the film. This is to draw in the female audience, and widen the general audience too. The secondary audience is dating couples. Films are sometimes released near to holidays such as Valentine's Day and school holidays to draw in couples or teenagers with spare time. Teenagers make up the vast majority of cinema-goers, so targeting this group of people can draw in large audiences to the cinema.

Our Target Audience
 
We decided our target audience would also be 15-24 year olds. This is because this was the most common target audience we saw throughout our research in to the genre. This tells us there is an already established audience for the slasher genre, and as filmmakers we would utilise this by also targeting the same audience. We also decided to have two scream queens. This is using the male gaze theory to attract men into the film.

Scream Queen Research and Examples


Steve is a stereotypical teenage boyfriend character.
The decision making on choosing our main actor was based on the stereotypical "Scream Queen" taken from the slasher genre. We researched a variety of slasher films to analyse therepresentation of this character. We looked at films such as Scream, Halloween and Psycho.We mainly adapted our idea from Scream. 


Drew Barrymore plays the scream queen Casey Becker in Scream, who is represented with blonde hair, which is almost essential for the scream queen character. Casey is in the first opening scene and within this scene there is a
phone call where she has to answer a question to save her boyfriend Steve. The actress we used will have long, blonde hair which we thought would fit perfectly for the character. In Scream, Drew Barrymore wears quite covered up clothing, such as jumpers and jeans. However in the
Judith Myers
majority of horror films we researched, the scream queen was wearing revealing, figure-hugging clothing and was heavily caked in makeup. We decided that representation would fit better with our film opening as it is more stereotypical.

Similar to Steve in Scream, the actor in our film opening who played the boyfriend will also be tied up in a chair. In the opening scene, Casey Becker thinks that it is her boyfriend that is on the phone at first playing a joke on her. We adapted that idea into our film opening as it showed that the scream queen is naive, vunerable and sexually active.


Halloween


 Another scream queen we researched was in Halloween. This character was called Judith Myers.

Michael Myers (the murderer of the film) killed Judith on halloween night because she betrayed her brother by choosing to be with her boyfriend rather than babysitting Michael. Michael uses a knife to kill his sister, as he goes upstairs to find her he follows a trail of his sister's clothes. When he reaches her he finds her naked, this scene really signifies her as a sexually active character.

This was a significant movie in cementing the stereotypes of the slasher movie genres. Judith has long hair and revealing clothing (or no clothing at all), is sexually active and isn't shown as caring for school or anything deemed 'nerdy'.

 



Psycho


The scream queen in Psycho was the actress Marion Crane. In Psycho Marion has blonde curly hair, wears makeup, and is dressed in her dressing gown. She undresses fully and enters the shower before she is brutally stabbed, and collapses in a heap naked in the shower. This tragic scene signifes possibly a sexually active character, and enhances the male gaze theory.

Killer Research and Examples

Michael Myers from Halloween
Many slasher films use a masked murderer as the killer in their movies. This is because it makes the villian scarier, as it is an unidentifiable killer who could be anyone, not specific to that setting (as it they could come to kill you). The face is a source of information about the person, we can learn alot about a person from their face, so without this facial recognition the audience feels powerless against the masked horrors in the films. Some of the most memorable masked villains include:

The Jigsaw Killer: a clown puppet
  • 'Leatherface', the butcher in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, notable for his mask made of human skin.
  • Michael Myers, from Halloween, who is one of the most recognisable slasher genre killers
  • 'The Jigsaw Killer' in the Saw franchise. Shown in different ways, sometimes as a puppet clown on a tricycle or wearing a pig mask, for example.

We chose our mask from about three different masks:



We asked members of our target audience which mask they thought was scariest. Most said that the clown mask was too unrealistic and comic so we decided against that one. It was 50/50 about the other two masks. We decided on the old man mask as it is similar to Michael Myers's mask in that it looks like a real person. This was another way of adding intertexuality in our opening.

Many of the horror movie killers fit the stereotype that has been shown in most slasher films starting in the 1970s with films such as Halloween and The Town That Dreaded Sundown. This stereotype is a masked, mentally deranged killer who preys on young girls. Therefore we decided that this is how we would portray our murderer too.

Final Girl Research and Examples

The 'scream queen' and 'final girl' are the two main archetypes of the slasher/horror genre. In this post I will be looking at the final girl. Films we have looked at that include a final girl are Halloween (Carpenter, 1978), Scream (Craven, 1996), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Hooper, 1974) and I Know What You Did Last Summer (Gillespie, 1997).

Halloween

Laurie Strode: the ultimate final girl
Laurie attempting to kill Michael Myers
17-year-old Laurie Strode is widely cited as one of the most influential characters to the Final Girl slasher film archetype. Halloween is a great example for having many of the archetypes of the slasher genre; the scream queen Judith Myers, mentally deranged killer Michael Myers, jock boyfriend Danny, among others. 


Laurie's clothes compared to her friends
Laurie Strode is a shy and bookish teenager who does not share her friends overt personalities. She hasn't dated, which she claims is to do with her 'brainy ways'. A key example of how opposite to her friends she is, is when she forgets her school books and goes back to get them from school, much to the annoyance and teasing or her friends. 

She wears unrevealing clothes, for example a turtleneck and long skirt, unlike her friends, who wear what were considered fashionable clothes at that time period.

Laurie is the only one of her friends to survive to the end of the movie, and attempts to stop Michael Myers (unsuccessfully).


Scream

Another 17-year-old, Sidney Prescott, is the final girl in this movie that uses notable horror movies as big intertextual references/ signifiers as to the plot and almost parodying the slasher genre (with Scary Movie parodying Scream itself).

Sidney (left) is covered up by her
clothes....
...Unlike Tatum who wears a very
short skirt.
Sidney is a 'regular teenage girl', who was put in the news when her mother was murdered a year before the movie takes place. She is friends with the popular and rebellious Tatum Riley. Tatum wears very revealing clothes such as a very short skirt whereas Sidney wears clothes that cover her up alot.

Ghostface (Scream killer)
Sidney is the only one to survive to the end, and kills both Stu and Billy, who were the murderers in the movie (Ghostface) and also murdered Sidney's mother one year before.





The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Sally attempting to escape
Sally Hardesty is the final girl in TTCM. She is the sole survivor of the original film, although it says she died in a mental hospital soon after the events. 
Sally escaping in the back of a
pickup truck

Although much is unknown about Sally, we do know that she cared for her 'invalid' brother Franklin. This shows she was kind and caring, much like the other final girls in the previously looked at movies.

At the end of the movie, she defeats Leatherface (the main antagonist of the movie) and gets away in the back of a pick-up truck.


Laurie Strode: 'the perfect final girl'
Summary

The three final girls I have looked at have many things in common. They are all quite quiet, reserved, bookish, kind and caring. These are main characteristics of a final girl. 

They dress quite conservatively especially when compared to the other characters, and often have reserved hairstyles and makeup, although Sally in TTCM has long, blonde hair, a feature usually seen with scream queens as opposed to final girls. This could, however, be a reflection of the time period (1970s) rather than the final girl/scream queen characteristics. 

Another common feature of final girls is that they are not seen in the very first scene, and usually are seen (straight) after the (sometimes first) scream queen has been murdered (which is usually in the opening scene). 


Update:

We have decided not to include a final girl in our film opening because we have seen from this research that they are not usually seen in the opening scenes of the film. We have decided to have (two) scream queens in our opening as they are usually featured a lot more prominently in the very start of the movie. 

Wednesday 13 November 2013

Genre Research 3: Ginger Snaps II Unleashed

Ginger Snaps II: Unleashed  
Brett Sullivan, 2004
  (prod.)


Budget: $3.5M (canadian dollars); US box office: $80K

Opening duration: 2:15/7:20 (two possible opening ending points)
Rottentomatoes.com 88%; IMDB 6.4.


Summary/Ideas I Might Use
Extreme close up at the beginning to create narrative enigma.
Disequilibrium right at the beginning e.g. someone dying.
Font that fits the theme/genre of the movie for the titles e.g. werewolf scratches.
Synopsis
Set after the events of Ginger Snaps (original film), Ginger's sister Brigitte, now a werewolf herself, must try to find the cure for her bloodlust before the next full moon whilst hiding out in a rehab clinic from a relentless werewolf.

Title card
Idents/Titles
There are no idents in this film. 
Before the main title and film starts, there are 2 titles: the companies' names, and the director's name. The font looks like it has been scratched, which fits with the werewolf theme. The 'unleashed' part of the title zooms in which draws your attention to it, because it is the main part of the title.

Mise-en-scene
Opening shot (pink razor)
The opening shot is an extreme close up of of a razor and a hand. This creates a narrative enigma straight away as you don't know who it is. The narrative enigma continues as the girl changes the razor for a scalpel and you see cuts in her arms. She then injects herself with a purple drug. This makes the audience want to continue watching to find out what has happened to her. 

We know that the person is a girl before we see her because of the signifiers that have been placed in the mise-en-scene. The razor is pink, she is shaving her legs, and there are candles by the bath, all which the audience would associate with a girl.

The weather is also reflecting the mood of the girl (pathetic fallacy). It is bleak, cold, dreary, snowy/icy.

Representations
Brigitte sat in the library
In the 'second half' of the opening (after 2 mins 15 secs), the girl is represented as quite nerdy and bookish because she is at the library. However, she acts quite bluntly to the librarian who is trying to flirt with her, and mysterious when she walks out on her overdue books at the library. She is probably the 'final girl'  because she has brown hair, is quite covered up, and quiet and withdrawn from others. She is represented as a girl with secrets as well because she acts normal in public but we know there is something up with her.
Narrative, Genre, and Exposition
In the first section of the opening we see already that there is a dis-equilibrium happening e.g. the girl is panicky and shooting up and cutting herself. This shows that already there is a dis-equilibrium.

In the second half, we see that someone dies (the librarian gets eaten by a werewolf). This again emphasises the dis-equilibrium.

Vignette filter example
There are lots of genre signifiers in the opening. There is a vignette filter on the first part of the opening, which makes it look darker, and signifies the horror genre. The blood dripping into the bath is a foreshadowing of what is to come. The titles match the theme of the film. Screams in the audio also signify the horror genre.
Soundtrack
There is an audio bridge of non-diegetic speech and music between the titles and the opening. There are screams in the background which signifies the genre. The music matches the blood dripping into the bath which emphasises the fact that there is blood. The screams fade in and out, which makes it sound like flashbacks, possibly to the previous film. The speech is a girls voice also sounding like flashbacks. There are more long drawn out notes which puts the audience on edge, and banging sounds, like heartbeats or footsteps (polysemic). The music and screams and voice alternate fading in and out. 

SDB: Genre Research 2: I Know What You Did Last Summer

Genre Research Horror; 2

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer
, 1998



Budget:

  $65m, UK Box office; £2,657,571

Rottentomatoes.com 7; IMDB 4.3 ; Roger Ebert






SUMMARY/IDEAS I MIGHT USE:
Just as with Trick or Treat, this film uses the idea 
of showing a real tiger, which then evolves into an
 animated tiger which is used in the ident.

SYNOPSIS:

IDENTS/TITLES:
Two idents are used in this film. Before the first ident, a tiger is shown running through a forest, before then turning into an animated tiger which is used to create part of the first ident. 


turns into animation









It then goes into showing the first titles of the director and producers, a white font on a black background. The next scene is an opening scene of the main character, no more titles are shown which is unusual for an opening of a film.
MISE-EN-SCENE:
The opening scene is a close up of the main character's feet walking down an isle in a church. There is a grim mise-en-scene in the church with dark scenery, and loud echoing of the footsteps of the main character.
REPRESENTATIONS:
The main character is represented as a popular, good-looking typical scream queen for a horror film, however she has brown hair rather than blonde, possibly signifying she is infact the protagonist.
SOUNDTRACK:
The opening scene begins with diegetic sound of the footsteps of the main character, there is no non-diegetic music as the church is silent, creating this eery effect and putting the main focus on the character's actions and dialogue.