" Secret Productions"

Secret Productions
Film Name - " No Hiding Place"
Members Of The Group ... Katie & Ellie :)

Monday 4 April 2011

Final Cut - ' No Hiding Place'

This is our Final Cut of our film opening, we took into deep consideration the audience feedback when filming this, we changed the actors slightly, the male lead is now played by George Scaife and the final girl/ lead female is now played by Sophie Dixon.



We hope you enjoy the opening.

Monday 21 March 2011

Evaluation Question 1 - In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use , Develop, Or Challange Form Of Real Media Products?



1- Above is our final cut of our Film " No Hiding Place".Our main title is screened at the end of our opening rather than at the beginning, our film would then go on to the main part. We decided to position our title here, as the shot before we see our main girl turn round and say " i swear i saw a clown there" then the door shuts, and the lights go off, we thought it would be good here as it would add more tension with the title being " No Hiding Place" also it enters on a dramatic point in the film , just after it seems she is imagining things. We made our title using Live Type, which is what we made our Ident on.
We chose " No Hiding Place as our title, as in the beginning we see a girl being killed but the killer is a mystery, and the Final Girl would be affected by that death, and see the clown her friend was found with everywhere she goes, almost as if she is being stalked or haunted by the death or killer.

2- Our Second is of the setting, we began the film as some sort of home movie of the ' scream queens' birthday, we chose to use this to show the audience how happy and normal things were, before the death happened. It also helps lead on to the next scenes of the opening which increase the intensity and mystery.


3- Our Third  is of some of the costumes and props used, for our opening. In our opening scenes, the main prop used is a clown, which we then went on to use through out the opening, to signify the killers mark of territory. We got the idea of using a clown as our main prop from Stephen Kings IT. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n2v9fUa4Vc&feature=related. As seen from this film, we realised clowns have become some people's worst nightmares, so thought this would be a good typical convention of horror.

4-Our Forth  is of our camera work and editing. The first shot we used was a close up on our ' scream queen' Annie Cutillo, and then a pan of our main boy George Scaife, bringing in a birthday cake, this as well as our Final Girl Sophie Dixon, saying " Ambers' Birthday' at the very beginning, signifies that it is of course Ambers birthday. The transitions used between each shot being fade outs, and the scenes being in black and white, connotes a flashback, which is the effect we wanted for our beginning opening scenes.
Our next shot is a two shot of our two lead characters, who for fill the rest of the film.
We then have close up on the clown our Scream queen gets for her birthday which leads to the significance on the clown through the film, the clown later returns in the shot of Annie being dragged after her death, which then leads to a pan shot down Annies body, with a another close up on the clown.
Another shot was a point of view shot used when George and Sophie are sat watching IT on the laptop, where the rest of the opening begins after the flashback, here we used some intertextuality of Stephen Kings IT (1990)  again, ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099864/,)
We tried to signify that Sophie Dixon (Final Girl) was still remember Ambers death, and leave the mystery of whether she was insane or not by editing in laughing, whilst Sophie was by herself in her bedroom, we had her looking around the room and in the mirror, so make it seem like she the noises were all in her head. We found the laugh on I Movie, it was called, Small Child's Laugh.

5- For our Titles we used Live Type, we had a black Background and the colour of font we used was Red, to signify blood, and darkness and evil, to help us with our title we researched the typical conventions of our Horror Genre. The colour scheme for our first opening credits was black and white, we edited this using I Movie, we had the names of the starring actors, fade in and out in white writing, from the beginning to the end of the scene, we had the names come in when the right characters were on screen.

6- We use the sound of a heartbeat through the shots and the child's laugh, and clown to develop the story, our aim was to insinuate that our 'Final Girl' was going crazy from the memories of her friends death, and the scared nature of her as the killer hasn't yet been caught. We took this basis of our 'Final Girl' psycho and flashback behaviour from Lori Campbell in Freddy Vs Jason. As Lori in the film becomes an insomniac due to lack of sleep as she is scared of Freddy being in her dreams, which or character Lucy ( Sophie Dixon) in our opening can relate to.

7 - When developing our Idents, we wanted to give of a mysterious feel to the movie but not give too much away, we used Live Type to complete our Idents. For our Distribution Ident we used a whirl for the background  to signify time fading in and out, without starting the film. For our second Ident we used me saying Shhh, we though Shh would be good as our Production is ' Secret Production'.

Untitled from katie mallows on Vimeo.

Evaluation Question 2 - How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

We originally when first filming wanted to challenge the conventions of the horror genre and have our final girl as the Blond busty girl and the Scream Queens as the brunette small busted, more clever look to them, however after our first rough cut and feed back we chose to change this completely. 

For our Final Cut we still challenged the horror genre conventions of your typical Scream Queen Stereotype being blond, busty and as a stereotypical man would say "fit". We changed the ' Scream Queen'  stereotype and chose our character to have the look of a Final Girl. Our Scream Queen was brunette and small busted, she was wearing a quite high cut top, and cardigan, and didn't come across as to worried about her appearance, she did't have a lot of make-up on, however we still stuck to the Scream Queen view as she was wearing quite a short skirt and revealing tights. We have included her wearing a short revealing skirt as part the theory of Laura Mulvey’s this is a feminists view of including women for ‘male gaze’. Although She is still very innocent Annie is also a brunette which is not expected in a stereotypically blonde scream queen. Above on the right is an example of your typical Scream Queen, being Carmen Electra From Scary Movie, Scary Movie - Carmen Electra Scene  contrasting to our scream queen on the left.


 We chose our film to be a certificate of 15, and have our main audience as teenagers and older teens, aged between 15- 21, we chose to have teenagers as our Representatives and audience firstly because myself and katie are teenagers, and finding the cast would be easier, and secondly because with us being teenagers ourselfs, we know what teens look for in a horror movie, and how to present it to hopefully keep them engaged. The certificate of 15 only allowed us to include the following Criteria For 15 + Audience , we chose this age certificate as we thought it was a valid age for our film, and there was not enough blood and gore to make an 18. 
Our Cast mainly consisted of Female and One Male white British race and ethnicity, and of a younger generation, catch the eye of more teenage audiences, we also used a more number of females than male to catch the teenage boys attentions who watch the film.

Evaluation Question 3 - What Kind Of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product And Why?

With our film being so low budget, and not having your well known high class famous actors such as Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom , and  props and locations personally i believe none of the top film distributors such as 20th Century Fox  or Universal Pictures  would be interested in distributing our film. Universal Pictures have distributed major film such as : The Adjustment Bureau & the new upcoming film Fast Five, ( none of these films are of our genre but however are an example of some the actors used for these popular films). These very successful distribution companies have had lots of hits over the world especially in America, they would not be interested in distributing our film for a further reason of them being very high budget, and the fact that their actors and actresses are recognised, where as our actors and actresses are new - comers, not very well known.  

Me and Katie as directors and producers of our film " No Hiding Place feel we would be distributed by an Indie Company such as Warp Films. Warp Films have distributed films such as This is England ( 2006, Director- Shane Meadows)  and the upcoming film Submarine ( March 18th 2011, Director - Richard Ayoade) .This Indie company would be interested in our film with it being low budget they will be able to make a large amount of prophet from the film release.  
They relish in a wide variety of genres, and would be happy with our horror genre.  This is England has a Budget of £1,500,000 and made  £1,315,593 in the UK. 


  

Evaluation Question 4 - Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?

Name - Rachel Harrison
Age - 16 

Status - In a relationship

Studies/Education - I.G.S, 6th form 
( history, sociology, biology, psychology)

Interests - Going to cinema, partying with friends, shopping 

Favourite Genre - Horror/Slasher   




Rachel is a 16 year old teenager from Burley in Wharfedale, a typical member of the audience for our film " No Hiding Place". She enjoys going to the cinema and even better her favourite type of movie genre is Horror / Slasher, which is the genre of our film. She is within our inspired age range for our film,which will help increase the audience for it. She enjoys hanging out with her friends which relates to our opening scene of the birthday party and she may also having a close group of friends sympathise with the main girl with her feelings towards loosing a best friend in the film, she is also in a relationship which would give her more of an insight and understanding into our main girls feelings with her relationship at the start.


We aimed our film opening at a primary audience of 15- 21, because our film is about typical teenage lifes and the things they should be enjoying with life and all of a sudden things go wrong, we chose this audience because as directors and producers found it easier to relate to the characters being teenagers and in the age range ourself, we found the story line easier to build on. 
Our secondary audience was 22- 35, we chose this age range as it is not a huge gap between our primary audience, people of this age who watch this film, i think will mainly be people interested in the horror genre.

Our BBFC rating is 15. In order to be a 15 and not an 18 we had to make the violence less gory and graphic,  avoid repeated use of strong swear words,  and not use any sadistic or sexual violence. The graphic shown in the film should also not appear to the BBFC as harming towards others or breach any criminal laws.
 Below are Films of our genre, that have taken a 15 rating and consists of fairly young actors and actresses :

Evaluation Question 5 - How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience ?

After completing various rough cuts, we asked people of our audience age range both male and female to express their thoughts on our film. Any criticisms they had about the film we then explored and if so changed, in order to develop our film to fit our audience. We filmed audience feedback given to us about our Second Rough cut, which is also on my Blog. We asked both male and female in order to get gender perspectives.

Untitled from katie mallows on Vimeo.



Untitled from katie mallows on Vimeo.


We then filmed our thoughts on audience feedback given to us :

Untitled from katie mallows on Vimeo.


After the feedback given for our Second Rough Cut from our audience we then went on to slightly change our idea and re- film, which then went on to be our finished product. We hope our final cut will engage our audience more.
Below is a rough cut of our Final Cut :

Untitled from katie mallows on Vimeo.


We hope that when more sound is added, this version of the opening will interest our target audience more.

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

From the beginning the product used were basic, were were introduced to :
 

In Media firstly one of the most important software we were introduced to was I Movie, because without I Movie we wouldn't of been able to create or edit any of our Micro Drama, Prelim's Or Our Film Openings. I Movie has many functions to use to help you edit your film to the best it can be, it was difficult to use at first, but as you develop your understanding and skills you find it a lot easier.
iMovie-main.jpg (620×409) VieweKitImages.php (413×413) 
Another useful site we were introduced to was the IMDB Movie Database. This helped us when we were de-constructing our variety of films, and also we used this as part of our research and planning. This website allows you to look at past, present and future films, of a certain genre or even an upcoming film starring a certain actor/actress or being directed by a certain director. It allows you to look up Budgets a film had and how much your film made.
Another key technology we were introduced to was the Blog Spot. This is where we input all our drafting of openings, research and planning, cast, basic development, pod cast, and vod casts. The blogger was the main part of our Media Product. The Blog is where everything we did is marked. We have relied initially on the Blogger in order to present our coursework. Below is an outline of the Blogger : 

During the first week of school we were introduced to camera and tripods, which we used to make our film, the process was fairly easy and didn't take long to grasp. The camera and tripods we were aloud to borrow were the schools, so we had to make sure we booked them out long before we needed them to make sure we had them. I am looking forward to using the HD cameras next year which will hopefully make our next production more clear. 
To make our Idents for the Opening, we used Live Type, Our Media Technician John helped up use Live Type. When using Live type we developed and designed moving images, and backgrounds, for our Idents. 
Our first ident ' Keltic Distribution' was made using the background and font from Live Type, we did 3 drafts of this and eventually on our third try were happy with the result, so we used it on our Final Cut. Our second Ident ' Secret Productions' we made again in Live Type but instead of using a background from there, we filmed my lips whilst I said sshhh. We then used the font from Live Type to go over our background. 
Then to develop sound on the film, we used Garage Band, again John taught us the basic steps on how to use the technology. We developed the music on Garage band by using the keyboard on the programme, we wanted the sound to feel like a heartbeat to the audience so we used a variety of instruments sounds, and pitch changes to create the sound. 

Evaluation Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progressing from it to the full product?


When filming the preliminary task we conducted, we had to film again due to us not getting the 180 degree rule correct, however unfortunately when we re- filmed i was not present as I was in hospital, but I did help with the editing of the prelim. So below is the prelim I helped edit.



When completing our prelim task, we learnt the 180 degree rule, when doing the prelim task our group found it rather hard. Since our prelim task and beginning filming our opening, i have learnt and realized how hard it is to create a film, having such a low budget whilst still trying to give of a sense of verisimilitude at the same time. Also i have learnt that having such a low budget can effect which institutions would distribute your film. Also we have now learnt the element of shot reverse shot, which we experienced first hand in in the prelim task. Using shot reverse shot in our film helped show the reactions of the audience more fluently. 



When beginning media, i didn't understand any of the semiotic terms used, now i understand them fully, after having to use them in when deconstructing media texts. 
After doing our Preliminary task and our Micro Media we now as a group and individuals we know that storyboarding, developing ideas and pitches for our plots, were not enough, we needed to do a lot more research into our genre and films to help us with our production. Without research and planning the film will not work, if you know nothing about the genre you are filming. When doing our Micro Drama we focused more on Vladimir's Props character archetypes and trying to fit things like binary opposition and shots into one short film, shorter than our opening.
Below is the Micro Drama both Me And Katie Starred And Produced:



When we started our production on " No Hiding Place" which is our opening, we watched various horror/slasher films to help us develop the characters and their personalities, by watching these films we learnt the typical stereotypes of the genre in the form of your 'Scream Queen' and 'Final Girl' which we then included in our opening. However to change things slightly we challenged the Horror Convention, by changing the image of you typical Scream Queen. To help us more we looked closely at the shot types, misc en scene, editing and sound, when deconstructing these films. We also looked at distribution companies in our research and planning. We filmed our audience feedback and took their views into account which helped a lot.

Below Is Our Third Rough Cut, Close To The Final Cut But With A Little Bit More Sound To Be Added.


Untitled from katie mallows on Vimeo.


We Completed Our Final Cut & It Will Be Uploaded Shortly.



Semiotic Terms i have learnt are : 


Binary Opposition -  This is two opposite charcters shown in a text together which can be shown in shot reverse shot for example a scream queen and a final girl.  We used an example of Binary Opposition in our Micro Drama, where we used your typical geek stereotype and the binary opposite was your typical chav. We also used the names to connote, the typical stereotype. 
Polysemic -  Polysemic means the media text or things used in the media text could have several meanings to it. Although there would be a preferred meaning intended by the produces to the audience, however the audience may take a different view. 
Versimilitude - This is creating a sense of realism to the audience through your film, trailer or opening. 
An example we used of this in our film opening was the home video at the beginning for our flashback. 
Intertextuality-   Meanings from another text being tied into a newer one to show a similar meaning or imply the same thing will happen again. We used an example of this as we included Stephen Kings IT, as a film Sophie And George were watching in the beginning, we also included quick flashes of the IT clown, in our more tense moments. 
Signifier-  This is a detail the audience pick out and see as a significant and having a certain meaning. An Example we used of this is the clown in our film. 

Wednesday 16 March 2011

Re-Casting & Re- Filming

Due to feedback from teachers and pupils we chose to change our film idea slightly again, but keeping the same title. After filming our third rough cut we are finally happy and are very close to a final cut, our editing is nearly complete and we are now working on the soundtrack to go with it.  ( To complete our soundtrack we will be using Garage Band).

Our film has a new setting, and new cast, we changed the lead girl from being your typical blond scream queen, to a brunette final girl. We added more of a mysterious feel to the new footage, with more shot variation and false scares included.
We began our film with what we hoped to look like a home video of someone's birthday party, but also staged as a flashback for the beginning of the film, to hopefully help the audience get the idea of the following parts.
We changed the name of our lead boy from Jimmie to Sam.
We changed our cast, we are now using Sophie Dixon as the lead girl and George Scaife as the lead boy.

Monday 14 February 2011

BBFC - Rating Criteria For Our Film

 We have rated our film as a 15, below is the criteria given by the BBFC for a 15 rating. 


No one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work. 
Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.
For the Horror side : Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised, Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised. 
The language used can be frequent use of strong language.


The acceptable use of  violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. 
However The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. 

Friday 11 February 2011

All The Boys Love Mandy Lane - Katies Copy

Director : Jonathan Levine 
Released :15th February 2008
Box Office

Budget:

 $750,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

 $41,992 (Netherlands) (1 June 2008) (15 Screens) 

"Orphaned Mandy Lane is a beautiful, virgin and pure teenager raised by her aunt, desired by her schoolmates and a close friend of the outcast Emmet. After the death of their high school mate in a pool party, Mandy befriends Chloe, Marlin, Red, Bird and Jake. Red invites the group for a weekend party in the isolated ranch of his family, with all the boys disputing who would succeed in having sex with Mandy Lane. They meet the henchman Garth that takes care of the ranch and he asks the group to go easy on the drugs and booze. In the middle of the night, a stranger wearing a hood attacks Marlin in the barn; when Jake seeks her out, he faces the killer, beginning a night of bloodshed and terror."

The film has a very odd twist to it, which is un-expected by the audience, Mandy Lane(Amber Heard) is there to help the killer. Levine, obviously wanted this to surprise the audience, portraying her as a pure, innocent teen, and leaves it until the very last segment of the film to reveal who she really is. 
At the very beginning of the film, a slow pan of Mandy Lane's body is shown, she's busty, blond and beautiful, everything you'd expect for the typical 'Scream Queen' but what you see isn't exactly what you get, and you can only assume she is the final girl. She is friend's with the outcast Emmet(Michel Welch), and the audience would assume that being friends with someone like her he could be a boyfriend, or popular, but when they are confronted by the 'Popular kids' you soon come to realise he's just a loser. Emmett is shown as the outcast, but still has the potential as a 'hot geek'. 
The 'Populars' were very similar clothes to how Mandy Lane is shown, but she doesn't flaunt it as much as the other girls. Both Marlin and Chloe have a 'sluttiness' about them, both fighting for Jake, they will go to a certain extent to try and sleep with him. But being the typical 'Jock' he only wants to sleep with the hot girl, Mandy Lane.
The Mise-en-scene is the typical, predictive scary setting. The ranch includes dark places where you would expect to be killed, the barn, many fields, and a grim river. I would only assume that Levine has chosen these specific settings, to predict murder is the case and the ranch is shown to be deserted, no where to run and no where to hide kind of place.
The murders take place over a period of night and day. It being very bright the following day you would expect things to die down but at this point you know who the killer is as they were revealed earlier on, but this is when Mandy Lanes secret is also revealed. 
Garth obviously takes a liking to Mandy Lane as she is 'different' to the other girls. When Mandy Lane quotes to garth "how are you from protecting me from teenage boys" this give an insight she either finds them all repulsive or it can lead on to her killing someone, and garth does exactly that and protects he when she confronts Emmett that she won't be going forward with the suicide pact. I find if the killer is revealed then it helps the audience to expect when a murder is about to happen, and make the film too predictive.

Podcast Four - Re-Filming

Audiance Feedback

Thursday 3 February 2011

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)

Director - Danny Cannon
Budget- $ 24,000,000 (USA) ( Estimated)
Opening Weekend- $16,520,038 (2443 Screens),(USA), £802,498 (279 Screens) (UK) 
Gross- $39,989,008 (USA), £2,657,571 (UK) 
Synopsis- The murderous fisherman with a hook is back to once again stalk the two surviving teens, Julie and Ray, who left him for dead, as well as cause even more murder and mayhem, this time at a posh island resort. 
In the opening scene there is a close up of  a statue of The Virgin Mary, which then pans towards a statue of Jesus symbol, these shots straight from the beginning show a religious element in the film, and is an anchor to the location being a church. This could maybe signify sin and redemption in the film, as the people being killed in the slasher may have done something wrong and need to be punished. 


The next shots that we see are that of a brunette girl which 
the audience could see as possibly being the 'final girl' from the prequel walking down the 
aisle in a church, alone and isolated. The lighting used is bright white light gleaming through the window, this could possibly signify that the girl is dreaming.
The next scene is of a conversation between Julie and the Priest ( who was in actually fact the mysterious ' Hook Killer from the previous film), the lights are dimmed and all the focus is on the faces of the two characters, the rest of the setting is just in darkness, the darkness could symbolise isolation and loneliness, and the dimmed light could symbolise somebody is watching her.


Youtube Trailer Link For I Still Know What You Did Last Summer -  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcWK0M4VMjA 


I.M.D.B - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0130018/ 

Wednesday 2 February 2011

Cherry Falls (2000) - Katie's Copy


Director: Geoffrey Wright

Budget:

$14,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

 £241,171 (UK) (27 August 2000) 
Gross:£818,465 (UK) (10 September 2000)
Directed By Geoffrey Wright, this story is based in a small town where there is a killer on the loose who is on the hunt for teenage virgins.
Cherry Falls is also another film included in the teen slasher genre. The film makes the teen age range stand out in the film through the clothing, Jody Marken (Brittany Murphy) wear's a lot of goth like clothing through out the film, which teenagers can relate to quickly and it is made obvious that like any other American High School, 'clicks' or groups as we know them as are shown e.g. Populars, Geeks and also Goths. Our film won't have a dress code that makes the characters stand our as they will be in casual clothing, but the two girls tied up, will be wearing dresses from the previous night, also the age of
the characters in Cherry Falls are similar to the characters in our film.
A difference with the film we are about the produce and Cherry Falls is 'The Killer', we're not making our killer obvious just creepy like how you would stereotype the typical stalker to be, but in Cherry Falls, the further into the film you get the more obvious the killer becomes more clear. I think they did this in the film so that we wonder who it is through a variety of 'suspects' they give you to choose from, and then you can see whether your right or wrong at the end of the film.

User Reviews For Cherry Falls: 
"Innocence is deadly!"
"Clever premise, being a twist on the classic slasher convention of sex=death, pays off in this dark and splendidly suspenseful shocker."

I.M.D.B http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0175526/

BabySitter Wanted (2008)

Director- Jonas Barnes. 
Released in 2008.
Box Office And Budget (Not Present, i was unable to find them, however it does say it was a low budget film) 

Synopsis - In a small college town, a young girl working on a babysitting job in a rural farm is terrorized throughout the night.


The film begins with an opening scene of an extreme close up of a body, which slowly begins to reveal a body with surgeon lines carving around the body. As the film continues we see the female strapped to a table struggling, she appears bruised and only wearing her underwear. 
To add to the tension more whilst the girl is struggling for freedom, we hear footsteps of someone walking presumably towards her, as we don't see the face, we only see the see the feet walking, this is one of the features used to put the audience on the " edge of their seat". 
After seeing the footsteps, we also see a selection of shots of knifes and other sharp objects, which are covered in blood, which i think is a good signifier with the opening scene to signify murder, it brings the opening scene together. In many horror films the female is seen as what some could call a ' piece of meat', and with the girl being tied up at the beginning, and all the objects such as metal hooks and knifes surrounding her this to the audience could emphasis the image of a butchered piece of meat. 
The music used goes well with the title Babysitter Wanted, as it is quite child like, some what you would hear in a nursery rhyme theme tune, so the music automatically ties in with the title of the movie. To use child like music for the opening scene, is also quite sinister and creepy, which could represent the element of a child being involved. When the scene first opens we see a high angle shot used, this helps create and show the vulnerability of the female. 
We watched this film to help us with the mystery element of our killer, for our opening 2 minuets for our coursework, and the beginning of this film shows us how to do this, we also took the girl being tied up and mixed that into our film. 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0819755/ - I.M.D.B 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5kHFJUuBCY&feature=related - Trailer Link 

Deconstruction Of Five Girls (2006)

Director- Warren P. Sonoda (This film was never released in the cinema) 
Budget - 3,000,000 ( this is an estimate)
Box Office - Not available


Synopsis: Five wayward teenage girls are sent to a reformatory and discover they possess unique powers to battle the ancient demon, Legion, which holds thrall over the sinister institution.One girl in particular we get a unique impression of her relationship with her teacher 


The opening scene of the film begins with an establishing shot, a slow tracking shot of fence this could signify discipline and imprisonment, and an extreme long shot of the Religious school setting,so then just through the misc-en-scene the audience can already see the immediate setting for the film, without any duologue added.There is also a bright light used which could signify a pure/virginal impression of the girls and that god is in the schools presence, which immediately without shows more religious elements. 
As the scene progresses the sound used is eary, almost like a long organ sound being played, to add effect, the sound used is dialect. 
In the opening scene for the Misc-en-scene, we first see a crucifix on the wall of the classroom, a girl in a long moderate coverage smart uniform doing her work, which shows off the innocent look, which ties in with the setting being a Christian Religious School. When the Devil takes the girl in the first scene, the lighting quickly changes from light to dark, the dark could represent the Devil, and the Light the innocence being taken. 


Below is a review on Five Girls taken from the IMBD:
"5ive Girls" is not a bad horror movie as mentioned in some reviews. The problem is that the story is too ambitious for a low-budget movie. There are at least three great flaws in the plot" 


I.M.D.B - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0494199/

Original Filming For Our Film

Here is our original filming we did for our opening, however after some thought and consideration decided to change a few things, but put this on for our drafting.

Please share your views ...


Untitled from katie mallows on Vimeo.

Monday 31 January 2011

Our first Ident Idea

With our production name being Secret Productions, we have come up with the idea of our ident being someone saying sshhh. We have come up with a rough copy of the design and would like it to be a picture of someone with there figure on their mouth, to represent the image of Sshhhh, but out image will be blacked out, so you cannot see the face and all you can see is the finger , with the line Sshhhh.
We chose our design to be like this so it ties in with the Secret Production and gives off the mysterious feeling. We are going to film and record someone saying Sshhhh, but black out the image, so it concentrates more on the lips and the finger.


We are hoping for it to look something like this but more blacked out, so you cannot see the face :

Friday 28 January 2011

Filming Schedule and Updates

When looking back over our footage, we have realised that our film is more like a scene from a film rather than a two minuet opening, so we are planning to make a new story board and film some of the scenes again during next week. We have decided to begin with a flashback of a slasher and go into the present day  for the rest of the opening. We will still be using the same characters, and using the the clothes as a signifier in our film. 

We have booked a camera for next wednesday, then we will continue with our editing. 

ALL - Podcast 2, Filming

 

Sunday 23 January 2011

Filming Arrangements

Today we have filmed what we hope to be our final filming for our coursework. We have used a variety of shots whilst filming such as pan shot, close ups, low angles and high angles ( we used high and low angle to identify the power and vulnerability shift between the main boy and girl characters) , two shots, and mid shots. Our filming took us appropriately 3 hours, we are hoping to begin editing by tomorrow. Even though we began filming at about 5.30 the lighting was just as we wanted it, with a mysterious feel because we didn't want it to be too light because of the storyline. Overall our night of filming has gone to plan and we are very happy with the progress of filming we have made so far, however we still need to think about the music we are going to use to add effect, and our filming was over 2minuets long so we need to cut some things out or make the editing cuts faster to make it fit the criteria of time, but we hopefully aim to have our editing done in the next couple of weeks, and completing and uploading our next podcast this week, to inform you more on our progress.
storyboard 2

Our Storyboard for our fim .. " No Hiding Place "

storyboard 1

Casting

For our characters we are basing them on the characters from Freddie Vs Jason. Our final girl Lucy is going to be played by Rachel Harrison, who with a contrast is a blond, we have changed the stereotypical blond, scream queen image to our final girl. Our other two characters who are friends of Lucys, Amber and Kirsty will be played by Melodie Ambraham and Annie Cutillo, they will be tied up together in the garage, to make it look like they have been kidnapped and beaten. Our lead boy will be played by Tyrone Abraham, he will be the ' stalker' who is obsessive with Rachels character Lucy, the boy that throughout the film Lucy is trying so hard to escape, who has kidnapped her friends and tied them up.
The clothes worn by Annie and Mel are going to be dresses and heels, but the dresses are going to look ripped and torn down, asif they have been out the night before and beaten down.
Rachel is going to be in casual clothes, for example jeans and uggs and Tyrone more a less the same.
Below are pictures of our 3 main girls:
Annie Cutillo, Rachel Harrison,Melodie Abraham



Here is a trailer for Freddie VS Jason .. this may give you an idea on our characters :

Thursday 20 January 2011

Wednesday 19 January 2011

Eden Lake

With my film being based on teenagers and the disturbed nature of them, i watched Eden Lake in order to help me develop the idea of a psychopathic teenager.
"Refusing to let anything spoil their romantic weekend break, a young couple confront a gang of loutish youths with terrifyingly brutal consequences"
 Eden Lake was released in September 2008, made $5,824 in the USA Box Office and £481,710 in the UK Box Office. 
The main characters Michael Fassbender (Steve) and Kelly Reilly(Jenny)set off for a romantic weekend away and become victim to vile and vicious attacks by a young gang.


Eden Lake gives form to the extreme stereotypical views and fears of youth today,and without fail places them into a slasher film context,the ending isn't your typical Hollywood ending, instead of cutting the ending off completely and having your typical, final girl or scream queen, it ends with a complete twist making the horror seem inescapable.


The opening scene lasts 3 minuets and begins in a school,the music for the opening scene as they are driving to Eden Lake is quite slow and mysterious. Various things happen on there way to the lake such as a woman slaps her child in a supermarket; rude cyclists casually ride through a red light, causing Steve's (Michael Fassbender)Jeep to brake, and an advertisement announces that Steve's favourite lake is to be redeveloped into a gated community,which immediately foreshadows to the audience that things are not going to be as calm as the couple wanted




Podcast Week 1 - " No Hiding Place"



This is mine and Katie's first podcast here we talk about our casting and what are whole idea of the film is, we introduce or clothing and talk about the setting. 
Next week we will be filming, so our next Podcast will be an update on our filiming. 

Thursday 6 January 2011

Tormented

For help in producing our film, Me and Katie watched Tormented ( Released in 2009) . Tormented which is directed by John Wrigth  is based in a college/school in England. Which is a slight difference to your typical horror film setting and place. The film is based on a boy called Darren Mullet, played by Calvin Dean who is bullied throughout his school life, and after being 'tormented' by his bullies, the ' popular ones', he commits suicide. After his suicide strange and gory deaths begin to happen and the only characters dieing are the 'bullies' the teens who made Darren Mullets life a living hell, the leaders of the 'gang' Bradley and Tasha are Played by Alex Pettyfer and April Pearson. As the film develops we begin to realise that 'Mullet' has come back from the dead to get revenge on his classmates. I chose to watch this film because it is your typical teen horror movie which will help with the production of my film.
The uniform worn by each character shows their personality, and their contrasting images, you have your typical popular girls wearing short skirts and loose tye's and then you have the boys wearing unbuttoned shirts and loose tye's, the still below shows a visual of how the uniform was worn.
Tormented is a silly high-school slasher





Wednesday 5 January 2011

My Coursework Pitch - "No Hiding Place"

For my film which is called " No Hiding Place" i was mainly inspired by the films posted on YouTube by HurtWood Media School.Another inspiration was the film " All The Boys Love Mandy Lane" i watched this film and took a slightly different take on it, as we discover at the end the killings were by a boy who 'loved' Mandy and would have done anything to be with her, which to him meant killing her friends. The Storyline for my film includes your typical teenage boy, girl love interest with a twist. The first shot will be shown in the living room of the house, and then as they are casually talking about the night before, the girl who will be called Lucy asks the boy who will be called Jimmy what he thought happened to her friends from the night before , his reply will then be shy and quiet and stutters with a puzzled look on his face, this will hopefully automatically show the audience he is hiding something. His reply will be "probably just stayed out". Lucy however doesn't think anything of it so as she shrugs it off, she goes upstairs to use the toilet but walks into the wrong room. In this room she discovers pictures of herself plastered on the wall, as if he has been following her every move. 
She then becomes very scared, so  quietly gets herself out of the house, ( are set will be based in the middle of no-where so the house will seem deserted and mysterious, the house we are filming in is your  typical farm house,with a barn placed near it, as these are the only two sheltered places near by, this adds to the tension.) 
He calls her name , " Luceeey...  Luceeey"  with a pro-longed pause in between, as she runs. As she carries on running she will eventually end up  hiding in a nearby barn, he continues calling her name but sounding more angry each time. 
When she opens the barn door and turns around she is devastated to discover her friends who consequentially went missing the previous night,  hands tied up behind their backs,unconscious. Running to help them, she hears the sounds of heavy breathing and footsteps coming towards the barn. She then runs to hide frantically in a corner of the barn, trying really hard to be quiet, hand against her mouth trying to stop herself screaming, as she hears the footsteps again she begins to believe she is in some case 'safe', that is however until her phone begins to ring, she scrambles to get it and then the camera goes for a close up on his face where he then says " told you, you couldn't hide from me" we then end with a scream.