" Secret Productions"

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

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.