Construction : Casting For Your Opening

Billy ,aged 17, who has been bullied through out the most of his school life, hasn’t got a job and has a small house. We have decided to appoint Craig Burton as Billy for our film because we think he is a suitable person as he is committed and he is reliable. He is confidant in front of a camera for the film because he is almost the same age as Billy and is enthusiastic when acting. Craig also done GCSE Drama and got a B which shows he is confident in front of the camera and can follow his lines. Casting is very important because we needed to get the right actor of our choice to play in our 2 minute opening because we need to make sure that they can be reliable and be at the filming at the right time. Casting is also important because we need to make sure that the actor can act and look comfortable in front of the camera.

Construction: Location Planning

Location planning is a very important part of the pre-production process for the opening to  'The Revenge'.

It is vital that we establish which locations will be needed for our filming and to then scout alternatives in order to decide which will provide the best shooting location for us.

Our film opening will need 4 locations to be scouted. These are as follows:

1. Exterior location. This is the outside of the house, in the back garden of the main character, Billy's house.
2. Exterior location. This will be in the garden of billy's house. Someone will behind a tree filming billy watching what he is doing.
3. Interior location. This will be in the kitchen of billy's house. We won't be showing the kitchen is this scene as we just need the wall.

We have decided the location for our film will be set at 10 Elliot close in our local town. We have picked this certain location because it contains the necessary equipment needed. For example there is a skip present which is essential for the background of the film. We also have permission to film here because the house also happens to be the director's (Ryan Loasby's) house. This also means it is very accessible and increases the amount of quality filming. Filming this in a rural, well populated, family area gives the viewer the idea that even people who have been brought up in a safe environment could be venerable to danger at any time without them knowing it. 

Construction : Producing A Story Board

This is the story board we have made to help us with the filming process. We have different story boards which lets us know who needs to be in the scene, where we are going to be filming it, who is going to be in the scene and the dialogue that is going to be in the scene this is because it would give us a clear idea of what shot would take place next, in addition to this we could visually see what would need to happen in the shot with a brief drawing so we could see clearly what was going to happen next, giving the directors and the actor a better understanding of what should take place. Overall this was really important because it would make our group able to function more and with ease because we all knew what was going to happen next.

Construction: Target audience Feedback

We have made a survey on survey monkey and have got the results below. We had people in our target audience for our film answer the questions. Our survey had a variety of responses which gave us a better idea on how to improve our film.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

We as a group were asked to create a continuity task which involves a character opening a door and crossing a room to ask another character 4 lines of dialogue. In this task there should be match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180o rule.

As a group we made a story board so that when we were filming we knew what we were doing and we had to do the 12 shot challenge. We had to do location planning so we kew where the shot were going to be and we also had to take pictures of them and apply them to our blogs and say why they were suitable locations to film in our clip.

We started by agreeing a time for use to film. Me and my group started filming and we found out that we couldn't use the room we planned to use because there was a lesson being taught in there. However w finished the filming in 50 minutes ready for us to edit.

For the editing we used Adobe Premier Pro, everyone in our group had to edit so we all had our own. We all had the same clips but we had to edit our own. I imported all the clips and then I had recored into premier pro. I trimmed all the clips to the sections that were needed (removing any blank bits of video and or audio) I muted any unnecessary noises from certain shots. I scaled my whole work area to scale to frame size, this allowed the the video from the scene to fit to the size of the screen.

Our preliminary task went okay but a few issues occurred such as we had to change rooms because there was a lesson being taught in that room we wanted to film in. We had a few sound problems because it wasn't very clear. We used each camera angle effectively. We used shot/reverse shot and the 180o rule effectively in our preliminary task. One of our weaknesses was our match on action because it wasn't as good as we wanted it to be. To improve we need to make sure our match on action is properly used effectively.

Treatment For The Opening 2 Minutes (Including Titles) Of 'The Revenge' by RJB Productions

The film will start with a black background,

then our production company name RJB Productions will appear in a eerie font

This then fades out slowly onto a picture of an old school photo in black and white with faces circled. Then some non-diegetic music comes in. The tone of the music is eerie.

Then close-up a pen is writing on a piece of paper.

A shot of him getting tools out of a shed and metal hitting metal,

Then as he gets the tools the eerie music stops and it goes silent.

Then before the next shot the music picks up the pace,

then a close-up of billy getting the tools together.

Establishing shot of a plan that he has on the wall.

Out of focus shot to a close up of a section of the plan,

then with eerie music being played for effect

A shot of him carrying the tools putting then down on the bench/side.

And the shot will then pan back down to the original plan.

A close up of the tools that he’s got together.

A over the shoulder shot of him sitting down at a desk with a computer,

A over the shoulder of him on the computer.

A close up of him cutting out faces on photos, cutting out text too.

Non-diegetic sound of a phone ringing in the background as well as the eerie music.

Opening titles appear at regular intervals throughout the opening and act as a kind of punctuation between events that are shown. The titles are white on a black background and are not overlaid over the top of the film.

From Initial Ideas To A 60 Second Pitch

During the process of making our 60 second pitch we had to come up with initial ideas which we wrote on a piece of A4 paper.

We then came up with the main idea for our 60 second pitch and we wrote a script with parts that we all had to say. Then we learned our parts so that we knew what we were saying for the pitch.

This is our 60 second pitch and we say ours at 4:31.

Research : The Importance Of Sound In Horror Films

The sound in horror films plays a huge part in what makes the film scary. Music plays a key role in a horror film because it immediately sets the tone. Before the actor says anything the audience knows what their fate is going to be based on the type of music that is playing in the background. Sound has the ability to set the tone for how events will unfold. Music may progressively build to signify that a dramatic event is about to happen or it may be upbeat to lighten the mood. Horror films rely heavily in sound clips to create a scary scene.This can range from sound effects to emphasise the terror or creepy music that creates a feeling of suspense. 


Here is a video of the importance of sound being explained!

In the video above shows 2 clips of the film Jaws One with no Non-diegetic sounds and one with non-diegetic sounds. In the clip where there is no non-diegetic sounds the atmosphere when jaws come is not the same because there is no build up to the tense the points that are the scariest. However in the clip where there is Diegetic sound the sounds build up as Jaws is about to be killed until the shotgun shoots. This research helped produce a more effective film opening because it gave us an example of a horror film opening which gave us inspiration when we were planning ours own opening. It also gave us an understanding on the hard work that we are going to have to put into this to get it to the correct quality.

Research : The Importance Of Opening Titles

The first thing we had to do was watch a few opening titles  from the website "Art Of The Titles". I then watched the opening credits to Se7en and when watching this I had to stop every time a new title came up and I paused the video and wrote the time of when it was on the screen and then wrote the title in the format it is presented in. I then watched the opening again but this time without sound this was so I could write down all the visual elements of the opening. I then had to watch it over again but this time I did not watch the opening I just had to listen and write down all of the sounds I could hear. Then lastly I watched the opening for a final time and looked at the typography of how the titles came up. This research helped produce a more effective film opening because it gave us an example of a horror film opening which gave us inspiration when we were planning our own opening. It also gave us an understanding on the hard work that we are going to have to put into this to get it to the correct quality.

This is the opening titles from the film Se7en.

http://www.artofthetitle.com

Research : Codes and Conventions In Horror Films

Codes:

Codes are system of signs which create different meanings. codes can and are usually divided in two categories which are technical and symbolic. Technical codes are all the different ways in which the equipment is used to tell the story in the media text. Such as; The camera work when filming, The editing process and the use of sound (diegetic and non-diegetic). Symbolic codes show what is beneath the surface of what we see. These are usually shown through mise-en-scene. the characters actions when filming sows you how the character is feeling inn that scene.

Conventions:

Conventions are things that are common in certain based on what their genre it is in. For example in horror films some conventions are where two characters are in the middle of nowhere and can't escape or get help when in danger and also when a character is being chased in a house they run past the door that is unlocked and go upstairs where they are trapped, or someone trips over when they are being chased and get killed.


For example Western films usually have have a good guy and a bad guy to resemble the good from the bad, the costumes of the characters depict them from each other and give the audience an understanding of who they are. for example: the good guy will wear appropriate and sensible clothes on the other hand the villain might wear inappropriate clothing and will be usually dark colours.

History Of Horror Films

 Horror Film History: Transitional Period (1950s–1960s)

Advances in technology, the tone of horror films shifted from the Gothic towards contemporary concerns. Low-budget productions featured humanity overcoming threats such as alien invasions and deadly mutation to people, plants, and insects. Japan's experience with Hiroshima and Nagasaki bore the well-known Godzilla in 1954 and its sequels, featuring mutation from the effects of nuclear radiation.

Horror Film History: Transitional Period (1960–1969)

 By the 1960s, Hollywood was in decline, unable to keep up with the radical political and cultural developments transforming American society. Fewer and fewer studio films were profitable. Perhaps no decade had more seminal, acclaimed horror films than the '60s. 
Films like Peeping Tom and Psycho were precursors to the slasher movies of the coming decades, while George Romero's Night of the Living Dead changed the face of zombie movies forever.

 Horror Film History: Transitional Period (1970–1979)

Perhaps no decade had more seminal, acclaimed horror films than the '60s. Reflecting the social revolution of the era, the movies were more edgy, featuring controversial levels of violence (Blood Feast, Witchfinder General) and sexuality (Repulsion). Films like Peeping Tom and Psycho were precursors to the slasher movies of the coming decades, while George Romero's Night of the Living Dead changed the face of zombie movies forever.

 Horror Film History: Transitional Period (1980–1989)

Horror in the the first half of the '80s was defined by slashers like Friday the 13th, Prom Night and A Nightmare on Elm Street, while the latter half tended to take a more lighthearted look at the genre, mixing in comic elements in films like The Return of the Living Dead, Evil Dead 2, Re-Animator and House. Throughout the '80s, Stephen King's fingerprints were felt, as adaptations of his books littered the decade, from The Shining to Pet Sematary.

 Horror Film History: Transitional Period (1990–1999)

The early '90s brought unrivaled critical acclaim for the horror genre, with The Silence of the Lambs sweeping the major Academy awards in 1992, a year after Kathy Bates won the Oscar for Best Lead Actress for Misery and Whoopi Goldberg won for Best Supporting Actress for Ghost. Such success seemed to spur studios into funding large-scale horror-themed projects, such as Interview with the Vampire, Bram Stoker's Dracula and Wolf.

 Horror Film History: Transitional Period (2000–2009)

Twenty-first century horror in the US has been identified with remakes of both American (Friday the 13th, Halloween, (Dawn of the Dead) and foreign films (The Ring, The Grudge).
Outside of the US, there is as great a variety of edgy and innovative material as there has ever been in the genre, from Canada (Ginger Snaps) to France (High Tension) to Spain (The Orphanage) to the UK and, of course, Asia, from Hong Kong (The Eye) to Japan (Ichi the Killer) to Korea (A Tale of Two Sisters) to Thailand (Shutter).