Location Recie of bully scene

These are photos of locations we were going to use for the bullying scene.

Evaluation of first shoot

We decided to shoot the first few scenes in our school playing fields as in our location reckie we found the perfect place to shoot. We then took the camera and tripod down to the field and went to the trees where we wanted to shoot one of the scenes. We then asked Jess to lie down on her front with her face down in the leaves and mud. We then set up the camera behind her to so her legs were facing towards the camera. However we couldn't find the a good enough shot from where the camera was positioned. So we scouted around the tree line to look for better shots, we settled with two main positions where it was easy to position the tripod and camera. We then shot the scenes using our new positions we used different shots while taking shooting for variety incase we didnt want to use the shots or something went wrong in them while editing. It was the perfect day to shoot as it was overcast which is a typical convention for thriller/horror, and there were crows and children playing close by which are also typical diagetic sounds of horror/thriller films. After the shoot we captured the video on to Adobe Elements 3.0 then Sam started editing the shots we had taken.

Evaluation for shoot 24th November

Today we had to re-shoot for the 3rd time due to tape faults. We chose the bottom playground as our location and used 3 boys to star in our bully scene. On location we did have a large group of boys playing football behind us which gave the bully scene even more of an intense meaning. Because of an unpredictable football we did have to be careful of the camera at all times. We chose 2 larger boys and the other smaller we had to be wary of the fact that the larger boys did not hurt the smaller one. Also because of the diagetic sound behind where we had shot we’ve decided to cut out the sound and put non-diagetic sound in.

Audience Research Evaluation

The Survey

We sent out our survey to 20 people via email, all of whose ages fell within our target audience bracket for our movie genre. We did this because it wouldn’t make sense to find out what people would like to see in a horror movie if they weren’t going to be the people who wanted to see a horror movie.
In our survey we used a variety of question structures which would give us the format of results intended. For example, when we asked the question, “What gender are you?” we had our answers as 1) Male or 2) Female. We chose these as our answers because if we had left the answer as an open one, there was a possibility that we may have has some very strange answers. It also helped, if there were people who didn’t know what the word gender meant, because the possible answers were Male, Female, therefore they would be able to work out the answer pretty quickly.
We also used a Semantic Differential, to help gain a better idea of how the audience would like their villain to be perceived. We offered them a list of characteristics, (Psychotic, Tall, Fat, Intelligent, Creepy, Confident, Old, Good looking, Violent) and with each characteristic, we offered them a worded scale (Very, Fairly, Moderately, Not Very, Not At All) to help them decided how much the villain should be like that characteristic. The rest of our survey was complied of short, easy to answer, closed questions.

The Results

How often do you watch horror movies? (Circle One.)

We found that the majority (65%) of the respondents watched horror movies about once a month. This told us we had asked the right people about horror movies as they are the sort of people who watch them regularly. Some of our more attentive respondants told us that this questions was slightly badly worded, Because if u fell in to the bracket of someone who watches horror movies "More than once a Week", then you would also fall into the other two brackets of "More than once a Month" and "More than once a Year". Because we were lucky enough to recieve this feedback, we now know that if we are to do questionnaires in the future, that we should think about our questions and responces more, or we should run pilot questionnaires, so that there aren't any confusions, or are kept to an absolute minimum.

How old are you? (Circle One.)

Because we sent the questionnaires out to school friends and friends outside of school, we found that most of the responses (80%) to this question were the 16-20 brackets. However there were a few responses in the older and younger age groups as to make up the numbers, as some questionnaires failed to return, we asked relatives and younger/older siblings.

What Gender are you? (Circle One.)

The majority (70%) of our responses were male, as I was made in charge of sending out the questionnaires, and most of my friends are male. This just helped us gain better knowledge of the people we sent our questionnaires to, so we could better understand why some or our respondants answered in the way they did.

Do you like male or female villains in a horror Movie? (Circle One.)

We found that most people (75%) wanted to have a male villain in the horror movie. This question was added to help with the casting, so we could know in advance before deciding a story line, which gender our villain should be. A female villain would have a much different feel and effect on the audience to a male one. Also, one of our generic expectations of a horror movie with a villain in it is that the villain is male.

Rank in order your favourite type of villain.

Looking back on it, this was quite a strange question to ask, because of our “budget” and our lack of experience and availability of CGI, would make creating some of the proposed villains be almost impossible to create without them looking silly or cheesy, which wasn’t the effect we would be looking for. Luckily, Most of our respondents (55%) returned Serial Killer as the preferred villain in a horror movie, which is a lot more manageable than a ghost or zombie character.

Where is your favourite horror location? (Circle One)

We found that our respondents (70%) preferred to have the movie shot in a forest. We were very pleased about this response, as filming in some of our other locations would have been quite hard to find and shoot at safely. We also have a forest fairly close to the school, so it is a very convenient response.

What do you look for in a horror movie? (Select one.)

We found that most of respondents (65%) wanted so see Violence and fear. This was a slightly bad question as we didn’t have a great variety of responses available to our respondents. However we do now know that our target audience want to be seeing scared people getting murdered in a savage way.

What should the villain in a horror film be like? (Tick the applicable box.)

We found that our audience would like a very psychotic, fairly tall, not very fat, moderately intelligent, moderately creepy, not very old, fairly good looking, fairly violent serial killer. This question was the semantic differential one, which gave us a great idea of how our audience would like their villain to be. It also gave the respondants the opportunity to fine tune their villain to just how they wanted him.

What is your preferred type of weather in a horror movie? (Circle maximum of two.)

The respondents said they would like to have a cloudy and rainy horror movie.
We used this question to help us with planning our shoots, because we would need to pick days when the weather was either cloudy or rainy or both. Luckily its winter at the moment, and with the typical English climate, we shouldn’t have much trouble finding a day when it is either cloudy or rainy.

What time of day should a horror movie be set? (Circle one.)

Our respondents said they would like to have the movie set at night. This is probably in accordance with the previous question with the weather; our audience would like to see cloudy rainy weather at night. In much the same way as the previous question, we needed to have this question in our survey to help us plan when our shoots would be.

What sort of sound set should be used in a horror movie? (Circle one.)

Our respondents said they would like to have quite mood setting music. We needed this question in our questionnaire because when it came to finding our soundtracks and sound-effects for our movie, we would need to know what our audience would want and expect to hear, otherwise we may waste a lot of time downloading and testing the wrong genres/types of music.

What type of music would you expect to hear in a horror movie?

We found that our audience would like to hear slow music, maybe consisting of a piano, maybe because of the cold sound it gives, linking in with the cold weather in the movie. We used this question for the same reason as the previous, so we didn’t waste time with the wrong genres/types of music. We left this question open, accepting various responses, so that we could gain as much information as possible about how our audience would like their music.

CONCLUSION

I believe that the survey served its purpose, giving us vital information about our audience and their generic expectations of the horror movie genre. It also saved us a lot of time in the editing process when we needed to find an appropriate soundtrack. On the whole, I think it will prove very useful as we progress through the production process of our horror movie, as it gives us a great deal of information about our audience and it helps us tailor and shape the horror movie around the audiences expectations of the horror movie genre; hence increasing the likelihood of our horror movie meeting the expectations and fulfilling the conventions of the horror movie genre.

Movie Opening Anamatic - Evaluation

I have learnt a lot from making an anamatic from our story board. It gives us a better idea of how our movie opening will be like when we film and edit it, therefore helping us decided whether or not we need to add in a greater variety of shots or variety of camera angles or effects for example. Making it into an anamatic gives us the ability to add music to the storyboard, in time with the shots and their timing. This helps us decided whether or not certain tracks are correctly appropriate for our sequence, and it helps us synchronize key sounds in the soundtrack with key actions in the movie opening. We can also add transitions and effects to our anamatic which helps us plan for the editing process. It also helps us visualise how our final piece will look and we will see whether or not any of our filming process will need to change.

Costume, props, lighting

Lighting

Lighting is not going to be a huge issue in other opening as we are going to be filming in daylight for a certain amount of shots. Because we are filming in quite an open area shadows won’t be a problem. When we are filming in the forest the trees will create darkness giving it a night time affect and also making it simpler to darken by editing.

Costume

The children in the school bullying scene will be in school uniform. The children in the park will be in casual weekend clothing of their own choice. The girl will be in evening wear which will then be ripped and covered in dirt. Our villain will be in dark clothing and a hoodie.

Mise-en scene

We will be using a football to create a normal day with children. The use of knives and blood are horror conventions that are always seen throughout a horror film it gives the audience an idea into whats happening and defines the genre.

Surroundings


The bullying denotes a boy being tormented by other children the connotation may be that the victim is mentally scarred causing mental problems and even the need for revenge. The fact that we don’t ever see the villain creates more suspense.
Children are usually seen as a convention because of their innocence and lack of knowledge. That is why we are going to use children on our opening. We chose to use the murder scene as the forest because the general tension a forest can create and also it can relate to the audience and how most people would not like to be in the forest alone in the dark.

The sound will be of a general whistling and the tree branches moving. This will be diagetic sound with maybe some non-diagetic sound put in to emphaise the creaking and moaning in the forest.

Institutional Context

Procedure of making a movie.

The Idea

The script is started with the writer being inspired, this may be from a book or a news paper article. The writer then pitches the idea to a producer, and if the producer likes it he/she will make the idea in to reality. The producer then finds a director to help create the film and they work together to make the idea into a reality. The writer then defines the characters and plot to and then turns it into tangible. The writer then creates a treatment that has a basic summary of the film e.g the actors, the genre, characters, action, plot. The write director and producer will the make a pitch to financiers to commission a script.

Development of script

The producer uses the treatment and pitch to get money to back the script. The producer approaches film production companies for development money. The producer offers the future sales and broadcasting in return for money.

Packaging

The producer and director then find a cast this maybe from well known stars or new and up coming actors. They then work how much the film will cost to make. They then tell financers how much it tiwll cost to make and how they will pay them back.

Script development

They then cast the actors, they then create a story board which is like a blue print for the film. They then create a minature of the film set and show it to designers. They then design special effects as they can take months. They then create the first ad.

The shoot

The shoot begins as soon as funding begins, the actors, lighting and sound team and the camera teams start work and the actors are then filmed for special effects with minimal risk to to the actors. Film production teams must keep a tight schedule or funders may have to intervene.

Post Production

The rough cut is then edited and cut so that all the final shots are only used. The sound is then edited, and sound tracks and music is added. The colour is then perfected, digital effects and titels are then added. The final music and sounds are edited to fit perfectly with the final edit. Then the final cut is ready to be duplicated.

Post Production
The trailer is then made to be screened in cinemas and on T.V. The producer and selling agent then collect everything they will need to sell to distributors. The producer and director will then try to get the film screened at large film events this creates alot of heat about the film. The film is then distributed around the world.

Marketing

A marketing team is hired they then find the target audiance, the target audience then is targeted by advertisments the film is then covered by press and media. Then the internet is used for more advertisment. The distributors then sell the film to cinemas.

Exhibition

There is then a premiere and actors directors and celebrities come to see the film this includes press. The film is then screeened in the U.K there are more prints made and they then screen it in to other cinemas such as Odeon and more copies are sent to people across the world.

Technical Analysis - The Ring 2

Movie Opening - Story Board Anamatic