Semiotic analysis

The First shot starts off with a few of Emily's feet. There is non diegetic music over the top which helps to create tension. The music we made on garage band is influenced by the slow spooky music from Halloween. The next shot we used was a long shot, we used this so you could see that Emily was being followed as she walks home late at night. Then there is an over the shoulder shot which shows the view the stalker has on Emily, This builds the tension even more because it makes you wonder when he's gonna strike.

Then there is a shot of Emily opening the door (using match on action) this looks like a useless part to the film but it starts to show that Emily is not just a young child but sh and has responsibilities and is grown up enough to be left at home alone. When Emily gets inside the house and begins too walk upstairs their is a point of view shot (POV) which gives you an insight to what the stalker is looking at and also he conservative movement as he shields himself with the edge of the door, Also there is a very screechy sound which is quite long and drawn out, long drawn out sounds are used in lots of horror films like Halloween as it increases tension by making you unconsciously hold your breath.
Then we used a tracking shot which shows Emily walking into her bedroom. As she gets to her window you can see the stalker waiting outside under the lamp post, this is an inter textual link of the famous cover shot from the exorcist when the priest stands under the street light. There is also a spooky sound effect over the top to increase the audiences tension. Emily doesn't actually notice that the stalker is there, she then walks in front of the camera and when she moves back the stalker has disappeared. This gives a feeling of superiority to the stalker because it almost supernatural that he just disappears out of shot very quickly. This can only increase the fear the audience feels for Emily.

Next there is a low angle shot of Emily which helps to portray our preferred reading that she's is not quite as vulnerable as you think. The light flicker a few times and then fully fuses out. A loss of light is very common in horror films because it's something we signify with fear from a young age. There is then another shot of Emily as she walks down into the cellar with a flash light. both common iconography of horror films. Then there is a mid shot of the electrical box and the fuse to show the audience exactly what the problem is, it's not just fused out but someone has cut it. Then Emily turns the electricity back on which again is a signifier that she is not the typical ditsy blond but more of a final girl. When the light switches on it switches to another point of view shot as someone walks towards Emily, we made this shot seem more realistic walking with the handheld camera so it shakes. When the stalker reaches Emily there is a close up of her face to show her shocked expression. The next shot we have is a two shot which is generally used to show two characters in conversation. The final shot is another close up of Emily face as she's told by Mark that he didn't mess about with the lights. This is another twist which leaves the audience on a cliffhanger and will hopefully make them want to continue watching the rest of the film.

Rough cut

This is the first cut of Emily opening the door. We 

didn't edit it very well so it ended up looking like

she opened the door twice from both sides.

This is the edited version which is  much better

because it is just one smooth action of Emily 

opening the door.

Evaluation

In what way does your media project use, develop or or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our film has developed conventions of real media projects because in real horror films, like us they slowly build up the tension at the start of the film . I think we managed to build the tension well because it starts off with the scary music and a closeup of Emily's feet, then you see she is being followed and immediately this creates tension. Then when she gets inside the house and walks upstairs there is a point of view shot of someone watching Emily. We continued to use various camera shots and sound to build the tension until the end climax. Also even though the audience knows what's coming they don't know when and this is what we tried to incorporate into our film.

Another common convention of horror films that we used was using Music to build the tension and set the scene, the inspiration for our music was from the Halloween film because we did research into horror films and we found that the music they used in halloween was really good at creating tension because it uses long drawn out notes that are used in horror films to unconsiously make you hold you breathe to increase the tension.

In our film we also challenged forms of convention because we have the Protagonist (Emily) as a final girl. She isn't the typicall busty, ditsy blonde that you find in most horror films. We wanted her to look more like she is respectable looking and intelligent. Also unlike the typical blonde Emily won't die early on in the film because the final girl last to the end of the film. Halloween also had an influence in this because they use Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) as the final girl.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We have represented age and social class well in our film. For age the film is rated 15 and aimed at ages 15-24. I think we have represented this age group well because everyone involved in the production and filming of the film was within the ages 15-24 so we know what people of that age want to see in a horror. I think we represented a good range of social class because we used a location which would appeal to upper middle class (C1) and lower middle class (C2). We also represented a working class with the language and accent Emily has used.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The kind of media institution that might distribute our product would be a small indie company or a company which encourages young film makers such as screen Yorkshire. Screen Yorkshire would be most likely to distribute our product because they like to encourage young local talent, Screen Yorkshire is also funded by the UK film council.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for our film are aged 15-24 this is our recommended rating from the BBFC website. The audience would be people who are fans of horror films and like films that are no straight forward they have a bit of a twist. Also i think the type of audience who like teen dramas such as Hollyoaks and skins would like this film because of the use of teenage actors. A horror film also appeals to both male and female audiences

How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted our target audience of 15-24 by using actors within the age range, this makes it easier for the audience to relate when it's people of a similar age to them. We also have addressed our social grouping audience of upper middle class and middle class simply because of the location because Ilkley is an upper class, and middle class area . We have also managed to appeal to a lower class audience because horror films are typically liked by a lower class audience.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have learnt how to correctly edit material through i movie hd which is something i wouldn't of being able to do without making this product. i learnt how to get the film of the digital camera and load it on to i movie, then select the necessary clips and cut them to fit into the overall film. I have also learnt how to use digital cameras better, i new briefly how to use them at first but now i can quickly and easily use them including special lighting effects like sepia. The final thing i learnt about the software was how to burn the final copy of my movie onto a dvd using (iDVD)and also what settings i need to select to get it to work.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

From the preliminary task to the the final cut i feel like i have a much better understanding of how to make a film work. The main thing I've learnt is how the different camera shots and angles completely transform the film and make it look much more impressive e.g. match on action shots make a very boring shot like opening a door into something which looks much more professional . Another thing i feel i progressed at from my prelim task is how to keep track of things better because this time we used a storyboard as a rough guide to keep us in track while we filmed and to make sure we got all of the shots we planned to take. The storyboard was very simple to make, it was just rough sketches of shots we though would be important in our production.

Storyboard

Target Audience & BBFC

Age

The age rating in our film is a 15. We chose this because later on in our film it will become gorier and there would be some strong language. Under the BBFC ratings its says that a film with strong language and scenes of a moderate violence should be rated at a 15. Also the actors in the film are within the age range, they are both 17 so it helps appeal to an audience of 15-24.

Ethnicity

In the opening 2 minutes of our film both of the actors are Caucasian, but our film is not designed to just target a Caucasian audience, but in England it doesn't have too much of an effect on the audience because its more stereotypical of the genre, Although later on in the film we would cast some non Caucasian actors to widen the appeal of the film to all ethnicity groups.

Gender

Generally a common convention of horror films is to have a male as the protagonist who comes through the evil and ends up victorious but our film will appeal to a wider audience because our protagonist is a female called Emily and she will be our 'final girl'. This doesn't mean that it won't appeal to a male audience as well because we still have a male playing the role of the antagonist.

Economic groupings

I think our film will appeal will appeal to upper middle class (C1) and lower middle class (C2) and working class (DE) groupings because horror films are not usually aimed at upper class, they normally watch period drama or films of a higher intellectual level.

Nationality/Region

Our film will appeal to an English audience because the actors and settings are English. Horror movies usually have a heavy American influence and are generally high budget if they do. The lower budget British horrors will appeal to a more niche audience primarily because they don't have any American actors.

Fans of

Fans of our horror films will probably also be fans of films like Halloween because the well known horrors were a big influence on the making of our film, we studied their shots as they have obviously been very successful in hope that incorporating their camera techniques will help us to get a better finished product on our horror film.

Sexuality

Our opening part of the film has heterosexual actors in and would probably not appeal to a 'pink pound' audience. Generally horror films have a primarily heterosexual cast but we would consider going against this common convention to maximize the appeal of the film to a 'pink pound' audience.

Phychographic profile

Someone i would expect to be interested in this film would be someone who's is a fan of stalker/slasher movies such as Halloween and also someone who doesn't mind seeing a bit of gore and hearing some bad language

Final synopsis

A dark horror guaranteed to get your heart pulsing.

A chilling tale about a young girl who is followed home late at night by a hooded man. She doesn't notice the man and treats it as any other day. Until the lights in the house flicker out. Then she starts to worry. To make matters worse she must go down to the basement on her own because no one else is home, or are they?

Hardware

The camera we used was a canon md101 30x optical zoom.

This was a good camera to use because it is a very basic camera which made it simple for everyone in the group to use, even for people who haven't used a camera much before.
Another plus point is that all you have to do to get the footage from the camera to the mac is open i movie 6, plug the camera into the computer and wait until you see import icon pop up and then press it and wait for it to load.

We also used a tri-pod to help us get a smoothers, more steady

picture.

Software

The advantages of using software:

You can easily upload your video straight from your video camera to i movie 6. Also the timeline on i movie 6 makes it very simple to add your video clips in the correct order. Another advantage of i movie 6 is that it has a good range of sounds and themes such as fade in transitions. 

The disadvantages:

The main disadvantage is that there is a limit on what you can do with i movie 6 so if you want more intricate use of sounds and editing then its worth upgrading to a more professional programme, but it might cost you quite a bit more

Initial analysis of a film opening

Coach Carter (2005)

Budget: $30,000,000
Opening weekend profit (US) $29,000,000
Overall turnover $67,200,000
A Listers: Samuel L .Jackson and Ashanti
Production Company: MTV Films Distribution Company: paramount pictures
Filming Location: California

Black hip hop music a signifier of the black area and sport the film is filmed at.
Opening scene sees the protagonist (Samuel l. Jackson) on the left hand side of the screen.
Working class area, rundown, shown by shutters on the shop window typical of down town LA where the film was shot.
Credits pause on the big names to draw your attention to them.
Late teens playing basketball suggests what the films about.
News camera talks to Ty crane, this creates a realism affect for the audience because the news is factual.
Camera tracks coach carter then pans upwards to the sign, this is information of where he is and what he is doing there.
Mixed race basketball team getting agitated creates tension and is representation of California’s mixed ethnicity.

Police guarding the gym door shows it’s a tough school (possible rags to riches storyline)
There is an over the shoulder shot of Ty crane then a shot reverse shot from Coach Carter to Ty crane. The mid shot of coach carter to shows his impressed expression.
Coach Carter taps a boy on the shoulder and says “hey son” this is information that he has a son and a possible reason for him being at the game.

The ball goes out of play and there is a mid shot of the Richmond team slumping in there chairs this shows the way the game is going.
More bickering shows poor teamwork and a lack of respect the players have for each other. This shows they are troubled young men, fits in with their area.
Coach carter puts his arm around a woman, this is more information that he has a wife.

common codes and conventions of film openings

Many of the film openings we watched in class have lots of signifiers of what genre the film is.

Horror: In horror films a common code is that they tend to start off quite slow and then they gradually build the tension. Horror films have to be especially good at creating tension because at the begining the audience know that something bad is going to happen but they just don't know when exactly.

Action: Action films usually open with an action scene e.g. explosion or car chase. this grabs the audiences attention straight from the start. Action films also tend to be high budget films as it is very expensive to pay for explosions and the different props used.

Comedy: comedy films tend to open like any other genre they are trying to portray e.g. horror/comedy but it has lots of jokes and things going wrong. Comedy films are usually quite low budget as they don't need lots of things going on to entertain, thats done by the jokes the comedian gives.

High budget films open differently to low budget because they have more money for special effects and they tend to show this off from the start e.g. quantum of solace opening with lots of expensive cars in a chase. also big budget films open with logos of the companies involved which can attract an audience. Also they get all the big stars so when the audience see them in the opening scene it can keep them watching.

Low budget films tend to have very basic special effects and tend to work on basic sets as well.

locations/Mise-en-scene/Costume/Props

The road:

This will be the opening shot of Emily walking towards the camera. This will also show the person behind her. We chose this location because it had good lighting from the street lights.



The front door of Emily's house



Emily's Bedroom:
We chose this room because of the view out of the window. This will be the room where the camera will track Emily and also look out of the window to show the person below.


The view from the window:
This will be the view from the
window. I chose this location due to the street light out side this will be a key shot in my movie.













The steps down into the cellar:

















The cellar:

We chose George's house as the filming location because he has a basement which is a big part of the story.

Mise-en-scene

The mise-en-scene is a middle class house. Emily's bedroom is pink and girl'y but also looks quite sophisticated, this helps to portray she is vulnerable but not the typical ditsy blond more of a 'final girl'. The basement is quite big which made it easier to film in also it has a big stone staircase which gives it more of a dungeon type feel to it and also the stone gives a good horror film look. The other location we used was the street outside his house which again is a middle class street like any other so to give it that horror film look we had to wait till later on at night for it to get dark and wait for the streetlights to turn on.

Costume

In our film the protagonist (emily) is dressed in a low cut top and a shortish skirt to show she is sexually available. Her clothes are not too revealing though because we still want to portray her as a counter type to most girls in horror films. For (mark) who is portrayed as a false antagonist he was wearing a black hoodie and dark jeans, this helps give him a criminal/stalker look.

Props

In our film we didn't use many props, we only used a torch (for when the lights go out and emily goes into the basement), an electricity box (to turn the light back on a find the cut fuse) and also a key.

film openings

Halloween Director: Jon Carpenter

Starts off with a black screen and then the music kicks in.

The company logo is a a serrif font which is typical of horror films because they are sharp edges.

During the intro the camera is very slowly zoom into a pumpkin. The music is high tempo to create tension. There are also long drawn out notes which unconsciously make you hold your breath and alter your heart rate, again this is typical of horror films. Then there is on screen text of the name of the town which is exposition for the audience and it also gives the film more of a documentary type feel. The first scene is the shaky camera slowly moving into the front door of a large white house. There is a blue tint on the camera which after this film has become very common in most horrors. 

screenplay

In Their Sights

By George Needham, Ben Garvey and Alex Snowden

Post production script - 3rd April 2009

Short fuse productions

Ben Rhydding Ls29 8ls

Tel: 030 7352 7162

Fax: 030 7352 6127

Email: Shortfuseproductions@hotmail.com

1 EXT: ROAD – EVENING

Emily a woman in her early 20’s walks down the road in her work clothes and a coat with a handbag slug over one shoulder. She has brown hair and is an average build. The woman walks with a brisk pace to her door and opens it. In the background you can see a person walking behind her at a distance. We can’t tell if it’s male or female at this point.

2 EXT: EMILY’S BEDROOM – EVENING

Emily walks into her room slings her bag and coat on the bed with a sigh of relief. She then walks to over to the window and lets her hair down. Out of the window we can see the person that was walking behind Emily standing under a street light, Emily doesn’t notice him. Emily then moves into the en-suit bathroom to check herself in the mirror, she then moves back to the window but the person has gone.

3 EXT: EMILY’S BEDROOM – EVENING

The lights start to flicker and then go out. Emily is calm she finds a torch in one of the draws in a large wooded chest of draws. She then walks out of the room and down the stairs to get to the cellar.

EMILY

Bloody fuses

4 EXT: Cellar – Evening

The cellar door opens at the top of a flight of stairs which lead down to the cellar. Emily walks down the stairs which are being lit by the torch which Emily is carrying. She gets to the bottom of the stairs and checks the fuse box which is mysteriously open and had been tampered with.

Emily

What the...

5 EXT: Cellar – Evening

Emily takes a step back to look around the fuse box for anything suspicious. Behind her there is a figure which appears deeper down into the cellar behind Emily. The person starts to walk forward silently he moves closer dressed in black with a hood which covers their face.

He gets behind Emily and stops and reaches out Emily turns slowly almost like she knows someone is there. She sees the figure and screams and turns and tries to run but the person grabs hold of her. The lights turn on and the person pulls down their hood.

Its Peter Emily’s younger brother.

PETER

(Laughing) I got you so good

OPENING TITLE CARD: IN THEIR SIGHTS

Sound and music

http://www.trackline.com/
Over 1000 tracks available as
file downloads or in convenient
themed collections on
Audio CD or CD-Rom.

http://freeplaymusic.com/
4217 tracks not full songs but sounds.
a marvelous temperament and engrossing, dramatic melodies to Acoustic Guitar Vol 6, featuring his excellently played and wonderfully recorded acoustic guitar.

http://www.nvmdigital.com/
Background music

http://derekaudette.ottawaarts.com/music.php
Lots of sample to find the right sound before purchase.

http://audiojungle.net/category/music?
A wide range of music but you have to pay alot to use the music.

My initial ideas

Target Audience: 15-30
BBFC Rating: 15
Genre: Social realism 
Characters: Sam, Bill
Casting: (Ben Garvey),(George Needham)
Location(s): My house

Its a cold friday morning sam had just got out of bed, he walks into the living room there he saw Bill (Dad) sat down in his usual slump with a special brew in hand. Sam, as quiet as he could walks over to the fridge to get some milk for his cereal (close up of Sam's feet). But there is no milk left. He asks Bill if he could go to the shop to get him some milk ( two shot to show depth of field and bills reaction). Bill jumps out of his chair and throws his special brew at sam hitting him square in the face (Low shot of Bill). Sam falls to the floor crying but instead of saying sorry Bill walks over to the fridge, grabs another beer and storms out of the flat ( the camera tracks bill out the flat). 



Camera: Tracking, Close up, Two shot, Depth of field, Low shot

Prelim task

In our prelim task we tried to follow Tzvetan Todorov's 3 part narrative structure:

Equilibrium

Disequilibrium

New equilibrium

We didnt fully manage to stick to todorovs theory but we had the equilibrium where george goes to meet his friend and everything seems normal, then we had disequilibrium when he bumps into someone who argues with him, then we have a new equilibrium where they both apologies and ask to go for a drink. The reason why we ended up not properaly follow his theory was that at the end we create another disequilibrium when georges friend tells him he is moving away.

Initial group idea

Genre: Horror 

BBFC Rating: 15

Target Audience: 15-30

Characters: Emily and Peter Mulhurn 

Casting: Emily Mulhern(), Peter Mulhurn()

Location: George's House, Ilkley 

Emily, a blond haired hard working young women is walking home after work. She is being followed by a person. We do not know if there male or female at this point. Emily gets home and goes to sort herself out in her bedroom. An over the shoulder shot using depth of field shows the person standing under a streetlight. The camera then tracks Emily across the room putting down her bag then back to the window but the person has gone.

The lights start to flicker then go out. Emily makes her way down into the cellar to check the fuses which have been tamped with. In the background further into the cellar the silhouette of the mysterious person is in the background. The person moves toward Emily and grabs her she screams the a laugh from the person he pulls down his hood and reveals that its Peter her younger brother.

Coursework task

Preliminary exercise:  Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/ reverse shot and the 180 rule.

Main task:  The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright free source.

THE DEADLINE FOR A COMPLETED PRODUCTION IS THURSDAY APRIL 2nd