Friday, 18 November 2016
Wednesday, 12 October 2016
The third meeting - Monday 10th October
Monday 10th October
Meeting lasted 2 hours
Our final plot synopsis has been completed. After researching and merging together our individual ideas we came to a conclusion of what we wanted to include in our final plot. We now had to think about presenting our plot to the teachers to see if our plot was going to be successful.
Me and Lauryn during the first hour of the meeting typed up our final plot and even when typing it up we were including fresh ideas that most suited our genre. We found it difficult to narrow our plot synopsis down to 500 words due to the amount of detail that we included in order to make the plot exciting and different.
The final plot is:
Blake is your average 19 year old, he lives for the party lifestyle, the alcohol and the girls but he has a bigger passion than all of that, he loves photography. When Blake was 5 he was given his first camera by his loving Grandad who passed away a year ago, he'd take his camera everywhere he went capturing his memories from holidays to going to the park with his friends. As Blake grew older he was becoming more and more recognized for his artistic style and went to collage to take a course.
After returning back to his small hometown, Abergavenny, Blake decides that he wants to find out more about his Grandad's career in photography and follow in his footsteps to become as successful as he did. Connor travels to his Grandad's old studio where the magic happened and the photographs came to life with spectacular colour.
However when entering the studio Blake has an uneasy feeling that runs through his veins. He sits on a tattered chair and puts his head in his hands 'BLAKE'...a hoarse voice whispered, it became louder and louder so that someone was screaming his name. Blake shot up in his chair and looked around him, the voice stopped chanting his name and he realised he was alone.
The moonlight glistened through the old Victorian windows and shone upon a suitcase that sat upon his Grandad's old desk, the beautiful brass handles that were attached to either side of the case caught his eyes, he walked across the worn floor, broken glass crunched beneath his feet, fallen pictures created a blanket by the walls. Blake picked up the suitcase, a shiver down his spine, a whip of cold rushes through the air, and the only sound you could hear was Blake's deep breath in.
A loud knock is heard at the front door of the studio which is situated downstairs 'Hello, is anyone there?' Blake jumps but doesn't reply. He hides under his Grandad's desk, the blanket of dust and cobwebs chocking his throat as he holds his breath to keep quiet, soon quiet footsteps become louder suggesting that the intruder is getting closer to him. Connor looks down at the ground from beneath the desk to see two polished boots, he looks further up to see a confused police officer looking around, his torch shinning on the four walls, but someone catches Blake's eye, the only pictures that remained on the wall were of him, pictures of him in college at parties, pictures of him drinking and hanging with girls.
Thoughts rushed through Blake's head 'How could this of happened?' he questioned himself. His thoughts were interrupted by the booming sound of the police radio and Blake watches the police officer run towards the stairs and out the door. Blake shoots up and runs over to the wall where the photographs were hanging, he rips them down and holds them to the window so that he can see them more clearly, his eyes focus on the date at the bottom right of the picture which states that it was only taken three weeks ago, yet his Grandad passed away a year ago. As Blake looks more closely he notices something written on the back of the photograph but the writing begins to run, it looks thick and red, as he turns the photographs around the writing reads 'Say Cheese!' its written in blood. The blood drips on Blake's hands, he drops the photograph in horror and screams a sickening scream.
He runs down the stairs and gets out his phone to call the police, he pulls open the front door with an almighty force but hanging in the door frame , blood dripping down his face onto his uniform was the police officer that visited the building a while ago. A bloody smile was scratched into his face, Blake reaches out to touch the officers neck to find a pulse but just as his fingers were touching his neck Blake hears a female scream, he runs back into the studio, bloody handprints printed along the walls and up the stairs.
As Blake gets upstairs and enters the studio room a flash happens, a camera flash, as if someone is taking a picture of him. He runs to the nearest camera he can see and looks back at the last photo taken, the picture was of him but as he looks more closely there's a female behind him, a bloody smile also engraved deeply into her face, he turns around in shock but there's no one there, not even the female seen in the photo.
He takes a photograph facing in the direction of where the female was standing and he looks down at the camera to view the photo he'd just taken except there was nothing there. He takes another one and counts down from 5, every time he counts down he takes another photograph 5...4...3...2....1 but as he gets to zero he feels someone breathing heavily on his neck slowly making their way up to his ear, he stays still and someone whispers '0' Blake takes the photograph, the light from the flash lights up the dark and gloomy room, all that can be heard is the sound of the click and the camera winding down after taking the photograph.
Blake pulls the camera away from his face to look at the screen, yet again he see's nothing on the pictures that he had taken but as he looks up from the camera screen he sees a man with a bloody smile engraved into his face running towards him, his mouth torn apart, his teeth all blood stained and yellow and his eyes bulging out of their sockets. The man gets closer and closer to him screaming and laughing 'Remember me Blake' he pushes Blake onto the floor and starts screaming in his face 'remember me! I wanted to be friends with you! you never wanted to be around me though did you'
The male monster picks up Blake and throws him into a computer screen causing it to flicker, on the screen Blake can see a Facebook page called 'HATE FOR CHARIE' a picture of the male, he looks smartly dressed in a shirt and tie, his black framed glasses sitting low on his nose as he smiles with a trophy in his hand, abusive comments posted one after the other except one catches Blake's eyes in particular, it reads:
Blake Lively commented: Trophies mean nothing mate, you'll never be a photographer and we both know it, the only time I'll be pointing a camera at you is on your funeral day when I get front page in a newspaper for world's best photographer'
Then the computer screen flickers to a BBC news page, the headline reads 'Bullied boy commits suicide with a deadly smile' and a picture of a coffin was underneath the text. A booming hoarse voice can be heard and a flash happens again revealing the monster in the corner of the room, a repetitive flash keeps going off making a moving picture.
The monster can be seen picking up the female body up off the floor and carrying it towards Blake, he lies the boy on the desk next to Blake and a flash is given off. A picture appears on Blake's lap and of him and the girl but instead of the girl lying on the desk she can be seen with her arms around Blake kissing his cheek. Blake screams in terror.
'Now I've got your attention! Everyone you love is Dead! Now you can focus on me for once! All I wanted was your attention because I wanted to be as successful as you! except you bullied me! made me a fool! I killed myself to get your attention! you said you'd take my picture on my funeral day and you still didn't! you lied! I WANT REVENGE FROM ALL THE PAIN YOU PUT ME THROUGH!'
A flashback can be seen through Blake's eyes of Charlie walking the corridors of college and Blake is laughing at him, the image of Charlie walking through the corridors flickers like a glitch between Charlie and the monster that he has become'
Multiple flashes go off and hysterical laughing can be heard and screaming of terror and pain coming from Blake can be heard too. A final flash goes off and the audience are left with a picture of Blake with a bloody smile engraved into his face smiling next to Charlie, this is the last the world will see of Blake and Charlie again.
Monday, 3 October 2016
The second meeting - Thursday 29th Septmeber
Thursday 29th September
Meeting lasted 1 hour
After having our first meeting on the 26th of September and deciding a basic plot for our final film and trailer we decided to change some of the characters due to it being difficult to create a timing schedule for the actors.
Originally we wanted to have three main characters. A parapsychologist, Connor and an elderly man playing the Granddad. To get someone to play the character of an elderly man would be difficult and due to my Granddad having health issues it would be hard for me to film him. So to make our film more successful we thought about having a younger villain in order to make it more relatable to our target audience.
We talked about how we would fit this around our original plot as we already liked some of the ideas that we came up with. Instead we changed the word Granddad to a younger characters name, but we still had the idea of someone becoming an imposter and we didn't think that this tied in well with the plot so instead we used our research of the film shutter, along with the research into the film Unfriended and planned what ideas we could incorporate into our original plot.
Conclusion of the meeting
At the end of the meeting we decided to both have a copy of the original plot which consisted of the idea of the Granddad. We were going to think about some ideas that we could use to soften the plot and adapt it more around a young villain trying to get revenge rather than an older character.
Friday, 30 September 2016
The first meeting - Monday 26th September
Monday 26th September
Meeting lasted 2 hours
After having a meeting with the other member of my group, Lauryn, we both read through one another's plot synopsis to have an idea of what we wanted to base our main plot around for making the story and the trailer. Lauryn's synopsis ideas included:
- Fear of the dark
- Shadows and dark figures that moved
- Spirits that came for revenge
Both of our synopsis was set around the genre of Horror, horror movies are something that we both showed an interest in watching and because of this we can use some ideas from horror movies to make our final trailer and movie successful.
After deciding that our genre was going to be horror we next decided on an age category and what our target audience would be. Both of our characters within the plot synopsis were young (early 20's) so we decided that our target audience would be based around the age range of 15-25, by choosing this age would also allow me and Lauryn to relate more to the characters because we are both 17 and still in education just like the characters in our plots were. We based the gender of our target audiences around males because the main character of our plots were males.
After deciding our genre and target audience it was now time to start thinking about our main plot.
The ideas consisted of:
A young photographer called Conner lives in the small town of Abergavenny has just graduated at university on a photography course, he lives alone and has a close relationship with his Granddad and as a present for graduating at university his Granddad gave him his old camera, but every time Connor takes a photograph he sees distorted faces and scratched out eyes on the faces of the people within the images. Connor wakes up one morning with bruises in the shape of a smile on his arm and hand marks around his wrist as if someone has grabbed them and dragged him. He goes to see a doctor the next day about this and Connor explains his story, the doctor was fairly old and says to Connor that he's only seen one story like this before, he pulls out a file and the file consists of information about a male with the same surname as Connor and the same birthday, children and address as his Granddad, it soon clicks into Connor's head that the man who he thought was his Granddad was really an imposter and that his Granddad was living his life as a lie. Connor in rage storms out of the doctors room and confronts his Granddad about what happened at his appointment. He becomes angry too and starts shouting at Connor telling him that the doctor was lying. Later that night Connor goes to his studio which is situated out of town so that the environment is peaceful and quiet for him to practice his editing, but weird things start happening, picture frames that hold photos of Connor and the imposter Granddad start falling off the wall and the computer starts deleting all the photos of Connor and his imposter Granddad. Connor thinking that he has been hacked and that there's someone in his house calls the police. The reflection of the flashing lights on the windows and the loud knock on the door makes Connor shiver with fear and he runs down the stairs to answer it but when he opens the door there is a police officer hanging from the door frame, dead and has a smile painted on his face made of blood.
After writing part of the plot our meeting had finished and to help further our ideas we both set ourselves the task of researching and watching the film shutter to see if we could incorporate any more ideas of cameras and photography into our plot.
Wednesday, 28 September 2016
Questionnaire
Questionnaire
1. What age are you?
- Under 18
- 18-25
- 26-31
- 32-36
- 41-46
- 50+
2. What gender are you?
- Male
- Female
3. What films genre do you enjoy
watching?
- Horror
- Romance
- Comedy
- Drama
- Sci-Fi
- Crime
4. How often do you watch movies?
- Every night
- Every other day
- Once a week
- Once a month
- Never
5. What film certificate do you normally
watch?
- U
- PG
- 12
- 15
- 18
6. Have you watched any of these films?
(Tick as many as you like)
- Insidious
- Sinister
- Blair Witch
- Friday the 13th
- Shutter
- Paranormal activity
- The Woman in Black
7. Which of these settings would you find the scariest?
- A really old house
- A barn
- The woods
- A graveyard
- Your house with no lights
8. Would you be interested in the following horror genre plot?
A local man
called Connor Bullock is a photographer but when editing his photos he notices
that dark figures appear in the background, some of the eyes of models are
scratched out and their faces distorted. A picture will never be taken the same
again…
- Yes
- No
9. Which of these film titles would most suit the plot
above?
- Shutter
- Flash
- ‘Say cheese’
- Smile
Any other
suggestions ……………………………………………………………………………………………….
10. Do you watch trailers of films before you go to see them in the cinema or
buy them on DVD?
- Yes
- No
11. How long would you
expect a film trailer to last?
- 1 minute
- 1 ½ / 2 minutes
- 2 ½ / 3 minutes
- Longer
12. What makes you want to
view the film after watching the trailer?
- The actors
- The plot
- The director of the movie
- The soundtrack
- The enigma
Monday, 26 September 2016
Friday, 23 September 2016
Conclusion of the magazine front cover analysis
From looking at and comparing these varying magazine covers it is clear to see the various qualities which they share, for example using similar main images of the villain characters, using dark colours such as red, black and green to represent the different objectives such as blood, dark thoughts and envy. From this I aim to use these conventions of magazine covers in my own to make it the most appealing to audiences and successful in attracting their attention in order to make the film a success.
Mood board
My mood board helps to explain and show the key elements of a horror genre. The audience are the main reasons into what makes horror movies successful, the audience members often copy what the characters are wearing or get tattoos of the characters from films that they enjoy watching.
Wednesday, 21 September 2016
Psychological effect with horror movies
Secondary research - this research was conducted to show my knowledge and understanding of what film makers focus on when making a horror movie through the psychological effect of how to stimulate someone's mind-set but also about the effects that horror movies have on the human body.
Monday, 19 September 2016
Friday, 16 September 2016
Friday, 9 September 2016
Short film - school
Reflection of a task
Our first task for A2 media studies was to create a short film that consisted of a various number of different shots given to us by the teacher. I have had past experience before of using a video recorder however this was for non-professional use. After learning how to use the video recorder this helped increase my knowledge and understanding which I can now apply to for future use.
When set the task the first thing we did as a group was to familiarise ourselves with the shots we had been asked to create. An example of a shot was a medium close up of a male teacher, by applying our knowledge from last years media studies when creating a magazine cover we understood that the medium close up involved us taking a video of a male teacher from elbow height and above. Planning was key when it came to organizing these shots. As a group we ordered the shots into a order that most suited the flexibility and availability of taking the photographs.
First we started by taking a moving image of the teacher, the reason for this was because he was available for that shot however just because this was the first moving shot we had filmed this didn't mean that this would be the first shot that the audience would see on the final footage. To solve this issue of muddling up the shots we created a clapper board which helped to organize the shots to make the clips easier to sequence when making the movie. When using the clapper board it was important that as a group we followed certain rules, the reason for this is because the clapper board is a major responsibility into making the film organized.
These rules were:
Making sure the clapper board is fully within the shot
This was important because the information on the clapper board is most important, if part of the board was missing off the shot, for example the shot number, this could become confusing and a key element of the film could be missing too.
Clapper board must exist for 5 seconds within the shot
This is important because the director and publisher must be able to acknowledge and clearly see the shots to be able to piece the film together in order to make is successful.
No talking happens when someone is introducing the shot
This rule is important for the actors due to them being stood behind the clapper board and them being able to hear what the individual who is in charge of the clapper board is saying so the actors are informed and are fully aware of the scene that is about to start.
These rules were successful and when it came to making the short film it was easy to piece the shots together due to the professional and efficient way of using the clapper board.
This was the first time I had used a clapper board but now I think I can put my knowledge to use when it comes to creating short movies and films in the future.
Before beginning to film the rest of the movie allocated roles were key, the reason for this was because when using roles authority can be used in order to stay organized. Due to my successful grades in drama and me being confident I volunteered to be an actor however those who felt stronger on camera and had more camera skills allocated themselves within a specific camera based area. As a team we had a good continuity which made us strong as we worked together.
Before beginning to assign the actors movements and speech for individual roles we had to consider our positioning of filming:
Setting
Due to us filming our short movie within the school premises as a group we were limited to setting however we used the school setting to our advantage and based our film around school.
Background noise
Because of our setting being a school, noise was an obstruction to making our movie successful. As a group we had to consider noise levels outside such as cars driving past, students doing P.E on the field and also the wind. To solve this problem as a group we asked the actors to speak loudly and clearly when we were recording the video.
Lighting
The weather on the day of filming was sunny, due to our limitations of equipment we had to position ourselves away form the sun so that it was shining in the actors eyes or creating a reflection on the camera which could of caused unclear footage to show on the final film.
As a group our main prop was an engagement ring, the story fitted around a break up and because of our setting being in a school the settings were even more limited when it came to finding relevant props.
When we had filmed all of our shots we were then given the task to make a short movie using the film clips, to do this we used the software Abode Premier. This was a software I was unaware of and had not used before. After editing our movie we decided to merge the shots using a fade, this effect was successful and made the film smooth, the use of effects such as fade when merging a shot together are called transitions. Text was added to the short film too using insert text box and adding an extra 5 second long clip on the end to fit the text in. Music was also added to make the film more successful, the soundtrack of Mamma Mia Vou le vou was added over the background and when the actors had speech the music volume was decreased so that it played in the background quietly whilst the audience could listen to what the actors were saying.
In conclusion I think that our short movie was successful and looked professional. By taking my knowledge and understanding of how to film correctly I can now apply these skills in the future.
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