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

When comparing ideas we both incorporated the idea that the majority of people have a fear of the dark so this was something that we wanted to include in our final plot synopsis.
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.

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 13^th
• 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

Film poster analysis 3 - Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th from EleanorBinley99

Film poster analysis 2 - Shutter

Film poster analysis 1 - Sinister

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.

Magazine cover analysis 3 - Empire

Magazine front cover analysis 3 from EleanorBinley99

Magazine front cover analysis 2 - Total Film

Magazine front cover analysis 2 from EleanorBinley99

Magazine front cover analysis 1 - Fangoria

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.

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.

Synopsis

Horror sub-genres

Sub genres from EleanorBinley99

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.

What makes a succesful film trailer

What makes a successful film trailer from EleanorBinley99

Music within a film trailer

Music in a trailer from EleanorBinley99

KiDULTHOOD - Trailer analysis 2

Ki dulthood (crime) from EleanorBinley99

Unfriended - trailer analysis 1

Un friended (horror movie) from EleanorBinley99