Saturday, 7 May 2016

Final Evaluation and Resultant Footage

Version 1



Version 2

Having looked over the feedback from various audiences we created another cut for the video with little changes to the video. This is because it is important to comply to the needs of your audience members as this is what is going to make sales of media texts in the movie industry. A few of the changes include: having end credits as opposed to two different types of text on screen, ensuring the tempo of the music fit together better as opposed to drastic changes in tempo and using sharpen in order to make the images clearer.

The following PowerPoint was intended to have sound, however, due to the fact that slide share does not support this, the sound cannot be played. 







Thursday, 5 May 2016

Evaluation of Documents

Documents

Location Release



Location Contract

Call Sheet



Talent Releases











Personal Releases











Camera Shot List



Budget Proposal





Risk Assessment









Edit Log








Scripts - Concepts

Concept 1- Emma Weeks

Creepy music playing in the background throughout the opening.

A black screen. Jump cut to a trail of blood. Tracking shot follows trail of blood across the floor until it rests upon a newspaper headed “Missing” with an image of the first victim there will be another article on the page with the heading “Directed by Morgan Redman”. Jump cut with shaken transition to long shot of a fridge and the work surface (surface should be cluttered and fridge should be covered with newspaper clippings and pictures with a bloodied handprint on the corner as if someone opened it with bloodied hands). Mid shot of the fridge being opened (hand opening fridge out of shot). Close up shot of items in the fridge selection of glass vials and jars fill the fridge tracking shot along the shelves (one jar should have a label reading “edited by Dylan Koolman”). Jump cut to a shot of a picture pinned to the wall with a red string attached to it (string should be out of focus) pull focus to string then tracking shot along string to piece of note paper reading “starring __________ and ____________” tracking shot along another piece of string to a picture of a girl walking across a path taken from between trees zoom out of the image shakily with interspersed black screen to reveal a sprawling pin board map of pictures of various girls which appear to have been taken inconspicuously. Jump cut across the counter top where their is a collection of broken glass, a hammer and a bloodied scalpel, a picture with the face clawed off and a scrap of paper which reads “camera work by Emma Weeks”. Jump cut to pictures in a line across the wall with red X’s over them and a memento hanging under each of them a locket, a ring and a watch under each of the images should be a name of one of the actors with less signifiant roles. Jump cut to a row of three arms on the floor with a vertical line cut into each arm (the film title the three).

Concept 2- Dylan Koolman

Eerie music plays in the background, begin with a black screen, a person is seen sitting in a dark room with low key lighting slowly and mechanically brushing the hair of a doll. Slow zoom in to person but focus is on doll. Angle switch to over the shoulder to show hair brushing then cut in to foot of doll, dripping blood. The brush then suddenly gets caught in hair the doll’s hair; triggering major screen distortion then a flash down. Flash up to a bottle on a table at a canted angle then flash down. Flash up to show slow motion fall of an open bottle, flash down. Flash slow motion of dripping liquid off of the table, memento in the background, bottle had a credit written on it, screen distortion, shows broken jar still leaking liquid, then flash down. Music begins to pick up, jump shot to figure walking running hands over table, distortion, picks up picture, overlay of original picture which is solarised distorting across the screen, and after image which now has scratched out faces. Drop of image, slow motion of image falling, dramatic slow to view credit on the back, zoom in to reveal text. Low angle and high angle switches of map on wall with red, pinned, strengthen focus with fast zoom in of map at forward facing angle. Distortion action shot of putting up picture of next victim with a red ‘X’ through the picture and blood dripping down the picture, jump shot to the bottom of the picture of the victim with a credit written on it distortion, music reaches high tension then cut to black and silence. Slow fade up of music and scene to show dirty arms curling up with cuts on them to read “The Three” across the arms. Arms go to full extension but are canted at the wrist or slightly at the elbow. Fade to black.

Concept 3- Morgan Redman

[Introduction: True North Productions]

A black screen… Jump cut to a dark room filled with various silhouettes of objects. Screen distortion cut to a hand tracing the red string of a map as they pull on the string making it vibrate. They walk over to a worktop and place a scalpel on the table next to a newspaper with the directors’ name on. Jump cut with solarisation as the hand opens a fridge containing bottles with a variety of liquids in; the editors name is on one of the bottles. Jump cut as the hand of the killer writes a note in their journal concerning the date and preparation for the murder of number ‘three’; upon closing the notebook it says camerawork by… Jump cut with solarisation as the killer walks over to a wall with two polaroid pictures on, the faces are scratched out in the pictures, and beneath each is the newspaper headline of they day they were noted missing whilst a seal lock bag hangs with a lock of hair from each victim… There is an empty slot for the third victim. Jump Cut with screen distortion as the murderer returns to the table and cuts their index finger until it bleeds enough to leave a bloody fingerprint on the empty polaroid picture. Jump cut to the arms of the two victims’ bodies spelling out the title “The Three”.

Final Concept

A black screen… Jump cut to panning shot of the silhouetted objects within the room. Jump cut to the back of a figure from a long shot, which begins transitioning via a low angle tracking shot. Jump cut to a bloodied newspaper on a worktop with the heading ‘Missing'. Beneath is another article with the credits headed ‘Director Morgan Redman, Assistant Director Emma Weeks’. Tracking shot continues. Jump cut to a journal on the worktop, beneath notes concerning the date and preparation for the murder of number ‘Three’ is the credit of ‘Camera Work Emma Weeks, Assistant Camera Work Dylan Koolman’. Tracking shot continues further. Jump cut and tilt up to another worktop supporting jars of various liquids with the credit ‘Editor Dylan Koolman, Assistant Editor Morgan Redman’, screen distortion, jar which is now broken is leaking liquid over the table. Transition back to tracking shot. Jump cut to a wall with a series of photographs and notes taken on the day all linked with red string. Extreme close up on a pin, pull focus to the red string which the camera then follows to a portrait photograph. Tracking shot concludes finally reaching an over the shoulder shot revealing the memento wall to the audience for the first time. Zoom in to the far left of the Polaroid pictures with the scratched out faces pan across slowly, beneath each picture is the credit ‘Actor Gabby Edwards, Actor Emily Wicker’. Upon reaching the third and final picture, which has scratched out eyes, over lay with solarisation of the original picture that has not been damaged. Jump Cut to the hand of the figure who then cuts into their palm with the scalpel releasing blood; the figure then drops the scalpel and the sound rings out. Using their index finger the figure wipes the blood onto the final, still developing, Polaroid picture. The final credit of the ‘Actor Emma Weeks’ beneath the bloodied image. Cut to black screen, slow fade up to the arms of the three victims spelling out the title sequence ‘The Three’.

Evaluation

There were parts of all three scripts that we liked, we therefore wanted to include parts from them all in order to achieve the desired outcome to produce the script that we have now. There has been a greater focus on the elements involving camera, editing and text additions in order to create a clearer plan for what we wanted to achieve. That being said, during the shooting and the editing process, we saw that other methods of completing the task have been done differently to the way in which the script intended it to be created. This included changes such as having an end credits as a reel at the end as opposed to having credits through out the production, which was done during version 2.

Wednesday, 4 May 2016

Thursday, 28 April 2016

Questionnaires: Focus Group

Questionnaire
  1. Do you enjoy thriller?
  2. What would you add to the script to make it more realistic?
  3. What age rating would you place the film within: 15, 18?
  4. Which parts of the opening do you feel should have a climatic crescendo rise in music?
  5. Does it fit the genre and atmosphere that there is no dialogue in the opening?
  6. What part(s) did you enjoy the most and why?
  7. What parts seem out of place?
  8. Would you be interested in watching the entirety of the film based upon the opening script?
  9. Do you think any adjustments should be made to the opening in reference to lighting, sound, camera etc?
  10. Do you have any additional comments?
Answers


Analysis

Monday, 25 April 2016

Defining Our Target Audience

Gender
  • The feeling of being either male, female or other defined by different aspects such as expression, appearance, social interactions etc.
  • We have a female orientated cast with a female lead which is typically aimed towards females, however, the movie itself is not entirely specified in terms of the gender that it is aimed towards due to the fact that the genre of psychological horror appealing to all genders.
Ethnicity
  • Population whose members identify with each other on the basis of common nationality or shared cultural traditions.
  • Due to the fact that our media text only contains credits in terms of material within the production that needs to be understood, and because there is no dialogue, this movie opening is aimed towards anyone with an interest in the psychological thriller genre.
Age
  • The length of time that a person has lived.
  • Due to the guidelines of the BBFC ratings, through the use of the connotations within the opening and being part of a psychological horror, the target age range is for people that are aged 18 and over. 
Region/Nationality
  • An ethnic group forming a part of one or more political nations.
  • Cast is Caucasian and European, but is not exclusive to this race. This was done as an unintentional occurrence due to not having females of other races able to be a part of the production. 
Socio-Economic Status
  • An individual's or group's position within a hierarchical social structure and is depends on a combination of variables, including occupation, education, income, wealth, and place of residence.
  • Our production would appeal to those from classes C1 to E due to the relations between the characters and the audiences being similar, adding to the element of suspense due to being in a position where events like the ones that occur in the movie are mimetic to those within these Social Classes.
Decoding approach
  • Response against Hypodermic Needle Approach
  • Shows how audiences are active
    • Able to decode their own meanings from media
    • Own-thinkers
    • Formulate own interpretations
  • Our media production adopts this theory for our audiences. This is because there are a lot of symbolic elements that cause the audience to need to decode fro themselves what the constructed meaning of them are, translating figurative imagery into literal meanings. This is how the element of a Psychological thriller are achieved, by ensuring that the audience themselves are able to relate what their prior knowledge of the world is against what they're being shown in order to create a meaning for themselves. For example, the inclusion of the wiping of blood on the third picture implies that that character is going to die. This however is not stated outright, it is left for the audience to come to this conclusion for themselves. 
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
  • The creation of the 5 basic needs for people in order to be happy or satisfied.
  • In order to convey the psychological part of the psychological thriller that we wanted to create, basic human needs needed to be taken away in order for the audience to feel fear when watching the production. The base element of safety is completely removed due to the fact that the killer preys on the victims of her choosing and successfully kills all three of the unsuspecting victims without being caught. This shows how the pyramid structure of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is very much incomplete. In removing this layer of basic human need, and through mimetic elements, the audience not only fear for the safety of the characters on screen but for themselves as they're watching an event that could happen to them.