Pinterest Inspiration

We made 4 Pinterest boards:
Inspiration: http://uk.pinterest.com/louwebb92/inspiration/
Titles: http://uk.pinterest.com/louwebb92/titles/
Graphics: http://uk.pinterest.com/louwebb92/graphics/
Costume: http://uk.pinterest.com/louwebb92/costume/

Research of the Representation of Social Groups

Females

In our horror opening we are going to primarily focus on females. in our opening the girl is the only character (except for the child) who's face you see. Usually in film, women are very unrepresented. They are usually portrayed as a weaker character and a support to the male lead. In our horror opening we would like to contradict this idea and have a leading female. In lots of films with leading females they are either sexualised to appeal to men, involved in a love triangle or seen as an object of desire. They are the ‘ideal’ woman, flawed or developed women are seen as ugly and unattractive. the opening in our horror begins with a deceiving scene or what seems to be a girl begin intimate with sounds and actions that are associated to sex. Really, she is being inseminated with a child  in a hospital. this is ironic because it supports the stereotype of female protagonists when our film is going to do the reverse of that. 

Young Adults

Usually young adults are portrayed as carless, reckless, fun loving idiots. For young females in reality. there are any struggles with even the idea of pregnancy. The film possibly links to the debate of pro choice activists. Young people in todays society do not have a voice or valid opinions on issues that concern themselves. Our opening symbolises the surrounding pressures of society on the individual and how she has no control. 

Infants

We are purposely under representing infants. In a society, children can do no wrong. They are a symbol of innocence and purity. They’re also connected to the issues of abortion. we are half representing the baby to be an object but also something beast like, something with no conscience. In our horror opening the infant has portrayed as an undesired. The infant in the opening is the problem. 

Medical Personelle 

Doctors are trustworthy in reality, kind and caring. We want to subvert this. Like in Frankenstein, it is questioned whether the creature is the monster or the creator. Because no other characters faces are shown, it creates a sense of distrust toward them. Science will be seen as something that won’t necessarily save you. Science conflicts with the ongoing religious themes. 

Font ideas

Props and Location

Today we decided on the props we needed for our horror opening and location.

Treatment Feedback

Our group made an online chat on Facebook in which people of our chosen target audience could write feedback about our film treatment and poster. This allowed us to get opinions from individuals outside of our group about the ideas. The feedback we received was almost all positive.

The Surrogate Poster

Treatment

Name: The Surrogate

Genre: Horror

-Sub Genre: Parental, paranormal and psychological.

Target Audience: Arthouse, independent people aged 18+. People who enjoy psychological horrors and appreciate artistic works.

Outline:

Beginning-  Misleading close up shots of what seems to be a girl becoming intimate with someone. But she is really in a hospital preparing for her insemination. Shots like close ups of hands on sheets, skin and the bed create this effect. Sounds like heavy berating and heart beats would be included to mislead the viewer. It creates a very twisted image of this young girl. Continuous shots throughout would include dilated pupils to continue the medical theme. Skin colours will be used throughout to link with the body and they a quite dull colours.

Noises of drug use made using utensils inspired by Requiem For A Dream and Pink Floyd would also be used.

We would have clips of a false baby growing inside the girls stomach. We decided a good way to link to pregnancy but also make it scary was to use rubber to represent skin and have someone or hands pushing against the rubber. This makes what most parents would relish (their child kicking and moving) very strange.

The last shot in our opening would be a high angle shot of a padded cell or asylum taken with a fish eye lense. This long shot contrasts with all the close up previously used. The cell would be brightly lit compared to the darker other scenes.

Character Breakdown:

We didn't want to include may characters in our opening so we kept it to a bare minimum.

-The girl (She has no name, she is a nobody, a white young adult)

-The baby (Only see the baby once in the last scene of our opening in the padded cell which is a long shot so its hard t focus on the child)

-Doctors and Nurses (Never see their faces In the clips, one male doctor and 1or 2 females)

Visual Elements:

-Lighting: Flashes: light to dark  over the course of the opening, dull lighting,

-Camera Movement: Camera doesn't move only zoom and on the last shot in the asylum. Lots of close up throughout, some mid shots of the doctors (not faces) The final shot is an extreme long shot.

-Editing: Flashes and glitches, change lighting and colours.

-Setting: Bed, clinical hospital room, Padded cell or asylum, white or black plain backgrounds for close ups to focus.

-Actors: A pale (innocent looking) teenage girl, A baby or toddler, a male doctor and extra female nurse.

-Props: Utensils (for sounds) Syringe, rubber sheet, crucifix, moths, rubber gloves.

-Costume: Hospital dress robe, White t shirt, Black t shirt, White lab jacket, Rubber gloves, Hospital band.

Audio:

Utensils. strong bass throughout the opening. Drones increasing and decreasing in pitch mixed with sharp noises and whines. Babies crying and someone screaming.

Distribution

This lesson we did some research into distributors of films, companies, and how they are produced and distributed. We got some information about potential companies to distribute our film.

The Production of Films

Film-making involves a number of discrete stages including an initial story, idea, or commission, through scriptwriting, casting, shooting, editing, and screening the finished product before an audience that may result in a film release and exhibition.

Production

In production, the film is created and shot. More crew will be recruited at this stage, such as the property master, script supervisor, assistant directors, stills photographer, picture editor, and sound editors. All other crew such as actors will most likely be requited in the pre-production stage. These are the most common roles in film-making but the production office will be free to create any unique blend of roles to suit the various responsibilities possible during the production of a film. A typical day's shooting begins with the crew arriving on the set/location by their call time. Since set construction, dressing and lighting can take many hours or even days, they are often set up in advance. The grip, electric and production design crews are typically a step ahead of the camera and sound departments: for efficiency's sake, while a scene is being filmed, they are already preparing the next one. While the crew prepare their equipment, the actors are wardrobed in their costumes and attend the hair and make-up departments. The actors rehearse the script and blocking with the director, and the camera and sound crews rehearse with them and make final tweaks. Finally, the action is shot in as many takes as the director wishes. The filming days can last up to 18 hours. At the end of the day, the footage is reviewed for continuity and the director approves of the next filming location. 

Post-Production

Here the video/film is assembled by the video/film editor. The shot film material is edited. The production sound (dialogue) is also edited; music tracks and songs are composed and recorded if the film is to have a score; sound effects are designed and recorded. Any computer-graphic visual effects are digitally added. Finally, all sound elements are mixed into "stems", which are then married to picture, and the film is fully completed ("locked").

Distribution 

This is the final stage, where the film is released to cinemas or, occasionally, directly to consumer media (DVD, VCD, VHS, Blu-ray) or direct download from a digital media provider. The film is duplicated as required (either onto reels or hard disk drives) and distributed to cinemas for exhibition (screening). Press kits, posters, and other advertising materials are published, and the film is advertised and promoted. A B-roll clip may be released to the press based on raw footage shot for a "making of" documentary, which may include making-of clips as well as on-set interviews.

Exchange is what the audience does with the film. There are many film-exchange buildings globally. Western Film Exchange was founded in Milwaukee in July 1906 by John R. Freuler and Harry E. Aitken for the purpose of mass-producing and distributing Western films to movie theatres throughout the American Midwest.

A few examples of film distribute companies are Warner Brothers Pictures, Paramount and 20th Century Fox. The companies have produced some of the most popular films to date, such as The Shining from Warner Bros. and Fight Club from 20th Century Fox.

I looked at the distributors of similar films to the one we are creating. Eraserhead (1977) was distributed by Libra Films International, however this film was made a while ago. I also looked at the more recent film Mama (2013) which incorporates the parenthood theme. Its distributor is Universal Pictures.

'The Surrogate' - The Title, Tagline and Pitch

We were given the task to create a 50 word pitch for our chosen idea, along with a title and tagline. We decided to develop our first idea titled 'The Surrogate'. We came up with two ideas for our pitch.


The Surrogate. An outsider in need of money. Living in a squat, life is already tough. Paid to subject in intensive experiments, she is inseminated with a 'child'. Living as usual, her unborn child begins controlling her. After growing concern she is sent to a asylum. The child is born.

An innocent 25 year old woman was willing to undergo suspicious scientific experiments with her unborn child, little did she know about the unseen sinister world she was about to step into, and that her life would become 'uncontrollable'

These pitches will not only be able to show what the film is about, but it will also help our group since it highlights the main themes of the film which we should show in our title sequence.

The tagline is 'Once it's inside, you're not coming out'

This is intended to outline the themes of pregnancy caused by an experiment and asylums.

We used Facebook chat to communicate with each other about our ideas to come to our final decisions. Lou also made a poster to create a feel for our title sequence, this is shown above.

Film Ideas Presentation

This was the presentation that we showed to the class to pitch our film ideas. We also showed our tumblr and pinterest accounts as well as a clip from Eraserhead that gave us inspiration for the atmosphere of our film. It connects with the parenthood theme. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivqvobC9sm8

Presentation Feedback

In our film groups we were set a homework to present our two film ideas to the whole class. We needed to impress our teacher so we had to include a range of media and make it as detailed as possible. In class we presented our two film ideas together. We talked in detail about our inspiration and things we had gathered to come up with these ideas. Including this that inspired us, other films like ours and talking about our target audience. we made a powerpoint on these two ideas. Other members of my group made a Prezzi presentation showing other similar films and facts and statistics about them related to our target audience and age range. i made a Pinterest to give us some inspiration for our films and to make our presentation to the class more interesting. Another member made a tumblr again improving our presentation and giving us inspiration. We included videos in our presentation that we would like to base our work on. Our films ideas are show in the screen shots below from our presentation. The Pinterest and Tumblr boards are on the previous blog posts below. We handed out questionnaires to the class to get feedback from our film ideas and overall presentation. The picture above shows our findings.

Tumblr

Here's the link to our Tumblr blog - http://mediapitchblog.tumblr.com/

Pinterest Inspiration

 

Lou decided to make a Pinterest board on my personal account to get inspiration for our Horror sequence. It includes films We will take inspiration from and lots of scary pictures, real and fake with spine tingling stories attached. Pinterest is a good way to look at individual, interesting ideas for thousands of things. Pinterest can be used for lots of things such as finding art for school work in certain subjects or looking for inspiration on decoration or crafts and new things to try. It's a nice way to share images you've chosen in a aesthetically pleasing way. You can search for specific things and put them together so easily which I really like. Also following people who have similar interests to you or boards is a good way to expand your board and learn new things. Making one for horror inspiration gave us some ideas for colours to use, we also looked at other films we liked, costumes, typical horror lines from memes on there from Tumblr, locations e.c.t. We searched for things like horror and then went into more depth like particular films we wanted to take inspiration for our sequence from to create the board. (Some of the pictures/stories that go with them are quite unsettling, be warned)

Here is a link to the Pinterest board and the account.

http://www.pinterest.com/louwebb92/scary-truth/

Film Ideas

Art of the Title

In my group, we looked into an already existing title sequence, for American Horror Story which is a horror/drama television show. We did some analysis into the images shown (which is on the powerpoint) and also the timing of the titles. 

Link to the full intro: http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/american-horror-story/

BFI Research

For my task, I did some research into the film industry to help me understand what audiences want and how the film industry works.
First I looked into the box office report of 31st Oct-2nd November as this the was the Halloween weekend so I can look at the horror movies.

What I found most surprising was that the most gossing film that weekend was a none-horror genre, however, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise has a large following. The majority of the films featured are also action/adventure films, which shows what the majority audience may want to see. Action/adventure is a genre in which escapism is easy and the films are mostly enjoyable to watch.
The horror films featured are Ouija, Annabelle and The Babadook. Although Ouija looks to be of the horror genre, IMDb categorises it as a Thriller/Adventure. This could suggest why it's so highly ranked, as thriller and adventure are popular in the box office. The film was given very low ratings, however, I think the reason it was ranked high was because of its low age restriction. This allowed younger audiences to enjoy horror in the cinema and less people are likely to illegally stream it because they are too young to see it in the cinema. The film has a young cast also, so it will be more appealing to younger audiences who may use the cinema as a social outing.
Annabelle had a slightly higher rating of 5.7/10 from IMDb, however, it's views will have mostly been gained from the past connecting film, The Conjuring, which was also highly viewed.

Surprisingly, The Babadook, with a higher rating, was the lowest ranking. My first thought was if it was a higher age restriction but it is a 15, just like Ouija and Annabelle. Another reason may be because the distributor is lesser known than Universal and Warner Brothers. It also seems more independently made and may not cater towards the mainstream viewers. This is what my group plans to aim for, a less mainstream feel. The fact that the top ranking horror films are 15 suggests that some people may want to see a film that is family friendly, with less gore and sexual themes.
Overall I have learnt how well some films have done recently and possibly why. This helps me to understand what our audience is and what they will want to see.

Pen Portrait for Target Audience

Photoshop Lesson

Today in lesson I was taught some different photoshop techniques as well as the basics. The tools I learned to use included the lasso, layer styles, colour type etc.
The first task we were given to try was simple text with a dripping blood effect. Using the paintbrush tool to draw the blood drips, then using the thinning and bulging tools to make it more realistic.
This practice will help with my next project as it is connected to the horror genre.
The final task we did was to edit a face underneath another face that has been cut out. This also connects with horror and also helps with practice for designing posters.
Keep posted!
- Phoebe

Horror Sequence

We were split into groups for our opening sequence project. We were given the task to create a short, roughly 30 second, horror sequence to give us inspiration and ideas about the horror genre. A lot of our influence is from horror films that we have seen.
The background audio seems to be missing from the file, but a track called 'Death' from Under the Skin was used. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp0EW4ReZcA

Horror Films and Codes

Our group had a practise at making our own 30 second horror film introduction. This was to help us use the narrative and technical codes we have learnt in association to horror. These codes are used in most films. Certain codes are associated with different genres. Here are so horror genre codes:

Narrative Codes: Some common characters are the heroes/survivors, the killer/monster, the 'final girl' and other details such as children being used for sinister roles as they are innocent, this makes itmore disturbing. Horror films often have an equilibrium that is disturbed and is often resolved in some way at the end.

Technical Codes: Strange/crooked camera angles are used to create confusion and disturbance. Unnatural colours and dark lighting are often used to create the horror mood. This connects to the idea of the fear of unknown. The sound and score are often used to make the scenes uncomfortable or to build tension. Crescendos and loud noises are often used to create this mood.

All of these codes help the audience understand what genre the film is.

The Breakfast Club Swede

Narrative Theory in Relation to ‘The Fly’

  While watching David Cronenburg’s film ‘The Fly’, I considered several different narrative theories in relation to the film.  The Fly is a body horror film with hints of sci-fi.

 The first was Propp’s theory. Propp’s theory explains that there is a list of character types: The hero, the villain, the doner, the helper, the princess, the princess’s father, the dispatcher and the false hero.

Following The Fly’s story, many of the character tropes change in my opinion. At the beginning of the film, the two main characters, Seth Brundle and Veronica, are introduced. Seth seemed like the hero character since he was the first one introduced, with good intentions of his new invention. Veronica seemed to be the doner as she wants to write about him, or possible the helper as she supports his invention. However, early in the film, Seth plays the piano in a minor key and claims Veronica can’t leave. This gives the affect that maybe Seth isn’t as good as he seems and may be in fact a false hero or villain.

 When it is established that Seth and Veronica are in a romantic relationship, V. may seem to be the princess if it follows the stereotypical female trope in movies. However, as the article is what V. cares about, and her editor/ex-boyfriend competes for it, that may be the princess, the award at the end of the story, and V. is the doner of it. Her editor seems to be the villain of the story, as horror-esque music plays when he is in the scene, and since he still wants to be romantic with her, Seth is now emphasised as more of a hero. 

 When the monster of Brundle-Fly is created, Seth is seen as the villain is some parts and the hero in others. He realises his problem and tries to fix it, but ultimately embraces his change and becomes the monster, almost villain-like. In the final scenes, Brundle-Fly is seen to be dangerous, and, as he tries to save Veronica, her ex is seen as the hero. He may be a false hero as his overall character is viewed to be negative. Ultimately, I believe that Veronica is the hero using this theory as she kills the monster, but was also supportive and brave. "Be afraid. Be very afraid." shows that she is against the 'monster' that is Brundle-Fly.

Another theory is Torodov’s theory of Equilibrium and Disequilibrium. This theory is much simpler. It suggests that most films are based off of this pattern. A balance (equilibrium), the balance is disturbed (disequilibrium), then problem is realised and an attempt to fix it is made. Then there is a new equilibrium is made as the problem is solved. Following The Fly, this theory fits. The equilibrium is when Seth and V. are together and are developing the teleportation device. The disequilibrium is when the Brundle-Fly is created, this is only later discovered when he turns more into the monster that he made. Seth attempts to fix it, V. wants to help him and V. also wants to abort the baby she is pregnant with which is a creation from Brundle-Fly. The new equilibrium is when Seth wants to die and V. kills him. However, the film ends with questions such as what V. did with the baby. She is extremely upset by Seth’s death and the ending is rather sad, but the problem has been dealt with. The balance has somewhat been restored.

 Another theory is Barthes who explains that a film’s narrative is like a ball of string. How the text can be deciphered and how they were put together. A film may be Open, meaning there are some questions left unanswered, for example, a cliffhanger. If it is closed then all the questions have been answered by the end of the film. If the narrative is linear it is all in order, if it is non-linear then it is out of order and may use flashbacks. It may be single stranded with one storyline or multi-stranded with more than one.  The Fly has an open ending as you can still question what happens with the baby, it is also linear because it is in order of the events and is single stranded as it only has one storyline. An example of a non-linear, multi-stranded film is Pulp Fiction.

 Barthes broke down narrative into two codes: action, where the resolution is produced through action, and enigma, where the audience is teased by presenting a puzzle to be solved. The Fly uses action as there is a shooting that ends the problem.

 Levi Strauss’ theory is that there is binary opposition in films. That there is a conflict between two qualities or terms, for example, good and evil. This is harder to connect to The Fly, but most probably the opposition to the ‘normal’ characters is the Brundle-Fly creation,

 The last theory I looked at was Carroll’s which is specifically for the horror genre. His theory is that there are 3 phases: Onset, Discovery and Disruption. The onset phase is when the monster or disorder is created. In relation to The Fly, this is when Seth creates the ‘Brundle-Fly’, however, you could say the monster creation is the teleportation device itself or its creator, Seth. The next is the discovery phase, where characters discover the creation of the monster/disorder. This could be when either Veronica finds the “not human” insect hairs on Seth’s back, or when Seth discovers what he is from his device-“FUSION” He realises he was fused with a fly. The last phase is the disruption phase, where the characters destroy the monster and restore normality. This would be when Veronica kills the ‘Brundle-Fly-Pod’ as the monster is destroyed, however, the ‘monster’s’ baby is still inside of her, suggesting not all of the normality has been restored.

This has helped understand some basic theories on how films are made and written.

Keep posted!
- Phoebe

Swede is Complete

 We have finally completed our swede of The Breakfast Club! Here's an overview of it:

 Our swede was of The Breakfast Club. We chose this because we are fans of the film and director, it was also very easy to shoot since we didn't need many props, costumes were normal clothes and the setting was in a school.
 We did encounter some problems with the technology, mostly with the camera. Since our group of 5 fit the cast perfectly, in some shots we were missing a cameraman. This was easily fixed when we had a tripod, but when one wasn't available we would have to choose an angle in the 180 degree rule that excluded the cameraman's character in that shot. Another problem we encountered was losing footage due to the stop/play button being confused, which meant we had to re-film. These difficulties have taught be solutions and gave me the idea of what making a film is like.
 During the project we used a handheld camera, a tripod, a mac and Final Cut Pro for the editing. This project has taught me how to plan a short film, working in groups and how to edit. I realised how in depth the process is and how there are sometimes many different shots in one scene.
I have learnt many skills in preparation for my foundation portfolio. I know what making a short film is like and understand the different roles involved. It definitely gave me enthusiasm to create even more.
Keep posted!
- Phoebe

The Making of The Breakfast Club Swede

Over the past few weeks, my group has worked on the production of our swede of The Breakfast Club. Now, we are almost finished, despite a bit of tweaking.
In the early stages, we started with making a storyboard of all the scenes we wanted to film, however, we couldn't visualise all the angles on paper as it would have taken too long. But we had our plan in mind. We decided the scenes would be:

• The introduction which explains the setting of the film by showing Bender (Lou) entering the school and text to explain that it was Saturday morning detention.
• The lunch scene in which there are a lot of comedic moments and introduces the character's personalities in what they eat.
• The chase scene which includes changing shots between Vernon and our group running in the corridors.
• The circle scene where some of the more deep themes are shown.
• The dance scene as it is the most iconic.
• The end scene in which Bender throws his fist into the air as the screen fades.

On our first day of filming, as we did not need any props, we wore outfits that were as close to our character's as possible (I played Claire) and filmed the lunch scene and started the dance scene. Our earliest mistake was in some scenes in the lunch scene including Claire's lunch. At some point, the pause, stop and play buttons were mixed up, causing us to end up with the footage inbetween the takes, meaning that in later days we had to re-shoot those scenes. However, this wasn't that difficult to do and didn't harm our time management. The dancing scene took longer as there were many different shots. We took the audio from the film which is the song 'We Are Not Alone' by Karla Devito, and used the song out loud as a reference to keeping in time. Shortly after this was finished we filmed the ending scenes on the field in which the famously know song 'Don't You (Forget About Me) by Simple Minds will play.

The next scene we filmed after school and it was the corridor chase scene as we could take advantage of the empty hallways. We used different angles from our tripod. One shot was filmed with us running towards the camera whilst it was pulled backwards, following us as we ran. Another was a low angle shot, showing our feet as we ran. We were able to feature our teacher Miss Eardley in it as the teacher, Richard Vernon. 

On a separate day, we filmed the circle scene, however, we shorted it a lot from our initial idea. We also filmed an extra whistling scene. We then filmed Lou entering the school and some still shots of us looking at the camera to use in the ending speech as we had not got enough footage to fit.

The last scene we shot was Vernon and Bender arguing over detentions. This was not in our initial plan but we deemed it necessary to add it near the start to establish that Bender is the rebellious character, and that Miss was the detention's teacher.

For most of the scenes we either took audio from the film, or used the songs from the film's soundtrack in the background. We uploaded and edited scenes along the way to ensure we had all the scenes we needed. It allowed to have a clearer idea of what we needed to do when we next filmed. Thanks to Gemma, all of the editing is complete, including rolling credits and background music. Some bloopers may be added as we were we left with some very funny clips.

The picture at the start of this post is our impersonation of the iconic Breakfast Club poster which we wanted to be at the end of the credits and also used in out twitter: https://twitter.com/theswedeclub

I felt our group was very enthusiastic about this project, from the dancing to the songs, we had a lot of fun making it.

Keep posted!
- Phoebe

Starting Media - About the Blogger

My name is Phoebe, I'm 16 years old and this is my blog for my AS media coursework. This is where I will update my progress on the projects that I will produce. I enjoy many aspects of media, mostly music, television and film. Over many years I've had a passion for media and now I finally get to study it. I've gained a lot of inspiration from the things that I have watched/listened to in my life. 

Some of my favourite bands are Arctic Monkeys, Gorillaz, Peace and Foster the People. Not only do I like the music they create, but many of their music videos are very interesting and I've always wanted the chance to learn how to create them. My favourite films are Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, The Breakfast Club and Back to the Future, though I am also fond of films directed by Baz Luhrmann and Quentin Tarantino. In terms of cinematography, Wes Anderson's films are beautiful. I find that I prefer films with good soundtracks/musicals such as Scott Pilgrim., Moulin Rouge, The Great Gatsby, The Perks of Being A Wallflower and various John Hughes movies. My favourite television show is BBC's Sherlock, ultimately because of the brilliant writing and score. I also enjoy shows such as American Horror Story and Orange is the New Black.

I chose to study media because of my passion for it. I want to learn how to properly film and edit, as well as learn cinematography and directing skills. I imagine that my ideal career will be in media, especially in terms of filming/directly/editing. I am certain that I will thoroughly enjoy the course as I already am! For my first piece of coursework, I have been asked to make a Swede of a film of our group's choice. We have chosen The Breakfast Club to recreate using the minimal resources we have. I will keep posted on the projects progress.

Keep posted!
- Phoebe