Thursday, 11 February 2010
Day of Filming (7/2/10)
We filmed everything on Sunday 7th February, making sure we had all the right scenes in order and the right costumes on. I decided to let Sabrina take over filming when I was dancing instead, as it was easier for Laura to put the right music on. My sister helped us by acting in the film as the person having a nightmare. We managed to get all the filming done that day so I could start editing it and working on my evaluation next week.
Friday, 5 February 2010
Third meeting (5/2/10)
We practised the dance for 'Disturbia' all the way through and filmed it, to make sue we had all the moves correct and to make sure we didn't forget it. We also discussed what time everyone should be at my house for to film the opening. I made sure everyone had the right costumes and didn't forget to bring them.
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Evaluation
1. In what ways does your media project use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My film opening is a mixture of genres, and its meant to develop them, particularly the horror genre, as a lot of horror films nowadays are very similar or are bad sequels. The title of my film opening is 'Disturbia', based on the song by Rihanna that I chose for the Zombies to dance to. This is a typical horror or thriller title, because it is creepy and comes from the word disturbing, which is what some horror films are described as being. The location is in a bedroom, which can sometimes be a usual place for horror films to be set in, but usually in films with serial killers or vicious monsters attacking people. The costumes and props used are dark clothing and white masks for the Zombies and pyjamas for The sleeping person. These costumes aren't very typical of horror films because they aren't bold or ripped in the way a monster would usually wear clothes and the masks are simple animal masks turned inside out. The camerawork and editing is very straightforward and plain, to keep attention on the storyline and the characters. Usually the camera would be moved around or placed at a certain angle, to make it look like the audience was actually a character in the film, to give them more fear and thrills from the film, but I decided to keep everything plain to make sure it wasn't confusing or annoying to watch. I didn't add any special effects for the same reason and the characters are introduced quickly when they go straight into their dance. The title has also been kept simple, white writing with a red glowing outline against a black background. The title appears before the end of the film opening, which isn't usually seen in horror films. I decided not to put any credits or themes with the title because the results of my questionnaire showed that most people don't like sitting through lots of credits or watching a lot of music images or colours at the beginning of a film. The storyline of the film would be a lot of strange events happening to different characters, that audiences can't work out whether they are real or just dreams and imagination of the characters. The opening sets audiences up for this because it appears to be a dream at first, but then turns out to be real. The title also helps because the characters are disturbed by these events. The genre is horror and the opening helps suggest this because the dancers are Zombies and the surprise of the dance not being a dream, is typical of a horror film.
2. How does your media project represent particular social groups?
I chose two other characters to analyse against my key character, The sleeping person. The characters I chose were Aurora from 'Sleeping Beauty' and Laura Baxter from 'Parasomnia'. These two characters have many similarities to my character, for example, Laura Baxter suffers from Parasomnia, where she sleeps constantly and only wakes up for short periods of time and Aurora was put under a curse to make her sleep for one hundred years. Laura also has a strange dream about a land full of mirrors and a monster chasing her towards a huge castle surrounded by trees and the sleeping person dreams about Zombies doing a strange dance in front of her bed. There are several differences between the characters, such as Aurora wakes up with a kiss from Prince Charming, The sleeping person wakes up naturally from the dream and finds out its real, but Laura has a sad ending because she never wakes up, but stays asleep in a coma like state, next to her boyfriend.
The costumes and appearances also differ. Laura and the sleeping person wear pyjamas, but Aurora is wearing a long princess dress. The characters have different roles in their films too. In 'Parasomnia' Laura is not the only main character and in 'Sleeping Beauty' Prince Charming is also a main character. The sleeping person in my film opening, 'Disturbia', is the main character; the dancers are background characters.
3.What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
According to my Audience Feedback questionnaire, my film would be quite popular to watch. To create the most profit, it would be important to release it into a cinema or small theatre where people would pay to see it before it was released onto DVD. Three films that were released in a similar way were 'FAME 2009', 'Love Actually' and 'Jeepers Creepers 2'. These films were released into cinemas to gain the most profit from audiences as they were popular ideas. From the results of my first questionnaire, most people interested in my film opening didn't like to see lots of titles at the beginning of a film. They preferred to see the titles at the end, and head straight into the action at the beginning of a film, which is why I only included the title in my film opening. A film like mine would probably have been funded by independent companies and would make the most money from being released into smaller cinemas, then introduced into larger ones like 'Showcase' and 'Cineworld' if it became more popular.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
My target audience member would be a typical teenager, who was into horror films that were different. They would probably be quite Gothic or Emo, not following usual fashion trends and being a bit different from everyone. They might shop online on websites such as 'darksideclothing.com' or 'deadgoodltd.co.uk' and would wear skinny jeans, converse and t-shirts with different designs on them or with band names on them. My target audience member would typically watch shows with a horror or thriller theme to them, like 'CSI:Miami', 'Goosebumps' and 'Special Unit 2' and listen to different bands like 'Fallout Boy', 'Lost Prophets', 'Cinema Bizarre' and 'Avenged Sevenfold'. I think this kind of person would be someone who was most likely to see my film and enjoy watching it.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
My film opening is designed to attract my target audience member, by being interesting and different from other horror films out today. The genres used are horror and dance. I feel I have used the typical conventions from these genres in a different way, by using the characters, dance and music to portray that the main genre is horror, while at the same time, including the dance genre. My film opening is quite similar to some other films, such as 'House on haunted hill (1999)', 'Stephen King's IT' and 'Cujo'. All three of these films are horror films and they all use most horror genre conventions, such as surprises, confusing openings where you don't fully understand what's happening and monsters. In 'House on haunted hill (1999)', it is difficult to tell what is happening in the building and what it has to do with the characters that appear later on in the film. It is only when you watch the rest of the film that you understand how the events in the film are connected. In 'Stephen King's IT' the same thing happens. You see the main character, Pennywise, but you don't know why he's there or what he is going to do. There are also differences between these films and my horror opening, for example, the opening of 'Cujo' is quite simple and relaxed, showing a dog chasing a rabbit through a field, then getting bitten by a bat. All three of these films also have opening credits, instead of leading straight into the film. I think that these similarities and differences would be important to attract my target audience member and other people too. My unique selling point would be that my horror film opening is quite different from other horror films, as I tried to think of a unique idea, to make it as different and interesting as possible without straying too far from the horror genre. I have a video below of the opening of 'House on haunted hill (1999)' showing the confusing opening sequence that audiences wouldn't understand until later in the film (2.49-5.24 on the video):
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I used two pieces of equipment to make this film; the video camera and a computer. However, I used a lot of websites and computer programs to help make it too: Facebook, Blogger, Email, Myspace, YouTube, Wikipedia, Google, Adobe premier elements, Microsoft Word, Paint, Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Excel. I learnt a lot using the camera, such as the different ways it can be held and the best places to stand in a room, to get the right shot and angle with it. Using a computer and Adobe premier elements to edit the film also taught me a lot, because I learnt the best way to cut out smaller parts of the film I don't want and that changes can always be made before, during and after filming and editing. I learnt how to use premier elements better as well, to put in a good title and to arrange and edit the clips the right way. The different websites were helpful too, as Wikipedia gave me different information about the film openings I deconstructed and YouTube helped me find clips of the openings for these
films. 
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
When I worked on my preliminary task, I learnt a lot about different camera angles and shots that could be used effectively to create different scenes when filming. I used a lot of close-ups in my film to show the different emotions on the face of the Sleeping person. I also used the different ways of editing and changing the timing of the clips in my main project, which is something I learnt from editing the footage from my preliminary task. From the preliminary task I learnt how to use the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot/reverse shot techniques. I liked the idea of using shot/reverse shot in my film, but unfortunately it wouldn't have fit in with my idea. I feel that from the work I did on planning and editing my preliminary task, I knew a lot more about how I wanted to film and edit my main task and how I wanted it to look when it was finished.
My film opening is a mixture of genres, and its meant to develop them, particularly the horror genre, as a lot of horror films nowadays are very similar or are bad sequels. The title of my film opening is 'Disturbia', based on the song by Rihanna that I chose for the Zombies to dance to. This is a typical horror or thriller title, because it is creepy and comes from the word disturbing, which is what some horror films are described as being. The location is in a bedroom, which can sometimes be a usual place for horror films to be set in, but usually in films with serial killers or vicious monsters attacking people. The costumes and props used are dark clothing and white masks for the Zombies and pyjamas for The sleeping person. These costumes aren't very typical of horror films because they aren't bold or ripped in the way a monster would usually wear clothes and the masks are simple animal masks turned inside out. The camerawork and editing is very straightforward and plain, to keep attention on the storyline and the characters. Usually the camera would be moved around or placed at a certain angle, to make it look like the audience was actually a character in the film, to give them more fear and thrills from the film, but I decided to keep everything plain to make sure it wasn't confusing or annoying to watch. I didn't add any special effects for the same reason and the characters are introduced quickly when they go straight into their dance. The title has also been kept simple, white writing with a red glowing outline against a black background. The title appears before the end of the film opening, which isn't usually seen in horror films. I decided not to put any credits or themes with the title because the results of my questionnaire showed that most people don't like sitting through lots of credits or watching a lot of music images or colours at the beginning of a film. The storyline of the film would be a lot of strange events happening to different characters, that audiences can't work out whether they are real or just dreams and imagination of the characters. The opening sets audiences up for this because it appears to be a dream at first, but then turns out to be real. The title also helps because the characters are disturbed by these events. The genre is horror and the opening helps suggest this because the dancers are Zombies and the surprise of the dance not being a dream, is typical of a horror film.
2. How does your media project represent particular social groups?
I chose two other characters to analyse against my key character, The sleeping person. The characters I chose were Aurora from 'Sleeping Beauty' and Laura Baxter from 'Parasomnia'. These two characters have many similarities to my character, for example, Laura Baxter suffers from Parasomnia, where she sleeps constantly and only wakes up for short periods of time and Aurora was put under a curse to make her sleep for one hundred years. Laura also has a strange dream about a land full of mirrors and a monster chasing her towards a huge castle surrounded by trees and the sleeping person dreams about Zombies doing a strange dance in front of her bed. There are several differences between the characters, such as Aurora wakes up with a kiss from Prince Charming, The sleeping person wakes up naturally from the dream and finds out its real, but Laura has a sad ending because she never wakes up, but stays asleep in a coma like state, next to her boyfriend.
The costumes and appearances also differ. Laura and the sleeping person wear pyjamas, but Aurora is wearing a long princess dress. The characters have different roles in their films too. In 'Parasomnia' Laura is not the only main character and in 'Sleeping Beauty' Prince Charming is also a main character. The sleeping person in my film opening, 'Disturbia', is the main character; the dancers are background characters.
3.What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
According to my Audience Feedback questionnaire, my film would be quite popular to watch. To create the most profit, it would be important to release it into a cinema or small theatre where people would pay to see it before it was released onto DVD. Three films that were released in a similar way were 'FAME 2009', 'Love Actually' and 'Jeepers Creepers 2'. These films were released into cinemas to gain the most profit from audiences as they were popular ideas. From the results of my first questionnaire, most people interested in my film opening didn't like to see lots of titles at the beginning of a film. They preferred to see the titles at the end, and head straight into the action at the beginning of a film, which is why I only included the title in my film opening. A film like mine would probably have been funded by independent companies and would make the most money from being released into smaller cinemas, then introduced into larger ones like 'Showcase' and 'Cineworld' if it became more popular.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
My target audience member would be a typical teenager, who was into horror films that were different. They would probably be quite Gothic or Emo, not following usual fashion trends and being a bit different from everyone. They might shop online on websites such as 'darksideclothing.com' or 'deadgoodltd.co.uk' and would wear skinny jeans, converse and t-shirts with different designs on them or with band names on them. My target audience member would typically watch shows with a horror or thriller theme to them, like 'CSI:Miami', 'Goosebumps' and 'Special Unit 2' and listen to different bands like 'Fallout Boy', 'Lost Prophets', 'Cinema Bizarre' and 'Avenged Sevenfold'. I think this kind of person would be someone who was most likely to see my film and enjoy watching it.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?My film opening is designed to attract my target audience member, by being interesting and different from other horror films out today. The genres used are horror and dance. I feel I have used the typical conventions from these genres in a different way, by using the characters, dance and music to portray that the main genre is horror, while at the same time, including the dance genre. My film opening is quite similar to some other films, such as 'House on haunted hill (1999)', 'Stephen King's IT' and 'Cujo'. All three of these films are horror films and they all use most horror genre conventions, such as surprises, confusing openings where you don't fully understand what's happening and monsters. In 'House on haunted hill (1999)', it is difficult to tell what is happening in the building and what it has to do with the characters that appear later on in the film. It is only when you watch the rest of the film that you understand how the events in the film are connected. In 'Stephen King's IT' the same thing happens. You see the main character, Pennywise, but you don't know why he's there or what he is going to do. There are also differences between these films and my horror opening, for example, the opening of 'Cujo' is quite simple and relaxed, showing a dog chasing a rabbit through a field, then getting bitten by a bat. All three of these films also have opening credits, instead of leading straight into the film. I think that these similarities and differences would be important to attract my target audience member and other people too. My unique selling point would be that my horror film opening is quite different from other horror films, as I tried to think of a unique idea, to make it as different and interesting as possible without straying too far from the horror genre. I have a video below of the opening of 'House on haunted hill (1999)' showing the confusing opening sequence that audiences wouldn't understand until later in the film (2.49-5.24 on the video):
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?I used two pieces of equipment to make this film; the video camera and a computer. However, I used a lot of websites and computer programs to help make it too: Facebook, Blogger, Email, Myspace, YouTube, Wikipedia, Google, Adobe premier elements, Microsoft Word, Paint, Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Excel. I learnt a lot using the camera, such as the different ways it can be held and the best places to stand in a room, to get the right shot and angle with it. Using a computer and Adobe premier elements to edit the film also taught me a lot, because I learnt the best way to cut out smaller parts of the film I don't want and that changes can always be made before, during and after filming and editing. I learnt how to use premier elements better as well, to put in a good title and to arrange and edit the clips the right way. The different websites were helpful too, as Wikipedia gave me different information about the film openings I deconstructed and YouTube helped me find clips of the openings for these
films. 
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
When I worked on my preliminary task, I learnt a lot about different camera angles and shots that could be used effectively to create different scenes when filming. I used a lot of close-ups in my film to show the different emotions on the face of the Sleeping person. I also used the different ways of editing and changing the timing of the clips in my main project, which is something I learnt from editing the footage from my preliminary task. From the preliminary task I learnt how to use the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot/reverse shot techniques. I liked the idea of using shot/reverse shot in my film, but unfortunately it wouldn't have fit in with my idea. I feel that from the work I did on planning and editing my preliminary task, I knew a lot more about how I wanted to film and edit my main task and how I wanted it to look when it was finished.
Wednesday, 3 February 2010
Second meeting (30/1/10)
We met up on Saturday to plan the rest of the dance, practice and arrange a time for filming. We managed to work through most of the dance without too many mistakes and we came up with some more ideas for the 'Disturbia' part. Because I am planning on filming on Sunday, we decided to use the rest of the week to practice after school and get all the costumes together.
Editing
I used Adobe premier elements to edit my film, because it is easy to use but still makes the film look professional. I started editing on Thursday 11th February. I cut out all the scenes that went wrong first. I deleted the first run through of the dance we did because we forgot some of the moves and were out of time with each other. I then worked on putting the different scenes together, making sure they were in the right order, and they all flowed together and nothing important had been cut out. After making sure the sound and lighting was right, I worked on the title. My original idea was to have a red background dripping down the screen like blood, with black writing fading in over the top. But I couldn't find the right kind of background. I then decided on a green background that I found on Premier Elements, but it said 'Episode One' at the bottom. That gave me an idea to change the title of the film opening. I was going to use this idea but when I tried writing over with my original title 'Disturbia' in a glowing red and white writing on a plain black background (after I deleted the green one), I decided I liked this title better, because it sounded and looked more sinister and creepy, which would match the idea I'd had for the movie. I then decided to change where the title was because I preferred it appearing straight after the dance and the scream being at the end of the film. I had to make some changes to the storyboard after this.
Camera Use
I rented the camera from the School Library on Friday 5th of February. I first used the camera on Friday, to film the finished dance for 'Disturbia', to make sure we didn't miss any moves or forget anything. I decided to start filming on Sunday 7th February, after we had all practiced and finished the dance. I filmed some of the scenes and acted in the film too, playing the role of one of the monster dancers.
We finished filming on Sunday, getting all the correct scenes in and making sure everything had been filmed in the right place with the right times.We had to re-film the dance after we got a few steps wrong and the music went wrong.
We finished filming on Sunday, getting all the correct scenes in and making sure everything had been filmed in the right place with the right times.We had to re-film the dance after we got a few steps wrong and the music went wrong.
Construction
I have used a lot of ICT to make this opening. I used word to create the script, storyboard and questionnaires. I also used paint for the pictures on the storyboard. I had to use these programs a lot, to make changes to the script and storyboard. I used blogger.com and Powerpoint for my written coursework, explaining my film opening and everything I needed to do to create it. I used facebook to send out my audience research questionnaire and to email everyone involved in filming and acting in my film opening, and I used myspace to email Rihanna's music company to ask for permision to use 'Madhouse' and 'Disturbia'.
I used a video camera to film everything. To edit my film opening and to burn it onto a DVD I used Adobe premier elements.
I used a video camera to film everything. To edit my film opening and to burn it onto a DVD I used Adobe premier elements.
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