Progress Update

Plans for the next week before deadline.

• Final filming - tent/sleepover house
• Editing
• Soundtracks
• Final posts of planning
• Audience research 3
• Blog updates on final filming
• Check blog is complete
• Export rough cut

All this must be completed by 8th April 2011 for Final Cut and Export

Progress update-MD

What we did?

Last night we completed the majority of the shots and i feel that the shots were really high quality with the consideration of the mise-en-scene.

This shallow focus shots not only showed that the use of the camera but with the inclusion of good mise-en-scene with clothes on the floor exacerbated our atttention to detail.

Another shot that i feel whent well was a pov shot that seems to be a shot from the perspective of the coat hanger.

What we have to do?

We only have a few remaining shots left the last dragging shot of the murder. Also we have decided to change the locations from the original story board option of a tent to a house because we felt that the lighting was not upto the standard. Nevertheless, we still feel that it will keep the integrity of the plot as it can seem like the ouija board has come out at a party and this will be part of her memory so the editing will be montage style. In conclusion, we have done tha majority of the shots and we hope to finish all filming by the end of the week, Friday.

We will do the rest of the filming on Friday.

Progress update

Excellent blog, you have all worked hard to meet conventions and now it looks great. Good detailed posts and progression clearly shown. Some omissions but Zoe, you seem to be on top of this, please delegate. With all work posted and a continuation of meeting deadlines and organising equipment effectively, this is a level four blog. Well done

Progress Update-MD

We filmed twice over the weekend and we have got the majority of the shots that we need for the opening sequence. However, we need to re-do the tentshots as the lighting was off when we tried two weeks ago. Nevertheless, we are planning to the complete all the filming by this thursday. In the meantime we are going to begin the editing from the filming we di this friday and saturday. I feel that saturdays shoot in particular was very good as we were able to create some good shots that mantained the ambiguity that our audience research showed was key in our opening sequence and mantain interest of the rest of the plot.

Progress Update

Today we have:

• Set the date for filming - 25th March/26th March 2011
• Printed our risk assessment
• Planned out a schedule for next 2 weeks till deadline
• Change in our chosen font as we found a better, more suited font

Anamatic story board

Progress Update

Today we have :

• Uploaded the anamatic
• Commented upon the anamatic
• Audience research
• Emailed Mr Fiveash about using camera
• Risk assessment

Audience Research-MD

When asking about the typography for our film, whilst taking into consideration that our film was a psychological horror genre and that it was based around the ouija board the majority of our respodents chose text 1 which was a simple gothic text. I personally also like text 3 which had the second biggest majority however, it was a bit more complex making it more difficult to read. What the audience research alluded to we took on board and have chosen to go with text 1.

When we asked the film should be called a clear majortiy showed us that our beliefs in the name gateway were appropriate considering that the film is based on these flashbacks connected with these 'gateways' that are create through the ouija board. Other names like ouija board were too explitclt so gateway provided a subtle solution.

The plot that we explained for the majority was very clear and for the rest was not clear but much clearer after we explained the significance of a ouija board.

Progress Update

Today we have done:

• Planned out the weekend shoots
• Progressed with the storyboard adding in some shots
• Added photos to blog
• Commented on storyboard

Progress Update

Today we have

• finished the final touches to the anamatic therefore it is now ready to go onto the blog.
• Going to do the house shooting on thursday after school.
• Put our Audience research onto the blog.

Filming

Today we are taking the camera's out for our first day of shooting.
We plan to film the very start of our opening sequence in the tent today, hopefully it will still be light enough to get some good shots. A review of the day will be posted up later with our evaluation of the day.

ZS - Genre analysis

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Nispel, 2003)

·   Camera techniques are particularly interesting in this clip, close ups start to tell the audience the story and introduce the protagonist.

·    The lighting is dark throughout which creates the mood of the film and is stereotypical of a horror film. The close ups on photos and newspapers are fairly simple and could be easily replicated.

·    The film is a horror; sub genre is a 'slasher movie' as it contains graphic and violent scenes. Although we are thinking of doing a psychological horror the effects used in this opening may still be very effective.

·    The editing in this piece is simple but effective, when there are close ups on the pictures and newspaper articles it fades into black each time to emphasis the 'dark nature' of the film.

·    It also uses a sequence of montage shots which in turn black out to create a story so that the audience is aware of his age and what happens at each point in his life. This is a quick way of introducing the story so that after the first two or so minutes the film can get straight into a new and exciting plot.

·    I also thought that the burning of the picture at the end was particularly effective because the flames lingered and were used for the transition between scenes.

·     Sound is mainly non digetic, eerie noises in the background which is already captivating the audience and making them aware of the genre of film.

·    This clip also uses the digetic noise of the father talking to the son. This dialect is key to the audience as it sets the scene by showing the audience that:

a) The boy works in a slaughter house,

b) He must be somewhat unfortunate looking and

c) What part of America they are in, from his accent. (Texas)

TO DO LIST.

-break up paragraphs with headings

-introduction to preliminary task (include brief)

-highlight key words & headings
space out paragraphs

- edit techincal analysis

-comment on mood board

-add in stills to break up text (scissor massacre)

-edit fonts so they are all the same (Pulp Fiction)

-add in class feedback on psychological horror presentation (23rd Jan)

Location Reccie Wilderness Woods

Where and When?

On the 8th of February 2011 our group conducted a location reccie in the Wilderness Woods with the aim of trying new shots and testing the camera and it's capabilities. This would later allow us to distinguish what shots would be achievable and of high caliber.

What was the purpose?

The main purpose of the reccie was to allow the group to test shots and comprehend what we would be able to use for 2 minute opening sequence. It also gave us an opportunity to accustom ourselves to the configurations and tools that the camera did and did not provide.

What did we do and what worked?

We tested out a series of shots that could be applicable to our 2 minute shots. We first of all had a series of basic shots that we needed to accomplish. These were the basic shots that would be expected to be able to be provided by the cameraman and still maintain interest from the audience watching the shots.

Consequently, we incorporated our knowledge, such as: the rule of thirds, cropping or overtly breaking these rules. Most of these shots were easily accomplished, however, I felt that some of the shots could be improved by considering more attentively the framing.

Adding to this, I discovered that a prolonged use of a point of view shot was unsuitable for our opening sequence. The next thing we did was choose three interesting shots. One of these worked especially well. This consisted of a low angle shot of which a person was dragged slowly out of the shot. This was especially suitable for our opening sequence as it was part of the psychological horror genre.

Another shot that we created was taking a close-up shot of someone walking from the side seeing their boots and the ground. This was good as it could be used more subtly used to engage the audience or simply to conceal someone's identity. Easily creating tension in the sequence.

What did not work?

We were generally pleased with the majority of the shots, although, i felt that the conversation shots could be improved. The continuity between the different shots and moving of the camera meant that the acting and imagery looked staggered.

Another attempt to create continuity i felt was unsuccessful because the circling of the characters during the conversation could have created tension but the timing between the different passages of dialogue was too difficult to create an effective sequence of shots.

TO DO LIST

PUT UP LOCATION RECCIE SHOTS
PUT UP RISK ASSESMENT AND ALL OTHER WILDERNESS WOODS
FINISH STORY BOARDING.

Group - Preliminary Task

Here is our completed preliminary task:

This is our preliminary task, this was done to test our ability to use continuity editing and generally explore different shots and angles with the cameras. Important elements to include were Opening a door, two lines of dialogue in a conversation, a variation of interesting/unusual shots.

This task has really helped us develop our ideas and introduced us to editing techniques such as time stretching and use of non-digetic sound.

MD-Possible techniques for opening sequence

0.30 onwards


Another possible technique that could also inflict dramatic impact is to have diegetic or non-diegetic soundtrack even before any image is revealed. The effect of this is that the audience already are prompted into the horror genre mind-frame. Do you think we could incorporate this in to the sequence, Jodie and Zoe?

Possible techniques for opening sequence

A possible technique that we could use is the way that the titles cut in and out of the images to make a sentence and inflicts a huge dramatic impact if we added it to other parts of the horror mise-en-scene. What do you think, Zoe and Jodie?