Individual Evaluation 7

Individual Evaluation 6

I have learnt over the last few months about many different technologies that i didnt know about before the project started. Through the process of this project we have used many different types of equipment in order to produce this media product. By the end of the filming process we had mastered the art of using the camera and we had also figured out on how to process the the footage to the Mac. Processing footage is a long task that needs to be done as it has to be converted into the prefered format. once on the Mac you can re-order it and then begin editing.

This is a picture of Me, Fay and Reece using the mac book Pro to take a photo of ourselves during the experimental stages of this main Task. This was to show that we was getting used to the Mac and all the different things that we can do with it. the camera we only used, to take a photo of the people in our group.

This is a photo of me using the camera to show that i am able to use it and am able to show how the process of filming takes place and for how long it takes.Using the camera at tyhe start was okay for me as i have had previous experience making short films and knew how to waork a camera. It was a pretty simple peice of technology that i enjoyed using as i filmed the majority of our main task.

Finally this is me on the Mac Book Pro. I am showing how we  all used this software to edit our Film opening and how to edit our footage properly. as i am doing this my team are editing different part of the footage on their own computers using the basic software. This was a little bit more complex then using the camera as there is a lot more stuff that we had to do in order to convert and edit it.

Individual Evaluation 3

This is the directors commentary for our media product to help in get distributed to other countries. 

We called our production company “BRYF Productions” because we used this name in the preliminary task and we decided we wanted to keep it we stayed in the same group.

·        A production company provides the fundraising for making the film like partnering with another company like Pixar partnered with Disney.

·        A film distributer would release the film to the public through the cinema or DVD’s or Blue Ray. They do this directly if they own the film distribution networks or by the other sub-distributers.

·        The money for producing our film came from borrowing money from the school which if we were to produce our film we would make money and make a profit so we would pay them back

·        We decided to put all the names and titles in this order because we thought that it would better suit in the way it was so that you see the production company first and then the actors who star in it.

·        We decided on the colour of the footage because we wanted to create a creepy effect on the film without doing too many special effects.

·        We used a song from YouTube called scary music to add a different dimension to the opening. It was creepy and made the footage look so realistic and true to real life media.

·        The Title was done in blood Red font to make audiences see that there is blood and gore ahead in the rest of the film to keep them entertained. It is a hidden part which makes audiences thinks that it is scarier than other horror/thriller films.

Individual Evaluation 5

The way in which we have attracted our audience is simple. We used quite an attractive actor in the Film opening so that we can have more of the female audience attracted to the idea of the film. As well as this we used an attractive acctress in the Film opening so that we could boost the number of males who decided to watch it. We also used our skills in advertising, by going around our schhol and letting people know that we was going to be filming on the school grounds, so if they wanted they could always participate in viewing the production of our film first hand.

These are the pictures of the two actors in our film opening. as you can see they are both attractive actors and our audience will be exited to watch the action for themselves. this is one reason why they have been urged to watch our film opening.



We have annotated the video and we have commented on how we have done things and the things that we have accomplished from it.  the link to the Annotated youtube video is HERE!!!!

The annotations for the video focus on editing decisions we have made as a group.

Individual Evaluation 4

The Target Audience for our media product would be Teenage Girls from the age of 15 to 17. we have discussed in other posts that they would be the audience we would target as they were the ones to answer our questionnaire and we got the most audience feedback from them. We had a graph which showed that the majority of the audience who saw our Film opening liked it and would like to see it again. 

The picture to the left is a drawing which we drew of our typical target audience. It is female because of the amount of females that participated in our questionnaire. She is 16 and enjoys watching zombie comedy's with friends. She shops at New look and Republic and enjoys buying lots of clothes. she occasionally shops at Rampage to get some funky belts and studs. She has recently purchased an acid Green Hair extension to wear when she goes out.

She listens to All sorts of different music such as Punk rock and Electro music. She buys lots of CD's with any spare money she has as she is a real fan of the music industry.

Her favorite TV programs are Walking Dead and Death Valley because they are slightly scary and they are the sort of programs that she enjoys watching. Her favorite films are Zombieland and The Crazies because they are also scary and she enjoys the thrill of the films. she like to buy the DVDs to the films also as she likes to be frightened over and over again. Our whole target audience is like this character and enjoy many of the same things as her and are as crazy as her to be as committed to the genre of film and stay that way. Lots of our Target audience are the same as her and enjoyed Our film opening.


These are the Two TV shows that our target audience enjoys because of the gore and scary qualities of them.

 

These are two very good examples of well made Horror shows that have done well over in America and in Britain itself.





This is the Film "The Crazies" which is one of our target audiences favorite films as well as "Zombieland"


This is another example of a well made and produced film that is aimed at the same target audience as us and has had great success because of them.


The Target audiences that we have chosen and the film competitors have chosen have been relevant to our focus groups and we have had success due to the fact that we tackled the problem of getting an audience. We then got the correct target audience for Our film opening and therefore have had great success.

Individual Evaluation 2

I think that the Media product does represent certain social groups and the main one would be teenagers. teenagers are attracted to Horror/Thriller films as they are more interested in these sort of films rather than an older audience. The Audience will be able to relate to the characters of our film as they are round about the same age and they will be feeling emotionally attached to the characters. Teenagers will also be able to understand the story a lot better as they will relate to them, whereas an older audience might not understand because of there wisdom and common sense. The 3 weeks later scene was added in the end to attract a wider range of people because they will be interested in what exactly does happen next. Teenagers will also be aware of the events that may happen and will want to stay tuned to see if the rest of the film turns out like as planned.

In the picture above we have a comparison between Reece's character and a zombie character from the film "Zombieland". for our version of the shot we have edited the colour on it as part of our film. We have changed the colour of the video footage to make it appear more creepy. the original footage was bright and Colourful because the weather was very bright although it was raining. the picture from Zombieland is bright because this is the way that the their producers and director wanted it. This picture is very similar to the quality of our original film footage. The blood used in these are very different as in our film as we didn't use a lot of special effects for the blood. Unfortunately we didn't have the time or materials to make them look  realistic. we also did not want to make a lot of mess as this would have to of had more effort and time wasted cleaning up after ourselves. In Zombieland they had a lot more time then us to make mess and to clean up afterwards. Because of this Zombieland looks more realistic than our film opening.


The costumes that where used in the two films are very different also. the ones used for Zombieland were made especially for the stunt actors to wear. The clothes are very normal looking also and have been covered in fake blood to make them look more authentic. The clothes in which we used in our Film Opening were dark so that Reece could blend in with the backdrop and could be hidden from fays character. We also made his cloth choice quite normal looking and nothing with blood on so that he looked like a regular person. This would have been a good effect to use in Zombieland as it would have kept the audience guessing on who are the Zombies, and who are the regular people.


Reece doesn't appear to have eaten yet, whereas the zombies in Zombieland eat all the time. Because Reece is not covered in blood like a regular zombie then it must mean that he has only recently gone through "The Change". As said before it is really obvious who the zombies are and that they will kill everyone in sight. In our film Opening this is not as clear and this puts our audience on edge.


Although there are many differences between Reece's Character and the Zombie, There is a few similarities too. One of them is that both of them have the same goal in mind and that would be to kill and eat their victims. This makes them both ideal candidates for both films and perfect for any Horror/Thriller. The social group which is Female teenagers who we are targeting this at, must be very impressed with the characters use and how they are both unique to this film and may not be seen in other film that have been produced.

Individual Evaluation 1

Our Main Task for media was to Create a Opening To a Film which is no longer than 2 minutes. We have successfully completed our film opening which is fit for purpose and is watchable. It fits perfectly to the genre  which we set out to have which was Thriller/Horror. we have also successfully made sure that it is suited for our target audience. It was all a very long process be as we all worked together, we was able to complete it on time. It was a hard process with lots of ups and downs but we managed to improve our skills in media and create a worth while piece of film.

                              This is Our opening Sequence to our Film "Prohibited" 

The conventions that we were planning to use for our film opening were:

• To make our Film as dark and Creepy as possible
• To have Bright and Bold Font for the Opening Title
• Use as many different camera angles as we could.

I personally say that we have challenged the forms and conventions of real media                         products as our film opening is unique and has many unanswered questions evolved within it which a lot of other film opening do not have. we have used some other conventions from our Deconstructions "Zombieland" and "Hostage" because we wanted to film real life action with the credits overlaying it. we wanted to do it like Hostage, as we wanted the audience to feel involved in the film so they knew what was going on and the events that could follow. 

We used a Bold Red Title, like the one from Zombieland. we wanted to make the title jump out at our audiences and to make sure that it stuck in their minds throughout the film. We used Blood RED so that the audience identified that as Blood, and they would instantly know the film may contain a lot of gore. This 100% is relevant to the type of film we set out to make.

I think that we used a wide variety of shots and camera angles as we wanted to do this from the beginning. Our film opening is good because of this reason and inst boring by using the same camera angle all the way through it. We did not use the conventions of "The Mummy" as there was drawn elements which we couldn't fit into our film as it wasn't relevent to the story, therefor we did not achieve this type of form. The mummy's scene also quickly merged into one another which we did not do as our piece was made up of live action shot, whereas the Mummy is a lot of drawings and different effects which we didn't want to have as it wasn't relevant to the effect that we wanted to achieve.         

I think that we deffinatly achieved all of the Conventions which we set out to do in the beginning throughout our film opening. We created the Creepy and scary effect by placing an innocent girl and a cute dog in a dark and abandoned area. this instantly caused our audience some stress as they knew that things were not good. By adding a Crazed Fresh eating lunatic  to the equation, we created fear in the minds our our audience and the sympathy emotion for the girl and her dog. We also achieved our third convention as we made sure to add lots of different camera angles including: Close ups, match on Action, mid shots and panning shots. we used the 180 degree rule and wide shots with the Hand held camera to create more of a scary atmosphere and to make sure we didn't break one of Films key rules. 

Audience Feedback

For our Audience Feedback we all decided to create an Audience Feedback Questionnaire. we handed all of these out to 6 people who watched our film opening and the filled them in according to the following questions which are stated blow. 

Here are the results!! . . . .

The first question that we asked was "What is Your Age?"

- Four people who answered this questionnaire were between the age of 15-17. One person answered this question as them being in the 18-21 bracket. And the last person stated that they was in the bracket of 27-30. These results show that the majority of people who filled in the questionnaire was in the bracket of 15-17 years old. this means that we were right to have our target audience as being 15years and older. This also means that if we were to distribute and advertise this product to an audience then we would have to aim it to this particular bracket.

The second Question that we asked was "How much do You Earn Annually?"

- The majority of the results which we received was £12,00 and below. This was due to the fact that the majority of the people who answered this question was no older than 17, meaning that they probably do not work and even if they are employed, it is very unlikely that they will earn more than £12,000. Although we did ask a couple of older people who answered saying that they earn £25000 and over. This means that our established audience is around the social group of late teens/early adulthood. This is what we was aiming for and we managed to achieve it.

The Third Question that we asked was "What is Your Gender?"

- To properly understand who we are going to distribute to, Gender plays the biggest part of the audience analyse. When we tallied up the the amount of male or female who answered, we discover that 2 males had answered and that the majority was female, making it 4. This means that the majority of our advertisement and marketing would have to be aimed at a female audience. When considering this we knew in order to attract females to the film, we would have to advertise with the feminine touch. By stereotypical Females, you wouldn't put Guns and blood and explosions on a cover as a male audience would be more attracted. We would have to do the opposite effect in order to get our target audience interested in film.

The forth Question that we asked was "What is your Occupation?"

- the majority of people that answered the question were students with a part time job. this result was predicted by us as they was again no older than 17. We also had one result from an English/ Media teacher and she answered the questionnaire as part of our feedback. from the results of this question we know establish that the audience that will be viewing this film will be Working class rather than Upper or Lower Class. 

The fifth Question that we asked was "What was your Favorite Part of our Film Opening and Why?"

- We got quite a lot of positive response from this question as they all liked different parts of our film opening. Our Media teacher said that she liked the camera angles and the style of the footage at the very start of the film opening. we really appreciated this coming from her, as we worked really hard to come up with the start and to come up with the angles to shoot from. Another person said that they really enjoyed the part where Charley ran off. Me personally am so proud of that shot as Charley did this the first time round and we didn't have to touch this piece of footage. Someone else said that they really enjoyed the part where Fay Tripped over as this gave the scary film a bit of comedic value which was needed to break up some of the tension. This feedback is amazing as we are all very proud of what we have achieved. 

The Sixth Question that we asked was "What didn't you like about our film opening and Why?"

- people answered this question with the answers "Maybe more stuff needs to happen early on, More mud, and the title had no reference to the actual film opening. these are all the respondents opinions and we take them all into consideration. If we were able to film it again we would make it a little longer so we could build up the tension a bit more to further scare our audience.  

The Seventh Question that we asked was "What suggestions would you give us in order to Improve this?"

- We got a lot of positive feedback and the stuff that was given to us as improvement was also very positive. one person said "Maybe the scene where fay is killed should be more gory". I also think this as the scene didn't look that convincing as it should. Because of the area we was in and the supplies that we had, we wasn't able to make or buy blood to use. if we had a little more time and did it out of school time then the blood aspect would have made the killing more realistic. Another said "Change the title". I think that the audience didn't understand why is was called "Prohibited". we should have made it a lot more clear that the area which Charley & Fay entered was in fact a prohibited area. We was originally going to have a sign on the gate which would have probably explained the film a bit more, but we didn't have time to make one.

The Last Question that we asked was "Would you watch the Rest of The Film?"

-  Luckily for our group, everyone that we happened to ask said "YES". I was expecting a mixed review but was gladly surprised when they all said that they would like to see the rest of the film. Unfortunately, we are not making the rest of the film as i would take a very long time to complete. Some reasons that we guessed for this reaction was because the audience wanted to see what happens 3 weeks after fay is killed. The reason may even be that the audience felt that there was enough tension and suspense and they wanted to see if the effect is shown through the rest of it. We have truly created a brilliant piece of work and have a attracted a good audience which we think would stay loyal to us and the film.

Our Film Credits!!

This post is used as our credits for the film opening That we have made. the information given is what would have been shown at the very end of the film. These are what we as a group have discussed and decided where the best roles for what each individual has accomplished. The Credits are as follows:

Staring - Fay Sawyn

            - Reece Taylor

            - Charley the Dog

Director - Bret Newman

Producers - Fay Sawyn

                 - Bret Newman

                 - Reece Taylor

Editor - Reece Taylor

Written By - Fay Sawyn

Camera - Reece Taylor

             - Bret Newman

             - Fay Sawyn

Makeup & Costume - Fay Sawyn

                                 - Bret Newman

Created By - The Avenues Studios

These were all the titles that we thought were appropriate for our film opening and therefore felt was needed to be established. we as a group worked hard to produce this film and wanted to do those justice for the hard work that they have done during the Experience. 

Our Film Opening

This Is our Completed Film opening Which we have posted so that you can see It in its Final format. The link to "Prohibited" is below and we hope that you feedback to us on comments which will be useful in our evaluations

Watch Prohibited Nowwww!!!!!

:)

Editing The Video

For our Film editing  we used the MacBook Pro with the apple software called iMovie. It was a simple and easy to use piece of software that we could edit our film opening on and get good effects like a professionals film opening would.We was able to get hold of the Mac as our teacher owned one and allowed us too use it in order for us to be able to edit properly. The screenshot below is of the opening screen which you get when you first open up iMovie. 

 

When we was editing the film, it was a very quick process as everything could be slotted into place with a few things added on top of the film footage. this whole experience lasted for a double lesson so it did not exclude 2 hours.We decided to add the "Bleach Bypass" effect on top of the entire film clips to give off the effect of being dark and not quite right. we wanted to make our audience as scared as possible and this effect gets rid of some of the light contracted by the original footage. It dulls down the Opening by a lot and gives off the effect of coldness and awareness that something may go wrong. 

For the music, we used a track off of Youtube called "scary music". This track was not copyrighted so it was free to be used by anybody. we made sure that we double checked this to make sure we was 100% aware of the risks involved if it turned out to have copyright attached. We decided to go with this music rather than something else because it gave our film opening a scary atmosphere which left audience feeling uneasy. the music was very scary and increased in tempo as the film progressed making it more scary for the audience to watch. This makes the audience feel that something is going to happen to the girl, but they are not sure what. 

We had to make sure that all clips were cut into the right size so that the film opening didn't jump and flowed in a way that it wasn't too difficult to view. the majority of the clips we had to trim down by a few milliseconds on each end, but there was also a clip that we cut 5 seconds off because the angle and position of the actors was not correct.

We added in a few black screens from where we faded the action into black,  to show who who the people where that had created the film and where it was done. One shot even showed the production company where it was made. This effect was also done to show the crossover from Fays feet walking, to Charley the dog being walked by Fay. We then continued to edit by placing the three Staring captions over the top of the footage. we made the black screens and the white writing for the credits fade in and out after a few seconds. 

We named our group Film "Prohibited" which we show in the film opening right after Fay screams because Reece is about to Kill her. Once the scream happens, we Quickly cut to black and the Red (Blood Like) text appears in the form saying Prohibited. we made the text Red in colour so that the writing really stood out and attracted the audiences attention. This text stood out the most out of all the text used as it was in a different colour and would have stuck in the audiences mind for longer. 

Planning Locations!! (Coates)

During our initial planning of the locations for our Film opening We also picked out another location which would have been good to use in our film. The location was on the North Green of Coates and was situation down Cow lane. You had to travel right down to the bottom of the the back road in order to get a clearer view of the empty field. There was also a massive tree area just before the field and a small walk afterward which would have been good for our film opening. the image below is of a birds eye view of the location and from it you can see just how big the field is and what good shots could have come from using this location. You can also see that as the road follows around, there is a lot of trees by the side of the road. This would have been ideal for Yasmin to jump out of in fear of being killed. 

The second image which you can see below that the field is very big and there are a lot of bushes and trees which will be better for us when editing, as the school area and this are wont look too drastically different. These shots would have been used at the end of the Film  opening as Yasmin escapes the Forrest and enters the abandoned field like area in search for her dog Tyler whom ran off earlier in the segment.

As you can see from both pictures above, these pictures where taken off of Google maps as it was easier to get them from here rather than going all the way down to the location in order to get photographs. Overall this location will be good for the ending of our film opening as it will create the correct feel which we want to portray in it. 

The Filming Process

On Friday the 20th of January 2012 we went out to the back area of school and filmed our media Film opening. we first had to sign out at the college first, in order to go and collect Charley (Reece's dog). Once the dog had been put on its lead, we then walked back to the school and used the back entrance so we didn't have to go through the schools buildings.

We got to the area we was going to film in and began. the area is situated behind the science block so we was aware we may get interrupted. luckily we had no trouble from the students in this area. we also had to double check with the science technicians to make sure that we was still allowed to proceed with the filming in this place. once that  had been verified i needed to apply some makeup to Reece in order to make him look more scary and in role. we used face paints that had been given to us by the drama department to create the effects that we needed. We used Blues to give his face the appearance of being cold, Reds were used to show blood on his face and Yellow was used also to make his complexion look pale and washed out. We also used black to define his eyes to make them see a lot bolder than they were before, the stage makeup was applied. the picture above shows how scary he has become by the makeup we have applied.

When we began to film in the rain which we all felt gave the film opening a little extra spook to it. we filmed scenes with the 180 degree rule and to ensure that the audience didn't see the forth wall. we also used the match on action rule because we wanted to make sure that the film flowed as well as it could. Some shots we found didn't fit properly so we cut them down when we edited the film together.

we had to re-film some of the shots and angles as at one point of the opening, the PE students came outside and started to make noise. We had to set up the scene again to make sure that none of the noise was captured in the background. We also had to re-film some shots that involved Charley as she sometimes wondered off course or got distracted by one of us. when we got the shots that we needed, we was really happy with it and happy that Charley was as disciplined as she was. 

Even with the absence of Yasmin, we skill managed to do everything we wanted without her. i think that the filming was even better than what we all first thought it would be. The overall filming process went really well and we didn't have many disruptions. We completed all of the above in 2 lessons (which is about an hour and 40 mins) that was a massive achievement for us as we didn't think that we could do it.

Changes That have Been Made!!

First of All we had to make some changes to our original storyboard. Yasmin Unfortunately left our group after some absents from the decision making process and therefore we had to continue the process without her :(

As Yasmin was the main character in our Film we had to adapt the opening to fit in with another Character. This also effected the fact that we wanted a dog to feature in our opening. therefor we used our backup option of using Reece's dog "Charley" instead. Charley is a very well trained dog that was very obedient while filming this opening sequence. Because Yasmin's Dog "Tyler" wasn't even a year old, it would of been very hard to train and would of been more difficult to have on the set as we didn't want Tyler running off. Charley on the other hand is very well trained and is a lot more obedient than Tyler. This then worked out for the best as the dog did what she was told and it was delivered really well for our final film.

Something else that we changed was our location. we was going to film some parts of the opening in Coates as there is a large field which is unoccupied and would have been great for our opening. But due to some weather conditions and travel arrangements, we could not go to Coates to film. Therefore we did the entire filming process on the school grounds in an area which was secluded from other students and where our filming could be not interrupted.

Fay also had to take over the Role of main character in the opening as Yasmins departure left a gap in it. Fay did a really good job in the Film sequence as she had to learn what to do and the way to act in a short period of time. There was a couple of parts we had to re-shoot as fay wasn't happy with the outcome, so we did so and the opening turned out to be a lot better than originally planned.

The ending was also slightly different in the opening to what it is shown as on the storyboard. Instead of the chasing sequence going on for a while longer we cut it so that we could cause more drama and tension in that way. Due to the fact that we couldn't get to Coates, we also cus our ending which was the female protagonist running through some trees and appearing in an open field. Instead the attacker got to her quicker, and also in the same location. Originally both myself and Fay where to be other Zombie like creatures, but as fay had to become the Protagonist, it was easier for Reece to be a Single attacker in the Woods.

Planning Locations!!

We need to make sure that the location is in the right place to look good and also to have a good atmosphere for the Zombie/Thriller/Horror Setting. it needs to look realistic so that the opening looks authentic and as realistic as possible. we have decided again as a group that we will be filming our opening in the grounds of the school as this would be easier and we wouldn't have to travel to get to another location. 

This was the first picture to be taken. it was taken as soon as we spotted this place in the back area of the college. we looked for many different locations around school and realized that an outside setting would be different and also because of all of the trees that are in this area, it fits in with a stereotypical "Thriller".
In this picture to can see two big green gates and this is where our film will start. The Protagonist of this will open the gates while walking their dog and enter the abandoned area. We have also had the idea to have a  broken sign on the gate reading "Do Not Enter".

This is an image of the first tree that you see as you walk through the gate. it was old and broken in places and looked like an arm emerging from the ground, trying to grab its prey. A lot of the trees in this area where like this and bairly any of them had leaves on them. this was probably due to the fact that it was winter and was very cold and wet. This added a creepy effect to the area as it was spookily silent while round there. So much so that you forget that you are in a school. We did not like being in the Prohibited area for those reasons.






All three of us thought that the area was a brilliant one for our film as we was all very uneasy while in this part of the colleges property. you could hear no noise from any area of the school which made this location the best for our film opening.
the picture on the left is of another tree that was further up the trail of the area. This is to show how different each part of the area is and how they can be represented in our film. because this tree was a different shape to the last, you could get under it, making it an ideal place for our predator.

Around the Corner of the trail we found this rotten stool that has been there for over 3 years. all the wood had gone soft, the metal and rusted and snapped off, and the ground seemed to have grown around it.
It almost looked as if the ground was swallowing it up. The picture demonstrates how abandoned this area is in real life as well as the film itself. by this point we was all pretty happy with the area and we all knew that it was the spot where we wanted to film for our AS exam.

After deciding that this was the right area for our filming, we decided to play with the camera and test out a few shots in order to get more of a feel for the film. Reece hid in the trees with the camera and decided to take a photo of myself and fay running for our lives. By taking the picture in the trees, it shows the audience the predators point of view and perspective. This shot was timed perfectly as the motion is just right so you can physically see both of us running. it was a good shot as it represents everthing thst we want to acheive in the final film project.

This final shot isn't as good as the last but shows a more detailed and close shot of both me and Fay. This picture too is from the predator or stalkers point of view. it creates the feel of being watched and that the "Thing" could attack at any time or any moment.

There is also another location we would like to check out and that is a field in Coates which would serve as a great ending of our Film Opening. We haven't looked into the location yet but when we do, we will make a decision on whether to use this location as well.

Reply From the Email To the Principle!!

On Tuesday 17th of January 2012, four days after the email was published and sent out, The principle replied to my email personally giving us the permission to have Yasmin's dog on the School grounds. In the Email which is shown below, he kindly responds to the email clarifying the requirements that we need to undergo in order to have Tyler in for filming. Tyler will now be coming onto the school grounds on Friday the 20th of January in order for us to film the part of the opening with him involved. the email which was sent back is just below. 





the email lays out the basic requirements which we need to follow, and that we will follow while having Tyler on the Schools Property. We then decided to email him back to thank him for taking the time to read the email which we sent to him and for replying to us so we can continue to undergo our media/Filming process.

The emails that were sent out are a good example of communicating using media!! i feel that we could have approached the principle in person, but this may have taking a while as we understand that he is a very busy man and might not have been able to see us. The email idea was good because it was still personal, but was easy for both ends of the communicating cycle.

Email To Assistant Principal (Business & Finance)

I emailed the head of business and finance to get permission for Yasmin to bring her dog "Tyler" to come onto the school grounds in order for us to film the opening of our Film. I spent time thinking about what i wanted to say before sending the email to them. As a team we have decided that this was the right thing to do. This is the Email that I sent to them. . . .

This email was sent on Friday 13th of January 2012. Obviously we did not expect a reply straight away as we understand that the head of the school has a very important job and is busy most of the time. We will appreciate it if he get back to us about this issue, as otherwise we will have to do our filming else where.

Deconstructions of Existing Openings - Hostage

Hostage

Click here to See the Opening of Hostage

The third film opening that we have chosen to analyse is the 2005 thriller "Hostage" which was directed by Florent Emilio Siri. The film was written by both Doug Richardson and Robert Crais. Crais was the one who wrote the book Hostage in 2001 and it was later adapted into film format. The film stars Bruce Willis, Kevin Pollak, Ben Foster and Johnathon. The film follows roughly the same plot as the novel. the main difference being the subplot which involves the mafia was removed and the age of the hostage takers was lowered slightly.

The first screen shot, the camera pans down to two buildings. We can see the actor "Bruce Willis" name on those two buildings with the word Bruce in white and Willis in Black. These two colours correspond and look good against the Reddish backdrop. The buildings are realistic but have been animated in a way that they look real. The fact that the buildings are not real, recognizes that this is not an actual place and doesn't give it a setting. This shot is in play for about 3 seconds and then it quickly flashes to the title. 

In the next scene you see the middle of the title of the film spinning whilst the camera is panning outwards. The title is in red which were the buildings are in the background parts of the title goes black the red is the colour of the sky in the previous screen and black is the colour of the buildings. In the background you see a birds eye view of a town which is in black and white, doing this sets where the film is probably going to be set. 


The following scene is of a telephone mast with the actor 'Ben Foster' going up along the side of it. The pole is in black with white, where the light is hitting the mast. It is an animated mast and continues the animated theme throughout the opening. The sky is a red and this relates to the genre of horror as it is the same Colour as blood.. The camera is below the mast which means that it has a higher importance than us the audience. this shows the pole to be towering above us, making us feel uneasy and not safe. this scene is again shown for about 3 seconds before moving on to the adjacent one. 


In the next scene you see a police man with a white helmet who looks like he is trying to get over the fence but he is not sure if it is dangerous or not. On the poles there names like 'Serena Scott Thomas' and 'Robert Knepper'. The scene looks very dark and gives us a scary but edgy feel to it. The scene changes with barbed wire from the next scene coming across the screen,merging them together.


The next scene is of a set of stairs with the words 'Music By Alexandre Desplat', each of the letters are placed on a separate step. This is done so when the camera moves over the stairs then you can see the words then they break up as if they were on a concertina. There is a shadow of a man in the corner at the bottom of the stairs of police men. 


The scene after is of a street where one of the houses is in red and the rest are in white this shows that the attention of the screen shot is aimed at the red house. The whole scene is animated but it looks as if it is real. The camera pans over the houses to show the front of the houses and the road where the writing is placed. 


In the next scene you can see a police man holding a gun. the gun is pointed just out of the shot so it is a little difficult to see, the gun appaers to be large, but because of the technique used it may in fact be very small The shot then follows around the wired fencing,  you can then see that their is writing on the gun. Before this part is put into play you can see that the gunman is hiding behind a a piece of board with has writing displayed on it, as the camera pans round you see the first set of writing on the board and then the camera proceeds to move until you see the second set of writing on the gun.  

You see in the next screen poles with white writing on the with a blurred out background of a police car. This shot is called a focus shot. At the start of the screen shot you can see the background clear and the poles look like they are just black with white colours on them then the camera focuses out and you can then see the poles clearer and the background faded, the scene just changed after this has happened.


The last scene is of a wooden board with writing saying who directed the film. In the background you can see the red house area which you saw earlier.  It is all blurry so you can no longer see it a clearly which directs the audiences attention straight to the board. At the very end on the Opening sequence you can see an animated telephone which quickly turns into a realistic one. you can see a man shouting down the telephone and he appears to be situation in the Red House. At this point in the opening the house is actually coloured normally and then the opening ends.


If we was going to create a film opening like this one then we would have to do the majority of the film in the editing side of things. this opening did not require a lot of filming as most of it was animated or just photographed and place over the footage. we are not going to be doing an opening like this one as it would require a lot of animating software and skills which we dont all have. That's why we are going to film the majority of it and place the credits over the to of the film. 

Script and Inspiration for our Opening!

For our filming process we will not be having a scrip as there inst a lot of dialogue used throughout the opening. there will be music played through certain parts of the film opening, but not all of it. there is a scene from the E4 hit series "Misfits" which we have got some inspiration from. we are going to use the same idea as they have in the scene below in one part of the opening.

the picture to the left is from the Season 1, Episode 6 of "Misfits" and was the inspiration for the opening of our film. we all thought that it was a good concept that they had and we all wanted for this to play some part in our final opening scene. The link to this Video is below.




Misfits - Gear Up Sequence!!






The sequence is really powerful and will be shown in our opening in our own interpretation.


So, because of the use of music and the effect which we are trying to create, we have decided that we do not need a script. because of the type of film opening it is, there is no room for dialogue as it just wouldn't fit in with the story. The most that Yasmin will say through this process is either "Tyler" or "Help". she will be doing a lot of screaming and gasping but not any real dialogue.

Group Storyboard

 This post is all about the storyboard that me and the group made in order to represent the story-line of our film opening. The story is planned out in easy steps so that they are easy to follow and very simple to understand. Hopefully the film opening will reflect storyboard in its end product so we can go back over it in order to say what improvements were made.

The first image has the basic story of Yasmin walking her dog Tyler. she walks him and enters an abandoned area which she doesn't know about. she is listening to music during this process.

The Second image starts when she has entered the area and she is venturing further into the woods. Her music cuts out and she feels as if she is being watched. she hurry's along and hears something following her and she starts to panic. As she starts to run, she trips on a branch and Tyler runs off. she gets up and Tyler is nowhere to be seen and she sees a zombie (Reece) behind her. She Runs off in a hurry, scared and lost.

This Final image starts with Reece chasing after Yasmin. Yasmin is terrified and wants to find her dog. she bursts through some trees and finds herself in a empty field with nothing there and no sign of Tyler. As she turns around, there are three pairs of eyes staring back at her. Yasmin screams as Reece, Myself and Fay jump out of the tree and drag her down to the ground. The final shot is of Yasmin on the floor with Myself, Reece and Fay eating her insides. the camera then pans down to her screaming mouth. as the screen cuts to black, the Title of the film is then dramatically shown.

the film name hasn't been decided yet as we are a bit sure on what to call it and whether the name will be good or bad.

Deconstructions of Existing Openings - Zombieland

Zombieland

Click here to view the opening of Zombieland

This is the First Film deconstruction that we "as a group" decided to break down. "Zombieland" is a 2009 American zombie comedy film directed by Ruben Fleischer. It was originally written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. The film stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin who are some of the only human survivors of a Zombie Apocalypse that has covered the planet and they must fight to stay alive. 


In the first clip of the opening of this film, there is a man falling from a watch tower, which is situated in a prison. the zombie which is stood above him is a prisoner from the jail, considering the orange jumpsuit he appears to be wearing. the guy who is falling is the police officer who would have been keeping an eye on him. As the police man falls, he falls through orange text reading "Columbia Pictures Presents". this then gives the audience time to view the text, it then blurs and merges into the next scene. the text for this shot in over the top of the footage and is there until someone or something moves or dismantles the text. 


In the second screen shot you have pretty mush the same editing as the shot before, except there is different text with a different thing happening to it. Again the text is over the top of the action and is in the same orange colour and same font. this time the text reads "A Pariah Production" and is located on the cinema wall. the text then gets distorted as the women runs past it. In the action segment, you see a young lady at the cinema with her milkshake, running away from a zombie. this shows that the lady was carrying on as normal when the zombie apocalypse occurs. 


in the third scene, there is 3 men that are running away from an exploding car, of which two of them are zombies. the orange text on the left hand side of the screen reads "Jesse Eisenber". his name is the knocked over by the zombies arm. the text then disappears and then another piece of text appears on the right hand side of the screen. this orange text reads "Emma Stone". this text is then disjointed by the human in front knocking it with his shoulder. In the background as the explosion goes off, a briefcase of money flies up into the air and money flies out of the case. 


In the next scene you have two zombies trying to be to held back by a member of a swat team. there is blood covering one on riot shields. the orange text is still a constant and is shown throughout the opening of the film. i think that the text represents the fire in the film as there is a lot of destruction being done to the planet by the outbreak. the text which appears, reads "And Abigail Breslin". this text is then destroyed by one of the riot shields. 


In the next scene you have the main title shot. it is the title shot because the main title appears and no other text is over the action in this clip. you have a guy with a crowbar hitting what looks like the screen. as the impact happens, the glass is shattered and the text, "Zombieland" is also shattered in half. this gives off the impression that the entire film will be very destructive and broken. 




In the next scene you have a very disturbing scene of a stripper running out of a strip club chasing out two clients. You see a fat man running in the middle of the camera shot; his facial expression looks scared and terrified but he also looks like he is struggling to run away from the zombie stripper. This maybe due to the weight or maybe another problem which we didnt see on screen. Like the other scenes, the fat man runs into the words saying 'Casting by John Papsidera' 'Costume designer Magaliguidasci' and 'Music by David Sardy' He runs into all 3 sets of words one after the other like in some sort of order. after he destroys the last set of words, the scene fades into the following one.



The next screen shot shows a zombie, which is on fire chasing 2 firefighters and one of them has a hose and is trying to put out the Blaze. The zombie which is still on fire, runs at the firefighter who has the hose; he dosent notice the zombie is running straight at him because he is standing with his back to the creature. When he moves the pipe, the water flys out and hits the writing making it fall upwards like dominoes. Also the firefighter that was running away from the zombie runs into the paragraph of writing which then crumbles up. The scene then merges into the next one. 


In the final scene you see a man that has been turned into a zombie being thrown at the window of a car. The camera is based in the passenger side of the car looking out at the man flying towards us. When the zombie man is flying towards the car window he spits out a lot of 'blood' onto the window were the camera is looking out of. His elbow hits into the end letter of 'Directed By Ruben Fleischer' The 'r' goes flying towards the camera and the other letters follow. When the man hits the glass the music is ending with a bell sound. 


Throughout the opening the soundtrack 'For Whom The Bell Tolls' by Metallica is playing, this song makes the opening sound like its in slow motion but also if you listen to the lyrics of the song they relate to killing and terror. 'For a hill men would kill, why? they do not know' This shows that men would kill anyone and they would not know what they was doing or why.




This is like what zombies act like their only function is to feed on flesh; this is killing people, zombies don't think about it so they dont know why they do it or what they are doing, this is like the lyrics form the song. This film deconstruction will help us decide what type of effects and type of shots that we will be using in our film opening, this depends on what our audience would want us to do as our film opening. If we were going to do a zombie film opening then we will be using some of these effects like having music that ties in with the action that is happening like 'zombieland' has done and having different scenes at different times to show that the zombies are everywhere and not just in one place. 




We will also try to make our film opening have a clear story line with an introduction like 'Zombieland' has done. It needs to reflect this as this is one of the best film deconstructions that we have looked at. We want our story to be gripping like this opening, so that the audience will want to continue to watch the remainder of the film.