Filming schedule

Scene: 1
Description: Hope is seated in the room doing make up
Characters:Hope
Location: Bedroom
Setups: A dressing table with a mirror
Time: 1 Hour
Props & Kit: Camera Tri-Pod Make Ups

This is an image of our main character 'Hope'. The person we decided to use to play this part is Stephanie Parker as she fitted the profile description we were aiming to fulfil. We wanted the character of 'Hope' to look like an average teenage girl.

what have we learnt from our preliminary task ?

http://prezi.com/imx50h6ef3bj/what-have-we-learnt-from-our-preliminary-task/

Editing

The editing process took us two weeks to complete. During this time we gathered ideas on placement of shots as a group and each gave input in order to personalise the film exactly how we wanted to make it. We decided that our film should consist of abstract shots to create an eerie feel, this would also enable us to hide the identity of our killer.

The credits we decided to use are 'clip video' titles. These titles allowed us to experiment by using a range of techniques to get the titles exactly how we desired. Our aim was to create titles which fitted with our horror genre, yet did not copy other films we has researched upon.

what kind of media institution might distribute your media production and why ?

http://prezi.com/-y3ormmflhaz/media-institutions-distribution-companies/

Our group e-mail

We created a group email to enable organisation of any work. In order for us to access the work from whatever computer being used at a time. It enabled us to make sure we had a backup of work so our entire group can view the work this meant that if someone was absent and they have access to internet they would be able to send work so others could publish it to there blog and also use in practical lessons.

The youtube account creation enables the group to save videos of influences to our favourites which we can then use on our blogs for future reference and also it allows us to post our videos we create.

How does your media product represent particular social groups ?

It is clear to see that the main social group of our film is teenagers. In order to interest this age group we decided the main character of our film should be of a similar age, which we believed was a good way to enable viewers to relate with the actions of 'Hope'.

The character 'Hope' fits the natural teenage stereotype of a young female in many ways, for example the use of a dressing table is seen as a natural furniture piece owned by all women as a place to resume their beauty regime. Here on the right is an example of a woman advertising perfume seated at her dressing table.

The use of beauty products is also typically linked to females. The lipstick shot we created gives a strong feminine feel to the film. Red lipstick is often associated with promiscuous women and the close up of the placement of lipstick on Hope's lips presents a sense of mystery similarly to the image of this woman.

In what ways does our media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The title of our film
The title of our film is displayed in the final frame of our opening piece, this allows a build up to be made in order to reveal the identity of who one would assume to be the unidentified mysterious character. We used a large sized font to create the title, which allows the audience to see behind the titles which gives a sense that something is to be unveiled.

Setting/location

The setting we decided to choose to shoot our opening sequence was in a simple bedroom area, this was set at my house. We used a traditional style white dressing table in order to give an angelic feel to the environment, this contrasted with the dimmed candle lit light. Furthermore an example of a movie set in a homely area is the introduction of "American Psycho", the lighting in this film contrasts to the actions that are to take place in the film similarly to ours. The difference is that our movie begun with a chilling atmosphere due to the light we used within a safe and comfortable setting.

Props
Props we decided to use in our film are seen to be conventional female beauty products which are used on a daily basis whilst getting ready. These props would not be found in a typical horror movie. One item we used to create a typical horror atmosphere was a standard large kitchen knife. This knife is similar to those used in horror movies such as the shower scene in 'Psycho'.

Camerawork and editing

The shot in our opening sequence which is influenced strongly by the film 'Se7en' is the one where Hope is filing her nails which is taken up close, similarly to that of the hand in Se7en where a hand is shown to be sewing.

This shot creates the mysterious atmosphere we were aiming to create. It also keeps the identity of Hope hidden from the audience watching.

Title, font and style

The style of credits we used in our film were influenced by the style of those used in the movie 'Se7en'.

Using the same style of writing for each of our credits creates mystery due to the writing being see-through, using this creates suspense as to what is happening behind the text.

The style of font we used is simple yet effective and has not been used in any other movies we researched, which suggests out credits were an original idea. A comparison could be made between our credits and those which are presented in the movie "Se7en".

Story and how the opening sets it up

The opening sequence we have put together sets up the rest of the film by introducing a character who's identity is hidden from the audience. This enables the set up of the following scenes to slowly reveal the identity of the character Hope. This is similar to the use of hidden character in the film 'Texas chainsaw massacre' which creates suspense and suggests something is to take place.

Genre and how the opening the suggests it
It is made clear from the opening sequence that the genre of our movie is horror. This is shown through the eerie music which creates an unsettling feeling, whilst the abstract camera shots create an unsafe environment. The opening sequence we created gives off the same vibes felt through watching 'Se7en', it creates suspense and unsettles the watcher in to wondering what will take place as little is given away whilst watching the opening and only a build up of tension is made.

How characters are introduced
There is only one character introduced in our opening sequence. The character of Hope which we introduce from the very beginning of the film has her identity hidden from the audience, all the audience can see from the start is the character from behind revealing long feminine blonde hair. We then reveal parts of Hope through various camera shots such as the lips and hands. Revealing the hands of the character before letting the audience see the face allows them to focus on the actions of the character, this is similar to in 'Se7en when we can see the actions of the actor but not the identity.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process on constructing this product, and why ?

In the creation of the opening sequence product we have learnt a wide range of technological skills. In which we have practiced and developed during the making of this media project. We used experience from the preliminary project and developed our understanding of how different camera shots, and edits helped to create the feel of a mysterious horror.
For example:

Shots
We really got a handle and understanding of what shots worked well in certain places of production. A slow reverse zoom from an extreme close up of a hair brush gave suspense and a mysterious effect. A circular pan of the character sitting down works as an establishing shot of the short scene. In story boarding/filming we made sure we focused on the object shots as this would help represent the process of a female daily routine.

Lighting
With our film we wanted to accomplish an effective horror. So during filming we tried to use less light. However, when we uploaded the video's on to the Macs, we realised that the lighting was too dark and quite grainy. In the end we decided to re-record with the main lights of the room on a higher setting. This managed to work out well. As the room still looked quite dim, the effect we were going for.

Editing

When editing the opening sequence we used the apple macs to upload the recordings we had taken. On these there are different software's that were very helpful in production. Such as imovie and garage band. These were very successful in helping us to produce our short films.

Sound
As we were not permitted to use copyright protected music, our group decided to search myspace for a soundtrack that would fit well with our theme. It needed to have beats but at the same time have a slow and muffled sound. we managed to fulfill this by using garage band (a software on Macs). We added affects until we were happy.

Equipment and technologies used in production:

• Video camera - We used the video camera to capture all of our shots for the opening sequence.
• Tripod - The tripod was used when when filming a steady shot, Like an extreme close-up.
• Apple Mac - These were used the whole way through the production process.
• Camera - A camera was used to keep track of all the work we were doing production.
• i-movie - Used to edit the opening sequence, by putting in different cuts, fades and graphics.
• My Space - This was used to find a sound track which is not protected by copyright.
• Garage Band - This software was used to edit the soundtrack found to make it more original to fit the genre of film.
• YouTube - Our group used YouTube to watch examples of similar opening sequences. To get an idea of what worked well without using too many cliches.
• Google - This search engine was used to look for examples of company logos.
• Candles - These were used as an eerie looking light source. Whilst sampling, we found that the candles really worked in collaboration with the video camera and gave off a significantly effective light.
• Facebook - We used facebook to keep in contact with each other, sending links and photos to one another. We also printed some pictures of typical looking social groups to stick up on the wall in order to be filmed as we had designed.

Filming - Part 3

In lesson time, Stephanie and I put together a range of photos and magazine articles relating to the character of HOPE, whilst Antar and Tom worked on the editing. We gathered up group images of 'Hope' and cut out articles such as 'how to be happy in a social situation' which we found to be of relevance to the film we were creating. After doing this we placed the images on a blank wall and created a collage, this was then filmed close up with a monopod to create a personal effect and draw attention to HOPE'S personality meanwhile hiding her identity.

Filming Part 2

The second shooting of Hope took place during half term, it was much more of a success than the previous shooting. It allowed us to work on the faults from the previous time and improve our work. We found that using candles to create light around the dressing table prevented the shot from being too dark, adding to the light for some scenes we used a lamp to create extra light and to create shadows creating an eerie feel. This worked especially well when HOPE reaches in to the drawer for the nail file, as when her finger is running along the knife, the light follows her finger and reflects off of it.

Furthermore, we improved our camerawork by working on the steadiness of the shots by using the monopod when possible. Due to some of the shots being at awkward angles we had to use handheld camerawork, this proved difficult to get perfect non-shaky shots but we repeated the shots until they were correct.

The shots included did not follow the storyboard exactly, as some had to change due to it facing to be too difficult. But as a whole the shots we planned to include in the film were included, but varied in order. Shots we still needed to film were the pictures on the wall, which we were able to do in lesson time and the S.T.A.N. logo.

The Filming

On the first filming session we experimented with lighting in order to see what worked. After looking over the material we filmed, we found that the darkness prevented the viewer to see exactly what was taking place. This meant that in our next filming session we would look at ways to improve this situation. The ideas we came up with using were: candles, torches and lamps.

We also found that some shots were slightly shaky, so would try to improve this by using the tripod more often, rather than using hand held camera work. To add to this some shots were difficult to film, for example the shot looking over 'HOPE'S' shoulder was an awkward position, especially due to not being able to include her face in the shot.

There was also an issue with the amount of shots we were planning to include, as many of which didn't go as planned. For example the shot of including a title within spilt nail polish was near impossible as the nail varnish dried to quickly, so we decided to cut this from our film. We replaced this with a close up of the red nail varnish bottle and 'HOPE' playing with it, which looked similar to playing with blood.

S.T.A.N logo- Development

Whilst experimenting with creating the S.TA.N. logo to include at the beginning of our film, we tried out using spray paint but decided that using Black acrylic paint on white A3 card would give a more professional look.
Here is the process of creating the logo:

coming up with the S.T.A.N productions logo

Coming up with the S.T.A.N. logo

We as a group came up with the idea of inserting a production logo at the beginning of our project. The idea begun as a simple sketch, we then developed this by deciding to use real life hands holding the 'S.T.A.N. productions' sign. This would give the feel that there is an image inside another image, and would be effective as an abstract extra to the project, in order to give a personal feel.

Creating the Film Title

We are currently in the process of creating our main title and playing with certain ideas to see what will suit our production the best. Our plan is to adapt the text in photoshop by adding different effects and images to the title to see which would have the best fitting affect, making it original and relevant to the film. The angel we have decided to experiment with was found on google images like many others.

This angel could be seen as metaphorical to Hope's name as the name can be defined as 'to wish for with the expectation of fulfilment'.

American Psycho Opening Sequence

• American Psycho links in with our project as with the opening sequence it shows the detailed and over the top approach to everyday life, the methodical thinking a depth of a serial killer.this approach makes the idea seem a lot real, the reality making even scarier to the audience. this realness is something we hope to achieve.

http://prezi.com/c_9zoag-wdqj/target-audience/

This is a prezi presentation of our productions target market research, showing ways we have a looked in to finding the best target audience for our production.(Prezi is the link above)

Dexter: Morning Routine

• This is clip of Dexter,this links in with our production idea as it shows the what appears to be the morning routine of an everyday person, yet the deeper plot of Dexter is of a serial killer,and each event in the morning links in with the idea of murder and preciseness of murder for example whilst he is eating his breakfast,the ketchup as a symbol of blood and the tearing of the egg, almost resembles flesh being cut. As a group we liked the idea behind this clip very much as it was a clever way of introducing a horrific ideas around everyday life.

Se7en (Opening Credits)

• We firstly looked at the film Se7en for some ideas of how horror opening sequences work.We noticed that music was some what key to a horror film as people often recognise the tune or are scared more by the soundtrack. We also took the idea of how the key character is left a mystery parts of the body are shown but you can not tell who the person is; being unable to view the character from early on creates more horror because of the mystery of whom may be the culprit of the horrific events which we expect to occur in the film.

Synopsis

Present day, London. HOPE, the name of a young teenage girl; a well know face with in the community;with no known enemies HOPE was a popular girl with friends, family and others. She was achieving above average in her academics and had won many awards for her dancing. Life seems great in Hope's perspective, until one night of a distressing event... we first meet HOPE as she is devising plans in her room; these plans where to isolate one girl, VELNA her best friend before the events which destroyed HOPE'S life. She plans and depicts to cause her pain and grief like her own, by killing VELNA'S friends and loved ones. Gruesome murders take place, all victims from VELNA's life, she becomes more isolated, more panicked from what is happening all round her. no clues, no evidence to who has carried out these attacks the only link is VELNA.