Blog Finished!

Links

Preliminary Task ~ https://vimeo.com/146686695

Final Project ~ https://vimeo.com/159511179

Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task what do you think you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

 

 

Going back to November when I did my preliminary task and comparing it to my title sequence, I have realised that I have improved on many features including many continuity errors which were clearly present in my preliminary task including the 180 degree rule and making my action matches better and smoother.

The preliminary task had several problems one of the main factors being that the continuity of my piece was not perfect and there was several errors with this and also that I broke the 180 degree rule and my action matches were right leading to the door to not open smoothly but instead jumped quite a bit.

Now comparing this video with my title sequence which we have been working on since then, I can clearly see that I have improved with the continuity of my shots and there seems to be no problems with my action matches and I believe that they are a lot smoother and are not jumpy. I also followed the 180-degree rule with my media product and my continuity seems to be a lot better than what it was during my preliminary task.   

 

1st Action Match



2nd Action Match



The improvement in the action match can especially be seen in my final piece compared to my earlier attempt at it during my preliminary task. In my final piece there is a total of two action match shots, the first where she leaves her bedroom to go into the hall and the second is when she goes from the hall into the bathroom. These both were shot from different sides of the doors and I believe that both the shots used to compose each one was edited smoothly together, where as the one which I did in my preliminary task was off by about a second which is quite easily seen.

 

 

The improvement in the 180-degree rule has massively improved from what it was during my preliminary task as during that I managed to break this rule. However, during my final piece I managed to keep the 180-degree rule especially during the two different shots of my main protagonist walking in the bathroom.

As well as improving on the continuity from the progression of the preliminary task to my final piece I had also improved on other factors of my editing like how to change and add effects onto a shot which was especially used for one of the shots which was particularly grainy and not to an acquired quality which I wanted, I also was able to improve on how I put in the titles for my final piece as before I was unsure for how to put text on top of the shot but when doing my final piece I managed to work it out and used this for the title of my film which was shown on the cheek of the dead body.



Evaluation ~ Question 6

what have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

 

 

For this question I have presented it in the form of an emaze presentation as I thought that this was a more effective way than creating a making of documentary

 

Evaluation ~ Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

 



Evaluation Question 5 from Charlotte Dyer

Evaluation ~ Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

During my research in looking into age certificates on the BBFC, I have decided to rate my film a 15 due to the fact that there is quite a bit of blood and gore in my film as well as bad language and dangerous behavior and violence being used as well as drug taking which would not be appropriate for those under this age.

BBFC's  definition of what is allowed in a film with a certificate of 15

From the definition from the BBFC I can see that my Film covers the majority of the requirements to be in a 15 film as:

• Scenes of strong violence is used which includes the murdering of the victims.
• There is some strong use of language which is mainly coming from the main protagonist which is influenced by her takings of  alcohol and drugs.
• There is also the use of discriminatory language by my main protagonist .
• The use of drug taking is also a common theme throughout my film and is shown within my title sequence.

I focused specifically my audience to be males from the ages of 15-25 as these tend to be the main target audience for horror films, but I also decided to aim it at females who are within the same range  as they may be more interested in horror films if the main protagonist is female and in the same age range as themselves.  
 
Having an eerie park used within my title sequence and film attracts my target audience as this is sometimes a theme which can be seen as a good place for a Psychological horror film to have as this goes against the stereotype that parks are safe for people and that in fact there is a darker side to a park allowing the audience to believe that what the murderer is doing is chilling as people usually see children having fun there. The lighting also makes it eerie as the dusk gives the sense that during the night the park is completely different to what it is like during day time where it is usually brighter and gives off more of a positive feeling but the darker lighting makes it more negative and foreshadows almost that something bad is doomed to happen making the audience wonder if that is the case and want to watch this film more as it is breaking the stereotype of what a park is usually thought to be like.

Positive and negative audience responses to the finished title sequence

I asked a small number a people in my target audience group to watch my final piece and tell me what they liked and/or disliked about it and also if they could, would they continue to watch it if it was made into a full length film?

"I loved the music used in the opening as it makes the opening more eeire and the use of not having any dialogue in it makes me want to watch on to see what caused her to kill those people seen." - Sarah, 17, Female

"The whole opening was awesome I liked the camera techniques which you used especially when you went from the character down to the knife and would I watch this you betcha!" - Rhian, 17, Female

"I liked the font as this helped me to recognise the genre of the film and they were very clear to see although it was a little harder to see the last one due to the different style of font and its size but I think the way which you placed the title of the film was good." - Aaron, 15, Male

"I think it was good but I think the music fades of too nicely and doesn't fit well with the chosen horror genre of your film." - Nicole, 16, Female

I chose to ask these people as these were people were within my specific target audience, and the majority of these are female as I was also trying to aim my horror film more at the females who are within  my target rage as I wanted to see if this appealed to them more with the psycho killer being a woman as typically in horror films the killer is usually male. 

Some of these responses were the types of responses which I was hoping for as they addressed the specific thing I included in order to attract my audience.

After receiving these responses, which people within my target audience think, I now feel that my research into the existing horror  title sequences as well as my storyboarding and location scouting was extremely useful in making my final product the way it is to help create the effect in which I wanted the film's title sequence to portray. I also feel that the locations, provided the atmosphere which I wanted, especially the park as I feel as though I was able to make the location give off a sense of eeriness, unearthliness and almost making the park more dystopian than what it is stereotypically connoted as, thus also giving the lighting for my sinister and psychotic character.  

Evaluation ~ Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

To answer this question I created a prezi presentation which is linked below

 

 

http://prezi.com/inuufthot0p8/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

 

Evaluation ~ Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups? 

I was going to do this evaluation as a podcast but unfortunately my voice hasn't been too good so instead I have decided to present it using a website called powtoon.com

 

Evaluation ~ Question 1

 

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

 



Evaluation Question 1 from Charlotte Dyer

Planning for the Evaluation

For the evaluation we have been given 7 questions in which we have to answer below is the forms of which I plan for each question to have.

Evaluation questions ~ planning formats

Opening Sequence ~ The Final Cut

Here is my final cut for my opening sequence to my film Origin of the Soul, which has been developed majorly from my very first rough cut all the way back on the 12th February 2016. I have managed to improve on many of the aspects for the opening including my continuity and improving the quality of the shots through my editing either by cutting them down or visually distorting them a bit.

Opening Sequence ~ The Final Cut

Improvements After the Second Rough Cut

The improvements which I have made can be shown below.

Second Rough Cut

Here is my second rough cut of my opening where I have improved certain aspects from my first rough cut. This included adding the studio indents of my production and distribution companies, changing where the titles are placed and editing one shot which is particularly grainy although may end up changing the edit to improve it some more. I also realised once I had converted the opening that the Dimension Films indent it slightly shows about a second of another companies indent which I intend to remove.


Second Rough Cut

Improvements to shot

To help improve my opening I decided to try and improve one of the shots which seems a bit grainy. To do so I decided to blur the shot as this not only gets rid of the majority of the graininess but it also fits in with my opening in giving the audience a perspective on how Amelia sees her self, (from the consumption of the drugs / alcohol).

Indents

To help make my opening look like the openings from what I have researched I have placed the production and distribution companies indents at the beginning of the opening.

 

Titles

By changing how my titles are placed in my opening helped to improve my continuity especially where Amelia leaves her room and walks down the landing, as by putting the titles in between my shots on black backgrounds allows me to cut out some of the continuity errors which were present in my first rough cut (e.g. the continuity error between the bedroom and the landing has been improved as she is seen closing the door after this a black screen with titles on it then we are brought back to Amelia just after she has finished closing the door.)
The only title which has not been changed is the 'Origin of the Soul' title as I think that this works well and is effective being on the dead persons face.

Improvements

After re-watching my first rough cut several times I noted down the improvements which I can look back on when developing the opening from the first rough cut  and which I think can be made to help improve my opening sequence and make it more effective in portraying my opening in the way i want it to be.

1st Rough Cut

Here is my first rough cut which gives an idea of  what my opening will look like. I will still play around with the font of my titles and look at other soundtracks which may work better.


Rough Cut

Voice over

I have decided that I am not going to use the voice overs in my opening as they do not work very well with the background music making them look displaced in my opening and my opening would be better if they weren't included.

Audio

I have decided that from the list of audio which I thought would go well with my opening, I have decided that I am going to use Penumbra as I feel that this audio would go the best with my opening and is at the pace which my opening is at and also in the back of the track there are soundswhich  are a bit like playground swings which almost makes it seem as though Amelia is reminiscing about her and her sister when she was alive and also links to the very beginning of the opening with Amelia on the swings.

Audio for Opening

As well as the voiceover I have decided that I am going to have some non-diegetic music in the opening.

For this I found

http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/?feels%5B%5D=Eerie

 which has a lot of music which I believe would work well with my video.

some of them which I have looked at are:

• Darkest Child
• Devastation and Revenge
• Gathering Darkness
• Lightless Dawn
• mirage
• Oppressive Gloom
• penumbra
• Right Behind You
• Spider Eyes
• The House of Leaves
• Vulcan 

Voice over sorting

After the recording of my voiceover I have emailed and saved the clips to my school server and have re-named them according to what part and take they are. After this I created a spreadsheet
(like what I had done with my shots) and then created a 'yes' voiceover folder and a 'No' voiceover folder and put the audio into the according folders.
  

Voice Over

Today I have recorded my voice over for my final production with the person who is playing Amelia. To produce my voice over I had a printable version of my script and my ipad which had a voice recording app on it which allows me to easily email the clips to myself so I can sort them and choose which one I wan to upload.

Title Order

I have decided that for my opening sequence I will put my titles in the order below as this is what I believe the order should be based on the type of film which it is as well as the importance of the people included in the production of it.

1. Distribution company - Lionsgate
2. Production company - Dimension films  
3. The main actor - Beatrice Thompson
4. Supporting actors - Aaron Dyer, Caitlin Robinson & Aimee Punshon  
5. Casting -  Sarah Anderson
6. Costumes -   Michael Kaplan
7. Music - Harry Manfredini 
8. Editor -   Kevin Greutert
9. Producers - Arnold Kopelson
10. Written by -  Leigh Whannell
11. Director -   Charlotte Dyer
12. Film title -  Origin of the Soul

Film Title

I have decided that the title for my film is going to be:

 

Origin of the Soul

 

As I feel this suits the tone of my film as it gives an idea of the main theme in the film but gives no ideas of the psychological state of my main character. It also displays how the character has a certain passion for the idea that the souls live on, and that the origin of her killings is through what her deceased sister's soul has said.



 Shot Sorting

 

Once I had sorted out what take of each shot I was going to use I created two folders one which was the shots which I was going to use( the "yes shots" ) ant the shots which I am not going to use (the "no shots") this made it much easier for me to select the correct takes to add into the editing software and prevent me from accidently adding the wrong take into the software. 

 

 

 

Shot Renaming

Once I finished uploading all of my shots onto the school's system I decided to rename all of the shots by what they were according to what they were on the storyboard and the take (e.g. shot  1A, shot 1B, shot 1C, etc...) as this will make it much easier for when I will have to decide which one of the takes is best suited for the opening and when it comes to selecting the ones I am using and uploading them onto Adobe Premier Pro to create my final piece.

Uploading the footage

After a Saturday full of recording, today I have uploaded all of my recordings into my final piece folder on the media server so that I can begin to sort them into the shots I will use and the shots which I won't use.

Photos from Recording at the Park

During the filming at the park I got my dad to take pictures of us while we were recording the outside shots as well as me blooding up my friend (Dead Body #3).

Filming Notices

During the filming at the park I put up notices around the area to notify people for as to what was going on in the park so that they wouldn't be alarmed.

As well as this, when we were halfway through filming outside the local police officer turned up to see if everything was alright and that we didn't have any hassle from any youths which was a surprise to all of the cast and crew but it helped for me to know that they did receive the emails which I sent to them notifying them on what we were planning on doing.

Filming ~ Lunch

I have created a buffet for the lunch break with various foods to snack on and to keep them happy.

Filming ~ Finished

After a stressful, chilly but enjoyable day, I am glad to say the filming for my opening is officially complete and ready to be uploaded onto the school's server for the beginning of editing on Monday.

Left - right: Director, Dead Body #3 and Amelia

Sketches

Below are some of my sketches of how my characters will look with some annotations included for the clothing, and FX which they will be wearing which helps to give my actors an idea of what they are going to look like.

Amelia

Dead Body #1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dead body #2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dead body #3

 

Call Sheets

For the cast and crew of my production I have created for my cast and crew a call sheet which allows them to know when it is happening, where it is happening, what will be provided, the nearest hospital from the locations, the weather for that day, the production start time, the production wrap time and lunch time.

Casting List

For my opening sequence I decided that I needed a total of 4 people who were willing to play a part in my opening, this included the main Protagonist, Amelia, and the dead bodies #1, #2, #3. I managed to find friends who were willing to play a part and therefore didn't take me to long to find my full cast which goes as the following:

• Amelia Coughlin ~ Bea
• Dead Body #1 & #2 ~  Aaron
• Dead Body #3 ~ Aimee

For dead body #2 I originally had someone different for the part however due to family problems they will be unable to make it to the filming and to save trying to find another person to replace her I have chosen to use my brother as the other dead body as his face wont be shown in as one of the bodies.

Props

For my production I have managed to collect a number of props which I will be using for my opening theses include:

• A fake knife
• Fake blood
• Beer bottles and packaging  
• Empty and full tablet packaging
• bloodied shirt  
• toothbrush

All these props will help to create the look which I want to produce for all my scenes.

Left: two unopened beer bottles and an empty case Right: empty beer bottles and a empty 2L cider bottle  



Top Left - Right: homemade fake blood, shop bought fake blood, a toothbrush
Bottom Left - Right: Fake knife and bloodied shirt.



Empty pill packaging

Location Scouting

The locations which I have decided to choose are related to the idea of it being based in the modern day and using locations which the audience would be familiar with.

Location 1 - Bedroom

My first location which I decided to choose for my filming is my bedroom as this would easily allow the audience to understand where they are. For filming I will make the room a lot messier than what it is this will help to show her life style as well as how she may find her life. I will also scatter beer bottles and pill packaging (empty and full) around the room to show to the audience what she is doing to her life as well as how her actions may be because of her alcohol and drug related ways. This room would also be ideal to use as the curtains in the room are 'blackout curtains' which allows in little to no light, which will help to create minimal / low key lighting throughout  this scene.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Location 2 - Bathroom

The second location which I had chosen was my bathroom as this is where the audience will see a bloodied bath with a dead body in it. For this effect I will splatter the fake blood which I will have created to give the effect that many brutal murders have taken place in that bath.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Location 3 - Park

The third location which I have decided to use is my local park as this has objects which I can use in my production and help distort the view of parks being safe for people/children to be around , the main object would be the swings as this is where I believe would be the most effective place to film as the use of swings have been used in some horror films before and help to create a sense of eeriness to it.



 

Production Schedule

I have decided that the filming form my production will be on Saturday 16th January and will start at around 10:30 and finish at 18:00.

Production Schedule from Charlotte Dyer

FX

As well as the fake blood, I tried to create fake bruises on to my dead bodies as this can help add to the effect that they have been brutally attacked by my main protagonist. In order for me to make the bruising look realistic I looked up tutorials on YouTube for how others have done it.
 

To create the fake bruising I first prepared the area where the bruise was going to go, I then added 3 eye shadow colours: a light brown shade, a dark blue shade to the part and a dark purple shade. Depending on how old I wanted the bruise to be I added more of one colour which helped to give this effect. Overall I find this to be effective enough to use in my final piece, as even though it may not look extremely realistic it will still be able to convey the idea that the person has been badly bruised.

 

 



Testing

For my opening I will be using fake blood on my 'dead bodies', I managed to order a small amount of fake blood which is used for Halloween online, however what I ordered is not enough for what is needed in my opening, so instead of buying some more I have decided to create some fake blood using golden syrup, water, red food colouring and some blue food colouring.

The ingredients used to make the fake blood and the blood itself

Here are some images of me practicing on how it will look in the bathroom as well as on the dead bodies.

Bathroom

 

 

Dead Body

 

 

 From my first testing of making the fake blood I realized that the colour of the blood is too light  (looks more pink then dark red) for the effect which I want, so when I create my blood for the production I will add more red food colouring to make it more darker. The fake blood which I have also created is really helpful as one of my actors is allergic to the fake blood which I purchased and the blood I have created does not cause my actor an allergic reaction.