Sorraya Begdeli - Assessment of previous work 2

This Slasher film uses a lot of dialogue compared to the first piece of work I assessed, however I feel that it is it's strongest limitation as sometimes certain bits of dialogue seem unnatural and forced. Although this does not ruin the film, it is the strongest limitation as it does appear very forced at times in terms of the victims reactions to certain things such as when she sees the horror film on the television.

The film does look like a horror film as the opening of a blurred TV screen and the tense music allows the viewer to instantly recognise that something isnt right and that the film is a horror. When looking at range of shots, the first half of the film doesn't use a large range of shots it is mainly a still camera with a few cuts whereas the second half of the film tends to use a few more cuts as it shows different ranges of shots such as POV, High angle etc. The transition editing within this film does stand out a little bit more than the previous one I assessed however the use of cuts is still very good. The reason for it standing out is most likely due to the fact that there is a lot less of them so when a cut is actually present, it is more noticable to the eye. This is not to say that it makes an uncomfortable experience for the viewer as it doesnt. The footage overall is well framed and the victim is always the main focus of attention which is what is important for the film.

I believe the mise en scene is appropriate for this film as the setting is realistic and the lighting used when showing the villain is effective as his face stands out. Also the use of the knife prop is effective too as we can understand what has happened to 'Robbie' and what is about to happen to the main character.

Throughout this film, sound plays an important role as it instantly provides the viewer with the knowledge that it is a horror movie and that they should be scared and fearful of what is about to happen as the tone of the music creates that response for them. This style of sharp and tense music is very effective in creating fear for the viewer as it makes them feel suspension as they await what could happen.

35/60

Sorraya Begdeli - Assessment of previous work

For this vampire AS film, I feel it has many strengths in how it is created. Firstly, the most important aspect is that it actually looks like a horror film because straight away the surroundings and the mise en scene depict that of a night time, isolated and cold setting. As darkness has such a connotation of fear, I instantly recognised it as a horror film. The other most important feature that instantly stood out to me (and therefore making it a good strength to the film) is the use of sound. The sharp, loud noises which are played throughout almost appear like a pulsing heartbeat and create lots of tension for the viewer (myself). During a scene at roughly 2:11 seconds, a brilliant example of continuity is shown. The scene in particular uses quite a lot of cuts within such a short time space and does this without it being uncomfortable to watch for the viewer. The cuts made within this film flow quite well and therefore do not break continuity. I feel that the rule of thirds is used constantly throughout, although there may be some occasions where not all of the crossed sections are used, this is barely noticable to the eye as the viewer has so much to focus on such as both the sound and what is happening on screen.

Although this film does have many strengths to it and has been created very well, to me there are a few limitations that could be focused on if they were to look at ways of improvement. These limitations are both concerned within the area of mise en scene. When looking at the effects of the makeup used, I think that the makeup doesn't look very realistic and it becomes too obvious for the viewer that it is fake. Although I understand that it cannot be perfect, I feel that more work could've been used for the makeup of the vampire as it makes the film seem less serious from my perspective. The other limitation is that in some shots, it is very dark and although this helps to create fear and makes it look like a horror film, sometimes it is quite hard to see important features such as what the victim looks like and what she is doing. Although it is important to keep the setting dark, I feel if the lighting was just a little bit lighter, it would be easier for the viewer.

The limitations to this film are quite minor especially when compared to the strengths, it is instantly recognisable as a horror and uses a variety of shots to depict the footage. The sound used mirrors that of a beating heart and helps to reflect how the viewer is feeling when watching a chase scene take place. This is a very useful technique and is what I feel the most effective part of the film.

49/60

Script

This is the script we have created for out film 'What doesn't belong', as stated on our script example, the script includes lots of action rather than dialogue however we have stuck to the script conventions in terms of what font is used, what spacing etc. Creating this script required a lot of team effort as we all had to ensure that we all agreed on what was taking place at what exact moment and how it was going to take place. The script (like the film outline) also helped us to finalise what we intend to happen in our film as from this we have now created a solid plan for filming and we all as a group know exactly what is going to happen. We found creating the script challenging yet very useful as it is a fully detailed account of what we plan to do and it allows us to look at what we have decided to create and make a decision on whether or not we are happy with the outcome. 

Video Lighting Basics

3 point lighting is the process of getting an even distribution of light across the subject and avoiding deep shadows, it consists of a: Key light, Fill light and Backlight

Key Lights:

This is the key to the whole set up and functions as the main source of illumination in a scene, traditionally the light is placed at a 45% angle from where the camera is set up. It isn't placed face on towards the character so that it is able to highlight definition of the face and shoulders. The subject becomes well defined from the key light.

Fill lights:

A fill light attempts to fill in shadows that are left from the key lights, these are placed 45% opposite from the key light and is less intense than the key light itself to avoid overpowering it. Changing the intensity of the light can be done by changing the watt of the bulbs or moving the light backwards or forwards. The fill light accompanied with the key lights allow a natural, even light around the face. The fill light does not fully remove the shadow however it softens it.

Backlight:

A backlight allows the subject to stand out from the background and is placed behind the subject above and out of the frame so it only focuses on the subject. It needs to be at a low intensity and the idea is to shine on the subject and create light around the shoulders and head. The purpose is to ensure that the character stands out and the focus is where it should be.

Overall:

- Key lights illuminate the scene

- Fill lights fill in the shadows

- Makes the subject stand out from the background

Makeup/Costume Planning

In terms of makeup, we can see that the actors at first have a natural and minimal use of make up however as the story develops and the characters become more and more insane, the makeup begins to show that they look distressed, fatigued and mentally unstable. We can see in the second image posted from the film The Shining that the main character has been given dark, baggy eyes and appears shabby in his appearance. Because our character starts off mad, we intend to introduce the character with these features so that the audience can instantly recognise her as a mentally unstable person. When talking about costume, it is clear that the costumes chosen for these characters look like normal pieces of clothing that are appropriate and match the age that the character is meant to be. Because of this, we want to match our costume to our character and story line, which is why we want to show her in a hospital looking gown so that the audience can tell she has come from a hospital. The makeup we would need are natural pale colours that suit the characters skin tone, yet also make the characters skin appear quite pale. We would then need darker colours such as black and grey which can surround the characters eyes and give the appearance of possession and unstableness.

Although our location is different to those shown in the images, the fact that these images depict the main character to be in various locations such as a hotel or house, this shows that any location can provide a psychological aspect. Not only this, both films imply a sense of darkness and coldness. For example the images from The Unborn have a dark tint to it implying that the character is alone in darkness in an evening setting whereas The Shining always uses unnatural lighting such as a fire place, lamps, lights etc. This implies that the location they are in is cold. From this we can relate these locations to ours as woodlands are usually dark as the shadows of the trees block out the sun and at the right time (evening), the darkness can make them appear very creepy and therefore make the character appear vulnerable due to the isolation in the darkness. We will need to make sure that we take advantage of the creepy aspects that already exist within woodlands such as shadows and uncomfortable noises. Not only this, we need to ensure that we find a location within the woods that isn't too hard to film on as most woodland can be on very unstable ground.  

The choices of actors within these films are a young female and an older male. These characters contrast each other within both age and gender however they both depict the psychological aspect very well. We have chosen to use a young female (roughly 16 years of age) as we feel that females are most likely to be stereotyped to be the victim in a horror genre and it'll make the audience feel more interested as the film as it would appear more realistic for a 'weak' girl to be seen as the victim. This relates to the victim within the Unborn images as she too is a young female who appears quite weak in her physique as a female isnt stereotyped to be as strong as a male who has muscles, strength etc. This is why we have chosen to use a young female as we feel for our first proper film, we should stick to what we know best and elaborate our decisions on that so that we can create the best film possible.

Examples of Make up for our character:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEZIlYn2Wo0&feature=related

Fake blood: you need : red/green food colouring. Golden syrup. Flour and water

Script Example

This script example shows how specific a script has to be and how it is meant to look in terms of layout. This is a challenging part for our group and we presume many others as we aren't intending to use lots of dialogue and therefore our script is solely based on the environment and what the character is doing. We will create our script using the help of this example to guide us.

Planning for Story boarding and Scripting

This is the planning sheet that we made to help us with final decisions on what we were going to include in our film. This was also the brief outline to help us on how we were going to storyboard and script our film.  

Storyboard Sheets

The first sheet shows Annabel escaping from the hospital and running towards woodland. We have used various shots and different angles to show the viewer in as many ways as possible what is happening. The 4th shot is an extreme close up of the characters eyes which we believe will be quite a freaky aspect for the viewer. This first page is mostly showing Annabel's escape and entrance to the woods whilst highlighting that she is a mental patient.

The second storyboard sheet focuses on truly showing the audience Annabel's mental state and showing the audience why she is a victim and what she is suffering from. We see her walking through the woods and seeing disturbing things such as a odd shaped hand peering round trees. During this scene Annabel trips over and crawls up by a tree and rests, but she is soon once again confronted by the evil that taunts her. We have chosen to use lots of close ups in this stage to show the audience exactly how Annabel is feeling and what she is seeing around her

In these 6 shots that are a total of 18 seconds. In these shots we see the character as having a cut n her arm, showing a sign of paranormal happenings that relates to our genre. There are also reaction shots of after the cut, this builds tension with the audience as they are shocked as well as the character. Each shot has a similar length, this is to keep the film fast moving and keep the audience engrossed in the sequence.

For these final 3 shots we see the change in the character to we want to make this clear and establish it well. We see where the characters body becomes taken over by some kind a paranormal activity and wipes blood from the cut onto her face. This makes the cut seem as though this was how the paranormality entered her body.

Here is our storyboard for our film 'What doesn't belong', we have shown the various angles and shots that are going to be used within our film and highlighted the most important ones. When filming we feel that at the time some shots may be added however these are our main shots that we have planned and this storyboard will allow us to be fully prepared when it comes to filming. We feel as though this builds tension for the audience because we have chosen to feature lots of close ups to show the characters reaction. In relation to the timings the shots cut to each other fluently and we believe the shots we have chosen enhance the horror and the genre we have chosen.

Film Outline

Here is our first film outline, this was a big step as doing this activity really made our group focus on creating a final decision on everything that was going to happen within our film, when it was going to happen and during what time frame. This took a lot of planning as everything we base our film on will be rooted to these outlines and therefore we feel this activity has really taken us closer to the production of our film as in doing this we received a final outcome on what our film would be like.

Recee Location Sheet

After conducting our recee, we feel the main problem with our location is that the ground may be uneven therefore making filming a steady shot a difficult process. This is the main issue we must work on as a group whether this mean we must use extra equipment to keep the camera steady or whether we must spend a lot of time looking for more suitable areas of woodland within that area which will be more appropriate for our filming. 

Nightmare on Elm Street Script Annotation

MOVING PICTURES (STORYBOARDING) THE SIXTH SENSE

1. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF STORY BOARDING?
The purpose of story boarding is to set a planned sequence of shots on what is going to happen within a film, in what order and on what time. It allows the filming crew to be prepared when it comes to filming and sets a basis on how to start the filming itself. Story boarding provides a clear set of shots and it will be created from looking at the films script.

2. HOW CAN YOU SHOW LIGHTING? CAMERA MOVEMENT? ANGLES?
These elements can be shown by making improvements on the storyboard, the story board artist can draw rough thumbnails of different angles and forms or lighting etc and the image that they find most appropriate to what they are trying to portray will be the one chosen. Angles can be shown simply by the angle in which it is drawn, lighting by the shading used within the image and camera movement by the directions shown within the image. These aspects are all easy to create within a story board however the most difficult part is to draw up many sketches of different varieties and being able to pick the most appropriate one.

Things For Shooting

Hospital Gown - Make sure the costume is realistic
Make -Up - How are we going to use makeup to reflect the character and create fear
Wooden Cross - Prop
Old Books - Prop
Knife? - Where is the knife from? Should we even use a knife?
House? - What relation is the house to the character? 

Character

Name: Samantha Whawell

Due to Samantha being the actress in our previous preliminary exercise, we feel that she has the capability of fulfilling the role of the character within our film.

Location Shots Recee

Here we have various shots of the woodland in which we aim to have our film take place, the setting is in the evening as this is the right timing and lighting that we feel is appropriate for our film and genre. The natural lighting makes the images appear very creepy and eerie and hopefully this feeling will be represented within our film aswell. As the area is a public place this means we wont require any permission to film there and that it is an easily accessible area.

PITCH

This is the pitch our group presented to our classmates, we included as much detail as possible as to what we were going to do for our film and from doing this our classmates then provided feedback to our pitch to tell us the strengths and weaknesses to our ideas.

Title Sequence Template

This is our first plan for our title sequence in which we have aimed to include various shots similar to that of the style to True Blood's opening. However after our pitch reviews and after going over all of our ideas and final planning, we have decided to use fewer shots then the amount provided within this template, this is to ensure that continuity isn't an issue and that the sequence flows for the audience as some of our shots didn't seem to make sense in relation to our story.

Pitch Feedback

Our pitch feedback allowed us to realise the main errors that were found in our ideas for our film and it's title sequence. This was done as the problems that stood out the most were highlighted by peers within our class. For example we chose to include a knife and a house within our film however when looking at the feedback it is now clear that the knife is unexplained as to how our main character has got a knife and the house we wanted to be shown within the title sequence leaves people wondering as to who's house it is and how it relates to the film. After reviewing these issues we have concluded to remove the use of a knife as we believe that they are right in highlighting the fact that we have no explanation for where it has come from and in regards to the house, to include explanations as to whose house it is if we choose to use it within our title sequence. From this feedback we will be able to look at where we have made mistakes and how we can make improvements for our film.

Here is the pitching to our film, for this we had to look at the questions and be able to relate them to the film we were making. This was so we could follow the conventions to ensure we were following the correct genre of psychological.

Notes on Kyle Cooper the title designer

Notes on Seven

Textual Analysis Sam and Sorraya

Here is the Textual Analysis homework that our group individually carried out, this work involved looking at a film from our genre and making comments on it. 

Opening Title Ideas

After looking at various opening scenes such as those from True Blood and the film Se7en, we saw two different types of title sequences. These were those that include a various mash up of images (True blood) and those that are a continuous story shown developing to the audience (Se7en). The two types of title sequences have different effects on the audience as the story telling one usually acts as more of an introduction to the film and its' purpose whereas a mash up of images can leave suspicion and eagerness for the viewer as it leaves the intentions of the programme hidden. For our title ideas in the very early stages of planning, we have created two different titles from the two different styles and wrote down what we would include in both. However once again, this is the very early stages of planning and this will not result in our final decision for our title sequence because as we progress in our planning and create a better understanding of what we are creating, thoughts and opinions on the title sequence may change. This doesn't change the fact that from doing this piece of work we have been given a better understanding on how title sequences work and what they do to create effect.