Name Ideas

Here is a spider diagram of the name ideas for our film:

Shot List

Link to the shot list we created in order to film our movie opening:

Shot List

Film Inspirations Analysis

Black Swan
Black Swan is a psychological ballet thriller film, where the opening scene involves purely ballet dancing. This  is portrayed in a blank room surrounded by shadows, as if it isn't real, or in a dream-like state. This fits its psychological conventions, because it keeps the audience wondering what is actually going on. Something else that fits these conventions is the transformation of the protagonist's male dance partner, into a raven-like figure, to already show the deviations from norm, hallucination, as well as the representation of danger, which is an effect we can try to create to fit the conventions of our psychological thriller. The music is a swan lake song, which is an implications of what is to come, further in the story, as well as being ironic to the element of danger, however the beats and change in volume show tension build up, which is the type of music we can consider to build suspense in an ironic-style way. The pale colours of the protagonist represent innocence, and how at the start of the story, the character is innocent and free. It contrasts with the shadowed background to give connotations of 'good vs evil' within the story line, Levi-Strauss's binary opposites theory. The variety of camera angles and fast cutting speed as the suspense builds is an effective way to keep the audience hooked and on edge in the scene, making them want to watch the rest of the film - a technique we are aiming for, so we can take inspiration from the way this clip is edited. 

Insidious

Insidious is a paranormal horror film that has elements that are psychologically disturbing for the audience, which made it a film that inspired me for the idea of our new film the most. The beginning clip shows a boy asleep from a birds-eye-view, with an effect that makes it almost a dream-like state and makes the audience think there's something not quite right. This is followed by panning shots to reveal a silhouette, which then zooms in to reveal a scary-looking woman, making the audience feel uncomfortable. The title text appears suddenly in a red jagged font, to fit the conventions of the genre. The rest of the opening is simple, with mostly short clips of significant rooms of the house in which the film is set, which sets the scene effectively, and gives implications for the rest of the film, such as the additions of paranormal representations like things moving or shadows appearing, which keeps the reader hooked into the opening, whilst the credits are still appearing. There is a black and white effect a tint to the clips, with outlining shadows, to also give a dream-like effect as if the scene if isn't quite real, or not quite into the story yet. This inspired me most with the idea for our video, where we can use specific or relevant objects from the setting, in order to set the scene and incorporate the opening credits into, with an effect on to create a mysterious atmosphere. There are a lot of different angles to create certain effects, such low-angle shots to make the haunted room look superior, or panning and tilting shots to create an abstract psychological effect, to fit with its stereotypical conventions and be disturbing for the audience, which is effects we can consider for our film opening to make a certain atmosphere. To also add to the atmosphere, the transitions are long, smooth fades, too add a sense of eeriness, which is something also involved in our idea. The cutting speeds are long, which creates tension in a different way to the typical fast cutting speeds, because it creates anticipation and anxiousness. This plays with the audience's minds, which is the aim of the genre. The titles fade in and out with a smoky effect, to add to the atmosphere and fit with the sound effects to seem mysterious, along with the red colour to stand out and fit with the theme, connoting fear and danger for the audience. 

Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane is the film that we took most inspiration from in terms of storyline. It involves an opening sequence of establishing, panning and close-up shots to set the scene and establish a mysterious atmosphere, which is even more effective in black and white, something we can also consider. The mis-en-scene includes tall, iron gates and a large spooky looking mansion house. This also adds to the element of mystery and keeps the audience wondering, which is a convention of the psychological genre we are trying to create. There is a close-up of Kane's face, as he says his last words before he dies, in a whisper-like accent, which seems secretive, and does not make sense to the audience, especially when his last word is 'rosebud', something that is unusual, yet powerful, which is the effect we shall think about, with our storyline, which also involves last words being spoken at the beginning of the film to keep the audience gripped and to wonder what they mean for the rest of the film. A lot of cross-fades are used to make smooth yet serene seeming transitions, to also keep the audience hooked, which is a useful effect which has inspired me for use in our project. The cutting speed is slow, to also reflect this transition.

Silent Hill

Silent Hill is a psychological horror film based on its video game, which inspired me a lot for our project again in terms of storyline, where there are ritualistic torturous scenes involved, and all in a dream-like 'dead' state, where there are people and creatures about that the audience are curious and confused by, which is something we want to achieve. I chose to look more at the end credits instead of the opening credits, because there is more of a sequence involved that I can gain ideas from. The whole of this section is animated, which relates to the video game, which gives it some striking effects that keep the audience interested, and even includes animated objects and people that relate to the rest of the film, that the audience will associate with. The fast action of the changing camera angles also keeps the audience hooked, as if they can't look away from the screen just in-case they miss something, as well as representing the fast action and danger that is involved within the rest of the film. Using photographs of the cast as their names appear I thought was an effective way to make the audience relate to them and feel more involved with recognition, as well as to create a contrast to the shadows surrounding it, to create an eerie and disturbing effect to fit the genre conventions, which is something important for us to consider. The camera goes through different parts of the setting, but not quite revealing all of it, to keep the audience gripped in wanting to see more, but it also sets the scene in order for the audience to again make reference to. The music is ironic, where it doesn't fit with the typical genre conventions. This creates a contrast effect, that is effective to make it dramatic and memorable, and in ways makes the audience find it more disturbing, which then does fit the conventions. This is a useful outcome that would work well with the film opening we are trying to create. 

Roles Of Group

Alexandra Haley - Costume and Set Design (mis-en-scene)/Actress/Director of Casting
Liberty Shaw - Director of Photography/Actress/Director of Music
Rosy Armitage - Director of Editing/Producer
Liam Hand - Director/Executive Producer/Actor

Extra People involved:
Samuel Snowdon - Actor
Kane Mitchell - Actor
Abigail Haley - Actress

Mis-en-scene

Set:

The setting we have chosen is located in the Buckden area of North Yorkshire, which is owned by a friend. It is an old, abandoned church which was once a school, with an abandoned morgue in an adjoining room. It contains old dusty furniture, with an old balcony at the back of the church, and ornate glass windows. These parts of the mis-en-scene will look odd and almost uncomfortable for the audience. The morgue looked like a perfect location for the idea of the death sentence/last words scene, and the church could be useful to set the scene with an old, eerie, lonely atmosphere. It is a stereotypical location for the genre we have chosen, as well as for more extreme horror genres. The setting of the opening is important because it will keep the audience interested for the rest of the film, and sets up the theme for the rest of the story.

 
 

Costume:

The teenagers in our idea will be in normal everyday clothes, so the audience can relate to them. The character being killed will be dressed in dark colours, to make him look mysterious and almost dangerous, which would make his last words more powerful. His killers will be dressed in lab coats, to make them look like the authoritative people in charge, as well as making it clear they are like 'doctors' or 'professionals' injecting him with drugs. The white coats will also contrast with the dark location, to make them look odd or out-of-place. To further show this, they will have very distinct make-up to make them look quite disturbing or uncomfortable for the audience, which would fit with our genre. I took inspiration from the film 'Insidious' with the smiling family, where they are made up to look like dolls, with exaggerated lipstick and eye make-up, and distinct but still facial expressions, to also look psychologically disturbing. This family are also in the astral plane setting of the film, almost a dream-like state, which is an effect we can try to create. 

Insidious - The Smiling Family scene

Genre/Narrative

We all agreed that the genre of our film piece would be a 'psychological thriller' because we thought it would be something challenging and interesting to work with in order to suit a target audience. We have been inspired by other films of this genre, or horror films that have a psychologically disturbing nature, because these types of films keep an audience drawn into the film because it keeps their minds wandering.

 Our idea for the narrative is inspired by films such as 'Citizen Kane', where the last words before death are revealed at the start, and the rest of the film is working out what the words meant. As we are only making the beginning of a film, we will make this clear in the title. 

Here is a short summary of our narrative idea:

•   A teenage, possibly drunken couple stumble into an abandoned church, looking for somewhere to possibly shelter, or to investigate it. There will be a few establishing shots of outside the church, and some over-shoulder shots, to introduce the setting, and give opportunity for the credits to start appearing. There will be eerie music starting at this point.
•   The couple enter the church and the music stops to emphasise echoes and sound effects, where there is dusty up-turned furniture, a high balcony, and old-fashioned windows, letting in just enough light for the audience to see the interior. There will be shots of each distinct 'disturbing' or 'unusual' part of the church, where credits will also appear. These clips or photos could appear with credits before the actual film sequence appears, in order to give the audience a sense of familiarity when the couple enter the church, and to set the scene more effectively.
•    The couple either investigate further, or hear a noise coming from another room, to which they walk over and peek around the door and keep quiet as they watch the scene inside, as more music begins to start and build tension.
•   The focus is taken off the couple and is drawn into the scene in the room, which looks like an old-fashioned abandoned morgue.
•   A man is willingly being strapped a stretcher-type bed or table almost ceremoniously, and the room is lit by candles. The people strapping him down 'look' strange and out-of-place to the audience, where they would look like 'dolls' in lab-coats with extreme make-up and facial expressions.
•   One of these people say to the man whilst smiling "any last words?" followed by a shot of a needle moving towards his arm.
•   There is a close up of the man's face as he shuts his eyes. The title screen then comes on, as he whispers his last phrase, which will also be the name of the title.

Half Term Research

The group all met during the half term holidays and had a 'film night' where we chose several films to look at and get ideas from for our film opening coursework. Two of the films that we included were 'Black Swan' and 'Sucker Punch', which have a psychological and in some ways disturbing genre to the film, a genre we are interested in, as well as having very distinct and effective opening scenes. We discussed ideas as well as picking up on some evaluation points for our first project 'Porphyria'. 

(Photo by Liberty Shaw: http://www.libertyshawmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/a-week-off-from-school.html )

Final Video

Here is the final video completed, with changes to make the text stand out more, and the volume of things a bit better. We tried varying the volume for the flashback noises, or even trying different noises for each, but we didn't think they sounded effective, and made the flashback scenes more confusing to follow, which was also agreed with by some of our target audience. Also to make it look less like a trailer, we added an extra scene saying 'two weeks earlier' in order for the story to carry on with a new sequence, which would lead up to what happened in the opening sequence.

Final Feedback

Here are the final feedback videos of our video opening showing, which we used to edit our final film opening of 'Porphyria'.
http://rosyanncoursework.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/24-final-feedback.html

Out-Takes

Here are some clips from our filming that either we didn't use, weren't very good, or just went completely wrong - we felt the need to make a video out of it.

Final Draft!

After taking all of the feedback into account, we used the second version of our first draft and made most of the suggested changes. Here is our end result:

We showed this to our media studies class for feedback on our finished clip, to which we got more suggestions for changes, such as varying volume in the repetitive flashback sounds, and making the text stand out more.

Also when it was uploaded to YouTube, it was 'fixed' and went a little shaky, and with different speeds in some places, so this also needed to be sorted out.

Target Audience Feedback and Film Changes

In order to get target audience feedback, we showed our three drafts to a group of year 9 students and a group of year 12 students, using the questionnaire that we made. Here is the result of their feedback:

Year 9 students: http://rosyanncoursework.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/19-feedback.html

Year 12 students: http://libertyshawmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/feedback-from-target-audience.html

From this feedback we have decided to go with the majority of the target audience, and chose to work on version 2 of our drafts, where the title sequence makes sense, where the 'exciting bit' is more at the end. Taking into account the feedback, we will change the clip in the following ways:

• Lower the volume of the sound effects (footsteps and heavy breathing) because they are too loud over the sound of the music
• Make all the fades, through black, instead of through white, to make a smoother transition.
• Change the font of the text to look more strong, creepy or scary, to fit more with the theme. 
• Change the quote to all white - the red words look a bit odd. Add in the last part of another Jekyll and Hyde quote, which was suggested in the pitch, to make the idea in the film more clear.
• Add someone reading the quote aloud, to fill the silent space when people are reading it.
• Add in a clip of the victim being happy and introduced to the scene, so the audience can connect more with her.
• Add a clip of the victim actually being bitten, to make the idea of the protagonist being a vampire more clear, as well as achieving the end of the tension build-up. Possibly add sound effects with this.
• Add sound effects to the flashbacks, to make it more clear that they are actually flashbacks.
• Add an 'opening eye' effect over the 'sky' clip to look as if the protagonist is waking up, to make a distinction between the 'setting-the-scene' credits clips, and the actual film opening sequence.
• Make the logos at the start 'wide-screen'.
• Add the production company names to the credits at the start, to show that the logos at the start aren't actually the film name.

Editing Analysis

Here is some description about our editing by Rosy Armitage:

http://rosyanncoursework.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/16-editing.html

http://rosyanncoursework.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/17-more-editing.html

and then about the sound that we used to create the eerie atmosphere to fit our genre, from 'freesound.org':

http://rosyanncoursework.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/18-sound.html

First 3 Drafts Completed

Here are our three different versions of our film opening that we have considered, in order to choose one to work on for our final video:

1. This one is in the same order as all of our planning, which we made as our first draft.

2. This version is the same clips, but in a different order, where the credits appear first, and then the opening sequence comes afterwards. 

3. This version is exactly the same as the second, but the end clip comes before the titles instead of afterwards, in order to make it less like a trailer.

Questionnaire!

The questionnaire created originally on a word document by Liberty Shaw, for the feedback we shall get when our video is shown to our target audience.