Here is our final version of; Death On Tuesday
Death On Tuesday from Jemma Goulds on Vimeo.
Monday 19 April 2010
Friday 16 April 2010
Evaluation Task: 7
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
TITLES
During the progression of my final project i have found that the quality of the editing and titles have improved drastically and believe this can be the most noticable and distinct improvement.
The titles in our preliminary task consisted of us merely using the simple 'Add titles' tool provided on premiere pro, which overall produced titles that looked simplistic and dull.
Creating our titles for 'Death On Tuesday' however proved more effective when completed on after effects as it provided a wider range of effects to add onto our titles to make them look more professionally produced. This was due to the fact that after effects enables you add graphics and animation to make our production logo and titles look more effective and of a higher quality.
CAMERA WORK
During the preliminary task the camera work we produced was of a poor quality as it was the first time handling the camera for most of us. Our final product, 'Death on tuesday' however, showed us having more of a skilled hand and being able to fully function the cameras with ease, overall creating a smooth piece of footage. During the production of our final piece we also imporved our skills of filming and editing into one consecutive piece of footage. This can be noticed with Stephnie (our female protagonist) walking into the camera and Nathaniel (male protagonist) walking out of the audiences vision.
Evaluation Task: 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
During the production of our title sequence we used many different types of software, the first being Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. We had some experience of how this programme worked from the editing stage of our preliminary task. We also had to use Adobe After Effects CS4 which i myself had no experience using. Nathaniel however, was familiar with this programme and he therefore controlled a majority of the editing.
Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 was mainly used to import footage from the digital cameras onto the computers. We mainly used Adobe After Effects CS4 however to edit the majority of our film and to also encorpret our soundtrack into our footage. This programme made our footage look very professional and therefore worked very effectively overall. Our titles and production logo were all created using this programme, and the amount of effects supplied within the programme provided a wider variety of ideas for us to chose from which overall helped create the perfect logo and titles.
However i did find using this programme difficult to manage and relied on the help of our technicians, Nathaniel and tutorials to help me use it.
Our soundtrack was created by, myself using a programmed called Reason 3.0.
i have used this programme many times before to create music and therefore my team elected me to be in charge of the production of the soundtrack.
During the production of our title sequence we used many different types of software, the first being Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. We had some experience of how this programme worked from the editing stage of our preliminary task. We also had to use Adobe After Effects CS4 which i myself had no experience using. Nathaniel however, was familiar with this programme and he therefore controlled a majority of the editing.
Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 was mainly used to import footage from the digital cameras onto the computers. We mainly used Adobe After Effects CS4 however to edit the majority of our film and to also encorpret our soundtrack into our footage. This programme made our footage look very professional and therefore worked very effectively overall. Our titles and production logo were all created using this programme, and the amount of effects supplied within the programme provided a wider variety of ideas for us to chose from which overall helped create the perfect logo and titles.
However i did find using this programme difficult to manage and relied on the help of our technicians, Nathaniel and tutorials to help me use it.
Our soundtrack was created by, myself using a programmed called Reason 3.0.
i have used this programme many times before to create music and therefore my team elected me to be in charge of the production of the soundtrack.
Evaluation Task: 5
How did you attract/address your audience?
The male and female protagonists of Death on tuesday are at this point seen greeting eachother in a way suitable for lovers. This provides some indication for the audience to kno that the two are infact in a 'relationship' of some kind.
SEVENTH - END FRAME
These frames show the male protagonist following the female to portray him ultimately as a stalker towards the audience. As you can see there are red particals within the sillhouetted figures, this connotes the aspect of blood. Blood is a conventional aspect seen time and time again in many famous thriller movies, so we decided to incorporate this idea intevtively into our sillhouette idea
END TITLE
This frame introduces the name of the film to the audiences. It closes a dramatic end to the title sequence enabling a fresh start to commence for the film to proceed.
The title is presented in red, again connoting blood, which can be further shown by the blood stained patched pictured around the title. This could also represent the theme of love strongly present in the film as red is a sterotypical colour full of love, lust and sexual emotion.
Death On Tuesday from Jemma Goulds on Vimeo.
LOGO
We created our production logo ' Half moon productions' firstly as a worded logo supported by a dull background, this was due to the fact that our film is from the thriller genre and audiences are expecting scenes of a dull and gritty nature.
We then show an image of a moon next to the worded logo to help the audience associate the figure of the moon with our production company, therefore making it easily recognisable. We decided to keep the image simple as it would be easy to remember and because a 'Moon' is commonly seen by people.
ESTABLISHING SHOT
Our establishing shot shows an image of the city. The effect of this is that it begins to set the scene, with the rain connotating bad circumstances to come during the film.
FIRST FRAME
The first frame of our film shows our female protagonist proceeding on a seductive walk towards the camera (or the audience). The efffect of this is that it introduces her character as being sexy and lustful, so that the audience have some indication of what is to come for her character.
TITLES
he names of each character and people involved in our film fade in. This holds a chilling 'Thriller' effect to support the genre in which we have chosen. The pace in which the titles enter also go with the temp of the music, this makes the footage seem as if it is running more smoothly and in sync in comparison to if the music and footage were not in sync.
SECOND FRAME
The second frame introduces the male protagonist as being dominant with a strong and powerful walk, heading away from the audience. The effect of this was that it portrays him as walking away from his crimes (or hinted crimes), as the women who walked into the frame has now dissappeared. This will arouse suspicion amongst the viewers, maintaining the key elements of mystery on action-thrillers.
THIRD FRAME
This frame shows the female protagonist walking innocently passed the screen, with the titles following her. The effect of this is that it connonates the aspect of her being followed or 'Stalked' by the male protagonist.
FOURTH FRAME
The male protagonist during this moment of the film is shown smoking a cigar. As cigars are commonly and sterotypically associated with people of high status, usually in societies like 'The maffia', audiences will encorpret this idea into their view on his character. Creating assumptions that build on what they acspect from his character.
The male and female protagonists of Death on tuesday are at this point seen greeting eachother in a way suitable for lovers. This provides some indication for the audience to kno that the two are infact in a 'relationship' of some kind.
SEVENTH - END FRAME
These frames show the male protagonist following the female to portray him ultimately as a stalker towards the audience. As you can see there are red particals within the sillhouetted figures, this connotes the aspect of blood. Blood is a conventional aspect seen time and time again in many famous thriller movies, so we decided to incorporate this idea intevtively into our sillhouette idea
END TITLE
This frame introduces the name of the film to the audiences. It closes a dramatic end to the title sequence enabling a fresh start to commence for the film to proceed.
The title is presented in red, again connoting blood, which can be further shown by the blood stained patched pictured around the title. This could also represent the theme of love strongly present in the film as red is a sterotypical colour full of love, lust and sexual emotion.
Evaluation Task: 4
Who would be the target audeience for your media product?
The target audience for my media product range from the ages 15 and over. We chose to target this particular audience as they are aware of aspects that occur in adult life, or example, elements of love and passion. Sexual desire is a dominant feature in which our protagonists share in Death On Tuesday and therefore it is essential our target audience are of age to understand the relationship both characters have. As violence is also an element included within the story-line it is important our audience are of a suitable age to acknowledge the fact that those particular scenes are not to be copied.
Here is a photograph of the adolescents we are aiming our project at. Sex and violence are contriversial issues surrounding people of their age group and therefore i believe they will be interested in watching Death On Tuesday.
The target audience for my media product range from the ages 15 and over. We chose to target this particular audience as they are aware of aspects that occur in adult life, or example, elements of love and passion. Sexual desire is a dominant feature in which our protagonists share in Death On Tuesday and therefore it is essential our target audience are of age to understand the relationship both characters have. As violence is also an element included within the story-line it is important our audience are of a suitable age to acknowledge the fact that those particular scenes are not to be copied.
Here is a photograph of the adolescents we are aiming our project at. Sex and violence are contriversial issues surrounding people of their age group and therefore i believe they will be interested in watching Death On Tuesday.
Shops and Style
The target audience we are aiming to please, i would say generally base theyre shopping around high street stores as they offer fashion at an afforable price. Most people in our targetted audience age group will not have jobs and if so, they are merely part-time/weekend jobs and this therefore means they will have a budget with items they wish to posses. Teenagers and young adolecents are very materialistic people and reply on clothing to in many ways represent who they are and which social group they belong in. For example, it is sterotypical for 'Goths' to wear dark coloured clothing and wear symbollic skulls and crucifixes included in their outfits.
Music
Generally the music that our viewers would typically listen to consists of many different types of music;
pop, hip-hop, rock and r&b mainly. Our soundtrack in ways encorprets all these sounds to make our film even more appealing to the targetted audience. For example, the piano and violin sounds benefit pop and r&b fans where as the base and drums would suit those more into hip-hop / rock music.
TV
Programmes typically watched by young adolescents include; Skins, Eastenders, Hollyoaks.
These shows portray relationships and violence which are aspects also strongly included within Death on tuesday. As the content of our film can be seen as relatable to the television programmes our target audience watch, this will help influence them to be even more intrested in watching the film.
Free Time
It is typical of those aged 15 and over to socialise very often. For example, attending parties and going to the cinema. They also share very varied relationships between them whether it be of a sexually premiscuious nature or of a subtly close friendship. many teenagers free-time consists of par-taking in different habbits, such as smoking and drinking which are elements involved within Death on tuesday.
Media Consumption
Popular forms of media consumed by our audience consist of:
- Magazines
- Movies/Films
- Music
- Television
Their reasons for keeping so in touch with the media is to ensure they are always kept well informed of the latest fashions and 'must-have's' at all times. Due to the fact, i earlier to stated that they are materialistic beings. Taking this point into account, targetting an audience well in touch with the media is a wise choice as we could get many young people conversing about our film, effectively encouraging others to talk about and view our film.
Would They Like Our Film?
I believe our target audience will enjoy our film as it holds elements of surprise aswell as tension. Young adults enjoy films that make them 'jump' as they provide them with a thrill and afterwards creates conversation amoungst peer groups. It suits both make and female audiences as it is action filled to sterotypically please the males and iincludes scenes of love and affection (sterotypically set to suit females). Another reason in which our film will attract female audiences is because it shows a female challenging the normal sterotypical role for women in thriller movies, as our female protagonist is not a victim.
Maslow's Heirarchy Of Needs
This is a diagram showing the psychologist, Maslow's famous heirarchy of needs. This pyramid details the needs that need to be satisfied before one can proceed onto the next step of the pyramid, until u eventually reach self-actualization.
Death on tuesday can be seen as helping our target audience reach self-actualization. Although it cannot provide physiological needs (basic needs), such as food and water, it does supply a level of secruity, especially amongst the female viewers. Fpr example, it portrays a sterotypically 'weaker' sex to take centre stage as being dominant, showiing females in our audience that security can be provided against men who take advantage of women.
A sence of affection can also be noted within the film as there are times when the male and female protagonists are set to par-take in a loving scene of romance. This creates a sense of connection and intimacy towards the audience, ultimately feeding them with a warm-hearted feeling.
Self-esteem and self-confidence can also be build through viewing our film as the audience will have a chance to compare their lives to those of the characters which will ultimately make them feel better about themselves and glad that the lives they lead are a lot simpliar than those of our protagonists. It could also encourage audiences to better themselves if their lives in some ways can be related to those of the characters.
Once all these aspects are successfully completed, viewers will be able to reach self-actualization through watching Death on tuesday.
Evaluation Task: 3
What kind of media instituiton might distribute your media product and why?
We names our production company 'Half Moon Productions' and aim to produce mainly films from the thriller genre. ALthough thrillers are our speciality, we do infact exapand on this idea and produce 'hybrids' (a combination of two genres). For example 'Death on tuesday' is a action-thriller film. After much research into what film companies would distribute our film, we came to the conclusion that 'Hammer film productions' would be a great choice as in their early years they were mostly associated with films from the thriller genre - perfect for 'Death on tuesday'.
Many famous thrillers have been sucessfully distributed from this company including; 'Dracula' and 'The rude awakening'.
These films were distrubuted around the mid 50's, and compared to our thriller are not very modern, however, the company has recently been sold to 'John de mol' (big brother creator) and he has annouced that he promises to spend £25million on new horror/thriller films. This budget would prove very useful to our film.
We have decided to distribute our film to cinemas all over the globe eventually as the target audience can be widely spread to teenagers everywhere as after much reasearch shows, the majority of teens enjoy feels that make the 'jump' and provide the 'thrill factor'.
However as our production company is new, and not very well-known we plan to start locally, releasing our film to cinemas all over london to start with.
The money to fund our film we have decided will come from sponsors, advertisers and grants, etc. The best time to release our film would be during the school holiday period, as this is the time most teenagers will be free to attend.
Evaluation Task: 2
How does Your media product represent particular social groups?
Women are presented to be a strong sex within our film, ultimately this idea challenges the sterotypical role of females in action thriler movies. In many intances, women are presented as the weaker sex, waiting to be rescued by a male or even over shadowed by the heroic male figure. However in death on tuesday the female protagonist (Stephnie) plays a female assasin who sets out to out-shine/defeat the male serial murderer and infact make him her victim. This idea challenges the cliche idea surrounding women to be the weaker sex. This idea is also presented n the action thriller 'Smokin Aces'. This film shows the protagonist (Alicia Keys) also challenging gender sterotypes as she takes the lead in victimising males. Alicia Keys and Myself (Stephnie) both hold these similarities within our characters. Another similarity both characters have in common is that they both use the desirable nature of the female form to lure their victims into a spot of vunerability. The way in which they do this can also be compared, for example, theyre costumes are both fitted to emboss their shape to make them seem for desirable and attractive towards the opposite sex, and both wear their hair down - againg connoting sexual desire within females.
Evaluation Task: 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)
Title
The font of our titles were kept simple to maintain the audiences attention. After much research we found that other film opening sequences from the same genre as our title sequence, also presented simple font for theyre titles as it is not only clear for the audience to read but also doesnt give away too much of the story-line, maintaining the theme of suspence surrounding films from the thriller genre. For example, the titles within the opening of Texas Chainsaw massacre can be compared to the titles within Death On Tuesday:
Setting
Our film opening was filmed entirely within our school television studio. The point of this was so that we could use the blue screen to create a key light effect making our characters appear as nothing more than sillhouettes. This again was to create an atmosphere of suspence and mystery, conventional aspects to an action-thriller.
Our establishing shot is of a city, the reason we chose to base our establishing shot around this image was because many acton thriller movies make the city a dominant location for action to take place in. For example; Sin city. The opening of this sequence also presents an establishing shot of the city in a animated manner. This is where we gained inspiration for the location of our establishing shot from. We also decided to make the establishing shot animated as it proves effective with the sillhouette effect created amongst the characters as well as it being efficient time-wise.
Editing
Genre
Title
The font of our titles were kept simple to maintain the audiences attention. After much research we found that other film opening sequences from the same genre as our title sequence, also presented simple font for theyre titles as it is not only clear for the audience to read but also doesnt give away too much of the story-line, maintaining the theme of suspence surrounding films from the thriller genre. For example, the titles within the opening of Texas Chainsaw massacre can be compared to the titles within Death On Tuesday:
Setting
Our film opening was filmed entirely within our school television studio. The point of this was so that we could use the blue screen to create a key light effect making our characters appear as nothing more than sillhouettes. This again was to create an atmosphere of suspence and mystery, conventional aspects to an action-thriller.
Our establishing shot is of a city, the reason we chose to base our establishing shot around this image was because many acton thriller movies make the city a dominant location for action to take place in. For example; Sin city. The opening of this sequence also presents an establishing shot of the city in a animated manner. This is where we gained inspiration for the location of our establishing shot from. We also decided to make the establishing shot animated as it proves effective with the sillhouette effect created amongst the characters as well as it being efficient time-wise.
Costumes
Protagonists in our movie wernt set to wear any particular costume. However, it was thought appropriate that as our chracters were going to be merely sillhouettes that the outline of their figures presented the audience with some indication of who they are, yet still maintaining the element of mystery behind our chosen genre. For example, it is typical for someone of a high status to me well dressed. Taking this into account we chose to present our male protagonist in a suit to show his authority. We ensured that the movements involved with this character during the opening sequence indicated that we was wearing a suit.
For the female chracters, it was essential their clothing was fitted to present to the feminism behind their sillhouettes to the audience. This also creates a feeling of lust and sexual temptation behind the females, effectively raising suspicion about their characters.
Protagonists in our movie wernt set to wear any particular costume. However, it was thought appropriate that as our chracters were going to be merely sillhouettes that the outline of their figures presented the audience with some indication of who they are, yet still maintaining the element of mystery behind our chosen genre. For example, it is typical for someone of a high status to me well dressed. Taking this into account we chose to present our male protagonist in a suit to show his authority. We ensured that the movements involved with this character during the opening sequence indicated that we was wearing a suit.
For the female chracters, it was essential their clothing was fitted to present to the feminism behind their sillhouettes to the audience. This also creates a feeling of lust and sexual temptation behind the females, effectively raising suspicion about their characters.
This idea was also presented in sin city:
Editing
Action-thrillers conventionally contain editing techniques that arouse suspicion and amazement amongst the audience to keep them engrossed in the movie. Film makers spend a great deal of time and money during editing of films and although the after effect creates this conventional aspect of the film genre, it is also very time consuming. Taking this into consideration, we kept our editing simple yet higly effective, like those of the techniques shown suring the opening of Sin city. Below is a screen shot contrasting the technique used during Sin city and that used during death on tuesday, and effectively shows some level of similarity.
Setting the scene
Lighting and sound were key elements that contributed to creating a successful action-thirller title sequence. As our film held a dominant theme of passion and murder, this had to be interpretted into the opening sequence without giving away too much of the story-line. The music holds the voice of a female (the protagonist) and helps set the story and hint that love and passion are key themes. However the drums along with base in the theme tune, suggest the murderous, mystery and action elements of the movie. Drums can in many instances connote the sound of a heart beat, with this in mind, the drums within Deat on tuesday's soundtrack can help highlight the feeling of suspence and mystery within the film. It could also signify a build up to the story that is about to unfold as the story progresses, hence, upholding the feeling of suspence.
Lighting was an important issue when filming our title sequence as too much lighting in the television studio wouldve and did effect the appearance of the sillhouttes when proceeding to produce the key light effect. First off we used the lights supplied within the room yet found they created too many shadows, effecting our overall product. In the end we chose to settle with using natural lighting as this created a more realistic effect when it came to producing the sillhouettes.
Iconography
As it was essential not to give too much of the story-line away, levels of iconography were kept to a minimum within our title sequene. However, our male protagonist was pictured smoking a cigar sitting on a chair. Cigars are often associated with 'Gansta's' and 'The maffia' (people involved with crime). The effect of this is that the association between the nature of those sterotypically known to smoke cigars and our male protagonist can be made quickly to subtly hint the audience, what this character is about - without giving too much away.
As it was essential not to give too much of the story-line away, levels of iconography were kept to a minimum within our title sequene. However, our male protagonist was pictured smoking a cigar sitting on a chair. Cigars are often associated with 'Gansta's' and 'The maffia' (people involved with crime). The effect of this is that the association between the nature of those sterotypically known to smoke cigars and our male protagonist can be made quickly to subtly hint the audience, what this character is about - without giving too much away.
The chair can represent authority. He sits high (like a throne) showing his level of importance within his role and the film.
Genre
A famous well known action-thriller is die-hard. This film has a variety of high and lowe key lighting to create the feeling of mytery within the film. It creates elements of mystery as well as maintaining being relatable to the target audience. This idea was kept into consideration whilst producing Death on tuesday as we wanted to create the feeling of mystery as well as maintaining our audiences attention. Keeping our charcaters relatable helps do this.
Monday 22 March 2010
Establishing Shot
This is the first image our viewers will see, and therefore had to be effective.
We presented a preview of our establishingshot to our media class mates to
gain an insight as to how effective it was towards people from our target audience.
Here are some of the comments we recieved:
The shot is zooming through a rainy city, this shot ties into our story-line as the male
protagonist is a female hunter constantly on the prowl for his next victims throughout the
city. The rain is a connotation that something bad is destined to happen, as rain can be
commonly associated with themes of a negative nature.
We presented a preview of our establishingshot to our media class mates to
gain an insight as to how effective it was towards people from our target audience.
Here are some of the comments we recieved:
- Very Creative
- Effectively created
- Simple and effective
- Too simplistic
- Not realistic enough
The inspiration for our establishing shot came from the opening sequence of sin city:
Rough Cut
Our rough cut gave us a rough idea of what our finished project was to look like. We presented this to our class to gain feedback of how we could improve/better or effectively alter our short film to ensure the finished outcome was of a standard to the best of our ability. Here is our rough cut presented without titles or music.
Thursday 18 March 2010
Saul Bass Research
Saul Bass was an American graphic designer who developed many different influential graphics.
His most influential work was proven to be in his film title sequences, working on some of the greatest films ever made.
He has created titles for films such as Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” (1958) and the famous “Psycho” as well as many others. during the production of “Vertigo” he inventively used themes that appeared in the 2 hours of cinema that followed in the footage focusing on a female unknown to the audience but later seen with a spiral in her eye creating a hypnotising, vertigo like affect. Accompanied by the dramatic music this helped to create a very powerful and memorable title sequence.
“The title has a way of conditioning the audience, so that when the film actually began, viewers would already have an emotional resonance with it.” – Saul Bass
“The Man With The Golden Arm” is another well-known title sequence from Saul Bass. During this title sequence he demonstates a more simplistic approach compared to that in Vertigo and shows animated white lines both on and off the screen at off angle positions. This could reflect the nature of the films themes including drug addiction and prison life being off blanace life-styles.
This style has proved very influential and is still very prominently used in productions today. For example in the TV Drama “Hustle”, the title sequence can be noted using a very similar technique to achieve very much comparative themes of the threat of prison life.
From the work of Saul Bass i can learn the importance of having a dominant blod image and strong theme when wanting to creative an effective title sequence. As he created titles for many films from my groups chosen film genre.
Music
During lessons we were taught how to produce music via a programme called 'O-Genenerator' however i found this software too simplistic and decided to proceed making our soundtrack using a different music software programme which although is more complexed, produces sounds of a higher, professional quality.
The programme i used to create the music for our short film is a programme called 'Reason 3.0'.
This programme is installed on my own personal laptop and therefore i am very familiar with how to use it, for this reason i was nominated out of the members of my group to produce a soundtrack for our film.
This programme is installed on my own personal laptop and therefore i am very familiar with how to use it, for this reason i was nominated out of the members of my group to produce a soundtrack for our film.
Whilst producing the soundtrack i had to take into account how the sounds i used would effect the genre. As our film is an action thriller, it contains many elements of mystery and i used this idea and interpretted it into the music by the use of strings and drumbeats to portray also produce a 'Heart beat' sound effect. Using drums to mimic the sound of a heart beat again helps bulid suspence and tension and ultimately fulfills the features relavent to the genre of an action thriller.
I also included a female voice within the soundtrack as the film contains many intimate scenes and follows a male protagonist who is essentially a serial killer. The effect of the female voice within the song is that it could connote or represent the women he has victimised.
I also included a female voice within the soundtrack as the film contains many intimate scenes and follows a male protagonist who is essentially a serial killer. The effect of the female voice within the song is that it could connote or represent the women he has victimised.
Throughout producing the music for 'Death On Tuesday' it was essential that i kept in mind the themes and movements included in our footage. I build the sound around the nature of our footage earlier filmed. The themes were presented through movements of the characters, they were of a suspicious / mysterious temperament yet held elements of love and murder. The contrasts in the psychical movements of the characters proved difficult to compose into rhythm, yet dispite this i trialled many sounds to produce the finished product (below).
The tempo throughout the song is kept relavent to one of the main themes present within the short film; Love. As there is a certain level of admiration between the protagonists, this element of the soundtrack worked effectively. However, love isnt the only theme present within the film, murder is also a strong dominant aspect. The instrumnets involved in the sound help to generate this murderous feeling and present it towards the audience.
Below is the finished soundtrack:
01 Death On Tuesday by stephnie-melody
Saturday 6 March 2010
Location Reccee
The location for our film opening was simply set within our school tv studio. The effects and reasons for our chosen setting was due to the fact that we aspired to create a sillhouette effect of our protagonists bodies with the help of the blue-screen supplied in the room.
Originally we planned to use the professional lighting equiptment also provided inside the television studio, however after a few attempts of capturing the footage we experienced many problems such as; the lighting being too bright and ultimatley producing non-believeable sillhouettes. Eventually we decided to use natural lighting as it didnt overall interfer with anything included within the editing process, in comparison to the lighting in which we first intended to use.
Initially we planned to include many different locations for 'Death On Tuesday'. Just to mention a few:
Originally we planned to use the professional lighting equiptment also provided inside the television studio, however after a few attempts of capturing the footage we experienced many problems such as; the lighting being too bright and ultimatley producing non-believeable sillhouettes. Eventually we decided to use natural lighting as it didnt overall interfer with anything included within the editing process, in comparison to the lighting in which we first intended to use.
Initially we planned to include many different locations for 'Death On Tuesday'. Just to mention a few:
- A Shower
- Woods / Forrest scene
The woods is a stereotypical place for films within the horror genre, this was the approach my team and i were aiming to produce. This location is dark and mysterious and for this reason fits conventional aspects of a horror film.
- Our Sixth form (Classrooms & Girls Toilets)
Conversely; we altered our vision and genre of our film and therefore it was essential we changed out film location.
Thursday 4 March 2010
Planning / Meeting
Throughout our project my team and i scheduled meetings to organise and plan aspects of out project.
During these meetings we discussed aspects including:
- Title of the film
This element produced many ideas and as our project was originally set to become a horror movie, some of the titles included were conventional to that theme for example; 'Strikes Once More.' After some discussion we produced the title 'Death On Tuesday'. As this title holds the conventional aspect of death to the horror genre.
- Problems with footage (Friday 11th December)
after some feedback from our teacher, it became apparent that our initial plan for our film opening sequence was too long, and gave away too much of the story to be successfully effective. Taking this into account, my team and i planned a meeting to re-draft our idea and begin planning new footage.
Producing a new storyboard with a new storyline, genre and locations, was completed during this meeting.
- To discuss music
Muisc was now a dominant aspect towards our new plan for our film opening sequence. It was essential we all agreed on a sound relevant to the genre and one that suited us all aswell as fit the new footage.
Tuesday 2 March 2010
Character Profiles
Our male protagonist (pictured above) is seen wearing a simple suit. as our characters are to be effectively made into silhouettes it was important an outfit was picked that would cause effect. For example, the blazer of this suit when twirled will create and effect shot in the footage. Our director (India) also chose to have Nathaniel filmed wearing a suit as it portrayed his role in society further. His character is a serial killer who is of high wealthy status to ultimately seduce his female victims, and by him wearing a suit, this connotes his importance as well as his wealth.
The female protagonist (Me, pictured above) wore tight fitting clothes throughout filming to essential highlight the body / frame of the character to effectively highlight her femininity. As character are merely silhouettes, facial expressions will not be seen and therefore audience are relying on the body structure of characters to successfully present the story to them. It was also important i wore my hair down to again further express her femininity. As females are portrayed as victims throughout 'Death On Tuesday' it was important our director casted someone reasonable 'Short / small' in both hight and build to make her seem vulnerable in comparison to the male protagonist - her attacker.
Monday 1 March 2010
Certificate Rating
Overall we came to the conclusion that the certificate for our film should be a 15 as it is essentially a teen thriller. The elements of blood and violence would also suit this rating as those below 15 years of age may be easily influence by our footage and this would mean we would be responsible for their actions. So to effectively avoid this complication, a certificate rating of 15 would prove most appropriate.
Sunday 28 February 2010
Costumes
Costumes for our title sequence varied. We wanted to keep the look of our characters very near casual so that our target audience would be able relate to them and identify that the actors were portraying characters of the audience’s age group.The director of our group decided the female protagonist of the opening should wear clothes in which she would normally wear to avoid any confusion amongst our viewers as to the age we were representing her as. This would also show her as an average girl, with no special ability ultimately portraying her as a conventionally weak female victim commonly found in horror films.
The male protagonist on the other hand wore a suit. This was to show that he effectively could be older than the female in the scene and is not of the same status (a student). The result of this is that it builds suspense to who the male character could be and why he is following the young female student if in fact they possibly do not know each other.
Above are photographs of the protagonists.
The male protagonist on the other hand wore a suit. This was to show that he effectively could be older than the female in the scene and is not of the same status (a student). The result of this is that it builds suspense to who the male character could be and why he is following the young female student if in fact they possibly do not know each other.
Above are photographs of the protagonists.
Wednesday 24 February 2010
Tuesday 23 February 2010
Smart Tags
S: specific
M: measurable
A: achievable
R: realistic
T: time
With the influence of these S.M.A.R.T targets, my team and I are hoping to achieve our aims through each bullet point and by the deadlines we set. We will keep account of our progress and discuss it reguarly during group meeting that we arrange so that we can see how far we have come with making our opening film sequence and what we can do to improve. We plan to ensure our deadlines we set ouseles are realistic and achievable to ensure ur project is completed to the best of our ability.
M: measurable
A: achievable
R: realistic
T: time
With the influence of these S.M.A.R.T targets, my team and I are hoping to achieve our aims through each bullet point and by the deadlines we set. We will keep account of our progress and discuss it reguarly during group meeting that we arrange so that we can see how far we have come with making our opening film sequence and what we can do to improve. We plan to ensure our deadlines we set ouseles are realistic and achievable to ensure ur project is completed to the best of our ability.
Monday 22 February 2010
The Change Of Plan...
It came apparent that our initial plan to produce a horror was difficult to put into action. Our footage was too complicated and ultimately gave away too much of the storyline, which is not the goal of a title sequence. However, my team and i discussed this issue in a group meeting and decided to use elements of our horror idea and put them into a new idea to effectively create a thriller.
As these genres are close in relation to eachother there was not much excess filming to be incorporated into our work. Using the new location of the TV studio, we re-shot our footage with a simpliar vision in mind using bluescreen to creatively produce a sillhouette effect of our protagonists. The effect of this is that it would maintain suspence as the audience cannot see the faces of the protagonists and will see this as a reason to stay focused and keep watching to find out the overall story-line. This corrects the mistake we made first as we will not give too much away and the characters identity lies unidentified until the movie progresses. However, the audience do get to see body language of the protagonists and establish a sense of what will be included during the film wich will immediently keep them hooked.
This idea of using blue screen was inspired by the iPod advert which is effectively dependent on the actors body language to sell their product.
Costumes and Props for our new idea have also changed and have proven drastically simpilar.
As the actors are going to be presented as nomore than just sillhouettes, there was no need to fuss about costume. Props that we included were very simple and consisted of only a chair and a paper rolled up as a cigar to fit the conventional idea of the male protaginist being a person of high status and importance.
As these genres are close in relation to eachother there was not much excess filming to be incorporated into our work. Using the new location of the TV studio, we re-shot our footage with a simpliar vision in mind using bluescreen to creatively produce a sillhouette effect of our protagonists. The effect of this is that it would maintain suspence as the audience cannot see the faces of the protagonists and will see this as a reason to stay focused and keep watching to find out the overall story-line. This corrects the mistake we made first as we will not give too much away and the characters identity lies unidentified until the movie progresses. However, the audience do get to see body language of the protagonists and establish a sense of what will be included during the film wich will immediently keep them hooked.
This idea of using blue screen was inspired by the iPod advert which is effectively dependent on the actors body language to sell their product.
Costumes and Props for our new idea have also changed and have proven drastically simpilar.
As the actors are going to be presented as nomore than just sillhouettes, there was no need to fuss about costume. Props that we included were very simple and consisted of only a chair and a paper rolled up as a cigar to fit the conventional idea of the male protaginist being a person of high status and importance.
All in all we believe this new plan will allow us to show off more of our creative side and demonstrate simple yet effective media techniques.
Treatment
Original Storyline
Death on Tuesday was initially intended to be a movie from the horror genre. It was planned to be set during a 6th form detention where students are all sat in silence and boredom (which was to be shown by the use of a panning shot which was to highlight the boredom on each person’s face), until the teacher conducting the detention leaves, however during this time, one boy, (the male protagonist, a young man called Trey) and his girlfriend Elesha are shown sending private notes around the class room. This was going to be highlight by the use of a close up shot of everyone passing the note around the classroom. Once the teacher exits, the class then become socially active, talking, laughing and listening to music amongst each other and some in small groups. Certain division within the class are then noticed, again by the use of a close up shot to emphasise the different groups amongst the class, for example, the ‘Gossip group’.Elesha is then seen sending Trey a note instructing him to meet her in the toilets shortly.The camera then follows her out of the classroom until she enters the toilets and begins fixing herself up and humming, waiting for Trey’s arrival. Trey is then seen following shortly behind her until he too enters the toilets and a scene of intimacy takes place. Due to our target audience and target rating being a 15 we ensured the sex content was kept down to a minimum and the lights cut out before any action of extreme intimacy is noticed. A point of view shot was planned to then be used so that the audience could see that there is one else in the toilets watching them, this idea would’ve aroused suspicion and tension amongst viewers and make them feel as if they are key to the storyline as they know something the protagonists don’t, that someone is watching. Trey and Elesha then pursue into the cubicle adjacent to the one containing the ‘Third-party / person watching’. To maintain the feeling of them being watched we planned to use a high angle shot above Trey and Elesha inside the cubicle.With the lights turned off, nothing but a scream is then heard from Elesha, which is the cue for the lights to turn on. The audience then witness only Trey is standing over Elesha, who appears dead. The door of the toilets then closes, suggesting someone’s exit. The effect of this is that it doesn’t give away who killed Elesha and maintains suspense.
New Idea and Synopsis
Death On Tuesday is now an action-thriller containing elements of mystery and murder however also portraying themes of sexual desire and relationships. The protagonists throughout the film opening are presented as sillhouettes. The effect of this is that it upholds a sence of mysteriousness and arrouses suspence, conventional aspects to the thriller genre. As Death On Tuesday is also combined with the 'Action' genre, it was essential we portrayed this aspect through the opening to ensure the audience caught a grasp of this part of out vision.To do this, we ensured that even the music suggested action by using drums to mimic the sound of a heartbeat.Dialogue is absent from this opening, music is dominant to create and set the atmosphere.Our storyline follows a serial killer, known for trapping his female victims with his charm, leaving them in a vounerable position and in love with him. As the relationships between them progress and gain a sense of seriousness, he then strikes, proposing to her yet leaving each vistim as a cold corpse bride.His newest victim however, doesn't go down as easy, she knows how to put up a fight. She is a female assain who is aware of her 'Lover/Victims' status and movements. She makes herself vounerable, eager to give him what he deserves. This contains much action between the pair, resulting in someone leaving triumphantly?
Death on Tuesday was initially intended to be a movie from the horror genre. It was planned to be set during a 6th form detention where students are all sat in silence and boredom (which was to be shown by the use of a panning shot which was to highlight the boredom on each person’s face), until the teacher conducting the detention leaves, however during this time, one boy, (the male protagonist, a young man called Trey) and his girlfriend Elesha are shown sending private notes around the class room. This was going to be highlight by the use of a close up shot of everyone passing the note around the classroom. Once the teacher exits, the class then become socially active, talking, laughing and listening to music amongst each other and some in small groups. Certain division within the class are then noticed, again by the use of a close up shot to emphasise the different groups amongst the class, for example, the ‘Gossip group’.Elesha is then seen sending Trey a note instructing him to meet her in the toilets shortly.The camera then follows her out of the classroom until she enters the toilets and begins fixing herself up and humming, waiting for Trey’s arrival. Trey is then seen following shortly behind her until he too enters the toilets and a scene of intimacy takes place. Due to our target audience and target rating being a 15 we ensured the sex content was kept down to a minimum and the lights cut out before any action of extreme intimacy is noticed. A point of view shot was planned to then be used so that the audience could see that there is one else in the toilets watching them, this idea would’ve aroused suspicion and tension amongst viewers and make them feel as if they are key to the storyline as they know something the protagonists don’t, that someone is watching. Trey and Elesha then pursue into the cubicle adjacent to the one containing the ‘Third-party / person watching’. To maintain the feeling of them being watched we planned to use a high angle shot above Trey and Elesha inside the cubicle.With the lights turned off, nothing but a scream is then heard from Elesha, which is the cue for the lights to turn on. The audience then witness only Trey is standing over Elesha, who appears dead. The door of the toilets then closes, suggesting someone’s exit. The effect of this is that it doesn’t give away who killed Elesha and maintains suspense.
New Idea and Synopsis
Death On Tuesday is now an action-thriller containing elements of mystery and murder however also portraying themes of sexual desire and relationships. The protagonists throughout the film opening are presented as sillhouettes. The effect of this is that it upholds a sence of mysteriousness and arrouses suspence, conventional aspects to the thriller genre. As Death On Tuesday is also combined with the 'Action' genre, it was essential we portrayed this aspect through the opening to ensure the audience caught a grasp of this part of out vision.To do this, we ensured that even the music suggested action by using drums to mimic the sound of a heartbeat.Dialogue is absent from this opening, music is dominant to create and set the atmosphere.Our storyline follows a serial killer, known for trapping his female victims with his charm, leaving them in a vounerable position and in love with him. As the relationships between them progress and gain a sense of seriousness, he then strikes, proposing to her yet leaving each vistim as a cold corpse bride.His newest victim however, doesn't go down as easy, she knows how to put up a fight. She is a female assain who is aware of her 'Lover/Victims' status and movements. She makes herself vounerable, eager to give him what he deserves. This contains much action between the pair, resulting in someone leaving triumphantly?
Sunday 21 February 2010
Props and Equiptment
The equiptment we used during out project consisted of:
- Video Camera
- Tripod
- A chair
- A piece of paper (rolled up to make a cigar)
- A computer
- Adobe After effects and Premiere Pro
- Reason 3.0
Saturday 20 February 2010
Mood Board
This is a brainstorm of ideas of films from my groups selected film genre (Horror).The effect of creating this mood board is that it outlines some key ideas and conventional aspects of horror movies that could ultimately be included in our final practical project.
During the planning stage of our title sequence we watched many the films included in my mood board for inspiration as many of these films also have teenage protagonists and portray women as the victims.
During the planning stage of our title sequence we watched many the films included in my mood board for inspiration as many of these films also have teenage protagonists and portray women as the victims.
Friday 19 February 2010
Group Roles
Stephnie Mathurin;
Female protagonist
Soundtrack creator
India-hosten Hughes;
Camera hnadling
Nathaniel Prince;
Editor
Male Protagonist
Within our group we have a selection of many different talents which could effectively be used to produce a successful short film.
During the planning stage of our film, we discussed each of our strengths and weaknesses and began to put them into action. We found that Nathaniel has much experience with using the programmes desired for this project (Adobe premiere pro and After effects), and this therefore put him 'in charge' almost of handling editing matters as well as being included as a main character towards our storyline. However, input from myself and India was encouraged and put forward regulary and effects and titles were decided as a group. It was also discovered that India had much past experience with camera work and could use the camera effectively. As this was the case, she became in charge of camera handling and the filming of the entire project.
It was apparent that myself (Stephnie) have had experience with making music. For thsi reason i was elected to create a soundtrack for our movie, as well as also playing the female protagonist for our short film.
Female protagonist
Soundtrack creator
India-hosten Hughes;
Camera hnadling
Nathaniel Prince;
Editor
Male Protagonist
Within our group we have a selection of many different talents which could effectively be used to produce a successful short film.
During the planning stage of our film, we discussed each of our strengths and weaknesses and began to put them into action. We found that Nathaniel has much experience with using the programmes desired for this project (Adobe premiere pro and After effects), and this therefore put him 'in charge' almost of handling editing matters as well as being included as a main character towards our storyline. However, input from myself and India was encouraged and put forward regulary and effects and titles were decided as a group. It was also discovered that India had much past experience with camera work and could use the camera effectively. As this was the case, she became in charge of camera handling and the filming of the entire project.
It was apparent that myself (Stephnie) have had experience with making music. For thsi reason i was elected to create a soundtrack for our movie, as well as also playing the female protagonist for our short film.
Thursday 18 February 2010
Evaluation Of Preliminary Task
For the preliminary exercise we were instructed to form in groups of no more than four people. My group consisted of, myself, India, Nathaniel and Channon. Once our group was decided, we began looking over the criteria necessary for completing the task. The checklist detailing the compulsory criteria stated that we must demonstrate;
- A character opening a door
- A character crossing a room
- A character sitting down in a chair, opposite another character
- Dialogue between characters
- Match on action
- The use of a shot/reverse shot
- Understanding of 180 degree rule
Planning and research.
We began planning the basis of our idea for the preliminary exercise during lesson times. As a group we watched and researched previous AS preliminary task examples, analysing the content against the task criteria. This made it easier for us as a group to see and note how we could demonstrate all aspects of the criteria intended for the task. Once our minds were clear on the task in hand, we began assigning roles within our groups as well as developing our ideas for the exercise through the use of mind maps. It was decided that the protagonists in our story were to be India and Channon, leaving myself as director and Nathaniel in charge of camera work. Although we all assigned each other designated roles, we all kept an open mind, contributing and helping each other improve our performances and adapt on instructional ideas. Keeping in mind the simplicity required for this task, we thought it would be best to use our idea of “a student arriving late to class” taking advantage of our location (as filming was to be completed during school time). Now, that the basis of our planning was complete we began to research more into editing techniques required for after filming the task. As a class, we went through various editing techniques including “Match on action” and the “180 degree rule” which are both key components needed to successfully complete the exercise.
Pre-production planning.
With our new found understanding of the intended editing techniques, we began to incorporate this along with our ideas conducted during the early planning and research stage, into a story board. This was to fully plan and outline our story through the use of both images and texts which followed the narrative of our filming. The images included in our story board, demonstrated the camera shot we were going to use, as well as the characters positions in relation to each other. This aspect of the story board worked well as it helped me (as director) make sure the actors and camera man stuck to the 180 degree rule. It also helped us as a group as it visually outlined which aspects of the criteria we had included, or needed to evolve on. Each member of the group adapted and added to the story board, often making notes of editing techniques we could include in each shot, or camera shots we could demonstrate to make filming seem more effective. For example, close-up shots to show characters reactions and facial expressions. As dialogue was a necessary requirement to include in our filming, we started to form a short script along-side the images and texts already used in our story board. The completion of our story board was mainly conducted in class; however, as a group we arranged a meeting to detail final amendments and ideas we could include in our filming. During our meeting we also discussed back-up possibilities in case of unfortunate incidents; for example, if one of our actors were to be ill, we discussed the idea of having our director fill the position of the absent actor.Deadlines were another aspect discussed during our meeting. Setting ourselves deadlines I believe, helped us work more intensely towards fulfilling the task as well as contributing to helping us manage our time well, not making the mistake to spend too long on one area and subsequently forgetting about another.
Production Process.
Our planning stage had now been completed, which meant we could move on to the filming of our preliminary task. As filming had to be done during school hours, and the theme of our story was based around school, we used our classroom as the dominant location. This worked effectively as we maintained the idea of simplicity. During the process of filming, we all took time to complete a video journal which detailed what we had accomplished through each day of filming. The video journal worked effectively as it helped us keep track of what we had done and what aspects of the story board were left to be filmed. It also provided an outline to contribute towards writing an evaluation of the task as from the notes made in the video journal; we can see whether completing our filming could have been improved by altering our self-applied deadlines to ultimately increase time spent on each aspect of the exercise.
Evaluation.
Overall I am pleased that my team and I, achieved in demonstrating the preliminary criteria, however I believe that a few aspects could have been altered to help us achieve this quicker, for example, I believe that more than one meeting should have been arranged to complete the video journal more effectively and also, to discuss clearer instructions of the roles. By this I mean, although contributing towards each other’s assigned areas worked well in some instances, in some cases it only created unnecessary discussion which wasted some filming time. Instead we could have included written feedback to each other’s performance during the filming process, in the video journal. This would have worked effectively and helped us see what (as individuals) we can improve on to effectively help improve our group performance.Another aspect I believe worked effectively was our deadlines. Setting deadlines towards each of our tasks helped us see how much time we were spending on each aspect of developing the final film product.
AS preliminary task from Jemma Goulds on Vimeo.
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