Night Vision

In our teaser trailer we wanted to include a section where we use night vision as it will be a scene of me breathing which will be filmed in darkness and to create the effect of night and darkness we thought it would be effective to use night vision. As the camera didn't have night vision on it we had to film our scene in the dark with a small light on and when editing change the colours and add effects to create the green tint which is commonly found during night vision scenes. To allow us to have the night vision scene we had to search YouTube for some helpful videos on instructions for how to get the effect of night vision (the video which we used is featured below). We found an effect on Premiere Pro which was called "ghosting" and we thought it would be great to use in our trailer and combining it with the night vision would be very effective. After following the step-to-step instructions and constantly pausing the video to find the same effects on our version of Premiere Pro and following every instruction we had finished. Unfortunately the night vision on our clip wasn't similar to the one shown on the video. Our clip is slightly different in colour which means that the night vision doesn't have the same effect on the audience. One way in which we could try to fix this problem is to go over and start the process from the beginning and change some of the darkness and contrast levels to create the same effect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt2eiYvRpy4

Night vision tutorial
















Our attempt at night vision

Day 2 of Editing

For the second day of filming we only had 1 lesson to spend on editing due to it being the end of term. We therefore spent the time fixing the ending of the trailer with the bloody hand as we had to get the timing and speed perfect. After we showed the shots that we started editing to our teacher we got feedback that the colour of the blood when its on the screen shows ur as being pink. I then spent a while changing the brightness and contrast to make the colour more red but not darken the shot too much otherwise it will not fit together with the shot of the hand before. I managed to make the blood seem more red by slightly changing the colour but I feel that more time will need to be spent to fully create the effect that we want.

Day 1 of Editing

To start the editing process we watched every scene that we had shot in one continuous viewing and then we went over it again and wrote down next to our storyboard the shots which go with each part of our narrative in order of how it will be shown. We then put the shots which we had written down in order and cut them to the length that we needed. We began with the beginning of the teaser trailer narrative and decided to experiment with the night vision as it was probably the most difficult effect to create. We also spent time on the ending as it had to attract the audience and we cut the shot into 2 so each part had to fit with the other. Overall we spent 5 lessons editing the first section of our trailer and collecting all the shots together. I feel that it went to plan and we were able to work together as a group and we had the chance to input our own ideas on what effects to use and during the night vision process. As we had around 20 minutes of footage to cut down, the process wasn't very hard and we all already knew what we wanted to achieve so the editing process started smoothly.

Day 3 of Filming

The final day of filming caused the most problems for us as it consisted of props which happened to be fake blood. We began with using ink as the blood but found out that once put on our hands it would turn pink, we later tried red paint which dried very quickly, fake blood and finally all three which created the look of blood. As the paint dried quickly it gave a look of cracking skin which I thought was very effective. Our plan was to use a double lesson in the morning but due to us having trouble with the blood we carried on the rest of the filming during lesson time in the afternoon. We started off filming the close ups which were difficult as we were not able to get the shots that we wanted, also there was a shot when my bloody hand come towards the screen and hits it. To do this we had to search for a clear sheet of plastic ensure that it was as accurate as possible as we only had one take. During our lesson in the afternoon we decided to shoot our last shot which was of my hand (covered in blood) turning the light switch on. For this we had to search for a light switch around school and ask permission from teachers if we could use them. Once we found the switch we had a few takes of the hand shot until we found one which we thought was the most effective.

Location Images - Church

Day 2 of Filming

The second day of filming turned out to be the most difficult as we were filming outside at a different location. Today's filming took place in Streatham outside an abandoned Church, as we were filming on London road we had a few issues with people walking into our shots but we managed to overcome this difficulty. Filming today went as planned although it was FREEZING outside, we all managed to stay professional and film each scene with very few complaints. The most trouble we had was trying to find a way in which we could balance our camera during shot 17 where there was a close up of our feet walking through the bushes. We experimented with different ways of balancing the camera and finally were able to lean it against a shoe which worked on our behalf as I feel that it was one of our best shots.

Location Images - Seclusion House

Day 1 of Filming

Our first say of filming went very well, although we began 15 minutes late due to us not being able to collect the camera, we managed to finish early. What I feared the most was that we would not be able to film the scenes we needed, once we began we became very professional and were able to stick to the shooting schedule and film each scene as many times as we needed. The first day of shooting took place in the seclusion house within school which is very accessible and we were very familiar with the environment. As there are people working within the building we had to minimise the amount of noise that we made which turned out to be difficult as we were shooting the scenes where Riley (Maria) was being thrown against a wall and dragged across the floor. We overcame this problem by trying to make each take as perfect as possible with minimal mistakes. Overall I feel that our first day of shooting was successful as we were able to shoot approximately half of our trailer, we also experimented with different ways of positioning the camera which we will combine with the original camera angles during the editing process.

Snow Problems

My group and I had decided to start shooting our teaser trailer on Wednesday 1st December 2010, due to adverse weather conditions our school was closed and transport wasn't running smoothly. We were therefore forced to reschedule shooting our trailer and reconsider the order of each scene and the appropriate timing to shoot them. We decided to shoot at the closest location first which is the seclusion house, at the Church on the second day of filming and finally the media recording studio as our shots are not very long and these final shots include props which may be hard to purchase on short notice. We should hopefully start shooting on the 8th of December if the weather improves. Keep your fingers crossed :)

Horror Film Questionnaire

This questionnaire was created to get an understand of the impact horror films have on people and what they find most interesting about them. I asked a range of different age groups to get a wider range of answers. Next to some of my results I have annotated around it describing what evidence I have collected and how it can be useful during the construction of my own teaser trailer. As my target audience is 16-25, the majority of people I had asked to complete my questionnaire were within that age range. I was able to compare the difference between how younger audiences watch horror films in comparison to older audiences. I had also asked an equal amount of men and women so I could analyse the differences between how they watched horror films and the reaction it had on them.

Shooting Schedule

Storyboard

Storyboard

View more presentations from ShreenaPatel31.

Actors

Lucy Damon - Shreena Patel
Marilyn Roberts - Rhiannon Williams
Charlie Lee - Nihal Shariff
Tanya Riley - Maria Adegeye

FINAL FILM TITLE!

'Chromosome 17'
My group and I decided on a final name for our film after looking over and discussing the other options. We decided on calling it 'Chromosome 17' as it is related to the disorder of SMS (Smiths-Magenis Syndrome) which we are trying to make aware to our audience. I came across this disorder when reading through the 'Metro' on the 16th of November. They had featured an article on a 9 year old girl called Grace Fishwick who was born with the disorder of SMS and how it has effected her family and her mentally.
SMS is a rare developmental disorder which affects an average of 1 in 25,000 individuals. It is caused by a abnormality within the chromosome 17 and causes people such as Grace to become very violent towards themselves and others.
Some symptoms include disrupted sleeping patterns, deep set eyes, full cheeks, anxiety and self-injury along with many others.
I chose to feature this disorder within our film and teaser trailer as I wanted to make our audience and others aware of some disorders which aren't common but still cause damage to many lives.

Grace Fishwick article: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/847356-meet-the-real-life-jekyll-and-hyde-girl

Film Title Ideas

Above is a diagram of optional names for our film which my group and I thought would be relevant. Most of these names are symptoms and associations with Smiths-Magenis Syndrome (SMS) which is a disorder that we are portraying within our film.

Narrative of Teaser Trailer

• Heavy breathing - Lucy
• Hand held camera - night vision
• (Cuts to black)

Medium cuts

• Teacher talking about trailer
• Church - students walking
• Lucy saying "I don't like it"
• Outside the house - Riley "Perfect"

Fast cuts

• Charlie being zipped up
• Marilyn going into the bathroom
• Marilyn panicking

Mixture of cuts

• Church, the girls being attacked and walking through the bushes

• Lucy's hand switching on the light
• Name of Film shows
• Turns to black
• Tanya "what is that?"
• Bloody hand out of focus, moves towards the lens and the camera focuses, hand hits the screen
• "Coming Soon" is shown
• Name of production company
  

Narrative of Film

During an A2 media class, it had been announced that the students would have the task of creating a media horror trailer contributing to 50% of their final grades. And were then assigned to their groups consisting of Lucy, Marilyn, Charlie and (Tanya) Riley. Being so enthusiastic about death, horror and the afterlife, Marilyn is excited and has the perfect location for the group to begin filming outside a deserted church in the local area which is apparently haunted. So she arranges a time and the place for the group to meet for the first day of filming.

When arriving at the church, the group decide to go to the back of the church in an attempt to find something mystical as well as being the perfect location to film, believing that they would get a very high mark for the setting. They explore the area but Lucy does not feel comfortable and is insistent that they change location. With a large amount of convincing, Marilyn realised that there may be a more convenient place to shoot the film in a second location- an abandoned house. Again, the group reschedule another time and place to meet for the second day of shooting.

When the group is gathered together, for the second time, one of the group members was missing as Charlie did not come, assuming that she was lazy not unenthusiastic about the task altogether, Riley ensured that the group continued to shoot without her. (The entire group was unaware that Charlie has been mysteriously killed in her home- when her body had been carried out of her house and into an ambulance).

The group explore the house and realise that it is the best for shooting having everyone agree. As Marilyn, goes into the bathroom to look for props for a ‘bathroom scene’ the door swings shut behind her and locks itself so she is stuck in. the light starts to flicker so she cannot see where she is going, there are loud screams coming from the bathroom which alerts everyone then there is complete silence.

Riley is at the scene with Lucy closely behind and kicks the door down to find Marilyn murdered on the floor of the bathroom and blood smeared on the walls and floor. Panic breaks out between he last group members and they become suspicious of each other having an idea that one of them is a ‘killer’. They both go into a room and sit down together in silence. There is a power failure where the lights switch on an off continuously and each time the injuries from Riley increase until she as seen as dead, all that is heard is screams. With the hand held camera that the student are using, in night mode Lucy’s hand stretches towards the light switch, and as she turns it on, there is a flashback to the doctors office at the place where she had been diagnosed.

On may 17^th, at aged 9, Lucy Damon was diagnosed with a condition that caused her to become extremely violent at any given moment for a short period of time, then returning back to her original state afterwards, unaware of any incident that had previously taken place. Due to the fact that her mother had died in a horrific accident being brutally murdered by her father and forced her to live in a foster home.

Finally, there is a close up to Lucy’s face where she smirks, then another close up of her eyes.

Characters

A2 media students (4 girls)

• Lucy Damon
• Marilyn Roberts
• Charlie Lee
• Tanya Riley (referred to as Riley)
  

Initial Ideas

Above are some initial ideas which my group and I decided to incorporate into our teaser trailer. Once we found out about our groups we came together to discuss a few ideas which we would like to incorporate into our trailer.

What would I like to focus on and gain?

To collect and develop our knowledge about what we have gained and learnt about the horror genre over the past 8 weeks we were asked to annotate different images taken from horror films and theories which we have researched into. This allowed us to swap our ideas in a creative way but to also think about what we would like to achieve during the course of this project.
Some key elements which I would like to focus on and gain during this project are:

• Todorov's theory and The Final Girl theory, but adapting them to suit my teaser trailer.
• Using a mixture of hand-held and professional camera shots to add different atmospheres.
• Point-of-view shots along with a mixture of other different shots to represent the characters emotions.
  
• Making it suitable for teenagers but also adults.
• Make the audience interact more with the teaser trailer.
• The ability to take scenes from well-known films but developing them to make them more modern and attractive to my target audience.
  

Conventions of a Trailer

Here are some common conventions of a trailer:

• They highlight the 'best bits' of a film
• We are not shown the story in narrative order
• It showcases the stars of the film
• Conversations usually consist of one line each
• Unusual angles
• Voice-overs
• Music plays an important role in creating the atmosphere
• Title doesn't appear until the end
• Trailer builds to a climax where it ends
  

'Cabin Fever' (2002) Poster Annotations

Media Studies DLD

On the 4th of November we were put into groups for our Media deep learning day. My group consisted of Sarah, Maria and Nihal and we had the option to film a parody or a homage of key scenes from the horror genre. A parody is a literary or artistic work that mimics in an absurd or ridiculous way the conventions and style of another work; E.g. 'Scary Movie'. A homage pays tribute (in a film to a director or actor). The reason behind this deep learning day was for us to introduce us to the video camera's and editing software in preparation for our final teaser trailer. We began by collecting our ideas together and decided to create a new film but by adding elements and characters from other films which we have researched into. We then began to storyboard our ideas and had 2 hours to film our parody. Some problems which occurred were people talking in the background, spending too much time filming some scenes, having too much footage and during our presentation to the class we had realised that the music had gone over on one scene so the noise in the bathroom was cut off. After editing out the scenes that we didn't want we were left with 6 minutes of footage, as the limit was 3 minutes we had to cut out some sections to fit the time limit which was very tedious. When watching our video we realised that the sound had extended over the time which we wanted it to, and this caused a problem as the sounds in the bathroom could not be heard. When doing our final teaser trailer we will take this into consideration and watch over the final piece to ensure that the sound and image is correctly placed.

Marketing a Horror Film

BBFC Guidelines

U - Universal (suitable for all) 4+

• Scary sequences should be mild
• Unlikely to cause undue anxiety
• No reference to drugs
• Infrequent use of mild bad language
• Occasional natural nudity
• Mild sexual behaviour e.g. kissing
  

PG - Parental Guidance (8+)

• Parents are advised to consider whether it may upset young children
• Reference to illegal drugs
• Mild bad language
• Frightening sequences should not be prolonged or intense
• Natural nudity
• Sexual activity may be implied
• Moderate violence
  

12 - (12+)

• Moderate physical and psychological threat may be permitted
• Moderate language
• Dangerous behaviour should not dwell on detail which could be copied
• Moderate violence
• Nudity
  

15 - (15+)

• Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic and sexual
• Sexual activity may be portrayed
• Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury
  

18 - (suitable for all)

• All allowed
• Explicit images of sexual activity may be permitted
  

Monstrous Femine - Carrie (1976)

• Monstrous act occurs when she gets drenched in pig's blood - symbolises menstrual blood
• Women are referred to as 'pigs', women 'bleed like pigs'
• It runs down her body just as her own blood ran down her leg at the beginning of the film
• Women's blood and pig's blood signify horror, shame and humiliation
• Over-bearing mother
• Absence of father
  

Spectatorship and the Male Gaze

This diagram shows the ways in which women are portrayed in comparison to men ands they ways in which they are represented towards the viewer.

Audience Theories

We looked at a range of different theories which are featured and created for the horror genre specifically. Some include: Male Gaze, Propp's theory and The Final Girl theory. What I liked most about looking at different theories to do with the genre of horror was that I was able to take the key information and develop it to suit my ideas for the project. An analytical approach was taken as we viewed each film, after learning about the different theories which are based within horror films I was able to analyse them in greater detail. One film which I thought had taken some of the theory concepts and adapted them to make them new and exciting. 'Scream' (1996) uses both The Final Girl theory and Todorov's theory. The theory is based upon the narrative of a film and how it's split into 5 different parts which give a short summary of what will happen at that particular moment; exposition, development, complication, climax and resolution make up Todorov's theory. The Final Girl theory refers to the last female character in a horror film. Carol J. Clover created the theory and states that there are elements which make the final girl distinct. Some include a unisex name and the girl is typically sexually unavailable. An example would be Laurie Strode in 'Halloween' (1978) as she was shown to be more innocent minded than her friends. 'Scream' challenges this theory as the final girl (Sidney Prescott) who has survived throughout each film has shown to be sexually available as she has a boyfriend (Billy) who she decided to sleep with, and Randy who admires her. When I create my teaser trailer I could use the concept of taking a theory and changing it to suit they type of horror film I am trying to portray and my target audience.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) - Trailer

What elements stand out?

• The sound - camera taking pictured and chickens (farm)
• The face of Leatherface
• Feathers on the floor
• How he attacks his victims
• Objects shown within the house
  

What 'horror' techniques have been used?

• Bones
• Decomposing hand
• Dead bodies
• Deformed face
  

How do we know it's a 'slasher' film?

• Leatherface hits a man with a sledgehammer
• Chainsaw
  

What hooks the audience?

• The fast pace
• Frequent cuts
• Detailed trailer
• We feel as though we are in the house with them
  

Known and Unknown

Known

• Life
• The everyday
• Normal physical matter
• Human Normality
• 'Normal' sexuality
• Social order
• Sanity
• Health
• Culture
  

Unknown

• Death
• The supernatural
• Abnormal physical matter
• The unconscious self
  
• 'Abnormal' sexuality
• Social disorder
• Insanity
• Disease
• Nature
  

Nosferatu (1922) - Opening Scene Essay

This is an essay which I had written that analyses the opening scene of 'Nosferatu' (1922). I look in detail at the characters, the ideas which are introduced, the connotations, editing, music, themes and what questions are left unanswered within the film.

Horror Film Timeline

Research - Horror Genre

In preparation for our final practical project we undertook research into the horror genre. I was able to look at a timeline of horror films from the 1920's when horror first began to the present day. The films which I had viewed ranged from vampires to slashers, I found it interesting to view and compare the different styles of horror and see the development of them over the years. One film which stood out for me was Hitchcock's 'Psycho' (1960). There are many aspects to the film and area's surrounding it which have inspired me and which have made me question my own ideas on how to present my teaser trailer. Alfred Hitchcock used his "no late admission"policy to attract a wider audience and make his film unique. This meant that people weren't allowed to view the film after the doors had closed. What was effective about presenting his film in this way was that people were more curious about the contents of the film since others weren't allowed to mention it. It was interesting to look at a range of films and being able to analyse them against other horror films, but also seeing the connection and how some films are able to take scenes and quotes ("we all go a little crazy sometimes" used in 'Psycho' and 'Scream') from previous films and develop them to suit their particular film and audience.

Brief

A promotional package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer, together with two of the following three options:

• A website homepage for a new film
• A film magazine front cover, featuring the film
• A poster for the film