Nursery Rhymes

For our piece we need to decided on what nursery rhyme we are going to choose for the end of our opening.

Our first choice is,,, Goosey Goosey Gander

Goosey Goosey Gander, whither shall I wander?

Upstairs and downstairs and in my Lady's chamber.

There I met an old man who wouldn't say his prayers,

So I took him by his left leg and threw him down the stairs.

This could be quite disturbing when made into a song especially the threw him down the stairs but nut I feel that it may not be the best one for our piece as it may also be quite hard to make it scary.

Our second choice is... Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky!
Although this i generally a happier nursery rhyme I think it coul be brilliant as a scary one. I think panning and EQ will make this a very goo nursery rhyme to use. it is also one of the most well known ones so the audience wil relate back to the childhood making the child figure more scary.

Our last choice is... The Teddy Bears Picnic

If you go out in the woods today,
You'd better not go alone.
It's lovely out in the woods today,
But safer to stay at home.

This would be treally good in our media as it relates to a woods which is where our opening is set. I would also be good because everyone knows that its is a bout teddy bears and teddy bears relate to our little girl villian.

Out of all three choices i think The Teddy Bears Picnic is going to be the best one for our piece because it relates to our story the most.

Slasher typography

When researching typography used within the same sub-genre as our film opening, it became clear that many stuck to the use of Serif fonts and using the colours red, black and white. The colour red connotes things such as blood, gore and danger and seeing as these are some of the things expected by the audience in a horror film, it fits the audiences expectations which is why it's repetitively used for the text.
The typography used for Scream is repetitive over the series of films which makes it unique to the film, the use of bold white writing makes it stand out against those all with similar red, serif titles. The use of white more than red is most likely because it's more modern than Prom Night, Texas Chainsaw and A Nightmare on Elm Street and the older films are those which conformed to the conventions more than now. Although the Smiley film is modern, it has stuck to the conventions and used a deep red for the title, a deeper shade of red to the older films, one that looks like a shade of blood rather than a bright red colour.
The Cornered! typography is the one that goes against the conventions mostly, with use of Sans Serif font and the colours green and white/grey, again one that is more modern than one that stuck to audiences. Into The Darkness and The Final Destination are another two typographies that subvert the audience expectations with a lack of the colour red within them, both being more modern.
The Final Destination text looks as though it's reflecting light, which linked to the smashed mirror in the graphology of the poster, it linked the two together. If we could incorporate something from within our opening/film with the typography, I think it'd be interesting and different.

Evaluation of filming day 2

With a few hours spare on a Saturday and with one of it main actors free from work, we decided to use these hours productively and film what we could with this one character, Heather. We thought that the weather had taken a turn for the worst when it began to spit on the way to the woods but it stopped which was good.

It took us approximately 45 minutes to film 4 shots and get them exactly how we wanted which we all thought was a good use of time as this means that if we stick to this pace, on our next filming day, we should be able to get a lot done in just a few hours. We would say that we have around 20% filmed now as we have to refill what we have already filmed because of certain issues with our characters being too over exaggerated and another changing their image.

Different Production Companies

• Universal studios is a production company that has produced many of the top grossing films of all time, such as E.T and Jaws, this means that if it was to be used as our introduction people would notice straight away who we want to stage as the producers of this film as universal studios is a very prestigious company.
• The films that Universal Studios usually produce are more of action/adventure films and they are not known for producing any horror films, therefore it wouldn't be a great production company to use as there are better companies we can use to support our genre.

• Sony pictures animation is an animation company, responsible for the production of films such as 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs' , it is the animation section of sony pictures.
• Clearly this wouldn't be acceptable to use as our company as it is an animation company so it wouldn't fit into the horror genre we wish to use.

• Paramount pictures is another prestigious company responsible for the creation of films such as Star Trek and Mission Impossible.
• Due to the bright nature of the intro clip, it wouldn't suit a horror film, therefore making it unusable for a horror film, also due to the type of films Paramount usually makes such as action/adventure films, horror wouldn't fit the usual films that they make so it wouldn't be a wise choice.

• Lionsgate films is yet another prestigious film production company, responsible for films such as Expendables and American Psycho.
•  Due to the red colour scheme of the introduction this could be used as the introduction, as the red can show danger or and connote to aspects in horror films such as blood which is indeed a strong convention in horror films.

• Twisted pictures would be the perfect production company to use for our film opening due to the name and the logo, the word 'twisted' indicates that the film may be twisted or messed up, insisting that it will mess with the views mind
• The barbed wire indicates danger, as barbed wire is dangerous it shows that the nature of the film will also be dangerous by nature, all of these reasons put together indicate what kind of film the viewer will expect.

http://messmediatownley.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/survey-analysis.html

Problems Due to Filming

Up to this point, we have completed filming 40% of our movie opening, and this filming took place on the 30th December 2012.

We had filmed lots of different shots, often so that we had 3 choices to chose from. We then went onto editing these shots, taking the most effective ones, and then placed them in the correct chronological order, and shortened them to the appropriate length.

So up to this point, we had 40% of filming and editing done.

Character Problems: 

We were then ready to film the remaining 60%, however we realised that our "geeky" character was too over dramatic; she had very tight plaits, modest clothing, a book and glasses, which made it look like she would not fit in with the group. 

We therefore would have to re-film this in order to make the opening look more effective. 

Problems out of our control: 

Ater this we were then going to film on the 20th January, however this was not possible due to snow affecting transport, and the opening could not suddenly cut to snow. 

Actor Problems:

We then incurred another problem involving one of our actors. Heather has since dyed her hair a different colour, and she is a vital actor needed for the final part of the opening, therefore, like the snow, we couldn't suddenly cut to the same actor in a previous shot, but with a completely different hair colour. 

What we will have to do now: 

In order to swiftly over come these issues, as a group, we will be filming on Saturday the 2nd of February 2013, and we will film parts of the opening that do not require all the actors, as some have prior arrangements. On this day we will be able to use our young actor as well, as on the next day of filming this may be hard to complete due to the actor having school throughout the day.

In addition to this, we shall also be filming on Wednesday 6th February 2013 all day and our aim is to have completed all filming by this time, so that we can then get back to editing the filming that would have been recently complete and finish the task.

Theory of Equilibrium

The theorist of theory of equilibrium was Tzvetan Todorov. Todorov's narrative theory is based on this - an equilibrium is set up which is the disrupted, causing disequilibrium, which is the resolved in to a new equilibrium by the end of the tale.

Equilibrium is a state in which opposing forces or influences are balanced or it is a state of physical balance. In media this means that the scene is calm and peaceful and there is not sign of chaos (or in other words disequilibrium).

Disequilibrium is a loss or lack of balance. This basically mean there is a point of chaos when one or more things happen to interrupt the calm and peaceful scene.
Disequilibrium would increase as the suspense increases and reaches its peak when the suspense does. For example disequilibrium would increase if a man was climbing into a scary dark loft and it would reach its peak if there was a huge bang or scream off camera.

This is a disequilibrium graph for Nightmare on Elm Street, Shrooms and our own film opening.

Recordings evaluation.

This was the first thing I composed...


Out of the three things I recorded in the studio this was my least favourite. I don't think this sounds scary enough for the opening scene of our film. We want it to sound scary and haunts but I feel this sounds more like a group of aliens talking and so almost become funny. This is not what we want to portray to our audience and so we will not use it.

This was the second...


I preferred this one to the first recording. As it has a sense of mystery about it. Even though it ticks the criteria of being scary and haunting it strikes me as something you would hear in a 1950s film because it is like talking down a phone. We also wanted it to really sound like a child and not a 'woman' as such.


I then composed this one...


This is my favourite of the three because it ticks all of the criteria we wanted in the sound. It is chilling and haunting as well as being able to recognise a child like voice. I think it will go really well of our close up shots of our child villain.

As a group we have decided to use the last recording because it sounds the best for what we want to achieve in our opening. This week we want to get our child villain (Leah) into the studio to record the final piece. Having a child speaking will finish off the piece nicely and match the shot we will use. When the opening is finished the music and filming will complement each other giving the audience a chilling experience.

Editing

Our group wanted to have a blinking effect on the second shot, this would recreate a POV from the killer, and we feel that having a blinking effect will emphasise this.

1. Firstly, I added a transition of "wipe down" to try and recreate the blinking effect, this lead to a wipe down of the screen from the first shot to the second one. 

2. I then had to split the clip, in order to add more transitions to the shot, because the killer will have to blink more than once. 

3. I then altered the duration of the transition as the transition was previously too slow, I felt that 0.2s was much more effective than a shorter duration of time.

4. After splitting the clip, I continued on to adding more transitions in between the clips, I still used the "wipe down" transition.

5. After this, I had to repeat the same step as "3" in order to make the transition an appropriate amount of time to look authentic. 

6. Finally, I added more transitions in between after I continued to split the clip more. Also repeating step 3 for this process.

Overall, the clip did transition in between the splitted clips, however it did not look as effective as once hoped. When editing this in the future, we should add a black shot to portray the eyes closing. 

http://messmediatownley.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/the-use-of-nursery-rhymes-to-create.html

Mise En Scene post

We used Elyse as the girly, "slutty" character in our opening because of her blonde hair, blonde hair being a stereotype of a girly girl. We used a lot of make up on her face, (a lot of eye shadow, heavy coverage foundation and a bright lipstick), summery and little clothing in winter to attempt to show her lack of awareness of things around her and how she cares more for her looks than health and also we curled her hair fully to emphasise this and how she cares more for her looks and appearance. Elyse's nails were pink and glittery which emphasises her femininity.

Heather and Stevie, the couple, were dressed similar to try and make them look together as one as if they were in sync. They wore dark denim bottoms, heather wore dark denim shorts and stevie wore dark denim jeans. By putting heather in shorts it magnified her femininity when with Stevie as the shorts had a girly look to them. We chose these to characters because they both have dark hair and a similar completion reinforcing the fact they are in sync and like one person. The only difference with the hair is heather has blonde dip dye and so we used this as maybe she is a slightly slutty character (relating to the blonde hair of Elyse) this parts her from Stevie and so maybe she is thinking about ending the relationship. Heather had red nails connoting her passionate feelings.

Shay wears dark clothes because he's not an eccentric character but we can see that he is obsessed with his looks because of his expensive footwear (which is the cause of the argument with Elyse) and large jewellery.

Holly was reading a book called Spilled Blood which we wanted to act as a foreshadow of future events. She wore little makeup to show her little interest in what she looks like, and her neat and tidy plaits show her focus on organisation which is emphasised by her glasses because of the stereotype of geeks wearing glasses.

Background information for music soundtrack

Track one.

Where?
We are going to put a quiet and slightly unusual track when the characters are walking to their destination.

Why?
We are using a track here to cover up some of the noise from the cars on the road by the field. We are also using it to in force the fact that something bad is going to happen to the audience.

What will it sound like?
This track will be quite peaceful but with an quirky edge to show the audience nothing is happening at the moment but it will later on. I will also make the music quite recognisable this means that I can repeat it later on when the murder is about to happen but this time scarier and adding more suspense.

Instruments.
I think I will use just piano in this track to make it more 'normal' sounding. By using a piano the audience will not suspect anything because it is a sound that people will recognise and feel 'safe' around.

Track 2

Where?
The next track will be played as heather finds the jacket Elyse was wearing before she runs off.

Why?
This will add suspense to the scene making the audience sit on the edge of their seat waiting for what will happen next.

What will it sound like?
This track will use the same chord sequence and note pattern of the first track but this time will not be as peaceful. Instead of being in the major key I will change it to the minor key. This will instantly make the track sound scarier. I will modify this track so it sounds a lot different to the first but the audience will still recognise the basic chord and note progression.

Instruments.
I will use the piano again but this time adding violins. I will put a tremeloon the violin which will also add suspense.

Changing the Brightness/Contrast on iMovie

One of the potential problems faced with our filming was the lighting as we were shooting outdoors at a time of year where daylight was scarce, in order to ensure that we had a way around this I checked how I could change the brightness of a clip on iMovie.

Here is a picture I found on the internet of a dark forest, I played around with the lighting of the clip to see how it would look.

If the light was too bright and we needed to darken it, by changing the brightness and contrast to a darker setting this could have been achieved, heres the result.

As you can see, the shot is now darker, if this was needed I could create a dark scene simply by adjusting a few things, now I am going to make it brighter.

Now it is brightened you can see the forest more clearly and the source of light which is the moon stands out much more, in doing so you can make a dark shot bright which makes it easier to see all the features which are within the picture.

I now know that I can easily alter a video using iMovie if needed.

FILMING. 20th JANUARY.

^20th JANUARY 2012

TIME: 10AM – 5.30PM

LOCATION: BURTSED WOODS

ACTORS:

1.     HEATHER
2.     STEVIE   
3.          ELYSE
4.     HOLLY
5.         SHAY
6.         ELLA'S COUSIN (CHILD)

COSTUMES:

1.        HEATHER – DARK SHORTS, GREY HOODIE, CHECK SHIRT
2.       STEVIE – DARK JEANS, BLACK HOODY, DARK TOP
3.      ELYSE – CROP TOP, BRIGHT, DENIM SHORTS, PINK CONVERSE, LEATHER JACKET
4.      HOLLY – JEANS, LONG SLEEVED BLOUSE, GLASSES
5.        SHAY - DARK TRACKSUIT, HAT, TRAINERS
6.        ELLA'S COUSIN - OLD FASHIONED DRESS, DARK AND HEAVY EYES

PROPS:

1.      ALCOHOL – BOTTLES
2.      WOUND EQUIPMENT 

   

THANK YOU

1^ST SHOT
(POTENTIAL TIME LAPSE) 
MEDIUM SHOT FOLLOWING ON TO A CLOSE UP
HEATHER FINDS A LEATHER JACKET ON THE FLOOR
IN THE BACKGROUND WE MUST SEE ELYSE SLUMPED OVER, HOWEVER THIS CANNOT BE MADE OBVIOUS

2^ND SHOT
SAME SHOTS AS BEFORE BUT WE SEE HEATHER NOTICE ELYSE SLUMPED OVER 

3^RD SHOT
MEDIUM SHOT
HEATHER SEES THE CHILD 

4TH SHOT
CHILD LOOKS UP AND INTO CAMERA 
CLOSE UP/EXTREME CLOSE UP

Evaluation of filming day 1

Our group were definitely prepared for our day of filming, other than some issues about the date and some of our actors not being able to make the date that we set first of all because of issues out of our hand, when we set another date, we all managed to make it and on time. Because we all met early in the morning, it meant that we could get costumes and make up finalised on the actors and set off to our set early enough to have time to film certain shots over and over again which mean we could eliminate small errors that were made.
We also had a shooting script which helped a lot as we had a schedule that we aimed to stick to, we knew wheat we wanted to get done, because we managed to stick to the schedule that we had planned, it meant that we got around 40% of what we need, filmed all in one day and if we do the same for the next shooting day,new should be able to spend more time editing our piece than filming it.
One big issue that we found whilst shooting was, because we were in the woods, there were a lot of birds and we couldn't do anything to drown out the sound of them.

Wound: test run

After our first shooting session, we done a test run of the wound that we plan to use on the dead character at the end of our opening scene.
I planned to use the same method as when I practised on my arm, using face paints, some make up and theatrical wax, but at the time we didn't have any eyelash glue so the wound that I moulded wasn't sticking to Elyse's skin which proved annoying when trying to put foundation and make up on the theatrical wax as it kept lifting up from her skin and wouldn't stay down which made it look less realistic.
I think that the colours I used to create the blood/gore looked realistic and when filming the wound to see what it would look like on camera, the colours looked realistic, it was just the theatrical wax and where you could see the end of it that didn't look realistic. If we decide to use this wound within our scene, I will ensure that we have eyelash glue so that the wound will be firmly stuck to Elyse and that it will not lift up from her skin, this will mean that I can make sure that the ends of the theatrical wax are spread smoothly onto her skin so when covered with foundation, you will barely be able to where the theatrical wax becomes her actual skin.
The bottom photo shows how visible the theatrical wax was up close and this is what I want to avoid.

Costumes

Filming day 1:

We had to have costumes suited to each individual character in a way the presents their personality on camera. It was very important to carefully use mise en scene in order to present the characters in a certain way.

As you can see, with our slutty character we needed to show her sexuality and provocativeness whilst also displaying femininity. This has been done with heavy make up, dark eyes and bright pink lips, and we also tightly curled her blonde hair. She has very minimal clothing on, showing skin, and the top is sparkly in order to show her loud and eccentric personality. The shorts are also very high rise, also promoting her body.







Our couple wears dark colours that correspond with each other, the check shirt the girl wears is similar to that of which we found when researching costumes of other characters in horror films set in the woods. She also shows minimal skin to show her more conservative side, contrasting greatly to the slut, in addition to minimal make up.

He also wears very similar clothes to show their close relation to one another, and are very up to date and 'effortlessly cool'.






Our "bad" man wears urbanised clothing which is most like the style of youths today. The dark colours also show that he wears also doesn't present himself as an eccentric character. The trainers also create style about the character and show he is very image conscious.

The 'geek' of the opening has the stereotypical glasses and clean, neat, and organised hair which relates to her personality and her own attitude of things such as school work. The blouse is very minimalistic and doesn't present herself as a character with much importance. Her jeans are also a lighter colour than all the characters, setting her aside from then completely.





Here are all the characters in their costumes and roles:

http://messmediatownley.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/different-production-companies.html

Character Make-up

Holly

• Foundation - I didn't put Foundation on Holly because we wanted to see slight imperfections so the audience could see she not as 'perfect' as the other two but i did put tinted moisturizer on her to show shes confident about the way she looks but feels slightly insecure around the other two girls. 
• Lips - a light pale lipstick to show slight femininity but not as much as the other two girls. By using this lipstick shows the audience that she is almost trying to fit in with the other two girls but is not confident enough to wear a bright, highly feminine colour.
• Eyes - a slight eyeliner line was used on her eyelid to define her eyes. I used this as in the clip she is reading a book, with eye definition it makes her eyes stand out emplying that she uses them alot and they're her 'main' feature.

Heather

• Foundation -  i used a light coverage foundation for heather as she needed some coverage but not as much as elyse. Using a light coverage meant she looked near enough flawless but as a person felt comfortable enough around other people, especially her boyfriend, not to look perfect.
• Lips - a coral lipstick was used for heather to bring out her femininity. this lipstick was brighter than hollys but not as bright as elyses showing relating to the amount of femininity shown through each character.
• Eyes - A thicker line of eyeliner was used on heather just to reinforce the fact she is wearing make up to the audience.

Elyse

• Foundation - A heavy coverage foundation was used for elyse to cover her face and hide any imperfections to giver her the 'flawless' look. this could also be implied that she is extremely insecure anout the way she looks which is why she is the way she is.
• Lips -  A bright pink lipstick is used for Elyse to add to over the top makeup. Using the pink colour adds more feminity.
• Eyes - Elyse eyes were very over the top and dramtic. by usinfg browns it makes elyses blue eyes stand out alot. the eyeshadow reinforces the fact that she feels she need alot of make up to hide the way she actualy looks.