Group Discussions 17/12/12

Mind mapping the ideas for possible storylines
In today's lesson me, Rianna and Kiah thought of some different storylines we could use for our opening sequence. We also came up with a group name of 'Phoenix Productions' and made the group blog for that. We have already chosen the genre of either a horror or a thriller film so we worked our ideas around that. We decided that we wanted our protagonist and antagonist to be teenage girls as this would suit our target audience or 15-24. We decided we wanted to include an abduction of a young girl. Possible the antagonist would turn out to be a stalker. We have not started storyboarding yet but next lesson we plan to start. Photos of this lesson and our notes will be placed onto the group blog. 

Gender Representation in Horror and Thriller

In horror and thriller films both genders are stereotyped.

Male

The male in a horror or thriller film usually plays the strongest character. They play tough characters and show very less emotion. The hero of the film will usually be played by a man. They tend to take on very active roles in these types of movie and we focus more on the males actions. Males are portrayed as much more dominant in the media and around 20 years ago the men outnumbered women 2:1. You usually have males of all ages in films whereas you normally only get young women in films. The male will sometimes have a sexual attraction about him, including a good physique. They play an independent character who does everything by themselves, this is known as the 'lone hero'. Men usually take the role as a team leader, so this makes them very brave. In films such as 'Taken', Liam Neeson plays the main character trying to find his daughter. He leads everything and shows himself as a brave character by doing everything he can to get his daughter back. He is also shown as very intelligent being able to find her, and his wife is shown as clueless and doesn't do much to help.  We focus on the males actions more and study what they are doing in more detail. 

Female

Females are portrayed in a very different way to men, in horror and thriller films. They can sometimes be seen as an 'object' in films, mainly sexually and emotionally orientated. They are always presented as beautiful and much more emotional compared to men. They take the role as a helper, they are never usually the leader of a group. We often see women in the nude, or wearing very revealing clothes whereas we never usually see men like that. The main female protagonist can turn into the final girl and are therefore present until the end of the film. Women are usually seen alone in horror films. You usually see young female actresses, unlike men where you have a range of ages. The 'final girl' is always the 'virginal girl' and sometimes slightly masculine. Usually there names are unisex  and they dress quite masculine compared to the other glamorous actresses who are usually injured or killed. Such as in the film 'Halloween' the 'final girl' is called Laurie which is a unisex name. She is conveyed as virginal and innocent, she also dresses quite masculine. 

Genre

Genre:
Horror
A typical horror movie would include: 

• Slash and gore 
• Include a character who is running away from some sort of 'monster' throughout the entire film
• Suspense that makes you want to keep watching to find out what happens next
• A lot of special effects to help create scenes that cannot be done in real life
• A sinister venue (like a castle in the middle of nowhere)
• Usually a female victim as they are seen as the weaker character (pretty, young)
• A male killer to show power, usually one step ahead of the victim
• The survivor is usually a pure, virgin female who was shown at the beginning
• A lot of blood and guts
• Sharp objects like a knife or broken glass
• Dark colours and low lighting - black, red, blue
• Sound effects to create a certain mood and atmosphere
• Intended to frighten viewers

Thriller

A typical thriller movie would include: 

• Suspense and tension
• Excitement for the audience
• Stimulate the audiences mood, giving them a high sense of anticipation
• Anxiety and uncertainty wondering what is going to happen next and who it will be etc.
• Adrenaline rushy
• A villain driven plot, whereby he or she presents obstacles which the protagonist must overcome
• Cliffhangers and plot twists are used a lot
• May include spy's 
• The aim for thrillers is to keep the audience alert and on the edge of their seats
• The protagonist is set against a problem, an escape, a mission or a mystery
• They will keep important information from the viewer
• Fight and chase scenes are popular in thriller films

Romantic Comedy (Rom Com) 

A typical Romantic Comedy would include: 

• Light hearted, humorous plot line
• Based on the fact that true love can surmount most obstacles
• Love plot in which two sympathetic and well-matched lovers are united
• Young, likeable characters
• Kept apart by some complicating circumstance (class differences, parental interferences)
• At the end they get married, 'live happily ever after' - Fairytale style
• Bright, light colours - pink, blue, yellow, orange
• The protagonist's often seek time apart to sort out feelings

Examples: Thriller

Examples:Horror

Examples:Romantic Comedy

Institution - Production Companies & Distribution

Production Companies
A production company is a company that is responsible for the production and development of a film. They are likely to also be responsible for the funding of the film, collecting this from a partner or an investor. They are also responsible for the scheduling, scripting, the supply with talent, post production, the organisation of staff, distribution, marketing and finally the production itself. Production companies are normally owned or under contract with a film studio or an entertainment company. They act as the production companies partner or a 'parent' company. This has become known as the 'studio system'.


Pinewood studios is one of the main British film studios. The studios have taken part in many productions, including huge blockbuster films like Superman and James Bond.

Distribution Companies
Distribution is the company responsible for a films marketing. The distributor will set the release date of the film and the way the film will be made available to watch. It can be done in different ways for example a theatrical release or a home entertainment release. Distribution companies will only pick the films they think will make a lot of profit.  

An example of a distribution company is Revolver. Revolver Entertainment is a marketing lead found in London and Los Angeles. 

They have worked on films such as: Kidulthood, Anuvahood, Offender and Shank which are thrillers but they have also worked on: Sleeping Beauty, Sherlock Holmes and Macbeth.

Phantom Of The Opera Opening

The opening of Phantom of the Opera use a lot of mis en scene, including a lot of different light effects and costumes etc. At the start the scene is dimly lit, all the character are wearing dark clothes and the whole room has a grey effect to it. The room is silent apart from this one man talking about the items up for auction. The people in the room seem not too bothered at the beginning and they are all slowly wandering around showing not a lot of interest. There are not a lot of character in the room. The characters are also quite well dressed to show they are more upper class, but also showing this is old fashioned. Suddenly as the chandelier arises there is very bright lights, almost blinding the characters, almost as if it is blowing away the darkness. As the chandelier reaches the top the whole room turns into bright colours. The light is brightening up the whole room and making it look like a much better atmosphere. Outside the light is bright and all the people look happier. Everyone seems to be in brighter colours. Inside the theatre there are people running about as if they are in a rush. The characters look much more interested and seem more like they want to be there. The theatre looks very expensive and well looked after whereas before it was old and had cobwebs in it.

Spooks Sequence Questions

1. There are two men in an office, on a computer encrypting some files. One man is doing the typing and another man is watching overhead. There is also a finger scan which we don't know what it is used for, or what it is doing.

2. You are given what they are doing, they are obviously on a computer in an office. You see the two men concentrating on what they are doing on the computer.

3. You are not given that there is more then one computer, you are not shown the other man walking behind. You are also not given the finish of the encrypting so you do not know if they finish it or not. Lastly you are not shown then putting the laptop into the briefcase then locking it by using the finger scan. So in the sequences you do not realise that what they are doing is obviously very confidential and no one else should have access to it. 

4. The sequence is important so that we can understand the sequence and see what order it goes in. It is also important because it helps us see it clearer when we cut all the shots up. 

5. We need the other scenes in between because if we just saw the office in the clip the audience would get bored and not be as interested. They may not understand what they are doing or why they are using so much security.

6. We cut to see this action because we need to know that both the scenes will link up and by cutting between each scene shows that maybe the two sets of characters will meet later on. 

7. You think the people are just packing stuff in to a box, ready to go somewhere different. It was obviously dodgy as they are in a abandoned warehouse.

8. In screenshot H you are able to see they are in some sort of empty warehouse which shows its quite dodgy. Then in screenshot I you see chains in a box so it makes you wonder what they are up to and interests you more.

9. We see less of the thieves because this makes it more like the unknown. So we don't know what they are up to but we want to know so we will keep watching.

10. We don't see what is happening until the end because it makes us keep watching and wondering what will happen to the thieves and the people in the office, we wonder if they will meet and what the thieves want. Also if they are linked to each other and will meet up in a later part of the episode. 

Feed The Fish Preliminary Task

Preliminary Sequence - Feed The Fish Evaluation

For our preliminary sequence we did feed the fish. We showed the class and we got some feedback on how we had one, and what we needed to improve. One of the strengths was the filming, we kept a steady camera  by using the tripod when needed. We also used a lot of different camera angles whilst filming different parts of it. We had two examples of match on action in our shots, these ended up working well and looked good when it was all put together. The use of framing in our shots was good, we didn't have any 'dead space', which kept our shots interesting. We also were told that our editing was good, especially when the character was walking through the corridor. The main criticism that we were given was that the filming of the character walking everywhere to finally get the the room was a bit boring as it went on for a long time, we were told to next time add something else in, or try using parallel editing. We were also told that in one of the shots the lighting created a silhouette which meant you couldn't really see the characters which we would of needed to change next time. Overall the shots went well together and when we edited it all it ended up looking good. All the group were happy with the shots and agreed with the criticisms.

Harry Potter Evaluation

What style or feel of music did you use for the credit sequence and why?

Me and Rianna felt that eerie music would suit the credits at the beginning as the visuals looked very creepy and mysterious, this would make it parallel. The opening helps the audience recognise the type of film they are about to watch so the credits have to help them figure out what sort of film it would be.
Rating; 7

What style or feel music did you use for the playground sequence and why?

For the playground scene we used quite calming music, not to scary as the visuals showed children playing happily, the music was repetitive which was like the roundabout the children were playing on. As Harry's friends came over we faded out of the happier music and faded into a darker tune, which sounded more suspicious and creepy as we didn't know what they were going to say. The tune was suggesting something bad may happen next, and fit in well with the visuals. 
Rating; 6

What style or feel of music did you use for the sequence when the Dementors appeared and why? How do you feel the music and feel changed? To what extent do you feel you managed to convey the change in mood?

When the dementors appeared the music suddenly changed, we used a immediate sound effect. As the wind starts to blow the music changes to a loud piercing music, this shows something bad is around the corner. As Harry and Dudley start to run, the music changes to a fast paced tune. This is parallel to the visuals as they are running very fast. As they enter the tunnel the fast paced music fades out and we added in a very eerie creepy tune for under the tunnel. This creates a effect of the unknown, they didn't know what was under the tunnel and it is away from the outside so they are almost trapped inside. When the dementors appeared we used a loud wind sound as if they had entered very quickly. When they creep up on them we also added a sudden effect to make the audience jump. 
Rating; 8

How pleased are you with the final sequence and why?
I think that the overall soundtrack fitted the visuals well. The moods all fitted right and suited what was going on at each certain time. The sound was almost always parallel to the visuals and they created the right mood for each section of the clip. 
Rating; 8

Harry Potter Sound Extract

 October 2012

Harry Potter Sound Extract