Editing Process - 19/01/12

In today's lesson, our teacher began to introduce us into the world of editing. We discussed the mail elements that needed to be within our trailers, which were transitions, sound, cutting and image. All four of these elements need to work in harmony together for the trailers to work perfectly. In consideration to sound, Daniel has emailed the record label that handles Placebo so that we may gain permission to use their song "Running up that Hill" for our trailer. We chose this song because it is slow, progressive, creepy and the lyrics even fit the theme of our film trailer: "so much hate for the ones we love..." Our teacher also told us how important image is to our trailer, for instance, getting the right verisimilitude to suit our genre. Obviously, having lots of bright colours and lights is not the image that we would want for our horror trailer!

We discussed the different transitions that can be used in all trailers, as well as short films as one group in our class is creating a short comedy film. There is the most popular transition, the fade in/out, which would be a useful for a horror trailer like ours, as it gives a supernatural/ghost-like effect and creates a build up of tension. Dissolve is another good transition, however it would not be suitable for our trailer as it doesn't have a scary feel to it. For a comedy trailer, the wipe transition is perfect and preferably used. It would definitely not be suitable for our trailer as it would make it too childish or parodied.

We discussed the different types of cutting techniques that we could used in our trailers/short films. A shot/reverse/shot is a cut used for filming conversations, as it films something, then cuts to another thing, that cuts back to the original 'something' for example, a frame of person A would then cut to person B and then back to person A, to show the audience that they have some form of relationship as they are in conversation with one another. An eyeline match edit is where there is a shot of someone's face in close-up, then it cuts to the thing that the person is looking at, so that the audience can see that they looking at it, and it highlights the objects importance in the scene. For example, a close-up of a persons face, that then cuts to a telephone. Therefore we can assume that the person is about to use the telephone. An action match is similar to this, with the difference that it simply matches the action that happened in the previous scene. A good example of this is when a person is filmed about to open a door, and the scene cuts to the other side of the door, being opened by the very same. Sometimes it can also be that the first scene is of person A about the open the door, and the next scene is action matched by person B walking through the door.

Daniel and I also decided to create a bullet pointed list of what we still need to do. The list looked like this:

• Take photo's for the magazine and poster
• Get footage of mise-en-scene/filler scenes i.e. weapons, the clock etc
• Get some more shots of the magician and finish his filming
• Attempt a different jump cut

Filming the Villain - 18/01/12

Finally, we were able to film our villain today, Scott Isle. We stayed after school so that we could use the natural darkness that winter brings and went back to our victim's set, the room in D.T. Our friend Luke Stubbs joined us on this occasion so that we could use his point of view as an audience member to help us film what we need and what the audience wants. He was the perfect person for this job as he perfectly fits our target audience profile - a teen/young person, male, student. Whilst filming, he did help us to review a scene where the magician closes the big industrial door, explaining how he would expect to see the trailer; for this, we had to change our original storyboard idea. We filmed the way that he directed and it turned out to be better than our original idea. Our original idea was that we would film a close-up/mid shot of Scott simply shutting the door with an angry expression. Luke told us that he would expect that the magician would be busy sharpening his tools, would notice the camera and then slam the door as if the audience are intruding on his work. We shot this three times - an initial film, one where Scott turns his head slowly to look at the camera and one where he quickly turns his head towards the camera. This was so that later, during editing, we could choose the best clip and keep it, deleting the others.

The main scenes we filmed today were, as already explained, the villain closing the door, but also the weapon he uses dripping with blood and the glove dropping on the floor, also covered with blood. For this, I previously purchased a 50ml bottle of "special fx theatre fake blood" and a pair of white magicians gloves. I found some tools in the D.T. area usually used in class and asked the teacher of this department if I was able to pour fake blood onto a hammer so that we could film it dripping. After getting this permission, I did exactly that - I opened the fake blood and poured some onto the hammer, so that when Scott held it at an angle, it would drip to the floor. Daniel filmed this happening from a low angle and poured more blood on it when needed. We shot this twice so that we could take the best one later during editing. We then poured the fake blood onto one of the white gloves, and dripped some on the floor. We then filmed the glove being thrown onto the bloody floor, to give the effect that he has just used his bloody weapon, and is carelessly discarding of his gloves. Later, we will add footsteps into this scene, to give the audience a sense that he is simply walking away from his crime.

After we had finished what we had planned, we still had a little time and so we decided to attempt filming for a 'jump cut' scene. This is a difficult shot to film, which we soon found out. At first, we thought of filming 2 second shots of Scott pulling different emotions that we would put together later. However, we realised that this would take too much time and be difficult to perfect, so we instead filmed constantly on Scott's face whilst he pulled different emotions. We later realised on looking back at the footage that it wasn't good enough, and so had to scrap the idea of a jump cut. Daniel still wanted a jump cut, however, so we decided to think of something else for another day.

Filming Begins - 15/12/11

On the 13th of December, after school, Daniel and I stayed behind to film some test footage of the D.T. room and the English corridor so that we had an idea of how we could film and where actors needed to be positioned for the best results. We found that the D.T. room was the perfect place to film the Girl scenes, as it had big industrial doors and looked like an abandoned warehouse or factory of some sort - the kind of effect we wanted for these scenes. We were pleased to see that there was a place where the Girl could be positioned where, when the doors were slid back, a crack of light would illuminate half her face, as specified in the storyboard. There was also a good section of the ceiling where we could tape a torch for the effect of a swinging light bulb. With all of this in mind Daniel began to take pictures for reference, such as the clothes I would be wearing, where the stool and torch would be placed, the doors... he then filmed me opening the doors and the effect that they create of my face when I am sat on the stool.

On the 15th we began to look at film posters and film magazine covers to help us to create our own. As a class we criticized each others drawn out drafts and left post-its with good and bad feedback so that we can work on them and meet specifications. We received all good feedback from our film magazine cover with no areas where we needed to improve which pleased us and our teacher. However there were a couple of things that needed improving on for our film poster - it needed an age rating, producer information, newspaper reviews and when it is coming out to appear on it. So I made these changes swiftly; remembering my target audience being 15-25+, I put the age rating as a 15. I then added 'coming soon' and 'from the producers of...' on it and made up some reviews from The Times newspaper and Total Film magazine.

After this exercise we looked at some professional film posters and magazine covers. The posters were for "McGruber", "Crazy Heart" and "Never Let Me Go". We analysed them as a class, noticing that "McGruber" was an action comedy as there was a rather large explosion in the background and each character had a mock 'serious' face. The title suggested that the film was a spoof of well-known action programme "McGyver", and spoofs tend to try and be funny. We said that "Crazy Heart" was probably a feel good country and western themed film about a man and his love for music, as there was an old man with a guitar and the font for the title was in a font that if often used on Cowboy films. Therefore the film had no age rating on the poster as it wouldn't appeal to a younger audience anyway. "Never Let Me Go" had the appearance of a romance film as the colours were all black, red and white which is conventional of this style of film. Keira Knightly's award was advertised under her name on the cover to show people that she is a very good actress, therefore this is a serious film with good acting involved. We knew that it wasn't a Romantic Comedy, as there were no smiles or laughing on the cover. All characters looked either serious or sad.

We looked at some issues of Total Film and Empire. We saw how each main image was central and mostly had direct mode of address. The conventions of the magazine were sometimes subverted in order to fit with the genre of the film in the main image, for example, when 'Inception' was the main image, the subtitles and surrounding text was given the effect of being sucked into the centre of the magazine. The conventional colours seemed to be red, white and black with the occasional blue. The title of the magazine is always in the top left corner and the bar code in the bottom right corner.

When school had finished, Daniel and I came back at around 5 'o' clock to begin some filming. I got changed into the clothes of my character - baggy, scruffy jeans and a plain white t-shirt - and put on some eye liner and mascara to smudge down my face to give the effect that I have been crying. I then back combed my hair to make it look incredibly messy. We went to the D.T. room and my feet were duck taped to a stool that I was sat on, and some duck tape was placed around my mouth to be used as the gag. I was the Girl, and ready to be filmed. Some string was placed on our torch which was then taped above my head but out of shot so that it looked like a swinging light bulb above me. Daniel used his camera to film me acting distraught with the help of extra lighting from Russell Shaw and Ashley Pitt who used other torches and their phones. Daniel filmed a close up, mid shot, long shot, high angle shot and panning shot using a trolley. All these shots were repeated at least twice so that when it comes to editing, we can pick the best take. After these shots were done, we went to the English corridor to do some test footage how to film the Magician walking using Russell Shaw's feet as our real actor was unavailable. We realised that a skateboard would need to be used to give the effect that the camera is following the Magicians feet, otherwise the camera is too shaky and it looks unprofessional.

On the 16th Dec, we filmed some of the Magicians scenes before our classes begun. Because we only had a top hat and blazer available at this time, we said that this would simply be test footage. We only filmed Scott as the Magician opening the big industrial doors. We filmed his face in a close up and then a mid shot from the back so that we didn't get any incorrect mise-en-scene into the frame.

Filming Schedule - 08/12/11

We would be starting to film our trailer very soon and so we decided to create a 'filming schedule' in order for us to film efficiently. Daniel and I decided that every time we finished part of the schedule, we would tick off that part, so that we didn't waste any time going over things we had already done. Our schedule was simple and easy to understand, and was as follows:

Actors: Scott Isle - the magician
             Melissa Hollingworth - the girl/victim
9th Dec: Ask permission from Mr Blackett or Mr Bulmer to film in the D.T. area of school. Gather all props
               needed for next week; chair/stool, duck tape, torch, string, eye liner/mascara.
12th - 16th Dec: Start filming after school at around 4-5pm. Take reference pictures and test out the English
                            corridor to see if it is the correct location to film for the Magicians scenes.
January: Gather all props needed throughout January; top hat, suit. Take pictures of both the Girl and the
               Magician for poster/magazine cover. Film the Magicians scenes. Editing - sound effects, voice
               overs, fitting the clips together.
Due to exams we cannot film on the 12th, 13th, 19th, 20th, 23rd, 24th or 25th of January.


Our actor and some of our props have changed as we realised that some things weren't available and our actor dropped out. We replaced Thomas Webster with Scott Isle and ditched the idea of using a cane as it was impossible to find one that we would be allowed to use on such a small budget.

Drafting our Poster and Magazine Cover - 01/12/11

We were asked in this lesson to begin drawing out drafts of what we would expect our film poster and magazine cover to look like. Part of this task required knowledge from AS Media, from when we created music magazines.

From that AS course I remember the conventions of a typical magazine, for instance, the title being large and in the top left corner of the cover. The title I thought up for out film magazine is an acronym; FNV (film and video). The main image may overlap the title, and can have either direct or indirect mode of a address depending the image being showed. Our main image is of course the magician, and because he is meant to terrify the reader we are giving him direct mode of a address so that he will be looking the readers in the eye for creepy effect. He will be striking a pose - holding his top hat in a tilt and grinning manically - to show the reader that he is eccentric.

Another convention of a magazine is that the headline for the main image is large and bold so that it stands out to the reader. Our headline will be "A Hell of a Show", playing on the fact that each of the magicians private performances inevitably leaves a young girl dead, and so is Hellish. A further subheading will read: "Witches aren't the only beings who dabble in Black Magic..." The title of the film is in bold to tell the readers that this is important. The ellipsis invites the reader to open the magazine and continue reading, which invokes their interest in the film as well as to buy the magazine.

Our film magazine will be a horror special, and so the images for the other films featured in the magazine will be of the horror genre. I drew a hand reaching upwards from the ground, a woman's mouth screaming and someone holding a knife. This gives the magazine realism and also is conventional as most film magazines do have images and subheadings for the other film featured and not just for the main image. I drew a bar code in the right hand side bottom corner of the magazine with the price (£3.50), date and issue number (1) at the top of it. This is also conventional to all magazines. I didn't add colour to this draft, but I can say that the colours we will be sticking to is red, white and black which is conventional to film magazines. The background will be black and smoky for a mysterious, ghostly effect to suit the horror special.

We wanted to keep the film poster simple to relate to the simplicity of the trailer itself. Therefore, there will only be two images on the poster - half of the magicians face on the left, with direct mode of address and a creepy smile to frighten the people looking at it, and an image of the girl tied up on a chair in the distance to give an idea to the audience of his torture techniques. The background will be much like that of the film magazine cover - black and smoky for a dark, mysterious effect that also reflects the trailer itself. At the bottom of the poster it reads "Black Magic" and as the top there is the tagline of "The performance of your LIFE..."

Magazine:

Poster:

Focus Group Script - 24/11/11

To help us to understand what our target audience would like to see in our film and whether or not our product is good, we were asked to create a focus group of a few people who fit our target audience. We would then show them our storyboard and tell them our ideas whilst being recorded, then ask them questions surrounding our product. We can then take in their comments and advice and use this feedback to better our product. Our focus group must contain mostly boys as our target audience is mostly male. These boys must be within the age range of 15-25+ and enjoy horror/thriller themes.

UPDATE: 02/03/12

After recording our focus group, issues arose and we needed to transfer our project to a different location. During this process, the audio file for the focus group was lost and is irretrievable. However, to help us with audience feedback, we had written a transcript during the recording. What Daniel and I said is in bold:

Daniel: For our A2 production we are going to do a film trailer in the horror genre, but with a slasher sub-genre in mind. We have got a group of people here to present our ideas to.


Melissa: Our film trailer will be advertising a new slasher horror film named "Black Magic". The storyline of our film is that a failed magician is on a hunt to find the perfect glamourous assistant but kills each girl in the process. First of all, can I ask you if you like the horror genre?

Barney: Yeah, I watch them on a regular basis.

Luke: It's my favourite film genre.

Jodie: I wouldn't normally watch them, but I have enjoyed the one's that I have seen.

Scott: Yeah, I watch them.

Daniel: We've got a storyboard here to present to you to give you an idea of how the final piece is going to look.

Melissa: From looking at our storyboard, what are your initial thoughts on our film trailer?

Jodie: It looks a bit like a psychological style film.

Barney: I can imagine it as a real film, I like the idea.

Scott: I like the 'quick scare' at the end, it would probably make me jump.

Luke: It looks intruiging.

Daniel: Would you be interested in seeing this film in the cinemas?

Luke: Yes, definitely.

Scott: Probably.

Barney: I would give it a go.

Jodie: I'm not sure. It looks good but I'm just not in to horror.

Melissa: From hearing our pitch and seeing our storyboard, what do you think to our overall idea?

Scott: I do like it, it looks eerie.

Luke: It will be different, the magician idea is unique.

Jodie: It looks like a real trailer so yeah.

Barney: Maybe there should be more magician style objects within the trailer, like a box that he uses in his acts and things.

Daniel: What improvements would you suggest to make the final production better?

Jodie: Like what Barney just said, add more of a magician feel.

Barney: Yeah.

Luke: I like it but not the way the title screen font is, with the lightbulbs. It needs to look scarier, less glamourous.

Scott: I like it all, I'm not sure what to say to that question.

Melissa: Thank you for taking part.

Theories - 17/11/11

In today's lesson we learnt about several different theories that people have had about the media since it's birth. Knowing about these theories gives us a better understanding of media and how it works, and will help us when we create our own product. These theories are known as Hypodermic Needle Theory, Two Step Flow, Uses and Gratifications Theory, Reception Theory and finally the theory of Vladimir Propp.

Hypodermic Needle Theory 1920's: a crude theory depicted during the first two decades of mass media suggesting that the information from a text passes into the mass conscious of the audience without them realising. This basically means that people watch/read media and it's 'injected' into their minds, and that's it - that's what they believe. No processing, no opinions, like zombies. It suggests that as an audience we are easily manipulated by the creators of media and directly influenced by this. It assumes that audiences are passive and heterogeneous. Governments used this theory in order to distribute propaganda. Parents and other adults still quote this theory today as they think that video games influence youths, for example, the boy who shot his parents after playing Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Two Step Flow 1955: Theorists Lazarfeld and Katz later decided that the Hypodermic Needle Theory was wrong as it didn't take into account the individuality of the audience. They realised that people receive information, process it and then take what they want from it using their own opinions. They said that there are two types of audience - the 'opinions leaders' who influence their own opinions about mass media and the people who are influenced by the opinion leaders and have the media filtered in their minds. Hitler was an opinion leader who influenced an entire army.

Uses and Gratifications Theory 1974: Theorists Blulmer and Katz decided that the audience has certain needs that the media for-fills. These 'jobs' that the media takes on then gratify the audience. The audience needs to be: Informed
     Educated
     Entertained
     Able to identify with characters
     Able to socially interact with others/discuss with them
     Able to escape

Reception Theory 1980's-90's: This theory suggests that the media encodes their product and the audience subconsciously decodes it. People decode the product differently which leads to different interpretations. When a media product sticks to conventions, it's called 'preferred reading'.

Vladimir Propp - This theorist said that every story we ever come across will have a basic set of elements. Within this theory he said that there are different character categories which are as follows:

Villain - the bad guy
Donor - someone who gives the hero something
Helper - someone who helps the hero, e.g. sidekick
Princess - the prize of the story, usually a girl for the hero to love
Dispatcher - the one who gives the hero his mission
Hero - the good guy
False hero - the one who almost gets the Princess, sometimes the villain too

Theorists Strauss and Bathes used Propps theory for their own ideas.