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End Product

In my opinion I think our film opening worked out really well and communicates our genre clearly . My favorite part is the use of 360 degree movement during the chanting scene as well as the eye-line match of the hand. I think our story line was really clear and allowed for the audience to foreshadow what would happen next. However, I do feel that the lighting wasn't as great as it could have been but this may also have been down to the equipment we were given to film with or the fact we planned to film during the evening. Overall, I am extremely happy with how this turned out because at points I was afraid that when it came to editing we would struggle to put everything together as we wished but this was not the case.

Evaluation Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

We created our with little to no knowledge of professional camera operating or video editing. Our preliminary was much more about just getting the filming out of the way so we could learn how to edit it all together, so time and quality were not our first thoughts when filming it all or editing. After having to manage people's schedules and keep all the equipment and costume available for each filming day we have all become much more organised and learnt how to prepare everything in case of the sudden need for a meetup.


In general we have also improved our teamwork. Compared to the beginning of filming when each of us would just take charge and create the shots we personally wanted, by the end we were discussing shots to ensure everyone's satisfaction before filming. This way we could speed up the process of filming because there were no creative conflicts.


Most importantly however, looking back at the original preliminary that we made, the camera work is shaky and unprofessional especially the moving shots. However looking instead at the final piece, our camera work has become smooth and everyone has a much better ability with manipulating cameras now.


Finally, when we first had a camera in front of us we often found that we couldn't stop uncontrollable laughing. A mix of nerves and embarrassment. Whereas towards the end we could easily do a scene with neither the actors or the camera operators laughing.


Overall, we have improved our abilities behind and infront of the camera and our teamwork in general has improved.

Evaluation Question 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

We used a tripod for the first time and learnt how to set it up. We learnt some of the basic parts of the tripod by research labelled images this helped us as when we filmed it made it a lot easier to use even if it is already very basic.

We had to use two different cameras, we used a friends camera to film the first lot of interior shots. However, the quality was extremely bad and it also had a dead pixel on the screen. We changed cameras and learnt that checking camera quality before going out filming is best.

We also used another camera on the side to take pictures of our costumes and set to avoid continuity issues we found this extremely useful to have an extra camera. We used our phones to take any extra photos and could easily share them with each other by creating a Facebook chat.

Social media helped us publicise questionnaires and videos to help create audience feedback and research on people opinions on horror films. We learnt that by using social media it helped get quick and easy answers for free. Social media also helped us to communicate with each other, when editing I filmed snippets, asking the groups opinion and changing anything necessary.

We used Song Vegas Pro 13.0 to edit out film opening. At first, it was difficult but slowly, with trial and error I started to understand how to create the film opening we were looking for.

Evaluation Question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

The way in which we attracted our audience to our product was through social media and family and friends. Just like real media products we used the internet to gather market research on our audience then find out the best way to attract them. We decided on social media for our main attraction tool since the majority of people now use the internet to socialise with each other.

We also told friends in and out of our school and family member about what we were attempting to do. This not only gave us an audience but also a boost of confidence to finish our media product to the best of our abilities.

Evaluation Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

We were aiming for a target audience of around 15-25 years old as they are the most avid horror movie viewers. Most people in this age range are 'adrenaline junkies' and love scary films because it gives them a rush whenever something terrifying happens. Often they will not go alone and will come in pairs or groups because the films are either too scary to go alone or it is seen as a bit of a laugh and a joke between friends. It is not so much of a family viewing so the only groups you would expect would be young teenage friends who will then spread the news much more rapidly on social media or in person.


We hoped that we could attract fans of other horror films and TV shows. Shows like American Horror Story, there is a new story each season so fans can easily accept new characters and settings, or films such as Insidious, which is also a film based around demons and satanic things. Once again, our film's and their audiences are very similar so by sharing themes we felt that we could attract the right people.

Evaluation Question 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I think our film would be distributed by Film 4 because it is a British company that like to showcase British talent a lot in the film industry. They normally show films and documentaries that other channels would be afraid to distribute. This is because they are open to more ideas and originality. I think this is a great company for our film to work with. Film 4 would also allow us to show our film over the UK and some countries in Europe which would allow for a fan base to arise.

Film 4 aren't as strict as the BBC and less expensive to distribute films with. The BBC is an iconic company where as Film 4 is new and fresh and is viewed very often by the audience we intend to target our film opening to.

To create a buzz for our film we would send teasers to the potential distributor and make posters, trailers and other forms of advertisement to attract the target audience. We would have to think about anything that would rival the film and talk about that with the company and work out a time where our film would be the main interest for viewers at the time of showing.

Evaluation Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our main character Chelsea is based upon the stereotypical female, ditsy character that would typically be in a horror film. We wanted to include this type of character because it was a common occurrence in most of the horror films we looked at. We kept all of our characters costumes true to real life. This is because we wanted them to look like teenagers do now as if it was just any normal day and keep the realism of the production. All of our characters are really stereotypical, we have the jock, nerd, level headed and dumb characters.


The Antagonist character was based upon other demons we had seen in similar movies. A lot of these movies have a high percentage of teenage audiences which is who we were aiming our opening at. We all found images of what we wanted our characters to appear like and then base our costumes off those resources.

Our jock character is dressed in branded items, this makes his character appear to have money.

Our ditsy and nerd character are siblings which works well as they are the polar opposite to one another, this is a great juxtaposition of the characters as it is with all of the characters. Not one is the same.


We used the dumb character as the victim as she was vulnerable clearly from the beginning of the piece which means that the audience can almost foreshadow what we going to happen next.


Here is an example of one of our characters:

Evaluation Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Thriller/Horror films often open with scenes in which it gets the audience asking questions and keep them in suspense by using techniques such as music building up in pace and sound. The locations often give the impression of the type/genre of the film.

Our film incorporated these techniques for example the location, we used a forest area which is traditional of most horror flicks. Like other horror films there is one character that is targeted out of the group. We used this to our advantage and had our character Chelsea be the target in our film.
Dialogue as well as sound/sound effects were used in the traditional horror way as the dialogue for our targeted character was scared, confused and desperate. Horror music was a must for our film opening, so we incorporated it into the tense and suspension parts of the opening.

Mise-en-Scene was also very important for the movie as we had clothing designated for specific characters. Lighting with the candles in the room was important to get the glare effect that we needed for the genre of our film. The time of day was also important as we scouted our areas during the day but filmed at night to get the full horror feel. As most horror films are in the dark we used it as the professional film industry would.

Just like the real media products we had used all different forms and conventions in our movie opening to create a horror film that would be easily recognised by anyone who were to view it. I believe that we developed upon our mistakes and have created a better product out of it.


Frame 1 of my chosen frame from our film, I chose this one because it shows a close up as well as lighting from the candle.
Frame 2 was chosen due to the expression on Kelbie's face since it showed concentration on her task (Summoning a demon). As well as the camera spinning on a Lazy Susan that we made.
Frame 3 was also due to the expression on my face as it showed what was happening on the scene.
Frame 4 was used as the POV was of the demon chasing Rebecca and I picked it since not many media products use POV shots.
Frame 5 was used to show the actual demon as well as the makeup work done by Rebecca.
Frame 6 was picked as it showed eye line match between the character and the object (bloody hand) that she was looking at.
Frame 7 was chosen since it showed the desperate expression on the characters face and the reflection of the phone screen.
Frame 8 was used to show the vision of the demon and the environment of the area where the scene was set.
Frame 9 was picked as it shows that her life is over and the battery on her phone is dead so there is no way of her to contact anyone. This is followed by the title "The Evoke".

Editing

The process of editing was difficult as some of us were inexperienced with this so Kelbie did the editing with input from the other members of the group. We used Song Vegas Pro 13 to edit. We had multiple discussions about what we wanted and how we wanted things to look. Luckily for us we all agreed on point each of us made. It took Kelbie three evenings to edit it completely as we had a lot of different shots, sound effects and over lays that we wanted to include. The editing also included the editing of sounds both diogetic and non-diogetic. Some shots needed to be sped up to fit the speed of the rest of the footage.

Camera Shots

During our process of filming we have used many different shots.
Theses are:

• Establishing shot
• Tilt x2
• Over the shoulder x4
• Pan x3
• Medium long shot x3
• Extreme close up x2
• Rotation of camera
• Medium close up x2
• Close up x3
• Pedastal 
• Tracking x3
• Still deep shot x3
• Wide shot x2

Music

For our film opening we have decied we are going to include non-dieogetic music. This is to create and build an atmosphere and tension. I found a royalty free website that allows people to use the music on the site freely as long as credit is given to the owner. The website is called: Incompetech
I shared this with the group and they agreed it was a great website to use for our music.

This is the music we have decided upon:  Right Behind You

 "Right Behind You" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

We played this whilst watching clips and felt it worked really well with the high pitched violins and ringing as well as the computer generated sounds like breathing.

We also looked on YouTube for free music and found this piece of music which we also really like and felt fit well alongsid ethe other piece of music.

Risk assessment

During filming we did have some reoccurring risks that were present.


TEA LIGHTS AND MATCHES
The tea lights and matches were a big risk so when filming we ensured they were placed on the pentagram so that if they were spilt it would land on that and not the floor. we also made sure we sad away from them when sat around the pentagram so that we didn't burn ourselves with both the flame or melted wax.

CARS
As we were running across roads we had to have two people on the opposite side of the road to make sure no vehicles were coming when we were filming. We also had traffic lights clearly visible to us so we used these to our advantage. The fact that we were filming really late at night also meant that there weren't as many cars as there would have been just a few hours earlier.

TRIPPING
In one shot I had to pretend to tip over a  large branch so we had to be careful that I didn't get hurt so we used a gardening mat that we hid under leaves to prevent a hard impact when I fell. We also tried it where another member of the group were there to catch me after tripping but this wasn't as effective as the mat, which made it appear more realistic.

PUBLIC
As we were in a public place we had to make sure that there were no members of the public walking past whilst filming as this would have caused a large continuity issue if we took multiple shots of the same scene and they were present in one and not the other shots. If this were to happen and a member of the public was around during a shot then it would mean we would have to shoot an unnecessary long take.

WEATHER
Having dry, clear weather was vital for filming as fog would have disrupted the camera's view of what we were shooting. Rain would have stopped us from filming completely which luckily never happened but was a big possibility as we were filming during mid to late winter.

WAITING FOR NIGHT TIME
Meeting up late at night was key as we wanted our shots to be in the dark but this was hard as we didn't all live near each other so it meant we had less filming time as travel was needed for some members of the group to get home. When we were re-shooting our final shots we found we had to meet up at 8-9pm at night rather than 5-6pm which was our original meeting time as the nights began to draw out very quickly which meant we ended up finishing filming sometimes at 11-11:30pm at night which was also a struggle and meant we had to film on weekends as this wasn't ideal filming times during the school week.

Logo change

We decided to adjust our logo and change the way it look slightly. We did this so that it fit with the production better by using dark tones that allowed for smoother transitions and was more modern with the monochrome colour scheme. We all agree that this logo is a lot better than the first one.

BEFORE:


















AFTER:

Sound

Throughout our opening we have used various types of sound. Our main use of sound is through music, we have used an atmospheric themed score to help create more tension. We used dialogue chanting at one point in the opening to build upon the already non-diegetic music. When editing we also used a sound effect from a previous shot we had filmed. This was a scream as we had a shot that was better than the rest except the scream wasn't as good as it had been previously so we decided to edit it in and create a synchronous shot. We also decided to pick and choose where we input ambient sound, at points cutting out other foots steps and cars driving by and other times included the sound that was in the shot originally like running.

Props

We used very minimal props in our film opening as we felt we didn't need many.

We used:

•  Pentagram

The pentagram was made with a white cloth and red sharpies as we drew this ourselves.

• Matches and Tea Lights

We use the matches to light small tea lights that were placed on the pentagram.

• Phone

The phone was an I-Phone which we used for an artificial light source for the character of Chelsea during the chase scene.

Practice shots

As a group we decided to film daytime practice shots. By doing this it allowed us to find out whether our planned shooting locations were available and good enough to film on.
We were also able to find out where our light sources would be and anything we would have to change or do before returning to the location. This meant we could pre plan where we were going to set up the camera for each shot.

This is daytime shot however doing it during the daytime allowed for us to correct the mistakes in this shot. This is because this shot is too low and cuts off the top of the head.

Our logo

This is our production logo designed through DesignMantic. We picked a neutral colour scheme so that it would be non-biased for both genders. We included the 35mm celluloid into the logo as we wanted to include the original way of recording films. This gives the logo a vintage feel. The film strip creates interest to the eye as it creates an almost 3D image.  We also added our production name : RKMS Studios.

What we want our characters to look like

These are the four images we have found online that we aspire our characters to look like. We picked teenage characters that all looked of a similar age.


Character of Chelsea:
Played by Rebecca
A clumsy and girly character














Character of Archie:
Played by Matthew
A brave jock character

Character of Brett:
Played by Sam
A sarcastic and loud character

Character of Isabelle:
Played by Kelbie
A funny tomboy character

Locations of Filming

 These are the locations we want to film on. We have chosen to film in a woods and on a field so that when it is dark it creates an eerie atmosphere.
All of these locations are local to us and easily accessible.

 Birds eye view from field to hill.

Birds eye view of hill and forest.

 Birds eye view of field.

 Entrance to field.

 Exterior of house.

13th April 2016

Today we re-filmed the interior shots. We changed where we wanted our camera to be positioned and even made it spin in the middle of the pentagram. We did this by sitting the camera  and tripod on a Lazy Susan, this allowed for it to be moved smoothly across the sheet. Sam and I turned this whilst filming.

These interior shots turned out a lot better than our first ones and we were much happier with these ones.

30th March 2016

Today we refilmed the exterior shots of me running on the pavement as I had accidently altered my costume slightly. These were only 4 shots so this didn't take much time.

18th March 2016

Today we did makeup on Kelbie and I so that we could film the inner woods scenes. We also bought red paint and fake blood to put on a tree. We took tourches with us whilst doing these shots s we wouldn't have been able to see without them as it was really dark in the woods. We prepared for these shots earlier that evening  by putting on facepaint and makeup to create wounds.

What is Qualitative data?

Qualitative data helps to gain opinions and tracks trends in audience feedback. It is a far easier way of collecting data from a group compared to Quantative data. This type of data gives the researcher an insight of how people think and feel about something as the data is very often collected verbally. this is a much more relaxed way of collecting the data and people will be less likely to lie.

What is Quantative data?

Quantative data is questionairres and surveys. These help to make a decision easier and are simple to do and take very little time to create. It helps to track oninions, behaviours and generalise results from a large audience. Quantative data is far more structured than Qualitative data.

17th March 2016

Today we carried on with exterior shots. We shot the chase shots which were quite hard to film as Matthew had to carry the camera really low so it was difficult for the screen to be seen and the camera to be straight. We also ha dto be careful as we were running over a road. It wasn't a busy road but we still needed to be cautious. This took up some time just ensuring that it was safe for us to film.

10th March 2016

Today we filmed exteriour shots. We met up earlier during the day time so that we could scout locations and well as film. We are glad we did this before as it was hard to get onto a our planned locations as it had rained the night before meaning that the ground was wet and extremly muddy. This was posing as a saftey hazard as I was going to be running across this area. We walked to multiple different locations and decided on just one that wasn't far from where we were filming. We decided to film on our 2 other original locations and come back to this after.

Once we had finished the running shots that were on pavements we decided to go to a different woodland area that we had looked at a 5 minute walk away. This was better as the trees had sheltered the ground more from the rain and there was alot more grass in the area so it wasn't as muddy.

Costume continuity problems

When we first started the project we took a couple of running shots, which led to mistakes after having a small break between our next meeting to film. I had changed my scarf for a hat and not realising until after we had finished other shots meaning we had to re-film 4 shots of my character running. This was a big continuity issue which we could easily correct in a short amount of time.

Make up

We decided to include make-up into our film opening. We want to include things like cuts for injured characters and face paint for the demon.

Injuries that we think we would like to recreate:

Both of these injuries would be inflicted upon the character of Chelsea as she is the one who gets attacked by the demon.

We feel by using make-up to create injuries will make it appear more realistic and work well with our horror theme.


























This is similar to the face paint we would like to do for the character of the demon.

Script

This is our script. We used this a rough guideline for when we were filming to ensure we included certain things when speaking. 
We discussed what we were going to use from the script on the day of filming the shots.


[Establishing shot of Exterior of house at Night with Archie and Isabelle knocking and opening door.]
[Wide shot of Interior. All characters inside, siblings already sat down. Pentagram on the ground.]
Siblings General greetings. [Medium Shot]

Archie: Hey gu- what the hell is this? [Medium Close up then eye line match to pentagram]

Brett: Hey dude, uh, yeah. I thought it would be cool if we messed with some demons [Medium close up using shot reverse shot] (Brett wiggles his fingers whilst making ghost sounds at Archie and Issy) I read online somewhere that you could summon them with all this stuff (shows off pentagram) [Pan]

Isabelle: What-no, no no no. That stuff’s dangerous. I’m gunna go ahead and pass, thanks. (Starts to leave.) [Shot reverse shot]


Chelsea: Hey, Isabelle! Come back, please, it won’t be that bad. We’ll all be here so you’ll be safe. [Over the shoulder shot of Issy leaving]

Isabelle: (turns around) Being together doesn’t make us safe, what if something happens? What will you do? [Shot reverse shot]

Brett: Oh come on Issy it’s only a game it’s not real [SRS]

Chelsea: Iss you came all this way come on, it’s just a bit of fun. [OTSS]

Isabelle: Fine…whatever… (Comes back in. Archie silently agrees.)

Brett: Perfect! (Goes to turn lights off) [Shot extreme close up of light switch then candles being lit]

(Chelsea sets up “phone Camera” [POV of “phone camera” shot] All sit around pentagram holding hands)[Wide shot using “phone camera”]
(Start chanting) [360* pan in the middle of pentagram]
[WS camera shaking using “phone camera”] (Screaming)

Brett: What’s happening? [Extreme close up of Brett’s lips. Then hands shaking]
(Everyone gets pushed back) [Low angle of cloaked figure] (More screaming)

Archie:  What the hell guys! (Archie on floor crawling backwards away) [High angle shot] (whilst getting up) Guys get out, run!  (Exits, Brett and Iss also follow)

(Chelsea struggles and picks up “phone camera” on the way and exits house) [Tracking shot] (Others in front screaming and running shouting for Chelsea, Chelsea running after them) [POV of camera] (Chelsea and others somehow split up along the way, the three keep running screaming for help and looking for Chelsea. Chelsea running screaming for help and others) [camera goes back and forth to Chelsea then others] (Chelsea runs and is pulled back by demon, Chelsea falls onto front tries to call 999 but battery dies, Chelsea screams) [POV of camera when phone and Chelsea dies with filter of low battery symbol filtered over] (Title screen appears)

Moodboard

Our moodboard inspired us alot as we picked a range of images that we felt fit wanted we wanted to do and have still work well with what we have done.

 

 These images really represent horror and fit well with our theme and supernatural feel to the opening titles.

Target audience

Our film is a 15 age restriction. This is because when we were researching other horror films, the vast majority were in fact age 15 certification and above by the BBFC. We are targeting our film opening at young adults as this who most teen based horror films attract.

Our idea

We have decided to create a horror film opening as we enjoy this genre as a group the most. We've been influenced by films like Paranormal Activity and Insidious. This is because we intend to create a paranormal type film.

Copyright Laws

The Copyright law grants the creator of an original piece of work the exclusive rights for distribution. The creator can decided how they want it to be distributed to the public whether that be through payment, giving credit to their work or freely. This is something we will have to look out for when deciding upon music for our film opening.

The Working Titles

Our group created a working title table that outlines the basics of what we have decided to include into the opening.

Title/working title	THE EVOKE
Plot/outline summary	At the start of the film a group of teenagers decide to conduct a demonic ritual for fun. One of the three gets hurt and taken away. The next day whilst at school the other teens realise that they are missing. They try to locate their friend and the demonic entity lures them in with clues. Resulting in their demise.
Opening sequence outline/summary	Multiple teenagers meet at a house for a party, during a ritual which one of them suggests; something goes wrong making them leave the house. Three friends run away from the area while another breaks away and ends up being alone. The three friends that ran away change their minds about staying and then they agree to go home thinking that their other friend will be fine. After losing her other friends she finds herself being pulled into a forest and then loses her way. She ends up trying to text her friends to find out where they are but before she can send the message her phone dies….
Characters (consider genre, role, image etc)	(Sam) Brett Steele 17 – Sarcastic, loud, weird. (Matthew) Archie Massey 16 – Jock, Brave, intelligent. (Rebecca) Chelsea Steele 16 - Clumsy, Wise, girly (Kelbie) Isabelle Everett 17 – Tomboy, funny, hippy
Mise en scene Setting: 2015     Location: Costumes: Props: Lighting (what mood are you trying to create? etc.)	Outer house, ordinary living room. Demonic ritual. Nature, fields.  Outside Rebecca’s house. Inside Sam’s house. Outside Rebecca’s house. Path before field. Field. Hill. Peterborough Generic 2015 costumes that match the characters personality.  Candles, blood, Phones, Torches, Things to throw and knock down e.g. rocks, vases. Makeup Torches, streetlights, house lights, candle lights and red light.

23rd January 2016

Today we once again carried on with interior shots as we wanted to get them done and out of the way as they were only a small part of the opening and could then concentrate on the harder parts to film. These were still inside Sam's house.

After looking over the shots at the end of the filming session none of us were happy with how they turned out as they were extreamly grainy and there was also a dead pixel in the video's. We wanted to fix this but had no scedualled time to do so anytime soon so we plan to reshoot these again at a later time as well as get a better camera so that the dead pixel wasn't present.

21st January 2016

Today we met up and did interior shots inside Sam's house. We set up our pentagram and candels and the camera was set up on a table so that it was looking down on all four members of the group. This was a high angled shot.

Research into genre

Horror

Horror is a film genre conveying negative thoughts and views. The theme plays on the audiences insecurities and fears to create the emotional response they want. Horror films  have been around for more than a century. Macabre and Supernatural are the most popular themes for the films genre. These may overlap with other themes like fantasy, supernatural fiction and thriller. They thrive on the audiences nightmares, fears and being afraid of the unknown. The plots of horror films involve either an event or evil force. Horror is a extremely popular genre and is loved by people of all ages as it can come in many different forms even for children. The film 'Caroline' is a popular children's film they some would consider creepy or even scary due to its dark story.

Audience feedback

I created a questionnaire to ask people about how they viewed, what they viewed and what they enjoyed.

These are my results: