MJ-7199-Key Links

Evaluation
Title Sequence
Preliminary Task
Secondary Research - Film Openings
Technical Analysis
Audience Research - Screening
Audience Research - Rough Cut
Audience Research - Concept Development

PJ-7196- Key Links

Evaluation
Title Sequence
Preliminary Task
Secondary Research- Film Openings
Technical Analysis
Audience Research-Screening
Audience Research-Rough Cut
Audience Research Concept Development

AC-7127- Key Links

Evaluation
Title Sequence
Preliminary Task
Secondary Research- Film Openings
Technical Analysis
Audience Research-Screening
Audience Research-Rough Cut
Audience Research Concept Development

Media evaluation-Question 7

Link back to Andy Cooper's Question's 1, 2, 3, & 6 

Link back to Piers Jahn's Question's 1, 2, 3 & 6
Link back to Matthew Johns' Question's 1, 2, 3, & 6

AC: Media Evaluation Question 1, 2, 3 and 6

Media Studies Evaluation

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Link back to Key Links

Question 4 and 5: Audience Research

Question 4 and 5: Who would be the audience for your film? How did you attract/ address your audience?

• Our target audience is a niche market. We would believe that our film would most likely become and independent film, released to an art house, or a platform release, however still attract a mass audience, due to the well know horror genre, and conventions used. Our demographics for our film would be teenagers or young adults, ageing roughly from 15-24 years of age, who are fans of the horror genre, and are looking for new takes on a traditional idea. It would attract a more male dominated audience; however, it would include anyone who is a horror fan, so that does not exclude females. It would appeal to a wide number of social groups, which is where the mass target audience comes in, as anyone can understand the narrative used in the film. The psychographics of of our film are people, who enjoy innovative ideas and want to try interesting, new independent films.

• The characters would appeal to our target audience, due to all characters being teenagers, who appeals more widely to a teenage audience, as it allows the audience to relate to the conventions and characters better, than if they were of a different age range. It also appeals to the audience, as there is the use of dramatic irony throughout the opening, where the audience know about the vampires emerging, however it is not clear if the victim does or not. The preferred reading of the opening is that it is left at a cliff hanger, so the audience would believe that it leads on from the death of the man from the vampires, and continues onto discovering how to defeat them, which is what we tried to portray in our film. We hope the audience are able to decode that information from what we have made

• We had many opportunities to test our project to an audience throughout the planning and development stages of the film making process. We began with the initial pitch idea, where we spoke to a group of peers and teachers, about 20 of them, where we discussed about what we are planning to do with our horror film, and the ideas we have come up with. This was our concept development, which meant after we pitched our idea, we received feedback from the group on what they liked about our film, what they believed the strengths were, as well as the weaknesses, and some ideas we need to improve on or change, such as they cast list we decided, which had to change, to have a variety of characters. This was useful to us, as we could then go away and improve our idea much more, before beginning the filming of the opening, and gave us a better understanding of what we were trying to achieve by the end of the project.

• 

  A week before our deadline date for our film, we presented a rough cut to the same people as our pitch was presented to, to gain some understanding of what an audience thought of our film, and what we would need to change before the deadline. We exported our rough cut, to allow everyone to view, but soon realised we need to needed to change some aspects, such as the sound levels of the dialogue and soundtrack, as well as some of the ordering of our shots and edits.

• Audience feedback is very important when making a film, as it lets you know, what people enjoy about the film, what they don’t understand, or dislike about it, and what needs changing, adding or removing. We used our results from our surveys to find out what people enjoyed about it, so in the last editing stage, we could rearrange some of the clips and change parts that the audience did not understand, such as some of our narrative, so we changed the sound, so the narration comes in at a more appropriate stage, when the characters are in full view, and you can getter a better understanding of the character exposition.

• From our audience research, when we were planning our idea, and understanding our target audience, we found out what type of horror film people of our age range and target market wanted. We discovered that our audience enjoyed quite a gruesome horror film, and favourites are films such as 'Saw' (James Wan,2004) and 'Texas Chainsaw Masacre' (Tobe Hooper,1974).

• When we completed further audience research after our project was near completion, we found out what the audience thought the best of our film was, and what we needed to change. We came to the realisation  that some of the shots during the narration we used at the wrong point, so we had to make changes to when the narration comes in, and the cutting rate of some of the shots, especially when changing the location by using a cross cut.

                                         

AC Independent Evaluation

MJ Independent Evaluation

PJ Independent Evaluation

Audience Screening Results

We received the following results from our questionnaire, which were very positive, which gave us confidence about our film, and better understanding of what was best about our film, and what we needed to change.

 

We started off by finding out who our audience were, by asking a question on their demographics.

 

Are you male or female?

 

The following two questions we asked about the film's soundtrack and characters, and received positive results about them meaning our target audience enjoyed them.

Do you think the soundtrack anchors the visuals well?

Do you think the characters exposition was correct?

Our weakest part of our film we discovered from our research was the costume, with many people who did not think the costume was appropriate for our film, this was rather discouraging, however it was too late to make any major changes such as the costume, so we resorted to some editing, to try and use as many CUs and MS on the characters as possible, and show less of the costume off to the audience.

 

Do you think the use of costume was effective?

 

People agreed with our choice of location for the film, and thought it was suitable for our genre of film. The two people who disagreed with the location used, believed we should an abandoned house or an old fashioned castle, to fit the vampire sub-genre, but these people were in a minority.

 

Do you think a different location should have been used, and if yes, where?

 

The narrative was easy to understand, and no one did not understand what was going on.

How easy is it to understand the narrative?

 

In conclusion our results were positive and the audience seemed to enjoy the parody idea we used for the vampire horror genre. They understood what was going on the during the film, and thought the conventions of the film were well done, and used effectively. 

 

Link to Matthew Johns' Key Links

Link back to Piers Jahn’s Key Links
Link back to Andy Cooper’s Key Links

Audience Screening Questionnaire

After we had finished our film, shortly before the deadline for the completion of our film, we handed out the following audience questionnaire to a randomly selected 16 candidates to fill out after watching our production, to gain feedback of what their thoughts were on our film opening.



 

 



PJ: Media Evaluation Question 1,2,3 and 6

Media Evaluation

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(Clip for Slide 16)


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MJ: Film Opening Evaluation

Q1. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In the area of a vampire horror movie our opening is extremely conventional to the genre with a gang of vampires, headed by a male figure, claiming a victim within the opening of a film, however the female vampires in the opening are shown to be very strong and in some ways pose a threat to the patriarchal system that the male vampire is shown to be working on. Although this "unconventional" representation of women in horror films is actually something that is frequently challenged, with characters such as Selene in Underworld (Wiseman, 2003) and Alice in Resident Evil (Anderson, 2002) challenging the stereotype of women being the damsel-in-distress, and so with our female characters we tried to show this also. In one part of our opening we have a vampire drop into the shot in great athletic style, which is reminiscent of the opening scene of Underworld, in which Selene drops from the roof of a building in the same style, showing the convention of the vampires being stronger than humans.



Selene dropping from building in Underworld

Our drop-in from Stakeout

 


From looking at other film openings of the same genre and even others we found that a frequently used shot is a tracking shot, as the slow movement of the camera builds tension, and so we used a short tracking shot at the beginning of our piece to create a slow lead in to a sudden vampire attack. The camera work within vampire films also tends to be in some ways claustrophobic, with the camera being very close to the characters with frequent close-ups and extreme close-ups to draw attention to characters features and make them the prominent character. So our piece of work conforms to the vampire genre as some of the shots are framed in close-up, giving the feeling of the audience being so close that it invades personal space and includes them in the action.



One thing that challenges the genre of horror is our use of heavy music in the first scene, as many horror films use very calm music or even silence to create a feeling of terror, however we wanted to explicitly show the animalistic attitude of the vampires within the scene, and the bass and guitar riff of the song (Oh, Stranger by The Raveonettes) is like a heartbeat that mirrors the vampires need to attack their prey. The soundtrack also anchors the visuals well, as during the editing process we made sure that some of the shots would cut as the heavy guitar beat would sound, making the sound and visuals go together very well.



Oh, Stranger is a track from a Norwegian group called The Raveonettes which was originally released on the soundtrack to the 2011 video game Batman: Arkham City. Whilst listening to the soundtrack I figured it would work for our film opening as the track fit the Gothic genre and the lyrics of "I see death in your eyes" fits the part in which the vampires kill the man. As well as the fact that to the vampires the man is a stranger and so pity him that they caught onto his scent.

Our film opening form can be seen both as conventional and different at the same time, as it carries a stock plot of introducing main characters whilst also gripping the audience, however it is unconventional as it lacks enigma, due to the fact one of the characters seen to be important dies, although this could be seen as enigmatic because they are now left with the mystery of how this tragedy will be resolved and what the man in the suit will do now without part of his team.



Bela Lugosi in Dracula (Browning, 1931)



One of the biggest conventions within vampire horror films is to do with mise-en-scene, especially with costume, as the use of capes can be frequently seen in older vampire films, such as in Dracula (Browning, 1931) and sharp teeth, with both being extremely iconic for the vampire role. However as a group we wanted to challenge that, and by looking into the history of vampires I found that they were based on the mythology of people who believed in drinking the blood of other living creatures in order to keep their youthful looks and survive, therefore in reality there were no extremely sharp teeth or any of the "special powers", such as super-speed, that these people actually had, so we wanted to challenge the current belief of vampires created by mainstream films such as Twilight (Hardwicke, 2008).

Within the vampire genre, and even the horror genre as a whole, blood is extremely iconic, especially with vampires, as it being a key to their survival, therefore making it iconic, and so for our opening we needed the props of fake blood. We had many packs of fake blood to use on the day of filming, though we should have checked out how good it was beforehand because on the day of the shoot we found that it looked no more than water with a little food dye in it. So we filmed our opening without any blood and used editing software in post-production to create a spurting effect from the neck of a victim and the look of a blood puddle.

Within the film industry vampires are shown to be aggressive and brutal in manner, and so we had to show this through non-verbal language, and so during the vampire conversation the male vampire has his arms out in an aggressive way to show that he is the alpha-member of the group. The way that the teenager is attacked in the final section of the opening also shows the aggressive style of these vampires, however it also shows that the vampires use a strategy of sending the female vampires out first to attempt to catch the prey, which is conventional to horror films with the patriarchal system, as seen in Van Helsing (Sommers, 2004) when Dracula first sends out his wive's to attack Helsing first. We replicated this in our piece by having the female vampires suddenly pop up in front of the teenager as the first line of attack as he's chased.

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The group of vampires in the opening scene are representative of the social groups in society who are shunned due to not following society’s norms and values as a sub-culture, such as Goths, especially in recent news of attacks on Goths, as shown by the dark clothing and heavy jewelry worn. The way that the male vampire acts is partly representative of the stubbornness of the young nowadays that they are seen as by the elder generations, as he explains that he only cares for himself and not the needs of others.

 

 

The other teenagers (the vampire hunters) constructs a growing view of the technical side of the younger generation, through their conversation when using mobile communication. They are also based around the more mature group of teenagers, as shown through the costumes, such as a suit, and the fact that they are attempting to trap the vampires in the woods shows the initiative to do large things is something which younger people are showing today.

Therefore our film opening challenges stereotypes of young people, whilst somewhat reinforcing them, as we do show them to be independent and doing their own thing, as shown by the vampire hunter, however we explicitly express the animalistic behaviour that is frequently shown in the media accusing the young of being abusive and only work in particular groups, rather than getting along with everyone.

Due to the fact that all of the actors used are teenagers we can only actually represent the younger generations, as we decided that pretending that these young people were actually older than they appeared would be difficult to take seriously.

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

It is highly likely that a film institution would distribute our product, instead of a film released via services such as Netflix, and more specifically an independent film company, like Fox Searchlight Pictures, who specialise in independent British films, due to the low budget of the opening and lack of bankable stars, meaning that it would be more suited to being shown in art house cinemas, instead of large multiplexes. Not only would this be to do with the low budget, but also because the plot of the film is not typically suited to Hollywood style films, as the film focuses on the vampires way of life and the trials and tribulations that come with this, as well as the journey the vampire hunter is on.
 

However if our film was to be seen as more mainstream due to vampires being extremely popular in the 21^st century, our film would be produced by Screen Gems, a company well known for its urbanised horror franchises Underworld and Resident Evil, so due to this our production would suit this.

When marketing the film we would have to use Web 2.0 for a lot of it, with the main way to get the film in the public eye would be to create independent teaser trailers and use a YouTube account solely created for “Stakeout”, and so we would have to film other parts to create these teasers, such as a small piece of back story on the vampire hunter, much like the recent campaign by the marketing group behind Man of Steel (Snyder, 2013) who released a video of the character “Zod” taking over a YouTube account and producing videos of how he plans to destroy Earth if Superman is not handed over, which gives some back story.

This would generate some interest amongst the target audience, as short thirty second episodes would create intrigue as to what it would be leading up to. Therefore word of mouth would also play a large part in marketing, as the free publicity would draw people in.

The target audience for our film would be around males aged 15-24, as this is the peak time in which young people are interested in horror films and the vampire mythology, the fact that it is also a comedy horror, much like Zombieland (Fleischer, 2009), opens our production up to a more varied audience also, as Zombieland was an extremely successful film that's merits come from the hybrid genre of comedy horror. To work out our target audience we also had to think about psychographics, with psychographics being someone's likes and dislikes, and so our production is aimed at those young males who are not satisfied by the "new Hollywood's" way of representing vampires as "beautiful" creatures and so Stakeout returns their mythology to the more dark and gritty style.

 

When thinking about after our product would have been exhibited in cinemas it may well have a DVD release, however a new way of digital distribution in the times of Web 2.0 is to use an internet streaming website, such as Netflix or LoveFilm, who in some cases have films and television programmes that are released straight to their site. This has become a big thing for Netflix recently, who, since early 2013 have had their own "Netflix Original" titles that have gained acclaim for their TV shows, such as House of Cards (Willimon, 2013). This could well be the future of how independent film makers get their films seen in the world without having to pay a high price to have them shown at a cinema, whereas if it is on a web based site some people will just stumble upon it and watch it, then passing the news onto their friends about it. Therefore I believe Stakeout could be well suited to this style of distribution, as the incredibly low budget would make it difficult for a cinema release.

 

An advertisement for House of Cards boasting the "Netflix Original" banner



 

Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

From the start to the end of our work we have had to use our group blog on Blogger, which we used for many different tasks, such as the planning stages up to sharing our final piece of work. Using the blog allowed easy access to sharing our thoughts on what shots and style of filming we should use for our work, and in return the comments section allowed the other members of the group to comment on such thoughts about whether that would work and whether that would actually be possible to produce in our final product.

The blog also has a link that allows you to post videos straight from YouTube or even a webcam, both of these functions are very interesting and helpful to know about, as with the YouTube function the ability to put a clip straight onto the blog can allow someone to explain that they would like to use a particular shot from a film they used and be able to provide the example. The webcam function is very interesting, as it made me think that in the future when using a blog it could be used to just think up an idea and being able to click a button and just speak about the idea, which sometimes can be a lot more helpful than having to write it all down.

Header to Group 4's Blog

During production we used a Nikon D5100, a camera which has a great resolution on it, as well as a low key lighting setting, allowing us to get some really good dark shots. At the beginning of the shoot we used a dolly with a track which allowed us to move smoothly up the road we were using, for most of the other shots we used a tripod for extra stability and smooth pans. The Nikon D5100 is a firm favourite DSLR camera for amateur film makers because of it's great abilities, such as the resolution, it's professional depth of field ability, and how well it copes under low light levels. Some of these functions are shown in the short film "Beautiful Summer" below:

 



To edit we used Adobe Premiere 9.0 which was tough to start as we had only used the programme for our preliminary task and Wilderness Woods reccie previously, however I have used other editing software previously, but not for something as complex as the film opening and so we used our prior editing knowledge to create a cross cut within our piece as the suited teenager talks to the man in the woods via mobile phone, and so by splitting up the two separate pieces of footage to cut from one to the other to show the conversation happening, and creating a parallel narrative.

The editing process took a long time, and we had to be extremely thorough, as we found that occasionally the actors in the scene would start acting before our cameraman had called action, therefore making it difficult to edit when you could almost hear “action” as dialogue began. We also used Photoshop CS3 to create the black outer shadow that can be seen bordering the film opening, creating a darker mood for the film.

We also had some problems when trying to film when we found that our actors were unable to make it to the shoot, meaning we could not film then, and so when we managed to get a new cast together we were pushed for time to get it all done, which ended up happening with only a week to go before our filming deadline.

In comparison to real film making our opening scene is rather different, as we filmed our piece in sequence to how it would be shown in the final cut, whereas most films will not, which is done so that some actors can get all of their scenes for a film done as early as possible to allow time for the harder parts of a film. However there were some positives to this, as it meant that because we were filming in the woods it was highly likely that with all the running we would get our costumes dirty, and so filming in sequence meant that if one actor got muddy from one shot, in the next shot film after they would have the same mud spot, adding to the continuity, the only problem was that on occasion some of the actors forgot about this and so wiped some of the mud off, losing some of that continuity from the last shot.

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Group: Stakeout Final Cut

 

Strengths:

• Interesting storyline
• Location fits vampire genre
• Soundtrack anchors visuals
• Well considered costume
• Good action

Weaknesses:

• Sound levels vary
• Limp dialogue
• Narrative may not fit genre

Improvements:

• Make script more gritty
• More iconography of genre
• Fix sound levels

Link back to Matthew Johns’ Key Links
Link back to Piers Jahn’s Key Links
Link back to Andy Cooper’s Key Links

PJ: Soundtrack/titles 26/03/2013

• Today we decided to change the titles to create a more horrifying look.
• We also put the titles on a black screen as it contrasts with the red titles.
• The sound had many issues. one of them was that it cut off for a second then restarted three times in the scene. To combat this I cut parts of the bass out and filled in the soundless spaces.
• The soundtrack was too loud in certian areas, so welowerd the soundtrack and made the dialogue louder.
• We have adapted the music that we have used, cutting out all of the vocals during the opening until the chase begins and we have also sorted out the timing of the soundtrack to fit the scenes a lot better.

After Effects Titles

• We used after effects in our final shot of the opening sequence of our film.
• We wanted to make the word 'Stakeout' stand out, and show that we thought about our titles during the sequence.
• We made the title interact with the death scene, so it looks more professional, and adds intensity to the film, and is a good way of closing it off, with a fade to red at the end, which connotes a blood covered screen.

• To begin we focused on the text placement, and where we wanted to position it on the screen.
• We went with the font ''LaBrit' it was a rather gothic looking font, what we were after for our title. After we added motion tracking to the the clip, to make sure the title stayed stationary with even with the shake of the camera.
• The data was then added to a 'Null' which is just a blank template, with no dimensions, just a utility for editing.
• Textures were then added to it, to give it the effect of blood being formed around it.
• The resulting composition was then taken, then had camera shakes added, to show impact as the body fell to the floor.
• Over time, colour correction was added to the clip, a shade of red over the screen, which then reveals the text to be much brighter, and makes it stand out to the audience.
• Finally it was all exported and added to our film, and with a bit of tweaking with brightness, and a few effects fits in well with our film.

Feedback on Planning - March

Matt, Andy and Piers; some excellent work on the blog. However there are some tasks not completed properly and some of my comments haven't been acted upon. I will be giving you a grade this evening so please make sure everything is tidied up and completed by the end of school today. One of you needs to go through the blog carefully in class time today and make sure everything is done.

PJ: Snow Work

The Ring (Verbinski, 2002)

• A young journalist must investigate a mysterious videotape which seems to cause the death of anyone in a week of viewing it. The opening clip sets up the scene for the rest of the film.
• The language used in the scene is very tense and creates a sense of loneliness for the young girl, as she gets no reply to her questions and the use of silence is very prominent. 
• the sound of the TV is very dramatic, especially when it gets louder as she moves towards the TV.
• The echo behind her creates tension as no one in the audience, or the film knows what is going to happen.
• Her final scream is a shock to the audience and helps set the scene for the rest of the film, as the audience saw part of the tape that is the centre of the film.
• The TV screen at the end also creates tension because the sound is very harsh.
   
   
   
   

Halloween (Carpenter, 1978)

• The titles for Halloween start before the opening scene.
• A POV shot is used as an establishing shot so set the scene, and the film.
• The target audience for Halloween would be males because it is part of the horror genre and it is typical that the genre is predominantly watched by males. 
• The target age for the film would be people over 18 because  it has gore and violence.
• The target age would also be 18 because the killer turns out to be a child, which is not only a shock because of  his young age, but also the way he killed her.

Saw 7 (Gruetert 2010)

Institutional context:

 

 

 

• There are no bankable stars in this clip, however as this is part of the Saw franchise the name carries popularity due to its ever increasing audience.
• Twisted pictures produced all of the Saw films and are well known for their gore horror films, such as Daed Silence and Mother'd Day.
• The product values of the film are very evident in the clip as there is a lot of gore and many actors acting as the crowd.
• The gore in the scene really shows the product value of the film as it is very realistic.

MJ: Audience Feedback - Rough Cut

 

The purpose of the rough cut is to see what people who fit into the target audience of Stakeout think about it, in the run up to the deadline on the 27th March, so that we can have an idea of what we should improve in order to make our work the best it can be. Another purpose of the rough cut was to gain feedback on our variety of shots, continuity editing, action codes, effectiveness of titles, as well as sound and dialogue.

 

The positives:

• Our opening shots were praised, with the flashbacks of the first attack and argument between the two vampires.
• Many people said that the soundtrack goes well with our piece, as the occasional loud instrument beat adds tension to the piece, and reflects the modern but dark feel.
• The final kill, in which the lead vampire kills Andy, was praised by the class as tricky camera angles avoids the need for too much gore.
• People noticed that there was some consideration of the titles, with the style suiting the genre of the film, and the titles being placed well within some frames.

Criticism:

• Some people felt that, at times, the font was difficult to read and that some extra consideration needed to be added in some of their positioning.
• The scene in which Andy walks through the woods was seen as too long and occasionally muddled, with one shot being in the incorrect place.
• Although the music was praised for suiting the film, some believed it to be inappropriate during dialogue scenes, as it masked some of the dialogue.
• The sound levels also need to be consistent throughout, as during some parts it was impossible to hear what was being said, even at points in which the music was not playing.

Link back to Matthew Johns’ Key Links

Link back to Piers Jahn’s Key Links
Link back to Andy Cooper’s Key Links

Update and Last Filming

• We have spent all of our lessons over the last week editing, and trying to prepare for the rough cut, to present to the rest of the class for feedback.
• Currently our footage is in the correct running order, and are in the process of cutting down the clips, and adding title and music to the footage.
• We still need to make the shots sharper and smoother, and the cross cuts to be bridged by the music.
• In the last filming session, we filmed Piers' scene where he receives the phone call  it just allows us to create a cross cut during our opening sequence, to add variety to the edits, and make the footage much faster, with faster cuts between shots.

Filming Reflection 09/03/13

• During the filming on Saturday 9th March we recorded almost all of our footage.
• Although it took longer than expected all the actors turned up and performed well.
• Our filming lasted 5 minutes with no editing, however after we had done some editing we got it down to 2 minutes with more filming and editing to go.
• We intend to film the rest of the scene on Saturday 9th of march.
• One of our main problems was one of the actors injured her ankle during one of the scenes, so she had difficulty walking up hills.

AC: Snow Work 12/03/13

Sucker Punch (Snyder, 2011)

Film Language:

• In Sucker Punch, the mise-en-scene is conveying the hopelessness and struggle of the life of a young girl, who has been framed for her actions because of the greed of a man. It conveys a very dark and disturbing opening of a film, which represents the psychological horror of the film. 
• The movement is slow, with many close ups of the characters' facial expressions  which shows the audience their emotions, and ads to the meaning, of depression and a saddened household, after the death of their mother.
• The sound is a backing track of a slow, emotive music, which adds emphasis to the meaning of the film. It anchors the clip by creating atmos for the film, darkening the mood, making it more sinister.
• From the non-verbal language we learn of the struggle of the girls against the antagonist, who is obvious from the beginning of the scene. There is no dialogue apart from the occasional screams from the girls for added effect, but we learn of there life and how it has clearly changed for the worst in their situation, which has led to the feud between the antagonist and the blond girl.
• The director has chosen to use a colour wash, and made the whole scene darker and gloomier, for the added effect to make it appear dismal and unappealing, which adds to the psychological thriller it uses. He also uses extreme close ups on parts of the characters, such as the zoom on the eye through the key hole, which is an effective way to engage the audience, showing the emotion and fear in her eyes, a simple yet effective shot.

21 Jump Street (Lord, 2012)

Media Audiences:

• The target audience for the film '21 Jump Street' would be both genders, but dominantly male, aged 15-24 years old, who would enjoy the film the most, as it is based around similar aged characters, which would allow the audience to relate to the scenarios, and the film in general. The demographics are wide, so would appeal to a mass audience, as it is a comedy, many people can understand the humour used.
• The probable audience readings is the light hearted humour of the film, that the film entails, where two guys go back to school, reliving their fears, which people can obviously relate to. The possible audience readings of the film is that its more of finding yourself again, and becoming more confident as a person, which some audiences may feel is while watching.
• I relate to the text as a British teenager, because although it is set in an American high school, I can still recognise and relate to the conventions and humour they encounter throughout the film. It is highly influenced by my demographics, as I would enjoy the film much more than an elderly person, because it is the society we are used in comparison, making it easier for us to understand.

300 (Snyder, 2006)

Institutional Context:

• In the film 300, Gerard Butler played the leading role in the film. This is important,as it means the audience are attracted to the film because they enjoy the bankable star, and recognise him from his previous films.
• The production studio was 'Legendary Pictures' and 'Montreal Meteor Studios' both which are Independent film producers, meaning they were allowed to freely express their creative ideas. However 'Warner Bros.' did distribute the film which are an industrial company.
• Marketing for the film was highly successful, it was based off the comic book, and history which would have attracted many people in the first place, as well as the bankable stars used.  It was at Comic-con in July 2006, increasing its publicity, and from then onwards trailers were released advertising the film, up until release, where it made $456 million from it's $65 million budget.
• The opening is rather basic, however used at lot of CGI which is where a lot of the money would have been spent to create the realism of the scene, because the titles when they appear are very basic, and low production value.

MJ: Snow Work 12/03/2013

 

Dexter (Showtime, 2006-Present)

 

• Although Dexter is an American TV show, the opening sequence is quite cinematic and almost parodies other sequences, such as the "7even" opening sequence.
• Throughout this sequence we see the main character/ serial killer, Dexter, going through his morning routine of shaving, making breakfast and getting dressed for work, however the way that the actions with mise-en-scene are represented make these actions dark and murder-like, for example as he grips his laces as he ties his shoes the audience may also see it as strangling someone.
• During the sequence the camera rarely moves until a cut, but angles are frequently used to create mystery about what is going on, for example as Dexter slices the meat, the audience cannot see the packaging explaining that it is food rather than a human body.
• The music in this sequence is also mysterious, and is frequently matched with the visuals, for example as Dexter is shaving, one drop of blood falls to the sink and when the other drops and creates a bigger splash, a loud bell is heard giving this drop of blood a more meaningful symbol.
• The whole sequence features only non-verbal communication, which once again creates mystery around Dexter's character, yet the audience can tell that he is a dark character through the way his actions seem so violent yet normal is something which many may link to the way a psychopath works.
• The director also frames most of the shots in extreme close-up, creating an uncomfortable feeling within the actions, such as when Dexter places the piece of meat in his mouth in an animalistic fashion.

Snatch (Ritchie, 2000)

 

• The target audience for Snatch are men aged 18-24, however the film has a wider audience among British viewers, who are interested in films about heists and the underground smuggling trade.
• The use of famous Hollywood actors and bankable stars such as Benicio Del Toro and Brad Pitt would also bring in more potential audience members.
• The probable reading from Snatch is that is that the underground world of crime is populated by men who are all connected in some way.
• As a British teenager I see this text as a quality piece of British film making, being one of the best items in the British genre of comedy-crime, among another of Ritchie's films in this genre, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (which feature many of the same actors).
• The mix of comedy and crime within the opening sequence is enjoyable to watch for boys around the similar age as myself, as well as the actors who would be known as "lads" to my generation.

Reservoir Dogs (Tarantino, 1992)

 

• This opening scene features many famous actors, such as Michael Madsen, Steve Buscemi, Tim Roth as well as director Quentin Tarantino, all of which are bankable stars. This was an important factor not only because they had the talents to pull off their individual characters, but because it would bring in a larger audience due to the bankable stars have followers that will see a film simply because their favourite actor is in it.
• Reservoir Dogs is an independent film, also being Tarantino's first film, and was made on a budget of $1.2 million, the studio the film was made under was LIVE America (now Artisan Entertainment), but was mainly funded by Tarantino himself, but later on stars, such as Harvey Keitel, pitched in to raise funds.
• The film did not have any other marketing, other than word of mouth upon initial release, which lead to the film being shown at the Sundance Film Festival and gaining acclaim from Empire as "the Greatest Independent Film ever made".
• The low budget can be seen within the opening sequence as it is very basic, featuring the "Dogs" walking across a parking lot in slow-motion with a soundtrack over the top. It uses a basic font and style for the titles, individually matched to the named actors, which adds to this basic-yet-effective technique.

Todays post 11/03/13

• We managed to collate all of our filming from over the weekend, in total all of the shots we want to use in the opening, comes to five minutes, and after editing, we should cut this down a lot, to create continuity between shots.
• We spent a most of the time importing the files, and deciding which we believed were our best clips and what we would use, we also began to cut the clips, and create some continuity, so we would have a rough idea of what we still needed to add, and what it would hopefully look like.

MJ: Stakeout Script

Stakeout

By

Matt Johns, Piers Jahn, Andy Cooper

Opening

The camera pans, showing an alleyway, flashbacks show a violent attack, within the alley the audience can see a body sat down by a gate, with another person leaning over them.

Reverse shot shows someone walk up to the two people. We can see that the girl on the floor is dead.

 

Vamp Woman 1: She was mine

Vamp Man: We all know it’s finders keepers out here. (Maniacal laugh)

VW1: That’s not even funny, you of all people know we’re suffering more than ever, there’s no room for bonus kills.

VM: Since when were we part of a group who live by rules. If I see someone worth taking, I’ll do it. We’re vampires, not pathetic humans. Doesn’t matter anyway, she’ll be up in a couple of hours.

VW1: You brought another one into our world. Do you have any morals? You’re an animal.

VM: I’m not an animal, I’m a vampire, we feed that’s what we do.

Next scene

Long shot of the woods shows young man walking through woods. He looks lost, as shown by his confused look.

Mid-shot as he brushes past camera shows the two vampires, plus their new vampire, hidden in various parts of the woods not far from him.

As he walks he pulls out his mobile phone, and begins to wring someone.

Man: It’s me, I’m pretty sure they’re on my tail, meet me at the woods ASAP.

VanH: What’s happening?

Man: Nothing, they’re just following, I’m completely in control of the situation.

CU on VM’s face, as he realises that Man isn’t just someone walking through woods.

He hand gestures to the female vampires to attack. Man begins to run, as VM approaches him, but after a couple of yards is stopped by VW1, appearing from a nearby bush.

Vampire Woman 2 appears, and grabs Man by the arm, VW1 holds the other.

Man struggles to break free, and before he can VM walks up and punches him through the stomach. A CU on Man's face shows his pain and shock, cut to shot from the back in which audience sees arm all the way through Man.

 

Man drops to the floor, girls proceed to drag her away. VM stands stern, checking no one has been watching. Camera looks down to VM's arm, in which the word "Stakeout" can be seen in the blood.