MJ: Filming on the 20/02/2013

• We had spoken to three others to help us out as actors during filming, and so we had set a date and time, to meet at Southborough Common at 10am (an early time that we had to set in order to make sure everyone could make it), all of Group 4 had turned up ready for a morning of filming.
• After waiting for about fifteen minutes for the actors to turn up we became impatient, when suddenly one text saying that they could not help out, the next text rolled in giving the same excuse. Our final hope was crushed with a final message from our final actress explaining that she had missed her bus.
• We decided to go into the wooded location anyway and see if there was any possibility of getting any footage filmed.
• Unfortunately we found that using only two people made the footage seem rather limp and quite boring, and so we are beggining to gather up more people to help us on Saturday 9th March, giving us two weeks to get everyone together.
• The only downside to this is that it will only give us two weeks to get the whole video edited before we hit the deadline, something of which we have been told is too late, so we are trying our best to try and get the date moved forward a week.

Group 4 Pitch and Audience Feedback

• Audience feedback
• The main thing that had people talking about our pitch was that we were not specifically exposing the vampires as vampires well enough for the audience, this divided the classroom in whether they thought it would be effective or not
• However our way to overcome this problem is to explicitly explain that they are vampires through action or dialogue, for example the biting of someones neck or superior strength.
• We have also altered the costume due to our first filming, the vampire and human looked the same.
• Some commented on how the story of the opening sounded exciting, due to actions such as the chase as well as a fight.

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

AC: Audience Questionnaire

Survey Results

As a group, we set up an audience questionnaire using surveymonkey.com to try and gain useful information from our target audience. We shared the survey with groups of friends, and published it to multiple social networking sites, in an attempt to gain responses. Over two days, we manage to receive 29 responses in total, which is a good number to determine and analyse the responses, making them accurate and reliable. We used all closed questions as it means the quantitative data is easier to analyse, and we can get a better understanding of what the audience want to see.

Question 1 and 2:

We began by asking some simple questions, so understand the demographic of our audience, the majority of the responses were between the ages of 14 and 17, which is ideal for us, as it is the target audience we are looking to aim our film towards. There was a good split in gender as well, with only 5 more males than females answering the questionnaire, meaning we get a good variety of responses form both genders.

Question 3:

This was our only question, which allowed the participant to choose multiple answers. We wanted to see the normal preference and genres our target audience would normally watch; we received a wide variety of different answers, however the genre of comedy stood out among the others, which is a good indications of what our audience enjoy. Horror surprisingly was a less popular answer with 7 out of our 29 respondents choosing it.

Question 4:

From the research we found that most people would like to see our film opening in a woods, which is where we were planning on filming in the beginning, so it is good to find out that our target audience want us to film in the same location. Our second most popular answer was the old house, and as we were planning on cutting to a dark room for our second location, I think we have chosen the best locations we could have to film.

Question 5:

Our survey results show that the majority of our audience enjoy watching horror films which contain a psycho killer, rather than any mythical monsters, which shows our audience enjoy the sense of realism in a horror film. We are keeping with our idea of the vampires, but are going to emphasise the feeling of realism, to make it more appealing to our audience.

Question 6:

For our question on the level of gore, the majority of our participants suggested that we put a high level of gore in our fim, with the average choice being an 8 out of 10 on the level of gore. We planning to make it look realistic and with the use of lots of blood, which should meet our audience's preference.

Question 7:

From our research, we found that our audience watches a wide variety of different horror films, showing everyone has a different idea of what they think is a good and enjoyable horror film, so we will aim to appeal to a wide array of audience tastes, by adding different aspects from the genre.

Question 8:

The majority of our audience thought we should either use only one vampire and the antagonist in the opening scene, or a large group, and were not keen on many in between, although there was very little difference between the choices, we may have to rethink the number of vampires, we were originally planning on using around three vampires, but may have to use more vampire actors, or focus mainly on one rather than a group.

Question 9:

From this it is clear to see that our audience want us to use low key lighting when we film the scene, which means we will try to film, when it a cloudy day to get the effect, or using editing, bring the contrast down to add mystery to the scene, making it more scary for the audience, and allow it to be conventional of a horror film.

MJ: Wilderness Wood Location Reccie

On the 6th February, 2013, we went on a location reccie to Wilderness Woods, in Sussex, to test out equipment and our ability to work as a team.
We took this as a chance to make a short music video with a twist ending, here's the final result:

 

• During production we used a Nikon D5100, in which we used the low-key setting to create a darker feel during the short.
• We aimed to use as many camera techniques as possible, such as a worm's eye view, a pan, an extreme long shot and some tracking shots.
• In post-production we added the soundtrack of Radioactive by Imagine Dragons, a track which had been played during filming so I could lip-sync along to it.
• We also added the fuzzy effect onto one shot, to give a greater feeling of the nausea the character feels, in the run up to the song's drop.
• The sound of the vampire attack and narration were all recorded and added right at the end of production, as were the titles.

 

• During this reccie we found that, as a group, we functioned well, coming together with our ideas and viewpoints on how we should do things.
• The reccie also taught us about which camera shots were going to be easy for us, and which were going to prove much harder for our team.





AC: Technical analysis

28 Weeks Later (Fresnadillo, 2007)

(0:16- 1:50)

1. Duration: 2 seconds

Camera Technique: Cu on character reading the newspaper

Mise-en-Scene: Flicking through the newspaper, character lit, 

2. Duration: 3 seconds

Camera Technique: MS on character
Mise-en-Scene: Similar to shot 1, shown more of the location, appears to be in an old, dusty home.

3. Duration: 2 seconds.
Camera Technique: ECU on candle.
Mise-en-Scene: Candle in  focus, character movement in background.


4. Duration: 1 second.
Camera Technique: CU on spinning propeller, steady cam.
Mise-en-Scene: toy plane main focus of the shot, light coming in from the left.


5. Duration: 2 seconds.
Camera Technique: Canted angle of the old man, who walks to the left of the camera.
Mise-en-Scene: Costume, stereotypical grandfather attire, framed in a small room.


6. Duration: 2 seconds.
Camera Technique: LS of dining room table, steady shot, slight tilt in the angle to the left.
Mise-en-Scene: Lighted by candles, family setting up dinner.


7. Duration: 5 seconds.
Camera Technique: LS through staircase railing, focused on the family. shaky camera movement
Mise-en-Scene: Dark, little lighting used, appearance of an old family estate home. casual conversation throughout the shot.


8. Duration: 4 seconds.
Camera Technique: MS of girl walking down the stairs, again use of handheld camera.
Mise-en-Scene: Girl has a saddened look on her face, as she walks past the camera.


9. Duration: 2 seconds.
Camera Technique: Cu on the mans face, slight movement of the camera.
Mise-en-Scene: man talking to family, whilst pouring the wine.

10. Duration: 1 second.
Camera Technique: MS of girl sitting down at the table.
Mise-en-Scene: Casual family dinner.


11. Duration: 10 seconds.
Camera Technique: Cu on the faces of the family members, fast cutting rate used, cutting between each character showing their emotions, panning following the characters.
Mise-en-Scene: Sad expressions on the characters faces, audience can sense that there is something wrong about the scenario, due to the dirty clothes, and plain food being served.


12. Duration: 8 seconds.
Camera Technique: panning shot, with CU on the food being passed, handicam movement. Tilt upwards towards girls face
Mise-en-Scene: Dim lighting  but silence is used to create tension as she places the plate at an empty seat, to which the audience realise there is a character missing, which brings the horror to the clip.


13. Duration: 3 seconds.
Camera Technique: slight movement in the camera with a MS on the girl
Mise-en-Scene: She speaks of her boyfriend returning, in a solemn manner, which creates mystery around the character.


14.Duration: 1 second.
Camera Technique: CU on woman's face, shot from a low angle
Mise-en-Scene: light is positioned on her face, whilst she tries to protect the girl's feelings.


15. Duration: 4 seconds.
Camera Technique: CU on Jacob speaking, a Steadicam is used and using a front on angle.
Mise-en-Scene: He talks down to the girl, and seems superior to the rest of the group, but appears as the antagonist in the shot.


16. Duration: 3 seconds.
Camera Technique: quick cuts between the characters.
Mise-en-Scene: Displays their expressions to what is being said.


17. Duration: 3 seconds.
Camera Technique: MS on Jacob, but soon swish pans to the girl, shot from the same distance
Mise-en-Scene: We can see Jacob becoming angrier, whilst the girl is becoming upset over the fact her boyfriend is missing. still dimly lit, but all characters are becoming more upset.


18. Duration: 2 seconds.
Camera Technique: CU on the protagonist, 
Mise-en-Scene: Appears the head of the table, keeping calm throughout.


19. Duration: 2 seconds.
Camera Technique: Cut to girl, shot in a MS.
Mise-en-Scene: upset look on her face.

20. Duration: 4 seconds.
Camera Technique: Cu on the man talking, tilt in the angle down then up, following the character.
Mise-en-Scene: Describes the scenario to the audience.

21. Duration: 2 seconds.
Camera Technique: LS, zooming away from the table
Mise-en-Scene: The audience can see the panic on the faces of the characters after the knocking on the door.

22. Duration:1 second.
Camera Technique: Fast cutting rate of characters, CU used.
Mise-en-Scene: Can see their expressions, and the fast pace builds tension in the scene.

23. Duration: 3 seconds.
Camera Technique: LS of the man and woman communicating.
Mise-en-Scene: Can see the panic and fear in their expression.

24. Duration: 4 seconds
Camera Technique: MS on the man, panning as he walks towards the door.
Mise-en-Scene: See the confusion in his face.

25. Duration: 1 second.
Camera Technique: Shows the group in a LS.

26. Duration: 8 seconds
Camera Technique: Montage of CU and MS of him unlocking the door.
Mise-en-Scene: The montage is effective at creating a fast paced piece, creating tension for the audience.

Soundtrack:
There is no soundtrack, backing the opening scene, however tension is built throughout with the use of non-diegetic sound turned up, to emphasis the enigma of the scene. You can hear the creaking of the stair case, and the squeak of the chair as it is pushed along the floor, which alerts the audience. Silence is used as well to build tension, such as when the girl mentions her missing boyfriend, for 5 seconds there is no sound, which allows it to sink in for the audience, making them feel sorry and emphasise for the family. Dialogue is the main sound used throughout, and helps set the scene for the film, as the audience learn of the situation and the personality of the characters, within the first 2 minutes of the film, and through conversation, drama is established.

What I learnt:
Through the exercise of analysing the sequence, closely, studying each shot, I learnt the importance of a fast cutting rate between shots, as it speeds up the pace of the film, and builds tension and keeps it exciting for the audience to watch throughout. I also acknowledged how effective silence is, to build tension and mystery, through the absence of sound, the audience are drawn more into what is happening on screen, which is good for a horror film, as it means you can surprise the audience easily. Location is also important when filming a horror movie, as well as lighting, to create the atmosphere, and allow the audience to instantly recognise the genre of film.

Feedback - planning

Matt, Piers, Andy well done on progress made so far. Some good detailed posts outlining development of ideas. Some amendments need to be made which I will talk about in class. Your treatment is a good idea but is short, not much over a minute, so will need some development. Level 4 planning so far when amendments have been made.

Group: Treatment

Stakeout Treatment

Main location: Woods, set in evening light, but given a gloomy effect from the shadows of the overhead trees.
Other locations: A dark room, very little occupying the room, main focus is the character on the phone in the room.

Treatment:
In a dark wood a man runs past the camera, the sound of his panting can be heard. As he passes into the distance a man drops to his knees, in mid-shot. As he looks up his eyes open, revealing his red eyes, he opens his mouth to give out a scream, as he does this his sharp teeth become apparent, he is a VAMPIRE. Cut back to man as he reaches for his phone, frantically pushing at  buttons to reach someone.

A cross cut is used to the another man answering a phone, dimly lit, in his room. Panic in the callers voice can be heard, the man is left with no time to respond, "I've found them, they were in the woods, I stumbled by, they're on my tail, HELP!!!"  As he talks a flash of lightning comes from outside, creating a silhouette. He stays on the phone, listening to what is happening, cut back to woods.

The runner has stopped by tree, unable to run any further, unable to talk on the phone anymore, however he puts it on to speakerphone, he turns to face the THREE vampires, one steps forward, a fight ensues in which a vampire knocks the phone out of his hand, landing by a nearby tree. As the man fends one vampire off him, another bites him, as this happen he is pushed up against the tree near the phone. As the man pleas the main vampire rushes forward, with a malevolent look he punches through the man's stomach, blood flies creating a mist in the air.

As the body drops to the floor the vampires surround the body, one kneels down next to him and speaks about how he knows there is a group of people out to rid the world of vampires, and that they're becoming prepared at that they wouldn't have long. Cut to the dark room in which the man's eyes widen, he forgets he's on speakerphone, "No way!" Back in the woods the vampire hear him, one rushes to the phone, "Someone's been listening the whole time". Proceeds to smash the phone.

They drag the body away from the tree, and as they do so the title "Stakeout" can be seen in the blood trail.

In the dark room the phone drops to the floor, a bag is shown being thrown into the boot of a car, the audience assuming it is the man from the phone. As the boot shuts the scene fades to black.

Titles:
During the chase the titles will appear from the passing trees, and will also be washed away as another tree passes, the likelihood is that they will be in blood red, being symbolic of the vampires.

Characters:
There will be three vampires, one seen as a main vampire who delivers the final blow to the man, and two other vampires as "back up".
There will be one man running in the woods, needing a prop of a mobile phone so he can call for help.
Another mysterious man will be in the cross cut as he receives the call, he will be in a dark room, partially obscuring his features.

MJ: Technical Analysis

Underworld (Wiseman, 2003)

 

Duration:22 seconds
Technique: Production companies credits appear on screen in a white, basic font. Suddenly the title "Underworld" appears in a Gothic font.

Duration:36 seconds
Camera Technique: Tilt down from ceiling, then zooms in to figure sat on balcony.
Mise-en-scene: Bats fly at camera, lightning effects, long dark cape.

Duration:3 seconds
Camera Technique: Long shot (LS) of building, frame partially obscured by tower spire.
Mise-en-scene: Lightning effect, dark towers.

Duration:7 seconds
Camera Technique: Camera focused on spire in close up (CU) as it crabs round, refocusing on an extreme long shot (ELS) of woman on balcony.
Mise-en-scene: Gothic towers with artworks clearly shown.

Duration:5 seconds
Camera Technique: Long shot of woman, with a well-lit street out of focus in background
Mise-en-scene: Dark clothes, bright street.

Duration:2 seconds
Camera Technique: Extreme close up (ECU) of woman's hand.
Mise-en-scene: Water drops from finger-tips.

Duration:4 seconds
Camera Technique: CU on woman's shoulders-head.
Mise-en-scene: Black leather jacket, long hair draped over face.

Duration:4 seconds
Camera Technique: ELS of street
Mise-en-scene: Umbrellas, couple of streetlamps, lightning.

Duration:3 seconds
Camera Technique: CU on woman again, but she turns slightly, as if something has caught her eye.

Duration:3 seconds
Camera Technique: ELS of single tower, other buildings of the city can be seen in background.
Mise-en-scene: A man can be seen on another balcony.

Duration:1 second
Camera Technique: LS of man on balcony.
Mise-en-scene: Similar clothes to woman, holding a camera in hands.

Duration:2 seconds
Camera Technique: Mid shot (MS) of man looking through camera.
Mise-en-scene: Man changes zoom on camera, we can see his pale skin.

Duration:1 second
Camera Technique: ECU of camera lens as the man takes pictures.
Mise-en-scene: Camera looks directly into camera.

Duration:3 seconds
Camera Technique: Handicam shot in LS creating POV shot as man looks through lens, zooms in and out as he searches for target.
Mise-en-scene: Post-production effect of looking through camera, with a blue wash for a futuristic feel. Quickly cuts to black to seem like shutter of camera closing.

Duration:1 second
Camera Technique: Back to shot of man changing zoom and focus.

Duration:4 seconds
Camera Technique: Another POV from camera, this time in MS.
Mise-en-scene: Two men in heavy jackets walk the streets.

Duration:2 seconds
Camera Technique: Back to shot of man, this time taking camera away from his face.
Mise-en-scene: Pale skin and leather jacket.

Duration:2 seconds
Camera Technique: Cut back to woman in CU as she watches him.

Duration:1 second
Camera Technique: Cut back to man, who looks up at woman.

Duration:1 second
Camera Technique: Reverse shot, in CU as she nods to him
Mise-en-scene: Non-verbal communication (NVC) used to show they are together.

Duration:4 seconds
Camera Technique: CU of man, as he nods back, then returns looking down.
Mise-en-scene: NVC shows communication between the two.

Duration:1 second
Camera Technique: LS of man on balcony.
Mise-en-scene: He readies himself to jump.

Duration:3 seconds
Camera Technique: Another LS of man as he drops out of shot.
Mise-en-scene: The graceful jump the man performs.

Duration:6 seconds
Camera Technique: Back to CU of woman.

Duration:4 seconds
Camera Technique: LS of woman on balcony.
Mise-en-scene: Full leather, catsuit-like outfit.

Duration:1 second
Camera Technique: ELS of the street
Mise-en-scene: Umbrellas again.

Duration:4 seconds
Camera Technique: MS of woman.
Mise-en-scene: She stands up as she throws herself from balcony.

Duration:1 second
Camera Technique: ELS from spire.
Mise-en-scene: Shows jump again.

Duration:2 seconds
Camera Technique: Worm's eye view (WEV) looking up at building.
Mise-en-scene: Streetlamp, woman can be seen falling.

Duration:2 seconds
Camera Technique: LS shows woman land on street
Mise-en-scene: Dark streets add to the Gothic feel of the film.

Duration:1 second
Camera Technique: MS of woman's legs as she walks off.
Mise-en-scene: Action shows she has superhuman powers.

Soundtrack:
There is no single soundtrack that can be heard throughout the opening scene, however there is a strong mix of diegetic and non-diegetic sound. Such as the sound of the bats, shutter closing, rain and lightning in the diegetic region, and Selene's story-telling narration and various sound effects are the non-diegetic sounds. One such sound effect is the metallic noise that plays as the characters jump from the balcony, creating a more terrifying and mysterious effect.

What have I learnt?
From this opening sequence I have found that for a vampire film a CU is very useful, allowing the film to show they are vampires without having to state the fact, as the CU shows the audience the Gothic look and pale skin that is symbolic of vampires. This technique also allows the audience to be drawn into the mystery that is created by the way the vampires move and act towards each other, as the NVC from across the balconies is extremely effective.

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