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.

Costume and Props

• Our costume for the vampire will be black leather jacket with dark jeans.
• We were going to have the human wearing a similar black leather jacket but after our first recording attempt we have decided it would be best for the human to wear very different clothing so the audience can distinguish the difference easily.

 We do not intend to use the vampire teeth as we are going for a modernised look for vampires rather than the typical image people have for vampires.

  We will need a white shirt on the human that we can get very bloody because we will punch him through the stomach.



AC: Title Ideas

• The title we are going use we wanted to be written in blood, while also making the word 'Stakeout' clear, when it appears.
• The font would also have to represent the horror genre, but also make it stand out as a vampire film as well.
• We decided that these would be the best fonts to choose from, as they represent the styles we were trying to achieve
• From the list, we agreed that 'Frisky Vampire' is font that we would use for our title. We thought it best represented the vampire look for our film.
• The scratchy look to the title is what we liked about it, and when used in the colour red, can make it appear like blood dripping, and would make it obvious to the audience, what we are trying to achieve.



• For the colour of the font we are looking to use a blood red colour, so stands out on a black background, and also obvious to an audience to an audience what we are trying to achieve with our colour scheme.
• This represents the bloody, gruesome look we are going for in our horror film.
• During the chase scene, we want to a have a wash effect of the titles appearing as the character runs past them on the tree, with the use of fast paced editing, we can make them appear, and go again and make them interact with the surroundings.

 

AC: Update on editing- 5/3/13

• We as a group began to edit the our clips we filmed over the weekend, we spent a long time importing the files into the hard drive and also adobe elements, which restricted the time we were able to edit.
• We managed to collate our best clips from the filming, and organise them into a rough order, of what we believe would look best.
• Piers also began to listen to some tracks and take inspiration of what we believe would we could use, and is soon able to start to create some of the backing music we will use in our film.
• I also almost finished the animatic, only sound needs to be added to the clip, along with some of the movement for the clips.
• We have run into some issue with the filming, such as we do not have enough clips to work with, and we also realised some would need to be re-recorded. We also need to film a bit extra, to make sure the film is much longer.
• We have organised to do some more filming this weekend to complete this, which would leave us enough time to collate all of the clips and edit everything together.

AC: Location Reccie

• We travelled down to Whortleberry Woods in Southborough, during the half term break, to try and find a good location for our filming. We settled on the woods as being our main location, as fits the criteria and requirements we wished to meet for our horror film.
•  The purpose of this exercise was to scout a location we believed was suitable for the opening of our film, and take a few images of film an area, to see if we as a group believe it is an acceptable place to film, and will work well or not.
• We filmed some shot clips from multiple angles in the area, to see how they looked on camera, as well as take a variety of different pictures of the surrounding area, to see how they looked
• The location worked well, and the lighting was good, and we managed to get some good distances on our shots, as well as lots of different angles, which is key for our film.
• From the experience in the woods, we discovered that the woods were too bright for the atmosphere we wanted to create, so it forced us to use low key lighting while filming, to make the area much darker and gloomier.

MJ: Filming on 02/03/2013

• This week we all met up once again at the woods in Southborough in order to film our whole opening sequence.
• Unfortunately we could not gather any more cast members together, and so the script was tweaked in order for the two chraracters to make sense.
• After trying our best to get some great shots, such as a disorientated attack shot, but after trying many times to get the shot right, we found that timing the shot was too difficult.
• In two hours we had complteted the shoot, happy with our footage.
• The whole group are hoping that all the footage is the correct footage that will be good for our work, as unfortunately during a party on Saturday evening our camera (my Nikon D5100) was stolen from my house, meaning that we will not be able to use the camera for reshoots if the camera is needed.
• Thankfully the SD card being used for our work was not in the camera when it was taken, and so our footage will still be usable.

MJ: Film Noir

Themes

• Film noir is a term used mainly to describe the stylish Hollywood crime dramas around the period of 1940-1950.
• A majority of the films tended to focus on moral ambiguity and sexual motivation.
• The films depict a world that is inherently corrupt with a pessimistic view.

Visual Techniques

• Film noirs frequently use low-key lighting creating stark light/dark contrasts as well as dramatic shadow patterning.
• The shadows cast upon an actor, a wall, or an entire set are an iconic visual for the genre, with characters faces regularly being partially or fully obscured by darkness.
• Movies in the genre also use camera techniques that many prefer not to, such as the Dutch tilt, low angle shots and wide-angle shots.
• Other techniques are used within these films to disorientate the audience, for example a reflection of a character in more than one mirror and distortion of the camera view, such as through frosted glass or a shower curtain.

Narrative

•  The narrative in film noirs is usually based around crime, false suspicions, heists or cons, double-crossers and accusations.
• They tend to have unusually convoluted story lines, involving flashbacks and flash-forwards.
• A voice over narration, normally from the protagonist, is sometimes used as a structuring device.

Characters

• Noirs tend to have morally flawed or misunderstood characters.
• There is also the appearance of stock characters, such as hardboiled detectives, femme fatales, corrupt cops and jealous husbands.
• The femme fatale, well known for having blonde hair, is well known for her changeability and treachery towards characters.
• Characterised by her sexual prowess, the femme fatale is introduced when she catches the attention of the protagonist because of her beautiful looks.
• She is seen as a powerful woman, yet most femme fatales will be dead by the end of the movie.
• The femme fatale has some visual motifs, such as cigarettes with wispy trails of smoke to show unnatural phallic power.

Our Work

• In our vampire opening we have tried to include some of the film noir visual techniques, such as our strong use of low-key lighting, and many wide angle shots.
• We aimed to have part of a scene where one character's face is completely obscured in darkness.

MJ: Update on Filming

• We have decided to film on Saturday 2nd of March to give us more time to edit within class.
• As with last time we will be filming in the woods by the Southborough common
• We will be using only two actors (Andy Cooper and I) due to others that we had asked for help declined.
• After looking at the weather report on AccuWeather.com we are glad to see that it is said to be sunny, without rain, which is good as it means we do not have to be too worried of rain preventing our shoot, and the colour can be graded in post-production to create the dark effect.
• As for the punch through effect we will be bringing a blue towel to allow us to edit the arm as it punches through the man.
• After finding our reserves of fake blood I discovered that the liquid was out of date and the blood effect had deteriorated and so have decided we will use Ketchup instead.
• With costume we have had to rethink certain things, for example the clothing looked good on our previous shoot, however I was having a lot of trouble with the vampire contact lenses, as I could not get them to stay in my eye and caused irritation.
• So with this we decidied that our vampires will be more like what can be seen in The Vampire Diaries, in which the vampires have the appearance of ordinary humans, only changing when feasting.