Filmed evaluation

This is our final filmed evaluation.
JABS xx

Evaluation questions 8 and 9

8
I feel we have made significant progress since our preliminary task. In our final movie we made much better use of editing on iMovie, along with adding in sound from garageband, which we didn't tend to do so much in our preliminary task. We also paid more attention to the mise en scene, for example with the zombie make up, and adding things to our location to make it look more conventional for a horror movie.
In our preliminary excersise, we learnt a variety of skills which contributed to the making of our final horror film. For example, we realised that camera angles are especially important in giving the audience a feel of unease by using things such as a canted angles or close ups. We used this in our film by using quite a few close ups, to show the scared expression on characters' faces. In our preliminary excersise we didn't focus very much on the music and felt that this was missing and would have improved the film. This caused us to concentrate more on the music in our final film than we had done previously.
If we were to do the production again, I think the main thing we would change would be the organisation of filming and making sure that we were all available, including actors. Secondly, we would have preffered to reshoot a part of the film if we had time, as there is a continuity error when the zombie fell through the door which we struggled to fix in the editing proccess.

9
During the planning I mainly contributed towards the writing of the script, assisted when deciding on possible locations, the storyboard, the narrative research and plot outline. Throughout the production process of creating our film, I helped out with making the mise-en-scene conventional to our horror film genre by decorating our location. I also filmed some shots and helped to make decisions on camera angles. During the post production process I helped to cut and decide which clips we should use in our film. I also contributed to making the decision of which transitions should be used and the font of our credits and where they should go. Along with this I decided on some of the sounds to be used. Whilst doing this, I was regularly updating the blog.

HOLLIE xx

Evaluation questions 7 and 9

7.) Throughout the process of constructing our introduction to a zombie horror film we considered a variety of technologies such as the internet, Blogger, iMovie and Garageband, each helping a great amount in the construction of our film. We gained the majority of our ideas through the internet; by accessing websites such as Youtube we were able to watch opening scenes of specific horror films to help broaden our thoughts.  By regularly posting on our Blogger we could keep well on track of what had and needed to be done. iMovie was the main programme that helped bring our whole film together. After importing our video footage into the programme iMovie then allowed us to edit video clips, add titles, add music and add effects like transitions, basic colour correction etc. The creation of our audio was done using Garageband. We could import and edit pre-recorded dialogue and create and edit our backing track with the use of its virtual software instruments.

These different technologies helped us be more creative throughout the process of constructing our film. For example, the internet gave us a wide range of options when deciding on the genre of our horror film. iMovie helped us with our creativity as it listed a variety of effects that we wouldn’t ordinarily think of using, giving us the option to play around with different ones to find out which we preferred. Garageband gave us the ability to create our own soundtrack/music to match with the action taking place in the film and by giving us a broad amount of choice this helped us be more creative.

Each technology helped us exhibit our film. Particularly with Garageband as we were able to choose where and when we wanted the audience to mainly concentrate on, for example, the music would build up whenever there was intense action. iMovie gave us the ability to control our film at such ease; because you can see single shots you can then cut of seconds without causing any problems and it makes it fit well. On Blogger we were able to analyse and read over our ideas and with using the internet this meant we could improve our previous ideas by researching specific topics without removing our previous thoughts of Blogger.

9.) Specific things throughout the planning of our film I mainly contributed in were the planning of our pitch; I visited possible locations for our film and completed recee sheets, planning of the script, I got one of the two actors from our film, the test shots, make-up design sheet and narrative research. During the production process of our film I took part in filming and contributing my ideas and thoughts on shot types, angels etc. In the post production stage I helped in editing by importing our video footage and soundtrack into iMovie and from there adding transitions, effects and the titles. I also regularly updated the blog with our old and improved ideas and when we did particular activities or tasks.

TINA xx

Evaluation Questions 6 and 9

Question 6

The kind of media institutions that might distribute our media product would be companies like ‘UK Film Council’ and ‘Film4 Productions’. This is because the ‘UK Film Council’ was the institution who produced ’28 Days Later’ and ‘28 Weeks Later’. These 2 films are very popular in the zombie genre of films. Furthermore, ‘Film4 Productions’ was the institution who produced ‘Shawn of the Dead’ which is another popular film in the zombie genre. Below are pictures from each film including some of our images from our film.

'28 Days Later'

'28 Weeks Later'

'Shawn of the Dead'

Our Film - 'The Last Pulse'

These companies would have the knowledge to ensure that our film in terms of exhibition and production who relate to the zombie genre. For example, ‘Film4 Productions’ is part of the ‘Channel 4 Television Corporation ‘so therefore, they could distribute our film by showing it on Channel 4. And in terms of production, both companies have great experience within the zombie genre which could help out with the distribution of our media product and could aid us in terms of mise-en-scene.

Question 9

In the 3 stages of the process of making our film, planning, production and post production, I contributed in a variety of ways.

During the planning, I did the certificate reasearch, the storyboards, the shot list and got one of the two actors used in our film. I also helped contribute with the lighting sheet. During production, I took a director-like role as I was judging where most of the shots were going to go and I filmed the majority of the film. In the post production, I mainly did the soundtrack to our film however I did contribute when I could with the final part of editing. Also, throughout the process, I contributed on the blog by uploading all of our planning work and updating it throughout the process of making the soundtrack.

JABS - Laura 

Final Film - The Last Pulse

Here is our final film.

From all of JABS

Update On iMovie

We have now completed our horror film. All the editing has been completed, the soundtrack and voiceovers have been included and the titles have been improved. Here is a screen shot on iMovie.

From all of JABS.

Evaluation 2 - part 5 and 9

5)

We targeted our audience at men aged between 16-24, this is because on the IMDB data we found out that these are the sort of people who watch zombie horrors. I believe that we hit our target audience because it contains all the conventions of a zombie horror.
We made sure that the actors, make up, props and plot suited the zombie horror so that we could succesfully attract our targert audience. We made sure that we got both gender atcors in our film and especially made sure that the zombie was the male so it shows a power balence. We also editted the clips dark so that it shows that the woman is alone. The music was also a key point because when it got to the part with the zomnie we made sure that we added spooky music to fit with the scene. Most importantly of all we included blood which is a key part in generic zombie horrors, this indicated that it was a zombie horror and therefore matched our target audience.

9)

In the three stages of our film; Planning, Production and Post Production I took part in a varity of parts.

In the planning stage I was mainly taking parts in research on IMDB to see what target audince our horror film should be aged at. Also I helped with going out and taking pictures of possible locations for our film to be based.
When it came to filming I made sure we didn't brake any rules, e.g. the 180. I also made sure that the scene seemed like the actoress was there for a while by creating litter and generally making it seem messy.
In post production I took part in editing, adding the music, creating transistions and adding special effects to make it seem more like a horror.
Finally through the duration  of our creation I also blogged some of our activites, thoughts, Idea's and improvements in all stages of our horror film.




JABS - Lewis

Garageband Final Update

Here is the finished soundtrack screen shot in garageband. This has now been imported into the film.

JABS - Laura

Continued editing

Throughout todays lesson we have identified some continuity errors and corrected them. Also we have continued with our editing and we have arranged to change the brightness of the film so it fits the conventions of the horror genre more.

JABS xxx

Garageband Update 2

Here is an updated screen shot of garageband. I have included a dark, tense string part. This is nearly finished.

JABS xx

Filming Take Two

Yesterday we filmed the second  half of our film and have now completed filming. We included a variety of shots including point of view shots, establishing shots and close ups. Our make-up artist didn't arrive so we had to improvise. This means we have had to delete 'Make up by Lucy Atkinson' from the title. Today we are going to import the footage from yesterday and begin to edit it all together and cut out any unnecessary shots and discuss if we need to re shoot any specific parts. We're also going to import the radio voice over and the voice over for the end of our film and aim to edit them in to our film as well.

JABS xx

Evalation - Question 1

1. Introduction: what did you make, who did you work with and where did the original idea come from?

 - Introduce the brief, what are you going to make, how will you carry out research into horror films and use the findings?
Our aim is to make the opening 2 minutes to a horror film. The genre we have chosen is zombie horror and we will be using the typical conventions of a zombie horror, such as blood, to make this clear. We have carried out research into various existing zombie horror films such as, Dawn of the Dead and 28 Days Later and we found that typical zombie films consist of the main character fighting for survival, as well as the stereotypical zombie image of ripped clothes and blood. We have used these findings by including these type of things in our own horror film, such as the main character being in a hideout and fighting for survival (as they are supposedly the last human alive) and the zombie being covered in blood.
- What as inspired your initial idea? Current events? Existing films? What are you trying to do?
Our initial idea was inspired due to us wanting to be more creative with our film. In our preliminary exercise we tested which genre we would use by trying out the psychological genre. After this we discussed that we would like to be more creative and experiment with things such as make up which led to us choosing the zombie horror genre. From then on we needed to create an actual plot line so we used our research to help us with this and created a character who was fighting for survival and a threat to them - the zombie.
- How has your production worked out? Who did you work with? Was this an effective relationship? How did you manage problems?
Our production has worked out quite successfully, however if we were to do this again in the future and make any changes, we would organize things better, such as when everybody is available to film, including actors not just us. Our group consisted of Hollie Smith, Tina Bozorgi, Lewis Jefferson and Laura Allitt, however we also worked with actors Lisa and Michael and make-up artist Lucy. I belileve this was an effective relationship as we were all willing to suggest ideas and consider everybody elses. We rarely had problems, our main one was finding time when we were all available to film. We managed this by making compromises.
- Link Trailers and images from films from your sub-genre to support your decisions?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eunaclr-WgU
this is the tralier for 28 days later, from which we got a lot of our inspiration.

JABS- Hollie

Evaluation: Question 2

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

• Throughout the introduction to our film you see many forms and conventions of the horror genre. For example, the titles are introduced in a deep red colour. This indicates blood and gore which is a common convention in the horror genre. Our film also consists of a few quick cuts which suggest sudden action and creates suspense and fear. The setting is located in an empty, dark and isolated area like seen in many horror films. We chose to film our sequence in an empty, dark and isolated area to outline that the main character is alone and scared. Another example could be the soundtrack we have produced using ‘Garage Band’. Our soundtrack begins reasonably slowly and friendly which juxtaposes the idea of a zombie horror film. This gives it a contrasting effect.  However, as the action begins to build up the soundtrack also emphasizes the action. Examples of films we have studied are: ’28 days later’, ‘Shaun of the dead’, ‘Resident Evil’.

• Our research has been very important throughout the process of producing our film as it was very resourceful in giving us an insight to the structure of a typical horror film. By watching a variety of sequences from horror films it helped us build ideas for our own film. For example, we researched a series of different types of horror films to help us decide on what type of horror we wanted. We decided on zombie horror therefore we narrowed our further research of sequences from different films to zombie horror films. We watched some zombie horror sequences from previous media students which helped us gain ideas on the setting, music and editing of our film. Examples can be, the empty, dark and isolated garage, the build up to the soundtrack as the action in our film builds up and the quick cuts used creates a fast paced, on the edge of your seat feel to the sequence.

• We didn't particularly challenge any of the typical horror conventions as a zombie horror movie is a common theme of the horror genre. The reason we didn't challenge the conventions was because we wanted it to be a realistic zombie horror that didn't exaggerate the surreal event of a zombie apocalypse actually happening. We are also only making the opening sequence of the film so we don't have enough time to properly convey different conventions without confusing the audience.

• Here are some links to trailers and images from films from my sub-genre to support our decisions:

-          -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEkJAaGhJhQ

-          -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1v0uFms68U

-          -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiS6gtClrqk

JABS - Tina 

Evaluation Question 4

How does the horror genre traditionally represent social groups and why?


The horror genre represents mainly the age group with younger people than older people because most younger people seem to get more scared than older people. The horror genre also represents the gender group with females playing the role of the victim as generally females are more venerable than males. This then can link with age to make the victim more venerable. The horror genre also doesn't particularly represent characters with a psychical disability unless they get injured in someway. This could be because people seen with a disability would have a disadvantage of an able bodied person. Also, people with a mental disability are represented as satanic spirits. This could represent that people with a mental disability are scary.

What did you do to accommodate these representations practically on your production? 

We accommodated these representations by having a young, female character play the victim and having  male playing the zombie. In terms of mise-en-scene, the lighting is reasonably balanced but will get dark at times which will stick with the general look of a zombie horror film. Also, the body language between each character will get aggressive which links back to how zombie survival horror characters act.  

As you can see from this picture from 'Shawn of the dead', the body language between the two characters seems tense as they need to decide quickly how they are going to get rid of the zombies that are seen in the background.

Heres an image from 'Resident evil degeneration'. The lighting used is adding to the the tense atmosphere of the film and also the body language of each character shows fear and confusion. This is the sort of body language that our main character should show similarity to when she hears a knock at the door.

JABS - Laura 

Evaluation: Question 3

''Who would be the audience for your media Product''

For our Horror film we found out through IMDB and User ratings that it is mainly targeted for 18-29 year old males.
VotesAverage
Males 81,215 7.6
Females 11,126 7.8
Aged under 18 952 8.2
Males under 18 800 8.2
Females under 18 150 8.0
Aged 18-29 58,213 7.8
Males Aged 18-29 50,702 7.8
Females Aged 18-29 7,246 7.9
Aged 30-44 28,720 7.4
Males Aged 30-44 25,353 7.4
Females Aged 30-44 3,083 7.6
This is the Demography from IMDB site for '28 Days later' which is similar to our film. 


I believe this is because men find the violence an important part of a film and also enjoy the suspense more than females especially at the age range between 18-29. The reason being is that men prefer more violent films where there is a struggle because they get into the film more.
We're going to use this information to make our film more effective by making it have a stronger story line so that the other members of the population can be dragged into the story line as well as using violence throughout to attracted our target audience.

JABS - Lewis

Shots

We have been discussing throughout todays lesson about arrangements for our next time filming. We have decided what we need to re-shoot and new things we need to include for the other half of our film. We need to include a couple of extra shots in our first half of our film introduction for example a blurred point of view shot for when she is reaching for her glasses. Also we have decided to include a wider variety of shots in the other half of our film such as close ups and point of view shots. We have also established where our 180 degree line is from our previous filming so as to make sure we do not break the rule when next filming. We have agreed for the title to appear at the end of our film introduction, this gives an effect to the audience that the introduction has ended however they want to continue watching.

JABS xx

Final Title

We have decided our final title, "The Last Pulse". We believe this title is appropriate as it fits to the content of our horror film. This is because the main character of our film is supposedly the last human alive.
We have now added this new title of our film into the film titles over our footage.

JABS xx

Titles

We have decided to change the title of our film as we feel like it was to long therefore making it not catchy to our audience. We have a few more ideas, for example, 'The Unexpected', 'Eye's open', 'No Pulse'. However we have not come to a final decision of as yet.

Credits

This lesson we have focused on working on the titles. The credits go with the conventions of a zombie horror film. This is because it is in red to connote blood and violence and the font gives it a creepy feel. 

This is what our titles will include: 

A JABS production

Starring Lisa Bainbridge

& Michael Walsh

Directed by Tina Bozorgi

Camera Work by Hollie Smith

Edited by Lewis Jefferson

Music by Laura Allitt

Make-up by Lucy Atkinson

Yesterday, Today & Probably Tomorrow 

Garageband Progress 1

Here is the progress of the soundtrack so far. So far, there is music for the first section of the film up to the banging on the door and then about 5 seconds after it. The screen shot below proves that. The instruments used so far are acoustic guitar, strings and drums.

Update - 23/01/2011

Yesterday, we shot our first few shots and we got approximatly a quarter of the way through the script. We are going to organise our next shooting date in tomorrows lesson. Today, I have been updating the blog with our outstanding pieces of coursework that haven't been posted on the blog. Now everything is up to date.

Shot List

Here is our shot list for our horror film.

Lighting Design Sheet

Here is our lighting design for when we record our film.

Title Design Sheet

Here are our design sheets on the title sequences of 4 films in which we had to discuss what is included in the title sequences and what visuals we see at it is going on.

Storyboards

Here are our storyboards of what shots we will roughly use in our film.

Make Up Design Sheet

Here is our make up design sheets. These wil give us inspiration for how our zombie is going to look like.

Test Shots

Here are our test shots for our film.

Health And Safety

Here is our health and safety form which we had to fill out in order to take out equipment.

Texual Analysis Grid

Here are all of our four texual analysis grids. This grid is an analysis of 'The Grudge'.

Here is another analysis of 'The Grudge'.

Here is an analysis of 'Saw 5'.

And finally, here is an analysis of 'Darkness Falls'.

Narrative Research Of Previous Films

Here is our analysis of the first 5 minutes of the following 4 films

- 28 Days Later

- Saw

- Halloween

-Nightmare on Elm Street

This sheet contains information about the opening scene, how the scene effects the audience and the titles are used in the opening scene.



Release Form For Actors

We have confirmed the first date for when we will begin to shoot our horror movie. This is will be on the 22nd of January which is the up and coming saturday. Both of our actors have agreed to this date so have the other crew members and we are all aware of the location we need to get to at what time. Here is the release form that we all signed.

Garage band

We experimented on garage band for the first half of our lesson. This helped us get an idea of what background sound we wanted playing during our opening scene. We also learned the ins and outs of garage band so we know how to use it when it comes to making our backing track.