Main Post 12.7 - Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking back since the prelim task I have gained a greater understanding of how to edit properly, particularly with the horror film genre and have learnt from various people were to apply the correct effects for this type of film (Horror) and how a well placed technique can benefit the film in a number of ways.

I have also learnt how good lighting Is effective and how a well light room can completely change the atmosphere, this is a big difference in from our prelim task were we filmed in a poorly lit room and gave too much of a dark atmosphere.

Yet another element of improvement has to be the inclusion of music to our scenes I have learnt that this dramatically changes the scene in more ways than one.

Main post 12.3 - Question 6

Main Post 12.5 - Question 5

The Bottom picture is the character who plays alice skipping round the woods, this is the dream sequence and this is made to add to the wonder and unknowing nature of the film.The First shot is of the character who plays lewis carrol the positioning of the character will intise viewers in and will relate to the typical teenage male.

Main Post 12.4 - Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our Target audiance is well educated 16- 45 year olds, We have chosen this audiance because our film is an art house style film. These types of films usualy divert from the popular avenues of film, they are usualy made for the joy of making film rather than making profit. Films such as les miserables are this type of adept and also target this type of audiance as their viewers.

Ideally our target audience is someone who is university educated and someone who has an interest in the film industry such as media students such as our self's this way they can appreciate the art-house style of the film

Main Post 12.3 - Question 3

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

The pefect institution to distrube our media product would be Warner brothers. There are many reasons why this studio would be chosen over others. Warner bros have a history of distrbuting large and successful horror/independant  films. Some of these include "The Shining" which is a world wide, well known horror film, and has produced other books turned films such as harry potter.

Due to Warner Brothers being so well known worlwide, they have large marketing stratergies and a wide section of subsidery arms that are used to increase the popularity  films in which synergy is used. The studio also has options for advertising for the film on posters and bilboards (old media) or using high levels of technology to produce indepth trailers or websites. (new media) due to the high profit and good cash flow of their business. This Would be the best technique for advertising this film since its an arthouse film, otherwise it could have trouble attracting audiances.

Main Post 12.2 - Question 2

Each character can be stereo typed differently. Each character comes from a completely different background. Alice (the girl in the photo) so as a fictional character the idea of a social group does not really work. However, if she was a real person, she would represent the "Emo" or gothic  group which are basically people who are mysteriously over emtional young individuals and have a link to Marxism and devil worship.

The male character (lewis carol) Within the dream sequence imagines himself as a young character, even though in real life he is older, so we have shown a stereotypically teenager wearing a hooded jumped and dark clothing, hoodies are stereotypical shown as being a teenage item of clothing.

The third picture is what Lewis Carol looks like in real life.

Main Post 12.1 - Question 1

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


The link below is our film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT33_dalp5M&feature=player_embedded

Main Post: 11 Final opening sequence

http://natashachandler-as-ms.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/main-post-11-final-film.html

Above is the link to the final opening sequence of our film, i have had to use a link to another member of my group due to the schools resctrictions on leting us use youtube.

Main Post: 10

Due to the fact that our opening sequence was filmed on a more advanced camera, we were not able to use the edditing technology available within the school with then left us with a problem so the filming director in our group decided to take it home and edit it on a program that they had downloaded at home (Movice maker), this created more problems as we then had to learn how to work a whole new edit suit wich did take some time.

Another difficult aspect of editing was not being able to have the right look to the film so we had to compramise and instead give it a sepia tone in order to help the audience destinguish between what is the dream sequence and what is reality.

Main Post 9

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

This is me and some of my group setting up are equiptment that we are about to use in the opening sequence, During filming we were  lucky to not have to use extra lighting or a reflective board because it was so naturally bright outside thanks to the sun,  and the bedroom sequence was also naturally bright so all we needed for the shoot was are camera and a tri pod so we could end up with a more profesional look to are film once it was completed.

Main Post 8: Pre-production documentation

Synopsis of the whole film
Lewis Carrol is launched into modern times where he is a struggling writer who believes his next series shall be his big break. Due to the fact that he has yet to achieve his dream Lewis turned to drugs and alcohol in order to cure his depression but this just resulted in his isolation as his wife and child leaving him.

As he begins to write Alice in Wonderland, Lewis begins to feel like he is being haunted by the quirky character within his story, but then things get a little darker as Lewis becomes more and more obsessed by the idea of Alice she becomes more and more alive and things become serious as Alice seams to be killing all of the people who have helped to make Lewis the ex-drug addict that he is today. She also repeatedly appears in his dreams and then in his everyday life as Lewis becomes more and more involved in Alice and her murderous ways Lewis becomes insane and is locked away after being convicted for all the murders that Alice has committed but there in his cell instead of fighting Alice he embraces her and joins her in her wonderland.

Synopsis of opening sequence

A girl surrounded by woodland skips through the trees and long grass whilst holding ribbons, this in turn gives the onlooker a sense of mystery  The girl is wearing a black dress and has long blond hair in which she plays with two long red ribbons as she plays in the distance. The camera flashes as the focus is changed to being on her, the girl jumps from being in the back ground to the foreground (the camera is still though out this section). The camera then begins to focus on a range of other things such as the long grass and the loose ends of the ribbons. It then jumps back and forth between the girl skipping and the tree canopy in which it begins to focus on some wild flowers as the background is in soft focus it fades away to show you a dark figure in the background, the man is isolated and stands still by a tree. The camera then zooms into a close up shot (for added drama) of a book that the man is holding, the book then falls from his hand to the floor and the camera follows it as the book lands, the pages are exposed and then the book is quickly shut by the man. The camera then flashes back to the girl spinning with the ribbons with the main standing behind a tree watching her. The girl continues to skip around the wooden area in a playful manor adding that sense of crude diversity, then  as the man disappears the girl then skips out of the frame and the ribbons are left attached to a tree in the wooden area as if to leave clues for the audience

Location recce
The opening sequence will be filmed in  woody areas in both Hemel Hempstead and kings Langley  because the area has the exact aspects we need. There is a specific area in each of the  woods where the trees are set out which create a path for "Alice" to follow during filming. Both of the areas also are very well light in the day time giving the correct effect for out film, with the sunlight peering crudely through branches , This also allows who ever is filming to follow the path using each tree as a checkpoint. In addition to this, trying to find a meeting point for the group was difficult and it turn out that the area we have chosen is literally an equal traveling distance for each member.
The shooting of the film is going to take place on random dates were the weather is fine and will not disturb filming. 

Crew list
Natasha Chandler is playing the part of Alice who is and has played a large role in coming up with the idea and putting it into production and is also the director.
Joe is helping in the filming, I have helped create the sequence by researching our chosen genre with great detail and editing the final production.
Matt is going to help editing the final production and filling in with post help, due to joining the group mid-way through to  unforeseen circumstances.

Risk assessment
Where we filmed consisted of a woodland area in Hemel Hempstead. The poential risks this proposed were the possibility of stripping over as the ground casued a potential trip hazard. There was also a few hills around the area. However, overall the location didn't have many hazards.

Mise en scene 
The Mise en scene of are film is mostly natural woods to the fact that it has been filmed in a wooded area in natural light. The bedroom sequence is also in natural light and the objects and props within the room were placed in a way to make it appear to be the normal bedroom of the main character

Main Post 7: Focus Group

For our Focus group we asked a section of our questions what they think /thought  of

1. The idea of the film.

2. Our films opening sequence

3. The synopsis of the film

We Took in their feedback both good and bad that is shown in the following clip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUenFpUTwW4

Main Post 6: History of your chosen genre

Horror:
It didn't take long after the advent of motion picture technology in the late 19th century for filmmakers to dabble in the horror genre, they would start by having to cut the clips of films with thier bare hands in order to edit and put together a film. Films like the hunchback of notre dame proved to be the biggest successes at the time which lead to other monster films being made like francenstine of the 1930s which are said to be the golden age of monster films. Pictured bottom is the hunchback of notre damn and these monster films were the first type of films to use heavy amounts of make up and added features tp actualy change the look of a charecter dramaticaly.

The boom for the demand for these films would eventualy lead to the making of even more iconic films to come like Dr.jekle and Mr.Hyde. While Throught the 70s and 80s zombie films were the more prefered type of horror films with a cataglouge of zombie films being made, these are films like dawn of the dead, and night of the living dead, more lately zombie genre of horror has been developed into popular tv series such as The Walking Dead. And even some sleeper hits such as paranormal acitivity have had great succes with the horror genre and have developed into a large film franchise.

MAIN Post 5a: Macro/Micro analysis of an opening sequence from your genre

                                                              The Ring - Horror

A mysterious video tape is killing off anyone who watches it. Whenever the victim watches it, the phone rings, telling them they have only one week to live. A young reporter named Rachel is investigating these events, but after she and her small son watch the tape, it becomes a race against time to find out why the tape is killing everyone and how it could be stopped.

In the opening shot it begins by giving the onlooker a look at the scenery and specificly a look at the time which is key to the films plotline.

In this scene it moves onto the worry on the charecters face when they recieve the dredded phone call and sets the start for the chain reaction of the rest of the plot.

The Next scene in the opening sequence shows that someone is going to die and the main charecter/monster in the film. This scene in affect shows the start of the events that will set a chain reaction in the events of the film.


The representation of the Monster / Main charecter is the most important factor of this film as the whole aura and atmosphere of the film revolves around this and role of the monster.The mis en scene is also important in the opening scene as it shows the onlookers were the film is going to be set. The editing of the opening scene is also important as it promotes mystery as to why the events are happening.

Main post 4b Narrative / Charecter Research

Our film is about mafia so i have looked at films that are mafia and action orientated. so i looked at some older films like (The Godfather) and some more recent films like (Gangster squad) what is most clear about films with mafia charecters is that they have a few main features

* Violence, stereotypical sexism, Gang culture, and betting, Dressing smart

So this will effect our film in ways that the viewer will visably see, for example in pretty much every mafia film you will see a group of smartly dressed men usualy sitting around a table playing poker or betting of some kind; because of this we will include a scene of this. Also the main interest of these films are the violence which is also usualy sparked because of a woman in the film and coinsidently that is what the main point of our film is orientated by.

Also alot of these types of films have trailers that are action pakced and show the main story line immedatly, for instance the (Gangster Squad) trailer shows guns explosion and has the steretypical beautiful woman that the story lines plot revolves around.

Main post 4a: Plot Development

Our plot line is based on Mafia film, with various different gangser 1960s style charecters with one larger group of mafias who have a dislike of one particular rival (CIA) member.

Timeline





Synopsis

Film name:

Genre:   Action Film

Target Audiance:   Teenagers / Young Adults

LogLine:   Three mafia members are hunted down my the C.I.A

Opening sequene outline:  In the start if the film will be faded in to the three Mafia members playing poker round a well lit table in a dark room talking and chatting until they get a call from a member of the C.I.A

Main Post 3: Reasearch into opening sequence Desighns

Watching the interview of Kyle Cooper the first thing i noticed is that the first title scene of any film is used to set an initial expectation for the films onlookers and so they flow seamlessly into each other this could be because it has normally has an introduction to a main part of the film or it focuses on the protagonist of the film and an obsession or interests that link into the film. Secondly, he said that a great opening sequence or any type of sequence uses fluent dynamics and has clear originality of the designer/ maker of the sequence. He also personally likes to use his own hand made effects when he is filming because it adds that originality and because he finds that it looks better in the sequence but accidents can happen while you try to make your own effects. But he also said that you should not rule out editing because sometimes it is cheaper and accidents that are harmful to the actors can be easily avoided.
His ideas we will impliment into our opening sequence as he has alot of origonal ideas that bring that "origonality" to the film, but will use out own twists.

Main task - Post 2 - Choosing genre

To decide what genre of film we were going to do me and my group conducted a questionaire on what types of film people likes this gave us a better understanding of the market popularity, especially the teenagemarket.


Also in the current market action films such as skyfall, and the Dark knight rises are popular because clearyly action films are very popular with audiances across the world. So we chose to do a mafia based action film.

Main Post: 1

Opening sequences are there to generaly give the onlooker a general idea of what the film is about and intise them into to watching the film. In the film Fight club the camera is constantly moving around in a variety of directions, the backing music and mis en scene is the same right through the opening sequence this is turn helps to create a build up and add suspence.