Media Theorist Jonathan Kramer says "the idea that postmodernism is less a surface style or historical period than an attitude. Kramer goes on to say 16 "characteristics of postmodern music, by which I mean music that is understood in a postmodern manner, or that calls forth postmodern listening strategies, or that provides postmodern listening experiences, or that exhibits postmodern compositional practices."
According to Kramer (Kramer 2002, 16–17), postmodern music":
1. is not simply a repudiation of modernism or its continuation, but has aspects of both a break and an extension
2. is, on some level and in some way, ironic
3. does not respect boundaries between sonorities and procedures of the past and of the present
4. challenges barriers between 'high' and 'low' styles
5. shows disdain for the often unquestioned value of structural unity
6. questions the mutual exclusivity of elitist and populist values
7. avoids totalizing forms (e.g., does not want entire pieces to be tonal or serial or cast in a prescribed formal mold)
8. considers music not as autonomous but as relevant to cultural, social, and political contexts
9. includes quotations of or references to music of many traditions and cultures
10. considers technology not only as a way to preserve and transmit music but also as deeply implicated in the production and essence of music
11. embraces contradictions
12. distrusts binary oppositions
13. includes fragmentations and discontinuities
14. encompasses pluralism and eclecticism
15. presents multiple meanings and multiple temporalities
16. locates meaning and even structure in listeners, more than in scores, performances, or composers
Jonathan Donald Kramer (December 7, 1942, Hartford, Connecticut – June 3, 2004, New York City), was a U.S. composer and music theorist.
Active as a music theorist, Kramer published primarily on theories of musical time and postmodernism. At the time of his death he had just completed a book on postmodern music and a cello composition for the American Holocaust Museum.
Monday 1 March 2010
Friday 19 February 2010
Casablanca
Clip one - Strasser Interrogating Ilsa and Laszlo.
The scene is of Strasser, Ilsa and laszo in an office, the two men are distinguished in contrasting clothing, Strasser is wearing a dark uniform, Laszo is wearing a cream/white suit which connotes a good guy, peace keeper and war hero. There are a lot of long stills which are shot close to the face while they talk, the camera doen't look down/up at the charcters showing no hierarchy. Isla is seen very little, showing lack of importance in this particualr clip. No music is played, showing the seriousness of the dialogue. "I was in a German concentraion camp for a year" this is important dialogue for the audience to get to follow his character. "If I wasn't going to tell you in a concentration camp why would I tell you here" this connates Laszlo to be a strong character.
Clip two - Ilsa and Rick in Paris.
In this clip we see iconic attractions in Paris such as the Eiffel tower, in the background you see a sterotypical French man on the boat wearing a beret and a stripey top. This instantly sets the location, with outdated sterotypes nowadays, but would have been more convincing of that time. Rick waits at the pianno for her and pours his and her drink which show he is in control romantic etc. Again still camera angles slow zoom to a close up of Ilsa's face where her eyes glisten, connotes her feeling emotion. Lighting always shines on Ilsa, showing romance love, the music played is romantic 'As time goes by' foreshadows furture events. "Kiss me as if it was the last time" shows Isla's character to be really needy, typical lady of the time 'damsel in distress'.
Clip three - The Marseillaise
The scene is set at Ricks bar, really busy, posh bar trendy of that time, again there is use of close up shots of Isla's to show emotion that she is proud of her man. Lighting is on Isla showing passion, the music is men singing the German national anthem which then he makes them sing the French one connotes him to be a strong character convincing.
Clip four - 'I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship'
The mise en scene is that of an airfield/garage, bad weather conditions adding to the gloomy situation foggy and rainy. Used a car of that time, again slow zooms, Isla is light using lighting, showing emotion, special effects are used on her eyes to make them appear watery like she is crying, throughtout the film Isla is represented as this emotion women who is confused and vulnerable. Dramatic music is played when they walk away together to the get on the plane. "We'll always have Paris" Rick persuades her into thinking that the memory is enough, "Inside we both know you belong to Victor" shows that Rick is the dominant chacacter realistc. "Last night you said I had to do the thinking for both of us" this again shows that the man is the dominant role, that she can't even make her own mind up.
The scene is of Strasser, Ilsa and laszo in an office, the two men are distinguished in contrasting clothing, Strasser is wearing a dark uniform, Laszo is wearing a cream/white suit which connotes a good guy, peace keeper and war hero. There are a lot of long stills which are shot close to the face while they talk, the camera doen't look down/up at the charcters showing no hierarchy. Isla is seen very little, showing lack of importance in this particualr clip. No music is played, showing the seriousness of the dialogue. "I was in a German concentraion camp for a year" this is important dialogue for the audience to get to follow his character. "If I wasn't going to tell you in a concentration camp why would I tell you here" this connates Laszlo to be a strong character.
Clip two - Ilsa and Rick in Paris.
In this clip we see iconic attractions in Paris such as the Eiffel tower, in the background you see a sterotypical French man on the boat wearing a beret and a stripey top. This instantly sets the location, with outdated sterotypes nowadays, but would have been more convincing of that time. Rick waits at the pianno for her and pours his and her drink which show he is in control romantic etc. Again still camera angles slow zoom to a close up of Ilsa's face where her eyes glisten, connotes her feeling emotion. Lighting always shines on Ilsa, showing romance love, the music played is romantic 'As time goes by' foreshadows furture events. "Kiss me as if it was the last time" shows Isla's character to be really needy, typical lady of the time 'damsel in distress'.
Clip three - The Marseillaise
The scene is set at Ricks bar, really busy, posh bar trendy of that time, again there is use of close up shots of Isla's to show emotion that she is proud of her man. Lighting is on Isla showing passion, the music is men singing the German national anthem which then he makes them sing the French one connotes him to be a strong character convincing.
Clip four - 'I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship'
The mise en scene is that of an airfield/garage, bad weather conditions adding to the gloomy situation foggy and rainy. Used a car of that time, again slow zooms, Isla is light using lighting, showing emotion, special effects are used on her eyes to make them appear watery like she is crying, throughtout the film Isla is represented as this emotion women who is confused and vulnerable. Dramatic music is played when they walk away together to the get on the plane. "We'll always have Paris" Rick persuades her into thinking that the memory is enough, "Inside we both know you belong to Victor" shows that Rick is the dominant chacacter realistc. "Last night you said I had to do the thinking for both of us" this again shows that the man is the dominant role, that she can't even make her own mind up.
Monday 25 January 2010
Final draft of coursework
what were doing to the film, date filming, music, voice over, change in story etc
When you love someone,
You want to keep them safe,
And never let them go,
But life doesn't always work out the way you want.
She couldn't keep him safe,
And she had to let him go,
For Katie, that summer was a nightmare.
But time goes by and life moves on,
Friends are there for you,
And slowly the nightmare fades away.
But do you really know your friends?
For Katie the nightmare is not over,
It's only just begun.
[Scream]
Origen Music Artists - Dance of the clouds.
http://www.jamendo.com/en/search/all/background%20music
You want to keep them safe,
And never let them go,
But life doesn't always work out the way you want.
She couldn't keep him safe,
And she had to let him go,
For Katie, that summer was a nightmare.
But time goes by and life moves on,
Friends are there for you,
And slowly the nightmare fades away.
But do you really know your friends?
For Katie the nightmare is not over,
It's only just begun.
[Scream]
Origen Music Artists - Dance of the clouds.
http://www.jamendo.com/en/search/all/background%20music
Website research
One of the feedback points for our website was to research more into other film websites to get the right idea of what we need to do to make it look more proffessional.
We decided to do more detailed research into our first inspiration for the website, 'Prom Night'. Because the film is distributed by Sony Pictures the website is based within their URL of sonypictures.co.uk/movies/promnight/
The ideas we have interpreted from this page are using the poster image as the main focal point, and we've also chosen similar pages, as in other research we found most websites use these headings. Our navigation is at the top of the page however using a consistent font to the rest of the website.
The 'About the Film' page has information on the story, production notes, the making of, and the cast and crews prom stories. For our 'About the Film' page we will just have an outline of the story with some images.
On the 'Cast & Crew' page, detailed info about most of the cast and 'The Filmakers' is given. We will just write general info about the main characters/cast and about us the 'filmakers' perhaps with profile pictures also.
The trailer page obviousley just shows the trailer in the centre of the page. The theme throughout all the pages is the same, background, and text of the title and release date stay in the same place, the centre picture changes to various stills from the film with text boxes overlayed.
We decided to do more detailed research into our first inspiration for the website, 'Prom Night'. Because the film is distributed by Sony Pictures the website is based within their URL of sonypictures.co.uk/movies/promnight/
The above screen shot is of the first page of the films website. It has links to the homepage, to watch the trailer, register for email updates, and the films Bebo page. The main image is from the poster with just the film title, the tagline and release date. We are thinking of making an opening page for our film leading to the main website but aren't sure whether we have enough time. Another way of incorpreting the style of this website is to have a similar layout for our homepage, using the poster image with the title, tagline and release date and having a few links maybe to a facebook page etc.We will also have to put the institutions and rating, which we already have anyway on our website at the moment.
This is the homepage of the website: sonypictures.co.uk/movies/promnight/site/
After clicking on the 'ENTER THE SITE' link on the opening page the official site opens in a new tab. They've used the same image but enlarged to fill the page with the text in a different layout with the release date above the title. The background is moving, although it is difficult to see what the image is of, it looks like hands with light flares and is obviousley quite dark so not to draw attention away from the main image of the girl. The sites navigation is at the bottom of the image with pages such as 'About the Film', 'Cast & Crew', 'Trailer', 'Gallery', 'Downloads' and 'Soundtrack'.The ideas we have interpreted from this page are using the poster image as the main focal point, and we've also chosen similar pages, as in other research we found most websites use these headings. Our navigation is at the top of the page however using a consistent font to the rest of the website.
The 'About the Film' page has information on the story, production notes, the making of, and the cast and crews prom stories. For our 'About the Film' page we will just have an outline of the story with some images.
On the 'Cast & Crew' page, detailed info about most of the cast and 'The Filmakers' is given. We will just write general info about the main characters/cast and about us the 'filmakers' perhaps with profile pictures also.
The trailer page obviousley just shows the trailer in the centre of the page. The theme throughout all the pages is the same, background, and text of the title and release date stay in the same place, the centre picture changes to various stills from the film with text boxes overlayed.
The 'Gallery' ^^ shows important images/stills from the film of characters and crucial scenes. The images come up as thunmbnails at the top of the page, when you click on one it shows up underneath but larger for example like in the screen shot above. Our gallery page will have the pictures from the photo album and important stills from the film.
'Downloads' has downloadable backgrounds and buddy icons. Our site will have the poster and backgrounds as downloads.
The 'Soundtrack' page links to a Myspace page with the soundtrack available to listen to and other information available. We've decided not to make our soundtrack a page as we feel it isn't necessary, because the 'Prom Night' soundtrack is a well known song and ours isn't.
We also researched 'The Crazies' website: thecrazies-movie.com
HOMEPAGE HERE!
The homepage has the film title in the top left corner with the release date underneath and also in the centre of the page above the trailer. The background is obviousley a setting from the movie with a sign to the right saying 'HELP US'. The navigation is at the top of the page with pages such as; 'ABOUT', 'VIDEOS', 'GALLERY', 'DOWNLOADS', 'CAST & CREW', and 'BATTLEMAIL'. Below the trailer is the institutions, release date, a phone app link, 'register' (email updates, promos etc), Facebook and Twitter links, and 'find show times' for local cinemas.
The 'ABOUT' page just includes the storyline with the same background as the homepage. (Similar to our idea)
'VIDEOS' has a few different versions of the the films trailer,our trailer page will obviousley just have the one trailer.
The 'GALLERY' has scattered polaroids on the page and when you click on one, similar to the 'Prom Night' website, it comes up larger.
'DOWNLOADS' includes wallpapers, screensavers and buddy icons.
'CAST & CREW'
'BATTLE MAIL' is an interesting idea, at first you have no idea what it is. It is an interactive game. You type in your email and a friends email and start an email battle, obviousley linking to the idea of the films story. Your friend can email you back and so on, continuing the battle. This is a good device to interest the audience and make them more involved and attracted to the film.
We also researched 'The Crazies' website: thecrazies-movie.com
HOMEPAGE HERE!
The homepage has the film title in the top left corner with the release date underneath and also in the centre of the page above the trailer. The background is obviousley a setting from the movie with a sign to the right saying 'HELP US'. The navigation is at the top of the page with pages such as; 'ABOUT', 'VIDEOS', 'GALLERY', 'DOWNLOADS', 'CAST & CREW', and 'BATTLEMAIL'. Below the trailer is the institutions, release date, a phone app link, 'register' (email updates, promos etc), Facebook and Twitter links, and 'find show times' for local cinemas.
The 'ABOUT' page just includes the storyline with the same background as the homepage. (Similar to our idea)
'VIDEOS' has a few different versions of the the films trailer,our trailer page will obviousley just have the one trailer.
The 'GALLERY' has scattered polaroids on the page and when you click on one, similar to the 'Prom Night' website, it comes up larger.
'DOWNLOADS' includes wallpapers, screensavers and buddy icons.
'CAST & CREW'
'BATTLE MAIL' is an interesting idea, at first you have no idea what it is. It is an interactive game. You type in your email and a friends email and start an email battle, obviousley linking to the idea of the films story. Your friend can email you back and so on, continuing the battle. This is a good device to interest the audience and make them more involved and attracted to the film.
How we've changed the website
On the homepage we changed the font to fit in with the institutions at the bottom of the page (Agency FB)
We also used our research from the 'Prom Night' website, which inspired us to use our poster image with just the title and release date on the first page. We made it on Photoshop and used the same font for the release date as the website.
The 'About the film' page has the new storyline on it:
'Last year a perfect holiday turned into a disaster that would affect Katie and her friends would find hard to forget. Four friends went away, but only three came back.
Losing her boyfriend was the worst thing that could have happened to Katie, and is something she will never get over but she is slowy starting to get back to normal.
Katie is slowly getting her life back together again, he will always be in her thoughts. Time and good friends can help you forget. But not everyone can forget and go back to normal, someone thinks about it all the time, all he wants is to keep Katie safe, and by doing this the nightmare will start again.'
'Cast & Crew' page, we decided to make one because the two websites we researched both had one and it gives a bit of extra, personal information about the cast and crew for the audience. Here is an example of the kind of thing we wrote for the cast:
CHARLOTTE LOCKTON (SAMANTHA GATES) HAD HER FIRST ROLE STARRING IN ST TRINIANS IN 2007. POSSESSEDD IS THE SECOND FILM SHE HAS STARRED IN, PLAYING THE LEAD CHARACTER OF 'SAM'. KNOWN TO HER FRIENDS AS CHARLIE, SHE HAS ALSO MADE APPEARENCES ON TV, GETTING A SMALL PART IN EASTENDERS IN 2006.
CHARLIE WAS BORN IN GRAYS IN ESSEX AND MOVED TO LEICESTER TO PERSUE HER CHEERLEADING HOBBY. BY THE TIME SHE WAS 15 SHE WAS LIVING IN LONDON TO TRAIN AS A PROFFESSIONAL YOUNG ACTRESS AT LONDON'S PERFORMING ARTS COLLEGE.
Trailer
gallery
downloads.
Sunday 24 January 2010
Saturday 9 January 2010
Feedback
Feedback from the class
Trailer
Teacher feedback
Trailer
Trailer
- Music works well
- Writing is good
- Music is good
- The flashlight looks effective
- Good begining, good end
- Just need a faster, clearer middle
- Some more shorter shots from different angles while their in the house
- Maybe a scene where they take her hostage
- Needs a bit of the male at the begining
- 1.02 does not flow with continuity, cuts from light on to a different
- Voice over maybe to make it look more like a trailer
- Male laughing maybe?
- The bedroom scene could maybe be cut out altogether
- Start and end is brilliant, middle is a little bit of a let down for the piece-perhaps leave the 3 girls out an have the bits of main girl being watched as they are good aswell
- Overall really good
- At the top in the blank space maybe put the stalker pictures across the top all jizjazzed? or a quote. Space needs filling
- Originality?
- Gallery isn't relevant-wouldn't see them sort of photos on a professional website
- Gallery is good, a very original idea
Teacher feedback
Trailer
- Less shots of girl tied up at begining and end
- Cut out shot where males identity is obvious
- Speak when tied up-'Why are you doing this?', 'I know who you are'
- See the film the girls are watching
- Leave at night
- Could be another character doing the kidnapping
- Better acting-more shots in the bedroom/angles
- More scenes-different locations
- Last scream needs to be longer
- Focus on main character when she screams at film so we know shes the main character
- We see her actually being kidnapped-quick shot
- Tagline
- Make the photo stand out more
- About the film-actors, location, detail
- Pictures-main character-stills from film, scary, more/better stalker phots (leaf photo-more zoom, rearview-see eyes)
- Pictures-male and other characters
- Do more research
Friday 11 December 2009
FIRST DRAFT COURSEWORK
Main Task: Teaser Trailer
click link to see bigger screen - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DizvggAD5Pw
Anciliary Task: Poster
For our final design we made the image a lot darker than the original to make it look more effective, to give it this mysterious look we can only see a section of the characters face, so it doesn't reveal their identity I think it makes more of an imapact to the viewer.
Anciliary Task: Website
Wednesday 9 December 2009
Tuesday 8 December 2009
Titles research
Looked at titles of 'the strangers', 'the grudge' and 'prom night'. All have institution at begining and title of film at the end with a quick film clip after and then 'coming soon' website and institutions. Then sometimes after that the institution again, actors and directors etc.
Filming DONE! Poster photo DONE!
We filmed the middle scene of the trailer on Saturday, and the end clips on Monday and todays media lesson! So everything is done hopefully. We have booked out an emergency camera for wednesday just incase we feel some bits need improving or more needs adding in. We also took the photo for our ancilliary task of the poster and edited it in todays media lesson on photoshop... Here is what we did...
^^ Original photo ^^
For this one ^^ we changed it to black and white, flipped it horizontally and changed the contrast and brightness
^^ Original photo ^^
^^Black and white, contrast and brightness changed and coloured the eye in black
This one isn't completely finished but we basically wanted it to be black and white with just the eye still in colour.Sowe had to cut the eye bit out to keep the colour then change the image to black and white and copy the eye back on. We also enhanced the colour of the eye to make it a brighter blue.
Most of these photos will also go on the website.
Monday 7 December 2009
Stalker photos
These are the photos we took in the style of the stalker. They aren't great but because of how little time we had, it's better to have something rather than nothing. I think most of them look legitimate but they won't be seen for a long period of time so they're just for effect really. We are also going to put them on the films website.
Old test shots
These were some shot idea/tests we did before changing the storyboard.We tried it in two different rooms to compare lighting and space. When we did film these shots, the characters were slightly different and we chose to film in the pink/white room. This test also helped us decide how to place the camera as the quality of these test shots arn't very good, for example the first two.We used the same shots we tested in the blue room when we filmed for real in the other room.
Monday 30 November 2009
Peeps
The Cast
Charlie plays the main character in our film - Abbey
Jack plays the stalker
Hannah plays one of Abbey's friends
And Jasmine also plays one of Abbey's friends.
To Do List...
Ancilliary Tasks. - Website & Poster.
Pre Production;
Pre Production;
- Research into existing horror posters, looking at conventions, aspects we thought looked good etc.
- Research that went in for the website was looking at websites such as the tormented, prom night to look at typical thermes.
- We need to edit the website and make sure it looks proffessional and real.
- For the poster will need to make sure it has all the relevant and promotional information on it. Overall does it look like a real horror poster.
- The website is going to be on weebly so, anyone will be able to view the website.
To Do List...
Main Task.- Trailer.
Pre Production -
Pre Production -
- Research; We looked at different horror movies to get inspiration and ideas.
- We need to edit the filming to make it trailer. -9th Dec. 09
- For distribuion we are going to put our trailer on youtube for viewing and of course our blog. -11th Dec. 09
Filming.
On saturday we completed 1/4 of our filming! We followed our new improved storyboard that will be uploaded onto the blog shortly. We tried to do a variety of shots so we have enough. We did the filming in my garage, the 'kidnapped scene.' This was our main character tied to a chair in distress, frightened and scared this hopefully comes across in our filming with the types of shots we have done. We got our actor looking scared, doing close up shots of the face and eyes to capture the fear. For lighting we used a torch as the room was in darkness. We flashed the torch and experimented with the lighting for dramatic effect.
Thursday 26 November 2009
Research for new storyboard
After realising we would have to scrap all the filming we had already done (although it wasn't that much) I decided I was unsattisfied with the opening scene we have for our trailer. I spoke to a few people, some who also do media, and they said maybe we should start it with scary shots, not the calm atmosphere we had before. I think this is a great idea and will really improve our trailer. I did some more research into trailers to get ideas of how to do this new idea.
Paranormal Activity
This trailer is really effective, it shows the first audience who ever watched the film in the trailer. Seeing their reactions is quite shocking and I think these shots scare you more than the film itself. However in the film a good technique they used was infrared. Most of the film was recorded at night so obviously a night vision camera was used. We originally wanted to use this technique in our film but decided it would be too tricky, but now I think it would be worth giving it a go. Another film we watched at the begining of our research also used infrared, it was called Quarentine.
Skin Walkers
The start of this trailer uses taglines to introduce the story. It also shows quite graphic shots which makes you keep watching. I found this was quite an action film and not exactly horror but they did use intersting techniques to attract the audience and tell the story. Flashing/quick editing of shots is used which creates the action feel and also throughout I noticed a copper theme in most of the shots like a tint, maybe to link in with the characters eyes which were copper coloured.
Thir13en Ghosts
The begining scene of the Thir13en Ghosts trailer has a spooky atmosphere, a blue tint to the shots make this. It also shows that it is dark and looks cold. A white flash is used to skip to a more coloured scene and then as the action comes back into play more white flashes skip between different shots. I think the first flash makes it seem like theres a flashback.
The Strangers
This trailer starts with a calm atmosphere and uses taglines to introduce the story. MUSIC. It also shows the views of the characters having double takes, in the first shot you see a person and in the second you don't. When I watched this it was really creepy and definately worked at scaring the audience. Also the use of masks for the other characters really adds to the atmosphere, not being able to see their face, and you can imagine how scared you would be in that situation.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
2-4 second clips are used for the first part of the trailer to set the scene. Then 1 second clips which fade to black are seen, these start to set the pace and atmosphere. I liked the use of freeze frames to show the panic on the characters faces and then faded quickly to white. The last sequence of shots at the end of the trailer are short with quick editing, the clips are also quite dark and the speed of the editing creates an action feel and makes the audience interested.
The Grudge
This trailer really creeped me out. The main element I like about it was how they used a wave of hair to bring the text/titles in and out of the frame.
The Unborn
This trailer also starts off slow and uses white flashes inbetween the scary shots. I really like the titles for this trailer and the background they used. I think the characters really show the genre of this film and just looking at them scares you.
Shaun Of The Dead
I love the trailer for this film, I really like how they've managed to mix together funny and scary and be able to laugh and be scared at the same time.
Looking at all these trailers gave me a great idea for the storyboard. The trailer is going to start with quick editing so you see very short clips, almost flashes, of whats going on like in some of the trailers above. The shots will be of our main character, already been kidnapped, tied to a chair in a room, it will be dark with just a light on her. There will also be shots of the stalker/kidnapper but you won't be able to see all of their face and there will also be pictures he has taken of the girl when she didn't know. All these shots will be interspersed with each other creating a mix up of the shots and hopefully creating a scary/anitcipating atmosphere
Paranormal Activity
This trailer is really effective, it shows the first audience who ever watched the film in the trailer. Seeing their reactions is quite shocking and I think these shots scare you more than the film itself. However in the film a good technique they used was infrared. Most of the film was recorded at night so obviously a night vision camera was used. We originally wanted to use this technique in our film but decided it would be too tricky, but now I think it would be worth giving it a go. Another film we watched at the begining of our research also used infrared, it was called Quarentine.
Skin Walkers
The start of this trailer uses taglines to introduce the story. It also shows quite graphic shots which makes you keep watching. I found this was quite an action film and not exactly horror but they did use intersting techniques to attract the audience and tell the story. Flashing/quick editing of shots is used which creates the action feel and also throughout I noticed a copper theme in most of the shots like a tint, maybe to link in with the characters eyes which were copper coloured.
Thir13en Ghosts
The begining scene of the Thir13en Ghosts trailer has a spooky atmosphere, a blue tint to the shots make this. It also shows that it is dark and looks cold. A white flash is used to skip to a more coloured scene and then as the action comes back into play more white flashes skip between different shots. I think the first flash makes it seem like theres a flashback.
The Strangers
This trailer starts with a calm atmosphere and uses taglines to introduce the story. MUSIC. It also shows the views of the characters having double takes, in the first shot you see a person and in the second you don't. When I watched this it was really creepy and definately worked at scaring the audience. Also the use of masks for the other characters really adds to the atmosphere, not being able to see their face, and you can imagine how scared you would be in that situation.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
2-4 second clips are used for the first part of the trailer to set the scene. Then 1 second clips which fade to black are seen, these start to set the pace and atmosphere. I liked the use of freeze frames to show the panic on the characters faces and then faded quickly to white. The last sequence of shots at the end of the trailer are short with quick editing, the clips are also quite dark and the speed of the editing creates an action feel and makes the audience interested.
The Grudge
This trailer really creeped me out. The main element I like about it was how they used a wave of hair to bring the text/titles in and out of the frame.
The Unborn
This trailer also starts off slow and uses white flashes inbetween the scary shots. I really like the titles for this trailer and the background they used. I think the characters really show the genre of this film and just looking at them scares you.
Shaun Of The Dead
I love the trailer for this film, I really like how they've managed to mix together funny and scary and be able to laugh and be scared at the same time.
Looking at all these trailers gave me a great idea for the storyboard. The trailer is going to start with quick editing so you see very short clips, almost flashes, of whats going on like in some of the trailers above. The shots will be of our main character, already been kidnapped, tied to a chair in a room, it will be dark with just a light on her. There will also be shots of the stalker/kidnapper but you won't be able to see all of their face and there will also be pictures he has taken of the girl when she didn't know. All these shots will be interspersed with each other creating a mix up of the shots and hopefully creating a scary/anitcipating atmosphere
Wednesday 25 November 2009
Major problemoosss
Our actress who is the main character in the trailer has dropped out, so obviousley we can't use the shots we have already done with her in as the main character. We have found someone else to use and plan to film on saturday hopefully getting at least half of the clips we need for the whole trailer as time is running out. Also on saturday we will take the photos for the poster and website. Obviousley the blog I posted yesterday is now irrelevant. We have also come up with a new storyboard to make the trailer more scary as I feel it wasn't good enough before.
Tuesday 24 November 2009
POSITIVE BLOG
3 positive things :)
- we are filming tomorrow
- also tomorrow were taking photos for the website and poster!
- && if we take the right photo the poster will be done!!!
Thursday 19 November 2009
Jamendo & Filming
Signed us up to jamendo.com, free legal music, because we really need to sort out music for the trailer ASAP
Andddd we forgot to say we did filming for the opening scene of our trailer on monday. We uploaded the footage yesterday and it all looked fine and are editing it in Mrs Hammond's pratical lesson todayyy!
Andddd we forgot to say we did filming for the opening scene of our trailer on monday. We uploaded the footage yesterday and it all looked fine and are editing it in Mrs Hammond's pratical lesson todayyy!
Representing gender homework
'The representations of men and women can never illustrate the 'truth''
They can never illustrate the truth because they are just representations. Representations are like stereotypes, so group people together and say their all the same and don't take into account peoples individual traits. If they don't take into account their individual traits then they are not what the representation says they are, so the representation isn't the truth.
'Hollywood mainly operates in gender binary opposites'
I don't agree that Hollywood operates in gender binary opposites because this means the male and female roles are separated. Male and female roles have blurred together and both roles/attitudes/behaviour are used by both sexes in Hollywood media.
'Gender can only be understood in relation to the culture that produces it'
I agree with this statement because in different cultures gender is represented in different ways so only the culture that produces that representation would understand it. Like in some cultures females are used for children, looking after them and their husband. In other cultures women can go out and hunt for food with the men. They are considered and treated in different ways because they are seperate cultures.
'Gender stereotypes are a useful way of understanding culture'
They can never illustrate the truth because they are just representations. Representations are like stereotypes, so group people together and say their all the same and don't take into account peoples individual traits. If they don't take into account their individual traits then they are not what the representation says they are, so the representation isn't the truth.
'Hollywood mainly operates in gender binary opposites'
I don't agree that Hollywood operates in gender binary opposites because this means the male and female roles are separated. Male and female roles have blurred together and both roles/attitudes/behaviour are used by both sexes in Hollywood media.
'Gender can only be understood in relation to the culture that produces it'
I agree with this statement because in different cultures gender is represented in different ways so only the culture that produces that representation would understand it. Like in some cultures females are used for children, looking after them and their husband. In other cultures women can go out and hunt for food with the men. They are considered and treated in different ways because they are seperate cultures.
'Gender stereotypes are a useful way of understanding culture'
Wednesday 18 November 2009
Inspiration/Ideas
Jay-Z & Alicia Keys-Empire State of Mind
This is a music video that we thought was effective in terms of how the photographs are displayed artisticly in time with the music. Even though this is a music video we thought about having our stalker photographs maybe displayed like this obviously in a much more horror way with scary music. We may be able to do something similar, but obviously not to this standard, as the macs don't have this effect available.
This is a music video that we thought was effective in terms of how the photographs are displayed artisticly in time with the music. Even though this is a music video we thought about having our stalker photographs maybe displayed like this obviously in a much more horror way with scary music. We may be able to do something similar, but obviously not to this standard, as the macs don't have this effect available.
The Gaze
- Used in film theory - 1970's
- Refers to the way viewers look at images of people in visual medium
- 'The Male Gaze' - feminist reference to the voyeuristic (for pleasure) way in which men look at women
- Jonathan Schroeder (1998) - 'to gaze implies more than to look at' - psychological relationship of power - 'gazer is superior to the object of the gaze'
- spectators gaze
- intra-diegetic-people looking at each other within the media text
- direct address to the viewer
- look of the camera
- gaze of a bystander
- gaze of an audience within a text
Attention directed:
- towards others
- towards an object
- to oneself
- to the reader/camera
- into middle distance
- 'Visual pleasure and narrative cinema' 1975
- Doesn't consider men looking at men or women looking at women in admiration
- Failure to account for female spectator (women looking at men)
- Only a heterosexual view (homosexual-men looking at men)
Women:
- Chocolate box-half/full smile, hardly any/no teeth on show
- Invitational-emphasis on eyes, looking at camera, head to one side, hint of a smile
- Super-smiler-cheesey grin
- Romantic/sexual-pouting
- Carefree-small smile, relaxed (sport, health)
- Pratical-concentration (handyman)
- Seductive-pout, broody
- Comic-smiley, foolish, exaggerated
- Catalogue-looking in distance, vacant
Stereotypes
Stereotypes are:
Stereotypes usually have an element of truth to them to make them plausible.
Butler
The boundaries are blurring between men and women, the relation between the two is fluid. 'A man can demonstarte feminie qualities the same as a woman can demonstrate masculine qualities and can change from one to the other depending on the context'. Butler calls this a 'sliding scale of gender'.
Negatives of stereotypes:
Our chosen stereotype:GEEK
Appearance:
- a simplified representation of a group/people
- groups people together
- says they are all the same
- reinforces the stereotype
- narrative shortcut
- reflect stereotypes that exist
- criticised for creating stereotypes, but they are usually part of the audiences way of thinking about the world anyway
Stereotypes usually have an element of truth to them to make them plausible.
Butler
The boundaries are blurring between men and women, the relation between the two is fluid. 'A man can demonstarte feminie qualities the same as a woman can demonstrate masculine qualities and can change from one to the other depending on the context'. Butler calls this a 'sliding scale of gender'.
Negatives of stereotypes:
- judgement-basis is usually negative
- don't allow for individual traits
- exertion of power for people outside the stereotype
- countertypes
- media texts attempted to construct new approaches to old stereotypes
- Appearance - physical/clothes/voice
- Behaviour - typical things people are assumed to do
- Attitude - the way people are percieved as thinking
Our chosen stereotype:GEEK
Appearance:
- glasses
- shirt & tie
- too short trousers
- big rucksack bag (laptop, books)
- posh voice
- high pitched laugh
- really clever
- do homework as soon as they get it
- no social life/friends
- read LOTS
- maths as a hobby (sudoku, algebra)
- in a band (trumpet)
- Gretchen (Recess)
- Milhouse (Simpsons)
- Napolean Dynamite
Monday 16 November 2009
Memento
Memento (2000)
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Memento Storyline
Leonard’s wife was assaulted by two men. He got hit on the head trying to save her and suffered memory loss from this and couldn't make new memories so forget things quickly. To remember his condition he had 'Sammy Jenkis' tattooed on his hand. Leonard’s wife had diabetes and he had to inject her insulin for her.
His wife wanted to believe he could get better so told him to give her the insulin 3 times to see if he'd remember but he didn't so she died. Leonard doesn't remember this as him but as Sammy Jenkis, he believes that his wife died when she was assaulted because this is the last permanent memory he has.
The story starts with Leonard on the phone to a police man. He tells him about the Sammy Jenkis story and then about how his wife was raped and murdered and he wants to find the person who did it and kill them. The police man tells Lenny that the murderer is going to be at an abandoned warehouse. He says his name is Teddy and Leonard takes a photo of him so he can remember him.
Lenny goes to the warehouse and kills the man, Jimmy, he thinks murdered his wife.
(This part of the film is all in black and white, is shown in chronological order and put in between the coloured scenes which are in reverse chronological order until the two time lines meet)
Teddy then shows up at the warehouse and tells Lenny that Sammy Jenkis isn't real, that he killed his wife and that Lenny already killed the real John G a year ago with Teddy's help and he thought he would remember it but he doesn't, so Teddy has been using him to kill people by telling Lenny that they are John G.
Lenny takes Jimmy's clothes and car and sets himself up to kill Teddy by taking down his car license plate number to get a tattoo of it so he thinks that Teddy is the John G. He gets the tattoo and then finds a note in his pocket, forgetting he is wearing Jimmy's clothes, to meet Natalie in Ferdys bar thinking it’s for him.
Natalie offers to help Leonard but tricks him into going after a man called Dodd. Lenny assaults Dodd and gets him to leave town. Natalie then traces 'John G's' license plate number and his driving license photo matches the one Leonard has of Teddy. He thinks Teddy is the person who raped and murdered his wife, because obviously he has forgotten what Teddy told him and who he is.
Lenny takes Teddy to the same abandoned warehouse where he murdered Jimmy, and kills Teddy.
(This is the first thing that happens in the film, and works backwards through the events that led up to this).
Directed by Christopher Nolan
- Conforms to many of the the conventions of a typical noir film (a type of film popular in the late 1940's, early 1950's)
- Typical noir film characters - world weary private eye/femme fatale/princess-girl in danger/the patsy or stooge/other assorted dishevelled characters
- It could be argued that this is a postmodern film noir
Memento Storyline
Leonard’s wife was assaulted by two men. He got hit on the head trying to save her and suffered memory loss from this and couldn't make new memories so forget things quickly. To remember his condition he had 'Sammy Jenkis' tattooed on his hand. Leonard’s wife had diabetes and he had to inject her insulin for her.
His wife wanted to believe he could get better so told him to give her the insulin 3 times to see if he'd remember but he didn't so she died. Leonard doesn't remember this as him but as Sammy Jenkis, he believes that his wife died when she was assaulted because this is the last permanent memory he has.
The story starts with Leonard on the phone to a police man. He tells him about the Sammy Jenkis story and then about how his wife was raped and murdered and he wants to find the person who did it and kill them. The police man tells Lenny that the murderer is going to be at an abandoned warehouse. He says his name is Teddy and Leonard takes a photo of him so he can remember him.
Lenny goes to the warehouse and kills the man, Jimmy, he thinks murdered his wife.
(This part of the film is all in black and white, is shown in chronological order and put in between the coloured scenes which are in reverse chronological order until the two time lines meet)
Teddy then shows up at the warehouse and tells Lenny that Sammy Jenkis isn't real, that he killed his wife and that Lenny already killed the real John G a year ago with Teddy's help and he thought he would remember it but he doesn't, so Teddy has been using him to kill people by telling Lenny that they are John G.
Lenny takes Jimmy's clothes and car and sets himself up to kill Teddy by taking down his car license plate number to get a tattoo of it so he thinks that Teddy is the John G. He gets the tattoo and then finds a note in his pocket, forgetting he is wearing Jimmy's clothes, to meet Natalie in Ferdys bar thinking it’s for him.
Natalie offers to help Leonard but tricks him into going after a man called Dodd. Lenny assaults Dodd and gets him to leave town. Natalie then traces 'John G's' license plate number and his driving license photo matches the one Leonard has of Teddy. He thinks Teddy is the person who raped and murdered his wife, because obviously he has forgotten what Teddy told him and who he is.
Lenny takes Teddy to the same abandoned warehouse where he murdered Jimmy, and kills Teddy.
(This is the first thing that happens in the film, and works backwards through the events that led up to this).
Friday 13 November 2009
Poster Update
This is an update from the previous mock up of our poster, we changed the contrast of the background photo and filled the background with more black so it's darker, this makes the poster look more scary becuse persons is hidden in the darkness so you can't fully see there facial features and surrondings. Having done this the title looks brighter making it the main focal point, this is want we wanted to achieve. to fill the black space at the top of the poster we going to put a tagline for the film here, we also need to add more information to the bottom credits.
Possessedthemovie.com
This is a print screen of our website so far, we have created it on weebly. We started making some links to the other pages. We have made all the pages black, following conventions, as all the other horror movies use black backgrounds. We also put the title of our film 'Possessed' at the top of every page so it looks consistant.
Poster Mockup
This is a mockup of what we are doing for our poster. To test out the colours, fonts and layout. We think this image is most effective and we will do our own photo inspired by this one. We got the idea for the credits from the new Saw movie poster. We chose to use the same colour and style of writing for our poster that they used because Saw is also a horror film, by Lionsgate like ours. When we do our own photo for the background we will make it darker as in this photo the face is too bright and takes the attention away from the title.
Friday 6 November 2009
Tuesday 3 November 2009
Problemssss
Unfortunately we couldn't film on the 13th as a few of our actors didn't become available. We also didn't have time to film in the holidays as Lauren was away. We have fell behind last week not posting for a while but we will hopefully be back on track next week after filming (fingers crossed) on Sunday.
Tuesday 13 October 2009
Filming.
Tonight we are going to start filming, one of the scenes from our trailer this is the opening scene where Karlie and her friends are getting ready for the party. The location is going to be at Lauren's house in her bedroom. The actors are Amay Campbell, Jo Noble and Charlie Lockton.
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This is Amay, she plays the charcter Daisy.
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Website Hosting Search.
Today's lesson we looked at different website makers which are free to set up our own website, for our horror film. But most of them have a clause were you have to pay, so we are going to continue looking.x
Monday 12 October 2009
Title
Titles
These are the titles we designed on a graphics website, interactimage.com, as you can see the title we have chosen is 'Possessed'. The reason we chose this one out of our choices is because it gives a twist to the story perhaps making the audience think someone is possessed in the psychiatric/paranormal sense when in fact we mean that the boy wants to own the girl and wants her as a possession. We asked a few people which of the title designs they liked best and which would be best suited to a horror movie poster and the majority of them chose this one:
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These are the titles we designed on a graphics website, interactimage.com, as you can see the title we have chosen is 'Possessed'. The reason we chose this one out of our choices is because it gives a twist to the story perhaps making the audience think someone is possessed in the psychiatric/paranormal sense when in fact we mean that the boy wants to own the girl and wants her as a possession. We asked a few people which of the title designs they liked best and which would be best suited to a horror movie poster and the majority of them chose this one:
We will do a mock up of the poster next week when we have a few ideas and samples of images we will use for the background.
Picture Ideas For Poster
Here are some pictures I found on deviantart.com in the photography/people&portraits/expressive section. I looked at portraits because we want our photo to be of the main character on her own, and I looked in the expressive section because we didn't just want a plain portrait of the character we want it to be showing something about the film. These photos have given me lots of ideas and inspiration of how we can do our poster photo and it's also given me some ideas for shots we could use in the trailer as well.
I like this photo because of how they've layered a few different positioned photographs. I think using the same technique of this but using a close up of our characters face would work well for the kind of effect were going for on our poster, a distorted view.
This photo doesn't really relate to our theme exactly but i think it looks really effective and real, but obviously wouldn't be right for the style of image we're going for.
I like this image because of how close up it is which is what we are doing for the photo on our poster, I also think just showing the eye shows more expression but keeps the identity of the person hidden. If we used the same setup for our poster photo as this I would probably want to have the eye look bigger and probably make it black and white and with the eye a little further down so the eyelashes aren't cut out of the photo.
This is my favourite of the photos I looked at, it gives off an obvious vibe of horror which we want and it also draws you in and makes you interested and look closely. I think the fact it's black and white with the blood drip in colour is really effective and makes it fit in with the horror genre. I think this image would be easy to achieve just using a good camera and the editing tools on photoshop. I think maybe combining this photo idea with the first one using layers of photos could also work really well.
I also really like this photo because it's quite scary, a close up version of this maybe of just one half of the face would work really well for our poster. The girls expression makes her look terrified but it also makes the person looking at it scared as well because the eyes are like popping out which scares me but I really like the black going down her cheeks.
This image was created by scanning the face directly onto the computer. I think it gives a really good effect of being trapped but I don't think we would want to use this technique or layout as there are a couple of other effects that look and would work better.
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