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.
Monday, 30 November 2009
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.
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