Sunday, 30 April 2017
Marketing
The marketing of a film is very important as it informs the
audience about the film, and getting the correct ways of marketing is essential
because different forms of promotion will be more effective to different
demographics. As my target audience is people ages 17-26, I believe that the
best ways for me to advertise my film would be through things such as social
media and YouTube, as this are the forms of promotion that will be most
effective to my target audience as they are the main age group to use these
social media sites.
The poster and advertising banner that I will use to promote
my film will be the original ending to the film that I was going to have, with
the hooded character holding the golf club up above his head. This will then
create an arrow pointing toward the title of the film (Vengeance). I will then
have the main actor’s names at the bottom of the poster and advertising banner.
This should be successful as it will engage the audience and hopefully make
them want to go to the cinema to watch the whole film.
Another way that I am going to promote my film is through
the use of Guerrilla advertising. This is where an act is put on in the middle
of a city, and will engage the attention of people passing. These people will
then get their mobile phones out and share it to all their friends. This is a
very good way to advertise as it costs little to do (which will be beneficial
to a small film company) and will be very successful and reach a wide amount of
people, if it gets shared through social media sites.
Changes made
I had to make lots of changes to my original film that I was
going to do. Originally I was going to have the masked character hold up the
golf club and about to hit it over the head of my other character. I changed
this however because I had a very good shot of the seated character’s shadow
disappearing. I decided to use this shot over the alternative shot as I believe
that it is more effective, showing the disappearance of this character, which
could give connotations of him dyeing for example, which would be an area that
the whole film would cover, having the character fighting for his life and
being put in near death situations., always with the possibility of him dying.
Another change was a change that I was forced to make as I
was unable to do. This was using sound effects in my opening. I was originally
going to have sound effects of heartbeats and footsteps, as I believe that
having these things will make the seated character more relatable to the
audience, and the footsteps of the hooded character makes him seem more
menacing towards the audience. This is because the footsteps seem like the
character is circling them and makes them seem more intimidating towards the
audience, along with the low angle shots looking up at him which shows his
dominance and power, and automatically makes the audience fearful for the other
character.
I also had to cut out some of my shots from my story board
as I was either unable to film them, or I had alternative shots that were more
preferable than the original ones from my storyboard.
Editing diary
Friday 14th April
After filming a couple of days previously, I put together
all of my footage, and put music over the top of it. I tried to fit the film to
the music that I have chosen and cut the footage when the music builds up, as
it would look more professional than otherwise done. I also tried to leave
enough space in between cuts to have enough time for the credits to be
displayed and read. This was also part of my selection of my music, as I tried
to pick a piece of music where I could edit to easily, and display the credits
easily upon. I did encounter some difficulty when doing this, trying to match
the edit, exactly to the music and believe that it could be improved even more.
Wednesday 19th April
After doing this editing, I still needed to put in the
opening where I would put in the production companies and distribution
companies’ names beforehand. I had left time in my film to put this in as I
know that the opening should be around 2 minutes long. I also then put in the
names over my footage. I have used a strange looking text when doing this, to
add to the uneasy effect of the opening, that I hope my opening gives across.
Problems
I faced various problems in the process of making this film
opening, and had to overcome these problems, finding solutions to try and solve
this.
One problem which I encountered was that a couple of weeks
before I was scheduled to film, one of my actors refused to be in the film.
This was a big problem that I faced as I needed to find somebody new, who was
willing to act at short notice. Luckily however I did find somebody who said
that they were willing to feature in my film. This could have been a serious
problem for me, as I may not have been so lucky and found somebody else to act
in my film, and could have possibly missed my deadline, or not have given
myself enough time to evaluate or ask for audience feedback.
Another problem that I faced was (as stated previously)
trying to get copyright free music. As I was unable to use music that is owned
by somebody, I wasn’t allowed to use it is a piece of media that I am saying
was made by me. Therefore, overcame this problem by downloading copyright free
music, that still fitted with the genre and overall feel of my opening title
sequence.
A third problem that I faced was trying to film my whole
film at sunrise. I planned to do this however nobody that I talked to was
willing to get up early enough to film at this time in the morning. This could
have resulted in me not having any footage and unable to post anything as my
final and finished opening. To overcome this problem decided to only film my
flashback at the early hours of the morning. To make my other footage look
darker, without filming in the morning, I was forced to use filters to make the
scene look a lot darker than it actually was on the day of filming.
A problem that I could have faced would have been not having
enough footage. I would notice this when editing and finding that there isn’t
enough footage to fill the whole soundtrack, and two-minute target length I was
given. I ensured that this wouldn’t happen to me by making sure that I filmed
more than I needed, and made sure that I had spare footage that I wouldn’t
need, and would become unused.
I also faced unpredictable problems such as the weather. I
was originally going to have my film opening in the rain. However due to the
weather being unpredictable, and me having no influence in the weather, this is
one factor of my film that I had no control of and had to adapt to as I wasn’t
able to do exactly what I wanted.
Another problem that I faced was trying to get sound effects
for my opening. I did want to have sound effects in my opening, however found
it very difficult to download sound effects as I would have had to pay a
subscription to the site to access the sound effects. I was originally going to
have a sound effect when it cuts to the flashback of the fairground ride. I was
also going to have a sound effect of footsteps and heartbeats very quietly
throughout the opening. This would have added to the effect of the opening and
in my opinion would have improved it.
A final problem that I faced was trying to get the match on
action shots. The match on action isn’t necessarily what needs to happen in my
opening as it mainly cuts to a completely different type of shot, medium shot
to extreme close up for example. I did however need to make sure that nothing
changed drastically from scene to scene. I did have a slight problem that I
realised whilst editing that there is a shot of the characters rolling up their
sleeves, and the sleeves are rolled back down in the next scene which is a
mistake of the opening, and should have been done differently. I also found it
fairly difficult to piece it together and cut the clips with the piece of
music. A couple of the cuts are in fact slightly out of time with the music,
and is something that I had to try and do to the best of my ability.
Risk assessment
Whilst filming there are a lot of risks that could result in
problems, which I will need to take precautions to prevent from happening.
One risk when filming would be the safety of people on the
filming se, as there are some very dangerous props that will be used, including
a knife, a golf club and some rope. A risk of having a sharp knife on the set
would be somebody could easily get seriously injured, by falling on it, or
cutting themselves for example. The same risk applies with the golf club, as
somebody could accidently stand on the bottom and the club ending up hitting
them, or somebody hitting someone with the golf club. The rope could also be a
risk, as it could be put round somebodies neck. To prevent these from
happening, I will ensure that the knife and golf club are put is safe places
where nobody could accidently fall on, or stand on. I will also ensure that all
the people that are acting in my film are responsible and won’t stupid with the
props that are being used, and won’t throw knifes for example.
Another risk would be that somebody might fall over on the
uneven ground or fall over into the trees. This could be a risk as it might be
something that could happen at any time, and could very easily happen as the
ground is very uneven at the location where I am filming. One possible way that
this could be prevented is to ensure that everyone is wearing appropriate
footwear. This should ensure that nobody will fall over, and that the risk will
be eliminated.
BBFC rating
The
BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) is an organisation that decides
that on the age rating and restriction that should be given to each and every
film. The majority of thriller films are having a BBFC rating of a 15, with exceptions
of some 18’s. This is because they normally show some graphic scenes that would
be unsuitable to show to a younger age audience. I believe that my film should
also be rated around a 15 as the whole finished film would include various
graphic scenes and should only be suitable for people over the age of 15. Even
in my opening two minutes of my film I already have a knife pressed up against
the cheek of another character, which might already be to disturbing for some
people under the age of 15. Therefore, given the trend of most thriller films
and the content that the film would include I think that it is justified that
my film should be rated 15. Media techniques used
My opening two
minutes displayed some technical media techniques. For example i made sure when
filming, that I followed the rule of thirds. This means that the character is
never positioned directly in the middle of the shot. In my film opening I
ensured that the characters were always put towards one side of the screen as
shown by the image. The use of the rule of thirds makes the film look at lot
more professional. For example if there was a conversation between two people
and the camera showed the character in the middle of the screen it wouldn’t
look normal as it either look like the character was talking directly into the
camera (which is sometimes used for effect in sitcom for example)or talking to
nobody.
Another technique is the 30 degree. This stages that the
camera must always move at least 30 degrees between shots. I did follow this
rule however a lot of the shots that I used where of different things therefore
this rule isn’t appropriate as it is only applicable for looking at oe thing
such as a conversation.
I did break the 180 degree rule in my opening; however I
didn’t feel it should have been followed in my film. I broke it originally so
it would create a sense of disorientation, however as I use so many close ups
and extreme close ups I don’t feel as if the 180 degree rule should be followed
as it would have limited me to certain shots, and I don’t believe that my
opening would have been as successful. I also don’t feel like my opening comes
across as to disorientated anyway therefor I feel like me breaking this rule
was the correct thing to do in this situation.
Mise en scene
Props:
The props that I used in my film opening, are supposed to
look like torture weapons. In my opinion they do look like this, and add to the
effect and atmosphere that I am looking to create. The props that I have used
are regular things that I have around my house, however are regularly used in
thriller films to torture people. I have used the biggest knife that I have to create
tension and make the audience feel uncomfortable, especially when it is pressed
up against the cheek of one of the characters. The other prop that I used was a
golf club. The use of the golf club was also adding to the effect and
atmosphere of the film opening.
Lighting:
I originally did want the lighting of my film to be very
dark, and around the hours of the morning and raining. However, I have no
control over the weather, and none of my actors were willing to get up this
early therefore was forced to film in the middle of the day with very warm and
dry weather. This therefore meant that I had to put a filter on my opening to
try and make the opening look much darker than it actually was on the day. Ideally,
all thriller film is normally set in a dark location as it adds to the tension
and creates an atmosphere, amongst the audience as they are scared of what
could happen next.
Costume:
I am going to have one of my character wearing a black
hoodie and a balaclava, to look intimidating. This won’t allow the audience to
see this character’s face properly and will make him seem more mysterious.
Throughout this film I would have this character’s face not properly seen by
the audience and only would reveal his face towards the end. This should make
the audience uneasy and defiantly not trust this character. The other character
in my opening will be wearing casual clothes. This should make him more
relatable to the audience and will be able to make more of a connection towards
the audience from the very start of the film.
Music
Finding music for my film opening was a problem that I
faced, due to copyright laws, which states that I am not allowed to use any
music owned by someone else, in my work and claim it as my own. This meant that
I had to download copyright free music from online. After looking at numerous
websites, trying to find a piece of music that would fit with the genre of
opening that I am doing, I eventually found a good site, and downloaded 10
different pieces of music, before narrowing it down to my 1 chosen piece of
music that I am going to use in my opening. I was also going to include sound
effects in my opening, however I would have had to pay for sound effects on
every site that I went to, and after a had completed my opening I felt that
sound effects weren’t necessary anyway.
Location
The location of my film opening is going to be in a forest.
I have decided to do this as I believe that this will give over the best effect
to the audience. The connotations of it being set in a forest, is that it will
usually be dark and very hard to find your way out. This will give over the
representation that there is no escape for the captured character, and that
there is no way out for them. I was also going to have it in this location at
sun rise to make the location seem even more intimidating, however my cast
refused to do this, which meant filming at midday and having to use a filter to
make the scene look darker. A lot of thriller films also have a forest in the
film, which shows how successful the use of them can be, for the reasons
already stated.
Opening credit trends
There is a trend for the order of names that appear at the
beginning of films. The majority of all films do follow this trend or around
about this order of names. The order is:
·
Studio company
·
Production company
·
Directors name
·
Main actors names
·
The name of the film
·
The supporting cast
·
Roles such as Set designer, Music composer,
Editor, etc.
·
Producers
This trend is apparent in most films, however are displayed
in various ways, using various techniques as sated previously.
In my film I will use this trend pattern and make sure that
I follow this trend as it has proven to be very successful over time.
Sooting schedule
|
Date
|
Time
|
No.
|
|
11th April 2017
|
5:30am-6:30am
|
Shoot 1
|
|
11th April 2017
|
1:30pm-3:00pm
|
Shoot 2
|
|
13th April 2017
|
1:30pm-2:30pm
|
Possible reshoot.
|
Script
I will have no dialogue in my opening as I feel it won’t be
as effective if I do have dialogue. I am however including music, pleonastic
sound and both diagetic and non-diagetic sound, which will be shown on the
storyboard.
Production and Distribution companies
Every film will have
a number of production and distribution companies before the film starts,
showing the audience who made and owns the rights to film they are about to be
showed. I decide that it would be best to use an already established film
distribution company in Universal studios, however decided that I will create
my own production company. Most people and the audience can name several
distribution companies, Warner Bros, Universal 20th Century Fox etc.
However, people don’t particularly know the production companies, for example
Lucasfilm. I therefore decided that I will make my own production company,
whilst using the Universal studios name as well. I further made up a company
called JC films and put this at the beginning of my film. Font styles
I was limited when selecting my font style as I wanted to
select a font that fitted with the opening, genre and music. Whilst editing on
the Mac there were only a small list of fonts that I was able to use in the
opening. I wanted to do with a font that looked handwritten as a lot of
successful thriller films have this convention as it makes them look creepier
than a font that looks typed. I would have liked to use an alternative font
style such as Mistrel, Matura or Rage Italic however these fonts weren’t available on the
desktop that I was using so therefore had go with a different font called
Chalkduster, which look like the font in the image. This font wasn’t ideal
and is in some places fairly difficult to read however I didn’t have many other
choices apart from having a font that looked typed, therefore I preferred to
have a font that was slightly harder to read, but did look a lot better.
Name of the film
At first I struggled with a name for my film, as I decided to create the film first and then come up with a name for it. Based on what happens in my opening and watching my opening a phew times, had a phew ideas on names for the film. This is what I came up with:
I finaly decided to go with the name Vengeance as it sounded the most menacing out of all of the options that I came up with.
Pitching the opening
My film opening is going to be very basic as I believe that
the most basic film openings are the most effective. The genre of my film will
be a thriller film, and in the opening I hope to make the audience uneasy and
make them feel uncomfortable whilst watching. It will involve somebody sitting
in a chair I a dark place, probably a forest, whilst a hooded figure circles
them. The hooded figure will be holding multiple weapons, including a golf club
and a knife. As the majority of thriller films do involve weapons I thought it
would be suitable and would add to the verisimilitude if a weapon were
included. I will use a variety of shot types, using extreme close ups, high and
low angle shots, to show both of the characters. I am going to use creepy music
to build suspense, with the music increasingly becoming higher pitched. I aim
for my opening to be very basic, however I hope in doing this it comes across
as very effective.
My opening will be a montage opening, showing lots of quick
shots in my opening and having the credits over the top. I have decided to do
this as I believe that it will be the most effective, rather than having an
animated opening for example, as this type of opening wouldn’t be as effective
for the type of film I am doing. My film opening isn’t going to be in the
equilibrium stage of the narrative theory, as it is going to be set at a
different part of the story. This will then allow me to do more in my opening.
The Audience
From the research that I have conducted, I have decided to
aim my film towards the 17-26 year-old audience, as they are the age group who
watch the most thriller films and go to the cinema most frequently. I believe
that this age group prefers thriller films more than any other age group as the
story lines are more appealing to this age as they are more interesting to them
and fulfill them with suspense which is something that this age group enjoy. I
believe that thriller film aren’t as preferred by the other age groups, as
people under the age of 17 typically find them too scary and people over the
age of 26 find they are getting to old to watch film that aren’t comfortable to
watch.
Thriller films are target to both males and females as both genders
do enjoy thriller films, and all evidence shows both genders enjoy this genre
as much as each other. The males are probably more interested in thriller films
as they include a lot of action within them, whereas females probably prefer
them as they ask psychological questions.
Research
I conducted some research before I started my film so that I
could identify what age group, and type of people my thriller film would and
should be targeted to. This will then allow me to make a film that is tailored
to these peoples wants, rather than a thriller film that would appeal to a
different demographic audience. Knowing my target audience will also help me
marketing my film, as I will be able to decide on the forms of advertising for
my film, depending on what my target audience look at/watch the most.
First I conducted a
survey and asked people various question about whether or not they watch
thriller films, and if so how often they watched them. This is the survey that
I handed out. After asking various people the data that I received was that
younger people tend to watch more thriller film than older people. To be
precise people aged 17-26 watch the most thriller films. However, there wasn’t
an overall trend regarding the gender of thriller film watchers, and from my
research and conducting some secondary research I found out that there wasn’t a
trend about what gender watches more thriller films and it is down to pure
preference of favourite genres. This therefore told me that my age group that I
should target my film at would be both males and females aged between 17 and
26. Also from the research that I conducted I found out that it is the 17-26
year olds that go to the cinema most frequently which means that the cinema
could be an ideal place to promote my film if I was actually going to launch
it. It would also be a good idea to promote it using social media or YouTube as
this age group are one of the highest users of technology and social media,
meaning that an advert could be shown to a wider span of people.
The 2nd piece of research that I carried out was a focus
group. This consisted of getting a number of people (from my target audience)
and ask them questions regarding thriller films. The first question that I
asked was regarding the age certificate of thriller films and which age
category they prefer. The feedback that I received was mainly of the age of 15
and possibly the 18 rating as they felt a thriller film should keep you in
suspense and should also show the audience some quite graphic scenes as well.
This gives me some indication of what type of film the audience would like to
see, and helps me decide on what BBFC age certificate my film should attempt to
be. Another question that I asked my focus group was regarding the main
characters. Generally, the main characters in thriller films, and the majority
of films in general include both male protagonist and antagonist, and I asked
whether or not that would be something that they expect to see in thriller
films. The response that I received was that I should use both protagonist and
antagonist as males as it helps the audience identify them, despite them
wanting more female characters in films. The use of male character helps the
audience decide who they are supporting, whereas if there is a female
antagonist for example, the audience are more likely to find the story more
confusing as they are so familiar with the dominance of the male characters. I
also asked my target audience whether or not they like films that have a plot
twist at the end of the film, and completely twists the way to watch the film.
The response that I received was that they do enjoy films that have a plot
twist, as it makes them think about the film after they have left the cinema,
rather than just leaving and thinking nothing more about the film. This type of
film then engages the audience and becomes more memorable due to the ending. In
my film I am going to try and do something similar to this. As my opening is
set at the end of the film, I am going to have a plot twist that makes the
audience look at the opening in a different way.
Marking previous work
I marked the following work out of ten based on their
Material appropriate to the target audience, whether or not the title were
conventional/appropriate, sound/images and technical editing, camera
work/framing/mise en scene, editing and overall feel of the title sequence to
give me an overall score out of 60.
Captive:
I felt that captive was a very good title sequence, I felt
that the display of the titles were very appropriate as the titles flickered
when coming onto to screen, which creates a sense of unease, which is usually
what is created in the opening to (what I am assuming to be a) thriller film.
This is effective as it might symbolise the flickering of a light for example
in a rundown place, which is where a lot of thriller films are set. I also felt
that the use of the camera was very effective. This opening displayed a wide
range of different shot types, showing different angles shots, and a variety of
ranges, ranging from extreme close ups to extreme long shots. The framing was
also very good in this opening as the rule of 3rds was consistently being used
and was always showing the character from different places, giving the
connotations that he is being watched and is definitely in danger. I also felt
the editing in this opening was very good having shots jump constantly between
each other, and create a sense of disorientation. The sound I felt could have been
improved, as I felt the music became too dramatic at the end for what little
was going on, therefore marked it down for that. I also marked it down for the
fact that I didn’t feel like there was enough going on in the scene. Overall I
scored this piece of work 55/60 and felt that this was a very good piece of
work, and very good opening title sequence.
Cape Fear opening analysis
The opening to the film Cape Fear is very interesting as it
shows the opening credits in a very unusual and unique way. It has the credits
in the middle of the screen, over the top of a shot of some water which we find
out and recognise at the end of the opening when a voice tells the audience
that Cape Fear is actually a river.
The opening also
shows images of various things that look to be in the reflection of the water.
The first thing that the audience see is a bird (possibly a hawk or eagle).
This bird looks like a bird of prey and could resemble the character Max Cady
who is a character who could be compared to a bird of prey, attacking other
people, which is something that this bird looks like it is doing in the scene.
It then also shows a reflection of an eye looking around which could also
resemble something that this character would tend to do, giving the impression
they are being watched. These images are then followed by images of a man’s unidentifiable
face in the reflection of the water. All of this together gives the impression
that this location isn’t safe and that they are being watched and are vulnerable.
His then has importance later on in the film when the characters actually go to
this place, and they aren’t safe and do get attacked.
The water in this scene is also rippling which shows that
there has been something that has disturbed it and that they are not alone. It
gives the connotations that something is near and that it isn’t Max Cady is
near, however there are clues. He is a man who will act natural despite actually
wanting to do something worse than what at first is seen at first glance.
The opening also shows blood dropping into the river. Blood
in films will always resemble blood and death. The blood is dropping into the
river which could resemble that there will be blood spilt in the river and
there will be either somebody dyeing or seriously hurt in the lake. This
opening helps set the genre and the tone for the rest of the film, and tells
the audience what to expect from the rest of the film. With the showing of
blood in the opening sequence and the age rating of an 18, it will tell the
audience that this film is defiantly not suitable for young children, and tells
the adult audience what type of film they are about to watch.
The music to the opening to this film very sinister and
makes the audience feel on edge with the high pitch music from the very beginning,
which makes the audience fearful and uncomfortable from the start if the film.
This alongside with the blood drop, eagle, and the face of an unrecognisable
character, all makes the audience uncomfortable as soon as the film starts, and
sets the tone for the rest of the film.
Wednesday, 26 April 2017
Se7en opening analysis
The opening to the film Se7en is a very good and successful
opening to a thriller film. It shows the antagonist preparing for one of his murders;
however the audience do not know this on the first time of watching. On the
first time of watching the audience don’t know what they are watching, it is
only once they have watched the whole film and find out what John Doe does to
prepare for his murders (slicing the ends of his fingers etc.) that the
audience realise that they have already been shown him doing this at the very beginning
of the film, in the opening credits this is very successful as the audience
only know what it is about until they watch it for the second time.
The first scene in
the opening sequence shows John Doe flicking through a book whilst flickering
text is being shown. The fact that John is reading a book illustrates that he
is very intelligent and may be more intelligent than the people trying to catch
him. The book may also display that he is very methodical and isn’t a normal psychopath
who kills people randomly without any reason. This scene is not alone showing John being
methodical in his work as there are various other shots of him also doing
things that you wouldn’t expect a killer to do, including him writing, picking
up and reading more books and binding paper together . All of this together conveys that he is possibly
investigating the detectors and knows more about them than they know about him,
which is the case of the film.
The lighting in this title
sequence is very dark and looks as if the light source is a single desk lamp. This
adds to the atmosphere and as it makes the whole scene a lot more serious as the
dark lighting gives connotations of danger and somebody in a dark setting
should be scary and untrustworthy.
Other
props are also used in this opening sequence are also used however the other
props aren’t used to display intelligence or method but to keep the audience on
edge by the use of having props such as razor, slicing fingertips, and the
character handling with nail etc. The use of these make the audience feel uncomfortable
watching, as they are ordinary household objects that the audience will own,
however using them in a way that is dangerous and showing he is using them in
the wrong and dangerous way.
The
credits shown are in a handwriting font which again looks like John Doe has
written out the credits. The credits are also flickering which also makes them
look more creepy than they would otherwise look. This could convey insecurity.
The
use of the camera shots is also significant in the opening to this film. The whole
opening sequence consists of lots of extreme close ups. This doesn’t allow the
audience to take a good look at anything, location, character or anything the
character is doing properly.
Tuesday, 25 April 2017
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