Planning : From Initial Ideas To A 60 Second Pitch

Firstly I have researched about everything to do with teenage horror films. For example, the importance of sounds and the importance of opening titles and other things as well. Now that we have done all of this, we did a mid map for our initial ideas, where we wrote different types of ideas that we had for our horror film.

I the picture above, you can see a picture of us, where we have been discussing what the film was going to be about.

You can see here a picture of our mind-map for our initial ideas. After we finished this we had to choose only one idea for our horror film.

Lastly, we discussed our idea even further of what was going to happened in the film and the characters name and we also wrote the things that we were going to include in our 60 second pitch, as that's the last thing we did.
For our 60 second pitch, we had to say brief descriptions of what our film was about, we also had to came up for a title for our horror film (Game Over) and our production name, which is 'New Dismo.'

Our 60 second pitch can be found in the video bellow, starting at 3:40.

Research: The Importance Of Sound In Horror Films

The Importance Of Sound In Horror Films from enilze

Research: The Importance Of Opening Titles

Firstly I watched the opening intro of the film 'SE7EN.' I have watched this in this in a website called 'Art Of The TITLE.' You can go to that website by CLINKING HERE.
In the photograph above you can see a picture where I have drawn a table, to see how many times a new title appears on the opening credits. You can see that on the left there's the time where each title appeared on the screen and on the right, you can see the titles that appeared on there as well.

Secondly I have decided to make some notes about the Typography which means the font styles, the colour of the fonts and also the position that appeared on the screen. Further more I have made some notes of the visual elements, where I had to turn the volume off and I had to describe what I saw in the opening credits. For example the characters and what they were doing visa versa.

Lastly I have written about the elements of sounds. For this I had to close my eyes and only listen to the sound of the opening of the film and make some notes about the music or sound I was able to hear. For example I talked about the tempo of the music and if it was a diegetic (is any sound that the character/characters can hear. For example screams, dialogues...) here in or non-diegetic sound (is any sound that the audience can hear but not the characters. For example the background music).

What I have learnt by doing this process is to identify different features in the opening film. For example the sounds that works better for a horror film and the different types of fonts to make it look scarier. I have also developed my skill in individualising separated features of the opening credits.

Research: Codes And Conventions In Existing Horror Films Aimed At A Teenage Audience

Camera

Sounds

Mise-en-scene

Codes are system of signs, where you put them together to create a meaning and this can be found in teenage horror films. There's three different types of codes:

·         Technical Codes are such as camera techniques, lightning, framing, sound  and depth of field. Both can be diagetic and non-diagetic.

·         Symbolic Code includes mis-en-scene (clothing, make-up, settings) this is used to make the film more realistic and interesting.

·         Verbal codes. this is everything to do with languages either written or spoken.

Conventions is what you expect to see in a horror film. for example in a horror film, you expect to see:

·         someone rips over while running.

·         whenever they get into safety, they normally are caught.

·         there's normally always where there's no way of transport so the victim doesn't run away that easily.

·         no signal.

I am going to analyse three different types of teenage horror films. I am going to analyse them as they all those three films has the use of different types of codes and convections.

Dead Wood

Four friends  head out into the woods for the weekend. An unexpected twist happened when this mysterious girl is looking for her boyfriend. Soon everything started to change,  where they all got lost in the middle of nowhere followed by a deadly creature.

The technical codes that I'm able to hear in the start of 'Dead Wood'  are the bird singing, which already gives away that the scene it is set in the woods. it starts with a slow sinister music which suggests that something horrible it's going to happen. then the music starts to get louder as the teenage boy starts running from someone who is chasing him.

After that I started looking for the symbolic codes in this 5 minute film. where its been used a crane camera movement of the wood and to make it more interesting they used point of view and tracking shots when the man is running from the creature. to show how deep the cliff is, its been used a low angle shot. it foreshadows that the man will fall into the cliff.

The convention of this film are teenage boy and a teenage girl, where the boy runs away from someone, he also trips over while he was running and gets killed, while he was trying to get in safe place (tent).

The mise-en-scene I was able to find was that the teenage boy was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and jeans and the girl was wearing revealing clothes and regular make-up.

Dead Mary

Kim and her boyfriend Matt have just broken up, but they still went to a cottage for the weekend with their friends Eve, Dash and his wife Amber and Baker and his new girlfriend Lily. when they decided to play "Dead Mary" and that's where all the nightmare started.

In the beginning of the film I was able to hear a metallic sound of chains. which makes the viewer curious of where the film it's set. In the middle of the 5 minutes film, there's a teenage girl who starts tapping her fingers on the roof of the car, which suggests that she's waiting for someone and that she's bored.

The camera movement that it's been used at the beginning is the extreme close up of the chain, there's also a close-up of a gas station sign. this suggests that there is a gas station in the place where they are going and that it could be an important place during the film. there's also an extreme close up of a trunk and a point of view of the car. this shows that someone is watching them.

This film its in the middle of nowhere, they are even out of fuel, there's not signal where they are going as she trying to listen to the radio and tried to go on her phone. in this 5 minutes film the only protagonists that you can see it's a teenage boy and a girl round their twenties and for that reason the girl wears more revealing clothes and the way she doesn't have shoes means that she's been waiting for a long time for someone.

Wrong Turn

Six people are stuck in the woods of West Virginia, where they are hunted by "cannibalistic mountain men grossly figured)

At the beginning of this 5 minute film it starts by a low pitch sound, which sounds evil and sinister. which already suggest that something terrible it's going to happen. After the teenage girl says "pull me up" there's a noise of the guy (who she's gone hiking with) falling down the mountain but before that you can hear the that someone punched him and has been beaten  up by someone. The music stars to build up by getting louder when the girl sees the dead body of her friend.

The first shot that I  was able to see at the beginning of the film was a establishing shot of the woods, which shows where the scene its going to be set. In the middle of the scene there's a close up of the girl where she struggles to climb up and there's also a close up of the rope, when she gets pulled up by someone.

In this scene the protagonists are a teenage boy and girl, round their twenties. This is set in woods, where someone gets killed and when the girl tries to run away from the creature she trips over.

The mise-en-scene of this scene is that the teenage girl; wears revealing clothes and daily make-up. they've already got all the climbing equipment which suggests that both of them planned to go hiking together.

In conclusion in all of those 5 minute films, the protagonists are around their 20's and there's normally a teenage boy and a teenage girl. In "Wrong Turn" and "Dead Wood" the teenage boy gets killed by the suspicious creature, which aren't able to see it in any of those three films. Since the girls area teenagers, and because its sunny as well they wear more reviling clothes.

Analysing codes and conventions in existing teen horror films from enilze

Research: Codes and Conventions In Horror Films.

What are codes?

codes are system of signs, put together to create meaning. There's three different types of codes such as:

Technical codes-   The way a text its formed. For example, camera techniques,lighting,framing, depth of field.

Symbolic Codes- All the things that reflects to our experience and understanding of other media texts. Such as settings, objects, body language, clothing and colour (miss-en-scene).

Verbal Codes- everything to do with language either written or spoken.



What are conventions?


Conventions is what you expect to see in a certain genre. For example in a horror gender film, you normally expect to see blood, villain, monsters, weapons visa versa. 

How codes and conventions apply to media studies? 

Codes and conventions can be used in any type of genre.
codes and conventions are important as you cannot discuss about the technical codes, such as camera techniques, without saying how its used conventionally in a genre.

Research: The History Of Horror Films

Introduction To Main Task

Preliminary Task Evaluation

Describe the set brief for the Preliminary Task. What was it that you were asked to create?Use the correct media specific vocabulary and show that you understand the meaning of  these terms.

We were asked to film and to edit a character opening the door,crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite to another character, where they exchange a couple of lines of dialogue. It needed to demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.

Explain everything that you did leading up to the point when you started filming (pre-production). Discuss how this process helped to prepare you for filming.

The first thing we did was to look at different types of camera shots, camera movement, the 180 degree rule and  camera angles before I started to plan and film the scene, as we needed to know how to record and not only use one type of angle for the scene because that would make it boring for the viewer. After we've learnt all of that me and my group decided to practice it with a camera so we can have an idea how to do it.Next we wrote a short scenario  for our scene in a piece of paper and the we post it it on our blogs. where a teenager named Henry (16) opens the door to the food tech room, walks in and sits opposite Rob (11) and then steals his carton of milk. The theft of the milk is discussed through two lines of dialogue.' After that we created a story board divided into 12 where we need to draw what it was going to appear into the scene and the different types of camera shots, movements and angles we were gonna use, as well including the 180 degree rule, then we did it more neater in a 12 piece of papers where we needed to draw what it was going to appear in the scene, what type of angle we were going to use and the character that was going to appear in that shot. To make it even more presentable so we can post it in our blogs we presented it in a PowerPoint called 'SlideShare.'
After we finished doing all of that we started taking pictures of the locations where we were going to film. The types of shots that we used were establishing shot and long shot. All of this helped us on how we needed to film it, where we needed to film it and what each character needed to say or do. Then we needed to plan the Mise-En-Scene casting, which includes the actors that we needed, their photographs, their hobbies and we also needed to explain why they were suitable for our scene.

After planning all of that, we decided to get a video from some last year's students and we practiced how to edit those shots, how to cut the video, how to add music, how to fade the music that its at the background and how hot to put all of those videos together so it looks more interesting. For this we have used 'Adobe Premier Pro'
Finally we did a film schedule where needed to plan where we were going to film the scene, the characters that we needed, the location, the equipment and the clothes that they needed to wear.

Describe the filming process itself (production). How did this go?

I think the filming process went quite well since we included what we were meant to include. However we needed to film one shot more than once since we needed to use different angles instead of using only one angle for the whole scene. it was also quite fun filming and i have enjoyed it a lot.

Explain the editing stage for your preliminary task (post-production). This should include how you applied new skills you haven't learnt.

I think the editing went well I has so much fun, specially experimenting things that no one taught me like for example adding another page where we could write anything that we want it but I wrote the names of the characters, who filmed it and edited it as well, I have also added different types of video effects and  a new way to fade in the music and make the characters voice louder.

However we didn't realize that we were filming it in  landscape and portrait and it didn't look that good when I was trying to put the scenes together.  

Evaluate your finished Preliminary Task. How well does it meet the expectations of your set brief? Which parts of it do you think are particularly strong? where are there weaknesses? What can you identify as being an area for development when it comes to producing your Main Task?


I think that the finish Preliminary Task went well we have included all the points that we needed to like shot reverse shot, 180 degree rule visa versa. I think the close up shots were the strongest one, specially the close up of the milk because it makes the scene look more intense.

However we had some weaknesses too like for example we forgot to put the pencil case and the notebook on the table, I have also noticed while I was editing it there was a finger on the screen while they were filming it and also we have filmed it in landscape and portrait. Now I know what I don't need to do for my main task.

Preliminary Task video

AS Media Studies: Preliminary Task: Filming Schedule

Learning To Edit With Adobe Premier Pro

In this lesson i have learned how to use and edit a video with an Adobe Premier Pro, I have also learnt how to add music into the video and fade it in so the video isn't on it's own when they aren't talking and after i fished editing the video i learnt how to export it.

Planning: Mise-En-Scene: Casting

Henry (age 16) is a sixth former.Henry its tall and he is also likes to play football. he can also be rude and arrogant. Henry will played as George. We have chose him as he is not shy but he's confident and he has the same age as the character.

 Rob (age 12) he is a year 7 student. he is  he is shy and not very social. His hobby is playing video games in his free time.

Rob will be played by James. James is suitable for this role as he has the same age as Rob and he is also a bit shy.

Planning: Mise-En-Scene: Location Planning

Our first shot of our storyboard is an establishing shot of the school. we have chosen to do it in this school because its not far away and we can get access to it really easily, it will also be suitable for the scene because it will clearly show for context that the following scene will take place in the building.

Our second shot of our storyboard it's a long shot of the food technology corridor.

We have taken this shot to show that Henry is on his way to the food technology room.

This shot it's suitable as it is in school and so the audience can see that he is on his way to the technology room.

The final shot that we took is in the food technology room. This room it's the most important one as everything will happen here and we'll use different types of camera angles, movements and shots.

We have chosen this room because it is in our storyboard and because we've got one in our school so we can access to it easily, this will also be suitable as there's ovens in the room which the audience will clearly see that and it will also be more believable. 

Preliminary Task: Creating A Storyboard From Initial Ideas

In our group we have decided to make our story in school as it will be easier for us to film it, it will also include a student(Rob) and six former(Henry) where Henry goes to the food technology and sits down opposite Rob and he steals his carton of milk and the they will exchange some lines of dialogue. This scene would be set in the food technology.
for these footage we are using the 12 shot challenge where it helps us to use different types of angles, movements and shots.

In the lesson i have learned how to create a storyboard and the present it into a PowerPoint and post it in my blog and how to work in a group to come up with a story, i have also learned different types of camera angles,movements and shots.

12 Shot Challenge 

Preliminary Task:First Ideas

Henry, 16, opens the door to the food tech room, walks in and sits opposite Rob, 11, and then steals his carton of milk. The theft of the milk is discussed through two lines of dialogue.

OCR Guide To Basic Camera Movements

OCR Guide To Basic Camera Angles

OCR Guide To Basic Camera Shots

OCR Guide To The 180 Degree Rule

Foundation Portfolio:What Is It?

50% of your grade will be earned through your Foundation Portfolio. This consists of a preliminary task and a main task, the details of which can be found below.

The Preliminary Task is designed to illustrate the processes of pre-production, production and post-production that will be required, albeit in more detail, when you come to undertake the Main Task. The Preliminary Task is not marked but MUST be completed and submitted alongside the Main Task to the examiner. If it is not completed, marks are deducted from your Main Task.

The Main Task is marked out of 100. These marks are broken down as follows:

20 marks - Research into similar media products and planning of your own media product.
60 marks - Construction of your own media product including filiming and editing.
20 marks - Evaluation of your own media product.

All of your work must be posted to your blog as this will be accessed by the examiner in May of 2016.

For each of the criteria above, marks are available in 4 levels with level 4 being the highest. 

The progress thermometer below shows the key words for each level of the mark scheme.

This is what you have to do:

Preliminary Exercise

Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Main Task

The titles and opening of a new teen horror film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source. Both preliminary and main tasks must be completed as a group. Maximum four members to a group.

Basic Camera Movements

Tracking In

Tracking Out

Tracking Sideways

Arc

Crane

Panning

Camera Shot

 Establishing Shot

 Long Shot

 Mid Shot

 Close Up

 Extreme Close Up

 Two Shot

 Point of View

 Over The Shoulder

 High Angle

Low Angle

Me As A Consumer Of The Media

The Media relationship I have chose was Films, I have chosen this because I love watching films, specially in cinemas but I go there very often as it is a bit expensive, so instead I watch it on DVD's which it's more cheaper and I can also watch it whenever I want.


my favorite film is called 'The Last Song' this is a romantic film and it's more suitable for teenagers and family. The reason why I like it it's not because it's romantic it was because Miley Cyrus was acting in that film and after that I started watching it so may times no only because it was romantic but because it was really sad as well.
if you want to watch the trailer of 'The Last song'


I also like music as I always listen to it when I'm bored or when I'm drawing as it relaxes me and
makes me have more ideas of what I can draw, when I listen to the lyrics. I normally listen to music with my headphones for example classic songs like'kiss the rain' and 'Gabriel' by Yiruma, if you want to hear one of his songs CLICK HERE
 I also listen to music when I'm getting ready but this time I choose pop music because it lightens my day and makes me feel more happier.

Thirdly i would probably choose internet because I'm mostly every single day using the internet, whether is Facebook, google or YouTube. I go to YouTube and Facebook only when I'm bored and have nothing to do but I mostly use Google for my homework or if I'm trying to find out something that I'm curious about.
I use all of this mostly on my phone as I always carry my phone with me, wherever I go, whether is in school, outside while I'm walking or in my house.