Location Scouting!

Here are some pictures taken when I went to possible locations to film our main task. All the places are easily accessible, whilst this means we will have to plan carefully when to film as to not capture any of the public it also means that ourselves and our actors will have no difficulty getting there.

I think this part of The Thicket would be a perfect place to film our establishing shot as although it is more open plan and field more that wood it gives a good sense of where the film will be set and lets the audience see that they are in a wooded area. It means we can fit a lot of trees into our shot and show all the surroundings well.

 For the interior shots of the woods I found another part of the woods nearby to be more fitting for our needs as the trees are denser, giving it a more wild atmosphere which would suit our film well, as we don't want it to look like a public place. I also think that it would be more interesting to film here as there are many different type of trees, bushes and plants.

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane.

All the boys love Mandy Lane

00:23-02:27

This film starts with a black screen and then the title of the film appears slowly using a ‘fade in’ effect.  The words ‘Mandy Lane’ appear larger on the screen making them seem more important, the use of white words on a black background means that they are more prominent and easy to read whereas when words are over an image it can make them slightly illegible. The font also subtly suggests a horror. The music playing over the titles at this point is quite stereotypical for horror films as it is quite unnerving, there is a soft piano playing high pitched notes, which is suddenly cut off by what sounds like a slash of a knife and a distorted girl’s scream. Simultaneously the words ‘Mandy Lane’ get a blood splattered effect on the white, which instantly emphasises the fact that this is a horror, and possibly quite a gory ‘slasher’.  A drop of blood then drips down from the words and the camera tilts down to follow it.

As the camera tilts the screen fades to white and there is the sound of a bell ringing, instantly signifying a secondary school.  The camera continues to tilt down and there is now a bright orange exit sign right in the middle of the screen, making it extremely noticeable. At this point there is a non-diegetic song being played, In Anticipation of your Suicide- Bedroom Walls, it’s quite a calm, soft song, which contrasts to the usual rush and fast pace of a school when the bell rings.  We next see a door being open and two young boys jogging out of it, one looks back and waves as if saying goodbye to someone, the fact that these are teenagers reinstates the assumption that this is a school and the age of these boys allows us to presume that the main characters will be teenagers. As the camera continues to move back, on a dolly, a girl steps into the frame. This shot is a close up and at this point we cannot see the girls face; only her chest and hair, and this creates a certain enigma about her.

The following shot is a close up of a boy turning his head to gaze at something as the camera pans past him, this creates the impression that he is looking at the girl as she walks past. This makes the girl seem important as people are stopping to look as her and makes the audience take notice of her more.  The next shot is a close up on her face and she is positioned quite central within the frame.  She is quite stereotypically attractive she has long blonde hair and minimal make up. This stereotype is commonly used in horror’s to mark ‘the victim’ as it implies a kind of innocence.  The background behind her has been blurred slightly drawing the focus to her even more; however you can still see that the people in the background are watching her as she walks.    

After this there is a variety of close up shots on different people, all showing them turn their heads to look at her.  The people used here are a mixture of sexes and races which implies that everyone at the school, no matter who they are, stops to look at her. This raises many questions about her and what she has done to gained so much obvious attention.  This time when the camera straight cuts back to her the camera shot is a close up even more focused on her face, possibly so you can see more of her facial expressions. The camera tracks her for a while as she walks and shows her playing with her hair, in a stereotypical feminine way.  She also looks as though she is searching for something, or someone as her eyes dart around a lot and she tilts her head.

In the next shot the camera is tracking her from behind which again signifies her femininity and sexualises her more than the previous shots which seemed to show more of her purity and youth.  She then meets up with a friend who has been waiting for her and there is a long shot of them both walking down the hallway, which is now suddenly deserted.  This is quite an eerily effect as the lighting has been specially selected to be quite white and blue, making it seem like a cold, detached atmosphere. This is sustained through the use of instrumental music  which gives a sense of foreboding.    

Contrasting to this the next few shots are of them walking outside, where it is bright and sunny, the colours used here are very warm.  We then see a car pull up towards them and the next shot is a close up on the drivers face, he also is a common stereotype used in films, he’s blonde, tanned and looks quite ‘all American’.  He calls out Mandy Lane, and after a while the girl replies, this is the first conformation we get that she is the title character. Her hesitance in replying suggests that she doesn’t know why he is talking to her or doesn’t want to reply so already we are getting hints to what their relationship is. There is then some dialogue between Mandy Lane and the people in the car, where the boys ask her to come with them, with obvious jealousy from the girls. This sets the scene for the rest of the film as it shows strains in the character’s relationships which could be vital later on in the film.

The opening two minuets end with Mandy Lane agreeing to go with them and taking her friend with her, although neither he, nor the characters in the car seem happy about it.

Research and Planning.

 Evidence of our initail planning and development of our ideas.

Film Deconstruction.

Jennifer’s Body

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_pTIVK38yw

The opening shot of the film is the camera moving over a garden toward a house. Within shot there is a tire swing attached to a tree which suggests that there were or are young children in the house. The garden is dark as it is night and this gives a creepy feel to what might otherwise seem like a nice family home. There is instrumental music playing in the background and what sounds like someone heavy breathing. During this shot there is the ‘fox presents’ titles and lasts about ten seconds.

 This shot changes to a close up on a girl scratching her arm whilst the scary music continues.The colours used are dark, blues and greys. This makes the flesh of the arm stand out and also create a creepy ambience. The same instrumental music is played but this time we can hear the diegetic sounds of a TV in the background and the sound of her scratching her arm, this sound seems exaggerated as it is very clear and louder than it would be in real life.

From this we seem to continue on from the first shot as the camera moves through the garden, getting closer and closer to a window, this is the only window in the house that shows light from the room meaning that we are focused on this one, and also giving the rest of the house a deserted look. The music continues but this time instead of breathing it almost sounds like footsteps running.

Then it flashes back to what we assume to be the person from the second shot, but this time it’s a close up on their mouth as they chew their hair. From this shot we can draw assumptions about this character, it seems the character is a girl because of the shape of her lips and we also assume her to be quite young as most adults don’t chew on their hair. Again we can hear the sounds of the TV so this reaffirm’s that it is the same character. From her actions we can tell that she’s quite calm and relaxed.

The next shot is of the camera moving, more slowly this time, up to the window. From the flashes between these shots we can assume that the girl is inside the room that the camera is moving to. We also get the feeling that we are getting a perspective shot and that the camera is actually someone who is sneaking closer to the window and consequently the girl.  Through the window we can see the TV that has been playing in the other shots and this helps up put the two different locations together.   

The sound of the TV continues as the screen flashes to black and then the title of the film ‘Jennifer’s Body’ fades in as the camera tilts upwards. As the camera tilts the black fades away and we see that we are at the end of the bed in the room. We first get a look at the back wall of the room, which is painted light pink, there are two laps on either side of the bed, but only one is on and there is a collage of pictures stuck between the posters of the bed. From this we can again draw assumptions, based on stereotypes, that the character is a girl and not yet adult. Then the camera moves over the bed and we see the character fully for the first time. Here the male gaze may be used as she is lying on the bed wearing long socks and shorts, the camera moves over her slightly and we see that she is not really watching the TV but focusing on something in her hands.  As assumed it is a girl who seems to be in her late teens. We then get a close up on the TV that has been playing and see that it’s some sort of work out program, this adds some light comedy and also contrasts to the next shot.

Suddenly the sound of the TV disappears and there is a loud, non-diegetic, noise that kind of sounds like an explosion or a gun. This is very surprising and makes the audience jump. Simultaneously the camera jump cuts to a side-on view to the girl on the bed, who now looks like she is asleep. The lamp has been turned off and this makes the scene darker. Also from this position we can see there is a face at the window, which we can guess is the window from the beginning. It is dark outside so we cannot see the face very well, but we can see that it is a girl with long hair, because of the lighting she looks almost ghostly. This shot only lasts about three seconds. 

The next shot is also a side view but this time from the opposite side. The character turns her head to face the camera as though she was looking at the window. There is then a flash to the said window but this time there is no-one there.  There is the sound of wind and the window rattling.

The shot changes back to the girl and there is a slow zoom onto her face,  a non-diegetic narrator starts talking and there are background sounds of girls laughing. Narrators are very common in movies such as Teen Drama’s and Rom-Coms.

Then, as the narrator continues the camera flashes to another location, as the camera zooms out and then tilts down we are in what seems to be an institute or prison of some kind, we can see this from the bars on the windows. As the camera continues moving down we see another character from behind, this one different from the other two in the previous shots. As the room has toys and books in and as she is wearing what looks like a hospital gown we can now presume that she is in some sort of medical facility, we also guess that she is the narrator. The camera moves down and across the floor of the room.

Main Task

Brief- The opening of a new fiction film, to include titles and to last no more than two minutes.

We have chosen to film a Teen Horror for our main task as we felt that this genre is not only appropriate to our age and interests but leant itself to low production costs and allowed us to demonstrate the skills that we have learnt whilst studying the course so far. We also thought that it would let us be more creative with camera shots, mise-en-scene and music whilst still looking professional. As well as this it also means that finding actors, locations and props to fit the genre would be easy.    

Media Evaluation

As part of our AS media studies course we were given a preliminary task to help us when creating our real one. The brief stated that we must film a person walking through a door, sitting down and engaging in conversation with another character, and exchanging a few lines of dialogue. We were also to demonstrate match on action, the 180 degree rule and shot reverse shot.

To plan our preliminary task we used a story board, where we drew simple pictures and included to notes to represent the different scenes, angles and shots we wanted to use and to show how the story would progress. Overall we managed to work with our storyboard and the finished piece is very similar. Although we did notice that we had to cut down scene lengths as we didn’t realise how long a few seconds actually is. We also used a few more different shots that we had initially thought because we wanted to keep it interesting and less static.

We used a mixture of shots throughout the piece so that we managed to show everything we needed to or to emphasis a certain point. Our first shot used was a long shot as this helped to establish the scene and the character. We then used a mid-shot of just the character to show the audience that this is who they should be focusing on. Close ups were used during the conversation to show the expressions on the actors faces clearly and to highlight what they are thinking.  We also used an over the shoulder, quite close up shot, of the envelope to show the audience what the character was looking at.  This meant the audience was able to follow the action as they understood what the character was doing. Although we used a tripod for all our scenes there are certain shaky bits where someone may have accidently knocked the camera or when the tripod was unstable, when filming our real task we will make sure that this doesn’t happen as it can take away from the overall effect.

Our Mise-en-scene was relatively simple as we didn’t really have a specific location for where the action was taking place, we just needed any hallway and meeting room. However we did keep a lot of things within shots, such as chairs, art work, and a plant. We thought that this gave it a realistic element because it looked like somewhere that was actually in use and not just a set or something. We wanted to keep these little details in as they added a lot to the scene. The plant in the meeting room was especially kept there as in almost every generic office room there is some kind of potted plant and so we were keeping to what the audience would expect. We chose our costume based on the characters we were playing, as character one is dressed to look bold the audience are not surprised when she disobeys the rules whereas character two is dressed smart but less bold to represent that she would be the stern, important one.

We used ambient lighting such as fluorescent lights in the ceiling and light from a window so that everything looks more natural and realistic. We made sure, before filming that there was enough light to clearly show all the action and so that nothing was lost due to poor lighting. If there wasn’t enough light we would have to had considered moving locations.

 For our task we used only diegetic sounds, which although suits or piece means that we will have to learn how to import sound on final cut pro later when we make our real one. We were filming in quite a public and busy place which unfortunately means that we ended up with a lot of background sounds that we didn’t actually want there. Although we didn’t mind some as it again, makes the scene seem realistic, there were some that were taking away from the scene. To ramify this we managed to mute some sounds in the editing process. I feel like this was very useful to know as it improved our knowledge of how to use the software and may come in handy when next editing. Although we first found it difficult to only mute one part without muting the other, we managed quite successfully.

In general our match on action was okay, at first we had one character walking past the same object twice but we managed to spot this and get rid of it so that it was much more continuous. However there are some parts that are not great, such as when the door is first opened it is opened slowly but when filmed from the other side it is quick, this is something we probably would have had to refilm. Unlike our brief we did not have our character sit down as we did not feel like they would in the situation so when doing shot-reverse-shot we had to make sure that we had an eyeline match and we did this by making sure the camera was pointed in certain ways, I feel like this was quite successful as it still seems like the two people are having a conversation and looking at each other. We also made sure to abide by the 180 degree rule.

One thing that we noticed during editing was that we didn’t have any leeway with our filming as we started action as soon was the camera was rolling when we should have left it for a few second before hand and  doing that would have made it easier to edit, however it is a good lesson learnt for when we do our real thing.

I think that our task was actually quite good, apart from a few small errors, and that it was a valiant first attempt. Mistakes that we made in the piece helped us learn about what we’ll have to do next time and also helped us to find a way around problems when they first seemed unsolvable!

Preliminary Task

Here is the link to my preliminary task,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iobeyXa1UQM