EVALUATION - Film Institution Research

Institution

In a group we decided to research three different suitable institutions for the making of our film. I decided upon New Line Cinema as they are known for great films as well as highly respected good horror genre films.

EVALUATION - Progression From Preliminary To Final Opening

EVALUATION - Audience Feedback

EVALUATION - Use Of Technology

RESEARCH

PLANNING

We found that technology played a massive part in the planning of our opening. The software technology used we used during the planning was Blogger.com, Google, CELTX, and YouTube. The hardware technology we used were the Apple Mac’s.

The most used aspect of software during planning was CELTX, the online ‘all-in-one system for movie and film planning’, was a very useful during our planning, specifically when we were creating our script. First we made a story board by hand using paper and pencils, we had a basic idea of what the actors were going to say and when they were going to say it but we didn’t have it written down. So we chose to use CELTX to produce our script. Although our opening didn’t have much dialog, similar to many horror films. We found that CELTX made our planning prosses more effective, efficient and fun. A great feature found on CELTX is the session timer, this tells you how long you’ve been writing compared to how long you’ve been thinking. It also has a section where you can set writing goals and deadlines, this helps you stay on track and tells you how many words you need to write at each time limit. They also give you statistics of how you are working alongside your goals. We found by using CELTX we were motivated and knew what work was due in and when, so over all it had a positive impact on out project.

As well as that we found Blogger.com, Blogger gave us a platform to show, hold and share our planning. We could upload our ideas onto Blogger and it would keep our planning there clearly and made the planning very accessible for me and the rest of our group. A good feature of Blogger is that you can publicly upload parts of your work and it was ever accessible for the rest of your group. For example, if someone in my group was to create a draft script I would be able to view it from their Blog on Blogger.com. By using Blogger, I learnt new skills, one being how to run and take care of an online Blog, a key aspect of keeping the Blog up to speed was time management. If you didn’t have good time management your Blog would not be able to keep up with work or stay set on track, and with the use of Blogger it helped me do so.  By using Blogger, we could upload the planning clearly and it would be somewhere the whole group have easy access to. And it helped us stay on time and keep our planning in one area. This meant our project could progress smoothly and if we wanted to look of refer to our planning we knew it would be in one place.

As well as that, we used YouTube to help us in our planning. Firstly as a group, we came up with a set amount of questions and we asked them to a focus group of four, they fell into the age of our target audience. The questions we asked where so we could get an idea of what our audience would expect from a horror film. We filmed this on one of our mobile phones and uploaded it to YouTube. The good thing about YouTube is that it is very very to upload and extremely easy to view, as I said we filled uploaded and can view the focus group on out mobile phone. After this we copied the link into our blog’s and posted the focus group up. However, YouTube was also very important when it came to teaching us to use some of the new technology that we hadn’t used before, for example some of the features of CELTX were explained in depth over a YouTube video.

EVALUATION - Our Opening Compered To Actual Openings

EVALUATION - Representation Of Age, Ethnicity, Class, Sexuality & Gender

PowerPoint and Prezi

Evaluation of captive

FILM OPENING - CAPTIVE

FOCUS GROUP

PRELIM

Script

Survey

This was the survey we sent out to people by email. We then used the information/stats to understand our audience and what our audience you expect from a film in our genre. 

https://forms.=6NoSaA9nYUGP0nCJ4fq3vlpwU1MfAhFGhqaUO69fmpFURVpKVjAwQkVNM1dPS1lQU05XU0FJQjNDTS4uidoffice.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?

Main location of our opening

                  

Finally we decided Sutton Park would we the best loc
ation for us to film our opening. Sutton Park has large open spaces that we could film our 'parking car/goodbye' scene. It also had different density in woodland so we could capture all the different shots we needed in our opening. In the pictures below you can see the different areas we were looking for. Dense woodland, thinner woodland and a large open space for parking.

             

Possible Locations

When we looked into our story we new we needed a setting that had an open space, to pull up in the car, a lightly wooded area, to film scenes of the friends together, and finally an area that was densely populated with tree's, the tree's would act as shelter for the 'monster' in the woods. We would also need to film in someones house and driveway, this would be needed for the montage of 'Robin' packing his bag, putting his bag into the car and leaving.

Ordinarily we thought of three different locations that we could film our opening, they were The Licky Hills, Manner Park and Sutton Park. All three locations have the setting we needed for our opening. However after me and my college went on a scout to Manner Park we found a problem with the location, area's of the woodland, that we planned to film our scenes in the wood in , where boarded off so we couldn't access the area of the park we needed. So although Manner Park was the most local of the three locations we could not film there. Then we went on a scout of The Licky Hills, on arrival it seemed better than Manner Park. There was more variation of woodland, so we could get all the shots we were looking to get, and there was also a large open space that we could film the car pulling up into. However Licky Hills was a lot more popular than we thought, there were many people, dog walkers and families at the park. This would prevent us from getting that isolated feeling we were trying to reach in our opening, and therefor we had to film at our final location Sutton Park. And we decided to use James' house as he has quite a stereotypical bedroom of a boy at he age of 16 and also has a driveway that we could film on very easily.    

Character Profile (Robin)

This is the brain storm I produced for the main male character, and protagonist, Robin Lacey.

Shot List

Shot list for Captive

Harry James and Jake

1- An establishing long shot of the setting, which the teens are going to be seen at. This will be filmed with a slow pan, and we are going to film three different long shots so we have different point of views and so the audience can have a clear view as to where the location is.

2- A close up mid shot of the protagonist Robin putting props into his bag (clothes/food/equipment).  Face identity not revealed.

3- A low shot showing half of the protagonist’s lower body, putting his shoes on. Face identity not revealed.

4- A mid shot of the door being opened by the protagonist. Identity not yet been revealed.

5- A handheld shot following the protagonist walking to the car.

6- A shot from within the boot of the car, of bags getting thrown in, and then the boot closes on to the camera transmitting into the next shot. Face identity is now revealed.

7- POV shot from the protagonist male looking out the window. The setting is rain connoting negative vibes.

8- A mid/long shot of the car as it pulled up from a distance gradually coming into a parking position.

9- Transmitting from the previous shot, there is a close up shot of the tire coming to a stop, to achieve a gravel sound to add effect.

10- A pan shot across to the male character through a mid/long shot, and then a jump cut to his foot stepping out the car.

11- A long shot of the boy getting out the car and walking to the boot to get the bag out of the boot, as film title CAPTIVE appears on the screen.

12- An Over The Shoulder shot from behind the mother character looking at the protagonist Robin as they exchange dialogue, consisting of the mother telling him to stay safe and have fun. Through the same shot we see the protagonist walk into the distance through the window.

13- Low angled shot of Robin’s feet walking into muddy puddle, showing he is walking somewhere.

14- Mid Long shot of Robin entering the forest and going off the gravel.

15- Handheld shot following Robin as he is walking into the forest.

16- Mid shot of friendship group exchanging dialogue with robin in the distance walking towards them with a prop, (the map).

17- Fade into mid shot of friends sitting around chatting in the forest as the lead female protagonist .

18- A mid shot shows them walking into the forest, as it pans across a few trees into the direction that they are going to as the lighting gets darker.

19- Low angled shot facing up towards characters walking away.

20- Handheld shot of the characters walking together chatting, being followed by the camera. As it stops and lets the characters walk into the distance.

21- POV shot of the mysterious person watching the protagonist walk into the shot and out of the shot, handheld camera work with heavy breathing to create tension.

END OF FILM

Storyboard

Textual Analysis of 'The Shallows' (2016)

Textual analysis of 'The Shallows':

During the opening scene of 'The Shallows' the stock setting is the sea and the beach. Throughout the opening we see used of many different camera shots. The very first shot is an extreme long shot, in the shot we can see a tropical beach and a bright blue sea. By doing this the audience start to feel a state of equilibrium, because the sun, sea and sand have very positive connotations. Then the screen goes black and another tropical landscape, but this time it's from inside the jungle and you can see the sunlight shining through the layers of leaves. By using these shots the produces have created a sense of safety and a state of equilibrium. This is a very common effect in the horror film genre, because it builds suspense as the audience know there is going to be some sort of disruption, but they don't know when the disruption is going to take place. In the opening we are introduced to one Character, who we, the audience, assume is the main Character. She is a stereotypical horror film character, a young attractive girl. In horror films there is a common stereotype that is found, this is that the attractive girl has something bad happen to her and the audience pity her. Throughout the opening we see the girl isolated and on her own, this connotes to the audience that something is going to happen to her and no one is around to help her.

Themes:
Narrative:
Iconography:
Creation of enigma:
Introduction to characters:
Setting up Plot:
Editing-Mise en Scene-Camera shot:
Mood and Tone:

Textual Analysis of 'Jaws (1975)

Textual analysis of 'Jaws':

During the opening of 'Jaws' the stock setting is filmed from a POV (Point Of View) shot, or filmed on the beach. Having the setting as the beach is very important to the opening as it helps create a sate of equilibrium. This is because the beach has very positive connotations, for example people having fun and playing around. By having the stock setting as a place with positive connotations it help build up suspense and an expectation for the disruption from the state of equilibrium. AS well as that in the opening of 'Jaws' we, the audience, are introduced to a group of teenagers that are surrounding afire on the beach, playing guitars, drinking and smoking. The camera is panning along the group and then stops at a close up shot of a young man. Because the camera's movement stop and pauses when it reaches him this suggest that he is an important character to the opening. The frame is the cut to a young girl who is sitting across from each other to the young man. The camera then pauses on her we see her smiling, this is followed by close ups of the two teenagers smiling at one another. This would also imply that the girl is very important to the opening. As well as that i find it very interesting that the audience isn't introduced to the 'monster' in the opening at all, however the opening does start with a POV shot from within he water, the audience would assume it was from the POV of the 'monster'. But by not seeing the the 'monster'  the producers create a build up of suspense and gets the audience engaged with the opening. The opening of 'Jaws' follows quite a simple narrative. There is a large group of teens chilling out and having fun on a beach. Two of the teens, a boy and a girl, are smiling at each other across the group. The boys then gets up and goes to talk to her, the girl gets up and starts walking away from the group and the boy follows her. She then starts running towards the sea and he follows, she strips of her clothes and dives into the sea and swims out into the deep water without the boy, the boy is left in the shallows and is unable to get keep up with the girl and lies down and looks up at the sky. The girl is the grabbed by something in the water ad starts getting shaken around violently. At this point the audience still don't know what it is that's attacking her because the producers hasn't let the audience see the 'monster'.  The mise en scene, editing and camera shots are very important  in the opening. For example the camera shot at the end of the opening when the girl who left the group, Chrissie, is swimming alone in the deep water and there is use on a POV shot coming from the point of view of the 'monster'. This is important as it lets the audience know that the monster is focusing on Chrissie and this suggests something bad is going to happen to her. As well as that the use of the POV shot help build suspense and keep the audience wondering what the monster therefor keep them on the edge on their seat. Next I looked at the  mise en scene.The are of mise en scene I looked at was the characters,the characters in the opening is a group of teens. I thought it's interesting the the director chose to use teenagers, this might have been because the the target audience is of people between the ages of  12-19. So the target audience will be able to connect opening because it has people of their age feature in it. Finally the editing, the editing was very important in the was the opening was strung together. For example at the end of the opening, just before the first attack is seen. The editing used was a series if quick cuts to make the shark attack seem more violent and realistic.    

Themes:
Iconography:
Creation of enigma:
Introduction to characters:
Setting up Plot:
Editing-Mise en Scene-Camera shot:
 Mood and Tone:

Team Textual Analysis (Scream 1996)

Scream (1996)

Scream was created by Wes Craven in 1996 that is widely recognized for his horror genre work in scream as well as ‘A nightmare on Elm Street’ and ‘The Hills have eyes’. Scream is recognized throughout the world for its iconic mysterious killer, using a recognizable mask which gives hints away as to who is the killer, especially from the voice behind the mask. The opening presents an attention grabbing use of mise en scene, sound and camera shots and angles to produce a high amount of tension, building up to the rest of the film to create fear and awareness to the audience that there is form of threat. The continuous edit makes the audience receive suspense and captivating images of fear, which are sustained in the rest of the film. This cliff-hanger entices the audience to watch the rest of the film.

Stock Settings

In The beginning of scream we instantly notice the setting of the film. From a long shot, the house appears to be in a stranded part of the forest, isolated from urban areas at night time. This is highly significant as ‘scream’ is a stereotypical horror movie with the expected techniques of slasher, and the idea of it being at night is definitely associated with mystery and evil. The combination of the forest and night shows it is isolated from the world, and the murder about to take place will not be heard by anyone when it happens at night.

A forest is a place for nature which is purely associated with beauty and peace, so it shows the clear juxtaposition and contrast towards the norm which challenges the idea of this horror being stereotypical. The house is very similitude, and is showed to us by quick cuts and mid-shots. This allows the audience to see the atmosphere the characters live in, and in this case its very typical in the sense it being generally untidy.

Overall this setting before we see and understand the characters allows us to pin point and identify this realistic family setting, clearly being an isolated house and a rich family which stereo-typically are very vulnerable in horrors as they are portrayed as weak.

Themes

In scream, the main theme is death. However it is played through different themes like fear and mystery. Expanding on the theme mystery, the house Casey lives in is isolated from urban areas, adding to the mystery of outside characters as the voice even states, "they wouldn't make it in time; we're in the middle of nowhere. As with most horror genre films the theme will always be death as it is the main aspect of a tragedy and if it weren't to happen in a horror film, the audience would be disappointed. Violence is also a key theme as the man behind the voice is very similitude and doesn't have any supernatural powers, showing the fight scene as a true battle. Eventually he murders Casey, showing what themes we as the audience should expect throughout the rest of the film.

Narrative 

The main narrative within scream is the fear it creates for the rest of the film by building up Casey’s death. The opening itself has Todorovs narrative theory within it. Firstly there is the equilibrium of Casey making popcorn which is definitely a non-threatening normal occurrence. Then the theory is out of order as the disruption recognition swaps with the actual disruption. Casey gets constant phone calls, and the voice states, “who are you, I want to know who I’m looking at”. We recognise the disruption as well as Casey as she runs to all the doors and locks them. The disruptions then happen when the voice becomes a figure and Casey’s boyfriend is tied up and the voice attacks and kills Casey. There is no attempt to repair disruption or a new equilibrium as it is the opening and it purely to create suspense for the rest of the film.

Iconography

In scream, the main iconography is the phone as it is used as a symbol to represent Casey’s life. This is because as the threat increases, however when she initially answers the phone, the call is calm and short but the intensity increases when the phone calls are longer. Eventually when she dies, the phone dies showing that her life was represented as a visual image being the phone.

Another form of iconography is the mask on the voice when we eventually see this figure. The mask is a very unusual face and very stretched out as if he is screaming at you, and it creates fear for the audience and characters. Another form of iconography in the opening sequence is the knives that Casey holds whilst speaking to the voice that eventually killed her with a knife, showing it foreshadowed her death. In my opening sequence i could use the form of murder weapon beforehand, hinting to the audience that it is there as it foreshadows how the protagonist gets murdered.

Setting up plot

In the opening scene of scream, the audience receives a feeling of the mood and the film and how the story line may flow. To start off; the first thing the audience see is a phone ringing and then a young innocent  blonde girl comes to pick it up.  This instantly introduces the first character which a lot of the audience may consider her to be the protagonist. Later on we then realise that this girl is home alone in a large isolated house, making the audience confused as they question her age and whose house she is in. The audience notice a lot of the dialogue, which suggests this woman may have a good job and her own house, and perhaps just look young for her age as looking young is a key part of fashion. However we also consider if she has done something wrong or done something to affect the person behind this mysterious voice. Eventually the threat becomes more apparent as the tension gradually builds among the audience and Casey herself as the voice becomes threatening as he says he wants to know what her insides look like. As the scene progresses the audience get a shock as the prior denied boyfriend is seen tied up by the voice, yet the mystery still occurs because we still can’t see the voice. Once scene the girl becomes hysterical and the voice makes the women answer questions to save her boyfriend’s life. The boyfriend is murdered when she answers incorrectly; showing that this is no game and that it is very real. Eventually we see the character behind the voice as he appears to wear a black cloak with a white ghost mask. He proceeds to kill Casey and leave her body hanging from a tree for her parents to see. The entire plot as just the opening not only creates an enigma but sets up a plot and general idea for the audience for the rest of the film.

 Pace and Rhythm(editing Mise en Scene)

In Scream, the pace and rhythm differs as it goes from calm and collected to very intense with quick cuts. The mise en scene helps this. The Woman's costume is very basic and common, showing the normality of her easy life. This is interrupted by the distressful outfit of the person behind the voice on the phone whom is wearing a ghost face mask with a dark cloak. These two colours highly contrast, and these two different colours suggest the difference in his personality in the begging to the end. The mise-en-scene for the location of the house is very typical of horror films and specifically chosen by Wes Craven as it is very dark and we can hardly see anything outside because it is very foggy where the swimming pool is which gives it a scary effect and a sense of mystery. The darkness and bad weather give off an unsettled feeling to what may happen and foreshadows the ending as the weather, is negative just like Casey’s death. It is set very typically as there is a big house in the middle of nowhere, isolated, and there are lots of windows and doors which brings the fear to life as we know the killer is outside and the window suggests we can see everything outside but we can’t which makes us feel uneasy as the audience. There are many props which play a big part in the opening sequence; this gives the audience an idea for what may happen in the future. Just like the knife used that Casey held, as it is used as iconography which foreshadows her being killed with a knife. Also the prop of the phone which rings and rings then eventually dies, which ids an extended metaphor throughout the sequence for Casey’s life

Mood and tone (non diegetic music)

In scream, as well as the setting, the characters are very much stereotyped. The protagonist in the opening appears to be a white, blonde female which is highly stereotyped as being weak and vulnerable and it is portrayed through her death as she was unable to defend her. The young adult is very flirty on the phone and the back and forth conversation with this scary voice is almost cute banter, which contrast to the ultimate outcome. Casey appears to be portrayed as a typical older teen/young adult as she is making popcorn enforcing her personality as lazy and she also responds to the voice in a perhaps sexual way, associating older teens as sex orientated. The Voice behind the mask is very deep and deep is linked to more manly and violent as men are stereotyped as more dangerous. If the Killer were to be a woman, it is suggested that the audience would be less scared. Casey's parents are also highly significant. They are very stereotypical and protective and there fear show the emotion in the film is very similitude.

Non diegetic music is heard when the man states "I want to know who I am looking at", as it builds the tension up and shows the audience that Casey knows this man is not just a random person and could potentially be a threat. The non-diegetic music almost is used to signify a turning point because from then on the whole mood and tone becomes negative and scary compares to the equilibrium of her just speaking on the phone. The non-diegetic music is also an indicator to Todorovs theory as it introduces us the recognition of disruption as Casey knows this man could be a threat and looks outside and locks her doors.

Creation of enigma

The creation of enigma in the opening was the constant phone call. This is because it created mystery and suspense. This is because it was out of the ordinary for a unknown number to ring constantly in a scary voice. Another enigma was the popcorn. The popcorn created suspense as the packet rose and rose until it was too late, as if it represented the whole scenario. The non-diegetic sounds definitely lack compared to the diegetic as it doesn’t give the realism affect. The mood is definitely causing anxiety towards the characters and audience. This is because the noise of the popcorn increases and the diegetic phone keeps on ringing and the voice behind the phone is very deep. Also the quick cuts between different shots create a very intense mood. The tone is often silent to portray the suspense and that is very possible that a jump scare will occur.

Institutions

Scream is produced by: Woods Entertainment
Distributed by: Dimension Films

'Scream' (1996) opening sequence- Part 1-  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgKukhIw5eY
                       Part 2-  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78gEp7mJVH8
                       Part 3-  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-Q41b1lwPQ

The Horror Genre

Horror:

In out group we have chosen the genre of our film opening to be Horror. This is for many reasons, one being the horror genre is a genre that has a lot of strong conventions found in the openings. For example in many horror film openings it starts in a state of equilibrium and often we are introduced to the group of characters in the first two minutes. An example of a film that has a  opening full of horror conventions is 'Jaws'. Because the horror film openings are often similar our group thought it would be easy to replicate a horror film opening and it would be clear to the viewer that our opening falls into the horror film genre.

Sub Genres:

Horror films can get broken up into smaller sub genres, these sub genres include. However these sub genres may over lap and a film could fit into more than one sub genre:

-Slasher/Gore
-Monster/Zombie
-Psychological Thriller
-Possession/Paranormal
-Killer/Murderer
-Haunting/Ghosts
-Clowns/Dolls

Films within the horror genre:

-Slasher/Gore- A Nightmare on Elm Street(1984)/ Scream(1996)

-Psychological - Psycho (1960), The Ward (2010)

-Possession/Paranormal - The Exorcist (1973), Insidious (2010)

-Killer/murderer - Halloween (1978), You're Next (2013)

-Monster/Zombies/virus - Jaws (1975), World War Z (2013)

-Haunting/Supernatural - Poltergeist (1982), Paranormal Activity (2007)

-Clowns/dolls - Annabelle (2014), Amusement (2008) 

Audience of Horror

The audience off a horror film will normally be teenagers ( 12-19)/ young adults. The genre of horror can be watched by any ethnicity, and doesn't have a stereotypical ethnicity that watches them.

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Genre Planning

Genre Planning

In our group off three, we looked into three main genres styles that we could potentually that we could work in for our film opening. The three film genreswere Horror, Action and Adventure.

Horror

-usually a mid teen audience
-many sub genres
-the opening usually starts in a state off equlibrium, charectors are all together and happy, we see glimses off desrumtion that will come laterin the film
-examples off horror openings - Jaws - cabin fever - chainsaw masicur - the shallows
-one main setting

Action

-usually 12-55 years
-often seen as a hybrid - action adventure
-lots of fight scenes
-clean hero vs villain (Todorov's theory)
-example of action- James bond, Jason Bourne and Mad Max

Adventure

-all ages
-often linked to action
- main charactor goes on a journey
- follows Todorovs theory
- exaples of adventure- Lord Of The Rings, Indiana Jones and The Hobbit