Our Final Film

Our final film is uploaded to YouTube on an account that can also link to Blogger, allowing an audience to also be able to see how the film was made.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXS67a-VzVQ - 'The Revenge' , final film.

Answering the 6 Questions

I here answer the questions about the full project and what I have accomplished and learnt throughout it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy6Kwa2DBr4

Finishing The Film

After watching the opening sequence fully finished we thought it needs something adding to it to make it seem more of a opening sequence for a horror film rather then a trailer for a horror film so the sequence would lead on like a real horror film.

We did this by adding a shot of the killer circling to more victims and following this up with a POV shot of the killer in the bushes following his next two targets which are the two people that he had circled earlier.

Analysis of a horror film opening sequence

Horror Poster analysis

Our Characters

We only have 2 characters shown in the film, the effect of this is a sense of suspension, as it makes them want to know what is going to happen, and why only one person has been subdued to attack. We had the victim of similar age to our target audience and wearing every day normal clothes, the effect of this was that it made the audience feel powerless and look as if it is an easy position to end up in for them. We had our villain also the same age as our target audience, again worrying the audience as it makes them unsure of who they can trust and think that this could happen to anyone. By having the Villain covered up and not showing any facial features it creates a strong sense of mystery, worrying the audience as they do not know who it is and who they will be able to trust throuhgout the film.

Stereotypical Horror Weapons

The Butcher Knife

The effect that a weapon like this, is that the stereotypical horror weapon. The most memorable that audiences remember of this weapon is the one from 'Physco'. This image also has connotations of horror as it being used to cut dead animals foreshadows what is going to happen next.
















The Kitchen Knife

This is an effective item in horror as it is an everyday house hold item, so it can be retrieved by anyone, givin a sense of mystery and giving the audience no idea of who the villain could be.



















OUR HORROR WEAPON

For our weapon we chose to have a plank of wood, the close up of the wood before it has been moved indicates to the audience its purpose in the film. The effect of having this as a weapon is again the fact that anyone can reach it, giving a snse of mystery to the audience.

Final Locations

 

These are the final shots that we use in our film. The effect of having them in everyday rural places, is a good effect to an audience as it makes them feel uneasy about where they go, as the crime takes place in a place that is similar to what is seen every day. We demonstrate multiple shots throughout the opening. Some shot openings have steretypical conventions of horror such as the alleyway and desolate areas. Overall these are good locations as they hold steretypical horror conventions interesting the audience into watching on.

Revenge Pitch

Preliminary

Preliminary task

Film Distribution

Summary

A film distributor is the link between film producers and exhibitors, the aim is to get as many people as they can to see the film at as many different cinemas as possible. The distributor markets the film and develops an appropriate advertising campaign. To market successfully, the distributor has to target the appropriate audience. The distributor needs to create an interest in films, this can be easy if there is a clear and key selling point such as a famous actor or well known story, but this becomes harder for lower budget films. Distributors employ researchers to track the recognition of the film with the target audience during the campaign. The UK has major distributors and independent ones, such as Working Title.




Low Budget Film Distributors

http://www.leftfilms.com
http://www.workingtitlefilms.com




High Budget Film Distributors

http://www.lionsgate.com/
http://www.fox.co.uk/
http://www.sonypictures.com/




Different types of film distribution;

- Wide Release (Most Common)
- The Modified Wide Release
- Exclusive and Limited Runs
- Territorial Saturation

Creating a Film

- Having an idea for a film and creating and outline to promote the interest in the idea.

 

- Have a studio or independent investor decides the purchase rights to the film.

 

- People are brought together to make the film, such as a screenwriter, producer, director, cast and crew.

 

- The film is completed and sent to the studio.

 

- The studio makes a licencing agreement with a distribution company

 

- The company decides how many copies of the film to make

 

- The distribution company shows the movie to prospective buyers representing the theaters.

 

- The buyes negitiate with the distribution company on which movies they wish to lease and the terms of the lease agreement.

 

- The prints are sent to the theatres for a few days before the opening day.

 

- The theatre shows the movie for a specified number of weeks (engagement)

 

- You buy a ticket and watch the movie

 

- At the end of the engagement, the theater sends the print back to the distribution company and makes payment on the lease agreement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These steps are often combined, more so in small independent companies.

 

Storyboard

Character Stereotypes

The Hero

More than often a masculine character with a heavy build, very very rare to find a female as the main hero. Although they are the hero, there are not many horror films where the hero wins, but he is however brave, and the person who goes after the murdered after a killing, and often never returning.

The Victim

There is almost no horror film without a female victim, as they are often portrayed as being vulnerable and in need of protection. They are usually young, blonde and attractive helping to appeal to a wider male audience. She is often portrayed to be stupid and annoying, one of the characters the audience actually want to be killed. This character helps to build up suspense, as her behaviour often puts them on edge, when she jumps they jump, even if it unnecessary.

Non-believer

This character can be of either sex, but is more often shown as male. They are represented as cocky and relaxed, which leads the other characters to think they are over-reacting and nothing is happening, which more than often makes them the first to be killed. Once this person is killed, the audience will panic, as the voice of reason and disbelief has now gone, leaving both the remaining characters and the audience in a frantic state.


Hysterical Character

Usually female. This is the character that more than often wants to play it safe, and stay as a group and in a building that they are probably already in. Other characters will attempt to move her but more than often fail. This will result in her being killed, or all the characters being killed one by one, but either way she dies. The effect this character has on the audience is a suspense being created as her hysterics reflect on to the audience.






The 'Monster' antagonist

Can take many forms of antagonist such as Serial Killer, Zombie, Ghost, Monster or have Demonic Possession. If they are human they will often have a mask on or some kind of deformity, making it close to impossible to identify them. Wearing a mask also plays on the fear of the unknown. No matter what injuries they seem to receive, they can always seemingly recover from it and get back up, even if its something as serious as stabbing, giving it an idea of inhuman. Any other type of killer plays on the fear of the unknown, and as there isn't any solid proof they do not exist it scares the audience about what they do not know.




Loved Up couple

Male and female couples, never any same sex couples. They are usually away from the group, together.  Don't notice the killer as they seemingly are oblivious, and are so wrapped up with each other they don't see the killer coming at them. They frustrate the audience putting them on the edge of there seat.

Film Synopsis

- Firstly we see the victim sprinting down the road that leads to a graveyard. The audience is left puzzled as they do not know who is chasing him or what he’s running from yet. He is breathing heavily and keeps looking backwards to see what is behind him. Because he is not looking where he is going he trips over and falls to the ground. He gets to his feet and the silhouette of the killer dashes across the camera, at this point the audience has the idea that he is being chased and running from someone in particular, it’s also shows that this antagonist is superior to the victim because he can outwit him quickly. The victim utters “I think I lost him” there’s dramatic irony at this point because we know that he hasn’t got away and is still vulnerable. Then the screen goes black and we hear the sounds of bones cracking. After this, we see the murderer dragging the corpse away from the murder scene and dumping him behind a hut. Next, we jump to a red room with pictures of other people on the walls, the murderer laughs and crosses of his latest victim.

Suggested Location

 This would be a good location for a horror film to be partly set as its connotations are typical horror film. It is a secluded area with trees, and no seemingly way out. It being an Alleyway also has connotations of horror as a 'Dark Alleywa' is a common phrase for somewhere that you do not want to be or go, as it will certainly be dangerous.


  This would also be a good location for a horror film as it seem quite enclosed and has connotations of horror. The connotations of a Graveyard, are typical horror, the links they have to horror are things such as 'walking dead' etc.

Shots

Different Camera Shots use in Preliminary


Point Of View Shot

A point of view shot is a short film scene that shows what a character is looking at. It is usually established by being positioned between a shot of a character looking at something, and a shot showing the character's reaction. The technique of POV is one of the foundations of film editing.

A POV shot need not be the strict point-of-view of an actual single character in a film. Sometimes the point-of-view shot is taken over the shoulder of the character (third person), who remains visible on the screen. Sometimes a POV shot is "shared" ("dual" or "triple"), i.e. it represents the joint POV of two (or more) characters.

This is an example and shows well a way of using a Point Of View shot -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp5mLbSpKT8






 

180 Degree Shot

Participants in a scene should have the same left - right relationship with each other, with filming only taking place within the 180 degree angle in which this is maintained in a conversation. This allows the audience to have  a greater sense of location in the scene in terms of what may e off screen in some shots.

Match On Action

Match On Action is an editing technique for continuity editing in which one shot cuts to another shot portraying the action of the subject in the first shot. This creates a sense of continuity - The action carrying through creates a "visual bridge" which draws attention away from slight cutting or continuity issues. 

Target audience

Target Audience

The target audience for a lot of horror, or films linking close to the horror genre, are generally aimed towards people of around 15+ and sometimes 18+. The main people that watch horror films are 18+, the main reason for this is the most popular and critically acclaimed films, are rated by the BBFC as at least 15+, but more often 18+.

Our Target Audience

Our target audience is 18+ as we feel this widens the amount of people who will want to see the film. The main age is 15-35 as this is the age that goes to see films the most and has the money to also. We feel that choosing this age range is a good target audience as this is the most common age of people who see horror films, the gender does not matter as horror films are viewed by both genders, meaning there is no gap in the target audience there.

Promoting Our Film

TV
- Adverts
- Clips

Social Networking
- Facebook
- Twitter
- MySpace
- YouTube

The advantage of using social neteworking sites is that you can make your film wider known and appeal to all people through advertisement. It is shown that awareness of Facebook around the worl is near to 100percent, and more that 1Billion people use social networking sites, and more than 400million people a day use Facebook. 50percent of people use social networking site users are connected to brands. These figures show that social networking would be key to selling and distributing our film as it would help to present the film to a huge range of audience, with the film supposedly being shared around groups of people.

Plan

Opening - 
- Fast paced
- Open with a chase scene - fast, exciting, interests audience, makes them want to watch on more.

Sound -

- Natural
- Heart-beat
- Heavy Breathing
- Sudden Sounds
- No music

Story - 

- Chase Scene --> Victim falls --> Looks up, silence --> Black Screen  --> See the victims dead on floor --> watch him be dragged into an alley --> goes straight into dark room with pictures of faces --> Black and White flashback of villain being bullied at school --> back to normal --> see the faces of the people who were bullying him in flashback with some of them crossed out and some of them not --> see the victim just killed get crossed out

Camera Shots

- Point-Of-View shot from the Antagonist
- Close-up of legs being dragged
- 360 shot of the victim when he is looking around for the antagonist

Scene Settings

- Graveyard
- Alleyway
- Dark Room
- House