Monday 25 January 2010

Monday 25th.

Well jordan was off today and is planning to be for the rest of the week because she is ill :( so its thrown me off abit as i cant really film on my own but hey i can try :). Today i did the script for the film, think we may have to makes some change when filming, it doesnt really flow aswell as i wanted it too. It seems to much like its planned and not just a conversation.

Thursday 21 January 2010

Movie openings



This film scared me (Jordan) more than any film ever has! I couldn't find the opening scene on youtube so i put the trailer up.

The trailer is effective because it doesn't givemuch away, and with a film like 'The Grudge' you can't give too much away in the trailer because it ruins the film because it is a thriller so it has twists and jumpy bits.

The opening scene of this film is a man in bed with a girl and he gets out of bed and jumps off his balcony and kills himself, with no dialogue, this is an effective opening because it grabs the audiences attention straight away; why did he do it? etc.

'The ring' movie opening

The Ring



The two girls in the opening scene are represented as two normal teenage schoolgirls, as they are having a sleepover and trading secrets. They start to gossip about a 'video tape' saying that after you watch it, the phone rings and says 'you're gonna die in seven days'. They then become really paranoid about it.

The first camera shot we see is a big house in the middle of the night because it is pitch black and raining outside. The 'big house in the middle of the night' is a generic convention on the horror genre. Straight away in draws the audience in becasuse we wonder who is inside the house and what part in the film it plays. The camera angle starts of zoomed to allow the seeting to be scene, then it slowly zooms in as they have a conversation. The shot then switches to the stairs and the camera stays still and when they walk down the stairs you see their feet up to their facial expressions. The camera then swithes to a close up of the phone and then a mid-shot of the girls looking at the phone in horror. When one girl is in the kitchen and hears a noise she freezes up and the camera zooms in on her face to show how scared she is. The camera then pans round the corner and looks in the lounge as if its a point-of-view shot from the girl because she is looking round.

The Mise-en-scene is a bedroom, we see that it is probably a teenagers room- belonging to one of the girls- because it's messy and cluttered. The pillow on the bed have clothes on (not folded up) and on the floor there are school books and clothes. The inside of the house is very plain and tidy, this is used so there is a lot room for the girls to feel scared because the house is so big and empty.

The sound in the opening scene is very quiet with the noise of the rain outside in the background, when the girls go downstairs the rain becomes quieter so the scene becomes more sinister. Then when the T.V is on the sound of it is really loud and over-powering, after the T.V gets turned off for the second time she hears a wind-like sound behind her (another typical generic convention of the horror genre). When the fridge door opens a scary music starts to play really lightly in the background and this continues as she goes up the stairs and becomes louder when she gets upstairs and in the room, this is used to build tension.

I like the establishing shot at the very start of this scene, when you see hte house in the dark, in the rain because automatically the audience know it is a horror because it is a typical generic convention of the genre.

The close-up on facial expressions are very effective because they establish the characters feelings and let you focus on that.

Previous A level work

As a class, we had to watch 2 examples of movie openings from previous year 12's. This gave us idea's for our blogs and film openings.

The first opening we watched has quick editing and flickering titles, this fitted the genre of a horror film. It also had really effective music that helped build tension and also fitted the genre.

The second opening we watched had a wide variety of camera shots from different angles, this made the opening more complex and interesting. It also helps the characters build up.

Tuesday 19 January 2010

Camera Shots.

Yesterday (18.1.10) we tried to start doing some test shots but we found it difficult so we desided we would write a shot list so we had a plan of what to do. The shots we believe we need are;
Long shot zooming in on object, slowly.
Close up on t.v zooming out.
long shot zoom in to mid shot.
(as phone rings) panning shot round past window.
Mid shot to long shot as girls walk away from camera.
Close up on ringing phone.
Close up of girls face.
Blackout.
Long shots as lights flicker on and off. x5

Tuesday 12 January 2010

Pictures for inspiration



All pictures used on this moodboard are used for inspiration from films we have seen...

We like the way that masks are used to cover the identity of the villain so it keeps the audience hooked and makes them watch on to find the idenity out.

The two pictures of 'The Grudge' and 'Poltergeist' are used because we likethe way the camera angle allows you to see someone getting grabbed from behind because the person getting grabbed can't see them so we also get to see their facial expressions.

When filming, we like the idea of filming at a big house in the middle of nowhere to create suspense. And also because it is a typical generic convention of the horror genre.

The picture of the girl from 'The Exorcist' is on our mood board because we like the make-up and effects they have used on her face throughout the film to show that her posession is getting worse. Obviously we won't be able to get make-up and effects like that but we have it for inspiration.

We like the picture from 'The Strangers' because the man is looking for someone or something and that persin or thing is sneaking up behind him, we are going to use a smilar thing is our film opening.

A shadow or disfigured figure is used a lot in horror film to create tension becaus eyou don't know who or what it is. Like in 'Paranormal Activity' we are going to use this.

Our Pitch

Alrightyy..

Hi guys :)
This is Shellie and Jordan's joint blog for our Media prodject. We desided that we where going to do a film seeing as we couldnt really use photoshop. :) We will update this at every possible chance we have. Hope you enjoy keeping track of our film :D