Brad Warwick-Browne: 9193

Final piece

       

Preliminary task

Wilderness woods

Logistics

Group brainstorm

Concept development

Opening sequence treatment

Plan for second shoot

Shoot 2 details

Logistics

Sound

Typography

Editing update

Production

Wilderness woods production log

Wilderness woods editing analysis

new ideas

Shoot 2 details

conservatorium rough cut

Conservatorium animatic

Pitch

Preliminary task

Role in production

Key people attached

Costume and props

Research

Analysis of title sequence

Audience research

Audience research results

Technical analysis

Second technical anlaysis

horror mood board


Audience feedback
Wilderness woods feedback
Pitch feedback
Audience questionnaire results
Editing feedback
Feedback on almost finished piece


Evaluation
Evaluation

BWB:Evaluation

Individual questions 1,2,3 and 6

Group questions 4 and 5



Group question 7

9176 - Jack Sporle

Wilderness Woods 

Preliminary Task

(please note this particular video wouldn't embed, and so this is the hyperlink to the preliminary task)

Final Piece 

Research:

"Final Update"
(due to prolonged technical issues and difficulties this blog post includes: Sub-Genre Research; Sound Research; Analysis of an Opening Sequence; and Technical Analysis of a sequence)

Analysis of a Title Sequence

Audience Questionnaire

Audience Research

Logistics:

Group Brainstorming

Concept Development

Plot Synopsis Concept Development

Opening Sequence Treatment

Location Recce

Planning for Second Shoot

Shoot Two Details

Call Sheet and Risk Assessment

Concept Development: Soundtrack

Concept Development: Typography

Editing Update

Production:

Wilderness Woods Production Log

Wilderness Woods Analysis

Storyboarding Animatic

New ideas

Rough cut

Pitch

Audience Feedback:

Wilderness Woods feedback

Pitch feedback

Audience Questionnaire Results

Editing feedback (from rough cut)

Nearly finished product feedback

Evaluation:

Evaluation Post

9017 - Luca Besate

Final Piece

 

Preliminary Task

 

 

Wilderness Woods

 

Evaluation

Evaluation Post 
 

Production

Wilderness Woods Production Log
Editing Analysis For Wilderness Woods 
Storyboarding Animatic
My Role In Production
New Ideas
Second Shoot Details
Conservatorium Rough Cut
Pitch
Preliminary Task Post
 

Logistics

 Concept Development
Plot Synopsis Concept Development
Opening Sequence Treatment
Brainstorm
Planning For Second Shoot
Call Sheet And Risk Assessment
Soundtrack
Typography
Editing Process Update
Conservatorium Location Recee
Wilderness Woods Location Recee
Editing Process Post Feedback
 

Research
Horror Mood Board
Analysis Of A Horror Film Opening
Independent Horror Film - Production And Distribution
Second Analysis Of A Horror Film Opening
Audience Research
Horror Opening Technical Analysis
Analysis Of A Title Sequence
Audience Research Questionnaire
 

Audience Feedback
Wilderness Woods Feedback
Pitch Feedback
Feedback From Conservatorium Rough Cut
Audience Feedback On Almost Final Cut

 



JS: Evaluation

Individual Questions 1, 2, 3 and 6

Group Questions 4 and 5

Group Question 7

9200 - Tom Whitson

Final piece:

Preliminary task:

Wilderness Woods:

Evaluation:
Evaluation post

Production:
Wilderness Woods production log
Editing analysis from Wilderness Woods
Storyboarding Animatic
Role in production 1
Role in post production 1
New ideas
Role in second shoot
Rough cut
Pitch

Logistics:
Concept development
Plot synopsis concept development
Opening sequence treatment
Group brainstorming
Planning for second shoot
Shoot 2 details
Call sheet and Risk Assessment
Post about soundtrack - concept development
Post about typography - concept development
Editing update
Location Recce

Research:
Initial opening sequence analysis (brief)
Slasher conventions research
Conventions of roadshow horror moodboard
Institutional context
Analysing opening sequence in detail
Opening Sequence Technical Analysis
Analysis of titles in opening sequence

Audience feedback:
Wilderness Woods feedback
Pitch feedback
Audience Research
Editing feedback from rough cut
Nearly finished product feedback

LB : Evaluation

Individual Questions 1,2,3&6

Group Questions 4&5

Group Question 7

TW: Evaluation

Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Prezi image presentation to be used in co-ordination with powerpoint text (below):

Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Question 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Questions 4 and 5 - Who would be the audience for your media product? How did you attract/address your audience?

 

Question 6 - What have you learned from technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Question 7 - Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Group: Final Horror Opening Sequence - Conservatorium (all ammendments made)

TW: Evaluation - Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Our media product can be classified as a low-budget British psychological-horror film. I would address potential distribution and exhibition in the following way:

TW: Evaluation - Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Social groups in relation to our piece and how they are represented

• Mentally ill - the antagonist is partially mentally ill, due to his OCD and meticulous nature revealed. However - portraying a mentally ill person as powerful and strong is reinforcing an emergent ideology which is the product of events such as the increased viewership of the Paralympic Games.
• Young - through the POV shot where the antagonist looks over his victim page, the majority of victims are young. This reinforces the idea that the young are the weakest social group, and can be exploited by adults:
  
• All - we made an effort to ensure that all social groups were represented on our victims page; inclding young, white, old, black, female, and male social groups. 
• Final boy - an archetypal horror character is the 'final girl', who manages to avenge past victims, display great strength, and overcome the brutal killer, leaving triumphant. However - in binary opposition with this, the final victim is a male who is completely powerless. This goes against a horror stereotype. 
  
• Females - during the POV shot of the victims, rule of two-thirds concentrates the viewers' attention on the two females encircled together. This gives prevalence to females - and attempts to evoke sympathy, which therefore implies and reinforces a residual ideology that females are less powerful than males. Moreover - as the females are young, blonde, and attractive - this reinforces the strategy that horror film-makers engage in to achieve a wide audience. Moreover - employing decorative females appeals to the core horror audience, predominantly males.
  
• Male antagonist - the fact we have a male antagonist reinforces a stereotype of horror that the killer is nearly always male, and reinforces the idea of a patriarchal society. This stereotype is reinforced by the film, 'House of 1000 Corpses' (Zombie, 2002) whereby women are presented as objects of male domination, an opening sequence contaminated with sexual bodily horror. Moreover - only men are pictured in dominant iconography, with two men in white waistcoats. This costume is an example of iconography which implies power and status, an aspect of costume which we included in ours also. Therefore - similarly to House of 1000 Corpses, our sequeunce reinforces the residual ideology of a patriarchal society. 
  
  
  

How these representations were technically constructed -

• Strength of mentally ill antagonist - is largely represented through mise-en-scene. Firstly - non-verbal communication from the final victim reveals the fear incited by the antagonist:
  
• Also revealed through camera work - the use of extreme close ups implies accuracy and precision; two characteristics not normally associated with mentally ill stereotypical characters. This proves that the word 'disabled' is ideologically loaded, as it has many conventional characteristics which are both reinforced and challenged by our sequence. 
  
• Canted angles - reinforce the dominant ideology that disabled people are marginalised and different. 
  
• Magnified sound effects - are important, as they emphasise the effect of the antagonist and portray him as more powerful due to the noises he causes being highlighted. 
• Lack of power - 'final boy' - this representation is constructed through an aspect of mise-en-scene, make-up. The lines across the victims face reveal that his destiny is pre-ordained, abd dehumanises the victims, as if they are a chunk of meat.Non-verbal communication furthers the powerless nature of the final victim. 

Potential improvements regarding social groups

• A dominant ideology regarding the elderly is that they are wise, and therefore powerful in that aspect. Therefore - if the antagonist was older, this would strengthen this concept. In binary opposition with this - younger people are marginalised and regarded as inferior and weaker than older people, therefore our text is potentially ideologically destabising, by portraying a younger man as the antagonist. However - if we had the choice, we would've chosen an older antagonist - which reinforces the stereotype of having a mid-thirty year old, white, male, antagonist.

Group: Final Horror Opening Sequence - Conservatorium

Below is our final psychological-horror opening sequence for the film - 'Conservatorium':

TW: My role in post-production

• Cutting  length down - by systematically going through each clip and cutting it down, as well as removing some clips altogether - the length was cut from over 5 minutes to just under 3. 
• Title work on After Effects - after identifying our main title style as being similar to Napoleon Dynamite; whereby they would be incorporated into the shot as if they were not edited in; I personally did work on After Effects to achieve this. 
• - Masking - in order for the titles, such as the title - 'Brad Warwick-Browne' to appear as if it is part of the set - any objects or movements needed to go over the title. This is shown in the screenshot below - where the scalpel masks the text; as does the antagonist's hand movement:

This involved dragging each yellow point in every frame

It achieved the professional look we desired

• I also used the masking tool on the title - 'Luca Besate' - in order to reveal the title as the antagonist's arm moves off screen:

• Title work on Photoshop - to further the feeling of the titles being integrated into the set - the titles needed perspective to be added to them. I did this through putting the titles into photoshop; rasterizing layer, and then altering the size, rotation, and perspective of each title. An example of the effect achieved is below through the title, 'Jack Sporle':

• - Tracking and sticking - contributing to our effect of having the titles integrated as part of the set - we wished to include a title in the same place for one tracking shot. I achieved this through After Effects by pinpointing spots which the title could stick to - 
  

Group: Audience Research II

In the last couple of days we have carried out a further audience research on our almost finished product, in order to find out where our strengths lie and how we could improve our final piece. Feedback is as follows :-

STRENGTHS:

• Great POV shot during the weapon selection
• A good use of props throughout
• Use of non-diegetic sound improves quality - particularly when the soundtrack almost crescendos when the radio is turned up
• Soundtrack generally works with action and creates a more interesting watch
• Close up shots are interesting and engaging
• Garage scene is "truly shocking" and "creates discomfort"
• POV shot through the sheet works very well to create tension
• A great range of shots used
• The fly and sheet sound effects work well.

 
 
WEAKNESSES/THINGS TO IMPROVE:

• A little too long spent in the greenhouse
• Some titles appear too subtly and quickly, and so are easily missable - 'Jack Sporle' title needs to be longer and 'Tom Whitson' title needs to be replaced as position doesn't work
• Opening shots are too quick into action, perhaps add another ECU shot
• Scene in garage could be made more menacing and in a sense grittier with a darker filter on
• Gong sound effect when title appears clashes with soundtrack
• Title itself seems 'clip-arty', size and position needs to be changed
• Wider range of dynamics of soundtrack at points to raise clarity, audibility and significance of other non-diegetic sound effects

Group: Conservatorium opening sequence

Below is our psychological-horror opening sequence, of the film Conservatorium:

Our next step - is to receive audience feedback over the weekend, and make any amendments during the following week to fine-tune our sequence and ensure it is the best it possibly can be.

Group: Editing Process continued

Since the initial editing on fixing issues raised with our feedback from the showing our editing process has had several key focuses:

• To amend the soundtrack - This has been achieved through  increased/decreased soundtrack at suitable points.
• To further cut down - Another 1:30 has been cut, meaning it is now more fitting of the criteria.
• Fix continuity errors - All shots concerned in this have been re-shot.
  
• Make a more comprehensive watch - This has been done on the most part through the inclusion of extra-diegetic sounds, like the fly.
  
• Include titles - This is well under way with titles being included in the places that best fit.
• Complete anamatic - This has been fully editing and the update is now on Youtube.

JS: Full update

Media Research - Zombie Sub-Genre



Why are audiences afraid of Zombies?
Research - by an open university - found that people are scared of faces that are very similar to human faces that have only been slightly changed, a concept more commonly known as 'uncanny valley'. The research started in the 1970s and investigated whether robots should be made to look like humans or not; the result was people found too close a resemblance to be off putting and rather sinister. This links as to why we found zombies so scary - as something as subtle as milky eyes on a human face can be seriously uncomfortable for audiences.

Why do audiences love the Zombie Apocalypse theme?
People like the Zombie theme on the whole as it can be uplifting - showing the strengths and weaknesses of the human race, and the character compassion really shines through. It is scary for audiences because towns and cities they are familiar with have been completely destroyed in most cases, however humans have a natural instinct of survival and this is a theme that enables the audience to put themselves in the admirable protagonist's shoes - a survivor or not.

Why do audiences love Zombies?
Our mysterious love affair for Zombie movies started off with 'The Night of the Living Dead' (1960, Romero). Zombies are easy to interpret due to costume and other pro-filmic effects, like limbs missing and bloodied bodies. Zombie movies focus on the survivor, as opposed to an antagonist like other horror genres; and what makes them so unique is the battle - between humans and humanity, it puts people in impossible situations. The slow story line is a hall mark of building tension in Zombie films. In some cases films show people living alongside zombies; however they ultimately prepare audiences for the jump scare of a zombie ready to pounce.






Sound Research


Soundtrack – we are using a juxtaposed soundtrack by showing the character listen to a radio, listening to classical music. This will imply an old fashioned yet well educated nature to the character.  We are using a classic era timbre of strings used playing in a high pitch, this could be seen as simply classical music however these aural signifiers imply horror surrounding the character, however at this time in the action it is still ambiguous whether they are the protagonist or antagonist despite the subtle hints.  A particularly prominent idea at the current moment is “Brahms-Violin Concerto in D op. 77-(3/3)-Allegro giocoso ma non troppo vivace” as performed by the Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Luis Valencia recorded on May 4th 1962.

HOWEVER, it is still to be confirmed as to whether copyright will be an issue with this.

Note: as of 15/1 allowance of this soundtrack has bee established

Dialogue – seeing as there is only one character on screen for most of our opening, we believe no dialogue will produce the most engaging action because it means the audience will be fully concentrating on the action they are seeing.

 
Sound Effects – we will keep these minimal, however some are necessary like that of the fly, as it will be hard to utilise an actual fly effectively. Also, we believe at the end when there are several near dead victims some subtle groans would enhance the action.


 

Analysis of an opening sequence - Friday the 13th (Cunnigham,1980)
 

 

 

 

Camera:

• On the whole, the shots for the opening aren't exactly significant in the sense of creating a tense atmosphere - in fact almost the opposite; if you take out the moon with howl which signifies horror, and then the actual killings, this film could easily be a film for all the family.
• Although, there is a certain distance to all the shots that gives you a of watching without being part of the action, more as if you are observing. Furthermore, there is a particularly interesting and unnerving shot in the opening - this is when you see from the killers POV.
• To me, this was unexpected as POV shots create prevalence of character in my mind, yet in this context doesn't - it gives another platform for which the audience can empathise with the victims on; and almost feel as they do in their last moments.  

Mise-en-scene:

•  Costume creates a sense of "innocent youth" through their high-worn shorts, and camp worker shirts.
• The fire and huddling in character blocking conveys a sense of togetherness, and the song being sung itself is a Christian song - conveying innocence. 
• Profilmic effects were used during the filming, in the form of fake blood - creating a more believable and shocking murder.  

 

Sound:

• Soundtrack initially creates tension, as does the sound effects of the wildlife which creates a sense of isolation.
• Several aural signifiers are used, for example the werewolf howl in one of the first shots.
• However, it then switches to warm, uniting, "camp-fire" type song, this is a juxtaposed idea and heavily conflicts the theme of horror and creates a sense of unease within the audience - it is almost as if you know something is out of place and are awaiting the true 'scary' aspects.
•  This then switches to highly intensifying violin music when the killings take place.

 

Editing:

• The editing is similarly used to create an ambiguous and not clearly a horror atmosphere, there is neither a significantly fast or slow cutting rate, and a lack of jump cuts or such.
•  A coherent understanding is enabled through easy to follow cuts - looking in on the action and then looking from the antagonist's POV.

 

Our Production:

I feel that several points and ideas from this opening could be utilised in our final production, but two ideas in particular stick out to me:

• The idea of a juxtaposed soundtrack
• POV shots from the antagonist's eyes.

I feel this because, in my opinion, these are the factors that most efficiently and successfully gave the audience a sense of unease and fear.





American Psycho (Harron, 2000) Technical Analysis

Dialogue implies lack of emotion through somewhat robotic delivery, and also some comments seem as if he is trying to outdo someone in a sense, further implying he has superficial values. As well as this his in depth comments regarding his morning cleansing routine imply a great sense of pride in his appearance, but as if he cares almost too much.
 

 

Group: Editing Process post-feedback

In our post feedback the two main issues were:

• The length
• The bin in the opening shots - ruining the mise-en-scene.

To eradicate this Tom and I acted on behalf of the whole group and completely cut the first three shots - cutting almost 30 seconds in length and removing the issue surrounding the bin. As a replacement for these opening shots we have including several ECUs of plants - these were initially supposed to be filler shots; however we found that they also set the scene and ambience we are trying to create. To provide a succinct transition into the action we inserted a short black out, with "G4 Productions" fading in. We feel that this is beneficial for the production as a whole as it reduces both time, and liability to lose marks from a mise-en-scene aspect.

 

In regards to further editing, our main concern is now to get the footage into the time frame and so this requires cutting footage and speeding some shots up. Also, we are yet to fully complete the sound editing to make it appear more diegetic and seamless however this is a process that could potentially be a very quick job.

Group: Rough Cut

Our rough cut (soundtrack is unfinished, and duration is too long.)

Here is a video analysing our strengths, weaknesses; and ways we are going to improve our production:

 

Overview:

Advantages:

Soundtrack

Shots and variation

Points to improve:

Vary sound levels
Length
Increasing suspense
Poor initial shots
Titles

Group: Typography Analysis

In an opening sequence, we noticed that the typography of the people involved and the title itself is key to the audience's understanding of, and feelings towards, the action.
We felt that the font of subtitles for those involved in the process should differ from that of the title - "Conservatorium", feeling that those for the title should more effectively convey the nature of the film but the names should perhaps just be clean cut and interact with the action - with no clear connotations but subtleties that reinforce the character's attention to detail. With this in mind, we narrowed the options down to the following options; 'Acquaintance', 'Blackadder ITC', 'Bleeding Cowboys',  and 'Palace Script MT'.

We decided that in use of our title, the font 'Acquaintance' wasn't relevant enough to the characteristics and themes we were trying to portray, and seemed in a sense too childish.

 

 

 With regards to 'Blackadder ITC', we feel that - whilst it does strongly convey our antagonist's character and his classic, OCD tendencies - it is somewhat ambiguous and hard to read.

 

This font is one that was in huge contention for the final font, however whilst it strongly reflected our antagonist, we concluded it didn't portray the horror theme enough to be the font of what ultimately is a gruesome, psychological horror film.

 

 

 

Our final decision was to use 'Bleeding Cowboys' as our font for the title 'Conservatorium'. This is because we felt it was the best ratio of gritty horror themes to the neat calligraphic implications intended.

 

This is an example of our potential font for all titles but the title "Conservatorium". We believe this is suitable as it is easily readable, whilst maintaining the clean cut finish desired. This is also a strong idea as it relates to that of those researched in Hannibal (Scott, 2001) and also portrays our antagonist's obsession with cleanliness.

Group:soundtrack

Soundtrack

• We have all come to the conclusion that we will have the same soundtrack playing throughout the duration of our horror opening: Conservatorium.
• The name of the soundtrack is 'Violin concerto' by Brahms. It is an intense period of violin playing, which varies from low to high intensity throughout different stages of the opening.
• This is an appropriate soundtrack to use as the fast, erratic playing of the violin creates tension, whilst the slow and calm stroke of the strings create a sense of calmness.

Extra Diegetic sounds

• We have booked a recording studio for next week in the music department.
• Using Luca's music tech experience we are looking to produce multiple sound effects.
• These include
• The sound of the gloves snapping on wrists.
• Cutting of plant
• lifting of the sheets
• Groan of dying victim
• The buzzing noise of a fly.
• Sound of cutting the fly - crunching.

Group: Logistics

The following are an exemplification of our most detailed risk assessment and call sheet:

The purpose of a risk assessment
-A risk assessment ensures protection of equipment, people, and location by identifying potential hazards and addressing them.
-In the real institution world - a risk assessment is used as insurance (as all equipment is insured)

The purpose of a call sheet
-To ensure that all shots necessary are filmed
-To limit time wasted, and therefore improve efficiency (eg - spending five minutes trying to remember the next shot is time consuming.)
-Precise details can be given in the call sheet - meaning that our ideas from the classroom can be accurately implemented in our actual shoot. This is important to us - as we want our production to be exactly how we visioned it.

Challenges involved in completing these two tasks
-Despite using a call sheet to ensure all our shots are completed; each shoot we have done; we have come up with shots in the moment. This means the call sheet is never quite complete. An exemplification of this is our petri dish shot - where we placed a petri dish on the camera lens; so the action of placing the fly into the dish, and taking the dish away was caught in an interesting shot:

TW: My role in our second shoot

Filming
I took the major role in filming on Monday; filming the majority of shots we did which weren't from high angles (Luca did these ones) - these included 'filler shots' of flowers; and all the extreme close ups. For example - the canted angle used in the pick-up of the pencil, and a close up of the plant being trimmed.

Organisation
I brought a call sheet, and a precise list and description of shots we to film on Monday. I then ensured we systematically went through each shot - often acting out specifically what we desired to our actor. Direct organisation and orders were helpful at a time when we were tight on time, light, and in quite poor weather conditions - was necessary.
Once again - we all had to organise and arrange our set; another example of where organisation was needed.

Continuity
Using pictures taken at the previous shoot - I organised the greenhouse layout to ensure continuity, and made sure actions began slightly before they needed to - and ended slightly after also. An example of this is when Billy takes the lab-coat from the hanger - we only need the part where it is taken off, but we filmed him moving towards, taking, and moving away from it - to ensure, when editing: it doesn't look choppy.

Group: Shoot 2 Details

Upon reviewing our initial footage and consultation, we noticed some minor errors concerning shot angles, camera movement, and in some cases continuity. Having seen this and the content of these shots being fairly important to our story line, we - as a group - have come to the conclusion that we require a second shoot. Whilst we will use a heavy majority of shots from our first shoot, we do need to gain some extra footage. We have organised a shoot on Monday, 19th January. This is ideal as we have 2 lessons of media after lunch, and so have asked permission as to leave school (to shoot footage) at 12:30 - as soon as the lunch hour begins. We will leave as soon as possible for Luca's, and there will be a lot less time taken in preparation as it hasn't been significantly changed since our last  shoot. Furthermore, we have ensured our external school student - who is pivotal to our filming as he plays the antagonist - is available for this time slot. We have written a shot list as to minimize wasted time and maximise efficiency in getting footage.