Who is Our Target Adience

The film we are producing takes place and essentially centres around a teenage boarding college, therefore it is logical to say that male/female students aged 16-18 would be our main target audience. But also, because of the contents of the sequence, and the issues it raises, we thought that it may appeal to older audiences, around 25 year olds and upwards.

On the surface the film may seem to be a typical horror film with no real point or message, but it does encourage the audience to think about real life events that otherwise we would avoid. i.e the death of young people, young people driven to mass murder for apparently nothing and in turn makes us think about WHY the murderers would do it.

This plays on the natural human instint to give things a reason and make sense of things that are apparently senseless. i see this as an indepentant british film, aimed at audiences 16-18 and upwards, designed to encourage uncomfortable audience voyeurism.

Storyboards

The next step in the pre-production process of creating an opening sequence of a Thriller was to start producing storyboards. A storyboard is a detailed breakdown of the specific technicalities that the production crew must follow whilst shooting.

It also provides a clear guide for the editor to construct the sequence as the creator intended it to look and sound. The storyboard therefore details camera, sound, lighting and mise en scene details as well as dictating timing, pace and editing style.

Initially our group finalised the specific shots in sequence order by carefully visualising the sequence and researching existing movies that used a similar filmic style.

Thriler/Horror Synopsis - "High Score"

Based on true events, at 12.00pm, on the 10th of October 2010, teacher, Mark and student, Sandra. Disguise themselves and stroll into the "happy" British boarding school, Jacksonville. They then blitz the school canteen and cause minor injuries to also appear as victims. We follow their "normal" lives leading up to the event, the main reason for their actions, the students need to learn the ultimate lesson and also how they eventually get found out, when a witness builds up the courage to tell the true events of that fatal day.

Account of first production group Meeting

In our first group meeting, we discussed our idea for our title sequence, we talked about the finalised storyline, and how we would film it and how practical it would be.



for most of our lesson together, we looked at videos on YouTube of Films that have done a similar sort of idea, i.e the columbine or school shootings. and we looked at some actual footage of the shootings.





We watched the end sequence of a film called Elephant. it is a revolutionary look at school shootings which focuses on the individual storys of a few students. the way its done highlight's the casual feel of the columbine shootings, it makes the audience see the coldness of the shooters and the mindlessness and pointlessness of the shootings.





this film really helped us understand the shootings and gave us insight into what we want our audience to feel and how we would consider filming it. we considered just fitting cctv cameras in the canteen and getting two students to walk in there with shotguns in full military gear and firing some blank shots, just so we could get a genuine reaction from the students. because as its quite a large scale shoot it will be difficult to make it look authentic and get the actors to take it seriously.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htlsOf3PnGY

Account of Giving Presentations for Possible Thriller Ideas

My idea was based around the conflict between heaven and hell, it has a "constantine" feel to it and focuses around one group of demons.

Synopsis: Satanic worshippers enter church and do a satanic ritual using a pentogram. someone finds the pentogram and tries to remove it but it wont move. they give up trying to remove the symbol and it stays there, after years and years it becomes faded and unnoticeable. one day a preist is holding a service at the church and only 6 people are there. as the church is now corrupted by the symbol, the people in the service become possesed and are turned into the 6 demons.

These demons kill the priest by ripping out his heart and replacing it with a demon heart. the story then unfolds with the demons trying to corrupt the whole world and turn it into a second hell. they are eventually defeated.

this is my opening sequence idea. the kind of film company i see making it is an independant british film company, or a smaller branch of a hollywood studio. aimed at audiences aged 20- over.

Account of Lesson: What is a Thriller

The problem with thrillers is that they are not easily defined or catergorized into a specific genre. this is because so many of the emotions and the reactions that come from thriller are part of the whole experience of film. it is a "meta-genre"



Some "types" of thrillers include: Psycological Thriller, conspiricy thriller, medical thriller, eco thriller.



The Thriller relies on a intricate plot to create suspense, apprehension and fear in audiences. it plays and stresses our most basic worries to extremes, and draws on our most infantile and therefore repressed thoughts. these thoughts are usually voyeuristic, sexual or violent.



The Thriller achieves this by raising questions or Enigma codes in the mind of the audience, yet most thrillers have universal themes at their centre, struggles over love, death or money that captivate the spectator. in thriller, there is usually a sense of delay, a build up of tension and when something does happen, there is a relief from that tension.



we go to watch thrillers because in many ways the audience is sadomasochistic - the audience enjoys watching pain and suffering inflicted on the characters in the film. our pleasure is derived from their discomfort. but the audience also experience's a sense of ambivalence, we can identify and sympathise with the main character or hero.

INTRO TO FINAL CUT PRO

We learned all about the final cut pro server in this lesson, also we learned about how to log our shots and how to cut and edit them.

Final Cut Pro is a software package run on G5 Mac's, it is a non linear package which is timeline based.

first of, we learned how to store our projects and work. our school uses final cut pro server, this means that every time we use the computers and edit our work, we have to check our work out of a secure communal server, which reduces the risk of it being lost, we then have to check it back in after we finish with it.

After we learned how to do that and set up how we work, we logged our Rushes (everything we shot on the day). we did this by setting an "in" point on the timeline of what we shot, and an "out" point. we do this so we only edit and take the best shots that we actually want. the shots we log are put into the LOGGED BIN.

after that we saw a short demonstration of how to put shots onto the timeline onf Final Cut and how to edit two shots together into a coherent moving picture.

Chazz xx

Introduction to the Video Cameras

In these two lessons we set up the camera tripod and learned how to connect them. Then, again with the help of matt we learned about Db’s, white balance, inside light and outside light and other things to do with the camera set up. We also learned how to zoom and focus and pan and tilt. We also learned how to use the record button. In the second lesson, we where put into small groups and told to go out and film a short sequence of an everyday normal thing. We where to use a wide shot, mid shot and a close up, and try to use a variety of different angles. In our video we film someone walking into a room wiping his face and walking out again. We used all three shots. We did this by filming the sequence 3 times over using the different shot each time we did.

Introduction to studio
In this lesson we were introduced to the filming studios and taught very basically how to use the set and the cameras and lighting. We filmed a mock interview sequence for T4. this included a short script and some improvisation, and setting up the set ourselves. We had to get the lighting right, and the camera angle right as well as performing the interview to the best of our ability

Preliminary Task Evaluation

1) we filmed our sequence in the film studio
2) This location worked well as we had a set built especially for the task
3) the role i took was head cameraman/ assistant director, i handled all the filming, i suggested filming ideas and i did actor feedback.

LIGHTING
1)i had alot of input as to what the ligthing was at the begginging as i handled the filming and i could see what looked worse or better through the camera. we decided on all the house lights being out except for one at the back, and the single bulb being lit, and one light being on behind the window to make it look like natural light. 2)the lighting was so important to the scene because it saet the mood and made it look as professional as possible
3)it was very effective because it made the light coming through the window look natural, and made the scene look deeper and more professional.

FILMING
1)we set up the camera correctly
2) we bubbled the camera every time we shot a new shot
3)we definately put alot of thought into if the shot was framed correctly each time
4)the lighting equipment was never in shot
5)we chose appropriate angles for the shots, we followed the papers instructions and we went a bit crazy when we had time to choose our own shots.
6) we filmed using appropriate planning,and storyboarding and we started using the wide shot and worked our way in to the close up.
7) we conformed to the 180 degrees rule
8) we used appropriate terminology

in conclusion we have learned how to make a semi proffesional film sequence and how to set up a set, use appropriate terminology, use different and appropriate shot types and conformed to the 180 degrees rule.

What We Did In Our Practical Lessons

Introduction To Stills Camera
in this practical lesson we where introduced to the digital cameras. We got into groups and took turns in taking photos of each other, while trying to obey the rule of thirds. We took a variety of different shots including some close ups, mid shots and wide shots. We also learned how to zoom and focus the camera. We then learned how to download the photo’s onto the computers.

Introduction To Photoshop
In this lesson we were taken next door into the computer room and, with matt’s help, learned the basics of photoshop. In fact this was split over 2-3 lessons. We learned the tools used to edit change and distort photo’s. we learned how to use the lasso/ magnetic lasso tools, spot healing brush, stamp tools, history tools, eraser tools, smudge sharpen and blur tools and dodge burn and sponge tools. All these tools allow us to edit photo’s in any way you want.

Introduction to Blog
In this lesson we were introduced to blogger.com. we were told the password and username and we set up our first blog post. We talked about ourselves and why we like media studies and such things. We were also taught how to use the blog site, how to post now posts, attach photo’s and other things.

Contrast Shot

this is a low angle mid shot of me playing guitar at Live and Unsigned, i chose this photo as it contrasts with the one of me as Liam Gallagher because that one shows where i would like to be, wheras this one shows where i am now.

Photoshop Shot

This is a photoshopped image of me as Liam Gallagher from oasis, i took a picture of me on facebook and edited it onto his body.

Liam's one of my idol's, they create some fantastic songs.

Its a mid shot, low angle balck and white shot with artificial light source.

I chose to do this picture because its where i would love to see myself in the future.

Welcome

I'm Chazz Hiett and welcome to my first media blog, im told this blog will contain all the work im doing in media over the next two years so it should be interesting to see what happens. Im 16 years old and currently in my 3rd week of my first year at hurtwood house in surry. Im doing media studies because iv allways wanted to be in either the music or media industry, either directing or doing some camera work experience. Best quote from todays lesson is "too much laughter means your doing somehting dodgy'.

My favourite film is at the moment Hot Fuzz with Simon Pegg, the legend, but my favourite film of all time is most definitely The Italian Job, i love the optimisticness and patriotism that the film centres around. My favourite television series is definitely friends, simply because it never gets old, even though i've seen them all three times over. But even though i have i still find episodes i havent seen before, but i think thats just because i forget them. I can tell you have high hopes for this blog!

Anyway, i think i've written enough, thanks for reading if you've bothered, if you havent, watch this!