Evaluation of Photo Ideas...

From looking at our photos, we feel that they are good but they can be improved much more. The image we feel is powerful is the photo of Nicola looking back at the camera, holding her teddy bear in her hand. It was too dark when taking the photos, but when trying to use torches and car headlights, it gave shadows of unwanted objects. As there was a gate infront of where the car was parked you can see the shadow of the gate when taking the photo without the flash, but when taking the photo with the flash, the photo quality was reduced and it revealed too much light.

So when we take the photos again later this week we will take the photos when it is starting to get dark, we like the feeling of it starting to get dark, as at this moment in the film, it is starting to get dark. 

Ideas for Poster...

For our DVD cover, we feel that a powerful image would be of Vicky and Nicola holding hands walking away, Vicky would have her hood up so the audience cannot tell who the person is. This relates to our film trailer where it is not revealed who takes the little girl. 
Another image that would be powerful would be the outline of the teddy bear and then shots of the characters inside the bear, this would show the audience what the characters look like. 

TIME FOR THE PHOTO SHOOT!..


During the photo shoot,  our ideas really came through. We put our ideas into action and the results came out really well...

I really like this shot, it is very effective, I like the fact the she is turning around; it relates well to the film. But the lighting is poor and the flash reduces the quality. After shooting this photo and went back to warm up, we felt that the image would look stronger with her coat on and a teddy bear dangling from her hands.

This is the shot is the one we wanted in the first place, the only thing wrong with it apart from the lighting is that Nicola isn't looking back and their legs are together. They are meant to be walking and yet their feet are together, a factor we need to consider. 

Whilst taking the photos, we felt that this would be a strong image but now looking at it, personally I don't think that it is as powerful as we would have hoped! Back to the drawing board for this shot!

This was another shot that we took, once again the lighting is poor, you can see the shadows of the gate and their legs are together. The location is perfect for the feel we are after; an empty, dark, lonely lane with Vicky and Nicola walking down. The lane fits in really well with the film, just when taking the photos we will need to do it earlier so we can actually see the lane and the girls.

Started filming...

We started filming today, it was an exciting experience!
We had all our ideas buzzing and we just wanted to get going.
We did the shots in the house first, we did each shot at least 3 times and then changed the camera angle and did this again several times. This allowed us to choose the best shot when editing. As we worked with a younger child, we had to be patient, to allow her to overcome her nerves and get her to act things out how we wanted. We had a load of out-takes, but we got the perfect shot in the end!
When i was acting, it was a strange feeling, as I knew what I wanted to potray I just had to really show my emotion. In my case though, I took drama GCSE and I have always been a fan of acting, so hopefully it has all payed off!

Filming Timetable..

Because there is four of us in our group, it is easier to find actors for the film trailer, so when coming to arrange a time and place for filming, we are all willing to go.
We met on various occasions, such as monday and tuesday after school and some sundays. But due to the fact we had my next door neighbour in the film trailer and she is at primary school, we had to wait for her to finish school when filming her parts.
Luckily most of our shots we wanted in the mid-dark lighting and as it is the correct time of year for this to take place at about 4-5 o'clock.

Chiaroscuro..

is a word borrowed from the Italian language meaning light and dark, referring to the modeling of volume by depicting light and dark by contrasting them boldly.  This is one means of strengthening an illusion of depth on a two dimensional surface.

Diegesis

The theory of diegesis applies to narrative events, diegesis is the choices that we actually see.
Diegetic narrative events take place before the audience within the field of vision - what we see.
Non - Diegetic narrative events take place off-screen before the movie started, between scenes, smultaneously but in another room.

Gill Branston and Roy Stafford

Gill Branston and Roy Stafford are media writers from the 90's.
Branston and Stafford applied the relevance of Fabula and Syuzhet theory to the crime genre.
When you have watched a Crime film, you should feel that you have been pleasurably puzzled and that you haven't been cheated by the storyline.

'Film Art' by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson..

In their book 'Film Art' Bordwell and Thompson give three different time zones for film narratives.
Story - the set of all the events in the narrative, both the ones explicity presented and those the viewer infers, compose the story.
Plot - the term plot is used to describe everything visibly and audibly present in the film before us.
Screen time - the time taken to broadcast the film.

Theory - Victor Shklovsky

Shklovsky attempted to distinguish between the plot, which he defined as the events we actually 'see' in the narratives and the story, which contains all the information or events affection the characters on end off screen. 

He gave them typically difficult names...

Fabula - the story, for example the whole world of the story before; during and after what we see or hear

Syuzhet - only the events that we see or hear within the field of vision

Theory - Roland Barthes

Roland Barthes is a french theorist, he believed that there are 5 codes that enable an audience to make sense of a narrative.
Hermeneutic - narrative turning points - we know where the storyline will go next
Proairectic - basic narrative options - for example detective interviews suspect or femme fetal seduces hero
Cultural - prior social knowledge - for example our attitudes to gender or racial stereotypes
Semic - medium related codes - intertextuality
Symbolic - themes - iconography or a theme such as 'image versus reality'

Theory - Tzvetan Todorov

Tzvetan Todorov is a Bulgarian Structuralist from the 1960's. he developed the theory of disrupted equilibrium.
He identified that stories follow a typical pattern of...
Equilibrium - the 'status quo' where things are as they should be
Disequilibrium - the 'status quo' is disrupted by an event
Equilibrium - the 'status quo' is restored at the end of the story by an actions of the hero

There are several moments in the plot where resolution of equilibrium takes place, for example when pieces of the detectives puzzle falls into place.
Todorov later developed this into a 5 stage pattern...
1. a state of equilibrium at the outset
2. a disruption of equilibrium by some action
3. a recognition that there has been a disruption
4. an attempt to repair the disruption
5. a reinstatement of the equilibrium

Theory - Vladimir Propp

Propp developed the Fairy Tale Theory, he examined hundreds of 1928 fairy tales in the generic form to discover the technique they use.
He identified 8 character roles and 31 functions which move the story along.
The 8 character roles are...
1. The Villain - the bad guy
2. The Hero - a seeker character motivated by an initial lack
3. The Donor - who provides an object with some magic property
4. The Helper - Who aids the hero
5. The Princess - A reward for the hero and object of the villains' scheme
6. Her Father - who validates the hero
7. The Dispatcher - who sends the hero on his way
8. The False Hero - the one who gets the credit at first but then gets found out

Propp's theory is a form of structuralism, which is a view that all media is inevitably in the form of certain fixed structures. Theses structures are often culturally derived and form expectations in the mind of an audience from within the same culture. Propp's theory can be applied to generic structures in Western Culture, such as popular genres. The genre structures form expectations in the mind of an audience that certain rules apply to the narrative. However, cultural change can force structures to change, for example a hero can now be a woman.

Theory - Levi Strauss

Levi Strauss developed the concept of bricolage.
Levis Strauss saw any text as constructed out of socially recognisable 'debris' from other texts. He saw any text as constricted texts from other texts by the processes of Addition, Deletion, Substitution and Transposition.

Theory - Jacques Derrida

Jacques Derrida proposed that "a text cannot belong to no genre, it cannot be without a genre. Every text participates in one or several genres, this is no genreless text", 1981.
Intertexuality is a key component in understanding how genre texts succeed by being at once both simular and different.

Target Audience...

Our group have decided that our Target Audience will be 15 to 25 year olds. Our audience will be the kind who like Horror films and those who like questioning what happens next.

Once we have produced some footage for the film trailer, we will get the audience's reaction from the trailer and see what they think of it. This technique is used in industry, so that the company know what they are producing people will actually like it.

Feedback is key in the Media Industry.

Developed StoryBoard...

Initial StoryBoard...

1. Shot of four teenagers playing a boardgame
2. There's a knock at the door
3. One of the teenagers goes to answer the door
4. Man at the door, "Hello Stranger"
5. Fast action shots; Screaming, Running, Hiding etc
6. "SCREAMMM!" shot of house
7. Flashback of when the man saw the teenagers
8. Man's voice; "I've got you now..." shot of teenager scared

Mood Board...

I created a mood board to show related images to the genre which my group and I are interested in. We are interested in doing a Film Trailer of the Horror genre.