My media product is a horror film called ‘Violet’, directed by Ruby Cowan. The production of the opening sequence was completed on the 23rd March 2009.
Storyline: Twin girls, aged 9 are running through the woods, with one following the other. The leader is called Violet (played by Silvia Thomas), her face pale and cold and she is dressed in white. The other twin is called Bella (played by Eleanor Thomas), and she is very innocent. She seems entranced with Violet and the woods she is being shown through. The film cuts to a mother called Kate, (played by Ffion Jolly). She screaming ‘BELLA! BELLA!’ and she frantically runs out the house and towards the woods in search of her daughter. The film continues, with a chase style sequence with the camera cutting between the twins and the mother. The twins eventually reach two monuments side by side and each walk over to one. The mother then shows up and runs towards Bella screaming. Bella looks confused and upset at her mother’s sudden rashness and anger, quickly blaming Violet, but Kate cannot see her. Kate’s concern continues to grow on her face. She is disturbed and worried by what she saw. She quickly grasps her arm round Bella and walks her out the woods. Violet is seen standing behind them staring, with anger in her eyes. She walks slowly in the direction of Kate and Bella. Her walk has an odd air of determination and evil despite her age. It is apparent from this opening sequence that Violet is a ghost, who is only visible to children.
The rest of the film involves many other children going missing into the woods, and their parent’s frantic search to find them. A police officer moves to the village where the disappearances are occurring to try and solve the mystery, but his own children also disappear. He faces a race against time to stop all the children in the village vanishing.
Children are often seen as very creepy in horror films, such as ‘The Omen’ and we took this convention of horror further by using twins. The 1976 film ‘The Omen’ directed by Richard Donner uses a child called Damien, whose family is unaware that he is actually the offspring of Satan and destined to become the Antichrist. His father eventually begins to realize the true identity of Damien, after many people connected to him die in tragic accidents. In a similar way, we have also used a child, possessed by The Devil. This child then possesses many others, forcing them into the woods. Other films involving possessed children are ‘The Exorcist’ (released in 1973, adapted from the 1971 novel by William Blatty) and ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ (released in 1968 and directed by Roman Polanski). Both these films as well as ‘The Omen’ were in a cycle of ‘demonic child’ movies produced in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The location of the film is also significant. Many horror films are shot in isolated locations, as there is a stronger feeling of vulnerability and loneliness. There is no one around to help, so if something happens, there is no one to turn to. This is playing on the common human fear of ‘The Unknown’. This isolated location is often the woods, as there are very secluded and often associated with danger. They are also very overwhelming and dark, so you can’t see if something is coming towards you. They are also often very silent, so you can hear every little noise, which can be frightening. While it does follow many horror film conventions, it does satirize the public service, as the police force is seen to be ineffective, whereas in many films, they end up being the heroes.
Question 2: How does your Media Product Represent Social Groups?
The main social group represented in ‘Violet’ is the white middle class. Are product may be slightly leading toward targeting females, although our product is ai
med at both genders, as there are both female and male characters in the film. We decided to use this demographic, as it reflected the social group that we are targeting for our film. A multicultural audience may watch our film, but the middle class is the primary audience, as they will be able to identify closer with the narrative. There are a few examples of representations of other races, with some people in the village being from different ethic minorities, but these are limited.
The majority of people in the film are children, as they are the main focus of the plot. They are dressed in typical child’s clothing (e.g. jeans, t-shirt and trainers) and have the normal characteristics you would expect (they are happy and playful), with the exception of the ghost/evil child. The ghost/evil child is dressed in all white and has odd mannerisms and expressions (such as a very pale, gloomy face and depressive attitude), to show she is different to the other children. She is shown as the stereotypical ‘villain’ in the story, and we tried to shoot her with an air on evil about her, although she doesn’t necessarily mean to be evil, the audience interprets her that way.
The other social group represented is middle-aged men and women. They are whom much of the audience will relate to. As the film is not suitable for young children, (because of its violent and imitable techniques, in reference to some of the deaths and disappearances of the children), so there is a need to appeal to adults and representing their demographic in the film will do this. Therefore the adults in our film have the typical behavior and appearance the audience would expect. There will be respectable and responsible, and generally acting with proper decorum. This is with the exception of the police force, which is seen to be ineffective. Adults with children will be able to relate to the film to a further extent, as they can imagine the distress at their child going missing. It may also make them feel better about their own life situation as they don’t have to go though that distress; they see the film as a form of escapism. It will be harder for those without children and particularly teenagers to relate to this situation. However we do intend teenagers as a main target audience, even though there is no representation of them in the film. A representation is not necessarily needed, as teen
agers are known to greatly enjoy horror films anyway, as they enjoy the physiological fear it creates. They find a sense of entertainment in being scared and getting that adrenaline rush, which isn’t as desirable for an older audience. Teenagers like the excitement that being scared creates and the feeling it gives them, something which adults don’t enjoy as much, except the explorers among them, as they are already settled in their and lives and are generally speaking, not as much fulfillment from things such as films as they have already established what they want to do with their lives. They are less likely to seek fulfillment, as they have already achieved a lot in their lives.
Question 3: What kind of Media Institution might distribute your Media Product and why?
Our product can be defined as an independent, low budget film. We had very little finance for our film, as it all had to be paid for within our group of 4 people, because we had no backing from another company or person. There was also a very limited amount of expertise, as although we had help from the media technicians, the majority of the work needed to be done in our group, where none of us had experience in film making or producing a film. We have a fairly amateur cast, although one of the main actresses Ffion Jolly does have experience, so this could help when marketing the project.
British films can be defined as feature length films that are expected by their makers to achieve theatrical distribution and for which the financial or creative impulse came from Britain. This can be very difficult to categorize, due to the many different factors that go into constructing the product. There are different categories ranging from A-E. Very few films are actually British, due to financial power of American Companies, but as all the funding and creative ideas for our film thus far have been British, it would be fitting to use a British Distribution Company to back our film. A British Distribution Company is also more likely to want to distribute the film, than an American one, as the deal more with ‘Blockbuster’ films that have been backed with American Money. Our film can be classified as a Category A film, meaning it has been made with British money, personal and resources, like the film ‘This Is England (released in 2007 and directed by Shane Meadows).
We will not have a huge choice of companies to distribute our film as we are relatively unknown, but some smaller companies may offer us a deal. A distribution company that may offer us a distribution deal is Verve Pictures or Metronome Group. They are both British Distribution companies, who deal with mainly independent, fairly low budget films and both have had success with horror films. Therefore they could hopefully, help make our film a success. Another company that could offer us a distribution deal is Hammer Film Productions. There are films distributions companies based in the UK, who specialize in the horror film market. In recent years they haven’t enjoyed as much success and have produced fewer films, but therefore they may offer are film distributions deal because it may help their company to rekindle their old success. During the 1960s and 70s, films involving child possession were very popular and with the fairly recent success of the Omen remake in 2006, now seems like a good time to release another film of the same category onto the market, for them as well as u. It would be beneficial to us, as they have a lot of experience with horror films, so we could learn a lot from them and they will now how to successfully distribute our film, so we gain as much revenue as possible.
Question 4: Who would be the Audience for Your Media Product?
med at both genders, as there are both female and male characters in the film. We decided to use this demographic, as it reflected the social group that we are targeting for our film. A multicultural audience may watch our film, but the middle class is the primary audience, as they will be able to identify closer with the narrative. There are a few examples of representations of other races, with some people in the village being from different ethic minorities, but these are limited.The majority of people in the film are children, as they are the main focus of the plot. They are dressed in typical child’s clothing (e.g. jeans, t-shirt and trainers) and have the normal characteristics you would expect (they are happy and playful), with the exception of the ghost/evil child. The ghost/evil child is dressed in all white and has odd mannerisms and expressions (such as a very pale, gloomy face and depressive attitude), to show she is different to the other children. She is shown as the stereotypical ‘villain’ in the story, and we tried to shoot her with an air on evil about her, although she doesn’t necessarily mean to be evil, the audience interprets her that way.
The other social group represented is middle-aged men and women. They are whom much of the audience will relate to. As the film is not suitable for young children, (because of its violent and imitable techniques, in reference to some of the deaths and disappearances of the children), so there is a need to appeal to adults and representing their demographic in the film will do this. Therefore the adults in our film have the typical behavior and appearance the audience would expect. There will be respectable and responsible, and generally acting with proper decorum. This is with the exception of the police force, which is seen to be ineffective. Adults with children will be able to relate to the film to a further extent, as they can imagine the distress at their child going missing. It may also make them feel better about their own life situation as they don’t have to go though that distress; they see the film as a form of escapism. It will be harder for those without children and particularly teenagers to relate to this situation. However we do intend teenagers as a main target audience, even though there is no representation of them in the film. A representation is not necessarily needed, as teen
agers are known to greatly enjoy horror films anyway, as they enjoy the physiological fear it creates. They find a sense of entertainment in being scared and getting that adrenaline rush, which isn’t as desirable for an older audience. Teenagers like the excitement that being scared creates and the feeling it gives them, something which adults don’t enjoy as much, except the explorers among them, as they are already settled in their and lives and are generally speaking, not as much fulfillment from things such as films as they have already established what they want to do with their lives. They are less likely to seek fulfillment, as they have already achieved a lot in their lives.Question 3: What kind of Media Institution might distribute your Media Product and why?
Our product can be defined as an independent, low budget film. We had very little finance for our film, as it all had to be paid for within our group of 4 people, because we had no backing from another company or person. There was also a very limited amount of expertise, as although we had help from the media technicians, the majority of the work needed to be done in our group, where none of us had experience in film making or producing a film. We have a fairly amateur cast, although one of the main actresses Ffion Jolly does have experience, so this could help when marketing the project.
British films can be defined as feature length films that are expected by their makers to achieve theatrical distribution and for which the financial or creative impulse came from Britain. This can be very difficult to categorize, due to the many different factors that go into constructing the product. There are different categories ranging from A-E. Very few films are actually British, due to financial power of American Companies, but as all the funding and creative ideas for our film thus far have been British, it would be fitting to use a British Distribution Company to back our film. A British Distribution Company is also more likely to want to distribute the film, than an American one, as the deal more with ‘Blockbuster’ films that have been backed with American Money. Our film can be classified as a Category A film, meaning it has been made with British money, personal and resources, like the film ‘This Is England (released in 2007 and directed by Shane Meadows).
We will not have a huge choice of companies to distribute our film as we are relatively unknown, but some smaller companies may offer us a deal. A distribution company that may offer us a distribution deal is Verve Pictures or Metronome Group. They are both British Distribution companies, who deal with mainly independent, fairly low budget films and both have had success with horror films. Therefore they could hopefully, help make our film a success. Another company that could offer us a distribution deal is Hammer Film Productions. There are films distributions companies based in the UK, who specialize in the horror film market. In recent years they haven’t enjoyed as much success and have produced fewer films, but therefore they may offer are film distributions deal because it may help their company to rekindle their old success. During the 1960s and 70s, films involving child possession were very popular and with the fairly recent success of the Omen remake in 2006, now seems like a good time to release another film of the same category onto the market, for them as well as u. It would be beneficial to us, as they have a lot of experience with horror films, so we could learn a lot from them and they will now how to successfully distribute our film, so we gain as much revenue as possible.
Question 4: Who would be the Audience for Your Media Product?
The British Board of Film Classification issues the film certificates.
Our film would be given a ‘15’ certificate, meaning:
It is suitable for people only 15 years and older.
No one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may buy or rent a ‘15’ rated video or DVD.
While our film ‘Violet’, will not contain any sex or drug references, there is some strong violence and horror. Imitable techniques are also present, in reference to some of the deaths and disappearances of the children. The opening sequence could be seen by anyone as it doesn’t contain any inappropriate references, but some are present in the rest of the film. For these reasons we decided upon a ‘15’ certificate, rather than a ‘12A’ as we felt parts of the film may extend beyond the boundaries of the ‘12A’ certificate.
We are mainly targeting teenagers and young adults from a middle class background. They will be fairly well educated and live in city environments. The primary target audience is group B (Modern Housing). They are sophisticated people, of the middle class, who are business professional, but not at the top of their business, such as middle management, teachers, creative and media people etc. (or those whose parents are in this category, so the have grown up in a middle class background). They enjoy spending money on entertainment such as going to the cinema and can afford to do this regularly. The two groups below (C1 and C2) will be the secondary target audience for our product, as they too have money they can afford to spend on entertainment for themselves, although not as often. Those in the C1 category are office supervisors, junior managers, nurses (white collar) and C2, skilled manual workers, plumbers etc. (blue collar). Those in the top category A (Affluent Suburban Housing, those in the top professions such as bankers and lawyers), may still watch our film although they are not our primary target, as they may prefer to enjoy more affluent forms of entertainment such as going to the opera or theatre. They will also have much less spare time to go and see films, and so will be less inclined spending their time going to see something relatively unknown. Those in the lower categories (D and E) are obviously not exempt from seeing our film, and people in these categories may enjoy it, but we do not expect as many of them to go and see our film as, Categories B, C1 and C2.
We are trying to attract the EXPLORERS in society, who seek discovery. They believe in individualism and experience and are often the first to try new brands. Therefore they may be more inclined to go and see a film, with an unknown cast and production staff than MAINSTREAMERS, who are more conventional and sentimental, sticking with brands that have been trustworthy over many years, for example a Warner Brothers film, starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.
The film would be distributed nationally in cinemas, but not on very large scale, as it isn’t a ‘Hollywood Blockbuster’ film, with famous actors and production staff. The release would be limited to major cities, such as London, Manchester and Edingburugh. Therefore it will be those people in bigger cities that the film will be more easier accessible to, as it is the larger cinemas that show a wide variety of films that would showcase ‘Violet’. As there are 18-24 new films released in the UK each week, we wouldn’t expect the film to be in the cinema for long, unless it was hugely popular with the audience, so we are looking at a time period of 2-3 weeks, to gain box-office revenue from the film. As it is an independent film, we wouldn’t expect the film to gain a substantial amount of revenue, but this isn’t as significant as the film is low budget, so we don’t need to generate a large revenue. Assuming the film was at least a moderate success, there would be a period of about 3 months before the film would be released on DVD. To begin with the DVD wouldn’t be released on a wide scale, but if it was popular we would authorize the release of more copies for sale or rent. Some special features could perhaps be included on the DVD to make it more appealing.
The costs we had in the production of the film were fairly minimul. We borrowed all the equipment from the Hurtwood House media department, so the only costs were on cast and props. As the twins were family friends of mine, we only had to pay them £20 each for the day and Ffion charged us £150 for a days work. We didn’t have any props for our film so this kept costs down significantly and we didn’t have to hire out a location, as we filmed it in the woods on the grounds, owned by one of the members of the production team. The only other cost was on costume for the ‘ghost’ child, such as a white dress, but this only amounted to amount £30. Therefore we can spend a bit more money, on areas such as special features on the DVD and marketing the film.
Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?
Our film would be given a ‘15’ certificate, meaning:
It is suitable for people only 15 years and older.
No one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may buy or rent a ‘15’ rated video or DVD.
While our film ‘Violet’, will not contain any sex or drug references, there is some strong violence and horror. Imitable techniques are also present, in reference to some of the deaths and disappearances of the children. The opening sequence could be seen by anyone as it doesn’t contain any inappropriate references, but some are present in the rest of the film. For these reasons we decided upon a ‘15’ certificate, rather than a ‘12A’ as we felt parts of the film may extend beyond the boundaries of the ‘12A’ certificate.
We are mainly targeting teenagers and young adults from a middle class background. They will be fairly well educated and live in city environments. The primary target audience is group B (Modern Housing). They are sophisticated people, of the middle class, who are business professional, but not at the top of their business, such as middle management, teachers, creative and media people etc. (or those whose parents are in this category, so the have grown up in a middle class background). They enjoy spending money on entertainment such as going to the cinema and can afford to do this regularly. The two groups below (C1 and C2) will be the secondary target audience for our product, as they too have money they can afford to spend on entertainment for themselves, although not as often. Those in the C1 category are office supervisors, junior managers, nurses (white collar) and C2, skilled manual workers, plumbers etc. (blue collar). Those in the top category A (Affluent Suburban Housing, those in the top professions such as bankers and lawyers), may still watch our film although they are not our primary target, as they may prefer to enjoy more affluent forms of entertainment such as going to the opera or theatre. They will also have much less spare time to go and see films, and so will be less inclined spending their time going to see something relatively unknown. Those in the lower categories (D and E) are obviously not exempt from seeing our film, and people in these categories may enjoy it, but we do not expect as many of them to go and see our film as, Categories B, C1 and C2.
We are trying to attract the EXPLORERS in society, who seek discovery. They believe in individualism and experience and are often the first to try new brands. Therefore they may be more inclined to go and see a film, with an unknown cast and production staff than MAINSTREAMERS, who are more conventional and sentimental, sticking with brands that have been trustworthy over many years, for example a Warner Brothers film, starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.
The film would be distributed nationally in cinemas, but not on very large scale, as it isn’t a ‘Hollywood Blockbuster’ film, with famous actors and production staff. The release would be limited to major cities, such as London, Manchester and Edingburugh. Therefore it will be those people in bigger cities that the film will be more easier accessible to, as it is the larger cinemas that show a wide variety of films that would showcase ‘Violet’. As there are 18-24 new films released in the UK each week, we wouldn’t expect the film to be in the cinema for long, unless it was hugely popular with the audience, so we are looking at a time period of 2-3 weeks, to gain box-office revenue from the film. As it is an independent film, we wouldn’t expect the film to gain a substantial amount of revenue, but this isn’t as significant as the film is low budget, so we don’t need to generate a large revenue. Assuming the film was at least a moderate success, there would be a period of about 3 months before the film would be released on DVD. To begin with the DVD wouldn’t be released on a wide scale, but if it was popular we would authorize the release of more copies for sale or rent. Some special features could perhaps be included on the DVD to make it more appealing.
The costs we had in the production of the film were fairly minimul. We borrowed all the equipment from the Hurtwood House media department, so the only costs were on cast and props. As the twins were family friends of mine, we only had to pay them £20 each for the day and Ffion charged us £150 for a days work. We didn’t have any props for our film so this kept costs down significantly and we didn’t have to hire out a location, as we filmed it in the woods on the grounds, owned by one of the members of the production team. The only other cost was on costume for the ‘ghost’ child, such as a white dress, but this only amounted to amount £30. Therefore we can spend a bit more money, on areas such as special features on the DVD and marketing the film.
Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?
As we had a very low budget for our film, because it was all financed amongst the four people in our group, there wasn’t a lot of money that could be spent on marketing. We thought it was more worthwhile to spend the money we had, on perfecting the final product rather than marketing, although I make the film a success will need to use employ some forms of marketing. We are receiving some free marketing from Hurtwood House. They will showcase our film, along with other horror
/thriller films, to all Hurtwood students and it will then be released on a DVD with the other films that will be distributed to Hurtwood students. They can then show this to other people; so more people will watch our film. This is an effective form of marketing that is completely free for us. We also placed our film on our blogs, along with the script and treatment available for more people. This way it is also more easily accessible, as in the modern day watching films on the internet was become much more popular.
As well as not having a great deal of money to spend on marketing, we also had a very limited amount of time, so therefore we were restricted to how we could market our film, as there was limited to time construct a marketing campaign. When we release the DVD of our film, it would be possible to place some special features on it to attract more consumers. These could interviews with the cast and crew, and deleted scenes, as these would be fairly cheap and easy to include. Other marketing techniques that could be used are Facebook and MySpace fan pages for the characters and the film, so people can ‘become a fan’ and
learn more amount the film. As these are free but will raise our audience’s awareness to our product. Due to the low production costs we had we could spend a bit more money on marketing, but we will not do so, unless we think it is essential for our film, as ultimately if we have lower costs we should generate a higher profit, unless we don’t do enough marketing and our box office revenue and DVD sales suffer as a result. We could use simple techniques such as handing out flyers and slightly more complex, competitions as we are a superficial, consuming society so they will be attracted to the opportunity of winning something. Another marketing technique along the same lines is to give away free products at the premiere that are associated with the film, such as when pink nail varnish was given away at the Confessions of a Shopaholic premiere (at participating cinemas). A further very important marketing strategy is the movie posters. They need to be bright and stand out drawing the audience in, making them want to watch the film. They should contain something eye catching, combined with a catchy tagline to keep the film in the consumers mind.
However ultimately it is up to our final product as to whether people enjoy it and therefore whether they will watch any further films our production company makes. We have made the opening sequence very fast paced with elements of suspense and mystery so the viewer will stay in their seat and watch the rest of the film. We also have catchy music which will get into the viewers head. The mise-en-scene of the twins looking through the statues is very effective, as the audience will want to know what they are doing, and they will have to watch the rest of the film to find out. There is also the mystery of one of the twins, possibly being a ‘ghost’, which the viewer will want to explore more.
Question 6: What have you learnt about Media Technologies from the process of constructing your Product?
Hardware: Recording the moving image
In our shoot day, we only filmed the opening sequence of our film. We used a large variety of shots in our filming, most of which were well thought and composed, because of the use of a detailed storyboard. We filmed the same shot several times, from different distances and point of views, so we had more varied footage to work with, when it came to editing the
film together.
The shots of the mother (Ffion Jolly) were filmed at a faster speed to those of the twins, with the contrast helping to explain the story. We also filmed shots running backwards with the handheld camera. We did this particularly in the case of just filming the feet, which was very effective. For these shots, we also used a handheld camera so we could follow the movement better, as opposed to having the camera on a tripod, like we did for the majority of our shots. These handheld shots were more challenging and took a while to do effectively, but produced a good end result.
The majority of our shots, there was a fixed focus and small aperture, so all the image was in good focus, so it was clear. A few of the shots were less focused; from far out and as the characters moved closer towards the camera, they came more into focus. Before every shot was taken, we had to focus the camera and adjust the aperture and shutter speed to make sure we had clear shots that we could use in the final edit. All our shots were filmed exteriorly, with the majority of these filmed in the woods, although the location within the woods did vary between the different shots. The other location we used was a large mansion (Broome Hall), although we only filmed the exterior. We filmed a couple of shots here, to use at the beginning of our film. These were several establishing shots of the house and a few shots of the mother running away from the house, from both the front and back.
We didn’t use any artificial lighting in our filming, as it was all done using the natural light of the surroundings. As the day progressed, it got darker and this was when the shots looked more effective. We didn’t want to use any added lighting for the shots, as we wanted them to look dark and eerie. The changes in natural lighting throughout the day, could have affected our shot continuity, but looking at the footage we recorded this doesn’t appear to be a problem. For our filming,
we recorded the dialogue in the shots, with the idea to edit it afterwards in Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack Pro. A microphone was also attached to the camera at all times so all the sound was clear (the dialogue and digetic sound). We also had the use of the sound muffler to make the ambient sound more effective and heard in our film.
Soft Ware: Editing Your Recording
Once our shoot day was over, over the following month or so we were in the editing suite putting our film together.
To begin with we digitalized onto the Hurtwood Apple Server, so we could watch it in Final Cut Pro. We then created bins, to put all the logged shots we wanted to use in. We watched the footage over again and selected all the shots we wanted to use, by logging them. We selected the in point and Outpoint, then created a sub clip of the footage between those points to log. We made sure we named the shots clearly (e.g. Ffion by house CU), so they would be easier to identify later, when it came to placing them in a running order on the timeline. We found that much of the footage we had wasn’t useable, so we didn’t log these shots. There were also many shots that were the same, as we had filmed the same shot many times so we made sure we had a good one, and so we picked the best of these to log.
Once we had completed the logging process, we began to drag and drop some of these shots onto the timeline, to create the right order for our opening sequence. We wanted the shots to tell the story effectively and it took a lot of time to get the exact running order that we wanted. We found that some of the shots didn’t fit well together, so the process took a lot of time to make the film run smoothly. We used many rapid cuts in between the shots, to speed up the pace of the film. The razor tool was used to cut off the end of shots, to make it more hurried. We alternated between shots of the mother and the twins to show the storyline, that the mother is desperately searching for her daughter.
As one of t
he twins was supposed to be a ghost and not seen by the mother, the end of the opening sequence took a lot of time to get correct. We had to do a lot of cutting of the shots, to show the ‘ghost’ twin in the shot and then her suddenly not there. We did this effectively by using a wide shot with both the twins in, and then cutting quickly to a similar shot, but from the mother’s perspective where the ghost twin isn’t there. There were a few problems with the shot continuity of some of the shots, so we had to find alternate shots to use that would fit correctly together. Once we had the correct running order for our opening sequence, we worked on editing it further, to produce a better final product. We thought of the idea of using the program After Effects, to make the ghost twin, look more creepy, but we decided against this, as we were working to a tight deadline and thought there were other areas of the film that are time would be better spent on. We had decided to use the film sequence, for the opening and then use separate photographs for the title sequence. We thought this would be effective, as it would start to explain the mystery surrounding the ghost twin. We scanned in old black and white family photographs I had at home and then added effects to them using Adobe Photoshop. We used the red brush and splatter tools, to edit the photos, making it appear as if a child had drawn on them, either in pen or possibly blood. In the end we decided against using the photos, as the time limit for out opening sequence was 2 minutes and our filming sequence once we had added the credits met this. However we did incorporate some ideas from the photographs into our credits. We chose a font from the Internet that looked like a child’s handwriting so we still got the effect that a child had been drawing on the image/film. We then added fades in and out to the credits, making sure we had positioned them in the correct place on the screen where they could be seen and that they were on the screen for the correct amount of time.
After we had got all the images, in the correct and final order we wanted, we had to place the sound on the sequence. As we had been moving the different shots around, the audio files that were attached to them, got very mixed up and were placed with the wrong image. Therefore we had to spend a lot of time, get the image in time with the right picture. This was possibly the most tedious and time-consuming part of the editing process. Once all that sound matched the picture correctly, we used a program called Soundtrack Pro to listen to many different sounds that were on the Hurtwood Server, and wrote down the names of the ones we thought would fit with our sequence. Next we created a separate bin for all our sounds and imported our chosen sounds into Final Cut Pro. We tried out a variety of sounds on the timeline, some over the top of each to see the different effect they gave. We found that some sounds were good to represent a particular feeling, so we used them repeated times in the film. We changed the volume of some of these sounds, do that the digetic sound could still be heard over the top of it and on some shots turned it up, so it overpowered the digetic sound. We added effects to the music, such as it fading in and out, to illustrate a change in shot type or character on the screen. Some of our most effective sound was the digetic sound; we got from the shoot day, such as feet running through the leaves and Ffion shouting, so we incorporated these into our film. We deleted a lot of the sound that was connected to the image, or turned the volume very low, as we felt that music and other sounds (non digetic) were more effective that the digetic sound. We found that once the music had been added our film sequence was much stronger and that it made a huge difference to our finished product.
From both the recording and editing of the film I have learnt a lot. Before we started either the filming or editing I had very little experience in either field, but my creating this film, I learnt how to use a video camera and then edit my footage in Final Cut Pro successfully. I feel that next time, I need to do such a task I will be able to do a better job, within a quicker time frame.
Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do feel you have learnt about the progression from it to the finished product?
At the start of the Media Studies course we were given a Preliminary task to complete our first media product. It was a continuity exercise involving filming and editing involving two characters in a conversation within an interior set. One character opens a door, crosses a room, establishes themselves opposite another character and a few lines of dialogue are exchanged. This was the first experience we ever had at putting together this type of media product so was very challenging. However it did give us basic skills in film making and editing that were very useful when it came to producing my film ‘Violet’. This preliminary task was much similar than our final project, as we didn’t have to cope with all the different aspects of the task that we did with our final project.
For the final project we had to do a lot of work before we even began to think about filming. I had to research a lot into horror films, to find a grip to bring in the audience. We then between us had to form a company and act like a professional team in working to produce a final product. We learnt how to write scripts and storyboards for films as well as drawing up contracts, which gave us experience in film production and showed us an insight into all the work that goes into creating a film. We did face some problems throughout the production, but the majority we managed to overcome. We chose to adapt Ruby’s script ‘Violet’, but were unsure what exactly needed to be done to it, to make it an effective. We had some help from the media technician into what an audience would find interesting, but it took a lot of debating before we decided upon the final story line. Another problem we faced was finding a cast for our film. As we wanted to use children, specifically twins, it was much more challenging to find actresses. All the members of our group, contacted people that they thought may be suitable for the part, but I eventually found 2 nine-year-old twins, who were friends of my sisters that were willing to participate in our film. The role of the other wasn’t as challenging to cast and we decided upon using Ffion Jolly, an ex Hurtwood student, with acting experience.
When we had first filmed our preliminary task, I found it quite challenging, but when it came to doing our final project I was much more prepared for the task. On the shoot day, we all took turns to film different shots, so we all gained filming experience. Some of the group, such as the Assistant Director and Creative Director contributed far less than the Director and the producer (me). This was very frustrating as it meant I had to work a lot harder to make sure the work was done. They were also the people that didn’t contribute as much to the pre-filming and editing process. As a producer, I was in charge of overseeing everything
and making sure that all the contracts and paperwork was done so we were ready for filming. This proved to be a very challenging job, as some members of the team found it very difficult to meet deadlines even when being told it was essential it was met. This slowed down the process for the whole team, so other team members had to work a lot harder. A feel like I have had to work extremely hard to create this media product, as there is also something new that needs to be done, but in a sense I feel this is better than if it had just been a very easy task. It has taught me that if you work hard and meet your deadlines, you will be rewarded at the end, with your finished product. The experience hasn’t been what I expected, as I thought it would be easier, with much less work to do, but I have still found it enjoyable. It has given me an idea of what it is like to work within a company in the film industry and the pressure they are under to turn out a good project. I am proud of our finished product and although if we had had more time, we could have made some slight improvements to it, I think we produced a good film within the time frame given.
At the beginning, when we were first assigned our groups, we did have some trouble in working together and there were conflicts within our group, but we generally managed to overcome them. There were disagreements that could have been avoided, and I think I could have been less demanding and confrontational and some arguments could have been avoided. If there had been less disagreements we could have maybe produced our piece in quicker time and this is one of my biggest regrets in the process, but the are positives that can be taken from these disagreements. I have learnt a great deal about teamwork, because of the problems we have faced within our groups. I have learnt that you cannot always work with people that you don’t get along with, but you need to learn to adapt to it. While the whole process may have been easier if we had been allowed to pick our own groups, we may not have gained as much experience as we did by having to work with different people, as this is what we will have to do in a real working environment in the future.
As well as gaining valuable teamwork skills, I have also learnt how to use a film camera and then edit in Final Cut Pro, to a much higher standard. From the shoot day, I feel like a learned a lot about filmmaking from this day and gained some important skills. In the future when I need to participate in filming and fulfilling a similar task as this one which I have faced I will be more prepared and therefore will be able to do what is asked of me quicker and to a higher standard. In regard to Final Cut Pro, before this editing process I had a very limited idea on whom to use it, but since spending a lot of time using Final Cut Pro and learning the different effects it could produce, I now feel a lot more confident when it comes to using it. This was probably the aspect of the process that I felt my participation was most limited as I didn’t know how to work the program fully, but as time progressed I got more involved and feel I gave a valid contribution to this part of the process.
/thriller films, to all Hurtwood students and it will then be released on a DVD with the other films that will be distributed to Hurtwood students. They can then show this to other people; so more people will watch our film. This is an effective form of marketing that is completely free for us. We also placed our film on our blogs, along with the script and treatment available for more people. This way it is also more easily accessible, as in the modern day watching films on the internet was become much more popular.As well as not having a great deal of money to spend on marketing, we also had a very limited amount of time, so therefore we were restricted to how we could market our film, as there was limited to time construct a marketing campaign. When we release the DVD of our film, it would be possible to place some special features on it to attract more consumers. These could interviews with the cast and crew, and deleted scenes, as these would be fairly cheap and easy to include. Other marketing techniques that could be used are Facebook and MySpace fan pages for the characters and the film, so people can ‘become a fan’ and
learn more amount the film. As these are free but will raise our audience’s awareness to our product. Due to the low production costs we had we could spend a bit more money on marketing, but we will not do so, unless we think it is essential for our film, as ultimately if we have lower costs we should generate a higher profit, unless we don’t do enough marketing and our box office revenue and DVD sales suffer as a result. We could use simple techniques such as handing out flyers and slightly more complex, competitions as we are a superficial, consuming society so they will be attracted to the opportunity of winning something. Another marketing technique along the same lines is to give away free products at the premiere that are associated with the film, such as when pink nail varnish was given away at the Confessions of a Shopaholic premiere (at participating cinemas). A further very important marketing strategy is the movie posters. They need to be bright and stand out drawing the audience in, making them want to watch the film. They should contain something eye catching, combined with a catchy tagline to keep the film in the consumers mind.However ultimately it is up to our final product as to whether people enjoy it and therefore whether they will watch any further films our production company makes. We have made the opening sequence very fast paced with elements of suspense and mystery so the viewer will stay in their seat and watch the rest of the film. We also have catchy music which will get into the viewers head. The mise-en-scene of the twins looking through the statues is very effective, as the audience will want to know what they are doing, and they will have to watch the rest of the film to find out. There is also the mystery of one of the twins, possibly being a ‘ghost’, which the viewer will want to explore more.
Question 6: What have you learnt about Media Technologies from the process of constructing your Product?
Hardware: Recording the moving image
In our shoot day, we only filmed the opening sequence of our film. We used a large variety of shots in our filming, most of which were well thought and composed, because of the use of a detailed storyboard. We filmed the same shot several times, from different distances and point of views, so we had more varied footage to work with, when it came to editing the
film together.The shots of the mother (Ffion Jolly) were filmed at a faster speed to those of the twins, with the contrast helping to explain the story. We also filmed shots running backwards with the handheld camera. We did this particularly in the case of just filming the feet, which was very effective. For these shots, we also used a handheld camera so we could follow the movement better, as opposed to having the camera on a tripod, like we did for the majority of our shots. These handheld shots were more challenging and took a while to do effectively, but produced a good end result.
The majority of our shots, there was a fixed focus and small aperture, so all the image was in good focus, so it was clear. A few of the shots were less focused; from far out and as the characters moved closer towards the camera, they came more into focus. Before every shot was taken, we had to focus the camera and adjust the aperture and shutter speed to make sure we had clear shots that we could use in the final edit. All our shots were filmed exteriorly, with the majority of these filmed in the woods, although the location within the woods did vary between the different shots. The other location we used was a large mansion (Broome Hall), although we only filmed the exterior. We filmed a couple of shots here, to use at the beginning of our film. These were several establishing shots of the house and a few shots of the mother running away from the house, from both the front and back.
We didn’t use any artificial lighting in our filming, as it was all done using the natural light of the surroundings. As the day progressed, it got darker and this was when the shots looked more effective. We didn’t want to use any added lighting for the shots, as we wanted them to look dark and eerie. The changes in natural lighting throughout the day, could have affected our shot continuity, but looking at the footage we recorded this doesn’t appear to be a problem. For our filming,
we recorded the dialogue in the shots, with the idea to edit it afterwards in Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack Pro. A microphone was also attached to the camera at all times so all the sound was clear (the dialogue and digetic sound). We also had the use of the sound muffler to make the ambient sound more effective and heard in our film.Soft Ware: Editing Your Recording
Once our shoot day was over, over the following month or so we were in the editing suite putting our film together.
To begin with we digitalized onto the Hurtwood Apple Server, so we could watch it in Final Cut Pro. We then created bins, to put all the logged shots we wanted to use in. We watched the footage over again and selected all the shots we wanted to use, by logging them. We selected the in point and Outpoint, then created a sub clip of the footage between those points to log. We made sure we named the shots clearly (e.g. Ffion by house CU), so they would be easier to identify later, when it came to placing them in a running order on the timeline. We found that much of the footage we had wasn’t useable, so we didn’t log these shots. There were also many shots that were the same, as we had filmed the same shot many times so we made sure we had a good one, and so we picked the best of these to log.
Once we had completed the logging process, we began to drag and drop some of these shots onto the timeline, to create the right order for our opening sequence. We wanted the shots to tell the story effectively and it took a lot of time to get the exact running order that we wanted. We found that some of the shots didn’t fit well together, so the process took a lot of time to make the film run smoothly. We used many rapid cuts in between the shots, to speed up the pace of the film. The razor tool was used to cut off the end of shots, to make it more hurried. We alternated between shots of the mother and the twins to show the storyline, that the mother is desperately searching for her daughter.
As one of t
he twins was supposed to be a ghost and not seen by the mother, the end of the opening sequence took a lot of time to get correct. We had to do a lot of cutting of the shots, to show the ‘ghost’ twin in the shot and then her suddenly not there. We did this effectively by using a wide shot with both the twins in, and then cutting quickly to a similar shot, but from the mother’s perspective where the ghost twin isn’t there. There were a few problems with the shot continuity of some of the shots, so we had to find alternate shots to use that would fit correctly together. Once we had the correct running order for our opening sequence, we worked on editing it further, to produce a better final product. We thought of the idea of using the program After Effects, to make the ghost twin, look more creepy, but we decided against this, as we were working to a tight deadline and thought there were other areas of the film that are time would be better spent on. We had decided to use the film sequence, for the opening and then use separate photographs for the title sequence. We thought this would be effective, as it would start to explain the mystery surrounding the ghost twin. We scanned in old black and white family photographs I had at home and then added effects to them using Adobe Photoshop. We used the red brush and splatter tools, to edit the photos, making it appear as if a child had drawn on them, either in pen or possibly blood. In the end we decided against using the photos, as the time limit for out opening sequence was 2 minutes and our filming sequence once we had added the credits met this. However we did incorporate some ideas from the photographs into our credits. We chose a font from the Internet that looked like a child’s handwriting so we still got the effect that a child had been drawing on the image/film. We then added fades in and out to the credits, making sure we had positioned them in the correct place on the screen where they could be seen and that they were on the screen for the correct amount of time.After we had got all the images, in the correct and final order we wanted, we had to place the sound on the sequence. As we had been moving the different shots around, the audio files that were attached to them, got very mixed up and were placed with the wrong image. Therefore we had to spend a lot of time, get the image in time with the right picture. This was possibly the most tedious and time-consuming part of the editing process. Once all that sound matched the picture correctly, we used a program called Soundtrack Pro to listen to many different sounds that were on the Hurtwood Server, and wrote down the names of the ones we thought would fit with our sequence. Next we created a separate bin for all our sounds and imported our chosen sounds into Final Cut Pro. We tried out a variety of sounds on the timeline, some over the top of each to see the different effect they gave. We found that some sounds were good to represent a particular feeling, so we used them repeated times in the film. We changed the volume of some of these sounds, do that the digetic sound could still be heard over the top of it and on some shots turned it up, so it overpowered the digetic sound. We added effects to the music, such as it fading in and out, to illustrate a change in shot type or character on the screen. Some of our most effective sound was the digetic sound; we got from the shoot day, such as feet running through the leaves and Ffion shouting, so we incorporated these into our film. We deleted a lot of the sound that was connected to the image, or turned the volume very low, as we felt that music and other sounds (non digetic) were more effective that the digetic sound. We found that once the music had been added our film sequence was much stronger and that it made a huge difference to our finished product.
From both the recording and editing of the film I have learnt a lot. Before we started either the filming or editing I had very little experience in either field, but my creating this film, I learnt how to use a video camera and then edit my footage in Final Cut Pro successfully. I feel that next time, I need to do such a task I will be able to do a better job, within a quicker time frame.
Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do feel you have learnt about the progression from it to the finished product?
At the start of the Media Studies course we were given a Preliminary task to complete our first media product. It was a continuity exercise involving filming and editing involving two characters in a conversation within an interior set. One character opens a door, crosses a room, establishes themselves opposite another character and a few lines of dialogue are exchanged. This was the first experience we ever had at putting together this type of media product so was very challenging. However it did give us basic skills in film making and editing that were very useful when it came to producing my film ‘Violet’. This preliminary task was much similar than our final project, as we didn’t have to cope with all the different aspects of the task that we did with our final project.
For the final project we had to do a lot of work before we even began to think about filming. I had to research a lot into horror films, to find a grip to bring in the audience. We then between us had to form a company and act like a professional team in working to produce a final product. We learnt how to write scripts and storyboards for films as well as drawing up contracts, which gave us experience in film production and showed us an insight into all the work that goes into creating a film. We did face some problems throughout the production, but the majority we managed to overcome. We chose to adapt Ruby’s script ‘Violet’, but were unsure what exactly needed to be done to it, to make it an effective. We had some help from the media technician into what an audience would find interesting, but it took a lot of debating before we decided upon the final story line. Another problem we faced was finding a cast for our film. As we wanted to use children, specifically twins, it was much more challenging to find actresses. All the members of our group, contacted people that they thought may be suitable for the part, but I eventually found 2 nine-year-old twins, who were friends of my sisters that were willing to participate in our film. The role of the other wasn’t as challenging to cast and we decided upon using Ffion Jolly, an ex Hurtwood student, with acting experience.
When we had first filmed our preliminary task, I found it quite challenging, but when it came to doing our final project I was much more prepared for the task. On the shoot day, we all took turns to film different shots, so we all gained filming experience. Some of the group, such as the Assistant Director and Creative Director contributed far less than the Director and the producer (me). This was very frustrating as it meant I had to work a lot harder to make sure the work was done. They were also the people that didn’t contribute as much to the pre-filming and editing process. As a producer, I was in charge of overseeing everything
and making sure that all the contracts and paperwork was done so we were ready for filming. This proved to be a very challenging job, as some members of the team found it very difficult to meet deadlines even when being told it was essential it was met. This slowed down the process for the whole team, so other team members had to work a lot harder. A feel like I have had to work extremely hard to create this media product, as there is also something new that needs to be done, but in a sense I feel this is better than if it had just been a very easy task. It has taught me that if you work hard and meet your deadlines, you will be rewarded at the end, with your finished product. The experience hasn’t been what I expected, as I thought it would be easier, with much less work to do, but I have still found it enjoyable. It has given me an idea of what it is like to work within a company in the film industry and the pressure they are under to turn out a good project. I am proud of our finished product and although if we had had more time, we could have made some slight improvements to it, I think we produced a good film within the time frame given.At the beginning, when we were first assigned our groups, we did have some trouble in working together and there were conflicts within our group, but we generally managed to overcome them. There were disagreements that could have been avoided, and I think I could have been less demanding and confrontational and some arguments could have been avoided. If there had been less disagreements we could have maybe produced our piece in quicker time and this is one of my biggest regrets in the process, but the are positives that can be taken from these disagreements. I have learnt a great deal about teamwork, because of the problems we have faced within our groups. I have learnt that you cannot always work with people that you don’t get along with, but you need to learn to adapt to it. While the whole process may have been easier if we had been allowed to pick our own groups, we may not have gained as much experience as we did by having to work with different people, as this is what we will have to do in a real working environment in the future.
As well as gaining valuable teamwork skills, I have also learnt how to use a film camera and then edit in Final Cut Pro, to a much higher standard. From the shoot day, I feel like a learned a lot about filmmaking from this day and gained some important skills. In the future when I need to participate in filming and fulfilling a similar task as this one which I have faced I will be more prepared and therefore will be able to do what is asked of me quicker and to a higher standard. In regard to Final Cut Pro, before this editing process I had a very limited idea on whom to use it, but since spending a lot of time using Final Cut Pro and learning the different effects it could produce, I now feel a lot more confident when it comes to using it. This was probably the aspect of the process that I felt my participation was most limited as I didn’t know how to work the program fully, but as time progressed I got more involved and feel I gave a valid contribution to this part of the process.
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