Final Shotlist

1) Establishing Shot of the cementary
2) Panning Shot of graves
3) Long Shot of path
4) Mid Shot of graves
5) High-Angled Shot of Rosy
6) High-Angled of shot of taps
7) Mid-Shot of Rosy under a tree
8) Mid-Shot of the beth in the bath
9) Mid-Shot of Rosy walking down a path
10) Long Shot of Rosy walking down a path
11) Mid-Shot of Rosy walking past from the side
12) Long shot of Rosy
13) High-Angled Close up of rosy next to a tree
14) High-Angled shot of grave
15) Extreme Close-up of grave
16)Mid-Shot of Rosy next to the grave
17) Close up of Rosy holding flowers
18)Close up of Beth dead in the bath.

Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The genre of film we have made is a thriller with a lighthearted approach of delivering a moral. The moral following along the lines of the saying 'what comes around goes around' if our film was continued on it would show Rosy's flashback's into school life and being the victim however as the opening shows Rosy finds her own justice by murdering Beth from the inbetween.
We found our main inspiration from films such as Jennifer’s Body because of the structure and camerawork.

We deeply analysed the scene where Jennifer has been stabbed in the heart and then rises from the water. Our group didnt have a Hollywood budget so we decided to keep a realism to our mise en scene. We have based and related our film opening to this scene by having one character laying in the bath as eerie music plays at this time another character is walking through the graveyard. The camera then cuts to an over head shot of Beth in the bath as blood pours from her chest turning the surrounding water red. This shot is symbolic of Beth's vulnerability as Rosy's character turns the victim tables. Our Film opening is quite original because it is unusual to use a female as the protagonist. This gives quite an eerie effect to the whole scene as the ghost who has previously been bullied has come back to haunt the bully.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
As our film is a thriller which features teenagers it is mainly directed at the youth audience. Thrillers such as Scream, Hannibal Lecter and Halloween mainly have male dominance with the protagonist generally being male however we followed the idea of John Fawcett's Canadian movie Ginger Snaps and also the 2003 hit Monster starring Charlize Therom. Normally the female is represented as the victim, either waiting for prince charming to save her or for the male mass murderer to kill her however our film turns this connotation on its head as the female is the serial killer.However what makes it even more original is that films such as Jennifers Body which are obviously demonstrating Women's Rights/ Girl Power the girl is always the Protagonist killing all the male antagonists however our movie completly changes this as the female is both the protagonist and the antagonist.

What kind of media institution would distribute your media product and why?
The movie which is most similar to our main task in Jennifers Body which used production companies - Fox Atomic, Dune Entertainment, Hard C. The main distributor of Jennifers Body was 20th Century Fox. The media institution which would be best suited for distributing our film project is BBC Films. This institution works with low budget films similar to our project. BBC Films have been involved with films such as Shifty.
BBC Films co-produces up to 8 films a year and is one of the main British Independent Filmmaking companies. The company works with big international and UK distributors, they aim to make great British films which are seen by people all over the world. They are always intrested in including new talent to star in their films and also up and coming writers and directors. Another possible distrubitor of our film could be sites such as Youtube and Vimeo. These internet based distribution outlets are an easier way for people with low budget films to get thier films viewed. This would probably be the best method to distibute our film as it doesnt cost anything to get it viewed.






Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our film is aiming to gain a mass audience, as a lighthearted thriller its age rating could be suggested to be 12a. It hopes to attract both the male and female audience, the targeted gender is generalised as the girl protagonist is a female therefore going against the stereotype of the 'damsel in distress' this would attract the female audience. However because of the female dominated cast, this could also attract the male audience as well. As our film incorporates the playground bitchiness of teenage girls and would be soundtracked with modern music using up and coming artists it would be targeted at the youth market.
Also the two characters playing the roles of Beth and Rose display different ethnic backgrounds. This is good as it allows our film to appeal to a wider range of audience. To attract an audience we would need to catch their attention in some way or other to increase their knowledge of it. To attract attention we would need to develop an advertising poster in which would illustrate the different ideas and concepts of the film.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
The technologies we have learnt about are programs such as final cut pro and garage band. In Final Cut Pro we learnt how to log and capture film from the camera. Once we had the clips in Final Cut Pro we were able to cut and edit each clip so that all of the clips flowed correctly according to the storyboard. This allows the continuity of the opening to work effectively. We learnt how to use transition effects such as fades and dissolves. We altered the lighting of the clips to give it an eerie look. This is an image of final cut pro:

Another program we have learnt to use is garage band. In our film opening we had natural diagetic sound captured from several things. One being from the tap running. However we added non-diagetic sound using Garageband. By converting music from Garage Band to iTunes, we were able to import the sounds onto our film. This was good as it allowed us to build up the suspense of the killing.

We also used technologies such as the internet, using the website youtube. By going on youtube we were able to research film openings and gather ideas for our film opening. During the process in which we constructed our clip, we came to the understanding of how complex technologies contribute into creating highly respectable pieces of media. As a group of amateurs who mainly used a trial and error sytem we have become alot more grateful for the great technology which we are surrounded by. After thorough use of the final cut pro software Patrick especially who took charge of the editing was able to work to his best ability and enforce the groups creativeness into the project which we hoped would shine through to our clip and blog. Although Media products offer ultimate convenience there are some downsides to technology. It seems you begin to rely on technology more and more and at times it does break and disapoint for example when we once went out to film the graveyard scene the camera became unfunctional as it only enabled us to view the recorded clips yet wouldnt allow us to film anymore this was slightly annoying as we wasnt able to complete what we wanted to do that day and knocked us off track. Therefore making us resent technology for a day or so. However if we was to conclude on technology we would say it is a positive thing as it brings more convenience to life.

Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt from the progression from it to the full task?

Our group took a basic approach to the main task as we were definatly lacking any knowledge of what shots worked and which did not making some choices we made unsuccesful. In the Preliminary task the first technique being the 180 degree rule. This rule is simply to ensure that the audience and viewers do not confused, as braking the rule can switch characters placements from right and left side of the screens. We ensured the rule was not broken by ensuring we kept the camera on the same side of a character throughout a scene and checking that we did not break the rule.
We then learned continuity, this is a simple concept in media that means characters, mise en scene, editing and sound fit the scene throughout all the shots. This ensures that the scenes flow in a continuous motion and attempts to prevent confusion in the audience. In our main task the continuity was affected because of the lighting- we came across this issue when we shot over two days therefore the weather was different affecting the amount of light in the camera.
In our preliminary task we only used one piece of music in which we found on garageband aswell as the sound that was recorded on the scene with the camera as we still hadn’t learned the full extent of the editing software we use (Finalcut Pro 9). Whereas in the main task we used a variety of different sounds in which we ensured had relevence to the Genre of the main task. We used diagetic sounds in the preliminary task for example the sound of the slap we heightend we adapted this technique to our main task an example being the sound of the tap running in which we also heightend this gave a sense of suspense to the audience.
In addition to this we are using much more transitions, particularly cross disolves which are used to symbolise the ghost, we researched the portrayed movements of ghosts in other films and noticed how they are shown to 'float' and give it a more ghostly feeling. For example when the scene of the ghost walking in the graveyard would cut cross to the bath scene and would cut cross to give a sense of suspicion by cut crossing to each scene and keeps the audience thinking about whats gonna happen in the bath scene. Our group also learnt the importance of high and low key lighting in the production protest as our film was partially filmed outdoors.

Voice Over

As the two characters in our main task dont communicate there is no dialogue so to make our idea more clear to the audience we have decided to script a voice over for Rosy to narrate to the audience what is going on.

The voice over will refer to and correspond to what is going on at that moment in time.

As Rosy stabs the heart of the Voo-doo doll she says 'Hell' and then the camera will pan to Beth and Rosy says 'is a teenage girl'

'My name is Roseila Azram but you can call me Rosy, like the flower. Did you know white roses symbolize heaven, a way of saying i miss you.

I was Sixteen years old when i commit suicide on November 6th 2008, I watched the blood pour from my veins but i wasnt gone, i never went, i was alive in my own perfect world far away from the torment of being the victim.. but deep down in my heart i knew it wasnt perfect, my bully still haunted me.

I waited for justice but justice never came

So i found it myself.

Editing and Developments

-changed idea
The first and most important development that we made, was that we decided to change the whole idea of the main task.
Originally we were planning on basing our main task on a school enviroment but from previous experiance of filming our preliminary task we found filming around college is a struggle as people are constantly walking by this therefore doubles filming time as we had to keep stopping and starting. Furthermore we came to the conclusion to change the idea and film in more isolated areas for a quieter enviroment.
-changed bedroom location to bathroom
As we had decided on interpreting the opening scene of Jennifers body which is filmed in her bedroom into our main task we planned on filming through Beth's bedroom window whilst she was laying on her bed. However we were completly oblivious to the obstacles which would consist in doing this- the fact we would need a ladder to get the second story of the house being the prime one. This is when we thought the idea of filming in a bath could be succesful as the possibility of any other group doing this would be low.
-changed idea of dying flowers as it wasnt effective when edited
Also we had an idea of photographing a variety of flowers, starting with freshly cut roses going down to dead flowers. We had hopes of being able to edit the shots so that it looked like the flowers were dying to symbolize the hype around the victims suicide but how people forgot about her death and nothing was done to help the ghost get her victim however when we tried to do this the transition wasnt smooth enough and lacked quality so we decided to leave this idea out of our opening scene.

Film Evaluation- The Lovely Bones

The Lovely Bones, directed by Peter Jackson was released in 2010. Centeres on a girl, Susie Salmon who has been murdered and watches over her family and her murderer, she must also weigh her desire for vengence with her desire for her family to heal.

We found inspiration from this film as Susie Salmon narrates the film from her personal heaven, we interpreted this into our film as the suicide victim tells the story from the graveyard.

As a group we incorporated the character of Susie 'Salmon Girl' into our desired character for Rosy (the bully victim) we used similar wordings from the trailer of 'The Lovely Bones' as we considered them succesful in describing the story of our main task.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikUWKi0W5_g

Film Evaluation - Jennifer's body

As a group we gained some inspiration for our film from Jennifer's body.

Jennifers body is a 2009 dark comedy and horror film written by Diablo Cody and directed by Karyn Kusama. The film is based in Devil's Kettle Minnesota, the story focuses on two girls, Anita Lesnicky, a nerdy 'plain jane' and the other focus on Jennifer Check a beautiful subtantially popular cheerleader.

The story of the film is narrated by Anita (Needy) who is shown in a mental institution, explaining how the seductive cheerleader takes evil to a whole new level after she is possesed by a sinister demon, quoting 'she's evil, not just high school evil.' Steamy action and gore galore ensue as the male student body succumbs to Jennifers appetite for human flesh.

Our group mainly focuses on the opening of the movie, which shows an earie tracking shot which appears to have been filmed using a steady cam leading up to Jennifers house, shooting into her window and then up over her bed. As a group we like the way this scene had been filmed as it gave the effect that it was a point of view of someone going into the house which created a sense of suspense. The opening titles appear on screen as the camera leads up towards her house, alongside this is the eerie music which is playing as the seen progresses. Sound effects have been added as the audience hear, hightend sound such as heavy breathing, dog howling and what sounds like someone walking along gravel.
Similar sound effects will be used in our film as it would be succesful in making our opening clip as sinister as possible.

The above photograph is a still shot from the movie, it shows Jennifer rising from the water after being stabbed through her heart.
This shot relates very much to the initial ideas for our main piece as Beth is stabbed through the heart whilst in the bath, it also gave our group some inspirational ideas as the mise en scene in this shot is very effective, especially the word 'hopeless' is a continuous quote from Jennifer when she is killing her victims she states 'i want you hopeless.'
However as we do not have a Hollywood budget, whether we can use the same dramatic mise en scene is questionable.
This shot is also a prime example of the rule of thirds, the rule of thirds is suggested to be one of the main rules in photography/media. It works by drawing imaginary lines dividing the image into thirds both horizontally and vertically. Then you place important elements of your composition where these lines intersect. As well as using the intersections you can arrange areas into bands occupying a third or place things along the imaginary lines. After practacing different compositions we found that good places to put elements is third of the way up, third of the way in from the left and so on.

Initial Shot List and Storyboard

1) Tracking shot going up the stairs
2) Close up of door handle opening
3) Mid shot of Beth in the bath
4) Point of view grabbing the shampoo
5) Close up washing hair
6) Wip Pan to Rosy
7) Extreme close up of Voo-Doo doll
8) Wip Pan back to Beth getting stabbed in bath
9) High angled shot bubbles turning red and Beth sinking in to the water
10) Two shot of Beth in the bath and Rosy
11) Mid shot of Rosy
12) Low angle of Rosy looking up
13) Extreme close up of eyes
14) Close up of grave yard sign
15) Panning shot of the cemetry
16) Close up of magpie
17) Tracking shot of magpie flying away
18) Long shot of Rosy walking through the cemetry
19) Extreme close up of name on grave stone
20) Reverse zoom to Rosy sitting down
21) Over the shoulder of looking at grave and grabbing flower
22) High angle of Rosy looking at flower and throwing it
23) Close up of dead flower on the floor