Preliminary Research

In our preliminary research task my group consisting of me (Ehsham), Kashif, Kallam and Farhan. We had to finish off our storyboards which were fairly simple as most of the storyboards were done already. A problem we had was that we confused a set of sequences on a storyboard so had to redo our storyboard from scratch and also we didn’t have our resources such as crayons so we had to wait whilst someone went to collect the crayons. Also at the beginning of the lesson the computers were not turning on which we had to call the technician in to fix it which he did. We also added more dialogue in our new script as there wasn’t enough in the older script which gives more insight into what is happening in the plot and makes it more detailed.




This is how a big prodcution film studio like pixar use storyboards effectively for their films and they use storyboards to essentially plan out the film. They are different from scripts as they depict how scenes will be played out and what angles and camera shots shall be used in the film.


Filmography - 
Finding nemo (2003)

www.imdb.com/title/tt0266543/

Primary Research Task

what kind of killer scares you in a horror?

what setting is the scariest?

what sub-genres do you like combined with horror?

which serial killer do you prefer?

does blood make a horror more scary?

what age group are you?

what do you believe is the scariest thing of a horror?

what gender are you?

what do you expect to happen in a horror film?

do you like horror films?

Final decisions

Costumes

we have come to our final decisions about our costumes and we will use a costumes for the bullies to make them look evil such as having them wear dark clothing and colours such as wearing black hoodies to show they look intimidating and evil. Our main character Kallam will wear casual bright clothing at the beginning of the film to show binary opposition that he is the good guy who hasn't done anything wrong compared to the bullies who intimidate and violate him physically and verbally every single day for absolutely no reason at all.
During the course of the film Kallams clothing changes to becoming more rugged and bloodstained and darker in order to show the transformation of the character from good to evil and the bullies clothing will also become more practical over the course of the film and change from dark and get more light to show they seek forgiveness  from Kallam and that they realise what they have done is wrong.

Lighting

The lighting will be low-key whenever the bullies are in the scene to represent evil and darkness to show that bad things will happen whenever the bullies are around. When Kallam is around the lighting will be brighter and high-key in order to show that he is innocent and good and the audience will associate him with good things rather than evil. When Kallam is on the floor being beaten up by the bullies the lighting will be mostly low-key and shadowy on the bullies faces to show darkness and evil triumphing over good as Kallam is being beaten up but there will be a small ray of light shining on Kallams face to signalise that even in dark times, there is hope.

Props

Our film will have various props such as the unique mask which will be a clown mask with the top cut off to just show the sinister smile because his bullies used to laugh at him when he would cry due to their torments and the mask reflects that he is now having the last laugh and that he is uncapable of smiling due to severe depression he reflects how he feels through his mask. This mask will initimidate his bullies and they will change from laughing to fearful emotions. The place that the bullies will last terror him will be the park as that is the only place where Kallam can be at peace with himself but when the bullies bully him on the swings, Kallam accidentaly chokes to death on the swings chain and the park will then symbolise death rather than life. Kallams weapon will be a chain and a wire which he will use to strangle his bullies as they did to him to engage in perfect revenge.

Mise en scene

The locations our film will be set in will vary. Our films first setting will be in the classroom to show where the bullying first started and to show Kallams behaviour is that of a lonely person who doesn't speak much and tries to do as much work as he can and to show how he has no friends and that the rest of the class also laugh at him. Our second setting will be on the streets to show that he is further bullied outside the classroom and how it is a regular, day to day game for the bullies to make his life hell. It also shows the bullies disregard for his safety as they don't care if they push him into oncoming traffic or throw stones at him. We will also have a few shots of Kallam walking into and out of his house. Our main setting will be at the park, mainly on the swings and at first we will shoot Kallam on the swings on a sunny day to show that this is the one place where Kallam is most happy and for the first time Kallam is smiling and happy but then when the bullies find him at the swings they torment hima nd accidentally kill him with the swings chain and now the park is known for a dark reason than a happy one as the next shot will have the sky grey to signify that it is no longer Kallams happy place. 

Filmography
Film : childs play
Director : Tom Holland
Release date : 1988

Narrative theories research task

Narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of events whether they are fictional or non-fictional such as a story is often used to describe what a narrative is and also a narrative is used in film to keep the flow of the story. This explains where the story comes from and what the story is about.

Narrative is important as it helps keep the story flowing and explains to you what is happening in the story so you don't lose what the plot is. The flow of the film is set by narrative and as the film progresses the narrative informs you of what is happening so you don't get confused and this is why narrative is important in film.

The three narrative theories are :
Equilibrium, Disequibilrium and new state of equibilirium which are when the film at the beginning is all normal and everything is fine, just a normal day and then a problem occurs and this is the diseqiulibrium which upsets the balance of the equilibrium and then this problem is sorted and then a new state of equibilirium is set which everything is almost similiar to the equilibrium at the beginning but is not the same as things have changed since then.

Binary opposition is a theory of opposites where it is good vs evil, light vs dark, tall vs dark, woman vs man and so on. This theory is that everything in film has an opposite such as a battle between the batman and the joker in the dark knight which shows the battle between good and evil.

Character types are also one of the three narrative theories which say that each character in a film has a certain role or particular set out which they are used for in the film such as:
Hero : the good guy, strong, handsome, rescues the day.
Villian : evil, ugly, power-hungry, world domination.
Sidekick : used for comedy, smaller than the hero, depends on the hero and follows him around.
Heroine : falls in love with the hero and also fights her own battles.
Helper : helps the hero on his journey usually with advice or an object
Mentor : teaches the hero everything he needs for his journey
father : looks after the hero usually is older and very close to the hero.

The most useful theory we can use in our film opening will be the equilibrium theory as the bullies lives will start off as the equilibrium which will be everything is normal at the start for them then the biggest change will be the disequilibrium where Kallam commits suicide and then comes back from the dead in order to exact revenge and this turns the bullies lives upside down and they must sort the disequilibrium and start a new state of equilibrium.

Kidulthood is also like this as at the start everything is normal until a girl gets bullied and commits suicide due to her tormentors bullying and from then on the film changes and becomes more dark.

Evidence of this is : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0435680/

Filmogrophy :Kidulthood
Year - 2006
Director - Menhaj Huda

Alien attack with blue screen

Final cut introduction

Today we have made a short clip using a blue print of an alien attack on the white house as we recorded a sequence in front of a blue screen and over our recording we will put the alien attack of the white house in the background on the blue screen. Me and Kashif were two aliens in human disguise who came to watch the white house blow up and detonate it in honour of our home planet.

We had to time the sequence and the words perfectly in order for the explosion to happen at exactly 25 seconds so we had to practice our dialogue and add more in so the sequence reached 25 seconds when the explosion happens. We used a smart phone as the cleverly disguised detonator and made a call to the mother ship to activate the beam which destroys the white house.

We then after recording went on the apple macs to edit the recording over the blue screen of the alien attack on the white house but this didn't work as we had the wrong type of file and we were not able to convert the file so we will now overcome this problem by converting the file to the one that final cut will recognise

This is the effect of the blue screen as Mr.Morris has been recorded over a blue screen and then the explosion is put in through editing.

Primary reseacrh task

Horror Questionaire

1.       What killer are you scared of in a horror film?

·         Masked silent killer

·         Paranormal monster

·         Female killer

·         Serial killer

2.       What type of setting is scary

·         Abandoned school

·         Graveyard

·         Haunted house

·         Woods

3.       What type of horror sub-genre do you like?

·         Slasher

·         Psychological

·         Paranormal

·         Thriller

4.        What type of killer do you prefer?

·          The joker – Freddy Krueger, Nightmare on Elm street

·         The silent masked killer – Jason Voorhees, Friday the 13th

·         The one that is mentally unstable – Norman Bates, psycho

·         Paranormal, Ghost/demons, paranormal activity.

5.       Does blood make a horror film scarier?

·         A little bit

·         Not really

·         Yes

·         No

6.       What age group are you?

·         13-20

·         21-30

·         31-40

·         41-50

7.       What do you believe is the best thing about horror films?

·         Storyline

·         Blood/gore

·         Atmosphere

·         Suspense

8.       What gender are you?

·         Male

·         Female

9.       What do you expect to happen in the horror genre?

·         Villain kills everybody

·         The hero dies and so does the villain

·         Hero survives and villain dies

·         The villain becomes good

10.   Do you like horror films?

·         Yes

·         No

·         Don’t really care

·         Half and half

Audience Research Task

Audience research is very important to the people who are making films such as directors and filmmakers and the people who want to advertise the films in a way that they know who their audience is and what to show in their trailers in order for their target audience to become interested in the film. It is very important to find out what genre of film people would want to watch so you can find out the most wanted genre an audience would like to watch and make a profit by making a good film that a target audience would like to watch. It is important for filmmakers to find out what they need in their films to attract people of different demographics such as making a film with a female lead character in an action film even though men are usually lead roles for their masculinity and this is in order to attract more women to their films and as not to stereotype women in film as being sidekicks or a ' damsel in distress ' or releasing a family film during the summer in order to attract families as the holidays is when they mostly watch films especially in the summer as these are called summer blockbusters as they make a lot of money from families watching them. Filmmakers also now try not to stereotype in their films like they used to such as an american action film would always have an american hero saving the world from the evil soviet russian or the chinese and stereotyping them as always being bad and themselves as the good guys but now you see americans as the bad guys and also villians now usually have more depth and a past story in order for the audience to associate more with that character and to relate to them.

There are three main theories that we use in film :
Hyperdermic needle is the theory which suggest that media can manipulate people and their influences. This is by filmakers trying to make their films believable on the audience such as the blair witch project which was shot in documentary form as the directors wanted to make the audience believe that it was based on a true story as it says at the beginning that three student filmakers went missing and now footage has been found of what happened  to them. This makes the audience tense and believe that there is a killer out in the woods and the legend of the blair witch exists.

Two step flow is how the film is spread through more traditional means such as word of mouth and is a way of advertising such as a person will watch a film and if they like it then they will tell their friends and recommend the film and so they will tell their friends and the cycle will continue such as the blair witch was spread mainly through word of mouth due to it being a low-budget film.

Reception analysis is how each person of the audience will view a film and view it differently from another person as they will view the film and find their own meaning for it. A good film will be where certain things in the film will have different meanings such as in Donnie Darko most people would have a different view as if the main character is actually seeing a man in a bunny suit and travelling in time or if he is just schizophrenic and this is how people view a film differently from each other.

Filmography : This is all the information about a film such as the title, when released and the genre.

Bibliography : This gives you all the information of a book such as the title and when it was published and who the author is and what it is about ( blurb )

film treatment

The main theme of our film opening is that there will be a group of bullies who bully a shy outcast individual who is the victim of these bullies’ sick antics and decides upon himself to commit suicide. But due to his guilt and hatred for what the bullies have done to him, he comes back to life and makes it his goal to get revenge on those who used to torment him and goes to the extreme as he decides to kill them all.

The main character is Kallam is very believable as he is a class geek who keeps his head in his books and is very shy around the rest of the people in the class who also dislike him for his awkwardness and unsociable characteristics

Kallams main goals were trying to succeed in his exams but after rising from the dead his main goal is getting revenge on those who tormented him. Kashif, Ehsham and Farhan are the bullies who have made his life hell but regret and realise what they have done to Kallams family and feel sorry for pushing him to suicide and their main goals and aims are to stop Kallam and beg for his forgiveness and hope they are forgiven but mainly to stop him from killing them. The bullies are in the way of stopping Kallam from succeeding in killing him as they try everything in power to stop him.

At stake is the bullies lives and their families feeling the same way as they made Kallams family feel and they try all their best to stop him.

The film takes place in a school and in a graveyard where we take Kallam to make him scared and in the school where we see him at the hands of his tormentors as he gets bullied and hated by his classroom and on Sheldon heath road.

We have created 4 interesting characters:

·         Ehsham who is one of the intimidating bullies who overshadows Kallam in size and is physically intimidating.

·         Kashif who follows the other bullies and hides behind them whilst bullying Kallam, he bullies kallam in order to gain respect from the other two bullies.

·         Farhan who is small but vicious in his relentless bullying and even Ehsham is scared of Farhan, for what he lacks in size he makes up in aggression

      Kallam, who is the main character and is the victim of the bullying. he is socially awkward and prefers to stick his head into books rather than socialise, which makes him an easy target for the bullies

Genre research

What is genre ?

Genre is a category which you categorise films and other pieces of literature or music. For example movies would be put into certain genres for what they depict in their films such as a film about monsters and murder would be in the genre of horror. There are various genres but the main and popular ones are usually action, horror, comedy, romance or sci-fi. Sometimes there are sub-genres where two genres come together in a film such as the action-adventure genre which is very popular.

Advantages

There are many advantages to having films be categorised into genres. One of these advantages of categorising films into genres is for film goers and the audience to know what they can expect for a certain film when going to see it so they wont be disappointed as what to expect from a certain film. Filmmakers also benefit from categorising films into genres in order to attract a certain audience to their films as some film goers prefer a certain genre over the other so categorising a film into the horror genre will attract an audience who like that particular genre. Genres can be used to work out myths and fears and also if there was no genre there would only be one type of film coming out all the time and the audience would be bored of this so different genres can provide fresh material. Also genre can be seen as a reassurance in a dangerous world as movie goers can feel happiness from a certain genre such as comedy which can lift up their spirits on days they are feeling down

Disadvantages


There are also disadvantages to having genres. One of these is that we should be understanding of how a film is functioned in relation to genre rather than being defined by a certain genre. We should also note that a genre will only function depending on the audiences understanding of such genre.

The genre of the film my group have chosen will be a sub-genre of horror/thriller which will contain the conventions of gore, voilence, blood, mystery, death and action.

The origins of the horror genre start of in the late 1890's when in 1896 there were many short silent films being produced and one of these is a three minute long french film entitled 'la manoir du diable' ( the manor of the devil ) which is also credited as the first vampire film. After this more and more horror films were being made due to thier increasing popularity due to audiences liking to be shocked. Some notable horror films were frankenstein and bram stokers dracula which are both credited as classics. Horror films used to be about monsters and would rely on tension and suspense to scare an audience but now more and more horror films use gore and voilence to reach the same goals seen with the zombie films being released in the 1960's -1980's. Now horror films usually focus on a murderer who goes around the film killing people and uses the gore as the main attraction for audiences.


Some good examples of the horror genre would be director George Romero http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_A._Romero He is credited as '' the godfather of zombies '' and is noted for his films about zombie apocalypses such as ' dawn of the dead '  ' night of the living dead ' and ' day of the dead '. Due to these films he has created his own sub-genre of zombie horror films and has also improved gore in horror films due to his zombies and George is so well known he is even a character in a zombies add on to the game series called call of duty which shows his effort into the horror genre has been recognised.

Another good example of the horror genre would be Signourey Weaver. She is a famous actor who is known for being in one of the greatest horror films of all time called 'Alien'. At the time main characters in horror or action films would be men but instead it was a women who was the hero of the film who combatted alien creatures in a futuristic space setting.


One particular film of the horror genre that i think is a good example of the horror genre is the blair witch project.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D51QgOHrCj0.
The Blair witch project is about three students filming a documentary in the woods about a famous myth of a serial killer. During their filming they realise they are lost and being stalked by the same killer they are documenting their film about. The Blair witch project is a good film of the horror genre due to its realism and making the audience believe that this happened and is a true story when it is not. The actors in the film are not famous and genuinely come across as students who get lost in the woods. The suspense from the film starts at the beginning where it says that 3 students went missing in the woods and that their bodies have not been found but only a camcorder which shows the last remaining footage of their whereabouts which sets the mood for the rest of the film. The film is shot using handheld cameras which effects it making it more realistic as the camera shakes when the characters are running through the woods whilst being chased which gives you a feel of the atmosphere and makes you feel involved in the tension of the film as you see everything from their point of view. This makes the movie even more suspenseful and keeps you on edge but the scariest thing about the film is that you never see the killer, only hear him. Not seeing the killer in the film but knowing that he is there is what makes the Blair witch project so scary and makes it one of the best films as you hear that he is chasing you and combined with the shaky cam makes an experience like no other.


Bibligrophy : 
Author : Bram Stoker   Title : Dracula


Filmogrophy : 
Year : 1999  film :  The Blair witch project  Director : Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez

Film Opening Analysis

I will analyse three different film openings from three different genres.

This film opening is from the film iron man
Film release: 2008
Director: Jon Favreau
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth paltrow
http://www.imdb.co.uk/tt0371746/

The genre of this film is action and the genre conventions i would expect from the action genre are lots of gunfights, car-chases, explosions and more action based rather than dialogue or story driven which means it focuses on entertaining audiences with explosions and gun fights rather than the plot or dialogue the of the characters.

The technical codes of the iron man sequence are all computer generated (CGI)  as it shows a type of blueprint of a robotic suit being made which shows that the film will have advanced technology and might possibly even be set in the future as technology such as a robotic suit doesn't exist in todays world.

The key signifiers of the iron man opening sequence is the blue light which is frequently shown through the sequence and this could signify the light as a source of energy, the light that is shown on the heart of the robotic suit and may also signify good as light is shown as representing good and darkness represents evil and this tells me as he has light at his heart, it means he is good-hearted. 

Also the red is a signifier as its shown throughout the sequence and this could signify that there will be blood in the film as red symbolises blood. Another key signifier is the light on his hand which could signify that he has an array of weapons at his disposal due to the advanced technology which could feature in the film.

The sequence tells us about the content of the movie and that it will have cool technology and special effects in the film which tells us that there will be loads of fights done in cgi including the explosions.
The audience being targeted is children as the opening title sequence is done in cartoonish animations in order to attract the attention of children and keep them interested plus the idea of robotic suits will have them engaged as kids are interested in robots.

The second film i will be analysing is called the incredibles.
Film release: 2004
Director: Brad Bird
Starring: Craig T. Nelson, Samuel L Jackson

The genre of this film is an action-adventure animated film as it is all done in animation and in the opening sequence is punching in the opening sequence and explosions and this will be a superhero film as they are wearing masks and costumes with the letter ' I ' on it to symbolise they are on the same team and are called the incredibles. The technical codes of the incredibles is that it is animated which means the whole film is done on computer.



The key signifier is the black masks on and the identical red costumes with the ' I ' which signifies that they are superheroes as the matching costumes symbolises they have connection with each other and also it shows the characters possessing unique superpowers such as the baby setting on fire.
The sequence would make you suspect that there is a family aspect to the film as the team consists of a male and female along with children including a baby which shows they may be a family.
The target audience could be kids and would attract to families as the main characters could all be a family.
It also shows signifiers of an action-adventure film as it shows a map of an island which could be the setting for the film or the place where they could be looking for a certain object which adds to the adventure genre.

The third and final title sequence i will be analysing is from the film Indiana Jones and the raiders of the lost ark. The genre of the raiders of the lost ark is the action-adventure film genre. The conventions i would expect from the action-adventure genre are that of loads of explosions and gunfights and car chases and loads of set pieces which are fast and exciting in order to engage the audience. I would also expect exotic locations and i can tell this from the title sequence that one of the locations in the film will be Egypt as there are hieroglyphics written on the wall before they are turned into English writing.


 From this title sequence i can see that the main setting in this film will be Egypt. The key signifier is the writing being changed by being smashed against the wall and they turn into English which suggests its forced. Also it seems the movie will be set in the past as it shows the wall as being old. The name of the film also sounds exotic and mysterious as it says raiders which  are people who raid certain places such as homes or graves and the lost ark is also a religious artifact from in the bible which was a ark which possessed untold powers and contained the 10 commandments. From this i can tell that the plot of the film will be people trying to raid/steal this artifact called the ark of the covenant. This suggests there will be both good and evil people chasing the ark.

First post.

My group name : digital sensations
The people in my group :
Ehsham Javed
Kallam Hussain
Farhan Mohammed
Kashif Zaman

Genre : Horror

Film poster analysis

The poster is of the film the pirates of the Caribbean which is in the genre of historical action and adventure.
The conventions of action-adventure is , exotic locations, gunfights, ship battles, car chases, sword fights, villains, explosions and attractive women in order to appeal to the audience who are interested in the genre of action-adventure.

The key signifier of this image would be the pirate in the middle with a red turban on as he is a sign that he is a pirate as he has a tattoo on his hand which signifies that he could be part of a group of pirates associated with that tattoo. he also seems to be the main character as he is situated in the middle and higher than the rest to show he is of importance in the film. He has two weapons in his hands, one a sword and the other a olden gun to symbolise old and new together and also pirates used to use these weapons. These weapons signify that he will be in a lot of fights which shows what to expect in the film. The skull on the top has a red turban to show he is the main character. The man with the skull in his hand seems like a villain as he has a skull which symbolises death to show wherever he goes, death will follow. He is in contrast to the man on the other side of the poster as he is very good looking and young whilst the man holding the skull is old and un-attractive.

The poster denotes a group of people with the man in the middle wearing a red turban with a sword and gun whilst the old man is holding a skull and on the opposite side is a young man next to an attractive woman.
This connotes that the man with the turban is the main character as he is in the middle and seems that he is a violent person as he is carrying a gun and sword. The lady signifies romance in the film as she has cleavage and is also young and good looking. The man with the skull could be a villain as he is older than the rest and that he has a skull in his hand which suggests death and he is the only one smiling to show the audience he is different to the rest. The background is also dark which shows that the film will be dark and have evil in it.
The poster suggests to the audience that their will be sword/gunfights in the film as the main character is wielding both weapons. The woman suggests romance will play a part along with the young man who is stood by her to suggest they will be in love. It also suggests that the setting will be in the Caribbean and be based around pirates as the skull and bones is the insignia of many pirates who used to exist in the past.

Hiya.

Hello, my name is Ehsham Javed and i am 17 years old. I live in the peaceful village of small heath in birmingham. I study btec business, media and phsychology at KESH sixth form.
I like candy floss.
I also like poetry and good music.
Heres a little swag for you to keep you entertained.