Evaluation:- Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

i feel that throughout the progression of the school year and the development of my product i have gained and enhanced many skills throughout the process of researching into and making the opening to my film. Firstly a new skill that i have learnt is how to use Adobe Premier Pro effectively and to a good standard. As well as Adobe Premier i also learn how to use Adobe Photoshop to create the poster for my film. however i did not use require Photoshop as much as i did Premier so my skills in using Premier are more advanced than using Photoshop. In relation to Adobe Premier my editing skills have improved dramatically as i had never done this before and had only ever seen other people do this. But now i feel very confident when it comes to editing and would no shy away from editing.
Going away from adobe software's i enhanced my skills in filming. i had never previously filmed anything on my camera for a purpose, so i already had a basic understanding of how to use the camera, but i did not quite know how to use it in a cinematic way to capture and shoot a film (or a film opening). So despite not learning from scratch how to use a camera (Nikon D90) i did however enhance my skill in using one.  

Evaluation:- Question 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Evaluation:- Question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

The first method I used to attract my audience was create a poster that would draw people In to want to watch the film (opening). The poster creates suspense and enigma for the potential audience. I placed the posters around a school where potential views would see.


Another way of attracting my audience is through social media websites such as Facebook and
Twitter.

Evaluation:- Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

I began my research by looking at official reports from the British Film Institute, the screen shot below shows what different age categories enjoy watching in terms of film genre.

This table was taken from the British Lottery Fund website.

The table above shows that both male and female spectators below the age of 35 enjoy watching Horror films, whereas as spectators of both genders above the age of 35 do not enjoy watching horror films as much.
Due to this statistic I would draw the conclusion that my target audience would be from 16-25
The lowest being 16 due to the influence of horror and gore within the film and would not be suitable for anyone younger.
25 being the oldest because statistics show that the most common age of people who go to the cinema to watch horror films are between the age of 16-24.

Evaluation:- Question 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

For my film I chose to use Blumhouse productions and Film4 to produce/distribute my film.

Also I chose Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as my major media conglomerate.

I will be focusing on Blumhouse productions and Film4 whilst answering this question.

Blumhouse productions is an American company that specialises in the production and distribution on horror films. that is one of the main reasons I chose Blumhouse productions to produce and distribute my film.

Blumhouse productions was founded and is currently run by Jason Blum. The company does not like to spend a lot of money on the production of films they produce and distribute, such as 'Paranormal Activity', the budget for this film was an estimated '$15,000' and then their total gross of the movie was a massive        '$107,917,283'. Multiplying their budget over 7,000 times.

Other massive box office films they have helped produce and distribute consist of the Sinister franchise and The Insidious franchise. The first Insidious had a larger budget than paranormal activity, an estimated $1,500,000, but still considered a very small budget to other major films, Insidious took a total of            $53,991,137 by august 2011.

So to conclude I saw Blumhouse productions as an ideal Production/distribution company and they specialise in horror films so would know very well how to market the film. But also they work on films with low budgets and produce a massive gross profit at box office.

My next distribution company is Film4, an English production and distribution company that focuses on funding specialised British film and promoting British films and British actors/directors.  

Film4 launched on the 1st November 1998 with the objective of promoting everything  'British' within the film industry.

One of film4's most recent success was Steve McQueen's '12 Years a Slave'. This film was based on true recorded events of a free black man being sold into slavery and eventually, after 12 years, fighting his way home.

Other films currently on film4's slate include 'The Riot Club', 'Starred Up' and 'Cuban Fury'.

All of these films are based in England and feature either already established well known actors, or up and coming British talent. Such as Jack O'Connell, who starred in 'Starred Up'. This is also relevant for directors as well, due to the director of '12 Years a Slave' Steve McQueen now being highly recognised throughout the global film industry due to Film4's guidance and promotion of him and his film.

This is why I feel Film4 is a highly suitable production and distribution company for my film as they are already a well established film company and are highly accomplished in promoting non-mainstream films with 'undiscovered' actors featuring in those films. Also Film4 would help fund the film so could in-turn make the film better and attract a wider audience due to there being perhaps more spectacle within the film. This is why I have chosen Film4 as a distribution company. 

        

Evaluation:- Questions 2 - How does your media project represent particular social groups?

Evaluation:- Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Title

The title of my film is 'When The Sun Goes Down', i chose this as i want to give off the sense of danger when ' the sun goes down'.



this title is also relevant as the main character Ed tells the spectators "see you When The Sun Goes Down', so I decided to do this to show I clear link between the narrative and the title of the film. this represents the importance of 'sun going down' and that when the sun does eventually fade out into night things will start to happen, or at least that is what the characters will be wanting to occur. and that they will find what they are looking for.
Other films that conform to this style of relating the Title to the Narrative are 'Alien Abduction (a film about alien abductions), V/H/S (a film about horrifying things being found on lost VHS tapes) and the last example I will use is Apollo 18 (a film about the heavily discusses so called 'Apollo 18' moon landing mission, that officials report not to have happened).


Setting/Location


The opening to my short horror story is situated in a forest. I used this is my location as I feel the forest would be a great way to show isolation and fear through the characters and setting.
For example, other films that have used this method of 'found footage' films, based in a forest or at least some parts of the movie are set in woods/forest.

The main one I looked at for inspiration for was The Blair Witch Project, the basis of this story is relatively similar to my short opening, where young teens/adults go searching in a forest for an 'entity'.

Other films that use forest as either the majority or minority of their films are 'Alien Abduction', 'Willow Creek' and 'A Night in The Woods'.

Costumes and props

In my opening my character (Ed), wears fairly modern clean clothing as he comes from a small village in England within a modern society. This conforms to other films that start with regular/ordinary people or families who either go looking for haunting things/monsters or vice versa.

Taking into consideration that my characters and film are based within a modern society and not a post apocalyptic world or a futuristic world this allows me to use modern things and be able to use normal everyday clothes.

In comparison other films that use a similar style are 'Chronicle', 'A Cabin In The Woods' and 'Paranormal Activity'. All the characters in this film are all everyday people who wear typical clothing in this era.

Camerawork and editing


For the opening to my film I used a handheld camera technique as I wanted the film to be shot all in handheld. this was because I wanted to take on the idea of a 'found footage' film. this was because it would represent a more authentic and realistic film based on true events.
the challenges the typical film conventions of only using handheld camera's when needed for specific moment. as the usual blockbuster will use mounted camera's and so forth.
other films that conform to this film form are films such as 'Cloverfield', 'The blair witch project' and 'Slenderman'.

Font

I have decided to change the style of my font and firstly i feel that the original font was a bit cheesey and unrealistic. secondly i have now gone down the route of having the film 'based on true events' so i wanted to keep a more minimilistic style to my fonts to show the realistic sense i want portrayed through the opening to my film.

i looked at other films based on true strories and used their ideas as inspiration.

The first film i looked at was Fruitvale Station.

 

then i started to look at horror films that were based on true events. The first one i looked at was An American Haunting.

This title is a little more complex to other titles i've seen due to the font used. The font is more like hand writing, this is used to show that the events that occured were recorded in a book perhaps and they use the font to show this. Also the use a shadow of the font that is out of focus to give the title another layer.

Other film openings i looked at included Wolf Creek which was also based on true evernt s and once again tells the spectators before the films starts. the font used in more simplistic that An American Haunting because is just a plain text. But it has a bit a bit of a yellow tinge to it. and in terms of positioning the title is placed more the the right than the other titles, whereas they would be placed in the centre. 

test shot 3:

potential target auidence:

I began my research by looking at official reports from the British Film Institute, the screen shot below shows what different age categories enjoy watching in terms of film genre.

The table above shows that both male and female spectators below the age of 35 enjoy watching Horror films, whereas as spectators of both genders above the age of 35 do not enjoy watching horror films as much.
Due to this statistic I would draw the conclusion that my target audience would be from 16-25
The lowest being 16 due to the influence of horror and gore within the film and would not be suitable for anyone younger.
25 being the oldest because statistics show that the most common age of people who go to the cinema to watch horror films are between the age of 16-24.

Extra filming

Today I went back to location and others to film more cut-away shots to use during the opening.
these shots will be used with the characters dialogue playing over the clips. cutting back and forth from character to 'landscape'.


I will later today experiment with these shots to see how best they fit into the sequence and whether I need to re-film some of the dialogue scenes with Ed  and perhaps change some of the script and actions.

character (Ed) role within film.

The Characters role within the short opening is to introduce what will be taking place later on. taking into account that the stle of the opening will be a docu/film, so the opening will be revolved around an interview taking place with Ed (the main character), he will mainly be discussing to focus of the opening and what their task is.

the films shot will be cutting between a interview style of shooting to cinematic shots, such as long-shots, birds eye view, close ups, and so forth. the film would continue to switch between a documentary style of filming to a regular style of filming.

Filming:

Go out at the weekend to the location and film new shots of landscape and surrounds areas.

• Cut-away shots

fields
trees
lake
graveyard
clouds
sun
sky

Final screenplay

When the Sun Goes Down:

Standing in the entrance to Satan's ground

Ed stands in the entrance of the dark forest preparing to give an insight to the viewers of what him and his partner will be doing in the near future.

Ed

Okay gus so here we are in marsh-borough Kent, we have just entered into the infamous 'Satan's Ground', my name is Ed Rhodes and behind the camera we have Connor Laslett.

Connor

Sup guys.

Ed

We are going to head further into the forest later on this evening. Now this place has has been notorious for Satan worshippers. its said that these worshippers come here to sacrifice animals, but also there have been rumours of them sacrificing people!

Also we spoke to some of the locals here and we heard numerous account of a so-called "Shadow Man" that lurks in the forest at night. some of them say that this is a demon or even satan himself. Others just belive that it is there mind playing tricks on them. either way, we are going to find out.

Now when we are in there we are going to try and locate the site in which they perform their rituals and sacrafices. So now we are going to go back to our setup in the town and get ready for this evening.

See you When the Sun Goes Down.

Title analysis.

 i particularly like this font as the red dripping down the white represents a horror genre but also how the evil (red) will overcome the good (white). Also i like the haunting, blood sense given off from this title.  

 this would have been my second choice as the colors would of started very golden and warm, then they would fade out into to darkness, this would be succesful as it would intertwine with the title as the 'Sun Goes Down', so  so like the sun, it starts very golden but eventually fades into darkness.

Feedback:

write new screenplay based on filming challenges and refinement of narrative.
2: discuss positioning of Ed as a character; what is his role.
3: annotate 6 draft shots; what worked well.
4:research into similar docu/films; such as man on a wire and blair witch porject.
5: bring in footage and upload to new computer.

test shot: 2

test shot 1:

music and sounds: (copyright free)

today i started to finalize my search for sounds/music for my short film. so i searched for copyright free music, i found such music on youtube library and Peder B. Helland's youtube channel.
the track i am going to use for the majority of my film is the following:
i really like this track as it gives of a very dark sinister vibe and gives off a sense of suspense and enigma.
the instruments used in this piece are piano, violin and wind instruments.

objectives for this week:

Develop titles and experiment with different fonts, analyse what makes them relatable to my genre.
re-draw storyboard
research copyright free sounds and music.

screenplay first draft:

When the Sun Goes Down.

OUTSIDE FOREST

Character 1 stands in front of the dark forest under an overcast sky. The wind is crashing against him from side to side, howling like a pack of wolves.

 

ED (CHARACTER 1)

Okay, so here we are standing outside the infamous Howling Forest. It is said that an ancient cult come here to worship the devil. These rumours are backed up by the countless number of people gone missing in this forest, suggested to have been used in some sort of ritual to offer souls to the devil… So we will see you When the Sun Goes Down to investigate further.

 

The sky is pitch black with only the light of the moon and torches allowing them to see what’s in front of them. Dark chilling ambient sounds ring softly over everything.

ED

Okay so we are back and already I feel a cold chill running through my spine. So we are about to go in, we need to stay quiet, we don’t want to be noticed. Ready?

CONNOR (CHARACTER 2)

Yeah let’s go.

 

Ed turns and starts to cautiously walk into the forest. Connor follows behind him holding the camera. Twigs snap loudly.

INSIDE THE FOREST.

A light glow shines through the never ending darkness. Ed and Connor approach slowly and cautiously. As the get closer the light gets brighter.

CONNOR

What is it?

ED

I don’t know, but I don’t like it, so let’s just stay quiet and take it slow.

Ed and Connor approach the source of the light. Candles are planted in the ground in a circle. Inside the candles is an ancient symbol.

RITUAL SITE

ED and CONNOR get closer to the ritual site, still in awe. Connor goes to step inside the circle but Ed puts his arm across and stops him.

ED

I wouldn’t do that. I recognise that symbol. We need to go, now.

CONNOR

What is it?

ED

Come on we need to go!

Connor goes to speak but is halted when he sees and cloaked figure in front of him. Ed turns swiftly and looks back at Connor.

ED

Run!

(BLACKOUT to credits)

moodboard:

here is my moodboard that represents the type of film i want to present. the theme of dark and sinister horror.

suspence and enigma:

Suspense: You feed some information to the audience, but some is held back so they want to know more, creating the fear of the unknown.
Enigma: A mystery or a question that the audience want to solve. This creates the thrill of expectation of something about to happen.

production company research: choosing my production companies.

Every film has production companies, they are a very large part of the film making process. this is due to the production companies making the film.
considering that my film is focusing on a horror theme, I want to use production companies that are recognised in the horror film industry. also I would like to use a production company that supports specialised films.

 so the first of my production companies is 'BlumHouse productions'. this is a widely recognised production company as it has worked on many of the most popular films, these include all the Paranormal Activity movies, Sinister, The Purge and many more. so I feel this would be an ideal company to produce my film.

the other production company I will be using is 'Film 4', this is due to film4 being one of the largest producers of specialised English film. so I feel this would also be an ideal company to produce my film. Film 4 are highly recognised as the main production company in '12 Years a Slave', one of the most successful and controversial films in 2014. but are also recognised for films such as

Starred Up, The Riot Club, and The Inbetweeners TV series and movies.