Storyboard

This is the storyboard that Lucy drew. We decided on our story and our storyboard represents visually what our film was going to look like. This is usefull because it shows us a sequence of events and continuity of camera angles.

Font choices

We chose to use Paramount as our institution because it is the same company that distributed paranormal activity, cloverfield and the devil inside so we felt as a group it suited our genre of film.
Paramount is one of the most well known film instituions so that carries alot of weight in that audiences trust the institution, have certain exspectations of the content of the film and the actors. They can afford to employ the big names and sets, props and lighting equipment.

The title of our film is ' The Demonic Possesion' the look of the font is quite gothic and we really liked the 't' which looks like a religious cross, suggesting that the possesion is beyond the realms of reason or possiblity. I feel that as a group we have followed the conventions of the genre by using this font.

Audience feedback

We showed a couple of people in our class our film and they said  it was very good and had the conventions of the supernatural genre,  for example the door slams and terror could be seem in the victims eyes.

Filming schedule

Our filming schedule was quite stressful becuase we filmed over the Christmas holiday and our group struggled to find a place/ time to film. We eventually filmed over two days. We had to re-arrange my house to set the scene we wanted to create. We forgot the tripod so hand to custom make our own.

There were no risk assessments involved or permissions needed.

If we had another chance to do this I would have managed my time better and reviewed what we did to make improvements.


Film session:

These are examples of costumes that were wore in our film.
In terms of props we used ;
Tooth Brush
Pencil

Opening of favourite flm

The opening of my favourite film starts off with a black background and red titles. The titles are jagged which suggests a sense of uncertainty. There are broken clips of a woman in distress. You can only see her face, which is covered in blood, the  same colour as the titles. The sound is non-diegetic, it sounds like strings being used to create a heightened, anxious feel. The institutions that release this film are Optimum and Rollercoaster. The word rollercoaster suggests the audience might experience a 'bumpy ride' in their viewing.

The next scene is children in a classroom setting singing nursery rhymes. The woman seen previously with red blood on her face is now the teacher. The classroom is bright, airy, the woman is dressed in a flowery dress. She is pretty and fresh faced, unlike what we see in the beginning. She is able to control the children by keeping them silent, this contrasts to her lack of control in the earlier montage scenes. The teacher is pickedm up by her boyfriend at the end of the week, taking her to Eden Lake for a weekend away. The title Eden Lake suggests a peaceful place but due to the religious connotations of the word Eden, something dangerous might be there to lure them.

When they drive away, an establishing shot suggests London is the setting due to the skyline. It looks quite suburban and affluent. They are both relaxed, talking, driving and listening to the radio. The titles are now in white suggesting the purity of the scene in contrast to the beginning, where they were red. It starts to get darker as they drive and when they pull up to traffic lights teenagers go past on bikes which makes him stop. This foreshadows later on when the teenagers attack and torture the couple. They arrive at a B+B and there are a group of youths in their late teens hanging around. Already this makes the couple and also the audience feel unsettled in comparison to the calmness of the classroom and the car.

This screen grab shows the title. The blood red colour suggests the attack and pursuit that dominates the film. It looks like something has stamped on or smeared onto the title suggesting the latter torture of the couple.

Research film openings and institutions

Paranormal Activity was our main source of inspiration for our opening film. The conventions in theis film that you would expect from the supernatural genre include: equilibrium at the beginning, a 'normal-seeming couple', most of the activity takes place at night,  main characters are persued/ terrified, and finally one of the main characters are skeptical as to what is going in i.e. the woman being possessed by a demon.

In the opening two minutes are very straightforward. The main couple who appear throughout the film are doing their weekly shopping and bringing it into their house. Their house looks like a typical suburban house, suggesting the couple, who are young, are quite well off. The seem at first to not have children. The couple chat, note it is daytime. The most interesting point of this opening is the camera angles. The husband is holding the camera throughout and following his wife. He is doing this because she is skeptical something is in the house and he is trying to prove her wrong. This makes the audience confused and I personally did not like this. It made the film seem mellow and half expected what would happen next. Although this film is popular and has elements that make you jump is is not the most clever or inspired films. This helped us for our opening 2 minutes as we realised that the jumpiness/ mellow opening is one of the main conventions of the genre.

At the start of Sinister it foreshadows part of the film in an extracted clip. The clip shows the reasons behind the film itself. The male character is a crime writer who lives in a haunted house with his whole family and we see a tree beforehand but not the house and the audience is able to piece together that he has moved into a house that is haunted. The house is where a previous family/ ghost have been hung.

For both openings the titles fit into the conventions. The wording itself gives the audience an understanding of the content of the film. The font in 'Sinister' looks like blood is dripping from it, this links to the film because he creates the horror and sets the tone. The cracks behind the title suggest cracks in the relationship of the family and also in the mind of the deity. The sub title suggests that there is no hope in the film, it also relates to the film because the image reflects the deity and interestingly the audience sees the image which means they are impicit in the action too, they too could end up with the same fate.

The insitutions for both films are Paramount and Summit respectively. They are both established institutions. Both institutions are quite mass market with Summit releasing the Twilight saga as well, and Paramount released Cloverfield, The Devil Inside and Friday the 13th. All of which were very popular with audiences. Both instititions would be aware of the value of this genre and also the ability to draw audiences in and generate money.

Film opening and titling Ideas

In our film opening there are three sections. Firstly, it begins in a bathroom and the door slams, on a CD player the light signifies the song is going backwards. The scene then skips to reflect the backwards motion of the song. Katie's character is the victim in our opening. Her character gets dragged out of the room onto the floor, before you see what happens next you hear a scream, then it goes back to the beginning as if it was a video than had been rewound.

Secondly, the video starts again, it is a morning scene, it is a normal day, my character is sitting and a table and then leaves. It is normal, everyday activity. Mine and Katie's character have a brief dialogue and then my character leaves the room.

We plan at filming it at my house as it was the right setting for the feel we wanted to create and it was convenient in terms of our filming schedule.

-Props wise we needed a boiling cup of water and something to drag Katie out of bed and pyjamas.

-Sound- we will have diegetic music playing during the breakfast scene. There is also a scream when Katie is being pulled away which is also diegetic.

Our name for the opening is 'The Demonic Poessession'. We choose this because we shared lots of different ideas and finalised on this one becuase we thought it was suitable for the content of the film and the genre. The title gives the audience a certain expectation as to the content as well. This fits nto the conventions of the genre as most film titles describe the content of the film.

Music

Within these genres you would expect cmputer generated music rather than songs from recording artists. The music tends to build suspension and keep the audience on edge. The types of instruments create a sharp sound by using violins and possibly organs. This adds and eeriness builds up tension and fear as the audience are not used to the song and don't know where it is going next.

This trailer shows an example of non-diegetic sound as the characters are not aware the music is in the scene. This inspired me in our planning especially as the music stops and starts which adds an element of anxiety to the viewer's experience.

Our film has elements of horror in so by watching the montage of sounds in this clip we were able to explore different compositions of sound and music. The sound in our genre is one of the central components in creating our desired effect, to scare and thrill our audience.

The opening music will set the standard and expectations for our film so we wanted to get it right.

Target Audience Research

Our target audience would be people who enjoy this type of genre. For example people who have watched films such as Paranormal Activity, Haunting in Conneticut and others. The profile of the type of person we would want to watch this film is teenagers and older. We would target this film at audiences who like to be scared and kept on edge. People would enjoy our film as it fits the conventions of being frightening but has elements of reality in it.

The research we undertook was talking to friends, internet research and using IMDB to explore the conventions of our chosen genre and target audiences.

Why I have chosen to study A level media

I choose Media A-S Level because I want to work in acting or filming and I want to explore the conventions of filming and Media to help me with this. I want to go to the New York Film Academy after 6th Form and want to widen my awareness and knowledge of film technqiues. 

I think it is a subject I will enjoy even though I have studied it before.