29th September - Horror Conventions

All genres of film have certain convetions that you typically expect to see so in todays lesson we looked at a range of typical horror conventions. These will give us a good idea of the things to include in our horror film trailer.

Secluded location-  There are a range of locations that directors can choose for the setting of their horror film, places where there will be no signal or no one else around to help. Such as ghost towns, haunted houses, cave, fields or the woods. To give the audience the feeling of lonlieness. A good example of this is 

(EMBED YOUTUBE VIDEO Titled : The Blair Witch Project (Horror & Ending Scene)

Power cut/ Phonelines are cut-

This is a typical convetion either the 'killer' cuts off the line, or the victims battery runs out on their mobile phone. This is to create the sense of helplesness and also to show the audience there is no way out and no one to help them e.g family, friends or the police.

Flash back/forward in time-
This is to give the audience the general idea of what the film is about were its set and normally the reasoning behind a haunting or how a certain location became the way it is.

Forgetting the threat-
Horror fims usually contain characters that seem to forget a threat which is among them, this is mainly used in teen horror films where a moment of distraction is used and a scary noise draws the characters attention towards the threat. This ia normally used it modern horror films as its a good effect to the film as it grips the audience's attention.

                                                  Avoiding Escape-

When death or danger occurs in an inside place, chracters normally run upstairs then out of the front door either due to them forgetting or the front door is locked. Normally the victim will run into a bedroom/bathroom where there is a lesser chance of survival. In these situations chracters tend to hide behind doors or crouch behind a window giving the killer an easier way in which in turns puts the character in more danger this makes the audience anxious and using some scary tension building moment can be a very significant part in the film.

29th September 2011 -Codes and Conventions in Horror

Codes are systems of signs which created meaning. Codes can be divided into catergories, Technical and Symbolic.


Technical Codes - The ways in which equipment is used to tell the story in a media text.


Symbolic Codes - Shows what is beneath the surface of what we see.


Conventions - conventions are the generally accepted ways of doing something. Every genre of film have certain "typcial" conventions which the audience expect to see.

26th September 2011 - Horror Film Research

In todays media lesson we were all given an individual horror film to research. 

Suspiria (1977)

FACTS
Directed by
Dario Argento

Produced by
Claudio Argento

Written by
Dario Argento, Daria Nicolodi

Starring Jessia Harper
Stefania Casini
Flavio Bucci
Miguel Bose
Alida Valli
Joan Bennett

Music by Goblin
Dario Argento Cinematography  Luciano Tovoli

Editing by Franco Fraticelli

Distributed by Blue Underground (DVD)
Nouveaux Pictures

Release date(s)
February 1, 1977 (Italy)
August 12, 1977 (US)         Running time 92 minutes  , 98 minutes (Unrated)
                                                                      Made in Italy
Language’s : Italian
Russian
English
German
Latin

Suspiria (1977) is an Italian Horror film directed by Dario Argento and co-written by Argento and Daria Nicolodi. The film follows an American ballet student who transfers to a dance academy in Germany, only to discover that it is controlled by a coven of witches. 
Dario Argento was born in Rome, Italy on September 7 1940. He is the son of producer Salvatore Argento. He began his career as a movie critic for the Rome daily newspaper.                                                                             .

It was also one of the final feature films to be processed in the Italian processing plant of technicolour before it was closed. Suspiria is the first of the trilogy, Argento refers to as "The Three Mothers" followed by Inferno and The Mother Of Tears.

The film has become one of Argento's most successful feature films, receiving critical acclaim for its visual and stylistic performance, outstanding colors, and soundtrack. It has been nominated for two Saturn Awards: Best Supporting Actress for Joan Bennett in 1978 and Best DVD Classic Film Release in 2002. The film has since become a cult classic.

Suspiria has received critical acclaim from contemporary critics. According to review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes the film receives a 94% "fresh" rating based on 31 reviews with the consensus "The blood pours freely in Argento's classic Suspiria, a giallo horror as grandiose and glossy as it is gory". Rotten Tomatoes also ranked it 41 on their Best Horror Movies 2010 list. Whilst some critics praise the film's visual performance, outstanding use of colour, and soundtrack, others have criticized it for its lack of sense and puzzling storyline.



Suspiria stars:

Jessica Harper

Stefania Casini

24th September 2011 - Introduction to Horror films

Horror films seek to give an audience a negative emotion by playing on the audiences most primal fears, this is something many people all over the world have done for centurys. Many include typical scares such as the dark, ghosts or spiders.
Although horror is classicly known for the super natural some films containing serial killers, an outbreak of a disease/virus and surrealisim can still be classed as a 'horror'.

Horror also frequently overlaped with the thriller genre.
Thrillers are a genre of literature, film, and television programming that uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements. A common subgenre is psychological thrillers.

The term 'Horror Movie' first originated in the writings of critics and film industry commentators in the reponse to the release of Dracula in (1931), Dracula is a vampire horror film directed by George Melford and Frankenstein also in (1991).

Preliminary Task -

http://player.vimeo.com/video/32622515?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0"

21stSeptember 2011 - Final cut express

 
In this lesson we were introduced to Final cut express, this is where we will be editing our preliminary task and also our horror opening title sequence which we will be starting on after finishing our first task. We can use Final cut express to add and link shots together we can also use this to add sound effects and music simply.  

20th September 2011 - Creating Our Story Board

In todays lesson, we created our story board by drawing basic pictures so we have a clear understanding of which shots we will use and where charecters would either sit or stand and where they would be when delvering their lines.

Here is evidence of our story board :

19th September 2011- Casting For Our Preliminary Task

Our casting consits of our two drama teachers in our school, this means they will be easy to access when starting to film our clip.
 Although we have not asked their permission yet we are firmly confident they will be the leading roles in our clip. If no we have a back up plan, to use fellow students in our class.

19th September 2011 Considering Locations

In todays lesson me and kim considered different locations in which our film clip will be set and the casting of our characters.

We narrowed it down to two locations:
The Stage- This is a spactious room and would be perfect for the filming room although there is a noisy p.e hall next door which may affect our audio.

Our next choice was the Drama hall - This is also a spacious room although alot smaller than the stage we will still have plently of room to move around. It has no windows but this means we can have full control of the lighting by simply using the lighting board.  This is why we have choosen to use the drama hall as our location setting. We will also be using the corridor for the first section of filming.

Camera Shots and Movements

Camera Shots

• Extreme Long Shot/Establishing shot - An extior shot shows setting and time.
• Long shot- Shows character in full lengh
• Mid shot- Shows character from waist up wards
• Close up - This involves the character in view from the shoulders upwards.This can be used to show emotions or a close up on an important object.

  

  Extreme long shot

  
• Extreme close up - May show a particular aspect of a character e.g eyes or hands this is normally used to create an intense emotion.

Camera Movements

Dolly

• Tracking shot - This is the movement of the camera going forwards and backwards. This is generally used with a dolly to make the action alot smoother.
• Crab shot- This involves the camera moving from left to right, normally used to follow movment of a character.
• Tilt shot- A view which has the camera moving up and down.
• Zoom- Simulates a tracking shot
• Ark Shot - Half a shot
• Crane Shot- This is used on a crane to give a vertical direction of the character or setting
• Panning Shot- A dolly is normally used for this shot to as it is when the camera is moved from left to right to follow movement.

Film Production Companies

In todays lesson we learnt about different film production companies and what there responsible for:

A production company is a type of company which is in the business of performing arts. This company aims to develop and physically produce performing arts,film,radio,or television programs.

The production company may be directly responsible for fundraising for the production or may accomplish this through a partner or private investor. It handles budgeting scheduling, scripting, the supply with talent and resources, the organisation of staff, post-production and sometimes distribution.

Post production-
 This is part filmmaking and the video production proces, it occurs in the making of motion pictures, television programs, radio programs, advertising, audio recordings, photography and digital art.It is the term for all stages of production occurring after the actual end of shooting and/or recording the completed work.

Distribution -
The distribution of a film (or movie) is the process through which a film is made available to watch for an audience by the film distributor. This can be achieved in many ways such as cinema realse,  television program or home entertainment e.g dvd,video, blue ray.

15th September 2011 Target Grade

During todays lesson we was given our target grades mine is a C/D for media studies.

We also began to plan our script for our priliminary task. The script must includesthe first shot opening the scene, the location of the scene and the rough time of day when the scene is set. There must be atleast 4 lines or more from two characters, each character has to speak for the camera shot shot/ reverse shot to take place.


We have also discussed a range of ideas e.g where it will be set, casting of our characters and dialogue for our script which we will develop on next lesson.

14th September 2011 Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task


In todays media lesson we were introduced to the three steps involved in our task. This was so we clearly understood the steps to create a successful piece of film.

Step One - Planning - Pre - production
Step Two - Filming - Production
Step Three - Editing - Post - production

We then looked at a piece of screen play for an example and was asked to write our ideas for the content of our preliminary task.

Getting Started

To start off Media Studies I had to create my own blogger account using my KBA email address lauren.head@ketteringbuccleuch-academy.org i can now submit my blogs as part of my media coursework.
After doing so, i had to create a slideshare account this is so i can post videos onto my blog. I went to the slide share web address www.slideshare.net clicked on "Sign up" and for this i also used my KBA email address as all notifications will be saved onto the same email address.

In our media lessons we had to join up in groups either in pairs or groups of three to start on our Preliminary task. This involes making a short film which includes movement and dialogue from two characters which we have to cast ourselves. We have been givin three goals to achieve whilst making our film, match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.