Monday 17th October - How to upload our preliminary task to the imacs

In this lesson, we learnt how to download our preliminary task footage from the cameras on to the Macs.

1. Plud the power lead into a plug socket.
2.Connect camera to the Mac with a USB lead.
  Do not turn on the camera!!!!!!
3. Load i-movies
4. Once this is loaded you can turn your camera on
5. Change camera from movie mode to play back mode and select connect to PC/Printer.
6.Select shots that you want to import and click on import checked.
7.Select all the poster images.
8.Drag these images into the top window.
9.You will be told how much footage and how many clips you have downloaded.

Then get editing :)

Wednesday 12th October - Various Roles In The Making Of a Film

We looked at various roles that create a film. Each one of us had an envelope with a certain role within the film industry from the director to makeup artists.

Disscussing Film Openings - Thursday 10th November

In todays lesson we discussed the importance of film openings and how to make them related to the genre of the film contence. We watched the opening of Se7en and wrote down the order in which actors names, production/distrubution companies, editors, stylists, and the many other roles appear within the 2minutes opening title sequence.

5th of October - London Trip

We started the day at 8.00am and arriving in London at around 10.45am. We then had a few hours free time to ourselves so me and Kim went to mcdonalds! We then roamed around to see what we could find, we ended up having a complete 4D experiance this is were you stand in a room and have to where 3D glasses and you are taking around london via the screen. You experiance the rain, snow and the smell of fireworks. Once we had spent time looking around we had to be at the Film Museum for 12.00pm.
Here we seen the original Batman, Superman and costumes from Harry Potter.
We learned that there are many costumes that are used in films. The Batman Costume is the detailed one which is used for close up shots. The Superman one was designed in not so much detail as this was used to for the more action type shots. As you can see on the Harry Potter clokes they are really dirty all of this was due to the making of the film and they did not want them clean as it would ruin the value of them.   PHOTOS BELOW.

After this we then had 45minutes for our lunch, we then met up again outside the london eye. From here we went to a Media Workshop this is were we got to create an idea for a film we then split into groups to created our films. Afterwards we was shown a music video by Elliott Tucker the man who was leading our workshop and he showed us was of editing clips together and adding effects in to make the film more appealing.

4th October - Questionnaire

By clicking the link below, you will find mine and Kims questionnaire that we created

3rd October 2011 - Creating our questionnaire on horror films

To be able to get a good idea of what people look for in a classic horror, we have decided to create a questionnaire. This will be able to show us which different age groups prefere certain types of "scares". We are also including gender into this as we feel it will be interesting to see the difference between them.

To help get our information easier Kim and I have created a surveymonkey questionnaire. This way our 'viewers' can answer the questions quicker and annomalysily if wished. Its also a quicker way of put our data in to graphs, bar charts and allows us to analyze the results easier.

Wrong Turn Analysis

The scene opens with an establishing shot over a forest, there is a long road in view. This image suggests a possible entry but as the road does not end this may suggest no escape. The camera then begins to "fall" into the forest, resembeling the idea that you are trapped in the forest. During this very first scene, white credits run over. I feel it is interesting that the titles are white as white is usually used to represent innocence and purtity, although It stands out on the back ground image. 

At the start of the opening, there is some music played above the titles. This creates an eerie atmosphere and helps to create that "horror movie" feel. This music runs over the titles and fades out when the characters come into shot, then the main sound is diegetic speech. This music starts to play again when the main male character "disappears", again creating that "horror movie" feel and also adds to the eerie, creepy atmosphere of the film. The music always builds up when tension or fear is built up aswell, the music adds to the suspense of the film.

At the very start of the film a lot of birdseye view shots are used, this helps to establish the environment of the film and shows where it is set.The long shots are usually shot as a low angle or high angle shot. These I feel have been used in order to give the sense of vulnerability as if someone is watching over you. At one point in the opening there were a lot of cuts between the low and high angle shots, this gives the feeling of confusion- which helps make the audience feel part of the film. 

 
The second scene of the film opens with the 2 main characters on the side of a cliff, climbing it. They are shown with a high angel shot, looking down on them. This makes them appear to be very small and . That they are weak and therfore easy targets. Stereotypically the male character is infront of the female character. There are only two characters in the opening of this film, one male and one female. Stereotypically the girl is blonde, wearing pink and "below" the man. 

When the male dissapears, she is put into the common "Damsel in distress" role and is left vulnerbale without the male character. Like in all horror films male and female stereotypes are followed, having the men shown as strong and protective postions and women in the helpless and vulnerable position. However sometimes this can be broken, in this opening the male character isnt shown to be strong, even though he reaches the top of the cliff first, he seems to be killed very easily by the killer in this film. He is quickly removed from the film without saving the girl or being the "hero".

This film is set in a forest, which is a common converntional setting for a horror film, this setting creates the feeling of isolation which is also a main theme in horror films. Unusually the opening of this film is set during the day, this is very interesting because horror films are stereotypically set at night. Although i do feel that this works well because it gives the impression that even during the day you arent safe. 

After this main part of the opening, when the female character has been dragged off into the woods the screen goes black and moves into the main title sequence, the titles are played over jerky, quite disturbing shots of the forest and newspaper articles which talk of disfigured mountain men. Quite music is played over the top of these images. This gives a very mysetrious feel to the scene which is continued with the kery shots- the audiencde cant really understand what is being shown and have to piece it together gradually.
Again white titles are used which stand out agaisnt the dark colours used in the shots. This lasts for around 3 minutes until the film gradually moves back into the story.

Jeepers Creepers 2 , Research

Overall, Jeepers Creepers 2 was not very interesting or remotely scary. But I understand everyone has different views on the film. Although the film let me down, I did pay attention to the opening of the film this was the only part that really caught my eye. It did a good job of establishing the location, time and gave me 'as a viewer' a clear view of the killer. It also followed the typical conventions of a horror opening, there was a killing in the first 10 minutes. From the picture on the left its clear to see the secluded location.

As the film continues the opening becomes a subplot, it then merges with the mainplot half way through the film. By then we have typcially seen many characters forget about the threat, already been exposed to the secluded location which is the corn field and school bus trapped in the middle of no where to follow this their radio fails, but manages to pick up signal to the other characters truck ( from the subplot ) this is how it brings them together.