My Group

There are three of us in my group myself, Ben Garvey and Alex Snowden. We chose to work together because we are in the same media class and were are all friends. I think we work well together becuase we all put a lot of effort into the production this is also a reason why i chose to work with them.

Audience Feedback

Sophie 17: Loved the point of view shot at the stairs. it sent shivers down my spine

Laura 17: The music was really effective, the framing of the over the shoulder shot looking out the window was really good

Emily 17: I thought all the scenes worked really well together. the whole thing builds up tension

Sam 16: I especially like the point of view shot where the hooded figure disappeared

Beth 16: the music helps create a mood of the film ,and makes it seem dramatic. i like the bit where your there then you disappear, and how in the basement, when your walking down the corridor its like filmed as the view of the person, and it builds tension

Mrs Morgan: I like the start immediately - great music. Some of the shots are a little dark. Great range of shots - very typical of the horror genre. The tension builds really well and the scenes in the bathroom are excellent.

Semiotic Analysis

My production usese non-digetic sound. It starts whilst Emily is walking to her house, this builds tension and denotes that the scene is building up to a climax. The music which is quite a slow tempo could also signify that film will be slow paced but very eerie. The music is very similar to that of Halloween because of the variation of notes.

Again non-sound is also applied again in two scene. When Emily is walking up the stairs and there is a privilege POV shot of her and the over the shoulder shot out the window. Both of these scenes are accompanied by some eerie music which reinforces the belief that she is being watched. 

When Emily is in her bedroom and she walks over to the window to put her jacket on the chair there is a narrative enigma; a mysterious non-digetic sound is played and we can see the hooded figure on the street then Emily steps in the frame of the shot and when she moves away the figure is gone.

The second shot is a long shot of Emily and behind her you can see a hooded figure dressed in black which signifies that she is being followed. The dark clothes and hood up connote villainy and this is anchored through the use of the menacing, non-digetic music. The next shot is an over the shoulder shot of Emily from behind the stalker this reinforces the idea that he is a villian and that he is following her.

There is then a high angle shot of Emily which signifies she could be in danger and shows her vulnerability. As Emily walks up the steps to her house the high angle of the shot lessens until it is almost a normal mid shot. This could show that now that Emily has reached the safety of her home she is more control and is not as vulnerable as before. This theme continues in the next shot which is a low angle shot of Emily climbing the stairs. The shot also seems to be a POV shot, this and the shaky camera work signifies that although Emily is less vulnerable she is still being watched and is far from safe.There is another low angle shot of Emily as she heads down into the cellar to try and fix the fuses. This is an shows that Emily is a binary opposition as typical girls would have no idea how to fix fuses and would leave it to a man. The low angle shot also reinforces the belief that Emily is quite a strong masculine character. There is then a visual bridge as in the next shot which is also a point of few shot the light can also be seen flickering. This denotes that somebody else is in the same room as Emily and that she is still in danger.

There is also a two shot of Emily and Mark who we think is the one following Emily. When Mark explains that he hasn't touched the lights there is a close up of Emilys face and we can see the confusion on her face as she realises somebody else has been in the house.The preferred reading which the producers would prefer the audience to believe is that the person who was stalking Emily at the start of the production was not Mark. This view could be contested as some viewers may believe that Mark was the one person stalking Emily and the threat is over. This reading however would not explain why the fuse wires had been cut.

Rough Cut

Befor

This was a rough cut from our media production. This was the match on action shot where Emily opens the door of her home. You can see the timing is out as Emily opens the door from the outside. The door then opens again after Emily has already opened it from the out side.

We then cut this scene so it was in time and worked well as a match on action shot.

After

Hardware

For my coursework I used a Canon MD101 digital camera to film my coursework on. The footage was all recorded onto a mini DV tape.
The camera had many feature which we used such as the zoom feature which was helped by the auto focus feature. We also made use of night mode which helped reduce the glare of a tourch light in one scene.
With the camera we also used a light weight. This helped us with panning shot so it was a lot smoother it also helped keep the camera steady.

The Pitch

The Pitch: A young working women is followed home after work by a hooded figure. The lights start to flicker and go out. She is still unaware of the danger which might lie ahead. She then makes her way down into the confided space of the cellar, where she finds out she wasnt alone.

Storyboard

Evaluation

How does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My media coursework challenges convention of real media products because in real media horror products they slowly build up tension and then have a shock factor. This is what we did in our media product. We also made it so the audience expected something to happen but didn't know when it was going to happen.

Emily also challenged conventions of real media products by being the heroine and not being killed off first. This shows that Emily is the final girl, this is a binary opposition to the typical horror film girl. They will be usually blond haired, sexually active busty. Emily is like Jamie Lee Curtis who plays Laurie Strode in "Halloween".

We also have shots like match on action, over the shoulder shots and also privilege point of view shot. These shots are used throughout media productions such as "Halloween" (John Carpenter ,1978)

How does your media production represent particular social groups?

I think we represent our target audience well with a age rating of 15-24 year olds. We know that people of these ages enjoy horror films compared to people a little bit older.

We could of represented ethnic groups better by maybe having some different race actors or actresses in the film. But we represented the upper middle class well as the film will appeal to the upper middle class and lower middle class.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product?

There are many media institutions that might distribute media product. These are institutions such as Screen Yorkshire, Working Title, WT2 and Warp X. As our media production was extremely low budget compared to Halloween which was $320 000 or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) which was $9 200 000. With our media production as it has such a low budget the media institutions more likely to distribute my production would be WT2 or Warp X as there films are usually low budget. Through this we can get funding from the UKFC (UK film council) which is funded by the national lottery. Through the UKFC we will be tapping into the New Cinema Fund which encourages unique ideas and finances films with passion and verve. This may then move on to the ICO (Independent Cinema Office) which may help to get my media product into film festivals. This may then lead on the distribution company's such as Film Four or BBC Worldwide distributing my film around the UK.


Who would be the audience for your media production?

How did you attract/address your audience?

Our media product is aimed at teens to young adults of the age of 15-24. This is because of the age of the actors in my media production and also the content of the media production. It will also appeal to males as we have the male gaze which is the main protagonist. We also tapped into different social groups upper middle class (C1) and lower middle class (C2).
We also attracted our audience by the music i composed for the media production. The music that we used was a typical style to horror films.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
With the technologies that i used to create our products i found them easy to use and still had a good quality to them. I used a hand held digital camera which I also used with a tripod which was really useful for some shots.
We could of benefited with some other equipment such as a dolly for the tracking shots. Also a boom mic to pick up the sounds better and to cut out some of the background noise.
One of the most important things for me was the lighting. We could of had a set of lights to light some of the really dark scenes up.
But with all this equipment there would of been a cost which we wouldn't of been able to pay for.

Looking Back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
To me the preliminary task was nowhere near as technically challanging. I think that the skills that we learnt in the preliminary task have progressed loads as i started taking into acount shot types and angles, camera movement and also mise-en-scene more. I think aswell in my preliminary task i wasnt taking it serious enough, where as in my full product i took it more seriously and got into the technical side more. I also learnt how challanging it is to film a 2 minute opening scene of a film.

Final Cut

this is my final cut of my media coursework "In His Sights" which was directed and edited by myself, Ben Garvey and Alex Snowden. We will be getting feedback from the blogging site Blogger. 

Casting

Cast members:

Emily Outterside (Emily)










George Needham (Mark)



We chose Emily because she is quite small which makes look vulnerable. She is also a counter type because she isn't the typical blond haired girl in horror films. She's more of a heroine.

We decided on me to be the false antagonist because i am a similar size to Emily. This helped portray him as Emily's younger brother

Initial Analysis of a Film Opening

Layer Cake (2004)

o Director- Mathew Vaughn

o Budget £4,000,000

o Made $81,706 in the US box office

o Made £1,090,561 in UK box office

o Won the Empire Award and Special Recognition from the National Board of Reviews

o Daniel Craig only A-list actor

o British Cast

o Target audience – young adult

o Mixed genres- crime, drama, thriller...

o Fading in from black to image of the black van doors slowly zooming out

o Black and white to connote past links in with “Back in my day line”

o Voice over of main character (Daniel Craig) – Internal monologue

o “cops & robbers” line action code as it triggers the bomb

o Stereotypical robber- mask, gun ect

o Iconography of crime scene

o Visual bridge from robbery to hippies through the hair

o Warm filter- connotes summer of love

o Strong hegemonic representation of hippies

o Graphic match – wall from summer of love to prison

o Tracking constantly from right to left show timeline

o Prison relating back to Hippy and Robber scenes

o Iconography of a prison – prisoners, clothes, jail warders

o Voice over matches the prisoners dialog

o Tracks right to pharmacy – introduced to main protagonist – causal bright cloths

o Main protagonist is a countertype of a drug dealer

o Bright light behind drugs draws attention to them

o Tracks main protagonist through the pharmacy

o Special effects used in the pharmacy showing that it links in with his internal monologue – just a thought

Location, Mise-en-Scene, Costume and Props

Location

The road:
This will be the opening shot of Emily walking towards the camera. This will also show the person behind her. We chose this location because it had good lighting from the street lights.


The front door of Emily's house:


Emily's Bedroom:
We chose this room because of the view out of the window. This will be the room where the camera will track Emily and also look out of the window to show the person below.


The view from the window:
This will be the view from the window. I chose this location due to the street light out side this will be a key shot in my movie.


The steps down into the cellar:


The cellar:

Mise-en-Scene

In the opening scenes Emily will be in a quite open space as she is walking up a road this will have cars driving past behind her and some parked on the side of the road. There will be houses surrounding Emily and a single streetlight in front of her.

When Emily gets inside her house. The walls a quite a pale colour of cream with some lighting coming from small lamps in the hall. This carries on through out the house but the lighting gets a lot darker.

Costume

Emily will be wearing some work cloths such as a black skirt, white shirt, long cardigan, tights and high heel shoes. This is to show show that she has just got back from work. Emily shows a bit clevage this shows she sexualy avalible

Screenplay

In His Sights

By George Needham, Ben Garvey and Alex Snowden

George Needham

4 Easby Drive

Ilkley, LS29 9BE

Tel: 01943 605136

Tel2: 07983719096

Email: georgeneedsham@hotmail.com

1 EXT: ROAD – EVENING

Emily a woman in her early 20’s walks down the road in her work clothes and a coat with a handbag slug over one shoulder. She has brown hair and is an average build. The woman walks with a brisk pace to her door and opens it. In the background you can see a person walking behind her at a distance. We can’t tell if it’s male or female at this point.

2 EXT: EMILY’S BEDROOM – EVENING

Emily walks into her room slings her bag and coat on the bed with a sigh of relief. She then walks to over to the window and lets her hair down. Out of the window we can see the person that was walking behind Emily standing under a street light, Emily doesn’t notice him. Emily then moves into the en-suit bathroom to check herself in the mirror, she then moves back to the window but the person has gone.

3 EXT: EMILY’S BEDROOM – EVENING

The lights start to flicker and then go out. Emily is calm she finds a torch in one of the draws in a large wooded chest of draws. She then walks out of the room and down the stairs to get to the cellar.

EMILY

ah god sake, bloody fuses

4 EXT: Cellar – Evening

The cellar door opens at the top of a flight of stairs which lead down to the cellar. Emily walks down the stairs which are being lit by the torch which Emily is carrying. She gets to the bottom of the stairs and checks the fuse box which is mysteriously open and had been tampered with.

Emily

What the...

5 EXT: Cellar – Evening

Emily takes a step back to look around the fuse box for anything suspicious. Behind her there is a figure which appears deeper down into the cellar behind Emily. The person starts to walk forward silently he moves closer dressed in black with a hood which covers their face.

He gets behind Emily and stops and reaches out Emily turns slowly almost like she knows someone is there. She sees the figure and screams and turns and tries to run but the person grabs hold of her. The lights turn on and the person pulls down their hood.

Its Mark Emily’s younger brother.

MARK

(Laughing)

EMILY

oh mark dont do that and stop pissing around with the lights

MARK

i wasnt pissing about with the lights

OPENING TITLE CARD: IN THEIR SIGHTS

My Initial Ideas

Idea 1: 

Genre: Social Realism 

BBFC Rating: 15

Target Audience: 15-30 

Characters: James, Dan, Lloyd and Greg

Casting: James(Alex Snowden), Dan(Ben Garvey), Lloyd(George Needham), Greg()

Location: Alley way, James bedroom: Ilkley 

James is a young school boy who has been bullied for years by Dan, Lloyd and Greg. But recently the bullying has got worse. They follow James home throwing things at him. James starts to run away but Dan, Lloyd and Greg follow him. James runs down a street but doesn't realize that its a dead end.  

Idea 2:

Genre: Horror

BBFC Rating: 15

Target Audience: 15-30

Characters: Emily and Peter Mulhern

Casting: Emily Mulhern(), Peter Mulhern (Danny Bullen)

Location: George's Hourse, Ilkley

Emily, a blond haired hard working young woman is walking home after work. She is being followed by a person. We do not know if there male or female at this point. Emily gets home and goes to sort herself out in her bedroom. An over the shoulder shot using depth of field shows the person standing under a streetlight. The camera then tracks Emily across the room putting down her bag then back to the window but the person has gone.

The lights start to flicker then go out. Emily makes her way down into the cellar to check the fuses which have been tamped with. In the background further into the cellar the silhouette of the mysterious person is in the background. The person moves toward Emily and grabs her she screams the a laugh from the person he pulls down his hood and reveals that its Peter her younger brother.

Prelim Task

Evaluation:

In the first shot the main protagonist is not in the centre of the frame and is at the right hand side of the screen.  

Initial Group Idea

Genre: Horror

BBFC Rating: 15

Target Audience: 15-30

Characters: Emily and Peter Mulhurn

Casting: Emily Mulhern(Emily Outerside), Mark Mulhurn(George Needham)

Location: George's House, Ilkley

Emily, a blond haired hard working young women is walking home after work. She is being followed by a person. We do not know if there male or female at this point. Emily gets home and goes to sort herself out in her bedroom. An over the shoulder shot using depth of field shows the person standing under a streetlight. The camera then tracks Emily across the room putting down her bag then back to the window but the person has gone.

The lights start to flicker then go out. Emily makes her way down into the cellar to check the fuses which have been tamped with. In the background further into the cellar the silhouette of the mysterious person is in the background. The person moves toward Emily and grabs her she screams the a laugh from the person he pulls down his hood and reveals that its Peter her younger brother.

Coursework Task

The brief set for our AS coursework production is as follows:

Preliminary Exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom, she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Main Task: the title and opening of a new fiction films, to last maximum of two minutes.

All videos and audio materials must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from copyright-free source 

THE DEADLINE FOR A COMPLETED PRODUCTION IS THURSDAY APRIL 2nd