Final Film

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4u5kikw5Bw - This is the link to our film.

Unfortunately when uploading our video to youtube, some of the clips at the begining overlapped so the footage up to when the two girls first enter skips a shot of Tom walking.

Evaluation

 We watched a lot of horror film openings to look and discuss what the coventions of horror films were and what conventions we were going to use in our film opening to combine the ideas together. As a group, we decided to stick closely to the existing horror genre and continued such typical conventions of horror through the use of dark iscolated areas, a vunrable femal victim, blood and gore, atmospheric sound and the constant reinforcement of making the audience feel on edge and vunrable.We learnt that horror mainly deals with the viewers nightmares and worst fears to create tension whilst watching and to obviously scare the audience.We used conventions that we witnessed in previous horror films to help create ours, for example, in most of the openings, there was a creepy setting which was shown, especially churchyards We also used to teenage girls and a adult male for the main characters as this is a typical convention in horror films as girls, especially teenagers and children are very vunerable. One thing we didnt notice is that there are three main types of horror films within the genre, sicological films which doesnt particually show anything scary or gorey but makes you imagine worse things and messes with your mind. The second would be jumpy films with ghost, devils and more unrealistic events that happen and third is more realistic with events that could possible happen to the audience such as rape or murder .

We wanted to take aspects from each type of horror film and combine them together. The idea of the male villain torturing the two young girls is more realistic but when the lights go off and gwen disapears, this is more unrealstic amd sociologically scary as it makes the audience thinks, the sounds also adds to this effect as it is a nursery rhyme, in real life this wouldn't be scary but with our storyline, it makes the audience think and therefore has a scare factor. What we definitely didn't want to include which we watched in other horror films was too much blood and gore as this can sometime become laughable.

 2. In most of the horror films we watched, the victims were usually either a group of teenagers or young girls and the villian was usually a male. We wanted to develop this idea In our film opening, the main two characters are two teenage girls and the 'bad guy' is a male. We decided to use teenage girls because the are often perceived as vunrable and insecure, we wanted to represent this characters like this. At  the begining To contrast this, the 'baddie' of our film, Tom, was a male adult. Men on their own to young girls can be seen as scary and intimedating so we therefore wanted to play to this advantage as much as possible. We dressed the girls in normal, casual clothing as they thought they were going to a casual meeting. We dressed the male in a long, white science cloak and put white powder on his face to make him look more gaunt and scary. Normally, the villan would be dressed in dark clothing and a mask or something to hide the face but as we wanted to keep it a mystery that Tom was the villan when the girls first arrive, we thought it would be more affective and creepy to have him wearing the cloak and his face to be seen. We had Rosy behave in calm, innocent way to show she hasn't thought about what could happen to her but we had Gwen act in a nervous, vunrable way. This could represent the different types of teenagers within groups and hw they react differently. Tom was shown the be creepy and strange by talking slowly and staring without expression on his face.
When we first meet the girl characters, they are shown on there own. The dialogue shows that Gwen is usure about the whole idea and it questioning whether they should or not, this implys that they are too young and vunrable to be doing what they are about to but Rosy peer pressures her into going in. Peer pressure is a big issue to some teenagers so we though it would be good to show Rosy forcing Gwen to go in even though she is unsure about it, again this backs up the idea that the charcter of Gwen is vunrable and therefore an easy target.

 3.I researched three different types of film companies and decided that 'After dark films' would be the best to distribute our film as they make and distribute horror films only. I also researched 'Paramount films' and 'Columbia films' but these both distribute a variety of film genres from including Rom-com, comedy and action adventure. They are also much larger companies and are ranked as one of the largest film distribution companies and as our film is more art-house and the films they make are Hollywood films with a bigger buget and they normally are world wide films. Are intented audience would be teenagers and adult in England as we dont have the buget and advertising skills to promote our film world wide. We would advertise by putting up poster in London on buses, bus stop, tubes ect and  creating a trailer which would be shown in cinemas and TV. The actors in our film would also take part in interviews on chat shows and online.

4. Our target audience for 'The social Experiement' is teenagers and adults in the age range of 15-25. After watching previous films and researching film distribution company, as a group, we decided this was an appropriate target audience. A target audience is so wide because we think adults can watch them with families or teenagers can watch it with their friends at sleepovers. The type of teenager who would watch our film would be interested in horror and like to watch films with there friends or family and who wouldn't be too scared by our film as we mostly want people to enjoy it. We have made it so our target audience would be interested in the film by using people there ages 17 year old girls, this immediatley attracts and audience as they can relate to the characters.

5. We have made it so our target audience would be interested in the film by using people there ages 17 year old girls, this immediatley attracts and audience as they can relate to the characters. The storyline is also simple enough for teenagers 15-18 but also not so simple that they dont have to think about what is going on, so most people of all education can watch it. We would also attarct our target audience by advertsisng the film as a fun, scary film to watch with friends at sleepovers. The actors may also attract our audience as they are young, attractive girls who dress fashionably. This will especially attract the female audience as they may possible remind themselevs of the girls in the film or they may want to be like them.


6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?  From watching the opeinings of films i have learnt a lot about, sound, mise en scene, editing and camera work. As a group, we are particually proud with the sound and sound effects in our film. We have used a different range of sounds and music to create atmosphere and help build tension. We used the music box sound to help the audience think of the storyline but also it is very eerie and from our feedback, most people said the sound made the opeing a lot scarier and helped build to climaxes. We found the music box sound on a website called 'Free sound'. We used this sound as we thought it would be really creepy as nursrey rhyme sounds aren't usually scary, this sound also helps the audience think about the picture which are shown and whether it has anything to do with them. Is there a history between Tom and Rosy?
From watching the horror film openings, we also learnt about the camera angles and editing. One thing we noticed was that there was quick shots and of different angles. We tried to do this in our film, for example, the clip of the two girls walking down the stairs there was a low shot of their feet, backs as the walk down and then a mid shot when the walk down.  As the camera was following the two girls around most of the time, we tried to differentiate the angles so took two or three shots of the same thing, another good example of this is when Rosy discovers the pictures. First of all we see her looking at them and then there is an over the shoulder shot so the audience can see it them. When we came to edit these shots, we had to make sure we time them perfectly so it looked realistic, we had to make sure the actors were in the same place as the last shot. At first we couldn't really get the hang of this and had some difficulties but once we got used to using Final Cut, this became easier.
Another noticable thing we learnt whilst watching the horror films is that the villan is always looking down on the victims or on a higher level, we thought this is used to show who is superior at the time. In our film, when the girls first enter the building, Tom is behind the door which create mystery, but also, he is slightly higher up then the girls as they are standing on the bottom step. Tom is hardley shown at this particular moment and the lighting is darker around his face which again, in previous horror films, the villian is always in darker light to create a sense of uncertancey to the audience.
Whilst using Final Cut, we learnt new skills to edit. We things such as fade in and fade outs, transitions and how speed things up. All of these helped add to the proffesional help as well as the HD flip camera we used. At the begining of our film, there is a shot of Tom walking to the building. As he turns his head we sped this down by half to make it have a slow motion effect. We did this so the audience starts to think about Toms camera, also as he is looking back at the grave, it makes the audience think what Tom has to do with it.

7. Looking back at our preliminary task, i feel that we have improved alot. There is a big difference between the preliminary task and our main task. For one, we filmed the preliminary in one hour at school so didn't have any props or a good setting. When it came to editing we didnt add any music or use any special effects as we didnt The editing and camera work especially. One thing we did take away from preliminary task was all the different types of angles and shots we did but the one thing we didnt do was make our storyline clear. We needed more clips inbetween to make it clearer.

Analysis of our film opening 'The Social experiment'.

- Mid shot of tom in a grave yard outside a church. It is a spooky setting which make the audience feel on edge.

- We put white powder on Toms face to make him look pale, gaunt and scary.
- Music of church bells chime in the background, this is quite a eerie noise which makes the audience feel un-easy.

 - The next shot is of Tom walking out of the grave yard with his hands in his pocket. We made him purposefully put his hands in his pockets so he looks more like he is hiding something that the audience will soon find out

-The film credits appear bottom left of the screen in a bold, black font while the video is still being played.
- As the church bells fade out, the sound of a nursrey rhyme being played on a music box is heard. This is a really ironic sound as in real life, young children listen to nursrey rhymes and they are a fun thing, whereas in our opening, it is seen as a creepy sound which haunts Tom.

 - The next shot is of Tom feet. We wanted a different variety of angles so it doesn't get boring for the audience but also it emphasises the fact that he has been doing this everyday for a while. 

- After Tom is back in the building, the next shot is of the girls who we meet for the first time.

- The girls are in a nicer area with nice buildings but with no people around, therefore they are on there own which shows the girls are vunrable.

- After the girls knock on the door, the next shot is of them knocking on the door and Tom answering.

- We used an over the shoulder shot to show Tom answering the door and the girls peering through the door.
- As Tom is answering the door and the camera is behind him, it suggest he is superior to the girls and in charge.
- The dark lighting coming from behind Tom and the girls are in the light, this could show that Tom is evil and the girls are good.

 - After the girls walk in, it is a over the shoulder shot of Tom shuting the door.
- Atmospheric music starts to play so the audience thinks danger is coming to the girls

 - As the mid shot of the girls walking down the stairs is shown, we darkened the girls and the room so it gives the impression that they are going down into danger.

 - The next shot is a close up of Tom locking the door.
- Because he is locking it, the audience know at this point the girls need to get up and Tom is up to no good.

- The sound of Tom locking the door and the sound of the girls feet walking down the stairs get quieter.

- A low angle shot to show the girls feet as they walk down the stair, again to have some variety in the angles and camera shots.

- Noises of footsteps and the music gets quieter so it starts to get creepy, you dont know whats going to happen next.

 - This is a mid shot of the two girls with the music playing quietly in the background
- The girls both have a scared expression on their faces

 - It is then very quick editing of Tom turning off the lights, then back to the girls but the light have turner off.
- You can hear sounds of Gwen and Rosy breathing heavily
- Sounds of footstep add to the scare element

 

- The next shot is then an over the should shot of Rosy standing alone in the dark with Tom standing in the darkness looking at Rosy, this is the first small climax rise of the opening

- The next shot is of Tom still standing in the dark watching Rosy go up the stairs
- The spooky atmospheric music then starts to get louder as he watches her  

 - Close up shot of Rosy looking for Gwen.

- Again, darkness in the background and the creepy music creates tension throughout.

 - The camera has a quick view point shot then follows Rosy back walking up to the pictures.
- Music starts to increase

 - Camera zooms into Rosy picking up the pictures.

 - The next shot is a low angle shot following Rosy downstairs with tom in the darkness.
- The connotation of Rosy going down stairs is like she is going down to the bad side (hell)

- As the music builds to a crecendo creating a climax in the film Rosy comes down the stairs and screams just as the music comes in again and the strings fade out.

- She is still in the dark so the audience know the next shot is going to be of something bad.

- The camera starts from the hand and zooms out to see Gwen hanging and in a strange white gown to match Toms white coat.

- Concrete floor and white walls give the impression of a prison

- Screams and shouts plus music still play over the top

- The music box fades in as the white text appears

- The text is like a typewriter

As part of my evaluation, we wanted to hear other peoples feed back on my film opening so i can see what i may need to improve or what the audience likes the best and why. I played the film to five different people ages ranging from 16-46. I then asked them the same questions, some of which, they answered the same but some prefered different things to others. From doing this you can see the different answers given by different age ranges.

The questions we asked were as followed:
1. Did you find the opening of the horror film effective? If yes, why?
2. What features of the horror film did you find most effective?
3. What do you think could be improved?
4. Did the opening make you want to carry on watching the film?
5. Did you find the opening scary?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYf77Z9zacU&feature=youtu.be - Ella and Chloe Evaluation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_bBNHyI-Ro&feature=youtu.be - Lucy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIZgsZsIW3c&feature=youtu.be - George

From getting feedback from other students it helped me think about the improvements to be made. From all four people who i got feedback on, the main thing that they all said was one of the best features was the sound. We spent a lot of time and effort getting the right sound effects and music and i think it shows. It creates the right atmosphere and helps the audience understand how they are meant to be feeling at that particular moment. It also helps build tension and rises to a climax at the end. The music box sound effect was also liked and helped the audience think what the grave stone, pictures and sound all have to do with each other. The improvements that we will need to make is on the storyline. To some of the viewers, it didnt make sense, especially the pictures and the part when Gwen disapears.
Overall, i am very pleased with the feedback and feel like that viewers enjoyed the five minute opening although there are a few improvments that could be made.

Designing our film company logo.

From doing research on different film companies, i noticed that most of the logos were very simply with a plain black or white background with bold, capital font in a large font size saying the company name. Most of them had a small, simple picture of some sort that goes with the theme and type of film the film companies produce.

We found a font on '1001 fonts' called 'You Murderer which was perfect for our film institution. It looks like dripping blood.

We then put it into word and put it aginst a white background. We wanted to add something
and thought a moon crest would be creepy and an audience would be able to tell its a horror film company.

Unfortunately, we lost our work for our film company logo which meant on the final day of filming we had to quickly come up with a replacement which wasn't half as good. It is still called 'Fearsome films' but the logo is different. We had to make it quickly to reach our deadline so it isn't as good. It is a simple 3d font saying 'Fearsome films' in light grey and black.



We have decided to show our film company at the very begining of the film opening with the sound of the church bells over the top to immediately put the audience on edge. It will show for 3 seconds to give enough time for the audince to read. Along with the film company, at the begining of the film, the first 35seconds will also show the film credits and titles, for example 'Starring Rosy Vega'. We choose to do this at the begining rather then the end because the clips of Tom walking from the church at the begining is fairly boring and simple backgrounds which font could go on top. We thought it looked most effective here as there is no dialogue, on diegetic noise of church bells ringing and from watching different film openings, when the credits are being played, there is no dialogue, just sound creating the atmosphere of the film and setting the scene and mood. We didn't want the titles to distract away too much from the moving image so we made it black and a simple font. The colour black already suggests something bad is going to happen and danger is ahead for the two girls.

Editing Effects

When there is music playing we wanted some of the sounds to fade out and i. For example, at the very begining there is a sound of church bells ringing and a music box. The church bell noise is quite a harsh, loud sound and the music box sounds is a delicate, quite sound so we wanted the church bell to fade slowly into the music box sound. To do this we used this effect;

We used the fade in fade out dissolve effect.

 Another effect we used quite frequently was the speed up or slow down tool. We did this by going on 'Modify' then going down the list to 'Speed'. We then chose the clip or music we wanted to speed up or slow down and changed the speed by typing in how long we wanted it to last. We used this effect on the clip of Toms head turning and on the music box sound. When we first put it in, it didn't quite go along with the church bell sound as this had a very slow tempo and the music box tempo was fairly fast.   

< This is how we changed the speed on the clips we wanted to modify to the correct tempo. I feel that sound and music is a very important factor in horror films especially and i wanted to make sure that the timing and speed was correct and because we have quite a few different songs playing at different times, we wanted them to flow and have the same tempo so one wasn't a lot faster or slower than the other.

To add texts, which we need to create our credits, we used the text tool. This allows us to have text going on the video playing. We can change the font, colour and size and also position it where we want. We wanted to keep the text fairly simple without having hints of anything scary at the begining to keep the audience thinking how scary/if it's scary. We also left the font black but made it bold so it stands out.

Another big part of the editing was the colour. As some of our clips were shot in the dark, we didnt have to change the colour as such but we had to lighten/darken some of the clips. We changed the contrast and brightness. If we were to edit our flim again, i would probably have the first section of Tom walking to the building in black and white to give the effect it happened a long time ago. I would also de-saturate some of the shots of Tom and darken them so it looks more evil.
This is how we changed the colour and brightness:

Sound

To get all of our music and sound effects we went on the http://www.freesounds.org/  and downloaded the different sounds.
This is the website -                                                       

We wanted atleast two different types of atmospheric/tense music to go in the background whilst the the action and speech is going on. We also wanted a certain sound or short nursery rhyme to keep repeated at different points throughout the opening to get the audience to think what it has to do with the "villain" Tom and "victim" Rosy. We found a really eerie sound of a music box playing the theme from the film/ballet 'Swan Lake'. We thought as Rosy comes across pictures of two young girls, the music box sounds could bring back some childhood memories and help link the gravestone and pictures together, that possibly his daughters have died.

This is the link to the sound of the music box: http://www.freesound.org/people/klankbeeld/sounds/130808/

Final Editing

Today we had a big problem with our editing. When we tried to play back what we has already editied, Final Cut Pro was showing a sign saying 'Media Offline' we realised we hadn't saved our clips onto the mac, we had kept all of our video saved onto the flip camera we had been using. This meant some of our clips had been deleted off of the flip camera by other people using it so we could no longer view them. In the end we decided that the best idea was to edit the begining again. To do this, we had to import all the videos back on Final Cut Pro and save them on the mac.
  After we finally manged to get the clips back onto the editing software, we cropped and put all the clips back in order. So eventually we managed to get all of the correct clips in order and edited. All we need to do now was to add sound effects, put the credits at the begining of the fiilm and add fading effects to different clips.