Monday, 12 May 2014

Evaluation Question 5

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned from this to the end project?

I think that i have learned a lot more about the film making process and how much time and care it must take to shoot a full length feature film, or even an episode from a Tv show. I have learnt techniques for filming, through simply improvising when we couldn't get the desired shots. This project helped me to discover how useful i can be with a simple hand-held camera, when shooting a film. It has been a very enjoyable process, excluding the pressure, and i can't wait to begin another project.

Evaluation Question 4

How did you attract and address your audience?

Evaluation Question 3

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our film is targeted towards the 15-25 age range, much like the target audience of The Hunger Games and How I Live Now, the inspirations for our film. It is set towards both genders, as thriller and action are no longer confined to just the one. The strong female lead will appeal to women more and the action will appeal mostly towards men.
We decided to research into our target audience and asked them a few questions about our chosen genre, we asked them the following questions:
-What narrative would you expect from a dystopian or post-apocalyptic film?
-What type of Characters would you expect from this genre?
-What props would be involved/ used?
-What is your favourite film in this genre?
-What locations do you think should be used?

Here are two of the results we've collected:

  





Evaluation - Question 2

What kind of media institution would distribute your product and why?
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We decided as a pair that Film 4 as one our representing distribution companies. They are a highly successful British company, some of their more successful projects include How I Live Now, a film that inspired our own, and 12 Years a Slave. How I Live Now also links these two companies, as it was distributed by one of Lionsgate's companies, Momentum.

We also considered that Lionsgate would be a suitable company to distribute our product. They are an independent production company and mainly produce films in the horror, Sci-Fi genre, which is where our film fits in as it's a Post-apocalyptic Thriller. Some of Lionsgate's other works include The Hunger Games, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Daybreakers.

Another one of the companies we used for our film was Color Force. A small, independent american company owned by Nina Jacobsen, who coincidently, is the producer of The Hunger Games.

Tuesday, 6 May 2014

Evaluation: Question 1

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

I have chosen 5 shots from our film opening as an example of how we have represented the themes of post-apocalypse and dystopia, and which shots have been inspired by other films that follow the same/similar  themes.

This is a shot from the opening sequence. It starts off with a news broadcast and the sounds of sirens and people screaming and panicking in the streets to build up tension and create a troubling atmosphere. The broadcast vaguely explains the situation, but not completely. This is to leave a sense of mystery for the audience while we follow the survivors in their attempt to escape the fallout.

This shot displays the survivors running in fear from a currently unknown enemy. In the sequence, it flashes by to add to the chaotic and tense atmosphere, building it up to get the audience hooked to this sudden burst of action in the first few minutes of the film; much like Resident Evil: Afterlife. Our narrative isnt linear, we've mixed the order of the events to show the middle at the beginning to keep the audience watching for the cause of this panic.

This shot was inspired by the last scene in both Avatar and Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1. The scenes in which Jake and Bella both awake in their new forms to find themselves completely changed and ready to live their new lives in freedom. Our version of this shot mirrors that effect. Our character wakes to find the world around her has completely changed. There is no freedom here, she has fallen into a race for survival, where everyone has descended back to their primal instincts and it's every man or woman for themselves. Society has broken down.

 Kayleigh designed this shot on Photoshop. The main title hanging on the screen, surrounded by the ash of our fallen country. This is to portray the dust settling from the attacks, only the rebuild is not going to be so easy as the survivors need to first regroup and fight back against the enemy. The shots leading up to this were full of chaos and action, much like the attacks, this shot shows the calm and quiet in the aftermath.

This is the final shot of the opening sequence. It flashes by so quickly to get our hearts racing while we watch as the girl reacts in fear to a cause unknown to the audience. Again, this hooks the audience as they are clueless as to what could've made her react in such a way, and so they keep watching, following the girl's story and learning what really happened, as she discovers the truth behind the attacks.

Sunday, 27 April 2014

Resident Evil: Afterlife - Credit Timings

Screen Gems                          0.06       Wentworth Miller                    1.17 Visual Effects Supervisor
Constantine Film                     0.11       Canadian Casting                             Dennis Beradi                  1.45
Dans Films Impact Pictures     0.16       Robin D. Cook. CSA                      Music by Tomandy          1.49
Paul W.S. Anderson               0.23       UK Casting by                                 Based on Capcom's
Milla Jocovitch                        0.26      Suzanne M. Smith. UK             1.21 Videogame Resident Evil 1.52
Ali Larter                                0.33       Costume Designer                            Associate Producer
Resident Evil                           0.37       Denise Cronenberg                  1.25  Hiroyuki Kobayashi        1.57
Kim Coates                             0.51      Production Designer                          Executive Producer
Shawn Roberts                        0.57      Arv Grewal                              1.28  Victor Hadida                2.00
Sergio Peris-Mencheta             1.02      Director of Photography                    Executive Producer
Spencer Locke                        1.08      Glen Mac Pherson ASC, CSC 1.34   Martin Moscowicz        2.04
Boris Kodjoe                           1.15      Edited by Niven Howie            1.36              

Produced by                                         Produced by                                       Produced by
Bernd Eichinger                                     Don Carmody                          2.11   Robert Kulzer               2.16
Samuel Hadida                         2.06      Produced by
                                                             Jeremy Bolt
                                                             Paul W.S. Anderson                 2.20

Friday, 4 April 2014

Font analysis (title)
Annotate titles
Upload screenshots (draft journey of product)
Finish Timings
Mis-en-scene of Resident Evil
Who would distribute the film?
More annotations
Discuss why we put the titles at certain points in the film

Wednesday, 19 March 2014

Our Soundtrack Hopes

This is the type of effect we want for our film, it gets the adrenaline going and the heart racing in anticipation for what's coming next. It has an atmosphere of desperation, also the sort of thing we need. We are hoping to use this as inspiration for our own composition. We plan to use guitars and piano as well as Garage Band for any other effects and additional sounds that are necessary.

Opening Sequence for Resident Evil: Afterlife - Timed Opening

The Opening sequence for Resident Evil: Afterlife is one of my favourite film openings. I love the tension and sinister soundtrack as it moves well with the film and it's themes of horror. The slow motion effects and slow panning of the girl builds a slight tense atmosphere which gradually increases with the aid of the soundtrack, it makes us wonder what's about to happen next. For those who have already seen the previous films, it is pretty clear what's about to happen and that the girl is about to turn, as it follows the pattern of the other films. It only takes 6 seconds for the opening credits to start, which is pretty fast compared to most films. I would like to be able to do a similar opening scene, which involves establishing shots, cutting to Kayleigh lying on the floor unconscious with an ominous soundtrack to accompany it, finally ending with A close-up shot of Kayleigh's eyes opening, looking straight at the camera.

Tuesday, 18 March 2014

Rough Title Drafts

A few rough ideas of what we think we want for our film's title to be like.

Finished Storyboard

   
Finished and updated version of our film's storyboard.

Monday, 24 February 2014

Title Analysis - Harry Potter

 
In this version of the Harry Potter title, the colours used and the sound used behind it, are far more sinister in comparison to the first movie. The colours here are dark, wispy and smoky. They reflect the mood and atmosphere of the film it's representing, as well as the severity of the problems faced by Harry, Ron and Hermione. With each film, the title gradually gets darker and more sinister, along with the story and plot it's labelling. In the first instalment, the colours used are innocent and childlike, just like the characters, but as the story goes on, the characters mature, and so the title and posters must also reflect this. The colours may change with each film but the one thing that remains the same is the font. The font is in the form of lightning bolts, referencing Harry's iconic scar on his forehead. In the 5th instalment, 'Order of the Phoenix', Hagrid notices the storm coming and says "It's changing out there Harry.. Just like last time". This is also reflected in the title as the last 3 film titles are shadowed by threatening thunder storms, like the one Hagrid noticed.

Monday, 6 January 2014

Completed More Filming 21st December

On the 21st of December, Kayleigh and I shot more scenes for our film. We got establishing shots for the very beginning of the film and managed to create the scene which involves Daisy waking from her sleep state. We filmed in Eastry Woods as planned, but due to poor weather conditions, we were limited as to the amount of footage we could collect. We had to improvise the 'wake up' scene as the ground was to wet to lay on, so we shot Kayleigh's face at an extreme close up to attempt to hide the fact that she was actually sitting in an upright position. We gained our establishing shots by shooting high angle shots of the trees and trekking out to the hills for the shot of the landscape. If anything, the poor weather conditions aided the filming because it gave us the eerie, gritty quality we were originally after. It was eerily quiet up in the woods so it gave us the perfect setting for a post-apocalyptic setting and met our hopes of having a gloomy, creepy landscape to film in.