Group 5 - Foundation Production: May 2013

Question 1:

Characterisation

The two characters in the title sequence for “Neurosis” have very little revealed about them. The murder victim is seen captured, vulnerable then dead so has very little information said about her other than the details in the non-diegetic news broadcast.

The antagonist always has his face obstructed so reveals very little information to the audience; only his actions, costume and body language give the audience clues into what type of character he really is.

“Neurosis” follows the conventional theme of the helpless female victim and the mentally disturbed, recluse, male antagonist in films such as:

Disturbia (Caruso 2007)

Scream (Craven 1996)

Plot

The plot to “Neurosis” is a serial killer who targets young females. This is a similar plot to a number of psychological thrillers such as the film Psycho (Hitchcock 1960)

The title sequence of “Neurosis” shows the antagonist writing and setting up a rope for the victim to be hung from. The victim is seen captured then dead, hung in a tree. Throughout these shots the non-diegetic news broadcast gives the audience information on a number of similar deaths and so encodes a preferred reading for the audience of the storyline and or what may happen in the film.

Mise En Scene

The location for our title sequence is an old shed, which looks uncared for and abandoned. The shed is situated in woods. These two together create a stock location for many horror and thriller films. The woods create a sense of isolation, which means there is no help for the victim and security for antagonist. Therefore woods in horror and thriller films are seen as a dangerous, scary place.

Woods are used in many horror and thriller films such as

Severance (Smith 2006)

The costume of the victim is contemporary of a teenage girl of modern day. The costume of the antagonist incorporates dull colours so is conventional of an antagonist in horror and thriller films.

Sound

Our title sequence involves small amounts of diegetic sound like the bag being dropped to the ground and the shaking of the cage; they are amplified, layered with non-diegetic, sound effects and a soundtrack of eerie sounds and instruments, such as wind and string instruments, that are conventional for a horror or thriller film. Our soundmix gives prevalence to a news broadcast and some added sound effects of radio static that partially anchors events in the sequence.

We researched soundtracks that sounded eerie and were conventional of a horror or thriller film. The music was slow and is similar to a humming grown made from an organ or string instrument. The radio static anchored the shots of the radio and then provided the audience with an idea of the storyline for the rest of the film.

Here are the soundtracks that we mixed into opening sequence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vnxar6WH3sk Time Splitters Hotel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzBq5faeoKY Radio Tuning

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7U7dA2rQ78 Radio Static

Editing

Our editing and title shots maintain continuity and are very similar to the thriller film Se7en (Fincher 1995) due to the similar cutting rate, use of contrast in light and extreme close ups. We did however intercut plain black shots to place our titles upon due to the length of the shots being too short to have titles incorporated into them unlike the film Se7en where the titles are placed in dark areas of a shot as well as plain black shots.

Camera Techniques

Our title sequence involves lots of shots but does incorporate lots of extreme close ups ECU which are conventional of horror films. This is obscures the identity of the antagonist and create an encoded title sequence in which the audience have to decode.

Visual Techniques

The hanging shot in “Neurosis” was a very tricky shot which took a lot of time to set up. The health and safety of the girl was our first concern and then the effectiveness of the shots. Therefore many shots from many distances and angles using different techniques were used. We had to rely on the skill of the actress to make the shot as believable as possible due to the limit on what techniques we could use. We used techniques from an amateur filming instructional video and some of our own, so we believe modern conventional films would have used a different technique.

In our establishing shots we used close ups, extreme close ups, mid shots and long shots. They were a mixture of stills and shots involving movement. The movement was slow and included pans, tilts and zooms.

Our shots of the antagonist writing also involved a mixture of stills and shots involving movement. These shots also included pans, tilts and zooms but also used alterations in focus of the shot to make the clip seem disjointed and create an eerie mood.

Question 2:

Our title sequence to “Neurosis” only represents one social group which is white teenage girl. Our male character’s identity is kept hidden so therefore his social group is kept anonymous other than he is male.

However the male antagonist does show conventions of horror through his dominance and control which is a residual ideology. He shows his dominance and control by keeping the girl in the cage and shows his strength and hands on approach when setting up the rope for the girl to be hung from.

The teenage female group is represented as vulnerable, helpless and a target for the antagonist. The victim is shown in the title sequence tied up and kept in a cage and is desperately trying to get someone’s attention and/or begging to be let go. Therefore teenage girls are represented as being helpless and need looking after, a dominant ideology. They may be seen as looking for help from others rather than attempting to do the task themselves

The girl is present in the 4 shots. She is framed in close up, mid shot, long shot and extreme long shot. This reveals different views of the girl and so the audience are fed small amounts of images and information in which the can decode to find out the plot.

From the girls costume we see bright fashionable clothes and make up running from her eyes. This implies that she likes to wear fashionable clothes and look good by wearing makeup. This represents teenage girls as being self-conscious of how others see them and that they judge one another on appearance. Her look is ideological of a girl of her age, gender and class therefore she can be related to by the majority of the audience.

The male antagonist wears dull looking clothes which represent a lack of interest in modern fashion and seeing clothes as a practical necessity rather than a luxury.

The actor who plays the antagonist is a young man and so does not fit the stereotypical middle age or older male antagonist. This juxtaposes the conventions of a stereotypical horror. However it does support the residual ideology of the male antagonist and the female victim.

Question 3:

Our film is a low budget film with unknown actors and armature crew. It has the characteristics of a film that would be screened in an art house cinema.

I believe a UK independent Film Company would distribute our film due to the entire crew behind our film being amateur and from the UK. The film is also set and filmed in the UK so would be promoting the UK in the film industry and due to independent companies being lower in status compared to industrial film companies they would like a low budget film to maximise their profits as well as promote there company.

Left films are suited to our project due to them fitting in with our described film company by being a UK independent film company. They have also distributed horror films, which are a subgenre of our film, and so would be an ideal company to distribute “Neurosis”.

The distribution should involve a trailer and a viral campaign to create buzz. There should also be a forum and blog to allow the audience to receive and view content that will be involved with the film leading onto a wider audience being reached through web 2.0 and word of mouth. The film could also be shown at a film festival to get it recognised. The BFI London Film Festival (also known as just the London Film Festival) is the UK's largest public film event and would be perfect to screen our film. When released in cinema the film should be released in digital copies with a platform release. The film should only be screened in small screens, a multiplex or art house cinemas.

Question 6:

Using blogger as a group has been hugely beneficial. It has allowed the group to keep track of tasks that had to be done prior during and post to our production whilst allowing us to view one another’s research easily.

Blogger provides a comment facility which has been beneficial for our group to communicate on each other’s work. All work is easily uploaded to the blog including text, images, links, embedded videos and presentations.

Audience feedback has been posted on the blog and is there for the group to look at and analyze to then be used in further work after feedback is received. Blogger has also meant that our teacher can look at our work and comment on it giving us feedback which is hugely beneficial on completing our title sequence.

Youtube has allowed us to view title sequences to gather information and techniques from current films and previous sequences made from past students.

Youtube has also allowed us to upload our short clips and final project to the site and allow our audience to view and give us feedback on it. We were also able to link Youtube to blogger and embed videos from Youtube to our blog.

When filming we used a Canon powershot SX130 IS which is a camera primarily used for photos with a video camera option. It provided us with HD footage, which we were able to edit on Adobe Premier Elements 9.0.

Using the camera on a number of occasions helped us find good camera angles when at a location, take into consideration continuity when filming and involve action which was relevant and vital to the project. We filmed handicam shots as well as tripod shots in a number of different distances but most being close ups (CU) or extreme close ups (ECU). The wide lens on the camera also gave us high quality colour and enabled us to get the perfect light levels for our shots.

Using Adobe Premiere Elements 9.0 helped us learn how to edit footage to give the message we wanted. Therefore we improved our skills in knowing what length each shot should be, if our sound anchored our visuals, if our visuals were the correct level of lighting/brightness and if the order of our shots made sense and were effective. Using this program we were able to add titles, effects, layers of sound and time stretch our clips. We did come across some problems when ordering our shots and matching them to the non-diegetic sound but with the use of our audience feedback after our rough cut we were able to rearrange the shots and improve our opening sequence. Another criticism of our opening sequence, which was brought up after our rough cut, was that our shots seemed too clear and sharp. The shots were too colourful and needed dulling down. So we used tints on some of our shots to make them look darker and gloomier which made them seem more conventional of a horror or thriller film.

When using Adobe Premiere Elements 9.0 we were also able to edit the length and pitch of our radio broadcast in which we recorded using a dictor phone. For our final sequence we increased the speed of the recording and also lowered the pitch of the dialogue to anchor the information being read.

Group 5 - Foundation Production

Friday, 3 May 2013

JT- 7259: Links

TH- 7174: Links

RS - 6265: Links

Group Post: Question 7 Evaluation

Goup post: Question 4 & 5 Evaluation

JT - 7259: Evaluation

Thursday, 2 May 2013

RS - 6265: Evaluation

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