Sound

Character Profiles

Props, Location and Fashion - Risk Assessment

Props

• Candles (10-15)
• Backpacks (2)
• Cans of food/soup (2)
• Papers - Newspaper and Letters etc. (2 newspapers, 3 letters/flyers)
• Map - Large (south west of England, near to filming site)
• Radio (old fashioned with a screen and dial on it)
• Medical Supplies - Bandages, Plasters etc. (1 of each loose)
• Camping Mat/Sleeping Bag (1 or the other, rolled up)
• Torch (1 big torch)
• Matches (1 box with matches in)
• Lighter (1)
• Barrels (2)

Location

The large open space had alot of horse machinery at the back of it, we were told by the owners that we had to stay away from it because there was a risk of damage to the actors and because some of the machinery wasn't safe and could fall over if we went near it. Therefore we stayed away from that end of the barn so that everyone stayed safe why we were filming.

We had to be careful when we were dealing with the hay bales in our opening sequence, firstly because they are were very unstable and they could easily fall on one of our actors and secondly because they are highly flammable and therefore could cause a serious fire if we used anything with a flame near them.

These pictures above show some of the risk related objects in the barn, as you can see there are sharp tools and bottles of medicine in the corner that we had to stay away from when filming to ensure that our cast did not get injured and to respect the owners of the barns wishes.

Our location is a small horse-barn that we have been allowed to film in by the owners, it is on the outskirts of Hillesley and is easy to get access to. It meets all of our needs in terms of what we want for filming however a few things have been changed in our planning of how we are going to film because of the location (specified in risk assessment).

Audience Profile

Audience Theories

The Uses and Gratifications Model

This theory suggests that the audience are active when consuming a text, film, or television program. The audience use the media for their own pleasure, for example, diversion, escapism or for information.

And because the audience is in control of their experience with media, they are able to use it for relaxation, emotional satisfaction, and help with issues of personal and social identity.



Reception Theory

This theory considers how texts are encoded with deeper moral meanings, and how they are understood by the audience. Audiences will either understand the deeper meaning/message, or they will misunderstand or reject the idea. The audiences view is described as either:
Dominant- where an audience understands the meaning and generally agrees with it
Negotiated- where an audience neither agrees, nor disagrees with meaning, or holds no interest
Oppositional- where an audience understands the meaning, but rejects it, maybe because of cultural, political or ideological views they hold

What I have learnt

From doing this research we have learnt what our target audience would most likely be into in terms of what they watch in film, this research has also helped us develop designs and ideas for our storyboard as well as for our character's costumes. This research also helps us aim our film towards a specific age range which will help us decide on the dialogue that is going to be in our opening.

Credit to Lucy Crow for working with me on this task.

Thinking of a concept / Final Idea

Basic Ideas

This is a picture of the first mind-map that we created. As you can see it is very basic and discussed some different ideas that we could follow with a dystopian theme running through all of the opening sequences.



We then decided on a general theme for our opening sequence which we then made another mind-map for, in this mind-map we have focussed on some more specific details that we could use in our opening sequence.



After looking at alot of different things that could have happened in our opening sequence we decided to finalise our ideas, here we took elements of important things that we had learnt from previous research and look at them in detail to make sure that our story line would be easy to follow for our audience and to make sure that we could make the best opening as possible.

Final Ideas

General Overview

We want to create an dystopian film which includes the themes of violence, gore and sub-horror. We want to have some characters in a safe building but they have all sorts of od twists in the builing, for example they use candles instead of lights and they are playing with weapons instead of phones etc. We want the opening sequence to include a twist where the characters leave this safe place to show the apocalyptic world before it cuts off. The cut off shows these people who are infected (blood on faces/ dirty faces only in wide shots)

Age certificate

12, 12A, 15

How we are planning to use narrative theories

We are planning to follow levi-strauss idea of opposites by using the following themes:

Boys vs girls

War vs peace

Life vs death

We are also going to try and use action shots to help reveal further narrative and later the plot in the film.

Characters

We are going to use a small group of characters who know each other- 5 people to build a relationship and help to build a solid narrative.

• Decoy character (false hero/villain/dispatcher) - wants to move - go somewhere else, quite intimidating could be seen as a false leader. Male character.
• Leader/resolves situations (lower status than others/hero) - knowledgeable and reasonable b- isn't classed as leader by the rest of the group but takes that role. Female character.
• Love interest (2 helpers) - 1 male and 1 female character - typical over the top relationship, everyone knows about it but nobody discusses it, the relationship has always been there.
• Bulking character (helper) - always there - doesn't add much to the narrative but they would be noticed if they wern't there. Female character.

Ending

All open doors (over the shoulder shot), camera stops to see apocalypse outside.

Locations

Warehouse

Fields

abandoned house

Old building

Somewhere with open space

Genre

Dystopian 

Sub-horror (gore)

Coming of age

Violence

Fashion

Normal clothes - dirty and ripped or changed in some sort of way

Shows that they have been wearing them for a long time.

Audience

Primary audience - Teenagers

Secondary audience - Young adults

Typography

Small placed on screen, possibly in surroundings (like in the edge)

Representation 

Middle/lower class

Sub-urban

Young people - 16/17

Institutions

Independant film companies and distributors

Film 4

Vertigo fims

Sound

Action music/ buildup music

Diegetic sounds

Music stops at end to climax the buildup

Dialogue 

Not much, casual, help to reveal narrative and back story through hints - leaves audience intregued

Name 

Abandonned

Interuppted

Thiazide B482
Safe-Zone X

What I have learnt
From doing this work together, we have managed to think about concepts for our film opening, as well as things that could go into it for more detail and to generally improve it. We have also been able to use previous information to help us identify good things to use in our opening, such as camera angles or plot twist and character development.

Credit to Lucy Crow for working with me on this task.

Preliminary Task

Learning comment
From the story board and my opening sequence you can see that my shots do not correspond, this is because when filming I realised that we didn't have as much space as we needed and therefore some of the longer shots have changed into medium shots because we didn't have enough space for them. However saying this, some of the shots also changed when I edited my prelim task all together. For example there are unscripted cuts between the characters because I though that the film didn't flow as well so I added extended bits of clips from previously. I think that i could have improved my match on action because i didn't take into consideration when filming the angles that Lucy was walking at and that is why she jumps in the middle of the film. I think that  could improve my close ups so that they are closer to the actors because at the time i wasn't considering the distance between my shots so close ups and extreme close ups didn't come into consideration. This preliminary task has helped me understand how to use the cameras as well as how to position myself so that I am not incite when filming. This experience has also helped me understand how to help my actors improve the film opening. I also think that this task also helped me to understand how important miss en scene is in shots and how important it is to keep it the same so that the editing runs a bit smoother.