Film School Session - Editing

In today’s session of film school, Kate Coggins, a film editor who has been in the business for quite some time and has worked with many production companies including Vertigo Films, visited us to help us with our trailers. She has also edited ‘Tower Block’ 2012. Former E4 ‘Skins’ editor Simon Brasse also attended the session. They both spoke to us and gave us great advice on how to edit our trailers.  Kate suggested adding some after affects, to make our trailers more effective. She also said that it would be best if we did a bit more filming to make viewers more aware of the background story. It was a really helpful session and will put into action all the advice given.

Filming Day 2

Today we went out to shoot the interior scenes involved in our trailer. Using news paper clippings and photographs, I was able to create a board of "evidence" on our kills bedroom wall. We then went on to highlight and cross out sections, to emphasise it is being used by the killer to track down the gang. We experimented with several shot types but decided over the shoulder and close ups was most suiting. We shot from these angles as we did not want to reveal much about our killer. You can only see his back in the shot and his hoody. This creates suspense to the viewers. We also practised the in and out of focus technique we learnt prior production.

Filming Day 1

My group and I went out to  shoot at the near by estate. We had shots of him walking through the estate from different angles such as over head, mid shot. close up etc. However, due to filming in the day time the lighting was way to bright to convey the slasher horror feel we were hoping to accomplish. During the editing process we might be able to play around with the saturation and contrast to create this atmosphere.

We plan to re shoot some of the shots due to not using a tripod when shooting. Some of the clips were very shaky and not usable for our trailer.

Magazine Front Cover

Using Photoshop I was able to create a magazine cover from scratch. I gained inspiration from "Empire Magazine" one of the most popular movie magazines in the country. I downloaded several fronts from dafont.com. I made sure that there was a variety within text size, making the most important aspects of the cover larger. The cover features the standard conventions and connotations such a the masthead, anchorage text, strap line etc.

The target audience for this version of our cover are the older generation who have an high interest in movie magazines. The text is plain, but gets the messages across. I then went on to take a photograph of our main character. He is seen wearing his signature mask that he uses to hide his identity when killing. During the editing process I simply lowered the saturation and increased the contrast to create a eerie tone.

Shot Ideas

1.     Protagonist sitting in interview room with police officer

2.     Hand shaking as she moves it towards the cup

3.     Tracking shot from cup to mouth

4.     Police officer pushing record button

5.      Mid shot of police officer

6.     Establishing shot of grave yard – from an outsiders view looking through gates

7.     Over the shoulder shot of her placing flowers onto grave

8.     Mid shot of her in the interview room

9.     Establishing shot of her and her ex boyfriend holding hands (the happy times)

10. Her talking to a work colleague as he walks her home to her door

11.  Close up of 

Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro is Italian for "light-dark". It shows the contrast between the two and how they can portray meaning to an object. We took another visit down to the Void and experimented using red and blue gel lights to create light and shades within our short recordings.

Propp's Theory Within Horror Trailers

1. The Hero – a character that seeks something

1. The Villain – who opposes or actively blocks the hero’s quest

1. The Princess – acts as the reward for the hero and the object of the villain’s plots

1. The Donor – who provides an object with magical properties

1. The False Hero – who disrupts the hero’s success by making false claims

1. The Helper – who aids the hero

1. The Dispatcher – who sends the hero on his/her quest via a message

Sinister (2012)

Villain - Bagul. Masked character who is only seen within images and video recordings. 

The Princess - Ashley. Daughter of the family who is being possessed by the villain. 

The Dispatcher - Professor Jonas, he explains a symbol used by Bagul as well as general information about him. 

Risk Assessment.

Before going to any location outside the classroom, a risk assessment needs to be completed. This highlights the risks that may take place as well as the actions to stop them from taking place.

Binary Oppositions.

The theory of binary oppositions was created by Levi Strauss. They are pairs of concepts that are opposite to each other in meaning.

Examples include: good vs evil, love vs hate, dark vs light etc. These words act as symbols for society's ideas and meanings of the words.

Focus Task.

In today's task we used DSLR cameras to learn as well as practice the functions of manually focusing within shots. We had to show narrow depth of field, this involves having the background of the shot blurred and the foreground in sharp focus. 

We also learnt about changing the F stop, this changes the distance of the focus. The smaller the F stop number, the deeper the focus will. And visa versa. 

Below is a video that shows my group and I practising this technique:

Recce.

We went down an abandoned underground section of Achland Burghley School. It is strictly off limits to students but it is ideal for our horror trailers. I has no stable flooring and there was rubbish everywhere. When we were down there we all felt a bit uneasy and slightly scared due to its emptiness and isolation. Location is very important within the film industry as it can set the whole scene/ prepare us for what may happen next.

*ADD PHOTOS

Permission Letter.

In order to incorporate our chosen songs into our trailers, we had to write letters asking for permission to use the songs due to copyright.

*PRINT SCREEN OF LETTER

Representation Theory.

The media represents the world to us. They show us how things actually are as well as how they should be. The main representations we study in media studies include:

• Femininity
• Masculinity 
• Sexuality 
• Social Class
• Race and Ethnicity 
• National Identity 
• Age

Hegemonic Cultural Stereotyping

This theory suggests that the media reinforces and circulates traditional and old fashioned representations. They then represent them to audiences as common sense eg. men and woman should behave in a certain way.

Masculinity - Eg. Bruce Willis in Die Hard. He's muscular, saves those in trouble, tough, good guy fighting evil.

Femininity - Mary Jane in Spiderman. Weak character that needs to be rescued as she is in danger. 

Sexuality - Graham Norton. Very camp television presenter. 

Race and Ethnicity - Ali G (exaggerated Asian stereotype)

Age - Grandad in Only Fools and Horses.

National Identity - West is West. Father takes son to Pakistan as he feels he has lost connection with his culture. 

Social Class - Hugh Grant as the middle class twit in Notting Hill.

Although these are characters we enjoy to watch, hegemonic stereotyping can lead to passive consumption. Eg. Young boys thinking they should act like Bruce Willis. 

Mulvey's "Male Gaze" Theory.

Laura Mulvey believed that some women were represented in films in a way that will draw male attention. Woman are forced to view things through the eyes of a man.  It is a feministic view of voyeurism. The cameras linger the bodies of females, this shows off women as sexual objects to gratify men. However, there have been changed towards the representation of women over the past few years. For example Kill Bill Vol 2.

Stock Characters in Horrors.

The stock characters are the people who make the film fun and entertaining. We are surrounded by stock characters in real life, that we automatically recognise them and their characteristics as soon as they appear on screen. Although predictable, they are they ones we look forward to seeing the most.

Film School Session - Music

Today's session with songwriter Gary Osborne and script writer Jessie O Mahoney was absoultely hilarious. They told us about their ups and downs within their time being in the industry. Gary has worked with Gary Barlow and Elton John. Jessie who started out as the photocopying script guy for Eastenders has climbed the ladder of success and now writes scripts for the award winning soap. Both him and Gary were quite the characters. We then split off into our groups and analysed song lyrics. My group and I looked at the song "she drives me crazy". Immediately, we had an idea about a boy who is extremely obsessive over his new girlfriend. He has her photos all over is room and is always checking up on her.

Distribution.

Distribution from britneybailey

Analysing a Trailer.

TUCKER & DALE VS EVIL

Genre: There are many representations of iconography that suggest aspects of horror.

Narrative: There are stereotypical characters such as the dumb blonde, the wander etc. 

Vulnerable woman needing protection.

Target Audience: Would have to know the aspects of slasher/horror films in order to find it amusing.

Music: Non- diagetic music creates tension.

Contrapuntal - introduces the comedic side of the film. This highlights their unique selling point as well as the hybrid genre (horror/comedy) 

Shot Types: The establing shot is a high angle bird's eye view of a deserted road - this creates a mysterious atmosphere. We are unaware of where that road leads too but we know that we are about to embark on a adventure. 

Dialogue: "Did you see the way those guys looked at us?" - supports Mulvey's theory that men see woman as sexual objects.

Makeup Practise.

Today's lesson was very fun and practical. We were given the chance to play around with the materials Christine gave us and put into practise the methods she taught us. We wanted to create a zombie look and achieved this by mixing golden syrup and red food colouring to make fake blood. By mixing blue and purple food colouring we were able to make a bruising effect. Overall, I was very happy with what we achieved.

Film School Session - Makeup

Today we were very privileged to have a visit from a highly profound make up artist Christine Blundell. She gave us suggestions on how to create things such as blood and bruises in preparation for our trailer tasks. I was quite surprised to find out that some of the things she told us to use were basic things you would find in a corner shop or supermarket such as food colouring and gelatine. I look forward to seeing her again and expressing my creative side through what she has planned to teach us.

Burton's Formula.

Observing Burton’s formula from britneybailey

Photoshop.

Today we learnt some basic skills of photoshop such as overlaying, filters, contrast etc. Our task was to edit the photo to make it look like a horror poster. I added blood, brusises, scratches and scars to one side of the face and shadowed the other half to emphasise the mystery that the horror genre so famously holds.

Me.

My name is Britney, I am 17 years of age and currently studying media at Achland Burghley/La Swap. I decided to continue media as I enjoy the process of creating media texts and watching my ideas come to life.  This blog will feature my progress and work throughout the academic year. I hope to develop my skills as well as learning new ones along the way.