Genre Research and Intertextual Links

As we were making a horror genre production we researched books and films of the horror genre. One book that I looked at was Legacy Of Blood by Jim Harper. From this book i discovered a lot of useful information and common conventions of horror genres and we were able to apply some of them to our production. One common convention is for the main protagonist to be a girl. These protagonists normally have the characteristics of a "final girl" - strong willed, brown haired, not sexually active/ virginal and intelligent. There is normally a binary opposition of these characters "scream queens" the characteristics of "scream queens" are blond hair, stuiped, sexually active and busty, these "scream queens" are often killed off during the film where as the "final girl" normally survives and defeats the killer/antagonist.

Some common conventions of horror genre films include blue tinted lighting which gives of a supernatural chilling feeling to the audience. this effect has been used in almost all the famous horror films e.g. Halloween, Scream and Friday the 13th. Dutch tilt shots which give the audience a hint that something is wrong or out of place. Another very common convention in horror genres is to use a jagged cerif font in red which connotes to the audience that the film has some horror aspects to it.

Our production has intertextual links to films that involve teenage cast and stalking such as A Nightmare on Elm Street this film is about a stalker character who kills teenagers and the heroine is a typical "final girl" who is in the film from the start.

Sound and Music

From our research of other Horror films we noticed that in all of them the music and sounds used play a key role in the film, it is used to build tension and get the audiences heart beating. As any music we used was required to be copyright free, we researched some copyright free music sites as a group to look for possible sounds and music to incorporate into our film. This is a link to some of the music sites i visited.http://alexsmediawork.blogspot.com/2009/03/copyright-free-music-sites.html.

We included a couple of sound effects in the movie to build tension. One when you can see the stalker through the window and another when Emily climbs the stairs and there is a POV shot. We felt these creepy noises fitted perfectly into our production although we did consider the one on the stairs to be a little cheesey.

We found that we really needed some music to be playing throughout the film as their was not a lot of dialogue but we could not find anything which appealed to us on any of the sites. Therefore we made our own music on garage band. Ben and I did not know much about garage band or how to use it but George knew enough to make a great piece of creepy music which was perfect for our production. The music is slow paced and then gets faster as various instruments come in. The music is based on the original Halloween music/theme and gives the same effect building tension throughout the film.

Our Group

There are three of us in our group; me, Ben Garvey and George Needham. We are good friends and worked well together on the production. The reasons i choose to work with Ben and George are that one or both of them are in all of my AS level subjects so i know how they work and they know how i work. We all put a lot of effort into our media production and have enjoyed working on it together.

Production Schedule and Notes

Although we had the storyboard to follow when we were filming we did adapt some of the scenes and the camera shots used in them as we thought fit. We started filming on saturday 21st March. On the 21st we filmed all the scenes except the scene in the cellar. We filmed this on tuesday the 24th March. We edited these throughout the week and analysed them. We noticed that the shot of emily walking up the street to the house was too long and we needed a wider range of shots and we also needed to improve the scene in the cellar. We went back and improved the footage we had next weekend on the 28th March.

The reason the days we filmed on are so spread out is because there were only a couple of days a week when all four of us were available and we didnt want to film if one of us wasn't there as it would be unfair on them.

Production dates:
Saturday 21st March - Start up until beginning of cellar scene.
Tuesday 24th March - The cellar scene
Saturday 28th March - Reshoots and Improvments.

Feedback

Sophie 17: Loved the point of view shot at the stairs. it sent shivers down my spine.

Laura 17: The music was really effective, the framing of the over the shoulder shot looking out the window was really good.

Emily 17: I thought all the scenes worked really well together. the whole thing builds up tension.

Sam 16: I like the music at the start and i especially liked the shot where the stalker can be seen through the window and then when Emily moves into the frame and then back out of it he has disappeared.

Mrs Morgan: I like the start immediately - great music. Some of the shots are a little dark. Great range of shots - very typical of the horror genre. The tension builds really well and the scenes in the bathroom are excellent.

Semiotic Analysis

Throughout the production a lot of non digetic sound has been used to add effect in the scene and build tension. An example of the non digetic sound used include the music played while Emily is walking to her house, this builds tension and denotes that the scene is building up to a climax. The music which is quite slow paced and creepy could also signify that film will be slow paced but also very scary. As the music is quite powerful the audience could get the feeling that Emily is quite a powerful figure in the film. The use of non digetic sound is also applied when Emily is walking up the stairs and there is a POV shot of her, the eerie music played reinforces the belief that she is being watched. The gate swinging shut as Emily walks up the steps to her house is a common convention of horror film and adds to the mounting tension.

When Emily is in her bedroom and she walks over to the window to put her jacket on the chair there is a narrative enigma; a mysterious non-digetic sound is played and we can see the hooded figure on the street then Emily steps in the frame of the shot and when she moves away the figure is gone.

The second shot is a long shot of Emily and behind her you can see a hooded figure dressed in black which signifies that she is being followed. The dark clothes and hood up connote villainy and this is anchored through the use of the menacing, non-digetic music. The next shot is an over the shoulder shot of Emily from behind the stalker this reinforces the idea that he is a villian and that he is following her.

There is then a high angle shot of Emily which signifies she could be in danger and shows her vulnerability. As Emily walks up the steps to her house the high angle of the shot lessens until it is almost a normal mid shot. This could show that now that Emily has reached the safety of her home she is more control and is not as vulnerable as before. This theme continues in the next shot which is a low angle shot of Emily climbing the stairs. The shot also seems to be a POV shot, this and the shaky camera work signifies that although Emily is less vulnerable she is still being watched and is far from safe.

There is another low angle shot of Emily as she heads down into the cellar to try and fix the fuses. This is an example that Emily is a binary opposition as typical girls would have no idea how to fix fuses and would leave it to a man. The low angle shot also reinforces the belief that Emily is quite a strong masculine character. There is a POV shot as Emily fixes the problem and turns the lights back on and they start to flicker. There is then a visual bridge as in the next shot which is also a point of few shot the light can also be seen flickering. This denotes that somebody else is in the same room as Emily.

There is also a two shot of Emily and Mark unfortunatly the lighting is not very good and we can not see Marks face at all. When Mark explains that he hasn't touched the lights there is a close up of Emilys face and we can see the confusion on her face as she realises somebody else has been in the house.

The preferred reading which the producers would prefer the audience to believe is that the person who was stalking Emily at the start of the production was not Mark and was an actual stalker who was responsible for cutting the fuses and is out to get Emily. This view could be contested as some viewers may believe that Mark was the one person stalking Emily and the threat is over. This reading however would not explain why the fuse wires had been cut.

When Emily walks down the stairs into the cellar she walks into the shot which shows that she is a dominant character. The clothes she wears also denote to the audience that she is an intelligent working woman. She does however have quite a low cut top revealing some cleavage which connotes that she is sexually available and will appeal to male audiences.

Rough Cuts

This is the original match on action shot of Emily opening the door. The problem was that the timing was out so it appeared as though Emily opened the door with the camera outside and then opened it again but with the camera inside.

This is the actual match on action shot of Emily opening the door. This time we have edited it so that the timing is correct.

Microdrama and Narrative Theory

For this task we had to create a short microdrama and apply Todorov's 5-part Narrative Formula to it.


Todorov's 5-part Narrative Formula
Every narrative can be broken down into three basic stages: situation, conflict, resolution ( or equilibrium, dis-equilibrium, new equilibrium). Crucially, the protagonist is not the same as at the outset, but has been changed in some way from events. Tzvetan Todorov posited five stages:

1. a state of equilibrium at the outset;
2. a disruption of the equilibrium by some action;
3. a recognition that there has been a disruption;
4. an attempt to repair the disruption;
5. a reinstatement of the equilibrium

The five stages in our Microdrama

1. Sophie is going on a date with someone.
2. Jimmy George has been dating all three girls; Sophie, Emily and Laura at the same time.
3. Sophie, Emily and Laura realise and plan to get Jimmy George back.
4. The girls bully Jimmy George in various ways to get back at him.
5. Jimmy George finds a magical four leaf clover meaning all will go back to normal.

Evaluation

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

Our media product works within the horror genre, so we have included various conventions seen in horror films. Using our knowledge and research of horror films we noticed that the locations used are often dark and gloomy places such as dungeons, cellars and dark alleys, as well as isolated suburban houses. Examples of horror films we have adapted this idea from include the Saw series and the Halloween, Friday the 13th and Scream franchises. We developed this into the opening of our media production with the first shot being on a gloomy street at night.

Another common convention in horror films is building tension, by making the audience fear a killing will take place. We adapted this into our media production by using certain camera shots such as handheld camera shots and over-the-shoulder shots to build up tension, and signify to the audience that they are seeing through a stalker’s eyes; that the protagonist is in danger. As well as this we used scary music to build up the tension throughout the production. The large range of shot types used is typical of a horror genre.

From our research we discovered that it is normal for a ‘Scream Queen’ (blond, busty, sexually available) to be killed in the opening scenes of a horror film. We challenged this by introducing Emily who is the ‘final girl’(brown-haired, strong-willed, intelligent, virginal) in the opening scenes, which then showed her possibly, have a close escape from the antagonist without realising – the audience is given a privileged point-of-view. Emily was our best choice to cast as the character (Emily) because out of the possible actresses available she resembled a final girl the most. This is a link to the casting page in our blog which has an picture of the actor and actress we used in the production. http://alexsmediawork.blogspot.com/2009/04/cast.html.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Comes under "Who would be the audience for your media product?"

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The type of media institution that would be likely to produce our media product would be a small company which tends to harness low budget productions like Donkey Punch and turn them into high value movies that can reach world wide audiences. Two examples of UK film production companies that fall into that category include Warp X and WT2.

For funding to produce our media production we would look to companies that like to encourage young film makers e.g. EM Media, Film4 and Screen Yorkshire. Screen Yorkshire would be likely to fund our media production because it is one of their traits to encourage young local talent.

One possible distribution company that would be likely to distribute our media production would be Universal. Universal is the most successful distributor of Uk movies and also distributes all of Working Titles productions.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The age rating for our media production is 15 (This means that: No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate to 15 year olds. There may be frequent use of strong language (e.g. 'fuck'). But the strongest terms (e.g. 'cunt') will be acceptable only where justified by the context. Continued aggressive use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable. Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context. Sexual activity may be portrayed but without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour. Violence may be strong but may not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. Scenes of sexual violence must be discreet and brief. Dangerous techniques (e.g. combat, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on imitable detail. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised. Strong threat and menace are permitted. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. ) and the target audience is 15 - 24 the actors in the film were both 17 which is one of the reasons that the target audience is 15 - 24 as audiences relate better to actors and actresses of their own age. The other reason we chose this age range is we found that the target audience for horror films are mostly youth (15 - 24). The main target audience for the production would therefore be fans of horror films and teen dramas because of the genre of the film and the ages of the actors used. The location and actor and actress that we used would appeal to the upper middle class, lower middle class and the working class (socio-economic groups C1C2DE). This is because the house we filmed the production in is quite a big middle class looking house but the language and accent used by Emily would also appeal to the working class.


How did you attract/address your audience?


Comes under “Who would be the audience for your media product?”


What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?


From the process of constructing our media product I have learnt a lot about iMovie 06 and I have also learnt a lot more about how to use a camcorder efficiently. I found iMovie 06 extremely easy to work with and enjoyed developing the production on it. The things I learnt about iMovie 06 included how to upload footage from a camcorder onto iMovie 06, how to cut and edit clips and then how to put them together to produce a finished product. Trimming clips down was one of the easiest things to do. It just required you to drag two arrows either side of the part of the clip you wanted to trim out and then press cut. As well as this I also learnt how to find music on iMovie or create it and then upload it onto iMovie and incorporate it into the production. You could both drag music from a file to where you wanted it to be on the film or go to import and find the saved music file you wanted to insert.

From using a camcorder to film the footage I learnt a lot more about some of the facilities that are available on a camcorder. I experimented with the night vision option and we applied it to a scene in our production where in normal mode you could not tell what was going on. I also improved the skill of zooming in and out which is quite tricky to do subtly. On one of the shots I noticed that we could have done with some sort of crane to get the high angle shot we were after, as we had to make do with standing on a wall and holding the camera up high to get the desired effect. I developed my skill with a tripod to get a steady camera shot or a quality panning shot.

During the process of creating this media production I have also learnt how to use transitions which can be used to make the switch from one shot to another a lot smoother a more professional. A good example can be seen in our final cut also located on the blog: http://alexsmediawork.blogspot.com/2009/04/final-cut.html.
Just after Emily puts the keys on the window sill the frame fades out and into the next shot of Emily walking up the stairs (49 seconds in).

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

One thing that I have learnt from the progression of my preliminary task to the full product is to be more aware of the lighting when filming. This is because in my preliminary task we did not take the lighting into account and it did not look very good because one persons face was all in shadow. In my media production the lighting is a lot better than it was for my prelim task there is however, one or two shots where it is still a bit darker than we intended. Another improvement I have made since I made the preliminary task is making sure the person in the shot is in the centre of the frame before the preliminary task I had not thought about keeping them in the centre of the frame as much.

I have also learnt that it is a good idea to plan out what you are going to do instead of just picking up a camera and starting filming as we did in our preliminary task. This included coming up with our own initial ideas and writing them down. We then discussed the ideas with the rest of the group before making an initial group idea. For this initial group idea we produced a storyboard(http://alexsmediawork.blogspot.com/2009/04/storyboard.html) this included a quick hand drawn image of each scene and the shot(s) used in that scene. We then used this as a rough guide to follow when filming and developed it where we saw fit.

Storyboard

Final Cut

This is the final cut of our media coursework "In His Sights" It was directed and edited by myself, Ben Garvey and George Needham. I will evaluate the production in another post and will get feedback on the film through the blogging site, Blogger.

Final Synopsis/The Pitch

A gripping horror that will keep you on the edge of your seats from start to finish.

The film is about an young business woman who is followed home by a hooded figure. She does not notice she has been followed home. When the lights in her house start to flicker she has to go down into the basement to check the fuses. Armed only with a torch she ventures down into the basement. She thinks she is alone in the house but she soon finds out that she is most definitely not.

Cast

Casting:

Emily Outterside as Emily

We chose emily to play the part of emily because we needed a counter type to play the part of the final girl. Emily is a counter type because she is not a typical blonde stereotype girl who gets murdered.

George Needham as Mark

We chose George to play Emily's younger brother, Mark. We chose George to play Mark because he is quite short and fits in to the younger brother role quite well.

Target Audience and BBFC

Age
After looking on the BBFC website rating system we have decided to rate our film a 15 and make the target audience 15-24 year olds. As all the cast are teenagers the film is more likely to suit that same age range. I was unsure about rating our film a 12 or 15 because the BBFC guidelines are a bit vague in areas but i decided to go for a 15 as i think the horror/violence content would increase later on in the movie.

Ethnicity
The opening scene in our film has been cast with Caucasian characters only but if i were to continue and make the rest of film i would definitly include some non-Caucasian talent to broaden the target audience of the film.

Gender
Although horror movies come under one of the genres which is primarily male orientated i think our horror film would appeal equally to both male and female audiences. This would be due to the use of a final girl, the tough, resourceful female character who survives the film and defeats the villain. In the same way this will attract female audiences the use of a male character as the villain/antagonist will attract male audiences to the film.

Economics Groupings
Our film is likely to attract middle class and working class audiences as upper class audiences generally prefer more intelectually higher culture films. The economic classes are broken down into AB's for the upper classes and then C1C2 for middle class and DE for working class so our film is aimed at the C1C2DE areas.

Nationality/Region
Our films is targeted at the English market, we do not have the resources (American Actor(s), High Budget) to try and reach the American market. The locations used in our film have an air of social realism about them which will appeal to our target audience.

Fans Of

I would expect the target audience for our film to be fans of well known existing horror films such as Halloween and Nightmare On Elm Street. If i was advertising the film on posters and in magazines then i would link these films into the advertisements to attracts audiences.

Sexuality

If we were to finish filming the film we would consider including a character that was of a homosexual nature to broaden the target audience. Including a homosexual in the movie would attract homosexual audiences but would probably not deter hetrosexual audiences as they may find it amusing or interesting if a gay or lesbian character was one of the victims in the film.

Psychographic Profile

A typical punter/member of the public who represents exactly the type of person i would expect to want to watch and enjoy the film would be: A teenager/young adult who enjoys horror movies and playing scary computer games.

Hardware

The camera i will be using for my coursework is the "Cannon MD101"


I will be using this camera to film all of the shots for my media production. The camera is easy to use, all you need is a mini DV tape to record the footage on and then you are ready to film. The camera has a zoom ability which is operated by a pull/push system to zoom in and out. I will be using this feature in my filming.





As well as the camera i will also be using a light weight tripod. The tripod will make it easy to get a steady shot and keep the actor or actress in the centre of the shot. The tripod will also make it easier to do high angle shots as the legs are extendable.

Software

The software that i am going to use to edit my film is iMovie 06.

The advantages of using iMovie 06:

It is easy to upload footage from your camera onto iMovie 06. The layout of imovie 06 is very simple to use and i found it extremely easy to cut and edit clips. You can also easily drag and drop clips into the position you want them to be in. Another advantage is that there are a large variety of audio sounds and effects available to use.

The disadvantages  of using iMovie 06: 

One of the disadvantages of iMovie 06 is that there are a limited number of transition methods available to apply to your production. An overall disadvantage of the software is that it is very basic and lacks certain options.

Initial Analysis of a Film Opening

The DaVinci Code

Facts + Figures
Columbia Pictures and Imagine Entertainment
Release Date: May 2006
Writers: Akiva Goldsmen (screenplay) and Dan Brown (novel)
Director: Ron Howard (academy away winner in 2001 with “A Beautiful Mind”
Producers: Brian Grazer and John Calley
Genre: Drama/Mystery/Thriller
A – List Actors: Tom Hanks and Sir Ian McKellen
B – List Actors: Paul Bettany and Audrey Tautou
Awards: Nominated for 17 awards including Golden Globe
Budget: Estimated $125,000,000
Opening Weekend: $77 million (USA) and £9.5 million (UK)
Target Audience: More older, mature target audience as its quite a confusing film + foreign accents so aimed at a variety of nationalities.

Analysis
Slight blue tint on the pictures/ text in the opening credits signifies possible horror.
Non digetic tense music played throughout slight lull and you hear the footsteps of someone running (digetic)
Close up of Painting
Camera swings around in an arc and rests on the man running
The camera moves towards the man and the man towards the camera
The camera goes past the man and there is a slight movement in the background so we know he is being followed.
Camera arcs over again but this time follows the man running reiterating the fact that he is being followed.
Camera watches the man run past and then the shadow of the person following him walks into view (you don't actually see the person following) – walking- seems calm knows he cant escape.
Lots of quick cuts between the man running and close ups of paintings in which women are watching him and look said like they know he's going to die. And an extreme close up of a child's eye – watching him.
Very high angle shot could be an aerial shot through glass showing how vulnerable he is.
See his pursuer for the first time. Looks evil , he's wearing a hood face in shadow.
Bars come down – trapping the man inside.
Focus on the gun – its going to be used.
Man is on the floor looking up at his attacker shows again how vulnerable he is.
The bad guy pulls down his hood quite a white face very blonde/white hair (albino) quite horrifying.
Cuts to a painting of a man looking very sad and back to the aerial shot then the man is shot.

Common Codes & Conventions of Film Openings

Most film openings start with opening credits such as the production companies, names of the director(s) and possibly the names of actors in the film. Other than this the opening two minutes of a film tend to vary quite a lot. Some common codes and conventions have become guidelines as to what should be in a film and are often copied into new films.

One common code or convention which is often seen in horror film openings, is blue tinted lighting. This is commonly used in film openings as it gives the audience a clue about the film. The colour blue represents the cold and gives the effects of chilling the audience. Although the blue tinted lighting is often expected in a horror film opening it is sometimes not used.

In film openings we expect to see some sort of establishing shot and signifiers of of what genre the film is, some films however, start off by going straight into the action. An example where this is often used is in the James Bond series e.g. Goldeneye and Tommorow Never Dies. These films have a short and probably high budget action scene to draw the viewer in and make them want to watch the rest of the film and then they show the opening credits.

Film openings can also depend on the budget for the film. If a film has a high budget it may have a very expensive action stunt or action scene at the start to draw the audience. Again Goldeneye and Tommorow Never Dies are both examples of this. Films with a lower budget may have a less punchy opening scene or maybe just have the opening credit on a black background.

Even though there are various ways to begin a film almost all of them will be giving the same sort of information/exposition to the viewers about the film such as its setting and the genre.

Copyright Free Music Sites

Copyright free music

http://www.trackline.com/ 

-Over 1000 tracks available as file downloads or in convenient themed collections on Audio CD or CD-Rom.

http://freeplaymusic.com/ 

-4217 tracks not full songs but sounds.

http://www.nvmdigital.com/

http://derekaudette.ottawaarts.com/music.php 

-Lots of sample to find the right sound before purchase.

http://audiojungle.net/category/music?redirect_back=true&clickthrough_id=2106718&ref=adwords 

-A wide range of music but you have to pay alot to use the music.

Location, Mise-En-Scene, Costume and Props

The Road:

This will be the opening shot of Emily walking towards the camera. This will also show the person behind her. We chose this location because it had good lighting from the street lights.

      

The front door of Emily's house.

Emily's Bedroom:
We chose this room because of the view out of the window. This will be the room where the camera will track Emily and also look out of the window to show the person below.

The view from the window:
This will be the view from the window. I chose this location due to the street light out side this will be a key shot in my movie.

The steps down into the cellar:

The cellar:

Mise-En-Scene

The Mise-En-Scene is a middle class house and the street outside it. We used George's parents bedroom as Emily's bedroom. The bedroom has the look of intelligent and sophisticated girls bedroom which portrays Emily to be older than she is and unlike typical blondes who get killed in horror movies and very similar to a final girl. The bedroom gave us a good view over the street so we also chose it to get the shot of the stalker through the window. As well as the bedroom we also used the cellar which has some very horror like stone stairs which gave it a dungeon like feel to it. The street outside the house was also very effective as a dark alley/horror as soon as it got dark and the street lights came on.

Costume

The stalker is wearing a black hoodie and dark jeans which shows him to be some kind of criminal. Emily is wearing a low cut top which shows a bit of cleavage and a short skirt which both make her seem sexually available but at the same time sophisticated and unlike typical blondes in horror films.

Props

The props used were: a key for the front door.

      : a torch for when the light were cut.

      : and a fuse box when Emily was fixing the lights.

ScreenPlay

In Their Sights

By George Needham, Ben Garvey and Alex Snowden

Alex Snowden

Long Hall Langbar Road

Ilkley, LS29 0AR

Tel: 01943 600500

Tel2: 07962023302

Email: alex@cpsnowden.f2s.com

1 EXT: ROAD – EVENING

Emily a woman in her early 20’s walks down the road in her work clothes and a coat with a handbag slug over one shoulder. She has brown hair and is an average build. The woman walks with a brisk pace to her door and opens it. In the background you can see a person walking behind her at a distance. We can’t tell if it’s male or female at this point.

2 EXT: EMILY’S BEDROOM – EVENING

Emily walks into her room slings her bag and coat on the bed with a sigh of relief. She then walks to over to the window and lets her hair down. Out of the window we can see the person that was walking behind Emily standing under a street light, Emily doesn’t notice him. Emily then moves into the en-suit bathroom to check herself in the mirror, she then moves back to the window but the person has gone.

3 EXT: EMILY’S BEDROOM – EVENING

The lights start to flicker and then go out. Emily is calm she finds a torch in one of the draws in a large wooded chest of draws. She then walks out of the room and down the stairs to get to the cellar.

EMILY

Ah God Sake Bloody fuses

4 EXT: Cellar – Evening

The cellar door opens at the top of a flight of stairs which lead down to the cellar. Emily walks down the stairs which are being lit by the torch which Emily is carrying. She gets to the bottom of the stairs and checks the fuse box which is mysteriously open and had been tampered with.

Emily

What the...

5 EXT: Cellar – Evening

Emily takes a step back to look around the fuse box for anything suspicious. Behind her there is a figure which appears deeper down into the cellar behind Emily. The person starts to walk forward silently he moves closer dressed in black with a hood which covers their face.

He gets behind Emily and stops and reaches out Emily turns slowly almost like she knows someone is there. She sees the figure and screams and turns and tries to run but the person grabs hold of her. The lights turn on and the person pulls down their hood.

Its Peter Emily’s younger brother.

Mark

(Laughing)

EMILY

Ahh Mark dont ever do that again, and stop pissing about with the lights.

MARk

i wasnt pissing about with the lights.

EMILY

What?

OPENING TITLE CARD: IN THEIR SIGHTS

Initial Group Idea

Genre: Horror

BBFC Rating: 15

Target Audience: 15-30

Characters: Emily and Peter Mulhern

Casting: Emily Mulhern(), Peter Mulhern()

Location: George's Hourse, Ilkley

Emily, a blond haired hard working young woman is walking home after work. She is being followed by a person. We do not know if there male or female at this point. Emily gets home and goes to sort herself out in her bedroom. An over the shoulder shot using depth of field shows the person standing under a streetlight. The camera then tracks Emily across the room putting down her bag then back to the window but the person has gone.

The lights start to flicker then go out. Emily makes her way down into the cellar to check the fuses which have been tamped with. In the background further into the cellar the silhouette of the mysterious person is in the background. The person moves toward Emily and grabs her she screams the a laugh from the person he pulls down his hood and reveals that its Peter her younger brother.

Prelim Task

Evaluation: 

At the very start the main protagonist in the shot is not in the center he is slightly to the right of the camera view.

Throughout 

My Initial Ideas:

Idea 1:

Target Audience: 12 - 21
BBFC Rating: 12
Genre: Thriller
Characters: Dom, Joe and Steven.
Casting: Dom (Alex Snowden), Joe (Ben Garvey), Steven (George Needham)
Location(s): Georges house

Dom, Joe and Steven are 3 mates.

Steven invites Dom and Joe around to his house to do some gaming before going to club/party together that evening.

When Dom and Joe arrive at Stevens house they find the door slightly open and see Steven on the floor unconscious. Stevens sister has been kidnapped.

30 secs filming Dom meeting Joe and walking to Stevens house.
30 secs finding Steve and calling the police/ambulance.
30 secs Steve coming gains consciousness and telling what happened and that his sister was taken.

Camera:
High angle shots of Steven unconscious on the floor.

180 degree rule applied and shot reverse shot used when Dom and Joe are quickly deciding what to do when they find Steven.

Idea 2:

Target Audience: 12 - 25

BBFC Rating: 12

Genre: 

Characters: Justin, Henry and Simon

Castings: Justin(Ben Garvey), Henry(George Needham), Simon(Alex Snowden)

Location: 

Justin, Henry and Simon are three mates.

They are all down at the at the park playing football when Henry smashes the ball over the fence and into the river.

All three of the boys hop over the fence and run to the edge of the river where they saw the ball go in. Unfortunately the ball has floated out into the middle of the raging river.  Justin had bought the ball only that day and not wanting to upset Justin, Henry wades into the river. Justin and Simon shout at him to forget the ball but Henry ignores him and swims out to the ball in the middle of the river. Henry grabs the ball and punches the air with his fist, Simon and Justin cheer  for him but Henry suddenly begins to feel the pull of the river and realises how tired he is, as he kicks out the current pulls him under. 

Justin yells at Simon to get help as he grabs a branch and wades into the water to try and help Henry whose head is bobbing in and out of the water and is struggling to stay above the water.

30 secs filming them playing football.

30 secs of ball going over fence and the three mates hopping over the fence and henry swimming out to the ball.

30 secs henry in trouble and justing wading in to try and help and simon going to get help.

Camera Shots: High angle shots of Henry when they are playing football- signifies he is maybe weaker. Then High angle shot of him as he struggles in the water.

  

Coursework Task

The brief set out for our AS coursework production is as follows:

Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a charcter opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Main task: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source.