Question 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Camera

During shooting, we learnt a lot about how the camera works. For example, we decided not to change focus manually too much because when we viewed the footage, some of it was out of focus and therefore we were unable to use it. We used the microphone on the camera, but in hindsight, maybe we should have used a boom microphone for the exterior shots because the sound of the wind was very loud and needed to be edited so that it didn’t disturb the viewing experience

Tripod

We learnt that the tripod is incredibly useful when you aim to get steady shots. The spirit level helped us to see when our shot was straight.

We utilised this by shooting the calmer scenes with a tripod and shooting the more tense scenes handheld to create an uneasy feeling for the viewer. This makes the scenes contrast because of the different moods that are evoked by the different ways of shooting.

Mac computer

As I had little experience with a Mac, it took time to get used to its functions. But I found it very useful as it was equipped with all of the creative programs that we needed such as Final Cut Pro

Final Cut Pro

Due to gaining experience on another project, Final Cut Pro wasn't new to me so it didn't take me as long to get straight into editing. Through the log and capture function, we picked out the footage that was suitable so that we could select the best shots from all of it. This was a fairly long process because we had to watch about 40 minutes worth of footage to select what would go into a 2 minute sequence

Through the timeline feature we were able to put the shots into the order that we wanted them. This was where we would fine cut the footage so we could perfect the action match edits and ‘snap’ the scenes together so that it flows well with no gaps in between the shots.

This sequence had a lot of different layers of sound from diegetic sounds, to effects to non-diegetic music. We altered the sound of the phone ringing with the pen tool so that it sounded like it was coming from another room. We also had the same bit of music on a loop throughout the second half of the sequence which we had to fade in and fade out so that it sounds like one continuous piece of music.

Because the parts of our sequence in the bedroom had very little light, we had to use colour correction so that the audience could actually see what was going on. So we lowered the intensity of the black colours and raised the whites so the scenes were brighter. We also intensified the red because of the connotations of danger

After we had completed editing, we exported the sequence to QuickTime so that we could then put it on a disc as well as upload it to Youtube.

Blogger

Throughout our project we have been recording the progress on our very own blogs. These have been useful because of we can incorporate images and video clips to help us illustrate the points we make.

We started the blogs with our preparation work such as research on existing horror films. We then went on to put our drafts of scripts and our storyboard. Finally, we were putting production updates on there to record our progress on our project. The blog has been useful for me to look back on and see what I had written before so I can relate it to more recent work. It’s also interesting to see how certain things in our sequence changed as time went on such as the script and ideas for shots

YouTube

I uploaded our opening sequence to YouTube through an account I had made previously. Once on YouTube, you can use the embed code so that you can put it on your blog which is very useful. You can also see comments that people have left on your video giving their thoughts on the sequence and giving criticism. This is helpful because getting audience feedback means that you can improve on what you’ve done if you do another project in the future

Facebook

Due to many of my peers being on Facebook, I was able to find people to watch our sequence very easily.  Some of my peers even used the ‘share’ feature in order for the sequence to reach an audience outside of my friends list

Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

From the creation of the preliminary task to the creation of the final sequence, I have learnt a lot. The first thing I learnt is that it is very important to shoot each shot more than once from different angles. This is because during the editing stage of the preliminary task, we were unable to use certain shots because of things such as the camera moving or reflections of crew members in windows.

Another thing we learnt about was the use of actors. Because of time constraints, myself and another member of our production team acted in the preliminary task leaving one crew member behind the camera. We learnt that it is better for two people to be watching the footage so that they can come to a mutual agreement about whether the footage is good and if we need to reshoot. So in our final piece, we used an actress so that we could all collectively direct her. This worked out better because the actress we used had studied drama and was used to being directed.

In our preliminary task we were careful not to break the 180 degree rule. The 180 degree rule is an editing rule that the camera needs to stay on one side of the actor or actors as the shots change so that the shots make sense to watch. We used this rule during a short conversation in the preliminary task

In our final piece, there were two shots that were put together that we later realised broke the 180 degree rule. But we didn’t have any shots to replace it with so we came up the solution of putting an ambient shot in between the two shots. The purpose of this was to break the shots up so that they didn't confuse the viewer. This benefited us because it helped build the characterisation aswell as made the sequence make sense visually.

We had much more opportunities to experiment with different angles and filming techniques in our final piece. We used a point of view shot in our film (Fig. 1) to put the audience in the position of the protagonist discovering the paper on her bed. We achieved this by having the actress film this shot herself so that it matched her movements. For the more tense parts of our sequence, we chose to shoot without a tripod, using the shakiness of the camera to our advantage as it makes the shots look unsettled. We also used a shot of a torch falling to the floor (Fig. 2) which makes it difficult for the audience to see what is happening. This is effective because off screen violence lets the audience use their imagination to decide what is happening which is always more frightening

With editing, we chose to experiment with our final piece by giving it a non linear narrative as opposed to the conventional chronological narrative that we used in the preliminary task. We also got the opportunity to alter the colours on our final piece by brightening the scenes and intensifying the reds. This was not necessary on the preliminary task because we were shooting in a well lit classroom.

Generally, we were much better prepared in our final piece than we was in our preliminary. This is because we took the time to create a script, a storyboard and a shotlist so that we knew exactly what to do when it came to the day of filming


Overall, I think we progressed a lot between the making of the preliminary task and the making of our final piece. I feel that I have learnt about all aspects of making our sequence and not just my assigned role of editing

Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The protagonist in our opening sequence was inspired heavily by Drew Barrymore’s character in the opening of Scream.

Firstly, in terms of costume, they are both wearing a neutral coloured piece of knitwear. This is a very casual item of clothing and the colour of it emphasises their innocence. They are also both wearing little obvious make up because they are just enjoying leisure time at home.

The body language of the characters starts very relaxed and friendly so that the audience will like them. But they become increasingly perturbed as the scenes progress. However, the protagonist in The Noise becomes more annoyed at the constant disturbances by the phone while the protagonist in Scream gets scared because of the voice that is threatening her over the phone.

Both of the characters in these films are used as a device to provoke an emotional response from the audience. They are portrayed as innocent girls which in turn makes the antagonist look more evil because they harm the character.

There are differences, however in the uses of dialogue in the two films. In Scream, the character is talking to somebody on the phone while Lucy in The Noise is simply answering the phone but getting no response other than a strange noise. We decided to use little dialogue and keep the sequence predominantly visual because it only lasts two minutes.

The most obvious similarity between the two films is the use of the phone as a major plot device. Both characters are just casually going about their business, Lucy enjoying a book and the character in Scream who is about to watch a film, when they are disturbed by ominous phonecalls.

Although set in Essex, Lucy in The Noise generally represents teenage girls in the UK. This is because the way she is dressed isn’t stereotypical to any place in the UK in particular. Also, the very little dialogue means that her accent is not a major feature of the sequence. Aswell as this, she is only saying ‘hello’ as opposed to any slang words so all teenage girls from anywhere in the UK would be able to understand and relate to her.

Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for The Noise would probably be people between the ages of 15 and 25. This is because these are the main ages of people who regularly watch films in a cinema. I believe an equal number of males and females would see our media product because teenagers of both genders tend to enjoy horror films.


These statistics on YouTube seem to be evidence of that

The social class of people who would consume our media product would most likely be in C2, D and E classes because they would most likely relate to it easiest.

Here is a collage of some of the the things that our target audience would probably enjoy

Question 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

• ·         Every single film that is made needs a distributor to make sure that it is actually seen so that it will make as much money as possible

• ·         Because our film was independently made, it would have to premiere at a film festival before it ends up being publicised by a distributor. Films that are financed by Hollywood would start to be marketed long before their release to build up some curiosity around the film so it pulls in a good profit on its opening weekend

• ·         It is the job of the distributor to come up with a good marketing strategy so that the film will make a good profit on its opening weekend as this is when a film up to 30% of the overall profit is made

Source: http://www.skillset.org/film/jobs/distribution/article_4958_1.asp











A media institution that might distribute our producted could be Buena Vista International. The reason for this is that they have distributed other films that are similar in genre such as Scream and The Sixth Sense. Both of these films were very successful which suggests that Buena Vista is financially credible and has strong links with the cinemas. This means that they would know how to distribute our media product in the best way to appeal to our target audience which is people between the ages of 15-25.

Another thing to note is that the films I have listed were successful worldwide which means it may be possible for our distributor to get our product out to a wider audience such as Europe or the USA.

Question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

I have added annotations onto the video of our sequence on Youtube. These annotations explain how we have used horror conventions and where some of our ideas came from




After completing the sequence, we showed to a number of people to see what they thought

Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In preparation for creating our media product, we watched a number of opening sequences of films that we would consider conventional horror (Scream, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Ring). Through watching these, we were able to identify the conventions of horror so we could make of use of them in our own opening sequence

The Title
We opted to have a very minimalistic title for our film. The title itself, 'The Noise', is very simple and doesn't give too much away about the film. We chose to have the title as the simple white text against a black background in an Arial font.

Genre and how the opening suggests it
Our sequence is a horror and we made sure we followed certain conventions to attempt to establish this. We have a girl in a house by herself which is a very common feature of the genre. There is a mysterious figure which the audience sees only for a brief moment. We used violin music which gets progressively louder and more intense and builds up until Lucy backs into the antagonist for which we used a loud impact sound which is intended to startle the audience. This is known as a 'jump' scene which is very common in conventional horror films


Story and how the opening sets it up
Our opening sequence is quite mysterious because of the torn up pages, the appearance of the antagonist and the strange phone calls. This creates an enigma so the audience would want to continue watching to find out how all of these things are connected. Our sequence is nonlinear with the climax happening at the beginning and then finding out what took place beforehand. This creates a sense of dramatic irony because the audience is then watching the girl knowing that she will be in danger.


How characters are introduced
The protagonist, Lucy, is introduced when she bursts into her bedroom looking anxious. She frantically searches the room and looks worried when she sees the torn up pages scattered on the bed. This should confuse the audience because they do not know why they are there and why she is scared by this. Hopefully, the audience would be intrigued by this and sympathise with her so they would want to carry on watching. The antagonist is introduced in a brief moment where a loud noise is used. Startling the audience when the antagonist appears should make them associate him with an anxious feeling


Setting/Location
Our sequence takes place in an empty house in the evening. We used an exterior shot of the house to establish the setting. The inside of the house is very tidy, bright and decorated with ornaments. This suggests to the family that the protagonist lives a very stable, comfortable life. This room also contrasts the bedroom seen earlier in the sequence (which takes place 2 hours later in the diegesis) which is dimly lit by a red lava lamp. The colour red has connotations of danger which helps make the scene more tense

Costumes/Props
We was careful in deciding on the costumes that would be used in our sequence. The protagonist, Lucy, is dressed casually in a fairly low cut white top, with a cardigan, black leggings and colourful socks. This matches with conventions of horror films because the female characters are meant to look appealing but also likeable so that the audience will actually care about them. The outfit is made of neutral colours such as white and beige which also matches other horror films such as Scream because the lighter colours connote innocence. She is also wearing colourful socks to show that she is still quite young which emphasises her vulnerability. Lucy wears minimal make up and has her hair tied back so that she doesn't look vain which would perhaps provoke less sympathy

The outfit of the mysterious antagonist consisted just of a black hooded coat since we do not get a good view of him. We decided on this outfit because it conceals most of the face which is very common in horror. Hiding the identity of the antagonist makes them more frightening because it could be anyone or anything beneath that hood.

Notable props that we used in the sequence include the book that Lucy is reading. The fact that she is reading suggests that she is intelligent and cultured. The book is also a historical one, featuring pictures of paintings which make Lucy look sophisticated by reading it. There is also a shot of family photo which makes Lucy look like a loving person. Finally, another important prop is the phone which was inspired by the opening of Scream

Camerawork and editing
With the camera work, we made use of close ups and extreme close ups which helps to engage the viewer. This is because the viewer can see Lucy's facial expressions and get a sense of what she is thinking through them. This results in the audience hopefully caring about her. There are some long shots as well which were intended to emphasise Lucy's isolation. We also made sure to use a point of view shot which puts the audience in Lucy's position


The editing of the sequence is quite fast paced in the first section in the dark room. Fast editing makes the sequence exciting for the viewer and keeps their attention. The editing gets faster up until Lucy backs into the antagonist. The use of fast editing means that the audience doesn't get a good view of the antagonist. There is also three close up shots of torn up pages one after another which are accompanied by loud, unsettling non-diegetic sound effects. 


In the second half of the sequence which occurs after the '2 hours earlier' text, the editing is at a slower pace. The scenes themselves look fairly calm but we decided to use an eerie soundtrack to suggest that something is not right


Graphics/special effects/colour correction etc.
For the scenes that took place in the bedroom, we used colour correction because they were very dark. We wanted to it to be light enough for the viewer to be able to see what is happening but dark enough for the viewer not to get a good view of the antagonist. We also made the colour red more prominent because of the connotations of danger

Production update

Due to unforeseen circumstances we were unable to use our previous location, so we had to think of a solution. We tried to keep the script as close to the original as possible, changing the location from the living room to a bedroom.

We have now shot all of the footage that we possible could. The lighting of the room was not ideal, but this can be overcome with colour correction in editing

Also, we have now begun editing our sequence

Production update

We have filmed around half of the shots  on our shot list

We plan to view the footage in the editing room tomorrow (8th March) before going to the location and shooting the rest and reshooting any shots we need

Location

Here are some pictures of the house and the specific rooms in which we will be filming


Exterior

Living room

Kitchen

Here is a plan of the house from a birds-eye-view to show the rooms in relation to eachother

Final Shotlist

After developing our project further, we have produced an updated shot list

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Shot list

The Noise

By Angela Michael & Joe Smith

Shot	Notes	Angle	Movement
Establishing shot	House / street SFX ambience	High angle (if possible) and straight on	Camera remains stationary
CU over the shoulder	Open book	Straight on / slightly angled	Camera remains stationary
MS	Lucy reading Turns page SFX page turning	Seeing half of Lucy’s face behind the book (tilt)	Camera remains stationary
XCU	Lucy’s eyes tracing the page	Straight on	Camera remains stationary
VLS	Lucy lounging on the sofa	Straight on	Camera remains stationary
Filler shots	Shots of the room / environment that Lucy is in	Varied	Varied
LS	Lucy puts book to one side then gets up to answer the phone SFX phone ringing	Straight on	Camera remains stationary
MS	The phone is on a side table SFX phone ringing	High angle	Camera remains stationary
LS	Lucy on the phone Dialogue	Straight on	Camera remains stationary
CU	Lucy on the phone Dialogue	Straight on	Camera remains stationary
MS	Lucy putting the phone down	High angle	Camera remains stationary
LS	Lucy goes to sit back on the sofa Lucy walks into the shot SFX footsteps, phone ringing	Straight on	Camera remains stationary
CU	Lucy answers the phone again Dialogue SFX phone ringing	Straight on	Camera remains stationary
LS	Lucy goes to walk out of the kitchen, but turns around because the phone is ringing again SFX phone ringing	Straight on	Camera remains stationary
CU	Reaction of Lucy’s face	Straight on	Camera remains stationary
MS	Frustrated by this Lucy decides to unplug the phone Lucy crouching down to reach the plug	High angle	Camera remains stationary
CU	Lucy unplugging the phone	High angle	Camera remains stationary
CU	The light goes out	Low angle	Camera remains stationary
CU	Lucy’s face as she gasps	Side angle	Camera remains stationary
MS	Follows Lucy to the living room	Handheld camera	Camera is slightly jagged
CU	Reaction of Lucy’s face	Straight on	Camera remains stationary
CU x3	Pages	High angle	Camera remains stationary
CU	Reaction of Lucy’s face	Angled	Camera remains stationary
CU	Lucy backs away from the shocking sight of her ripped up book (shot of her feet)	Straight on	Tilt up
MLS	Lucy backing into the dark figure	Straight on	Camera remains stationary
Debatable final shot	Lucy’s face as she screams	Straight on	Camera remains stationary