StoryBoard

Every film needs a a script and a story. It helps the director know what shots he will be shooting and how he will shot them. By having a description, timing of the shot, the lighting in the shot, what no. the shot is, the camera movement within the shot, how the shot is edited (this is more for the post production)and What the type of shot is. By having these it takes some of the stress away from not knowing whats going to happen during the scene/shot. 

A storyboard is a good way to keep things on track if you don't know what to film or what is to be filmed next.  

After having a workshop on how to do a script to the best of anyone ability I gave it a shot. I'm not the most arty person so I had to put that extra bit of detail into whats going on in the shot. I did my script before doing my story board so that I could get a better understanding of how I will tell my story. By doing this I can get rough idea to how I want each shot to look and also how it may come across. 

I found doing that doing the script first, it helped to come up with different ideas for shots to make the film look a little bit more edgy and different to what I am used to. By challenging what I am capable it will broaden my camera work, my editing skills and my knowledge.
  
From starting my story board I have learnt many different things, from how I want my shot to look like in detail to how I will edit in when i'm editing. after doing my story board it has helped me to become more creative in the way the way I look how to shot something. It has also shown me that getting ideas down on a piece of paper is very necessary for a idea to become good.

Institutional research

Theoretical Research

Tzvetan Todorov - Narrative theory.

Todorov is a Russian theorist, he was one of the most influencial theorists in the media. He said that all narratives follow a three part structure. The narrative begins with the equilibrium, where everything is balanced and supposedly 'normal', progress as something comes along to disrupt the equilibrium which is the climax and finally reach a resolution. When equilibrium is restored and it returns to a new equilibrium. 

Todorovs theory can be applied to all narratives weither it is a music video, film, documentary etc. Todorovs theory is seen to be a more formal way of thinking up a beginning, middle and end of the narrative. 

Equilibrium - (a day to day normal life)

Disruption - (Something disruptive happens what makes people ask)

Recognition - (They recongnise what caused the disruption)

Repair - (They attempt to repair the disruption)

New Equilibrium (Returns back to normal day to day life)

How does my films follow this theory? 
Well throughout my film all my characters will be doing 'a day to day normal life' with going to work, chilling with friends, playing video games and just chilling listening to music. 

During my film drugs will be introduced which is a new thing for my main character. For some people this would be a day to day thing but not for my main character. 

Towards the end of my film the main characters girl friend knows that the he is changing and its because of the drugs. He is changing in a bad way. 

This is where my film takes a turn for the worst and that there is no repair, instead my main character kills his girlfriend. Which in some way is a repair because my main character doesn't want his parents to find out. 

Now once again its kind of going back to a normal routine but its not his normal life its 10 years later and hes a lot older and doesn't really remember doing anything because of the drugs.

After studying the theory and linking it to my film parts of my film do correspond with the theory but some of my film doesn't. I don't really have a repair to repair in my eyes is  the killing of his friend and the new equilibrium is when we see him after so many years.     

                       

Target Research

I made up a questionnaire on google forms to get a better idea for my target audience. Asking then a wider range of questions for my own research. 





When taking a questionnaire in my opinion the most important questions are what gender are you and how old are you, this is because you can understand what the different ranges of people you are asking. 



I asked this question just to be sure because it was pointless asking people that didn't like movies about a movie questionnaire.




By asking people what there favourite 3 films and why I learnt that people mainly like the high budget american block busters. After looking through my results I learn't that a lot of people loved comedic action films and also romantic comedy's. A lot of people didn't have a thriller or Horror in their top 3, I believe that thriller and horrors have started to die off and no ones is getting interested in them anymore and not really watching them. For me this is very helpful because it makes me
think if I actually want to do a thriller because realistically will people of my target audience actually watch it. 
I have decided to carry on with the thriller genre because i've had this really good idea for a thriller in such a long time and I think this is my opportunity to make a really good film. 




I asked this question because so I can get a better understanding of why people actually watch film. By learning why people watch films can let me get people hocked to the film and love the film. 

In this question I gave people the freedom to pick as many answers as they wanted, from this you can see that thrillers came 4th out of 20 different genres, so some people did like thrillers more than horrors. This is a good things because now it gives me the confidences that people will watch the thriller I make. 

Asking people what there least favourite film can be hard for them to answer but everyone has that one film that they all just hate. after reading through everyone answers I have learnt that no one had a thriller as there least favourite film which is a good things. But a lot of people have said horrors are their least favourite and some people get thrillers and horrors mixed up. 

Asking people what they expect to see in a thriller was to get a better understanding of what my views were to expected to see. The majority of people said a suspenseful scene within the film or to make them feel like something bad is going to happen and that is what I will be doing.

I asked this question just for a editing perspective so that I can understand what people prefer. As you can see people prefer colour correction than the raw footage. So when I come to editing my filmIi will be colour correcting my film. 



After doing the questionnaire it has helped me to understand what my target audience like and wants to see throughout my film. I have also learnt what peoples expect to see and that a lot of people don't actually like horror films which is a good thing for me because i'm not doing a horror i'm doing a thriller.

Regulation Research (BBFC)

Target Audience

My Target Audience
  My target audience are both male and female at the ages between 15-24. I have targeted this age because they are looking for a thrill and i believe that many people between that age if there was a good trailer then they will go and watch it. I have also decided to add many things into my film that my target audience enjoys doing.  

Textual Analysis Ancillary

After analysing the poster and also not watching the film, most posters you can get a rough idea what the film is about just from looking at the poster. By being able to guess what happen in the film can get people hocked just by the poster, so the better the poster the the more people will get hocked and want to watch the film. 

Textual Analysis The Shining

Textual Analysis

The Shining is a 1980 British-American psychological horror film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick.
Why am I choosing the Shining? I am choosing the Shining because its a great classic film, it also has many different aspects during the film that I can take and use in my film. Like the different usage of sound, lighting, different camera angles, different camera techniques. 
Stanley Kurbick from the start of the film uses a lot of symmetry within each shot. By using symmetry in the Shining it gives it this weird feeling when watching. 





Here is the original shot of the 2 little girls. As you can see just this scene alone is weird and has a weird feeling because the use of symmetry.







I added a line in to act like a mirror line so that you can see that the hall way is identical on both sides apart from the exit sign and fire alarm.  But with using this technique I found it made the film a lot more eerie and made the scene have a weird  because nothing is symmetrical in real life. The use of this is really good within the film. 







Another good example of this is when jack is at the type writer. Kurbick uses and extreme long shot and  symmetry within the scene. 

As you can see a lot of the scene the symmetry within the shot isn't as notice able but I see the back ground is very similar just like the girl shot it makes the shot just feel weird and eerie. It is a very unusual technique to use but it works. Looking closely into the shot the furniture isn't identical on both sides but the structure is with the Stairs, balcony and chandelier. From this angle in my opinion it makes the shot look edgy and weird with just jack sat right in the middle. 

I am showing this footage because during the start of the film Kurbick uses a dolly to create this feeling that you are following Danny when hes on the kart. The shot lasts 36 seconds and I just feel that it would be really hard to recreate something like that but it would be absolutely amazing. 

The score during the film has been written and produced by an orchestra and is in minor key. When something bad is about to happens there is a massive build up within the score to create tension then when the scary moment happens the whole score becomes loud and is played at a high pitch to create the feeling that something bad has happened. Within the title sequence they elongate the notes and make it scary and like you know something is going to happen. From the soundtrack you can instantly tell that something is wrong because all of the notes being played are elongated/they drag on for a little bit. The soundtrack is also played in a minor key which when ever a song is played in a minor key its usually a sad song. At 1 minute 40 seconds it sounds like some strings are being played but in an awful way, it made me feel like i was being watched and i didn't feel right. At the 3 minute mark it sounds like someone is crying this also makes me feel a little bit wherry of my surroundings. This will also build tension within the views minds. 












During this short 2 minute clip from the film. Danny is suffering with some sort of night terrors and keeps on saying "Redrum". Redrum back wards is Murder as we find out towards the end of the clip. Just a kid stood next to his mums bed saying Redrum over and over is really strange. 

Shining is set in a massive hotel which is located in the mountains and during the winter it snows massively. Meaning the hotel is unusable to customers. So this massive hotel is unoccupied apart from Jack and his family. This is the perfect place for someone to go a little bit crazy and to kill people because no one would know about it. It would be really hard to find a place like this but it would be amazing if i could. 

Inside the hotel, the bar scene, the bar is very lite up with light. In my opinion compared to the rest of the hotel the bar is very modern and is like Jacks safe heaven from the rest of the hotel. During the film Jack imagines people at the bar. This could lead to people thinking that jack has started to go a little bit crazy. within my film i could use this but adapt it to my film. I could use voices instead of people. 



In conclusion the shining has helped me discover different techniques to use in a thriller film. Even though the shining is a old film some of the techniques used during my film. The Shining is a very iconic film. From watching the film and going through and anaylising some of the shots i have learnt many different ways to make my film have a weird feeling to it. In my film i will be using my main character hear voices and telling him what to do basically schizophrenia. 

Briefs

After having a long look at all of the different briefs that were available i decided on 3 different ones. Brief 2, Brief 7 and Brief 10. 

Why did i chose these ones other the others?

I chose brief 2,7 and 10 because i really enjoy filming and i find that filming is my passion. 

I liked brief 2 because its something different that I haven't made yet and would love to make. I've heard that making a trailer is the hardest to make. 


Brief 2- Brief 2 requires you to make a movie trailer, a website homepage for the film, a film magazine front cover and a poster for the film. This would have been a really good experience to make, and I love watching trailer and I just think it would be really hard because of have to think about a whole movie. Within a trailer it is easy to get side tracked with not sticking to the movie idea and just filming anything. It is hard to keep on track you just have to keep the same idea in your head throughout all filming. 

Brief 7-Brief 7 consists of creating a short documentary, a radio trailer. a double page spread from a listing magazine and a news paper advertisement. Like brief 2 this would also be really fun and a new experience to make. Compared to the other 2 this requires me to use a program I don't really understand but have little knowledge in it. A documentary also requires a lot of research and investigation into the subject you are doing. 

Brief 10-Brief 10 is the project I will be doing. It contains me making a short film, a poster for film, a radio trailer and a magazine review featuring the film. Like brief 7 this requires me to make a radio trailer for the film which requires me to use a program that I don't have much knowledge in. But I can learn how to use it. I also chose this project so that I can increase my knowledge in Photoshop and actually filming and editing.  

On deciding that I will be making a short film (brief 7). I will go through a lot of challenges to get m film in how I want it. It will be hard finding a location that suits my film to film in. i want my film to be like a classic american thriller film. I am using The shinning and The machinist as an inspiration to create my film. I will find it hard to find some actors that will be willing to do it for free, but we can over come that in many different ways. 

Mind Maps (my ideas)

Here are my 3 ideas for a short film. 

 My initial idea was to do a comedy short film. I cam up with a weird idea to having best friends who fell out over a cat. Then the villain makes a massive cat army which is the hero weakness but what the villain didn't realise was that catnip will make cats do anything. Its really deerpy and i just thought that it would require a lot of time when editing because everything would have been done on green screen.   

My second idea was to do a horror film. Horror film are the easiest to do with very little to no budget. You can literally do any horror when you put your mind to it. I can up with 4 friend using a Ouija board in a house and then random stuff starts to happen to them. 24 hour later there is only one left but he isn't safe when he thinks he is. I'm not going to use this idea but it still would be a good idea if my final idea isn't good enough.  

I've had this idea for a thriller film for ages. I've had the idea about a boyfriend going crazy and killing his girlfriend. The idea is very vague i need to put some more work into it like where i should film it, who is going to be my actors, all the different angles of shots etc. 
At the moment this is the rough idea but i have more time to think about it when we are actually planning the films.  



After doing 3 different mind maps, it has made me think about my ideas more and how much detail they actually need for a short 5 minute film. i have definitely developed my ideas more now that i have done a few mind maps. I think without doing a mind map for the different i wouldn't have properly thought about any idea and most likely not really have a clue about what my ideas were.

History and Development

After researching the history of film i have learnt a lot about how it all started. How it all started. When the first films were made. How films were made in the early 1900. I think without doing this research i wouldn't really respect how much has actually changed within the 100 years and even now more and more things are becoming available by new technology. 

Radio Advert

I have been set a task to make a radio advert for anything of my choice so I decided on making an advert for the drink Oasis. I used a program called Adobe Audition. I didn't have a massive knowledge of this program, but I had a little help from the internet. I used YouTube to help me out with the basic knowledge to create this radio advert.    

Here is my plan for my advert, I didn't put much into it as I kind of already had an idea of how I was going to have my advert. By having this plan I knew how I wanted my radio advert to sound like and what needed to be where.  

As you can see this is how my final advert looks like in the Waveform, I have annotated it so that it is easier to understand. 









Here is my final advert.



Audio recording software >>




After doing the advert i have learnt a lot of things about the program and how it works. I have learnt how to import and export media, how to fade tracks, how to trim tracks and how to add things to the different tracks. After making the the advert i have learnt a lot about the program and how to use it.

Photoshop skills

After looking at the different briefs i have realised that i am likely to have to use Photoshop with all of them. I was set a task to complete a film poster using Photoshop and with a little help and my own knowledge this is what i produced. 




I used this poster as like a guidance to help me to have an idea to follow, I used the same back ground colour I also used similar pictures. 

My knowledge for Photoshop is very basic, I knew how to use the magic wand to clear the back ground, I know how to change the different levels within the photo. I also knew how to use the blending option to create that white outline around the writing. As you can see from the highlighted bit, you can see all of the different things I have done to the poster to make it look like what it does. I knew the basics to Photoshop.


After working on this poster I have learnt a lot about photo shop. I had some skill with Photoshop before working on this but I didn't know about some of the features that I used in the poster. Since making this poster I have learnt about how to refine the edges. this is a good skill to have as it makes it look a lot nicer and more professional.