Font Research for Use Within Our Film

By researching different films such as "Donny Darko and Kiss The Girls" we decided on a basis for the titles use within our film. I researched some of these fonts on www.dafont.com and wanted to choose thriller type styles that would cause a sense of suspicion for the viewer and could relate to the specific convention of Thriller within the film. In my opinion, I remember the most effective titles in horror and thriller films being plain which suggests simplicity yet also creates an uneasy and suspenseful feel to the beginning of the film. Thus, my favourite font that I would like to use would be the type of font shown second down, as it is the simplist yet most effective in setting the right atmosphere within the film itself.

The Use of Copyright Free Music & Targeting Our Audience.

Within our film, we wanted to use a professional style music background that would create a sense of tension within the film to add to the Thriller genre of our choice. As a basis we visited www.audio.lgfl which is a copyright free site and chose a horror style piece of music that fitted perfectly to the scenes in our film which we were hugely pleased with. It consisted of continuous sharp sound effects rather than an ongoing composition yet worked so well and fitted in within the conventions of a thriller film which is exactly what we wanted to go alongside "Hotel Road"
We seperately researched the certification values such as 15 or 18 which we based along the aspects when targeting one specific audience. We have chosed to certify our film at a 15 as it involves mild forms of danger and horror yet isn't as extreme, such as bearing and using weapons such as knives or consisting of strong horror graphics. As the film contains teenagers of our own ages, we targeted to the same age audience of 15-17 as we believe this would interest them more by relating to similar social groups and relations which occur within the film, along with the excitement of danger and threat displayed within the '15' film opening.

Filming of our Movie Opening.

When beginning to film the opening of "Hotel Road" our opening to our thriller/horror film, we wanted to keep in mind and use typical conventions of a thriller to create a basis and all round dark theme when filming. We based the time of our film around nighttime which can relate to many horror films and the time in which dismal incidents take place by a murderer or unknown suspect. We created unlevel, shaky filming towards the start to make the viewer uneasy and suspensful of what will account next.
The clothing worn by Mark, dark clothes, emphasises the basis of danger and mystery within the thriller which can then add to the effect of our film opening to create a more frightning sense to the film. The non-diegetic sound we used is also very sharp and edgy which can add the uncomfortable surroundings within the film and creates a huge amount of tension to each scene filmed.
As we filmed, we attempted to keep the scenes as dark as possible rather than implying a sense of light or comfortable features so the viewers would experience the most uneasy environment possible. We broke the conventions of a thriller slightly in the use of costume worn by the girls within the film, as these are quite casual and could add to the effect of normality within the household.

The images I have uploaded above give the main outline of the setting and costumes worn throughout our film opening, relating to the theme of Horror that we have selected. The town houses are large and vacant and create a spooky and unpleasant setting for the scene of the murderers entrance. The murderer will be wearing dark clothes and a black hoody to keep his as mysterious as possible so his main features cannot be seen, keeping suspicions high. The clothing of the girls will be fashionable and girly as they are preparing for a night out when the scene occurs.

Benefits of Using Animatics.

For the plot of our 2 minute film opening, we chose to base it along a horror theme which we would include many types of suspence to keep the viewer involved and well entertained. To help us before filming our piece, we created animatics, which involed drawing the details on each scene and filming each part, so all together we could get a rough idea on the concept and the way in which our film would be planned, filmed and put together to make it as successful and professional looking as possible. When filming each scene, which as a group we created all together, we found the problem was that the timing needed to be thought about carefully incase our piece was too long for the limit of 2 minutes that we needed. This helped us arrange time slots for each scene we will shoot and the amount of time needed to create the perfect filming position.
As our genre is horror, we wanted to show the different zooms and sharp movements when filming our animatics. This included close up that immediately focused on a specific point very quickly or sharp pans across the pan to demonstrate the camera movements to create unease and fear. Although this proved successful at first, we realised parts of the table or other extra non needed objects could be seen in our animatics, which obviously would not be seen when filming, so we had to reshoot our animatic storyboard which created a learning curve for us, helping us learn about professionalism and perfection when working with our piece.

Institutions.

Institutions in Media face us everyday of our lives in ways that we acknowledge them without even noticing it, creating huge success for the Institution itself and the businesses that it presents through types of Media such as film, newspapers and television. Although successes such as these occur, there is sense of bias behaviour through the Institutions themselves, creating a problematic effect on our own thoughts and beliefs which may be influenced through the largely successful promotions that they represent, ignoring the smaller businesses and the beliefs which they also put across but won't be heard. Institution is mainly the larger businesses which run and own specific parts of Media such as broadcasting channels, film productions and certain newspapers all around the World.
One famous and hugely successful Institution within Media is Walt Disney. Walt Disney own a massively large proportion of all parts of their company such as Disney Pixar, Disney Interactive and all the merchandise which follows from the films and tv productions they make, such as the items sold within the Disney Store. As well as the huge income they'll make from those, Walt Disney own 25% of GMTV, ESPN, The History Channel and also film companies such as Miramax Films, Touchstone Pictures and Marvel Studios which have produced top name films such as Pearl Harbour, Spiderman and Chicago.
Throughout the company, a wide range of Media Productions are shown all over the world, increasing the acknowledgement and popularity of the conglomerate, yet we may be influenced by this as the recognition of a company such as Walt Disney is higher than that of a smaller company which may present clearer and better views to the public minds.

Se7en Movie Opening.

'The Notebook' Opening Review.

An opening title sequence of a film is important to inform the audience of main characters, a rough storyline and the type of genre which is expected of the film that can be shown within the first 5 minutes of the production. 'The Notebook' is a 2004, Nick Cassavetes production adapted from the award winning novel by Nicholas Sparks focused around the genre of pure romance and love between two main characters within the story. The romance is distrubuted by New Line Cinema Productions and shows significant detail and effects in the opening to encourage the viewer to review the main techniques showing the type of film which is to be expected.
An opening scene of a beautiful sunrise over a lake is shown together with classical deigetic sound of a piano accomplishment to create a sensual and romantic feel of the film, emphasising the genre of romance which is to be expected. The opening credits and title of the film is used by simple, plain and small font to create a main focus on the sunrise background and to show a simplicity effect of love when introducing the film itself, relating to the gentle music at the beginning. A boat sailing across the lake is then shown, followed by a flock of birds, slowly gliding across the sky to create a more beautiful scene, giving imagery of beauty and gentleness which can then be related to 'The Notebook' and it's plot.
The camera angles and pans at the start are all incredibly slow and gentle, giving a more relaxing theme to the film which flow easily with the diegtic sound in the background which both together make the viewer much more relaxed which also gives the romantic feel to the film.
A few minutes into the film, a voiceover of Noah, one of two of the main characters is heard by the audience which is slow and casual, immediately representing him as one of the main parts to the story. The quote he uses, "I've loved another with all my heart and soul, and for me that has always been enough" exaggerates the genre of romance in the film, relating to loving another and the imagery of his heart. The film moves on to Noah beginning to read Ally, his soulmate and other main character to the story a diary which then moves onto a flashback of them meeting when they were both teenagers. The setting of him reading is set in a conservatory on a warm day, surrounded by flowers, showing how it is lighthearted and cosy, relating again to the aspects and genre of the film.
The scene of the carnival uses close up shots of Ally, as if we are seeing through the eyes of Noah and his love and admiration for her at the start of the movie, as the camera moves very slow and focuses on her face. The camera then zooms out to show a wide shot of the scene in which all the characters are shown yet still focuses on the connection between Noah and Ally, emphasising the love they have from each other in 'The Notebook.' The credits, setting and diegetic sound of the opening of 'The Notebook' all together create an atmosphere of romance and set a basic plot between two characters at the start of the film through different editing techniques used throughout.

Preliminary Task Evaluation.

For my preliminary task we had to create a 30 second long clip, following 3 media rules when filming. These are the 'shot/reverse shot,' 'match on action' and the '180 degree rule' which are used to make it more simple and self explanatory for the viewer to watch.
To begin with we planned out what we would be filming onto a storyboard including where it would be located and what would be said between each character. The storyboard would include the main characters and where to appear between each scene. Our clip was to appear in the school diner creating a simple storyline consisting of one student offering another student lunch, creating a friendly atmosphere that students can then relate to. For our 'match on action' scene, we had a character being filmed from behind opening a door, to then being filmed from the front, of them opening the door which put together proved very effective as the shot seemed both seamless and effortless throughout the duration of the scene within our preliminary task. In future I believe our group will be able to enhance match on action scenes even further to be more professional and both interesting looking.
For the 'shot/reverse shot' scene, we showed two characters sitting at a table where one character offered the other a crisp. To create the 'shot/reverse shot' we filmed one part of the conversation over one of the characters shoulder and the other part of the conversation over the opposite characters shoulder so that the different parts of speech would be seen as if through the characters point of view to make it much more effective to watch however it did cause a problem with our '180 degree rule.'
The '180 degree rule' consists of not filming outside 180 degrees of characters presence, so that each character remains on the same side of the screen whenever it is filmed. When filming, the speech between the characters was filmed over the wrong shoulder of each character so that the 180 degree rule was ever so slightly broke. However, this helped us understand more the importance when filming and can only help us as a group improve our work next time when filming our final piece and helping us understand more throughly the concept of each rule and how they are linked together.
To evaluate our preliminary task as a group we created a commentary where we could assess our own achievements, favourite parts and also problems when filming our 30 second clip. Main problems such as the '180 degree rule' were discussed which can again help us in future to improve our performances and accuracy of future projects. Overall, I believe our first use of filming a 30 second clip and using the programme of Pinnacle proved very successful and increased our knowledge of filming when we need to improve and create better work in futuer assignments within Media. One area we will need to focus more carefully on is the '180 degree rule' when filming and to ensure no mistakes are made on our final piece, as well as keeping all aspects of the rules in mind, yet as a group we all worked well together in creating a presentable piece.

Why i chose AS media studies.

The main reason as to why I chose Media Studies at AS is because I really enjoyed the work we did for it in GCSE and found it very interesting. I also think Media would be really useful for my preferable career choice as I would like to become a journalist and hope to study Media at university, possibly along with English as these are the subjects I enjoy most.