Shooting Script

After creating the main script, we then had to create a shooting script. This is similar to the script, but consists of the camera shots, camera movements, lighting etc. and how long we expect to take in each shot.

The shooting script we created had to be very detailled so we knew just what to do when it came to filming, and therefore not forgetting any parts of the script or storyboard. By creating our shooting script like this, we did find it alot easier to film which enabled us to get the shots we needed in a short amount of time.

Script

Below is a section fo the first script we wrote. We will amend it to make it better, along with amending the storyboard.
This section fo the script just gives you an idea of what is going to happen in the isolated, forest when Heidi chooses to walk through the forest as it is a quicker way of getting home.

Pitch Idea

We, as a group, had to create a 10 minute powerpoint presentation informing the audience about what our idea for our opening is, a detailed version, the synopsis of the whole film, an example of our script and storyboard and how our opening linked into the genre of horror and how it used the key codes and conventions.

We also had to create a name for our horror opening. We decided on the name 'The Revenge of The Missing' as we thought it created enigma towards the audience and will intrigue the viewer about the film, making them want to watch it.
Overall, our pitch idea went very well, and Mr Cramb really liked our idea for our opening, allowing us to move forward with the full storyboards and scripts, then moving on to actually filming our opening.

Below are a few of the slides which were included within our 10minute powerpoint presentation. As you can see they had to be very detailed as we had to sell our film opening idea to the audience.

Preliminary Task

For our preliminary exercise, we had to film a continuity task which involved filming and editing someone opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with short dialogue between them. The task had to incude and demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

After filming this, as a group we edited our preliminary task, using 'iMovie' and evaluated what we thought the positives of our filming and also aspects which we would have to improve and work on, therefore allowing us to get the best grade possible when filming our horror film opening.

We realised that our framing was very off key, as when reviewing the filming back was at a slightly tilted angle and did not incorporate the rule of thirds. Also we discovered that the aspect of hand held camera work needed to be addressed, as in parts of the preliminary task shots were very shaky.

The positives of this preliminary task were that we realised we are able to exicute good close up shots, and zoom movement, which could be useful for when we film our opening.

This has allowed us to consider the depth of that we need to go into when filming our horror opening, making sure the framing, camera shots, camera movement and all aspects of mise en scene are taken into consideration, to allow us to succeed within this task.

Institutional Context

We had to create a case study for an Institutional Context guide that we are working in. We decided to focus on the Institution of Lionsgate as it has successfully represented many popular horror films such as American Psycho and Saw, which was our audience's favourite film when analysing our audience questionnaire. After we found this out, we thought Lionsgate would be a good Institution to work with when creating our slasher, horror film opening.

We researched about Lionsgate, where it was founded, its distribution and production element, what other media companies Lionsgate owns and if that was relevant to our film opening and also discussed how it is significant to our film opening. Below are a few of our slides from the powerpoint presentation.

Textual Analysis Summary

Throughout the lessons on the 25th and 26th January we pulled our 8 essays each together to figure out the key codes and conventions for the opening of a horror film. We then created a powerpoint presentation to produce back to the class defining what we felt was needed to create a sucessful horror film opening. Such codes and conventions as lighting, editing and camera shots created a clearer perspective of what needs to be inputted within our opening and gave us a clearer view on all the aspects of mise en scene, sound etc. we have to include.

Questionnaire Analysis

On thursday 21st January, we collected in all our 50 questionnaire's that the public had filled in so we could analyse the results and see what the audience would like to see within a horror film and what they wouldn't. Each member had a certain amount of questionnaire's which we then went through, making tally charts of the gender, the age, the social class, their favourite film, what they disliked about the horror genre, and so on.

With this information we then went on to creating a powerpoint presentation of our summary on findings from the questionnaire, using excel to create the graphs. We also wrote a script on our summary of findings, as in what we thought this meant and how it will benefit us when we come to creating our horror film opening.
On friday 22nd January, we then had to present our powerpoint on our summary of findings to the rest of the class and Mr Cramb, and explain how this information is important and what we should and shouldn't incorporate into our horror film opening.

15/01/10, Research and Planning

In todays lesson, Mr Cramb reviewed our questionnaire and we realised that to receive detailed results we would have to change and add questions to receive the best results when trying to find our target audience.
He informed us to use closed questions so that we will be able to group our data of the questionnaire's together alot easier, possibly using graphs and so on.
With this information, i will add this to the questionnaire so that myself and the rest of the group will be able to give out the questionnaire and receive the information back so that we can determine the target audience for our horror film opening.

Welcome

Thank you for inviting me. Welcome to blogging and your foundation portfolio. Make sure you maintain your blog a couple of times a week as this should be a reflective working document.

14th January 2010

Today we had our first lesson dealing with our AS Media Studies Coursework.
We discovered that for the coursework we had to get into groups of no more than 4, and create a film opening of any genre, which could be no longer than 2 minutes.

Within my group is Josh Brazier, Georgina Collyer and Laura Devine.
We decided to do our opening of a film based on the genre; Horror.

Within the two hours of lesson, as a group, we mindmapped the codes and conventions of a horror film, focusing on such aspects such as setting, lighting, costume, props etc. and how they portray the genre of horror towards the audience.
We also drafted our audience questionnaire which we will use to find out who our target audience is, what they are looking for in a horror film and what attracts them to watch certain horror films. When we receive this data back, we will go through it and get a clearer understand at who our target audience is and what they want within a horror film opening.