Introducing our Characters

Stock Characters and Protagonist in: Top Ten

Protagonist: Sinead Robbins(New girl in school tries to fit in but seen as an outcast due to clothing and wanting to be)

Popular Girl/ Final Girl: Alisha Harris(Sinead’s threat in the school/ seen as the girl that’s got everything but wants more)

Jock: Ryan( Part of the male popular clique/ plays football is seen as the sport hot guy)

BF 1: Amira

BF2: Angelica

Wander: Josh(Ryan’s close friend but mixes in with all cliques in the school)

pre production;classification age ratings*

Classifications

How can ratings affect our planning?

U- Suitable for all

PG- Parental Guidance 

12-  Suitable for 12 years and above

15- Suitable for 15 years and above

18-Suitable for adults only 

R18- Adults works for licensed premises only


" In order to protect children from unsuitable and even harmful content in films and videos and to give consumers information they might need about a particular film or video before deciding whether or not to view it, the BBFC examines and age rates films and videos before they are released. This independent scrutiny prior to release ensures the highest possible level of protection and empowerment.  " BBFC

Case studies

We have come up with Case Studies to help us with our development of our idea and inspiration:

-        Never Been Kissed

(1999) 12 Rating

Storyline: (A journalist enrols in her old high school as part of her research for a story.) Chicago Sun Times copy editor Josie Gellar (25), who was desperate to graduate from perfectionist copy editor to reporter, gets her chance when the goody owner orders the editor to cover the high-school scene by undercover. Josie, who was a frustrated, ridiculed nerd, gets a popular make-over from her drop-out, naturally funny brother Rob Geller. Both siblings find love and joys of youth again. But in Josie's case, it's sensitive bachelor teacher Sam Coulson, who enjoys sophisticated conversation. As the publication deadline approaches, the price of blowing their cover seems ever more daunting, yet inevitable unless she sacrifices her career.

Taglines: Some things are worst waiting for/ She’s never been hip. Never been cool. Never been in… until now/ The class clown just turned chic

-        Mean Girls

(2004) 12A Rating

Storyline: Raised in African bush country by her zoologist parents, Cady Heron thinks she knows about survival of the fittest. But the law of the jungle takes on a whole new meaning when the home-schooled 16-year-old enters public high school for the first time and encounters psychological warfare and unwritten social rules that teenage girls face today.

Taglines: Mean Meaner Measnest/ Survival of the Ruthless/Welcome to girl world/Only the strong will survive/ So Fetch

-        Wild Child

(2008) 12A Rating

Storyline: Since Malibu brat Poppy Moore's mom passed away, she has pushed her rich, usually absent dad Gerry shamelessly. When his patience wears out, she's shipped off to her mother's former English boarding school for girls, Abbey Mount. On her first day she makes enemies of most dorm mates, especially dominant lacrosse school captain Harriet, and of staff disciplinarian Mrs. Kingsley. Unwilling to accept the strict regime, she decides to misbehave and take the blame for everyone until she's dismissed. The school only appealing feature for her is Kingsley's dashing son Freddie. When the dream prince transfers his favor from ambitious, uptight Harriet to unruly Poppy, that changes everything

Taglines: New Girl. New school. New Rules

-        Roommate

(2011) 15 Rating

Storyline: (College student Sara finds that her new roommate Rebecca has an obsession with her, which quickly turns violent.) Fresh from Des Moines, Iowa, Sara Matthews has just landed in Los Angeles as a college freshman studying fashion design. She meets handsome Stephen, party-lover Tracy, and roommate Rebecca. Rebecca is nice, sweet and ready to share everything with Sara. It could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. But Tracy is convinced that there's something seriously wrong with Rebecca and bad things start happening to everyone close to Sara. If Sara is to have a normal college experience, she's going to have to get to the bottom of what's up with Rebecca and quickly get out of her clutches.

Taglines: Which one will you get/ Nothing test friendship like murder/ She’s cute…loyal..and psychotic. No one’s perfect/ 2,000 colleges.8 million roommates. Which one will you get?

-        So Undercover

(2012) 12A Rating

Storyline: Molly is a teen who works with her father an ex-cop turned P.I. One say an FBI agent approaches and wants her to work for them. They want her to keep an eye on the daughter of a man who is going to testify against a criminal. So they send her to the college where the daughter is attending. And she tries to fit in while keeping an eye on her and trying to see if there's someone there who doesn't appear who they are.

Taglines: COLLEGE… it’s the most dangerous assignment of all

-        Single White Female

(1992) 18 Rating

Storyline: When a 'Single White Female' places an ad in the press for a similar woman to rent a room (to replace the boyfriend she's just left), all the applicants seem weird. Then along comes a level headed woman who seems to be just right. The new lodger has a secret past which haunts her.

Tagline: Living with a roommate can be a murder/ How do you lock the terror out…. Twhen you already invited it in?

        -     Pretty Little Liars

(2013)

Season 4 Episode 14: Grave new world ;In the special Halloween episode, the girls crash the Ravenswood Founders Day Celebration after a clue suggests Ali may be alive. Caleb meets a kindred soul

These films are all to do with making new friends and the status quo in schools/ being part of the popular group

Names,typography and captions

As we develop our story lines  were going to need a title something that our audience can identify our film by.
Here are some of the names:

- Notice me

- Popular

- Status

- List

- Top Ten

- Checklist

- Wanting

As  a group we decide to go with Top Ten as it give the audience a small indication as to what the film could be about. It leaves the audience wanting more so that hopefully they will come and see our film.
throughout the trailer we will make reference to the top ten, so this is a clear motif.





Also here are some Initial ideas for our typography

Captions that may feature in the trailer:

-        Seen but not heard

-        Who’s the next 5

(Emotional hook: the lengths people go to in-order to be cool/ popular)

-        How far will you go

-        Revenge (Scorpio sign- never forget)

Film school:kate hardie +Jessie O'mahoney

During this Film School we were telling Kate Hardie our story line and she thought it was a good idea but she wanted to understand how we got to some of our decisions.
Here were some of our problems and solutions:

 *Why would she suddenly want to become popular?

Sinead came from a uniformed school to a non uniformed school, which meant her clothes and fashion scene were not up to the school level standard

*Automatically looked like an outcast – lead to people not understanding her as a person

Being suggested as an outcast reflected her personality.

 *What are her motivations on why wanting to be popular?

Just never got to fit in/ new girl in school/ judge on first appearance.

Films cool pt2 :cmba - what we learnt about makeup

We went to cbma to get idea's and inspirations for our death/torture scene's in out trailers. 

We had to get into our groups and pitch our ideas  and list any ideas we had for any cuts and bruises that we want to show. As each group explained their ideas we heard how each group had a different idea which meant no ideas clashed. we did this to for Cb and her postgraduate students to get a real flavour of our trailers.

Christine and her Postgrads told us about the different professional products that create textures like illusions, acid burns or bruises.

Products such as:

Then she told us about everyday/cheaper household products that we could use in our trailer that would be just effective.

Vegtable soup =Vomit

PVA glue can be used with paints to create cuts.

This is a more effective way for us to create the slashes, cuts and bruises 

Film's Cool 3:Christine Blundell's Makeup Academy - who she is and what they do

At our third film school session we went to Christine Blundell's makeup academy located in Camden. Christine Blundell started her hair and makeup career during the seventies.
 From then she's worked on prestigious films such as Casino Royale, Sherlock homes and Happy-Go-Lucky.

As long as there have been movie stars, there have have been make up artists making them look good. From the ability to make an actor appear ‘natural’ while on camera, to the ability to transform an actor completely with special effects makeup, the Film & TV makeup artist has long been a treasured part of the entertainment industry as a whole. Part art, part science.

This is the role that Christine Blundell and her team do.

Film's Cool :CBMA- how we will apply this to our trailer

We started thinking about the differemt scenes that will require special effects. Then we got assigned one of Christine's postgraduate students, Ruby.   

We looked into more detail of how we can show a cut which had blood around it.  This is one of the effects we want to use in our trailer. The cut you see is made from professional products  but Ruby also told us about the different households products we could use like tissue and glue.

Film School 2 Part 2

Heres the QandA Session with Jesse O'Mahoney, he spoke to us in more detail about script writing and  give us examples of his previous work.
.
https://soundcloud.com/films-cool/jesse-omahoney-script-writer

Stock Characters in Horrors

These are popular Stock characters within Horrors most films with in the Horror genre  use these characters to develop the stories they are often the ones to get killed with the few exceptions like The Final Girl.
This gives me an idea of what my stock characters should be like, there characteristics and personality. as there is a lot of repetition within these stock characters audience members will be able to recgonise these characters automatically which can be a positive and a negative.

Exploration into Genre: Questions 1 and 2

Films belong to a wide range on genres from western films to action films. The Mis-en-scene, typography and colour scheme all make clear indications to that particular genre.

Genre refers to the theme and supplies audience with expectations, also they are based on visual elements. Genre's are useful for audiences to understand what there going to see.

1. What do you understand by the concepts of repetition and variation of a genre?

If something is recurring frequently enough it will tend to be believed and remembered, applying this to films is when they use the same content to make it more accurate and relatable for their audiences, anther reason they use repetition of content is because it sells and makes the industry a large profit. Also if the content of the film is repeated it starts to become acceptable within society e.g. Pre marital sex

2. Provide a definition of the concept genre. Use examples to illustrate the points that you want to make.  

Genre is a type or category of media product, it has certain distinctive features that are coherent. For example in a action film the audiences would expect there to be some sort of binary opposites such as conflict or good and bad character.  

The genre refers to the theme and overall meaning to a film, it also helps with the audience’s expectations.  Genre is a process of categories, based on visual elements. Its useful for audiences to understand what they want to see and important for film makers to know what they want to produce.

Film School Session 2

Film School Session 2

We had another talk at film school from Jesse O’Mahoney; he came to talk to us about plot. He first spoke about himself and told us he was a writer from Eastenders and Hollyoaks and he informed us of his most favourite writing, The killing of Heather from Eastenders and the explosion in the church in Hollyoaks.

He spoke about how the plot can make the film relatable and understandable.

In our Media groups we spoke about Horror films ideas, we then developed one idea:

1. Lonely/ Outcast girl – life in secondary school (hard , stressful, no real friends)
2. Major Halloween party of the year is going on in the next few weeks and everyone in the school is invited
3. She wants to be part of the event and gets dressed up for the occasion (High school scary girl)
4. Finds out a boy she likes will be there and wants to grab his attention
5. Everybody in Halloween party has mask on or really scary face paint (make up)
6. Everyone in the party is wondering who this girl is because she looks different in costume
7. She attracts the boy she like and starts to get flirty with him
8. Party goes on............
9. Boy clocks on who she is (lonely/ outcast girl in school)
10. Clock strikes 12 and everyone is stuck in costumes/ Girl gets stuck in costume
11. Ends up killing or injuring people at party and boy she likes.

We also learnt that when developing a character we must have the 3P’s Personality, Problem and Profession.  This is what the Protagonist characters must have in order for the audience to understand the character. From this session we gathered some movies/series that will relate to our story- so we should watch them to get ideas from.

           ·     Cabin in the woods

   ·      Scream

   ·         Never been kissed

   ·         Pretty Little Liars- series 3 (Halloween)

   ·         Mean Girls 

Film School Session 1

Film School Session 1

On the 9^th October we started film school which will help me develop my skills within filmmaking. I hope to learn different techniques during Film school like camera techniques, how to write a good plot also I would like to better skills that I already have for example, Editing and Makeup.

This week’s film’s Cool was led by Kate Hardie an Actress, Writer and Director, who grew up in North London and has been in many TV series and movies such as Casualty, Criminal Justice and The Krays.

Kate introduced her self and gave a brief bio about herself, her life before being an actress and where she was at now. She then went on to explain what a genre is.  The genre is what makes a film grab the audience’s attention it’s they recognise more but in order to have a genre first you must have a Idea, a concept or an  issue that you want to talk about, once you have that then you can apply the genre to it.

The issue you want to express could be Bulling or self esteem once you have this you can apply genre to it, you can have and action movie where someone gets bullied and then a anti bulling hero comes and saves the day.

Once you have your idea it’s easier to fit your genre around it and then start creating your story line.

After listening to what Kate had to say it really helped me in terms of my own film story line.

Trailer structure

Todorov suggested that conventional narratives are structured in 5 stages.

weather it be a narrative with the genre of horror or action.

1. Equilibrium - Normality/Balance ( Although not always happy)
2. Problem introduced /Disruption
3. Recognition of the problem
4. Conflict
5. Resolution

This narrative arrangement can be applied to many typical film narratives.

Heres a couple of films that back up the suggestion of the 5 stages.

eg

Limitless - Action

Applying Tim Burtons Theory

There are a number of commonalities for the horror genre. This proves the theory of repetition and variation as well as genre features.

Here are three synopsis's that have been highlighted according to the key elements.


Protagonist

Stock characters

Plot and stock situations

Icons

Background and décor

Themes

Final Destination

After boarding an airplane destined for Paris, Alex Browning, a high school student going on his senior trip has a premonition about the plane exploding after takeoff. Scrared and freaked out, Alex tries to tell everyone about the explosion causing him to quarrel with a fellow student, Carter Horton which gets them both kicked off the plane. Along with them, Carter's girlfriend Terry who follows Carter, Alex's best friend Tod who gets off to make sure Alex is okay, Billy Hitchcock who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, one of the faculty members Ms. Lewton, and Clear Rivers whose motive for leaving was just out of belief of what Alex saw. Soon after the plane takes off, the students watch as it explodes sending fear and curiousity into their hearts. A little over a month goes by when one of the survivors turns up dead. After that Alex begins to question whether or not himself and the rest of the survivors are in danger. Could there really be a design? Does death really have a pattern planned out for everyone? And if so, after cheating death once, can you find a way to do it again?

Curse of chucky

After the events of Seed of Chucky, Nica, a young woman forced to a wheelchair since birth, has to regroup her sister, Barb and her brother-in-law, Ian for a funeral after the death of her mother. While dealing with Barb, Ian, along with their 5-year-old daughter, Alice; Nica receives an odd package - a creepy doll. After people start showing up dead, the fearless Nica soon suspects that the creepy doll is much more than just a doll.

Insidious

The teacher Josh Lambert and his wife Renai move with their three children, the boys Dalton and Foster and the baby Cali, to a big house. When Dalton is exploring the attic, he falls from the ladder and hits the head on the floor. On the next morning, Dalton does not wake up and stays in coma, but the doctors are not able to diagnose his problem. Three months later, weird things happen in the house and Renai sees apparitions. She is sure that the house is haunted and convinces Josh to move to another house. Sooner Renai sees ghosts in the new house and Josh does not believe in his wife. But his mother Lorraine tells him that she had also had a vision of a fiend in Dalton's room. They invite the medium and Lorraine's old friend Elise Rainier, who brings her team of ghost hunters Specs and Tucker to investigate the supernatural phenomenon. Elise explains that Dalton is a traveler with the ability of leaving his physical body and travel in astral projection. Now his spiritual body is lost in a place called Further that is not for the living and entities are gathered trying to get inside his empty physical body. Among these entities there is a demon that needs Dalton's body to cause pain to the others. Further, Lorraine discloses that Josh is also a gifted traveler and must seek out Dalton in Further and bring him back.

From this exercise I have realised that horror films do have  the same key elements that link them together, this sometimes makes films recognisable to the audience.  a lot

when planning this will help me because it shows me that horror films have of key elements repeated and they are successful so i will do the same  and follow suit. this will help my audience understand the genre im try to create

Exploration into Genre: Question 3 ,4 and 5

3.Summaries the key elements that the concept of genre relies upon.

•               Protagonist- These are the lead characters that can be male or female. These characters can become very predictable across a lot of genres. The males can be courageous and good looking and the female also good looking.

•               Stock characters- Stock characters are identifiable but are minor characters

•               Plot and stock situations- these are storylines that are predictable because they have been repeated in many films e.g. when someone turns up from the past.

•               Icons- Icons are symbols, objects or backgrounds that are associated with a particular genre eg seeing saloon doors and cowboys would make you think of the Western Genre.

•               Background and décor- this is a recognizable place or backgrounds that become distinctive (they also become icons)

•               Themes- the themes  are idea that run throughout , some themes are common to genres.

4. What do you understand by the concept of a 'genre formula'?

Genre formula is the add up of all the elements above, which are headings for the items which could be seen in all genres. Audiences with knowledge of this formula helps them know what is going on and gives them the pleasure of feeling on a familiar ground.

5. Does the fact that many products work to a formula make them boring?

I feel that products working to a formula doesn't make them boring, because it lets audience know what there in for and this then helps members of the audience not waste money in fact it gives the audience a sense of power as they have the knowledge of knowing what elements are involved and whether or not they will like it. 

Kuleshov effect

The Kuleshov effect is a film editing technique that was created during the 1910's and 1920s by Lev Kuleshov .

The theory states that when one puts an image next to another it can have a certain effect, and then when one puts the first image next to an entirely different image it can have a completely different effect.

 In term of making my own film trailer this effect can help me get across the emotions that I want to portray in my trailer. Audiences bring there own emotional reactions to the sequence this also gives the audience a chance to interpret the shots in different ways.

Sergei Eisenstein + Montage

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His writings and films have continued to have a major impact on subsequent filmmakers. Eisenstein believed that editing could be used for more than just expounding a scene or moment, through a "linkage" of related images. Eisenstein felt the "collision" of shots could be used to manipulate the emotions of the audience and create film metaphors. He believed that an idea should be derived from the juxtaposition of two independent shots, bringing an element of collage into film. He developed what he called "methods of montage":



Montage

 

Explorations into Trailers

A Trailer is a short preview of a film, it is shown in advance of the film. A trailer consists of selected shots of the funniest or the most exciting bits, the goal of the trailer is to attract the viewers attention.

These trailers give you clues and ideas what the film will be about.  The film titles and typography  help with the genre.  We associate images with different words and emotions..

I think that words and images in a trailer are as equally important but they don't always depend on each other

Why is a Trailer important

Film Title	Connotations	Typography	Connotations
Scary Movie	The title has associations to horror, something that is frightening  and you likely to feel scared about	The font is big bold red letters.	The colour red is normally related with danger anger and blood. And making the font bold could indicate how you have to act in order  to watch the film
The Princess and the Frog	It’s not normal for you to have a princess and frog  together so it makes me think of something from a fantasy genre	The font the “Princess” is in gold and it’s in italics and the “Frog” is in a gold green font.	The princess is in gold showing her high status and it’s in italics showing her elegance  the frog is green as its the literal colour of a frog and it bold showing the difference of the two characters
The Conjuring	Seeing the title will make me think that the film has something to do with magic	Serif font The font is straightforward and neat and it has a precise layout.	I think the straight forward font can play tricks with you mind because it’s simple but the film has a deeper meaning.
Burlesque	The title makes reference to dance but doesn’t tell you a lot.	Bold pink glittery letters	the colour pink is a “girly” colour which could tell you who the film is aimed at.

Applying targets from The meeting

For us to to evauluate  our skills in the basics of continuity editing and filming, in groups we came up with ideas about a film. a short sequence along the theme of The meeting.

We came u with initial ideas and we spoke about what type of meeting we wanted we chose the narrative that the people would meet up after contacting each other via the internet.

Split ends (sound bridge) editing- Adobe Premiere Pro CS6

A screenshot of our sequence in the middle of split end editing and trimming

In class we were practicing our skills of editing on Adobe Premiere Pro CS6. We imported our clips then arrange them into place so that they make sense, and then we added split ends into the sequence so that it adjusts the relative staring point of the video and audio so that the audio of the same clip starts before the clip, to soothe the transitions.