prop list

Locations

Studio
Studio – blue screen

Guildford
(Possibly near flower market in Guildford)

Props List

Keyboard
Bass
Guitar
Drums/drumsticks
Mic
Guitar piks
Ink – red, blue, green, purple, orange, black, pink
Paint – red, blue, green, purple, orange, pink
Wax Spray
Water
Buckets
Hosepipes
Empty Coke Cans
Hat for money
Money –coins
Plastic cup / cup
Bed
Cupboard / wardrobe
Wallpaper






Costume and Make up

Studio – Blue screen (In puddle) and performance in uniform eg. Military Jackets/blazer, black skinny jeans, mens shoes or plimsoles (no trainers)


Guildford – Casual tops (shows individuality), black skinny jeans, mens shoes or plimsoles (no trainers)

Keith Negus

Keith Negus
The Ideologies of the music industry
• “What I’m looking for is the working act. The real act. The act that can get up on stage and do it. That act will give you career. I signed Black Sabbath umpteen years ago; they are still making records. These are acts that are career acts… Two years ago I started a dance label… now that’s not a career-orientated label. I mean those records are one-off situations and every now and again maybe you’ll get an artist come out of it.”
• “When I first started it was more about going out and finding bands. That method is becoming more and more redundant. More and more these days I find it’s as much about: I sit here and think ‘there’s really a gap in the market for this kind of project…’. I don’t go out to gigs. That’s not how I find my stuff. It comes through various writers and producers. So if a writer comes in he may have some great songs and maybe is looking for a front person. Or maybe I have the front person who I want to launch into the market but I haven’t got the songs. So you put the two together.”

Ideologies of Creativity
• Keith Negus – Producing pop
• Identifies two distinct ways of thinking about potential artists from within the music industry.
• These ideologies shape the way in which the artists’ images and careers are developed, and the way that they are marketed towards specific target audiences.
• The organic ideology of creativity and…
• The synthetic ideology of creativity.

The Organic Ideology of Creativity 1
• A ‘naturalistic’ approach to artists
• The seeds of success are within the artists, who have to be ‘nurtured’ by the record company.
• The image of the artist is ‘enhanced’ by the record company.
• The artist is given time to evolve and progress through their career.

The Organic Ideology of Creativity 2
• Emphasis is given to album sales and the construction of a successful back catalogue.
• Often aimed at older or more sophisticated consumers
• Profits generated by this kind of act tend to be part of a long term strategy by the record company.

The synthetic Ideology of Creativity 1
• A combinatorial approach to artists and material.
• Executives attempt to construct successful acts out of the artists and the songs at their disposal.
• The image of the artist is often constructed by the record company.
• The artist will be given a short time to prove their success before other combinations will be tried out.

The Synthetic Ideology of Creativity 2
• Emphasis is given to single sales and to promoting first albums.
• Often aimed at younger, less sophisticated audiences.
• Profits generated by this kind of artist tend to be part of an immediate, short term strategy by the record company.

Balancing the Two
• In practice, the success of synthetic acts will fund the development and investment in organic acts.
• Most big record labels will look to balance their roster with a combination of successful synthetic and organic acts to ensure that there are funds available for the day-to-day running of the company as well as long term profit making potential.

Promoting Organic and Synthetic Acts
• There are clear distinctions between the ways in which different types of artist are represented to ensure short term or long term success.
• Organic acts are often sold on their ‘authenticity’, both musically and socially.
• The image of the artist appears ‘unconstructed’ (although, of course, this is in itself a carefully constructed look)
• Synthetic acts are often sold on their ‘look’ or personalities
• The image of the artist is carefully and unashamedly constructed.

Richard Dyer

Stars and Stardom
• In order to understand the relationship between the music industry and its audiences, it is important to consider the roles of music star.
• The term ‘star’ refers to the semi-mythological set of meanings constructed around music performers in order to sell the performer to a large and loyal audience.

Some common values of music stardom
• Youthfulness
• Rebellion
• Sexual Magnetism
• An anti-authoritarian attitude
• Originality
• Creativity/talent
• Aggression/anger
• A disregard for social values relating to drugs, sex and polite behaviour.
• Conspicuous consumption, of sex, drugs and material goods
• Success against the odds

Richard Dyer
• Dyer has written extensively about the role of stars in film, TV and music.
• Irrespective of the medium, stars have some key features in common: A star is an image, not a real person, that is constructed (as any other aspect of fiction is) out of a range of materials (eg. Advertising, magazines etc as well as films [music])
Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings.
• Stars depend upon a range of subsidiary media – magazines, TV, radio, the internet – in order to construct an image for themselves which can be marketed to their target audiences.
• The star image is made up of a range of meanings, which are attractive to the target audience.
• Fundamenally, the star image is incoherent, that is incomplete and ‘open’. Dyer says that this is because it is based upon two key paradoxes.

Paradox 1
• The star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer.

Paradox 2
• The star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer.

The Star Image
• The incoherence of the star image ensures that audiences continually strive to ‘complete’ or to ‘make sense of’ of the image.
• This is achieved by continued consumption of the star through his or her products.
• In the music industry, performance seems to promise the completion of the image, but it is always ultimately unsatisfying.
• This means that fans will go away determined to continue consuming the star in order to carry on attempting to complete their image.
• Finally, the star image can be used to position the consumer in relation to dominant social values (that is hegemony)
• Depending upon the artist, this may mean that the audience are positioned against the mainstream (though only to a limited degree, since they are still consumers within a capitalist system) or within the mainstream, or somewhere in between.

The Star Image QUOTE:
Richard Dyer (stars, BFI, 1981)
• “In these terms it can be argued that stars are representations of persons which reinforce, legitimate or occasionally alter the prevalent preconceptions of what it is to be a human being in this society. There is a good deal at stake in such conceptions. On the one hand, our society stresses what makes them like others in the social group/class/gender to which they belong. This individualising stress involves a separation of the person’s “self” from his/her social “roles”, and hence poses the individual against society. On the other hand society suggests that certain norms of behaviour are appropriate to given groups of people, which many people in such groups would now wish to contest (eg. Gays in recent years). Stars are one of the ways in which conceptions of such persons are promulgated.”

final part of editin the storyboards

onto the final cut server, then went through the process of editing the footage to the track. Before we could edit we had to save the file to the desktop and change the footage to edit proxy so we could editing the footage. We then waited for the footage to save onto the desktop. Once it had we double clicked on it and it opened up in final cut pro ready for us to edit. All the footage was already in a bin so we named it so we knew where the footage was. We opened up the bin and began to edit, however before we could edit anything we had to upload the song. Unfortunately the copy we had of the music was a wav file so we changed it to a wmp so it was compatible with final cut pro. Once we had the music, I place it in final cut by dragging it and then I padlocked the music so it wouldn’t be affected whilst we edited. I didn’t start the editing process this time as I have not had much experience so a member of my group started it and the rest of us jut watching intently, picking up the editing process. With some extra classes and watching other people have a go at it as well as going along to the edit suite and had an experiment with different effects and the way of which to approach the different tasks we had to complete.


So I started editing. Firstly double clicked on the clip in the bin so they appeared in the first video window, then I dragged that footage onto the time line ready to cut up. Unlike the thriller last year there was no need for me to cut the footage in the first window then drag it onto the time line because each shot was 10 seconds of the same footage. So after dragging it onto the time line I started to adjust the footage. In the video we decided that we needed to set the scene because the singing starts straight away because there was no introduction. So using the storyboard as a guide I started by cutting the footage that we wanted to use before the music started. We wanted to start off by hiding the bands identities. So we have decided to start with a high angle tilted shot of a hat on the pavement with money in which a hand then comes into frame and picks up the money and puts into their pocket, the camera then continues tilting up the body after following the hand but stop just below the shoulder, the person in the shot then slowly turns their back on the camera and walks away. This whole sequence is one whole shot. As a group we thought this particular shot ‘set the scene’, and allowed the audience to almost guess where the person is and what they are doing and what they look like yet it is still all a concealed mystery. I like the fact that we are starting in close up because it attracts the audience.



The footage
We uploaded we are using the puddles to go between performance shots and context shots. By cutting to the music it has helped in showing us what works and what doesn’t for example some of the cuts didn’t work with the music so we either had to add shot or extend the number of seconds the shots were going on for. It has also allowed us to add and play around with shots because to the music some shots feel right and manage to flow fluently, but unfortunately life not perfect, we did come across a few bumps in the road, but luckily thanks to our insight to final cut pro we limply just switching shots around. Also because of the music all of the shots had to be adjusted to fit in time with the music so I had to use the marker tool to mark were the main beats are so that each shot cuts on the beat.

story board process

Today we filmed the story board ready to edit on final cut pro. We used a Sony Mpeg2 SD NXcam. I then set the camera up on its tripod and one of the group members pinned the story boards on the wall then I filmed each shot for about 10 seconds so in the end we would have lots of time to adjust how long a clip would go on for in the video. As our pop promo is a limited amount of time (3:58) to be exact and we will have to extend the shots or decrease how long they last for. This is a crucial part of the editing process as if we gat this part wrong it will effect the video and shot type, but however I do feel as if my organization skills have improved since last year.

story board process

In the lesson today we went through all the storyboards each of us had drawn, cut them all out, went through all the shots we wanted to use and where we were going to put them and then arranged them on plain paper ready to film. As a group we decided to discard the shots that were the same or had too many of for example the POV shots that we drew from each band members POV, this is because we wanted to keep the shots simpler because some of the other shots are, low angel, high angle, long shot, close up, extreme close up, over the shoulder. The way we placed them was a rough guide on how we would like the pop video to look however it would probably change once we started to edit it on final cut pro.

story board process

when I started to create the story boards we had to find out what kind of key elements we can apply, as this is there first music video the most important element is to present to there target audience can not be changed by what is conveyed through the pop promo, the elements that we have chosen as well as the band them self’s, they wanted there song about what they see and what’s going on around them in day to day life, they thought they could show this by shooting a train journey with the track simply just playing over the top, but being Hurtwood house we like to spice things up a bit so we then decided to shoot them walking through a street in black and white with some elements of color then cutting the image out once shooting them on a green screen, then trying to manipulate that image of into a puddle. I did try and approach the idea of this by going out by myself and making puddles on the ground then shooting them quickly as they just kept leaking away from the main puddle, but anyway I managed to take some interesting footage for high angles, long shots, mid shots, and close ups, I was also abele to get someone to walk through one as well as jump in the middle of one to, as these shot types are crucial to our pop promo.

story board process

We had our meeting with the band today. We pitched all our ideas and got feed back from them. They really liked all of our ideas, especially the black and white idea with a hint of color as in there eyes would be color as well as there instruments. They came up with a couple of ideas also which they pitched to us. They thought about shooting out of a train window, which we then had to say wouldn’t be possible for us to do because of the permission we would need to get to film on a train. However they liked our ideas so we have decided to go with our ideas which next lesson we will develop and start to storyboard.

story board process

Today we started to storyboard. I didn’t have all the same kinds of ideas as the rest of the group, so we had the idea to split the storyboards out to the group and we each decided to do separate storyboards to get more material and allow each of us to show the other members of the group what we had in mind. I did quite a number of performance storyboard shots because as the band is new, I felt that their first video needed to be more performance based so audiences can recognize them and it exhibits their talent to record labels etc. In the meeting with the band they expressed that they would like to be known and recognized as a local band. Given that they are local to Guildford we have decided to possibly shoot in Guildford, however none of us have started to storyboard the context of the video, we have only looked at the performance.
I have done classic performance shots such as CU’s of the guitar and the guitarists fingers and the singer and the drummer and drums. I also did several wide shots of the entire band and I also drew single wide shots of each band member with the coloured rain behind each of them.

Story Line and Story Boards

resurch refrances

with regards to the reasurch to our idea or ideas they came from the idea of stop motion, this came from an advert that i saw on the televison for a brand of camera called an Olympus camera. i did some reasurch into this and by using the half-frame format, Olympus was able to reduce both the weight and size of the Olympus Pen. It featured a simple rear-winding mechanism, a D-Zuiko lens for superior photographic quality, and an attractive design that also made the camera extremely easy to use. The Pen was a compact mix of innovative ideas that triggered the half-frame camera boom of the 1960s and 1970s. Cumulative sales of Pen Series cameras exceeded 17 million units. The highly original concepts embodied in the Pen Series would eventually lead to the creation of the legendary Pen F Series half-frame single-lens system.


Olympus Europe is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its PEN camera series and the successful launch of its modern-day equivalent - the Olympus E-P1, which is sold under the PEN brandname in Europe - with a rather cool video entitled "The PEN Story".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmkLlVzUBn4

Created using stop-motion photography and a whole lot of time and energy, the PEN Story video clearly pays homage to the work of Japanese artist Takeuchi Taijin. Takeuchi-san directed the video "A Wolf Loves Pork", made using over 1,300 photo prints and now having drawn over two million views on YouTube. Olympus' PEN Story is no less complex, with the company noting that it required the capture of some 60,000 pictures, from which 9,600 prints were made.

Both videos tell a tale using the same technique, with a stream of photo prints overlaid around an apartment, and animated to serve as a pathway along which the narrative unfolds. In the case of "A Wolf Loves Pork", a boy in a wolf costume chases a papier-mâché pig through a Japanese town, and the video is accompanied by the music of Nariaki Miyata. Olympus' PEN Story applies a similar technique with a few extra twists to follow the life of a young boy as his life unfolds. For the musical accompaniment, Olympus chose "Down Below" by Johannes Stankowski, with both the full song and a ringtone

Copyright letter to label

http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p13 permission

Institutional context

Initial ideas

The possible ideas for our pop promo were:

In the build up to my bad I came up with a band history, just as an idea on who they were and what they went through as well as how they met.

Theodore-Jackson also known as Teddy and James-Anthony were originally in a cult math rock band called The Revolvers, didn’t gain much media interest. The band was dismembered after they claimed that things had become “to serious” and they wanted to have more “fun making there own music”.

Waldo and Otto were part of a small band in Bournemouth called Foot Meets Face; they first met and formed there small yet to be a huge success at an all boy’s school called Rugby. They played in small venues in and around the location of Rugby first at small pubs then when the word of there band was flouting around they then moved to bars, just trying to make a name for them self’s. Then they gained the opportunity to do a recording of a debut E.P. in Hall; after playing at a Truck Festival.
In 2003 they parted to go there separate ways to find new carers.

Guitarist Otto-Wackhew changed his name to Ottow-Jackson after many years of grief from his peers at school and college, is the only member of the band that completed his degree at the college of North West London. Each of the band members quit there respective universities including Teddy and James leaving there English courses at Bournemouth University when the band got signed to XL Recordings in London by Bill Perkis.



The lead singer of The Angle Range also known as Block Party heard some of Waldo and Otto’s music from Bournemouth as well as Teddy and Jackson’s from there band called The Revolvers, give the record label XL Recordings a heads up about the band members that he heard.







When they made there first song in 2007 called Infinity, it was a mix between electro, with more pop and rock as well as drum and bass. The song was a hit in the summer of 2007.

The bands musical influences are varied, with the band members citing minimal techno, Ather Russle, fat boy slim, knout rock band such as hormonix, talking heads and manijunava as well as the jester as the main source of there inspiration, as well as the ever developing music type, there musical style however, can be more directly linked to various genres such as indie rock, drum and bass,electro, punk dace, math rock, dub step and techno.

In early Autumn after there first song called infinity in the summer of 2007 they then started produced there debut album. It was produced by Dave Sitek who during the time period was also working with a band called The Foals. The band however, decided to mix the album them self’s in the end starting that Sitek made the first master copy of the album.

Jackson has started multiple times during various interviews that regardless of the speculation of how the first album was going to and how the public were going to react.

They realest there debut album entitled the arch enemy's on the 27th June 2008 in the UK and in the Autumn the 12th 2008.

The album was a commercial success in the United Kingdom, regardless of what some of the records thought, the debuting at #3rd in the UK album chart.

Unfortunately the album was a minor success in other countries, charting in Japan< href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghvmz5ivj8zuSYwLDxrTapFNYdPq2Cetm7EGSp5kWVB-Xati3KdGJ4bXxOPN1peuXRXHxMHn621YPfl-P0FyKCCfCG9HTZfiofEe3vnLoE_x-hn3xjukl2bRxBsX3yWWpX6Rp1GDB3I7s/s1600/chasestatus%5B1%5D.jpg">

american rock inflences

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8JpqFh6TAw

The idea for this song was to have all four band members dressed in suits

the first ideas were to make the charicters to look a little like this.



Another idea we had, was to use the drum and bass genre and add in more or increase the
volume of guitars / drums used in the tracks, for example we thought we could use Watercolour by Pendulum and have our band perform in a white box whilst in slow motion paint balloons get thrown and dropped on them. We thought it would be visually exciting if we shot it in slow motion from different angles, for example we thought about tilting the camera directly up into the air and place cling film or a glass cover over the top and film a balloon hitting it in slow motion.



Stop motion (also known as stop action or frame-by-frame) is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence.

Another idea we had was to use stop frame animation. For this we looked up videos on youtube for inspiration and to see how it was done.
We all really like the idea of using stop frame animation in the same way as 'The Pen story'.
We looked up similar videos to see how it was done in different ways so we could decide what would suit our pop promo the best. Here are some of the videos i've found so far including a video on how they did 'The GIANT pen story'.

This is another way of using stop frame animation that we liked. This one is still shot with cameras but then each photo isn't laid out after one and other and photographed again like 'The Pen Story'! Here the photos have just been played one after another without see the boarder and solid picture in the frame itself.
I have also included how they made this music video too.







We want to animate 'Now is Everyone' in this way creating a kind of story. We like the way 'the pen story' goes around a room which has inspired us to possibly do something similar.
However, the only floor with this idea is that it may not work and may take too long. We only have one day to film so it may be impossible to accomplish. this is not going to happen, so we are trying to come up with another way, still use the same sort of idea but have the stop motion part still in there but not all the way through.

this is one of the best kind of music ideas that i have seen in a long time, the way that is has been edited is amazing, the way that the have edited to look as if it is in stop motion, then jumping from computer screen to computer screen. clever stuff. take a look for your self's.



http://www.myspace.com/nowiseveryone/videos/video/102862406







Now Is Everyone MySpace Video

Above are images of the band we are making a pop video for. They are called 'Now is Everyone'.
Here is some initial information on them...

Members:
Elliot Henson - Vocals + Keyboard
Joe Colley - Bass
Kris Bell - Guitar
Will Phipps - Drums

Genre:
Rock/Alternative

Hometown:
Farnham

They are a very new band and haven't quite worked out their image which makes this project exciting for us because we are going to have to work from scratch and create and promote this band for REAL instea of pretend.

Conventions of the video promo

A look at sub genres

A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music.

Music can be divided into many genres in many different ways. Due to the different purposes behind them and the different points of view from which they are made, these classifications are often arbitrary and controversial and closely related genres often overlap. Many do not believe that generic classification of musical genres is possible in any logically consistent way, and also argue that doing so sets limitations and boundaries that hinder the development of music. While no one doubts that it is possible to note similarities between musical pieces.

Rancid Story Bord

audience feedback

Here are some comments that people gave our thriller after watching it:

"I'm not going to eat meat again!" - Ruby Kammer

"I enjoyed the fast cuts that built up the tension throughout the thriller sequence." - Francesca Dowle

"The close ups of the meat and blood were very rough and gruesome!" - Ellie Bland

"It was...interesting, and kinda disgusting!" - Lara Wadsworth

"The soundtrack really helped with the tension." - Pip Milner

"Everytime I watch it, it makes me throw up in my mouth." - James Burke

"It was truely rancid!" - Olivia Cox

Over 74% of people who watched the film thought the gore coincided really well with the environment it was set in, and they truly enjoyed it, these people were in the ages of 16-25. However, the remaining 16% felt it was too much blood and gore, therefore did not enjoy it as much, however, these people were above the ages of our target audience, so we can understand their negative reaction.

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

The planning and preparation for our preliminary task was substantual for the stask that was set to us, be the help we got from the teachers. We were given a morning to film our short sequence which was shown through a step by step storyboard. We did not need to plan our setting, or the camera and lights.

In our thriller we had to organise everything ourselfs as we were getting maked on our preporation as well as the main product, where much of the term was occupied by finding locations, and preparing sets. We knew that we wanted a butcher for the establishing shots, therefore we researched on the internet places which were near by, after many rejections, we finally found a place in Godalming.

Once this was done, we decided what our studio would look like, which we based on the story board that we had previously drawn to help with the planning. Our shooting day was planned out in much depth, the story bording really helpped us with the shots we knew what we were doing at all parts and times of the day. This shows how the planning of the preliminary task was so basic and simple.

All the responsibility was put on us for our main task, therefore we took control and prepared it fully to gain the best outcome.




We were only shown easy shots, such as close up, wide shots etc in our preliminary task, but in the main task we could choose what shots best represented our genre, and I feel that our shots achieved this. In the preliminary task we settled with dialogue to tell the story, because our knowledge of shots were little. However, we had no dialogue in our main task, therefore the story telling was done through the sophisticated shots, such as:

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

task 5 How did you attract/address your audience?

I would advertise my thriller in places where the audience would be for example CD stores, fast food restaurants. Also advertising on Tv would be late evening such as 9pm onwards for the type of genre it is, and it would also be on the four channels as if they are lower class then they would not have more channels such as sky. Posters would also be grosume and it would show the worst parts in the thriller such as ripping the meat up and close ups of the meat and blood to emphasise the type of thriller it is and to attract the teenagers to go see it.

Task 4 Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for our thriller would be mainly around 17/18 and have left school early without qualifications and have gone straight to earning a small wage at a job such as a plumber/builder/butcher. This would be our target audience because it would be something these people can relate to whereas if it wasn't so grosume and had higher class actors then the audience could not relate to it. The target audience would also be men as the thriler is a masculine genre. Also parents and older people would be interested in the genre and about the fact of the welbeing of our meat and of the scare of diseased food.

Task 3 What kind of media organization might distribute your media product and why?

Lionsgate has a home video library of more than 8000 films many of the result of output deals with other studios but mine would only construct of a Lionsgate production



I think it is possible that "Lionsgate" institution could distribute our film as it is gore and horror which is similar to other films Lionsgate have distributed such as Saw which has been very succesful as there are many sequels now and it is very well known. Saw is a 2004 horror film directed by James Wan. The film's story revolves around two men who are kidnapped and chained in a dilapidated industrial bathroom. They are given instructions on how to escape by following the "rules" of their "game". Lionsgate is the most commercially successful independent film and television distribution company in North America. It is a canadian entertainment company. It's history of films they have distributed include "The Grudge" which is again a classic horror film with a girl who goes around killing everyone in her house in 2003 and also "Hostel" which is a 2005 horror film written, produced and directed by Eli Roth, the plot is some guys who check into a hostel and end up being tortured and killed. All these films have gore in which makes it similar to ours which is why it would make sense for Lionsgate to distribute our film as it falls under the same category of film to others which have been successful

Task 2 How does your product represent particular social groups?

Our thriller helps symbolize the different class by our actor. As the butcher represents the working class; as a butcher this could show that our actor has no qualifications and was a out cast in college so did not work and wanted to be a butcher maybe because he liked blood and chopping up lungs and hearts which makes him sound like a murderer. Portraying this type of character could create a centre of attention to other lower class/working class audience as it could be similar for them not going to university and carrying on studying but working to earn a living so this character could be realistic and accesible for the audience; therefore they can relate to our actor. As our actor is represented as a working class citezen it helps portray his evil personality as working class citezens are looked down upon by other higher class citezins in films and are often played as the bad characters. Our logo could also represent some higher class citezens as they could consume fresh organic meat as they can afford it and so it could attract middle class audience as it is a film about the meat they like to purchase

There are a number of theories as to why people like to watch scary movies. First off, some people don’t care for them, and the largest audience for frightening film fare tends to be older teens and people in their early twenties. There are still more mature audience members that love the thrills and chills of a scary movie, and it’s led many researchers to question why.

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

In our thriller, we used a fade in fade out use of title sequence. Rather than stopping the sequence to add a credit, we decided to do it inside of the sequence, therefore people can keep watching the action, because that is what they are most interested, however, they can also appreciate the makers of it whilst doing so. Throughout the opening sequence, the credits of the film were placed at the edge of the screen. We placed it there so that no focus was taken from the action happening in the film:

Pre Production Group Roles

Group Roles are a list of all the tasks that each team member did and how they contributed to the task that we had. This was helpfull as it made us as a group more organzied and understand what role each of us had, it also made the production process alot quicker. For instance my jobb was to ensure that the continuity in each shot was not broken, as well as producing, drawing and coming up with the full story bord.

the location.

the location was first in a butchers, this is were we astablished the first shots for the opening sequence, as well as enabeling us to give the audiance a true feeling for the surroundings and try and put them rite in the action. after we finished taking the firts three shots we then went back to the shooting studio at college. This is where we then shot the remaning footidge of or thriller, the whole prosses took at lest two to three houres to film, after we had all of the establishing shots we were abele to go back and then take any extra shots of different angels, as well as the high and low angels.

An evaluation of 4 existing Horror & Thriller movies.

As part of our research process, we examined a number of existing horror and thriller film promotional posters in order to better understand the specific, iconography and imagery that helps to anchor the conventions of the genre. These included;

Outbreak (1995) is a suspense film starring Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman, and Kevin Spacey. The film was directed by Wolfgang Petersen. In addition, Outbreak features Cuba Gooding, Jr., Donald Sutherland, and Patrick Dempsey.The film focuses on an outbreak of a fictional Ebola-like virus called Motaba. Its primary settings are government disease control centers USAMRIID and the CDC, and the fictional town of Cedar Creek, California. Outbreak shows how far the military and civilian agencies might go to contain the spread.The film was released on March 10, 1995 and proved a solid box office success. The film was nominated for various awards but failed to garner any major award nominations. It also raised various "what-if" scenarios: media outlets began to question what the government would really do in a similar situation and if the CDC has plans in case an outbreak ever does occur. A real-life outbreak of the Ebola virus occurred in Zaire only a few months after the film was released.

if you replace the idea of the water getting infected, with the idea of meat then it becomes i bit more realistic. As England has had to deal with similar cases in the past, such as;

In February 2001, the USGAO reported that the FDA, which is responsible for regulating feed, had not adequately policed the various bans. Compliance with the regulations was shown to be extremely poor before the discovery of the Washington cow, but industry representatives report that compliance is now 100%. Even so, critics call the partial prohibitions insufficient. Indeed, US meat producer Creekstone Farms alleges that the USDA is preventing BSE testing from being conducted.

movies similar to our own but aproched differently

Cabin fever is an idiomatic term for a claustrophobic reaction that takes place when a person or group is isolated and/or shut in, in a small space, with nothing to do, for an extended period (as in a simple country vacation cottage during a long rain or snow). Symptoms include restlessness, irritability, irrational frustration with kitchen appliances, forgetfulness, laughter, and excessive sleeping, distrust of anyone they are with, and an urge to go outside even in the (less miserable) rain, snow or dark. Cabin fever can also be known as a term for a lack of sexual intercourse. The phrase is also used humorously to indicate simple boredom from being home alone. The term was first recorded in 1918. Other references have the term in use at least to 1906. An 1820 reference is to an actual fever, common in Ireland, resulting from eating watery potatoes during wet years.

Effectiveness of the pre-production planning

The pre-production preparation was very successful and useful because it enabled the actual shooting day to flow smoothly because it was well organized. The story board and shot list was most useful because we knew exactly what we wanted to do when shooting, and didn't miss anything out because we had a list. The props and costume list was useful because the props person was able to get everything without forgetting anything because it was written down. The whole process taught me allot about film making, that the shooting day and the person holding the camera are not the most important thing, that everyone in the crew matters and planning exactly before hand is vital. Otherwise every thing will fall apart, every

Account of props and costumes

• Meat
• Syringes
• Rusty knifes- Kitchen knife- Pocket knife
• Cardboard Box
• Fake blood
• Cleaver
• Apron covered in blood stains
• Pair of big black boots
• Dirty work top- wooden
• White van

What a Morror Movie is.

Horror films are movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Their plots frequently involve themes of death, the supernatural or mental illness. Many horror movies also include a central villain.
Early horror movies are largely based on classic literature of the gothic/horror genre, such as Dracula, Frankenstein, The Phantom of the Opera, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. More recent horror films continue to exploit the monsters of literature, and also draw inspiration from the insecurities of modern life.
Horror films have been dismissed as violent, low budget B movies and exploitation films. Nonetheless, all the major studios and many respected directors, including Alfred Hitchcock, Roman Polanski, Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, and Francis Ford Coppola, have made forays into the genre. Serious critics have analyzed horror films through the prisms of genre theory and the auteur theory. Some horror films incorporate elements of other genres such as science fiction, fantasy, mockumentary, black comedy, and thrillers.

Making my thriller come to life.

Throughout out my interesting experience of making my thriller I learnt a lot more about the production practice that goes into making this kind of genre; the lighting, location, casting, costumes. I was eager to find out what was it that made a good exiting tension building film or in our case a thriller. I have benefited from making this in the way that I know now how much effort goes into production like this. My aim by the end of the was to broaden my understanding of the production practices and the technical areas, so I will be able to generate a generically authentic piece of film and to show the progression of the preliminary task as we shot this piece earlier in our year of starting the course, I feel as if I have defiantly expanded my knowledge on all of the technical areas, through out the day as I use the camera once or twice, this was fine for me seeing as I was the member of the group that concentrates on the continuality of each shot, but during the day I was abele to pick up and develop my understanding of the technical aspects of operation of the camera but also all of the considerations over the exposure, white balance and gain. I now have the capability of how I can set up a tripod as well. (For instance you must make sure the spirit bubble was in the smaller circle, I was also able to make independent decisions about the framing and the composition. Further accompanying thaws other responsibilities I was also able to check the continuity with regards to the lighting and the 180 degree rule, as well as monitoring the sound levels on the camera screen, although throughout our shooting day we did have background noise but it was inappropriate as it was ambient noise, so we caught the actual sound of the meat being cut up. I think I had a certain amount of difficulty with this area because I really enjoyed the creative side of the composition side, as well as the framing and the different angles, also the practical operation of the camera movement even though most of our shots were without zooms or tilts, for instance the planning as well as tilting and panning, which unfortunately caused me to ignore some of the necessary technical considerations of sound levels for example, where it is necessary to ensure that the levels for each camera(the camera mic on channel one and the directional mic on channel two) don’t peak in order to maintain good sound quality. The sound that is being generated is being maintained fairly consistent volume, unless the sound is being used as an effect, and without the distortion. In terms of producing a generically authentic sequence, I know that this area of production was the group’s responsibility instead of one particular member of my group,

Shot list / The story board

Pan/Tracking shot of the interior of the butchers.

Medium close up of meat hanging (in post production put on titles)

Medium shot canted angle of hands picking up box

Wide shot of door and man entering the frame with the box in his hands

Extreme close up of bloody hand opening the door. The handle is left bloody.

Medium close up on hands holding box of meat whilst walking

Wide shot of meat being tipped onto dirty work top.

Wide shot of other worktop with rusty knives on.

Close up of hand picking up rusty knife
Medium close up from high angle of rusty knife and dirty hand cutting meat on work top.

Blood is dripping off the worktop, medium/wide of floor with blood spilling out a title.

Close up of dirty boot walking across and messing up the title, follow feet, and pan up the body to the hands injecting the meat.

Side shot close up of meat being injected by dirty syringe and hand
Wide shot of hand throwing the syringe backwards.

Wide Shot of the syringe landing on a worktop with lots of other syringes, blood, knives.

Cut to medium close up of the man packaging the meat (on the bottom right hand side of the box is a labelled saying “Farm Fresh” “Best Quality Organic Meat”).

Close up of the cardboard box being closed, and another title is seen on the box
Medium shot of him picking up the box.

Side wide shot of the van, man is seen walking into frame and chucking the meat into the back of the van.

Wide shot of the back of the van, he closes the door, and another title is seen on the door.

Extremely wide shot of the van driving off into the distance for a long time.

Fade out to a close up shot of the packaged meat on a shelf
Zoom out to see there is loads of meat like it. (seeing the logo)

Casting decisions

When our group began to decide what kind of casting would be involved for our thriller there was not a big problem with this. We discussed what kind of character would be appropriate for this role. The character that would play the roll of the creepy butcher that injects the bad meat taking out some of the feces then injecting that into the good meat, we needed someone who really had the rite look to them, this was difficult as we were looking for some one who stuck out of the crowd, but as we approach someone we didn’t want to hurt there feeling but saying “would you like to be in our thriller we need a creepy looking physco and we think your perfect” but we did find the perfect guy for the par his name is Guy Stanley as well as our actor in our thriller he also plays a big part as my media so he was thrilled to be in our thriller. And he had the rite elements that we need to ensure we create the rite illusion. This would help to ensure believability as our sequence is very tense and voyeuristic.
After confirming his availability we sent this actor (Guy Stanley) full storyboards and a narrative treatment. We then continued to liaise with him up until the shoot day to finalize costume and individual details of specific scenes and shots.

who our target audience is

It really depends on the kind of thriller film. Like all genres, there are sub-genres and to really give an accurate answer to your question you would have to specify what kind of thriller film. Silence of the Lambs and No Country for Old Men are considered the two best thrillers in recent memory, and they're rated R. Their target audience was probably for the young male adults. Meanwhile, there are those thrillers that are borderline horror films, such as M. Night Shyamalan films The Sixth Sense, Signs, The Village. Since they're close to horror (and horror films target teenagers, but I feel as if the majority of this group is lightly to be teenage girl), the demographic would be slightly different, probably younger and more female based. And then there are legal thrillers (Fracture, Runaway Jury) and crime thrillers (Memento, Se7en) that target a more mature audience, and classic thrillers (any Alfred Hitchcock film) that are rated PG, but are intended for adults. But if you just need a target audience for a generic thriller film.

I'd have to say the young adult demographic from 18-25, would like my thriller simply because I feel as this type of sub-genre has not been approached enough, the one other film that I can relate to it is cabin fever, about a group of college graduates who rent a cabin in the woods and begin to fall victim to a flesh-eating virus. This is similar to mine in the way that the there is an element of a meat infecting virus being transfused between people, the only difference is that mine is more world wide and not just targeting a small group of teenagers trying to escape high school for the summer. But now I begin to take this idea away from the hills of America were the problem can be isolated but now putting it into your kitchen then onto your laps.

Different research sources that I considered, and what they taught me

I did look on the Internet of some interesting stories and newspaper articles and I had seen some movies in the past that had reminded me of our opening sequence to our thriller the film is called,

Cabin Fever is a typical American horror film about a group of college graduates rent a cabin in the woods and begin to fall victim to a flesh-eating virus. The film was the directing debut of filmmaker Eli Roth, The inspiration for the film's story came from a real life experience during a trip to Iceland when Roth developed a skin virus. When I watched this film it some what inspired me and my group has the idea to come up with the idea to do our thriller about meat

Account of first production group meeting to finalize the opening sequence

We had a group meeting to finalize our narrative thriller idea and the elements that are involved in this and any of he key elements or themes that we are going to have to require to produce and finalize our title sequence.

Account of giving presentations for possible thriller ideas

The first stage of choosing specific ideas for development/pre-production involved us individually conceiving a treatment and narrative outline for an opening sequence of a Thriller movie (as instructed by the brief)
In the lesion we presented our thriller ideas to the class using Power Point slides to illustrate our concept and to provide visual anchorage. My presentation consisted of the following information/material:

The type of Distribution Company that I would like to work through is Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, this is because it is the most commercially successful independent film and television distribution company since 1995, they have made 185 successful films as well as there up coming movie, Fooffight!

The type of genre that they specialize in is horror, this is why I would like to present mine to the company, because I challenge the day to day fears of teenagers who go out clubbing with their mates, and have to be conscious of what they have to drink at these breathtaking vibes and memorizing lights.

Account of shooting and editing the preliminary task

Our preliminary task consisted of us filming the two way conversation. The key task of the lesson was to learn how familiarize ourselves with the camera, and learn about the technical techniques and setting accurately, for instance, the framing, focus, the composition of shots and the continuity. The objectives were also to practice and understand the concept of constructing a narrative sequence using the method of continuity editing. We also learnt how to produce footage, known as (rushes), which could be digitalized allowing us to cut and log our timeline, using non-linear editing. During the process of shooting, our preliminary task, there were 4 main technical areas that we had to pay close attention to.



These areas were camera angles, story boarding, sound and the 180 degree Rule. Even though there are many more techniques that are also important to consider during filming like mise-en-scene and lighting, we concentrated on these specific aspects because we were only filming a basic task and we didn’t have to worry about the lighting or how to construct mice-en-scene. We were constantly adjusting and changing the settings on the camera. To try and maintain the set up of constant filming is an important objective. We had to check and make sure that the camera was set on a tripod and leveled properly; this was succeeded by making sure the spirit bubble was inside the small circle. Using the tripod meant that we were abele to film tilts and pans fluently and aspires to higher production values. One key technical area that we had to take into consideration was the composition and framing of each shot. When we set the camera up for every individual shot, we had to set up the focus, to peruse this; we had to make sure manual focus was on through out the filming.

Zooming in to the furthest in, allowing the camera to focus, then zooming back out meant that everything between the camera and the point we zoomed into was in focus. During the process of positioning the shots we had to take into account whether we were giving the subject sufficient head space, also talking, walking, and looking space. When it comes to finding the rite angles we had to consider the effect that they might make, such as high low angles which affect the status of the subject as perceived be the audience. Before we were abele to start filming we had to make sure all of the settings on the camera were all correct. These settings included, making sure that that the white balance is set to the rite kind of light (inside-artificial, outside-natural) the exposure is set to the rite level letting the rite degree of light through the lens for that particular shot. Almost making sure that you let the tape run for approximately 30 seconds before you start filming onto it, this is so that when a tape has been played a lot, and the beginning can stretch and deteriorate and glitch, destroying or making initial shots unusable. The sound that we recorded was produced using a mic that was mounted on the top of the camera, we used was a directional microphone, but because it was constantly pointing the some way as the camera there was no need to redirection the mic. We also had to make sure that the sound on the camera set to the correct setting so that the sound on the camera didn’t sound appears peaking or sound distorted.


This story boarding techniques provides a technical account of shot, action, editing transitions, sound, angel, movement, lighting and timing. We were given some examples of story boards which we followed as guidelines; this was to ensure that we didn’t break the continuity link between shots. These were all part of the main aspects that we had to make sure we followed in account during our preliminary task. During our shoot I found out how to combine most of the camera techniques along with other camera angles, personally I think the most affective shot was of extreme close up or (X.C.U.) of Frankie with a tear dripping down her face. This shows the emotion that she is tying to put across to the audience.

In our next task we will be given the challenge in having to deal with lighting sound etc, all of the key point that consist of mise-en-scene. After filming all of this we then had to transport all of these shots onto a computer, we logged all of the basic shots / takes and relocate them onto a program called Final cut pro, and placed all of the good shots onto a time line, we rejected any shots that included actors mistakes, any shots that were out of focus, poorly constructed / composed or broke the 180 degree rule and thus compromised continuity.

An introduction to using digital editing

Our lesson focused on an introduction to the editing package Final Cut Pro, which we ran on G5 Macs. This software allows us to construct visual sequences using a time line. Footage can be digitized and the best shots logged which are then dragged down on to a timeline which can then be trimmed and manipulated. The same can then be done with sound and this allows us to construct a continues narrative. Digital editing allows film makers to manipulate and construct complex narrative sequences and to be creative in employing all the key technical elements of audio-visual material. Once a sequence is complete it is also possible to further enhance the visuals using Adobe after Effects which enable the film maker to create more enhanced and professional (high production values) finishes to their work. This is what is generally expected by audiences who have grown up with this style of production.

An introduction to and tips for operating video cameras

Initially I conducted some research into the use of cameras and discovered the following essential guidance (see below)stand close to the tripod between two of the legs. Most operators use the technique pictured, that is, the left hand controls the focus, exposure and zoom while the right hand controls camera movement with the tripod handle. There are many variations, for example some operators prefer not to use the handle and instead place their right hand on the camera. Before you begin a move such as a pan or tilt, plan it first. Figure out the best standing position which allows you to complete the whole move comfortably. It is usually much better to finish the shot in a comfortable position than to start comfortably and finish awkwardly. Frame up the end of the shot first and get yourself comfortable, then stretch yourself to get the starting point of the move. The drag setting (AKA resistance or tension) determines how much force you need to excerpt to pan and tilt. The setting you choose depends on several things including the camera weight, the type of shot you are attempting and your personal preferences. Use a lighter setting for close or fast-moving subjects. Use more drag for slow moves, longer zooms, or if you're having difficulty keeping the shot steady. Don't just set the drag and forget about it, think about how different settings might help different shots.To set the brightness and contrast:Switch the camera to color bars.Adjust the viewfinder brightness and contrast until you see a smooth grayscale from peak white to black. You should be able to see a dividing line between each bar.Switch the camera to picture.Check your exposure on a reliable monitor, either by connecting a cable from the camera output or by doing a test record.To set the focus/sharpness (diopter adjustment):The "diopter" is the EVF's eyepiece lens. Adjust this to make the viewfinder image as sharp as possible. This adjustment is usually made either with a ring on the EVF or a sliding button.Choose a subject with plenty of contrast - this makes focus easier.Zoom out wide and focus the camera lens normally.Adjust the diaper until you see the clearest image. If necessary, secure the diaper.