THE HARDWARE

Basically we are using the same equipment as last year.
We are using a camcorder to record the video footage which is called a 'Cannon Wide screen MV 920'.

The Features are:

• LCD display - TFT active matrix - 2.7" - colour
• 1 x Li-ion rechargeable battery
• Optical zoom 25x.
• Digital zoom 800x.
• Lens focal length 2.6 to 65 mm.
• Filter diameter 35 mm.
• 12/16 Bit PCM Digital Stereo Audio
• Standard RCA Cable.

The camera itself is pretty easy to use. Basically you require a Mini DV tape to record your footage then upload it to the Computer Via a Firewire Cable to the Final Cut Express Program. The Basic Functions are set out easily using a Dial which you either set to Record Mode, Playback or Off.
It gets a bit more difficult though when using things like White Balance where you need to check it aginst a piece of paper to see if it contrasts. The White Balance is used to make sure each clip has exact lighting (alternatively you could set up your own lighting using lamps and torches instead of fiddling around with the white balance).


We use a 'TD-1932 Photo & Video Tripod' too.

This is a crucial piece of kit to get a steady shot instead of the wavy handheld shot. Alternatively they can be carried and used as a makeshift steadi-cam by attaching the Tripod to the camera but carrying the camera, the Tripod forming a sort of counter-weight underneath. Overall the Tripod a reliable piece of equipment but are in limited supply at school due to carelessness by other students who have returned them with bent/damaged legs so if we want to use one advanced booking might be in order.



We also use a 'Fuji film Finepix A900' Camera.

The features of this are:

• 9.0 megapixels
• Real Photo Technology (RPT)
• Intelligent Flash
• IrSimple™
• Large 2.5" LCD screen
• Sensitivity up to ISO 800
• 10Mb internal memory
• Selectable scene positions
• USB cable

 Basically we use this for any pictures that need to be taken for the project
e.g, Pictures of the Location of the film.
Its again, straightforward to use, simply plug in the wire that comes with the camera and import the pictures to a program on the Apple Mac or even simpler, open up the camera directory on the Mac and drag the pictures onto the Desktop Screen.


All the Editing of the Film will take place on an Apple 'IMac' Macintosh Computer.

Here are the Features of the IMac.

Here are the Technical Specifications for the IMac.

The Mac is very easy to use, just like a normal computer so we should have no problems at all while using them.

THE SOFTWARE

This year instead of using imovie HD i will be using final cut express 4 .
Its still an editing software which has basically the same function but its much more advanced than imovie HD as it has a Greater editing tool selection so i can create better effects.
For instance Final Cut Express 4 has 99 video tracks with support for nesting sequences whereas imovie HD has only 1 video track.

Plus Final Cut Express 4 is used by companies such as the BBC to edit the News quickly but proffesionally so i should be able to produce a nice Final Piece.
Here are some Technical Specifications for Final Cut Express.

On a recent media trip to the Co-operative Young Filmakers Festival at the National Media Museum in Bradford i attended an editing Masterclass where we were taught how to use the Final Cut Express so this should give me an extra boost when editing my film.
Here is a Link to the Co-operative Young Film Makers Site.

TARGET AUDIENCE & (NOTIONAL) BBFC CLASSIFICATION

BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) Rating System

Suitable for an audience of four and above, set with a positive nature and should counterbalance violent, threatening or horrific issues.

Suitable for pre school children and tend not to address the main nine issues.

PG (Parental Guidance), viewing of this certificate may be unsuitable for unaccompanied children. This rating shouldn't disturb and audience of around eight or older.

Suitable for children 12 and over, needing to be accompanied by an adult. Which replaced the normal 12 certificate in 2002.

12 certificates , are specific for an audience of 12 and over.

15 certificates are specific for an audience below 15. And no one below 15 is able to view on buy any of this material.

18 is a rating which is strictly for adults only as it contains some form or explicit of the nine major categories.

R18 is classed for adults only and can only be sold at adult shop or viewed at a licenced cinema.

When classifying the film i need to take into Account these 9 Major Aspects that the BBFC use:

• theme
• language
• nudity
• sex
• violence
• sexual violence
• criminal or harmful actions
• horror
• drugs

From Mine and Alex's Initial Idea we feel that our Film currently falls under the rating of 15.
This is because of the Horror theme running throughout, the corpses arm falling off and the girl tied to the chair who looks like shes been kidnapped/tortured. Also the arm falling off the corpse could be seen as Comedy so this lowers the Rating a little. Although the current rating is 15 we feel this also could be raised to an 18 certificate due to the fact that if we focused more on the violence it would be come unsuitable for audiences lower than the age of 18.

I will update this post with the our Final rating after we have finished the process of making our Film.

FINAL PROPOSAL (DRAFT x)

Our final idea was a combination of both mine and Alex's thoughts and ideas, and after audience feedback from our initial ideas, we got many idea which were incorporated into our final idea. After lots of thought and feedback, I am certain this is the idea my coursework will be based around:



Name: TBA

Synopsis: A male in his early 20's is out walking on a moor. He stumbles across a deserted travelers camp site, where he sees a set of discarded bags, and he becomes suspicious, something is not right! There is blood on the floor and on some of the items, the male decides he should not be here, and turns back on himself to walk away. As he is walking back in the same direction, the sound of a crow, makes him turn his head and look up at a house. As he catches a glimpse of the house, he notices smoke rising from the area, and heads up towards the house to investigate.

A camera shot is used to follow the man as he walks home in the impression that someone is following the male, as he walks up to the house. As he come in close proximity of the house, he notices a dead body outside, and try's to help it up, but as he is pulling the arm, it falls off into his hand. He hears the sound of a dog, and runs away in the same direction.

He runs up to his house, he enters through the door and slams it behind him, walking into the kitchen and leaning over the sink drinking from the tap and washing the sweat from his face. The camera then rises above his head, and shows his victim, a blonde girl with mascara running down her face, looking mucky and disheveled. She has blood on her forehead, she is in a struggle.

End of Film.

INITIAL PROPOSAL

My first idea was based upon the concepts of quite a number of horror movies which inspired me:

Name - N/A

Synopsis:

• A Boy/Man goes for a run on the moors.
• He stumbles upon a deserted campsite (it could be a travellers campsite or just somewhere where teenagers have gone to camp) which has been torn up with belongings scattered everywhere(maybe splashes of blood).
• He hears a Crow cawing which causes him to look up and see an old ramshackle house that has been abandoned. There is a thin plume of smoke curling up from behind the house. He decides to go and investigate.
• As he reaches the house he gets a strange feeling like something is not right. He looks around and sees someone lying on the ground. He walks up and realises that the person on the ground is dead.
• Suddenly he hears a noise come from inside the building (the noise should be really foreboding and menacing).
• In a state of panic he runs away. (for this part we would use use camera shots that make it seem like hes being chased)
• He manages to reach his house, run inside and slam the door.
• The camera would cut to the front of the house where, after a couple of seconds, a stray dog would saunter from behind the hedge and sit on the path up to the house.
• It turns out the dog had been chasing him after all.

The End.

*UPDATE*
After thinking a bit about this idea i realised it needs some improvement.
For instance
Why is there a dead body there? this issue doesnt really get explained to well.
Also why does the Boy/Man decide to go up to the house? Just the smoke is not too strong a reason, perhaps he could hear a Shout/Scream which would mean he was trying to go and help.

Audience Feedback
When i told my idea verbally to the rest of my Media Studies class here was some of the feedback:

• Its a good core idea but it needs some development.
• You will need a good soundtrack to show the emotion of the piece if there isnt going to be any talking.

These were pretty much what i felt too so i will take these points into account when i develop the Final Proposal with Alex.

EVALUATION QUESTION 1

IN WHAT WAY DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

One of the first tasks i did was look into codes and conventions of short films so i could apply them to our film. It was important that i understood the codes and conventions of short Horror films as this would determine whether our film would turn out good or bad.

To gather these codes and conventions i searched for short films on google where I was able to find a very useful channel 'Future Shorts' which has lots of short films made by directors all over the world and with many different genres . The company Future Shorts is a well known distributor of short films whose main aim is to further the short film industry by promoting the films at Film festivals they host. For more info on Future Shorts click HERE.

After watching and analysing some of these films i was able to create a list of codes and conventions i could apply to my film:

• There are usually only about one or two characters in a short film.
• Short Films tend to have a very low budget.
• The central protagonist will always remain center screen when possible.
• Short films always have a twist to them, by having a immediate narrative change at the end to shock the audience.
• There is not much dialogue in short films.
• There are lots of camera angles used, a popular camera angle choice is point of view.
•  Usually short films use the cheap option of black background and white font for titles
•  Voice overs are a popular method of sound in short films.
•  Mainly the narrative is centered around a central protagonist.
• Short Films usually last about 1-5 minutes.
• .The point of view angle shows the world from the central protagonists view.
• A lot of short films simply show real life with one change that is then portrayed as normal.

HerHere is how we tried to apply these codes and conventions to our short film:

• There are usually only about one or two characters in a short film - We only use four characters in our movie,two which are dead bodies so the characters of Norman and the tied up girl are the main ones the audience should follow.
• Mainly the narrative is centered around a central protagonist - The Narrative revolves around the character of Norman who is the central protagonist of the film. We use his name as the title and keep him in the center of the screen at all times to connote the importance of the character to the audience.
• The central protagonist will always remain center screen when possible- Our central protagonist remains center screen when possible at all
• Short films always have a twist to them, by having a immediate narrative change at the end to shock the audience -Our short film does this as it signifys all the way through that Norman is innocent by implying that he only just finds the bodies when the audience sees them on the screen but when it goes to the house scene the audience immediately puts the pieces together in their heads and realises that Norman is the killer. He changes his clothes and his attitude to connote the narrative change.
• A lot of short films simply show real life with one change that is then portrayed as normal -We did not include this convention in our film as we believed that having our film set in reality would be more appropriate and make it more scary due to the fact of it being set in reality. The voicover radio broadcasts anchor this fact of reality too so the audience knows that the film is not set in another world.
• There are lots of camera angles used, a popular camera angle choice is point of view-We used this in an intertextual reference to the movie halloween at the start when he walks into his house but also we used it a bit to show the central protagnists point of view as he was moving around so the audience could see what he was seeing and try to connect with him.
• Voice overs are a popular method of sound in short films- We used voice overs in the form of radio news reporters in my film. They were designed to put the audience into a false sense of security like this guy cannot be the killer and anchor the preffered reading of the film that he is innocent.
• There is not much dialogue in short films- We used this convention as we felt that if the character said to much it would give away too much of the plot which would create an oppositional reading and that sense of mystery like who is this guy and whats going on would also be lost.
• Short Films usually last about 1-5 minutes- The film lasts just over 5 minutes but this did not happen to challenge the conventions. We felt that when we were editing the film needed more time to build up tension but if we decide to re submit our coursework we may end up shortening the film.
• Usually short films use the cheap option of black background and white font for titles- We decided to ignore this convention by using Red coloured Font from Livetype for our title, This signifys that violence will occur in the movie which fits in with the theme of our film. Also we felt that the black and white titles were boring and would not fit well with our film.
• Short Films tend to have a very low budget- We had a very small budget for our film as we borrowed cameras and equipment to film from school. the most we spent was about £15 on the props for the house scene and Normans costume.

Here is an example of a short film we took inspiration from:

Genre Research and Intertextual References

As we developed our ideas we looked at many different Horror movies to find Codes and Conventions of the genre and get some Inspiration. For more detailed analysis into the Horror Genre Click HERE.

Here are the two main Intertextual refernces we used in our film:

• We made an Intertextual Reference to the Film 'Psycho'. We Based the character of Norman on Norman Bates from the film as he is seen as an Innocent throughout but at the end of the film 'Psycho' it turns out that he is the killer and not his mother. We have used this idea in our film as it turns out Norman is the killer at the end too. I also made another Intertextual Reference to Psycho when making the film poster as i overlayed a skull over the top of Normans face to get a more evil look which has been used in this picture too. (see above)

•  We made an intertextual reference to the Blair Witch Project. Most of our Camera Shots were quite shaky and we used a lot of point of view shots which are used in the Blair Witch Project to make the whole movie seem more real and disturbing.

EVALUATION QUESTION 2

HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN PRODUCTS & ANCILLARY TEXTS?

For some of the tasks we had to create a set of media products that linked into our production. The Products we had to create to go with the short films were a Film Poster and a Review Page of the film we were making. We did these two tasks alongside filming the Product so we could get photos too and help link  them together to make the final product feel much more real. We tried to keep our narrative enigma in all of the texts we made so that it was obvious that they all went together but obviously in the real world these products would all be made by different companies so they would not be directly linked together only through business unless these companies were owned by the same conglomerate e.g Twentieth Century Fox or General Electric.

We created the film poster with the central protagonist in the center of the poster, this is to connote the significance of this character upon the film. Our film poster's main job is to promote our film and attract an audience who will view the production. The film poster anchors the genre of the film as its quite a scary image showing the charater standing over a dead body but this also helps appeal to the target audience as it connotes that it will be a horror movie. It also helps appeal to our target audience and makes them want to watch our film. In the film poster we have created an inter-textual reference to Friday 13th, another horror movie which inspired our production as well.

Our Magazine review relates to the target audience by using quite formal language but its easy to understand so a fifteen year old could read it. The article is aimed more at Boys/Men as this is the Sex that mostly watch Horror movies but there may be features that appeal to Women too. We intertextually referenced the Film poster from Friday the 13th when we made ours as we felt it was quite relevant to our film showing that he is a mysterious figure.