First Cut

 Our first cut shows a basic outline of the entire movie. The props we used were picked and created to really capture the horror genre and how it started out (Gothic locations and themes). We definitely need to create a better opening shot to the scene instead of it starting on a zoom and this will allow the audience to know where they're starting when viewing this opening.

Second Cut

Audience feedback

1. As the soundtrack plays over the entire opening, we were advised not to do that and to add dialogue and sound effects at points such as; the opening of the book at the very start as the movies title appears on screen, and at the pair of scissors cuts down the camera it would be a good idea to have a attacking effect or a person/animal crying for help at it falls. 
2. A voice over is needed, to help build the narrative of the movie and to not make it look like a trailer for the movie, because at the current point it looks like a trailer for the movie which isn't showing enough to qualify it as a opening sequence. 
3. Advise on the transitions used were given also. The idea of having different effects and transitions to help jump from cut to cut were favoured over allowing a simple cut separating the different shots. 

Feedback - Miss Spencer

Second Cut Feedback
This is a much better version, although we are still in danger of this looking too much like a Trailer. You have made great strides to add interesting effects and sound effects.
However it is still missing a narrative, I would like you to think about how to tackle this, possibly adding a voice over to start to explain some element of narrative.
I would also like to see an animated logo and of course the titles.
I think it may look more sophisticated if you were to cross fade some of the images and add some interesting 'glitchy' transition.

Casting

Role Allocation

Director - Cathy Maddox
Editor - Harvey Perry
Writers - Cathy Maddox and Harvey Perry
Starring - Harvey Perry
Camera man - Cathy Maddox
Special Effects - Cathy Maddox and Harvey Perry

The Storyboard

The Script

The Storyline

After a man is brought back to life and cursed with the supernatural power to turn invisible. He eventually fa

Mindmaps

The Pitch

A boy grows up with strange supernatural abilities. He eventually uses these given powers as a way to profit from his criminal lifestyle. As he grows higher and higher in the criminal food chain, he discovers more about his abilities and about the demons who created him.

Representation in Horror and Thriller

Production Schedule

Filming Schedule

Recce

Feedback - Miss Spencer

Representation Feedback - A reasonable blog post that covers the basics - however I would like you to focus this in on horror - what are the typical representations in horror? How are you going to use these in your film? Level 2


Genre Feedback - Good research onto sub-genres and look into the history of the genre. I would like more detail in both of thse areas though. Add how this research is going to effect your film.
Level 2/3 border.

Representation

What is it?

In terms of media, is the way in which the audience depicts a certain piece and how the piece is presented. Every character, setting, prop, costume etc, is someone's imagination of what they think these things should look like. This creates a whole, wide range of creativity that directors use to put into their movies and TV shows. If we didn't have the media, our perception of what reality is to us would be very different and limited, and audiences everywhere need the media to give them this idea of what the wider reality is like. As there is so much creativity, it allows for audiences to interpret what they say in many different ways, allowing for a better experience when viewing it. Representation can be affected by 4 factors:

• Audience Positioning - How different audience react
• Interactions between other groups 
• Cultural Ideology - Expectations within cultures on how things should happen 
• Stereotypes -  Portrayal of people or places through a few obvious characteristics 

Examples of representation in media

2.1 - The Horror Genre

The Horror Genre

A Horror movies main goal is to fright the target audience by toying with their fears. Gothic, Supernatural and reoccurring themes in the genre, used in The Exorcist (1973). Plots in Horror movies usually surround the general viewer’s fears, an evil force or some kind, a tragic event or a supernatural entity entering the world. Prime examples for a generic Horror movie are; Ghosts, Aliens, Zombies, Witches, Serial Killers. The first creation of a Horror movie is Le Manoir du Diable (The Haunted Castle) in late 1980s, a silent movie in which encounters with the Devil and other ghostly phantoms. Criticised because its intentions were to create a humours movie, but it’s dark Gothic themes turned it into what is called the first Horror movie. As movies started to adding speech into their movies, Universal Pictures started off their early versions of Horror film series. Dracula (1931) by Tod Browning, Frankenstein (1932) by James Whales, both using Boris Karloff as their iconic monsters. Frankenstein was the only one in the series to generate sequels/spin-offs such as; Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Son of Frankenstein (1939). Another early iconic horror movie was George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968). This particular movie pulled the genre away from the strict Gothic tone directors had stuck to in the past.

 Examples of iconic Horror movies:

Saw – A psychopath has two men trapped in a room, set on teaching them the true meaning of life through his twisted games. The horrific traps are full of explicit gore and violence, crafted to make the audience uncomfortable and full of fear. (Embed a scene from movie with trap)

A Nightmare on Elm Street – An evil being for a distant world enters the everyday world and targets on a group of kids, killing them through their nightmares. Using nightmares as the tool of which the villain kills the characters is very effective because it’s as though it could happen to the audience. (Embed scene in which Freddy enters a characters dream)

There are many sub-genres of Horror, such as; Comedy-Horror, Teen-Horror, Slasher, Zombie Horror. Since the birth of Horror movies, many directors have attempted to pull away from the typical Gothic scene, one monster and dark tones. Over time however, new generations of directors have tried to diversify and revamp the genre. Shaun of the Dead (2004)is classed as the greatest Comedy-Horror to date, as it also incorporates themes of Romance and also Zombie Horror, a huge leap from where the conventions started.

Conventions -
Isolated places, such as a ghost town or a dark tunnel are very typical settings for Horror movies. Showing off the isolated area creates the feeling of the character being alone with no help; usual doomed to suffer at the hands of the monster in the movie. Distant planets away from Earth are a popular setting for the Predator movies. The psychological feeling of not being on Earth and being in a completely different world is effective to stay with the audience and to essentially mess with their minds. Low angles in a Horror movie can project the power of a character in the scene, usually the monster, and a high angle shot can show how vulnerable and helpless the victim is. Handheld shots have become increasingly popular to use as of the movie Cloverfield. This shot puts the audience in the moment of the scene and in the movie and becomes a character among what is happening. Traditionally, iconic monsters were used to create fear among the audience, Werewolves, Vampires, and Mummies etc. Satanic symbols can be used to connote a strange entity being the source of fear and terror, also the mystery behind the mythology and history of the gods and goddesses can be an easy way to create an atmosphere unknown horror. The characters used within Horror movies are always very similar, as though it’s a strict code:

•       The Main Protagonist – Often the Hero/Victim of the movie.
• The Villain – Usually a disfigured monster, a social freak or Murderer
•  Annoying characters – Usually the first few to die
• Token Black guy – Often the first to die while trying to fight the Villa
• Damsel in Distress – Has to be saved by the Protagonist
• Some sort of authority – Either believes the main characters or doesn’t. Sometimes has an encounter with the Villain and dies. 

Feedback - Miss Spencer

You have really worked hard to get a great variety of films analysed Harvey, make sure you use what you have learnt in your planning of your film. Some of your analysis is detailed and you have made use of the DISTINCT format on many occasions.  

• Use DISTINCT in every post - and talk about all of the elements
• Just get the openings of the film embedded into your posts
• You need many more screen shots, ones that are relevant to the points that you are making.

I would appreciate it if you can reply to this post once you have addressed the points above.

Task 2.1 - Hitch Analysis (Rom-Com)

The movie opens up with various shots of women, going about everyday tasks and among them, closes ups of men nervously glancing at specific women, with expressions of defeat. Upbeat music introduces the voice over saying how women think from their prospective of a relationship. As the voice over begins to explain further how women will be feeling at certain points in a relationship, shots of couples not working well or not even starting are shown. The voice over creates a sound bridge linking all the scenes together, and creates a fluid transition between them allowing the audience to follow along easily. A good technique to opening the movie is the character breaks the 4^th wall, addressing the audience directly and intrigues them with witty, comedic dialogue to draw the audience in. The opening to this movie has all the conventions of a traditional Rom-Com, being from a female prospective and predominantly women as the characters, but this movie tells the story through a male’s point of view which is a different take on the genre and expectations of the movie most audiences will have. 
 

Task 2.1 - Cabin In The Woods Analysis (Horror)

Cabin in the Woods opens up with CGI blood pouring sequence, changing and forming into quiet graphic images of people lying dead, being sacrificed and worshipping Gods through it. Immediately, all these fall true to the conventions of the horror genre and are what it desired from the target audience such as teenagers and early adults. Accompanied by a dark tone of music, it really sets up the tone of any typical horror movie, as the music reaches its peak, the camera cuts to a medium shot of two businessmen talking about family life. This sudden change in atmosphere is canny in a way that it creates a humours transition to set up what these people are doing. Reverse shots from the 2 characters indulge the audience into the conversation as they hint at things going wrong in certain areas of the world. Having a mystery at the opening of a horror movie is very effective as it allows the audience to be engaged into the movie at an early stage and gives them a reason to pay attention to it and want to stay around for the whole movie.

A cheesy dramatic title jumps on screen; this allows the transition of the previous scene to develop into the introduction of the characters. This is very effective as just jumping from the horrific intro to character introductions would feel a little disconnecting, but gradually becoming less serious allows this to become possible. The camera pans up from street level to a window with a woman packing a bag with conventional teenage movie playing in the background, cutting to reverse shots of her engaging in dialogue with another female character. This introduces the very obvious damsel in distresses that will be in the movie. An extended medium shot of a new character, the conventional hero of the movie is introduced but very cleverly instead of just being the typical, tough hero he’s also smart. I feel the effectiveness of this is that the director has introduced and followed typical conventions of the genre, but also breaks them too.

Task 2.1 - Signs Analysis (Thriller)

The opening title screen opens up with the movie’s title in front of a tinted blue background. This is a typical convention among some horror movies, The Ring and Saw being just a few. It gives off the feeling of being cold, isolated and sort of in a void of no escape. The background music starts of eerily quiet and progresses to get louder and louder, getting more frantic as the credits roll on, this is effective as it hints at the fast paced direction, intensity and chaos the movie will take. The shot booms on screen without much warning of a back garden, seemingly almost pristine, As though it’s too perfect and something just doesn’t seem right about it. Cutting to a man in a bed waking up and he himself not feeling right neither, close ups of his face and his happy family in a photo frame, the man himself being in a Priests uniform. A medium shot of him brushing his teeth reveals a faded spot where a cross used to be, implying he had faith but has now lost it somehow.

A girl screaming alarms him and moves so quickly and unnatural it seems he’s very protective over his children. After finding his children, his daughter seems as though she is still in a dream, the look the father gives her is one of certainty. The father then finds his son who says, “I think God did it”, implying his son and perhaps the whole family still have some faith and that God made lies ahead of them, a medium tracking shot, shows the father going towards what his son showed him, which also suggest the father hasn't lost faith, contradictory to what the stained cross showed earlier on in opening scene. An establishing panning shot of the entire crop field reveals huge crop circles, and as the camera slowly continues to pan to reveal more, the circles just seem endless, on-going.

Task 2.1 - Drive Analysis (Thriller)

The movie opens up with a scene that is constructed to introduce the audience to the world of The Driver, how meticulous and calculated he is. In a panning shot, we see that he already has a map with different routes planned out, and with the addition of a voice over, we learn how he has rules to what he does and how in control and comfortable he is in this world. The camera continues to pan right, and then up to a medium shot of The Driver looking over the city cloaked in darkness expresses also how in control he is and with a scorpion on his jacket to give the character a typical protagonist looks for the audience to support and like throughout the movie. The camera pans left again to see basketball game quietly plays on in the background, to the naked eye, this might just seem like a casual pass time for this character, but under analysis this element is all a part of The Drivers plan. After a long angle shot looking up at The Driver getting to where he needs to be, the audience sits in silence as we look up at him, looking so calm and controlled in his world, in his car.

A medium shot of a new character in a garage smoking is cut to just before the Driver enters the scene, his boss Shannon is very talkative, unlike The Driver himself, also offering him a list of drugs as he’s concerned for The Driver, ‘You getting any sleep?’. This could suggest that Shannon is somewhat a father figure to The Driver, which creates a kind of relatable compassion for the character. As Shannon introduces The Driver to the car he’ll be using in the getaway, a song called Tick of The Clock by the Chromatics starts to play in the background as The Driver begins to finally look up in front of him from putting on his gloves and admire the car he’ll be using. The music coming in at this particular point is iconic as from The Drivers perspective he’s starting to feel excited and in a way anxious about wanting to drive the car. The music pulses away in the background and begins to get louder as he gets into the car and cuts to an establishing shot over the city.

Close ups of The Drivers face are shown as he’s driving to further show how controlled he is over the situation,  another close up of him setting his watch on a timer shows how meticulous he is in his method and actions. He sets up a radio to track police movements and also puts on the car radio to listen to the same Basketball game he was listening to in his apartment. As one of the criminals gets into the car, close ups and extreme close ups of The Driver and his watch are shown to give more insight into his character, he has rules and if they’re not stuck by he will drive and leave them. As the second crook enters the car, he snaps his head back in front of him onto the road as though he can finally drive away. The next few scenes are him getting the criminals away from the crime and towards safety. The camera however never leaves the car; it always stays close to The Driver and is done to capture his way of managing in this world and to show the getaway from the perspective of The Driver and not to show the Hollywood style getaway chase that a lot of audiences expected in this movie.  The Driver successfully gets the criminals safely away under the huge crowds and confusion of the Basketball ending. The characters plan and control finished so perfectly as he casually walks away from the car and even coolly slips passed Police Officers, showing just how comfortable he feels with his plan and within his criminal world. 

Feedback - Miss Spencer

You have made a good start Harvey - using lots of media language and often discussing the meaning of the elements you have picked out. You have also thought about conventions of the genre and linked them to the elements you have picked out.
I would like ot see a little more detail however (make sure you cover Sound/mise en scene/ editing and camera movement/framing etc)
Your work is currently on a level 3 but in order to improve you should:

•  Think about the questions below, ensure you are addressing all of them.
•  Embed JPEG images throughout you analysis (stills from the film) and a video of the opening sequence in order to illustrate your analysis (make then relevent to what you are talking about throughout)
• Ensure your work it titled appropriately - put the genres together in separate posts (one post for each genre - two films for each genre!)

  Study the opening sequences of any film from the Thriller, Horror, and Romantic comedy genre. E.g. Seven, The Dark Knight Rises, Halloween, Notting Hill, Love Actually etc. Analyse how the sequence has been constructed through its use of: Camera angles, shots, movement, Editing, Sound, Special effects and Mise-en-scene etc.

· In terms of editing how have the separate images been put together - Think in terms of frequency of cuts, fades in/out, jump cuts, dissolves etc.

• What visual images appear on screen throughout the sequence? And what do they mean?
• · Describe what narrative (story) is being displayed in the sequence from start to finish.
• · Describe what kind of music; diegetic/non-diegetic/incidental/ambient etc. is being played over the sequence.
• · How and what titles are being displayed during the sequence and in what order.
• · What kind of characterisation is evident? - Age, gender, relationships etc. 

That Awkward Moment and Under The Skin - Opening Titles Analysis

That Awkward Moment - Romantic Comedy
The opening to That Awkward Moment starts with the generic sound of the city, with cars honking and people getting around the city. Having just those sounds in the background of a black screen is very effective because it gives the audience something they're familiar with, normal everyday life. This gives the audience the sense that the story and characters in the movie could be just normal, everyday people which makes the comedy and characters relatable to themselves. A voice over slowly starts to set up the movie for this one character and his situation. In a romantic comedy genre, a voice over could be used to show a sort of confession or insight to the characters life, which is a great way to introduce the character. The camera cuts to a wide angle of this character sitting alone in a park. The dark park, along with the feeling of winter and cold,
brings about a sense of loneliness around such a time as Christmas. The street lights are very typical convention of romantic movies, showing perhaps warmth or feeling of being welcome. These two ideas of loneliness and welcoming are just so opposite that could show that surrounding this character there are things that shouldn't really work together but they do. A sound bridge linking this scene to the next links his dilemma to the next scene showing off the first bit of romantic comedy in the movie. The scene mostly involves reverse shots of this new female character and the first character talking about the next step in their relationship. The reverse shots are really able to capture the delivery of a punch line and then cut to the other character to be able to capture the character opposite and their reaction. After the confrontation, an establishing shot over New York is show, this gives the audience the feeling of something familiar and of a normal setting in life and in most movies. This is done to set a tone of realism to the movie, which for the audience, draws them in because it's interesting to see how normal people are in relationships in relation to themselves and that gives the movie and audience something to relate and connect to.

Under the Skin - Horror

Sinister music slowly getting louder breaks the suspense of looking at a black screen. It gives off a slightly unnerving,  mysterious tone for the start of the movie. Accompanied by images of space and eclipses, the opening brings the audience this almost hypnotic, suppressed chaos of music which tries to make the audience feel uneasy and uncomfortable but with fascinating images of space. Among the music and the imagery, a woman's voice can be heard but it isn't very clear at first, but after a while parts of it become more clear. The intrigue of wanting to know what this woman is saying will bring the audience in until they're almost being hypnotised by her. Even though the audience is thinking they're making sense of what she is saying, it gets more an more inaudible so the audience is stuck in this endless loop of being in a trance over and over and over again. This theme of hypnosis seems very strong and reoccurring and links in closely with the element of space.Both themes being very unknown of and unclear of what it's really all about.

 After an extreme close up of an eyeball looking straight into the camera, showing the deep details of the eye that can't be seen with the naked eye, various medium shots of a waterfall at different angles until we arrive at a road with a lone light navigating down it. A close up of the bikers visor puts us uncomfortably close to this person we know nothing about and the jet black leather clothing, helmet and bike delivers a very tense feeling of doom lingering over the scene as the audience and the biker are together travelling down the road but the audience can't see the way. The biker then pulls over to the side of the road, pulling onto the wrong side of traffic, as does the camera which brings a subtle sense of confusion as if this person doesn't quite understand just basic driving rules, potentially this character isn't from around here? He dismounts off and takes off his helmet with a posture and body language which shows a sense of duty about him, as though he knows what he needs to do and it just has to be done. The camera cuts to a high angle, medium shot showing a wide, dark open field where the biker walks down and is consumed by darkness. He returns seconds later with the body of a girl.

Media Studies – Mission Impossible II

The opening to Mission Impossible II, opens with an establishing shot of a very dangerous and isolated mountain side before coming to a stop and focusing on a man, climbing the cliff side. Several aerial shots of the man hanging, calmly on the cliff are shown, and close ups of his hand as it reaches for the next outreach of the cliff and his feet as he climbs with ease. The camera slowly pans out as we get a good comparison of the man to the mountain that he’s climbing.  As he’s climbing, the call of an eagle is heard, the connotations of this are that an eagle is the top of the food chain and an elite predator, which represents him as a character. It could also represent him as a true, patriotic American. As well as the wind being very loud in this opening scene, a hip hop dance song is playing also, making it very contrapuntal to the situation. A slow zoom on the cliff far away from the man hints the audience that he’s going to jump for it, the slow zoom gives time for the audience to feel tense about the situation.  Slo-motion added to the jump to the other cliff, creates more tension and suspense so the audience have to wait longer to see if he made it. The quick cuts between him falling, create quick, added elements of action as he’s falling.

As the man recovers from the fall into a religious image, like Jesus. This religious representation of the savior shows that this character is literally the savior, and sacrifice and the protection of others are his main goals. As he finally gets to the top of the mountain, the character feels a sense of pride and accomplishment. The faint sound of a helicopter can be heard, which gives a sense of attack and a threat against this character, before it’s revealed that the helicopter is secret service and working with the hero in some way. The close up on the rocket is very action, spy movie typical to zoom in on the gadget before it’s used, to show it off. A rocket containing glasses lands on the mountain top, which the hero smiles at and shakes his head a little. His facial expression sort of suggests a “This is again huh?” feeling but not in the way that it’s boring and repetitive, but more “they need me because I’m good” sort of look. Before putting them on, a zoom on the glasses gives them more screen time than if they were just normal glasses, hinting at them being more than what they seem. As he puts them on, they not only add to his spy, action hero look but the fact that he wears them, adds a sense of style to his action work.  As the hero, Ethan Hunt is briefed for his mission the camera slowly pans around him, switching between close ups of his glasses on him and medium shots of him listening to the brief. As the camera fixes onto one point and slowly pans out, Ethan delivers an action hero line and throws his glasses towards the camera, starting of the title sequence. The opening sequence transitions metallic text, which shows strength and resilience, following a fuse which has sparked which shows that the protagonist is against the clock and running out of time. Quick images of a dragon and knights suggests ideas of myth and legends among Ethan, and also chivalry, bravery and power. 

Feedback - Miss Spencer

Preliminary Movie Task & Evaluation

In a scene, usually one involving a conversation, a line keeps the camera on one side of the characters at all times. This is usually done for the benefit of the audience as it's good for continuity that the characters are on their right sides throughout the entire scene. We followed this rile ans used them heavily in conversation scenes. A match on action is an editing technique used to show the focus within the scene but cuts to and back to the overall scene in order not to break continuity. We included a match on action the show the transfer of documents and to show the intense countdown of the bomb. Both effects create a certain amount of atmosphere depending on the genre of the movie which adds to the overall performance and effect of the movie. The Translation from storyboard to filming worked very well, having put a lot of effort into the storyboard n terms of; location, feelings of the characters and how they would be feeling, emotions on the faces of them especially in close ups and so on. This planning ahead also worked well when it came to the editing. Discussing as we were planning the storyboard and while we were filming helped to build up ideas of what we wanted to put into the movie after shooting it. I learned that editing is a tough and lengthy process, to bring together the right transitions and sounds to create the right atmosphere for the movie that the genre is in. In the opening scene, We intentionally tried to make the character seem nervous and uncomfortable with something the audience is unaware of yet.