Friday, 26 March 2010
Thursday, 25 March 2010
The Film Industry
Production - a small production company will form and have an idea for a new film. They will then have to get funding for this film. Films often cost many millions of pounds/dollars to make. the production company will go to the distributor for this money.
If the distributor likes the idea; in other words that the film has a winning formula (similar films have been been successful before) of that it is so brilliantly original that it amazes them (this most unlikely to be the case). Also the idea must meet the conventions of the genre to which it belongs. Then the distributor may well lend the money for the production company to make their film.
The distributor can force changes to the idea and demand that certain stars appear in the film.
The production phase itself is split up into three sections:
1. Pre-production: planning, design, storyboarding, casting...
2. Production: the actual shooting of the movie.
3. Post-production: editing the movie together, adding sound and special effects.
Distributor/Distribution
These people have the money. They are often the large studios: Universal, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Brothers. They are often part of a huge media conglomerates: Vivendi Universal, News Corporation and Time Warner. They are wealthy and own much of the worlds media.
Once the film has been produced (made) then the distributors start marketing the film: posters, interviews with stars, merchandise, soundtrack, trailers...
Seeing as the distributor lent most of the money for the film then they scoop up the majority of the films profit.
The distributors are often American, hence this is why the American Film Industry dominates our screens.
Exhibition
The showing of the film. The can be either:
- Cinema
- DVD (rental and sales)
- Video (rental and sales)
- Satellite/Digital TV and Box Office
- Terrestrial TV
- Internet
If the distributor likes the idea; in other words that the film has a winning formula (similar films have been been successful before) of that it is so brilliantly original that it amazes them (this most unlikely to be the case). Also the idea must meet the conventions of the genre to which it belongs. Then the distributor may well lend the money for the production company to make their film.
The distributor can force changes to the idea and demand that certain stars appear in the film.
The production phase itself is split up into three sections:
1. Pre-production: planning, design, storyboarding, casting...
2. Production: the actual shooting of the movie.
3. Post-production: editing the movie together, adding sound and special effects.
Distributor/Distribution
These people have the money. They are often the large studios: Universal, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Brothers. They are often part of a huge media conglomerates: Vivendi Universal, News Corporation and Time Warner. They are wealthy and own much of the worlds media.
Once the film has been produced (made) then the distributors start marketing the film: posters, interviews with stars, merchandise, soundtrack, trailers...
Seeing as the distributor lent most of the money for the film then they scoop up the majority of the films profit.
The distributors are often American, hence this is why the American Film Industry dominates our screens.
Exhibition
The showing of the film. The can be either:
- Cinema
- DVD (rental and sales)
- Video (rental and sales)
- Satellite/Digital TV and Box Office
- Terrestrial TV
- Internet
Production Company name and logo
As we are working together in a group, we have all come up with the name of our Production Company Name. The name for our company we came up with using the first letter of our names and came up with the name: ALT Productions.
This is our production company logo, this was created by Aaron in our group. We are pleased with thr logo as its simple and easy to understand. This logo will be featured in our teaser trailer.
This is our production company logo, this was created by Aaron in our group. We are pleased with thr logo as its simple and easy to understand. This logo will be featured in our teaser trailer.
Synopsis for new idea for a Horror Movie
A young girl of about 16 and her brother are moving into a new house with their mum and her new husband. The hous is big and old fashioned, and is on the outskirts of town.
As they are moving the boxes in, the older brother is winding up his sister, telling her that the house is haunted. She brushes him off, telling him that she never has and never will believe in ghosts.
During the night the teenage girl, Cassie, is having trouble sleeping, listening to the 'bumps in the night', suddenly she sits up, her eyes are open and they flash bright red, they then fade to their normal colour and she slumps back into her bed.
The next morning the family dog barks at the girl for no reason. Over breakfast the mother is talking about what they can put into the loft, the stepdad snaps at them, he tells them that nothing can go up into the loft. They all find this a bit strange but brush it off as stress from the move.
Cassie finds a battered box, thinking it is one they must have missed in the move, goes to put it with the others, but a voice in her head, one whaich is not her own tells her to open it and look at what is inside.
She finds an old family photo out in fromt of the house; it is of the stepdad with his previous family. There are also newspaper clippings showing a picture of the previous teenage daughter who went missing a few years before.
When Cassie reads the clippings she has flashbacks of the previous girl's life in the house. She is running away from an unknown villain, all you can see are the hands of the antagonist trying to grab the girl. She trips and falls to the ground where the hands drag her away.
Cassie goes to her room, where she appears to be sitting on her cabin bed talking to herself, you then here the voice from earlier relpy to her and see the previous daughter sitting at the desk under the bed.
Throughout the next few days Cassie talks to the girl, she finds out that they had the same stepdad, and she has more flashbacks.
She has a premonition of herself in the same scenario of running away from the hands, the hands which have been tormenting her dreams.
The stepdad asks her to help him with the shopping and put some things away for him, she goes with him and he is very strict and protective about her when they are out.
After more dreams and premonitions all including the hands and images of the loft, she figures that to get the answers she has to go into the loft, the previous girl from the visions tells her that is the right thing to do, but to wait until everyone has gone out for the day.
Cassie waits for a day where everyone has gone to work and she has been left home alone. She goes to the landing and gets out the ladder for the loft, half way up the ladder she hears someone come in through the door. Scared she comes down the stairs and tries to act normally in front of the step-dad. She asks him if he would like a drink and goes out to the kitchen to get him one, suspiciously he goes up the stairs and finds the ladder up to the loft.
He comes back down the stairs and slams into the kitchen. He asks harshly if she has been up in the loft, she replies trying to act inconspicuous that she has not been up in the loft, and that she wasn’t planning to either.
He shouts her, telling her that she is a liar, all the while he is advancing on her. Cassie backs away from him running through the house, he follows her trying to grab her, she grabs the cordless phone from the side and tries to dial the police as she runs, but her hands fumble too much to ring properly.
The chase pursues all through the house, until Cassie is back in the kitchen, fumbling the phone in one hand and the lock on the back door with the other, she manages to get out into the garden just in time, and runs towards the back fence and tries to get over the back fence. As she is trying to climb, he catches up with her, pulling at her by the ankles back down to the floor, he drags her, screaming back towards the house.
She is still fumbling the phone in her hand trying to ring the police, he rips it from her hands and chucks it across the room, where is smashes on the wall, falling to pieces on the floor. He drags her kicking and screaming up the stairs towards the loft.
He pushes her into the loft and pushes her across the floor, it’s very dark and dusty, and when her eyes adjust to the light she can see the morbid images of a girl, and she can not work out what is happening to the girl in the pictures as they are too distorted.
He explains to Cassie that the previous girl was just like her, and tells her what he did to her and how he is going to do the same to her, and she is going to be very quiet and not say a word to anyone. She begins to scream and he kicks her, and tells her that he just told her to be quiet.
They both hear the door being unlocked downstairs and Cassie scrambles for the hatch, she tries to scream and he covers her mouth.
Down stairs the mum and the brother hear the struggle and wonder what is going on, they both go to the stop of the stairs as they see the loft hatch being shut and the terror in Cassie’s scream. The mother goes up into the loft and the step-dad pushes her to the floor. The brother tells her to go downstairs and phone the police, as he goes up to the loft.
Down stairs the mum finds the phone smashed on the floor, and fumbles with her bag trying to find her mobile phone.
Mean while upstairs the brother managed to get into the loft, Cassie seeing him, but the step-dad doesn’t. The brother mouths to Cassie not to look surprised, and he picks up the loft hatch and smashes it over the Step-dad’s head knocking him to the floor, the mother has phoned the police and helps Cassie down from the loft.
When the step-dad comes back around the police are there and are arresting him, with all the evidence from the loft they explain to the family about his previous family and what happened.
That night Cassie wakes up in the night, again her eyes flash red and fade back to normal, then you see the previous girl wave and leave the room.
As they are moving the boxes in, the older brother is winding up his sister, telling her that the house is haunted. She brushes him off, telling him that she never has and never will believe in ghosts.
During the night the teenage girl, Cassie, is having trouble sleeping, listening to the 'bumps in the night', suddenly she sits up, her eyes are open and they flash bright red, they then fade to their normal colour and she slumps back into her bed.
The next morning the family dog barks at the girl for no reason. Over breakfast the mother is talking about what they can put into the loft, the stepdad snaps at them, he tells them that nothing can go up into the loft. They all find this a bit strange but brush it off as stress from the move.
Cassie finds a battered box, thinking it is one they must have missed in the move, goes to put it with the others, but a voice in her head, one whaich is not her own tells her to open it and look at what is inside.
She finds an old family photo out in fromt of the house; it is of the stepdad with his previous family. There are also newspaper clippings showing a picture of the previous teenage daughter who went missing a few years before.
When Cassie reads the clippings she has flashbacks of the previous girl's life in the house. She is running away from an unknown villain, all you can see are the hands of the antagonist trying to grab the girl. She trips and falls to the ground where the hands drag her away.
Cassie goes to her room, where she appears to be sitting on her cabin bed talking to herself, you then here the voice from earlier relpy to her and see the previous daughter sitting at the desk under the bed.
Throughout the next few days Cassie talks to the girl, she finds out that they had the same stepdad, and she has more flashbacks.
She has a premonition of herself in the same scenario of running away from the hands, the hands which have been tormenting her dreams.
The stepdad asks her to help him with the shopping and put some things away for him, she goes with him and he is very strict and protective about her when they are out.
After more dreams and premonitions all including the hands and images of the loft, she figures that to get the answers she has to go into the loft, the previous girl from the visions tells her that is the right thing to do, but to wait until everyone has gone out for the day.
Cassie waits for a day where everyone has gone to work and she has been left home alone. She goes to the landing and gets out the ladder for the loft, half way up the ladder she hears someone come in through the door. Scared she comes down the stairs and tries to act normally in front of the step-dad. She asks him if he would like a drink and goes out to the kitchen to get him one, suspiciously he goes up the stairs and finds the ladder up to the loft.
He comes back down the stairs and slams into the kitchen. He asks harshly if she has been up in the loft, she replies trying to act inconspicuous that she has not been up in the loft, and that she wasn’t planning to either.
He shouts her, telling her that she is a liar, all the while he is advancing on her. Cassie backs away from him running through the house, he follows her trying to grab her, she grabs the cordless phone from the side and tries to dial the police as she runs, but her hands fumble too much to ring properly.
The chase pursues all through the house, until Cassie is back in the kitchen, fumbling the phone in one hand and the lock on the back door with the other, she manages to get out into the garden just in time, and runs towards the back fence and tries to get over the back fence. As she is trying to climb, he catches up with her, pulling at her by the ankles back down to the floor, he drags her, screaming back towards the house.
She is still fumbling the phone in her hand trying to ring the police, he rips it from her hands and chucks it across the room, where is smashes on the wall, falling to pieces on the floor. He drags her kicking and screaming up the stairs towards the loft.
He pushes her into the loft and pushes her across the floor, it’s very dark and dusty, and when her eyes adjust to the light she can see the morbid images of a girl, and she can not work out what is happening to the girl in the pictures as they are too distorted.
He explains to Cassie that the previous girl was just like her, and tells her what he did to her and how he is going to do the same to her, and she is going to be very quiet and not say a word to anyone. She begins to scream and he kicks her, and tells her that he just told her to be quiet.
They both hear the door being unlocked downstairs and Cassie scrambles for the hatch, she tries to scream and he covers her mouth.
Down stairs the mum and the brother hear the struggle and wonder what is going on, they both go to the stop of the stairs as they see the loft hatch being shut and the terror in Cassie’s scream. The mother goes up into the loft and the step-dad pushes her to the floor. The brother tells her to go downstairs and phone the police, as he goes up to the loft.
Down stairs the mum finds the phone smashed on the floor, and fumbles with her bag trying to find her mobile phone.
Mean while upstairs the brother managed to get into the loft, Cassie seeing him, but the step-dad doesn’t. The brother mouths to Cassie not to look surprised, and he picks up the loft hatch and smashes it over the Step-dad’s head knocking him to the floor, the mother has phoned the police and helps Cassie down from the loft.
When the step-dad comes back around the police are there and are arresting him, with all the evidence from the loft they explain to the family about his previous family and what happened.
That night Cassie wakes up in the night, again her eyes flash red and fade back to normal, then you see the previous girl wave and leave the room.
Classification choice for Horror Movie
We chose to have our film certified as 15 because after we read the guildlines, we decided that the plot isn't scary enough, and because the sexualised storyline of rape and abuse is only implied and not shown.
There will be no nudity and the violence is not a big part of the story line. There is also tame language; no drugs or discrimination, there is not any glamorisation of weapons and the behaviour of the film is not that which would be copied or encouraged.
The information which we researched to help us get the correct rating for out film was from the link below:
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/downloads/pub/Guidelines/BBFC%20Classification%20Guidelines%202009.pdf
There will be no nudity and the violence is not a big part of the story line. There is also tame language; no drugs or discrimination, there is not any glamorisation of weapons and the behaviour of the film is not that which would be copied or encouraged.
The information which we researched to help us get the correct rating for out film was from the link below:
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/downloads/pub/Guidelines/BBFC%20Classification%20Guidelines%202009.pdf
The Film Trailer, The Teaser Trailer
Film trailers are between 2-3 minutes long. They have about 100 cuts in them. They designed to make the audience feel both:
The pleasure of text - the audience recognises familiar conventions and narratives.
Suspense in the audience - by the use of enigma codes. Who is the killer? What happens in the end?
The film trailer itself tends to be structured in the following way: this structure is not 'set in tone' and can be moved around to have greater effect.
1. The distribution company logo
2. The production company logo
3. The narrative establisher - a series of larger sequences which establish the fundamental storyline of the film.
4. The stars of the USP (Uniquw Selling Point) - often stars or directors. Horror movies traditionally don't always use well- known stars because the audience feel more uncomfortable with actors they don't recognise and don't make them feel secure. In the trailer for the horror movie Scream, the director Wes Craven is the USP because he is famous for directing the cult horror film Nightmare on Elm Street.
5. A series of quick, exciting, suspenseful sequences from the film - this is the convincer in that it should create enough suspence to ensure that the audience decide to go and watch the film.
6. Although the trailer will appear the conventions of the genre.
The pleasure of text - the audience recognises familiar conventions and narratives.
Suspense in the audience - by the use of enigma codes. Who is the killer? What happens in the end?
The film trailer itself tends to be structured in the following way: this structure is not 'set in tone' and can be moved around to have greater effect.
1. The distribution company logo
2. The production company logo
3. The narrative establisher - a series of larger sequences which establish the fundamental storyline of the film.
4. The stars of the USP (Uniquw Selling Point) - often stars or directors. Horror movies traditionally don't always use well- known stars because the audience feel more uncomfortable with actors they don't recognise and don't make them feel secure. In the trailer for the horror movie Scream, the director Wes Craven is the USP because he is famous for directing the cult horror film Nightmare on Elm Street.
5. A series of quick, exciting, suspenseful sequences from the film - this is the convincer in that it should create enough suspence to ensure that the audience decide to go and watch the film.
6. Although the trailer will appear the conventions of the genre.
History of Horror
For part of our research for our chosen brief we had to create a presentation on the History of Horror. I started to create my presentation in PowerPoint and i then created a more advanced presentation by using windows movie maker, once i had created it and edited the presentation i uploaded it onto youtube. This is the finished presentation on the History of Horror:
I cannot seem to be able to upload my presentation, but instead i got the link for the short clip from youtube instead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHz_ku3RTI0 (Link to my video)
I cannot seem to be able to upload my presentation, but instead i got the link for the short clip from youtube instead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHz_ku3RTI0 (Link to my video)
Conventions of Horror Movies
I have created a list of conventions of what a typical horror movie would have in it from start to finish:
- Weapons
- Villains
- Shadows
- Murder/Death
- Blood
- Darkness
- Eerie Music
- Weaker characters
- Brave characters
- Haunted Houses
- Isolated settings
- Victims
- Monsters
- Evil
- Storms
- Chase sequence
- Gore
- Violence
- Screams
- Ghosts
- Suspense
These are just a few conventions of a typical horror movie, but i am going to watch different horror movies from the older horror types, to today's modern adaptions.
- Weapons
- Villains
- Shadows
- Murder/Death
- Blood
- Darkness
- Eerie Music
- Weaker characters
- Brave characters
- Haunted Houses
- Isolated settings
- Victims
- Monsters
- Evil
- Storms
- Chase sequence
- Gore
- Violence
- Screams
- Ghosts
- Suspense
These are just a few conventions of a typical horror movie, but i am going to watch different horror movies from the older horror types, to today's modern adaptions.
A log and analysis of Horror Movies Viewed
The Horror Movies that I watched where:
Gothika,
Dark Water,
and The Shinning.
After watching each film, in class we would dicuss the film, what we thought about it, how it made us feel, and also we dicussed the conventions of horror movies, to help us in the making of our teaser trailer.
The first film we discussed was Gothika:
Halle Berry stars as Dr. Maranda Grey, a doctor working at the state prison for the criminally insane. On her way home during a driving rainstorm, Miranda makes a detour to avoid a big sinkhole in the road. As she is crossing a bridge on a back road, she veers sharply to the right to avoid hitting a young girl standing in the middle of the road. The car goes into a ditch, she goes to see whether the girl is unharmed, and awakens three days later to find herself a patient in the insane asylum. Miranda has been accused of killing her husband with an axe, but she has no memory of the murder. Rober Downey Jr., who also plays a doctor at the prison, tries to bring Miranda back to reality. However, one of her former patients (Penelope Cruz) tells her that you cannot trust the doctors, because they think you are nuts. Miranda finds this out the hard way when she tells the doctor that a ghost has possessed her, and he doesn't believe her and gives her more drugs. Miranda escapes from the prison to prove that she didn't kill her husband, but she discovers the truth instead.
My Opinion:
Overall i thought that the film was really good, it had a great storyline, creating suspense for the audience. I admit that i did jump at a few scenes, but don't everyone, i thought that the actors and actresses really suited their characters well. I thought that the way the story was unravelled to the audience was well thought out and really captured my attention and i was really hooked. Overall a really good film and i would give it a 7/8 out of 10.
The second film we discussed was Dark Water:
The plot involves a women, Yoshimi Matsubara, who, in the midst of an unpleasant divorce, moves to an eerie, run-down apartment building with her young daughter, Ikuko. The ceiling of their apartment has a dark and active leak. Yoshimi discovers that the upstairs apartment, which appears to be the source of the leak, was formerly the home of a young girl named Mitsuko Kawai, who was of the similar age to her daughter. The child had attended the same kindergarten Ikuko now attends. Mitsuko was abandoned by her mother and vanished more than a year ago. She also had owned a red bag which was the same bag that Ikuko found on the apartment roof when first viewing the apartment. Many incidents then happen repetitively, becoming stranger each time, with an unusual ending to the story.
My Opinion:
I think overall it's a good film, buy i think that we should have watched the English version as i would have understood it more, although i did understand the whole story in the end. I thought that watching the film made from another country would mean loads of subtitles, which i was right, but also thought that my mind would concentrate more on he subtitles rather than the film and so i would lose the story and it would make me jump. I was really wrong, although there was the downside of having the subtitles it was actually worse was when i was reading the subtitles i wasn't watching the TV screen so i jumped quite a lot at certain parts of the film.
Overall i think that its a good film, i think that what would have been better was seeing the Version but then i would only prefer the English version to the Japanese, so overall good film and i would give the film a 5/6 out of 10.
Finally the third film we discussed was The Shinning:
Former teacher and recovering alcoholic Jack Torrance interviews for a caretaker job at the Overlook Hotel in an effort to rebuild his life after his volatile temper lost him a teaching position. The hotel manager, Mr. Ulman, warns Jack that he and his family will be snowbound through most of the winter and of the potential for cabin fever. He drives the point home by recounting a season when the caretaker, Charles Grady, went crazy and brutally killed his wife, his two girls (aged eight and ten), and finally himself. Given his own desperation and the opportunity to pursue his true passion, writing, jack acknowledges the warning, but accepts the job, then things start to go a bit crazy.
My Opinion:
I think that this particular film was really well produced, the storyline was excellent, it really kept me on the edge, made me jump and scream a few times, it created a lot of suspense, throughout the film. Didn't that it was going to be really scary compared to Gothika as it was filmed in the late 1970/80s.
Overall brilliant film, was really well produced, the actors and actresses really played their characters really well which added to the suspense and what really creeped me out. I think that i would rate this film 8/9 out of 10.
Gothika,
Dark Water,
and The Shinning.
After watching each film, in class we would dicuss the film, what we thought about it, how it made us feel, and also we dicussed the conventions of horror movies, to help us in the making of our teaser trailer.
The first film we discussed was Gothika:
Halle Berry stars as Dr. Maranda Grey, a doctor working at the state prison for the criminally insane. On her way home during a driving rainstorm, Miranda makes a detour to avoid a big sinkhole in the road. As she is crossing a bridge on a back road, she veers sharply to the right to avoid hitting a young girl standing in the middle of the road. The car goes into a ditch, she goes to see whether the girl is unharmed, and awakens three days later to find herself a patient in the insane asylum. Miranda has been accused of killing her husband with an axe, but she has no memory of the murder. Rober Downey Jr., who also plays a doctor at the prison, tries to bring Miranda back to reality. However, one of her former patients (Penelope Cruz) tells her that you cannot trust the doctors, because they think you are nuts. Miranda finds this out the hard way when she tells the doctor that a ghost has possessed her, and he doesn't believe her and gives her more drugs. Miranda escapes from the prison to prove that she didn't kill her husband, but she discovers the truth instead.
My Opinion:
Overall i thought that the film was really good, it had a great storyline, creating suspense for the audience. I admit that i did jump at a few scenes, but don't everyone, i thought that the actors and actresses really suited their characters well. I thought that the way the story was unravelled to the audience was well thought out and really captured my attention and i was really hooked. Overall a really good film and i would give it a 7/8 out of 10.
The second film we discussed was Dark Water:
The plot involves a women, Yoshimi Matsubara, who, in the midst of an unpleasant divorce, moves to an eerie, run-down apartment building with her young daughter, Ikuko. The ceiling of their apartment has a dark and active leak. Yoshimi discovers that the upstairs apartment, which appears to be the source of the leak, was formerly the home of a young girl named Mitsuko Kawai, who was of the similar age to her daughter. The child had attended the same kindergarten Ikuko now attends. Mitsuko was abandoned by her mother and vanished more than a year ago. She also had owned a red bag which was the same bag that Ikuko found on the apartment roof when first viewing the apartment. Many incidents then happen repetitively, becoming stranger each time, with an unusual ending to the story.
My Opinion:
I think overall it's a good film, buy i think that we should have watched the English version as i would have understood it more, although i did understand the whole story in the end. I thought that watching the film made from another country would mean loads of subtitles, which i was right, but also thought that my mind would concentrate more on he subtitles rather than the film and so i would lose the story and it would make me jump. I was really wrong, although there was the downside of having the subtitles it was actually worse was when i was reading the subtitles i wasn't watching the TV screen so i jumped quite a lot at certain parts of the film.
Overall i think that its a good film, i think that what would have been better was seeing the Version but then i would only prefer the English version to the Japanese, so overall good film and i would give the film a 5/6 out of 10.
Finally the third film we discussed was The Shinning:
Former teacher and recovering alcoholic Jack Torrance interviews for a caretaker job at the Overlook Hotel in an effort to rebuild his life after his volatile temper lost him a teaching position. The hotel manager, Mr. Ulman, warns Jack that he and his family will be snowbound through most of the winter and of the potential for cabin fever. He drives the point home by recounting a season when the caretaker, Charles Grady, went crazy and brutally killed his wife, his two girls (aged eight and ten), and finally himself. Given his own desperation and the opportunity to pursue his true passion, writing, jack acknowledges the warning, but accepts the job, then things start to go a bit crazy.
My Opinion:
I think that this particular film was really well produced, the storyline was excellent, it really kept me on the edge, made me jump and scream a few times, it created a lot of suspense, throughout the film. Didn't that it was going to be really scary compared to Gothika as it was filmed in the late 1970/80s.
Overall brilliant film, was really well produced, the actors and actresses really played their characters really well which added to the suspense and what really creeped me out. I think that i would rate this film 8/9 out of 10.
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