7 Days Final Copy

7 Days Draft Copy

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

1. The Title Of The Film - I used this as the title to my film as it reflects the period the film goes on for.it also puts a time limit on it which connotes a horror film as its like someone only has 7 days until something bad is going to happen. I also added a sound effect over the title saying the title to make it more scary and mysterious.


2. Setting & Location - I used various locations in the film, but the idea was to get stereotypical location of where someone might hide a body. For example with the boot of a car parked in the middle of no where and digging in a field by some trees.


3. Costumes & Props - Whilst using stereotypical locations i decided to use props in the same way. For example using an axe which could be a weapon whilst digging where a body could be put. Also a hand axe being put in the back of the boot.


4. Camerawork & Editing - I tried to use a various amount and different angles of camera shots. For Example the shot of the boot closing with the camera inside the boot looking out, i used this shot as it was a bit different and the more shots used the more interesting it looks.


5. Tile Font & Style - I used titles that went well with my black background by have them white and bold. the font is blocked but i used this as it looks creepy in black and white for a stereotypical horror film.


6. Story And How The Opening Sets It Up - The story i used was that there is a mad man on the loose who is a mass murderer. He has killed people and placed each of the bodies in stereotypical places to hide bodies. the opening sets it up by skipping ahead of time by it being on the news. the film would then start after the news report by saying 7 days ago.


7. Genre And How The Opening Suggest It - The genre is obviously horror. the opening scene suggest it is a stereotypical horror film because of the music and he realisation that people have been killed after seeing all the weapons and the locations of a stereotypical place to put a dead body. it also is shown to Be a stereotypical horror film by making it mysterious by trying to hide the face of the character, this then hides his identity.


8. How Characters Are Introduced - There is only one character in the opening scene. This is the main character as he is the murderer, but he isn't properly introduced as he is a mysterious person as the audience doesn't get the full view of the his face and his identity is hidden. he is seen to be a mass murderer and looks like he know what he is doing. as you see what he is doing and the police and news reporters know about it but have no idea who it is.


9. Special Effects - The special effects i used was to fit the genre and to fit in with the music, for example on the quick flash shots of the weapons i added a distorted effect to blur it out and make it even more mysterious. also on the first scene when the character is digging the music level increases and changes so i added a effect to go with the music. i also tried the best i could by using the banging beats in the music to Link it with the car when the character was always doing something in time with it. i also used fades and other effect throughout the whole title sequence and opening scene.

Evaluation Activity 2, How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The Main character in my film is a stereotypical mass murderer, i have researched other films that are mass murderers and i decided to use the main character out of scream. i chose this character because he is very similar to my character because of the mysteriousness of the main character. In the opening scene of my film you can Hadley ever see facial features of my character. i decided to do this because of the nature of my film in wanting it to add suspense and add a mystery to the audience watching. In Scream you never see the face of the murderer because of the mask. this is the only difference between the two characters as in my film he does not wear a mask he just has his hood up to hide him self. in scream the character uses a knife as the primary weapon he uses to kill his victims. this is different to my film as the primary weapon is an axe not knife but the original idea is still their but just using a different weapon. another reason why they are both very simular is because they are both looners and dont have many friends they grew up in a rough neighbourhood with hard childhoods. which is why they are both mass murderers as they want to get the anger out and they do not know any better.

Evaluation Activity 3, What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Evaluation Activity 4, Who would be the audience for your media product?

Demographics:

Our Target Audience was between 16 and 24 male and female. They would be in the D-C category. They would probably be from middle or upper class. Our film didn't actually have an exact race which it was aimed at, we went for a wider audience and aimed it at anyone between the age of 16 and 24. They would watch our film because teenagers like horrors that are both thrilling and shocking. We decided to aim our film at young adults because they would probably have similar interests to us. Therefore our ideas would be current and appeal to the audience. We specifically used a young female protagonist to engage young males. Males would more interested if the main character was feminine because they are more attractive for the male eye.

Psychographics:

The background music we used creates tension. We used this deliberately to put the audience on the edge of there seats. This would appeal more to females because they are usually more anxious then males. We used fast pace editing to add to this effect. Also to create a sense of madness. Finally we thought that teenagers would be the ideal target audience because they could relate to the images. 

Evaluation Activity 5, How did you attract/address your audience?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfDtIA0VZqA

this is the URL link to my film on Youtube. we tried linking it onto our Blogger but had technical difficulties

Evaluation Activity 6, What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

The camera we have used is the same camera we used in the preliminary task and previous years within my time in school. This made it easier and quicker for us as we already knew how to work the cameras. The camera we used was a Cannon MD101 PAL, this camera is just a standard definition SD camera. In order for us to get a good picture we had to keep the camera as still as we could, to help us keep the camera steady we placed it on top of a tripod. The Problem we had was we wanted to some different shots in the film such as the dutch tilt in the first scene and panning shots. when we were doing the dutch tilt we set the tripod out so we could use the handle to keep it as steady as we could. we used the same method for the panning shots. Our film picture quality may have been better if we had a HD camera although we are still pleased with he outcome of our film.

Editing on the LG and HANNS-G computers using 'Adobe Premier Pro':

In our group we decided to edit individually instead of as a group as we thought this was the best idea as we all had different inputs and ideas for our editing.

As i edited individually instead of in a group i learnt a lot about editing and how i can a wide range of effects to exploit our aims of the film. I also learnt a lot of things that i did not include in the film like the pace and tuning effects on the soundtracks. I didn't use some of these due to the fact that i felt it does not fit the aims of the film. We were limited to the amount of effects we could use as we used Adobe Premiere Pro instead of using the Apple Mac software like other groups which was out of our control.Although in the film i edited i experimented with various fades and dissolves to see which fitting the genre the most. I then came to a conclusion of using a cross dissolve on the wording and a constant power audio fade, i also used a zoom in and out on the title screen. To give the extra edge on the horror genre i used a black and white effect throughout the title sequence.

Youtube is a webiste that offers the world videos of almost anything. this cam in handy for me and my group whist doing our horror film as it was good for research. we used youtube for research as it alowwed us to look at some other horror trailers and oppening scenes. This gave us an idea on what was needed for a good stereotypical horror title sequence and opening scene. i already knew how to use youtube as i use it alot in my free time at home. i also used youtube for evaluation 5 when i had to upload my video to youtube to add annotations to explain how i represented the horror genre throught my film.

http://www.google.co.uk/ is the search engine that we used all the time for research. pictures, and finding of sites that may help out edditing such as sound sites. we needed to do this to help create the final product of the film i have finished with because of things such as effects and fonts. we also used Google alot more than intended as we needed to do some research from sites that we found from google.

Digital Voice Recorder:

Our used a device like this to record our voices to put over each of our films. It was essential that we had a good quality of voice so that the voices are clearly heard. we also needed a voice recorder for our evaluation 3 when we needed a voice over our whole film talking through it and answering the wuestion to evaluation 3.

Evaluation Activity 7, Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Our preliminary task was set for our group to be able to use simple shots like the 180 degree rule and match on action shot on opening a door with a conversation with two people. in our preliminary task we used a scene where someone was try to stop someone from killing someone's friend. I as a individual already knew how to use adobe premier pro for editing which was an advantage when it came to making the finishing touches. The preliminary task was filmed with a standard cannon camera which was the same camera we used to film out horror opening scenes. This is because there was not enough mac books or HD camera to give out. The one advantage we did have using the standard definition camera and adobe premier pro is that we already knew how to use them and had we could get straight on and do what we needed to do. but on the other hand the HD camera produced a better quality picture and the macs was more advanced in the editing region compared to adobe premier pro. Due to the preliminary task we learnt how to use effective shots in the right places. By using a standard definition camera and the adobe software we had a headstart on the editing side as we knew how to the majority of the editing aspects.  Although due to our restrictions of editing transitions etc i believe i got the most of the programme without making the film less stereotypical and unprofessional. In our final film we managed to use some of the shots we learned in the preliminary task such as the 180 degree rule. This was used when the camera shot was on the car as we kept the camera on one side of the car and didn't switch to the other side. We also used the match on action shot which was used in the preliminary task. This was used when the news report is being filmed out side and then the camera has moved tot he side with the reporter moving to add continuity to the film.

group roles

The group roles were all chosen on the first day of planning. we all sat down and talked about what each of us are better at. I was the producer and editor. I was these because i felt i was one of the most creative people in the group. you need to be creative as the editor as the editing can decide how the film will go and it will also get the extra marks that may be needed. The director covers the whole film a decides how the film will go and set out to be. this was Liam Dawson. Rhys Williams and Kieran dale were the camera men who choose all the angles of the shots and how they would be made. Kieran and Rhys also were mise-en-scene supervisors where they organised all the filming and made the set how they wanted it to be all of this is needed to create a good stereotypical horror film. 

Title

The title i chose is '7 Days' I chose this title because it put a time line on the film for example it made the audience believe that someone only has 7 days for something before they die or something bad could happen. this creates a stereotypical horror for my film I also found a voice over that it copyright free of the same site as my sound track saying the title, this added affect to the film and made it more mysterious and scary.

plot

The plot of my horror film 7 Days is a mass murderer who is mentally ill and disturbed because of his childhood. he was brought up in a rough neighbourhood and was told his mother was killed by a rapist and they never found the colpurate in doing so. Well this is what he was led to believe by his father who grew him up to be an angry teenager with niglect and gets bullied at school. if the film was to be filmed throughout the whole film it would be discovered that his dad killed his mum and she was inocent and the son was lied to by his farther. His farther runs away as soon as his secret is out but his son is out for revenge and in doing so he only has 7 days untill his dads trial runs out with the police from court. this is the whole point of the title.

Actors

In the title sequence of my film 7 days and the opening scene there are 4 actors all together, The Main Actor is the suspicious mass murderer that places the weapons in the mysterious stereotypical places a body may be hidden. the other 3 actors are the news reporters Kieran and Rhys are the main introducer and Lisa is the story teller. If the whole film was made there would be various characters in the film such as police detectives, murder victims and so on. the main mass murderer never shows his whole face in the film this makes the film stereotypically mysterious for all the views and adds tension and realism to the film. 

props

In our film we decided to use two murder weapons, a pick axe and a mini axe. the axes were to connote violence and danger in the film. it shows the audience that there is possibly murders with these weapons later in the film. the film was also supposed to be mysterious. this is why we have thrown in a tool box with the mini axe that no one can see inside. we used a car in our title sequence to make it more realistic and as if the murderer is getting away from the crime scene. we used these props in out title sequence because it connotes a stereotypical horror film.

Production Schedule

Filming and Editing Days:

3rd December; All three shots of the pick axe, estimated 10 seconds worth of footage. Main actor needed.
Equipment Needed: Pick axe, Video camera (non HD), Tripod.  (Period 3 11:00)Setting: Enclosed field with surrounding tree's and bushes behind allotments in Eynesbury.
7th December - All 6shots that include the car, tool box and mini axe. Estimated 20 seconds worth of footage. Main actor needed. Period 1 (9:00)
Equipment Needed: Mini axe, Video camera (non HD), Tripod and Tool box.
Setting: Car park next to the setting of the pick axe shots. Behind the riverside park in St.Neots, Eynesbury.

14th December: All four shots of the news report, estimated 25 seconds worth of footage. Both Co-Actors needed. (Period 4 12:20)
Equipment Needed: Camera (non HD), Tripod, Table for reporters to sit at, chairs for them to sit on,.
Setting: A filming room inside Ernulf Academy Media area.

7th January 2012 - Begin to edit the pick axe shots and insert the title screens where needed. (Period 1 - 2: (9:00 - 11:00)

10th January 2012 - Finish editing the pick axe shots and title screens and begin to edit the car park scene whilst inserting more title screens where needed. (Period 2 - Break - Period 3) 10:00 - 12:20

11th January 2012 - Finish editing the Car Park scene and title screens. Begin and finish editing the news report/opening scene. (Period 1 - 3) 9:00 - 12:20

12th January 2012 - Find suitable sound effects and soundtracks to fit in the film, insert and trim down the bits needed for the film. (Period 3 - 5) 12:20 - 3:10   Finished editing and filming 12th January 2012.

Se7en title sequence

  2 seconds - Extreme close up on an open book with pages.
  3 seconds - " New line cinema presents" appears on screen with the book still in the background.
  7 seconds - Intertitle "An Arnold Kepelson production ".
  8 seconds - Distorted hands appear in black and white.
13 seconds - "Brad Pit " name appears on screen.
16 seconds - Razor blade shown removing skin from grubby hands.
18 seconds - Name of actor "Morgan Freeman " appears on screen.
23 seconds - Title of film "Se7en" appears on screen.
24 seconds - Flash of title appears then disapears.
29 seconds - Bok opening and " Gwyneth Dattrous " appears.
34 seconds - Close up on pen writing on paper and name "Richard Roundtree"
36 seconds - Red filter used.
39 seconds - Extreme close up on scissors cutting up a roll of film.
43 seconds - Black and white photo's
52 seconds - Pages of book and newspaper cuttings.
54 seconds - More actors names.
61 seconds - Marker pen crossing out paticular words.
71 seconds - Marker pen crossing out the eyes of the man in the image,black background and castings.
73 seconds - Face fully crossed out with marker pen.
74 seconds - Red filter appears again.
76 seconds - Red filter highlighting photo, bottom half of screen is black and white.
79 seconds - Book containing writing.
85 seconds - Dirty thumbs and small hooks.
88 seconds - Bandeged thumb.
90 seconds - Range of photo's stuck in book ( very dark and dull ).
96 seconds - Dirty thumbs shown playing with needell's.
101 seconds - Hands threading string through needell.
107 seconds - Binding the book together with string.
118 seconds - More pictures.
121 seconds - Cut out of word "God".
127 seconds -  image of typical American street with the word " Monday " appearing bottom left of the screen.

The Italian job

The opening sequence to "The Italian Job" is very similar to "Se7en" where small sections of the film are shown or relevant information suggests whats happening in the film.


We recorded the events as they took place.First  to appear on the screen was the Production Company Logo.
Shortly after we see the introduction of the the roles such as director and producer
This is followed by introduction of the main Characters.


Most films start  similar to the structure of this opening sequence. It gives the audience enough information about the film without giving to much away.This creates suspense for the audience.

Storyboard

script

Script
News Report:
Reporter - 5 bodies have today been found in and around St. Neots. Police have reasons to believe that the victims were brutally murdered by what seems to be heavy duty objects penetrating the body a number of times. There are currently no suspects but police are urging people in the area tocome forward if they anyone who may have been involved, or witnessed anything suspicious in the last week. This is Kate Smith, live is St. Neots for 5:05 news.

certificate

We all chose for the main target audience was male or female, 18 - 24 years of age. this age group was chosen because they are classed as adults and they chose whether they want to watch the film or not and whether they can handle the images and high amount of violence that our film does contain. I also did a bit of research on other films which are similar to our film which were also certificate 18 because of the violence and bad language.

filming style

When planning this film we decided to try and get as many conventions for a stereotypical horror film as possible, and doing this meant that we were doing the Hollywood style of film making. for example we choose a various amount of locations that were all stereotypical for a horror film such as a field in the middle of know where and a place that is deserted where his car has been parked up. We also made the style of the shots black and white. Yhis is because we have done some research on other horror films and the majority of them had some black and white clips in the opening scene and title sequence. This also adds darkness to the film which is also a connotation to a stereotypical horror film.

choice of background music

I got my soundtrack for my film from "http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/about" I found this website browsing the internet. before i stgarted to use the music, i checked on the website if it was copy right free. the website i used has thousands of different sound tracks that are usable for free. all you had to do was choose the genre in what music you are looking for and then it searchs up as many as it can for what variety you have choosen from. I then got to listen to as many as i wanted before choosing my final choice of music. once i had choosen the music I downloaded and placed it into my film. the piece of music i had chosen was just right for my film as it went with all the shots and was mysterious and creepy which is what I wanted.

Horror Locations and Settings

 We decided to use this location in our title sequence as it is an empty area where not many would go. We also decided to use this place as it is a stereotypical place to hide weapons or even a body which was the main idea for the title sequence.

 This location we didn't use in our end product but we was doing some research on locations that would be the best for our film and we came across this place. We thought it might of been good as again it looked a good place that someone may dispose of a body or weapon.

 Barbed wire to the audience is always seen as something bad. in this certain photo the barbed wire is wrapped round a wooden barrier. this connotes to the audience that its a place that they shouldn't be in or go over and this also makes it seen as a stereotypical horror film.

 This location is an allotment again in a place that not many people go to. we thought that this location would be good as it could be a stereotypical place to go, to hide a body if you went at night time.

Production Comapny's

This production company is also known well wide for the films they have produced. The logo suggests that paramount are a very good business, and they think they are higher than everyone else, as they have shown themselves on top of mountain tops, and the stars around the name show quality and class, and to show they put that amount of effort into every film that they make, examples of the films paramount have been involved in; Transformers, paranormal activity, The Fighter and many more.

These are known world wide for producing top quality animated films. Some of the well known films they have produced are Kung Fu Panda, Shrek, Madagascar, Wallace and Gromit. the company logo suggests that it is above everyone as its in the sky. also the character on the moon is showing him fishing, as if to say he is fishing for the best movies to bring them to the top along with there production company, also the name itself 'Dreamworks' it suggests that any dream can work with a film.

This is a world wide production company producing over thousands of movies, and has created some of the most famous movies around. The logo is big and bold to make it stand out towards the audience, and also gold, as if to say its good quality, along with that it is above the clouds to show how high it is in the world. it's also presented as a statue, to show its there for a reason. It also it has the flashing lights round the edge to show all of the attention is.

This is a smaller production company compared to the three above, this company still have made its fair share of good movies though. the logo is bold and big which connotes tot he audience that They are big and bold. The colours red and black this makes it standout more. some big films produced by this company are The Firm and Monsters.

This is also a smaller production company like vertigo not as big as the top three. this production company also still has made its fair share of good films though. such as the latest films 'the women in black' and 'the haywire' this shows the production company produces different types of genre films as haywire is a action packed film and the women in black is a stereotypical horror film. the logo is bold and italic this connotes stylish films and that they create big films the colours make it stand out and white being the colour of pure. this could connote that they create 100% pure good films to the audience with the dark background to make that stand out.

Working title is again another small production company like the two above and again smaller than the top three. working title have made a fair few good films. the two big named films in Britain are 'paul' and 'johnny English reborn' this shows that the production company like to do comedy films but they don't restrict them self to comedy as they are known to do action thriller as well. the production logo has a circle behind the name which could connote that they are complete and that they create good films as they are a completed production company with no problems the colour white in the name again could connote purity with the dark background to make it stand out again.

production company

I created this production logo because of what it connotes. we are a British company which the Big Ben Represents as it is a iconic landmark in Britain. the night time and the moon connotes the horrors as it can be seen as scary at night, which shows that we are a horror film production company. The Name RLK comes from the three peoples first letter of their names who worked in my group. the moon and being on top of Big Ben which is a tall structure shows that we are on top of things looking down showing the audience that we are one of the best production company's and we create good movies.