Semiotic Analysis

The Film Opens with a long shot of the young woman walking down the hill and over the fence. I did this to show how small the woman was compared to how big the woodlands is and to show that the woods had power over the woman because it would be so easy for her to get lost. No birds are singing which signifies that something unnatural/ bad is going on as normally birds sing and they dont when something bad is going to happen. I then cut to a close up shot of the womans face looking around her as if to say she thinks someone is following her and i did this to create a feeling of uneasiness. The shot from behind the wall is again to make the woman look small but also to make it seem to the audience that someone is watching the woman from behind the wall as well so it makes the atmosphere tense. There are several more shots from various angles which also make it feel like the woman is being watched which again increases the tension. There is a shot with the machete stuck into a fallen tree. The machete signifys that there is violence coming up but also the woman is the only person in the shot so it means that the blade is intended for her.
The woman hears a sound and turns around and catches a glimpse of something behind a tree. I did this so the audiences heart rate would increase as they know that something is now following the woman. She turns around and walks away quickly and then there is a point of view shot of her Red shoes. I used this shot to show that the girls walking pace had quickened but also that you could get a good shot of her shoes which are red which signify blood and violence. Also the red colour is jarring to the eyes compared to the darker and plainer colours surrounding the woman. The fast shots cutting between the feet of the lurker and the point of view of the lurker chasing after the woman make the audiences heart beat faster and increases the tension as the audience want her to realise that she is being chased and to get away. I ended the clip before the woman got caught to make the audience want to see more and find out what had happens to the woman. I chose the music for the media product because they had a lot of long notes in them which makes the audience hold there breath sub-conciously which therefore increases their heart rate too adding to the tension even more.

Final Synopsis/ The Pitch

I think that my film would be 'The Village (M.Night Shyamalan, 2004) meets Friday the 13th(Sean S. Cunningham, 1980)'.

Group Scenario

Currently my group consists of just me.

I was going to work with my friend Sam White but we both had different ideas that we wished to try so we both decided to work seperately.

The idea i settled on using was the one that i described in my initial ideas.

See: http://conormedia.blogspot.com/2009/03/my-initial-ideas.html

After the first two minutes i would probably develop the film to have some more characters (mixed ethnicity to attract other audiences), Ihave already shown part of the central antagonist in my film opening so i would develop his character and also introduce the central protagonist (probably a girl with brown hair to fit the stereotypes) to eventually combat his evil.

Evaluation

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

• My media product uses a number of forms and conventions, for instance the setting of the product is in a big isolated patch of woodland, the character who gets stalked in my media product is a Woman with blond hair who is sexually available which is a convention of Horror films. Also the music which i used has long notes which make the audience hold their breath and also makes the atmosphere tense and in the chase scene i incorporated a heartbeat into the background of the music which makes the product tense too.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

• My media product represents the C2 social group as my character is from the C2 social group but i expect that my product would appeal to the C1C2DE social groups too but this shouldnt exclude the A and B social groups as they may want to watch it, for instance if they were big horror movie fans but if they were not im not too sure it would be likely for this type of film too appeal to them. The female character is a C2 class public school pupil who is wearing uniform signifiying that she is somewhere between the age of 11-16 meaning that she could be in year 7-11.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

• Although I would like my product to tap into the mainstream, UK-wide or worldwide audience most films that depict the North of England are limited with their box office success. There are some exceptions to this with some films such as Billy Elliot and Trainspotting but this is mainly because they are very unique movies and appeal to quite a lot of people for many various reasons. I would expect it is most likely that my product would be distibuted by a smaller company or an Indie company as these do not strictly apply to a mainstream audience and take on films from relatively unknown directors. Some of these companies are Warp Films, Working Title and Film4 and if they thought that my media product was good i would hope that one of these companys would distribute it for me.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

• The audience for my media product would be 15-34/18-34 depending on whether i decided to take it down a more brutal and gory path. But mainly it would be 15-34 because the media product would be unsuitable for younger audiences but maybe not interest older audience members . Having a teenage actor should heighten the appeal to a teenage audience.

How did you attract/ address your audience?

• I attracted my audience by using a white female actor which should appeal to a white and male audience. Later in the movie i would also introduce more actors/ actresses of different ethnicities which should help bring in a wider audience. I would also try to publicise the movie by getting advertisements on social websites like Facebook, Myspace and Twitter which many people use every day and also maybe in popular magazines too so my media product would be advertised to as wide an audience as possible.

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

• Since starting this project i have learnt a lot about various media technologies. For instance the iMovie HD program on the school Apple Macs. I used this program to edit my media product but before starting this project i had limited knowledge of how to use the program (from the preliminary task) but i used the tutorials on the apple website to increase my understanding of how to use it. I also learnt how to use the camcorder and tripod during the actual filming of the media product which i had never used before before the occasion. Even though i didnt use any of my own music in my media product (all from copyright free websites) i had a look on Garageband and leant how to us the basics of the program.

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

• I have Learnt that even though working in a large group is hard because of many conflicting opinions and ideas it would probably have been easier to work in a pair than on my own as the workload was greatly increased and due to this my organisation for the project was greatly below standard so i ended up having to do a lot of it towards the end of the time given for the project. Taking this information into account i think that the quality of my final media product could have been better but i am quite happy with the final cut anyway.

Altogether in my opinion the project turned out good but i should have worked in a pair so the workload would be less and the work i completed would have been of a higher quality and also i should have been more organised at the start of the project and i think this would have increased the quality of the work that i have produced too.

Audience Feedback

I showed my production to my media class and some of the feedback i got was:

'The music is good'

'Red Shoes are a good idea for a Signifier'

'Liked the heartbeat because it goes in time with the music'

'The stalking shots were great'

'The music helped add to the tension a lot'

'The setting for the production was good because its a stereotypical horror scenario'

'The machete Camera shot was Imaginative and good cinematography'

'It made me want to continue watching and see what happened to the woman'

In the end i got mainly positive reviews but in my opinion there was a couple of things i could have made better.

1. As the film builds up to the part with the stalker the shots could have become much shorter and quicker to increase tension and also some of the shots at the beginning were very short and switched to very long which when i watched it i felt was quite annoying but something that i could not change as it would ruin the whole of the clip.
2. Because i filmed it on a number of days the lighting was different in a couple of shots which meant it switched between lights and darks alot so i would try and film it on days with about the same amount of light.
3. In the scene when the woman starts to run the speeds of the feet point of view shot and the speed of her running in a mid shot didnt really match so i would try and correct this.

Target Audience & BBFC

My Initial rating for the film is 15 - 24 as there is a sense of violence in the opening of the film indicated by the Machete so it definately would not be suitable for minors but it also may not appeal as much to older audiences as much as there doesnt seem to be much of a storyline and they might just shrug it off as a horror - flick. I think it might appeal to horror movie fans but also to children under the age of 15 may try to view it by illegal/ legal downloads off the web, Streaming or Pirate/ legal DVDs because they may think it can give them credibility among their peers as they have seen a movie with a high age rating.

I may change the rating from 15-24 to 18-34 as if i decided to use more violence and unsuitable materials it would become unsuitable for 15-17 year olds as well and also i could add more of an exciting storyline which would appeal to older veiwers as well.


In my produuction so far i have no actors of a different ethnicity other than white so i would lose soem of potential viewing from the different cultures but later on in the movie there is the potential for actors f different cultures to be introduced into the story so i could regain some viewers then.


The production will mainly be viewed by males as its a horror movie but there is a girl in the opening minutes of the movie so that might appeal to a female audience but also i could have a tough, resourceful girl/women as the final character which would draw still more females to wards viewing my production. This would also help out with the male viewers as if i hired a pretty actress to play the tough, resourceful girl/women it would keep the males interested (Male Gaze Theory). The movie could also be used for dates so that would appeal to still more people.

It think that my production would appeal to C1C2DE audience as most of my characters are middle class - upper middle class and also im a relatively unknown director so i wouldnt have enough credibility yet to appeal to an upper class audience.

The actress i used has a northern english accent which means the film would have a harder time at the box office but because she does not speak in the clip this shouldnt be too much of a problem.Also you cant really identify the location of where the film is set so i could say that the film is set in southern england which would probably make it more popular.

here is the guidelines for 15 year old age rated movie by the BBFC: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/c_15.php

here is the guidelines for 18 year old age rated movies by the BBFC: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/c_18.php

Final Cut

Copyright-Free Sound

During my research for filming and editing my project i have found a few useful sites of copyright free music that i can use. I must be careful and ensure that the site im using is Copyright Free and not Royalty Free as the two are totally different. Here is a List of a few of these sites:

freeplaymusic.com

akmmusic.co.uk

soundzabound.com

audio.lgfl.org.uk

audiojungle.net

musicmediatracks.com

trackline.com

http://podsafeaudio.com/

http://phlow-magazine.com/

copyleft-music.com

on-holdmusic.co.uk

Software

To edit my film i used iMovie.

Firstly we had to import the basic clips that we had taken onto the Program which was pretty straight forward.

After this i watched the iMovie tutorials on the apple website. This helped me understand what the Program could actually do as i had only really used it quite briefly before plus i needed to do all the editing on my own as i was the only one in my group so it would help if i understood what i was doing.

Then i simply put the clips into the right order and added music from the Copyright Free websites i had found . The Program was quite straight-forward and the format for editing and adding music was easy to use. I didnt really encounter any problems with it apart from the tool which is on the program that crops a clip was sometimes quite confusing so i had to keep undoing the crop if i had done it wrong and re-doing it but eventually i got the hang of it.

Equipment

The hardware that I will be using during filming will be:
A video camcorder.
A mini DV tape (60 mins)
Tripod Camera Stand

We borrowed all of this equipment from school so that we could use fairly high quality equipment without having to buy it all ourselves.

The Camcorder i used was to Film everything was the 'Canon Widescreen MV 920'.

The features of the camera are:

Camcorder Type: Digital Recording

Format: Mini DV

Recording System: PAL

Sensor Quantity: 1 Optical

Zoom: 25x

Weight: 0.38 kg

Overall the camera was robust and easy to use. It had good zoom facilities and you can edit the white balance, exposure and other features but i didnt really do this as i thought that the settings were already fine for what i was doing.

The clips were recorded straight ont o a mini DV tape and then transferred onto the Computer via a firewire cable.

I also used a Tripod in some scenes to get a shot where the camera wasnt shaky and to get a Panning shot. It was a 'Fujifilm Finepix A900'.

For some scenes it could have been useful to have a Crane for some high up shots and birds eye view shots to make it so that not all of the shots were just from ground level and to provide a bit of variation but the school does not own a crane so i settled for leving out these types of shot as it would be quite hard to produce them without the proper equipment.

Locations

The location i used for my production was ilkley woodland.

My reasons for shooting here were that most horror movies are set somewhere isolated and usually these places are woodland or haunted houses etc.

Another reason was that its pretty close by to where i live so it was convenient but also because non of the flowers are blooming yet it made the woods look gaunt and deserted which added to the overall horror movie effect. Plus as it is so big we were rarely innterupted while filming (twice at the most).

Casting

For the blond haired girl i used my sister Poppy Potts.

I used her because she was available on the appropriate days and she had the features and charateristics that i wanted in the character.She also has Blond hair which is a code and convention of horror films as normally the girl with blond hair and who is sexually available dies first (Scream Queen).

For the Killer I used myself as all of the shots of the killer were point of view so it was easier this way instead of casting someone entirely new for the part.So in a way the camera became a character in the film.

Production Schedule

Screenplay

T h e L u r k e r Screenplay

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Essays & Theses School Work media project

Storyboard

Prelim Task

I worked with Sam White, Ben Garvey, Alex Snowdon and George Needham.

• Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

My Initial Ideas

My first initial idea for the main task would be a Slasher Horror where a Blonde girl is walking home through a forest when she gets stalked by an unseen menace, she panics and tries to run and gets hunted down and killed.

The Character of the blonde female would be like a Cheerleader and she would be gossiping on her mobile phone as she walks along. Im using this type of character as from my research i have identified that this type of character is the most likely to be killed at the beginning of a Horror movie (a Scream Queen)

The setting is the forest as normally they are quite big and isolated and most horror movies involve a struggle against an evil in an isolated place where you can get no help(E.G. an abandoned house or a forest etc.)

BBFC - 12/15

Codes And Conventions Of Film Openings

Most Films have common codes and conventions that are used throughout its length. In class we have looked at film openings from a wide range of genre such as love actually to Halloween. Here are a few analysis's of these:

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Director: Steven Spielberg

The Genre is Action/Adventure.Makes you feel for the character right from the start , you want him to win.
It portrays Indiana Jones as a dark mysterious stranger, he is displayed in silhouette, which makes you wonder who this guy is. He is calm and collected, almost seems invincible which gives the audience an almost immediate attraction to him.
You can tell that he is the leader because he is always at the front, he knows what hes doing and everyone follows him.
The tense music creates an atmosphere of danger and it makes the audience nervous because they know somethings going to happen but they are not sure what.
The hat and whip of Indiana Jones are Iconic and almost instantly recognisable when you see them.


Trainspotting (1996)

Director: Danny Boyle

The Genre is Comedy/Crime/Drama.

The opening makes the characters seem quite cool using a voice over which introduces them. Immediately attracts the audience to the Characters. The music used makes the overall atmosphere feel exciting. It starts before the pictures and

launches you into the film. This is a Sound bridge.

The opening starts with instant action/fast-paced which keeps the audience interested.

A lot of darker colours are used to show its down to earth and quite gritty.

It tells us about the characters lives with pictures.

Touch of Evil (1957)

Director: Orson Welles
Universal International Production/ Distribution Company.

Company Logos are shown at the beginning.

Tense music at the beginning to draw the audience in.

First few opening seconds are very important.

Setting bomb non-digetic ticking sound to over exaggerate its sound.

Narrative enigmas.

1st person in first few seconds is often the main character.

Person runs in and out of camera.

Crane is used for shot over car so the film has a reasonable budget.

Middle class because of clothes, stereotypical heterosexual couple.

The audience requires some narrative exposition near the beginning.

3 minutes 20 seconds of one continuous shot.

Leprechaun (1993)

Director: Mark Jones

Genre: Comedy/Fantasy/Horror

Trimark pictures

Horror movie because of dark/unnatural lighting.

Blue lighting

Connotations of fantasy because of sprinkly music.

Fantasy/Celtic style font - associated with Scottish, Irish, Welsh.

Dutch tilt - gives feeling of uneasiness.

Irish stereotypes - man drinking.

Lightning strike - signifier of horror.

Intertextual Homage - an example of post modernism.

Scream (1996)
Director: Wes Craven
Genre: Crime/Horror/Mystery/Thriller so Hybrid Genre Dimension Films
Non-Digetic music - creepy, long sustained note, tense
Black and white writing - Horror
Production company logo animated
Heartbeat fast paced, disrupts own, tense
Creaking door noise - old fashioned horror movie
Animated title - looks like an x-ray to start with, blue colour tint signifies coldness - 1978 Halloween blue tint has been used ever since
Sharp serif edge font - knives, sharp
Bang going with heartbeat flashing red over screen
Girly Scream - puts you on edge
Whit type turns red - signifies blood, violence
blond teenager - aimed at teenagers
Genre conventions tell us that the blond haired female will die
camera zooms in shakily - conveys a growing sense of a threat, impending violence
phone rings - camera zooms slightly
dutch tilt on second answering of phone signifies that something is not right
nighttime and blue tinted lighting on house
size of house signifies middle class/upper class
ABC 1 - upper class, upper middle class
Trees around house make it seem claustrophobic
Popcorn - Post Modern humor as many of the audience eating popcorn
Camera tracking character - signifies stalking or being watched
Set of knives intentionally displayed - slasher movie
Camera very Intentional slight wobble , unusual
Grabs knife, signifies violence in future?
When woman stabbed by man knife represents phallic - symbolic representation of penis so symbolic rape.
Popcorn cooking represents sexual tension building.
Inter textual reference to another of Wes Cravens movies (nightmare on elm street)
2 mins 28 seconds truly reveals horror movie
12 mins 23 seconds for mini narrative
Brown hair, white dress, teddy bear, doing homework so signifies pure and innocent
Quite big room so middle class/upper class family.
The mask of the killer in scream is also very iconic and instantly recognisable.

Bride of Chucky(1998)

Director: Ronny Yu

Genre: Comedy/Horror/Romance/Thriller

Non-Digetic music, long sustained note - makes tense

Creepy serif font, looks gooey like blood slightly

Heartbeat sound messes up your own and makes you feel uneasy

David Kirschner Production Company and Universal Studios

Thunder and Lightning

Blue Tint - Unnatural/Supernatural

American flag signifies that its set in America

Public Building, Police dept evidence depository with a dutch tilt shot - creates uneasy feeling

Lightning is the source of lighting

Mask inter textual reference to Friday the 13th and mask from Halloween(Mike Myers)

28 Days Later(2002)

Director: Danny Boyle

Genre: Horror/Sci-fi/Thriller
20th Century Fox Searchlight Pictures

Handheld camera makes it seem disoreintated, chaotic

Multiracial

News footage montage shows crisis and mass panic

Arial shot of panic, riots

Dutch tilt shows that something is not right

Blue tint creates a feeling of uneasiness

Cambridege primative research centre sets the scene

balaclava, smashes the security camera signifies that they are up to no good

Dutch tilt, flickering light - uneasiness, sinister

exaggerating taking photo almost pausing movie

Dark lighting, Sinister

Flash changes camera, visual bridge

Flashing red light signifies blood, violence

Handheld Camera, Jumpy signifies chaos, disoreintation, violence

Woman dies first, Binary opposition - brown hair girl dies first

High angle shot when lying on bed shows vulnerability

extreme close-up

Wires signifies scientific, blurry, confusion

Low angle shot shows hes in power as broken free from wires

close up, long shot

Light distorted - Eyes adjusting to it

Camera follows him - stalking, being watched

canted angle on man with phone, not right

Theme of trying to be contacted

Layer Cake(2004)

Director: Matthew Vaughn
Columbia Pictures, Marv Films, Matthew Vaughn Production

Budget: 4 Million Pounds

Won Empire Award

Daniel Craig, Michael Gambon= A-List Stars and both British Actors

Bright lights behind drugs and branding draws attention to them and also tells us what age the target audience of the film is

Genre: Mixed, Drama, Crime, Thriller

Kidulthood(2006)

Director: Menhadge Hudda
Stealth films,Cipher films, TMC Films,Revolver Entertainmenet, Hanway Films

Title - Graffiti, Knives through it

Non-Digetic music, Techno - Associated with young people

Fast blurred shots keep audience focused

Young people actors - so aimed at young audience

Budget= 80,000

Part of a trilogy

Written by Noel Clark

Multi Cultural, Denotes city life

Accents are form london so sets the scene as to where the movies is located

Dark Knight(2008)

Director: Christopher Nolan
Genre: Action/Crime/Thriller

Warner Bros Pictures, Legendary Pictures, DC Comics

Non-Digetic ticking makes it tense

Quick cuts no messing around

Guns show violence

Dramatic irony as audience knows something that the actors dont

Coach Carter(2005)

Director: Thomas Carter
Paramount, MTV Films

Filmed in California

Budget: $30 Million

Overall Gross: $67 Million

Shutters on shop signifies poor neighbourhood

Teenage Boys playing basketball shows focus of film

A Mixed race cast shows california ethnicity

Police Guard on School shows rough area

Anchorman(2004)

Director: Adam McKay
Dreamworks, Apatow Production

Written by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay

Genre: Comedy

Filmed in California

Establishing Shot- Big city setting

Voiceover makes it seem like a documentary

Initial Analysis Of A Film Opening

Apocalypto

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Presentations & Slid culture Mel

This was a presentation that i had to do in front of my media class which was an analysis of the first two minutes of Apocalypto.

Coursework Task

The Brief set for our AS coursework production is as follows:

• Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.
• Main Task: the titles and openings of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

(All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source.)

THE DEADLINE FOR A COMPLETRED PRODUCTION IS THURSDAY APRIL 2nd