What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Universal Studios Logo
A massive thing to think about when looking for a distribution company to distribute your product is the budget you have been working on. We have been working on a very low budget project with no known stars in. It would be crazy to think a major company in the film industry such as Universal Studios would distribute our film as it's a massive risk for them.
From research we have found American companies such as Universal Studios are less likely to take the risk of spending money on a low budget film even though they can afford to do it.
Working Title (or Working Title Films) would be a lot more likely option, although it seems to have gone away from the ideals that it started on of using young and inexperienced actors and now also has a very high budget to use per film, spending up to £100m.
We then did more research into film distribuation companies that we may use if we produced a feature length film. As we had in our treatment I looked the film Wolf Creek. Wolf Creek had been produced on a small budget of $1m, which may be similar to ours, if ours was a feature length film. From there we found out that the distribution company for that film was Optimum Releasing, now known as Studio Canal UK since being renamed in 2006. Studio Canal UK is a subsidiary of Studio Canal a foreign based distribution company.
After finding that out we continued our search for a British indie distribution company, knowing from research that they are more likely to take risks and work with lower budgets. We then found a company called Vertigo Films which produces and distributes British films. "Vertigo Films is a UK Media company founded in 2002 to create and distribute commercially driven independent cinema.Vertigo Films is a UK Media company founded in 2002 to create and distribute commercially driven independent cinema." Quote Vertigo Films
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I've learnt so much about different technologies and also learnt more about technologies that I previously know. I've learnt how to use Final Cut to successfully edit a product to a certain person's taste such as a young person would want a fast paced edit to keep them entertained whereas an older person may like it slower.
iMovie: iMovie was the first real editing product that I had ever used. It was very simple to use and didn't take long to get used to as there were only transitions, sound effects and general editing software located on the program, it was very effective for us using it first time as we were just practising our shots (very helpful and quick to use when editing our preliminary task or first versions of our rough cuts). We also used iMovie to upload our footage to even when we later used final cut, from there we could just drag and drop it into Final Cut and it would be ready for us to edit. I learnt the basics to editing using this program and although simple to use at first I could produce something of higher quality on it now than I could of done 5 months ago.
Final Cut: Final Cut is a very complicated bit of software to use. At first I was finding it very difficult to even cut up clips as it was a lot more compact than iMovie. As I started to get used to using Final Cut it became ever so more apparent of why professional film makers use it to edit with. As we started editing rough cuts I got more comfortable using the program and the effects, transitions that came along with it. I was amazed at how I could use multiple layering effectively to build up fast paced editing when in a frantic situation such as a killing.
Cinema 4D: I was comfortable using Cinema 4D before I came onto doing this project, this is one of the reasons I chose to make a company ident using it. Although before I came onto the course I had previously made only one animation which hadn't gone so well, I had just used it for creating 3D text. This made it a lot harder, throughout the start of the project (since around the first rough cut) I had been experimenting using different animations and looking at tutorials for guidance. From using this product I got a stronger knowledge of how key frames work and how effects can make your product look more realistic (such as ambient occlusion to make your items reflect of off eachother).
Youtube: Youtube turned out to be a great resource for not only uploading and gaining feedback of the audience, I used Youtube to find out about different films that had been previously released or that are soon going to be released via trailers. I also found out more information about programs by looking up tutorials on Final Cut. Youtube allowed me to give myself feedback and not get repetitive feedback by adding annotations, this is what made me use it instead of using another file sharing website such as Vimeo.
Blogger: Blogger allowed me to update my audience on what I had been doing previously and what I was doing and going to do in the future by posting blogs. It allowed em to gain feedback and also keep a notice of what I needed to do in the future. From the start I was only using blogger to post my experiences so far, then I learnt how to use link lists. I used these to make sure my podcasts and analysis of films weren't missed by being pushed lower down. I also used link lists to advertise the Top 5 Current Horror Films according to The Guarian newspaper which updated weekly, this redirected you to the website once you clicked the link. As well as that I was able to activate a poll on a topic that I may of needed help on or what I found interesting.
Divshare: I used Divshare to upload my podcasts to this was very easy and reliable as I had to only register an account and it would save whatever I had uploaded just incase I had lost it, although the first time I struggled to find where the embed code was through the year it was very easy to use.
Scrib: Scribd is a very useful tool, it helped a lot when trying to upload powerpoints and word documents as Blogger itself didn't have tools to do that, what we'd need was to create an account and simply upload the file, from there we were able to copy the embed code and paste it in.
For a more detailed description of the technologies i've talked about please watch the video:
We had a massive advantage than the directors of the 20th century in advertising our film opening. We had a variety of ways in which we were able to attract our audience. The main audience we wanted to aim our product at was teenagers, after doing research on various horror films we found that most horror films were aimed at teenagers or young adults (primarily at 18-24 year olds).
Due to the supposed amount of gore our film featured we knew it had a target as hit films such as Saw and Wolf Creek both featured mass amounts of blood and torture. At the start of the Saw films there's always a trap and a murder, which grips the audience from the beginning, we tried this similarly in our film opening.
We used social networking sites to advertise our products to a wider range of people knowing that anyone around the world could be able to see it. The social networking site we used was Twitter (@ConspiracyProds). To save time and to get immediate feedback we asked students in our class, who were the same age as us (16, 17 and 18) to give us any feedback that they felt necessary.
Males are predominantly the sex which watch the majority of slasher films as they contain a lot of violence and gore, so we knew if we had a male main character the audience may try to relate to being them which would keep them more interested in the film.
Our main character Will, in clothing. Hoodie, Jeans and Trainers
Clothing is very important in slasher films and it is important in our slasher film. The main character wears a hoodie and a pair of jeans which is what a typical teen would wear, so you can almost identify straight away what sort of age the character is. Hoodie's are thought of badly by the older generations, they assume everyone who wears one is a yob or a thug and they should be avoided which is why it's the perfect outfit. As were already going against the typical conventions of a horror film as having a male as the scream queen. The seemly yob or thug is actually a weak person (shown by him getting kidnapped). To attract a female audience we also needed to cast a good looking male character, we thought the perfect person for this would be Will as he has blonde hair which goes with the scream queen look.
We knew by casting teens in our slasher film it would also bring in an audience, although you only see 2 characters (and ones identity) it still attracts people of the same age to watch the film. This was the same for the slasher series Scream; which is set around a group of high school kids being murdered 1 by 1.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
As a group and individually we have all improved over the project, especially since doing the preliminary task. Looking back at the preliminary task you can spot easy mistakes that you would notice in your first take now. Back when we started the preliminary task we only knew basic shots and didn't experiment, we used a long shot, a medium shot and a medium close up. There was also no variation in the shots they just came on and stayed there for a long time. We also never used a tripod while filming, which made it very shaky, a very amateur mistake we see now.
An example of what shaky footage could look like.
We have improved all over since we first filmed the preliminary task, the only thing that we knew was the 180° rule. As I said before, the camera is awfully shaky during the filming of our preliminary task, now when we go to film we use the tripod for almost every shot just to make sure it doesn't shake, as we have no idea if the shot is shaky until we get back to the classroom to edit, this loses us massive amounts of time which we found out in our first rough cut.
Our shot selection has improved massively since we first started, from our first rough cut to our almost final cut you can see a lot of changed shots even though the location has stayed the same throughout. Previously we had discussed using a shot through a wall which had holes in it to let air pass through, we set up a camera in the other room as an experiment, and used different light levels to see if we could pick anything up. To our surprise we were able to see a man walking past fully which we are now using. We now know why we should use camera angles, an example of this is in our final cut, we have used Final Cut to create a CCTV type footage effect and used a very high angled shot to detail this, it makes the victim look weak.
A camera, similar to one we film with
The mis-en-scene we chose for our preliminary task looking back was a terrible place. It made it very difficult to film as bars were placed from the ceiling into the floor. This made it difficult to get any longshots of the pair sitting at the table, causing us to only use medium and close up shots. In our recent rough cuts we have learnt to use selective filming, to film only the parts of the location that we want. This is key to our horror film as the location we filmed was a busy street, and horror film locations are notorious for being rural.
Another problem we faced in not only the preliminary task but also on the first rough cut was keeping the camera in focus, we found this difficult in several places such as the outside scenes as the light would ruin the shot that we would try to gather.
With feedback from past rough cuts we knew we had to create a realistic looking mis-en-scene. As our film was set in a old dusty basement we thought of several items that would be good as well as different items that we recieved from feedback. We thought dust would be a good idea but it would barely show up on the Mini DV Cameras that we were using to film. We instead got gravel, dirty and leaves from outside the house which were inspired by our teacher's feedback. We also had an idea of smashing a glass bottle to get glass spread across the floor which we did. These are some images that we took while on set at a previous rough cut:
After researching various other films that are similar to ours after post production and the majority of editing done, we have deciding to find out what our BBFC rating would be if our film was to be released. After I had researched various films were similar to our own such as Wolf Creek and Saw. Wolf Creek and Saw both feature high levels of gore from the beginning of the film, our film opening is the same.
18 Rating Certificate Logo
"where material or treatment appears to the BBFC to risk harm to individuals or, through their behaviour, to society – for example, any detailed portrayal of violent or dangerous acts, or of illegal drug use, which may cause harm to public health or morals. This may include portrayals of sexual or sexualised violence which might, for example, eroticise or endorse sexual assault" Quote from BBFC
This is one guideline set by the BBFC when they last updated the age ratings, which was in 2009. Our film portrays detailed and high levels of violence from the start, an example of this is when the main character is abducted and murdered while being tied to a pole by chains.
The main character is also drinking alcohol which is illegal to anyone under the age of 18 which is another of the requirements for an 18 age rated film.
1960- Psycho was released. Now known as the first real horror film, directed by Alfred Hitchcock who is now seen as an auteur. Psycho is famous for it's frantic shower scene where it features 78 shots in less than a minute.
It is known the the screeching sound track played on top of the killing. The film is also renowned for killing off it's main star Janet Leigh a third of the way into the film. "The combination of the close shots with their short duration makes the sequence feel more subjective than it would have been if the images were presented alone or in a wider angle " Wikipedia
The budget for Psycho was an estimated $800,000 and has grossed more than $50,000,000 worldwide.
1978- Halloween was released in this year, or also known as John Carpenter's Halloween. The story of a psychotic child murderer who had been kept in prison since childhood after murdering his sister. The film was a massive hit and one of the most, if not most known horror film ever. It was made on a budget of $320,000 and grossed more than $60,000,000 worldwide. The film is also famous for Jamie Lee Curtis, the daughter of Janet Leigh who was the scream queen in Psycho, being featured as the scream queen in this film. John Carpenter was not only the director for this film but also a editor and sound producer.
1980- Friday the 13th is an American horror franchise that comprises twelve slasher films. The first film directed by Sean S. Cunningham. The film is based around murders which happen at a camp at summertime. It starts as two counselors at Camp Crystal Lake are murdered by an unseen assailant after they sneak away to a cabin to have sex. Set on a budget of $550,000 it grossed just under $40,000,000 in the USA alone.
Over the last week Me, Andy and Will have been spending all our time editing our latest rough cut/final cut for our opening of "Underground". Today we have managed to finish all the editing for the opening and will be uploading it for feedback soon. The only things we need to add are titles then we need to create a soundtrack to go along with the visuals.
The typical audience for most slasher films we have researched has been an audience of 15-24 years old. This is normally the case due to the content of the slasher genre and also to do with the actors that are often teens/young adults cast in these films. However often slasher films will be part of a hybrid genre to bring more people into the film for example 'Jason X' The sci-fi slasher film the 10th in the Friday the 13th series. Female audiences may be also drawn in due to romantic content and the final girl character who is of herioc and ends up defeting the killer at the end of the film. However this is combated my the scream queen character who is often killed of near the start and to some can be seen as misoganistic. Another tactic at drawing in an older audience to slasher films is labelling it as a 'psychological thriller' Which will bring in a older audience even if the film is really following many of the slasher conventions. In conclusion the slasher genre can spread over a large audience mainly depending on marketing and the characters involved.
This is the finished ident for Conspiracy Productions. created by Will and Sean of Conspiracy Productions. We created this ident using two programs: Cinema 4d and Sony Vegas. For the 3d text, lowering of text and main structure of the ident we used Cinema 4d. After creating the animation of the text lowering and zooming in I extracted this and sent it to Will who imported it into Sony Vegas. From their Will added the ice particle effect flying upwards as well as a reflected light above the text. He also used sound effects to create a lowering noise.
This is my finished ident for my production company "FlashPoint Pictures". I initially made the ident using the program Cinema 4D created by Maxon. From there I used a free plugin called thrausi to create the shattering effect. To make the visuals look more realistic I applied effects such as ambient occlusion this particular effect makes the letters reflect off each other. I then extracted this ident and imported it onto iMovie. On iMovie I used sounds on there to create a transforming sound effect, this goes well with the ident as when the text on top shatters it shows the next layer of text.
Me and Andy have spent the last 2 lunch times cutting up our clips of when we filmed last week. We have gathered all the clips we need to-to make the full opening. We have over 1 hours worth of film to use and cut up as well as included in that are vlogs of what we were doing on set.
After finishing my part of the company ident I have uploaded it to a file sharing website (Mediafire) for Will to add sounds to as well as any effects that deem appropiate. For the ident so far I have again used the program Cinema 4D (which I used for my own ident). I did at first as having the intention to create a 3D knife but this was unfortunately too difficult and didn't look too great once made. In the end I just had text dropping onto a canvas then bouncing up, it then zooms in quickly.
The main audience we would target our media product at would be 18-24 year olds.
A reason for that is that the main characters in our film are teenagers.
As well as that teenagers or young adults feature in most horror films.
Our horror film will be fast paced which will suit a younger audience who enjoy faster flowing films.
Evaluation Question 5-
The main aspect that would attract people to our film is the genre which is horror, people are more likely to watch it if they enjoy horror films than if they don't.
We also attracted our audience by using social network sites such as twitter, where we updated people on what was currently happening in the production of our film opening and how it was going stage by stage.
We uploaded several rough cuts for feedback on the film which would attract an audience as they may enjoy certain scenes which we had uploaded and could change the ones that they didn't think fitted so well.
We researched existing films and why they had become such a hit, an example of this was Scream. It was set in a high school and teenagers were the main stars of the film, which attracted teenagers to watching the film.
Evaluation Question 6-
iMovie
Basic editing skills.
How to use transitions effectively
Applying Sound
Uploading and cutting footage.
Cinema 4D
3D imaging
Animation
Applying effects to make it look more realistic.
Final Cut
Complex editing software
Working with multiple layers
Colour correction
Fast paced editting
Mini DV Cameras
Used Tripods to keep a steady shot
Using different angles to create an atmosphere
Evaluation Questing 7-
We only knew basic filming skills
Learnt 180degree rule
Used filming techniques to cut out things that looked bad in the frame (Selective filming)
Developed shot variety.
Know when and how to use certain shots (To make a person look weak use high angled shot)
Challenges conventions as Will is played as a "Scream King" instead of a "Scream Queen"
Male character played as woman character.
Develops conventions as we use alcohol, this goes against moral code
Most males in horror films are jocks, you don't find out the identity of the character but he isn't that tall suggesting he isn't a jock.
Evaluation Question 2 -
Teenagers are seen as thugs according to older generations and this is shown in ours. The Scream King has been drinking which goes against moral code.
To make sure our cast were seen as teenagers we chose for our main character, Will, to wear jeans and a hoodie. These are seen as typical bits of clothing for teenagers and hoodies give the impression of a yob to the general public as you cannot see there face.
Evaluation Questing 3-
We wouldn't be going to a large distribution company such as Universal.
We would go to an Indie distribution company.
The company we would use would be British as were British film makers.
Optimum releasing distributed "Wolf Creek" which is a similar film to ours, it would also have a similar budget if our film was a full feature film as their budget was $1m.
We could also use the distribution company "Virtigo" which is a British Indie distribution company.
Slasher films often have very low budgets from what films i've analysed so far. For example the famous Halloween had a budget of $350,000 and Firday the 13th Had an estimated budget of $550,000 which is very little compared too most hollywood blockbusters. These films in comparison too there bidgets made massive ammouts of money at the box office, Friday the 13th made almost $40,000,000 at the box office and Halloween made $47,000,000 in the USA alone with a further $13,000,000in Europe. These film went to show the money making potential of the slasher film and so sparked a trend of new low budget horror film which went on to make big money such as: Nightmare on Elm street, My bloody Valentine and more recently films such and Scream and Final Destination. The sort of distributors that go for slasher films are smaller and independent Film distributors. However big company such as Lions gate and New line cinema have supported films like Saw and Texas chainsaw massacre. larger film companies such as Universal Pictures and Columbia Pictures tend to shy away and dont invest in slasher films possibly due to there un glamorous look and contraversy that can come with a slasher film.
In the last few previous lessons we have been learning about digitisation. Digitisation is making it easier for indie film makers to create there own films and publish them. Instead of having to use massive rigs to film and have a large amount of crew members not to mention a hefty budget, you can now just have a laptop, a HD camera and an idea to create a film. This is what were doing on a very small scale for our coursework.
Film Poster for "Monsters"
An example of this is Monsters which is an sci-fi adventure film set in Mexico, we watched a behind-the-scenes episode on the making of this film, we were astonished to learn that they have 5 crew members and 2 actors, paying small amounts of money for people to be in there film. They had 250 animated creatures designed and used throughout the film. They also had a production time of 3 months to film. This was made easier by the accessibility to edit. They were editing while filming, which meant if there were any shots that they didn't like they could easily re shoot the scene, instead of having to go to more expense to re shoot it after they had edited it or simply cut the scene out.
Today we received feedback on our second edited piece of rough cut footage. Overall the feedback we received was positive even with missing scenes. For the missing scenes we filled in text where they would be on screen to give an impression that it wouldn't cut from one scene to another. We got some really good feedback such as:
When the killer is walking down the stairs make the sound effect of the knife scraping on the wall earlier.
Have Will (the victim) look more terrified on several of the scenes, possibly cry for help.
Parts of the camera work are shaky.
More variation of shots.
We will be looking to correct these errors when we next set out filming which will be soon. As well as filming new material such as the missing scenes.
