Here are some pictures I took while location hunting. I edited these on photoshop, bleaching out the colour and darkening the sky (it was a clear day). I also tried to show perspective echoing the isolation and seclusion the general colour of the mise en scene helps to achieve this as well. I tried to make sure that there were no modern items in the background, and where they are unavoidable I will cover them with portable trees or a cloth. The shot with the red flakey boat was one of the most striking locations I found, the boats and things in the foreground were just as i wanted they looked ill cared for, and them sitting in the mud with the tide out was great. The face in the stone was creepy and i will use it to give a hint of things to come later in the film, much like the eye in The Wickerman. I took about 90 pictures and 10 videos.

Film pitch

An isolated backwards village's equilbrium is disturbed by the arrival of an outsider, suspicious of the goings on at the coast. A psychological horror dubbed a modern day wickerman.

I want a black and white or drained dull colour opening shot, I want it to be an extreme wide shot panning slowly to the left to reveal the isolation of the land. The titles could fit on the horizon or be twitchy like 'The Simpsons' titles. The font should be curly and hand written. Possibly in pencil stop motion on a parchment like paper.

This book has lots of good images i used for inspiration.

The wicker man

The wickerman starts with scenic views of the Scottish coast from a seaplane, the shots are simple establishing long distance shots, as is the editing, which has no effects.
As like in many horror films, the opening two minutes seem benign, probably to add to the shock to come, the only hint is a strange eye painted on the boat. It is accompanied by some Scottish folk music which gives sense of community and ruralness. The mise en scene is bright light and beautiful.
there are many blues and greens, the costumes and housing are picturesque and rustic.
I want to create a Wickerman like film, set in a possibly the marshes of North Norfolk, involving a secluded rural village where odd beliefs are practised. I think it would have to be set sometime ago as however secluded some villages are around here, I doubt that they are pagan!
I think a similar thing could be easily achievable however I’m not sure how interesting it will be. To be honest, I don’t see the point in making the opening two minutes of a film because very often they are very plain and simple, I may have to break with convention and produce something that dives straight into the horror in order to best showcase my abilities, but I think by doing this we lose the suspense and some of the creepiness, perhaps I could do something creepy and harrowing but doesn’t bear direct relevance to the rest of the film, like a flashback, or a murder or ritual not involving the main characters. Perhaps a shot of daily life before the arrival of the ‘hero’.

Film openings- www.artofthetitle.com

Sherlock Holmes - i loved the ending credits. The brown paper newspaper headings and cobble stones, immediately take the audience and immerses them in the world of sherlock homes, and for me the best films are always the ones, in which you forget you are watching a film and are totally immersed in the world, portrayed.

Coraline - I thought it was one of the coolest openings ive ever seen, I love stop motion. I also like the embroidered titles which fit in with the puppet thing and looks alot more interesting than a computer font pasted over the top of something, the sherlock holmes calligraphy also looks good.

Plan

• Research into similar media texts and analysis of their forms and conventions: watch as many horror films as i can.

Ideas:

Film openings: look at the link to ART OF THE TITLE SEQUENCE.

Break down your choice of film openings and analyse them like they’ve done on the art of the title sequence. This should help focus your attention on the importance of titles. Don’t forget to discuss mise-en-scene, camerawork, editing etc…


• Audience research

Ideas

You must have a clear idea of your target audience. You need to carry out a number of audience research tasks and document how these have helped to develop your production work. I will expect to see some edited footage of audience interviews/focus groups at work etc…

Focus group while i'm watching the films .

A summative post giving a 25 word analysis of who you think your audience is.


• Planning

Ideas

Pitch
Treatment
Script Mood boards
Location shots Storyboard - filmed as an animatic (take stills of each frame and cut together on imovie)



25-29th after school research
30/31st location scouting
1-5th planning story boarding
half term shooting
editing from then on till deadline/when finished - this is a long period, i will have time to address any issues that occur.

Jerry Maguire

Jerry Maguire is a successful and talented bullshitter, he gets what he wants he is smarmy, aggressive and obsessed, but now in a midlife crisis scenario (though still begin around 30) he has begun to question his job.

Kevin Spacey - Leister Burnham- american beauty
He is a very unhappy man, he is bored, insignificant and solitary. His wife and daughter look down on him, and he agrees with their opinion. He is downtrodden. He blends in to the background and has a mundane repetitive sterile existence. He has hopes for recapturing his 'lost' passion and excitement for life.

My character - Is a 50 something man who lives by himself he is deemed mad by everyone. he is a taxidermist, and he is in love with the girl next door and stuffs her, and then the policeman investigating, then the girl family. he uses them like puppets. the film ends with a cheery musical number performed by the stuffed people puppets.

Analysis of text examples

I think the first piece of text a mid level 3. I think the contents page is poor, the text doesn't stand out and the picture background is blurry and seemingly bears no relevance to the text. I like the image on the front cover but again the price blends in with background. The photoshopping of the girl on the double page spread show good use of IT. THe use of language is not accurate with both grammatical and spelling errors

The second piece is terrible level 1 or 2, the text isnt clear and on the double page spread overlaps slightly onto the next page making it very hard to read. The white background look unprofessional. There are several examples of blurred images, also the repeated use of exclamation marks I find lowers the tone of the magazine.

Audience Research

I want to show a focus group a series of film openings that clearly portray different opening styles exciting dramatic event, narrator et cetera, and ask them their favourites and pros and cons. And record them. Family and friends i can also look at the films myself and note my own opinions.

Also some facebook polls, maybe with links to youtube (AS other students work)

i think i'm a 7/10 interviewer. I started with easy steps before building up to controversial issues, there were moments of silence but as it was improvised i think it can be forgiven.

Audience of my film

Art house cinema city go-er.

Average read of MOJO

The average MOJO reader is a 40 year old man, who whilst being 'hip' when young it trying to hang on to this. He is a family man and middle class, he dreams of breaking out of the shackles of his life. He reads MOJO as an escape and reminder of his youth. The adverts say mediocracy is a sin, and our man is very mediocre but wishes he wasn't.

Brain storming ideas for practical work

1. I want to learn to be as professional as possible. learning skills that i can use later in life.

2. i want to work by myself unless the other person does exactly what i say.

3. Your a genius here is £50, A*. This could be a professional piece of work, the editing and filming are flawless, they are well chosen shots, each one has meaning in relation to the text.

Print

A punk magasine would be easy to make. Picture of flynn some rippped page on the pages, mixed size fonts, badges, some safety pins spray paint newspaper clipping et cetera, done graphics doing product design.

Film

Art clever title sequence like ending credits shot of 300 or the titles of heroes. alot more work but could be more fun interesting.