Friday 11 May 2012

Red Run FINAL CUT

Red Run Rough Cut 4 Feedback


The feedback we received from this rough cut are as follows:

  • The lighting was bad on a few shots where- to fix this we plan to re shoot this and try change the lighting to how we want it.
  • Background noise on a few shots- this is simple to change as it just means editing the sound of our red run project file.
  • Shake in the corner- to fix this just trim the shake out on sony vegas.
  • Bad acting after the false scare- We can try make this better by filming it again so we know what were doing a lot more and also less nervous.
  • False scare- This was terrible and we plan to fix this by re filming it and possibly change the false scare idea all together from the one we have now.
  • Soundtrack was too bassy- Plan to fix this by either making a new soundtrack for this part all together or lowering the sound levels of the sound track.
  • Needs a fade out at the end- Very easy to do, just add a fade out in the editing software.
  • Sound effects needed- We're going to add a scream at the end when the girl opens the door.

Red Run Rough Cut 4




Heres our rough cut 4. As you can see we have changed a lot, we have introduced a female character, dialogue, a method of the doll coming into the house. As well as a false scare. We also created and added background soundtracks and credits.

Monday 30 April 2012

Evaluation Question 7 - Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task. What Do You Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To Your Final Product?

The preliminary task was set up for us to get a feel of filming different types of shots and then using these shots to practise using Final Cut with a continuity exercise. I have uploaded my preliminary outcome on a past blog.
Final Cut Editing Software.
From this i have a learnt a large variety of skills and techniques which have been with me through the whole process of filming and editing of our production "Red Run".  Since this task at the very start of the term we have learnt a great deal to get us to where we are now. The final cut.
In our first rough cut, the main criticism we received was that we lacked shot diversity and continuity, this was because we used a small number of long takes on each scene. This is bad because long takes make the scene or shots less believable, especially on a film where the doll is a serial killer. These longer shots were also not advised because it was a bore to the audience, and most modern horror films consist of a large number and variety of shots on each scene to keep the audience hooked on the screen. Another piece of criticism we gained from this was the shaky camera work and un-wanted background digetic sound, by this we worked out that this had to be changed as it has a very negative effect on the final outcome of the film as it influences the overall quality, the film could also be represented as social realist.
By doing all these things I feel i have a lot better knowledge of media and how it's done and run, as every shot can tell something about the film or character using semiotics, for example, if you say there was a low angle shot of a doll with a knife inside a messy males teenage room you will think to yourself that, this doll is more powerful and in control than everything else because of the low angle, the knife suggests it's a possible slasher as that is usual weapon of choice for a killer in a slasher and that is known throughout the slasher audience. The teenage room may suggest that, well, the scene is in a teenage boys room. But there ways you can emphasise this and make this clear, such as adding posters of models or sport icons to the mise-en-scene. This can also tell the characters personality as well, models could be sign that hes straight and possibly sexually active & the sport posters can conote that he's active/sporty and could be a possible "jock" character referring to the slasher genre.

We have tried to take all these into consider when planning and filming and have always re-filmed shots that we weren't happy about. As you can see what we are accomplishing now is a much higher standard than of what I did for the preliminary course, editing, filming and knowledge wise. To ensure the highest of quality also, we took on all feedback from the rough cuts and changed and improved things to get it right for the next rough cut and finally the final finished product.

Also, Since my Preliminary task, i feel as though i am a lot more organised and definitely more efficient with work and deadlines, at the start of the year we didn't take the blogging as serious as i should which got us behind, since catching up again however i have had a dramatical change in my organisation and time keeping and me and Dillon more or less stuck to every rough cut deadline.

Sunday 29 April 2012

Evaluation Question 6 - What Have You Learnt About The Technologies From The Process Of Constructing This Product?

As a individual i learned a lot about the processes of making a film, such as how'd they come up with a storyline and put it on screen as well as filming techniques, shot variations, location and appearance etc, all vital and represent characteristics in a film. For example the shot variations; a Low angle shot will tend to be used to make the character in centre frame powerful and in control and the opposite for Low angle shots, a dutch angle (tilted frame) is also used to signify thats something isn't quite right, they are in danger and something may happen to them. I am also going to use the location and appearance as another example, the location being vital as it needs to be known global if you want it to appeal to a world wide audience such as the US, therefore it will need to be in the countryside, southern england, London or have a Castle/Mansion as this is what the global audience think of England. Wherever we are not trying to appeal to a global audience so ours is set in Northern England, West Yorkshire in a average semi-detached house. We are appealing to a UK indie audience so they know how England  actually is, they would see the location used in "Red Run" as a typical average home which also has the ability to place them in their shoes as this event could happen to anyone and add to the scare effect. The appearance is important because it adresses specific audiences / times or genres. Ours being a average appearance of a male and female teen. 
Ellie; The "Scream Queen" Character in "Red Run"
Dillon; The "Jock" character in "Red Run"


The female teen in this film would be thought of as a Scream Queen because she is Blonde and shares other characteristics of a typical Scream Queen, and we used her for these reasons.
The male teen, is thought to be a Jock in a slasher film, very much like the scream queen, however they are sporty, often have a unique appearance in american slasher films and tend to be sexually active. Dillon's cap and sweater emphasise these points.

Now for what i have learnt about the technicality side of producing our product. First off iMovie, Final Cut and Garage band. Before i took this course i had no experience at all with these programmes but now however i am able to use them happily with little guidance and i have done throughout the process of making "Red Run". We used Garage band for the soundtrack for Red Run, and i was pleased with the result. For the editing however was done on Sony Vegas 10 as i am very familiar with the software and by doing this we also had more editing time as if we were to edit on the school computers it would have to be at lunch times and in free's. I have also learnt a lot making mine and the company ident, these were both on Cinema 4D and After Effects, i had also used these programmes many times before but i learnt a lot watching tutorials and making these final idents.


Thursday 26 April 2012

Evaluation Question 5 - How Did You Attract/Adress Your Audience

We planned to attract our audience through the originality of the film but also the intertextuality with Childs Play as we used a doll coming to life, as the killer. Childs Play (1988), which had a budget of $9 Million, and as of March 1989, made around $33 Million in the USA only, this received a massive global audience and we could use this to attract a audience to our film. People also may be attracted to this film because they may have not seen something like this film before if they haven't seen Childs Play before, and even they have this film has something different about it, that we are using as a unique selling point, as we have twisted the role of the scream queen character (blonde hair, busty, etc) and made her into a final girl character, but the "jock" character dies so not all Slasher rules have been changed.
 Audience, the characters very much relate to the audience as they are similar and inside the 15-24 target audience, They are also casually dressed  and in a average house, this could make the audience think this could happen to anyone or someone in the audience as well, this adds to the emotional factor of the film and increasing the effect of the scares and events in the film.


We also attracted the audience through the female character like most films do, using a attractive (scream queen) female as a main character. This attracts male audiences because of the female attracting the "male gaze", meaning men like to watch films to watch "hot" female's/actresses.

The other character, the male is considered to be a "Jock", the male version of a "Scream Queen", these males tend to be the boyfriend of a scream queen in which this case that is true, they also tend to be sporty and subjected to the "female gaze."

Stereotypical "Jock" in a US Slasher
Typical Scream Queen


Dillon and I also added a touch of narrative enigma and increased suspense in the film opening, we did this by hinting that the doll is going to come to life, "Its not going to kill me, is it?" this was spoken by the male after the doll was given to him by the female. This narrative enigma adresses the audience well by playing with them, the audience know that the doll coming to life is inevitable adding to suspense as they just don't know when or who the doll we strike.

We were also able to address the audience with the help of digitization by using the social networking sites facebook and twitter, by using these we're enabling ourselves and our production to be accessible by thousands over the internet, mostly family and friends, but they are also open to give us feedback on how to improve the media product and get a good insight in what the audience are looking for and want.

Evaluation Question 4 - Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?

I feel that our target audience should be around 15-24 (BFCC) years of age. Our film matches such criteria of a 15 film after doing some research, our film includes sex references, violence and gore, But not as extreme enough to move it onto 18 film which would also change our target audience in a way.
The "guideline" for a 18 film is as follows,

• where the material is in breach of the criminal law, 
or has been created through the commission of a 
criminal offence 
• where material or treatment appears to the BBFC to 
risk harm to individuals or, through their behavior, 
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 
• where there are more explicit images of sexual 
activity which cannot be justified by context. Such 
images may be appropriate in ‘R18’ works, and in 
‘sex works’ (see below) would normally be confined 
to that category. 


This would also be the same with a 15, but less extreme and smaller references.
Therefore I think our film should be rated a 15.
I have also chosen the target audience to be from 15-24 because the actors played are 17, this can then relate to the audience, adding to the thrill/scare effect, a teen is also more likely to want to watch teens in a thriller than adults, being a teen myself. We also chose this target as it's a well known fact that horror/slasher films are more popular with the teenage audience. Although adults may want to watch this as it has intertextuality with Childs Play therefore fans of this franchise may be intrigued to view our film. But older adults will not tend to watch these kind of films, being as its a horror with a what you could say childish story, having a doll as the killer, older adults are also more into more serious or fictional films. With our film being a similar story to Child’s Play, we can relate our audience to theirs and I know that Red Run will gain a big audience as Child’s Play (1988) grossed $6,583,000 in its opening weekend on 1377 screens and $44,196,684 (Worldwide).

Monday 23 April 2012

Evaluation Question 3 - What Kind Of media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product And Why/

Our company Ls29 Productions produced our working title "Red Run" with virtually no budget and would be considered/classed as a indie company.
Our production, Red Run is a low budget film because it has no "known" or professional actors, little props, a already allocated free located (dillons house). And for these reasons no big distributor would be interested in this film, as it would be classed as a too bigger risk, as they may lose reputation and make no profit.
Therefore the audience for this film would be people who enjoy watching indie films, like at Uk film festivals etc, and the distribution company would also be Indie, as they are more likely to take the risks as there only dealing with small amounts of money and little reputation, it is also to make profit on these films as there is next to nothing budgets compared to Hollywood productions with films ranging to over $200 million.

Twitter Logo
So I reckon Red Run would be suited to a low budget indie company such as Optimum Releasing or Warp X a company that produces cheap films such as Dead Mans Shoes (2004) which had a budget of £723,000 and went to box office. Present digitisation also allows us to promote our production cheaply and easily using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter therefore increasing profit by spending less and getting it out more. Another useful way to keep distribution cheap is that now, instead of spending thousands on producing film reels, you are now able to transfer the film on a hard drive for less that £30 which you can now put in cinemas because of the massive investment to make it easier and more accessible for low budget unknown film producers to compete with bigger production and distribution company's, such as UniversalColumbiaParamount etc. 


Facebook Banner


A likely company to distribute our film Red Run would be Warp X, the subsidiary of the indie British producer and distributor  Warp Films. Warp X was created to enable new film producers to come out with the help of digitization, new technology enabling producers make films with small budgets as well as distributing with smaller budgets using the power of social networking sites.
The Warp Films Logo

Monday 26 March 2012

Evaluation Question 2 - How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?





Scream Queen used in Psycho
The characters in "Red Run" are both teenagers aged 17, these characters, the boy and girl who also classic common stereotypes found/used in the slasher genre, The male can be classed as a jock character, outgoing and sporty and is like the male version of a scream queen. The females character used in this is also classed in the same way, as a general scream queen role would have blonde hair, busty physique, be sexually active, physically attractive and popular. Inside the boy's room there is also posters of naked models, Bob Marley and Cheryl Cole, These also relate to the teenage theme as Bob Marley and Cheryl Cole are known as icons to teenagers, Cheryl being a famous singer and model and Bob Marley also being a singer and is known the whole world, these as well as the naked models portray the obvious tastes / characteristics of a average British teenage male. In the mise-en-scene there is also posters of sport icons and football teams, these were also specifically kept in the scene as this keeps our film open to the young teenage audience. By this and the age of the characters i would put this in a teenage social group and it more suited towards a teenage audience. therefore i reckon this media product should be a bfcc rated 15. 


Both of the teens are very stereotypical of a english teen and neither of them are classed as individuals which could limit the audience to social groups such as goths and geeks. With Red Run being open to a open to large numbers of social groups with little specific groups it will be easier to sell and distribute to the market because of the larger available.


Stereotypical Goth
Stereotypical Geek


This age rating and the intended audience age should also increase the fear factor in some way, as it relates to them as them being there age and the high probability of them living in a middle class home like the location used can put themselves in this scenario.

Sunday 25 March 2012

Evaluation Question 1 - In What Ways Does Your Product use, Develop Or Challenge Forms And Conventions Of Real Media Products?

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

Our media production "Red Run" takes up the conventions of a few real media productions as well as developing these ideas in some way.

The working title; "Red Run" was originally thought of before we bought the doll we are using to this day, we called our production this as our original doll/killer was a red action figure, therefore using this colour we came to the conclusion of using "Red Run" as our working title, the run in "Red Run" also symbolises that this is a horror/slasher film, or just a film where you'll see a chase scene or someone running for their lives, with this and red it exaggerates this, as red is also a strong connotation for blood and horror films.

Original doll/killer from our rough cut 1
The Doll now being used in our production "Red Run"

POV shot used in Halloween
The opening for "Red Run" uses the convention of previous real media products such as Halloween & Childs Play. the start of our opening we have a POV shot of someone walking towards a house, like in Halloween, where they used a steady cam to create one of the most revolutionary openings in film history, they used this steady cam to create a almost perfect POV shot of the killer in this film, this makes the audience feel like they're in the killers boots which oddly makes them experience the killing in a much more exciting way for them. The other, almost obvious convention of a real media product is the doll/killer we used, it is very much like the one used in the film "Childs Play," (1988), which had a budget of $9 Million, and on its opening weekend made $6,583,000 in the USA only. we also used it in more or less the same way as in "Childs play", with it being the killer and also how it is introduced in i think the 2nd "Childs Play" where it is brought into a family home as a present.
POV shot used in "Red Run"

Our opening also uses such stereotypical conventions to create a social/middle class location/home. The location uses was a normal sized attached house in a urban/village area, one you might see in such Slasher films Halloween & Scream. This setting will relate to almost all of the audience for this film as this is a very normal house and a normal life, giving the idea that this could happen to anyone of them, which adds to the scare factor. 



We decided to put in a false scare after the feedback given after our 3rd rough cut, false scares are widely used in many slasher films as it puts the audience on there edge, and after the scare they will not trust the signifiers of the film anymore such as a soundtrack you'll find leading to a scare or popcorn being cooked, which was used in Scream as a very effective build up for the opening killing. using these conventions we decided on having the false scare at the start using the POV shot as seen on Halloween, this will also trick the audience in thinking this is the killer as it was used for the killer in Halloween. Dillon the male "Jocky" type character for this film, is innocently making himself a tea in the kitchen, there is cross cuts between him making the tea, and the pod shot of a unknown person walking towards the house. The person then opens the gate, the male hears it, but thinks nothing of it and carry's on making his tea, he then hears something again and investigates by slowly approaching the front door, the door then opens, but the male isn't in view, as he comes into view of the door, he's puzzled and goes outside to see who's there or find out the cause of this. This is where the false scare takes place, as the males girlfriend then jumps on him as he looks outside. This is slightly different compared to our last rough cut, because that didn't make much of a impression, so i came to this idea, we have yet to film this though.



Tuesday 20 March 2012

Filming Our New Idea - Vlog



Vlog talking about how we put our new idea into picture.

Mise-En-Scene / Boys Bedroom - Vlog



A Vlog going round the main setting of our production "Red Run", describing how this room matches the representations of a typical teenage boy.

Our POV shot, that will be used in the opening of "Red Run" - Open for Feedback




Just uploading this so that we will hopefully gain some feedback on this, this was filmed using a GoPro hero 2, These are small high quality video camera's usually used for extreme sports strapped on a helmet or something.
This is the raw file, so do bare in mind we will edit the sound especially on me creeping in as my foot steps were quite loud and we may also re-shoot this scene all together, this is just for feedback only.
The feedback we are looking for is that, would this be a good way to introduce the characters? is the quality alright? or lighting? and anymore you can think off. Thankyou

Monday 19 March 2012

Gender In "Red Run"(DOC)


The story line of Sam and I's film opening is mostly male orientated. Stereotypically, men enjoy tension, violence, killing and action in a film where as women may prefer comedy, love, romance and happiness. However, this is being extremely stereotypical and it's possible that females may also enjoy LS29's film opening as they could like the idea of the killer doll.

To relate back to the target audience for our slasher opening, it may be too broad to state that it's unlikely that females wouldn't enjoy the film opening as much because males would like it too, it may depend on the age of the people as to whether they enjoy the film opening or not. The main character in the film it a typical teenage boy, please click here to read a blog post about the characters in the film opening. Anyway, with the main character being the stereotypical 'Jockey' character from the slasher genre, it edges the film opening to be more male orientated. However, LS29 have decided to introduce a new character to make Red Run more interesting and to encourage a more female audience.

We believe that a female character could encourage a more female audience as the females may think that with only a male character, Red Run is only male orientated and that with a female character, it will be more balanced and even, encouraging both genders to watch the film opening. The mise-en-scene in the film opening however, is male orientated and this is because the majority of the setting is in a teenage boy's bedroom. Click here to read a previous blog post about the mise-en-scene in the film opening, Red Run.

A typical teenage room where a big part of Red Run is filmed.


The relationship between the two characters is mutual and it's not as if the male is dominant over the female as this patriarchal view would most likely put females off watching the film opening. Overall, Sam and I have tried to keep the film opening as unisex and mutual as possible. Only one person is killed in the film opening and this is the male but the female still plays a big part in the opening.

Re-Filming (DOC)


LS29 are filming again tonight (19/03/12) and we aim to get a lot done and to use the feedback we received from our last rough cut to improve our 4th rough cut majorly. We have a new idea which we are going to try out tonight; to see this idea please refer to a previous blog post. The idea shouldn't take a long time to film but we will film it several times to make sure that we get the shot to be as good as it possibly can be. The feedback that Sam and I received from our 3rd rough cut was that there are some good ideas in there and the media product could be good but it needs a lot of work doing to ensure so, one of the aspects being framing.

Sam and I when filming for our 3rd rough cut, didn't take the framing as seriously as we should have done and we didn't think about it as much as we should have done. For example, there's a shot of the main character on his phone and it's a close up of his hand; however, in the background there's a poster with a close up of the hand and this ruins the shot and it looks terrible. It's such a simple mistake but it effects the final product drastically.

This is an example of poor framing in Red Run.


After filming tonight, I'll post some preview clips of the rough cut, asking for opinions and feedback so that Sam and I can work to improve it once again in the short time that we have. Please click here to see the new idea that LS29 have and aim to film and post tonight.

Characters

We are planning on having 2 main characters although this could increase after filming more and structuring our idea's fully. These 2 characters are going to be a boy and a girl both teenage. The boy / Dillon shares some the characteristics of a possible characteristics of a American "Jocky" the common scream kings in the Slasher Genre, He is of average height, brown hair and as a character in this film plays the part of someone whom is relatively sexually active and "impure". The other role/character in the film is the girlfriend of this boy, we haven't decided yet whether or not we'll have her as a scream queen or final girl, most likely scream queen as she is portrayed in this film as a sexually active young teenage girl and will most likely will have blonde hair although we still have not decided on who to use as the actor for this role.

Location & Mise-En-Scene


The main or only location in our film at the moment is outside and inside of Dillons house. This location is perfect of what we're trying to accomplish as it suits most Slasher film characteristics as the house is in a  
urban location it isn't detached, but it's of a average size and a average household that you wouldn't think twice about, therefore it will hopefully relate to most of our audience.

The Mise-en-scene were using is also already perfect, as the boy's room or Dillons bedroom already shows all the characteristics of a normal average teenage boy, such as a messy room, posters of girls, artists like "Bob Marley" and sport role models, and the rest of the house just gives off signifiers that it is just a normal middle class household where you wouldn't expect supernatural occurrences to take place.

Saturday 17 March 2012

Pitch & Ideas

Our short film "Red Run" is about a thrilling story about a night that will stay with you for the rest of your life, The resurrection of a past evil will send a young couple fighting for their lives in a emotional whirl wind where only one will survive.

The concept for our film has been taken from the films Childs PlayFriday the 13th & Halloween. The killer in our film is a doll like in Childs Play and the idea from it coming to life is also from Childs Play but the idea of how it is resurrected is from Friday the 13th as the doll is resurrected/brought to life by electrocution.
The Doll used in Childs play


The Doll we are using in our production "Red Run"



















At the start of our film we have come up with the idea of someone walking towards the house in a POV shot, using a GoPro Headcam, this idea is based around the start of the film Halloween, but instead of having the person in POV as the killer, we are planning to place a false scare into this somehow.





The basic idea of the storyline is that, the girlfriend is going to bring the doll into the house of her boyfriends when she goes round there, she could of found it outside on her way there or something like that. She then gives it to the boyfriend as a joke or present if we plan on making the boy a slasher film enthusiast, the two then go upstairs to have sexual intercourse implying there both impure and that they deserve it in the slasher genre world, we are then going to have a time lapse on the window showing it going from night to morning, the girl then wakes up and says she must go home as she didn't intend to stay over and her mum will be angry, she then leaves the house, but as the boy is running and telling her to wait up, just after she leaves the house and closes the door, he trips up at the top of the stairs, falling down them. This is where the doll comes into play, somehow between the time of it coming into the house and this it is going to be electrocuted, this could happen as the boys running after her girlfriend before he falls down the stairs, as he's running out of the bedroom he could knock over a glass of something maybe alcohol which will emphasise their impurities. When the boy falls down the stairs the doll then goes to get a knife, when this is all happening the girlfriend has realised she has forgotten something and has to go back, will she get to the house on time?

Friday 16 March 2012

"LS29 Production's" Ident


Untitled from Sam Daffern on Vimeo.

This is LS29's first ident. We are happy with this and feel as though it looks professional and will certainly look good when it's used at the beginning of our film opening. However, it's not the final product and to improve it, Sam and I need to add some sound to it which shouldn't be hard, we can just use a simple sound that we will create ourselves in a program called Garage Band. Another thing that we can improve with this ident as we gathered from our feedback on it is that it isn't long enough and should fade in, fade out and show the LS29 Productions text for longer. Please take a look at our ident and help us by providing some feedback. 
This was also created using Adobe After Effects CS5.

Thursday 15 March 2012

"Flow Productions" Ident


Untitled from Sam Daffern on Vimeo.
Here is my ident, this was created using both Cinema 4D, a 3D animation programme & Sony Vegas, a professional editing programme. I thought of this idea of the ball of liquid kind of thing after watching something similar to it on youtube, i then went on and made this, it was originally intended for a mountain biking edit i was working on before this media coursework came into play, but i thought that this animation could be used to make my solo Media ident. After thinking of this idea for my ident i came to the name "Flow" as my Coursework productions name, as the ball of liquid, has obvious flow, is peaceful \ calming and just remind's me and has the properties of something flowing.
Here's a wonky screenshot of the C4D file of my ident taken with my camera, just gives a idea on how it was made and the kind of programme cinema 4d is.











This is a screenshot of Sony Vegas and the project file i used to add the added effects onto the animation, as well as music and the end title.


To make this ident though, i also had to render the same animation 3 times in cinema 4d but at 3 different angles to give the look it has now. this was a strenuous task as the render time for each of them is around 10-12 hours.

Roughcut 3, Feedback


The feedback we got for this after it was screened for the class is that:

  • The camera work is still shaky, this is hard to prevent but it makes such a great difference when its a still frame. - We could possibly solve this problem by maybe using a different tripod, my dad has one that he uses in his office so i could ask him if we could borrow that for when we next film.
  • The start, the feedback we got for this is that we should have kept the ident sounds and not have a opening song over the top, and the obvious copyright issue on the "Arctic Monkeys" song used. Our cutting speed on the computer/phone scene was also criticised being too fast and having one too many shots - To fix this issue i think we are going to change the starting scene entirely and also to bypass the copyright issues me and Dillon are going to create a soundtrack using my Bass Guitar and his Guitar and if not that try make something on garage band.
  • We were also given constructive criticism on the killing scene, we were told that this was a lot better compared to the previous rough cut as the shots are a lot faster and less noticeable, but i think we're now binning the idea that this scene was a flashback of some sort or a previous event in the past. This scene was also way too short in my eyes and there is still a lot of improvement needed on the soundtrack.
  • The colour correction made in magic bullet looks, we were told that in some clips this cc used was too blurry- we are going to change this by looking at more or removing the blur around the edges although this blur effect is very effective as it focuses on the centre film well.

Creating a Soundtrack (DOC)


With the deadline looming, Sam and I need to create a soundtrack. In our 3rd rough cut we used the song 'Red light indicates doors are secured' By the Arctic Monkeys. We feel like this song fitted in well with the teenage image that we're trying to portray as the main character is supposed to give the impression to the audience that he's a male scream queen as he has two posters included in the mise en scene in the bedroom, one being Bob Marley which symbolises drug use and one of naked women which symbolises him being sexual active.

Anyway, because Sam and I know that we can't use the Arctic Monkeys song because of copyright reasons, we included it in our 3rd rough cut simply to see whether people enjoyed it and think that it worked well. The feedback we received was positive and most of the audience agree that if it wasn't breaching copyright laws, it would have been a great song to use.

With this feedback, Sam and I have decided to record our own version of the song which should hopefully work just as well and won't breach any copyright terms. Sam plays the bass guitar and I play the electric guitar, so between us we think that we'll be able to create a good soundtrack. Our other alternative is to make the soundtrack using Garage Band but we believe that we can learn and record the Arctic Monkeys song in the same amount of time as it would take for us to create a soundtrack in Garage Band. Once we have recorded the soundtrack we will upload it for feedback and comments.

Podcast 5

Podcast 4

Podcast 3

Podcast 2

Podcast 1

Idents Podcast

Next Scheduled Filming Of Red Run

Sam and I have organised to film this Saturday (17/03/12) and Monday (19/03/12). We will then edit that night and possibly Tuesday if we don't get finished so that we can hand in our 4th rough cut on the Wednesday and gain feedback. With the feedback we receive, we will film again on Wednesday (21/03/12) taking the feedback into consideration and creating a final cut to hand in on Friday (23/03/12) so that it can be marked and given back with more feedback.

Sam and I don't want to be handing in a rough cut which we know isn't as good as we know our potential can achieve and this is why we're going to hand in a 4th rough cut, simply to gain feedback before our final cut so that it can be as good as it possibly could be.

A New Idea

After gaining feedback on our 3rd rough cut, Sam and I have concluded that to improve our media product we need to do several things; add another character, preferably a scream queen stereotype (blonde hair and sexually active) because this fits in with the slasher genre, take more time to cut into the action of the killer doll as we introduce the main character too quickly as we need to build tension and suspense and also show the killer doll being brought to life through electrocution which we did for our first 2 rough cuts but decided to leave out for the 3rd. Also, it would be a good idea to create a false scare are the beginning of the slasher film opening because this also links in well with the slasher genre. A false scare is a good way of getting the audience's attention and introducing the characters to them.

To create the false scare, LS29 will film the girlfriend character (scream queen) from a point of view shot as she walks up to the house of her boyfriend; this has been used in slasher films before such as Black Christmas and Halloween although they weren't false scares, they were the real killer. Also, we will add some intertextuality with the media products from other students in my media class and providing the audience with anchorage that the doll, which will be a joke present from the girlfriend to the boyfriend as the main character and killer doll from one of our fellow student's slasher film opening. The girl will be walking up to the house whilst the boy is in the kitchen making a cup of tea with his back facing the doors that the girl will be sneaking into and creeping up on him, scaring him and creating a false scare.

By creating this false scare, Sam and I will be hopefully improving our media products in several ways; for example, we will be increasing the length of it to the preferred length of time for the slasher opening as it's too short as it is now. Also, we will be able to introduce the characters more slowly and build tension and suspense and when we do introduce them during the false scare, we will be introducing them in a more effective way and we will hopefully have gained the audiences attention and interest more. Once LS29 have filmed this, we will post it as a blog and ask for feedback. We plan to film this on Saturday (17/03/12)