Marcus evaluation

Question 4. Who would be the audience for your media product? By Jack.

Question 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? By Jack.

(Part of question 4 but was not able to attatch my thinglnk to the prezi) By Jack.

Question 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? By Jack.

Final Cut Pro. By Jack.

Expanding our media convergence. Jack.

We have created a Twitter account to allow followers of the blog to be updated on our progress through a social media. This is effective as people, especially young people who are more likely to follow the blog, are keen users of social media so can easily be kept up to date with our on-goings.

Problems with filming. Jack.

One problem we had with filing was finding people who were willing to be a part of our film as the location was quite far away from Mill Hill. This therefore lead to us filming only two weeks before our deadline leaving us little time to edit.

Another problem we had filming was creating the illusion that more people were actually at our party scene than was there. We did this by filming shots of feet with people wearing different shoes in different shots. We also filmed less of the people themselves but more of individual shots to create a party scene e.g. someone smoking and someone cutting up cocaine.

One more problem we experienced was lighting when filming. As our setting was at a party, it had to be dark but we also needed to see what was going on in the film. Without any professional lighting and not being able to turn the lights on, we improvised by researching flashing lights on youtube and playing it and using our phone torches.

How I went about composing the music for this opening sequence ? Marcus

Initially  I wanted to look for inspiration from different composers in order to gage what is necessary to compose a horror soundtrack to create suspense . 

Under the skin soundtrack influences Marcus

Research into the Under the skin soundtrack which was composed by Mica Levi composed mostly using a viola , this was played at some points with a tremolo , however mostly bowed on the edge of the bow , this was done to create an airy feel to the music . The viola also played notes with glissandos moving chromatically , this again creates atonality .

Dissonance Marcus

What does this dissonance do ?

When dissonance is created notes or chords do not sound nice together(consonant) it is this dissonance which creates uncertainty , and it is this uncertainty which causes confusion which intern creates suspense . 

Research into different soundtracks Marcus

The Nightmare on elm street soundtrack which was composed by Charles Bernstein  Is a very good example of music which creates an ambience along with a feeling of suspense . This was a very good soundtrack that I wanted to take ideas from especially the vocal synth which played long glissandos which lead to parts being atonal and not belonging to the key , this lead to dissonance .

Aspects We must use in our soundtrack Marcus

What I can denote from this research that I must include in my soundtrack :

-Atonality 

-The use of glissandos 

-The use of string instruments 

-Minimalist musical ideas 

-Dissonance 

The composing process Marcus

The composing process , I started of with choosing the instruments 

For the strings I chose romantic strings , I then needed an instrument to convey a motif in which a main tune could be created . So  I chose the Ghost piano , this added a slight honkey tonk effect to the piano this made the notes slightly out of tune which would add with the strings to produce an overall atonality .The last instrument I added was a crystal rain  , this was chosen as it sounded very airy which was seen as a prominent aspect in my research . 

Modifying instruments on Logic Pro x Marcus

Once I had chosen all instruments I had to change the way the romantic strings played , I did this by increasing the note glide to full and the rate to free this along with increasing the drive to 10% led me to create this version of the strings to play very similar sounds to that of in under the skin , this is what I was exactly aiming for . 

After choosing and modifying the instruments I practiced and played through the different parts , once I was clear on what themes I wanted I recorded each part separately , this allowed for a main conjunct motion to take form . 

Logic Pro x modifications to instruments Marcus

The Editing process Marcus

These picture show the process in which was undertaken during the editing process , after organising our footage taken , I then had to decide the order in which each shot was placed . 

Once this step was completed I could add all the technical components for example a slow motion effect of the credit card cutting up a substance , I then used reverse shots for example the final shot of the smoke scene . I then changed the focus on some objects as this allowed the creation of an undefined object which left the viewer with a distorted image , this leads to confusion which overall can lead to suspense . After these steps I was then able to alter the colours in each shot , this supported our plan to make this film Art House along with the symbolic meanings of each shot . 

Change in context of film and story line Marcus

After much thought my colleague and I have concluded that we feel that a different more minimalist approach was to be put in place while filming our opening sequence ,  there were many reasons for this action. The main one being that by having this view point we thought that we could achieve a much greater affect in terms of the footage as smaller focused objects are sometimes better in creating suspense and confusion along . This is because these small chosen objects have the power to create enigma codes, these then manifest themselves to create suspense .

Half way through this project my college and I decided that a change in the story line was needed in order to fit the art house , this was because we thought that the snapchat theme would ink to modern technology and through this it could have come across as something that a group of secondary school student made , even though we are students , we wanted something that was different , that no other student would think of , this allowed a more professional outlook on the sequence .  

This then allowed this art approach to be more successful as it looks  more like a semi-professionals film company production then a secondary schools group production which is what we were aiming for . 

Marcus

Inspirational Art House films Marcus

 Los Caminos de Octubre  a film by Ruben Fernandez

Taxi driver trailer a film by Martin Scorsese

Marcus

The Art House approach Marcus

There where two films that really stood out in my research into this type of film , these where Los Caminos de Octubre a film by Ruben Fernandez and the beginning part of the trailer for Taxi Driver a film by Martin Scorsese. This was due to the lighting and the framing of the shots , this links to a video I had got inspiration in the past from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhOMCtHHN3o a video on how each piece of footage in a film must be framed and shot as if each clip could be a photograph.  As seen in these two extracts this is very clear as many of the colors seen are very vibrant for example the reds , yellows , pinks , blues , greens and yellows which allows a personal touch to be made  .

Marcus

More research into enigma codes Marcus

The other film I studied which contained a large amount of enigma codes was the Silence Of The Lambs a film by Jonathan Demme  as in the opening scenes of this film we see a woman running through woods , this action allows for a questions to arise : who is she ? and what has made her run ?. The scene which follows then shows that she is running over an assault course , this is because we see her climb over an object . She is then asked to see Mr Crawford . This then creates another question : Who is Mr Crawford ? and what does he want ?

Marcus

Research into Enigma codes Marcus

One of the films I encountered in my research was the 2001 space odyssey by Stanley Kubrick, this I thought contained the use of enigma codes as , we are not fully aware of the story line until the very end .

Marcus

Enigma Codes Marcus

What are Enigma codes ?

Enigma codes pose questions to the audience , these are later resolved throughout the film these questions enable the audience to be intrigued with the film and wanting to find out the answers to these questions, therefore watching more of it this therefore means that these codes entice the audience to watch the rest of the film as they're curious as to what will happen next and while doing this they also help to move on the narrative.

Marcus 

Our title sequence. Jack.

We will use this order of titles for our title sequence at the beiginning of our film, however we will simplify this and not use all of them as there are too many and would take up too much time, considering we are already struggling to keep our footage within the time limit.

- Name of the studio.
- Name of the Production Company. 
- Films title.
- Featuring.
- Casting or Casting by.
- Music or Music Composed By or Original Score By.
- Production Design or Production Designer: 
            - Set Design.
            - Costume or Costumes By or Gowns.
            - Hairdresser.
            - Make-up Artist.
            - Sound Recording. 
            - Visual Effects Director or Visual Effects By.
- Editor or Edited By.
- Director Of Photography. 
- Producer or Produced By, Executive Producer.
- Based On The Book (play, graphic novel etc.) By or From a play/book By.
- Based On The Characteristics By or Based On The Characters Created By.
- (Screen) Story or Story By. 
- Writer(s) or Written By or Screenplay or Screenplay By.
- Director or Directed By.

This is a tester for our slo motion, reverse, smoking scene. Jack.

This is a tester for our slow motion smoking scene, however when uploaded it was neither slow motion, nor backwards.

What we did today. By Jack.

Today we perfected our music on garage band for our film. We have merged in sounds of spirit noises with a scary music undertone to create the scary contrast between the house party music we have also made.

This is a piece of scary music which we liked and believed suited our short film. By Jack.

We believed this suited our film because it is scary music with a dance beat behind it, and as our murder happens at a party, this was ideal. The contrast between party and scary music creates an eery atmosphere. This piece inspired us to try and make something similar on garage band. We have also added demonic groans and sounds to our piece as well as trying to make it sound like this, to emphasise the fear.

By Jack

Music in horror / thriller Marcus

The study - which involved composer Peter Kaye at Kingston University, London  -  looked at the music in films, as well as special effects and screams.

The analysis showed that horror films had the most noisy female screams - while adventure films had the most screams from men.

Horror films also had an higher than expected number of abrupt shifts up and down in pitch .

Dramatic films had fewer than expected screams and lower pitched sounds than other genre of movie.

The study later concluded that the use of these non-linear sounds was not random - but used to 'enhance the emotional impact of scenes'.

'Non-linearities are commonly produced when animals are under duress, such as the fear screams produced when animals are attacked by predators,

SNAPCHAT

SNAPCHAT.

Written by Jack Cole and Marcus Nolan.

February 4^th 2015

PARTY.

We see a blank screen.  The writer’s names (Marcus and Jack) appear suddenly on the screen with a flash of white, accompanied by the sound of a picture being taken.

SILENCE.

CUT TO.

We then see the following text displayed in the same manner

12.30AM. BARNET. FRIDAY.

SILENCE.

CUT TO.

SNAPCHAT.

FADE IN.

SCENE 1. INT. HOUSE PARTY. NIGHT.

We see in slow motion the reverse of a beer spilling up close.

CUT TO.

SCENE 2. INT. HOUSER PARTY. NIGHT.

A pan shot is used to show everyone in the party.

SCENE 3. EXT. OUTSIDE THE HOUSE. NIGHT.

We hear music from inside the party.  We see a pair of trainers that belong to JACK (A secondary school student) standing outside lighting a cigarette. Slow motion backwards edit is used to show smoke going back into his mouth.

A shot from over Jack’s shoulder shows him opening a snapchat from an unknown number. He sees in the snapchat himself dead wearing what he is currently wearing.

JACK.

What the fuck?

SCENE 4. INT. HOUSE PARTY. NIGHT.

MARCUS

Guys, where’s Jack?

SCENE 4. EXT. OUTSIDE THE HOUSE. NIGHT.

Shot of hand falling on the floor with cigarette flying out of hand. Backwards slow motion edit is used to show cigarette flying out of hand.

SCENE 4.

MARCUS and others open back door to see JACK dead. Looks are exchanged.

ALL OF CLIP PLAYS BACK IN NORMAL TIME.

BY JACK

My 1st attempt at a soundtrack by Jack

By JACK

Discussion : The ideas for our opening thriller

Experiment 1

In todays lesson we set up an experiment . This was to test one of the slightly alternative effects of using reversed slow-motion  . This in our thriller would occur using a beer bottle and preferably on a floor . We set to film this experiment using the hd camera however we decided in the end that the process would be faster if we used a phone , as we only had a short time and there was no real need for the use of a specialised camera .
Marcus