EVALUATION #4

EVALUATION #3

EVALUATION #2

EVALUATION #1

Missing film trailer

Horror Trailer draft

Editing With Faith!

Faith applying Propps Theory

PROPP'S CHARACTER TYPES THEORY:

The PROPP'S character type theory brings in the idea that films will always have the following: 

The villain - struggles against the hero.
The donor - Prepares the hero or gives them something to help them.
The helper - Helps the hero in the quest. 
The princess - The damsel in distress, or person in need of help.
The dispatcher - Character that sends the hero on their quest.
The hero - Takes credit for their own heroic actions/ struggles again the villain. 
The False hero - Takes credit for the hero's actions. 

Applying this theory to our own narrative:

The villain - Antagonist: Who keeps the missing friend hostage. 
The donor - Antagonist: Who provides the clues that the protagonist earns through tasks. 
The helper - Antagonist: Who gives the protagonist tasks in order to earn clues: therefore helping her.
The princess - The missing friend 'Hannah Owens.' 
The dispatcher - Antagonist: Who introduces the game to the protagonist. 
The hero - The protagonist who accepts the game to find her friend. 
The False hero - N/A. 

I feel that this particular theory doesn't work very well with out narrative, due to their not being many characters as a whole, and the fact that the Antagonist has a lot of control throughout making them most of the character types above.

Faith's Work on Props

PROPS:

One prop we decided to include was the use of bags to cover our victim's faces. I had these made out of a black material (thanks to my Mother) and used them to connote our character's vulnerability and restrictions. It's stereotypical of a horror, or even an actions films, to demonstrate a sense of fear of the unknown due to having their sight taken from them. The audience are able to feel sympathy for the characters as they have been made unable to see their surroundings and the dangers around them. The audience get a sense of fear also, as they are able to question the antagonist's intentions due to restricted their sight and knowledge of the place they've been taken to. The simplicity of the black bags work well to connote the darkness within the scene, and it also works well to keep the attention on the struggling bodies that wear them. 

Another prop we decided to use was a shovel. Karlton and I decided on this due to what it could suggest to our target audience. Our narrative is based upon what a person is willing to do for their best friend - as she does tasks that will reward her with clues. Using the shovel connotes the idea of something or someone being buried, therefore implying that our protagonist could have gone as far as killing someone. This as a result just helps to make our horror film trailer more sinister and cold, which is especially surprising due to the young age of the protagonist. Our protagonist is also supposed to be someone of good, so when we see such cold actions like this, it helps to signify her inner darkness to save someone she cares about. Another prop we used was a lighter for the use of fire in our horror film trailer. For the shot shown below, I used a shallow depth of field and focused on the hand and the lighter in the foreground. This then made the house in the background out of focus, meaning my target audience can focus on what's more important In this shot - which is the flame and the danger surrounding our protagonist's thoughts. The house in the background connotes the idea that our protagonist will be actually setting fire to the house she stands outside of - which then demonstrates one of the possible tasks she has to do to find her friend. Fire as a whole is associated with danger.

Another prop we used included the use of paper, a pen and fake blood. Due to the narrative being based upon friendship and tasks having to be performed to save one of them - we wanted to be able to show our target audience the clues visually, and not just with the use of a voice over or text. I used normal lined paper appose to anything else, as I waned it to have a sense of simplicity. Our protagonist is putting her life in danger for a piece of paper. Nothing more. This just tells our target audience how much power a simple piece of paper has over her. I used fake blood on it to connote bloodlust on our antagonist's part. Our target audience may take the blood on the clue, as the victim's blood, the protagonists blood suggesting injury, or even someone else's blood connoting a possible task that our protagonist had to do. I wrote 'Clue two', appose to 'Clue one', so that our target audience would be able to see that their are multiple clues of which the protagonist can earn. I also wanted to use 'Clue two', as it means the target audience isn't seeing the narrative in chronological order within our film trailer. In film trailers, they don't necessarily show the shots in order of narrative and events - however what they do tend to do, is show the most exciting shots in an order that provides excitement and tension.

We also created a missing poster, which you can see in the ancillary tasks, to make our narrative more real and believable. The poster assured our target audience that these characters have made the effort to use other sources to find her. It creates the idea of this girl being heavily loved and adored by the people around her, which creates further sympathy when we see her in pain and agony on screen. The missing poster gives a background to our characters, as it implies that they have a family and other people who wish for their teenage daughter back.

I think that these props worked well for our narrative, as they all  provide a sense of excitement and tension. We tried to think outside of the box to make our horror films trailer different, and we tried to make our props conventional to the horror film genre.

Todorov's Narrative Theory

Todorov believed that all films follow a minimum of a five step process in the narrative. These consist of the:
1. Equillibrium ( this is where we are intoriduced to the protagonist, and usual;ly their mundane and boring life).
2. Disruption of the equillibrium (this is where the audiences are introduced the problem that the Protagonist has to face)
3. Recognition of the Equillibrium (this is where the protagonist is introduced to the problem)

4. Attempt to fix (this is where the hero attempts to fix the highlighted issue)

5. New equillibrium (the hero fixes the issue and the law and order is brought back)
However, there can be more disruptions and attempts to fix (which conventional in films, the hero has to attempt to fix twice, as the first never goes as planned.). Our narrative would be as follows:

1. Our hero is casually going about her life

2. She realises that her best friend is missing

3. She is introduced into a game, where if she does the tasks, she can find her friend.

4. She would attempt to do as told, and has to race to the end to find her friend.

5. Following conventional films, we would have the friend already dead by the time the hero finds her.

Faith's Magazine Front Cover

Final Ancillary Task- Poster

Ancillary Editing Task 2

Behind the Scenes with Faith and Maddy

Photos after our recording with Maddy, feeling optimstic because our recording is done!

Vlog of our Final location

Faith did a bloopers edit video from yesterday, giving a little insight into our location and what we did, and what did/didn't work, along with some funny moments.

First Poster draft

After a good photo-shoot with Faith and our protagonist, i started editing the photos of our main protagonist, and after a lot of hardwork using the paint.net tool i found online, i was able to effectively editall of the poster, giving it a professional feel towards it.
                               

As i began using new software to edit our photos, I struggled with using Paint.net  majorly as i had never used a photo editing tool before. I didn't know how to use any of the tools at the start, and what layers were or how to use them. After realsing that i would not be able to make a professional ancillary task on my own, i accessed the web 2.0 and began searching for some help.

I looked on Youtube and found a video (to the right) that helped me to grasp the basics of the editing using Paint.net. It shown me all of the tools, like the colour wheel and the layers, and what to put in each layer and how to rename them so I know what is in each layer, and how to use them effectively to get maximum benefits. For example, I was shown how to use the blur tool, and this worked brilliantly for my background. It also shown me how to highlight certain points in the poster, bringing out the characters face and the missing poster, for example. 

I was also shown the blur tool whilst using letters, and i created a fading lettering around the title "Missing". The red blur helped to make the title stand out against the background a lot more, contrasting between the bright red title and the dark dim background. I was also shown how to select certain parts of the poster to change the saturation and hue of colour. I made the poster in my protagonists hand high in contrast and saturation to draw the audiences attention towards it as i wanted to emphasise the missing person on the poster, so the audience can recognise the character on both the poster and the missing poster inside the poster created.

Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the day we're recording for our media production and i can barely sleep! Both I and Faith are prepared for everything! Bring it on!

Final Cut Pro X

After doing our recording, we decided to use Final Cut Pro once again, as i am much more advanced in using it. This editing software has a lot to offer, and can help to make a production look professional. Since we already have some experience using Final Cut, it allows us to explore the more complicated and effective parts to the editing software.

Final cut pro is a lot more specialised in film editing than Apple's IMovie, with special effects that the IMovie couldn't handle. It also has hue/saturation/exposure on a slider, meaning you can make it darker or lighter, depending on the mood you are attempting to create. Creating a horror, we prefer to lower the saturation (however, not on blood) and lower the exposure, to give a dark and night feel to it. 

Recording Issues

After several attempts to meet up and shoot the film trailer all of the original cast that were going to be in it we decided to swap around the cast due to their strict availability. After setting a meeting and shooting date of this Saturday, two of the four actress' also canceled on both me and Faith which highly irritated us. Therefore, we had to improvise some of the first scene, considering we would not have been able to do some of the shots we wanted. I could also not be included because our cast was strictly female as our antagonist liked to capture women. We also wanted a female protagonist so that we could also prove that women were strong as well, and can save themselves, going against many mainstream films that use women as the Damsel in distress' (going against Propp's typical character theory)
There was also issues with the location that we had decided to use in our film trailer, as we were constantly approached by youths of whom thought it was funny to create a lot of noise after being asked politely to be quiet and/or leave. After an hour of precious recording time wasted on getting rid of these pestering children, we carried on recording. Due to the season, it was already getting dark which had an impact on our camera quality. However, in light of this, i used two iPhone torches to light up the charater's face which contrasted against the background and immediately made our camera shots look more professional.

Ancillary planning

Looking at the conventional horror film posters online, as a group, me and faith decided to and sketch two film poster designs, following the typical layout of the posters online. We also noticed that there was a dark colour pallette, most of the time with a bright red to attract the audiences. In these posters, there was not always a lot of gore and is known to be a horror by its dark layout around the outside, and the darkened colours used. This normally sets the scene, and creates a sinister atmoshpere. The horror posters are normally quite simple, having a minimalistic set. We liked the idea of having one prop, the missing poster, as we wanted to emphasise that the film is about a missing friend and keep the audience.

Props- Poster

We deicded that to make our Horror film and the narrative easier to understand we would use a Missing poster. When included in the Ancillary Poster, it will help with the narrative, to tell the audience what the basic outline of the Horror film is. Making our protagonist hold the poster helps to show that the story follows a girl and how she would do everything to find her friend. We felt that using a selfie would be more attractive to our audience, as our demographics are young adults, of whom would be constantly taking selfies, making an immediate connection with the 'Missing' character. 

Looking at many conventional missing posters, the missing person was always in the centre and the photo of them was always large, grabbing everyone and anyone's attention. They were also very basic and normally just contained the words MISSING and a REWARD with some small print giving context about where they lived or what they looked like and who they hung around with.

Getting Ready

To prepare for our filming, we had a discussion. Faith's mother had kindly created some black material to use for the abduction scenes, and i agreed to bring in fake blood for the characters. Faith will be bringing in makeup and together, we will be able to make our actress look as if she has been attacked and in pain, with blood and bruises on her.

Meet Alice

Once again, because of unforeseeable circumstances, we have had to change our cast, and had to look for another actress to take up Jess' lead role in our production. A major thank you to Alice, of whom has found time to come and be our protagonist, whilst balancing her own work and her A levels! After speaking to her, we found that her availability is a lot less restrictive than our original cast. Our initial idea of having a protagonist with ginger hair of course will have to change, but Alice's dark brown hair gives a darker connotation, along with her dark eyes, connoting of the hard decision and darkness her character is yet to face in the movie. Welcome aboard Alice!

Cast Issue

After having availability issues with our cast members, we have had to change our cast, and find a new cast, including our protagonist, Jess, which means that we will have to change the Ancillary poster and Magazine both me and Faith have been working on.

Online Tutorials & Response

I decided to look at Final cut pro x once again, as i know it is a complex editing programme. Looking at different aspects of the programme would help become more skillful when editing.

I looked at the more advanced areas of final cut, including the colour correction. Colour correction can play a large role in the creation of an atmosphere as well as making a film look a lot more professional. Lighting up the face, of which is seen in this little editing piece can help to highlight the importance of characters and make sure that the focus from the audience is focused on the correct thing. Adding a blueish colour tint to a scene can drastically change the feeling the audience feel towards the scene. It can make normal things look a lot more isolated and darker. It also gives a more professional effect to the production.   Changing to low-key lighting effect, darkens the edges and makes it come across as much  ore of an intense and eerie scene making it a lot more sinister.
 

Jump Scares

During my lesson, i agreed with Faith that to make an effective yet professional trailer for a horror movie, we would have to include a jump scare. However, using a jump scare requires precision and the ability to keep the audience occupied with something else. To do an effective jump scare the music plays an important role, as it adds to the suspense and is what causes the climax of suspense, where it is more likely to make people jump. In a jump scare, it relieves the tension that has been built up throughout the horror film and gives the audience a break from the tension and adds an opportunity for them to laugh and take a breath before carrying on with the film. 

Cast issue- Faith

We have found it difficult to arrange dates with our cast member - although we arranged a date and it would be fine, we realise that due to her going to a different college, we finish at different times. This therefore meaning that meeting up to film is made harder. To give us more ease on filming, we have decided to cast our friend Jess Allured instead, due to her times meeting ours more closely. 

StoryBoarding

Together, Faith and I have been working on our Storyboards. We have been developing our ideas and writing down any useful shots that we believe would make our film trailer look more effective. We noticed that most of the horror trailers used a lot of blackouts, of which is a convention of the horror genre. We know that most horror films have a short scene, and then is followed by a blackout and loads of differently located shots and action points in the story.

Friday 13th January

Today me and Faith have been working on our story-boarding in our study periods, and the lesson, putting together shots that we think would work effectively together. I also finished editing an experiemental poster, putting everything i know about conventions of horror. This is NOT the sample of our final product, but a way of showing my progress in editing terms.

The red and the yellows in this poster are used to help connote the danger the character is in. The bright colours helps to attract a wider audience.