Photomatic

First, we, as a group created a storyboard for our Photomatic to help us decide what photos we would take and what credits we would use. A photomatic is a preliminary version of a moving image text. It consists of a series of drawings, animated cut-out figures or photographs with a sound track or voice over. It is mainly used for test marketing purposes. We created a photomatic to present our preliminary opening credit sequence idea to our class and to our target audience focus group for feedback. 

Below is the equipment we used:

                       

Next, we created the real thing.

Photomatic

Japanese Horror Research

Japanese filmmakers first started making horrors set in the classical Edo Period (1603 to 1867 - when Japanese society was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional Daimyo. The period was characterized by economic growth, strict social order, isolationist foreign policies, environmental protection policies, and popular enjoyment of arts and culture ) in the 1950s.

These types of films often focus on a tale of morality or revenge, with an influence of distrust in technology and the aftermath of atomic bombs.

Japanese Horror has become popular in Western society, with remakes being created of Japanese films such as The Ring (リング). The Ring  is a 1998 film, was released in America. In The Ring, a news reporter named Asakawa discovers the story of a cursed video tape. According to the rumor, a video tape exists that will kill the viewer seven days after it is watched. The only escape from the curse is to make a copy of the tape and show it to someone else, who must then copy it and show it again to save themselves. Asakawa tracks the tape down and watches it only to realize that the curse is real and that she has seven days to live. She spends the rest of the film searching for the force behind the tape, a psychic girl named Sadako who was killed by her father and dumped in a well years ago. As we see at the end of the film, Sadako climbs out of her well and through the TV of her next victim, manifesting her wrath in the physical realm from beyond the grave.

We have a particular focus on Yūrei ghosts in Japanese horror. Yūrei ghosts are figures in Japanese folklore, comparable to Western legends of ghosts. They often wear white clothing, have long, black hair and their hands dangle lifelessly from the wrists, which are held outstretched with the elbows near the body. Japanese horror filmmakers explain that the long hair is a metaphor for ancient Japanese customs, where men wore their hair long and unbound and women wore their hair neatly tied up. The unkempt hairstyle of the female villains signifies madness or demonic possession due to its non-conformist associations.

Primary Target Audience

There are many important factors to focus on when it comes to thinking about your target audience. These include, genre preferences, class, gender, age, fears and anxieties, education, values and hopes.
Our primary target audience for our two minute opening sequence will probably be older teenagers and adults who enjoy horror films, because our opening sequence focuses heavily on this theme.
We will try to focus on audiences who fear similar things such as escaped people, being home alone, being stalked, the dark and unknown phone calls. These are the fears we will be portraying in our opening sequence. By focusing on our audiences fears we are trying to create a more tense atmosphere for their viewing pleasure.

We will also focus on audiences who have similar values and beliefs. For example, what one would do if someone broke into their house. All these values and beliefs would come together to make our opening sequence seem altogether more interesting and gripping.

For our own opening sequence we want to focus on a target audience that appreciates Japanese horror, primarily the westernised type, such as 'The Ring' (2002). We want our opening sequence to shock and scare our viewers, as horror films traditionally do. We want to focus on an opening with no special effects or over exaggerations, just simple costumes and makeup, going back to the traditional popular Japanese horrors, such as 'Dark Water'. These types of films rely on suspense rather that over-the-top scare tactics used in many American horrors. Many fans of Japanese horror like to think of themselves as away from 'mainstream' and part of a lesser known cult of J-horror, so we would like to focus on people who are already part of this Japanese horror cult.

Opening Sequence Observations for Planning

Having analysed a variety of openings, I would say there are 10-15 credits in a typical opening credit sequence.
The credits usually included in an opening sequence in conventional order are, production company logo, casting by, music by, main cast credits, produced by, cinematography by, directed by, edited by and the title of the film.
I would like to include aspects of narrative in my group opening such as, characterisation of the main character, the horror character and the setting.
We will set up our characters with use of their clothing, physical appearance and their dialogue. For example, for the horror character may wear a long white dress. She may also have long, black, limp hair. She will have little dialogue to retain  her mysterious aura. The main character will be dressed in casual attire, a hoodie and jeans.

Analysis of Japanese Horror Opening Sequences

Tale of Two Sisters (2003) A South Korean horror film
Tale of Two Sisters begins with a few opening credits, next it goes onto a patterned background with the title written across it in Korean. It then shows more credits consecutively across the patterned background which slowly dissolve away to the right. The camera then slowly pans out, and the pattern from the background starts floating away, as this happens the credits being shown turn from white to red. The image then fades to black and the story begins.

The Grudge (2004)
The opening begins with 'Columbia' film production's ident. It then moves onto Ghost House Pictures ident. Next, text shows up on a black background which begins to tell the narrative of the start of the story. The film begins, showing a scene of a couple, suddenly the man throws himself off the couple's balcony. Next, the credits begin on a black screen, they are written in red. After the credits, the black fades away to red, and the title of the film is shown, in Japanese, in black across a rep, rippled background. The red ripples are then disturbed by the silhouette of a hand, and the title is shown again in black, but this time written in English. This then ripples away and the rest of the credits are shown, all with a rippling sequence in between each one. Blackness then envelops the red, and the story begins.

Dark Water (2002)
The film opening begins with Kadokawa Shoten film ident. Next, the credits show in white across a black background. The black fades away to show murky water with a dim light shining in one corner of the scene, like a torch, still with consecutive white credits across the screen in different places. All the credits are written in Japanese. The water then gives way to the beginning of the story.

From my analysis of Japanese Horror opening sequences, I can understand that they focus heavily on red and white coloured credits with black backgrounds. I can also see that many of the credits dissolve or face eerily into the background, creating a mysterious and tense feel to the opening sequences.

Idea for Main Task

Our scene begins with a girl, sitting in her living room, listening to the radio on her iPhone. She is listening to a news report about a young girl that has escaped from a mental institution in her local area. The girl goes upstairs to get ready for bed. While going through her nightly routine, she hears a bang downstairs in her house. The girl runs downstairs to see that her front door is wide open, she shuts it and as the door shuts, a scary Yurei type ghost girl (the young girl from the mental institution) is standing behind her as the door closes..

Timeline Task

For this task, we watched an opening title sequence to a film of our choice, I chose 'Batman' (1989). We had to draw up a timeline showing the different times of each credit and how long each lasted. We also had to do the same for the music in the title sequence. We did this task to help us with our own creating of an opening title sequence.

Prelim Task Evaluation

For our preliminary task, Gabriel, Kiran, Luke and I created a film about a drug deal. In our short film we had to include the continuity techniques: match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule. We needed to film and edit a character opening a door, crossing a room, sitting down in a chair opposite another character and then exchanging a few lines of dialogue.
We thought about our mise-en-scene in a group, discussing important factors such as which location to film in, what props to have, who to choose to act in it, what lighting would best create different moods and effects and much more. We decided to use a store cupboard in the school's gymnasium as our location, we chose two year seven students to act as the drug dealer and customer and we used a flashlight to create top lighting to set the scene as dark, gritty and slightly mysterious.
Our camerawork was very versatile, with use of over the shoulder shots, close up shots, extreme close ups and bird's eye view shots. These all contributed to further creating a short film that we could appreciate and be proud to show to the rest of our class.
We did not need to edit our short film much as each clip we filmed, we seemed to get right most times. We put a sound clip over the whole short film as we felt it added a certain feel to the film which without the sound, would not be there.
During this whole journey, I feel I have learnt a lot about film making and all the different techniques it entails. I have learnt how time consuming it can be, how much concentration and determination it takes, how to use different camera shots to create different moods in films and much more. It has been a really interesting learning experience for me and has really had me more enthusiastic about film making and media studies in general.

Preliminary Task Final Video

By: Kiran, Gabriel, Luke Crisp and Alys

Preliminary Task Storyboard

The title of my groups story board is 'Dealing with Dealers'. It is in the crime genre and we tried to create a gritty, dangerous mood during filming. We filmed the short film using two year seven students at The Cherwell School. Our location used was a storage cupboard in the school gymnasium. We used dark lighting  as well as other techniques such as top lighting to create an atmosphere of fear in the scene. 

Continuity Editing

Action Match - This will involve following a single character this will be the main focus of the technical device. However when action match is used for inter-cutting . which means it can heighten parallels/contrast between two different characters in two different situations.

Example: - An example of this is in skins the young Russian woman's swinging of the axe. Here we can tell all sex and power is juxtaposed with the fat Russian dinner lady's serving of congealed mashed potato. This draws ways in contrasting ways in which the Russian women are being represented.


Eye line match - Eye line match will offer a deep insight to the characters private thoughts

Example: - In doctor who, Martha exchanges glances with all the people she loves, as though this may be the last chance she has to communicate with them before she dies. The camera cuts from her family to friends watching her signify that she is the center of action


Final Shot - In any scene, sometimes characters will have a shot taken of them in the final scene. This is implies to the audience whom the audience is expected to identify.

Example:- In primeval, although Abby saves the day, the last shot is on cutter, which signifies that the audience is intended to adopt the male, not the female, point of view.


Jump Cuts - When these are used they tend to suggest either a) Chaos and Disorder b) self-conscious ellipsis (drawing attention to the rapid pace of the action) or c) a director who likes to break the rules

Example:- In primeval, two jump cuts accelerates the cutter's preparation to slide down the zip-wire; this could be ready as speedy or decisive.


Inter-cutting: Tension - When inter-cutting is used to draw two story lines together, this can be structured to create tension, and therefore heighten the audience's identification with a particular character.

Example: - Primeval, inter-cutting between the tigers pursuit of Cutter and Abby's running in with the rifle is action code and prompts the question: will she get there in time? In Hotel Babylon inter-cutting offers both tension and juxtaposition.


Match Cut/Graphic Match - This is a cut in film editing between either two different objects, two different spaces, or two different compositions in which an object in the two shots graphically match, often helping to establish a strong continuity of action and linking the two shots metaphorically. A match cut is used often to suggest an ellipsis (a lapse of time) to the viewer. 

Preliminary Task Introduction

Our preliminary task is to create a very short film including the continuity techniques: match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule. We need to film and edit a character opening a door, crossing a room, sitting down in a chair opposite a character and then exchanging a few lines of dialogue. Our group is made up of Luke, Gabriel, Kiran and me.

Establishing Shot Notes

Questions answered:
- What is establishing?
- What kind of shots are typically used?
- Why is establishing important?
- How long (what duration) are establishing shots?
- What are audience associations with establishing?
- How is establishing linked to genre?
- How does the soundtrack go with establishing?

Donnie Darko Movie Poster Semiotic Analysis (notes on semiotics)

This is a movie poster for the film 'Donnie Darko'. It is quite a minimalistic poster, only using three colours to make each part of the poster stand out. The juxtaposition between the flat black background and the eerie whites and blues used in the foreground succeed in creating a mysterious, spooky feel to the poster.
The black background of the poster signifies fear, maybe of the unknown. This intrigues someone who may be looking at the poster and the background doesn't give much away about what the film is really like. The unusual foreground image, of the character's faces merged into a sinister looking rabbit's head, may signify that all the characters are linked to this rabbit in some way. This is quite an objective technique.
The use of bright, bold, white writing in the foreground for the title and actor's name connotes that the designer of the poster really wanted them to stand out to whoever was looking at the poster.
By using light shadowing around the title, 'Donnie Darko', it again connotes to any potential audiences that the title is the centre of attention on this poster.
The black background and the name 'Darko' may correspond together to represent that this film may have a lot of darkness in it and may be quite scary.
The foreground image may be quite frightening for some people and so by this, a potential viewer of this film can understand what the target audience is.
The mix of pale colours in the foreground image make it look almost as if it is illuminated and vibrating off of the background. This symbolises that the film is fast paced and enigmatic at times.
Overall, I would say that the simplicity of this poster is definitely very effective to draw an audience in and make them want to watch this film.

Camera Movements

The main types of camera movements are:

Pans. This movement scans a scene horizontally. Often used when following a moving object which is kept in the middle of the frame.



Tilts. This movement scans a scene vertically.



Dolly shots. This movement is when the camera is placed on a vehicle and moves alongside the action. This movement is sometimes called a tracking shot.



Hand-held shots. This movement is used a create a fly-on-the-wall sort of effect. Often used to make the audience feel as if they are part of the scene.



Crane shots. This movement is just like a dolly shot but is instead in the air.



Zoom lenses. This movement means that a camera can get a 'close up' shot while still being far away from the action.



Aerial shot. This movement is similar to the crane shot except it is usually taken from even higher up, e.g in an in flight helicopter.

Camera Shots and Angles

.

Camera shots and angles have many different affects on media. They can change a scene completely, making it more tense, dramatic, happy, sad and much more.

The main types of camera shots are:

Extreme long shot. This type of shot is usually used to set the scene. The shot generally has very little detail in it and is of an outside area.



Long Shot. This type of shot is usually used to make objects and people seem life sized. The shot focuses on a person but also shows background to set the scene.



Medium Shot. This type of shot is usually used to reveal half of a figure, with minimal background imagery. This also includes the over-the-shoulder shot.



Close-Up Shot. This type of shot is usually used to focus on a face or a close-up of an object. It is quite an intimate shot to use.



Extreme Close-Up Shot. This type of shot usually focuses on a mouth or eyes with no background detail. It is usually used for dramatic effect.




The main types of camera angles are:

The Bird's-Eye view. This angle is usually taken from very high up, as if taken by a flying bird. It sometime makes the focused object seem unrecognisable



High Angle. This angle is usually taken above eye-level. It is often used to make the character or object in focus become part of a wider setting.



Eye Level. This angle is taken at the level of a person's eyes. It is used to make it seem as if a person is actually watching the scene.



Low Angle. This angle is usually used to increase height and make things seem more imposing. It is usually used to make the character in the scene seem more powerful than the audience.



Canted Angle. This angle is usually tilted or off balance. It is usually quite popular in horror films.

About Me

Welcome to my blog. My name is Alys Short and I'm taking the following subjects at The Cherwell School sixth form: Media Studies, English Literature, History and Sociology. I chose to study Media Studies because I find different media outlets such as tv, music, newspapers and film all very interesting.