'Run' Final Draft

Below is the link to our final draft for our 2 minute opening sequence 'Run'.
Link: Final Draft

'Run' 1st Draft

Our first draft for our 2 minute opening sequence went quite well. We made a few changes though for the real thing, such as sounds, foley sounds, editing and credits.

Link: 1st Draft

Main Task Storyboard

Below is the storyboard our group created for our opening sequence, 'Run'. When filming our opening, we altered our shots slightly to the ones shown in our storyboard. This shows how our construction process changed and adapted to fit with our new ideas.

First half of 'Run' storyboard

 

Second half of 'Run' Storyboard

Analysis of first Focus Group responses

For our first focus group, we presented our photomatic to twelve people, unfortunately we only received eight responses. However, these responses were very full and detailed in helping us know what we did right and wrong in one of our first tasks as a group.

From the responses we received, we can understand that most of the people in our focus group felt our photomatic had a dark, horror theme to it. We could also see a lot of willingness in the responses to watch our film if it came out in a cinema.

We had some problems with the soundtrack, with some members of our focus group not being able to hear it at all. However, some did hear the soundtrack and felt it fit very well with the theme and mood that we were trying to convey.

Beginning our Focus Group

Together, we thought of twelve people to join our focus group to help us learn and develop. We created a questionnaire for the group to answer relating to the Photomatic we made for our film opening 'Run'. We each emailed the members of the group that we had chosen. The questions were:

what do you think the meanings were that we were attempting to convey through the soundtrack?

would you want to go see this film in the cinema? why?

what genre do you think this animatic portrays?

what meanings do you think the photographs we took were trying to convey?

suggest one improvement?

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.