Final Cut - No Hiding Place

KM - Evaluation Question One

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

• • Titles and credits (idents)
  • Establishing shot (often with blue tint for horror genre films)
  • Sound track, digetic or non digetic.
  • Tracking shots.
  • Mise-en-scene to provide anchorage of genre and the idea of the film.
  • Following one specific main character (protagonist)

Our two minute product 'No Hiding Place' occurred to us as our working title name, because it can be easily acknowledged and used as a realistic Hollywood style movie title. If I were to compare our product to any Hollywood movies, Freddy vs. Jason and IT would definitely relate. Using the theme of clowns, and a similar cast, we have looked in depth to use a variety of common resources that would occur in a typical slasher film.


Our original working title was going to be 'You Can Run But You Can't Hide', but once we looked at a variety of movie titles, we found short, "straight to the point" titles worked best and gave out an appropriate idea as an insight towards the film. 
'No Hiding Place' give an obvious idea to the audience as to what genre the film will be, and also give a curious vibe as to what the film itself will be about. In our opening two minutes a flashback occurs, this is to signify the past,  we used a black and white screening as these can be the typical colours people see when fainting occurs, maybe because danger is around? Also we used a fade out transition to show this is a specific memory to someone who cannot forget the past, these can be usually be shown as a good thing or a bad thing, in our case, bad.

Lori Campbell (Freddy vs. Jason)

 We know this is a bad memory due to the obvious heartbeat behind the opening clips, this also signifies that the memory creates tension in the characters mind, but as we keep the killer a secret this may give the character a sense of curiosity and vulnerability as to why her friend died and the thought of who was it who killed her?
This is the typical role of the 'The Final Girl'. The flashbacks and  psycho like behaviour can also relate to Lori Campbell in 'Freddy vs. Jason' because the basis of the film, she becomes crazy due to lack of sleep, and is fearing for her life, somethings our Final Girl Lucy can relate to.
Judith Butlers theory on the idea that we decide that we show the world we are male and female by the way we dress and that gender doesnt exist it is something we perform we as people are taught to be male or female from a young age.
We decided for the titles to go for a red text to signify seriousness and death (blood) although we went against the idea of Serif font because we wanted to show that a font choice cant make a huge difference to a production and we didn't want to give to much away as the titles are at the beginning of the opening we hoped this wouldnt form an oppositional reading for the viewers but we thought with the sound track over it that would provide sufficient anchorage involving high strings like Psycho. We have low and high notes throughout the opening which we hoped would signify binary oposition to the audience of the two customers in the salon althoguh we should of gone for the shot reverse shot when the two were talking to eahother to show binary oppositon better.


Untitled from katie mallows on Vimeo.

• We used our idents so that they would tie in with the working title name, as you can see from the above, Secret Productions and No Hiding Place, both add mystery to the film so they can both relate really well to the genre.

KM - Evaluation Question Two

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

For our media product, we have changed the typical stereotypes for a horror film slightly, especially for the sub-genre of a 'slasher'. 

In a typical horror film the scream queen is portrayed as blond, busty girl who is usually killed due to her sexually active role. We have two main female characters, one who plays a bigger role in the film, but is not shown throughout the whole opening only in the flashback. Annie Cutillo(Amber) is portrayed in our film as the 'Scream Queen', but does not fit the criteria of the typical busty blond.

                                               Gibb

  We have compared her character to Gibb, a sexually active brunette in 'Freddy vs. Jason'. This is because she is the first girl to get killed, so the audience can only assume she's done wrong to be the first to get killed off, and that would be a storyline following into the rest of 'No Hiding Place'.

Our next female character Sophie Dixon, is the 'Final Girl', but also has some of the 'Scream Queen' vulnerability in her, due to the death of her best friend.

Sophie (Lucy) fits, the criteria for a 'Final Girl', she wears suitable clothing throughout the film, Brunette, and plays a shy character rather than a 'slutty' character, which the typical 'Scream Queen' would knowing she has a boyfriend.

In our media product gender does not play a specific role, only due to the fact that in any typical slasher movie, their are strong gender stereotypes such as the 'Scream Queen' or the 'Final Girl'. But in our media film we have not kept to the same criteria that you would find for the 'Scream Queen'

If we were to complete our final media product, then it would become clear to the audience that the 'Final Girl', Sophie(Lucy) would hold most of the criteria that you would put forward for the typical vulnerable, last female character.

As we have focused on a teen slasher to young adults aged (15-24), we have used our cast between the ages on (16-18) to make it easier for our target audience to relate. This intensify's, the whole film, and as we have put our 'Final Girl' character in a mental like state, this makes the target audience 'fear' and 'scare' for themselves, as they cannot ever imagine themselves in the same sought of situation.

For our original media product, the ethnicity was mixed between both black and white dominant, but having changed the plot altogether we completely changed the cast that fit our new plot criteria. But if the film were to carry on and take place, the film would of become more culturally diverse, as it is now the norm to see more ethnic backgrounds mixing into a film.

We used two locations for our media product, both neither that are working class or upper middle class, we used a social class that represented the norm for teenagers, so we found a balance in between the two.
Tormented is a good example for teens at different social classes, as you can see in the picture at the side, their sense of dress, can reflect on personalities and social class. Also the group is more white ethnic but still does reflect on culture.

KM - Evaluation Question Three

What Kind Of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product and Why?

Due to the fact we are a very low budget film company, we have a very Indie feel to our film, this is comparing ourselves to big film distributors such as Icon Fims, so we feel we would distribute our film through a very indie comapany, such as Independent Films, they are willing to put films such as mine, through to distribute if it has what it takes.

"The roots of independent film can be traced back to the filmmakers in the 1900s who resisted the control of a trust called the Motion Picture Patents Company."

Hollywood producers and film companies would not be interested in a like ours due to the fact we had no budget in the making of the film, and didn't have the highest quality of actors, locations or props, and they would possibly worry that our film would not earn profit back, but Indie companies, interest themselves, because each film has a specific target audience and they would take note that we may not have the best qualitie actors but a great storyline.

KM - Evaluation Question Four

Who would be the audience for you media product?

Scream Queen

Our production would be given a BBFC rating of 15+ and the core age range for our target audience would be approximatley 15- 24 with the majority of horror and slasher films in this rating. As even if the film is an 18 rating it is certain that under 18's will watch the film. Also people older than 24 out of the target audience will watch the film too, so I would need to ask both male and female's for their feedback on what they would expect to see in a slasher, which they have seen and enjoyed previously, and how we could improve ours.

The target audience for our film opening was between the ages of 15-24 both sexes to widen the audience because we thought we would be able to appeal to both sexes due to the storyline. Females because of the feminist spin on the genre and males because of the killers features and males tend to be more attracted to horrors in general because they love the gore and the element of male gaze as there is always a blonde busty female in them althought teens all together are the main viewers of horror and slasher films the secondary audience. Someone who wasn't in the target audeince may also want to watch the film because of intertexual links such as if we'd of had our Scream Queen as the typical blond, 'busty', 'slutty' type.

We went for the 15 rating on our production because we knew if had gone for an eighteen we would of had to of used more explicit images and language which we wernt confortable with using linked with school also we couldn't put our rating at a twelve because of the violence used and include explicit language.

KM - Evaluation Question Five

How did you attract/address your audience?

For our audience feedback, I have asked both male and female for what they thought about all three rough cuts of our film. All titled 'No Hiding Place', but gradually as we carried on asking their ideas, and what they thought could be improved. We asked teenagers, between the target age, this was because if we were going to actually distribute the film we would like to make sure people would see if it and be interested.



Untitled from katie mallows on
href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo.



The Girls we asked above includes, one of the actors, and three other girls who I had picked at random, some may say I have been gender bias for the feedback, but because my media product includes only one boy but two girls, I would like to check and and see if I was including and portraying the female characters in the right way.


Seen as we could not complete the whole product and had to narrow it down to two minutes, we would include and focus more on the sound, to create tension, and also take on more of the audience feedback and ask a lot more of a variety of age ranges seen as I have only asked the girls between the ages of 16-17, so I would spread the age range to 19-24.

KM - Evaluation Question Seven

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression of it to full product?

When completing our Preliminary task, we were asked to create a film with no budget while maintaining a sense of realism, which i have found very hard. This is due to the fact we have basically no budget, so if we were to have a budget, there would be vast improvements in the locations, cast, and there would a variety of added shots, that would come across as better quality.

Also we have learnt the rule of shot reverse shot which we challenged in the preliminary task, and now understanding the idea of it, without using this method the text wont make sense because it doesn't look as if the two participants are sat facing each other.

We were also taught that there is an effective way to show binary opposition of two characters which is something we never had time to show in our coursework, but if we were to develop our media product further then this may be something we would progress and work on.

Semiotic terms I have learnt :
Signifier - A detail we pick out of a text that the audience sees has a significant meaning E.G. a blonde busty woman is a signifier of your typical 'Scream Queen'
Denotation - A description of what you can see or hear e.g. we can denote from the high pitched scream that a female is being killed or a false scare has occured.
Connotation - What is signifier carries a specific meaning.
Binary opposition - Two opposite characters shown in a text together which can be shown in shot reverse shot for example a scream queen and a final girl an example of this in a text would be in James Bond, Casino Royale.
Polysemic - An idea given that carries many possible meanings although thepreferred reading was intended by the producers although an audience may not take it in and instead go for a meaning close to this (contested reading) or the opposite of what the producers wanted to signify (oppositional reading) 
Commutation test - Changing a key item on scream e.g a character clothing choice to see if there is a significant change to the audience reaction for example if James Bond wore a Pink bikini on an advertising poster or billboard it would change the who genre interpretation of the text from an action film to a Gay film.
Narrative enigma - A hidden element within a text to add an element of mystery used to engage the audience or hide a killer in Horror genre films as we did so in 'No Hiding Place'.
Intertextuality - Meanings from another text being tied into a newer one to show a similar meaning or imply the same thing will happen again. 
Verisimilitude - Creating and achieving a sense of realism by what you apply to a text on screen and example of this would be Amber's birthday, Cards, cake and diagetic sound was used.



Untitled from katie mallows on Vimeo.


We have included our very first film to show how far we have progressed through shots, camera angles, casting, and the storyline itself.

KM - Evaluation Question Six

What Have You Learn't About Technologies From The Process Of Constructing This Product?

From the very beginning, the basics have always become more advanced, for example turning a camera on and to be able to shoot a product based on genre, storyline and for it to actually make sense, does take alot of preparation but the outcomes great if you know how to use the programs available to you.

Apple mac computers had the variety of softwares we used to complete our two minute product. These incuded iMovie, LiveType and many more. IMovie was the main and most involved application that we used on the mac, it helped us edit clips, uploading the footage, adding transitions and sound effects as well as the soundtrack itself. Once you know what to click at the right time, the software is automatically a very simple friendly way to creating a product.

Blogging was the main source, when it came to research and planning, so we added posts, followed other blog's to look at existing work etc. Also we watched films based on our genre, or key ideas, so this also was included towards adding new posts on our blogs, to explain what we saw and if it effected our product through other ideas, cast, mise en scene etc.

For further research on specific genres, films, working titles, or even actors, IMDB, YouTube and  Wikipedia, were the obvious, mosty used sites for this kind of information.

GarageBand logo

Watching a Horror/Slasher, we can all agree that the more intense the music, the more predictive it makes out that someone is going to get killed or a false scare may occur, so the soundtrack played an important part for our media production. Our final girl, gives the impression to the audience that she is traumatized by her best friends death, so she starts to show the obvious symptons of Schizophrenia. This may become obvious to the audience when the 'bedroom scene' takes place, hearing a small childs laughter, we used this because part of our main theme is 'clowns', we associated that with clowns at childrens birthday parties, and enjoyment, but also included it because with the slow echo effect it makes out that it is in her head. At the beginning of the two minutes a slow-like heartbeat backs the footage, this is too include tension and we then repeat this 'heartbeat' during the 'bedroom' scene. To create our own heartbeat noise, GarageBand is great for that, with its wide variety of instruments, music typing, and varied pitch noises, you should get the right sound for your product.

To conclude, the softwares, and resources we had available to us we used well, and now have opened up ideas to improve on using the applications for further use, into our future media products. Personally I feel, as a group, myself and Ellie, could have widened our resources, into research and gained more for our film, but this is useful to know now for future products.

Audience Feedback On The Second Rough Cut

Untitled from katie mallows on Vimeo.

Our Second Rough Cut

Untitled from katie mallows on Vimeo.

BBFC - Rating Criteria For Our Film

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/15-2

 We have rated our film as a 15, below is the criteria given by the BBFC for a 15 rating. 


No one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work. 
Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.
For the Horror side : Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised, Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised. 
The language used can be frequent use of strong language.


The acceptable use of  violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. 
However The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. 

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998) - EF

Director - Danny Cannon
Budget- $ 24,000,000 (USA) ( Estimated)
Opening Weekend- $16,520,038 (2443 Screens),(USA), £802,498 (279 Screens) (UK) 

Gross- $39,989,008 (USA), £2,657,571 (UK) 


Synopsis- The murderous fisherman with a hook is back to once again stalk the two surviving teens, Julie and Ray, who left him for dead, as well as cause even more murder and mayhem, this time at a posh island resort. 

In the opening scene there is a close up of  a statue of The Virgin Mary, which then pans towards a statue of Jesus symbol, these shots straight from the beginning show a religious element in the film, and is an anchor to the location being a church. This could maybe signify sin and redemption in the film, as the people being killed in the slasher may have done something wrong and need to be punished. 

The next shots that we see are that of a brunette girl which 
the audience could see as possibly being the 'final girl' from the prequel walking down the 

aisle in a church, alone and isolated. The lighting used is bright white light gleaming through the window, this could possibly signify that the girl is dreaming.
The next scene is of a conversation between Julie and the Priest ( who was in actually fact the mysterious ' Hook Killer from the previous film), the lights are dimmed and all the focus is on the faces of the two characters, the rest of the setting is just in darkness, the darkness could symbolise isolation and loneliness, and the dimmed light could symbolise somebody is watching her. 

User reviews.

British-born Danny Cannon's directing is top-notch

there's no question that the film delivers a sufficient shock quotient to satisfy its youthful target audience.

Our thoughts on the audience feedback

Untitled from katie mallows on Vimeo.

Audience feedback

Untitled from katie mallows on Vimeo.

ALL - Podcast 4 - change in filming

All the boys love Mandy Lane (2008)

Director : Jonathan Levine 
Released :15th February 2008
Box Office

Budget:

 $750,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

 $41,992 (Netherlands) (1 June 2008) (15 Screens) 


"Orphaned Mandy Lane is a beautiful, virgin and pure teenager raised by her aunt, desired by her schoolmates and a close friend of the outcast Emmet. After the death of their high school mate in a pool party, Mandy befriends Chloe, Marlin, Red, Bird and Jake. Red invites the group for a weekend party in the isolated ranch of his family, with all the boys disputing who would succeed in having sex with Mandy Lane. They meet the henchman Garth that takes care of the ranch and he asks the group to go easy on the drugs and booze. In the middle of the night, a stranger wearing a hood attacks Marlin in the barn; when Jake seeks her out, he faces the killer, beginning a night of bloodshed and terror."


The film has a very odd twist to it, which is un-expected by the audience, Mandy Lane(Amber Heard) is there to help the killer. Levine, obviously wanted this to surprise the audience, portraying her as a pure, innocent teen, and leaves it until the very last segment of the film to reveal who she really is. 
At the very beginning of the film, a slow pan of Mandy Lane's body is shown, she's busty, blond and beautiful, everything you'd expect for the typical 'Scream Queen' but what you see isn't exactly what you get, and you can only assume she is the final girl. She is friend's with the outcast Emmet(Michel Welch), and the audience would assume that being friends with someone like her he could be a boyfriend, or popular, but when they are confronted by the 'Popular kids' you soon come to realise he's just a loser. Emmett is shown as the outcast, but still has the potential as a 'hot geek'. 
The 'Populars' were very similar clothes to how Mandy Lane is shown, but she doesn't flaunt it as much as the other girls. Both Marlin and Chloe have a 'sluttiness' about them, both fighting for Jake, they will go to a certain extent to try and sleep with him. But being the typical 'Jock' he only wants to sleep with the hot girl, Mandy Lane.
The Mise-en-scene is the typical, predictive scary setting. The ranch includes dark places where you would expect to be killed, the barn, many fields, and a grim river. I would only assume that Levine has chosen these specific settings, to predict murder is the case and the ranch is shown to be deserted, no where to run and no where to hide kind of place.
The murders take place over a period of night and day. It being very bright the following day you would expect things to die down but at this point you know who the killer is as they were revealed earlier on, but this is when Mandy Lanes secret is also revealed. 
Garth obviously takes a liking to Mandy Lane as she is 'different' to the other girls. When Mandy Lane quotes to garth "how are you from protecting me from teenage boys" this give an insight she either finds them all repulsive or it can lead on to her killing someone, and garth does exactly that and protects he when she confronts Emmett that she won't be going forward with the suicide pact. I find if the killer is revealed then it helps the audience to expect when a murder is about to happen, and make the film too predictive.




Users reviews.


"The OC Meets Friday The 13th"


"At first glance this seems only 'teen slasher' (but a professionally filmed and acted slasher)."

Ellies Copy - 5 girls

Deconstruction Of Five Girls (2006)

Director- Warren P. Sonoda(This film was never released in the cinema) 
Budget - 3,000,000 ( this is an estimate)
Box Office - Not available


Synopsis: Five wayward teenage girls are sent to a reformatory and discover they possess unique powers to battle the ancient demon, Legion, which holds thrall over the sinister institution.One girl in particular we get a unique impression of her relationship with her teacher 


The opening scene of the film begins with an establishing shot, a slow tracking shot of fence this could signify discipline and imprisonment, and an extreme long shot of the Religious school setting,so then just through the misc-en-scene the audience can already see the immediate setting for the film, without any duologue added.There is also a bright light used which could signify a pure/virginal impression of the girls and that god is in the schools presence, which immediately without shows more religious elements. 
As the scene progresses the sound used is eary, almost like a long organ sound being played, to add effect, the sound used is dialect. 
In the opening scene for the Misc-en-scene, we first see a crucifix on the wall of the classroom, a girl in a long moderate coverage smart uniform doing her work, which shows off the innocent look, which ties in with the setting being a Christian Religious School. When the Devil takes the girl in the first scene, the lighting quickly changes from light to dark, the dark could represent the Devil, and the Light the innocence being taken. 


Below is a review on Five Girls taken from the IMBD:

"5ive Girls" is not a bad horror movie as mentioned in some reviews. The problem is that the story is too ambitious for a low-budget movie. There are at least three great flaws in the plot" 

I.M.D.B - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0494199/

Ellies copy - Babysitter wanted

Director- Jonas Barnes. 
Released in 2008.
Box Office And Budget (Not Present, i was unable to find them, however it does say it was a low budget film) 


The film begins with an opening scene of an extreme close up of a body, which slowly begins to reveal a body with surgeon lines carving around the body. As the film continues we see the female strapped to a table struggling, she appears bruised and only wearing her underwear. 


To add to the tension more whilst the girl is struggling for freedom, we hear footsteps of someone walking presumably towards her, as we don't see the face, we only see the see the feet walking, this is one of the features used to put the audience on the " edge of their seat". 


After seeing the footsteps, we also see a selection of shots of knifes and other sharp objects, which are covered in blood, which i think is a good signifier with the opening scene to signify murder, it brings the opening scene together. In many horror films the female is seen as what some could call a ' piece of meat', and with the girl being tied up at the beginning, and all the objects such as metal hooks and knifes surrounding her this to the audience could emphasis the image of a butchered piece of meat. 
The music used goes well with the title Babysitter Wanted, as it is quite child like, some what you would hear in a nursery rhyme theme tune, so the music automatically ties in with the title of the movie. To use child like music for the opening scene, is also quite sinister and creepy, which could represent the element of a child being involved. When the scene first opens we see a high angle shot used, this helps create and show the vulnerability of the female. 
We watched this film to help us with the mystery element of our killer, for our opening 2 minuets for our coursework, and the beginning of this film shows us how to do this, we also took the girl being tied up and mixed that into our film. 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0819755/ - I.M.D.B 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5kHFJUuBCY&feature=related - Trailer Link 

Our first rough cut of ' No Hiding Place'

After some consideration we have decided to re-film some of the original shots but for drafting here is the original film


Untitled from katie mallows on Vimeo.

Casting



Lori Campbell (Freddy VS. Jason)



For the casting we have related it too Freddy VS. Jason, all three girls in the film can really relate to the characteristics to the girls i'm wanting to portray in my own film





Rachel Harrison (17)

 We have chosen Rachel because she can relate to Lori Campbell who is the Final girl in Freddy VS. Jason. Lori Campbell has been portaryed as the 'Final girl' but she is blonde which is unusal as the sterereotypical blonde is a the usual 'Scream Queen' who is usually one of the first to get killed off in the film, reasons for this is because they have sinned, usually sexual reasons.

But Lori Campbell is one of the final characters to experience all the actions throughout the film.



Kia Waterson                                                       



                                               Gibb

For the characters who are portraying the victims, we have used Melodie Abraham and Annie Cutillo. They are between the ages of 16-18 and we used them because they looked very similar to the original characters anyway. The girls are dressed in clothes that they wore the night before, this shows that they have been out the previous night obviously drinking so this is a reason for them to be some of the first victims to die. This storyline is very similar to Freddy Vs Jason. 

Katie & Hatti's Pre-lim

All - Mine and Ellie's editing version of 'The Opposites' Microdrama

ALL - Podcast 3 - Re-filming

Our Initial Ident Idea

For our group indents, we have agreed on an idea for our production company.

- A darkened background.
- Lightening only focusing in the middle of the screen.
- The lower part of a face, mouth & chin
- Then coming forward towards the screen with a finger pressed against their mouth
saying shh.
Our productions will be called Secret productions.
We chose this because the basis of our film is an obsessed teenager with a secret, so it all fits in to the story.
We have not yet come up with a second Ident but will do shortly.