Question Two

"How does your media product represent particular social groups?"

Our products presents two different social groups: Teachers and Students (The killers identity is unknown).

Student-
The student in a stereotypical situation and what a lot of people have come to expect from pupils based on what is being covered by the media (News, TV Dramas etc) the student looks powerless when compared to the teacher instructing him to do his work, the student is also of black skin colour and that is a negative stereotype driven also by the media and are normally portrayed as having some form of gang affiliation for example the London riots in which it said that 75% of riots where of black skin colour, However the student is wearing glasses which subverts our expectation as someone who wears glasses in most commonly known as being a nerd or a geek who always does his work but in this opening clip the student wearing glasses and is in trouble which suggests that he had been misbehaving and the teacher saying "Finish off your work" shows that he did not do the work. The student is also male which is fairly playing up to the stereotype that boys are ones that cause trouble and are the ones that always misbehave and are lazy.

Teacher-
In contrast to the student the teacher is white which is stereotypical of having the higher classed jobs and are in higher powered status, He is also a teacher who are meant to have the most power in the classroom, which he does as he is the one giving the instructions as well leaving the classroom when his phone rings, He is a male which shows that males are dominant and better at being strict to the students.

Question Seven

"Looking back at your Preliminary task, what do you think you have learn't in the progression from it to the full project?"

The preliminary task thought us to beware aware of all the objects in the video and in the background to be relevant to what is happening in the video, as I am meant to be the "evil" boss in my office but it seems to be more like a librarian in the library because of all the computers and books in the background,  in the main task we were aware of the background and what would be shot in each camera angle.

We had a lot of audio problems and had to record the audio after we finished recording that was all well and good but the audio volume makes it obvious that the audio has been edited and recorded after the video recording had ended which does not give it that realness feeling and makes it look tacky and fake, by using and external mic to be able to capture for of a clearer sound.

There was a lot of continently errors in the preliminary exercise as when filip open the door from the handle the door was just starting to be opened but on the next clip the the door was on its way to close, we learnt from this mistake as when the student in the main project opened the door we edit it to perfection so we would not get any continuity errors. However we made one major mistake in the main project, as the student left the classroom you could not see the blood on the floor but in the next shot the blood suddenly appears.

 

Question Six

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


I was the camera man and the creator of the music for our main AS Media production.


Firstly with the camera work, I was lucky enough to get a High Definition camera to record our video but I had decided to use standard definition settings as it would make the video smoother for the video editor as recording the movie in HD would make the recording larger and make the video while editing jumpy. There were many features on the camera such as changing the contrast and brightness levels, there was a feature to use focus but we weren't able to use "manual focus" as we encountered some technical difficulties.


We tried to use focus to emphasize the religious state but the problem was that the camera was touch screen and we did not know about that feature `until we finished recording.


We used the brightness settings to good effect and I experimented with the contrast and brightness a lot since I knew that we could change it when we started editing.


I also created the music for our group and I used the music editing software "Fruity Loops 9.0 XL" for windows, I had limited amount experience with the software, I learnt how to use the software by experimenting a few days prior to the day, I started creating the music, I encountered a problem as I had a different sound card to what the software needed, I found my way around the issue by watching a YouTube tutorial on how to change the settings for my soundcard.

Question Five

"How did you attract/address your audience?"

The way I addressed my audience was by setting the movie in a high school which would be more appealing to a teenager more than any other aged audience, the movie is also about a student in detention and that is something that the audience could relate and could empathize with the student when he was in detention, and the audience could put themselves in the shoes of the student as he was falling in the hands of the killer.

The movie could also attract some horror film fanatics after researching around the web I saw that there are many of them and they are constantly on the look for new movies, whether it is because of the camera work or because the plot of the movie differs from the regular horror movie.

Looking back at this movie it seems to me that this movie has become more of a thriller than a horror movie, at first I thought it was a negative but then I realised that I could use this to my advantage as it could bring a whole lot of different types of movie fanatics attention to this movie, as fans of the thriller genre can be both horror movies fans or action movie fans either way I think we could gain interest from both.

Question Four

"Who would be the audience for your media product?"

The clip is meant to be an opening for a horror movie which is aimed at students teens 15+ or young adults as the whole of the opening sequence is set in school and the teenagers are familiar with the school environment, we wanted to set the movie to a 12+ but since there was blood and we need the rest of the movie to be scary there isn't too much you could do in a 12+ film however setting the movie to a 15+ still attract children from a younger age as it still meets the agenda to what children who are slightly younger than the target audience, however some young adults maybe interested into looking in to our film as it may bring back memories about when they went to school.

Question Three

"What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?"

There are many boxes that the opening clip of the movie ticks which may interest some media institution's who are willing to distribute our media product.

After doing a bit of research I think that the institution that I would personally want to distribute our product is a company called "Twisted Pictures" most famously known because of there production of the Saw series which is one of the modern days most popular horror series.

The reason I chose this institution is because of all the movies that they have produced seem to be of the horror genre and they have also produced a horror movie called "Chain Letter" (2010) which is more of a psychological horror movie feel and is also a teen horror movie, which shows that they have an interest in distributing teen horror movies.

Question One

"In What Way does your Media product use, develop or challenge conventions and forms of real media products"

Our media product has used many conventions from real media products from using our cliché setting for the movie to the audio we used for our AS media clip.

Characters-
The characters in the the clip are students and a teacher which are common in the teen horror movies like: "The Faculty" (1998) and "When a Stranger Calls" (2006), We chose to have students in the movie, as the audience we are aiming for were in the 15 - 18 age barrier, so I think that the audience would get in to the teenage students mind set and have more feeling for him than a 30 year old man.
We also had a teacher which is classic of the teen horror genre and he was first to get murdered which bizarrely challenged conventions of the teen horror genre as I was searching through the internet and to look for a movie which had a teacher being murdered but there was none, this suggests that the role of the teacher stands for authority and in most teen horrors most of the victims are students and it happens behind the teachers back, this would probably be used as it gives a feeling of uncertainty amounts the audience.

Setting-
The entire opening clip was shot in school while a student is in detention as the target audience would relate can relate to the story and school is some where your would think that there is rules and boundaries, "Prom Night" (2008) majority of the movie was set in a school which gave a certain element of shock and the fact that it took place after school hour gives the feeling of uncertainty.


Props-
Blood was used as a prop and has been used in probably every other horror movie however Mr.Halsey warned us no to use to much fake blood as it would make the clip look unreal and over the top.
The school uniform was used because it would let the audience know about who the students are, and also it shows that the students have less authority than the teacher and if the teacher is murdered that shows that the students chances of survival are minimal, In "The Ring"(2002) there is a part where they find the corpse of a young girl wearing a school uniform and that seems to give people a certain amount of sympathy for the student dying so young.

Audio-
For the audio I was trying to make our movie as cliché as possible as that is a simple and obvious way to give the audience a weird and horrific feel to build up suspense for the killings, Listened to a lot of horror music by going on YouTube and went for classic Horror music like "Jaws"(1975) which is famous for its music and I used the audio as a kind of template by trying to get my music to get louder and quicker as it leads up to the death of the student and the teacher.

Audience Feedback (Class Discussion)

We had a class discussion evaluating each others work.

In our work Mr.Halsey and Mrs.H were being quite of out plot where as the rest of the group which consisted of 15-16 year-olds seem to enjoy the opening sequence and said that they would be willing to watch on and the target audience being 15+ I think that we have hit the nail on the head with the elements we used to get the attention of the teenagers for this horror movie.

Production

This is the end product that we have created

So Close To The Finish line

We have created everything, the only thing left is that we need to synchronize the music to the video to have a perfect fit, I am proud of what we have achieved but if the production has turned out the way I want it to only time will tell.

There has been a little problem with the audio in the video editing software so I have had to delete all the audio and insert it again and the DEADLINE for our production is today.

Music Created

I have finished the production of the music and I am proud to say that the music is completely copyright free and I have created it 100% on my own, and to be honest it does not seem very difficult to make, I saw that creating our own music would quite possibly get us a better grade than using royalty free music and then typing the name of the creators in the titles, I have used a very cliché film soundtrack.

There have been a few technical difficulties with the fade ins and outs on the video editing software as the music seems to be quite loud hopefully we will be able to make sure that everything will be all right by the deadline.

Logo Created

I have created the logo for the movie as I said before I have kept the hand feature like in the "Shawn of the Dead" title,  however for the the "I" in "detention" I have used an a hand, this in my view also relates to the hand being the trademark of the villains killings and the title in represents death.

I chose the colour red as that signifies death and is a popular comparison to blood,
if you were to see this title before you even saw the film opening you would be able to tell that the movie was a horror movie and that is the type of font that I wanted for the project.

Logo Research

I have been looking through some of my personal favourite logo for horror films.  

I think that the text is fairly simple until you see that the heart has a dagger going through it and that shows the subversion of the meaning of "Mothers Day" which is showing appreciation for all that your mother has done for you throughout your life. And I love how the heart is meant to be the "O" I think that we will use something like that for our logo.

  

 This is a classic logo as there is not alot of elements of horror in this logo apart from the logo being red which gives it horror feel I think that we should also have our horror being red with a black background as it gives a good colour scheme to work with, and the face looks as if its using a thermal camera for that shot to be taken.

Creating Logo

I am creating a logo that will fit our horror film, I personally want some form of text that has a hand symbol because you can't see the villains face through out the horror movie however you do see the hand of the villain so I would like to have a hand on the title for example in the dawn of the dead.

Research: Gallows - The Riverbank

This is a short introduction for an album from a hardcore punk rock band called Gallows, I was listening to music on my Ipod and I came across this song and it immediately reminded me of the media production and the way it was a cliché type of sound with the organs and the sound effect of the water rumbling, it builds a lot of suspense and that is something that I am personally thriving to get in our production of this horror movie.

SFX DONE!

I have found some SFX browsing through the web and have taken some royality free SFX such as: a school bell, Clock ticking and some more, I am yet to show it t the group and I hope that they like it, It should make our movie look more as a horror movie and less as a Action/Thriller and put more of the suspense factor into the movie which at the moment it is lacking.

Some Music FINALLY Created.

I have created some tracks for the death of the teacher and where the killer puts two lines that symbolises two deaths (Teacher and the Student).

I am going to take the samples into school to show it to the group I hope that they would like it and it fits the video and give that extra edge to the clip as at the moment there does not seem to be any horror, It is now that I am making the music that I see how much the music and audio play a role in movies and in our case horror music .

Started Making some Music

I have started creating some music on Fruity Loops and I started to get the gist of the software, I am going for an cliché music to set the horror scene, I personally want the audience to feel a lot of tension during the clip there are a lot of things I need to think about while making this music, whether it be that I need the sound of  the organs louder than the rest of the instruments,The research that I did seems to suggest so.

As I was going for a cliché sound I was looking up classic horror movies and they all seem to start off a really slow pace deep, then the sounds get faster and the pace of the notes being played increasing a perfect example of this is the Jaws theme which is the most notable theme of the horror/thriller genre.

Sampling some Music

I have tried to create music on a software called "Fruity Loops", I am getting the hang of the software I need to get all of the music done before the editing process is over, The reason why I have choose to make music on Fruity Loops is because it is compatible with Windows and that is the operating system that I have at home, and that way I will not be disrupting other departments by using their music rooms after school hours.


I should have the music done by the end of this week, I think that this is a realistic target and would be round about the time where the rest of the group finish editing the video. 

Editing almost over

After seeing the video preview, I saw that the group just need to edit just a little bit more before they are finished, which is great because they would have finished it a few days before the deadline, on the other hand it puts a lot of finishing the music which I am creating.


For the chase scene I need to create an almost a Jaws track so it would raise tension dramatically, of the villain spying on the teacher and showing that the teacher is in danger and in a bad situation also during that continuous clip the villain runs after the teacher as the teacher is on the phone. 


There is one clip that I have been told needs to be re-recorded, the clip of the student writing and that will be the shot where we will be adding the title of the credits (I think that it will be my name), It is quite frustrating since it is the last few days of the project and the pressure is mounting on me and I am sure on the rest of the group also.

Looking through non royalty music

I am looking through some royalty free music for our video, I have been going through YouTube for hours but I have not really found what I was looking for however there are a few tracks that have the elements which we are looking for an Organ, Piano and maybe a Bass line that goes through out the track to give a "Buzzing" felling to keep the audience on their toes.


Today I will be asking the Music Department if I could use their equipment for making our original music, I could take the easy route and just choose an royalty free track and mention the artists name however I want to be more creative and challenge myself hopefully get better marks.

Started editing

We have finally started editing the project, We have just imported all of the camera shots into the computer and I hope that everything is all right as I was the the camera man if a clip is missing I would get the blame for overwriting it.

I think that there are a few really good shots we have included which were my idea for example the spying on the teacher and the killer running towards the the teacher using a Point of View shot (POV) which show the villains POV.

Abdulaziz and Filip are going to be editing the video and I will also be helping out when ever needed however I have never used Adobe Premier Elements 9.0 I used Sony Vegas instead.

Day 2 of filming

Today has been a massive burden we stayed in school until 8:30pm to record the clip however I think we worked together better and got more clips recorded than we did on the first day, There were far less arguments and we recorded from three or four different positions than just arguing about what positions.

We have got some excellent shots and each of the clip has been filmed from at least 3 different angles which is great for editing and some thing I think we can play around with in Adobe Premier Elements 9.0.

It gives me great pleasure to say that the recording is FINALLY FINISHED.

ideas of editing

We have great ideas for editing with sudden fade to blacks and cuts to play a major role in our "quest" to make a thrilling and horrific atmosphere of suspense, We have a lot of clips to go through and edit and I hope that we don't have to re film or do anything drastic like that.

I think that for the first time I am starting to think that this group can actually gel to make a decent video, and looking back through the clips you can tell how serious everyone is and what a massive step up we have made from our preliminary exercise which looked like a comedy rather than a serious action adventure clip. 

First Day of Recording.

Today was not the greatest filming session with the amount of disruptions that came along with using a room and corridor which is usually busy and a classroom that was entered by other students because of them curios of what we were doing, I think we should have looked ahead to people interfering and should have maybe put a notice up in advance to let everyone know that we are in the process of recording.

Not Again -_-.

Once again I have to fill in for Filip, Which puts us on the back foot as he is the one that is writing the script however I have managed to message  him over Facebook telling him that we will be doing some of the script without him.

This has slowed us down as we were hoping to start recording by the end of today but due to the inconvenience we would need to delay the recording of the video which means that the group will have far less time for editing and for me creating the music.

By the End of today lesson

I will know what software and instrument will be using for the backing track for our opening movie sequence or I may even use a royalty free music source for the music

Almost Time. XD

It is almost time for us to start filming after weeks of planning and looking at places we could film we have found a corridor that will be almost perfect for filming the scene however the only problem I see coming is the corridor that we have chosen is quite a busy corridor and fingers crossed that in the end of school that there will not be any disruption while we are filming.

We have got together a cast which we think are fit for the role, so let me introduce to you the cast:

Kristian - Teacher
Ala - Student

EXTRAS

Faisal - Student #1
Abdiallai - Student #2
Usman - Student #3
Shamakee - Student #4
Anthony - Student #5
Abdulaziz - Student #6

Know Your Role?

We have finally configured who is doing what without any arguments.

Sajjad (Me)-  Camerawork, Music, (Some Editing, Writing)
Abdulaziz - Director, Editor
Filip - Writer, Editor

The reason why Filip and Abdulaziz are editing is because they have experience from filming in GCSE level and gained an "A" for the video, I have experience in editing  but on a different software called " Sony Vegas".

I wanted to challenge myself and get out of my comfort zone by producing some music for the video, I have got some ideas and I am going to be reseaching at home non-stop but if I do not produce anything decent we will need a back-up option which I will need to find over on some non-royalty sites.

A Waste of Time !!!

Today a lesson went to waste, When our script writer (Filip) did not turn up to lesson because "The bus routes where ruined" this has caused made a bit of a problem for us as we can't start nothing without the script, so me and Abdulaziz decided to tell him over Facebook that we will be starting the script without him, which has made him a bit frustrated, but it is essential that we get all this work done.

The story looks promising, hopefully when we print it out in black and white it will look better.

Demographic

Gender: Horror is a

Preliminary Exercise Evaluation

In this blog I will be evaluating the Preliminary Exercise and going frame by frame to analyse every flaw in this video.

I am embarrassed to call to call this "Our Preliminary Exercise" however I think from all the mistakes we have made in this exercise we can improve the main task of making the horror opening sequence.

The first shot of the video is a medium long shot of "The Boss" (Me) fiddling with my thumbs waiting for "The Spy" (Filip).

Focus Group 2/2

Horror movies do not always need amazing story lines as people do not  to see a horror movie and want to see a perfectly structured movie, people want to feel scared and afraid and Mr.Halsey mentioned The Blair Witch Project which was completely made with a handheld camera, the movie was made in a really small budget and was a massive success in 1999, Cherish made a comment about see didn't feel scared that maybe because of the blood and guts we see in the modern horror movies like Saw and maybe after another 10 years people would say that Saw is not scary at all.

Mr. Halsey near the end of the Group Discussion mentioned the movie title of seven which is extremely simple and all there really was wear flashing images and close-ups of blood, picking fingers, making tea etc and I will make my next blog entry about that.

Focus Group 1/2

In the lesson we had a class discussion about horror films and we got some interesting responses from some people, for example I asked the group "Does 3D affect the film when you are watching it" and Mr.Halsey said that he is not a big fan of 3D as it covers up for the story not being good, which is interesting as I had never thought of that and I agree with that as a year or so ago I went to watch Tron: Legacy and I thought that the 3D was a complete waste of time, Marko said "They want stuff to come fly at you" which I totally agree on as Jackass 3D it really didn't work too good as it was in a home video structure, However the animations in the beginning of the movie look terrific.

I think that we can use this information for our own video as we don't what to get carried away with the amazing transitions but we need to give it that horror factor.

Zombieland

Zombieland is a action-packed comedy/horror which I recommend to anyone who is a fan of zombie movies, The movie follows a boy called "Columbus" on a quest to find his parents but the world have been taken over by zombies and he meets some extremely funny characters along the way.

The movie has some amazing camera work which keeps the pace of the movie going very fasy but still maintains to keep a element of tension for the audience, The editing has got to be one of the best in recent years with words popping out in block from every which which way possible.

This Weekend

This weekend I'm going to watch Zomieland as the trailer seem to show a lot of good camerawork and according to the tailer it seems as if it is a Horror/Comedy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=071KqJu7WVo

Plenary Exercise Summery 1/2

I think that this plenary exercise has not gone down as how I though it would in my head, as there are a lot of problems with: Audio, Framing, Mise-en sen, Pace, Camera Work.

We should have been more aware of our surroundings and what was around us and what was in the background   you could hear some students in the background talking, We decided that we maybe able to fix this problem by rereading out lines and tiring to sync it with our video.

Guy Ritchie

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is personally one of my favourite crime movie as it has a unique twist of comedy, Hilarious quotes and probably best of all the unorthodox style of directing by Guy Ritchie.

Snatch is was the second movie he directed, it was more famous for the camerawork and with the same tone of humor from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels the most notable scene being when  Abraham "Cousin Avi" Denovitz an American criminal and jewel dealer coming to England and how he has a shot of vodka before boarding the flight.

I think that the editing and camerawork is something that we could look into for our project;