Evaluation Questions

Peer Feedback

After producing a final version of our film openings we held a meeting in which a number of groups, including ours, presented their films. For this occasion we created a simple questionnaire in order to receive some peer feedback on our opening.

From this questionnaire we received some very positive and useful 

feedback. 

Having looked at all the questionnaires we got handed back to us we generalised all the comments and found that overall our sub-genre (psychological horror) was clear to the audience. We were also told that the music was appropriate and fitted the opening. Everyone stated that our plot was believable and that the setting and location choice was fitting for the type of horror we were trying to create. The majority of the feedback we received stated that the slow motion turn in the tunnel and the end shot of the villain's eyes were the most successful elements of our opening. In general the only negative feedback we got was about the hug goodbye between the two characters and the dialogue as some people felt it seemed slightly awkward and forced, however we decided that it would be most  beneficial for us to keep that element as it was, in order to ensure the continuity stayed at a high quality.

Overall we got really positive feedback about our film opening and we were very happy with it.

Shutter (Final Cut)

This is our final cut of our horror opening 'Shutter' we have made improvements that were advised by other group members...

• Soundtrack
• Sound clarity
• Credits

Overall we are pleased with our final piece as we feel that we have achieved a psychological thriller in our opening.

Shutter (First Cut)

Group Evaluations

Schedule

9 frame analysis of opening

Initial Idea #3

Using Tutorials

In order to actually create our horor opening we as a group had to use a programme called 'imovie', the programme imports video footage that we had filmed from the camera/memory card to the mac and allowed us to edit the raw footage into our final piece 'Shutter'.
To make the sound track for our horror opening we had to create a peice from scratch due to copyrigt issues, this meant using a programme called 'garage band'.
As none of the members in our team have had to use these programmes before we had to do reasearch into how to use them effectively. One of the ways in which we dd this was to watch tutorial videos of the programmes on youtube and follow instructions as best we could. This was a very effective and constructive way to become familiure with the softwear as we all very quickly became comfortable using it in our every day construction of the horror opening.





Camera shot requirements for a psychological horror film

 There are a number of standard approaches used in order to create the scene, mood and atmospheres of a typical psychological horror film .In order to capture this we needed to mimic the same camera shots and components in our opening 'shutter'. Below are the main techniques we used with an explanation of  how and why they are appropriate.

An Extreme Close Up - This is used to emphasise something, and focus on particular details in our opening we use this type of shot to zoom in on the main characters face to show her pure terror as it dawns on her that she is being followed, it allows us to see clearly the emotions she is feeling.  ECU's have a dramatic effect, and can cause the viewer to feel some discomfort to add to the excitement and intensity of a scene.

Long shot - This is a shot by which the whole setting fills the frame. This shot is often used so that the audience can establish what the setting is and emphasise the background and surroundings. This shot is often used in horror films to create atmosphere and tension and to also inform the audience of the creepy setting by which the scene is going to take place. We used this to film the main character walking home from school taking pathways that run through woods. We used it to show her as isolated and vulnerable in a potentially hazardous setting.

High angle shot- This is when the camera is above the character/action looking down on what's happening, this makes the viewer feel more powerful than the character. We used this shot when it dawned on the main character that she was being followed and pictured, the shot also makes the character seem harmless and insignificant and as a result vulnerable. High angled shots are sometimes referred to as the 'victim shot' and are sometimes used to end a scene the same way in which we did in our opening.

Panning- Panning is when the base of the camera remains still while the camera moves from left or right or vice versa, a following pan is used to follow a moving object from the side view and we used in the same shot the long shot to follow the main character waking thought the dodgy paths. The speed of the pan establishes and creates a particular mood.

Hand held camera/ steadicam- a hand held camera shot is used to produce a jerky unsteady shot, which we used when we shot our main character being chased through the woods. This type of shot can be used to intensify a scene of violence, steadicams allow fluidity in tracking, so that actors can be tracked while walking up stairs, riding motorcycles ect, and in our case being chased.                        

                                                                                                                         

9 frame analysis of clockwork orange

 

Famous Horror Directors

Alfred Hitchcock -He was an English film producer and                 director. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological horror genre. His films: psycho, the birds, virtigo, rear window.

Tim Burton- an american film writer, producer,artist and animator.

His films include: dark shadows, Beetle juice, Edward scissor hands.

Steven Speilberg- He is an american producer, screen writer, director and studio entrepreneur. HE has been famous for a career of more than four decades and his films cover many genres. His famous films are: Jaws, poltergiest, twisted.

Roman Polanski- Is a polish-french director, producer, writer and actor. He has made films in poland, united kingdom, united states and france. A truly international film maker. Films include:the ghost writer, rosmarys baby.

The 180º Rule

In film making the 180º rule is a basic guideline, it's an imaginary line called the axis that connects the characters in conversation by keeping the camera on one side of the axis for every shot throughout the scene. The first character will always be in one half on the frame while the second will appear on the other. If the camera was to pass the axis it's called jumping the line, meaning the shots loose their sense of continuity.

Top 10 Horror Films!

Health and Safety Information

When planning and producing out horror opening we had to constantly consider health and safety precautions that we would have to take.

The main health and safety risk that we faced was the setting and location in which we would be filming, this was for many reasons such as age of the cast and filming team (all ages 16/17), and the time of day that we needed to film our opening (had to be getting late/nearly but not quite dark to create the correct atmosphere).

In order to ensure we followed any rules and regulation acts the group had to visit and research many websites.

We visited the following sites:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/filmmaking/guide/production/health-and-safety

Effective places to film a Horror

http://www.flash-video-mx.com/blog/five-famous-horror-movies-and-their-shooting-locations/

The 10 most famous places to film horrors recorded are:

1.Pasadena, Orange Grove avenue- made famous by 'Halloween'

2.Mission San Juan Bautista- made famous in Alfred Hitchcock's horror 'Vertigo'

3.Protland, Oregon- for 'The Shining'

4.Long Island, new York- for 'Amityville Horror'

5.Dakota, New York City- 'Rosemary's Baby'

6.Washington DC- ' the Exorcist stairs'

7.Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco, New Jersy- 'Friday 13th'

8.John Marshal High School, California- 'A Nightmare on Elm Street'

9.Evans City Cemetery- 'Night of The Living Dead'

10.Danvers State Hospital, Massachusetts- session 9   

Mood board for the genre of horror

Preliminary Task Information

Who Featured:

Emma Stepkowski: Teacher

Jess Henderson: Troubled Pupil

Scripting:

Teacher: Jess, please try and be mature about this.

(Pause)

Teacher: Jess, I need you to talk to me.

Pupil: There's not a problem.

Teacher: Jess, there is, we need to talk about your behaviour yesterday.

Pupil: I've done nothing wrong.

Teacher: Jess taking your problems out on others isnt the answer.

(Pause)

Teacher: Jess, you just need to find someone you can talk to instead of bottling all your problems up.

Pupil: Like who?

Teacher: Like me, or any of the other teachers.

As the preliminary film was the first time the group had ever filmed a piece and been faced with editing it, we use t as a 'practice' meaning we got to experiment with all the skills we had learnt about and also with using programmes like imovie and grageband. As a result of this we can now see having reviewed it and compared it to our final horror opening how far we have come.

Preliminary Task

Preliminary script

 Preliminary exercise script

Teacher (Emma): Jess, please try and be mature about this.

Jess: (says nothing, continues to stare out of the window) 

Teacher (Emma): Jess, I need you to talk to me.

Jess: There's not a problem.

Teacher (Emma): Yes there is Jess, we need to talk about your behaviour recently.

Jess: I've done nothing wrong.

Teacher (Emma): Jess, taking you problems out on others isn't the answer.

Jess: (ignores her, looks distressed)

Teacher (Emma): Jess you just need to talk to someone rather than bottling all your problems up.

Jess: Like who?

Teacher (Emma): Like me, or any of the other teachers you feel you can talk to.

Jess: (sighs, turns back to the window)