The Woods

For this next post I chose to deconstruct a few of the main characters from the film 'Scream 4.' This is because the characters in this film are teenagers aged close to those in our film opening so are relevant.

'Ghostface' - Roger L. Jackson, Dane Farwell
In this film, the killer is very similar to ours in the way that their identity is hidden through dark clothing and a hood. The use of a scary mask is also an effective idea because it builds more mystery and fear.

Sidney Prescott - Neve Campbell

Just like in our film opening, the main character of 'Scream 4' is a young, innocent, teenage girl. She is used as the main character but not only is she a young and attractive female, but she is also very vulnerable so plays an effective victim.

Gale Weathers - Courtney Cox

This character is a female subverting common representations of her gender, as she appears to be an ambitious, strong journalist and writer. To begin with she is portrayed to be an antagonist, but eventually joins 'Sidney' to help stop the murders.

Kirby Read - Hayden Panettiere

This character is another young, attractive female teenager who ultimately ends up being one of 'Ghostface's victims.

This deconstruction helped provide us with more of an understanding towards the use of young teenage characters in order to capture a corresponding age-group as our audience, since this film is rated a 15.

Thursday, 25 February 2016

Evaluation

Overall I think that our film opening was successful in meeting the generic conventions of a slasher horror and including a variety of camera angles, shots and editing skills.

What went well?
I think that our group had very good teamwork and communication skills as we all worked well together and shared the workload equally, remembering to bring our required props and equipment to the filming day and each taking turns to film shots. Our film opening included a wide variety of camera angles and shots which made it look more professional and successful. It also conformed to the genre we originally set out to make because of the isolated location, vulnerable female victim, and the use of a dagger and gore. We worked hard on achieving a more successful second film opening as the first was not good or long enough, this meant we worked on our improvements and made the second attempt much better. For example, we had a lot of footage to use and edit, a variety of camera angles and editing skills, and improved acting skills.

I also think that the production companies was a success and looks professional within our film opening. Furthermore, the title 'The Woods' was successful as it was made effectively on photoshop. It also appears at the end of our opening with a loud 'boom' sound to make it more effective.

What could be improved?
Obviously the first the attempt did not go well at all because there was not enough footage which meant it did not reach the time requirements, did not include enough shots or angles, and was not a high enough quality of filming. This therefore led to inconveniences as we had to go out and re-film the whole thing again,

Another area of our final film opening that could be improved is the editing of it. I think that we could have made the titles more effective by adding transitions and effects on them so that they bring more to the film. I also think that we should have added in a more dramatic soundtrack towards the end of the opening where the chase scene begins, in order to build suspension and create a more tense atmosphere.

Feedback

These are some examples of the sheets which our peers gave us feedback on after watching our film opening.

Sound Editing - Improvements

The sound on our film opening was one aspect which needed a lot of improvement. It was too quiet in certain areas which really needed more dramatic music, and certain sounds such as the twig snapping and girl screaming needed to be louder. As well as this there was some background noise which our peers picked up on and needed editing out.

This is the editing of cutting the background noise in the dog scene:

To improve the non-diegetic soundtrack we added in more of the same soundtrack but only a certain section. This made the ending more dramatic and build up more suspension which improved the quality and ensured there were no more silent sections.

This is the added in sound effects and soundtrack:

We also added in another soundtrack to build tension as the killer catches up with the girl to make it more effective. The sound comes to a sudden stop, and then quickly builds up again as the girl nears her death and is killed.

This is the added sound creating a more dramatic and effective ending to the opening:

Opening Credits - Improvements

We received a lot of feedback on our opening credits stating that they needed to be longer and given more interesting effects. To begin with we only had our three names as opening credits which appeared at equal intervals in the first minute of our film opening. They flashed in at different positions around the screen, for example:

After inserting these titles we then added in more opening credits so that there were more appearing throughout the film opening. These included another actors name who was not in our group, the Director of Photography, Producer, Co-Executive Producer and the editor. These were inserted between shots on a black background equally spread throughout and the named titles were placed at different locations around the screen.

To finalise we ensured these were all equally spread out throughout the film opening, also making sure they did not interfere with any match-on-action shots.

Wednesday, 20 April 2016

Deconstruction - Genre - Slasher horror

Evaluation - Links

Tuesday, 15 March 2016

Deconstruction - Actors

Thursday, 25 February 2016

Evaluation

Feedback

Sound Editing - Improvements

Opening Credits - Improvements