Evaluation - Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

This shot shows our victim, she fits the social group of a teenager as we see her doing her hair and makeup in her bedroom which is dimly lit. This shows that like most female teenagers she cares about how she looks and how she is dressed and the makeup she is weaing suggests she is going to a halloween party.

During the movie she is looking for her mum but she becomes easily distracted by wanting to listen to music so she goes and finds her ipod, how easily she becomes distracted could fit the stereotype for most teenagers.

Her putting on her halloween makeup shows she must be going out to a halloween part and this represents a typicalteenagers lifestyle.

This shot shows our villain who is after our victim. It suits the typical stereotype of a villain as it is masked so we can not see his facial features and we can't tell who he is.

He also fits the social group of a male because of the way he is dressed, the apron and baggy clothes suggest he could be some sort of butcher and we usually associate butchers with men. His temprement also suggests he fits the male stereotype as he is violent  and he also has the strength to swing a bat at his victim and drag her to an unknown room. Suggesting to us he is more likey to be a female then a man even though we can not see his facial features.

Evaluation - Question 1

Our film opening "Balham Butcher" challenges and also conforms to the usual conventions of a horror opening sequence. Other films that share the same basis of our plot are such movies like "Scream" and "Halloween" which both contain masked villains that go after their victims in the safety and comfort of their own home.

These shots show a classic convention of horor movies which is the masked villain, the mask takes away any human emotion which goes well with the character as villains usually have no emotions or remorse for their victims and thats why they can kill and torture people so easily.

Frame 1
Our first frame is from our opening shot which is an establishing shot, it mainly conforms to conventions as you first see the bare tree's and the empty landscape, it is also raining heavily and another convention of a horror movie is to have bad weather such as a thunderstorms or snow. The streetlight is on which also indicates that night is coming. Night time in horror movies is usually when the characters are the least safe so this shot conforms to conventions of horror movies.

Frame 2

This is a point of view shot just after the girl (victim) is hit over the head with a baseball bat. With this shot we used a video effect that made it look like she was dizzy and very disoriented after she got hit on the head. A usual convention of horror movies is to have effects that make the character look disorientated or have it tilt with the character which we included in this shot.  However some horror movies would rather show the character falling then us see it from their point of view so we built upon these ideas and interpreted our own ways of creating disorientation,

Frame 3

I consider this shot to go against the conventions of a horror film as the framing is slightly different to how a clock would probably usually be filmed. When I have seen horror films if it does show a clock it sometimes just shows it from a typical straight on angle. I think by having the framing so that you cannot see the entire clock went against the conventions.
However I think the sounds in this shot does conform to the conventions, the clock has a slow eery tick to it suggesting there is only certain amount of time left till something happens.

Frame 4

In this shot we see the point of view of the villain who  goes after its victim, this is slightly unusual as we don’t normally get to be with the villain, usually it as is seen as something to be afraid off but this gives us the feeling that there could be a vulnerability to the villain and that he is more open to our perception than we probably should be allowed.

Frame 5

I think this shot is and unusual shot to see in a horror film, we can see the headphones which the girl is going to get and we see the villain coming out from behind the girl. Usually we would see the girl and see the villain come up behind her but we decided we wanted to use the headphones in the shot  so it is like we are far away hidden and we can’t help or warn the girl.

Frame 6

In terms of light this shot conforms to the usual conventions of a horror movie by being very dark, we cannot see the girl’s surroundings  or where she is being dragged to which is used in horror movies to create suspense and worry for the victim. Horror movies are all about the unknown so darkness and not being able to see beyond a point conveys this.

Frame 7

In this shot we see an empty hallway with the titles across the bottom, I think this conforms to the conventions because the shot shoes us that there is no one else in the house and the girl is all alone and the darkness makes it feel eery and like anything could come out of the shadows, which is usually conveyed in similar ways in horror movies.

Frame 8

The costume we use in our film and shots like these conform to the conventions of horror movies as a masked villain has been used in horror movies since the beginning of the genre. The mask creates an emotionless person that we know nothing about and we cannot make a judgement on them as they have no identity, and this unsettles the audience. There is also no voice to this character in tis shot which gives the character a creepier feel. All of this has been showed in masked character such as Michael Myers and we built a character upon these conventions of masked murderers 

Evaluation Question 3

“Balham Butcher” is a low budget British short film based on the psychological horror genre. It is most likely to start off being screened at a film festival such as the “Sundance Film Festival” which was established in 1981. The aim of the Sundance institute is to advance and promote film makers without any profit for themselves. Our work being screened at one of their film festivals would start to get our filmed introduced to a wider audience. 

http://www.sundance.org/

Another festival I found whilst researching was “The British Horror Film Festival” which would be excellent for our movie to be screened at because it will be shown to our exact target audience and is more likely to be successful due to this. This festival showcases British and world-wide independent horror films in unusual venues with the aim of getting the film makers work more well known to a specific audience

British Horror Film Festival

Our production company “Scribble Cat Productions” would seek to employ a good distributor for our short film such as “20^th Century Fox” who are distributing a psychological thriller this year called “Black Swan”. They have also distributed well known horror movies like "The Omen" 

http://www.fox.co.uk/

In the case of it being successful it could move on to being screened at mainstream cinemas such as Odeon, Cineworld and Vue most probably on their smaller screens.
As an independent short film it could also be shown at independent local cinemas to comply with its image, such as Curzon in Soho. This cinema offers a range of different movies therefore it could attract horror fans or people who usually wouldn’t watch a horror movie opening it up to a broader audience. 

Feedback on rough cuts of our opening scene

Things to improve on :
Our class told us that is was difficult to see our titles and what they said, so they gave us the suggestion that we chsanged the colour of the titles to something like white so we could see them better.

Positive feedback :
The class said that they liked our shots and that they thought that we used a variety of different shots which gave it a good effect.
They also said that we had goodframing like in such shots at the beginning with the clock.
Our lighting was also commented on, they said that they liked the use of light and how it is quite dark and dim.
We were told our sound was good and they liked how the steps faded out when we walked downstairs.

Sound in TV Drama

We were analysing the sound in different TV dramas and the effect they had.

Spooks
In the opening scene we see a woman being convicted and when she is convicted the camera zooms in on her face. When the camera zooms in there is a sound like air rushing past and this gives us the feel like we are actually moving towards her and invading her personal space to see her reaction to being sentenced.
When the woman is convicted the incidental music that has been playing gets sadder to show how sad and upset she must feel about being sentenced.
In the next seen we see two men talking and there is nearl no pauses between the two characters dialogue, this demonstrates the anger and the urgency, it seems to us that something needs to be done quickly.
Also one of the men slams his hand down on the table making a loud thud. this noise shows us the strength and therefore that the character is somewhat violent.

Bleak House
The music playing in the background gave us a sense of sadness in this scene but it was not always there, it came in and out at regular intervals and it usually came back in when something important was being sad.
When the man had said what he finally wanted to say the music changed, the pitch changed slightly giving a more happier feel showing us that was some sense of relief.

Eastenders
In this eastenders clip there was no incidental music. The silence throughout the whole clip created tension and enhanced the feeling of emptiness. I think the reason there was no music through out the clip was to make us focus on stacey sadness. The long pause after stacey kicked her mum out of the kitchen symbolized she was thinking and i ncreased the tension as the camera panned around to show sean.
We also can hear Stacey heavy breathing and the shakey nessof it enhancing the fear she feels and the realisticness of the sounds help us connect with the characters on a personal level.

Spooks
In this clip there was a flashback of what the man could remember from his past an  the music we heard at this point was quite sad and quiet to show how the man felt about this memory and how it had affected him

British Film Review

I decided to review Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Askaban

The plot of this movie carries on from the first 2 movies prior to this. This is Harry's third year at Hogwarts school and a new teacher called R J Lupin becomes the new Defence against the Dark arts teacher. Ron Harry and Hermione meet convicted murderer Sirius Black and learn how to handle a Hippogriff (Half horse/half eagle creature). We see the trio master the art of Divination and Harry faces having to withstand the soul-sucking dementors and the the truth is revealed about Harry's connection to Sirius and his family.

There are a wide range of camera shots in this movie and in my opinion the most predominant and stunning shots were the establishing shots. These shots allowed us to see the surroundings of such places like Hogwarts helping to create a magical feel of a place we would all loved to go. It is also shows us the main setting of most the movie and the place that means the most to Harry. Another main use of the establishing shot was showing the train go through the british countryside which is quite remote and the establishing shot shows us that the place is quite remote by having it quite far away so we can see lots of landscape but there are no houses or people, enhancing how secret the wizarding world is.

There is a shot in the beginning of the movie where a family member is mocking Harry's parents, this obviously infuriates Harry and he yells at her to be quiet, As he yells and his body tenses up the camera zooms in from a long shot to a mid shot so we can focus more on his frustration.

There is a mixture of high and low angle shots, the low angle shots are mostly used at points where harry has fallen over or is on the floor due to circumstances where he is in peril. So the low angle shots show the viewers that he is vulnerable at that  moment in time.

We hear a mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds.
Non- Diegetic sounds.

• There is a lot of music played throughout the movie to enhance emotions

Diegetic sounds

• Rain
• Thunder
• Screams
• Footsteps
• The clock bell riniging
• The birds chirping

The lighting is dramatically different at night the it is during the day, there is a scene when Harry is exploring the castle late at night and he is using the light from his wand to see into the darkness and we as viewers can only see things in light surrounding the wand which doesn't reach far, there fore we cant see his surroundings or what is behind or in front of him which gives a slight eery feel with the added silence.

The lighting in the castle during the day is slightly dimmer than the normal daylight outside and this gives the effect of the castle being lit by candle light and fires, adding to the magical feel of this movie. 

The props in the film are all fairly unusual and things that we wouldn't come across in modern everyday "muggle" life. In certain scenes there are such props like big golden goblets, silver dinner platter, candles, wands and big ancient looking chests. All things that show the difference between wizard life and Normal human life. 

There are two main sets of costumes. The school uniform which consist of jumpers, robes and cloaks and there own clothes which are neutral in colour and would be possibly something we at that age would have worn making us able to relate to them

Investigating UK film websites

Britfilms by British Council http://www.britfilms.com/


The purpose of the British Council Film Department is to promote contemporary and innovative UK film to audiences around the world, working in both lead and supporting roles on showcases, workshops, festivals, conferences, tours, residences and virtual projects.


Types of information available
News and events
Training and courses
Film festivals 


People who might use this site
Directors that want to submit their films and get them seen by other people. 


2 things i learnt 
 It focuses on British and cultural films, i also learnt that there are many different film industries and they all do different things.


British Film Institute http://www.bfi.org.uk/


The BFI (British Film Institute) promotes understanding and appreciation of film and television heritage and culture. The BFIruns a range of activities and services.


Types of information available
News on new films
BFI national Library
Archives of films


People who might use this site
People who are interested in seeing british movies and reading information about them. 


2 things i learnt
BFI runs annual film festivals and the BFI releases films in cinemas across the UK, bringing classic titles to a new generation of film-lovers.


Netribution http://www.netribution.co.uk 


It is a type of blogging platform where people can write their own views and articles on british. 


Types of information available
News on contests, scripts, festival, film industry and TV.
Interviews with directors, actors, producer and writer.


People who might use this site
People who have opinion  that they would like to share with other people on british films. Also, people who like to see interviews about films and like keep up to date with the film industries and festivals.


2 things i learnt
You can upload photos and videos
It gives the chance for people to give their own oppinion. 


UK Film Council http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/


The UK Film Council is a lead agency backed by the government for British films in the UK. They focus on having and representing the economic, cultural and educational aspects of film effectively. The UK film council is the corner stone of british film industry and fund most big cultural film initiatives. 


Types of information available
Information about what the UK film council does
Funding]Board of directors


2 things i learnt
They have backed 900 films, short films and features
How much funding they give to support people in the film industry