Genre Research

Genre is one of the most important things to come into making a film. Without the genre being chose all of the films that are published they would all be the same and no one would go and watch the movies in cinema's because they would have seen one similar before.
When it came down to the researching we didn't know at first what to do and didn't know how to research it. We spoke to a few of our classmates and they all said similar things of "we googled it" so we followed what they had done and researched what films were out at that time. They were all different and we were then again stuck on what to do.
After researching it, we decided the easiest thing we should have done in the first place would have been going on to other peer's blogs. Ellie and I came across some of other people's from a couple of years ago and they easily decided theirs which was surprising. Most of theirs were action and a couple of horror or comedy.
So, following up on all the research we done we decided to do one that not many people done - not as many as we thought would have, we came up with the idea to do Horror.
Narrowing the details down was quite easy and we didn't have to do a lot, we watched a couple of horrors to see how they effectively used camera shots, sounds and location and we then came up with the idea of mixing up ideas of a couple of movies to get a different outcome and hopefully an effective one.
After all we came up with the conclusion of doing a horror movie, making sure the location is an eerie one but also close to home and that we are going to try and use different sounds and camera shots to make it effective and scary.

Mood Board

this picture was the main beginning of the movie. we start of shopping and come back and that's when all of the action starts and you get the feeling that the horror is starting.

i have this picture because our target audience is teenagers and the typical place teens watch movies in the evening is at the cinema when they go as a group. We are also including teenagers in our movie; they have a lot of energy and it's an interesting thing for them to do.

the reason behind this picture is because when you watch a horror movie most of the action is started off when there has been a house party and the people are drunk and start doing stupid things. parties are the typical reason for a horror movie to start off.

this picture is one of the main reasons of the film. we are meant to be getting chased by someone so Ellie and I are running away, this is something typical from a horror movie and you'll see it in nearly every movie.

 this picture i chose because either me or Ellie have to pretend to be dead after we get caught by our male character. this picture is also similar to what you get in nearly every horror movie.

i chose this picture specifically because you can relate to it when you watch a horror movie. you can see the despair and fearfulness in her face. this picture suggests that she is hiding from something scary. We thought of this picture because we were going to do a similar thing in our movie; it would be included after one of the girls had just been caught and the other one had ran away and is hiding. 

This is the most understandable out of all of them; it shows a male figure standing hooded in the dark with slight lighting behind him. We are featuring a male in our movie which is hooded and he is the one that'll be chasing us near the river/woods. The reason behind it is because its one of the main parts of a horror movie and would scare anyone under the age of  12 so we have made our film a rating of 15.

this picture is the actual setting of our film and the picture (above) is set near leatherhead town. the reason for the river is they aren't always people there, rivers are lonely and don't tend to be busy so we thought it could start of set next to the river and we could make our way from there to a woods that no one would be in so the horror is also kicked off with abandoned settings.

Film Review - Suicide Squad (Will Smith)

Suicide Squad

The camera shots i think are effective are the close ups as they show the expression on their faces, long shots which show their body/body language, medium shot which shows their facial expression from their shoulders above, 2 shot which shows 2 of the characters at the same time, birds eye view which shows the setting they're in and what is happening, over the shoulder shot which shows how you would see the situation in that person's perspective and establishing shot which also shows the setting/scenery but in a different angle from birds eye view. the sound in this 2 minute clip is really effective; they play songs that are from the older days and not a lot of people know. they make sure that the music fades or there are no singing parts when there is speech involved. They emphasize the gun shots, shouting, very important speech or the comedy side - the funny speech. they do this because  they're the main parts of the movie so that you get a rough idea of what the movie is about and how they come across problems that they face. The feeling it gives off is that the film is an action comedy and that the film would be great overall. the pace of editing is fast; the reason for this is so that you can see more of the movie - the action and comedy parts. when an important part comes up it stays on screen for almost 4 times the amount of the other snippets so that you can hear what is said or see what is played. the costumes used are unusual. the prisoners have to wear orange overalls when in prison so that the officers and workers know their prison number and name without having to search/find out. they give off the feeling that in prison all of the suicide squad members are treated equally and get at least 1 luxury. when they leave prison and have to do a mission/quest they get to wear their own clothes. They all have their own unique style and the clothes they wear show their personality. Harley Quinn wears her own unique style in a unique way. She wears T-Shirt/vest with a strange style of bottoms. She wears what seem like bikini bottoms and stockings. She has half her hair dip dyed blue and half her hair dip died pink, Harley must have done/got this done because she wants to express herself through color - they could be her favorite colors. in the trailer you find out quite a bit about the film. You find out that they get asked to do a mission/quest as they are the most dangerous people and as they are they can deal with any situation as they have all got different backgrounds and can get through any problem they face. the titles in the trailer are used at the beginning and the end of the trailer so you don't get distracted reading rather than watching the trailer full. the main title which is used at the end of the trailer is strange and has a unique look and feel about it. it has a range of colors and its a weird font. We know its an action comedy as the action is full on and is consistent throughout the whole thing; it consists of guns, killing and fighting. the comedy part is covered throughout some of the serious parts to break the ice between them all.

Preliminary Task - Anna, Kiera, Ellie

Preliminary Task

This preliminary task was easy but also a bit of a struggle. We had to try and get everything perfect for it all to fit into each other without super recognizable patches were they didn't fit.
The camera angles were quite easy to do; we didn't have to change the height of the camera as we had made it the perfect height before we started filming, we hardly had to change the angle as we didn't include high or low angle shots. The camera had to be perfect otherwise it wouldn't have looked right when we filmed as the camera could have been too high or low. This is effective as we didn't have any breaks in between filming so we remembered exactly what we had to do next without hesitating or having to change anything.
For Ellie and I to film the same part of the clip at least twice was what made them interlink with each other perfectly. We made sure we knew exactly where Anna was walking or had her hands/feet. If we didn't then the shots wouldn't have interlinked with each other and the quality would have been terrible. Making sure Anna stayed in the same place or walked back in the same place was a struggle as she didn't even remember herself most of the time so we had to watch her feet and hands carefully it felt as if i was walking with her. Doing this was effective though because I could physically walk where she was walking to show her if she got stuck just to make sure we had it all perfectly laid out. The book sliding was the hardest part; we needed it to be  a strong push so that i could pick it up with ease but when Anna slid the book on the table she didn't do it hard enough so it was only going part way on the table not the full way. In result of this our teacher Mr Thornton had to help with the book sliding as he knew alongside us how strong we needed it and where it needed to go.

3 Camera Shots - Anna, Kiera, Ellie

In this video Ellie, Anna and I were experimenting with different types of camera shots we thought we could use in our opening 2 minute video for our exam.
We experimented with a medium shot, over the shoulder shot and long shot.
The medium shot was a little bit of a struggle; we couldn't get the right spot for the camera to be for all of us to fit in so we had to make it a moving medium shot. We had to move the camera around and move the spots we were standing in quite a lot for us all to have the perfect medium shot of our shoulders above.
The over the shoulder shot was the easiest as we had the perfect place to do it and the camera was easy to put into place. We had to only slightly change the camera height and angle and make sure Anna was standing in the perfect place so that the camera was not covered slightly.
The long shot was not as easy to do because we had to stand really close to each other just to fit into the frame of the camera. Anna had the easiest job as all she had to do was walk round me and catch the ball. Ellie and I had to throw the ball to each other slowly for Anna to be able to catch it in time.
If i were to change 1 thing i would change the medium shot to a 2/3 shot. The medium shot was hard to do and we couldn't have the camera standing still, we had to have it moving just for all 3 of us to fit in the video. Where as a 2/3 shot would have been easier as we could all have been standing near each other without having to move the camera so the speech would have been clearer and easier to understand.

Film Review - Kingsman (Taron Egerton)

Kingsman : The Secret Service.

The camera shots i think are really effective would be : birds eye view which showed how the city looks and it gives off a gangster vibe where clearly no posh people live, long shots are used consistently throughout the trailer - they shows the whole body of the character from the shoes to the hat - this is because it gives you a feeling of what type of character they are and how they get around in life, establishing shot - again this is used to show the scenery and how the setting would then later be used in the film, close ups are used quite a bit in this trailer/movie to show the expression in their faces which could lead to how the film carries on, 2 shot is used to feature Colin Firth and Taron Egerton in the same shot as they are the two main characters and seeing them together brings the movie together as they would then have to be with each other for almost the rest of the movie, over the shoulder shot is used when Colin Firth was talking to Taron not long after they had first spoke to each other - this is effective as it shows you what it would be like to look at the character from the talkers point of view, as the action starts the shots (above) all come together for a quick paced part of the trailer which could then show that the action involved in the trailer/movie isn't easy going, its gory and quite aggressive. The pace of editing in this trailer depends on the mood given off in that scene. As the action starts to kick in towards the middle of the trailer the pace of editing. The clips of the movie are edited so that the speech is all important and means a huge part in the film. The costumes in this movie play a huge part and Colin Firth seemed to take pride in his appearance in this movie as he always dressed smartly with suit and tie. Taron Egerton started off as a gangster and wore tracksuits/jeans and a hoody. This shows that where he lived at the beginning people follow the crowd and nearly everyone dressed the same. Towards the middle of the trailer you can see Taron "Eggsy" start to also take pride in his appearance; he starts to become a spy alongside Colin Firth, Taron starts wearing suits and ties and this could be because he wants to follow in his father's footsteps and change how he is living as that isn't how he wants to spend the rest of his life. From the story line we actually find out quite a lot in a small space of just under 3 minutes. We find out that Taron and Colin work alongside each other to complete secret "missions" and try to make sure the world stays as it is or they could even make it a better place. They have to stop Samuel L. Jackson from killing everyone he doesn't know just because he doesn't like how many people there are on earth and the fact he thinks the world is too crowded.  The titles aren't really used between the trailer, they're are used mainly at the beginning and the end so that you can focus on the trailer. We know its a film of action/comedy as the comedy draws you in, making you laugh and it intrigues you. As the comedy starts to die down the action starts and the guns and killing start to get involved.

Research and Planning Targets

A promising and confident start - but much more of your planning needs to be evidenced in order for you to achieve your target grade or above for this stage of your portfolio.  Keep pushing yourself to complete the task list provided and work collaboratively with your group in order to make sure your road to production is well evidenced and leads to success.  Have a look at https://chloebennettg321.blogspot.com to see a completed example to show you need to be heading!