Genre

In class, we have been studing genre, its meaning and theories which explain why genre is important. In the presentation below, you will see all of the main media genre theorists and how their theory applies to my short film 'ABDUCT'.

Genre theories from zoerichardson

Narrative

When it comes to thinking about the narrative of my short film, it is most important to decide on the structure in which I want the story line to follow.
Structure
After having a discussion with Sophie about this, we thought it was best to use a linear structure as it would allow us to make the short film more successful based around our skills. As we were both new to media at the start of the Alevel course, we did not know anything about the creation of a short film. By creating a linear structure, we thought it would be easier creating one based on this as it made most sense to use and we had already thought about a good story line which would fit this.
When looking back on my short film, it also features open structure in some areas as the audience as left to think for themselves about what happens. This features in the final scene where Lily dies. Due to the relationship between the talent, we could not show any sort of voilence or sexual scenes, so we decided to apply a voiceover which said "and thats when I died". This enabled the auidence to know that the killer, George, did actually kill her and she unfortunatley died. From this, it allows the audience to imagine for themselves, the way in which he killed her.
Narrative
Over the years, the complexity of the narrative of media texts has increased. Media texts, such as films, now expect you to know what is going on in the film, without neccessarly telling you the plot. This has become the norm of films and Sophie and myself decided to stick to this convention and not reveal all about our plot. Two features within the narrative are unrestricted narrative and restricted narrative. The unrestricted narrative in our film is evident as there is a killing at the end of the short film. This is expected in thrillers and therefore the audience will subconciously presume that there will be one featuring in my short film. The restricted narrative is evident at some stages of my short film as I do not inform my focus group that Lily's father has died before hand and that's why she visits the grave. This should, however, become clear when she goes to visit his gravestone after school. After factor which isn't directly shown in the short film is that George waits for Lily everyday after school and stalks her to the graveyard, reassuring her route and that it is a daily occurance.

There are many theories that have been conducted which can support films narrative.

Barthes
Barthes is a very popular narrative study which has been created to support the idea that to understand a narrative, a producer must follow codes which help the audience pick up the plot to a film/short film. These 5 codes are:

1. Action code - something that the audience knows and doesn't need explaining.
2. Enigma code - something that is hidden from the audience.
3. Semic code - something the audience can notice through connotations.
4. Symbolic code - something that symbolises something abstract.
5. Referential code - something that happens within a culture and is understood.

Barthes theory is the most suited to my short film and its narrative so therefore I fully agree with it.

1. Action code - the audience knows that George is the disturbed peadophile.
2. Enigma code - the audience are unaware that the father has died beforehand.
3. Semic code -
4. Symbolic code -
5. Referential code - that Lily goes to school everyday as this is the norm in most countries, especially England.

As you can see above, all of the 5 codes are met, which fully supports Barthes theory. In turn this should make the audience fully aware of whats happening at all times and make the narrative and plot of the short film succesful.

ODOROV
Odorov also created a very popular theory which explains the sequence in which a narrative should and does follow in. It is conducted of 5 steps which are listed below:

1. Equilibrium - everyday life.
2. Disruption - something happens to alter the equilibrium.
3. Conflict  - trying to solve the problem.
4. .Resolution - problem is sorted.
5. New Equilibriun - back to normal.

When looking at my short films narrative, it is clear to see that some of the steps of this theory is met, however not all are achieved.

1. Equilibrium - you see Lily coming out of school which is something that occurs every week.
2. Disruption - as Lily gets kidnapped this alters the equilibrium.

The other three factors of conflict, resolution and new equilibrium do not get met with the narrative of my short film so this contradicts the theory as it doesn't apply and therefore the theory could be seen as in accurate. However this theory may not fit my short film due to the genre being a thriller - this could be different with other genres.

A B D U C T -short film

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GXNdAWDxC0

Ancilary Tasks

 

Below is the film poster which Sophie created for our short film.

 

 

 

 

Below is the magazine film review page which I created for our short film.

 

Film Review Examples

Below are some examples of magazine film reviews which the writers opinion and thoughts about the film and they all display similar conventions to do with these kinds of reviews.
As you can see from the examples below, most reviews feature across a double spread with is mainly dominated by a large image which features actors/actresses in the film.
Other clear features are the large name which is normally eye catching - the font, size and colour all have connotations which can help set the mood and theme of the film.
Most film titles are sans serif which portrays ideas that the film is modern and recent however can also conveys ideas that it is quite basic and original. Also the double page spread reviews portray a lot of colour which allows them to be appealing and attracting. The bright colours used, make the film seem more enticing and interesting.
There is minimal text on each review, considering it's a double page spread because you don't want to give too much of the films details away and you want to set the right atmosphere for the readers to want to watch the film.
On some review pages, the narrater normally adds in an overall rating which are displayed as yellow stars. The more yellow stars present, the better the film is. This helps to give the readers an insight to how effective the film is and reinforces the readers to watch it.
Alot of review pages use text boxes to display all of the text and this allows the to split the text into sections and make it easier to read and have more of an established layout. Some review pages include text boxes which use quotes about opinions of that film; these are normally displayed in big apostrophes ("...") so the readers know that they are quotes. This helps to give more positive feedback which makes the film sound more interesting.










 

Editing Schedule

We have both devised an editing schedule to out out when and what we are going to edit on a certain day and time. This is important for us to do, as it will help us break down the load we have we have to edit and will give us an idea on how it will give us an idea on how long it will take. As we have already started filming a scene which is centered in the middle of our film. We thought this would be better to get this part done and start editing on it as it was filmed in a different location and because we didn't want to leave all of our editing to the end and concentrate on just filming. This benefited us as we could combine filming and editing either, which could enable us to get it all done quicker.

We made a deadline to finish filming on the 5th November in which we stuck to, however we made sure we left extra time just in case we wanted to add anything or change anything that we don't like. When it comes to editing our clips we have decided to break up particular scenes which we thought would be benefical as it allowed us to concentrate on them and then organise everything together when we have completed all of the filming. This mean that we would have to plan out when the clips were going to be edited and order each scene for that date and time as well; this is shown below.

Logically the bigger the scene, the longer it's going to take to edit so we wanted to make sure that we scheduled enough time for the big scenes as well as the small ones. This is so we wasn't rushing it or focusing too much on one particular scene.

Graveyard - 5 hours worth of editing (Tuesday, Thursday & Friday week 1)
The first scene that we was going to edit was the 'graveyard' scene, as this was the first of the filming we done. This would need a lot of editing as it was that part of the film where we need to build up a lot of feelings and adrenaline and a huge amount of anticipation. So we gave this part 5 hours.

Cupboard - 2/3 hours worth of editing (Tuesday and possibly Thursday week 2)
Second part of filming was centered in the school, however we need to do a lot of preperation to the location beforehand as there is a lot of items and products in there that we either need to move or cover. This meant that we would need to get this part and edited in less than two days as time is running out. But we gave it 2/3 hours to get it done as it is a scene were lots of cuts need to be made/included.

School - 2/3 hours worth of editing (Friday week 2)
Last bit of filming was filmed in the school, so we hope it would be finished sooner than filming in a different location. However, as editing does take some time we did give it 2-3 hours worth of editing to this particular scene.

Falling Leaf - 1 hour (Friday week 2)
This is a scene that we are hoping to include if we have the time to film it. To make it work to the way we want it to look and then edited it as well. However, doing practice clips of this is extremely hard to get the effect we wanted so we are basing this scene on how much time we gave at the end of filming and editing; this is mainly because it's an extra scene that isn't neccessarily needed in the film.

Film Posters

 

We also thought it would be helpful to research examples of film posters as it will show us what again is displayed on the page, how they may create feelings or moods through pictures and colours and what sort of context is involved and how is it shown. I have particulaorly chosen posters that are and look similar to our genre.

This is a very effective poster as it has a lot of detail which is significant to the film and will give the audience an insight about what the film is about. The title 'NOTHING TO LOSE' is printed in a white sans serif font which makes it clear and distinct from the poster and shows signs that the poster is recent. It has included a review from the magazine 'GQ' which makes the film poster sound more impressive. The actor on it is giving the audience direct eye contact so they feel more directed and targeted by the film poster.

This is the poster from 'THE LOVELY BONES', which our short film idea is based around. As you can see both of the main characters are shown on the cover however the evil character, George is in a dark shadow which symbolises his dark side and that he is trouble. Susie, the young girl who gets killed is in the bright light with the sun shining behind her, signifing that she is innocent and heavenly suggesting ideas that she might die in the film. The location that the poster is shot in, or edited onto, is taken from the film so all mise en scene flows. This makes the poster look professional and more realistic. The word 'LOVELY' is edited in bold which can demonstrate the angelic and kind side of the characters. Similarly, the white sans serif font portrays the idea of purity which can be closely linked to Susie Salom.



This poster of 'MY AMITYVILLE HORROR' is very effective as it has miminal detail however it is very endearing and eye catching. The direct eye contact from the actor allows the audience to feel more involved with the film/poster and may give them a more meaningful insight to the moods and feelings that the characters may feel in the film. The close up of the actors face shows an unhappy expression which displays a sense of evil or foreboding in the poster. The colour of the poster is very dull and dark which can reinforce the evil side of the film however the picture of the little boy is in colour which could evoke the idea of innocence and suggest that the film is something to do with him. The newspaper pictures around the face of the actor could show connotations on what there is to come in the film and they show key words such as 'Lutz' 'Exorcism' 'Amityvile' 'Nightmare' and 'Horror' which are all of similar ideas and meanings. The red font suggests the idea of blood or danger which could also be closely related to the film.

                                                                         

When focusing on the first draft of my film poster, I have realised I am right to focus much more on the female and male characters. However i have looked at film posters, with mostly women on and i have realised that my female looks in way too much peril, as she is a school girl in school uniform with tape over her mouth; people could complain about this representation which is quite a disturbing image when you look at it.
Below are some of the film posters I have chosen:

 This poster of 'FUNNY GAMES' is very effective as the actress on the cover is crying which shows distress and suggests ideas that the film is set around drama/thriller however she is still very attractive which will attract the target audience, males, as they would like to watch a film with actractive actresses in it. Her expression portrays the idea that she is in fear of something as her mouth is dropped and her lips are dry which could convey ideas that shes cold or out of breath. Her eye is very focused which could mean there is something she's in fear of and has to watch at all times to remain safe. Her hair is over one eye, showing to be quite messy which could suggest she has been running or is in a bad situation where she has not time to worry about her hair. There is miminal writing on the poster - the title is in captials in a white sans serif font which stands out against the background and suggests that there is a sense of inocence behind it. There is a text box containing information about the film which is in a small print as no-one really pays attention to this information and it isn't as important.

This poster for 'GOTHIKA' is effective because the actress looks trapped as she has her hands against glass. She has direct eye contact with the camera which would make the audience engage with her character more and make them feel vulnerable. The direct eye contact portrays the message of 'help' as you can see pain/fear and sympathy in her eyes asking to be let out. The poster has been edited blue which could suggest ideas that the surroundings she is in are cold, similarly there are rain drops on the glass which conveys ideas that she is outside or looking outside, wanting to go out.There is much more text on this poster which gives it substance and looks more informative than others. I feel this makes the readers feel more knowledgeable about the film. The title is in a sans serif font however looks spoody and scratched or craved on to something; this suggests negative connotations like frightfulness and fear. Similarly, the same font seems to be engraved onto her forearm. It says 'not alone' which also gives the audience an insight for what to come.

This poster of 'CHLOE' is again very effective as they've made the actress look empowering due to the direct mode of address - using eye contact, allowing her to personally target the audience and make them feel on edge. As she is sightly looking up, it suggests a sense of evil or mystery as she looks like shes in control. She is very attractve which draws attention to the poster and her big eyes are very endearing which captures people attention.  The other actor and actress are edited on behind her conoting that their roles aren't as important in the film or that they are less powerful. The title 'CHLOE' is a females name which suggests that this could be the name of the blonde actress conveying ideas that the film is based around her. The images in the poster are of strobe lights and cars along a lit up street which suggests a high life profile and a lot of money is involved which sets the scene.

This poster of 'SCREAM' is very capturing due to the close up of the actresses face which makes the audience feel more involved and engaged into her emotions. Her hand is over her mouth as if shes seen something frightening and her eyes are wide which supports this idea. Easily, you can see that she is scared and distressed at what she has just seen.with her eyes wide as well. She is a very attractive female and still looks pretty even with the situation she is in. The title is set out with spaces in between each letter which could signify a long period of pain or distress. It is printed in a white, sans serif font which is also in captials which could suggest that the title is being shouted or there for a dramatic effect. The letter 'M' has been edited different compared to the other letters which could portray ideas that is something intriging or different about the film. There is a lot of text at the bottomof the poste, which is again printed in a small font as they are details that aren't that important.

This poster of 'the silence of the lambs' is an effective poster due to the close up of the clear skin, beautiful face. The deep brown eyes are very intriging and draw the attention of the audience. The clear, flawless skin shows purity and innocence. The mouth is covered by a moth with contradicts the title as it suggests that 'lambs' are invovled. This would make the audience question what the film is about and in turn, will watch it to find out. The title in all in low case sans serif font which suggets it is quite a laid back film and the colour 'oragne' makes it seem quite warm and friendly. Just like other posters, there is small font at the bottom containing information which isn't that important.

This poster of 'THE SEASONING HOUSE' is very effective due to the actress which is on the cover. As she is young, it makes the audience feel vulnerable for the actress and the look of misery and despair enhances this idea.When taking my short film into consideration and my genre, this would be the closest to my idea due to the age and genre to my short film due to the young actress and the mood it portrays. This poster is hard to read as the actress looks distressed and vulnerable, however she is holding a knife which could suggest she is the one thats in control of it. The direct eye contact emphasises this idea as it makes the audience/viewers feel on edge and uncomfortable looking at it. The actress is also holding a teddy bear which reinforces her age. The editing of the poster seems to have a 'sepia' tinge to it, which conveys the idea of an old/dated setting. The serif font also supports this idea as it is an old style of font and matching this with the theme of the film will help to show the mood and feeling it is trying to create.

This poster of 'WAZ' is very effective as there is a closer up on the persons face, mainly focusing on the eye which shows the idea of evil. The shot clearly shows the expression on their face which looks smug which could portray ideas they have achieved something - maybe revenge? This idea is reinforced by the blood which is on their face which could suggest drama and gory element will occur; this also conveys the idea that they are in control. I am unsure if the person is male or female in the picture which could also create mystery as it makes me want to find out more. The title is in a red sans serif font which could resemble blood or hatred which fits in nicely with the picture and the mood it portrays.

Unappropriate Image

After having a conversation with my teacher, Sophie and myself found out that the original image we wanted to use of Sophie looking directly at the camera with her mouth covered in duck tape would be too distressing for the audience and would most likely not get through the sensors.

As we originally based our layout on the Antoment and Avatar posters (seen below) we didn't make our poser conventional to our genre. In order to overcome this we have searched for posters from our genre to get ideas of conventional features.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Practise poster for the film

This is the first draft of the poster advertising our film. As we are undecided on the name of the film yet we have just placed in the ones we like best, however the layout just varies. When we are definite about the name of the film, we will put in place as to where the one is now.

This is the first draft. We have chosen to add two images of the pedophile and the innocent girl who gets 'snatched' by the man. For this reason, we think 'SNATCHED' would make an appropriate title. The use of capitals portrays ideas that the title is being shouted out and helps to reinforce the tension and distress the film conveys. It is unfinished as the font for 'Never Look Back' needs to be changed and the shade of colour may be too dark. 

This is the second draft we created for the poster of our film. This one is just called 'SNATCH' because we feel that it gets straight to the point. We have only just one image in this poster as we think it looks effective by giving the reader direct eye contact making the audience feel the distress and pain that the girl is feeling too.

This is the same as above however we have just 'darkened' the whole poster to make it look more dull in order to fit the mood of the short film.

This edit is very similar to the one above however we have made the picture a little bit dark by editing it in IPhoto and the colour of the font has changed.

Possible names

Below is the brainstorm of film names we came up with for our short film.In the bottom left hand corner are also some tag lines that we came up with.
We felt that doing this was a good idea as it enabled us to see a selection of names and selectively chose which one was best for our film.
As we like the name 'Taken' we searched it in a thesaurus and ideas stemmed from there. Unfortunately we cannot use 'Taken' as that is used for a film.

Briefs

"A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both, together with both, together with two of the following three options:

1. a poster for the film
2. a radio trailer for the film
3. a film magazine review page featuring the film"

                                                               

Sophie and myself have chosen to do this brief with the subsidiary tasks of a poster for the film and a radio trailer. 

Voiceover Ideas

Before Sophie done the voiceover, we thought it would be a good idea to note down all possible lines which we may have or which may sound good with our storyplot. As you can see from the picture below, we have just wrote all our possible lines in lists.

Storyboard

Before creating our short film, Sophie and myself created a story board so that we could plan the content to our film carefully and have a structured plan to follow when filming.

Recce Pictures

 
In the presentation above, there are pictures from the graveyard which I feel will create a good atmosphere for shooting our short film. In slide 5 'Grave Stone' slide, Sophie has mentioned about using a females grave stone considering was originally Lilly's mother who had previously died in the short film. We made some changes to this and thought it would be more suitable for the girls father to have died as it would make the girl seem more vulnerable as she wouldn't have a father figure in her life.

Practice clips

During class, we practiced doing some possible scenes, shot and ideas for our short film.

The Last Scene

We have decided to shoot the last scene in a cupboard at school as it can be changed to be dark and scary. We feel that if we create the right atmosphere that it will be successful in what we want to achieve. Obviously we are going to need to take the things off the shelves and the back of the door however we could just cover them with big sheets of paper in order to save time. Because this is in the school premises, it will not take long to record and we will have everything planned out ready. Sophie recorded this clip sitting down in a chair and as you can see, Mr Swains head gets cut out. To overcome this problem, I will be filming it behind Sophie so we still get a point of view shot howerver it will display everything that we need it to.
Another change that we would have to test is whether to have the classroom light on or off when filimg. When Mr Swain walks through the door you can see a lot of light from the classroom, which contradicts the feel and mood of the film. If we turned the light off, then it might make the scene more spooky and eery.
As well as this, we are thinking to have a shot of Sophie, tied and chained up sitting in the cupboard so the audience know what is happening to her and it just gives the story plot more context. Other thoughts we had was for Sophie to have masking tape across her mouth so when shes screaming and crying, it will be muffled and sound more paniced. We are uncertain as to whether there should be any dialogue in this scene as we want to limit speech as much as possible and focus more on voiceovers.
I will be filming this from the enterance of the door and maybe in a high angle position so Sophie still looks vulerable and inferior to whats happening.

Sky and Leaf

As mentioned in the treatment, we are looking to open the film with a fresh, green leaf falling for the sky, but slow motion edit it so it looks like it is floating/drifting down to represent a life; to help represent the happiness of a life we want the sky to be clear, blue and sunny - however as Autumn is coming, this may be hard to achieve so we filmed the sky incase there isn't another nice day. To close the story we want to contradict this idea however has a similar style. We want a dead, brown, crispy leaf to float from the sky as it connotes death and misery and we are planning to get the sky quite dark, gloomy and miserable to reinforce the idea of death. 

As it was too windy to film the leave falling from the sky, we practiced doing it inside and then was planning to edit out the ceiling, hands etc on final cut pro on the Apple Macs. This didn't really go to plan as the leaf fell to the ground too fast and we couldn't capture the direction of it traveling the way we wanted it to. 

We have had a few ideas on how to overcome this (fishing wire) however we are yet to put it into practice. 

Slow Motion Leaf

Just to get an idea of a leaf falling in slow motion, we edited this clip in Imovie, however it is not suitable for short film as it has yet to be edited on final cut pro and the view of the leaf falling is not to the best standard in which it should be in.

Textual Analysis - Cupcake

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mXH2x4EDYs

Camerawork
The pan that opens the short film gives the audience a clear indication of the setting and location of where the film is shot. There are a lot of low angle shots throughout the film of Cupcake which could portray ideas that she is in the superior role within this setting and in control. This shot also makes Cupcake look more sinister and evil which is reinforced by the lighting and atmosphere. When the camera is on the blonde girl, there are a lot of mid shots which could have been used to show her lying down and reinforcing the idea that she can't escape. As well as this there are several close up shots of her face which displays panic and distress.

Editing
I like the way the opening title has a dripping effect which could show connotations of blood dripping from the girl when Cupcake kills her.

Sound
The opening ambient sound is of a telephone ringing which portrays the reasoning of why the person is talking. The conversation which is happening on the phone is edited as a voiceover on the first cuts and the sweeping pan of the short film.
Sound effects are added when the blonde girl is trying to get out of being tied up and these are projected on flashes of her struggling.

Mise en scene
The lighting is quite low key during the film but especially when the evil happenings begin to take place. The dark, dull lighting makes the setting more creepy and spooky, creating the right mood for the story. Sometimes the only light is from the candles that Cupcake has lit.

Branded texts

In the SlideShare presentation below are some of the most famous directors and a brief description about their career and their success. I have also decided to include the director who made the The Lovely Bones as that is the inspiration for our film story.

Famous directors. from zoerichardson

Textual analysis - Umbilical.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ2zh0kewQc

This short film could beh suggesting how television is affecting children and taking away their general childhood.

Camera Work

The opening to the film is a pan which gives the audience a clear view of the umbilical cord; this also allows people to know what to expect to be at the end of the umbilical cord. This is then followed by a pan onto the childs drawing which shows the angelic behaviour that he portrays.
There are several low angle shots throughout the film. The first one that we see is of the child looking down to the floor with a crayon in his hand about to draw. He has a slight smile on his face that shows he is happy and content with what he is doing.Soon after he stands up and looks towards the window. With the shot still being low angle is makes the little boy seem superior and in control however this is contrasting the point of which the film suggests. After this is cuts into a low angle zoom in to the window. This conveys ideas that the window has a purpose or that something significant is behind it that needs to be seen. Out of the window is a coloured sky and black birds fly past which shows there is life outside the window - soon after there is a coloured ball that gets thrown up into the air and the little boy spots it which allows creates similar ideas that someone is outside playing. .
There is a wide shot after the little boy gets a shock from the 'umbilical cord' which is coming out of his head. He falls to the floor and the wide shot allows us to see the coloured drawings on the floor and the window which is supplying a lot of light into the room. Following on from this is a mid shot of the little boy stroking the painting of the cat that he has drawn which portrays ideas he may be feeling alone and wanting a friend/company.
Later on in the short film there is another low angle shot of the child running up to the window but gets pulled back by the cord which could suggest he is not allowed outside and has to remain in certain space. This then cuts into a high angle of the little boy looking up at it with all of the colourful drawings surrounding him on the floor; this can emphasis his innocence and make him look vulernable to what is outside.
There is a close up of the little boy setting onto his packet of crayons and squashing them. This this convey ideas that he doesn't care about drawings and just wants to be outside playing. The high angle of him sitting on the floor hugging his crayons makes the audience feel a sense of guilt and sadness that he cannot do what he wishes. There is another close up of the ball when it gets thrown into the room which could signify that this ball is something meaningful and important.
Towards the end of the short film is a long shot when the ball in close up in the focus, the child is laying on the floor from being pulled over and then the TV is in the far end which is the thing the child is connected to. This shot is multifunctional as it shows what the child wants but what is stopping him from having it. This makes the story line clearer to the audience and gives them a deeper insight to whats happening.

over the shoulder, the zoom to window. The next few cuts are an over the shoulder shot where the child is watching the ball bounce out of the window. This can demonstrate ideas that he is saying goodbye to what he wants and feels upset that it's going.

When the TV comes on, there is a high angle shot which shows the little boy walking to the TV with all the different lights flashing. This shows that he is now inferior to the television and maybe under control by the TV. Again you see a close up of the boy stepping on the crayon packet signifing he is hypnotised by the television, not caring about anything.

The final camera shot is a zoom out; this is from the televison when the child is sitting in front of it, watching it. The zoom out conotates that hes alone and drawn into it - oblivious from everything else surrounding him.

Sound 

Right at the beginning of the film, there is an ambient sound which has been added which sounds like a light buzzing/flickering. This sets the scene for what to expect in the film.

Throughout the film a keyboard or piano is being played which can heighten ideas of innocence. The instruments being played are quite slow which could suggest that the environment is very calm and settled and could signify that the child is oblivious to other types of music.The notes that are being played would be classed as key minor, making the setting very reserved and relatively serious.

voice over of children's voices, cat s meowing. When this is being played cuts continuously change, showing the use of a sound bridge. This can conotate the continuous use of happiness until the television switches on.

There are other ambient sounds which occur in the film of the window slamming shut when the ball bounces out of it. This could conotate something bad is about to happen due to the loud bang. Similarly it could suggest that whatever is outside isn't to be seen or noticed. If the plot is to do with children being controlled by the television, them this would fit in as the television would want the childs full attention and not to be distracted by anything else. At the start of the short film there are noises of cats meowing and also water trickling which suggests ideas of something happy or delicate creating thoughts of peace andnormality. These can also be classed as diegetic, ambient sounds.

When the little boy walks away from the window, he hears children playing and talking which seems to excite him. The use of this diegetic sound again allows the audience to have a clearer image of what is happening behind the window and feel a sense of relief that there is someone outside who the little boy can play with. When you can hear the ball bouncing it makes the film seem more realistic and helps to add character to the ball. Similary the television noise starts to play in the background of the cuts creating another soundbridge which suggest that the child is continuly attached to the TV and cannot get away from the screen/sounds it makes.

 

Editing 

In the short film you see a variety of continuous cuts which are realivity long. By making the cuts seem long, it could demonstrate the long process of television shows and that they can be watched all day. It creates ideas that there is no way to get away it and it reinforces the guilt that you feel for the little boy.
At the beginning of the film, there is an effect which makes the title look like it is in the spotlight. This evokes ideas that the film is about one main idea - the little boy. This can be reinforced by the title 'umbilical' as when you are in your mothers womb then you securely attached by the umbilical and there is no escape. This can show close conotations to the relationship that the little boy has with the television - even though he has a chance to draw or play ball, the TV keeps drawing him in and stopping him.
The short film has been edited in a cartoon effect similar to childrens drawings. First instincts of this will suggest that it is to do with a child(ren) and this is reinforced by the title 'umbilical' which signifies babies.
The title and credits are in the same style and format which helps to show continuity. It has been edited in a sketchy style to match the rest of the film and to make it look professional.

 

Mise en Scene

Low key lighting is used in the film to make it look more realistic and natural. The opening of the film is quite dark, illustrating something bad is going to occur however as the pan moves on, the lighting brightens and sets a positive mood. You start to see drawings in colour where everything else is in black and white. This could suggest positive conotations as drawing is a good thing for children to do.

The little boy is dressed in dungarees which is a typical piece of clothing that you would expect a child to wear, so again it makes the film look professional by maintaining the theme.

The drawings that the child has drawn are colourful that evoke ideas that he is happy. The colours of the drawings are bright which also suggests ideas of positive conotations and happiness. Besides everything apart from the drawing, the bouncy ball and the sky, everything is black and white; this portrays ideas that other things are negative and don't make the child happy. The drawings may be in colour as that is what children should be doing instead of watching TV. Even though the colours flashing from the TV are quite bright, they may be symbolising hypontism as the child is sat close to the TV watching it which is bad for the eyes.

Treatment

Before we started creating the short film Sophie and myself decided to create a treatment to allow us to have a clear insight on what to include into the film. By creating this, it also records all ideas we have so none get forgotten and we can always refer back to it.

                                                                                                                  

The characters in our short film are PHILIP SWAIN and SOPHIE WAGSTAFF. We are shooting the short film in a graveyard located in Kettering. The plot is about a pedophile killer who stalks a young girl and kills her. We've chosen this story line because we want to create tension, for it to be gripping and exciting for what is about to happen.

Plot
The young girls dad dies before the film so he is now being looked after by her aunty as her mother abandoned her with her father when she was born. A pedophile killer is on the loose, yet to be caught. Sophie goes to visit her fathers grave everyday at 4:00pm after school as she misses him greatly and feels alone. The pedophile killer spots the girls and realises she visits the grave everyday at the same time. He starts spying on her and eventually captures her, rapes her and kills her.

Locations
We want to create an eery/spooky kind of setting we thought it would be a good idea to base our film in a graveyard as they are naturally quite scary. Besides this, there are other factors in a graveyard which can contribute to the scariness. For example these could be the church, shadows, tall trees swaying in the wind, and crunchy leaves to emphasis sound. Also in the setting of a graveyard the killer could disguise himself easier behind trees when spying on Sophie. Even though you suspect something bad will happen in the setting of a graveyard, we believe that we can pay more focus on making it scarier and more tense and unexpected. Tension will play a large part in our film.
The noises of nature will always help the eariness.



The story begins with a fresh green leaf slowly falling to the ground which will be put on slow motion and played with a voice over.
The story ends with a dead brown leaf slowly falling to the ground with slow motion and a voice over; this life journey of a leaf as well as Sophies.

Target Audience

Below are several factors that we need to take into consideration when it comes to the target audience.

AGE

As mentioned in a previous post, the age range for our film is going to be aimed at the PG12-50 age band as we feel these ages will be most suitable to watch the film based on the content. Also typically you have to be above the age of 15 to watch horror or thrillers depending on the footage. From doing secondary research, we found out that The Lovely Bones is rated at a PG-13 as it doesn't explicitly show anyone being murdered and the content is fairly moderate.
Fischoff created a theory which states "gradual disengagement with the horror genre" which portrays ideas that people like the thought of scaring themselves and to see how much they can push themselves in order to test themselves. It also states that horror and thriller films are mostly aimed for teenagers and young adults as they mainly appeal to these ages.
For this reason we will be putting the age range quite young so we can get as much interest from the younger audience as possible.

GENDER

We are aiming the short at males and females as we think it would be appropriate for both genders. We feel that it would be hard to aim our film at just one gender as it will limit the interest it will gain and possibly reduce sales. As the genre of our film is drama/thriller is a neutral gender genre so it would be hard to focus this on one gender. 

LIFESTYLE

Our film would be more suited for families and for teenagers. We think this is appropriate based on the content of our film as it could be a good way to bond with family members by watching a short film together and teenagers would find the film most enjoyable. As we have previously said, the message of the film is to make sure someone is aware of where you are at all times so the family viewers would be able to reinforce this idea and make them more knowledgeable and aware of what could happen in this situation. 

INTERESTS

Our film doesn't desire any particular interests as to be interested in serial killers and pedophiles would be slightly strange. Our film may be more appealing to people who like to be in tense situations and on the edge of their seat to find out what's about to happen and in a sense like the adrenaline that it brings.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC GROUP

We feel that there isn't a set social group which will favour our film, however believe that lower/middle class people would be more interested in watching it due to the story line and actions.

Key Information

Just like any other film, we had to decide on the audience, genre, narrative and the representations that it will portray. Below is each category with more detail and why we have chosen it.

Audience

The audience for our film is going to be for both sexes - males and females. we thought we'd target it for both genders as everyone has different tastes and have different opinions on each genre. We are putting the age range as 12-50 as it would not be suitable for young children due to the nature and content of the film and it may scare or frighten them. We put the age range up to 50 as we feel that people over this age may not favour or enjoy watching this genre.

Genre

Due to the content of our film, the genre would possibly be a drama/thriller. The Lovely Bones (the film we are basing our short film on) is a drama/fantasy however we are looking to create more of a tense and creepier setting and content to make our film more distinctive and different comparing it to The Lovely Bones. By doing this it will put our own stamp on it. The Lovely Bones also has a lot dream-like thoughts of heaven and the after life whereas we are focusing more on the killing of the girl therefore it will be more thriller rather than fantasy.

Narrative
The young girls mother dies before the film so she is now being looked after by her aunty as her father abandoned her and her mother when Sophie, the young girl, was a baby. A serial killer is on the loose, yet to be caught. Sophie goes to visit her mothers grave everyday at 4:00pm after school as she misses her greatly and feels alone. The serial killer  has been stalking the girl for months plotting and planning his attempt to kill her.

Representations 

The representations that we wish to convey through our film is negative thoughts as bad things occur throughout. The only positive sign that we would heighten are the messages that the audience should take into consideration. These are to be wary of your surroundings and think about your safety first, to think about your actions and where to travel alone to and to contact people so they know where you are at all times.
We want to represent the main character, Sophie, as quite naive and vulnerable to what can happen in real life and not to trust anyone. Besides this we want to represent the serial killer as dangerous. 

Our Idea

Our idea was inspired by the film 'The Lovely Bones'. Sophie and myself previously watched this film and we loved it. We liked how unexpected it all seemed and the way it was produced. This gave us the idea of doing a similar plot however giving it our own twist. The link below provides a lot of detail on this film and a description on the plot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lovely_Bones

Below are some shots we especially liked as they portray the feeling of unease and mystery. I like these images of George Harvey, who kills Susie Salmon in the film because he has a very focused and creepy expression on his face. In each of these pictures he has someone in his sight (possibly Susie) and he remains in the correct character all the way through which I think is crucial for this role.

Possible Sounds for the Film

Before we started recording, we thought it was a good idea to go through on Imovie sounds to see which ones would be suitable and sounds good which our film. This allowed us to have an idea on the moods that the film will create and help pair it with the sounds more. The list below is all of the ones we are thinking about coorperating into our film.

• Alien impact
• Borealis
• Dogma
• Farewell 
• Mystery accents
• Suspense accent

Also during the selection of sounds there were many sounds that could be used as ambient ones which could occur in the background of the setting/actions/location. This will also help to create the eery sounds and could portray certain feelings and ideas to the audience. 

• Cave Water drops
• Dog barking
• Door metal squeak
• Elysium
• Footstep
• Flurry
• Grandfather clock strike
• Police car siren
• Pursuit 
• Radio station 
• Clock wind-up

Research Methods

There are 4 different kinds of research methods which all have different advantages and disadvantages.

PRIMARY

This research method is done by the individual who wants to find out the information. This can be done by interviews, surveys or questionnaires.

Advantages: You will know where the source of information has come from and the topic of information is more focused and specific to what you want to know. 

Disadvantages: It may be time consuming and  quite expensive and the data may be out of date when you come to use it.

SECONDARY

This research method is done by an individual researching from other information resources such as the internet, newspapers and libraries.

Advantages: The process of finding information is done quickly - you only have to search for it and it isn't expensive. 

Disadvantages: You may not have any access to these sources of information. You don't know where the information has come from so may be unreliable. 

QUALITATIVE

This research method focuses on the reasoning of collecting information and finds more information out about people including age, interests, religion etc. 

Advantages: This can be very detailed and precise. 

Disadvantages: It could be time consuming as you would have to analyse peoples responses.

QUANTITIVE

This research method focuses on the numerical side of research collection like statistics and data.

Advantages: It is good for finalising results and making them more conclusive.

Disadvantages: This could take a lot of time and a lot of effort is involved.

I think that the best research methods to use during the process of creating and finalising the short film would be primary, secondary and quantitive data. I think that qualitative data would mainly be used in the evaluation process of this task. This is because they all provide good and fairly reliable results which would allow summarised conclusions about specific topics. Throughout the task I will be commenting on the research carried out is either primary, secondary, qualitative or quantitive.

Recce pictures

To get an idea of the possible locations for our short film, we took some pictures of the areas which we were looking to film in. As you can see in the pictures below, we thought the entrance of the school would be good to use as it would set the scene for the opening - informing the audience of the location and setting.
By filming the 'student' getting out of the car in the car park, it could suggest that they weren't actually a student but could be some sort of teacher.
Also having the office in the opening of the film could also create the impression that this student is new as she asked for her timetable to the receptionist.
Having the 'student' in the corridors with other students convinces the audience even more that she is actually a student, which we thought was useful to use.

Main Task Decision

Our class got told that it was acceptable to work in pairs our in small groups for the main task. In the group I am in is obviously myself, Sophie and Harriet so we will all share the work load and work well together.
We have chosen to create a short film for the main task as we have clear ideas on what we want to create and the mood we want to portray within it. As we gained our thoughts quite early within the process, it allowed us to think more deeply about what we want to include in the film, the mise en scene and camerawork that would work best as well as finding reliable characters who wouldn't mind playing a part in it.