Camera

I am planning to film on my iPhone 6 camera, because I think that the quality of the camera is far better than the quality of the camera that the school provides. However, until I can clear the memory of my phone, I am unable to film as I have insufficient storage. This is only a minor problem because it will be very easy to resolve, simply by deleting some things I don't need.

Representation of Gender in the Media

Tripod

As I have used the schools cameras in previous film projects and have not been overly pleased with the results and the quality, me and two other students have decided to order a tripod that fits our phones and share it between us. The quality of the iPhone 6 will be better than the school camera so buying this tripod will allow me to get good quality, steady videos. Sharing the tripod might cause some problems because we might need to use it at the same time, but as long as we all ensure that we plan our filming in advance there should be no real issue. As I plan to film over the Christmas holidays, I will have a lot of free time to move days of filming around if I need to.

Costume

Abigail: As Abigail is just a regular teenage girl, she will be wearing typical, basic clothes you would expect a teenage girl to wear. I am considering having her in work clothes as she will be returning home at the beginning of the film.

Antagonist: The character inside Abigail's home will be wearing a very dark outfit, almost similar to that of the antagonist in the Scream films. However, I don't think I'll give the character a mask as I want the character to appear mysterious.

Film Magazine Review - Ancillary Project

 For the second part of my ancillary task, I will be creating a film magazine review. Magazine reviews tend to cover a double page spread which I intend to recreate. I just googled "film magazine reviews" in order to find this collection of images. Typically, a review will contain interviews and key quotes from directors and actors, and images of the actors posing as their characters. I will need to do this in mine to recreate a realistic article. The colours in these tend to just be a white background with black words, or a large blue title. This

Movie Posters - Ancillary Product

I researched similar thriller film posters as these are in a similar style to what my short film will be in. The poster will be one of my two ancillary tasks, a magazine article being the other. This task can't be too time consuming as it won't reward me with many marks, but I must still produce the poster to the best that I can do, as it will go a way to helping me achieve a good mark. One of the most common features of the thriller posters are the large, block texts over the top of a close image of either the protagonists or antagonists face. This would be very easy to recreate, as it would require very little editing and I don't have great skill when it comes to editing. I'd like my poster to be similar to the 'Dead Silence' poster, with my antagonist close up to the camera and the name of my short film in front of their face.

I also researched horror film posters as I wanted to see if they were more suited to how I want mine to look. They are basically the same as the thriller posters so I can still take inspiration from these.

Character Profile: Abigail

Abigail

Age: 17 Gender: Female

Abigail is the protagonist of my short film, and she is a normal teenage female. In my film, she returns home from work to find that her whole family have gone out. At the best of times, she is timid and anxious, but when she begins to hear noises in the house she becomes incredibly paranoid and afraid. She is quite popular but she cannot contact any if her friends and family whilst she looks for the source of the mystery in her home. Her status after the film is unknown as the mysterious figure is only seen behind her at the very end.

Character Profile: Antagonist

Antagonist

Age: Unknown Gender: Unknown

This mysterious character causes Abigail to become incredibly paranoid and afraid of a home invader when they begin to make lots of noises inside her house. The character themselves are entirely unknown, the audience know nothing about them, just that they don’t appear to be welcome in Abigail’s home. It never becomes clear to the audience whether or not they are a dangerous character, as I want to. Use the enigma code to allow the audience to think of their own ending, which creates more mystery. The character is only going to be seen very briefly on camera, very few times.

Assessment Criteria

Level 4 16–20 marks 

• Planning and research evidence will be complete and detailed;
 • There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience; 
• There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props;
 • There is excellent work on shot-lists, layouts, drafting, scripting or story-boarding; 
• There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning;
 • Time management is excellent.

To achieve a level 4 in my short film, this is the criteria that I will need to meet.

Soundtrack

Because I want to create a tense and creepy atmosphere, I don't plan on using much music in my video, and when I do it will be very quiet to add to the atmosphere. I will only be able to use royalty free music from websites online due to my lack of budget, but this isn't a problem.

Example of websites I could use:
http://www.premiumbeat.com/royalty_free_music_moods/horror-scary
http://www.shutterstock.com/music/?gclid=CjwKEAiA6rrBBRDsrLGM4uTPkWASJADnWZQ4VkHGUGT2kiS26yCaDB1GAUz39sTL_gA89kwMMgeeUhoCfuPw_wcB
http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/cinematic
http://www.purple-planet.com/

networked - Short Film for A2 Media / Film Coursework - Grade A

I have been researching other people's short A2 films in order to get an understanding of how good my film will need to be to achieve a good grade. This film's storyline is similar to mine so I will look to it for inspiration when I create my own production. This film was clearly created with editing skills far beyond mine so I will not be able to replicate many of the visual looks, but I didn't want to do that anyway. The camera angles used give the impression that the protagonist is being watched, and this is interesting as I will need to recreate some of these angles in mine as I would like to also create the impression that the main character is being watched by somebody.

Storyboard

I created a short, basic storyboard in order to get a general idea of the scenes I am going to film and how I am going to film them. I have no artistic skill, which makes drawing a storyboard difficult but not impossible, but it means I have. To stick to very basic drawings. I didn’t draw many scenes as I felt they would become repetitive and not very useful.

Storyboard from Jack Grimshaw

Actors

Due to my story line, I will only need one actor to appear on screen throughout my short film, with another actor making a very brief appearance towards the end. I will need a female lead as I need a stereo typically more vulnerable character. This might be difficult as I currently do not have anybody willing and capable to carry out the role to a required standard. I could work with actors through an online agency, which is free, but I would be unsure about doing this as I don't really want to welcome strangers into my home, and also they may feel like they are better than me and therefore won't do what I ask of them. Preferably, I will be able to find somebody I know who is willing to act for me, and capable of doing a good job. This will be quite easy to do as I just have to ask around a bit.

Location and Filming Planning

Due to the nature and style of my film, I am only going to need one very basic location, which will probably be my house. This is because the storyline I am creating only works when set in an environment that is a house, because the audience can feel closer to the storyline as many people share the fear that somebody may be inside their homes, and my film will exploit this fear. I am going to need to film it at night because I want to create a dark and creepy atmosphere, and this would be harder to create in daylight. I could potentially use daylight as it goes against how these films are typically shot, and it would create an entirely new atmosphere as people don't tend to feel unsafe in daylight. My own house is an ideal location as it is easy to use. The only limiting thing in using my own home is that I require an empty house to create my short film, but this may be quite difficult to come by and I might have to do a reasonable amount of waiting. Other than this, there are no other problems with filming in my house so it remains the ideal location.

Reflective Blog Post

This week I have managed to complete both primary and secondary research into my target audience, meaning I now have a greater understanding of who will be watching my short film and how much they will actually enjoy it. This was a successful week as I have managed to get both types of research done very early on, which is helpful as the earlier it is done the sooner I can begin planning to meet the audiences needs. Next week I plan to develop the storyline further.

Psychographics

I created a short survey to see who would be interested in my short film. I sent it out to people in my media class, and to other people by using Facebook and Twitter. The answers from this survey will allow me to see who would be interested in my film and therefore get a better understanding of my target audience.

Media Survey Responses from Jack Grimshaw

Potential Target Audience

I used YouGov profiles to research my potential target audience. Before doing this research, I was aiming at a teenage audience, similar to myself. This was because I enjoy these style of films and know many other people who also do. After researching it, I discovered that the actual Scream films attract a much older target audience, whereas the TV show attracts an audience that is ideal for me. This means I will have to create my film in a similar style to the MTV show, which is what I was originally planning on doing.




   

Storyline Planning

In this presentation, I outline 3 of the main narrative structures that I could use in my short film. I have come to the conclusion that Barthes' enigma code is the most suitable one for my short film, as I require a lot of mystery and intrigue. I also feel that the typical style of films that follow the enigma code matches mine, so I will follow this sort of structure when creating my product.

Pitch Presentation

We were given a task to create a presentation about which brief we were choosing and how we were going to create our final production. Unfortunately, at the time of presenting I was still unprepared and struggled to give enough detail about my final production. After presenting to the class, I went back to the presentation and made changes to make it more detailed and in depth, making my plan a lot clearer to the audience.
I have since updated my presentation, and the new one is below. Hopefully this will now be helpful to answer the questions that were previously unclear. I now have a plot set out clearly so I have something to build on from this point.