Filming Schedule

After gainomg experience from our preliminary film we made a plan to begin filming for 'Lure' on the 14th of November 2009. We only needed one more weekend after to get all the filming done as we were using similar filming techniques to the ones we used for our preliminary so there was no no need to spend hours looking for 'the perfect shot'. Olivia and Adam were starring in the film so I was the camera man on this project. For the first day of filming we only reached as far as when Olivia approcahes the TV. This is because we took time on that day to discuss the shots we wanted and what would work and what wouldn't. The next day we reached the point where Olivia has turned around and shot Adam. There was some dicsscusion after this on deciding how to end our film. We decided we wanted to bring in another character and leave the audience feeling eager to know more so the following weekend we filmed Olivia walked down the drive and Oli taking the safety off the gun and following her. We didn't spend too much time filming as you can see and this is because we wanted to give ourselves more time to edit as this is one of our groups strong points.

Preliminary Task Storyboard

Lure

Lure Storyboard

Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

For our film we wanted to challenge the common conventions of a typical thriller/horror. We decided to have a woman as the 'hero' figure which is not usual of a the thriller genre as the woman is typically the victim in the situation who's often saved by the man. So before we began filming we did some research into this convention. We found two films with two very contradicting leading roles. 'The Bourne Ultimatum' was the first film we watched. It focuses very much on one specific male character and most powerful characters in the film were preliminary men. However the second film we watched was 'Resident Evil' which has the leading role being played by Milla Jovich. We found that overall effect of having a woman as the main 'hero' was more effective a convention that the norm of having a man as the main 'hero'. We took this convention of the dominant female and used it in our film having Liv as the survivor with the gun. This made her rather similar to Milla Jovich in Resident female. Liv also uses a gun also. This convention that we used will help to appeal to both male and female audiences for different reasons.

Now for Adams role we not so much wanted to challenge the convention but develop it. Adams role has a twist so it was important for us to follow all the standard 'killer' conventions as to not confuse the audience. We needed Adams costume to follow the typical dress style seen in other horror films such as 'Scream' and 'Friday the 13th'. So as a reference to these films we had him in a completely black costume with leather gloves and a black hoody with a dark mask which blacked out his face. To add to this convention we also used a long knife as the weapon of choice as is the same in most horror/slasher films. However to develop this role we have a turnover where the character (Adam) following all the killer conventions turns out to be the victim which contradicts the normal convention of the murderer. A convention we did follow from horror films was that in films such as Scream and Halloween all the victims are determined to escape and try and stay alive as long as we can and we wanted Liv to do the same thing.

Another convention we challenged is the filming aspect which provokes the audience to wonder how much the characters themselves know of the situation. Using a high angle shot showing Liv with Adam behind her we were able to make the audience think that perhaps Liv was aware of the 'killer' being behind her as her eyes dash from left to right while she has a serious expression on her face. This challenges the normal convention involving a killer to victim situation. In films such as 'Halloween' and 'American Physco' the victims are usually completely helpless, especially when they're woman. But to make our film more individual we instead had the woman victim as a dominant character which will contradict to most horror/slasher films.

Our choice of setting, lighting and sound however were common to the normal horror/thriller convention but we found this to have the most positive effect on our finished product. We used a typical suburban house to film in. We chose this because it can help to show the victims situation and establish her quickly as a normal person. It was also chosen in reference to the 'Scream' movie as the in the first scene of 'Scream' there's the death of a typical high school girl home alone in a suburban style house. We wanted to encapsulate a similar to add to Livs characters innocence. We shot our film during the day which we later on went to regret as it ruined some of the suspense we had hoped to create and next time we film we will remember this and aim to not make the same mistake again. However we did edit the film and heightened the contrast and changed the colour scheme to give it a more dark and eery feel. It would have been a lot easier to have just filmed at night however. The dark effects we gave our film follow most standard conventions of horror films seeing as the dark adds to mystery and suspense. We decided to not use all to much sound in our film and it's mostly silent apart from Liv speaking at the beginning and then the gunshot later on. This is different to most horror film conventions as you'll notice in slasher films there's usually the use of dramatic music to add to the suspense. We thought though that dramatic music however would not suit our film and that in order to make it as eery as possible it was best kept quiet. We also had the use of Livs footsteps at the end to add to a more eery effect.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our film we did not use any specific representation of a particular social group. For Livs character is relatively similar to Mrs Smiths from the motion picture "Mr & Mrs Smith". This is because much like Livs role Mrs Smith has in a sense an alter ego where during the day she is a stay at home wife and very middle class but at night she's this super assassin. Livs character follows a personality of the same nature. We first see her on the phone in her living room. She is well spoken and we the layout of the room and size of tv indicates that the house is one belonging to a middle class family. So at this stage she is representing a typical blonde girl living somewhere in the suburbs. However much like Mrs Smiths role she changes and becomes the dominant role. She breaks the convention she stood for before and now no longer represents the social group she did before.

Adams role doesn't represent any social group in particular but he does break the convention of your typical killer by being outsmarted by his victim. Oli's character however from what we see of him does represent a social group. He is dressed in a tracksuit complete with hoody. He also stands baring a gun. So we as the audience decode this and relate him to being perhaps as a gang member. His character you could compare to Sam from Kidulthood. They both have the same dress-sense and we get an aggressive feel from Oli from the way he walks and how he takes the safety lock off his gun. Overall our film is more representative of an exploration of genre than a representation of any social groups. This is something we did talk about and next time filming we hope to establish more of a clearer different between character social groups.

What kind of media institution would distribute your media product and why?

Icon would be the most important for us to distribute our film to. Distribute films in the UK and was founded in 1990 by Mel Gibson so he could originally fund his film 'Hamlet'. They fund most of their own and developing and packaging. Icon have produced many successful british films such as 'What a Wonderful Afterlife', 'Black Sheep' and 'Looking For Eric'. They would be a good distributor for us because as well as blockbusters they also help with the slightly less recognizable films.

Who would be the audience of your media product?

Our target audiences would range from ages 15 - 30. This is because our film is a Thriller and this genre seems to be popular with young adults and the older crowd as both audiences will get something from the movie whether is be the mystery and twist or the suspense and action. I find that this age range is ideal and these are the years people tend to buy more DVD's and spend more visits to the cinema. Also it makes us confident that when doing the questionnaire we learnt that 9 out of 10 people are a fan of the Thriller genre which bodes well for the success of our film. Our film will no doubt attract more of a male audience than woman but having the 'powerful female' as a character will hopefully bring in more of the female movie fans. However we do feature the whole 'buns and guns' idea so this will drag more boyish audiences. A reason for saying that we're expecting audiences to come in from 15 onwards is because of the rating. This is because some of the ideas shown in our film we believe not to be appropriate for younger audiences.

How did you attract/address your audience?

As a group we are all fans of the Thriller genre which of corse was a great help when making the film and made the task all the more enjoyable. Because we are all love the genre we made sure that our film was something we would all actually want to watch. To keep viewers interested and maybe even want to know what happens next we decided to add a fatal twist and leave the film as a cliffhanger. We thought we'd set the scene with some editing work. We heightened the contrast of our film and tinted it slightly blue. This was to make it unique and give it a certain cold feel. We hoped that this would make it stand out and appeal to a wider audience.

What have you learn about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

This was the first official project I had ever done. I'd made other shorter films before but that was mostly for fun as it is a hobby of mine. I would have to say I enjoyed both filming and editing the same. I learnt that the process that goes into filming in much more complex than one might think. It's interesting how two minutes of film can actually mean working on set for 5 hours or more! While filming I learnt that the little things do make a big difference. The whole feel of a clip can be altered by the angle the camera is at, the lighting, background noise or whether the camera is on a tripod or not. It was great fun playing around with all these settings while filming. However I learnt that it is also easy to get frustrated on set as you can be working for hours and not get the clip you wanted although I think that is a learning curve that becomes easier with experience. Also I learnt that the tripod is a must have while filming as it makes a big difference. For the next time filming I think as a group we should plan more in advance because it will make the filming go a lot more smoothly. The storyboards were very useful when filming but it's still my belief we didn't plan nearly enough. After recording we used Final Cut on the computers to edit the film. The editing side was fun and very rewarding. When you have a few clips that all run together smoothly you feel great. Hours must be spent on the editing however which isn't a problem for me at all but I noticed other groups becoming frustrated as you have to apply yourself to the project and sit down for a long time. Other that Final Cut we used an independent software for the gun noise and to edit the colouring. I had not used the program before so it took a while to get the hang of but once you're confident enough it's not to complex to use and you can play around with it and get some remarkable results in your film.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

From the beginning I knew that my group being made of the people it was that our films would always have some sort of a bizarre feel to them and you can see that in our preliminary. I believe that the preliminary task was very important as we learnt about the use of camera angles and how it's important that the settings and costumes in all clips are the same as not to look unprofessional. Our group has always been interested in camera angle and the effects they give so we explored those frequently when filming our preliminary and we used our favorites in 'Lure'. I believe that filming and the processes involved is a skill that you can only get better at. It was important to have a practice film before making 'Lure' but I think that my filming methods and editing skills can only improve the more work I do.

Costumes

Adam
We have Adam in a completely black costume. It coveres his whole body including his face. This creates an element of fear into the already bleak atmosphere. When you cover someones face then you cannot see their expression and thus making their emotion unknown. This can appear as idimitating as you cannot engage properly with them. The masked face is a common feature in a horror/thriller films to create a sense of mystery. This is what we were trying to do with Adam. It was interesting however to play with idea as the supposed killer ends up being the defeated which changes things. It keeps the mystery of who this man but it removes the fear as the masked man has been murdered. We took our inspiration for this costume from Scream.



Liv
For Liv at the beginning of our film we have her in a cosy pink top. This is to show her as cute and vulnerable which conforms with most female horror film victims. It also helped that Liv is blonde which also conforms with the classic 'slasher' victim. We have her in this outfit to perswade the audience to believe she is helpless and innocent. It makes her character appear sweetly niave. However after she fires the gunshot we have her in a black hoodie and leather jacket. This is an idea from the film Domino starring Keira Knightly as an assasin. These clothes show her to be dominant and strong but also mysterious, especially now the audience is left wandering why she had a gun and how she managed to escpape her murder.