Film Classification

As our 2 minute opening is for a teen horror movie, we needed to be familiar with film classification, especially a 15' certified film. To get this information I visited the British Board of Film Classification website (http://www.bbfc.co.uk/) and went onto 15'. This website showed the guildlines about a certified 15' film and what is and isnt allowed to be included in the film. This is vital to know as everthing included in our opening should be of a 15' certificate and nothing more or else there is a risk we will get marked down.

Suitable only for 15 years and over -

No one younger than 15 must see a '15' film in the cinema.

No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a '15' rated video work.

Discrimination-

The work as a whole must not endorce discriminatory language or behaviour.

Drugs-

Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse.

The misuse of easily accessible ad highly dangerous subatances (for example, aerosoles or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.

Horror-

Strong threat and menace are permitted unless stadistic and sexualised.

Imitable behaviour-

Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Language-

There may be frequent use of strong language (for example, 'fuck'). The strongest terms (for example, 'cunt') may be acceptable in justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

Nudity-

Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in non-sexual or educational context.

Sex-

Sexually activity may be portrayed but without strong detail. There may be verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the stringest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless jusified by context. Works whos primary purpose is sexual arousel or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.

Theme-

No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

Violence-

Violence may be strong but shoukld not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence in also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.

Opening Credits

Halloween

Production Companies (A Compass International Pictures Release, Moustapha Akkad Presents)
Main Actor (Donald Pleasence)
Director (John Carpenter)
Title (Halloween)
Production (Debra Hill)
Main Actors/Actresses (Jamie Lee Curtis, Nancy Loomis, P J Soles)
Other Actors (Charles Cyphers, Kyle Richards, Brian Andrews)
Screenplay (John Carpenter, Debra Hill)
Director of Photography (Dean Cundey)
Film Editors (Tommy Wallace, Charles Bornstein)
Music (John Carpenter)
Associate Producer (Kool Lusby)
Production Manager (Don Behrns)
Production Designer (Tommy Wallace)
Executive Producer (Irwin Yablans)
Producer (Debra Hill)
Director (John Carpenter)
Location (Haddonfield, Illinois)
Setting (Halloween Night 1963)

Panic Room

Production Companies (Columbia, Columbia Pictures, Hofflund/Polone Production, Indelible Picture)Main Actors/Actresses (Jodie Foster, Forest Whitaker, Dwight Yoakam, Jared Leto)
Title (Panic Room)
Other Actors (Kristen Stewart, Ann Magnuson, Ian Buchanan, Patrick Bauchau, Paul Schulze)
Casting (Laray Mayfeild)
Costume Designer (Michael Kaplan)
Music (Howard Shore)
Film Editors (James Haygood, Angus Wall)
Production Designer (Arthur Max)
Directors of Photography (Conrad W. Hall, Darius Khondji)
Producers (Gavin Polone, Judy Hofflund, David Koepp, Cean Chaffin)
Written By (David Keopp)
Director (David Fincher)

Mimic

Production Companies (Dimension Films, Guillermo Del Toro)
Main Actor/Actresses (Mira Sorvino, Jeremy Northam, Josh Brolin, Giancarlo Giannini, Charles S. Dutton)
Title (Mimic)
Other Actors (Alexander Goodwin, Alix Koromzay, F Murray Abraham)
Casting (Billy Hopkins, Suzanne Smith, Kerry Barden)
Costume Designer (Marie-Sylvie Deveau)
Creature Design (Rob Bottin, Tyruben Ellingson)
Creatures Created By (Rick Lazzarini, The Character Shop)
Visual Effects Supervisor (Brian M. Jennings)
Music (Marco Beltrami)
Editor (Patrick Lussier)
Production Designer (Carol Spier)
Director of Photography (Dan Lausten D.F.F)
Co-Producers (Scott Shiffman, Michael Zoumas)
Co-Producers (Cary Granat, Richard Potter, Andrew Rona)
Co-Executive Producers (Stuart Cornfield, Harvey Weinstein)
Executive Producer (Michael Phillips)
Producers (Bob Weinstein, B.J. Rack, Ole Bornedal)
History (Based on the short story 'mimic' by Donald A. Wollheim)
Screenplay (Matthew Robbins, Guillermo Del Toro)
Director (Guillermo Del Toro)

By watching the openings of these three films and viewing the credits, I have learnt many new things which will help me and my group when doing our owm credits for our opening. I have learnt that, the production companies are always showed at the very begginning, the credits can be shown on top of the images or on a blank screen and finally the title can be shown at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of the credits.

18/11/10

Casting..
Today we narrowed our search for our main character. We ended up with three girls, Emilie, Shannon and Eloise. We then went through the advantages and disadvantages of each girl.

Emilie Hickford

Advantages: She is free most weekdays so we would have easy access to her. Also she loves to act and took drama at GCSE.

Disadvantages: She isnt free on weekends so if we needed her at that time we would have to arrange a time during the weekday. This would be a disadvantage as it might hold us back and delay time.

Eloise Hewitt

Advantages: She also, like Emilie loves to act whenever she can!

Disadvantages: She doesnt really have anyfree time so we would have to work our way around her and when she is free.



Shannon Slow

Advantages: Like our other two candidates, Shannon also enjoys acting. She also like Emilie, took drama as a GCSE.

Disadvantages: Shannon goes to college during the week, so we would have to do our work with her on the weekends which would be difficult as will have to arrange far ahead when we would be doing the acting with her.

After discussing and going through each of the candidates, we have decided that we aregoing to choose Emilie for our main actor.

17/11/10

In todays lesson, we took a few pictures of three different locations. The first few pictures are of my bedroom and house, the other pictures are off Taylor's bedroom and house, and the final set of pictures are Brodie's bedroom and house. We decide to take a range of photos so that we could go through the advantages and disadvantages of that location.

Harriet's bedroom and house/window:

Advantages: The advantages of the room is that it is quite spacey which would be helpful when filming as it wouldnt be too crowded. Also the room is decorated for an adolescent person therefore we wouldnt have to change much when filming.
The advntages of the house is that it is on quite a quite street and it will be easy to use a variety of camera anges and shots.

Disadvantages: Although it is decorated quite adolscent it may need a few things adding, for example a few posters and photos.
The disadvantages of this house is that it is attached to another house therefore we will have to be careful when filming that we film only this house and not inlcude shots of the other house

Taylor's bedroom and house/window:

Advantages: The advantages with this room is that it is the biggest room out of the three which would benefit us when filming as we would be able to move around easily. Also it is quite a sophisticated bedroom and would easily represent a teenagers bedroom.

Disadvantages: Although the room is suitable for a teenager it may also need a few props adding to make it more girly. For example, posters, photos etc.

Brodie's bedroom and house/window:

Advantages: It contains everything a teenage girl would have in their room, for example posters, calenders, photos etc. This will be ideal as we wouldnt need to add many props to complete our set.

Disadvantages: It is the smallest of all rooms therefore this would make it more difficult to film.

After looking and considering each bedroom, as a group we came to the conclusion that we are going to use Taylor's bedroom because we feel it would be the best as it is fairly close, a good size with lots of space and with the addition of a few props it could look like an ideal bedroom for a teenager aged 18.

15/11/10

During todays lesson we completed our storyboards. For the pre production stage we still need to complete the location and casting.

10/11/10

During todays lesson, we (my group) started our storyboards, we had to include the shot number, the camera angle and camera movement. We only managed to get around to doing 6 shots.

8/11/10

During todays lesson my group and I began our pre-production stage. The first task we completed was coming up with two completely different opening ideas.

3/11/10

During todays lesson we presented our idea and got the go ahead with our film.

Our idea was...

POSESSIVE

Its joanna's birthday and she and the girls organise a house party. A great opportunity to move on from her former boyfriend shes had enough off. An old house that hasnt been lived in for years seems like the perfect place. No one to interupt them.

The nght doesnt exactly start as planned, the fuse goes stopping the music and turning the lights off. Emilie, Joanna's superstitious best friend panics and deems that tonight was a bad idea. The others ignore her and continue to get ready. Little did they know Emilie was right, tonight was a bad idea!

As more people started to arrive to the party, others disappeared...

The girls unaware that they had joined a repulsive and twisted game, sparked by jealousy, have to fight for survival. Was Joanna celebrating the split of her and her boyfriend such a good idea?

1/11/10

In todays lesson we were meant to pitch our idea to the Chief Executive of Henton Horror Films however Taylor Wright wasn't here so we were unable to pitch our idea. So we went to the media room and made sure that our blogs were up to date.

20/10/20

In todays lesson my group and I continued working on ideas for a teen horror film. We came up with ideas for the cast, location and names.

18/10/10

During todays lesson we were first introduced to the pre production stage. The very first task that needs to be complete is to pitch an idea.

The pitch needs to be done by my whole group and we need to come up with an idea for a teen horror film. We will need to decide on a name and plot for the film, making sure that we make it original and never done before, including the name.

Our pitch needs to be presented to Chief Executive Officer of Henton Horror Films on the 1st Novemeber. He will either give us the go ahead to enter the pre-production or send us away to come up or edit an idea.

13/10/10

During todays lesson, my group uploaded our filming onto the Macs. Once all our filmimg was put onto the Macs, we began to edit the footage adding different transitions and credits. On the credits we had to include who the actorsn were who directed and edited the filming.

11/10/10

In todays lesson, my group and I began the filming for our preliminary task. We asked two students from our year to be the actors, Ryan Holmes and Thomas Graham. We collected a camera and tripod from the learning resource center and went and found an empty classroom. We began filming using our storyboards to make sure we got the correct camera angles and movements.  We also had to make sure that we had all the footage we needed so we could edit our priliminary task.

The Wrong Turn

The Wrong Turn is an American horror film that was released in 2003 and directed by Rob Schmit.


By watching the opening scene of this film I was able to detect the visual and audio effects which are used to enable the feeling of tension ans suspence for the audience.


The scene started with an establishing shot, showing an isolated location of a huge forest. The camera then switched to a tracking shot filming a movement of the whole forest. This shot lead into a birds eye view, getting faster as the camera reaches the characters. The Camera stops with a birds eye view of two young adults climbing a rock face. This angle highlights the danger of the location, the fact that they are halfway up a rock face with no body else around.

The director adds a false scare to the scene by making the girl slip from the rock face, she manages to regain her place and trys to continue climbing. This is added to the scene so that the audience feel slightly relieved because they think the panic is over however, this isnt always the case... The girl also screams in this part, and the boy replys, "who are you screaming for, there's nobody around for 50 miles." again reinforcing the fact that they are in a vunerable and isolated location.
Stereotypically, the boy reaches the top first as males are though to be 'better' at everything. As the boy reached his destination he wanders of and the girl shouts for his help and tells him to stop being a "dick" as he is ignoring her and is no where to be seen. This futher emphasises that the film is intended for teenage viewers as that kind of language is used and associated with teenagers.


Anticipation is created for the audience in this seen as the boy is still no where to be seen or heard. The camera uses low and high angles to really demonstrate that she is a a vunerable girl stranded alone. Suddenly there is a large thud as the boys body falls on the groud, blood drips from the body and lands on the girls face, typically conveying a commen convention for horror films, blood! The audience dont know who or how the boy has been killed which adds tension and makes the audience feel nervous.


Close ups of the knife cutting the rope, the boys bloody face and the girls foot slipping are all all used to portray imprtant parts of the scene. By adding these it makes the scene more dramatic as the audience focus on the shot.


The camera is hand held when the girl is running away (a typical chase scene). This jolts the camera and creates the feeling of danger, the unknown and panic. This is a common effect used in the filming of horror movies.


In the opening of 'The Wrong Turn' it uses a variety of audio effects 'Orchestral' music is played, which are lingering string instrument sounds which create quite a sinister atmosphere. The music tempo picks up as the girl is being chased. At dramatic parts of the opening, loud drums are played to represent key sections; for example, the view of the blood on the boys face.  


There are many enhanced sound effects throughout the opening. For example, the sound of the blood dripping, the knife cutting the rope, the girls heavy breathing when she runs and the harness being pulled upwards. Each of these effects create the feeling of panic and desperation.


Overall I believe 'The Wrong Turn' is a very effective opening to a horror film, It contains a great deal of audio and visual effects which are used to create suspense and tension!

06/10/10

At the start of the lesson we looked at an article from obsessedwithfilm.com, about a film discussing the opening of a film called The Shining.  

For the main part of the lesson we focussed on watching the opening scene of The Wrong Turn, 2003. Whilst the opening was playing we made notes about the use of the visual and audio elements to help create the feeling of tension and suspence.

04/04/10

During our lesson today, we discussed conventions of horror films in relation to narratives, characters, locations and iconography.

We watched the opening 5 minutes of Jeepers Creepers, Jeepers Creepers 2 and Dead Wood. These are all 15 certificate films that appeal to a teen audience.

From watching these horror film openings as a class we were able to identify different conventions such as isolated locations, teenage characters, false scares and threat.

History of the horror movies!

<div style="width:425px" id="__ss_5370391"><strong style="display:block;margin:12px 0 4px"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/harrietnash/the-history-of-horror-movies" title="The history of horror movies">The history of horror movies</a></strong><object id="__sse5370391" width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=thehistoryofhorrormovies-101006052852-phpapp01&stripped_title=the-history-of-horror-movies&userName=harrietnash" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><embed name="__sse5370391" src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=thehistoryofhorrormovies-101006052852-phpapp01&stripped_title=the-history-of-horror-movies&userName=harrietnash" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><div style="padding:5px 0 12px">View more <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/%22%3Epresentations%3C/a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/harrietnash%22%3Eharrietnash%3C/a%3E.%3C/div%3E%3C/div>

29/09/10

In todays lesson, as a class we discussed the concept of film genres, specifically looking at horror. We then looked at the conventions that we would expect in a horror film. We then quickly looked at the history of movies which would help us for our homework.

27/09/10

In todays lesson I was shown how to transport a file from the camcorders onto the Macs, this is extremely important as all the footage my group take will need to be uploaded onto the Mac so that I edit the footage to make it better. In this lesson my group was also given the freedom to go off and explore the camcorders, our group decided to go and practise our prelim task involving other students.

22/09/10

In this lesson my group and I worked on the Mac computers, we were shown a quick demonstration on how to use them and were allowed to edit a piece of footage given to us. This including switching different scenes around so that they flowed and made sense.

20/09/10

In todays lesson, I was shown how to operate the video cameras which also involved being shown how to create different camera movements and angles. In this lesson my group was also able to continue and finish of our storyboards for the Preliminary task.

15/09/10

In todays lesson I began to understand the concept of storyboarding. This then led me and my group to begin planning our storyboard for the priliminary task. On the storyboard, camera angles, camera movements and camera shots all needed to be included along with location and sound.

13/09/10

I have already completed several tasks for my Media Studies course. I firstly created and set up my blog account and then went on to set up a slideshare account which is valuable for later on in the course when I need to add powerpoints to my blog. I have also became familiar with the key words and language used in Media. I posted my first blog onto my account to check everything was working and also double checked that my email account was working as I need it throughout the course.

I have also learnt and became familiar with the camera angles, camera movements and camera shots which is vital in the course. I am now aware of the priliminary task I have to complete with a group of my choice. My groups contains the following people; Brodie Cameron and Taylor Wright.

My First Blog

This is the first blog added to my page.