Character Introduction

We took a long time deciding on how the character should look to fit in with the rest of the movie. We thought that he needed some sort of protective clothing on so we went with the classic white overall look. We also gave him a face mask, this was because in the film he doesn't know whether the virus is airborne or not so it tells the veiwer that not that much is known about what has happened to the people.

Evaluation question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the final product?
Here is a link to our preliminary video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCQAbmzz9jo
While filming this we got a feel for who would be best for which role, the video was very amateur and this why we swapped the roles when filming the actual film. Although we got a variety of shots and some dialogue the film is obviously a first attempt and just shows us getting to grips with whats going on.

Comparisons between the two
As you can see from this picture the text is very large and takes up most of the shot, when editing the actual film we obviously had to change this. I was shot in the prelim talking and we felt that I was the strongest actor so I was chose to be the survivor in the opening.

We also put different effects on to the actual picture, when making the film we wanted to give it a dark, grim,  feel. That is why we put a darker effect on it, we learnt how to put different effects on clips after editing the actual prelim video. As you can see from the two photos below the is a contrast in the lighting between the two shots as the prelim shot is quite bright with nothing changed and the second shot has been darkened and the contrast has been changed.


We also used different shots when showing our
main character  We used close ups at a high angle when shooting the prelim. However we felt this look wasn't right for our film. We didn't want the character to be the sole focus of the shot, that is why we showed the deserted hills in the background to show how far the traveler has come from.


Not only is there massive differences between the prelim and the final cut there were also different drafts that we made when trying to get to the final piece  All of this helped us to get the right effects we wanted for our video and it taught us a lot editing these videos. Here is a link to our first draft http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERuvfa1nhlY and our final cut http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz34xipwMkY

Evaluation question 6: What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this film?

 

For this task I have had to use many different forms of technology to help with the making of the film. The internet has played a major part in the research part of the task. I googled different film openings and music to see how our film should look and what sort of music would sound best for the background. Once finished we also uploaded our video so that anyone could watch it and also so that we could get some feedaback from people online. We recieved some positive comments on some of our draft videos and also got some likes as well. As well as Google and Youtube we obviously also used Blogger. We made this blog to keep everyone updated on the film making process putting up clips, photos and other interesting details to keep it entertaining. What I learnt from doing this was hwo to upload videos to Youtube and also how to link different websites to blogs and other places on the internet.

 

 

 To film the actual video itself we used a Canon MD 235 video camera. The camera was quite high quality for an amature film and we could get many different shots and angles while filming. It also recorded sound very well so when we were filming our commentary it gave it a very proffesional feel. To keep the camera steady while filming we used Velbon DV 7000 tripod, this worked perfectly and stop the camera from gittering or moving a round. What I learnt from this process was how to use the camera and tripod together and also how to access different shots and angle.

 

To edit the actual video itself we used the programme Adobe Premier 2.0. We all had a go at editing so that we got used to the programme, as you can see from this screen grab we had to cut the film into sections. Once done we had to take out the clips we didn't want, add sound, credits and also external clips such as the static we used. After this was done we had to render it so that it all ran smoothly. Once finished we felt that it gave the desired effect and the film was up to the standard that we wanted.

 

 

 

 

 

Evaluation question 4: Who would be the target audience for your film and why?

This is Jordan Ali he is 17 he is a teenage boy who lives in the center of Burnley and goes to Thomas Whitham sixth form. He is quite sporty and is very much into films. His favorite in particular being I am Legend.

Due to the facts that he is a young male who has previously watched Zombie films he is a key member of our target audience. If you look at my previous post on target audiences he must be over the age of 15 as the film will include violence and blood/gore. He not only likes films but also TV shows his favorites being The Big Bang Theory and How I met your Mother, so because of this we would advertise for our film on E4 at times when these show are on. Jordan also spends alot of time on Facebook and Twitter so we would get different advertising banners on these sites to appeal to him as well.

Evaluation question 2: How does your film represent particular social groups?
To do this I am going to pick out the main character from our film, I am then going to compare him to someone of a similar age from a similar film. The character I have chose to compare our survivor to is Columbus OHIO from the movie Zombieland.

The Survivor-

The main character is not given a name in our film so I am going to refer to him as the survivor. He appears to be the sole survivor from this Zombie Apocalypse as he is walking through the deserted fields alone. He obviously knows that some infection has broke out and that is why he is dressed in his protective white overalls and face mask to try and stop him getting the disease. He is also prepared for different scenarios as he is carrying a backpack full of his belongings so he can make a quick getaway from any situation. He is a young character which is breaking the stereotype of the usual zombie film as their main characters are usually older than him. The survivor is in his late teens which means he has done very well to out survive more experience people. He also must have a very strong will for someone his age to survive all this time on his own, without his parents or any friends. This again differs from the usual stereotype of teenagers in films who are very dependent on the people  around them and can't usually do everyday tasks without the help of their mum or dad.



Columbus OHIO-

Columbus is a very unlikely survivor from the zombie apocalypse, he has a lot of different phobias and states the only reason he survived is because of his list of rules. He starts of as the only survivor but eventually meets a group of friends and then relies on them heavily which is very different to the Survivor. He is the classic 'nerdy' teenager which is the character that Jesse Eisenberg usually plays. The character is like this because Zombieland is a comedy as well as a zombie film unlike our film Immunity. The character from our film is a lot more serious and this is due to the differences in the two films. I feel that Zombieland's representation of the young adult character is probably more realistic than ours because of his realiance on older characters and the how he is a lot more twitchy and nervous unlike our lone survivor who must cope on his own throughout. However because of this our film gives a much more positive representation of youth as he is a strong young male who can live on his own even in these very difficult situations.

Evaluation question 3: What kind of media institute would distribute your film and why?
Our film would be a small budget British film, so obviously a big american company like Warner Bros or Universal Studios would not distribute it. Because of this I decided to look at some of the British production companies to see what they made and if our film would fit in with some of their previous films.

Big Talk Productions-

Located in London and established in 1995, Big Talk Productions is best known for its films Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead. It is also known for British sitcoms Spaced and Free Agents. Through this company Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Dylan Moran and Bill Bailey have risen to stardom. This company would be ideal for our film after making Shaun of the Dead, even though this is a comedy film it is a classic zombie film and we looked at this throughout our research process. Big Talk put a lot of faith in this film and it had a budget of five million pounds, the faith paid of however and it made thirty million at the box office. They also distributed the film Attack the Block, this is another film that uses a mixture of comedy and horror. Similarly it uses special effects to create the aliens in the film, we would be able to use these techniques in our film when creating the zombies. As you can see from the trailer, it is an all British cast which is the same as what our film would be. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3tOFejxPH0

DNA Films-

Formed in 1992, DNA films is one of the most successful British film companies. Probably best know for 28 Days Later, DNA would be perfect for our film as the two would be quite similar  However they do not just make small budget films one of their latest projects Dredd had a budget of forty five million. Because of 28 Days Later this company would have experience in the making of zombie films and could be a good choice for our film.

HEYDAY Films-

Heyday films was formed in 1997 and is another London based company. Distributors of the Harry Potter series they were also involved in I am Legend. This means that they are no strangers to special effects and would be very experienced in making high budget franchises. I am Legend is another of the films we researched and our film has some similarities with it. Because they have worked on such big franchises they would be able to get our film into a lot of high end cinema chains and they still work on small budget films so they would still have an interest even though we don't have the budget of some of their other films.  

Vertigo Films-

Vertigo Films has worked with such actors as Tom Hardy, Danny Dyer and Tamer Hassan. Best know for its rough and ready British films like The Football Factory, The Business and Bronson Vertigo Films specializes in small budget British pictures. Here is a classic example of one of their films http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvQqETLU2eU As you can see there is a lot of big groups that go into mass brawls, we could use this sort of experience when creating the hordes of zombies that would be needed in the film. Vertigo also put faith in young directors such as Nick Love this means they would trust in our group even though we lack experience. 

Warp Films-

Warp Films are another company that have a lot of experience in low budget British films that use a lot of
violence. This is England, Dead Mans Shoes and Donkey Punch all use an all British cast and all of the films include a lot of violent aspects. However they don't just concentrate on the violence they also have a strong morale story. This is England has won numerous awards for its story, and because of this I feel Warp Films would be interested in our film because of the strong story line. 

After researching these companies I feel that Big Talk would be the best company for us, as they are interested in small budget films and put faith in unknown actors. Also they have a lot of experience in the horror and zombie film genre this would help us out a lot when we are making the film itself. 

Evaluation question 1: In what ways does your film use, develop or challenge forms of real media products?
Our film genre is a post apocalyptic horror, usually in this sort of genre there is a realism to it. What I mean by this is that even though the world is over run by zombies (implausible) in the back the viewers mind they're believing that this could actually happen.

Comparison between our film and a real film 28 Days Later

1.Both films use a simple plain white font for their opening credits, although 28 Days Later decides to start them later into the actual film in contrast with our film that starts straight away. The way in which the titles fade in and out slowly goes with the way in which the film opens, we made the opening gradually get more intense to add to the suspense of the film.
2.Both scenes use real life riot footage, this gives it that realism effect. These scenes are used in both clips to show what happened before this disaster has happened, they are not the main part of the films however they are just used to set the scene.
3.The next shot of our film shows the evacuated town center, 28 Days Later also shows an empty city however they have decided to introduce they're main character slightly earlier on. He has just woken up from a coma and because of this he has no idea of what has gone on. This is a very original idea from the director Danny Boyle and I have not seen this in any of the zombie/apocalyptic films that I have watched as research.
4.We then show a car that has been opened and left in an abandoned car park, this is to show that people have had to escape and leave everything behind (even their cars). The next shot from 28 Days Later shows their character walking through an abandoned city center  both shots are used to highlight the fact that all the people have disappeared.
5.For our next shot we showed the back of a pub that had had its back fence smashed down and had been broken into. We did this to give the impression someone or something had broken into get to the people inside. In contrast to this 28 Days Later showed a long shot of London with no people in it, obviously we couldn't do something on the same scale as this as we did not have the resources. The closet we could get to shot like that is by getting up in the early hours which is what we did in shot three.
6.In 28 Days Later the next shot shows the character pick up a news paper with the headline 'EVACUATION' this confirms what we first thought, and shows that London has been evacuated. For our next clip we showed a dog slowly walk past some fencing. We used the dog to show that even though the people had gone animals were still there. We tried to suggest the dog was savaging for food, maybe even people. This would suggest the animals had gone rabid, it would give the impression wild animals were romaing around the empty town like in this I am Legend clip
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOjOoICCRGI
7.In our opening we are now introduced to the main character, slowly walking up in the distance a man in white overalls appears coming over the hills. This is very much like the previous 28 Days Later shots of the lone character walking through the city. Straight away we know this person is going to be important to the film as he is center focus and he is walking through the hills alone.
8.In the next shot our character gets closer to the camera, again confirming he is going to be the main character by the amount of shot time he is getting and that he is in the center of the frame. He is in white overalls and a face mask to suggest he is trying to protect himself from some sort of virus. This means he knows what has happened, unlike the character in 28 Days Later who has no clue what has gone because of the coma. This is why he walks into the deserted church, which unbeknownst to him is filled with corpses.
9. Our final shot shows the title of the film, again in simple block writing however this time it is written in large red font instead. We did this to show the veiwer how important the name of the film was, and that it must be related in some way to our main character. 28 Days Later does not do this and carries on with the film showing their character walking into the church.

I think that as you can tell from this our film is quite similar to 28 Days Later so it does go along with the classic post apocalypse film conventions, however we have differences and individual selling points which would make our target audience want to come and see the film. 

Storyboard
While planning our film we decided to do a story board so that we would know where to film and what equipment we needed so that we didn't waste time. After making this story board we took photos of each panel and put them together on Adobe Premier 2.0 and made them into a short animation.We followed the story board perfectly and it helped us out a lot while we were filming the opening. To show how well the story board worked we put the sound track from the film onto the animation and it synced in very well and gave it the look of a short film in itself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73xgwo-PNwE

Evaluation question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?
To find out what people thought of our film we put on a public screening at our college, we invited pupils from Media and Film studies classes to come and watch and tell us what they thought. The feedback was very positive, especially from our target audience which is teenage males. This is very positive and backs up the previous research we did when looking in to who our target audience should be. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co30MSYRzBI

Target Audience
The target audience for a post apocalyptic film is generally men, this is due to the fact that it will contain violence and a lot of blood and gore. Steryotypically this is more to a mans taste than a womans and that is why men will be our target audience. We researched this by looking into some of the same genre films and seeing which kind of people had watched them. When we asked people in the class it was mostly just males that had watched or enjoyed films such as 28 Days Later and Shaun of the Dead. The target age for the film would have to be tailored around the age certificate of the film. We would say that our film would be a 15 certifcate this is because it would contain strong violence and language however there would not be sexual scenes and drug use thus keeping it from being an 18. Because of this we would set the age range at between 16 and 30.

Story

While editing the footage we brainstormed to come with what the actually story for the film would be. We settled on a lone traveler going through these deserted towns trying to find other living contact, whilst battling zombies. There would be some kind of secret to why he has survived and what has happened to the rest of the human race and this would be revealed throughout the film. We came up with the name of 'Immunity' for the film as he has some kind of immunity to this disease. We took ideas from The Road, 28 days later and I am Legend when coming up with ideas for shooting the film, we particularly liked the news scenes from 28 days later and I am Legend and decided to use a similar sort of shot in our opening.

Music

We weren't sure on what kind of music to use on the film and we tried some different generic suspense music on the start to see how it sounded. We felt that for the opening it wasn't right so while driving round to shoot the clips Robbie put some Slipknot on. While listening to the album Prelude 3.0 came on and Kyle suggested that this would sound good for the film. We all listened and decided it sounded right. We will contact Slipknot to see if we can use the track if not we will edit it or find a cover which we can use.

Filming
We went to some of the locations we got shots from and began to film them for our opening. We went to the area with the hills backdrop and to the run down pub, Robbie took photos of us doing this.

Me and Cameron discussed how we were going to shoot from the trees, we took two panning shots one going from left to right and the reverse.

 Cameron could set up the camera very quickly because of the prelim exercise we had done earlier     on, we used the tripod so we could keep the shot steady.

We found this building and decided to get a shot because we thought it could work in a similar way to the car dealership. We got a panning shot of it so we could get the old dead trees in the background.

We then moved onto the pub where we set up the camera in the front so we could get a shot of the broken window, we would then go round to the back where we could shoot from there to.

While filming the pub we decide to take some of the old pieces of wood from round the corner and take them round the back to add to the background. 

Possible shots

Before filming we decided we need to have a look round the town and surrounding areas to see which parts looked like they had been hit by an an apocalypse. We did this so we did not waste time when we had all the equipment ready going to areas that would not fit in with the rest of the shots. We took a few photos and we thought these were the best ones


Shot 1-Abandoned Car dealership

We thought this shot looked right with it being boarded up it shows that it has been abandoned for quite some time, also all the cars have gone from the lot. In the opening it could be shown as some kind of fortress for survivors as it is quite large and looks protected with all of the wood around it.


Shot 2 Run down pub (Behind)

This shot shows the back off the pub and it has been smashed in, it also shows a lot of rubbish around that place so it looks like someone has been there recently. I think this shot could work as somewhere that has been destroyed by the zombies as they break in and try to find food. 

Shot 3-Run down pub (front)- 

This shot is from the same pub but from a different position, I think we could pan round the building and show it all from different angles. I think the smashed window looks very good for the movie as again it looks like something has tried to break in. 

Shot 4-Hills background

We thought this shot of the hills looked quite creepy and it could go into the film with a dark effect on it.  

Research 2

After discussion we decided to go with the zombie apocalypse film as we felt we could make it look more realistic than the rest of the ideas. After this I decided to do a bit of research into some films of the same genre.

Day of the Dead

I felt that the titles shown in this didn't go with what they were filming at all, using a bright red on in contrast of the colors in the background looked very out of place. However the filming itself worked very well, moving the camera faster and slower with the added suspense music on the background showed us straightaway that the film was going to be a thriller. The quick changes in between clips and enhanced sounds of things like flies definitely added that bit of fear for the viewer.

I Am Legend

The I am Legend opening is a lot more slower paced than the previous clip. It starts off with a news reported asking a scientist about a new miracle cure. It is obvious that this is a flashback and something has gone wrong with the cure just from knowing what kind of genre it is and trailers watched previously. I think an opening like this definitely works better than going straight into the action as it makes the viewer want to know whats gone wrong and makes it a little more interesting.


28 Days Later
This film opened in the same way as I Am Legend by showing a news style TV programme,  however this one is just a compilation of riots and violence. As the camera zooms out from the television it shows a chimp strapped down being shown to watch this broadcast. As this is going on some masked intruders have broken into the laboratory while this is going on. I like the style in which this is filmed as it starts out with some action but it gives nothing away so early on in the film.

Shaun of the Dead

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZmjsWAfn14

Although this is a parody it still has the classic aspects of an apocalyptic zombie film. As it opens it shows regular people doing the mundane things in life and making them look as if they are already zombies. When the mane character opens it shows him moaning and in the shadows but it turns out hes just got up and hes yawning. The music is upbeat but still has a creepy feel to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uUHamXmUAI

Zombieland
This film is much like Shaun of the dead in that it is a parody of the zombie film genre however its opening is very different. Straight away you get into the film as a woman smashes through a car window. It shows a variety of different professions getting attacked by zombies. I think the rock track on the background gets the viewer into the film straightaway and you know its going to be an action packed watch

First ideas-
As a group we brainstormed to come up with some peliminary ideas for our film opening here were our best ones-

• A group of teenagers find a mysterious bag full money that has been left in the woods by a group of gangsters after a robbery. The opening would show the lead actor bring the bag into his school and show it off to his friends. The next sequence would show how the gangsters want the bag back and what they are willing to do to get it. This would be an action comedy.
• Another idea was to show how a homeless man went from being a multi-millionaire to what he is now. It would mostly be shot in flashbacks to show the big houses and fancy cars he used to own. After that we would show the main character in casinos and bookies to show he lost his fortune. 
• Our next idea was a parent going missing in the supermarket (thought to be kidnapped) and leaving their child alone. This would break the stereotypes of the normal genre and would be the opposite to a film like Taken. It would be a tear jerking thriller that followed the child as they tried to find their missing parent. 
• This idea was about role reversal, it would show a group of old people bullying a group of hooded teens by throwing things about them and shouting abuse. It would also show some of the elderly people vandalizing public property by spraying it with graffiti. This would be a parody of the films like Kidulthood and Adulthood. 
• Our final idea was that of an apocalypse, leaving a sole survivor going with the stereotypes of I am Legend and 28 days later. We would film in the early hours of the morning to give the effect that everyone has disappeared.

We would continue brainstorming and decide which idea is the most feasible with the resources we had. 

Group Roles
As a group we had to decide who was going to do what for the film, Cameron had previously done some editing and on the preliminary excise he stood out as being the best man for the job. Robbie worked the best when using the camera so he was given the role of camera man, I gave the most instructions so I chose to be director and Kyle had a passion to act in the film so he was chose to be our star.

• Calum Crummett-Director
• Cameron Fairburn-Editor 
• Robbie Coppack-Cameraman
• Kyle Bennett-Actor 

Research 1

For the first part of my research I was going to look into what previous media students had done, and look at the flaws and find features that I liked so that I could try to incorporate these into my own opening. To do this I went to http://ocrmediastudies.weebly.com/coursework-with-levels.html where there was a variety of different clips that I could watch.

Roses are Red
The first opening I watched was called 'Roses are Red', I thought that it was a very interesting way to do the titles and I found it quite entertaining. The technique they used was to write the cast, directors, editors names etc. on different everyday items and shot these as a young girl got ready around them. As you can see on the

image below, one of the actors names is shown on a cup of tea the actress is about to drink. I thought this was a very interesting way to shoot the titles. I though this opening was just about the titles (which they did well), but they did also show us who the star was going to be and gave a hint that the genre was going to be a romantic teen film.



Gemini

The next opening I watched was 'Gemini', I thought this opening was very poor. It did not run cleanly through the clips and in one shot the actress was cut off before she had finished her line. Not only that but it was hard to believe as the news reporter in the clip looked around seventeen as did the police officer. This showed a lack of effort and would make a viewer struggle to get into the film. There titles (right) were very good however and you could tell that a lot of work and editing had gone into them. These gave the film a professional look and I felt these were definitely the best part of the film. After watching this
film I would need to make sure that my opening ran through cleanly and this would all be down to the editing.


A School's Nightmare
I thought this clip was very entertaining, you could tell from this two minute opening that genre of the film was horror. They used many different editing effects so that you could get the sense of movement. As you can see from the photo they used a cross hatch effect on a long shot to show a young child walking across a field. This worked well as instead of wasting thirty seconds showing him walking they only used around ten as he jumped from position to position. The studio graphics shown at the start of the film also worked very well as there was a lot of movement and that differed from most of the other clips. After watching this clip I would definitely want to watch the rest of the film to see what happened in the story.

The Edge
This clip was by far the best I have seen, although it ran a lot longer than the two minutes it was a lot more hooking than the rest. The graphics that went into the opening looked as though they were from a real film, they came in and out of the shots throughout the film. The music in the background made up for the fact there was no dialogue and it added to the suspense of the film. Point of view shots were used throughout as well, they were used as the boy was rollerblading around the car park. The tracking shots of him also added to the chase scene.


After this I also had a look into my own colleges previous videos, after watching most of them I thought the best one was definitely 'The LA Waltz', the voiceover and soundtrack worked very well and it was one of the only gangster genre openings that I have seen so that gave the film something a little bit different http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igzvbeFBohc

The preliminary exercise

Our group was set a short preliminary exercise to get us used to using the different camera equipment and also so that we could try our hand at editing some film footage. Within our group we shared the roles of actor, editor and cameraman so that we could each get used to the different aspects. We used different shots and angles to film myself walking down a college corridor, opening the door, sitting down and then having a short conversation with another member of the group. In the clip we used a mid long shot to show the character walking down the hall, then a close up as he opens the door. As he sits downs to have a conversation we used a mid close up to show him talk and then switch to an over the shoulder shot to hear the reply. As it was our first attempt it took quite a few takes and a bit of editing to make shots come together and look right, after it was finished we were left with this sixteen second clip.

The Brief

The the brief for my AS foundation Media course was to create a two minute film opening including credits, for a new original feature film. Throughout the exercise I will be posting updates on my blog to tell everyone what I am doing with the film and to also keep everyone updated. The posts will include videos, pictures, diaries and much more to keep it interesting and exciting.