Welcome...

Welcome to my blog, the posts you will find on this page are all part of the research and planning that lead up to the production of my final product, Red Christmas.

Final Cut

Evaluation- Question 1: conventions

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

In many ways our product challenges forms of conventions of the slasher genre. Our Final girl is the first victim. After the opening sequence the film will go on to kill of the rest of the choir girls (all of whom look like typical scream queens) one by one. Throughout the opening sequence sexual content and extreme violence is lacking, both of which are generally expected when viewing a slasher or horror film.
However in other ways our media product follows the typical conventions of a slasher film. Following Todarovs theory, it starts with a form of equilibrium as the killer is dressed up and in context with the season/ holiday of winter/ Christmas time.
In terms of cinematography our opening is fairly stereotypical of what would be expected in a slasher opening. The short shots and fast pace editing, that we used,also match common conventions.

Evaluation- Question 2: Social groups

How does your media product reflect particular social groups?

All of the actresses in our film are aged 16-17, we chose this age range on purpose- to match our primary audience. The killer is older, this to entice the secondary audience of 25+. All of our characters are from West Yorkshire, this means that the audience is narrowed down from national audience to a more localized one. However our opening does not contain much narrative, and also it is common that the slasher audience is fairly blase about the accent as the gore and violence is more important. 

Evaluation- Question 3: Distribution

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

The aim of distributers is to launch a film and then sustain a high position for the movie within the media world. Advertisement of films is the main incentive for people to buy cinema tickets and view a film, in order to achieve good advertisement, film companies are in high competetion to have their film distributed by one of the more famous distributing ccompanies. in order to gain knowledge about the types of films that are interesting the public at any given time, distributers alone spend roughly £300 million a year on builiding interest among audiences by marketing new releases, this itself is a highly competetive business. Due to this £300 million a year cost, many distirubuters are not willing to take risks when looking at films which do not use the southern English archetypes. The cost of marketing and film prints is so high which is the reason why many low budget indie producers struggle to find a distirubtiuon deal. This result in films not making it to the cinema and instead going straight to DVD, and therefore missing out on essential adveritisement. Hollywood dominates when it comes to the exhibition of films, this being another reason why the majority of UK films fail to get box office releases.

Digitalisation is changing the process in which films are distibutors. In order to save costs when researching the publics disired genre type, social net working sites such as twitter and facebook can be used. Both can be very useful for gaining knowledge before making a film and then recieving feedback about certain aspects of the finished product.

Red Christmas is going to be a micro budget indie film, for this reason famous distributers such as 20th century fox and dream works would not be interested as it does not fit into the category of a worldwide large budget film. This is aswell as the fact that we shall not be using an established stars, an expensive location or extreme special effects.

after researching film disributor companies i collected information on the top 10 Grossing Distributors 1995-2012; listed below

		Movies	Total Gross	Average Gross	Market Share
1	Warner Bros.	532	$29,135,050,869	$54,765,133	15.25%
2	Walt Disney Pictures	453	$27,024,974,288	$59,657,780	14.15%
3	Sony Pictures	534	$24,744,320,642	$46,337,679	12.96%
4	Paramount Pictures	352	$22,915,131,099	$65,099,804	12.00%
5	20th Century Fox	364	$21,288,127,358	$58,483,866	11.15%
6	Universal	338	$19,832,959,028	$58,677,394	10.38%
7	New Line	196	$7,407,184,271	$37,791,756	3.88%
8	Dreamworks SKG	77	$5,988,394,230	$77,771,354	3.14%
9	Miramax	377	$5,621,593,306	$14,911,388	2.94%
10	MGM	229	$5,059,893,917	$22,095,607	2.65%

Evaluation- Question 4: Audience

Who would be the audience for your media product and why?

Although our does not contain scenes of a sexual nature or extreme gore, it does have the killing scene which contains a small amount of violence. For these reasons we though a BBFC rating of 15 would be appropriate. Our primary audience is age 15- 25. As our characters are aged 16-18, those under 20 will be more attracted to the film. This age range is typical for that of a slasher genre film so they are the easiest to target. Our secondary audience is for people above 25, as our film contains the general principals of a slasher film- suspense and tension, targeting the older ages should not be too difficult. However the actual story line of our movie is more reflective on youth and a teenagers life, meaning those above 25 may not be able to relate to it as well as teenagers could.

Evaluation- Question 5: Audience

How did you attract/ address your audience?

Throughout our film we stuck to the common conventions of a slasher film, using attractive females for male gaze and the stereotypical final girl and scream queen. Sticking to these ideas, we thought that attracting an audience would come easier. We used social networking sites to both attract and address our audience. By publishing our teaser trailer and treatment to sites such as twitter and facebook, we were able to give the audience a taste of what was to come. The aim of this to keep them interested in the development leading up to the final product.

Evaluation- Question 6: Technologies

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

The main types of technology I have used are-

• Blogger
• Final cut pro
• Garage band
• Livetype
• YouTube
• IMDB
• Rotten Tomatoes
• Digital cameras
• Scribt

Blogger has acted as a sort of diary for throughout the media course, as well as being a source of information. It is wear we have posted all of our planning and research which has built up towards creating the final product. Although I have used 'blogging' like sites before, it was new to me to use them for creating a product like this, however the site itself i found was easy to use overall. As it is a form of social networking site, i was able to download an app for my phone (this was the case for a view of the technologies i used) and blog there which made it more accessible. Blogger was also useful to distribute our product

Final cut pro was the most necessary form of technology in terms of for the editing of the product. It is where we created the rough cuts, the teaser trailer, our idents, and then final product, as well as vodcasts for planning and research. Once you knew your way around final cut it was fairly straight forward to use.

We used garage band to create sound for things such as the teaser trailer, our idents and for the track for the final cut. It was easy to use, the main difficulty was creating a sound track that matched the video footage.

We used sites such as IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes to get information on films as well as critics and the publics opinions on different movies. Both sites are basic and therefore very easy to use.

We used sites such as Facebook and Twitter for distribution and to gain feedback. I am familiar to both sites so creating profiles and managing them was not difficult.

YouTube was where we uploaded our footage, it is in its own right a form of distribution. Anyone had access to watching our film and leaving comments/ liking or disliking to movie. So it was also a way of gaining audience feedback without costing anything.

Evaluation- Question 7: Progression

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

I feel like the main difference between the preliminary task and producing the final product is the planning and research that had to be done. The prelim was a 5 minute task that involved no planning or research. We were told which shots we must include and then had to come up with a 2 minute scenario in which the shots must be included. It did not require any editing, just simply to be exported and uploaded to Youtube.
However our final product required research into the genre including things such as shot type and typical characters. We also had to plan our filming specifying when we would be shooting, location and shot types. 

JW- Slasher history and Target audience

Music heavily influences the fear factor in slasher films, as it effectively increases the tension.

15-24 is the age range commonly targeted by slasher films, as it's considered the ages people are most interested in the features offered by slashers; explicit violence and sex. People of this age group can also be genre fans, and can be drawn in by intertextual references to other films. The secondary target audience includes both younger and older ages, including some in the 24-34 age range, as well as some aged 15 and below. But it's the 15-24 range that remains the most popular, making up around three quarters of the audience figures. Older adults are often useless authority figures, and a common character is a sheriff, usually the parent of one of the teen characters.

Halloween is an exception to Todorov's rule of equilibrium, as it ends with the state of disequalibrium maintained  with the sequel continuing immediately on from the first film.

The false scare partially demonstrates hybridity as it usually creates comedy by causing the audience to laugh. The cat scare is a common example of a false scare, as is the backwards walk.

20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. are both examples of high-budget production companies, while an indie company such as Warp Films is low-budgeted.

The final girl, a term created by Carol Clover in her book 'Men, Women and Chainsaws', that suggests that viewers initially share the perspective of the killer, before shifting to the final girl towards the end of the film.

In the 50's and 60's, horror cinema was either Gothic or creature-features, involving monsters and other villains. Universal produced films such as 'King Kong' and 'Godzilla'. Hammer studios made films revolving around characters such as 'Dracula' and 'Frankenstein's monster'.

The main characters were mature adults, usually upper-class. It was the switch to working and middle-class, and younger characters in later horror/slasher films that marked a great change in how the films worked. These older films often look more theatrical and stagey, whereas later films featured a greater use of more 'realistic' settings.

Although a couple of the earliest slasher films, 'Psycho' and 'Peeping Tom' came out in 1960, fears over the violence in them led to the major studios to not dare releasing any imitators. It took the success of 'Halloween' and others a decade later for the sub-genre to really get going.

Rough cut 1

Teaser trailer

Directing footage

Idents

Our group ident-

Individual Idents 

Hannah R-


Tilly D-


James W-

Assessing past coursework with class mates

the music

dialogue is good for exposition however as cast members are not neccessarily actors, it can be difficult to use it to achieve a a sense of realism

female gaze-  half naked

slow uptake from character with sound

over reliance on 2 different shots. questionable colour effects





white font on black background- trying to signify realism
booze sexx drugs- signify deathj as sinfull
shakey camara- to signify or conote drunkness
shot from behing tree- good framing with signifies someone is watching the drunk boy
weakness- violoance not on screen, no justification for elipsis. alot of digetic sound missing
effective splatter of blood on snow
good example of narrative enigma- nothing to say male or female
video effect used- CCTV: uses varied shot transitions and other effecys selectively and appropriatley for the task set
fault of directing- poor acting
needs many faster pace shots
high angle walking down stairs, should be low to signify stregnth and power of character walking down stairs and the victim in the cellar being weak and vunerable
psycho reference- shower scene, blood going down the drain.
more shots would improve the mise-en-scene
contains narrative engima throughout, not aware of killer- perhaps too much so
scope to be good, however fundementally not enough footage



justifiable shakey shot
verasimilitude (achieving realism) broken lacking in digetic sound:
we see but do not hear
-water in kettle
-clicking of kettle lid
-noice of kettle being turned on

SlasherEG: Halloween II

Halloween II (Rob Zombie) 2007
PRODUCERS: DIMENSION FILMS
DISTRIBUTED BY: DIMENSION FILMS
BUDGET: $15 MILLION
BOX OFFICE: $39,421,467
RATINGS: IMBD- 4.8/10 ROTTEN TOMATOES- 21%
WIKI OFFICIAL SITE
OPENING SCENE: 1.40 MINUTES

Camera
Once Michael's mother enters the institution and starts talking to her son, two to three over the shoulder shots are used to enhance the rather intimate moment between the two, Michael is explaining how a white horse that his mother has brought as a gift reminds him of a dream. However as Michael begins to explain his dream to his mother the camera slowly zooms in as the dream begins to elaborate, this perhaps insinuates the mental fragility which has taken hold of Micheal, the zoom unnerves the viewer, as a seemingly harmless scene unfolds into an eerie uncomfortable one.
Sound & Music
As soon the description of the 'white horse' is shown, spectral and spooky echo like music is played which agitates the viewer into restlessness. Without this music, this sequence would have very little about it to suggest it is a slasher, so i feel it is very important. However rather confusingly it doesn't coincide with the scene that follows, you would expect a gore filled slasher scene instead, a dialogue narrative is seen, confusing the audience, maybe even raising the tension. Although there is a distinct lack of music and sound within the opening sequence, a loud reasonably scary gun shot and scream is heard once the title of the film is shown. After a quiet opening this really catches the audiences attention.
Mise-en scene/ representation
Even within this small opening scene, alot can be said about Mise-en scene. A description of what a white horse represents is displayed, this links with the dream Michael had. The horse now represents something much darker and violent which taints the opening scene. The climate is one of winter and bitterness, perhaos matching with the mindset of a mentally disturbed one such as Michael. A chilling atmosphere makes for a chilling viewing. The room both characters are in, is of one colour filed with natural lighting, combined with the pale make-up on Michael's face it is clear that all is not well with Michael. Perhaps the most interesting use of props within this sequence is the beverages that both charcters are drinking, the black within the cup is a stark contrast to the opaque white that shrouds the rest of the room, although minimal I think it is a very clever way of using props within a scene to depict tension. 

Red Christmas Treatment

Red christmas treatment from James Whitaker

Warp vs Working title Presentation

The films we have chosen to compare are working titles Les Miserables and Warps Le Donk and score-zay-zee.These are the binary opposites we are going to compare they have alot of similarities and differences that we are going to cover briefly.

Production and Background

Les Miserables 2012 Tom hooper production companies -universal , relativity media and working title .these have been used in previous working title films as working title is a subsidiary of universal.

Le donk scor zay zee 2009 shane meadows ( Both quite contempory) production companies-big arty productions and warp productions these have been previous production companies for previous warp films such as tis eng , 247 and donkey punch.

Budget and implications of this

The budget for les mis was $61m this is a High budget film for working title especially for a british film.There are little implications for this as the setting is in northhampshire, buckingham shire , kent and untypically france.As it was also filmed in france and is a french story it appeals to other audiences.These locations are very typical for wt as these places are very up market and set in the south we can also see this from previous films such as bridget jones and notting hill.Where as warp production le donk score-zay-zee budget was £48k and was filmed in manchester which is more typical for this low budget indie film.Also many previous warp films have been set here due to the social realist genre and budget. There are implications for this budget as warp is a indie film production company they cant afford the a list stars or famous people in there films.They also couldnt afford the same distributors as working title and marketing making the film less well known.

Distribution and Marketing

The trailer for les mis first starts with one of the big 6 ident straight away we recognise this and the stars.

There has been alot of distribution for this film such as social media, products and things such as the sound track dvd as this is a musical.distribution companies where universal being one of the big 6 there for alot more recognisable than a low budget indie there fore there is no need for any other distribution companies with working title being a subsidiary of universal.

The sleeve is very different and appeals to a certain audience it is very different to warp as all the stars are featured on the front which grabs audience as everyone in this film is well known. It is also featured in french to appeal to other audience compared to warp dvd cover which is bright with little detail and appeals to a certian market and audience.


This is the trailer for le donk we straight away can tell this is low budget and not a glamorous hollywood film due to the documentary footage and the shakey camera.

There has been little distribution for this film becuse simply it was a low budget film. The distribution companies were Front Row Filmed entertainment , Independent film channel,madman entertainment.

le donk is has little info on it and you can tell it is warp due to the style and the social realist genre shown via the sleeve. It also says a shane meadows film to make director more important and more well known.compared to wt les mis cover which is very proffessionally done to match the genre musical and the seriousness compared to this which is colour full and font. There has not been spoofs as such produced however there has been animations made by director shane meadows for comedy.Le donk and scor zay zee is a low budget comedy which is typically warps genre.however they do focas on cultural references such as social hierarchy .But like most warp films this film has a strong message like previous films such as 24/7 and a room for romeo brass.

There are many differenced between us and uk such as WT have a bigger scale distribution and marketing due to universal being one of the big 6.Where as warp is on a lot smaller scale due to target audince being brits and some american audience.However les mis target audience is alot wider as there are less cultural references and intertexual references where as warp films focus is on cultural references and intertextuality which is how warp creates comedy.

Critical Reception

Imdb gave ratings for les miserables a 7.9 out of 10 and had very good reviews.

This is one of the reviews from imdb.

User Reviews

Breathtaking - A Musical with Heart

12 December 2012
by antesdespues (United Kingdom) – See all my reviews

I went to an awards screening of Les Miserables and left the cinema speechless. Tom Hooper's direction and the cinematography, costumes, art design and editing are nothing short of genius.

Hooper's idea to have the actors sing live really brings a deeper emotion to the film not seen in other movie musicals. Hugh Jackman is absolutely incredible as Jean Valjean and carries the film with spectacular grace. Anne Hathaway is magnificent in her fleeting role as Fantine - the film's sequence in which she goes on a downward spiral is one of the it's best moments, and her ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE HEARTFELT rendition of 'I Dreamed A Dream' will win her the Oscar by itself.

Also, a great supporting turn from newcomer Samantha Barks as the heartbroken Eponine (look out for her waist - it's absolutely tiny!), who is sure to be shot into stardom. Eddie Redmayne, Russell Crowe and Aaron Tveit are also good, and there's some great comedy relief from Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen.

It will leave you laughing, crying, and feeling inspired. A great watch, sure to win some major awards this year! 10/10!

Rotton tomatoes gave les mis a 70% rating out of 100.and 81% of the audience liked it.
As the film is a 2012 film the dvd marked price is alot more than warp films and le donk due to the year released and distribution,marketing budget and audience. As it is a working title film and has big stars the dvd will also be more because of the success it has had in cinema and over the world.

IMDB gave Le donk and scor -zay-zee 6.2 rating out of 10.

this review is from imdb

User Reviews

Le Donk

26 November 2009

by DelBongo (Brighton, UK) – See all my reviews

Shane Meadows has earned an incomparable amount of slack over the course of his 13 year career, and although this takes an even bigger cut than last year's well observed but insubstantial Somers Town, its an enjoyable watch.

And although real life Nottingham rapper Scorzayzee gets top billing, this is basically the Paddy Considine show, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Its dramatically underpowered and about as edgy as an episode of Last Of The Summer Wine, but its short and peppy and there are quite a few laughs in it.

But no 71 minute film should really be allowed to have four heedless musical montages in it.

And I'd have been monumentally p*ssed off if I'd have paid to see it in a cinema.

Rotton tomatoes gave it a rating 82% out of 100% and audience it 68%.

Empire gave it 4 out of 5 stars and a gave a great review.

Verdict

Le Donk & Scor-Zay-Zee, Scorsese & De Niro, Torvill & Dean, Considine & Meadows… A monumental mockumentary from Brit cinema’s premier director/actor double act. True, daft, emotional, hilarious.

By Neve Pierce

This is the dvd cover for le donk and scor zay zee warp film.It is expensive for a low budget warp film as you do not expect it to be as much when it was only a 48k film with little marketing and distribution.

Box Office and Other Exhibition Figures

Les Miserables-

Opening Weekend

$28,027,000 (USA) (30 December 2012) (2,808 Screens)

BOX OFFICE FIGURES

Le donk and scor-zay- zee- There were no details on imdb of box office figures.

Media Language, Genre and audience

Genre of les mis is a drama,musical romance compared to le donk being a comedy.These are binary oppsosites and appeal to complete different audiences. le donk appeals to british public as they are recognised in britian rather than world wide. The target audience is teens and above as it is a 15 rating. There is intertextual touches there fore will be appealing the audience that like director or the social realist genre. Where as les Mis focases on a wide range of audiences as it is a musical however mainly the older audience due to it been hard to undertstand where as le donk would be more appealing to the younger audience due to it been a comedy.

Opening of le donk, shaky camera documentary style to show low budget social realist genre similar style tis eng and 4 lions.

More glamorous hollywood movie we can tell by the shot and camera type it is also long takes and stars anne hathaway who we see in this screen shot.

Media Language how British ?

WT LES MIS -

Working title is a british film production company however as it is a subsidiary of universal it has a lot of american influences and is distributed widely due to universal being one of the big 6. However as working title is a british company it would not be able to afford the the stars used in les mis such as anne hathaway , hugh jackman and russel crowe.

W LE DONK-

Warp is a typical british company due to the low budget and small scale distribution.It also doesnt have stars or well known actors in it. As it is low budget it also doesnt contain high class setting such as in previous working title films.It is very british film due to the indie film company and the distributors compared to wt whos distributors are one of the big six making wt not as british as it seems.

A typical Warp or Working title Film ?

Les mis- this is not the typical working title film as they have never done and musical and usually stick to the comedy romance being nottinghill and bridget jones , 4 weddings and a funeral these all focas on the south england that make at appealing to americans and the world where as les mis a serious story about the french revolution where as the previous films are funny and stars the typical rom com characters.

Le donk- this is a typical film for warp as it is low budget and focases on the social realist genre creating comedy through cultural references it also filmed in a run down environment like in tis eng , a room for romeo brass and 4 lions however all have a strong meaning or story behind it .in this way it similar to les miserables.

Summary

As a UK audience we really enjoyed les mis and thought it was really well done however it can only appeal to a certian audience as it is a particular genre. Where as le donk is very well done aswell for a low budget film and sticks with the same genre as previous films the social realist genre this also creates comedy through cultural references there for maybe more funny for british audience.

Bibliography

- http://www.imdb.com/

- http://www.rottentomatoes.com/

History into the slasher genre

The big 6 and Integration

The big 6 are the 6 dominant holywood film companies which also dominate global cinema.
A company which is owned by another company is called a subsidiary, for example working title is a subsidiary of NBC universal. A conglomerate is the word used for describing a company which owns other companies, for example nbc universal and 20th century fox.

Some people are referring to lions gate entertainment as the seventh conglomerate, and therefore referring to the big 6 as the 'big 7' instead.

there are two types of intergration:
1. vertical integration- this is when one conglomerate is able to control all 3 stages of the film business, the 3 stages are production, distribution and exhibition.
2. horizontal integration- subsiduries from the same indistry which mutually benifit each other, within one conglomerate. For example Avatar is produced by 20th century fox, the marketing of the film was benifited by the advertisement of  The Sun news paper as they both come from the same conglomerate [News Coperation]

Red Christmas- teaser trailer story board

TD: Casting, Characters and mise-en-scene

possible cast member

Red Christmas

Cast

-Santa

-Carol singers

-Group of people in car

choir girls

 choir girl

-Someone at the first house

Props
-Fake blood
-Christmas decorations
-A sack

-Pillows

-Santa posters

Tilly modelling santa costume

Our film starts with a group of carol singers going house to house collecting money. the opening will start with an establishing shot then move into a mid shot as they approach the door to sing. This opening will be in silence after the opening idents and titles which will have the carol singers music in the background this will be like the opening of halloween where there is complete silence after the music at the beginning this will first create suspense and build the narrative enigma.

Then we will cut to the first house where we see the carol singers singing and collecting money from there singing . Then we have close ups of the scream queen so the audience know she is the first person to be killed and the target. we then cut to a long shot of the children leaving this will be panning shot and will built the narrative enigma and make it feel like someone is watching. Next we will cut to inside the house and have the christmas music in back ground . we will have the camera going round the house in one long shot to show the setting. the camera will then go into the kitchen and we will have a knock at the door and then the killer will stab the turkey which is in response to the knock at the door. The house will be filled with christmas decorations ands christmas posters. The killer will then walk down the stairs to the door and the camera shot will be a close up of the the boots walking down the stairs. We then have santa opening the door and the group singing . Then a close up of the
 santa s face then the target girl.Santa then slams the door in the faces. long shot.Then we see the group walk away and you see the girl walking home. The street is silent and we see a extreme close up of the girl as the thumbing noise in the background gets louder. there is long shot to see the car headlights zoom down the street.

SlasherEG: Halloween

Halloween 2007 (Rob Zombie)
Produced by: The Weinstein Company, Nightfall Productions, Spectacle Entertainment Group, Trancas International Films
Distributors:Dimension Films Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer(United States) Paramount Pictures 
Budget: $15 Million
Box Office: $80.2 Million
Ratings: Imbd-6/10 Rotten Tomatoes: 25%
Opening Sequence: 26 Minutes

Camera
As this particular opening sequence is extensive, i shall focus of the most interesting uses of cinematography. Within the opening minutes the audience are introduced to what is a chaotic family lifestyle, this is represented by the 'video cam' style of filming, the camera is shaky and purposefully fails to focus on one character at a time, this is done to represent the chaos that perhaps shaped Michael's childhood. the next piece of camera work i am going to focus on is Michael's first killing of the school bully, during the attack the camera pans around the bully whilst he is cowering on the floor to show the isolation and loneliness the character must be feeling at this point. Another noticeable aspect of this opening sequence is the fast paced editing used to enhance realism. This shows the progression or in-fact the opposite of slasher films, as the original halloween took much longer shots.
As Myers approaches his sister an over the shoulder shot is used to perhaps increase the panic of the audience at this point, a kind of pantomimic effect takes over as the audience can see what is about to happen however the potential victim cannot. During most of the killings, close up's of Michael's face are used  which I feel is a poignant method to symbolize the deranged violent thoughts going through Myer's head at the time. It also displays the eerie expression of the masks. 
Points Of InterestWithin the modern Halloween franchise, quotes from academic's in text are used to intensify the nature of the film and killings. For example in this film an emotive and dark description of a psychopath is used. I believe it is a clever way to give the audience some 'pre knowledge' before the film has even started, it sets the tone and setting for such a film. 

Shaky camera to enhance chaos