Film Outline

Textual Analysis Grid - 28 Days Later - Dan Smith

Pitch Feedback

We recieved some feedback from our pitch:
- Difficult to make
- Dialogue is needed for the narrative but creates cheesiness.
- Uniform on large scale
- Hard to find enough cast and location
- Too many zombies and too much gore could make it over the top.
- Make sure the zombies look good or it could look stupid
- A lot of people need make up

We have taken all feedback into account. We have people that would help us out with make-up so that is not an issue. We also have plenty of willing people who would be in our film so we have enough cast. Lots of people have their old school uniforms that we can use for costume. We are going to try and make sure we have enough gore and the correct amount of zombies but not too much so that it isn't over the top. We are going to try and find a good tutorial for realistic zombie make-up to help us make the zombies look good. We are going to try and keep the dialogue casual and realistic so it doesn't make the film cheesy.

Peesh Out
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx ;) <3

Film Pitch Plan

User Ratings

Task One: British Board of Film Classification

We researched what complies with a film with the certificates 15 and 18.

Textual Analysis (Narrative) - Dead Set, The Plague of Zombies, 28 Weeks Later

The opening to Dead set is a Linear opening. The threat is restricted. We see hints and glimpses that a threat is present but not a direct threat. The first 5 minutes relate to the rest of the film because the Big Brother House setting is continued throughout the film and the actors are the characters throughout. This affects the audience because it grabs their attention because they want to know what the threat is and the story is affected by clues being shown that links to later events and reveals the weaknesses of the house and set. The film titles are purely the Big Brother titles.

The opening to The Plague of Zombies is a Non-Linear opening. The threat is both omniscient and restricted as you see a threat but it doesn't make sense. The first 5 minutes relate to the rest of the film because it seems to be showing a ritual for turning people into zombies. This affects the audience as it makes you quite uncomfortable and it is confusing so the audience have to really think about it. The story is affected as it provides hints for the plot later in the film. The titles are simple. It is plain font over a still shot of a voodoo doll and changes to show the title, director etc.

The opening to 28 Weeks Later is a Linear opening. The threat is omniscient because they are in a house which is boarded up to attempt to protect themselves from the threat but the threat is quickly revealed. The first 5 minutes relate to the rest of the film because it is obvious that when they are bitten they turn into zombies showing how the virus was spread in the beginning and in the rest of the film. It affects the audience as it creates suspense as we don't know who will survive the opening and it makes you want to know what happens next. The story is affected as it shows that it is a never ending cycle because the boys parents died and the girls boyfriend died which shows that everybody else will die at some point.

Compared to 28 Weeks Later, the other films were very slow to start and could be considered to be a bit boring compared to the fast paced opening created in 28 Weeks Later.

textual analysis of 10 minute clips of the following films by DAN AND TOM

night of the living dead.
titles were on the screen as the car was driving down a long secluded road
it was a linear, omniscient and restricted film due to camera angels film the first 5 Min's were introducing characters and setting in graveyard, and had blood splatted signs.
in car introducing characters, the problem with the radio hints threat.
then the zombie attacks after we have already seen it in the background of the graveyard


zombies
first scene creepy music, miners leave children in the tunnels as they explode gives a setting story and a clue as to what the threat is. titles appear on a black background to start, then they went onto a country secluded road, composition of car as it moves, starts in past times then becomes modern now a day. meet a creepy guy in the shop who hints something bad about the house as they do not deliver there. they nearly hit someone on the way up to their house and the woman leaves the car, shots from behind and in front, broken bottle of blood, restricted view of the threat, shot from behind trees as if someone is watching. As they go into the house goes from light to dark, composition of the shot in top right hand corner golden mean, lights inside house don't work. little girls runs upstairs to the dark and leaves group/ possible threat.

Marking previous work- TOM NUNN

Clip one- I thought that this could have been improved by not making the camera focus on one image for too long as i found myself partially intrigued however mainly bored and none phased by a bit of blood on a wall, good continuity, If the camera was a bit more steady i would mark it higher, and the lighting was at parts to dark to see anything.overall 39/60
clip two- i found this very effective in the sense that we knew what was going on and the man with the knife remained hidden throughout, the lighting was effective for its purpose however there was not much happening, good continuity, however the camera seemed rather unfocused and the location and prop of a TV watching a word programme didn't exactly set the scene for me. 45/60
clip three- this was a good idea with bad acting on the girls behalf, but the clip seems to flow a well.  good lighting and continuity, the setting was good, with the boy being haunted buy the girl who was following him, and that he couldn't escape her very ghost/ poltergeist. overall 55/60
clip four- very effective editing and a great possessive scene with the spinning camera as it had a nice close up of the possessed victim/ vampire. the last part where we see the vampire appears to last too long. good use of lighting with red fgor when hes the blood loving vampire. Overall- 55/60

Dead Set Evaluation- Tom Nunn

Title - Dead Set
CERTIFICATE - 18 very gory and strong language and all extremely unneccesaary... neccesary !
I watched the film Dead set to help me with my research towards finding useful tips and information about the key aspects of a Zombie horror film.
 I found multiple things that would be essential for our opening sketch.
The main idea is the camera angles, as there are lots of Cu's and ECU which makes it much more scary and shows off the effects of the make up much more.
The eyes add to the suspense as it adds a level of understanding to the viewer as they know that they have become a zombie, this is very important to create more tension and no confusion.

the characters appear vulnerable as there are lots of shots showing the lack of them in the house and the mass of zombies entering the house. This would be useful in our film but i think finding enough people might be hard.
The location was a very clever idea in the sense that most of the characters at first weren't aware of the zombies, and the fact that one of them turned into one made it feel like no one was safe and the whole film was filled with tension. i feel we should use a secluded area maybe so that then it appears that the main characters are all unaware of the outbreak so that its more tense when they are surrounding them.
the main props are the brutal weapons they have to use which adds to the drama and horror, and also the fake guts etc when the zombies are eating them, this could be created by mixing a tomato base sauce with mince meat then adding in raw sausage meat and crushing it together, this can then be shaped into fake intestines.
the music is a very base filled dramatic dance beat to add to the excitement, and silence and the sound of zombie groans and screams as innocents get eaten.

Foundation Portfolio Research: Title Research

Textual Analysis Grid - Sarah Ellis

Our Film - Mind Map

Sarah Ellis: Homework Exercise, Marking Previous work

Clip One: I thought that clip one was quite well put together. There were a variety of shots and interesting music. The one disadvantage was that some of the camera work that seemed would work better had it been smoother was rather shaky. I'd give this clip a 55 out of 60.

Clip Two: The dialogue in this clip was very cheesy. There wasn't much need for it. There was also a lot of the same shot from the same angle. More shot varieties could have been included. There was also a continuity error with the writing pad, one minute it was there and the next it wasn't. I did think that the first part was good. I'd give this clip a 46 out of 60.

Clip Three: The first part of this clip was very dark and I was unable to tell what was going on. Also the music is very overpowering and draws attention away from the actual scene. I know you don't have to have top actors but there was no reaction at all when she was attacked. I'd give this clip a 42 out of 60.

Clip Four: The lighting changes remarkably suddenly at the beginning of this clip. It is also fairly dark most of the way through which makes it hard to see detail. I like the quick paced shot changed when he's changing into a vampire. I'd give this clip a 47 out of 60.

Homework Exercise - Marking Previous Work

- Have a look at the mark scheme below to get an idea of each level.

- Then watch all 4 videos

- Now using the mark scheme give each video a mark out of 60 and explain why...?

Preliminary Assessment Evaluation - By Sarah Ellis

Use of the Camera 
Our finished work doesn't really provide evidence that we can hold a shot steady; purely because of the fact that most of the shots we used were panning and tracking shots; hence the camera shots were moving instead of still. Although there were a few still shots, which proved that we could hold a shot steadily, as shown in the first image.
We were able to frame shots properly as we avoided missing off the top of peoples heads; which we accidentally did in some of our previous test shots. We tried to maintain the rule of thirds throughout but it was more difficult when conducting panning shots.
We were able to include quite a wide variety shot types. We included quite a few mid shots. We used close up shots for effect or to point out a particular thing. Eg. We used a close up/Mid shot with the hand shot to emphasise the hand. We also used long shots which was effective when filming walking/travelling shots as shown in the third image  The majority of our shots were eye line shots, although we managed to include low and high angle shots. I believe that this worked well. This is shown in the second image.

Use of Editing

I believe that we have applied the rules of continuity editing. We ensured that our actor's movements were not jumpy and filmed shots more than once with the actor doing the same thing, to ensure that if we used a shot from a different angle, it wouldn't look jumpy. We cut clips precisely and tried hard not to cut them too early or too late. The background noise for each clip was clearly different, so we added music in the background to try and mask this and I believed it worked quite effectively. We used two different pieces of music but made them fade in and out so they didn't just 'appear' in the clip.

We made the decision to not include transitions to link our clips together as we believe that it would ruin the effect created by just the clips being put together.

Selection of Content
Our finished film doesn't really show any evidence for appropriate costume, make-up or props for our genre as we had to film it in class time without any of our resources. I believe that we chose an appropriate location and setting for our genre as the woods were quite eerie, yet there was still reasonable room to move around and film. Because we had to film in class time, we had to use Tom from our group for the part. I believe that Tom did well and that he acted convincingly anyway. I had to act one of the parts but to be fair I didn't really have to do anything but stand there.

Self-assessment
To help complete the film I contributed by filming various parts. I filmed the beginning panning shot and the low angle shot. In planning, I helped discuss which shots and angles could be used with my group and helped complete the shot list. I helped edit the film also. I split the film clips so that they would be easier to edit and helped cut clips also.
I believe some improvements which could be made to our finished film is to include make up and proper costume and also to find a different way of making the background noise the same all the way through. We could have also added titles but it proved to be a lot of hassle when we were trying to add it.
When it comes to our final coursework film I believe that we will make sure that we are more prepared and allow ourselves more filming time.

Peessh Out :)
xxxxxx

evaluation by dan smith :)

1. Our finished work shows that we can hold a camera steady in hand and on the tripod. we are able to frame the shot properly with the rule of thirds and without missing the top of peoples heads. we used many shot types like  the long shot (as seen below), the two shot ( as seen to the right), and the over the shoulder shot (in the middle).

2. secondly our work can show that we can use continuity editing as our film flows together. we didn't use any transitions but it does flow well together.

3. our film does show that we have chosen carefully our costume and location. we also had to use our selves as actors but i think we complimented our own work. 

4. i helped film and put across my thoughts on how it should be shot. i also helped chose the setting and direct the production. if we could of used some longer bits of film would of helped also certain sounds and visual affects would of helped but the ones we wanted were not available. i dont think i would change anything for our final assesment because i think it all went swimmingly :)

peace out too all :) <3 xxxxxxxxx

Individual assessment - TOM NUNN

1. Use of camera

from doing our practical assessment i can see that we in a group are capable of holding the camera still, however we used a wobbly camera effect deliberately to create a more realistic walk through the woods that gave the effect of someone following him.

we can frame a shot effectively and appropriately as we were professional in our approach and got the correct shot types such as high or the shoulder, extreme close up and close up.

 Mainly our shots were at eye line as this was used in the model we were attempting to recreate.



This shows us using a pan shot, which is mainly what we used, Pan and track which didnt provide us with a great amount of leway in terms of showing our camera skills.



Over the shoulder MCU



2. Use of editing

we ensured that when editing our clips that the main character was not jumpy in his movements and we also spit into an appropriate amount of clips. we put a scary music background noise as an attempt to raise the suspense and when the woman screamed we interpreted in our own sound as in the original footage the actress was incapable of screaming. We then changed the music as the actor runs away from the woman who just screamed into a more upbeat and tense sound as if to suggest he is going to be followed.

we decided no to use transitions in our editing as it would affect the suspense of the overall piece as it might be interupted and appear less scary.



At this point we edited in the womans scream to make it sound more spooky



3.  selection of content

we used appropriate props of a black hoodie with the woman which made her appear uncertain and scary, and we used a very good setting, despite it not being our original location. The seeting of the bushy woods makes it seem a lot more dense and less like we've just acted in some bushes next to a road. moreover there was a bit of background noise of cars but we edited it out.

the actors were just what we needed, one man and one woman, i was the man, however i still took a very active part in how the filming took place.

4. self assessment

I helped overall to make the film by being the main actor and choosing the setting. I also contributed towards the planning of the camera angles and the actual filming itself. i helped edit as i assisted my group in choosing appropriate moments to split the video at playheads and chose the best footage in terms of acting to create suspense and camera ability.

we could improve the finished film by adding more effects in the editing and by maybe re-shooting with more skilled actors that can actually appear to be scared rather than my failed attempt! also a more discrete location would secure that we could se genuine sounds of footsteps.

when it comes to my final overall peice of coursework i will most certainly use better actors and more props so that it feels the video has more authenticity.



Preliminary Assessment

This is our Preliminary assesement. It was filmed at about 2.30 on Tuesday the 19th. We filmed it on the Bilborough campus because do to lack of time we were forced to act ourselves without costume and make-up but considering that we think it went well.

Composition Exercise

The rule of thirds are when you split your shot into 9 squares,  and that we should aim to hit the intersection point at when you want something interesting to be filmed. I believe that we used the rule of thirds well and tried to achieve it as precisely as we could. We used head room quite well as we managed to not cut anyones head off on shots as we've accidently done before. We also used lead room for walking scenes to ensure it looks like the actor has space to walk into. I believe that the shots we used looked amazing in comparison to our previous short films.

<3 Love from us :)
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Assessment Exercise Original

this is the video we are copying 40 seconds from ! 

Take two!!!!

We have achieved continutity editing but it still jumps a little between a few shots. Our shots are framed better than the last attempt and we varied them more. We included all but one shot which we lost unfortunately. It has again quite a fast pace. It could be improved by adding in the lost shot and also mastering camera techniques better.

Peace Out.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Rawwwwrrr

Test Project

Our video has achieved almost seamless editing. There are a few quite mild jumps. We can see this as the main character repeats his motions and sound may falter between scenes. We have framed our shots as best we could using the over the shoulder shot, close up shot and wide shot. We missed one shot of feet as he was climbing the stairs, otherwise all other planned shots were filmed. Our piece has quite a light atmosphere as the shots are very bright. The pace is quite fast. This could have been improved by having no background disturbance. The camera work could be improved by adding more different angles.

Peace out :) 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

GOM NOM

First Movie Project

Evaluation
We have a mid c.u and an extreme close up, a mid shot although no over the shoulder angle. However, we did use a two shot and a nice high angle shot to include our victim and our stalker and make it seem more tense and appear as if he was about to catch her... SUSPENSE!

We included enough shots, however we made a few mistakes where people were in the same place more than once! Whoops.
It has atmosphere, however, the amateur actors kind of made it more comedy...
This could have been improved if we took more shots and rather than moving the camera while still filming, we could have made it much smoother. In addition, whilst filming we need to work on controlling our background sound. The film makes sense and has a general plot, in which the boy follows her and catches her in the end. Furthermore, despite lack of rhythm, the film has character and WE ARE PROUD :D

xxxxxxx <3 Peace out !

First Ever Post :D

Hi, this is the bilborough students, Tom Nunn, Sarah Ellis and Daniel Smith.
We will be learning skills such as : camera framing, shot types, continuity, story boarding and genre conventions.
We will be assessed by recreating a previous students horror movie, but only 30-40 seconds of it.
We will keep you updated !! xxxxxxxx <3