PLANNING: Characters and social groups

 I have made two Pinterest posts for each social group, Stalker and Teen Girl.

https://pin.it/2ART6eT - Stalker 

https://pin.it/3qGnwPX - Teen girl 

The film industry questions

 1. ‘Marketing is vital to the success of both established and new media products.’ To what extent do you agree with this statement in relation to the media area you have studied? (June 2017)

2. "Cross-media convergence and synergy are vital processes in the successful marketing of media products to audiences.” To what extent do you agree with this statement in relation to your chosen media area? (June 2012) 

3. 'To what extent has social media altered how media products are consumed?' (June 2021)

4. 'To what extent does media ownership have an impact on the successful distribution of media products in the media are that you have studied?' (June 2015) 

5. 'Analyse how media institutions are using different platforms to engage with their audiences' (June 2021)

PLANNING: Audience profile

I put together a profile to show what type of films and apps my audience may like as it relevant to my film opening. 

Audience Questionnaire

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1pk0eSI8JVAB5gkVv1jTL42Zcb2nOz8U5gzn0_ZL0_Cs/edit

 This is my questionnaire to see who are my target audience and what they like the most. I made it on Google Forms and distributed it to have more of an idea what the audience likes. I asked questions such as, how old are you, gender, do you watch the trailer before watching the movie etc. 

Results:

Audience Profile

 1. Who is my primary target audience?

Any age above 15 and to any genre but mainly teenagers and young adults. It is for the people who love watching movies with suspense and supernatural horror. 

2. What kind of films and television are they likely to prefer?

Our target audience are more likely to enjoy horror themed or ones that have a lot of suspense as we are trying to achieve the sense of suspense and uncomforted. We have also looked into series that our target audience may like to watch or have watched Netflix series such as 'You' and  'American Horror Story'. This is because 'You' is a psychological thriller which fits in well with how the girl in our film is getting followed and stalked and 'AHS' because of the abnormal and supernatural theme. 

3. What platforms do they choose to watch films and where are they likely to see information about films?

Our target audience are likely to use streaming our movie online, for example, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, NowTV, Youtube etc as it is very quick and easy to access. This is because you can watch it from their phones or electronic devices. Also the audience would find most of the information through social media which means we will promote it mainly on social media apps to get as much recognition.  

4. What brands do they prefer?

Our target audience would probably like social media brands such as, Instagram, Snapchat, Tiktok. They will watch a lot of their movies, series and videos on Netflix, Amazon Prime Videos, NowTV and Youtube. They will probably like brands such as Topshop, Urban Outfitters, PLT. They could use driving apps like Uber. 

5. What makes my film stand out from the competition?

Although our film is a supernatural themed, it has a sense of realism in it about how easy it is for mainly girls/ women to be vulnerable and not say something the moment they don't feel like something is right. This makes it feel like something similar could happen and it is not just a 'coincident'. Our film is about a teen girl who gets followed by her Uber driver until he mysteriously makes her disappear. 

6 . Why should my audience watch my film? For example:  Total Film / Empire / Cinema Scope / Slant / Sight and Sound says: Most powerful psychological thriller since Don't Look Now!

My audience should watch the film as it is different from the typical supernatural movies as it has some sense of realism which perhaps views can relate to. 

Treatment

INHABITION 

-a restraint on the direct expression of an instinct 

The theme to our film opening is supernatural and paranormal horror. the 'man' is portrayed as an ambiguous figure, almost demon like. it is up to the audience's interpretation to make assumptions about what the 'man' is.

The plot line is about a girl, called Paisley, getting in an Uber with when a man with a face mask due to coronavirus but can't really see his face. She always ends up with having him as her driver. The driver is mute and never talks to her but is constantly looking at her a in the rear view mirror but yet he is driving normally. Every time she ordered an Uber it was always him but with different names. 

She got a Uber to school and it was the same driver so when she arrived she went to go talk to her friend Tilly. She starts to think that something isn't right. One day she decides to walk home and a random car starts following her. Every time she stopped and turned around the car would stop. it would happen again but then he turned his lights off. One evening she got in the car with him again and she felt very uncomfortable and unsafe. She told him to drop her off not at her chosen location. he then starts to follow her and she ran into the woods. He then pops up on the opposite side of the woods when she is coming out. 

Art of the Title

 American Horror Story: Freak Show

I chose American Horror Story: Freak show because it links with the genre of my film opening. I started my research by going on art of the title and search horror. https://www.artofthetitle.com/title/american-horror-story-freak-show/

Each season of AHS is conceived as a self- miniseries, with a different set of characters and setting. some plot elements of each season are loosely inspired by true events. It opened with red curtains opening as if you were entering a circus and it shows a miniature version of a circus. In the background the music is sharp, fast and unsettling. It then shows a moving Merri-Go round which then glitches and starts spinning faster and quickly shows shadows on the ceiling of the tent. It does a hard shot to show the shadow of a ferris- wheel on a truck from the circus which then cuts to show a wonky camera angle of the backs of the trucks. A baby doll then peeks behind the side of the truck. It does another hard cut to a close up of a long, orange ballon getting pumped up by a clown. It's put in fast motion how he is making something out of it and has a loud squeaking of the balloon getting manipulated into place. It then quickly shows the clown pop the balloon with a knife. It shows a disfigured skeleton on a bicycle with the main characters name. It cuts to an unsteady moving camera showing the skeleton of the Simees Twins. It then shows a half bull half human toy trying to walk with another actors name. The camera cuts to an old and broken spinning clowns head, the theme tune to AHS then gets added in with the music that was already playing. It cuts to a toy man in a wheel chair with enlarged legs and two male toys walking one stilts in the background. It then shows a toy with two head on a spinning table getting thrown knives at with another actors name. It then shows a rusted man toy with disfigured hands and feet sitting on a wooden box. It then glitches to a mid shot with a name of an actor. The camera cuts back to the spinning clown head but this time the clown looks evil. It cuts quickly to show clown figurines moving their heads and cuts back to the clown with is now spinning very quickly and then cuts back to the figurine spinning its' head as well. It shows the walls of the tent and the shadows which makes it seem almost abandoned. The camera does a hard cut to a scratched up, evil looking circus monkey toy that looks up to the camera. It cuts to show the figurine turning its' head to look at the camera under one of the trucks. It then shows a creepy clown head riding the roller coasters and then cuts to a toy with nails all over him nailing nails into his nose and showing the name of an actor. The camera cuts to show another actor and a clown skeleton with two bodies dancing and it then cuts to a female toy putting swords down her throat and showing another actor. The camera does a tracking shot of a female clown with three legs and when it reaches to her face she quickly turns and looks at the camera. Then it shows another spinning clown head with another actors name. The camera goes back to a close up of the clown making the balloon figures and suddenly hears a pop and moves on to a spinning toy clown with a red balloon staring at the camera which then cuts to show a deformed doll babies in a cage with blood and taking off their heads. A circus male toy on stilts, drags the name of the series which then cuts to a women with two heads. The last thing the audience sees is the evil circus monkeys' face and then it blacks out and the music comes to an end. 

The Conjuring (2013)

The Conjuring fits in with the theme of our film opening because we are doing paranormal/ supernatural based opening, horror. https://www.artofthetitle.com/title/the-conjuring/

The opening of the trailer shows two old, black and white pictures of a family called The Parron family. Through out the trailer it has a suspenseful violin music in the background which adds to the creepiness feel to it. It slowly fades to show a picture of the Warren family. How it is formated makes it seem like something might have happened to those families and it will intrigue the audience to want to know what happened. It fades to a dark black and white picture of a house with the directors name. It the shows an edited moving newspaper that looks old and it has who it is written by and it shows a hand turning the page and showing the producers and a picture of Ed and Lorraine Warren doing a talk. The hand turns the page again to show the executive producers. Whispers begin in the background as the hand clumsily gets the newspaper in place to show the director of photography. Bells start going off as if someone walked into a shop and it then shows the production designer. The hand then places it which shows who it was edited by. Then the pages start flicking though showing a man called Patrick Wilson and it flicks again to show a picture of a lady called Vera Farmiga. The sides of the newspaper blacks out to transition to show a family picture with the name Ron Livingston. The hand then takes the paper and tap it against the table to make the newspaper ordered; he then puts it down to reveal another family and the name Lili Taylor. It turns the page to show more of the actors names and then the next page he turns to is a grave yard which then church bells start ringing in the background; it shows more of the actors names. It starts to have more creepy pictures and after a few pages it shows production company "A New Line Cinema presents" with crow noises in the background. It does a small jump scare of the doll Annabelle and flicks the page to show "A Safran Company/ Evergreen Media Group presents". A loud voice of a women singing comes on. It shows a picture of everyone at the table doing an exorcism and shows "A James Wan film". It flicks to a view of the back of the house and then the name of the movie, The Conjuring, flicks on and then suddenly everything blacks out and the music dies down quickly.  

Insidious (2010)

I chose Insidious because it has a similar theme to my opening as we have included paranormal experiences https://www.artofthetitle.com/title/insidious/

The opening of the trailer shows a dark room with a big window with a view of a planet. The camera moves quickly towards the window and out of it as if the camera was falling. While it is falling, it shows a billboard of a woman with pink hair and a costume mask on. It carries on falling and on the way to the floor it is shows lights from the buildings around. The camera is pointing down to the road and as it is about to hit the floor the camera suddenly looks up and shows a big main road and the city lights. It then shows a banner of the film production name "Film District". While this is all happening the background music is slowly progressing louder and louder. It then slowly blacks out. It then shows another production name with a different more intense background music. It then blacks out again with a constant ringing sound. The name "Film Districts Presents" comes up with smoke coming off it. It shows more names of productions with the same effects. Then the camera comes down to show a light with the name "A James Wan Film" which then starts to turn upside down and the letter disappear and it turns into a light of a little boy's room. It shows him sleeping a single bed with with his multi coloured bed sheets and teddy bears. The camera moving across his room showing his toys eg lava lamp. The camera carries on moving as if it was someone walking around the house, and goes to the next dark room. There is a woman's silhouette by the window and then disappears. The camera follows her and it slowly zooms into the woman's face lit by a candle. Then the name of the movie shows up with the effect of it flickering like a candle. It then shows a black and white picture of a house with the starring actor name. It the fades out to show another black and white picture of a hospital room with more names. It carries on showing pictures of around the house almost like a montage. It then shows a close up of one of the main characters face waking up and looking around. Then blacks out.   

Film industry questions

THE FILM INDUSTRY

 

Read the article then copy / paste the questions into a Word document and save into your laptop folder FILM INDUSTRY. Email me by Thursday 8 October.

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/cinema-giant-cineworld-to-shut-after-007-fiasco-d2rvdxjgw

 

Header for your document: Fia Brown The Film Industry: Exhibition

 

1. How many theatres does Cineworld have and how many jobs are involved?

5,500 jobs are at risk. 128.

 

2. MGM and the UK’s Eon Productions have decided to push back the release of the already delayed latest Bond blockbuster to 2021 with what impact on Cineworld?

Caused crisis in the cinema and had made many people less encouraged to go to the cinema. There is a crisis with paying the people they have brought back to work when the Bond film was due to come out.

 

3. What hopes had the cinema industry pinned on No Time To Die?

It would bring in a lot of income to the cinemas after a dry spell with the pandemic. They had hoped it would save the falling income of the cinemas.

 

4. What part did Christopher Nolan’s Tenet play in the decision?

This was set to be another successful box office film but was delayed from its previous scheduled release on the 17th of July. This meant that there was even more riding on the Bond film release.

 

5. When are Warner Bros’ Dune and Wonder Woman 1984 due to be released, and why at that time of year?

Late December. Because it is a commercial time of year when people want to do things inside when it is cold outside.

 

6. For Phil Clapp, chief executive of the UK Cinema Association, is Cineworld the only exhibitor threatened by the decision of the film studios to postpone big-budget releases?

No, He thinks that it will impact cinemas all around the UK and will force many cinemas to shut again like they did in lockdown.

 

7. How had Disney released Mulan?

 

On Disney Plus.

8. How have smaller operators like Picturedome managed?

By getting in comedians to entice a local audience.

 

9. What has the crisis meant for Peckham Plex, an independent cinema in southeast London?

 

It has meant that they have had to close.

10.  Explain in detail the comment “The delay is not only a blow to cinemas.”

 

It has also had an impact on financial deals which are associated with the Bond film. Hundreds of millions of pounds with brands such as Aston Martin, brewer Heineken, watchmaker Omega and DHL have been lost or withheld because of this delay.

11. How many theatres are there in the Vue chain? 90

Cinema giant Cineworld to shut after 007 fiasco

The decision to push back the release of the new Bond film again could bring down the curtain on struggling cinemas

Daniel Craig in No Time to Die, his fifth and final outing as James Bond

Sabah Meddings, Liam Kelly and Shingi Mararike

Sunday October 04 2020, 12.01am, The Sunday Times

Cineworld, which has 128 theatres in the UK and Ireland, is this weekend writing to Boris Johnson and the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, to say that the industry has become “unviable” because of the decision by film studios to postpone big-budget releases.

It is drawing up plans to close all its UK sites as soon as this week, according to sources familiar with the discussions. The move puts up to 5,500 jobs at risk.

Film industry bosses had hoped that the planned release of No Time to Die would kickstart a revival of cinema-going next month and resuscitate a sector that has been fighting for survival since the lockdown in March.

But on Friday, MGM and Britain’s Eon Productions said the latest Bond film, due to hit UK cinemas on November 12 — having already been delayed from April — would be pushed back to April next year.

The decision follows a lacklustre box office performance for Christopher Nolan’s Tenet and leaves cinemas with virtually no big movies to lure families until late December, when Warner Bros’ Dune and Wonder Woman 1984 are due to be released.

Bond’s delay will be a huge blow to cinema operators who had brought staff back from furlough and reopened in anticipation of a busy opening weekend.

Phil Clapp, chief executive of the UK Cinema Association, said: “The announcement is probably the most serious blow to UK cinema operators of a number of similar announcements over the past few weeks and will undoubtedly cause a significant number of cinemas to close again.”

Film studios had already pushed back the release of some films and opted to show some on streaming services instead. Disney shunned cinemas altogether with its newest film, Mulan, which it released on Disney Plus. It has left cinemas scratching around for something to show.

Adam Cunard, whose Picturedrome group owns seven cinemas in towns including Bognor Regis in West Sussex and Wisbech in Cambridgeshire, has brought in local comedians to entice customers. Cunard, 33, said trading had been “horrendous” in recent weeks, with daily admissions down from 300 to just 20.

“When you rely on your summer release as Pinocchio, an Italian film dubbed in English, God help you,” he said. “All my staff can see the writing on the wall. There’s no one coming through the doors.”

Picturedrome is among the 150 smaller operators that run 350 venues in the UK, out of a total of 800. The Cinema Association estimates that about 70% of these are open. The rest had been planning to start up again in the coming weeks in anticipation of the release of No Time to Die.

Peckham Plex, an independent cinema in southeast London, wrote to customers last month to tell them it would be closing on September 25, after poor sales since it reopened in August. “For some it is the understandable concerns about the risks of Covid-19, but for most it is about the lack of available films,” the chairman, John Reiss, wrote.

Tyrone Walker-Hebborn, who has owned Genesis cinema in Whitechapel, east London, for 21 years, called the Bond postponement a “huge blow on top of many others we’ve had in the last few months”.

Despite a “brief shot in the arm” from the release of Tenet in July, Genesis has been taking about 30% less than it usually would at this time of the year.

Cineworld, which is expected to announce its closure as early as tomorrow, had reopened the majority of its cinemas in July.

The chain, which declined to comment, warned last week that it did not expect admissions to recover to pre-Covid levels until at least 2023.

The majority of its staff will be asked to accept redundancy, with possible incentives to rejoin the company when theatres reopen — likely to be next year.

The delay is not only a blow to cinemas. The 007 franchise has scores of commercial deals worth hundreds of millions of pounds with brands such as Aston Martin, brewer Heineken, watchmaker Omega and DHL, the delivery company. David Haigh, chief executive of the consultancy Brand Finance, said he estimated the Bond brand is worth as much as £10bn.

The delay means a painful few months ahead for British cinema. Tim Richards, chief executive of the Vue chain, which has 90 cinemas in the UK, said there were many occasions when a Bond release would be the biggest story of the year. “It will be a potential death blow to smaller operators,” he said.

 

Scoop it! Film openings

 Horror

I have made a Scoop.it! account and I chose the theme horror. My Scoop.it!

RESEARCH:DISTRIBUTION COLLAGE

Distribution collage- FROZEN II

Frozen II was set three years after the events of the first movie. The story shows the main characters, Elsa Anna Kristoff, Olaf and Sven on a journey through Ardendale to find the orgin of Elsa's magical powers and save their kingdom after a mystical voice calls out to her. 

Elsa has an extraordinary gift, she can create ice and snow. No matter how happy she is to be surrounded by her family and her kingdom, she constantly feels uncomfortable. She starts to hear strange voices call out for her, she begins to explore what's outside her kingdom. This journey starts to turn into a self discovery. 

Frozen II has won two Annie Awards for Outstanding Achievement for Animated Effects in an Animated Production and Outstanding Achievement for Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production and a Visual Effects Society Award for Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature.

The trailer shows that in this Frozen movie the intensity levels are higher as it shows Elsa using her powers to run over the huge crashing waves. As she is running over her ice path it crashes on top of her making the audience want to know if she had survived. The whole trailer makes you want to watch the whole movie as it leaves you with many questions you want solving. The target audience are families as it is kid friendly. I will leave a link to the trailer and I have put in a couple of posters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi4LMpSDccc 

RESEARCH:FRANK ASH

Film opening codes and convention

Film opening codes and convention

Film opening codes and conventions from FiaBrown

Research: Title sequence

AMERICAN HORROR STORY: CULT (2017)

Credits:

Sarah Paulson

Evan Peters

Cheyenne Jackson

Billie Lourd 

Alison Pill

Created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk

Studio- Prologue 

Directer- Kyle Cooper

Art Directer- Olga Midlenko

Storyboard Artist- Doug Stambaugh 

Editor- Shawn Fedorchuk

Producer- Brian Askew

Executive Producer- Ryan Murphy and Alexis Woodall

Music- "American Horror Story" by Cesar Davila- Irizarry and Charlie Clouser

GONE GIRL (2014)

Credits

Twentieth century fox 

a David Flintcher film

Ben Alfic

Rosamund Pike

Neil Patrick Harris

Tyler Perry

Carrie coon

Kim Dickens 

Patrick fugit 

David Clennon

Lisa Anes 

casting by Laray Mayfield CSA

sound design by Ren Klyce 

music by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

costume designer Trish Summerville

film editor Kirk Baxter 

production designer Dolnad Burt 

director of photography Jess Cronenweth ASC

executive producers Leslie Dixon and Bruna Papadrea

produced by Arnon Milchan and Reese Witherspoon 

based on the novel by Gillian Flynn 

screenplay by Gillian Flynn 

directed by David Flincher 

Table Top

We got into our groups again and started to work with the props that we had and added in our own props for the table top opening. We started to plan what it could be about and we came up with the idea of a woman who is jealous of another woman's (Heather) husband because she is in love with him. We edited it to have a black and white filter, as it is representative of the fact that it is set in the 1900's. It opens with the camera moving down from a white lace material to a french newspaper featuring a picture of the husband. It then goes down and to reveal his name: Jean Boissemond. The camera moves up slowly and the pans onto a hand of a woman who picks up a flower that was clearly given to Heather by her husband Jean. She then opens a short love letter from Jean to his wife, Heather, which the woman reacts to with jealousy and shuts. At this point, the camera movements start to speed up and move to a picture frame of Heather which the woman slams. It then moves to an opened jewellery box where she finds an engagement ring which she puts on and moves her hand next to the picture of Jean as if she is imagining that she was his wife. We added in background music; a song called 'Heather'. The lyrics fit perfectly at the part where the camera zooms in on the love card, 'I wish I were Heather' showing the envy the woman feels for Heather.

On the set

Cameras and tripods. In groups they were passed around so each of us could have a chance to practice how to handle the camera, insert the battery and memory card. to avoid dropping the camera you should say "yours" when passing and "mine" when you have received the camera. We learnt how to set up a tripod and to 'bubble' it using the spirit level to help to camera balance and focus. We learnt how to focus the camera and how the exposure is adjusted by moving the dial up and down.

White balanced is the process of removing the unrealistic colour casts, which the objects that appear white in person are rendered white in the photo. Proper camera white balance has to take into account "colour temperature" of a light source, which is how warm or cool the white light is. On the camera you adjust it by clicking the WB button and then it will come up with different little pictures showing the difference colour tones of different lights to give a more realistic look.

180- degree rule is a cinematography guideline that shows two characters in the scene that should keep the same left/right relationship to one another. When the camera moves over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, this is called crossing the line which makes the shot then become a reverse angle.

On set, the director then shouts 'standby' when he's about to start filming to make sure everyone is ready and once they are they shout reply 'standing by'. When the director shouts 'rolling' everyone has to make sure they are quiet then she/ he shouts 'action' which is the cue for the actors to start. After they are done the director will shout 'cut' which will be followed shortly by 'strike the kit' which the film crew starts to pack away everything and to make sure the video is uploaded.

Good practice in editing. In the media studio we use Final Cut Pro and imovie on the imacs. We should make a folder for the shots when we are uploading our footage. These folders are called bins and the unedited footage from cameras are called rushes.

Continuity

We got into groups of four to construct a trailer. My group and I decided to make a horror trailer. We  came up with a story line and from then we then started putting our ideas into Imovie. We gathered props and went outside to find the best scenery for our trailer. We started filming and improvising and it started coming together. The first clip featured Tallulah and I, walking and asking what is wrong with Millie lately and what the sound was that we hear. In the background, you can see Millie acting out of character and banging her head against the door. The camera then zooms into a dark corner where you see bloody hand prints on the wall. We then did some editing to have a black and white filter while having a mid shot of Millie banging her head on the door. We then have an over the shoulder shot and can see that a mysterious person is controlling Millie my a doll. We then filmed Tallulah and I walking and finding the doll and started moving about. It then does a hard cut to Millie throwing her arm up violently and hitting Ellie in the face. It then cuts back to Tallulah and me seeing what we had just done. The camera then cuts to an over the shoulder angle which the viewer can see us talking to Millie about how we think she is possessed and she needs help. It then cuts to a mid shot of us saying we can remove the curse with God and I start to shout "Get out demon!" in latin. The camera cuts to Millie shaking violently and a voice over by Tallulah saying "It's not working!". She then come in with a gun and shoots Millie with an edited shooting sound. The person who was controlling Millie also died as the coat suddenly drops to the floor with no one in it any more.