The Difference - Horror Movies in the 60s.

A number of ghost stories hit the screen in the early 1960s that still have the power to startle today, transcending their black and white photography and minimal special effects. These films can be seen as a reaction against the elaborate creature features of the late 1950s. They are simple stories that only require the audience to suspend disbelief in increments, and often, as in The Haunting (1963) operate from a position of skepticism. The characters do not believe that they are being affected by supernatural forces until too late (if at all) and the horror lies in the journey the protagonist takes between sanity and psychosis. Can the hero believe what he/she (it's usually a woman) is seeing? Reality unravels in textbook (Freudian) style, as familiar, safe mise en scène disintegrate, revealing aspects of another dimension. When the protagonist resists or complains, the causes of her terror can be explained away by a (it's usually a man) kindly doctor or other authority figure in Act Two, but the forces of madness – whether internal or external – always triumph by the end. These screen stories reflect a preoccupation with change, with women on the frontlines, the first (and often the only ones) to be destroyed by the erosion of the old order. Were these movies subliminal warnings to women, an exhortation to behave, or suffer the consequences? These ghost stories depend on more than an ambiguous spectral presence for their thrills; they throb with psychosexual tension, and take a sadistic satisfaction (Hitchcock made it fashionable) in the suffering of the beautiful heroine. The protagonist is a final sacrifice rather than a Final Girl.

The Difference - Horror Movies in the 50s.

The 1950s are the era when horror films get relegated well and truly to the B-movie category. The studios were too busy incorporating technical changes such as widespread colour production and trying to meet the challenge posed by TV to have much truck with making quality horror pictures. Big stars were reserved for epics and musicals while the Universal era icons were either dead, dead-in-the-water (Lugosi was reduced to an impoverished caricature of his former self) or moved on (Karloff had diversified into TV & theatre and was still working). The main audiences for horror movies were teenagers, who ensured that the genre remained very profitable. They flocked to the drive-ins in hordes, not caring too much about character development, plot integrity or production values. Some of these B-movies are, frankly, ludicrous, in the way they require the audience to suspend disbelief. The aim of the game was thrills, thrills and more thrills, and these monsters, whilst perhaps more terrifying in conception than execution, never fail to deliver on the action front. Nonetheless, they are highly entertaining, and provide a crude, technicolour snapshot of the way America desperately didn't want itself to be. This is to show the difference between the films from the past, and the films from now.

Evaluation Part 3

I have finished my Evaluation like I said, during the free days left, and have uploaded it onto my Evaluation page.

Evaluation Part 2

I have spent my time after school trying to continue on with my Evaluation. Since I have spent a lot of time on it, I haven't been able to finish it. Therefore, I will continue on with it during the weekend, and have it fully finished and given in by Tuesday 7th.

Evaluation

I am halfway through my Evaluation, and hoping to finish it by the end of today.

Partner Losing Work

During the editing of our first attempt for our Opening Sequence, my partner, Luqman, has lost his video editing process file, meaning that he had to re-do the whole editing again.

After the Filming

After our last filming, we joined all the video clips up onto our school computers, and separately edited them, joining them together with transitions, sounds, music, and what not.

For this to be able to happen, we used the editing program Serif MoviePlus X6.

First Opening Scene

Before our feedback, we obviously created a first Opening Sequence, by filming with the flip camera, and editing with Serif MoviePlus X6.

You can watch it below.

Thoughts and Feelings v2

I am quite confident in myself that I will finish this project in time. I feel as if we both did our best, in both the filming and the editing. Hopefully it will be good enough to ring our feedback up to where we want it to be.

Equipment I Used

Equipment that was needed to film our Opening Sequence project were the simple items first of all; The camera, and the tripod.

 Unfortunately, we barely used the Tripod, because most of the scenes were outside, and high-angled shots. Plus, we only had that short tripod, and not a bigger one, because it is at school, and we cannot access school during holidays.

Research - Music/Sound 2

While looking for different sounds from the copyright-free website, I had some in mind that I thought I could use, like for example screams, shouts, footsteps. I found these sounds on the website, that I thought would be good enough for our Opening Sequence;
- Blood Deep - Dark Dimensions Vol 3
- Jagged Edge - Dark Dimensions Vol 3
- Skeleton Keys - Dark Dimensions Vol 3
- No Reflection Dark Dimensions Vol 3

Research - Music/Sound

During the process of creating my opening sequence, I had to think about diagetic and non- diagetic sound. I did some research into other opening sequences from a website called 'The Art of the Title' and looked at what they used;

Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

I noticed that this particular sound they use, is non-diagetic sound.


Psycho (1960)

Se7en (1995) 

My Thoughts and Feelings

To be honest, I don't think we've given it our best, even though I think it's the most we can do with filming videos, as we are no experts on it. I think that it will hopefully give us the grade that we deserve. I also think that if we had planned out the times on when to film properly, we could of done a bit more, and possibly even improved on it a bit better.

Title of our Opening Sequence

While filming, we still had no idea of what name to give to our Opening Sequence, so we thought for a while, until we came to conclusions, on placing the title as 'Unexpected Email'.

Our Indent

After looking at some production companies, and how nice their indents looked, Luqman and I decided to make our own indent, by using Serif MovePlus X6. It will be shown in the final opening sequence.

Production Companies

What we have decided to do is to research on some famous production companies, such as Universal, Paramount and many more. What we have also done was do some research into the background of these companies, and how their indents represent the companies.

Universal Studios

 Founded by Carl Laemmle in 1912. Universal Studios is one of the oldest American movie studios which is still in continuous production. Some of the films they have done with other companies are Bridemaids (2011), Scott Pilgrims Vs The World (2010), and 8 Mile (2002).

                                                                                                                                                                
Universal Pictures Indent




Paramount Pictures

Also founded in 1912, by Adolph Zukor. This corporation is also one of the oldest companies in America. Paramount is still one of the largest, top-grossing movie studios. Many films they have done are also with many other cooperation such as Universal studios, and others. Megamind (2010), School Of Rock (2003), and Rugrats Movie (1998).

          

             

                                                                                                                                              
 Paramount Pictures Indent                                                                                                                                            



DreamWorks

Founded in 1994, by Steven Spielberg, Jeffery Katzenberg and David Geffen. This particular company normally produce animated films. Films such as Chicken Run (2000), Shrek (2001), and Kung Fu Panda (2008).

Dreamworks Indent



Lions Gate Entertainment

Founded by Frank Giustra, in 1997. As from 2011, LIONSGATE is the most successful, and independent television company in North America. Here are some of the films they produced; Saw VI (2009), Transporter 3 (2008), and Kick-ass (2010).



                                                                        

                              

 

Lions Gate Indent

 

 

Columbia Pictures

 

American Film Production company founded in 1919, by Cohn-Brant-Cohn, which is Jack and Harry Cohn and Joe Brandt. Here are some films which were produced by them and others; Peter Pan (2003), Thunderbirds (2004), and The Holiday (2006).

 

Columbia Pictures Indent                                                                                             

Equipment

Here's my Prezi Presentation showing different equipment that are used for all Production Companies.

Filming

Since we had the poor feedback, we created the new script, and had to re-film the scenes all over again, at the same places, just in different ways.

Newly Re-created Script

Since we had gotten low feedback from our teacher, we had to re-create the scenes, obviously meaning a new script, so we have created a new one.
________________________________________________________________

Voice over

Isabella: 2 years ago my father died, leaving only my mother to look after me and my younger sister clary. It was tough times but we managed.

In the living room

Isabella: Clary, Come here.

Clary enters

Clary: What?

Isabella: Look at this.

Clary: It's an e-mail. So what?

Isabella: Look at who it's from.

Clary looks at the screen 

She looks confused

Clary: But that's impossible.

Isabella: I know right. Do you think someone is trying to play a prank on us?

Clary: if it is a prank, it is a very sick one.

Another email appears

Both are scared

Isabella opens the email

Both are scared 

They look out the window

Fade out

Problems With Filming v2

We had another problem, that we had to re-film some of the scenes, as the sound wasn't recorded for some reason, which was disappointing, because we had to use up our own time again, to go to the places again.

Problems With Filming

A problem Luqman and I had with filming our opening sequence, was that the props were out of hand, and we only had a limited budget, meaning that we had to spend some of our own pocket money on the rest of the props.

First Day of Filming

Things That Went Well
For our first day of filming, I think it went pretty well. The setting was good, as it had just snowed the day before, so we had a nice, snowy graveyard.

Thing That Went Bad
One of our actors didn't know her lines pretty well, meaning that we had to stop filming, and re-commence it, but with the script well-hidden, so it could be read, but not seen on the filming.

Planning - Storyboard

Luqman and I created both half of the Storyboard for our filming.

Planning - Music + Sounds

The sounds, for e.g. voice dialogues, will be added through the filmed videos, together.

As for any other sounds, they will all be copyright-free, and collected from the website; http://freeplaymusic.com/.

Planning - Location

Luqman and I have planned to use our friend's house, for most of the filming scenes. For the scenes in the graveyard, we will be using the church near our school.

There is a scene where it will need to look perfectly dark, and therefore, since Luqman has a very dark, photography room, back at his house, with no windows and around 5% of lighting, he will film the scene there.

Planning - Actors

The actors we are going to use:

• Patricia Rosa -The Mother 
• Kate Sexton - Clary
• Chelsea Weatherill - Isabella
• Luqman - Murderer

Other than Luqman, these actors are friends of ours.

Camera Shots

Camera angles give different experiences and sometimes emotions. Different camera angles have different effects on certain viewers, and how they perceive the shot-scenes.

Extreme Close-Up: The shot is so tight that only a detail of the subject, such as someone's eyes, can be seen.

Medium Close-Up: Half-way between a mid shot and a close-up. Usually covers the subject's head and shoulders.

Close-Up: A certain feature, such as someone's head, takes up the whole frame.

Extreme Long-Shot: Taken from as much as a quarter of a mile away, and is generally used as a scene-setting, establishing shot.

Long-Shot: Shows the entire object or human figure and is usually intended to place it in some relation to its surroundings.

Medium-Shot (Mid-Shot): Shows some part of the subject in more detail while still giving an impression of the whole subject.

Bird's-Eye View: Elevated view of an object from above, with a perspective as though the observer were a bird, often used in the making of blueprints, floor plans and maps.

High-Angle Shot: Looks down on the subject and the point of focus often get "swallowed up" by the setting.

Elements of Video Production

All film and video productions are organized this way in order to make the process of creating the film or video in a clean cut way, without any complications. Also, the final results should be what the director foreshadowed.

Pre-Production: In film-making and video production, pre-production formally begins once a project has been green-lit. At this stage, finalizing preparations for production go into effect. Financing will generally be confirmed and many of the key elements such as principal cast members, director and cinematographer are set. By the end of pre-production, the screenplay is hopefully finalized and satisfactory to all the financiers and other stakeholders.

Video Production: Video production is also known as videography. Technically, it is the process of creating video by capturing moving images, and creating combinations of parts of this video in live production and post-production (video editing). In most cases the captured video will be recorded on electronic media such as video tape, hard disk, or solid state storage, but it might only be distributed electronically without being recorded. It is the equivalent of film-making, but with images recorded electronically instead of film stock.

Post-Production: Post-production is part of film-making and the video production process. It occurs in the making of motion pictures, television programs, radio programs, advertising, audio recordings, photography, and digital art. It is a term for all stages of production occurring after the actual end of shooting and/or recording the completed work. Post-production is, in fact, many different processes grouped under one name. These typically include:

• Video editing the picture of a television program using an edit decision list (EDL).
• Writing, (re)recording, and editing the soundtrack.
• Adding visual special effects - mainly computer-generated imagery (CGI) and digital copy from which release prints will be made (although this may be made obsolete by digital-cinema technologies).
• Sound design, Sound effects, ADR, Foley and Music, culminating in a process known as sound re-recording or mixing with professional audio equipment.
• Transfer of colour motion picture film to Video or DPX with a telecine and color grading (correction) in a colour suite.

Continuity Editing: Continuity editing is the predominant style of film editing and video editing in the post-production process of film-making of narrative films and television programs. The purpose of continuity editing is to smooth over the inherent discontinuity of the editing process and to establish a logical coherence between shots. Below, is an example of 'Continuity Editing' being used in a video.

Shot-Reverse-Shot: Shot reverse shot (or shot/countershot) is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other. Below, is an example of 'Shot-Reverse-Shot' being used in a video.


180-Degree Rule: In film making, the 180-degree rule is a basic guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object within a scene. An imaginary line called the axis connects the characters and by keeping the camera on one side of this axis for every shot in the scene, the first character will always be frame right of the second character, who is then always frame left of the first. If the camera passes over the axis, it is called jumping the line or crossing the line. Below, is an example of '180-Degree Rule' being used in a video.

Intro of Video Production

Video Production is the process of capturing a moving image from electronic media, for example:
1. Videotape.
2. Direct to Disk recording.
3. Solid State Storage.
4. Streaming Media.
This includes the methods of Production & Post-Production.

Welcome

Hello, and welcome to my AS Media Studies Blog. My name is Flavio Alves, and I am currently attending Shirley High School Sixth Form. During my project, I will be creating an approx. 2 minute opening video sequence for my horror/comedy film. During this process, I will be taking you through on how I went about creating it, showing the variety of technologies, such as videos, presentations, animations, and pictures.