Production Feedback

A feedback sheet was created featuring the various questions below. Fellow media students answered the questions after watching our horror movie 'Deadline'. As they have been in the same class following the same syllabus as ourselves, they therefore having a good understanding of the work and planning in making a production. Here's the feedback sheet (numbers show the amount of people who picked that answer out of nine people in total)-

Q1. How would you rate the production in terms of following codes and conventions of horror?

Excellent (5) Good (4) Average (0) Poor (0) Very Poor (0)

Q2. On the evidence you have seen, how well planned was the production?

Excellent 1(4) 2(4) 3(1) 4(0) 5(0) Poor

Q3. Would you say the production showed evidence of:

No imagination (0) Little imagination (0)

Some imagination (2) High imagination & creative flair (7)

Q4. The following refers to the technical aspect of the piece. Please rate the following on a scale of one to five (1 being excellent, 5 being poor).

a) Shot composition: 1(3) 2(5) 3(1) 4(0) 5(0)
b)Mise-en-scene: 1(8) 2(1) 3(0) 4(0) 5(0)
c)Editing: 1(3) 2(4) 3(2) 4(0) 5(0)
d)Sound and Music: 1(6) 2(3) 3(0) 4(0) 5(0)
e)Use of titles: 1(7) 2(1) 3(1) 4(0) 5(0)

Q5. How could the production be improved? Please make your comments constructive and as specific as possible:

• Point of view shot could have been more steady


• Lighting could have been a bit brighter

Conclusion: Overall I am pleased with the positive feedback and constructive critisim, and would like to thank everyone for the lovely comments!

Evaluation Podcast

Codes & Conventions

Thrillers
Here are a few codes and conventions of a thriller:

-Quick Cuts
-Mystery
-Suspense
-Exotic Setting
-Intensity
-Protagonist usually dies
-High paced music
-Conspiracy
-High Tech
-Apprehension and exhilaration
-Special Effects

Horror
Here are a few codes and conventions of a horror:

-Serial Killer
-Blood/Gore
-Torture
-Monsters
-Gothic
-Body count is always bigger in next movie
-Screams
-Darkness
-Eerie Music
-Young cast

Rom-com
Here are a few codes and conventions of a rom-com:

-Love
-Jokes
-Adultery
-Singing
-Sex
-Marriage
-Good looking cast
-Happy ending
-Laughter/Crying
-Upbeat music
-Slapstick humour

The Pitch

Film Ideas;

Loveless
This is one of my ideas for a rom-com that uses comedic horror elements, it involves a love triangle between a vampire, a ghost and a werewolf that are actually "supposed" enemies. The boy werewolf has a crush on the female vampire which is unrequited as she has a lesbian crush on a ghost girl which in turn has the hots for the werewolf lad. However this idea was cut short as I didn't think we would be able to pull this off, due to the high costume level of both the ghost and werewolf.

Egomaniac
This is one of my ideas for a thriller, It consisted of a group of teenagers that get involved in drugs and get hunted down and chased by drug dealers, resulting in some nasty deaths. The starting sequence begins with a house party in which all the main characters are present and a gunman approaches the house in order to kill them. I steered away from this idea however as it meant I would have to host a house party meaning drunks and stained carpets.

Deadline
This is one of my ideas for a horror, it is about a zombie virus that kills off or infects half the world leaving only Britain as it is a small island uninfected. The film sequence starts off with a small group of teenagers strolling through the woods and are suddenly attacked by zombies, only on girl escapes. She becomes the zombie slayer in order to avenge her friends death.


Conclusion
I've decided Deadline is the movie I am going to shoot, it is arguably the easier choice and offers us the opportunity to goof around as zombies. I also believe the storyline will be easier to understand and absorb by the audience and is far more exciting as an opening sequence than the other two.

Editing

Prior to editing we made a recording log and editing decision list in order to keep track of what shots we wanted to keep and the other less favorable ones.

We edited the sequence via the programme Final Cut Pro. At the start of Deadline during the establishing shot of the lake the location and time appears on screen as if being typed this is a convention of the thriller genre we wished to incorporate into the film. A zoom effect is added to make it feel as though we had zoomed into where the scene was about to take place. To distinguish between human and zombie point of view shots we had the zombies tinted with the colour red as if their eyes are blood shot with rage.

We also used blurs and white wash to make it feel as though the survivors are fading in and out of conscienceness. We also filmed during the day and night therefore the film sequence was half in complete darkness and half in broad daylight however we sorted this problem by editing the brightness of the overall piece, making it all darker. We shot most the movie in chronological order therefore it wasn't to much to hard to assemble the shots into the right timeline.

Love Actually

Movie Summary

Love Actually is a 2003 rom-com, directed by Richard Curtis and hosts a wide cast of actors. It follows the stories of many individuals representing love in many different ways.

Scene Summary

The scene in which I analysed, the characters of Mark and Juliet are watching the wedding video of Juliet and Peter's recent wedding. He loves her but it is unrequited, as the video is mostly consumed of head shots of her she comes to realise that Mark has feelings for her. Juliet confronts him causing him to leave nervously.

Mise en scene

Marks house is quite messy and appears to be in the middle of refurbishment making it quite realistic. The t.v is small showing the audience that he is not extremely well off. Lots of facial expressions are used in this scene, especially by Juliet who conveys just by looking at her that she has come to realise Marks affection towards her. Mark on the other hand shows expressions of shame and cringes as Juliet watches the video, sure that she'll find out. The video also shows the opposite of Mark's own life style, Peter being rich has a big orchestra wedding and Juliet is in a huge long wedding dress showing wealth.

Camera

-Very few different shots
- long shot of Juliet on sofa and Mark standing up
- Close up over Juliet's shoulder focused on t.v
-Low angle close up of Juliet's face as she reacts to wedding video

Editing & Music

-Seamless editing
-Powerful instrumental music builds as Juliet comes to realise Marks feelings towards her
-Awkward silences to make audience cringe and feel sympathy for Mark

Role Allocation

Main Roles

Luke Harrison as Editor
Laura Huggins as Director
Natalie Cardell as Producer

As well as these roles we also decided that we would act within the film, therefore creating a larger cast, other actors also doubled up as camera crew. The cast & crew included-
Luke Harrison as teen #3
Natalie Cardell as teen #4
Laura Huggins as teen #1 (protagonist)
Shaun Morroll as teen #2
Eliot Day as zombie #1
Jacob Day as zombie #2
Tom Ward as zombies 1st victim