Tracks of Damnation- Final.

Evaluation Question 7

At the beginning of the year I  made a preliminary film. The preliminary film was very basic and we made this short film in order to showcase some shots and angles that we had learnt previously in lessons. To film this we used a very basic film camera which was of quite low quality and didn't have a very good focus. the preliminary film did not have many shots in and had a basic narrative. When it came to editing, it was our first time so the editing was very basic and quite rough. We added a sound track which we downloaded from a royalty free website. The storyboard that we created alongside the filming was also quite basic as it was our first time making a storyboard and we included a few shots and angles. As it was our first time filming the tripod that we used we found it hard to manoeuvre and therefore it was accidently broken whilst filming. The part of the film that was the worst was continuity. Due to the fact that we filmed over two days meant that the actors in it had two different costumes on and made the film look unprofessional.

However when we were filming we did manage to keep the majority of the shots steady therefore that slightly boosted up the quality of the preliminary film. Our teamwork was quite good throughout the filming of the preliminary task- we all worked very hard and listened and respected everyone's ideas.

Over the course of the year I can say that my skills as a media student have increased and developed in extreme amounts. When we created our film opening for Tracks of Damnation my group and myself did a lot of planning so we could create a good narrative and pick a good genre and sub genre that would appeal to our target audience. We also thought a lot about the types of shots and angles we wanted to include in our film. we wanted to have a variety so the audience would always be interested and it would show off our skills as camera men to the examiner.

The quality of camera that we used has developed since we used the flip camera many months ago. The camera that we used for our opening increased the quality of our film dramatically- all of the shots were clear and sharp and appeared well on screen. I have owned the camera for several months which meant that I had a good knowledge of how to operate it- which meant that filming was slightly easier. This was also the same for the tripod- I had used it a few times previously which meant that I understood well how to use it so we had no equipment issues when we were filming.

When we first started to edit we were all a bit unsure about how to piece the clips together so they fitted in well together. However as we started to edit rough cuts and other videos we all became much more confident when it came to editing so we were able to piece together all the clips fluently so the film looked quite professional.

When we made our preliminary film we used a soundtrack downloaded from a royalty free website- we did this because it was the easiest thing to do and was also the simplest. However for Tracks of Damnation we wanted to take a different approach so we decided that we would create our own incidental music. The music that we created was very atmospheric and was created to build tension. The music was created on garage band and was created to match with the clips so the climax matched what would be shown on screen. We did this to showcase more skills which would make our film have a higher quality finish.

In our first film months ago we did not include an ident however in this film to make it look as professional as we could we decided to put in an ident. This would make our production company look legitimate and realistic.

My skills for creating titles have improved vastly since the preliminary film. In the preliminary film we only included one title which was the name of the film. However for this film we included many titles including editing, actors and music. We added animations to the text. We also downloaded a font that could be associated with our genre and sub genre. The title we used in our film made it look more professional and gave it a higher quality.

I think that as a team we worked very well together and we all tried to listen to each others ideas and if we disagreed on something we meet halfway so everyone was happy. We all had a equal part in filming, editing, music and creating the titles. I think that we were all reliable and worked very hard. However we did have some filming issues with our actors and we all began to get very stressed and worried that we would not finished but we had several team meetings and worked soothing out and planned a new narrative which also improved the quality of the film opening.

Evaluation Question 6

Evaluation question 6 from charlottefensomchenderit

Evaluation Question 5.

Evaluation question 5- Improved from charlottefensomchenderit

Evaluation Question 4.

When creating a film there are different kinds of audiences that the film will be distributed to. Tent pole audience is the largest, usually Hollywood conglomerates distribute to audiences of this size therefore increasing the profit that the film will take. Often smaller production companies or independent film companies will distribute at a lower level. The audiences that they will distribute to are niche, local or a national audience. This means that the film may be popular in their own reign but may struggle to become popular over seas.

We are a independent film company and we also do not have a large budget which means that we may struggle to distribute at a larger scale. Therefore we would distribute to a local, niche or national audience. I don't think that our film would reach a tent pole audience as the film does not include any well known actors, therefore I don't think a larger distributor would take a risk on an independent film with an unknown cast. If a film included a well known cast and a production company this will mean that fans of them will recognise them and their work. This means that it will encourage the audience to see the film. The stars of the film may have a good reputation and have won awards therefore this film will appeal to a larger tent pole audience.
In our film the actors are British. This may mean that our film will only appeal to a British audience as there may include terminology and humour that the British audience would only understand. The British audience may also find the actors more relatable as they are from the same country as them.
Slasher films tend to have a smaller target audience therefore it may be hard to distribute this film at a larger scale to a tent pole audience therefore this opening would be more suited to a niche audience.


When we were creating this opening we needed to find out how to classify our film. We did this by researching the BBFC. The British Board of Film Classification is an independent, non-governmental body which has classified cinema films since setting up in 1912 and DVDs since the Video Recordings Act was passed in 1984.
An example of how the BBFC classify their films is a PG. For a PG film the BBFC state what PG means and who it is suitable for and they may also give an example of a film which would be ok for viewing. The BBFC inform you what themes may be included and if there would be a any bad language, sex or violence included in the films. The website also gives you a website which contains additional information about classification.

For our opening we decided that the classification will be rated 15. We have decided to use this rating because it is the correct age for our target audience and the content that we will include in our film. Our target audience begins at the age of 15 which means that our target audience will be able to go and watch our film without being too young. Another reason why we chose to have the age rating at 15 is because some elements of our film may be quite gory and violent and the British Board of Film Classification states that in a rated 15 film it is allowed to include some gory elements. After doing my research on the BBFC website I now know what elements and features not to include in my film. In our film we will not include any crude sexual references or any sexual content that is detailed. Although our film may be gory and have slight violence we will not include any sadistic or sexual threat in the movie. One of the themes in our film opening is danger however we will not cross the line of including any suicidal or self harm in our film as these elements would be sending the wrong message to our target audience and would not be appropriate to watch.

I think that this film would appeal to both males and females because I know that people in the target audience range do enjoy horror films. However I think that our film may generally appeal more to males because males stereotypically like horror films more because females get scared easily. Males may like the film more because the secondary character is a male so they may find Ton relatable.

Evaluation question 3

Distribution is the process of launching a film in the market place and sustaining public interest in the film. Worldwide distribution is dominated by US companies such as Disney, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Universal and Warner. Distributors are involved in investing the films production, distributing the rights of the film or marketing the film to the target audience. Big conglomerates like the ones in Hollywood can invest in smaller companies which allow them to vertically integrate into other areas in the media industry which allows them to keep the profit that is made in their company.

There are different sizes of audiences and distribution will depend on what size these audiences are. Larger and higher budgeted films mean that the film will be distributed to a larger audience called Tent Pole. Usually larger film conglomerates like Warner Brothers will distribute at this level. Smaller distribution companies usually distribute to a niche audience or a local/national audience. This kind of distribution usually happens with independent films.

Distribution occurs at different levels due to budget. Film conglomerates usually distribute at a larger scale due to high profit. This means that the film can be distributed to a tent pole audience and can afford to do so therefore gaining more popularity and profit for the film. However smaller films or independent films do not have the same profit as Hollywood conglomerates therefore the level of distribution is decreased. This means that the film will be distributed to a niche, local or national audience. This is done at a smaller scale which means the film may have less profit to a conglomerate film distributed at a tent pole audience.






Possible film distributors.



1.Fox Searchlight Pictures.
Fox searchlight pictures was established in 1994 and is an American film distribution company. It is also a subsidiaries to the conglomerate 20th Century Fox. This company specialises in the distribution of independent and British films. They are sometimes responsible for the funding of films. Fox Searchlight Pictures also specialise in Horrors. Using this distributor would be a good match for our film because our genre of film is horror therefore this company may be interested in us. This company mainly focuses on independent films therefore this would be suitable for Tracks of Damnation and would hopefully guarantee success for our film.






2. Film4 Productions.
Films4 Productions is a film production company owned by British Channel Four Television Corporation. The company is responsible or backing a number of films which have been made in the United Kingdom. The company's first film was released in 1982 and was called Walter- it was directed by Stephen Frears. Films distributed by this company were later aired on television- this helped the company increase their sales and advertising. This company is driven to support independent films and is very supportive of the British film industry. I think that this company would be a suitable company because they support indie films and showcase them on television. Therefore the film will have increased views and will reach a national, niche and a local audience.






3. BBC Films
BBC Films is the feature film making section of the BBC. It has produced and co produced most o the successful British Films including Salmon Fishing in Yemen. They produce around 8 films a year, they work with major international and UK distributors. I think that this company would be good for our film because it is a British company therefore we would have a niche, national and local audience for our film. This company also has a good track record when distributing companies and have been very successful with other films.




However in order to get funding we could go to the BFI. The National Lottery award grans to film makers- this is given  out through the BFI. The BFI make in the region of 25 major productions each year and provide development support or around 100 feature productions.




A company like Disney would not distribute our film as it is very low scale. The genre of our film would not be suitable for Disney's aimed market as their target audience is young children and families therefore a Slasher film would not be suitable for the conglomerate. Our film and the cast are also very unknown therefore I am not sure Disney would take a risk on a film with an unknown cast.

Evaluation Question 2.

Evaluation question 3: How does your media product represent particular social groups? from charlottefensomchenderit

Evalution Question 1.

Evaluation question 1- improved from charlottefensomchenderit

Joes garage scene.

This is the sequence of the garage scene. In the garage scene we are including some shots which show our antagonist sharpening his axe and preparing for his next murder. We hope that these shots will build up tension and an atmosphere for our target audience.

Inspiration for dual narrative

To create our dual narrative we have used the opening of Nightmare on Elm Street as inspiration for the kind of shots that we would like to recreate.

Audience Test

We filmed our focus group watching our film opening. We asked them questions that relate to camera shots and angles etc. We chose to ask these people as they are the right age for our target audience.

Filming Update

Since me and Katie have been in Venice Alfie has audience tested our rough cut. Therefore we have received feedback concerning our film opening. We have also received feedback from our teacher. To improve our film we are going to rewrite the first part of our film. In this rewrite we are going to include a dual narrative. In this rewrite we are going to have some shots of the antagonist sharpening his weapon and putting on his mask. We are going to do this in a different location. We will edit this together with the second part to create a jump cut.

We are also going to to only use 2 actors as it will be more convenient for filming and it will make the narrative clearer as we realised before there wasn't a good reason for Sophie being there. Instead we are going to have a narrative where Ton and Edward are out walking a dog and then they go their separate ways to go home- this is where it will link in with the second part of our rough cut.

In terms of titles, sound and our ident we have completed our incidental music and have found the necessary sound effects that we need for the opening.

We are having some troubles with the titles as when we add the animation for the title there is a blue tinge which we are having trouble getting rid of.
Our ident has been created but we are having trouble embedding it onto the opening of our clip as it has been shrunk down.
Hopefully tomorrow we are going to film the dual narrative part of the opening including our antagonist.

Filming update.

This week 2 members of the group will be away in Venice. During this time period that we are away for the other team member will be in charge of doing reshoots and adding in a few shots for our film. Whilst we are away the 2 parts of the rough cut will be audience tested and put on our blogs.

ROUGH CUT PART 2

This is part two of our rough cut. In the part of the rough cut it includes the climax scenes where the protagonists murder is built up and is committed.

Tracks of Damnation-rough cut part 1

This is the first part of our rough cut. It includes the shots building up to the shots where the protagonists walks of by himself and is targeted by the antagonist.

Hustler productions- our ident

This is our finished ident that we will be using. We chose to use this music in the ident as it makes the production company sound established and of a good quality.

Ident foley art compliation.

We have decided that we are going to call our production company "Hustler Productions". We decided for our ident that we would have a voice over of someone whispering Hustler Productions. We think that this will sound effective and hopefully overall look quite professional. This is a compilation of several clips that we are considering using in our ident for our film.

Filming Update

We have filmed the majority of our film opening. We have one or two shots left to complete which we could do complete in half term because our actors had other commitments. The shots we have left to do are:

The murder shot- the antagonist swings the weapon down onto the camera to signify the protagonists death.

Finding the body- the protagonist is found with wounds and bruising covering his face.

We hope to do these shots at some point over this week or the weekend. We want to get this done this week so we can dedicate our time more to editing and adding sound and titles to our opening.

Names on the titles.

When we add titles to our film opening i watched 2film openings to see how the cast and production were ordered. I watched the Legally Blonde and Perks of Being a Wallflower film openings.

Halloween order:
Production Company
Film Producer
Actor
Titles
Film Producer
Main Character
Screenplay
Director of Photography
Film editors
Music
Associate producers
Production Manager
Production Designer
Executive Producer
Produced by
Directed

Perks of Being a Wallflower order:

Production Company

Main actors 

Film title

Casting

Music

Music Supervisor

Editor 

Production Designer

Director of Photography

Executive Producers

Producer 

Screenplay 

Director

From looking at these orders it will give us a good idea of what we should include in our titles and which order they should go in.

Deciding on typography.

From our typography mood board we narrowed four fonts that we thought would be conventionally used in a horror or a slasher film. We thought these fonts would fit in well with the genre and sub genre of our film. We put these chosen fonts on word document and created a focus group who would give opinions on which font we should choose for our opening. The people in our focus group were the same age as our target audience in order to give an accurate answer on what the TA would like to see font wise. We recorded the responses so we would have an answer with a reason to which font that they preferred. We used voice recordings to do this.

These were the four font choices selected for our focus group.

To get feedback about our typography we asked a few people in our target audience and recorded it on a voice memo- this is their response;

Q: What font do you prefer and why?
A: Font 4 because it looks like it has been scratched into wood and looks the most effective and goes with the genre.

Q: What font do you prefer and why?
A: I think font 1 or font 4, but mainly font font 4 because I think that it fits the genre more and stands out.
A: I think font 4 fits the supernatural and horror film. I think that font 2 looks nice but I like that font 4 isn't as cliche and is quite unique.

Weapon change

We had trouble procuring the axe so we had to use a piece of wood with nails in. We used this because it looks threatening and could be a more savage way of killing. Using this as a weapon makes our opening slightly more unique as there aren't many weapons used like this in Horror and Slasher films.

Progress of filming part 2.

We thought that we would be filming our final part of our opening this week which would be the group scenes. However we have had 2 problems with this.

1. We have recently had some snow therefore we cannot proceed in filming as in the other shots we have different weather therefore the continuity in our shots will be off.

2. Our second problem is one of our actors cannot attend the filming session that we scheduled for saturday. Due to this we cannot do the group filming session that day. We have had to move our last filming session to half term where we hope to get the final shots filmed in one day.

Progress of filming.

At this point in time we have completed two filming sessions. The first session of filming was between our main protagonist and our antagonist. We filmed several shots of the point in the opening where the climax is built up therefore a lot of shots is needed to reflect this. We incorporated both actors together in one or two shots. However after we looked back on our footage we found that we didn't have enough shots of our protagonist at the build up to the point where he is killed. 

After discussing this with our team and the actors, we scheduled another filming session with the main protagonist so we could film more shots for the climax point. When we did the second filming sessions we tried to focus on doing some close ups of the protagonist's face. We also tried to include different shot angles and distances to add shot variation to our film opening.

We are in the process of scheduling another filming sessions in which we can finish off the shots we need. These shots are the group shots. We have about 8 shots to complete and hope to get them done during one day.

Foley Artist work- recording and distorting train whistle sounds.

In our film opening at the end of the clip before the title sequence comes in we have decided to record and distort a classic train whistle sound. We hope to use this sound when the antagonist makes his first kill. We think using this will help the audience to make the connection from the whistle to the storyline. The whistle that we have used is quite old therefore it makes our antagonist seem as if he is older and come from a time period where these whistles were used.

We recorded five or six different whistle sounds using QuickTime Player. We tried to vary the sound and length of the whistle sounds so we would have more options when it comes to choosing the right fit for our film opening.

This clip shows the original version of the sound and the edited distorted sound.

This is the train whistle we used for the recording.

Testing filters.

In our film opening we hope to use filters to create a creepy and more eerie atmosphere. Although we filmed our opening during the day using high key lighting we may use filters to create a gloomy effect conventionally associated with horror films.

This is a video that we used for reference when testing out filters.

This is the outcome of the tester filter footage.

Speed Practise- Premiere Pro, before and after

This is a clip from our film opening. We have added ambient sound and have also increased the speed of the clip.

Creating our own Incidental music tester

Although we have been researching incidental music from Royalty Free Music we thought we should create a piece of incidental music. We used garage band to create these sounds. We wanted to create a piece of music that is conventionally associated with horror and slasher films. We included deep and high pitch sounds which contrast well together and create a eerie atmosphere. We have also included a climax point which is created to make the viewer jumper.

Speed Practise- Premiere Pro

In our film opening we wanted to include a shot in which the protagnist was walking forward and the antagonist runs behind him fast. In order to do this we needed to learn how to speed up footage to make it seem as if the antagonist was extremely fast. We used some of our tester shots to practise speeding up and slowing down footage at different speeds. We also leanrt how to keep th sound levels at the normal level even when speeding up the film footage. Having this skill may improve the quality of our film opening.

Speed Practise- Premiere Pro

In our film opening we wanted to include a shot in which the protagnist was walking forward and the antagonist runs behind him fast. In order to do this we needed to learn how to speed up footage to make it seem as if the antagonist was extremely fast. We used some of our tester shots to practise speeding up and slowing down footage at different speeds. We also leanrt how to keep th sound levels at the normal level even when speeding up the film footage. Having this skill may improve the quality of our film opening.

Speed Practise- Premiere Pro

In our film opening we wanted to include a shot in which the protagnist was walking forward and the antagonist runs behind him fast. In order to do this we needed to learn how to speed up footage to make it seem as if the antagonist was extremely fast. We used some of our tester shots to practise speeding up and slowing down footage at different speeds. We also leanrt how to keep th sound levels at the normal level even when speeding up the film footage. Having this skill may improve the quality of our film opening.

Speed Practise- Premiere Pro

In our film opening we wanted to include a shot in which the protagnist was walking forward and the antagonist runs behind him fast. In order to do this we needed to learn how to speed up footage to make it seem as if the antagonist was extremely fast. We used some of our tester shots to practise speeding up and slowing down footage at different speeds. We also leanrt how to keep th sound levels at the normal level even when speeding up the film footage. Having this skill may improve the quality of our film opening.

Draft title sequence

This is a short title sequence that one of my team members created. This is not the final one, we wanted to have rough idea of what it was going to look like and the font and colour scheme we were going to use.

Incidental title music.

At the end of our film opening the title of our film will be shown on the screen in a font that relates to our genre, sub genre and narrative. When this music is shown on screen we hope to include a piece of music which will go well with the typeface and the name of the film.

I researched some different music genres like horror and thriller and found some tracks on 'Royalty Free Music'. The tracks I found were either creepy, eerie and also built suspense- this is the kind of music we had hoped to include in our title sequence.

I thought that this piece of music would be a good fit for out title sequence as it is very suspenseful and uses instruments which are conventionally used in horror sound tracks e.g violin and deep sounding instruments. We also thought that this sound track could be used in one of the shots where the face of the antagonist can't be seen. We think that not seeing the antagonists face and the eerie music paired together will give a more suspenseful and creepy effect on the audience.

Sound effects.

This is a compilation of a series of sound effects which we may be using in our film opening. We selected these because they are quite eerie and fit in well with our genre and sub genre. One of my team members researched online for different sound effects and these were the best ones suited for our opening.

Production Equipment.

This is the camera that my group and myself are using to film our film opening. It is a Nikon D3200 DSLR camera. We chose to film with this camera because it belongs to a member of our group so we will not have any trouble getting ahold of filming equipment. We also chose to film using this camera as it comes with 2 lenses which means we have can different lengths of shots in our film. The camera quality of filming is very high which will make our film look more professional and of a higher standard.

This is the tripod that we are using for our film opening. We are using this tripod because it is quite sturdy and supports the camera well. The tripod also extends to a good length which enables us to create shots at different angels to make our film look good.

Script

 These are some screen shots of our script was created on Adobe story. We felt that this look very professional and was a good layout.

Tons audition video.

This is Ton's audition video. We asked him to improvise a small piece of dialogue in his character of "thug/jock". We selected Ton as our replacement as we felt he was very experienced (GCSE, A Level, and partakes in after school plays.) We also thought that he would play the part well. My group and myself thought that Ton would be good because he lives in the village that we are filming in, which means that he will be able to come to filming and not have to worry about travelling.

Issue concerning filming.

Over the Christmas break we had an issue with one of our protagonists. The issue was one of the actors wasn't as committed to our task and we thought he was. Due to this we had a group discussion and thought about the possibilities and ways we could resolve this issue. We came to the conclusion that we had to replace Malachi. 

Our next task was to find a suitable replacement for Malachi. We discussed as a group and came to a mutual agreement that we would use Ton Wentink. We felt that he was experienced and would fit the part well and would also be able to travel to the location easily. 

Filming starts.

We began filming on the 2nd of January with one of our actors. We filmed a few scenes and whilst filming these scenes we took several shots so we will have a choice of the clips that we we will use in our opening. We found that the filming was very successful despite the cold conditions. We felt as a team we worked very well together and we were constantly bouncing ideas of each other and even had advice from our actor. Overall we were very pleased with the footage.