Vampire Tweed of the Heavenly Energizer... final take

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RedGSiTNTI

Final evaluation Jake B

Final evaluation

1.       In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our film is a horror film about vampires. To establish our plot we discussed different films which we personally enjoy and we used elements of them to get the basic plot of our film. We all gave input to our discussion and came up with good films. I came up with Nostferatu because the movie is about Vampires and is also one of the most popular horror films in history.  Our film emphasizes our genre with the use of our vampire characters, red text throughout the film and the black, white and red colours which represent darkness and death which vampires are typically associated with.

We used panning shots when Jacob (Matt) is walking from college and down the street to capture his movement. We also used a lot of close-up shots, in particular the clip where Jacob is confronted by the female vampire. A good example of the use of continuity and editing could be the shot where Jacob is walking from college and the shot switches from a panning shot to a close-up to a gradual long shot of Jacob as in between these shots Jacob takes half a step and this is where the two clips meet.

The music in the background at the beginning is very major key and very cheerful until Jacob is followed. Then the music changes to minor key and is very loud and screechy to show distress.

The clothing we used on the vampire characters was dark clothes with little colour at all and Jacob wears a bright blue jacket to show he isn’t a vampire. Nostferatu does this as the evil characters are darkly dressed. The final scene is set in a shaded area to show darkness and evil in our film, and in Nostferatu it does the same when the evil characters are shown. Our font colour is red to emphasize blood and vampires. The text is quite big and bold like in Nostferatu to look scary. A visual convention of our genre which we used is the vampires, the graveyard and the death scene which are all seen in other vampire films such as Nostferatu or Van Helsing.

2.       How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our film we stuck to the stereotype of the vampires being in more power than the human as if we didn’t do this it would be hard to understand from the audience’s perspective. We purposely made Jacob be physically lower than Marcus (David) to emphasize the power of the vampire race against the human race. We also did more close-up shots of Jacob to show the fear in his eyes especially in the ending scene where he is killed.

Jacob’s voice throughout the film can be louder than the other vampires; we did this so that it shows Jacob has courage to stand up against them but then the power balance switches when his family is in danger. Jacob wears very casual clothing to imply that he is normal and not in any power, whereas the vampires wear very dark, rich clothing to emphasize their wealth, authority and status in society.

The lighting on Marcus’s face is halved: one side dark, one side lit to show he has an evil side, then when Jacob learns more about him his face becomes fully lit as his evil side is no longer unknown. The female vampire has slightly less power than Marcus as Marcus is shown higher than Jacob most of the time and the female vampire is shown at a more level height with Jacob showing she has less power until the last few seconds.

3.       What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Our film would have most likely have been produced by Warp films, simply because they usually invest in local films such as Four Lions which was set in Sheffield. And ours is set in Barnsley making it a similar location to Sheffield. If Time Warner produced our film, it would have been set somewhere more recognizable like London or even America, The budget will have been £100 Million or more and the actors would be professional actors with years of experience behind them to attract a wider audience. Whereas if Warp films produced our film, they would have had a much smaller budget, maybe £5-15 million and they may have even kept our original actors to save money and make the film more locally entertaining. Time Warner produced Interview with the Vampire. This film had actors like Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in it who are massively popular around the globe. Actors like these would have featured in our film if Time Warner produced it.

4.       Who would be the target audience for your media product?

Our target audience is anyone above the age of 15 (most likely to the age of 35) that has a strong passion for vampire movies and doesn’t mind mild gore, and some strong language. The audience will be more interested in the film from the local area as it is set in Barnsley. Also males and females will enjoy the film as the film doesn’t belittle any of the genders or races.

We found our target audience by using questionnaires on Facebook to people in the local and surrounding area of Barnsley. From this information we developed our film.

Firstly we looked at the responses from the questionnaires and we picked out the good points and the bad points and we based our film on the things the audience like such as ‘action’ and implemented them into our film.

5.       How did you attract/address your audience?

I think we did reach our target audience, and also I think we gained a wider audience than we first expected as one of the responses on the questionnaire was from someone in their 40’s which is above our expected audience and the person actually thought our film looked really good.

In our planning we included a very detailed plot to our film, which looked like a realistic film synopsis from a well-known production company such as Warp films. I think this alone will have interested the audience simply because it looked so professional and detailed. But also our film interests people with a love for vampire films and action thrillers or both.

Our film appealed to our audience because the three people who answered the questionnaire said it was:

-Intriguing

-Intriguing

-Grasping

In response to the question 'How would you describe our storyline?'

'Would you be interested in watching our film?'

- You would happily pay to watch it: 1

- You would rather watch it for free: 2

- You would rather not watch it: 0

This question shows that the target audience would be happy to watch the film which is a good response and also with the choice of watching it for free, someone still said that they would pay for the film.

      'What age certificate would you rate this film?'

-15 because vampire films are normally violent

-12A because vampire violence is normally comical

-12A because the film doesn't sound violent

This was less succesful as we expected our film to be a certificate 15 and 2/3 people said that it should be rated 12A which isn't our initial target audienece.

We could have improved our target audienece research by having a larger sample size and also we could have asked more questions which required more feedback than one word answers.

6.   What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Before we went out to film we had to decide on where we were going to film and how we were going to do it. To do this we produced a story board, locations sheet and a safety sheet in order to carry out our filming easily and safely. We also decided on filming at a close location to the college.

We produced a story board to tell us where the camera would be placed at each clip so there were no complications on the day. We also created a locations sheet to show where we were filming. And finally we produced a safety sheet to prevent us from causing any damage to the equipment such as the camera and the tripod, and also to stop our cast and crew from being in danger e.g. Road safety.

The technologies we used before we filmed were Google Blogger, Microsoft Word, Facebook, Google Chrome and YouTube (for our research) all of which were accessed on the Apple Mac. We used Google Blogger to store all our work such as the synopsis, the research and planning for our film, and then we used Microsoft Word to type up all our research. We used Facebook for our questionnaire responses and Becky and I used it to communicate and aid each other with the tasks we had to do at home.  We used Google Chrome as an alternative to Internet Explorer because Google Chrome was easier to use and more reliable. Finally we used YouTube for finding similar films to ours to annotate.

                                                             

During filming we used a Sony DV camera, a telescopic tripod and a tape to record on to. The Sony camera was used to film all of the scenes we have in the short film, including the Bloopers video. The tripod was used to hold the camera in a fixed position whilst we filmed. The tape was used to record all our film onto, to then transfer onto the Mac.

After filming we used Final Cut Express to edit our scenes we recorded and to make our Blooper video.

All of the technologies we used were very successful apart from Final Cut Express at times, as it sometimes failed to save our work and it often deleted scenes and froze for no particular reason, because of this we wasted quite a bit of time trying to fix it and also re-do our work.

I have learnt how to use Google blogger and to link YouTube videos into it. I have also learnt how to use the Sony DV camera and the other equipment with it. And finally I have learnt how to do a small amount of editing as I helped Becky edit our film on Final Cut Express.

7.       Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Our brief was this:

Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Main task: The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

From the preliminary task I have learnt how to use the 180 degree rule and to stick by it. I have also learnt to use shot/reverse shot well and keeping good continuity between each shot.

I have got better at getting the shots to have good continuity between them by filming in the exact locations needed. I don’t think I used any other methods in our production of our film apart from just simple time management strategies for doing work at home.

Certificate 15

Certificate 15

The 15 certificate was introduced by the British Board of Film Censors on 1 November 1982, following an overhaul of its classifications as recommended by the Williams Committee. It is currently defined as follows:

Passed only for persons of fifteen years and over. No person

apparently under the age of 15 years shall be admitted to any exhibition at which there is to be shown any film which has received a '15' certificate from the British Board of Film Classification.

It was a direct replacement for the AA certificate, the only difference being that the age limit was raised from fourteen to fifteen. In 1985, following the recommendations of the 1984 Video Recordings Act, the 15 certificate was extended to cover video releases.

While the increased age limit allowed the BBFC to be more lenient with regard to classifying certain films, it became clear towards the end of the 1980s that an additional classification was needed between 15 and PG, as Hollywood in particular was producing an increasing number of films aimed specifically at young teenagers. Since these films were considered too strong for a PG, they were usually given a 15 certificate, thus preventing their natural audience from seeing them.

As a result of increasingly public debate over this issue, the BBFC introduced the 12 certificate in 1989.

The BBFC permits the following within the bounds of the 15 certificate:

Theme: No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate to 15 year olds.

Language: There may be frequent use of strong language; the strongest terms are only rarely acceptable. Continued aggressive use of strong language and sexual abuse is unacceptable.

Nudity: There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

Sex: Sexual activity and nudity may be portrayed but without strong detail. The depiction of casual sex should be handled responsibly. There may be occasional strong verbal references to sexual behaviour.

Violence: Violence may be strong but may not dwell on the infliction of pain, and of injuries. Scenes of sexual violence must be discreet and brief.

Imitable techniques: Dangerous combat techniques such as ear claps, head-butts and blows to the neck are unlikely to be acceptable. There may be no emphasis on the use of easily accessible lethal weapons (in particular, knives).

Horror: Sustained or detailed infliction of pain or injury is unacceptable.

Drugs: Drug taking may be shown but clear instructive detail is unacceptable. The film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug use.

Taken is a good example of a certificate 15 film as it has strong language, mild sexual content, strong violence, imitable techniques and some drug use.

 

Because so many features are used in the film it makes a good, strong 15 film.

Our film will be certificate 15. It will include scenes of strong language, strong bloody violence and horror, as it is a vampire-based film. The reason we have made our film certificate 15 is because the full story for our piece will include strong use of the features shown which would be too intense for a younger audience.

Evaluation of Nostferatu Jake B

Evaluation of Nostferatu



In the first few clips we see the title sequence showing all the characters involved in the movie and also the director. Ours is the same as we also show all these things. The background is black with a big, bold text on it showing the title and the rest of the cast. We also did this but with red text insted of white, but we left out the title as we leave this until the end of our film to build suspense.
In the first scene we see the 2 characters. 1 a man and 2 a woman, they both behave normally as the man is shown tending to his garden and the woman is shown teasing her cat. This then enphazises that the two characters aren't evil as they both behave in a normal fashion. We also did this with our character Jacob. We show him walking out of college and texting on his mobile phone which shows he is normal, also the setting is important as our setting is in an everyday environment which misleads the audience into thinking Jacob is safe when he isn't, where as the two characters are safe in Nostferatu.
We later on see the old man looking at some sort of plan on paper which looks cunning and evil, this then builds a little suspense as he looks insane and the audience will wonder what he has to do with the story as it unfolds. Our film is slightly different as Jacob is dragged down an alley without warning and this can make the audience jump as it is sudden and unexpected and therefore builds alot of tension for the remaining part of the story.
The lighting in Nostferatu is quite dark and in black and white because it is a film from 1922. Our film is modern but we still used black and white in the opening scene to give a past tense feel aswell as making it seem uneasy.
The sound in Nostferatu is major key music which sets the mood of each scene as the silent movie needs music to establish feelings and the setting. We used this in our film by having a soft, minor key guitar sequence in the background to make everything seem calm and safe and then we use a loud shreeking sequence of sound to bring tension and to unexpectedly change the environment from calm to hostile.

Costume/Props

Costumes/Props:

- Henchmen: Black, hooded clothing
- Marcus: Long, black coat, shirt and a hat
- Jacob: Normal, Blue hoodie, jeans and a mobile phone
- Rival vampire: Dark feminine clothing, Thick envelope

The henchmen are dressed in black, hooded clothing to make them look like vampires, as vamires tend to dress in dark colours to represent evil and the darkness of their nature.

Marcus is dressed in a long, black coat with other dark accessories to once again represent evil and darkness, but also to show his high status as his henchmen are dressed more casually than he is, where as Marcus wears a hat and shirt which shows he is a higher status than the rest of the characters.

Jacob wheres casual clothing to show that he is 'normal' and isn't in any sort of class status, and also it shows that he isn't a vampire so it doesn't confuse the audience. Also Jacob has a mobile phone which then implies that he is just an average guy, and it also gives the audience a sense of the time as touch screen mobiles are modern pieces of techology.

The rival vampire is shown wearing dark feminine clothing which shows to audience that she is a vamire, and it also emphasizes the female gender being a higher status than the male character Jacob. The female vampire is also given an envelope which the audience presumes is filled with money, which tells us that she is being paid for something.

Crew

Crew:

- Camera – Jake Bamforth
- Lighting - Becky Sorsby
- Director – Matt Beet and Becky Sorsby

I was the camera man in our film, I think I worked well as I could easily work with the camera and my colleagues. And also add input into the shot angles we decided on.

Becky Sorsby did the lighting, she worked well doing this, as she foung locations with good lighting, such as the alley way where Jacob is grabbed and the Passageway where Jacob and the rival vampire meet as these two locations had dark and shaded lighting which symbolized darkness and evil linking to our genre.

We had two directors, Matt Beet and Becky Sorsby, they worked really well together as they decided on specific elements in the film together and aided each other when necassary.

Cast

Cast:

- Jacob - Matt Beet
- Marcus - Dave Sexton
- Marcus’ henchmen - Becky Sorsby & Joe Smith
- Rival vampire - Becky Sorsby

The cast we chose was very specific, as we chose Matt as Jacob because Matt can easily play the role of this character as he comes across as an inocent young adult with no real features that complicate the story line, for example he has an accent which is clear enough to hear.

We chose Dave Sexton as Marcus because he in person is a dark and cunning character with dark facial features as a vampire would, he also does a really good Slovacian accent.

Joe Smith was one of the henchmen, he can play this part well because he has no lines in the film which gave him an easy part.

Becky Sorsby plays one of the henchmen, although you cannot see her face in the film as this character, she helps the other henchmen (Joe) drag Jacob (Matt) to the grave yard. Becky also plays the rival vampire who takes the package from Jacob and kills him. She can play this part well as she is clear and very intimidating when she stares at Jacob.

Title sequence and End credits

Title sequence: Productions of Jizz
Matt Beet
David Sexton
Becky Sorsby
Joe Smith
Camera by Jake Bamforth
Directed by: Matthew Beet and Becky Sorsby
Edited by: Becky Sorsby

Film title - Vampire Tweed Of The Heavenly Energizer

In the fist few clips the title sequence begins, and the names of the actors fade in and out in red in the bottom, left hand corner. Then the crew names come on in the same format. The title sequence is fairly basic but it makes the film look realistic and not cheaply made, rather than having lots of fast paced animations which look very poor. The red writing represents blood which vampires need to live.

The End credits is just the title of our film: Vampire Tweed of the Heavenly Energizer which fades on screen in red in a classical style font and then fades out and ends our short film.

Location Image 2

This road will be used to film the first snatch scene of the 2 minute opening. It is a common place and doesn't look to obscure, but has an ally way for the main character to be dragged into, and the road is long and wide, therefore there's plenty of room for panning and filming long shots in detail.

Locations 1

This is a screen shot of Eastgate Church near the Old Mill Lane building.

We chose our Locations at Eastgate ally, Eastgate Church and Eastgate gardens simply because they are based around the church yard in Barnsley, which is a perfect setting for a vampire film like ours as it symbolizes death which links to the vampires in the film. Aswell as this, the 3 locations are a minimal distance from our work area in college. This is good as we can go out, film then come back in college to upload the clips with ease.

Vampire Tweed of the Heavenly Energizer Treatment Jake B

Title: Vampire Tweed of the Heavenly Energizer

Location: Eastgate Church / Eastgate

Duration: 2 minutes

Entire film: Approx. 92 minutes

Opening sequence: 7 minutes

Audience: Male & female, aged from around 15 – 35

Similar films: Blade, Vampires suck!, Taken.

Summary: After an old vampires’ son is murdered, he decides it’s time to rid the world of blood-thirsty vampires once and for all.

Suggested elements: Mood: Blue hue to create a chilling atmosphere but emotional as well.
Style of vampires: Similar to the vampire legend in the Twilight Saga, regarding eye colour and make-up of vampire image.

A clip showing the making behind: Interview with a Vampire

        This clip has inspired us to act in a serious mannor as the actors in this film were inspirational to other people around the world for their great acting skills.

A tutorial demonstrating how to make Fake Blood

     This technique has inspired us to use blood effects in our film. We may use a similar formula to make fake blood for Jacob's death.

Twilight: How to achieve Vampire Make-up

     The make-up shown in this clip is very interesting as the final product is very realistic, in our film we may use make-up to make the vampire characters look more 'vampire like' but the cast we have already have quite pale skin, so we might stick to no make-up depending how much time we have for our project.

A clip from the German vampire film, Nosferatu

Nosferatu was one of the first ever Vampire movies released. It includes many of the traditional aspects of a typical vampire and we used these aspects to help us illustrate our own vampire. Count Orlok wears complete black clothing and a black hat (in most scenes). Our actor to portray our vampire, Marcus, was David Sexton, who we asked to wear a black shirt, black jeans and a black trilby. During the film, Count Orlok moves very slowly and intimidating. When directing our film, we made David move slowly as well. However, because of his hat we could not see his facial expressions. Although this was accidental, we decided to keep the clips as it casts a shadow over his eyes, making him appear more mysterious. In addition to this, Count Orlok has back make-up around his eyes, and seen as David wasn't too keen on wearing my eyeshadow, we let him wear his black glasses. This along with the shadow of the hat, also compensates for the dark, sunken eye effect. To compensate for the lack of facial view, we made his script more antagonising and requested that he put on a chilling, Romanian accent, as according to the legend, Vampires originated from Romania.

Twilight Saga

Twilight Saga

This is not a film of our personal choice, but nonetheless a good example of a Vampire film that we has similar elements to uor film such as the speed of the vampire's movement and the casual clothing style of the characters.

Van Helsing Trailer: Vampire Film Research

http://youtu.be/mrOqCgDgXfQ

Genre Research

Thrillers (Genre Research)

Thrillers are a genre of literature, film, and television programming that uses suspense, tension, and excitement as the main elements. A an example of a subgenre is a psychological thriller. They usually heavily stimulate the viewer's moods such as a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety, suspense, excitement, tension, and terror. Devices such as cliffhangers are used a lot. The cover-up of important information from the viewer, and fight and chase scenes are common methods in all thrillers, although each subgenre is independantly different.

Thrillers tend to have protagonists who are usually unaware of the antagonists' true colours.

An action thriller is a sub genre In which the hero/heroine confronts dangerous enemies, obstacles, or situations which s/he must conquer, normally in a violent or suspenseful situation. Examples include Unknown, The Adjustment Bureau, Taken, the Bourne films, etc.