Family Ties (AS Media Project)

This is a completed version of our 2-minute Media project, Family Ties. Some things were changed from the original script, in fact it was altered a lot, but the story remains the same. One man in a terrible struggle, for his life.

Evaluation - James Swann

Click this link to James' Evaluation:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1f1pLSUKGbmE14BkSmLDzqwALUPgkkElW8PXWjd-DZaQ/edit

Evaluation - Connor Jackson

Click this link to Connor's Evaluation: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4Ttobyyi9NJMjRaaERfWG5TR1U/edit

Kieran Charlesworth Evaluation

Click this link to Kieran's Evaluation   https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4Ttobyyi9NJZC1DVXFMb0t6Mjg/edit

Fifteen Minute Analysis - Connor Jackson

On the last sheet, I said two of the shots were 'low-angle shots' when they were really high-angle shots.

Research: Similar Films and Audiences

Individual analysis

Individual Analysis Saw These similarities include people waking up in places that have something dangerous about them. This is one of several similarities, which include the how much you want to live. Our film has a similar sort of trend with Saw as they both have some important and key points. Our film has a man waking up in shed with tape round his mouth this is very similar to Saw as in Saw two men wake up in a bathroom. In Saw the two men don’t know why they are in that position same as Chris doesn’t know where he is in our film. In our two minute film Chris wakes up to find himself in a garden shed alone. He then has flashbacks to remember why he is there. Then the shed door opens and there is a man with his hood on stood there. Chris is our main character in the first two minutes unlike in Saw where there are two main characters. In Saw the two main characters are mainly seen in the bathroom and nowhere else in the first fifteen minutes of the film. I think that Saws first fifteen minutes are mainly used to set the scene of the film, this is done by the men speaking about how they got there and who has put them there. The film then goes onto how the men will try to escape the bathroom as they are chained to some pipes. The film then flashes back to the men’s last movements before they got to the bathroom. This is a rough view of what happens in the first fifteen minutes of the film. I think that there are differences in our film and Saw. In this shot one of the men is looking around in the bathroom at how he got there. He goes on talk to the other man about how they both could escape from the chains. This will happen in our film because when Chris wakes he will start panicking and wondering where he is, just like the man in this shot.

This is a mid close up shot of the other man in the bathroom in this shot. The man is trying to work out where he is and what is going on. This again is very similar to what will happen to Chris in our film.

The film then flashes back to see a girl who managed to escape her fate by doing as she was told on a tape given. The girl escaped by finding the key in her friend’s body. In our film Chris will have a flashback to how he got there similar to this shot, however in Saw the police were quizzing this women on what she knew before it went to a flashback.

Continuity

We've viewed our film many times, checking that everything fits together, piece by piece. the continuity of our film is possibly its strongest factor. There are many match-on-action shots that fit well, and by cutting bits that seem sloppy, we've ensured the film runs smoothly and is good on the eye. I am genuinly proud of what we've done.

The Hills Have Eyes Poster Analysis

This poster is reloevent to our film because it is a man kidnapping a person to take some wear. The poster shows a desserted waste land with lots of mountains in the distance. This adds to the effect of no one being there to help. This is similair to our film because Chris is alone in the shed in our film. The poster also shows the persons grabbing the ground and trying to hold on for dear life.

Group 13 Title Sequence Story Board

Paranormal Activity 3 15 minute Analysis

Amityville Horror Poster Analysis

I think that this poster is relevent to our film because the house is shown as the real villian in the film and the poster. However in our film the villian is a human but if we were to create a poster we would probably show the shed in the poster as it is a big part of our film. The House in the poster is shown to be alive as the houses windows and doors make the house look like a living persons face. This makes the audience want to watch the film as a murderus house is not normally shown in most horror films.

Tricky Shot List

This is the list for the shots that we think will be tricky to shoot when we go off and film. We have chosen these shots are tricky shots because we believe that these are the most important shot which will get us the best grade. I have included the Filming at night shot in because we started to film the other day and found out that we could not film after around 6 o'clock as there was no light and the light on the camera was not good enough. We have decided now to film in the light as the quality of the film will look better than having it in the dark where the camera can hardly seen anything.

Risk Assesment Risks

Possible Location Risks The main risk to our location is people walking onto our set. This could be easily done as we are filming some of it in Newmillerdam Park. In Newmillerdam Park there will be lots of dog walkers, meaning that dogs and people could wonder into our set. We aim to prevent this by having signs up stopping people from wandering through to our set. One other risk is that the ground will be uneven, so trips are more likely to take place. I think that by being careful and by watching where we are going we should all be fine. Our other location is in Kieran’s shed it has one or two small risks. One of the risks being stuff falling from off the work top. This is unlikely because Kieran moved most of his stuff out of his shed and moved them into his garage so that they wouldn’t get in the way. One other risk in this location is the risk of getting splinters. This can be prevented by watching were we put our hands before we put them there. The final risk is the risk of us falling over this is very unlikely as the shed is very small, so there isn’t much risk at all from falling over. I think that this is very preventable by watching were we put our feet.

Prop List

Prop List

• Baseball Bat to hit Connor with- We have chosen a Baseball bat over anything else to show that it is a urban setting and to show that the mystery character is a Baseball fan.

• Rope to tie - We are using rope to show that the main character,Chris, is powerless at this moment of time. It also shows that he cannot escape the shed as he is unable to use his hands. 

• Stool to be used to sit on in the shed - Stool used for the main character to fall off when he's tied up.

• Tape to rap round Connors mouth - To also show that the main character is powerless. To show that the mystery character is wanting something with Chris as he does not want him to talk.

• Skateboard to help drag Connor with the camera - We will use this as if we drag him by his arms, the camera will be shaking a lot and will be hard to film. Using a skateboard to drag someone will be a lot easier to drag and film.

• Mask to hide mystery characters face - To show that the character is a very mystery character and does not want to be recognised. Using this prop also suggest that the mystery is trying to hide something about his personality or who he actually is.
• Mobile phone is used as Connor is walking down the path - We decided to add this in at the last minute as when Connor is attacked, we will have him drop his phone and have someone talking on the other end. Also the phone conversation as he is walking will explain who he is and what has happened to him. This is one of the most important props as it explains a lot of the story. 

Poster Analysis

I think that the film poster for Saw is very relevent to the film because it shows a hand on its own. I think that the hand on the poster is weird and spooky. I think that the poster makes people want to watch the film as it makes people want to know what has happend to the hand. The hand is quite relevant to our film because in our film an arm drops out of the cupboard onto Connor, who is lying on the floor helpless.     

The Amityville Horror (2005) Official Trailer

The newest film starts with blue skies and sunshine and it shows a family buying their dream house for a very cheap price. I think this nice happy part of the trailer will be very different to our first two minutes as there is no happiness in the first two minutes of our film. This is because our film is very dark and mysterious right from the very beginning. We went for this idea because it set the atmosphere of our film. This hopefully will make people people want to watch more of the film. I think that in the first two minutes of a film it is very important to introduce main characters, so that the audience know a little bit about them. The Amityville film introduces the main characters and the history of house in the first part of the film (and the trailer). I beleve that our first two minutes will be a bit like the Amityville film because the audience will be in a position of worrying about the characters. The shed in our film is a really big part in the horror of our film, just like in Amityville where the house is almost a character, as the windows like eyes and the house is haunted by an evil spirit.

Location Photographs - Garden

This is the location where the 'garden' scene will be filmed. There are several areas where we can film from. We will film inside the shed for most of our scenes in the garden, however we will film from outside the shed to get a perspective of where it is. We also film slowly backing away from the shed door getting further every time. This is to give the audience the idea that something or someone is inside. This allows the audience to know that the shed is relevant to our main story of the film.

Location Photographs - Shed (Exterior)

This is the exterior of the shed we are filming our main scene in. We have chosen this place to film because we needed a small dark room to film in and we could not get one for our film which meant that we had the idea to film in a small shed.

Risk Assessment - Burton Road

This is the first risk assessment for our first two minutes of our film. This is for the location: Burton Road. We go into detail about the risks in another post.

Location Photographs - Burton Road

These are photographs of the first location we may be filming at. This is where our protagonist might be attacked. Possible memory sequence. We have chosen this location over all the others because it is an urban location and its away from the public which means that we had a better chance of the public not walking onto our filming spot. We have decided to not film in this location as we tried to shoot a scene here and it did not look like a horror setting. The reason for this is because when we were filming, there would be people walking dogs in the background, the location was too bright and the main factor is that the place did not look like a horror setting.

Storyboard by C. Jackson

 A second hand drawn storyboard, this one was done with better understanding of the storyline. This might be changed as we have added more shots into the films.

The Second Treatment

The Story

This is the final draft of the storyline. We have changed a few parts of this when we were filming. We decided to have Connor talking on the phone when walking doen the path as we could then have a close up of the phone when he was being dragged. We hade the idea to look at the screen of the phone and have someones voice shouting his name. We liked this idea because it shows part of the story and we get another shot added into the film.

Storyboard by K. Charlesworth

This is a hand drawn version of the storyboard.

Film Title Research

The First Treatment

Extended Protagonist Profile

First Come, First Serve, First Draft

This is the Script for our two minute film. It may be edited over time, but this is the completed first draft. We think that we may add more to our script over the course of our preparation period as we may want to add new shots. 

Character Profile

This is a list of the characters that will be in our film. Chris is the protagonist and the other characters are who will shape his fate.

Saw Trailer

  This film is similar to our film as they both have the same genre. The film includes a mad man trapping people and torturing them to change their way of life.

Film Distribution Research Part 2

I have found another small distributor to possibly distribute our film. It is called Soda Pictures and they distribute small films, which fits our film description.

Diffusion Pictures are also a low budget distribution company, which distributes low budget films similar to ours. We have been looking into low budget film company distributors as we are filming a low budget start of a film.

The History of the Horror Genre research

The History of the Horror Genre

There are many types of horror. Fear of death, fear of growing old, fear of the unknown,and fear of death are all types of sub-genres that are used in the horror genre. If we go back around 150 years ago you can see that there is not a very big difference between the horror films then and now. Films now and then still use the same topics in their films.
Horror has been around for a very long time as even people communicate with one another as they enjoy scaring each other. Most of the earlier films were based on stories that would have been passed on by others. This day people still write some stories about old stories and new stories as they have more of an effect that trying to make up a story.

By a recent survey found on ocala.com showed that this year 70% of people will be watching a Horror film. This information below shows that different horror films that have been successful from the 1960's to 2002 from the same ocala.com website.

Film Distribution Research

I have found a suitable distributor for our film. I have been researching different distributors to distribute our film and I think that this will be the most suitable because they distributed Dead Mans Shoes, which is a similar film to ours.It also has a good history of distributing small budget films. This information came from the website: StudioCanal   

Another distributor that I have found is REDBUS. They have also distributed other small budget films like Bend It Like Beckham. However this is a different genre to our film as it is a horror and not a comedy.

I also have found out about Momentum Pictures, who are another small distributor. They have also done similar films to us like The Crazies.