Task 4: Crew and Talent
I am my own crew as I am doing the filming myself as the movie is shot from the protagonists point of view. This makes me the protagonist I guess, although the protagonist remains annonymous and faceless. This also means I do not require any crew although my film may feature people that I come across on my travels in Thailand. My family will also be featured in the film but only in passing, their faces are often not shown and they to the audience may just appear as any other unrelated member of the public.
Task 5: Production Schedule
As my holiday takes place from the 17th of July until the 2nd of August, that is when my production will take place as that is when my filming will need to be done. Any additional footage or footage that needs to be re-shot will be done during the first two weeks of term, aiming to have all filming done by the 14th of August, if not before.
Task 6: Art Department
I do not require any costumes as the protagonist is not seen and the other people featured in the film are supposed to be seen just as the protagonist sees them and so them dressed in the normal attire is what I am looking for.
Task 7: Locations, Permission
I filmed in Christchurch airport, Changi airport, on the plane and various locations around Thailand. As my film was mainly composed of photos this did not require any permission as it was just like any tourist taking holiday snapshots and I did not have any funny people running around in costumes and being disruptive that I needed to film as I was filming as-is.
Thursday, 14 July 2011
Wednesday, 6 July 2011
Treatment
The present.
Kitchen.
At home.
Time of day irrelevant.
The protagonist (camera P.O.V) is staring at calendar. Shot of calendar is shown. Using flash burst/stop motion, the calendar then shows as days are counted down/crossed out, building up to the date of departure which will be shown in same way eg; circled in red. The shot will then change to showing the suitcases and/or the tickets/passports lying around the house, moving increasingly closer to the front door or out into the car. This will also just be photos/stop motion.
The Present.
Memorial Avenue.
Early Morning.
As they travel down the road (Memorial Avenue) maybe some more photos or very short amounts of film footage. Upon arrival at the airport, shots of the departures board will be shown and perhaps other airportish things, eg; carousel, gates etc. The protagonist walks to get a cup of coffee. High angle shot looks down on the cup of coffee.This will also be shown in the same way that Memorial Ave is shown. All this will lead up to the departure. The purpose of this is to show the anticipation, the boredom as both the audience and the protagonist are really just waiting to leave the airport.
The Present.
On the plane.
Morning.
The protagonist looks out the window. Clouds will be visible. Maybe at some point, some land. The lapse of time will be made evident, as 10 hours have to pass. The arrival at Singapore airport will be shown. The protagonist looks out of the plane window, down on Thailand, approaching Phuket. They walk out of the plane, into the airport.
The present.
Phuket.
Night time.
The protagonist travels to the resort. Snippets will be shown of the journey. The protagonist arrives at the resort. and looks around, taking in the unfamiliar scenery. Inside the lobby. The corridor to the room. Inside the room. Up to now this will have taken about 90 seconds?
The protagonist sees friendly Thai faces in the street. Goes to the beach. Sees amazing views. Goes on an elephant ride - the camera shots will be jerky and all over the place. Film continues with snippets from the holiday, showing Thailand. Total length of film will be around 5 minutes.
Mellow music plays continuously. Perhaps building in volume in places. Matched to the photos.
I changed the start for time restrictions in regard to the length of my movie and this footage was deemed to be the least relevant and therefore best to cut. The drive to the airport was also removed as my dad thought he was funny and pulled faces in my shot and so I used other, better footage.
Instead I included (all things shot in the present) - elephant trek, boat trips, different areas and locations/events in Phuket.
Kitchen.
At home.
Time of day irrelevant.
The protagonist (camera P.O.V) is staring at calendar. Shot of calendar is shown. Using flash burst/stop motion, the calendar then shows as days are counted down/crossed out, building up to the date of departure which will be shown in same way eg; circled in red. The shot will then change to showing the suitcases and/or the tickets/passports lying around the house, moving increasingly closer to the front door or out into the car. This will also just be photos/stop motion.
The Present.
Memorial Avenue.
Early Morning.
As they travel down the road (Memorial Avenue) maybe some more photos or very short amounts of film footage. Upon arrival at the airport, shots of the departures board will be shown and perhaps other airportish things, eg; carousel, gates etc. The protagonist walks to get a cup of coffee. High angle shot looks down on the cup of coffee.This will also be shown in the same way that Memorial Ave is shown. All this will lead up to the departure. The purpose of this is to show the anticipation, the boredom as both the audience and the protagonist are really just waiting to leave the airport.
The Present.
On the plane.
Morning.
The protagonist looks out the window. Clouds will be visible. Maybe at some point, some land. The lapse of time will be made evident, as 10 hours have to pass. The arrival at Singapore airport will be shown. The protagonist looks out of the plane window, down on Thailand, approaching Phuket. They walk out of the plane, into the airport.
The present.
Phuket.
Night time.
The protagonist travels to the resort. Snippets will be shown of the journey. The protagonist arrives at the resort. and looks around, taking in the unfamiliar scenery. Inside the lobby. The corridor to the room. Inside the room. Up to now this will have taken about 90 seconds?
The protagonist sees friendly Thai faces in the street. Goes to the beach. Sees amazing views. Goes on an elephant ride - the camera shots will be jerky and all over the place. Film continues with snippets from the holiday, showing Thailand. Total length of film will be around 5 minutes.
Mellow music plays continuously. Perhaps building in volume in places. Matched to the photos.
I changed the start for time restrictions in regard to the length of my movie and this footage was deemed to be the least relevant and therefore best to cut. The drive to the airport was also removed as my dad thought he was funny and pulled faces in my shot and so I used other, better footage.
Instead I included (all things shot in the present) - elephant trek, boat trips, different areas and locations/events in Phuket.
Monday, 4 July 2011
My Film Opening
My film does not fit under one standard genre, but more the travel documentary area of film. The main ideas i wish to explore are a journey to and/or experiences of Thailand. The idea of travel and experiencing a foreign place. It would be nice to attract the audience by causing them to think wistfully of the images they are seeing and make them interested in what I am showing them so that they, too, may be interested in going to Thailand. I am considering doing something along the lines of the house of travel tv add: Powered by the People.
I would like to include photos of what I am doing and also while I am doing them, for example elephant trekking, so that would include jerky shots if done in stop motion. I would start my film with photos of the lead up to Thailand, to create antiocipation and so that the audience has a clear idea of what is going on. This will probably just include photos of all the luggage, perhaps in stop motion as it moves around the house towards the door. I would also like to include the tickets and the calendar to fully create the atmosphere and then some shots at the airport before I leave, for instance getting coffee, to create the feeling of more anticipation and idle boredom as we are waiting for the real excitement of Thailand. The lead up to leaving would be only a small portion of the movie though as it is not the really interesting part and the audience would likely get bored. After this intro I would perhaps change the soundtrack but this remains unknown as any songs have not been decided on yet.
I did not end up including the lead up as it would have made my movie too long and was kind of irrelevant to the idea that I wanted so I figured the other stuff was more important to include.
Saturday, 2 July 2011
Conventions of Horror Films
Choose ONE convention across at least TWO movies. Describe how this convention is used in this film. Use specific examples (textual evidence: techniques, details) and refer to your notes as necessary.
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The convention of a female victim is used across the board in horror films. Two such examples are 1960's Psycho and 1996's Scream. In Psycho, Marian Crane is our female victim. Marian, the lead character in the start of the film, ends up dying within the first half hour. This is used to surprise the audience and lead them to believe that anything could happen. Before she died, Marian committed many acts which are known to be fatal acts in horror films as they ultimately lead to death as they are seen as morally wrong. In this film, Marian stole 40,000 dollars from her employer and was also having motel sex out of wedlock. A similar example was used in Scream. Drew Barrymore, one of the film's biggest names, was killed at the very start. Perhaps this was an idea borrowed from Psycho? In Scream, though, we see many more examples of female victims, Tatum is brutally murdered by Ghostface in the garage door and Sidney, the protagonist, is another victim of Ghostface's cruelty. Sidney is taunted by creepy, threatening phone calls from Ghostface who is seemingly stalking her as he always knows where she is and is also attacked by him on numerous occasions.
The female victim was used in Scream as a technique to shock the audience into believing that anything could and would happen in this film. Similar reasons are probably accounted for it being used in Psycho, also. In Psycho, Marian was the lead character and so it was very shocking and unusual for the audience to see the main star die such a short way through the film as it strayed from what traditionally took place in horror films. It reveals that both directors, in particular Alfred Hitchcock as he did this before his time, were ambitious to take such a risk and also that they were motivated and creative thinkers that just wanted to make the best of their films. The way that Hitchcock chose to show the scene of Marian's murder was also very revolutionary and has come to be known as the infamous shower scene. This scene was a classic example of the slasher violence that is very common in horror films. How it is interpreted, whether in a sexual manner or otherwise, is neither here nor there as the scene is one of the most famous in the horror genre and is used to cause the audience to think in a moralistic sense, that Marian is being punnished for her crimes. The audience's expectations in the film would have been very different to what actually took place. The money Marian stole which was the heart of her moral down-fall was killed off with Marian. What had been, up until that point, seemingly the main storyline, went down with Marian's body in her car.
Audiences of Psycho were warned before viewing it that something very shocking happened at the start of the movie. This made the audience a lot more skeptical and caused the mood to be a lot more ominous. Though the fact that such a famous actress' character was killed off so early in the film did not hinder Psycho's reception from the audience. After Psycho, the shower scene was altered slightly and used in countless horror films. In Scream, because another famous actress' character was killed so brutally at the start of the movie, even though she was not the primary character, it made the audience a lot more cautious and suspicious of the events to come in the movie. I think that the directors have used similar techniques because it had found to be a successful one and effectively sets up the rest of the movie. The fact that in both movies the killer goes on to strike down other dominant characters is also an effective technique as it scares the audience. I think that Wes Craven does not kill off Sidney's character as a lot of other characters die and he moulds the film so that the audience grows a strong attachment to Sidney which causes them to fear for her and hope for her survival which keeps them enthralled with the film. Both directors have used the convention of the female victim to reflect the way that audiences and their expectations and so to keep their audiences interested. The effects on society of watching these films is that it can cause them to reflect on the own moralistic actions because the films imply that if you commit sin then you will come to a grim ending, and also to wonder about the people around them and other members of society as in both films the killers are seemingly harmless characters. Experts have hailed Psycho as the first modern horror film and the mother of the 'slasher' sub-genre. Scream was a turning point in terms of casting for the horror genre which had previously involved relatively unknown actors. It was largely accepted with positive critical response as it provided a shift from the teen slasher films of the 1980s. Kevin Thomas of The Los Angeles Times called Scream "a bravura, povocative sendup of horror pictures" and complimented the film for being "scary and gruesome" while avoiding a sense of "morbidity". Which is why these films are both revolutionary and popular. Not because they're original but because they combine the elements of a horror film in an original way.
The convention of a female victim is used across the board in horror films. Two such examples are 1960's Psycho and 1996's Scream. In Psycho, Marian Crane is our female victim. Marian, the lead character in the start of the film, ends up dying within the first half hour. This is used to surprise the audience and lead them to believe that anything could happen. Before she died, Marian committed many acts which are known to be fatal acts in horror films as they ultimately lead to death as they are seen as morally wrong. In this film, Marian stole 40,000 dollars from her employer and was also having motel sex out of wedlock. A similar example was used in Scream. Drew Barrymore, one of the film's biggest names, was killed at the very start. Perhaps this was an idea borrowed from Psycho? In Scream, though, we see many more examples of female victims, Tatum is brutally murdered by Ghostface in the garage door and Sidney, the protagonist, is another victim of Ghostface's cruelty. Sidney is taunted by creepy, threatening phone calls from Ghostface who is seemingly stalking her as he always knows where she is and is also attacked by him on numerous occasions.
The female victim was used in Scream as a technique to shock the audience into believing that anything could and would happen in this film. Similar reasons are probably accounted for it being used in Psycho, also. In Psycho, Marian was the lead character and so it was very shocking and unusual for the audience to see the main star die such a short way through the film as it strayed from what traditionally took place in horror films. It reveals that both directors, in particular Alfred Hitchcock as he did this before his time, were ambitious to take such a risk and also that they were motivated and creative thinkers that just wanted to make the best of their films. The way that Hitchcock chose to show the scene of Marian's murder was also very revolutionary and has come to be known as the infamous shower scene. This scene was a classic example of the slasher violence that is very common in horror films. How it is interpreted, whether in a sexual manner or otherwise, is neither here nor there as the scene is one of the most famous in the horror genre and is used to cause the audience to think in a moralistic sense, that Marian is being punnished for her crimes. The audience's expectations in the film would have been very different to what actually took place. The money Marian stole which was the heart of her moral down-fall was killed off with Marian. What had been, up until that point, seemingly the main storyline, went down with Marian's body in her car.
Audiences of Psycho were warned before viewing it that something very shocking happened at the start of the movie. This made the audience a lot more skeptical and caused the mood to be a lot more ominous. Though the fact that such a famous actress' character was killed off so early in the film did not hinder Psycho's reception from the audience. After Psycho, the shower scene was altered slightly and used in countless horror films. In Scream, because another famous actress' character was killed so brutally at the start of the movie, even though she was not the primary character, it made the audience a lot more cautious and suspicious of the events to come in the movie. I think that the directors have used similar techniques because it had found to be a successful one and effectively sets up the rest of the movie. The fact that in both movies the killer goes on to strike down other dominant characters is also an effective technique as it scares the audience. I think that Wes Craven does not kill off Sidney's character as a lot of other characters die and he moulds the film so that the audience grows a strong attachment to Sidney which causes them to fear for her and hope for her survival which keeps them enthralled with the film. Both directors have used the convention of the female victim to reflect the way that audiences and their expectations and so to keep their audiences interested. The effects on society of watching these films is that it can cause them to reflect on the own moralistic actions because the films imply that if you commit sin then you will come to a grim ending, and also to wonder about the people around them and other members of society as in both films the killers are seemingly harmless characters. Experts have hailed Psycho as the first modern horror film and the mother of the 'slasher' sub-genre. Scream was a turning point in terms of casting for the horror genre which had previously involved relatively unknown actors. It was largely accepted with positive critical response as it provided a shift from the teen slasher films of the 1980s. Kevin Thomas of The Los Angeles Times called Scream "a bravura, povocative sendup of horror pictures" and complimented the film for being "scary and gruesome" while avoiding a sense of "morbidity". Which is why these films are both revolutionary and popular. Not because they're original but because they combine the elements of a horror film in an original way.
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