Group: Storyboards

 

1. What is the purpose of storyboarding as an institutional practice?

Helps us to visualise our ideas, it also allows us to be quicker and more efficient when we are on set because we know exactly what we want to film and from what angle. It also gives an idea of what the finished product will look like for potential investors.

2. What are the challenges you encountered when carrying out this task?

It was hard to make sure we put enough detail in and that we put everything at the right frame size, i.e. to show if it was a close up or medium shot. It was also hard to covey movement on the pictures, to show how the camera moved. It was also tricky to make sure we included every single shot, so we had to add some in at the end which we had forgotten.

3. What did you learn about your concept when carrying out this task?

We learnt that our location is good because it is all filmed in one place so we don't have to do any transition shots. We also learned how many shots their can be just to cover such a small amount of actual film time. We also thought about interesting shots we could do to receive technical excellence.

Group: Planning Shoots

When: Saturday, 10th January 2015

Where: Harry's house, Tunbridge Wells

What:

• Before we start filming we will need to prepare the house, this will involve moving any furniture that won't fit the setting, and rearranging any items. For example, we will need to create the newspaper wall, this will involve sticking drawings and newspaper clippings on the wall etc.
• We will need to do some test shots to make sure that our lighting is accurate and shows up on camera. We will also need to have a look at some angles and outline any problems and restrictions that may occur, such as tight corridors and walls.
• After the location is set up, we will then need to prepare our actors. This will involve costume and makeup, filling them in on what is expected of them - their lines, actions/movements, character traits etc.
• Once all the admin work is complete we can begin filming - we will try to go through systematically in order of the script/plot line.

We aim to get as much filming done as possible because we are limited for time in our location.

Props:

• Kettle
• Frying pan
• Chains
• Cages
• Meat
• Newspaper cuttings

Equipment:

• Tri-pod
• Camera

Group: Location Recce

Over Christmas I went to the house of a friend of mine to see if it would be suitable for our production. I found that the basement he has was much less open with fluctuating sized rooms and narrow spaces. This was different to the American style basement we had planned initially. However the interesting complex of rooms could be utilised to provide experimental camera angles and the opportunity for excellence in multiple key areas with corners and dingy, dark rooms a-plenty as shown in the video featured above.

Group: Preliminary Task Feedback

A lot was learnt from the preliminary task, our class viewed it and gave us some feedback of what they thought.

Strengths

• Good Planning.
• Seemed well rehearsed.
• A lot done in the time.
• Soundtrack fitted well and was effective.
• It was good that the soundtrack stopped when the dialogue started, so no words were lost.

Improvements

• The continuity could be improved at some points.
• Sometimes the camera was a bit jumpy.
• Technical faults- the box appeared from no where, lighting changes.

We are happy with how the preliminary task came out and have thought about how we will fix the weaknesses for our coursework.

Group: Progress

Today

I drew all the story board pictures, then annotated them and wrote timings with Josh. Josh and Freya then filmed all of the pictures for the time. Freya did some research into Sound and Freddie researched and found the font for our project.

We are planning on editing our animated storyboard together in our joint free and Freddie is hoping to do the location recce and find out a time for us all to film.

F.L - Sound Effects Development

Sound Development:

• We plan to have a quiet, and subtle chain rattle (as if a victim is trying to silently escape), this chain rattle is what prompts the lead antagonist to go into the basement. After some research, we feel this is the most appropriate sound:
• https://www.freesound.org/people/JarredGibb/sounds/233139/
• https://www.freesound.org/people/Adam_N/sounds/164670/
• https://www.freesound.org/people/klakmart/sounds/108265/

• At the start of the scene we will have a meat frying in a pan, we will increase the diegetic sound so that it dominates the shot, however, we if the sound isn't loud and clear enough we will use an overlay sound effect, like this:
• https://www.freesound.org/people/JasonElrod/sounds/85468/ 

• We also aim to have a similar effect but with the kettle boil (where we enhance the sound), we would use a sound similar to this:
• https://www.freesound.org/people/mhtaylor67/sounds/126039/

• At the end of the film we want to the door slamming as the closing shot, if so, we are looking to add a sound effect on top of the diegetic sounds impact in order to increase the sound impact, we would use something like this:
• https://www.freesound.org/people/LG/sounds/73075/

• We will also have a variation of background noises for inside the basement, similar to these:
• https://www.freesound.org/people/LG/sounds/73075/
• https://www.freesound.org/people/exuberate/sounds/140896/
• https://www.freesound.org/people/Nathan_Lomeli/sounds/79198/
• https://www.freesound.org/people/Philip%20Goddard/sounds/180907/

Group: Audience Research and Questionnaire Feedback

Purpose: (F.L)

The main reason we performed our research was to discover:

• What our core audience want? Their preferences? Expectations? Likes/dislikes?
• Test our concept – does it fit with our sub-genre? What are the main ideas to be expanded on? What could be changed/improved?

Overall, we wanted to put ideas about our concept, and sub-genre, to our key target audience (teenagers) and see what their initial thoughts are. We need to test how our concept matches with existing films within the psychological sub-genre, we also need to evaluate the success and ideas behind our antagonists and protagonists, and also the general location/set. The participant's feedback is key to the success and relevance of our film, and is essential to create an opening that satisfies our intended audience.

Methodology: (R.D)

We handed our questionnaire out to 20 candidates our age as that is our target audience, we tried to hand them out to a mixture of male and female because it is not targeted to one particular gender. All 20 of our questionnaires were filled in and handed back to us. This was very good because it meant we got a whole range of peoples responses and there was variation in the reply.

We used all different types of questions including:

• Scaled questions
• Ranked responses
• Semantic differential
• Circle/ Tick Box
• Open questions

We tried to use a range of open and closed questions so that we received quantitative and qualitative results because we think that, while harder to analyse, qualitative results can give you more in depth information about audience opinions and how to improve.

We also tried to avoid using leading questions as we wanted the audiences honest opinion we didn't want them to say what they think we want them to say. We also tried to make the instructions as clear as possible so candidates knew what they were being asked.

Questionnaire & Results: (F.OC)

Q1. 

A #1 scored 4 points, #2 - 3 points, #3 - 2 points & #4 - 1 point

1. Psychopath - 66 points
2. Zombie - 49 points
3. Poltergeist - 23 points
4. Evil doctor - 22 points

Q2. The average score of how gory an opening sequence should be was 6.8 out of 10.

Q3. 

When asked what an effective location would be for victims to be held in a horror the results were as follows:

1. Basement - 12
2. Garage - 2
3. A room in a house - 1
4. Shed - 0

Q4.

The respondents said this was what they thought the characteristics of an antagonist in our sub-genre should be: (average)

• 1= neat 5=chaotic - 2.1
• 1= calm 5=angry - 2.9
• 1= solitary 5= integrated - 3.5

Q5.

These are the ages that the respondents thought were most effective for victims:

1. 11-18 - 75 points
2. 0-10 - 60 points
3. 19-30 - 44 points
4. 50+ - 37 points
5. 31-50 - 24 points

Q6. Favourite psychological film:

• Seven - 3
• Shutter island - 5
• The shining - 2
• The Lovely Bones - 3
• Insidious - 1
• The Ring - 1
• May - 1

Q7. The respondents, when asked where their initial expectations of a cannibal to reside, replied as follows:

1. Farmland - 5
2. Woods - 5
3. Suburbs - 3
4. City - 2
5. Desert - 1
6. Train Station - 0

Q8. 87.5% of respondents said that cannibals were effective and scary antagonists in the horror genre 'if' they were portrayed in the right, specific way. 2 people didn't find them scary or threatening villains.
 

Evaluation: (J.P)

After evaluating the results from our audience research, some of our ideas have been reinforced by what we have found out and some have also been challenged:

• Both question 1, 3 and 5 reinforced our ideas for our plot which was that the main antagonist was going to be a psychopath, the basement as the main location and the victims being teenagers. 
• Some results contradicted what we had initially thought; Question 2 was asking how gory an opener should be and the average answer was 6.8 out of 10, our opening was planning to mostly be psychological and not to include much, if any gore so we are currently thinking of ways that we can alter/improve the plot to change this.
• Question 4 is making us thinking about our chosen antagonist since we had initially planned for him to be very calm and neat but on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being calm and 5 being angry, our results showed the average of 2.9 which shows our target audience prefer angry antagonist. Although we have seen that an angry antagonist is preferred, we are still going to keep him calm since our whole plot is based on how they try to be normal.
• When asked what your favourite psychological horror the most popular was shutter island, shutter island is a similar concept to our plot in my opinion since their is a big plot twist which no one expected, similarly to how the wife is in on the plan
• The results from question 7 show that the preferred location for a cannibal is farmland/woods but our original idea was to be in a town/village to show normality so we are thinking about a farmland as a possible location since our target audience preferred it.

Completing the audience research showed us that we have to broaden our opinions as what we think may not necessarily be what our target audience thinks, we will be making some changes the plot to satisfy what our audience will like and want. The audience research has also filled us with some confidence as many of ideas were accepted and reinforced.