Damien. Our Film

Damien]

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Here is our presentation pitch for our film idea Damien. Our film is inspired by the likes of Halloween, The Omen and the Omen Part 2. In our groups, we had top pitch our idea to the rest of the group via a presentation. From our pitch, the class had alot of questions to ask and we got mixed feedback. We did not spend enough time on the presentation and we could of thought things through alot more to give the class a better understanding of our film idea. Now we have improved the idea, we all know exactly where we are heading with it and so does Sean.

Films that are similar to ours - Childs Play -

 

Childs Play is a 1988 American Horror film written by Don Mancini and Directed by Tom Holland.
The plot of the film revolves around a serial killer who goes by the name of Charles Lee Ray. Knowing he cannot escape being chased, he hides in a toy store and uses a voodoo ritual to transfer his soul into one of  the dolls that he had found.
The store is then struck by lighting and burns down although the dolls survive. Later that morning, 6-year-old Andy Barclay tells his widowed mother Karen Barclay that he wants a Good Guy doll for his birthday. Unable to afford the full price, Karen buys a stolen doll from a street peddler, which is the same doll into which Charles Lee Ray had earlier transferred his soul.

This film is similar to ours as once again, the main character is a child who is placed in a phsychiatric ward due to his story about the doll, 'Chucky'  that his mother thinks has affected his mental health. The main reason this film is similar to ours is because his Mother thinks that her son has got a mental problem which our main character in our film, Damien most certainly has.

Films that have inspired ours - Halloween -

Halloween is a 1978 independant horrow film directed and produced by John Carpenter and is the first in the Halloween franchise. The plot of the film is based around a 6 year old boy who who murders his 15 year old sister in their home in Illinois. Following the murder, Micheal Myers ( the boy) is sent to a Sanitarium where he is in the care of a phychiatrist. Micheal remains there for 15 years. 

The two main reasons why this film is similar to ours as like The Omen, the main character, and killer is a child. Also, the character disappears and the rage builds up inside of him until he is ready to kill again. This is similar to ours as our main character, Damien will finally crack at the age of Sixteen and he will go to murder his bullies.

Fims Similar to ours - The Omen

The Omen is a 1976 horror film directed by Richard Donner. The plot is based around a husband and wife eho seem to have it all, they are happily married and he is the US ambassador to Great Britain. When Katherine has a stillborn child, Robert is approached by a priest who advises them to take a new born baby whose mother has just died at child birth., they agree. After relocating to London, strange things start to happen, and the warnings of the priest, lead them to think that the baby they have just took is an evil incarnate.

This film inspired ours because the main character in this film is also a child. The film also inspired the name of our film which is Damien as this is considered to be the devils name.

Saul Bass Write-Up

Saul Bass Write - Up on Prezi

Dawn Of the Dead notes

1. How is the genre of the film constructed?
2. What do the openng titles show visually? How is narrative enigma created?
3. Why has Kyle Cooper chosen to use news footage?
4. Where do these shots position the viewer?

1. It is constructed by the use of dark colours and eary noises
2. They show a news bulletin and alot of rioting which creates the enigma as the audience do not know why a news bulletin is being shown in the sequence.
3. To create a sense of reality and mystery for the audience.
4. It puts the audience is a real position as everything on the news is real. it makes the viewer feel vulnerable and makes the audience wonder what has happened. 

The graphical images make the viewer want to look away.
The music is contrapuntal as it is a contrast between the images that are being presented on the screen. Although, the lyrics fit extremly well with the images while the music is very upbeat. The typography is red which indicates that this is a horror film as red represents blood and gore.

Importance of typography and design and audience profiling

Order of the titles:

• Studio
• (director)
• Stars (order of fame and status)
• Crew
• Editor
• Writer (Screenplay)
• Producer
• Director

Genre/Style and mood/possible narratives/production values/themes.

Audience Profiling:

• Age, gender, race and sexuality
• Education
• Occupation
• Annual Income
• Disposable Income
• Current lifestyle, aspirational lifestyle or desired lifestyle
• Culture
• Media Interests
• Buying Habits
• Loyalty to Brands

Demographics:
This defines the adult population largely by the work that they do

Physchographics:
Likes, dislikes, tastes
Behaviour and personality
Trates

Codes and Conventions of a title sequence

Titles are important because first impressions are everything

Codes and Conventions,
Sequence will contain:

• Details of cast and crew
• The film title
• An intro to the character/characters
• Indication of place
• Indication of historical period
• Information regarding mood and tone
• Introduction to the theme tune
• Information about the genre of the film
• Questions that the viewer finds intriguing which sets up an enigma for the audience
• Patterns and types of editing that will be echoed in the remainder of the film
• Mise - en - Scene and cinematography that will be echoed or ellaborated upon later in the film.

Enigma: A question that is posed to the audience. A mystery.

Different types of sound

Diagesis
Foley
Contrapuntal

Diagetic Sound: Both audience and characters can hear the sound. The sound is played in scene.

Non-Diagetic Sound: Only audience can hear. Played outside of the scene, sound bridge.

Voiceover: When a voice is heard whilst we see an image.

Parallel Sound: When the sound matches what we see on screen.

Dialogue: A conversation between two characters on screen.

Contrapuntal Sound: What we see on screen and hear don't match.


Diagetic Sound                                             

• Objects being moved around                
• The location
• Guns and knives
• Music
• Footsteps
• Character Dialogue

Non - Diagetic Sound

• Voiceovers
• Sound Effects
• Narrators Commentary

Editing Notes

The general idea behind editing in narrative film is the coordination of one shot with another in order to create a cherant whole. The system employed in narrative film is called continuity editing - its purpose is to create and provide efficient and artful transitions.

Editing film:

Task of selecting and joining camera tasks.
In finished film, techniques that govern relation among the shot

The two types of editing are:

In camera editing
Post Production editing

Zombieland Title Sequence analysis

Right from the start of the titles, we can see that the typography is bold red lettering, red symbolising blood and gore. We instantly now that this is going to be a horror film when we see the characters falling from buildings in slow motion. Everything is very gory and effective as it is in slow motion which really emphasises the blood and gore almost making the audience cringe.
Through the titles sequence, we get an insight into where the film will be set, which is America. We know this by the look of the houses, the firefighters wearing yellow uniforms and also the number plates on the cars. The music that is used is brilliant as it fits with the visuals very well. The music is heavy metal music which is know for being quite loud and crazy which may mean that this film is going to be crazy. The film ends very abruptly with a very nice POV shot of a zombie flying into the screen of a car. The titles end with this shot and we can hear a church bell, then the screen blacks out. This is my favourite part of the sequence as the bell represents death, as does the blackout.

The visuals in this film play a major part in effecting the audience and really engaging them in the sequence. At the start of the sequence, we can see a woman being chased by another woman who is a zombie. The woman's drink comes out of her cup which is very effective as we can see by her facial expressions that this is going to be a scary film. Also, when we see the rather large man running, this is comical as the filmmakers want to make us laugh at his body jiggling around in slow motion.

Throughout the title sequence we have learnt how the filmmakers intend the movie to be a comical horror movie. Personally, i found this title sequence very engaging and effective as the slow motion visuals really grabbed the audiences attention. The music fits in perfectly with the visuals as it it is heavy metal and to me, heavy metal works very well with horror films. Overall, i think this is a great title sequence due to the way it engages the audience and grabs their attention. After watching this sequence, it has made me want to watch the film even more.

The art of title design.

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/10/04/the-art-of-the-film-title-throughout-cinema-history/

I found this article very interesting as it has made me realise how much work actually goes into making a title sequence for a film. Often, the title sequences are skipped through and not payed attention too but after reading this article, it really made me think about how important the title sequence is to setting the tone and expectations of a film. I found the section about silent film very interesting because before sound was invented, people really relied on the title sequence of a film much more than they do now. If a title sequence wasnt good back then, then alot of people would of probably turned the film off and not bothered to watch it ever again. I have learnt that titles were very basic and it proves that you do not always need fancy title sequences to impress your audiences and give them a good first impression of your film.

I found it very interesting how much actually goes into a title sequence of a film and how much time and money is spent on making it perfect. Up until now, i never took any notice of the title sequences of a film and never thought they had any real meaning behind them. But, now i can see why the title sequences are extemley important and they give the audience clues as to what the film is going to be like when you really take notice of them.

continuity sequence

This is our continuity sequence that we filmed and edited. We took into account all of the shots that are used between two people when they are having a conversation on screen.

What we did well:
I feel that the start of our sequence went very well when i was walking through the door. I also believe that the last bit of our sequence when i was walking out of the door went very well as we could tell the way both the characters were feeling from the shots that we used.

What we didn't do to well:
We got a major part of the filming wrong which was the 180 degree rule. We were supposed to film over my right shoulder and harjinders left shoulder to create a POV shot. We didn't realise until we were editing the piece that we actually got this wrong.

Overall i believe that it was a very good first attempt at fitting lots of shots into a short 2 minute sequence. Although we got a few things wrong, I feel that this will help us as we will be able to look back at this and learn from our mistakes to improve our future filmings.