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

Image 1 - The title of the filmThe title of the film is 'Chapter 4'. We chose this title because it relates to the book, which is the main prop throughout the film. We did this at the end of the title sequence, so then it would be the last thing the audience saw, and so they knew what the film was called.

Image 2 - Setting/LocationWe did this is a normal house, and this is because we wanted it to have a realistic start. Also, we included the boxes to show that they had just moved in. We thought it was a perfect setting for our genre.

Image 3 - Costumes and PropsIn this we have shown that the two characters are wearing fairly normal clothes. I think the outfits are stereotypical to their genders. The props that are mainly used are the book and the boxes. The book to show that it is a major role in the film, and the boxes to again show they have just moved in.

Image 4 - Camerawork and EditingWe used an extreme close up of a female hand writing in a book. We thought that this was quite a scary image, and it shows that the book and author may play a huge role in the film. Also, we have included the name of a Cameraman in it, so that is a bit of editing.

Image 5 - Title and Font style

Throughout our title sequence, we kept the writing the same throughout. For example the title was in the same font and style as the characters names. We decided this font was perfect, and matched our genre, as it has a scary sense to it, and also looks like it was written many years ago, which would be the same as what it was in the book.

Image 6 - Story and how the opening sets it up

There is a frame that i spotted that may foreshadow later events. This is when the woman looks into the mirror, and sees a ghostly figure behind her. This could suggest that they are being haunted. Also, there was a news report on a fire, which could also foreshadow later events.

Image 7 - Special Effects

We have a fade in on this screen, and this is a sign of a special effect. We used this to make it seem a bit more creepier, and to also show the audience who is Directing the film. It also made our title sequence a lot better and more professional.

Image 8 - How characters are introduced

We tried to make a stereotypical woman, so we got her into the kitchen making tea. We thought this worked well as it shows that it could be in the olden days when it was a lot more sexist, or could just show that she is the working lady of the household.

Image 9 - Genre and How the opening scene suggests it.

At the end of our opening scene, we get the woman of the household to see as ghost, and therefore she screams. We thought that this made it clear to the audience that it was of a horror genre, and will be quite vile images throughout.

A Few Changes We Made

We changed the horror film a little bit, and we believe we changed it for the better.

We added music to the bit where the book is discovered, as we believed it added tension to the opening scene, and also showed the audience that it had relevance to the films.

As a group we decided to cut out the final bit of our title sequence, when the female character enters the room where she discovered the ghostly figure. We did this because we thought it was too casual, and also if she had discovered what she thought was a ghost, she wouldn't have gone to look for it. I think this made our horror film more believable and realistic.

Shot List

Title Sequence

1- Mid Shot of a table in the dark, with a candle lit by someones hand, with a fade in of the Production company. This turned out to be our Production Company Logo.

2- The full name of our production company appears, without the logo. Black background with white writing.

3- Mid shot of the book that we used next to a candle, to show what was written on it.

4 - There is then another title screen, with white writing saying 'Director Darren Gilbert'.

5- We then used an over-the-shoulder shot of the women writing in the book.

6- There is then another title screen, with white writing saying 'Director of Photography Rebecca Riley-Brown'.

7- There is then a fade in of the next shot, which is a close-up of a hand writing in the book.

8- Another title screen appears with the writing saying 'Visual Effects Adam Thompson'.

9- There is then another shot similar to number 7, but this time from a different angle.

10- It then fades to another title screen saying 'Audio Director Jonathon Hugget'.

11- There is then a mid-shot of the women writing in the book.

12 - Another title screen of the title, 'Chapter 4'.


Opening Scene
1-The first shot is of the News Report, and the camera slowly zooms out and begins to pan around the room.

2- The camera pans around the room to set the scene.

3- Mid-shot of the male character sitting on the chair, to show his stereotype of being lazy.

4- Fourth shot is a mid-shot of the female character in the kitchen, again to show stereotypes.

5- This shot is similar to the 3rd shot, but this time the female character has entered the room.

6- This is the shot where the main prop appears in, the book. We did this using a long-shot, to show how the male character, Ryan, finds the book.

7- We then used some match on action, and the next shot was of Ryan placing the book into an empty box.

8- Close-up of the book that has been placed in the box, to show that it will play a major role in the film.

9- Mid-shot of the female character, Claire, walking down the hallway.

10- This is the final shot of our opening scene, and it is of the female character looking into the mirror, and seeing a ghostly figure behind her.

Project without the Changes!

Storyboard for Opening Scene!

First Storyboard

We decided to start off with a news report, and this would include an article about a fire that happened in the local area. We did this to foreshadow later events. The camera slowly zoomed out of the television, and started to pan. The only sound that can be heard is the news reporters on the television.
The second shot on this storyboard shows the camera panning around the room. We did this to show the setting and to show the boxes, and this indicates that they are moving in. No sound can be heard apart from the news reporters.
Once the camera finally stops panning, it reaches a young man sitting on his sofa, watching the TV. This shows the stereotypical man as he is not doing anything. The shot later goes on to show him pausing the TV.
There is then a cut into the kitchen, where a young woman is making herself a cup of tea. this again shows a stereotype. We showed this in a long-shot to again set the scene, and make sure it was clear to the audience that she was in the kitchen.
The final shot of this storyboard is of the woman standing next to the television, and screaming at the young man on the sofa. This is because he would not bring in the boxes, which again shows that they have just moved in.

Second Storyboard

The first shot is of the man collecting boxes from his car, to again signify that they are moving in. we did not include this though, so there was a slight change to the plan.
We also didn't use the second shot, but we did use one similar. We decided to do a shot like this to show the book and to emphasise that it would play a major role in our film.
The third shot is of the young man asking his girlfriend what the book is. We did this to show that there was not just anger in the relationship, and to show that they could talk to each other normally.
We were not sure if we showed enough of the book, so we took a close-up of it in the box, and this also showed where he put the book.
The final shot is of the young woman looking into the mirror, and this is when she discovers a ghost. We put this at the end because it leaves a real cliff-hanger.

Title Sequence Storyboard!

1st Page

The first shot of our title sequence is a shot of a candle on a table, and we used this first because it is our Production company logo, and we saw that most other Horror films did the same.

The second image on the storyboard reads 'Big Scream Productions', and we put this second because it links with the first shot, and also to justify who we are, just in case the first image did not have that effect., and the he third image on the first page is a black background, but in white writing it reads 'From Director Darren Gilbert'. We did this because we wanted the audience to know who directed the film.

The 4th image we have on our storyboard is of an old book, and we did this so the audience knew it would play a major role in the film.

The 5th image is of a candle, and a woman supposedly writing into a book, to show its convenience.

2nd Page

 The five shots of this second page is of the book, and this shows the audience that it is of high importance, and it probably will play a major role through out the duration of the film. The first shot shows the book slightly opened, and the only reason we chose this was to show the audience that it was actually a book.

The second shot however shows the book closed, and shows the audience what the front cover looks like, so then when its involved in the opening scene, the audience will recognise it.

The third image shows the book opened fully, so you can see inside the book, and so you can see the contents of it.

The fourth image is of the side of the book, so that the audience have now seen the book fully, and get an understanding of what it looks like. Now this is done they should definitely know its of high importance.

In the fifth shot, it shows someone writing in the book, and this could show that the film may include the author too.

3rd Page

The first two images on the third page of our storyboard have both got a black background and white writing, and the first one reads 'Camera by Rebecca Riley-Brown', and this shows the audience who was filming and controlling the camera movements and shots. Where as the second one says 'Equipment, Adam Thompson' and this shows the audience who was in charge of the props.

The third image on the third page of the storyboard is of a young girl in darkness, sitting up the table as if she is working on something. We used this to set a depressing mood before the film begun, and to add tension to the rest of the title sequence.

The fourth image is similar to the first two, where as this one reads 'Music Jonathon Huggert', and this obviously shows the reader who chose the music in the title sequence.

The final shot of our storyboard is the title of the film 'Chapter 4', and we put this at the end so it could get stuck in the audience's mind and most other films do it too.

Age Classification!



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Before the making of our title sequence and opening scene, we needed to research about Age classification. This is basically the age rating, and shows us the age of the audience that should be watching our film. We had a look at Horror films such as 'Se7en' and '1408', but i also looked at other films in my spare time such as 'Dead Silence' and 'Mirror's. I also looked at many film sites, and i discovered that most horror films have an age rating of 15 - 18, and this means that no one under the age of 15 is allowed to watch or buy the film.
I would assume that the reason people under 15 should not be allowed to watch this is that it may contain violence, strong and offencive language and sexual content.


If the age classification of a film is 15, it has to fit the following conventions:

• If the film includes any sexual content, it needs to have strong justification.
• Also, nudity is allowed, but again it has to have strong justification
• Aggressive language is permitted. The film is allowed to have frequent use of strong language, however words that are considered to be the 'strongest' words, have to be justified.
• Violence is allowed, however strong violence must not dwell on pain or injury.
• The theme must be appropriate for a 15 year old.
• Drugs can be used, but the film will not encourage people to get involved with drugs, or advertise drugs.
• Strong images, that are full of gore are unlikely to be permitted.

We have looked upon this conventions, and we have decided that the age rating of 15 is right and appropriate for our film. Our film will not contains any nudity or sexual content, but may include certain scenes of violence, but it will not dwell on injury. Also, we are not going to use drugs, but there may be some strong images, but they will not include much gore. Also, strong language may be used in our film, but will be clearly justified and will be used rarely. The scene of our film is in a house, and i believe it is definitely appropriate for the type of film, and for a 15 year old.

The initial script

Before we started the script for the actual opening scene, we needed a script for the News Report that we were producing first, as the whole film starts with a local news report. We had to make this realistic, and as if they were actually watching in on television.

News Report Script
First News Reporter: "Late last night, the Mansfield Library was broken into and burnt to the  ground".
Second News Reporter : "No casualties were reported, and police are looking for witnesses, so if anybody was near the library at around 1am this morning, please report to the police".

We made the news report reasonably short, and this was to make sure that the audience did not loose interest, and it made it so much easier to get the main points across, and helped us to foreshadow later events.

Opening Scene Scrip:
Claire: "Have you finished bringing in them boxes yet?"

Ryan: "Not yet, I'll do it in a minute".

Claire: (Drops bag, groans, and then storms into the front room) "Get off your ass and get them boxes done".

Ryan: "b..butt". (He stutters as if he is scared of his wife)

Claire: "NOW!". (She shouts instantly after Ryan stutters)

Ryan: (He walks out of the room and spots a book) "Hey Claire, do you know what this book is?"

Claire: "It probably fell out of one of the boxes or something.... put it in that box over there". (She then walks over to the mirror on the wall, and has a quick glance in it, but she See's a strange figure) "Ahhhhhh!" (She screams, but then turns around to see that nothing is there).

We tried our best to make the script sounds realistic, and to try and link it into the Horror genre as much as we could.

Planning of the Title Sequence

Main Idea
Once the initial planning was completed, we needed to start getting to work on our Title Sequence. We got together as a group and started forming ideas. We concentrated very hard on the film 'Se7en', and this was because we liked their idea of showing a man creating a book and showing shots of other props that may play a major part in the film. We thought that this could work really well with ours, as its based on a cursed book. As soon as we got that idea in our heads, we started to work on it, and instantly started thinking of showing a young author writing in the book, to show who its going to be written by.

Other Ideas
Once we had the main idea of the title sequence sorted, we had to think of other ideas to work around that. We all thought that as the film ends with a fire, we could maybe show some kind of candle, to represent fire and to foreshadow later events in the film, and sort of give the audience a hint of what might occur. We were all so up for the idea, so we thought about including it in our Production Company Logo. Then we decided to make the logo a lit candle, with a dark background around it and wrote 'Big Scream Productions' around it.

Also in the title sequence we wrote all the main actors names in white with a black background, and also the Director and the person who was controlling the Camera.

Music
We decided to look for quite slow music, but also creepy at the same time. Once we had finally found one, it fitted perfectly with our genre and the images that were included in the Title Sequence.

Planning of our Horror Film!

Plot of the film
As soon as me, Rebecca, Johnny and Adam sat down as a group, we looked at stereotypes of a horror film, and what we had seen and learnt in other horror films. We carried on this procedure and eventually came up with the idea of a cursed book. We then had to find a way of linking this in a believable and realistic way, and we came up with a young man finding it in a field, but we were never to sure on this idea. We kept on thinking and we thought of the book being delivered to them through their letterbox. After this occurred, every occupant in the family became cursed, and they all noticed this through signs, and strange occurrences around the house. We also thought that most of the Horror films that our group had seen in the past had a bad, shocking ending, so we decided to set the house into flames, and the person who did it would be the author of the book that was delivered through the door.

Title of the Film
In my opinion, this was the hardest part of the task, and if I'm honest took us the longest to do. Our group came up with many idea's, but we thought that as the main prop in the film was the book that gets delivered at the start, we would try our best to base it around that. We first had an idea of naming the film after the author of the books name, but we could never quite get it right. After loads of research and loads of ideas, a member of our group came up with the name 'Chapter 4'. We all thought this was a good idea, because we imagined that in the whole film, the main part of the book could be at chapter 4, or that could be where the films ends, so we decided to work on that idea.

Production Company
As a group, we all got together to try and think of a good production company name. We firstly cam up with names such as 'Household Vengence' or 'Prevoked removal', but then we thought we would go for something more relevant. Before we started this, we had to think of a name that linked to our genre, which was Horror. So we first though of connotations of horror, and we got two words, blood and scream. We thought the word blood would be a tad to gory, so we worked on the word scream. A thought then came to mind, which was that people watch films in Cinema's on 'the big screen', so we thought of changing the word 'screen' to 'scream'. So the final idea of the production company name was 'Big Scream Productions', and we all agreed that it fitted the genre perfectly, and was quite a catchy name.

Characters and Setting
We all agreed on the idea that a young couple had just moved into their new home, so we instantly needed a young male and female. We also thought that it would be a great way to get the film going with a News Report. We carried on this idea, and thought it would be a great way to foreshadow later events, as on the news there could be some kind of fire, which is the way our films ends. This meant that we would need two news reporters, and we decided to go with one male and one female. The final role we needed to give out was the role of the author, who was initially haunting the house.

The setting we had chose was a house, and this was an obvious choose because we needed to show the young couple moving into somewhere. This would also fit with our genre completely, as most of the horror films i have recently watched were set in a house.

Location Shots!

We decided that the best idea for a horror setting was an average house. The research that me and my group did, showed us that loads of well-known horror movies are set in houses, and like in Paranormal Activity, our young couple have only just moved in.

This place is where the film starts off, and a young man is sitting there watching television. We did this to show that the man was settling into his new home, but was being lazy at the same time, whilst the woman was making tea in the kitchen. This shows the audience the stereotypical man, because they are known for not doing a lot, and making the women do the work.

This is another part of the house, the hallway. We used this for the scariest part of our opening scene, and we thought it worked well because it was a tight, compact space, and their is a mirror to the right of the picture, which we sadly couldn't get in. I think that the hallway also shows a sign of no escape, and it looks quite long and dark.

We used the kitchen of the house to introduce the young female character in our film. The reason for this is because the stereotypical woman works in the kitchen, so we thought that we would go along with it. She then aggressively makes a cup of tea, so it could signify that she isn't in the best of moods, and something could be bothering her. We thought this was appropriate for our genre, as it shows the audience around the setting.

 

We used the setting above us to film our Title Sequence. This is the place where the young girl is writing in the book on the table. We used this spot because when the lights were off it looked like it would suit our horror genre. Also the space is quite compact, which i think adds to the tension.