Horror Posters

The hills have eyes is an effective horror poster because it gives us a sense that someone is being watched. The arm is in the first hotspot which

makes our eyes drawn to the hand in which is touching someones face. The eyes of this person is looking upwards which draws our attention to the title. This horror poster makes me feel uneasy which is what makes it so effective.

This saw poster is particulary effective because it has a white background which means that we are more focused on the paradigms. At the top of the poster is a saw linking to the title 'saw' handing from the saw are teeth on wire. this connotes a great deal of torture thus making it horror. The title is in black and is in capitals, however the 'W' is in a different font which could represent the teeth on the saw along with the teeth hanging off the saw.

The uninvited is a very effective horror poster. The background/setting is obviously a forest due to the numerous tree. The poster is a window frame which makes the audiance feel on edge because of the fact that there is obviously a dark image of a person peering in yet you cannot see the face of this person. The title is placed in a hotspot which makes our attention drawn to it.

This is another powerful poster, this is because of the white background, which makes our attention drawn to the paradigms. In this case it is an open hand which has obviously been cut off becasue there is a pool of blood around the end of the wrist. There is also a joint which has smoke coming from it which covers two hotspots. The title 'the tripper' also links to the fact that drugs are invloved.

Thriller Posters

This is an effective thriller poster because of the dark background which makes the paradigms stand out. In this case the woman is the paradigm and she is reflected in what could be water. The title is completely centred which is effective because although it isn't placed in a hotspot, it is another important place which is looked upon. The woman's face is in an important hotspot and it is effective because she is looking slightly to her right and slightly downwards. It makes us, the audiance, think that she is looking at something important, which links back to the title that she could be looking at 'the life'.




'Quantum of Solace' is an effective thriller poster because we are looking at the two main characters on the poster. They look like they are in a desert which is an effective background because it shows they are in an unordinary place which effectively shows that they are on a mission somewhere. The man (James Bond) is slightly leading the way which shows that he has more power than the woman.

Crank is an effective film poster because of the man with a set of pliers in his mouth. the blurred image along with the jumpleads in this mans mouth shows that the film is about electricity which also links to the title and 'high voltage'. The audiance automatically generates the idea of this being a thriller genre because of this strong image.

What is a Thriller/Horror?

In generic terms the genre thriller is created by conventions.

A thriller is a ‘meta-genre’. It is difficult to pin down exactly what a thriller is because so many emotions and reactions are experienced.

There are many different types of thrillers for example there is espionage/spy, psychological, and supernatural/unknown.

A thriller relies on an intricate plot which creates fear, apprehension and suspense in hearts and minds of people watching.

A thriller plays on basic worries and infantile and repressed thoughts. These thoughts can be sexual, voyeuristic or violent.

A thriller achieves this by raising questions or enigma codes in the mind of the audience. Most thrillers have universal themes at their core - struggles over love, death or money. It is the struggle that often enthrals the spectator.

It is also done through a sense of delay when something does happen, there is a sense of relief from that tension. Thrillers are often sadomasochistic which means that the audience enjoys watching the director cause pain and suffering to the characters. Our pleasure is derived from their discomfort. However a thriller should also contain a certain element of ambivalence which means that the audience needs to feel sorry for the victim.

Thrillers must involve visceral, gut level feelings rather than sensitive, delicate emotions.

Horror films are movies that strive to draw out the emotions of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Their plots frequently involve themes of death, the supernatural or mental illness. Many horror movies also include a central villain.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

For our preliminary task, the location we filmed in was the studio. This worked really well because we had professional lighting, a blue screen behind the window and the set was well suited to the script. I took and active role directing the location and angles of the camera. Tom Cunningham was behind the camera shooting the sequence.

For our preliminary task, we used a mix between light and dark and used mainly hard light. This was effective and important to our scene because the light bought out the set and the hard light enhances the characters stance and position. The dark lighting was use to portray a derelict room and built tension to fit with the script.

For the filming, we had to make sure that the camera was set up properly. We ran a colour bar and when needed, ensured that the tripod was at the right level for each shot. We moved the camera into different positions to make sure that we were filming the correct angle of the actors. We also made sure that the lighting equipment was not in the shot as this was not part of the script and when bright light hit the camera the rays blocked the actor’s faces.

We choose appropriate shots and angles of shots. First we filmed the wide shots, and then we filmed over the shoulder shots. We added in mid shots to see whether these worked better than close ups but we also shot close ups. We did this purely for the purpose of when come to edit, what would look better. For both the mid shots and the close ups we film Dan in high angle and Laura in low angle. We also filmed a hero shot of Dan. This is because it gave Dan a role of importance and dominance and Laura a role of innocence and vulnerability.

We filmed some ‘experimental shots’. These consisted of a close up of a door handle opening, a close up on Dan’s feet and extreme close up on a light switch and a bulb turning on. Also we added in a pan from right to left of Laura running from the light switch to the window. We filmed a Bird’s eye view of the whole scene. This was particularly effective of Laura looking very worried and nervous. Another effective extra shot we added in was a tilt of Laura’s feet upwards to her face.

We also conformed to the 180 degree rule and never crossed the line. Finally we used the appropriate terminology, such as ‘stand by’, action’ and ‘cut’ which were very helpful to make sure everyone onset knew what was happening.

In the editing of our preliminary task we had to cut down a lot of shots to found ones that fitted with our storyboard. We eventually did that and then it was just a matter of putting them together. We were introduced to Final Cut pro, which was what we did most of the editing, but before all of that we had to use a ‘checking in, checking out’ process using Final Cut Server, this was were all our filming was stored and also where it was saved when we had finished editing after each lesson. During the editing process we came to a flaw where we had to insert a background image of a city in the window, because we were shooting in the studio we had a clue screen behind the window so that when it came to doing it, it was an easier process to insert. The process was very interesting to take part in as it showed us that it usually takes more time to edit than it does to shoot. We had to get the timing right when the actors were speaking, between different shots, so this meant we had to cut some parts out in order to insert others.

Preliminary Task

Introduction To Photoshop

Our practical lesson about Photoshop consisted of learning the basics tools to be able to construct a poster. We learnt that the more we use Photoshop the better you become and you can’t just learn everything at once. We learnt how to use the drag tool, the spot healing tool this is used to cover any imperfections by taking pixels from around the area and copying them into the centre. The free transform tool, which changes the size of an image.

We also learnt about the clone tool, which copies an area which you can paste anywhere else on the page. The dodge and smudge tool, the blur tool which helps blend areas together, the burn tool which give the image or features on the images a reddish burnt effect and the sharpen tool, which sharpens edges.

Another thing which we were told about is layers and these are very important. Using layers are what help create a really good image. Layers are hard to grasp the understanding of at first and when having a problem with Photoshop, it is usually because you are on the wrong layer, but they are also very useful.

Lastly we learned about pixels. Pixels are what makes up a picture they are very, very tiny and the pixel size for a movie is 720 x 576.
Using these key skills which I have learnt, I have managed to create two posters for films, both of which I am very please with. Thanks Matt for our wonderful practical lessons!

Me at School

This is a photograph taken at school on languages day. I really like this photograph because the sky is really blue and the plants are really green. This is a low angle wide shot of me and I think it shows that I am layed back.

Me in Dance Studio

This is a photograph which Tamara took during a media lesson. We went to the Dance studio and she decided she wanted a photo of me like this. This is a slightly high angle wide shot. I like this photograph because it has my reflection in the mirror and I think it shows that I am quite shy.

Hard at Work

This is a photograph ofa girl in my media class called Tamara and Me reading a Media Studies textbook. This is a slightly high angle mid shot of us.

Party

This is me with some friends at an 80's themed party. This is a slighly low angle wide shot. I like this picture because it shows my enthusiasm about things and also i'm with my really close friends. My room mate is the girl on the very right of the picture. She has been my really good friend of five years.

Me, Ben and Alix

This is a photograph of Me, Ben and Alix. These are my two brothers. This photograph was taken on a Family holiday by my mum. We are at eyeline to the camera and this is called a wide shot because you can see our bodies.

Me and Friends in Newquay

This is a photograph of my really good friends which were from my old school. We are on a holiday in Newquay to celebrate finishing our GCSE's. We were dressed up for going out. This is a mid shot of us and shows a really close friendship between us all. Next to me is my friend Chloe who is also at Hurtwood House now.

Sophie and Me

This is a photograph of a friend called Sophie (left) and me (right). My room mate Francesca Burns took this two person mid shot. I like this photograph because we are both very smiley and our faces cover the four hot spots.

Preliminary Practical Preparation

We were set a task to shoot 20 seconds of a simple action shot for our preliminary practical preparation. My group of four of us used the camera to shoot a simple action shot of me walking into the frame, picking up a sugar pot from a table and walking out of the frame. We shot five different angles. These were: wide shot, mid shot, low angle mid shot, close up and a high angle close up of my feet, walking.

The whole aim of this task was to understand how to use the camera properly and to understand how to shoot an action shot. For example understanding that the camera needs to be still and we must let the action play through in front of the camera. We also had to take into consideration the 180° Rule. This is rule which is a basic guideline in film making which states that two characters in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other if the camera passed over the imaginary line between the two characters; this is called crossing the line, and should never be done.

After we had shot our frame in groups of four, we watched each groups clip play back and a lot of criticisms were thrown around because people had not taken into account the lesson on cameras and had forgotten about the 180 rule. Also people did not take into account the bubble rule which means that the clip was shot at a slightly off straight angle. However my group got really good feedback as we had taken into account everything we had been told and therefore had a really good sequence to show. Because of this, we were told our group is able to utilize the TV studio with a constructed set for our Preliminary Sequence.

Tripod and Settings

A tripod is a stand with three legs which the camera can be connected to give a steady image. Tripods are good to set up the camera on a still image and let the action play though. A tripod has locking legs which gives the camera different heights. The tripod head has pan (left to right and right to left) and tilt (up to down and down to up) locking nuts.

On the bottom of the PD 170 camera there is a metal plate called a shoe which connects to the tripod by pushing the button at the side, sliding the show on the base and then twisting the locking nut to tighten. This ensures that the camera will not slip or fall off the tripod.

Putting the microphone on the camera is important so sound is detected. To do this you need to untighten the thumb screw, put the handed inside and then retighten to make sure this is secure then attach the cable, to do this put the XLR into input 1.

Last of all, you need to connect the battery. To do this lift the eyepiece up, put the arrow facing downwards and listen for a satisfying click. To take the battery out, press the release button and lift the battery up.

Introduction To Video Camera and Settings

The camera we have been looking at is the PD 170. It is very important to have the camera on the right settings, otherwise the picture/film will have a bad picture and this makes the film look bad.

On the top right of the screen is a battery symbol and it has the amount of minutes that the battery will run for before it needs to be recharged. On the top left of screen is the time code, it looks like: ( - - : - - : - - : - - ) the first ‘--’ shows how many hours have been recording for, the second ‘--’ shows how many minutes you have been recording and the third ‘--’ shows how many seconds you have been recording for. The forth ‘--’ shows the amount of frames which have been shot per second. The camera can shoot 25 frames per second. The minimum number is 0 and the maximum number is 24.

The perfect aspect ratio for the camera to be set to is 16:9 wide. This is good for watching movies on new televisions because they are a lot wider compared to the old square televisions which have the aspect ratio of 4:3. The pixels on the television per square inch are 720 x 576. The rectangle in the middle of the screen is used to show roughly where the four hot spots are. This can help the person filming know where to place the most important things which they want to stand out. DV CAM stands for Digital Video Camera and 48 K is the sound quality used for the movie.

The shutter speed should be set at 50 most of the time. The shutter speed number shows how many times the shutter shuts per second. The higher the number the shutter is on (above 50) the sharper the picture, which is good for action scenes. Below 50, the picture become more blurry and doesn’t make the film look good.

The dB should be at zero otherwise extra light is let in which is not needed. To change the dB, press the gain button on the camera and use the wheel to change the number. F6.8 is the perfect aperture, which is the amount of light let in. You can use the wheel on the camera to change the aperture if needed. Aperture above 6.8 makes the picture darker; aperture below 6.8 makes the picture lighter. The last important setting is the light bulb/sunshine symbol. When filming outside, the symbol should be on the sunshine symbol. However when filming inside, the symbol should be on the light bulb.

Interviews in the Television Studio

We had a practical lesson in the Studio giving and having interviews. Several of the people in my class were chosen to help with lighting, taking the interviews and filming the interviews. The other people were the ones interviewed. These people were very important in making the interview look good. For example the people in charge of lighting had to put lights in a good position to give the interview a good effect.

The person filming had to make sure that that they were recording the interview correctly and that everything in the frame was supposed to be in the frame. The person taking the interview was important to make sure that the interview ran smoothly. People were asked a range of different questions. Some of them were about why they choose to take media studies, what their favourite film is and what type of music they were into.

The purpose of this exercise was to see how interview were taken, and to show that scenes can be reshot. For example, the person behind the camera said, ‘ready-action’ and after the interview, or when there was a mistake said ‘cut’. This term means to stop recording and end the scene. This came from the olden days when people used to cut the reel and rejoin it to another scene. Another purpose was to show people what it was like to be on screen or behind the scenes because there will be a lot of this during our Media lessons.