Stock Characters in Horror Movies

I am able to define the various stock characters in horror movies and have listed examples of characters to go with the explanation.

     

Planning for Production

Something beyond abnormal is happening in the town of Archway. Hours before new year’s, a series of unusual events take place amongst Unique and her friends Blade, Norman, Chuck and Ash as they end up caught in Burghley High. Newcomer into the clique, Blessing, has had no problems adjusting into the neighbourhood, unsure that her friends are yet to know that she is a regular to the school.

Everyday school equipment has it’s purpose of use as a weapon that everyone involved interacts with at some crucial point. 

#Considerable title names

1. Hanging On
2. Hanging Out
3. New Tears
4. Life Must Go On

#CHARACTERS

• Trent Myers
• Norman Bates
• Hitch
• Ashley Williams 
• Unique McNeil 
• Blessing Baneful

• Trent Myers aka Blade is the weed/ alcohol addict.
• Norman Bates is the weird guy and is the geeky character of the group.
• Hitch aka joker/ candyman is the popular guy that loves the topic situated around females.
• Ashely Williams plays more or less of the role as a female version of Hitch.
• Unique McNeil is potentially the final girl that looks into investigating the unusual events amongst her friends. And is the protagonist.
• Blessing Baneful aka Supreme is the antagonist and is in disguise as the killer in tis trailer. She has documents that prove she is a deceiver as there is evidence that she has used other names such as: Joy, Faith, Grace and Hope.    

#ICON AND SETTINGS

Mask, nails, pins, gloves, knife, hammer ....... TEDDY BEAR (demonic) !!!

“you can trust me, I won’t fail you” "if only this could last forever, i dont want to leave "“waheyy!” “young wild and free” “live and love life”

Common room (set the scene and meeting point/ ending point), Playground (everyone splits up), spots hall (lonely because of the quietness as the room echo’s), dance studio (gradual and unexpected sounds), Astroturf (sports equipment), science lab (health and safety) and basement (pitch black)

Film's Cool - Session Two

The second session of 'Film's Cool' took place in our media room, where again I was introduced to new faces. We had the opportunity to have Jesse O'Mahoney come in and help us develop our ideas. The eastenders writer listened intensively while I shared my idea with him and gave me and my group feedback. He said he thought the idea was great but questioned me behind the thoughts of my central character. We as a group went into discussing the personality type, profession and life problem/s of this chief character. And this individual character's 'want's and need's', as this all becomes important.

As my broad idea is situated on the value of one's life, Jesse made me consider who matters to this person and why they might matter. As it could possibly be that this character discovers the love of life the very moment they discover they're dead.

We then did our Q&A session with Jesse O'Mahoney towards the ending of the session.

The one thing I captured that Jesse mentioned was that we should aim to write our storyline in one sentence, just a couple of words that will sum up everything.

Introducing My Team

Today's lesson was based on our group choices. I formed a group with Mabinti and Martina and we dhared with eachother our ideas. My idea was based on a girl that starts the next set of her education and strage things seem to cross her pathway only to discover something about herself.

What I have to offer my group is my high level of confidence of willingness to get in front of the camera. I am also imaginative with my creativity and sufficient in my analysis. I'm an artist so this will be very helpful when it comes to sketching out our story board. I also currently to performing arts so i have the understanding and experience with the setting, costume, make-up, lighting and sond.
The other two girls in my group have the strength of being in contact with one another, not only because they're related but they live closely to one another. Tina has the skill of pitching and developing ideas. While Binti has the skill to navigate a camera with her digital photography skills, alongside with her interest for horror movies.


Halloween 
Bomb-fire Night
Christmas 
New Years

Above are a list of upcoming key events that I thought might be intellectual to film clips in the environment during these special time periods. And hopefully we get footages of superior conditions and effects.

Mulvey's Male Gaze - Audience Theory

The Male Gaze theory is suggested by Laure Mulvey (1975) where she hows how the male point of view is adopted by the camera for the benefit of an assumed male audience. This is through the practice of a camera 'lingering' a females body, and therefore customises females to be viewed as 'sexual objects' to gratify men.
She argued that male figures are the central active characters and the male audience identifies their viewing of women as passive figures. Female audience are also positioned to identify with the male gaze and functional through the 'males' eyes'.


From this exercise I understand the key representation theory 'The Male Gaze' and have identified the strengths of effect of this particular theory. Alongside, applied it to another trailer production, Byzantium.

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/byzantium/#videos-large

In the film Byzantium, women are shown to seductive through the use of camera shots(angles&movement), Editing, Sound and all other minor aspects included in the trailer.

At the beginning of the trailer the close-up of the girls eye's as if she's luring him into her. And has one long thumb nails that gives the suspense of purpose of activity of what the nail for.

The same girl is shown to be wearing a red colour and has red wavy hair, with red lipstick applied onto her lips. This colour red represents passion and love.

In various scenes, men are shown to be dominate due to the ration of what men are to women. Men are also shown to overshadow of a female figure. We see this through the positioning of a when the women is seated and is surrounded by three men stood behind her. Both of these point emphasises through the camera shot and minse-en-scene. This overall view presents women as second best and always followed behind a man.

A scene is shown where a girl looks at her reflection but her reflection is faded through steam, which gives the sense of unclarity and shows unimportance to this female figure.

Dialogue - 'secrets haven't you', this could be encoded as a theme of secrets that can be found, portrayed or represented in any genre of film.

Towards the end of the trailer, shows a lady assisted with sound and lighting indicating a night club.
Through the use of hard base beats and colourful flashing lights.

With this, the camera focuses directly on the side of a female emphasising her curves and figure on her body.

The technique of double gander is presented when we see a reflection that ensures the distinct binary opposition of good vs bad. 

Overall, the male gaze theory shows me what exactly the representation of women are in films. However this theory can be challenged as not every movie will consist of a male being heroic and female being seductive or set to be second fiddle to a male figure.

Evaluation of existing weblogs

http://alomgira2media.blogspot.co.uk 
http://kimberleysmarta2media.blogspot.co.uk 
http://poppymiles.blogspot.co.uk 

• All three of them have posted all their evaluation questions onto their blog.
• They have collected feedback from peers and have reflected on them.
• They have produced pie charts on excel as a record of data.
• They have reported sessions from 'film's cool' regularly as an account of meeting professionals.
• Linked theories to synopsis.
• Have analysis of the groups production logo, poster and magazine.   
• Mentions the absences of a group member.
• Codes they employed.
• The effects of an unsuccessful filming session.
• Inclusion of digital strategies eg. Facebook
• Knowledge of the theoretical side of the ratings of films.
• And risk assessment.  

I can evaluate and peer assess existing A2 media blogs and supply smart tagets on how I can replicate or improve upon this practice.

Film's Cool - Session One

The first session of 'Film's Cool' took place in the common room, where three different media classes were reunited together in one space. On the first session we had the opportunity to have Kate Hardie come in and talk to us. The director and writer gave us the fundamental aspects of what there is to make a film. And she explained this by taking us on a journey of how she got to where she is today. After been shared her transformation from being an actress and to what she has now become, she then went on to talk about what aspects we should take into consideration when planning our story lines. Such as; 'What kind of story is it? What will make your story different if you wanted to follow the path of a traditional convention?' This made me have to decide whether I wanted to use a recognizable genre or if I wanted to bring a fresh perspective. This then led me onto what theme I'm trying to explore and what will I be hoping communicate. So then I had to think about the significant things that have happened in my life and what are my interests.

After our 90minute session, I went home with the understanding of genre being assessable. And that pretty much anything can be made into what you want, as genre is a framework so what matters is your story.

Killers in Horror Films

I am able to explore key characters in horror films, investigate conventional characteristics of the protagonist, and this could possibly enable me to apply my findings to my own horror production.

 

Testing Burton's Formula

I can point out commonalities in terms of key elements found within specific genres.And through this guide, can pick out key features and colour code them in film plots. With this, I have made an observation of what all three plots have in common.

 

Burton's Theory

Genre, Iconography and Ideology

Audit of Skills

This second academic year of my media course, I expect to grow substantially in confidence with using movie making soft-wares.
With work to do with my blog post, I intend to keep on track and up to date with all my practical work transferring it onto my blogger account. With is I will have to analyse and evaluate my practical work as a reflection of understanding and gradually progress my current knowledge of Media studies.

My Strengths

• I am able to search on the internet information and evaluate the information by picking and deciding relevant details.
• I can make effective notes when reading and listening in my lessons.
• I understand the difference between an essay and report and can analyse them..
• I am able to adapt my writing style to suite the appropriate media audience.
• I can punctuate, use grammar and spelling correctly.
• I am able to express my views verbally and speak in front of a group of people. Above that also listen to and appreciate the views of others and work well as a member of a group or team.
• I can prepare, plan and deliver a presentation and use visual aids to support a presentation.
• I can use a variety of different computer software E.g. word, power-point, excel, access etc.

Having had the experience from last year I am now aware of what makes my work more affective. By this I mean the appropriateness of where and when to study (place and time). However I need to plan out strategies to help me manage my time which links with prioritizing my tasks and activities. And this will enable me to keep to my deadlines. Most of all I need to understand the importance of needing to reference my work and avoid plagiarism.
As well as being able to set myself goals and to identify them personally, I believe I am a good judge of what my strenghts are and what areas need to be developed. And so now I ordain to plan a revision timetable and keep to this schedule & with hope I get the best out of this course.

Trailer Making

Screen Recording from Temi Adeuya on Vimeo.

The Meeting - Outdoors

meeting 2 from Temi Adeuya on Vimeo.

The Crash

crash sequence from Temi Adeuya on Vimeo.

The Meeting - Indoors

School Meeting - Indoors from Temi Adeuya on Vimeo.

Montage Editing

What is the Kuleshov effect?

The Kuleshov effect is a shot of a single long closeup of an actor sitting still without expression or emotion. The essence of the Kuleshov effect is that an individual viewer is 'filling in the blanks', or 'connecting the dots'.
Commonly, according to the Kuleshov theory, the viewer doesn't realize the reaction is in their own mind, and assumes the actor is showing it.
From this experiment, the inventor of Kuleshov concluded that the editing of a film overrode all other aspects of film making, making them irrelevant. Moreover, this conclusion may or may not be true, however, this technique has been used brilliantly by filmmakers such as Stanley Kubrick and Alfred Hitchcock.

Who is Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein?

Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein produced the film editing effect. Other than being a screenwriter and editor, he was a pioneering soviet Russian film director and film theorist; often considered to be the "Father of Montage".
He was born on January 23rd 1898 in Riga, Latvia. And died on February 10th 1948 in Moscow, Russia.

What is montage?

Montage is a technique in film editing in which a series of short shots are edited into a sequence to consider space, time and information.

Types of montage:

• Metric montage                  
• Rhythmic montage             
• Tonal montage                   
• Time-transition montage 
• Mood montage
• Impact montage 

"montage can create meaning"

Rules of Composition

Headroom

Headroom is the distance between the top of a subjects head and the top of the frame.

This picture demonstrates the right amount of capacity needed and displays less of an empty space within the top of the frame.

This picture demonstrates the wrong amount of capacity and displays more of an empty space within the top of the frame.

Looking Room

Looking room is the negative space between the characters directional sight to the edge of the frame. 

This picture above demonstrates the right amount of reach needed and displays extra room between the distance of the direction seen upon to the edges of the frame.


The picture below demonstrates the wrong amount of reach and displays limited room between the distance of the direction seen upon to the edges of the frame.

Rules of thirds

Rules of thirds is a guideline that proposes an image divided into nine equal parts, by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines.

Dept of Field

Depth of field is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects within the frame and therefore appears acceptably sharp dependent on the view.

And so the deepness and the shallowness of the focus depends on the size of the depth of field.


Aperture of camera

Aperture is the opening through which light travels.

Continuity Editing

The three screenshots placed above provides evidence of continuity editing, which is a technique used to edit movies and films. This skill that I've been introduced to is a system of cutting that is used to maintain clear, continuous narrative actions.
What I did firstly to display this skill I've learnt was to select the section that needed adjustment and so placed a line between the two separate sections, and pressed the letter 'T' on the keyboard. This letter on Adobe Premiere Pro is known as the trim tool. Then I moved the mouse from left to right ensuing the section that needed to be cut was placed in order.