audience reserch

Our film would mainly appeal to females as they are attracted more to romantic fantasy films.

However, it could also appeal to males as later on in the film there may be some action and adventure aspects. 

The age range for our film is age twelve to eighteen as the character is seventeen years old but older people may be attracted the film up to the age of fourty as they might have read the books or just enjoy the genre. This is why younger children below the age of twelve may not like the film or be attracted to it as they will not understand the storyline of the film so they will be confused as it is quite a confusing tension filled film. Girls may also prefer this film rather than boys as boys are more into sci-fi and action films, whereas girls are attracted to films where they can connect with the characters emotions and express feelings from it although it is a fantacy it is still filled with emotion.

In comparison other films which include fantacy and romantic emotional situations in their genre are twilight, The secret circle and beautiful creatures. The secret circle would be aimed more at tv watches so people into other series like the vampire diaries as it includes more of a romantic aspect and is on evening tv. Beautiful creatures is the film that is most similar to ours as it focuses on the struggles of a teenage witch who is coming of age and shows the relationship she has with her family and friends. Twilight was a hit sensation with all ages and genders and was the main foucous when we were looking at how to market our film.

Changes we made to the title font

The changes we had made were that originally we had a pale yellow font for our titles I have learnt that this colour looked unprofessional and 'tacky' from this we ended up using a dark maroon colour this looked good on some of the lighter less woody shots but in the more woody shots it was almost unrecognisable. If we were going to make further changes we would change this to a more suitable colour.
We have used Adobe Carlson Pro as the typeface. We think this looks professional and not too modern as we wanted to go for a more rustic traditional style.

this is a photo of our risk assessment

the script

This is the updated version of our script, we kept the dialogue short and simple this was to allow the audience to conect and get a feel for the clips without being influenced by too much dialogue.

Voiceover Script 
I never wanted any of this to happen, ever since i found out about this curse of witchcraft, everything has gone downhill. my life has been turned upside down. it has all spirealed out of cotrol. i want to rewind back time to when none of this was ever an issue, back when everything seemed so ordinary, now id prefere ordinary.

it seemes as if i have lost everything friendship, emotions, and even my mind. i dont understand, why? why me?

i wish i could just rewind

i wish i could just rewind

The Mise en scene for our film

MISE EN SCENE: 
- Settings and Props- Costume, Hair and Make Up
- Facial Expressions and Body Language
- Lighting and Colour
- Positioning of Characters

As our film sequence is mainly all outdoors, this makes finding a location a lot easier. We plan to film at Galley wood common and a selection of other places like great baddow high school. We were thinking about other woodland areas but we decided that this one was ideal as it is quite big and picturesque but also close us meaning that we could get there easily without hassle. It was the perfect setting for the look we wanted. 

Our costumes are also quite simple as well as there is only one character in the opening this meant that we only had to develop one style, although there is also other characters that are featured in the opening these were only shown for a split second so we didn't have to focus on their attire hugely. We decided that the main character Eva should be wearing a beautiful long navy chiffon dress, This was to convey a grand feel this would only be in the first scene and with the use of setting it would cause the audience to question things. Whereas Eva in the other scenes she will be wearing more casual clothing these will be slightly dark and gothic. The costume of the other characters that are featured in the rewind will be casual, teen like, something you would wear to collage. 

Facial expressions will be important in our sequence as Eva is supposed to be quite a mysterious character and within the first min of the film she is shown to be 'dead' she then opens her eyes revealing that she isn't. Facial expressions will also be important when Eva is shown in the rewind, here she is shown to be quite confused and scared then her mood seems to lighten up as the clip progresses showing her as a happy individual. 

Although lighting is quite hard when we have a limited amount of time to film, we are going to try our hardest to get it all in the day time when the camera quality will be the best. This is also because we are trying to represent everyday life. we would try and film the first scene more towards the late afternoon this is so that due to the current weather implications we would be able to film before its pitch black but late enough so that it is not really bright as we were trying to make the opening scenes feel quite dark and mystical. 

The main focus of the sequence is Eva so she will be on camera the most. It should be clear that she is the main character as she is the first person to come on screen and the main focus in following first couple of minutes.

changes to the shot list

Due to us changing the narrative of the opening it meant that we would have to change the shot list, the shot list now contains two scenes
Scene 1- This will be shot in the woods (Galleywood Common) this is initially a scene from the middle of the film. The only character it contains is Eva. The camera pans through the woods like it is looking for something them stumbling across Eva.
Scene 2- This contains a collection of mini scenes they would be speed up and and played in reverse to show that the film is being 'rewound to the beginning' this is ironic due to Eva saying in the first scene that she wishes she could 'just rewind back to a time when witchcraft didn't run her life'

The mini scenes include

• One of her walking to her mothers grave
• walking from her home
• ones of her and her friends in school messing about
• library scenes researching witchcraft
• ones of her in a car
• ones of her practicing magic
• going to a creepy cottage 

Music Update 2

A recurring comment that we received about our first draft was that the music we used was too much like a Daytime TV program and not like a film opening. Initially we were going to use the song moonlight stanza by Beethoven but this was to heavy for our first draft we then changed it to the instrumental version of Mazzy Stars Fade into you, but this belonged more on TV.

Olivia then set out to find another song, whilst sam wrote the script and I began to edit the videos, The song she decided to use was called Soda by the Cinematic Orchestra this would be played in the opening scene. For the 'Rewind' scene she decided to use the song Breath Me (instrumental) by Sia we will discuss this further on Monday the 15th.

Poster Drafts

Bellow is a selection of poster ideas that I have created using screenshots from the clips we filmed in the woods, I edited them on the iPhone app called Line Camera although they were edited on my iPhone they still came out very professional looking. They are only rough designs and I will use the basic design of the one that gets the best feedback and re create it on more professional software like Photoshop. The inspiration for the posters came from the film twilight, The posters for this film are all quite grand and mythical they feature

• Two comments from big newspaper and magazine companies, 
• The names of the three main characters, 
• The title in big font underneath the main image,
• In smaller font the production company is placed above the main title.
• Bellow the main title is the basic information about the film including who produced it etc.
• Right at the bottom of the poster is the quote that is found on many posters 'COMING SOON TO A THEATRE NEAR YOU'

For a selection of the posters they have a gold tint to them this gives the feel of royalty and something grand it is also very mysterious and suits the genre well. all of the images on the posters corners fade to black around the edges this gives the effect of something more questionable it is also an effect commonly used on film posters. The images I chose to use are quite mysterious and mythical within themselves, they both cause the audience to question the film and want to know why she is laying where she is in a dress? The images and the layout are both affective on the reader causing them to want to watch the film and find out what its about.

what we need to do for poster

design ideas for both landscape and portrait 

chose designs

design bus poster

re shot the libary scene with the final actors

take the photos of the actors that we shall use in the posters 

upload

play around with them

create the final designs

compare pick the final one

upload to blog and analyse 

Peer Marking

These are photos that show my class peer marking each others first drafts.

reflections

Thought the process of year 12 I have learnt a lot of new things including how to work different programs like adobe photoshop, premere, prezzi, and slide share none of these had I used before doing the course. 
If I were to mark what I had done so far on my blog I would give it 13 out of 20 this is simply because there are some aspects that aren't fully complete or that I haven't uploaded and this therefore makes my blog look incomplete, I also haven't given it a higher mark because I don't believe that the posts that are complete are all up to the standard that they could be.

final music

We changed the music from Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata to something less well known. we have decided to use 'Mazzy Star- Fade Into You Karaoke' because it fitted with our genre better. It isn't too happy, tense, scary or cheerful. It is quite natural (the simplistic guitar sound) and fits well for a teenage girl walking alone in a natural environment.

Moonlight Sonata created an atmosphere which was too dramatic. It gave across that it was a horror film from the first few shots because its dark, tense 

timeline

This is timeline to show where the different titles appear in the opening scene.

This was very helpful when creating all of the titles when editing the film because it gave us a correct order to put them in, which is the same as 'The Craft' (a film with a similar narrative to ours).We made all of the titles roughly 4 seconds and made them fade in and out when editing our film. We only had one title shown in the library (at the end) because it looked better when the titles were shown without dialogue and lots of colours in the background. Wheres it was easier to include titles in the shots of Eva walking because the background was mainly dark colours (green and grey).

synopsis planning

Scene 1- A range of shots as Eva is walking. She is located outside Galleywood Cemetry, walking along the path, and headed towards the graves.

Scene 2- Establishing characters in the library and what they are doing.
Scene 3- Eva walks up to her Mothers grave and then the main title is shown.
Scene 4- The film cuts back to the library and Faye starts off by reading a passage about witchcraft. The library group become inquisitive about Eva's whereabouts so they call her.
Scene 5- Eva is seen walking up to the library and over to join her friends. They all gather their bags and exit the shot, the camera then zooms in on a computer screen with the page up of 'Local Legends of Witchcraft' (it zooms into Evangeline's photo)

Story Board.

This is the story board we created for our film. We have filmed each image and included a voice-over to make it easy for someone to understand how each shot will look. The images were drawn by me but our storyboard was a group effort because we had to decide on the shots we wanted, their order and how they would each look.

Visual mood board

props that we will use

We will need a large table in the library for the group of friends to sit around. On the table there will be;

1. Notebooks, Pens, Paper (the group will be attempting to research for their history witchcraft project). 
2. A laptop which someone on the table is using and a computer behind the table with the witchcraft blog loaded up on the screen. On this blog there will be a photograph of  the late witch 'Evangeline' which is who the film spirals around. The photograph will be of the actor who plays Eva (Sophie Frain) so it is clear to the audience that Evangeline looks like Eva. However the girl in the photograph will be wearing old fashioned clothes. The photograph will be 'black and white' to make it look like it was taken many decades ago.
3. Witchcraft books on the table in the library
4. Printouts of witchcraft to go on the table
5. 3 laptops and two computers that are to be used but surrounding ones to set the scene.
6. basketball
7. gym bag
8. glasses for Faye to wear
9. pens
10. notebooks
11. phone x2

Music

This is the  instrumental music we are going to use for when Eva is walking. It will also play when the institutions and titles are shown.

It will set the mood well and fits in with her being alone and walking through a graveyard. It is quite emotional music so will set the mood right for the audience. It will make them feel the way in which we have intended them to feel.

Our film institutions

We as a group researched different production companies that we could use for our film, initially we chose Warner Bros but after discussing it we realised that they weren't the right company and we should go for something smaller, we are going to use Haxan Films to produce our film they are well known for producing an independent film called The Blair Witch Project this is really similar to our film meaning that it would be the perfect company.

The fact they are a small company and produce independent films is good because our film is also an independent film.

the name of the company itself is great for our film as it relates to the theme of our film which is 'witchcraft'. Haxan got its name from the 1922 Swedish/Danish silent movie Haxan ("The Witch").

We are going to use my film company to distribute our film, it is called Aurora Studios. Out of each of our film company logos in our group we chose mine because it looked grand and therefore looking powerful. It also catches peoples attention because of the bold lettering and bright colours which make the Institutions of our film clear to the audience. the reds and yellows that are used in the image are good because they give of a powerful feel making the audience believe that what they are going to watch is going to be good.

our shooting scedule

The script

There is not much dialogue in typical opening scenes, but ours contains some. The speech helps the audience get an understanding of who the main characters are including names and what might the film be about. It gives the audience a feel for the personalities of the characters and lets them pick favourites. Our script/screen directions are below...

Instrumental of Beethoven's Moonlight Stanza is played whilst shots are shown of Eva walking to the church yard. No dialogue. shot pans up then cuts to library scene.

Alexis, Marco, Faye, Peter and Jack are all in the school library. Three of them are seated around the main table in the order Jack, empty chair, Faye, empty chair and Peter. Behind on the row of computers is Marco and Alexis, Marco is seated in the gap between Jack and Faye facing away from the camera. Alexis is also seated facing away from the camera but in between Faye and Peter, she soon moved to the main table and sits between Faye and Peter.

Alexis: Soo you guys? (pauses) [picks books up from desk in front and moves them to main desk leaving what she had on the screen up] what actually is witchcraft?

Marco: [places head in hands pushing hair back out of face] (mumbles under breath) This is going to take forever.

Peter: [gesturing in Alexis' direction whilst moving basket ball of the chair next to him onto the floor] Alexis come here. I found a definition. [pushes back laptop screen, points and begins to read it out]. {shot cuts to Eva walking into graveyard and crouching down by grave and speech becomes a voice over.} Witchcraft the practice of the mythical arts for example magic, this can either be black or white depending on the intended use. Which craft can also be linked back to the 1500's a time of spells, potions and the invocation of spirits. (fades out)

Title Evangeline is shown on screen. Shot then cuts back to the library.

Faye; [scrolling down website, pushes up glasses and moves hair behind ear] This website is actually pretty interesting. [looking up at website and writing sown notes]

Jack; [looks over Faye's shoulder at her computer screen] Hmm yeah I think I looked at that one [continues with what he was writing] *coughs* [scrunches up piece of paper and throws it at peter in a basketball playing fashion] I wonder where Eva is. I know She said she had to go somewhere first but ugh I swear shes been hours, [Tilts head back] I just want to go get food.

Peter; No idea, I'll call her. [reaches down into sports bag and pulls out phone, calls Eva]

This scene shows Eva walking after she has visited her mothers grave. she receives a phone call from Peter and picks it up.

Eva; Hello (pause whilst peter answers) yeah ill be there in a minutes (pauses) okay bye. [put phone down and speeds up her walking]

still on scene of Eva voice over is being played.

Faye; Listen to this quote from the bible. "Leviticus 20:27 man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones; their blood shall be upon them.” Its talking about witchcraft.

Eva is shown walking into the library up the stairs and towards the group.

Eva; hiya [walks over to Alexis] sorry im late took longer than I thought.

Alexis: Ah hi Eva, come on lets go. [stands up and starts to pack away her belongings.]

Eva: [looking at James] you guys ready. [everyone gets up apart from Marco and begins to put their things away, and then leaves. Marco then puts his things away and walks out following the group. Camera pans across to Fayes computer that she had left on and zooms into the screen leaving an image of Evangeline up and the audience to realise that she looks like Eva.]

Originally our script was very short and the dialogue very simple and the more we read over it the more we realised that it didn't show who the characters were and their personalities this we needed to change so that it did and the audience could connect with the characters.

 

student opening examples

This film opening got full marks and it is quite easy to understand why:

- The genre is extremely evident, lots of conventions are included. For example, the blood and the boy standing behind the car at the end. The music also helps to illustrate the genre. 

- The representations are good as young boys walking home from school and wanting to explore is something that would happen. 

- The Mise en Scene is also powerful as the setting is eerie and relevant to the genre, the lighting is very good as it is filmed during the day but the weather is very dull and grey which adds to the scary effect. The use of the deserted setting is also very effective as it allows the boy being hit by the car to stand out a lot more. 

- The child actors make the film seem a lot more realistic

- The titles are good and match the overall tone of the film, they're not too in your face. 

- The shots are powerful and look very professional, especially the one with the mud puddle. 

- The transitions are mostly straight cuts which makes the film more realistic and makes it scarier.
it is my favourite because it makes me question what happened to the boy and makes me want to watch the full film.

Representations

Who and what is being represented in the film?
in the film we are creating the main things being represented are;
witches,
teenagers,
curses,
and dark mystery.
these are all typical symbols commonly represented in supernatural mystery thriller films.

preliminary task

Clip on youtube needs uploading

Charecter development

Physical description: Eva

• Roughly 5'3"
• British with Indian and American roots.
• Brown/Redish bellow shoulder length hair.

Eva Louise Jones is the main character of the film; she was born in a small town in the south of England in the year 1994. She is the only Daughter of Marc Jones and Anya Jones, her father is a trained psychologist who is currently retired and working as a lecturer at the local college, her mother was once a medical doctor. Eva currently lives with her father and her grandfather in a large country house near the local church. She is currently attending her final year at sixth form studying three A Level subjects History Art and Chemistry. The plot is based around Eva discovering that she is a witch but not only that there is also a curse on her meaning she will not live past the age of 18. In the film she is currently 17 and 11 months meaning that there is only one month to her 18^th birthday. Her personality is outgoing easy to get along with and genuinely strong willed. She is a creative individual who often strays from the crowd.

The main character Eva, will be played by an actor with dark hair and dark eyes this is because most films of the genre supernatural thriller and because of the 'stereo types' about the way different hair colours on girls make their personalities different. Brown hair is the perfect stereo type for our film as it is more mysterious.
                                                        

Eva will also be shown wearing dark shadowy make up this is because it gives her a mysterious and slightly Gothic feel.                            
                                                         

She will be wearing dark casual but dressy clothing for example dark jeans, black boots, a black top and a Maroon knit cardigan.
she is roughly

Eva’s mother died years ago in was a sudden, tragic and mysterious death. She was a loving woman who always strived to help people. She was always there for Eva when she needed her, being the shoulder to cry on and her best friend. She was married to Marc Jones and had been for 20 old years they met in high school and were in love ever since. She wasn't the type of person to hide things from people if she had something on her mind she would say it, but little did people know she was hiding a deep secret. For she knew about the curse that lay upon her daughter, and when she prepared to inform Eva of this curse in hope that they would find a way of stopping it she was gruesomely murdered by an unknown figure who left only a note, written repeatedly on the walls surrounding her dead body it read ‘she knew’. (This is a key part of the film and is referred to as part of Eva’s ‘flash back’ in a dream)

Evangeline Bancroft, identical to Eva Jones in appearance and build, she is one of the ‘past lives’ that Eva Jones unknowingly lived. She was a Californian glamour model well paid and well lived. She died in the year 1914 at the age of 18 due to being accused of witchcraft by her alcoholic partner; her death was a result of this. The way of death was unknown but her body found lying in the middle of the road with the numbers 499 calved onto her left forearm. These numbers are significant to the film because they represent all of the past lives ‘Eva’ has lived Evangeline being the 499^th and Eva the 500^th since the curse was set.

                                                               

Alexis Swift is the best friend of Eva she is roughly 5’7” with beautiful curly red hair. She is very loyal and a key character to the film, although she is a very ‘Dazed’ character she is also very intelligent and extremely good at doing whatever it takes to find out the truth. Her and Eva have been best friends since the age of 6 when they met at an after school club. She is an only child to two parents one Tom and the other Susan Swift. Both her parents are lawyers meaning she comes from a very well off family; both her parents are very strict so along with hers and Eva’s rebellious nature results in her getting in trouble a lot.

                                                       

Peter James is a very close friend to Eva and Alexis at roughly 6’ with short mousy hair. He has a strong build and is very athletic. He is a strong character in the film due to his leading nature and ability to tell right from wrong. He has grown up alongside Alexis as they are Cousins and have always been very close, it seems that he has a romantic eye for Eva and cares for her a lot. 

                                                               

Jack Matthews is 18 and in the same history class as all of the other characters, he other than Eva is the oldest one there, he has thick messy blonde hair and blue eyes. He is also very sporty and a very good friend of Peter, and is currently in a relationship with a girl called Mindy who is a Gymnast.
                                                         

Faye Blake is 5’6 with beautiful long hair and brown glasses. She is smart and witty, she doesn't initially have a strong bond with any of the characters in the beginning of the film but the audience get to see this develop as the film progresses. She comes from a less well of family than the other characters.  She is the ‘nerdy’ yet ‘popular’ girl that all of the other kids are jealous of, most people would think that because of this she is not a very nice person and doesn't have much respect for anyone but in fact she is the complete opposite.

                                                                       

Marco Armstrong short with long mousy styled but messy hair, he is the more mysterious character as he tends to keep himself to himself. Marco struggles a lot in school and often gets frustrated when he can’t get something right the first time but this doesn't stop him from giving up as he always pushes through right at the last minute. He is always listening yet saying little but when he does he always knows exactly what to say.

                                                       

Eva Marco Alexis Faye and jack are a group of students who have been put together for a history project, about witchcraft where they have to create a presentation and present it to the class. By doing this they discover the Evangeline curse and attempt to delve deeper into it hoping to find a way of protecting their friend from the terrible curse that lays in her tracks. This is the first film in a series, where the mystery continues and more trouble lays ahead.

                                                        

Audience reserch

12-18

Our shot list

Codes and conventions

for our film we tried to include the following codes and conventions that applied to our genre.

For the Mystery thriller side of it:

• Tension
• Suspense
• Hidden messages
• Low key lighting
• woodland areas and vast spaces to show that the character is alone and helpless and it makes it look slightly more mysterious and makes the audience feel the tension and question the mystery.
• many cuts, this is to build suspense.
• periods of silence
• high angle shots to establish the setting and make the audience feel like they are watching the character and that they might not be the only one who is. 

Supernatural films include:

• deep slow music
• symbols
• detached older looking houses
• classical music

Our Poster For Our Marketing Campaigne

Marketing

This is how we are going to market our film, we have decided to use posters trailers which would be shown at prime time on tv, and the use of....
tv ads
posters
social networking hype
youtube ads
public stunts
television and radio interviews
merchandise
print ads - newspapers, mags, books.
audience research ~(test screenings)

photos

these are a collection of photographs we took for our witchcraft blog we looked at different poses and techniques that were used at the time we were trying to replicate.

 

Mentions to include.

Pro company - Haxan Films

Distribution - Aurora Studios

Filmed by - Olivia Plumpton & Sam Bellman

Title - Evangeline

Actors - Sophie Frain, Olivia Plumpton, Sam Bellman, Tom Richardson, Chay Pollinger, Bonnie Fitch, Lucy Harding.

Costumes designed by - Olivia Plumpton

Music by - Sophie Frain

Editor - Sophie Frain

Production designer - Sam Bellman

Director of photography - Olivia Plumpton

Executive producer - Sam Bellman

Screenplay by - Sophie Frain

Produced by - Sophie Frain

Directed by - Olivia Plumpton

Casting by - Sam Bellman

Music supervisor - Olivia Plumpton

Co-producer - Sam Bellman

Representations

Representations are created by people in the media industry to persuade a certain feel or image to the audience.

Definitions:

Stereotypes – Media institutions use stereotypes because the audience will instantly understand them. stereotypes are like a ‘visual shortcut’. They're repeated so often that we assume they are normal or ‘true’. A typical stereotype example is that all girls from essex wear fake tan.

Archetypes - This is the ‘ultimate’ stereotype. For example, the white stiletto wearing, big busted, brainless blonde bimbo.

Countertype -A representation that challenges traditional stereotypical associations of groups, people or places.

Representation – the way in which people, events and ideas are presented to the audience. To break it down, the media takes something that is already there and re-presents it to us in the way that they choose.

Gatekeepers

A media ‘gatekeeper’ is a person involved in a media production with the power to make a decision about something the audience are allowed to read, hear or see – and, of course, not get to see; for instance, a newspaper editor has the final say on what goes into his or her newspaper, where it goes within the pages, next to what other piece, with which pictures, strap-lines and headlines, etc.

E.g. in a newspaper the reporter would be the producer and the editor would be the gatekeeper. However the owner of the company would have the final say.

Moguls:

But in the example of the newspaper editor’s decision, this will not be made freely: it will have been affected by technical issues, by the kind of person who owns the newspaper, for example (i.e. the so-called media moguls, such as Rupert Mudorch), and by many other things.

Who, What, Why, Where?

When you’re analysing representation,you need to think about the following questions:

1. WHO or what is being representing? Who is the preferred audience for this representation?
2. WHAT are they doing? Is their activity presented as typical or atypical? Are they conforming to genre expectations or other conventions?
3. WHY are they present? What purpose do they serve? What are they communicating by their presence? What’s preferred reading?
4. WHERE are they? How are they framed? Are they represented as natural or artificial? What surrounds them? What is in the foreground and what is in the background?

The media can chose ways to represent information, such as the man who started the London riots could be portrayed as a family man or as someone who deserved it, depending on the types of pictures used. For example, there is one picture that shows him holding a baby and smiling and another where he appears to be making a gun gesture and looking more serious. 

REPRESENTATION THEORY

The Male Gaze (Laura Mulvey)

The cinema apparatus of Hollywood cinema puts the audience in a masculine subject position with the woman on the screen seen as an object of desire. Film and cinematography are structures upon ideas. Protagonists tended to be men. Mulvey suggests two distinct modes of male gaze – “voyeuristic (women as whores) and fetishistic – women as unreachable Madonna’s”. (Also narcissistic – women watching the film see themselves reflected on the screen).

How we treat people (Richard Dyer) Dyer argues that how we are seen determines how we are treated and how we treat other people is based on how we see them. This comes from our understanding of representation. He believes that stereotypes come down to power. Those who have power stereotype those who don’t. 

possible angles fro evangeline title

these are all possible shots that we could pan to when we are showing our main title 'Evangeline'