Audience Profiling

CGI:Green and Blue Screens

 What is a green/blue screen?

A green screen allows film producers to create a whole new world which doesn't exist for their films to use as film locations. They can also re-create existing locations, which may be hard to access, without needing to be in that specific country or location e.g outer space. CGI allows a person's setting to change instantly, one minute they could be sitting in a chair in their living room and then be sitting on the same chair but this time in the middle of a jungle. This is because the image on the green screen behind the actor sitting on the chair changes.
An additional use of CGI is that it can change a person's appearance and transform them into aliens, monsters animated characters etc.This is what was done in the film Avatar to create the Na'vi humanoid species.
 IMAGE:(The actors practiced the scenes in the jungle, but they actually shot it in a greenroom)

Another advantage of using green screen is that it enhances the performance of action sequences done by stuntman, for example scenes were characters are jumping from high buildings or falling from high places. The actual action doesn't need to be carried out instead the actor or stuntman can just be held by ropes hanging from the selling or jump from a small height, and the green screen will make it look like they are actually jumping from an extremely high place or free falling in mid air.
To do this type of scenes a travelling mattes is used. 

How travelling mattes work:
 The blue screen allows two or three pieces of film to be combined.
The first thing that needs to be done is to film the entire length of the tall building, this will be used as the background plate. Then they will need to film the actress hanging from the ceiling waving her arms around (acting in a way that resembles falling) in front of a blue background.
Then the special effects department creates two mattes from the shot of the actress, using red filters, which causes the blue background to turn black. After this they are left with two mattes one with the actor's silhoutte
black and the other in reverse as well as the two initial shots. Combining all four pieces of film will generate the final piece of film.
Source

How it works:
A person acts in front of a green/blue background. Then a computer is used to replace every single green pixel with a pixel of another image, which might be a location which was already filmed or created. A problem with this is that is if the computer detects anything else which is green those pixels will also be replaced which includes the clothing of the person in the scene.
Another:Video on Green screen

LIVE EVIL SCRIPT:First Draft

Live Evil

Manuscript

Scene 1 REAL LIFE

INTERIOR-REBECCA’S HOUSE, KITCHEN-MIDDAY

Black screen fades into a Close-up shot of newspaper on table, which allows the news headline “3 Teens, Victims of Mysterious Death” and related photos to be clearly visible. Door bell rings. Newspaper is suddenly covered by a book. Rebecca gets up from chair and leaves room. This is shown by the camera zooming out of the newspaper and stopping into a mid-shot of kitchen. She opens the door and walks out of the room, after she walks out of the room the door slowly swings back—Shown through a mid-shot of door. The company logo appears on the screen, and then disappears when the door closes. The screen goes black.

INTERIOR-CARETAKERS HOUSE- MORNING

Fade in of a medium close up of caretaker’s hands wearing gloves, which allow the distinctive bracelet on his wrist to be clearly seen. Caretaker is putting a DVD into a black DVD case with Rebecca Lucky written on the cover.

INTERIOR-REBECCA’S HOUSE-MIDDAY

Cut to the front door of Rebecca’s house with the same black DVD case on the floor —shown through a wide shot. Rebecca walks into the frame and walks towards the door; this is shown through a mid-shot. She bends down to pick up the DVD— shown through a point of view shot. A trailing, mid-shot is used as she gets up and walks into the living room. She places the DVD into the DVD player—shown through a point of view shot. A wide shot of living room is used to show her sitting on the sofa and watching the movie. The shot cuts to a wide shot of the TV where the film can be seen. In the movie there are three teenagers with equipment walking in a park. The camera zooms into the TV as ‘3 hours’ later appears on the screen of the TV.

Scene 2 MOVIE

EXTERIOR-MOVIE, PARK-NIGHT

Camera handheld, point of view shot, shows two teenagers sitting in a circle telling each other ghost stories. Point of view shot constantly cuts between the two teenagers to show their reactions to the stories—Medium close up is used. Handheld, camera tilts upwards to show female friend getting up to go look around the park. 15 minutes later appears on the screen. Handheld camera tilts upwards to show male friend getting up from his seat.

Male friend: (Teases) I’ll go check why she’s taking so long........You know if I go you probably won’t see me again...in one piece that is.

Rebecca :( Jokingly) okay just make sure you don’t conveniently fall over when something chases you.

(Voice pitch, becomes distorted)

15 minutes later appears on screen. Rebecca becomes worried and decides to look for her friends. Handheld, panning shot of park which is now found out is a cemetery is used as Rebecca looks around for her friends.

Rebecca: (shouts) Kris!....Amber!

(Voice pitch, becomes distorted)

Along with this, is some eerie music building up louder.

Rebecca is suddenly knocked down and the camera falls on the floor facing her. She begins to crawl over to grab it but before she can, she begins to be dragged away from it by something — shown through the cameras point of view shot.

Rebecca: (screams) NO!!!!! 

Screen then fades to black.

Scene 3 REAL LIFE

INTERIOR-LIVING ROOM –AFTERNOON

Extreme close up that slowly zooms out of Rebecca’s face to show her reaction after watching the film. She stops the movies, gets up grabs her jacket- shown through a cut-in. She then leaves the house- shown through a handheld wide-shot.

Rebecca is walking down her street obliviously- shown by a hand held tracking wide shot of her back-this changes to a mid shot of her side and then into a dolly zoom of her front

MONTAGE (Movie and newspaper)

“Flashback”

There’s compilation of clips showing the actors of the film that she just watched as well as the close up shot of the newspaper article. (no sound used)

Quiet eerie music playing in the background.

Rebecca nods her head for reassurance that everything’s okay and it’s just a co-incidence- shown through a mid-shot which cuts to a extreme close up of her expressions just as she realises that she has ended up in the same cemetery as the movie- quick flashback to the part where she saw the cemetery in the film she watched.

Eerie getting louder during the previous shots and sudden silence and everything freezes at the cemetery gate shown through a very wide shot.

INTERIOR-REBECCA’S LIVING ROOM-AFTERNOON

Wide shot of the living room followed by an extreme close up of the remote control on the pillow. The camera pans to show Rebecca’s mother entering the room. Wide shot continues to show her sitting down on top of the control by accident which make turns the film back on again-tv shown by a mid-shot. The camera then zooms into the TV to indicate that the next seen is in the movie.

Scene 4 MOVIE

EXTERIOR-MOVIE, CEMETERY- NIGHT

The camera’s point of view shows Rebecca escaping from the hands grip by kicking villain and gets up, she grabs the camera and runs- shown through Handheld camera

As Rebecca is running, she trips and falls over.

 “Flashback”

Rebecca :( Jokingly) okay just make sure you don’t conveniently fall over when something chases you.

(Voice pitch, no longer distorted)

“Back to present”

Rebecca: (Screams)

Handheld camera point of view shot shows Rebecca’s blood splash on the lenses, which obscures the view. The screen fades to black.

Scene 5 REAL LIFE

EXTERIOR-CEMETERY-AFTERNOON

Wide-shot of cemetery shows caretaker emerging from behind a wall. The shot cuts to a mid shot of him smiling.

Caretaker: (nonchalantly) can I help you?

Cut to a point of view medium close up shot of Rebecca.

 Rebecca: (Stutters) Where’s the way out?”

Caretaker points in a direction to show her the way out — shown through a mid-shot. There is a cut-in to his hand pointing, to show that he is wearing the same gloves and bracelet as that he wore in scene 1. This shot cuts to an over the shoulder medium close up shot of caretaker smirking while Rebecca can be seen over his shoulder walking in the direction he pointed to. The scene fades out.

EXTERIOR- CEMTERY- NIGHT

Rebecca gets lost and begins to hear weird sounds as she walk forwards — a trailing, Dolly zoom. The camera does a 360 degree point of view, wide shot of Rebecca. This then cuts to a point of view pan, wide shot. The camera then zooms on to her feet where we see a dissolved hand grab her ankle. She screams and the camera rapidly zooms out into a bird’s eye view shot. After her scream can no longer be heard the camera then slowly zooms back into the soil to show that it has been meddled with, and indicate that she has been pulled inside.

Jobs in the Film Industry

Talent Booker: This person is responsible for contracting suitable actors and actresses to star in productions. The actors are chosen depending on viewer trends identified by the talent booker; this ensures that the most popular celebrities are featured in the production.
Another job done by the Talent booker is working with talent agencies to discover new talents.
In our team both me and Anika will carry out this job, but Anika is responsible for the main actress while I look for the actors to play the supporting roles. So far we have decided on a possible actress that could play the main role in our film. She is a student who has previously won an oscar in our school's media ceremony for her work in english and is very confident in public speaking.

Stunt coordinator:  This person is responsible for arranging and planning the stunts which will be carried out by the stuntman, which refers to the person who takes and actor's place to perform dangerous action sequences.
Our film will contain two killing scenes. The first one, the dragging scene will be planned by be since it was my suggestion and I already have an idea of what it should look like. The second scene with the torch will be planned by Anika since she came up with that idea.

Prop Maker: This person is responsible for making the required props which are not hired or brought, which can be adapted or modified by the prop maker in order to fit the image of the production. He/she uses a variety of techniques, equipments and materials to produce objects such as 'stunt' props, which are made to imitate existing props which are made out of nonhazardous materials.
Since I am an art and product design student, I will be the one responsible for creating and arranging the props for our film.

Marketing Executive: This person is in charge of developing marketing campaigns to promote a film. This includes the advertising for the film (poster, banners, and trailers), organising events such as film premieres, distributing the film (DVD) and sponsorships.
Since we are working in a team, both of us will be creating our own poster and then decide on which one to use. 
The film trailer will be created by both of us together, but the company logo will be made by me.

Costume Designer: This person is responsible for making and customizing hired costumes for all the actors in the movie including the extras, these costumes must suits the period of the film and each character's personalities. She/he must gather all the costumes under a strict budget and tight schedule. They are also responsible for managing a team of personnel and supervising the organisation of the wardrobe and budget as well as the costume continuity. This takes place in the pre-production stage of the film.
We didn't really pay much attention to the costume worn by the protagonist and her friends as long as it was something suitable for the location (cemetery). But we did tell the main actress to where something she didn't mind  getting ruined because of the dragging scene. However since I was playing the antagonist I payed extra attention to her costume since her true identity had to remain hidden, so she needed something that would cover her face. Furthermore her clothes needed to consist of dark colours such as black and brown in order to show that she is evil and conform to the conventions of a horror film.

Gaffer: This person is the lead electrician, he is responsible for all the electrical work in the films production. He/she is responsible for a team of technicians who take care of the lighting and power supply of the film's production. In larger film productions, there might be more than one Gaffer working on studio set and on location in this case a chief electrician would supervise both.

Best Boy: This person is the best electrician in a team which is led by the gaffer, he has the senior lighting role which means he is responsible for the lighting technicians and their paperwork. He/she is responsible for making sure that equipment is ordered and delivered in time and in the correct location. Another responsibility the best boy is to fix any malfunctioning and damaged equipment.

Key Grip: This person is part of the camera department and is responsible for the camera movement, they must insure that the camera is securely fixed onto any stationary used to create the camera movement (flying, floating etc). They are also responsible for the shadows of light. Another responsibility they have is directing the crew of grips, which are crew members who have specialized skills such as dolly grips and crane operators.

Location Scout: This person has an important role in the pre-production stage of filming , this is because they are responsible for finding suitable and accessible locations outside the studio which can be used to film the movie according to the kind of scenery described by the film directors and producers.
We worked on this together. We visited three possible cemeteries where we could film in and later decided on which one was most suitable.

Source

Old and new horror films how do they differ?

Compare two examples, from different decades, of any media genre of your choice. Describe and account for the major differences and similarities between them.

In this essay I will be looking at the differences and similarities of two horror films, Pet cemetery which was made in 1989 and The Ring 2 which was made in 2005. By doing this I will explore how the horror genre has developed other the past few years in terms of technology, characters and storyline. This analysis will become useful for me because I intend to produce a horror film so looking at the aspects of the genre which have remained the same or changed other the years is important.

To begin with both films were an adaptation of novels. The Ring was a Japanese novel written by Koji Suzuki while Pet cemetery was a novel written by Stephen King. 

Special effects are used effectively in The Ring to enhance the idea of the supernatural and how powerful it is. For example the scene where the water from the bathtub is floating upwards and swaying to the sound of the non diegetic sound effects giving off the impression that the ghost is controlling the water. On the other hand, in the film Pet cemetery, the power of the supernatural is shown through the storyline and the idea that a specific cemetery has the power of bringing back to life those who are buried there. However both films look at the negative consequences of meddling with the unknown, in the ring the main character has her son possessed after releasing the evil spirit from the well and videotape, and in the pet cemetery the little child is brought back to life but begins to kill people.

In The Ring 2, like the first film, technology plays a big role, not only on the production but to the storyline as well. This is because the film is about a girl that comes out of the TV to kill people, and they are informed that they will die through the phone, two popular technologies which are part of many people’s everyday life. This film takes advantage of the role these two technologies play on today’s society making it successful at inflicting fear on its audience. However it also challenges modern technology by ignoring other ways a film can be saved or spread, such as internet downloading and DVDs and instead uses an older technology, a videotape. Despite this the film company DreamWorks has recently announced that they would be making The Ring 3D, something that the Japanese film company have already put into practise. This shows that the film is keeping up-to-date with the recent trend of films being released both in 2D and 3D.It also shows that the film producers have recognised the potential the film’s concept has of becoming even more frightening with the addition of 3D, since it complements the idea of the girl coming out of the TV and out of the screen as well.

Both films explore the idea of children being the threat. They both challenge the image children have of being innocent and in need of protection by making them the killers in both movies. In The Ring the ghost who kills people is a young girl that was killed by her adopted mother while in the pet cemetery the killer is a little boy who died but was brought back to life. However the difference lies on how these children were portrayed. Gage at the start of the film was a normal little boy who unfortunately died, he became a killer involuntary and had no objective, and he just killed because he was evil, while Samara had always been a strange young girl who had a strange effect on animals and was possibly possessed by an evil spirit since birth, she was killed by her adopted mother and killed others for revenge and the desire to have a mother. The fear of children was a trend which began in the 1970s. The reason for this was suggested in David J skal’s novel ‘The monster show’ where he said that this fear of children was a result of the introduction of the contraception pill.