Veronica Ingram’s AS Media Blog

Monday, 29 January 2018

Character Costume

For Holly as the character of the protagonist, I wanted her in plain simple clothes so that her movements and emotions were the main focus of the viewers attention. She wore plain black leggings and a grey hoodie. I initially wanted her to wear a white dress but it was incredibly cold on the day so I didn't want my cast to be uncomfortable on set. We also made sure that they were clothes that were not of great value incase they got muddy or damaged, however as the director I was willing to replace them if it came to it.

Douglas wore blue jeans, wellington boots and a Barbour jacket. I was aiming to achieve the typical huntsman look. I chose wellington boots as they are big, clumpy and intimidating.

Thursday, 25 January 2018

George Méliès

Georges Méliès is one of the most influential filmmakers in cinema history. Just a few years after the birth of filmmaking in the 1890s, the French filmmaker began releasing his own minutes-long silent shorts. However, it wasn’t until the groundbreaking 1902 short A Trip to the Moon that Méliès became a bona fide international star. The film’s widely popular image of a spaceship crashing into the moon’s eye turned Méliès into a legend. By the time of his death in 1938, the prolific talent had starred in, written, produced, and directed almost all of his 500 films.

1. GEORGES MÉLIÈS WAS AN ILLUSIONIST BEFORE HE WAS A FILMMAKER.

Méliès’ background in magic undoubtedly aided him in becoming the first master of special effects in cinema. According to Turner Classic Movies, after finishing his studies, Méliès moved to London to work for a family friend, and there he began frequenting the magic shows of illusionist John Nevil Maskelyne. He began practicing tricks himself, and eventually started performing in public back in Paris.

2. HE PIONEERED SOME OF TODAY’S MOST COMMON FILM TECHNIQUES.

According to Méliès’ official website, the director is responsible for three still widely used techniques: the first double exposure (which he used in 1898's The Cave of Demons); the first split screen with performers acting opposite themselves (in 1898's Four Heads are Better Than One), and the first dissolve (in the aforementioned Cinderella). He first discovered that cameras could manipulate images in the fall of 1896, when he developed the footage he took after his camera jammed filming a basic street scene.

3. HE BUILT THE FIRST MOVIE STUDIO IN EUROPE.

As one of the earliest film pioneers, Méliès had a hand in all facets of developing the film industry in Europe. According to World Film Directors: Volume I, 1890–1945, in 1896, Méliès ordered the construction of Studio A in the vegetable garden of his property outside of Paris. The building was made entirely of glass walls, with a shed used as a dressing room. However, according to his official website, Méliès was forced to turn his studio into a variety theater (which was then turned into a hospital for wounded soldiers during the war) once the novelty of his films began to wear off in 1915. Bankrupt, he eventually abandoned filmmaking altogether.

4. MÉLIÈS TEAMED UP WITH YOUNGER BROTHER GASTON TO BRING HIS MOVIES TO THE UNITED STATES.

As piracy of his films increased overseas, Méliès needed to protect his work. As noted in George Méliès, by Elizabeth Ezra, Georges sent Gaston to set up shop in the U.S. to guard his copyrights and distribute his films to the American market. Eventually, Gaston himself began making his own films under George’s Star Films banner. First based in New Jersey, Gaston relocated to San Antonio, where he started making westerns and changed the company’s branch name to American West.

5. MÉLIÈS DIRECTED THE EARLIEST ADAPTATION OF CINDERELLA.

Although the most famous adaptation of the fairytale is Disney's 1950 animated version, Méliès first brought it to the big screen as a short in 1899. The film starred Jeanne d’Alcy (as the Fairy Godmother), Méliès' second wife, who appeared in most of his works.

Wednesday, 24 January 2018

Hans Zimmer

During the process of looking through various clips of thriller music of youtube, one of the youtube adverts actually turned out to be very relevant and interesting to what I am doing. Hans Florian Zimmer is a German film score composer and record producer. Since the 1980s, he has composed music for over 150 films. His works include The Lion King, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1995, the Pirates of the Caribbean series, The Thin Red Line, Gladiator, The Last Samurai, and The Dark Knight Trilogy. Therefore, it is easy to take inspiration from Hans Zimmer due to his great success and unique outlook on film scoring.

Thriller Music Reference

To help with the music creation for my final Thriller piece, I have been listening to music created my other people using technology like garage band. I have observed what kind of beats they have when they want to build tension of create suspense or when they want it to perhaps fade into a different beat.

Friday, 19 January 2018

Filming - On The Day

We spent the day at Trent Park filming my Thriller movie and although it was incredibly cold, we managed to get it all done. We encountered difficulties such as, actors being cold as they has to be in costume, daylight fading very quickly and also areas being very muddy. However, overall it was a successful day of filming.

Film Location

Holly after filming her barbed wire shot with fake blood on her face

Setting up our falling shot

Mid-fall

After filming our very last shot

Wednesday, 17 January 2018

Starting To Edit

I uploaded all of the videos from the SD card that was in the camera i filmed on, directly to a mac desktop that had Premier Pro installed.

I then started piecing together all my the different shots that I had in order according to my storyboard. We are using Premier Pro CC 2017.

Thursday, 11 January 2018

A-Level Trip To New York

From the 15th to the 20th of December, students from year 12 and 13 went to New York to learn all about how the media industry works over there. We visited the NBC studios and had a tour sets of various American talk shows such as The Late Night Show With Jimmy Fallon. We went to the Museum of Moving Images and the International Centre of Photography which were very interesting.

We also went on a tour of New York looking at all of the movie location sites that we might recognise from films such as Home Alone, Elf and Friends.

When in New York, it was interesting to try and notice the differences and similarities between media and advertising between there and here in the UK.

(Queens - home of the Museum Of Moving Images)

(Graffiti in New York)

(Times Square)

Wednesday, 13 December 2017

Thriller Opening Title Ideas

Brainstorming Ideas For My Thriller Movie Title

Health and Safety

Health and safety are essential for the film industry to run. It ensures that there are no hazards, which can harm people in the industry on set. There are many strict rules and regulations the have to abide by.

I have made a list of rules that my cast and myself must follow to ensure our safety when shooting my thriller opening.

1. We should make sure that the camera is tightly connected to the tripod so that it does not fall off. The tripod should have all of its legs on the floor, it should be clipped, so the camera does not fall. When you are carrying the tripod, close the legs so you do not poke anyone (especially their eyes). Hold it securely on your shoulder with both hands.

2. If we are filming with weapons (gun, knife, axe), we should consult the school - media teachers and find a location where there are no members of the public.

3. If we are filming on a road in a car we should consult the traffic authority.

4. While we are filming in the car, everyone inside the car must wear a seatbelt, even if you're driving a small distance - which we are. The car must be insured and the person driving the car should have a license.

5. If we are shooting at night, we must wear suitable clothing - yellow vests - so cars/motorbikes can be aware of us filming, this will decrease chances of getting hit by a vehicle. We should have bright light so we can see what we are doing.

6. Catering - We should buy our food/lunch from the supermarket and not a fast food takeaway as it may not be hygienic.

7. We should make sure that there are facilities that can be easily accessed such as the bathroom and clean water.

8. While we are editing, we should take small break from the computer to reduce the risk of headaches and cramps in our hands.

9. Litter should be disposed of immediately in the bin - if it is recyclable we will recycle it.

10. The equipment must be insured

11. A first aid kit will be carried wherever we go, if someone hurts themselves we can easily treat them.

Wednesday, 6 December 2017

10 DumbThings People In Horror Movies Do

10. INVESTIGATE WEIRD SOUNDS.

Hey, maybe take the Gates of Hell being ripped open as an excuse not to go check out that strange sound outside the creepy cabin you’re staying in. If Cheryl, from The Evil Dead, had followed that bit of advice, she might have avoided the worst first date with a tree since Saruman took one for the team in The Lord of the Rings. Time and again, these fools take any excuse to leave the safety of their homes, and go investigate the inky blackness on the other side of their locked door. I don’t know about you, but I could hear a marching band coming down the street at three in the morning, and I’m just locking my door and grabbing my gun. Then again, I hate marching bands.

9. DECIDE TO GIVE THAT FREAKY HAUNTED HOUSE ONE MORE SHOT.

Sure, it’s built on an Indian burial ground, and demons have kidnapped one of your children and taken her to The Nethersphere, but have you seen the finished basement in this house? You don’t just walk away from something like that. Haunted house movies would be awfully short if folks did what any sane person would do, and hightailed it out of there the first time the wallpaper started bleeding. Instead, these white-bread suburbanites seem to always find some excuse to put off the big move until something really awful happens. I mean, maybe just let the poltergeist keep the kid, right? They could turn her room into a home gym!

8. FAIL TO CHECK THE BACKSEAT.

How hard is it to take a peek in the backseat before you start up the car on a spooky night? Just a quick glance to confirm there aren’t any killers or old Starbucks cups taking up too much room back there. If there was a serial killer loose in my neighborhood, I’d be checking my backpack for him before putting it on. Instead, in everything from Urban Legend to Let Me In, pretty young people find themselves on the business end of something pointy because they didn’t just check to see if a maniac in a mask was crouched down in the back seat, uncomfortably waiting for his chance to strike.

7. SPLIT UP.

If there’s a monster hunting you and picking off your crew one by one, maybe stick together. You’ve got a better chance of fighting it off, or at least shoving the guy you like the least into its mouth and making a run for it. And yet, time after time, the best plan anyone in horror movies can come up with is to split up, snoop around in the dark by themselves, and report back after they die. It’s insanity, especially in The Thing, which has a monster that can transform to look like anyone. Hmmm, maybe if you stuck together you wouldn’t need to spend the rest of your time alive guessing who’s your annoying coworker and who’s an alien with a taste for bearded men.

6. TAKE OFF WAY TOO MUCH CLOTHING AFTER GETTING HURT.

Okay ladies, just because you got a scratch doesn’t mean you need to strip down to your undergarments. I know, you don’t want to bleed all over your good pair of jeans, but maybe consider the fact that you’re going to be running away from this killer or alien or desert slug for a good bit still, and you don’t want to have to do that in the near buff. Especially when your male friends are all suspiciously fully clothed.

5. GO INTO DARK, SCARY BASEMENTS.

Look, unless your basement has a foosball table and some sort of neon signage, I’m not going down there. Dark, dank basements are for storing Christmas decorations and getting murdered. And yet, time and again, from The Evil Dead to The Blair Witch Project, people decide that heading down the stairs instead of out the door is their best bet. Worst case, there’s a demon down there. Best case, you get thrown in a pit and asked to put some “lotion in a basket.” Probably better to just stay on the first floor, where no one ever dies.

4. HAVE SEX IN WEIRD PLACES.

We all like to mix things up. Skip the bed, and head all the way to the living room couch to get our freak on. But when you’re friends are being picked off one by one by a resurrected reject in a hockey mask, maybe it isn’t time to do the nasty in the abandoned mental hospital on the edge of town. Of course, when you get this many nubile young airheads together, they’re going to get a little frisky, but can’t they do it in a well-lit room with locks on the door? Safe sex doesn’t just apply to condoms, people.

3. HIDE IN THE MOST OBVIOUS SPOTS.

We get it. You’re scared. There’s a creep with a knife hot on your tail. You just want to curl up in a ball and die. Well, not die, but hide. Then you see a closet, or a bed, and figure, he’ll never look in there. He’ll just march through the room, back out again, and be on his merry way. But that never happens. Michael Meyers always checks closets. Kidnappers always “taken” you if you hide under the bed. These are obvious places for anyone who isn’t a moron. And your whimpering and choked back tears aren’t exactly helping matters. Get out of there, for the love of God. Instead, you’re basically hiding behind a potted plant.

2. TRIP OVER EVERYTHING IMAGINABLE WHILE RUNNING AWAY.

Why is it that the end of every horror movie has more pratfalls than a Three Stooges short? For some reason, a damsel in distress can’t run three feet without tripping over ever twig and crack she comes across. It doesn’t matter how much you yell “GET UP!” at the screen, they always end up on their knees. Look, just because you’re scared doesn’t mean you have to lose all equilibrium. Have some self respect. Stay on two feet. Most of these killers and monsters can’t lurch more than two miles an hour. A healthy jog is going to get the job done. Just keep it together, and remind me not to run a 5K behind you.

1. SAY “I’LL BE RIGHT BACK” LIKE SCREAM NEVER HAPPENED.

Scream blew this one out of the water, but not without cause. There are countless examples in the Friday the 13th and Halloween movies where someone says, “I’ll be right back,” only to never be seen again. And yet, somehow, movies like Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones still have folks using the phrase unironically. You know what, if those characters haven’t seen Scream, they deserve to die.

http://www.ifc.com/2016/04/dumb-things-people-in-horror-movies-do

Inspiration From Other Media Products

Media is all around us everyday, and there is nothing we can do to avoid it. Whether it be TV adverts, poster, music, music videos or television programmes, it all plays an important part in everyone's life in the modern day.

Coming up with a final Thriller idea proved somewhat problematic as I ended disliking whatever I came up with for various reasons such as it being too cliché or too boring.

I decided to turn to the other forms of media, in hope of coming up with something more exciting as a result of inspiration from lots of different areas.

The first place I have taken inspiration from is an American TV drama called 'Pretty Little Liars.' The reason this was so easy to take inspiration from is because a lot of it directly meets all the requirements of the Thriller genre, such as chase scenes in the woos with low lighting and high pitched, tension building music. This scene where Ezra is chasing Aria gave me inspiration for the idea of a man chasing a girl through the forest.

This is another clip from 'Pretty Little Liars' that has given me inspiration for my thriller opening. It simply gave me the idea of using an axe as the weapon of choice for the antagonist. I like the close up shot where the axe goes through the floorboard. The camera is framing the point of impact of the axe on the floorboard.

As the planning for my Thriller has been recent, seeing this advert on tv gave me the idea to use a Landrover as the vehicle of the antagonist as it is large and intimidating, complying to the Thriller convention. Although this only gave me an idea for a tiny aspect of my Thriller, this still helped so should get credited

Wednesday, 29 November 2017

Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task

This is our preliminary task!

Rough Storyboards 2

I have produced a rough copy of the final storyboards so that I can rearrange the shots and frames if necessary when I produce the final storyboard that I will use on set.