Damnation Evaluation

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Damnation Evulation (Document)

Damnation Evaluation

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Poster

Final

Inspiration

Magazine Cover

Final

Inspiration



Usage of iMovie

I decided to use iMovie for some elements as I found that it had more effects available then on Adobe Premier Pro, and these were easier to do. For example, there is a short scene within the trailer where I distorted the actress's voice, to make it sound more deeper. I done this deliberately as this is a convention which is used in movies when someone is possessed by the devil, as it implies that its the devil speaking through the human body. I done this by readjusting the sound levels, and slowing down the duration.

Another feature I used on iMovie was for the short clip which is shown right at the end of the trailer. The effect I used here was simply to just change the levels of the clip, which made the colour lighter.

Finally, I found it easier to create the text which was included within the trailer, on iMovie, as they had a range of effects to choose from. I experimented with a few, and showed it to the rest of my team members to decide which one looked the best. I had to adjust the duration of each clip as well, so that they would all be in sync with one and another.

I had to export the pieces I created from iMovie in order to be able to include it from my trailer. Each clip was formatted to avi, which I was able to do straight from iMovie.

Making the Production Title

My group and I had quite a few ideas for the production title, but none of them went according to plan. Lewis had worked on our original idea for the title, which was 'Terror Films.' This did have animation with it, which consisted of the text moving towards the screen, and then fading out. However, I wasn't too happy with this, and suggested to have a glass shattering sort of effect, and Lewis had tried this out in Adobe Premiere. This turned out to not look quite as we hoped it would, and then Namibia and I decided that we should change the name of the production title altogether. 

When I came home, I was playing about with iMovie on my MacBook and came across some production title's that were available on the software. 

I thought these looked really good, and professional too, so I showed it to the rest of my team the next day. However, it was pointed out that we couldn't exactly use these, as they are the actual productions of real companies, such as Universal Studios and Paramount Pictures. I then came across another type of title which iMovie had, which wasn't linked to a real company.

I then came across this title which was also available on iMovie, and thought this looked good as the colours seemed to be just right, as they were dark, linking it well to the movie. I showed it to my group and the liked it too, and we came up with the name 'Pyramid Films' for the production title, as it relates back to the image. It was fairly straightforward to do this, as I just had to fill out the name and some other details in iMovie, and select which title I wanted to use. 

Green Preview Screen

While we were editing the footage for the trailer, I remembered that in order to make it look like a professional trailer, we needed to include key conventions which are used. This consisted of having a green screen right at the beginning of the trailer, which would only last for a few seconds. We decided to use Google for research, and to see whether they had one that we could use.

As it shows from the above picture, Google didn't appear to have many images of the green preview screen. Furthermore, they were mainly to do with American movies and audiences, whereas we wanted to have a British one as this is where out movie would show first.

Originally, we thought it would look better if we had the age rating on the green preview screen too, somewhere in the corner. However, after looking at the images, it came to our understanding that this isn't included here, but at the end of the trailer and also on the actual certificate of the movie, which wouldn't be in our trailer, as this is only shown before the movie starts.

After doing more research, my group and I realised that a green preview screen is more to do with American audiences; nevertheless, this didn't stop us from wanting to include this in our trailer, as this does make the trailer look professional.

We then decided to just use an image from Google, verifying that our movie has been certified.

Horror on Twitter!!

I was on Twitter last week, and was interested to see that #HowToSurviveAHorrorMovie was trending! This instantly reminded me of my coursework for media, and decided to go through the tweets people were sending. Obviously some of the tweets were jokes, but most of them made sense. Here are a few which I thought were true, but also funny :)

After a while, this trend became the first Trending Topic on Twitter and lasted for quite a long time! 

Choosing the font for 'Damnation'

When it came to creating our trailer, we wanted to brainstorm ideas beforehand for the title, and how it would look like. We had a few ideas in mind, such as:

- having a black outline - stands out more
- text should a blood red
- having some sort of symbol implemented in order to relate back to the storyline. E.g - having a cross for the 'T'

We first started of with this font, placing it on a black background, with no added effect. However, it seemed much too plain, and it also looked amateur, as it doesn't exactly look too scary. This was a helpful beginning as we then able to expand from this.

With the help of Photoshop, we were able to add shadows and glow to the text and all around it. We changed the font colour to white, as we thought  having a red glow would be effective. Also, this is a great contrast between the meaning of the three colours used, as black and red can denote a dark side, whereas white is more of a pure and innocent colour, which then relates back to the storyline. As I originally wanted to have a cross for the 'T,' we inserted it upside down to represent the anti-christ. Nevertheless, it didn't seem to look right, which may have been to the type of cross we used, but we decided not to use this idea as we were sure we could think of something as effective.

Elaborating from the previous image, we then came up with this title. We decided to keep to the white text, but lessening the red glow and shadow behind, to add emphasis to the black background. Also, taking out the cross for the 'T' and having it as normal. This was a nice look as it was effective, but I still wasn't too sure about the font as it seemed to plain. The size of the lettering looked a bit too thin as well, which is why I wanted to have something a bit broader.

We then completely changed the style of the font, and decided to go for a simple look, as this would then be much more bolder, making it effective. Changing the text colour back to red, we decided to take the red glow and shadow away too, but having a white borderline. In relation to having a religious symbol present in the title, we added stained glass windows to the 'A's, which was suggested by my team member. However, when I first saw this, I didn't realise what they were straight away, as it didn't look clear, which is we decided not to include this.

Lastly, this is our final piece of title that we included in our trailer, magazine cover and poster. I wasn't happy with the shade of red that we previously used, which is why I decided to change it to a darker shade. Overall, I am happy with the last piece of work, as I think it is rather effective, regardless of the fact that it is simple. It turned out that the ideas we originally planned to include didn't work out too well, as we couldn't have a black borderline because the background was black, but I think that white does look better. We couldn't use a religious symbol as it didn't look right, but it still looks fine without it. The only idea we stuck to was having a red colour text. I think that all three colours work really well together, and it highlights the trailer too.

Analysis of Film Posters and Magazine Covers

Horror Movie Trailers

Media Deep Learning Day

We recentlty had a deep learning day, which was for media. This day was partly dedicated to the practical side of our coursework. However, we did start on our storyboard which connotes the scenes which will be included within the trailer. We then had the opportunity to create a short parody video based on a horror movie, or to start filming scenes from our trailer. After creating the storyboard, we scanned the pictures onto the computer.

Short Horror Film

Wet then went out to do some practice filming for our actual trailer, as this gave us an understanding of how to use the equipment.

Storyboard

We recently created our storyboard for the trailer which illustrates the different scenes that will be present, while also explaining the camera angle, the type of edit, whether there will be sound present, and if so, would it be diegetic or non diegetic, alongside a brief description of the scene. My group and I split the tasks amongst ourselves to make it easier and also in order to get it done quicker. This was definitely a hard task to do as it involved a lot of detail and thought, but it was very useful as it made the trailer seem more realistic, and it also bought us together as a group.

Storyboards

Shooting Schedule

In order to be organised when it comes to filming for our trailer, my group and I discussed the timings of the week in which we are all free. This was particularly difficult as our lessons during school clashed, as well as some of the timings outside of school. However, we solved the problems which then allowed us to create our final shooting schedule, were at least two members from the team will be present.

I found this rather helpful, as by forming this schedule before actually doing any filming, we know what props we will need beforehand and the locations of where we will be shooting for each scene. Majority of the shooting will be done after school as most of the shots are during the evening.

Classifications and Conventions of Trailers

In class, we researched the conventions of trailers, and explored the BBFC to find out more about who they are and what they do.

BBFC: British Board of Film Classification

The BBFC is an independent, self-financing media content regulator. They operate transparent, consistent and trusted co-regulatory and self-regulatory classification, as well as labelling systems in the UK.

Their aim is to:

- Protect he public, especially children, from content which may have the possibility of raising risks
- Empower the public, especially parents, in order to make informed viewing choices
- Recognise and respect adult freedom of choice within the law
- Respond to and reflect changing social attitudes towards media content through proactive public consultation and research
- Provide a cost-effective, efficient classification service within our statutory remit

- Work in partnership with the industry to develop innovative service models to provide content advise which support emerging media delivery systems


After researching this, my group and I decided that we will target the audience of 18+

Horror Movie Title Questionnaire - The Results

I had kept the survey open for a week or so, which gave people enough time to fill it out, as I was advertising it on different websites. My group and I then got together to caluclate the results from the survey.

From these results, it indicates that it was a tie between 'Domination' and 'Damnation,' as they had the most votes. We allowed them to choose more than one answer, due to the variety of titles we had. However, we also printed off the questionnaire to give to peole to fill out by hand, which 20 people filled out, leaving us with a total of 39 responses. This then balanced out the tie we had before, making 'Damnation' the most popular one, which we then finalised as our horror movie title.

Horror Movie Title - Questionnaire

We thought that the best way to decide which title to use for our film would be by getting feedback from other people to see what they think of the names, and whether they think it would be appropriate to use. Looking at the response I got back from my previous questionnaire which was about horror movies in general, my group and I decided that it would be best to create another survey for the title ideas. Once again, I used http://www.surveymonkey.com/ to create this survey. They then gave me the link for the survey, which was http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Q7NSSGN.

I used social networking in order to advertise the questionnaire, so that people could fill it out in a simpler form. I did this through my twitter account, and by posting it on my BBM status.

Horror Movie Title Ideas

After creating our plot summary, my group and I then had to give a name to our horror film, which obviously had to be based on the overall narrative. Seeing as we all had different ideas, we decided to pick 10 names which we thought would be suitable, and then we would narrow it down to one last one. Also, we searched some words online to see if we could better the ones we already had. We decided to just stick to one word as the title, as we thought that this would get the message across more clearly and would be more effective, as we will also have a tag line. The 10 names are listed below:

• Domination
• Repression
• Condemnation
• Abomination
• Perdition
• Damnation
• Destruction
• Absolution
• Profanity
• Malediciton

As you can tell from the names above, most of them have religious connotations to them. We done this on purpose as the film itself is based on religion, and the outcomes if you rebel against it; hence, we decided to use this as the main topic for the names.

Plot Summary

My group and I were given the task to create the overview narrative of the horror film while our trailer will be based on. This was faily easy as we all had many thoughts and ideas about what we wanted to base our story on, and therefore, we combined our ideas together to come up with one final storyline. We had done a brainstorm of ideas beforehand, which made it easier for us as we were able link different ideas with each other. Below is the final plot summary.

Beginning

In South -East London, England, a teenage girl named Angela is mysteriously looking at a church. A flashback of her at a younger age is shown where she is constantly going to church with her mother. Suddenly, her mother disrupts the flashback and we return to the present stage and her mother asks if she is going inside the church. She then states that she will come into the church within a few moments and hence her mum goes in without her. She continues to stare at the church but suddenly sees her friends across the street and a smile is illustrated on her face. They quickly greet and Sammie states that they are going to Freddie’s house to watch a movie; she then states that she is going with them and therefore ditches the idea of going to church. She looks back at the church worryingly but soon forgets about her betrayal to her religion when she converses with her friends.

Once inside Freddie’s house they settle down and begin to watch the film. They then begin to watch a horror film and she is reminded of her betrayal to the church in which this makes her feel uneasy. Then, some religious connotations are portrayed within the film and she begins to panic as she thinks about her own deception. Her friends try to snap her out of her madness and once calm, suggest that she should go home and rest and she follows this advice.

She arrives home only to find her mother extremely angry with her missing out on church. The two argue until the mother hits her and states that she should repent her sins. She runs to her room, cries and then falls asleep. Once awoken from her slumber, she realises the time, 3am however, decides her mother was right and that she should go and repent. She gets her coat and walks silently out the house, trying not to awake her mother. She walks to the church reciting versus’ from the Bible. Once in the church, she kneels by the alter and starts praying. Suddenly, the door opens but she cannot see anyone there, she then decides to hide away in fear thinking that God has arrived in the room. It turns out to be a thief trying to steal ornaments from the alter including a Bible, a cross and some money from the offering. Angela then beings to become more and more scared and then hear voices within her mind telling her to kill. The voices then begin to get louder and before she can control herself she beats him to death with a candle holder. She then stops and realises what she has done and runs to the bathroom to try and wash away the blood. She then looks in the mirror once, thinking that something is behind her. She then looks again in which her eyes go red and the scene fades to black.

A mysterious person who has witnessed the event goes to Angela’s mother and tells her about the event that happened within the church. Thinking that this person is wild, she refuses to believe the story and tells the person to get out of her house. The person tells her to beware of Angela, and then runs out of the house whilst Angela’s mum is left bewildered.

Later her mum is sitting in her chair and waiting for Angela to arrive. The doorbell rings and her mum slowly approach the door, baring in mind what the witness has said about Angela. She slowly opens the door to find Angela with her head held down and her clothes ripped. She then goes to touch Angela’s head but Angela then quickly raises her head and her mother realises that she has glowing red eyes. Her mum runs away in fear but Angela catches up with her. She then stabs Angela in the stomach but Angela laughs and then takes the knife out showing that it has had no effect. The scene then ends with Angela going towards the camera but at an audience’s point of view coming towards the camera.

Middle

The next morning, Leyla and Sammie arrive to Angela's house to pick her up for school. After ringing the doorbell and waiting for a couple of minutes they soon find that the door is open and decide to go in. They search around the house and fail to find Angela. As soon as they are about to leave, Angela jumps from nowhere and Leyla and Sammie scream. Angela laughs, greets her friends and they all go off to school.

After school, Freddie and Angela walk to Freddie's house to do their English project together. Soon after arriving at Freddie's house, Angela gets restless and tries to kiss Freddie. Freddie backs away and states that he does not want to kiss Angela and that she should leave. Angela gets angry and Freddie then states that he'll find another partner for the project. Angela then transforms from normal Angela in to evil Angela and then passes the curse onto Freddie. Angela leaves the house when she hears Freddie's parents arriving back to the house. Freddie's mum asks if he is okay and Freddie does not reply and instead passes the curse onto his parents. The scene ends with the family laughing manically.

 Clips of Angela and Freddie killing and cursing people are then shown. Even a clip of Mason is seen with Angela stating that he'll have fun before giving killing him and sending him to hell. The whole of South East London are then told about the violent attacks through different media texts.

Sammie wonders why all of this is happening and decides to do some much needed research. We see clips of her reading books, searching the internet and find out what Angela is and how the curse is spreading. Suddenly, Angela calls Sammie and states that Sammie should stop what she is doing whilst Sammie is confused and then the two argue on the phone. Sammie throws the book and holds her head with her hands.

A couple of weeks later and Leyla and Sammie are sitting in Leyla's front room pondering about all the attacks. There is a new curfew of 5pm for children and 6pm for young adults and 7pm for adults in order to ensure everyone's safety. Sammie then states that no one is safe and the two then share stories about the kind of attacks they've heard. Suddenly they hear glass shattering from the other room and scream only to find out that Leyla's mum had accidentally dropped her glass of water and then begins to cry. The two girls comfort the mother until she is calm again. They smile and then Leyla's mother then goes upstairs to rest. Leyla states that she has become this way because of all the attacks and they return back to the front room.

End

Sammie then gets a strange call from someone calling from unknown. She picks up and the person is frantically telling her to stay away from Angela as she is spreading the curse. The mysterious person is then revealed to be connected to Angela’s past. Sammie listens but then demands for evidence and the mysterious person tells her to look outside her window. Leyla hearing the conversation then looks outside the window to find the "evil Angela" grinning. Sammie drops the phone and the two decide to run upstairs into Leyla's room. Angela breaks down the door and stops Leyla from going up the stairs. Leyla is crying and shouts to Sammie to save herself. Sammie then tries to save Leyla but is flung to the dining room door. Leyla is then taken to the front room where Angela blocks the door. Leyla screams in agony whilst Angela laughs. Sammie screams and runs outside.

After giving Leyla the curse, Angela then tracks down Sammie and finds her at an abandoned house. Sammie screams and short dialogue is spoken between the two. There is then a final standoff between Angela and Sammie. Sammie then tries to run away but Angela drags her by feet to her previous position. Sammie frantically looks around to find something to kill Angela and comes across a knife. As soon as Angela tries to possess her, Sammie stabs Angela in the heart and Angela screams in agony. She says her last words then drops to the floor and returns back to the "normal" Angela. Sammie remembers that Angela had been possessed; this drives her to call an ambulance. Sammie then runs back to Leyla's house to find a "normal" Leyla. The scene is left with the two of them hugging.

The narrative ends with Angela missing and Sammie, Leyla and Freddie laying flowers for Mason.

Heavily influenced by 'Carrie'

Potential Ideas for Horror Movie

Once we were put into our groups of three, we then had to brainstorm different ideas that could be used for our horror movie, through which we could then base our trailer on. My group and I began to list possible ideas and features that could be included in our movie, so that we could then create our final narrative. It was essential to bare in mind the reasons why individuals decide to watch a horror movie, whether it be at the cinema or even at home, as these reasons will then be adapted in our trailer, conveying the key conventions of a horror movie.

Ideas

• Supernatural - human being possessed 
• A sense of possession - causes paranoia 
• Being possessed by the devil
• Link to Ed Gein 
• Suspense of characters
• Teenager - classic overprotective mother
• Open events - occurring everywhere
• Something happens when gazing upon the killer
• Non conclusive - mysterious ending
• Music - gradually build music whilst narrative continues
• Based on a real life event
• Domestic setting
• Religious connotations
• Psychopath - schizophrenic protagonist 
• Protagonist has powers - passes it onto others

My group and I combined all the results from our horror movie questionnaire's that we created, and took the overall outcome into consideration, which also helped us brainstorm more ideas, as listed above. Also, we compared results and then highlighted the main similarities we all found from our individual questionnaires and decided that these aspects will be our main focus in order to target our audience.

• Targeting at 15 - 25 year olds
• Focus more on storyline - limited use of blood and gore
• Include shocking and jumpy suspense
• Suspense music
• Fast shots and editing
• Flashbacks

We decided to focus on the 'Final Girl Theory,' as this then links to a monstrous feminine.