How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product represents zombies in more of a funny way. This works well with our horror comedy genre as the zombies are acting in a stupid manor yet they still look quite scary.
The film will be representing people in their mid- 20s/ mid- 30s. This is because there is a couple within the film and there is a head teacher of the school which falls into this demographic. We are trying to portray the couple as a surrogate family who are in a transitional period from being children to adults. We've done this through representing the zombie as a child as the couple take the zombie to school and care for it just like parents would.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our film has definitely challenged forms and conventions of real media products as by doing a hybrid of the horror genre in our zom-com film we have subverted and undermined what the audience would expect to see in a typical horror film, in terms of the roles of antagonist and protagonist. We have done this in our film as the zombies are kept as pets by the humans in our film which in ways shows them as protagonists. We have also payed homage to "Shaun of the Dead" by basing our film around the last scene of the film when Shaun comes to play video games with his best friend who is now a zombie chained up in his shed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmn4eqP9pWQ&feature=related

We have used iconography in our film such as basketball equipment, replica brains, books, pens etc, microphone, television. We have set the opening in a school for comic effect and we have attempted to be parrallel to the origins of the horror genre in the way that we have filmed the scenes outside the school when it is dusk outside. We have used contrapuntal music with the opening as we decided it worked better as the film is a hybrid of horror comedy.

Shot List, Script & Props List

This is our script for the movie, it is short as the majority of our film is based on the zombies, who cant have any dialogue as they are unable to speak, we are using the script as a guide to the actors lines rather than a definite repetition of the lines.







We have added a shot list in order to easily see what different shots we are going to be using in our opening sequence. This will also be extremely helpful when we need to start filming as we can refer to this sheet alongside the script as a guide to how we wanted our film to look.





This is the props list in which is vital to our film as it is a major part of the iconography as it is ll of the items which we need to add effect to our film. The Basketball equipment is a particularly effective part of the film as it is going to be used to create comic effect. Another important prop or props are the make up items, these are going to be used to add the horrific look of the zombie which is contrapuntal to the way we are casting the zombie. Another scene in our film opening is where the zombie is in the cantine eating, we have a replica brain that the zombie is going to eat but in a way that also emloys the comic effect. There is also a dog lead on the props list, this is so that we can show that the zombie is kept like a pet and will help us establish the funny part of the film.

Group & Job Roles

John Barratt- A co director and an actor. He plays the part of protagonist being held hostage in his own home. He helped out in deciding the different camera angles we can use. he also designed the mind map of what our horror film is about and where it was going to be set.

Connor Cronin - Connor is the director of our horror film and also he is the camera man. Connor designed the script for our horror film along with the other members of the group and came up with the primary idea that lead to our main plan. Connor helped create the storyboard and helped out on what shots we were going to use.

Leslie Hinsley - Leslie is also a co director and

an actor. Leslie plays the part of the antagonist, dressed up as the clown. Leslie designed the call sheets and helped with all other aspects of planning.

Research in to Effective Film Openings

Micro- In this horror film there are lots of different shots used but most of all there are long shots and there is also a close up of the characters eye at the start of the film, this shows that it is from his point of view but also that he is very possibly one of the main characters in the film. They use lots of establishing and long shots of London to show that the city is empty and this also shows the audience that there is something wrong and that the city is deserted apart from the character we see at the start and apart from the antagonists in which the audience do not know are there yet. There is diegetic sound right at the start where he says ‘hello’ and there is background music which is non diegetic and also adds a sense of tension. As the character finds the posters and realises that there has been an evacuation the non diegetic sound gets more intense and builds up more tension. .



This picture shows an example of a long shot of the London setting as well as the main character, the protagonist in the film.


Macro- The iconography used is a lot different to in saw 2 because it is a different sub genre, saw 2 is a splatter film and has to focus a lot on the gore at the start of the film to shock the audience whereas 28 days later is a zombie film in which they do not need to focus a lot on the gore. The setting is deserted London and is not dark to add tension but is very quiet and still to show that something is a miss. There is a bit of make up used on the zombies to make them look a lot more scary.

Examples of My Chosen Genre

Horror comedies have been going since the year 1920, with the film “Haunted Spooks”. Over the last 90 years there have been many famous horror comedies that have in fact become classics, these include; “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”(bottom right), “Ghostbusters”(top left), “Arachnophobia” and the “Scary Movie”(top right) series. Some of the more recent films from this genre are “Shaun of the Dead”(bottom left), “Dead Snow” and “Zombieland”.

These pictures are classic examples of horror comedy, the scary movie picture paticularly as is it is taken from a scene where she is going to a run-down house in a secluded location and as she nervously reaches the door the shown door-knocker adds comedy to the scene so the genre is easily recognisable.

Research in to Effective Film Openings: Dead Snow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIA39IYhM6I



The opening of dead snow is an establishing shot of the mountains at night; this sets the scene for the opening. There is light hearted contrapuntal music being played over the top; this gives the opening a comedic approach. The song is called Hall of the Mountain King by Edward Grieg. There are cuts to show the forest is deserted and dark; this gives the sense of horror and loneliness. There is a cut to a person running through the forest from the unknown; this gives the audience a feel of excitement and fear for the person. Two dark figures then run past the camera to give the effect of them chasing after the person. This creates tension and keeps the audience guessing who is chasing the person. The non-digetic music begins to get louder at this point to create tension throughout the chase scene. There are also fast paced cuts to create tension and excitement within the scene. The music is then drawn to a halt when the person stops to look behind them to see if they have got away from the people who are chasing them. The silence and the puffing of her breathe is created to show how frightened the person is and how alone they are. There is a slow tracking zoom of the persons face to show there worried expression and that they are out of breathe as they have been running. It then cuts to a point of view shot of the person looking through the dark forest to see if the people are still chasing them. This creates tension as the silence and the zoom of the camera makes a jumpy part of the film destined to happen. A zombie then jumps out on the person with a loud roar which may scare some viewers and make them jump. The person then starts running away again and the chase scene continues. The contrapuntal non- digetic music starts again even louder. The music then creates tension as it is louder so it makes the scene more thrilling. It then cuts to a hand held shot of who is chasing the person from behind; this scares viewers as they can see about 4 figures chasing the person getting closer towards them. The editing gets faster to show panic and horror within the scenes.

Research in to Effective Film Openings: Casino Royale

Casino Royal
Micro and macro is a major part of an effective film opening as it is needed in order to add tension in the horror genre. It is also used in comedy film openings in order to add a comic effect to introduce the audience to the characters and make it clear who the main character is from the start. Micro and macro is vital i all genres as it adds to the hook that is needed in an effective film opening in order to keep the audience watching the film in suspense to see what has happened after the hook and why.

Micro:
Opens with a long shot of a building, camera angle is a Dutch angle
Opening credits and advertising of franchise are in black and white for effect
Totals at bottom of the shot tells us where it is set
It is very dimly lit to show that the character might be a bad guy in the film
There is shot reverse shot between Bond and the villain.
There is a trade mark shot where you are looking down the barrel of a gun at Bond, also the theme music makes you realise that you are watching a Bond film.
Macro:
It is very dimly lit to show that the character might be a bad guy in the film
There is match on action; there is a close up of his face when he sees his safe is open
When James Bond appears in the shadows to give the impression of him hiding in the room, not meant to be there
There is a flash back to a hand held camera to have the audience in the middle of the action.

Effective Film Openings

An effective film opening will give enough information about what is to follow in the film and to set the scene for the rest of the film, introduce a some or all of the main characters to be in this film, it should also have some kind of event that will make the audience want to carry on watching the rest of the film.
There are many different kind of openings to films, there are ones which show the last scene and the main part of the film are all flashbacks leading up to the first scene, an example of this kind of opening is in "Welcome To Collinwood" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OStkwRaGsU. The majority of films, however start with a calm, normal equilibrium which will get disrupted later on in the film. Also, another way of starting a film which can be very effective is to go straight into the action with a disturbed equilibrium but the film is still in sequence and an example of this opening sequence is in the film "Saw" (a still from the opening sequence can be seen below). All of these openings are very effective in different ways.

Main Task Brief

We have been set the task of creating the title and opening sequence of a film, this must last a maximum of 2 minutes. We must use a variety of different camera shots and camera movement techniques. I am working in a group of 3 consisting of me, John Barrat and Leslie Hinsley. The genre of the film we have chosen to do is a hybrid of the horror genre. It will have many of the characteristics of the horror genre but also will have many comic effects. We have chosen this because characteristics and traits horror genre is easily identifiable, but, with the equipment we have available it would be difficult to create an authentic scary horror film. The added comedy element will give the film a different angle and we could use low-budget equipment available to our advantage. We have also looked into and researched the zombie comedy or "zom com" genre which is a further sub-genre of the comedy horror hybrid.

Preliminary Task Video

Preliminary Task

The main things we had to cover in our preliminary task were to get a "match on action" and a "shot reverse shot" included in our film along with dialogue between two actors. As me, James McGinnis and David Tranter felt it would be more beneficial for us all to take part in the technical side of the film, mainly camera work and editing the clips into a real film, so we found three actors that would be willing to be in our film. We got the "match on action" at the very start of the movie when Sam Sadler goes into the bar and the "shot reverse shot" when he is speaking to Joshua Mcknight. I felt the main bits of the camerawork went well but too improve the film we need to use a tripod as some of the shots and movements were very shaky and we need a better location as some of the dialogue is inaudible.