Observing audience for conventions of Horror whilst watching “Insidious”.- Individual research.

Convention that made the audience scared.	Why?
Spirit in a haunted house lurking around.	This made the audience scared as they was viewing the film in their own house so it made the film even scarier as the thought if a spirit in your house is scary
An ill little boy falls down ladder and ends up in a coma.	This is a scary situation as ill people in a coma feels dangerous and shows that they are not living in the real world.
Loud banging noises are heard from the little boy’s room.	Loud noises instantly make the audience aware and alert.
Monstrous, red-faced figure.	This is a scary convention as scary faces and surreal monsters popping out give the audience fright.
Communicating with demons.	This was a scary convention as doing voodoo and communicating with devils is very scary.
Quiet whispering from spirit.	Gives the audience a bad fighting mood as quiet whispers indicate danger.
Set in the evening.	This gives a spooky mood.

The Possession- Horror Genre

What happens in the Pre production, Production and Post production stage

Research-what happens in each stage of the production process

Pre-production

Production

Post production

Pre production stage-This is the planning stage where the preparation of making the film starts and the cast and actors are hired to play specific roles. In this stage the script is written and ideas for the film are created. During pre-production, the script is broken down into individual scenes storyboards so everything is planned out in every detail. The locations, props, cast members; costumes, special effects and visual effects are identified. At some point in pre-production there will be a read-through of the script which is usually attended by all cast members with speaking parts, the director, all heads of departments, financiers, producers, and publicists.They prepare a Treatment, a 25-to-30-page description of the story, its mood, and characters. This usually has little dialogue and stage director, but often contains drawings that help visualize key points. Another way is to produce a scriptwriter once a synopsis is produced. The different roles in the pre production stage are the storyboard artist, Director,Assistant director, Unit production manager, location manager, production designer, costume director, casting director, art director, director of photography, director of autobiography, production sound mixture and more.

The production stage- the actual filming/ shooting for the film stats and in this stage more crew is recruited such as directors, photographers, sound editors and more. A typical day of the production stage begins when the crew arrives for the shooting of the set and actors have their own separate time to come and act.  Also in this stage, the actors are costumed into their outfits, makeup and lighting is set up. The assistant director calls "picture is up!" to inform everyone that a take is about to be recorded, and then "quiet, everyone!" Once everyone is ready to shoot, the AD calls "roll sound" (if the take involves sound), and the production sound mixture will start their equipment, record a verbal slate of the take's information, and announce "sound speed", or just "speed" when they are ready. The AD follows with "roll camera", answered by "speed!" by the camera operator once the camera is recording. The clapper, who is already in front of the camera with the clapperboard, calls "marker!" and slaps it shut. If the take involves extras or background action, the AD will cue them ("action background!"), and last is the director, telling the actors "action!". The AD may echo "action" louder on large sets.

Post production stage- here is the editing stage of the film where the film is assembled by the film editor. Moreover, the dialogue is edited as well as the soundtrack and songs are recorded and special effects, sound effects and any finishing touches are applied such as any computer-graphic visual effects are digitally added. The final part is when the sound elements are mixed into "stems", which are then married to picture, and the film is fully completed ("locked").

• Video the picture of a television programme using an edit decision list
• Writing, (re-recording), and editing the soundtrack.
• Adding visual special effects - mainly  (CGI) and digital copy from which release prints will be made (although this may be made obsolete by digital-cinema technologies).
• Sound design , Sound effects, ADR. and Music, culminating in a process known as sound re-recording or mixing with professional audio equipment.
• Transfer of Color motion picture to video or DPX  with a telegenic and color grading (correction) in a color suite 

Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-production  

CONVENTIONS OF DRAMA AND ACTION

Brief secondary research on short films!

A Short film is described as being brief that lasts around 5-4o minutes long that has a beginning, middle and end and has a main theme such as drama, horror or romance. In Britain channel 4 has been very common for producing great short features of film.

Source- The complete A-Z media communication smart price. 

In the past short films was seen as very common specially in the genre of comedy which was made for comedy laughter reasons or many short films was produced in order to convey and portray a particular message across the audience. Charlie Chaplin was the first producer of comedy short films who started making silent comedy films which included over the top facial expression and body language. Since that time, short comedy films became very popular and well known.

Source-  AS A Level film studios-  Tanya Jones 

FRIGHT NIGHT!

Fright night!

i am aware this is not a short film but I am identifying the conventions of horror in the film genre!

Identify the conventions of horror in the film:

-Deep music

-Dark Scenery (and set in the evening)

-Thunder & Lightning

-Set in a house

-Loud terror music

-Death & murder

-Weapons

-Hear pulse rate

-Blood

How does the film develop conventions?

-The film is about something out of the ordinary such as vampires and not ghosts

- It doesn’t just have one target audience, but targets teenagers and above that age range.

How does it challenge the conventions of horror?

-Like in many common horror films, the beginning starts off happy and starts getting scary, but in Fright Night the beginning started off showing murder and death and was started off being scary then moved into happy scenery of teenagers going to school.

Who is the target audience & how does the film appeal to them?

-This film is targeted at the older audience such as teenagers and adults as it contains some inappropriate content for children such as murder. Moreover, because it is set in a secondary school it appeals to teenagers as they relate to the characters everyday life. Older adults will find this film interesting too as it’s about vampires and adults and the film also has some comedy and romance which adults and teenagers again can relate to.

What is the films certificate and why?

UK: 15

Argentina :13

Australia: MA

Canada: 14A

Germany:16

Italy: VM14

Malaysia: 18 (edited version)

New Zealand: R13

Philippines: PG-13

Portugal: M/12

Singapore: NC-16

South Korea:18
Spain:16 

The film certificate varies from country to country and most the numbers are high which highlight it is not appropriate for ages 12 and under. This is due to many reasons such as sex and nudity, violence and gore, profanity, alcohol/drugs/smoking, Frightening/ intense scenes.

SOURCE:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1438176/parentalguide

HISTORY OF SHORT FILMS

Short films first started in the 1910’s in the United States and where shot animated or live in action. In the beginning, all films were short which has a clear beginning, middle and end and it usually less than 40 minutes, But as the 20th century dawned, films began to get longer.

 In the 1995 short films became very popular due to Charlie Chaplin who stated to make short comedy films. In the early years of film production, all films were short and features length production developed as the cinema industry became established, with purpose built venues and complete film programmes. Emerging from the music hall tradition, the pre-1920s silent era programme was full of short items, from newsreels to adventure serials, comedy to natural history, cine-magazines to dramas. But as the silent era progressed, the major studios increasingly favored feature production.

The cinema programme changed accordingly, relegating shorter films to the status of supporting items in the programme. Many short films are made to make people laugh or get a serious message across. However nowadays in the 20^th centry short films are not as popular as they was before and are usually shown in film festivals and the internet as they are usually low budget films made by independent directors.

7 key rules for writing a short film

-The shorter the better to keep the audience engaged

-Make it Visual so it is appealing and attracting

-Tell a story, so must include a beginning, middle and end and have a clear structure.

-Engage the reader so they don’t get bored

-Beware of clichés
-Keep the practicalities of writing in mind
  
These key rules are helpful and useful to me as I will consider all these aspects of what makes a good short film and apply to when I create my own short film. The research also helped me understand how even though in the 20th century short films are not common as they was before and many short films was made to portray a message or made for comedy. This means that when making my own film I will try and grab the audience attention by leaving a message to the film.

Sources: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-life/7593291/The-long-history-of-short-films.html

http://www.slideshare.net/mo_1995_21/what-is-a-short-film-and-brief-history- This source may not be as reliable as it was done by a student on Slideshare and the student formed the presentation from the information they gathered so all of it may not be reliable.

Examples of short films in the 20th century!