Main Task- 8 March- Production

Today is the last day filming, we used today to gather all of our missing scenes together. Our teacher drove us round Glossop and we achieved the shots that we desired. The only problem that occurred was the fact our teacher is a man and in the film a girl is driving however, we solved this by the angles we shot at. Once we had attained all the shots we needed we uploaded our film to a mac and started the basic stages of editing simply splitting it scene by scene.

Main Task- 4 March- Production

Today we finished off all our attic shots as we now had a missing prop, a porcelain doll however this presented a problem because in one of our shot we wanted to show it dropping on the floor as porcelain breaks easily we couldn't achieve this shot in one take so we used 3 different shots 2 were the floor is out of the frame (we used soft material like our coats to cushion the doll preventing it from breaking) and the final shot of the doll hitting the floor, we simply made sure the doll was out of frame but low to the floor (a short drop). Next lesson, we decided to shoot our car scene as the weather was similar to the 28th and would once again create continuity we used props such as boxes which we were able to get from around school. We asked permission to use our teachers car as it would be easy to access when needed. We used serveral angles and used different techniques.

Main Task- 28 Feb- Production

As arranged in the development stages, we had organised to film at Duke Of Norfolk Primary School to get our playground shots (as it was a Sunday school was obviously closed). We also had contacted parents and ensured all children had permission to be filmed. The first thing we did when we got on set was figure out which angle would be best we took into consideration lighting and the background scenery and decided on a shaded area of the play ground with the Parish Church in the background (pictured on the right). We then applied a very thin layer of white powder to Emma Lilley's face as well as smudged black eyeshadow around her eyes and blue powder on her lips to make her look dead without looking cheesy. We then proceeded to take a variety of shots which all looked good this enabled us to pick the best that created continuity. Most importantly, none of the schools logo's were incorporated in all of our shots as this was the only request of the head teacher.

Main Task- 1 March- Production

We started filming today, we decided to attempt to get the attic shots as location was so close. Before we actually began to film we cleared the rest of the clutter from the stairs and experimented with the lights to try and create an eerie atmosphere (as we had already discussed in the development stages, we thought lighting and sound were essential in creating tension). Once we had decided on lighting we added props and detailing such as hand prints and then began shooting. For every shot we got, we tried different angles and techniques in order to achieve the best possible effect and continuity when later editing. Overall today was very successful and we were able to get around 5 shots (each with varying angles and techniques).

Main Task- 27 Feb-Pre Production

Today we finalised all our planning:

Allocated parts; Coral- main character (Coral)
Sophie- Girl 1
Jasmine- Girl 2
Lauren- Girl 3
Emma Lilley- Ghost girl
Jake, Will, Ellie, Finn- School Children

Location; Ensured we were able to access and have use of colleges car park
Use of a car (ensured we had a person able to drive when we needed them)
Colleges attic- asked permission and were able to use this location as long as a teacher supervised
Safety hazzards contained
Asked parental permission of all the children

Prop list; Doll
Boxes
Skipping ropes toys etc
Clothing main characters
A car
A music box

Main Task- 25 Feb-Pre Production

Today we completed our story board, shot list, sound script and script. We went into the attic (location) and ensured all our desired shots were achievable however, due to space and clutter some angles and shots had to be changed in order to achieve a steady shot. We then went about organising our playground location, we decided on a local primary school, ' The Duke of Norfolk' (on church street) http://www.dukenorfolk.derbyshire.sch.uk/ as it is located next to a church and graveyard which we thought would really contribute to the eary atmosphere we wanted to create. We rang the school and the headteacher allowed us to use the playground on Sunday 28th Feburary. We then discussed the issue of casting children that would be allowed to appear in our extract and decided the simplist solution was to use friends and relatives, we were able to cast five children and one main young girl (Emma Lilly) who would play a main role as the spirit.

Main Task- 08 Feb- Development

Today we have developed our main film task further comparing different scripts and analysing relevant film openings such as Blair Witch Project. We found even though the film was shot on a low budget (as ours would have to be) it was able to reach a very wide main-stream audience, using amateur/shaking camera work created a real sense of realism allowing the viewer to become engrossed. As this film was such a success we have decided to create a low budget horror film opening. We decided to create a questionnaire to enable us to determine who our target audience would be and what different conventions they would prefer in a horror film.

"Media Studies Questionnaire

1. What is your D.O.B? ……………………………………………………………………………………
2. What is your gender (please circle)? Female Male
3. Do you attend formal education? ……………………………………………………………
4. Do you have a full time job? ……………………………………………………………………..
5. How often do you view films (please circle)? Everyday or more At least once a week, At least twice a month, Monthly, Less than once a month
6. How do you view films (please circle)? D.V.D Download Video Cinema T.V
7. What is your preferred genre of film (please circle)? Action Adventure Comedy Crime&Gangster Drama Epic/Historical Horror Musicals ScienceFiction War Western
7. What sounds do you associate with horror films? ………………………………...
8. What props do you associate with horror films? ……………………………………
9. Do you prefer a horror film to have a realistic story line or a serial story line? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..
10. What is your all time favourite horror film at the moment? ……………….."

(our questionnaire)

The results showed that on average:
14-25 year old females and males in either full time education or full time employment were most likely to choose to see our horror film thus being our target audience. However, many other respondents that were not in full time education or employment would also consider viewing a horror film suggesting class will not effect our target audience. We found that the majority of our respondents viewed films through d.v.d's this indicates that if our film was released it would probably make more after box office through d.v.d sales. The most common sounds and props associated with horror films we found were, low foreboding tones as well as high pitched sudden squeals (most probably from 'psycho') screaming was also a common answer. Props such as knifes were the most common answers. The all time favourite horror film from our research was the 'exorcist', 'saw' also was rated highly. Although the evidence from our research suggests our target audience and their expectations, it is important to acknowledge that we only asked around 50 random people most of whom were under the age of 20 thus our research may not be as representative as we thought so we are unable to draw valid generalisations from it.