#40 Using Garage Band Evidence

To create my Radio Trailer for my film, I used GarageBand, this is the same program that I used in order to create tester pieces of music for my short film. Due to my prior use of this program, I found it very easy to create my trailer, which helped me as I could perform tasks such as editing my voice and cutting sounds shorter. I used royalty free sound effects from a website called www.freesound.org to help create the trailer. Below is an image of the track for my trailer with all the different instruments, sounds and voices placed together, and a image of me working on my trailer.

My track:

Me working on my trailer:

#39 Radio Trailer Script

After looking at the conventions of other radio trailers, I had a clear idea of what is expected. Most of the trailers use a deep male voice, as this adds to the horror, and are conventionally around 30 seconds long. They also use tension building music, and reveal parts of the story but never the full story. I plan to follow all or most of these conventions in my trailer. To make sure that I knew what to follow, and what to say, I wrote a short script for the radio trailer. I plan to find a male with a deep voice to record my trailer. The script can be seen below.

#38 Radio Trailer Inspiration

The other trailers that I looked at inspired me a lot in terms of the way my trailer sounds. I really liked the idea of using heavy breathing, as it connotes panic and fear very strongly to the audience, instantly suggesting that the main characters are in danger. The use of a deep male voice was also very inspiring to me as it creates a sense of horror, through the way that the voice is not soft and friendly, it is harsh and unwelcoming to the audience. Additionally I was inspired to use tension building music as it would keep my audience engaged to the trailer, and want to go and see the film in the cinema. The calm music also creates an idea of mixed levels of fear throughout, which would engage any fan of the thriller genre.

I feel that due to my research into radio trailers, the conventions that I looked at inspired me to create a radio trailer that I believe to be very successful.

#37 Radio Trailer Research

For my media film I had to create a way to advertise the film that I have created. One way that I could do this is would be through trailers on the radio. For my radio trailer to be successful and achieve what it was meant to it was important that I looked at other radio trailers for similar films and genres. I looked at two radio trailers online, Insidious and Paranormal Activity 3, and found it very hard to find radio trailers on the internet, and the trailers I found were very limited. I then looked at a few TV radio trailers, to get further knowledge to help create my own trailer.

I found that most horror trailer appear to be very similar. The trailers usually last around 30-40 seconds, and feature a very deep male voice as a narrator, usually someone who is not a character in the film, as this creates a fear of the unknown. Key information is also included as this is important to inform the audience of the details about the film, such as; the release date, the age rating, if the film is on DVD or in cinemas. Additionally, like posters, the trailers sometime also include other films made by the same people, 'from the makers of'. Extracts from the actual film are also used, these are cleverly constructed to tell the story but not reveal all to the audience, it creates a desire for the audience to find out more, by seeing the film. All of the trailer is usually constructed with conventional horror music in the background. A slogan is also used to make you remember about the film, for example with Insidious the slogan was 'it's not the house that's haunted'.

Whilst researching radio trailers I created a mind map of my findings:

These are the two trailers that I looked at:

#36 Poster Distribution

In order to test if my poster looked genuine, I used photoshop to create an image of what my poster would look like if displayed on a billboard. The first image shows a billboard outside a shopping centre. The second image shows a billboard likely to be near a busy road or in a busy town. I feel that my poster works very well and I am very pleased with it, and how genuine it looks.

Poster outside shopping centre:

Poster near busy road/town:

#35 The Red Cloak Poster

The feedback from showing the first draft of my film poster was very positive, and I feel pleased with continuing to use this poster. I have added a quote, a website and information about the publisher to the poster to make it more conventional. I also tried a technique on photoshop called Revert which had a nice outcome but I feel I will stick with the original poster.

Poster:

Poster using 'revert' technique:

Grade for film: Level One (0-14)

Hi George,

You need a lot of work on the editing.... Only 1m long so that's a major issue. Aside from that the editing doesn't help tell the story as well as it should. You need to arrange a time to work with me on this.

#34 The Red Cloak First Draft

I have now completed the first draft for my film, The Red Cloak. Below is my film as it currently is, without sound and with still some tweaks to make to it. I am very happy with it and look forward to finishing my second draft as I am very interested to compare the improvements, and see what works and what didn't. I have also attached my original first draft of my film before I made changes to actresses used.

First Draft:


Original First Draft:

#33 Poster Planning Sketches

To avoid wasting loads of time continuously changing my idea and having to retake the photographs I have created a sketch of what I would like my finished poster to look like. I would like to stick to this and take the pictures to fit with this and the layout to be similar. Drawing this has prepared me for creating my poster and I now have a better idea of what I am doing. Below is the sketch I have made for what I want my poster to look like.

#32 Film Poster Research.

Recently I have been shooting and editing for my film, which is coming along well. To promote my film, The Red Cloak I would need to develop a poster and trailer, which has been discussed in the post about Ancillary tasks. I decided to begin with the poster for my film. As I have little knowledge about creating a film poster it was vital that I looked at some other posters to get an understanding. I looked at a poster from 'Insidious' and from 'The Last Exorcism', I found both of these to be fairly conventional, and the task was very useful to me, as I now know what I need to include in my poster. I also have a fairly clear idea about the colour scheme I should use. The two analysed posters can be seen below.

Film poster research

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#31 About the Ancillary Tasks

When we started the project we were told that we would have to create not just a film but some accompanying media products. These are called the ancillary tasks, and consist of a radio trailer and a poster. This is so that we have created the full media product, not just a short film but also a way of advertising and promoting our creation. Now that I have got most of my film ready, it is time to start on the ancillary tasks, I need to research and plan these as these themselves are almost as important as the short film itself.

I found creating my film to be very fun, and hope that I enjoy creating the trailer and poster as much as I did the film.

research and planning grade: 10/20

For level 4:

You must upload EVERYTHING you have done so far this year

You must explain what each post is, why you are doing that piece of work and what you learnt from it - you have only written short posts which don't reflect your ability to evaluate what you are doing

Put some soul into it - it lacks character at the moment George

#30 Using Garage Band

The film I am creating, The Red Cloak has no been fully filmed, using my actress' Charlotte Bird and Michelle Stanton. Now I need to sort out the sound that I will add to my film, it is very important that I do not use copyrighted music. After looking online at royalty free music, I have found few tracks that I would be happy using for my film. I decided to use Garage Band a programme that allows you to create music by dragging the different instruments onto a timeline. Below is a print screen of my timeline that I have created on Garage Band and you can also listen to the music I have created by pressing play below. I feel that using GarageBand was good as it allowed me to create the exact piece of music I wanted, rather than limiting myself due to copyright.

Using Garage Band by gorgiep

#29 Reflection on Shoot

I have now finished shooting for my short film, and feel that it has gone very successfully. I have around 15minutes of footage all together, this amount will obviously decrease as I edit as a lot of the footage is not needed to be included, and was just filmed to provide a safety zone should anything not work. I am confident that I won't need to film again as I feel that all the shooting is correct in terms of lighting, angles and setting. Overall I am very pleased with the shoot.

#28 Editing

Now that I had all my footage filmed, I had to edit it all the difference clips together and add sounds and music in the editing stage. To edit, I used a programme called Final Cut Express, which I used very briefly for my AS coursework. I found editing to be one of the most complicated and time consuming parts to this project, as each scene has to fit in time with each other, be cut at exactly the right place, and the sound has to also fit in with what is happening in the scene. My film took a few hours to edit together, which for a five minute film seems like a lot. As I progressed through the editing stage, my skills developed, and when re-watching the film believing I was finished, I noticed areas that didn't look right and then re-edited it. Due to my research stage, I found it easy to edit so that my film was conventionally. Below are some print screens of my film during the editing stage.

This is a print screen of final cut express, showing my 'timeline', my clip 'viewer' and my clip gallery:

This image is a print screen of all my different clips and sounds, which I edited together to form the final film:

This is a print screen of my timeline, which shows all my clips and sounds placed together:

#27 Photos on Shoot

This is a photo of me taken on the shoot, I am using a Panasonic HD Camera, which I found to work very well. I feel that this shoot was very successful.

WWW (What went Well) - weather was consistent, and got all shots filmed with the same natural lighting so continuity is not a problem.

EBI - Had more time to work on the shooting.

#26 Shooting Plan

As I am working along, timing is very important to me. I have created a plan for the months November and December for when I am shooting/filming and when I am editing my film. This is so that I can remember when I have arranged to meet with my actress' and also so that I do not spend too long or too little time on the shooting or editing. This plan will help me to remember my dates and use my time constructively, ensuring that I complete all tasks in the correct amount of time. Below are my two plans for November and December 2011.

November:

December:

#25 Analysis of Pitch

I feel that the pitch was very helpful to me in many ways. Originally I planned to film my film in the dark, which can be seen from my story board, however the dangers that came with this, and the problems caused by how to light the scenes, and not make it look unnatural proved complicated. This led me to change my idea and film the film in the daytime.

Another comment was made about my decision to use 'amateur footage' similar to that seen in the Blair Witch Project. The comment was that I should use various shots to help tell the story, such as low angle shots, tilt shots, rather than amateur footage. Switching between amateur footage and standard shots could make my film look disjointed, which is something I want to avoid.

I also received a comment about my films lack of dialogue in the sample scene, and that at times my story is not entirely clear, or follows properly. I am now going to work hard on correcting the lack of dialogue and continuity of the story line to ensure my film is successful.

#24 Pitch Presentation

We were given the task of presenting our film ideas to the class in order to obtain feedback and advice. Presenting my idea allowed my audience to picture the full story and from this be able to give constructive feedback that will help me to acheieve better. From my audience I learned that my idea for my film is good but needs some development and change to the ideas. I will now work hard to take on board the comments that can be seen being made in the video below. I also plan to create a detailed post on the feedback I received.

#23 Planning for Pitch Presentation

I am planning to create a Pitch presentation, to pitch to my media class to gain additional feedback on my idea. My pitch presentation will consist of my treatment, my storyboard and my sample scene which can be seen in the post below.

I will first read out my treatment to give the overall idea, introduce the actors/actress and the plot. Discuss where I will be shooting and what equipment I will be using. I will then show my 10 shot storyboard that I created and talk my audience through it, explaining what is happening in the photo and any other information that is to be included. I will then play the sample scene and take questions and comments from my audience at the end to help me improve my idea. I feel this will help me a lot as if my idea is not strong I have time to improve it.

#22 The Red Cloak - Sample Scene

I have now created a sample scene for my film, The Red Cloak starring Alex Barnes and Chloe Van Sanden. This is the sample scene I have created as a preview, which will allow me to determine any flaws to the film. I can also present this during my pitch presentation along with my Treatment and Storyboard. This sample scene will also help me to understand if I have the correct equipment and that the setting is correct. It would also allow me to obtain feedback from others, which will help me to improve my ideas as some mistakes and errors may not be clear to me, but very clear to the audience. I found creating a sample scene before the whole film to benefit me.

UPDATE: This sample scene also helped me as I have now changed my actress' to Michelle Stanton and Charlotte Bird, as I feel they are more suited for the role.

Sample Scene:

The Red Cloak (Sample Scene) from George Piggott on Vimeo.

#21 Editing Sample Scene Evidence

I edited my footage from my sample scene using a program called Final Cut Express, it allowed me to edit the footage by cutting bits out, placing different clips together, and also adding music along with other tools. I asked a friend to take a photo of me editing my sample scene using this programme. I found this programme to be tricky to use at first, but once you pick the techniques up it is very easy to use. Now that I have improved my skills, editing my full film should be easy. Below is the picture of me editing my sample scene.

#20 Photos on Shoot

This is a photo taken of me on the photoshoot, this photoshoot is in the place that I would like the film to be filmed. I had previously done a photoshoot with my other actress, so I knew what not to do this time.

WWW (What Went Well) - I had knowledge of what not to do, last time I took photos in the dark and when put through the computer they were unable to be seen.

EBI (Even Better If) - I had taken more different unique photographs.

#19 Sample Scene Shoot Arranging

Now that I was ready to shoot my sample scene, I had to arrange with my actress what time to meet. The quickest and easiest way to do this was through texts, I sent a text to each of my actress, and I have shown the text I sent and the reply I received back below. The text messages were sent from my Blackberry.


Text One: Sent to Michelle Stanton.

Text Two: Sent to Charlotte Bird.

#18 Script

The pre-photoshoot planning helped me understand exactly what props, costumes, setting and equipment was needed, but it was very important that the actress' knew what they were needed to say and do, in order to make the scene run smoothly, and not look unrealistic. I wrote a script for my film, which I handed out to my actress a few days prior to shooting for them to learn. I don't intend to follow the script to strictly as I want my film to seem like it is a home video following the two girls, and this effect will not happen if the film looks heavily scripted. I found that writing a script helped me to picture my ideas. Below is the script I created.

The Red Cloak Script

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#17 Ten Shot Storyboard

I have created a ten shot storyboard for my film using still photos that I have taken. This allowed me to test the shots that I plan to use and also get a feel for the overall story as the photos of setting and characters help to create a clearer picture, which I felt helped me alot. I created this storyboard digitally as it would be easier to present along with my treatment to get feedback. I used power point to create the storyboard, and the power point can be seen below.

UPDATE: I have since changed actors from the girl used in the ten shot storyboard as I felt that the casting was effecting the film.

10 Shot Story Board

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#16 Photos from the Photoshoot

I feel that my photoshoot went very well, I took several photos which I will plan to use for my poster. I used a Panasonic HD Camera, which does both pictures and videos. Below are some of the photos that I managed to take on my photoshoot. I am very pleased with my images.

#15 Pre Photo-shoot Planning

To avoid my photo-shoot being a complete disaster, it was important for me to conduct some pre-photoshoot planning. This would include planning what props/costumes/settings and equipment I need to use to shoot my film, and for my photoshoot.

I am using three main props, a knife, a red cloak, and a red book. The red cloak I purchased from a supermarket, during Halloween. I will use a real knife, from a kitchen, as the scene involving the knife is set in a kitchen so this will add to the overall feel of my film. I will also use a red book, which is intended to be the 'Red Riding Hood' story book. Below are some images taken from Google, to demonstrate what my props will look like.

Cloak:

Kitchen Knife:

Red Book:

For costumes my actress' will wear normal casual clothes, as they are representing average teenage girls in the story. One actress' will wear the red cloak during half of the film, after the cloak has been found in the woods.

For setting I am going to use a large woodland area near one of my actress' house in Orpington, Kent. The woodland area is large so there will be plenty of different areas to film in, and there would be relatively few people that would be passing by whilst filming is happening. I will also use my actress' house to film the 'at home' scenes for my film. Below is a photo of a woodland area similar to the one that I will be using.

Woodland Area:

For equipment I am using a Panasonic HD Video Camera which I have been loaned from my school Media Department, I am also using a tripod, to allow my camerawork to be as steady as possible. I am only using these two pieces of equipment as I would like my film to look very natural.

Creating this plan of what to use before my shoot has helped me a lot as I now know exactly what needs to be done on the shoot.

#14 Studying Mise-en-scene - Six Shot Analysis

After choosing to use the Horror genre for my film idea, and after looking at and analysing in depth the film still from 'About A Girl', I felt it would be beneficial to analyse more shots from a film similar to the film I intend to make, so that I could gain knowledge about the mise-en-scene specific to the Horror genre, rather than just from 'About A Girl' which is a different genre to what I am using. I would like to create a film about two girls that are lost in the woods, and follow them around, which is similar to the film 'The Blair Witch Project', so I chose to analyse six shots from this film. This helped me greatly and I now have a clearer idea on how to make my film, in terms of setting and props. My analysed shots from The Blair Witch Project are below.

Media six shot film analysis

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#13 Studying Mise-en-scene - 'About a Girl' Shot Analysis

After looking at the overall representation in 'About A Girl', I was then asked to look at the mise-en-scene of the film, to see the effects of this on the overall film. I was asked to take any film still from the film and place it in a word document and analyse it in depth. I was looking at how the whole scene has been constructed in order to tell the story. This helped me as when I am filming for my short film which I will understand the importance of what is included and what isn't included in the scene.

Below is my analysed film still from 'About A Girl'.

About a girl shot analysis

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#12 Representation in 'About A Girl'

After completing both essays, we were asked to watch a short film on YouTube called 'About a Girl', the story is about a young teen girl, who has had a baby and not told her mum about it, although we don't learn this until the end, when it is too late as the baby has died. The film tells the story of the girl's struggle, not only with the issue of the baby but with her struggle with identit, represented through class and age in the short film.

This task benefited me because it allowed me to understand how particular groups are represented in short films, and how I could represent my characters correctly. Below are my notes on the representation within the short film and also an extract from the film.

Clip from About A Girl:


Notes on Representation:

Representation in ' About a Girl'

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#11 Treatment Feedback

Completing my treatment for my short horror film was the first chance for me to hear feedback from others. I photocopied my treatment which can be seen in the posts below, and distributed to several members in my media class, and to friends. I avoided handing it to my close friends as I wanted the opinions to be as truthful and as honest as possible, regardless of how harsh it may sound as I want to be able to improve my intial idea to its full potential.

From handing out this treatment, I have found that my idea has a lot of potential, as it is something that hasn't been seen before. The story needs some correcting as it doesn't always follow correctly, for example, when the cloaked figure is in the kitchen, nobody could understand where he came from. One person suggested having the girl in the cloak in the kitchen instead of this unknown person as it would make the story follow more. Another suggestion was that using one girl would make the story seem more scary, but I feel that two characters will strengthen the plot. This feedback helped me alot.

#10 Actor/Actress Photographs

UPDATED.

Originally I intended to use my friend Bonny Mae for my film, and used Bonny as the character in my storyboard. I felt that I would like to try using different actress' to see if it changed the way the film looked, so I used two friends, Alex Barnes and Chloe Van Sanden. The filming with these two went well but I still felt that the characters were different from my friends Chloe and Alex. In the end I used two different friends, Michelle Stanton and Charlotte Bird, who I felt suited the role perfectly. Below are photographs of my chosen actress' taken from FaceBook as I have yet to meet up with them and begin the shooting process.

Michelle Stanton:

Charlotte Bird:

#9 Audience Profile

To help me with planning I have decided to create a profile for my target audience, including specific detail which will help me adapt my product to fit this audience. My audience would me largely of a teenage audience from the ages of around 15-20. Although some may be older than this, very few are likely to be younger, as the film is likely to have an age rating of 15. The audience is more likely to be male than female, with around 2/3 of the audience being male and only 1/3 being female. The audience are also most likely all to be fans of the horror genre, and watch horror films regularly. In terms of social class my audience are most likely to be social classes B,C1,C2 and D. The film is most likely to be watched by couples and groups of friends, as opposed to families. Developing this audience profile has helped me as I now understand who I am making my film for.

#8 Treatment for 'The Red Cloak'

The detailed plan that I created was a big step forward in terms of developing my idea, however, it was nowhere near enough to prepare my idea ready for filming, I still had a long way to go. I created a treatment for my horror film idea which I intent to develop. This will enable me to present 'The Red Cloak' to my potential audience in order to obtain feedback, which will help me in developing my further. It will also allow me to change any ideas that may not work. My treatment for my short film which I have named 'The Red Cloak' is below.

Treatment for

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#7 Media Genre Essay 'The Insane'

From benefiting greatly from looking at use of media language in the Smashed essay. I then was asked to look more at the importance of these signifiers (signs, codes and conventions) on the genre of the film. The genre is largely determined by these signifiers, so I feel it was important for me to investigate these as my film would need to include genre specific signifiers.

I was given the essay title 'Discuss the short film 'The Insane' in relation to the key concepts of Media Language and Genre'. I learned many key signifiers of the shown genre. This essay allowed me to think more about what genre of film I would like to make, which is horror. Below is my essay, which I achieved a high C grade for, I have also embedded the short film 'The Insane' and my notes used to write this essay.

Notes:

Essay:

Media Genre Essay - The Insane

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The Insane Video:

#6 Ideas Development

This was the first stage of planning for my film that I am working on. I decided to come up with a few ideas, to get a feel for planning a story, and then I would pick one to develop into my film. I came up with three films, a comedy, a horror and a romance, although this is one of my least favourite genres, I didn't want to cut any options out this early on. I then gave a brief description of what would happen in each film, which can be seen in the mind map below.

From this planning stage I have decided to use my horror film idea for my actual film as I feel it is a genre that I would most enjoy creating a film in. I then began to develop my idea into a thicker plot, which I will use to help me start planning roles, scripts and setting for my film. Below is a scan of my developed idea plan.

These are images that I feel influenced me in my idea:

I want my film to be set in a woodland area similar to this one, as I feel it helps relate to the red cloak, through the link made by the child's tale Red Riding Hood.

I want to use a red cloak similar to the one above, as the colour really stands out and has many connotations.

My idea mainly came from putting a twist of horror on a innocent child's tale, like Red Riding Hood.

#5 Media Language Essay 'Smashed'

In class we also watched a short film called 'Smashed', and were then given the essay question 'Analyse the short film 'Smashed' applying technical terms'. This involved us analysing all most every detail of the film, which I found out to be very beneficial as although very short this film was full of different signs, codes and conventions used to construct the story.

Below is my essay on the title that we were given, which I achieved a B grade for, which I am very pleased with. I have also attached my notes on the film, which I used to structure my essay, and embedded the short film 'Smashed' into the post.

Essay:

Media Language Essay - Smashed

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Notes:

Smashed short film:

#4 Class Notes on LOVEFIELD

Lovefield is a short film, which we watched in class. It shows the importance of signs, codes and conventions in a short film as the whole story is changed mid-film, leaving the audience shocked as they were convinced that they knew what was happening in the film. The genre is largely affected by these signs, so for me to correctly fit my film into a genre, I will need to conduct further research into the signs, codes and conventions of the specific genre.

Below are my brief notes on signs in the film Lovefield, and also an embedded clip of the short film Lovefield, which was distributed via YouTube.

Notes:

Lovefield by Mathieu Ratthe:

#3 Studying Short Films

The concept of short films was an area that I had little knowledge in, I had seen a few short films before when played on the TV, but I had nowhere near enough knowledge to make a short film of my own. I began my research by looking at websites that are well known for short films. I remember hearing somewhere that BBC have a BBC Film Network, and a part of this is BBC Shorts. This is a website for screening short films that have been created, and by looking at this I could gain an understanding of what the whole concept of short films was about. This website also helped me to find out about the purpose of the short film industry, and how these short films are distributed. There are many reasons why people create short films, for example, they could simply enjoy pieces of film work, or they may want to gain experience as beginners, or to gain recognition in the industry by demonstrating their skills. Short films could also test an idea that someone has for a feature film, or like the film 'Smashed' be created to educate an audience. As 'Smashed' was created for Sommerset Police to inform about alcohol awareness. The audiences differ depending on the context of the film so there is many reasons why people would choose to watch these films. The most common method for distribution is online via YouTube and various other video websites such as Vimeo, however some short films are also distributed on TV or via DVD. Another way that short films can be shown to people is via film festivals. In our media class, we went on a trip to the European Independent Film Festival, in Paris. Below is the flyer for the film festival and also the time schedule for all the different films.

Flyer:

Film Schedule:

Researching:

As you can see from the above print screen of the BBC Shorts website, it hosts a large collection of different short films, which helped me to gain an understanding of conventions, and how the overall plot works. There was over 72 comedy short films for me to look at, and a large amount of horror short films. This benefited me a lot, so I began to look for other places to watch short films.

I then looked at Channel 4's collection of short films, although this collection was not as large as the BBC Short's collection, there was several very good films that I watched to help me. But these websites only show short films that have been recognised, I wanted to watch short films that had not yet been recognised, films that had not been created by well recognised, up and coming directors. I decided to go to YouTube, to see what short films had been uploaded there.

My search for 'short films' on YouTube got me several thousand results, so I began to shorten down the results by searching for 'short films of the horror genre' and 'short films of the comedy genre'. From watching these I had been slightly more persuaded to make a horror film, as the horror films all seemed to look better and seem less 'beginner' than the comedy films.

Below are my notes on the short film industry.

#2 Initial Planning for Task

As I am working individually, time is very important to me to make sure that I complete all necessary tasks. I began my initial planning to prepare any ideas, get the opinion of others on these ideas, to get me closer to picking a genre, and to help me understand where to start with my research.

I found this to benefit me greatly and I now have a choice out of two genres that I would like to pick to use for my short film. The genres were chosen by picking my two favourite genres, comedy and horror, and also mentioning popular films of these genres which I plan to take a look at. For example, popular horror films include; Paranormal Activity 1, 2 and 3, Insidious and The Exorcist, and popular comedy films include; White Chicks, Superbad and The Hangover. I also mentioned my two least favourite genres, romance and science fiction as these are genres that I have little or no interest in. I then asked for my friends opinions on these two genres to help me make the tough decision between the two.

One friend said that 'comedy can be risky, as not all humour is shared', which is a very valid point as success from comedy films mainly comes from the amount the audience laugh as opposed to the actual story. Another friend said that 'horror films shot in 'home video' style are very effective as they seem very realistic', this relates to films such as 'The Blair Witch Project' which largely uses this 'home video style'/amateur footage technique. A third friend said that 'both films can be very successful with a wide demographic if done correctly, and horror-comedy hybrid is a new area'. After typing 'horror-comedy genre' in to Google, I found that this genre does exist, and films such as the Scary Movie film series are of this genre. It may benefit me too take a look at the Scary Movie films, although I feel it would be more 'safe' to stick to just one genre, and avoid hybrid or mixed genres as it is harder to follow conventions.

Below are the scans from my initial planning.

#1 Welcome to my A2 Coursework Blog

Last year, I achieved a C grade for AS Media. Although I am pleased with this grade, I plan on redoing my AS coursework, using better photography, and a different design for my main campaign website. I also plan to retake the exam and work even harder than originally. I hope to get an A grade overall at the end of A2, and feel that with hard work this is possible to achieve.

Today we received our brief for our A2 coursework project. We have been asked to create a short film, lasting around five minutes, in the genre of our choice, working in groups or individually. I have decided to work on my own, as I feel that I could perform better without the distraction of other group members. We have been told that along with the short film, we will need to hand in a trailer, a poster and a sample scene, all of which will be marked and go towards our overall grade. I feel that this coursework project will be interesting to do, and is very creative, and will help us learn different skills, to the skills we learnt when creating campaign websites for AS.

Before I create my film, I will need to do a lot of research and planning, this will then allow me to select a genre, create a story line and follow the general conventions. As I am working alone, and therefore cannot discuss ideas with team members I plan to watch several different short films, and pick the genre that I feel will be the best for the idea I plan to develop.