Representation of Social Groups

Representation refers to the construction of aspects of  'reality' such as people, objects, events, places etc.

Social groups can be represented in several ways, through their dress sense, stance, movement, speech etc.

Our film contains a group of teenagers which are represented by their dress sense, wearing jeans and hoodies which shows that they are teenagers as most adults do not wear hoodies. Also, their dialogue suggests the social group which they are linked to using slang like ‘bullshit’ and ‘shit’, this shows that they are teenagers as this language is rarely used as frequently by the older generation. To continue, the shot of the group’s feet show that they are all wearing trainers which are commonly associated with the younger generation.

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene is the visual scene of the shot. It is anything/everything that is involved in the frame of the scene.

• Set Design
• Lighting
• Props
• Costumes
• Acting

Set Design:
The set design is all the scenery in the shot, this allows to see and understand what kind of place the scene is in. It also can show different colours which can emphasise the characters characteristics/mood.
Our set design was in 3 different places:

• The train station

• The church yard

• The creepy swing field

Lighting:

This can portray many different things in a shot (lighting darker for villains). It can also show the mood of a character - dark/dull lighting for negative emotion and light for positive emotion. There are two different types of lighting - natural light (from outside/through windows) and unnatural light (any electrical lighting)

Our whole production is filmed with natural light as it is all done outside.

Props:

Props for productions/filming is anything which is used that has been brought in by the film makers for example; umbrellas, guns or picture frames which help to set the scene of the production.

Our film only has a few bags as props however if we were to refilm our film we would use other props such as tents and sleeping bags to set the scene of the film.

Costumes:

Costume refers to the clothes that the characters wear. Using certain colours or designs it can signify characters and make clear distinctions between characters. For example: if class is needed to be distinguished, "rich" clothing can be used for the rich and tatty old clothing could be used for the poor.

Our film had simple costumes as the only people acting within it were teenagers, this meant that they could be wearing normal clothes.

Acting:

Another aspect of mise-en-scene is the acting. There are many different styles of acting (melodramatic, naturalistic etc)

Film Classification for Isolation

In my opinion Isolation would either be a 12 or a 15. Based on the other psychological horror films which inspired our film it would probably be a 15 considering the language that might be used later on in the film and any themes which may disturb children under the age of 15. Our film would certainly not be anything less than a 12 as there is already evidence of swearing in the first two minutes. However it would not have enough swearing or graphic blood and gore in order to classify it as an 18.

British Board of Film Classification

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is used to rate films so that it is clear who the films are aimed for. It is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification and censorship of films within the UK.



Universal: 

- Should be suitable for an audience of 4 years and over.

- Any violence/threat/horror will be mild/brief.

Parental Guidance:

- Films with this certificate are suitable for general viewing, however some scenes may be unsuitable for young children.

- Children don't have to be accompanied by an adult

- Mild bad language

- Sex references

- Moderate violence

12A/12:

- 12A is for cinema use only

- Unsuitable for very young children

- Moderate language

- Soft drugs

- Discrimination

- Moderate sex references/violence

15:

- May involve adult themes (hard drugs, strong language, moderate-strong violence, sex references)

- Possible mild non-detailed sex activity

18:

- No limit on bad language used

- Strong Violence

- Hard Drug Use

- Sexual references

- Strong sexual activity



R18:

- Graphic

- Can only be shown in licensed cinemas

- Can only be sold in licensed sex shops for adult viewing only

- Violence and sex activity is stronger than in an 18

- Can also contain sexual violence such as rape

3 Main Distributors UK: VUE #3

VUE Entertainment: is one of the UK's leading cinema groups.

Logo:



Facts/About:

• Launched in 2003 with 38 cinemas
• Now has 68 cinemas with 657 screens and over 140,000 seats
• Also has a 9 screen cinema in Faro, Portugal
• 13 screen cinema in Taipei, Taiwan
• 60% of the UK population living with 30 minute drive of a Vue cinema
• 121 of 657 sccreens are digital
• 108 of their screens are able to show the latest 3D films
• Aquired 15 cinemas over the years from other companys such as: Hoyts, Village Roadshow, Ster Century and Cinemark
• Tim Richards (CEO), Alan McNair (CFO and Deputy CEO), and Steve Knibbs (COO)
• Won the prestigious award for 'International Exhibitor of the Year' in 2005 at Cinema Expo

3 Main Distributors UK: ODEON #2

Odeon: is one of the UK's leading cinema groups.
Logo:



Facts/About:

• Founded in 1930 by Oscar Deautsch
• Acquired in 1941 by J Arthur Rank
• Odeon part of The Rank Organisation for a further 58 years
• Re-branding campaign in 1998 re-enforced ODEON's position as market leader in the UK
• "Fanatical About Film"
• February 2000, ODEON was sold to Cinven who merged ODEON and ABC cinema chains  (all rebranded as ODEON)
• ODEON sold to a consortium of investors early 2003 - WestLB, The Entertainment Group and Robert Tchneguiz of Rotch
• Private equity firm Terra Firma acquired ODEON in 2004 and United Cinemas International in 2004
• United Cinemas International: operates cinemas in Ireland, Spain, Germany, Austria, Italy and Portugal. UCI and thefilmworks cinemas in the UK have now changed their name to ODEON
• ODEON is now part of ODEON and UCI Cinemas Group

Objectives:

• Recruiting, training and developing passionate people
• Creating exceptional teams
• Deliving exceptional service

3 Main Distributors UK: CINEWORLD #1

Cineworld Group PLC: is one of the UK's leading cinema groups.


Logo:




Facts/About:

• Founded in 1995 by Stephen Wiener, current CEO
• Originally a private company, now a public company (May 2006) and listed on London Stock Exchange (May 2007)
• Operates 79 sites
• 76 of the sites are multiplex with 5+ screens
• Nearly all of their sites are digital
• Market leaders in 3D

Philosophy/Objectives:

• 'To create welcoming, contemporary cinemas that movie-goers will want to come back to time and time again'
• Cineworld experience to be smooth, memorable and exciting
• To consolidate and advance position as one of the leading cinema groups in the UK (sites, screens and admitions)
• Grow their shareholder value (image below of share prices - year to date)

What they do to achieve:

• Develop and prove its offer to its customers
• Grow box office revenues
• Increase retail spend per customer
• Increase other revenue streams
• Look to expand into contemporary markets
• Use technology to improve cutomer experience and efficiency

Improvements

In my opinion our end result has come out a lot better than I thought it would, through the editting and additions we managed to improve all the random shots that we had done on the 23rd of November.

Our film was very difficult to pinpoint as our group had many different ideas for what we were going to do so when we came to filming we hadn't really got much of an idea to draw from.
We began filming scenes of the group walking from the train station and through the graveyard which we managed to edit so that it didn't look boring.

One improvement that I would make is a more organised and willing team. Although one of my team members was extremely willing, the 2 other people in my group were just doing it because they had to, therefore it made it very difficult to organise filming and pre-production. One of our team members was not even present for filming.

Another improvement that I would make is to have the woods look more like a woods rather than an orchid (which it was).

I feel that the group should have done more research as a group rather than as individuals as this would have enabled the whole group to say the aspects of other horror films that we liked/disliked.

Props are one of the main things which our final cut lacks as it just looks like the teenagers have gone to the woods for a day trip rather than to go camping. So if I was to shoot the film again I would provide props such as a tent and sleeping bags for the actors to carry to make our sequence seem more realistic.

ISOLATION.

The film Isolation is about a group of teenagers who are venturing into the woods to have a good time and tell ghost stories. These teenages would be stereotyped to getting drunk and being silly like most teenagers are seen by adults.

Our 2 minute opening sequence shows the teenagers as they get off the train and make their way to meet their friend Reuben/Ruby and then continue to the Screaming Woods to have their fun night. The opening sequence has a few P.O.V shots of the creature/demon that is following them, this shows the audience straight away that it is not just going to be a fun trip. They then arrive at the destination and the audience can imagine what will happen to them.

Final Editing.

After Reuben had re-recorded the elements of our film which needed improving he started to use iMovie HD to put the voice overs onto the movie, however as iMovie HD is very simplistic he found it difficult and had to change to Final Cut Pro to complete our movie. After finally putting the sound on the movie, the effect of the film was added to make the film look darker and to inforce the fact that it was a horror film and made it seem like it was shot later on into the evening.

Paranormal Activity

The third Paranormal Activity was released just before we started filming our film, we had all seen the movie and decided that this was the type of horror we wanted to base our film around. We believed that the spookiness of never seeing the demon, the sound effects and the small creepy movements that show something is there.

During this scene of Paranomal Activity (Night 19), the demon has begun to do more obvious things which are filmed by the camera. The bed covers are lifted up which shows that the demon is trying to access the woman, but not going as far as to do so. The light is switched on then switched off again to continue with the suspense, then you hear slight breathing and the woman wakes up and says that she felt breathing on her face. This all adds up to the suspense of the film.

We used the eerie swing, the P.O.V shots and the creepy sounds to show that there was something that was going to go wrong during the teenagers 'fun' trip.

PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR

The last of the horror film subgenres is psychological horror. I saves this one til last as this is the type of horror film our film fits into. Psychological horrors rely on characters' fears, guilt, beliefs, eerie sound effects, relevant music, emotional instability and the supernatural and ghosts.

This subgenre relates to our film as we use the supernatural/ghost/creature which eerily follows the group of teenagers to their destination, leading the audience to believe that something much worse will happen to the teenagers when they are having fun at their destination.

Our film sequence shows the fear of one of the characters (Reuben/Ruby) as he gets the feeling that something terrifying is following them. As our subgenre is a psychological horror, naturally the audience never sees the 'creature' that is tormenting the teenagers, only the fear that the group are experiencing.

Examples of films from this genre are:

1. The Uninvited (2009) by Charles Guard and Thomas Guard
2. The Exorcist (1973) by William Friedkin
3. The Blair Witch Project (1999) by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez
4. Paranormal Activity 1,2,3 (2007, 2010, 2011) by Oren Peli, Tod Williams, Henry Joost&Ariel Schulman

Film Genre Continued

Science Fiction: Revolves around subjects including killer aliens, mad scientists and/or experiments gone wrong. Examples of this subgenre include:

1. Alien (1979) by Ridley Scott - The crew of a mining ship land on a distant planet, they discover some strange creatures and investigate.
2. Apollo 18 (2010) by Gonzalo López-Gallego
3. Pitch Black (2000) by David Twohy - A group of marooned space travelers struggle for survival on a seemingly lifeless world.

Slasher Film: A type of horror film involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner. Examples of films from this subgenre include:

1. Halloween (2007) by Rob Zombie - A man escapes from a mental institution that he was commited to as a 10 year old and returns to Haddonfield to find his baby sister. Anyone who crosses his path is in mortal danger.
2. Friday the 13th (2009) by Marcus Nispel - A group of young adults discover a boarded up Camp Crystal Lake where they encounter Jason Voorhees and his deadly intentions.
3. Scream (1996) by Wes Craven - A killer begins killing off teenagers.

Splatter Film: These films focus on graphical violence, using special effects and excessive blood and guts to show the mutility and vunerability of the human body. Examples of this subgenre include:

1. Saw (2004) by James Wan - Two men wake up with a dead body laying between them in the secure lair of serial killer "Jigsaw". The men must follow various rules and objectives if they wish to survive and win the deadly game.
2. Hostel (2005) by Eli Roth  - Three backpackers head to Slovak city with no idea of the hell that awaits them.
3. The Collector (2009) by Marcus Dunstan

Zombie Film: As said in the subgenre name, these films feature zombie creatures (reanimated corpses or mindless human beings). Examples of this subgenre include:

1. Resident Evil (2002) by Paul W.S. Anderson
2. Dawn of the Dead (2004) by Zack Snyder - Few survivors of a worldwide plague that is producing aggressive, flesh-eating zombies, take refuge in a shopping mall
3. I Am Legend (2007) by Francis Lawrence - A plague kills most of humanity and turns the rest into monsters, a sole survivor and his dog in New York City struggles to find a cure.

Film Genre

Horror films are divided up into subgenres to make it easier to identify what kind of horror film you are going to see. Whether it is all blood and gore such as the Saw movies or if it is paranormal and scientific horror such as Insindious and Paranormal Activity 1,2,3.

Horror Film Subgenre's:

Body Horror - This subgenre is horrific because of the graphic destruction/degeneration of the body or the contortion of body parts to make unnatural movements such as disfigured limbs. The top 5 body horror films are:

1. The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (2009) by Tom Six - A small indie film. It is about a demented surgeon who decides the best way to create a human centipede is to connect 3 young adults from anus-to-mouth to make a digestive system. He uses roofees and dart guns to collect his unwilling patients.
2. Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) by Shinya Tsukamoto
3. From Beyond (1986) by Stuart Gordon
4. Videodrome (1983) by David Cronenburg
5. Society (1989) by Brian Yuzna - this film is about a a popular high school boy who is dating the head cheerleader but feels like he doesn't fit it. He finds out that he has been killed in an accident. He finds out that the upper class society in Beverly Hills is literally feeding off the poor. An extremely gory horror film.

Comedy Horror - This subgenre combines the elements of comedy and horror fiction. Examples of this genre are:

1. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) by Jim Sharman - Is about a newly engaged couple who have a breakdown in an isolated area and have to visit the bizarre residence of Dr. Frank-N-Furter (a transfestite)
2. American Werewolf in London (1991) by John Landis - is about two American tourists in Britain one is killed by the werewolf and the other is mauled. The werewolf is killed and returned to its human form. The surviving student finds that his friends and other recent victimes appear to him and demand that he finds a way to die to release them from their curse.
3. Gremlins (1984) by Joe Dante - About a boy who breaks 3 important rules concerning his new pet and unleashes mischevious and dangerous monsters on a small town.
4. Beetlejuice (1988) by Tim Burton - A couple of recently dead ghosts contract the services of a 'bio-exorcist' in order to remove the obnoxious new owners of their house.
5. Arachnophobia (1990) by Frank Marshall - A south american killer spider gets taken back to the US in a coffin and starts to breed and kill.

Gothic Horror - Contains goth and horror. Maybe with a small portion of romants that unfolds. Examples of this film genre are:

1. The Phantom of the Opera (2004) by Joel Shumacher - A disfigured musical genius terrorizes the opera company for the benefit of a young protégé whom he trains and loves.
2. Dracula (1992) by Francis Ford Coppola - A vampire comes to England to seduce a visitors fiancée and create havoc throughout England.
3. Frankenstein (1994) Kenneth Branagh - When Victor Frankensteinrejects the artificial man he just created, the monster escapes and swears revenge.
4. The Mummy (1999) by Stephen Sommers - An American accidently awakens a Mummy in the ancient city of Hamunaptra.
5. Let Me In (2010) by Matt Reeves - A bullied young boy befriends a young vampire who lives in secrecy with her guardian.

Kiddie Horror: These are horror movies directed at a young audience, they play on the common fears of children, featuring mainly supernatural frights, less gore and a preteen/teenage cast.
Examples of this subgenre include:

1. The Monster Squad (1987) by Fred Dekker - Dracula plans to rule the world and seeks the help of other legendary monsters such as Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, The Mummy and The Gill Man.
2. The Gate (1986) by Tibor Taká - Three young children accidently release a horde of nasty, pint sized demonds from a hole in a surburban backyard.
3. Monster House (2006) by Gil Kenan - Three teens discover that their neighbours house is really a living, breathing, scary monster. Animated film.
4. Troll 2 (1990) by Claudio Fragasso - A family on holiday in a small town sicover that the whole town is inhabited by goblins in disguise who plan to eat them.
5. Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) by Jack Clayton

Monster Movie: A horror film which features a creature (usually oversized and/or fictional) as the antagonist. Examples of this subgenre include:

1. Jaws (1974) by Steven Spielburg - Famous film about a gigantic great white shark who begins to provoke and kill the small island community of Amity.
2. Piranha (2010) by Alexandre Aja - A sudden underwater tremor sets free a load of man-eating fish that cause havoc during the summer holidays.
3. King Kong (2005) by Peter Jackson - An overly amitious movie producer and his crew travel to the mysterious Skull Island and then encounter King Kong - a giant ape.
4. Jurassic Park (1993) by Steven Spielburg - During a preview tour, a theme park suffers a breakdown that allows its cloned dinosaur exhibits to run wild.
5. Anaconda (1997) by Luis Llosa  - A National Geographic film crew is taken hostage by an insane hunter who takes them on his quest to capture the worlds largest, deadliest snake.

Natural Horror: A horror film which features mutated/carnivorous animals/plants which are normally harmless that have been turned into killers.

1. The Birds (1963) by Alfred Hitchcock
2. The Swarm (1978) by Irwin Allen - A huge swarm of deadly African bees spread terror over American cities killing thousands of people.
3. Lake Placid (1999) by Steve Miner - A man eating crocodile let loose in a lake.
4. Snakes on a Plane (2006) by David R. Ellis - An FBI agent embarkes on a plane full of deadly and poisonous snakes.
5. The Ruins (2008) by Carter Smith 

Re-recorded Dialogue

When Reuben re-recorded the dialogue this is the dialogue that he used:

8 seconds clip after leaving the train.
M1 " So wheres ruby then?"
M2 "Where meeting him near the old barn door"
F1 "Apparentley theres been a 'sighting' "
M1 " haha! Bull shit there has!"


14 second clip walking through the graceyard P.O.V shot
M1 " So where are we actualy going?"
F1 " To see the 'most haunted' Part of the woods"
M3 " Thats where they sighted it"
M1 "Ruby I dont get why you believe in that shit!"
M3 "You will too if we see it "


3 Second clip approaching the woods

M1 "Are we there yet?
F1 "Its just over there!"

Christmas:

Over the Christmas holidays we had a few things which we needed to do to improve our film:

• Re-record dialogue scenes (as our dialogue was muffled and virtually inaudible) to give a reason to why the teenagers were walking to a destination
• Re-record sound effects - heavy breathing for P.O.V shots
• Possibly recording more woodland scenes

As Reuben and I were not available at the same times, he borrowed his brothers microphone and recorded the dialogue scenes and the sound effects and added them to our film.

Editing Log Sheet

This sheet was used to show the shots that we used and how much we had cut them by :)

Why Isolation?

The word Isolation has many connotations, these include:

• Human isolation (disambiguation)
• Solitude
• Solitary confinement

The definitions for isolation are:

• The act/instance of isolating
• The state of being isolated
• The complete separation from others

We chose this name to give the audience the impression that during our film each of the characters would slowly become isolated by this 'creature' and being separated from the other group members.

Possible Film Names

After editing most of the film, Reuben and I sat down and had to think of possible names for our film. We had many ideas and wrote them all down however couldn't decide which one to use. In the end we put crossses next to the ones we definitely didn't want and then finally decided on Isolation.

More Editing.

As I enjoyed the editing so much, when the two girls I babysit wanted to film, create and edit a music video I was more than happy to help them with it. As all the ideas of filming came from the girls, the content was entirely up to them. We filmed the clips using one of the girls iPods so the quality of the shots is not as well done as our title sequence. I helped them to edit the music video using Windows Movie Maker and the girls loved it. We uploaded it onto youtube so that they could show their friends.

Editing the film was good experience for me and will help me in future for editing.

A link to the music video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r-4tl9bjgY

EDITING

For the editing of our film Reuben and I began by re-viewing all of the shots that we had taken and deleting any that we definitely didn't want (because of loud noises/laughter/bad filming) then we organised the rest into a timeline on iMovieHD and began to cut and edit all of the clips.

Our first edit of the film was 30 seconds over what it should be (2 minutes) so we cut some of the shots down which actually made the film better as we cut out unnecessary beginning and end bits of each shot.

The next task was to add music and sound to our film. We did this by looking for uncopyrighted creepy sounds on Google search engine and managed to find a few creepy noises which we used a few of.

However, over the Christmas Holidays, Reuben took a microphone home and recorded sounds of his mother crunching nuts and breaking twigs to create the sound effects that we wanted in our film.

Editing on iMovieHD was easy to get used to, when we made a mistake it was easy to undo and correct it. One mistake that we made was putting the end clip too far apart so it ended up jumping. Luckily we were able to zoom into the timeline and correct this error.

Lych Gate

A lynchgate (lichgate/lycugate) comes from the Old Englich lic meaning corpse. The lych gate is said to be the pathway from which the living pass through to death. In old memorial services the corpse was layed in the lych gate as a resting place.

 

First Day of Filming

Our first day of filming was on the 23rd of November 2011.
We arrived on set in Pluckley village, supposedly the most haunted village in Britain. With a few investigations and episodes from ghost hunting type programmes such as Most Haunted and Ghost Hunters International. As Pluckley is well known around Britain for being haunted, this is why we chose to film here.

We started filming at 11 o'clock, starting with 3 of the actors walking down the steps of the train (as though they have just got off the train to start their journey to the woods). This shot was done by Reuben as one of the members of our group had not yet arrived. This shot took the longest out of all of our shots to film as we needed to get used to the camera and wait for the background noise of the coal yard to quieten down. Also, the actors needed to get into character, so there were a few films where laughter occured. After the 3 actors had walked down the stairs the filming continued with the characters walking down the road. We filmed a short shot of the characters feet so that it was a change from just watching the 3 characters walking.

Next we filmed the characters walking past a old tyre swing which was eerily swinging in the background (we used this idea from the Paranormal Activity films which we had researched to show that their was something which wasn't quite right). This continued with a P.O.V shot of the 'creature' who was following the teenagers.

A few shots later our other group member arrived so we continued filming and Reuben (who was camera man for the first few shots) met with the group of teenagers to continue their journey to the Screaming Woods. This character was introduced as quite nervous and worried about their journey trying to get the rest of the group to give up and go home, with no luck.

The teenagers walk to the graveyard and another P.O.V shot from the 'creature' is shown and leads to Reuben turning around after hearing a noise, this then flashes back to where he was looking but nothing is there.

The group continued to their destination walking through a creepy lych gate where Reuben hears another noise and makes another attempt of stearing the rest of the group away from their adventure.

Title Sequence

As our media film had to include a title sequence which contained the names of everyone who was involved with the project and what task they did.

In order to make our film look realistic we looked at other film title sequences such as Juno, Pineapple Express and Little Miss Sunshine to see what sequence they used to introduce everyone.

We found out that most film title sequences end in the name of the film and begin with the production company therefore this is how we layed ours out.

1. Production Company (Twisted Pictures)
2. Producer (Tasha Laws and Reuben Simmons)
3. Director (Rudi Leandro)
4. Writer (Reuben Simmons)
5. Actors (Ross Hardman,  Ewan Kileen, Tasha Laws and Reuben Simmons)
6. Title (Isolation)

We were also going to incorporate the editors (Tasha Laws and Reuben Simmons) into the title sequence but we found that there wasn't an appropriate place in our film to insert it.