Week 10 Summary 15th - 21st MAR (Faraz Maqbool)

While I was editing the opening sequence of our film I noticed some problems in terms of continuity and it was clear that we had to go back and re-film on the 16th of march. With the additional footage captured I was successfully able to edit the opening sequence and complete it. I also chose the soundtrack that is going to be in the opening sequence and I uploaded the music used in the opening sequence onto the blog.

Legacy 2 minute opening sequence

Editing Journal [The Editor] (Faraz Maqbool)

Editing Journal (Faraz Maqbool)

Legacy Opening Sequence Music (Faraz Maqbool)

Death march by gazzadde43

Alongside editing the 2 minute opening sequence I also chose the music that was used. We chose to stick with using the above music throughout the 2 minute sequence, as it gave it a eerie and mysterious feel especially the way in which it ends and how we used it in the film to create suspense.

The music used in a film must fit its genre type so that certain feelings can be communicated to the audience and so that they know what type of film that they are watching.

However this was not the only choice I had as I sifted through a great deal of different types of music and compared and contrasted them with the movie and I felt that the above music fit in quite well compared to the others. The piece of music used is not copy-righted and is called Death March.

Questionnaire Results (Marian Hassan)

Questionnaire Graphs

Week 9 Summary 8th - 14th MAR (Faraz Maqbool)

This week we finished off filming and we were able to successfully capture all of the footage that we needed. We also showed the footage captured to our lecturer who gave us the go ahead to start editing as he saw no problems. Two filming journals were also uploaded one from the camera woman and also one from the director which details what happened on the days of our filming and what days we filmed. Editing also started this week.

Filming Journal [The Director] (Gareth Hawkes)

Filming Journal Directors Prospect

Filming Journal [Camera Woman] (Marian Hassan)

24th February:
We started filming in H block class room H115, the first scene we filmed was Faraz killing Gareth while he was sitting at one of the computers. We thought this would be simple but soon realised we would have to do many retakes because the way Gareth was reacting to be stabbed did not seem realistic at all. we also had to start again becase he did not sign into the computer so it would not look believable.
Another problem we encounterd was we did not realise how sensitive the sound was so any movement was picked up and we had to start again several times due to out cast members talking in the background.
We also filmed Taiwo & Prisca running away from Faraz out of the class and down the hall way and Prisca had to scream. This scene caused two major problems for us. One because the running scene kept going wrong, either they were too slow or too fast or they tripped over each over.
Two becuase we never knew that there were night classes going on and Prisca had to keep repeating her scream witch was very loud, this distracted the students and the lecturer came to confront us about it quite angrily, unfortunately Taiwo became irritated with the way she was telling us off and they got into an arguement but after expressing his feelings he apologised becuase she thought he was rude and we were told he could carry on as long as we did not make to much noise.

9th March:
We began filming inside again becuase after watching what we had previously recored and got feedback from other class members we decided that we were going to reflim the scene where Gareth was being stabbed by Faraz, this was becuse Garethg reaction to being stabbed was not very believable. This took a while to get right because Garteh fealt shy infront of the other cast members so we politely asked them to leave, and after that he either did not make noise on time or he didnt make noise at all.
We then added our next scene which was Faraz killing Iffrah, this went smoothly and took no time to get over and done with.
On this same day we were meant to get the outside scene with Prisca and Taiwo done but unfortunately Prisca left college without telling any of us so we could not get that out of the way.
So instead we filmed the outside car park scene of Akelah driving towards Faraz. This was very problematic seeing as it started to drissle just as we got outside but luckily it stopped and we were able to carry on. It took a while to get the camera in the same position as the car but we got there, and Akelah had to be very careful so that she did not accidentaly hit Faraz. That bit went fine. Soon after another group came outside also to film and they cast members got in the way of out shot, so we politely waited. In the end we looked over out film and the still got in our shot without us noticing so we had to cut out as shot of Faraz walking into the road.
Lastly we filmed Faraz falling to the ground to give the audience the idea he haad be knocked down by the car.

11th March:
It took a while to begin filming because we had to wait for it to get reasonably dark outside.
We started filming inside H block Faraz walking down the stairs. This was easiliy done in one take. We then began to film the outside scene where Prisca and Taiwo run from h block to the car park. This took mant shots and was quite difficult at times especially the panning scene because i was too fast at times. We also had issues with the automatic doors as they opended to slow.
Then Faraz did a point of view shot and that went very well. After that we did the scene we Prisca and Taiwo run behind a car then run across the road.
Finally we did the scene where Taiwo see's Faraz knocked down on the ground and goes over to check his pulse and suddenly Faraz opens his eyes and strangles him, this also took a while because Faraz could not see very well so he kept missing Taiwo's neck.

16th March:
I was not able to make it to the last day of filming because of too short notice from the director (Gareth Hawkes), and i had to pick up my neice, but Pianki took my position and that day went well apart from being able to see the director in the reflection of the mirror.

Personally I think our filming went better than i thought it would have and was quite enjoyable, we came across a few problems here and there but that made us better at our jobs.

Week 8 Summary 1st - 7th MAR (Faraz Maqbool)

We have not uploaded anything to the blog this week as we have been primarily focussing on the filming. I would say that we have made a lot of progress in this week and we have come close to the end of filming, we have run into a few problems such as some of the cast members not being able to make filming dates. However we were able to compensate and film on a different date that was appeasing to all of the people involved in the project.

Week 7 Summary 22nd - 28th FEB (Faraz Maqbool)

This week we started to film the opening sequence and we also have our production set and uploaded onto the blog. This has the dates that we have to get our work done and also the dates that we have to film on, these dates have been discussed before hand to make sure that everyone would be available for filming. There is also a set date for when everything has to be done by and that means te whole project and when it has to be finished.

Production Schedule (Marian Hassan)

Untitled

Week 6 Summary 15th - 21st FEB (Faraz Maqbool)

This week we took a really big in depth look at the opening sequence that we are going to be creating and we uploaded the production brief which outlines everything that has to be considered in creating the opening sequence such as who the target audience is and where we can distribute the film and so on. We were also able to upload the storyboard so that the viewers can see what we are trying to achieve and what shots we are going to use. Alongside all of this we also uploaded the treatment which also looks at the target audience and the product that we are creating among other things. This week we also talked about possible filming dates and checked the dates we chose aginst the ones that our cast was free so that we could film with no problems, we also made sure that we had a few dates set aside just in case we had to do emergency filming or re film.

Production Brief (Faraz Maqbool)

Production Brief

Treatment (Gareth Hawkes)

Treatment

Storyboard (Faraz Maqbool)

Storyboard

Shot List for our film (Gareth Hawkes)

Shot List

Week 5 Summary 8th - 14th FEB (Faraz Maqbool)

This week what we did was find the props that we are going to use in the opening sequence. We took a long time finding some of the props such as the knife that we are going to use however it was originally supposed to be a big machete, but we were unable to find one. So we have to settle for a knife. We also were abe to round up our xast and this was mainyly down to Marian as she was able to recruit the cast memebers and get notes and pictures of them. We also looked ovr our blog and made changes, not very big ones just some that made the layout f th blog look more nicer to look at.

Theories (Faraz Maqbool)

Mcquails Uses and Gratification Theory
This theory is used as a way or means to understanding mass communication. This theory puts more emphasis on the audience rather tha the actual media product itself. It does this by exploring what people do with the media products they view rather than what media products do to people. It suggests that people choose to view and use media products to meet their own needs. Mcquails theory assumes that the audience are not passive but do take an interest in what they want to watch and make their own decisions regarding what they want to watch.

An example of this is that a person may feel more comfortable and confident to talk to others when they have facts or stories from a certain media product. This in turn will lead them to want to view the media product because they want to and so this is their own choice.

Vance Packards Hypodermic Needle Theory
This theory is actually quite straight forward and easy to understand. It states that the audience of a media product will clearly know the intended meaning of it and that they will accept this intended meaning completely. This theory however is actually very old going back to the 1930s and 1940s and is considered as being obsolete today. However it was quite popular when it was first introduced and the evidence for it was the war and the propaganda and how everyone easily and openly believed what they were told about the war by the media through Radios and TV's. It was not heavily questioned and people just swallowed, however things are different today and people choose what they want to watch and what they want to believe and even then we now know that media has a selective influence on different individuals.

Narrative Codes and Theory of Media
Roland Barthes was a French literary theorist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. he was able to create a theory which stated that in every story there were five major Narrative codes which are all connected together and that these codes once brought together created meaning. We have only so far learnt of two of the codes both of which are shown below.

1. Hermeneutic Code (The Voice of Truth)
The hermeneutic code is associated with enigmas of the text. So to reveal the truth you would first have to be able to solve the enigmas.

- Thematisation. What in the narrative is an enigma?

- Positioning. Additional confirmations of the enigma.

- Formulation of the enigma.

- Promise of an answer of the enigma.

- Fraud. Circumvention of the true answer.

- Equivocation. Mixture of fraud and truth.

- Blocking. The enigma cannot be solved.

- Suspended answer. Stopping the answering after having begun.

- Partial answer. Some facets of the truth are revealed.

-Disclosure of the truth.

Because the hermeneutic code involves a move from a question to an answer it is one of the two codes (the other being the proairetic or action code) which Barthes calls “irreversible”. Once a secret is revealed, it cannot be unrevealed—the moment of cognition is permanent for the reader. TV Shows like "Lost" use the Hermeneutic Code very clearly.


Proairetic Code (The Voice of Empirics)
A Proairetic Code is a plot action that does not directly raise particular questions -- it is simply an action that is caused by a previous event and which leads to other events. It is not inherently mysterious. An example would be like a person walking down the street or a tile falls off the roof of a building.

Where the proairetic code creates tension in a story is in the anticipation it causes with regard to what might happen next. When we read stories we may try to read the mind of the author and hence wonder why what is happening as it is. This effect can be used by the author to lead the reader astray and hence create further tension.

Prop Notes (Marian Hassan)

PLASTIC KNIFE: Used by Faraz (Edward Wolfe) to kill his victims. It was given to Faraz by the drama department and as soon as we were finished with it we had to return it.









CAR: Driven by Akelah who owns the car. It was used to hit Edward Wolfe in order for him to fall to the ground.



PLAIN WHITE HOCKEY MASK: Worn by Faraz to induce fear and intimidation. it also resembles the mask of Freddie in Freddie vs Jason and that is the killer kind of loof we were going for.


BLUE OVERALLS: Worn by Faraz because it fit in with the appearance of our antagonist. Overalls also convey that the person wearing them is planning to get dirty and Edward Wolfe was planning to get bloody.

Cast Notes (Marian Hassan)

CHARACTER: Faraz Maqbool - Antagonist
AGE: 20
ROLE: Plays the role of Edward Wolfe the bullied teenage studnet who finally has enough of being a victim and seeks revenge against his enemies in a violent gruesome way.
RESONS FOR WHY THEY WERE GIVEN THIS ROLE: As a group we decided that Faraz suited this role perfectly because he is tall and quite wide built, he also has an intimidating stature. It took us quite some time to come to this decision seeing as Gareth Hawkes was eager to play this role, but we believe that in most common thrillers/ horrors e.g 'Freddie vs Jason' the antagonist is usually bigger than the protagonist and looks like they will defeat the victims easily.
We also thought that because Gareth is shorter than the other cast members it would look very humourous to see him chasing them around with a knife, and we would prefer it to be believable.



CHARACTER: Taiwo Giwa - Protagonist
AGE: 19
ROLE: Plays the role of Toby a student who continuously terrorised Alex and made him feel excluded, he was once the antagonist towards Alex until Alex flipped the script and Toby suddenly becomes the protagonist.
REASONS FOR WHY THEY WERE GIVEN THIS ROLE: We decided to give Taiwo this role because he is quite built so he could have intimidated Alex (Faraz) in the past, but at the same time he is not bigger than him because we want our antagonist to appear the most threatening. He also attends Havering College so we can easily reach him.



CHARACTER: Prisca Vungbo - Protagonist
AGE: 17
ROLE: Plays the role of Carla another student who was cruel to Alex because he was different but now realises the tables have turnded. She also runs with Toby to escape Alex's revenge.
REASONS FOR WHY THEY WERE GIVEN THIS ROLE: We gave her this role because we needed a female who looks quite cheeky and loud mouthed to portray a female who can actually bully a bigger male, and Prisca suited this role perfectly seeing as that is her personality, outspoken and quite confrontational. She also attends Havering College so it was no problem for her to act for us anytime.



CHARACTER: Gareth Hawkes - Protagonist
AGE: 17
ROLE: Plays the role of Derek another bully who was unfortunately caught first and brutally stabbed to death by Alex.
REASONS FOR WHY THEY WERE GIVEN THIS ROLE: We chose Gareth for this role because he is physically the smallest of all our cast, we also thought that him dying goes against the stereotype that 'the black guy always dies first' because he is white.





CHARACTER: Iffrah Sessay - Protagonist
AGE: 17
ROLE: Plays the role of a student who is sitting by the computer quietly doing her work and all of a sudden Edward Wolfe comes from nowhere and slices her neck with a knife; she dies instantly.
RESONS FOR WHY THEY WERE GIVEN THIS ROLE: Sh was available at the time we needed her and sh had no problem woth acting as long as her face was not seen and she did not have to say anything.




CHARACTER: Akelah Wallace - Car Driver
AGE: 18
ROLE: Drives her car out of the car park and accidentally hits Edward Wolfe down to the ground.
REASONS FOR WHY THEY WERE GIVEN THIS ROLE: We gave her this role because she is a licensed good driver who attends Havering College and is able to control the car well.