Wednesday, 17 March 2010
Pitch and Treatment
Pitch:-
When a young and neglected Amy is taken, her parents go on a mission to find her, only to find themselves in a twisted game of neglect and perversity leading to the shocking truth of her daughter’s whereabouts. Will the Toymaker win more importantly will the parents lose?Treatment:-Amy, a pretty young girl neglected by her hardworking parents, has a daily routine. When her parents leave for work every morning she would make her breakfast and feed the cat down the street. Lonely and isolated she is easy prey for a deranged Toymaker.After he takes her and leaves an “Amy-like” doll in her place, her parents, race against time to find their lost daughter and to win the game of the Toymaker. The Toymaker leaves a clue on the back of the doll left in Amy’s place that leads the parents to more doll’s and shocking revelations about their daughter’s location. When her parents find the last clue it chillingly reads “I Win”.After conceding to the belief that Amy is gone forever her parents realise that they didn’t do the best by her, they leave to live with family in Scotland to grieve for their daughter. Some time later they see a news report of a series missing girls from their home town generating the need for them to help the other parents and hopefully get closure about their daughter.The mother, soon returns to her hometown and is haunted by uncanny doll of her daughter in an abandoned toy shop window. Curious, she breaks into the shop, only to discover dozens of these life-size dolls hanging on the old shelves. When she goes to get a better look at the replica of her daughter, she notices the exact beauty spot, which Amy had on her cheek. Stunned and scared she alerts the police, and they discover the sick truth behind the disappearance of Amy in the Toymakers deadly playpen.
- White British male
- Only child
- Mind of a child
- Psychologically affected in childhood as father died and mother neglected him. She only gave him one doll each year on his birthday, to keep him company.
- Rarely interacted with others
- Grew bored of dolls as he could never have a conversation with them
- Became obsessed with finding something better and 'doll-like', and found that little girls were perfect. But they soon, wanted to go home but he wanted them to stay so he would kill and turn them into dolls with hot wax- much like Bo and Vincent in House of Wax (2005) who turn people into waxworks to make their figures more realistic-
Occupation- Toymaker, he owns a rundown toyshop in which he stores and hangs his dolls in. - Our opening sequence shows his workstation which would be situated within the toyshop.
Feedback - Silent Play
- The shots look confusing
- The music doesn’t flow in exact time with some of the shots
- A sound bridge is needed at the very beginning to split up your production name and the start of the actual opening
- Each shot needs to be cleaned up so it all runs nicely together
FEEDBACK – After the final changes
- It works better when it’s simplistic
- All you need is a title and then it will be perfect
- The house looks really good down the street you chose as it stands out from the others
- Really detailed shots made the whole thing look like it wasn’t even shot in this school
Evaluation - Question Seven
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Preliminary Brief:
Film and edit a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character. A couple of lines of dialogue must then exchanged between characters & match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule should be demonstrated.
Main Task:
The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes (all video and audio material must be original, produced by candidates, with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source)
I feel that since making the transition from my Preliminary task to my main task my skills and techniques have developed and progressed highly.
Brief
The preliminary brief and overall task was kept very simple as we all knew what we had to do and how to execute it. We only had a limited amount of camera training but this task was well withing our range. Focusing on the continuity and camera techniques such as shot reverse shot and 180 degree rule, was the main goal and was of importance.
The main task brief seemed much more detailed to me as i knew that it was going to be a lot more work and effort. Not only was the media product going to be longer, but there were going to be more camera angles, techniques and i had to take part in a camera masterclass. However, i was much more excited to do this task than the prelim task as it was a fresh start and as a group we all knew that we wanted this to be more professional and to have a higher production value than our prelim task, which felt like a practice run to prepare us for this.
PRE- PRODUCTION
Once we understood the brief , we then had to move straight into our pre-production process. We had to run through this stage fairly quickly during preliminary task due to the limi

A storyboard
Shooting schedule
Dialogue script for our final idea.
But for the main task we also had to create:
Additional redrafted storyboards
Photo storyboards
Props lists
Casts lists
Prepare rehearsal dates
These tasks proved very helpful before production. The storyboards were made so that each member of the group were on the same page and understood the same concept of the task. In this case it was just me and my partner Edward. The shooting schedules enabled us to keep on track and time of our shots. In the main task this was vital as we had to book the tracks for one of our shots and we only had until 5pm to finish filming. I was glad that i got to use the track as it was something new that i had learnt as i we didn't use them in our prelim task. The location Reece's were vital as without knowing exactly where you were going shoot, you wouldn't have a location.For the prelim task, this wasn't as important and we just needed any classroom for our film. However, a lot more thought went into our main task location Reece as for both scenes lighting was extremely important. (Green light in workshop and natural lighting outside house) Overall, the planning for the preliminary task was useful as our main group were fully prepared for any mistakes and complications which saved us more time and we were therefore organised
PRODUCTION
At the production stage of the preliminary task we could not have a test shoot or reshoot due to shortage of time. This meant we just had to shoot the final piece, allow no space for big mistakes and really think each shot

The process of running a shoot used during our preliminary task was not as efficient as the main task as both Edward and i were not familiar with the equipment or the him with the continuity sheets.Edward, kept filling out every single box or each shot instead of using "ditto marks", which was time consuming Before we shot each individual shot, the director would say “sound ready, camera ready” and then name the take and then say “action.” We carried this method into the production when filming our opening sequence to a film. It meant we could check everything was ready before we shot and when we came to editing, we would be aware of what take and shot it was
From the progression from my preliminary task to the full product I have learnt in this stage that:
Time management is extremely important for organisation and efficiency within the group, and to get
Having a shooting schedule helps you keep on track with your shots.
Making sure that you always have more shots than you need to use. that when editing you have a range of shots
I must ALWAYS look at the view finder whilst recording as it is important to have the right focus in the correct composition of the frame. Also, you always want the right amount of space around the persons head.POST-PRODUCTIONIn the preliminary task we had to keep the film very simple and short. The storyline was basic as the main aim was to make it flow and too keep the continuity. The editing process made this possible through our basic knowledge of digitising,assemble edits,copy and pasting.razoring and re-ordering.From my previous editing experience i felt that the progression was great and a lot less time consuming as i knew what i was doing when it came to the basics such as digitising which only took 1 hour for the 50+ takes that we had. However, this larger number of shots, did require additional technique's and more transitions had to be used. Also, continuity wasn't the only thing that we had to think about as, making sure that the each shot flows well into the next, sound bridges,soundtracks.FEEDBACK & EVALUATIONThis was the final stage of both projects and both were vital in helping me realise my progress from the preliminary task to the main. Receiving feedback throughout the whole project is really important to keep improving it and finding out if it attracts the audience particularly in the main task.However, for the preliminary task, we didn't have to consider the target audience or any character profiles as it was constructed for media students’ learning experience to see how we handle our first media production. Therefore it taught me the technical side and meant I could take into account factors that went wrong in the preliminary task for the real full product. These factors included the focus of the camera changing and changing the microphone input.Overall, i learnt over the two projects that working with different people is always a good thing as you get the chance to work with people who have another perspective and differences can sometimes build up the group dynamics making a great final product. :)
Evaluation - Question Six
From the process of constructing this film opening sequence I have learnt a lot about specific technologies.Setting up the camera once on location, before any shooting began, i had to perform an equipment check which included:
- Camera bag
- Battery (portable and charge pack)
- Tripod (and bag)
- Tape
- Clapperboard
- Chalk
- Lens cap
To set up my equipment i had to follow certain steps to make sure everything was safe and secure:

Unzip the camera case and unclip the strap that is holding down the camera. Holding the camera firmly by the handle i removed the lens cap and tested the shoehorn which was secure. However, in the event that the shoehorn was loose, i could easily just tighten it with a 10 or 2 pence piece. When the camera was slid onto the tripod, i locked it in from the side and tested that it was firmly safe by shaking it softly from the handle. It was. :)
I then checked the spirit level, depending on the make of the tripod the spirit level handle differs, but I had the Libec which i find to be all-round easier. The handle is just under the head or the tripod, and once the camera was in place I watched the spirit level and manoeuvred the head to the bubble sat within the middle circle, making the camera level.
Now straight, I took out the portable battery and placed it in the battery space at the backend of the camera. I put the tape in and then released the viewfinder and turned on the camera to [A] which is the best setting as it auto-focuses the camera for me without adjusting the rings.
Matt then had to proceed with his sound checks and make sure that the LDR lead was in the correct socket and that the camera was on the correct setting so the sound was being picked up from the Boom and not the microphone built into the camera. I did this by going in to Menu>setup>sound and turned LDR switch ON.
Once Matt reassured me that the Boom was working we were ready to shoot.
Production
Shooting in this new environment was highly appreciated by me as we were given a lot more time, which meant many more shots and use of camera. Working with Matt and Rachel was very useful even though i was the only camera operator, we had fresh eyes on each shot and we all came up with new and different shots. Shooting the same shots from different angles was one lesson that i learnt well during this task, as it gave a us a lot more rushes to use in post production. When analysing our opening sequence i realised that many of the shots were either the same action just filmed at a different angle or additional shots that we thought would work well, and they made it sucessful. PROBLEMS Fortunately there were not many problems whilst filming and we were extremely and surprisingly organised. The first problem we encountered was that Daniel , was unable to arrive on set until 10am due to his unexpected working hours, so that held us up buy 2 hours. However, since he started work at 4am and it was now 10am, he was hungry, so once everything was ready we arranged to get him something to eat and started at 11am. The second problem we faced was the Boom mic wasn’t working and suddenly stopped so, we had to use the built in mic. Luckily we didn’t have any dialogue to this was not a disaster! Thirdly, because the dolls button and the label had to be sewed this once again took up about 45 minutes of shooting time. However, we managed to pull through, get loads of additional shots along with the ones we wanted and we finished on time :)
Editing

When filming was over we then had to digitise our rushes take by take. We did this by attaching our camera (with tape inside) to the hardrive using a firewire lead which linked into the back of the hardrive and camera. Attaching the 80GB LaCie drive was a similar process, but it just plugs into the USB port on the front of the hard drive., this acts as a usb and saves our work each time we edit something, so we have to repeat the LaCie process every time we logged on.
Once logged on and Abobe Premiere Pro was open we then opened a new file entitled Phantom Films , our production company, and this is what our film was saved under.
To digitise i hit [F5] and the digitising screen came up. I pressed the record button and played the rushes, recording and saving then take by take giving each on a new name so i knew which was which.
Once all rushes had been digitises, we started our assemble edit, in which we just placed each shot on the timeline in order from beginning to end.
Assemble edit over, it was now time to edit, cut and add effects titles and our soundtrack to our film.
The soundtrack was the very last thing to be added to our film as Matt had to record it according to the length of our film using Cubase software, and even though it was too short, using cut, paste and the razor tool we were able to make it fit the film.
Abobe Photoshop CS was also used to create the missing poster at the end of the opening sequence.
The effects that’s we had previously planned to use in our film was one that we had seen form a previous A Level Media product , however it was harder than we had anticipated as it began to look like our film was messy and full of mistakes. So we scraped it and changed our opening sequence from fast and jaggered like Se7en to slow and detailed much like Dexter. During editing i was pleased to get the chance to use more technique within the software than previously. One technique was the speed and duration change, which i used on the sewing machine shot. Slowing the shot right down to 68% gave the effect of slow piercing rather than the usual quick jab, i found to be very effective as it seemed less violent and suited the tone of the overall sequence and the Toymaker's character. The other technique was creating a nd adding titles to the film. I found this particularly harder than other elements of the software and Matt had to show me how to start it off. However, once i played around with it i was able to change the font, colours,size,opacity and shadow of the fonts and i was even about t help out other groups with their titles .
In hindsight i have learnt?
I am much more familiar and comfortable with my equiptment and the Adobe Premiere Pro editing software, therefore when it comes to future tasks, i will have saved more time as i will know what i am doing and can get straight to work.
I have to prepare for anything to go wrong, as even though we thought we were organised, Daniel turning up later lost us time and we managed to work around it.
I should always stick to the tasks that i work best at as it helps the group dynamics more as what i am not good at someone else maybe good at it.
Always put your ideas forward as other group members may be able to develop it into a better one.
After thoroughly enjoying this experience i have now realised that i definitely want to get into the film industry whether it be through filmmaking or acting. :)
Evaluation - Question Five

Evaluation – Question Five
How did you attract/address your audience?
Once we were put into our group, Matt, Rachel and I had immediately decided to create a opening sequence in the horror/thriller genre. We had chosen this genre due to watching previous year groups opening sequences and seeing that this genre was the most successful in creating emotion, particularly fear and discomfort, which is what we wanted. Focusing on this particular genre, we had to have in mind the typical conventions of the genre that we had to include in our film. One convention that we decided on was a kidnapping, this is a popular element used with this genre and since we had researched the fairytales Little Red Riding Hood and Changeling it seemed appropriate.Having a male and psychotic villain was another element that we wanted to include. I told the group about the Ed Gein character, who's mother was the cause for his mental state, and how the Texas Chainsaw Massacre focused on and the film was very successful, so he became an influential character for The Toymaker. Having a build up and keeping the audience in suspense throughout the film was a priority for us as a good psychological thriller always leaves you on the edge of your seat. These are vital elements that our audience would expect to see from this genre, so we continued and our ideas developed and grew to reach the expectations.
Analysing our opening sequence it included the expectations of a psychological thriller. Starting with the camera work, we used extreme close ups throughout too keep the suspension up as revealing the Toymakers face would kill the tension and mystery of the film. We only ever, showed his mouth, fingers and clothing, with the exception of the external scenes where a long body shot was shown yet you could still only see the back of the Toymakers head keeping his identity and the tension intact. These shots were very effective as within the workshop scenes, we attracted our audience as they would constantly be thinking, who, what, and why he was there and in this particular place. From researching the psychological thriller genre we noticed that not only did the audience appreciate the mystery and twists of the films, but they also expect and want to see some gore and disturbing scene/shots. The panning shot of the workstation is does this lightly, as it covers the glass of wine, the needles and the tape measure, highlighting a possible drink problem, the dangerous mind of this man and the hint of limited time is shown. But if you notice a the majority of the shots are ECU which created disturbing effect, particularly the shot of the needle going into the eye of the doll, as the audience, much like my teacher, would squirm at the thought of a needle going into their actual eye. These disturbing shots are effective and would attract our audience as it is the gore and shi

The soundtrack to our film was a vital convention to our genre, as I ALWAYS say that creepy music will set the tone of your film, and too me creepy means a lullaby! Lullabies, fairground sounds and a simple piano tune were famously used in these movies, which create a awesome and chilling effect on the audience:
Rosemary's Baby
The Candyman
Halloween
Childs Play
Chucky
Coraline
Pans Labyrinth
The props on set played a large role in the composition of the worksh



I, like many others often like happy endings to films, however, in most psychological thrillers this isn't the c

Overall, our film has successfully addressed and attracted our target audience as it has Incorporated a balance of typical codes and conventions of psychological thrillers, whilst adding our own and developing additional twist to previously used elements to appeal and grip our audience.
Evaluation - Question Four

*The Hills Run Red-this film in particular has the soundtrack that we originally wanted for our film.

Evaulation - Question Three
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Our film is low budget student film and due to it being independent and not well known it is unlikely to be shown in large chain cinemas such as The Odeon, Vue and Cineworld. Unlike big blockbuster movie our film didn't cast Hollywood actors so it will not be distributed like a big blockbuster movie. Therefore, if it were to be distributed it would have to be done on a lower scale with particular distributors that cater for low budget independent student films.
Today major studios and independent production companies compete for screens in theatre, which is a positive thing as it allows other filmmakers like us to get the chance for new films and talent to be exhibited. The film distributor plays a massive and important role in the film industry. The sole purpose of the distributor is to convince the exhibitor like The Odeon to 'rent' or screen your film. Using several marketing techniques, the distributor makes the exhibitor believe they will profit financially by showing the film. Once a contract is signed the film is shipped and advertised globally through digital distribution as well as posters, newspaper and magazine advertisements, television commercials, trailers, and other types of ads whils


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Tuesday, 16 March 2010
Evaluation - Question Two
How does your opening sequence represent particular social groups?
Our opening sequence only has and focus' on one main character, which is the Toymaker, however, our whole story includes the primary characters of Amy's mother and father. Therefore, we had to represent their social roles of psychologically effected males, being an only child, over-worked parents and neglected children.

With the exception of Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes in Stephen Kings, Misery (1990), the focal villainous characters of - Psychological - thrillers is commonly males. But in this case Annie Wilkes was an obsessed fan, who kidnapped and held hostage Paul Sheldon when she didn't get the ending of Misery that she wanted. This is similar to our Toymaker character:
• White British male
• Only child
• Mind of a child
• Psychologically affected in childhood as father died and mother neglected him. She only gave him one doll each year on his birthday, to keep him company. We reflected this in our opening sequence by keeping the Toymaker alone and never showing his full face as he was shown love by his mother.• Rarely interacted with others

• Grew bored of dolls as he could never have a conversation with them
• Became obsessed with finding something better and 'doll-like', and found that little girls were perfect. But they soon, wanted to go home but he wanted them to stay so he would kill and turn them into dolls with hot wax- much like Bo and Vincent in House of Wax (2005) who turn people into waxworks to make their figures more realistic-
• Occupation- Toymaker, he owns a rundown toyshop in which he stores and hangs his dolls in. Our opening sequence shows his workstation which would be situated within the toyshop.


Our Toymaker's persona is fuelled by his neglectful childhood, and doesn't want that to happen to other children. Therefore in his twisted mind he sees kidnapping and turning little girls into dolls as punishment for the neglectful parents. Whether or not they win his game, they are taught a lesson on how to treat their children with love and attention. An influential character for The Toymaker is Jigsaw from the Saw (2004-present) sagas. Jigsaw uses a series of torturous games, which his kidnapped victims have to play in order to survive; like the Toymaker leaving notes for the parents for save their children. Jigsaw does this to teach his victims to appreciate their lives and to not take them for granted.
In our opening sequence, although The Toymakers character is age 47-50, we used Rachel's brother Daniel O'Connell who is 21 to portray him. However, through the elements of mise en scene, we were able to mask the age gap successfully.
- The costume was very important in representing the character, as from childhood, he rarely interacted with others and wanted to be very inconspicuous. He therefore wore all black as in long coat and black jogging bottoms, yet had white trainers on as he still craved some attention that he never received when a child.
-Before shooting, as a part of makeup, we also dirtied up Daniel's hands as we felt that it would add to the Toymaker's creepiness. We also wanted to give the audience the chill that we felt when we watched the opening sequence to Se7en (1995) which was the primary influence for our opening sequence, due to the clever camera angles, movements, effects and the actual character within the frame.
- The body language and movement of the Toymaker was very precise and intricate, this is presented particularly when he is threading the needle and handling his beloved Amy doll. This is effective as his slow hand gestures, present to the audience the love and care that he wishes to show Amy. When outside of 'Amy's house', towards the end of the opening sequence, you will notice that the Toymaker, walks very awkwardly and not in straight lines, this is to emphasise the fact that he has a twisted mind and doesn't even realise that what he is doing, as in the way he is walking and the kidnappings, are wrong.
- The setting of our opening sequence was shown to be a basement workshop; within the Toymakers shop. We achieved this by putting up black cloth covered boards, a table, chair, table lamp, and sewing equipment. However to get the eerie atmosphere we had to attach images of innocent little girls to the back slats to effectively show his obsession with girls we also put up images of the doll to put across to the audience the instability of his mind. We scratched and tea stained the table to make it seem old, and suggest that he had been making dolls for a long time, We also scattered the sewing equipment like buttons and needles across the table to show how cluttered his mind is that he doesn't know right from wrong.
-The lighting was very simple and dim throughout the opening sequence, particularly in the workshop scenes, a deep yellow light was used to keep with the eerie atmosphere of the film as we felt it made it look dirtier, whereas the red light made the workshop seem demonic which was not the look we were going for. However, the red light within the red room shots were highly effective we felt as it gave the audience a change of scenery, but as it came up in quick flashes it created a sense of discomfort.
-Throughout our sequence the toymaker never had any human interaction as it was only him and the doll, this represented his character well as it emphasised his sick and childlike mentality. The use of extreme close up and slow stroke we felt were great as they portrayed to the audience his obsession and unnatural love for dolls and children, much like Robin Williams' character Seymour "Sy" Parrish in One Hour Photo(2002) who is obsessed with the Yorkin family. Similarly, Seymour "Sy" Parrish makes collages of the family much like our Toymaker with the innocent little girls.

To conclude the representation of The Toymakers social role was shown successfully and suited the psychological thriller, through the mise en scene elements that we used and the way he lived and the things he did were very similar to other villains that I have mentioned.
Prelim Task - Prop List
Paint
Table
Chair
Colouring pens
Paper
Palet
Silent Play - Cast List
Silent Play - Prop List
4 back-slats
Old table top
Desk lamp
Buttons (box)
Scissors
Images of children
Bottle of Red wine
Wine glass
Black marker
Sewing machine
Rag doll
Randsom note
Sewing needle
Thread (red)
Silent Play Script
Scene 1) Int: Toy Makers Workshop
A scratched desk cluttered with photos of young girls, cotton and needles. A single lamp is the only light seen.
In the background a slow eerie “lullaby” can be heard
Toy Maker
(Scratches hands across table slowly, his hands are dirty and cracked)
A sewing needle and cotton are directly in front of the toy maker
(the toy maker pulls the needle through his fingers and twiddles it around he puts the needle down and reaches out and grabs the cotton unrolls it and slowly licks the end of the string and puts the it through the eye of the needle, when the needle is threaded he grabs a button and & the doll and starts to sew the button as an eye)
The Finished Doll Sits upright on the desk
The Toy maker grabs a sheet of paper and a butchers pencil; slowly he starts to write “Where am I?”
He attaches the note to the doll and starts to play with the doll’s hair.
(The toy maker starts scratching/colouring over the eyes/mouth of a picture of a girl)
Scene 2) Ext: Amy’s House an ordinary house in the middle of the street, the street is littered with rubbish and leaves are blowing.
The Toymaker places the finished doll on the doorstep
The doll is holding the tag with the words “where am I?” placed on its coat.