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7 Evaluation Questions

Question 1:  In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? My Horror film exploits the use of sound to build up tension throughout the film. It uses little details to let the viewers in on the story without shoving exposition in their face, unlike a number of horror films. It also subverts the trope of a victim being lured to a location by having the killer lock the student in a location that they go to frequently regardless. Question 2:  How does your media product represent particular social groups? Hide and Seek does very little to represent any social group. The only person who might be a part of a typical social group (male student) is shown to be mild, withdrawn, and quiet, but there is generally very little to go over, especially considering the lack of dialogue. Question 3:  What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? I believe that Warner Brothers is the ideal company for t

Finished Film Evaluation

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Link to Horror Film: Hide and Seek Hide and Seek is the name of my variation of a horror film I (Alex Harris) worked on with Alex McNally. It's a short film of sorts, but it serves as a trailer or prologue of a larger story. That larger story is that a detective landed a killer in prison prior to the events of the movie. The killer (Alex Harris) escapes by the time the film starts and is now hunting the detective's son (Alex McNally) and the detective has to save his son from the killer. While not stated outright, the backstory is hinted at during the short film. Specifically, with the whiteboard in the killers hideout.  For instance, the left side of the whiteboard shows a picture of the detective (Alex McNally with a hat and fake moustache) a line between the detective and the half picture of the son, (meaning that there's a link between the two characters) and a school (the sons location) the killer wrote "bad" next to the picture of the detective, meanin

Behind the scenes: Editing

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For the Horror film: Hide and Seek,  Editing was req[uired to turn the raw footage into something relatively filmworthy. Here, I'll go over what editing was used in the films production. Keep in mind that most of the editing was sound-based, or simply cutting scenes out. 1: First of all, in this shot here, the screen fades from the Alexander Films logo into the first scene where McNally picks up the newspaper. The fade and the school bell sound that occurs before the fade-transition both had to be edited in post-filming. 2: Next, we have our first scene of the outdoors. While this screenshot does not show it, the sound of a knife scraping can be heard during this scene, as foreshadowing of future events. The same applies here. 3: In the above scene, the knife sharpening can be heard again as well as some creepy music, increasing build-up. This continues with cuts to the student walking through the halls and cuts back with the music getting louder, until the camera

The Finished Film: Hide and Seek

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This is my finished horror film: Hide and Seek. It was a collaboration between Alex McNally and I. This is my variation of the footage. (Direct link if the video doesn't work) Alex Harris 29/03/2017

Company logo

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This is the logo for the company that produced the film. Since both of the people behind the founding of the company are named Alex, (Alex Harris and Alex McNally) This was the obvious choice.

Behind the scenes: Filming

Here is a look behind the scenes of the creation of the horror film: Starting off, I teamed up with Alex McNally to make the horror film, and we brainstormed ideas for the horror film. Eventually, we came up with the idea of the masked killer who's hunting the son of the detective that caught him. We then made a script (w/o dialogue) and separate storyboards showing our respective visions for the film. (The storyboard and script are on different blog posts.) We then made a shooting schedule (also on a blog post) First shooting: For the first filming session, we filmed at the 6th form block after school (more details on the film schedule) I bought the video camera for the filming, and McNally bought the props (the newspaper and costume) We filmed multiple takes of him doing various actions in the room. While McNally had doubts on weather we had enough footage, I am confident that we have all the footage of the student character that we need. We did end up going back for more

Shooting Schedule

Here is the shooting schedule for filming the horror film: First Shooting: The Student Location: Knights Templar School, 6th form block corridor. Actors: Alex McNally. Cameraman: Alex Harris. Time: 2/12/2016 between 3:20 pm and 5:00 pm Props: Newspaper, bin. Costume: Standard student suit with scarf. Equipment: Video camera. The filming will place inside, so the natural lighting and weather will not matter much as long as it isn't too loud. This is where the student (McNally) picks up the newspaper, bins it, and can't exit the locked door. While we will be indoors, the low outside lighting may help with the story, as it tells the audience that the student was late leaving (or attempting to leave) the school. If the setting needs to be darker, then editing can make it so. The timing will also make sure that there will be few people around to accidentally interfere with the filming, as after school hours will be finished. Filming on a Friday will give us time d

The Horror film script

This is the script for the horror film. The horror film contains no dialogue, so this is more of a description of the actions and cuts in the film. The storyboard contains a more visual version of this "script". The Script: We cut to the inside of a building with our protagonist. A student. (Alex McNally) The student notices a newspaper on the ground and picks it up. He looks at the paper and the camera looks over his shoulder at the newspaper. There are no important details on the paper Cut to outside The camera pans right slowly, showing a nature scene Cut to student The student bins the newspaper Cut to outside The camera zooms into a window on a shed Cut to overhead shot of the bin The newspaper is showing the side the student didn't see. It shows details of a killer (Alex Harris) escaping prison. Cut to dark room The camera slowly pans right, showing a pinboard with some pictures of the student, a school, and vari

Horror film storyboard

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For the horror film collaboration between me and Alex McNally, We had to plan ahead. Part of our planning was a storyboard. Here is a storyboard of the film:  Clip 1: The student (Alex McNally) spots a newspaper on the floor and picks it up (the camera will be a medium shot from the students side) NEW SETTING: Inside school building  Clip 2: Cut to trees outside and pan right. NEW SETTING: Outside  Clip 3: Cut back to the student. Camera is pointed at the newspaper over his shoulder (no important details on the paper.)  Clip 4: Outside shot again. Camera pans slightly towards the shed and zooms into the window.  Clip 5: Cut back to the student. He bins the paper, and the camera cuts to a shot of the bin, showing headlines about a dangerous killer escaping prison.  Clip 6: Cut to inside the shed. The camera pans from the left of the screen to the right, capturing details on the pin board (which contains details on a murder plot) Afterwards, the camera will reach the m

Glossary of Camera Shots + Angles

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Here is a PowerPoint that I worked on with Alex McNally explaining various camera angles. Enjoy!

Horror Film Planning

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This is a powerpoint used for planning the horror film. I worked on this with Alex McNally.

Hot Fuzz Scene Analysis: Kill the Messenger

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Here is my analysis of the death of Tim Messenger in the film "Hot Fuzz". Here is the link to the video I used: v=BavTQmiA9mc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BavTQmiA9mc WARNING: This clip contains a high amounts of gore. This is Tim Messenger. He comes to Nickolas Angel (Simon Pegg) and tells him that he wants to talk about George Merchant: a character who died earlier in the film. The remains of his death were dismissed as an accident, but Nick suspects it to have been a murder. Tim's name referrers to his role as a messenger, and whatever message he was going to deliver (before his rude interruption at the end of the clip) would be useful for clearing up any doubt surrounding Georges death. He asks Nick to meet him at the church at 3. His hasty request and exit combined with his worried face hint that he fears that what he wants to tell Nick might put him in danger. The fact he wants to go to a place where no-one else is likely to be tells us that anyone other t