180 Degree Rule

180 Degree Rule

The rule states that the camera should remain the same side of an imaginary line. The line is drawn perpendicular to the camera's viewpoint in the establishing shot of the scene. The rule enforces continuity of the film. An example of this is in a car chase scene, if the car is travelling from right to left, the next shot must also be shot from the same side, meaning the car has to enter the frame right to left again. This same rule applies for football matches and other sports. 

The rule should never be broken. The only time it should be broken is for 'effect'. Breaking the rule will confuse the audience, especially in scenes of chase, conversation or sport. The camera must be placed on one side of the line and must not cross over the line. 

Crossing the line when filming over the shoulder shots shifts the persons eye-line, meaning that the actors' eye-line do not match. The two people in the conversation must be on the same side of frame in each shot reverse shot. Crossing the line makes it look like the actor is looking in the opposite direction. 

Results of breaking the rule:

• Confusion of audience
• Miss vital parts of the film 
• Audience lose focus 
• Become disorientated 

Ways around the rule:

The only way to cross the line without disorientating the audience is to show the movement of the camera. You cannot cut across the line otherwise the viewer will not be orientated. Once the line has been crossed, and the movement shown, you have to stay on that side of the line, unless you show the movement back over it.  

Many horror and thriller films break the 180 degree rule to make the film feel disorientated and cause the audience to feel unsettled. This adds to the genre of the film and keeps the audience more engaged.

Description of our Target Audience

Description of our Target Audience

Age: 15+

Gender: Male/Female

Social Demographic: Working Class/Middle Class

Occupation: Students/University students/Retail

Hobbies and Interests: The general teenage target audience may enjoy socialising, going out with friends regularly and visiting various shops for food and clothes. They may typically enjoy watching movies of the thriller/horror genre as they may enjoy the thrill of getting scared. The students may be dedicated to their education and work hard to achieve their full potential at whichever from of education they are studying in. Other interests may include going to mainstream/popular events such as concerts. They may often keep up to date with new trends in fashion and technology, often buying the newest products that are released.

Style: People of both genders may like to follow trends and fashion in order to fit in with other people of their age group. The may also care about their appearance and often buy products in order to make themselves feel better. Though there are a mixed people from various social demographic backgrounds, most of the viewers may be influenced by style and want to consider that they can keep up with trends.  

Personality: The typical audience type may like to socialise with their friends and have a good sense of humour, but can also be serious when necessary. Some other people who fit within the target audience may be outgoing, bubbly and friendly, but often influenced by the opinions of others and base their decisions on what they say.  The general personality of the target audience may all have the common liking for the film of our chosen genre, thriller, and their various personalities allow them to view different situations through varied perspectives.

Media Grouping: The favourite films for this target audience may be those which make them jump and feel anxious about their surroundings. The scenes may give an adrenaline rush to the audience due to heightened tension, a common convention of films of the thriller/horror genre. Though the audience may enjoy watching these films, they may also enjoy watching mainstream television such as soaps (Eastenders) and entertainment (X-Factor).

Audience Theory: The Uses and Gratifications theory is an approach to understand why people seek out various media content for different purposes. This audience theory can enable our group to target the audience specifically to suit their ‘entertainment’ needs. The ‘Personal Identity’ aspect of the theory may also be fulfilled as the audience are able to find models of behaviour. Blumler & Katz theory suggests that a text must ‘gratify an audience’s needs’. These can be achieved through:

•      Information: Satisfying curiosity and general interest, for self-education which they could gain a sense of security through knowledge.
•      Entertainment: To escape, or be diverted from problems, to get emotional release or just general enjoyment.
•      Education: To gain a better understanding into situations and realising the bigger picture.
•      Social Interaction: Gaining an insight into circumstances of others, to gain a sense of their own belonging, to find a basis for conversation, while having a substitute for real-life companionship.
•      Personal Identity: To look at different models of behaviour, this would enable them to gain an insight into themselves, But also to find reinforcement for personal values.

It is essential for our group to target a specific audience for our opening sequence as it enables us to make a convincing film of the chosen genre. The audience will gain information on specific characters within the film, however, narrative enigma may be used in order to make the audience question why certain things happen, creating a sense of tension and suspense. These techniques can all be used to incise the audience and make them engaged with the opening sequence of the film.  

Group Film Idea

Group Film Idea

Film Title: The Vault 

The vault is another word for cellar and as the majority of the film is based in the cellar our group thought it would be effective if the title connected to the main theme of the film. 

Genre: Psychological thriller

Psychological thriller is a thriller story, which emphasises the psychology of its characters and their unstable emotional states. In terms of classification, the category is a subgenera of the broader ranging thriller category, with similarities to detective fiction in the sense of sometimes having a "dissolving sense of reality", moral ambiguity, and complex and tortured relationships between obsessive and pathological characters. Psychological thrillers often incorporate elements of and overlap with mystery, drama, action, and horror, particularly psychological thriller. Our group narrowed down the genre to a psychological thriller due to the fact that it is a mystery film as throughout the film the audience are trying to work out how and why the woman is down in the cellar. Our film also presents the unstable mentality of characters, through the use of editing, dialogue, mise en scene, body language and camera angles. 

Age Rating: 15

Our group classified our film as an age 15 rating. Within the film there will be frequent strong language and strong violence. This is not suitable for anyone under the age of 15 as it is inappropriate. Although, on the other hand, there will be minimal sexual activity due to the fact that our film is based on a bad relationship between a husband and wife and therefore neither will be encouraged to do so. An age 15 rating includes any of the following:

·         strong violence

·        frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***')

·         portrayals of sexual activity

·         strong verbal references to sex

·         sexual nudity

·         brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence

·         discriminatory language or behaviour

·         drug taking

Characters:

In our film there will be a relatively small number of characters so it gives the audience a chance to connect and engage with them. This will help to build a strong perception of what they are like. 

Megan Potter - (played by Freya Money) Megan is a sensitive, quiet, young woman (25 years old) who has a secretive, mysterious side to her personality that the audience is striving to see. Megan is very submissive and bows down to any man as she is too afraid of getting hurt. Megan was happily married but in the film is seen as the victim and being held hostage in a cellar by her own husband, this is because she cheated but the audience are yet to find that out until further on in the film. Our group chose the name 'Megan' as it is the most promiscuous name and we want their names to reflect who they are. Her job is a personal assistant; she met her husband through her job, again this reflects how she is submissive to men as her job is being told what to do by a man. She also met the man she cheated on through her job as well. 

James Potter - (played by Robbie Butt) James is a dominant, stereotypical male character who always has to be in control, especially of women. He is a middle aged man (36 years old). He has a strong personality, he is confident and very proud to be who he has become. This makes him turn to a psycho when he finds out that he wife has cheated on him. He feels emasculated and he believes by punishing his wife  he is gaining is masculinity back. James is the manager of a forensic investigation company and therefore is very knowledgeable in covering up crimes! He is the antagonist in the film - the main character as the film follows his unstable mindset and the consequences of it. 

Abigail Taylor - (played by Jess Granger) Abigail is a concerned older sister of Megan who is always thinking of others before herself. She is very naive and involved in journalism so is very interested into discovering new things and investigating. Throughout the film she tries to discover what has happened to her sister. She is the protagonist in the film as she is eventually the one to find and save her sister from the psycho, mental husband. It is a battle between the two of them. 

Location/Setting - 

The main location is the cellar and in the house where James and Megan live. Our group has chosen to use my house (Freya Money), as it is modern and fairly new, as that is what we want the representation to be of the couple. There are two options for the cellar, but are both very dark and mysterious to create the perfect atmosphere for the film. In which case we will carry out a locations recce to see which cellar is most suitable to work and film in. 

Storyline - 

The film will firstly be subjective filming throughout the opening sequence and the majority of the film as the story will be told through the husbands eyes. Used to enhance a sense of realism and audience involvement in the action. It is also being used to hide the identity of the husband to create tension and suspense within the audience.
A woman has recently gone missing who is in her late twenties. She has a husband and a very loving family who are all devastated about her death. The husband is first seen printing off missing posters and is then met by his sister in law to put them around the neighbourhood. The husband makes his way home. The atmosphere is quiet and empty. Extreme long shots of him to connote how alone and lonely he is. Husband makes dinner for himself but makes two plates of food. Is it just routine?... Habit? Is he just missing his wife dearly and accidently made her a plate a food thinking she is still there? Husband walks downstairs with the plates of food. Over the shoulder shot and POV shot of wife looking at a door. Everywhere looks dark. Door opens, the husband walks in. Harsh light pours through the door. Husband chucks plate of food and non-diegetic, mysterious, eerie music begins to play. Credits appear… Throughout the rest of the film, the sister of the missing woman tries to discover how her sister has gone missing. Digging down into unintentional clues left behind by the husband, she gets closer and closing to her goal of finding her. But as the tension rises so does the psychotic mentality of the husband. The sister finally gets into the cellar where her sister has been held hostage but the husband, James, catches her and locks them both up. But the sisters think of a plan to kill the husband the next time he comes in and they get away and are able to put the horrific experience behind them and move on with their lives without him.

Planned out by Freya, Jess, Robbie and Jack but written by Freya (me)

Evaluation of Preliminary Filming Task

Evaluation of Preliminary Filming Task

How filming went:
All in all the filming was good. We organised ourselves to complete the filming in a lesson as well as lunchtime and roughly 20 minutes of another lesson to finish the filming completely. We knew what we needed to film and set up all the resources beforehand, each of us was assigned a role and we stuck to these roles. 
How editing went:
Editing was the slightly more tricky part of the task however as it's only the prelim task we didn't have to include elements such as credits, title and sound. We managed to get the clips running in sequence and we cut bits out of the separate clips so that they would flow better. In addition, we played around with some of the editing transitions however we felt that including them didn't really represent the footage in the correct way; it wasn't needed but obviously this will be used in our actual opening sequences. Moreover, we got the editing done in pretty much one lesson so in terms of timing we were staying on top of what we needed to get done. 
Problems we encountered:
I personally find the editing process quite hard, possibly because I haven't used the 'Final Cut Express' software before so this is something I'll have to learn as I go along, however other members of my group have got to grips with the software so they were able to edit our prelim. Additionally, the setting in which we based our prelim was in a classroom which was a bit messy so it did not reflect the plot of our prelim but we were unable to find a better location in the time frame that we had.
Strengths of the prelim:
Our strengths were that we all worked together, nothing was left last minute and everyone had their own say it what was produced. We got on with the task quickly and efficiently by getting the props we needed and setting ourselves up accordingly- there were no arguments between the group on acting/editing/filming. 
Weaknesses of the prelim:
In terms of weaknesses I would suggest that we could of come up with a more challenging idea, however it is a prelim so we had a school environment with little resources. In addition to this the editing process could of been more complex, even though we didn't need to add sound etc. We could of done this anyway as practice for our actual sequences rather than just putting the clips together and leaving it as that. 
What we will remember to do the same next time:
Continue to plan exactly what we're going to do before we set out to do it and give everyone an individual role so we can do things efficiently. Also we should remember to keep our timing and get things done and out of the way. 
What we will remember to do differently:
Use the tripod so we can get better, more effective shots. Moreover, we should spend more time editing so that we can get the footage to look as best as it can. 

Preliminary Filming Task

Preliminary Filming Task

Before we can start producing our opening sequence, as part of our coursework it is compulsory that we complete a preliminary filming task to get a feel of what it will be like when we film our actual sequence and prepare us for the kind of things we have to do e.g. editing. By doing this we got a chance to use the cameras and the editing software as well as thinking about the props, lighting, camera shots and script which will all be helpful to us when producing our opening sequences as these elements will be included. Below is a video of our prelim filming task, it should include: a character walking, opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair, whilst in the chair he/she has a conversation of some kind with someone else where they both speak, correct use of 180 degree rule, shot/reverse shot editing, action match editing and no continuity errors. 

Shooting Schedule

Shooting Schedule

DAY/TIME	LOCATION	SHOT DESCRIPTION	PEOPLE NEEDED
Tuesday 8th December PM	Exterior - street/alleyway	Long shot of sister and husband in street	Jess, Robbie, all crew
	(2nd scene)	Close up of sister pinning up posters
Tuesday 15th December PM	Interior - Cellar	POV shot of wife looking at door	Freya, Robbie, all crew
	(4th scene)	Close ups of wife in chair of specific body parts
		Long shots of husband walking into cellar
		Medium shot of husband chucking food on floor
		Various extreme close up shots
		Shot of wall fading into title sequence
Monday 21st Decemeber PM	Interior - Kitchen	Medium shots of husband cooking	Robbie, all crew
	(3rd scene)	Close up of his hands
		Long shots/wide shots of him dishing up food
		Pan shot of husband walking around
		Titlted shot of him sitting down eating
	(1st scene)	Establishing shot of husband at desk	Robbie, Jess, all crew
		POV shot of him looking at screen/printer
		Head on shot looking at missing poster
		Subjective filiming of husband
		Tracking shot of husband walking to front door
		Head on shot of husband looking at sister
		Long/head on shot of husband walking out of door

Credit Sequences

Credit Sequences

An opening sequence  of a film will contain the credits, title and logos of film institutions so the audience are aware of who will be featuring in the film as well as gaining an idea of what the film is going to be like based on the title or the company that has helped made the film.

Insidious: Throughout the opening credit sequence of 'Insidious' the colour red is used for the writing. The colour red signifies danger, warning and violence; therefore reflecting the genre of the film (horror) and warning the audience about what is going to happen next. The font used is conventional for the horror genre as it is very basic but bold and in capitals. At the same time it also has some significance with a devil due to the 'horn' ltike points on some of the letters ('I', 'N', 'U'). This font style clearly conveys the the genre of the film. The title is much bolder than the other credits and is centred in the middle of the screen as it needs to be eye catching for the audience. The title takes up most of the screen and has a black background behind so the audience focus on the title rather than the background. Following this, the credits after the title appear in red and then duplicate. The duplication then turns into a different font which is wonky and has 'ghost' like appearance. This could be an indication for what is going to happen in the film: are ghosts going to haunt them? This font creates narrative enigma and immediately sets the atmosphere of the film. Once the font has changed the writing then turns into grey and dust. This also adds to the fact that it could represent a ghost. 

The background of the credit sequence has a montage of black and white images. These black and white images show numerous rooms in a house; this could also add to the narrative enigma created as it gets the audience asking whether this is the house that the storyline will be set in. The camera angles begin at eye level and straight but then change to a canted angle shot. This creates the feeling of disorientation and anxiety within the audience, which creates suspense and tension. As the credit sequences continue, there are slight changes to the still images. To add tension, the director has interpreted minuscule elements such as a black figure in the corner of the screen and footsteps on the floor to scare the audience. These small changes catch the audience out and gets them thinking.

The non-diegetic sound used in the credit sequences is very high pitched and makes your hair stand on end. The score of the music uses violins to create the high pitched, 'cringy' sound to make the audience feel uncomfortable. This tone of sound is very conventional of a horror film as it instantly builds up suspense as it makes the audience feel uncomfortable. When the title of the film appears on the screen the music reaches its crescendo, this is purposely done to grab the audiences attention. The music is very irregular and doesn't follow a pattern, it is continuously going up and down in pitch at speed. This signifies the disorientation of the film and the genre of the film. 

One of the film companies that contributed to make 'Insidious' was 'Haunted Movies'. The fact that the companies name has the word 'haunted' in it establishes that the genre of the film must be horror. 

In the opening sequences of some films, they change the institution logo so that it represents the genre, for example, Columbia Pictures made the statue of the woman grow long black hair and the colour of the screen changed to a greenish colour when they produced 'The Grudge 2'. In the credit sequence above, this hasn't been done. However it adds that extra feature to the film and sets the audience up for what they are watching before they've even been introduced to the characters or setting of the film. 

Se7en: The opening credits in 'Se7en' are very complex in terms of editing. Firstly, the font colour is white which could be used for many different film genres however this film is a thriller and thrillers usually entail crime and investigation. The colour white usually connotes innocence and simplicity but in this context it can be used to represnt the white writing on a chalk board; trying to figure out an investigation or could possibly convey the chalk outline you would see surrounding a dead body. Secondly, the font is almost quite childlike, it looks as if someone has hand wrote the credits which could signify the psychological state of mind of the character that appears in the opening sequence. This reinforces the thriller genre, investigating crime and finding explanations of why people do what they do. The filckering of the writing signifies the messy, disorentated mind of the characters. Similarly, two different fonts are used and have been layered (superimposed) in the editing process to represent fragmentation: like the characters mind. This character might have multiple personalities or some other kind of mental disability.

One of the film companies that helped made Se7en is New Line Cinema. This company have also made films such as The Conjuring, Nightmare on Elm Street, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday 13th therefore the audience can establish that this institution are known for several films of the horror/slasher/thriller genre thus they are aware of the significance of the company.

Overall, the way in which both films present their credits are very similar but have slight differences. Both use disturbing music to create tension, both use editing on the credits for different effects (Se7en - flickering, Insidious - duplication and 'ghost' - like interpretations), both have a montage of images or clips to introduce a message and hint to the audience what the film is about. But the overall message produced is very different as the genres are different. The director of both films has added all of these factors (font type, colour, background and sound) to enhance the credit sequence and communicate the genre of the film.

.