A large part of our production was mise-en-scene and it was very important for it to be right so that it set the time frame right and looked believable. The main thing we did was to set the film in a church and churchyard and the church we decided to use is not near the main part of town which means it is isolated and is not near anything that looks too modern. There are also plenty of trees surrounding and we used this to our advantage. We took a camera shot within the trees, which we believe really depicts a weird, "stalker" effect, as after all the girl is being followed by a crazy axeman, who we later find out to be her husband.
The outside of the church helps with the convention for an old church, the walls look aged, and the steps that Alice takes up onto the grass field are covered in moss and look aged like the walls. The girl heads towards a grave which is among a wooded area and because of this location, the place has an eerie sort –of feel, she then places a rose down upon the grave, the rose is a very important part of the mise-en-scene for this film as it is used to show the love the girl has for the person in the grave, and also when she is murdered the murderer places a rose upon her chest. This gives the audience a hint that the murderer could be close to her. When the murderer follows Alice down to the church we have a shot of him looking from the church out, where you see only half of his body and the axe by his side, anchoring any belief that he will be a murderer.
The beginning of the film is just a shot of a reading from the murdered girl’s diary, as somebody writes it. This shot is done in colour to represent present time. As the diary is read, the credits roll between shots. We decide to use red calligraphic writing because it seemed to fit the timeline of this film, and a convention of any period genre film is old fashioned writing. The black and white camera shots after this, show the audience that those particular shots are set in the past.
We have our murder in the first two minutes of our film, and it is set in a church, both of these are conventions of horror/murder/mystery films, and even some murder mystery TV series such as Midsummer Murders. The church is a protestant church, and so is therefore very understated and there is not much going on inside, which makes it feel very open meaning that the audience start to feel that the girl is isolated from anyone else. This also adds to the feeling of being alone that Alice and the murderer have together, as if there is no one there to help Alice.
The costumes we decided to have for our two main characters were quite simple, Alice wore a black dress and black heeled shoes, we tried to make these costumes look as old fashioned as possible. It also gives the feeling of death being around, seeing as black is the colour most people wear at funerals.
The murderer wear a black shawl, which he wears kind of like a cloak, he uses it to cover his face to keep the sense of enigma around his character. George (The Murderer) also has very white hair, contrasting the shawl he has around his head, and the main theme of darkness.
Props
There were a few props used in this film, the main ones were:-
-The Candle
-The Diary
-A Lamy Pen
-A Rose
-An Axe
The candle was used to provide light for the person writing, without having to use a modern light. The candle is a convention of older times, as there was no lighting used commonly. The HD camera picked up the flames intensity quite well.
We used a diary, made from a Bible, with plain paper on it. The diary is a convention of many films anyway and was popular and used by many people back in the Nineteenth Century. The thickness of it showed the audience that the girl had a lot of history. All the words were pre written, by a member of Edward Green's family.
We used a Lamy pen, as it is a fountain pen, a common type of pen, back in the Nineteenth Century. We also used an ink pot, as we felt that really emphasised how long ago the film was set, as there were no ink cartridges, back then. Also the Lamy pen also looks to be quite old fashioned.
The rose was quite important in our film, as the rose signified the Widow's love for her mother, when she places the rose by the grave, however when the husband comes back to haunt the girl, and murder her, we see him lay down the rose on the girls chest as she lays there dead. The rose somewhat signifies the two's love, and the rose leaves any thought in mind about the two, whether that be that the husband still loved the girl, or whether it was mockery. A rose is also a conventional symbol of love in many films and a flower is a sign of respect at a funeral, when they are placed by someone's grave.
The axe was a very important prop in the film. We could see at about half way in the film George with an axe, so we knew he was likely to kill Alice. We see a shot where the murderer is stood in the door way, you can only see half his body. The murderer, we felt looked scary enough, but decided having the axe clear as a silhouette really added to the atmosphere. We got the idea for an axe from the film The Shining and it looks right, and due to its size it looks very intimidating and scary.
Here was our original plan, these were the first ideas we had about the film.
Here is our schedule we used to film "The Widow's Death":
11.30 am - Arrive at destination and check props
12.00 am - Scout around for good shots and destinations, relevant ot our storyboard
1.00 pm - Start filming
2.30 pm - Break
2.45 pm - Finish filming
2.50 pm - Pack up props, and return props to the church
Textual Analysis
For ideas for our film we looked at recent films and some ideas that they have incorporated into their films that we may be able to get ideas from.
Sin City:
From Sin City we thought about using black and white in our film and also we were thinking of adding in 'accentuated' colours, but this could be quite a hard addition to make to our film.
Watchmen:
From Watchmen we got the idea of using a narrator for our film, although not shown in this clip, one of the main characters 'Rorschach' narrates throughout most of the movie about what he's thinking. We have semi-incorporated this into the first two minutes of our film and it would be incorporated into the rest of our film as well.
The Shining:
From The Shining we got the idea for the murder weapon of the axe, and the creepy music in the background, which we will try to incorporate into our film in the background, but if that is not possible, we will have eerie singing in the background.
We also handed around questionnaires to people we knew and asked them to fill it out, we gave the questonnaire to various ages and genders.
1.Do you like murder mystery films? We asked this as it was a vital question to see if this age group really did like murder mystery films, as if they didn't we would have to completely change our story or aim it at an older age group.
2.Do you prefer an intense scary film or a more light hearted film? Most boys preferred intense scary films, and many girls said they did not mind but would rather see a light hearted film if they had the choice.
3.Have you ever watched Sin City, Sherlock Holmes or Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde? We asked this as we were basing our film on these films and others and so if our participants said they hadn't watched them we knew our target audience was wrong, or that we shouldn't base our film on them. Most people said they had seen Sin City, some had seen Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and many said they really wanted to see Sherlock Holmes. 4.If so did you enjoy them?
Many said they loved Sin City as it was different and exciting, those who had seen Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde said the book was excellent and they love the storyline so they film was just as enjoyable even though sometimes novel remakes aren't as successful. Those who had seen Sherlock Holmes said it was exciting and surprisingly good. We knew then to definitely consider these films as an influence for our film.
5.Which would you find scarier? -a knife -a gun -an axe Our participants said it depended on the film and as it was horror they said an axe, as it wasn't something they were particularly familiar with so made them feel more insecure, and also an axe as it was bigger and more intimidating.
6.What location would you find more scary and eerie? -a church -a wood Most our participants said the woods was to cliche but the church and graveyard although a convention could change and be something new, whilst with the woods you are stuck with just trees and leaves. However some said the woods as it can seem never ending and as if you were trapped, which is why we included the shots from behind the trees in our film.
7.Do you enjoy a black and white film as much as a coloured film? A few said they didn't mind but colour was what they were used to. However some said many great films have been produced in black and white such as Sin City, and so said they were happy to have black and white.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
We decided to film our film in black and white, similar to Sin City doing this helped us achieve a feel of antiquity and ember this feeling of events happening a long time ago:
Sin City:
A Widow’s Death:
Also, we tried to add in the accentuated colour into our film; however we were not able to do so for our finished product. Instead we used colour in the beginning of the film, this also meant the black and white scenes made the audience see that part as being a flashback or from the past.
Also, we looked at Watchmen to find inspiration and we decided to have a ‘narrator’ character. We also looked at the film ‘The Name of the Rose’ in which we found the medieval-theme and the murder mystery genre. Also 'The Da Vinci Code' was a source of inspiration as we were able to produce a murderer that looked similar to the monk in the film, showing intertextuality and we could attract the audience with the look of him, and remember the film.
A convention we include from this genre of film is that the audience is only shown the victim at the beginning; this gives the film a sense of enigma, a mystery that will be solved in this film, this will also create a hook that will want people to continue to watch the film.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The questionnaire we wrote and gave to friends, family and people in the street showed us that people thought that a murder mystery/horror film should consist of murder, suspense and frightening the audience. For what we had to achieve we thought that the set for our film should be suitably ‘creepy’ and old looking, so we decided to film at the church, a convention of horror films, such as ‘The Omen’, in Great Missenden as this was an accessible place to all of use, without too much hassle.
The Omen:
A Widow’s Death:
Also Great Missenden church looks like an old traditional church, with a path covered in moss and grass and the graves are covered in vines, making it look old, and a creepy and eerie atmosphere to be surrounded by. We were going to shoot late at night to add to the atmosphere, but could not due to a lack of light meaning it would be difficult to see what was happening. We had the writing in an old fashioned style so that it would fit the look of the film. We also applied make up so that Alice’s face was pale, which fits with a higher class person of the time period. We also had George, the murder, wear a long shawl looking like a cloak and this also fit in with the monk look we had thought of, also creating an enigma behind his character as no one could figure out who it was.
For our mise-en-scene we used an axe as the murder weapon as it seems a primitive and medieval weapon to use as a murder weapon and gives the film the older look. Also the rose placed upon her chest symbolises the love the murderer has for the victim, something the audience is yet to find out about and the audience will want to watch to find out. Alice spoke in a strong old fashioned English accent to make it sound old timely and of the period. We added singing in the background to represent the innocence of the victim and her childishness, even hinting at her schizophrenia.
What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?
An institution that may distribute our film could be 20th Century Fox or Touchstone pictures, because 20th Century Fox released The Omen, a film of similar a similar genre and they often distribute murder/horror or suspense genre based films. As our film is part of a popular genre it is very likely that cinemas will want to stock out film and show it as it is part of the here and now, many films released recently have been in these kind of genres, such as the Saw films.
The film can be easily translated to TV as although it has adult themes, it is not as close up and in-your-face as films such as Saw, which means that our film will most likely be placed as a 15 certificate and then can be shown early after watershed hours and not have to be shown late into the night as most 18 certificate films would have to be. This could prove popular with people who watch such murder mysteries as Midsummer Murders or Poirot, as these people usually like to guess who the killer could be and find mystery intriguing.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our film is aimed at the 15 and above age group as these kind of films do not seem too popular with the age group below and the mystery may not intrigue them, whereas more inquisitive adults. As there is not too much blood this certificate is certainly achievable and it would mean we can get the film to a relatively large audience.
How did you attract/address your audience?
We wrote a questionnaire for people to answer so that we could get criticism, constructive or not, about the ideas we were having about our film. We found that most people agreed that a church was the right place to set our film as it would set up the right atmosphere. We obviously had to think of the death scene as the scene to start the film off as it would hook people into the film. We then had to decide upon what our characters may wear and the old fashioned style seemed to appeal to the answers to the questionnaire. We decided to find things from that sort of time period, or things that looked like they were, so we chose the axe as the murder weapon and dark cloaks and dresses as the costumes as these seem old timely and look old fashioned. We also tried to attract people to our film with our poster, of which there were two designs;
We also thought that a foreign name would intrigue many of our audience and so La Muerte De La Viuda seemed to fit well and we would have a small translation under so that people could still know the basic story from the title of the movie.
Here is the questionnaire we used to obtain the necessary information for creating our film, we asked 30 male and females, of varying age and social-economic groups
1.Do you like murder mystery films?
We asked this as it was a vital question to see if this age group really did like murder mystery films, as if they didn't we would have to completely change our story or aim it at an older age group. 2.Do you prefer an intense scary film or a more light hearted film?
Most boys preferred intense scary films, and many girls said they did not mind but would rather see a light hearted film if they had the choice. 3.Have you ever watched Sin City, Sherlock Holmes or Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?
We asked this as we were basing our film on these films and others and so if our participants said they hadn't watched them we knew our target audience was wrong, or that we shouldn't base our film on them. Most people said they had seen Sin City, some had seen Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and many said they really wanted to see Sherlock Holmes. 4.If so did you enjoy them?
Many said they loved Sin City as it was different and exciting, those who had seen Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde said the book was excellent and they love the storyline so they film was just as enjoyable even though sometimes novel remakes aren't as successful. Those who had seen Sherlock Holmes said it was exciting and surprisingly good. We knew then to definitely consider these films as an influence for our film. 5.Which would you find scarier:
-a knife -a gun -an axe Our participants said it depended on the film and as it was horror they said an axe, as it wasn't something they were particularly familiar with so made them feel more insecure, and also an axe as it was bigger and more intimidating. 6.What location would you find more scary and eerie?
-a church -a wood Most our participants said the woods was to cliche but the church and graveyard although a convention could change and be something new, whilst with the woods you are stuck with just trees and leaves. However some said the woods as it can seem never ending and as if you were trapped, which is why we included the shots from behind the trees in our film. 7.Do you enjoy a black and white film as much as a coloured film?
A few said they didn't mind but colour was what they were used to. However some said many great films have been produced in black and white such as Sin City, and so said they were happy to have black and white.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Digital Camcorders
We used an HD Panasonic camcorder so that we could attain a very good quality picture, once we got the hang of it, the camera was easy to use, and was detailed enough for the writing scenes we had to produce. The camcorder was limited in the way it would shoot in low light conditions and could not record later at night, meaning we could not get the darker sky, which would have created a scarier tone to the movie. The darkness also had to be considered, as it being a very large convention of horror/suspense films. Also, during outdoor scenes, it was too windy for the camcorder to pick up any sound so we could not have any dialogue outside of the church that was not added in later.
Apple Computers
Apple’s computers made the editing process very simple and we had learned how to use them from our preliminary task. We used Final Cut Express when editing out film and also used Photoshop when I created the posters that we would use for our film. Final Cut Express was a very simple program to use, being able to cut, add/reduce contrast, make black and white, all within a few drop down tables or a few clicks of the mouse. Also to record the singing in the background to the film we used Cubase SE and a professional microphone plugged into the computer to record the sound. All of these programs were simple and easy to use and helped us in the production of our final film.
Live Type
We used a programme called Live Type to produce our credits. The programme was simple to use, and the program helped us to make a suitable introduction, Live Type contained a variety of fonts which allowed us to experiment and see what fonts would suit a horror, which was quite an important part to our film as it introduces the film so needs to be attractive to our intended audience. With the right style of font and it could also enter into frame in a way that seemed eerie.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
As we did out preliminary task very early in the year, we had much to learn about how to use the macs and the software provided upon them, we first used Final Cut Express to edit and we would slowly learn what each function did and how we could go about using them in the final film. When we first started filming, we did not know what we were going to film, and this showed a clear lack of planning or any brainstorming on what we should have been doing or filming to get the preliminary task done. We created a storyboard, and actually recorded two preliminary tasks, but one did not meet the requirements for the task and so we adapted the storyboard and made it work.
There was also a learning curve on how we were to use the camcorders as sometimes we may accidentally record over something or forget to actually press record. Also, with the final film, we would use more variety in our shots and learn how to make shots look more interesting and how setting it up differently can make a large difference, as our preliminary task was a very one or two shot kind of deal and not much variety in the way we shot and edited the final cut.
As we had become more proficient at Final Cut Express, it meant the editing on our final film could be done faster than in our preliminary task, and we could experiment as well, resulting in our black and white type of film, which proved very popular among the people we asked about it.
All of this added together to mean that we could make our second film more enjoyable, not only for the audience, but for us as well, as we could see how much we had learned and how the preliminary task had benefited our skills in the areas I have discussed.
For our final film we were asked to make a two minute opening to a film to try and engage the audience.
First we had to decide upon what genre of film we were going to film and we settled upon a horror story which we later developed into a horror and detective story.
We had to decide on where we were going to shoot the film, and we settled upon starting the film off near a church and having the murder take place within, a church being a convention in horror films.
Ideas for shots:
Synopsis
La Muerte De La Viuda – The Widows Death is a horror/detective story about a woman who is killed within a church. This part of the film is at the beginning of the film. It begins June 19th, 1843.
The main film is all set before the actual murder with the story unfolding as to why the man murdered this woman. The film contains two main characters, first is the detective in the story and the second is the schizophrenic widow who is murdered.
After the murder at the beginning, it brings us back to a house where a woman is making herself dinner, when there is a knock at the door and she goes answers it - but when she opens the door no one is there. The story begins to unfold that the woman was brutally murdered by a mysterious man, with the audience not knowing who the murderer is. However, we hope that the audience suspects it is the same man as the murderer in the beginning sequence.
In the duration of the film the audience sees certain murders by the same mysterious man and the detective following his every move, eager to find out who the man really is. The audience will also view more flashbacks of the widow's life while her husband was still alive, leading to where it all went wrong.
Towards the end, the audience finds out that the murderer is in fact the widow's husband and this eventually leads to the clip at the beginning, of the widow's death. The film then resets to the current time line having all of it been set before the murder at the beginning. The ending of the film is taken up by the final confrontation between the detective and the murderer. Eventually with the film finishing with the killer being arrested and hung.
For our preliminary task, we were asked to get into groups, my group was Josh Baker, Ed Green, Alice McKenna and Me. We were asked to make a short film (no more than a minute or so) to show signs of continuity between shots.
We then had to decide on what the subject matter would be and how/where we would shoot it. We chose somewhere where we could get some interesting camera angles for the continuity.
When it came to editing together the final film, we used a program called Final Cut Pro, which we had to learn how to use as it was going to be how we would be editing together the final film as well as this short.
