Planning: Plot Idea

*Set in the day. Starts on a hill (probably on pit top). The main character is walking around scanning his area while looking down the sight on his gun (probably a pistol). There’s no music or voice acting. Just the sound of the character walking (if picked up by the camera).

*He stops when he thinks there’s no one around and it zooms from a shot from the front to a close up shot of his head and shoulders. The actors voice will be heard (will be his thoughts) as he describes briefly what has happened and how the virus spreads.

*Then he hears zombie’s chanting. The zombies in this film will have an unusual take on traditional belief. They are intelligent and have groups and colonies. They still need to eat human and animal flesh but they aren’t massively smart so they will not negotiate with the humans and don’t understand some human inventions (guns, cars, elevators). The virus destroys the brain capacity of the human but it keeps intact the natural human instinct to stick together and hunt in packs.

*He sneaks over and crawls to look over the edge of the hill and see’s about 6 zombies with one on a clear hill as the dominant zombie. He hears them talking about the lack of food.

*The main character accidentally nudges a rock that rolls down the hill and hits a zombie in the leg. (This will take place in many shots (start shot of the character, then one of him nudging the rock. Then one of the rock rolling down the hill, then it hitting the leg of the zombie).

*The camera will be a low angle close up of the leg. The zombie hand will reach down and picks up the rock. The camera follows the hand up until it reaches the head and shoulders of the zombie, he looks at the rock and looks where it came from.

*He spots the main character (over the shoulder shot. Then a fast zoom onto the main character) and shouts ‘HUMAN!’.

*All the zombies turn and begin to groan, and the dominant zombie raises his arm in a Hitler fashion and shouts ‘ATTACK!’ just for his arm to fall to the floor before the zombies charge at the main character. (Again this will take place over a few shots, different angles of the whole group of zombies and one of the main zombie with his arm falling off and the arm hitting the floor).

*He realizes this and turns to run (runs away from the camera, the zombies overtake the camera and keep running after the main character. 1 zombie trips and falls as he’s chasing the main character).

*He run into a wooded shrub area and hides behind a shrub while the zombies run past.

*The main character is panting and gasping for breath but trying to keep his voice down. It cuts to another thought by the main character saying how it didn’t use to be like this and then fades into the cinematic titles. (possibly zooms in to the character and the camera hits him before fading)

Key Company Case Study

Key Company Case Study:

Relativity Media:

An American independent motion picture production and investment company based in West Hollywood, California.

It is a next-generation studio engaged in multiple aspects of entertainment, including full-scale film and television production and distribution, the co-financing of major studio film slates, music publishing, sports management and digital media.

I have decided to research this company because this is the company that made the film ‘Zombie Land’, which is a big inspiration for the film I want to make, also with the same genre and theme (zombie film but a comedy).

‘Zombie Land’ was a film made in 2009. An American zombie comedy film. The film is about how a the main character join up with someone, who he wouldn’t normally be seen with, to stick together while the zombie apocalypse is invading the ‘United States of Zombie Land’. They meet 2 girls who at first steel from them, but at the end join up with them to help defend and survive. It features something unique to zombie films, the main character states about the ‘rules’ to surviving a zombie attack (such as double tap, shoot a zombie after you think he’s dead to make sure). This unique aspect is something I believe films need to stand out otherwise films would basically be the same. The unique twist I plan to put into my film is that the zombies are actually organized and form groupings. They still require the flesh of humans and animals to survive but they lack the brainpower to side with the humans and just live among them. They only know how to survive and look after their own.

‘Zombie Land’ received positive critical reviews and was a big success; it grossed over $60.8 million in 17 days. The money budget for the film was $23.6 million and made $102,391,542 and growing. The company was able to produce a film this good because of the budget, the writers, the directors and the effects in production, I will be making the film by myself, with the only help by friend I get to play the characters. The costumes are up to them and the filming and I will do editing. It is going to be extremely hard to get a film to the standard that zombie land was done just with no money budget and myself.

Research: Audience

Appropriate audience theories:

Audience Expectations:

When the audience views an opening to a film, they'd expect to see the main characters introduced, the basic genre of the film to be set and a start to the plot to be revealed but not giving away to much information. They'd expect the intro to be well made and expertly done as it will make the biggest impression of the film, next to the ending. Depending on the film, the audience may also expect to find out about some information about the main protagonists past, but this may be done later on in the film. A films intro music and even title font sets a big mood on the film, setting the mood is important for films because without it, the audience may be confused and uncertain what they are watching. Other films focus more on the cinematic effects than actual. On the other hand, in some film intro's, they do not introduce the protagonist, but instead the antagonist(s), this can be done to set the mood of the film again by making the audience see the villain and feel a hatred towards him, this is good for when the protagonist is introduced, people will instantly like him because they know that he will be the one to stop the antagonist. Some intros are longer than others, some films keep the intro short to ad a sense of mystery for the film.

Audience consumption habits (uses and gratifications theory)

there are different ways that the audience of a film can view it, from what system they view it on to who they are with. The audience can view a movie at home on many different platforms, they can watch it on the computer on either a saved file they own or from an internet download or viewing site. They can watch a movie on the T.V from a dvd, blu-ray or video or from a movie that is on a normal T.V channel, but this way is often a random thing, unless planned ahead, because of the lack of choice the audience gets because the film is scheduled and planned by the company running the channel. Unless you T.V has the option, watching a T.V channel movie is also unrecommended because of the in-ability to pause. this is a similar problem when it comes to watching movies at the cinema. although the great movie experience and the quality time you can spend with family or friends, if something happens, e.g toilet trips, you could miss a key part of the film, and many people put the cinema option off because of the cost of the day out. It is much cheaper for a family to buy the dvd from a local shop, sitting down with some store bought pop-corn and settling down with the family/friends for a film night. Apart from the way people watch the film, another factor that contribute to the audience consumption is who the audience is watching the film with. Is the audience a family who are settling down for the night? Is it two girls having a girly sleep-over? Or is it a big group of friends seeing a move for a special occasion? These all factor to how the film is viewed because depending who the audience is with depends how focused they will be on the film. The final thing that contributes to the consumption of a film is how the audience decides to watch it. If the audience has planned a movie night and get everything set up and everyone settles down, their consumption will be high because they will be focused and wanting to see what happens in the film. Where as if it was a casual night round with some friends, where people are drinking and laughing and having a very good social time, a film may be put on to make some background noise in case the room ever goes quiet.

Preliminary task video

Continuity task involves filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Why I Chose:

I chose this task because video editing is something I do as a past time and is something I enjoy doing. I believe I can take some of the editing skills I have gotten from my own work and use it in my project. Also I hope it will help me gain new skills and help me broaden my knowledge of video editing software.

Aims:

• develop skills
• create an appealing video
• create a smooth and well edited video
• create a video that is original but with concepts from well known ideas

Challenges:

• learning a new video editing software
• performing well on camera
• making sure the props and costumes match and have continuity
• keeping within the requested outlines
• keeping track of time