Shot List for Presence

Presence Storyboard

Famous Theorists

Rick Altman
He argues that there's no such thing as 'pure' genre anymore. Genre is progressive in that it will always change. He says that generic conventions are very much a thing of the past. His theory suggests that audiences in general have become tired of the same formula and need more to keep them entertained and to create appeal. Genre offers audiences a set of pleasures:
Emotional pleasures - the emotional pleasures offered too audiences of genre films are particularly significant when they generate a strong audience response.
Visceral pleasures - are gut responses and are defined by how the films stylistic construction elicits a physical effect upon its audience. This can be a feeling of revulsion, kinetic speed or a roller coaster ride.
Intellectual puzzles - certain film genres such as the thriller genre offer the pleasure in trying to unravel a mystery or puzzle. Pleasure is derived from deciphering the plot and forecasting the end or being surprised by the unexpected.

Tom Ryall
Ryan says "Genre provides a framework of structuring rules, which as as a form of guidance over the production of filmmakers and the reading/understanding of the audience." Iconographies - symbolic symbols associated with the genre. Narrative - structure, open/closed. Representations - characters/stereotypes. Ideologies - beliefs and ideas of the "ideal" concept and themes. If we regencies the genre of a text it enables us to feel at home and we gain enjoyment from "spotting the conventions" (repetitions) and making comparisons with other films of the same genre.

Steve Neale
He declares that "genres are instances of repetition and difference."He adds that difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre: mere reputation would not attract an audience.

Douglas Pye says that "films have to conform to audience expectations about narrative."

Graeme Burton
Suggests that we can understand a lot about film genre. He argues that films from a particular genre will all contain recognisable conventions or key elements:
Protagonist - main characters. Stock characters - minor characters. Stock situations - such as car chases, shoot outs. Icons - props, actors, music, something which becomes iconic of the film or genre. Background and decor - setting, set decoration. Themes. All these elements add up to the genre formula.

Bordwell and Thompson
David Bordwell and Kirstin Thompson constructed a diagram to represent the relationship between story and plot. Story - inferred events which are understood by the audience but not seen and explicitly presented events. Plot - explicitly presented events and added, non-diegetic material.
Bordwell and Thompson refer to three kinds of time:
Plot duration - the amount of time covered by the plot. e.g: in Star Wars episode IV the plot covers about three days. Story duration - the amount of time covered by the story. e.g: Luke's destiny harks back to the clone wars, the fall of the Jedi and the rise of earth Vadar, as told by Ben Kenobi. The story covers twenty years. Screen duration - the amount of time it takes to tell the story. Although Bordwell and Thompson are referring to films, the same idea applies to any kind of narrative.

Todorov
He argues that the basis of conventional narrative structure consists of the following pattern: Equilibrium - balance or stability: an initial situation, the once upon a time moment. Disequilibrium - the balance is disrupted by some problem/event setting off a train series of other events. Resolution - back to the balance with a slight change and difference because of the distinction.

Propp
He focuses on the main eight character roles: villain, hero, donor, helper, princess, father, dispatcher, and false hero. His theory also suggests the six spheres of action: preparation, complication, transference, struggle, return and recognition.

Levi-Strauss
He said that one way of structuring narratives is to have binary opposites: good vs evil, strong vs weak, male vs female.

Barthes
He suggested that there will be one or more codes that will describe the meaning of a text, these codes will be to do with the visuals, audio, etc. Texts can either be 'open' meaning they have multiple interpretations or 'closed' meanings there's on;y one single interpretation. The five codes: Enigma code - refers to the mystery within a text. Clues are dropped but no clear answers are given. Enigmas in a text make the audience want to know more. Unanswered enigmas tend to frustrate the audience. Action code - contains sequential elects of action in a text. Elements add suspense to a text, editing things quickly, fight scenes. Semantic code - refers to parts in a text that suggest additional meanings. Elements of the semantic code are called seems. Adds extra meaning to the story, things connote something. Symbolic code - refers to the symbolism in a text. Exercises opposite to show a contrast and create greater meaning, creating tension, drama and character development. This links to the Levi-Strauss binary opposites theory. Cultural code - refers to anything in a text which refers to an external body of knowledge e.g: scientific, historical and cultural knowledge. This code relies on the audience have existing knowledge e.g: if a text is based in New York it would use known landmarks so that the audience recognises them and understands.

Research into Editing Techniques

There are many editing techniques that can be used to represent different things. All films include some form of editing, some more than other, but all the editing techniques play an important part in the film. Without editing, the film wouldn't be as enjoyable and audiences would quickly get bored.
Vsevolod Pudovkin noted that the editing process is the one phase of production that is truly unique to motion pictures. Every other aspect of film making originated in a different medium than film (photography, art direction, writing, sound recording), but editing is the one process that is unique to film.

Match Cut - A match cut, also called a graphic match, is a cut in film editing between either two different objects, two different spaces or two different compositions in which an object in the two shots graphically match, often helping to establish a strong continuity of action and linking the two shots metaphorically. A famous example of this would be in Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho' where an extreme close up shot of Marion's eye graphic matches to with the plug hole. Graphic Match in Psycho

Flash Cutting - This is editing sequences so that the durations of the shots are very brief. This is also referred as short cut, a cut that has a brief duration, usually less than two seconds.

Subliminal Cut - A cut consisting of a few frames which zip by so fast that the viewer is only subliminally (subconsciously) aware of them. This can be used to promote products or to create a preferred audience response, it can also be used to suggest certain things about a character; for example, in Fight Club at the beginning there are flashes of Tyler Durdan (Brad Pitt) seen by the main character and at the very end of the film it's revealed that Tyler Durdan is a made up character and the alter ego of the main character. Subliminal Messages in Popular Films

Cross Cutting - Editing that alternates shots of two or more lines of action occurring in different places, usually simultaneous. This excites the audience and also makes them piece things together, this is often used where both of the separate scenes are related to create tension. Cross Cut editing in Inception

Elliptical Editing - shot transitions that omit parts of an event, causing ellipsis in plot and story duration. This shows something that would occur in hours in just a few minutes, this editing technique is used so that the audience wouldn't get bored - this is only used in scenes where a character would be taking a long walk to a specific location. Elliptical editing in Batman Begins

Jump Cut - an elliptical cut that appears to be an interruption of a single shot. It occurs within a scene rather than between scenes, to condense the shot. Either the figures seem to change instantly against a constant background, or the background changes instantly while the figures remain constant. This is used in many horror and thriller films. It can be used to scare an audience or to suggest the mental state of a character. Jump Cut

Invisible Editing - Editing that is so smooth that the audience become engrossed in the film and don't notice the individual cuts. This is also known as continuity editing purposely keeping a constant flow of action. When the continuity is broken in a film the audience is reminded that they are watching a film which isn't what to filmmakers want, unless they intend it to happen for a certain audience reaction.  Invisible/continuity editing in Goodfellas

Split Edit - A video editing term for overlap. In a split edit the audio and video don't start at the same time; either video or audio is delayed. This is often used when a character is narrating over a flashback. Example of Split Edit from Fight Club (1999)

All editing techniques are used within reason in film, which contribute to audience responses. People respond differently to films after viewing for the first time, then the second time the response can be different. Emotion is a mental state that is unconscious and is accompanied by psychological changes. Emotional contagion is the tendency to automatically mimic the emotions of the other subconsciously. There are three different types of audience responses:
Preferred response - is intended by the filmmaker, the filmmaker wants the film to make the audience feel a certain way after watching the film. This is the response often after the first viewing of the film.
Negotiated response - this is where the audience knows how their supposed to feel after the film but they have their own response. This is typically after the second viewing of the film because the audience already knows the story and they often notice things they hadn't noticed before within the film.
Oppositional response - this is where the audience opposes the response, they have a different response than what the filmmaker intended.
Stuart Hall created the theory of different responses. He says that the film constructs a personal response.

Research into Filming Techniques

Over the shoulder shots - a shot with an actor’s shoulder in the foreground, out of focus. Good over-the-shoulder shots are some of the most time-consuming to shoot correctly, because you need to make sure that there is neither too much nor too little shoulder in the frame. However, no serious filmmaker can afford not to learn this technique because it is narratively essential in many cases. Some directors openly say that they never shoot over-the-shoulder shots precisely because it takes ages to get the look they want and frequently can’t do it at all. From a narrative point of view, over-the-shoulder shots draw the viewer in by creating a sense of intimacy, depending on how much of the screen area the shoulder in the foreground occupies. Over the shoulder shot in The Godfather

Tilt shots - Tilting up or down is one of the simplest camera techniques there are. Due to its simplicity it tends to be overused and/or poorly executed. The truth is that well-executed tilting, combined with some interesting action and with perfect coordination between the camera operator and the action, can be incredibly elegant in their simplicity. Tilt shot example

Panning shots - Panning the shot is the horizontal equivalent of tilt shots. Like tilt shots, panning shots are conceptually simple and therefore usually overused and/or poorly executed. Exactly the same best-practice considerations made for the tilt shots apply to panning shots: try and design them in such a way that you can lock off the tilt axis in order to keep the panning pure, and hire a competent camera operator, especially if your shots require precise timing and framing accuracy. 

Low angle shot - a shot looking up at a character or subject often making them look bigger in the frame. It can make everyone look heroic and/or dominant. Low angle shot in Star Wars

High angle shot - a shot looking down on a character or subject often isolating them in the frame. This is often used when the character is a victim or is vulnerable. Use of high and low angle shots in Scrubs

Zoom shots - Zoom shots are extremely cool if you get them right and successfully blend them into your directorial style. Zooming was massively out of favour in the 1990s, and enjoyed a revival when Ridley Scott’s career really took off in the early naughties with “Gladiator” and “Hannibal,” both of which have outstanding examples of Ridley-Scott-style zoom shots. The way to make zoom shots truly effective and “creepy” is to make them absolutely smooth and not too fast. If you’re wondering how Ridley Scott achieves his distinctive zoom shots, that is how it’s done. If the zoom is jerky, you will get the cheesy 1970s look.

Dolly zoom - a shot that sees the camera track forward toward a subject while simultaneously zooming out creating a woozy, vertiginous effect. It is the cinematic equivalent of the phrase "uh-oh". Dolly Zoom in Jaws 

Deep Focus - a shot that keeps the foreground, middle ground and background all in sharp focus. In the example it shows Thatcher and Kane's mother discussing Charles' fate while the young boy plays in the background. Since everything is focused, the audience focuses on everything, including the boy. Deep Focus in Citizen Kane

POV shot - a shot that depicts the point of view of a character so that we see exactly what they see. Often used in Horror cinema to see the world through a killer's eyes. POV shot in Halloween

Close up - a shot that keeps only the face full in the frame. Perhaps most important building block in cinematic storytelling.

Mid shot - the shot that utilises the most common framing in movies, shows less than a long shot and more than a close up. This shot can be used to establish both the character and the location, therefore putting the character in relation to the background. Mid shot example

Long shot - a shot that depicts an entire character or object from head to foot. Not as long as an establishing shot.

Handheld shot - a shot where the camera operator holds the camera during motion to create a jerky, immediate feel. It tells the audience something is wrong and it can disorientating. Handheld shot in Mean Streets

Bridging shot - a shot that denotes a shift in time or place, like a line moving across an animated map. That line has more air miles, as shown in Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) the journey from US to Nepal. Bridging shot in Indiana Jones

Arc shot - a shot in which the subject is circled by the camera. The shot in De Palma's Carrie (1976) where Carrie and Tommy are dancing at the prom. The swirling camera move represents her giddy euphoria. Arc shot in Carrie

Crane shots - Cranes are used to achieve vertical translational motion. Whenever you see the camera moving up or down by more than a few feet in a film, it was done with a jib or crane. Well-executed, well-motivated crane shots can add production value to a production and can definitely improve your reel if they were used to enhance the storytelling rather than to show off random skills. Crane shot in Gone With the Wind

Track in shots with secondary foreground object - A variant of the clean track-in shot involves a foreground object.  The significance of this foreground object is that, since it is closer to the camera than the main subject, it increases in size faster than the main subject as the camera moves in.  This gives the shot an enhanced three-dimensional illusion.  As with all foreground objects, this shot works best when the foreground object is out of focus.  The example shown above is taken from a TV spot I directed, and the foreground object in this case is a computer screen.

Mixing focal lengths in a scene to make one character dominate over the other - When covering a scene with shots and reverse shots, it is good practice to use exactly the same lens for the two complementary shots. If you use a 25mm lens to frame an over-the-shoulder shot, the reverse shot should also use a 25mm lens. If two characters are talking and you cover the scene with complementary over-the-shoulder shots and you want to make one character look a lot more dominant than the other, you can use a wide lens (short focal length) when shooting over the shoulder of the dominant character, and a significantly longer lens when shooting over the shoulder of the other character. As a result of the short focal length, when you film over the shoulder of the dominant character, he will dominate the frame because he will look much larger than the other character. 

High contrast lighting - Good lighting can not only add dimension and depth to your compositions, but it can make your film look like a million bucks. As Rosen says, soft, even lighting tends to flatten images, while lighting with harsher shadows with fast falloff tends to give the illusion of depth. For examples of this kind of lighting, you can't get any more drastic and overt than film noir, who made chiaroscuro lighting one of its many hallmarks. 

Filmmaking Techniques

The 180° rule is a cinematography guideline that states that two characters in a scene should maintain the same left/right relationship to one another . When the camera passes over the invisible axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line and the shot becomes what is called a reverse angle.

A popular technique in film lighting is to use a soft (diffuse) light source from the front and a stronger, more directional light from the back, so that your subject has a hot edge. The soft frontal light is known as the fill light; the strong light at the back is known, unsurprisingly, as the backlight.

High key lighting - indicates a brightly lit scene with few shadows; usually provided by one source of light.

Low key lighting - is where the lighting is more towards the greyer and darker scale, where there is a good deal of shadow and where the key light in less bright and doesn't dominate.

Three -point lighting is the standard method used in film: the key light, fill light, and the back light. 

Key light - This is the main light. It is usually the strongest and has the most influence on the look of the scene. It is placed to one side of the camera/subject so that this side is well lit and the other side has some shadow. Fill light - This is the secondary light and is placed on the opposite side of the key light. It is used to fill the shadows created by the key. The fill will usually be softer and less bright than the key. To acheive this, you could move the light further away or use some spun. You might also want to set the fill light to more of a flood than the key. Back light - The back light is placed behind the subject and lights it from the rear. Rather than providing direct lighting (like the key and fill), its purpose is to provide definition and subtle highlights around the subject's outlines. This helps separate the subject from the background and provide a three-dimensional look.

Mixing colour temperatures - Using lights of different colour temperatures can be used to great effect. This simply means using lights of different colour in the same shot. This was used to great effect by James Cameron in the steel mill scene of “Terminator 2”, in which he used blue and orange light (consistent with moonlight and molten steel respectively).  The only caveat with this is that you must determine the relationship between the two different colours before filming, because it is not really possible, for example, to make the blue bluer without also making the orange bluer (i.e. less orange).

Silhouetting - meaning dark subject against very bright background — is quite a dark technique. Example: di Caprio’s meeting with his dad in the bar in “Catch Me if You Can.” The dark mood of the lighting reflects the subtext of the scene: his dad now knows that his son is a fraudster, and di Caprio is upset because his dad refuses to ask him to stop. Outstanding and classic use of silhouette.

Character Profiles

Character Profiles 

Name: Melissa

Age: 17

Gender: Female

Appearance: Curly brunette hair, pale skin. Tends to wear comfortable, casual clothing consisting of black jeans and a checked flannel top. Simple, minimalistic makeup.

Personality: Extrovert, outgoing, sociable, eager, good-humoured, dominant, authoritative.

Role: Melissa is the ring leader of the group, she is the one who gained possession of the Ouija board and the séance takes place at her house. The spirit sends her a message so that only she can hear the sound of a car crash which spooks her meaning the others take control.

Name: Ruby

Age: 17

Gender: Female

Appearance: Straight dark blonde hair in a ponytail, pale skin, Wears casual clothing, usually black jeans and a burgundy hoodie.  

Personality: Shy, innocent, apprehensive, introverted, withdrawn, insecure, hesitant, mouldable, warm hearted.

Role: Ruby constantly worries throughout our film, she is apprehensive to use the Ouija board and is cautious that her friend Jake doesn't turn up. At the end she is the one that gets the final answer on who the spirit is.

Name: Olivia

Age: 17

Gender: Female

Appearance: Straight light brown hair, pale skin. Wears causal clothes, usually black jeans and a black top. Glasses. Simple, minimalistic makeup.

Personality: Easy-going, obliging, follower, confident, determined, curious.

Role: Olivia is the one who takes charge when they start to connect with thee dead, she asks the first question and starts the séance. She becomes scared at the answer so steps back but regains control when Melissa becomes unresponsive and scared.

Name: Jake

Age: 17

Gender: Male

Appearance: Short black spiky hair, tanned skin. Wears comfortable clothing, consisting of black jeans and a grey hoodie.

Personality: Quiet, easy-going, shy, introvert, kind, friendly.

Role: The three girls are waiting for Jake to turn up constantly throughout the film. He doesn't so this causes worry with his closest friend Ruby. It reveals later on that Jake is the one who died and who they had been contacting through the Ouija board. At the end he is shown to be there looking over his friends and deeply missing them in the afterlife.

Treatment

Treatment

Title of our film: Presence

Duration: 5 minutes

Audience: The audience of our film will be mostly females, this is because there are more female characters in our film which will make it more popular with that gender as they can relate  and identify with the characters more. I think it will be aimed mostly at people in the age group 17-25 as our film is a horror/thriller and this genre is popular with young adults of that age. Our film is more likely to have an effect on this audience too as they are younger and more naïve so will believe in the paranormal events that take place in the film therefore making them more scared. I also think the main audience will be students, they have a lot of spare time, money from parents/part-time job so could pay to see our film, also they tend to know more about the internet and social media so would be more likely to watch our film if it was distributed online. The audience will be mainly from the UK as they can identify with the characters and the setting and our film will only be distributed on a small national scale.

Age rating: We decided to give our film a 12A rating as it doesn't contain any really scary or gory scenes, just has contact with the dead through the use of a Ouija board. Our film will be distributed online so will have an older audience anyway but parents should be present if a child under 12 is watching it as it does have a mild horror/thriller theme.

Potential distributor: Short Film Central as it caters to a wide variety of genres including horror and thriller and is a really good website that helps independent filmmakers distribute their films online which reaches a wide demographic.

Synopsis of our story: A group of friends meet up for the night and decide to playfully communicate with the dead and unbeknown to them it could be more dangerous than initially thought. One of their friends doesn't turn up and everyone wonders why yet they still continue with their fun night. They set the Ouija board up in the centre of the room and everyone sits around it. Melissa asks Olivia to put her hands on the planchette and ask the first question. In the meantime Ruby panics over Jake not turning up and shouts at the others to stop messing about with the Ouija board. Olivia communicates with the spirit when she asks "when did you die?" and receives the answer "ten minutes ago". She then becomes cautious whereas Melissa is curious and wants more answers.

She takes over putting her hands on the planchette and asks "How did you die?", the spirit answers saying it was a car crash, Melissa starts to hear noises inside her head, she puts her hands to her head, no one else can hear the noises but her. She hears the sound of a car crash and screams, everyone asks her what's wrong and she sits there in silence unable to move or speak. Ruby says "I told you this was a bad idea" and Olivia replies with "We didn't know, we just wanted some fun". They wonder what's wrong with Melissa as she sits there in shock, Olivia puts her hands on the Planchette and says "we need to sort this out". She then asks the spirit "What's your name?" and it replies with 'Jake'. Ruby's face becomes instantly shocked as she says 'Jake? not our friend Jake." She grabs the planchette and asks the spirit "You're not our friend Jake are you?" and it replies with 'Yes I am'.

They go to visit the site of the crash and put flowers on the lamppost in remembrance, as they are walking away you see Jake in the distance watching them.

Suggested elements: Parallel editing between the characters who are at the house with the Ouija board and the character Jake who is going to die which builds up suspense as you know the two things are happening at once. Lots of fast paced shots when they are using the Ouija board to make our film effective and to make the audience jump. Low key lighting in the room where they are contacting the dead as this is a typical horror/thriller genre connotation and makes it more mysterious and shadowy. 

Overall Moodboard:  

Video Questionnaire

Summary

We conducted a questionnaire to gather results about our film and ways in which we could improve the film in order to make appealing and intriguing to the target audience. The questionnaire gave us the opportunity to engage with our potential audience and understand the elements they wanted to see, the typical films they usually watch and the genre category they would place our film in.

From our results it can be inferred that the majority of the candidates who completed our questionnaire were female aged between 17-20. This suggests to us that our target audience will be teenagers and specifically females. We think this is a suited target audience as the main characters in 'Presence' are females and the audience will find it easier to connect and understand how the characters are feeling.

When the people were asked 'what genre do you think our film is and why?' 80% of them responded Horror with the other 20% suggested it suited the Drama/Mystery category. This result surprised us as we didn't believe the film had enough scary elements to be classed as a horror and therefore decided to class it as a Thriller.  

The next question asks them 'what music do you expect to here'. We had a range of responses from instrumental music to sinister sounds. Taking all of the responses into consideration we will use a range of the choices in order to create tension and make the audience wonder what is about to occur. We will use incidental music to ensure the sound is suitable to what is happening in the scene. The editing will also effect the music we use, for example fast paced editing will be supported by fast paced music.

Furthermore, we asked our audience 'could there be any improvements for the storyline?' One person responded we should have a bigger twist towards the end. To act on this feedback and make the film better we decided to end the film with a close up shot of Jake, the character who dies in the car crash to reveal that the girls were actually contacted their friend and not just anyone.

A final, important question we had to gain feedback for was 'what kind of setting would you like to see in our film?' The majority of people we asked described how they expect to see dark settings, using low key lighting. We will use low key lighting in order to portray suspense and tension to the audience. The film will be set during the evening to also further reflect the sense of fear.

Research into Potential Audience

Since many potential audiences are now on social media I decided to ask some questions on Twitter where people click on their answer anonymously. The poll shows me how many people have voted and the percentage of the answers.

The questions I asked were:

1. How old are you? - 12to14 - 15to17 - 18+
2. What's your occupation? - Unemployed - Employed - Student -
3. What is your favourite Horror film sub-genre? - Thriller - Slasher - Psychological - Science fiction
4. What's your gender? - Male - Female - prefer not to say
5. Why do you watch films? - Storyline - Escapism - Inspiration - Socialise


Here are the results:

From these results it is obvious that the majority of our target audience are students who are young adults, which was our main target audience we had in mind, and a majority of these students are female. The most popular horror sub-genre was psychological with thriller being a close second. Also, the most popular reason as to why our target audience watched films is for the storyline and less than half of the voters is for escapism.

Our film has mainly female characters who are close friends which will appeal to the female audience as many young females, such as our target audience, can relate to these characters as they are also young and are students. The female audience will also relate to the relationship between characters as generally females tend to socialise in small groups and form a strong bond, just like the characters in our film.

Outcome of our Potential Audience Research

Outcome of our Potential Audience Research

From our audience research we found out that the most popular genre of the people asked was psychological, closely followed by Thriller. Although the audience enjoy psychologoical films, we are unable to apply this genre to our film due to the lack of time we have to portray this idea to our audience. In full length, psychological films they are able to present a psychological idea to their audeince as they have more time to inject the idea into the audience's head. For example, Shutter Island describes the effect of a psychological illness through the use of a restricted narrative as we only knew what the protagonist knew.

Film Classification

What is Classification?
The BBFC examines and age rates films and videos before they are released in order to protect children from unsuitable and even harmful content in films and videos and to give consumers information they might need about a particular film or video before deciding whether or not to view it.

They look at issues such as discrimination, drugs, horror, dangerous and easily imitable behaviour, language, nudity, sex, and violence when making decisions. The theme of the work is also an important consideration. They also consider context, the tone and likely impact of a work on the potential audience.

12A
Films classified 12A contain material that is not generally suitable for children aged under 12. No one younger than 12 may see a 12A film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult. Adults planning to take a child under 12 to view a 12A film should consider whether the film is suitable for that child.

There may be moderate physical and psychological threat and horror sequences. Although some scenes may be disturbing, the overall tone should not be. Horror sequences should not be frequent or sustained.

15
No one younger than 15 may see a 15 film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a 15 rated video work.
There may be strong threat and horror. A sustained focus on sadistic or sexual threat is unlikely to be acceptable.

Overall we have decided to rate our film a 12A as it wont include any really scary or gory scenes just contact with the dead. Parents with children under 12 must think its suitable for their child before allowing them to watch it, but as it will be aimed at an online audience we expect not many children under 12 will see it.