Camerawork

Close up- much more dramatic than medium or long shots. They are you'd when you want to emphasize someone’s emotion or expression

Extreme close up- This an extremely detailed shot. These types of shot are generally used to show just one feature on someone’s face that would be missed in a wide angled shot.

Mid shot- The medium shots may be cut from medium shots straight to close up shots to make a more dramatic affect. Medium shots are the most common shots in films showing most of the person’s body. The medium shot is in-between the long shot and close up shot. The medium shot also includes the two-shot, when two actors are facing the same direction and the over the shoulder shot, when two actors stand facing each other e.g. sitting across a table from each another.

Establishing shot- A wider shot that would focus more on the environment than the characters. The establishing shot introduces a new location e.g. a school, someone’s house, and a street. The establishing shot would nearly always be filmed with the same lens and in the same position. The shot would also last a couple of seconds before it cuts to a medium shot and close-ups.

Low angle- low angles are normally placed below the actor’s eyes looking up. This makes the characters look more aggressive or dominant, it could also be used to show something lurking.

High angle- The camera above the actor or subject, looking down. It would be used make the charters look weak, small or frightened often used to show the small size of a child in comparison to the subject looking down on it.

Aerial shot- A shot taken from a drone, helicopter or a person on top of a building. Sometimes introducing the film or new location.

Point of view shot- the camera looking out of the actor’s eyes. The camera may be shaky to show the person walking. The shot after normally follows by a close up.

Camera Movement

Tracking- A moving shot. The camera is mounted on a camera dolly track, a wheeled platform that is push on rails. Used in the days before Stedicams got popular. The phrase dolly-in means step towards the subject with the camera and dolly-out is the opposite whilst keeping the zoom the same.

Panning- Fixed on to a tripod, turning left or right. Often used to capture moving images like cars or people walking or to show a vast landscape. The best pan is revealing a piece of         information.

Tilting- the up or down movement of the camera. Tilts are often used to reveal an object or tall vertical building.

Hand held movement- If the action is moving to quickly or too unpredictable for the camera to be on a tripod, so the camera needs to be more mobile and able to move more freely and follow the action of the scene. Normally held by a cameraman.

Hitchcock zoom- also know as the ‘dolly zoom’. It’s a rare but stylistic shot. The camera has to move on the dolly closer or further away from the subject while zooming in or out.     

Film Pitch

The Normal

Target audience- My target audience will be men and women who are like to watch films with jump scares and the uncanny feeling. The film will be a 15+ age rating so mild gore scenes will be featured. The target audience will be from 15-18 with acceptations. Men and women will both be as interested but men more than women since they seem to enjoy horror more. They will be in some sort of education either school, college or university so will be going with friends at weekends maybe late night and won’t have huge amounts of money to spend. The motivation will be them wanting to go and watch the film from seeing a advert, trailer or being recommended by a friend. This way I can select what makes them want to the film and concentrate advertising in that particular area.

Logline- A mysterious stay at home mum is raising her child. In a emergency she has to get the next-door neighbour looks after the five year old daughter but she suspects something strange may be happening inside house 46. The way the girl stares into space talks gibberish and has strange outbursts of laughter. The uncanny mum returns does her best to keep her daughter away from the rest of the neighbourhood and try’s to keep her not so innocent daughters secret hidden.

Tagline- 'What you don't know won't hurt you.'

Genre- The gene is subtle horror/ supernatural. The film contains jump scares, possession and the whole film is based around the uncanny. How you see something ordinary but once you get to know it it’s very different.

Actors- A woman actress who will play the mum, a brilliant example of this person would be Elizabeth Olsen. She's starred in many horror films and is know specifically for horror films. A child actor that’s good at acting in a possessed/creepy way; she would have to be the age of. 5-13. A brilliant example of a actress would be Isabella Acres, she has starred in a few horror films she played a small vampire girl in 30 days of night and a small girl in The Mentalist. Any famous woman preferably in her 50's+ would play the neighbour who is very intrusive. She has to be outgoing and could play the role of the neighbour.

Similar films- The Possession, The Exorcist and The Exorcism of Emily Rose and films similar to mine but at the same time they are not. Mine is only subtle horror with few jump scares and not full on horror and gore.

Synopsis- Created with both male and females 15+ years in mind. It is a mixture of supernatural and horror. Starring Elizabeth Olsen and Isabella Acres.. A worried mother trying to keep her daughters possession hidden from her neighbour who is threatening to tell. (Appealing to both men and women who will like the horror/possession side and how she will over come the situation.) Living in a safe homely town, Sophie the 8 year old goes to stay at the next-door neighbour Sarah's house whilst her mum has to flee since there is an emergency. At the house across the road Sophie get's scared and wants her mum. She gets very angry and does some mysterious things. Showing the difference between what think you know and what you don't, and how the characters will act and work together in the film. The mother returns home and the neighbour tells the mum what she has seen. She locks her and her daughter in her house and tries her best to keep the secret hidden. Sarah get's drawn in by Sophie and won't leave them alone she get's a big shock when one day she breaks down the door...

Where would it be shown? - The film would be shown independent British cinemas since it is a British film. The film would hopefully become popular and be shown in big chains of cinemas and hopefully in America if I found an American distributor. (Films like the Exorcists that have been an international success and the setting should make sure it could be shown globally.)

Film Exploration

Explore the production distribution and exhibition of your chosen film.

The maze runner

Production details

The director of the maze runner is Wes Ball. He is an American film director, visual effects and graphic artist. He is best known for The Maze Runner, which is a book, based on a book series. The maze runner has 4 writers, 3-screen play and 1 who wrote the novel. Noah Oppenheim, Grant Pierce Myers, T.S Nowlin and James Dashner.  Wes Ball had a meeting with Fox to pith a three-film adaptation of a shot film Ruin. After the meeting they gave him the The Maze Runner novel, he came up with his take on it and by the end they said, “Great, you’re out director”.

The maze runner has three filming locations but Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA is the main location. Most of the film was shot on 8 of the acres of the Thompson farm in Louisiana. They built a 20-foot tall; 40-foot wide doors for the glade that is where most of the film is based each of the door weighed 5,000 pounds.

The main characters Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and Teresa (Kaya Scodelario). Wes ball saw Kaya on the set for skins and wanted her right from the beginning. Dylan O’Brien almost didn’t get the role since his hair looked ‘too MTV’. He saw Dylan starring in teen wolf and finally brought him back in.

Marty Bowen, Eddie Gamarra, Wyck Godfrey, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Joe Hartwick Jr. Lee Stollman and Lindsay Williams produced the film. Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfery.

Temple hill, TSG Entertainment and Gotham Group are the production companies for the film. Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen established the company. TSG is a film financing company who mainly finance action films. 20^th century Fox own TSG entertainment and financed the film.

The film was released September 19^th, 2014. Principle photography began on May 13 2013 and ended on July 12^th 2013.

The film earned over $348 million worldwide; the budget was $34 million. 

TSG Entertainment who is owned by 20th century who is the main company for the whole film financed the film.  

Distribution details

20^th Century Fox distributed the film along with Big picture 2 films, Imperial/Cinepix, Intercom, Oden, Warner Bros, KVH media group and Film1.

            The film is out on DVD and Blue ray, on Sky movies and the film was streamed on Netflix.

            The film was released in cinemas September 19^th 2014, and later released on December 16^th 2014. They chose to release the date to be around Christmas so the film can be bought as a present.

            In July 2013 eleven-character cards were released, this let every one get the first glimpse of the cast and to give the audience their first judgement. From the start of January 2014, director Wes Ball released one image a week, leading up to the film’s first trailer release on March 17^th 2014. 

The film was released worldwide.

            The cast in interviews promoted the film, posters were released and put on billboards and online. Trailers are also a method of promotion but teaser trailers were also released before the full trailer. This was encouraging people to watch it and getting the target audience aware of the film.

            The gross profit of the whole film worldwide profit is $334,367,824. The film has made a huge profit and will continue from DVD purchase. The company won’t make even near the amount of money they did then since the film has been out a long time and people are looking forward to the sequel films.

Exhibition details

The film was released in many different countries worldwide in many many different languages.

The film was played for 1h 53m in cinemas.

BBFC classification says the film is 15 since the film contains strong threat and attacks from large creatures. There is also strong threat from infected characters that become violent. The film contains violence between young people with heavy punches and blows. In one scene s character in shot, a spear hits another. There is some sight of dead bodies, but they only have limited detail of injury. There is sight of a pile of burnt dead bodies, surgery on an exposed brain, and an infected man screaming. The film contains mild bad language.

The film was released in 2D across the world. It was shown in small single screen cinemas to IMAX theatre. The Maze Runner was released on DVD and Blu-ray.

The film has been said to cater for boys, but its popularity is among girls. As the film is rated PG-13 to 15 the film isn’t at aimed young children.

The film appeals to the audience by catering to the fantasies of daydreaming boys, which made is popular among girls, selling their futuristic heroines to female audiences.

 The film has had 6 nominations and 3 awards have been won.