A Widow's Death Story Board

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Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

We started preparing our film by researching other films similar aspects. From this we could see if our target audience had seen and enjoyed these films too. We watched the trailers from films such as “Sin City”, “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” and “Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles.”

'Sin City' - we used this film as inspiration because of the colour scheme ( all black and white with certain colours stuck out). Although this was our initial inspiration, we were unable to pick out certain colours with the rest of the scene in black and white. However, we did us this inspiration for our final poster and DVD options, where the rose is in red and the rest of the picture is in black and white.

'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' - we use this film for inspiration because of the schizophrenia or split personality. In "A Widow's Death", The widow (Elizabeth) has schizophrenia which is later revealed in more detail later on in the film, but is hinted in the diary entry when she is writing about her mother.

'Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles' - the inspiration here was the set location where it is set in Dartmoor where the moors are very spooky. we thought of different places to set our film, and a church stuck out as a very spooky location. Another piece of inspiration which originated from 'Sherlock Holmes', was the detective idea. However, this is later revealed in the rest of the film.

How does your media Product represent Particular social groups?

In "A Widow's Death", there are only two characters which makes it simplistic and avoids confusion, as the two characters are very different.

The First character is Elizabeth, played by me, Alice McKenna, who is a young woman, late teens/ early twenties, who is very mature due to the fact that in 1843, people went to work at a very young age and therefore grew up quicker. However, despite this Elizabeth suffers from schizophrenia, (our inspiration from 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'). We have dressed her in all black to show she is in mourning and to something is not quite right with her.

The other character is the un-named murderer, played by Ed Green's brother, George Green. Although you never see the murderers face, you can see his bright white hair which contrasts to the black cloak he is wearing. This also gives the idea that something is not right. The 'albino-ness' of his character also makes the audience feel uneasy about him, as well as the fact that he keeps popping up everywhere behind things - this gives an eerie feeling.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The type of media institution we would use to distribute our media product would be Working Title a British film production company based in London. We would used them because we aim to produce a British murder mystery film which Working Title films have done before, such as : "The Man who wasn't there" and "Libestraum". Therefore, I think they would be perfect to distribute our film as they have a record of being very successful.

Who would be your audience for your media product?

Our target audience for our film would be for the ages of 15+ , as the films that we have studied such as 'Sin City’ and ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ have been rated at around a 15, so we felt that although our film doesn't include any scenes of blood, it does include violence and is quite complex. It is hard to guess what ages it would be suitable for and therefore we made it a 15.

How did you attract/address your audience?

After we had chosen the genre - murder mystery/ period drama / horror , we wanted to make a film which would make the the audience want to watch on. we thought a good way of making sure they would want to watch on would be to see if we would want to watch on.

We liked the idea of showing the ending first because this makes the audience want to know and find out what had lead up to the murder.

Another way we could tell that the audience would like our film was because of our questionnaire.

we interviewed 30 girls and boys, aged between 15-17.

This is what we asked them:

1. 1.Do you like murder mystery films?

2. 2.Do you prefer an intense scary film or a more light hearted film?

3. 3. Have you ever watched Sin City ?

Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles?

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?

4. 4. If so, did you enjoy them?

5. 5. Which would you find scarier? A knife or a gun or an axe?

6. 6. What location would you find more eerie and intense? A wood or a church graveyard?

After gathering up the information from our questionnaire, we then made a second questionnaire which relates to what the target audience replied.

1. 1.We are planning on making a murder mystery film, in black and white, set in the 19^th century in a church graveyard. Do you think this would be interesting for people you age, (age 15-17), to watch?

2. 2. Would you watch our film?

3. 3. How could we improve on our idea?

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What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

To make "A Widow's Death", we use a lot of programmes on the apple macs. They were:

1. Final Cut Express - had never used Final cut express properly before. Overall I found it fairly easy to use. However, it was a bit confusing when you had to drag the correct clip onto the film, as these clips had number names which were not relative to what was on the clip. Another aspect I found difficult was cutting the clip in exactly the right place, especially with the sound because I found it quite easy to cut some of the voice of which you didn't want cut off.

2. Garage band - Although I had used Garage band before, I found this extremely difficult to use. Not because of the lay out of garage band , but because when we recorded a piece, something always went wrong and we found it too complex to resolve so started again and again until we decided to use Cubase instead.

3. Cubase - this was much easier than Garage band and we decided to have a little girl singing accapella. This stopped any confusion of keys for accompaniments.

4. Photoshop - finally, we used Photoshop. I in particular, found Photoshop hard to used and I didn't really understand how to used it. Luckily, Dan knew how to used it well and directed what we should do to get our poster and DVD options perfect.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the final product?

I believe that the preliminary task was great preparation for our end product. We were able to experiment using the cameras and also to practise and see which camera angles worked and which didn't look as good.

By doing the preliminary film, we learnt a few things which we would not want to have in our real film. First of all, at the beginning of our preliminary film especially, there is a lot of echo. in our final film, we didn't have diagetic voice but we did have diagetic footsteps in the church. Although this was a problem in our Preliminary film, it wasn't so much of a problem in the church as it added an eerie feeling to the scene. we did however, turn the sound down so that the footsteps wouldn't draw attention away to what was happening and the non- diagetic singing in the background.

Another thing we learnt from filming the Preliminary film was that we can act out props which are not there. For example, in our preliminary film, Ed looked at his watch. However, he did not have a watch on at the time. luckily he realised this and covered it up.

A third mistake we made in out preliminary film, was that Josh entered and exited through different doors. he should have left through the same door. we then knew that in our final film, we had to enter and exit through the same door.

the final thing we learnt was that the background noise was a big problem in our preliminary film. therefore we had to mute the background noise in our final piece.

comparing our preliminary film to our final film, you can see it is much more flowing and more advanced with different fades used and different and more inventive angles.

overall, I enjoyed making "A Widow's Death" and I particularly enjoyed being inventive, creative and acting out the Widow.

Our Preliminary Film

This is our preliminary film. It is about an interview, where we have used different types of shots to show different things. For example, in the first shot we have used a medium high angle shot because the character is going for an interview and therefore vulnerable and has a lower status. We used a medium / long shot so the audience can see what the interviewee is wearing and so they can tell easily that he is going to have an interview. Another example where we have used different types of shots is in this fifth shot. Here, we have used a medium close upshot at the eye level of the interviewer. We did this to show the emotion of the interviewer so the audience can tell what he is thinking about the interviewee.

This is the story board :-

Plans

Before we started filming and once we had a rough idea of what we wanted, we wrote down our thoughts and considerations for the film.
This is our plans for our film - "A Widow's Death"

The DVD

We had a few ideas for our DVD cover - The first, has the options along the side and the second has the options along the bottom.
we decided to use the first one ( with the options along the side) because we felt it was more evenly spread across the screen, and therefore we liked it more.

Our Final Poster

Although we had many ideas for posters, this was our final product. We decided to use the rose on our poster because we had roses throughout the film, - the song "Ring a ring of roses" and the rose which is used by the widow and then by the murderer. To make this poster, we used 'Photoshop', which I found quite complicated to use.

Our Group

Ed Green - Director / Producer

Joshua Baker - Director/Camera man

Daniel Elliot - Editing

Alice McKenna - Production / Editing

Textual Analysis

We received our inspiration from three main films. These movies were Frank Miller's 'Sin city', Victor Flemming's 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' and 'Sherlock Holmes and the hound of the Baskervilles'. We used all three films to gain the maximum inspiration - the characters and the storyline.

The first film we thought of was 'Sin City'. In this film, the primary aspect of it is the black and white style, with certain, vibrant colours outstanding. These colours might be a colour which describes a characters personality. However, we couldn't have the intended single colours, but we kept the inspiration of the black and white theme.

Our second film which gave us inspiration was Flemming's 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'. Here the inspiration came from parts of the story line. The idea Flemming uses of a split mind or schizophrenia, helped us influence 'A Widow's death' - the Widow suffers from schizophrenia, which we see in the first scene with the diary entry. If we were to carry this film on, the theme of schizophrenia will be shown throughout the rest of the film. we took this aspect of 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' to show how the condition can drastically change peoples lives.

Finally, the third film which greatly influenced us was 'Sherlock Holmes and the hound of the Baskervilles' directed by David Attwood. The way Attwood has set this film gave it a spooky feel to it which we liked very much. Therefore, we wanted to include this in our film. We chose a church which was a very spooky feel to it and a lot of of gravestones in its yard. Aswell as the influence from the spooky, eery feel from 'Sherlock Holmes and the hound of the Baskervilles', there was the aspect of the character Sherlock Holmes, which we would base a detective character on in the rest of 'A widow's death'.

Filming

We filmed on 7th November 2009 at Great Missenden Church. Josh and I met Ed and Dan at the church along with George. We used several props like an axe, and the costumes - a dress for the widow, and a cloak for the murderer.

To film, we used a video camera and a tri-stand. We tired out different angles and planned out which ones we were going to use and which ones looked best. We worked well as a team, because we discussed our ideas.

We also came across a few problems on the way. One of which was people getting in the way of our shots. we couldn't do much about this, so we just had to wait for them to go.

There were also problems which we came across after we had filmed. For example, when the widow is dead, you can see her breathing. This isn't such a big problem because we haven't filmed the rest of the film, she might not be dead. This was at 1:50 minutes in the film

Another problem we came across, was when the widow knelt down to put the rose down by her mothers grave, we then realised that she never got back up and so just appeared walking down to the church. to resolve this problem, we put the shot at 52 seconds in reverse to make the shot at 1:00 minute.

The Music

In the background of "A widow's death", we have diagetic sound of a little girl singing "ring a ring of roses."

We had the piano playing "ring a ring of roses". We planned on having the voice of the little girl singing with the piano accompanying it. We wrote the piano music on Garageband and then recorded the voice. Unfortunately they were in different keys, so when we put the two together, they didn't sound right. They were also different tempos do they didn't match up.

Due to this, we decided to swap the piano for a violin, which gave the film an spooky feel with more of a sad tone . Richard Atherton recorded the violin for us, and I sang the song. We finally got it right, and put it onto the film. Unfortunately it just didn't sound right, so we decided to just have the little girl singing A Capella. This is what we have in our final film.

Different thing we tried but didnt work

We tried a variety of different things, which didn't work, so we cut them out.

Firstly, we tried having the piano playing the tune along with the girl singing. This brought up confusion and ended up not working. This was because when we recorded the piano, it was in the wrong key to the voice, so when we played the voice and piano over each other, they were in two different keys. Another thing we found when we put the two together was that the voice and piano didn't match up - they were at different tempos.


Due to this piano/voice thing not working, we decided to switch the piano to the violin, with a more sad/spooky feel to it. We had it playing slowly and recorded the voice again to fit. We finally finished recording it and matching it to the film when we realised that it didn't really fit to the film and we just didn't like it. After all that work on the sound, we decided to just stick with a little girl singing in A Capella. We added an echo effect to it, which worked and that's what we have in our final film.

Diary Entry

We wrote this diary entry to show the audience that "A Widow's Death" is set in 1943 and to tell the story. If we were to continue this film, we would have it based around different diary entries to tell the story.

"Visited mama today. She did not look at all well. I stayed with her a while. And we talked a while. About nice things. The time we spent together and the fun that we had. And then i left her. Just as she left me. So unexpectedly. So...sudden."

We have used short sentences to show that the widow is thinking bout her thoughts. The longest sentence is "the time we spent together and the fun that we had". This is also the happiest line in the diary entry. She reads this like its the thing that made her day and shes over joyed that it happened.

The lyircs to "Ring a Ring of Roses"

We chose to have this song being sung in the back ground, because of the lyrics and the reference to "roses"

"Ring a ring of roses,
a pocket full of poses,
a tissue, a tissue,
we all fall down.

the king has sent his daughter,
to fetch a pail of water,
a tissue, a tissue,
we all fall down.

the bird upon the steeple,
sits high above the people,
a tissue, a tissue,
we all fall down.

ring a ring,
ring a ring,
ring a ring of roses,
we all..fall..down."

we used an echo on the voice to show that its a memory and the give the place and eery feeling.

A Widow's Death

Meis en Scene

In the beginning of the film, there is a hand, writing a diary in a fountain pen. The fact she uses a fountain pen connotes it's set in a different time period to now-a-days. The handwriting is also written with an "old-fashioned slant" and very "girly", which connotes the diversity between men and women at that time. We have also chosen this handwriting so the audience can understand the connotation set 1843. We have written the date on the diary entry to show the audience exactly when it was set and there is a light of a candle flickering in the background to give a feeling of a time when there was no electricity. There is a woman's voice reading the diary whilst you can see her write it. The girls voice is soft, with an uneasy tone to it. This also connotes the Victorian era.

The whole of the film is in black and white. We got our inspiration from "sin city" which is in black and white with a certain colour outstanding. We tried to make our film all black and white, apart from the red colour of the rose. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to do this.

After it shows the girl writing her diary, it fades into the girl walking up some steps with a little girl singing in the background. This is the widow remembering the fun she had with her mum, mentioned in the diary entry, as they played ring a ring a roses. This gives a uneasy feel to the mood , which is what we were aiming for. she places a rose on her mothers grave, which connotes love.

A girl (Elizabeth) is at the graveyard wearing all black: a black flowy dress, black tights and black hi heels. We put her like this because she has just lost her husband, so she is in mourning. We have also made her face pale by putting talcum powder on her face to contrast with the darkness of the black. This also connotes he being ill and depressed with her loss.

After each verse of the song "ring a ring of roses", we hear church bells in the background. This is to show that she is not alone, even though she doesn't know it.

My favourite shot is when the widow is crying by her mothers grave, and the murderer is the other side of the grave stone. I like this because it shows that the mother was in the way of the murderer when she was alive and there she is too - between them. I also like it because, he is so close to her but she doesn't realise. This happens at 0:59 second into the film.

The murderer follows the widow into the church and she prays at the alter. He walks up behind her and she turns around just as he swings an axe into her back. He then places the rose on her chest and walks away. This could symbolise the love he has for her and this makes the audience think about if he will regret killing her. The light gets brighter and brighter when he walks back up the aisle, as if shes going up to heaven above him.

We have also put the murderer in all black. We decided to do this to connote the fact that he is evil. This also shows a connection between the widow and the murderer. The murderer could be related to the Widow or even he supposedly "dead" husband - you would find out in the rest of the film.