From Idea To Finished Product- Film Pitches

To produce a film and to actually advertise it is a very long process which requires hard work from all the team involved; from the producer, director, distributor to even the crew, all members involved in the making and advertising of a film must be diligent as the process is long.

First of all, for a producer to even start thinking of the making of the film in terms of cast, crew etc, they must know how the film will be financed. if the producer for any reason can't finance the film themselves, there are many funding opportunities that can finance their film. Funding opportunities generally come from organisations such as regional screen agencies or national film organisations, but can also come from private individuals or commercial companies. One of the most common funding organisations in Britain is the UK Film Council.

The UK Film Council is a development fund dedicated to British film making but doesn't exist anymore. They used to support filmmakers in the UK who were emerging or world-class and are capable of creating distinctive and entertaining films. They used to invest 15 million a year across the development, production and completion of feature films which included companies from commercial mainstream to experimental, from genre movies to personal stories, from documentaries to animation to live-action fiction.

Another funding organisation is Screen Yorkshire. Screen Yorkshire is the regional screen agency  for Yorkshire and Humberside, which receives money from the UK Film council to provide funding for films being made in the region. They support all types of production from low budget digital short films to huge feature films shooting on Location in the Yorkshire area.

How would you go about finding a distributor for your film?

It is said that Filmmakers who explore every option and produce good selling tools stand better chances of getting movie distribution deals. Short films always make good sales tools for pitching full-length films. They show what you can do and provide a teaser of what a longer version could be like. A small collection of high-quality short films ( mostly those screened at film festivals ) make memorable calling cards while trying to find investors and distributors. Attending screenings and addressing the audience whenever possible is a key way to finding a distributor as it shows seriousness and a dilligent work ethic which can be appealing to a distributor. Being accepted into a film festival (even the smaller ones) is an honor worth doing and mentioning  in press materials.Winning awards at festivals gives people even more media coverage and clout with distributors.
Also, hiring name actors for your film- marguees is also a good strategy in finging distributors because using star power in the newspaper print ads and on the DVD box translates directly into sales dollars. The best way of course to attract name actors is through a fantastic script.

In an Ideal World, who would you want to distribute your film?
You should distribute your film to a distributor who has connections. The distributor has the exposure of your films in thier hands so ofor your film to get to various cinemas, the distributor must have connections in the buisness. Also, they must have good communication skills, must be very reliable, and must be able to advertise your film well so that the cinemas will be willing to showcase your film. Distributuors such as film 4 and dog woof are popular uk distrubutors and broadcasters that enable films to reach out to a wider range of cinemas.

The link below is a link to a video that shows you how to sell your film to a distributor:
http://www.ehow.com/video_2384832_sell-film-distributors.html

Espiridion- My Horror Film Opening

In the past week, I was able to put all my ideas together to come up with a basic structure/ plan of my horror film opening. I presented all my ideas on a presentation through the Prezi website and presented it to the rest of my classmates in whom were able to give my various feedback.

The constructive criticism- both positive and negative I got from my classmates were very useful as I was able to implement all of the feedback into my planning. For example, while working with my partner, through our presentation and critisim, I realised that both our ideas were similar but not the same. Therefore, I was able to compromise with my partner and combine both our ideas into one which as a result, created the perfect plot for our horror opening. Another point I got from my feedback was the idea of the unseen. When a scary or voilent act is taking place, it's more terrorfying to not see the person doing the violent act than seeing the person doing the violent act. Therfore, most of my scenes will be based on the concept of the unseen. Also, it was adviced that the character  Destiny- who is one of the main characters, should be a women instead of a teenger as it would make the film more realistic. Overall, all feedback was taken into account by me and my partner which really benefited us as we was able to summarise all of our ideas in our planning without loosing both our seperate ideas. We even came up with a title for the film which was named Espiridion which is Greek for 'Little Soul'. The link below is a link to my Prezi horror plan.

http://prezi.com/pwbjfqaddzau/my-horror-film-opening/ 

THE EXPECTANCY IN A HORROR

To make a great horror movie, there are many elements involved that we should expect to see; rather it be the type of sound, the type of camera shots, the type of movement, editing, fonts, choice of image etc. By strategically implementing all of these elements in one, we create a very entertaining horror/ thriller movie.

Through personal research, I have found valuable information of what things to expect in a horror which include the following:

• Dread and Revulsion- the tension and recoil of dread and revulsion. Dread is a kind of specific fear, a grim certainty that something bad is coming. Revulsion occurs when we see how these bad things unfold. I.e. we know that the monster is coming, and at some point we must see the wretchedness of the beast laid bare
• Suspense and tension are key components to the horror-making process. The best way to create these things is to have characters you love making choices you hate. For example, when you see a beloved character about to step near the closet where the unseen serial killer is hiding there is an automatic tension within you and the screen.
• Alarming sounds such as scary, screechy music- this is normally placed  for when something surprising happens.
• Cutting- this is another word for editing which means assembling the film from all of the raw footage shot during production. Aside from assembling shots into scenes, editing also includes significant audio work, including adding music and adding sound effects to create a certain atmosphere in a specific scene.
• Composition- this refers to the arrangement of visual elements within a shot. The more typical shots used in horror filmmaking are long-shot, medium-shot, close-up, POV, establishment shot and extreme close- up.
• Continuinty- it is the characteristic of a scene whereby the action seems fluid and continuous, even though it is composed of a number of shots.

Here are two links of two scenes of a movie that implement various elements of a horror movie in which is smartly used as an effect to engage audiences:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03rySsSSkf4 (Gothika)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPpOQwfP9eY&feature=related ( The Unborn)

PRELIM TASK

During the making of my prelim task, I had learnt so many things through obstacles and success. The things I had learnt include creating the credits at the beginning and at the end of the film, editing the sound; rather it be making the background high or low and manipulating different sounds as an effect to create an emotion in a specific scene. What I found most difficult was making the interval of one scene to the next smooth instead of jumpy. One thing I had successfully done was entertain my audience in each scene through humour. What I would do differently is the setting of my film; in a deserted area would be a very unique and unsual place as a location for a scene as it will automatically engage my audience.

Green Screen

Today in my lesson, I learnt how to create a scene using Green screen. Green scene is a special effect in which you film a scene on a green background and when editing, replace the green background with another image in effect with the scene. It was really fascinating as well as educational as I learnt a lot from it. I learnt that by creating a background of a scene, you automatically change the mood/ atmosphere. The green scene effect is one of the most common ways to create such an effect. I most definitely will be using Green Screen as an effect in my opening horror film to make it more entertaining.