How does your product represent particular social groups (gender, age, ethnicity, class, religion)?

The character of Laverick is 31 years old. He used to be a successful millionaire, with a wife and two children, until a fire broke out in his mansion. The fire tore through his home, burning everything in it's path: including his wife, his children and his business. He was left with nothing. Consumed with revenge, Laverick believed the fire to be an arson attack, he began killing people mercilessly, who had any kind of connection to the fire. The back story of Laverick emphasises the divide between classes, the upper and the lower, even in this modern age, and it shows how easy it is for a person's life to be changed instantly within just a few minutes. For the age group that Laverick belongs too family is very important in modern society, and our film reflects this. When family is taken away people can react in terrible way, overrun by grief. Laverick's family was the most important thing to him, and through the acts of certain people, they died. Our film also shows that although alot of killers and muderers in this world are evil, they usually have had something happen to them in their life to make them act in such a horrible way.

There is one shot in our opening sequence of Laverick throwing a cross on the floor. The scene symbolises Laverick's loss of faith, and has been revealed from our audience research that it is very powerful. Laverick once believed in God and Christianity, but since the death of his wife and children his faith has been very neglected. This is representative of what can happen during one's life; although faith can be a good thing and give people hope, it can also make one think of why there is suffering in the world.

We took inspiration for our character from the film 'Saw'. The antagonist of the film is a man named 'Jigsaw', a man who commits numerous evil deeds over his life time. He puts people in terrible situations to test their will to survive. However, the character is not just a mindless killer. He was driver to his deeds, as revealed in the third film, due to the death of his unborn child by a robber. Ever since then, and his cancer, he has wanted to test people to see if they can pass his cruel tests. He is a very mysterious character, and nobody knows his true identity. He is extremely isolation from everyone else in society, which is very similar to Laverick. On the other hand, Jigsaw does not actually kill, he merely puts people in terrible situations and watches them die. This is unlike Laverick as Laverick actually commits his crimes.

Below is a picture of Jigsaw from the 'Saw' films.

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

The close up of the lamp turning on emphasises revealing: it is revealing the truth to the character. It also emphasises the fact that he is isolated from the rest of society, due to the fact that it has a shot of unnatural lighting, which is in contrast to the outisde shot, with natural lighting, showing that he is seperate.

The shot of the barred windows emphasises that he is seperated from society and that he is perhaps dangerous. The rain immediately sets the mood of the film: negative with heavy undertones. Rain is a typical horror genre convention, as it immediately lets the audience know the tone and setting of the film will be.

Another example of a way that our film uses the conventions of the horror genre is with the use of shadows. Shadows can emphasise numerous things: vulnerability, mystery, danger. In this case, it represents Laverick's mysterious personality. This puts the audience on edge, as shadows give the impression that somebody is behind you.
The name of our film is 'Branded'. This is key to the horror genre, as when we researched into names we noticed that the name had to be to the point of the film. Examples of this are films like 'Saw' and 'Scream'. Both of these names gives the audiences clues as to what the film will be about, but not too much.

The narrative of our film is a key convention of the horror genre. It involves violence, revenge and a killer. These three aspects are key to the success of the film. It is important to keep the motive of the killer fairly hidden until the end of the film, thus to keep audiences interested. It is important to drop a few hints in the film, however, so that audiences can begin to piece together some parts of the information and guess themselves the motives of his actions. We done this in the opening of the film, by panning across a few key words in newspapers.

The title of the film/Title font and style
The title of the film, 'Branded', appears at the end of the sequence, as the door slams shut. The loud bang of the door slamming allows the audience to know that the name of the film itself will be very important to the plot of the film. The title font and style are the same for the Production Company (as seen in the top right image), the title credits and of the film name. We felt that this use of consistency in font and colour let the opening sequence flow more easily together, and linked all of the shots together perfectly. The font itself is quite Gothic, seeming fairly sharp. This introduces the audience to the genre of our film. The use of the black and white colours are fairly bland and depressing, which helps set the tone of the film. We took inspiration from this from title sequences such as 'Final Destination' who used the same font and style in both the title credits and the name of the film itself.

Setting/location
The location of the film is extremely effective. It is quite worn-down and seems secluded from the rest of society. The shot of the barred windows really emphasises this point, as it shows that Laverick is seperated from everyone else; almost like a prisoner. This is representative of his mental state - he feels like he belongs in a seperate place than everyone else. Inside of the workshop in which Laverick hides, there are many tools and weapons layed out on the desk, showing the strong violent themes within our film, which would continue if we were to make it as a feature film. The colours and lighting in the workshop are subdued and dark, representing Laverick's character.

Costumes and props
The costume of Laverick is quite plain and simple. We purposely chose to dress Laverick in such a way so that the audience would be reminded that Laverick was once just an ordinary man, who had his whole life changed in an instant. The shot of his muddy trainers show that he has been out of his workshop recently, allowing the audience to ponder on why this would have been.
The props in our opening sequence are also used to great effect. The shot of the blood on the knife truely emphaises this. There is one key shot of the radio which is highly important. This is because you can see Laverick lift up a knife in the reflection of the radio, as the news report plays overhead. This particular shot shows us the connection that Laverick has with the rest of society - violence. He only seeks revenge.

Camerawork and edting
There are numerous editing techniques used to portray meaning. The shot of the production company name fading into the shot of the radio is one, as it connects the titles to the rest of the film, allowing them to seem like they belong with the actual footage. As the opening sequence progresses, the editing picks up pace, and becomes more and more unsettling for the viewer. This is particularly shown in the shots of Laverick crossing out people's faces in newspapers, and underlining key words which have relevance to him. In some shots, we purposely made the camerawork appear to be slightly shakey, thus to represent Laverick's mental welfare - unstable. However, in our first draft we overused this technique, so we corrected it in our final piece and only made the footage appear to be slightly shakey in certain scenes. The camera is also positioned in such a way so that the audience never get to see too much of Laverick's body - thus adding to the mystery of the character.

Story and how the opening sets it up
The story of 'Branded' is about a once successful millionaire. He lived in a luxurious mansion with his wife and two children, before it was horrifically burnt down in a terrible arson attack, in which his wife and two children perished. Laverick went missing for two years, and mysterious murders started happening around London, all of whom were connected to the fire in some way (the police men, the judges who released the arsonists, the arsonists themselves, the fire men etc.) Laverick becomes consumed with revenge, and kills all of his victims in a certain way (but slitting their throat and by branding their skin with an emblem of fire. Can the police stop the deranged killer before it's too late?
Our opening sequence has strong links with the story of our film. The scene begins with a news report being played on the radio, all of which are to do with the murders which Laverick has commited. There are also newspaper cuttings which depict everyone connected with the fire, and show Laverick crossing them out - suggesting their impending death. As the opening sequence end, the audience see Laverick exit his lair after marking an 'X' on a map, showing them that he is going to commit another murder. This leaves the opening in such a manner that it would be easy to pick up from if we were actually making the whole film.

Genre and how the opening suggests it
The genre of our film is horror/thriller. Numerous techniques are used in our film to portray this.
One convention of real horror films which we drew inspiration from was the idea of weaponary. Weapons, such as guns, knifes, swords, nails and more are always used as one of the main props to promote that the film belongs in the horror genre. Weapons are what is used to do damage to people, thus it induces fear into the audience. One particular shot which shows this is the one of the reflection of the knife in the radio. The camera is positioned in such a way so that the light from the lamp bounces off the knife. This shot, I feel, particularly emphasises this point as the short is quite brief, which makes the audience unsure to what they have seen. We used a panning shot of tools on a desk which are organised neatly, showing the violent aspect of our film. This shot also shows that Laverick only cares about his weapons, which is quite disturbing.
Another key shot in our film which portrays the horror genre is the one of Laverick wiping blood off a knife. This strongly hints at gore, and shows that this character will stop a no lengths to get his ultimate revenge. The blood on the knife strongly emphasises the horrofic side of our film, as it strongly hints to violence.
The use of lighting is a horror convention which we drew upon. We purposely dressed the set in such a manner so that in any shots that Laverick appears, shadows will be cast across the wall. This adds a sense of mystery and enigma to the whole scene.

How characters are introduced
Laverick is introduced with him opening a door. However, you only see his hand and a small proportion of his body. We continued to do this throughout our whole film, and only showed certain parts of his body. This gave the film a sense of mystery, making the audience wonder as to what Laverick really looks like. This also keeps his identitiy hidden, which makes the audience wonder who he really is...

Soundtrack

We found the soundtrack to our music on YouTube. The soundtrack appears to be fan-made, and we researched it to check that it was not copyrighted. Once we were sure that we were not breaching copyright laws, we used GarageBand to convert the video into an mp3 format so that we could use it as a soundtrack to put over the top of our film. It worked extremey effectively with our opening sequence, as it used a range of instruments (mainly piano), to create a high level of tension in the audience. The msuci is very typical of the horror genre, as it puts the audience on edge. It allows the spectator of our film to imediately see that it belongs in the horror genrand that the antogonist will be partiuclarly horrific and evil.

Foley Sound

Foley sound is the creation of your own sound. Foley sound is used in many major films and television shows, as sounds have to fit the action that audiences see on screen to ensure that the visuals are believable. An example of this would be, if a man is walking down a street then the audience would expect footsteps to be audible. This will create a sense realism to the audience. Foley sound will not be a large aspect of our film, as we are having voice-overs and quite music for most of it, but we do need to consider this in our film.

To make our film authentic we will have to take foley sound into consideration. We will be creating some of our own sounds, which will include rain, footsteps, a door slamming, a door creaking (undecided), the sound of a radio out of tune and many more. To do this we will record each of these sounds individually and then simply delete the video footage. To get the sound of rain pouring down a window we will use a hose-pipe and a window and record the sound. We will repeat the process of this with all of our other objects. This will make our film seem credible, and give it a sense of professionalism.

Unearthly Productions Information

Unearthly Productions is our company which we have made up to produce our film. The logo of this company will appear at the start of our opening, fading out slowly into the first shot. The logo of our production company itself gives information away about what kind of films the company will be producing, using an eye to make the audience feel uncomfortable, and a Gothic font giving off the impression that the films they make will be quite gritty and disturbing. The company will produce independent films,as they offer a certain experience to a more specilist, niche audience.

Unearthly Productions produce fairly gritty films, which are hard for the viewer to watch. Genres which Unearthly Productions are likely to produce are: horror, thriller, phsychological horror, slasher. All films that Unearthly Productions produce will offer the audience quite a scary experience, making the audience be scared through both suggestion and blatant violent imagery, although in our film we are making the fear is more in human suggestion. Similar films to ours include: Saw, Final Destination and Friday the 13th, all of which use a mix of graphic violence and disturbing imagery.

Two examples of independent film company logos are shown below. They are both of a quite a simplistic design, which means that the film companies are both quite likely to make serious, hard-hitting films, as opposed to children's films.

Second Script

The first few seconds of the film are of a black screen, with the sound of an out of tune radio and distant rain playing overhead. Then the screen fades in, revealing an old radio. The radio cuts into a broadcast, which says: “Good evening. The London Metropolitan Police have announced another murder today. The killer which has set his sights on murdering citizens around the capital has brutally killed a young single mother. She has been named as Sophie Morrison. Her family have been informed.” The radio the cuts out and goes back to it's out of tune state. The camera then, slowly, pans up to show rain pouring down a barred window. A hooded figure walks past, and approached a door. The camera cuts to a shot of a door opening, and you see the man's feet on the floor. In one hand he is holding a long branding iron. The camera follows him as he places the branding iron at the far end of the room. Then, it shows the character, Laverick, switches off the radio. The camera then cuts to a shot of the window, looking into the room, and Laverick then proceeds to close the blind. This makes Laverick seem more isolated from the normal stir of society. There is then a shot of Laverick placing a knife and scissors in his bag of tools. This adds a sense violence to the character, as you see what kind of tools he uses to brutally kill his victims. After this, the shot changes to shots of battered old newspaper cuttings on the wall, which read “Laverick becomes country's most successful entrepreneur”, “Laverick wife and children killed in horrific mansion fire”, “Laverick mansion arsonists walk free. Laverick missing for three years”, “Body in woodland with an unknown logo branded into skin.” In between all of these cuttings, pictures of Laverick's potential victims appear briefly. Laverick then proceeds to pick a pen, and cross out an image of his next victim. Laverick then collects his branding iron, and the camera cuts to a shot of the door slamming shut.

Second Filming Attempt

Our second filming attempt, I feel, went alot better than our first. This is because we took much more care and effort into ensuring that there was no continualty errors. We made sure, unlike last time, that there was rain running down the window in all of the shots. We also ensured that nothing moved in different shots, to ensure a sense of realism of the location.

The camera-work was much less shakey than our first filming attempt, as we used a tripod. Any shots where we did not use a tripod we ensured that it was as stable as possible. In some shots, we did not keep the camera entirely still, but this was to give a small sense of distortion off to the audience.

On reviewing our first footage we noticed that we needed to 'dress' the set more to create a better atmosphere to match the mood and themes or our film. To do this we did many things. First of all, we decided to have the main character close the blinds near the beginning of the film, making him seem seperated from the normal stir of society. Secondly, we put a white, stained, curtain over the window of the door, to, again, make him seem more apart from average people. Thirdly, we made the newspaper cuttings and pictures look more worn out and old. We done this by ripping them and briefly soaking them in tea-water. This aged them, giving a sense that Laverick, the killer in our film, has been lusting after revenge for a long amount of time. Finally, we put numerous work tools scattered around the desk, which were old and rusty. This gives a sense of age, violence and dilapidation to the film. The lighting of what we filmed was not ideal, but upon editing we shall use effects to change this fact.

However, we upon watching our footage we realised that having the character walk around the workshop is confusing and, frankly, boring for the viewer to watch. We have decided to focus more on props instead of the character. Any shots we do have of the main character will only be segements of his body (eg. hands, feet, fingers). This will make him seem more mysterious. Also, we want to use quicker editing, so there are quick flashing of words, props and images on the screen, instead of him slowly walking across.