Character Profiling

Jackson:
Jackson is an ordinary guy caught up in the most horrendous situation, before the outbreak he was an armed response police officer with one of the best shots in the force! He was once known to hit a bullseye from 650 yards in shooting practice and due to this he earned the respect of everyone around him, He was well known in the community as "The Leather Guy" as he was constantly seen in his trademark leather jacket come rain or shine, Jackson is a keen boxer and more than capable of hand to hand combat with an enemy, be they alive or dead.

Maisie:
Maisie is the typical fighting spirit personisfied,what she lacks in physical height/weight she more than makes up for in intelligence and charisma, before the outbreak she was a phsycology student in college although she was always ahead of the class which made her more foes than friends, Anouther one of Maisie's downsides is her attitude, she knows how clever she is and it gets to her head.

CGI

This clip is the same video as the previous one except whereas the other was live action , this is CGI... the first clip was the original Resident Evil (1996) but the second is of the 2003 remake... it shows that although actors could easily have been used to create another live action opening, Capcom (the games creators) decided to use computer technology to make the introduction... Why?...It could simply be that Capcom wanted to show that they were up to date with technology as this was the early 21st century everyone was playing around with new ways of creating and developing exciting visual effects for an audience, it certainly would not have been because it was cheaper as a CGI clip would surly cost more than a short live intro, or it could be that Capcom had the belief that a computer generated introduction would look more "rounded" and fit in better with the rest of the game... I would consider creating a CGI opening but I feel I would struggle as I do not have a massive amount of technology which could help me do so.

This is the opening to Resident Evil, a 1996 video game which featured a live action opening, I would like a scene similar to this one as despite the poor acting I like the blood and basic storyline which sets up the rest of the game nicley with a clear setting and problem which needs to be resolved in the course of the title,I would like to create an opening which appears as though it could be an incarnation of a video game such as Resident Evil which was followed by several movies, I feel a movie adaptation of a popular game is one of the best ways for a company to create a massive revenue as fans of the original video games will automatically build a hype for a feature film, returning to my earlier point Capcom (the makers of the Resident Evil games) allowed Constantin Films to develop the silver screen version and due to the huge success of Capcom's virtual version the film was also a success and opened a path for several other movies and video games under the Resident Evil name to be created and the brand is still one of the most recognised zombie related products on the market.

Types of sound for a media product.

Dialogue- language, accent, tone, style and register.
Voiceover- often narration, human voice in background of scene, used for characters thoughts often.
Incidental music- subtly added music to help scenes mood.
Ambient sound- natural background noise.
Themes and stings- jingles, theme tunes, repeated for emphasis.
Soundtrack- everything in a scene, music, speech, jingle, background noise.
Sound effects-added for emphasis such as explosions etc.
Silence- creates tension/ suspense for effect.

I would like to use some Incidental music, dialogue, sound effects but also silence in places in my project, I feel I can use this to create effect in my scene in tense moments, especially the silence/incidental sound.

Well known examples/producers/directors of the zombie genre.

When a person thinks of zombies they think of George A. Romero, this man is possibly the most famous person related to the genre, his films are world known for their genuine looking gore and snappy action, I would like to reflect Mr. Romero's work in my project as a style model as I like the "end of the world" feel that he puts across time and time again.

99% of zombie films feature a male protagonist, this is typically due to men being seen as stronger and more suited to an apocalyptic scenario than a women who is often seen as the poor helpless character who needs rescuing or who accidentally lets hordes of the undead in through the front door, this stereotype is however broken fantastically by Milla in the Resident Evil series, Milla plays Alice who falls into maidens of the dead movie for generations judging by her looks...until she opens her mouth or puts her guard up, Alice is a rock hard heroine with a taste for rotting corpses and could give your meanest, hardest male lead role a run for his money...

History of industry/medium

The zombie genre has been capturing audiences and giving them a thrill for decades, it all started to show around as early as the 1940's with America being the first to petrify crowds with scenes of dead people coming back to life and eating on the living, at the time this was as fearful as cinema was or ever could be and there was often cases of viewers at screenings fainting and being carried out of shows, zombie films remained to scare throughout the 50's and 60's and in the 70's a legend was revealed to the world... George A. Romero's Dawn Of The Dead... this feature was so scary to audiences that it soon became spread world wide simply through word of mouth this film launched Romero's career which is still strong today, zombie movies continued to be produced into the 00's and films such as Resident Evil and 28 Days Later.

Audience Expectations

In zombie films audiences are expecting a thill, this tends to be the norm nowadays whereas a few decades ago in "Night Of The Living Dead" days audiences were expecting to be scared senseless...

In recent years zombie films have become less scary... or have they? We tend to take this as fact when in reality this could be due to Desensitisation Theory, where an audience has been subject to a particular shock or extreme that they don't find it as scary as they originally would.

But even so, crowds still flock to cinemas worldwide to watch the latest "Resident Evil" or George A. Romero movie, and films such as "28 Days Later" and TV series like "The Walking Dead" are amazingly successful with DVD sales. Also on top of this video games like "Dead Island", "Left 4 Dead" and "Dead Rising" fly off shelves in their hundreds of thousands... Why is this? Because people still get a thrill out of witnessing the dead come to life.

And with new films in the pipe line such as "World War Z" starring Brad Pitt theres no way that the zombie genre is becoming outdated any time soon.

Final Task Ideas

For my final piece I have chosen to create a zombie-apocalypse style film introduction using films such as George A. Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" as inspiration but also using video games such as "Resident Evil", "Dead Rising" and "Dead Island".

I would like my piece to look as professional as possible using the resources I have at hand which are mainly:

• An Apple Mac
• Final Cut Express
• An HD Video Recorder
• A Tripod

I will also use various equipment on an extremely basic level such as custom made dollies, tracks etc etc...

I have changed genres from comedy in my preliminary to zombie horror/thriller in my final piece simply because I wanted to study and practice a few different genres and not stick to a particular piece.

Preliminary Evaluation...

I have completed my preliminary task for video and successfully filmed and edited a short introduction involving a character walking across a room and exchanging a couple lines of dialogue with another person.

I filmed this piece using a Sony cam-corder which was attached to a tripod for almost all of the filming except a short shot where it was hand-held.

Things included in my piece were:

• someone opening a door
• walking across a room
• sitting down
• engaging in conversation with another person
• shot reverse shot

There is continuity throughout except the closing shot which is a purposeful and NOT a continuity mistake where the two characters suddenly have different ties on. This is a part of the scene and is supposed to add a comedic effect which is shown on the actors faces in the last frame.

I enjoyed the whole acting process as this is a passion of mine and is hopefully going to be my future career, I also enjoyed editing with Final Cut on the Macs on a whole I enjoyed the whole process from thinking of the original idea to final viewing.

I think to make the piece better I could not necessary focus so much on the script side of it as it was only a preliminary and not worry about scripts until the final piece.

Preliminary Task

This is the hyperlink for my preliminary task..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYTUXxtB_AQ

Brief

Video:

Preliminary exercise:continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom he/she then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot/ and the 180 degree angle.

I have chosen to do the video option because i enjoy filming and acting and think that I would excel better in video than in print, audio or web design...I would like to pursue a career in performing arts or media when I am older and think that this could do as good practice.

My aim is to create an intro to a comedy movie using a preliminary task stated above using tech such as final cut express, a camera and a tripod.