Final Review 'Run Hard'

Run hard Review Magazine (2nd Draft)

A2 Textual analysis of a similar product

Title: I know what you did last summer

Date of release: October 17^th 1997

Name of director: Jim Gillespie

Genre: Horror / mystery/thriller

My textual analysis of a similar product is about a horror/mystery/thriller film called –‘I know what you did last summer’. I chose this particular movie because I thought the suspense of the horror action was very well made in this film. ‘I know what you did last summer’ has also got similar narrative to the short film I’m planning to make for my A2 production. This is as my film also consists of few teenagers getting killed of one by one by a mysterious character that has their reasons.

The narrative structure for “I know what you did last summer’

Equilibrium is 4 youngsters going home after a night of celebrating Helens win at a beauty pageant.

Disruption is when they hit and apparently kill a man with Barry’s car and decide to dump the dead body in the ocean and never talk of it again.

The new equilibrium is Julie in her second year of college receiving a letter to go to a pool party. This occurs at the end of the film.

Genre codes and conventions

“I know what you did last summer’ has a lot of typical stereotype characters in it. The lead character that is the survivor of the film is a smart, good girl called Julie, her friend is a beauty queen Helen who wears short dresses and dates the high school jock Barry who has a brand new car in which they cause an accident. Ray is Julie’s boyfriend who is a typical easygoing guy; we see this when he brakes up a fight between Barry and another guy.

The killer of the film carries the typical codes and conventions of a horror film by using the same weapon to kill, which is a hook. He is a mentally disturbed man who wears a black raincoat and we can’t see his face.

Sound is very important in horror movies and this is not an exception we hear a lot of tension raising music that builds up before the killer appears on the screen.

The lighting in this film differs from scene to scene but is mostly low-key high contrast. The scenes where the killer is seen is mostly shadow full dark places that help with increasing tension and fright to the movies audience.

Settings are mostly those that are everyday places as usual for a horror film. As that gives the effect to the viewer that this could happen in real life.

Editing at the scary parts of the film is mostly fast pace, but the editing pace varies throughout the movie corresponding to the action that we see.

There’s a lot of close ups in order to show the characters facial expressions that are full of fright in the movie, long shots are also dominant in the scarier parts of the film like the chase scenes, so we can see the running properly. Two shots and mid close ups dominate the rest of the films cinematography; they create a safe, friendlier environment.

Detailed textual analysis of 2-3minute extract

The extract is from the part when Helen comes back home and the killer enters her room unnoticed.

The first shot of the extract is a panning shot of Helen entering the kitchen and opening the fridge. Her body language and facial expression makes her look calm.

The next shot is a close up of a TV screen that shows a baseball game.

We see a man sitting down on a sofa sipping on a drink in the living room. His shot is a mid close up, but we see most of the room and in the background we see a light shadow moving bigger and bigger and then a figure of a man suddenly appears in the shadow.

 Then there’s a cut to a high angle shot from the stairs to the corridor where we also see the shadow.

Cut back to Helen with a can of cola in her hand, this is a pan from right to left of her picking up an empty glass from the table.

Fast cut to the door, where we see a tracking shot towards the killers figure and he closes the door.

Cut to a close up of the drink can that gets opened and poured into a glass.

Cut to a warm’s eye view of the killer in a black raincoat who straightens his arm and we see a very shiny big hook in his hand.

Cut to the close up of the TV screen, and then cut to the mid shot of a man on the sofa.

Cut to a low angle close up of Helen drinking a glass of cola.

Cut to the view from the door, tracking towards the light that seems to be coming from the kitchen.

Cut to a close up of Helen putting down the glass on the table and walking away.

Cut to further tracking towards the light coming from the kitchen.

Mid shot of Helen, fast cut to the tracking shot again and cut to a pan of Helen walking out of the kitchen.

We see a long shot of Helen who enters the corridor, as she walks towards the camera we crane downwards and tilt to the top of the stairs before she looks up to climb the stairs we see the killer but he enters a room when she walks up.

We see a high angle shot from the top of the stairs her walking up and taking her earrings off. Cut to her point of view going up the stairs and a cut back to the high angle of her coming up and a little pan when she turns to enter a room.

Cut to another pan (left to right) of her entering the room and putting her bag down and then panning to the left again following her and then stopping at the slightly open closet, she exits the shot. Then we zoom in to the closet and there’s a little tilt up.

Cut to her putting a shirt on, mid shot. Pan to the left her back to us. Zoom in to Helen holding a crown and we see a hand reaching for her shoulder.

 She jumps up and turns around.

Cut to a long shot of Helen and her sister. Pan to the left following Helen who puts her crown next to a mirror, we can see her sister in the mirror as well as her. Pan to the right where Helen sits down on her bed and starts brushing her hair (close up), the focus is on her sister in the background who is talking to her.  Focus moves back to Helen who replies.

 Her sister exits the room and closes the door.

Cut to the close up of an open closet.

 The mise-en-scene of this extract is very usual everyday life like, the average home; Helen is wearing casual clothing- jean shorts and a t-shirt. Helens room has ice skates hanged on the wall, flowers in a vase, the beauty pageant crown and a mirror. Helen has a typical clean girls room.

Sound is very horror movie typical that rises tension.

The cinematography of this extract, especially the use of shadows to show the entry of the killer into the house is very effective in order of frightening the audience as we don’t actually see the killer yet we know he is there.

Editing in this extract is fast and gets quicker with every shot, until the red herring of when her sister turns out to be the one who taps her shoulder.

The lightning and color is mostly high key low contrast except for the killer entry to the house shots where its low key high contrast. This is typical to a horror movie as usually when the killer is shown it is dark.

Summary Of Our Short Film

On a cold autumn evening the best of friends are hanging out and having drinks in an abandoned cemetery. It’s not long until they disturb the dead and find themselves in danger. They are all unique characters and have different skills that they can use to defend themselves from the mystic cemetery guard. There is lots of tripping and slipping when the free runner tries to escape the ghost, and so not much effort is needed from the ghost to avenge the disturbed peace of the graveyard as the free runner trips to his doom. The others think they have escaped what they thought was a battle with a nocturnal being and it’s not until the next day that they realize it’s not only a being of the night neither an alcoholic dream. As they discuss the disappearance of their friend they are startled with the realization that he might have needed their help. As they split to go home one hears the scream of the other and so the fright, tension and fight for life returns to their lives. The protagonist realises that the disturbance of the cemetery must be resolved in order for her to have a chance of survival and bring peace to her life.

Run Hard Magazine (1st Draft)

'I Know What You Did Last Summer' Movie Poster Analysis

‘I know what you did last summer’ is a film from the horror genre. That we can see from the poster that is mainly dominated with colors that represent blood/murder, innocence and darkness (red, white, black). We can see the 4 main characters of the movie on the poster and the killer. The 4 characters on the poster are coming out of the shadows into the white bright light which could connote a dark shadowy past left behind and an innocent present, or the truth coming out. The slogan of the film on the poster is positioned next to the picture of the killer, and so we know that it’s about him- ‘If you’re going to bury the truth, make sure it stays buried’.  The killer is in the dark and we cant see his face, but we can see the hook in his hand, from which we assume that he is the killer, the red light and the red mist on him also connotes this further as it’s the color of blood. The expressions on the main characters faces show that they are scared and worried, and 3 of them are also looking towards the side where the killers picture is placed, which shows what caused those expressions. One of the characters is looking straight, and that could say that maybe he wasn’t aware of the killer until he killed him, this we can also use in our production poster as we have a character that doesn’t know he is going to die or that a killer ghost is chasing him.

At the top of the poster we see text that says: ‘from the writer of ‘scream’’, in red. This is to attract more people for the audience of this movie, as a reference to the writers previous movie is made which aims to attract loyal scream fans to watch this movie if they enjoyed that one.

Overall the poster is very horror movie like and has the right content to show the audience of what the movie is about.

Poster Description

'Run Hard' Poster
The poster for our short film was inspired by the poster of the movie 'Shank'. We liked the idea of main characters running from a gang towards us, as it tells us the story of the film. We also liked the outline of a person in one of the letters of the title - 'Shank'.
Our poster will have all of our main characters in it, and their closness/size in the poster is going to be correspond to their role in the movie and their survival time in the short film. The protagonist is going to be biggest and closest, then we are going to have the other two further away. The ghost is going to be incorporated in our movie title 'Run Hard' in the letter A. The title is going to be placed at the top of the poster and in the middle.This is going to look as if the ghost is in the background and is the thing who our characters are running from. We want the poster to look like the chase, which is the main theme of our short film.
The background is going to look as spooky as possible,dark with mist, and grave stones. We are going to have a red can next to one of the gravestones as that is what starts the chase in our short film. A tree in the background with a crow sitting on it is going to asdd to the spooky factor of the poster. We are also going to have a full moon that is behind the tree, that is going to signify a nightmare that has come true.
The facial expresion of our characters is going to show their view to this situation, which will be not bothered, scared and brave. One of the characters is going to be caught jumping over a fence as he is running away from the ghost, as that is going to show the other genre of the filom which is action.
The name of the actors is going to be placed above the title of our film, and the slogan at the bottom of the film poster. The colour of the film title is going to be white.

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Props & Costume List

Props and Costume list

Costume/Outfits:

·         White makeup

·         White gown/dress

·         White mask

·         leather boots

·         leather tights/jacket

From watching other Horror action Movies, we have realised that these costume/Outfits are all general conventions of the genre. For example in the film, 'Scary Movies' the killer wears a white mask and does not reveal their identity.

We added the leather wear to portray the action theme of the short film. For example in the action movie, 'Kill Bill' the main character is wearing all leather with a sword in her hand. In most action films, where females are shown as the hero/survivor they are usually wearing fitting black outfits, as in our movie. This helps to show that the woman in our film, will be the hero/survivor, and also helps to portray the personality of the character.

Props:

·         Red can [Budweiser](the item that disturbs the dead and begins the chase)

·         Frisbee/ball  (symbolizes the representation of a spoof)

·         Light saver (symbolizes the representation of a spoof)

·         Lights (used when filming in the dark to give the audience a clearer view)

·         Camera and tripod for filming (to enable the movie to be at its best)

 The Red Budweiser can is used as a warning to the audience, that there might be danger. Also, we are using the Budweiser can because of the content of our opening sequence where the characters playfully imitate the budwiser advert, which is also imitated in the 'Scary Movie'.


The light saver is taken from the sci fi action film/series, 'Star Wars', this is a random convention added to the movie to symbolise the representation of a parody. 

Proposal

Date: 23rd September 2010

Director: Neringa and Diandra

Production Company: R.I.P Productions

Production Crew: Ana, Neringa, Catania & Diandra

Working Title: Run Hard

Medium: Video

Format: SD Card

Duration: 5.00 Minutes

Storyline:

In the early hours of the morning November 2nd, three friends are hanging out in a grave yard, drinking and smoking. They then see a white vague image in the distance, and one of the actors decides to throw a beer can at the figure. So the chase begins.

Description of content of the Short Film:


The film will include a free running scene, and a fight scene.
The free running scene will be between the ghost and the male character in our short film.
He will be free running through the grave yard into a forest/park trying to escape the ghost.


The fight scene will be between the ghost and the main character. They will be using weapons to fight with and  it will be similar to a "Western duel". They will be both fighting in the park/Forest, just left to see who wins the fight.

Purpose:

Entertainment 

The purpose of our film is to change to general conventions of a typical action horror film. Also, there aren’t that many films with the genre, Action Horror Spoof, so it'll be bring something slightly different to the media world. The film is for the target audience to enjoy and to entertain them, by making fun of typical predictable horror and action movies, that have been made in the past.

Target Audience:

15 - 30 years old, both genders.

Mostly teenage audience

We chose this range, because we believe that the genre is suitable for this age group, from doing research on other Action Horror Films, such as Freddy vs. Jason. Also, this age group was chosen because we believe that they are more likely to understand the film.

Getting Ideas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZM4Hkw5CPk

Our short film will have a fight scene in it. The protagonist will be using a Lightsober for a weapon and so we have looked up some vidoes on youtube to get ideas for the scene. From the link above we were inspired to do some reverse effects in our short films fight scene. We thought that it was very creative and it made the action look superb.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7hH-0mauV0
 This is a scene taken from the movie, "Kill Bill Vol 2". We will also be taking ideas from this scene to generate the genre of a parody. Also, we are going to make covers of the non diegetic sounds from the fight scene, to add to our short film.
We believe this would enhance our film and allow it to be more enticing to watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsJLhRGPv-M&feature=related
This clip is taken from the movie "Scary Movies" an action horror parody, which suits our film genre. We will be using the dialogue within our film and making it to suit our short movie.




Our poster desgin will be very similar to this poster. Our characters will be running forward and there will be a sillouette of the ghost in the back ground. The title will be placed about the character, as it is done here with the shank poster, & the names of the characters will also be stated above them.
Our Slogan however will be placed at the bottom of the poster.

Movie mix

Our movie is a mixture of district 13, scary movie & Kill Bill.