Through The Window-Final Movie

This is our final film "Through The Window" created by Lauren Crick, Ellen Bassett and Callum Lynch.
Media studies Final 2 from Callum Lynch on Vimeo.


As we worked in a 3 and that is a pretty big group to do this project we all had different roles in this film. The way I helped with the making the film is in a few different ways, as you can see above I acted in the film. Also, when we filmed, we all had our say in what shots we did and where the camera should be placed. The few end scenes of Ellen and the Stalker(Callum Lynch) were filmed by me.

Setting-

Ellen's house is based in a rural area of Tavistock which is a small town in Devon. It is a very old looking town and has a lot of historic value too it. 

Ellen's house is a medium/large sized house which is very modern and has just been done up which gives it a very modern feel to it. This allows us to target our audience more because all teenagers want nice houses. 

We got permission from Ellen's mum to use the house as she is the one that owns it and would not be right to do it without her knowing or us having permission from her-

We made a short film to show the house that we would be filming in and this is shown below- 

Setting Board from Callum Lynch on Vimeo.

Script- 

We mostly kept to our script but as every film, things get changed and words get changed but it is all the same concept of myself Lauren Crick having boyfriend troubles and Ellen is there to help me and help me with what to do. 

This was pretty easy to act because it is easy to talk to other girls about those sorts of things. 

After writing this script we discovered that it is very hard to follow a script fully with the exact same words, we noticed that what we said in the film to what was written in on the script was a little bit different.

Props Used In Our Film-

In our film I believe we are appealing to our target audience by the props that we have used. The main props in our film that is used is mobile phones, which myself, Ellen and Callum all have and we all have iPhone's.

This gives a good representation of what 16-24 year old male and females are like because they never put their phones down and they text a lot. One of our first shots is myself (Lauren Crick) texting Ellen saying i am nearly there at here house.

Similarly our costumes were very similar in the way that we all wore things that typical characters would wear for  example-

Ellen wore jeans with a peachy top, this was a very simple costume for her to wear but it gave the impression that she is young and innocent. 

I wore a grey and black top with black jeans, i think it gives the impression that i am not as happy which relates well to our story line because i am talking about myself and my boyfriend in the film having troubles. This relates very well to how i was meant to be feeling in the film. 

Callum (Mystery Stalker) was wearing all black, this is a very typical outfit for a bad person to wear in a horror/thriller film. he wore a black hoodie, black jeans and a black handkerchief around his neck and it covered his face- This gives allows us not to see his face fully which gives the impression that he is bad and that he could possibly cause harm or danger.

Our costumes were a very important element of our film which represents how simple and vulnerable the girls are and then how dark and mysterious Callum is. 

Storyboard- 

We are going to do a long shot of the house that the film is being filmed at, which will be held foe about 3 seconds before having a tracking shot that is going to go into one of the windows. 



This shot is going to be inside the house looking out, which is going to give the impression of someone being outside. We're hoping it will be windy so it will give it a better effect. 

 Then it is is to flick back and be behind the popcorn that is going to be the first prop used. This gives the impression of movies and sleepovers. 









After we did these we changed our idea a little bit as it would be very hard to perform these scenes. We also changed location as we discovered my house was not practical enough and there would be too many distraction.

This is our first shot that will be seen in our film. It will be a medium long shot of myself walking up the road to get to Ellen's house. 

This is our second shot and it is a medium shot that is of myself messaging Ellen saying I will be at her house soon.

This is an over the shoulder shot that is going to be filmed of me texting Ellen again. We are going to cut this shot and the one before so that they flow together well. 

This is a shot from behind me of me walking, we are going to film many different angles of me walking up the hill which will show we are able to edit well and make it all flow very clearly with no jumps.

This is a long shot of the stalker through a window, this will pan up and be on screen for about 5 seconds. The way that it pans up gives it more of a horror feel too it.

This again shows the girl walking up the street to the house. We have done a few of the same shots but just from different angles. 

This shows myself  walking through the door and into the house, as we do this we are going to use match on action to get the editing marks we need. 

Actors profiles- 

Ellen Bassett- 

Age; 17

Ellen is very naturally pretty and has a very good sense of humor.

She is in this film as she is in our group but myself and her are both around the age of our target audience which will appeal to our audience more.  She has very little filming experience like myself- she is very natural behind a camera. 

Callum Lynch-
Age; 17


Callum is a very out going person, who is very very talkative  He likes watching horror films and helped us come up with the idea of our film as he is also in our group. He has a lot of experience in film making which contributes massively to our group and is very helpful for us. 
He had the most experience in our group and he is very good at editing. 

Lauren Crick- 

Age;16 

This is me, I am also featuring in the film. I am pretty outgoing and have a lot to say for myself- i enjoy listening to music and going to concerts. I have little experience in the film making world but that doesn't matter as I am learning each and everyday about new thing that will help me to strive in my Media Studies A-Level- as an actress i am not very natural behind the camera but we had to deal with that.  

I needed to do these Actor profiles because people may be viewing our film who hasn't ever met Callum, Ellen and myself before. It will be interesting to see if we are actually the way we are portrayed in the film as we are in real life. This helped me know whether or us as actors would be good for the roles that we have in our film and it really has helped us see what target audience we are looking at by our own age range and our interests. 

Synopsis- 

Our film is going to be a Horror/Thriller film which is set in a very modern house, which is set in 2015. One girl is going to be visiting her best friend at her house and they're going to have a catch-up after a while of not seeing each other. Little do the girl know that there is a strange man figure following their every move..... There will be many shots in this film, averaging at a different shot every 2/3 seconds. This allows us to keep the audience interested in the film and what is happening.

We are featuring things such as mobile phones which fits in with our target audience as most 16-25 year old use their phones very much, we thought this was a good prop to use in the film. Also, it goes with out modern theme that we have because most teenagers want iPhones. 

 Image from-http://techland.time.com/2013/09/18/review-apples-iphone-5s-iphone-5c-and-ios-7/

There are 3 actors in this, 2 girls and a boy. We are all around the same age 16/17. It allows us to be able to appeal to our target audience because they will be able to relate to us as the situation we are in because you always go out and visit your friends in their house and with us being this age we know exactly what our target audience wants and `

Our film is going to be called "Through The Window"

Institutional Research-

A company that would distribute my film would probably be Blumhouse productions, an American production company which was founded in 2000.

It would probably be this company because it is known for producing horrors and they are normally very successful. Paranormal activity was their first major film that they produced and they made most of their money back. I will insert a chart of 

Previous films that they have produced is things like Insidious, all of the successful paranormal activity films, Sinister and The purge.

These have all been successful films in the industry, most of them are well known for playing mind games with people as you most of the time don't see stuff and it leaves your imagination to figure out the rest. Which is what we are trying to aim for when making our movie.

I think our movie is going to be similar to paranormal activity, in the way that you will not see anything it will just leave your head ticking. The way that we're going to try and make it feel realistic is we are going to use everyday household items, which are familiar to the people.


Many other film companies do horror films though and this is just my opinion on which one would be the best for us, there are other companies like Dark Castle and Benderspink. It all depends on what sort of horror film you want to make.

Other film production companies that i am interested in is Ghost House Pictures Production Company because they also produce the sort of films that i am interested in making. This company isn't massive but it doesn't mean the quality of our film wouldn't be as good.

This film company has produced amazing horror films such as The Poltergeist and The Grudge which I personally think is the scariest horror film i have ever seen, i'm sure many will agree but this company proves that even if you aren't that big then you can still produce incredible movies which everybody around the world can enjoy.

From my research i have found out which production company would be the best for our horror movie "Through The Window"in the real world.  Our movie is  a human scare film where a stranger is following the girls round the house and looking at them spend time together through the windows in the house. Blumhouse productions will be the best production company for our film to be produced with, this is because they specialize in films such as paranormal activity and insidious- These films are very similar to our film in the way that they are all human scare films where people are watching you when you don't know. Ghost House Pictures is also one that I would choose Blumhouse was not able to because they're also very successful and specialize in those sort of films as well. 

Ideas about our film- 

When we first made our group these are some of the stages that we went through to decide what film we were going to shoot. 

I sat down with a 17 year old boy and a 17 year old girl and asked them few questions about what they enjoy doing and things that interests them. I had an idea about whats the boys like such as the stereotypical things such as sports and video games but it was very interesting to see what other types of things they enjoyed, such as bands and sorts of music that they listen too. I am going to ask another lot of people probably age range 20-25 to see the comparison on what they enjoy and what interests them. 

Throughout planning we decided not to feature some of the stuff/ideas that we brainstormed. We changed the location of the film many times as we didn't really know which would work best.  We finally decided and we are using one of the members in our groups house,

We have still decided to go for the same rough idea of the two girls going missing but we are going to do it from a different perspective. It will be the kidnapper looking in from the outside of the house and then they will be there hearing noises and getting scared. 

Our idea changed a lot after this and we decided to do a human scare horror/thriller. We decided to change the idea because our original idea would be very difficult to do. As a group we have decided to do a story about a girl going up to her bestfriends house to see her and have a catch up after a long time  of not seeing each other but what they don't know is there is someone else following and watching them through the windows and doors. This is why we decided to call our movie "Through The Window"

Target audience-

I sat down and did some mind maps on our target audience and these are the things that i came up with that boys and girls do and enjoy.  

I sat down with a 17 year old girl and I sat down with a 17 year old boy and asked them a few questions about what they enjoy doing and things that interest them. I had an idea about what the boys like such at stereotypical things such as sports and video games but it was very interesting to see the other types of things they enjoyed, such as the bands and the sort of music that they listen too. I am going to ask another lot of people probably in the age range 20-25 to see the comparison on what they enjoy and what interests them.

In some ways there is many comparisons between the girls and the boys, they both enjoy doing the same things, like parties, hanging out with friends and fashion. We are going to try and include these things in the movie, that the girls are interested in boys and what they look like but that is not our main focus in the film. We are going to be showing how naive girls are.

To use the images of the girls and the boys in the middle of these mind-maps I messaged the people who owned these photos and i will insert the screenshots of the messages i sent out. I needed to do this because you cannot use images of people that are going to be published to the world without asking permission of the owner. It could be seen as copy write if you are using images that you have no taken yourself. 

All Images have come from http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ 

Regulation Research-

The BBFC is a very important company which is in action every day. It is also known as the British Board of Film Classification. It is a group of people who sit down and watch films and decide what age restriction is put on it. They are here to protect people from not seeing content that they are not old enough and maybe not emotionally stable to watch.  These conversations can be very short and some can take hours, they discuss the regulation and guidelines which are allowed and not allowed in certain aged films. 

U Rated Films-

U rated films (universal) are for children over the age of 4 years old, this is put on a film because people do not really know what scares a child at that age but they try and give it the best go they can. 

 Drugs and illegal drugs are not seen in U rated things as the children who are watching these things may pick up on these things and be interested, which as a society we do not want. Sometimes, some films have a very strong anti-drug message which is acceptable because it is showing children not to do these things .

There is a small amount of nudity which is allowed but it is not allowed to be frequent and it isn't harsh nudity it is things like someone getting changed.

Strong language isn't permitted in U rated films but mild language such as 'hell' or 'damn' is. It is only very infrequent because at that young age children pick up things very easily. 

Violence has to be very mild and also has to be in context and gets justified. For example Animated, Comic and very unrealistic. 

In a U-rated film there is no focus on sexual activity. Characters may be seen kissing or cuddling but nothing intimate. Sexual references have to be mild and not detailed. 

PG Rated Films-

PG stands for Parental Guidance, that means that it is suitable for general viewing. It should not unsettle anybody around the age of 8 and older. The PG is that they advise parents or adults to watch these films with younger children as it may unsettle them or scare them slightly. 

Drug use is not permitted but references to drugs and illegal drugs are not meant to be harmful or offensive or they must have a anti-drug message.  

Only mild bad language is allowed in a PG rated film. There are many things that wouldn't pass in a PG but things such as 'son of a bitch' and 'shit' is allowed in a PG but only if it is in a certain context if its in an aggressive manner then it may have to go up to a 12/12A. 

Nudity is allowed in a PG but sex must be discreet and brief and not shown very much. 

  

Violence is able to be shown,so is blood but they're not really able to be connected. For example, you can show blood but you cannot show on screen how the person/thing has sustained the injury. 

                                   12/12A Rated films- 

12 Rated films are not suitable for anybody under the age of 12 and if it is a 12A you have to go into the cinema with someone over the age of 18 but its the adults choice whether or not they think the film is suitable for the person who is under the age of 12.  

Drugs and drug use is able to be used in 12/12A films but it must not be regular, it should not be seen as a good thing and also you're not allowed to give instructions of how to take/do drugs in detail. 

Moderate language is acceptable but strong language is permitted but only allowed in certain situations and the way it is put across, also it depends on who is saying the language. If it is used in an aggressive manner then it may be pushed up to the age 15 bracket. 

Sex may be shown but must be brief and discreet. Crude comments are most likely to not be able to passed in this category. It is also the same with nudity, it may be shown but only in a brief discreet way. 

 In a 12/12A films a moderate amount of violence is allowed but it should not have loads of detail. It is not permitted that there is any focus on blood and injuries and blood but there is allowed if it is only a little bit of gore and it is justified in context.



15 Rated Films- 

15 Rated films are for people who are 15 or over the age of 15. This means that nobody under is able to buy or rent these films. 

Drugs and drug use is permitted in a 15 film but it must not be encouraging the viewers to do drugs. If everyday household items are being used to show that they can be used as drugs                for example;
~Aerosols 
~Bleach
   ~Cleaning products 

There is strong language permitted in a 15 rated films which may include f**k and in some certain situations c**t but this all depends on the way that is it presented and the way it is expressed. 

Sex may be shown but not in very strong detail, strong verbal references are suitable but very strong references that are in detail will probably be pushed up to the rated 18 bracket. There is nudity that is accepted in a sexual way but it must not have strong detail. 

Violence may be shown but should not dwell on the impact of pain or injury. Strong gory images will probably not be accepted. Strong verbal sexual violence will most likely be allowed but it will have to be justified in context. 




18 Rated Films-


18 Rated films are for adults and people over the age of 18. Any person under the age of 18 will not be able to buy or rent an 18 rated movie. 

In an 18 rated film there is no limit to the amount of strong language being used and the words that are really used. The language is most likely to be very frequent. It may include words like f**k and very strong language such as c**t.


The use of drugs and drug references are passed in 18 films. You're able to watch the use of drugs and see how it is happening, not much would be cut from it but the film should not promote the use of drugs. 

There can be very strong images and references of sex in an 18 rated film, also real life sex may be shown in these films, but there is only images allowed that 18 year old people would be able to handle emotionally and psychically.

 Violence in a 18 rated film can be very strong and can be portrayed in strong detail, blood and gore is permitted in 18. Also, in a 18 rated you can dwell on the infliction of pain and injury. 

This research has helped in to decide where my film will be put in the real world and where the BBFC would rank this compared to the regulations. In conclusion, our film is going to be a 12. This is because there will be some violence in it but there is going to be no swearing it even-though if we wanted we would be able to say "s**t" but we probably wont. There will be horror elements such as the man looking in and the girls getting scared which would probably scare some small children, us putting it at a 12 will allow us to maybe play around with some scarier footage that we may or may not put into our film.  We believe that people under the age of 12 will not be able to handle to mature and maybe disturbing scenes.