The Final Girl Concept

The final girl referd to the last femaile standing to confront the killer. She is seen as a sexually unavailbable or a virginal. she sometimes has a unisex name and is masculine The final girl is a thriller and horror film (particularly slasher) trope that specifically refers to the last woman or girl alive to confront the killer, ostensibly the one left to tell the story. The term was coined by Carol J. Clover in her book Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. Clover suggests that in these films, the viewer begins by sharing the perspective of the killer, but experiences a shift in identification to the final girl partway through the film. The final girl has been observed in dozens of films, including Halloween, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Hellraiser, Alien and Scream.

History
According to Clover, the final girl is typically sexually unavailable or virginal, avoiding the vices of the victims (sex, narcotic usage, etc.). She sometimes has a unisex name (e.g., Teddy, Billie, Georgie, Sidney). Occasionally the Final Girl will have a shared history with the killer. The final girl is the "investigating consciousness" of the film, moving the narrative forward and as such, she exhibits intelligence, curiosity, and vigilance.
           One of the basic premises of Clover’s theory is that audience identification is unstable and fluid across gender lines, particularly in the case of the slasher film. During the final girl’s confrontation with the killer, Clover argues, she becomes masculinised through "phallic appropriation" by taking up a weapon, such as a knife or chainsaw, against the killer. Conversely, Clover points out that the villain of slasher films is often a male whose masculinity, and sexuality more generally, are in crisis. Examples would include Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Clover points to this gender fluidity as demonstrating the impact of feminism in popular culture.
          The phenomenon of the male audience having to identify with a young female character in an ostensibly male-oriented genre, usually associated with sadistic voyeurism, raises interesting questions about the nature of slasher films and their relationship with feminism. Clover argues that for a film to be successful, although the Final Girl is masculinised, it is necessary for this surviving character to be female, because she must experience abject terror, and many viewers would reject a film that showed abject terror on the part of a male. The terror has a purpose, in that the female is 'purged' if she survives, of undesirable characteristics, such as relentless pursuit of pleasure in her own right. An interesting feature of the genre is the 'punishment' of beauty and sexual availability (Leading to the idea that "Sex = Death" in Horror Movies)

Laurie strode defines the final girl archetype as she links this tho intellegence this signifies she is intellegent and hard working later on in the film we meet her friends who are screamers and we can then see the binary opposition as she asks for her biology book. She wears unattractive clothing such as thick white tights and long skirt and turtle neck jumper this is typical for final girl as she also is brunette.she is also a responsible character un like her friends who are scream queens. She also can be interpreted as a virgin as her other friends are screamers and they are killed they have boyfriends and she doesnt.

common device also used is in the lesson is the girl is talking about fait as when she looks out the window he is there she talks about they can not change fait.

Binary opposition is then used to contrast the friends as they talk about boyfriends the final girl faces the scream queen as they both argue becuase it matters a great deal to the final girl that she left the book at school but her friends make fun of her.


Scream ( Wes Craven 1996) sidney prescott,
the character of sidney prescott is presented as the final girl first her night wear is long , old fashioned and childish we can allso denote when we see her first she is doing her homwor she has the classic dark brown hair.Bedroom also signifies she is a responsible moral character due to it been old fashioned it is also what you would not expect from a teen girl. Final girl is pertraded as a virgin as she talks to her boyfriend bully lumis then says ' i would not dream of breaking your underwear rule'.

comparing 2 past as films

I chose to compare deception which i previously have researched as my past as film research i am going to compare it with the cellar.

Idents

Deceptions ident at the start the opening is very simple and has only one ident but makes a statement and gives off the message. It shows a plain black background with white writing. The Cellar has a much more noticeable ident and an image behind it which helps to bring your attention to the centre of the screen where the company name is written. Both openings have quite dramatic non-diegetic music from the start of the idents which instantly creates tension and makes the film genre a lot more obvious without even seeing the first shot. 

Opening Shots

In Deception the title and credit goes back to the black screen with the white writing in the same place. In the Cellar they put white bold writing over the shots so it is still visible but isn't as noticable as the Cellar. The opening shot in The Cellar is a dutch angle of a door with some light coming through it. This is a good way of starting the opening as the dutch angle shows there is something not quite right and the lack of light is creating narrative enigma as the audience are unsure of the setting or anything the plot is about. The opening shot in deception is a tracking shot of a girl walking down a woodland path. The camera is behind a tree and the branches make it unclear to see who the character is walking along, this also creates narrative enigma. The camera being behind the tree might also be a point of view shot to make it seem like someone is watching her. 

Micro Drama and reflection

I think our micro drama went well however we did manage to loose alot of footage and we had a few small hiccups like the camera running out of battery and not been able to find all footage. I think we could make several improvements such as longer scenes wider shot variety and i think we needed more planning as we did not think of some aspects.

Deception

• The strongest feature was the opening the music and setting work well together it creates tension and makes it jumpy 
• The weakest feature was the camera the camera was very shaky and angle shots are abit confusing  you can also see the shadow of the person in the camera
• rate minimal they need to hold shot steady
• effective shots were the 2 shot which shows the relationship and medium shots the panning left to right and the point of view shot from behind the tree and the moving point of view shot running
• the editing transitions were good and flowed smoothly 
• the sound created an audio bridge which linked scenes together

Micro Drama Editing

This first thing we noticed when transferring our footage onto the camera was that one shot was missing. At first we thought this would be a major problem and we would have to arrange for a re shoot, but when we had edited the rest of the footage we saw that it actually created narrative enigma and probably improved the drama by doing so.

For editing we split the group into two so that everyone had input and there would also be two totally different versions of the micro drama to compare and see where we could have made improvements. On the group I was in's version we decided to make the footage look more like night time. By doing this it did have a slight purple tone to it but we still thought it looked more effective and slightly more scarier. The other group thought it looked too purple though and kept the natural daylight.

We also struggled to put writing on at the beginning of the drama at the part that was meant to look like a live news report. Due to the time we had to edit we didn't look up on youtube or the internet how to do this. We should of done because it would have made a big difference and improved our drama. But, the more we have been working with final cut pro the easier it is starting to be and I am really getting the hang of how it works.

Micro Drama The Shoot

In the shoot we went to the river at about 3 pm we did not realise how busy it would be so it took longer than we thought to film as it was busy . we put the tape up we got and filmed the first scene talking about what shot type we should use to set the scene and to make sure we got no un wanted extras in back ground. We followed the story board to make sure we got in right order . We did this until we got it right doing different scenes we then did several other scenes and made them which wasnt necessarily in the right order we just wanted to try get different shots such as panning in and point of view shot. However doing this we faced problems such as the camera running out of battery
    But it was okay as we good use an iPhone 4s which was just as good and filmed in HD.it was also very windy which did not help so we expect there to some interference .
   over all i think we could have had some scenes and had done some retakes but we got the different shots and used techniques such as a false scare like in slasher films. I also think next time we need to take into consideration the weather and setting again although our idea was good afew aspects let us down.

Micro Drama Planning

The class split up into 2 groups Boys and Girls in my Group was 'Poppy , Hannah , Kate and Millie we had to come up with a micro drama focusing on slasher genre as this what our next project will be on.

First we decided to brain storm ideas together of what this could be about we discussed setting , plot ,characters. We then went back into the class to pitch our ideas to the class and chose one from our group. we chose Kates as it was most popular and good and we could develop it. After we chose the idea we got a story board sheet where scene by scene and shot by shot we went through and chose possible scenarios.We then decided on when to shoot and where we decide late day and ilkley park as this could be good to build narrative enigma . We planned several scenarios that could be the outcome as we could not decide which way round to do it . It was easy plan and very agreeable as we worked well together and each presented there own ideas.
     when doing the story board we had to choose the most suitable places of the park to shoot we chose by the river and under the bridge as this could be scary. we then planned date and time to make this film it was hard as it was light when we filmed this but hopefully when editing is done it will look like it is dark. We also planned our props we needed and any other equipment e.g. tape for the news report scene which we planned in advance to get. We also needed to work out which character was who which we did easily we all decided to take it in turns to film as well which was good.

Key narrative theories

Propps 8 recurring character types

propps as well as proposing that narratives can be broken down into 31 basic functions  .valdimir propp in his study of fairy tales which continues to influence literary and media studies today he argued that there are essentially just seven basic character types or archetypes
1. the villian - struggles against hero
2. the donor -prepares hero or gives hero a magical object
3. the magical helper - helps hero in the quest
4.the princess or the prize - the hero deserves her throughout the story but is un able to marry her because of an unfair evil usually because of the villiantje heros story is often ended when he marries the princess there by beating the villain
5. the princess and her father-gives the task to the hero identifies a false hero marries a hero often sought for during narrative .propp noted that functionally the princess and her father can not be clearly distinguished
6.the dispacher -character who makes the lack of known and sends hero off
7.the hero victim - reacts to the donor and weds the princess
8.false hero -takes credit for the heros actions or tries to marry princess

these roles could sometimes be distributed among various characters .

Todorovs 5 part narrative formula

todorov is associated with the theory that every narrative can be broken down into 3 basic stages situation ,conflict,resolution or equilibrium ,disequilibrium and new equilibrium.cruitially your prontagonist is not the same as the out set but has been changed in some way from events . todorov actually posited fivve stages we usuallu refer to as being the 3 part model.

1.a state of equilibrium at the outset
2.a disruption of equilibrium by some action
3.a recognition that there has been disruption
4.an attempt ro repair the disruption
5.reinstatment of equilibrium

Levi-sruass: Binary opposites and Dramatic conflict

when we consider the use of stereo types it is often how binary opposition is at play:how describe a stereotypical poor or working class person for example is broadly the opposite of how wed describe a middle or upper class person for example is broadly the opposite of how we'd describe a middle class person. 

    scenes within dramas often reflect a use of this idea with clashing pairs  (male ,female, rural, urban , rich,poor,hetrosexual,homosexual,good,bad,dominant,submissive etc)of opposites ,in other words binary opposites ,sparking conflict or tension.

    there is a philosophical argument underpinning this idea:when the world around us (so not just fictional texts) id organised  and categorised through pairs of binary opposites there is generally a powerful or good side:men are powerful ,women submissive, the poor unintelligent,the wealthy intellectual (a stereotype seen very clear in Tess of the D'urbevielles.)

 to summarise the very existence of binary opposites contains a value judgement in itself with one side of the equation being negatively cast as the other or simply wrong lacking in some way.

Film Openings Summary of Comventions

The conventions our group chose to do was Text,Directors titles,Other titles , Editing, Music and audio,Shots and mis en scene. The films we were comparing were 4 Weddings and a funeral , About a Boy, Heathers , Hidden Agenda, Atonement , Star Wars, Be kind rewind and Up the Junction .

   Text

In 4 Weddings and a funeral ,Hidden Agenda,atonement and heathers all use traditional serif font shows the film has serious aspects to it or could be a drama. They all start with black and white background. The font stands out against this so it more eye catching and grabs audience attention. But for modern set films they tend to use san serif font the titles are presented on sides of the screen to show importance and less importance such as in About a boy , Be kind rewind and star wars we do not see this in up the junction.

Directors Titles

In the heathers there is no director titles and in up the junction and starwars . however in 4 weddings and a funeral and about a boy by the directors name and then the film.But in be kind rewind and hidden addenda and atonement is says directed by then the directors names.

Other Titles

In about a boy and 4 weddings and a funeral Hugh grant is in both and introduced as the main character for both films the other titles are then presented in groups to show less importance.This is he same in heathers ad up the junction hidden agenda,be kind rewind, Atonement and star wars these are all presented in groups after main characters are introduce.

Editing

In be Kind rewind it fades in so does about a boy ,star wars , heathers, Atonement .In 4 weddings and a funeral and Hidden agenda and Up the junction all have no transitions and just start with the film straight in.

Music and Audio

In be kind rewind and hidden agenda both start with non digetic music the same with 4 weddings and a funeral , Heathers,Uo the junction, Star wars .The sound is digetic in About a boy and atonement all these films an audio bridge is used.

Shots

In about a boy and up the junction both used high angles shits to show weakness.In all of them close up shots are used to show and emphasis emotion .In about a boy ,4 weddings and a funeral,be kind rewind,heathers and star wars 2 shots are used to show relationship and to built the relationship between characters.There is use of shot reverse shot in Star wars and 4 weddings and a funeral when conversations are presented.But in star wars there are lots of low angled shots which sets the mis en scene and makes viewer feel more involved this shows power.Establishing shot is uses to show mis en scene in all films.

Mis en scene

In 4 weddings and a funeral; and about a boy there is a social class divide and this is a key message from the film which is betrayed well. In the other films the mis en scene is set through camera shots and the opening music.

Comparing 2 past films

The text in 4 weddings and a funeral is formal and is a serif font this links to era, although it is suppose to be a comedy it shows a sense of drama.We can tell it could be a rom com as it stars Hugh Grant an he is stereo typed as being this character in all rom coms he stars in -middle class , white british man.In about a boy the text is modern and comic sans font used there are no capital letters used shows it could be laid back however it is in bold it suggests that the story could have a powerful meaning in some parts it in not bold this suggests there are ups and downs to story and perhaps a hierarchy.
     In 4 weddings and a funeral sound is traditionally used to show the era the music is jazz this also sets the main characters .the sound is digetic and used as an audio bridge to link scenes together as it goes to peoples different lives. In about a boy the sound is non digetic as he plays his voicemails it is used to link the shots as he walks around his house.
   In about a boy Hugh Grant is introduced in bold as he a very well known actor and when you see his name in film you automatically link it to be a certain genre of film.the following credits follow with the main characters presented in groups this shows it is not as important and then after all this introduces the new actor.In 4 wedding and a funeral the opening titles are displayed signally as it introduces the character it has the name and a scene of them.Other cast is then presented in groups this is a slow process and goes on for about 10 mins.
   In 4 weddings and a funeral there is a upper class and social class divide .there is also a gender divide.It also sets the mis en scene as it shows the different life styles of Britain in this period of time.In about a boy it is also about upper class and lower class divide and how the different ways of life contrast such a lot.It is traditionally set in London you can tell this by the weather the roads telephone boxes etc.
     In 4 weddings and a funeral there are little transitions used in the opening as it almost one big shot or take. wedding invitations are used to link scenes as it introduces the characters.There is use of music aswell to link the scenes.In about a boy  the editing changes in transitions as we are shown his house and introduced to the setting transitions are used to zoomed in and out.
     In about a boy hight angled shots are used to show weakness also a lot of close ups to show emotion and point of view shots to help the viewer feel more involved with the character it shows that there is a serious side to the film but also a comedy aspects as we are introduced to Hugh grant but has realistic themes.In 4 weddings and a funeral there is use of 2 shot a lot to a how relationship but as we watch more we find there is no real relationship to reenforce and later find it is because Hugh grant is presented as the man who messes the women around.The shots are also very long to set the scene there is a use of close ups to express emotion .
     In about a boy the directors titles are presenters together in the opening credits 'a Paul Weitz and Chris Weitz film' makes them look for powerful and well known as when people see these names it promotes the film if they have seen previous films etc.In 4 weddings and a funeral it says 'a Mike Newall Film' once at the beginning it does not stand out though as the following credits are presents in the same way.
 

   

Semiotics SRap

we where asked to produce a semiotics rap on what we were learning in class. We where learning about the key terms we need to learn we put it into a rap to help us remember it here is my rap...


A signifier is a detail we pick out ,
denote/connote whats it about,
binary opposition a divice used to create conflict throughout,
polysemy has many meanings that sprout,
narrative enigma not mysterious without,
intertextual texts tied to previous to spout,
signified we think is symbolic but will find out..

Semiotics key terms

Denotation

is taking it apart piece by piece to come o an understanding of how it was made and designed.

Connotation

when we interpret a signifier

Signifier

what we think it means a detail we think as symbolic significance

Binary Opposition

key device for creating conflict in a drama

Polysemy

multiple or possible meanings such as a red rose this could be interpreted as guilt or love

Anchorage

when meaning of a signifier should be made clear

Communication Test

always consider what you do not see the choices the producers have rejected

Stuart Halls 3 Levels of Reading

Preferred Reading

how it is hoped audience will respond to text 

Negotiated Reading

largely understand preferred reading but through lack of knowledge or done entirely follow preferred reading

Oppositional Reading

because of lack of knowledge or block out what you do not follow within the texts

Narrative Enigma

mysterious elements within a text form enigma needed in any drama

Intertextuality

meaning of one is tied to another e.g. earlier text.

Film Opening Conventions vodcast

Trip to York Warp films and working title

we went to york on a school trip to the film festival. We went to 2 master classes 1st one we saw the producer for warp films and we saw the cinematographer for working title.
first we saw warps films producer .

warp.net/films

we took notes this is what i learnt from the master class

they have had 18 feature films , 5TV series and won 6 barters. They also have one world record for most zombies in one place at a time they used this for the anniversary of the 'big chill'. some of the films they have made by warp films are 

Productions

Film	Year	Director	Notes
My Wrongs #8245–8249 & 117	2002	Chris Morris	Short film
Dead Man's Shoes	2004	Shane Meadows
Rubber Johnny	2005	Chris Cunningham	Short film
Scummy Man	2006	Paul Fraser	Short film/Music video
This Is England	2006	Shane Meadows
Grow Your Own	2007	Richard Laxton
Dog Altogether	2007	Paddy Considine	Short film
Fur TV	2008	Chris Waitt
A Complete History of My Sexual Failures	2008	Chris Waitt
Arctic Monkeys At the Apollo	2008	Richard Ayoade
Donkey Punch	2008	Oliver Blackburn
The Mighty Boosh Live: Future Sailors Tour	2009	Paul King
Curtains	2009	Julian Barratt	Short film
Hush	2009	Mark Tonderai
Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee	2009	Shane Meadows
Bunny and the Bull	2009	Paul King
All Tomorrow's Parties	2009	All Tomorrow's People & Jonathan Caouette
Four Lions	2010	Chris Morris
This Is England 86	2010	Shane Meadows & Tom Harper	TV
Submarine	2010	Richard Ayoade
Tyrannosaur	2011	Paddy Considine
Kill List	2011	Ben Wheatley
This is England '88	2011	Shane Meadows	TV
The Organ Grinders Monkey	2011	Jake & Dinos Chapman	Short film
Snowtown	2011	Justin Kurzel	Warp Films Australia
The Minor Character	2012	Richard Curson Smith	TV
The Snipist	2012	Matthew Holness	TV
Care	2012	Amanda Boyle	TV
Swimmer	2012	Lynne Ramsay	Short film
The Midnight Beast	2012	Ben Gregor	TV series
Berberian Sound Studio	2012	Peter Strickland

next year the films they have coming up are 

• stone rose documentry
• southcliffe which will be on channel 4
• small tv things
• 71 the film which is a thriller

we also learnt about why it is important to watch films at cinema and viewings and how it effects the company. we learnt that today a lot of people take videos off line and tv as a 'home cinema' this affects all film but especially the low budget indy films such as warp films.over all we also learnt after all of this how much the company consume after the downloads and the power of the supermarkets being the biggest main driver of dvds. 

warp music created this part of company warp films. The principal is then set by warp music.

the company is also different to other bigger companies such as working title or piscar as they have long term relationships and connections with the artists actors such as shane meadows.

we also learnt it is not just about the film it is about who is the director, advertising and how everything plays an important part in the process. the producer also said that there was alot more interest in the 'shane meadows films'. he also talked about how it is important to be aware of your audience such as in deadmans shoes the poster was not appealing to young children as it looked like a horror.as this film was so low budget they used a crew of 15 so they had to feature things such as cars and props several times in different scenes.

there biggest success what 4 lions and this is england.

He also told us an example of how the trade works and how they get the money they need to make a film he talked about the film kill list as being what the distributors would not put in to early so they had to buy it for alot more as it was such a success.

he gave us  rough guide on how long it takes to make there indy films.

30 days prep

30 days shoot

150 days post

210 days

10 hours a day

2100  week

18 times 2100 is 37500 hours of film making !

we also learnt about the economics of film making 

• 1 million at box office
• exhibitors take 50%
• distributors take their p and a (200k) to promote 
• distributor splits whats left 5050
• the film company then has to pay back all equity finance
• the producers get 50% of total profit still only making half of profit after all these steps.

the producer all said that even the bad films they have done are something to be proud of although there not the best it doesnt matter as they have learnt what went wrong and why the popular ones worked. he also said to not let any film go to waste and use it to improve your own techniques or to pick out what you like to use in your next. This is good as we cam use this in our work.

Working title-Danny Cohen

he started off working with warp productions he was the cinematographer for films such as 'this is England' .In this is England he uses techniques such as the main character being in small focus within big shots to show what little power he is also placed on camera as being small compared to scenes showing the setting this is to show how big the world is and how small he is.The 1980s period film so much has changed since then. He talked about how it was hard to rebuilt the scenes on such a little budget.

          In the film this is England non professional actors changes the cinematography completely as it strips everything down as the budget was low and all they really had for this set was the actor a camera and a track.

          Dive was there latest tv show done 3 years ago it was there first hd film. The film was about a relationship of 2 people in the film there is a use of space used compared to a school where is is a safe place and inclosed .Danny Cohen talked about use of space a lot and how affective it is to put actors in a place they can relate to more (scene).

        A more famous film he shot was the Kings Speech .He talked about how difficult it was to shoot as the lighting was very difficult to keep the same . He said that 'natural lights is a cinematographers best friend'. Ot was hard to get the lighting right as they had to shot at different times of the day and as it was shot in England in the middle of winter this was very difficult. So they had to use techniques such as blocking out the windows and making sure they were not in the shots.It was also hard as it was filmed over a 2 month periods in several locations. In this film the question was asked 'why is colin firth in focus and background blurred used he said ' it gives the actor context in 1 shot rather than the whole thing being in focus , we did technical aspects to test the best option for taking.