Semiological analysis of 'Revelations'

DENOTATION:

Shot one: wide, long shot pan of priest walking in a church, shot ends focussed on a nativity sequence.

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Shot two: close-up of nativity sequence on fire.

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Shot three: extreme close-up of the figure of Joseph burning with a black background.  Flash of flames in which reveals ‘Rom-Com Productions’ in white lettering.

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Shot four: extreme close-up of the figure of Mary burning with a black background.  Flash of flames in which reveals ‘in association with Hurtwood House’ in white lettering.

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Shot five: extreme close-up of the figure of a king burning with a black background.  Flash of flames in which reveals ‘a Millie Driver Film’ in white lettering.

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Shot six: extreme close-up of the manger burning with a black background.  Flash of flames in which reveals ‘Mark Philipp Morgan’ in white lettering.

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Shot seven: extreme close-up of the figure of Joseph burning with a black background.  Flash of flames in which reveals ‘Rom-Com Productions’ in white lettering.

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Shot eight: ECU of flames in the foreground overlaying burnt satanic lettering and ‘Sarah Driver’ in white letters.

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Shot nine: ECU of flames in the foreground overlaying burnt images and ‘Sarah Driver’ in white letters.

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Shot ten: ECU of flames in the foreground overlaying nun in the church and ‘Production designer Rory Skeoch’ in white letters.

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Shot eleven: ECU of flames in the foreground overlaying pan images of stain glass and ‘Editor Oli Bayliss’ in white letters.

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Shot twelve: ECU of flames in the foreground overlaying imagery of basement and ‘Produced by Rory Skeoch’ in white letters.

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Shot thirteen: ECU of flames in the foreground overlaying burnt satanic photographs and ‘Directed by Millie Driver’ in white letters.

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Shot fourteen: ECU of flames in the foreground and ‘Revelations’ in white lettering.

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Shot fifteen: black screen, white printed font ‘Revelations’. 

Revelations - with audio

REVELATIONS - no audio

Still shots of 'REVELATIONS'

Final Evaluation of 'Revelations'

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

Revelations (2009), directed by Millie Driver

My media product is an opening and title sequence of an independent horror film called Revelations. The main theme of the film is concerned with devil worship, community and the idea of an outsider and evolves around a town in which the population all worship Satan. Our title sequence leads to the central figure arriving at a village whilst following her progress and involvement in this village, building from small suspicious events through to full blown satanic ritual and death.

My product does have some of the main conventions of contemporary horror films for instance my female protagonist is the victim within the movie. She often finds herself in vulnerable situations such as the presentation of a voodoo doll from an old woman in the town, in which she is taken aback by the strangeness of the situation. Although she is mainly the vulnerable person within the movie there is a decoy to switch the focus off her to make the audience distracted and more involved in the plot. This decoy involves her sister being killed which increases the tension within the movie, and the audience is more shocked when the focus switches back to the main woman. We utilised the notions of sacrifice in our movie as demonstrated in the ‘Wicker Man’ (1973) directed by Robin Hardy, where the last sequence showed the violent death of a policeman by fire. We thought the fire was significant to use and it symbolises not only death but rebirth within satanic rituals. We therefore used this in our title sequence with the burning of our nativity set which represents the destruction of Jesus and consequently the rebirth of the son of Satan.

Our horror film also has such conventions as; isolated locations for instance the town in which the plot evolves around and the church that we shot our opening sequence in, large and empty old houses, individuals against mass, satanic worship, contradicting music, fear and death. Although I chose to include these regular conventions that appear in some horror movies for instance in ‘The Shining’ (1980) directed by Stanley Kubrick and in ‘The Night of the Living Dead’ (1968) directed by George A. Romero. The plot of the film and the extent to which the Satanism is darkened for instance the changing of the lyrics of ‘Silent Night’ makes it unusual in comparison to other movies. In our title sequence a burning nativity set is the main subject which we utilise the depiction of religious iconography of everyday Christian worship. Challenging motions of dominant religion as a form therefore endorses the audience as it may contradict people’s views. From this we wanted to begin our movie with an opposing statement that will automatically grip the audience.

We used dominant forms of horror openings in the opening scene of Revelations being a long track which follows a priest walking from left to right in a church. Within the mise en scene whilst we follow the priest we are also shown a nun playing a piano and prior to a jump cut to the title sequence the nativity set comes into view. We choose to film in a church as the audio that goes along with the two minutes of footage that we have done is an adjusted version of the hymn ‘silent night’, but the words have been changed subtly relating to the worship of Satan. This therefore relates to the nun within the mise en scene and becomes the overall curiosity and edginess of the product as it challenges once again the Christian faith. E.g. the opening of the Omen both the original version (1976) directed by Richard Donner and the remake (2007) directed by Brett Ratner shows the utilisation of dominant Christian iconography such as the crucifix and images of Madonna and child. We used this dependence of imagery in our title and opening sequence because we thought that this exhibited some of the main premises of the content of our film such as religion and devil worship.

2. How does your media product represent social groups?

In ‘Revelations’ the social groups we presented were; a middle aged priest and an elderly nun in the representation of religious stereotypes. We carefully chose costumes, actors and appearance to represent this social group. We put both our nun and priest in traditionally religious clothing to juxtapose to the music playing in the background. We did this to distinct the visual religious stereotypes in contrast to the audio of ‘Silent Night’ which is a satanic version that we constructed to played throughout the piece.
In order to represent our priest we chose an actor (Mark Phillip-Morgan) who is tall and robotic in movement. We directed him to walk at a pace that portrayed the surroundings at the same time and make the audience suspicious of him as they came to understand the contrast between the song and location. Consequently his physical appearance is a very stereotypical representation of men in horror films (such as in ‘Frankenstein’ (1931) directed by James Whale), as they are typically represented as strong, tall and larger that the women to highlight the disparity between the victim and the antagonist.
Although priests’ outfits are traditionally black we keep with this as we felt the black emphasised even further the extend of subtle evilness that we wanted our character to portray. We couldn’t shoot our priest in close-up as we didn’t edsire it to look unconvincing as he is not in fact middle-aged.
We also had this same problem with our actress who played our nun (Sarah Driver) as she is in fact middle-aged and not elderly. Though this wasn’t so much of a problem as we didn’t desire her face in the shot so we directed her to physically look elderly and move in a slower manner whilst playing the piano. Generally women in horror movies are stereotypically represented as weaker, more vulnerable and the victim in situations, as shown in ‘Scream’ (1996) directed by Wes Craven, in which a physically small, vulnerable women was attacked in her own house. Though within our opening sequence though our women is in fact no as innocent as she is perceived but this is achieved by the song that she is playing and singing.

3. What kind of Media Institution might distribute your media product and why?

Our production company (Rom-Com Productions) produced our film Revelations that could be categorised as an independent, low budget film. This is due to it being a film that is produced outside the Hollywood studio system and our budget was very limited both in front and behind camera production.

Our finance was funded primarily by the input from our team of three (me, Rory Skeoch and Oli Bayliss) although the cameras and locations we organised/paid for by the school initially, we then had to pay them back out of our own funds. For our opening and title sequences our budget was £800-£1000, so for the whole film to be made we would limit ourselves to under £15,000. Compared to other low budget films which are generally between £750,000 and one million pounds our overall budget is low, this is because of our expenses would be coming out of our own funds so it is harder to generate the money.
Our cast of two were unknown actors and we managed to get them to star in our opening sequence without paying them. This therefore added to the fact that it is independent and low budget, therefore meaning that it wouldn’t have been able to be a mainstream or blockbuster film because they were unknown actors.
Both our locations were pre-existing including the basement of our school and the interior of Holmbury St Mary church. This therefore reduced the budget of the production of Revelations as we didn’t have to fund our locations to be made separately and provide a space for them to be situated during the shooting.
Rom-Com Productions were also responsible for the making and producing of our own product including the pre-production, production and post-production. As a result of this we didn’t rely on any external agencies to help in the making of our final product.
If we were to distribute our product, Arrow Films would be a suitable company to distribute it because they are a distributing company that uses a network that distributes low budget horror releases. They also have a limited release date within the South East and London releasing there products on DVD within two months of release, consequently making them most appropriate for our situation.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

‘Revelations’ would be defined on release as a certificate 15 film. Under the guide lines of the BBFC, it’s allowed to have frequent use of strong language but only justified within context. If nudity occurs it will only be allowed in the sexual context but without strong detail, which could happen within the birth scene of Satan near the end of the movie. The violence within the movie is allowed to be strong but must not dwell on infliction of pain or injury. Representations of violence will be shown but will be suggested rather than shown. These guidelines would therefore not cut out any the intentions of the film and consequently would suit the issues that are discussed within ‘Revelations’ both the plot and the satanic rituals that are introduced. They also influenced us to keep within them in order for the classification to be an easy process and reduce the time in which it would take to fully produce the film.
This would therefore allow a fifteen plus audience to see the film, so teenagers would be permitted to have the enjoyment of the thrill and excitement of watching a horror film. The audience will be intrigued by the fact that there is an absence of children in the film and yet the target audience are teenagers. Due to ‘Revelations’ being an independent, low budget film the distribution would most probably be a national audience and it couldn’t compete with other films that are nationally distributed and are a more nationalised base for distribution. It would be released on DVD after the main cinema release in order to increase sales/profit or ‘Revelations’.
In a secular society an audience can be attracted by the representations of satanic ritual and how they undermine a possible Christian hegemony and our film focuses upon this interesting contrast.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

If we were to distribute ‘Revelations’, we would use a distribution company such as Rom-Com productions that would market it through both standard and viral marketing. Within standard marketing we could aim to involve our target audience by selling t-shirts having images of still-shots of the movie, or ‘Revelations’ simply on a t-shirt as a direct marketing technique. Furthermore we could use our soundtrack as a selling point and sell the soundtrack or use it as a backing for our other marketing techniques so the audience would retain it in their memories. Another way of using standard marketing would be to give away products along with other company’s products, in cinemas or as part of a launch campaign.
Another way we could market our film would be through viral marketing. This includes using social networking sites, such as Facebook, to promote the soundtrack, uphold adverts and maintain the selling of merchandise. Another way to virally market ‘Revelations’ would be to have a website, which would promote the film whilst being an interactive way to illustrate the film. It would also create an internet buzz through the means of consultation in forums and discussion boards. The web is also an excellent arena full of film enthusiasts looking for new independent films which is perfect for the endorsement of our film. The use of YouTube would also be an effective way to promote ‘Revelations’ as footage could be put on it to show sections of the film visually consequently this would endorse the audience to want to watch the film.
I would use stills from our film (like the ones to the right) as posters for our film. The second one shows an effective image of Jesus burning which is shown in our title sequence, therefore showing the extend to which Satanism is contrasted to Christianity. The first photo is also an effect image that shows the darkness, due to black background, of the film just through a simple image. The word ‘Revelations’ is also the dominant focus within the image so would grasp the attention of the audience and consequently make people remember the word and therefore want to see the film.
A possible tagline for our film could be ‘Son of Tyrus, fears pure light’ as it is gripping and suggests the idea of Satanism along with Christianity as it is the changed words to the hymn ‘Silent Night’.

6. What have you learnt about Media Technologies from the process of constructing your product?

HARDWARE: SHOOT DAY
As a group we worked well through out the shoot day which made it an enjoyable experience. We were very professional as a team and when problems occurred we dealt with them efficiently without creating hassle, therefore this taught me that teamwork is a key aspect to have when working in a group. (Refer to both blog posts called 15/01/09 - production log 1 for details of work done and problems on the shoot day).
We used the JVC camera (as shown below) to shoot both our opening sequence and shots for our title sequence and even though on the day I wasn’t the camera operator I learnt a lot about how to operate it and how to get it to work to its full potential. We also used 3-point lighting and the use of Redheads and Blue gels (they remove the orange tangent bulbs to make the light look like it was coming from the exterior as apposed to artificial light). We record sound/audio on our shoot day as it was not necessary for our footage so I was not aware then what was necessary in order to produce a clear sound.
The technical skills that I learnt from the shooting day were using a track and spider dolly which all contributes towards the shot construction. In addition I learnt how important lighting is within a shot to create both interior and exterior lighting and create the overall effect wanted.

SOFTWARE: EDITING
The editing of ‘Revelations’ was a learning process in which I learnt how to use Final Cut Pro including how to log and use the time line etc, and also about the digitalization of film and how to construction meanings through the process of editing. (Refer to blog post Editing – without sound). The general process of editing has educated me on how to use Final Cut Pro in the same way that they would in the film industry. This has therefore helped me further to feel more confident when using it. As a group we found it hard to work as a group beside each other as only one of us could do the editing at one time. Though we were all there to help with the imputing of ideas in order to generate a group effort.

7. Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt about the progression from it to the finished product?

Our preliminary task was a continuity exercise in which we had to film and edit a short sequence involving two characters in conversion with each other within an interior set. The sequence concerned one character opening a door; crossing a room and establishing his or her self opposite another character and exchanging a few lines of dialogue.
We shot this task in October 2008; the beginning of our AS course and therefore had a very limited knowledge about pre-production, production and post-production. The shooting was carried out in one hour within our lesson so the organisation prior to the day was very limited on our behalf. Throughout the filming we had to make sure we were organised enough to gain the footage needed to create an effective sequence. This meant that we needed to be direct and efficient when deciding the shots needed, and the extra shots that would add to the value of our piece. As a result of this the planning and development was also limited prior to the shoot but was carried out as we went along coinciding with the organisation in our group.
This learning experience helped a lot in the process of my final piece as I felt the need to plan, develop and research into the whole production of our sequence ahead of the shoot so we would be prepared and it would flow more easily than it did with the preliminary task.
Also when carrying out our preliminary task we had a restricted knowledge about using the camera, what should occur in the mise-on-scene and the editing. Therefore although we managed to create a piece that was successful within the brief, looking back on it now, post doing our final product, I would have altered the way in which the overall product was established so that the final complexity was more of a wow factor than it is.
The research that I carried out for my final piece was very thorough, subsequently meaning that it made the rest of the process an easier one. This was because I researched a great deal into other horror movies so when thinking up ideas of an original plot I was influenced by other films but had the ability to change them to make them unique and dissimilar to movies already heard of.
As a group our planning was dysfunctional at times due to our ideas continuously changing and developing however this meant that we achieved the highest we could as we considered all options and approaches to the task that were necessary.
When allocating roles within the group we were all happy to take on any role we decided, so the decision wasn’t as strenuous as I thought it would be. Looking back now it would have been a more appropriate decision to make either myself or Rory Skeoch the producer as Oli Bayliss was ill for a period of time in when the jobs in which his role entailed were supposed to be done.
We could have also improved our preliminary task by instead of our shots being static by using a tripod we could have used tracks and a spider dolly similar to what we used to shoot our opening sequence to increase the interest of the piece. It would have also given the final completion drive and momentum that was emphasised in our final product, ‘Revelations’. Also what could have been improved upon, in which we learnt from and was used in our final piece was to use 3-point lighting as apposed to the one/two point lighting that we used in our preliminary task. The lighting that we used in our preliminary task made the piece flat and didn’t create such a contrast. Whereas in our final piece the use of 3-point lighting made it more effective as the back light created darkness and shadows onto the set which was useful when creating the mood for our horror film.
The editing in both products could have been improved if we were to have had more time in which to experiment with it to make us more confident when using all aspects of the programme. Though from doing the preliminary task it did teach us the skills in order for our final task to be better and due to having more experience we could have created the suspense that was needed for our final product.
The whole experience taught we a great deal about what it would be like to work within the industry as we carried it out in the same manner, though obviously in a much more amateur way. But it has specifically taught me how to use media technologies, a film camera (such as the JVC we using in our final product) and Final Cut Pro in order to edit both sequences. I am now able to use a camera as I have the basic knowledge to shoot and achieve a good outcome; therefore I have the ability to use a camera on my own without the help of the assistants. Also from this experience I have both the knowledge and ability to use Final Cut Pro to an extend that I can edit a low-budget film successfully. So I have a clear understand of the three stages to make a film (pre-production, production and post-production) similar to that of the film industry.

Editing

On Wednesday 21st January we began our editing of Revelations. The software that we used is called Final Cut Pro, though when we began we only had basic knowledge of the program so the overall experience was a learning process to get the knowledge for the future as well as to produce a fully edited piece of footage. Final Cut Pro is only available on Mac OS X and enables you to log and capture the footage onto a hard drive in order to be edited and processed.

Final Cut Pro is the first choice of professional editors worldwide. It delivers high-performance digital nonlinear editing, native support for virtually any video format, and facility-class extensibility and interoperability. Final Cut Pro makes it easy to be more creative and enables you to have technical control over all aspects of the editing. It has a variety of applications which are vital when creating our opening sequence and title sequence. This software includes standard editing functions (e.g. roll, ripple, slip, slide, scrub, razor, blade and time remapping). It also has 99 audio tracks, a large range of dissolves, basic 3D transitions, colour correction filters, multi-cam editing and video and audio filters (keying tools, mattes and vocal de-poppers).

We began by investigating with the software so we could understand it better then we embarked on browsing the footage we had taken on the shoot day. Our next step was to digitalize the film by selecting the shots we wanted to use and discarding the once that weren’t so useful to us. Because this was our first proper time our group had used the software, we all wanted to have a go to enhance our knowledge so it wasn’t all that easy to make decision on what we thought as a group were the better shots. It was also quite challenging to compare shots and decide which to discard due to them being out of focus or the lighting continuity not being fluid. Despite all this we discovered that the final shots we decided on were of a high standard and were effective in producing the atmosphere which we sought after in our piece. We then used the dissolve ‘fade in, fade out’ to make the cuts look clean and have a smooth change between each shot.

Having chosen and logged the shots we put them into different folders to keep them organized and consequently would be quicker in the future. We then began to put our chosen shots onto the timeline whilst making sure that between shot A to B there were Graphic (configurations, patterns of light and dark, line shape, volumes and depths, movement and stasis), Rhytmic (adjusting their screen duration and creating a steady rhythm) and Spatial (relating two points in space through similarity, difference, or development) relations between each shot.

After making sure that all the shots were in the correct order on the timeline and flowed correctly we began to put in our credits. We did this by firstly colour coding each shot that we wanted credits on, this meant that the layer that had the text on could be seen through our shots. We spent a lot of time as a group deciding text that would be appropriate, but we eventually decided on ‘cochin’ as we agreed that it is clear but mysterious. It is clear enough to see the credits but wouldn’t distract from the film playing at the same time.

After our credits were completed we went over it to check that the credits were in the correct order and that it was a clean cut around two minutes long.

Our audio was supposed to be a version of 'Silent Night' sung by Clare Dodkins and backing it there would be the piano playing in the background. Due to problems with timings as Oli Bayliss didn't manage to achieve this within our time limit. I chose two peices of music not under the copyright law and using Sound Track Pro i added a 'fire ball' sound to the middle when there is a Cut from the opening sequence to the title sequence.

The link below is a link to a tutorial on using Final Cut Pro (the software that we used when editing REVELATIONS).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bbrq6qEsAkg

15/01/09 - production log 1

EVALUATION

1.1 We worked very well as a group during the shoot day in the various places. Even though we encountered problems we managed to solve them without wasting time or causing arguments.
1.2 We could have been seen as quite on the day and we could have improved further as a group if we had encouraged each other and communicated more.
1.3 We should have been more prepared with the lights so we didn’t have to take a second trip back to school to get more. Although we didn’t loose much time over it we would have saved more time if we had two sets to begin with.
1.4 Throughout the day we made sure we kept to our roles the we had decided within our production company, though if we had points to help each other we made sure they were voiced so our overall group’s outcome wasn’t effected and it was as we had planned it to be.
1.5 We kept to our shoot schedule as accurately as we possibly could but underestimated the times so in fact finished earlier than we had expected. But we gathered that it was better to finish before schedule rather than after and not finish so overall it was a good thing.
1.6 I learnt that being a director you have to be strong when voicing your opinions and firm when telling other people what to do but still whilst showing them respect.

15/01/09 - production log 1

PROBLEMS:

HOLMBURY ST. MARY CHURCH:

We found it hard to get our track straight and spent a long time straitening it up and we still couldn’t get a completely straight track.

We had to conceal the lights in order to make sure that they weren’t present in the shots because otherwise it would have given away that the light that came from the ext in fact were red heads. We had difficulty with this as there were limited plug sockets in the church so we also didn’t want to show the leads.

We arrived with not enough lights so we had to go back to school on one occasion to retrieve more for the shoot. This therefore was an occurrence that took away valuable time.

The organ was positioned in a hidden area of the church which meant that it wasn’t shown in the track. We had to therefore get a keyboard and position it in a place that would be seen.

HURTWOOD HOUSE SCHOOL THEATRE:

The nativity set that we had wasn’t very detailed and were only painted white so they didn’t look so effective in a wide shot or close up.

Some of the figures had unintentional phallic symbols so they didn’t look how we had imagined and may have looked like we were suggesting something other than what we intended.

They were difficult to light with the lighter fluid as some were painted with fire resistant paint. So some of them took a long time to catch fire.

HURTWOOD HOUSE SCHOOL BASEMENT:

Hard to light the set and one person had to hold the light at the top throughout the whole shoot.

There was a strong smell of gas which gave us headaches which was a health and safety issue and we had to take it in turns to have breaks to get fresh air throughout the shoot.

There were shadows created from the stairs which in some shots made it look not as effective as we would have hoped.

15/01/09 - production log 1

WORK DONE:

HOLMBURY ST. MARY CHURCH:

1.1 (09:00) Met with production group: Rory Skeoch, Oli Bayliss and myself and assistants Luke and Simon outside the theatre.

1.2 (09:00-09:20) Transport props: Nativity set and wood shaving, costumes: priests outfit and nuns out fit, lights: 2 boxes of red-head's plus blue gels, camera: JBC, tracking, spider dolly and gather our actor to play the priest: Mark Philipp-Morgan onto the mini bus.

1.3 (09:20-09:30) Travel to location. And call other actor, nun: Sarah Driver. To check that she is on her way and is aware of the location of the church in Holmbury St Mary.

1.4 (09:30-11:00) Set up track by moving the pews in order to place the track straight. Then keep kicking and shaking it into place until the camera can roll over it without and jolting- therefore creating a smooth track. Whilst doing this start to set up the lights in each window to create light as if it is coming from the ext. Whilst adding blue gels onto each light to make sure it looks like we are shooting in day light and consequently eliminating the orange in the red-head lights.

1.5 (11:00-12:00) Rehearse through scene with actors, timing it as it goes along to make sure it’s the same each time and fits in with the timing we need it to be. Then rehearse the pan with Oli and Rory operating the camera on the spider dolly whilst I timed it and directed it in order to make sure it is the right length and that the actors we well rehearsed before we went into our final shooting. We planned on our shooting schedule in this time to also sort out the focus for our pan, but due to it not being relevant on the day we spent more time correcting and perfecting ourselves before we began our shooting.

1.6 (12:00-13:00) During this time we carried out our preliminary shooting combined with our main shots. We took about 6 shots all about the same time (40 seconds – 1 minute). During this I timed to make sure it was roughly the same time and directed the actors after each shoot if they did something incorrect.

1.7 (13:00-13:30) Pack up equipment carefully and get actors to sign there contracts. Travel back to school.

HURTWOOD HOUSE SCHOOL THEATRE:

2.1 (13:30-14:00) Break for lunch.
2.2 (14:00-15:00) Set up the nativity set in the theatre, on a stall close to the door just in case of an emergency. Equipping an extra person with a fire extinguisher to stop the burning of the figure after we get our shots. Pour lighter fluid on the wooden nativity models and drop a match onto them and film wide shots and close ups of each person.

2.3 (15:00-15:30) Clean up in the theatre. This included getting rid of all the ashes and dust caused by the fire and dispose of the figures and bar making sure that they are not on fire anymore by using the fire extinguisher.

HURTWOOD HOUSE SCHOOL BASEMENT:

1.1 (15:30-16:00) Set up table, tablecloth and props at the location whilst setting up the lights – one coming from the top of the basement above the stairs and one inside the basement. Also set up the camera in the basement on the tripod.

1.2 (16:00-16:30) Shoot the clips that we want – 10 seconds each do that there is enough footage for editing.

1.3 (16:30-16:45) pack up equipment carefully and return it to the correct places.