Targets to do this week as a group

1) Questionnaire Results

2) Script

3) Animatic Storyboard

4) Shot List

5) Mood Board

6) Diary of Filming and Editing

Film Script

starts off  near the crime scene, were Tom is reporting the murders.

THOMAS: We are now reporting  live from the scene of a murder investigation. We believe that the source of this murder is from the recent outbreaks from the West Park Avenue mental asylum.

PRODUCTION CREDITS

insides Chloes living room while she's watching the news report

THOMAS: We would advise anyone within the area to stay inside until the murderer is caught, the police have informed us that this man has the potential to go on endanger the lives of others. 

To the first murder outside under the bridge.

(long shot of a stranger being followed by the stalker.)

( reverse shot of the other end of the pathway showing murderer walking off and showing the victim laying dead in the background)

TITLES- BASED ON A TRUE STORY


ALEX:  Who is it?  (shouting, while looking at pictures of potential suspects)

( back to Chloe's living room face timing the detective/ boyfriend )

CHLOE:  This stalker person is really creeping me out Matt, when will you be home?

ALEX: I'll be a few hours, you'll be fine, don't worry about it.

CHLOE; What was that?

ALEX: what?

CHLOE: I just heard something

ALEX: Don't be silly, i'll be home soon anyway stop worrying

CHLOE: Okay try and be as quick as...

ALEX: Chloe.... who's that behind you..

she turns around and lights turn off , Chloe screams 

MURDERER:  You better hurry home. ( fade to black transition)

TITLES- STALKER 

Match Cutting Action

A match cut

^{A match cut, also called a graphic match, is a cut in film editing between either two different objects, two different spaces, or two different compositions in which an object in the two shots graphically match, often helping to establish a strong continuity of action and linking the two shots metaphorically.}

Shot Reverse Shot

Shot reverse shot


Shot reverse shot  is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.   
Shot reverse shot has to be used in films because if it is not used there will always be a camera in the background, which obviously is not acceptable.

180 Degree Rule

180 degree rule

A rule stating that a camera should be placed somewhere inside 180 degrees on a particular side of the invisible line of a shot containing two people filmed in sequence. If the camera crosses the line, confusion results for the film viewers, because it makes it look like the people are switching places as one watches the film. The two characters in the scene should always have the same left/right relationship. 

Conventions of horror films

The conventions of horror films are: murders, female with sex appeal, 'jumpy scenes' and creepy music. In a horror film the intention of the film is to scare the audience.  To scare the audience the main theme of horror films are peoples worst nightmare. So for example a serial killer, a clown or a ghost. Also tension is created by creepy music. The music is usually very slow paced. The camera shots in horror movies are mostly long shots and close ups. Close ups are used to show the facial expressions of the characters, most of the time the close ups are on the character that is being attacked. This is because it enables the audience can see and even feel their fear. Long shots are used to show the whole setting, sometimes long shots shows things creeping up behind someone, this creates tension. When the audience can see something or someone creeping up behind a person in a long shot it creates dramatic irony. 

In almost all horror films there is a teenage girl being killed. The girl is seen to be the damsel in distress. Also she is seen to be fragile and helpless. The girl always seems to be alone in a place far away from anything. This makes the girl vulnerable.

The target audience for horror films are young people aged 16-30 Many teenagers will want to watch a horror film as they will feel as if they can relate to the film. Teenagers are used most of the time in horror films. Also young people will want watch horrors as they will want to see blood and gore, which is shown a lot in horror films. The colours used in horror films are usually black and red. This is because stereo typically these colours connote evil and death. Teens would would be the target audience because they usually want to have adrenaline rushes and they also want to have the shock factor. Older people will not be the target audience as they will feel that horror films are boring and unrealistic as they would of seen many before.

Age certificate

Age certificates

This would be suitable for people aged 4 and overAll ages are admitted, but some scenes may be unsuitable for young childrenIt is suitable for people aged 12 and over, but in some cases the parents may feel that some things in a 12 film are unsuitable.

This is suitable for ages 15 and over. 15 rated films contain adult themes, strong language and drug and sex references.

Films under this category do not have limitation on the bad language that is used. Hard drugs are generally allowed, and explicit sex references along with detailed sexual activity are also allowed.

Location research

Location Research

This is one of our location ideas, it is an abandoned house in Leatherhead, which makes it easy to get to as its only a 5-10 minute walk from our school. It is also an abandoned so we won't be disturbing anyone. However this location is boarded up and we don't want to risk anything illegal. We did visit the house to see what it was like but in the end we decided not to use it because of the law.

This was another idea for a location, this is west park hospital in Epsom, it is located just down the road from Epsom train station, it has the benefit for being perfect for our horror story as it used to be a mental hospital. However this location has recently been demolished and no longer has as many features as it use to have, this makes it unusable for our film ideas, along with this problem it would have also been illegal again to trespass although we could have probably emailed the relevant people to request use of the site.
For our location we came to the decision to use 40 foot recreation ground in Leatherhead as one of our location, this provides us with several ideas such as a chase scene. Another location we are going to use the house pictured, the film will be based on a murderer on the loose and he finds and murders a group of friends in this house, these are likely to be our final locations as we feel they would be most appropriate to the film.

Prop research

Prop Research

The most commonly used props in a horror movie seem to be masks and weapon-focused. A hockey mask or some form of face-covering is stereotypical of the genre, adding to the fear the antagonist instills to the audience as their identity is hidden, raising enigmas. Famous examples include Mike Myers from the Halloween film franchise and Hannibal Lecter.

               
The mask is an effective prop for this genre as part of every horror is the build-up to the antagonists reveal, showing them gradually to the audience to create suspense and tension. With the use of the mask the suspense of the film is not deflated as soon as the villain is revealed to the audience, as there are still questions raised surrounding the man behind the mask, what he really looks like and why he is after the protagonists rather than showing the full picture straight away. This is why we are thinking of using a mask in our trailer, as this will allow us to show off our villain without giving to much away and still giving the audience
questions.
Another key area for props in this genre is weapon-focused, normally what the antagonist uses to hunt down the protagonists. The most commonly used are knives (like Mike Myers, above), chainsaws (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and machetes (Friday the 13th), all weapons that would create a lot of blood and gore. This makes the antagonist a more credible threat and plays on audience fears of stabbing and obviously, dying. We are using a ghost/poltergeist as our villain so a weapon prop would not really be fitting with the villain so we may not use this for our film.

Questionnaire

These will be the questions that we will ask our audience, we hope that this will give us a better idea of what the target audience want to see.




1.What is your age and gender?

2. What would be a good location for a Horror film?
- A house
- A park
- A Forrest
- A school


3.Would you prefer the Antagonist to be a person or a ghost that cannot be seen?


4.What would you expect the Protagonist in the film to be like?


5.What would you expect the Antagonist in the film to be like?


6. What is you favourite genre within Horror?
- Blood and gore
- Ghosts
- Thriller
- Psychological


7. What is your favourite horror film? and why?


8. Would you prefer the Antagonist to be realistic or to be a character that is sub-normal?


9. Would you prefer if the Horror film is based on things that actually occur? e.g. stalking murder etc


10. Do Horror films containing blood and gore appeal to you?


11. What would you expect to see in a horror trailer?

Costume research

Costume Research

Our film is based on the idea of having 4 main characters, 3 of these will be the "victims" and a escaped murderer who is hunting them. The murderers costume will be most important as it needs to convey the evil nature of our antagonist in order to unsettle the audience and make him a credible threat. It would not make sense to have our murderer dressed in a hoodie and jeans and wearing trainers as a murderer must be psychopathic and therefore would not dress casually. Therefore the costume needs to convey to the audience the idea of the murderer being crazy and therefore be abnormal. We are already planning to have our murderer in some form of mask which will help to put across the idea of his lunacy and make him a credible threat, it also conceals the murderers identity adding mystery and suspense to the character as the audience won't be able to tell who or what is under the mask. For the rest of his costume, we thought about him wearing black, muddy, worn-out work boots to as these would be conventional footwear for a killer to use. An example would be the character Zep from the original Saw film.

The rest of the killers costume would ideally be mostly black, which has the practical benefits of making them harder to identify in shots which we can use to our advantage in teasing the character to the audience in our trailer without fully revealing him. Black trousers, a black jacket and black gloves with the mask would make our killer look creepy and reveal almost nothing about him to the audience, further helping to make the character intriguing and terrifying.

For our victims, costume-work will be easier to decide on as there is a broader range of acceptable outfit. It is conventional for the victims in horror films to be relatable for the audience, making it easier to put yourself in their shoes and therefore making the scenario more frightening. This is why most of the time teenagers are the victims in these films as teenagers are the main target market for the horror genre. Our 3 victims will also be teenagers and will dress accordingly in t-shirts, hoodies and trainers. Ideally, most of the victims costumes will consist of bright colours like white in order to contrast with the darkness of the villain and to make them seem more vulnerable in a dark environment as they stand out more. Each costume should also be tailored to reflect each characters personality, helping to make them more identifiable to the audience. A good example is from the costume-work in The Cabin in The Woods, which can be seen below. You have the "jock" character wearing an American football jacket to show he is the strong, sporty and typically stupid one in the film. Then you also have the contrasting choice of costume for each of the female-characters, with the blonde woman wearing a short skirt and the ginger woman wearing jeans, making the audience sympathise more with the ginger woman as she seems more respectable and less promiscuous than the blonde woman.

We have also had an idea for a fake news report to feature in our trailer, with a news reporter setting the scene to the audience. If we end up going along with the news report idea, we would likely have our news reporter in a smart suit and tie to add to the realism, as this is typically what you'd expect to see in a real life news report.

Targets for Research and Planning this week

Your group needs to make some decisions about your film as soon as possble. The posts listed below ideally need to be completed this week.

1. Location research – you need to decide on the setting of your film ASAP, include google earth images and pictures you have taken.

2. Description of the actors and interviews

3. Prop research and analysis - which Ronnie has

4. Costume ideas

5. Questionnaire and feedback on your initial ideas