Research and Planning: Possible film names/Meeting

1. Dominion
2. House of Darkness
3. The Unannoted
4. Lifeless
5. Retribution
6. The Mind Play
7. No Escape
8. Breathless

These are some of the potential names for our film, each of these name are quite suiting to the plot of our trailer. As each of the names offer a sense of mystery not giving too much away from the trailer, and each have connotations of horror. 

Research and Planning: The Treatment

We have chosen to use plot number one from our proposals, we made this choice because we believe that we will be able to create it better than the other plot which we considered in our proposals, for many reasons, including the equipment we have. We also believe that plot one is more viable, and would create the most horror.  

A master shot showing the house and the four girls from behind with their suitcases, moving in. Shots of the girls faces would then be shown, three of the girls looking happy and can't wait to move in then one of the girls who's slightly stood behind the rest of the girls, looks a bit concerned. When the girls are shown there will be a medium close up with all the girls in, so their facial expressions can be seen by the audience. A jump cut will be used to change to the next scene.

The next scene will just show normal life in a student house, them socializing, listening to music and drinking, dissolving and using jump cuts showing each one of the girls separately. Natural sounds and music will be played during these scenes. 

That night, one of the girls is shown sleeping, an object moves/Door moves. There is anmaster shot of the room, When the object moves the girl in bed moves.  

Through out the rest of the trailer there will be scenes showing bits of what is happening to the girl, and the effect it has. The other girls in the house don't really believe or see anything in the house, what the other girl does.

There will be a scene of the girl in bed, when she gets possessed, from above her and the side shots so the audience can see clearly what is happening to her. There will also be a scene of the girl walking around the house, running her finger across surfaces and whistling.  

The end scene of the trailer will be a new cast. The new reader stating 'three girls found dead, and one missing' it will be the main/breaking news.

Throughout the trailer there cuts between the scenes will be jump cuts, which get faster as they the trailer goes on, so its like a big build up. Dissolves will also be used because if they also get faster through the trailer it will also build up the trailer. 

Dialogue of the characters in the film will be used through the trailer, as well as musicand natural sounds. There will also be use of screaming, big bangs and whistling. 

Research and Planning: Equipment & Software List

• Photoshop 
• Garage Band 
• SLR Camera
• Sony HD Camera
• IMovie
• Final Cut 
• IPhoto
• Canon mini DV

I will use the garage band when it comes to creating the sound for my trailer. Including any additional sound effects for example foot steps or creaking doors etc.

 The SLR camera will be used when taking pictures for the magazine and film poster. This is good to use as you are able to change focus and make the clarity of the picture a high quality, making it look more professional.

The Final Cut programme would be used when it comes to editing my trailer and making the final adjustments so that the trailer flows clearly and is easy to follow. Final Cut is much more useful than IMovie and therefore would give the trailer an overall better finishing look. However, Final Cut would require some practice first as I haven't used the programme before. I would like to know what I'm doing before editing my trailer in case I make any mistakes

 IMovie is an alternative to Final Cut, just in case I didn't get to grips with Final Cut. I also have an idea of what I am doing on this programme decreasing the chance of any mistakes being made.

IPhoto will be used once I have taken the pictures on the SLR, meaning I would be able to check the photos and make sure they're of the quality which is expected for my film poster and magazine cover.

 The HD Sony camera will be used for the majority of the filming of my trailer, this camera would give a great quality as oppose to the Canon Mini DV camera, which wouldn't give a great overall quality.

 Photoshop will be used for any adjustments that need to made to the photos that I have taken, for example making them look more horrific and suiting to the genre which I have chosen. The main use for Photoshop would be when it comes to the magazine cover and the film poster.

The Canon Mini DV would be used for the test shots of my trailer. This would help me in making decisions about whether the lighting or mise en scene would need any alterations before using the HD Sony Camera.

Research and Planning: Possible Production Logo Ideas

This is a possible production label which we will be using at the end of our trailer. I think it suits well with the genre, as spiral suggest something that goes round and round with only one end, and also something that eventually fizzles out. When thinking of the narrative of our trailer, this works well as the possessed girl begins to kill people, and we as viewers know there will be a climax ending the horror created, and that it will not carry on forever.

Research and Planning: Props & Costumes

Due to our trailer being set in student accommodation (represented through a house) the props we shall be using will be books, iPod's  laptops, alcohol and other typical things you would to expect from students. We will be presenting the room in quite a messy way to show the stereotypical side of the students, and how people. In our scenes that are going to be presented outside of the house,  we will always use a prop to indicate that they are students, for example educational equipment like books or alcohol.

Our trailer contains a girl, who ends up becoming possessed. This shall be presenting in many ways, we shall be changing her original look of a normal girl and turning her into something that looks quite frightening. This will be done by changing the eyes of the character, by using dark eye make up and potentially contact lenses to make them look devilish (this is dependent on whether the actor agrees to wear them). We will also make the girl look possessed through her hair, we will be using a back comb in a bottle, to convey the girl to have become insane and dangerous, and make her look scary.

The clothes which the actors will be wearing will be very symbolic to their character. For example the confident girls of the student house will be wearing things like shorts and short tops to show of their body, whereas the shy and quite introvert girl will be wearing big jumpers and jeans, covering as much skin as they can to show that they're not confident as a person.

Research and Planning: What I intend to do over half-term.

I firstly need to update my blog on things that I may have missed, for example

• The treatment
• Equipment & software list
• Costume & Prop list
• More social networking feedback
• Storyboard
• Any additional posts which I think could help

Research and Planning: Word It Out

This is what I did on the website WordItOut.com, on this I included the names of my group (Hannah, Sophie, Katrina) and I then came up with potential names for production/distribution companies that I could use for my teaser trailer. I came up with many different ideas that would link to the genre of my trailer, for example I used the irony of the word relax. As you obviously wouldn't be relaxing watching a horror movie. I interpreted reactions into potential names as well, for example tear and fear productions. The one which I have decided to use is the Spiral Movies,  as this gives a sense of distortion and something not be clear and smooth running, which is represented through the idea of a spiral.

Research and Planning: Film Poster Analysis 2

The close up of the protagonist shows that she is being instantly attacked by what looks like a human hand, putting her already in a passive position and showing her to be quite vulnerable. However her facial expression is quite a paradox of this as she doesn't appear to be quite frightened, she appears to be startled and somehow calm. We can tell this film is a horror poster by the dirty brown tinge which is spread across the poster and the tagline 'The lucky ones die first'. The colours used are quite effective in expressing the horror, by having the title of the film in red, we get connotations of blood and death, showing that it could be quite a gruesome film. The implications of the narrative we get from the poster, is that of a passive woman being attacked by a potential creature, which could potentially end in death. The mise en scene of the poster, shows what appear to be some hills or woods in the background of the close up of the woman, showing that the woman could appear to be quite isolated away from everything else, and again making her appear very vulnerable. The film looks like it would aim at both genders due to being horror and having a female protagonist, and 16-25 appears to be the age range which the film is aimed at. As it appears there is some excessive horror within this film.

Research and Planning: Film Poster Analysis 1

The long shot of this film poster shows an abandoned setting, instantly creating a sense of unease. The protagonist is shown in a close up of the words 'The Ring' we can see the distress in her face, and as it is a close up it gives it a more dramatic feel, we also see how the horror film is quite stereotypical by presenting the woman to be passive through her facial expression. The blue tinge across the poster emphasizes that it is a horror genre as does the line "not since 'The Exorcist' or 'Rosemary's Baby' has a movie been so truly frightening". We get the feeling that the narrative is going to be distorted and not very clear, as this is the first impression of the poster, due to there being a well in the middle of a field, and the viewer firstly having no idea why. The film appears to be aimed at both genders, by having a female passive protagonist and ages of 16-20 year old's as the main audience through the obvious horror. The mise en scene of the poster shows how it is a horror poster by having the main focus on the woods, and an object in the middle of the woods. You can tell that it is a poster by the film logos at the bottom and the advertisement of the 'The Ring'.

Research and Planning: Sound Research

As I am in charge of sound for my group, I have decided to collect some videos of trailers with sound which I think I can take inspiration from, when it comes to creating either a score, sound effects or the volume of dialogue within the trailer.

This trailer begins with an upbeat happy score, giving the viewer a false aspect of what the film is going to be about, almost settling the viewer in and attaching them to the screen, making it easier to scare them later on in the trailer. The upbeat score then comes to a stop when the group arrive at a petrol station, the music then becomes much more tense and very slow paced. There is also an increase in lots of sudden beats, to emphasize the shock on screen. The loud sudden kick-drum sounds also occur just as the titles appear on screen, describing what is happening. This is an idea which I may interpret into the trailer with my group. The pace of the music increases as the trailer progresses on, whilst the music increases the trailer shows much more horrific shots around the time of 1:21. A music artist then appears in a scream singing voice, adding the panic and unorganisation that is occurring on the screen. This is telling me that the sound should impact what is happening on screen, just like the sound effects do, for example the screeching of the tyres and the smashing of the glass.

This trailer is a lot different than the first in regards to sound. For one it doesn't have a score, meaning it wanted to stray away from the cinematic aspects and try to make it appear as real as possible. This may be ideal to us due to the fact that the equipment we have won't be able to make the trailer appear truly cinematic, meaning I could take a lot of inspiration from this. This trailer focuses much more on the sound effects as oppose to a soundtrack. The sound effects appear not all at once, so that the silence makes you feel much more on edge, then the sudden sound effect will shock you and make you jump, which is what is ideally wanted from a horror trailer. However, even though there isn't a soundtrack there is an eerie noise in the background throughout the trailer, again emphasizing the horror throughout the trailer.  




 

Research and Planning: Proposals/Meeting 2

Plot 1: 

• Four female characters move into a student house, as freshers and newcomers to the university.
• They begin to settle in, yet are struck by surprising things which keep occurring to only one of the girls, however none of the other girls believe her despite them hearing strange noises. 
• One of the girls ends up being possessed and kills the other three girls in the house
• A news report is then shown, showing how 3 of the freshers have been found dead, and one is missing.

Mise-en-scene

• Terrace House, Messy House
• Clothing - Casual day time clothes e.g Jeans, Jumpers 
• Make up/appearance. Possessed Girl: Wild back combed hair, dark eye make up, pale face  
• Props - Books/Files, Drinks (alcohol), Speakers 

Editing 

• Straight Cuts
• Jump Cuts
• Dissolves 
• Fades

Sound 

• Doors slamming 
• Bangs/Loud Noises 
• Whistling
• Foot Steps 
• Music 
• Natural Sounds 

Cinematography

• Close ups
• Master shot
• Medium close ups 
• Eye-line shot

 Plot 2: 

• A group of friends (teenagers) decide to go on a camping trip in the woods. 
• A hand held camera shows that events of the camping trip, from the teenagers point of view. 
• Everything is fine and everybody is having fun until it begins to rain.
• Panicking and wanting to get out of the rain, they run into an old abandoned house nearby.
• Odd things begin to happen, which we don't see as its low key lighting, this results in people going missing.

Mise-en-scene

• Open Field 
• Old House  
• Clothing - Warm casual everyday clothing/ Jumpers, gloves, jeans
• Props - Bags, tents, Bottles

Editing 

• Straight cuts 
• Jump Cuts 
• Fades 
• Dissolves 

Sound 

• Wind
• Rain
• Natural sounds
• Banging/Creepy sounds
• Screaming 

Cinematography

• Master shot 
• Eye-line shot 
• Close ups 
• Long Shots 
• Medium Close ups

Research & Planning: Sound Test

This was my first test on Garage Band, I tried to create a creepy effect so that the horror genre was obvious and fully emphasized. I used may different instruments including the drums and piano. As I am in charge of sound in my group, I found this good practice and will have a clear idea of what to do when it comes to making the sound for my trailer.

Research and Planning: London Trip

Whilst in London for the 3 days, I visited the film museum and seen many different things from many different genres. This is included a horror section, which contained gruesome props including severed heads, wounds, eaten corpses and grotesque animals. I also seen many different props from films including the borrowers, where the props were all very large, this told me that I will need to think about what props will be suiting the context of my film.
We also visited the BBFC where we was told about the regulations of film, and what scenes of films would be deleted and what they would be rated. For example we was shown a clip from the Hunger Games where whilst there was an attack, a lot of blood was shown, we was the told that to keep the film at a 12A they had to delete the blood and make the scene look a lot less violent, if they didn't do this then the film would have been rated at a 15, which they didn't want.
As well as visiting these, we also went to Madame Tussads and seen wax works of many different characters from films, for example Orlando Bloom, Brad Pitt, the Twilight Saga characters and many more. There was also actors which were in character, for example there was a superhero display which shown Wolverine, Spiderman and many more heros.

Research and Planning: Viewing Recent Horror Films

I recently went to see the new horror film House At The End of The Street whilst in the cinema I was looking for typical horror conventions throughout the film, and the reactions of the people sat in the cinema. From what I seen, it was apparent the people were most scared when something made them jump, for example the little girl Carrie-Anne startled the audience a few times, including myself when she jumped out of no where into the shot. This seemed to have a better effect on the audience than the more gruesome parts of the film including the breaking of the little girls neck, and the breaking of the boys leg. Meaning that in my trailer I will try to include much more jumpy parts instead of the grotesque as I have seen that this has a greater effect on the viewer.
The typical horror conventions of this film, was the misunderstood male character who turns out to be something totally unexpected, and the girl who firstly appears to be passive yet comes out as quite an active character.