Opening titles and font: Drag Me To Hell

This is the opening title to the film Drag Me To Hell. Once again, it is all capitalised to make it stand out, and a bold font has been used to help with this. This particular font makes it seem old, as the letters have holes in them, and have uneven edges.  The whitish text on the black background also helps it stand out. The two words "drag" and "hell" are also the biggest, i feel this is because they are the two most imposing and threatening words, so making them the biggest words makes it seem more extreme.

Opening titles and font: SE7EN

This is the opening title for the horror/thriller film SE7EN. The white text on the black background really makes it stand out and appear vivid. Also, the text is repeated in the background, slightly transparent, giving it an eerie, mysterious look. The bold, capitalised font also adds to the effect, and the way the number seven has been used in place of the V also makes it look more mysterious.

Opening titles and font: Scream

This is the opening title for scream. The title starts white, and then changes to red, and stretches itself out, and then fades away. The red colour of the text symbolises death and danger, making the title seem more sinister, and the way the title stretches out also makes it look more sinister and frightening, and using capitals makes it more bold and stand out more.

Questionnaire

Questionnaire

1. how old are you? (circle the answer)

10-14
15-19
20-24
25-29
30+

2. do you like movies?

yes
no

3. what genre do you tend to go for?

adventure
horror
sci-fi
romance
thriller
comedy
fantasy
other

4. how often do you watch movies?

most days a week
twice a week
once a week
rarely
never

5. Do you like horrors?

yes
no

6. if you said yes why?

tense
eye catching
unexpected endings
interesting stories
appealing characters

7. if no why, why does it not appeal to you?

boring
needs more of an edge
needs more suspense
needs to be more believeable and scary


8. what draws you to a horror films?

the characters
the music
antagonists
the storyline
if its not above please write what draw you to a horror below)



9. what do you expect to be in a horror film?
deaths
antagonists
stereotypical characters
tense music
(any more please add below)



10. what is your favourite horror film and why?




11. what do you expect in the opening two minutes

A death
introduction to main character
a jumpy scene
disappearance

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for our horror film will need to be suspenseful, as our horror film is all about fear of the unknown, a mysterious figure that's stalking the victim, and we don't know where he is, or when he is going to turn up. I feel this will really add effect to our film, as the soundtrack of a film is often what draws people into the film, and its also something that a lot of people remember about a film, so its important that we have an effective soundtrack that also fits in well with what we are doing. The music above is just an example of the kind of music that we would use, but ours would be a lot more low and menacing, with a more serious and suspenseful tone. We will also have to make sure that any sounds or soundtracks we use are royalty free (non copyrighted)

Institution: Universal

Universal is another of the six major movie institutions, founded in 1912 by carl laemmle. Universal has produced several succesfull films, such as King Kong, Brokeback mountain and Atonement. Universal seem to focus on drama, romance and adventure films, as they are the genres that have made them succesfull, but they have also produced and distributed a number of horror films as well, such as Drag me to hell, Dead silence, The strangers and Dracula.  

Institution: Warner Bros

Warner Bros is another one of the big film studios. It is based in california and new york, and is global in the creation, production, distribution, licensing and marketing of a great deal of films. They produce and distribute a variety of different film genres, ranging from comedy, romance and fantasy, to adaventure, horror and action.

Warner Bros have produced and distributed a variety of horror films, such as Orphan, Friday the 13th, One missed call, Sweeney todd, The wicker man, and House of wax. Warner Bros seem to be a good institution to pick for my film, as they have experience with producing and distributing a number of horror films.  

Institution: 20th century fox

20th century fox is a film corporation, which is one of the 6 major american film studios. 20th century fox was founded in 1935, and has become the most recognised film institution in the world. The studio is also a subsidiary news corporation, owned by Rupert Murdoch.

20th century fox has created some extremely successful films such as : Avatar/Star Wars/Chronicles of Narnia. Since we are doing a horror, i have to decide if 20th century fox would be a suitable film institution to use. They have produced several horror films, such as Alien and The Omen. 20th century fox seem to distribute more films rather than produce them, so they would be a good institution to pick to distribute our film.

Prop: Bag

Another prop that the younger sister will be using is a bag, as she is walking home from a friends house after school, and has her school bag with her. The bag we will be using will not be the exact same as this, but will be of a similar style.

Prop: Phone

One prop we will be using in our opening two minutes is a mobile phone. The reason we will be using this is because the younger sister will ring her older sister just as she starts to walk down the millpond path to say that she will be home in around 15 minutes, as she is walking back from a friends house after school.

Costume: Little sister

This is the school jumper that the youngr sister will be wearing as she is walking home from a freinds house after school.

Here are the girls school trousers that she will be wearing while walking back in our opening two minutes.

This is the therfield blazer that the girl will be wearing while walking home in our opening two minutes.

The girl will also be wearing her school blouse while walking home in our opening two minutes. 

Costume: Slenderman/Pale one

 

 



This is the costume for the slenderman/pale one that i will be wearing. It is a white morph mask, so you cant see my face, with a white shirt, black tie and a black suit and trousers. This makes me look smart and sophisticated, but also mysterious and chilling, a very ominous persona.

Actor: Slenderman/The pale one

 

 

I will be playing the part of the slenderman/pale one. I put myself forward for this role as i feel that i can play this role well. I am also the tallest in the group, which matches the character i am playing, as he is a tall, mysterious figure with long arms and legs. I will be wearing a white morph mask, which completly covers my face and makes it so you cannot see my face through it, so i just have a blank white face. I will also be wearing a white shirt, black tie, and black suit.

Age certificate: 18

Only adults are admitted. Nobody younger than 18 can rent or buy an 18-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game, or watch a film in the cinema with this rating. 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. Scenes of strong real sex may be permitted if justified by the context. Very strong, gory, and/or sadistic violence is usually permitted. Strong sexual violence is permitted unless it is eroticised or excessively graphic.

Age certificate: 15

Only those over 15 years are admitted. Nobody younger than 15 can rent or buy a 15-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game, or watch a film in the cinema with this rating. Films under this category can contain adult themes, hard drugs, frequent strong language and limited use of very strong language, strong violence and strong sex references, and nudity without graphic detail. Sexual activity may be portrayed but without any strong detail. Sexual violence may be shown if discreet and justified by context.

Age certificate: 12

Home media only since 2002. 12A-rated films are usually given a 12 certificate for the VHS/DVD version unless extra material has been added that requires a higher rating.
Nobody younger than 12 can rent or buy a 12-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game. The content guidelines are identical to those used for the 12A certificate.

Age certificate: 12A

 

 

Films under this category are considered to be unsuitable for very young people. Those aged under 12 years are only admitted if accompanied by an adult, aged at least 18 years, at all times during the film. However, it is generally not recommended that children under 12 years should watch the film. Films under this category can contain mature themes, discrimination, soft drugs, moderate swear words, infrequent strong language and moderate violence, sex references and nudity. Sexual activity may be briefly and discreetly portrayed. Sexual violence may be implied or briefly indicated.

 

Location 2

Location 2



Here is one setting where our film will take place. It is the leatherhead crematorium, and this is where the older sister in our film (played by charlotte) goes to visit her (supposed) dead sisters grave. We chose this location as it is a large, empty place, which allows us to try out a variety of camera shots and use the space around us, easy to get to, and fits in with the two minutes we have planned out.

Synopsis of our film

The sister is walking home at night time and makes a quick phone call to her sister to inform her that she is on her way home. When she ends the phone call she carrys on walking. She stops for a moment to look through her bag, which is when we see the slenderman behind her in the distance, standing under a lampost. She turns around, but he is not there anymore. But when she turns back around, he is there, and this is how she disapears.

The genre we have decided to do for our film is horror, as we feel we can do some interesting things with this genre. Our film is called "The Pale One"as this relates to the antagonist in our film, and the film revolves around the mystery of this character. Our film wont be violent, and have blood and gore in it, but it is rather a mysterious horror, and relies heavilly on fear of the unkown, and the mystery that shrouds the antagonist. Due to our film not having any violence, the age certificate wont be 18, but a 15 instead. It will be a 15 because our film is more psychologically horrifying, and can be disturbing for younger viewers.

The protagonist of our film is a young female teenager, around the age of 16/17, and is called Charlotte. In the storyline of our film, Charlotte is going through a tough time, as her younger sister recently went missing one day without a trace, with no body found, or evidence to suggest what happend to her. After an extensive search by the authorities to try and find her, with no results, she is presumed dead. The loss of the younger sister has had a substatial impact on the mother, who has taken the loss of her daughter hard, and while trying her best to look after her remaining daughter, she cant help but dwell on the loss of her younger daugher, and the resulting impact has caused the mother to shun and ignore the older sister slightly, which obviously has an emotional impact on Charlotte.

As time progresses, Charlotte starts to expierence strange events. It starts with her finding disturbing drawings in her younger sisters room as she is getting ready to go visit her sisters grave (which was put up when she was presumed dead, in memory of her), very harsh drawings, as if the pencil was held in a fist and was harshy dragged accross the paper. The drawings are of a very tall man, with no face, wearing a black suit, and has extremely long, abnormal arms and legs. Most of the drawings consist of this man in a forest or woods, as there are trees around him, and some of the drawings have a strange mark on them, a circle with a cross through it. One of the drawings is what must be her younger sister, holding hands with the tall figure in the woods, and with writing above it saying "me and my freind" As the film goes on, we see sightings of this tall man, and Charlotte starts to expierence symptoms such as memory loss, feeling sick and having vivid dreams. It also seems that the presence of this tall figure makes electrical equipment and technology go haywire and mess up. Charlotte soons starts to realise that there is a sinister reason behind her sisters disapearance, and believing that her sister is still alive, she becomes determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, and find her sister.

Location 1

Location 1



This is the house of the main character, the older sister. There will be a few scenes shot here, and when we are done with these scenes, we will move on to our next location. Some of the scenes we shoot here will take place in:

• The older sisters bedroom
• The younger sisters bedroom
• Anywhere else we decide on

We chose this location as it is easy to access and fits in with our planned two minutes.

Scream opening

Scream is a classic slasher horror film, with many aspects that make it a noticeable horror film. The film starts with the phone ringing, and a girl (who is home alone) picks it up. These are two massive horror film cliches, as you are never meant to answer the phone in a horror film, and a girl who is home alone is inevitably going to have something bad happen to her. The person who calls the girl asks who it is, and the girl says that you must have the wrong number, and hangs up. The phone then proceeds to ring again, with the same person as before calling again, but the girl hangs up again, and we switch to a long shot of the house, while slowly moving down to show the whole house in the shot. These first few moments really set the scene for the film, as already, we have a girl home alone in a large, mysterious house, with a shady stranger continuously calling her. This effectively creates a sense of foreboding. The mysterious stranger then proceeds to call the girl again as she is making popcorn. He starts to ask her what her faviroute scary movie is, also creating a sense of bad things to come. The girl starts to talk to the stranger as she walks through the house. The camera follows her through the house with a medium shot from behind. When the stranger asks for the girls name again, she asks why, and the stranger says "because i want to know who im looking at" and as he says this, the camera zooms into the girls face with a close up to show her facial expression, and music starts to play to build a sense of tension and suspense.

Halloween 2 opening

The opening of the film Halloween 2 has many features to it that make it a distinguishable horror film. The film starts of at night in a big house, which is quite a typical horror film cliche. The woman tells the two children to run and go get the police. While she is sitting down in the doorway, we see the killer slowly sit up behind her, and suspensefull music starts to play to build up the tension as the killer starts to walk towards the woman. The killer then starts to strangle the woman as the music plays and keeps building up. The police officer then quickly runs up the stairs and shoots the killer, and as he shoots the gun, the music suddenly stops. The police officer then runs downstairs and outside to where the killer fell, but as he gets outside, the killer is not there, only the shape of where he landed in the grass remains. Mysterious music also starts to play as the police officer goes over to the shape and puts his hand in the blood. As the next door neighbour comes out and talks to the police officer, he says, "You dont know what death is" and the iconic halloween theme starts to play.

Audience profiling: The Exorcist

The exorcist relates to our film as we are doing a horror. This film appeals mainly to the 15-24 and  25-34 age groups, and partially the 35-44 and 45+ age groups. This is film is to graphic for the younger viewers, and there aren't many elderly viewers as the elderly usually don't watch many horror films. This film also appeals mainly to the male audience rather than the female audience. I feel this is because this film can be quite graphic in some scenes, and men usually watch films that are quite graphic, whereas females usualy dont tend to watch such graphic films. The main audience for this film are the middle class, with the other percentage being the working and upper class.

Audience profiling: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

The texas chainsaw massacre relates to our film as we are doing a horror film. This film appeals mainly to the 15-24 and 25-34 age groups, and partially to the 35-44 and 45+ age groups. This film also appeals mainly to the male audience rather than the female audience. I feel this is because males prefer to watch films with a lot of blood and violence in them, while females generally prefer not to watch films with a lot of violence in them. This film is to graphic for younger viewers, and there aren't many elderly viewers as the elderly tend not to watch a lot of horror films. The main audience for this film are the middle class and working class.

Audience profiling: Paranormal Activity

The film paranormal activity relates to our genre as it is a horror. This film appeals to the mainly to the 15-24 and 25-34 age groups, and partially the 35-44 age group. It also appeals more the female audience compared to the male audience. I feel this is because this horror film in particular, while being quite violent at times, has no blood or gore in it, as it is more fear of the unknown rather than continuous blood and gore like a slasher film has. I feel this is why more females watch this than males, as males usually prefer to watch films with lots of violence in. This film is to disturbing for the younger audience, and the elderly usually don't tend to go and see horror films. The upper and middle class are the largest audience for this film.  

Audience profiling: Sinister

 

The film sinister relates to our genre of film as we are doing a horror. This film appeals mainly to the 15-24 audience, and also appeals to males more than females. I feel that it appeals to the younger audience because they are more interested in going to see a horror film that could potentially have gore in it, than say an elderly person, or the younger generation, as they are to young to see such graphic content. I also feel that it appeals to males more than females because stereotypically, males like seeing blood, gore and violence more than females, who would prefer to see something else, like a romance. The middle class is the main audience for this film, with upper and working class making up the rest.

 

Research and planning: Moodboard

Research and planning: The pale one slideshow

Film ideas mind map

Preliminary task evaluation

Evaluation

When our preliminary task was finished, we had to present it to the rest of the class so we could receive feedback on what was good and what could be improved. When we had shown it to the rest of the class, we relieved both positive comments and constructive criticism. The positive feedback we received where things such as: we used a good editing effect to make one of our shots look like a security camera. Overall we kept the camera steady while filming our preliminary task, with no real visible shaking. Match on action was was also overall good. Shot reverse shot was used well during the conversation, with the camera changing from shoulder to shoulder. The 180 degree rule was kept too as well. Good camera angles where used, such as a high angle shot used with the CCTV effect, a low angle shot when Casey was walking down the stairs and over the shoulder shots during the conversation. Some criticism we received was: we could have used an effect during the lift scene to make the transition smoother, and not with a visible jump. This was the same when pushing the lift button and other scenes, if we had just cut of fractions of a second in some scenes, we could have made the transitions smoother and flow more freely.

Preliminary task diary

Story board

To plan for our preliminary task, we had to draw out a storyboard showing what shot types we where going to use. The storyboard contained several boxes where we would write down the shot type we where going to use with a brief description of what happened, how long it would last and any sound or dialogue we would be using. However, after we had finished our storyboard, we decided that we wanted to change some of the ideas and shots we had chosen, so we had to scrap what we had come up with to replace it with our new ideas, as we had decided to film our preliminary task in st johns school.


Filming

We started our filming for our preliminary task in st johns school. The people who are acting in our video are casey and charlotte. We began with a middle shot of casey walking towards the camera in a open corridor approaching the lift. this shot was recorded for around 8 seconds and then stopped filming and chose to use a close up shot of casey pressing the button to the lift, adding effect. This shot was recorded for around 4 seconds. We then placed the camera inside the lift so we could film casey walking into the lift as the doors opened, and then it moved to an over the shoulder shot of casey walking into the lift, and the same for her walking out. We then filmed a medium shot of casey walking across the room towards the door, where she opens it to go into the other room. this whole sequence lasts around 11-12 seconds. When casey enters the next room, we film a high angle shot of her walking down the stairs, and then a medium shot of her sitting down at the desk, this sequence lasts around 10 seconds. We then film an over the shoulder shot from caseys shoulder, watching charlotte walk down the stairs and sitting down at the desk. This shot lasts about 8 seconds. We then film the conversation between casey and charlotte. We use over the shoulder shots during the conversation depending on who is speaking, so if casey is speaking, we would film over charlottes shoulder, and when charlottes speaking, we would film over caseys shoulder. the entire conversation lasts around 47 seconds. When then conversation ends, we film a slight high angle of charlotte sitting at the desk, and then this transitions into a long shot as we film her walking up the stairs and out the door. this shot lasts around 7 seconds, and then we film a medium to long shot as charlotte walks across the room, which lasts about 4-5 seconds. Our video ends with a long shot of charlotte running towards the camera, this then turns into a medium shot, and then a close up shot as she looks into the camera as she runs past. This lasts around


Editing

When we had finished with our filming and we had the raw footage, we put it onto adobe premier elements 10 to edit it. Our finished video had a length of 3 minutes, so we needed to crop some unneeded footage. It took roughly an hour to go through and edit out the unneeded bits of the video to make sure it didn't go on for too long. When we where finished with editing, we had managed to reduce the video to a length of 1 minute and 35 seconds. Also, as well as cropping out unneeded footage in the editing process, we also made the video a lot more smooth by making the shots flow together and transition better.

Pirates of the caribbean (adventure)

Pirates of the Caribbean is an adventure film. Adventure films are usually exiting story's, with people travelling to exotic locations, or expeditions and quests to lost jungles or deserts. Pirates of the Caribbean is a swashbuckling adventure film. It is set in the vast ocean expanses of the Caribbean, with pirates going on a quest to rescue captain jack sparrow. They travel far and wide to rescue him, facing many perils on the way. The costumes are pirate costumes, with props such as swords and guns. The set design is usually that of the pirate ship. The music used is fast paced, with big build ups that lead to the main part. The music matches that of the grand scale of the adventure that the pirates are on.

Avatar trailer analysis (sci-fi)

Avatar is a sci-fi/fantasy film, and the trailer shows this is many ways. The setting is on a different planet to earth, and like many sci-fi/fantasy films, they take place on a different planet to earth. There is also a lot of CGI used in the film, something that is used a lot in sci-fi/fantasy films. The costumes used are things such as army uniform, but for the alien race (Navi) the costumes used are actully CGI. This also shows that it is a sci-fi/fantasy film, as the CGI alows for more extreme looking characters, especialy for the alien race, and it can create a better effect that prehaps using real costumes could not. The set design is also CGI heavy, with large floating island, waterfalls and lush forests, and that what isent CGI is set in a high tech base of operations with advanced machines and gadgets from the future, something that is also heavily present in a lot of sci-fi/fantasy films. Music used is fast paced and exiting to fit the pace of the film. Many sci-fi/fantasy films are quite fast paced and exiting. The plot alone that this trailer shows is a heavy indicator that this is a sci-fi/fantasy film, humans going to an alien planet to gather a resource worth millions, and the main character becoming one of the aliens to fight against his own kind. All of this is not realistic at all, and this fact alone shows that it is a sci-fi/fantasy film, and this genre of films are not realistic.

RED Trailer analysis (action)

The trailer for RED contains several action movie cliches, for example, the group used to be in the CIA, however in RED, it mirrors the cliche of instead of them retiring after their last mission, they are already retired. RED also follows the cliche of being betrayed by the CIA, and are now being hunted by the people they used to work for. There are also many of the obvious cliches that make up an action film, the explosions, the high speed adrenaline car chases, intense shootouts, and LOTS of guns. There is also of course the cliche of slow motion to make scene even more epic, such as the bullet hitting the rocket in this trailer, and Bruce Willis stepping away from the spinning police car.

Ring Analysis (horror)

The ring is a horror film about a supposedly cursed tape, that when watched, you will receive a phone call from someone saying that you will die in 7 days. when the 7 days are up, a girl with long black hair covering her face shows up, who will be the result of your untimely demise.

In the first two minutes, right of the bat, we have a typical horror film cliche, two teenage girls home alone at night. As anyone who has seen multiple horror films before will know, this is never a good thing, and gives off a major sense of foreboding, and when they start talking about a horror story about a cursed tape, and one of the girls says she has watched it, we know something bad is about to
go down. Another cliche here is that the two girls begin talking about a horror story, and something from the said horror story will come to wreck havoc, this is like in a film when a scary campfire story is told, the same slasher as in the story comes to carve them up like christmas dinner. Yet another big cliche that happens in this horror film is that the phone ominously starts to ring, as as we know, you NEVER answer the phone in a horror film, because the person on the other end is usually not calling just to have a friendly chat. Another cliche that this film follows is that the girls decide to go to bed, and going to sleep in a horror film never ends well. All in all, the first few minutes of this film alone have a variety of horror film cliches in it, but this comes as no surprise, as if it didn't have these cliches, it wouldn't be a horror film that we have come to know.

research and planning

There is no evidence of research and planning.
Make sure you upload your preliminary task.

You MUST have at least 8-10 posts on here by next Tuesday, including:
- Analysis of at least 4 different genre openings (analyse how mise-en-scene, sound, plot convey genre to audience)
- Preliminary task diary
- Preliminary task evaluation
- own ideas mind map - what genre? plot? etc
- Analysis of at least 2 openings of films from your chosen genre