Research and Planning: Film Poster Analysis

The low key lighting and the black and white photo shows the horror genre of this film. The long shot of the house makes it seem distant and mysterious to show that there is obviously something scary about the house. The colours of the title suggest that the film is clinical and sinister, as the white writing is bold and stands out from the black background. Then the red writing shows the sinister aspect of the film as it is made to look like blood as it is smudged. Also only the word 'house' is made to look like it is written in blood, showing that the house is the main subject of this film and where the action comes from. The font also represents the horror genre of the film. The tagline "If bad people hurt someone you love, how far will you go to hurt them back?" gives an insight to the narrative of the film, like maybe the house inhabits people that have done something bad and is the location of where someone is getting their revenge on them. The dark and sinister messages that the poster gives off shows that the film would appeal to an older audience of 18 and over, as you can tell there will be a lot of violence and horror due the the 'bloody' text and the tag line.
The mise-en-scene adds to the horror aspect as the house seems to be in a deserted place on a hill, meaning there won't be many people around. The lighting also shows that it is a horror as it is very low key and fades darker, just illuminating the house.
The steel tongs font used for the information about production company's, cast and crew information etc make it obvious that this is a film poster.

Research and Planning: Podcast

Research and Planning: Meeting Post

Over half term, our group have decided that the work we do is;

Sam: Production and Distribution Company logo name and design

Amy: Audition poster, research into film name

Sammi: Possible Locations, genre research

All three of us will be meeting up to hold auditions for the cast. We will also all go shopping and look for possible costumes and props. We will all do some extra research posts which will help us decide all of the aspects and help with our tasks.

I also need to do my film poster analysis'.

Research and Planning: Team Meeting

My group and I have planned out the treatment for our trailer and have also planned out the storyboard. I will type up the treatment later. The storyboard needs to be drawn out but the shots and everything is planned in great detail as we have focused a lot on it today.

Research and Planning: Production Company Logo Research

This WordItOut has ideas for our production company logo and words that we could put together to make a name and logo.

Research and Planning: Proposal Research

Research and Planning: Equipment and Software List

Photoshop

We will use photoshop to edit the pictures for the magazine and film posters. I will use the airbrush tool and others tools to improve the photo, maybe change the lighting, etc.

 

iMovie

We will use iMovie to edit the footage and clips for our trailer. It is also used with any other videos throughout our research, like our audience interviews.

 iMac

We will be using iMac's for almost everything, as this is where the editing is done, the sound is made etc. All of the other programs and software are on the iMac's.

 Sony HD Camcorder

This will be used for filming any footage in our trailer where the camera is still. 

Canon Mini DV Camcorder

This camcorder will be used for filming anything where the camera is handheld

GarageBand

We will use garage band for any sound that will be in the trailer. We will make the background music, sound effects etc on this program.

 iPhoto

We will use iPhoto for the pictures for the magazine and poster photos. Pictures need to be uploaded onto this.

DSLR Camera

This camera will be quality and this is what we need.

Research and Planning: Proposal Presentation

We presented both of our proposals to our teachers and we were still unsure as to which plot we actually wanted to use. Our teachers opinion was that she felt the second proposal was stronger and more original than the first proposal. We liked the idea of the first proposal, although our teacher preferred the other one as she thought the second proposal would be more effective, so we decided to listen to her advice and ask our target audience which proposal they would prefer and were more likely to watch. We asked people to read both proposals and tick their favourite. I will post the results in the following post.

Research and Planning: Proposal 2

A teenage boy goes missing, and after a while is pronounced dead. His family move away without giving the boy a funeral. He friends become suspicious and when they start get calls and voice mails from the boys phone number they begin to wonder what is going on and they can't help but think, is he actually dead?

Editing
The beginning of the trailer will be when the boy goes missing and is pronounced dead, therefore the editing will be slow with fades to black as it is a sad time. There will be fades to black when the suspicion begins. There won't be too much editing when they receive the voice mails to keep it realistic, but then there will be a jump cut with added dramatic sound to create a jumpy atmosphere while should make the viewer jump. When all of the horror begins to unravel the editing will become more fast paced and jumpy with lots of jump cuts and straight cuts to show the horror within.

Sound
The will be ambient sound throughout the clip to keep it realistic. The beginning of the clip will have slow sad music so show the sadness of the boys death. There will be diegetic sound throughout the trailer which will be the dialogue, and sounds of the phone ringing etc, which will be on it's own to add drama to it. When the drama begins to happen in the the music will pick up and be more fast paced to make it more tense. We would like a voice over to announce the titles of the film and the realease date and other information.

Cinematography
We think a collage of pictures to show when the boy dies will be effective as it will be emotional. The pictures we will use will be a mixture of medium close ups and close ups, with the last being a dramatic extreme close ups of the boys face to make it real and a shock to the audience that he is actually dead, it will also make the viewer feel sympathetic to the characters.When the phone rings, there will just be a long shot of all of the boys to show that it is just an ordinary day, but as they realise who it is, there will be close ups of each face to show the shock, and then a close up of the phone to show the boys name calling.

Mise-en-scene
The costumes throughout the trailer will be plain casual clothes to show that the characters are nothing out of the ordinary. The locations will be a few different places, like house and bedrooms etc, but they will just be everyday locations. There will be a school in the trailer which will be where they find the boy dead. We would need a few props, like the mobile phone etc, but everything would be easy enough to achieve.

Research and Planning: Treatment

• MPAA Message and Rating
• Distribution/Production Company Logo
• Close up of photograph of all four friends
• Dissolve/Graphic match of friends sat in assembly with one boy missing
• medium close up shot of head teaching announcing is assembly that Josh Thompson (the friend) is missing
• Back to shot of three friends who are now crying
• Cut to quick, fuzzy shot using hand held camera of missing boy tied up 
• Close up of missing poster
• Long shot of missing poster stuck onto a tree
• Close up of the missing poster on the floor, going through different seasons (covered in leaves, wet and rainy, and sunny and dry)
• Medium long shot of man reading newspaper showing that the headline 'Missing Boy Is Dead'
• Long shot of three friends gathered around grave stone, grieving
• Fade to black
• Shot of each friend receiving a text message is class using different shots, such as high angle and birds eye view
• Close up of mobile phone showing 'Message received from Josh
• Shot of friends walking out of classroom discussing the messages they just received
• Establishing shot of house
• Cut to a master shot of the friends in the bedroom, playing video games etc.
• Close up of two friends on game
• Close up of each friend as their phones ring and they realise it's Josh calling, showing their reactions
• Close up of mobile phone so the viewer can see who is calling
• Fuzzy shot using hand held camera of Josh tied up again
• Two shot of friends discussing the phone calls
• (Montage begins)
• Long shot of a car pulling out of a drive as the friends set out to find Josh
• Long shot of friends at Josh's house, and they realise his parents have gone
• Shot of Josh's parents driving away, looking suspicious
• Long shot of a wall in Josh's house with the word 'HELP' written in blood
• Another fuzzy shot on a handheld camera of Josh tied up
• Shot of friends back in car on the way to find Josh
•  Long shot of friends driving into a wood/forest area
• Close up of shoe on the ground, which the friends recognise as Josh's
• Shot of Josh being dragged along the floor face down
• Shot of headteacher on the scene
• Black screen with writing "FROM THE MAKERS OF"
• Slow motion shot (expansion of time) of the three friends running away as the headteacher tries to attack them
• Close up of dead body, Josh?
• High angle long shot of pile of dead bodies on the floor of the woods
• Long, over the shoulder shot of all three friends looking at the pile of bodies
• Title and release date text on black screen
• Fuzzy, close up shot of Josh, dead?

Research and Plannings: Proposal 1

A group of friends go camping and are enjoying themselves, but one by one they start to go missing. The killers are beautiful looking mythical creatures who are relying on human blood to keep them alive and youthful.

Editing:
The editing would start off slow paced as the group of friends are having fun and everything is fine. It will gradually get faster as the drama begins. Fades to black will be used to create drama and pass time. A lot of straight cuts and jump cuts to make the plot more realistic.

Sound:
There will be a lot of diegetic sound, like the dialogue from the people camping and the natural sounds of the woods and surroundings. There will be non-diegetic background music to make is eerie and create tension, this music will gradually get louder and faster along with the editing, but will then return back to normal and will end with a sting. We will use a voice over to announce the titles and release date etc.

Cinematography:
There will be many different shots throughout the trailer to show different angles. We will show close ups of the mythical creatures to make them more dramatic and emphasise their distinctive looks. We will show a master shot and longs shots of the pile of bodies on the floor.

Mise-en-scene
The main location for this trailer will be the woods. The costumes of the campers will be ordinary casual clothes, but there will be blood used when they are killed. The mythical creatures will be wearing out of the ordinary costumes, and their makeup will be very distinctive and colourful.

Research and Planning: London Trip

We went on a Media trip to London and visited The Film Museum; this helped me understand how a lot of things are featured in films and how things are represented. Also how special effects and things such as dead bodies are shown. The horror room really helped with this and rooms such as the Harry Potter room also helped. A lot of costumes that have been featured in films were there and a lot of props which was very interesting. It showed me how certain looks were achieved and how things are made to stand out.
We also visited the BBFC which was very interesting and helpful as it gave me an idea as to how films are certified and regulated. This helped because my group and I were struggling with how to rate out trailer as we didn't know what aspects were given each a rating and how they were certified. For example, we were shown two clips from 'The Hunger Games', one was rated a 15 and the other a 12. The only difference between the clips was a few splatters of blood, so it showed how such small features and aspects could drastically change the rating of a film, therefore we now know what we can and can't include in our trailer for it to be suitable for the 15 rating that we have chosen.

Research and Planning: Sound Test

I made my sound test on garage band. I used a very high pitched piano sound for the screeching sound. I downloaded the sound of the woman screaming and added that on the end to add a creepy atmosphere and to shock the audience. I also added a very deep drum beat on top of the screeching sound, and after uploading my sound test twice to find that the drum beat is no longer on my sound test, I know that I have to always double check and to be very careful with the sounds I use as they may not always work. When it comes to making the actual trailer, my group will be cautious that this can happen and will make sure that it stays on the music.

Research and Planning: Questionnaire Results Analysed

Question 1

The answers given to this question are very helpful as initially we wanted to use fades to black, jump cuts, straight cuts, slow paced and fast paced editing, so we will be using those. The other answers will definitely be considered and most of them probably used as this is what our audience would like to see.

Question 2

We are still unsure whether to use a voice over or not, but as the majority of the audience said yes, it will be discussed within the group and definitely considered.

Question 3

All of the shots suggested in these answers are very helpful; we had looked at using all shots other than canted and high/lows shots of the villain/victim. These are very good ideas and I think a canted angle could be very useful to emphasise certain characters, such as the mythical creatures, to symbolise how strange they really are.

Question 4

The woods are the main location we will probably be using, which was also the most suggested answer. This is very helpful as it shows that the audience like the ideas that we are thinking of. I also like the idea of underground, but I don’t think this location would be achievable due to the lack of resources and the places available to us.

Question 5

All of the sounds/music suggested by our audience are very good suggestions, we have thought of most of these already other than “slow eerie music contrasted with fast paced high pitched music”. I think this will work very effectively and I will discuss it with my group. As it is a suggestion from our audience, it is important that we look into it.

Question 6

The audience have mostly chosen 1^st person, this could be possible for our group to do, but as the audience didn’t know the whole story line, they don’t realise that our story will work better in 3^rd person, therefore we will probably stick with our initial idea of 3^rd person.

Question 7

The audience answers back up our initial plot idea, the three mythical characters will be the main characters and all be female. This is helpful to us as we don’t have to reconsider the plot.

Question 8

I particularly like the idea of increasing pitch or using contrasting music to create suspense within the trailer. I am going to ask the rest of my group what they think about these ideas as I think they could be very effective. All of the ideas will most probably be used, although some are very simple, such as ‘music’ which is going to be used anyway. 

Research and Planning: Questionnaire Results Continued

1. What types of editing would you expect to see?

• Fade to black
• Fast Paced
• Fade in/Fade outs
• Cuts aways
• Jumps cuts
• Dissolves
• Slow paced
• Straight cuts

3. What shots are typical to a horror film?

• Close ups
• Wide shots
• Canted
• Low angle
• High angle of victim/Low angle of villain
• Master shots
• Extreme close ups
• Over the shoulder shots 

4. What location would you expect to see in a horror/fantasy film?

• The woods
• Dark building
• Graveyard
• Underground
• Abandoned area
• Old looking mysterious places

5. What non-diegetic would music would you expect to hear?

• Suspense building music
• Background music to create tension
• Fast paced beats
• High pitched 
• Themes and stings
• Mood music
• Slow eerie low pitched music contrasted with fast paced high pitch music  

 7. Do you think the main character should be male or female?

       Male (3)

• Because it isn't stereotypical for horror
• Attract female attention

       Female (6)

• They seem more vulnerable
• It is easier to create fear
• It breaks the stereotype of men always being the hero
• They show more fear and are more vulnerable
• "I've seen most films with girls as the main characters"
• You feel more for the character

       Either (1)

• "It could be either depending on the situation"

8. How do you think we could create suspense?

• Slowing down scenes
• Editing to build climax
• Increase of pitch
• Faster editing
• Music
• Slow editing 
• Fast editing
• Contrasting music
• Close ups
• Lots of jump cuts

Research and Planning: Target Audience

Target Audience on Prezi

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Target Audience on Prezi