Tuesday, 6 December 2011

Production Company Logo

This is our production company logo, we decided to create a production company that would suit the genre of films that it produced and as it it produced psychological thrillers we wanted the name of the company to represent the ideas of the film style.

The logo is black and white on each side of the 'line' with the writing in opposing sides colour, this is used because it shows the way that light and darkness is perceived in horror films.

Title Sequence Storyboards



Opening Scene Storyboards






Monday, 5 December 2011

Horror Film Setting Photo's


Here are some picture of our setting ideas


This would be a good setting idea as graveyards are creepy and are associated with death.


This would be a good setting as it looks creepy and dingy and would be a perfect setting for a horror film as you can imagine someone scary living in there.


This would be a good setting as churches are where funerals can be held.


This would be a good setting as its a stairway that could lead to a scary dungon.


This would be a good setting as its a big dark whole in which the killer could keep his victims bodies in.

We didn't use any of these settings because we wanted to use a household setting as most horror films are set in houses. this is an example of our setting that we chose to use. We also didn't use these settings because the area in which they are situated is a busy public area so it would have been hard to film there as there would have been numerous amounts of background noise.

Reminiscence - Script

Scene 1 - A child's plea(Scene begins with a long shot of a mother and child, they are standing near a road and the child is being disciplined by the mother, the child is holding a red balloon)

Mother - (angrily) Look at me when I'm talking to you!

Child - (defiantly) I am!

Mother - Don't you backchat me!

Child - I'm nooooooot!

(Shot changes to a high angle shot with a close up of a hand grasping a doll, looking down upon the pair from a window.)

Mother - (threatening) I've had enough of you! You're grounded, you just wait until I tell your dad!

(Low angle shot of the rising red balloon that the child has let go of in a panic)

Child - (afraid) No! Please don't tell dad! I'm sorry!

The idea behind this initial 20 second scene is to provide the suggested killer with a motivation for his actions and to introduce his trademark item, the doll. By familiarising the audience with this concept early on we are able to lay the foundations for the rest of the production. The high angle shot of the suggested killer in particular is used to show there power.

Scene 2 - Crime Scene

(Initial long shot of news reporter infront of a crime scene)

Reporter - (Calm with an undertone of fear) Police today lauched a multiple murder enquiry after the    gruesome discovery of a mutilated body around 7pm yesterday on Shakespeare Road.

(Low angle midshot of covered body being removed from the scene)

Reporter - (freaked out) It is believed to be the fifth in a series of killings where the body is left... with a doll?

(Close up of doll)

(Transition to a zoom out shot of two people watching the report)

Reporter - (Regaining composure) Police still have no leads on the case and are appealing for witnesses. Just when will it end?

(Couple exchange worried looks on the sofa)

Josh - Did you hear that? That's the road Shane lives on! (anxious)

Kelly - (comforting) Maybe you should call Shane, just to make sure he's alright?

Josh - (picks up phone) Ok, you're right, I'll call him.

(cut to a close up of side table/chest of drawers type object with phone vibrating on top)

(Hand suddenly jumps on phone)

Josh - (Hesitantly) Hello? (pause) Shane?

(unknown individual brings phone closer to face, hand has a res substance over it in parts, shot cuts out anything above the top lip)

Shane - (sinister voice) Shane's not here right now.

Josh- (Scared and worried, looks over to Kelly for support) Who is this? Where's Shane?!

Shane - (Still sinister) He's Dead! And I'm coming for you next...Josh.

Josh - (Increasingly scared) This isn't funny, who is this? How do you know my name!?

(Shows full face)

Shane - (laughing) Just messing with you, it's Shane.

Josh - (relieved yet angry) Don't do that ever again!...you had me worried.

(Shane looks out of window onto the crime scene)

Shane - (smugly) Sorry mate, it had to be done.

Reminiscence - Plot

We thought that if our 2 minute short section was to be as successful as it could be then we would need to develop a plotline for a full sized movie so that we know exactly what needs to be achieved in this opening section that we are to produce.
Killer Haunted by his siblings death on their birthday, feels anger towards the role parents played in this. After killing his own parents, he develops a taste for murder and decides to punish those he see's to be incompetent parents.
(These ideas will be pursued in the title sequence of the clip)

Every year on the month leading up to the deceased siblings birthday, murders take place on parents with children aged 6-11 years old. The victims body is then adorned with a doll as a reminder of the dead sibling. In order to test the remaining parents love for their child the killer leaves a clue to the childs location.

Latest Killing occurs on the street of a teenage babysitters house, the concerned friends of this teenager proceed to ring them in order to confirm their safety. They then travel to the babysitters house for a houseparty. During the party, the child is left unattended and the killer (a guest at the party) snatches the child and slaughters the majority of the household.

Killer leaves an adress for the survivors to follow if they want the child back, it is revealed that at each location a sacrifice must be made for the next location to be revealed. They must reach the final trial by midnight if the child is to live.

Why Reminiscence ?


When deciding the title for our horror, we had to think about the plot of the film in order to think of a name, so once we had a plot we spent a while choosing what name would suit our film best. When choosing the name we had to take into consideration the word length and we wanted ours to be short and simple and something that the audience would remember. We didn't want the name to be over 3 words as it would be a mouthful and people wouldn't remember it.

By including a date on the title in made the title seem mysterious as no one knew what the date was about, the events that occur in the opening scene link to the title and the date. We wanted the title to have a sense of mystery so that it created a sense of unease
We had many other ideas such as "Happy Birthday" to "Resonance" and many more but in the end we chose "Reminiscence". We came up with the name by searching memory into a thesaurus and chose the word that sounded best. Words such as "anamnesis" and "subconsciousness". Immediately reminiscence sounded right for our film.


Tuesday, 29 November 2011

Horror Film Planning

Group planning and evidence of discussions of:
  • Title - Reminisce 11/12/05
  • Production company - Borderline Productions
  • Group roles:  
      • Photographers - Josh/Shane 
      • Props designer - Lewis
      • Musical director - Kelly
      • Director - Shane/Josh
      • Script - Kelly
      • Lighting Manager - Josh
      • Costume designer - Shane
      • Location manager - Lewis/Josh
      • Producer - Kelly
      • Actors - Shane, Kelly, Josh, Lewis, Mrs Bobbett, Mrs Twydell and son
      • Casting - Shane
      • Assistant director - Lewis
  • Settings - Shed, Shane's house, town centre, Josh's dad's pub, living room and bedroom
  • Filming style - Hollywood Style
  • Storyboard of title sequence and opening scene
  • Shot lists
      •  Close up
      • Mid shots
      • Established shots
      • Shot reverse shot
      • Extreme close up
      • Long shot
      • High angle shot
  • Props
      • Dolls - as the kill will be playing with one
      • Tools - the killer could be use these as weapons
      • Telephone - used in the opening scene
      • Gloves - the killer wears these to make himself more mysterious and hide his identity
      • Police tape - used around the crime scene
      • Microphone - the news reporter uses one
      • TV - used to watch the news on
      • Balloon -
      • Calendar - used in the title sequence
      • Picture frame - used in the title sequence
      • Cake - used in the title sequence
      • Candles
      • Birthday card - used in the title sequence
  • Target audience - 15 - 30
  • Sound and music (incompetech.com)
      • Chase Pulse
      • Chase Pulse Faster
      • Children's Theme
      • Darkest Child
      • Gloom Horizon
      • Mechanolith
      • Pop goes the weasel
      • One of them
      • Unlight
  • Production schedule (times, dates, equipment)
      • Tuesday 6th December - HD Camera and tripod stand (title sequence first take)
      • Tuesday 13th December - HD Camera and tripod stand (title sequence take two and opening scene)
  • Certificate and reasons why - 15 because there is no strong use of bad language

Representation of Teen Life



This is what we filmed to represent a teen life, we chose stealing someone's phone due to the fact that it is what some teenagers would do, it focuses on the issue of mugging.

Friday, 11 November 2011

Target Audience of Horror Films

Female Horror Fan


Likes: Shopping, make-up and clothes
Dislikes: Sports and video games
Clothing: Hoodies, leather jackets and skinny jeans
Shops: New Look, River Island, Topshop and Primark
Music: Pop, R&B and Hip Hop
Occupation: Part time or full time jobs
Money: £100-£400 a month
Education: Full time, part time or left
Class Status: Middle Class
Other Films: Mean Girls, The Notebook and Titanic

Male Horror Fan


Likes: Sports and video games
Dislikes:
Clothing: Hoodies, chinos and t-shirts
Shops: Topshop, Hollister, Jack Will and Superdry
Music: Dubstep, R&B and Hip Hop
Occupation: Part time or full time jobs
Money: £100-£400 a month
Education: Full time, part time or left
Class Status: Middle Class
Other Films: 8 Mile, Harold and Kumar and Hangover

Independent Research


Most horror film titles tell you what the film is about such as "When a Stranger Calls" you can tell this is about a stranger calling and mysterious things happening and "Paranormal Activity" you can tell that something paranormal is going to happen such as seeing ghosts. Horror film settings tend to be in dark dingy areas such as a dark alley way or in an attic, this is to create tension and fear in the audience. In Sce4m is set mainly in dark areas, in one of the scenes you see the outside of the house in darkness it creates tension for the audience. The lighting in a horror film is quite important and that's why most horror films happen during the night. They also make horror films at night because shadows can play a part in the scene as seeing shadows can create a scary and mysterious atmosphere. Props may an very important role in horror films as they can be the weapons used in a murder. You will find that most horror films use knifes and chainsaws as their murder weapons. They use chainsaws because the noise that a chainsaw can make can be rather scary and they use knifes because it is an easy accessible weapon. In Scre4m they use knives as its an easy weapon to get hold of.


This is the weapon that was used in Scre4m



The picture used for the eyes is of a person screaming with their mouth open this tells us its going to be a horror film and the title tells us its about a missed call.

Monday, 7 November 2011

Production company logos and types of films


20th century fox is in gold which shows its quite a high up production company. Gold is the colour of riches and extravagance which connotes that 20th century is a well off company.
Films by 20th century fox:
- Avatar
- Rio
- Rise of the Planet of the Apes
- X-men First Class

Dreamworks is all in blue which connotes a calming and friendly affect  Its also of a picture up a child fishing on the mood which shows that the production company produces children's films.
Films by Dreamworks:
- The Cat in the Hat
- Madagascar
- Shrek 


Paramount is a picture on top of a mountain with stars around it, the stars show that it better than 5 star and is really good, the picture on top of the mountain shows that they are the top production company.
Films by Paramount:
- Kung Fu Panda
- Transformers
- Mean Girls
- The School of Rock

Universal is a picture of the world with gold writing, the picture of the world shows that it is a production company used all over the world and the gold writing shows it is a good company.
Films by Paramount:
- Fast Five
- Paul
- Despicable Me
 
 
Warner Bros. is up high in the clouds which show it is a top production company, also the gold connote that the production company is gold standard.
Films by Paramount:
- Due Date
- The Hangover
- P.S I Love You
- The Dark Knight


Seven title sequence

2 Secs: An extreme close up of an old book
3 Secs: The production company appears on the screen - "New Line Cinema Presents".
7 Secs: The inner title appears with a black and white font - "An Arnold Kopelson production"
8 Secs: A close up of a hand
13 Secs: "Brad Pitt" appears on the screen
16 Secs: Extreme close up of fingers holding a razor
18 Secs: "Morgan Freeman" appears on the screen.
23 Secs: "SE7EN" appears on the screen
24 Secs: The title flashes bigger
29 Secs: "Gwyneth Paltrow" appears on screen.
34 Secs: Close up of a pen writing on paper and overlapping images.
36 Secs: Red filter appears
39 Secs: Extreme close up of film strips being cut up with scissors
43 Secs: Close up of photographs
52 Secs: Book with writing on
54: Secs: More actors names
61 Secs: A point of view shot of a hand crossing out words
71 Secs: An image of a boy with a pen crossing out his eyes
74: Secs: The red filter is over the screen with the image of the boy in the background with his face all crossed out
76 Secs: The red filter is still over the screen with photos at the top and pens at the bottom
79 Secs: Film negatives
85 Secs: Range of photos shown.
96 Secs: Hands playing with a needle
102 Secs: Hands are threading the needle through pieces of paper
107 Secs: A book is being binded with the needle
118 Secs: Several photos

Italian Job title sequence

During lesson we looked at the Italian Job title sequence, the first thing we saw was the company logo which in this case was paramount.

The title sequence is rather mysterious and as it doesn't show too much information about the film which keeps the audience on edge, wondering what is going to happen next, which also makes them want to watch the rest of the film. We are only shown tiny snippets on the the video as most of it is covered in black this is one of the reasons that the title sequence seems mysterious. It also contains no dialogues and only shows two shots of a person in which we think is the main character but we are unsure as the sequence gives us no clues to who he is. Many credits are shown such as the producers and directors. The music used in the title sequence is also mysterious and speeds up slowly over the period of the title sequence this creates tension and also creates a mysterious theme to it.
This is a print screen of the Italian Job title sequence, you can see from this that it doesn't give much information away as all oyu can see is "(A) ENTERS"

Result of questionanire

I gave my questionnaire to people ages 16-18 and found that the most watched genre was horror and comedy. The questionnaire shows that 7/10 people tend to watch films at night and 7/10 in their own homes. Genre tended to be what influenced a person to watch a film but also the actors/actresses influenced the persons choice. It showed that most people go to the cinema monthly or every two months but it also depends on whats on at the cinema.

Questionnaire on film habits

Questionnaire
Name:

Age:

Gender:

What types of genres do you like watching?

When do you watch films?

Where do you watch films?

What influences your choice in films?
Price           
Actors/actresses
Genres              

How often do you go cinema?

What is your favourite film?

Who is your favourite actor/actress?

Horror Film Research


Name of film
Rating (imdb)
Who it’s watched by
Budget
Gross Profit
The Thing
6.7/10
15-20
$35,000,000
$849,0000
Red State
6.4/10
18-23
$4,000,000
$1,065,000
Paranormal Activity 2
5.8/10
15-20
$2,750,000
$84,749,884
Scream 4
6.5/10
15-20
$40,000,000
$97,037,610
Insidious
6.8/10
15-20
$1,500,000
$53,991,137
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
6.1/10
15-20
$25,000,000
$23,974,729
Fright Night
6.8/10
15-20
$30,000,000
$18,269,107
Priest
5.7/10
12-17
$60,000,000
$78,309,131
Scre4m
6.5/10
15-20
$40,000,000
$97,037,610
Apollo 18
5.6/10
15-20
$5,000,000
$17,605,192

















This is my research for horror films, I looked at the ratings their audience gave them and their budget and gross profit. The best rated films were Insidioius and Fright Night and the one with the lowest rating was Apollo 18. I also included the target audience which evidently shows that mainly 15-20 year olds watch horror/ thriller films. This shows that when making my horror film title I need to aim it at an audience ages 15-20.