Main Task - Opening Five Minute Sequence - Video

Planning - Props List

We bought prop knives from the local fancy dress shop we bout a couple of these in case one broke. We chose the knife becasue it clearly establishes our film as part of the the slasher horror subgenre.

We also bought a clown costume, wig and make up for our antagonist. We bought three of the make up kits this allowed us to make sure that there was enough for the various days of the shoot.

Planning - Location Floor Plans

We decided to sketch a basic floor plan of the office that the characters come out of. Although we didn't end up including this in our final cut this shows how we had considered placing the camera in order to film a section we had to take out on the grounds of time.

Planning - Location

We decided to film at Birmingham Wheels Go Kart Park. this is a deserted location as you can see from the still taken from our shooting footage. The overhead track layout diagram demonstartes taht the track is quite large and gave us some good opportunities to use carious props such as tryres etc... as hiding places for the victims/antagonist

Planning - Shooting Script

Our shooting script served a similar purpose to the call sheet but allowed us to be much clearer on which scenes we were going to do in order.

Planning - Call Sheets

Our call sheets were designed to show who should be on set at any given time. For example on day 1 we didn't need the whole cast there only Josh so we could film the antagonist. Equally on Day 3 we didn't require any of the cast as we were only shooting stock footage for the establishing shots. The call sheets also allowed us to keep a track on who was on time and which props we needed

Planning - Shot List

We created a shot list here to show how we would use different types of shot in the opening sequence, when it comes to actually filming the sequence we can use these as reminders of how we want the shots to be edited together.

Planning - Script

We have given the character of Jade the longest opening speech as she is going to be the protagonist for the remainder of the film

We tried to make the dialogue as realistic to the natural type of speech used by teenagers

To do this we incorporated some profanity as we are aiming for a 15-25 year old audience who might find the way we used the mild swearing as funny

Planning - Storyboard

In the opening shot we decided to use a long shot to establish the location, we then decided to cut to a medium shot to establich the group of characters taht will be terrorised by the antagonist












In this section we used close ups to show the fear on the vitim/protagonists face

We will also use Over The Shoulder (OTS) shots to show the antagonists point of view (POV)

As the antagonist approaches we will use a close up (CU) of the characters faces coiupled with quick cut editing to give a sense of impending danger

Planning - Initial Ideas Mindmap

This is the mind map for our initial planning. we made some initial decisions on where to set the sequence and what sort of costumes we wanted our characetrs to wear. We made some brief notes on editing although this might be subject to change when we come to the final process. we also made some initial plans on the diegetic and non-diegetic sound that we were going to use. for example we decided to use parallel scary music as oppsed to contrapuntal as we didn't want our comedy elements to be too obvious.

Planning - Full Cast

Josh McKnight as Clown/antagonist


Luke Elliot as Tom













Adam Williams as Ryan





Michelle Williams as Stacy

Katie Toon as Jade

Planning: Group and Job Roles

PEOPLE IN GROUP
Michelle Roberts (Top left) Josh McKnight (Centre) Jenny Mach (Bottom Left)





JOB ROLES

Producer/director
We have decided that Jenny will be the head camera person as she has the most experienced with the use of the Sony digital camera.

Editing
We have decided that we all be responsible for some aspects of the editing process. this will allow us to share the marks equally

Script Writing

We have adopted a collective approach to scriptwriting and each of us have taken a turn in coming up with dialogue and scene setting.

Actors

Josh and Michelle will be actors from our group as they are AS Drama students and have had some training about acting to camera. Josh will play the antagonist, a scary clown who menaces a group of people. We have also cast other members of our class to be extras and Katie Toon will play our Final girl style protagonist as she has a stereotypically blonde high school look.

Research - Target Audience - Secondary Research pt II

The images here both show that males are more interested in horror films. Even though we are doing a hybrid film that is trying to appeal to both sexes we should be mindful that the majority of the audience is male and will be expecting some violence

http://www.valmorgan.com.au/au/audiences/profiles/horror-movies/

We also find a website that suggested why men prefer horror films to women

http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=27743660

I also discovered a good site on annoying things in modern horror films and we will try to avoid some of them

http://www.fright.com/edge/annoyingtrends.html

Research - Target Audience - Secondary Research

To clarify our thoughts and help with the groups planning we decided to see if these ideas were also seen in some secondary research that we carries out. We found some useful graphs that gave us similar information to that which we had already gained from our primary research

http://images.icanhascheezburger.com/completestore/2008/12/5/128729991926620607.png

The image on the top left showed where the monster could be seen in horror films and gave us some idea where to place our antagonist

The second image demonstrated that most females in horror films usually last until the end, this reinforced our idea of the Final Girl Theory. it also showed that there was a strong boyfriend type who lasted for the majority of the film before being killed off at the end. These were characters we decided to utilise as a result of this research as we felt it would reinforce the horror genre formula.

Research: Target Audience - Questionnaire Results

The image on the left showed me that most of the target audience preferred to have the antagonist introduced at the start of the film, compared to the small majority who preferred the villain to come in later

The Second image showed me that my target audience seemed to prefer dungeons and suburban areas such as parks to be appropriate horror settings. As a result we decided to incorporate a local suburban setting into some of our sequence

The final image shows that males tend to prefer splatter movies where there is greater blood and gore whereas the girls preferred films about vampires and zombies. It also demonstrated my earlier hypothesis that more boys preferred horror films by 5%

Research - Target Audience - Primary Research - Questionnaire

I decided to get an idea of what my target audience would like to see in a horror film and devised a questionnaire that I gave out to a selection in the target audience. I decided to use a quantitative approach in order to see if I could observe any notable trends among my potential audience. I gave the questionnaire to 4 boys and 4 girls this would allow me to see if there was a particular gender bias in the results and how I might be able to readdress this

Research: Target Audience - An Introduction

When producing the opening two minutes of a film the director will need to consider the audience that they are pitching this to. The demographic will affect the tone and pitch of the film.

i) Age Range

Mainstream films are aimed at a core demographic of 14-25, they have the greatest disposable income. However as we have decided to do a film in the horror genre we have decided to target a niche audience between 15-30 who predominantly enjoy horror films.

ii) Gender

Horror films are often targeted at young men because the women are overly sexualised and being chased by a male antagonist. However some girls do enjoy the adrenaline rush of a horror film. We are also hoping to attract the female audience as well as the male because we have a hybrid of horror and comedy elements.

iii) Ethnic Groups

Ethnic diversity is something we need to consider when making our horror film. often horror films seem to exclusively appeal to a white audience because the protagonist is often white whilst the ethnic minorities tend to be stock characters killed off by the antagonist. Scary Movie make fun of this convention and it is something that we might consider incorporating as well.

Research: Horror Film Opening Case Study 1 - Screa... Research: Horror Film Opening Case Study 2 - Saw 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIhQ5IrxSPc


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The lighting is minimal and is mostly fill lighting. this creates shadows and makes it difficult for both the audience and the victim to make out where they are. There is a single source light from the light bulb which is initially in blurred focus. The camera is used to show the victims POV and this gives the audience empathy as they are placed directly into his field of vision so the events seem as if they are happening to them. There is a montage of quick edits that shows where the key to the venus headtrap has been hidden (in the victims eye) The director uses a green filter on the camera to heighten the sense of unease and nauseous feeling of the victim. The diegetic sound is the antagonist talking to the victim about why he has been selected and the victim screaming frantically. The parallel non-diegetic sound becomes more frantic alongisde the diegetic sound of the clock ticking down to show that the victim has run out of time.





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The iconography can be seen in the puppet used by the antagonist in the video that is also used to disguise his identity. As this is the second film in the franchise the audience may already be aware of how the puppet was used in the previous films and feel scared for the victim. The venus head trap is an example of the horror iconography particularly because it has what look like rusty spikes inside. The setting is a claustrophobic dungeon that is clearly run down and disused. this creates fear for the audience as it does not appear to have an obvious means of escape.





This is a very effective opening because it reintroduces the antagonist quickly to the audience and also establishes the claustrophobic setting and gives the victim a set amount of time to escape. This makes the audience scared for the victim and also makes them maybe want to watch on to see what other traps Jigsaw may have created.

Research: Horror Film Opening Case Study 1 - Scream

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFCStOMqpfk

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There are close ups of the victim. the low key lighting is particulalry effective in establishing the sinister mood of the scene it also allows shadows to be cats over the victim. the diegetic sounds of the telephone dialogue show how the voctim becomes increasingly scared. The non-diegetic parallel music builds up suspense and tension leading to the victim being killed. the edits are slow paced and range between mid shots to close ups and the mise-en-scene reflects the open spaces and the isolation of the setting

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Iconography is present through a shot of the knives on the draining board in the kitchen. this foreshadows the weapon the antagonist will use and establishes the slasher sub-genre to the audience. the voctim is steretypically blonde and female and the setting is an isolated house in a rural environment

This is an effective horror opening as it builds suspense slowly using camera angles, music and dialogue. the sense of suspense is bulit up by the scary voice on the phone and as the scene progresses the antagonist is slowly revealed which shock the audience and makes them want to keep watching.

Research: Sub-Genres & Hybrids

Sub genres are effectively genres within genres. For example in the horror genre there are sub genres like Splatter films (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splatter_film) which have excessive blood and gore, vampire films which tend to focus on vampires and slasher films where the antagonist tends to use a knife.

A hybrid is where two films fuse together. For example Shaun of the Dead was pitched by Simon Pegg as a rom-zom-com which meant it had elements of the romantic comedy mixed in with zombies. A good summary of this hybrid genre can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_comedy

I have decided to do a hybrid film of comedy and slasher horror. I will incorporate humorous moments with iconography such as knives and masks from slasher films.

Research: Characteristics of the Horror Genre

I have made some primary research observations into the types of characteristics that seem to be present in a number of horror genre films

a) CHARACTERS - There are some key archetypes that an audience expect to see in a horror film. There is a PROTAGONIST who is the vcitm/hero/heroine. This is usually the last surviving cast member by the end of the film. Quite often the character is female. Carol J. Clover suggested that this was a 'Final Girl' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_girl) There will be an ANTAGONIST who is the bad character who will terrorise the protagonist/friends/community. Depending on the film the antagonist will be either a supernatural entity or a human psycopath. An example of a film where the characters are terrorised by psychopaths is The Strangers, here the anatgonists are a gang of three who use a knife and bizarre masks to frighten the couple.(see above image) There will also be a number of STOCK CHARACTERS who will be killed off as a form of monster fodder. A very good example of all of these characteristics can be seen in the opening sequence of Scream http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFCStOMqpfk

b) ICONOGRAPHY - These are visual signifiers which iommediately suggest the horror film. They can range from masks to knives. Often the antagonist will have some type of iconographic weapon. (See previous post on My Chosen Genre)

c) SETTINGS - There are usually two types of horror setting. The first is the dystopian urban city where there has been a disaster of some sort (such as 28 Days Later)

often the city is deserted or living in fear of some unseen menace. The other type of setting is an isolated rural environment. This is often a house in the middle of nowhere and is cut off from civilisation. This means the protagonsits are uncertain where the threat is coming from and have no hope of help coming and saving them. Often this plays on the audience fears of the unknown.

Research: My Chosen Genre

I have chosen to do the horror genre for my opening two minute sequence. I feel that the horror genre is easily identifiable to a niche audience in terms of both it's macro and micro features. For example using horror iconography like a knife is a short hand visual signifier.

The image here, for example is from Scream. Here the antagonist is easily situated within the horror genre because of the scary mask and use of weapon. The use a Dutch angle serves to heighten the sense of menace around the killer. The knife is also a part of the slasher sub genre which would further appeal to fans of this type of film.

The target audience is often teenagers who enjoy being scared by films like this. Often it can be seen as a badge of honour to watch a horror film and not be scared. Quite often the majority of this niche audience will be male. There are theories (see later post) that this is often down to the excessive use of violence or gore that boys seem to prefer. Part of my decision to pick the horror genre was that I have access to this group through my peers and will therefore have the chance to experiment with my ideas and research into the likes and wants of the target audience. To do this I am going to look at a couple of effective horror film openings and then conduct some primary and secondary research into why teenagers watch these types of films and what specifically they are looking for in an effective horror film opening.

Research: Effective Film Opening - Case Study 2 - The Emperor's New Groove (2000)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CmEqtPOFFw&feature=related

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The opening shot establishes that action takes place in a forest during night time. The lighting is dark and the audience are able to make out a back lit silhouette of a llama. The non-diegetic music is interrupted by a non-diegetic voice over of the narrator who gives plot exposition that he used to be the emperor until he was turned into a llama. The font used in the opening of the credits is gold to show the wealth of the central protagonist. There is also a moment of comedy created because the Emperor has his own singer to do his theme tune who is seen singing during the credits

MACRO

It becomes obvious early on that this film is destined to be a comedy. The central character is a talking llama which itself is funny and the film falls into the animated category, something that is stereotypically associated with the whole family. The narrative is told in a non-diachronic fashion and uses non-diegetic narration and flashbacks to tell the story to the audience. The themes are about the dangers of excessive wealth and the consequences of ending up lonely and with no friends if you are selfish. this can be seen in the presentation of Kusco in the opening shot.

This is an effective opening as it uses flashbacks and voiceovers to introdcue the character and the comedy elemenst to the audence. It also provides the audience with a hook as they know that the emperror used to be a human but has been transformed into a llama and their curiosity will be aroused.

Research: Case Study of Effective Film Opening - Casino Royale (2006)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNvzNWuzI9Y

MICRO

The opening shows the production company logo of MGM. This is in black and white and is done for nostalgic purposes. There is use of intransitive narrative of a harasher black and white within the black and white this is used when Bond completes his first kill to show the anger and confusion of the character to the audience. The establshing shot is a long low angle shot, There are subttiles used to give the viewer the setting in order to allow them to locate the narrative. there is use of a Dutch angle shot which heightens the sense of unease and mystery. The black and white film stock is also used to heighten the shadows used by the low key lighting and gives Bond's character a mysterious edge

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The Spy genre is conveyed through iconography such as guns and suits. It is set in a sophisticated business building but is intercut with a dirty bathroom which shows the 'reality' of the Spy business. The theme of violence associated with the genre is shown from the start through Bond killing two characters.

This is an effective opening sequence as it effectively reinvents the Bond franchise by going back to the roots of the series. The black and white film stock makes it mysterious and the intransitive narrative shows a different aspect to the usual sophistication of the Bond character.

Research: What Makes and Effective Opening to a film?

There need to be two approaches, the micro and the macro. Macro features are elements such as genre features like iconography (knives, masks, in a horror film), characters (protagonists/antagonists), setting, themes and narrative features. In terms of narrative films often start in a state of equilibrium which is disrupted by an event or antagonist. The protagonist will try to rectify this by restoring the harmony of the film. The story can be told in a linear or diachronic style or flashbacks which may be out of sequence

There also needs to be a hook in the opening sequence. This is something that keeps the audience interested. For example the film maker may not reveal the antagonist or set up a disastrous event that the audience may want to see resolved

The micro aspects are the technical aspects such as editing, lighting, sound etc... These need to be eye catching and memorable. Different types of camera angles can give a sense of danger of the antagonist by using low angles to show threat and menace.

I have looked at two general examples of effective film openings and two examples of genre specific film openings in the horror genre. In the case of both I have looked at what was effective in both.

Main Task Brief

The Brief I have been given is to produce the opening two minutes of a film. I have decided to produce an opening in the horror genre that will include action and opening credits. I am working in a group of three and each person will have a specific role. In order to observe the conventions of the horror genre formula I have conducted some research into the genre itself and some examples of effective horror openings.

Preliminary Task Storyboard

Preliminary Task Video

PreliminaryTask

We had a small set of brief objectives to complete in our continuity task. Our main objective was to film an actor enter a room, converse with another actor and exit. I believe we achieved this well. After creating a storyboard of each step in which i drew the images for and Michelle annotated we began looking for a location to shoot. After choosing the school for our location ( this choice was made due to good lighting there and good sound quality in that area ) we began filming.
Due to one of the members of our group missing and being very short on time I ended up having to act in our continuity task. This allowed Michelle to use the camera- which is something that she hadn’t done before. She filmed some great shots during the shot reverse shot sequence however her panning was rather juddery and she did need some technical support. Although the camera was not as effective as it could have been I feel that Michelle gained alot of valid and useful experience from this.
Once filmed the video was given to me to be edited, considering the time I had and the amount of film I had to work with I think I done a good job. I moved a shot which was in the middle of the scene to the beginning to introduce the character and setting before the event reinforcing the realism of the extract. I also added fades at the beginning and end which helped the scene feel smoother. If we were to do this again I would change two things:
1: Have another actor instead of me so I could therefore help Michelle and be more involved
2: Shoot several takes so that we had more clips to choose from.


Despite this I believe that the text created was successful and followed the guidelines originally set.