Final Cut of Film

This is our final edit of our horror movie opening. We adapted it from the earlier rough cut to try and adhere to comments made by friends and family in order to appeal more to our target audience. We edited the photos that appear during the titles to make them look like xrays in order to comply with our film brief, where the men stalking the young female victims are doctors. We also changed our titles to make them longer and therefore easier to read; in our rough cut they faded out too soon and it meant that the over all pace of the film was more rushed.

Final Film Rough Cut - Lucy Clark Re-Sit

When editing our film we made a rough cut which we showed to various friends and family to get feed back. The comments that we recieved from our classmates included:

"Consider where the titles are positioned"

"Name and title layout should not be above each other"

"Cut the scream out at the end because it makes the film feel more like a trailer than a film opening"

Comments from friends and family were:

"What are the photographs there for and what significance do they have?"

"Good production logo"

"The voiceover and camera angles make you want to know what happens next"

"The title doesn't need to come up at the end of the film as well as the beginning"

These comments will help us when we go to edit our final draft of the film because we have the opinions of the people who are our target audience. The ways in which we will change our film to comply with these comments are as follows; we will get rid of the scream and the titles at the end of the film to make it seem more like a film opening than a trailer; we will reconsider the positioning of the titles to have the most impact on the audience; we will try and make it more obvious why the photographs are being used.

First Draft Title Sequence - Lucy Clark Re-Sit

We created an initial title sequence for our horror film which we thought was very original and visually effective. These are the titles we initially came up with;



However, after researching into the way that titles in horror films are set out, we found that ours didn't fit the conventions typical of this genre. For this reason, we are now in the process of creating a new opening to our horror film, but keeping the qualitites of our initial idea that we liked so much. What we liked about the first set of titles was that there was a collage of photographs of the girls who the stalkers were following; this looked effective because it showed the audience exactly who was in danger and, paired with our music choice and camera angles, was very unsettling and created suspense. In order to transfer these ideas to our new titles, we will still make use of photographs of our victims but we will have them fade in and out singularly with the credits accompanying them. These are the photographs that we are planning on using.

Research into Titles - Lucy Clark Re-sit

I have been researching how titles and credits are used in films, and in particular in the horror genre. To do this I have watched the openings of several films and then listed the order in which people are acknowledged. This is a copy of my basic notes I made after watching the opening of "Catch Me if you Can". I have found that the institution and production company's names come first, followed by the main cast members or the most well known. The title of the film would be next and then the remaining cast members. After all of those would be the casting director and co-producer and then the rest is shown in my photograph of the list I made.

The reason it is important to research how titles and credits are presented is because it helps to make a film look professional and polished, because it is complying with expectations. When editing our horror film opening, we will ensure that we take this into consideration and follow these guidelines.




In "Catch Me if you Can" the plot of the film itself is hinted at throughout the title sequence, and shown to a certain degree. Whilst the order in which the titles are shown comply with typical film title sequences, it is done in quite an original way through animation. This is something we will try to replicate; a title sequence that conforms with the correct layout but also is something a little bit different.

Costumes and Props research - Lucy Clark Re-sit 4124

Costumes, props and makeup are an important part of a film and so we wanted to make sure that what we chose complied with the typical conventions of the horror genre.
For our female protagonist, Louise Chick, we decided on a white coat with work attire underneathh. By choosing a white garment, we are complying with convention, because white connotes innocence and naivety, and many horror films make use of this for their female victims. For example, the film "Scream" makes use of a female victim wearing a white jumper and "Nightmare on Elm Street 3" sees
Patricia Arquette wearing a white nightgown. The reason we have chosen to have our female protagonist wearing work clothes underneath her clothes is to keep away from the obvious nightgown or school uniform stereotype.

We have chosen to use this white coat for Louise in the opening for our horror movie. The colour white connoting innocence and vulnerability complies with the idea of women being the damsel or princess figure who needs rescuing by a man in Propp's Theory of Narrative.




The makeup we have chosen also portrays women as being vulnerable; in the flashes of film, various women will be seen tied up or bruised and bleeding. For the shots of the women in the bath, we used red hair dye to denote blood.This looks very effective because of the contrast it will be to the young women in the bath tub. For the bruising on the girls faces and arms, we have experimented using various shades of eyeshadow and lipstick to create a mottled purple-blue bruised effect. By having bruising prominent on the face, it brings it directly to the audience's attention and so is instantly noticeable. Many horror films use fake blood or makeup; the 1980's "Nightmare on Elm Street" used over 500 gallons of fake blood during filming. Although we personally aren't creating a horror film which makes use of monsters, I have researched the work of Jack Pierce who worked for Universal Pictures and did the makeup for films such as the 1931 "Frankenstein" and "The Wolf Man" in 1941. His use of makeup in the "Frankenstein" has become iconic, and is how people recognise the monster nowadays; Jack Pierce was the first to portray the monster as having bolts through his neck.



The one prop we will be using is a door key, which the female protagonist is seen inserting into the key hole of her front door.

Information from;

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087800/ (Nightmare on Elm Street Information)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Pierce_(makeup_artist) (Jack Pierce information)

(http://www.shockya.com/news/2010/08/15/patricia-arquette-thomas-jane-separating/)
(Photo from Nightmare on Elm Street)

Scream photo is a still from the film

Emmaline Gordon Resit - Target Audience Profile

Our horror film will have a large target audience and will hopefully branch out to demographic groupings such as A, B, C1, C2, D and E. However of these groups we will aim our film to attract mainly students and the middle classed. These are people in demographic groups B, C and D. Our immediate targets are specifically teenagers and young adults ages 15-25 as these are the sort of people that have a larger amount of free time to visit the cinema and watch films resulting in maximum profit. This is also a reason our film is also largely aimed at the un-employed as they are available to visit the cinema on more of a regular basis than people who work full time. Another reason for our horror film being aimed at this class is because the most popular sub-genre at the moment is that of gore, blood and violence and because our film will include these aspects it is imporrant that we are selling ourselves to the correct British audience that will enjoy these concepts, which is traditionally a person of middle class.
Our film uses the Male Gaze Theory as all of the lead victims are female and they have been targetted as they are beautiful, which see's the whole film through a males eyes. However the film will be aimed at both the male and female gender and we will have male antagonists through the horror. This type of film genre is often successful with young couples as it allows a male to comfort a female whilst watching the film and can be seen as a romantic increasing popularity in cinemas. Obviously with there being references of a sexual nature in our film, we would most probably have to start looking at making our film cirtificate an 15 so they can make their own decisions on whether or not to watch the film. Although many 12A year olds are influenced by horror movies/games/television shows we can't say that it is alright to advertise our film to them because legally they arent 15 and some of the contents of our film may disturb them.
Another thing we would have to take into consideration is the race, religious and social aspect of our film. As it is a British horror, we have cast British people to act in it, but we have to be careful that we dont offend or discriminate anyone when filming our horror film. We will need to make it religiously open for everyone to view and we would also have to take into account social issues. For example, the 9/11 bombings are quite a social issue for people so creating a horror film where a plane gets over taken, and flown into a building may cause to much upset.When looking at the data recieved from people filling in our 'Target Audience Questionnaire' the majority of people that go to watch a horror film at a cinema would expect the age certificate to be that of an 15 - 18 so maybe if it was any less then we would loose our audience, therefore the film wouldn't do very well.For our film however, we have all decided that we are going to make it an 18 because of its content. However, we have looked at all the issues such as;- sexuality- race- religion- social and polital issuesand have treated each one with care, and created our horror film that wont offend anyone.In our 'Target Audience Questionnaire' we asked whether or not a films trailer would be enough to make you go and watch the film when it is out, and all of the people asked said yes. Therefore, we would need to create a trailer that is catchy, but however suitable for all audiences. For example, we couldn't have a trailer for our horror film come on before a film such as Shrek starts because the likely audiences will be between the ages of 5-16 therefore it would be innapropriate. We could however advertise before films of the same genre and certificate rating. For example, we could put a trailer in the adverts before films like SAW vI and THE STRANGERS, because they all have the same sub-category genre.

Emmaline Gordon Resit - Location Scouting

For the opening 2 minutes of our horror film we decided to use a maximum of 5 locations in which shoot to reflect the idea of a walk home from work we desired to reflect and creat suspense for the rest of the plot. For all of these locations we were required to research the most effective areas to film in that would not only create suspense but reflect the uncomfortable feeling in our audience we felt necissary for our horror to be truly successful. We made sure as long as trying to think outside boundaries of every day horror films to make our own unique it was also important to look at typical codes and conventions of previous successful horrors and we decided it would be appropriate to use stereotypes of horror locations to concur with our tense theme.

Location 1 - Woodland
The choice of the Broomfield Hospital woodland was decided on not only because it was convenient to get to as it was central point to where we held our actors and actress' before shooting, but we felt it would be effective in creating suspense for the audience. The setting of a woodland is a typical code and covention of a horror as it is low key area which connotes the unkown and arouses fear and suspense in the audience. All lighting has to be natrual and as it is largely covered in tree's the lighting in an area such as this is darker. The darkness is a stypical code and convention of horror films as it enables a persons worst fears to go on unseen and the unknown to us is often the most feared. We also found it an appropriate place to film due to the plot of our entire film. The opening of our horror was to based around the idea that our lead protagonist is being 'stalked' on her journey home. A woodland area would be appropriate for something like this to occur as a perpetrator would be easily hid behind the wildlife. It is a confined area with many places for the agonist to hide leaving our victim helpess and vulnerable.
For this location we researched previous horro films that had used this convention effectively, for example in the horror 'Hide and Seek' (2005) a large amount of the main drama is set in the woodland outside the protagonists home, which creates suspense as it is generally a concealed dark area where anything or anyone could be lurking. I have found a particular scene of 'Hide and Seek' which i feel effectively connotes danger through the dennotation of the woodland area and creates suspense in the audience.


Location 2 - Broomfield Road Garages
Another choice of location are the Broomfield garages as similarly to the woodland area we shot in it is a low key area. It is quite a dim and shadowed area as it is full of what appears to be abandoned garages. Isolation and abandonment is again a typical code and convention of a horror as it creates a sense of helplessness and vulnerability which is key for tension to occur. As again it is a confined area it is a place that perpetrators could hide and lurk unnoticed. We felt that choosing this location was quite unique to our film as there are not many well known horrors that have used this idea, however the basis and thought process behind the choosing of this location used alot of stereotypes associated with fear. As we reached this area to film too the lighting was further more low key and the dark background reflected the dangerous mysterious mood we wished to portray in our horror. The image of the dead trees in the area - similarly too the woodland area we felt connoted the darkness of the night, death is similarly a theme that is fluent throughout our horror. For these reasons in particular we felt the garages were a good area to film our horror to reflect the general mood of the genre.

Although garages are not commonly used in popular horror films, the idea of an isolated mysterious area often is. The use of darkness and cold weather in a location is also a common code and convention of a horror film used to create suspense and fear. A film that uses isolated areas to create suspense is 'Hostel' (2005) which has a similar plot basis as our horror. The idea that victims are held hostage and tortured, another film similar to these are the 'Saw'(2004) films. They similarly use isolated areas to connote despair and helplessness for the victim who is endangered.

Location 3 - Court Road
The last location chosen for our protagonists journey home was that of a road with no one else on it. By this point in the journey it is getting dark which there for continues to build tension as the opening sequence reaches it's climax. As we previously agreed for the other locations it was key for this part of the protagonists journey to be as isolated as the others to continue reflecting a feeling of helplessness and vulnerability to create continued suspense in the audience. We related this location idea of films such as '28 Days Later' (2002) which are entirely based around usually human filled residential areas being abandoned and isolated which relates to the sense of abandonment we wish to reflect in our protagonists character.

Emmaline Gordon Resit - Final Script Draft

Although the majority of our film opening will hopefully use improvisation from our protagonist we felt it was important to create a guideline of what we wished her to say to make sure we definitly portrayed the message and suspense we wished too. We do not use a conversational script for our opening piece and there is only one character speaking - panicking to herself. We used swear words which uses verisimilatude as it is the most likely reaction in a real life situation. Alot of the script however is directions for the type of movement we wished for and direction of background noises that are equally an important part of the plot (for example doors slamming in the back ground).
Final Script Draft

Emmaline Gordon Resit - Organisation of Actors, Props and Locations

Organization of Actors
Now our leading protagonist female actress has been established we are now set the task of finding and confirming dates that she is able to attend, these must be similar dates that our two chosen 'stalkers' must be available to film on too. However before this it is important that we have consent forms signed by the actor and actress’s parents as the actors are all under the age of 18. This was not a problem and they were all given permission without any issues from parents or guardians. We set filming dates that we wished our actors and actresses to meet at. The final date we chose 2 dates to film on the 19th and 21st of January 2010. By choosing dates close to each other that our actors and actress' were available it guaranteed that the type of day would be similar, (for example cold weather and darkness of the evening). We agreed to meet at 4pm at 6 Nash Drive as this was a convenient time for all our actors. It also meant that we were filming at the same time of night on both occasions to establish continuity. 6 Nash Drive was my property and a central location to all places we had chosen to shoot our horror. This was convenient as we did not have to carry equipment far and it was also an area that we located to shoot. This meant our actors would have somewhere to wait when waiting to film rather than in the cold.
Props
The most important props to organise we decided were the costumes for our actors. There are 3 characters that we are choosing to film on the 19th and 21st. One of them being our female protagonist with which we chose to dress in a white coat to connote her innocence. Our team member Jo offered to bring her coat so we kept this it our meeting area until the actress arrived. The 2 other actors were dressed in black coats and they were instructed to bring their own if possible. Both Keegan and Matt did so, all 3 actors were already dressed in black trousers as we asked. For Louise (the protagonist) it was to create the affect that she was on her way home from work and was having an ordinary day-to-day life. Other props that were necessary for us to organise were house keys that we would be shooting a close up of at the end of the piece. For this we used my own keys as they needed to be able to open to front door to the home we chose to film - which was 6 Nash Drive.
Other props needed was make-up in order to create the look of bruising on ourselves 9as we chose our self for the flashes).For the other flashes we used many props, for example we used a bath filled with red hair dye to create a blood effect. We also used house-hold brown tape to tie out our mouths and arms for the quick flashes in the attic. The filming of these flashes happened on separate occasions as we gathered them when necessary, for the props used when filming with the actors once we had established a filming schedule we organise and held the props in a small cupboard until the filming day where we got them out when necessary.
Locations
All the locations we chose to film in were central the household we wished to use for the final attack. This not only made the filming seem continuous it meant that the different locations were not too far apart so that travelling would not mean a unnatural change in lighting. We did plan for the opening to get darker lit - due to the time of year and the effect we wished to achieve. The household we chose to film in was convenient with a lightly painted bedroom to connote the characters innocence. It also had a dark hallway that connoted the character being of a negative 'dark' nature. Another location we chose to film our opening is was a woodland area, which is a typical convention of horror films. It creates suspense as a perpetrator would be easily hidden behind tree's and woodland usually indicates a lack of civilisation leaving the victim utterly alone with her attacker. The lack of leaves on the tree show automatically that is it winter time which connotes the cold and this portrays fear - another code and convention of a horror film. Based on all of this we felt that the woodland would be a good place to film our opening to create the suspense we wished. For similar reasons we chose some run down garages to film in, also connoting the isolation of the victim. It is also a place again where perpetrators can wait undetected in the shadows between each garage - there is an example of this in our film. By using a place seemingly run down and creates a sense of abandonment which creates suspense and mystery. It brings up questions as to why the place may have been abandoned. If there had been previous incidents occurring there before? All of which are left down to the viewers interpretation and may project to an individuals specific fear. The final main place we chose to film for our protagonists journey home from work was a street - showing she is nearing civilisation which creates continuity as she is about to arrive home. However by the time she has reached this street is it dark and there is no one around. This again connotes abandonment and her vulnerability to the situation she is in as someone is following her. The street in actual life was In fact right by her home so that the piece used verisimilitude to its full extent. The last location used was for some of our flashes that did not involve the main protagonist, for these we used an attic and bathroom. The bathroom contradicts horror conventions as it is an ordinary household room which contrasts so greatly to what appears to be blood and a female lying unconscious in the bath. This makes the scene uncomfortable for a viewer which is a desire in the opening of a film in the horror genre. By using an attic the opening conforms to typical conventions as an attic is generally the darkest coldest place in the house. It is a room out of reach to the rest of the household and again connotes abandonment and helplessness for the victims. The attic we used specifically had beams that could be used to tie the victims to them showing how they are being held hostage. It is not immediately obvious in the flashes that the place chosen to film is an attic as it in important to not give away the plot summary too much and the girls should infact have been held hostage in just a room in the abandoned house, but we felt that the attic used accurately denoted the darkness and lack of civilisation we aimed to achieve.

Emmaline Gordon Re-sit Film Brief

Our horror film is based around the idea of stalking and victims being followed. At the beginning of the film the first victim is seen on a journey home towards work where she is being mysteriously followed by a UN-be known number of antagonistic villains. These villains have somehow got into her home where we witness her get attacked in her own bedroom. The idea of using female victims uses the Male Gaze Theory. This theory means that ultimately the plot of the horror film is viewed through the eyes of a man where woman a sexual objects of obsession. This concurs because as the plot develops we establish that a number of women are experiencing the same attack that the woman endured at the opening of our film. Women are frequently used in horrors as victims because they are stereotyped as the in superior sex when it comes to strength and the ability to defend them. There are examples of this in prior films such as 'The Descent' - where the plot evolves around 6 females that get attacked whilst going caving. Females show a weaker nature to males that make the audience feel even more uncomfortable as the character has less ability to defend themselves against perpetrator. These are all largely the reasons that we are using females as our victims. The names of the 6 female characters are 'Charlie', 'Trina', 'Rachel', 'Phillipa', 'Daisy' and the main protagonist 'Enya' who's story is followed from the beginning of the film. All 6 of the females are targeted by a group of deranged scientists (non-of which's names are ever learnt by the audience to provide a sense of unknown and unfamiliarity to the audience, names are typically comfortable to the viewer which is the opposite effect desired). These scientists are fixated on the idea of creating the 'perfect' individual. The female targets were used because they all held a specific trait or attribute that the scientists wanted as a part of their perfect-being. They are one-by one stalked and held captive in an abandoned house in the middle of the country side. The location of the house is not made particularly known in the plot but the audience is aware that it is far from civilisation which creates an even 'creepier' affect as help is not close at hand for the victims; this is a typical trait in horror films and creates a sense of abandonment.
As the 6 girls come to terms with why each of them are here they one by one get taken off to torture. It begins with 'Rachel' being dragged out of the room where all of the girls have been taken hostage without the rest of the girls being aware what is happening to her. They expect her to return later on or in the next day but when she does not it begins to raise suspicion as to what has happened to her. Next to be taken is 'Trina' who they hear scream and cry loudly for hours after as the other 4 girls begin to panic. They begin to devise and plan their escape the avoid the same fait they believe the other 2 girls have met. Later when one of the 3 scientists come to check on them and feed them water as their hands are chained behind them 'Daisy' head butts him. The male antagonist lies on conscious on the floor and 'Enya' realises her chains are loose. She frees herself and stamps on the scientists head, as he appears to bleed the audience is made aware that he has been killed. 'Enya' escapes the room and searches desperately around the house for the keys to the other 3 girls chains. She finds 2 and runs back towards the room the girls are being held hostage. It is establishes the keys unlock 'Charlie' and 'Phillipas' chain and as they hear the sound of someone moving around on the floor above them 'Daisy' begs them to leave her and escape. 'Enya' refuses to give up searching for her key and as they near escape she has to hide under a cabinet in a desperate attempt to hide from the scientists, whilst doing this she finds another key under some floor boards. They hear 'Daisy' scream and as they try to get back to her 'Phillipa' is attacked. The perpetrator however does not se 'Enya' and 'Charlie' and they try to find their way back to free 'Daisy' who they find dead still tied to her post. 'Charlie' and 'Phillipa' then set their target to finding the other girls who were previously taken from them. When they eventually find them they find 'Rachel's body amputated and 'mangled' almost inhuman, 'Trina' appears to have her legs missing but when she hears the girls voices they are sure they see her fingers move. 'Phillipa' is barely conscious but still whole. They try to speak to 'Trina' who seems to slightly regain consciousness who begs them to get out and leave them but they refuse. The two girls are then attacked by the other 2 perpetrators and tied to the 2 remaining beds. Through their struggle to fight back they are still ultimately over come and 'Enya' helplessly watches as the attackers kill 'Charlie'. Luckily somehow 'Enya' gets free and kicks one of the scientists in the back of the head. She struggles backwards and grabs a chainsaw so stop the scientists attacking her. After a struggle she ultimately kills one of the scientists and knocks another out although the audience are not aware he is still alive. She then escapes after being re-attacked by the perpetrator who is in fact still alive but defeats her attacker.

We will use a lot of typical codes and conventions that are regularly seen and used in horror films to create the tension and fear we desire. For example we will mainly use darkly lit rooms and use colours such as reds, black and browns. This will be to make the set creepier and more intense for the audience to watch as everything isn't as clear when the lighting is dimmed which emphasises the audience's fear of the 'unknown'. Our narrative will be closed as there will be a ultimate conclusion at the end of the horror - that 'Enya' escapes. Vladimir Propps theory can partly be applied to our horror. 'Enya' plays the hero as she is ultimately the character that makes the decision to try and save the other girls sacrificing her life for them. The Villain is played by the scientists as they are the films main perpetrators and 'block the hero's quest' the quest in the circumstance being freedom. The Donor can be witnessed in the character of 'Daisy' as she provides a metaphorical object being their escape. She asks the other girls to leave her ultimately providing them with the gift of being guiltless in the quest to save their own lives. The helper may be perceived through the character of 'Charlie' who aids 'Enya' throughout the whole plot and assists her in her quest to escape and save the other girls lives. Subjects such as the Princess and the False Hero are portrayed not through characters however. The false hero which would be assigned the role of disrupting the Hero's success is merely filled with the role of the large home and area in which they are being held and is partly filled by the role of the scientists whose names we never learn. The role of the Princess - the reward for the hero is effectively 'Enyas' freedom and life. Todorovs theory of Equilibrium is also implied in our horror as the plot begins with typical lives of the 6 females. A disruption occurs which is their attack and abduction, for Enya to disruption is resolved and she fights and successfully saves her life, although it can be argued that the plot does not enter the 're-equilibrium' as their lives are heavily disrupted and the other 5 females lives are not saved.

Story Board - Lucy Clark Re-sit

We've been taking photos recently for our story board, showing stills of each part of our opening. We're doing this because it then gives us something to refer back to when we start filming, and it means we can get a good idea to start with as to how the over-all piece will look. These initial photos weren't taken exactly where we would film but are pretty close to what we imagined each shot to look like. The photographs in the house are a definate location choice, as are the shots in the wooded area, although we may change the type of shots depending on what works best for us during filming, in regards to lighting and weather. By including the type of shot we imagine in the storyboard, it makes it easier for us to visualise how the piece will look, and also makes filming quicker because we have already determined what most of the shots will be.

These are the storyboards I have created.
Storyboard 1


Storyboard 2


Storyboard 3

Location Scouting - Lucy Clark Re-sit

The opening two minutes of our horror film requires a variety of different locations, including inside a house and several outdoors. We are looking mainly around the Broomfield area, because it is local to our actors and so will be easier for them to make it to filming dates. It also means that we can get more done each day of filming because we are cutting out excessive travelling.

For several of the scenes we need to film inside a house, and believed it would be best to film in one of our own to avoid an invasion of someone else's privacy. We decided to film these scenes at Emmaline's house because it is close to all of our other possible locations and so will be easy during filming. We considered several different rooms in the house to film in, including the kitchen (as is used in "Scream" to good effect) but decided on the bedroom. The reason behind this choice is that it is a very personal room, and so boundaries are pushed even further by the antagonists.

(a still taken from "Scream")

This was a final choice of bedroom to shoot our victim in because it's a light colour reflecting the innocence of our actress. It will also be easier to have someone hide in this room as there is also another room attatched. The double bed may also make the charactar seem more realistic and imply she is the only resident in this household, whereas single beds seem more child like.

For another of our locations, we looked at filming by some derelict looking garages by Church Road in Broomfield. The reason we think that this is a good place to film is because it looks very empty and makes the lone female protaganist look very vulnerable as she walks through the area. They are dark and the moss and grass outside of them is overgrown. The idea of derelict buildings being used in horror films is a fairly common convention, where normally it is an old "haunted" house that is used.

These are the woods that are located right by Chelmer Valley and Broomfield Hospital. The reason we're looking into filming here is because there is a footpath that runs through them and the tree's are quite sparse, and so it looks as if it is simply a short cut to her house. The woods are quiet as well so there wont be much background noise, which again complies with typical horror films, because the victims vulnerability is played on. A film that makes use of filming in the woods is "The Blair Witch Project" filmed entirely on handheld cameras and it a very good example of a film that makes the audience feel uneasy and scared in this type of location.

(photo from http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowldc/nbcs-version-of-the-blair-witch-project_b24462 )

This is Court Road. We like this location because it is quite a wide, open road, and there isn't many parked cars or houses along the sides, which gives the impression of being totally alone. Also, the street lamps are quite spaced out, therefore when it is dark, you can only see the part of the road that the street lamps light up. This means that we can work with shadows and people hiding in the darkness, giving the audience a sense of unease. Because however, it does get dark quickly, we would have to work out a filming schedule that fits in with the lighting, to ensure that it isn't too dark to film, but dark enough that the effect we are looking for is achieved.

We are aiming to shoot the majority of our film during late afternoon/early evening, because the darkness will aid us in trying to create an eerie environment and make the audience feel uneasy.

First Draft Script - Lucy Clark Re-sit

Me and Emmaline have been working on writing a script for our film recently. The only real dialogue is right at the very start of our film when the screen is blank and so the script itself has to be very believable and able to stand alone without video to go with it. Even though there is very little dialogue, we created a script so that the actors could see how we wanted the trailer to come across. The girl we cast as our female protagonist in particular needs to know how we want her to act during the title sequence, which is when this script will be used.

I looked into how scripts are set out as well, in order to make our production as professional as possible. This is the website I used.

http://interceptfilm.co.nz/pdfs/short_intercept_correct_script.pdf
Script

Film Brief Lucy Clark Re-sit

Our brief is to create the two minute opening of a horror movie, including a title sequence and the institution logo. We will need to make a film production company name and the logo to go with it.

Horror films in particular use their openings very effectively; normally within the first few minutes, the over all plot is hinted at and the viewer is aware of what is to come later on. Another way the openings attract viewers is that, especially in thrillers, the audience is given a series of clues which help them reach the overall conclusion of what will happen. In "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" the ending on the film is shown first, which captivates the audience because they want to know how and why that ending was reached.

The over all plot of our film revolves around stalking. The film would see six young women being stalked in various places and ways by hooded or masked men. The women would be seemingly unconnected, apart from the fact that they are being stalked by presumably the same men. The reason we chose six young women is to comply with Laura Mulvey's "Male Gaze Theory" where the assumption is that the audience is male. By using young women, they appear vulnerable and weak and men will want to protect them. Havng male antagonists, it denotes that they will be superior in strength, once again making the women look vulnerable.

All the women, once caught, would be taken to the same remote location in the countryside, which is down long and winding roads, creating a sense of foreboding for the audience. The exact location is never shown for the same reasons. It can also be seen as mirroring and connoting the anonimousity of the stalkers themselves.

The idea behind the plot is that each member of the "stalking group" are targeting their victims not only for a slightly erotic reason but are sycophantic; all females own something they require/desire. i.e a body part (such as limbs, eyes, hair). The antagonists are a group of psychotic scientists aiming to create their perfect being and relentlessly killing any object of their desire along the way. As the film itself progresses, the women will be seen together, laying unconscious with big, bold, black crosses marking various aspects of their body. This will highlight to the audience the body parts the scientists require from that particular person, and reiterate their final goal of creating the perfect person from various bodies. This idea is reminiscent of the novel "Frankenstein" and although the idea of creating the perfect person from different bodies is explored in the novel, the method and the over all production is entirely different.

Our opening 2 minutes shows an example of one of the characters attack on her way home from an unknown destination. The audience are made aware during her journey that she is being followed although she is not. We view her walk away and every so often the camera flicks forward in time for a short loud burst of the attack on her that is yet to take place. The camera will then switch back to her journey home. The flashes will become more regular throughout the two minute opening, becoming shorter and quicker to give a flickering film reel effect, detailing exactly how the woman was caught and subsequently tortured. The film flashes show her with the antagonists inside her house and eventually attacking her. The forward flashes become quicker until the present time zone catches up with the beginning of the flashes as the female goes to let herself in her house.

We hope this will leave our audience in suspense, questioning what the marks on the bodies mean. We plan to give no clear indication of the state of the females and how many there are to keep the audience questioning the scene. It will not become apparent until right at the end that one of the women survives, and which woman it is. The audience becomes aware of this when she is telling her story in a court room after she escapes. The antagonists will be seen for the first time unmasked, where they look completely normal and unassuming, making the audience feel unease because this highlights that stalkers and murderers could be anyone, and you can never tell. The sharp frames we hope will shock the audience but also indicate whats in store throughout the rest of the film. The main idea of our opening is not a clear cut version of events but clues and hints that firstly may make little sense but as they come together create more answers, yet more anticipation.

G321 Lucy Clark Re-sit

I will be re-sitting my G321 course work and so will be ammending posts on this group blog. Any changes will be in bold and blue so it is easy to see what has been improved.

Filming schedule

Before we filmed our final piece, we created a filming schedule, to enable us to work quickly and efficiently. This was useful because it meant that we had a rough idea of what we needed to do on each day to ensure that all the footage was the right light conditions and fitted together well, inkeeping with continuity.
Filming Schedule

Target Audience Profile

For our horror movie that we are going to be making is potentially going to be aimed at British citizens. Our final film will therefore be seen at all class A, B, C1, C2, D and E groups but our horror film will be aimed at around the groups B-D. This is because the groups B-D are intended for middle classed, students or people that are un-employed which is persifically aged at arounf 14-26.

The reason for our horror film being aimed at this class is because the most popular sub-genre at the moment is that of gore, blood and violence and because our film will include these three aspects, we need to make sure that we are selling ourselves to the correct British audience. Our film however, will be aimed at both males and females because the main antagonist charcters are males, and like original horror movies there is a female protagonist character. Therefore, we want to encourage both genders to come and watch our films, because it isn't specifically aimed at males.

Also, because of the plot in our horror movie we encourage both male and females to come and watch it. The plot is that these male antagonists are out looking for specific features of women that they like, and therefore they stalk them in order to get possession of their wanted features, and then attack/murder them and take the feature from the women that they want, thus creating a new women with different bodily parts to make the perfect women they wanted.

If the age certificate is 15 for our horror movie, then we are limited to what we can put into it. Obviously with there being references of a sexual nature in our film, we would most probably have to start looking at making our film cirtificate an 18 because in Britain, 18 is the age where you become an adult, therefore they can make their own decisions on whether or not to watch the film. Although many 15 year olds are influenced by horror movies/games/television shows we can't say that it is alright to advertise our film to them because legally they arent even 16, and some of the contents of our film may distrub them. However, we have to take into consideration that even though the age certificate is an 18, people under that age will still be able to watch our film. Parents or older siblings may buy it for them, so we have to be careful as to what extent we go with our film, not only violently, but sexually too.

Another thing we would have to take into consideration is the race, religious and social aspect of our film. As it is a British horror, we have cast British people to act in it, but we have to be careful that we dont offend or discriminate anyone when filming our horror film. We will need to make it religiously open for everyone to view and we would also have to take into account social issues. For example, the 9/11 bombings are quite a social issue for people so creating a horror film where a plane gets over taken, and flown into a building may cause to much upset.

When looking at the data recieved from people filling in our 'Target Audience Questionnaire' the majority of people that go to watch a horror film at a cinema would expect the age certificate to be that of an 18 - so maybe if it was any less then we would loose our audience, therefore the film wouldn't do very well.

For our film however, we have all decided that we are going to make it an 18 because of its content. However, we have looked at all the issues such as;
- sexuality
- race
- religion
- social and polital issues
and have treated each one with care, and created our horror film that wont offend anyone.

In our 'Target Audience Questionnaire' we asked whether or not a films trailer would be enough to make you go and watch the film when it is out, and all of the people asked said yes. Therefore, we would need to create a trailer that is catchy, but however suitable for all audiences. For example, we couldn't have a trailer for our horror film come on before Shrek starts because the likely audiences will be between the ages of 5-16 therefore it would be innapropriate. We could however advertise before films of the same genre. For example, we could put a trailer in the adverts before films like SAW vI and THE STRANGERS, because they all have the same sub-category genre.

To advertise our film we would need to take into consideration the age certificate. Therefore adveritsing on Mcdonalds happy meals would be the wrong type. Advertisment on Myspace, Bebo, Facebook and Twitter pages, where more of our targetted audience would look is a much better idea.

Therefore, the target audience we are aiming to advertise and aim our film at would be people that are over the age of 18, that are possibly students or un-employed and that have time to go to the cinema and watch horror films. Also, to people who are real horror film fanatics.

Target Audience Questionnaire Feedback

Questionnaire Feedback

Target Audience Questionnaire

Thankyou for taking the time to answer our questionnaire.
We are trying to disifer what age limit we are going to make our film, and also what sort of target audience we are aiming to please.

Please highlight the relevent answer.

1. What is your gender?

Male Female

2. Please write in your date of birth.

___/___/_____

3. Do you like the typical Horror Film?

Yes No

4. If No, what is it you don’t like about them?

Blood Gore Death Unknown

5. What type of genre do you prefer in a horror film?

Phsycological Death Violentscenes Blood&Gore Thriller

6. If you went to a cinema to see a horror film, what would you expect the age certificate to be?

U PG 12 15 18

7. What is your most favourite horror film?

________________________________

8. Would you go to see a horror film, just based on the trailer?

Yes No

Thankyou, Fugitive Productions.
Chelmer Valley High School
AS Media Studies

HORROR FILM OPENING TWO MINUTES - FINAL EDIT

Backing Track Used For Film

Spider Eyes Music Upload

This is the backing track that we used in our film. It is ideal because it gives off a sense of the unknown, being scary and creepy. We found it on a Royalty Free website, and have know included it into our film.

Partial save of Movie

Due to problems with saving and exporting our final film, we only have a partially finished version so far. It doesnt have the sound effects, institutional logo or film title in it, which we're trying to fix at the moment. We're happy with the finished product, and although this isn't a perfect version, it demonstrates the ideas we had and aids us with our evaluations.

Please double click videos to open in a new window, as embedding them cuts off the side, making viewing difficult.

Horror Film Update 3/3/10

On the last day of term, we all stayed in school to make the finishing touches to our opening three minutes of a horror film. We added the titles, music and edited some more flashes into the piece. We finished this, however when we tried to export our final piece, it wouldn't allow us to do so. It kept freezing at the very last 20% of the upload. We all stayed in school until about half past four trying to export it from the 'adobe premiere' programme but it wouldn't.

Over the half term, Mrs Peacock set us an evalutation to do explaining and answering questions about our final piece, however due to the fact we didn't have our final piece to look at, we couldn't analyse it therefore we didn't have enough evidence to create even a rough draft. We couldn't even look at the film over the half term holidays because the 'adobe premiere' only lets you open the file on the same computer where you have done the editing etc, and saved it.

We are spending alot of time trying to export and upload our piece off of the adobe programme and onto youtube or our personal blogs, but it doesn't seem to be working as of yet.

Institutional Logo

We have designed and created our institutional logo by finding what we thought a suitable font. We came up with the idea that we could invert the colours at the start of our film so that it would flash.

Film Diary For The 11th Of Febuary

As we began editing our film we realised we did not have as wide a variety of shots as we thought when we originally shot. So we met up after school and filmed some quick flashes in an attic and lounge. In the lounge we filmed mainly close ups of face as the enviroment wouldn't be suitable to display in our horror. In the attic we taped flashes of girls tied the wooden poles, screaming and unconcsious with bruising. We bruised our faces and arms with make-up and used smudged mascara as a crying effect. althogether we only got a few minutes of shooting but this is all we need as the tape will only be used for flashes in our film.

Character Profile - Keegan

Keegan is the other stalker, featuring in our Horror film. Again, for the same reason we asked Keegan to be in dark colours. Unfortunatly, because we filmed after school, Keegan was still wearing his school shirt, but because of his dark jumper it didn't matter that much. Again, because of the light when we were filming, we couldn't make out any of Keegans features because he just looked like a figure. It was good because thats the image we wanted to create so that the audience didn't know what or who the stalkers were.

Character Profile - Matt

Matt is one of the two stalkers we have in our horror film. We decided to put Matt in dark colours because when we were filming, the light outside was getting dark so you could only see his figure. Also, because of his role in the horror film, we thought that dark colours would be more suitable. This is because if we dressed Matt in light colours, the perception of what matt does in the horror film may be different. For example, we dressed Louise in bright colours to give off an angelic and innocent look. Whereas, Matt is dressed in bold and dark colours. Also, in the light when we were filming, because he has his hood up we couldn't even make out his face, therefore creating the 'sense of the unknown' and this is what we wanted to create.

Character Profile - Louise

For our lead female agonist we needed a young actress. We ideally wanted her to have long blonde hair to represent her innocence and for her to be dressed in light clothing. We decided to dress her in black trousers and boots, not only for practical reasons as we were filming her in muddy woods in the winter time but we were filming Louise's journey home from work. She would work somewhere smart and this will be hinted by the white coat being smart. She walks at an average speed as if she knows where her destination is but she'd in no hurry to get there and she is completly unaware of her stalkers throughout her journey until she is attacked when she gets home. When attacked Louise is very panicked and swears along with breathing heavily and crying out for help. This point of the film is the only part where there's any dialogue.

Film Diary For The 4th Febuary

We met up again on the thursday to film the Garages and retry filming down Court Road when it was lighter. We firstly filmed lots of various shots and angles in The Broomfield Road Garages. We experimented with our stalker who on the day was Matt and filmed him in various angles behind Louise. Although alot of the angles did not turn out well and we had to be very careful with continuity but we feel we got a good variety of shots. By the time we got to Court Road we had reached the time of day where it was getting dark quickly. We filmed some shots at the top of Court Road but by the time we had gotten to the bottom of Court Road it had got a lot darker. As we preffered the shots from the bottom of the road we decided to use them, however we could not use the shots from the top of the road aswell because then our film wouldn't be continuous and the contrast would be very obvious. We also filmed Louise putting my front door key into the door for a close up shot, we experimented with other close up shots of her foot as she walked past but as her shoes were black and it had already gotten dark these shots did not work aswell. We also experimented with filming Louise putting the key in the lock from different angles so that we would have a wide variety of shots from every location to chose from when it came to editing.

Initial Credits

This is our first attempt at filming our title sequence for our horror movie; although we think that this looks very effective, it is too long for use in a two minute long opening, and so we need to refilm it, cutting down on the length of time. We chose this idea because it gives the impression of someone looking over the photos of the girls he is stalking, and presents the name of the cast in an original and unexpected way.

Please double click videos to open in a new window, as embedding them cuts off the side, making viewing difficult.

Final Cast List

Our original Cast List differs slightly from the final one as we did not recieve consent forms from all of the participants. For the filming on the 29th of January;

Louise Chick

Matthew Bonner

Keegan Featherstone

Matt and Keegan don't have alot to say, therefore we didn't need to make them a draft script to perform. However, Louise doesn't say anything but she screams alot. Also, Louise is doing the audio for our horror film, therefore we had to record her reading out our script of the sorts of things we want her to perform.

Original Shot List

This is the original version of the Shot List, however, some of the filming changed due to lighting and timing etc. the main story line remained the same, but may have a slight difference in order in the final edit. We also filmed some extra footage to make sure we had all the footage we need, and more incase of timing problems etc. This means that we have more to work with, and we also have a wider range of shots and more effective flashes.
However, we used this Shot List to help us in the main part of the filming.

Shot List

Filming Diary 29th January

We began our filming on friday and we all felt it went well. We did however underestimate how many times we would have to repeat the same piece of filming and due to this we are to continue filming on tuesday. Although there is a small amount we have left to do. Firstly we filmed our actress Louise walkinng through a woodland area from various angles and shots. We also filmed a stalker (Keegan or Matthew) walking behind her for moments. This went well and we feel we got a wide variety of shots that we would be able to use when editing. Secondly we walked to to my home, where we filmed Louise being attacked. This went extremely well and we were all pleased with the end result. We filmed the same couple of sections from 3 different angles so we will be able to re-arrange and edit our film to what we feel looks best. After doing so we moved on to begin filming down Court Road but we found that because of the time of day we chose to film it had become too dark for a cameras to pick up on the actors. The time of day was also a complete contrast with our earlier filming and would not have continued good continuity. For these reasons we decided that we would continue filming another day so that it was lighter.Because we had unexpected time left over we went to my house and recorded Louise's audio of panicing for the opening of our film during the subtitles. This we feel went really well and are happy with the end result. On tuesday we have filming down Court Road to finish off aswell as hopefully filming in the garages nearby Church Avenue.

January 22nd

For the past week we've been finishing off the last of our filming schedules and shot lists, ready to start filming on Monday. We've been discussing the final aspects of our film, like how we're including titles and makeup for our victims. For the titles, we're considering the idea of having poloroids of our victims with their names scrawled below in black marker pen. The camera would be panning above with blood dropping down onto the photo as the camera pauses on each photograph. Whilst this is going on, we'd have the audio of the female character screaming.

Costume List

Our main female character will be dressed in smart/ casual clothing, as if making her journey home from work. eg. smart trousers, shirt, heels for example. we have chosen to do this to avoid the usual cliches of the innocent victim wearing white, or being a young girl in school uniform or casual attire.


Each of the antagonists will wear hooded garments to obscure their identity and create a feel of animosity, which will emphasise the idea that no particular hooded figure has any significance or importance over another. This can also show that they they work together, highlighting the link between them.

The five other female characters will only be glimpsed briefly, but will be in a variety of costumes, showing that no particular lifestyle or background is targeted and to highlight each different character, and to increase the understanding of the viewer, in that anyone could be targeted.

Although each costume is simple, each one holds great significance in helping the viewer understand what is happening, and which character is which.