Print Screens and Developments
This shot will be different in our final shoot as we will cut the shot at this point, to make the person run out of the shot. This will ensure that the next shot will run more smoothly.
There will be an establishing shot here to create parallel action and a relationship between the two scenes.
In these scenes the light is very restricted so we will aim to be filming later on at night so we are able to control the levels of lighting and the direction it is coming from.
We will stop the pan at this point and have our actor running out the shot, this is so that the next shot fits in better and runs more smoothly.
Here we will have the actor walking back directly into the camera as a way of fading out of the scene.
Location Pictures
We have gathered a group of pictures to illustrate where we will be filming our more gory scenes, we have chosen this location as we can access it very easily as it it one of the teams members garage. We feel that the location really give off a good feel for a horror film, the may that all the metal is rusted on the outside an how it is very old and full of cobwebs inside which you always associate with horror films. The window to the from of the garage works really well with out script as we want to do a bit of parallel action to join the both scenes and show the relevance for them both. We are planing to do our filming at night to gain the best feel for our film opening we have had a meeting with each other and said that it would be best to use man made lighting rather than natural as we will get a better effect as it is us who is directing the light.Test Filming
Timeline
Film Proposal
For our practical production we will be fitting our film opening into a horror genre. We decided on this as after briefly looking into the other genres we found this will enable us to produce the best quality opening possible. After researching into previous horror film openings this then confirmed this. To ensure that our opening follows the conventions of a horror film we will be using low level lighting as this automatically creates a eerie atmosphere to the audience. We all also going to ensure that the viewer is drawn into the clip by giving enough away to create suspense but not enough to give away the plot. During the clip we will give evidence of weapons and will ensure some blood is included. This is because horrors can often be mistaken for thrillers so we need to insure that this is established straight away.
Resources
As the genre is horror we will be filming the running scene in an area with a lot of trees so either a local park or woods. There are a number of available places we can use for example St. George's park, Troopers Hill and Magpie Bottom. For the second area for our opening we are hoping to use the Basement of TMH school as George and his family are close family friends with the caretaker there. However if this is not possible due to the type of scene we are aiming for if needs be we can simply use a public area that is very run down for example a youth centre or even a public toilet. This will mean as we have plenty of choice we can get the best possible results. We have friends that are taking drama who are willing to participate in our filming so these will be our actors. Due to the type of film the girl will only need basic clothing and the man will simply need baggy basic clothes which we can either borrow or buy for relatively cheap so clothing is not problem. We also have purchased some equipment to make fake blood and wounds which will benefit the horror genre and is very important. We may at a later date need some more props however due to horrors mainly using "makeshift" weapons for example wood with nails in this is not a problem.
Techniques
As a results of the genre chosen we will be using a number of close ups. As we will need to get a brief look at the actors reactions and feelings during the situation. However also because we don't want to give too much away we will be thinking about the use of long and mid shots however the mid shots will be used when showing the girl running and simply of the legs. This is to emphasise the movement of the legs and the speed. Because of the technique needed to do this we will have to plan carefully how to follow the girl. The plan originally was to run along with her, using a technique we were made aware of where you simply attach coins to the bottom of the tripod to help it stay straight and level. However because with may result in bad quality we have decided that making it seem as if "someone" is filming her will be much more effective. At our other location we will mainly be using closeups however it will all be low level lighting so it will be hard to get a full understanding of whats going on. We have decided against diagetic sound e.g dialogue as in an opening scene this may give away too much. Also speech can effect the way something is edited and this could over complicate things when it simply isn't needed. However there will be some non-diagetic sound to help build the tension and suspense of whats going on.
Target Audience Questionnaire
Question 1
What sort of lighting do you usually associate with horror films.
- Low level (13)
- High level (7)
Question 2
Do you think suspense is built better using colour or black and white?
- colour (9)
- black and white (11)
Question 3
What type of sound do you see in the horror film opening you watch?
- diegetic (6)
- non diegetic (10)
- both (4)
Question 4
Do you think the opening should include a scene of blood?
- yes (18)
- no (2)
Question 5
if yes do you think a killing should be included?
- yes (10)
- no (10)
Question 6
Do you think building suspense in the first few minutes of a film is an important factor?
- yes (17)
- no (3)
Question 7
What type of camera movement do you think works best in horror film opening?
- steady cam (5)
- hand held (8)
- normal tripod filming (7)
Question 8
What type of setting do you think should be used?
- House (7)
- Forest (9)
- Road (2)
- Big open space (0)
- Other (please specify)
factory
boat house
Question 9
How often do you watch horror films?
- Always (5)
- Often (7)
- Sometimes (4)
- Rarely (3)
- Never (1)
Question 10
If your answer to question 9 is never please explain this, so we can find the faults and improve them.
- Horror films are too graphic and the way technology has advanced things seem more realistic and are set in everyday places which adds to the feeling of realism.
Evaluation.
Using these results we will produce a set of objectives labelled under the headings of; Genre, Techniques and resources.
Halloween analysis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFILFAaE39U
Genre that is established – Horror
How the genre is established
Very Dark Opening
Credits in the back ground – Diegetic sound
Halloween Night
Sense of house being watched
Teenagers talking – Diegetic sound
Looking threw window
Eerie sound as light in bedroom turns off – Non Diegetic
Subject opens house and turns the lights on
Subject picks up and knife and we get a glimpse of the outfit that is a clowns outfit.
Subject walks up the stairs and see his mask on the floor, subject places a mask on his face
Camera edit shows just 2 eye holes for the reminder of the scene
Subject walks into sisters bedroom and see that’s she is undress and possibly participated in sexual activities with her boyfriend.
Subject approaches his sister from behind and is then noticed
Non digetic sound of shrieking music as the subject begins to stab his sister repeatedly
Subject turns head to look at the knife as he carries on stabbing his sister
After the subjects sister is dead he walks out of the room and approaches the front door and steps out side to see his mum and dad approach the front garden.
The audience find out that two young teenagers are home alone on the night of Halloween, the house looks like it is being watched as the camera snoops round the outside of the house and finally enters the house. The use of the one continuous shot threw the whole opening scene is very rare but it adds to the depth and drama and you do not see the killer but you feel as if you are the person inside the killers mind seeing what he sees. We later see the subject stab his sister repeatedly with a kitchen knife, which he picked dup earlier in the scene. He does not just stab her once but about 10 times, this helps create the feel of horror as lots of blood and gore is included in just the first 2 minuets of the film.
Saw I analysis
-During credits there is thunder and lightning
-black background after credits before the start of the scene to let the audience think about what could be going on. This creates a high amount of tension.
-there is very low level lighting, there is a close up of one of the main characters however due to the lack of light there isn’t much chance to establish the character.
- then we see that the man is in fact underwater, this straight away puts the questions into the audiences head of what’s actually going on.
- there is still very low level lighting this is to stop the viewer from knowing completely what’s going on and to build the tension.
-the main character is breathing heavily and panting so is clearly distressed however the audience still doesn’t know why.
-there is a random voice talking in a low, groggy voice which again adds to the unknown
-the lights suddenly flash on and things become clear and the audiences first questions are answered however by what we then see give the viewers more questions.
It is clear that this is a horror as there is very low level lighting. The opening sequence doesn’t give much away however this builds the tension and allows the audience to build their own picture of what’s going on. There is very little mise-en-scene included as you don’t see much of what’s going on in the opening clip. Sound plays a very big part on the clip. This is the only thing that allows the viewer to know what’s going on. Although is doesn’t give much away it clearly shows that the character is distressed which automatically gives you a horror impression.
Scream analysis
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=scream+opening+scene&search_type=&aq=f
-eerie music as credits are shown set horror genre
-there’s a phone ringing and the a close up on it to emphasise the importance
-close up of woman on phone, introduces an important character straight away.
-phone rings again and there is then an establishing shot of outside the house, this builds tension and make the audience wonder if there is anything outside the house.
-the phone rings again which is the followed by a close up of the woman’s face to show the expression which in this case is clear worrying.
- the phone is answered and there is a unknown man on the other side, we done see who this is just hear his low pitched groggy voice which created the fear of the unknown.
-there is dialogue between the two about scary movies, at the same time the woman is playing with and looking at the knives which again creates tension.
- the woman then moves around the house locking the doors, this makes you feel very unsafe as if you are watching it at home it makes you feel uncomfortable in your only comfort zone.
-the dialogue plays an important part in creating the tension; “Because I wanna know who I’m looking at”.
- There is then dogs barking and random noises coming from both outside and inside the house, a pack of cooking popcorn bursts and the scene is then ended.
30 days of night analysis
Genre that is established- Horror
How the genre is established
Non diegetic sound to start
Credit roll in with images that are appropriate to mis en scene
Close up on you mans face with a dark shadow from his hood casting over half of his face.
Long shot of a boat on a bed of ice surrounded by fog, this suggests horror as its hiding things.
Establishing shot with man standing in the right hand corner of the shot with his back to the camera.
This shot could signify he has something to do with the boat.
Music picks up pace and becomes louder
Extreme close up on mans face. Eyes are very wide and blood shot
Very intense music plays
Mid shot of man looking fierce – showing teeth.
Extreme long shot of man and local town, could be signifying his place in the town.
The opening two minutes show a man who me know nothing about looking very suspicious. Using the extreme close up we get the impression that the man is different and possibly hiding his real identity or emotions. The long shots that are used don’t really signify much as a establishing shot by help generate the genre as there is vast land of no habitation, this could show that if something did happen there would be no where to go or hide so this builds our knowledge and suspense. The last shot show the man looking at the city this suggest that he may have something to do with future events that may happen, with non diegetic music playing in the background this also makes us feel for tense and uncomfortable about the surroundings.
Sorority row analysis
Sorority Row
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgDSAg6lBe0
-establishing shot of house and low level lighting automatically makes it clear it’s a horror
-screaming from inside the house builds up tension
-no music until the camera tracks into the house which is making the house the centre of all attention.
-tracks the girls that are clearly the main characters so straight away we know who we are following
-follows another girl the music is eerie but upbeat
-a few moments which show it’s a horror of people jumping out with weapons although it is only actions of the party it still builds up tension to the audience.
-very quickly introduced to the main characters and their personalities.
-steady music starts to build tension as another girl begins to have a fit of some kind.
-we are then introduced to a male character that is clearly going to play an important part to the plot.
-music gets more upbeat with a low key which is horror orientated
-the scene ends as a prank and therefore means the audience what to know what this is going to unravel.
The way the scene is set out makes it as if it gives a lot away in the first 3 minutes when in fact this is just settings the story. The actions during the party also help set the horror genre as there are screams throughout the clip which makes the audience sub consciously know it’s a horror.
The Haunting In Connecticut analysis
Genre that is established – Horror
How the genre is established.
Non diegetic music, old fashioned music
Old sepia pictures fading in and out of each other
Camera cuts in and out of blood dripping
Surgical equipment dripping with blood
Faces and body’s laying on surgery beds
White flashed to create the effect of pictures being taken
Blood begins to gush out all over the floor
Non diegetic music fades into horror music, tone changes and becomes very eerie and tense over the sequence of the opening scene
Photos of people besides dead people
Dead people are all dressed in old fashioned clothes
Dead people photographed in coffins
Threw the course of the opening scene you get a feel that the events that happen in the film will be something to do with a past event, possibly the house has been cursed by the older generation of owners. you see lots of pictures of people together in the pictures but with a first glance you think the two people in the photograph are alive but once the camera cuts between the pictures and the very graphical horror scenes of blood and knives creating incisions into body you then get a different feel for he pictures and begin to notice that only one person in the pictures are alive. The Non diegetic music starts off as very old fashioned music which is very calm but as the opening scene reaches the end the music keep the same tune but changes its tone and pitch to very eerie music. The shot types that are used are very simple as it uses lots of close ups and pans so the pictures will enlarge on the screen and ten will fade to another and then will cut to a close up of blood dripping.
Basic Film Research
Is the genre established? what is it? - Horror, yes clearly
How is the genre establised, what convenctions are used? - Ery music, probs - pumpkins, children singing, low level lighting, music stops suddenly, knife, blonde girl dies first, masked boy.
What else does the aundience find out in the first 2 mins? - where the story will be based, 2 people envolved. Young boy, no motive as he is young.
Angleton Road
Is the genre established? what is it? - Horror Thriller, not as clear as it could be, looks very much like a horror at first.
How is the genre establised, what convenctions are used? - Music, disorinated, suspence, makes the aundience as questions
What else does the aundience find out in the first 2 mins? - Boys hurt, 2 crucial characters, based in america.
Mean girls
Is the genre established? what is it? - yes it is a chick flick
How is the genre establised, what convenctions are used? - Average girl that you can relate to, Narration gives a lot away.
What else does the aundience find out in the first 2 mins? - Find out life story of girl, only child, home schooled, not going to understand school life so a good chance for comedy, set in american highschool so chance for cliques.
As good as it gets
Is the genre established? what is it? - Yes, romatic comedy.
How is the genre establised, what convenctions are used? - music is more romatic not comic
What else does the aundience find out in the first 2 mins? - lead character is not very likes, he has a short fuse, could be the reason for this?
Matrix
Is the genre established? what is it? - yes, science fiction
How is the genre establised, what convenctions are used? - CGI
What else does the audience find out in the first 2 mins? - numbers are obviously important to the film
Basic research
-Forms and Convections
-Production contexts
-Role of technologies
-Audiences/Users
-Representation
Horror
-jumpy
-weapons, knives, axes, causes pain
-screams
-haunted houses
-costume, blood, makeup
-pretty blonde girl or enthnic minoirity die first
-virgin brunette girl with good morels survives
-Killer has unknown origins usually a white male
-suspence caused by music
-low level lighting
Preliminary
Before it was possible to start the research a preliminary short clip had to be created. It was made by me (charley millard) and the other person in the group; george mattock. We new we had to take into account all the shots we used to make it move as smooth as possible so we ensured there was a quick run through before hand.
The shoot had a very basic criteria, we had to envolve diologue between two people after one of them walking through a door and sitting down. The preliminary had to consist of one match on action shot which we used from when george was walking through the door to then changing shot to inside the room and seeing him continue walking. We also had to incorperate a shot reverse shot which we used during the diologue between George and our other actress Melanie.
As there is only the two of us and a lack of people to act in our film around at this precise time we ensured the film would run smoothly by doing many run throughs and predicting how it would look on tape. This wasn't as challanging as we first thought it would be and infact took us little time to film and edit.
The editing was fairly easy as our clips already ran very smooth, so it only needed a little bit of editing. There are a few mistakes that we have taken into account for when we do our major project. 1 example of this is the tripod we had was very stiff and as you can see at the beginning of the clip it jerks as we couldn't pan smoothly. Also after George says his first bit of diologue he looked up to the camera, this was impossible to edit it out as it would have editted out his speach.
Realising all these things from our preliminary will help us ensure they dont happen in our final project. We will have to ensure we have out actors and costumes ready on the day have no problems to shoot. Also we will have to ensure that the equipment we have is up to good standard so this cant effect it in any way. The final thing we will have to take into account is ensureing that we do enough takes to ensure we get the best possible results, this way if something goes wrong we will have other options.