Research and Planning Targets

Spend a little bit of time revisiting some posts and adding some theoretical points using specialist terminology. Is there any more detail you can mention to explore genre, representation, mise-en-scene, camera composition and editing? You need to share your schedules and plans for filming and then make them happen. Your storyboard needs to be uploaded and it needs to be informative and detailed. Evidencing of time management is important if you want to achieve more than 16 marks out of 20 - what are you doing and when?

Interviews with the actors

Planning Targets

Well done Ryan - a good and well organised production so far. By inlcuding some more analysis of media texts within your chosen genre (horror) you will show you are an expert! Evidence your journey more by including video diares and video blogs to share your ideas with your readers and followers even more! Evidence your time keeping by showing your key dates for production. Well done.

Preview of the script

Beginning:

All 5 characters walk down a path in to the woods

Cory: Yeah lets pitch the tent here
Connor: Yeah looks a great spot
Ryan: Right Connor and Rachel go and get firewood
Rachel: Ok

Rachel and Connor walk off to get fire wood.
Ryan, Georgia and Cory stay to put up tent.
We here sounds of pain but we dont know who is getting beaten up.
Phones ring, Cory, Georgia and Ryan all look around.

Peg 1 : We see a shadow on the back of the tent while some characters sit inside it.
Peg 2:  We see Rachel taken to the ground by Alex
Peg 3:  We see Cory get dragged along the floor
Peg 4:  We see either Georgia or Ryan running through the woods to try and escape Alex.

Scream!!!!!!!!

Animatic Storyboard

Research and Planning Feedback

Well done so far Ryan. You need to revisit some posts analysing film trailers and apply some more technical terminoogy to analyse a wider range of aspects - use your guide book to help you! Also, include video blogs to improve your research and planning campaign. Well done.

Font Research

Font Research

As you can see, the font used for this horror film is simple and there is nothing which hugely suggests that it is the usual font used for horror films. The title is in block capitals and plain white. The white font is effective because of the black background. This makes it stand out more. On some of the letters in the titles, they have grey colours in them. As the huge chainsaw is directly above the title, and the chainsaw is the same grey that is in the letters, it could possibly provide a link meaning that when the see the chainsaw and the title the audience would automatically realise that the film is based on that chainsaw.

The font used in this film titles closely resembles hand writing. This is effective because it could show that a character from the film has written it which could emphasise the scariness of the film. Also there is no capital letters in the title so, again, it could suggest that it has been written by a character. The writing is black against a fiery red and yellow background. This is effective as it makes the title stand out. Also the colours used are red and yellow, both of which are colours that are related to horror films.

The font in this horror film title is quite plain, so there would be nothing to suggest that it is a definite horror film title if it wasn't for the images behind it. The writing is plain white against a black background which therefore makes the title stand out.

There is a trend with the three fonts I have analysed. Firstly, all of the fonts seem to be relatively plain- there is nothing that suggests they are specifically horror film titles. Secondly, the titles are either white or black against either a bright background or a plain black background to make them stand out. This helps me into my font research because now I know that horror film titles are mainly relatively plain and they are usually black or white against the opposite colour background.

Location Research

Location Research

We have chosen Ashtead Common to be the location for our horror film trailer. We decided to use this as the location because not many people tend to walk through these woods. This means that the trailer will have a scary atmosphere because the audience will know that the characters in the film are completely alone. Also, it goes with the typical convention of a horror film being located in woods. The effectiveness of conforming to the usual conventions of a horror film is that the audience will be able to easily establish that something sinister is going to happen. This would make them more interested in the trailer because they will be waiting for something to happen.

Also, the lighting in woods is usually fairly dim. This will also add to the scary atmosphere of the trailer because another convention of horror films are dark lighting. This means that the audience can understand that something deadly is most likely to happen. It also makes them more concerned for the characters because they can almost definitely conclude that these characters are in danger.

Actors and props photos and interviews

Audience research and Profiling

Audience Research And Profiling

Generally, horror films target audiences aged between 16-24 and are more than likely predominantly favoured by men as they can be more immersed by each character than women do as they will react in a different way, which is by being scared, which could link with the female characters that are generally in peril like in most horror films.  The audience is usually males aged between 16-24 because men can interact with the characters whereas the women do not usually enjoy gore as it makes them feel "squeamish". This conforms to the stereotype that men are stronger than women. 

Our film's genre is horror and it is based in a woodland area-meaning that our film will follow other films with the same characteristics, such as are "Cabin in the Woods","Nightmare on Elm Street" and "The Hills Have Eyes 2", as they are all horrors set in one particular location instead of various locations like "Saw". This allows the audience to get a more in depth concept of what the characters are really feeling. 

Most people interested in watching these films would be couples and people that can enjoy and understand the sinister characteristics-which is why the target audience are aged between 16-24.

Costume research

Costume Research

Slasher movies consist of specific costume choices as the antagonist usually wears a mask to hide his identity-which creates the message of fear the unknown. The antagonist also usually wears dark clothing, mainly black, to enhance the fear of the character and make them look more sinister. These are the typical conventions of costumes in horror movies and are usually followed. Films that have used these conventions are “Friday the 13th”, “Halloween” and “Scream”. All of these movies were very successful and we hope to adopt their style, of following the codes and conventions, for our film.

The protagonist is usually female in horror movies; the audience are more likely to accept a female as the victim as it conforms to the stereotype that men are strong and brave whereas women are weak and vulnerable. The protagonist usually wears casual clothing and appears to be sophisticated as she solves the puzzles and avoids the unknown killer. 

The female protagonist wears unrevealing clothing whereas the other female characters wear more provocative clothing to suggest to the audience that they are easy to get and an easy target for the antagonist. The provocative clothing usually consists of miniskirts and low cut tops.

The other characters are usually a few guys, around 2 or 3, who all have different personalities. The main guy, who is usually to die first, is the “jock”-this is the character the audience do not appeal to as he objectifies women and conforms to the typical stereotype of a “jock”. The other guys are more appealing to the audience with one of them being the “love interest” for the main female protagonist and the other being the character who the audience like but who unfortunately dies. The “jock” usually wears a sports jacket or football jersey to show that they are active, whereas the other characters wear casual clothing, such as jeans and t-shits, to relate with the audience.

Institution Research

Institution Research:
The main institutions are:

Warner Bros: Warner bros entertainment inc. (commonly referred to as Warner Bros.) is an American producer of film, television, and music entertainment. One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank, California and New York. Warner Bros. Warner owns half of the Cw television network. It is the world's largest film and television studio.




Paramount pictures corperation (commonly known as paramount pictures or simply paramount, and formerly known as famous players- lasky corporation) is a film studio, television production company and motion picture distributor, consistently ranked as one of the big six film studio of Hollywood.



Twentieth century fox corporation is one of the six major American studios. Located in the century city area of Los Angeles, just west of Beverley hills, the studio used to be a subsidiary of news corporation, but now it is currently a subsidiary of 21st century fox. It's the world's second largest major film studio, after Warner bros. The company as we know today, was formed on May 31, 1935,^[1] as the result of the merger between Fox Film Corporation, founded by William fox in 1915, and twentieth century pictures, founded in 1933 by Darrel f Zanuck and Joseph m schenck.

Certificate research

Certificate Research

There are 6 main certificates for films according to the British certificates since 2009, they allow and forbid certain people to watch films due to age restrictions.
The certificates are the following:

This certificate's Name is Universal. This means that the film is suitable for all ages and that the younger generation does not need to be accompanied by an adult. However before 2009 there used to be a certificate which was Uc. This was suitable for all, but especially suitable for young children to watch on their own. But because the certificate U pretty much covered this they scrapped this from 2009 onward.

The name of this certificate is Parental Guidance. This is for general viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for young children. So this leaves the parents to decide whether they accompany their child or not.







The name of this certificate is 12 Accompanied/ Advisory. This means that it is suitable for those aged 12 and older (cinema only) so this is only used in the cinema not on films or TV programmes that you watch/buy;under 12s admitted, but only if accompanied by an adult








The name of this certificate is just 12. This is suitable for those aged 12 and older (non cinema only) So this is not used in the cinema only when buying films etc.








The name of this certificate is just 15. This is suitable for those aged 15 and older and the person does not need to be accompanied by an adult. Sometimes if this were to be used in a cinema or when buying/renting a film then they may get asked for id.

The name of this certificate is just 18.It is listed on films and TV programs. and is suitable for those who are 18 an older. This probably because the scenes that are within the film may be unsuitable/violent for those who are at a younger age.

Soundtrack research

Soundtrack Research

This is a You Tube clip of various horror sound effects. These sound effects will come in extremely helpful in our film because we needs lots of sound effects to add emphasis to the particularly scary scenes. After carefully looking at what we need to do in order to make sure we can legally use this clip we had to follow a number of steps. We had to subscribe, like and favourite the clip. We also have to link to the users channel in the description of our film. This means that there is no charge for using the clips which is a good thing because we don't want to have to pay for any sort of background music in our film.
In particular, the good things about this You Tube clip are that it includes lots of various sound effects. They are of different volume and different speed. This is a good thing because it means we can fit the music to the speed of our film, also known as match on action. This will then make our film more scary for the audience because it means when the scary scenes are shown, the music will emphasise the scariness of it which will therefore have a greater effect on the audience.

Genre Research

Action:

The Codes and Conventions for Action are to have a discrete location like Indiana Jones. This is because it exites the audience as they could be on a long adventure coming across many tasks to do with killing. We can tell this as there are close up shots Of Indianas whip. There is normally a mysterious background noise in action films to keep the tension within the scrnr. As the scene moves on the music willnormally intensify to show that something dangerous might happen and so it keeps the audience glued to the screen.
In action films we normally see low angle shots on the villian at the start of the film to show that he is trying to be the leader of everyone and that he is in control. As the we move through the film, the camera angles will change and there will be low angle on the hero as he mormally saves the day and the villain loses.
The type of clothes that a villain would wear is smart as he wants to show that he is professiomnal in his job and that no one can knock him down. On the other hand the hero will have poorer conditioned clothes as he is trying so hard to get his goal that he cant keep on changing his clothes. We see this in Indiana Jones as he is always wearing an old ripped t-shirt until in the last few scenes where he had succeed, then he will change in to smarter clothes to show that he is now taken ober that control.

Horror:

The codes and conventitions of horror are that they contain scary scenes, murders and creepy background music.
By having these things involved within the film it makes the audience scared and the idea is to make them have their worst nightmare.
Throughtout the film there will be slow paced music to keep the tension within the audience as to what can happen next. As the characters become more scared the tempo of the background music will increase to giver the audience the idea that something bad is about to happen.
Also there are not fast paced shots which also increases tension.
Many close up shots are taken through out the film as it gives the audience a real idea of the characters facial expressions and what exactly they feel at that moment in time.
Sometimes longer shots can be used to show a location e.g. like a old church in the night time to keep the tension within the scenes.
Whenever the audience can see something that the characters cant like someone creeping up behind the main character, it build up the tension quickly and so the tempo and volume of the sound increases as well which brings dramatic irony.
The target audience for horror films are 16+ as it can be to frightening for a younger audience. The max age range is roughly up to 40 year old as it can be to frightening for the elderly aswell.
It is aimed at both boys and girl as normally they are both the main characters.

Practise titles created and uploaded

Practised Film Titles

In this post I will examine different types of film titles and analyse each one to see if they suit our film.

This font is the "Face your fears font" and it is quite simple but is my favourite at the moment as it does have a sinister look to it and it looks like the killer has written this with the victims blood. I used a red font to connote danger and give the audience an indication to what the film will include.

This font is the "You Murderer" font and is similar to the first font and offers the same sinister look. The font looks as if it is the victims blood smeared onto a wall and the choice of red again connotes danger. This is a great font that offers a "slasher" theme to our film but I think that the first font looks more realistic.

This font is called the "Lumos" font and it is different to the others as it's not red and it's very plain. This font is plain and simple which follows the codes and conventions of a horror films as it is similar to other horror film titles, such as "Texas Chainsaw". The font stands out and is very sharp which gives the audience the indication that the film will be sharp and straight to the point. 

This font is from the horror movie "Scream". It has all the letter aligned apart from the sharp "W" as it stretches down lower than the other letters. This font may make the audience associate our film with "Scream" which is good because "Scream" was a successful horror movie, however we would like our film to have it's own style of font instead of just copying one that has already been used. 

This font is from the horror movie "Friday the 13th" which was another very successful horror movie. The font is not too bad but is a bit simple and plain for our movie. 

Overall I believe the top two,"Face your fears" and the"You Murderer", fonts are the best fonts for our horror movie as they offer a sinister theme and look like the victims blood smeared across a wall, which is perfect for our horror film. They also do not look very sketchy and could be seen in a big blockbuster movie. 

Final version of Script

Final script


We see the victim (Rachel) making a cup of tea in her kitchen.
She then hears her home phone ring and so walks towards it and answers.
She speaks in to the phone saying "Hello" "Hello" but there is no answer on the other end of the line
As she walks away after hanging up the phone rings again. This time she pauses after answering and then says "Hello" again but there is no answer.
This time she hang  ups quickly and moves away.
There is suddenly a knock at the door, and Rachel opens it slowly and peaks outside.
We then see the killer walk up behind her while she is looking outside.
There is then a scream!!
the audience then see Rachels hand slip down the door window.

Mood Board

Dairy of filming/editing

Questionnaire results

Questionnaire Results

Question 1

This result shows us that our main audience prefers the horror genre compared to the other genres. This will be the genre we use as it is what the audience want.

Question 2

This result shows that our audience watch horror movies but not that regularly but it is still the most preferred genre so we will most likely create a horror movie.


Question 3

This result shows that our audience mainly associate a horror movie with a setting as our own home-this is a little formulaic and does not suit the idea of our film so we may use the woods as our location as it links more to our idea.

Question 4

 This result shows that our audience prefer a mix of gender so we will include 3 guys and 2 girls.


 Question 5

 This result shows that our audience expect many features from the codes and conventions of a horror movie.


Question 6

This shows that our audience will like to see an ending with the girl surviving which is the same as many horror movies.

Representation and Stereotyping

The usual stereotypes of a villain are male, sinister, mysterious, unknown identity, dangerous and powerful. In our film the villain will be mysterious and he will have an unknown identity. This means that the audience will feel eerie and it will put them on edge because they will not know who the killer is which creates even more suspense.  We will also represent the villain as sinister as the victims will not expect anything to happen to them. This, again, is conforming to the stereotype of villains being dangerous and mysterious. 
The female victim is conforming to the stereotype as women being weak and vulnerable. This is because she has no idea what is about to happen, it could represent her as quite ditsy and unaware. This then conforms to the stereotype of women being much more vulnerable and perhaps a bit clueless. We have not subverted the stereotype of women in any way as we have only conformed to the stereotype. We have not subverted the stereotype because in our trailer we needed to get straight to the point and allow the audience to understand and make a judgement as to who the victims are in the film. The point in this is it keeps the audience on the edge of their seats as they may try and guess what will happen. We have left an element of surprise because we are not showing whether all of the victims get murdered, we only show a few scenes in which two of the characters have come into contact with the murderer. This is so the audience will have something to continue watching it for- they will want to know who dies and who the murderer is.  However, we have two victims, one being a girl and the other being a boy. The boy victim is conforming to the stereotype of a victim but is also subverting the stereotype of a boy being strong and powerful. The boy is conforming to the stereotype of a victim because he was unaware of the events that were about to take place which shows he is very vulnerable and also perhaps a bit ditsy because he hasn't even realised that he is being watched by the murderer. However he is subverting the stereotype of boys being strong and powerful because he is the victim in all this and even though he had no idea that he was going to be murdered he could of perhaps tried to fight off the murderer.

Shot Lists

Documenting of influences on production

Documenting of influences

                                                            Documenting Of Influences


In our clip we used a vast amount of extreme (high and low) and dynamic camera angles because of the incitement it can bring to our target audience. There were many reasons which influenced us to make the decision to choose horror as the genre for our film. In our trailer we used a multitude of camera angles but primarily used angles such as wide angle and mid shots on a good quality go pro camera. Firstly you see the group walking towards the camera which is panning backwards which is one of the most acquired/generic shots in horror films. after distributing a questionnaire around , the results showed that the majority of the people wanted us to do a horror film, This influenced us to stick by our idea of the genre being horror. After looking in more detail at the codes and conventions of horror films we analysed what shots and atmosphere to create in our film trailer i.e. extensive use of long and mid shots to emphasise the sinisterism of our film, some film example used was cabin in the woods and Friday the 13th.We were influenced to use ideas from the horror films because using the correct sounds and music, you can Create a very effective film trailer as horror films have a very distinctive atmosphere which can be easily emphasised by sinister music and sounds.

Relevant online tutorial and Comment

Relevant Online Tutorials

These tutorials have taught me how to use the gadget "Chroma key" on adobe premiere elements 10. This will allow me to change the background of my trailer which would come in handy for the titles. At the moment my titles are on a white background but with the use of this new gadget I can make the title on a plain black background to help it stand out. 

Own Film Treatment

Own film treatment

Directed by Cory Nelson, Connor Moreton, Ryan Eastman and Rachel Herring

Synopsis

A group of friends take a trip and decide to go camping in the woods but then strange events occur and the characters find themselves being picked off one by one by an unknown killer. The group then have to stay calm and survive the terror they face while also trying to understand the events that are taking place.  We have many digetic noises to alert the characters and create the suspense for the audience. All the directors (Cory Nelson, Connor Moreton, Ryan Eastman and Rachel Herring) are also starring in this incredible horror film which is certain to get the audience gripping their seats with its terrifying scenes and tension filled suspense.

Codes and Conventions

The codes and conventions of our film include jump-scares, tension filled scenes and fast paced. The trailer involves many frightening scenes which will create many enigmas and keep the audience gripping onto their seats. It also involves the typical conventions of a horror film with the main characters in peril are going to be the weak, vulnerable girls, conforming to the stereotype that women are seen as weak and powerless. Another convention of our film is that we are going to have the characters running from the unknown in order to survive, but the trailer will end with every character being shown to be in danger-this will keep the audience hooked as they will not know who lives or dies until they see the full film. Lastly our trailer will end with a girl running, with no digetic or non digetic sound, through the woods, terrified and alone and then a scream will be heard and the titles will appear.