Location Shots

Below are possible locations where we could film our opening.

These woods would be a good place to film our opening as it is set in a woods, these woods are quite dark so would be suitable low key lighting. The trees have no leaves on them which also creates the eerie winter atmosphere that a lot of horror films create. The sound of the leaves on the ground would also create a rustling that could be used by the murderers footseps to indicate to the audience that the girl is being chased.

This graveyard could also be a good place to film, however it may not fit in with the continuity of the opening if the girl is in the woods then moves to a graveyard. However it may be a good location for the film to be set in later on, as a main theme of horror films is death and the graveyard reflects this. Graveyards are also commonly thought to be haunted so would build tension for the audience if a vulnerable character was alone there.

This is the gate to the graveyard which looks extremely old and would most likely make a creaking sound, another sound which is used in horror films. Gates are also shown to open by themselves myseteriously in horror films and may be a good effect to use.

This picture shows the entrance to our school. The cobbles and old building would create an atmosphere, especially if the lighting was low-key. The audience of horror films would also appreciate the setting as they would be familiar with the school location and would possibly be able to relate to the character as it would be around the same age as them.

The school field may not be a suitable place to film the opening as it is too open and although would be a good place to film the chase part of the sequence as it would make the victim look vulnerable. However they would have nowhere to hide from the killer, also the killer has no place to hide from the victim in order to catch her. The lighting may also be too light as there are no trees to create shade apart from the far edge. The verismilitude of the horror film would not be created as the audience may not understand why the characters are in a field.

Mise en Scene

Here are the mise en scene we will be using to make the film opening look like it is in the horror/slasher genre and to help set the scene.

The murderer/stalker will be wearing a black cloak to cover their face to make it scarier and builds tension as the audience are unaware of the real identity of the murderer. This is used a lot in horror film openings to grip the audience as they will want to find out who the killer is and why they are doing it.

The woods is a place which we will film the opening sequence, as woods are associated with horror/slasher genre's. The trees will create a spooky atmosphere and the audience will immediatly recognise that it is a horror film as a lot have been set in eerie-looking woods.

The murderer will be using a knife in our opening sequence to make it look like a realistic murder. Weapons are a common convention of horror films, especially slasher where killings take place to indicate the more gorey genre.

Preliminary Excercise

Before we began planning and producing the film opening, we carried out a preliminary exercise that had to include three camera rules. These rules were match on action shot, reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.

We had a task that we had to follow, this included someone walking through a door and sitting down opposite another person. The two characters then had to have a short conversation. We also included other shots such as over the shoulder shots, close ups, medium shots and long shots.

Above is our preliminary exercise video. Danielle Short and Holly Whitaker were the two actors and Lucy Warriner filmed. We all put ideas towards the script, camera shots and the editing. We chose to film using natural light to make the scene look as real as possible, we chose not to film in low key lighting as although it would have created the mood of the scene it would have prevented us from being able to use some camera angles as they would not have been clear.

Editing

We used iMovie to edit our video and to put the sound effects on. We cut some scenes out that were the wrong camera angles or when a character said the wrong lines, we also cut some scenes that were too long to make it flow more. The sound effects we added were to add tension at the end of the video.
We also changed the lighting to make the video darker as we found it was too bright, to do this we made the contrast higher and the lighting lower.

Horror Film Research

We researched other films that are in the sub genre of horror slasher films.

• Friday The 13th (1980) - This was one of the first slasher films. A group of camp councellers are trying to re-build a summer camp which was the site of a child drowning, an unkown murderer violently kills them one by one.

Starts with the production company, then a black screen and the noises of outside

The first camera shot tilts downwards slowly from the sky. Low pan whilst singing is heard. The happy singing gives the contrast to what is about to happen. There is very little script and the mostly screams. The camera shot seems to be a point of view shot from where the killer is looking, this immediately tells the audience that the victims are being watched. The characters are young adults – the audience can relate to. As the killer is walking towards the victim it is a point of view dolly shot and the diegetic sound of their foot seps. The non-diegetic sound used is music to build up tension that gets louder and faster when the violence strikes. After the first killing, that is when the films title and credits are shown, with background scary music.

• Halloween II (1981) - This was also one of the first slasher films, and the sequel to Halloween I, which set the conventions for many of the others that followed. The plot of Halloween II is  nearly the same as the first film, as the search for the psychotic killer Micheal Myers carries on.

This opening begins with a common convention of horror films – a dark night with a bright moon – one convention that is broken however is the happy up-beat music that is very rarely used at the beginning of horror films. Halloween 2 may have used it because the audience watching are likely to have seen Halloween 1 therefore know the genre and can predict much of the content of the film, therefore it doesn’t need to start with scary music to establish the genre. The first camera shot also starts from the sky and tilts downwards. The eerie looking house is another convention commonly used. The first violence by the killer is almost immediate to establish the slasher genre, however unusually the killer is killed straight away within the first two minutes. Although this is the case, the audience are likely to know there will be a twist to come. The lighting is low key and there is not a lot of speech/diegetic sound.

• I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998) - This is a more modern slasher horror film and is also a sequel to I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997). The plot includes a fisherman who stalks the two teenagers who survived the last film. There is a lot of murder and violence and as in most slasher films contains a murderer/stalker.

Starts with a black screen then the production company and the title, first shot starts high then tilts downwards. Long shot follows then tilts upwards again, followed by a close up medium shot. The eerie music starts when the title is shown and continues until the bang of the door. The diegetic sounds includes the character speaking, then the non-diegetic music starts to build up again. The lighting is very low key; most of the backgrounds are pitch black, whilst the characters faces are lit up. This horror film builds up more slowly than the older ones, and begins with an immediate twist (the girl character has killed somebody), rather than an actual killing or violence in the first few minutes.

From all the baove research we have found that horror film openings all have the non-diegetic sound of the music to create tension, they also mostly begin with a high angle shot which then tilts downwards slowly. They also always have the production company and logo to begin with (usually infront of a black background) followed by other credits and the film title. There is very little speach dependent on how much atmosphere the opening creates and within the first couple of minutes there is a murder. The killer's point of view is always shown to make the audience aware that the victims are being watched.  The lighting is always low-key and the mise-en-scene is used to create realism, such as the realistic locations such as the church in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer and the summer camp in Halloween 2.The costumes of the victims also appear "normal" and the killers are usually dressed in dark colours and disguised.

Horror Film Research Continued

From watching the horror/slasher film openings and analysing them, and also doing further research we have found that the following conventions are common of this genre.

• Slasher films usually contain vulnerable people being chased by a killer with a weapon such as a knife or a chainsaw. There is usually a lot of graphic violence throughout the films, although they can begin slowly to build up the tension to frighten the audience more when the violence does eventually strike.
• Every slasher film has a killer, usuaolly one that stalks the victim and creeps up behind them to carry out the deed, this is shows in Halloween 2. The killer's identity is also usually hidden and they are commonly dressed in black or have a mask that covers their face. This in effect gives the impression to the audience that the killer will never be stopped and is going to kill everybody because their identity will never be revealed or they will never be caught. Camera shots are usually from the point of view of the killer
• In contrast the slasher films usually all have a victim who gets chased. The victim is usually a young girl or a group of young people as they seem the most vulnerable therefore the audience can relate to them the most and will feel the same fear they do when the killer is after them.
• There also may be a hero/heroine within the horror/slasher film, however they do not usually make an appearance until later in the film, they may also be the first person who appears to be a victim. This creates a twist and makes the audience think throughout the film, to help keep them hooked.
• Not only do all slasher/horror films have killers, the killers are sometimes characters that are well recognised, or figures that are associated with death. For example Freddy Krueger is a character that has been used in a number of slasher/horror films such as the series of A Nightmare on Elm Street and Freddy vs. Jason.
• The titles and credits of horror/slasher films are always related to the films by using red or fonts that appear to be dripping like blood. These fonts give images of death which is associated with these types of films.

Our Logo

We created our logo on PhotoShop, after downloading fonts that were suitable for horror films from http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=110. After choosing the fonts we decided to incorporate an image of an axe into the writing, this is effective as a weapon such as an axe is something the audience will expect to see in a horror film. It also reflects our chosen name of our film production "Axe Productions," which also immedietly tells the audience it will be a horror film. The axe image is from http://shepherds-bush.blogspot.com/2010_12_01_archive.html.

Fonts

We researched fonts to explore what colours and effects we could use for the opening titles and film name at the start of the film. We found some that were suitable and some that would not suit the horror genre.

This font is suitable for the horror genre as it uses the colour of red which has connotations of death and violence, which would feature in a horror/slasher film. The dripping effect is also suitable as it reflects the death as well, and the font almost appears as it has been written in blood.

This font is suitable for the horror genre because the writing looks like bones which has connotations of death, which would feature in a horror/slasher film. 

This font is also suitable for the horror genre because it includes the dripping of blood effect which reflects death and gore, which horror films consist of.

This font is suitable for the horror genre because again it includes the dripping of blood effect, and it reflects death/violence suitable for our genre of our opening sequence.

     This font is not suitable for the horror genre because it is more associated with the feminine side and it is quite modern. Whereas horror's normally include the blood dripping effect as shown above. However, this font does use the colour red which has connotations of death and violence.

This font is not suitable for a horror genre because the font does not have any connotations of death or violence as the colour is orange and the font is just bold with no specific effect to it. This font could be used for the genre of adventure.

Logo Research

For the making of our company logo, we started to research popular film production logo's which are well known to any audience.

Dreamworks Pictures, founded by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katezenburg and David Geffan in 1994 have produced an extremely wide range of films. Most of the films they have produced are action films, such as 'Deep Impact' and 'Gladiator', however they have also produced animations such as 'Shrek' and 'Antz' therefore have a very wide range of audiences. The logo features a ghostly figure of a boy fishing on the moon, it appears very calming and not at all scary. It is also very imaginitive and unusual, therefore the audience immediatly know they are going to be watching an interesting and exciting film. The colour blue gives the impression of calmness and happiness, and that the film would be suitable for families.The logo is usually accompanied by calming music so the viewers know they are not watching a film that will frighten them and they can relax watching (apart from a few of the action films where the logo is not accompanied by music, they still use the same logo though as it has become so well known.) The logo is quite effective as a children's film production logo, as the boy looks young and it is suitable for aa fantasy or animation film, it is also effective for a family viewing film as it gives the impression it will be family friendly. However it is not as suitable for the action films as it looks calm and tranquil as appose to the violence and action that will appear in those films such as 'Gladiator'.



This is the logo for Twisted Pictures, which was founded in 2002 and produces horror films. It is most famous for producing the 'Saw' films which are known for being extremely gory, violent and terrifying. The logo is suitable, the image of the barbed wire connotes pain and being trapped. The font is silver which looks like metal, which could symbolise weapons such as knives and axes. This logo is effective as the audience will know exactly what type of film they will  be watching and what it could include even before the film has started. It also helps create the target audience as young children would not go and see a film that is advertised with this logo. The word 'twisted' is also effective for the 'Saw' films as they usually have a quite a distrubing plot that can play with the audiences minds and can have lots of twists and turns throughout the film.

 20th Century Fox is one of the most famous film and television production companies, it is also one of the oldest and was founded in 1935. It is best known for producing huge franchises which bring in huge revenues, such as 'Avatar' and 'Star Wars'. The logo features huge bold font that looks like a gold statue or building, the colour gold symbolises winning or something expensive, therefore audiences will know the film is going to have had a lot of money put into it, so may feature a lot of special effects and CGI. The logo is effective as it has a classic look, which suits the company as it one of the oldest and most established film production companies.

Film Opening Plot

Here is the plot of our film opening, it may change as we film it as we might find some things work better than others.

Girl is having a nightmare of herself in the woods running through the trees (the audience are unaware that it is a nightmare at this point), she hides behind a huge rock then hears screams in the distance. The dark figure chasing her steps onto the rock that she is hiding behind holding a knife. She slowly looks up and sees him then screams. She suddenly wakes up and is still screaming, she realises it was a dream and calms down. When she turns over to go back to sleep, that is when she sees a shadow of a tall black figure in the corner of her room holding a knfe.

Target Audience Research

We conducted a survey which will help us find out what the target audience want from this genre of film and what the like about them, so we can include as much of the information we gather as possible. We asked 30 people aged between 15 and 30.

Questionnaire

How old are you?

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What is your favourite horror/slasher film?

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Do you enjoy gorey/violence scenes?

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Do you prefer the older style slasher films or the more modern?

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What features of slasher films do you enjoy most?


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Do you think horror music is a good way to make the audience feel suspense and fear?


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Do you enjoy horror films that tend to have surviviors?




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Do you go to the cinema to watch horror films?




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How regularly?




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How often do you buy horror films on DVD?






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We gathered information from these questionnaires that indicated to us that the majority of people aged between 15 and 30 enjoy horror and slasher films and prefer the more modern type.  Most people's favourite horror films were set in familiar locations such as the woods or in a school or old hospital.

Other information we gathered was that the majority of the questionnaire population go to the cinema to watch horror/slasher films at least once every two months, this means our film would be accessible to our chosen audience if we were to distribute it through cinema. However we found that they are more likely to watch horror films at the cinema rather than buy them on DVD therefore we would most likely reach our target audience distributing our film through cinema rather than straight to DVD.

The features of horror films that they prefer most are the ways in which they build suspense and tension such as slow camera movements and sudden noises that make the audience jump. All of our questionnaire population thought music was a good way of building suspense in horror films therefore we will definitely use it. We also found that the older side of the questionnaire population - 22 to 30 prefer less gorey scenes to the younger audience, however it was the older audience that were more likely to view horror films at the cinema and purchase on DVD therefore we need to appeal to the majorities preference which is less gorey scenes.

Main Task

Now we have done the preliminary exercise, we need to do the main task which is to create the titles and opening of a new fiction film which has to last a maximum of 2 minutes. We need to do the planning and research of similar films to the ours, which will help us create the film opening more effectively. It will also give us an idea of the conventions that these types of films need to have.We also need to know the type of audience that generally watch the genre of film that we choose, so we can create a film that would be suitable for that audience and create a film opening that fits the conventions of what they would expect to see in our chosen genre of film.

Storyboard

Below is a storyboard of our plot for the film opening., it includes the shots we are intending to use, the timings and the actions of the characters.

Camera Shots -

Match on Action Shot - When the camera focuses on  action then cuts to somewhere else, then when the camera cuts back to the action the same piece of action is going on.

Reverse Shot - Where one character is shown looking at another character and then the other character is shown looking back. The viewer assumes they are looking at each other.

180 Degree Rule - Two characters should always have the same left/right relationship to each other.