Planning - Considering Mise-en-Scene For Your Opening - Costume and Props

Alisha will be wearing a super dry jumper with high waisted jeans, she will be wearing quite a lot of makeup to make sure that the audience see her as a vulnerable character as women are seen as the weaker sex. She will have fake blood on her when she gets captured by the predator. Alisha's clothes will contain blood also.

 

Brian will be wearing an adidas jacket and jeans to make him look like a stronger individual within the opening scene as the males within the film are seen as the stronger characters. He will have fake blood on him in the opening scene when he begins to experience danger. Brian will be carrying alcohol throughout the opening scene and will appear to be carrying the bag with alcohol on the way to their camp.

William will be wearing similar clothes to Alicia in the fact that he is also wearing a super dry jumper and grey jeans within the opening scene, he will have fake blood on him as he enters danger and his props will include alcohol throughout the opening scene.

The characters will also be drinking from a bottle of Smirnoff vodka to emphasise that they are out in this secluded location to drink alcohol without the consent of their parents.

Planning - Writing A Treatment For Your Chosen Opening

The film will start with an establishing shot of the quarry/woods.

The establishing shot will then fade into a long shot of a group of people walking into the woods with various bags containing drinks. 

Close ups of branches and leaves will include various titles of people behind the making of the film and will establish our groups name. The shot will still be following the group as they walk down the path.

The camera then goes to a mid-shot of the group in an ideal place to have their campout. They start to drink their beverages and all seems well.

As the gathering goes on people are feeling more and more drunk and need to go to the toilet. One member walks away from the set location and quickly realises they are lost.

As the member of the group starts to panic things can be heard through the bushes and trees. Eventually, after more and more bushes are rustled something attacks the person and kills them. Leaving a close up of the dead persons hand on the floor.

People within the group get worried about there friend who was taking a while and go to find them. Over the shoulder shots are used numerously to show people searching for the friend.

One by one everyone is taken victim to the unknown threat within the bushes until there is only one person remaining. The camera pans around the person showing their vulnerability. They run back to the campsite and realise they are still on their own.

Shortly after they have realised everyone is gone after shouting there names numerously, the last person if finally killed.

Blood is splattered on the cans on the floor near the fallen victim. 

Extreme close-ups of beer cans on the floor scattered around the floor with an unfocused shot of the figure of something in the background in black.

Planning: Casting For Your Opening

Casting is a very important part of the planning stages as it can have a major impact on our film if we get the casting wrong. It is important with any film anyone does. You have to get the actors that you believe will fulfil the promise of the characters that they are being required to do. In the casting process we can see if the actor/actress is actually capable of taking the role. We could do this by producing a short bit of footage of the person doing a bit of acting. This will be able to show some strengths and weaknesses that they may have. Also it will highlight whether they are a confident actor or not, which is very important. If someone we had casted isn't a good enough actor then the casting process can help us to realise this quickly. We can then move on quickly to find a more suitable

Character: Alisha Harold

Age:17

About Alisha: Alisha is an exciting girl who enjoys getting involved with activities including her friends. She is a bubbly person but can get very worried quickly if things go wrong.

We have selected Alice Piggott to participate in this role as she is an experienced actress as she took part in GCSE and got a good grade. She is also confident, which is what we are looking for in this specific character. She is also age appropriate for the role as she will be turning 17 soon. She is also showing enthusiasm towards the role which also makes her a good actress for the role.

Character: Brian Prince

Age: 17

About Brian: Brian is a close friend to Alisha and is also very confident. He likes to make sure that he is always heard and is the centre of attention most of time.

Jamie is the right person for the character as he is a similar age to the character, he is also very similar to the actual character. He is a funny and out going person who always likes to make people laugh. Jamie isn't a shy person so he will be fine in front of the camera.

Character: William Jones

Age: 17

About William: William is very similar to Rhys as he is a shy character. He will hang back from all the action until it is safe to join in. He enjoys spending time with his friends and likes to go camping anyway so is well prepared for this trip anyway. Like the rest of the group, he has never experienced alcohol so is worried about the trip.

Josh is the correct person for this character as he is the same age as the character and knows a thing or two about camping as well. This means we can use some of his skills to make the film more realistic when it comes to miss-en-scene. He is also confident in-front of the camera.

Planning- Location Planning For Your Opening

The Quarry
This post is about the location planning for our horror film opening. this is important in the planning stages of the film because when it comes to recording we won't have a car understanding of where to go and record our set piece.

The location we are using is a place called the quarry. It is located next to the A6183 in Kettering. It is  a large abandoned area that is mostly used for dog walkers and people that like to ride there motorbikes illegally. We have chosen this specific location as it is quite large and has a lot of interesting and mysterious places that we can use to convey common codes and conventions within horror films. We will be able to achieve various different camera angles from high and low angles which will add more and more effect to the opening. This location has numerous areas where we will be able to use more advanced camera angles,shots and movements. When it is getting dark this location will be at its best as it will appear more creepy and spooky. This will suit the horror movie opening a lot more. The location has different areas like a old/broken down house, a very steep and rocky hill, and wide/open fields. All of these different areas can be used well for a chase scene for example or as a place where people are killed or captured.

These are some of the images of the location that we used for the filming at the entrance of the quarry. this is where our opening of the film will take place. We plotted the location here because it was easy to get to so that recording is easy to do as it is not a far walk, this is good because if any adjustments are needed then we can quickly edit this and not have to walk a far distance to do this. this is also a pro for everyone in the group and acting in the group because everyone lives in the radius of the location, so arranging where to meet it does not cause a hassle. this location already came with a log which is what we needed in the scene. When using the woods as the location doing high angle and birds eye views we were able to be recorded with a high standard as we could just climb the trees. The drawbacks with this location are that when we where recording there is a footpath running through the woods and right next to our location, with is used by dog walkers and other pedestrians, this then means that we may be interrupt our recording and set us back and loose out on venerable time.

Planning : Target Audience Feedback

Within this post we will be looking at and evaluating the feedback we have gathered from the survey that we produced. This will help us to see what most people expect in horror film openings. It is important for us to gather lots of different information about how our opening should be. This can help us to develop more ideas and can help us to make sure we capture the theme of it being a horror.

The picture above shows that everyone who had completed our survey thought that someone should die within the opening of a horror film. This could suggest to us that it would seem like a horror movie opening if someone was to die.

The age group that we have received our feedback off of is 15-18. This means that all of the information we have gathered will be from the same age group and will probably be very similar.

From the feedback we have been able to see that people within the same age group expect the characters in the film to be of a similar age or a couple years older. This will make the film more relatable to the audience.

From what we have received it seems that people find dark woods the most frightening setting for a horror film. In our horror film opening we had already decided to film in the woods anyway. This will make our film more scary and frightening.

Our survey has proved that people prefer it if the film is based on a real life. This means that people need it to be more believable. This means not having anything that is unbelievable and unrealistic.

 We have found out that people expect to find out a little bit about the storyline within the film ,but not a lot at all. This means that we will need to make sure we do not reveal a lot of detailed information as to why things are happening or why they happen at a certain location, and other things like that.

Our survey has shown that people expect to see the villain/killer in the opening. Personally I do not agree with this. I only think that people should know the villain is there but not actually see them until later on within the film when more of the storyline has built up.

Jump scares and Gruesome/bloody scenes within horror film openings are the most popular. This is probably because they excite and make the audience stand on edge a lot more. Also, it may be because they are the most realistic things that could actually happen in real life.

Judging form the results of our survey, we have discovered that the majority of our target audience like films in which people around the age of 16-21 are featured and are out and about in the woods during the night.The surveys have shown that people prefer horror films which are based on real life events that give you a slight insight into the story of the whole film but not too much at all. Our survey shows that a lot of people prefer to see the villain in the opening but we think it is better and adds more suspense if the villain is not shown. We have found out that the most popular type of horror movies include a lot of jump scares and gruesome, bloody murders. Looking at some of the response feedbacks we have received it seems like people like it when characters go missing and are killed.

Planning: Survey

please take the time to complete our survey, Thank you!

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/2LYRPNQ

Planning : From Initial Ideas To A 60 Second Pitch

The first activity that we under took in the process of finding the best idea for a horror film aged at a teenage audience was initial ideas, these are our initial ideas in which we have brainstormed all possible ideas that we could think of at the time for a horror film plot these are our ideas:

Horror film initial ideas

Location:

• Forest
• Secluded area
• Lake
• abandoned house

Characters:

• Young teens
• Boy and girl
• Small group

Storyline:

Woods:

• Camping out
• Alcoholic beverages, messing around
• Group of teenagers, picked off one by one

Abandoned house:

• Exploring the house
• Squatting teenagers/ families
• Hiding from danger/trouble
• Children playing games
• Paranormal source lurking within the house

Secluded area

• Quiet long empty road
• Breakdown
• One by one killed off
• Chased through the unknown

throughout this process as a group we thought about ideas and finalising them, the below photo shows us in the process of finalising our ideas.

we then moved on to finalise our ideas for the horror film plot we all decided on an idea and then went on to create a worded plot with the idea and what would therefore occur throughout the film and we created a 60 second pitch for our final idea that can be seen below starting at 5:22 in the clip below of our groups pitches.

Research : The Importance Of Sound In Horror Films

The sounds used within horror films plays a big part in how scary the film is and building up tension, such as sound effects creating eerie tension within the scenes and non-diegetic sound such as music within scenes to create suspense such as any situation could be made peaceful or with certain sounds and backing music it could be made more scary and create tension in that certain situation. 



above is the famous scene from the film 'Psycho' featuring someone alone in a dark house with a killer on the loose, who then attacks her with a knife and when he does so there is high-pitched string instrument notes with very fast attack as he drives the knife into her. this is effective as the percussion used to create a strong feeling of the knife and its movements into the females body. without the music in this scene it would lack in the build up of the tension needed for the scene to be effective.




above is another iconic music scene within horror films  that creates tension is from Jaws. Only two notes are mainly used which is simple yet effective as it has become so well known. it is meant to match the pace of people's heart beat. This results in an increase of the audience's adrenaline meaning more enjoyment. Prof Daniel Blumstein reported that horror films commonly have a extremely high amount of abrupt shifts up and down in pitch compared to any other genre, this shows that change in pitch is likely to have a big impact on the audience and their feelings and emotions when hearing the music and its changes.

Research: The Importance Of Opening Titles

within this piece i have noted down all the times in which the film has used a title and what the titled has written and exactly the word and the uppercase letters, these included the producers, the cast and all the people ho where important in the production of the film itself.

this is the part where i have noted down everything i saw in terms of the font used and the typography used in the opening credits such as the font size, the font used and the letters wether they are uppercase or lower case and the colour of the font. 

 this is where i have noted down everything in the opening credits in terms of what i can see, such as the lighting used the atmosphere it creates and the images and the photos used with in the start titles.

 these are the elements of sound in which i have noted down such as the music playing, the sounds used to create feeling within the opening with the non diegetic sounds that are used.

Research Essay : Codes And Conventions In Existing Horror Films Aimed At A Teenage Audience

Codes are systems which create meaning both symbolic and technical, Technical codes are all the ways in which equipment is used in media, such as camera usage in a film, the way in which it is edited and how sound is used. Symbolic codes are usually seen through miss-en-scene. such as a character's actions show you the characters feelings and emotions, a character's costume can show what type of person they are such as how much flesh is on show, props have suggestions or connotations which can be assumed by an audience. Some codes fit both categories –  music for example, is both technical and symbolic. Conventions are the ways in which doing something. general conventions in any medium, such as the use of interviewee quotes in a print article, but conventions are also genre specific. common conventions in horror films are, secluded locations- where they are miles away from any help or anyone to hear their scream of danger, safety always being really close for the victim- such as them tripping at the last hurdle of getting to a safe area and a vehicle, a small group or two people- often a boy and girl which are separated from each other giving a strong sense of danger, a person often quite young always dies within the first five starting minutes of the film, the victim falls over all of a sudden and then struggles and does not return to their feet to evade the killer, no signal- the victim cannot seem to get connection to their phones or radios.

Wrong turn: The film opens with two friends rock climbing, when all of a sudden they are both killed by a vicious and mysterious unknown force. Six friends then find themselves trapped in the woods of West Virginia, hunted down by cannibalistic mountain men grossly disfigured through generations of in-breeding. the use of the camera in the wrong turn intro show lots of mid shots and long shots showing the people on the mountain and how high up they are yet never seem to show what's over the top of the mountain this gives a sense of fear as the viewers cannot see or tell what is at the top of the mountain waiting for them. when she is then being chased by the killer there is a big use of close ups to show the fear and emotion that the girl is feeling. the editing is smooth and provides the intro with match on action and is linear. the music builds tension throughout the intro it comes to a halt as the male reaches the top of the clip and then picks up again as he hits the floor after being attacked.  the mise-en scene show the girl having limited clothes on and revealing a lot of flesh which is common in horror films as well as the climbing gear and the razor wire showing what dangers there is to her and also her only escape from the killer and how close it is. the conventions featured in this into are very common such as they are stranded in an abandoned area 50 miles from anywhere and help for them what so ever also the fact that there safety car is so close to the girl but yet trips right at the last moment before reaching safety.

Dead Mary: Kim and her boyfriend Matt have just broken up, but they travel together to a cottage nearby a lake to spend the weekend with their friends Eve, Dash and his wife Amber and Baker and his new girlfriend Lily. The atmosphere becomes heavy with the situation between Kim and Matt, and one of them suggests them to play "Dead Mary". Matt, Eve and Dash summon the evil witch repeating her name three times in front of a mirror with a candle. the use of the camera in this intro shows a series of extreme close ups of chains and wood which later reveal to be a sign as well as the establishing shot in order to set the scene of where the intro is based, it then goes on to reveal the car in which is out of car and is used by the couple to arrive in this secluded area. there is then a tracking shot going through the trees showing the evil that is lurking within the wood that their car has broken down in as well as a high angle shot showing how vulnerable she is. there is a series of metallic sounds to show tension and small movements of the chains and the sign as well as music picking up drastically when it switches to the wood to show the predator with in the wood waiting for them. there is also radio signals to show how secluded they are. the editing is clean and provides match on action. mise-en scene again shows the girl is wearing revealing clothes showing a lot of flesh to show how vulnerable she is there is also a car to use possibly for getaway or to be their source of breakdown. there is multiple conventions within the intro such as the fact that the car wont start as its got no petrol as well as the female having no signal on the mobile phone.

Dead Wood:  Four friends leave the city for a relaxing camping weekend in the woods. Once they get settled, a strange young woman enters their campsite looking for her lost boyfriend. One of the four himself goes missing and the rest are pitted against mysterious forces in a fight for their very survival. use of the camera: there is an establishing shot to set the scene in the woods which then pans down into a mid shot of the stream. then there is a series of fast paced tracking/crabbing shot of the main character supplying you with a sense of danger and that the main character is being chased it then moves to a long shot/two shot to show how vulnerable he is standing over the ditch it then moves into close ups showing the characters panicking and stress the characters facing from the jump of the ditch. it then shows a panning out shot at high angle of the girl stranded in the woods by herself and how vulnerable she is. the editing shows a clear fade into the scene at the beginning of the intro as well as the clear linear editing. it then goes to slow motion as the male character attempts to clear the ditch with a leap of faith. the music at the start of the intro has a slow tempo when establishing the scene however when the male character is being chased the music changes to fast paced music showing a chase, the music then stops as the character comes to a halt to show the fear and how tense the moment is for the male character. mise-en scene shows the character wearing a Hawaiian shirt showing he is the type of foolish character, also the blood on the character face showed he has already been involved in an incident and has sustained some injuries. the conventions used in this are that the character trips over while running through the woodland area, as well as the fact they are stranded in the middle of nowhere and that you cant see what's chasing him.


use of camera:












use of sound:
editing: mise-en scene:
conventions:

Research : Codes and Conventions In Horror Films

Codes:
they are systems which create meaning both symbolic and technical, Technical codes are all the ways in which equipment is used in media, such as camera usage in a film, the way in which it is edited and how sound is used. Symbolic codes are usually seen through miss-en-scene. such as a character's actions show you the characters feelings and emotions, a character's costume can show what type of person they are such as how much flesh is on show, props have suggestions or connotations which can be assumed by an audience. Some codes fit both categories –  music for example, is both technical and symbolic.

Conventions:
Conventions are the ways in which doing something. general conventions in any medium, such as the use of interviewee quotes in a print article, but conventions are also genre specific.

common conventions in horror films are, secluded locations- where they are miles away from any help or anyone to hear their scream of danger, safety always being really close for the victim- such as them tripping at the last hurdle of getting to a safe area and a vehicle, a small group or two people- often a boy and girl which are separated from each other giving a strong sense of danger, a person often quite young always dies within the first five starting minutes of the film, the victim falls over all of a sudden and then struggles and does not return to their feet to evade the killer, no signal- the victim cannot seem to get connection to their phones or radios.

codes and conventions:
commonly used together  in any study of genre – it is not enough to discuss a technical code used such as camera work, without saying how it is conventionally used in a genre.

Research : Analysing Codes and Conventions In Existing Teen Horror Films

History Of Horror Movies

Introduction To Main Task

Preliminary Task Evaluation

The brief for our Preliminary task was to compose a video using editing and all of the skills so far in AS Media that displays two characters who exchange two lines of dialogue with each other, using match on action to maintain complete continuity,shot/reverse shot to make it seem as if the characters are having a conversation and the 180 degree rule so that they also seem as thought they are interacting with each other as well as maintaining continuity.

during  pre production we started by gathering together our first ideas with the school idea and the two characters both being students in order to keep it realistic, we then went on to create storyboards for ideas of shots, locations and characters as well as fitting the whole thing into 12 shots for the 12 shot challenge. we ten took photos of locations and the cast members as well as creating a film schedule for the filming process.we then also used miss-en scene to correctly plan our locations for all of the shots.

we filmed the scenes from which we had planned with various different types of shots such as over the shoulder, establishing and long-shot, we filmed each scene twice just to be sure that we had a perfect clip for each scene of the task, it went well as all clips fitted together and we had continuity, as well as the actors playing their roles perfectly and the organisation of the locations and the cast made the filming quick and simple.

we began by learning the basics and experimenting with Adobe Premiere Pro where we went on to make some practice short clips where we trimmed down clips to make the suitable and realistic lengths the added them in order to make a continuous clip we also learnt how to use match on action also creating title clip and adding audio onto the back of clips we did al of these aspects for our preliminary editing and then we rendered the entire work space and exported.

 our  clip meets  the set brief, it shows  different skills including match on action, shot reverse shot and many camera shots, movements and angles. Some of the things stated on the plan changed to make the film more continuous, this made the clip easier to edit and created a more realistic overall clip. I believe the best point in the clip is the match on action when the character is walking towards the door and the camera shot changes into a close up shot of the door handle, the continuity is quite strong as it shows a vast amount of match on action. A weakness is the camera movements not being as accurate as they could be, however this couldn't be helped due to the camera equipment we were required to use to film the clip. We could develop the location of the clip to make the film more interesting, this would also keep the audience  more entertained.  also develop the filming quality to make sure our main task is more successful and more detailed.