Lighting

we decided to use a very dark light set because we thought that this would set the mood for the audience. Instead of walking into compete and utter darkness for a few of our shots, we decided to light a couple of candles in order to present some sort of natural light for the audience to look at. For this we showed a shot with somebody lighting these candles, just so the audience knew how the light appeared. We created quite a subtle light for all of our shots, but most of them it was enough for the audience to see what was going on in the shot and the situations that were occurring. For other shots we used man made light that would be used to highlight specific features that the audience would need to see on the screen. For example with the sillouhette man, there is a street light behind him that picks out the outline of his face and body. This creates a mysterious effect for the audience and makes them think about what could be hapening on the screen.

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Storyboard changes

In our film we decided to add a few scenes a we went along because we thought that thy would have a greater effect then some others that we made did. We added a shot of the man raising his head with the street light behind him and the shot of the light gleaming onto the trees whilst a title appeared on the screen. We decided to change these shots because we thought it would enhance the viewing for the audience and we thought these would be better follow up shots for the previous and next scenes that were to come. These scenes looked excellent in our film and it was definitely a good to choice to make the changes to our storyboard

Costume research

For our costume we want to have and involve something that would be able to hook and relate to the audience. This seems as a pretty hard task to accomplish, but then we realized that all we had to do was take stuff from real life and portray them onto our film opening. For our first character, which was the protagonist of the film we had to think of what he was wearing. We decided that it would have to be quite mysterious clothing just so we didn't reveal to much to the audience. We did not find any examples of where this is found, this was plainly just our idea. For the other antagonist of out film we had to thing about how he would be shown in the opening. We initially made him a younger character, in his teen years. We then thought about relating our characters and costumes to the audience and thought to dress this character in the typical teenage clothing. This means that the audience might be able to relate to what he is wearing and the way he is. We looked at a film called "Friday the 13th". In this film they have typical teenagers that are the protagonists of the film. These are all teenagers that are stereo-typically dressed and are always in danger.

For the antagonist of our film we decided to look at the same film. In this film they use a mask and very dark clothing to disguise their character Jason. He also wears a hockey mask to cover his face and this hides his identity very well. I thought that this would look very good on our character but i decided that we would want to see his eyes so that they could look into the camera and the audience. We then looked at a range of other masks that would suit our needs and we found a few that looked like the one off "Friday the 13", but a little bit different.

Seven shots analysis

In the film Seven, they used a nice jittery effect that mixed in with the music and the way that they sound and look. This shot shows the audience how abnormal the film is. It shows the disruption of the actions that are happening and gives a very disturbed effect on the audience and shows that there is an abnormality of the shot. The jitter really helps hook the audience and the music that is in the shot really ties in with the type of shot this is. The sounds that are in the background of the clip make it sound like there is an unstable radio frequency and even the sound is jittery when you listen to it. This makes quite a screeching effect on the audience at it really does create a disturbance and a horrific mood for the audience to live in. They show this effect in the text as well as the clips. They make the text jump quite a lot to stay within the theme of the opening so that all of the layers involved in this are relative to each other.

Time Schedule

Audience Research (Titles)

We picked out some of our favourite looking titles and decided to ask our fellow peers which one would look the best on our horror opening. It is clear that the title "Out of the Darkness" was the most popular. We had a range of titles and did a lot of research to see which of them would suit our film best. We then asked around the classroom and asked our peers if they were able to choose their favorite. The good thing about asking our class was because their age was one of our target audiences, which meant that if our target audience was choosing the age then it would appeal more to their age group. 

Planning Costumes

 We struggled thinking for the costumes that we might be able to use for our main person. We didn't the audience to actually see his face throughout the whole opening. We were thinking about dark clothing, for example, dark jeans and a dark hoodie. At first this sounds a bit to simplistic for the film that we are wanting to make, but it might just work. If we give him a simple costume, then the audience will have less of a chance of guessing what relevance he is to the film or who/what he could be in it. We also wanted something to come out from the darkness near to the end of the film, so we needed some sort of scary mask or something that would cover most of this mans face. We thought about using a gas mask, or maybe a cricket helmet. But for this character we wanted to show the top half of his face so we could show the audience his pearcing eyes. So we thought of some of the gas masks that only cover your mouth and nose.

Audience Research (Horror Themes)

I went around my class and asked my peers what horror theme me and my partner should go with. Me and my partner picked the top five that we thought could be the best for our ideas. These were super natural, religion, madness and mystery. It came out that mystery was the most popular choice of theme to go with in our horror opening sequence. Me and my partner originally thought that this was going to be the most popular because the amount of suspense that it builds for the audience, and the fact that they have to try and figure out whats going on along the way.

Story Board

Title Planning

For title ideas i went onto the website "imdb.com" to look for the top rated horror films of all time. I went to see what thy had in common and it appears that Some of them use just single words for their films. For example, Psycho, Alien, Jaws. And a lot of the others titles start with the word "The". For example, The Thing, The Exorcist, The Others, The Shining. In our film in was thinking of something a bit different in our film. We had ideas of a few shots where something would appear out of the darkness and come into light to shock or frighten the audience. We were thinking that we could interpret these actions into the title.

Title Suggestions: 
Out of light
Into the Dark
Darkness
Revealed
Into the Dark
Out of Darkness

(Highlighted one that stand out to me)

Theme's of Horror Films

There are many different ways in which horror films are themed. For example some could be to do with psychological effects or some could be to do with a certain someone being possessed by and evil spirit. There are a lot of different themes that you can base your film around.

One of the main ones is obviously going to be good versus evil. This is the base layer for most film creators and it is normally a running theme for most horror films. A good example for a horror film with the typical good versus evil would be "A Nightmare On Elm Street". This has the typical good versus evil because of the serial killer named Freddy Krueger who finds and kills people in their dreams, resulting in their real death in reality. Although this could be classed as a psychological thriller as well it still maintains that sense of good and evil throughout. 

Another genre of horror film is "religion". This is normally based around the ways of Christianity and the church. A brilliant example of this theme would be a film called "The Exorcist". This film is all based around taking a devil spirit out of an innocent young child's body. The family then try and use an exorcist as a way of trying to get the demon out of her body. The exorcist is a priest who tries disconnecting evil spirits from human bodies. Religious films like this are horrific because of the methods that they use, and because religion goes back thousands of years ago, they use very dated methods and ways in fairly modern times. 

Another theme for a horror/thriller film is insanity. This is where either a normal person that turns insane, or a person that is naturally insane, either way they both have horrific outcomes. An example of a film based around insanity is "The Shining". In this film the father of a family of three goes insane because of evil spirits influencing anger on his personality. This goes from one extreme to another, he starts out as a nice family man and a good husband and father and then suddenly turns in to this psychotic killing machine that just wants to destroy everything. This theme always has a hard hitting effect on the audience because of the scary change that takes place in this persons mind. 

Title's Analysis

Titles are used in many different ways for the opening credits of films. Different fonts can be used and the way they are portrayed onto the clips can vary quite a lot. For example, in the opening credits of the film "The Final Destination" the whole entire clip slows down when the titles appear on the screen, almost like slow motion. They also use quite a block font with no serif but a line above and below the words, this maybe done to tie in with the theme of their film.

Another way in which the titles can be shown on the screen is in the simple form of just words on a screen for some of the credits. For example, in the film "The Dead Zone", it shows the studio name at the beginning of opening on a plain black background with white text. This method seems to be quite boring but it can show some reason behind it. The studio name is a very important part of the credits, and to show it with big letters and contrasting colours of the text and background is a good idea for the first credit because of the viability and simplicity it provides. This effect is only used on this first title and the rest of them are overlaid onto the clips. 

The way in which The Dead Zone reveals its title is quite clever and different to other openings that i have watched. The title is revealed very slowly throughout the whole of the opening credits with different black shapes that appear on the screen. It is not until the very end of the sequence that the title is revealed in a gorgeous looking font tying in beautifully with the theme of the film. I found this a very interesting method of inserting the title into the opening sequence.

Another interesting opening sequence which had decent titles in was from the film "The Teeth of the Night". In this film i found that some of the titles would be overlapped by some of the images on screen. For example, with the image above, the titles are coming out from behind the tree. It shows that the titles that are coming onto the screen are actually interacting with the environment of the images on the opening sequence.

In the film "Intimate Enemies" it fades from an establishing shot of some mountains into a page full of different words and letters. On this page of letters different words are highlighted to show titles and actors for the film. This is a good effect as it ties in with the theme of the film and because of the contrasting colours between text and background. Also it makes the audience read the titles because they are looking for the next words to appear on the screen, this means they are actually paying attention to the words that pop up on the screen.  Whilst these titles are appearing there is also different things going on in the background.

Sound

It is quite easy to forget that the fear factor of almost any horror film would decrease dramatically (if not completely vanish) if the auditory features were removed or altered to something not befitting a horror film. This might sound a huge exaggeration, but it is most definitely not. All you have to do is turn down the volume on your TV during a dramatic scene in a horror film to realise the enormously important role that music and striking sound effects play in creating a complete and truly frightening horror film experience. If this important and amazing composed music is not in some of the key scenes of this film, then the mood will definitely sink to quite a flat atmospheric feeling for the audience. 

Sometimes in different horror films, music isn't really needed for the opening credits to create tension or atmosphere. In some horror film openings, they only use sound effects to set the mood of their film. For example, in the film se7en they don't really use a set peace of music for their opening, it is mainly electro sounds and weird beats in the background. This still ties in with the theme of the film and can create an atmosphere of tension. The clips also move in time with the music and have a jittery effect, almost showing the beat of the sound effects in the clip. 

On the other hand, music isn't always needed to create tension for the film that you are making or watching. In films like "The Woman in Black", music isn't rally used when scary scenes or scenarios occur in the film. Instead all you here is either the actors heavy breathing or the objects he is interacting with. For example if he  is walking on creaky floor boards then the only sound you will be able to here is the footsteps he is taking to get to the destination. In many ways this can create a more dramatic and tense build up to the climax of the scene because of how anxious the silence can make the audience.

Our Music and Sound Effects

For our music tracks we went to this website: 

http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/?genre=Horror

Shooting Schedule

1^st shot – Man walks towards the front entrance of the house.

Camera position – end of the driveway, looking at the door. The camera dos not move, but the actor walk past it.  (long shot/establishing shot)

Location - outside the house.

Actor – We have only one actor in our whole play and he will be in this shot.

2^nd shot- the man opens the door, and then enters.

Camera position- a static shot, in which it’s a medium shot of him entering

Location- entering the basement.

3rd shot – This is a close up of the door closing.

Camera position – close up, static facing the door.

Location – still outside the house.

4^th Shot- the man walking down the stairs to the basement.

Camera position-using a tracking shot we will follow the man through a floor , to create a seamless illusion

Location- basement entrance

5th shot – Long Shot of actor from the behind him and starting to slowly move in

Camera Position – Long shot looking at the back of the actors body

Location – in the basement

6^th shot -  Medium static shot of the camera still and focusing on the chair

Camera position- a still shot with the hair in the centre of the room

Location - The basement.

7^th shot – Static shot of man in the chair tied up in chair

Camera Position – Medium shot static

Location – in the basement

8^th Shot- multiple quick shots of a church at night

Camera positions - a mix of tracking and still shot with a range of lighting

Location- church

9^th shot – Going back to zooming in to the back of the head, at a slow and steady pace

Camera Position – zooming in from previous position

Location – Basement

10^th shot – still shot looking at floor, knife dropping into the shot.

Camera Position – High Angle Looking down

Location – Basement  

11^th shot – Coming back to zooming into the back of the head, at an even closer proximity.

Camera Position – Steady zoom into the back of the head.

Location – In the Basement

12^th shot – Another shot of the knife, but with blood all over It and on the floor.

Camera position – High Angle shot looking down

Location – in the basement

Locations

Horror films tend to be set in in an isolated area, where out of the ordinary situations rarely happen. The reason they do this is because it sets a lot more tension. The reason for this is because unexpected happenings naturally create a much more scary atmosphere. Another place that is a good location to film is quite tight/claustrophobic place, for example a basement or small village would be an excellent place to film because there are less places to escape for the character/characters.

Another place that would be a good place to film, is the traditional haunted mansion. These places have all different types of rooms and hallways, which makes them, great for unlikely and scary situations to occur. They normally have quite a dark and mystical look to them. And the look and feel of them is normally quite a dead and lonely. They are made of creaky wood to create the atmosphere and sound that the tradition has given to them. Overall they would be a brilliant place to film a horror because of the secluded location and dead feeling that they portray to the audience.

A place to host a horror film that is unexpected and innocent is somewhere like an everyday house that normal people accommodate. It is a good place to film because you can chose the location of where the house is and it will always create an unexpected sequence of events that happen within the household. The house might be in the middle of the country where it is just the people in it that can do anything about the happenings. Or the house could be set in an everyday village/town, where no matter what they do, people wont believe what happens to them in this house. 

Characters

In horror films the characters can vary. From props to people, all can be used to set an immense amount of tension. In films like "Chucky" a puppet is used to scare the audience and create tension. It is the fact that a small doll that comes to life and kills people. It makes the audience come out of there comfort zone, and come into a world that makes. Chucky is the protagonist of the film and is portrayed as a lifeless doll at the beginning and as it progresses you see what he really is. Using a doll sets the mood of this film of this really well because of the life that is inserted into the doll, and the terror that he creates.


Another type of character that is usually used in horror films is a child. They use children because it takes the sweet and innocent generation and turns them into monsters, which is a traumatic experience for all people. For example, in the exorcist they use a little girl that has been possessed by some sort of spirit, and she shows an immense amount of pain and horror in her personality. In this film she is also a normal human being at one point, but when she turns into the demon child, it shows a massive contrast with her normal personality. This Girl could be taken as either an antagonist or a protagonist, because she is an innocent little child but in the film she is possessed by a horrible spirit. In the picture on the right, this is the girl as herself and on the picture on the left, it is her as the monster that she turn into. As you can see there is a massive contrast between both states that the girl gets into. 

Other characters in horror films are protagonists. These people are generally the victims in the genre of horror. Katie from paranormal activity is on of the protagonists in the film. Katie and her husband are being haunted by spirits in their own household. The fact that Katie and her husband are innocent people who live a simple life makes this film even more heart breaking and creates sympathy in the audiences view.

Jack was originally a protagonist in the beginning of this film, but then became possessed by an evil supernatural power that took advantage of his weakness in his past. This then immediately turned him into a antagonist in the film. In this film it shows how quickly Jacks personality can escalate and have traumatic effects on the other characters in the film. I think that the quick personality change that occurs in this film is really horrific, because he goes from this family man to and extreme killer. The psychological effects that are in this film create a mood that can play with the audiences feeling towards the character jack. And because he changes from an honest hard working man to this psycho that tries to kill can really create a horrific atmosphere.





There are many different types of character in horror films. These can be:

• The main protagonist - a victim or hero of the film
• The main antagonist - maybe a monster, mutated human or a serial killer
• Bunch of children or teenagers who get killed throughout the film or are put in horrific scenario's
• Children - these children are normally become possessed or evil
• And other creatures - werewolves, ghosts, zombies and demons etc.

Props

Props that are you used in these horror films tend to me quite masculine  For example the props in hell raiser are nails inserted into the mans head. This is linked to costume but is still known as a prop. These are used very well to present quite a scary and gory effect and it can represent the pain that he goes through and the extreme measure that he is willing to go up to. These props can create the nature and personality of the character quite easily for the audience. It can also help the audience determine whether or not the character is a protagonist or an antagonist.

Other props that are used in horror films, are generally ones that can be used to kill or seriously harm people in the film For example, knives are used in some horror films to create quite a silenced kill and because of the sharp and simple design that they have. For example in the film "American Psycho" he uses a knife quite often as his choice of weapon because of the sly and quick consequences it can have on a fellow human being. I think that i knife is a brilliant choice of weapon to use in a horror film because of its simplicity and harm it can cause.


Another example of where this prop is used, is in the very popular "Friday the 13th". Jason (the antagonist of the film) uses this as his main weapon of choice and slaughters his victims with it. Although the knife can be made to look like quite a quiet weapon, it can also be used in a loud killing scenario. For example, if the music and actor are used correctly then the knife can be shown as a loud and shocking prop for the killer using it.

Overall most props in horror films tend to be ones used for death or to seriously harm another human being or protagonist. They all create tension in the way that they work, whether its a knife, a pickax or a hammer they can all be used in very different ways and all set very different moods for the film. 

Camera Shots

The shot that we were thinking of using is this "wipe" shot. This is a shot that passes through an object (for example, a wall or celling). This makes it a bit different as it changes location and character through camera shots and angles. In this scene below me, the camera travels up through ceiling of the bus to go to another character on top of the bus. It passes through at a reasonably and steady pace. 

In this scene the camera is still but preparing to move for the Wipe shot.

Here the camera is moving up the environment to the next shot.

In this shot the camera is right in the middle of the environment that it is passing through.

It is now coming up through to the next character and showing a different environment on top of the bus.

And now here is the the new character and the new place that the camera as moved to.

This camera shot creates a really nice transition between scenes or the audience to look at and can easily change between two environment or sets with minimal complications. 

I was thinking that there would be a fair amount of long shots and close ups so that there are a massive amount of contrasts in the shots. These close ups would be used to show the facial expressions that the characters are pulling or extreme close-ups to show specific parts of the body (for example a blood shot eye) an example of this would be from The Blair Witch Project. Extreme close-ups could also zoom in on significant objects that have high relevance to the films

Another example of where extreme close-ups are  used in horror film openings is in the film "seven". This film  uses mostly close- ups in the opening credits of the films to show different objects and words that might occur in the film. For example in this shot on the left it shows someone writing something over some words on a page, and although this may look like a fairly simple and pointless shot and can relate back to the film. 

Another place where seven uses its extreme close-ups to an advantage is is this shot on the right. it has a close-up of two props that are related to the film. These props are scissors and some film tape that is being cut by them. The advantage of this shot is that it can make the audience think about what these objects have to do with the film and how significant they could be to different scenario's in different scenes.

Another form of shot that can be used in the opening of films is the establishing shot. This shot shows the audience where the film or scene of the film could be set. An example of where an establishing shot is used is in the film "The Dead Zone". At the beginning of this opening sequence, it comes up with a shot of a house to show the audience where the whole/part of this film will be set. I think that an establishing shot at the beginning of a film is a brilliant idea because it shows where the film is being set and gives the audience a head start on their knowledge of the location.