Research and Planning - Halloween Inspiration !

With today being Halloween I took the opportunity to mess around with some fake blood! My 'messing around' did have a purpose - the purpose being to find/make some authentic looking fake blood, both for my Halloween costume and for the horror film trailer. Being in charge of the mise-en-scene of the horror film trailer I thought trying to find/make the best fake blood would be a very beneficial challenge! I bought some cheap £1 fake blood from 'Wilkinson's' which looked like the type of raspberry sauce children love on top of their '99' style icecreams! To say I wasn't impressed with it is an understatement - I found ketchup looked more authentic... and tasted much better when put near the mouth! After this initial disappointment I decided to make my own fake blood, a task which was incredibly fun until I had to explain to my parents I'd stained their perfectly white kitchen worktops permanently red. The combination of 10 drops of red food colouring, 3 of blue and 1 of green, along with a teaspoon of water and 4 tablespoons of Golden Syrup made for an authentic looking (and lovely tasting) fake blood ! After creating my concoction I put some on my hand and took a photo to see how the blood would look on camera... I was pretty impressed for a first attempt! The picture is below:

Research and Planning - Animatic Storyboard

My drawing skills are not the best, however I did try to draw and frame the scenes as best as I could.

(please note the sound doesn't appear to be working, I'm working on getting this issue fixed as quickly as possible)

Research and Planning - Group Meeting

Today myself and my partner had a group meeting about exactly what we were going to put in our trailer, what scenes, effects, shot types and transitions we were going to include as well as what order the scenes were going to go in. We really fleshed out our plot idea and created a more detailed 'Treatment' post than we originally had.

We also started working on our Production Company Logo idea - adapting the original idea my partner came up with. The Production Company name "Phantom Productions" (thought up by my partner) is what we have decided on calling our production company, however the logo is still in development. I drew a really quick scribble style draft of what the logo could possibly look like and myself and my partner search an art/photography site named "DeviantArt" for some Phantom of The Opera style cosplay stock photos to use as a pose reference for the image on our logo.

As I really love the LIONSGATE logo I'd love to incorporate some of the most striking elements of the logo in my own logo. I love the fading to black edging, red smoke background and steel style font and I'm hoping myself and my partner can adapt those elements and put them into our own logo along with a Phantom of The Opera style cartoonised image.

Research and Planning - Production Schedule

Research and Planning - Treatment

Treatment

Myself and my media partner have decided to take Plot idea 2 forward into the treatment stage.

The Plot line: A man becomes transfixed with the crime reports of a girl who has recently gone missing and been suspected dead. He finds something of the girl's and realises that the girl in question actually died hundreds of years ago and the deeper he becomes involved in unravelling the mystery, the more paranormal things keep happening to him and the ghost of the girl begins to appear more and more.

Below is a rough idea of how the trailer will run, some ideas may change over time, however for now this is how myself and my partner want the trailer to run:

• BBFC rating
• Production Company logo - "Phantom Productions"
• Close up low key lighting attack montage short sequence (details still undecided)
• high angle shot of drowned bleeding girl sprawled in the woods beside the stream in the moonlight
• Mastershot of the woods where the dead girl is, from a high angle (like in a tree with a few branches overlapping the shot)
• Title
• Master shot of male character inside a phone-box (shot from the outside of the box)
• Mid-shot of male character on the phone inside the phone box (shot from inside the box)
• Close up of character touching the poster of the dead girl in the phone box
• Back to mid shot of the male character on the phone inside the phone box
• Sound bridge from the above scenes runs over to an over the shoulder shot of the male character finding internet information about the dead girl.
• Long shot of male character finding the girl's gravestone and the date on it, he squats down and illuminates the death date with a lantern.
• Close up of the illuminated death date.
• Twig snapping sounds and close up of fingers curling around the top of the gravestone from behind
• Close up of male characters petrified face
• Over the shoulder shot (from behind the male character) from a low angle of the male character moving the lantern upwards to illuminate the dead girl.
• Title
• Wide shot of male character pinning up crime reports on a basement wall the light starts to flicker
• Close up of the light bulb flickering and going out.
• Wide shot from behind the male character of a red painted message such as "Behind You" scrawled across the crime report wall
• Camera pan from looking at the crime report wall, to the male characters reaction and round to the dead girl standing a few meters behind the male character.
• Jump cuts of the girl getting closer and reaching out before the scene goes to black
• Title
• Over shoulder shot of male character looking in a mirror
• shot of male character splashing his face with water
• shot of male character jumping as he looks back in the mirror and the reflection of the girl is there.
• Wide shot from behind the male character showing him turning around in shock to look behind him
• Character POV to show the girl has disappeared
• Three scenes with fade to black inbetween
• fast montage
• Film name
• Social networking/website info
• Coming Soon title
• End scary scene

Research and Planning - Prop and Costume List

Prop and Costume List

Male Lead Character (hero) Costume

• Black jeans/Dark jeans

• Black/Red/Dark coloured t-shirt/checked shirt

 

• Leather jacket

 

• Black boots

 

The male lead character is supposed to be interested in crime and paranormal things, however he is also a typical young adult, so his clothing/costume should reflect this. I envision this character looking like some sort of modern day vampire hunter, similar to the ones in the Vampire Diaries. I envision this because the character needs to look modern, to show a contrast between his time period and the dead girl's time period, but he needs to look slightly gothic and a paranormal believer.

Female Lead Character (villain) Costume

• White slightly discoloured dress, with black marks on it and possible rips, needs to be/look wet

• white flat pump style shoes/dolly shoes

The female lead character is supposed to be a girl from 100 years ago who drowned in a river in the woods and has come back to haunt a young man who is investigating the reported death of a girl in the same location with the same name. The female character needs to be in contrast with the male character, as they are from different time periods and one is the hero and one is the villain. I hope to achieve this contrast by giving the lead female character vintage gothic style white clothing and the lead male character dark modern style clothing.

Other Costumes

• Jack the ripper style costume - tailcoat

Male Lead Character (hero) Props

•  Lantern

 

• Laptop

• Crime reports/folders

 

• Photographs of the dead girl

Other Props

• Phone

 

• Knife

Research and Planning - Equipment and Software list

Equipment and Software List

Below is a list of all the equipment and software I will be using to complete the tasks of creating a film trailer, creating a film poster, creating a film magazine cover and documenting my research/planning/progress.

Apple Mac

iMovie

iPhoto

Garage Band

Blogger

Photoshop

SLR Camera

Canon mini DV

Sony HD video cameras

Research and Planning - Group Meeting

Myself and my media partner Danny have been looking at Production Company logos and the typical things that are in them, such as the colours red, black and silver and the gothic and bold font style. After looking at the production company logos of "Lionsgate", "Twisted Pictures" and "Hammer Film", my partner came up with an idea for a logo. In our group meeting he said our Production Company could be called "Phantom Pictures" and described it to have a cartoon/comic book style mid-shot of half of The Phantom of the Opera on it in black and white on the left side with a grey/black background and white/silver gothic text on the right side saying "Phantom Pictures". When I envisioned this logo I really liked it. It's rather hard to describe, but we're going to attempt to draw the idea so we can visually show it rather than just describe it. I also like the idea of adding a red tint to the outside of the logo, as white/black/red seem to be the typical horror colours.

Research and Planning - Production Company Research

Production Company Research

Myself and my media partner have been looking at existing Production Company logos which are associated with the horror genre, to help give us an idea of how to construct our own Production Company logo for our own horror film trailer.

Lionsgate

 Lionsgate is a production company which started producing films in the 1990s and is still a big name in the film industry today. Lionsgate is the production company for horror movies such as "American Psycho", "Open Water", the "Saw" series of films and "Repo! The Genetic Opera".

I completely love the Lionsgate logo, particularly the way the edges are blackened - pulling the focus towards the text in the middle. The red smoke style background behind the text looks particularly fitting for the horror genre, as it almost looks like blood when it is dropped into water and starts to swirl around and colour the water red. The metallic effect is something I particularly like as it is bold and really stands out.

Twisted Pictures

Twisted Pictures was founded in 2004 and often works in conjunction with other production companies such as Lionsgate. It is specifically a production company for horror films and has been part of films such as the "Saw" series, "Repo! The Genetic Opera" and "Chain Letter".

The logo is really interesting and very fitting to the genre of horror. The twisted barbedwire around the metallic text gives the impression of pain and both barbedwire and pain are associated with the horror style of film. The black background works really well as it pulls focus to the text and black is also associated with fear and the horror genre.

Hammer Films

Hammer Films was founded in 1934 and is the Production Company behind many well known old horror style films such as "The Phantom Of The Opera (1962)" and "Dracula", as well as more recent horror films such as "The Woman in Black".

I love the simplistic nature of this Production Company logo. The colours red and black are typically associated with horror and the font style is very gothic, also giving the impression of horror. This logo may not be as intricate as Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures, but it still gets the horror genre across incredibly well.

Production Company Logo Initial Ideas

 After looking at the three Production Companies above I have realised that black features in all of them, suggesting black is a colour I should also include in my horror production company logo. Black is associated with the darkness, fear and death, meaning it is perfect to convey horror through a production company logo. Red and silver also feature in the logos above and I believe they, like black, are perfect for conveying the horror genre in a logo, as red is associated with blood and silver is associated with the metalwork on weaponry.

Research and Planning - Production Company Logo Mind Map

Word cloud made with WordItOut

Above is a mind map of all the words myself and my media partner associate with the horror genre which could be used as inspiration for our own Production Company Logo.

Research and Planning - Audience Plot Feedback

I asked people on Facebook to read through my two plot ideas and then tell me which one they preferred and why, the responses are below:

The over all results seem to show that plot line 2 has more of an appeal to the people who read the two plot lines on Facebook. However the only member of my media class to have commented preferred plot line one. This is significant as the member of my media class actually knows what the plot line ideas are for and understands which will be best for the media class and media class project. However, I can not ignore the fact that 13 out of the 16 people who commented preferred plot line 2 (the plot line I personally prefer and have more ideas for in my head and the plot line my media teacher prefers as well). I do believe it will be plot line 2 I take through to the 'treatment' stage of my film trailer project.

Research and Planning - Proposal Presentation

After presenting the two proposals for my horror film trailer, with my partner, to my Media teacher, we were told the second proposal sounds much better and has a more substantial plot-line which contains less clichés. After getting this feedback from the teacher I decided I would try and get even more feedback from members of my target audience and target age range via social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The results and feedback from the social networking sites will be uploaded once I have gathered enough opinions to show which proposal has had the better reaction to it.

Research and Planning - Two Proposals

 Proposal 1

Plotline: A girl finds a necklace and everytime she wears the necklace she begins to see a male figure who is seemingly stalking her. She attempts to throw away the necklace, but it keeps coming back, as does the male figure.

Cinematography: 

•  Over the shoulder shots to show the audience what the character can't necessarily see
•  POV shots from a hand held camera rather than tripod to help realism
•  High angles to show vulnerability of the girl
•  Master shot of the girl running through the woods
•  Close ups of the girl's face during the most tense moments

Mise-en-scene:

• Dark woodland location
• Old vintage looking necklace
• Dark bedroom/bathroom
• Gothic but modern costumes

Editing:

•  Fast flashes of light as transitions where an illuminated room is involved
•  A possible tint during woodland scenes to simulate the moon's light
•  Fading to black after tense moments to heighten suspense
•  Titles in between short key scenes

Sound:

• Score runs over the entire trailer, rather than a voice over breaking it up
• Theme given specifically to the ghostly stalking presence
• Stings occur at high action points such as a mirror smash or sudden blackout
• Diegetic sound such as twigs snapping and heavy breathing added on after to really heighten them and prevent noise pollution in the clips

Proposal 2

Plotline: A man becomes transfixed with the crime reports of a girl who has recently gone missing and been suspected dead. He finds something of the girl's and realises that the girl in question actually died hundreds of years ago and the deeper he becomes involved in unravelling the mystery, the more paranormal things keep happening to him and the ghost of the girl begins to appear more and more.

Cinematography:

• Over the shoulder shot of male character looking in a mirror so his reactions are seen through the reflection. Also used to show the audience what the character can't see happening behind him.
• Wide shot of male character pinning up newspaper articles on his 'crime wall'
• Close ups on the male character's face and on key props in the pivotal and high intensity scenes
• Two shot of the dead girl stood behind the male character's shoulder about to reach out for him

Mise-en-scene:

• Dark basement type room where the crime reports can be pinned up on the wall - specifically with only one exit so the male can easily be trapped.
• Low key lighting to add an eerie effect.
• Graveyard containing a headstone that is from hundreds of years ago but still clear to read
• Gothic but modern, predominantly black, clothing/costumes
• Dark bathroom area for the mirror scene 

Editing:

• Fast jump cuts to simulate the panic in the woods/graveyard when the male character first realises the girl's ghost is following him
• Flashes of light as transitions during scenes where the rooms have lights in them or are already illuminated
• Fades slowly in and out of black during key scenes of realisation about the dead girl before the fast montage of peak moments occurs
• Titles

Sound:

• Score runs over the entire trailer, rather than a voice over breaking it up
• Theme given specifically to the ghostly stalking presence
• Stings occur at high action points such as a mirror smash or sudden blackout
• Slow eerie melody from an object the male finds of the dead girl's.

Research and Planning - Podcast

I would just like to apologise in advance for the annoying loud clicking sounds throughout the Podcast - I did not realise the sound of me clicking my mouse to scroll up and down the page would end up recorded on the sound !! I only found out after recording the entire 6 minute podcast !!

Research and Planning - Sound Test

I have been playing around with sounds and instruments on Garage Band to create a rough score that could be associated with the genre of horror. This is my first time using Garage Band for its proper purpose. As I can play keyboard/piano, I already knew a few songs/tunes which I could re-create in Garage Band and mess around with them to make them sound more 'horror' style - such as the title overture of Phantom of The Opera and Mad World by Gary Jules. Aside from creating a score in Garage Band in media class, I have been messing with a few different electric, bass and acoustic guitar riffs at home, which would fit nicely with a horror style film trailer.

My Garage Band first attempt:

Research and Planning - Film Museum

Whilst in London, on the media/film/graphics College trip, I visited the British Film Museum - a place of seemingly endless movie props and costumes and a media students idea of heaven!

One exhibition within the Film Museum in particular was very appealing to me, as it was about the Horror Genre - the genre I have chosen to create my film trailer in. The exhibition had props, costumes and posters from many horror films in it and they were really useful for me to look at and take pictures of, particularly as I am in charge of the mise-en-scene in my film trailer!

Pictures from the Horror exhibition:

Research and Planning - BBFC visit

On the College trip to London I visited the BBFC, along with my Media class. At the BBFC a staff member gave a presentation about her job and all the things that have to be taken into consideration when giving an age rating to a film, or TV show.

The presentation discussed the issues surrounding some clips from "The Simpsons Movie" and involved my media group in a discussion about what was potentially wrong in the clip and why it would be given a 12A rather than anything higher or lower. Some of the points of concern in the clip were:

-cartoon child nudity
-police violence
-underage smoking
-bad language

The group, along with the lady giving the presentation decided that the movie was rated 12A suitable because the nudity wasn't anatomically correct, as it was a cartoon and meant in a humorous context, the police violence didn't actually harm anybody, underage smoking was shown briefly and its a cartoon and the bad language was not severe or frequent. Having this discussion helped me to understand the boundaries of each age classification category and made me really think about what would have to be included in my own media film trailer to warrant it a 15 rating.

Other issues such as animal cruelty were also explained to the group and a two alternate clips from The Hunger Games movie was shown to demonstrate how removing 8 seconds worth of blood and violence can actually change the entire rating of the film. With the 8 seconds of blood the film was rated a 15, without the blood it was rated a 12A, this helped me to realise that for my film/film trailer to become worthy of a 15 certificate, there would definitely have to be a significant amount of realism and blood involved.

The trip to the BBFC proved incredibly useful to me in understanding how to rate films/trailers and what the content of my trailer would have to include to warrant the age rating I had initially wanted it to be.

Research and Planning - London Trip

Media/Film/Graphics Trip to London

I was recently involved in a College trip to the capital city with where I visited many places in London which would be beneficial for my media work.

On the trip I visited both iconic London landmarks and places such as the British Film Museum and the BBFC, where I saw examples of film work and film classifications which could help guide me when I come to plan and make my film trailer.

I also visited a West End show (Shrek the Musical) which I was also able to extract elements from to help me with the planning of my film trailer, as West End shows are famous for their use of lighting, set and sound, something that myself and my media project partner will have to take into consideration and plan thoroughly when creating our own film trailer.

Research and Planning - Trailer Examples

Example of a good trailer I could re-create elements of and use as inspiration for my own trailer/teaser trailer:

The Roadside

This trailer for 'The Roadside' is a good example of a trailer that I would be able to recreate and am able to draw inspiration and ideas from. This trailer would be suitable for me to re-create because there are very little special effects and they would be relatively easy to re-create. There is only one main location used as only 3 actors required, making it a simple style of trailer, that is very effective and very good for me to use as inspiration.

Example of a bad trailer which I couldn't re-create or use as inspiration for my own trailer/teaser trailer:

Zombie Massacre

This movie trailer contains make up and facial latex FX which are far too advanced for myself and my media partner to recreate and make look convincing in our own trailer and seeing as the special effects make up and facial latex is what predominantly makes this movie trailer look amazing, it isn't particularly suitable for me to draw inspiration from. Even the locations of an army base and desert/sand style quarantine area are out of the reaches of myself and my media partner for possible locations, making this trailer a perfect example of what I couldn't re-create.