Research and Planning - Budget Update

I set myself the budget of £20 for costume and props and today I purchased 1 costume and 2 props in preparation for some test runs and mock up filming tomorrow.

I purchased a gothic looking lantern from IKEA and used some black shoe polish to make the item look older and more vintage. I also purchased a pack of 4 candles for the lantern. The lantern cost £7.25. The candles cost £1.95. Both are pictured (IKEA website picture) below:

I also bid on (and won) a dress for my female lead's costume on eBay. The dress cost £3.69 and is pictured below (eBay picture):

The dress sadly won't arrive in time for the mock up version of the trailer, but will be perfect for the real version of the trailer.

So today I spent a total of £12.89, over half of the budget. My partner protested I'm spending too much money, however I spent 3 days trying to find the cheapest candle holding lantern I could which was the IKEA one and after scouting around charity shops and looking on eBay the dress I bought was also the cheapest I found. I'm not entirely sure how cheap my partner expects things to be, but it shouldn't matter as I'm the one doing mise-en-scene and therefore having to pay for it anyway.

Items I have yet to get are:

-red spray paint/paint
-white contact lenses
-white dolly shoes
-vintage looking knife

I have no idea how I'm going to purchase all that whilst keeping within the budget, but I'm hoping my media partner can spare £5 to help me out if the cost of things does go above £20 - I'm sure he will (I'll make sure he can't refuse haha!!)

Research and Planning - Budget

As myself and my partner are students and don't currently have jobs, we are really having to budget this trailer carefully - especially with Christmas on its way and us not being able to run to our parents for money.

As I'm in charge of mise-en-scene, the buying of props and costumes falls to me. I've put a budget limit of £20 on this trailer and hopefully I will not go over this.

eBay, charity shops, house clearance shops and IKEA are the main cheap places I have been looking for costumes and props. I intend on breaking the budget down into £5 for costumes and £15 for props as the actors themselves should have suitable costumes.

Necessary costume items to buy are:
-female lead's zombie dress (approx £3.50 - eBay)

Necessary props to buy are:
-white zombie contact lenses (approx £6 - bodyjewelleryshop)
-a vintage looking knife (approx £1 - IKEA)
-a lantern (approx £7.50 -IKEA)
-candles (approx £1 - IKEA)

Research and Planning - Poster font ideas

Research and Planning - Film title font ideas

I really love this font for my film title as it reminds me of the font used on so many other horror film titles and therefore the font has horror associated with it, making it easier to convey the genre through the title.

Research and Planning - Magazine Font

This is the font I have chosen for my film magazine masthead. It is called 'Copasetic' and it really reminds me of the font that was used for cinema and theatre box office signs back in the 1920s. It is very similar to the font I drew on my magazine drafts and I really feel it is suitable for the masthead of a film magazine. I may play around with a few variations of this font (bold, italic, etc) but the basis of the font will be this one.

I really like this slight variation of the font too and my final masthead font will be one similar to both of these.

Research and Planning - Magazine Font Ideas

This font is named: "film strips".I love how this font is made of film strips, however I'm not sure it's particularly suitable for the masthead of a film magazine.

 This font is named 'Optimus Princeps' and it looks similar to the font below, however I prefer this font as all the fonts are in capitals, however the first letters of each word are bigger than the rest, as if they are really capitalised more than the other letters.

This font is named 'Episode1' as it is the font from the first Star Wars movie, however I think it looks rather suitable for my masthead font.

This font is named 'Copasetic Font' and its very similar to the font I drew on my Magazine drafts. I love the way it looks like the font old 1920s cinema/theatre box office signs used to be in.

Research and Planning - Filmed Auditions

Best video auditions:

Matt:

Matt gave a strong audition, although he required a script in order to audition, whereas the others just made something up on the spot related to a general sentence I prompted them with. Matt has the right look, build and voice for my lead male character and so I believe he will be getting the part.

James:

James gave a good audition, his voice and ability to think on the spot after being given a prompt line was excellent, however he is not really the height or build I require for my male lead character and so I have cast him in the smaller role of the murderer instead.

Vikky:

Vikky auditioned for both the male and female role (because she wanted to!) Vikky is a strong actress, however as she is female she is not really suitable for my lead male role and my audience feedback and initial ideas have indicated I should stick with a male lead character. Vikky doesn't have the correct appearance to be my leading female character based upon her short hair. Instead she has been cast as a stand in for test shots and additional filming that may be required for the final trailer.

Research and Planning - Auditions

The auditions for the horror trailer took place on Friday 23rd November and there was a surprisingly good turn out !

Four males auditioned for the male leading role:

• Alexander Hardisty
• James Mills
• Matthew Nicholls
• Christopher Taylor

Two females auditioned for the female leading role:

• Victoria Hind
• Sara Wilson

The auditioning process was lengthy, however it definitely showed who was the most suitable and capable for the leading roles.

Alexander Hardisty 

(photo provided by Alex himself)

Originally, Alexander Hardisty was a very strong candidate for the leading male role as he was the first to contact me saying he was interested, he had an impressive acting CV and is a mutual friend of my partners and mine. However, due to Army commitments, Alex is no longer a suitable candidate for the trailer, as he will be back in service just after Christmas, the time we will really need him for filming. Due to this he didn't attend auditions, even though I have impressed with his acting talent in the past.

James Mills

(picture taken in costume for the part he was cast as in the trailer)

 James had a very strong audition and I know from past media work experience that he is open to trying new things and is not easily embarrassed, therefore filming with him would be ideal as he would not burst into a fit of giggles if we asked him to be chased by dead people! There's a slight height issue with James however, as all females who auditioned were either the same height or slightly taller than him and ideally the male lead has to be a tall dominant looking male. On this occasion James was not cast in this particular role - however he is thrilled to be cast as the 'stand-in' for the role for test filming purposes and will be used as a 'jack the ripper' style vintage murderer in the first few seconds of the real trailer.

Matthew Nicholls

(Photo taken by myself)

 Matt is the best physically for the role as he is extremely tall (6ft7") and slightly older than the rest of the auditionees at age 22. His appearance commands authority and his hair style and dress sense is perfect for the character, meaning I don't have to attempt to give him a make-over, or have to spend a large amount of the budget on a costume for him! Matt was a little nervous to begin with, but after a few practice runs he lost the nerves and proved to be a good actor. Matt was previously a media student and so understands the importance of getting the scenes in the trailer perfect and I feel this will therefore make him work harder and act better! Matt was given the role of the male lead and will begin filming with me soon!

Christopher Taylor

(Photo taken by myself)

 Sadly Christopher was not particularly suitable at all. His bleached blonde hair doesn't really fit with the style of character I had in mind and he is far to short and thin to be a commanding male figure. His audition was good, however the weakest out of all 4 auditions.

Victoria Hind

(Victoria requested not to have her photograph put online)

Victoria had a strong audition and worked incredibly well with James Mills (male audition). I can't help but feel she is far too adorable and sweet to be a female evil zombie type person and her hair isn't long enough for the character I envisioned. Victoria was not cast as the female lead, however, like James Mills, she will be a 'stand-in' for the female lead and used as an extra where necessary.

Sara Wilson

(Photo provided by Sara)

Sara had an excellent audition and revealed she is a drama student (which gave her extra audition bonus points!) Sara has the right look, build and style I envisioned for the female lead character and has worked on a similar project before, giving her good experience. Sara was cast as the female lead, however she lives in Oldham (45 minutes by bus from where myself and my media partner live) which may prove a little problematic for test shots and expensive for her if she has to get the bus to film with us every other day. However, we are sure we can work around this.

Research and Planning - SLR Test Shots

Test shots of possible locations and what exposure/shutter speed on the camera to use to get the best effect. This was in preparation for finding a location and style that I could then place an actor in costume into:

This picture was taken in my bedroom, to see what angle I need to stand at to take a picture of a mirror and its reflection, without ending up in the picture myself.

This picture was taken to see how I could use light coming from different rooms/angles to create an eerie looking photograph which would be suitable for the horror genre.

Research and Planning - Poster/Magazine costume and props list

For my poster and magazine I want the main photograph/image to contain my lead male character and possibly my female lead character from the film trailer.

My male character's clothing for the poster and magazine will be the same as his clothing in the horror trailer. The clothing colours in the trailer may change as the trailer progresses to show the passing of time, as the film is not set over the period of a day, more like a week or month, so the clothing changes in certain scenes need to portray this. The general idea for the male character's clothing is:

• Black jeans/Dark jeans

• Black/Dark coloured t-shirt

• Leather jacket

• Black boots

Whichever set of clothing the male character wears in the most notable and memorable sections of the trailer should be the clothing the character wears for the magazine and poster photographs.

  As the female lead is supposed to be dead, she would not have the opportunity to change her costume, so the costume in the trailer should be the costume worn in the photographs for the poster and magazine. The costume/clothing and make-up for the dead girl/female lead is:

• White slightly discoloured dress, with black marks on it and possible rips, needs to be/look wet (i will modify a dress/nighty like the one pictured below)

 

•  white flat pump style shoes/dolly shoes

• make up effects to make the throat look slit and bleeding

• white zombie style contact lenses

• dark eye make up and make up effects to make the character look deathly/zombie-ish/vampire-ish

I really want to include the mirror scene in either the poster or magazine cover and so I will need a mirror as a prop. I may potentially need a vintage style lantern also. But I want the focus of my photographs for the poster and magazine to be on the characters and the location they are in.

Research and Planning - Test shots

I was messing around with the settings on my video camera, trying to make daylight look dark and tinting the image blue to see what looks good and what doesn't. The test shots are below:

Blue tint:

I really like the blue tint, it looks pretty creepy! My actor in the video is my friend Vikky, who was incredibly cold, hence the 'dancing' to keep warm!

Darkened Image:

considering just how bright today was, I'm really impressed by how dark this image looks. Darkness is associated with horror and fear, so the darker the image the better, however I dont want the image to get so dark no detail can be seen !

Research and Planning - Shot list

Research and Planning - Script

The dialogue used in the trailer will minimal and potentially only two or three lines, one of which will be a sound bridge. The dialogue used as the sound bridge has to be incredibly strong as it will carry the entire trailer and will have to explain what the plot will roughly be whilst being suited to the character and brief enough to sound like a realistic extract from a phone conversation.

My partner is in charge of the sound elements of the trailer, however as I'm in charge of mise-en-scene I feel I need to oversee the dialogue my partner is pitching for the trailer to ensure the dialogue is suitable for the scene it will be used in, the scenes it will be used as a sound bridge between and the character who is saying it. As, for example, the character could not talk in modern day slang if he was dressed in 19th century clothing and could not be shouting loudly if the location the character was in was a library.

The key dialogue will happen in the 'Phone box scene'. This scene is where the lead male character is going to be on the phone talking to a friend about the mystery surrounding the girl who was recently announced missing. This dialogue will be used as a sound bridge over scenes where the male lead is researching the girl on his laptop, walking through the woods and finding the gravestone of the missing girl. This means, like I said at the beginning of this post, this piece of dialogue has to explain the plot of the film, be suited to the character and sound like a believable brief extract from a phone conversation.

My partner came up with the following dialogue ideas for the 'phone box scene':

I'm incredibly pleased my partner has come up with some ideas for the dialogue himself and I'm impressed with how thought-out the suggestions are, however, sadly, there are a few problems with some of them. This first suggestion: "I don't understand... the dead girl... she died 100 years ago... why is the report so recent?" has a real element of confusion to it which doesn't seem particularly suited to a male whose hobby is investigating crime reports and being a crime enthusiast - by my thinking, he will probably have come across similar cases before and so not be quite as confused as this line suggests. Also, the male character is only aware of the girl being missing, not dead, by this point in the film, so he would not say 'the dead girl' in his dialogue as to him she is only missing despite him finding what he thinks is her reported death from 100 years ago.

The second suggestion is much better, really getting across the main plot twist that the girl has 'been dead 100 years' and really puts across the male character's investigative side by saying 'I've got to find out'. However I believe the line needs to be clearer in explaining what is happening in the plot as it doesn't mention the missing girl, doesn't mention how he knows she died 100 years ago etc.

The third and fourth suggestions are similar to the first, the character seems overly confused and I don't believe a crime enthusiast who has been reading crime reports, understanding official crime language and is clever enough to follow and piece together crime mysteries would really say "what's that about?" or "I don't get it".

These lines form a good basis to work from, however I really think my partner and myself need to get into the mind of the male character more and really understand what he would and wouldn't say, taking his crime fascination and investigative backroom into account.

Working on my partner's script ideas, I think the following lines would be more suitable, both for the character and the strength/purpose of the sound bridge:

[Phone box exterior] "This crime report is different...[scene change to phone box interior, male lead character on the phone] the girl pronounced missing a few days ago, I think there's more to this case than the authorities are letting on. [scene change to male lead on laptop in bedroom] I did some searching online and the girl's name and description matches a murder report from over 100 years ago... [scene change to male lead in the woods, finding the gravestone, illuminating the date] I know I said I wasn't going to transfix myself with another investigation... But I just can't let this one go."

Research and Planning - Location Recce 4 (Trailer)

St. Mark's Church Location Recce for my trailer:

Research and Planning - Location Recce 3 (Trailer)

Hyde Park Location Recce for my trailer:

Research and Planning - Location Recce 2 (Trailer)

Hyde Clarendon Sixth Form College Location Recce for my trailer:

Research and Planning - Location Recce 1 (Trailer)

Gower Hay Woods Location Recce for my trailer:

Research and Planning - Risk Assessment 4 (Trailer)

St. Mark's Church risk assessment for filming:

Research and Planning - Risk Assessment 3 (Trailer)

Hyde Park Risk Assessment for my trailer:

Research and Planning - Risk Assessment 2 (Trailer)

Hyde Clarendon Sixth Form College Risk Assessment for my trailer:

Research and Planning - Risk Assessment 1 (Trailer)

Gower Hay Woods Risk Assessment for my Trailer:

Research and Planning - Group Meeting

Myself and my partner just finalised our horror film title idea. We have decided to name the film 'Transfixed' due to the plot line. My partner had the idea of naming it 'Investigation' however that sounds more crime than horror and I thought of 'Transfixiation' which turned out not to be a real word and sounded too thriller style, so we settled on 'Transfixed' which is a real word and sounds suitable for the horror style.

Research and Planning - Film Magazine Draft 2

This is my second draft of my film magazine. I liked the idea of using my main male character on the cover of the magazine purely because of the horror style lighting effect that can be created through him holding his 'signature' prop of a lantern with a candle burning brightly inside. I thought the orange glow of the flame could partially light up my male character's face/upper body and the rest of the picture can be in almost complete darkness to create a really eerie effect.

Research and Planning - Film Magazine Draft 1

This is the first Draft of my film magazine. I have named the magazine 'Box Office' because at a cinema the box office is typically where people go to buy tickets and get information for film showings from - making it fitting for a film magazine which is going to be the source of film information and has a slugline of "your ticket to the best film news". I like the idea of having my main female character on the front of the magazine as she is distinctly part of the horror genre.

Research and Planning - Publication Plan Prezi

Film Magazine on Prezi

Research and Planning - Plan For The Week

These are the things I hope to have completed by the end of this week:

• Complete Production Documents
• Make-up / special effects (wounds) tests
• Test Shots
• Magazine drafts

Research and Planning - Film Poster Draft 2

This is the second draft of my film poster. I thought of the idea of merging half of the faces of my two main characters together to create one face in order to show they have become so transfixed with each other they seem to have merged into one person.

Research and Planning - Film Poster Draft 1

This is my first draft of a film poster for my horror film 'Transfixed'. I really like the idea of using an image of my 'dead girl' in front of a gravestone on my poster, as it shows very clearly the horror genre of my film. I've chosen the tag line 'Far Beyond Obsession' because if a person is far beyond an obsession then they can be described as Transfixed.

Research and Planning - Film Poster Research

Through looking at various different horror genre film posters I have found that the main colour scheme is black, red and white. This colour scheme is often arranged in the format of a black background/black edges to the poster with an image in the middle, red text for the film title, red and white text for the tagline and white text for the cast and crew information in steel tongs font. I have also spotted the use of capital letters in the text on the posters - the film names in particular are almost always in capitals. I really like how effective, simple and distinctly horror the colours in the format above look on posters - this is something I will definitely try to incorporate into my own horror poster when I start drafting and creating it.

I have found 3 horror genre film posters which I particularly like:

This poster is possibly the poster that caught my eye the most. I love the dark haunting imagery used in the centre of the poster and the way the dark/black edges draw focus and attention to the imagery. I love the contrast with the red title font and because it's in capital letters it really stands out. The white tagline and cast and crew information text suits the poster and doesn't draw focus away from the main image and title - which is important as the imagery and title should be what a person looks at first on the poster rather than the cast and crew information. I think I like this poster the best because I can envision how to re-create it with my own horror film in mind, which is a good start and will really help with drafting and creating my own poster.

I like this poster mainly for the clock imagery and the red glare that is on the imagery, it looks distinctly horror and fits the tagline. This made me really think about what the tagline for my own film should be and how I can fit it to imagery I would like to use on my poster. The deep and bright reds in contrast with the black background and white cast information really make this poster stand out look distinctly horror.

I really do love the simplicity of this poster as it is very effective and fitting with the horror genre because it leaves a lot to the imagination, already creating psychological fear with just a colour scheme and one tiny image - I'd love to recreate this type of effect in my own poster.

Research and Planning - Group Meeting

I apologise for the cheesey imagery above however it is very fitting !! Today I had a brief meeting with my media partner, discussing how I'd like him to draft/create some of his own ideas for a Production Company or Distribution Company logo as he doesn't particularly like my ideas. I tried to suggest the colour scheme for the Production Company logo should be black/dark grey, red and white/light grey, as they are typical horror colours, my partner agreed to a certain extent however objected to the use of stereotypical blood/bright/deep rich reds as he doesn't like those colours. The only problem is, the shades of red he doesn't like are the shades which are most typical of the horror genre and are depicted in horror film posters and horror related logos. Darker reds might end up looking brown in certain lights and brown is not particularly a colour directly associated with the horror genre. I can't help but feel we should fit the colours to the genre rather than our own personal colour preferences, however if he can come up with an idea that looks good and fits the genre whilst avoiding the colours he doesn't like then I will have no objections to using that idea. I suggested not using red at all on the Distribution Company logo because most logos seem to be white and black for distribution companies because it gives them a more professional look and they dont have to be directly related to the genre they are distributing unlike Production Company logos which fit much more with the style and genre they are creating.

Research and Planning - Mise-en-scene/Cinematography Inspiration

Whilst browsing my favourite art website I came across some photography by an artist I am familiar with and really love the work of. The photography literally captured on camera exactly what I had envisioned in my head for the opening scenes of the dead girl in my horror trailer. However my dead girl character will be in a white rag style dress with rips, tears and blood on it, rather than a smart black dress which is depicted in the photography I found. This photography is brilliant inspiration both for mise-en-scene and cinematography, as I love the location, the way the leaves are scattered, the lighting and exposure on the camera and the wound the model has, as well as the shot types and angles that have been used.

The photographs are below:

I would just like to make very clear that this photography is in no way my own and I am using it purely for research and inspirational purposes only.

(All photography rights reserved ©2009-2012 ~RavenBlakh DeviantArt.com)