Research and Planning - Filming Preparation

In preparation for filming the rough version of the trailer I had my three actors meet at my house for 11am to get them in costume, do their make-up and their hair.

My friend Sara (playing the dead girl) kindly allowed me to give her a black eye (I'd like to point out this was given via make-up and not physical contact!) and the first version is pictured below:

I have to confess that the make-up looked more authentic in person, however because the audience is going to see the make-up on a screen through a camera, I have to make sure the make-up looks good on camera, even if it looks over the top, or unrealistic, in person. I will continue with make-up tests to make sure I get something that looks better on camera than this does.

Sara's costume has yet to arrive in the post after being purchased from eBay and so she was not wearing the proper 'vintage dead girl' costume when filming the 'rough' version of the trailer. Matt was in partial costume - wearing the correct black boots and leather jacket.

The only person who was able to have their full costume for this 'rough' version of filming was James (playing the vintage 'Jack the Ripper' style murderer) as his costume was basically my 'Phantom of The Opera' outfit, consisting of: black trousers, shiny vintage black shoes, white shirt, black waistcoat, silver pocket watch chain, white bow tie and tailcoat. James looked great in the costume and when I restyled his hair into a 'vintage schoolboy' style, he really looked the part. The look was then completed with a knife. James pictured in his costume and with the knife prop:

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.