The setting is introduced as very scary and sinister. We created this by enhancing the shadows and making the unknown more present. In addition, the location itself is chilling which helped us.
The characters we've created were inspired by our target audience, we wanted a group of teenagers so the audience could relate to the narrative.
Does it foreshadow conflict?
We have created short shots which give the impression someone planned what will happen to the characters. The photographs show that the mysterious
How is binary opposition presented?
In our opening we are representing the male actor as 'good'; we have done this by making him seem protective over his dog. On the other hand we have represented the house as 'bad' by making it seem like it has this possessed quality. The look of it helps to convey this perfectly.
In our film opening, we visioned a group of teenagers, girls and boys going into the house.
We thought this group would appeal most to our target audience of young adolescents.
Here are a few of the photographs taken (in the style of headshot) of the potential actors used in our opening.
Font is an important part, more so then the actual name itself. The font can both be revealing in terms of its genre/narrative, and it can be iconic which is a very good marketing tool. This is why its so important, to get the font right!
Godfather is a good example, of how it's font has become iconic in front of the audience's eye. This has helped Godfather raise its media profile, and it has proved vital in the marketing stage.
Knowing our synopsis, we then decided to think of names for our film.
We shortlisted eight potential names, all of which are slightly different. Once we had shortlisted the names, we left it up to the public to decide. We took a sample of 31 participants; and let them all vote on which name they preferred.
There was 13 votes on Desolate, which was the majority, so we are using this.
The definition of Desolate = "Uninhabited and giving an impression of bleak emptiness"
(Oxford-Dictionary)
This describes the synopsis of our film perfectly, with alot of questions to be answered, and alot of space for the stretch of the imagination which is always key with a title name. You want the name to be catchy, in order to separate yourselves from your competitors, which in return can get you more sales and therefore more revenue. I believe Desolate achieves this goal.
The British Board of Film Classification is an independent, non-governmental body which has classified cinema films since it was set up in 1912 and videos/ DVDs since the Video Recordings Act was passed in 1984.
The BBFC's Guidelines state that there may be:
Strong language, but it must be infrequent.
Sex may be briefly and discreetly portrayed at 12 or 12A.
Moderate violence is allowed but it should not dwell on detail.
What about Horror Works?
Yes, some horror films are passed at this category. Moderate physical and psychological threat is permitted at 12 or 12A as long as disturbing sequences are not too frequent or sustained.
The BBFC's Guidelines state that there may be:
At 15 sexual activity can be portrayed, as long as there is no strong or graphic detail. Some sex scenes can be quite long at this category and may involve some nudity and movement.
Violence may be strong. It should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury.
What about Horror Works?
Many horror films are rated 15. At 15 there can be strong threat and menace (as long as it is not sadistic or sexualised), although the strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable.
The BBFC's Guidelines state that there may be:
There is no limit on the number of uses of strong language which can be passed at 18. Uses could be aggressive, directed, frequent or accompanied by strong violence.
There can be strong and detailed portrayals of sex at 18, including full nudity.
What about Horror Works?
The strongest horror works are passed at 18, they may contain strong horror, gore or sustained threat and menace which exceeds the boundaries of 15.
We are going to rate our film 15. This is because we may have some scenes that will be menacing and graphic, which will be unsuitable for 12A, yet not be so menacing and graphic which will mean it'll have to be rated 18 . Also there will be some footage, where dangerous weapons (axe, saw etc) will be shown, which will be unsuitable for people aged 12 year olds, as the BBFC say:
"Weapons which might be easily accessible to 12 year olds should not be glamorised in 12A and 12 works."
However for 15 year olds and over, this sort of weaponry is acceptable. Rating our film 15 also means our target audience is unchanged, as the age of our primary target audience is 15- 24.
There are two ways, we can source our (non-diegetic) music:
Create the music, through programs like garage band.
Use Pre-made music, through free websites like audionautix or incompetech.
These two ways allows us to obtain (non-diagetic) music that is free, and uncopyrighted.
Obviously diagetic music isn't a problem as we'll be capturing the sound whilst filming, as it is sound that comes from within the scene.
We need two types of music; one type, a fill sound effect, which will be played with our 'WindWall Productions' animation, and the other type, a sinister piece of music, which will be played with the remaining footage.
Garage Band
Choosing the type of music (far-right) according to what our genre is. Our genre is horror, so we'll be looking for dark, melodic, sinister music; as this type of music is associated with horror.
After choosing pieces of music, you can edit them in various ways. One way which will be useful to us, is to increase the bpm (beats per minute). This will help to convey a sense of urgency and panic within the film, adding to that scary effect that we are striving to achieve.
I was planning for this short piece of music to come in to play with the studio animation, which will feature before the actual footage. Its short tone, is very rememberable, which adds to the overall effect the film has on the audience.
2. Audionautix
I came across a piece of music from Incompetech, which I was particularly impressed with. The constant high-pitched noises and mechanical sounds created by percussions instruments, allows the music to gain suspense and tension as it progresses. All of which make the audience's viewing experience uncomfortable and unnerving. This is no doubt suited for a horror genre, which plays into our hands.
The advantages of this, in comparison to garage band, is that no hassle or time is put into creating the music, also the music tends to sound more professional when it comes from a website. However unlike garage band, you can only edit the music to a certain extent, therefore at some stages the music may seem a bit out of place in relation to the picture.
Animation of the studio's name, is very conventional and is used a lot in openings of films. So, we decided an animation of 'WindWall Productions' will feature at the start of our film opening.
Famous ones include Lionsgate, Disney and Warner Bros.
We were inspired by the warner bros animation, because it clearly states the production, without having to add to many special effects. This is very effective, and that is why the franchise can be identified worldwide.
We designed our animation on photoshop, because of its wide range of facilities.
Designing the font/effects of the text.
(Outer glow, Inner glow etc.)
Editing the animation and the movement of the text.
(Frame animation)
Previewing the product.
This isn't our final product. We still need to add music, background picture and a short piece of footage which will appear before this animation.
After receiving both positive and negative feedback from a few peers, they said they liked the movement and animation of the 'WindWall Productions', however the font was very plain.
After taking this feedback on board, I went back to the drawing board and came up with a second version:
When originally discussing what we wanted the narrative to be, we wanted to give the impression
that someone was in the house and had planned for people to enter the abandoned house and we also wanted to use a cast of teenagers to suit our target audience.
We created a variety of ways to try and make it appear that someone/something was in the house watching the group of people...
One of the ways we planned to do this was by having a shot of some photographs of the teenagers unaware that the photographs was being taken.
I would've used a polaroid camera and taken 'stalker' style photographs (Image 3)
and had the photographs falling in slow motion for the opening scene (Image 1), or zoomed out for a lot of photographs scattered on the floor. (Image 2)
These photographs were found on the internet, but represent what I would've wanted to include in our media product:
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Another way we would've created the impression someone was watching the group was through of giving the impression someone was waiting impatientally, to achieve this we planend to include some finger nails tapping, edited with through rapid cuts to help create suspense throughout the opening of the scene.
We also thought the best shot to create tension in the opening scene would be using a panning shot of the house.
I discovered the poem in the book below and thought it would be perfect to voice over the scene of Kieran walking up to the abandoned house. But unfortunately the poem is copyrighted so could not used in our openning.
The book 'Devil's Footsteps' where the poem is featured
We asked two people in our target audience age group questions about horror and also tried to include some aspects that we had in mind for our opening and ask for their views. We thought that asking a boy and a girl for opinions was a good idea because we would get feedback from both genders and this would help widen the target audience and who it would appeal to.
Costumes are a vital part to a genre
especially horror because different types of costumers can insinuate different
things.
Typical costumes in a horror film would be
plain and quite bland colours with not much detail. The costume can help the
audience understand what each of the characters are and there role.
Killers: Dark (evil, mysterious) Cloaks
(hiding something) Black (no emotion)
Victim: White (vulnerable, pure) red (danger)
Other characters: dull boring clothes,
earthy, brown, grey, green
Masks can be used to completely change the identity of a character and make them seem emotionless and not human in some cases this is seen in "Halloween" and "Friday 13th" both characters appear a lot more scary because they could be anyone even a character already introduced
The use of dark colors in horror is directy related to the reason many people are afraid of the dark. Darkness is associated with the unknown, since we cannot see what is in darkness. In cinema, this association can create dramatic tension because the audience will feel more unsure about what is going to happen next, which is an essential aspect of horror.
The colour red is usually associated with two main themes blood or romance, in horror films they sometimes use both and this works well for pulling on heart strings and making the audience sympathise.
Neutral colours are mainly used in horror films for the vulnerable characters because they are made to seem pure and innocent.
‘Unlike other genres, horror goes deeper, to explore more
fundamental questions about the nature of human existence’
‘Horror scares me because it challenges the unknown.’
‘Also characteristic to horror genre is the struggle of
good and evil. Originally horror films plotted some unthinkable monster against
an individual or group of people who must fight to stay alive. Over the years
the monster has mutated into several things including, lunatic fathers,
possessed children, ghosts, aliens, the psychotic murderer next door and these
are typical plots and characters in the films we see today.’
‘The feminist film theory believes that it is the women
that make the men behave in that way but they play no important role’
After looking at a number of sub genres in Horror, we decided to chose to create a Creature Feature Film, with elements of the super natural sub genre.
After deciding on the genre (Horror) and sub-genre (Haunted House) of our film, we then looked into the location of our film. For this sub-genre we had already had an abandoned house in mind, in which we could use. Then I went to have a look at the state of the House.
This abandoned house fitted the bill, it had - ripped up floorboards, smashed windows, crumbled walls, basic utility appliances still intact and the house still, just about standing. All of which is evident in these video/pictures below:
