This is the make up we used while filming, We used fake blood, white paint
(to create the dead look / life less) and black paint to create a tired black eye effect.
This is our main character and here we have gone with a simple natural looking make up. Her pale skins suggest purity and she has slightly pinky cheeks this suggests innocence also she has a simple bun in her hair shows her full face which means the audience will be able to her emotions fully,The audience can also see her youthful looking face fully.
This is the sort of make up we will be aiming for however we will also make a pale face with very messy hair, these aspects will signify what the young girls part she will be playing is. He role in a way is to mes with the mind of our protagonist the messy hair on our antagonist character symbolises how she messes with the mind of our protagonist character.
This is the make up we are going to use to create the desired effect of a young dead girl, We will be using fake blood and white face paint mixed with a foundation to make a pale looking face to signify death.
After doing some research into the final girl we have understood that they show purity and innocence with their appearance.We are aiming to achieve this effect by giving our protagonist character quite a pale face of make up to suggest purity and pinkish cheeks which we believe suggests innocence. Also we have put her hair up in a simple bun, this allows the audience to clearly see all facial expressions and emotions as none of her face is covered.
This is the natural look of make up we used on our main character, we believed that this look fits out story board but also creates an innocent look which is associated with the final girl.
After looking at these existing and present ideas of a dead girls clothing we have decided to go with the outfit of old pyjamas that the young girl would possibly wear on a day to day basis when she was alive, we are going to create an old look to the pyjamas by creasing them and making then a bit dirty and potentially ripped.
After looking at existing physiological horrors that feature a young girl to see what kind of convention they involve but also what ideas we could take from looking at these to inspire our second characters costumer and looks. We think that the young girl from the ring would help the most with inspiring our ideas as we are looking to meet this desired effect.
Due to me and my group creating an opening sequence this is when films introduce all the main characters etc., after looking at the existing example of a physiological horror (The Purge) I found that the title credits go in this order:
Studio that presents it
The production company
Character (starring) - these are shown when the character makes there first appearance
We have chosen to complete a focus group to ensure that our potential target market are satisfied by our ideas and how we are planning to do however this also gives them a chance to give any other suggest that they would like to see through out this opening scene we will be creating.
Here are the questions we will be asking to prompt the people taking part in the focus group.
This is a prompt sheet so before we begin our focus group our participants are aware of what we have already planned, I believe this will help with our focus group and they will have a brief knowledge on our ideas to this point and how we plan to do it.
This video shows our focus group that me and my group conducted, We have chosen to use a range of people from our year group that are not necessarily our closes friends. Now we have filmed this me and my group will look over our focus group and reflect on what we have found out from it and how we can use this information to develop our ideas if required to.
What have we found out from our focus group and how will we use this to develop our ideas.
Me and my group collaborated together and analysed what we have found out from our focus group.
Firstly, What would you say a physiological horror is?
There response to this question was " as scary film that messes with your mind" From this we can see that they have a brief understanding of how this type of horror works but not a very detailed idea.
What are your expectations when watching a horror film?
There response was "to be scared" again this is a brief answer but this is the main aim of a horror film in general but to add there is a scared feeling built by intrigue and suspension.
Who would you expect to be represented as vulnerable?
firstly there was the answer of "someone who is young and weak then the answer of a female" Thinking these answers together this suggests they know that a female is repsesnted as vulnerable and weak.
What makes and engaging opening sequence?
The answered with a "pathetic fallacy for example when the weather creates the mood" This is a code that could be hinting at something more.
What would you find interesting within a horror film?
"An intimidating main character" From this response we could see that they wanted to have something that scared then before there were any more codes that would be to unfolded through out.
Within a psychological horror film, what would you expect the antagonist (villain) to be? And what attributes would they show?
They would expect the villain to be "male" This is potentially due to the male gaze theory or to link to the final girl who is usually against the villain
Do you have any other suggestions of titles for our horror film?
"the house" was the suggested name however we have chosen to stick with our house as there is 2 girls that don't physically share a house but physiologically do
Do you have any further suggestions on location based upon the title you have suggested
There was a mention of an abandoned house however due to our conditions we wouldn't be able to access an abandoned house.
Do you think our opening sequence would give too much away or would it leave the audience wanting to find out more?
From the prompt sheet we have then before this focus group they have said that from the description we gave then they believe the audience would want to know more
Do you think flashbacks/ flash forwards would be affective to grasps the audience attention?
They believe that both could be effective but as a media student we decided as a group to just stick with the flashbacks we has planned to prevent confusion.
Sounds
I have decided to do some research into sound tracks from popular existing physiological horrors, I have done this so when I am furthering my research I know what sound tracks to use to create an effective piece that fits with the specific effective soundtracks. There will be effective digetic and non-diegetic sounds that we can incorporate into our opening scene. This will help us when editing our preliminary task but also help us when we are creating and editing our actual final opening sequence.
Here is one of the examples of existing films I looked at.
I have also found out that there are back ground sounds like screams and bangs that add to the intrigue and interest of the audience.
Lighting
The lighting is usually quite dark but light enough to figure out what is in the environment around the character shown in that scene. After looking at existing examples such as the Purge and Paranormal activity I noticed a common theme of darkness with some bits with specific lighting to connote that something significant is happening. Me and my group will use natural light but also some torch light in the darker areas of our chosen location.
We will incorporate a flashback in our opening sequence to when the present dead girl (second character) was alive and was living in the house our main character is now living in. we believe this would be effective as it would give the audience an incentive of what this girls role consists of and what her back ground was, if the audience have a brief understanding they may feel more involved with the main character and hopefully will lead to them feeling emotive for her and the emotions of her.
In our opening scene there will be a girl who has just moved
into a new house and didn't but she didn't want to as she knew the history of
the house which her parents didn't; she didn't want to tell them as it was
there dream home. In her mind she thought to herself “its won’t be true, the
house won’t be haunted” but this was proven to be true and the house was haunted.
This would grasp the attention of the audience as they will immediately want to
know why this house is haunted and how did it become haunted (they will be
asking questions from the beginning). At the beginning there will be an
establishing shot of the house which will then zoom into the front door to
signify that behind this door is where it all changes. After this the door will
be opened slowly and this is where the tension begins to be built up representing
the haunted side of this ‘normal’ looking house, the camera will steadily be
moved up the stairs of the house to the bedroom where the first aspect of
mystery will occur. In this room will belay a 16-17 year old looking girl who
is loved up to her head by a duvet, this represents she is hiding from
something. The focus will then be on this girl by zooming into an extreme close
up with the recording of her suddenly opening her eyes after hearing a very
mysterious voice. One of our main props is located in this room, the mirror which
plays a huge part in the opening scene as this is where the first figure will
be scene! And the intrigue of the audience increases even more as they will see
this figure and question what it was and what part it will have to play on the
girl and the rest of the film. The figure is the evil and the girl is the vulnerable
good, linking to binary opposition. Further on into the opening scene this girl
keeps hearing strange noises and her actions change suddenly. She is
represented as vulnerable and a ‘normal girl’ this suggests she will be the ‘final
girl’ and will survive against these peculiar figures. In addition it is not only in this room where the girl will hear strange noises , there will be a strange scratching noise that will come from the kitchen downstairs this would add the intrigue and the tension built to have an effect on the audience. Once she has seen the figure in the mirror this is when the horror really starts to unfold as this is when the audience really feel connected with the girl. The enigma codes will be linked very much with the opening scene as the audience have a sense of mystery to who this figure is and how they will effect the girl.
I believe this opening scene would appeal to our target
audience as they are a similar age to the girl who is playing the main role and
they may also might not have wanted to move into a house there parents did in
the past. In addition our target audience likes the aspect of being scared by a
film also receiving adrenaline which we will have achieved as there is a build
up to one very specific event, this means there will be tension which will then
be released to this sudden point. In addition our audience looks for particular
conventions and aspects in physiological horror for example it to be set in a realistic
setting which we have achieved by setting it in a house. In addition they
expect there to be realistic props that look like they should belong in a house
but they have a twist on them I the opening scene.
As a group we aim to create an opening sequence that grasps the audience attention at all times, we will do this with the use of enigma codes. These codes aim to cause intrigue for the audience increasing their attention into our opening sequence.
The lighting used on the stairs of our opening sequence is suite dark but light enough to see the shadow of the antagonist character. We have decided to incorporate this into our opening sequence as after looking at existing opening sequences we noticed that the lighting features on the stairs is dark but allows the audience to see any figures that could connote some detail for future in the film.
During the planning period of our opening sequence, we have
been continuously thinking about effective ways of how we could approach the creation
of the opening sequence. We have adjusted our ideas during this process as we
have had ideas popping into our heads which we think would be appropriate to
incorporate into it. To begin the process we looked at existing products for ensures
I have an understanding of our chosen genre. We then collated and thought of
some ideas however we then questioned how we would remember and incorporate all
these. In the end we decided that the use of a story board would be much more effective,
therefore due to this decision me and my group all sat down and collaborated on
ideas and create an effective story board. We thought about the initial ideas
and used the best ideas that would ensure we achieved the most appropriate
opening sequence to suit the target market.
After we have filmed all our shots and clips we will then
need to go onto editing to ensure we meet our desired effect as well as we can;
to help us to this we will use final cut pro to edit the videos to create one
flowing opening scene. We will be using ken burns to create a zoomed focus on
the front door initially as this will create curiosity to what is behind that
door also the door will open to the mystery that is about to occur during the opening
scene. Ken burns will be a very significant effect when we are editing as it
will allow us to focus on specific items and this could be a hint for later on
in the opening sequence or a hint to what would happen in the rest of the film
if we were to create one. Black and white could be used to suggest the time of
this opening scene to be set also we could use black and white when using flash
back to suggest what happened in the past (hints). Flash forwards or flash
backs would be effective for us as a flash back could just what has happened in
this house before this new family moved in to link to the mystery of the house.
Finally transition, we could use fade as this could signify the fading memories
of this houses history. This would link to the intrigue of the audience and
there interest in the house. Also we could use a very focused transition for example
Iris to hint that the object or thing focused on is very important within the opening
scene.
Will we are producing our opening scene we will use a wide
range of shot types and transition to grasp our desired effect of mystery and intrigue.
Firstly, we will use an establishing shot at the very beginning of our opening
sequence. We believe this would be effective as it would create mystery and intrigue
also we think it would make the audience ask what is different about this
house. Also we will be using extreme close up shots on the girls face to show
her emotions but before we show this close up we will create a long shot to
show her in her surrounding environment and her reaction to it. The transitions
we use will vary as there will be some sudden noises which will require a quick
transition to suggest shock and a scared atmosphere. But at other point we will
use a smooth transition to suggest a calm but intense atmosphere surrounding the
house. Overall we will be using a variety of shot types and transitions to
create a real sense of mystery and makes the audience question what will be
happening next.
I will use creativity in conventions though the use of many
different camera shots and angles also the use of movement with the camera; the
editing will also add to the creativity linking to the setting and narrative as
well. We will be starting off with an establishing shot of the location this will
immediately create a sense of mystery within the beginning also we are planning
on using final cut pro to edit it to add the he mystery of the first shot we
will be using ken burns to zoom onto the door. They diegetic sounds of the
natural environment will make it link in to the themes of physiological horrors
as they are set in realistic locations this will also create intrigue immediately,
There will be rolling leaves and the sound of the wind and anything else that
will be happening in that place at that time, However the sounds once entered
the house will change completely to suggest mystery. A very key convention of a
horror film is the lighting and this will be used to our advantage when filming
the whole horror scene. The only problem with this convention (lighting) is
that it could cause the filming to look less professional and of a bad quality
due to blurry lighting However we can work through this with editing to meet
our desired effect we will be aiming for. Finally, the movement of the camera
will be essential to the creation of the opening scene as we need to make the
narrative clear and if there is no movement the narrative won’t be clear.
I have done some research into different distributors that categories different genres however I have found 3 specific ones that focus on the horror genre. Hammer production
This distributor was founded by William Hinds, Hammer is best known for a series of Gothic “Hammer Horror”
films made in the 1950’s until the 1970’s. However during the late 1960’s and
1970’s the saturation of horror films by competitors and the loss of American
funding forces changes to the Hammer formula and production. They produced films including Dracula, The
mummy and the Curse of Frankenstein.
Rogue production
Kavanugh (the current owner) bought it from Universal around 4 years ago it is
like a lot of the other companies out there in that it produces plenty of
non-horror titles like the documentary sensation Catfish, but is just as well
known for making horror movies at a specific budget level. They also do some
remakes like Faces of Death, The company spends most of its time on original
material that might possibly become a franchise like the strangers.
Previous films are Seed of Chucky, Cry Wolf, The Return and
The Strangers
Lionsgate production
It is a Canadian American company that was formed in
Vancouver, British Columbaria on the 3rd July 1997 and has
headquarters in Santa Monica, California. From the November 2013 it is the most
commercially successful mini major film distribution company in North America.
They are a film company that makes, produce and distributes horror film
Films including: The last exorcism, the cabin in the woods.
Blumhouse productions
It is an American horror movie production company which was
founded by Jason Blum. Blumhouse produces small and low-budget horror movies.
It also produces comedy, sci-fi but several horrors.
These include the Paranormal Activity, Insidious, The Purge,
and Sinister franchises.
We have chosen to use the "plum house" productions for our opening scene as they were successful with paranormal activity and that is the sort of film we will be producing.
Location The home owner gave permission of my group to film outside and inside their house as they knew it was for educational purposes.
Our location will be a house, we have decided this because
after look at existing films of the physiological horror like the conjuring and
other we have notices they are set in houses that have an old look to them. The
house we will be using to film our opening scene is an old Victorian terrace;
it contains a basement which will play a significant part. The house is
surrounded by trees and other houses with a similar look to them which would be
significant if we were to do a full film. The house will be the only location
we will be using as this will help us meet our desired effect which will be to
provoke fear with in the audience.
This is the old looking house we will be using within out opening sequence.
This is the front door to the house that will play a part in our opening scene when it is opening or knocked on my a mysterious character.
This is the spooky basement which is scary on a day to day basis so when we are filming it will be even more intriguing as we will use different sounds and lighting to seem scarier than it already is.
These stairs are known for creaking which will come in very handy when we are filming our opening scene.
This is located at the top of the stairs so when we are filming we can use different shot types to make the audience sense the mystery as they are approaching this bed room from the stairs.
Props
Due to our opening sequence being a physiological horror the
props we will be using will be house hold items and this will also link to our
location being a house; this will further on the idea of realism.Also if some of the props move they will
create a paranormal effect with the sounds they will make
This mirror will have a huge role in our opening sequence as
this is where a mysterious shadow will first be scene and this is a hint for
the later on in the opening sequence.
These curtains have an old look to them due to the colour also they will link into the mystery of the shadow that will appear in the mirror.
Font As a group we looked at some existing physiological horror opening trailers and looked at the fonts they used. Paranormal activity-
The font used in this is a very simple bold white font that is contrasting to the dark back ground of the opening sequence, we could use this type of font as our plan is to create something that is quite dark and spooky to connote how haunted the house is.
The Purge
The font used in The Purge again is a simple white bold font type, meaning that this could suggest ghostly features but also to ensure it stands out, After looking at this example and comparing it to Paranormal activity I have noticed that they are both white and bold meaning they stand out to the audience.
As a group we liked the thought of a type writer font as the font links to the realism of
an old house , We will be using an old house hold type writer font. We are
using this as we believe it is an old fashioned item with an old fashioned
font. In addition it will link to the paranormal and the ideology of the
opening sequence. Due to the house having an old look to it the type writer would fit in perfectly. However due to limitations on final cut pro we might need to slightly adjust how it looks slightly but to still fit in with the old house feel. Here we will also be challenging the convention of a typical horror film by changing the font type to the usual used. We asked our target audience what they thought of the type writer font and what they thought of it, The feedback was that it fit in much better with our ideas so far rather than using the same as existing horrors.
When planning for our preliminary task we first started by discussing our ideas and drawinga rough sketch of our ideas to get a grasp of the idea in reality ; we started a story board to put ideas down with extra details of aspects like sound and shot types that we would use for these specific shots. Our story board allows us to develop our ideas on that specific shot and makes it easier when we are filming as we know what we are doing with that shot type.
Filming
During our filming it went quite smoothly as we have done a story board beforehand , By doing a story board it helped us to organise and have an over view of what we need to include and when we are going to include these. Also storyboard makes us a group feel more prepared and organised while filming. Due to us specifying what type of shot type we will be using it helped speed up the filing process. In addition this will also help when we go onto to editing as we will already have a brief idea of what kind of sounds we will be using.
At the beginning of filming we had a bit of a struggle to set up the correct lighting and scene however we compromised and shut all the blinds and then decided to turn on one specific set of lighting behind the camera to ensure the light wasn’t too bright. Then on we were sufficiently filming including all the required shot types. However after an hour of filing we then realised we had been filming with eh incorrect angle of portrait instead of landscape. But we didn’t intend to as the Ipad screen span itself. However due to our story board we could then just go back and re film it all within a short space of time as we knew what went wrong and how to correct but also we had our storyboard to follow so we didn’t miss anything out that we had filmed previously. After these complications our filming went to plan and was very sufficient and quick but also to a high quality as we were using the required shot types which are shot reverse shot , match on action and 180 degree rule. To ensure we had done the filming to the best of our ability we watched over each cut to see if there was anything else we could do to improve it to make it more effective.
We are now going to go onto edit this short clip to add to it , this will help us to also link it in more with the horror genre that we have chosen.
Editing
After our filming we began to edit our clips to create our video for a required prelim task,
Firstly we had to import our media from the I pad; we had issues doing this as they simply wouldn’t import off the I pad onto the IMac, However the managed to get them onto the IMac after a couple of attempts... I was frustrating however we got it done, we then imported them onto final cut pro (which we managed on the first attempt), after this we then ordered them on our timeline on this software; our story board helped us with this as we already know the order. After we managed to upload it we then put them all in order on our timeline we created on final cut pro , I was worried as I didn’t think that the quality of the filming on the I pad would be very good however I could improve this when editing. After it was all in order on our time line we watched through it and saw where we had made filming mistakes and deleted them out built then we also watch it through again to see what we needed to crop out of the cut to ensure it flowed smoothly and there wasn’t any jumps, we then notice a few more filming error for example a thumb on the corner of the screen from the camera girl so we used to trim and crop tool to get rid of these to ensure we have a high quality looking opening scene. After we had done all the cropping and trimming we then watched it through again to see our progress and to discuss what sound and colours we could edit into it now, firstly we were looking for available sound on final cut pro however there wasn’t any suitable ones that would be extremely affective apart from the back ground noise, So we did some research and found a website called sound bible which had many horror based sounds that we could interpret into our short clip. We have used a fading in and out of the sounds to ensure it doesn’t sound too blocky. We turned down the sound of the backing music when there was dialogue during out 180 degree and shot reverse shot camera angles, we used these shot types during dialogue as we thought it would be most effective for the audience, also we lowered the sound so that the focus is on the dialogue, this hints to it being a sign. Towards the end there is a very intriguing section where one of the people playing a part saw something so we added a different sound affect here to suggest there was something new in the room that added to the scare factor.
We had some specific requirements(shot reverse shot , match on action , 180 degree rule) we had to meet during filming and during the editing process we could ensure that they were there. Due to our clip being horror based we needed to ensure that even we were editing we sued a suitable filter to make it look more intriguing and 'scary' , we did this by adding a black and white 50's look which added to the interest of it.
After doing this task I have developed my knowledge on final cut pro and how to use it more efficiently and how to import sounds from other places , all these row skills I have learnt and the old once that I have developed I will be able to use in my final piece (opening scene)
These are screenshots of where we used shot reverse shot but we also incorporated 180 degree rule in here as well to ensure it came across as they were talking to each other
This is an example of when we use match on action to show her walking through the door.
