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.
