Script

Joe: Oi, hurry up. Where have you been?

Billy: I had to persuade Liam, he didn’t want to come.

Elliot: why not?

Liam: because I don’t know where we are going.

Joe: I told Billy where we are going

Liam: He hasn’t told me anything

Joe: ok well we are…

Billy: shhh, don’t tell him

Joe: come here, I’ll tell you

Billy: No don’t, leave it as a surprise

Joe: Billy, come here

Joe: There was a girl named Hannah who was walking back from a party, people have said             she was with someone, they think it was a guy. Well she was walking back, all alone, her         friends left her before she came into the woods and no one has seen her since…Although         rumour has it, he lives around here

Billy: So we better be careful then eh boys

Joe: still coming?

Liam: hmmm, I’ve got a bad feeling

Elliot: oh come on

Liam: fine, lets go

Elliot: its getting dark guys, we better pick up the pace

Billy: does anyone have a torch?

Elliot: yeah

Billy: get it out then so we can see where we are going

Liam: (pointing to pit) Whats that?

Joe: Did you not hear? Its where he puts your body

Liam: Who’s he?

Joe: what? You don’t know who HE is?

Elliot: Well if the stories are true, you’ll soon find out.

Liam: Joe, stop scaring me man

Billy: He’s getting scared already haha

Joe: Elliot, help me out of here, its freaking me out.

Elliot: sure, give me your hand

The Thirst

Shot list

Shot #1. Long shot of all characters.

Shot #2. High angle/medium shot of all characters walking through woods

Shot #3. Medium shot of characters talking

Shot #4. Low angle shot/ tracking of one character

Shot #5. Medium shot /tracking of two characters

Shot #6. Long shot to close up of all characters.

Shot #7. Low angle of multiple characters

Shot #8. Match on action of character being helped out of ditch.

Film production mark

The mark you recieved at moderation for your production is 32/60. Targets for improvement are: work on your titles - you need names of actors and actresses and your titles need to fit the conventions of your genre. You also need to work on your sound - fade cars, record dialogue over the top (Mr Thornton said he spoke to you about this), continue music from opening titles in background - it stops too suddenly and is actually a great choice for setting the mood, so continue with it in the background. If you do this, your mark could improve significantly.

Film institution: paramount pictures (big six)

We have chosen to use Paramount, from 'The Big Six' to use in our opening two minutes due to the fact that the institution Paramount has been used by horror films before such as Friday the Thirteenth and My Bloody Valentine. It was because of Paramount's previous experiences with filming horror movies that we decided to include it in the opening of our horror movie.

Film institution (our own)

This is a test intro we made as a possible logo. We were thinking of using this for the opening of our film howeverthe colour scheme i used doesn't match up with those traditionally used by film companies that specialise in the Horror genre. Based on previous analysis of institutions specialising in the Horror genre, i've realised that black backgrounds with either a white or red font overlapping. Meaning i'm either going to have to change the colourscheme of this current clip, swapping the blue for red (to symbolise blood and evil), or i'm going to have to start from scratch,in order to make an opening more suited to our genre of a horror movie.

Storyboard

Own film treatment

The opening scene starts with two of the characters waiting for two other boys. They then start to walk into the woods. We have used the low key lighting to our advantage as it is a main code for a horror genre. The characters start to talk about a girl that went missing in the woods so they have decided to stay where this incident happened. When they are walking through the woods they reach a pit, this interests the boys and they start to talk about what the pit is used for. In the camera shot we can see a half buried boot but the characters are unaware of this so they keep on moving. The next shot is match on action of Elliott helping Joe out of the pit. When they reach the shack, we started to use close ups to show the audience how serious the story being told. The last shot is of the antagonists staring at the shack whilst holding deadly weapons.

Basic editing tutorial

Sony Vegas Pro 12 Beginners guide.

This is just a basic tutorial i found on YouTube, teaching me some basic techniques about how to use the software. This tutorial made it so much easier to edit our film, as it taught me things such as importing media, cutting and trimming, adding video fx, saving your project and exporting/rendering the clip.
 

 

Mood board

This mood board shows several things that we want to include in our film. The first image is of the Blair Witch Project, we have got inspiration from this film in several ways. At first we thought we could use the idea of filming it like a 'home movie', we would have needed a camera with less good quality in order to show the differences between the cameras. Another aspect of inspiration we got from the Blair Witch Project was the location, it is situated in a dense forest. This location denotes darkness and mystery as you can't see much due to the trees obscuring the light.
The weapons (axe, hammer and hand held scythe) are on this to show that the antagonists are gruesome and far from professional killers. This brings an aspect of reality to the film because no ordinary person will expect to be killed by a professional killer. This brings it closer to home and people will expect that it is a possibility it will happen to them.
There are several masks on the story board because we thought we would dress the antagonists all in black and find masks to hide their faces. This would hide their emotions and expressions making it more scary because you can't predict what they will do if you can't see their face. Both masks are from the horror movie Saw, they are used very effectively in this film so it inspired us to use a similar idea.
We have put the picture of the road on the mood board because the film starts with the group of teenagers driving towards the woods on a road, they then walk away from it for a while, this shows how far away from civilisation they are and even if help comes, it will take a while to get to them.
The final two pictures show a wooden shack and woods in the dark. After watching The Blair Witch Project, we were inspired to film in the woods because it is easy to be selective over what the audience see's. It also allows the audience to see lots of silhouettes of trees and this creates tension because they think any silhouette could be the antagonist. We also chose to film in a wooden shack because it looks isolated and far from any help. It also shows that the protagonists wouldn't be comfortable in this location whereas the antagonist may be.

Research and planning provisional mark

Name of student: Liam Turner

	Done?	Comment/target
RESEARCH
Genre Research and mind-maps	YES
Uploaded YouTube videos of openings - analysed	Not complete	You need to have at least 10 opening scenes analysed in detail – I could only see three
Opening titles analysed in detail – font researched		Make sure you comment on fonts used in opening titles in the rest of the opening scenes analysis you will do. Explain how the fonts may have influenced your own ideas for the font for your film. What did/didn’t you like and why? How might you achieve a similar look?
Uploaded YouTube videos of similar genre openings analysed in detail	Not complete	You need to have at least 10 opening scenes analysed in detail – I could only see three
Costume and location research – google earth and pictures you’ve taken.	YES	Good detail of comments
Actors and props photos and interviews	Props – yes Interviews - no
Soundtrack research (non-copyright music)	YES
Audience Research and Profiling (typical audience member and similar films)	YES
Institution research (Paramount etc)	YES
Certificate research	YES
PLANNING
Own film idea brainstorm	YES
Own film treatment	?
Relevant Online Tutorials and Comment	YES
Documenting of influences on production	?	Codes and conventions discussed
Shot lists	YES
Consideration  of representation in your film and stereotyping – use theory from G325.	?	Codes and conventions discussed – could you go into more detail, using the theory you have looked at with Miss Picken?
Questionnaire (and feedback) Get some feedback on your initial ideas!	YES
Diary of filming/editing etc with photos and screen grabs	NO
Mood board	Not uploaded	Complete this, with comments and upload it
Script	NO
Practice titles created and uploaded	NO
Storyboard – animatic.	NO	This is very very important
Time Management Schedule	YES

 

 

Research and planning mark scheme:

 

Level 2

8–11 marks

Planning and research evidence may be partially incomplete;

There is basic research into similar products and a potential target audience;

There is basic organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props;

There is basic work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding;

There is a basic level of care in the presentation of the research and planning;

Time management may not be good.

 

Level 3

12–15 marks

Planning and research evidence will be complete;

There is proficient research into similar products and a potential target audience;

There is proficient organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props;

There is proficient work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding;

There is a good level of care in the presentation of the research and planning;

Time management is good; there is a schedule of filming

There is no animatic storyboard and/or mood board

 

Level 4

16–20 marks

Planning and research evidence will be complete and detailed;

There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience;

There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props;

There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding;

There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning;

Time management is excellent.

Research and planning mark      11/20       Level 2

Lots to do Liam, but certainly not an impossible task. Work your way through the checklist methodically, making sure you comment on each post – how it has influenced your own ideas, what your thought processes have been etc

Soundtrack research

For our music, we have got a fellow pupil at our sixth form to produce the score. We began by researching music used in other horror films. We discovered that the music is usually very simple (repetitive), in a minor key and either very high in pitch or very low. The music will usually be eerie, connoting a supernatural feel or even a false sense of comfort making the audience feel uneasy. An example of this would be Tiny Tim - Tiptoe Through The Tulips (used in Insidious) or Mike Oldfields Tubular Bells (used in The Exorcist).
The instruments used in horror music is usually strings or electronic synthesisers, beginnning with a simple riff and repeating, gradually gaining volume and speed to raise tension.

Codes and conventions of our film.

In our opening two minutes we have clearly shown most of the codes and conventions of a horror film. we have used low key lighting, young characters, a clear binary option of good and evil and a dominant representation of male villain. We have failed to use a hand held camera, a female victim and an extensive use of close ups and low angle shots. We have tried to use the three act narrative structure as we get to know who the main characters are and what they are dong within the first two scenes. We then get to the mid point of the structure where the characters are introduced to an enigma of a missing girl, this is then enforced by a half burried boot in one of the shots. The boot isnt seen by the main characters so they are still unaware of how close to the antagonist they are. The midpoint starts when they get to a safe enclosed enviroment (the shack). we are then introduced to the antagonists by a shot of them standing close by with weopns in their hands.

Title and font resarch.

We have chosen The thirst for the title of our film, the only thing that we are unsure about is what font to use. We decided to choose fonts that represent a horror film to show our audience what to expect. The colour scheme for our title will be a dark red to connote to the audience evil and blood. We have narrowed it down to three fonts it is out of ghastly panic, horrifind and DHF story brush. This is because the horrifind font looks like dripping blood, this links to our theme. Ghastly panic has been chosen because it looks like something that can be carved into a tree. The DHF story brush was chosen because it links to the theme of horror genre.

Costume and prop research

Costume and Prop research.

The costumes that we will be using for our film will be casual clothing - no different to what we would normally wear. This is because in most Horror films, the protagonists will be wearing causal clothing (connoting that they are relaxed and not particularly worried about the apparent dangers). Another reason as to why this clothing is worn is to show the characters immaturity (they are not wearing suits because they are teenagers or young adults who don't have much wisdom or experience).

The antagonists of the opening will be wearing all black costumes, this connotes that they are evil, dark and mysterious. As we will be filming in the dark, this also connotes that this character is more at home in the dark woods than the protagonists who will be wearing brighter colours. We would also like to find plain white masks as shown in the mood board to further strip any personality from the villains. Masks will also cover the faces to make them look less human and it will also cover up any emotions. If we are not able to find any plain white masks, Halloween masks is a second option, this would connote a more gruesome and unprofessional antagonist because instead of wearing hi-tech attire he is wearing something that can be bought anywhere, implying inexperience. If no masks can be found then we have some balaclavas that could be worn. This would connote more of a thug like villain as well as an inexperienced one like with the Halloween masks.

 

Final film idea

Decided film idea

We have decided to film our seccond movie idea - the Horror genre. We chose this idea over the action one because of our work and school scheduals, as they meant that we could only meet up from when it was getting dark onwards. Because of these part time jobs we thought that it would be better to shoot a Horror movie due to how dark the light would be outside, as darkness suits the happenings of a Horror movie better than the happenings of an action film.

Darkness also suits our location better as well as it makes the forrest seem even scarier, again playing on the audiances fear of the unknown. It also means that a torch will be the only light source, which is to our advantage as it means that we can hide anything at the location that we dont want the audiance to see, such as the jumps and other things related to the trails.

Stereotypes in horror films

Stereotypes tend to have a main group of protagonists made up of thrill seeking teenagers/young adults. They will either go out looking for an adrenaline rush and the risk turns out to be greater than expected leading to several grotesque deaths and mutilations with one of the group (the least expected) surviving to tell the tale. During this sort of horror movie, the group will be made up of males and females, with the males usually teasing the frightened females but soon realising the danger is real and imminent. The stereotypes presented in this sort of horror film is the males being strong, brave, aggressive and usually sports junkies. The females will usually be presented in the opposite way, needing help from the males in the way of protection and guidance. the stereotypes of females is easily scared, fairly glamorous and reluctant to continue on the 'journey'. The majority of the group will be made up of young adults or teenagers. the stereotypes of this age group are thrill-seekers who care little for society and conventions. They will usually be reckless and unsuspecting of any real catastrophe happening to them. Examples of this is Friday the 13th and all the Wrong turn films.

Another type of horror movie tends to have a smaller cast with the main antagonist choosing several victims and murdering them one by one. The villain will tend to prey on females as they are stereotypically weaker than males and helpless when alone. He will approach them in a creepy way - such as in scream, where the antagonist rings the victims phone and tells them that he can see them. This slowly raises the tension and keeps the audience in suspense until the killer appears.