By Naomi, Russell & Khemi

Production PositionOriginally, there were four members to our group. Recently one

member chose to leave the group and we had to work around this.

• Naomi – Typeface; responsible for exploring different fonts, sizes, colours which coordinate with the genre.

• Khemi – Research into the musical elements of horror films and how music is used to set the mood and create suspense.

• Russell - will be looking at the work of the camera in horror films in order to have input in these areas later on.

• Diana (The member who left) – Storyboard; Think up a suitable story for the title sequence and organise it onto a storyboard on paper which is accessible by all members of the group. As Diana left the group Khemi took on this role as we all discussed as a group a story line we found effective.

Pre-Production Planning

We explored different title sequences from all different genre’s some being from the films:- Comedy – ‘Catch me if you can’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaLDyrun_Cc

- Romance – ‘Romeo and Juliet’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sukP4NpPVE

- Action – ‘Casino Royale’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWEPGNjDi1M

- Horror - ‘Panic Room’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqIclb4qsJI

After discussing with the group we agreed that we felt horror would be a more interesting title sequence to do.When Diana was in our group she had an idea of a storyline which she felt would be effective for our production and worked with the genre we had chosen, she discussed this with our group and we all agreed that it would be effective.

Genre

Pre-Production Planning

After deciding Genre we brainstormed ideas as to what we thought made a horror film successful including things such as a good narrative, an unexpected twist in plot as the film progresses, and “jumpy moments” in attempt to scare the audience. Following this we began discussing horror films that successfully embody the ideas above, such as “Scream”, “Orphan” and “Drag Me To Hell”. We also shared accounts of scary situations that happened in real life.

What Makes a Horror Film Successful?

Horror Film Conventions Blood Death Killing Villain Victims Haunted houses and isolated settings Monsters Supernatural Evil Suspense

Storyline SynopsisStoryline was partly inspired by a previous group member’s ‘true story’ of an

experience a family member had. Much of the content is also inspired by the film we chose to look at in the most depth which was ‘Drag Me to Hell’…

It’s just a normal day in the selfish self obsessed world of Joseph Francis; his manager shouting at him in one ear accompanied by the voices of angry

customers and screaming phones in the other. Of course, little does he know that this day was going to be far different from any other he had

experienced. Born into an Christian family, Joseph dismissed any idea of there being a God when he was robbed of his parents at the age of 8 in their efforts to defend

him as a burglar ravaged their home.Consumed by hatred and bitterness, Joseph became cruel and as cold as the

marble steps that he used to walk up to enter the mosque.However, when Joseph encounters a sinister spirit in the image of an elderly woman he becomes cold not because of his hatred towards God and those

who took his parents… but through terror and fear. Will Joseph rediscover and restore his faith in God and forgive those who

caused him so much pain, or will he be consumed by the evil that not only resides inside him, but floats before his very eyes… The Stranger…

Title Sequence Content We wanted to our title sequence to draw viewers in straight away

and decided that the best way to do this would be to display thetitles over moving image i.e. the opening scene. Animationwouldn’t really have suited this kind of film and sticking to asimple title sequence like that of Saul Bass’s ‘Man With the

Golden Arm’ would not have done the job.

When the time came to begin storyboarding, we knew we wanted to show our main character’s journey through the park and his encounter with the ‘Stranger’, but we weren’t sure where to end the sequence…

StoryboardingThe First Draft… (Draft 1)

In this draft of the storyboard wanted to see the following things:

•A close-up of the main character’s feet and mid shots of him as he walks through the park. Text overlays are meant to appear in different corners of the screen throughout these shots.

•His encounter with strange woman

•A shot of main character running away after seeing woman in true form.

•A shot of his house from outside then of him lying on his bed traumatised. Then,

•The title ‘Stranger’ appearing screen over black background.

StoryboardingRevised Storyboard (Draft 2)

We weren’t quite happy with this ending and thought it would be a better idea to cut out the shot of main character running away and those of his house and him on his bed and end it differently.

We decided to instead fade in (through white) the main title after a ‘The Ring’ style CU shot of the our scary woman, then end the sequence with a shot of our main character waking up suddenly. This would suggest everything just seen had been a dream or some kind of flashback.

This would get viewers already asking questions which is exactly what we wanted to achieve.

StoryboardingTitle Sequence Ending

This is an scanned image of the end section of the second draft of the storyboard.We have recently had to revise the tenth frame due to concerns about whose bedroom we would use and how convenient it would be. We decided it would be easier to set it in the college and have him waking up during a lesson after falling asleep at a computer desk or something along those lines.

StoryboardingFinal Revision

1 2 3 4 5

6 87 9 10

11 12 13 14 15

Casting & Costume

The only other challenge we faced was getting the costumes and make-up ready and figuring out who was available on which days so we could start planning our production schedule…

Whilst studying the casting to ‘Drag me to hell’ we realised that choosing your actors/actresses is a crucial part of the film. Casting can only be chosen after the plot is in place which we learnt from the producer of ‘Drag me to hell’ in his explanation on behind the scenes of ‘Drag me to hell’.

we wanted an actor/actress which fitted the character profile and felt the audience would also become connected too.

Cast

After we established this, some research was done into the impact of gender on a horror film audience.It was found that Males tend to prefer violent and gory horror films e.g. Saw and that Women are more likely to be drawn to films where the story is told from a woman’s point of view and the woman is the main protagonist of heroine.

"Recent high grossing horror movies such as The Ring and The Grudge all had predominantly female audiences" - Laura Standley, The Temple News Online.

Audience

It is a well known fact that a large sector of a horror film’s audience is made up of teenagers as many researchers have stated this, so it was clear that it would be a good idea to try and appeal to a teen audience as much as possible. An obvious way of doing this was to make the main character of young adult age which we did.

Establishing Target Audience

Mood BoardThe Rain – barriers, the wet dampening his thoughts. Bad weather represents hurt and struggles.Head spinning – Confusion, no sense of direction.Grey spirals – works with head spinning. The colour sets a negative mood and the spirals represent no set path, a stand still to the characters every day life.The woman underneath the storm – represents evilOld person sleeping on the bench – vulnerability, tiredness and exhaustion. Emotions picture – different emotions which are felt and represented to the audience. Man sleeping – represents last scene in the production.Dead end sign – Characters life coming to a stand still.

Costume + Make-up

We were going to have the Stranger woman dressed in rag-like clothes and then in a red dress when she is shown in her true form.

We then had to re-asses this as the colouring didn’t really fit in with the nature of her character.

A ghostly figure usually appears in rags or in off-white, white or some kind of pale attire. Red whilst it can be associated with danger or anger, it is more often used to symbolise passion and sexuality, especially when on a female.

As far a make-up was concerned, we drew some inspiration from Halloween costumes and immortal characters from other films.

Casting & Costume

Shot from ‘Drag Me to Hell’…

Whilst studying the casting to ‘Drag me to hell’ we realised that choosing our actors/actresses is a crucial part of the film. Casting can only be chosen after the plot is in place which we learnt from the producer of ‘Drag me to hell’ in his explanation on behind the scenes of ‘Drag me to hell’.

Casting

When choosing the cast for ‘Drag me too hell’ the producer identified someone who they felt stood out and related to the character, they chose a person who the audience would feel sympathy towards. Our group decided that we wanted to follow the same technique; we wanted an actor/actress which fitted the character profile and felt the audience would also become connected too.

CASTING & COSTUME

Type Face - Naomi

Fonts

Sizes

Positioning

Layout

I explored different fonts using www.youtube.com and by entering word processors and seeing which fonts are available on a basic programme’s. As our genre is Horror I investigated which typefaces would not be suitable for our production by looking at different genre title sequences such as comedy and romance and compared them too horror title sequences.With this I found that round typefaces such as ‘Comic san MS’ and feminine fonts would not fit the criteria of horror. However there were many fonts which were suitable for our

presentation, this includes ‘algerian’, Blackadder ITC,Chiller, Matura script capitals.

TYPE FACESize of Font – For the crew members the size is going to be ‘32’ , For the title

is going to be ranging from minimum to maximum, by the use of transitions.

Effects – A lightening effect is going to be used on the title. A soft glow is going to be used on the crew member credits. With the transition of a random appear and disappear at different positions on the screen.

Spacing of letters – The spacing between the letters are going to be quite close together to give a feeling of suffocation and no escape. This will add to the intensity of the title sequence.

Sound Research - KhemiMusic plays an extremely important role in the a horror film. My job was to look at the different kinds of

music used in horror films and identify which ones would be suitable for our project.

I looked at the work of composers of horror film soundtrack and different styles which have been previously used.

I started having a look at the free music and found a lot of good music but haven't yet found anything that would fit fully. They weren't neutral enough and don't really allow for a subtle transition. So I had the idea that we could do something I've seen done in a number of movies; I thought we could have the main character listening to some loud music then cut between having the music playing from the main characters point of view, i.e so we can hear it clearly as if it were part of the main soundtrack, then have it playing from a viewer's perspective i.e. so the music is muffled and distant sounding.

After much searching I scrapped this idea when I finally found a piece of music that would fit perfectly with our project.

[sound clip]

Camera Technique Ideas - Russell

We thought of different camera techniques that could be used in an effective way in horror. For example, using a “whip pan” shot then freezing on a scary character would be effective as it has the element of surprise.

Whip pan- when the camera moves sideways so quickly that the picture blurs into instinct streaks.

PRODUCTION SCHEDULEMon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat Sun

4th 5th

Costumes and props are going to be collected for our actors.

6th

Camera to be collected from the college

7th 8th 9th 10th

11th

Practise shots around the college to get used too the equipment.

Pictures to be taken via camera of our group working to put on blogs.

12th 13th

First day of shooting (Depending on weather) - Actress walking through the park and actor on bench.

14th Second day of shooting – Actor waking up at his workplace looking confused and scared.

Putting footage on the computer and defying time length.

15th 16th 17th

18th

Applying effects and type face with the audio

19th 20th 21st

Adding transitions and effects where necessary.

22nd 23rd 24th

25th 26th 27th 28th 29th

Finalising production.

30th 31st