Our Horror Title Sequence - Paperwork

We decided that it would be very important to notifiy the people around us that we were filming, so we got a permission letter from the school which shows that we are authorised and are members of the school.

We also designed a talent release form for our actors to sign off, to get permission from their legal guardians. This is used in real productions and gives the production company (Unprecedented Pictures) the rights to have footage and claim the rights.

Our Horror Title Sequence - Audience Profile

Audience Profling

Our audience profile can be seen in the image below.

BBFC Rating

 Rating our film in the ''15'' category is what we intend as we believe teenagers (from 15 up would watch our film). This will keep our audiece age range very wide as limiting it to 18 year olds and above will not be successful.




Demography

We believe that people in the ABC1 category of the demogaphic model shown on the left will be most interested in our film, so they are our target audience. This is because our film would be released into cinemas where this group of people will frequently visit. Not only this but the characters in the film are also in this demographic category so the audience can relate more personally to characters which in turn will produce a more intense relationship between the audience and the characters on screen. Our survey results show that most people watch horror films at least once every week so assuming people in this demographic category have televisions, this group of people will be able to see our film once it is televised, or even see it at cinemas. The fact that people in the ABC1 category (which is the group of people we aimed our survey at also) watch horror films weekly is yet another reason as to why this is our main target audience.

Our Horror Title Sequence - Animatic Storyboard

Unprecedented Pictures Institution

 

Unprecedented Pictures

Name

A lot of thought went into the founding of our institution name, we were hoping to find something simple, short and 'uniquely different' but after a lot of thought and spider diagrams we had decided that 'Unprecedented Pictures' was something unique, even though it is a bit of a mouthful. The harsh stress on the p's in unPrecedented and Pictures has a ring to it and the alliteration of P allows the name to be easily remembered. The definition of unprecented is:

Unprecedented - "Never before known or experienced."

We believed that our horror film will be something never done before so this institution name matches perfectly with our ambition.




Logo Design

The logo we came up with for Unprecedented Pictures is simple yet effective as the 'U' and the 'P' transparent cuts on a black circle which allows a lot of room for logo customisation depending on the type of media being developed. For example the black logo with transparent 'U' and 'P' can be used on a questionnaire or a letter from the company, but the logo can also be easily manipulated in 3D animation programs as usually all that is required of the logo is a layer mask (leaving the 'U' and 'P' letters blank when the mask is extruded).

The logo was designed in our group after a long discussions and was eventually bought to reality by Jake Hayes who has very good skills in photo manipulation and logo design.

Logo in Our Blog

We collectively thought that it would look very professional if we all changed our icon file for our blogs, which can be seen on the image below where all four tabs is one member of our group. The icon is a .ico file which is a scaled down version of our logo above, without the gradient background and text. We believe that this will add an edge to our production company, something well customised which can only be seen on sophisticated websites. 

Research from Choice of Institutions

We looked at other film institutions logos for inspiration and decided that most institutions have a logo that is in black and white and is fully customisable from this, so we used this basis whilst creating our logo. The video we looked at is embedded below.

Our Horror Title Sequence - Narrative

Our narrative was summarised by Chloe Hammond and can be seen below. Although we are only filming the introduction of the film we thought that it would be important to fully plan our narrative so we ourselves could understand the storyline. This enabled us to add shots into the introduction that will foreshadow events we would have added later in the film had we been filming the full film.

Our Horror Title Sequence - DVD Cover

Our DVD cover was designed on Photoshop CS5.5 Extended and can be seen below is what we would produce our cover to look like, it includes the institutions which 'took part' in making the film, and also the disk format (DVD), the BBFC certificate (15) and the sound format included (Dolby Digital).

1st Version (Draft)

2nd Version (Final)

After long group discussions we decided to make the DVD Cover look more specific to horror by using a deeper red and a grungy layer over the dice to also increase the horror feel. I also added a darker gradient and a grunge overlay over the descriptive text to make it darker and gloomier the lower it is (which gives connotations of fading to darkness). We decided a spine with the definition of anomalous would be easily noticeable from a DVD rack as the grey and red on black are strongly contrasting which would grab attention almost instantly. We had kept the film facts and institutions the same (on the back side of the cover at the bottom) as this we thought looked very professional, even using the BBFC rating (15) on the back and front is keeping within our desired colour scheme of red, black and white/grey.





The film description which was used for the back side of the cover was written by Liv Gascione and can be read in the text in red below.

Anomalous is a game, a game that deviates from anyone or anything you have ever known. The game revolves around a set of red dice; Parker, a psychopath killer is the first and only game player. What number will the dice induce, only the set of rules in his back pocket will determine. The number on the dice will force him to complete formidable and monstrous tasks. Are you ready to play the game? 

Comparisons

Below is the DVD cover for the film SE7EN (the cover is a Dutch version). As can be seen, the two DVD covers are similar in that they both have the colour black as a base colour. On the front of the covers (the right side) both of the DVD covers have the name of the film centred on a black background (suggests evil and darkness), for example on our one we use particles to liven it up, on SE7EN's there has been duplicates of the text layer with different opacities to replicate that of the introduction (click here for more information about the SE7EN title sequence on my blog).
On the back of the cover, SE7EN has used frames from the film to sell itself, however we couldn't do this as we were not able to shoot the whole film, so as a group we mutually decided to use dice as the subject as we believe that this doesn't give away the film and makes people looking at the DVD cover interested in what could possibly happen.
The spines are almost similar in that for ours we have displayed our institution, the sound and video format (DVD and Dolby Digital), the definition of our film's title and the name of the film, whereas SE7EN has video and sound format (DVD and DTS [Digital Theater System]) and the age rating (16).

Our Horror Title Sequence - Filming

Monday 26th November 2012

On this day we shot shots one to four at one of our locations (Jake's House). The recording below is of a discussion which took place just before we shot, whilst we were setting up the set, camera and lighting. During this we also talk about the dice which came through the post after Liv Gascione ordered them from eBay whose voice along with Chloe Hammond can be heard below.



Here are some photos made into a video from our first day of shooting.




Below a video shows the footage we recorded on day one.

Monday 3rd December 2012

On this day we shot the razor shots which occur during the flashback in our film introduction. The video below is of our group making the fake blood which we later used in two of our shots. We believed that if we could make the blood ourselves we could get the right consistency for the effect we were trying to achieve.  The video shows Unprecedented Pictures (Jake Hayes, Liv Gascione, Chloe Hammond and myself) making the fake blood at our shooting location.



After we had produced the blood at our desired consistency, we then got on with shooting the footage. The video below shows us directing the actors and giving them the information they need to make the shot as we originally planned it.



After these directions, the lighting, costume and make-up was all set up we then shot our footage and this can be seen also below.




During all of this we took photos to show our second day of filming in progress, including some locational shots, some of us setting up the lighting and some the show the Mise en Scène which we purposely created to include horror conventions.



This audio clip is a summary of our day, which can be seen below (embedded from chirbit).

Monday 9th December 2012

On day three we shot the tunnel shots which we used for the 'reality' clips (not the shots which were flashbacks). We filmed in a tunnel in Baldock by the train station. Josh features yet again in these shots as he is our main actor.



Here is the footage that we shot from day three, from the long tunnel.

Sunday 23rd December 2012

On day four we had finished every shot needed for our horror introduction. We met at Fairfield Park in Stotfold at the early time of 08:00 in order to miss the rush of people in public contaminating our shots.
The embedded audio clip from chirbit is a discussion about shots from this day (which was recorded on set).



Below a video can be seen of our group throughout the day of filming, showing how we achieved certain shots and the dilemmas we had to overcome.



The footage from day four can be seen in the video below.

Our Horror Title Sequence - Actors

We had to choose actors that would give a professional, accurate and meaningful performance whilst representing the characters we would give them. After a lot of research we found some actors willing to take part in the film, they can all be seen in the actor files below.

Josh Volpe

We decided to use Josh Volpe to play Parker because he has a distinctive appearance which makes him easily recognisable for whenever he is in shot.

Unprecedented Pictures Members

We decided that for the rest of our actors it would be more suitable to use members of our group because finding time to film between our group and external actors was difficult to find. We eventually used Liv Gascione,  Jake Hayes and Myself in the shooting of the production.

Our Horror Title Sequence - Props, Costume Design and Makeup

Costume

The costumes will be designed to suit the genre of a typical psychological horror movie, with for an example a smartly dressed man (who obviously isn't all right in the head), a little girl, and 2 other young victims (one male and one female, but both in late teens.) The image below shows the costume designs (designed by Olivia Gascione who is also in the Unprecedented Pictures Group) and describes the characters outfits and the connotations of the clothing.

Props

The image below contains the props we will be using in our film, consists of items which we will use in the frame (not things like cameras. dollys, microphones and tripods). We had decided that some the props that we needed had to be bought especially to be customised to our desire for example the red dice. All of our props will be a mixture of our groups own possessions to cut the costs of the production but where needed we will have to make relevant purchases.

Continuity and Editing

Match on Action

'Match on Action' is a technique used in editing which makes the footage come together and seem natural when a shot cuts to another shot which shows the action of the first one. The video below shows some of our footage which can be used one of my examples of a Match on Action technique.




Shot Reverse Shot

The 'Shot Reverse Shot' is used to show what a character is looking at (usually a person or an object). It gives the viewer almost a 'Point Of View' feel when watching, as if they where looking at the subject. The 180° is often tied in with this technique as a shot reverse shot can easily become confusing when the rule is broken. The video below shows the shot reverse shot used in our preliminary task where the two characters talk with each other.





The 180° Rule

The 180° Rule is another 'rule of film' which is used to enforce the continuity of the video. The line of the 180° Rule is drawn perpendicular to the camera from the very first establishing shot. If the camera crosses the line (travels over 180 degrees) to reveal the other side (making the shot seem flipped horizontally) it can disorientate the viewer, creating a confusing state of position and has no continuity to the footage.

Second Ideas : Our Horror Title Sequence

We had decided to use the Lionsgate Horror Introduction as it has been customised to looks scarier as opposed to the original one. Lionsgate are a well known film institution and that factor also plays a large role in our decision.



Development of Our Ideas

Our second brainstorm has been scanned and can be seen below. We have developed our ideas and now have a more focused graph which is more general to the film we wish to make.

The discussion (the mp3 file uploaded to Chirbit and embedded below) below was recorded during a meeting we had to talk about and develop some ideas regarding our actual horror film introduction. We discuss our story line and how it should be put across.




We then decided to draw an image of our ideas to explain our discussion furthermore.

After this, to put the image into context we manipulated it to get an idea of what one of the shots could look like. This can be seen below.

First Ideas : Our Horror Title Sequence

General Ideas Brainstorm

This brainstorm shows the jotting of ideas that came to our head when thinking about a storyline  and any other general film ideas related to horror for our own horror sequence.

Narrative Theory

There are 5 stages to Todorov's conventional narrative hypotheses:

Stage One - There is an equilibrium from the outset.
Stage Two - Some kind of action disrupts the equilibrium.
Stage Three - There is a recognition that the equilibrium has been disrupted
Stage Four - There is an attempt to resolve the disruption
Stage Five - The equilibrium of reinstated.

These 5 stages can be seen in the graphic i made below.

Of course, this doesn't apply to every film going, for example in some films the equilibrium is not reinstated.

Character Theory

Vladimir Propp (a Russian critic) had developed a character theory in the 1920's for media texts and productions. It suggests that there are 7 types of characters, these can be seen below:

The Villain (struggles against the hero)

The Donor (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object)

The (magical) Helper (helps the hero in the quest)

The Princess (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative)

Her Father (usually dies during or before the film/book)

The Dispatcher (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off)

The Hero or victim/seeker hero, reacts to the donor, amd marries the princess

Audience Theory

The Hypodermic Syringe Theory

The hypodermic syringe model dates dack to the early 1920's when there was an attempt to explain how audiences may be affected by mass media. The diagram shows that the audience give the incoming information (from the media) no challenge, so everything gets taken in. This theory suggests that the audience are passive, and that they will asume everything that they see is they way it is.

The Two Step Flow Theory

Is a theory which was thought up by Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet  in 1944 and suggested that the information does not flow directly from the text into the minds of its audience unmediated but is filtered through "opinion leaders" who then communicate it to their less active associates, over whom they have influence.

The diagram shows that before the information reaches us, we have filters which judge our opinion of it. An example of this is when we watch our favourite TV programmes and filter out all of its flaws, as we overlook them.

Our Horror Title Sequence - Audience Research

Interviews

This is a video of some interviews that our group filmed, it is mainly based around horror films and the horror genre. We asked mostly the same questions as on the horror questionnaire that can be seen below the video on this post. Our group made this in order to show the range of ages and different types of people to which we have asked questions about horror films and the horror genre which is what our final production will be based on. The Interviewees ranged from child to adult, and their opinions were also quite different for some questions.




Handouts

The First Draft of our handout surveys was basic and contained some errors, for example repetition of the same question and some spelling mistakes. It can be seen in the image below. It is a widely open answer one as opposed to a yes / no survey. We will be able to collect data that is more useful as we can see into that person's situation and what appeals to them about horror films. The use of the graphic blood, red, black and white colour scheme and the vignette add a horror feel to the survey giving the person who is filling it out a more horror references so it is easier to remember things they have seen, thus giving us more reliable data to work with.

Here is what the  final paper surveys that we handed out looked like and after completetion from college students.



Online

Below an example of our internet published version of the survey can be seen.



Our Results (as of 20/11/2012)

 The image below shows the spreadsheet in which our results from our online survey were collated and the results from the paper hand out sheets were inputted. I added conditional formatting to the cells in the columns B and C to make it clearer to read. If the gender of the person is male, the cell turns automatically blue, and likewise with pink for girls. In column B I have set it up to turn green for people who's age is within our targeted audience, yellow for the ages who are borderline and red for the age groups who we aren't specifically aiming at. All of this is changed automatically by a formula when the data is entered.

Age & Gender

The first question we asked was to gather information about the age of people who watch horror films, and with that the second was to find out what gender our audience are. The image below shows the most frequent ages that came up and also shows a pie chart of the gender of people who completed our survey. The numbers for gender are roughly even, as we tried to get an even balance of results.




Genre

After finding out the age and gender of our survey applicants we then questioned which sub genre of horror they prefer, these results can be seen below. We collected them into a bar chart as this is the easiest way to compare and see which is the most popular.
It was clear to see that Psychological Horror was by far the most popular so we decided to base our narrative around this.

Frequency of Watching Horror

For this question, selecting a time period was difficult as some people may watch a horror film very very rarely and so of course this wouldn't cover for them, however we decided to use a weekly base as we made sure that the people who we asked to fill out our questionnaires actually did watch horror films.

From our data we gathered it is clear that the vast majority of people who watch horror films watch about one per week. So from this we realised that to make sure people would watch our horror film we needed to make the first two minutes of our film enticing as the first few minutes of a film often determine how action pact it will be later on.

Actors

We then went on to ask about the audiences preferences on actors, in which we gave a multiple tick box selection option (so one participant could enter more than one character preference) and it shows that male characters, who are adults are the most preferred. This was the inspiration for the choice our main actor (Josh).

Favourite Horror Films

We then decided that asking what peoples favourite horror films were, to give us an idea of what sort of storyline is most preferred, and the SAW series off films were the most popular. We included similar torturous features as seen SAW films (for example the cut throat razor shots in our introduction and the strapping down of a man).

Setting

When we questioned what peoples favourite horror setting was, we mostly got the response that houses and abandoned places were the most popular. So we decided that we should combine them to make an abandoned house part of our setting (in the shot where the man is being strapped down). We have also used our data here to decide where our flashbacks are going to come from (where the character will be when he is having them) and that will be an unused tunnel that looks misused and old with grungy walls.

Credits

Although the majority of people by 5 prefer the credits separate to the footage at the beginning (so for example at the end of the film) we had to consider that a lot of films have their credits separate to the shot footage and we decided that in order to make our horror film different from the majority we would integrate our credits into the flashback.

Sound

From collecting this information about sound, we have decided as a group to use a quiet and creepy music track (in which we will build and layer ourselves) as this is the favourite choice among our target audience. The use of this quiet soundtrack will create suspense and in use will false climaxes will be very effective in gripping the audience.