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.