Update No. 12

So glad Christmas is over, but we still have a few more weeks to go until were all back in the office., we hope you are all well. Dark Room Productions have not stopped working. As a wonderful gift, I was treated to various horror films old and good. So we have all been watching them analysing why we all love a good horror film.

Update No. 11

Terrible weather conditions has meant that we cannot get into the office today. Do not worry DRP will be back in no time at all. We have not been sledging in the snow, but opted instead for a nice warm bowl of popcorn and some horror movies.

Keep warm and keep safe.

Production - Casting of models

The casting of the young male victim also had no problems. We wanted a young, short, Caucasian male to play this role.

For the casting of our models, we had to select our actors according to the exact characteristics we wanted them to entail. The casting of our first actor, who is under the age of 18, we had to ask for his parental consent, as there are scenes in which may be deemed inappropriate for a young male to film. We wanted a young male, who looked about sixteen; it was very difficult finding a smaller male, as the youth of today grow exceedingly fast. However this was not as much trouble as we thought it would be.

We had to think about the role in what the character had to do and who would be best for the role. The main feature of the acting role was that they just had to have non verbal communication, and on a small occasion we needed them to have a few lines. The thought of using an inexperienced actor didn’t bother us, as we decided that it wouldn’t be that much of a problem because if things go wrong we can always edit the mistakes out.

We also had to think about the female character, as she would have to be violent towards the male we had make sure that this was done effectively without hurting the male character.

Production - Inspiration for the film

Our inspiration for our teaser trailer came from the thriller/supernatural film ‘The Skeleton Key’. The film is based on Hoodoo, and the spiritual ritual the main character partakes in is something which we based our main ritual in which the female character does.

The female character sits in a circle of candles and cuts her hair as part of the ritual; this is something we have also done.

Production - Costume

The term costume can also be known as wardrobe or dress in general. Costume can match the occasion or theme. Costume also allows one to express them. In our teaser trailer we wanted our costume to reflect the characters personality. The protagonist character wears an all black long cloak. This resembles stereotypically cloaks that `witches' wear. It connotes Satanism and that of a demonic nature.

The colour black also connotes mystery and because of its association with death, grief, evil, witchcraft and darkness- this is why we have used black as I can be related to many things. The audience will know that the leading female character is evil, however they will question this as the make up is that of a normal everyday female. The normal association with a black cape is witches.

For the male character we have only used a pair of converse and jeans. The converse shoes connote the modern feel and also that he is only young. Converse also connotes a youthful feel, as many teenagers wear them now.  It creates more hysteria as we wonder why the young boy is being tortured. He is only wearing jeans and has no top on. This shows the desperate situation he is in and heightens the sadistic qualities the female character upholds. Because the male is topless, it shows the almost sexual nature of the film; as it suggests he has been stripped down to his top by the female.

Update No. 10

Choosing the costume for our teaser trailer was not hard. As we wanted to use a cloak, we didn’t have to really think about the under garments for our female lead to wear. We did have difficulty thinking about how we should style the hair. We were in two minds about whether to create a chaotic hairstyle where you can clearly see that the person is mentally impaired for example ‘Medusa’. Or to have the hair in a demure fashion and this will create a mysterious side to the character.

Update No. 9

Today we went over our work that we previously recorded and noticed that most of our work was dark. In the video's we noticed that we were unable to see the actors hair. It is important for the audience to be able to see the actors hair because she cuts a strand of her hair. We believe that the reasons why we couldn't see much of the scene was because we used a black background while the actor was also dressed in all black. Maybe the darkness of the outfit and background effected how the performance came out on the camera.

In the video we was able to use props such as candles, paper cuttings and a religious book. It was good to use the religious book which we got from the college libary because it goes along with the theme of our horror trailer. We wanted to go for the creepy religious feel, this includes the topic of life after death, God and the Devil. Films that influenced us to use these ideas wer `The Skeleton Key' and 'The Omen'.

Production - Props used

For the teaser trailer for my group, various apparatus will be needed to make the set for filming. The use of a crucifix is something which needed great thought, as using a real one would have been disrespectful towards some people, for using it in a demoralising aspect. So the thought of making one, was on the agenda from the origin of the idea. Making one out of two bits of wood, would have been challenging, as finding two pieces of wood that would be big enough to use, and for easy mobility to and from the set was virtually impossible. We had to think of spiritual aspects which would not be offensive towards Catholicism, yet be affective in the use of our production.

Crucifixion is an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross (of various shapes) and left to hang until dead.

Using chains to symbolise the lack of hope the victim has was something which was a good idea. We wanted to make the scene look authentic yet also modern. Our first idea to use rope could case a danger risk, if there was a fire, so using handcuff/chains was a better idea as they had a release hook. These were also more affective as they created an eerie sound while filming.

The connotation of a candle, some would say would be romantic, yet with different props and the gothic make up, we were able to create a peculiar and enigmatic scene for our filming.

The connotation of a candle, some would say is a very religious element and a sign of hope, purity and innocence. Everything what the teaser trailer is opposing. The candles represent the voodoo what is happening in the film. As they are in a circle it shows the spiritual ceremony what the female character is doing.

Our first ideas were to burn black candles; however we have already used a black cape for the female character, and we wanted to have a contrast. We wanted the white candles to have a realistic affect, which adds to the horror theme in the film, with the thought that this could maybe happen.

Although not visible in the actual trailer as a prop, we had to use a black sheet to cover up one of the boards, as we wanted to have a very low key lighting through out our teaser trailer. We also needed this as the lights we were using where reflecting of the white boards which showed up when we looked back on the footage.

The book which we have used represents the voodoo which is being performed by the female character. The book represents the eerie feel to the film.  

Research - Slasher horror

Slasher horror

Slasher film is a sub-genre of the horror film genre typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a chainsaw or in the case of ‘Nightmare of Elm Street’ he uses knifes as his hands. A slasher horror will contain huge amounts of blood and gore. The killer normally wears a mask and the reason for his killings often relate to past events or experiences which the younger community’s parents have inflicted on the killer. The young community is a target for his anger and resent.

The characteristics of a slasher film are generally.

If the killer is acting on past events they are usually:

·         The community adults are guilty of a wrongful action towards the killer.

·         The killer sees an injury, fault or death.

·         The killer experiences a loss.

·         The killer kills the guilty members of the young community

Present events

·         An event commemorates the past action.

·          A member of the old community tries to warn the young community

·          The young community takes no heed.

·         The killer stalks members of the young community.

·         A member of some type of force like a detective etc, attempts to hunt down the killer.

·         The killer kills members of the young community.

Types of slasher horror movies are:



Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Amusement 

Amusement

In the opening credits, the audience are shown still pictures of three girls when they were children, as adolescent, and young adults. The girls are Tabitha Wright, Lisa Swan and Shelby Leds. These girls have great potential- "to succeed, be famous, and shine." It also shows a young unnamed boy who is very psychologically disturbed as it clearly states in his psychiatric report, and that he is currently detained. The slasher genre states that the past events turn the killer into what he has become. In this movie, the young boy was laughed at by the 3 young girls, and therefore seeks revenge and kills them all. However one survives at the end adding suspense that a sequel is being made. There is a various amount of blood and gore, and uncomfortable scenes due to the harsh reality that people may rethink their past, in case they have laughed at or bullied someone without realising, which makes it disturbing for the viewers as they question their own events and past.

Nightmare on Elm Street

In the dreams of his victims, a spectral child murderer stalks the children of the members of the lynch mob that killed him. There are scenes where there are tremendous amounts of blood, which the views know that there will be lots of blood, but the extent of blood used in this particular scene to the left is vast.

Introduction to the horror genre

What is a horror film?

The idea of a horror film is an unsettling experience for the audience. They feature scenes that are unpleasant for the views with scenes including vigorous amounts of blood. While watching films the audience educe emotions of disgust, anxiety and trepidation.

The main story lines which the horror genre has are nightmares, people’s worst fears, super natural; however many have a plot which the story line is based on a serial killer or a disease which brakes out.

 Plots written within the horror genre often involve the intrusion of an evil force, event, or personage, commonly of supernatural origin, into the everyday world. Themes or elements often prevalent in typical horror films include ghosts, torture, gore, werewolves, ancient curses, Satanism, demons, vicious animals, vampires, cannibals, haunted houses, zombies and masked serial killers.

The base of a horror film has varied over the years. Now we consider a horror movie something in which makes the audience jump and has gore and blood. Horror films have changed drastically changed since the late 17^th century; most horror films from that era are based on supernatural events. One film which has been credited as the first horror movie is, Le Manoir du diable in which super natural events occur.

         

The change in horror movies has changed considerably since the first horror movies. Now the makers of films prefer to use plots in which are very close to real events and the scenes are gorier and use a lot more graphic scenes. The story lines will sometimes be very twisted and will be unimaginable, for example, the storyline of Hostel, where people pay to torture and kill other people, we can't imagine that happening in real life can we? The films usually are based around things people would generally be scared about, things that would be their worst nightmare. However the story line of the young graduates going to foreign country is imaginable, so people can relate to the sub plot of the movie.

A popular storyline to use, is one that deals with phobias, such as spiders, this can cause distress to a viewer that may have this phobia, however, some people may not have this phobia and would just see it as a scary film. Other films may deal with evil forces, and religious themes, these are very popular, as they can be seen as slightly more realistic, because there are a lot of religious people in the world that may see these films as a reality.

A good horror films will make the audience go home and think about the scenario of the characters of the film and think it could happen to them. And example of this is Piranha, where the remake came out in 3D in 2010. The situation of the students who have finished spring break are out celebrating and are attacked by the flesh eating fish. Although the scenario is almost impossible situation to be in, the audience are frightened to enter the sea after watching the film. The reason the film had such a success was because it was a remake of the critically acclaimed version in 1978. The stereotypical things the teenagers get up to is a good basis to entice young viewers as they understand its a remake, and may think it is ‘old’ as it is a remake; but the 21^st century settings , props and actors use make it likeable by the new audience. 

Although Piranha is a horror movie, the scene and the setting differs from other horrors as the lighting is high key and it’s a beach with bikini clad women.  The film is a different type of horror as it deals with a flesh eating mammal as it is not alike the mainstream horrors where there is a psycho murder of a masked murderer.

  

When filming a horror movie, to create the dramatic effect, the directors use low key lighting, which creates a dark and mysterious aura. Low key lighting is also used when creating the trailer and the raw images to use in the film posters and for the film magazines. This is a convention in the horror genre. The darkness matches the mood of the film. If they used really bright colours to advertise a horror film, it wouldn't work.

There are many different sub genres in the horror genre, for example:

 

·         Thriller Horror

·         Japanese Horror

·         Slasher Horror

·         Splatter Horror

Update No. 8

Today was the pulmonary day of filming. We only have one more day left of filming and the teaser trailer will be completed. We are currently in the process of editing the trailer also. We have decided to edit every shot that we have taken – and want to be included in our trailer – because filming all of the shots in one go and waiting for the final takes to be made, then to edit them all at once, will be too time consuming.

The filming created today, was minimalistic, and as we only had to take close ups on certain areas and objects. However we still did use costumes to help the actress get into character. The whole production team are very excited for the finishing results as the filming we have done so far is of a very high quality.

Next update, will be with you shortly.

Research - Thriller Horrors

Thriller Horrors

Thrillers recently are being influenced dramatically by the horror genre; they have more gore, sadistic violence and brutality.

Thriller horrors usually focus on the suspense and tension in a film. They build excitement until it gets to a climax at the end. The thriller genre is a genre in itself so there are lots of elements to it. They contain violence and usually show the world in a bad light, which supports the convention of dark key lighting with horror films.

Most of the time they have a good ending where the baddie is brought to justice, either through murder, or prison. The films can contain pathological themes, which are more frightening to watch, as they can happen in the real world, such as obsession, stalking, random attacks, depression and so on. All of these themes create a film that builds excitement through tension.

There are various types of thrillers ranging from the common methods in crime thrillers were there is mainly ransoms, captivities, heists, revenge, kidnappings. More common in mystery thrillers are investigations and the whodunit technique. Common elements in psychological thrillers are mind games, psychological themes, stalking, confinement/deathtraps, horror-of-personality, and obsession. Elements such as conspiracy theories, false accusations, paranoia, and sometimes action are common in paranoid thrillers.

A genuine thriller film is a film which provides thrills and keeps the audience cliff-hanging at the ‘edge of their seats’. The tension is created when that main character is put in a impossible escape situation. Life is threatening and the situation the character is in is deadly.

Thrillers mostly take place in ordinary places; suburbs and cities. However, they may also take place in tropical islands or exotic places, such as ‘I know what you did last summer’. The most typical thriller horror movies are when there is normally a pass murderer and the killings which take place are mass murders, terrorism and assassinations.

‘I know what you did last summer’

Although this film is classified as a ‘Slasher’ it has some conventions of a ‘thriller’. The location is in an exotic location and the murders involved are of a mass scale.

‘Phycho’

One of the most popular thriller's is "Phycho," made in 1960. It was a psychological thriller which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The psychological theme to a film can be very interesting, and also scary, as people in real life can get psychological issues. This realism can be very effective when making a film, because the audience are more likely to be effected by it. We all know that in a film, if a vampire and werewolf are involved, it won't happen in real life, however good the film it. But if it's something psychological that can happen then it can make a film scarier. Just like with ghost films. "Paranormal Activity," released in to 2009 was classed as one of the scariest films, "Bloody Disgusting," a website that looks at horror films put it 16th in their top 20 scary films.

’28 Days Later’

Another good ‘Thriller Horror’ is ’28 Days Later’ – which is a film that is very gory, but primarily deals with the breakdown of humanity. Several more thriller horrors are becoming increasingly common with films such as ‘The last house on the left’, and ‘I spit on your grave’.  More and more of these thriller horrors are becoming more acceptable as the amount of core and the sadistic violence which occurs in them is being more acceptable in the horror genre.

This genre can be very good when it comes to trying to please an audience. It can mix the blood and the gore that you expect with a horror film, and also add in a great storyline, which then creates action and adventure. They promote excitement and suspense, which is what the audience want when they go to see a good film.

Of course other genres do this as well. Some of the best films in the world have come from genres such as slasher horrors and splatter horrors. Some have been cult successes which have had a great reception.

The teaser trailer movie is in the sub genre of ‘Thriller’ as the conventions of a thriller we have met them. We have used a sadistic killer and a young boy who is in the ‘impossible’ situation where his only fate is death.

Update No.

Today we continued filming for our teaser trailer. We used a different setting to tie in with out story board. We used a classroom as our set, to show the authenticity of the trailer. We used different costumes and make up on this shot, to show it is in an institute. The filming was very time consuming as we wanted to use a varied amount of shots; although we are only creating a teaser trailer, we want as many shots as possible to work with.

To add to the realism of the setting, we wrote the name of the teacher on the board, and rearranged the tables, to show the modernity.

Update No. 7

Our first day filming our teaser trailer was very exciting. A mixture of blood and latex and our costumes was an exciting insight into the further involvement of the making of our trailer. Our first filming session was at Greenhouse studios, where we used fake blood, latex, bruising and a varied amount of make up. The filming was very successful and is now in the process of editing the first shots we filmed.

With the help of the make up artist and costume design, the characters look authentic and realistic. While also filming we have taken some pictures for the final poster design. Due to a technical error the converter that we have to use in order to manipulate the raw images is not functional so we are still in the process of making them.

 

In the up and coming weeks we will be finishing the final filming of the teaser trailer, and producing more images to be used in our magazine front covers and our film posters.

Audience Research- Magazine Covers

Now it was time to focus on the film magazine cover we needed to make. I wanted to think about what would be wanted inside the magazine. I thought about the different things you tend to find in magazines, such as interviews, and information about upcoming movies. What would be wanted more? The audience went for the interviews. This is most likely because you get more of an insight into a film, and it's more intimate. Not only do you get information on the film, you get to hear it from the stars themselves.






It's not conventional to find freebies in movie magazines, but I felt it was a question worth asking. I felt that if freebies were an option, than people would be more likely to buy the magazine, and therefore find out more information on the film that's being advertised in the magazine. As the majority of people said say, it's important to think about what they may want as a freebie, they maybe able to get free film tickets if they scratch a certain code? 3D glasses for 3D films? or free dvd of classic films.





Seeing famous faces on magazines makes them sell more. If you see a picture of someone who you don't know on the front of it your naturally less likely to buy the magazine. If theres the image of the most famous actor, in a film thats in promotion, it can boost sales, and more people find out details about the film.








The audience felt for this question that the masthead should be at the top of the magazine, which is something that I agree with. I personally don't think it looks right when the masthead is in the middle or at the bottom. Conventionally, mastheads are usually at the top (Empire, Film, Motion all have this). Of course, because this is what people see the most, that's probably why they prefer it, that doesn't mean that it's right though. There's nothing wrong in having it placed somewhere else if it looks good. Sometimes there are special edition magazines where the layout is changed slightly to support what the magazine is featuring.


When making a magazine, you want to think about how many magazines people buy, and if yours is likely to be picked. The more magazines that people buy, the more variety they may get, as magazines only come out weekly or monthly. The majority of the audience here buy their magazines once or twice a month, which isn't a huge amount. There can be factors that affect how many magazines people buy such as: cost, interest, popularity and genre.






On a magazine fromt cover, there has to be something that grabs a potential readers attention. Nobody in this question chose the puff or the coverline, but the main imagine was the thing that seemed to interest people in to buying a magazine, and very few people chose the masthead. The main image is very important. It has to look good, and if it's an image of a well known actor or actress then this can be the catalyst of the magazines sales. On the front of most magazine covers, you tend to find a well known star.




50% of people that answered this question preferred one picture on the front page, and 50% preferred more than one on the front page. I personally think that there should be more than one. To keep the potential buyers interest you have to think of variety. There can't just be one picture, that advertises one film, which people may not be interested in. There should be more pictures which advertise an array of films, so the audience will be more varied, it doesn't just have to be about films either, there can be interviews, or competitions which grab attention.

Many people liked the idea of a magazine front cover to be dedicated to one film. Some did not. I think that it works, just having one film advertised, but it shouldn't all be about one film. You can't hide what else is going to be in the magazine, otherwise people are going to walk straight past it. The idea of a set of pictures all based around one film isn't great, unless there are other images that show what else is going to be in the magazine. Keeping the front page dedicated to one film only works if there is something that shows that theres more inside the magazine, such as a puff, or secondary image, otherwise the front cover looks stagnant and boring.

People seemed to like the idea of the colour black being used in magazines. This is good, it's a bold colour that stands out. The second best one that people chose was red; again, another bold colour. A good example of this is Empire magazine, they've used this colour before to make their magazine stand out, it's also interesting to point out that the front cover was dedicated to one film. However, in this magazine front cover, they used the darkness of space (you can see the stars in the background), and Darth Vaders mask, to create a white shine, so there was some brightness to the cover. This worked well, in my eyes. I still personally feel there should be something else on the front page to advertise the rest of the film, it can't just be full of 'Star Wars'.

I took a look at the film magazines that were on the market. I chose the four that I saw the most online. However the audience clearly only knew of two, which is fair enough, the other two aren't hugely recognised. Empire was the favourite, and Total Film was the second favourite. They are the best established movie magazines, and the ones that you are more likely to see being sold in the massive superstores. It's the content, and the way they make their magazines that make them popular. They look good, they contain a variety of films, the also hold information not just on films, but on actors and directors. They don't just focus on the big stars too, they dedicate time to the younger, upcoming stars.

Audience Research-Horror Posters

Not only do our group have to make a trailer, we have to make a poster to go with it as well. So it is important to get some feedback on what makes a good horror poster. This first question focused on font. San Serif and Distorted got the best response. Distorted to me was the better option because it goes more with the horror genre. However, I was surprised that broken up wasn't chosen more, I thought it was quite good with horror films, and gives the audience a better idea of what the film is about. But, sometimes, less is more.






After talking with my group about ideas, and coming up with a storyline, and shooting ideas. I thought about trailers where you see people in distressful situations, like in the Saw trailers. However people weren't so keen on this. Maybe they thought it gave too much of the story away, or they didn't like the idea of children seeing the poster, or that it was just genrally inappropriate. It gave me an idea into what was seen as acceptable in a poster, and a trailer, and that full on torture wouldn't be acceptable.





To come up with ideas, I'd been looking at some posters, and the colour schemes. I personally prefered the darker themes, so thought I'd use it as one of the questions. People agreed, that it was better to use darker colours. It is much more sensible to use in a horror poster. Light colours and High Key lighting and mislead the audience into thinking that it isn't a horror film. Some people did think however that it was good to use lighter colours. Some posters do this, however it has to be made clear by tag lines, and images that the film is of the horror genre.




People seemed to prefer long shots in posters. I predicted that they might like close ups because sometimes the detail can be more attractive, but the audience seemed to prefer the mystery. Using a long shot, with one picture can make people think, why is this person here? why is there something there? etc... I can see why this works. So when creating the poster it's worth me looking at posters to see what has the better effect and looks more interesting. It is important though, to remember that different things, work for different films.





When thinking about making a poster, it's important to think about why someone might keep looking at it. Should there be a massive clear title? Or should it be more subtle? Should there be a tag line? Should there be one or two pictures? At this point I wanted to think about the tag line. It appeared that most people prefered to have tag lines. I could see why as well. It doesn't give you the whole information on the film, but it gives you an idea of what the films about. A lot of the time, the tag line is a question, and you only find the answer out if you go and see the film. This can sometimes be the deciding factor to whether someone goes to see a certain film or not.




When looking at the images on posters, I wondered what was more effective; to have the poster blurry, go create more mystery? Or to keep it clear, so it was easy on the eye. Most people opted for the clear option. Most horror posters are clear, and it's the picture that gives away the genre of the film, so maybe having it blurry wouldn't be so appropritate, unless it fitted in really well with the film. But after thinking of our ideas, it wouldn't be such a good idea.








Many film posters don't have the main character on them. This can to create a mysterious effect, especially if they use an object, for example 'The Last House On The Left' just has a house and no people in the picture. Some films have more than one poster with different characters on each poster. This is an idea that I'm interested in for our film. But the audicence felt it was better to use the main character. So now it was time to talk with my group to come up with ideas that would hopefully please the audience.



I was trying to decide whether the audience would be impressed with full on gore in the poster, or would it give too much away about the film. Most people seemed to prefer the idea of more calm, but sinister posters, which is understandable. Sometimes having lots of blood and guts in a poster is just too much. However some people did like this, but it may not be appropriate in some cases, for example, you don't want a picture on a billboard of someone being tortured with loads of blood because children are going to see it. This is something that has to be taken into account when creating the poster.


Some horror films such as 'Saw' have high key lighting in their posters, and some, such as 'The Haunting in Connecticut' have low key lighting. I thought that low key lighting would be preferred by the audience, as the poster was for the horror genre, but they decided that high key lighting was better. With 'Saw' for example, it's obvious that it's a horror, as you can see the persons head on scales, or the severed fingers, it gives a surgical feel to the poster, and connotes that sharp implements are going to be used in the film. Low key lighting gives a subtler impression of whats going to happen in the film, and can be used in different sub genres. In my opinion, high key lighting only works if it can sum up the story line, and mix the horror side well.


Many posters don't always have their titles at the top. It's not uncommon to find them at the bottom or in the middle. However, the audience seemed to prefer them at the top. Sometimes though, it looks better at the bottom, it's important to think about the compostion, and that the text looks right, in comparison with the image on the poster. Before thinking about where the masthead should go, it's important to think about what the poster will look like with the masthead in different positions.