Characters.

The different characters and age groups we will be using will be 16+ as this is the age of general teenagers and they can relate to the characters due to the same age. There will be mainly only boys as we don't know what girl would get involved in our film, we don't have a girl in our group this is also why. There would be two people camping out and one filming, whilst a weird man (one of us) is lurking in the woods. The guy lurking in the woods will be in dark clothing creeping around barely visible to the camera. The two campers can be in normal clothing doing as they wish. The audience will relate the characters by either being the same age, which would make them be able to relate. The costume and props which will be used for the characters will have will be hooded clothing (dark) for the guy creeping in the woods so this hides his identity. The props needed in this film will be camping equipment due to the two people acting out setting up camp to stay the night.

Settings

The location for our opening 2 minutes will be Ashtead Common because it is an open space where the group of teenagers could camp. There is also a wooded area where the villain could hide away. It would be a recognisable setting to the audience as it follows the conventions of the horror genre. There will be diegetic sounds in the common such as the wind, trees rustling and birds which will provide an eerie atmosphere which can create tension in our opening 2 minute film. The mise-en-scene will feature an open space with camping equipment and the teenagers in a group hanging out; the lighting will be created by the sun setting and torches used by the characters. Also the mise-en-scene will feature the teenagers walking and looking amongst the forest and trees trying to find the missing person. Ashtead common is an ideal setting for this as it has a mixture of open spaces and wooded areas. we need to be careful when filming the scenes as we want to create an eerie atmosphere but we need enough lighting to see the action and the characters. Therefore we need to ensure that we film during dusk so that we get enough natural sunlight.

Questionairre

What is your name?







How old are you?






Are you a fan of horror films?






What do you expect to see in the opening of a horror film?






Where would you expect the opening to take place? (woods/inside a house/small village/city etc.)






What do you expect the villain to look like?






What do you expect the victim(s) to look like?






Do you have a favourite horror opening?






What makes it your favourite?






What could be done to make it even better?

Research Targets

Revisit the email you received to your student account before half-term. You need to evidence further evidence of research in order to achieve your target grade. Lots of areas of study from this term have not been addressed in your blogging. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCTgUq6hzUk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOLgGA-Yqc8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xPYHygck6o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OYBEquZ_j0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLeix0ZYSCE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JfS90u-1g8

Target audience profile

Through researching the Pearl and Dean website I am able to find out who the target audience is for horror/thriller films. The audience for Paranormal Activity was 49% men and 51% women, this shows that both men and women are interested in watching horror/thriller films. The most popular age of the audience who watch horror films are 15-24, therefore when conducting the research for our opening to our film, we will ask a range of men and women who are 15-24 to find out what interests them about horror films and what they look for in a horror film.

Initial ideas.

My group is thinking of creating a horror opening. Our setting would be in the woods in Ashtead common during the early evening, we were considering this time of day as it is typical for horror films and could create an eerie atmosphere without being to dark to see the surroundings on film. The main character would be a teenage boy as they can be seen as vulnerable and curious which may lead them to something which would not happen if the situation involved someone else.

Preliminary Task

For our preliminary task we filmed a short sequence of shots, using a variety of shot types. We used close ups on the main focuses such as the wallet being thrown down on to the table as this highlights its relevance in the film. The way we filmed the wallet being shown was also an example of 'match on action' as we cut between to views of the same action at the same time, in future I would edit this more carefully to make the motion look completely uninterrupted. We used a 'shot reverse shot' between Jordan and Will which used close ups showing characters expressions. We used the editing software to switch between shots on either side of doors, making it possible to continue following Jordan as he entered different parts of the building. One negative aspect of our film which we would change in future tasks was that the camera was not always held completely steady as we did not have a tripod available to use.

Rules of filming

Rule of thirds:
The rule of thirds is applied by aligning a subject with the guide lines and their intersection points, placing the horizon on the top or bottom line, or allowing linear features in the image to flow from section to section.




Shot reverse shot:
Shot reverse shot is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character, and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character


180 degree rule:
the 180-degree rule is a basic guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object within a scene. An imaginary line called the axis connects the characters, and by keeping the camera on one side of this axis for every shot in the scene, the first character is always frame right of the second character, who is then always frame left of the first. The camera passing over the axis is called jumping the line or crossing the line.




Match on action:
A match on action shot, is a cut that connects two different views of the same action at the same moment in the movement. By carefully matching the movement across the two shots, filmmakers make it seem that the motion continues uninterrupted. For a real match on action, the action should begin in the first shot and end in the second shot.




30 degree rule:
The 30 degree rule states that a shift in camera angle between successive shots of the same subject should exceed 30 degrees.