Wednesday, 26 December 2012

Character Profile: Curt





This is Curt, one of the boys among the group and will be featured in the trailer and shown the death of him. I think that introducing a few characters in the trailer would be good, but, not showing all of them. This way it will make the audience think that all the main characters are shown, however, they are not, which will make the film much more interesting. The trailer will not actually show his death, but will show him running away into the dark until he is no longer seen or visible. What could this mean? It will be up to the audience's imagination.

Curt is a typical 'Jock' type of boy in college and just like all horror films, he is into sex, drugs and disobeying rules. In a lot of horror films, jocks and their girlfriends are known to die first, however, my trailer will not be shown in a narrative order, so he may be shown later on in the trailer.

Thursday, 20 December 2012

Our prop list.

For our trailer we do not need many props because we want to keep our trailer as simple as possible and leave the audience to imagine the horror and have their imaginations left in suspense.
What w need for our trailer is some some matches, mobile phones, a video player SlenderMan notes and lastly A couple of torches as it will be very dark
As for the notes, known as Slenderman notes, which are usually left in the dark woods, it is believed to be left by either him. They are seen in games about Slenderman too.This is what the notes would look like:



Monday, 17 December 2012

Test Shots - Conversation.


Here is another test shot in which we filmed using different angles like over shoulder shot, medium shot and two shots of two student in the common room having a shot conversation. this really helped us experiment and see which angles work best.

Thursday, 13 December 2012

Test Shots - Quick Zoom

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This is a quick test we filmed. As you can see we are experimenting with the zooming techniques we could use for our trailer.
I filmed this and my partner helped me with it too. I shot different shots and used different camera angles.

Wednesday, 12 December 2012

Film Location


My group and I went out to find our locations and go over our storyboard. Here are some of the pictures we took.

These locations are empty and strange we may use this space to film the teens exploring the place the mud, leaves and puddles are good effect because it shows that the area is empty. Also the pile of stones looks like the stones that were laid in a circle 5 times around the explorers’ tent in ‘The Blair witch project’



These two location pictures show the empty deserted place. Nobody is around it will be a really good location to shoot our film. The location is quite good the gates give a spooky effect and the grass and plants aren’t looked after it seems like no one has been here in a long time.





These two pictures show the abandoned house that we many use in our trailer which the four teenagers will break into for fun.Theres only one small problem the house doesn't look quite abandonded so we might need to change the location.







Tuesday, 11 December 2012

Test Shots - Running Scene .



Here is a test of different camera angles we took around the college building.

Monday, 10 December 2012

First shooting schedule


Day 1 of shooting

Shots
Location
Duration
Cast
Props
Description
Shot 1
Woods
20 mins –
3-3:20pm
Trees
No props
Long shot
To show audience where the location is
Shot 2
Woods
30 mins
3:20-3:50pm
Michael
No props
Long shot/ Handheld
Running from Slenderman
Shot 3
Woods
2 hours
3:50-5:50pm
Taylor
(final girl)
No props
Zoom shot
Her running away
Shot 4
Woods
20 mins
5:50-6:10pm
Diegetic noises
Vocals

Shot 5
Woods
20 mins
6:10-6:30pm
Slenderman
Suit, mask
Long shot/Extreme Long Shot
Him waiting and stalking

Friday, 7 December 2012

Trailer StoryBoard

This is our storyboard so far it shows all the different scenes which we will shoot for our trailer. This won’t be our final storyboard; my group has already changed it around and added some more scenes into the trailer.
These two pages are the scenes of the forests and the teens walking through it. it also shows the teens finding the home video and playing it to see what it contains. teens are very scared of what they have seen 2 are really horrid and they start to freak out.




These two pages show that the teens see Slenderman and get scared they run through the forest together and Slenderman is waiting for them on the other side. They turn to run towards the entrance and he appears there again standing in the end of the forest standing there emotionless (no face).



I coloured and put in the details in the first couple of pages and I let my group the camera shots and detail.

Wednesday, 5 December 2012

Making Our Storyboard.


Here are some of our picture that were taken of us doing our work, updating blogs and creating our storyboards. We worked as a team sitting down helping each other and brainstorming and making the storyboards. 








 We watched the trailer to see the different shots we used in our spoof trailer. This helped us get a better view of the trailer we were able to pause spot our mistakes and also we now know what to include in our final trailer and also how to improve our work.



 In the end we added colour because it would give people a better understanding of what is going on in our trailer instead of our storyboard being simple and plain black and white drawing. We also made our storyboard as detailed as possible. We thought of the type of angle and shot we will include.


Monday, 3 December 2012

Camera shots

This is what my group has come up with a shot which includes different camera shots for our trailer:

·         Mid shot
·         Extreme close up shot
·         Reverse Shot
      ·       Establishing shot
·         Pan shot
·         Long shot
·         Two Shot
·         Close up shot
·         Extreme long shot
·         Handheld shot


My group and I have used video cameras and cameras. 

Friday, 30 November 2012

Trailer name

My group and I have been trying to find a perfect name for our trailer. So we have had many ideas for the names. Its been very hard to decide on a name because we want it to beeye catching. I teh end we decided to call our film 'SlenderMan'. This is because 'The Man' sounds really dull and boring as for 'Slender' it sounds like some sort of blending machine which all my group has agreed to.

My group and I have alot of names that were really hard to say e.g.:
  • Slimas
  • albena
  • Schlanker Mann
  • Slima
  • Der Ritter
  • der weiße Mann 
  • Slimum
  • der schwarze Mann
In the end, we had decided to keep it very simple and easy. For the audience to actually be able to talk about the trailer (word to mouth) and for them to know exactly who the film is about.\aaa

Thursday, 29 November 2012

Horror Prelim



Our horror prelim.
Here is our finished spoof horror trailer of 'The Man' . We uploaded it on YouTube so it is available to anyone to watch.

Wednesday, 28 November 2012

Our Trailer (Spoof)

My group and I have started filming our trailer. We collected ideas from current trailers and filiming our own parody.
So far we filmed the villain chasing after the boy who runs through the field and is caught by the villain in the end.
We are now editing the video and we will soon post it up on YouTube.

Tuesday, 27 November 2012

Trailer Narrative

For our trailer narrative we have come up with some ideas so far
  1. A introduction with use of text. e.g. 'This Halloween' slenderman seen slightly behind a tree revealing his tall shady body and faceless white head
  2. During all of this music with suspense will be played over it
  3. We are then taken to a bunch of teenagers kicking down a door and breaking into an abandoned home
  4. The attic is then shown and old films are seen half falling out of a cardboard box
  5. A machine is ready to set up and watch the film
  6. They watch it
  7. 2 teens suspect something is not right
  8. Cuts to a laughter of the scared teens
  9. Quick 0.1 second shot of slender appears with a sharp psycho string like noise with it comes and disappears
  10. Running and screaming is heard
  11. Blacked out screens then screams and thumps

    Friday, 23 November 2012

    The Slender Man Documentary



    Here is a short documentary that me and my group found about slender man and his origins on YouTube

    Wednesday, 21 November 2012

    Horror Film Narrative.

    The Man
    The man is a horror scopophilia film. It is based around an urban myth of a creature called ‘Slender Man’.
    The film is set in the present day; however, it will be based on a home film that was recorded 60 years ago which was owned by the recorder, ........... She had passed away recently and her house had been abandoned. A group of 4 teenagers decided to break into the house at night for fun and discovered the home video in the attic. After watching the video, 2 of them were scared of the video. The others were calling them names and said there was nothing to worry about. Then they proceeded to wreck the house.
    They all go home. The next time they meet up at the house, one of the teens looks out of the window and sees slender man. None of the others believe him and make fun of him. The teen becomes hysterical so the others lock him out of the house as a joke. He bangs on the door hysterically as the others laugh before suddenly falling silent. The others think he is messing around but when they go to let him in he is nowhere to be found. They come to the conclusion that he must have found another way into the house and is hiding potentially trying to scare them. They split up and look for him in the other rooms, one of the boys, Jeffery, looks out the window and see’s a tall shady black figure underneath the street’s lamp, he is unusually tall and lanky, with extra long hands. Jeffery immediately realises that he just saw slender man and ducks under the window in shock; he then calms himself and looks again. The figure is gone. Jeffery tells the others but once again they do not believe him, thinking he is in on the joke. They soon realise that their friend is genuinely missing and the whole group begins to panic.
    They decide that the safest thing to do is get away from the house and return to their own homes. They make their way down their usual route down an alley but are cornered by Slenderman. They run away in the opposite direction, towards the woods, Slenderman’s preferred domain. The leader urges the group on, saying if they can make it through the woods they can escape through the other side. They run from Slenderman but every time they reach the end of a path he is standing waiting for them. All they have to light their way is the light from their phones and these soon stop working leaving them in complete darkness (Slenderman interferes with technology)
    The group have no choice but to use matches to keep Slenderman away (he doesn’t like light) but these don’t last very long. The film ends with the group desperately grabbing matches and trying to keep them alight for as long as possible, but they eventually run out and are taken by Slenderman. The audience think that all the teens have been killed but it is revealed at the end that one of them managed to escape as they had a torch in their bag. The screen goes black. Dot of light from torch gets bigger and runs past the camera.

    Saturday, 10 November 2012

    The Slender man

    The Slender Man is a creature with characteristics and abilities Slender Man generally appears (in modern times) as a tall man in a black or grey suit, red or black tie, and white shirt, with no eyes, mouth, or defined facial features. It has no hair, and generally has normal-looking bare hands. Slenderman typically is depicted in imagery and literature as between 6 and 15 feet tall, depending on the situation, and in video as around 6-7 feet tall.

    Saturday, 3 November 2012

    Final girl theory

    Who is the final girl?

    -The only character to be developed in psychological detail.
    -She is often given a lot of attention, camera time therefore important.
    -Final girl is virginal. (Friends partying having fun whilst final girl studying or babysitting.)
    - Her unisex name is also a giveaway.
    - Shared history with the killer final girls connection to the killer may help her survive and getaway.
    - She is resourceful, level headed, intelligent often first to sense something is wrong.
    -momentary paralysis in the face of death creates the universal nightmare.
    -Last one left alive.

    The final girl.
    - Physically and emotionally smart, strong and masculine e.g.
    Ellen Riley (Alien)
    Sidney Present (Scream)
    -Male actions?
    -RESOURCEFUL/ THINK ON THEIR FEET.

    Thursday, 1 November 2012

    Trailer Feedback.

    What my group were told to improve on were.
    ·         Make natural noises instead of funny sound and talking whilst filming.
    ·         Taking more shots and footage so when editing we have a lot of footage instead of running out.

     Include a few people. The fewer the better this means less dialogue.


    ·         Shoot more than we need so we can have different angles of the same shot
    ·         What was good about our prelim trailer
    ·         It was very basic and simple.
    ·         It had a few editing effects
    ·         It was polished and professional
    ·         Very fast creates tension.

    Wednesday, 31 October 2012

    Independent Research.

    Classifications:
    • U-Contains mild threat or NO material likely to offend or harm.
    • PG- Contains mild threat sex and drug references.
    • 12- Contains moderate sex and drugs references or violence.
    • 15- Contains strong sex, drugs referances and gory images.
    • 18-Frequents strong bloody, sex, nudity and gory scenes.
    •  Highlight best bits of film
    • No narrative order
    • Showcase stars of film
    • Credits
    • One line conversation
    • Voice over to tell story
    •  Title appears in the end
    •  Music creates atmosphere and tension
    • Trailer builds to climax where it ends.

    Key Points 
    Matricide- Killing Mother
    Infanticide- Killing Infants.

    Thursday, 25 October 2012

    The Blair Witch Project 1999

    Posters.

    Case Study.

    The Blair Witch Project 1999.

    - Low budget film ($25,000)
    -Always struggle to compete in the market place.
    -No films stars
    -Cheap location
    -No soundtrack
    -No special effect
    -$56,000 on first weekend it raises $56,000 per screen
    -27 screens across 20 states in the USA
    -Internet marketing
    -Third week it increased to 1100 only 2nd in Box Office receipts to Runaway Bride.
    -In total the fim made $140 million.

    Tuesday, 23 October 2012

    How are horror films marketed?


    What are the different ways of marketing a horror film?
    -Posters
    - Front Cover magazines.
    -Word of mouth.
    -Teasers
    -TV adverts.
    -Online reviews
    -Reviews
    -Web 2.0 (YouTube, Facebook and twitter)
    - Official Websites
    -Buses
    -Film magazine interviews.
    -Bus stop adverts
    -Merchandise.
    -Social Adverts
    -Film Trailers
    -Cinema
    -Billboards
    -Radio Ads.

    Friday, 19 October 2012

    How is horror created in Halloween 1978

    Halloween 1978

    We see the killers shoulder thinks makes us think that the killer is going to kill someone.
    We see hear the sound of a knife stabbed into something but we think we saw the boy getting stabbed to death.
    We see the bed messy and a naked girl after a boy has left but we think she just had sex with her boyfriend.

    Thursday, 18 October 2012

    Female and Male Characters.

    Carrie- Final girl (Sue Snell)
    In adaption and portrayal of the character, she is a popular teenage girl who is dating Tommy Ross. She feels remorse for bullying Carrie and makes Tommy take Carrie to the prom.
    She fits into the final girl stereotype because she stays at home whilst her friends, school mate and teacher go to prom.

    Psycho- Marion Crane.
    Marion Crane did not survive because she had a boyfriend and she wanted to go back home. She went to a hotel for the night which meant that the killer was able to kill easily. The killer was able to sneak into her hotel room into the room making his way to the bathroom shower to stab her to death.


    Male Characters.

    Good male characters.
    -Boyfriend
    -School mate.

    Bad male characters
    The killer is often unseen or barely glimpsed during the first half of the film. It does not invite empathy (deformed, wearing a mask.) and eventually the killer is killed.

    Tuesday, 16 October 2012

    Final girl theory.

    What is my initial perception of how women are represented in horror films?

    -Women are represented as a sex objects or something dumb to men (male gaze) through camera angels.
    -Women may be smart sometimes e.g. Riley (Aliens)
    -Clueless.
    -Nervous 'damsel' and vulnerable.
    -Costume either tight or a lot of skin is shown.
    -Women are heroes or final girl or they are stupid and they die quickly.
    -Outwit villain, masculine trait.
    -Pretty, dumb will get killed girl.

    What are the uniting features of these women?

    -Physically and emotionally smart, strong and masculine e.g. Ellen Riley (Alien) and Sidney Present (Scream).
    -Male actions.
    They use whatever is there to get away from the villain e.g. hitting villain with fire extinguisher.  
    -Resourceful and they think on their feet.

    Wednesday, 10 October 2012

    The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis

    It is one of the most enjoyable feminist film theory books. The author explores the fear of the monstrous-feminine not as the castrated subject-as Freud argued. It gives all sorts of examples of castrating female monsters, with images, from popular culture!

    This book makes watching horror movies and reading psychoanalysis so much interesting.
    It examines the issue of gender in horror films, something that seems completely obvious when you read the essays but was always just on the tip of your subconscious mind, waiting for the right articulation.

    Tuesday, 9 October 2012

    Case Study.

    Carrie.


    What representations are there in Carrie?

    ·         Teachers-Not caring
    ·         Mothers-Crazy
    ·         Supernatural-Power
    ·         Religion-Negative Christians (Extremists)
    ·         Teenagers- Gang mentality. Girls dominate and Boys just follow Orders.