Storyboards
This is our storyboard which I drew. It is not very detailed or neat but expresses a few basic ideas that we are hoping to incorporate into our product. It catalogues the different shot changes in our opening and articulates what we want our product to achieve.
Thursday, 25 February 2010
Horror and Thriller Conventions
Horror Conventions
Horror films are designed to invoke peoples’ worst fears. This is often achieved by making the unreal, real and the unbelievable, believable. It plays very much on the human fear of death and murder. The film usually features one antagonist who is determined to kill a group of protagonists until one remains. They often plays on survival of the fittest in films such as Saw. The often naïve nature of curious young people in films such as The Blair Witch Project. Ghost stories about supernatural spirits such as The Others. And less often, psychological Horrors like Psycho.
Horror conventions:
- Blood
- Murder
- Killing
- Darkness
- Naivety
- Survival of The Fittest
- Isolation
- Unexpectedness
- Monsters
- Young victims
- Suspense
- Dingy Lighting and Atmosphere
- Alienation
- Children often evil
Horror films are usually designed to revolve around one character and the potential threat that looms over the protagonists: death. The movie itself usually accounts the struggle of these victims as they attempt to escape the monster’s massacre. The story becomes all about the fear that is created, which is supported by the use of suspense-creating music.
Thriller Conventions
The Thriller genre is mainly dominated by style rather than substance. They are usually stylish in their use of quirky camera angles, alternative editing and fast-paced sound.
- Establishing Characters: Tracking and panning shots are the most common and always establish the main charcter and make these shots interesting to capture the audience's attention.
- The Titles: There is usually quite a basic feel to Thriller titles and allow the action to speak for itself.
- Mise-en-scene: This usually includes fast cars and big weapons which adds to the 'thrill'
- Camera Shots: Typically, Thrillers use a mixture of shots but the juzta-position of close-ups and long shots are used to build suspense and establish scenarios.
- Narratives: Usually Thrillers use two main characters and shoot the film for their ponts of view. Usually a contrasting protagonist and antagonist, exploring the age old facination with good and evil but regularly this genre attempts to covey the inner-thoughts of the antagonist which can often result in empathy from an audience.
- Themes play on the fears of society and this may include isolation, entrapment, murder, pain or terrorism etc
- Setting: The setting can range from a bustling city scenario in Action-Thrillers such as Collateral to Isolated ares and more Horror like scenarios.
Horror films are designed to invoke peoples’ worst fears. This is often achieved by making the unreal, real and the unbelievable, believable. It plays very much on the human fear of death and murder. The film usually features one antagonist who is determined to kill a group of protagonists until one remains. They often plays on survival of the fittest in films such as Saw. The often naïve nature of curious young people in films such as The Blair Witch Project. Ghost stories about supernatural spirits such as The Others. And less often, psychological Horrors like Psycho.
Horror conventions:
- Blood
- Murder
- Killing
- Darkness
- Naivety
- Survival of The Fittest
- Isolation
- Unexpectedness
- Monsters
- Young victims
- Suspense
- Dingy Lighting and Atmosphere
- Alienation
- Children often evil
Horror films are usually designed to revolve around one character and the potential threat that looms over the protagonists: death. The movie itself usually accounts the struggle of these victims as they attempt to escape the monster’s massacre. The story becomes all about the fear that is created, which is supported by the use of suspense-creating music.
Thriller Conventions
The Thriller genre is mainly dominated by style rather than substance. They are usually stylish in their use of quirky camera angles, alternative editing and fast-paced sound.
- Establishing Characters: Tracking and panning shots are the most common and always establish the main charcter and make these shots interesting to capture the audience's attention.
- The Titles: There is usually quite a basic feel to Thriller titles and allow the action to speak for itself.
- Mise-en-scene: This usually includes fast cars and big weapons which adds to the 'thrill'
- Camera Shots: Typically, Thrillers use a mixture of shots but the juzta-position of close-ups and long shots are used to build suspense and establish scenarios.
- Narratives: Usually Thrillers use two main characters and shoot the film for their ponts of view. Usually a contrasting protagonist and antagonist, exploring the age old facination with good and evil but regularly this genre attempts to covey the inner-thoughts of the antagonist which can often result in empathy from an audience.
- Themes play on the fears of society and this may include isolation, entrapment, murder, pain or terrorism etc
- Setting: The setting can range from a bustling city scenario in Action-Thrillers such as Collateral to Isolated ares and more Horror like scenarios.
Changing Location Ideas
Initially, our group had the idea of a group of teenagers spending the night in a cemetery, we decided to plan some of our shots in a graveyard local to our college. When there we took pictures of what camera angles would be effective and planned what shots we would use. This was very useful to our research . However, later on in the project we decided against this idea. Instead, we looked at a Horror Thriller, following the life of a stalker. For this final idea we had three main locations:
- The Woods (a area of woodland near our school field)
- The Dark Room (a photographic developing room in our school)
- The Pipe Room (an area of our school where the central heating comes from)
We checked out the woods: Magpie Bottom, and decided they were perfect. This is where we would do the ‘Tagger’s’ point of view shots as he follows a young girl
- The Woods (a area of woodland near our school field)
- The Dark Room (a photographic developing room in our school)
- The Pipe Room (an area of our school where the central heating comes from)
We checked out the woods: Magpie Bottom, and decided they were perfect. This is where we would do the ‘Tagger’s’ point of view shots as he follows a young girl
Location Planning
Location Planning
This is the graveyard that we were initially going to base our opening in. We needed to see what angles we would need to use to fit with the horror genre. We found that the graveyard was not secluded enough and after these pictures were taken thought about filming somewhere else and the abandoning the graveyard idea entirely. However, these pictures can still be seen in the title section of the opening and we incorporated picture of the grave and wrote the word 'Tagged' on it.
This is the graveyard that we were initially going to base our opening in. We needed to see what angles we would need to use to fit with the horror genre. We found that the graveyard was not secluded enough and after these pictures were taken thought about filming somewhere else and the abandoning the graveyard idea entirely. However, these pictures can still be seen in the title section of the opening and we incorporated picture of the grave and wrote the word 'Tagged' on it.
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Initial Ideas Before Development
Halloween Night
Hand-held camera effects. Bright light, signifying safety.
Group of young people ‘daring’ each other to spend the night in a cemetery
Cuts to image of man in dark clothing walking around the cemetery.
First shot of the man is an extreme close-up so it is almost impossible to tell what it is.
As each shot of him is taken, the camera gets further away until the last shot where we realise he is outside the cemetery, just as the youths decide they will spend the night there.
The images of the man are steady but dark
Cuts back to young people etc.
Pumpkins and children in fancy dress to establish that it’s Halloween night.
Target Audience.
Around the same age as the protagonists - relate to their opinions, peer pressure etc.
Horror film fans
Hand-held camera effects. Bright light, signifying safety.
Group of young people ‘daring’ each other to spend the night in a cemetery
Cuts to image of man in dark clothing walking around the cemetery.
First shot of the man is an extreme close-up so it is almost impossible to tell what it is.
As each shot of him is taken, the camera gets further away until the last shot where we realise he is outside the cemetery, just as the youths decide they will spend the night there.
The images of the man are steady but dark
Cuts back to young people etc.
Pumpkins and children in fancy dress to establish that it’s Halloween night.
Target Audience.
Around the same age as the protagonists - relate to their opinions, peer pressure etc.
Horror film fans
Diary of events - Week Four
Week Four: This is when we bagan drafting initial script ideas and basic plot outlines. We came to a decision that our film would be based on a group of teenager at Halloween time, daring each other to spend a night in a grave yard. The opening would be a series of Parallel Action shots, cutting between the conspiring teens and a potential killer. For this, I wrote up a short script which was to be developed and possibly used as our opening.
Initial Script Ideas
(muffled talking about whether camera is on etc.)
1: Get the camera out of my face, you Wolly!
2. No way, this shiz is going on YouTube.
3. So tell the camera what we’re gonna do tonight Sarah.
1: I’m not coming, it’s stupid.
2: Halloween only comes once a year!
*CUTS TO MAN*
1: yeah well, it’s just an excuse for kids to rob old people of their chocolate.
2: And throw eggs at people.
3: You’re so borrrring!
1: Sitting scared shitless in a cold, wet Cemetery is not my idea of fun. Sorry.
*CUTS TO MAN*
2. It’ll be fun! We’ll have a few beers.
3. Have we convinced you yet?
1. (Looks annoyed at them, then they all start laughing) Well ring up Joe and them lot cause I am NOT going out there without the protection of some Big Strong Men!
(They all laugh)
*CUTS TO MAN*
1: Get the camera out of my face, you Wolly!
2. No way, this shiz is going on YouTube.
3. So tell the camera what we’re gonna do tonight Sarah.
1: I’m not coming, it’s stupid.
2: Halloween only comes once a year!
*CUTS TO MAN*
1: yeah well, it’s just an excuse for kids to rob old people of their chocolate.
2: And throw eggs at people.
3: You’re so borrrring!
1: Sitting scared shitless in a cold, wet Cemetery is not my idea of fun. Sorry.
*CUTS TO MAN*
2. It’ll be fun! We’ll have a few beers.
3. Have we convinced you yet?
1. (Looks annoyed at them, then they all start laughing) Well ring up Joe and them lot cause I am NOT going out there without the protection of some Big Strong Men!
(They all laugh)
*CUTS TO MAN*
Questionnaire of preferred genres
We asked a group of thirty people, over 11, what their favourite film genre was. These are our results:
- Fantasy - 2
- Chick Flick - 3
- Science fiction - 4
- Comedy - 6
- Action - 6
- Horror - 9
Analysis of results
- Luckily for us, Fantasy was the least popular genre. I feel that this would be the hardest genre to create with the resources we have, mainly because Fantasy films usually use a lot of advanced Special Effects.
- The Chick Flick genre was disappointingly low. I would have liked to try this genre. I feel it would be rather easy to create a Chick Flick style film opening, mainly due to our resources. The majority of our time together as a group will be in school, this is where a lot of Chick Flick-type films are based, for example Mean Girls. Also, as our peers are of the ‘High School’ age, it would be a easy to find actors suitable for the film opening.
- Science Fiction was surprisingly high, but again, hard to produce effectively.
- Comedy was one of the highest results. It’s a genre that I would be very interested in creating as it’s my favourite genre. However, it would require a great deal of attention to script and acting to make it successful and other genres allow more concentration on the technical side of film-making.
- Another high-scorer was Action. The Action genre would be extremely hard to create due to the need for fast cars, stunts and guns etc. This was not a genre we had considered looking into at all.
- The majority chose Horror. This was very pleasing as this was the genre we had initially discussed ideas for. We had already had a basic idea for a plot line and felt with our resources would be the easiest to create effectively. Horror is our chosen genre and I am glad our survey reflected public interest in this genre.
- Fantasy - 2
- Chick Flick - 3
- Science fiction - 4
- Comedy - 6
- Action - 6
- Horror - 9
Analysis of results
- Luckily for us, Fantasy was the least popular genre. I feel that this would be the hardest genre to create with the resources we have, mainly because Fantasy films usually use a lot of advanced Special Effects.
- The Chick Flick genre was disappointingly low. I would have liked to try this genre. I feel it would be rather easy to create a Chick Flick style film opening, mainly due to our resources. The majority of our time together as a group will be in school, this is where a lot of Chick Flick-type films are based, for example Mean Girls. Also, as our peers are of the ‘High School’ age, it would be a easy to find actors suitable for the film opening.
- Science Fiction was surprisingly high, but again, hard to produce effectively.
- Comedy was one of the highest results. It’s a genre that I would be very interested in creating as it’s my favourite genre. However, it would require a great deal of attention to script and acting to make it successful and other genres allow more concentration on the technical side of film-making.
- Another high-scorer was Action. The Action genre would be extremely hard to create due to the need for fast cars, stunts and guns etc. This was not a genre we had considered looking into at all.
- The majority chose Horror. This was very pleasing as this was the genre we had initially discussed ideas for. We had already had a basic idea for a plot line and felt with our resources would be the easiest to create effectively. Horror is our chosen genre and I am glad our survey reflected public interest in this genre.
Film Opening Analysis
Directed and Written by Alejandro Amenabar.
- Black as we hear the diegetic sound of a woman’s voice: “now children, are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.”
- As she continues speaking, slow music starts. Illustrations emerge from a story book in sepia colours, establishing the era the story is set in. The pictures are flickering in candle light.
- She is speaking about God, and creation. The pictures reflect this and show a Deer in The Woods.
- She stops speaking and the images change into pictures of a house with two children.
- The camera pans over the book as more and more illustrations are revealed. Shadowy.
- The illustrations are rather disturbing and is apparently not a regular children’s book.
- Titles continue over shots in a plain, white font.
- Illustrations are old fashioned: the characters clothes are Victorian.
- An illustration of a large country house in the book, fades to a real life establishing long shot of the same picture. It is foggy and looks dim and cold.
- Writing in the bottom left hand corner establishes setting: “Jersey, the Channel Islands. 1945”
- Cuts to a close-up of a woman screaming. You hear her screaming as soon as the shot changes. Establishing the first character in this way is strange and makes the audience curious as to what is happening. She is established as the woman telling the story from the titles.
Diary of events - Week Three
Week Three: We began analysing other sub-genres of Horror and in particular, the openings. Letitia and I looked at classic horror such as The Hitcher, analysing camera movement, shots, colouring, sound, mise-en-scene and how the general atmosphere of the opening was achieved. We then looked at alternative Horror such as The Wicker Man and a psychological Thriller, The Others. This gave us a extensive and informative look at different Horror conventions.
Monday, 22 February 2010
Film Opening Analysis.
Directed by Robin Hardy
- Old style writing, specifying producers thanks in helping create film. Like Blair Witch Project - creating a realistic feeling.
- Titles run throughout opening shots in keeping with the ‘old-style’ font we saw in the title of film and The Producer’s thanks.
- Diegetic sound of Sea Gulls.
- Day time.
- Shot of aircraft on water.
- Cuts to close up of propeller turning on.
- Panning shot of aircraft gliding over water.
- Non-diegetic Scottish music is heard.
- A tracking high angle long shot follows the aircraft as it glides faster over water.
- Camera continues to track as the aircraft takes to air.
- Cuts to close-up of pilots face. First character established.
- Point-of-view shot of what can be seen from the aircraft: the Scottish Highlands.
- This dissolves into a pan of The Highlands.
- This cuts to a tracking high angle long-shot of the aircraft above The Highlands.
- This dissolves to a shot closer high angle shot of the aircraft again flying over a Loch.
- Non-diegetic music is heard as a woman sings a Scottish song.
- The shot cuts again to a point-of-view high angle shot of The Highlands.
I chose to analyse The Wicker Man as it's a non-conventional opening to a Horror film. I feel it's important to see different takes on openings and how directors approach them.
FIlm Opening Analysis.
The Hitcher - 1986
Directed by Robert Harmon
- Slow music. - continues throughout opening sequence.
- Black background.
- Titles in red. Common convention of horror movie.
- Hear noise of match lit then see it light up in utter darkness, see his hand- suspense - wondering who character is.
- Camera pans as light goes up. Cuts to an extreme close-up of man’s face lit by match. Lights cigarette, Starts smoking.
- Close up of man’s face in shadow. Smoking in darkness. Only outline of profile visible.
- Cuts to dark view of hills.
- Titles continue over shot of hills.
- Cuts to close up of man in car, face showing anxiety, tired.
- Shot changes to long shot of two cars, panning movement, middle of nowhere, no-one about.
- Shot changes to point-of-view of man who sees the car behind over take him.
- Cuts back to close up of man looking bothered by this.
- Cuts back to point of view, seeing car disappear into the distance.
- Cuts to extreme close-up of man’s face smoking a cigarette.
- Cuts to point of view shot of dark road, small light lights up road, sun is rising
- Extreme close-up shows man getting more and more tired. Eyes starting to shut.
- Hear a loud ‘car sound’ as it cuts to pan of car driving down motorway until disappeared.
- Cuts to shot of road with nothing on as we see car appear from left.
- Cuts to another section of the road further down, we see headlights in the darkness and only the outline of the hills against the twilight sky.
-Pan of car from down the road until the car comes close and the camera stops and we see the car pass the shot.
- Cuts to close-up of car radio. Hear the radio “It’s 4.15 on a Saturday morning.” establishes time. Poses questions as to why character is travelling at this time.
- Radio continues playing but less clearly as cuts to close up of man smoking and drinking from flask (trying to keep him awake) suggests he‘s been on the road a long time.
- Man hears thunder and looks out of window, looks worried.
- Cuts to point-of-view shot of hills and image of lightening.
- Cuts back to man who closes his flask.
- It starts raining and he puts his wind-screen wipers on.
- Looks anxious, begins gulping.
- Cuts to point of view of long road ahead, hills, the sky is lighter now. Still raining.
- Cuts back to close up of man, shows him fall asleep as head nods forward.
- Extreme close-up of man’s profile in shadow (asleep).
- Face lights up.
- Cuts to point of view of oncoming headlights
- Cuts back to man waking up.
- Cuts back to point of view of oncoming lorry.
- Cuts back to close up of man taking control of steering wheel. Panicked.
- Long shot of car avoiding lorry from behind the car.
I chose to talk about The Hitcher as it’s a classic Horror Film. I feel it is important to research a film of this kind as it incorporates a lot of classic Horror conventions which could be adapted and used in our film opening. Also, I felt it was important to watch the original 1986 version of the film rather than the modern re-make as the classic Horror style is something the group is interested in incorporating. The film also follows one man’s journey which is something we could use. This ensures the audience have sympathy with the character. The idea of isolation is also used. It shows the character as vulnerable with no-one around to help him; something that scares everyone. He is even scared by thunder and lightening. Him being tired also creates suspense.
Directed by Robert Harmon
- Black background.
- Titles in red. Common convention of horror movie.
- Hear noise of match lit then see it light up in utter darkness, see his hand- suspense - wondering who character is.
- Camera pans as light goes up. Cuts to an extreme close-up of man’s face lit by match. Lights cigarette, Starts smoking.
- Close up of man’s face in shadow. Smoking in darkness. Only outline of profile visible.
- Cuts to dark view of hills.
- Titles continue over shot of hills.
- Cuts to close up of man in car, face showing anxiety, tired.
- Shot changes to long shot of two cars, panning movement, middle of nowhere, no-one about.
- Shot changes to point-of-view of man who sees the car behind over take him.
- Cuts back to close up of man looking bothered by this.
- Cuts back to point of view, seeing car disappear into the distance.
- Cuts to extreme close-up of man’s face smoking a cigarette.
- Cuts to point of view shot of dark road, small light lights up road, sun is rising
- Extreme close-up shows man getting more and more tired. Eyes starting to shut.
- Hear a loud ‘car sound’ as it cuts to pan of car driving down motorway until disappeared.
- Cuts to shot of road with nothing on as we see car appear from left.
- Cuts to another section of the road further down, we see headlights in the darkness and only the outline of the hills against the twilight sky.
-Pan of car from down the road until the car comes close and the camera stops and we see the car pass the shot.
- Cuts to close-up of car radio. Hear the radio “It’s 4.15 on a Saturday morning.” establishes time. Poses questions as to why character is travelling at this time.
- Radio continues playing but less clearly as cuts to close up of man smoking and drinking from flask (trying to keep him awake) suggests he‘s been on the road a long time.
- Man hears thunder and looks out of window, looks worried.
- Cuts to point-of-view shot of hills and image of lightening.
- Cuts back to man who closes his flask.
- It starts raining and he puts his wind-screen wipers on.
- Looks anxious, begins gulping.
- Cuts to point of view of long road ahead, hills, the sky is lighter now. Still raining.
- Cuts back to close up of man, shows him fall asleep as head nods forward.
- Extreme close-up of man’s profile in shadow (asleep).
- Face lights up.
- Cuts to point of view of oncoming headlights
- Cuts back to man waking up.
- Cuts back to point of view of oncoming lorry.
- Cuts back to close up of man taking control of steering wheel. Panicked.
- Long shot of car avoiding lorry from behind the car.
I chose to talk about The Hitcher as it’s a classic Horror Film. I feel it is important to research a film of this kind as it incorporates a lot of classic Horror conventions which could be adapted and used in our film opening. Also, I felt it was important to watch the original 1986 version of the film rather than the modern re-make as the classic Horror style is something the group is interested in incorporating. The film also follows one man’s journey which is something we could use. This ensures the audience have sympathy with the character. The idea of isolation is also used. It shows the character as vulnerable with no-one around to help him; something that scares everyone. He is even scared by thunder and lightening. Him being tired also creates suspense.
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Diary of events - Week Two
Week Two: We began work on our project on the tenth of February. This is when we decided on the genre of horror, with our questionnaire confirming this as the most popular genre amongst our age group. We liked films such as The Blair With Project that uses hand-held camera movements to create a ‘home-video’ feel. This was something we were interested in doing and looked at the opening sequence of the above film as a starting inperational starting point. We looked further into how this effect was created to look so natural
Blair Witch Project - analysis.
The film starts with the titles. Already, the black and white gives off a 'home-made' feel. The font that is used is typewriter-esque and alligned to the left hand side - like written by inexperienced film makers, to give the effect of realism. Next, a short summary appears on screen, again in black and white; flikering, to create the illusion of a slide show or home-made film. This gives some bakground information on what the film is about and again, emphasises the illusion of real life. This is something that we could definitely incorporate in our film. The titles then cut to a close-up of a girls face. This is blurred and when hearing a male from behind the camera, we know he his fliming her himself. He zooms out for the picture to be clearer. These effects all add to the home-movie style.
Monday, 1 February 2010
Diary of events - Week One
Week One: Before even choosing our teams, as a class, we researched the codes and conventions of different films. This was a good starting point and quickly we realised that each genre had its own unique style and the way this is achieved. We watched several film openings and a lot of them proved very complicated and probably hard to recreate. I took an immediate interest in the Horror clips; I liked the dark atmosphere they conventions of the genre created. I thought this would also be an interesting genre to recreate.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
