conventions of a film poster

The major forms and conventions of film posters could include:

• A large title which attracts the eye
• Bold colours which stand out from the background
• An intriguing picture which would attract viewers to the film
• Persuasive language which might persuade the viewers to go and see the film
• Use the main character's name for promotion
• The certification will either to ensure that the right type of people are watching the film.

B.Birch

Ancillary task film magazine covers

This is a link to the Empire magazine website containing there past magazine covers and the top 20 voted magazine covers, these will show what is a good cover for my target audience:
http://www.empireonline.com/magazine/covers/

T.Burden

Ancillary Task research Film posters

I decided to research into what poster styles are popular and what a good poster contains.
This is a link to the top 100 posters : http://www.tccandler.com/columns/100_greatest_movie_posters.htm

I also researched into what makes a bad trailer these are the worst posters of 2009:
http://www.totalfilm.com/features/the-17-worst-movie-posters-of-2009

T.Burden

Filming plan 2

Time - 3:30-5:30

Location: Pensby High School For Boys

Actor: Chris Burden

Actress: Sophie Kirkham

Costumes:

Actor: Dark trousers, White shirt

Actress: Grey top, Black trousers

Equipment:

Tripod

Camera

Lighting/Directional light

Props:

Fake Blood

Candle

B.Birch, A.Snowden, T.Burden

The Making of the Blood

We needed to make fake blood for a few of our scenes so i was tasked researching and making fake blood.

I started by researching on the internet on how to make fake blood. I found many ways to make it, but i asked a few people i know and found out that during paramedic training to simulate blood they use just washing up liquid and red food dye. The other ways ive found use things like syrup, water, flour and food dye but i thought this was to complicated. I also found ways to make movie quality according to the site, you should use hair gel, chocolate syrup, water and red food colouring.

I chose the paramedics method due to the price and that it was easier to make larger amounts, and different viscosities.






Ive done this to show the difference in viscosity's. The one on the left is thicker and hasnt been absorbed into the paper, the one on the right is made from cheaper washing up liquid but is thinner and has been absorbed into the paper.

T.Burden

Summary Of First Filming Session (23/11/2009)

The First Filming Session that we scheduled was on the 23rd of Novemeber on a Monday night. We had planned to shoot three of our primary shots:

- Boy In The Corner
- Bloody Hand
- Blood Spatter + Drips

To complete these shots, we set aside 2 hours after college before it shut for the night. We had previously decided that for our treatment to be effective we needed a younger boy, leaving us unable to use either myself or another one of my group members. We therefore asked Tom Burden's (Group Member) younger brother; Christopher.

The setting that we chose too use for these three shots was our school hall, the backstage provided the correct lighting and different settings, colours and objects that we needed. Examples of the location that we used are contained in the location shot posts. The only external props that we used where fake blood which Tom made (from a combination of washing up liquid, red food dye and water)and a candle.

Starting with the 'Boy In the Corner' Shot, we first created the lighting we need by a small light behind the camera and of course the lit candle. This provided the correct effect that only lit up certain parts of the set and the actor. We then proceeded to shoot, starting from a medium shot zooming in to a close up at a slow pace. We took several shots using the zooming technique so that we had a variety of shots to choose from when we come to edit. We then changed to a fast paced shot of a close up of the actor blowing out the candle, again we shot several different versions of this. The effect that we wanted to gain from this shot was that once the actor had blown the candle out the screen would be completely dark, this would allow us to transition to a shot that shows the name of our film.

The reason behind taking several shots for this sequence was due to the cameras zoom starting off slightly 'jurky' and some issues with the candles stability.

Moving on to the 'bloody hand dragged across the wall' shot, we used a well light close up shot of a wall and took several shot of the hand moving in different directions and at different paces. We plan to make a decision of which one to use during the editing stages.

Also while we there we decideed to film a shot that we hadnt previously planned to do. This was a shot of a shadow slowly entering though a doorway slowly. We came across this shot while playing with lighting and we noticed adams shadow though a door way so we filmed it and it worked well.

finally the 'blood dripping' shot was simple to construct as we used the same lighting from the previous shot, using a close up we slowly panned the camera down at a slow paced so that it recorded the blood trailing down the wall. We did several different takes of this with different amounts of blood, movement speeds and blood viscosity.

Our next Filming session is going to be on Thursday the 26th of November

A.Snowden, T.Burden, B.Birch

Possible Location Shots [2]

The Following are some more Location shots, once again keep in mind that the images have no lighting or mise-en-scene in mind when they where taken:

Possible Location Shots [1]

The following pictures are the first selection of potential location shots, please note that these pictures where taken with no lighting or mise-en-scene in mind as they are simply standard shots of potential locations that we may use:

Target Audiences

Target Audience is a very important thing to establish when creating anything, especially a film teaser trailer. This is because the trailer has to appeal to and engage the target audience whilst not breaking any boundaries the BBFC sets. Thus showing how important research into the BBFC is. The film that we have thought up is going to be an ‘18’ certificate, thus meaning the things that are shown in the trailer have to be very carefully constructed and produced to establish the connection with the target audience

Due to this film being an ‘18’ certificate and a Thriller film, we have decided the target audience to be specific to adults who like to be frightened or shocked, however, this is not easy to do show in a trailer due to the legal guild lines. I am therefore going to do research into how trailers engage there target audience.

This establishment of target audience works very differently in different genres of films, similarly to the different in conventions of trailers for different genres. For example, and action film would have a different opening sequence to that of a romantic film, thus trying to instantly establish the genre of the film and engage the target audience.

It is important that the trailer reflects the pace and overall effect of the film, this is important because it further shows the target audience exactly that it is relating to there type of film. For example, and action film usually is fast paced, to represent the action in the film, but may have breaks of dialogue and serious things to show the target audience that it has a definable plot that they can relate too.

Here are a list of some ways in which Horror or Thriller film trailers engage the audience, you will notice that these examples are types of images, sounds or stereotypical things that people who like these types of film can recognize:

• -Sharp images of blood, shadows or flickers of light
• -Sounds of pain, screams, or terror
• -Heavy breathing or panting
• -Images of sinister people in mirrors or in aggressive stances
• -Sounds of heart beats and pulses
• -Very sinister short amounts of dialogue

All of these things combined together or on there own will attract the target audiences attention due to recognition of previous films they have watch of the same genre, thus engaging the target audiences attention.

A.Snowden

The BBFC and Film Classification

The BBFC is the company that categories all films that pass through England; they have certain guidelines that they have to abide to in order to categories each film. There are five main topics that they have too focus on, as well as a number of smaller topics. The five main topics are:

• Sex

• Violence

• Drugs

• Racism & Language

• Immatability Techniques

The BBFC made it clear that they do not create moral stance in the public, meaning that they do not create what the public think is acceptable, but they try to reflect societies morals as a whole.

Sex

The way the BBFC look at sex is depending on how it is contextually justified within the text. There are two different kinds of sex in a film, naturalized Nudity and sexualized nudity. Naturalized is when nudity is shown, but not in a sexual manner. Naturalized nudity can be shown in lower graded films like PG or 12. However, when the nudity starts to become sexual, or sexualized nudity, the film starts to move up the certificates.

Another topic within sex is sexual violence; this is referring to things like Rape. The way in which his is assessed is on how long the scene is and how it relates to the narrative of the text. The rape scene has to be shown in a evil light for it not to be cut from the film, lots of rape scenes do get cut from films.

Violence

This is categorized depending on the graphicness of the violence, for example, “Tom & Jerry” is a very violent cartoon, but it categories as U. However, when you look at films like “Saw” or “Hostel” the films move up the ranking due to the context of the violence and how graphic it is.

A subcategory within Violence is Weapons, the way that weapons are graded in films depends on how the weapon is portrayed and whether or not is is in the “goodie” or “badies” hands. Furthermore, what has to be accessed is whether the weapon is a common household item like a knife, that people have easy access too.

Drugs

Drugs are an easier thing to categorize. In lower graded films drugs are aloud to be talked about, but as soon as the film shows people using or creating drugs it starts to move up the certificates.

Racism and Language

Starting with Language, the way a film is catogorised based upon langague is the specificly what language is used and how frequently. Some words in the language are concidered much more offencive than others, meaing that use of these very offencive words make a film easy to categories.

if a film is catogorised purly on racisum the BBFC have to look at several things; is the Rasicum verbal or phyical? how offencive is it? and does it show racisum in a possitive manner. Most films that are based souly on a plot about racisum are usally of an 18 rating, this is because people under the age of 18 may not understand that the film is actually discouraging racisum rather than promoting it, two examples of this kind of film are 'This is England' and 'American History X'.

Immatatible Techniques

Another very important thing that the BBFC have to look at is immitabity techniques. This is referring to things shown in the text that people may copy. For example in lower graded films they look for child safety things that children may copy. In the higher categories they look at things like how the preparation of drugs is show. A very key topic in this is suicide techniques; they have to make sure the film doesn’t show how to commit suicide in a educational manner.

A.Snowden

Filming plan

Time: 3:30-5:30
Location: Pensby High School for Boys
Actor: Chris Burden

Costume's:

Actor: Dark plain top, Dark plain trousers

Equipment:

Tripod
Camera
Lighting-Directional light
White sheet

Props:

Blood
Candle

T.Burden, A.Snowden, B.Birch

Story Board No.1

This is our Story board, we are hoping to film it soon.

T.Burden

Horrors Best Directors

Hitchcock's 60s Masterpieces:
Another suspense/thriller director Alfred Hitchcock, whose early silent film The Lodger (1926) explored horror's themes, brought out his most horrific film over 30 years later at the start of the decade. His film changed the face of all horror films ever since. Pure archetypal horror was now to be found in the dark shadows of the human soul itself - in a psychopathic, cross-dressing Bates Motel operator and taxidermist (Anthony Perkins). The low-budget, television-influenced, B & W Psycho (1960) could be considered the 'Citizen Kane' of horror films, with its complex Oedipal themes and schizophrenia. Its most famous scene was the classic shower murder in which the heroine (Janet Leigh) was savagely stabbed, with Bernard Herrmann's violin-tinged memorable score. The scene still invokes sheer terror, and the film itself would come to influence all subsequent Hollywood horror films - especially the 'slasher' horror film subgenre.
Hitchcock's next horror masterpiece was Universal Studios' apocalyptic The Birds (1963) about the invasion of coastal town Bodega Bay by avian flocks. A spoiled heiress (Tippi Hedren), her potential boyfriend (Rod Taylor), his mother (Jessica Tandy), and a schoolteacher (Suzanne Pleshette) all suffered from the many bird attacks. The theme of Man vs. Nature running amok remained unresolved by the film's end.



George Romero's Horror Contributions: Zombie Films
George Romero, now known as the Master of the 'zombie film,' debuted as director with the low-budget, black-and-white, intensely-claustrophobic, unrelenting B&W cult classic Night of the Living Dead (1968), a milestone 'splatter' film about newly dead, stumbling corpses/zombies that returned to life with ravenous hunger for human flesh. The amateurish, allegorical film made in just one month showed rotten human corpses walking with outstretched arms and threatening a few trapped survivors who sought refuge in a Pennsylvania farm-shack. By film's end, the townsfolk discovered that zombies could be killed by shooting them in the head - although they mistakenly shoot Ben (Duane Jones) after his desperate fight for survival.
Romero's most notable horror films -- his calling card -- included his Dead trilogy (now totaling five) -- about flesh-eating zombies who walked slowly and stiffly (due to the effects of rigor mortis), in a 'cult of the dead':
• Night of the Living Dead (1968) - this naturalistic, documentary-style film inaugurated an entire horror subgenre (zombie films with flesh-stalking cannibals), shot in stark and grainy black and white
• Dawn of the Dead (1978) - the gore-filled sequel with survivors who sought refuge in a deserted shopping mall, with a further perverse critique of the mall culture and its mentality, and the classic statement by Peter (Ken Foree): "When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the Earth"; remade as Dawn of the Dead (2004) by Zack Snyder (his feature film debut)
• Day of the Dead (1985) - about surviving scientists and military officers who performed experiments on zombies in a bunker to find a cure for the plague, until the zombies revolt
• Land of the Dead (2005) - a symbolic 'haves & have-nots' story, between the elites who live in walled-off, luxurious urban skyscrapers in an embattled city called Fiddler's Green (led by feudal overlord leader Kaufman played by Dennis Hopper) where they are protected by mercenaries who battle the flesh-eating zombies, and the lower class masses who live in squalor
• Diary of the Dead (2008) - a "film-within-a-film," supposedly a documentary (with long takes and hand-held camera shots) made by aspiring film student Jason Creed (Joshua Close).

B.Birch

Horror Film Loctaions

I decided to research into horror locations and which were possible for us to do.

• Out in the ocean- A good location, secluded a feel of entrapment, but is ery impractical.
• In a Desert- similar to the ocean, secluded and the feel of entrapment, but again very impractical for us.
• On a Space Station- the same again, its secluded but extremely impractical
• In a Jungle- Yet agin this location like the others, is secluded and has no contact to the modern world,but the closest we get to that is a forest.
• A Circus/Carnival - Clowns, mimes the darkness and the lighting all lends itself to the horror genre. Once again impractical but not imposable.
• A Grave Yard - Is perfect for the horror genre, but if we used a real grave yard it would be disrespectful.
• A Hotel/Motel - Some of the alltime best horror films have been set here, due to the conflicting idea that hotels are meant to cater your needs. But I doubt a hotel would allow us to film there.
• School/Summer School - By far the easiest choice for us, and theits the place where children are eant to be safe and are meant to learn.
• At Home/on a Street - probably one of the scariest to the viewers, due to the idea of that happening where you feel safest. Also an easy location to film and get to.

T.Burden

New Scene Ideas

These are some ideas after a mind mapping session for scenes:

• One way to cut to the title screen is to use the child lit only by candle light blowing out the candle and cutting to black.
• Another idea is to use a Girl to crawl out into a corridor coverd in blood while calling for help, then she stops and is aggressively dragged back.
• We've thought of a few shots containing close up tracking shots of things like feet and hands moving up a banister.
• We've also decided that we wll open the trailer with an establishing shot followed by a shot of the house number

T.Burden

Scariest horror scenes

Scariest horror moments as voted by members of www.best-horror-movies.com . This link goes to a site where the top 10 scariest moments in horror were voted for by members of the site.

B.Birch

Film Names Ideas

The Abused
We thought that the name abused would not be suitable as the main character is an orphaned child who has suffered abuse. Therefore we will not be using this idea as our film name.

The Tormented
We came up with the idea of The Tormented as we believed this name was more appropriate than The Abused. However we researched this title to make sure that it wasn’t already a film, unfortunately it was. The film had been produced earlier this year so we decided that we would have to come up with another name. The link to the film information on Tormented can be found below.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1100053

No. 38
We finally decided to call our film No.38, we decided this as the house that the majority of the film will be filmed in is number 38 on the road.

B.Birch, T.Burden, A.Snowden

Trailer Content Discussion

While discussing shots for the trailer we came up with a few ideas.

The trailer would mainly focus on a shot of the child lit only by candle light. This shot would re-occur thoughout the trailer, alongside other shots intergrated into the trailer.

Another idea was to use a short plot line thoughout the trailer, e.g- a person entering the house and discovering the child.

T.Burden
B.Birch
A.Snowden

Audience Research

For Audience Research, I created a Questionnaire and asked thirty students in my sixth form to compelete it. Having recieved twenty five questionnaires back, here are the results:

1) When Looking For A Horror Film, Do you Prefere a Suspenceful Thriller or a Traditional 'Slasher'?

Suspence = 16 People
Slasher = 9 People

2) Do you think it is more important for a Horror Film to have good effects, or good acting?

Effects = 11 People
Acting = 14 People

3) Do you prefere a horror film to be of a realistic nature, like a psychotic killer, or of a supernatural nature like a Ghost or Monster

Realistic = 19 People
Supernatural = 6 People

4) In terms of a Thriller Trailer, Do you think it is best for it to give away much of the plot, or to keep the film hidden and build suspence?

Hidden = 21 People
Plot Unfolding Trailer = 4 People

5) How long do you sugest a Thriller Trailer Should be?

Under One Minute = 4 People
Between One Minute and Two = 12 People
Over Two Minute = 9 People

6) Where would you expect a Thriller Trailer to be shown?

Cinema = 5 People
Television = 6 People
Before Other Horror/Thriller Films = 14 People

A.Snowden

Possible Film Treatment Two

The film is based around how years of abuse can effect someone's personality and mental health. The film begins with a young child’s parents dying in a fire at their home, the child is the only person rescued from the building.

He is subsequently put into foster care, and has to live in a type of orphanage until he is found a home. At this orphanage he is badly abused mentally and physically, from the age of one until he was eight, when he was finally adopted by a new family.

The child moves into their home, a farm house that is completely isolated from any community.

After several weeks, the parents of the child mysteriously disappear, but only the child and the audience know this. We soon learn that the child has murdered is adopted parents in self defence, as they attempt to abuse the child even more.
The child lives on his own in the house for a long time, up until he is older. At around the age of seventeen, a girl comes to his house.

Subsiquently, the pair become very close, and she stays with him alone in the house. But, the consumer soon learns that she has other intentions. She is evil, and convinces the boy to lure people to the house to kill them.

They murder several people until a police officer in the nearest local community become suspicious. He goes to the house to search and finds the bodies of their victims in the basement, he arrests the boy, but the girl is no where to be found.
In the station, the boy explains about the girl. Who we soon learn doesn’t exist. The boy is jailed until his trial. In jail, he fights with the girl of whom he thinks has been locked away in the same cell, he kills her, and subsequently kills himself.

A.Snowden

Conventions Of A Teaser Trailer

From Thriller and Horror Trailers that I deconstructed I have am now able to establish the different conventions of these types of trailers. I have learnt that horror/thrill conventions are very different to any other type of teaser trailer. For example, a typical Action genre teaser trailer would be fast paced, intense and show some of the key scenes in the plot of the film, a thriller or horror trailer on the other hand would be quite the reverse, they are conventional slower paced and quicken towards the end, divulge very little into the main plot of the film and tend to arouse the consumers attraction to being afraid, rather than completely afraid. The following are the conventions of Horror/Thriller teaser trailers:

Lighting and Colour: conventionally, thriller teaser trailers are very dark and sinister as to depict the element of fear. Stereotypical things might be used like lightening bolts, flashes or sudden jolts of colour to shock the audience

Pace: The Pace of Thriller Teaser trailers is conventionally slow at the beginning, and quickens to a climax as the trailer ends. This pace always works in conjunction with the sound or dialogue that is running along with it

Sound: The sound that is used in thriller teaser trailers is usually sudden beats, or sinister quiet rhythms playing in the background, these, like the pace of the trailer are usually used in conjunction with the images shown and the dialogue if any.

Clips, Images & Transitions: the images that are shown, even though the pace is usually slower, the clips are sudden, usually accompanied by a none diagetic sounds as the clip ends to build suspense. The transitions that are used are conventionally short amounts of text to build suspense or give some hint as to what the plot of the film is.

Mise-En-Scene: The Mise-en-scene of these types of trailers is conventionally, like the lighting, dark, sometimes complete blackness. The surroundings and objects are always very sinister furthermore, things like mirrors, candles, old portraits and old books are common.

Dialogue: The Dialogue that is in Thriller Teaser Trailers is usually minimal, used to arouse suspicion or apprehension. It is commonly a whisper, or in a Childs voice to sound venerable or innocent.

Acting: The acting in thriller teaser trailers is, like dialogue, very minimal. The actors and actresses featured in the film are usually in the teaser trailers for reactions or very quick clips for recognition.

A.Snowden

Possible film Treatment One

This is just an idea for an film treatment. We've decided that the killer should be a child, this will depen the impact due to the innocent and unassuming nature of children.

A young disturbed child is sent to an orphanage after their previous foster parents “disappeared”, we witness strange and disturbing behaviour whilst the child is in the orphanage. The child is eventually adopted again and moves in with their new foster parents.

After a few weeks the house appears to be empty, the house slowly looks more and more dilapidated and abandoned. The neighbour becoming more and more aware of this decides to investigate the house because of noises she hears and the fact that she thought the house was lived in, because she met the people who lived there.

After entering the house she finds the dead and dismembered bodies of the couple who lived there and adopted the child. While looking around the house we find the child sitting in the dark lit only by a candle. The neighbour tries helping the child but as she gets closer she is surprised by the child, as it lunges at her with a snapped wooden pole, but she is not killed. She is then tortured by the child then killed.

The child manages to lure several other victims (3 children, 2 teens and 2 adults) into the house from the street and local area and kills them. After each killing the police are involved they discover the bodies in the house, but not the child.

After a period of time the police, station two police personnel outside to monitor the house. They see the child inside, and after the same searching of the house and finding the child in the corner lit by candle light the police move close and the bring the child to the police station. After an interrogation of the child, it is returned to the same orphanage where it was adopted from at the start of the film and the story continues.


T.Burden

Camera Shots List

This a useful website I found on camera shots and movements, to help with shot quality and variety in our trailer:

http://www.mediacollege.com/video/shots/

T.Burden

Horror Genre Overview

After a discussion in our group we decided to make our film a horror. We all have extensive knowledge into the horror genre, and feel that it is the best direction to take. So we decided to find an overview of the horror genre.

Horror Films are unsettling films designed to frighten and panic, cause dread and alarm, and to invoke our hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale, while captivating and entertaining us at the same time in a cathartic experience. Horror films effectively center on the dark side of life, the forbidden, and strange and alarming events. They deal with our most primal nature and its fears: our nightmares, our vulnerability, our alienation, our revulsion's, our terror of the unknown, our fear of death and dismemberment, or loss of identity.

Whatever dark, primitive, and revolting traits that simultaneously attract and repel us are featured in the horror genre. Horror films are often combined with science fiction when the menace or monster is related to a corruption of technology, or when Earth is threatened by aliens. The fantasy and supernatural film genres are not synonymous with the horror genre, although thriller films may have some relation when they focus on the revolting and horrible acts of the killer/madman. Horror films are also known as chillers, scary movies, spook fests, and the macabre.

B.Birch

Overview of a Film Trailer

A teaser trailer is a short trailer used to advertise and increase hype about an up and coming movie game or television series.
Teaser trailers, unlike typical trailers, they are usually very short in length and usually contain very little or any of the actual film footage. They are usually released well in advance before the film’s release (ranging from a few months to a year and a half), and are released to build hype. A teaser ad campaign generally consists of a series of short adverts to anticipate a larger full campaign for the film launch.

Teaser trailers are usually only released for larger big budget films. They are usually to simply let the audience know of the film is coming up in the near future, and to build hype. The trailers are often released well in advance of the film usually while it’s still in production or editing as a result they may feature scenes or altered version that are not in the film. Some films may even create scene especially for the teaser trailer.

Recent examples of major films that have used teaser trailers such as the lord of the rings trilogy, Disney Pixar’s cars and finding nemo. The Da Vinci code teaser trailer was released before the films had even began to start shooting. Many films release teaser trailers attached to a film, the incredible’s teaser was attached to the finding nemo film from 2003. A teaser for star wars episode 1: the phantom menace premiered to the film the siege and was reported that many people only came for the trailer, after watching the trailer people left the cinema before the film. The teaser trailer for cloverfield premiered was attached to Transformers at this point nothing was known about the film.

T.Burden