Location Ideas

Location Ideas

The typical locations that tend to appear in horror movies are generally very isolated. These locations consist of isolated homes in a suburban setting, a forest, motels or a lake side area.  An isolated location also allows for vast building with lots of rooms where the victim can be chased and complicated floor plans that create a maze-like feel and add more intensity to the chase. These locations are used in horror movies to add to the effect of the victims not being able to get contact with anyone for help when they are in trouble. These locations tend to be dark and dull areas which allow the audience to feel on edge when seeing these locations because they are typical areas where everyday people tend to be in. In supernatural horror movies a normal family home is used in order to scare the audience further because it is tainting the comfort of their own home, and they can no longer feel safe in their home. Locations in horror movies are key conventions which add to the movies success of scaring the audience. The location of a horror movie must be dark, and must be away from social contact; otherwise the audience would not feel scared. For example, a horror movie based in a forest makes the audience feel on edge because someone could be lurking in the trees, which gives a sense of someone watching them.

This is an example of an isolated area from Amityville horror. 

This is an example of an isolated area from The Strangers.

This is an example of an hospital hallway from The Devil Inside.

Our ideas

Taking into account existing locations for horror movies we have decided to use an isolated house for the majority of the trailer, because we feel that tainting the comfort of someone’s home will be key feature to scare our audience, some of the other scenes that we would consider using are an establishing shot of a mental hospital, a scene in the bathroom, and a hallway of a mental hospital. We feel that these locations are reasonably isolated which fits in the conventions of a horror movie. The establishing shot of the metal hospital will allow the narrative to become clearer for the audience because this will show them that there is something wrong with the character “Mary”. We would film these locations in available lighting to give it a dull atmosphere that creates more of horror movie feel. As we progress more through our portfolio, we will have images of these locations and we will get feedback from our target audience to see if these locations are effective to make our horror movie successful. 

This is some of the locations which we have decided to use:
School Hallway:

long corridor for running scene.

Camera Ideas

Trailer

The typical camera shots and angles that appear in a movie trailer range from long shots to extreme close ups. Generally they tend to start off with either an establishing shot of where the location is and where the whole horror scene is going to happen or a long shot of the protagonist. Throughout the trailer, we see a range of shots and angles to enhance a scene for example, a close up will be used in order to show the emotions of either the antagonist or protagonist, or to show us the demonic features. By using a range of angles it will give us an idea of how strong or weak the character at the certain scene, like a high angle shot looking down at the protagonist so represent that they are getting watched and make them seen vulnerable and weak as seen in The Shining in the image below.

Camera movement is also important in a horror movie trailer because it improves the scene and adds fluidity to the trailer. Camera movements include tracking shots, crane shots, zoom in/zoom out, pan, tilt, etc. In horror movie trailers, these movements are used frequently, which allows the transitions between shots to flow nicely. An example of a tracking shot is in the Amityville horror is to show how the house is, the environment and the area in which it is located. This is a good way of getting a lot of information in a small amount of time but yet it does not give out a lot of the narrative.

Poster/magazine

When analysing the posters and magazine cover, we have realised that there is a link between the main images and they usually are the same image but with less effects on the magazine cover. The shots that are used are usually long shots, mediums shots or a close up of the antagonist. A long shot is to show us the entire body and any deformities; it lets us see all of the it in one shot which gives us the idea of what is wrong with the antagonist. A close up is to show us the intensity of the demotic possession of the antagonist. These shots have been cleverly used to show the audience exactly what the story is about but they have disguised it well.

Our ideas

We have decided to use a range of shots and movement within our trailer to attract and retain audience attention. Were we to use only a single angle and technique of movement, the audience would soon become bored. To begin our trailer, we have decided to use an establishing shot of a house that pans to a medium shot of a reporter. We will use the movements to link our shots together to give the fluidity needed. Our magazine cover will feature a medium shot to show the audience the demonic possession of the antagonist. This links with the main poster that has the same medium shot but with a longer image that will be reflected in an old standing mirror. The poster will be shot in an over the shoulder fashion to show a contrast between her “normal” state and her possessed state. 

Lighting Ideas

One of the main elements of creating a movie, lighting can change the entire mood and perception of a scene. Horror movies utilize lighting to set the tone of a scene and also give foreshadowing of events to come. For example, if a girl is in a dark room with light only coming from her phone or natural lighting from an open window, then the audience sit in baited breath for something to jump out of the darkness. The reactions the audience have are also due to lighting conventions of horror such as profile lighting, back lighting, low angle lighting, and ambient lighting. Each of these gives a specific tone to each scene that is unique.

Profile lighting is when light falls on only half of a person’s face. This gives a sinister tone to the scene and the character or it can highlight the shock on a victim’s face. Another use for this lighting is to highlight specific features that may be deemed grotesque, and this effect enhances that.  This image below is an example of profile lighting in Halloween.

Low angle lighting, lighting aimed upwards from below the character, is also used for all of these reasons but is achieved by having a high angle light shine on a character from below them to make them seem menacing. These effects may be used in our trailer to bring focus to the protagonist’s shocked face as the protagonist attacks her.

 Backlighting is the placement of a light in the background of the scene to create a silhouette of those in the foreground. This technique hides the features of those in the foreground and also gives a sinister effect, as seen in the "Amityville Horror" film poster. Backlighting is common convention for horror films as it brings darkness and shadows to the film and enhances the fear of the audience; it makes them question what it is that lurks in the darkness.


Wolfman (2010)
Ambient lighting is the available lighting in a scene, such as the sun or the moon. This gives a more realistic and natural look to the scene as in the still from "Wolfman". We will use this technique during the street scene as it will be outdoors and most styles of lighting will be rendered useless.

Our Ideas

What we have decided to use for lighting is mostly available lighting. This is because it will be quite hard to get good quality lighting effects, and so we would be able to play around with available lighting. We shall also do profile lighting, spot lighting and ones that enhance the characters faces and the location/setting of the scene. These will be created by using artificial lighting such as torches.

Non-Diegetic Sound Ideas

Non diegetic sounds

Typical non Diegetic sounds that feature in horror movie trailers tend to be big bangs, eerie sounds, added footsteps, tensional music, orchestra, piano, contrapuntal sounds and stabs. These non diegetic sounds are added in a horror movie to emphasise the moment of that scene. Music adds more tension to the scene because people get scared when there is a build up to a jumpy moment and so it gets us ready for something big. Usually the added music starts of slow and calm within the trailer then the pace gets faster as it goes on. A stab is one of the most effective types of non diegetic sound that is added in horror movies and its trailer, a stab is a short, sudden, burst of sound which is used to potentially make the audience jump. A stab is a crucial sound to have in the trailer since its one thing that the target audience always remembers.  Tensional music appears to of course add tension that matches the scene in the trailer/ movie, it just gives that extra fear factor that the audience want to hear and see, since if it was only dialogue, it would not be as effectively scary.

Tense music enhances the fear the audience feel within a scene that dialogue alone cannot achieve, and makes the scene more effective. An example of this is seen below in an excerpt from Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds". The orchestral music, specifically violins, aids in the building of tension before, and whilst, the protagonist is attacked by the Birds.

Our ideas

What we have decided to use for our non diegetic sounds are existing sounds from other movies and trailers. This will be an easy option since we would not have the high quality sound software to create these non diegetic sounds. We will use a range of sounds from contrapuntal music to stabs and tensional music.  We will use a range of sounds from other types of media like games, music and TV programmes. The soundtracks that we would consider using is from grave encounters, the devil inside, call of duty black ops zombie mode etc. We will also use sounds from websites that offer sound effects. All these would be added to the trailer to create a unique sound to it and effectively create a frightening trailer.

These are a few different sounds that we found on youtube that could be included into our horror movie trailer, because we feel that have that eerie factor to them. 

Film Magazine Name Ideas

The masthead of a magazine sets the standard for the entire magazine and also creates an opinion in the reader on the magazine and whether they would want to read it or not. Our magazine would appeal to our target audience, and would therefore need to contain aspects that would appeal to them. We created a brainstorm of potential mastheads in order to narrow down our ideas to a final decision. The options were varied, each trying to hit a certain target. Total Horror, whilst straightforward and powerful, it is to similar to an existing product, and therefore cannot be used. Now Horror, Movies 101, Box Office, Scene Stealer, Movie Galore and Blockbuster all seemed to be to cliche for our target audience. Frame was too ambiguous and could be mistaken for a photography magazine, as was Scene. This left us choosing between Shutter, Gore, and Shocker to choose from. Shocker seemed far too childish for our demographic, and so it was removed, however the choice between Gore and Shutter was more difficult. Gore would immediately connotate horror films, however Shutter encapsulates cinema as a whole. In the end, we decided to go with Shutter as it has a stronger connotation the film industry  and also provides us with a wide range of possibilities in regards to the design of the masthead. As Shutter is a film magazine, we decided to create a special Halloween edition to feature our film and focus on the genre specifically. This is so that we can play around with the fonts and colour schemes without having to adhere to codes and conventions as strictly as would be necessary with an average film magazine.

Film Name Ideas

To begin these brainstorms, we first looked over various existing film titles and observed the conventions that they contain. The titles can be split into two halves; one word titles and two or more word titles, each excluding “the”. The titles with 2 or more words tend to be limited to four words, and in some cases five as with “Last House on the Left” and those with one word have a single striking adjective that resonates with the audience. Essentially, the aim is to have a title that the audience will remember whether that is through its brevity, or the foreshadowing of terror that it gives. Whilst looking into titles, it became apparent to us that we mainly wanted a single word title, but none that we looked at fit our project properly. It was evident that we needed two words to do the narrative justice. However, forming coherent and effective two word titles proved challenging as our expectations for this title grew higher. In the end, we came up with three 2 or more word titles that were to be considered for our project. Overall, we found that “Darkness Within” had a much scarier connotation, as “Demon Within” was too obvious and “Last One Standing” seemed far more suited to an action movie. “Darkness Within” also has the connotations with possession, and therefore fits in with our narrative much more effectively.

Tagline Ideas

Approaching the tagline for this film, we already had a clear idea for the narrative and film title, so the tagline had to tie in with both neatly. The primary idea was to have a theme of curing, healing and saving that is commonly tied to people with a possession; the idea of salvation. We also tried to connect the family aspect and came up with “How do you protect yourself from your own family?”, “Mother’s coming to visit. Forever.”, “Eternal damnation is hereditary.” and “A mother’s vendetta.”. After deliberating each of these, they were all ruled out though. The first, second and fourth seemed far too much like that of the slasher genre, and the third just didn’t fit in with our narrative as the possession doesn’t pass down through generations. “The darkness wants you.” also didn’t quite fit the narrative as whilst the “darkness” is driving the mother to attack her daughter and her family, the tagline is slightly ambiguous in that it seems as if the daughter is in danger of being possessed, and that isn’t in the story-line. From that we came up with “They thought she was better, but she can’t be healed.”, but it seemed far too long as we wanted to keep the tagline short like the title. Upon that decision, we tried shortening it to just the last 4 words “She can’t be saved.”. As of there, we tried “cured” and “healed”, but decided that “cured” was in fact the best fit and so our tagline is “She can’t be cured.”

Reconaissance

The kitchen where some scenes would be taken. We have chosen this room as for it is a modern room which works well with the setting of our movie. This room will play a part in our horror movie trailer where "Ella" and "William" would be discussing the situation about the mother "Mary" not being fully healed. We would also have a quick shot of "Logan" running into the kitchen telling the protagonist that Marys eyes rolls back which comfirms to Ella that somethings still wrong with her mother.

The room of the antagonist, the antagonist will be sitting in the corner of that bench, we will remove the colourful surroundings, close the window and add a dimmer. This involves a scene where Mary would be putting her clothes away when she moves back into the house and also where she will be sitting at the back of the room, on the wooden chair looking into the corner and drawing crosses. The corner symbolises that she is alone and is trapped which makes her look vulnerable.

One of the props we will consider using, an old fashioned table which the antagonist will use. This table gives of a haunting feeling due to the fact that it is old fashioned and rather damaged.

A bathroom setting for the sting at the end. If we use this bathroom, we will remove all the colour such as the  shower cover, and the shampoos. This location would be used for the final shot, the sting. Mary would be sitting in the bath tub, then Ella walks in to check up on her, it would be a dark atmosphere to add tension to the scene.

A shot of a group members house, this will be used cleverly and be disguised to be the mental homes window, this is where the antagonist will be sitting. We will fix and move the sofa here and wait for a brighter day. we will take a different shot angle. This will be the hospital room scene. Having the chance to film in a flat gives the feeling like she is in a hospital room and so the corner windows makes it seem more realistic

This is a quick video of our schools hallway which we would like to use for the metal home's hallway. We would have to take off the colourful board sign, so that it looks less like a school and more of a hospital. we have chosen this area because there is a lot of iconography of horror such as the cross at the start of the video, the statue of Jesus and also the doors and hallway looks like a hospital. This again is a quick shot of a hallway in our school, we can use this also for our horror trailer as the metal hospital hallway, it has colourful pictures but we can use it in the dark.

Practice Shots

These are the practice shots that we done to see if the mirror tactic will work. We have here our protagonist posting in the mirror, of course we will have to edit the images to make it the same as our mockups. These practice shots will be for our magazine and poster, after looking at codes and conventions, magazine front page covers usually are the same picture as the image on the poster. 

Actors Featured In Trailer

Main Characters
________________________________________________________________

Antagonist
Sonia Sharma
Age: 17
Will play the part of Mary
The reason why we have chosen this actress is because she has an ethnic look which provides a more spookier effect when adding the makeup to make her look aged.

Protagonist
Charleigh Kirby
Age: 17
She will play the part of Ella.
We have chosen her because she is naturally pretty, she has a range of qualities of acting, she has the typical modern look which will fit well with what we are trying to put across. Expanding on the fact that she is young, she has an older look which will fit well in our trailer.

Male Husband
Stephan Yu
Age: 18
He will be the husband of Ella.
Connor is very attractive guy which is a general convention in a horror movie. He has a masculine look and will play the part well. Even though he is rather young he again has an older look to him. This works well because the couple in the trailer would be young lovers.

The Child
Jacob
Age: 8
He will play Logan, the young child that the antagonist will scare and pass on the demonic spirit. Jacob is a very cute child which tends to look very innocent and childish. His age is suitable for our promotional package because he looks rather young. He has very beautiful eyes which will shine through the camera causing the audience to adore him.

Other Characters
________________________________________________________________

News Reporter
Nicole Brodrick
Age: 19
Nicole has a smart look which relates to a typical news reporter look. We have chosen her because her speech is really good and she has the knowledge of how to act. Her hair is simple and basic which will be tied up.

Dcotor
Maddy's FatherAge: 45+
Maddy's Father is a scottish man who has a slgiht accent. We have chosen him because we want to create some diversity and a clash of typical horror movies.

Police Detective
Hayley Gorrod
Age: 17
Young girl, looks proffesional and new to the whole police scene. Wont be seen alot so her facial and the way she would be dressed wouldn't be an issue.

Script

Scene 1: Reporting on street

(Scene dissolves in from static. A reporter is on screen with a news report of a murder with banners detailing the report and box containing photos of murders. Diegetic sounds of the street are heard with a non-diegetic sound of police and ambulance sirens and a light chatter in the background.)

Reporter: We are live on the scene at a brutal attack in which a mother of 3 is alleged to have murdered her husband and children (camera pans to view of house) but leaving her youngest daughter as a sole survivor thanks to police intervention. (Pans to view of woman by car) Reports are coming in that the woman in question has no history of mental illness and the police are currently not aware of the cause of this vicious assault. (Woman is put in the car by “plain-clothes” police officer.)

 

Scene 2: Hospital

(Establishing shot of the hospital at a low angle. Scene cuts to a long 2 shot of a young woman and a doctor walking down a hospital hallway. The doctor is leading her and detailing the status of her mother’s case.)

Doctor: The discharge papers are almost finished; you just need to sign a form to assert that your mother will be staying with your family during her recuperation.

Ella: You really think that’ll help?

Doctor: Simply visiting over this past year has improved her recovery process, Mrs. Garcia. She’s no longer showing any signs of schizophrenia and we have no reason to keep her here any longer (they stop outside of the hospital door). She is cured. (Ella peeks around him into the door window) And here’s the copy of her medical history you requested (he hands over a file and she opens it but is interrupted) I think it’s time we tell her. (They enter.)

Scene 3: Hospital bedroom

(The camera tilts upwards to a long/medium shot behind the mother. She is facing a corner window on a rocking chair with a knitted blanket over her, slowly rocking. Ella walks up behind her.)

Ella: Mum? You’re gonna be coming home with me, okay? William and I are gonna take care of you for a while.

 Scene 7: Kitchen

William: Ella, I’m telling you, there’s something wrong.

Ella: Will, she’s just out of hospital. She’s just transitioning.

William: There’s transitioning and then there’s…her.

Ella: Just drop it. She was in there for 15 years after a psychotic break! She’s home and she’s cured. Leave it be. (Walks out).

William: I just… don’t trust her.

Scene 8: Dinner Table

Ella: Finish of your peas, Logan. No desert ‘til that plate’s clean. (Ella and William leave the table.)

(Mary stares at Logan until he looks up at her. She shakes then he eyes roll back in her head, before turning white. Logan screams and runs away from the table.)

Ella: Honey, what’s wrong?

Logan: Mum! Mum! Don’t make me- don’t make me-

Ella: Logan! What?

Logan: Mum…her eyes. (Ella and William exchange a worried look.)

Storyboard

This is the story board of how we would like our trailer to be, we have added SFX, dialouge, Sounds, lighting, camera shots and types of editing to our storyboard.

 



Call Sheets

By having a call sheet when filming, it will allow us to be orginised and be in control of what we are doing and what we have done. A call sheet allows us to see who is filming, who is present, the props we need, the location, the date, time and also the costume and make up. This will be printed out to all the actors and to the cast members so that we know what is going on.

Click here to preview call sheets

Mock Up

Poster

We have chosen to make our poster in the portrait orientation and our camera shot will be at a medium shot at eye level contact. The main image is of our antagonist looking in the mirror normally, and we see a distorted look in her reflection. This is to give off the fear factor that she isn't normal and has a secret that know one can see. We have decided to follow the general codes and conventions of placing the movie title at the bottom half of the poster, this will make sure that the main image stands out as for it would be the most effective element. We have decided to use Serif font with a distorted scratched out look, this is because it will give it an edgy look and also it would symbolize the narrative of the story. Having "Based on true events" makes this poster more effective since people well freak out more as for the image would be said to be unrealistic and so this will guide them in the direction that the movie is actually real. 

This was the first mock-up that we created. The reason why we decided to use the other mockup is because this design looked too much of a slasher movie as for the blood is dripping down Mary's arm. The blood represents gore and so in supernatural movies, blood is something that doesnt appear as much. we decided to change the image and location idea due to the fact it would be hard to get a setting which has hospital beds and a long corridor, and so we decided to change it to Mary looking into the mirror, and her reflection shows the possession. This relates more to the supernatural sub-genre and it generally looks better.
 

Magazine Front Page Cover

This is the mock up for our front cover magazine. We have decided to use the main image to make a symbolic link between the three promotional packages. Through our research we realized that the same image from the movie poster is always the same on the movie magazine front cover, and so we have decided to follow the codes and conventions of that and have used the reflection of the antagonist that we also see in the movie poster. Since this task is a horror movie promotional package, we have chosen to do a normal movie magazine but to have a Halloween special so that it will make the horror movie more effective.  From previous projects, we learnt about magazine codes and conventions and we had to create our own and so we have decided to add a banner, a strap line, and a puff to add all the elements to create a successful movie magazine. The sell lines we have decided to use would be really basic and simple. we will use only a couple of sell lines and keep the majority of the background empty so that the main image stands out. 

Schedule

Ancillary Tasks

Poster

Magazine Front Cover

Trailer

Changes And Inspirations

In the making of our trailer, we changed various things to make improve our trailer. From our current storyboard, we decided that the scenes didn't flow well enough therefore we decided to change some scenes  and re-film a couple of sections to engage the audience more.

The Schedule
Due to the fact that we were in a group of three, we had to work around each others hours to be able to film and work together. This caused our schedule to change and delayed our work. Regardless to this matter we still managed to finish our post productions by the deadline. 

The Sting

Our Sting changed from what we originally decided in our storyboard to an inspirational scene in "The Last Exorcism Trailer". at 0.41

When we filmed our original sting, we felt as if it was missing a lot of elements that would make it frightening. The angles of when we filmed that certain scene didn't work out as we hoped and so a change was the best idea to make it a more effective "final message" sting. 

Dining Room Scene

After filming this scene and adding it to the trailer, it wasn't aesthetically pleasing since it wasn't effective in any form.We felt as if it was very irrelevant to the trailers narrative and also it didn't produce and hints that it is related to a horror movie. 

The Actors and Schedule

The actors which we originally chose to star in our trailer and ancillary tasks failed to attend filming dates. This was a massive delay causing us to find new actors and create a new filming schedule to fit everyone's free time. Since Sonia was our antagonist, we managed to film all her scenes in a small amount of time. This allowed us to go back and change scenes we didn't like or change certain elements of it. 

Angles of shots

In our storyboard we wanted to follow the same angles of shots and the movement, but with poor quality equipment, we had to do more basic angles and movements. We thought we can just do random editing to camera angels and movement in "Vegas" and "Power Director" which will make it easier and much more professional. 

Removed "putting Clothes away" Scene

Like the dining room scene, once we filmed this scene and added it to the trailer, it wasn't aesthetically pleasing since it wasn't effective in any form. We felt as if it was very irrelevant to the trailers narrative and also it didn't produce and hints that it is related to a horror movie. 

Issues

PROBLEMS!!!!! 

Obviously, during our process of making our media texts, we came across a range of problems that either delayed our schedule and slowed down our progress!!! 

1. THE CAST!!! 

So the cast that we asked to help us out were not always available, this caused an issue as for we would have to go on another long search to find another actor/actress who was willing to be fully committed to our media productions. 

2. Time 

Regarding the fact that media was a main priority, I must admit that our group got caught up in other subjects and social life. Exam season was around the corner which again delayed our progress, my group members attended work and also went away for weekends. Even though we missed allot of our schedule time we still managed to pick up the pace and get straight back into what we wanted to do and kept it in the scheduled deadline. 

3. The Day

Since we started filming around November, the day was short which limited our time for filming outside to get a natural ambient light. We would have to either leave school early or do it on the weekends. This problem occurred but we managed to get the outside shots earlier in the day. 

4. The Equipment

Nothing worse than the camera running out of battery or even forgetting a certain prop. This did not occur much but it did delay on some of our filming days and limited our filming times. We managed to put this behind us and added more filming days.

5. The Software

ADOBE PREMIER PRO, I am angry. 

Adobe Failed on me and my team mates at least 3 times, it was confusing and hard to deal with, our files got corrupted and messed up which meant we had to start all over again. Since I am rather computer savvy I have used other programs before and so I decided to change the program to "Sony Vegas" which I can personally say, WORKS LIKE A CHARM. So simple and easy to use. 

6. Setting Availability

Filming in a member of our teams flat caused some issues. It was not always available which meant  we couldn't always film at certain times that we scheduled. No worries! we got passed this as managed to film allot during its availability by planning before what we wanted to film. 

Behind The Scenes!

Making a trailer isn't easy, but having fun is the way forward. Even though we might of disagreed in some things in my group, we got through it and had an enjoyable time. 

Sonia going out to get mcdonalds whilst her makeup was done!
 

Maddy and Me thought we would be rather creative when we were filming the hallway of the hospital scene. We wanted to do a tracking shot so we decided to get a hoover which balanced made it smooth and less shaky. We watched over the footage and realised the wheels of the hoover was too loud so we had to change the tracking shot to a back shot. 

Filming the establishing shot of the metal hospital in Ealing.

Sonia In her costume. This is when we filmed the scene "Hospital Room".


Ancillary task practise shots:

*please Note, videos might be offensive and have naughty words*

Dinner Table scene 

Lights on light off effect 

Nicole Practising news report scene  

Maddy Getting the room Ready for filming

establishing shot review