Planning : Producing A Storyboard

This is our storyboard for our opening 2 minutes to our teen horror movie 'The Lumberjack'.
The process of creating a storyboard was rather simple, as a group we discussed how the  Main Task is going to take place. For each storyboard we had to state the following: 

• Location 

• Camera Shot

• Camera Movement 

• Camera Angle 

• Cast Required 

• Dialogue

From doing this I have learnt that your plan is the most important part because if you don't have this plan then the production of the film will not flow, then when it comes to editing the film you will not be able to combined all of the shot and make it seem realistic to the audiences eye. 
The purpose of doing this story board is so that we can see how our opening 2 minutes will look like and have a plan for the shots that we will use in our film opening. It will also help us plan out when we are having some of the opening titles on the two minutes. All of this will make it easier for us when we come to filming and editing our teen horror movie opening. 

Planning : Writing A Treatment For Your Chosen Opening

This is our treatment for our opening to the horror movie. 

• We are going to start off with an establishing shot of the forest.
• We are then going to have a tilt shot from the feet going up, the shot is of two school children walking home on a Friday afternoon. 
• There is then a tracking shot of them walking through the forest. Both of the students are listening to music through there headphones so there will be diagetic sound of the music they are listening to, however, both of their phones die, this will be use of a horror film convention. 
• There will then be diagetic sound of wood being chopped but the sound will increase as the students come closer to The Lumberjack. 
• The students then stop and look around to see where the sound is coming from. This will be a point of view shot and which pans around their location you will be able to see The Lumberjack in the distance. 
• The Lumberjack then begins to follow them, there is a close up/tracking shot of their feet as they run away, whilst running away there will also be a point of view shot of them running through the trees to try to get away from. 
• The male character stops because he is fatigued but as he turns The Lumberjack throws the the axe towards his head. This is when a reverse shot will be used to show that The Lumberjack is behind them, in the background you will see The Lumberjack preparing to throw his axe. The camera then follows the axe with a quick panning shot and then the male character ducks as the axe hits the tree. He then runs in a different direction abandoning the girl.
• The girl continues running away from the Lumberjack but then using a horror film convention the girl will trip and fall, this will be shown by a closeup of her feet as she falls. The Lumberjack appears above her and at the camera cuts to a point of view shot as The Lumberjack swings the axe towards her head. For effect we are going to hit a watermelon with the axe to create the sound effect of her head being hit by the axe.
• The camera then cuts back to the boy then spots an abandoned house and tries to escape to it, the shots used are point of view and tracking shots. When the character approaches the house he hides behind the entrance of the house. When stood in the doorway he looks around the house. He then turns and looks through the doorway to see if The Lumberjack is there, he sees him run past so he is relieved and the non-diabetic music loses tension. However, when he turns to look again the lumberjack is standing there and the non-diagetic sound will be a jumpscare sound which will be loud and quite high pitch to add to the effect of the jumpscare. The camera then cuts to a point of view shot of the axe being swung at his head, then the screen will cut to black.

Planning : Producing A Shot List

Shot	Shot type	Actor	Description
1	Establishing		Of forest
2	Close up	Girl and boy	Tilt of characters
3	Long shot	Girl and boy	Of the characters walking home
4	Close up	Girl	Of the girls face and phone
5	Extreme close up	Girl	When phone runs out
6	Close up	Girl	Girl taking earphones out
7	Panning/tracking	Girl and boy	Of them walking home
8	Extreme close up	Girl and boy	Of their feet walking
9	Point of view		Looking around area
10	Mid shot	Boy and girl, lumberjack	Lumberjack in the background
11	Long shot	Girl and boy	Girl and boy walking fast
12	Close up	Girl and boy	Feet walking fast
13	Long shot	Girl and boy	Long shot of them running
14	Close up	Girl and boy	Close up of feet running
15	Point of view	Boy and girl	Point of view from the lumberjack
16	Long shot	Boy	Taking a breath by the tree
17	Close up	Boy	Close of the face and the tree
18	Mid shot	Lumberjack	Lumber jack throwing the axe towards the boy
19	Mid shot	Boy	Axe in the tree and boy shocked
20	Long shot	Boy	Long shot of boy running away
21	Close up	Girl and boy	Feet running
22	Mid shot	Girl and boy	Of the girl and boy running
23	Close up		Of twig
24	Long shot	Girl	Girl running away
25	Close up	Girl	Close up of feet when girl falls
26	Mid shot	Girl	Girl on the floor
27	Point of view	Lumberjack	Lumberjack standing above the girl
28	Close up	Girl	Close up of face in shock
29	Mid shot	Lumberjack	Lumberjack about to swing the axe
30	Black out		Title
31	Mid shot	Lumberjack	Lumberjack and the axe with blood on
32	Point of view	Boy	Lumberjack watching the boy standing there
33	Long shot	Boy, girl and lumberjack	Boy running and lumberjack following
34	Long shot	Boy	Boy running away
35	Point of view		Lumberjack looking through the trees
36	Mid shot	Boy	Boy stopping again
37	Point of view		Boy sees the house
38	Long shot	Lumberjack	The lumberjack running
39	Long shot	Boy	Boy running
40	Long shot	Boy	Boy running into the house
41	Point of view	Lumberjack	Lumberjack runs past the window in the distance
42	Mid shot	Boy	Him looking around the house and breathing in relief
43	Mid shot	Boy	Boy looking out the window again
44	Close up	Lumberjack	Lumberjack jumping up at the window

Planning : From Initial Ideas To A 60 Second Pitch

Our task was to come up with some different ploy ideas for a horror movie aimed at a teenage audience. We did this by creating a mind map of general conventions found in a teenage horror movie so that we had some we had some ideas of different things that we could put into our horror film. We then came up with different plots for our horror movie that we though would appeal to our target audience and were a diet different any horror movies that we had watched; however staying in keeping with the conventions generally used in teen horror movies.

After coming up with four potential ideas, we chose the idea that we thought we could replicate and that would be relatable to our target audience.  Below is the video footage of our 60 second pitch for 'The Lumberjack'.

                                                                                                                                                                           

  

Once we had came up with our idea, we chose our company name by mind mapping lots of different ideas ad then choosing the one we liked best. In the end we chose Black Widow Productions.  We then also came up with a working title for our film by ind mapping ideas too. We chose 'The Lumberjack' as we felt this is short, punchy and links straight to the main character of our film. 

Research : Target Audience Feedback

Our group sent out a feedback questionnaire to find out peoples opinion on our sixty second pitch. We created a survey on survey monkey and sent out links to thirty random people that were in our target audience age range. We collected the results and we got some interesting feedback to look over. These are the results to each question we asked:

Research : The Importance Of Opening Titles

When looking into the importance of opening titles I looked on a website called Art Of The Title which has many film titles on it as well a video going though all the centuries of film titles. It clearly shows how the typography and how the titles were set out changed though-out the centuries. We then looked at a film called 'Se7en' and wrote a timeline on when all the titles appeared.

(PICTURE)

We found out in total there is 26 times a piece of text appears on screen. I was very suprising as the clip ws only 2 minutes long. This meant a title popped up on average of 4.6 seconds after each other. This was no where near the figure i thought it would be and will come in handy when i come to make my own titles. We then looked at the typography of the text and how it was postioned on the screen.

(PICTURE)

The was a constant theme running through the text that was very noticeable. All the text that were names of people had the correct format which is capital letters for the first letter and lower case letters for the rest. However aany other bit of text e.g. Directed By, Produced By. was all in capitals. This made it stand out more than the names of the people next to it. Finally, all of the text was wrote in scruffy hand writing and was not on the same line. Some letters were elevated and some were lowered. This gave a sinster look the the letters and helped portray it as a horror film.

Research : The Importance Of Sound In Horror Films

Sound is a key party of a film. It helps build tension in films and portraying emotions. It also creates an atmosphere within the scene. Horror movies typically contain strings and short, sharp notes for action moments. Where as when no events are happening the music maybe slower and calmer. . For example, in the film 'Psycho', there is a stabbing scene and non diegetic sound is played over the top as the killer plunges the knife down. This adds to the fear that is portrayed to the audience. The sound in the film 'The Shining' the sound is more suttle but still adds lots of fear into the scene.

This clip shows how the music in the background adds to the 'Here's Johnny' scene. Unlike the music in 'Psycho', the music is not as prominent but it still adds the emotions being portrayed. This clip shows what a key point in a film will feel like with and with out non diegetic sound. There is a dramatic difference and it clearly stands out.
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The jaws music is very famous and is known by most people whether they have seen the movie or not. The low frequency beats means I is memorable as there isn't many other tracks that follow this trend. Connotations for low frequency beats are fear and death. This helps the scene portray the correct emotions.

Research : Analyse the codes and conventions of horror films as shown in the openings of 'Dead Wood', 'Dead Mary' and 'Wrong Turn'.

Codes are systems of signs, which create meaning. Codes can be divided into two categories – technical and symbolic. Technical codes are all the ways in which equipment is used to tell the story in a film. One example could be the use of a high angled shot to show the dominance of one character over another. Another example of this would be a POV shot when running through bushes. This gives the viewer the experience of being on the set and feeling like you are running from the danger. A symbolic code is something that you a persuaded to think. If a character is shaking, we think of them as nervous or cold but if a character is making a fist with his hand, you know he is mad or angry. Conventions are something that happens in most films of the same genre. In a horror film, one general convention would be someone seeing a safety point e.g. their car, but not being able to reach it. Another convention would be someone tripping over when trying to escape the villain. I looked at three openings for horror films and looked at the similarities and differences. My three film openings gave me a good insight into what codes and conventions are used in horror films.

Dead Mary-2007

Kim and her boyfriend Matt have just broken up, but they travel together to a cottage nearby a lake to spend the weekend with their friends Eve, Dash and his wife Amber and Baker and his new girlfriend Lily. The atmosphere becomes heavy with the situation between Kim and Matt, and one of them suggests them to play "Dead Mary". Matt, Eve and Dash summon the evil witch repeating her name three times in front of a mirror with a candle. Along the night, Matt hears weird noises, is killed and returns to life, while part of the group is possessed by the fiend. Without knowing who is possessed, the rest of the group fights to survive.

Dead Wood-2007

Four friends escape the grime of the city and head out into the woods for a peaceful, relaxing weekend. Events take a sinister turn when a mysterious girl appears in their camp looking for her boyfriend. Soon the nightmare begins as they find themselves lost in an endless wilderness stalked by a deadly force. As those left fight for survival they will discover the true nature of fear.

Wrong Turn-2003

Chris Flynn is driving his car for a job interview in another city. However, an accident with a trunk transporting chemical products blocks the highway and Chris looks for an alternative route through the mountains of West Virginia to accomplish his schedule. Due to a lack of attention, he crashes another car parked in the middle of the road with flat tires. Chris meets a group of five friends, who intended to camp in the forest, and they decide to leave the couple Francine and Evan on the place, while Chris, Jessie, Carly and her fiancé Scott tries to find some help. They find a weird cabin in the middle of nowhere, where three violent cannibalistic mountain men with the appearance of monsters live. The two couples try to escape from the mountain men while chased by them.

Some of these films were made in different years and were directed by different people but nearly all of them follow the same codes and conventions as each other. Dead Wood and Wrong Turn are very similar whereas Dead Mary doesn’t follow as many of these codes and conventions. Dead Wood opens with a peaceful scene and some non-diegetic sound which sound spiritual and all of a sudden someone running disturbs the peace. The non-diegetic helps the audience feel the atmosphere and tension in the air. The sound will normally speed up when action is about to happen which builds the tension. This is very similar to Wrong Turn as it opens with panning shot of a forest and it also has some peaceful non-diegetic sound being played. When the main characters in the opening part of the film are running, the camera turns to a point of view shot allowing all sticks and branches to hit the camera of the lens showing how beaten someone would be. This happens in both Dead Wood and Wrong Turn where as there is no action in the start of Dead Mary. Dead Mary uses the start of the film to show certain items that may come in handy later like the flare gun. However, Dead Mary’s opening does use some general conventions like the phone having no signal. This isn’t used in the other openings but the lack of communication is. The character in Wrong Turn doesn’t alert is rock climbing partner about the danger and neither does the man in the opening of Dead Wood, he would easily be able to shout to the female in the tent but instead he is silent meaning that the other partner in blissful unaware of the danger lurking in the bushes. When the male character attempts to jump the ditch, slow-motion is used to mark the moment and makes the audience remember what happened because it will be relevant later on in the film. In all three of these openings there are similarities, one being the characters are all in their early twenties. This means that they match the age of the target audience allowing them to relate to them. This encourages people to come and watch the film. Every opening contains one male and one female and the women are always wearing very little and are perceived the weaker sex of the pair. This is backed up by the codes that the camera makes. To show that the male is the stronger sex in Wrong Turn, the camera uses a high angled shot to look down on the female climber. The female climber in wrong turn is wearing very little which shows more skin and backs up the point that the females are shown are the weak sex. In Dead Wood, as the woman climbs out of the tent, you she her bare leg first which shows of skin like in every other female in my chosen films. The camera also shows when the pace is picking up because the camera with have an extreme close up on the point of action and the non-diegetic sound becomes of a quicker tempo and often becomes strings or a piano.

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Research: Analysing Codes And Conventions In Existing Teen Horror Films

Our task was to come up with some different ploy ideas for a horror movie aimed at a teenage audience. We did this by creating a mind map of general conventions found in a teenage horror movie so that we had some we had some ideas of different things that we could put into our horror film. We then came up with different plots for our horror movie that we though would appeal to our target audience and were a diet different any horror movies that we had watched; however staying in keeping with the conventions generally used in teen horror movies.

After coming up with four potential ideas, we chose the idea that we thought we could replicate and that would be relatable to our target audience.  Below is the video footage of our 60 second pitch for 'The Lumberjack'.


  

Once we had came up with our idea, we chose our company name by mind mapping lots of different ideas ad then choosing the one we liked best. In the end we chose Black Widow Productions.  We then also came up with a working title for our film by ind mapping ideas too. We chose 'The Lumberjack' as we felt this is short, punchy and links straight to the main character of our film.