Props

We used a syringe as one of our props as it shows that the person being killed with the syringe could have had a poison or a drug inserted in to them. This is effective; it isn't a normal horror movie killing and people wouldn't be expecting it. Its unusual and it could draw people in.

A plastic bag is the other prop we used, this is also because people wouldn't be expecting this way of killing and it could draw them in. Everyday items such as this bag which could be used for a murder could change how people come across with their items.

Film Review - Fast and Furious 8 / The Fate of the Furious (Vin Diesel)

The Fate of the Furious

The camera shots I think are effective that were used in the trailer would be establishing shot which shows an amazing angle of the city and how the lights shine in the city at night, long shot which then shows a person, object or place from a distance but not too far - establishing shot, 2 shot which shows 2 people in the scene and their reactions and expressions towards the action, close ups which then show their facial reactions and body language, birds eye view angle which shows the scene from an angle on a bird would be able to view - this is effective as it costs a lot of money and only large movie companies are able to do it, low angle which shows vulnerability and is used in many circumstances, over the shoulder shot which shows how 2 people see the situation in each others eye's, medium shots which show part body language and part facial expression and extreme long shots which show the scenery and the body language with facial expressions as well. The sound is used in many different ways but the most effective I think is when the 21st Century music that everyone knows is played in the background and for some of the main parts in the trailer, but when speech or something dramatic is happening the music quiets down so that the sounds that is used else where is noticed and draws you in to watch the movie. It makes me feel like I need to watch the movie and the whole thing draws you in which makes the audience wider even if they haven't seen a Fast and Furious before. The pace of editing is at a fast speed with a handful of short clips with short time this is because they want to give away some of the movie but not too much otherwise it would spoil it. The snippets only last about 5 seconds each and in 3 minutes 18 seconds that is a lot of short clips, they aren't all short clips but most are to show more of the movie. The costumes the characters are wearing are casual and almost everyday clothes. When there are serious parts of the movie and they need to dress in a different way it is always accomplished. The military soldiers are wearing their uniform and are with their bosses for the job who are wearing suits and smart clothing. This is to show they are important and mean something. The feeling you get of the characters is that they don't mess around; they may be wearing casual sometimes even lounge wear but is doesn't matter what they are wearing because they always put up a fight. They are all wearing black and this is because they cant be seen in all scene's so the black camouflages them into the darkness in which it seems to be filmed. What we find out about the storyline is that there are a lot of fights which are for a person (Vin Diesel) as he turns, he has been on the not good but better side since Fast and Furious 1 all the way through to number 7 but in number 8 he has changed sides and has gone against all his friends we classes as family. There are many different weapons used but not all of them work. Jason Statham who was on the bad side from number 6 has now had no choice but to join the good side in order to get Vin Diesel back to the way he was. The titles are used at the end of the trailer and are very easy to see and they start occurring half way through the trailer. they are very well planned out and have a good use of colour. The colours are bright and aren't block colours, they are faded into each other so that they are eye catching and draw in the audience i.e. when it says Next Year, Furious 8 and Family will be broken. We know its a film of this genre because in the trailer there are a lot of weapons and a wrecking ball, there is loads of shooting and fighting and for this to all take place it has to be at least a 12. The genre is crime film/thriller. this is because of all the fighting, swearing and gore involved and the crime part is most definitely covered when the police are involved. The thriller part is covered when there is shock, i.e. when Vin changes sides after all these years, when Jason has to join the good side so its pretty much Vin and Jason have swapped places and then when all the crime and action kicks in.

Idea Picture Analysis

3 Pictures.

The pictures taken here are ones from on of our idea’s. We went during the day to take a few pictures from different angles, in which we could edit them as see how effective they would look if we were to use the editing skills in the movie.

We started off with just taking the pictures at the location and moving the angles round so we could get the best pictures taken so that we could edit them, for that eerie effect. Out of all of the pictures we had taken some had really bad quality and some were blurry. So we specifically chose the good pictures.

These pictures are effective as they show the scenery in day time; our film is going to be filmed when dark, you can see every aspect of the field and the tree’s which is effective as we can explain why we need the specific parts in the location. For the tree’s to not have leaves and look like they are from a haunted movie because of that we decided it would be a good place to either film or just use it as an idea.

Edited Idea Picture Analysis

3 Pictures

These 3 pictures follow up on the other 3 pictures and these are the 3 pictures that are edited to give of the haunted house, scary feeling.

The way they are edited is to show that the movie is a horror movie and if we were to use this black and white effect or a darker colour on the movie it would make the movie even more effective and would cause attention to be drawn to it. These pictures also show the scenery and the bare tree in the frame together as they are effective; that is because having a bare tree, in which you normally see on your way to a haunted house and with the colouring/theme used it makes it look like an old fashioned horror movie.
In the end we were thinking about using the black and white and the darker coloured parts so that not all of the movie looks like it was made ages ago. But the parts that are most scary we might cut from one frame to another frame so that there is the normal everyday lighting for most of the movie but the most horror parts we might change the effect.

Initial Idea's

Following on from planning the film/trailer we decided to do initial idea's to just put together all the things we came up with and see how they come together with all the set-up and even camera angles we included - along side with the actors and location.
We drew out the mind map and then following on from that we previously decided on the 5 categories which would be on the mind map. Having the mind map drawn out causes more hassle free times where we weren't having to have loads of different documents all over the place; we have it all on 1 piece of paper and it brings all the film related things together.

Location Research

For our movie we chose 2 locations which we thought would be a good idea to use. One of our idea's were based in Ashtead Common; we thought that is was a good idea as the planning carried on being planned we thought that the idea didn't fit the initial idea mind map; it didn't have enough to say and didn't fit in all of the sections meaning that no matter how hard we tried to get it to fit in and be an amazing idea for our film it just didn't work in the end.
Our second idea was Based in River Mole (above) this fit all the sections on the initial idea mind map. We chose this idea/location as it is easy accessible and a public location so we don't have to ask for permission. As the night carries on and the sun goes down the scene looks scary and mysterious which gives off the haunted, eerie feeling which makes our location effective. Using the river mole isn't out first idea and we didn't think it would work but as we explored deeper into the other locations we found out that actually it fits better than our first idea.
After cutting down our location idea's to 2 ideas we decided to mind map both and the results shocked us but in a good way as we had found out what our location would be.
As a conclusion we decided overall that the river mole was the better location for us to film at; it ticked all the boxes. We didn't need to ask permission from anyone as it is a public location, there is a haunted, eerie feel given off when you approach this location a little later in the evening/when its darker, the layout of the scene fits how our film was laid out and in general its just the perfect location.

Questionnaire

This is the questionnaire that Ellie and I have come up with.  We have come up with a simple questionnaire that is just  average horror movie outcomes. To change it up a bit we changed a few of them and has different answers on some of them. In the questionnaire, overall in our opening 2 minutes we would have it set in Tadworth as its closest to home, there was a joint answer of a woods and lake but we found a location near us that has both, the audience came up with 4 people being the main characters, someone is going to get killed, there was also a joint answer on Old Barn Productions and Green Pyramid Productions and then another joint answer on dialogue and music so we will have the music and speech in the 2 minutes. The audience we chose to answer this was our class mates as they are all over the age we chose for our audience and they chose what they think would be best for our film.

Font Experimentation

Crazy Killer

This font would be effective for our title as our theme is horror and they fit together. This is a quirky font and isn't seen very often or at all, horror movies have a different font from the rest of the movie genre's as horror have a whole different approach and ending in movies. Having a range to pick from is effective as you have to see if it ticks all the boxes and fits with the whole thing.

Nightbird

Nightbird is an effective font with we might incorporate into the final font as the dripping of the blood and the unfinished shaping of the letters give it an eerie feel. I feel like the font would fit in perfectly with the whole theme and how we are doing a horror but just to make it unique and to prove that I have drawn it we are going to take a few things specifically about this font to add into our final design.

Wait and Bleed

Wait and bleed is a different design to the others but also gives of the same feeling. The way the letters look is as if there is a mixture of fire and dripping blood together to give it that eerie, haunted house logo feel. If we were to incorporate this into our final logo, which I don't think we are because it hasn't got as much of a haunting feeling and doesn't seem that scary, it wouldn't look as effective and not as scary as we wanted it to be; so that we could link it to our  2 minute clip.

Idea 2 - Ashtead

Idea 2
Walk over/on a bridge
Look over at the stream
See someone on the floor - point at them
Try type/ring someone on the phone
Drop phone next to person/body
Go down to get phone and body sits up/hand moves
We fall over (shock) and run
Run into a field - Middle
Look around - dont know where we are
See someone walking towards us
Cant find/see exit
Turn around frantically and random person standing behind us - same person from bridge/stream
One of us scream and run whilst other gets grabbed
Fade to black - title (dramatic music)

Costumes
Ellie
Casual - Jeans/Leggings
Casual - T-Shirt/Jumper
Trainers
Kiera
Casual - Jeans/Leggings
Casual - T-Shirt/Jumper
Trainers
Other Person
Old/Ripped Jeans/Trackies
Old/Wornout Jumper
Old/Broken/Torn Trainers

Props
Phone case - instead of phone
Old phone?
Torch
Make-Up
Knife
Fake blood

Setting
Ashtead park/common near station
Field nar station with little stream/bridge
Run into the field which is opposite Ashtead Football Club/Park
Field contains large trees for hiding

Idea 1 - Tadworth

Idea 1
Coming back from Epsom for birthday meal/birthday shopping
Walking through park listening to music - Speaker
All of our phones die
We then take a shortcut
Lead ourselves to woods and come out in a field
Random person standing under lamp post and guides/directs us to bus stop. End up in an alley way.
We hear a bin lid close
Turn around to face bin - nothing, carry on walking.
Random person stabs
One person screams and drops bag/runs
Fade to black - title.

Costumes
Ellie
Dress/Shorts
Cardigan/Coat
Smart shoes/Trainers
Kiera
Dress/Shorts
Cardigan/Coat
Smart shoes/Trainers
Other Person
Black/Dark Tracksuit
Hat/Hood on tracksuit
Black/Dark Trainers

Props
Bags - Shopping
Birthday badge
Hat - Beanie
Speaker
Knife
Fake blood

Setting
Park near ASDA - including woods
Woods - get lost - asking for help
Woods - trees and bushes for hiding.

Reasons for Certificate Research

A U film is a film that is suitable for children that are over the age of 4, sometimes this might not be effective as they never know what is in the film that could upset/discomfort them. We aren't using this as the film we would be filming even though it isn't going to get majorly scary it would give them nightmares.

A PG film is a film that children have to watch with parental guidance/have a parent there whilst watching it, these types of films don't unsettle any child above the age of 8 but any child under that age would be disturbed and needs a parent there. We aren't using this either in our 2 minutes as the age is too young for children to be watching our opening 2 minutes as we don't know what they are aloud to watch with parents and we don't want to give them slight nightmares.

12 A films are movies that no child under the age of 12 is aloud to see. 12 A films the children have to have a parent there with them as they are films that are for 12 year old children that are almost 13 so its a bit of an older film. We weren't sure about this rating as we thought it was still a bit too young for children to be watching something linking to a horror movie so we didn't use it.

Films that are rated 12 no child is aloud to see as there are things that could disturb them and parents wouldn't want that. 12 year old are aloud to see these films normally without an adult, this is because the content isn't that bad and is consistent like this throughout the movie. We again decided not to use this rating as its still too young and it would be on our hands if the children were disturbed.

A 15 film no one younger than 15 is aloud to see it due to the context in the movies, they consist of sexual behaviour, swearing, drug use and bad behaviour and no parent would want a child to see something like this is they are younger then 15. We decided to use this as our age as is the next one after 12 and due to how we think the movie would come across as slightly scary or jumpy its the perfect fit.



A 18 film is similar to 15 but worse with the context in the movie as they come up consistently through the film. As our film isn't like that we didn't use this age but anyone above 15 can see it.



Certificate Research

When it came down to the researching of the age certificate suitable for a horror movie, I knew roughly what the age was but I thought if I done research on the age of horror movies it would be more effective as we weren't just guessing.
The website I looked on was
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/lists/best-horror-movies#
I used this website as it tells you the best most seen/effective horror movies that have come out since the year 1968. This is really effective as you can see reviews people have put about the movies and it gives you links so you can buy it on Amazon, iTunes and Google Play. Having links already set up for buying the movie is effective as you don't have to go hunting to try and find the movie and then separately find the reviews.
I would recommend this website to people who really love their horror movies; it gives you all of the most successful horror movies that have come out and they can go down the list and see which ones they have and haven't already seen and they can see what other people think of the films that they have watched.

How To Use Movie Maker

This is a tutorial about how to use movie maker. I have inserted this as Movie Maker was used to create our animated story board. As mine and Ellie's laptops didn't already have movie maker installed we had to download it and use it from there.
To make our animated storyboard we took a series of pictures and inserted them in to movie maker and added effects and made them a couple of seconds each so that in a video that added up to a minute we had 11 pictures all together and they were all about 5/6 seconds long.
Having used movie maker we came across that it was really easy and straight forward to use. Its one of the most easiest movie/clip maker to use and its effective in every way possible as you can make any movie or clip that you want.

Storyboard

This is the first page of our storyboard. These 4 boxes show what we were going to do in the first scene which would include us walking the dog and walking towards a river/pond where we came across a dead body lying on the floor and we move closer to it so we can try to identify who this person could be. This scene we discussed that we were going to use a long shot to show us walking round a corner with our dog on a dog walk, then a medium shot to show our expression when we see the dead body. We then decided to use a close up to zoom in on our facial expressions and then another medium shot to show us close to the unconscious body and this is one of the most effective camera shots in this scene because it shows our facial and body expression and language. This will half non-diegetic and half speech in this scene.

The second scene we sketched out was started with Ellie and I getting out a phone and getting ready to call 999, as we are doing this we hear and see a person in the bushes right next to us and we scream, after that the focus is on the dead bodies face as the body opens her eyes and we scream again and run of. As we were running off, Ellie gets caught and was going to be killed and I carry on running without knowing and as I got a bit further on Ellie screamed "Kiera." the camera shots used were medium shot again to see our body language and facial expressions in one, then a close up was used to zoom in on the dead bodies face to see her eyes open. That was followed by a long shot of us running away from the man in the bushes and then another medium shot of me running by myself before Ellie screamed "Kiera." This scene will consist of mainly non-diegetic sound as there isn't a lot of speech so we are going to insert music on the top.

Lastly the last scene was a bit shorter as this is what finishes it off. In this scene it started with me running back towards where I could hear Ellie screaming my name. I run back and see Ellie lying on the floor with a syringe on her with a bag on her head, I slowly walk towards her; I'm not sure if she is joking around or not so I'm a bit wary. As I get closer to Ellie I realise it isn't a joke and that she is dead so I start shaking her. The camera shots used here were a bit harder to do because it was harder to get the camera shots we wanted to be used done. So we used a medium shot continuing of me running as in running back to Ellie followed by another continued medium shot of me walking up to Ellie wary of her, lastly, we used a close up of me and Ellie so that you could see the expression in my face and Ellie's body at the same time. The last scene will again have half speech and half non-diegetic sounds which will be music on top of the footage.

Animated Storyboard

This is our animated storyboard that we have made in movie maker. We took a picture of every section separately and put them all together to get this final outcome. This runs through the whole movie in a minute video and shows you briefly how the opening 2 minutes would go.

Sound Choices

For our soundtrack we need some tense music in the background - it is one of the most important things for a horror or a thriller film.  We have found the following clips below that we are going to use in order to make our film really tense and full of suspense:

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We picked this non copyright horror movie music for the background; it is consistent of high pitched notes, dramatic doleful piano and discomfited strings which further combine to create a depressing atmosphere. The way it changes from high piano pitches to discomforting low notes, gives you a shiver down your spine. It would fit perfectly into our movie; everything we do seems to fit in time with the beats and pitches perfectly. This eerie 1 minute 32 second clip is going to be used as a non-diegetic piece; we only want the audience to hear it as it would be pointless to us if we could hear it, we would be focusing on the acting and speech if we include any speech in the clip we are producing.
Another short clip i thought would be effective due to the pitches and notes would be:

this clip consists of deep, dramatic, eerie music which gives you a literal shiver down your spine. it starts of with a low drum beat then as the beats gets louder and more instruments are involved the higher the pitch gets. the screeching which seems to be a violin gives of a horror movie effect of a murder/dangerous scene. In any other typical horror/thriller movie they would include similar music in the background so that you feel in the scene with the right mood being given off.

for our actual movie we will be using these 2 sounds for the background to make the scene more of an atmosphere and to make the suspense go out of the roof. Having these, well any type of music in the background has been used in every movie for years and they carry on to use music to make the scene effective and to make people get into the film and feel addicted; that they feel they have to watch the rest of the movie.