Planning

Script For Film
(close up shot focusing on a candle in hand as they walk up the stairs)

(panning/establishing shot of Charlotte walking to lance candle down)

(cut shot/close up of candle getting placed down)

(mid/wide shot showing subjects sat down in the point of view of holly one of the subjects)

(close up of the crucifix necklace in protagonists hands)

(slow motion shot of the necklace swinging)

(close up of the ouija board)

(wide shot of the subjects placing hands down on the ouija board)

(over the shoulder shot of nick placing Holly's hand down)

(close up of Holly's face to show her worried/anxious expressions)

(High angle shot looking down at subjects with hands on ouija board, as if someone is watching them)

(Two/close up shot showing Charlotte and nicks expressions)

(zoomed in high angle shot of the ouija board)

(Close up of nicks face)

(over the shoulder shot of Holly)

(Extreme close up of the ouija board as it gradually gets closer)

(Two shot of two characters looking up simultaneously)

(Slow motion out of focus shot of the ouija board to create a dizzy uneasy state

(Downward panning shot to show a two shot of the subjects)

(Point of view shot from behind the bars looking at the subjects, as if someone is watching them)

(Panning shot showing all the subjects and the protagonist looking in to the camera)

(Close up shot of protagonist staring into the camera to blow it out)


We decided not to in include any dialogue, as we felt it detracts from the narrative and reduced the tension in the opening. Also our camera didn't record the sound very well and we felt the shots would look better without.





Horror Opening Resurch


The Ouija board also known as a spirit board or talking board, is a flat board marked with the letters of the alphabet, the numbers 0-9, the words "yes", "no", "hello" (occasionally), and "goodbye", along with various symbols and graphics. It is a registered trademark of Hasbro Inc., which markets and distributes the Ouija board as part of its line of board games. It uses a planchette (small heart-shaped piece of wood) or movable indicator to indicate the spirit's message by spelling it out on the board during a séance. Participants place their fingers on the planchette, and it is moved about the board to spell out words. "Ouija" has become a trademark that is often used generically to refer to any talking board.

Even back in the 1880s, the planchette was being sold as a novelty item and parlor game. The Ouija board was in the same vein--an important point. The board didn't originate with swamis, emanate from the mysterious East, or anything like that. It was invented and marketed by American businessmen hoping to make a buck.

The Ouija board has the letters of the alphabet and the numbers 0-9 printed on it, along with YES, NO, GOODBYE, and sometimes a few other things. Copycat versions of the game may incorporate astrological, Tarot, or other New Age symbols. The idea is that you ask the spirit world a question and then rest your hand(s) on the pointer while the spirits answer you.







Horror Film Presentation

Costume Plans:

Casual clothing- Black, dark colors to compliment the dark eerie setting .We decided to use casual clothing to make them look like an average group of friends, we also thought this would make the scene look more realistic. we also decided that the casual clothing would create uniqueness and a sense of different personalities in each character for example, an actor wears a floral dress which portrays her innocence and vulnerability in the scene and also coveys her unease at what they are doing.

Prop Plans:


Candles placed around the room to add an eerie atmosphere and create shaddows in the room, we initially want four around each side of the board and maybe some placed around the room.

crucifix necklace- this would be a close up shot of someone holding it in their hand, creating religious connotations.

Ouija board- placed in the middle in between all the actors, if we cant locate a real ouija board we will print a image off and place onto a wooden board.

Location 

 We decided to film our horror opening in an attic as this created a lot of atmosphere for the actors and for the audience, as its important for the actors to get into role of the character enough to portray the meaning of the opening. We thought the small area was perfect as it was compact and made the characters seem more 

vulnerable, the small room also 
created eerie dark shadows from the candle lighting.Although we would therefore find it very challenging to film around the actors in such a small area.

Brainstorm ideas for horror opening 

Story board for horror film

Institutional company development.

 This is my short throught process in comming up with the institutional company name, we had some ideas but we finally decided Dark Star would be the most appropriate for our horror film opening.

 Key Hole Productions:We thought this would be an eerie approach to a normal light hearted institutional logo, as we would have a discrete eye looking directly into the camera through the key hole, similar to the image used.We would use a dark filter and maybe create an effect on the eye, such as a  color wash to make it look creepy. 
Dark wood productions:I liked this idea as an institutional logo title as for the logo we could create a moving image of the wood changing color (maybe darker and more mysterious) and we could make the moon travel round as if to show time passing in a short period of time.
Red Lion pictures:This institution company name would be more of a visual one. I decided it would look effective if we created a dark wash on an image of a lion and maybe create a red wash on the eyes to make them look more prominent, hence the red lion pictures.
Dark Star Productions:This was our favorite name as it was short and to the point we felt it suited our opening well and the image we found would edit well and make a clear genre observation before the opening begins.

These are a few examples of the fonts we liked for our logo, we felt the bottom one (La Flama y La 2 Bold)didn't fit well with our image of the star as it was to curvy and we felt we needed something more sharp.We decided to go for the top font (Sanctuary)as it suited the image we chose the best and looked simple and     sharp, which is what we intended.

This is the process we went through in creating our logo, we began with a black and white image of a star with a women face, we then decided to add our red text as we felt this made it stand our and the red connotes danger,blood and gore.

This is the logo that I created after on Photoshop after as I felt the first image needed some editing to stand out more, I decided the black background made the image appear much sharper and look a lot more defined.








I then decided to shade in the eyes red to make the image more mysterious and creepy, I did this by using the paint tool however making the opacity slightly lower to make it more realistic. I felt as we changed the text to white the red brings out the image further and adds the connotations of death and blood etc. 

Audience Profile For Horror Opening After 

Research

After researching horror films in general and the statistics of who generally watches them the most and which genre/style the most prefer.We made an influence decision on what our opening was going to be based around and for what age range and sex etc.

From our data from our survey and from data i researched from the internet I overall discovered that the main audience for horror films are ranged between ages 15-25. We therefore wanted to make our horror film opening entertaining and intriguing for the younger generation audience. To do so we decided to include actors which range between the same ages as our target audience so they could relate to the opening and be more hooked and engaged.

Also from my research I found that the location that the target audience prefer most in a horror film in in a house, therefore we felt it would be a good idea to set the opening in a creepy periodic house.

We decided our film would be rated 15 as the rating classify's; 

• strong violence
• frequent strong language 
• portrayals of sexual activity
• strong verbal references to sex
• sexual nudity
• brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
• discriminatory language or behaviour
• drug taking

Although we wouldn't include any of the above our film would be mainly horror based and therefore not suitable for people under 15.

Animated Story Board

Character Profile

We chose to use 4 characters for many reasons some being the practicality side as four characters would be easy to fit around a small ouija board and room, also we thought we could get some good shots in with each character using different shot types such as over the shoulder and panning shots.

The characters all look around 15-18 which is our intention for our target audience as they would feel more engaged in the opening.

Also all the characters look like a group of likely friends they also look slightly young and vulnerable, this could create suspense for the audience as they assume something bad is going to happen.

Each character looks different, some more vulnerable then others this is how we want it to be perceived.

Evidence of organisation of actors

I found whilst attempting or organise actors that it was extremely difficult to get all the actors together on a certain day that everyone was free. I found the hardest part was that we needed to include all actors for filming even if they had no speech as the rule of continuity was vital and if there was an actor missing in a shot it would be obvious, also if any actors didn't wear the same clothes as in a shot before it would go against the continuity.

Production Schedule

Opening description in under 25 words

Four friends meet up to do a ouija board in an attic and things begin to take a turn for the worst.

Brainstorm title for film opening