What Makes it Work? // Research and Feedback

In the lesson we talked about our idea to Matt and Luke, we told him our final storyboard idea and how we would film it.

However, we decided that the first part of our story was not going to work as it was a bit stereotypical and could be quite boring.
So they came up with the idea that our whole opening sequence could just be the floorboards and we film the whole opening sequence under the floorboards and really focus on the detail of the bodies.

Matt also thought that the final shot of the eye coming through the floorboards was very cliche so we should think of another ending that would be as effective.

This gave us a good direction of where to go here and how we should go about filming our opening sequence. It also narrowed down our idea so we have a better sense of what we are doing.
We are also going to investigate interesting ways to film under floorboards and how we can light the set to make it effective.

This lighting style is very effective because you can see half of the face but the other half in in darkness, this gives the whole image a eerie effect and can be very effective if used correctly. I think that this would be a very interesting way to light the girls under the floorboards because it will make the whole scene feel more tense.

Our opening sequence is like the first scene of Kill Bill 2 where she is stuck in the coffin underground.  The only thing we see in the sequence is her trying to escape so it is very simplistic with lots of sound scapes. We could use this idea when we film our floorboard scene and take inspiration from it.

If you go on to Sasha's blog she has done a blog post about the stage make up (SFX makeup) we are going to use in our shoot.

Who is our target audience?

Age of our target audience: 13-20 years old

How/what would they be attracted to  by your film: They would be attracted to the horror aspect of our film. Although it is a thriller ours has a sub-genre of a horror this may will attract people who like horrors.

Other interests our audience would have: Going to theme parks, listening to music (pop/rock), watching TV programmes (American Horror Story, Skins), sports (football, rugby), hanging out with friends.

Secondary Audience: Our secondary audience is people aged 21-35 they may like it because our thriller is based on a real story and the way we have filmed it to make it look realistic. Our film is aimed at a mixture of a male and female audience because we feel that lots of people will be able to watch it. 

Plot: Our plot would attract our audiences because they're is lots of uncertainty to it so they never know what might happen

Genre: Our genre would mostly attract males as it is a horror however, because it has a thriller aspect to it it wouldn't be that scary so people who get scared easily will be able to watch it with no problem. 

Mise en Scene // Presentation

In the lesson Sasha and I created an Emaze on what our Mise en Scene will be and what we plan to do.

Floorboards // Production // Post 1

1. Why would your chosen company wish to make your film?  We have chosen the film company Cruise/Wagner productions. We have chosen this company because we think that the style of films they make are appropriate for our thriller opening sequence. 

2. What other films have they made in a  similar vein to yours?  A film they have made that is similar to our film is The Others. This is similar because it involves ghosts and it is a supernatural thriller like ours. The feel of the film is also silimar to ours because it is quite eerie with dark lighting and a ghostly feel to it which is what we are trying to achieve. This extract is similar to what we are trying to achieve with our film because the main women (Nicole Kidman) is dressed all in black, the house looks eerie and it keeps you on edge.

Floorboards // Production // Post 2

3. How does your film fit in the ethos of the institution? They make high budget films and they get A-list actors to star in their movies such as Nicole Kidman, Simon Pegg and Tom Cruise. The most famous director they hired was Brian De Palma for "Mission: Impossible" 
   

4. How would you make money out of your film – would it be shown in an art house cinema a chain cinema.  Does it have a DVD release, merchandising tie-in or use on Pay per view (PPV) TV?  Where would you place your product? I think that our film would be screened in cinemas such as Odeon. Our film would be released around Halloween as it complements our film. I don't think that our film will have a lot of merchandise because it is a one off film and people tend to by franchise merchandise and it is not the typical type of film where you would have merchandise. 

Floorboards // Production // Post 3

5. Does the chosen film company specialise in a particular genre of film? Cruise/Wagner Productions tend to specialise in thrillers/actions films so this would help in the production of our film and give people a sense of what to expect. 

6. Do they target a particular audience? What other films have similar target audiences to yours? I think that Cruise/Wagner Productions tend to aim their films at a wide audience from teens to middle age people. This is good because it means that lots of people would want to come watch our film because they will know that it will be suitable for a whole range of ages. I think that Mission: Impossible and The Others have a same target audience as our film because a wide age range of people watch them.
   
    

Opening Sequence // Influences

Blair Witch Project
With the Blair Witch Project we like the wooden shapes because they are a sign of the supernatural. Jason had some wooden symbols left over from a video shoot which we might use to place them around the corridor to make the supernatural feel more intense.

Weeping Angels

We got influences form the Weeping Angels because we liked the idea of when the shot cuts to another shot the ghost girl has jumped forward but the audience don't see her move.

Monsters // Vertigo Films

Information: 

  Plot: After  a NASA deep-space probe crash lands in Mexico, extraterrestrial life forms spread throughout the Mexico-United States border region, leading to the quarantine of the northern half of Mexico. US and Mexican troops battle to contain the creatures, while a wall stretching along the American border ostensibly keeps the US protected.

 Filming: This film was shot using prosumer cameras instead of the more expensive 35mm film cameras. Many settings featured in the film were real locations (ofter used without permission) and most of the extras were people who were already at the filming location. As most of the extras were non-actors who were persuaded to be in the film their action was improvised.

Editing and effects: Every night after shooting, the editor and his assistant would download the footage so the memory sticks could be cleared and ready for the next day. While new footage was being captured, the previously filmed footage was edited at the production team's hotel.

Edwards created the special effects himself using off-the-shelf Adobe software, ZBrush and Autodesk  He had five months to create all 250 visual effects shots, he did all of this in his bedroom.