Thursday 6 February 2014

'The Haunting' Script, Storyboard and Shotlist.

Embedded below are the Script, Storyboard and Shotlist for our Horror Movie. The script was written by Faye Curry, Georgia Pearce and Kala Hill. The Shot List was created by Faye Curry and the Shot List was created by Faye Curry.


 Script:

INT. KITCHEN – EARLY MORNING

Kayleigh has just walked into the kitchen and is opening the back dog to get her dog so she take her for a walk

KAYLEIGH

(Cheerfully) Walkies!!

What’s up? Come on then!

CUT TO

EXT. PARK – LATE MORNING

Kayleigh is now out at the park walking her dog and Clara is haunting her.

CLARA

(Screams) KAYLEIGH!!!

CUT TO

EXT. BRICK HUT- MID-DAY

Kayleigh is now entering an abandoned hut in the woods; Clara is following Kayleigh as she enters this desolate hut.

CLARA

(Whispers) Kayleigh…
Storyboard:







 
Shotlist:











Costume


Embedded below is an image taken on set of the main characters costumes. In deciding on the costume design, we took into consideration the aspects of the characters we wanted to portray. 


On the left is character Kayleigh, who we decided to dress in light colours to connote innocence and purity. She is wearing everyday clothing to connote that this was a real life situation, however we had her dressed in pastel and lighter colours to make her seem vulnerable to the antagonist, Clara. Her dog, a prop, acts as her guide and form of protection. On the right is Clara, who we dressed all in black to connote the idea of her being a shadow or Kayleigh's dark past, and a white face with a cut over the left side of her head to emphasise that she was killed in the story, the cut an obvious sign of her demise. Also Clara being dressed in all black contradicts Kayleigh's pure front of innocence and displays that she has a dark past that she is trying to hide.

Location Shots

Embedded below is a slideshow created using Animoto by group member Faye, displaying a selection of pictures taken on location of our filming of our horror movie, which was a very effective location as it adhered to the many conventions of horror. The use of a house in our beginning scenes also reflects the common stereotypes of the horror, as most victims are portrayed in their houses, alone and isolated, connoting them as vulnerable and unaware of their surroundings. Below is also a selection of images from the house used to film our beginning section of our sequence.





Horror movie location shots

The following images overall proved very effective, as our group felt that the location was an almost parallel image of what we originally desired our setting in the forest and woodland type area would be. The trees worked well as a background for a majority of our shots, as they gave the concept of a large and desolate location, portraying the victim to be seen as more vulnerable to the antagonist, character Clara, played by myself. It also plants a sense of tension in the audiences minds, as they may feel like the antagonist is hiding in the trees, and possibly following the victim, Kayleigh, played by group member Kala. We also used a hut, seen in the images as a perspective in the plot line that that was the place that Clara died, in which Kayleigh enters to follow the scream of her name, as well as following her curiosity.

Wednesday 5 February 2014

Ident For Our Group

Embedded below is the storyboard Kala Hill drew in preparation for creating our group ident for our horror movie opening sequence. The ident was then created by myself using Final Cut Pro. The ident has a blood design, seeping in on screen as the company name is introduced, a conventional aspect of the horror genre and as a group we felt that this was an effecftive way of creating our ident. The blood has clear connotations of danger and fear, the red colour dominant over the black background the ident first displays, the seeping blood provoking a tension build from the viewers. The slow, sweeping movements of the titles connotes ghost like actions, another convention addressed in our horror movie sequence, also foreshadowing the potential character of a ghost in the film. The simplicity of the sweeping titles, and the colour of them being black and white adds to the tension build intended and also adheres to the many credits of horror movies we have previously researched, of which they keep the fonts and colouring of text very simple, to emphasise the effect of the ident and beginning of the movie that follows.

Idents Homework and Research.

In the development of making our beginning scenes of a Horror movie, we researched into the importance and varied range of different idents. Below I have embedded a definition of what an ident is from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/ident . 

An ident is what identifies the company that produces the film playing. Some big companies include Lionsgate, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox and Disney.

The first ident I analysed was the ident used by Disney, embedded from The Ident Gallery.




This ident denotes a blue sky, panning across a river and city to reveal the Disney castle, a firework show in the background. The words 'Walt Disney pictures' are revealed, and a streak of light appears around the castle. Although this is a lot more animated and complex than the original company ident (embedded below), it is still very iconic. This ident is now used on most Disney films from 2006 onwards. The intention of this ident connotes a theme of magic, which appeals to the target audience of children and families. Furthermore, the castle is an iconic element that is present in the Disney amusement parks, such as Disney World Florida. The castle is evidently a part of Disney and their logo, as well as their history of the company.





Companies such as Disney occasionally use alternative idents to appeal to appropriate films, or for anniversay editions, genre of film, modernising, to mimic or give a nod to a film for example live action films such as Tron.



Disney have continued to change and modernise their ident for many different films, suggesting to the audience that after the so many years off being a prestige company, they still want to be contemporary and just as relevant as any other production company in the contemporary era of the film industry. The ident for Tron, embedded above, displays Disney as a company evolving into more graphic live action movies, using technologically advanced cgi and special effects, as foreshadowed in their ident for the film. The ident also reflects the theme of the movie, incorporating the use of lights and sci-fi genre and the iconic Disney castle. Another sci-fi genre ident is from the film Lilo And Stitch (2002), embedded below, in which the logo itself gets abducted by aliens, connoting the film plot line involving aliens and reinforcing the genre of sci-fi and action. The castle is displayed on an alternative black background. A green laser appears around the castle instead of the usual magic dust. A beam of green light then appears over the logo, and it shakes and elevates upwards. This is to connote UFOs and alien life, which relates to the storyline as  the lead character Stitch is an alien.




Group member Faye conducted research on company Dreamworks, embedded below.

Before creating our own ident for our horror movie , individually we are researching into idents. By definition an ident is : 'Short for identification , especially in informal or technical use, this is usually a short sequence shown at the start of films to identify the company' -http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/ident

I will be looking at the design of the ident and explaining what the audience can see. Then I will explain why I believe they did that and what effect this has.

The first intent I will be analyzing is Dreamworks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHFFpm5PcoY



Design: This is on of two dominant 'Dreamworks' animation idents and it has duration of  23 seconds. The animation begins with the camera travelling upwards through the clouds , then as is progresses the sight of a crescent moon comes into view.Then travelling upwards is a cluster of clear balloon with what appears to be an adolescent boy attached to them. Once at the high of the moon , the boy sits down on it and lets go of the balloons. The camera then follows the balloons as they travel further up into the sky and then the balloon explode to form the word 'Dreamworks' in the sky.


Intention: The connotations of the sky and the moon could be a way of showing how big and powerful the company is. Additionally connotations of the moon is serenity and calmness this could be a representation of the films they produce , as most films made by Dreamworks are happy family films. This can also be shown through the use of colour when 'Dreamworks' appears on the screen and the use of an adolescent boy in the sequence. Finally clouds usually symbolise dreams , it appears the 'Dreamworks' have played on this due to the name of their company and therefore throughout the sequence clouds are a dominant feature. 


Secondly I looked at an ident which is more common of the horror movie theme. I choose to look at how dreamworks altered their child friendly ident to fit a horror movie. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzSuDbibt9Y





Design: The ident begins with the camera tracking along a reflection of cloud and the moon in the water. The a fishing rod appears in the water, the camera then pans up to show the adolescent boy sitting on the crescent moon with a fishing rod in his hand. The moon the forms into the shape of a 'D' , the camera then tracks along showing the word 'Dreamworks' forming in the sky. The sequence is significantly darker than the previous ident and throughout the image becomes distorted.

Intention: As this ident is trying to represent a horror movie , they have intentionally edited their ident to fit the genre. As in their previous ident there is the use of bright colours to represent their family friendly films , now the ident is quite dark and dim to portray that the movie is of a darker form. Additionally the distortions used throughout portray that this is a different form of movie and something you wouldn't expect from dreamworks , it shows their typical genre has been distorted.


Kala then analysed Lionsgate, embedded below:


Design: This is one of Lionsgate indents it lasts for 21 seconds, it opens up with loads of cogs and machinery working around it pans around all the machinery and then zooms out to give the viewer a full view of all the machinery and then goes back through a key hole, inside all of the machinery it is very dark with the bronze clogs, as it emerges out of the key hole it brightens up, the big doors then open to a big bright white light, where you are presented with the name Lionsgate with clouds all behind it and then it all fades out to black. There is also Non-Diagetic music playing through out this whole clip.
Intention: The intention of this ident would be to introduce a horror film the dark room filled with cogs and mechinery connotes an eery scary atmosphere which represents a horror movie. The music in the ident is very victorious which makes the company seem very big and important the music also builds up a climax and progressively gets louder as the name of the company reveles which also connotes their importance.

Lionsgate also have an older ident that they used around 2003, the old ident is embedded below.


Design: This is the older version of lionsgate ident, this one lasts for only 12 seconds which is a bit shorter than the typical ident. It opens up with a dark starry night sky, and then small sparkles fly across the screen as they create the outline of a lion that is all sparkly, a bright light flashes and the words 'Lions Gate Films' appears and fades into gold, for the remaining time of this ident the wording and the lion outline are sparkling in the nights sky.
Intention: The intention of this ident is to represent the company in the best way possible, from using sparkly trails to create the lion connotes that the company are huge and dreamy and the reasoning behind the lion is obviously to represent the company LIONSgate. The intention of having the typography in gold is to represent the company's importance also from having the text stay on the screen for a long period of time while it glitters in the night sky highlights that they are a prestigious company.