Initial Ideas for our Horror/Thriller Film.

Initial ideas for our horror film.

Characters; A young couple who have just brought their first house.
          -Ryan Jacobsen and Clare Walker

Settings; the new house, or a field when their walking their dog.

Main Storyline; A cursed book is left on the doorstep of the new house, this happens to every occupant of the house. The story in the book relates to Ryan and Clare, but is not entirely identical to their life?
The story in the book begins to come true for Ryan and Clare.
Books named after a year, the story is set in that year, yet the same storyline and events happen to them.

Names of the film; Continuous fate..,

Production company Name; Big scream. Play on words with Big screen-Which is a connotation of the film industry.

Title Sequence; The titles of the film could be in the book, and there is a different title on each page of the book. There could also be a slightly burned looking newspaper on a table next to the book, which suggests a fire.

Initial Horror/Thriller film research.

The top 20 rated Horror/Thriller according to imdb.com;

1.)Psycho
2.) Alien
3.)The Shining
4.)Les Diaboliques
5.) The Thing
6.)Nosferatu
7.)Faust
8.)The Exorcist
9.)Rosemarys Baby
10.)The Cabinet of Dr.Caligan
11.)King Kong
12.)Frankenstein
13.)What ever happened to baby Jane?
14.)Dawn of the dead
15.)Bride of Frankenstein
16.)Kwaidan
17.)Night of the Living Dead
18.)Shaun of the Dead
19.)Onibaba
20.)Invasion of the body snatchers


Top 10 highest grossing horror films of 2010;
1.)The Twilight Saga; Eclipse; $300,531,751
2.)Shutter Island; $128,012,934
3.)Paranormal Activity 2; $84,612,342
4.)A Nightmare on Elm Street; $63,075,011
5.)The Wolfman; $61,979,680
6.)Resident Evil Afterlife; $60,128,566
7.)Predators; $52,000,688
8.)Saw 3D; $45,710,178
9.)The Lovely Bones; $43,645,137
10.)The last Exorcism; $41,034,350

Top 10 grossing horror films of all time.

	Title	Studio	Gross Domestic Box Office
1	Jaws (1975)	UNIVERSAL	$795,369,426
2	The Exorcist (1973)	WARNER BROS	$686,631,452
3	The Sixth Sense (1999)	BUENA VISTA	$357,566,366
4	The Mummy Returns (2001)	UNIVERSAL	$221,650,716
5	Jaws 2 (1978)	UNIVERSAL	$215,603,340
6	The Amityville Horror (1979)	AMERICAN INT.	$213,841,738
7	Alien (1979)	FOX	$200,233,659
8	The Mummy (1999)	UNIVERSAL	$189,949,583
9	What Lies Beneath (2000)	DREAMWORKS	$179,115,699
10	The Omen (1976)	FOX	$177,620,519

Production company logo research.

20^th C

The 20^th  Century Fox logo is gold, which is a major connotation of the best at what they do, Olympic champions get gold medals for example. Also the spotlights are a huge connotation of Hollywood. This shows that the company make good enough films to be in Hollywood, where the best films are made.
Examples of films; Marley and Me, Avatar

Dreamworks;entury Fox;

The Dreamworks logo shows that they make the films of your dreams, as the main image is of a man sleeping on the moon, which could be seen as a connotation of sleeping. Dreamworks produce animation films, which target younger audiences, who might dream of the films that they are producing.
Examples of films; Madagascar, Shrek, Kung Fu Panda

Film 4;Film 4 ‘develop and co-finance smart and distinctive feature films’. Their logo is very bold and eye catching, it also features a very large ‘FILM’ This lets the audience know what the company does; it creates and manages films.
Examples of films; The inbetweeners movie, 127 hours.

Paramount;The paramount logo is very powerful in the way that it suggests that its the best at what they do. The logo has many stars around it, which are an obvious feature of celebrity lifestyle. The name is also on top of what appears to be mt. Everest, the tallest mountain on earth, which suggests that is above everyone else. They produce and manage films such as; The transformers series, and star trek.

Take Two Productions;
The main image of this logo is made up of film strips, this is a major connotation of the movie industry, and shows to its audience that they know what they are doing with films.

Universal;The Universal logo suggests that it produces films that are the best in the world, as its shows the name of the company to be bigger than the earth. It also suggests that the films they create are for the entire world, not just for a smaller audience.
Examples of films produced; Fast and Furious, Robin Hood

Vertigo Films;

The word Vertigo means Fear of heights, so this is used in the company’s name to induce that they are above everyone else, and that their productions are the best. Also the logo is red, which like film 4, makes the logo stand out much more and be a lot more noticeable.
Examples of films; Streetdance, Horrid Henry

Warner Bros.
The Warner Bros logo is also gold, much like the 20^th Century fox logo, this suggests that it is the best at what they do and produce the best movies. The fact that the logo is high up in the clouds also suggests that they are above everyone else, and the best in the business.
Examples of films; The harry potter series, Sherlock Holmes.

Title sequence research of se7en.

As well as ‘The Italian Job, we also studied the title sequence of ‘Se7en’ and 'The Haunting in Connecticut'. We looked at what different images and camera shots are used and why they were used.

Seconds.                    Image

2               Extreme close up of a book with the page open
3               ‘New line cinema presents’ Title on the book
7                Intertitle ‘An Arnold Kopelson production’
8                Distorted black and white hands in the book.
13             Title ‘Brad Pitt’
16             Close up of fingers with a blade
18             Title ‘Morgan Freeman’
23             Title of the film ‘Seven’ Flashes Bigger.
29             Book Opening with title ‘Gwyneth Paltrow’
34             Close up of pen writing, overlapping images
36             Red Filter     
39             Extreme close up of cutting up film
43             Black and white photographs/paper images of a girl
52             Pages turning in a book
1:01          POV shot of black marker crossing out words
1:11          Crossing out mans eyes and casting titles
1:13          Photo of a man’s face that is completely crossed out
1:14          Red Filter of the face crossed out
1:16          Top half red filter with photos, bottom half pen writing
1:19          Film Negatives and books
1:25          Binding/Person making a book
1:30          Range of different photos stuck in a book
1:36          Extreme close up of dirty fingers with a needle
1:42          Threading a needle
1:47          Binding a book
1:58          Fast images of book/photographs
2:01          Cut out of the word ‘God’ from money
2:02          Title sequence finishes

This title sequence uses fast, extreme close up of objects that relate to the storyline of the film, this gives the audience some clues about what the film is going to be about and what it involves without letting on the whole storyline. We could use this idea in our own title sequence, using images and objects that will relate to the rest of our film.

Se7en was released in 1996 and grossed $316,400,00 worldwide.

Results and evaluation of Questionnaire.

And here are my results I gathered from my questionnaire.

On Average, how many films do you watch per week?
None(0)  1-2(8)  3-4(0)  5-6(0)  7+(0)

Where do you normally watch films?
n/a(0)  Home(9)  Cinema(1)  Other(0)

Who do you normally watch films with?
Family(4) Friends(4) Friends and Family(2)

How often do you visit the cinema  per month?

None(0)  1-2(7)  3-4(2)  5-6(1)  7+(0)

What is your favourite film genre?
Action/Adventure(1)  Horror/Thriller(2) Comedy(4)  Drama(1)  RomanticComedy(2)

Do you have any influences choosing this genre?
Yes(1)  No(9)  Don’t Know

Do you have a favourite film?
Yes(1)  No(7)  Don’t Know(2)

If so, what is it?
Bridesmaids(1)

Do you like horror/thriller films?
Yes(4)  No(4)  Never seen one(2)

From my results, I can gather that most people watch films at home with their family and friends, and only travel to the cinema 1-2 times a month, I also know that Horror/Thriller and Comedy are the most popular genres.
To make my questionnaire more effective I could have asked more people to complete it, so I gathered a larger more reflective sample which would have given me better data to work with. Also I could have asked what influences people have if they answered yes, this would have allowed me to gather information on why people watch the films they watch, not just that they watch them.

Questionnaire on Film Habits.

This is my questionnaire, which I asked 10 people to complete.

On Average, how many films do you watch per week?
[]None  []1-2  []3-4  []5-6  []7+

Where do you normally watch films?
[]n/a  []Home  []Cinema  []Other

Who do you normally watch films with?
........................................................

How often do you visit the cinema  per month?
[]None  []1-2  []3-4  []5-6  []7+

What is your favourite film genre?
[]Action/Adventure  []Horror/Thriller []Comedy  []Drama  []Romantic Comedy

Do you have any influences choosing this genre?
[]Yes  []No  []Don’t Know

Do you have a favourite film?
[]Yes  []No  [] Don’t Know

If so, what is it?
........................................................

Do you like horror/thriller films?
[]Yes  []No  []Never seen one

Title Sequence and opening scene of 'The Italian Job'.

We studied the opening title sequence of the film 'The Italian Job' and decided what the main aspects of the title sequence were. We gathered from watching that one of the main aspects of the the title sequence is the titles themselves, they were small, in contrast to the rest of the images on screen, and simple. We thought this was a good idea because it doesn't distract the viewers too much and only gets across what its designed to do.
The main feature of the title sequence was many different iconographic images that related to the film, such as the waters/canals of Venice; the film is set in Venice, so this is iconography. There is other images in the title sequence which give the audience a small hint as to what the film is about. For example the map and the notebook suggest a plan of some sort which involves a getaway.

The title sequence of 'The Italian Job' is 2:21 long, this length of time is perfect for a feature length film such as this, but for our production, which will only be two minutes long, its far too long. I thought that a good time for the opening title sequence for our production would be around the one minute mark, so we would then have a remaining one minute for the opening scene. The main aim of the opening scene of 'The Italian Job' Was to introduce the main characters and storyline, we could incorporate this into our own production and use the first scene to introduce the main characters that are involved.

Preliminary Task.

Our Preliminary task;
From this task we gained experiance in filming a simple film, this gave us ideas on what we do well in filming, and where we need to improve on. We also learnt what the 180 degree rule was and how to use it, this will help us when we make our film, as it will avoid us making mistakes. The 180 degree rule prevents the audience getting confused about the layout of a setting for example, this is done by only filming objects in front of an imaginary line at 180 degrees in front of the camera. This must always be followed unless the scene is puposely designed to confuse the audience or provide examples of disorientation. We also learnt how important framing is when we are filming, we got some unnesscary objects and images in the background of our film, and we could of easily avoides these.

Who watches Horror?

The stereotyopical horror movie fan;s

The stereotypical horror fan is shown on the right, and is also referred to by many people as a 'goth'. These fans are thought to always wear dark clothing, dark make up amd have a dark and depressed personality. There are many other stereotypes that are featured with people who dress like this, like listening to heavy metal music for example and being very unsocialble.