Pre-Production: Meeting 3

Now that we have planned what objects and sounds we need to include in our opening sequence in the third meeting we looked at how many scenes we are going to have and what they are going to include.

Our idea has one scene through the opening sequence which includes a range of ideas:

1) walking into a barn, up the stairs into the office.

2) a reporter looking through the file cabinet and finds a scrap book with the jewellery box music playing in the background.

3) she looks through the book with the rocking horse in the background (continuous music happening) which she then looks up through the windows at the barn door and sees it closing. With sound effects including: stairs creaking (sound intensifies).

4) the scene cuts to black at the end which fades into the ballerina Jewellery box. 

We will add the titles in within the scene for example our names could be written in with the text in the scrap book that she finds and the film title will be shown at the end when the scene turns to black. These are just rough ideas that we are going to follow when the filming starts but ideas may be changed or manipulated depending on how well the filming goes.

Pre-Production: Meeting 2

In our second meetings abouut our opening sequence, we looked at a the range different ideas that we included on our spider diagram but focused in more detail on the most important features on what props we need, location we could film it at and the sound effect we should add to make it sound more realistic.

Location

• Workshop
• Forest/woods
• Street

Props

• Book
• Rocking horse
• Candles
• Jewellery box
• Puppet/Clown
• Dolly/Teddy
• Clock
• Old Photos

Sound Effects

• Footsteps
• Creaky Floorboard
• Ticking Clock
• Jewellery box music
• Door slamming shut
• Childs laughter
• Breathing
• Cabnet slamming shut

From these different ideas we have a better idea on how we are going to film our opening sequence and what we need to include. At out next pre-production meeting we will look at the idea in more detail and see how many scenes we are going to include and what each scene is going to feature in it to help get a bigger picture of our final idea.

Pre-Production: Meeting 1

In this first meeting we have discussed what we are going to feature in our opening sequence. As this was our first meeting we have created a spider diagram to write down all of our ideas about what we could include.

This is the spider diagram:

Next pre-production meeting we will sort out our ideas in more detail and arrange them so we know what we are going to include by getting rid of some of the ideas if they work.

Pre-Production

We have looked at what we have to include for our opening sequence which we need to start thinking about our pre-production and what we need to include.

We need to look at a range of ideas including:

• Script - start drafting one for our main outline of our opening sequence
• Budget - how much money we have to spend on other features
• Location - think about the different locations that we can film at that are convenient to us that fit out budget and storyline.
• Script breakdown
• Casting
• Storyboard
• Shot list
• Titles
• Shooting schedule
• Gear/Props/Costumes

I looked at a YouTube video called "film riot" which gave me a clear idea of the kind of ideas we need to include and how we are going to include them. 

As this was our first planning of our pre-production we will next look at what we specifically need to include when taking into account the different features above in our pre-production meeting 1.

Target Audience

From doing a range of target audience research I found that researching age and gender were most important in getting a greater knowledge of what audience our film will need to include. These were found at http://www.slideshare.net/mattmosey1/my-target-audiance 

From this research, I think that our opening sequence would be aimed at teenagers and young adults due to it not being gory or violent that may suit an 18 rating. This is helpful to allow us to adapt our opening sequence to meet the age rating for a specific audience.

From this gender research, I have concluded that we wouldn't specifically aim our opening sequence at each female or male as horror genres can give the same effect to both genders. Although, stereotypically it is seen that boys are more likely to watch horror films, our group are trying not to make any stereotypes and allow both to watch to give a non biased effect.





Furthermore, I researched a range of horror films to find certain ratings, this website included a description of what certain film ratings include and why they are that specific rating. This website was important in knowing and understanding in greater detail and accuracy what we need to include to make it appropriate for a younger audience. Here is the link below:
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/education-resources/student-guide/issues-introduction/horror

• The use of this quote from the website "films are targeted at a younger audience, age rating decisions will take into account such factors as the frequency, length and detail of scary scenes aswell as horror effects, including music and sound, and whether there is a swift and reassuring outcome." This allowed us to think about how and why we are going to include certain aspects in our opening sequence and how we will use them effectively to meet our audiences needs.

Individual Research

To get audience research, I have individually found out what people expect to have in a horror genre and what age ranges, aspects are appropriate. I have done this through social media and online research.

Through my online research I found this website https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/cutting-edge-leadership/201410/the-top-ten-things-make-horror-movies-scary that allowed me to see what elements of horror films scare you and why.

• This can therefore allow us to interpret some of these factors into our opening sequence, to create a sense of threat from a unknown presence or to make the scene flow and get the important sense of a horror genre.

Another piece of research that I did was to ask my class individually whether they like horror films or not. From this I got 95% response saying that they do like them and 5% do not. This was important to know whether people around 16-17 like horror genres and therefore can make it a certain standard to our film and decide whether this will be our rating or to have it lower such as a 12.

Opening Sequences- Horror

After we had done our pitch we started to look at a range of opening sequences from horror movies so we can get an idea of how the sense of horror is show and how it is done. We looked at a range of movies such as The Conjuring, Sinister and Cabin in the Woods. 

Horror Sequences

We looked at these opening sequences to get an idea of what a horror genre looks like.

The Conjuring: Opening Sequence

This was found at http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/the-conjuring/

• The conjuring opening sequence created a very sinister and gloomy atmosphere to create what the effect the movie is going to have. It had family photos with the titles over the top. Also, the use of families and children make you think that it could be quite innocent but shows a different approach that represents them in a different light but also if you havent seen the movie before it doesnt give much of the storyline away and only introduces what could happen and gives the chance for you to imagine what is going to happen for yourself. 

• The fact that the whole sequence was very slow paced with an eery and quite soundtrack it highlighted that it is a horror genre. Consequently, the different articles were the used in the sequence made you think that it is a real story and could make the audience believe what was happening. 

Sinister: Opening Sequence

• The sinister opening sequence had a more older feel as it was shown to have an effect on the scene but it represented the horror genre in a different way than in The Conjuring. The fact that the first image you see if of peoplpe being hanged in a tree shows that it could be quite gory, highlighting a sense of what the movie could be about.

Cabin in the Woods: Opening Sequence

This was found at http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/the-cabin-in-the-woods/

• I found that this opening sequence was mixed between real life and horror as you see people having a normal day at their job but throughout the sequence there are images of distrubing images of sacrafic in the woods. This gives it a feel that something eery is going to happen to those people in their jobs but by doing this it adds a more historical feel. 

• This opening sequence again represented the horror genre in a different way that The Conjuring and Sinister did as it did it in less obvious way and not making the whole opening sequence about horror but had little snippets of them throughout.

I have found that it is important now to highlight what the movie is about as much but to make sure that the genre type comes across clearly to the audience with a sense of mystery happening.

Pitch

Pitch

From the information that we have described in our pitch, it has given an insight of what we are going to include. This is a guide line of what is going to happen, although we may make a few changes to the final product whilst working on our pre-production.

From presenting this in front of the class, we got some feedback and were asked the following questions:

• How are we going to make our idea different and more original? As we were told that our idea which we thought about having a young girl running through a forest by being watched by a ghostly presense has been done before or people have had similar ideas. Although, now we thought about having a news reporter exploring an abandoned warehouse but still being watched by a ghostly presense, therefore we have changed our idea to make it more original. 

• How will be incorpret titles into our sequence? we have decided that we will put the titles in with the scene and on our probs that we have made rather than to edit them in afterwards.