This week was the first meeting the group had to come together with ideas about the film. Before creating genre analysis, we agreed to use the theme of horror, and then settled on the idea of the sub-genre of slasher, in which other ideas of sub genre that came up included the paranormal and zombie. To come up with a narrative for our film opening, we decided to come up with a location first to base around the characteristics of the serial killer, as well as the setting for the film and other characters that could be used in the opening film.
Some ideas we came up with for a location of a horror film included a church graveyard, a barn, a derelict lane and a train track. After much debate, we were torn between the graveyard and the derelict lane, but then settled for the train track as we felt it was a location we could all access easily, as well as it created a "spooky" setting for a horror film. After coming up with a good location, we used the idea of an abandoned train track to create a theme for the killer. We decided that our antagonist would be a "psychopathic train conductor" in which ideas came about relating to the theme of a crazy train conductor (e.g. train track marks on victims faces, train tickets engraved onto face, etc). We then decided these ideas were too complex to fit into a two minute introduction, so we decided to use a distorted train whistle sound effect to not only create an atmosphere, but to reveal characteristics about the antagonist.
This then led on what prop the serial killer should use as their "iconic" way to kill. Some ideas we came up with included garden sheers, a knife and a woodcutters axe. We chose not to use garden sheers as we felt that this didn't relate enough to the character and wasn't really a good tool for killing, and we also felt that the knife was too iconic and overused in slasher films, so we were all in agreement about using the woodcutters axe. Then then further decided with props that, in most slasher films, the antagonist would wear a scary mask to hide his identity rather than makeup, and due to budget costs and time, we decided to use a mask as it would be cheaper and less time consuming as well as less pressure to get the makeup right every time filming was required.
After we decided on the antagonist, we focused on the other characters to use in our film. From examining other horror genres, we had the options of either having a single female alone in the woods (vulnerable with no one to help), a teenage couple (male character gets murdered in protecting female, female is under threat) or a group of teens (one teen strays from the group, runs into the murderer and gets killed and is then discovered by the others, who are then under threat). We were then torn between the couple or the group idea, but was then advised by our media teacher to go with a group, in which we then decided to go with that idea. After deciding how many people we needed (between 3-4) we then thought about which actors we'd need to use. We took in mind actors we could use who take As drama, as well as take part in acting classes, and then cancelled down to actors who could take it seriously until we came up with a list of 3 actors who, after consent, are able to participate in our film.
When it came to lighting and sound, we used our knowledge from the fixed elements of horror films to come up with some ideas. With sound, we decided to use incidental music instead of soundtrack as it creates more tension and atmosphere than a soundtrack would. Sound effects included within our film would include branches creaking, screaming, heavy breathing and the distorted train whistle effect mentioned earlier. With lighting, we used our location idea to consider what type of lighting we would need. Because our area consists of low key lighting during day time, it means that no extra lighting would be needed to define certain details, though low key lighting filters could be added if necessary. Other filters that could be used for effect include colour splash (black and white effect, but colour on object of focus e.g. blood, props, etc) or black and white (creates darker effect, more atmosphere).
Some ideas we came up with for a location of a horror film included a church graveyard, a barn, a derelict lane and a train track. After much debate, we were torn between the graveyard and the derelict lane, but then settled for the train track as we felt it was a location we could all access easily, as well as it created a "spooky" setting for a horror film. After coming up with a good location, we used the idea of an abandoned train track to create a theme for the killer. We decided that our antagonist would be a "psychopathic train conductor" in which ideas came about relating to the theme of a crazy train conductor (e.g. train track marks on victims faces, train tickets engraved onto face, etc). We then decided these ideas were too complex to fit into a two minute introduction, so we decided to use a distorted train whistle sound effect to not only create an atmosphere, but to reveal characteristics about the antagonist.
This then led on what prop the serial killer should use as their "iconic" way to kill. Some ideas we came up with included garden sheers, a knife and a woodcutters axe. We chose not to use garden sheers as we felt that this didn't relate enough to the character and wasn't really a good tool for killing, and we also felt that the knife was too iconic and overused in slasher films, so we were all in agreement about using the woodcutters axe. Then then further decided with props that, in most slasher films, the antagonist would wear a scary mask to hide his identity rather than makeup, and due to budget costs and time, we decided to use a mask as it would be cheaper and less time consuming as well as less pressure to get the makeup right every time filming was required.
After we decided on the antagonist, we focused on the other characters to use in our film. From examining other horror genres, we had the options of either having a single female alone in the woods (vulnerable with no one to help), a teenage couple (male character gets murdered in protecting female, female is under threat) or a group of teens (one teen strays from the group, runs into the murderer and gets killed and is then discovered by the others, who are then under threat). We were then torn between the couple or the group idea, but was then advised by our media teacher to go with a group, in which we then decided to go with that idea. After deciding how many people we needed (between 3-4) we then thought about which actors we'd need to use. We took in mind actors we could use who take As drama, as well as take part in acting classes, and then cancelled down to actors who could take it seriously until we came up with a list of 3 actors who, after consent, are able to participate in our film.
When it came to lighting and sound, we used our knowledge from the fixed elements of horror films to come up with some ideas. With sound, we decided to use incidental music instead of soundtrack as it creates more tension and atmosphere than a soundtrack would. Sound effects included within our film would include branches creaking, screaming, heavy breathing and the distorted train whistle effect mentioned earlier. With lighting, we used our location idea to consider what type of lighting we would need. Because our area consists of low key lighting during day time, it means that no extra lighting would be needed to define certain details, though low key lighting filters could be added if necessary. Other filters that could be used for effect include colour splash (black and white effect, but colour on object of focus e.g. blood, props, etc) or black and white (creates darker effect, more atmosphere).
No comments:
Post a Comment