Call Sheets

Marc Alderson

CHARACTER - killer
SHOOTING DAY NO: 1
CALL TIME: 10:00 AM
DAY/DATE: Saturday 18th September
PRODUCER: James Ward
DIRECTOR: James Ward

Graham Watkins

CHARACTER - victim

SHOOTING DAY NO: 1

CALL TIME: 10:00 AM

DAY/DATE: Saturday 18th September

PRODUCER: James Ward

DIRECTOR: James Ward

Photoshoot Plans/ Final Photoshoot Images

I have got some definate plans for my photoshoot. I want to get some pictures of a rusty knife on a table and i want to clearly show off the rust as i think this will be perfect for the postor and perhaps the magazine. I also want a picture of an abandoned, vacant traintrack and hopefully i will be able to make it look misty and deserted. The tracks will be overgrown with weeds and i will use this in the postor. I also want a picture of the 'killer' dragging the victim by the cuff of the neck. He will be dragging him underneith a bridge with a cross on it, showing that the power of god does not exist and this evil is allowed to exist on earth. I will also have the 'killer' with no flesh showing, a big coat with a hood up and i will usse the angle to make him look big and synister in front of the camera. I will also Have the victim looking very vulnerable, showing flesh and being a lot lower than the 'killer' showing that the killer has the power and superiority. This picture will eb used on the magazine cover, to advertise the film as i think it will be very effective and will provoke thought.

I also want a picture of a wound on the victims face, using fake blood i will replacate a bad wound to the face which i think will look effective.

These are the results:

Here are most of the knife and tool shots. I shot the tools, desk and props that will be used in the film to relate the postor, magazine cover and trailer together. I also tried to get the light right but it will need to be edited at a later date. The camera flash was used as they were shot in a dark location. I personally like the last one the most because it still has the rust but seems sharper that the knife itself seems sharper.

Here is the shot of the vacant, deserted railwway tracks. I really like this picture and feel as though i succeeded at making it look creepy and vacant. I also love the mist and was hoping i could get an effect like that in the picture. The only thing i didnt plan on was the house, however there are no cars etc. so i think it works within the picture.


This is the result of the photoshoot with the killer and victim. I really like the imagery, with the cross and the inhuman killer with the victim. Below that is a picture of the killer (will not be used just a test shot and showing the costume etc.)

This is the picture of the victims wound. I like this picture as i think the wound looks realistic and i like the facial expression. However there is an unfortunate, pleasant blue sky in the background which takes away some of the scareiness. I am happy however that i got an angle where the camera wasnt creating a shadow on the actors face. I think this is a good photo and is possibly going to be used if i can edit it to look darker without ruining the contrast and just the photo in general.

I also used the oppertunity from the victims wound photoshoot to get some good shots of blood splattered background.I really like these pictures and i think i will use them in my print products.


Here is a picture of me and one of the actors on the set of one of the photoshoots.

Overall, i think these photoshoots were successful, i got lots of shots i like and not a lot went wrong, only how nice one of the photoshoot days was. I feel like i have a lot of useable shots and will have lots of choice when it comes round to creating the print products.

Storyboard

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Flatplans

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Here are my flatplans. I feel that in my mind and hopefully the production will portray my thoughts better than the flatplans. I am going to use predominently black (colour portrayed with darkness and evil) and red (represents fear and blood). i am going to make the magazine cover look busy to make it stand out against other products on the shelf and im going to make the postor look vacant, distant and simple. This is because the postor will be seen in a different environment, it wont have to be pushed into the viewers face and stand out above other products and therefore it will attract the viewer more in the situations where it will be seen.

Sketches of Institutional logos that you’ve created alongside evidence of these being produced during the construction process or initial planning sta

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Source the copyright free soundtrack

For my soundtrack i have decided on 3 songs that i think would work. I want a soundtrack that is quite slow paced and is in a minor key. However i also want it to be a positive song. The three songs i have chosen are: RJD2 - smoke and mirrors, Josh Martinez - Time Alone or Daft Punk - superheroes (we plants are happy remix). However these songs are all quite unknown and therefore will be quite hard to find the Copyright holder to. I hope to find the copyright holder for at least one of these songs.

I think its important to find out the album and track names for the song before sending an email so it atleast looks like i have background knowledge of the artist/group and therefore makes me look like a loyal fan which in return will make them more likely to allow me to use their music. I also purposely chose more underground artists hoping they will want to get heard more and take this as an opperunity. However, not to underground that they seem to be uncontactable.


I did some research and found out the album and track number of the song 'smoke and mirrors' by 'RJD2'. I also found their UK record label and emailed them as i presumed they were the copyright holder. Here is a printscreen of the enquiery i made:






I emailed the uk media/promotional enquiry as i thought this s the best suited to what i wanted to ask. I did notice that the record company is quite against coporate major companies etc. So there is the chance that they will be against me using the song however i think it will probably okay considering i have seen their tracks used in other films. I will now wait for a reply and if i dont recieve one i will double check the correct copyright holder and presume i will be able to use the track. I also feel quite confident considering they have a promotional enquiry email address.

I recieved this automatic response and will wait for an answer from them.

I also did some research on another song i wanted to use by josh martinez. I did some research and found out that he created his own label where his music is copyrighted. I emailed this record company (camobear records) and i am now waiting for a response.

This shows that my email has been sent.

For the daft punk song i wanted to use, i found out daft punk were on virgin records but couldnt find anything about them on the virgin records so i dont know if their record deal has expired and cant find, if they have, what they are on now. It was also a remix so i dont know who would hold the copyright to that version as the remix is from an unsigned artist.


I will also use garage band for sound effects throughout the trailer.

since we now cant use a soundtrack that has copyright, i will now need to create a soundtrack using garage band. I will need to be creative with garage band to try and make something with same effect at the soundtracks i was going to use. I need the dark, synister feel and i need to to be either in a minor key, or hopefully, without a key. I also want to try and find a sound that is disjointed. Therefore i dont want a constant running song throughout the trailer, but rather a

I will be able to use this because i have created it myself to a certain extent (created on garageband using loops) and because the loops featured on garageband are copyright free.
The song used at the end, i was seriously thinking about. However, i feel that even though it is stereotypically perfect for the role, i find it too 'cheesy' and a little too over the top for the feel of the film that im creating. I will also create effects using cubase because i also take music tech. I will create heart beat sounds etc. using this program as garage band wont produce a sound that i will find satisfactory.

Today i created a soundtrack on the computor, music based program, cubase 4. This is a good program with endless effects and creativity and it hought would be perfect for creating this effect to close percision (with enough time spent on it).

Cubase 4 is the program i use for the lesson music technology, and therefore it shows it is very technically good and will definatly be good enough to create this effect.

This is a screen shot of me using the program. As tyou can see it was just one track but with two different bass drums within that track and we can see from this picture that it remains constant throughout the piece with no changes. Therefore i could copy and paste certain parts, amking sure i got it on the right beat and that it was accurate.


This is another view of cubase, showing the editing screen where i input the notes.

My effect was a heartbeart. Therefore i used to different bass drums at the same time to give a chorus/reverb feel with slight delay. I then added lots of reverb to both of the bass drums and added slight chorus. These effects are what give it the echoey feel.

After completeing the sound effect so that it lasts for sufficient time and sounds right and the effects are in, i saved it as an mp3. I then opened it on audacity where i normalised the piece (making it reach its full potential with sound and making sure no certain parts of the effect are too loud etc.) This is where i also would put on a fade in or fade out but in this case i dont need to.

When this is done i import it onto i tunes. I then put it into its own playlist and burned it onto a disc so i could transfer it from the computor with cubase on to the macs used to create my trailer. This picture shows my mp3 effect on a cd on itunes.

I found this as the most effective way of getting the sound i wanted instead of settling for other effects. This effect works well within the trailer and although it is quite low in the mix, it keeps a constant sense of tension, whcih was the aim for the effect in the first place.

Proposal of ideas

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This is my proposal idead and what i hope to achieve in my film package.

Primary Audience Research

Who is my audience?

I have concluded from my secondary audience research, that my target audience is for people aged over 18 and generaly too the age of 24. However the research shows that there is also a large audience from older ages (generally the audience for horror films thins out as the age gets older). I also found that even though the audience is predominantly male, there is still a large female audience. This is what my secondary audience research tells me, therefore i will now look more in depth at the target audience im going to aim on by asking people of the target audience what they want to see. I will analyse what interests this audience by communicating with people within it. This essential to finding out what will create an effective horror film package for my target audience.

Questionairre

What do you want to see from a horror film?..................................................

what attracts you to films and magazines of this genre?...............................

do you prefer the gory or creepy side of horror films?..................................

do you prefer simple or complex horror?.........................................................

do you find surreal or realistic scarier?.............................................................

what would attract you to see a film of this sort?.............................................

Thankyou

From the questionairre i found out, from a survey of 20 people, that;

What do you want to see from a horror film?

60% of the audience answered a sense of realism and 40% said the gory, 'saw' kind of horror. Everyone answered to be scared. This means that in my film i will use some locations that can be seen in everyday life and show what can go on in these settings behind closed doors. Which incorporates both of these aspects.

what attracts you to films and magazines of this genre?

I got a range of answers for this question. People seemed to agree that disjointed and creepy trailers and postors, which lead the viewer on but dont tell the viewer much, or any, of the story . This means that i'll follow these conventions in my trailer with creepy, disjointed editing and a range of speed of the editing. It will start slow, get a lot quicker throughout the trailer then slow down again, making it seem disjointed. The story will also be clear of what kind of film it will be, without leading the viewer on to much.

do you prefer the gory or creepy side of horror films?

60% creepy
40% gory

From this, in my film i will show signs of goryness, for example, tools used for torture, blood etc. But the editing and disjointed feel will make it seem creepy.

do you prefer simple or complex horror?

40% simple
60% complex

I feel that with these answers, people want to see more of a story, instead of just a simple 'cat and mouse' horror. Therefore in my trailer and magazine cover i will try and make it look busy and like theres a lot going on. However i also want the creepy slow feeling, so i think that i will make the poster look vacant and creepy and parts of the trailer will also slow right down to give it a creepy feel. This will also help build tension.

do you find surreal or realistic scarier?

90% realistic
10% surreal

I can see from these results that the vast majority of my target audience want to see a sense of realism which i think adds to the scarieness of a film cos they can relate it to their own lives which makes it seem even creepier (subconsiously thinking it could happen to them etc.) instead of the surreal horror, which i feel would be to high budget for my trailer anyway.

what would attract you to see a film of this sort?

most of the people i asked for this question mentioned a large sense of tension and disjointed creepyness which is what i wll include in my questionairre.

Secondary Audience Research

The data shown from this chart (found on pearl and dean) tells me that the predominent audience for my film will be male. This means that the film will be dominated with stereotypically, what the male audience will want to see. And we can see this by watching the trailer and film, there is a lot of violence, with jumpy scenes and lots of chasing and gore. There is also lots of sexual scenes in the film which show the women a lot more than the men. However there is a divide, since 55% of the audience was male and 45% female, it means they will have created the film so that it was attract both audiences and therefore since it might still attract mainly to the male audience, there is still aspects and there has still been thought put into attracting the female audience that enjoy watching horror films. In the film, the characters are also all people that the audience can relate too and the characters are quite stereotypical. We get emotinally attached to the characters and 'Jason' the killer, is seen as inhuman and we dont get attached to him.

Because this film is rated as an 18+ film, the film will not try and attract a younger audience, which means it doesnt have to worry about relating to all ages and can concentrate on its main audience which is for 17-24 (with 72% of the audience in this age group). With horror films also, i have found that when films of this genre try to attract a different audience as well as the horror fans, then the horror fans are put off the film. Much the same as when say a band sells out, the origional fans are put off them. We can also see from the chart that there is also a large 33% of the audience above the age of 27. However i feel that with horror films, people understand what they are going to see and so i dont think most horror films would have been adapted to attracting the older audience. However, i think friday the 13th may have gotten a big older age turn out because it was first released in 1980, and has been remade with the modern technology we have to be able to make a truley scary film.

As we can see in this film, the main audience is also for the age group 17-24. This shows that its a recurring theme in almost all horror films, with few anomolies. This film is also similar to the other sense in the way it shows the horror. There are lots of different types of horror films but it seems there are two main sub-genres, the spooky genre and the gory genre. The spooky genre (with films like paranormal acitivty etc.) normally have a slow paced editing and it is made so the smallest thing makes the viewer jump and there is the gory sort of genre with films such as hostel and saw, where it just uses unthinkable violence to scare the viewer. I think the spooky genre is more effect because and i want to follow the rule that 'one death is a tragedy and a million is a mere statistic'.

I think this is a pretty standard target audience for any horror film for example;

These are two random examples i chose, both showing similar results and telling me what conventional horror films are aimed at.

For my film, i will aim it, like the examples above, at the over 18 audience because i think by making it a 15 i will lose more interest than i gain because people are put off by seeing it as a 15, thinking it will be tame. I will also aim it equally towards male and female.

Choosing my genre

I have decided that with my film i will either create a horror trailer or a drama featuring downhill racing and the effects of crashing on life. There are parts of both that i am very excited about. With creating the drama film i am very passionate about downhill mountainbiking and i have seen first hand the effects of crashing out and seen how it can change and affect life. However i also like the editing process in horror films where they create a distressing, creepy feel by making things skip etc. and by using disjointed soundtracks. I also wanted to do something music related as i am very interested in the music scene. However i dont think i would be able to make it as a feature film and it would not reach a mainstream audience. I also feel that it would be hard to get to locations just because of the distance to go to good venues etc.

choosing a genre on Prezi

Textual Analysis

textual analysis on Prezi

Action Plan