Location Release Form

Title ideas for my film opening

From the images above and to the left, my group and I have designed a mind map of ideas for our film opening title. Our film opening is based on a teenage sleepover where two teenagers are playing around with tarot cards, eventually they're in danger as a serial killer is on the loose and breaks into their home. The two teenagers try to find a way to escape, however they may not make it in time to reach to safety.
In conclusion, For our film opening ideas we have brainstormed ideas for our title and we have decided to use 'The sleepover' as the final title for our production. We chose this title because we unanimously decided that this title summarises the plot of our film opening  but also leaves it open to interpretation as to what happens at 'the sleepover' that would make our film conform to the conventions of the horror genre.
Furthermore, horror/thriller genre film titles are usually short, which makes it more aesthetic to the target audience. For example Ouija; Insidious; Get Out; Psycho and The Shining. Also, my target audience which is aged between 16-24 and using the theory of Young et al. the category of the audience will be C/D. Stereotypically, teenagers are not usually interested in long titles as they would think that the film will be boring, therefore short titles are more eye catching due to there being more room on posters or other advertising strategies and therefore the title can then be made to be bigger and bolder, which attracts the target audience.

Timed analysis: The Boy (2016)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpIbO6HEwr8

0:00-0:01- Fade in on a house at a wide medium shot.

0:01-0:03- Fade out onto the next shot of a high angle, looking down on a female character to show her vulnerability. This may foreshadow the horrifying actions aiming to take place further on in the trailer.

0:05-0:07- Low angle shot of an elderly woman looking out of a window, looking down at the female to connote power.

0:08-0:11- Zoom in on the family photo, but mainly focusing on the young boy. This informs the audience that the film will be about him as he looks exactly like the doll (Barthes enigma theory- semantic code).

0:11-0:16- Shot reverse shot of the male and female communicating. The cinematography used for this shot is a medium shot.

0:20-0:30- Preview of the distributors and producers of the film by showing the company logos.

0:41-0:54- Shot reverse shot of the rules on the list and the woman rebelling the rules. This links to Barthes enigma theory due to the Proairetic code being used, which build tension, and refers many actions that indicates that something dramatic will happen.

1:18-1:21- Dutch angle of the house with dim lighting and heavy rain. This is a convention of the horror genre due to dim lighting being used a lot as well as bad weather to connote the eerie atmosphere of the scene.

1:27-1:28- Long shot of the front gate to the house looking out into the woods. Dim lighting is used to create an eerie atmosphere, which is a convention of the horror genre.

1:33-1:35- An over the shoulder medium shot on the gravestone. Gravestones are a stereotypical prop used in horror movies as it brings tension to the audience whom are watching the film.

1:36-1:38- Low angle point-of-view shot of the view of the ceiling and stairs, to connote what the main character is seeing, which puts the audience feel vulnerable as they're isolated in the shot alone.

1:44-1:45- Text is shown saying "when you break his rules"- which is in a normal default font. This links to Barthes enigma theory due to the Hermeneutic code being used, which doesn't fully explain something and makes the audience watch more to find out.

1:45-1:47- Fade in from the boy to the woman, which may connote his power as she is scared and vulnerable at this precise moment due to finding out that this boy is possessed. This also causes tension for the audience watching due to the fade being at a slow pace and making them discover what may happen next.

1:47-1:49- Extreme close-up shot of the boys eye with the reflection of the woman, which emphasises the fear in her face, connoting that something wrong is about to happen. This makes the audience more drawn into the film.

2:00-2:02- Non-Diegetic music playing, sounding like a music box. This is a convention of the horror genre due to children's toys being used, which creates an eerie enigma.

2:08-2:14- Fast cuts between different scenes at a very fast pace, with screeching violin non-diegetic sounds to build tension and fear the audience watching. This is a convention of the horror/ thriller genre due to screeching sounds being used in most movies to create an enigma.

2:23-2:34- Credits showing links to Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram. This is a form of distributing via social media which will make the film successful due to many people nowadays using social media to access the latest news and communicate.

Evaluation

Firstly, this film trailer f "Te Boy" has given me ideas of what too include in my film opening, for example the use of mise-en-scene such as dim lighting (which is a key convention of a horror genre movie, using Barthes enigma theory it's the semantic code to symbolise the tension and eerie atmosphere), casual wear as the costumes for the characters (as my film opening has teenagers as the main characters), the location being in a house (this is a stereotypical location of horror movies as many teenage horror here films include murder in a house) and the period being the 21st century as this will appeal to my target audience more as it's modern and therefore seem more realistic.

Furthermore, the editing which I will include in my film opening are blackouts, linking to Barthes Enigma Theory, to use the hermeneutic code, which refers to any element of the story which isn't fully explained, therefore the audience sees this as a mystery and wonders what may occur next. The purpose is to typically keep the audience guessing. Also, fast cuts between different scenes at a fast paste to create tension and make the cuts of the scenes and music to be similar to a heartbeat, which can fear the audience watching even more. Close-up shot-reverse-shots will also be used to build an atmosphere and show the expressions on each character and the weapons which will be used (such as a knife).

In addition, the cinematography which I will include are close-ups, which is used to show the expressions of the character and this makes the audience sympathy with them. Medium shots will be used to show the murderer walking through the house, to connote danger and fear the audience watching. Also, extreme close-up shots of the victims who die (mainly focusing on the faces of the victims) and a long low-angle shot of the house to connote vulnerability of the audience and mystery as to what happens next.

Finally, the sounds used will be mainly non-diegetic such as screeching music and loud and heavy drum noises to represent the heartbeat of a human, which will cause fear to the audience watching and psychologically confuse them. This is another convention of  a horror genre due to using many psychological aspects such as many stories not being told properly throughout the film to play with the audiences mind and confuse them. However, within my film opening, I will not be using any diegetic sounds due to the opening mainly being a walkthrough of the house, however some noises of footsteps may be used.

Developing my company logo and title

Designing My Company

In the image above, it shows a mind map of ideas of production names that my group and I have thought of. The name we have chosen is Mavis Productions. This is because Mavis is a character whom plays a vampire, which links to the horror genre as vampires are usually connotations of the horror genre, as shown in many halloween films. To link this to our logo, we will use connotations of the horror genre by using a bat or blood as part of it. Also the use of the colour red signifies danger and anger which is an indicator of the horror genre.



Firstly, this is my first initial idea for my logo for my production, Mavis Productions. I have used a background of black to make the blood and title stand out, which grabs the audiences attention due to it being bright and easy to see. The title and blood are the same colours to make it look like the title is dripping down with the blood, which creates an enigma of the logo. This links to Barthes Theory of using the symbolic code, which gives a clue to the audience of what many occur next by giving a prop or symbol. Also as there is not a lot of design on this logo, it makes it easier to read it and also shows the horror genre by the dripping blood (linking it with the vampire image).
However to improve, I could have used a different text to make it look more like blood and realistic. Also, maybe included a little blur into the image to purposely make it look odd and a little inconvenient to the audience.



The image above shows my second initial idea for a logo for my film production Mavis Productions. Here I have used the connotations of a horror movie genre by the use of blood, and used 'Kino MT Regular' for my text to emphasise the horror genre and make the logo have the eerie enigma, which also gives an idea to the audience that this is a horror movie. This will also link to my video as it involves crime and also represents the horror genre. Here, I have used a plain background with a pair of hands sliding down a glass door to make it look realistic to the audience and make them fear before the film starts.

Out of the two logos, I personally prefer the second one due to it fitting in more with the horror genre and it looks more emotive to the audience. I have included the stereotypical colours of a horror title which are red and black, which signify danger and mystery. This also links to the colour of the costumes in which characters usually wear in this specific genre of movies.

Ryan's Logos:

He used the first logo design for our company; he used the gradient tool 

within Photoshop in order to create this logo. He liked this logo because 

it was simplistic but simultaneously it is ambiguous and could be used 

for many different genres of film that our company might produce. 

However, our team did not choose this as our final logo as it is quite 

simplistic and doesn't show much use of technique.

For his second logo for our company, he used an image 

which relates to the genre of our task which is going to be 

horror and then overlaid our company name onto this

in a gothic/futuristic typeface. He liked this logo because it was very 

representative of the genre of our production. However he did 

not thinkit will be used for our final production as it may limit 

our production and audience to only those who enjoy the horror genre.

Tim's logos:

There are two versions of the first logo that he created. The white version of the edit doesn't grab his attention as much as the black version. Also, as we are creating a horror film opening, the black version fits the genre better.

To make these logos he used a range of techniques and tools within Photoshop. The first logo was created using a range of layers and a lot of different tools. This logo also required a lot of experimentation to get it right. He used a pentagonal shape for the basic shape of the logo. As the name of the logo is "Mavis Productions" he used an M as the centre of the logo and created a shadow for dimension with the Pen tool. He ended up creating two edits so that there is a choice for his other group members.

The second logo is more visual and child-like when compared to the first logo. This logo also has more dimension and makes the genre of the film clear to audience members.

The second logo used a range of different shapes and some secondary images to create. He used a circle and a square to create the overall shape of the gravestone and then used triangles to make it seem as if there are cracks within the gravestone. This makes the logo more interesting and realistic. The secondary image of a zombie's hand was used to make the logo look more interesting also. When adding finishing touches, he added a noise filter onto the gravestone to make is look rough. This again added to the realism of the logo's context which is a gravestone. 

The images above show three distributing companies, which mainly distribute horror and thriller genre films such as Insidious and Ouija. All three logos connote the horror genre due to the colours used being dark such as black, blue and red. Black connotes emptiness and mystery whereas blue signifies sadness and isolation. Furthermore red signifies blood, anger, danger and lust. My company logo will be using these conventions to sell my film at the target audience easier, as well as helping viewers know my genre of the film opening due to the dark colours on the logo and old fashioned text.

Secondary research into audience

Firstly, from this graph shown above, I have chosen my target audience to be young adults aged 16-24 and 25-34. This is because this is the most successful audience to sell films at, especially being in a modern society where the young audiences visit the cinema a lot or purchase online. Also, young audiences tend to enjoy the horror/thriller genre because there is a lot of violence and brutality, whereas an elder target audience wouldn't watch this type of movie genre as they prefer historic and comedy films.
In addition, using the GEARS model, my target audience will be aimed at both males and females; with an ethnicity of mainly white teenagers as there is not a variety of ethnicities used within my film opening, however the film would have included some such as blacks and Chinese; the age range is mainly 16-24; the region is UK based, in the South-East of England; and finally an audience whom is on a socio-economic group C2/D due to higher classes being more interested in documentaries rather than teenage horrors. Also linking to Young and Rubicam's 4C's model, a "struggler" may want to see a horror/thriller movie due to it being a form of escapism whereas a "succeeder" wouldn't want to watch a horror/thriller movie due to it not being a realistic thing and therefore being more focused on documentaries or films with a true story.




At the moment, the favourite genre for a movie is comedy, chosen by 31% of the UK population whereas the least preferred is Nollywood with 1%. This is because this specific genre has not been advertised due to most of the UK being middle-class white English people. My film genre is a horror/thriller, which shows me that it will be a successful movie due to thriller being the second favourite genre, chosen by 26% of the UK population and horror being chosen by 15% of the population. Also as my movie is a hybrid, it helps the film to be directed at a much larger target audience due to two different genres being used together.




From the graph above, it shows me that 55% of the UK population would prefer to see more action adventure movies. However, the edge of seat thriller genre is at 52% and horror is at 28%, which shows that my film will still be successful due to the high percentage rates. But to improve my film, I will include more conventions of the edge of seat thriller genre in it such as jump scares and screechy music (non-diegetic sounds). However, this graph does not specify the age range which voted for these movie genres, therefore it's difficult to compare age ranges with the genres and have an idea of who to aim films at in the future.




In addition, the genre of my film will not be suitable for the working class and older women due to them being the lowest percentage on the diagram above (working class 37% and older women 16%), and it's very stereotypical due to the fact that working class people or women are stereotypically represented as the victim and always gets murdered, which these audiences dislike and therefore do not watch. Therefore in my film, I will not use all the stereotypical conventions of a horror/thriller movie by not always murdering the working classes and women and putting them in power. Furthermore, the highest percentage of an ethnic group whom watch this specific type of genre is the lesbian, gay and bisexual group at a percentage of 67% for thriller and 51% for horror.
However, again, there are no specific age ranges shown and specified in the categories.