Openings Mis-en-scene

Mama

Character(s): little girl about 4 years old, man in his 30's, baby

Costumes: black hat, coat. Black suit, white shirt and black tie.

Setting: large house down a private road with trees at the front and back. Car parked out the front with the drivers door open. Large childs bedroom with various toys and things to play with. Pink wallpaper with birds on. Dining room down stairs with crystal chandelier hanging above the table. Snowy woods with a small shack deep within it.

Props: teddy bear, cot, blanket



Psycho

Characters: young man. Young woman. Two business men. Female secretary.

Costumes: long skirt, shirt, trousers, suit, tie, hat

Setting: big city. Cheap hotel. Office with indiviual desks

Props: thick pile of money, paperwork



Exorcist
Characters: priest, 40+ year old man

Costumes: black trousers with a long black coat. White shirt, silver watch, red tie

Setting: rowing in a big lake with trees all around. Small town. Office in a house, many pictures of the same woman. Night time in small town, lots of fog, few street lamps on. Empty church, crosses, flowers, candles.




Angels and Demons

Characters: priest, 4 men, hundreds of people, catholic leaders, pope, news reporters, nuns, vicars

Costumes: black priest outfit. Red priest outfits. Pope costume with a yellow hat

Setting: open area in Rome outside the popes church which has been set out into paths so they can carry the coffin down a certain way. Inside the church where there is a large cross with jesus on it, candles, red drapes, benches.

Props: coffin, hammer, crosses, cameras, golden cup on a chain, silver chalices

To summarise my findings, I can see that all of these films are set in upperclass areas with large houses and the characters


Evaluation

From my group members work i understand that within horror thriller films that they are usually set within a working upper class house, which makes me think we have chosen the right location for our thriller horror opening. It also helps us within our research as it shows us typical props used and certain characters used for different themes as well as clothes they wear.

Our film name + typography

Horror/Thriller Decided Name - 'The House'

We finally agreed on a decided name to go along with our title sequence. We all agreed that the name 'The House' was the most fitting due to the fact it is based all around the house and throughout the title sequence it is implied there is a supernatural or paranormal presence within the house also. Furthermore all the shots of are within the house and are filmed in a ambiguous and mysterious way to present it as something that builds tension with the way it is filmed and the specific items within the house. For example the mirror, fire and control/tv. Moreover we also thought that to end the title sequence we would have the title right at the end. Therefore we thought that the ending scene could get smaller and then go through a letter 'O' in the title 'THE HOUSE' centered in the middle of the screen.
Typography
(Group members work)


Typography For Our Title


Ringbearer

I Still Know

Traveling Typewriter

Major Label

Portmanteau Regular

Cold Coffee

An Unfortunate Event

Bebas Neue

Optimus Princeps

After looking at other typography in thrillers and horrors we came to the conclusion that we wanted a font with either fine, capitalised, structured serif font or bold and capitalised sans serif font. For example we either wanted a bold sans serif title with white text against plain black background with lots of negative space. Or we wanted to have a more elegant fine serif title that almost resembled the looks of a house name or door number on a house - as the title of the film is 'The House'. Therefore we want to show the references and links between the typography and what we are trying to portray. However some of the problems with some of the fonts above is some of them can tend to be too horrific and lose the thriller side of it. As the task we were originally given was a thriller genre opening to a film and not a horror genre. Therefore we are trying to get a nice mysterious title that has connotations to the two but isn't too much like a horror or a thriller.

My Conclusion

After looking at these fonts we came to a decision of using Optimus Princeps font. I believe this font portrays a dark sinister feel but still is plain enough to keep an ominous feel. We have chosen this font as we have set the opening within a house, the elegant fine seif title helps resembles the look of the door name or door number of a house. When looking at a title i thought having white writing on a black background could help connote innocence within the girl through the writing and evil around her with the black background. 

Props

When we met up to do our first shoot we took some photographs of the specifics in the scenery and props that we will be using. This included the likes of the fireplace, mirror, baby monitor, tv control and sink tap. These were some of the specifics that we were going to focus on during the opening to present tension and make the audience focus on to draw their attention. As when we looked at other openings we notices there were always stereotypical specifics like the ones we have chosen that are emphasised in the opening to create a ambiguous and mysterious start to the film or to create confusion with the audience. These can be seen as symbols within the opening or film that are used to present something.For example the dripping of the tap could be shown to show the silence and how noticeable to dripping sound is because of how silent it is, therefore presenting tension to the audience. Furthermore the fireplace, the monitor,  tv control and the mirror all have this same effect. We wanted to present some of these specific symbols within our opening to create tension in a stereotypical way as the audience would notice this and see it as a sign of danger - like a sign.

Reflection testing

Reflection testing

(Group members work)

On our first shooting day before we set off with recording Matt and I decided to do some reflection testing in the mirror above the fireplace which we could incorporate as some type of shot in the storyboard of our opening. We thought that we could capture the protagonist exiting or entering the room from one of the following angles. Therefore by doing this we can also show someone else in the mirror or in the background behind her which she cannot see. As after researching into mirrors in horror films we know that they sometimes present paranormal, souls and ghosts to be trapped in mirrors or a mirrors a gateway to seeing these spirits. For example the following picture:

And this is our interpretation of a reflection shot:

setting

For our setting we wanted a house that is slightly upper classed but still a working class home, by having a house like this i feel that we can target our audience, and for the people watching making it relate-able by having our house as a stereotypical upper/working class house with parents and a baby living in it. I believe that my house was perfect for our story line that we had chosen. My house is clean and tidy and has the perfect equipment and layout for the kind of camera angles and shots we wanted. I also had all the baby equipment we needed such as the baby monitor which is going to play a big role in creating the tension to the piece, i also have a statement fireplace with a grand mirror above it which also helps show our typical family upper class warm home. With this stereotypical slightly upper class house establishing that this is a family home it  should be safe and secure as stereo typically the rich white families in films and especially horror films are more safe than ethnic ones. The setting also helps contradict the idea of a nice safe home as it is situated within black park which automatically brings the stereotypical view of a thriller horror film as it is dark and spooky. I feel if we filmed in my house it would bring the right atmosphere and feel to what we are looking for, it gives the right message and stereo typically fits what we want. 

Story board + Shot list

Shot list

This is our shot list for our film, by having a shot list it helps us have our initial ideas when we start filming once we have done the basics of our shoot list we were then able to explore and expand by trying different angles for the same shot. Our story board also helps us as we know what we want our opening to look like with this again we can then expand on it when we actually come to filming it.





Story Board

What we need to do

By making a list of what we need to do it allows our group to develop our research and understanding further. We all picked on task on the list to do.

Evaluation questions

Evaluation Questions

Marking Criteria for the Evaluation

Candidates will evaluate their work electronically. This MUST contain an element of audience feedback and may be either integrated with the presentation of the research and planning material or may be presented separately. Where candidates have worked in a group, the evaluation may be presented individually or collectively but the teacher must allocate a mark according the contribution/level of understanding demonstrated by the individual candidate. 

The questions that must be addressed in the evaluation are:

• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 
• How does your media product represent particular social groups?
• What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? 
• Who would be the audience for your media product? 
• How did you attract/address your audience? 
• What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? 
• Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?  Ideas for the format for the presentation of the evaluation can be found in the Guidance Notes.

Setting within films

The Purge

This film is set on the streets of a friendly neighbour hood in America. By having this thriller set around and in houses makes the film more personal to the audience as this could happen to anyone. The idea that the action in mostly set at night time makes the feeling more ominous and eery. When thinking about our horror-thriller opening we think having our setting at night will make a more tense atmosphere for the audience. The costumes in this clip seem to be just everyday clothes, by having every day clothes makes things more realistic.



The conjuring

This film is set within a family home this again makes it more personal to the audience and helps bring more emotion by involving children as children are seen a very innocent and bad things shouldn't happen to them. With the action happening inside it brings the horror into their own house so it allows the











Paranormal Activity

This film is set through cam-corders the whole time, by doing this it looks like your in the lives of the characters, as its there everyday lives being filmed by each other. Most of the film is set within in a home with paranormal activity surrounding them all the time this brings tension to the audience and fear as children are the victims within this film.

Horror Questionnaire

Please can you fill out our Horror Questionnaire if you have the time. Thanks.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Hl_3IOKZr5p_J973ko0egFDMpKZd6SKRHwOPsd7nu7s/viewform