Setting Initial Ideas

These are our initial ideas for the settings that we desire to use for our thriller opening. The reason that we have chosen these settings is because we feel that they would perfectly suit the horror thriller genre we are aiming to go for. When we originally started planning these settings we had to take into mind a few different things, if we would have permission to go to these settings, such as the abandoned barn/house and if they would be safe for us to enter. Next we had to take into mind if the setting would be a scary enough setting for our thriller and how we would set out our thriller in these different locations. Overall, we feel that these settings are well chosen and they could all be used effectively, as long as we have permission and consent to use them.

The Woman in Black opening review

Questionnaire

Twitter account

We decided to make a Twitter account to make our company more known and realistic. We learnt that other company's Twitter account such as Sony, post updates on new films, promoting events and other types of news. So we decided the purpose of our account is to post information about our thriller, photos on what we are doing and advertisement on our thriller. 

Making the logo for our production company

That was the making of our logo for our production company, we had to choose between a few of our ideas that we had come up with. We originally went with the name Z-Star Films but then changed it after a group vote on whether we thought it was a good name or not, we then had to distinguish between Dark Room Productions which half of us liked and Unknown Films which the other half of us liked, after creating two logos one for each name we decided that Unknown films was the better name.

The logo shown above is the one we are going to be using for our final logo, this will be used on our social media pages etc. It is a very simple logo however we feel that it is more audience friendly and will appeal to more people. 

 This was our other potential logo for our production company, however we felt that it was too strong on the horror genre and might put people off coming to see out film, we also felt that it wasn't as professional so we decided against using it as we want to portray a professional image.

How our influences have changed.

Our influences have been forced to change as we originally wanted to use an abandoned house for our thriller and create a paranormal thrilelr opening. Sadly, we cannot use the location that we originally planned to use as it is a privately owned property and although it is abandoned, it is still the property of somebody. Our influence has now changed to The strangers, although it is set in a different setting to our films as oursa is now set in the woods, it is the same concept as people are being stalked and that is what our film is about.

Production company ideas

In lesson we decided we needed to come up with a production company for our thriller. We started discussing, researching ideas to do with thrillers such as films that we based our thriller on, other production names and also we looked at codes and conventions of thrillers. We wanted to base our thriller on paranormal activity and so we brainstormed ideas to do with that film, we came up with the idea of unknown. We chose this as it links to paranormal activity as after watching it, it leaves you with a sense of uncertainty and so the word unknown links to this. We thought it was an effective name for our production name for our thriller. 

 

Demographics

DEMOGRAPHICS from Z-StarProductions

Paranormal activity analysis (OLD INFLUENCE)

Paranormal activity Copy analysis- opening scene (2:45 to 3:50)

The opening scene of paranormal activity starts off with a diegetic sound of a girl screaming, the screaming sounds like the lady is in some sort of pain or scared. Writing then appears, in black and white which is a convention of a horror, creating suspense. The caption says "this is the last voice of julia marashall, recorded 2:00AM, April 21st 2011”, this creates a sense of confusion and uncertainty. The sound of the camera recording the camera sounds like its placed in an empty room as you can hear the emptiness and echo of the room, another caption appears saying "she was found dead at 2:02AM, April 21st, 2011" followed by more diegetic sounds of a women screaming and crying, this is foreshadowing what is going to happen in the rest of the film. The diegetic sounds of the women crying and screaming suddenly stops and we are met with a Non-diegetic sound of a Bloop, this is a heavy drop which is common in paranormal activity and prepares the audience that sound will play a big part in this film.

Paranormal activity real version analysis

The opening scene of paranormal activity starts off with a caption thanking Micah Sleat and Katie featherson and the San Diego police department. The caption is written in black and white which is a convention of a horror, creating suspense. The scene opens with a POV shot showing he is in the front room filming for some reason, who is the person filming? The next shot is a mid-shot revealing who the character behind the camera is, the man then starts to walk around his house, showing the location of the film. The POV shot then shows a lady, who is presumed his wife walking into the house. During this scene it’s just showing us their everyday life, eating dinner etc. Then we come across some dialogue and the man says "Katie say something" this helps us identify who the women is and also links back to the start of the film, with the caption thanking Micah Sleat and Katie featherson and the san Diego police department, thanking the police department suggests something bad may happen in the film. More dialogue is used when the man says "they only come out when we are sleeping" (paranormal activity) this links to the rest of the film as strange things do happen at night. The man begins to set up a camera in the room as he is trying to capture paranormal activity and the lady says "put it down the hall way, that’s where we heard its footsteps" the lady uses the word 'it' as they're not sure what they are looking for.

Teaser Posters for our Thriller (OLD TITLE NAME)

These are our teaser posters for our thriller, we decided to use 3 different locations for example 2 abandoned houses and the location of a barn. These posters are just rough ideas for us, however they have inspired the final poster we are going to make.

Cape Fear Analysis

The sound at the start of Cape Fear indicates the tension of the thriller. Throughout the opening, the sound track builds up slowly then we hear louder sounds as the eagle enters which then leads to the music calming and slowing down. This is done to build solid tension for the viewers and to engage them into the film.

Cape Fear opens with a reflection of an eagle from the lake. The fact that an eagle is a predator, it conveys the impression of fear and death to open the film. This instantly tells us that, this film is going to be violent which prepares us for the rest of the film which is a very effective opening part.

We then witness the water change colour to red. This has been used as red symbolises blood which is shown in the scene. It shows us viewers that danger is approaching. This sets us up for the rest of the film. Throughout the whole scene the only colours mostly used are red, white and black which again shows us what we are in for, for the film to come.



 A girl is then shown in the opening wearing a costume which looks to be a long white dress which is buttoned. The character starts talking which adds to the tension of the opening. The fact the girl is wearing white may symbolise her innocence in the film.

Throughout most of the opening of the film, the lighting seems to be very dark. This instantly tells us the mood of the film we are watching is not uplifting at all. The lighting is very effective as it sets up the mood of Cape Fear.

In the last scene of the opening we witness an establishing shot of the character walking out of the prison. As he is leaving the prison we see that the weather in the film is dark and cloudy with thunder. This weather may symbolise his mood as he's leaving the prison, which may indicate he is seeking revenge on someone. The fact he is alone when leaving may tell us his family are no longer in contact with him for obvious reasons.

Influences- Paranormal

Codes and Conventions

Music research for thriller

We have been doing research on finding copyright free music to use in our thriller opening. The fact that it had to be copyright free made it more difficult to find. However we have found a some decent music which could be used in our thriller. Firstly we went on Youtube and searched for 'copyright free music'. We found a wide range of music for this, so we decided to look at various websites which include thriller music. One website which stood out with decent thriller music was www.beatsuite.com .  This is a screen shot of this website.

We are still currently researching and trying to find our perfect soundtrack for the thriller opening.