Filming Locations

Where the 'missing person' posters are going to be filmed

Endora's old house

Lily's house

Before we start filming our trailer, Jennifer and I have decided on several locations which we are planning to use as sets for different scenes in the trailer. These locations include a road at night and a friends house. Obviously we had to get permission from our friend to use their house which we got.

Trailer sounds,Trailer information and Character types and Advertising Campaigns

Jennifer and I began researching different trailer noises and sounds that we think would go well in a horror movie. For example the music in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5TsZ6iyaH4
At the start of the Scream 4 trailer was the phone ringing which is an iconic sound for the series of films that was previous to this one. It then went into some soft creepy music which sounded like it was played on a piano. Throughout the whole trailer most of the music is diegetic and used from the actual clips or a clip previous to the one playing, for example the news reader. When the action starts to heat up then the music becomes more dramatic and tense but still doesn't over power and out weigh the actually noise in the trailer.

We also realized we would need some specific sound effects going on in the trailer such as screams, creaking doors and creepy voices. We researched some different sound effects that we could replicate and put into our trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmVlq0LjcOM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwNAwkulMF0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQQjpf2mKzE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUWi9ytJhDc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SDMVjo7cO0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAoFCOWl9mk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y0Ccww3FOQ&feature=related

We decided to use the last one because it connects with the voice of Olivia and the target audience prefered it with the trailer than the others.
FIRST DRAFT OF TRAILER AND FEEDBACK

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQiy5hZgGwo&feature=player_embedded

Trailer Information

Abstract

A supernatural trailer about a young girls dream to be loved by her parents, soon to have it made true by her lost Aunt. The Aunt then starts to haunt the child and befriend her, but there is a hidden motive. With the child now possessed, the Aunt draws the child’s parents and brother to her home and uses the child to murder them. She then persuades the child to join her in the afterlife but will she succeed?

Synopsis

Endora Herman is in her late twenties when she falls pregnant, her husband Alex is overjoyed. 6 months in she goes into premature labour, unfortunately there are more complications and the doctors can’t save either, mother and child. Alex is distraught and moves abroad to try and move on with his life.

Nine years on, Endora’s Sister Lily is living with her husband, son and daughter Olivia. Lily became distracted by the visions that she was getting from her dead sister because she knew that she wasn’t bringing her daughter up correctly. When Olivia reached nine years old she felt so unloved and alone that she was putting up with everything in her life as if it were normal. Endora took this as an opportunity and began to become visible to Olivia. Slowly at first so she didn’t frighten her, Olivia slowly grew fond of her ghostly friend and began to realise that she was the only one who could see her. Their friendship grew and Olivia began to trust Endora. This was Endora’s plan all along; she wanted revenge on her sister for not taking care of her only daughter when Endora never had a chance.

When Olivia finally trusted Endora completely, Endora begins to possess Olivia and manages to control her enough to lure Lily, her husband and son to her abandoned home in the middle of the forest. She then is so powerful in Olivia’s body that she gets her too torture and kill them.

Olivia slowly breaks free from Endora and begins to feel lonely. She sits alone in Endora’s house with her parents and brothers bodies crying to herself. Endora is still there for her but Olivia doesn’t understand that Endora was the one who has done it. Endora then puts the idea of Olivia joining her in the afterlife and becoming her child so that they can both be happy again.

Olivia begins to be persuaded to do this and Endora begins to get stuff to make the plan come to life. She carries a chair into the room where Olivia’s family lie dead and hangs a noose from the ceiling. Olivia comes in and Endora tells her to stand on the chair and put the noose around her neck. Olivia does as she is told and then Endora pulls the chair out from under her feet.

The final scene is the funeral of Olivia Frost and you see the headstone that reads “Forever in our minds” and then as the people slowly leave flowers and walk away the audience sees the ground move under the headstone and then an arm comes out of the ground.

Subjects & Themes

The film/trailer touches on themes including horror, love, abuse, psychological and fears relating to the afterlife. The idea stems from the fears of a mother losing a child and how angry she must feel to a mother who mistreats a child. This is a fear that can relate to all the females in the audience because this is something that every woman fears, losing a child.

Visual Style & Structure

The film will be shot in widescreen cinematic view (16:9). It will be cut between combinations of crisp, smooth, transverse tracking shots, various close ups in shallow focus as well as blurred fast shots that would represent the violent scenes.

In each scene the lighting will be crucial so that the atmosphere that the audience feels is perfect. The trailer will be all about building up tension and suspense to try and persuade the audience to go watch the full film. The beginning will have a slow cutting pace but as the trailer goes on the pace will quicken along with the music.

The trailer shifts through time because of the different scenes within in. The trailer will last a maximum of 2minutes 30seconds. The visual style of the trailer is influenced by Tim Burton in the way that his directing is so dark.

Sound Design

The sound in the trailer will be both diegetic and non-diegetic. There will be a sound track that will create an atmosphere and entice the audience. The dialog in the trailer will be enhanced and styled. The sound effects of the surrounding scene will enhance the atmosphere. Sound levels will increase significantly or drop out completely at various points throughout the trailer.

Audience

This trailer is aimed at a large wide audience. This is a perfect trailer for people who enjoy horror movies and the trill of them. There is a twist that isn’t revealed in the trailer but will be in the film, you get hints within the trailer which then persuades the audience to go and watch the film to find out what they are missing. This trailer will be shown on the big screen in a cinema where the film will potential be shown.

Character Types

Vladamir Propp developed a character theory in 1969 that within all kinds of media there were 7 primary character types. These were:

1. The Villian (fights against the Hero)

2. The donor (helps the Hero in some kind of way)

3. The helper (helps the Hero in their quest)

4. The princess (the person that the hero takes a fancy too, or goes after during the narrative)

5. Her Father

6. The dispatcher (the character that makes the lack known and sends the hero off)

7. The hero/victim/seeker hero, reacts to the donor and weds the princess.

Propp came up with these types after analysing 100 tales, most of which he read included these 7 character types. Although these types are still in popular use, especially among the fairytale genre, only a few tend to survive into modern horror films. I have shown some horror character to see which of Propp's characters have been used in Scream:

Scream (1996)

Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott: Victim/Hero?

Courteney Cox as Gale Weathers: The dispatcher?

David Arquette as Deputy Dewey: The helper?

Skeet Ulrich as Billy Loomis: Villain?

Matthew Lillard: Villain?

Advertising Campaigns

When a new film that is coming up to it's release date, multiple actions of advertisement methods will take place. Here are some that could be included:
> Trailers
A trailer is an advertisement for a feature film that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema on whose screen they are shown before a movie of a similar genre/age range.
> Social Networking Sites
This is an online service or site that focuses on building friendships between people worldwide that have the same interests. One of the major benefits of advertising on these pages are that the site can use statistics to work out which users would be appropriate for the advertisement.
> Critical reviews
An evaluation of the film that is about to be released.
> Websites
A website is a form of promotion that uses the internet and web for the purpose of delivering market messages to attract customers and give them better knowledge of information for the film.
> Billboards
These sorts of advertisements usually show large, distinctive visuals that don't give too much information. This entices the audience when they glance at them to research it more when they get home. They are located on main roads and are constantly consumed by the public.
> Posters
The industry quickly discovered that brightly coloured posters were an easy way to sell their movie and now posters are produced for most major films, and collecting them is now a major hobby.
>Magazines
Publications of interviews or posters are usually placed in magazines where the audience will like the film. This broadens the movie's target audience and gain more customers.
> Interviews
An interview would be recorded for a magazine, tv show, website, etc. that aims questions that the audience would like to know about the up and coming film and the cast and crew.
> Pop-up ads
This is a form of online advertising on the internet that is intended to attract web traffic or capture email addresses.

Above is the first complete draft of our teaser trailer for 'Obsession'. Upon finishing this draft of our trailer we sent the link of the trailer to a few people that are in the range for our target audience and then we gave them the pilot questionnaire above to complete with their views of the trailer. Here are some of the results we got back:
- Some of the edits could be smoother and more flowing.
- I like the music but you need to add more sound effects and make sure the music changes to create more tension in the jumpy bits.
- Have more variety with shot types and angles.
- Try the editing in more detail.

Poster Mock-ups

Credits used at the bottom of the poster.

A JT Production in association with streetlight productions a Andy Smith film ‘British Wonder’ Staring in Alphabetical order Hayley Bacon Lewis Frost Jennifer Page Steven Pankewycz Tiffany Roberts Casting by Adam Button music supervisor Lily Stone music by Peter Dymond Costume Designer Gemma Theobald executive producers Jamie Smith Jack Blackah co-producers Rukaya Cesar Molly Jones Alice Ballard editor Jennifer Page production designer Chris Smith director of photography George Simmons produced by Jennifer Page Tiffany Roberts written by Jennifer Page Tiffany Roberts directed and produced by Andy Smith.

Ideas for posters.

·         Combine two faces – Endora and Olivia

·         Showing the obsession through Endora by having her looking over Olivia through different camera shots such as over the shoulder, close up, long shot.

·         A mysterious shot of Endora with hidden identity

Planning of filming

5^th December – Scream with close up of stall falling to the ground.

6^th December – Long shot of Olivia walking down school corridor. Cuts to Olivia turning around looking at the camera (close up).

7^th December – Shot of Olivia going to Endora’s house (Long shot walking up to the house)

8^th December – Car shots at night in the dark at and around Silverstone

12^th December – Lily putting up missing child photos onto a Lamppost and then cuts to her reading a note out of newspaper explaining to go to the address of Endora’s old house.

13^th December – Close up of Olivia’s face being shocked and confused she can hear a voice but not see anyone.

19^th December – Lily wakes up grabs the picture frame and throws it across the room.

20^th December – Establishing shot of Endora’s house

21^st December – Fades to bed where Lily is sleeping with her husband, she wakes up suddenly panting then tries to get back to sleep.

22^nd December – Lily hitting Olivia in her brother’s bedroom, High angle and over the shoulder.

3^rd January – News report shot in studio

4^th January – Close up shot of the graduation image that tracks out to show other images of the family on a bedside table. Living room shot of whole family. Dining room shot, close up of Olivia shivering (Tiffany’s)

12^th January – Over the shoulder shot of Olivia being shouted at by her mother and then it cuts to her mum being smashed into the wall. Close up of Olivia being confused because she can hear a voice but not see anyone.

16^th January – Olivia going into Endora’s old house.

17^th January – Bloody knife swiping through the medium shot

Extra dates for any days we can’t manage.

Permission letter for cast of our film

CONSENT FORM

GRANTING PERMISSION TO FILM

Please print and sign this document and return.

I hereby grant permission to The OBSESSION Project to use my film/photo image

for display on the OBSESSION web site and/or to use my film/photo image in any

videos, CD-ROMs or printed materials developed and

Distributed by OBSESSION.

Signed: ____________________________ Date:__________________________

Print Name: ________________________________________________________

Address: __________________________________________________________

               __________________________________________________________

Telephone : _______________________________________________________

Email : ____________________________________________________________

For actors under 18 years of age, please have a parent

or guardian complete the bottom portion of this form.

I, _____________________________________, the parent or guardian

of _____________________________________, hereby give my consent

to The OBSESSION Project to use any film/photo images taken of my child

for the purposes set forth above.

Signature of

Parent or Guardian:________________________ Date: ____________________

Print Name: ________________________________________________________

Address: __________________________________________________________

               __________________________________________________________

Telephone : _______________________________________________________

Email : ___________________________________________________________

Animated Storyboard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1SCmpdVl0o&feature=youtu.be

Storyboard images

Story board Written

Sounds
Transitions
Shots

Animated Company Logo with corresponding music (thunder to go to the horror genre logo)

Shot 1: Close up shot of the graduation image then track to show other images of the family on a bedside table.  (Images of Alex/Endora, sisters at grad) arcs around to the bed (medium shot) where Lily is sleeping next to her husband, she wakes up suddenly panting…

Shot 2: She then tried to get back to sleep – cuts to flashback (slowly fades to black). Noise will just be heavy breathing/sleeping then the heavy panting when Lily wakes up.

Shot 2: Flashback – night time POV shot of driver driving along a windy wet road at night full beam headlights on, see Endora looking in the mirror (flashback blurred edges higher contrast and low saturation). Crab shot of car winding down the road goes around the corner and you hear the skid of tyres cuts to news reports of the crash and the outcome. Diegetic sound of the car radio and the car moving down the street, then the screeching of tyres as the cars skids round the corner and crashes.

Shot 3: Straight cut to News Report in Flashback of the crash killing pregnant Endora medium-long shot of car destroyed next to the news reader. The sound would be the news reporters talking about the incident.

Shot 4: Back to reality by a slow fade – Lily wakes up grabs the picture frame of her and Endora and throws it across the room. (Hear smashes of the glass and a grunt of anger from lily) Medium shot of Lily throwing it then fast cuts to it smashing against the wall.

Shot 5: Text ’12 Years Later’… then long shot/establishing shot of house then cuts to living room.

Shot 6: Long shot panning around the living room showing Lily and husband sitting on the sofa with a takeaway, alcohol watching Saw in the background, Pans to Olivia doing homework at the table in the room then cuts to a high angle and over the shoulder shot of Olivia’s mum leaning in to hit her. You hear Olivia crying as her mum hits her and whimpering as she remembers.

Shot 7: Close up shot of Olivia shivering at this thought.

Shot 8: Long shot of Olivia walking down a corridor at school. Non-diegetic sound of Endora singing Olivia’s name but you can’t see her; Olivia turns around to try and see who’s calling her name (close up).

Shot 9: Over the shoulder shot of Olivia being shouted at by her mother and then it cuts to her mum being smashed into the wall. Non-diegetic sound of Endora shouting ‘NO!’.

Shot 10: Quick close up shot of Olivia’s face being shocked and confused. She doesn’t have a clue what is going on and is scared because she can hear a voice but can’t see anyone.

Shot 11: fast cut to shot of Olivia going to Endoras old house (long shot walking up to the house)

Shot 12: Lily putting up missing child posters (medium shot onto lamppost) then cuts to lily reading a note made out of newspaper cut outs explaining to go to that address to get Olivia back.

Shot 13: long shot of the family walking through the door and finding Olivia in the living room cuts to close up of Olivia’s eye – completely black and lifeless.

Shot 14: screams from the family and shots of the bloody knife going down through the medium shot and swipes across the shot (doesn’t see who’s holding it)

Shot 15: hear the knife drop to the floor from the close up of hand. cuts

Shot 17: Endora speaks to Olivia and calls her, her babies name. Medium shot of Olivia. The camera tracks around the room as the next sound come in.

Shot 18: you see a long shot of someone putting up a noose but you can see the face and then cuts.

Shot 19: Long shot of Olivia standing on a chair slowly pulling the noose over her head with Endora smiling in the background (out of focus). (Evil expression of Endora’s face)

Shot 20: Cuts straight to the release date.

Shot 21: Scream with close up of stool falling over.

Why we have chosen our film title?

After deciding on our final narrative, Jennifer and I had to try to decide on a title for the film. During this process we thought of numerous different names but finally agreed on ‘Obsession’ after asking our target audience what they preferred. The title represents what our film is about but doesn’t give away the whole story so there is still some mystery to the film. This can be a generic convention in horror - giving little away to the audience which then makes the film seem more terrifying.

‘Obsession’ was chosen from a handful of other names;

'Possessed’

‘Satan is my Aunt’

‘Ungodly'

‘Murder’

‘Hope’

Our chosen film narrative

After discussing different ideas for the plot of our own horror film, we finally reached a joint decision on the final plot. Here I have presented a breakdown of the plot by breaking it into the key scenes and how they represent each of Todorov’s narrative structures. However we have decided to sway from the strict idea of Todorov’s original structure as it is rare for horror films to abide by these rules.

Equilibrium

-          Girl living life with her dysfunctional family

Disruption

-          Girl becomes possessed by dead aunt

-          Girl kills her family

-          Aunt tries to get girl to kill herself

Recognition of Disruption

-          Police find girls body and family

Returned to Equilibrium

-          Girl is buried in family plot

Disruption

-          You see a hand come out the ground from under the ground

Themes of horror movies, Role of women in horror films and Why do people watch horror movies?

Horror films are primarily made to attract fears to the audience of the film, they can either do this by having jumpy scenes, loud and sharp noises or low grumbles. The genre of horror often involves a main character which could be an evil force, event, or personage, commonly of supernatural origin, into the everyday world. Themes or elements often prevalent in typical horror films include ghosts, torture, gore, werewolves, ancient curses,satanism, demons, vicious animals, vampires, cannibals, haunted houses, zombies and serial killers.
Horror films effectively center on the dark side of life, the forbidden, and strange and alarming events. They deal with our most primal nature and its fears: our nightmares, our vulnerability, our alienation, our revulsions, our terror of the unknown, our fear of death and dismemberment, loss of identity, or fear of sexuality.
Horror films go back as far as the onset of films themselves, over a 100 years ago. People did and probably still do use their vivid imaginations to see ghosts in shadowy shapes, to be emotionally connected to the unknown and to fear things that are improbable. Watching a horror film gives an opening into that scary world, without actually being in danger. Some people find a real thrill and fun factor in being scared or watching disturbing, horrific images.



Roles of women in horror film:

Women Portrayed In Horror

“All they want to see is demented madmen running around in ski masks hacking up young virgins.” - Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall), ‘Fright Night’

Horror is one of the least respected genres of cinema, and yet it portrays much of today’s culture and values within its context. Scary movies reveal what frightens society most through various representations. These movies show heavy symbolism, especially in the portrayal of women and femininity, through images of sexual intercourse, fear of castration, and the strength of females. Horror films, and the slasher subgenre, are famous for portraying women as hypersexual damsels in distress who are usually murdered within the first five minutes as punishment for their indiscretions in such films as ‘Friday the 13th’ and ‘Halloween.’ They are also portrayed as antagonists, which can be seen as a reflection of men’s pathological fear of women, their power, and menstruation, resulting in castration anxiety. Horror is a genre that rarely features women in a non-exploitative way, even with modern movies such as the new ‘Friday the 13th’ being extremely sexist.

There are however positive female character’s in the genre, and these films are usually much more respected by critics and the public. In movies such as ‘The Descent’ and ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’, women can be seen defeating typically male villains and exhibiting strength and intelligence, moving from victim to heroine.

The female subject is shown in horror movies in different ways through time. Women are beginning to come into their own in the horror genre, showing that they are as strong as men and are not the sexual objects they were once perceived as in classic horror (such as ‘Dracula’ or ‘Frankenstein’ where the woman is shown as simply an object of desire that needs to be saved by a male from the usually sexually strong male villain.) Slasher movies and films with women as villains are still being made, but the force and power of women in horror cannot be ignored and can be seen in many intelligent horror movies.
The first true slasher film is widely acknowledged to be Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’, with the murder of Janet Leigh’s character we see a sexually independent women being stabbed with the ever phallic knife, a symbolic punishment for these women. The sexually repressed male killer fears a sexually independent woman and this is shown through her death, when the male killer thrusts his knife into her, thus taking away her sexual power through the symbolic rape of her body. Male sexuality is shown through the act of murder, since most killers in slasher films are sexually repressed, such as Norman Bates in ‘Psycho.’

In slasher movies, young women are often objectified and shown as nothing more than sex objects. The ‘Friday the 13th’ series shows this well (with the exception of the original), many of the women are shown half clothed and hyper-sexualized, taking away the audience’s ability to sympathize with them because they are seen as less valuable in society. Classic slasher films usually show a direct cause and effect link between sex and death, with murder serving as a symbolic punishment for any kind of immoral intercourse. This symbolism illustrates a kind of unconscious moral lesson to the viewer.

With the original ‘Friday the 13th' (1980), Alice Hardy (Adrienne King) is shown as the strongest woman in the film, the heroine who survives. The film is also different because the antagonist is female, Mrs. Voorhees, but she is portrayed as more masculine. Betsy Palmer who played Mrs. Voorhees was bulked up with many sweaters, wore trousers and masculine shoes and had her hair short, all stereotypical attributes of the male. Males fear the power of females especially when females become more masculine, and so it is Alice who is feminine throughout the film that is the only character that can defeat her. Alice is a good example of a positive female heroine, not a great one, but the character of Alice takes part in strip poker, has been shown at the beginning of the movie to have had an affair with an older man (the owner of Camp Crystal Lake, Steve Christy (Peter Brouwer)), and even drinks and flirts; and yet she is not punished for these acts by death. Alice is still able to fight and defeat the villain without the aid of a man; Alice uses her own strength and intelligence to kill the villain. A far cry from the 2009 film where every woman was objectified.

I have gone against these codes and conventions because I want to show that females can be the villain by having her create an evil presence for her niece.

Why do people watch horror movies?

Horror films have been attracting viewers since the beginning of cinema itself. According to some psychiatrists, the modern horror film serves many of the same functions for the teenager or adult that the fairy tale serves for the child. For instance to warn of evil in subtle ways. Horrors are designed to elicit strong emotional reactions from viewers that include fear and dread. Almost everyone who has seen a horror has been disturbed at some time by an image from this particular genre.

The appeal of horror depends on characteristics of the viewer, the film, and the viewing circumstances. Horror films are much more appealing when the viewer is by themselves, giving an experience solely between them and the film. Also viewing in groups with others can create some excitement as viewers may react from other peoples reactions.

Violent entertainment appeals primarily to males, and it appeal to them mostly in groups. For many young people, horror films are a topic of conversation and a means of confidence within a group. For example if a group of guys went to the cinema to see a particular disturbing horror they might compete in who can withstand the whole film.
Everyone has different motives for viewing horror, some may be just to have a thrill of excitement and to get away from their 'boring' lives. Although dramatic films can fulfill some of these needs, movies depicting violence and horror have been features that other forms of drama do not, including the disruption of social normality and the portrayal of horrific events that could be seen in real life. This is the escapism and thrill that horror can provide and what makes them different from other genres.