Story Board of Incubus

Before we started shooting this was what we planned to do some shots we ended up removing and some shots we have added that are not in the storyboard.

Horror film Beginning: Plan

The shots we are thinking of doing:

•         In the dream there are snap shots to the cellar as Maria walks through halls and many doors to reach it.

•         Maria reaches the cellar, sudden black and then we see her tied to a chair, so do not know how she got there.

•         Anusha is in a black cloak and we can only see her red eyes piercing through.

•         Different characteristics of Anusha, e.g. swoop of cloak, noise of movement, eyes. Fluid movements within the flashbacks getting closer to camera.

•         As Anusha gets closer, Maria has flashbacks to her past where pieces that she has seen that have started to piece together to give  a sense of realisation.

•         Then Maria wakes up out of her dream suddenly as if to escape it. 

•         Maria walks towards the mirror in the bathroom and looks at herself, she now has red eyes. Then she goes to look away and look back and her eyes are to be of a normal shade.

•         Then Anusha is going to be near the back of the bathroom so that we can see her through the mirror and Maria is to smile at her in a very disturbing way giving us a sense of something wrong happening.

Setting

      At school- Using the hallways

      In school cellar- first look at Anusha and for when Maria falls and flashbacks occur

      At home- when Maria is out of the dream

Music

      Noise for when Maria hits the floor

      Music during the walks through the hallway to show continuity

      For sudden scary moments

      Heart beat during flash backs increase in volume.

Actors

      Anusha

      Maria

      Seema(dead body)

Props

      Candles

      Blood

      Eyes

      Cloak

      Wound Tattoo

      Tribal Tattoo

      Knife

      Old diary

      Photo

      rope

Flash backs

      To old diary

      To wounds on Maria

      To a bit in the house where they are having fun and drinking.

      To Seema lying on the floor dead in the bathroom

      Candles

      To a picture of Maria and friends being lit on fire

      Tribal tattoo

      Knife with blood on it

      1 tear

      Angry in room

      To book opening

The history of horror films.

The first horror films were released in 1890 pioneered by Georges Melies, at around the beginning of the birth of film. Combining surreal and dark elements to portray anxieties of the time/fears.Yet perhaps the most popular film, that brought the horror film genre to the attention of more people were Nosferatu in 1922.

In the 1930's movies changed a lot due to the advent of sound and so film makers had another effect to work with that added another dimension to the film. Now music could be used to build suspense and the monsters could growl and howl and the antagonist scream. A famous example of a film from this time was 1931 Frankenstein and Dracula produced by universal.

In 1950's-1960's there were again large advances in technology allowing for a shift in the fears portrayed. Now including threats/attacks from the "outside" aliens invasions and mutations such as Godzilla (1954).Yet this was also influenced by new threats of nuclear war. At this point Britain started to emerge as a producer of horror films such as peeping tom by Michael Powell.

Nosferatu

Dracula 

Frankenstein

Godzilla

Alfonso Cuarón

Alfonso Cuarón was born on 28th November 1961 in Mexico. He studied cinema and philosophy at the national autonomous university of mexico and his solo debut was with Con Tu Pareja. His first feature film was released in 1995 and was an adaptation of a novel called " A Little Princess". Other notable works of his were "Y tu mama tambien", his modern adaptation of Great expectations, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (which was one of his first experiences with using large amounts of visual effects in film) and Children of men. In total he has achieved three BAFTA awards, one independent spirit award and two Venice Film Festival awards. 
He often works with Emanuel Lubezki, and in filming frequently uses long shots and wide camera angles. Often preferring to use hand held cameras he achieves relentless camera movement throughout his films. 
Cuarón has also created a company called Cha Cha Cha films with Alejandro González and Guillermo del Toro who are also directors. Most recently Alfonso worked as the executive producer on his son,Jonas Cuaróns, film in which dialogue is played over photographs, the film is titled Año uña (which translated means the year of the nail). 

Evaluation of preliminary task

Our preliminary task was to film someone opening a door, walking across a room and sitting opposite someone and then having a few lines of conversation. We also had to include a 180 degree shot, a shot/reverse shot and match on action.

I enjoyed the task as I got to learn how to use things like iMovie, Final cut express with the razor tool and edit in the timeline, as well as exporting to final cut and then to my blog. Overall I am pleased with the outcome as it was my first time shooting and editing, but on looking back at my final product I feel there are definitely some things that I would improve upon next time round. For example one of the things I would make sure I do is that, when filming that the top of the frame is near the top of the person's head to reduce the amount of space above the persons head and also the amount the scenes jump. As well as this I learnt it would be better to move the camera to follow the person moving rather than keeping the camera in one place. I would also adjust the lighting as I feel that it meant the shots weren't so clear in a few scenes and I would make sure that the person’s eye line matches up to the camera.

BBC Tour

Preliminary Task!

Here is my Preliminary task, in which we had to film someone opening a door, walking across a room sitting down opposite someone and exchange a couple of lines of conversation. We had to include the 180 degree rule, shot/reverse shot and match on action.

Thriller genre: key conventions.

·     Lighting - tend to be slightly odd for example dim, broken, eerie. Spotlights or highlighting certain things that relates to the story line either the moment it is shown or perhaps later on, creation of shadows.

     

    Editing-  Quick/ short shots, Flashbacks, Black and white rather than colour, 

·      Secluded settings- abandoned house (tends to be a large building or warehouse) broken windows, dark corners, wires, scaffolding, used to be ornate and grand type rooms, wallpaper coming off walls. Woods, lake, vast emptiness.

·     Protagonist- similar to the audience/from the audiences point of view which makes the audience sympathize with the character and so create suspense when the character is in trouble. Moments of weakness (when the antagonist closes in on the protagonist- pace become faster, shots become shorter, fast music and so creates tension and suspense)

·     Antagonist- has a lot of knowledge, seems to know everything, one step ahead- teasing with protagonist, leaves clues to lead protagonist in wrong direction, mutated in some way perhaps scars on face, or looks perfectly normal allowing audience to trust them.

·      Plot twists- sudden change in direction, unexpected i.e. antagonist is not who the audience thought it would be, Mind games,

·      Camera angles- high and low angles can emphasise the power of the villain or the vulnerability of the victim. Dolly Zoom or Hitchcock zoom can create a surreal effect which can give the audience the sense that they are falling or an object is zooming, The canted angle  (when the camera is tilted to create a sense of instability and uncertainty from the characters point of view) 

3 Directors in the Thriller Genre

David Fincher:  

Originally from Denver, Colorado he was born august 28^th 1962. Originally he started out working on TV Commercials and music videos, he worked with the likes of Billy Idol, nine inch nails, Madonna, Aerosmith and Iggy Pop. Concerning films his most notable films are alien 3 ( his debut film), seven, the game, fight Club, Panic Room and Zodiac. His most recent work is the girl with the dragon tattoo. His movies often involve single frames that flash onto the screen in the middle of a scene, this could be shown as a flashback for a character, the use of a fluid tracking camera which allows for the audience to follow characters smoothly and quickly.

Alfred Hitchcock:

  Born 13th August 1899 in England and died the 29^th April 1980 in Los Angeles, California. He was known as the master of suspense because he used various camera angles and lighting to create effects of suspense that had not been used, or not been used as much, before him. He made an appearance in all of his films as an extra, when he started doing this he would do it in the beginning so it would not deter people from the plot. Some of the films he is most known for is Vertigo and Physco. He was also very well known for using the Dolly zoom, in which when the camera moves in the zoom angle is zoomed out to keep the subject the same size but the background size changes. He used it so often that it also became known as the Hitchcock zoom.

Martin Scorsese:

 He was born on 17^th November 1942 in New York. He achieved a degree in film communications in 1964. He has also achieved many awards,Academy Award, a Palme d'Or, Grammy Award, Emmys, Golden Globes, BAFTAS, and DGA Awards. The big shave was his first colour film and was his third ever film. His first film was called, “What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?” although his first film that he is widely known for was mean streets. He is known for including dark themes, unsympathetic characters, religion and unusual camera techniques in his films.

Link to "The Big Shave" by Martin Scorsese- I liked this because what happens is unexpected and shows how Scorsese created quite abstract/dark things early on. 

Video to show how the Hitchcock effect works.

Thriller Genre Mood Board

Youtube

So I found some useful video's on youtube that I used to help understand and give definitions for the 180 degree rule, shot/reverse shot and match on action, and thought it would be a good idea to post some on here, so here they are.

180 degree rule:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4KFM_CLoQ0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CmUN3tg0i0

Match on Action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKS2d6TyiWo&list=UUxEnmuImALmJ56P2I-ueJQA&index=26&feature=plcp

Shot/reverse shot:

This is one I found looking around and doesn't directly relate to the 3 rules/shots but I liked it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=rSnCu43QzeY&NR=1

Preliminary Task Storyboard