Music for our horror opening

Music:  

We chose to have modern rock style song open the scene as it fits the protagonist’s character as well as the target audience. We will do this by using acid, a music creating piece of software that you use by adding loops together. This is the track I made using acid, it's called Upcoming Shadow

When the tension of the scene gets higher, as the protagonist is running home we shall incorporate a fast tempo'd song to work as a parallel sound. This song was also created by us on acid, and it's called Chase.

To finish the opening scene we have used a pre-made song called Movement Proposition, which really picks up the tension and makes the viewers excited and unknowing of what is going to happen.

Opening sequence in pictures

This is the story of our horror opening scene done in images:

Actors

Here is a list of the characters that we will be using in the film:

Daniel Biggs (Played by Scott Mcpherson-Davis)
Daniel is the youngest of the group, and acts naive and carefree, unaware of the dangers of the world. Because of this he is ready to do anything without fear. (Walking alone through the woods for example.)

Michael Thomas (Played by Philip Newsham)
Michael is the most dependant friend, as his father left him when he was younger. He is paranoid that his friends will leave him and is afraid of being alone.

John Macintosh (Played by Matthew Kerry)
John is the clever one of the group, and will think about what the group is doing and will try and make sure they won't get into trouble. He is afraid of doing anything that he might not be allowed to do but he can't say no to his friends.

James Murdoch (Played by Joe Glover)
James is the joker of the group, and the oldest. He is always trying to make his friends laugh but can act seriously when the situation needs it and act as the leader of the group.

Moodboard

This moodboard shows the different emotions that we want to show at each point of our opening scene towards the audience, and what we want to try and make the audience feel as well.

Location shots

These images are of our location, taken at evening as that is when we will be shooting the film to show what the atmosphere should be like for the film, dark and isolating.

Movie Pitch for Repressed

To get funding for our film, so it can be produced and distributed we made a film pitch about our film and why people should fund it. The video below is the pitch itself and the slideshow screenshots are what we used to help present our pitch, presented here as it's hard to see them on the video.

The Grudge – Opening Sequence

The horror movie opens with the non-diegetic sound of choir singing, but is slightly off which unsettles the audience. Sentences come up on screen and certain words get highlighted red, which has connotations of blood and evil. The scene opens to an empty street, and pans upwards to a busier road. The sky is grey and dull, which along with the road juxtaposes to the pure and naive white colours that are seen inside, the colours of the woman’s clothes and the duvet on the bed. The man is standing on the balcony, which is outside in his grey clothes, creating an enigma code for the audience, they are not sure what is going to happen to him but they know something bad will do, and start feeling afraid for the man’s sake. When he falls off the balcony, it is shown in first person (point of view) and followed by the diegetic sound of the crunch to put the audience right into the action, making it seem very real to them in terms of the scared emotions they feel. Music comes back, in the form of an eerie piano tune which shows the audience that this was not the man’s doing, and that there is something more sinister going on. The credits come on in red water and hair floating in it, which connotes the act of drowning as well as an evil creature.

Props

For our horror opening, we have made a list of props that we shall use in it:

-          iPod and headphones for the protagonist

-          Memorial sign for the deceased friend of the protagonist

-          Flowers to go with the memorial sign

-          Fizzy drinks that the group of friends will drink in the flashback (coke, sprite etc.)

-          Sweets that the group of friends will eat in the flashback (chocolate, haribo etc.)

-          Knife as the murder weapon

-          Mobile phone for the protagonist

-          Keys to the protagonist's house

-          Note explaining why nobody is home

-          Lamp in the protagonist's bedroom

We have also thought about the clothes that we want the characters to wear which represents their age:

-          Hoodies

-          Jeans

-          Converse/ sneakers

 As you can see,  the groups are informally dressed which shows they are more interested in having fun than being serious, which is what our target audience will be able to relate to.

Colour of fonts

Colour

The colour of the font is very important as we can use the connotations that different colours have to get a specific reaction from the audience. Red has connotations of blood and evil whereas blue has a mysterious feeling too it. As the mood we are trying to create at the start is of innocence and carefree, we feel a white font might be the right colour to use. At the end of the opening sequence we decided that red font would be good for the mood as it has connotations of horror.

Here are some examples of horror movie fonts:

 As you can see they use the horror genre conventions of red text for their fonts, along with bold writing to really get the audience in the mood to be frightened and to show them what to expect.

Fonts in horror

For the credit on the horror introduction we needed to decide on the right font to use. We wanted one that was mysterious but still bold enough to grab the audience’s attention without being too overbearing. These are a few of the fonts we have looked at and thought about using:

Here are the fonts as we would use them:

We felt that “You Murderer” font was a bit too dramatic, and juxtaposes with the tension we want to create throughout.

We all agreed that “Psycho!” didn’t have the feel or look that we were going for in our opening and so we will have to check it up against the shot at a later date.

“Larkspur” and “Razor Keen” we feel might be good, so we will make a makeshift shot to put them onto and compare to see which will suit the feeling we want.

I have got these fonts from http://www.1001fonts.com/fonts_overview.html?page=1&category_id=14

Script for Repressed

This is  the script that we shall be following  in our horror opening, and we created it with the story board in mind. The script isn't very long as we decided we wanted to have as little dialogue as possible to show the raw emotion that the protagonist has as well as the isolation he has from other people. As this is the first copy of it, we might choose to change lines around to fit the mood, and if we do we shall make a note of it and explain exactly why we did it.

SCRIPT

[Established Phil walking up to the memorial and walking off again, he continues to walk and after taking out the other headphone, he begins to count.]

Phil: …one…

[He takes a footstep.]

Phil: …two…

[Flashback then occurs, focusing on four friends. One of them is going to separate from the group.]

Phil: …but yeah that horror movie last night *laughs* I swear I’ve never been so scared in my life.

Cameron: Same *laughs*

Scott: I’m off for a bit; be right back.

Joe: Alright then.

[Establish back into the present.]

Phil …three; four…

[The rest of the group members are stood up looking around for Scott who’s disappeared.]

Joe: Scott, you back yet?

Cameron: Over here, quick!

*Everyone runs up*

Phil: Ohh…

Joe: My god?

Phil: Five; six, seven, eight, nine, Te- *Crunch*

[Phil runs home and discovers that the “killer” is onto him, the killer walks into his house, slams the door, creaks up the stairs slowly, Phil is petrified.]

Phil: *pant, pant* Go away! *pant pant* Leave me alone… *panting stops as everything is silent*

[The killer storms in.]

*Screen swipes to black*

Storyboard for Repressed Part 2

Storyboard for Repressed Part. 1

This is our story board for the horror opening of "Repressed," detailing the shots, editing and sounds used, along with the time length for each shot.