Target audience and certification

The target audience for our film will be people aged 14 and up, that are interested in jumpy horror films, but we are aiming for a 12A certificate so there is the potential for a wider audience.

The BBFC allow the following features in 12A horror films:

"Moderate physical and psychological threat may be permitted, provided disturbing sequences are not frequent or sustained."

Our film will feature moderate psychological threat, with the use of haunting sounds and darkened atmospheres, and also slightly disturbing sequences with jumpy, demon-filled action.

The quote regarding violence is as follows:

"Moderate violence is allowed but should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if justified by the context..."

The only blood in our film that we have planned, is the scene where Adrian (main character) trips and falls, banging his head on the floor. This causes a mild laceration on his forehead, which is then referred to later in the film - it is essential to the twist at the end, but will not be glorified or focused on for a prolonged period of time.

Character Profile - Adrian

Adrian Thompson (1994-)
Born in a small town, Adrian was the first child born into the Thompson family. He spent the first seventeen years of his life, living with his mother and brother, Chris in a bungalow.
 
He excelled at school, and passed college easily. He finished College at the age of 17, and moved straight onto a two year University course, which he finished with ease.

Having always succeeded in life, Adrian became arrogant. He only respected those at his own intelligence level. He would stick up his nose at everyone 'below average'.

After finishing University, he became CEO of a national business. He was a heartless leader, and would throw people out, as though they were garbage.

He was very attached to his wallet, and wouldn't waste a penny on anything. He never gave any money  to charity in his life, but not because he didn't have it. He would say that charities are ripoffs, and he needs the money himself.

When on holiday in Europe last year, he and his friends visited a 'fortune-teller' as a jest. She told him that his ways would catch up with him, and that 'karma' would get him. It would expose him for the harsh being he is.

After the holiday, he came back to work, and decided an office position in his hometown would suit him more. He is still the CEO, but runs things from the office.

Audience research interview

Research on Horror Films

A horror film consists of several conventions, it usually involves a victim suffering attacks or psychological assaults by some sort of entity. Sometimes the film can rely on somebody's imagination, for example, certain scenes in a horror film can be replaced with something, a curtain, or the attack is out of view. Which can make the age rating lower, to appeal to more people. As well allowing the audience to use their imagination, which can increase the amount of fear one can have on a certain scene.

They also can include the following:

-Dark/shadowy lighting

-Isolated location

-Female victim

-Disruption of normality

-Sub plot of male/female relationship

-Defeat of monster

The soundtrack of a horror film can also factor into the impact that the film can have on the audience. It can increase the sense of loneliness, as well as giving a more negative feeling to the atmosphere. The main audience for horror films would be 16+ and so we would aim to set our short film to meet this kind of audience, through; language, themes, mise en scene etc.

Horror Genre Research

The Horror Genre

The horror genre has been around for many years and is one on the most watched film genres of all time. People enjoy watching horrors as it gives the audience the feeling of fear and the adrenaline of what’s going to happen next. The definition of Horror is a film that brings out the viewers emotions, worst fear, terror and nightmares. The aim of horror is to scare the audience so much, that they enjoy it and want to go and watch another horror. The main stories that are in horror films are usually ghosts, zombies, aliens and demons. 

Sub Genre

Further into the horror genre, there are a number of sub genres. The main sub genres in horror are:

•  ·      Gothic
•  ·      Physiological
•  ·      Suspense
•  ·      Thriller
•  ·      Action
•  ·      Sci-Fi
•  ·      Family

Target Audience

Horror targets a number of different ages groups and audiences. For example some horror films are made for children made by animation which are usually rated PG. You then have the more extreme horrors that are for the older generation. Films like Paranormal Activity and Saw are just a few examples. Paranormal Activity was given the age rating of a 15. If you have seen these films, you will notice the difference between PG and 15 rated films. The biggest target audience for horror filmmakers to target are the young adults/ teens. The reason for this is because they enjoy watching horror the most out of all the other audiences. 

Demon FX test

This is to test to see if Connor makes a good demon for our horror movie. We will use a mixture of physical effects and after effects to create the look once we have the film version.

Title Sequence Research

Short films can be quite hard to incorporate a title sequence of a significant value in as it takes up screen time, the way our group hopes to overcome this is to firstly combine out film footage with our title sequence in order for us to have more time for extra film instead of dedicating film time to titles.

The short film "The Last 3 Minutes" uses this technique, it presents the people involved within the film while the film itself is still easy to see as the title doesn't obscure anything. It introduces the film, its settings and shows us the characters that we are going to be shown throughout the rest of the film.

The title sequence should also show the genre that the film is trying to display. a good example of this would be Tim Burton's "Edward Scissorhands"  in which the title sequence taking place there does an excellent job at setting the scene and getting people into the mood, due to its font style, colours etc.


It can also set the tone and pace and give people the chance to get absorbed into the story and setting whilst giving credit to the numerous amount of people involved in the project.

First logo concept

This is our first logo design. We tried to keep it simple and plain looking, whilst still going for a professional approach.

Film Idea - The Guardian

The film opens up with a man asleep, who is woken up by the impact of his head hitting a car boot, he opens his eyes only to see complete darkness, accompanied with the sound of a car engine rumbling in the background.

Dark music begins to play to establish the scene and the character begins to panic in his situation. He repeatedly hits the boot of the car to try and get out. The car comes to a stop, the footsteps of somebody outside can be heard, erratic editing takes place whilst the person trapped inside is wailing out for help. All goes silent, a close up shot of the keys opening the boot of the car can be seen and the boot is lifted. A sudden surge of light brightens up the darkness and the character is pulled out of the car. The apparent criminal's face is kept dark using the lighting around him to give off a sense of mystery and the victim is carried off, the camera follows his movement on the ground as he tries to break free from the ropes that are tied around him.

Afterwards, the victim is left beside a row of bushes on the side of the road. The antagonist walks towards his car, as he does so, he tells the victim
"You are safe now". He tosses the protagonist a flashlight from the inside his car and then slowly takes off. The man, confused, turns the flashlight on and begins to walk down the lonesome road, questioning what just happened.

A sudden explosion can be heard and the man frantically turns around in shock. He decides to run away from the explosion, whilst he is running, he moves past a car where the radio is speaking aloud. He stops, walks back to the car and looks inside. The car radio speaks of an incident in which an estate had been terrorised and a fire had spread. The man starts to see other people walking around in the dark, each with a flashlight equipped.

The man then realises that he was not taken, but instead saved by an unknown figure.

Kieran Charlesworth - Film Idea - Not Alone

Not Alone

Set in a car park at night time, a young man is heading home from work. As he is walking back to his car he can hear mysterious noises coming from the dark car park. He starts searching his bag to find his keys. As he does this he drops his bag and all his belongings fall out of the bag. He quickly goes to pick his stuff off the floor and he sees shadows moving in the background. He gets up quickly and picks up his keys off the floor. he continues to walk over to his car. The camera switches to the CCTV camera watching the man. You see from the CCTV camera that he is not alone. As he gets closer to his car the noises become louder and more often.  He pace becomes faster and he begins to run to his car. Out of the shadows a dark figure appeared. You see the main character turns around and the shadowed character vanished. The camera switches back to the CCTV shot showing the main character standing by himself in the car park. Another car enters the car park through the main entrance. The character in the car looks suspiciously at the main character. He parks up and exits the car. He picks up his bag and walks to the exit of the car park.

After the character leaves through the door the noise begins again. At this point the main character is worrying and goes to put his key in the car door. He opens the door and jumps into the front seat. He goes to start his engine however the car will not start up. He begins to panic and he begins to hear noises in his head. The noises in his head are hard to understand. He gets out of his car and begins to run towards the exit and trips over on a small crack on the floor. He turns over to find the dark tall figure stood looking down on him. The other character then comes back into the car park to find the main character on the floor in the middle of the parking. He walks over to the guy and asks him if he is okay. The character on the floor looks at the new character in shock as it seems that he cannot see the tall figure infront of him. He helps him to his feet and to his car. The main character enters the car and starts it up. The car now starts and both characters drive out of the car park. The camera then switches to the CCTV shot and shows the character driving away. As he is driving away the camera has some interference and the shadowed character at the bottom of the screen watching them leave. The camera then switches to inside the main character car looking out the back window. You see from this angle the character standing in the background of the shot. The driver then drives away and the camera shot end on the CCTV camera shot.

Group 4

This is Group 4
L-R: Sean Martin, Connor Jackson, Matthew Jones, Kieran Charlesworth

Short Film Analysis - Just Another Day

This is 'Just Another Day', directed by Noah Borer, and produced by Karli Woods.

The film was shot in 2009, and is a linear story, of two men. There are some interesting shots in this film, including tracking shots.

At the start, a man is seen, doing his everyday routine. The camera follows him as he awakens, gets changed and opens his mail.

A voice-over begins a minute or so into the film, where a voice explains a job, that the owner of the voice does. I word around it like that, because of the late twist in the film. We are supposed to assume the voice belongs to the man we are seeing on the screen.




The voice tells us that the man does a difficult job. It tells us that he's an assassin. We quite clearly see the man on-screen sat at a desk, doing an office job, so that is our first clue for the twist.


The voice then tells the audience that he has a new target. A very important target, which builds suspense, because at this point, you still believe that the man in the shots, is the one the voice belongs to.

The man continues his daily routine by visiting a local shop, and buying some food, whilst the voice continues to accompany him everywhere.

The further into the film the audience get, the more they believe the voice belongs to the man, because as the voice speaks about his target, the man gets a stressed and agressive posture, but probably due to the every day stresses of life.

After this, the man's car breaks down on his way to work. He complains that this is an inconvinient time for his car to break down, still leading us to believe he is the assassin.


He walks to the riverside, to calm himself, and another man is seen behind a tree. The voice proclaims that the target is spotted, and instantly, the twist is shown, as the voice belonged not the man seen throughout the film, but the man waiting for him to arrive at this location, so he can kill him, which he then does.

Film Idea - The Package

This story follows a man going to deliver a very important parcel to a regular house on a regular day, but not everything goes as planned...
A parcel is seen sitting in the back of a van with its doors open, before the main character of the film takes it and closes the van doors. The audience is not told what is in the parcel, but can see there are many labels plastered all over it that read things like 'handle with care' and 'confidential'. A shot from a high vantage point in the area shows the man taking the parcel, but the shot is shown through what looks like some sort of high-tech set of binoculars. Back on the ground, it immediately becomes apparent that the man is being followed, as shadows and shapes begin to flash past the screen. He then becomes tense and begins to look around him, and quickens his walking pace.
He cuts down an alleyway and his exit at the other side is blocked by a man in dark clothing with the view of his face obscured. This means that the man with the parcel has to turn around, but we then see that the way he entered has now also been blocked by a man with a similar appearance.
The carrier begins to panic and decides he needs to escape as the two men close in on him, so chooses to climb over the fencing of the alleyway. The two men run to try and stop him, but just miss his feet as he disappears over the fence, falling to the ground below that the camera can't see.
The camera then rejoins him as he pulls himself off the ground on the other side, covered in mud and dust from his fall. He resumes running from the two and comes to a road, where he turns to run down the pavement. A black car then screeches round the corner and chases after the man. After a short time of the man dodging pedestrians, bus stops, and other obstacles, he cuts down another side street that the car can't fit down. Two more people in dark clothing get out of the car to chase after him. A camera follows the chase, from both handheld perspectives and side-on views to make the action seem up close and intense, making the viewer more involved in the shot. The camera flicks to look back at the two men chasing the carrier, as one of them pulls out a gun and fires in the direction of the camera, though missing and hitting the fencing.
The carrier runs out of the alley and straight across a busy street, causing two cars to screech to a halt just after he runs past them. This blocks the path of his pursuers and by the time the cars pull out of the way, the carrier is vanished, leaving a blank, empty scene except from the two chasers.
We then cut to see the carrier slowing his run to a walk, and strolling up to the door of a house, parcel still in hand. He knocks on the door and an old woman answers.
Through heavy panting due to the chase he's just been involved in, he says to the woman "Parcel for Mrs Smith?" and hands the woman the package. The woman gives him a disapproving look due to his scruffy appearance, and tells him "clean yourself up lad". She closes the door and he turns around to face a camera behind him.
Brushing some of the mud off his shirt, he reveals a badge on his chest which reads 'Regal Mail Express Courier'. An iris to the badge turns the scene to black.
Credits roll.

Kieran Charlesworth - Short Film Analysis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL7xIaYYS7I

                                                                     Connected - Short Film

    

Connected is a very well put together short film. It tells you in the description of the video what the short film is about.
“Set in the distant future, Connected is a story about survival and greed with a post apocalyptic wasteland as its backdrop. Survivors of an unknown disaster shuffle through a desolate landscape, as it quickly becomes clear that not everybody has the strength to survive”.

The first shot of the film sets the scene and the setting. As you can see from the screen shot, the film takes place in a run-down city or town. You are also told this in the description. You can see that the town looks very realistic meaning they went to a lot of work to get the setting sorted. As the scene comes into light you see that it is all out of focus and slowly becomes in focus. They have done this to give the effect that the place is old and deserted. They have also done this to get the audience to believe that they are also placed in the scene and this is what they would be able to see.

 

After a short look at the first scene and the setting for that, they then cross fade over to another look of the setting from a different angle. They have used a cross fade for this cut as its showing that its all the same place from different angles. As the fade happens you see that the rubble falling from the building in the first shot change to some sort of rocks falling from the sky in the second. This is a good edit as both scenes follow each other. This happens again after the second shot as it cross fades again into the title screen. The falling rubble then changes to water on metal or a window dripping down. The title then slowly appears from the background and into the middle of the screen to catch the audiences eyes.

After the title scene the pace of the backing music increases and an interference noise occurs. As this happens a person with a mask on keeps flashing on the scene and then quickly changes back to the title. It then cuts to this scene showing two characters walking in the wasteland. This gives the audience the idea that the two people shown on the own are actually the only people left there.

 As it cuts showing the characters up close you can see that they have got to the effort getting all the costumes and props. From this screen shot you see that they are both wearing some sort of gas mask with a full body suit. Although nothing is said yet in the movie, the costumes and props suggest that the area is infected and makes you wonder why they are in the wasteland or who they are. I like this short movie as it gets you wondering through the whole film.

 

The two characters walk over to a mountain. As they walk up the camera cuts to another view of them. The music suddenly changes speed and a heavy breathing noise is added. This has been done to show the audience that someone or something is watching them even though it doesn't say anything. This is also a good shot as it show the two characters from above showing the camera looking down on them making the effect that whatever is watching them is more powerful. The camera then cuts showing the other character watching them. Instead of the camera just cutting to show the character they have added sound effects to make it more effective. When the person is revealed a loud noise is played showing the characters importance.

 

As the mysterious character is watching the others there is a lot of close up shots of his eye showing that he is actually watching them and has a reason why. Also the character keeps checking his type of timer and when he does everything in the background becomes blurred out making sure the audience focusses on the timer. As the film comes to a end you realise that the title was thought out as you see two out of the three characters are connected together with oxygen to survive. The credits at the end also are placed with the same background as the title scene.

 

Overall I believe that it is a very good short film. Even though there is no talking throughout the whole film , due to the editing you can understand what is going on. I like all the shots and all the edits in the short film and believe that the story line is good and easy to follow.

Film Idea - Dreamers

Idea:
-The government have released a pill that prevents someone from getting tired, or needing to sleep.
-The pill becomes extremely popular, and most people who can afford it, buy it.
-People who still sleep discover the dream land is a real universe.
-The dream universe is being destroyed because there aren't enough dreamers to run it.
-The pill is taken off of the market, because of it's recently discovered side-effect.
-When people start to sleep again, they find the dream universe in flames.
-There are many people dying in their sleep.

   In the year 2014, after 2 years of constant war, the British Government decide extreme measures must be taken, in order to survive, and go on to win the war.
   This is when they begin to produce a pill that will help the soldiers stay awake longer, and gain tactical advantages. This worked better than they could have hoped, and by September 2014, they'd produced a pill that stops the process of sleeping.
   The pill was a success to some extent, until the other countries in the war bought some pills from a traitor within the British military, and began to produce their own.
   By May 2015, the war ended in a peace-treaty, as the war was seen as 'undying' and 'pointless'. The pill was no longer needed, but it didn't just disappear.
   People with pills left over from the military started to sell them to citizens. At first the Government didn't approve, but when they saw how much they were making, they soon changed their minds. Eventually they were producing millions of the pills each day, to sell to the people of the world.
   They were sold quite cheap, as they were popular, and would make up for the low-prices, in how mant units were sold. However, some people still couldn't afford them, or didn't want them.
   The people still sleeping started to notice strange things about their dreams once a high percentage of the world had stopped sleeping. The dreams always seemed dark, and unsettling. No movement, no people, just darkness.
   By June 2016, scientists researching the pills discovered that without sleep, people weren't growing properly, people were more fatigued through the day, and the pill also reduced the average human lifespan, with the average age plummeting since the pill was released.
   Because of those reasons, the pill was taken off the market, and no longer sold in any country, but was still forced upon soldiers, usually during night-time watches.
   Once people had started to sleep again, they all noticed what the poorer people who couldn't afford the pills saw. Their dreams were full of fire and destruction. More people began to pass away in their sleep, and no one could explain it.
   With the pill, people were becoming deformed, not growing properly, but without the drug, people were being killed by their dreams.

Short Film Analysis

7:35 In The Morning (Analysis)

This is a 2005 Oscar nominated short-film and is regarded one of the best of its kind, due to the way it can pull an audience in, within a small time frame. It follows the story of a woman, who goes to a café for her normal morning of coffee, only to then be approached by an admirer, this is one example of how the audience can be intrigued by the film, through its mysterious change in pace and how the story unfolds as a whole

 There are also numerous other ways in which the film pulls the audience in and an example of this can clearly be seen during the first minute of the film, in which very little to no dialogue is spoken at all, creating a very mysterious atmosphere to the film.  As the film progresses we see various amounts of
shots., which can be seen below.

The film opens with a simple title sequence displaying the main actors in the film itself.

Eye-line matches between certain characters can create a greater sense of depth within the film and infuse the audience further, as well as demonstrating certain acting skills throughout.

ater on we see numerous camera shots, such as close ups that add to the detail and the story of the film by displaying little messages that can make the film have a more realistic and interesting narrative.

  

We see this situation then escalate as the music that plays starts to influence more and more people, showing a common thread between the people in the café whilst the woman on her phone seems to be seen as the outcast.

During the singing scene, there is a mass change of mood, from seeming cheerful to then turning into more of a comedy, due to the way the film is editied to create a sense of fast movement. This then suddenly turns into a more tense atmosphere as we see the rejection of input by an individual. This is a great showcase of how fast a story can change and how twists in the plot can still be implemented in such a short time period.

 

During the singing scene, there is a mass change of mood, from seeming cheerful to then turning into more of a comedy, due to the way the film is editied to create a sense of fast movement. This then suddenly turns into a more tense atmosphere as we see the rejection of input by an individual.This is a great showcase of how fast a story can change and how twists in the plot can still be implemented in such a short time period.

The editing throughout this part of the film reflects the tension, using a lot of fast cuts to represent a change in atmosphere. Numerous characters can now be seen in various shots as the scene escalates.

This then takes us to the climax of the film itself, in which we found out that the explosives were detonated and the whole dance and singing routine was all blackmail. However, one thing I find interesting is that, due to the difference in language, it can make it easier for people to make their own interpretation of the film.  

We then come to the end credits that finish in a traditional “scroll down” effect, showing the actors, director(s) and producer(s) of the film, as well as the distributors of the film. This then completes the film and gives and overall sense of closure.

LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usYIM4Q7mII&feature=player_embedded