Setting In Horror Openings

The Purge

This film is set on the streets of a friendly neighborhood in America. By having this thriller set around and in houses makes the film more personal to the audience as this could happen to anyone. The idea that the action in mostly set at night time makes the feeling more ominous and eery. When thinking about our horror-thriller opening we think having our setting at night will make a more tense atmosphere for the audience. The costumes in this clip seem to be just everyday clothes, by having every day clothes makes things more realistic.

 

The conjuring

This film is set within a family home this again makes it more personal to the audience and helps bring more emotion by involving children as children are seen a very innocent and bad things shouldn't happen to them. With the action happening inside it brings the horror into their own house so it allows the

 

Paranormal Activity

This film is set through cam-corders the whole time, by doing this it looks like your in the lives of the characters, as its there everyday lives being filmed by each other. Most of the film is set within in a home with paranormal activity surrounding them all the time this brings tension to the audience and fear as children are the victims within this film.

My conclusion:
From looking at my group members work I can see the typical locations of a horror movie in the opening title sequence. It also shows what the surrounding lighting, mise en scene and actual location are related with horror/thrillers. Therefore, it gives our group an understanding into what our location should be or what it should look inspired to look like.  

Our Horror/Thriller title - 'The House'

After discussions in our group, we finally all agreed on our title for our title sequence. We all agreed that the name 'The House'. This was because it was the most suitable and relatable due to the fact it is based all around and in the house. Also, throughout the title sequence it is suggesting there is a paranormal presence and feel within the house, which adds fear for the audience as it brings the horror into the home, with is considered a safe place. 
All the shots within the house are filmed in a mysterious and vague way to connote it as something that builds tension and drama with the way it is filmed and the specific props in the house. For example the mirror, fire and controller. 
We also thought that to ending of our title sequence we would place the title at the end and to close our sequence. Therefore, we all thought that the closing shot will get smaller and eventually  go through a letter 'O' in the title 'The House' aligned in the centre of the screen.

Second Shoot Evaluation

Our second shoot was a lot more successful compared to our previous first shoot. This was because we knew what our goals were as well as what we had to face. We completed a lot of the work in this shoot, getting a good quarter of the shopting done. Therefore allowing us to put this into the timeline when back in school and clip them down as well as watch them back to evaluate and see if they were good enough.
We had a lot of good shots that we could use which was lucky, however it was alsoo good as it allowed us to notice small things - like shots and mise-en-scene that we might not have noticed before. Therefore now we can add small shits in and remove mise-en-scene we do not want in the view. Furthermore we sometimes lost concerntration in our shoot which slowed us down a lot, consequently if we want to film much more and do and even better job we need to be even more focused.
On the other hand, a part from these minor mistakes we had a lot to be bappy about. As we have now set up the beginning of our opening and we're starting to see how the rest of it will look. Furthermore we have become more experienced and skilled in filming and editing the shots and we can now create better scenes as well as edited together sequences. I am extrememly happy with our geoups position at the moment. We have organised another shoot meet up in a couple of days which we hope to get even more done and add to our timeline of footage.

My conclusion: Overall our second shoot was a lot more organised, focused and successful. We had learnt from our previous shoot and the second shoot is more serious and strict. As well as the shoot going well, we still have some issues and mistakes that will need to be re-shot and edited.

Our first shoot evaluation

From our first shoot we realised a lot of problems with our shots and this was a big awakening for us. For example we had no shots that were useable for our actual final opening sequence and it was seen as a waste of time. However this was actually a good learning curve for us as we realised a lot of faults and things we need to change/do better next time.

For example we had terrible lighting and didn't realise this. It was extremely low key lighting and we couldn't see much of the scenery or what was actually happening.

Furthermore the lighting being like this made all of our scenes worthless and not useable which was a shame, because if it wasn't for this then  we would of been able to maybe use some of the shots.

We also realised that we had to make sure everything was set with our location. For example on our first shoot day Lauren's house was very busy and therefore other things were happening in the house which the microphone on the camera picked up. Consequently we now know that we need a completely free house for our shooting days to be successful.

We also tried to experiment with POV shots, however this was harder than we thought it would be and cause us to have a lot of un still and off balanced shots. Furthermore a few of our other shots were off balance due to a bad tripod. Therefore we now know that we need to make sure all our equipment is okay before as well as practising POV shots more.

As well as this a lot of our group kept laughing and not staying focused and this was hard as the film we need it to be completely silent and everything to happen perfectly otherwise it can ruin the entire piece. We now know that we can't laugh and make noise on camera because sometimes we might not be able to edit it out.

My conclusion: From our first shoot we had a lot of mistakes and issues that we can learn from and adjust when we shoot again. The shoot has helped us decide what works and what we think we need to develop. During the first shoot we didn't achieve the amount of work we intended to do and therefore our next shoot will consist of a lot more work and effort

Setting and props

When we met up to do our first shoot we took some photographs of the specifics in the scenery and props that we will be using. This included the likes of the fireplace, mirror, baby monitor, tv control and sink tap. These were some of the specifics that we were going to focus on during the opening to present tension and make the audience focus on to draw their attention. As when we looked at other openings we notices there were always stereotypical specifics like the ones we have chosen that are emphasised in the opening to create a ambiguous and mysterious start to the film or to create confusion with the audience. These can be seen as symbols within the opening or film that are used to present something.For example the dripping of the tap could be shown to show the silence and how noticeable to dripping sound is because of how silent it is, therefore presenting tension to the audience. Furthermore the fireplace, the monitor,  tv control and the mirror all have this same effect. We wanted to present some of these specific symbols within our opening to create tension in a stereotypical way as the audience would notice this and see it as a sign of danger - like a sign.

My conclusion: The settings and props have been chosen to connote and represent meaning in our story. For example, the fireplace can represent the old fashioned style and can also connote horror in our opening. The fire creates a dark tone to the opening as the fire connotes burning and pain and maybe death. The other props help to build our story together and when used in the correct way, creates a sense of thrill and scare.

Actors Costume

When looking at costume we wanted a costume that was very typical of a modern teenager as well as something you could maybe expect within a horror-thriller film. Therefore we wanted our protagonist to be wearing something basic and plain. For example leggings, jeans, jumpers, t shirts etc. Furthermore  we also wanted casual plain colours. For example we decided we wanted some kind of white upper garment - like a white jumper or top.

The white jumper below is like the jumper our protagonist wears throughout the opening. We chose this as  jumper can seem 'home'ly' as well as it being a casual piece of wear that is communal worn by teenage girls and women of all ages in modern society. Furthermore we decided we wanted it to be a white jumper as this would represent purity and innocence because of the social connotations and general associations with the colour white. We thought the white would represent innocence and angelic like almost like an angel or a dove.

Furthermore these are the type and style of jeans that our protagonist will be wearing throughout also. We thought this was fitting as she is meant to be represented as just typical female teenager of a modern society and jeans are the most ideal, casual and normal trousers for them to wear. Therefore we also thought this was better than leggings and any pyjamas as pyjamas would show its her house whereas we want to show she is a babysitter and this isn't her own house therefore wearing clothes to go out but as if it is her own household as she is used to babysitting there. Furthermore leggings are associated with more lower class and are too casual. Moreover typical leggings are black and in some low key lighting it is then harder to see her legs and what she is doing. Therefore making us decide that navy blue jeans are the most ideal.

These white jumper and navy blue jeans are what we decided on.

 My conclusion: The costume we have chosen is stereotypical for a female teenager in todays society. As well as the costume being simple and basic it creates meaning. The white represents that the character is pure and the blue can connote she is calm and peace, as it relates to the sky and the sea. Overall, our costume has been chosen to connote ideas of our character as well as people also relating to the casual clothing.

Tile name order

• (NAME OF THE STUDIO)

Name of the studio that is distributing the film and may or may not have produced it (Walt Disney Pictures, Columbia, Lions Gate, Universal, Marvel Studios, Dimension, Miramax etc.).

• (NAME OF THE PRODUCTION COMPANY)

Name of the production company that actually made the film or name of the investment groups or companies that financed a substantial part of the film (usually credited as "in association with" or "A (studio name) production.").

• (PRODUCER NAME) PRODUCTION or/and (director only) A FILM BY (DIRECTOR NAME)

Director's first credit, often "a film by XY or "a XY film".

• STARRING

Principal actors (sometimes the stars' and director's credits will be reversed, depending on the star's deal with the studio; in other cases, as in the Rodgers and Hammerstein films, or as in all three film versions of Show Boat, or, as in many Disney films, the title of the film will be shown before the names of its actors; sometimes, as in many of Cannon's films, the name(s) of the principal actor(s) will be shown before the name(s) of the producer(s), i.e. "The Cannon Group presents X in a Golan-Globus production of a Y film").

• (FILM'S TITLE)

Name of the film.

• FEATURING

Featured actors.

• CASTING or CASTING BY

Casting director.

• MUSIC or MUSIC COMPOSED BY or ORIGINAL SCORE BY

Composer of music.

• PRODUCTION DESIGN or PRODUCTION DESIGNER

Production designer.As a variation some of the below may be noted:

• SET DESIGN

• COSTUMES or COSTUMES BY or GOWNS (older movies)

• HAIRDRESSER

• MAKE-UP ARTIST

• SOUND RECORDING (older movies)

• VISUAL EFFECTS DIRECTOR or VISUAL EFFECTS BY

• EDITOR or EDITED BY

Editor.

• DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Director of photography.

• PRODUCER or PRODUCED BY, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

Producers, co-producers, executive producers, 'also produced by' (credited for various reasons according to contracts and personal scrutiny of the principal producer). Often, though, the name of the producer will be the next-to-last opening credit, just before the director's name is shown.

• BASED ON THE BOOK (PLAY, GRAPHIC NOVEL etc.) BY or FROM A PLAY/BOOK BY (older movies)

If based on a book or other literary work.

• BASED ON THE CHARACTERS BY or BASED ON THE CHARACTERS CREATED BY

If based on characters from a book or other media.

• STORY or STORY BY

Person who wrote the story on which the script is based, gets "story by" credit, and the first screenplay credit, unless the script made substantial changes to the story.

• WRITER(S) or WRITTEN BY

Screenplay writers. The Writers Guild of America allows only three writing credits on a feature film, although teams of two are credited as one, separated on the credits by an ampersand ("X & Y"). If each works independently on the script (the most common system), they are separated by an "and". If more than two persons worked on the screenplay, the credits may read something like "screenplay by X & Y and Z and W" X and Y worked as a team, but Z and W worked separately.

• DIRECTOR or DIRECTED BY

Director. The Directors Guild of America usually permits a film to list only one director, even when it is known that two or more worked on it. Exceptions are made in rare cases such as a death, and subsequent replacement of the director mid-production., and for established directing teams such as the Coen brothers.
This information is sourced from Wikipedia's website.
From this research we now know that there is a specific order that we have to introduce the names within the title sequence. This will help us with our final production and post editing as we won't lose marks on not having them in the correct and typical order. However as there are only 5 of us as a team including actors we only need to include the 5 main people in the production of a film. For example We will have it in the order of:
StarringEditorProducerWriterDirector