Research and Planning Provisional Mark

Well done Kathryn. Revisit your research posts - have you said as much as you can about, mise en scen Target audience, unique selling points, editing, mise en scene, locations, camera compostition, sound, light, branding, use of titles, genre indicators, key moments. Create an animatic using your storyboard materials and comments on its strengths. Show that you are an expert on your genre and its history. A really good account of your research and planning. 16/20

Camera equipment research.

The Canon 600D is known for its easy use and clear images and video footage which was a good enough reason for us to use it as one of our video cameras when filming 'The Woods' because the sharp imagry gives a professional finish to our opening two minutes, making the recording process more worth while. Another reason we found it better to film with this camera is because it helps you create different depth of fields just by using the lens. Overall this camera had great reviews, which increased our confidence on the quality of our movie as we had no idea how real or clear the clips would turn out.

 

We decided on using a different camera for certain clips because they were planned to be done under water meaning we needed to use a water that can be used in water. Luckily we had one - Kodak Playsport. This camera is specifically designed to work in the roughest environments which meant it was perfect to use. The Kodak Playsport has HD filming, making it the same quality as the Canon 600D, resulting in our movie to run smoothly and not appear to be filmed on two different cameras. Using two cameras gave us a better knowledge on how real movies are done as they use many different cameras to get the shots they need, in our case we needed to use a camera for the shots done in and around water and one for the rest of the movie.

Antagonist costume research.

Research for antagonist

This research is to show how we came up with our final choices for the outfit/ costume for our antagonist. This is very important as we want to portray our protagonist as being scary and frightful, as they are usually the scare factor of a horror film. This picture is from the horror film series of 'Scream', which the antagonist caused the scary elements of these films, as they have hidden their identity, which reveals no characteristics of the person beneath the costume. The use of this costume, as I have said, hides the identity of the antagonist, which would creates an enigma for the audience, on to who this person is underneath the black material. The use of props of having a mask, now known as a 'Scream' mask, shows that anybody could get their hands on one of these, as it was a common Halloween accessory, which would make the audience uneasy as the antagonist could be anyone and could occur in their lives. This may be a good idea to use a mask, which is a common thing, as it would hide their identity, which implies it could be anyone as a vast majority of the public would have this object. The use of an over sized black poncho which is worn by the 'Scream' antagonist, covers and disguises all of the characteristics of the person, which create a further enigma as the audience are unable to detect who the antagonist is. Having this piece of clothing black symbolises many things as black is symbolic for evil and darkness, which generally antagonist should be classed as they are initiating evil and unspeakable things. Having the contrasting white and black colours emphasises that this would be the last face the victim see, which may be ideal for our opening scene as our antagonist is murderous and deadly. If we use the idea of having something baggy and covering all visible skin, it would mean we wouldbe unable to do make up on the antagonist, which could reduce time, so more dynamic and technical filming can be used, however we want to have a professional, dynamic opening two minutes, so time is not a major issue. The mask we use could be iconic for our antagonist, as this ghoul mask has become iconic over the years, as now it is known as the 'Scream' mask.
This antagonist is a very well known one, Freddie Krueger, from 'A Nightmare on Elm Street'. As you can see, the clothing for this antagonist consists of striped jumper, ripped jeans and murderous accessory on their right hand. This outfit could be seen as fairly casual and subvert from a stereotypical costume for an antagonist, as usually they have some sort of outfit which separates them from the protagonist and other people within the shot. This may be clever to use as they would symbolise that the antagonist could just be an everyday person, which you would never expect. The use of the colour red symbolises blood and gore which takes place in the film. This colour could be used as there may be an aspect of blood spill in our opening scene, however we would want our antagonist to be scary, which would ensure the audience would be frightened of them, which this colour may not provide. the use of having the 'claw accessory' adds a sense of cruelty and violence, which most horrors consist of . To make our antagonist frightful for the audience we could include some kind of deadly accessory similar to 'Freddie Krueger's.

This costume is from the film called 'Hostel', which is a gruesome horror film, which consists of this person present in the picture, kidnapping individuals and torturing and teasing them. The use of costume demonstrates the action the antagonist does. The use of the long black apron implies that what they do can get messy, and the red long shirt implies blood is involved as red is commonly related to either blood and gore or love and romance, which due to the genre of the film probably means horror. Similarly to the 'Scream' antagonist, they are wearing a mask which hides their face and adds a scare factor as no one knows who they are.
Overall, I believe we should use a mask to hide the antagonist face as that would create a huge enigma within our opening two minutes of our film. Although I may have not made my mind up about what they should wear, I am leaning more towards the casual side so the audience would relate as this could happen to them as the antagonist could be anyone. See 'Antagonist Costume- Final Costume' to see our costume we ended up with.

Makeup tutorial - cuts.

I thought I should try out some of what I found on the tutorials, which would ensure that the process is an easy but very effective type of make up to use for our opening two minutes of our film.
First I added the moisturiser to my hands, which ensures my skin is moist and not dry. This would allow the make up to attach to the skin more and is less likely to come of if disturbed or touched. I used E45 cream to so it would not react with any of the resources I was using through this process as it would be very unprofessional if occurred.

This is the equipment I use to produce the cuts. Instead of using the wax make up which was present within the cut make up tutorial, I was advised to use this as it was less likely to react with people's skin where ever it was put and also if very easy to create indents and a cut effect as you have to actually cut the latex to produce the effect. I also used cotton buds to spread the substance onto my skin so I wouldn't get messy and could produce precise shapes.

This is when I was adding the latex substance to my and, with the use of the cotton bud. As you can see the substance come out white on the skin, which allows you too see where you are putting it. However after a few seconds it begins to dry and turns clear and shiny. This shininess would be reduce in the further stages of the process. I added the latex onto my skin in a sausage like shape, which would mean that it is easier to cut into the latex as it would have lots of areas to attach itself on to the skin.

This latex would have to be repeatedly added so that it would build up layers, similarly to our skins, the thicker and more layers you do the most effective the cut appeared like. This also allows lots of fake blood to fill the indent, which would add to the effect of blood flowing out of the deep gash. As you can see I have put many layers on top of each other. In this picture on the left I have added foundation and bronzer to make the cut seem like it is my own skin, rather than making it look very fake and unreal. Adding the use of bronzer, with a brush, reduces the shininess of the latex, ensuring the effect of human skin.

As you can see, this stage is fairly difficult as you have to be careful using the scissors. In this stage you to cut the latex with the scissors, which due to the use of this type of latex, it is easy to cut through, avoiding cutting your actual skin. This is one of the longest parts of the process in forming a cut as you have to be precise and accurate as this determines the shape of your cut. Using this cutting effect makes the latex peel, which creates the effect of the skin actually being cut. Due to the moisturiser used at the beginning, the latex does not effect the skin in any way. Be careful during the cutting stage!

During this stage if some added make up ( bronzer/ foundation) is removed, re-add some to sure there is no shininess or discolouration present. Next add red paint to the indentation of the cut, this may not realistic yet but adding different colours from darker red to brown would add the effect of scubs forming or being recently cut, which is ideal for the use of it being used in the opening scenes. Adding the surrounding part of the indentation with a darker colour shows the dried blood effect and emphasises the deepness of the cut.

This is the finally result as you can see on the right. This is very effective to use as it appears to look very realistic, and emphasises the pain and depth of the cut. The use of the various colours used on the cut, increases the realistic of the cut and if we do use this effect, close ups would be no problem as we can add further detail if needed. Including a slight shine to the cut suggests that the cut is becoming increasingly infected. This could be ideal for the use of being in our film as the antagonist can have these on various parts of their skins, especially the hands and even the face, depending on the use of costume. As you can see this is all the equipment I used to produce this cut. I used: a paintbrush, scissors, moisturiser, foundation, bronzer, sponges, skin latex, warm water, make up brush, cotton buds and paint, which consist of two shade of red (scarlet and bright red) and brown. Overall this is a very good idea to use to for our make up for the antagonist, plus it follows the conventions of a horror as involves blood and gore.

Protagonist costume research.

We need to choose the correct outfit in which it would make our protagonist look as innocent as possible and as realistic as can be. This part of the research is very important as this is very visible to the audience, so if the clothing worn by actor contrasts the message we are trying to broadcast then it would distract the audience and would not relate to it as much.

This picture was from ' A nightmare on Elm Street', which has the same genre of film as us, horror, so we can relate to the choices they chose on what the protagonist wears.This example of clothing could be used for our protagonist costume. The use of having casual clothes implies that something has happened to a person, which is out of their everyday routine, which would be ideal for our film as we would want the audience to feel as though this could happen to them, which adds to the scare factor. If we used this time of costume it would mean that they are easy to purchase as we can go to charity shops to find hoodies or even in our own wardrobe. The use of colours is also vital to take into consideration as various colours, tones and shades symbolises different messages. Using light pinks, similar to the colour within the picture, expresses innocence and youth as it fairly feminine, which would be ideal as we want to make the audience sympathise for her. the colur colour is symbolic for purity and also innocence, which maybe better than using light pinks as white gives the same interpretation across but also that it would make it look more realistic as white is worn everyday. Using lighter colours for our protagonist would be more effective than bright colour as they would contrast drastically from the background and would not be as realistic as they are not everyday clothes stereotypically.

This picture on the right, differs from the costume previously analysed as this outfit involves a dress and a darker jacket, with a prop of a hat. Using a dress could give an insight of what the protagonist was doing before opening scene, which could create an enigma. The dress could symbolise that she cares about her appearance, which could make the audience dislike her, however the use of dresses usually symbolises the innocence. Having added accessories to the costume, such as the leather jacket and the hat, could express the climate as being cold and eerie as she is covering herself up. The hat could suggest she is hiding away from someone or something, which may be a disadvantage as she the protagonist who does not need to hide from anyone. The dress is fairly revealing, which could be a reason or cause for why the antagonist targeted them as it could be a due to the appearance as they meet their sexual desires.

This picture to the left is very casual due to the use of props. The use of a coat or some sort of jacket suggests the climate, as being cold and even eerie, which generally horror films are set in these environments. The use of a bag implies she has been to a place before, which could be good to involve as it would create a small enigma or just could just added detail to our protagonist character. The glasses would not suit our protagonist as fear and emotions are usually seen through the eyes more than anything, which our opening scene would have close up of the protagonist face.

From my research, I believe we should have some sort of props, such as a scarf or a bag as it gives an insight of the climate and adds to the detail of the character. Also the costume should be fairly causal to suggest that the horror events which would occur in the film could happen to any everyday person, which the use of costumes would reinforce this vision. Go to 'Protagonist Costumes- Final costume' to see what our final costume is for our protagonist who is featuring in our opening two minutes

Influences on Production.

This was a huge influence for our production of our film ideas as this gave us the initial intentions of having our antagonist present within our opening scene rather than having something paranormal. Scream involves the antagonist who is crazed about horror films, so they decided to make their own one, where they were the killer. This antagonist intrigued us to have a similar antagonist within our opening two minutes, however we need to ensure there is not to much in the opening scene. Using the phone to gain connection to the protagonist, their victim, would scare the audience as this can easily happen them; this is very effective, which is why instead of using a prop we thought we would use someone house to ensure the audience would relate to this happening to them. Also, having the antagonist unknown creates the whole enigma on who is this and why are they doing it? This is why we used a mask within our costume so the identity of the antagonist would be undetectable, which would leave the audience asking themselves one question 'Who is this?'

Friday the 13th was another influence to our production as, again, this film involves an antagonist which is the frightening element of this film. In contrast to 'Scream' film, this film is set in the woods mainly whereas 'Scream' is located usually in the victim's home and neighbourhood. These two influences inspired us to try and ensure that both of these locations are within our opening two minutes as having the woods would symbolise where root of the problems began, for example, the stalking, and involving the house location would make the audience relate to the scene as they could imagine this happening to them as many people have a fear of being home alone and thinking someone is in the house. The antagonist was also wearing a mask, which reinforced us on using a mask for our antagonist, as our we would not want to give too much away but we don't want to disengage with the audience as there is little fear to scare the audience.

 

Paranormal Activity was our first influence to producing our opening two minutes as this is one of my best horror films as there was always something scary in nearly every scene. The use of paranormal ensured the audience was scared as, generally, people are scared of paranormal as no one, presently can prove that is does not exist, so they begin to believe that this could occur to them. However this was our first influence, we began to think how we could achieve professional looking paranormal effects, which seemed impossible without special equipment such as pulling ropes and fishing lines which are usually used within these kind of paranormal films. Although we could not add this to our opening two minutes, this film inspired us to produce a horror film for our opening two minutes.

 

Another influence was 'The Cabin in the Woods' as the genre is similar to ours, which is a horror. This film, was set in the woods, which again reinforced the idea of setting our establishing scene within a wood. Instead of having frightening events occurring in the wood, like 'The Cabin in the Woods', we would build tension, such as someone looking and stalking our protagonist through the wood.

How to make bruises on our characters.

First I add moisturiser, which is to ensure my skin is moist and refresh. This would allow the make up I use in this technique to stay on my skin longer and to ensure that it would not disappear if tempered with or touched. The type of moisturiser I used was E45 cream as it is all made from natural substances, which means that the make I use in this process does not affect my skin in anyway and if used the actor would not be happy if they reacted to the materials used.




The next stage is adding a smidgen of bronzer, which is where you use a make up brush you ensure the bronzer comes out smooth and flat. Using this would make the section of skin, where the bruise is being placed, smooth and to avoid uneven tones of skin colour. This would also help for the eye-shadow to mix with it, which would make the whole effect of the bruise even more effective. you can get this bronzer from any type of shop, but all you need to take into account is that it have to suit the colour of the actor, which is very important as you do not want them to look orange. This photo show the first type of eye-shadow needed for the base colour of our bruise which we want to achieve. Using a eye-shadow brush, would allow you to delicately apply the eye-shadow, so that it can form an actual looking styled bruise. The shape should be a little uneven so that it is more realistic as usually bruises are not in a specific shape. Using a fairly light colour means if the shape goes wrong it would not be as noticeable as if I used a darker colour it would mean I would have to start over.


These are the next types of colours I used. The first one was a shade up from the previous colour so it would make the colour before more visible to see. The next colour was added around the edge of the other two to show that the impact occurred more harshly around the edge, but also to bring out the bruise more. The final colour was to ensure that if I added too much of the darker brown I could blend it into my skin, so it would avoid me starting all over again, as that would be very time consuming.


This stage is using even darker colours, dark blue and darker brown. This is to emphasis how the bruise is coming out as just like a real one would do. The blue eye-shadow is to symbolise the most painful part of the bruise as usually this is whereas the the darker brown is to help blend all the colours I have used so far, to make a gradient of colour. As you can see in the picture,these colours are the most dominant colours, which makes the bruise look very realistic, which is ideal for our opening two minutes of our film.

This is the final result of making a bruise. This looks very much like a bruise as it has all the colours of one and suits the colour of the skin, meaning it doesn't look like it should not be there. However this shape may not be ideal for our film, as we should make it more like finger impressions, as if someone has grabbed someones arms. This may be ideal to be part of the protagonists make up regime as it could suggest domestic violence occurring in her life or something relatively similar


This is all of the equipment used to make this bruise. The equipment I used was, bronzer, make up brush, moisturiser, blusher brush (optional), eye-shadow applicator ( one of two preferably) and eye-shadows. These colours should consist of three colours being the same colour but different shades of this colour, a blue and a pale skin colour.

Antagonist make up tutorial.

This piece of research is to see what we can do to the antagonist as we are unsure if we should use some sort of face make up or use costume to cover the face.As you can see on the right, the picture is of a ragged bag with a painted on smile and two dark as night eye holes. This would be very effective to use for our opening scene as it would hide the identity of the antagonist, so it would be one of the main enigmas of the film, which could be more effective to use as this doesn't give a slight insight of the characteristics of the antagonist, whereas using make up would. This would also reduce time preparing the individual who is playing our antagonist as this would just be needed to be put over the head of the antagonist, and have their eyes darken to ensure that no features are visible to the naked eye. This would relate to the audience fears of unknowing the unknown.





This tutorial is to show how to make a clown face make up. This may be ideal for our film as it relates to the audiences fears as many individuals are scared of clowns. This tutorials also shows how easy it is to produce this make up tutorial, as it gives a step by step tutorial of how to do it, which makes the process seem a lot easier and would look very effective. We could even make it look a bit smudged to show that the victim could have been targeted very quickly, so the make up was put on carelessly. This make up would also contrast from the protagonist make up and the surroundings, which would make this character be the focus pull of any scene unless a effect is added during the editing stages. However, one of our aims for our opening two minutes of our film was to make it as realistic as possible, so the circumstances should be realistic too. Having a bag over someones head is more realistic as it is an everyday item to have, which would make the audience relate to the film even more, meaning they would increasingly get even more scared. Whereas, in contrast, this make up would link more to a horror, released on Halloween, which is not one of our main objectives. This would also involve a lot of different types of make up which would show the amount of thought and detail which went into making our antagonist the perfect part. another negative to using this is that it would mean the audience can see all the characteristics of the antagonist, which would mean they could make the connection to who the person is when the make up is removed, which would not make as much of an enigma as if we used the bag mask one. 
Overall I think we should use the ragged bag mask as this would hide the identity of the antagonist, which would create a massive enigma to who they are, reduces the make up time assigned to this character and also that this would suit more of the genre of horror we are producing. 

Antagonist costume ideas.

We are planning on using a sack looking mask to hide the identity of the antagonist which will leave an enigma because the audience wont know who it is and why they are wearing the mask. The ragidy effect of the mask makes the person wearing it look rough and unwelcoming creating fear and tension in the audience. 

To create the mask we will use an old pale brown or white pillow case, rip the eyes and mouth hole, then sew the mouth up without care just like it shows in the image. We will then rip random parts of the mask and add dark eye shaddow/powder paint around the eyes to make it look more distressed. Due to the oldness it makes you think that the antagonist is'nt new to wearing it meaning he has been killing and halming people for a long time.

The antagonist will also be wearing a suit just because it would make it difficult to identify the character which creates many enigmas gives the antagonist an original identity i.e. the movie is based in a middle class settings which makes the antagonist stand out as not many characters would wear a suit unless there is a special occasion. Suits can also connote power and wealth which describes an upper class person; we are using how powerful the characters are depending on what class they are in meaning the antagonist will be perceived and assumed as upper class because he is wearing a suit.