Make up of characters: Video

This video is of a makeup session with our character David Donnell. As you can see we used foundation with a white cream to give the look of David being Pale, along with styled hair and black face paint and mascara to give the impression of black eyes. We also ripped David's jumper to give the impression of distress and scruffiness as if he's been involved in some form of a brawl.

Below is our overall result of our villain David Donnell:

Make-up of characters

Make-up

David Donnell

         

 Make up: When it came to creating the profile for our killer: David Donnell, it was decided that, his height and strong build needed to be supported with a scary appearance. In doing this we got a very light coloured foundation and powder, to create an old, pale complexion, to look creepy and scary. In addition to this we also used some grey and black eye cream to create the dark bags under his eyes, to create the effect of him looking punched in the face. To finish off his scary look i used black eyeshadow, to finish it off on the top of the eyelids making his eyes more bold and noticeable, so that when it came to filming, you could see this clearly. 

Hair: When styling his hair, we wanted to make it look greasy and flat, so we used styling gel for this effect. As our murderer has a profile of a creepy person, we though this would add to the idea of being watched and the stereotype of killers you see in other movie like Stan Tucci, when he played the murderer in the lovely bones. 

And...

Laura

Make up: When it came to deciding the make up for our Victims, I wanted something casual and everyday, so we used skin matching foundation, eyebrow pencils, eyeliner and mascara. We didn't want any red or pink coloured lips, because she isn't in a romance or a object of sexual desire, but is a teenage girl everyday, who is ordinary and thats how we really want to reach and effect the audience, as a lot of young teenage girls, will just wear basic everyday make up like Kim, which helps create this element of fear for our audience to relate with. 

Hair: Straight and down, everyday hair, nothing extreme done or hair spray added, as if she was going on a night out, but if she was coming home from school or work. This is the style we were going for, just like Jennifer Lawrence in House at the end of the Street. Jen, has got the same style of hair as Kim, just down, straight and normal. This reaches our audience as she just looks ordinary. 

Finally...

Daisy

Make up: We kept Kim simple like Emily, with a natural look and no excessive makeup, as she is meant to be perceived as a fairly laid back character of who doesn't really have concerns of anyone else but herself within her life.

Hair: down and straight, however Emily has very black hair, this is normally conforming to an idea of evil or danger considering it is such a dark colour, however her hair does look very similar to Esther from Orphan. We used Emily's personality and interests into heavy metal and punk rock, to shape her character of Daisy being seen as fairly Gothic, and often these people can be dismissed as outcasts in society, and therefore we didn't place her like Carl with Laura, instead by herself. Instead this time focusing on how Evil David Donnell is by being able to kill emily when she already has a past of crime.

Overall...

All our other victims have no make up or hair changes as when it came to deciding the make up for our victims, we wanted something casual and everyday, so we used skin matching foundation, eyebrow pencils, eyeliner and mascara. We didn't want any red or pink coloured lips, because she isn't in a romance or a object of sexual desire, but is a teenage girl everyday, who is ordinary and thats how we really want to reach and effect the audience, as a lot of young teenage girls, will just wear basic everyday make up like Kim and Emily's characters of Daisy and Laura, which helps create this element of fear for our audience to relate with. 

Logline

Log-line & Title

"Jamie is an Internet famous Youtuber who has recently moved into a new apartment. When uploading his Vlog he starts to see strange things happening to himself on the screen. Is everything what it seems or does Jamie have a Flatmate?"

As a group we chose this as our longline as it created a sense of tension with the film, making it interesting for the audience and therefore this would cause excitement and want them to see the film. We used 'is everything what it seems or does Jamie have a Flatmate?' as it adds a sense of weariness and unexpected danger within the film, and this adds to the excitement.

This longline relates to our title of 'Viral Terror' as it highlights the main plot of the story and how as Jamie is a famous youtuber where his videos go viral, and this title perfectly ties on within the background of the main character. We decided to use the word 'Terror' as it makes the word 'Viral' sound haunting, as for something to go viral online means it spreads quickly, along with this and terror there is this concept that viral terror means something dangerous is spreading quickly; which links to David killing so many innocent people all at once.

For the title I conducted some research into other film titles and what there representation of the film was. For example a 'Nightmare on Elm Street' fits perfectly with Freddy Krueger's plot to kill innocent people within their dreams who all live on Elm Street. This approach with a direct link of the title to the plot of the film was what as a group we intended to do. Other films such as Sinister doesn't give any reference to the plot the film, yet the word 'Sinister' alone gives a haunting impression to the audience of the film, without telling us the location or the event.

Explanation of final idea

Viral Terror is the story of five young people 18 years before 2015, who all are haunted by the infamous David Donell who murders the innocent young people. The murders are all caught on CCTV footage within an apartment block, where by "David" as he is known as kills his victims in the most brutal ways possible, leaving no witnesses. However 18 years later in 2015, the young Jamie Stuart has recently bought his first apartment. Jamie is an internet famous vlogger who records videos and uploads them to Youtube and other blog styled sites, where by his fans watch his videos. Jamie is recording a video of his apartment and introduces himself. Yet when Jamie watches the recording of himself he sees himself being stabbed and is shocked as to why there is this deranged man, David, within the footage, when before only Jamie was recording himself. After watching the playback Jamie finds that his arm is bleeding and begins to wonder whether he is alone, or David has come back to the apartment block to haunt another victim.

Casting Videos

These are our finalised characters and there audition tapes, we decided to take some auditions, just to see how they act on camera and if it all flows together.  We decided through our audition reels that these are the perfect characters, as they are confident and can act without a character being there and keep their focus where we need it.

Final Cast:

Kim Renton (Laura Hodge)
Sam Cartwright (Jamie Stuart/Main Character)
Daniel Burton (Robbie Andrews)
James woodbine (Antonio Borelli)
Junior zambaketikis (Carl Jackson)
Charlie Romeo- penn (David Donell/Killer)
Emily Jennet (Daisy Williams)          

Locations Shot for Viral Terror

Storyboard

Character Profiles

 

Name of actor: James Woodbine

Role: Antonio Borelli, Victim 

We picked James because he is small and has a youthful face, which creates a sense of innocence that surrounds him. As he is small, this shows how vulnerable and weak compared to the killer, through th e use of levels, with our character being dominant.  James character is a victim  of David Donnell, so it is important to establish this early on, for the genre and audience to feel sympathetic towards him. 

Name of Actress: Kim Renton

Role: Laura Hodge, Victim and Carl Jackson Girlfriend

We picked Kim because she looks friendly and innocent like James, making her an easy target for the killer. This also suggests to the audience that she doesn't deserve to be killed and how ruthless David our killer is. Kim herself, is a confident person , since she plays the second half of a love match, she has a good connection on camera and isn't shy. She is a perfect choice for someomne to play Laura as she is confident, which portrays her.  

 Name of Actor: Daniel Burton

Role: Robbie Andrews, Victim

We picked Dan because as the audience, we are slightly weary of him and we begin to question his actions. We see him as a strong headed and not weak, therefore we can infer that he will put up a fight against the killer. Dan is our first victim of our opening scene, He is shown as quite stern, with a firm edge, we wanted dan to be our first victim as it shows that even though he is presented as strong, we are showing that he isn't strong enough to over come our killer. 

Name of actor: Sam Cartwright

Role: Main character: Jamie stuart

We chose Sam because he has a lot of confidence and some would describe him as a typical teenage boy. He is fairly tall, which shows his dominance in the film as he is the main character and this helps the audience to relate with him. He doesn't seem shy and on camera this is the perfect person we need to present a Vlog. He has a cheeky innocent smile, which makes him a loveable character, which 

relates to the story line of him being a popular Vlogger. 

costume: Sam as he is our main character and focus of our horror film, we have decided to go for a smart casual look, with smart shoes, denim  jeans and a shirt.  Typically in horror films, the victims look ordinary, so that an audience can relate back to them, by having sam wear simple everyday clothing, it shows to an audience that is could happen to anyone. Which creates the fear factor of " it cold happen to anyone"

Name of Actor: Junior Zambektis 

Role: Carl Jackson Boyfriend of Laura Hodge

We picked Junior because, he looks innocent and feable and the audience would feel empathy for him, because you start to like him as a character and feel it would be wrong if something bad happened to him. Junior in this role is playing the second half of a love relationship, this gives the opportunity for hope for junior and Kim as characters, as we see the love 

story, happiness and development through the film. 

Name of Actor: Charlie Romeo-Penn

Role: David Donnell - Killer/ main character.

We picked Charlie, as he is tall, showing his dominance that can be portrayed as a villain, making him the perfect character, this really helps play on the other characters vulnerabilities, showing the fear and making the element of a horror film. he is also very pale, shows how he's very lifeless and death like. He is also strong, typically conveying a killer, as we need someone strong to be able to commit all of these crimes against our victims. 

Costume: Brown jacket, Brown trousers, Brown boots and a Black jumper, to show the nature of our film being horror. The connotations of brown, its a cold colour, it's quite dark. Normally showing stability, except we have chosen brown to show the distortion of our killer. The connotations of black, show it's a cold colour, it signifies death, with hidden mystery just like our killer, as you rarely see him.

Name of Actress: Emily Jennet 

Role: Daisy Williams

We chose Emily to suit this character because,  unlike the other victims, she looks guilty, as if she has done something to result in her death. Emily looks like a leader, almost evil, Emily portrays a character who is very suspicious, and smug with her previous crimes, but is proven wrong, when her justice is brought to her.

Costume for our victims: We have decided for our victims to wear casual clothes, like jeans and T-shirts, to show to the audience that they are normal people, to help the audience really relate to these characters, also to empahsise that this could happen to you as they are just everyday, which helps to create the fear amongst this genre, considering that most psycological thrillers relate to their audiences, we have created our fear and audience, by using teenagers, to grab the audience and take advantage of their vulnerable minds

Shot List for Viral Terror

Below is a shot list of the shot types and actors being used within the film. Dialogue however has been included within the script rather than on here, as it gives the actor a more descriptive tone of how to fit their character to the lines, and each team member has a copy of the script to refer to the dialogue.

Script for horror movie opening: Viral Terror

Script for Viral Terror

Todorov's Narrative Structure

Above is our narrative structure of Todorov's of the overall plot of Viral Terror, where by Jamie enters the story as a vlogger and the story continues to David Donnell being a known killer who once haunted the residents of the apartment block psychologically, and lives within each of their lives by following them. David records himself and uses CCTV footage which is then presented to the audience of his killings.

Moodboard

This is a moodpboard for what I found typically related to a psychological thriller, with references to location, character, previous film posters and covers and colour.

Which of the following pitches do you prefer?

Analysis of a horror film: A Nightmare on Elm Street

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Analysis of Other Film openings

Along with the analysis of horror film openings, I also analysed other film openings to see whether any similarities or differences to horror film openings would emerge, in addition to four I researched...

-James Bond, Casino Royale
-IT The Clown
-Ice Age
-Star Wars Revenge of the Sith

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Music - slow music with a piano playing, so the tone isn't as harsh as it what it would be with horror using a violin. We hear a heavenly like voice singing, with voices of multiple characters in the background.

Print Styles - There is no text in the beginning of the film of any cast members or what the film is even called, as its a Blockbuster film so it's easy to recognise by the opening of the film that this is a Harry Potter film as of its specific look.

Action - We can tell this film is a blockbuster film as it shows the logo of Warner.Bros. emerging from background of dark clouds. We see the text as a rusted form of metal therefore this could represent lifeless and worn. We then see the character's face looking neutral without emotion, portraying the sufferings faced by the character throughout the film.

Transformers

Music - slow music with a trumpet is playing to show some form of formality - links perhaps to the idea of military and war as military guards play trumpets during marches. We hear the lead character's voice briefing engaging the audience into the film, without giving too much away. This contrasts to horror films as we don't hear the villain speaking instead we hear them laughing, groaning or none which creates an uneasy atmosphere within the film. The pace of the music begins to get quicker when the character mentions "death" and talks about war, making the audience more interested and excited to see what the character is exactly referring to.

Print Styles - We seen no casts names like in Harry Potter at the beginning of the film however we see a bold, futuristic textual style of "Transformers" at the end of the character speaking which gives the audience a second to have some background context from the character about the story, and lets them picture what the film is about and then seeing the title of the film, reinforces the audience's thoughts.

Action - We can tell this film is a blockbuster film as it shows the logo of Dreamworks right before there is any images on screen. We see a shot of space and Earth and therefore we know this film has some aspects of the Sci-fi genre, as this cosmic scenery is typically associated with this film genre.

Cars

Music - At the beginning of the opening sequence we hear the character's voice speaking and thinking about his upcoming race which we see by quick glimpse of it on screen. Then suddenly it cuts into a song rather than a theme soundtrack. This is because as it's a blockbuster film company - Disney, it means that the song can easily gain popularity and create synergy between the film and itself by promoting one another. Especially as it's a children's film it means that children are more likely to remember the song and it stick with them.

Print Styles - There is no text in the beginning of the film of any cast members or what the film is even called. However text reading 'Walt Disney Presents' appears without the Walt Disney logo, which shows how well recognised the film company is and that they don't need to show their logo to help audiences identity who they are. Afterwards we see the text of the film to be like the sign on the front of a car, relating to the title and theme of the film.

Action - The sequence at first shows quick glimpses of a motor race, and then it later shows the main character emerging from shadows and we then see the character racing, amongst other cars. One of the cars however is knocked off the track but we seen no one getting hurt or even killed as this wouldn't be appropriate for a child's film, but would perhaps for a horror.

The Blind Side

Music - upbeat music with a light tone of piano's and clapping noise, which suggests the film is based on a positive story-line with mostly positive themes. This is because clapping is associated with happiness and congratulating someone, which reflects the success of the character becoming an NFL star later in the film. We hear a women's voice commentating an American Football game, however they aren't telling us about the story line. This doesn't give too much away to the audience apart from knowing that their will be some influence of American football in the film.

Print Styles - There is no text in the beginning of the film of any cast members or what the film is even called, as its a Blockbuster film. However the beginning of the film shows a production company named 'Alcon' but the film was funded by Warner.Bros so this could be a method of promoting a newly developed film institution so they eventually become as recognised as Warner.Bros.

Action - There is no shots of the character's on the first title sequence, apart from a game of American Football which keeps the audience guessing on what the film is actually about apart from its link to American Football.

Analysing Horror Film openings

As a part of research towards the task I watched a series of horror film openings to try and identify any similarities between the openings, and what typically is included within the opening title sequence of these films.

Psycho

Music - High pitched, quick sound of strings being played on the violin. Its as if the violin strings being played sounds like the blade of a knife penetrating into something, as its a short, sharp sound resembling this stabbing motion. However this could also portray the character screaming within the film, illustrating a sense of panic. The low pitch undertones creates an uneasy, threatening tension, along with the fast pace rhythm of the music representing the killer perhaps chasing their victim.

Print Styles - A bold font is used for the text on screen - perhaps resembling the knife's blade. The font quickly appears from various angles then cuts out to reappear again, portraying a stabbing motion of a knife. The font is also distorted which represents the personality of the character to be unclear, as they are a physco. Capital letters denotes the tone of a bold and serious tone.

Action - Lines enter quickly from various angles and disappear, which re-inforces this stabbing motion. Black and white highlights a serious matter and even severity.

Nightmare on Elm Street 1: 1984

Music - Slow sinister music with a sharp, yet low pitched tone, which could portray the character screaming. Then once the character appears we begin to hear the music gain a higher pitch, highlighting how the villain is unpredictable. We begin to hear the villain laughing and groaning to himself, and at this point the music becomes fast paced. From this we become concerned and start to panic as we feel uneasy hearing the character.

Print Styles - A bold font is used for the text on screen, with the colour red to portray blood. This also connotes danger and some form of a demon in many cases. The word "Nightmare" stands out more than the rest of the text so we infer that this has a significant meaning within the film.

Action - We don't actually see the character's face - Freddy Krueger, in the opening title. Instead we see him making some form of weapon, which we can infer that this has some significance in the film, and is a key part of Kruger's identity.

Friday 13th: Part 3

Music - High pitched music with abrupt violin sounds, almost like a "screech" noise of someone in danger, or suffering badly. It is fairly quick paced and therefore highlights the villain to perhaps be chasing the victim, which we could later on see in the film.

Print Styles - The font is red and bold and almost extends out of the screen using a three dimensional effect. Again like Physco this can portray a stabbing motion; especially as it is red portraying blood on the knife. Supported by the text coming from various angles on screen - the killer's actions are unpredictable. Additionally like a Nightmare on Elm Street the colour red has been used to illustrate danger and blood.

Action - We see a misty background on screen showing how it is an uneasy setting and in a dark place, which is hard to escape from. Along with this the first thing we see on screen is a dead body, which shows how ruthless the killer is within the film.

Insidious 2010

Music - Slow uneasy music makes you curious as to why its so slow with an unpredicted, subtle screeching sound - violin. This makes us very uneasy as to why its so slow.

Print Styles - Text is red like on a Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday 13th, with a gothic style font relating to a demonic presence within the film. At one stage the text appears from a shadow, as it could be showing the killer to come from the unexpected and unknown. The text burns at some stage within the credits, which portrays how the killer is uncontrollable like fire being out of control and a danger.

Action - Shot of the young boy sleeping in bed, showing how harmless he is. This causes us to be intrigued as to what his role is within the film and perhaps how he could emerge as the killer. There's various images of the boys family in their home in black and white, which creates a sinister feel surrounding the innocent family, and that they are in danger.

Scream 1

Music - Creepy voice on the phone and the phone begins to ring, along with a fast paced track and abrupt screeching noise, heard in some of the other opening credits highlighted above. These screeching noises are a combination with drums too, which could portray a have impact of a weapon hitting the victim.

Print Styles - Text is in red portraying blood seen in some of the other credits above, and danger. Its in capitals to show its boldness and a heavy feel.

Action - We firstly see a girl pick up the phone and she is nervous therefore as the audience we begin to share emotions with her before the film has even properly begun. A forest location has been used for the scenery, which is typical of a horror film for the place to be of the unknown.

Saul Bass

Above is a presentation which gives an insight into Saul Bass and what I learnt from his ideas and works on opening titles of a film. From his works I realised that for my own piece of work, I could make it clear of what representation of characters would be seen in the film, and the overall theme by making it intriguing for the audience, and clear that it was a horror.

Rule of Thirds: various other shot types, with camera movements

Lol

Preliminary Task: Video Piece

This piece is our recorded final piece of our preliminary task, from the planning stages of the storyboard and shot list. As you can see from viewing the piece we used match on action where Jack's character of 'Dre' was seen to grasp the handle of the door, then enter the room where we tried as a group to make sure that there was a consistent flow kept between this action, so their was no unnatural movement. In addition we also used the 'shot reverse shot' movement, where by the audience could easily identify Dre and the teacher to have a conversation which flowed naturally with no unnatural movement, like the match on action with Dre entering the room. This made it seem as if the conversation was effectively shown to the audience.

To improve for our final piece, i'd definitely consider using various angles for shots rather than just one the whole way through the piece. For example we could've used a low angle shot in front of the teachers desk, to display her authority over Dre's by using a high angle shot to show him entering the room, which would perceive him as weak and vulnerable against the teacher.

Preliminary Task Planning

Here is our storyboard displaying what will happen within our prelim video. As you can see we still with the main character of who I will play within our group having a tracking shot moving down a hallway. This suggests to the audience we are following the character without them even realising, which audiences may appeal to as we are following the character's story closely. This is just the beginning shot of our storyboard outlines each scene and the story within each one, outlining shot types of the characters.

Below is an explanation of each shot type following from the storyboard, and what each shot will mainly consist of. We will use a variety of six different shot types, to enhance certain scenes and character feelings within the short, recorded piece. We've split our video into three main sections with a plot below which states the three stages of the video. 

Stage One: Missing person or in this case student which has been identified by the school, of who they are attempting to find using available sources.

Stage Two: Head teacher calls Dre to the office knowing that he could have information of this persons whereabouts.

Stage Three: Dre isn't revealing anything to the Headteacher, yet she has suspicions of him knowing of where the missing student could be. She presents a small bag with a white powder substance in and informs Dre of the bag being found in the missing person's locker.

Codes and Conventions of Film Openings

From my research I have found that various film openings share the same conventions as others. I decided to broaden my studies into film openings by researching four very different film openings under different genres. These films were:

- James Bond Casino Royale - Action
- IT The Clown - Psychological Horror
- Ice Age - Children's Comedy
- Star Wars Revenge of the Sith - Sci-Fi


The main similarities within each of these films is that they all displayed some form of text in the beginning displaying the production company, or at least the cast of the film. One film Star Wars, however was different; instead of only including the cast or production company, the film also includes what is known as the 'Opening Crawl' which gives a brief summary of the plot of the film, to the audience informing them of an overall story line. This can be seen below and this opening crawl is seen within all Star Wars films.

We can the theme of the film to be Sci-fi due to the opening text being blue and reading the words 'galaxy', along with a cosmic background of stars, which re-inforces it is a Sci-fi film just within the opening title. The yellow text can illustrate its a Sci-fi film also, as Sci-fi film often use colours such as green, yellow, purple and blue to depict some form of mysterious being, or super natural place. The text also being bold stands out, which could relate to how whats seen in Space is different from anything ever seen before, which the film is presenting.





The theme music of the opening sounds grand like, with violins and other instruments. Its upbeat and drops to a low beat sound, which gives the impression of the story being mysterious, as it is space and the whole idea of entering the unknown. Audiences would be drawn into watching the film as a result of this, along with wanting to know more about the story itself from the opening crawl.

However...

Other films such as James Bond, Casino Royale uses an opening shot of Bond killing a victim of his, which instantly draws the audience into wanting to watching the film, as we are curious as to why this has happened. Along with the the shot of Bond pointing the gun straight at the camera, makes us as the audience feel as if he is targeting us, which also encourages us to watch more.

Personally from my own experience this is more effective when drawing the audience in to the film, then perhaps what Star Wars uses, as it instantly draws you into the film, with a killing scene thrown into the audiences eyes. However we must consider that Bond is an action film, and quick things are meant to happen without questioning, so this opening title fits appropriately under the genre of action.

Colours such as red and black to highlight danger, and death are used which relates to the film being action and based on a secret agent. Red can also imply blood, and the fact the rise en scene consists of figures on the game, 'cards, suggests Bond carries out these killings as if its a game. The fact as well the text appears quickly then goes can relate to the concept of life being short, and death coming to kill around the corner, which is reinforced by a silhouette character of Bond, killing various other silhouettes.




The theme song sounds sinister and is fast paced, giving us as the audience a cold killing impression, which is hard to stop and unpredictable. With the support of the silhouettes having some form of a gun fight. The music is fairly upbeat and almost sounds abrupt, giving the impression that Bond is always on edge, and ready for his next move; relating to the genre of action constantly changing from various events. In addition a guitar string in the music gives a sharp sound, as if it were a knife being sliced which is seen as the Bond silhouette stabs another, which helps to support one another.

Yet...

Between James Bond and Star Wars, there is this theme of mystery and unawareness, which is seen in both films. The opening title displays Bond as a silhouette and therefore he is unknown to his targets, which is reinforced right at the end of the sequence, when Bond's face is covered up by a black shape, implying he is to be kept hidden.

These are just two examples of film openings I researched out of the four when I was researching into film openings.

Trailer Analysis of how women are portrayed within film: Cinderella