Thursday 12 December 2013

Animatics Intertitles: Decisions to choose from

Myself and my group have come up with these intertitles for our films, after also making our own logo of "CutThroat Pictures".

These are our choices for the first inter title




:


This is our choices for our second inter-title:






We chose to style our inter titles like this after watching Sinister's official trailer, which their intertitles were similar, as follows:





We wanted the text in white for the second inter title which says "Coming Soon" as we found it very effective on Shutter Island's trailer:

However, we wanted the colour red for our first inter title that was red and the websites also, because we liked the reference of the "blood" from the colour, like our logo has which represents blood within the colour.
However, we really liked the Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones Trailer where red was a main colour throughout the end inter titles, which we have also decided to put near the end of our trailer, as these trailers we have viewed so far all have put them at the end.

Enhance the red for "Paranormal Activity" to stand out.

This inter title is also similar to ours with the idea of colours, with just plainer font used.

Wednesday 11 December 2013

Scripting:

For the script I wanted to ensure I had a good understanding of what scripts for filming actually looked like, so I took some examples to make sure mine fit well.


First draft on Script

Megan Sanders, Jessica Mann, Harri Evans
Script – Enclosed

Internal: Asylum
Shot of syringes and any other medical props being placed onto a tray. Long shot of Nurse Cecilia walking down asylum corridor. Cecilia opens cell door and turns on the light. Cecilia enters with tray and as she looks around confused and worried expression crosses over her face. Cecilia drops tray and glass smashes. Cecilia’s legs are shown being pushed apart by somebody else’s [patients], and focus on Cecilia’s arm held against the wall. Camera focuses out from the door closing back in the corridor and zooms out, as diegetic voice of Cecilia’s screaming and shouting “No” echoes.
Estimated seconds: 20
External: Asylum Grounds
Doctor arrives at Asylum. Walks up grounds steps and knocks at front door, using knocker. Knocker must be focused on ready for relation back to it at end of trailer. The door creaks open, and the doctor enters.
Estimated seconds: 5
Internal: Asylum
Shot reverse shot sequence. Over the shoulder shot of the doctor sitting down as he stares at the person’s shoulder viewing.
Doctor:
How are you feeling?
Boy:
-Silence-
Doctor:
Where are your parents now, [name]?
Boy:
I don’t know who they are.
Estimated seconds: 15
Flashback sequence;
External: Train Station
Silence from actors. Only sound is a train arriving. Cecilia and her father the Head of the Asylum on the other side of the platform, wide shot. Cecilia hands over a baby in white blanket over to her father. Train goes past, and then once it goes past, Cecilia disappears.
Estimated seconds: 10
Present day;
Internal: Asylum: Head of Asylum’s room
Doctor is searching for documents. Finds file and opens it. Searches through documents until he finds the boy’s name with his birth certificate, showing name of the boy, and the father unidentified, and the mother’s name: Cecilia.
Estimated seconds: 10
Internal: Asylum: Head of Asylum’s room
Doctor:
You need to tell the boy who his real mother is!
HoA:
I needn't tell the boy a thing.
Doctor:
He’s going his whole life thinking his parent’s have given him up by choice!
HoA:
Leave, now!
Estimated seconds: 15
Internal: Asylum: Front side room
Doctor opens a side door after looking around as he brings the mother in.
Doctor:
Your son. He’s escaped.
Estimated seconds: 10
Montage of shots: 1-2 seconds each: Including:
-          Long shot of all the rooms empty
-          Someone running with a knife [unidentified]
-          The mother screaming “No! Stop!” [same thing she said to the patient who violated her]
Estimated seconds: 15-20
Internal: Asylum: Front room
Camera zoom out quickly from front room to outside the asylum focusing on the door as it slams, and then focus on the knocker once again [iconography]
Intertitle:
Enclosed
Intertitle:
Coming soon
[Or together instead of separate?]
Internal: Asylum
Jumpy scene, figure out on shoot.

Friday 22 November 2013

Poster Analysis: Sinister

This film poster is effective straight away as it has a young girl with blonde hair; which would straight away represent innocence, dragging her hand across a cracked wall with what looks like black paint, which falls down the wall to make an evil face. This straight away shows the genre of the film, being psychological thriller, and shows two of the characters, being the villain and the child. The villain and the child obviously have a connection also in the film plot, shown just from this film poster, as the child is touching and connecting with the villain.
The words "Sinister" stand out also for the audience, as the font is in black and the text in capitals; in order to reach the audience and stand out to them for them to remember.
This film poster has used iconography also, by using its biggest symbol of the film which is the tape at the bottom right of the poster on the floor, showing that it has an importance within the film.
This poster has also been clever by using "From the producers of Paranormal Activity and Insidious", in order to reach that specific target audience that had watched these successful psychological thrillers.
It has also used reviews that boost the film by saying; "genuinely terrifying, this will scare the hell out of you", in order to prove itself to the audience. It has used the key words "terrifying" "scare" and "hell" and put it in a bigger font also, in order to relate to the genre that has been used for this film.
The poster has it's credits at the bottom of the poster like the other posters I have analysed also.

Poster Analysis: The Shining

This is the poster used for the 1980 psychological thriller film: The Shining.
It has a blue tint to the whole background image, and the colour blue is strongly associated with tranquility and calmness. However, this is then disrupted by the black colour in the photo, which takes up more room than the blue does, showing that there is a disruption of calmness and tranquility within the film. 
There is also a red bold font with "The Shining" written in capitals, making it stand out to the audience and making them remember the name of the film. 
The main character, Jack Nicholson, is also on the poster, showing that he will be a main character in the film. However, as he is the main image in the film, he has a demented and terrifying look upon his face, making us think that he is the villain within the film. The look on his face also represents the film genre without people wondering what it might be. 
The main character also has a cartoonistic effect; representing the idea that what happens to him and what he becomes is unreal, making him seem even more evil. 
Finally, there are the credits under the title, with the main names standing out in capitals.

Poster Analysis: Shutter Island

New Location:

We found our original location a good location; however it was very difficult to access, as it was far away and hard to get to. We then reserved another place close to us and easily accessible, and today we went there to find out if it would be possible to photograph and film the exterior of the building. However; upon asking for permission, the manager of the building we also spoke to offered us to use the interior also, as the building was hardly in full use and wouldn't mind us using it for our film trailer. The interior was perfect and everything we imagined it would be for the film trailer.

Wednesday 13 November 2013

Target Audience for Similar Films To Our Own

The Shining:
- Mainly male
- Mature audience
- Comprehensible to mature language
I felt this film is similar to ours because the location is all set mainly within a big house/mansion, where it seems almost "enclosed" [relation to our chosen film title] as they are stuck within the mansion where all problems are caused. There is also a clear transformation of personality within this film, which is similar to ours.



Mr. Brooks:
- 18 to 30 year olds, because of it's 18 rating with its violent nature
- Predominately male, with its violent nature stereotypically attracting a mainly male audience
- Kevin Costner [Mr. Brooks] being main character, attracting mainly males, but also opportunity to attract female audience, with use of an attractive main character
I felt this film was similar to ours as it is based on a successful businessman who has an alter ego who commits murders, whereas ours has a similar context as it's based on a boy who has been considered as being a victim of "schizophrenia" in an asylum, when he actually does not have this mental illness.

Shutter Island:
- Male and female audience
- Males attracted through heroic and main characters being male, opportunity for males to admire them
- Females attracted through the attractiveness of both main characters, Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo
- 18 to 40 year olds
I felt this film was similar to our own because it was based in a mental unit, likewise with ours. It also had an opposite effect within the film to ours, where Teddy Daniels is thought to be a detective, whereas it turns out he is actually a patient within the firm. Our film, goes against this, where our main character of the boy is a patient within the asylum, but it turns out he was actually submitted for the wrong reasons, and does not have any case of schizophrenia.

Target Audience

Gender:
Male and Female.
- Male is attracted through the majority of the characters being male. Some heroistic males also.
- Female is attracted through the maternal love for the son from the mother, as she wanted him to be looked after, although it wasn't successful.

Age:
25-40.
- This age audience would be attracted and targeted because they're most likely to be parents of young children of the son in the film, so they would understand from the mother's point of view. We also thought they would have a more mature mindset for the film, so they could understand the complexity within the film.

Class:
Middle class.
- I think this will be the targeted class as the jobs within the film are middle class, with a head of an asylum which would have a high paid job, and a psychiatrist, who would also have a high paid job, making a middle class audience be able to relate to it more. They will also have a higher disposable income, meaning they're more likely to pay to watch it in a cinema.

Interests:
I think our target audience would have the following interests:
- Big fan of watching films
- Have an interest in mental illnesses
- Enjoy psychological thrillers

Favourite Films:
The Machinist
- Because it contains insanity
The Silence of the Lambs
- Mental illness involved
Black Swan
- Classy film with insane references