Research and Planning: Paranormal activity 3.

Over the weekend Keisha and I decided to go to see Paranormal activity 3 as this is the same genre of our film and it also is filmed all hand held just like we want our film trailer.  Here are some of the things we found out:

• There needs to be a record sign at the bottom of the screen.
• Also a timer to show how long it has been recording for.

It also shown us that the hand held camera can be make a horror more effective as Keisha and I was more on edge as it was hand held.

Research and Planning: Treatment changes

When Keisha and I was doing our animated story board we made a few changes to our treatment and here is our changes:

• MPPA warning to last approximately 3 seconds
• Cut to production companies again to last 3 seconds
• Static for 2 seconds
• Shot of hand held camera of characters feet running
• Cut to a mid shot of a newsreader "breaking news...over to the scene"
• Straight cut to a long shot of news reporter at the vandalised camp fire, with crime scene investigators in the background and police tape all over.
• Rewind footage -speeded up to last around 4 seconds. 
• Equilibrum of teens sat round the camp fire, talking about the myth of the scarecrow.  Hand held camera.
• Flashes to newspaper reports of 'teenagers missing' with a sepia effect.
• Cut black.
• Subtitle of myth of the scarecrow "dating back to 1960's" and a photo of the scarecrow. sepia effect.
• Montage of teens panicking.
• 'coming soon' subtitle
• Canted frame of a body being dragged by the scarecrow
• Quick cut to title of film.  

Research and Planning: Equipment and software list

This is what I will be using to complete my film trailer, poster and front cover:

• Video recorder (canon mini dv) to shoot my teaser trailer. 
• Apple mac computers to complete my work in college. 
• Canon SLR to take pictures of my models for my front cover and poster. 
• Garage band to make my soundtrack for our teaser trailer.
• Iphoto to upload my photos onto my computer. 
• Photoshop to make my poster and front cover.
• The internet to use blogger, youtube and to research. 
• Imovie and Final cut to create my teaser trailer. 

Research and Planning: Treatment

After getting feedback of my class and teacher I have decided to go with the idea of a 'The scarecrow curse'.  Here is a rough idea of what might happen in the trailer:

• It starts of with the MPAA warning, this will last approximatly 4 seconds.
• Then title prodcutions with off-screen diagetic sound off the teenagers asking if the camera is on.
• We then have static and then the camera comes on showing feet running and people falling over.  We want this in sepia. This will be a hand held camera.
• The camera then goes dead.
• We then have subtitles with the background as a newspaper article of missing teenagers. 
• We then have a cut to black then a cut to a clipping out of a book talking about the myth of the scarecrow.
• It then goes to a rewind of the camera including a off screen diagetic sound of the rewind noise. 
• Equilibrium of the teens sat round the campfire talking about the myth, using a static long shot from the scarecrows POV.  We are having on screen diagetic sound of chatting and music. 
• Editing then becomes quicker with a cut to black with a film review then a montage of clips theses will be a mix between close ups and jump cuts. Theses will be chaotic and people being chased ect. We have a quick glance of the scarecrow while all the chaos is going on.  
• The atmosphere then goes calm with a trough with static camera work of a long shot of the empty campfire with the teens stuff threw all over.  Showing something has been there. 
• Then we have another static shot then the camera (which the teenagers have been using) on the floor showing the empty vandalized campfire and the scarecrow looking round. 
• Cut to black with 'coming soon' 
• Back to hand held camera of teens running then they drop the camera and a fade to someone picking up the camera and then cut to title of the film.  

Research and Planning: Props list

As I am doing Mise-en-scene I want to start thinking about what props, costumes and settings I will want.

Scarecrow

As we want to have a scarecrow as part of our film, Keisha and I are going to make it using ideas from the internet and own knowledge.  Here are some ideas of what we will need:

• Old jeans or trousers to cut and make them look raggy.  Asda - £5 easy fit jeans.
• A dark tweed jacket or a dirty old shirt which will be ripped.
• Straw for his insides. Asda - £5 short sleeve shirt
• A potato bag for his face, and material to make his features out of.
• A pair of bootsWynsor world of shoes - £15 rockstorm skipper mens lace up boots.
• Rope
• Safety pins Asda

Camping trip
As they are camping here are somethings that we may use.

• A torch Asda - £5
• Camcorder From our media class
• Tent Asda - £60 2 man tent
• Fake bird (for on the scarecrows shoulder) One of our own
• Water (to pretend its alcohol)
• Mobiles phones Our own
• Ipods (maybe Ipod docks) Our own
• Logs to sit on
• Camp fire
• Winter clothing  Our own
• Wellies Asda - £5

• Food (sweets) Asda £1

Research and Planning: Group meeting 2/proposals

Keisha and I are going to discuss our ideas on this post, including cinematography, editing, mise-en-scene and sound.

• Plot one A group of teenagers decide to go camping as a celebration of finishing college.  They find a plot of land, and set down to camp.  However things turn bad as a mad killer lumberjack is around in the isolated woods. We have a final girl scenario.
• Cinematography: Majority of the camera work will be hand held, with elements of static.  We have decided to do it like this as this will show the emotions of the characters. e.g. when the character is scared the camera will be shaky.  
• When it is still it will be from the scarecrows point of view, as if it is watching the characters every move. We want to have the scarecrow in shots at all times to show the scarecrow is watching them.
• We want to have long shots and wide shots from the scarecrows point of view to show the surroundings and the atmosphere. We also want to have close ups and medium close ups to show the characters emotions.  We also want low angle tracking shots to show the chases. 
• Editing:  We will have the MPAA warning sign, followed by studio production . We would like it to begin with an introduction of what the students are doing by using subtitles and scenes of them setting up the equipment, using fades.  Then as the storyline is hitting its peak we would like to use montage of clips from the film using quick editing. We then want a quick flash of the name of the film, a picture of a scarecrow and then the release date. 
• Sound: At the beginning of the trailer we want off-screen diagetic sound of a person asking if the camera is on, while the screen is on the film production companies, this shows the characters are in charge of the camera and also puts the audience in the position where they can hear but not see whats going on making them feel unaware.  It also introduces the characters and how old they are ect. We then want tension building music as the montage of shots are shown.  This helps build the tension up and compliments the fast editing. 
• Mise-en-scene: Our main setting is in a woodland area, at sunset/night time, to give it a dark feeling but also makes it realistic.  The teenagers will be wearing casual winter clothing, eg. coats, wellies, gloves ect.  We will also have a camp fire, logs to sit on, tents to set the camping vibe. We will also have a scarecrow on a cross in distance but close enough to see it. 
• Plot two A group of teenagers decide to go camping for a weekend to investigate on an old myth of the 'curse of the scarecrow'. As they don't believe this legend they start to annoy the scarecrow by poking and prodding it.  Then things start going wrong with the students going missing one by one. 

Cinematography, editing, mise-en-scene and sound as above.

•  Plot three Again the teenagers go camping and they find a plot of land near a old haunted pub, as things start to wrong the students decide to call it a night and split up. However some of the students stay and bump into the mad lumberjack killer and to escape they go to the old pub and find a nasty surprise. 

Cinematography, editing, mise-en-scene and sound as above. 

Research and Planning: Garage band

In class we started to experiment with garage band.

Research and Planning: London research

Here are some pictures from London which might help me with my film project.  We went to The London Film museum and there was a horror room with a film trailer been shown and some props which was relevant to my film trailer.  We then also went to BFI media technology room where we watched Peeping Tom and Sweeney Todd. This helped us look at different mise -en -scene, sound, cinematography and editing.  We also went to Madame Tussaud's and we saw more wax models of horror characters.