More Prop Ideas

Here are a few more prop options. Props are very important and can make our short preview more realistic and also add to the theme of the production. eg. if we were to do a american styled film. Wearing American clothes with American styled props can add to the effect, and capture the audiences attention .



Costuming the Character

We haven't decided who will use for our character yet, whether they are male or female. Our main character is a student and the clothing needs to be generic 'student look', otherwise it could be seen as discrimination against a particular group of people.The costume they will need to wear will need to be 'popular' culture clothing so we can target a wider audience and not be predjudice against stereotypes. This clothing cannot be gothic, emo, plastic or too sporty looking because this provides the audience with an attachment to the character, something to relate to and hopefully go, 'they were just like me', which adds extra spookiness to the film and post-film experience.

The male choices for clothing:

The women's choice for clothing:

Prop Ideas

Props that will be used within our video.

Treatment

Programme: The Class of 96' (Working Title)

Duration: 90 minutes approx.
Feature length film. With a suggested release for Halloween holidays, as it is an appropriate theme relating to the time of year, we also suggest mainly late showings at cinemas, as this is a popular idea for films qualifying as scary.

Audience: We are targeting thriller movie lovers of a 15-25 age category, no specific gender target, but they probably will have an interest in the supernatural.

Resume: A new student (Evan Yates) and his friends (Anna Thornton and Luke Walters) move into recently refurbished halls of residence at their new university; this building hasn't been in use for over 15 years. A few odd things start to happen (moving objects, strange noises, flickering lights), which eventually begin to affect the students living there, with some even moving out. They find out from another student that the building used to be a hospital ward for those needing psychiatric help, and that some of the old residents still 'live' there. These ‘ghosts’ want to make the students leave, and they try all sorts of high jinks to scare them, finally by taking drastic measures of actually injuring them.

The ‘ghosts’ are supposedly never seen, but Anna can see them, not that she admits this to her friends. She eventually admits that she can see them, before being injured herself. Without Anna’s help the ‘ghosts’ can’t be stopped, and the students flee. This film will explore conspiracies people never believed in, such as ghosts, floating objects etc. Forcing the viewer to re-think everything they ever shunned or believed in.
  
Suggested elements:
a) Original music from new artists.
b) Montage and flashbacks to the days when the building was used as a former mental institution for the criminally insane.
c) First person narrative voiceover.

d) Contrasting and grainy flashbacks.

'Paranormal Activity 2' Trailer

Paranormal activity gives the same feel as intended to the one we are filming as there are obvious similarities such as floating objects/ doors banging shut etc... this was therefore the source of inspiration for our own film.

EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (1990) Opening Titles

Like the credits from the film se7en this too gives a scary feel to the audience as the producers have used a blue filter to create a more dynamic feel for example at the beginning the blue filter against the snow flake gives a very cold/wintery/miserable/gloomy affect which shows the film isn't going to be a more negative based film. The same affect from the blue filter is used through all of the opening whilst the credits are being shown.

Se7en (Opening Credits)

The opening credits to this certain film were eye catching and to me deviate from the norm as they use a mixture of fonts/images and colours to create a certain ''creepy'' feel when watched by the audience. ultimately leaving the audience eager to watch and drawn in before the film even starts. Another reason this film was chosen by me was that the title is also different from those of a normal film as the letter V is replaced by the number 7 to emphasise the title and also gives the feel that number is a vital aspect to the film.

Drafts and Target Audience

We have the idea of our opening of the two minute film we are going to produce storyboarded and type of shot listed. So now we are looking at the type of audience we are aiming for. Many ghost films are rated 15 because they pose frequent psychological threats in their films which may disturb a younger child. Our film may also contain explicit language unsuitable for younger teenagers, but will be in context with the action sequences portrayed within the film.

Most films try to go for the middle of the road demographically, not too conservative in their ways, not too abstract, this then reflects the majority of the population. As proven in recent research of 2008, men and women over 25 like the polar opposites of film genres. So our film needs to try to remain mainstream and possibly draw on real life experiences a majority of the audience has gone through. So our intial idea of basing the film on a new university student is current and relates to our probable target audience. Currently our target audience is in the region of 15 - 25.

The Haunting (1963) Trailer

We like the trailer for this film, because for the era it was made it was very scary in context. This is because, the ghost element of the film doesn't use an actor dressed up in bed sheets or anything obvious, and instead plays an internal trick of the mind. They use sound effects and props moving by theirselves, to fully create the element of the unseen supernatural.

The Sixth Sense - Original Theatrical Trailer

The trailer uses the most iconic lines from the script, and to demonstrate the change of scene or location, they use a transition similar to a camera flash. This is similar to the strobe lighting transitions in the opening credits to the film Se7en. This seems to be a common feature of ghost films, as it scares the audience and draws them in. Using fear or comedy is used in trailers to manipulate a response, which either interests the viewer or not.

Background Research

Finished the preliminary exercise, and have started to brainstorm ideas for our final project. Our major genre of film we'd like to do is a ghost/ haunted house sort of thing, and we like the idea of not actually showing a ghost in the film, but still giving a ghostly presence. We took this idea from watching trailers of The Haunting (1960's version). This way we'll avoid continuity issues with an extra actor and provide an extra spook factor.

Looking at other ghost film trailers we noticed that fast editing was used to create suspense, this is something we may try to incorporate into our work. We also concluded that every ghost film title starts with... The (something). So the title of our film needs to be catchy to stay in the genre naming trick.