Scene development

 The start of the opening will be the family eating in their home, this is supposed to give a very warm and comfortable vibe until it all switches when we dim the lights and enter the parallel word where the demon, Erebus, threatens to kill the dad.  

Mood here is SUPER sort of off-putting and uneasy. We want the viewer to feel and know like something is wrong and we thing the fast switch from happy to scary is exactly what we need.

The next scene will the car and sort of at this angle.

We wont be using the .5 and it will be shot a little higher, to the point where you can see Erebus in the mirror. We will slowly bring more attention of his presence by either letting Leo notice him and freak out again or some other way, but we for sure want to include him at least in one more tiny bit.

Location scouting

When we first made the plan, we thought we would have the dinner at a restaurant but that was a little challenging to find a restaurant and we didn't have as much customization so we thought best to choose someone's house and we landed on Mia as she has the most open parents to the idea of filming for us as for a scene we need an older man. 

This will be the setting:

We will also be using her porch in the scene where he runs to the car after the dinner ends abruptly.

The next main location would be Sebas's car. We picked his car as he will be acting as Leo and him and Nico are the only ones with a drivers license.

 Here is the inside of the car:

We plan to use something similar to that shot when he first gets in the car, a Dutch shot as well to make it seem as if we are watching him through the monster's eyes, and possibly a darker tint on the shot.

Mia was also nice enough to let us use her dad's home office if we need to record a little bit of the therapist as it resembles an actual office and would work well with our project.

Costumes!

 Just like the last blog on the set and character development, we split up the planning for the costumes into 3 parts, family, Leo, and Erebus.

The families costume is definitely the easiest. We don't know who will be acting as the parents or the sister but we could borrow whoever's parents are hosting the filming and if not, we do have 4 people in our group and if they are all willing to be in the film which I believe they are, we can just use us. Regardless, just regular old teen clothes for the teacher and maybe some clothes from older generations like maybe a plaid shirt for the dad and maybe a sweater over a regular shirt for the mom.

Now for Leo, we want something a little darker, not like all black and emo, but like baggy sweatpants with a sweatshirt to show that sort of depressed teen vibe.

Then, there's Erebus, a pretty good example of what we are trying to give is the killer from Psycho.

All black except maybe some parts but definitely all of the face, including the eyes to add to the mysterious, dangerous aura. Other than that there isn't much else to say, we are trying to keep him as simple and scary as possible.

Audio!

 Now, audio isn't exactly my thing with the whole volume and editing part of it, but in one of our last projects where it was all about audio, I was assigned to make the folly sounds and honestly I had a good bit of fun thinking of all the ways I could make a sound without doing that action.

Now its going to start just with a bunch of regular conversation, maybe about grades or anything and other diegetic sounds like silverware clashing and plates being put down. If you read the script, you would've remembered the part where the demon whips a knife behind Leo's dad's neck. Here we want to add a nice knife "woosh" sound, like how it makes when you swing it through the air. Also an ominous sound leading up to the little switch into the demon world would be super cool.

Then on the run to the car, the main sounds would be the footsteps, the door, and maybe the keys jingling. I think we could make all of these and we'd like to make as many as we can to be able to adjust as much as we can to our liking.

After, in the car, there are going to be more sounds like the engine, the car moving, talking with the therapist, phone ringing, again the ominous sound with the demon in the back, and more. It is going to be harder, if not the hardest part and going to be a big chunk in the audio part of filming, this is in my opinion where most of our time is going to go to with the editing and all that. 

Character development

 Leo, the main character's name which we found after researching boys names, seemed strong and resilient. Coming from the word "lion" and being a symbol of strength seems like a good fit for the guy we have battling a demon.

His development from even the start to the end of the opening is huge. Starting off as a normal kid who is eating with his family to being introduced to his demon and understanding that it has been an issue in the past is a big change.

This is how we want him perceived in a mood board:

 The mood board shows all his depressed teenager side, his haunted side, and his brave side which we think fits him perfectly.

Next character we have to mold is the therapist. Possibly a woman to give a more open and warm type vibe. Again with the time restraints, we don’t want to give the spotlight to the wrong person and we believe leaving her as “the therapist” and as an active side character instead of a main character would be beneficial, at least to the opening. 

And finally, the best(or at least the coolest) for last, Erebus. We aren't doing a fight club type thing where both characters are the same person but the mood board for Leo, at least some parts of it, also give off the vibes we want Erebus to give. 

Some words that describe him could be supernatural, mysterious, and strong. This might be a weird comparison, but we had a substitute teacher and as soon as you walked into the class you could tell he was in charge just off of what he was wearing and his body language and that is exactly what we want for Erebus in his little dark universe.

With any luck we can use the techniques we have learned in the school year and produce everything we are thinking perfectly, or at least close.

Set preparing

 The set preparing is personally my favorite part. All the miniscule details meaning something like what is and isn't in the background. 

For this opening, as I've said there is the dinner scene, the car scene, and also the in between where he rushes from the table to the car.

Now in a regular family, its pretty normal for the father to be at the head of the table as he is in this photo but we believe for filming purposes, Leo being at the head would be better. While a full table does sound good, I'm not sure if anyone is willing to spend too much money so we are probably going to be settling for some fancied up ramen noodles. 

Now, this scene won't have too much preparing, we want this to feel very rushed with many cuts and close ups like him snatching the keys and opening the door with a strong grip.

And then its the car scene. Now we want a homey look, a little used car, stuff in the back, not too messy but definitely not new or perfect. Kind of just a normal kid's car before a demon came back into his life to allow the audience to sort of bond with the protagonist. He'll also be going decently fast, of course a safe speed because we don't want to cause danger but enough to show urgency. Going to his therapist while calling her too which adds to the feeling.

Media Theories

 In film, there are a bunch of theories that make to a good film, one of which is character theory. Our teacher gave us a bunch of theories on a paper that we were supposed to study(here is the paper)

If you couldn't see in the photo, character theory is a theory made by Propp which states that every character in the film falls into 1 of 7 categories. 

Hero: The protagonist

Villain: The antagonist who goes against the protagonist

Dispatcher: The character that sends the protagonist on his journey

Helper: The person who helps the protagonist 

Donor: The character who gives the hero something that helps them a lot

Princess: The person who the hero is looking to save or be with

False hero: Character who seems good but turns on the protagonist

Now so far at the end of the opening, we have been introduced to 3 main characters: Erebus, Leo, The Therapist. Erebus is clearly the villain of the story, haunting the hero, Leo's, head. And the helper is clearly the therapist but might turn into a false hero down the line towards the end of the story.

The Script!

 Well there isn't much to say about the script other than we did it!

The way we are working, I'm sure this isn't final and if we have a bright idea we'll put it in and make the best opening we can.

In-between this blog and the last I also forgot to mention that we found a name for the demon and the movie. We will be calling both "Erebus" which means darkness or death according to Britannica.

Anyways, here is the script:

EREBUS.pdf

How its going!

I know I practically said this whole thing in the last post on what we are thinking but I didn't go too in-depth. What we have in mind is that there is going to be 2 scenes, the dinner with family, and the car scene.

For the dinner scene we will have Leo, the protagonist, and his family all eating happily until his world shifts with a tiny snap and he's in a sort of parallel universe where everyone can see him but he cant see anyone, except for his demon. The demon will be wearing something unusual, like a top hat or tie, and will also be faceless. We plan to get something like a mask, like the ones you use for racing under your helmet(balaclava), but backwards, so it'll just be black. Here is a photo:

We think this will make him extra scary which are the vibes we are trying to give off.

The demon will then slowly approach Leo's dad in fast, spread out steps, where in-between you can see Leo trying to keep his cool and not make a scene in front of his family. The demon will then go behind his dad with a knife which is where Leo draws the line, he stands up and starts yelling which is when he gets snapped back to reality and runs out the house in shame which brings us to our second setting.

In the car Leo will call his therapist in a very urgent matter to tell her that "he's back". During the call we were thinking of playing the credits on the side like I said in the group meeting post and after they are done we will pay attention to the still demon in the back seat that was there the whole time to keep the audience on the edge of their seats, waiting for it to strike.

We don't know how long all of this will take and I personally think it will go a little under which is when we are going to add some of our other ideas that we will hopefully have somewhere down the road.

If time permits, I think it would be cool if during the car scene when the demon is in the back, Leo could feel it but when he turns, it cuts to a POV Dutch angle shot of him looking in the back with him being gone.

Next thing we have to do is the script, then the storyboard, and we are already filming!!

Group meeting!!

 Today in class, our teacher instructed us to sit with people from different projects, helping each other make new ideas and give hints. We went around saying our project ideas and when it got to me, they all surprisingly liked my idea. I knew it was original but not that good! It boosted my confidence and one of the parts where I was having trouble in was where I was going to put the credits and they thought that we could put it in-between the therapy office and the eating scene which we might turn into a family dinner scene. Anyways, we were planning on having a car scene where he calls his therapist, and maybe just replacing the office scene with that, where he calls his therapist about the demon showing up again and the credits rolling in the passenger side of the car.

I CANNOT for the life of me remember the name they suggested, I just remember that it was SOOO good. and with the problem that I found very useful, I think the group meeting helped a lot for me along with a bunch of others.

Here is a photo from the meeting:

 

Challenges in filming

 So far, we already got the green light from our teacher on doing it on a man who from time to time sees a sort of demon that only he can see. We plan to have 2 settings, possibly 3, and the first 2 being a therapy office and a restaurant. 

Now for the restaurant scene, we'd like for there to be a sort of switch where it goes from a happy setting of a man eating, to everyone suddenly being gone and the man seeing his demon but trying not to act out as people can still see him. During his little out of reality time, we would need a setting, same as the last one, but without people and with the lights off. Finding a restaurant that'll allow us to stay after hours to film could be hard but if we call enough places there's probably gonna be at least one! The next setting is gonna be a lot easier, just a room, possibly with like beige walls and the first thing I thought of is the study rooms in the library. Not getting the glass walls might be a challenge but I don't think it would be that hard. 

Next is the recording materials. We want to have a overhead long shot as either a start or end to the opening, so a drone would probably be helpful unless we want to look for it online which might not fit our idea. Thankfully Nico, one of my partners, knows someone and might be able to use it the day of filming. For the other recording equipment I could probably use my parent's or Sebastian, another partner, offered to use his. (here is the camera we plan on using)

Other than that, I think we can film, edit, and submit this project well on time with excellent results.

Credit sequences in the horror genre

 Credit scenes, a lot of people don’t watch them but it’s a very important part of the movie that allows the actor, producer, and anyone else who might’ve participated in the movie in any way to get their name out there or just receive credit. Some credit scenes are in the first few moments of the movie and don't mix with the movie but others, especially recently, have been mixing the credits with the actual movie, contributing a little bit to the mood of the story. 

An example of this could be the movie “us” (2019)

(Here is a link)

They use credit scene with very creepy and loud music and a bunch of bunnies in cages. There is also a single black bunny among the white bunnies which symbolizes a sort of bad or evil with the innocent, good people. This is foreshadowing the actual story which is about a family who there is a evil version of. Along with the bold, red names, this credit sequence for sure adds a lot of feeling to the movie while still showing off the cast.

Another movie called Get Out(2017) which has been recently been gaining popularity because of its stellar acting has a noticeable credit sequence.

In my opinion, less scary than the last, mostly because the song choice on the last really freaked me out, but non the less still invokes fear and most people wouldn't need a second guess to realize this is a horror movie. It features a man stuffing a dead body into the back of his car, then riding off with eerie, classical music being played in the back. Then he rides off and the camera cuts to a shot of inside the car while its moving and the credits being played over it. The second clip is clearly much more normal and light, while the first is very dark which begs the question, "what is under the surface", again a part of the movie.

More of an older movie, "Se7en", has a much more cryptic credit scene.

What you can tell from it is that its definitely horror and someone is trying to cover something up or maybe get clues from something. What ever they are doing it involves cutting their fingers and points to an exciting psychological horror movie. The credits, unlike the last 2 were more in the back and didn't take too much of the spotlight while still being included and acknowledged. 

I liked Se7en's opening much more than the other 2 and plan on adding credits in the back while still giving content as 2 minutes aren't much and we want to use our time wisely.

Timeline

 We've had a fair share of long projects in the class, and its very important to stick to a schedule unless you want to end up doing all of your work last day getting a 60.

1st week(1/29-2/2): Exploring and learning about the project and our possibilities. 

2 week(2/3-2/9): Spent researching our genre, learning and taking notes on how our opening should be. Also start building the story and characters a little.

3rd week(2/10-2/16): Get a little more into production by building the back bones of the project. Location, plot, story board, date for filming, and music. We are a group of 4 so I doubt we need more actors but once we're done with the plot, we'll see.

4th week(2/17-2/23): Start filming and recording voice overs or folly sound

5th week(2/24-3/2): Finish filming and recording and start a bit of the editing

6th week(3/3-3/9): Finish all the editing and start asking around (friends and teacher) on possible improvements.

7th week(3/10-3/16): Do the recommendations given by our peers and teacher, then relax :)

8th week(3/17-3/25): Buffer week, if there are any more necessary revisions or improvements, we'll do them but will probably be done with it by the 7th week.  

If we stick to this with my mates who I trust to follow, I think they can follow it as well and we can finish on time with hopefully some to spare.

3 flim openings in horror

 To get a better idea of horror movie openings, I and my group watched a few and decided to note what we should add into our own openings. 

First movie I researched the topic was Scream(1996):

Its the first of a very long series about a man(or woman) in a black robe and scary white ghost mask. The story seems very wholesome and then the mood completely switches from a nice girl getting a call from a random possible lover cooking food, to the caller being a very creepy and dangerous man who has already killed her boyfriend. We learn all of this in a very intense and fast way that keeps you at the edge of your seat the whole time. During it there is a bunch of very smart mis-en-san like the popcorn boiling over and it being pretty late in the night. The tone of the caller also changed and gave us a completely different feeling on how the movie would go. The black/white colors in the movie also go very well with the movie.

The next movie I and my partners saw was Jaws(1975):

This one was another classic and similar to the last, it starts as what seems like a love story. A boy and a girl running around until the go in the ocean, everything seems good until the boy says he'll wait for her at the beach while she goes into the water because he was too drunk. From there she goes into the water while he sleeps on the sand and she looks fine until again the mood completely changes very fast, the shark grabs the woman by the feet and brings her down into the water where she dies. These 2 are very alike, from the time of day, night, a creepy song being played, and the tone switching from one moment to the next.

If you try to remember any of the openings of horror movies you've watched, you can tell that this is a pretty consistent theme like how in "IT", the movie on the clown, the tone switches when the boy looks into the sewer and a creepy clown pops up and drags him in(here is a link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DJWJ6RP55nU ). It is also very dark and has a song playing, like the last 2.

This is a very common element in horror movies and we plan to use most if not all of them in our own production.

Choosing my genre

Before making the opening, me and my 3 partners had to choose a genre, first 3 that caught my eye were horror, western, and mystery.

A popular horror movie that shows the characteristics of a regular horror film could be The Exorcist(1973):

 

This is an absolute classic and has left a big impact on the genre. Its unsettling visuals, dim lighting, and use of religion along with its themes like exorcism of course and a battle between good and evil is sure to give the bravest people a scare.

I'd say what makes a horror movie good is its ability to do what its advertising...scare you!

The film did so good and became popular because of its ability to do that, all the effects and sounds kept watchers at the edge of their seats and is the reason why it is still talked about over half a  century later.

Another timeless relic of a movie is "The Good, The Bad, And the Ugly"

A western piece made in the 60's but set in the late 19th century, featuring characters like a cowboy, outlaws, and lawmen, instead of their current day counterpart. 

These types of films try to replicate and show what could've happened in that old time and when your thinking western, this is one of the first movies that comes to a fanatic.

Finally, there is mystery. A more recent but still staple of the genre is of course Sherlock Holmes:

Mystery films revolve around resolving a puzzle or finding out the truth on something, usually a crime. There are clues around the movie that hint at an answer so the viewer can make an educated guess and stays watching as the film builds suspense through twists in the story.

What makes a mystery movie good is its ability to keep their audience engaged and guessing, intriguing while still keeping it fun. This might sound easy but its a lot harder than it seems and this 2009 film executes it perfectly.

While it might seem unoriginal and boring, I think that me and my partners could make an excellent horror movie as I think mystery is off the table for its inability to tell a part of its huge story in just 2 minutes, and I don't think we have the skill do produce a decent western film. We are all happy with horror and hope we can make a masterpiece!