Thursday, 31 January 2013

Friday, 25 January 2013

Main Task: Action Plan

Here is the action plan for TwinPine films up to the final piece for our main task. The week commencing 28th January we plan to finish the storyboard and shot list, completing the process of planning therefore we will be ready to commence filming the week commencing 4th February. After Half Term on the week commencing from the 18th February we as a group will converse about what draft of the edited piece we will move forward with as each group member will edit the piece their way and as a group we will choose the best to edit further as a team, adding sounds. On the week commencing 25th February we will be editing the chosen piece and polish it by adding a soundtrack.




Thursday, 17 January 2013

Main Task Research: The importance of sound in Horror films

Sound in horror movies is very important to build up tension and create an eerie threatening atmosphere that gets the audience on the edge of their seats. Sound is important at all times in a horror movie whether it is during the introduction, halfway through the film or at the ending. Sound determines the success and failure of creating a scary tense atmosphere, for example a song like this would never make it into a horror movie.



The main types of music associated with horror movies are original scores for the film (e.g Halloween opening theme song) or heavy metal music (e.g The Freddy vs Jason soundtrack). Sound used to create the appropriate atmosphere includes a slow tempo that gradually gets faster as seen in Jaws. Music like that gets the audience's adrenaline pumping through their system therefore they feel either anxious or exhilirated which is the mood that the director wants the audience to feel. The deep bass rumble that is cliche for tension building moments in horror movies always gets the audience on the edge of their seat in anticipation of something about to happen whether it be a killer or just a fake scare. Horror movies are also praised for their chilling emphasis on sound.







The genre of music most likely to be utilised in a horror movie is Metal e.g Slipknot. The reason for this is that heavy metal and rock is associated with violence and death as people's perception of metal bands and fans are that they are really dark, psychotic, strange and violent and horror is what they associate with this sort of music. Examples of metal used in horror can be seen in the adaptation of Anne Rice's novel 'Queen of the Damned (2002)' in which bands such as Disturbed and Static X are used for the soundtrack with the songs 'Down with the sickness' and 'Cold'. A heavy metal soundtrack is also used in Resident Evil (2002) with Slipknot and Marilyn Manson the two main acts behind the soundtrack with Slipknot providing a new mix of "My Plague". Horrors grew out of the original score trend and entered into using music already recorded as seen in Freddy vs Jason (2003) (A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th along with Halloween were quite famous for their original music). Here is the opening song to Freddy vs Jason.

Main Task Planning: Location

For "Murder Studies" here are the locations in which we will be filming for the opening 2 minutes.


                                             Media studies iMac room for classroom scene



                                                    School Corridor for the chase scene



School staircase for chase scene

Thursday, 10 January 2013

Main Task planning: Screenplay


Screenplay for “Murder Studies”

 
School Classroom, Afternoon, Media Lesson

 A male teacher is standing in the front of a modern day sixth form media classroom with rows of iMacs.

 
TEACHER: Now that you have finished your independent research for your task you must now plan what you are going to film for your new Horror movie. The minimum length of this movie must be no more than 60 minutes long. The deadline for the finished product will be....

 
The teacher’s voice and background noise is blurred out as the camera now focuses on Fred, a student in the teacher’s Media class. Fred has a completely blank emotionless expression on his face. The background is blurred out with the noise as the focus is completely on Fred. The camera slowly tracks in on Fred with a slow heartbeat starting in the background. Fred begins to hear screams of murder victims and as the heartbeat begins to build a gradually faster tempo the sound effects of Fred’s visions -that the viewer does not witness- begin to gradually get more potent and violent, screams build volume.

 School Corridor/ wing, Night, Fred’s vision.

 
A killer is chasing a girl trying to catch and possibly kill her, the camera angle is following the victim from the Killer’s point of view. The killer gains on his victim and as he gets into touching distance of his victim....

 
School Classroom, Afternoon, Media Lesson

 
A fake scare as the teacher suddenly slams an exercise book down on Fred’s desk in front of him.

 
TEACHER: Stop daydreaming Fred and go sit with your group.

 
Fred looks down at his book and finds “Murder Studies” across his book cover, a deep bass rumble as the words appear in the shot.

 As Fred gets up to go sit with his group the camera blurs out the entire focus of the camera.