Swing

Webpage Ideas

Location - Tree

We believe that this is the best location we have found for our teaser trailer. We will, however, change the swing by making our own from wood and rope in order to create the correct mise-en-scene and feel for the trailer.

Sound

The Secret Garden - Swing Scene

After completing some more research into films that use swings, we discovered that the swing in this scene is most inspirational, this is due to the swing being on a tree and that it is rope, which is what we plan on using and creating the old, worn (used) effect.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Opening Scene

When researching films that use swings within them we came across the opening scene of Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix. In this scene Harry is sat on a swing and the camera shows this through many different angles shots which we found interesting.

First Use of Typewriter for Teaser Trailer

We had many attempts of trying to create typewriter style text appear on the screen with sound that appears diagetic. Our last idea was to create the typewriter text and effect on Power Point and screen capture the slideshow, we then put the video onto iMovie and turned it to black and white, this was because of the only option we had when creating the effect. we then cropped the shot slightly whereby we came out with this.

Research Into Sound Effects

Theme Park Music Inspiration

We decided to all look individually into music and what we think would suit our film. After just listening around, we discovered that theme park music was very inspirational. Although we had previously looked into slow, scary happy birthday music, we found that Thorpe Park's Fright Night radio advert uses similar style music. 

Another inspiration was the advert for the Alton Towers ride, Th13teen. This was due to the wording of the song, similar to the children's song 'teddy bear's picnic'.

Children's Songs & Nursery Rhyme Research

After researching into children's songs and nursery rhymes, we decided to look into the meanings of many of them, the first one we looked into was 'Ring Around the Rosy'.

Ring Around the Rosy

This nursery rhyme has many connections to the Bubonic Plague (The Black Death). The idea of the nursery rhyme is that the symptoms of the the disease was a 'rosy' red rash which was shaped like a ring. Many people believed that if they filled their pockets with a sweet smelling herb (posies) then the plague would go away. The term 'Ashes Ashes' refers to the burning of all of the dead bodies as the death rate was 60% and the plague was only stopped due to the Great Fire of London in 1665.

Teddy Bears Picnic

As this song is not a nursery rhyme, there is not any specific history, however we were interested in the idea that the line 'if you go down to the woods today, be sure of a big surprise' is able to refer well to our trailer idea. we like the idea of the young boy to be singing this song quietly to himself.

Research into Happy Birthday Music

This is our initial idea for non-diagetic music to have playing over the beginning of our trailer. By using a music box version of happy birthday with no voices on it, the song sounds quite creepy and therefore creates the right feel for our genre.

Certification

'15' - Suitable only for 15 years and over

No one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work.

Discrimination

The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

Drugs

Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.

Horror

Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.

Imitable behaviour

Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Language

There may be frequent use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’). The strongest  terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

Nudity

Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

Sex

Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.

Theme

No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

Violence

Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/15-2/

Dark Castle Entertainment

Dark Castle Entertainment is part of Silver Pictures, a production house associated with Warner Bros. It was formed in 1999 by Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis, and Gilbert Adler.

Dark Castle Entertainment's name is closely associated with horror films such as 'Orphan', 'Splice', 'Unknown', 'House of Wax' and 'The Hills Run Red'.

Research into Idents

We looked into a few different idents that we could use for our trailer, the final three we decided on were Dark Castle Entertainment, Twisted Pictures and Lionsgate Entertainment.

After more research we decided that Dark Castle Entertainment would be the best ident for our film trailer.

Initial Costuming Ideas

We have began to look into costuming our young boy, while taking these images, he seemed to be uncooperative so we intend to have another go.

Second Initial Poster Idea

We found some images off google to give ourselves a visual image as to what our poster would be like once we decided our location for the tree which was going to be our image for the poster, this was our design:

Initial Poster Idea

We had a few ideas to what we would like our poster to be like, one using the possessed child on the front of the poster, we decided to try this out as a basic idea to inspire us more before taking other location shots, this was our first draft:

Second Tree Location Shots

Typography Ideas

We looked into a variety of fonts, epsecially what would fit best to our film idea and the title.
We chose six of our favourites:

The first font we picked was the most simple of them all, we liked this font as it was easily readable and had reference to our idea when creating our teaser trailer.

The second font was another typewriter style font, we liked this one slightly more than the first because the text appeared to be breaking away, with the idea that part of the young boy would be broken due to being kidnapped.

The next font was again, typewiter, giving more of a worn, old style effect. We think that this font would be too much for a kidnap type film, although the loss of colour implies loss of childhood from the main character.

This font shows an implication of blood above and below the 'T'. It gives the impression of horror which does not suit our film genre. However we like the font style if it were to be more simple.

The fifth font we looked at looks as if it is created with a paintbrush, this can symbolise the idea of blood and death. We think that this is too much for our film idea and would give the wrong impression to the audience.

The last font we chose was a simple text with blood falling from the individual letters. This was clearly too much, possibly giving the impression of violence and a slasher film.

We decided that our favourite typography was the second, this is because of the simplicity that it brings and does not create any other ideas to the audience.

Links

http://www.thephoenixfoundation.co.uk/
http://www.madeleinefoundation.org.uk/
http://raceforjames.co.uk/news/james-bulger-memorial-trust/
http://www.pollyklaas.org/
http://missingchild.wordpress.com/missing-child-resources/foundations/
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RSWS3C9
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/15-2/

Storyboard

Initial Make Up Shots

After deciding our main character, we wanted to try some shots where he looked possessed.

To create this look we used talcom powder as we though this may create a nice effect but it did not apply evenly so we will look into using facepaints instead.

This was only brief as we were unsure as to what we were going to do. We have decided we need to do more research into both make up and costuming.

Character Ideas

From our questionnaire we have determined who our main character should be and what they are like.

Most popular was it should be a young boy under the age of 5.

We took a variety of front on shots of Harvey, who is 3 years old, playing the part of the kidnapped child.

Initial Tree Location Shots

We had rough ideas as to what our locations would have been like. We imagined the main location to be a wooded area with a suitable tree for a swing with an aesthetically pleasing background.

Our main inspiration for location was the 2006 version of The Omen.

We then found two trees near each other that have the potential to work well, especially with the time of day that we wish to film at.

We have decided that this is our favourite location shot so far, and with the right lighting and time of day this should give the correct effect that we need.

Questionnaire Results

We created a questionnaire on the website SurveyMonkey.com to find out how popular the genre of possession and kidnap were and what the ideal character for our film idea would be. The questions were: