Production Film Opening - Resultant Footage

Planning Film Opening - Main Influences - Insidious

Firstly, I chose Insidious due to it using many conventions of the horror genre which inspired me to make my film opening similar to it. For example, the mise-en-scene used were dim lighting, which makes an eerie atmosphere by (using Barthes enigma theory) using the hermeneutic code which does not give a clear storyline which then makes the audience wonder what will happen next, therefore they will want to watch more. In my film opening, I will include dim lighting by filming in the dark and using candles to give a little light and create a tense and frightening atmosphere. Using Barthes enigma theory, my aim was to mainly use the symbolic and proairetic code to symbolise the danger which was about to commence and therefore making the audience want to watch more.

In addition, the location is at a house, which I will also be doing in my film opening as my storyline is a stereotypical teenage horror/thriller genre movie, which includes sleepovers and death. Houses are also a stereotypical location for psychological thriller films as it seems more realistic to the target audience watching and therefore take more interest into it. Using Barthes Enigma Theory, the proairetic code is used, which builds tension and refers to an action or event that may occur, which then makes the watcher want to watch more. This code also works with the hermeneutic code to develop the story's tensions to keep the watcher interested. However in my film opening, I will be using a low angle point of view shot on the house, whereas this trailer for Insidious just uses a point of view shot and shows a wider image of the house.
Also, both Insidious and my film opening are set in modern times (21st century), which is shown in Insidious by the modern house at 1:33, whereas old fashioned houses were made of straw roofs and wooden beams. This helps the film be sold at a wider scaled audience and the film itself will seem more realistic, therefore the target audience watching will be feared more which is the main aim of producing a horror/thriller genre film.

Moreover, the editing used are fade-in's, fade-out's with credits at 1:30-3:42 which are used at a slow paste to create tension and blackouts were used to maintain the tension and make the audience watching wonder what will happen next (proairetic code) at 1:27-1:30. Also, a few fast cuts were used when showing the main title with the use of loud non-diegetic sounds of screeching violins and heavy drums at 1:20-1:27. This is another key convention of the horror/thriller genre as loud music and fast cuts are used to frighten the audience and make them jump. Insidious used this to then show their title after is and make it zoom in a little towards the audience to make sure that the audience will remember the film as it is frightening and the text and font used is dark but old fashioned, with the colour blood red to connote danger, anger and lust.

Furthermore, the cinematography used were close up shots at 2:45 of a woman sleeping. Close-ups are used to emphasise the characters emotions and makes the audience sympathise with them. However at 3:35 in the Insidious film opening, the close up is used to focus on the woman sleeping to distract the audience from other events that may spoil the storyline or may occur in the future. In addition, another close up shot is used at 3:30 to show a portrait image of a happy family, whom are stereotypically victims in horror/thriller films because they're more sedimental and therefore more likely to be vulnerable when an event occurs. However in my film opening, I will be using two teenagers as my main victims as the story plot includes them playing with tarot cards and facing their dreadful fait. 

















Also, medium shots are used to give the viewer a partial view of the scenery within the house, which is also used with a point of view shot as if the audience themselves are walking around the house (which is also shown by the use of panning used at 0:37-1:20).





Using Young and Rubicam's 4C's model, Insidious is aimed at the strugglers due to them seeing themselves as victims whom seek escape, therefore they tend to watch more sic-fi and horror movies. They are ranked E/D audience as people whom are ranked C and above are the succeeders and explorers whom are people who tend to be driven by discovery and have a strong goal orientation and are more organised. They also tend to watch things such as documentaries and films based on real life stories such as war or period films. Therefore in conclusion, my horror/thriller film The Sleepover will be aimed at the strugglers due to them being the main target audience when it comes to producing horror/thriller films. 
Using the GEARS model, my film wouldn't be ideal for young children as they will be too scared and horror genre films are too graphic, whereas elderly people will find it boring as it's not realistic and prefer to watch documentaries. Therefore my target audience will be aged 15-21.

By Rebecca Harris

Textual Analysis - The Woman In Black

Woman In Black Film Opening - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z_XetLZlqc&t=2
The film Woman in Black (2012) is a film of the Horror/Fantasy genre and was Directed by James Watkins and Written by Susan Hill. The film's main protagonist is Daniel Radcliffe.

Storyline (IMDB)
In London, solicitor Arthur Kipps still grieves the death of his beloved wife Stella on the delivery of their son Joseph four years ago. His employer gives him a last chance to keep his job, and he is assigned to travel to the remote village of Cryphin Gifford to examine the documentation of the Eel Marsh House that belonged to the recently deceased Mrs Drablow. Arthur befriends Daily on the train and the man offers a ride to him to the Gifford Arms inn. Arthur has a cold reception and the owner of the inn tells that he did not receive the request of reservation and there is no available room. The next morning, Arthur meets solicitor Jerome who advises him to return to London. However, Arthur goes to the isolated manor and soon he finds that Eel Marsh House is haunted by the vengeful ghost of a woman dressed in black. He also learns that the woman lost her son drowned in the marsh and she seeks revenge, taking the children of the scared locals.

Aims and Objectives of Film Openings
There are many purposes of a film opening. They are very similar to film trailers however there are also many differences. The main purposes are to set the scene of the film, the genre and also gives information to the audience about actors. The opening also has to entertain and pull in the audience otherwise they will get bored and want to stop watching. The opening will either show a scene from the plot that is based in the past to give the audience a bit of historical knowledge of the film. Or a scene from the future to give them something to watch out for within the film and also gives an enigma to the film as it will leave the audience asking questions on how the story gets to where is it. 

The opening scenes of The Woman in Black include a lot of audio ranging from both diegetic and non-diegetic sounds, a victorian style house with three young girls and a lot of creepy props ranging from everyday furniture to children's toys. The overall effect of this opening scene is very eerie and mysterious. This is due to specific usage of camera angles and also through the acting. Just like any other form of media entertainment, the main purpose of this film is to entertain and allow for the audience to escape from reality. The opening scene not only entertains but also entices the audience to carry on watching as there is a clear enigma within the film. This links to, similar to the Insidious opening scene, Barthe's Enigma Theory. 

The camerawork within the opening of The Women in Black includes a large range of camera angles and shots to capture the mise-en-scene of the film. There are a lot of different shots used to capture many different things about the film. For example, The time it's set in and the locations. Many different shots were used, such as long shots, to establish the location of the film which is a victorian styled mansion. We know this because of the mise-en-scene itself with the old windows and curtains shown within long shots. There are also close-up shots showing props and costumes which again establish the era of when this film is set. These close-up shots show old china tea sets and dated toy dolls. Medium shots show a group of three young girls all dressed in dated white dresses. These costumes seem to be in, again, the Victorian style. The use of these shots establish the setting of the film and also the era in which the film is set. There is a use of shot reverse shots to show that all of the girls are playing together happily. However, a use of a single long shot that is positioned in bird's eye view changes this happy atmosphere. The use of this bird's eye long shot makes the three girls seem venerable, small and powerless which then creates tension and suspense within the audience. The next sequence of shots reveals an eye-line match with the three girls looking out of frame to a window, which is then shown to the audience in the next shot. This is when Barthe's Enigma Theory becomes present within the opening. The audience will start to wonder why the three girls abruptly stopped playing and looked towards the window. This creates ominous tension within the atmosphere which will tell the audience something is wrong may leave them feeling uneasy. The next long shot of the girls shows them getting up from the ground in synchronisation. They then begin to walk towards the window. Furthermore, close-up shots are shown. Within these shots, we can see the props shown before being dropped and trampled over as the girls eerily walk towards the window. More long shots are shown as the girls all open the three windows together and simultaneously jump out. What's revealed in these shots creates an atmosphere of fear and also creates an enigma. Because of this, the audience would want to continue watching to find out why the girls jumped out of the windows. They also hint towards what conventions are featured within the film as it seems that the girls have been possessed in some way or forced to jump out of the windows.

I only analysed the camerawork of The Woman In Black as Insidious was not varied in shot types and we wanted to have more ideas about what kind of shot types were used in horror films. From this analysis of Camerawork, we took the following shot types and intend to use these in the main film; Close-Up shots and Establishing shots that show location.
The reason that I did not analyse the Mise-En-Scene, Editing and Sound for The Woman In Black was because, as a group, we already decided that our main influence was Insidious and did not want to stray from our original influence.

Planning Film Opening - Title Ideas for Film Opening

For the title of our film we wanted to have a different and unique title yet short and simple. We narrowed down our titles to "The Sleepover" and "Teenage Massacre" as these told the audience a lot about the film without having a long title. Both of these titles are also easily remembered and have an eerie effect on the audience when combined with the genre. Overall we chose "The Sleepover" as this is a title of a film that has not yet been created and also linked to our film and the genre in an ominous way.

Planning Film Opening - Call Sheet

Planning Film Opening - Production Budget Proposal

Overall, the group had a very low budget due to having a member of our group, Tim, allowing us to film our opening scene in his house, the makeup and having majority of the props such as the candles and a knife. He also purchased the meal which was the bottles of water due to the whole cast eating before arriving at the filming location. In addition, I provided the group with the tarot cards. 

Having a low budget helped my group as we didn't have to spend a lot of time filming therefore this helped us have more time to edit the film opening, and make any changes such as more filming incase there was a lack of continuity editing or an error in the lighting or equipment used.

Planning Film Opening - Risk Assessment

RISK ASSESSMENT FORM
Shoot date: 29/03/17		Production Title:  The sleepover		Page      1      of     2
		Producers: Tim, Ryan and Rebecca.

Location: Tim’s House
Address:

300 Fold Croft

Harlow, Essex

CM20 1TJ

RATINGS:

·       each risks severity on scale from Negligable (N), Low risk (L), Moderate risk (M), Severe (S), Very severe (V)

·       each risks likelihood on scale from Very unlikely (VU), Unlikely (U), Possible (P), Likely (L), Very likely (VL)

·       risk factor from the table overleaf.

Hazard		Present?	Severity	Likelihood	Risk Factor
1	Alcohol/drugs	no	N	VU	0
2	Animals/insects	yes	L	VU	1
3	Audiences	no	N	VU	0
4	Camera cable/grip equipment	yes	M	P	3
5	Confined spaces	yes	L	U	2
6	Derelict buildings/dangerous structures	no	N	VU	0
7	Electricity/gas (other than normal supplies)	no	N	VU	0
8	Fatigue/long hours	no	N	VU	0
9	Fire/flammable materials	yes	L	U	2
10	Hazardous substances	no	N	VU	0
11	Heat/Cold/extreme weather	no	N	VU	0
12	Laser/strobe effects	no	N	VU	0
13	Machinery/industrial/ crane/hoist	no	N	VU	0
14	Materials - glass, non-fire retardant set materials	yes	L	P	3
15	Night operation	yes	M	P	3
16	Noise – high sound levels	yes	L	U	1
17	Non standard manual handling	no	N	VU	0
18	Public/crowds	no	N	VU	0
19	Radiation	no	N	VU	0
20	Scaffold/Rostra	no	N	VU	0
21	Smoking on set	no	N	VU	0
22	Special effects/explosives	no	N	VU	0
23	Special needs (elderly, disabled, inexperienced)	no	N	VU	0
24	Specialised rescue/first aid	no	N	VU	0
25	Stunts, dangerous activities	no	N	VU	0
26	Tall scenery/suspended ceilings	no	N	VU	0
27	Vehicles/speed	no	N	VU	0
28	Water/proximity to water	no	N	VU	0
29	Weapons	yes	M	P	2
30	Working at heights	no	N	VU	0
31	Working overseas	no	N	VU	0
32	Other risks	Stairs	M	P	3

Calculate the Risk Factor:

	Very Unlikely	Unlikely	Possible	Likely	Very Likely
Very severe	3	4	4	5	5
Severe	2	3	3	3	5
Moderate	2	2	3	3	3
Low	1	2	2	3	3
Negligible	1	1	2	2	3

Decide the action to take:

5	Very severe	Take immediate action
4	Severe	High priority
3	Moderate Risk	Programme for action
2	Low Risk	Action may be required
1	Negligible	Probably acceptable

Then list each risk identified

Hazard no: 2			Risk Factor (1-5): 1
Description	Pet cat
Person(s) exposed (detail if cast/crew (C), outside company (O) or public (P) )	Cast and crew can be exposed and can be scratched or tripped over by the cat. (C)
Action to take	Make sure the cat is out of site.
Person/company responsible for action	Mavis Productions
To be completed at agreed later date
Exposed person(s) informed? (y/n)	y	Agreed action taken? (y/n)		y	Risk removed? (y/n)		y

Hazard no: 4			Risk Factor (1-5): 3
Description	Camera cable/grip equipment.
Person(s) exposed (detail if cast/crew (C), outside company (O) or public (P))	Cast and crew exposed to any cables on the floor as they may trip over. The equipment can be knocked over.
Action to take	Make the cast aware to stay away from the cables and if passing, to mind their step. Make sure the equipment is in a safe place where it’s not going to be knocked over.
Person/company responsible for action	Mavis Productions
To be completed at agreed later date
Exposed person(s) informed? (y/n)	y	Agreed action taken? (y/n)		y	Risk removed? (y/n)		y

Hazard no: 5			Risk Factor (1-5): 2
Description	Confined spaces- Living room in a house
Person(s) exposed (detail if cast/crew (C), outside company (O) or public (P) )	Cast and crew can be cramped into one space and damage equipment.
Action to take	Only let a certain amount of people in the room at a time.
Person/company responsible for action	Mavis Productions
To be completed at agreed later date
Exposed person(s) informed? (y/n)	y	Agreed action taken? (y/n)		y	Risk removed? (y/n)		y

Hazard no: 9			Risk Factor (1-5): 2
Description	Fire/flammable materials- candles
Person(s) exposed (detail if cast/crew (C), outside company (O) or public (P) )	The cast can knock over the candle and may catch something on fire. The cast themselves can burn themselves.
Action to take	Advise cast to stay away from the candles.
Person/company responsible for action	Mavis Productions
To be completed at agreed later date
Exposed person(s) informed? (y/n)	y	Agreed action taken? (y/n)		y	Risk removed? (y/n)		y

Hazard no: 14			Risk Factor (1-5): 3
Description	Materials - glass, non-fire retardant set materials Glass windows, glass cups, ornaments.
Person(s) exposed (detail if cast/crew (C), outside company (O) or public (P) )	Glass can be displaced and smashed, which can expose the crew and cast by them being cut, therefore first aid is needed.
Action to take	Make sure there is a first aid kit and warn the crew and cast and make them aware of how to use these props.
Person/company responsible for action	Mavis Productions
To be completed at agreed later date
Exposed person(s) informed? (y/n)	y	Agreed action taken? (y/n)		y	Risk removed? (y/n)		y

Hazard no: 15			Risk Factor (1-5): 3
Description	Night operation- working in the dark, use of lights out.
Person(s) exposed (detail if cast/crew (C), outside company (O) or public (P) )	Tripping over equipment due to the lack of light can expose crew and cast.
Action to take	Make sure that the floor is clear and that the surroundings are safe.
Person/company responsible for action	Mavis Productions
To be completed at agreed later date
Exposed person(s) informed? (y/n)	y	Agreed action taken? (y/n)		y	Risk removed? (y/n)		y

Hazard no: 16			Risk Factor (1-5): 1
Description	Noise – high sound levels e.g. screaming or loud noises on the TV.
Person(s) exposed (detail if cast/crew (C), outside company (O) or public (P) )	Cast may be expose to the noise and may get a headache or loose a little hearing for a while, which restricts what they can do next due to them not being able to hear the other characters talking. It can also disturb the filming process by not hearing the characters speak.
Action to take	Make sure that the noise level isn’t too high and inform both the cast and crew when the noises are going to be used. In some cases, switch noisy devices off to prevent distraction whilst within the filming process.
Person/company responsible for action	Mavis Productions
To be completed at agreed later date
Exposed person(s) informed? (y/n)	y	Agreed action taken? (y/n)		y	Risk removed? (y/n)		y

Hazard no: 29			Risk Factor (1-5): 2
Description	Weapons- knife (fake), equipment thrown.
Person(s) exposed (detail if cast/crew (C), outside company (O) or public (P) )	Any equipment thrown can injure the cast.
Action to take	Make sure there is a first aid kit and inform the cast about the equipment and how to use it appropriately.
Person/company responsible for action	Mavis Productions
To be completed at agreed later date
Exposed person(s) informed? (y/n)	y	Agreed action taken? (y/n)		y	Risk removed? (y/n)		y

Hazard no: 32			Risk Factor (1-5):			3
Description	Other risks- stairs
Person(s) exposed (detail if cast/crew (C), outside company (O) or public (P) )	Tripping over the steps or cables whilst filming and acting may expose cast and crew by injuring them and therefore no longer to continue with the process of filming.
Action to take	Make sure the stairs are clear and give space to each person.  Warn the members about how to use the stairs safely.
Person/company responsible for action	Mavis Productions
To be completed at agreed later date
Exposed person(s) informed? (y/n)	y	Agreed action taken? (y/n)		y	Risk removed? (y/n)		n