Planning : Animatic

We created an animatic which consisted of the images from our storyboard being put into a video, with the images lasting for the amount of time that the actual shots would. We created this animatic using a programme called Premiere, and then we uploaded the finished video to youtube. We initially had problems with the images we were using for our animatic, as the programme would not allow us to edit them, and they did not appear to be saved as JPG files. We had to save them all individually again, and although this took up quite a lot of time we eventually finished our animated and uploaded it to youtube.
Here is the finished video:

Organisation : Locations

We decided to base our opening sequence in a wood, as this is present in a film that we researched in preparation, "The Blair Witch Project". Luckily, there is a wood beside college that we are going to film the first part of our title sequence in, which is useful as we do not need to travel to a further location. We decided on using a wood for our setting as this will work well with the noir lighting, and the sight of a wood in a film generally creates an aura of the horror genre. For the second part of our sequence, it shall be filmed in college as this creates the idea that the characters are two typical students living a normal life, and the events that shall follow in the film will be obscure compared to their normal life.
Above is a picture of Nunnery Wood, which is located next to our college. This is where we will be filming much of our opening title sequence, as it located right next to where we are based.

This is the path in Nunnery Wood where we will film our victim walking. We chose to film here because the pathway is clear and safe, and as it is a public place we did not have to worry about getting permission.
Our chosen area was also inspired by one of the films we looked at as part of our "Genre Specific Analysis" of film openings with a similar genre and idea. "The Blair Witch Project" also uses a wood as one of its main locations.

Planning: Script

We decided on not having a script, as our opening sequence does not include any dialogue. We decided to not include dialogue as it would interrupt with the pace of our sequence, and we decided to have non-diegetic music running throughout to create the atmosphere of a horror film. However, we have not yet decided on what music we are going to use, so this is something that we need to arrange.

Planning: Story Board

We created a story board which outlines the events of our opening title sequence, and the time that each shot will last for. This means that we will be far more organised when it comes to filming and we will know exactly which shot needs to be filmed as well as the duration and shot type. By creating a storyboard we have managed to organise our shots so when put together our final sequence will be as close to two minutes as possible. The storyboard also illustrates the surroundings and makes it easy for us to know where we are filming at each precise moment.

Genre Research Summary

The research that I have done on the openings to both Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch Project have given me some good ideas about what to include in our opening sequence. I found that most horror films provide an enigma that makes the audience more eager to watch the rest of the film, making it far more successful. This has been an influence to our opening sequence as it is going to end on a cliffhanger which provides a sense of mystery, again a typical aspect of the horror genre within the films I have researched. The lighting in these films is generally noir, so we aim to film at a time that it is fairly dark in order to create this effect. If this is successful it will make the genre of our film far more recognisable and understandable.

Audience Research Focus Group

I have set up a focus group on facebook, and added people who I believe will give me helpful feedback during the process of the main task. I have also added both the members of the cast to keep them updated and to get them more involved. I also believe that they can offer me a sufficient amount of feedback.

Organisation : Props/Costume

The costumes that will be worn by our characters will be normal everyday clothes that a typical person their age would wear, to convey the idea that these characters are normal people that are experiencing a weird turn of events.We also thought about use of props, with a prop of a dead bird being used in the bag of the main character to act as an enigma at the end of our opening scene. We also need a bag for the character to search through and a mobile phone for the character to receive texts.

Organisation: Casting

I found two people from my drama course that are willing to be involved in our film opening, Adele Kepinska and Emily Gunning. This will involve Adele being cast as the main character that is seen in the woods and Emily being cast as the character that is in college with Adele when our opening skips to 48 hours before. I have also added them to my focus group so they can give me relevant feedback as they are involved in the filming process.

Synopsis

As an introduction we will display the name of the production company, and we will introduce the time and date of the scene being shown. We will use non-diegetic sounds and music. We shall film our opening sequence near and in the wood as this is nearby and is also influenced by The Blair Witch Project, a film which we have carried out research into. Our first shot will be the ending shot, followed by a flashback to show how the protagonist got into this situation. Our main character will look beaten and is if they have been subject to violence. We were thinking if the main character was a female, it would be more emotive if they had been severely beaten, they will also have been stabbed, to keep up a wonder of what happened, why and how. Then, as the character begins to pass away, we will zoom into the eye, which will then commence a flashback to the previous events of the day.

Target Audience

Our target audience is generally aged between 16-19 years old, as the age of the actors we are casting are this age. Our target audience is the same age so they can relate to whats happening in our opening sequence, whereas if we cast much older actors our film opening would attract an older audience. Our opening sequence is aimed at both genders as the genre generally attracts both genders, maybe focussing more on female viewers as they would typically prefer the psychological genre as opposed to  action or violence. The social audience we are targeting is C1, C2, and D, because this a large audience and this consists of the majority of society. Higher class people in the A and B sector would more typically visit theatres as opposed to cinemas. The cinema culture attracts the typical, working and middle class members of society. We are aiming for a mainstream audience as horror is a genre which typically attracts a mainstream audience.

Genre Moodboard

We developed a "Genre Moodboard" in order to showcase our ideas and depict what kind of genre we were aiming to work towards. We used images from similar films such as Paranormal Activity and the Blair Witch Project, along with a selection of other pictures to show what genre we were working in.