The Pact- Poster Deconstruction

• Tag line- "Are you alone in your house?" rhetorical question, playing on everyone's underlying fear of not being safe in their house, house not home, interesting. Reflects the horror genre.
• Quotes from the critics promote the film- pick catchy quotes to grab attention in bold white font. People who the quotes are from in smaller text, less important the who than the what.
• Tag line and quotes sandwich the picture which isn't entirely the focus, unusual.
• Picture takes up an equal third of the poster. Supernatural, confuses viewer is the person evil or a victim- trapped/suffocating in the paper. Anonymous person, could be anyone-the viewer? Old fashioned wallpaper, bronze colour sepia. Homely?
• Typography- The Pact- All in capitals and white text, Pact in bold, almost glowing, supernatural, light in the dark.
• Colour scheme- Black and white with the bronze in the middle. Lots of shadows reinforcing danger and genre of horror. As it's do to with a house, its creates a ominous feeling.

The Eye -Poster Deconstruction

• Genre of thriller/horror.
• Colour scheme of brown, beige and white. Links to the colour of the eye (more amber), unnatural occurance? Sepia effect only colour is the eye, draws audience in. Colour drained from everywhere else.
• Main pull of the film Jessica Alba, central above the films name- big America star. Female convention.
• Unusually no tag line.
• "The Eye"- Eye in bold, draws focus of the picture as well linking to the picture.
• Picture of the eye coming out of the hand-possession? Someone/thing inside her. Eye is called gateway to the soul, which she doesnt have. Clear links to the genre. Makes reader squeamish, don't usually touch your eye, unusual and sensitive image.
  

The Devil Inside- Poster Deconstruction

• Genre of horror/ thriller reinforced by colour scheme and scary nun.
• Colour scheme of deep red, crimson, dark creates a better juxtaposition between the text and pictures with the dark background. shows evil, danger and sinister nature of the film. Traditional gothic colours; black, white, red.
• Picture of nun main focus draws in viewer reflects movie genre. The eyes are glazed creating an enigma, possessed, supernatural?
• Tag line "No soul is safe" like the nun who is holy isn't safe. Use of alliteration. "Soul" links to religious image of the nun.
• Typography- Old fashioned gothic text, backward D- reflection and mirrors and unnatural. White text with flecks of black, infecting the goodness. Looks scratched again unnatural

Shutter Island Website Deconstruction

http://www.shutterisland.com/#/cast-filmmakers/cast -SHUTTER ISLAND • The theme of this website helps to promote the film as it is based around a prison and is dark cold colours to help show the horror with in this thriller drama. • It is very current as displays links to like the page on face book, follow on twitter etc. it keeps up with today’s technological convergence. • On the home page it shows a picture of Leonardo Dicaprio and has his name in bold letters to promote the film as he is a very famous actor. • It also has the trailer in the top right corner that automatically plays the trailer of the film to draw the audience in and give away a bit about the plot. • There is an order now section you can click that gives you a direct link to buy the dvd’s, this is good promotion as there isn’t any hassle in buying the film and as the order now button is underneath the trailer its good promotion as when the audience are watching the trailer they can click order now as they are engrossed into it without having to take their eyes off the trailer. • Simple website easy to navigate

Make-Up wounds

I experimented with make up to achieve the two effects on the left. Firstly I got black eye shadow and rubbed it in various patches over the face and neck to create a rotten dirty effect. I then smudged red blusher around the circles of the eyes to create a sore puffy effect. Next I molded the scar wax underneath the eyes leaving a slight gap to fill with blood. I then blended the scar wax in with foundation. After this was complete i put black mascara liquid in the gap I had left between the eye ans the wax, this darkened the blood that I was about to apply. I then applied the fake blood in generous amounts in order to create the dripping effect. I then applied the same principle to the wound on the head leaving a gap in the middle of the wax to apply the mascara and blood and I smudged the blood around the edge of it so it looks like a bullet wound. Finally i smothered the lips in foundation and waited for it to dry so they looked dry and cracked.

News Reporters Script

News Reporters Script

1.News just in! The Klinger Factory has been shut down. The Government are not revealing the incident which has caused the Factory to be sectioned off. No one is allowed in or out of the building. All civilians have been ordered to stay out of of the area and the residents of Sidcup have been issued with an immediate evacuation. (14.5 secs)

2.The Klinger Factory has been shut down. The Government are not revealing the incident which has caused the Factory to be sectioned off. No one is allowed in or out of the building, and local residents have been issued with an immediate evacuation. (11 secs)

3.There has been a serious incident in the Klinger factory today, causing the area to be sectioned off. Four workers have been reported missing. (6 secs)

We created three different versions of the script that were varying in length so if we use a certain one depending on the amount of time we had left in our trailer.
(The script was kept short and to the point as we do not have much time with in the trailer. It sums up the main point we want the audience to receive; that something has happened in the klinger factory and the government are not revealing what)

News Reporters Hairstyle

News Reporter's Hair Reasearch

News Reporter's Costume Reasearch

Amityville Horrors 2005 Film Deconstruction

Scene 1.

• I chose this scene due to the fact it's from an old fashioned news clip. This is similar to what we will be doing. However it is different from our idea as they are filming a policeman at the scene whereas we want a reporter based in a studio.
• The sound is of the man's voice however it sounds older and different through the microphone. This is played as a voiceover through other shots which have been jump cut into this scene to create a montage.
• The montage is of photographs taken by police and of a body being removed from the house. It's interesting and clever editing. The speed of the pictures and jump cuts creates panic and gives a sense of the shock and horror people felt when hearing about the killings.
• The crowding around the policemen seems to add to how big this story was, again reinforcing the panic and shock people felt.
• The footage also seems more dated, not as clear as we would expect it due to it being recorded in 1974.

Scene 2.

• I chose this scene as it's the last scary bit in the film and because it's a time where you get to clearly see the evil. Like in our film Amityville had a great location and here they are using it to their advantage with the staircase and the evil child.
• The child is playing on the modern stereotype that children can be scary, a recent occurance. She is holding a teddy bear, a symbol of innocence but it adds to the malice as the audience know it has one eye, as is representing the danger.
• There is minimal lighting in this shot as you would expect but the lighting casts a green/blue tint over the whole scene which is again common in a modern horror.
• This scene is very important as it's in the staircase which first caught the attention of the Lutz family, and it's almost as though the film came full circle with the house. 
• The girls is wearing a night dress, the one she died in and you can also see the prominent head wound of how she died adding to the horror, she's staring directly at the camera, but almost past it through to the Lutz family or the audience.

Scene 3.

• I chose this scene as it is where the evil comes from in this house, the mise en scene is good and it is similar to what we need to do.
• The lighting is limited and constricted to a grey/blue scale. There are a lot of shadows which is to be expected as it is the basement and this creates the haunting atmosphere.

BBC news reports through the years

For our news reports, I wanted to see the different graphics that were used throughout the years. Yet once I started researching all these different backgrounds, I realised that using graphics is a relatively new concept used in newsrooms today. BBC news on the television did not start until 1954 and from here we look at the different backgrounds used and how it has evolved from a plain background to a big bold and informative graphic.

BBC news started in 1954, before it used to just be a newsreel and a continuity speaker. Then, many of the news stories were for "entertainment purposes" and not for serious information. Here on the left we can see one of the first live news reports where the background was of the world and with a microphone in the corner of the picture. This shows shows how plain and original news reports were when they first began. On the right we see another news report shown in the 1960s, it may of not evolved much from the 1950s but the background of this news report is of the other workers within the department and we still see this today in some BBC news reports.

In the early seventies, news reports changed to where more pictures were shown while all the news reports were described by the newsreader. We can see the background of the news report would just be of a plain colour with the logo of "BBC news" showing within the background, this was one of the first graphics used during a news report. As we plan to say the Klinger factory closed within the late 70s to early 80s, this would be the best type of news background to do for our trailer. This is quite easy as it is just one colour and then a graphic of BBC news.

In the 80s, we begin to see more graphics shown within the news report with the logo of "BBC news" embedded into the studio instead of a graphic. The studio was made up of horizontal lines which co-ordinated with the logo of BBC news then in the 80s (shown above). This also paved way for pictures shown alongside the news reporter while he was reporting his story. Before, montages of pictures were shown while the news reporter was speaking about the story. If pictures were not superimposed within the report, it would either zoom into the reporter or show the logo. This is useful if we did not want to show an image along the reporter and instead show a montage of pictures. Throughout the 80s, we see the backgrounds of news reports change in terms of colour (to see what was visually attractive) and other backgrounds (i.e. background of the newsroom) but not much change when it came to graphics used during the news report.

It wasn't until the 90s where we started to see full graphic news reports. In April 1993, we saw the start of the BBC's virtual news studio which meant the majority of the visual aspects in the news report was computer generated. Even the filming of the news report was done by a remote control from a gallery within the newsroom and this meant there was a lot of flexibility when it came to the backdrop and layout of the news report.

Today we see more of a studio compared to a fully computer generated studio. This means it has the flexibility in showing big stories on a giant graphic screen but also being able to demonstrate on this platform as well. There was also the removal of the graphic beside the newsreader to make way instead for edited news footages after the report has been said. Graphics shown within 24 hour news channels (shown in a post before) are different to these daily news bulletins as they are only giving out a summary of the days' news compared to 24 hours, 7 days a week constantly of news.    

Costumes: Workers

I researched into the clothing that would've been worn by the workers in the factory. I looked at images of workers in factories similar to the Klinger. I needed to find images of factories and workers which used large machines or were involved in mechanical engineering to relate to the Klinger:

I found that clothing worn by a more 'mechanical' worker, has not changed much over time. The top image was taken recently in around 2001. The very bottom image was taken around the 1960s. Both images show that the workers are wearing similar clothing; simple top, thick, heavy blue pants/trousers. The middle image shows workers in a more 'physical job' using larger machinery and handling different materials. They are seen wearing blue overalls with hard helmets.

The workers in the Klinger factory would have been involved in more physical labour. They would have been using heavy machinery and moving/working with large and dangerous materials. The costume for the workers therefore should be overalls to show they were involved in dangerous and physical work.

The actors/ 'workers', shall wear a selection of blue and white overalls. The overalls can be 'weathered' with dirt to make them appear old and used and blood can be applied to show the violence of the 'mutated' workers. I photographed some of the overalls that shall be worn by the workers:

Typography: Horror Deconstructions

The genre within our trailer is horror and so hence our typography must be related to the conventions of the genre and also link in with the message of our film. Below are examples of different typographies in different horror posters.

Orphan

The title of the film "orphan" looks like it is written in chalk and written like a child. You can relate chalk to teachers asking children to write with it in class and also the writing of the title doesn't look like a convention font, it looks written. You also see the writing of "orphan" being very jagged with part of the title being in lowercase letters and the other half  in capital letters - this could show how there is something mentally wrong with the child and we see this within the film.We see the colour white used within the poster, this could show the convention of purity and angelic. Normally this a convention of a child but the poster wants to confuse the audience and in the film end up showing that Esther subverts this stereotype. 

The Amityville Horror

In this typography, we see the colour red used within the poster - this is a classic colour used within horror films. Although this is a simple font used and is very doable, there is a very big emphasis on the Y within the title and shows it is a big symbol. We see the end of the Y is like blood dripping down the title onto the next message of "based on the true story" which shows the clash between good and evil. This typography shows that a simple font can be used but with an emphasis on one of the little things within the title can be very effective and can be one of the first things the audience sees when looking at the poster.

The Pact

In this typography we see all the letters spread apart, this is effective as it gives more of a shadow effect. Again a simple font is used but the word "PACT" is in bold. This shows how it may link towards the message of the film and also links to the picture in the poster. When doing our typography, we should always link our font to our plot but again not give away too much. The colours used in the poster is white/beige. White is a convention colour used in horror films but beige is not normally a colour you would associate with the genre of horror - this could link in with the plot of the film. 

Barricade
In this poster we see here how the typography very much links towards the story of the film and only really effective in this sort of film which means its original. The font used in the poster is written onto a window and is realistic because people do that in real life. The colours used within the film shows very clinical and modern colours of the genre of horror. This poster is a really good example of how to make your typography really look original and link towards the story of the film. Yet realistically, this typography would be quite difficult to make and as it isn't a very big aspect of our poster, we're better off using a simple font but emphasising it in a way to make it still look effective. 



The Thing
In this poster, we see the main aspect of the poster being the typography. Here we see a simple font which takes up the majority of the poster but it is also a font we would not normally see on a horror film (more for adventure). The colour used is white but what makes this typography original is that there is a picture inside the typography. This is a excellent way to show the concept of the film and also show how it makes the poster really effective. Again, it could be doable but whether or not the poster overall could look exciting enough is another question to answer, maybe we are better off sticking to a separate typography and picture. 

Orphan- Poster Deconstruction

• Genre of horror/thriller
• Tag line "There's something wrong with Esther." Draws you're eye upwards from the title. Adds enigma. White text, innocence, contrasts childlike innocence and purity when shes the antagonist. "Can you keep a secret?"- smaller text, draws you in. Deep red, not blood red, unusual but links to genre still.
• "Orphan" mixture of upper and lower case like childs handwriting. Like being scratched or srcibbled. Modern horror convention of children being frightening.
• Clinical colour scheme of green, blue and grey. Linking to ultra modern horror genre.
• Child with direct, haunting stare. Light casts shadow on her eyes, defining the dark v light idea. Colour of her eyes are also very dark, possibly black. Stereotypical little girl, bunches, peter pan collar.

Seven- Poster Deconstruction

Poster Deconstruction

 

 

• Genre of thriller/horror.
• Orange, yellow, brown colour scheme. Almost like rust- unusual. Fiery colours epresenting hell and danger? Unnaturally bright, warped conception of reality.
• Typography – ‘seven’ is handwritten/scribbled. Insight into the deranged mind of a psychopath? White text – considers holy or morally justified. Juxtaposition of innocence and good. Stands out from a distance on the poster.
• List of the Seven Deadly Sins in the middle of the poster, main focus of the film. Crossed off, like a serial killer-target/ check list. Red line- slasher. Precise order of them like a tally chart.
• Tag line "Seven deadly sins. Seven ways to die." Catchy, gives away enough of the plot. Play on words,repetition with a small change. Small font, to divert the eye.
• Actors names symmetrical on either side of poster, major attraction, world famous actors. Way of promotion.
• Two main  protagonists, facing away, different ideas, had to join forces. Blur in the middle-join?

The Awakening- Film Deconstruction

Three Scenes

Scene 1

• I chose this scene as it is the first time we get to clearly see "the house". The film is based upon a great setting which is the house. Our teaser trailer and film is based on a great setting, the factory, so we could use this scene to inspire our trailer.
• This scene was shot in the evening and in poor weather giving an ominous tone to the scene. You see the whole expanse of the house, giving the feel of wonder and apprehension as you know that something scary waits inside.
• A horizontal pan was used to give a smoth continous shot of the house, the only thing breaking it up was the natural trees and one shot of the female protagonists face.
• The music was non-diegetic classical music to fit in with the era it was set, after world war one. The meloncholy music adds to the viewers apprehension but also adds a beauty to the scence, almost making it cinematic.
• The reflection of the house on the lake adds to the forboding feeling and make s the house seem even more imposing than it already is.
• The fact that there is no lights bar one sugests she is their only hope, and the fact that it is streched in the reflection makes it looked ghostly, which is relevant later on in the film.

Scene 2

• I chose this scene due to the unusual birds eye shot of the characters and the fact that it uses the location to its advantage with the unique stairs.
• Again this scene is also shot in the evening in poor weather condtitions, leaning towards a grey scale scene. There is no colour in mise en scene or even the setting, adding to the misery felt by the houses occupants.
• The birds eye view suggests a supernatural presence, someone watching from above, giving the viewers a God like position, an giving them a distance from the characters.
• The use of the stairs that split off into two suggests the different pathways the main characters can take either metaphorically or physically in the way they react to this haunting.
 

Scene 3

• I chose this scene due to its mise en scene and the fact that this is where the horror built up most.
• The lack of lighting makes the viewer focus to see more clearly and make out what is in the room; what little light there is casts shadows making it have high contrast and therefor reinforcing the scary nature of this scene.
• The mise en scene is accurate in the fact that it looks like a hidden room that hasnt been used in a while, it also depicts the main focus of the scene- the dolls house which has been a consistent feature throughout the film, this is in the centre of the shot allowing the audience to almost see it first.
• The music is subtle ensuring it doesnt detract from the scene but also allowing the tension to build up as the protaganist come to important realisation of the film. It is the most important scene as the audience understands the engima that has surrounded the female lead.

costume- labcoat

 We chose to use Lab coats for the zombies as it reflects the theme of the contamination. It puts across that they were working on the virus strands and it went wrong.
   To achieve the dirty blood stained lab-coat i first placed in in wet mud and walked on top of it so the mud could sink in, i also rubbed coal over the coat in order to create a dirt effect. I then covered the coat in black and red food dye to make the coat look like it is covered in blood. i left it to dry and this was the finishing results.

Production Companies

Production Companies

A possible production company we could use is "Fox Searchlight Pictures". It's an American subsidiary of "Fox Filmed Entertainment" and specialises in Independent films, British Films and non-English speaking films. It was created in 1994. Noticeable films it has produced and distributed are The Full Monty, Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, Black Swan and 127 hours.

Films such as 28 Weeks Later, The Hills Have Eyes and 28 Days Later were also produced and distributed by Fox Searchlight. These horror films have a big influence on our trailer so it's interesting to the company it worked with. Fox Searchlight Pictures would be a good company to use as our Producer and distributer due to the fact it has produced a wide range of films and focuses specifically on independent ones, like our would be. It has also produced important films in the horror genre as listed above and continues to make an impact now.

Fox Searchlight Website

Another company we looked at as a possible producer or distributer for our trailer is "Universal Pictures/Studios". It was founded in 1912 and is the third oldest motion picture company in the world. It has produced an extremely sucessful franchise of Horror films called "Pyscho". Recent horror movies it has produced are Drag me to Hell, The Unborn and Devil. Universal would be a good choice for us as it is a steadfast company therefore showing it has many years of experience in how to market, budget and proudce as a small film such as ours. Our film would be in safe hands as most of Universal films tend to go to international audiences and make a profit at the box office.

Universal Studios Website

One other company we looked at as a possible producer or distributer for our trailer is "The Weinstein Company", an American company founded in 2005 by the Weinstein Brothers after they left Miramax which they co-founded in 1979. It had a distribution pact with MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) who has recently had financial troubles. It also owns Dimension Films who released franchises such as Halloween and Piranha. And also the horror film 1408. TWC also distributed the 2007 film Hanninbal Rising.The Weinstein Companywould be a good distributer for our film as it has produced many a mainstream film however it is concerning that MGM has finnancial difficulties.

Weinstein Company Website

                                                                                                        The last production and distribution company we looked at was the American company "Relativity Media" founded in 2004. It also owns the subsidiary "Rogue Pictures" who produced films such as Last House on the Left. The most recent successful film was House at the end of the Street. They've also produced The Unborn and Let Me In. This would be a good potential company due to the fact their subsidiary has recently produced some high grossing films such as House on the End of the Street, this is important due to the fact that film is horror and based in a specific location similar to ours.

Relativity Media Website

Amityville Horror- Website Deconstruction

Website Deconstruction

• This is the homepage. The first thing the visitor sees and it doesn’t look like a typical movie website, with no advert for creaters, no reviews etc.
• The links are placed on a old piece of paper, with old looking font and symbol highlighting history of the film and this is reinforced by the actual writing in a normal font on the right “The house in Amityville has become the stuff of legend...the basis for several bestselling books and smash-hit movies” also highlighting bullet point one.
• Colour scheme of black and white, curiously no red. Subverting stereotypes. “The Amityville Horror” title font is white and blurred giving it a supernatural edge, which links to the white strike of lighting.
• Only picture is of the house in grey scale, looking haunted.

Lighting (Night Vision)

After thinking of the different types of lighting that we could use in the Factory, I researched into night vision.
After analysing Grave encounters, I noticed many scenes within that film was filmed with night vision. Night vision aids the audience to see in the dark and shows that the room being filmed is in complete darkness. It also shows that it is a hand held camera which is perfect for Grave Encounters as it is a 'TV series'. Most films, to show that it is dark would film in a dark room but not completely dark. The characters would usually act as if they were in darkness, but some light would be needed to allow the audience to see on screen. Night vision would suit our trailer as the 'explorers' looking the factory would most likely have one.

After researching into Night Vision cameras and lenses, I found that these would be far too expensive and rarely film in High Definition. Lenses were around £600-2000, way out of our budget. 

After looking at screenshots again from Grave encounters, It appears that they used editing to create a night vision effect, without using a night vision camera. I could use a torch and edit the footage afterwards to make it appear I had been using a nihght vision camera.





I recreated a similar night effect by taping a torch to the camera and editing the footage and images. I started by simply taping a torch the camera so it moved with camera. This gave the effect the lens was amplifying dim visible light already present or gathering electromagnetic radiation such as infrared that humans cant see to make the image clear:






I then took a photo of the stairs in my house in darkness but with the torch taped to the camera on.


I then edited the image to make it appear as if it was taken on a night vision camera:
- I altered the colour and added more tones of green to it
- I decreased the contrast to show more darker areas of the image
- I increased the sharpness the give the image and more 'grainy' but crisper definition

Un edited

Edited

I then went on and filmed some short footage of me walking around my house in the dark with torch on. This would represent how the factory would look if we were to film in the darker parts of it, such as the basement.

I again edited to footage in the same way as the image. I decreased the contrast and added some green to it:

Unedited:

Edited: