Font Research for Use Within Our Film

By researching different films such as "Donny Darko and Kiss The Girls" we decided on a basis for the titles use within our film. I researched some of these fonts on www.dafont.com and wanted to choose thriller type styles that would cause a sense of suspicion for the viewer and could relate to the specific convention of Thriller within the film. In my opinion, I remember the most effective titles in horror and thriller films being plain which suggests simplicity yet also creates an uneasy and suspenseful feel to the beginning of the film. Thus, my favourite font that I would like to use would be the type of font shown second down, as it is the simplist yet most effective in setting the right atmosphere within the film itself.

The Use of Copyright Free Music & Targeting Our Audience.

Within our film, we wanted to use a professional style music background that would create a sense of tension within the film to add to the Thriller genre of our choice. As a basis we visited www.audio.lgfl which is a copyright free site and chose a horror style piece of music that fitted perfectly to the scenes in our film which we were hugely pleased with. It consisted of continuous sharp sound effects rather than an ongoing composition yet worked so well and fitted in within the conventions of a thriller film which is exactly what we wanted to go alongside "Hotel Road"
We seperately researched the certification values such as 15 or 18 which we based along the aspects when targeting one specific audience. We have chosed to certify our film at a 15 as it involves mild forms of danger and horror yet isn't as extreme, such as bearing and using weapons such as knives or consisting of strong horror graphics. As the film contains teenagers of our own ages, we targeted to the same age audience of 15-17 as we believe this would interest them more by relating to similar social groups and relations which occur within the film, along with the excitement of danger and threat displayed within the '15' film opening.

Filming of our Movie Opening.

When beginning to film the opening of "Hotel Road" our opening to our thriller/horror film, we wanted to keep in mind and use typical conventions of a thriller to create a basis and all round dark theme when filming. We based the time of our film around nighttime which can relate to many horror films and the time in which dismal incidents take place by a murderer or unknown suspect. We created unlevel, shaky filming towards the start to make the viewer uneasy and suspensful of what will account next.
The clothing worn by Mark, dark clothes, emphasises the basis of danger and mystery within the thriller which can then add to the effect of our film opening to create a more frightning sense to the film. The non-diegetic sound we used is also very sharp and edgy which can add the uncomfortable surroundings within the film and creates a huge amount of tension to each scene filmed.
As we filmed, we attempted to keep the scenes as dark as possible rather than implying a sense of light or comfortable features so the viewers would experience the most uneasy environment possible. We broke the conventions of a thriller slightly in the use of costume worn by the girls within the film, as these are quite casual and could add to the effect of normality within the household.

The images I have uploaded above give the main outline of the setting and costumes worn throughout our film opening, relating to the theme of Horror that we have selected. The town houses are large and vacant and create a spooky and unpleasant setting for the scene of the murderers entrance. The murderer will be wearing dark clothes and a black hoody to keep his as mysterious as possible so his main features cannot be seen, keeping suspicions high. The clothing of the girls will be fashionable and girly as they are preparing for a night out when the scene occurs.

Benefits of Using Animatics.

For the plot of our 2 minute film opening, we chose to base it along a horror theme which we would include many types of suspence to keep the viewer involved and well entertained. To help us before filming our piece, we created animatics, which involed drawing the details on each scene and filming each part, so all together we could get a rough idea on the concept and the way in which our film would be planned, filmed and put together to make it as successful and professional looking as possible. When filming each scene, which as a group we created all together, we found the problem was that the timing needed to be thought about carefully incase our piece was too long for the limit of 2 minutes that we needed. This helped us arrange time slots for each scene we will shoot and the amount of time needed to create the perfect filming position.
As our genre is horror, we wanted to show the different zooms and sharp movements when filming our animatics. This included close up that immediately focused on a specific point very quickly or sharp pans across the pan to demonstrate the camera movements to create unease and fear. Although this proved successful at first, we realised parts of the table or other extra non needed objects could be seen in our animatics, which obviously would not be seen when filming, so we had to reshoot our animatic storyboard which created a learning curve for us, helping us learn about professionalism and perfection when working with our piece.