For our initial discussion of a prop to plan, we made brief notes on paper, rather than bullet pointing the conversation on my tablet like the costume planning.

 Affiliated production companies.
 The chief director.
 Main title emerges.

In order to decide on a suitable location for our opening scene, we discussed where we could film and where would be mos appropriate. As Alistair is first featured waking up after his dream sequence, we would need a home environment. No one in the group had a bedroom in their house that could belong to the single male detective Alistair is. To work around his, we thought we could use a living room instead, Alistair could awake on a sofa surrounded by work relating to the murders by his other persona. This in turn would explain the vivid dream beforehand as it would be relevant in his mind as he falls asleep. For the living room in question, we could either use Ewan's or Emily's. I personal think Emily's would be better as it was described as fairly dark, small and cluttered, which would fit a gloomy young single man. Ewan's living room I do not think would fit as the furniture is bright and the room it's self is quite large, not befitting the desired atmosphere.

The next scene we would have to consider is the police station Alistair works. We are doubtful that the local police station would be able to spare the time or even allow us to record. However, we are still trying, we ave sent a formal email requesting permission to record there.

In the meantime, we are considering what alternate location we could use and what we would need to convert it into the station we require. One such location is the Oasis Community Center in town, this could fulfill the professional atmosphere but would still need permission. However, as this is not a busy public service building, we are more likely to be granted permission. If all else fails, we could settle for simple filming the scene at school, which would also supply the professional atmosphere and we know for definite we are allowed to film there.

Our group decided to discuss costume designs for the characters that would be appearing in our opening scene. This would include our main character, Alistair Murkland, including his mask and a nameless murder victim. Several points were made and aspects discussed. In regard to research we mostly used images from our mood board we previously made to gain an idea of detectives and masks. I recorded our discussion, in text format, which we later criticized until we had our costume finalized.

Audiences are categorized, so producers can easily consider who they are aiming to impress. The two main markets would be mass, and niche audiences. Mass audiences are mostly generalized to appeal to everyone or a large majority. Niche markets are smaller groups,  magazines are a good example of this as they are mostly aimed at specific demographics, such as gardening magazines are aimed at people who enjoy gardening.
A wider form of categorizing potential audiences could be by employment, which is a better method from a business perspective as These are known as categories A-E.

A- These are highly paid professionals. E.g Doctors.

B- These are moderately well paid professions. E.g Teachers.

C1- These are slightly lower class than B. E.g Managers.

C2- These are more skill based, manual professions. E.g Engineers.

D- These are unskilled, mostly manual professions. E.g Cashiers.

E- These are non-working members of society. E.g Students.

When any film maker has an idea for a movie, they must pitch their idea to a company to produce their movie. This process can also work in reverse, when a production company wants to make a film, most often if they have the rights to a property and want to make a film adaptation. they must approach a director for the project.

We put together a questionnaire for our target audience to fill out. We were eager to know what our target audience wants out of a horror movie (The questionnaire it's self can be found here). Our results were as followed.

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Resulting Actions  (student response):

Unhappy Life Pictures

We produce films with negative themes.
The name parallels with the film we are creating and the protagonist, who lives an unhappy life.
Backstory: we found a piece of paper on the table that said “Unhappy Life”, and felt it was appealing as a title of a production company. The title could insinuate an album of 'unhappy' life pictures, which could work as opening sequence and/or logo.

Edelweiss Productions

Also, the translation for Edelweiss in German means Noble white, so this could insinuate the cause of ours is a noble one. And the “white” also insinuates innocence, so this could contrast with the dark and evil themes of our films, making them even more shocking.

We gathered images of horror films that are relevant to the movie we have planned.

Horror movie settings differ depending on different stories and sub-genres. Slashers for example are usually have a long expanse for the victim to run through, whereas a a psychological horror is typically set in a public building familiar to the audience, such as a hospital or school. The setting is chosen specific to the requirements of the story or fear the directors need to create, but generally stick to a very creepy or vaguely mysterious location to have a predisposed sense of fear for their movie. For example, the house in "The Woman in Black" is enclosed so their is nowhere to hide when the woman in black appears and as their is no electricity within it's historical context, the rooms are almost always very dark and gloomy.

The general and most important point I believe Freddy Krueger's costume puts across is how present he can be. Freddy murders people by infiltrating their dreams, so if Freddy can visually ingrain more of the senses into the audience's memory, the more realistic and terrifying their recollections of him are, and the more realistic and terrifying he could be in a nightmare. As I have stated above, his rotten teeth could make the audience visualize, feel and even taste his hot breath, and smell bad breath, the rotten skin could also be smelt and even touched. The thought of his leather glove could also give an impression of the feel and texture if Freddy was to touch or stab someone.

The psychological horror sub-genre is largely appealing for up-and-coming directors to create as it is usually fairly low budge as most of the effects required to successfully make the horrific effects are more down to the camera angles, lighting and music. If a director is trying to edge their way into the directing business, a psychological horror can help them try to show off their directing skill rather than throwing money around for a giant CGI monster. One of the most renowned directors of our time, Steven Spielberg, his career was largely bolstered by the success of Jaws, in which he used psychological effects where a shark isn't even seen, yet still causing terror.

Psychological horrors usually aim to touch the fears already present in the mind of their target demographic, such as sharks in Jaws, home invaders in Psycho, and clowns in Stephan King's It. Horror could also be create in these instances by taking out any reassurances people with these phobias might have, returning to Jaws for an example, people often say sharks won't or rarely attack human, so we not only implement a shark that attacks humans, but serial attacks by the same shark.

The main threat (Killer, monster, etc) is typically shown or hinted at early on, if a fabled creature is attacking people, you may see someone raving in the streets about their legend, or if their is a murder killing the main characters, the murder may be among the main group. This in particular increases the sense of mystery and paranoia, both for the audience and the characters where both can accuse anyone and could even cause another death while they're busy investigating the wrong person.

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Resulting Actions  (student response): Conferred with peers what was required, I then competed work accordingly.

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The opening scene of "The Women in Black" involves three little girls playing with a doll and tea set. Given the historical context, the doll set would be china dolls. The girls pretend to pour tea and giving them to the dolls. The effect created through editing by the use of shot, reverse shot, usually used between two characters. In this instance, they use the dolls, cutting from one doll to two more to give the impression they are facing each other.

This edit gives the impression of humanizing the dolls the same way the girls are while playing with them. This gives a small amount of horrific effect, but the horror is further made when they use the same shot, reverse shot for the three girls. The fact that the girls are smiling also adds to the horror, the inflection from the dolls beforehand makes the seemingly innocent and happy smiles creepy and sinister.  If the shot, reverse shot was seen out of context to the dolls shot, reverse shot, the same horrific effect would not be made, the smiles would look fine and unimportant.

After the less than cheerful tea party, the girls turn to the camera and jump out the window, stepping on the tea pot and dolls as they do so. After the personification of the dolls, the fact that they are destroyed with such a blank, indifferent face that the edits make sure you've seen before the dolls demise, makes it all the more bone-chilling. As we now consciously or subconsciously see the dolls as more human and alive, their destruction seems more like death, foreshadowing the immediate demise of the girls.

After the girls jump, you can hear a women scream, presumably their mother. The shot then cuts to another, more detailed and human-like doll. The blank look of the dolls face is reminiscent of the girls as they walked to the window. After the remorseless air about the girls as their dolls "Died", the same impression is made by the doll, now indifferent to the death of her owners.

Jaws uses a great deal of juncture position during it's opening scene. The music is not at all what would be expected for most horror movies, flowing light and airily rather than trying to create suspense. However, Jaws does not attempt the obvious effect of suddenly reverting to a sharp, loud music to create a horrific effect, instead the director is much more subtle.

The juncture position is instead created by the continuing of the light, positive music while the women in the water the opening scene focuses on moves more and more frequently. At first it seems that she might just be splashing about in the water, and with no change in tone from the music the audience doesn't give it much thought. That is, until she's flailing more and more violently, in which the audience starts to suspect something is amiss.

The true horror of the scene may not be fully realised consciously by the audience, the continuation of the happy music may just be thought to miss lead them, but as it continues while an innocent and vulnerable women is in danger, it gives an impression that someone is enjoying her suffering, almost like someone who murders with a smile on their face.

Insidious uses mise en scene to create a psychological effect for it's opening scenes horror. The initial first scene with a boy in a bed, combined with the tense music gives the audience a sympathetic fear for the boy, as he is highly vulnerable and the music suggests that he could be in danger.

The lighting within the scene also has a great deal to do with the horror created. After leaving the boy in the bed, the camera pans to another, very dark room with a silhouette of a person is visible through the window. As the camera turns, the silhouette is no longer visible from the camera's new angle, which creates fear via the unknown and unseen. Adding to this effect is the ragged shadow of a tree blowing in the wind, which empresses an air of imagery of claws or another similar danger.

The next subject of fear presented to the camera is a gruesome face, illuminated only by a candle. This lighting is extremely effective in creating fear, as it outlines the jagged features of the women's face and the lack of any other light leaves the rest of the scene a mystery. The candle goes out as the camera zooms in, after a moment of darkness, the movie title appears suddenly, which could cause a jump scare this early in the movie after suspense has been established.

The title sequence of the film "Ginger Snaps" is a rapid view of several people during and after horrific deaths. The sequence uses little moving scenes but more focuses on the freeze-frame of the victims. In order to avoid a heavy slide show feel, the movie uses camera movement and angle to emphasizes the severity of the wounds and deaths.

The first death we see is a young girl presumably after being ran over by a car as she is lying behind a car wheel with her limbs spread in odd angles. The camera pans and zooms into her face to show a small trickle of blood coming out of the corner of her mouth, implying internal bleeding. The camera then cuts to a side shot where her body is clearly visible, yet she doesn't give immediate signs of death which is probably why the blood was shown before hand.

By a combination of the camera's movement shown and lighting, it is not entirely clear whether the subject of a section is dead or not. During one scene a girl makes an obscene hand gesture at the camera while a pitchfork is stabbed through her neck. This can imply that she is still alive but pretending, someone on the brink of death would likely not have the energy to raise their hand as she did. Another scene shows a girl laughing after her "death" is showcased. With the use of camera angles in these scenes by moving fast or rapidly to disguise the fact that they are actually alive, it gives the effect of a child's prank, which is supported by the girl laughing and clear disrespect of whoever is watching.

Fonts are a way of customizing and associating a piece of text. In a genre like horror, font is an obvious way to inflect a producers desired effect. In the title sequence of the movie "Se7en" a rapidly shaking and spontaneous opening credits along with a thin, carved like font gives a creeping effect.

The font is also hand written, hand written texts can take on an inflection of the person writing it, both in their physical and mental attributes. For example, if the hand writing is erratic and spiky, that could should that the writer is impulsive, but if the writer is a rule abiding person who is OCD, the writing will probably be neat and orderly.

The most common fonts affiliated with horror are thin, creepy fonts and blood-like fonts. Colour is also essential in creating a horrific effect, usually using black, white, or red fonts appropriately, a bright, happy coloured font would detract from such a genre.

The horror genre is built upon the foundation of suspense or being creepy, aiming to create that spine chilling feeling we've come to associate with the horror theme. Initial fear is created by the thought, knowledge or suspicion of danger, in a film this should not be present first hand to the audience, as they will know it is just a movie and therefore the threat is empty. So the challenge for horror movies of any age is to establish its chosen horrific theme and make the viewer believe it is real and imminent to them personally.

These themes recur often as films attempt the copy what fears have already been established, for example; ghost and zombie movies are common as society is already predisposed to fear these beings. Over inflation of these themes are often what cause a change in the horror genre, an over exposure to the same theme can greatly dilute the fear. One such decline in horror movies is evident by a mass of monster movies in the 1930s to early 40s, films such as Dracula, King Kong and The Wolf  Man were just a few of many grossing large revenue for the time, yet due to the many other monster movies, the theme was no longer profitable to film makers to produce the same their audience has already seen.

Turning away from impossibly giant apes, by 1960, the Movie "Psycho" was released which was one of the first instalments in the slasher sub-genre. The true fear created by Psycho and most other slasher movies is created by the idea that a being with feelings as acute as your own fells the desire to take the lives of others, and that their next prey could easily be you yourself. This was different enough from a rampaging monster that these fears would be clean and ripe for the picking in the audiences minds.

Throughout the 1990's, we can see a definite lack in largely successful horror movies, no household names were created during this period. The target audience were most likly drawn to othe genres that were more active at the time, some of the most notable action and sci-fi movie franchises, such as Star Wars and Terminator, can be seen to have picked up many viewers early into their initial release, were some of these stolen from the jaws of Jaws?

A definitive factor of the horror genre is that a horror movie can usually be made at a lower budget than most other films you may see that have grossed similarly, making it appealing to amateur film makers and writers as a way of proving that they can make a successful movie by way of screen play and script writing rather than a large budget, special effect heavy action. Within this, we can see another factor in the change horror movies in general have changed over the years. As, in the current situation of movies, when the majority of people would flock to a large name Super Hero movie by a well known producer, like The Avengers, rather than watch a never before seen writer and producer's first movie, horror must search for a new appeal for their audience.

The Scene: Person A walks down the corridor towards the meeting room. They go in for the handle (close-up shot of their hand) and walk in, the next shot being shown facing the door from inside the room. They close the door whilst facing it and turn the light on. They turn around and have a moment of realisation and look shocked.
The camera then cuts to a scene of Person B and C, in balaclavas, holding Person D hostage and threatening them with vegetables.
Silence is shared between them whilst various shots are shown.
There is then a close-up of Person A's face.

Person A: "I think I'm in the wrong room..."

Person B: "No worries, it's happened before."

Silence is shared once again, before Person A reaches out for the door handle, struggling to take their eyes off of the scene. They then leave, and exit through the door, walking along the corridor looking utterly confused.

We chose our location with the idea that it should look plausible to look like a regular room from the outside, and like a somewhat secluded room from the inside. This is because the scene we planed for involves our character walks into the wrong room where an interrogation-like scene is taking place.

Match on Action.

Match on action is the term used to describe when an action or movement is carried on over camera cuts. For example, if a character is walking out of a door, and the camera cuts to them on the other side of the door, he would be in roughly the same position and doing the same movement as they were before the cut.

Shot, Reverse Shot.

Shot, reverse shot involves 2 or more characters when the camera is focused on their faces, usually cutting back and forth between that characters as they speak. The characters will likely be looking at the camera or beside the camera, this lets the viewer know where the other character is located off camera and how the shot is orientated.

Idea #1: A man whose face is not in the cameras view opens a door. Lights turn on in the room and several people yell "Surprise!" under a happy birthday banner, Camera cuts to the mans face which is masked and he is holding a gun as if robbing a house.

Idea #2: A man walks into a secluded room to find something strange or questionable is happening. After a few seconds of awkward silence, the first man conclude that he is in the wrong room and leaves.

Idea #3: Someone walks into a room and sits across from another person with a chess board between them. Extreme close-up shots with match on action when moving the pieces. Over dramatic victory cheer.