Having finished my film poster and reaching near completion on my trailer (I've since had to change Mary, a member of my cast, to Lauren West, the face of my poster, due to complications and not being able to get hold of her. Because of this, I have also had to change her location from Hampstead to Chigwell) I've now got to move onto the magazine cover.
I've chosen to use Empire as my film magazine, instead of Total Film, Premiere or making up my own magazine. I did this because Empire is a long running, well known, well respected and well funded
Friday, 27 November 2009
Friday, 13 November 2009
Filming So Far
Cast:
Victim 1: Beth Gaskell
Victim 2: Mary Chapman
David Berkowitz (murderer): Guy Thompson
Face on a poster: Lauren West
Locations used:
Camden Loch, by the canal
Office room in Bow
Suburban street in Hampstead
Due to codes and conventions of horror and serial killer movies, I chose to film mine at night, since this time of day offers the idea of a non secure environment. I have previously discussed my choice of artificial lighting, reaffirming the idea of night time.
When filming Beth, who I filmed in Camden Loch, it was both cold and rainy, ideal weather.
I put her on the walkway next to the actual canal, as the setting made it more interesting i thought. Noisier but more interesting. It makes it seem a little alone, because you see no people walking past, although you can hear activity near by.
The second piece of filming done was with my murderer, in what looks like an office (was actually his room but this is unimportant) and we kept the room unlit internally, and put a bare bulb outside, leaning it so the light shown through the shutter blinds, leaving a silhouette which is a convention of this type of film. I also showed as little of it as possible to keep the location as obscure and unsure as the identity of the killer.
Victim 1: Beth Gaskell
Victim 2: Mary Chapman
David Berkowitz (murderer): Guy Thompson
Face on a poster: Lauren West
Locations used:
Camden Loch, by the canal
Office room in Bow
Suburban street in Hampstead
Due to codes and conventions of horror and serial killer movies, I chose to film mine at night, since this time of day offers the idea of a non secure environment. I have previously discussed my choice of artificial lighting, reaffirming the idea of night time.
When filming Beth, who I filmed in Camden Loch, it was both cold and rainy, ideal weather.
I put her on the walkway next to the actual canal, as the setting made it more interesting i thought. Noisier but more interesting. It makes it seem a little alone, because you see no people walking past, although you can hear activity near by.
The second piece of filming done was with my murderer, in what looks like an office (was actually his room but this is unimportant) and we kept the room unlit internally, and put a bare bulb outside, leaning it so the light shown through the shutter blinds, leaving a silhouette which is a convention of this type of film. I also showed as little of it as possible to keep the location as obscure and unsure as the identity of the killer.
Poster :)
Here is the near final version of my poster (since posting it I have realised the red font is bold enough) featuring Lauren West. Though she isn't shown in the trailer, I felt her eyes were very strong which worked with my idea of having the top of a woman's head, staring at the camera.
I have kept some of the conventions of the posters I analysed. I obscured the face on the poster, so the audience aren't sure who it is and whether they're victim or murderer.
I made the skin of Lauren's face cracked and peeling because I felt that the murderer in my film chose pretty girls and ruined their beauty. I created this effect by finding a picture of cracked earth and cut it to fit her face. After this, I desaturated the image and lowered the opacity so Lauren's features could be seen through. On top of this, I also added a image of peeling paint to her forehead, and went through the same actions as the first image so it blended in. Any cracks that were seen in the hole created by the peeling paint were erased so her skin showed through.
I then changed the curves of the photo, making it far more green, which creates an eerie, abnormal effect, which makes people looking at it uneasy since it's not natural. I also darkened her eye makeup and irises with the burn tool and lightened the whites of her eyes with the dodge tool so they stood out even more, since I wanted the onlooker to feel as though she is looking straight at them.
The hair going up the picture makes it look as though she's lying on the ground, which is how all the victims were found (even though in actuality Lauren was lying on a wall with her head hanging off the head.Still, it created the effect I wanted so...who cares.)
I chose red text for the Title and the text at the top as it matches the Title and 'coming soon' in the trailer and represents blood but the text is also beautiful, which matches the girls in the film. However when I tried having the text at the bottom of the poster (credits and *fake* website) in red, the text was near unreadable so I decided to have it in white instead so it was legible.
Friday, 6 November 2009
Choosing a Distributor
I wanted to create an indie style, serial killer movie. So, because of this, I had to choose an appropriate distributor for my movie.
Because of the type of movie I aim to create, it would have wrong for me to use any of the above distributors since they only deal with mainstream films and well known directors, and neither of these go with the idea of an indie film.
I looked at other films of a similar genre to mine and found that Twisted Pictures produced many small horror movies (as well as bigger ones, like the Saw series) such as Catacombs (which grossed just $476,201 in the box office.) It also deals only in movies of similar genre to mine, which would help my movie since people know what genre to expect from this company.
Below is the companys logo which I have used at the beginning of my trailer.
Because of the type of movie I aim to create, it would have wrong for me to use any of the above distributors since they only deal with mainstream films and well known directors, and neither of these go with the idea of an indie film.
I looked at other films of a similar genre to mine and found that Twisted Pictures produced many small horror movies (as well as bigger ones, like the Saw series) such as Catacombs (which grossed just $476,201 in the box office.) It also deals only in movies of similar genre to mine, which would help my movie since people know what genre to expect from this company.
Below is the companys logo which I have used at the beginning of my trailer.
Lighting and Location
Due to the Neo Noir influence on my film, the lighting and location is very important to create that atmosphere as well as specific effects.
Lighting
The most important of these effects is the shutter blinds silhouette I used in my shots of who is implied as the murderer of the film.
Shutter blinds silhouettes or shadows are a well known and sometimes cliche convention of original film noir movies, usually in a scene with the detective of the that particular movie (detectives were always popular in original film noir).
Examples of their use in film noir:
Silhouettes
Shadows.
So I chose to keep this aspect as homage to what lead to Neo Noir, as it is such a classic shot in all the old movies.
I also chose to use as little natural light as I possibly could in my trailer since it makes the movie more unnerving since night time always suggests a lack of safety.
Instead of natural light, I used:
Shots of Victims and panning shots of their locations: Street lamps
Shots of murderer: Bare bulb through shutter blinds, acting like a streetlamp. (since even the 400 watt streetlamp outside wasn't bright enough!)
Both lighting step ups created sharp contrasts between dark and light areas in the setting, especially in the shot of the murderer, where in the over-the-shoulder shot all you can see is one side of his face and in the from-the-back shot, it creates a halo of light around him.
Locations
The most important locations where that of the two female victims, as I wanted there to be both the implication that the murderer dumps the bodies in the open, and also for there to be a contrast between the beauty of the girls and the ugliness of where their bodies are found.
For both victims I chose streets. For victim 1, I chose a suburban street lined with houses, to imply that she was killed on her way home (which symbolises safety to most in horror movies). For victim 2, I chose a more urban setting in Camden Loch, next to the canal, to show that the murderer doesn't stick to one area, and to create a contrast with victim 1.
The location for the shots of the murderer is less obvious. The shutter blinds infer that it is perhaps an office, but it isn't certain, adding mystery to his already partly shrouded character, so it keeps the audience guessing.
Lighting
The most important of these effects is the shutter blinds silhouette I used in my shots of who is implied as the murderer of the film.
Shutter blinds silhouettes or shadows are a well known and sometimes cliche convention of original film noir movies, usually in a scene with the detective of the that particular movie (detectives were always popular in original film noir).
Examples of their use in film noir:
Silhouettes
Shadows.
So I chose to keep this aspect as homage to what lead to Neo Noir, as it is such a classic shot in all the old movies.
I also chose to use as little natural light as I possibly could in my trailer since it makes the movie more unnerving since night time always suggests a lack of safety.
Instead of natural light, I used:
Shots of Victims and panning shots of their locations: Street lamps
Shots of murderer: Bare bulb through shutter blinds, acting like a streetlamp. (since even the 400 watt streetlamp outside wasn't bright enough!)
Both lighting step ups created sharp contrasts between dark and light areas in the setting, especially in the shot of the murderer, where in the over-the-shoulder shot all you can see is one side of his face and in the from-the-back shot, it creates a halo of light around him.
Locations
The most important locations where that of the two female victims, as I wanted there to be both the implication that the murderer dumps the bodies in the open, and also for there to be a contrast between the beauty of the girls and the ugliness of where their bodies are found.
For both victims I chose streets. For victim 1, I chose a suburban street lined with houses, to imply that she was killed on her way home (which symbolises safety to most in horror movies). For victim 2, I chose a more urban setting in Camden Loch, next to the canal, to show that the murderer doesn't stick to one area, and to create a contrast with victim 1.
The location for the shots of the murderer is less obvious. The shutter blinds infer that it is perhaps an office, but it isn't certain, adding mystery to his already partly shrouded character, so it keeps the audience guessing.
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Fight Club trailer
This is the trailer for Fight Club, and although it isn't a teaser trailer as mine will have to be, it still shows the style of filming and the atmosphere of the film. It shows the blueish tinge that all the filming has and the otherwise desaturated colours.
Within the first 10 seconds, it introduces the two main character, Tyler Durden (played by Brad Pitt) and the Narrator (played by Edward Norton), and the one of the main themes of the film, violence. This gives the audience are good starting point to begin to understand the rest of the film's trailer. It also shows the two distributors for the film, 20th Century Fox and Regency, showing it is a fairly big film, since these distributors do not work with lesser known directors or films, which my film would be, as I'm aiming for an Indie film feel in mine.
It is narrated by the unnamed male character (sometimes referred to as 'Jack' as he uses the phrase "I am Jack's..." to describe various moods and events throughout the movie). This is done to show his situation and life at the beginning of the film. He is an insomniac (which is shown through him saying he can't sleep and then a conversation with a doctor, telling him he can't die from insomnia) and that he's stuck in a dead end job, wondering what sort of cupboard from Furni (a fake company, imitating/mocking Ikea) will define him as a person.
From here we are introduced to an important secondary character, Marla Singer (played by Helena Bonham Carter), and another main theme, soap (which is ultimately the logo for the film). It then introduces us to Fight Club and uses an iconic line from the movie:
"The first rule of Fight Club is you do NOT talk about Fight Club!"
I used the idea of introducing my three main characters very quickly, which is effective because it gives the audience an idea of who is in the movie (like a favourite actress/actor maybe?) and it will draw them in, even though my trailer will be at most 50 seconds long.
I also like the idea of using a voiceover in parts of the trailer, which I want to do with the quote that runs throughout the trailer so that, even when the victims say the quote, the killer is also saying it, bringing it back to him, since he is the centrepoint of film.
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