Idents created for the final project.

As a group we put together the storyboards of the ident that we wanted to create: 

 We decided it would be more conventional to have two idents in our film opening, because from the examples we looked at, all of them had two. We used the programme Final Cut Pro to make the idents. The first one is very generic, showing that they produce all sorts of films, and the other one is for films that produces only horror films. 

Ident 1. 

This ident is the generic one, that represents a large film company. From the cloud inspiratinon in the DreamWorks ident, we have used clouds in our own ident. This also shows that our ident is well rounded and creates a variety of films.

Ident 2:
This ident represents a small production company that only creates horror films. Therefore, we chose a black and red colour scheme. A red mist of blood was downloaded from a Royalty free website and we used a thrilling soundtrack to create further suspense and tension. This was inspired by other horror production companies like 'Dimension Films' who produced films such as 'Scream'.

Film Ident Research

In today's lesson I learnt that an ident is what is used by production companies to identify that they are part of the production of a film or TV programme. Sometimes idents allow and insight to the film genre or the storyline and set the mood for the media text about to be shown. An ident is usually about 20 seconds long.

Lionsgate

There are two idents that Liongate have used in the openings of films they produce. Lionsgate is a leading horror film company, and looking at their idents may help me to gain ideas when creating my own horror ident for my final project.


Design
The video above is Lionsgate's most recent film ident and it lasts 22 seconds long. At the start of the ident clogs and gears are denoted and they are the main focus of the shot. The camera pans around the gears denoting the gears all moving together and then the camera zooms our. The camera appears to move further awway from the gears and continues to zoom out. The clogs are then shown moving through a key hole in a door, the camera continues to reverse zoom and then two majestic doors are thrown open, in which the word 'LIONSGATE' shows up.

Intention
The gears and clogs in the ident connote complexity of the films they make. They could aim to be opening up the audience's imaginations with the vision of the doors opening. The ident is very dreamy, which also connotes that they could be opening up the audience's imaginations.

Lionsgate Alternative Ident  m

Design
This is an alternative Lionsgate ident I've found online that is commonly used in Lionsgates horror films. The ident starts off the same as the original Lionsgate ident denoting gears moving on screen with panning and the reverse zoom with the camera moving backwards. However, the colour scheme is this ident differs from the original unlike the original dark red hue colours are used. The clogs are broze and rusty looking instead of looking metallic and clean like the original. The background colours are also much darker in this ident with orange, brown and red hues. The doors in this opening are also very dark and they dont have the prestigious lavish look which is denoted in the original ident. Unlike the original ident the clouds-cape is coloured red and dark brown and the text in the center of the screen is dark grey. At the end of this ident the clouds-cape's dark red colours glow to a bright red with the text remaining in the center of the screen.

Dreamworks
The second set of idents I've chosen to look at are by DreamWorks entertainment, I've chosen to look at this company as I feel that they are well known for creating alternative idents to relate to story lines and themes explored for each film they create. I could draw inspirtation from this and create unique alternative ident which clearly denotes the themes that my final project will include. I'm looking at two of DreamWorks idents because DreamWorks is a company that creates various alternative idents for each of their films in relation to their storylines. For example the Shrek movies have their own alternative idents under DreamWorks. I think an ident should relate to a films narrative and therefore it could be interesting to look at some of DreamWorks idents, as they can inspire and influence how I create my own ident for my final project.


- 28 seconds long.
- Young boy sitting on the moon fishing in the sky.
- 'Dreamsworks' pans on screen.
- Connotes imagination.
-Blue and white colour scheme.

Horror Film Step Outline

To gain further ideas and inspiration for creating the opening credits and scene of a horror film my group has decided to analyse an opening of a horror film.

Below is a word document I have embedded using Slideshare. I have analysed the different frames and shots used in the opening titles of Sweeney Todd. I have broken down the description of the shot, the mise en scene, sound, editing and typography used. This will helpful as we will know the codes and conventions for a typical horror movie opening.

Sweeney todd from isthatamythough

Film pitch, padlet and amendments

Film Pitch from simrantakhar

Above is the Film Pitch, detailing our ideas as a group for our opening titles. We have included a synopsis for the narrative, a resource list and a locations list needed in our film, also there is some information on the title of our film and its genre. Simran has created a slideshare, to depict our ideas in an interesting and creative way.

We needed feedback on our ideas, so that we could determine if our ideas were along the right lines, or if they needed any adjustments. Any feedback on our ideas will be useful and important, as comments from our peers will be hugely influential when we create our horror film, as we will know we area meeting our target audiences needs. Below is the embedded pad let, with the What Went Well comments, and some Even Better If... comments. 

Created with Padlet

Target audience questionnaire with analysis results

Survey:
Below is the link to a questionnaire I created using the website 'Survey Monkey'. I have included questions that will allow my group and I to understand more about our target audience, and what they link and dislike in horror films. This is useful as it gives us an indication of what to include in our final video.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JCRZDQS

Analysis of results:
Group member Simran has created a Prezi to analyse the results of the questionnaire we created, the Prezi is embedded below;

Horror Genre Research

Horror Genre and its History
This timeline shows how the Horror genre has transformed and changed over time, starting from 1920 to the present day.
http://www.dipity.com/bethbrewer100/Horror-Genre-and-its-history/

This is a presentation that looks into the conventions of horror genre. I've learnt that there are certain conventions that make a horror film a horror film. e.g. dark lighting. This will be helpful when using it in my end product, as I will be aware of the things to include and has helped expand my ideas.

Conventions of Horror Movies

Certification
Most horror films are rated either 15 or 18.

In a film with a certification 15, the films can include:

• Strong violence.
• Frequent strong language.
• Portrayals of sexual activity.
• Strong verbal references to sex.
• Sexual nudity.
• Drug taking.

In a film with a certification 18, the films can include:

• Very strong violence.
• Frequent strong language.
• Strong portrayals of sexual activity.
• Scenes of sexual activity.
• Strong horror.
• Strong blood and gore.

Iconography:

Below I have created a collage of common horror iconography on the website 'Photovisi':

Horror iconography usually follow a pattern, using the same or similar iconography in order to make the genre identifiable to the audience. This means it makes it easier to label who is the protagonist and who is the antagonist through the iconography associated with them. Iconography can be a symbols that are featured in all horror movies. These include:

• The Haunted House
• Symbols of Death
• Disfigured face
• Masks
• The screaming victim ('The final girl').
• Murder weapon aka: Knife, meat cleaver, chainsaw etc.
• Binary opposites of good vs evil.
• Dark places.
• Blood and bloody body parts.

Director research:
As part of our genre research, we have chosen to look into a famous horror film director, who has directed many famous horror films, that have been a hollywood success. Below is the link to a slideshow group member Beth has created using a website called 'Zenfolio'.
http://bethbrewer.zenfolio.com/p981291258/slideshow

Preliminary Task

This storyboard shows the shots and dialogue of what I plan to do for my preliminary task to trial some of the techniques and to see. This was created by my group member, Beth. She used an online storyboard maker tool, and this allows us to visualise what our film would look like. 

Script

(Character A walks into the room through the door. Character B is sitting at a table alone)

Character B: Hey! You alright?

Character A: Hey, yeah. Why didn't you come to my party last week?

Character B: Nobody invited me. I thought it was weird you didn't invite me but, I didn't want to say anything. 

Character A: Oh sorry, I thought you knew.

Character B: That's okay. I'll come to the next one.

Character A: Yeah, I've got to go now, so bye.

Character B: Alright, see you later.

Below is a video of my preliminary task, where shot reverse shot, the 180 degree rule and match on action are all used. Beth and Simran did the filming whereas I did the editing.