Horror Location Post

The location that we are using for our horror opening is Meadowgate forest. The images bellow is the locations map of the location, we shall be using the part where the trees are. I have  also included a map of routes that are marked out in and about the forest to give a good idea of where we can shoot when it comes to filming.

We felt as though this place would be practical as it has multiple places for masking parts such as jump scares (Which are rather essential to any good horror) or getting lost or perhaps trapped. We are going to use this location to our advantage (because it is a strong advantage) with this factor to ensure a sense of a presence being nearby to create a sense of fear, or alternatively create tension by the character unable to navigate an escape. We could create this by using shots of the trees in close ups or out of focus and then moving with quick short cuts.

Another reason we choose this location is because it is close by and is not used by many people so there should not be any major interruptions.

I feel as though a forest would be a good choice of location as it can present anything in a rather ominous way if hidden by trees, which is what is present within the zombie genre, zombies are far more terrifying if you do not expect to see them, which is why it is a good idea to keep focus on something as such of trees. Perhaps this could be from a close up of the trees then moving to show the zombies from nearby or even use a tree that is the width of someone.

I feel as though this concept is so effective that it is used multiple times in many zombie produced movies or shows, the most common one to use as an example of course would be The Walking Dead as the show is mostly filmed in a forest of some kind.

 As you can see the zombies are often dark in colour so are not easily recognisable next to the trees as they blend in rather well. This is a good thing to keep in mind when planning our film.

In a forest during the day the sun light is blocked by the trees as they tower rather high which helps us out a fair amount as this adds another aspect of horror to our horror opening.

Our Production Company

Me and my group have decided to name our company Black Eclipse Productions. The reason why we chose this name was because it represents the brief moment between light and dark as it gives a sense of  ominousness that connects the light and dark. 

our logo:

We have designed our logo as such to represent that the black darkness shows danger and mystery, also an eclipse only occurs once every so often so it is a special occasion that blocks out the light, just like our film company as we specialise in horror. They types of horror films that we specialise in are zombie/slasher/supernatural.

Our company is an interdependent company so we looked at other companies to gain inspiration from them for our own company. For this we looked at different types of word art from these different companies:  

Revolt productions:
This company uses two types of font for their logo. The boldness of it stands out and almost gives off the sense of being on edge.

 Studio Helsinki:
Has a rather elegant typed style to it's word art, which would suggest an air of security and positiveness about their company.

 Dark Room:
Bold, just like the dark, and a dark room, the neon could represent the mysteriousness of such company.









Dream Works:
Soft and professional, easy on the eyes. A good representation of animated family film favourites.









Each company has their own personal type of word art that fits perfectly well with their companies style and the types of content they produce.

For our companies logo we felt that it was appropriate to put the letters that form "Black Eclipse" in a circle shape around an orange circle as this would represent the eclipse, we also used these letters in a white colour to contrast with the black background that represents the night time. We also used larger letters for the P and S on "Productions" because we liked the idea from other companies logos such as:

If we was to compare our company to another one it would have to be Twisted Pictures which is also another independent film company who are similar to our company. This company was formed in 2004 which come from America's array of independent production companies. They were created by Mark Burg, Oren Koules and Gregg Hoffman. This company is best know for the Saw series.

Production Companies 'The Big Six'

The Big Six are the top most important and leading production companies that share, distribute films and produce them.

The companies that are part of 'The Big Six' as followed: 

Universal Filmed Entertainment Group

Warner Bros. Entertainment

Sony Pictures: Motion Picture Group

Walt Disney Studios

Paramount Motion Pictures Group

Fox Entertainment Group

These six film companies are ones that are much higher than others and are on top of the heap when it comes to the film industry. There are two different types of studios in the film industry when it comes to companies, and that is major, and independent. A major production company produces a large number of films and distributes often and consistently, they have to hand then a large amount of box office budget in a particular given market of film. However a independent film company are different, producing films separately and does all of the funding, producing and distributing themselves. 

Well known independent films would be as such:

Black Swan (2011) Directed by: Darren Aronofsky

The Terminator (1984) Directed by: James Cameron

Night of the Living Dead (1968) Directed by: George Romero

Evil Dead (1981) Directed by: Sam Raimi

The Blair Witch Project (1999) Directed by: Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez

Winter's Bone (2010) Directed by: Deborah Granik

Our Stories Synopsis.

Our zombie horror film synopsis ideas board:

A synopsis is a brief explanation of something (e.g. a film or a book). This post is about our own synopsis for our horror movie opening. Enjoy!

Life is completely normal, a couple are walking their dog in the forest when all of a sudden an abundance of zombies come charging at them from all directions, and this signposts the start of the apocalypse. It becomes apparent that there have been people rising from the dead, then biting and infecting others with a disease that turns them into crazy cannibal zombies. After staying in an abandoned warehouse for a long time, a group of 5 survivors have no choice but to leave to seek supplies in order to survive. The five-some travel across the UK until they come across a hoard of zombies and have to fight them off. They meet another group and the two teams join together and decide to travel together in the hope that it will be easier to survive and fight off all of the hordes they encounter. They all decide to stay at an unaffected area before it gets overrun by zombies once again and a few of the group get killed. Finally the group reach the "zombie free" place that they travelled far and wide for, and they get settled in and finally begin to enjoy life and rebuild all of what they had lost in the apocalypse. All seems well until over the hill appears thousands of zombies. Will they ever escape? 

Audience Research

As a whole I found from my research through a questionnaire that actually the things found in zombie horror may be generic but the audience that enjoys zombie horror seem to enjoy the same old generic aspects. If it wasn't for the generic style of these aspects then zombie horror would not be it's self and certainly would not make it personal to the viewer.

Obviously as seen from my research the most expected from a zombie movie is death, well of course it wouldn't be zombie horror if some people didn't die. Though the options were rather usual to the genre so these responses were expected.

We also included some rather basic questions to see what kind of people were in this audience. Turns out that the age range we was looking at is who mostly watch zombie horror films.

We asked about point of view and the responses seemed rather positive and they seemed to feel as if it is not used often and could be rather effective.

Of course the question of how you are infected is always important when making a good zombie film. It is probably the most important aspect. Turns out that zombie audiences rather enjoy the usual infection via biting.

What makes a good horror movie? Apparently good story line, that is interesting and has realistic aspects to it and danger. This helps a lot to ensure that we add these to our horror opening to captivate people to be our audience.

It seems as though zombie horror is rather favourable by people and is enjoyed by audiences but is not favoured over supernatural horror.

This was a rather interesting part of my research, even though in other questions people would say they expect and enjoys the generic aspects of zombie horror they rather contrast themselves when asked what they don't like about zombie movies, saying they do not like the generics.

Often people feel as though it will be better if the zombie problem is not fixed. It seems that no way out also interests audiences as well.

We explored the possibility of crossing fears in our horror, so we asked how people feel about clowns, the reactions were rather mixed. Obviously there were mixed opinions about jump scares as well, as people either enjoy them or not but we felt we should still ask for thoughts.

This was interesting too. The fact that people do not want films to be the same all the time yet in other questions they answer with generic answers to our questions.

The most expected characters for a zombie film happens to be ones who get scared by the zombies and freak out around them. This means that when creating our own horror opening we can have a larger effect on the audience by having the characters as scared of the zombies as they are so that the may relate to them. Of course we now also know how strong to make the zombies. It seem that fairly strong zombies are rather terrifying to audiences.

We felt as though maybe having an animal companion could be something that is explored as there is never really any animal friends within zombie horror films. Seems like a good idea to audiences and is something we can include in our opening.
Obviously zombie fans do not seem too wild on the idea of having people being immune to the zombie virus.

Seems as though females are preferred, perhaps because of there mostly being strong male characters over females, so perhaps audiences would like a change. However other than this there is a divide in ages so it seems as if any other ages are rather equal.

Weapons seem to be the same things as always so there seems to be no extreme problem with finding props.

I found that this questionnaire was rather useful to us as a group as it shows how even though audiences would like new things within zombie horror they also rather enjoy the stereotypical aspects of it as well. So perhaps it would be rather useful for us to explore these new ideas and include them in our horror opening.

Mood Boards

We felt as if it would be a good idea to make a mood board to get an idea of what our horror opening would include, or we would like to include. We thought we should use things you would find in a normal zombie horror as a basis for our own opening. We then added anything we felt was needed.







We then felt it was a good idea to take this and create another board with titles of the specifics used, or that we wanted to use. This was to make it clearer, what we wanted to include.

Initial Ideas For Horror Opening

As a group, me and the other people I am working with created our own kind of mind map of initial ideas for our horror opening. This was to create a two minute opening of a horror film (of any genre) for our course work for the year.

We started with things we had seen in horror films before to base our work upon, and these were our ideas: 

We then decided that we liked the idea of creating either a horror about zombies, or about clowns. Then we had an idea that we could include both. We soon settled on the idea of having a couple walking through the forest and suddenly running into a clown, then see the clown being attacked. We are not sure weather we want the couple to be attacked yet or not, so we have a very vague outline of our plan.

Sound Elements And The Effects They Have

Sound elements in horror films can be rather effective. In this post I shall be looking at how sound elements can create different effects and present different aspects to a piece of film. Sound elements can range from a few different things, either a song being played in the background, a sound effect or even no sound at all.

Sound Elements In Zombie Horror:

In zombie horror films, sound elements can vary. One example could be when there is no sound at all being played which builds suspension when it stops, as the viewer then starts to feel scared and expects something to happen. Even though they suspect something to happen they are still rather surprised when a sudden loud noise is made or something jumps out, of course the noise added to the sudden action is what terrifies audiences.

Most of the time sound effects or elements that are used within zombie horror are usually sounds such as suspension music when something suddenly appears (especially in the older movies) which adds to the sense of fear that the viewer has from the extract they are viewing.
Or even noises from voice effects such as screams, loud noises or something that does not sound so pleasant like a zombie making a tone of strange 'roaring' screams.

Sound Elements Generalised:

There are different effects that can be added to sound files that are within films. These are different sound elements. These are the different elements that are used:

• Duration
• Pitch
• Timbre
• Intensity
• Space

These all change sound to make them, well, sound different to have a different effect more than they would on their own.

Diegetic Sound:

Diegetic sound in films is when a sound is made and is also visible on the screen or is implied to be present. The most common uses of diegetic sound in films are as such: 

• actors speaking to each other (dialogue)
• sounds originating from any object on the screen, like footsteps, police sirens or a TV ect.
• music that comes from a sound system or orchestra

An example of diegetic sound would be for instance in "The Walking Dead" when Carl is shooting a zombie you can hear his gun firing as well as being able to see it.

Non-Diegetic Sound:

Sound is said to be non-diegetic when the source it comes from is neither present or implied in the narrative universe. Common times this is the case are:

• music or score is used to urge emotions
• actor’s commentary or narration
• any extra sound added for effect within the film

Film Classification

The BBFC:

The role of the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) is to place a classification (age rating) upon film for either to be shown in a cinema or on TV or DVD.

The Classifications are as followed: 

• U - Universal - Suitable for all ages. A U film is considered suitable for all ages over four years of age, however not guaranteed that children will be upset by curtain themes as it is impossible to to know what will upset each individual child. U films are set to be positive and reassuring to balance out anything scary or violent. 

• PG - Parental Guidance - Essentially can be viewed by anyone, however an odd scene may not be suitable for children under 8 as a PG film should not unsettle or disturb children around 8 or older.

• 12A/12 - Only suitable for children over 12 year old and people older. Usually contains themes or material that are not suitable for children under 12 and can not be viewed at a cinema alone unless accompanied by an adult.

• 15 - Only suitable for ages over 15, no one under 15 can see a 15 in cinema or rent or buy a 15 piece of film as the can contain a fair amount of violence as well as use of bad language.

• 18 - an 18 should only be viewed by adults no one under 18 should be watching, buying or renting anything rated 18. This is because they usually contain extreme amounts of violence throughout the film as well as a lot bad language, or impressionable themes such as drugs. 

The issues that are used for rating classifications are the following: 

• Discrimination 
• Drugs
• Dangerous behaviour 
• Language 
• Nudity
• Sex
• Threat
• Violence

For any more information on any of these age ratings please visit the BBFC website: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ 

This will give a bit more information on what fits into each age rating.

Age Rating Within Zombie Horror:

World War Z:

World War Z is classified a 15 because there is a sustained threat throughout the whole film (because of the zombies and how fast as well as threatening they are) and has several scenes of hoards of zombies running about attacking people and climbing over vehicles not only in long range but also close up frames. Even though a majority of the violence is off screen and there is little blood, this film still has some rather powerfully impressionable scenes such as when the main character cuts off another characters hand or when hitting a zombie repeatedly with a crowbar. This film also has mild bad language in it. It would appeal to its target audience as it is filled with action and has some pretty terrifying scenes of zombies running in masses with a great amount of speed which makes the scenes really fast scaring the audience which is what the audience want.




Flight Of The Living Dead - Outbreak On A Plane:

Flight Of The Living Dead is classified as a 18 mostly because of the rather large amount of violence and gore that is throughout the film. There are a lot of loud noises from many turbulence's, a large number of jump scares, blood coming out of zombie mouths, and a lot of scratching and biting of non-zombies and of course the obvious, a great amount of death to characters. This movie consists of a lot of repeated profanity. This would appeal to it's target audience as the film is set on a plane and people do not often associate a zombie film with this type of setting so people are drawn to the uniqueness of the setting of this film as I am sure that many people often question when thinking about a zombie horror film "What would happen if there was a zombie outbreak on a plane?" Well no need to worry because this film has you covered when it comes to plane's full of zombie's.

Night Of The Living Dead (1968):

The original Night Of The Living Dead is classified as a 15 rated film, however remakes and re-edited versions are rated 18 and over. This is because there are multiple scenes where they are extremely violent and gory. Though the film seems rather docile it is actually rather extreme on the violence side of things. Because the film is not in colour but in black and white it tones down the effect that the blood and gore has, which makes it look much less violent. There are also rather a large amount of disturbing, frightening scenes as well as a few mild language problems. This film could appeal to it's target audience as this would be about the time that people's fears were the unknown of zombies, wear-wolfs, vampires, witches, giant spiders ect. So everyone would be wanting to go see these things that everyone thought were so dangerous and scary. The amount of gore would attract anyone who likes it.