David's Slaughter Night film poster

Q3 - Reflective Evaluation

Media Institution Research

The kind of films different media institution distributes. Here are some example of two independent and and one major media institution.

Independent Film Companies

Fantastic Films

Fantastic Films is an OSCAR™ winning film production company with a focus on high quality genre & niche films.

Film examples:

Outcast
Outcast is a 2010 supernatural thriller film, which is directed by Colm McCarthy and starring James Nesbitt.


Example of a promo and poster from the film:

Wilderness

'WILDERNESS', a horror feature film starring Sean Pertwee (Dog Soldiers, Goal, Event Horizon and Alex Reid. 


Example of a promo and poster from the film:

It can be identified from the trailers that it is a low budgeted film in terms of its quality and cast. It is not expected to be with a major institution, appeal to a larger group of audience or release worldwide even though the story seem quite good, its not something that comes into a specific genre such as ghost or slasher which people are more likely to admire. Compare to the trailer, the poster is created in much high quality and more eye catching which may interest the audience.


Hammer Films

Hammer is a London based production subsidiary of Exclusive Media Group and a legendary British film brand.

Film examples:


Women in Black
The Woman in Black is a 2012 thriller-horror film directed by James Watkins and is based on Susan Hill's novel of the same name. The film stars Daniel Radcliffe, Ciarán Hinds, Janet McTeer, Sophie Stuckey, and Liz White.


Example of a promo and poster from the film:

Let Me In

Let Me In is a 2010 American romantic horror film directed by Matt Reeves and starring Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloë Grace Moretz.

Example of a promo and poster from the film:

As we can both film looks like quite large budgeted film in terms of its quality and cast. It uses well known characters and interesting story-line in the trailer. It can be expected to release worldwide and appeal to a large group of audience, something that goes into a specific genre and admired by people. Not just the trailer but the poster is goodly produced in terms of graphics which people would expect from a larger production film company. New but within few years after the remake, Hammer has became popular and well known.

The both production company promotes horror films, mostly based on olden days classical. However Fantastic film production is one of the Oscar winning production, won over 50 international awards in the last six years such as Wilderness, 48 Angels etc. On the other hand Hammer film production is old ,but since its resurrection in 2007 Hammer has only released few film such as women in black, film 2012.

Major Film Company

Twist Pictures Production

Twisted Pictures is an American independent production company, mainly creating films of the horror genre. Twisted Pictures was formed after the box office success of Saw in 2004, which lead to a nine-picture distribution deal with Lionsgate.


Film examples:

Dead Silence

Dead Silence (originally titled Shhhh... and Silence, with alternate title suggestions such asThe Doll and Mary Shaw) is a 2007 horror film, directed by James Wan

Example of a promo and poster from the film:

Saw

Saw is a 2004 American independent horror film directed by James Wan. The screenplay, written by Leigh Whannell, is based on a story by Wan and Whannell.

Example of a promo and poster from the film:

Both Saw and deal silence come into the category of slasher, here they use film location(isolated place) and characters(people being killed by an unknown person, no motive). From its trailer people can expect what may happen which grab the attention and builds confidence of the audience. The film looks of a huge budged film in terms of what are shown in the film, which is expected from a large film production.


It is said that making is much easier then distribution however it depends on how well known the production company is. When distributing a film, production company made to keep in mind of the

• Studio
• Target Audience
• Star power
• Buzz
• Season

because depending on the e.g. season, the movie will be popular. For example horror films such as Friday The 13Th is more likely to be popular during Halloween. The ways film company can distribute their film is through theaters, putting posters, internet such as YouTube, festivals, Television etc. No matter which production company it is their film distribution will be similar because their purpose is to promote the movie no matter what.

Reflective Evaluation

Hammer films

Twisted Pictures







There is a big contrast between the film companies as Twisted Pictures who are the more popular film company base their films around average everyday people and Hammer films produce movies with fictional creatures such as vampires and zombies.

Slaughter SHADOW POSTER

Shot list

Title Sequence Template: Credit and Visuals

Lighting Design Sheet #001

Reseaching SLASHER Costume and Prop

Victims or hero within the slasher films are likely to wear ordinary cloths of what people may wear daily, such as jeans and t.shirt both in light colour.
This all suggest that ordinary clothing portrays the through that the characters are innocent, but it is the innocent people that find that trouble or bad things come there way.

The killer within the slasher films are likely to wear a mask and wear black, big, long costume, which hides identity/ body feathers and makes them look strong.
This all suggest that this person(killer) is different from others and make them look dangers to be knowledge, but hard to find.

A best example of them both(victim and killer) is Friday the 13th, where the killer uses a white mask and straight jacket to cover its identity and the victim wears simple jeans and T.shirt so it makes them look innocent and venerable.

Film Production: Recee Sheet

Test shot: Actors

"Art of the title"

                   


The opening title sequence uses visuals different corner of a city, and gives institution information of the cast and crew. However in a short sequence so the audiences don't get board and get an idea of who, and what the story is about. This is our inspiration as we will be using visuals of the Arboretum(location) and put our cast and crew in bold writing. So its clear, and keeps audiences interest like it did in Panic Room.

We will be designing the title sequence by recording small parts of the location such as the hills, tunnel, roads etc. And then going into the beginning of the two female characters walking into the road. Showing something that relevant/shown(micro picture) in the movie in stand of using something that relates/represents(macro picture) of the movie. Then editing in the names of the cast and crew, that maybe hand written or typed in creative writing.


The design inspiration is from the movie PANIC ROOM but the creation is taken from 

Kyle Cooper on of the title creators of movies.

Effect used in 'The Ring'

In the movie 'The Ring' there is a scene in which the main killer (Samara) climbs out from a televison in attempt to kill the victim (Noah). During this scene there is a very interesting editing technique used to give the effect of the killer teleporting from across the room to appear in front of the victim. This type of editing is called a jump cut and can make the killer seem a lot more intimidating which is why is wish to use this in our slasher movie project as our killer shares the same characteristics as Samara.

Reference:  http://youtu.be/cD2nS4ualCs?t=2m9s (effect starts at 2:09)

                                                                                                                         By David

Storyboards