Mood board for the horror genre: Adam

WHAT CHARLOTTE NEEDS TO DO

1. Physical timeline for opening – clear focus on timings of titles, footage and sound
2. Editing
3. Recording to make media better

Locations: Charlotte

Photographs and footage of locations
When filming we decided to go to a local forest near Jade's house- an actor. This was convenient for everyone as it was close by so did not waste money on travel and if we needed to re-film it would be easy to access the same area. By filming everything in one place, we saved time and money so that we could spend more on preparation with buying props and coming up with ideas. 

We decided to film the girl running away in the area where there are fewer trees close by, this is so that Jade can run fast without worrying about falling over and hurting herself on a tree- Health and safety.

As the camera looks down at the clown, we made sure that we can see bark and bits of chipped wood, this could add to the effect of breaking sticks as the young girl ran from her fear- the clown.

This is footage of the girl turning around to see the clown standing, watching her. Every time she turns around, the settings change and the clown gets closer, but is standing there. We decided to change the settings slightly, for example, having one branch in a new shot where it is not there in another.

Health and Safety: Charlotte

Health and safety issues are very important to consider when filming our opening sequence, we need to ensure that we are all safe and understand the risks of harm if misused certain props. For example, when using the noose we needed to make sure that we do not phsically put it around someones neck tight or from a height, this would put a person in risk of breaking there neck. To overcome this, we put the noose over the head and not the neck. As we were working in a forest, we made sure that we were close to civilization so that if anything went wrong we could run to nearby people or houses. We had to take responsibility for the camera, tripod props used such as face paints, if face paints were to go in someone's eye or swallowed a doctor should be consulted immediately.

Nine frame structure : Adam

NINE frame structure analysis of film opening of film in your genre

Props: Adam

our group only used one prop within our film apart from the costumes and that was the noose.

A noose is a loop at the end of a rope in which the knot slides to make the loop collapsible. Knots used for making nooses include the running bowline, the tarbuck knot, and the slip knot. The knot most closely associated with execution is the hangman's knot, which is also known as the "hangman's noose". The noose is made of three things:

• The open end is called a Honda.
• The knots are known as hangman’s knots.
• The end that is plain is the hitch.

A noose is sometimes left as a message in order to intimidate people. Its meaning is derived from its use in segregation era lynching. It is illegal to display a noose in a threatening manner in some states such as New York and Connecticut. Hanging is where someone is suspended in the air by a rope around their neck. It was also known as crucifixion and death by impalement.

There are four ways of hanging some one with a noose, these are:

•  Suspension, like the short drop, causes death by using the weight of the body to tighten the trachea with the noose.
• The short drop is performed by placing the condemned prisoner on the back of a cart, horse, or other vehicle, with the noose around the neck. The object is then moved away, leaving the person dangling from the rope.
• The standard drop, which arrived as calculated in English units, involves a drop of between 4 and 6 feet (1.2 and 1.8 m) and came into use from 1866.
• Long drop also known as the measured drop, was introduced to Britain in 1872 by William Marwood as a scientific advancement to the standard drop. Instead of everyone falling the same standard distance, the person's height and weight were used to determine how much slack would be provided in the rope so that the distance dropped would be enough to ensure that the neck was broken, but not so much that the person was decapitated. The careful placement of the eye or knot of the noose.



Certificate ratings – BBFC research: Adam

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is an independent, non-governmental company funded through the fees it charges to people who submit films and video works for classification. The BBFC classifies films on behalf of the local authorities who license cinemas under the Licensing Act of 2003. The BBFC classifies video works which are released as video recordings under the Video Recordings Act 1984. This includes things like video games that may depict human sexual activity, gross violence or other matters of concern.

The classification depends on a few criteria:

• For 12 years and over: Discriminatory language or behaviour must not be endorsed.  Any misuse of drugs must be infrequent and should not be glamorised or give instructional detail. Moderate physical and psychological threat may be permitted. Dangerous behaviour e.g. hanging, suicide and self-harming should not dwell on detail which could be copied, or appear pain or harm free.  Moderate language is allowed, The use of strong language must be infrequent.  Nudity is allowed, but in a sexual context must be brief and discreet. Sexual activity may be briefly and discreetly portrayed. Sex references should not go beyond what is suitable for young teenagers.  Mature themes are acceptable, but their treatment must be suitable for young teenagers. Moderate violence is allowed but should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if justified by the context.
• For 15 years and older:  The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour. Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse.  Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised. Dangerous behaviour e.g. hanging, suicide and self-harming should not dwell on detail which could be copied. There may be frequent use of strong language, aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable. Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity when displayed as non-sexual or educational. Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds. Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable.
• For 18 years and over: there are no restrictions to what can be displayed in film with this catergory as the veiwers are old enough to choose what they want to see.

There are many laws which also govern the certification and making of films, these are:

• Human Rights Act 1998: The Act permits such restrictions on freedom of expression as are prescribed by law.
•  The Licensing Act 2003: Cinemas requires a licence from the local authority in which they operate. The licence must include a condition which requires the admission of children (under 18) to any film to be restricted in accordance with the recommendations of the BBFC or the licensing authority.
• The Video Recordings Act 1984: films, TV programmes and video games which are supplied on a disc, tape or any other device capable of storing data electronically must be classified by the BBFC.
• The Obscene Publications Act 1959 & 1964: It is illegal to publish a work which is obscene. A work is obscene if, taken as a whole, it has a tendency to deprave and corrupt.
• Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008: It is illegal to be in possession of an extreme pornographic image. An extreme pornographic image is one which is pornographic and grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an obscene character.
• The Protection of Children Act 1978: It is illegal to make, distribute, show or possess indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of a child.
• The Sexual Offences Act 2003: It is illegal to expose oneself with intent to cause alarm or distress – this offence augments the common law misdemeanour of indecent exposure.
• The Public Order Act 1986: It is illegal to distribute, show or play to the public a recording of visual images or sounds which are threatening, abusive or insulting if the intention is to stir up racial hatred or hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation.
• The Cinematograph Films Act 1937 for animals: It is illegal to show any scene ‘organised or directed’ for the purposes of the film that involves actual cruelty to animals.
• The Animal Welfare Act 2006: It is illegal to supply, publish or show or possess with intent to supply a video recording of an ‘animal fight’ that has taken place within Great Britain since 6 April 2007.
• The Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act 2002: It is illegal, in the course of a business, to publish a tobacco advertisement.

Story board: Charlotte

We drew up a story board to help us to film our opening sequence. We then annotated the story board slightly to add in a match on action shot. Overall i think that it was very effective and useful to have. 

coming up with ideas

Still frame analysis: Charlotte

I have added a few still frames from the opening sequence that our group have filmed, and from this I have decided to do this to show the angles and shot types we decided to use. I will also analyse conventions and 'Mise en scene' that we used. I feel that these are very effective and successful as they were all used appropriately.


We decided to add a match on action shot to emphasise the chase of the clown and the young girl. By doing this the viewers can clearly see that the girl is running away, fast and distant. The young girl is wearing neutral coloured clothes and no make up to emphasise her purity which then makes the audience feel sympathy towards her insanity. The background setting is in a forest which is meant to be frightening as it is a secluded area, there are also a lot of trees which could make the young girl feel confused about where she is going and where she can run to.

We decided to add a close up shot of the clown to make the audience feel claustrophobically close to the clown, our aim was to do this and scare the viewer by making them feel uneasy. The clown was Chris Smith as we decided we could see him best as a clown due to his features such as bushy eyebrows and wide eyes. We used face paints to make him look realistic and added a red nose and wig. Close up shots of the clown were used in the very beginning of the sequence during the titles and close ups of psychiatric reports and at the end of the sequence when the girl was running away from the clown, and he seemed to be getting closer and closer.

Existing film production company research: Adam

Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation (commonly referred to as Lionsgate)

Is a North American entertainment company. The company was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1997. It is the most commercially successful independent film and television distribution company in North America. Lionsgate was founded in 1997 by Frank Giustra, who was a canadian investment banker. The company has bought a number of small production facilities and distributors. Recently, Lionsgate sold their subsidiary Maple Pictures to film distributor Alliance Films, which is based in Montreal, Canada. The company has 497 staff who work for them. The company had a revenue in 2010 of $1,584,000,000. Their company is worth $1,704,000,000.

Its first major box office success was American Psycho in 2000, which began a trend of producing and distributing films too controversial for the major American studios. These films include Affliction and Saw and the Michael Moore documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, which became the studio's highest grossing film. This studio is recognized for its role in a number of daytime TV programs. Lionsgate has a home video library of more than 8000 films with all of the former Artisan Entertainment releases (many the result of output deals with other studios), including such titles as Dirty Dancing, Earth Girls are Easy, Army of One, Total Recall, On Golden Pond, and the Rambo series.

Production company name: group work

For our production company name, we decided as a group that we wanted to some how all be included in it as we were all part of the production process. We started trying to create some anagrams using the first letter of our names, Conor, Charlotte, Adam and Jade. Our first one was CCAJ which didn't work because it didn't seem like a production company name. We had a list of them:
-CCAJ
-ACAJ
-AJCC
-CJAC

All of them looked unprofessional and did not seem to work. We then thought of JACC. We all liked it immediately as it actually look like a proper name and sounded and look professional. We then started to think of some logos that fit the name. We thought it would be best to create a simple yet affective logo. We combined all the letters into one shape. The curve of the J and the C create a complete circle. Within the circle is a large A and on top of the logo the is a horizontal line representing the J.

We designed a logo which we are hoping to edit and add onto the beginning of our opening sequence. We want to edit it by changing the boldness of the lines and the colour, and I have also added a scan of our planning to show the progress we have made. Below, there is a scan of our initial idea of the logo, we used this and used photo draw to re design this logo, add the colour red as it signifies blood and goes with the horror theme, we also used black and white because those are the colours we use in our title sequence.

draft design of logo

computer manipulated logo

Filming Schedule

We are going to do our filming in three different locations and in three different sessions. For the first session we are planning to film shot numbers 11 to 19 which were the shots of the running scene which included our main character and the clown. It will be easier to film it in chronological order and will also be easier to edit the film. The setting will be in a wood near one of the team members house and we will plan to start filming at 1 o'clock. The problem with the time of filming is that we wanted to set it in dark surroundings so to get round the problem, we will darken it during the editing or use an affect.

For the second session, we needed to do shots 3,5,7 and 9 which were the shots of the clown. While we were doing this we also got the two pictures we needed for the main characters doctor report. We did this after the first session at the group members house against a white wall to make the two characters features stand out.

For the third session we had to do the shots 2,4,6,8 and 10. These were basic shots of the doctor report that we would use for our main character. We would use them to show the characters mental stability. They would be shot in our media class on a table to give it a feel of it being in an everyday place. The other shots were done during editing as they were titles of the movie or a production name.

Audience expectations from our film genre

For our film genre we have chosen to do a horror film. We are going to use the typical horror conventions such as dark lighting, mysterious characters and fast camera shots. As our film introduction only gives away small details of the plot, we expect the audience to be oblivious to what is about to unfold and maybe a little confused. We are hoping that the film will make the audience feel scared and on occasion make them jump. These are obviously very important traits in a horror film, but are not always easy to achieve.

Costumes: Jade

Youtube Interviews: Jade

These are interviews that helped us and gave us idea and conventions for the beginning sequence of our own horror film.