At Large

Finally a story

So the main idea is that this opening will be about a murder recorded by a killer. The structure will be simple with it trying to emulate reality as close as possible. I want to try my hardest to make the footage look like something real, which will help with the scare factor. Most of it will be shot in a first person POV through a phone camera to make it look as gritty as possible.

The opening will immediately start off with the phone recording that the killer took. The killer is in a very dim room. You cannot tell where he is from the darkness. The flash on the phone illuminates a hammer on the ground. The shot lingers on the hammer for a bit. They killer picks up the hammer slowly and grips it.

Cut to the killer walking outside in a neighborhood, its sunset at this point. As the killer is waking around you can tell that they are quickly looking all around them for something. A person walks by with their dog, the cam is angled down towards the killers feet. The person walking their dog says hi, the killer does not speak but he does wave to the person. 

Another cut. Its dark now, this is when we see the killer attempting at opening doors of a few houses and searching their windows for any way of access. This will be in a quick cut montage like sequence. This continues with a scene of the killer spotting someone through a window and the killer will just stare at them. The person leaves the killer's sight. the killer almost calmly walks to the nearest door finding it to be locked. The killer then slowly turns away and walks out of the persons backyard.

Cut again and this is when it all goes down. The killer walking in a neighborhood they check another door, this one is open. They walk into the house and close the door behind them. Not doing anything to hide their presence. They take out a hammer from their hoodie and they tightly grip it. A voice is heard saying "Who's there?". The camera turns quickly towards the noise and then the video ends.

We now see a shadowed figure watching a YouTube video about the case. The person going over the video says "What you just saw was events leading up to the moments of Arthur Lancaster death, as of now this case is still unsolved. Even 2 years after Arthur's death and the police are no closer to finding his killer.  The killer is considered at large and dangerous. If you have any information regarding this case please call this number, 954-853-5432. Here is a police sketch of  the man who is thought to be the killer, again if you think you have seen this man on the day of March 18th, 2018 please call the number. Thank you all for watching and have a nice day." Cut to title "At Large".

Credits for the film will be spread out throughout the opening scene when appropriate. I also plan on doing a visual storyboard for this layout to refine what I want to do. I might not make a script as the opening is not very dialogue heavy so it makes more sense for me to focus on making an effective and detailed storyboard.

Ideas Ideas!

I have thought of more aspects of the opening. So since I am really going in on that aspect of almost personal violation of being watched without knowing that you're being watched I thought it would be a good idea to have the killer record their point of view of what's happening. Maybe the whole thing can be from their point of view I think that could work really well, especially as a way to lead off into a story. Maybe once the video ends of what the killer recorded before they got to their victim we can see that the footage is in the police's hands telling us that this case is ongoing. So then it would make sense why we can even see the footage that the killer recorded.

There is a really chilling true crime case that is extremely similar to what I am going for. It's the case of  Stephen McDaniel. This case is a terrifying one as we can see what the McDaniel saw just moments before he strangled Lauren Giddings. The home recording showing the inside of Lauren Gidding's dorm room with Lauren completely unknowing to what McDaniel is doing and what he plans to do. That is something I want to emulate with the home recording vibe. It's something closer to reality than we think and that is what makes it so scary. It's so scary to think that you can be that person, you could be watched, and recorded. And you would have no idea.

Video about the case:

There is another true crime story that I am going to take some inspiration from. The vampire of Sacramento case. Basically in this case Richard Chase a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic went on a killing spree and drank his victims blood. The scariest part about this case was how Richard would go from door to door and search windows. If a door or window was not locked he would walk inside and kill whatever living creature he could find. That is so scary to me as imagining someone going door to door and checking your windows for any way to break in just so they can come in and kill you. I plan on emulating that aspect with my opening where the killer will be seen trying to enter multiple houses leading up to the final house which left a door unlocked.

Video about the case:

An Idea is Forming

After some thought I have sort of found a basis for what my opening will be about. I'm starting off with a concept. I'm using something that scares me and i'm going to form that into a story. But first I'll start off with what I have.

So here I have a picture from the kitchen in my house. To me when you're here late at night at 2am getting something to eat there comes this feeling of venerability. And it all comes from the windows. I think the scariest part about that feeling is the feeling that what if someone can see me but I cant see them. That's why people are afraid of the dark aren't they. Because they are scared of what could be in it. I want to use that fear of the unknown in a setting like this or in this place exactly. 

Here I will take a lot of inspiration from the opening of scream.

This shot taken from the opening of scream to me shows how all of this venerability could be really scary in execution. In the victims house there are windows everywhere, doors that you can see though. There is an uncomforting amount of exposure of the victim. Then once we know in the scene that someone was watching her the whole time it hits even harder because we know that they could see her clearly the whole time and she was oblivious to it all. 

For my story maybe it could be some person in their house at night. All alone, until there are a few disturbances and maybe some hints to something creeping around their house. And I really want to put emphasis on the fact that the victim should not be able to clearly understand the situation and the danger that they are in. Get some of that good dramatic irony in there.

Link to opening of Scream.

Making a Schedule

I wanted to make a loose schedule of certain goals that I want to meet as the weeks go on for this project. I'll order the groups by the weeks from the beginning to the end.

Week One (2/13-2/17): Week one was an important stage of basic introductory research and some potential brainstorming of ideas. Week one was successful in those aspects, I completed my blog posts and my research on my genre was finished. Although an idea was not created just thinking about potential ideas was helpful.

Week Two (2/17-2/23): Week two should consist of some planing as I am doing now, just so I have a basic outline to follow while doing the project. Since my pacing should always be on my mind. More brainstorming should be done to hopefully by the end of this week have some idea of what i'll create as my film opening. More research will be done to get more ideas, consuming more horror content and film openings should be helpful.

Week Three (2/24-3/1): By week three if an idea is not found it will be finalized and the project will head into pre-production. This week will be a week of location scouting, planning out how to film the opening. Doing research on lighting techniques and how to color-grade video so I can get the look that I want. During this week I plan on making a light script outline, and create some visual storyboards with pictures.

Week Four (3/2-3/8): By this week all I should be doing is filming the project. I don't expect to do much other than film. Some research may occur if I need to learn how to do something while on set.

Week Five (3/9-3/15): Week five should be any extra filming if any is even needed. The editing process will start here, during this stage I will create a first draft of the completed product without sound effects or music. I will choose the music that I want for the project and do some light sound effects and some more refining of the flow of the project. If I need to do some research on how to edit something that would be done during this week. Some posts will be done in advanced to prepare for the upcoming spring break.

Week Six (3/16-3/22): This week I will be on target to finish the editing, almost completely, with sound effects and music being final. Any other edits will be done to improve flow and coherence of the film. Although I am not sure if the project will be finished editing. The majority of this week will be doing blog posts in advance for the upcoming spring break. If on target i'll do no work during the break and the next two weeks after the break will go smoothly and be on target.

Week Seven (3/23-3/29) SPRING BREAK: To be honest I do not plan on doing any work this week, as it is the break I will plan my postings ahead during week six. Editing of the project should be done during week six. My goal for this week is to get any work done that would have been done for this week beforehand so I can enjoy my break. 

Week Eight (3/30-4/5): By week eight I want to be completely done with editing the project, but if I still am editing and refining the project i'll consider that to be on schedule. If the project was almost done and edited before this week. I want this week to be mostly focused on on creative critical reflection and any blog posts relating to what my journey was like creating the film opening. I want this week to be a week of refining and reflection.

Getting Ideas

Now after doing some research and watching some great film openings I have to think up of a good idea that is worth creating. To me the hardest thing to figure out is what kind of horror am I going for? As that can drastically change my approach to how I create the opening. To me i'm trying to think of something more in the paranormal or slasher range. Maybe to have an opening similar to scream with some person being terrorized buy a knife wielding psycho. Or something more slow and subtle like something paranormal with a person being threatened by an unknown ghoul.

I think i'll try to focus a lot on the whole reveal aspect that I talked about in my previous blog. I really want to focus on something that can give me a good stomach dropping moment that will make the opening have more of an impact. I think that my idea will definitely revolve around that aspect. I mean after all I need to make an opening to set up a whole film, so I need an opening that is also interesting enough to stand on its own while also hooking the attention of the viewer to entice them to watch the ''full movie''. 

As of now those are my two big things that i'm thinking of while brainstorming for an idea. 1. Get you a man who does both: Make an opening that is interesting enough to hook someone and that makes them want to watch a full film, and make an opening that can stand on its own as well. And 2. Make an opening with some sort of stomach dropping reveal or event.

So far this is all I really have thought of. I went over american psycho which is a great character focused opening but I really doubt that I will take that route for my opening. As it doesn't have that big reveal aspect, although that is not to say that it can't its just that my brain can think up of more big reveals with different openings.

What is a Horror Film Opening?

For my research into how to create a horror film opening I decided to look at three different horror films/Shows and how they approached setting up their story. I chose American Psycho, Halloween, and Stranger Things.

American Psycho:

American psycho is different from all the other openings that I chose. Mainly because it is more of a character focused opening. Where as all the other openings were more to set up the tone of the films and the conflict. Now the tone is set up in American psycho but its all about building character of the protagonist Patrick Bateman. The scene is structured as a whole morning routine with some narration coming from Bateman. The scene begins with some classical music and a dolly shot of Bateman's home, which is almost all white, looking perfect. We then see Bateman go through his morning routine, a long list of exercises and cleansing routines.This immediately tells us that Bateman is a classy put together man who desires order. He does a lot to give off an appropriate image. Then as Bateman is taking off his face mask he continues to narrate about himself saying. "There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman. Some kind of abstraction. But there is no real me. Only an entity. Something illusory. And though I can hide my cold gaze, and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours, and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable, I simply am not there." He says as he slowly pulls down his face mask, representing his mask that he wears every day. Telling us that his complicated morning routine only is done to create an image of himself, something to trick people, to make them feel safe, he may look like anyone else but hes not. He is a cold man and by proclaiming that he "is simply not there" tells us that Bateman is just a husk, he almost isn't human. This opening is all done so the audience can have an understanding of who the character is, as this plays a huge roll in the rest of the film's story.

Halloween:
Halloween takes a different route to setting up a story. Where Halloween works mainly to set up the threat of the film. In the opening scene of Halloween most of it is a long take pov shot. This is done to set up what ill call "The reveal". Many horror films have this "reveal". The reveal is supposed to be the moment in a scene that makes your stomach drop, and reveals to you the true horror that you couldn't notice, which makes the scare are the more frightening. Because of the POV shot we cannot tell the age of the person who is spying on this couple. From outside. The person being outside tells the audience that they aren't supposed to be there spying on the couple, so immediately something is off. Then when the couple goes upstairs and the shot moves to the upstairs window and the lights shut off, there is a sharp sting with the music. Now the audience knows that whoever this person is, they are up to no good. The person then moves into the home, the music is slow and creeping, its building up to something. The person grabs a knife as they head upstairs. Now the audience knows exactly what's up. It seems simple at this point, the audience might assume that this is just some murderer. Well it gets more interesting as the person grabs a mask and makes their way to the girls room. As he goes in for the kill the girl says his name, Micheal. This tells the audience more, so she knows this person, but who could it be? A friend maybe? This all builds up to the moment when Micheal walks out of the house after killing the girl and he's unmasked. Only for the audience to see that this person was a child the whole time, and the girl he killed was most likely his sister. This is "The reveal". This whole scene works up to this moment and every choice was made to make this reveal have more of an impact. All in service to setup who the antagonist of the story is, a knife wielding killer. Its as simple as that.

Stranger Things:
I decided to look at the opening for season one, episode one, of the T.V show Stranger things. As it has to set up a whole season of conflict as well as just setting up the episode itself. With much more on its plate I wanted to see how the show could also set up a more vast story. Stranger things does this perfectly too. The opening scene works to set up three things. 1. The tone, 2. The conflict, 3. The characters.

The opening establishes the tone and teases the conflict with the very first thing we see, a scientist running away from something. In a place full of flashing lights and an alarm blaring. We know something is wrong. The scientist frantically gets into an elevator. Then a grumbling noise is heard from over his head. Something grabs him the doors close. This sets up the horror tone of the show, it makes it apparent that this show isn't a sitcom. With the thing killing the scientist we now also know that there is a threat on the loose, but we don't know exactly what it is yet.

Cut to the outside of a suburban house. We now know that these events must have happened close to this location. Cut to the inside of a basement. Filled with kids playing Dungeons and Dragons. To make it short character moments, dynamics and relationships are set up during the D&D session. Now this sets up the main cast of characters that we will be with throughout the show. Also it's important that during the D&D session they encounter a monster which is dangerous to them all, foreshadowing whats to come. As the cast of characters leave the house once the session is over we see the lights at the front of the house flash. This tells us that whatever was escaping that lab at the beginning is nearby. It's important to note that a lot of focus is put on the character of Will, Will encounters the monster during D&D, he rolls for an attack but the encounter is left unresolved as the kids must leave. Before Will leaves he tells his friend that he rolled a seven and that the monster got him. This further foreshadows what will happen to Will.

Now to setup the conflict. Will rides away from his friend's home. Will then encounters the monster and runs to his house where he hides in his shed from the monster. As he hides he grabs a gun and guards the door. We then see the monster out of focus behind him. And then the opening title rolls. Now this sets up the conflict of the whole first season, Will goes missing and now his friends and family must go looking for them while having encounters with the dangerous creature that took Will.

I focused on researching different opening to horror that are all done very well to give me some ideas on how to go about making a good opening first. As I feel that the knowledge of how to make something good is more important than the idea first.

Movie Opening: Genre

For my portfolio project I decided to use the horror genre. My main reasoning is because I love the horror genre and I am familiar with the Genre and it's conventions.

Fist the target audience must be identified. Horror usually is constrained with the R rating for ages 17 and up, but blumhouse has had success with PG-13 horror films. The target audience then is most likely to be within the ages of 13-20s. I include people in their 20s as horror films are mainly targeted towards young people looking for a good thrill. Despite an R or PG-13 rating that is one similarity that all horror films share.

The choice of genre was calculated as well. Many horror films are made on extremely low budgets. For example Sam Rami's The Evil Dead was made with a tiny budget of 350,000 dollars. And the hit film Paranormal activity was made on a budget of 15,000. This means to me that horror is a genre that thrives on low budgets, and that no matter how much money you have the one thing that could get in the way of making a good horror film is that the director just doesn't know what is scary.

$350,000

$1,500

Though money is not the only important thing. Its all about the thrill. That's why people see these films. I feel like my opinion means quite a bit as coming from a horror fan that is why I and so many horror fans love the genre. We want to be scared, we want to feel that thrill, we want to go to bed that night afraid, it's all about the thrill and that is what makes horror special. The Evil Dead is a Gore fest, and Paranormal activity is a slow crawl of grounded horror that feels too real sometimes. That is their way of thrilling the audience. 

Now the way a director chooses to thrill their audience is something that always differs. But the common convention of a horror film is a dark moody atmosphere and low key lighting.

A still from "The Lighthouse Dir- Robert Eggers"
Demonstrating both low-key lighting and a dark moody atmosphere. 

Music Marketing project

Music Marketing

For my music marketing project my genre was a sub-genre of  metal called nu-metal which is a form of metal characterized by its influences from other genres such as hip-hop, rock, and grunge. Some artists that apply under this genre are Korn, Linkin Park, Slipknot, and System of a Down.

Currently nu-metal artists tend to use their own unique image to market themselves. People like Slipknot rely heavily on the fact that they have this sort of wacky and out there way of showing themselves off with only ever performing in masks. While not every artist performs in a mask they all do harbor their own style, like korn were all the band members certainly have their own special edgy look to them.

We chose to develop our artist a lot through imagery, the masks again played a big role in that. The bright blue LED mask puts a lot of attention on our star if the show which was done on purpose to highlight him as the most important. While the two other people who wore the simple ski masks were not as important so the attention was not completely on them. Social media was also big on enforcing this fact with any promotional images put on any social medias being only of the man in the LED mask, the same applies for the website. They all feature the mask front and center as a eye-catching marketing tool.

We created quite a few marketing tools, such as these.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH1KNc2tSoF7K6JcZ11s2FQ/featured

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/0_Mask_Official_0/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mask43685259

Website: https://alevaz1408.wixsite.com/mysite

Through the production of the marketing and music video I learned that confidence in the product that you are making is huge. Throughout the project I felt like I was the only one with confidence in what we were doing and how we were going to do it, my team members weren't on the same page so there was a lot of confusion on their part. I felt that the product was a lot harder to create without that confidence because when no one has any confidence in what they are doing they tend to give off less than stellar results. I also learned that being flexible is just as huge. The way our music video turned out in the end was a far cry from the way it was originally supposed to turn out. But that's fine as things always change and you have to learn how to adapt and change things on the fly or else you won't ever get anything done.

For more information visit our power-point slides:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/18nCqSeXl1LWn9VGI_0HeWIXGsQ_7VdPUvnt7QBb5MfU/edit?usp=sharing