LIGHTING CONSIDERATIONS FOR HORROR FILMS

The key light is the main source of light on the source.

The fill light is the light that fills in the shadows.

The backlight is the light that fills in the background lighting.

make up

These are a couple of images to use as inspiration for our horror film make up. These images are taken from a slasher film, we are also making a slasher film so this will help us when we come to doing the makeup. 

Me and Jake will need to get a few items to be able to make our characters look like how we want them to. We will need to get:

A clown mask, pale makeup, fake blood, tattered shorts and tattered and torn clothes for Izzy.

I think that we have chosen the correct actors for our film. Our male actor, Matt, is the correct physique as he is tall which will create a sense of power, this is critical for a threat in a slasher film. Our female actor, Izzy, who will be acting as the poor mother, is also the correct physique as she is quite skinny and short which could make it more believable that she is poor and unable to look after her baby. Having a seemingly weak victim is also key in a slasher film.

MOVING PICTURES (STORYBOARDING) THE SIXTH SENSE

The purpose of storyboarding is so that we can show the audience what shot we would like to show at certain points during our horror film and also what's in the shots (characters, background, etc.). Storyboarding is pretty much planning what shots we're going to use and what we're going to include in each shot throughout the film.

How can you show lighting/camera angles and camera movement in your storyboards?

If you plan to use some camera movement at a certain point then the best thing to do to show this in a storyboard is to draw it out image by image. For example if your starting point of the camera movement is where you're looking straight at the character then your next few images could be where we begin to see the side of the character. As for camera angles and lighting they're much simpler. For camera angles you just have to draw the image in the way you plan to shoot the image when filming. Finally for lighting you can just shade in certain parts of the images to show where you plan the light to come from.

Nightmare on Elm Street script example

This is the script from Nightmare on Elm Street, it shows us how we can write a script without using a lot of dialogue.

Script Examples

This is an example of a script layout.

PITCH

Notes on Kyle Cooper

Kyle Cooper
Kyle Cooper creates fantastic title sequences, he enjoys using handmade things such as breaking glass, because they have a sense of imperfection about them. He also likes to study cells, skin, teeth and bones. This gives us new ideas as to what to put into our horror film title sequences.
Kyle Cooper title design - Part 1
Kyle Cooper title design - Part 2

Comments on our pitch

These are comments from our class on what they think of our idea. It has been suggested that we use a different location and not to use certain props. We were also warned about the logistics, e.g age etc.
We have been told that our general idea of the baby being brought up and turned into the killer is fine but the locations need to be believable.

Notes on True Blood

Opening credits of True Blood

Scary animals and death are everywhere in this opening, so we would assume that these things play an important role in the entire film. The churches we see show us that something unholy is going on, and the fangs suggest vampires. Another good part of this opening is when we suddenly see a child licking his lips which are covered in blood which we would assume thats what a vampire would almost look like once it's taken it's victim.

Notes on Seven

Opening credits to Seven

This film has a very dark and creepy opening. Reason why the opening is so good is because you do not see the threats face, this leaves a sense of mystery and when we see the threat pealing away at his fingers.  We can tell that he's doing this to make sure no one can find out who the threat is and they can't track him.