The Process Will Commence Shortly

    Good Afternoon everyone, hope all is well. Today I will be discussing many topics on my film opening and will inform everyone how everything has been going. Today I have a full-on commitment to making the slasher film, it might have been apparent that I was since I didn't make an add-on to the idea of Supernatural but this is my official confirmation that I will be making a Slasher film. It feels like a lot of relief because at the beginning of this Portfolio project I did not know what I wanted to do but now I have got my idea and am really focusing on creating one of the best horror film openings. 

    I have already created a schedule for my filming the film opening I will now create the process of editing. Since I will end up finishing the filming by 18th, from the 19th of March- April 1st I plan on editing what was filmed. Since I am not a talented editor I have planned myself with extra time so that in any case scenario I will have more than enough time to finish editing and turn my film opening in on time. Just like my film schedule, I will do nearly the same, but instead of 2-3 times a week filming I will actually be editing 3-4 times a week because I know how complex and time-costly editing takes. As well as I know what parts I want to focus upon to make look the best. 

    The whole entire 2-minute film opening is being thought about even though on my previous blog I already told you all how the beginning of the film opening was going to start. I will further continue to brainstorm and figure out how I want the slasher to enter the house and how I want the first scene to take place. I have an idea of how the slasher would enter the house but I do not know how I want to integrate it into the film opening. I believe that I will make the slasher go through a back sliding door in the home of the schoolgirl. This might sound cliche but for some reason, I have experienced myself, many people accidentally leave the back sliding door open. The camera will then follow the slasher as if the camera was filming the slasher like a documentary. The rest of the scene is still being thought upon but next week will most likely give all detail and information. 

    Although I have not created yet an official shot list, the shots that I will utilize will range from close-ups, long shots, medium shots, establishing shots, over-the-shoulder, two shot, low-angle shot, high-angle shot, point of view shot, and maybe some extreme close-ups. Since my film will not focus too much on dialogue I will focus on these shots to be one of the biggest attributes of my film opening. They will need to be flawless so that they can create that sense of suspense and horror. 

    For now, this is what I am working on and what I will continue to work on for the next few weeks. I will keep you all on alert about what is happening and what changes I have made. Thank you for your time see you all on the next blog.

    

The Story's Beginning

    Hello, welcome back my fellow viewers, today I will be discussing the script of the film opening itself and the beginning of the opening scene. In my film opening, there won't be very much talking as I really want to capture the sound of silence and the sudden sounds to create that sensation of fear. This in turn will make the sound that more thrilling and exciting to hear.

    The beginning of the film will show the film opening and creates, it will also have a lot of joyful laughs and people in the background telling each other they love one another. This is where the film title and the opening credits will be displayed, but then the scene will take a sound jump cut towards the beginning of the action. The father/slasher, still no name working on that, will look down at his mask. The camera will take full focus on the mask and the details which are written on the mask. The slasher is standing right outside the house of his first victim of the film. Inspired by the movie Friday the 13th and the character Jason Voorhees, a background voice will be heard of the daughter who will be motivating the father.

    Elena will be at first seeing her innocent laughs and happiness, but as time goes on by her laugh will become more menacing and it will all become darker. She will then begin to whisper, 

    "Daddy, Daddy,"

    "Daddy I know you see the way she is acting and how she is too good for everyone one"

    "She is the type of girl that killed me, those girls should be punished!" 

    "End them so that they don't kill me again."

    The camera will then shift from the slasher looking at his mask to him looking up and looking through the window of the girl.

    She will then begin to read out loud all of the cards and notes she received from Valentine's Day and will be very cocky and very conceited. This will not only enrage the slasher more but will be the motive to begin his rampage. The camera will have her in her room at a higher angle doing her make-up while the audience is able to see through her window that the slasher is there staring at her from her front porch. This will cause a lot of suspense as the audience will notice this scene but will not understand if they are meant to know or not. The camera will then move to her again as she accidentally messes up but it will go back to its previous location and the slasher will not be found. 

    This is the beginning of the film opening and I believe there is not very much dialogue in this film opening because I have a philosophy which is to make a great horror movie it needs to focus on the camera techniques, the sound, and the editing to make it great. Dialogue is just a bonus if there can be helpful dialogue. Overall, this will be the beginning of the film opening and I will continue to further brainstorm and revise my ideas. See you all on the next blog, stay safe.

Costume Design and Character

    Good afternoon everyone hopes you're having a great day, and welcome back to my blog post. Today we will be continuing our portfolio project and the film opening scene. After conducting further research, I have to figure out my slasher motive and their background story. 

    My slasher still does not have a name because I am trying to find the perfect name for him, but as I revealed he will be a man because I believe in this film opening I do not own the luxury to have a woman as I already have some playing the victim scene. The slasher will be rather on the shorter side and will actually be a father but this is where the backstory starts to come in and why he began. 

    The slasher was an ordinary man who had an amazing wife and family. He only had one child with the wife and they both immensely loved their daughter, on the outside they seemed to be the perfect family but behind closed doors, they were very flawed. The father was rather more protective over her 16-year-old daughter, as that was their only child. He would sometimes look through her phone without her consent and would communicate with her teachers and supervisors. He felt as if he always needed to know what to do. This gave a lot of hate for 16-year-old Elena, everyone hated her because her father would snitch to other parents on what their children did. Everyone thought it was Elena but it was actually her father. Despite the hate, she received she still went out and tried to make friends and live her life. Unfortunately on February 14, everything turned for the worse. After numerous occasions of kids getting in trouble and punished the entire school ended up sending Elena hate cards, and even death threats. Elena has always battled with depression because she always felt like she didn't fit in and because nobody wanted to be her friend. These cause of events caused Elena to end up taking her own life.

    This hit the mother and the father very hard, both of them were depressed and did not know what to do with their own lives. They ended up losing both of their jobs and the father ended up losing all of his money and his own house. The wife left the father and went to move on her own home, but she also ended up taking her own life she could not stand the pain anymore. This left the father all by himself to live in this world where he thought was hell. Both the parents never knew why Elena died, until the father found all of the death threats and cards that the students wrote her on Valentine's Day. This drove him insane and all he had on his mind was ending the life of those who threatened his daughter. 

   

    His father then went on a search for all of the kids and brutally murdered all of the students who ended up giving her a card, even those who didn't write their names he still found who participated. This did not give him satisfaction but every time he on Valentine's Day he became more powerful and his intelligence increased after he killed on Valentine's Day, this is why he continues to murder on Valentine's Day. I still don't know all of the specifications but this is the main idea for the background and the beginning of the film opening. 

    The father himself will be wearing some type of clothes with a large knife but the mask is still in debate. He is either going to wear a devil mask or he is going to wear a sinister ghost face mask.

    The father will wear an outfit of all black, the pants will be some sort of cargo pants, the top is going to be something like a hoodie, and the shoes will be black boots. This is what the man look for the father will be still trying to finish up his final look.

    Thank you for taking time out of your day to look at my blog it is very appreciated. I hope you all have a wonderful day and stay safe, bye see you all on the next blog!

Where The Fun Begins

    Welcome back everyone, I hope you all have had an amazing weekend and ready to hear more about my film opening. Today is not just an ordinary day, we are actually going to begin the process of planning out my film opening and begin to create scenes throughout the week. I have made a decision and will continue with a slasher film opening. When I envisioned my horror film opening more of slasher film but with fiction elements, and while conducting further research I came to a conclusion that a supernatural film opening isn't the right one for me. I just do not have the equipment or the editing skill to truly make an amazing film opening, and the slasher film works more with the camera techniques and sound which I am looking forward to utilizing.  

    I will begin the process of filming very soon. I have created a set schedule to when I will film and the times when I will film. The filming process will begin on March 4 as by that time I would have already finished planning my film and have a solid idea of what I want to film, then 2-3 times a week I will go out to film with my friends and family. Each time I film my goal is going to be to get at least more than an hour of filming. The days during the week would be most likely Monday, Wednesday and Thursday as these are the days when I am not extremely busy. Also these are the days when the actors in the film and I are not in a busy schedule. My plan is to have finished filming by the 18th of March so that it will give me time to go through and edit the film to perfection. I would like to begin filming from 6:30 and through the sun down because I feel like most of the scary movie moments are during this time frame. 

    One of my plans to begin the film opening will be outside of someone's house and it will look all nice and beautiful until the sun begins to which as the sun goes down the evil and horror begins to show at the night time. Once the sun finally sets the slasher will make his appearance which he will be shown and later through the night he will began his slashing.

    I feel like this would be the best way to begin the film because it makes the perfectly symbolizes the how through the night time people and things change, the night time changes people. This is an idea to beginning the opening scene. This is also where the film credits will be shown and the title of the film opening. I still have to choose the font and the title of the name but those will be known later on. 

    As of right now this is the planned beginning of the film will be and where the credits will be presented. In the next blog I will discuss the outfit and how the slasher is going to be like and his motive. Bye I will see you all on the next blog, have a great day!

Research- Part 4

    Welcome back everyone, today we are back with some more research on my film project. I have come up with many ideas and I believe I am going to make a Slasher horror film rather than a Supernatural one. I was looking over the film opening clips and I feel as if the Slasher horror film has more versatility than the Supernatural horror film opening. With that being said I have done some research in the aspects of costuming options, location scouting, and target audience. 

    Costuming options is very important when it comes to horror films because of the antagonists or in this case, the slasher does not provoke any fear then film opening won't be as interesting as it would be. Some exceptional movie costumes for slasher films have to be Friday the 13th, Halloween, Texas Chainsaw, Scream, and Happy Death Day. These films all have great costume designs and what really stands out about their costumes is the mask. Every single one of these movies is globally known for its masks, especially Friday the 13th and Halloween. This mask has brought a lot of popularity to their respective franchises. The masks are very important in a slasher even though there has been a lot of slashers without masks the most iconic and famous slasher films have masks, and I intend to follow this trend.  

    The location of these slasher films tends to all be usually in the same location, except for Friday the 13th and Happy Death Day, which is the home of people. This location brings a lot of fear to people because when they believe they are safe in their own homes and chances of being killed would be less. These films create that changed feeling to a more insecure about their homes and really frighten people because they thought their own house was in fact very safe. Although Friday the 13th and Happy Death Day do not take place at the victim's house, it is where the victim feels safe. For example, on Friday the 13th takes place in a camp called Camp Crystal Lake. In this movie, many of the victims that are killed are killed in their own little house which they are staying in for the camp. In Happy Death Day the main protagonist always begins in the dorm room of her college and for the first few times she is killed in the dorm but then it changes to more of a public area. Although these films do not necessarily always take place in a house they do take place in areas where many people would consider themselves to be safe. This in turn creates the sensation of fear because it makes people think if there is anywhere where they are safe. I believe I am going to continue with the trend of taking place in a house as I believe it would benefit myself and create that fear aspect that I want in my film.

Halloween 1978

Friday The 13th

Texas Chainsaw Massacre 

Scream 

Happy Death Day 

    My film opening will have a target audience from 13- 24 years because this is the target range where many people go to view these horror films. This target age is ideal because many people in this range want to feel the thrill of being scared and what the adrenaline to circulate around them, while any age group older might still watch it won't be as consistent as this target audience. Also, there won't be much of the audience younger than 13 because they might not want to watch the film because they are scared or because of parental guidance. While the rating for the movies like Halloween, Friday The 13th, and Scream were rated R back then most horror films nowadays like Happy Death Day are now moving towards the PG-13 age group. I will continue with this PG-13 age group because I believe it will be successful for my film opening and will have a broader range of people rather than people who are 18 years or older.

    Throughout my research, I have concluded the location, the costuming option, and the target audience for my film opening. My film opening will most likely be taken in someone's home and the slasher will most likely wear a mask of some sort to represent himself. The one thing that is a certainty is that the film opening will be targeted to the audience of 13-24 and will be rated PG-13. I will continue to further research these topics and figure out what will benefit my film opening. I also will continue to notify you of all on my journey. Stay safe and I will see you all in the next post.

Research- Part 3

     Welcome back everyone, I am here once again explaining the research that I have put in for my portfolio project. I have been contemplating whether if I should do a Slasher Horror film or a more Supernatural Horror film. To be honest I have been leaning more towards the Slasher as for a truly good experience of a Supernatural Horror film opening I would need some state-of-the-art technology and other equipment which I simply don't own. Although I do not own these things it does not mean that I am ruling out the Supernatural Horror film opening just yet. 

    I have begun to develop some ideas on how I will give credits in the film opening and present the title of the film. In doing so I had to research the topic of fonts, and which ones would fit the best for the text that is going to be used in the film opening. I have researched some movies which are very popular and use fonts that make the title pop out. For example The Conjuring, Halloween, Hereditary, and A Quiet Place.

 

    The Conjuring as a whole film opening has been very inspiring to me, such as Halloween has, but what else has inspired me is the font that both of these film openings used to present the title of the film and the opening credits. The font and the film complemented each other wonderfully and I believe if any other font was used then it would have ruined the opening credits and made it dysfunctional. The font style which The Conjuring uses is called Adobe Garamond Typeface, this font is globally known to be The Conjuring film. This font is very recognizable by people and has made a dramatic impact and has such a big influence on the title of the film. The same goes for the movie Halloween, the director decided to use ITC Serif Gothic Heavy. The font of the movie fits perfectly back in its time and era, this font has become a part of the film and just like The Conjuring, this font is recognizable by many people. Other fonts which in my opinion blend well with their films is A Quiet Place and Hereditary. A Quiet Place is a movie about having to be quiet for survival and the font just compliments that aspect of being quiet but still bold. The font which was used was Albertina, this font truly just creates that perfect title looks for the movie. Hereditary is a movie in which a matriarch of the family dies her daughter and grandchildren begin to figure out horrific secrets about their family and try to outrun the sinfulness in the family. I felt that the font Hirango Serif was a great choice as it truly makes the title and the opening credits seem as if they have history and meaning behind it. It complements the movie very well and I don't believe any other font would have done better.

    After researching and putting a great amount of time into the font, I have realized that it is a very big deal which font the director uses because it has to fit the theme of the film or story. This has a huge impact because no font can just be placed in the film opening or else it will just look out of place, and if the font is good enough it can actually cause the film to have huge popularity as many people will recognize the font of the film on other products. The lesson that I learned was that font is criminally underrated and very looked over, and many people may just look over it as a bunch of letters. The reality is that font either sets the tone of the film or destroys the film's theme entirely. 

    This research has really opened my eyes to how significant the fonts have to be in order to capture that theme and present the title as perfectly as you want it. I will continue to further research what font will fit my horror film opening the best, but it also depends on if I will choose slasher or supernatural. I will continue to blog about my journey and I notify everyone if there are any changes. Bye everyone I hope you all have a great day and see you all on the next blog. 

Research- Part 2

     Hello everyone, I am back with some more research. After brainstorming some more ideas on the film opening, I came up with a new idea of a slasher horror opening film. I feel that horror slasher films are great for openings as they truly create that sensation of horror and they utilize a tremendous amount of camera techniques, editing, and sounds. For example, Halloween (1978) utilizes numerous amounts of techniques and different camera angles.

    This film opening utilizes many camera techniques and sounds to create the sensation of horror. At the beginning of the film opening, it uses a black background with a white font to show the date and the location where the film is taking place. There is also a background sound of children playing around and it gets louder until the first scene begins. The camera then uses a pan and tilt around the house to show what the couple is doing. Once the couple goes upstairs and the lights turn off a high-pitched eery sound is played. The sound continuously begins to get louder with a piano note being continuously played and the longer the duration the deeper the piano note gets. As the camera approaches the kitchen and grabs a knife the audience can now tell that it is a point-of-view angle. The sound of the conversation the couple has is very quiet but once the guy leaves the sounds continue to get louder and a clock can be heard signifying time is up. As the camera approaches the girl a loud high pitched sound goes off, then the camera can be seen continuously stabbing the girl and the camera focuses on the lunges of the knife. The camera then leaves to go outside where it meets two older people where the character's name is revealed, Michael. Once the mask is taken off, the camera goes from a medium shot and gets further away until a high angle long shot.

    This film opening seriously inspired me as this is what I am looking towards making. In my film opening, I want a lot of emphasis on the camera shots and techniques to tell the story rather than a lot of character development and dialogue. In my film opening, I want people to want to have to draw conclusions for themselves and figure things out rather than telling them through dialogue what the purpose of the film is going to be about. Halloween (1978) is a great example of the director telling the story through the camera techniques and sounds used. Director John Carpenter used a variety of techniques in his film opening to his own advantage. The film opening perfectly represents what the film is going to be about, Mr.Carpenter uses the camera as the point of view of Michael, who is the main character and antagonist of the film and makes it seem as if the camera were wearing a mask. Then Michael ends up killing his first victim which we see through his own eyes. This already tells the audience the plot and character development of the film. There was barely any dialogue apart from the couple talking to each other and the older people at the end revealing the character's name.

    Also, we have seen a common trend in the audience loving slasher films for example films like Happy Death Day (2017), Hush (2016), Freaky (2020), and many other films becoming very popular in recent years. Hush got a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, 6.6/10 on IMDb, and 63% on Metacritic. These films have always been a hit throughout the years and will continue to be very popular. Halloween (1978) was one of the most famous slasher horror films known to date. The film had a budget of around $325,000 and a Gross income of $47,160,000. Not only is that impressive the rating for the film is very good, with the film having a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, 7.7/10 on IMDb, and an 87% on Metacritic. Halloween is a classic slasher movie that is praised by many directors and seen as a masterpiece, this is why this horror film has motivated me and gave me some inspiration.

    Slasher films like Halloween also do not need to have a large budget to be great, what makes these movies great is the suspense and horror that it brings out while using a variety of camera techniques and sounds. Slasher horror films follow the exact principles and outline I want to follow for my film opening. After conducting this research I will have to decide whether to continue with a Supernatural horror film opening or a Slasher film opening. I will further conduct research and will let you all know later on. Goodbye, see you all in the next blog!

Research- Part 1

     Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog. I am going to further continue to talk about what my plans and my research is for the project. Right now I am still in the process of searching for the perfect topic/idea for what my film opening will be. I have fully committed to continuing the genre horror as I believe it truly fits the film opening I want to create. I will confirm with my teacher about my selection of this genre and listen to her thoughts. As of now, I have researched the genre of this genre and found many movies in the horror genre that are very popular. Many movies such as Halloween (1978), The Conjuring (2013),  Get Out (2017) have all been very successful in their respective time periods. The horror genre has always created one of the best film openings out of all other genres for example The Conjuring (2013) is a great example.

 

    The Conjuring is a horror film about this inanimate doll who has supernatural powers and is possessed by a 7-year-old girl who has died in the apartment these two girls were staying at. The little girl was named Anabelle and all she wanted to do was be with the girls, so the girls believed it was okay to allow the so-called spirit of Anabelle in the doll. Later they realize by the main protagonists that they in fact did not let the spirit of Anabelle into the doll but they actually let an inhumane spirit, otherwise known as a demon, into their home. In this film opening, we can see a glimpse of what the entire movie will consist of and have an entire background of how the demon had entered the house. It is very impressive because at the same time it introducing the main protagonists of the film and why they are going to help the girls with the demon. The theme can be easily portrayed in this film opening and this usage of fear elements makes the opening more intriguing and makes the audience want to watch the entire film. 

    This film has inspired me a lot because of the way James Wan utilized camera shots, angles, lighting, and sound. The amounts of techniques that James Wan uses in the film opening is very impressive, he begins at first with a two-shot, then uses various close-ups, tilts, pans, and jumps cuts. All of these techniques all work in harmony, none of the scenes seem out of place and they all compliment the other very well. What James Wan utilized greatly is the lighting and sound. In the opening the there is a part where both ladies arrive from hanging out in their apartment and they find the doll let in the middle of the hallway and James Wan uses the low key lighting to really create that sensation of this mysterious demonic doll. This film opening has tremendously inspired me when planning out my film opening because the way that James Wan used the camera to film his opening is the exact way I picture myself filming my film opening. 

    A very impressive part of The Conjuring was the way James Wan plot was developed through the opening. The plot of the movie was fairly simple the main characters arrived at the apartment of these two ladies and are trying to get rid of this demonic spirit that is haunting the ladies. Although this seems fairly simple James Wan as well adds a background story on how the demonic spirit got into their home and how the death of the 7-year-old was the reason why the ladies let the spirit in. This is very difficult as James Wan could have easily got caught up in the background story and completely went in a different direction but instead, he perfectly blended a good amount of dialogue with a good amount of action. Once this plot was created his main characters and the other characters just fell into place and the entire plot was created. This is what I want for my film opening, as I want to really focus and put a lot of emphasis on the content and scenes, and not let the characters of the film overpower the film opening.

    My idea in my film opening is to create something that contains the supernatural but keeps it fairly simple like The Conjuring. I would like to continue with supernatural as that topic in the horror genre never seems to fail and always tends to be the most popular in this genre. This helps attract the audience as many people are very attracted to figuring out the unknown or knowing more about the unknown. Also, The Conjuring got an 86% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, 4/5 on Empire, 7.5/10 on IMDb, and grossed around $137 million. This film became so famous it started off the universe known as Conjuring Universe. This is like the Marvel Cinematic Universe where all the movies connect but instead for horror movies. Many of these horror supernatural films are still being made such as The Curse of La Llorona (2019) and Anabelle Comes Home  (2019). The trend of these supernatural horror films does not seem to be declining anytime soon and a new Conjuring film called The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is coming out on June 4, 2021.

 

    I believe that I will continue with the topic of the supernatural as there seems to be a very uphill trend with the audience nowadays which love the supernatural. I will continue to conduct further research on the ideas of my film opening and I will inform you all. Bye, see you all in the next blog post!