Binding

After a long time deciding we have finally chosen our film name. When deciding, we each had our own ideas on what it should be. As a group we decided that we only wanted the title to be one word, so therefore this word would have to encompass the narrative of our teaser trailer. We wanted a title that would link in with the idea of two people being joined together, but one that suggests the potential evil of the friendship. We finally decided on "Binding", because binding relates to friendship becoming too close and the bonds of friendship. Binding also links to the idea of ivy constricting and eventually killing plants such as trees.

Now we have our film name, I have finished the title design. This will be used in the teaser trailer, poster and website. This is because in real films such as Jaws the title will be used for all products. It links all of the products together.

Website idea

We have now finished our teaser trailer and have begun properly working on our ancillary tasks; a website and poster for our film. In light of this, I have designed a website design.

♦ The black background is meant to give a creepy and scary feel to the website and reflect the fact that it is a horror movie. Black connotes evil and mystery and we want to draw the viewers in.

♦ The combination of dark blue and black gives an eerie look the website. The links on the links bar would be outlined in midnight blue to connote evil and the horror genre.

♦ Our designed title would be at the top of the website to immediately remind the viewer of the film.

♦ Our teaser trailer would also be embedded on the website and would play automatically when the website is accessed. This will work to hopefully draw the viewer in and make them want to see the film.

♦ The soundtrack from our film would be playing as you browse through the website. A control panel would be at the top of the page so the viewer can choose between a variety of songs to listen to.

♦ Ratings from renowned film critics and magazines would be listed next to the film trailer such as Empire magazine etc to show how well the film has done, adding realism.

♦ Links to our facebook, blogger and twitter accounts would also be available to go to.

This is just one idea for now.

Stef

Final Story Board

StoryBoards

Here are a couple of pictures of our new, updated (final) storyboards which we had to redo due to a change in shots. Hopefully an image of each individual page will be uploaded soon.

Here are a couple of designs for our title design that I have been working on. The title design will be used in all of our final products; teaser trailer, film poster and website. The design will need to be suitable for the film and coincide with the other themes. Our favourite design so far is the Ivy design, connoting constriction and corruption through the references to poisonous ivy.

Nat

Paranormal Activity

Last Friday I went and saw the new realease Paranormal Activity, by watching this I was extremely inspired. Oren Peli, a completely unknown director, came literally out of nowhere. He produced, directed and edited this film himself with a budget of just $15,000. The entire film was shot in seven days, with one camera and it took Peli ten months to edit the footage. In my opinion this film wouldn't have been the success it was if they hadn't focused as much as they did on the diegetic sound. The way Peli used sound created and built tension. This is the main thing that creates scares initially. By setting this film in an average suburban home, this film has given many sleepless nights. The normal sounds you hear at night, like pipes creaking will never sound the same after watching this film.
This is definately a film to be inspired by, taking into consideration the use of sound on such a low budget.

Filming at the lake

As was said in an earlier post, we had to find a new location due to the weather being unsuitable in Hastings. We brainstormed a few ideas and we came up with:

• Under a motorway bridge at dusk- Fitted with the urban idea as well as very isolating
• At a swimming pool- We have access to an outdoor pool and the idea of using water was one we liked
• Empty field- Playing on the idea of loneliness and referencing previous areas of our film

Thinking about what would suit our film best led to the realisation that none of these locations were what we were looking for. Alice, one of the girls that we filmed with, offered us the use of a lake at her farm. When we went to look at the location we quickly came to the conclusion that it would work perfectly. This is because it was very isolated as it was very big and would convey a typical horror scene. This hopefully will create tension as it will juxtapose against the fast moving scenes beforehand.

When we filmed, we filmed extra scenes to take full advantage of our surroundings and a member of the group will upload some of the footage onto our YouTube channel to get peoples' opinions on it.

Helena

More potential poster ideas

Here a few ideas that the rest of the group helped me to come up with. Many apologies for the drawing but hopefully the basic ideas are clear.

The idea I think we are most likely to go with currently is idea number one, as Jack posted our prototype photographs on here.

Stef

Post it!

Stef and I were researching film poster and websites and we came across the poster for the new "Nightmare on Elm Street" film. We really liked this poster and thought it was a good campaign image, however, we found ourselves asking would this poster work if we weren't already aware of Freddy Krueger and the first "Nightmare on Elm Street" film? Is it just the legacy that makes us instantly aware of what this film is about, rather than the actual poster? With our film we obviously don't have the history and following of "Nightmare on Elm Street", so we wondered would this style of poster suit our film?

Nightmare on Elm Street website

Creepy background music

I approached a member of YouTube.com about using an portion of the audio of their video within our teaser trailer.

Hello,

I am a representative from a group of A-Level media students creating a horror teaser trailer. We would like to use a section of the audio from your creepy music box video. Is the audio copyrighted? Would you be happy with allow us to use it within our short production?

Thank you,
Jack.

We were informed that the music was not copyrighted.

This is extremely fortunate and we are all happy that we can use the music within the teaser trailer. The music is creepy and very stereotypical of the horror genre. The music itself builds tension and is fitting with our storyboard.

 Jack

Up, up and away!

On Sunday we continued filming, due to severe weather, we have decided that filming down in Hastings will be extremely difficult, impractical, and may put Alice at risk. So at the moment we are discussing alternative ideas to replace this scene. A possible option is at another location, on a lake, where we may be able to gain access to a jetty and a boat.

At the moment we are continuing editing our footage, and today we finished editing the swing scene.

Natalie

That darn weather

On Sunday, we were meant to film our beach scene in Hastings but sadly the weather was against as there were predictions for torrential rain for the whole day! We did, however, decide to use the time with the actresses anyway and re-film some of the scenes that we had previously filmed that were not of the high quality we want for our trailer.

Stef