PLANNING: SCP - SPECIAL GENRE

 Our film takes heavy influence from the fictional universe of the SCP Foundation. In this post, information on the universe will be written and how we took influence from its style and implemented it into our trailer.

The SCP foundation is a fictional organisation, documented on the web by a collaborative-fiction project entiteled the same name. Within the fiction of the organisation, The SCP foundation is responsible for locating and containing entities that are by IGNITE FILMS

RESEARCH: AUDIENCE QUESTIONNAIRE

 

My audience questionnaire by IGNITE FILMS

CONSTRUCTION: STORYTELLING

In order to further broaden my knowledge on the art of storytelling and how film makers marry a story with film technique; I have studied the book Cinematic Story telling by Jennifer Van Sijll. The book gives me information on the 100 most powerful film conventions that every filmmaker should know. 

She gives a list of techniques that filmmakers use in order to give meaning to their films, for example 'Smash cuts'. She gives detailed examples and the effect each of these film elements give to a film and how to use them effectively.

Smash Cuts:

Smash Cuts are very effective at jarring the audience and disorienting them and surprising them with new information or character on-screen. This could be utilized very effectively in order to jump-scare an audience

PLANNING: CALL SHEET

 

PLANNING: STORYBOARD

 

PLANNING: CASTING

Casting for [REDACTED] from TomHutchinson24

PLANNING: CODES AND CONVENTIONS THRILLER/HORROR

 

Horror / Thriller by IGNITE FILMS

CONSTRUCTION: VFX

 After researching horror/thriller films codes and conventions, we found that horror films usually incorporate some form of special effects into their films. We decided to give VFX a try in our trailer. In doing this we took inspiration from "Overlord" and we wanted to show paranormal activity from our monster. I took charge in creating this effect for our trailer. Below is the first rendition of the effect which I built upon to create the final product. 

I used Adobe After Effects to create this effect of the monster (Amy) floating in the air above a mansion. I wanted the monster to "appear" in frame pretty quickly as we planned on having this scene appear for only a few seconds. I used tools within After Effects like 3D Camera Tracker, Puppet Pin tool, and lumetri colour to colour match the silhouette to the footage. 

The 3D Camera Tracker allowed the software to place points within the footage for me to use in order to keep pictures held in a static position. It also allowed me to keep a perspective of the picture so that it can look as naturally placed there as possible. 

PLANNING: INITIAL DEVELOPMENT

 

Our initial Mind Map was used in order for us to brain storm ideas for our trailer package. Our idea for our package was to make a trailer that conformed to the horror/thriller. We used niche films like Dollhouse the teaser trailer to Overlord and the "A Quiet Place" film series to get ideas as to how they generate suspense and a thrill element to their films. This was crucial to the development to our film as it meant that we were able to learn key aspects of these kinds of films and integrate these into our film to make it a much better end product. 

Upon further research into horror films and their codes and conventions, we decided to steer away from the grotesque and crude violence that has become stereotypical of horror films as of late. We felt that the gore would stray the audiences attention away from the suspense and terror that we will try to create in our film. We also decided that a psychological horror aspect would be much more effective for the type of film we want, focusing on building suspense and the 'unknown' element of the being.

Furthermore, I suggested that an semi-fast pace to the film could work to keep building the suspense, but also allow the audience to move scene from scene and stay on the edge of their seats. This is mainly because of the thriller aspect to our trailer, gives us more routes to explore pacing and generating intensity scene from scene. We also agreed that the idea of a supernatural being with the intention to kill was a good idea, and we have to make sure that the deaths (if they do incur) are not violent, but rather blood-curdling.

We want the origins of our creature to appear fairly extraterrestrial. We decided on having a relic that linked the human world to the world of the being, and the experimentation that the scientists perform on the relic awaken the beast and release it into our world. This allows us to play on the idea that the beast can be anywhere it likes at any point it likes.

PLANNING: TREATMENT

 To learn about the art of storytelling and the importance of a strong story line and "Top Line", I studied The Creative Consultant at the BBC academy, Frank Ash. Frank explains how to connect with an audience through a relevant story in order to create suspense and tension, which is crucial to the horror genre which I am attempting to complete. Frank devised this into a series of questions  which you have to answer in your final production. These questions were: The Top Line and the Big Question

Frank later went on to say that when making a production you must work out what you as an audience member would like to get out of the production and the story on which it is building on. He also talks about how as a member of the production team, you need to put yourself in the shoes of other audience members in order to discuss what universal themes or ideas that you want to convey which connect all humans together. This will help to create a production that will invigorate your audience and retain their attention enough so that they want to watch the film in its entirety.  

Top Line: A creature of unknown origin pulled from the depths of the past. Man thought that they could control it, they were wrong. The location of its whereabouts is deemed too dangerous for the outside world to know, therefore a specially created organisation sends in two elite operatives to neutralize the being. Do they stand a chance against something beyond human comprehension? 

Big Question: Will they survive and defeat the unknown being?