Ident Ideas & Creation of the ident

For my ident, I have come up with a few ideas. I really like the idea from the Film 4 ident. The ident simulates the each individual shot of the scene on old film rolls as is goes through an old film projector, due to the rolling of the footage. As the footage moves down, it simulates each shot moving through a projector as it is lit up.
To recreate this ident, this would involve, repeating footage that moves down across a landscape, and creating a wipe in after effects connecting the two shots together, to simulate the old film roll moving through a projector. As each individual 'shot' is wiped, it shows the film 4 logo moving into place. This has been animated into place.

As the background does not move as much as the foreground, they have used a green screen to shoot the foreground footage and shot the background footage afterwords replacing the green screen. The mist has been added on afterward in after effects to make the footage more mysterious.
This mist has been simulated in front of a green screen so the background can be removed and it can be added onto anything. The footage has been layered due to the use of a green screen, so the background, mist and foreground can be all layered. The company logo has been animated and merged with the footage, to create an animation of it all falling into place.

The sound in the ident has been done well as every time a wipe has completed, the sound synchronizes with the footage, making it all fit together.

The use of the forest scene used for the ident would fit in with the type of genre of my film and would be relevant for the type of film I am going to make. Therefore I would like to stimulate the same old film roll feel with a similar forest scene.

(Analysis refers to 1:33 of the video)

For my film ident, I have come up with walking down a narrow cut through of woods. The idea is to walk down the gap, with the camera, in the forest. In the edit I will then use motion tracking in Adobe After Effects to add the 'Prime Productions' title as it pans down the gap. Using the location of a wood is perfect for the ident, as it relates to the genre and film opening I am going to create. As the woods are very dark on either side, it helps to create the horror genre feel, which is the purpose of the film and what I want to achieve.

Treatment & Influences

The Cabin is a horror film that follows the central protagonist and her boyfriend as they go and venture to find this log cabin in the forest to go and stay at. The two characters start by driving towards the forest where the university owned log cabin is. The male character, Aaron, is a university lecturer that is studying the area around the cabin. As the location was a war training ground, Aaron is studying the land to discover the history behind it. The two characters then pull into a lay by where they park up, and get ready to set off towards the cabin. As they walk through the forest, things start to go wrong, their only phone dies, no directions, and so on. When the eventually reach the cabin, they come to realise that the university owned cabin is smashed up, as some one has vandalised it. They then have to sleep in a vandalised cabin as it is too far to walk from the lay by as they are in the middle of no-where. Jess the central protagonist, then need the toilet so she has to go out side which is when the stalker is revealed.

This film could be compared to: Cabin in the woods (2012, Drew Goddard); and Cabin Fever (2002, Travis Zariwy)

Cabin fever had a quite a small budget compared to other films of $1,500,000 and a gross of $8,633,585 in the opening weekend, and $21,000,000 overall. Therefore making almost 15 times it budget. This shows there is a market for these types of film.
A more modern film Cabin in the woods, had a budget of $30,000,000 and a domestic gross of $42,000,000 therefore not making quite as much as cabin fever but still making money.

The film then continues, where Jess the runs back to the cabin where Aaron is, scared of the whole situation. When they go to investigate, Aaron does not see anything and thinks she is going mad, as he does not believe her. She then has to survive a night knowing that she saw a stalker in the forest that they are sleeping in. The next morning the two both go back to the car, as they were unprepared for the situation. They end up getting lost on the journey towards the car, and end up going in completely in the opposite direction. Further and further into the woods, in the middle of no where. When they realize that they are on the wrong track that does not lead back to the car, they are so disorientated, as the forest all looks the same. The story then progresses of them trying to reach civilization, with no phone, and the risk of the stalkers that lurks in the forest.

Location is an important one for the film as it has to be believable that it is in the middle of nowhere, in a remote area, where there is endless opportunities of filming in different parts of the forest. The location will have to make the viewer feel that they are nowhere near civilisation with only a road that goes near the edge of the forest.

Budgets of other films over the past decade have varied. For example Cabin in the woods had a high budget of $30 million where as Cabin fever had a lower budget of $1.5 million. Since the location is quite remote, and the whole film stays in one place, cost of location will not cost that much, just getting permission from land owners, will be the issue. Since the film requires the villain to be a stalker, an actor and make-up will do the job, therefore, there will be minimal special effects in the film. Things like actors will probably cost the most of the film as they will have to be believable to recreate the narrative, and give a true representation of what that situation would be like. To create verisimilitude, to make the film more believable, costume and mise-en-scene will have to be done and created well, although the film is set in quite a natural environment, things like the cabin will have to look abandoned and vandalized. Also lighting will be a big aspect of production, as the forest scenes are quite dark due to the time of day, lighting will be important. It will not only need to look natural, but also be light enough for the cameras. Therefore overall I think I would need a budget between the two films of about $25 million, so the film is believable and realistic.

My inspiration for this idea came from the location. As I live and have spent countless hours in this location, I thought it would be perfect for a horror film, due to the setting feeling like you are far from civilization, and then the damaged cabin, is perfect to fit the plot. The film Cabin in the Woods (2012) has also inspired me to create this film as the location and environment I want to film in is very similar. I have just changed the narrative and character of the film, but kept a similar location due to it following the horror conventions. also Cabin Fever, and older horror film, has inspired me to create a horror film within the woods. Due to both films making money, especially Cabin Fever, making almost 15 times it budget, shows that there is a market and audience for this type of film. Looking at both of the films for camerawork and editing, they tend to use slow sweeping pans, long shots and medium shots of the actors with long progressive shot times, whilst the plot is calm. But when everything goes mayhem, the cuts between shots become faster, and close-ups of the actors are more common. This type of genre and these films have inspired me to come up with this idea, the location, and character. Especially looking at these examples, shot types and editing of the two films, has definitely motivated me, and made me think about this when filming and editing.
In the two films, they use handheld cinematography, to symbolise and emphasise to the viewer that something is wrong, maybe following them, and to foreshadow that something may go wrong. Therefore in my film I have been inspired to use this sort of camerawork to follow the horror genre conventions.

Sweed Evaluation

Although we did not actually fully complete the sweed, we practiced filming certain shots, highlighting difficulties that may come when we start filming our main production. Things like lighting, sound were more difficult, as we were using poor cameras, that do not pick up much light, or quality sound. Although our scenes were very bright with good lighting, doing this practice helps to highlight how much light is needed to light up a scene effectively. Things like not shooting straight into light so it over exposes, setting white balance depending on the type of light (natural or artificial) that was available or most available, so the shots were not orange/blue, setting the aperture, depending on how much light was in the scene, so we could choose how much light we wanted to let in, etc.

Composition, was important to practice, making sure not to make the shot feel to crammed, or too empty. As we were following the trailer of Mean Girls exactly (copying shot types and story etc.) we some times had to adapt to the environment as certain shots were not possible at the location or time.

Things like sound, and picking up sound was difficult for some scenes, as there was quite a lot of background noise. This made the shot unusable. in an ideal world, sound would have been recorded separately, or with boom microphones rather than a poor phone microphone.

Shot scheduling was a difficult task, as you need to take into account when actors and cinematographers are available to film. Creating a schedule helped to decide when we were going to film certain scenes and helped to keep the sweed organised and to manage the time effectively.

Overall, this helped us to practice and give us the experience so we don't fall into later problems or difficulties in production, that could have been ironed out with a practice.

Production Schedule - Shot Plan, Sound Re-Record

Screenplay

Appealing to the Target Audience

To appeal to the target audience, I have used specific horror genre conventions. The characters are very similar to typical horror genres. One of them being an innocent defenseless female. this fits into the protagonist that is a victim of the situation. The villain, being a stalker, also fits into typical horror character conventions.

I have also chosen an isolated setting, that fits and appeals with the genre conventions. With it being a abandoned cabin in the middle of the woods, with no signal, and no real contact with the rest of the world helps to set the scene, perfect for a typical horror film. The time of day also is typical of horror films, using dark night or dusk scenes helps to create more of an unknown.

Specific camerawork, helps to appeal to the target audience. Using high and low angle shots can help make the innocent characters feel small, defenseless, worthless. This is effective as it makes the viewer fell in this way, forcing them to empathize for the innocent. Nearer the end of the opening, there is a point of view shot that help to simulate for the viewer what this situation is like, forcing them to think about how they would react if they were in this situation.

Specific sounds can help to relate to the typical horror genre. Using loud breaths, heartbeats, crackling branches, rustling leaves can help to build the suspense which are all typical conventions of the genre.

Primary and Secondary Target Audience

Due to most of the other horror films having a typical audience, I am going to set my film within this similar audience. Cabin in the woods (the film closest to my idea) had a primary audience of young female viewers, and had a secondary audience of young male viewers due to the difference being very small. Because of my film having a female central protagonist, would help to encourage more female viewers to watch the film. My film would also be targeted at younger audiences, due to the other films being targeted to 15-24 year olds. Therefore my primary target audience would be 15-24 year old female viewers.

My secondary target audience would be younger viewers. This is because they will ignore and get around age rating certificates. They would be both genders in this age group. Due to cabin in the woods having a secondary audience of younger male characters, They would be my secondary target audience.

The uses and gratifications theory tells us why people consume the media. Due to the younger teenagers ignoring the age certificates, implies that they are watching it for a social integrative reason, to fit in with the others. They may also want to watch the film so they can forget about real life, and all the stress of the real world, therefore relax.

BBFC Film Rating

When researching similar films to my idea and genre, typically most of the age ratings were the 15 age certificate. According to the BBFC website for a film to pass the 15 age certificate, it must not contain, strong violence and extreme gore, extracts. My idea is minimal on the gore, although there will be aspects of violence, within the film. Due to the film opening being only a few minutes, the film will not contain sexual scenes or nudity. Although I was not planning on their being these sorts of scenes, within the whole film idea, the opening would not get far enough into the narrative for this to be shown.

The BBFC website also states that films may contain strong threat, and horror, but it must not be related to sexual content. This describes what I had I mind regarding the plot of the film I was planning therefore it would not be pushed up into that 18 certificate band. The website also states that strong language can be used, depending on the context. (who is using the language and the frequency of it.) My film would not contain any sort of suicide, or self-harm, and would not promote this, therefore ruling this factor out of the decision. The website also states that drug use can be shown as long as it is does not connote it in a positive way. (does not promote or encourage drug use.) My film idea would have contained some form or drug use, but due to the opening being only a few minutes, the film would not progress enough to show these scenes. So the film would potentially gain an age 15 certificate, but the opening of the film would not show anything that bad for a younger viewer.

Typical Genre Audiences

Depending on the film depends on the types of audience that watch it. The film Cabin in the woods (2012) (the one closest to my idea) has a primary young female audience, whereas there is a secondary young male audience in the same age group, due to the difference in figures being a few per cent. Looking at the reviews of the film, interestingly, the females who left reviews, left positive and recommended the film, whereas most of the males left negative feedback. This shows and supports the primary audience.

One of the more famous horror films, Jaws (1975) has a primary audience of 40-54 year old males that have right wing political views. They are typically in the ABC1 social category and generally earn more income. This shows that different horror films have different audiences therefore appealing to different groups of people. Due to it being an older film, can suggest that the audience is much older.

Another horror film, the Poltergeist (1982), generally has a primary audience of 40-54 year old females. They typically have left wing political views, and have a C2DE social category. This then portrays the type of film it is.

The Conjuring (2013), typically has a young female audience. They typically have right wing views and have a C2DE social grade. This connotes the types of people that like to watch these sorts of horror films.

Overall most of the recent horror films are targeted and watched by younger female audiences. But the older films are watched by older male audiences. Although these two categories of people are entirely different, this shows how horror films have changed over the years and how they have changed their target audience. Some of these older films tend to be more famous horror films. This connotes that older males like to watch these older types of film, where as the younger females like to watch these new releases.

Successful Box Office Horror Films

One of the most successful horror films of all time is Jaws (1975). With a budget of $7 million (very small) and a domestic gross of $260 million (in America alone), it made a lot of money back, unlike most films. It then made on top of that it made $210,653,000 worldwide. Due to the film being close to realism, the film could be created on little special effects, therefore keeping the costs down.

The sequel, Jaws 2 (1878) had an estimated budget of $20 million, it made its money back ($81 million) but it was not as successful as the first film. Due to it being only a few years released after the first film, the film could have been rushed therefore the story not being as good as it could have been, disappointing viewers therefore creating bad press and not as many DVD sales. Most of the viewers would have gone to watch the film due to its successful first film.

I am legend (2007) is a much more recent film with a budget of $150 million and a domestic gross of $256,393,010. Due to the story being strong, helps to engage the viewer and share it round amongst others. This then creates extra revenue for the film.
The Poltergeist (1982) had a budget of $10 million and had a domestic gross of $76,606,280. Due to it being very successful, helped to boost the audience for the sequel films.