Preproduction

For my film portfolio, me and my group-mates (Nia, Evicka, and Ja'Niyah) are producing a movie intro for a horror/thriller movie while following the conventions of the genre. Before we all began the project, our groups were picked by us by doing interviews on our classmates. We came to the conclusion of our groups based on the questions asked.  A few days later, our teacher gave everyone a group contract that had to be signed by the person it was given to, out parent/guardian, and our teacher then given back to the teacher. After this, we were given the assignment of making a short story based around our intro (we basically gave it a middle and end). After that was turned in, we researched different movies and analyzed their intros to get an understanding of what these films are expected to have. Following this, we made our script and storyboard.

Storyboard

In the story board process, we made a Word document with a shot by shot analysis chart. We split the chart up into categories, each taking one, then came as a group to decide on the description. After we did this, we went into StudioBinder and placed the information in the storyboard feature.

Description of Storyboard

Mise-en-Scene

For this film opening in the horror genre, we dwelled on locations but decided on areas around the school. We chose the library and the main floor hallway. Props we will use will be things like books, textbooks, pencils, papers and things like that. Since filming will take place during school hours, costuming will consist of our CTA uniform with little to no makeup. We will utilize the lighting that is already there in our various locations. 

Cinematography

The cinematography plays a big role in our film. We have from February 22nd to March 4th get our shots and scene. We need to take into consideration on how much shots we need to get for our scenes within the time provided. When filming, we will use our phones and we will use tripods if necessary. Medium shots, long shots, establishing shots, close ups, low angle shots, and tracking will be used.

Sound

Sound creates mood/feeling for films, bringing it together with the other components. For the sound portion, we will use dialogue between actors, conversations, that will get picked up by the phone being recorded with, an unsettling music score, utilizing silence, and using a voice over of someone talking.

Case Study

 INSIDIOUS

History/ Target audience

 Director James Wan portrayed in this film a family trying to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose son in the realm called The Further for the audience of teens and adults, PG-13. It is based off ideas from James Wan and Leigh Whannell.

Production

This film was produced by Jason Blum, Steven Schneider, and Oren Peli. Blumhouse Productions, the production company, is mainly known for producing horror films such as this one. Insidious(2010) had the budget of $1.5 million, a large enough budget for filming to be done in 3 weeks. 

Distribution

Insidious was distributed by FilmDistrict in the United States and Sony Pictures Releasing International, internationally. The movie was released theatrically on April 1, 2011 after the announcement made for it's release on December 29, 2010 due to Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions picked up the U.S distribution rights to the film and worldwide distribution rights to the film after it's world premier at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 14, 2010. Besides being in theaters, Insidious was released on Blue-ray.

Marketing

For the advertisement of Insidious, the first promotional clip was released on September 14, 2010. During the following December, M Global (production company) released an image and sales poster. Then On December 22, 2001, FilmDistrict released the film's first teaser trailer. No more than a month later, the theatrical trailer was made available online via Blastr. 

Cross-media convergence and synergy

The film has an introduction where the audience gets a flashback indicating that there was a series of events that happened for the movie to take place. The flashback doesn't leave the audience questioning what caused the chain of events to take place.

 Script Writing

The genre horror is a movie genre that if scary and terrifying for the purpose to entertain. The target audience for films in the genre would be younger people, teens and young adults, because this audience likes to seek thrill. The purpose of horror movies are to show viewers a world that's is not ordinary compared to theirs's.

Based on my research pertaining to script writing/screenplay for horror, I have found that horror's screenplay is different from the other genres. Films in horror must have particular aspects in order to stay on track with the conventions of a horror motion picture such as scaring, showing gross and gory things, and/or expected but unexpected scenes to get the target audience's heart racing and body full of adrenaline. 

Key things that script writers include in screenplays:

The balance of more action than dialogue: show instead of telling the audience what characters fear the most

Gore: Gruesome death and/or torture scenes with detail to unsettle the audience more

Jump scares: Loud sudden noises or unexpected images to make viewers jump (out of their skin)

A villain or monster: Anyone, or anything for that matter, that is beyond control. The audience needs to know what makes the bad guy tick and what they are capable to achieve

Mounting suspense: Pacing the story and action to surprise the viewers

The images inserted above are my script for my portfolio.

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Production, Distribution, and Exhibition

 Production, Distribution, 

and Exhibition

Production

• For a film to being production, it is important for investors to provide the necessary funding. The box office success is never guaranteed so investors try to reduce the risk of  losing their money by being involved in important decisions. 
• Questions will be asked by investors such as does it offer easy selling points, is the film's story line similar to other films that have made money recently, and are there any obvious marketing spin offs to give added publicity and a few others.
• A film has to be "green-lit" before a director can start filming. The term "green-lit" means that the funding has been made available by the investor. At this stage, a project will have the key elements of a project: principle cast, director, cinematography, screenplay. It's the director's job to bring all of these elements together.

Distribution

• At the start to plan a marketing campaign, the film distributor will have to decide how it will present a film to a potential audience. The distributor needs to decide what differentiates this film apart from others that are released. They look for something called a USP - unique selling point. 
• For example, if the distributor is managing an action film, they would need to look for components of the film that sets it aside from other films in the genre.

Exhibition

• The release of a film marks the final stage of part one of a film's journey from idea to audience, After the theater release, the film will then be accessible by several different formats.  Each of the "exhibitions" offer the opportunity of profit generation.