Below is a general screenplay and scripting for our movie. Since there is no dialogue in our film, we wrote a general script and screenplay of the shots and her actions throughout the clip. They may vary in our actual opening sequence because of formatting.
Low Budget Films
A low budget film is a motion picture shot with little to no funding from a major film studio or private investor. Most independent films are made with a low budget, but it is also common for films on the mainstream circuit with inexperienced or unknown filmmakers to also have low budgets. Shooting with a low budget allows filmmakers to have more creativity and freedom when shooting, because there is no one breathing down their necks telling the director how they will gross the biggest profit. Numerous movies that were known for their low budgets still made an enormous profit at the box office. Examples of this are Annabelle($37.1 million), The Blair Witch Project($246.8 million), and Sinister($77.7 million).
Paranormal Activity Case Study
Made in 2007, Paranormal Activity is an American supernatural horror film co-produced, written, directed, photographed and edited by Oren Peli. In an interview with The Guardian, Peli claims “that if Jaws stopped people swimming in the sea and Blair Witch stopped people camping in the woods, then he is pleased that Paranormal Activity is stopping us from sleeping.” In the movie, a young couple (Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat) move into their first new home but are disturbed by what appears to be a supernatural presence that is most active at night. With a budget of $15,000, movie goers wouldn’t have been expecting much if it wasn’t for that clever marketing campaign behind the film.
How They Sold the Movie
To generate buzz for the film, the film makers showed screenings of it on college campuses and film festivals, the filmed the audiences reactions. Then, they edited the footage into a movie trailer, which obviously attracted a lot of attention in the next year. The film then was acquired by Paramount Pictures for 350,000 and modified, particularly with a new ending.
Total Profits
It was given a limited U.S. release on September 25, 2009, and then a nationwide release on October 16, 2009. The film earned nearly $108 million at the U.S. box office and a further $85 million internationally for a worldwide total of $193 million.
Sources:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1179904/ https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/nov/21/paranormal-activity-twitter-facebook https://www.therichest.com/expensive-lifestyle/entertainment/10-low-budget-horror-films-that-offer-up-the-biggest-scares/
Theatrical vs. Non-Theatrical
On what platform you choose to present your movie to the public says a lot about what you expect to get out of your movie. There is theatrical exhibition, or the Exhibition of a Motion Picture in commercial motion picture theaters or other venues where members of the general public view such Motion Picture for an admission fee. However, many films are shown through non-theatrical exhibition, meaning every other way of showing a movie. This includes home streaming, educational facilities, correctional facilities, hospitals, etc.
Theatrical
I have chosen to exhibit my film through theatrical exhibition, because this way movie can be truly appreciated on the big screen and can make the highest amount of profit. Also, showing your film on non-theatrical platforms can affect the quality of your film as it appears to viewers.
My Mission Statement
The overall goal for my movie is to awaken a new and alarming sense of unknown horror in my audience. I want people who watch this film to be left feeling like an ice cold hand has gripped their fragile hearts. If I can put a unique, terrifying spin on the classic story of a naive girls stalker, then I will have achieved my goal. The horror/thriller genre has always been very stereotypical. We always view things from the side of the victim. Hopefully, by showing things through the antagonists eyes, this story will allow audiences to gain a fresh perspective on a pretty predictable genre.
Production Companies
While a dream is great, realities are only made when you think about the cost. I looked at multiple production companies before finding the one that was best suited for my vision.
Twisted Pictures: an American independent production company as far creating films of the horror genre. It was made in 2004 by Evolution Entertainments Mark Burg, Oren Koules and Gregg Hoffman. The company is best known for producing one of the most successful horror movies (SAW series).
Benderspink: A production company made in 1998 by Chris Bender and J.C. Spink. Both partners have got a long agenda of films produced by them and they were also nominated for a Golden Globe in the film ‘A History of Violence’.
Blumhouse Productions
In order to determine what production company was right for me, I had to look at other films similar to mine in the way of budget, genre, audience, etc. When researching other low budget horror films directed at audiences over the age of thirteen, these included Insidious, Paranormal Activity, The Purge and The Belko Experiment. They all had this psychological challenge in them, ways to open the audiences mind to new thrills. All of these movies were financed by Blumhouse productions, a production company which specializes in low budget horror films. Blumhouse productions is an American film and television production company, was founded in 2000 by Jason Blum. The company’s model is to produce films on a small budget, give their directors creative freedom and release them wide through the studio system. Having creative freedom when filming is something that is very important to me. I want He’s Watching to be a perfect visual representation of what I imagine my worst nightmare to look like. I also like the fact that they are not a large studio but a smaller, independent company. By researching these movies, and noting the level of success that they all reached, it made me realize that my ideal production company to shoot under would be Blumhouse productions.
Fonts, Styles, the Works….
Finding font styles in an opening sequence can be very tedious to get right. It’s important to find the correct type and display it in a way that properly represents your film’s genre. After researching the font titles used for movies in my genre such as Split(typeface Helvetica), and Alien(Helvetica Black), I realized that this specific font is commonly used in suspenseful or thrilling movies. Also, both films had the fonts large and white against a black screen, adding to the intimidation.However, both of these films varied wildly in how they introduced their titles.
Alien, a science-fiction horror film, adapts a disjointed version of Helvetica Black in order to instill a sense of foreboding, the letters broken into pieces, the space between them unsettling.
In Split, the opening sees each on-screen credit sliced up, segmented into a 24-frame grid and layered. A black screen, white typography, and typeface Helvetica create an effect that is eerie and unnerving, underlining the characters’ terrifying and blurry half-consciousness.
Audiences
In order for a film to be successful, it must be taken into consideration what type of audience the film will appeal to. Due to the fact that my film is a kidnapping film and involves violence, I can automatically rule out people under the age of thirteen. However, pretty much everyone over that age can be included in my predicted audience. This movie does not exclude any race, minority, gender or sexual orientation, which makes my potential viewers pretty large. It is most common for people over the age of thirteen to see movies on weekend nights, so that is when I will plan for my movie to debut.
Marketing
Getting your potential audiences to see your movie is also vital to being successful. Trailers, posters, merchandise and social media marketing are all great ways to sell your movie. Other than creating this blog, another step I have made towards marketing my film is creating a movie poster that builds suspense in my viewers, urging them to find out the rest of the story.
Setting is Everything
The setting or location of a film is also something that is significant and must be taken into consideration. Because my plan for how me and my partner will shoot the film consists mainly tracking shots, we want to incorporate a lot of dark and creepy hallways and alleys. A movie I referenced in order to gain information on how to properly bring my setting justice was Split, which has an opening sequence that is very similar to the the opening that I am going for in my movie. Split opens with tracking shots of an unconscious girl being wheeled through a flickering, damp hallway. The setting conveys the negative connotations of the clip, and adds to the mystery and suspense that the filmmakers obviously wanted to make apparent. The grainy shot of the room that the girl was placed in also makes it clear that she is being held captive.
All the Money in the World
Another example I found of an opening sequence where the setting was very self explanatory was All the Money in the World, narrative based on a true story that describes the kidnapping of young man, and his money hungry grandfather refusing to pay his ransom. The beginning of the clip, leading up to the man being kidnapped, features him walking through a dark and foreign city, with prostitutes and intimidating looking men following his whereabouts. Because tracking shots of a girl walking through a dark city will comprise most of my movie, this gave me an excellent frame of reference to bounce my ideas off. After the man was taken, the setting quickly changed to the creepy inside of his captors getaway van. Possibly, when filming, my partner and I might try to incorporate a separate setting aside from the city in order to show the girls whereabouts after being kidnapped.
Opening Title Sequences
Part of developing my own movie is analyzing other movies with my shared genre. The clip from the movie Get Out introduces the story by showing viewers the main issue of race in the story, as well as an unknown victim being captured. Get Out gave me a lot of information on how to immediately grab the audience’s attention within the first two minutes, while also leaving them hanging and wanting to know the background.
Race/ Ethnicity in Thrillers
This clip constructs a representation of race/ethnicity through elements of Mise-en-scene such as costuming, hair, framing and blocking. The main character, a black man, is featured in dark lighting and casual clothing, surrounded by an upper class neighborhood that is brightly lit. This portrays him as the obviously poor or lower class character in the scene. The framing is close up and open, which is meant to make his skin color very apparent despite the dark lighting, and also foreshadows to something bad about to happen to him. When the antagonistic character, whose race is hidden by a mask, comes into the scene, he attacks the black man until he is unconscious. The blocking shown here puts emphasis on the naivety and weakness of the black man, conveying his race as inferior.
Frame of Reference
Now when I am creating my film, I am better prepared and will put a lot of focus on mise-en-scene so that way I can quickly portray the genre and underlying plot of my movie without giving too much away to viewers. Another important aspect that I’ve gathered from this clip is the power of voice-overs. Viewers understood in the first few seconds that he was in the wrong neighborhood due to the character nervously mumbling to himself.
Sources: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/get-out-2017
Intro to the Mind of a Killer
Welcome to my blog!
He’s Watching… a psychological thriller that throws you head first into the mind of a serial killer. In just the first two minutes of this film, viewers will become enthralled with the sick mind of a young girls predator. In a crowded city, it is easy for one person to disappear quietly and unnoticed. As she goes about her daily routine, the camera follows her from the perspective of an obsessed trapper. It is made immediately obvious that she is being watched. Suspense builds as her potential attacker gets closer and closer, and the girls location become more intimate, making the viewer wonder if the attacker will take this opportunity to make his move.
The Thriller Genre & Conventions
This genre has a known reputation for challenging people with the extent to which humanity can display its most evil characteristics. The film industry, specifically the horror and thriller genre, has seen many of society’s most horrendous truths; retelling of massacres, the reveal of master manipulators, and the sad stories of naive girls being coerced into death by serial killers. Movies such as Split, Get Out and the Taken series are modern movies that have pushed our imaginations to its furthest point. However, older movies that tell chilling stories include Seven, The Silence of the Lambs and The Bone Collector. By researching the opening title sequences for these films, I plan to find out what the best way is to portray my movies theme without giving to much away. This analysis will also include researching of font titles, color schemes, character types, etc. The opening sequence of a movie is incredibly important. It not only gives the viewer an idea of what they will be watching, but also is the film makers only real chance at getting people hooked.
He's Watching... 