Recces

Recces Once we established the type of horror we wanted to make, we needed to think of suitable locations to film our trailer. I knew of one location (Little Plumstead Mental Hospital) that I have previously seen and visited before, however, we looked at it on Google maps and at pictures other people had posted from when they had visited (http://www.proj3ctm4yh3m.com/urbex/2013/09/15/urbex-little-plumstead-hospital-asylum-norfolk-july-2013/) and decided to drive out and check if the location would be suitable to shoot our trailer. We decided it was the best location to film our trailer and that we didn't need to check anywhere else because of the state the building now stood in and also because of the history surrounding the building. However, we considered a few other locations but we felt this was the ideal location to do what we wanted to with our trailer.

Mood boards

Influences We studied up on the location we had chosen which is visible on the mood board and is the building situated near the top right, its a run down building in Little Plumbstead, however it has a very sinister look to it with how it stands now. From this we tried to capture inspiration from horrors such as the Blair witch project with the idea of our footage being captured on a hand held camera, however not the whole trailer/movie would be filmed in the point of view shot. The Cabin in the woods gave us a few ideas such as the group of teenagers going away and horrific behaviour to take place whilst they are at their chosen location, similar to our idea with the group thinking the location is perfectly fine but soon come to regret the choice. Obviously a lot of our inspiration came from Paranormal Activity with that being the best selling ghostly horror movie. We wanted to replicate some of the ideas from the film such as the objects being thrown and doors slamming etc. However we needed a villain and Paranormal doesn't have that soul villain visible throughout the film and that is where Halloween 1978 comes into the influences as this was a big hit within horror movies, although our film won't be similar to the Slasher horrors, we thought of having a villain after seeing the film. The Ouija board is a potential idea within our film however it has not been determined yet, however, it influenced us with the ghostly behaviour as that is what Ouija boards are designed for. Audience We thought up potential targets for our audience and began to think about who we are trying to target and the things they are interested in so we can perhaps make reference to them within the film. We included brands that would be particularly popular with the teenage and young adult years, for example brands such as Vans, Asos and mass media products such as Snapchat and Twitter. This is because we felt as if horror movies now intrigue young adults mainly and these particular brands are increasingly popular within that generation. Therefore we decided that if we were to try and make reference to brands similar to this it may attract people within that age range and these would therefore be our chosen target audience.

Synopsis

Synopsis The chosen synopsis for our horror trailer was very similar to the original idea we had, in the sense of the paranormal activity going on within our trailer. So we decided that the horror trailer would be based around a group of thrill-seeking teenagers that have decided to go and explore an abandoned mental asylum. The group of teens wouldn’t suspect any danger or suspicious behaviour to begin with until they start noticing ghostly activity going on around them, for example doors closing on their own, things being thrown from no visible person etc. We then decided to include an actual ‘villain’ within the trailer to replicate a conventional horror movie. The teens would therefore be harassed and bullied by the villain until he or she captures each and every one of them. Because of the location being a rundown asylum, we thought it would be an idea to maybe make this villain or ghost a former patient at the asylum who now haunts the building. We decided to go with this idea due to the results we received from our questionnaire.

Questionnaire + Results

Questionnaire results from chloeabel9

Props list

Here is a list of props that we will need when we come to filming our horror trailer, as a group we feel as if these props will help to enhance a sense of horror and hopefully give off a unsettled and uncomfortable atmosphere for the audience, the list following are the props we agreed on as a group. -Black Cloak (For the figure) -X2 Cameras (One for a hand held experience featured in some horror movies and one for a tripod for more solid shooting) -Torches (For light and also to give a sense of adventure) -Rucksacks (Again to enhance the sense of adventure that the teenagers are on) -Fish Wire (For the movement of objects without any visible person doing so) -Candles and lighters (For the enhancement of spookiness and horror) -A Tripod (For the more solid shooting within the trailer) -Lantern (Again for more light but also because a lantern is a traditional lighting that you see in some horror films set within rundown buildings)

Location Report

Original Ideas

For our horror film the group generated several different ideas concerning the sub-genre within the horror genre, for instance, whether the film would be a comedy horror or a zombie horror etc. In the end, the group decided that our horror film would be supernatural, similar to paranormal activity, meaning there would be ghostly behaviour within our film rather than one solid villain who is killing everyone with his bare hands. We then had to decide on a location for our horror to be set within, we narrowed it down to two primary locations, a place known as Little Plumstead mental hospital and a rundown church situated in East Somerton. We finally decided that the hospital would be the best location as it has some history attached to it and the run down building looked perfect for a horror film to be set within. Our idea for the horror film would be similar to The Wrong Turn movies, in the sense that a group of teenagers would set out for some sort of adventure and then things to turn on them however rather than having psychotic killers we would have one black figure visible within the film, he was the figure of evil and from him doors would slam, open and objects to be thrown at the group of teenagers with no sign of a culprit. These sort of ideas were the initial ideas that were generated within the group however nothing was fixed until the filming came so we were able to adjust and strengthen ideas, shot types and potentially a location if our first choice was unavailable.