Actor Research:
Here I am going to talk about the research I have done for the characters and actors for the opening sequence that I am working on with my group. I am going to talk about the clothing and relate it to why and what effects the clothing has to our opening sequence.
From the research that I have looked at, blondes girls can be a lot of victims in many film when it comes to the genre of horror. During my research, I found out that blonde girls who are attractive are normally the targeted victims who normally get killed and kidnapped by the bad guy of the film. Not only are attractive blondes targeted, it is also the use of female as victims. Females in films are always seen as the "weaker" target for a killer to strike and take because they cannot defend themselves as well as men in horror films, but on the other hand, in some of the horror films that I've watched, some of the females are always the last to survive and are always the smartest, so it can vary depending on how the director wants the film to play. The use of bright clothing and make up shows that the character is someone who takes care of themselves, never wanting to get near anything dirty and are the idea victim for my groups idea of the killer taking the blonde victim. I also think this shows the contrast between good and bad in our groups idea. As you can see in the image above, Lauren Vlahos playing Olivia Watson in our opening sequence is wearing bright clothes and this could show the good, but the killer (shown in the image at the bottom) is wearing dark clothing which suggest danger and evil. Using this type of clothing and Mis-en-scene was a part of my groups idea as it would show the good and the bad in our opening sequence which informs the audience the characters personalities and idea of our genre of the opening sequence.
In these two images , you can see myself on the left dressed in a suit and a pair of glasses and Alex with a jacket, suit, hat and glasses on the right. We are both detectives which was a part of my groups idea. I researched and from my own experience of watching films found that detectives dressed up smartly wearing ties, suits and professional looking clothing which looks more higher class standard. I thought this was a good idea from our group to use this type of clothing for the detectives as it allows them to stand out from the rest of the characters such as the victim and the killer. Other props included in our mis en scene were given to me and Alex such as flash lights, magnify glasses, guns and other props that indicated that Alex and I were detectives.
Finally I am going to talk about the killer. The killer is played by me and I decided that it would be a great idea to give the killer a balaclava so that the audience was not aware of how the killer looked like. It would not have been ideal for the killer to be revealed as I and my group thought it ruin the excitement for the audience of wanting to know what the killer looks like.
I researched that using a balaclava and dark clothing for a killer makes it look more dangerous and interrogating for the audience. The use of dark clothing also shows the killers personality as cold hearted and evil as dark can represent evil as a contrast to bright colours such as blonde which can represent goodness.
In conclusion, I think that my group and I chose some very good clothing for the roles of the characters and actors for our opening sequence and I think that my research for the group has contributed well and helped us for our opening sequence and made it look more realistic with professional clothing and good use of mis en scene.
Location Research:
As a part of my research I decided to look at some location shots in some other films. My group and I has had some great inspirations from other films such as The Blair Witch Project as it uses forest scenes throughout the whole horror film.
Here is an example of a location shot that my group and I have taken for research. As you can see there is graffiti on the wall and we decided this is where the blonde girl is going to be taken and killed. I thought it was a good idea as the graffiti could represent suspicious activity and it could also represent a dangerous area as graffiti is a part of criminal activity.
Here is another shot but of the other side of the wall of graffiti. As you can see there are some tree's in the area, as well as more graffiti. The concrete pillars are actually supports for a train bridge which passes over the top and my group and I thought it was a good idea to make the killer pop out from one of these openings by surprise and to take the victim.
Here is a shot of a tree that is deeper into the forest. My group thought it would be a good idea to lay the dead body of the victim up to the tree or somewhere within the forest as it shows that the killer leaves his victims in places where it's hard to find the victim.
Here are some location shots that I have been inspired by. I thought it would be good to review over the shots that have been taken in some of the films that I have greatly enjoyed that is around my groups opening sequence genre. The genre of location shots in films I researched was based around the genre horror.
Wrong Turn (2003)
Here is a shot of a victim getting killed in Wrong Turn. Wrong Turn is based in a abandoned area which is infested with hill billys and as you can see on the image above, a victim has been brutally killed with a weapon through the mouth. Not only was I inspired with the background of a forest, I was also inspired with the idea of a female as the victim who is attractive and good looking. As a result of this research, I have decided to add this as a part of our opening sequence and use a female as the victim in a forest as I think its a great way to make the audience unaware of how the killer does his dirty work.
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Here is a shot of The Blair Witch Project. I was inspired by this film as it was a POV documentary film which caught my eye when I saw the location the film was set at. Even though The Blair Witch Project is more use of POV throughout the whole film, I thought that it was a good idea to give POV for some shots in the opening sequence that I was working on.
As a result of researching location shots and shots within films, it has helped me and my group compare the shots with the areas that we are filming in and expanded my ideas and thoughts that I'm going to input into the opening sequence.
