INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCE - SOUND

We decided to include another intertextual reference, this time to do with sound. I was inspired to do this when listening to 'Hounds of Love' by Kate Bush, at the beginning of this song she uses a line from the 1957 fear film (horror thriller); 'the Night of The Demon.'
The film's plot revolves around a psychologist who is investigating a satanic cult who are suspected of committing several murders.
The particular line we want to use is: "its in the trees, its coming." (See 4.09-4.26). The worried, detatched tone of the character saying it (during a clairvoyance) compliments the intended ambience of our own scene. 

We thought this line would be perfect for when one of the victims is running from the antagonist. In this part of the scene, the antagonist will not be present so will give the audience a pointer as to what is happening and if the girl is being chased. This also links to the previous point that the antagonist will be more of a mental presence/manifestation rather than a physical one.

 

KATIE

FOOTAGE CLIP

This is some footage from when we visited our location for the first time, so a tripod is not being used.
Visiting the location helped us to plan the exact location of some shots, and also prompted us to think about challenges we would face. When we went for the first time, it was very overgrown and quite hard to navigate, and we realised it would be even trickier with camera equipment.
This is something we will have to be careful with when we shoot.

KATIE AND ROSE

FONT INSPIRATION

Font inspiration for our thriller opening

Font inspiration for our thriller opening

Zodiac- We felt with our intetextual reference to the Zodiac film in relation to our opening of a thriller, the Zodiac being a notorious murderer and our opening featuring an obsessive killer, that the handwriting of the Zodiac killer would be an appropriate font style to use. Handwriting is a common feature used in thriller title sequences, giving away a lot about a person whilst simultaneously keeping their identity hidden.

The Zodiac killer also uses a code when sending letter sand writing notes on his victims. We felt that a code would be a good font to use for small parts in our opening sequence, it presents an almost deranged mind and also gives a sense of an unexpected nature.

Zodiac Cryptogram

'Each section consisted of eight lines of seventeen symbols, which included a variety of items, from Greek symbols to Morse code to navy semaphore, and even a few astrological symbols, notably Taurus' http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/notorious/zodiac_profile/2.html


The code not only presents a slightly deranged mind but also an overly clever one too, this almost unimaginable intelligence it presents, allows for audiences to feel as though whoever uses it is unstoppable and that they are always one step ahead of the good. It may be difficult to present these as our antagonist's doing, but, by using colder lighting, rough cuts and loud noises when the code is shown on screen, we can easily establish the person who is using it to be the killer.

'Se7ven' was another inspiration in terms of font for our thriller. The scratchy nature of the handwriting paired with the jumpy rough edits and cuts gave a sense of an almost psychotic mind and allowed for the film to clearly establish a horror/thriller ambience from the start, due to our limited time we felt this was essential. The almost child-like style of handwriting used with the overwhelming amount of paper, diaries and diagrams in 'Se7en' is also reflected in many thriller films such as 'Sinister', these items portray a sense of over-analysis a common theme when madness or a psychotic mind is portrayed. By simply using a font, such as the scratchy and uneven one used here, cinematographers can almost immediately push the theme of the film to the audience. The uneven and 'jumpy' quality of the font gives the underlying sense that something is wrong, if the title sequence isn't neat or in order,it sets the audience to expect a the film to follow the same path.



We used the website 'dafont' to research potential fonts to use for our thiller opening, after looking at various fonts such as 'horror sketch' and 'mouse handwriting' we felt that although both these fonts reflected the handwriting and the horror feature, the best font to use would be the 'beautiful horror', as it combined the scartchy and uneven look of the 'mouse handwriting' and the thin, scrawny lines used in 'horror sketch', and also best reflected the writing of the Zodiac, an aspect we really wanted to capture in our opening.

 

 

 

ROSE

SOUNDSCAPE

Our opening to the thriller film is set in the inner city, although we are filming within a small secluded forest area. The sound need to reflect both of these aspects and include other features to present our storyline.
The non-diagetic sound in our thriller opening is very important in giving depth to our film and creating a realistic piece of media.

The first piece of non-diagetic sound we decided on was to have a recording of a police or news report explaining a murder nearby. We have explored the different ways of getting hold of this although we couldn't find anything that wasn't copyrighted or revealed too much information, and therefore decided to record our own piece and place it over the clips- this way we can ensure it is as we want it to sound and will be copyright free.


Other sound we could get hold of easily included the sound of birds. In using this light and calming sound before scenes depicting any danger, the audience will be lulled into a false sense of security( a common technique shown in thriller films) and allows the film to shock the audience unexpectedly. We found a bird sound on 'http://soundbible.com' called 'sunny day sound' that fitted this description perfectly.


The next non-diagetic sound we needed was the heavy footsteps from the antagonist walking through the forest, this was slightly more difficult to find as we needed the footsteps to appear as though the person was walking through a woodland area, and for them to not be too slow but also not too fast as it had to match the way we wanted our antagonist to move. We felt the footsteps would add a sense if urgency and give the audience that feeling of being trapped, with no form of escape, that a lot of thriller films often use. The sound we decided on again came from 'http://soundbible.com' and was called 'Hiking a trail'. Although this sound was not perfect due to the overlapping surrounding sounds  giving the clip a sense of a more tropical forest rather than a British woodland, we felt it could be presented as an ongoing sound to create distortion and confusion in each of the clips.


Another sound we needed to find for the antagonist was one of heavy breathing, the breathing adds an urgent atmosphere and gives the antagonist the identity that we didn't want to present onscreen. 
We know our antagonist is going to be a man, in keeping with classic thriller traditions, and needed to find a sound that reflected this. Again looking on 'http://soundbible.com we found 'breathing weird' and 'breathing vent' both presenting slightly distorted, unconventional breathing that we felt would fit in well with the identity of our antagonist. Although, both of these sound clips had faults. The 'breathing weird' clip felt too dramatic, and made our objective feel very obvious, although the 'breathing vent' was very quiet and, as the name suggests, made the person sound as though they were in a enclosed space, giving the the clip a slightly 'sci-fi' feel that we wanted to avoid. 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXHURaIl7hA 

City sounds were also an important feature we felt needed to be included. Although the opening is set within a woodland area, we felt the city needed to be recognised within it in order to create a more secluded feeling. By using the juxtaposition of the woodland onscreen and the city sounds presented off screen, we can use the common technique of placing horrific or extraordinary events in ordinary, everyday places. The city sounds also present a familiarity that the audience can relate to and allow the events to seem more probable.
ROSE

THE TITLE

We decided to call the title 'Kett's Heights' after the location that we are filming at. This title does not give too much away but at the same time establishes something vital, it is also not a fictitious therefore seems much more realistic to the viewer, especially someone familiar with Norwich as one of our audiences - our classmates - will be.  I have done some further research on the location to consolidate knowledge and make sure it is the right name. The photos below are not mine and have been taken from old scans found on Flickr.

Through reading this it has become apparent that the woodland has not really been maintained or publicised properly since the 1980s, almost 30 years ago. It is almost completely unheard of locally, the only recent publication about it I could find was one in the local newspaper dated about 2 years ago talking about how Kett's is a 'hidden gem.'  It has been neglected and is almost in ruin, given that the large scale of it would mean that it would need a lot of maintenance, so technically, in both our fictitious film and in reality, it is abandoned, unused and overgrown. 

This title sprang into mind after visiting the location, the atmosphere there is something that I cannot describe properly, as it would be better to visit for it to come into realisation. Sadly, we cannot do this through a film, so will try to show it through camera work of the place (such as using several establishing shots), as well as the title.

There is something rather poignant about how Kett's Heights has been forgotten, especially as it is somewhere so rich in both history and beauty-although its prettiness is somewhat faded now, and it is sadly in a state of decay. This poignancy can also easily be manipulated to become mysterious, dangerous (due to its abandonment) and scary, something we are going to try and do in our film primarily through the soundscape we are going to create (and the various POV shots) which will in turn create the kind of atmosphere we are trying to achieve.

In relation to the title, it would also compliment it because we are stressing an importance on the location therefore it would be a good idea to do this in an obvious way too, instead of wasting time filming too many establishing shots to show the location, something we did in the preliminary task and something we also want to avoid.

KATIE

THE CHOSEN LOCATION

The woodland is very wild and full of creepers and weeds that have grown over remanents of buildings, the stone slates you can see in this photo (which are out of focus) were used in the second world war to grow crops from, showing just how deserted and isolated it is, as well as how it is delapidated into ruin, adding to the fact that it is not often visited by people, so the young girl will look even more vunerable against this sinister landscape.

There is also the remains of a 13th century church which is also in ruin and covered in moss, adding to the element of desertion.

The location is on the top of one of Norwich's biggest hills so there are lots of views of the the city which we are planning to film to establish how we are near to somewhere urban.

More creepers around a small path.

A view of the city below- there is a ring road you can see quite clearly between the trees and shrubbery.

KATIE
 (WITH ROSE)

COSTUME AND CHARACTER PLANNING # 2

The planning for the protagonist's outfit/ appearance has proved more difficult to visualize and find inspiration for. This is largely due to the lack of such characters in films. It has also proved problematic because we do not want to reveal the character entirely,in order to build up the tension.

The picture below is of a drug addict character in the film 'Requiem for a Dream.'

Similarly, in "Christiane F," a film about life on the streets of Berlin, this character is suffering from a drug addiction, and has turned to crime to fuel it. 

It will not be explicitly demonstrated to the audience that the protagonist in our film is suffering from a drug addiction, although he will have the stereotypical look shown above, which illustrates his nature as a deeply disturbed individual. 

A tattered coat and fairly plain, dark clothing will be used. These clothes will be used to infer a number of things to the audience, such as the time of year (echoed in the  setting), personality of the character  and their lifestyle, as with any costume. I am not stressing an importance on this particular character's appearance because although they are important in the opening of the thriller to get  the audience's attention, I think more suspense would be created through the feeling of being watched. We will have to do this subtly, we do not want to have many full body shots because it would completely destroy the mysterious and suspenseful façade we want to create through camera shots of the female being watched, like through point of view shots.

 

When linking to intertextual references, the Blair Witch Project uses POV shots effectively in order to demonstrate to the audience that someone is being watched instead of showing the antagonist. In this way, it frightens the audience - something we want to prompt.

 

KATIE

COSTUME & CHARACTER PLANNING (VICTIMS)

For our thriller, we wanted the victim (who is female) to be dressed in a certain way that will infer innocence and youth to the audience, which in turn will enable them to make an easy connection to who is the protagonist and antagonist. 
Although we want the costume to infer innocence and youth, we also want her appearance to seem as though she is grief stricken and on edge, deeply upset by her friend's horrific death. To do this, I have looked at some characters in films that have been affected by something that has caused them to appear tired and stressed.
The first film and character I have taken inspiration from, and in turn created an intertextual reference, is the 2014 horror thriller film 'the Babadook.' The subject matter of this film is largely irrelevant to my group's planning, however the sequence of events does cause the character I am focusing on, Amelia, to become nervous and exhausted, rather like what we want our character to be like. This can be achieved through the look as well as the acting, and both (I think) are equally important in this case. 

(image below taken from thebabadook.com)

Amelia's facial expression in this particular still infers her being unhappy and worried, but when studying this for some time I have also gathered that she has bags under her eyes and her hair is slightly messy. This is something we could easily recreate.

The clothes she wears throughout the film are in subtle muted colours such as creams, greys, light blues and pale pinks. These plain and demure clothes are another aspect we are thinking of taking, as it creates a certain anonymity but at the same time shows the character as sweet and feminine, something we want to do. It adds to the character being a victim, and their fragile femininity  and inferred innocence add to the audience perhaps feeling sympathy towards them more. We can manipulate this to add to the horror at the end of the thriller. The appearance of our female victim will help us to involve the audience and make them feel a certain way, the manipulation of this will work to our advantage and will help to affect the audience more.

Another intertextual reference that we are including in this costume is the clothes the character Hannah wears in Remember Me. The absence or subtraction of colour in her clothing could be a symbol for the lack of life in her character or her depressed state - we plan to mirror this.

I have planned a rough costume below, incorporating the muted colour palette and the plain, faded design as well as the main prop (the flowers).

As a group, we have come to the decision that we should use the flowers as a motif, and as a symbol of mourning. I think this motif would be particularly effective because they are easily identifiable to the audience, and a pivotal point in the piece is when the victim places the flowers down (and almost immediately interacts with the antagonist), which could show progression in the storyline. 

We will have to experiment with make up and powders to get the pale, tired look or to enhance it further, mirroring the intertextual reference above.

 (Lucia on left and character profile below)

KATIE

The second victim will remain anonymous in the sense that the audience won't see her face. This adds to the audience's sense of intrigue, and won't distract them away from the main victim, Lucia.

The only way information will be revealed about her is through the non diegetic audio of news/police reports.

 Played by Kate

POSSIBLE LOCATIONS

We decided to look at some potential locations for our film. We did this through our own knowledge of the area and also through researching/trawling through websites and photos. The photo credits for the pictures below go to George Plunkett.

Location one - Britannia Barracks.

Theoretically, this would be the ideal location for our film, as (like in Remember Me)it is both urban and quiet, with an amazing view of the city and a big stretch of land. However, it is a popular place for walkers and there is a café inside the barracks so it would be hard for us to film without the public getting into shot. On top of this, it is hard to get to by foot (we would have to walk some of the way) and we would be carrying equipment so in reality would not be feasible.

 

Location two-St Leonard's Priory, Gas Hill.

Again, this is a difficult place to actually get to. Also, because it is not really a known location to the public anymore, there is not a proper path which would prove problematic when filming. The surrounding woodland blocks the view of the city so on camera, it wouldn't seem urban at all.

 

Location three-the river.

As said before, this is the most urban location we have considered so far. At first glance we thought it would be ideal. However, when we actually visited it, we realised that it was quite small and therefore it would be difficult for the victims to actually be followed or for a place to lay down flowers without it looking like a suicide (with the river constantly being in the background).

 

Location four-Mousehold heath.

This encompasses both location one and two as well as the surrounding area. It covers a considerable amount of land so there is a lot of choice. We will location scout here after considering the four locations above as it has both urban and rural elements in it and compliments our intertextual reference (Remember Me).

 

Katie and Rose

 

PLANNING TO OUR THRILLER OPENING - PREZI

This includes a synopsis, pitch. intertextual references, location inspiration and screenshots. 


KATIE