Planning: Costumes

The boy antagonist - to illustrate his character and bad teenage nature, we wanted to dress him in dark tracksuit bottoms and hoodie with trainers. This would characterise him to be maybe up to something bad which would be reinforced by him wearing black gloves.

The woman protagonist - to portray her character, we wanted to dress her in a plain and simple yet smart and sophisticated typical work dress. The idea was to show that today is just a normal working day for her and nothing, to her knowledge, out of the ordinary was going to happen. We also did this to make it seem to the audience that this lady is a very successful, hard working person which fits in with the background to our storyline that the reason she gave her son up for adoption was to have a successful career and carry on with her life.

Planning: Characters

Choosing our characters:

• The woman protagonist - Helen Williams. We need a woman protagonist becuase we noticed that in other Horror/ Thriller films that we researched, the protagonist is nearly always female. Not only to stick with the convention of having a female protagonist, we also thought that we should choose a female because men think they are more able to overcome threat more easily than a woman and so our audience would be able to relate to it more this way. Also, our storyline is about a mother putting her son up for adoption to continue with her life not knowing that he is coming to seek his revenge. Therefore, our protagonist had to be female to fit in with our storyline.
  
• The boy antagonist - Nick Webber. We need a young teenage boy to fit in with our storyline because the background to our Film Opening was that the boys mother (main woman protaganist) put him up for adoption at birth and is back 15-16 years later to seek his revenge. Therefore, we need a boy who looks 15-16 who looks like a typical teenage boy to fit in with his characteristics and the storyline.

Planning Our Characters, Costumes, Hair and Make-Up and Props

Before setting out to film our 2 Minitue Film Opening we need to plan our charaters and their costumes. We knew from the planning of our storyline that we need two actors and roughly what we wanted them to be dressed in to portray their character efficetlively. However, we have to plan this in more detail ready for when we film some of our practice shots to see if our characters and their costumes are the right choice. We also need to plan their hair and make-up, any props that we wanted to use and find a location that would best suit our storyline. We need to do this all by the 28th February as this is when we plan to practice some of our chosen shots.

Over the next week, we will plan all these things out in greater detail.

Storyboard

This is the storyboard for our 2 minute Film Opening; Revenge. 

Sub-Genres of Horror Films

1. Monster-Horror

A Monster film is sub-genre of Horror that centers on a struggle between human beings and a monster. The monster usually serves asa villain, and the film portrays a hero or heroine that ultimately saves theworld from the monster. (Examples: Aliens, Godzilla, Creature from the Black Lagoon.)

2. Teen-Horror

Teen-Horror is asub-genre that revolves completely around a teenager or a group of teenagers.Typically, these movies have a large cast and a clear hero or heroine.Teen-Horror films often play upon traditional teenage issues and turn them intosuspenseful and thrilling situations. (Examples: I Know What You Did LastSummer, Scream, Texas Chainsaw Massacre.) 

3. Slasher film

Slasher film is a sub-genre of Horror filmthat revolves around a psychopathic killer. This killer stalks and murders hisvictims in extremely violent and memorable ways. Though it centres on aspecific killer, the violence is what sets Slasher films apart from otherhorror films. A Slasher film will devote more screen time to portray murder andmayhem than a traditional Horror film. (Examples: Friday the 13^th, My Bloody Valentine, Black Christmas.) 

4. Zombie-Horror

Zombie film is asub-genre of Horror film that portrays mindless human beings who are raisedfrom the dead. These films often include a Zombie invasion and revolve aroundthe struggle between the living, and the living-dead. Zombie film not onlyfalls into the Horror genre, but Sci-Fi, Thriller, and Comedy as well. (Examples:Night of the Living Dead, Shaun of the Dead, 28 Days Later.) 

Information from: http://thescriptlab.com/screenplay/genre/horror 

                              http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_film#Sub-genres 

Examples of the four sub-genres:

Certificate Ratings

Universal - Suitablefor all ages, there is nothing unsuitable for children.

Parental Guidance - Suitablefor all ages, but certain scenes may be unsuitable for young children. It isthe board's policy that movies rated 'PG' should not disturb a child of about 8years of age or older. However, parents are advised to consider whether thecontent may upset young or more sensitive children.

12A(cinema only) - Filmsunder this category are considered to be unsuitable for very young people.Those aged under 12 years are only admitted if accompanied by an adult, aged atleast 18 years, at all times during the film.

12 - Recommendedfor 12 years and older. Nobody younger than 12 may rent or buy a '12' ratedDVD.

15 - Suitableonly for 15 years and older. Nobody younger than 15 may see a '15' film in thecinema. Nobody younger than 15 may rent or buy a '15' rated DVD (These filmsmay contain offensive or emotionally harrowing scenes or strong language andviolence).

18 - Suitableonly for adults. Nobody younger than 18 may see an '18' film in a cinema.Nobody younger than 18 may rent or buy an '18' rated video (These films maycontain extreme gore/violence and/or sexually explicit content).

Restricted18 - Tobe shown only in specially licensed cinemas, or supplied only in licensed sexshops, and to adults that are older than 18 years old. (These films containsexually explicit, pornographic content).

I think that our film would have a 15 rating. This is because there may be scenes which contain adult content and strong language which would not be suitable for a 12 year old. Our film would not be an 18 rating either as the content is not as explicit as an 18 would be. 

History of The Horror Film Genre

• The horror genre is one of the most popular and profitable film genres for cinemas today. However for much of the twentieth century it wasn't and the horror genre has moved in and out of cinematic vogue over the last one hundred years. It is only really in the last forty years that this genre has been established as being one of the main genres in cinemas.

• In the early years of the film industry, pioneering directors began to experiment with supernatural events and creatures and in the 1910s and 1920s, many famous literary monsters cross over to the movie world, for example, Frankenstein, vampires and the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

• It wasn't until the early 1930s that horror began to be seem by a mainstream audience, with the release of Universal Pictures' famous versions of Dracula and Frankenstein in 1931. 

• After the Second World War, the horror genre became less popular with mainstream cinema audiences and as technology advanced, low budget monster movies increasingly became unsophisticated. Even though several remarkable films were made during the 1950s, like Invasion of the Body Snatchers in 1956, it wasn't until the end of the 1950s that the horror genre really began to re-emerge as a popular genre again. 

• The British company Hammer Film Productions were largely responsible for making monster movies popular again by making films like Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy and more up to the early 1970s.

• During the late 1960s, horror once again entered a slump, even though remarkable movies were produced around this time, like George Romero's Night of the Living Dead and Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby in 1968. 

• The mid-1970s marked the start of an era of blockbuster horror as films with large budgets and very high productions values, like The Exorcist in 1973 and The Omen in 1976. 

• In the twenty-first century the horror film genre has been introduced to a new generation by the new DVD releases of older movies. This has allowed the horror genre to blossom even more now with things like merchandise and zombie walks.

Information from: http://laurenthomas.hubpages.com/hub/A-Brief-History-of-Horror-Movies