Props

    My last post I discussed my cast, location, and how I'm writing the storyboard. Now, instead I have ideas for props! So, I was talking to my girlfriend Samantha about what I needed from her story-wise and how the opening would play out based on what I have so far. About halfway through she asks me "What kind of weapon will Matthew be holding?" and honestly I hadn't really thought about that more than just assuming it would be a play knife that I would buy at Party City. That's when she told me that her step-dad, who's a cook, has so many different types of knives in their kitchen that we can check them out and see if I would want to use one. So, we went to her house and I looked at them and they were really cool! We ended up picking this butcher knife which would really be dope. Now, in the scenes in which Matthew is up close and personal with the actors he will be using a fake prop knife, although in the scenes where he's walking around intimidating them he will be holding the real one. I think this adds something really cool to the opening and helps bring out the horror. Especially due to the familiarity of the knife in horror such as films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th. It's a small detail that brings the real sense of horror to the film opening. 

 

    Another prop that I have for the film opening thanks to my wonderful girlfriend Samantha is fake blood! Although no body will be shown being harmed or killed in the opening, having fake blood also creates this effect of realism in the film and adds to the fear. Seeing blood is just something the human body associates with negative things which is all my opening is about.

Cast

    Ok, so I found my cast I'm pretty sure. Unless someone cancels or can't play the part I will find others but as of right now this is the cast: my friends Juan and Matthew and my girlfriend Samantha. Matthew will be the man in the mask breaking in and the couple is Juan and Samantha. This is good having the cast be my friends because it will make the filming process easier and we can have fun with the genre and make it really scary by putting our heads together.
    The location is going to be my apartment but the house we'll use for the exposition shot in the beginning is going to be Matthews house because everyone else lives in an apartment so that's all we got. I have the basis of what the film will be, when we actually start filming is when we will come up with the scariest parts because me and my friends are especially good with improve and when we're in the moment we can definitely come up with scary stuff. In the post-production process I will take whichever ideas and scenes I liked the most and put it together like a giant puzzle. It might sound harder than storyboarding and all that but to me its my favorite because I love editing so picking through all the scenes and putting it together will be a lot of fun for me.

So going back to my little checklist, this is what we've got so far:

Come up with plot and characters DONE
Make storyboard NOT COMPLETE YET
Locations DONE
Cast Characters DONE
Make Shooting Schedule NOT COMPLETE YET
Props NOT COMPLETE YET
Music NOT COMPLETE YET

My next blog post will most likely contain a shooting schedule, props, and maybe more shots for a storyboard. 

Some Research

    Ok, so I've been researching the true stories about those movies I am getting information from (The Strangers and Wolves at the Door). What I learned is absolutely sick, and I love it! These stories will really help me come up with ways to scare the audience and really draw attention to the first two minutes of my film. A cool idea I derived from The Strangers is to have the tormentors wearing masks. I think it's a really easy way to get a good thrill out of the audience because nobody wants to think about a creepy guy with a mask breaking into their house and tormenting them. Although, my opening will not be graphic and it will be school friendly although it will still be just as terrifying. I also thought of a great idea to open the opening. So, since we're going to have to film at my apartment (which isn't a house) I need to "tell" the audience it's in a house. To do this, I will have the very first shot be blank, just a black screen. The date will slowly fade onto the screen "month year date" not sure what I want the exact date to be. But yes, that will happen then as it fades out we hear a scream, when we hear the scream it cuts directly to a shot of a house (I'm telling the audience where we are) and the camera will move towards the door, transition and boom! We're in the "house." So that's what I got for plot and those movies and stories really helped because they let me see the best ways to create the suspense and it helped me see the thought process of some of the directors and what the best choices would be.


The Strangers inspired story : http://horrorfreaknews.com/fact-fiction-strangers-real-stories-inspired-film

Wolves at the Door : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4670016/plotsummary

Basic Plot and Characters

    Alright so I've sat down and come up with a couple more strong ideas for the film opening. So let's start with the characters, so far I have no names or motivations or backstory. I just know I want a couple (boy & girl) to be the main characters which are going to be the owners of the house that's being broken into. As of right now, I'm still debating with myself on if I should make the tormentors a couple as well or if it should just be one male.
    Ok, so that's about as far as I got character-wise. But I do have a strong idea for what I want the opening to contain plot-wise. Basically, I want it to start at the end. Maybe not the exact ending but I wanted to have it start during the break-in because since this is a film opening it wouldn't make sense to start the movie off with a break-in unless I was planning on having the tormentors be serial break-in people (I don't know what to call it). Which, at first intrigued me but then I remembered the opening could only be a maximum length of about 2 minutes, so what I would want to do wouldn't work with that short of time. If I was to do that I would want a nice scary long opening of a break-in and have the full movie be about serial-breakiners (thought of a name, don't know how I feel about it). But, what I am doing is not that, I'm going to have it start with a couple on their knees in a house. Their hands are tied above their heads and the girl is crying. The tormentors will play with them for a little but somehow they are going to fight back and run. I know I want it to end with the guy and girl hiding in the bathroom and hearing the intruders come closer and closer, then it will cut to black before something awful happens (them entering bathroom). This way I can have the real movie start after this and lead up to that exact moment which is going to be towards the very end. Although this is all subject to change because I might think of something better, but, we'll see.

IDEA CHANGED

    Ok, so basically what happened was I realized in order to do a kidnapping I would probably need an adult so that idea just fell through. I know I could find another way to do it but I would rather not make things hard for myself so I came up with a brand new idea. I am staying within the same genre of Horror, I just got a new idea for my opening.
    So, in general my film opening will be of a break-in. Except it's not like a normal break-in, like it's not gonna be a robber or a girl home alone or any of that. I'm going to take inspiration from films like The Strangers (2008), The Purge (2013), and Wolves at the Door (2017). Two out of three of these films are based on a true story, with the exception of course being The Purge. What this means is that my opening will be dark, spooky, and cruel. Spooky is a lighthearted way of saying it will be scary, not sure if everyone got that haha. This idea is also better because I know it's going to be an absolute blast to film, especially with all my friends working together to create it.
    So, for my next blog I will have the basic concept of the idea and what I want the opening to contain in it and also in my next blog I can cross off the first part of the checklist I made: Plot and Characters.

FIRST IDEA AND CHECKLIST

    Welcome back! I'm excited to say I have my first great idea for the film opening. Previously, I discussed which genre my film will be and I came to the conclusion of choosing horror. I've taken time and thought of an idea which if done correctly, will be something great. So, the concept is having the opening be of a kidnapping. As of right now I'm not sure of where exactly. I've got an idea of doing a girl walking home from school, or doing a kid playing at the park. The point is to make it as suspenseful as I can and have the opening be basically some exposition of what the full movie is about, which would be of a serial kidnapper. 

To keep myself on track and to make sure I actually get work I made a little checklist for myself:

 

- Come up with plot and characters

- Storyboard

- Locations

- Casting

- Shooting Schedule (although I'm pretty sure I know when I will film it already)

- Props if needed

- Royalty free music

    For the shooting dates, I'm pretty busy during spring break coming up. So I was thinking the week after maybe I could shoot that weekend. Dedicating a full day to shooting should be enough since I am going to plan out everything and make a shot list to go along with the storyboard. I'm excited for this kidnapping idea since usually my horror films are ghost related and spooky, it'll be fun taking a more psychological route then the frightening one this time. Although, this is only my first idea and is subject to a lot of change over time. By the end of this, my opening could be a completely different horror film. 

    

GENRE

    Hi! I'm back, and with a decision on my genre too. So since my last blog post I took time to really sit down and think about what genre I would like my opening to be. I discussed with you the top three choices that I had on my mind which were: horror, action, or drama. Well I decided to do horror. Now, let me explain to you the reasons why. For one, I've done horror films before, I love the element of fear and I believe I can do really well and be able to get some scares within the two minutes that I have. I will probably rely on darkness techniques and suspense to set the tone and mood of what the opening will be. I have some idea of what the plot and characters will be but it's not very set in stone yet because I still need some time to brainstorm on that.
    So, as for the target audience of this genre it ranges from ages 17 and up. Which I feel it needs to be because with a genre like horror it's difficult for younger audiences to enjoy the film without crying and wanting to leave. Right now, what my plan is, is to have the idea for what the film opening will actually be by my next blog post. I don't want to work on a thousand things at once just so I don't overwhelm myself and start stressing out about this project. Slow and steady wins the race, as they say.