Storyboard

Shot List
 
1.       Zombie is in dark, rushes forward towards camera when lights are turned on.
2.       (Medium-Close) of chains being pulled taught.
3.       Close-up of Zombie
4.       Scientist enters to the left of the camera. And begins first lines. (Medium- Wide)   
           Long takes from   locked of tripod.
5.       Close ups following the scientist pointing at the heart, stomach and lungs and then the brain.
6.       Close up of the scientist as he is addressing the camera.
7.       Trolley is wheeled into shot from the left.
8.       Scientist moves to trolley.
9.       Close up of the trolley.
10.   Scientist picks up the baseball bat. Wide medium shot.  Waving the bat around.
11.   Close up of bat held in hand.
12.   Puts the bat back onto the trolley.
13.   Picks up the knife (close up ) and moves over to the zombie.
14.   Close up and medium of the zombie clawing towards him.
15.   Close up of the knife strike past the zombie’s eye.
16.   He moves back to the centre, near the trolley and puts the knife down.
17.   Close up of the Molotov bottle.
18.   Medium of scientist talking about the Molotov.
19.   The scientist picks up the machine gun off the trolley. Close up.
20.   Scientist holds the gun out in front of him.
21.   Close ups of zombie.
22.    Close up of gun being loaded. And extreme close up of the fire rate being switched to single fire.
23.   Over  the shoulder shot of scientist aiming at zombie.
24.   Close up of him aiming, and shooting the zombie.
25.   Zombie dying mid
26.   Zombie dying close up.
27.   Zombie’s body hits the floor.
28.   Scientist end line. Mid 
 

Soundtrack Research

We've decided to use this video for part of our soundtrack:

we decided to choose this as our soundtrack because we found that a creepy nursery rhyme
created an uncomfortable feeling for our audience, which is what we were hoping to achieve 
as if fit well with our zombie horror genre.
Additionally, by choosing a well know children's nursery rhyme, it suggested a loss of innocence, 

which further added to the uncomfortable and tense feeling we were trying to create the nursery 
rhyme is called'Hush little Baby' which implies the innocence. The soundtrack is played throughout 
the film trailer to create that suspense and the feeling of something bad is going to 
happen as the soundtrack
is so quite and  dull.

Evaluation Activity 3 - Audience Feedback

Evaluation Activity 3 - Audience Feedback

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From getting feedback from our audience, we have learned different things about what we did well in our trailer, and what could be improved on.

Firstly, it was mentioned that we adhered to the conventions of a typical zombie film, using the mise en scéne - the abandoned, disused cars to show the post-apocalyptic style, and Avraj's character attacking the "do not cross" line - to effectively portray the zombie style. We chose the location as we thought that the whole place was suitable to use with the abandoned buildings and the forest cover adds to the "scary" surroundings, as we would associate forests with horror films where something bad would happen.

The fast paced, flashbacks at the end were also mentioned as well used, in these shots we aimed to show the audience that something happened during the film that made Avraj into a zombie. this means that audience members are drawn to watch the movie, as they want to know what happened to him, which we successfully created, as our audience feedback members pointed out. However, it was also mentioned that we should increase the pace of our shots throughout the rest of the trailer, although we realised that this would have made it slightly more exciting and tense, this would not have fit with the slow, spooky style of music that we used. Also, having fast paced shots at the end of the trailer, meant we were able to add the 'terror glissando' effect, which made the end of our trailer much more exciting and meant it was able to give the audience just the right amount of tense, exciting few seconds, which i think would not have had the same effect if we had faster paced shots earlier on in the trailer and faster music.

Evaluation Activity 1 - Screen Grab 9 - Titles - Names

The simple white text on the black background makes the name really stand out, as if we wanted the audience to notice who the actor is, which would mean people may want to watch the film, as it has this specific actor in it, we have made all the titles the same as this, simple and easy to identify, so that the audience has time to read the title without any distractions in the background which may lead to the title not being read. The thin text also makes the title simple, with no complications that would endanger the title of being misread or missed by the audience. The font also shows small sharp points on each letter, reinforcing the thrilling, fast paced shots and it is also appropriate to the genre of which our trailer is - horror.

Evaluation Activity 1 - Screen Grab 7 and 8 - Camerawork/Props

These two shots show the prop we used in our trailer, the gun. It is a paintball gun, rather than a fake, plastic gun, which made it look much more realistic as it is actually used as a gun. Also, the size of the gun reflects the power the protagonist has, showing him as masculine and dominant. These shots also show areas in our trailer where i believe we have used camerawork effectively. The bottom shot shows an almost first person shooter like shot, where we can see where the gun is pointing into the background, looking for the zombie, this makes it clearer for the audience to see what is going on, rather than if we had the protagonist in the shot, which may have distracted the viewers from the main point of the shot, to search for the zombie. The top shot shows a birds eye view of the gun, while he is loading it. This shows the threat to the zombie that he presents, as a loaded gun of that size can be very dangerous, and it also shows the intention of the protagonist is to kill the zombie. Both of these shots show how important the gun is in our trailer, which adds to the anticipation of what will happen as the trailer proceeds.

Evaluation Activity 1 - Screen Grab 6 - Camerawork and Editing

This screen grab shows the antagonist trying to reach up to the protagonist, who is in a high place behind the camera. Looking down on the antagonist gives the protagonist a large amount of power and it makes the audience look down on the zombie as a threat. The bottom left hand corner of the picture shows a ledge, which shows the audience where the protagonist is situated. which gives them an idea of what the area around them is like, meaning they can almost picture the situation, which they feel they are part of.

Evaluation Activity 1 - Screen Grabs 4 and 5 - Characters

The characters shown above are two typical examples of the antagonist and the protagonist. The antagonist, in this case the zombie, is looking very dull and simple. He is also dragging along a thick metal pole, which you cannot see in this picture, but shows his simple character, unable to use any effective weapons, on the other hand, the protagonist is looking very determined and confident, crouching slightly to have the upper hand on the antagonist if he sees him. The gun he is carrying shows his power and authority and the audience is starting to side with him, as it is obvious he is trying to kill the zombie. Another thing to point out is the clothing. The antagonist is wearing dark clothing, which conforms to the typical conventions of the villain in a film, whereas the protagonist is wearing bright, white clothing, which makes him seem more friendly and like he is the hero, which the audience can relate to. It is quite obvious to see which is the protagonist and which is the antagonist, meaning it is easy for the audience to identify them without confusing them.

Evaluation Activity 1 - Screen Grabs 2 and 3 - Setting/Location

These are two separate establishing shots, 1 from the beginning of our trailer, setting up the location of the first half of it. The second shot is the establishing shot of our second main setting. These are both in the paintball site that we used to film our trailer, however we decided that as it was an important location, the second establishing shot was necessary in giving the audience an idea of where abouts we were. The rusty, unused car has a post-apocalyptic look to it, which helped our trailer to conform to the zombie style in our trailer. The abandoned shed in the second shot also reinforces the post-apocalyptic style of our trailer, with the dead trees and broken glass windows. Although it wasn't planned, the weather on the day we filmed helped to make our trailer slightly darker and gloomier, if it was a sunny day, then the place would have looked too bright and cheerful looking.

Evaluation Activity 1 - Screen grab 1 - Title

The title font of the film is called 'Necrotype'. This refers to the title of our film - 'Necr0sis', which is defined as the death of most or all of the cells in an organ or tissue due to disease, injury, or failure of blood supply. This is relevant for the genre of film we chose to make as zombies usually have had a disease, or failure of blood supply, which leads to their zombification. The simple black background behind simple black/white text was used to emphasize the actual word, if we had anything else in the background, it may have over complicated the few seconds of screen time that the title has, and may have made audiences distracted from the meaning behind our title, the black and white text also means that the title is simplified. The title taking up almost the whole screen shows the strong, masculine theme of the trailer, which is also reinforced by the use of capital letters. Having a smaller title, in lower case would be seen as weak, and subverting conventions of horror films.

Evaluation Activity 1

In what ways does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e of teaser trailers/poster/magazine)

Necr0sis Magazine Cover

Necr0sis Film Poster

Necr0sis

History of Horror and Zombie Films

Horror films often deal with the viewer's nightmares, hidden fears, revulsion and terror of the unknown. Plots within the horror genre often involve the intrusion of an evil force, event, or personage, commonly of supernatural origin, into the everyday world. Prevalent elements include ghosts, aliens, vampires, werewolves, demons, dragons, gore, torture, vicious animals, evil witches, monsters, zombies, cannibals, and serial killers.Zombies are fictional creatures usually portrayed as reanimated corpses or viral infected human beings. They are commonly enacted as cannibalistic in nature. While zombie films generally fall into the horror genre, some cross over into other genres, such as comedy, science fiction, thriller, or romance. Distinct sub-genres have evolved, such as the "zombie comedy" or the "zombie apocalypse". Zombies are distinct from ghosts, ghouls, mummies, or vampires, so this list does not include films devoted to these types of undead.

Victor Halperin's White Zombie was released in 1932 and is often cited to be the first zombie film.

We used this information for the bass of our trailer, so we knew what to include to make sure that audience members would be able to identify accurately the genre and sub-genre that we have tried to portray and relate to them, enjoying our trailer.

Audience Research

Horror - Zombies.

Horror:  An overwhelming and painful feeling caused by someone frighteningly shocking, terrifying or revolting, a shuddering fear. 

The graph shows the different age categories and the percentage they visit the cinema. As you can see 15-24 year olds have been most likely to attend the cinema, although there has been a little decrease over the years, they still attend it more than the any other age category. Therefore this graph is relevant to my research as it links well with my target audience being the age category of 15-24 year olds.


Why do people choose to watch horror films?
People are likely to choose to watch horror films as it puts them out of their comfort zone, which creates a sense of thrill and adrenaline which people like. They build tension and create fear which scares people which they find as a form as entertainment. All horror films affect people in different ways, for example people like to go and watch zombie films as they believe that the actors in the film could survive the apocalypse, and makes them gain a connection to the actors in the film as they want them to survive. People also find zombie films humorous and funny, so they find it entertaining to go and watch. 

The usual age for a horror/ zombie target audience is between the ages of 15-25 years old

Questionnaire Findings

In the questionnaire that we gave out to people of different ages, we found that majority of people that we asked preferred Zombie films. Action films was also a popular answer to and this helped us decide that we would like to make a film trailer on an Action packed Zombie film. The questionnaire has been very useful in helping us with our decisions and ideas for our trailer. For example we found that the people with ages between 15-18 were the ones who enjoyed watching Horror films the most. This meant that we had to make sure that our trailer would attract the audience of 15 to 18 year olds, and the males were more interested in the zombie horror films then the females.

Our findings also presented to us the setting in the woods and abandoned houses were the two most popular answers. The reason for this is because they both build up tension and the question of 'what is there with them'. Both of these settings could mean they may contain action as they could be joined with something they do not want to be and have to be prepared to defend themselves and they both create a creepy and mysterious feel.

The most popular prop that people would like to be seen the most is either a gun or a knife. The reason for this is because it means there will be some kind of action or murder. These weapons also create a sense of thrill and excitement, with gore to.

Our questionnaire has been very successful to us and helped us come up with some new ideas such as a zombie film trailer.

Costume Research

I did some research on zombie film costumes. I found some pictures from films such as 'Shaun of the dead', 'World War Z' and '28 days later'. The clothes used are mainly casual, which are either ripped or covered in blood. The costumes are pretty simple and are commonly just shirts, jumpers and jeans in most zombie films. The reason for this is because the ' zombie apocalypse' happens unexpectedly so therefore they are not normally prepared, which is shown by some of the weapons they have in the first picture. The weapons normally used in these films are base ball bats or a crowbar, however in the first picture from 'shaun of the dead' they are also using random objects such as umbrellas.  

The zombies, typically are wearing ripped clothing covered in blood. This is to show the audience that they were once a normal human before the apocalypse turned them into a zombie. The face of the zombie is normally pale, dirty and cut or infected to show that they are diseased.

In 'World War Z' the costumes of the other characters that are not zombies are also in their everyday clothes. They are not ripped or dirty yet as it is just the start of the Apocalypse. You also have the costumes of the police officers, and see that they also have guns.



Another picture from 'World War Z' shows a different type of costume. The army are shown, and they are wearing the full kit needed for that type of situation. They are fully prepared unlike the other photos, and have all the equipment such as guns and explosives. They are also seen with protective gear on such as helmets.


In this last photo, the character is in hospital clothes, which is commonly seen in zombie films. You can see that he looks scruffy and dirty, from the stain on his top. The reason for this character to be in these clothes is to suggest that he is either injured, infected or could mean that he is mentally unstable from the situation as the area looks pretty empty, apart from the rubbish seen on the ground.

Photoshop Tutorial

This is the tutorial i used to learn how to cut sections of an image out to replace them, which i will use on our magazine cover to replace an image with a screenshot from our film.

Horror Genre Mood Board