X GROUP SUMMARY4 Genre Media Language

Zombie Character link

(This post was originally created by Spikey Films)

Our film opening is going to be a zom-rom-com, meaning we need to plan a look for our zombie characters. It is important we get this look correct to obtain verisimilitude. Our plan is for our zombie to have white eyes (to show they aren't alive), several wounds/cuts across the face, white face, ripped/dirty clothes and then covered in blood. This style is inspired by the zombies in Shaun of the Dead.            They are all wearing normal clothing, however its all hanging off them as if it was unnatural. Looking at the close up of Nick Frost, you can see his face has been covered in white powder/paint to show the character is lifeless. We have ordered white contact lenses from amazon to create the same effect as Shaun of the Dead. We have blood capsules as well, meaning we would be able to create a similar effect to what is going on around Nick Frost's mouth. 

Resources

Liquid latex - we ordered some to create any disfigured sections of the zombies face.

Equipment to create scars/cuts - we have been practicing creating realistic cuts. On the right is an image of some practice cuts I have done on my arm (using glue, makeup and pens).

White make-up - we have access to makeup that could be applied to the face to create the dead look.

Fake blood - could be applied to face or clothing

Contact lenses - we have ordered 2 pairs of white contact lenses. 

Clothing

We haven't made any specific plans for clothing yet, however preferably baggy clothing that can be covered in blood. The point is for it to look like the zombies have been turned immediately from their normal self to a zombie, which is why they would be dressed in clothing that they would usually wear.

Walk

Once again, inspired by Shaun of the Dead. We chose to go for a slow zombie because we felt it would be easily distinguishable between the zombies and the normal characters. For example if our characters, Donnie, Fred or Mia, are running away, the comedy would be in the style of the slow walk.

Sound

Similar to the sounds above, the generic zombie noise would work well for our scene, as it has been used in several zombie movies before.

GROUP SUMMARY3 GenreCs Titles, Idents, Production Context

X GENRE CONVENTIONS2 General Media Language

SOUND

As sound goes, zombie movies usually have eerie music with long, low pitched notes with high pitched, short notes over the top.  This messes with the audience's heartbeat making them feel the intensity of the genre more.  In romance movies, they often have light, relaxing melodies that appeals to a female target audience.  The comedy genre can vary as there are many different ways to go about it. When it comes to foley or ambient sound, it is exaggerated for the comedic effect.

1st SHOT AND MISE-EN-SCENE

The 1st shot has a lot of narrative enigma, whether that's with the character (like Warm Bodies) or with the fact that there are zombies and the character doesn't know about it (like Shaun of the Dead).  There is a lot of exposition through the mise-en-scene as well, like in Shaun of the Dead, we can see a lot of junk on the coffee table, eluding to the fact that his character is a slob.

The mise-en-scene provides a lot of exposition for where the movie is set and about the characters.  In Shaun of the Dead, we see the messy coffee table portraying the character as a slob.  In Warm Bodies, we see a run down airport providing exposition on where it is set.

CENTRAL PROTAGONIST AND NARRATIVE

Like most films, the central protagonist is shown through the rule of thirds, a voice over, close up shots and others.  In Warm Bodies, we get the voice over and close ups of parts of the zombies body, so the audience doesn't know he's a zombie.  In Shaun of the Dead, we don't get narrative enigma of his character as the first shot is of a close up of his face, however there are a lot of shots where other characters are speaking but the camera is still on his character.

TRANSITIONING TO MAIN FILM

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X GENRE CONVENTIONS1 Titles, Idents, Production Context

I looked at some zom-rom-com genre specific movies such as, Zombieland (Fleischer, 2009) and Anna and the Apocalypse (McPhail, 2018).
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GROUP SUMMARY2 General Media Language

GROUP SUMMARY1 GCs Titles, Idents, Production Context

X GENERAL CONVENTIONS2 General Media Language

SOUND
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1st SHOT

A lot of exposition is shown through the first shot, yet there is still narrative enigma.  The mise-en-scene provides the exposition of the characters, typically the protagonist.  The protagonist usually isn't shown completely to leave that narrative enigma and suspense.  When a movie shows the character immediately, it takes away from the suspense.  A common example of the first shots are Hand of God.  This means that it goes from a ELS to a LS all the way to a CU.  This usually occurs as a town, to a road, to a house, to in a specific window.  It shows that the character is just like anyone else and that the specific story line could have happened to anyone.  I looked at Bridget Jones's Diary (Maguire, 2001), About a Boy (Chris and Paul Weitz, 2002) and Hot Fuzz (Wright, 2007).
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CENTRAL PROTAGONIST AND NARRATIVE
MISE-EN-SCENE
TRANSITIONING TO MAIN FILM
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X GENERAL CONVENTIONS1 Titles, Idents, Production Context

IDENTS

WHAT ARE IDENTS?

Idents are essentially the logo of a production company which is played at the beginning of a movie.  They are the most simple aspect of a film opening.  An ident usually lasts between 4-7 seconds and there are usually 2-4 idents before the movie starts.  The more production companies involved in making the movie, the more the risks are spread.  Indie movies occasionally have no idents at the beginning.  The bigger conglomerates such as the Big 5 (Warner Bros., Paramount, NBC Universal, Sony and Walt Disney) get a lot more screen time for their idents rather than smaller junior companies.  The Big 5 are also more likely to have their own jingle rather than an audio bridge.

WHAT IS THE POINT OF AN IDENT?

They are placed at the beginning of a movie to show which production companies were involved in the making of the movie.  Idents are also used to advertise the production company.  Idents are often made aesthetically pleasing and enticing to make them memorable.  The fact that Big 5 idents are repeatedly marketed also helps to make them memorable.  The production company wants to make a good impression so that people are tempted to watch more of their creations.  Idents can also be altered to connote the genre of the movie.  This is mostly identifiable with the Slasher genre.

VODCAST
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POSSIBLE INFLUENCES

• Having possibly 1 or 2 idents with their own jingle
• Having 1 ident with audio bridge to movie
• Considering our film opening can't be that long, probably a maximum of 10 seconds per ident
• Possibly having something altered about the ident to connote the zom-rom-com hybrid genre

COMMON IDENTS

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TITLES

In this vodcast, I speak about the titles in different movies.  I've looked at some Working Title movies as well as Warp movies.  It is clear that a title is very important as it anchors the genre and the preferred reading.  This is shown through the font, colour, size and case.  It is interesting as a few movies don't have any titles at all.  The order is also important to look at as this will help us create our film opening.  I look at Tyrannosaur (Considine, 2011), This is England (Meadows, 2007) and Four Lions (Morris, 2010) from Warp and Bridget Jones's Diary (Maguire, 2001) from Working Title.
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X GENRE RESEARCH2 Studying Horror Cinema by Bryan Turnock

For the past week, I have been reading the book Studying Horror Cinema by Bryan Turnock.  I found out some things which I found interesting.

COMPLEX DISCOVERY PLOT

Four narrative stages:

• Onset
• Audience made aware of monster
• Discovery
• One or more central characters discovers that the monster's existence
• Confirmation
• The wider community is convinced of the monster's existence
• Confrontation
• Humanity confronts the monster and may or may not be victorious

Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968) - relatively straightforward example.

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Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) - contrasted.

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SYMBOLIC STRUCTURES OF IMPURITY

• Fusion
• Simultaneous occupation of two or more normally exclusive categories
• living/dead, human/animal, human/vegetable 
• Fission
• Occupation of two or more categories, at different times
• werewolves, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
• or in different spaces
• the doppelgänger
• Magnification/Massification
• Takes an existing source of potential horror and either magnifies it
• giant spiders
• Or masses it
• swarms of cockroaches
• Metonymy 
• Representation of something inwardly monstrous, though appearing normal, through association with a recognisable source of horror
• Norman Bates' association with the stuffed corpse of his mother

SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF

• Often in Gothic novels to claim the work was based on "found" documents 
• Stoker's Dracula - entirely diary entries, journals and letters by and between book's protagonists
• Frankenstein and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde rely on these devices.
• Continued through horror films 
• Genre depends on audience's ability to suspend disbelief 

TERRIBLE PLACE

• There's a monster or terrible place convention
• Identified by Carol Clover
• Somewhere which seems like a safe haven but in fact acts to trap the victim with the monster
• Often a house or tunnel
• In Gothic literature, often a ruined abbey or castle

X BLOGS

• Edit 1st podcast - lots of visuals - post
• Film, edit and upload podcast 2
• Shoot 1 planning post completed
• Shoot 1 outcome post - rushers and reflections
• Same above for shoot 2
• Rushers and sample scenes - audience feedback and reflections
• Edit and upload BTS video shoot 2
• Post creative formats list, with filming date and names for each Eval Q
• Finish convention vodcast on sound, genre signification
• Social media posting - "Isn't it terrifying when you've lost your keys" - look at insta - cornetto trilogy? - ideally other zombie films - maybe BJB - Aero etc. - better with Working Title - anything that links with Zombie
• Conventions - drill into Shaun of the Dead - cover all GCs list
• General Conventions summary
• Animatic
• Idents
• Blog on reading

X PRE-PRODUCTION19 Filming equipment

This post was originally created by Spikey Films

Here is a list of the equipment we will use to record our film opening:

Small Tripod - convenient for worms eye view shots


iPhone 11 - the highest quality out of all iPhone cameras. Has a very wide angle lens (improving the issue of recording in small rooms). Similar quality to proper camera

LED camera light - this means we can film in rooms that have slightly less light.

Large Tripod - gives the shots stability and gives us the opportunity to adjust heights if need be

iPhone tripod adaptor - meaning we can attach the iPhone to the tripod


Gimbal - if we chose to use any tracking shots, it gives a very stabilised and professional look to the footage

X SHOOT1 Behind the Scenes of Shoot1

This is our behind the scenes video of our first shoot.  Overall I think it went very well and we were all very determined to achieve as much as possible through this shoot.  We each took on roles to make this as easy for us as possible whilst still chipping in our ideas and everyone taking them on board.  I think we've all learnt a lot through this process which will be helpful for our next shoot.  For example, we figured out that it's a lot easier to continue to film the exact same shot multiple times instead of stopping recording just to start again.  Another thing we learnt was how to efficiently use our time.  We could only film our first scene after 12:00 due to having to order the pizza, so instead of waiting, we filmed all the other shots before that one.  One thing we had a bit of trouble with, is not having all the props needed that day as Bright Films was unable to make it.  For our next shoot we will make sure that all of the props needed will be at the location before we shoot so that we are sure that we haven't missed anything.
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X PRE-PRODUCTION18 Pre-Production Schedule Updated

We've discussed a few things about what we want to change for the film opening.

SCENE 1

• Hand of God
• Shows whole town, to street, to house, to living room

Location

• Near Emma's house

Props

• None needed

Characters

• Nobody - looks desolate

Costumes

• None needed

SCENE 2

• Wakes up on sofa with pizza slice on him
• Has a game controller in hand
• Game (specifically a zombie game) playing on TV
• Doesn't show protagonist immediately (narrative enigma)
• Shows a lot of the mise-en-scene - messy and dirty
• Takes a swig of vodka

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Location

• Emma's living room

Props

• Pizza
• Pizza boxes
• Cigarettes
• Chinese take out boxes
• Lighter
• Ash tray
• Work shoes
• Black leather jacket
• Pocket knife
• Video games
• Game controller
• Cans of beer
• Cans of CocaCola
• Cans of Fanta
• Cans of Red Bull

Characters

• Donnie Romero

Costumes

• White shirt, rolled up sleeves, pocket on left side, half tucked in
• Black work trousers/jeans
• White socks
• Black belt
• Thin gold frame glasses

SCENE3

• Donnie takes off clothes to get into shower
• Gets into shower
• Singing Ghost Town by The Specials - intertextuality with Shaun of the Dead
• Zombie comes in
• Donnie gets soap in eye
• Tries to get a towel and hits zombie in the process
• Bends down to grab towel
• Knocks zombie out when standing up
• Grabs toothbrush and brushes teeth

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Location

• Emma's bathroom

Props

• Toothbrush
• Toothpaste (empty)
• Glasses
• Plain white towel
• Empty shower gel

Characters

• Donnie Romero
• Zombie

Costumes

• Donnie
• Nothing in shower (can't see swim shorts)
• Towel around waist
• Zombie
• White top - bloody and cut up
• Grey zip up hoodie
• Dark blue straight leg jeans
• Black socks

SCENE4

• Goes into bedroom
• Smells all the clothes on the floor
• Is disgusted until he finds one that's okay
• Picks it up and puts on

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Location

• Emma's spare bedroom

Props

• Clothes spread out all over the floor

Characters

• Donnie Romero

Costumes

• White towel around waist
• Rick and Morty graphic tee

SCENE5

• Goes into kitchen
• Quick shots of
• Putting kettle on
• Putting in tea bag
• Pouring kettle
• Milk
• Sugar
• Tastes it 
• Puts in more sugar
• Putting bread in toaster
• Toaster pops
• Scraping off burnt bits
• Putting jam on toast (strawberry - like blood)
• Takes a bit
• Jam gets on face

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Location

• Emma's kitchen

Props

• Kettle
• Toaster
• Jam
• Bread/toast
• Mug
• Teabag
• Milk
• Sugar cubes
• Butter
• Knife

Characters

• Donnie Romero

Costumes

• Rick and Morty tee
• Shorts
• Odd socks

SCENE6

• Can't find keys in hallway
• Rings keys
• Finds them in pink slippers
• Grabs change from bowl
• Puts trainers on
• Leaves house

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Location

• Emma's hallway

Props

• Keys - with keychain that plays music
• Pink fluffy slipper
• Paper which says "Keys hear" with an arrow pointing down
• Wooden chest
• Shoe rack
• Asics trainers
• Coat rack
• Change
• Ceramic bowl

Characters

• Donnie Romero

Costumes

• Rick and Morty tee
• Shorts
• Asics trainers
• Odd socks

SCENE7

• Walking to shops
• Listening to music
• Mia trying to tell him there's a zombie behind him
• He can't hear and is amazed a girl is speaking to him
• False scare as Eddie pushes Donnie out of way from zombie
• Pull dead body from car
• Get in car
• Drive off
• Drone shot of car driving off
• Reveals title

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Location

• Near Emma's house (outside)

Props

• Old phone
• Earphones
• Spatula
• Rolling pin
• Knives
• Lots more kitchen utensils
• Car

Characters

• Donnie Romero
• Mia Jones
• 2nd zombie
• Eddie Pegg

Costumes

• Donnie Romero
• Rick and Morty tee
• Shorts
• Odd socks
• Asics trainers
• Mia Jones
• Dress
• Denim jacket / blazer
• High heels with chunky heel and buckles
• 2nd zombie
• Ruined top with blood
• Zip up hoodie
• Jeans
• Eddie Pegg
• Trench coat hiding all the kitchen utensils
• Black trousers
• Black socks
• Black shirt