Author: Tzitlalith M.

During this process, we did not use as much technology as originally expected. However, we did use an Iphone XR for filming all the scenes, voice memo app, and iMovie. Most of the technology that we used was pretty simple to navigate since we’ve worked with these pieces of technology at least once in the past. The lack of technology we had contributed to the overall feel of the movie because it made it seem much less fancier and like a proper movie. For example, since we didn’t use a tripod for any of the shots, they came out shaky. Although this might seem like a bad idea for any other movie, it was perfect for our movie because it makes the audience feel like there was some sort of panic and it also made the scenes seem a lot more realistic. We also didn’t use any artificial lighting and relied on natural lighting since our opening scene is being filmed in the woods and this would add a more realistic feel. However, by doing this we experienced a lot of problems since we weren’t able to shoot everything in one day and had to take shots on different days with different lighting. Lastly, I had previously said that we knew how to work our technology since we had used it in the past, but that doesn’t mean that we didn’t have any sort of trouble when it came to using it, even though the problems were very minor.

The location in which the opening scene of our movie, “Driving Insanity”, will be shot in a forest to create an eerie mood. When deciding what forest to shoot in, we decided to go with Withlacoochee River Park. Within the park we found multiple areas that would be perfect to shoot our opening scene and some of the locations we already had in mind such as the tower. The places that Isabella, my partner, and I will be shooting on are going to be a river, the forest, and a tower. 

We decided to shoot in the forest where there are a lot of leaves and trees to add to the effect of an eerie mood. We also chose to film in this location because from previous research, we found that most horror movies take place in isolated locations such as a forest.

The river was a location we did not originally plan on shooting on, but when we saw it we thought that it could probably be useful in creating the effects we wanted. Although the part of the forest and the river are not anywhere near each other we thought that we could possibly make it seem as if the river and the part of the forest we are shooting on are all in one place.

The tower, unlike the river, we knew that we wanted to shoot there. This location is one of the most important settings and the reason why we chose to film in Withlacoochee River Park. Towards the end of our opening scene, the main character will climb up the tower, trying to escape a monster, and ultimately fall to her death.

For our characters, we decided that the opening scene would focus on only one character from the movie for two reasons. One of those reasons was because we do not want the audience to be overwhelmed with so many characters at the start of the film. Therefore, having only one character be the main focus of the opening scene will help the audience better understand what is happening in the scene. The other reason is because we thought that it would be easier for us to shoot with only one person for the opening scene so that filming schedules are easier to manage.

Today, my partner and I worked on our story board to make finding the location to film on and the overall feel of the opening scene easier to decide. There were multiple ideas that we had but decided to go with one that we both agreed on. This was the result:

In our opening scene it will start off with a shot of the sky and the sound of crows, that symbolize death. After this shot the cameras will then cut to a full body shot of a girl who is running from something, but the audience will have to infer what she is running from. After a while, the girl gets tired and hides behind a tree and shortly after she climbs a tower in hopes of escaping from whatever she is running from. However, shortly after climbing the tower she falls off.

After deciding on our story board we decided to think about our film dates. Since our movie only involves one character, it was easy for us to come up with a shooting schedule. We will film when the sun goes down on the weekends and whenever we have time on the weekdays whenever we’re behind in filming certain stuff.

We want our film to have an eerie and mysterious feel to it. We will achieve this by choosing settings, titles, and much more to get the movie to where it needs to be. Our biggest inspiration for our movie is the opening scene of “It Follows,” where a girl is seen running away from something that the camera never shows.

Our opening scene also has some inspiration from other horror movies such as “Midsummer” and “Hereditary” when it comes to the cult-like aspect of our movie. Besides inspiration, we also thought about what our title will look like. We decided that we wanted a simple poster with a small image on it or even a silhouette with our movie title, “Driving Insanity” in all capital and somewhat bolded letters. When it comes to sound, our movie will have no dialogue. Instead, it will rely on the exaggeration of “natural” sounds that are made such as the crunching of leafs as the girl is running and her heavy breathing.

Some of the production companies that specialize in the horror genre are:

• Benderspink
• Blumhouse Production
• Dark Castle Entertainment
• Rogue Pictures
• A24

However, the production company that caught our attention was A24 production. They have produced many horror movies such as, “Midsommar”, “Hereditary”, and “It Comes At Night.” We ended up choosing this production company, even though we were originally planning on going with Blumhouse production because they had produced more psychological films, which is what our movie is about. In addition, they have won and been nominated for many awards due to their work such as “Midsommer” and “The Witch”

The movie “Get Out” is a movie in the genre of horror directed by, Jordan Peele. Jordan Peele is best known for his works in the comedy and horror genres.

The movie differentiates from conventional horror movies in some elements such as the entire concept of race in a horror movie. First of all, the protagonist in the movie is a black man named Chris who visits his girlfriend’s,Rose, parent’s house. When he gets there he is basically trapped in a very racist environment. Because of the overall plot of this move, I thought that the targeted audience were all horror movie lovers so that awareness of racism could be spread throughout. However, as I was doing research in the audience of “Get Out” I found that the biggest audience were millennials. Now when I think about it, it does make sense. Millennials and younger generations like to are very much aware of injustices and problems in today’s society, therefore it makes sense that a large range of the movie’s audience were millennials and younger.

The movie was produced by: Jordan Peele, Jason Blum, Sean McKittrick, Edward H, and Hamm Jr. In addition, the production budget if this movie was $4.5 million and the production company was “Blumhouse.” I found that this production company usually keeps their budgets low by “deferring compensation for talent as a percentage of profits, in exchange for smaller payments ahead of time.” The website that was talking about Blumhouse Productions described the company as a ” low-financial-risk, high-reward model.” In the process of production the directors also had to think about the actors and the soundtracks. When deciding upon the actors, the directors had to think very carefully about who to cast because they did not want anyone to be offended and because they wanted the right actors for the people. For example, Peele really wanted to cast Allison Williams, who plays Rose, because he thought that she was someone who looked incredibly trustworthy to the audience. Besides casting, the soundtracks during the editing stage were also important, the director wanted to include a lot of black references in the music and ended up using music with Swahili voices and a mix of blues.

Sundance Film Festival was the place in which the movie “Get Out” premiered. After that the movie was distributed by Universal Pictures. From there, the movie grossed around $225 worldwide and and a net profit of $124.

Sources: https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/3/7/14759756/get-out-benevolent-racism-white-feminism https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/2/24/14698632/get-out-review-jordan-peele https://www.forbes.com/sites/jmaureenhenderson/2017/02/25/why-millennial-audiences-get-get-out/#42b944e92ef2 https://qz.com/920262/get-out-how-production-company-blumhouse-maker-of-paranormal-activity-and-the-purge-landed-a-box-office-hit-with-a-horror-movie-about-race-in-america/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Out

Since we are only going to be working on the opening scene of a horror movie, figuring out what our script would look like was kind of difficult. However, we came to a conclusion as to how the beginning of the movie would be laid out. The movie would be following a young girl in an isolated area. The thing that is following the girl would never be seen instead, the audience will have to infer that there is a monster present through the use of cinematography and the actor’s skills. Basically, most of the opening scene is going to be of the girl being followed by some monster, she will then go to the top of a “tree house tower” and “fall off” to get a dramatic effect in the scene.

When my partner and I were planning this scene out we realized that had not thought of dialogue at all. So that is something that we will have to work on very soon and before we start the filming process.

The intended audience for our movie is most likely going to be horror movie lovers. With this in mind, I did some research on why people love to watch horror movies. Some of the reasons that various articles said were that they like to watch them, first of all because they want to be scared. Because of this reason, my partner and I really want to make the opening our scene scary and create a tone of eeriness and suspense to keep our viewers engaged. In addition, another reason for the love of horror movies is the adrenaline that the viewers get when they watch the movie. This reason also goes in hand with the reason of watching the movie because they want tp be scared. Watching the movie and the jump scares really excite the viewers and make them want to watch more.

Sources: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-excess/201510/why-do-we-watching-scary-films

Something else that I researched were the type of fonts that most horror movies use. However, while I was trying to find the most common nothing really helpful popped up so I decided to change direction and instead compare a list of popular horror movie titles and their fonts. Some of the movie titles that I looked at were “Get Out”, “Hereditary”, and “A Quiet Place”.

Something that I noticed that all of them had in common was that all the letters in the tiles of the three movies were all capitalized. Aside from this, two of the three movies titles are bolder. This could be to draw attention towards the movie cover. In addition, the titles seems to have very simple fonts this could possibly be to keep the focus on the rest of the visuals and not just the title.

Before we start shooting and the pre production, I decided to look at the usual places that most movies are shot at to get some inspiration for our own horror movie opening. The most common place that I found in a variety of articles was an abandoned place. Having the setting be an abandoned place actually makes a lot of sense because it makes it seem as if the characters have no help and creates an eerie effect. Although choosing the right setting is essential, an article that I used to get some insight on horror movie settings was, “6 Horror Film Tropes” and it said that they way you write and deliver the scene should not be entirely dependent on the setting because the setting is only a small factor in the big picture. This is something I know for sure I will keep in mind when deciding with my partner where we want to film.

In a separate article, I found called, “Top 10 Horror Movie Settings!” it played out the most typical settings and includes a couple examples. Some of the settings that I found that would be the most reasonable to do were:

• Hotel/motel
• Graveyard
• School
• Abandoned house

A similarity I found in these setting are that most of them always seem to be abandoned even if they are a public place such as a school.

When choosing a setting, we will keep in mid that most horror movies take place in an abandoned or isolated setting and make sure that the setting contributes to our tone but doesn’t overpower the rest of the elements such as the cinematography, editing, and mise en scene.

Sources: https://www.raindance.org/6-common-horror-film-tropes/ https://www.joblo.com/horror-movies/news/lists-top-10-horror-movie-settings/item#8