Scene development

The first scene would consist of the guy who is the main character (Leo) eating dinner at the table with his mom, his dad, and his sister. The table is set with plates and silverware and food and drinks. Then it cuts to his family being gone off the table in an instant, a door opens and a man with his face covered in a black suit (Erebus) the demon is standing behind the door. 

The demon then gets closer and closer and we see Leo's hand shaking holding the fork. The demon is now standing where the dad was before. Then in like another version of the dining table the dad appears sitting where he was before but with the demon behind him holding a knife to his neck. The family appears again after the main character yells "STOP" and in the next scene the main character jumps out of his chair and runs to the front door. 

In the next seen he gets in the car and slams the door as he drives away he looks in the rearview mirror and sees the demon sitting in the backseat. His hands shaking as he grabs his phone to dial a number and he picks it up and he says "it's back." That scene is of him phoning his therapist because the demon is haunting him once again.

 This is where that scene would take place so you can see the demon in the backseat through the rearview mirror.

Location scouting

 At first we were not sure where we would film but after a lot of communicating and compromising with whose house we could film at we decided my house was the perfect location. 2 of the members of my house had already come to my house for the previous media project and they agreed that he setting was perfect. Since the family is an upper middle class family in this movie my house will do the job. 

We said we would use my dining table that has darker lighting than my other table for the main first shot of the film opening. Then my house is still used for the shot of the porch and drive way. Since he runs out the house and we see the front of my house.

We plan on using Sebastian's car for the car scene since he is one of the only ones with a driver's license. His car would be used for the scene of him on call with the therapist. 

If we have time to show the therapist's office at the end the office would be in my dad's office in my house because he works from home and his office looks like an actual office in a building. 

Planning audio elements

 

For our audio elements we were thinking the first thing you hear is the family dinner table talking as well as plates and silverware noise. These noises will be diegetic sound coming directly from the actors plates and their voices.

Then there is ominous music building up until it goes silent and the family (everyone except the main character) disappears and when the killer appears with the knife behind the dad we will implement a sting of a knife. 

Then the killer leaves and the family appears back so we hear chatter again an the main character guy scrams and run out the house so we hear the scream and the footsteps. He runs out the door so you hear the door open and slam. We are going to use foley sounds to make the footstep sound effects sound louder and make it more desperate. We would do the foley noise with a shoe hitting on the ground and filming it up close. 

After he runs out he gets in his car and slams the car door and then drives off so we hear the car motor turn on. He then rings his therapists phone so the phone rings and then you hear the conversation he has with his therapist. The ring will be diegetic sound coming from his phone.

Planning costuming mise-en-scene

We had planned to do costuming for our main character as follows- since he is a teenager we thought a normal outfit for a teenager would be a hoodie and sweatpants especially since he is simply having dinner in his house with his family, the parents would be wearing casual outfits like a shirt and pants and the little sibling would wear a shirt and shorts because that is what most little kids wear. Something like this picture would be the main characters outfit.

The most important piece of our costuming is the villain/demon and he will be wearing all black (a suit)  because black represents mystery in horror films an unknown. To fulfill this vibe of mystery and darkness he will be wearing a mask to cover his face like a ski mask so his identity remains unknown. The covering of the face makes him scarier and usually in horror movies the demons identity is not known. 

Something like this-

Or we were planning on using lighting from behind to not show the demons face kind of like in Psycho when the killers face is hidden with the dark lighting. 

If we have time to show the therapist she will be in formal attire like that of an office. Like a white button down and formal pants. 

This is an outfit I have seen most therapist wear since they tend to work in office. It makes them look clean and put together and we want to create a realistic environment.

Character development

 We chose the main characters name to be Leo after searching the internet for popular guy names and Leo stood out to my group because it is a simple name but its meaning is Lion and they are the symbol of strength, braveness and courage. Which our character is because he is battling against a demon haunting him and his subconscious. This name really stuck with us and we have been saying to use it since the first day we began talking about our finished product. 

This chart is the one we used to see that Leo was a popular name.

Leo in the film starts off as any normal teenage boy would and he seems a little empty inside and depressed and then as he is being haunted by this villain he is being tested and his braveness and courage starts to show through when he really needs to put it in action. He starts showing a side of him he never did and even his friends and family realize he is very outgoing and brave after everything happened. Leo also doesn't have a good relationship with his parents but as the film goes on he starts to gain more confidence in himself helping him with his relationships with people.

This is a mood board we made for him to show his personality and the issues he has mentally

For the villain who is the demon haunting him we chose the name Erebus after looking for Greek names for evil. This is our film title, it is named after the demon. We thought it was a good name that provokes a feeling of suspense and fear. The name also provokes uncertainty and mystery which is exactly what this demon is because it comes unexpected. 

The villain is creepy and his intention is to terrorize others because he is miserably stuck in a paranormal state. He always appears lurking and he likes to scare and terrorize before harming or killing to make the experience more amusing for him. He doesn't give up and is very powerful and makes people see things and can control people's thoughts and vision giving him even more power.

As for the therapist which is not a main character but plays an important role we decided to keep her unnamed and she is a person who Leo goes to to talk about what is happening to him and try to figure out how to get rid of it. The therapist tries to help him as much as possible but she realizes she cannot help with something paranormal instead she can help him get to a mental state where he can beat this by himself. She is really good at her job and her and Leo have a great connection which makes her attempt to help him successful in the end.

Planning set mise-en-scene

 

The set for our film openings begin with the main character and his family sitting at a family dinner talking. With the main character (the son) sitting at the end and the rest of his family members (mom, dad and sibling) in the rest of the table in no particular order.

The set then change when he gets up and runs outside to his front porch and we see the outside of the front porch and house. We can see he lives in a nice house as we see him run out the door and slam it.

Then he runs into his car so the setting is the car and he is having a conversation with his therapist on the phone as he is on the way to her office telling her about the demon that keeps haunting him. He would be calling her at the same time that he is headed to her office to show just how much desperation he has and the sense of urgency there is because he truly feels he is in danger and is in need of help.

script for movie opening

 we created out script for our film opening-

Media theory research

 In our portfolio project with my group we would like to integrate is Character Theory by Vladimir Propp which says that "characters can  be classified into specific roles" and that there are 7 different types of characters. 

There is a hero who is the protagonist, a villain who is the antagonist, the dispatcher who sends the protagonist on their journey, helper who aids protagonist, donor who provides the protagonist to help them succeed, the princess which is the reward or the motivation for the protagonist, and finally the false hero.

We want to use this theory because our story is very stereotypical when it comes to good guy and bad guy. So the protagonist is the main character who is the guy getting tormented by the antagonist which in our case is the demon. 

In horror movies the character theory is used to make certain characters seem more vulnerable so they are the victim to the actions caused by the villain. 

I looked at this paper to get my idea for our media theory, I did some research on the rest to really choose which one was best for our horror movie film opening. 

Summary of project idea

 Our genre is horror with my team and our idea for our film opening is- 

A guy is sitting with his family at the dinner table conversing and eating when all of a sudden there is a change in atmosphere and everyone around him (his family) disappears, it goes dark and there is a guy (demon)  looking at him from far away in the house (we can't see his face) then it switches to the demon holding a knife to where the dad was sitting before. The main character screams and says something like "GET OUT OF MY HEAD" and it all goes back to normal and he can see his family again and the demon leaves. The guy runs out the house and gets in his car (credit scene in the window) while on a phone call telling his therapist the demon came back and he needs to see him right now. The camera moves as if the demon is the one looking at him from the backseat of the car and in the next shot we see the demon in the rearview mirror and that is where the film opening. 

The whole story would consist of him trying to get rid of the demon and seeing his therapist constantly and the demon spreading to other people.

We got our inspiration from the movie Smile-

This movie is a psychological horror which is exactly what we are doing. We used the inspiration from Smile since everyone around them can't see what they are seeing.

Our inspiration for our demon is somewhat like this-

Reflection of group meeting

 Today we got into groups in class (consisting of one person of each group spread out into new groups) to converse and get feedback and new ideas for our project. My group was very detailed with the advice given and I also heard some very good ideas from my peers. I did not have a concrete idea before going into this meeting but I feel like it definitely helped me to get a lot of inspiration especially since my group mates were very excited about their ideas and we all helped each other with ideas on how we could portray this in a film opening. We helped each other think deeper into the aspect of the movie as a whole and not just focusing on the film opening.

I took some notes during the meeting-

These notes were things that my group mates told me to keep in mind since my genre is horror. They gave me some tips on where to begin my idea and some inspiration from movies like Smile. Which is psychological horror which is the idea me and my group had to begin with.

We all fed off of each other ideas and I felt like it was a good group of people since we all had around the same genre, thriller and horror. I heard some really good ideas and I'm glad I got inspiration.

Target audience research of horror movies

 Research on the target audience of horror movies

They are targeted mainly for young adults and teenagers. Sometimes mostly males because they enjoy the thrill more. Females tend to be more afraid and not enjoy them as much according to psychology studies.

The target audience is from 15-25 years old but the audience is from 19-24 years old.

Younger audiences tend to like these movies because of the thrill, violence and supernatural elements. Some also like horror movies because they feel as if they can confront their fears in a controlled environment. A lot of people enjoy the feeling of getting scared, which explains why haunted houses and horror theme parks like Universal Halloween Horror Nights exist.

Schedule for portfolio project

  With assignments like this where you have an extended due date I have always found it easier to make myself a schedule so I can have good time management and pace myself correctly. 

First I broke down the assignment into chunks

1st step- research

Research film openings and credit sequences for my genres

Research movies under my genre

2nd step- plan

Make a plot for film opening

Make a story board with a script

Have a location and day for filming

Find actors or people to participate in film opening

3rd step- film

Record any foley sounds

Record film opening clips

4th step- edit 

Edit clips together

Make title and credit scenes

Include foley sounds

5th step- revise

Review video 

Re edit if necessary

6th step- Reflection

Create the reflection

Now my schedule for myself to keep myself organized during this portfolio project is as follows- 

Week One (1/29-2/2)-

Look at project components and ask teacher questions

Start to research different genres of movies

Start to look at various film openings and credits sequences

Week Two (2/3-2/9)-

Choose a group

Choose a genre

Start researching the genre and film openings in it

Week Three (2/10-2/16)-

Make a storyboard of the film opening and a script

Find locations/actors for film opening

Set a date for filming

Week Four (2/17-2/23)-

Start filming if possible

Record foley sounds

Week Five (2/24-3/2)-

Edit video and edit foley sounds into it

Make title slides and add text and sound

Week Six (3/3-3/9)-

Revise product as a whole

Week Seven (3/10-3/16)-

Reflection

Week Eight (3/17-3/25)- 

Final touches and just incase there is any delays

Research on credit sequences of horror movies 2/6/2025

 I began to watch and analyze opening credit sequences of horror movie films and I really liked the following 3-

The Howling- This opening credit sequence has a lot of special effects and it feels part of the story and it is combined with clips of the movie and comics blending into the letters of the credits. Which is very cool especially for the time the movie (70s-80s) came out and how people responded to it in theaters. The credits are very engaging and not boring and they use color and different fonts and images to engage people, and help with the story.

Nightmare on Elm Street- Also an 80s movie, the scream in the opening credit sequence add to the genre and the fonts and color used for the title and credits (red) are very fitting. As well as the noises heard in the background making it seem part of the movie, it is pretty long and quiet but it has movement.

The Fly- This opening credit sequence has really fitting music that goes along perfectly with the timing of the title, the special effects used for the title are very nicely presented. During the credits in the background we can see what the world would look like from the eyes of a fly which prepares you for the movie and makes it entertaining. It also anticipates how the movie is portrayed.

Research on opening scenes of horror movies 2/4/2025

    We decided to work in a group and we chose our genre to be horror because we all love horror movies and we find a lot of interest in creating an opening for one.

    I worked with this group before for my music marketing campaign and music videos and we have a great collaborative team effort. 

    We began to look at film openings during class to get a better understanding of horror movie opening scenes so we know what we are working with.

3 very successful horror movie openings-

IT- This opening scene establishes characters by showing immediately the main character and the clown. It shows how the boy gets taken which commences the movie and gives as hint of what is to happen next. It does a good job of showing the dynamic of these 2 characters and how they both act. Showing the boy as curious and the clown as evil/mischievous.

JAWS- This opening scene helps establish characters (a male and a female) and helps establish setting because it can be seen in the rest of the horror of the movie that the horror that will be happening will be in the water. It implies that there is something in the water attacking the girl but it does not show it. 

SCREAM- This opening scene establishes character and setting by showing her house and the girl and the main accuser. It is very mysterious and thrilling because of how the phone call goes and then how it proceeds to haunt her. It does a good job at establishing the genre by showing that it is horror and scaring the audience.

Portfolio- 2 possible genres 2/2/2025

Research on thriller and horror movies 

This whole week we were working on brainstorming ideas and genres for our portfolio project in class and within my group. (I still haven't decided if I want to work alone or in a group) We had thought of the 2 genres thriller and horror. I was interested in these 2 because those are my favorite types of movies.

Horror movies are meant to give fear and scare the viewers. They cause a lot of reaction to the scares when people view them as well. "Depending on the intended reaction, some techniques include a classic jump scare, mounting suspense, and over-extended scenes to make audiences squirm in their seats a little longer" according to Los Angeles Film School. (n.d.). Subgenres of horror films explained. The Los Angeles Film School. https://www.lafilm.edu/blog/subgenres-of-horror-films-explained/They tend to be on ghosts, monsters, religious beliefs, etc. They are very psychological films and deal with a dark subject matter. There are many different kinds of horror movies like paranormal, psychological, demonic, and many more. 

Thriller movies are meant to provoke suspense and anxiety, and also eagerness and excitement. The plot tends to change a couple times to get the viewer that anxious reaction and there tends to be many things that "almost" happen but then they don't. There many subgenres in thriller like legal thriller, spy thriller, romantic thriller, and many more. "Suspense is maybe the most crucial characteristic of the thriller genre." according to Hellerman, J. (2023, December 6). Defining the thriller genre in movies and TV. No Film School. https://nofilmschool.com/thriller-genre-definition