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.