Our filming schedule

We scheduled to film our opening throughout the whole day on Tuesday 29th October over half term, this meant we had to arrange with the rest of the group and our extra person, who was to play the remaining character when we were all free to film.

Restrictions or problems that we thought about before hand was:

• The weather- We had to make sure that it was not raining hard or too windy as it would affect the amount of filming we were able to get done and the quality of the shots, also we had to make sure that, if the weather was sunny, that we were able to keep the right amount of brightness when filming and not cast too many shadows within the shots
• The setting- As we were filming in an alleyway and on small occasions, a quiet cul-de-sac we had to make sure that the setting was quiet and that if any members of the public needed to walk by we stopped filming and made sure that random members of the public were not filmed whilst we were filming.
• The content- As we were filming a opening of  a horror film we had to make sure that the public did not feel that they were under any risk as the murderer was wearing an all black costumes and hoodie, which could look threatening to the public eye. We also had to use props such as a fake/toy knife and fake blood to create the murder scene so again we had to make sure the public did not feel at ease if they were to walk past and see the props.

We also decided to practice a particular shot/camera angle whilst we were in a media lesson so we were able to plan it out correctly for when we came around to actually filming each shot. 

We secured the camera onto a skateboard to then be able to move the camera below to film Becca's feet walking along without showing any other part of her body. This was useful as we were able to see whether this method would work so we were able to include this particular camera angle within our film opening. 

Film's that have inspired us

The film that we feel inspired us the most to create our film opening was Scream. We felt this was because when looking at one of the main murder scenes, the murderer's victim was a young/teenage female and even though the setting in that particular scene will contrast to our setting of an alleyway it still has aspects within that is similar to our film opening.

For example:

• Again, the victim in the main murder scene is a young/teenage female
• The murderer contacts the victim through a phone, and in our opening scene the murderer will communicate with the victim's friends through a text message
• The murder weapon in both Scream and our film opening is a sharp knife
• The murderer's  in both Scream and our film, opening are both wearing black as a costume
• Both settings are similar in the fact that there is no one around and the victim's are on their own
• Both victims are just living their everyday life and it gets disrupted by the murderer's presence
• We will also be using a range of camera shots that were used in Scream to create tension and to show the setting and characters from various angles

 Drew Barrymore playing the teenage victim

Scream- the Antagonist in the film

Target audience research

We decided to ask some of our friends and relatives what type of age rating we should choose for our film opening and considering that our genre is horror we thought it best to either rate our film a 12, 15 or 18 as the film would not be suitable for young children.

After questioning people on there opinion of this we narrowed it down to either rating the film as an 18 or a 15 as our film opening is not too gory and violent but it still has those aspects of violence and gore because it is a horror, however if we was to rate our film opening as an 18 it would make the audience question why it is rated as this as it is only available to a niche amount of people either 18 or over, so people will wonder what kind of things are going to be included in the film/storyline that makes the film rated as an 18.

	12	Home media only since 2002. 12A-rated films are usually given a 12 certificate for the VHS/DVD version unless extra material has been added that requires a higher rating. Nobody younger than 12 can rent or buy a 12-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game. The content guidelines are identical to those used for the 12A certificate.	Les Misérables,The Perks of Being a Wallflower
	15	Only those over 15 years are admitted. Nobody younger than 15 can rent or buy a 15-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game, or watch a film in the cinema with this rating. Films under this category can contain adult themes, hard drugs, frequent strong language and limited use of very strong language, strong violence and strong sex references, and nudity without graphic detail. Sexual activity may be portrayed but without any strong detail. Sexual violence may be shown if discreet and justified by context.	The Heat,Mama
	18	Only adults are admitted. Nobody younger than 18 can rent or buy an 18-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game, or watch a film in the cinema with this rating. Films under this category do not have limitation on the bad language that is used. Hard drugs are generally allowed, and explicit sex references along with detailed sexual activity are also allowed. Scenes of strong real sex may be permitted if justified by the context. Very strong, gory, and/or sadistic violence is usually permitted. Strong sexual violence is permitted unless it is eroticised or excessively graphic.	Django Unchained,Evil Dead

We decided that we would rate our film a 15 as it would then be available to a wider range of people and age groups, therefore more people will be able to watch the film and this may cause the film to earn more of a profit. 

Films have age certificates because of the content that is portrayed in them, so in regards to the horror genre the rating would depend on how much violence, gore or frightening content was in the film, also it would depend on sexual content and swearing because most horror films either have mild or extreme swearing and may include some sexual content or nudity. 

Our first soundtrack

In our group we created our soundtrack on GarageBand and used various instrumental effects such as:

• Keyboard effects
• Violin
• Drum kit
• Nature sound effects
• Flute
• Soprano solo 

By using these instruments we created a track that caused a krushendo to build, this would also cause suspense when it was played over our film opening. We have decided that the soundtrack would begin to play as Becca began to walk down the alley as this is a change in setting, from the safety of the open street to the spookiness of the alley way and this will continue to play as she journeys down the alley.

However this is not our finished soundtrack as we don't know how the clips will look together, so when our opening is completely finished we will begin to add our final soundtrack and any other sound effects to the scene.

https://soundcloud.com/nlbfilmas/never-look-back-alleyway-music 

Our title and transitions ideas

We have decided that the characters names would appear at the beginning of our opening scene and that they would fade in and out. We will also angle the characters names so it suits the surroundings of the shot, for example if the shot was showing an object that was angled diagonally we could easily place the titles diagonally onto that object so it blends in with the scene.

We have decided to use one particular font for all of the titles which we found from a website called Dafont and its is called 'Face your fears' and even judging by the name it sounds like the sort of font that could be used for titles in a horror film.

We decided that we would colour our font red to represent danger or blood which links in with the horror genre, also the font looks as if it is red paint (or blood in this case) has been smeared onto a surface. The characters names will also be in this font, however the main character's name (the victim) will be in the same blood red colour as the title of the film and the other characters names will either be in black or white depending on what the background tone will be.

The actual film title will be shown at the end of our opening scene and it will be shown within a text message that one of the friends will get after the victim has been murdered, the text will read 'You're next. NEVER LOOK BACK...' and the camera will zoom into the message so the audience would be able to get a clear view of the actual message. The camera will then zoom in even further to only show the words 'NEVER LOOK BACK' which is the title of our film and then the background will begin to fade out onto a plain black background. The red title will then contrast with the plain black background.

Our chosen film institution

We have decided that we will use Warner Bros as our chosen film institution as they have produced various popular horror films such as The Gremlins, The Exorcist, Friday the 13th and Final Destination 5.

Warner Bros is a well known film institution and have made 12 billion dollars as of 2012, so they're still earning more money with the films that have/will be released this year. They were founded in 1918 and since then the institution have gone on to make a variety of films, all of different genres, but as we have chosen to make our film a horror we chose this institution because again, it has produced brilliant horror films that are still popular today.

How one of our characters is likened to one in a horror film

THE MURDERER
We decided to liken our character (the murderer) to the murderer from the film Scream, because our murderer is known for murdering victims who are teenagers and in the film Scream the murderer always seems to murder teenagers as well.

Even though our murderer character will not be wearing a mask as part of their costume they will be wearing all black clothing, which will link with the setting because even though we will be filming outside we will make sure to film when it is quite dark and murky outside to create a sense of suspense when the murderer is shown on camera. This will also able us to create an image of a shadow if the murderer is wearing all black clothing, and they will also be wearing a dark coloured/black hoodie of some sort so they're able to have the hood up over their head to hide their face/identity.

The murderer in Scream is also wearing a plain black costume with a hood, as well as the mask, again this helps to hide the murderers identity from the victims. In Scream they also use knifes as weapons quite frequently when attacking the victims, which we will also do in our film opening as we will be using a sharp knife as the murder weapon to kill the teenager.