Props!!

 Hey there blog! Props can make or break a film. If you're going for a realistic look, having paper made props that are falling apart will make your film turn into a comedy... Marissa and I want our horror film to have realistic props to add to the realism of our horror film. But how are we going to do that? Well we had some ideas and this is what we came up with: 

Fake blood

I really wanted to DIY the fake blood, because I've seen videos online and it looks actually pretty fun to make (lol.) So, I tried to do it at home. I mixed corn syrup, cornstarch, red food coloring, and some blue coloring together. One problem... it stained EVERYWHERE. It took forever to come off and I refuse to let Marissa put that on her face and mouth. 

We found some fake blood online and decided to order from there, we made sure it didn't stain by looking at some reviews. And it was super cheap and gets here on time to film! Problem solved :)

Cigarettes

One of our characters, Benji pulls out a pack of cigarettes to add to his cocky/rebellious persona. He's a clueless smoker with money. Marissa and I didn't only want to find fake cigarettes, we wanted one that could release smoke. 

We knew this would  be too much work to make by hand, so we found a website that sells herbal cigarettes called Honey Rose USA! Their cigarettes look super realistic, and honestly $26 isn't that bad for a pack of real looking cigarettes. I bet you've noticed we've been mostly buying our props than creating them, but were still trying to find alternative ways and creative ways to enhance our film!

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Jewelry! 

Benji is obviously wealthy, so we wanted to give him gold jewelry and items. Something Marissa wanted was for him to wear a gold chain, and I was thinking of a gold watch. I didn't have either and neither did Marissa. So, we asked a friend in our math class to lend us some. He said he has them and wouldn't have a problem letting us borrow them. Thank you Jordan!! 

Vampire teeth

For Veronica's vampire teeth, I tried to make a DIY version too... Similar to the blood, it failed. I used white wax to shape the teeth but as soon as you try to stick them onto your teeth they wouldn't stick! We also ended up buying the teeth online, but to stick them Marissa bought proper wax to melt (smart.) 

Even though we've had a lot of issues with the props, we ended up finding solutions, even if it meant spending some money here and there. 

Target Audience

 Hey there blog! Today I wanted to talk to you about our target audience. This is a crucial aspect in the development of filmmaking. But first, what is a target audience?

A target audience is a group of people you want to view or buy your service, in this case, a film. Certain behaviors and statistics gathered over time can help identify what your target audience is. Different film techniques and genres must be evaluated based on a target audience. For example, if you're trying to cater towards adults, you wouldn't make an animated children's show that teaches you how to spell (lol.) 

Horror and its target audience

Since our film is composed of horror, I did some research on the average target audience of horror movies as a whole. Here's what I found:

-Women and men both watch horror films, but there tend to be slightly more numbers for female viewers.

-The average age group for horror films is ages 18-24, but 20% of people slightly older and younger still watch horror films. As age increases, percentages for viewings decrease. Horror films increase a viewer's heart rate, providing a sense of thrill and panic without danger. Younger audiences usually seek this, older audiences usually don't. 

What about vampires?

I conducted my own research on the target audience of vampire films by going through fan forums, my prior knowledge of movies, and what I've heard people talk about. 

Vampire films are primarily watched by the teenage girl audience. Not only is there thrill, but there is the romanticization of vampiric elements. For example, in Twilight, many teenage girls find the love story element in the film their main reason for watching. Btw, are you team Edward or Jacob? (If you get it, you get)

How are we going to use this for our own project?

Using the research on horror and vampire films, we've established our target audience and things we will do to attract them. 

Marissa and I agreed our target audience would probably fall under the teenage category, maybe skewed more towards girls but not necessarily on purpose. 

First of all, our film already establishes a sense of romance and the mild sexualization of Veronica, a vampire on a date with a human. She's the female lead role, who is attractive and uses her looks to find victims to prey upon. Many teenage girls might find this almost empowering or slightly comedic, yet still scary with the aspects of horror. 

We take heavy inspiration from Jennifer's Body, which also has a large teenage audience. 

Although we aren't focused on a specific gender, we are definitely focused on catering towards teenagers. :)

Author. (n.d.). Horror film research. Weebly. Retrieved March 2, 2025, from https://cmpalexgilbey.weebly.com/uploads/3/8/8/7/38878453/horror_film_research.pdf

O'Grady, N. (2024, March 27). Target audience: What it is and how to find yours. Sprout Social. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/target-audience/

Lets talk.. Costumes!!

 Hey there blog! Costumes are a very important mise-en-scene element. They provide clues about a character's personality or even societal status. They also establish time periods, settings, and so much more. So, what costumes will we be utilizing in our film opening and why?

Veronica

Veronica's costume design isn't very specific but does add to her personality traits. Marissa and I wanted to give her a date night outfit that was seductive and classy. 

We decided on a red short dress. Referencing the past research I conducted on colors and color schemes, red is a significant color when symbolizing danger and power. Veronica exemplifies this danger, her wearing red is like a big yet subtle warning sign that although she's beautiful and seductive she's not someone you want to be around. 

But, the dress is still seductive. Red is also a color for passion and romance, referencing the date night she's on. The low-cut dress without sleeves, showing some extra skin, also makes her come across as a beautiful and seductive woman. 

I still have to discuss this with Marissa but I was thinking of giving her a bold and dark makeup look. Veronica is very vain, as her looks are what give her access to many of her victims, and is constantly trying to make sure she stays beautiful. 

Giving her a heavy makeup look might accentuate this, on top of making her look gorgeous, contrary to what she actually is beneath the surface.

Benji

Benji is a character I haven't really dived into yet in my last posts. But, here's an overall summary of how we plan on portraying his looks. He's wealthy, and his personality is extremely egotistical and snobby. (This is something Veronica takes advantage of by constantly complimenting him!) So, his costume should portray his social status and how clueless he is about what's to come. 

 The white dress shirt not only shows he's well put together but it also portrays his innocence. He's clueless about what's to come. The color white is a symbol of just that.

Also, we obviously want to give him an accessory such as a gold watch to further support the fact he's wealthy and holds a good status in the economy. 

Character costuming is honestly something Marissa and I have been paying attention to since the beginning of our planning process. We've already ordered pieces of the costume and they're on their way!

Character development :0

Hey there blog! Although I've already introduced our plot and the characters included in it, I feel like I should dive deeper into one of our characters. Character development is extremely important when creating a story. Giving a character backstory, emotions, and certain mannerisms helps the story run smoothly with less basic characters. 

Veronica

Veronica, one of our main characters, is the key to the plot. As I've mentioned before, she's a vampire with a ritualistic need for human blood to stay youthful. Here's a mood board to better visualize our character:

(Cool right?)

Some vampiric elements are included such as the teeth and the creepy/unsettling photos. This further supports the fact that Veronica is an antagonist in the story. She has a dark color palette with an unsettling vibe to her. 

Of course, Veronica makes another character fall in love with her in order to feed on his blood. So, some ethereal elements were included. She is also very seductive, hence the photo of the seductive woman and couple. All of these factors come into play for her to feast on her prey. 

Finally, Veronica is "two-faced," as seen in the photo of what looks like a woman wearing a mask. Not only is she secretly a vampire, she is not as beautiful as she seems. Without human blood, she's disfigured and grotesque. Veronica is secretly concealing her identity constantly, doing everything she can to conceal it. 

Overall, I loved doing research and brainstorming for Veronica. She is one of the most complex characters, and yet I found a perfect personality and look match for her. I cant wait to see her come to life :)

Script

 Hey there blog! It’s finally time to release our script! This past week Marissa and I worked on the script and storyboard. We’ve finished our script (don’t worry you’ll get to see it!) but we plan on finishing our storyboard the upcoming week. 

We decided to include what shots we’ll be using in our script as a personal guide and cues for what shots to use when the characters say their lines. This was Marissa’s idea :)

This script portrays the characters personalities excellently. We wanted to give Veronica a false personality and make her “suck up” to Benji. Benji has a cocky and smug personality, adding to the unawareness of the danger he’s in. One of the key points in our film is to highlight the differences in the characters using media theory, their clothing, and importantly, their personality.

But, when we originally created our script Marissa made the original rough draft. After I read over the script we had some disagreements. Personally, I thought some of the lines of the characters were considered “cringy” and odd. I believed this would take away from the serious horror aspect from our film. So, I ended up tweaking some lines and we both came to a result we were happy with. Even though we weren’t on the same page at first, we both agreed on the final product. 

I hope you guys have faith in us! I can’t believe we already have most of our film laid out in front of us, see you next time! 

Our project ideaaaa

 Hey there blog! I'm so excited to finally be able to share what Marissa and I plan to be our big film opening!! (Eek!) Here's our plot and hopefully we can make our vision a reality.

Our story takes place in a forest at sunset. As the scene opens two people, a girl in a red dress, and a boy in a white shirt are walking the forest trail. Some flirting and chit-chat between the two will insinuate flirting, meaning the viewers will assume they are on some sort of date. One line Marissa gave the idea for was "If you can catch me, you can get that second date." Then, the girl runs off into the woods. As the boy chases after her he falls and hits his head, falling unconscious. 

Once he wakes up, he sees the girl crouched near a tree, her back facing him. He taps her on her shoulder in a playful way. As she turns around, the camera focuses on her face, which is old and disfigured. The girl lunges at the boy and we only see the shadow of the girl on top of the boy. Sounds of flesh and blood are heard while this scene plays. Finally, the camera focuses on the girl's face as she smiles at the camera with vampire-sharp teeth, smearing the blood away from her face, and suddenly becoming beautiful again. 

 

You might be asking yourself, "How are you going to pull this off?" Here's how!

We plan on filming our project in Markham Park, at night time. But, filming at night or in a dark area is especially hard to get the lighting right. Using the resource given by my teacher here and using other websites linked below Marissa and I will have to get creative with lighting aspects. Since we will be filming on iPhone we're also going to utilize Apple's night mode to see if it's any help.

In order to make one of our characters old or disfigured looking we'll be using SFX makeup. When doing further research, I found using prosthetics would be especially helpful to add extra skin. Using eye shadow to make shadows and blended skin will add to the realism. Here's a helpful tutorial I looked over:

The sounds of flesh and blood will be done using foley sounds. We want to make disturbing squishy sounds. I was thinking of doing this by using slime or maybe using gelatin and liquid hand soap! 

I believe our project will be a success and I can't wait to put all of our ideas into action :)

CoverClap. (n.d.). All you need to know about SFX makeup. CoverClap. https://coverclap.com/blog/all-you-need-to-know-about-sfx-makeup

Film Camera Course. (2012, January 11). Filming without lights. https://filmcameracourse.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/filming-without-lights/

Media Theory?

Hey there blog! It’s no doubt a media theory is really important to incorporate in a film. Different media theories like narrative codes give the audience background information about the film. 

When discussing what media theory Marissa and I were planning on using the “Symbolic code” in our film. This code represents opposition or a difference in characters/plot points. 

For example, in the film Barbie, the pink color palette of the female Barbie dolls (supposed protagonist)is directly opposite to the Ken’s darker toned palette (supposed antagonist).

Our antagonist in our film opening is a girl who is a blood thirsty vampire in need of blood to survive. Using the research I did previously on color schemes/theory, the outfit choices of our characters are now significant. The girl’s outfit of choice is a red dress. The red would provide a sense of danger and strong emotions to the character. 

Our other character is a young man, whose wealthy and innocently going on a date with a girl. He would be wearing a white button up. The white represents the characters innocence and purity. This is tarnished by the vampire eventually tricking him and sucking his blood as seen in the film opening. The blood smeared on the man’s clothes is another example of innocence being ruined through symbolism.

This direct juxtaposition utilizes the “Symbolic code” in a creative aspect. Not only are vampires and violence insinuated, direct character conflict is improved by using this narrative code.

Media Studies. (n.d.). Roland Barthes' 5 narrative codes. Media Studies. Retrieved February 17, 2025, from https://media-studies.com/barthes-codes/

First group meeting!

Hey there blog! Today, my classmates and I were placed in groups to discuss each other's project ideas. I was put into a group with Rachel, Veronica,  Dylan, Santi, and Mia. We each explained our project ideas asked each other questions and gave advice on how to further improve our projects. Here is a quick rundown:

Rachel

Rachel's project is about a girl stuck in a time loop. She had a factor of her story planned out like the setting taking place in a therapist's office. However, did not have an exact idea of the context or the character's development. Rachel definitely wanted it to be a thriller genre. We gave her some advice on ideas for where to film as she didn't know. We also thought some context was necessary and gave the idea of perhaps her getting stuck in hypnosis therapy for traumatic experiences.  Overall, her project could be really interesting if executed in the right way!

Veronica

Veronica didn't have a good idea of a plot or a story yet, she's still in the brainstorming phase. One of her ideas was to incorporate the idea of a teenage immigrant in her film opening. She researched multiple coming-of-age films. We gave her the idea of making a film about forcefully trying to fit in as an immigrant and how it affects familial relationships. One of her concerns is for it not to be a cliche movie so we each gave different opinions on how to execute the opening for her to choose from. Hopefully, she can come up with a solid idea soon!

Dylan

We all thought Dylan's film opening idea was very complicated to execute. It seemed like a cool idea but all of us thought it would be almost impossible to get his vision right. He wanted to make his film opening concept based on illegal street racing. We asked what the plot would be and he didn't have much of an idea. He does plan on using a drone to film multiple cars. When we asked how he would be able to accomplish that he said he has some connections with car owners. But, his idea still has many holes in it and we didn't know how to help as he was very set on his idea without changing it. 

Santi

Santi's idea was jaw-dropping. He knew exactly what his setting would be, the shots he would use, and his plot idea. He wanted to incorporate an end-of-the-world/disaster theme in his opening. The main character would be a girl shopping in a supermarket while a planet is hurdling towards Earth. Santi said he was going to use his own expertise in film and editing techniques to make it seem like another planet is visible from Earth. (Jealous hello!) Overall, we didn't have much to say as it was all very well planned, but he had many different scenes and we told him to make sure it would fit in a 2-minute time frame and not go over the time. 

Mia

Mia apparently joined her group late, and her group had a project idea but didn't communicate it to her before the group meeting. Honestly, we didn't have much to say as we didn't have any plot points to go off of. I hope her project goes well and her group's idea resonates with her well!

I definitely also got good feedback on my film, actually, my group had a lot of positive things to say about my project! When I mentioned we planned to film at night my group members expressed some concern for lighting and told me to research how to get proper lighting when filming at night. This is definitely a factor that skipped my mind and I'll look into it further. 

Color Scheme

 Hey there blog! I feel like focusing on color scheming and color choice would be a very interesting touch in our final film opening! But, although I know many basics on color scheming I decided to do further research on the subject. 

Schedule

 Hey there blog! After compiling (most) of our research, we need to create a schedule for ourselves. Since our final project is due in a few weeks, time management is of the utmost importance. By splitting up tasks and goals for each week, were confident we could create a great result on time. 

Marissa and I decided to write our schedule on paper so we could really visualize what to do for our project. (Featuring the little drawings I added lol!)

Further Explanation

I wanted to explain something on our schedule that might need some clarification: 

In week 3 where it says "Organize actors" we are planning on holding auditions to select the perfect actors for our film. In collaboration with the drama class, we will hold auditions with Mrs. Lutwin. Although filming and film techniques are especially important, we want to make sure emotions in our film get across well, meaning we need actors to truly exemplify that. 

Overall, Marissa and I plan on sticking to this schedule, but if we have to make some adjustments we are still confident in our abilities to produce a well-made project!

Credit Sequences

 Hey there blog! I researched some credit sequences as it's a key aspect of films. Here are some credit sequences I researched and analyzed in order to further the authenticity and creativity of my own eventual credit sequence:

Film Openings

Hey there blog! After careful consideration, Marissa and I chose horror as our genre. We still definitely want to include vampires in our films. Although some films such as Hotel Transylvania or My Babysitter's a Vampire are popular vampiric comedies, horror matched our vision far better. 

To construct our opening scene, we needed inspiration from various horror films. We asked ourselves questions like, "What kind of audio do we use?" "Should our film opening start off scary or casual?" "Is there a certain color scheme we should use?" etc. 

These questions and the proper expressiveness of our film opening were aided by doing further research!

Genre??

 Hey there blog! We definitely need to choose a genre now. I'm definitely in between horror and a romance-type feel. 

Horror: 

Vampires have been included in multiple horror movies over time. This includes: Abigail, Dracula, Nosferatu, and more. 

Portfolio Project!

 Hey there blog! I can't believe I'm already at the point where I'm making my final portfolio project! Im so excited to share my journey and final product of filming this 2 minute film opening with you guys, hopefully, it's something I can be proud of! 

My best friend, Marissa, was someone I wanted to work with since we've worked on basically every project together. We agreed to work together and she shared an idea she was set on. Vampires. Initially, I was skeptical as her idea could have gone downhill if it hadn't been perfected. But, after a week of thinking, I thought "Why not? It sounds fun!" So, for now, we definitely want to incorporate vampires.

I asked Marissa how she got this idea and she said it was from the film Jeniffer's Body, but she was watching Hamilton when she thought of it (lol)

Marissa and I are continuously brainstorming and want to keep a steady schedule to prevent procrastinating or having tight deadlines. Hence, why we want to start our storyboard this Tuesday. 

Overall, the more I plan and think about the project, the more excited I get! Cant wait to go through this together with you guys :)