Ideas for the production S.B

One of the main issued we faced while planning our opening sequence was the fact that we had so many ideas and different story lines that would have all worked well and gave the same horror feeling  when watching them They also seemed very easy to create and carry out. We overcame this by listing all the idea we had and discussed what we had to have while filming it and how the editing would have been like. 

As you can see above one of the first ideas that we had was a group of teenagers sitting in a forest drinking and playing spin the bottle, while playing the bottle lands on a girl and she is dared to go into the woods were it is known to be hunted. The girl accepts the dare as she did not want to seem like a wimp to her friends but while she is walking she has her boyfriend on the phone who was also playing spin the bottle with the group to make sure nothing too dangerous happens. As she is speaking to her boyfriend and he is reassuring her that she will be fine the sound on the phone changes to a deep voice who continues to swear at her and call her names and goes on to warning her and telling her that she should have not entered the woods. As the girl continues to walk she trips over an old fashioned wooden box that was hidden under leafs. The girl opens the box and finds an old fashioned necklaces inside which she throws away as she says "what is this rubbish" she then continues to walk but shes a shadow which she thinks is one of her friends trying to scare her so she continues to walk towards it but as she gets closer the figure turns around she realizes it is a face which is drained in blood and this is when the audience hear a scream and the screen goes black. We thought this idea would have been very effective as it uses most of the aspects like being in a forest and triggering something that is evil, having a group of reckless teenagers and someone being isolated from a group of people. As we continued to plan this we realized that it would have passed the two minute mark and getting a group of friends would have also been very hard as our group only consisted of four people so it would not have been as effective. Another issue that occurred is the fact that we could not find a location which would have been every effective and carried out the story well. So we continued to plan a different story and tried to keep some of the original aspects.

The second idea we came up with also included a group of friends but this time we did not need as much people as the first idea so we could use our group to film the scenes without needing an extra cast which would have been very hard to have access to. This idea consisted of a group of female teenagers standing around in a park drinking and talking about their relationships. As they continue to speak one of the girl's boyfriends turn up and calls her over. The audience come to find that the boy is very violent and possessive and that he has beaten up the girl in the past as she refused to do what he said. This idea was based on the fact that the girl was pregnant and was too afraid to tell him because he will force her to get an abortion and hurt her if she refused it. The girl then runs away and she trip over a box with baby things which has been placed there by an older lady who was unable to have kids. She then throws the stuff in the box away and continues to run as she is crying, The girl sees a hooded figure who slowly turns around and is holding a baby dole with scratch marks on the cheek and a dagger on the heart. The screen goes black and the audience hear a scream. This is very similar to the first idea with just a few changes to the story line. This idea did not work out due to the fact that the props that were needed were not available to us and were not very easy to get at such a small budget. We also realized that this would go over the two minute mark with added extra minutes so we had to change our plan again and make it more suitable in terms of the budget and the timing.

The third idea that we had was the idea that we decided to use which is presented on this blog.

Sound S.B

We used three different royalty free audio tracks to add to the production. In the 3 cases the tracks are used to make the audience react in a different way and add a different aspect to the production.

The first music we used was to add suspense and make the scene a little scary. This was inserted when the two friends where playing a prank on  the girl who was visiting her friend. When this music was added it made that scene very dramatic at the beginning and scary at the end. We did this by making sure the music faded in which made the audience ease into it which created the suspense and made it more scary at the end. At the end of the audio we were able to make it add to the scene by making the music end at the exact same time that the friends scared her, we did this as it is a typical thing that happens in horror films as it adds to the scene and makes them more scary. The music ended as soon as the friends touched the girl to scare her. This was done because the audience didn't know it was a prank so they were expecting the worst.

The second and third sets of music were used towards the end of the production when the actual murderer come in contact with the girl. When we were doing our rough draft we only used one set of music in this place but when watching it and over and figuring out what we needed to improve we found out that the first set of music did not work as it came out of no where and did not help the production flow. We fixed this by getting another set of royalty free music and adding on before the first set started to ease in the music and make the production flow. We did this by fading in the music as the girl was getting ready to leave.

While doing our research we realized that almost every horror movie uses sound to built up and the scene and make it more scary. So we added the music to make the production more effective.

Friday the 13th detailed analysis. - Our main inspiration

The main inspiration for our film was Friday the 13th , as stated previously in the blog. Jason was the key element which we wanted to adapt int our film. The masked killer is a character which we think is superb when making a horror film as it adds aspects of fear , mystery and confusion. Jason who was the serial killer of the young teens within Friday the 13th has become the most iconic serial killers within the horror film genre. He has progressed on to star is other films such as , Jason V Freddy and more. This is why we chose to gain and absorb inspiration from some of the aspects the character Jason showed within the film. We also wanted to interpret some of the shots and sounds used when portraying a masked killer, to show the audience the insight of a killer and how they perceive the world before they embark on his murderous killing spree

Unmasked title anaylsis - P.M and R.S(blue)

We have chosen the title for our horror opening scene as the term unmasked  exposes the true character of someone by stripping a mask or disguise from them. 'Unmasked' also suggests that there is mystery in the film. This links to the hooded figures with white masks that we used in the opening scene therefore creating an element of suspense as the young teenage girl is unaware of who is actually behind the mask. It may be a ghost like figure haunting her or possible trying to harm and kill her. Another alternative option may be one of her friends who is simply joking around with her. This creates a sense of ambiguity and fear within the central protagonist leading to us also experiencing the same emotions. The title itself consists of a black font with aspects of white within it. There is also a loose in which the letter 'A' is contained portraying an element of the horror genre as it connotates death as looses are used to commit suicide. Therefore, the masked figure may reveal his identity leading to death of the character.

The colour black is used for our title as it represents death and darkness suggesting that the story line has a very horrific and dark atmospher with in it it is also a black smeared style, it can suggest that the title is written in blood again reinforcing death , murder and mystery. It makes the audience question who is the "unmasked"? are they the murderer? Who will be discovered culprit for they deaths of the innocent teens. The noose again suggests the style and manner of which the murder likes to leave kill his victims in, the technique used suggests to the audience there may be a repetition of the killings, knowing that whoever is hung will is definitely the victim of the "unmasked". The use of a noose helps the audience look into and question the killer's technique, why would he use such an traditional form of execution to kill his victims? What mind-set does the killer have to use this form of killing?. We have carefully constructed our title to leave the audience, questioning the narrative within the first two minutes to encourage them  to continue watching the film

Props used - R.S

Memorial token for the departed Mia

We have used different props within out production that we feel, will help add and element of realism to the film. As the narrative starts off as a friend (me) mourning over a loss of her beloved best friend who died for unknown circumstances in the park. The image above and to your right shows the small token of memorial that is left in her remembrance. The flowers signify the obvious and obligatory respect shown when someone has died, we have done this to show the audience that someone has died, and it is recognized by the community as people have left tokens of respect for her. The teddy bear is also another element used we think makes the production look more realistic, the teddy bear can convey the youth and innocence of the life lost indicating how the person who has died was too young. This can link to our theme of horror as it can suggest that the deaths of the victims of the murderer may be young people who are completely innocent and have not lived life to its full.

Messages from loved ones

 Surrounding the flowers and teddy bears are small memos of remembrance. Certain messages on the memos can suggest how the victim was young, "too young" "too beautiful" can suggest how the victim was a young woman. Some tags also suggest how the victim was well known and of good character, respected and loved by friends, family and teachers. it again reinforces how the supposed " Killer" is completely ruthless in choosing his victims, he does not care of youth or beauty of who he devilishly kills.

Masks used  , rope , fake blood.

Another prop used is the white masks. The masks have no expression on them and are simply white with small holes cut out for eyes. We have chosen these masks as they are mysteriously blank and slightly creepy looking. The lack of any human features, alienates the masks from any normal person.

We have looked at other famous horror films for inspiration when generating our ideas of using masks , a key influence was Friday the 13th where the masked killer ( Jason) wore a hockey mask as a disguise whilst savagely killing young attractive teenagers.

Jason from Friday the 13th

The element of a "masked killer" is something that we think is an superb element to bring into our horror film. The masked killer always brings out another element out into film, which compliments horror very well which is mystery. We want the audience to terrified of course! however we also want them to question who is behind the mask? is it someone they already know from the narrative? this allows the audience to look into the plot more and be able, to solve the mystery for themselves.

Here's the team! TRPS! R.S



Day 1 of production - Generating ideas - Media Studies Class room

In the Blue is myself Ravneet K Singh - Initial plot producer and prop and setting advisor also an key charter within the sequence



Behind me in red is Salma Badaway - Prop , costume and location advisor and part of the editing crew also ann actress within Unmasked



Gentleman sitting next to her is Tayyab Wahid - Camera man and in charge of editing he has also recruited help from his assistant Saif Wahid ( not in picture above) who has helped with camera handling and has also played a role in the film as friend of the main protagonist .








Preet Mathuru - did not take part in any of the process




During this meeting we researched what type of horror we would like to go for and what film we  wanted to use as inspiration. This really helped us to get started with the story board as we as the filming as we had a rough idea on what we wanted to include in the production. We also used this meeting to find out what type of horror the cast and crew enjoyed watching to help us make the production its best. During this meeting we also decided that we would do a questionnaire to see what sort of horror movie the target audience would prefer to watch to make sure the production appealed to the target audience.

Unmasked the plot - R.S

Unmasked- The narrative begins with a grieving girl, as he friend who has passed away found dead in the park for some unknown circumstances. We learn from her sad, mournful soliloquy that her friend was alone when the murder occurred and that maybe if she ( the friend) was there the even might of not occurred. Friends appear playing some kind of practical joke on her trying to lighten her sprits. She is unamused and still continues to mourn and asks her friends to go, and that she will catch up with them later. Another similar masked figure appears, but is this another practical joke? or something much more deadly...