Maybe a three piece suit or just a regular suit to appear well presented and smart which contrasts from his distorted facial appearance of clown make-up and scars etc. This will work well as most clowns wear very colourful and flamboyant costumes, these can sometimes appear very comical which isn't what we want for our piece.
We also want his make up to be very distorted as El Cucuy shares a lot of similarities to The Joker from DC's Batman franchise. The reason I think a suit would work well is because it would represent him well, the suit represents him trying to cover up his insanity and the distorted make up represents his true personality. He'd remain in this costume throughout the piece.
*PICTURE TO BE TAKEN *
Pigman
Costume
Old, tatty, ripped clothes almost as if he's been living rough from months. This works as the Pigman is an experimental creature created by El Cucuy and acts as his servant, he'd also be wearing leather groves to cover scars all over his hands.
*PICTURE TO BE TAKEN *
Skullfaced Man
Costume
He'd be dressed in a smart black suit with a white shirt and a slim fit black tie. This contrasts from the Pigman's appearance, the reason for this is that the Skullfaced Man is of a higher hierarchy and towers over and controls the Pigman.
*PICTURE TO BE TAKEN *
Jamie
Costume
Jamie has three changes of costume during out short film, during the first scene he's wearing jeans, a t-shirt and a leather jacket as he runs through the graveyard and into the street but when he suddenly wakes up, thinking the nightmare is over he's dressed in tracksuit bottoms, a t-shirt and throws on a hoodie when he leave his room towards the light.
He'd continue to wear this costume through the short film until the very final scene where he wakes up in the classroom in which he'd be wearing either the exact same as the opening scene or something very similar, the reason for the costume change is this scene is used to trick the audience into thinking his nightmares are over which can be suggested by the costume change and the surroundings but he has in fact slipped into another nightmare.
As the rating for the short film is for ages 15 and over, our intended age demographic is for people 15 to mid thirties as we imagine any person older or younger than that won't be fully invested in the storyline as it won't be as believable or scary.
This will allow us to make our film as graphic as we desire it to be whilst still considering our 15 ESRB Rating. Gore, blood, nudity and other extreme graphic themes will be kept to a minimal amount, however our film will gain its mature rating from the disturbing themes of horror that may affect younger audiences who watch.
Socio-economic Grouping
Typically, audiences for short films tend to be more involved with film culture than the average person who is interested in huge budget blockbusters that make their ways into cinemas. Therefore, we can assume our demographic will have a high disposable income which will influence the way we distribute our product. We may choose to release it digitally at a high price, however I imagine the authenticity of having the film released physically would sit well with our desired audience. Our film will manipulate the ideas of fear and enlighten this demographic to areas of life they may never have had the reason to explore.
Psychographics~
Explorers
According to psychographics in media we can categorise the audience's intentions to watch a film into 6; Reformers, Aspirers, Succeeders, Resigned, Strugglers and Explorers. For the purpose of our short film, I will be focussing on explorers as they are the likely audience for our film. Explorers tend to watch a film to experience new themes that may interest them. We want our audience to watch our film with an open mind as our themes are extremely unusual and will be difficult to gain a dominant reading from the audience. The audience may oppose our ideas in the film and choose to reject the themes, however if marketed correctly we will effectively lure in this large and growing demographic.
A film that is very similar to ours is Wes Craven's 1984 horror classic A Nightmare on Elm Street.
A Nightmare on Elm Street revolves around four teenagers who are stalked and killed in their dreams (and thus killed in reality) by Freddy Krueger. The teenagers are unaware of the cause of this strange phenomenon, but their parents hold a dark secret from long ago. The reason this film is very similar is due to the theme of being stalked and haunted in your nightmares. Our films revolves around a young lad called Jamie who is stalked in his dreams by El Cucuy, he stalks your dreams and won't allow you to escape therefore trapping you in your nightmares forever. He thinks he manages to escape him but El Cucuy always reappears in his nightmares.
Another reason these are similar is because they are both low budget horror films, A Nightmare on Elm Street was produced on a budget of budget of $1.8 million which is considered very little for a big budget and ours is also produced on a low budget.
A Nightmare on Elm Street is now considered a cult classic and has won multiple awards, The film has a 94% approval rating based on 47 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes with and average rating of 7.7/10 and with the site's consensus saying: "Wes Craven's intelligent premise, combined with the horrifying visual appearance of Freddy Krueger, still causes nightmares to this day."
"Turning slumberland into a twisted murderer's den is a masterstroke by Craven, who has brought new blood to a genre that seemed as if it might choke on it's own excesses"
- Gavin Bainbridge
Empire Magazine
It was so popular with audiences that it has since gone on to spawn multiple sequels over the years, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge(1985), A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988), A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989), Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991), Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994) as well as a crossover with Friday the 13th called Freddy vs. Jason in 2003 and a complete reboot of the franchise in 2010 with a remake of the original ANightmare on Elm Street.
Another similar film to ours would be Christopher Nolan's Inception (2010). The themes in Inception are very similar to our short film, Sweet Dreams. It follows Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) who lead a group who enter people's dreams in search on information. This is similar to our film as El Cucuy enters Jamie's dreams to stalk and terrorize him.
Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, disgust, or startle its audience by inducing feelings of horror and terror, it also seeks to elicit a physiological reaction, such as an elevated heartbeat, through the use of fear and shocks.
Le Manoir du diable or know as The Haunted Castle in America, is a short 1986 French silent film by Georges Méliès and is considered to be the first proper horror film which was followed by the 1898 French silent film La Caverne maudite or more know as The Cave of the Demons in America was another one of Georges Méliès work. Both these pieces were more comedic then serious on the fear factor but the themes of the devil, hell and ghosts link with the horror genre.
In 1910, Edison Studios produced a short film of Frankenstein which was directed by James Searle Dawley. Similar to The Haunted CastleandThe Cave of the Demons it wasn't produced to provoke fear in the audience like conventional horror films, it was deliberately designed to de-emphasize the horrific aspects of the story and focus on the story's mystical and psychological elements and is one of the early aspects of monsters featuring within films.
The term horror wasn't used within the film industry until the 1930's but the themes of horror had been used way before, some examples include The Phantom of the Opéra (1925)and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923).Big Budget horror films became a thing in the 1930's, in 1931 Universal Pictures produced Frankenstein directedby James Whale and Dracula directed by Tod Browning. These are now classed as the pioneering films of the horror genre, in 1935 Universal Pictures produced a direct sequal to the original 1931 Frankenstien film called The Bride of Frankenstein directed by James Whale leading into the golden age of big budget horror films such as; King Kong (1933), The Wolf Man (1941),Godzilla (1954)and The Curse of Frankenstein (1957).
The 1960's were well known for their acclaimed horror. Reflecting the social revolution of the era, the movies were more edgy and more controversial levels of violence in comparison to previous years which become a staple of horror films over the next decades. Alfred Hitchcock is often referred as one of the pioneers of modern horror films with his films such as Psycho from 1960 which was based off Psycho by Robert Bloch and The Birds from 1963 which was based off The Birds by Dame Daphne du Maurier becoming classics of this genre. In 1968, George A. Romero brought the zombie movie craze to life with Night of the Living Dead and has since gone on to become a cult classic.
The 1970's saw a big increase in horror films as cinema audiences began to enjoy the genre a lot more. Films such as The Exorcist (1973) which had a significant influence on popular culture and has since gone on to become one of the best horror films in history and has gone on to spawn sequels, prequels and even a television series. Other films include The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and Halloween (1978)which have both gone on to spawn franchises with multiple films, comics, novels and other merchandising.
The horror craze continued into the 80's and 90's with new film franchises coming to life on the big screen. A Nightmare on Elm Street came out in 1984 which scared audiences on a whole new level, the popularity of the film allowed it to spawn a franchise that consisted of multiple films from 1985 to 1994 with a reboot in 2010. Similar to A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13thwas produced in1980 by Sean S. Cunninghamandwent on to accumulate multiple films from 1981 and 2009 and even a crossover film with A Nightmare on Elm Street. During the 80's and 90's multiple sequels to Halloween and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Also throughout the 80's and 90's, many of Stephen King's works were adapted into feature films such as, The Shining (1980), Cujo (1983), IT (1990) andThe Rage: Carrie 2 (1999)
With the increasing popularity of the horror genre, the 2000's welcome a whole new era for the horror genre. Since the 1970's horror films were becoming increasingly gruesome and more violent to keep up with the audiences as films were becoming more and more sophisticated. 28 Days Later (2002) and its sequel 28 Weeks Later (2007) saw the zombie craze shoot back into the limelight with TV shows like The Walking Dead (2010 - Present) becoming increasingly popular. One of the most popular horror franchises of recent years is Saw which first came out in 2004, it took inspiration from many horror films over the years and the gruesomeness and twistedness of the film proved popular with the audiences and has gone on to spawn multiple films from 2005 to 2010 with a new film due to be released on 27th October of this year. IT also received a remake in 2017 directed by Andy Muschietti, it was critically acclaimed by critics and grossed $630.5 million on a budget of $35 million.
Horror has become increasingly popular over there years, proving more and more popular with modern audiences and since 2006, horror movies have made up a total five percent of all films produced per year.
Due to the mature nature of many horror films, including our own, distributors for our film would need to be comfortable and willing to present a 15 film with mature concepts themes to their audiences. In light of this, company's such as Disney or DreamWorks would not be suitable for this type of project, as they are associated with more child friendly projects, making this contradictory to their family friendly image. In response to this, we will want companies that have distributed horror films in the past, and have a audience that is correct for this genre.
The best distributor for our film would probably be Lionsgate Films, as they have a record for distributing well known horror films. This includes all of the 'Saw' films, very brutal and bloody horror films that became quite successful and well known in the genre. Additionally, they distributed the film 'Blair Witch', another well known horror film that follows a similar pattern to our own project, that of a classical horror structure. Due to the success of these two films, with 'Saw 3' making $164,000,000 in the worldwide box office, Lionsgate would make the right distributor for our film, as its reputation for well known and successful horror films would help our film find its appropriate audience, as well as it other quite mature films from other genres, such as 'The Hunger Games' franchise and 'Rambo'.
Similarly, we also believe that Paramount Pictures would make another good distributor for our film, as they also have a track record for films in the horror genre, with films such as 'Paranormal Activity' and 'Cloverfield', two praised films. Additionally, the large size of the company and its wide influence would be useful in making our short film becoming a success, through clever advertisement and promotion using the company's many resources.
Question 7 – Read Our Synopsis, What Do You Think Our Storyline/Plot?
Its night time on a cold, suburban
street, the street lamps flicker as we then see a young man running down the
street shouting for help. He continues to run shouting for help, claiming
someone is after him before cutting to him suddenly jumping up in bed. The warm
light from his bedroom lamp shines across the room as his clock reads 3:00am,
he decides to try and go back to sleep. Suddenly his bedroom light begins to
flicker off and on, a wind begins to whip up in his room as we hear a creepy
voice from another room, he gets up to investigate and opens his bedroom door
but suddenly he's within a college which is completely empty. He continues to
hear the creepy laugh as he walks down the corridor.
He hears circus music playing from
one of the class rooms, as he opens the door and walks through he notices a
clown stood with what seems to be a pig person, the face of a pig but with the
body of a man, he begins to back away but they both advance on him. He darts
out of the room followed by them both and as he runs down the corridor he
stumbles and falls to the floor. As he hits the floor we realise that he's now
in a field somewhere but the clown and pig man are nowhere to be seen. He
continues to walk through the field, the creepy voice appears again saying 'You'll
never be able to escape me' and as he's saying this two bright light are racing
towards him, we hear the sound of a car engine getting louder and louder before
the hitting him we cut back to him waking up in his class.
The teacher walks over and says 'Maybe
if you didn't stay up all night then you wouldn't fall asleep in my class!',
the student apologises and begins to start his work again when we hear the
creepy laugh one last time, the room goes dark apart from a spot light on him
as the clown and pig man pop up either side of him and pull him to the floor.
Before cutting to black we see a dark figure wearing all back, he faces is
covered in make-up just like the Joker. He looks directly towards the camera
and says 'Nightmares aren't just for night time, Sleep Tight' Screams and cries
for help can be heard in the background as he stares directly into the camera
laughing as both the picture and sound becomes distorted.
He is a teenage lad, studying Mathematics at BSF College and
is often visited by El Cucuy, who is sometimes referred to as The Nightmare
Man.
He’s quite a popular lad at college, with a large group of
friends but can sometimes feel isolated from them. He’s very friendly and
approachable and this is one of the many reasons he is liked by so many people
at college, he’s also very fashionable and enjoys following the latest trends.
His costume throughout remains the same as he is in an infinite dream state.
In his spare time he liked to watch horror movies as well as
hanging out with mates whenever he can, seen as a very brave person there is
one thing he can’t stand, one thing that petrifies him and that’s clowns. Jamie
has nightmare almost every night, the nightmare seems to be the same
reoccurring dream over and over of El Cucuy.
El Cucuy: Sam Whittaker
El Cucuy is a mythical ghost-monster, equivalent to the
bogeyman. This myth/urban legend is found in many Hispanic and Lusophone
countries. This El Cucuy is different to the one in Mexican myth as he is a
creature who kidnaps children who don’t behave themselves.
This El Cucuy takes on the appearance of your greatest fear
and for Jamie that’s clowns. He appears well dressed in a suit and tie but with
horrendous clown face painting, almost as if the face paint has run and began
to wash away. He’s awful, playing off you greatest fears to torment you and
feed on, described as pure evil, he will lock you in your nightmares forever
with no chance of escape.
Mr Swinton: Sam Whittaker
Mr Swinton is the head of Mathematics at BSF College and also
teaches Jamie’s class. He’s very strict and doesn't let anyone get away with it causing trouble in his class which is why he's one of the most disliked teachers within college.
He's very formal and well spoken, wears suits and prefers to be prim and proper while is a college environment as he believe appearance is everything.
Pig Man: Rebecca Acton Pig Man is a creature created by El Cucuy, he was created to serve as his slave and minion to do his dirty work when no one else will. He is unimportant and often pushed aside and disregarded by El Cucuy.
Edward Daniels (Corpse): Ethan Sandy Edward Daniels is seen laying on the table in the background of the circus scene and I one of El Cucuy's previous victims. El Cucuy stalked his nightmares until he was finally caught and slaughted by both El Cucuy and The Pig Man.
I believe that the certificate of our film is 15. Which means that the film is suitable for people age 15 and over.
I believe this is the correct age rating as the film will involve strong language, the possible threat of violence, and someone is going to get killed.
There are no scenes where the main character will have any have sexual activity, or scenes that include nudity. Despite the violence, it will mostly focus on jump scares and is more physiological horror. There will be a little amount of blood involved in this movie.
This certificate matches what are movie is trying to aim for as there will be violence, but no nudity to make to attract a more older and mature audience.
The earliest depictions of horror were found in short films in the 1890's. The best well-known ones were French "Le Manoir du diable (1896)" and Japanese "Bake Jizo (1898)". However, horror really came to focus in the early 20th century when the first ever vampire move "Nosferatu (1922)" was released. This lead to a very successful beginning of the horror genre.
In the year 1931, Universal pictures ended up producing movies "Dracula" and "Frankenstein", which nowadays are presented as well-known and a classic staple to the horror genre. The will lead on to become household names that will get sequels and remakes. The director of "Dracula", Tod Browning, ended up releasing the movie "Freaks" a year later in 1932 which centre on a group of deformities in Carnival slideshow.
Since the 1930's, the horror genre was split between 2 sub-genres. Armageddon and Demonic. At the time, most films were about people overcoming outside threats like aliens and mutations, and the American companies were dominating this genre at the time. In 1960, British Director Alfred Hitchcock released "Psycho" we was the first slasher film to be made and focuses on people against people. This was so successful that it is considered as on the best films ever made. Hitchcock's streak continued in 1963 when he released "The Birds" which was about people against nature. 1968 was when George A. Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" was released and helped started the zombie movie craze, and brought horror in real life.
the events of the 1960's helped to influence horror movies such as "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "The Hills Have Eyes" as both were inspired by the Vietnam war. The 1970's was the decade where more occult films were released, with 1973's "The Exorcist" being a prime example of the genre. It was also when the slasher genre started getting more violent and successful movies such as John Carpenter's "Halloween" in 1978, and Wes Craven's "A Nightmare on Elm Street" in 1980. The 1980's ended up garnering more gory films with Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead" movies being a well-known example of it.
Because of the success of slasher films in the 1980's, the horror genre started to decline, but classic films did stick out such as 1991's "Silence of the Lambs". So in order to reconnect audiences with the horror genre, they decided become a parody and self-mock themselves. Movies such as "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "Urban Legend" helped to re-ignite the slasher genre, but it was Wes Craven's "Scream" that started the typical conventions of slasher films.
The 2000's and onwards were more quiet of the horror genre. Their are still successful original movies mad, but it mostly consists of remakes of classic horror films. This decade saw the return of the horror genre with movies such as "Resident Evil" and "28 Days Later" playing a big part in the return. It was also when the torture films started, with the "Saw" franchise becoming very popular with its massive amount of gore involved.
The films starts of with a fade from black transition to the title of the film "Invaders", which is shown on a close-up shot of a welcome mat. Their is the diegetic sound of wind blowing in background as emphasised by the brown leaves that are falling from the sky onto the mat. The transition after it ends how it started with it fading to black.
The next scene again fades from black and is long shot of a suburban American house in the night, with a yellow car in front of the house. The windows of it showcase a man looking directly at the house, making it look like they are planning on robbing the house. The diegetic wind from earlier continues playing throughout the scene. It then cuts to a close up shot of the house's front window. the bright lighting inside the house contradicts with the dark light outside of it as it conveys that everything is beautiful and peaceful inside the house an that scenery might get disrupted soon. This can be further proved by what is happening inside the house as their is family having a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, as shown by the giant turkey being placed on the table, at the end of the table is a young girl playing with a dog, and at the centre we see the other people smiling and talking to one another, which again shows that upbeat attitude the scene is trying to showcase. It then cuts to a close up shot of the front door of the house, which displays holly berry ring on it, so it shows that this happening at Christmas. The sound then displays a couple of guys arguing while the scene cuts to a close up of the cars back tyre, and the cars back headlights, as if they will foreshadow events to will soon come.
The scene then cuts the front of the car where we see the driver and passenger of the car, dressed in suits and ties, having an argument that was heard a few shots back. The passenger of the vehicle is wearing a black balaclava on his face, to show that they are the bad guys in the story, and that it looks like the are going to rob the house. The driver then brings a duffel bag from the back of the car and starts pulling out different types of masks and tries them on. It then goes to shot reverse shot, and over the shoulder shot, of the two invaders, with the driver continuing to pull out masks, and the passenger increasingly getting more angry with what the passenger is doing. The drive then puts on a chipmunk style mask and grabs a knife like he is practising on stabbing somebody. The camera then does a tracking shot s it acts like it is on the end of the knife and is moving back and forth whenever the knife moves. The non-diegetic music then plays when the scene starts, and the style of it is completely different than to what is actually happening on screen. It is calm and tranquilising, as if this a peaceful moment than should be remembered, even though the scene is the total opposite with what the music is. The lighting further expands on it as it flashes when the knife is extended the most, to again display that tranquil style it wants to develop. That setting is interrupted when the scene does a close-up of the passenger's neck and shows the knife stabbing into it. The music stops as their is a medium shot of the knife landing in the back of the car, and also does a close-up of the gear shift of the car as in all the commotion happening, the passenger accidentally pushes it forward. The passenger continues screaming in pain after the incident, and the scene goes back to a shot-reverse-shot. The driver than pulls out a couple of cut-out pilgrim masks, and the passenger in a fit of annoyance says yes to them and proceeds to get out of the car. It then goes to a medium shot behind the front car seats as the passenger exits. The driver then looks away like he is fed up as shown by the front rear view window, and then proceeds to leave as well.
The scene then cuts from an eye-line shot of the door as it focuses on the two invaders walking up to the house, and the driver ends up getting a close up of his face, which he is now wearing the pilgrim mask. The same tranquil music from the stabbing scene returns to again exploit that this is actually a beautiful moment for them. The close-up shot hangs on his face for a while as if he is prepping up for what he is about to do. It then does an over the shoulder shot behind the man to see that the driver is holding an axe, and then leans forward in order to ring the doorbell. It then goes back to face the men on a medium shot to see that the passenger has also got the same attire his friend has, while the audience also sees them looking at the door and sort glances at each other for quite a long period of time. This is further proved by the scratching mannerisms and the driver has, while the passenger tries to get a better grip on his axe. This could emphasise that these 2 invaders are not exactly bright and this cold be their first time doing this sort of thing, as it could be further emphasised by the stabbing scene from earlier.
The shot then cuts to a medium shot behind the two invaders as the door opens to reveal the father of the house and looks at the driver in a surprised look. It cuts back to the two invaders as the driver say the line he was going to use in order to intimidate their victims. However it gets interrupted when it goes back to the father, who yells "what the f**k", before a close up on the driver's face to show that the father stuck a meat slicer into his face. The diegetic sound of the machine buzzing emphasises the impact the machine had on his face. It goes to a long shot of the house as we see the father slamming the door in their faces and presumably return to his family. It also shows the window of where the family is, which just has them eating dinner as if the don't know the events that had just happened. This enhances the comedy aspect the movie wants as this stunt happened it just a couple seconds and it didn't go the way the main characters were planning and caught the audience by surprise. This will leave them thinking what just aspired in that couple of seconds and will want time to think it over. But the scene continues as it goes back to the close up of the driver's face as blood starts spurting out onto the camera. The calm music still continues after these events which doesn't fit the mood of what the movie is trying to convey. It again shows the comedy of the scene as the blood just came out of nowhere and the music is the exact opposite with that scene of the movie.
The next cut transitions to a first person view of the passenger, as shown by the two eyeholes of his mask, as the driver slowly faces him with the blood still gushing out of his face an all over the passenger. The heavy breathing the passenger develops shows his paranoia and fear of what just happened. It then goes to a tracking shot of the man heading for the car as he wants to get out of hear as fast as possible. It closes in on his hands as he is trying to open the car door but it won't open and briefly feels around his pockets. The same long shot of the house shows the driver still standing while bleeding, and the passenger looking at him, which shows us that the driver has hold of the car keys. That single scene lasts for a couple a seconds as if it wants to take to time for people to understand the message. It cuts back to a tracking shot of the passenger throwing his mask off and calmly walks to where the driver is. He then starts to freak out when the camera zooms in on him fiddling around his dead friend's pockets as he is being showered with his blood. It cuts to a close up shot of the passenger's hands trying to find the right the key, but then cuts to a medium shot of where the mask is lying, where the passenger slips, bangs his neck against the car's headlights (the same style shot at the beginning), and closes up on his face where we see blood squirting out from it to show he got seriously injured. The way he has his hands around his neck and his loud choking noises helps to further that claim. The non-diegetic music abruptly holts when he bangs his neck as if now the film decides the tranquillity is gone as both men are close to dying. This is also a good bit of comedy as another person ended hurting himself when we thought that it looked like he was going to escape this place, again catching the audience off guard.
The film goes back to the medium shots of the door and window, as the door is covered with the diver's blood, and the window shows the lights are off meaning that they all went to bed. It cuts back to the knife that is still stuck in the back of the car, but it then lowers down as we see the passenger trying to sit up. We see that his neck is brutally slashed by the layer of skin that is sticking out from his wound. He starts shaking and spitting what looks to be teeth and blood, to show the state he is in, but it cuts back to the long shot of the house, as him sitting up an resting himself against the car causing it to drive along the road with him laying down, continually having seizures. When the car disappears from view, the credits slowly fade during that single scene of the 2 guys slowly dying in front of the father's house. They are nothing special with it only being bold, with no special type of text as if this is just a normal situation that happens on a regular basis. There is no non-diegetic music being played during the credits as the only thing that can be heard is the diegetic sound of the blood pouring from the driver's face onto the ground.
