Group Meeting

 Today we had our first group meeting to discuss our projects and I thought it went really well!

I liked listening to everyone else’s ideas for their projects and they helped me as well. For example, I figured out that I didn’t really need as many actors as I thought I would need, which makes it a lot easier for me. They also helped me brainstorm some story ideas that I’ve been having trouble with, such as how the characters are transported to the movie world. I’m very excited to see how their projects turn out!

Posters

In my previous blog post I talked about ideas for the posters of the fictional Slaughter Town movies, but here I’m talking about the poster for Double Feature.

My idea is that the poster would be split into 2 halves, with one side being the 2000s side and one side being the 80s side. The killer would be right in the center, with each side showing his costume in each era. Then, I'd have a main character on each side along with the supporting cast of that era.

Here’s a very rough draft of the idea:

Additionally, I’d want the killer on the poster to be reaching into both sides, but I’ve been trying to draw what I want it to look like and I just can’t get it right. I’ll update this blog post if I figure it out or if I find another movie poster that looks similar so that I can use it as an example!

The Movie within a movie (and the movie within a movie within a movie)

Considering that a majority of Double Feature takes place within a movie, it's my top priority to figure out what I want that movie to be.

So here's everything I need:

1. The Title

I've finally come up with a title for the movie within a movie, and I've decided on Slaughter Town! 

As for how I'd want the title to look, I'd want to use a font similar to the ones used for these movies. The red text and sharp fonts are very distinct and were often used for titles in 80s horror movies.

2. Posters/Cover art for each movie (80s poster and 2000s poster)

For the 80s poster of Slaughter Town, I'd want it to be (or at least look like it's) illustrated. 

I especially want to do this because of how it'd contrast with the remake's posters. I'll use the posters for the actual remakes of the movies shown above to show what I mean:

As you can see, the posters for these remakes are much darker than their 80s counterparts, and they all prominently feature an image of the killer. 

Another thing I noticed is that 2 out of 3 of the taglines on the 80s posters talk about the characters in the movie, whereas all 3 taglines of the remake posters directly address the audience. That's something I also need to take into consideration when creating the posters.

With all of that being said, the posters for Slaughter Town will only be seen for a few seconds in the trailers, but I still want to create high quality posters for each movie so that I can use them for additional promotion, such as posting them on the official social media account.

3. Full opening sequence to play in the background

I’ll need to film an opening scene for Slaughter Town that our main characters will be watching (and get transported into). A lot of it will be mostly shown in the background, but I’ll still need to film it before filming the opening because I need it to be playing on the TV in the trailer's opening. What this means is that the opening to the trailer will most likely end up being the last scene I film, as our characters will enter and, exit the movie at this location.

The Big Idea: In Terms of Promotion

 While in my previous blog post I showed off the story I've created for "Double Feature", in this blog I want to outline some of my plans in terms of marketing.

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For the 2 trailers, I already have some ideas. 

For the first trailer, I want to include an extended sequence of the argument about remakes to begin the trailer, and at around the halfway point is when our characters are transported to the 2000s remake world as the opening kill is happening. From then on the trailer would include a mix of comedic interactions between our leads and the movie characters, as well as flashes of different kills and action sequences from throughout the film. After the title card is shown, that's when a quick scene would reveal the added element of our characters also being transported to the world of the original 80s movie.

In the second trailer, I would focus a lot more on the characters and story, so I'd start the trailer with a shortened version of the remake argument scene and get right into the 2000s remake world. I would showcase the supporting cast of characters from inside the movie (I'll talk about them in a separate blog post). I'd want them to be very over the top and each fit a specific role of characters who were usually in horror movies of that era. I would also want to show a better look at the killer and some kills, including showing a character death or two in the trailer, while still trying not to give too much away. Since I revealed it at the end of the previous trailer, I can also sprinkle in characters and scenes from the 80s scenes later on in the movie. 

Additionally, I would want the poster to be posted on the official social media page after the first trailer is released, so that the poster can show the 80s aspect of the film as well.

The Big Idea Part 2 (Double Feature Story Outline)

While I don't have the plot fully worked out yet, here's my general idea.

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    The first act would introduce our 2 lead characters in the real world. For this example, let's just call them Brady and Mack. They would discuss news about the (name TBD) franchise getting another remake. This would spark a conversation about remakes and reboots, which would end with them deciding to watch the already-released 2009 remake. One of them is a huge fan of the remake despite never having seen the original movie, while the other has never seen the remake since they love the original and think a remake could never be as good (especially because it was a remake from the 2000s). Whilst this argument is happening, we see the film playing in the background up to the point where a girl is about to become the opening kill. It is at that point that our 2 leads are transported into the movie (I haven't figured out how or why they're transported into the movie, but let's just leave it vague for now so I can keep going). They manage to save the girl from being killed and have now changed the story of the movie. Since Brady is a huge fan of the movie, he is just totally loving being in this world and being able to interact with some of his favorite characters, while Mack is very concerned about the fact that they’re literally trapped in a movie. Somewhere around the end of 2nd act, our characters would have found something that they think would take them back to the real world, but then they're transported to the world of the original 80s horror movie, and the killer follows them. Once they're there, the characters from all 3 worlds have to work together to defeat both killers (the 80s one and 2000s one) and they eventually do so. Brady and Mack are taken home to their world where it's revealed that their reality has changed. The 2000s reboot of the (name TBD) franchise continued on and received many sequels, as the new meta storyline was very popular with viewers.

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As you can see there are many elements I haven't exactly figured out how to do or have them make sense. Luckily, a lot of this story WON'T be shown in the trailers, but it is still very helpful to have this story planned out so that I can reference the order of events when editing trailers or other promotional material.

Speaking of ideas for promotional material... that's my next blog post. Go over there and check it out right now!

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(To continue on what seems to be the recurring theme of musicals inspiring my work, I wrote the entire plot you just read above whilst listening to “That Beautiful Sound” from Beetlejuice The Musical on repeat.)

The Big Idea (How It Happened)

So last night I was watching My Bloody Valentine (2009), sometimes titled My Bloody Valentine 3D, and I had a great idea. I thought that I should make my horror movie inspired by those trashy 2000s horror movies, especially horror movie remakes like My Bloody Valentine or Rob Zombie's Halloween.

                       

...and then the second idea that completed the vision hit me just a few moments ago. 

I was writing an upcoming blog post while listening to music and I happened to be listening to the Teen Beach Movie soundtrack (I promise that this is an important detail).

That got me thinking about meta movies.  A movie being "meta" is actually a pretty broad term. The literal definition is "(of a creative work) referring to itself or to the conventions of its genre; self-referential." 

I can actually use 2 different Wes Craven films to show two extremes of what could be considered meta. On the lower end, there's Scream, which often references and comments on the tropes of the horror genre.

 And on the other extreme end, there's Wes Craven's New Nightmare, where Freddy Kreuger is brought into the real world through the power of storytelling and fan support (yes, that's literally how it happens), and goes after Heather Langenkamp, the real life actress who played Nancy in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Before I get too off-topic, I'll just write down the synopsis for the movie I'm calling "Double Feature":

"Two teens get stuck in a 2000s remake of an 80s horror classic, and have to find a way back home before the movie reaches its conclusion."

Sounds cool, right?

Now allow me to explain how Teen Beach Movie inspired this idea. I don't want to keep you hanging for too long!

Teen Beach Movie happens to be one of my favorite movies of all time (here's my Letterboxd profile to

prove it), so it's safe to say that I think about it and am inspired by it often. In that movie, "two young surfers are swept away by a huge wave, finding themselves acting out a real-life version of the 1960s film `Wet Side Story'. When their presence derails the movie's intended plot, they must set things right in order to return home."

Whenever I'm thinking of story ideas I've already tried to think of ways to implement concepts I first saw in this movie, and I think "Double Feature" is the perfect place to do that.

In my next blog post, I'll outline my general idea for the plot. I want to do it in a separate blog post in order to keep things more organized.

The Breakdown Part 1: The Everything

So I know that I definitely want my film promotion package to be about a slasher movie, and I can already think of specific shots that I want to include in the trailers...

but now I have to think about everything else.

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Here's what I'm going to need for my project to work:

-a good script (slasher movies with bad writing can still be fun, but to promote the movie through trailers, the few pieces of dialogue that will be shown in the trailer have to really sell the audience on the story.)

-compelling characters (characters can make or break horror movies, but they're especially important for slashers. If every character is just fodder for the killer, the audience won't care about what's happening, even if there's blood and gore on screen. If you create great characters, it can make improve many scenes as the audience will really want someone to live (or die! Characters that are purposefully made to hateable can create drama and conflict to the story that doesn't come from the killer). In terms of creating a trailer, I'd have to show many characters (and have a few of them get killed), which means I'll need quite a few cast members.)

-the killer (For the trailers, the killer doesn't have to be seen too much, especially since I'm going to be making 2 different trailers. However, first impressions are important for the villain of a movie, especially a slasher movie. I'll go more into much more detail in an upcoming blog post.)

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This is all pretty general information, but I wanted to put everything I'd thought of so far into a blog post so that I wouldn't forget it.

The Schedule

Week 1: Brainstorming and first blog posts

Week 2: Research and story concept + ideas for promotional material

Week 3: More detailed story outline, character outlines

Week 4: First draft of script + storyboard and/or shot list

Week 5: Script completed + planning filming

Week 6: Filming

Week 7: Begin editing trailers

Week 8: Continue editing trailers + create key art for the film

Week 9: Create and set up social media page + create poster(s) + complete trailers

Week 10: Critical reflection

(and for all of these I would also be consistently posting updates on my blog)

Portfolio Project... Again (and a look back!)

One year ago, I started to work on my AS Level Portfolio Project. For that project, I created a short opening for a horror movie. While I'm still happy with how it turned out, I'm hoping to make something even better this time around. 

I'll fully admit that in that time period of February to April of 2022, I had never actually watched a horror movie (and yet I still decide to make a horror movie opening). In fact, I watched my first horror movie a week after finishing my portfolio project.

(Side note: I use Letterboxd religiously and writing reviews for every single movie I've watched over the past 2 years has really improved my writing skills, especially in terms of describing specific elements and techniques I like or dislike in movies, which in turn helps me better use those terms in actual conversation. Not to mention that I just love having a place to look back at every movie I've seen and what I thought of them when I saw them.)

Since April 10th, I've watched almost 140 horror movies, from some of the most popular and iconic franchises to Tubi originals that only 862 people have ever watched.

(Through this journey I discovered that I really like a lot of movies that most people would consider to be very bad. Shout out to A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child and the 2006 remake of Black Christmas!)

Basically what I'm getting at is that I know a lot more about the horror genre than I did back then, and I'm very excited to get to work on my A-level portfolio project.

I've decided to do the Film Promotion Package, as I really enjoy getting to work on trailers and marketing material for movies, like how I did for the Halloween Challenge and the Film Distribution project from earlier this year. 

I'm still not sure exactly what story I want to tell, but that's where the research process comes in!

My next post will contain my week-by-week project schedule, and I hope this project turns out great.