By Tammy Golightly &
Grace Goodwin

We were given a task to create an introduction to a feature film that we had to plan. It must last more or less 2 minutes and must include some media techniques such as different camera shots.
We chose a film in the horror genre because many horror films often start out with a scary introduction then usually includes a flashback further into the film explaining what why the scenario at the beginning happened.

We decided to base our film within the Horror genre (as mentioned in the pervious slide).
The plot of our film is about our chosen group of characters fighting for survival in their school while they are somehow locked in there with carnivorous human hunting zombies.
Our film starts by joining our chosen group of characters, who happen to be college students, attending an after school revision session within their school. The introduction does not explain how the infection of the zombies came about- but it would be one of the features to be explained further into the film.
We wanted the introduction to be fast pace, tension building and make the viewer feel on edge. This would hopefully encourage the audience to want to watch the rest of the film.

We have found much of our inspiration from the film ‘I am
Legend’ because although the film does not include zombies, it has a similar plot of the characters being isolated with such examples of the ‘un-dead’.
We meet and join the actor fighting for survival as the last human being among them. Even though we believe that he is alone, he then later meets a woman and her son who are also in the same situation.
Our film is slightly similar to this as we have already stated, a group of characters are confined to their school, fighting for their lives against zombies.

We also got many of our methods from the
Resident Evil trilogy. The zombie’s appearance in these films are quite similar to the few we are planning to have featuring in our introduction.
The zombies iris’ are very pale- often white, and the skin is dis coloured and pale (dependant on how long the character had been deceased for).
There is more than often a selection of wounds, cuts and grazes around whatever body parts visible.

This shot has been put together brilliantly. Just after the team realise that the ‘survivor’ they just found and were forced to kill has seemingly disappeared-
This shot is then used. The movement of the camera is slow and shaky and seems to slowly lurk from behind them just a few seconds after finding that the dead body had disappeared and as they are all stood debating on what to do. The cameras shot and movement looks as if its meant to represent the zombies that close in on them a few seconds later into the film.
Although we do not plan to use this type of shot in our work, I think it would be an amazing shot to be used further into the film as a method of using stealth and building suspension. Maybe to (like Resident Evil) let veiwers know (but not the characters) that there's danger lurking.

Here are a number of establishing shots. We are naming the ones in our film ‘Chaos Shots’ because the ones we will feature do not include any characters etc. Only a quick flick from normal to disaster to allow a pin hole of knowledge through to the audience so they can imagine what most probably happened.
Resident Evil has done the same in these 3 shots, these places were also shown at the beginning of the film (shots not shown here) in a working atmosphere and now are being shown at deserted and damaged scenes of chaos.

When Alice has her flashback in the middle of the film- she seems to forget everything for a few seconds as memories quite literally begin to ‘fade in’. As she stands in the deserted corridor, all the damage and gore seems to disappear and the past visions of the clean and busy corridor set in. This is a really good way of explaining what happened and comparing how everything was and is now.
We are going to do something similar with the ‘Chaos Shots’ but slightly in reverse. And not featuring any people. We featured a shot of the scene being untouched, then within a number of seconds changed it to how it had been left.
Sort of like a ‘Before and After’.

The remainder of the team are watching one of the CCTV screens of one of their traitor team mates being slaughtered by some form of mutated creature. In this shot the creature looks back at the camera after killing the character ‘Spence’ and roars, sticking out its tongue, as if there is someone actually stood there even though it is only meant to be a CCTV camera. This gives the audience a sense of being there for a moment or two.
There a number of shots that plan to have in this sense as the zombies will look up directly at the camera- Either to express the audience being there or having the ‘oppositions’ point of view shot.

Shrooms also proved to be very similar to our film introduction by starting out with upbeat and fast pace scenes that entice the audience. There are also dark shots featuring other things that would be included further into the film such as a shot of someone's hand shaking violently, that seems to be torn and cut.
The tracking shot of the girl running through the woods was very effective as it gives a nervous and tense atmosphere.
We tried to do something similar by having hand held camera shots of the first zombie running down the school corridors, in hope to create a similar atmosphere and build tension.
Like Shrooms- We also included a number of ‘chaos shots’ that are fairly quick and give a good impression of what has happened and the location of the film

Although Dead Set is a series and is not a film- we still got many of our ideas from this. Once again- the zombies featured within this- have used similar contact lenses to differentiate the infected and un-dead from the living.
Like Resident Evil, Dead Set have chosen white for the eyes of the infected. We have also chosen this as it is a stereotypical feature that is popularly used for zombies and people who are affected by a virus.

I think this shot is very effective as it allows the audience to see the detail of the damage and changes that have been made to this character. Viewers can clearly see that she has caught the virus by looking at her eyes and the gore and blood around her face. She looks directly at the camera to give the audience a sense of them being partially there.
We want to included a similar shot in our film for it to have the exact same impact and effect on our story line; To let viewers clearly see that the character featured in this particular shot that they are not entirely human as the character spins around to face the character or suddenly looks up

This shot is very effective also. The camera shot is set a slight distance away- Maybe giving viewers the impression that the camera is ‘hiding’ or peeking around the corner discreetly. By the looks of the shot the audience has just
‘found’ the two zombies feasting on the remains of a human.
We also used this method in our introduction– Towards the end when the 2 nd zombie is introduced and found to have already killed a boy as she is kneeling next him on the flooreating from his wound.

To make our film more effective, and look more realistic, we plan to include make-up and costume.
We didn’t really have a set costume to wear, we chose old but casual clothes for our costumes as we want the characters to look as normal and realistic as possible.
For our make-up, we have decided it would be a good investment to buy some plain white contact lenses to make us look like actual zombies- as in Resident
Evil and Dead Set.
For the blood and charred flesh, we have decided to create our own. We are going to smear PVA glue on the ‘affected areas’ of skin, and pick at it with tweezers to make the tears to look like ripped and bitten skin.
We will then use our concoction of fake blood, honey, red food colouring, cornflakes, dark eye shadow, fairy liquid and shoe polish to make a substitute for blood and gore that would ooze from the bite marks. This could be easily smeared onto the ‘victims’ wounds, and at the same time give a realistic illusion.
For the zombies, we will mix honey and red food colouring for oral use and to give the effect of freshly mauled skin and gore in their mouths.

We are going to use a range of audio clips to put emphasise the suspension and pace of the film.
We have decided on using ‘eerie’ music and a steady heartbeat to build up tension for the audience. The heartbeat is used at different paces (fast and slow) as to make the audience wonder what is going to happen next.
Our background music varied and provided the introduction with a number of atmospheres such as panic, chaos and mysterious.