Research Into Title Sequences

For our film, we like the idea of the title sequences being quite dark and gory, to highlight the theme of our film and what it is about. I have researched different title sequences that we like the look of and we will plan to use those as inspiration for our own title sequences.

This is the title sequence for the film Se7en, which is about two police homicide detectives working in a crime-ridden big city, who become deeply involved in the case of a sadistic serial killer. Each planned murder corresponds to one of the seven deadly sins of Catholicism: gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, pride, lust and envy.

We like these title sequences because they have a creepy, psychological feeling to them and the extreme close-ups look very effective, as the audience are not able to see the whole object on each slide, only a close up, which adds to the mystery of the film. This is similar to our film as the audience never know the man in the mask's true identity. These title sequences are also quite dark and have no colour to them, which further adds to the theme of of the film and what our film is about.



This is the title sequence for Dawn of the Dead. The film depicts a handful of human survivors living in a Milwaukee Wisconsin shopping mall surrounded by swarms of zombies.

This is a different type of genre to our film but we like these title sequences as we think the blood in the titles looks very effective and matches the gore and slasher theme of our production. We also like the black and red titles, as the red font represents blood and goes well with the black background, as this creates a sense of mystery and the unknown and the two colours contrast well together.

This is the title sequence for Sweeney Todd.  It re-tells the Victorian melodramatic tale of Sweeney Todd, an English barber and serial killer who murders his customers with a straight razor and, with the help of his accomplice, Mrs. Lovett, processes their corpses into meat pies.

We like this title sequence as again, they are dark, gory and have a sense of uncertainty with the audience not knowing what is going to happen. We also like how the blood stands out against the dark background and similar to Dawn of the Dead, these titles have a red font against a black background, which contrasts well.

Analysis Of Title Sequence - Dawn Of The Dead

http://player.vimeo.com/external/37711889.hd.mp4?s=bd6d1e53bef20b5af3d94556420d4918


When researching title sequences, I decided to analyse the title sequences to the film Dawn Of The Dead, which falls into the same genre as our film, that genre being horror. The titles sequences for Dawn Of The Dead touches upon the idea of Holy War as harbinger to the apocalypse, and details the consequences for the media when it decides to ask tough questions as the feeding is already upon the characters in the film. The shots which are shown appear to be real war-torn footage with actual human blood as a song by Johnny Cash can be heard and raises the stakes in newfound context.

Here is a screen shot of the different shots used in the titles.

Whilst analysing these titles, I noticed straight away the red font of the titles against a black background. Once the titles have been shown, they slowly disappear and appear like blood dripping to the side of the screen, which I found extremely effective. I liked the red font of the titles as it appeared like blood on screen, fitting in with the horror genre, and I also liked how the titles were in front of a black background, as the black signifies mystery and darkness. I liked the use of this a lot and felt that something similar would look effective in our own film and later decided to use red font against a black background in our own titles.

I also liked the diagetic sounds used in these titles, as when the font, which seems like blood dripping off the screen, the sound effects of the blood can be heard, which I thought was very effective and further fits in with the horror genre and the audience automatically know that there will be lots of blood and gore involved within the film. I specifically liked the sound effect of the screaming as it gradually built up and started off with fairly quiet screaming to very loud, piercing screaming to the main Dawn Of The Dead titles. I also liked the use of the sound effects of the thunder in the build up to the main Dawn Of The Dead titles, as the sound of thunder gives off a scary feeling and gives a sense that something bad is going to happen.

I also felt the different shots of people being used as torture objects and images of them covered in blood with scary expressions on their faces was very effective and I liked the pace in which the shots were shown which was in a very fast pace. By using these shots in a fast pace, it builds up the tension and suspense and gives the audience a sense of foreboding.

Once the main titles have been shown, dialogue can be heard from the different characters in the film, and they are asking a man questions to do with the zombies, which play a key part in the film, however the word 'zombies' isn't actually mentioned, leaving the audience to wonder further what it is exactly the characters are talking about.

Analysis Of Title Sequence - Sweeney Todd

The title sequence of Sweeney Todd, reflects the main storyline of the film, it gives details/clues away about the film and suggests that this particular film will be that of a gory, bloody horror.
The titles begin by the camera following rain drops, with blood dripping down onto a city, this immediately sets the tone of the film to be gory and dark as the blood automatically suggests that the film, revolves around this.
Below is a link to a website that enables you to view this particular title sequence:
http://player.vimeo.com/external/39355651.hd.mp4?s=3aa18b5ab8771656f6d4dc596a06c3db  

In addition below there is also a screen shot of a series of shots, used in the title sequence:

These title sequences, create a sense of fear to the film, and portray that the film will be gruesome due to specific shot emphasizing dripping blood. The titles shown on the film, are in red which again re-establishes the tone of the film as red represents a sense of danger but also blood and in this case 'spilled blood'. Dark colours are used to create a sense of doom and to reflect the dark nature of the film. Also many of the shots create a gruesome image, for example the blood churning in the cogs represents the blood spilled by the victims into the workings of the machine, this can be a seen as a subliminal message as without the spilling of the victims blood, the machine wouldn't be churning away.
These titles particularly concentrate on the main storyline of the film, and in many ways, are a condensed version of the whole film, by watching the titles to this film, you have an understanding of the plot and how blood and gore is a major theme throughout.
The non-diegetic sound, including the sombre music and visuals in this title sequence, all reassert the image of horror and fear, the music alters tempo when something sinister is about to occur, therefore generates a sense of anticipation and foreboding.

MESA Productions - Production Logo

After researching a range of production logo's, I designed a logo that would suit our slasher film. This meant editing images to give them a gory effect and editing the production title on the logo to ensure it corresponded with the bloody, gory genre of our film. Below is our production logo that we have created.

Research Into Similar Production Logos

In order to create a production logo for Mesa Productions, we needed to do some research into similar logo's that matched the type of film we are creating. Below are a range of logo's for different production companies that we thought would suit the type of slasher, horror film we have decided to created. Many  of these have red on them, symbolising danger and blood, which also in the case of our film would suit the blood and gore featured in our production. 

This production logo, out of all of the ones we have researched,, is the most simplistic. However the colour it uses matches the horror genre. 

We like the idea of the black, white and red writing for this production logo as  it gives the impression this particular production company has created horror, aery type of films.

This Logo would suit our production company and our film as the blood on the door and on the floor is similar to our production with the cellar door and the blood of the girls trying to escape.

This logo, has a really good blood splattered effect that particularly is similar to our film due to the slash and gore of the girls being tortured.

This logo, is extremely effective and we feel that this logo, is the most matched to our production company and the type of film we are producing. For example the red symbolizes blood and danger and the scratches also portray a struggle, which for our film is the girls struggle to escape.

The colours  this production logo are bold and stand out therefore grab the attention of the audience.

Similar to Revolt productions and Bradbury productions, Ink stories production logo has a splattered effect which again corresponds to our slasher film.

Our Production Company Name - MESA Productions

At first, we had difficulties deciding what to call our production company. We thought of words that would reflect our chosen genre, such as 'slaughter' 'gore' etc, but found we could not find anything appropriate that we could both agree on. After thinking and considering different names, we came up with the idea of incorporating both of our names, as this would be our 'production company' and we had the choice to call it whatever we wanted to. We took both of our names, Melissa and Sadie, and tried to come up with one name we could make using both of our first names. We then decided to take the first two letters in both of our names 'Me' and 'Sa' and try to join the two together to see what we could make.

The possible choices were 'Same Productions', which I liked very much, as same is a word people use frequently in everyday life, and 'Mesa Productions', which I also thought was good, and sounded different. We eventually both decided on 'Mesa Productions', as we have created our own word and liked this idea, and feel that by incorporating both of our names within our production company title, we have put our own spin on it and made it sound different to any other name.

Research Into Props For Slaughter Sisters

There are three different props used in the first 2 minutes of our film; these props are used to illustrate the masked man’s concept of fear and control and to show how each prop has a different significance. The reason for this is to highlight that Becky and Abby’s suffering will continue throughout the film and the props included in our film are:

Knife:

This is the main weapon behind the torture, and the masked man uses this to try and satisfy his addiction of causing pain and suffering on the innocent. The

main focus on the knife is to express how much suffering one weapon can cause. The knife itself is initially harmless, but when in the wrong hands this prop becomes a dangerous object that causes a great deal of anguish and trauma to the girls in the film.

Rope:

The rope is used in the film, to bind the two girls together, not only physically but mentally, as when comes down to one of them being a sacrifice, it is a harder to cut the tie between than they initially thought. This prop also physically enables the masked man to keep the two girls tied up and locked away from the rest of the world, hidden in the cellar. The main purpose of the rope is to show that the two girls aren't in the cellar on their own free will and the rope highlights that they are only there due the masked man holding them hostage.

Fake Blood:

This is essentially one of the main props used in the film. It highlights that the knife is being used to inflict pain and the blood shown on the knife expresses that the masked man has already used it on the girls to cause suffering. Leaving Becky and Abby’s blood on the knife is a constant reminder to them both that there is more torture to come, wiping the knife clean would removed any traces of what has happened. Whereas keeping the knife bloody portrays that masked man needs to have a trophy/a prize possession of these sick games. The fake blood, left on the girls and on their clothes also serves as a reminder to them, that they have more suffering to endure and despite the torture being over for the moment there is always more to come.

Location Recognisance Record

After visiting our location, we filled a location recognisance record out. This was to ensure that we were aware of any possible hazards when filming, below is our location recognisance record.

Location Of Slaughter Sisters

The location for our film Slaughter Sisters is that of a cellar, we thought this was the ideal setting as its hidden away from the rest of the world, just like the masked man's identity. The Setting we have chosen is ideal for our production, it caters to all our needs; this location isn't particularly hard to travel to, therefore easily accessible and also due to the location being a cellar of a regular house, it has a good power supply therefore if we need lighting when we are filming we have the resources to be able to use lights. Below are a range of photos and different camera shots taken of our location.

The stairs as you walk into the cellar.

High angle shot of the cellar door and the stairs leading up to the door.

Corner shot of the bottom of the stairs.

Corridor leading to the room in which the 2 girls are held captive. 

The room in which the two girls are held hostage.

Storyboard For the First 2 Minutes Of Slaughter Sisters

Here, we have created the rough storyboard for the first 2 minutes of the film, this explains all the shots we will use and is a rough idea to what the first 2 minutes will consist of. The first two minutes of our film consists of 20 individual shots and the camera cuts between these to either the masked man entering the cellar or the two girls tied up in fear of the masked man's actions as he enters.

Script For The First 2 Minutes Of Slaughter Sisters

This is the script for our two minute film.

Camera Shots And Actions For The First 2 Minutes Of Slaughter Sisters

These are brief camera shots and action descriptions for the first 2 minutes of our film, this is to ensure that when we begin filming we have an understanding on the type of shots we need to complete, and to make sure that we stick to them, to ensure the first 2 minutes runs smoothly and accordingly to how we've imagined it will be like. The first 2 minutes of our production cuts/ changes to each of the characters perspective, for example the first 2 minutes consists of the masked man’s actions but in-between each of his actions the film cuts to 2 girl characters quiet and petrified reactions to what they can hear the masked man doing; such as entering the cellar, scrapping the blooded knife against the wall etc, - the audience see both the masked man entering the cellar and also the two girls tied up, scared reactions to his presence.

• Establishing shot at the bottom of the cellar stairs, low angle looking up at the cellar door.
• Zoom in to a close up on the cellar door as it slowly opens.
• Hooded/Masked man enters into door frame.
• Camera cuts to an establishing shot of both Abby Johnson and Becky Anderson tied up with rope back-to-back in the corner of the cellar floor.
• Slowly the hooded man walks down the stairs – close up on his feet as he takes each footstep.
• Shot then cuts to medium shot of Becky as she nudges Abby – (dialogue exchanged) ‘Abby! Abby! Get up! Quick!’
• Medium long shot of both the two girls trying to get themselves out of the ropes as they hear the masked mans footsteps in the background.
• Hooded man reaches bottom of the stairs – long shot of his figure – giving a snapshot of the masked mans figure/the stance of the man behind the mask has.
• Camera cuts back to 2 girl characters; Close up on a teary eyed Abby – (dialogue exchanged) ‘I can't move! Oh God! What do you think he's going to do now?’
• Medium shot of the masked man, as he turns and walks to a worktop that is in the cellar.
• Match on action; as masked man reaches out and picks up a blooded knife.
• Extreme close up on knife – (the weapon behind the torture) – masked man holds it up in the dimmed light as if he is impressed with what he is doing.
• Shot then cuts back to the 2 girls in fear, scared of what is going to happen to them.
• Medium close up of Becky – (dialogue exchanged) ‘I don't know. I'm so scared Abs.
• Medium shot of upper half of the 2 girls tied up on the floor, as Abby opens her mouth to reply to Becky, a scrapping noise of a knife is heard in the background.
• The camera cuts to an over shoulder, long shot of the masked man, scraping the blooded knife along the cellar wall to the room in which the two girls are tied up on the floor.
• High angle over the shoulder shot, looking down on the two girls curled up in fear on the cellar floor.
• Camera zooms into a medium long shot of 2 girls, shaking with fear.
• Close up on terrified Abby – (dialogue exchanged) [whispering to herself with fear due to no one being able to hear them and no –one left to save them] ‘someone help us'.
• Close up as Abby hangs her head low to the floor.
• Camera then slowly zooms out of the two girls on the floor, fading into credits and leaving the first 2 minutes as a cliff hanger and leaving the audience in suspense to what is going to happen to the girls in the rest of the film.

Ideas Behind Our Characters

We decided that in our film, we were going to act in it ourselves therefore the two main protagonists would have to be female. However, if male characters were used as the victims, I think this would seem a lot less real, as females are often used in horror films and portrayed as 'damsels in distress' who seem slightly weaker than males in these kinds of situations and who often need 'rescuing'. Our two main protagonists are portrayed in our film like this, and are portrayed in a slightly stereotypical way.

For the role of the masked man, we got a close relative to play his part. The role of the masked man's part in the film is very secretive and unknown and even in the two minute film, we know little about him, such as his name, what he looks like or what he sounds like, and felt the person who played him did a good job of keeping the character of the masked man's profile hidden, as this leaves the audience questioning who he is exactly and wanting to find out more.

James Thomas 'Masked Man's' - Facebook Profile

Here we have created a Facebook profile for the masked man, despite this character being the mysterious and hidden type. We have created this particular characters Facebook profile as throughout the film, he has a hidden life therefore his Facebook profile gives subtle hints to this hidden life but portrays him as the family man and loving character that his family see him as.

Slaughter Sisters - Character Profile - 'Masked Man'

Name: James Thomas, referred to as ‘masked man’

Age: 29

Birthday: 19^th march 1983

Controlling, manipulative and deceiving character with the ability to hide his true feelings.

Role: The mysterious man behind the torture. His disturbed past and the effect of broken home: seeing his father beat his mother and having no regret or remorse for his actions, causes him to gain a sense of achievement when he inflicts pain on such innocent girls, following in his father’s footsteps. He believes that he is creating a masterpiece of gore and pain inflicted films, but fails to realise these sick productions, that he feels he must produce are a sign of his unstable mind and a psychotic personality. James Thomas or the ‘masked man’ as we see him, tortures the 2 girls in the most horrific and gruesome ways, locking away the truth about his personality away from the family upstairs, James resorts to the cellar with his prise possession of a knife in his hand, constantly seeking to feed his addiction by inflicting pain.

Purpose: To inflict pain on the girls, controlling the amount of suffering they endure and to show them what real suffering is. By being the one behind the knife he believes he is the one who holds the power.

Character played by: Unkown

Abby Johnson's Facebook Profile

This is a Facebook profile for the character Abby Johnson, the typical teenage character she is portrayed as. Here we are able to see a little bit about her, birthday, hometown, school etc and some of her favourite films, books etc.

Slaughter Sisters - Character Profile - Abby Johnson

Name: Abby Johnson

Age: 17 years old

Birthday: 12th December 1994

Bubbly, fun, fashion student, wanting to pursue her dream of being a fashion designer.


Role: Kidnapped by the masked man, Abby Johnson's role in the film is similar to that of her best friends', a torture object purely for the pleasure of the sick masked man. Abby is a fun loving, quirky girl and always wears a smile on her face, but after the masked man kidnaps her and Becky, her smile is no longer there, and she as a person begins to slowly fade away from the Abby everyone once knew. Abby stuck with Becky at the beginning when Becky explained that the masked man was a film maker who wanted aspiring drama students to appear in a new production he had planned. With Abby and Becky being best friends, Abby supported her friend and also gave her extra encouragement as she knew how much Becky loves drama and acting. However, after the masked man kidnaps them both, Abby's care free, fun loving personality and bubbliness all disappear and is left wondering whether who exactly she can trust in life, no matter how they seem on the outside. In the end, Abby is the one who sacrifices herself and dies a painful death, with Becky left devastated at the thoughts of her best friend being tragically murdered.

Purpose: To be a central object of torture in the psychos sick films and consequently, the whole film revolves around the struggle of Abby and Becky trying to fight for their lives, and trying to sacrifice themselves to try and save each other.

Character played by: Melissa Hodgson

Becky Anderson's - Facebook Profile

Here we have created a Facebook profile for the character Becky Anderson, the typical teenage character she is portrayed as.

Slaughter Sisters - Character Profile - Becky Anderson

Name: Becky Anderson


Age: 17 years old


Birthday: 9th September 1994


Fun, young, celebrity obsessed drama student, aiming at a successful career in the film industry.


Role: Kidnapped by the sick film maker, Becky Anderson's role in the film is that of a torture object, she clings onto her life in the hope of survival and in an attempt to stay strong for her and her best friend Abby Johnson. Her character is that of a happy, joyful personality to begin with but after being wore down and abused her personality slowly begins to fade away. Deceived by the 'man behind the mask', Becky initially saw this man's productions as a step forward in her future career as an actress, what she didn't know was her starring role in these films was to be tortured to death. Deceit becomes a large influence in this characters life and after being tricked into torture, she finds herself, no longer wanting to survive. After Abby sacrifices herself to save Becky, the consequences of her actions remain a mystery and whether Becky is alive or dead is never revealed, her death remains a mystery.

Purpose: To be a central object of torture in the psychos sick films and consequently the whole film revolves around the struggle of Becky and Abby trying to fight for their life, and trying to sacrifice themselves to try and save the other.

Character played by: Sadie Wilson

Slaughter Sisters - Film Storyline

The whole film is based around the idea of two girls going on their first holiday abroad, but what is meant to be a fun – filled, action packed, girls only holiday, turns into their worst nightmare. Kidnapped by a sick psycho film maker, with a hidden life, they wake up to find themselves tortured and bewildered, hanging onto their lives. Lured into this sick directors car, at a chance to live the life of the rich and famous by featuring in a ‘special production’, the two girls only chance to escape the torture chamber, is to put an end to this sick man’s games by one of them taking her life to save the other. Filming their every move, and recording every pain the girls endure, this sick man locks away the truth from his family, pretending to be something he is not. The secrets of his identity are kept in the darkness and throughout the film, who is really behind the camera, we never know.
Having no clue who is behind the dark mask, filming their every pain and anguish of these un edited productions, the girls last chance at survival, is for one of them to be a sacrifice. With no fight left in them, the task of taking one of their lives away, proves to be an excruciating, horrendous death. And the film continues as we see one of the girls trying to take her life to save the other. Being-weak and drained of blood, the masked man finally gets the production he was hoping for, one of his main characters in these sick films, becomes a self-sacrifice in the hope he will stop torturing the other, due to her death and him no longer having 2 starring roles.

By putting a stop to the torture in the only way they can. Abby Johnson is found dead by the police, her body had been there over 3 days and Becky Anderson still remains missing, any traces of the masked man's existence in this torture chamber have been abolished, dead riles of film are the only evidence that show the girls being tortured in this chamber and are the only evidence to the suffering that was caused. Where the man behind the mask is now is a mystery and whether Becky Anderson is alive or dead is never solved…

Treatment for the Two Minute Film – Slaughter Sisters

Synopsis and Duration
In the two minute film of Slaughter Sisters, the film begins with the masked man slowly entering the cellar. The film then cuts to shots of the two girls, Abby and Becky, tied up in panic and fear, wondering what the masked man will do and what will happen to them. The film then cuts back to the masked man, slowly wandering the cellar, letting the girls know that he’s there by deliberately thudding down the stairs in his large boots, which frightens the two girls even more to know that this sick psycho is getting closer and closer to them by the second. Whilst all this is happening, all Abby and Becky can do is talk to each other in panic and wonder what will happen. The film then cuts back to the masked man who suddenly picks up a bloody knife and then proceeds to scrape it across the cellar wall, further letting the girls know that he is close which makes them panic even more so. The two minute film ends by the masked man slowly walking towards the camera and pointing the knife at the camera, and leaves the two minute film on a cliffhanger which further leads the audience to wonder exactly what he is going to do to the girls. The last shot of the girls is them both shaking with fear with Abby desperately murmuring under her breath ‘Someone help us’.

Audience
The target audience for Slaughter Sisters is males and females aged between 18-25, as in our film, the plot revolves around the two girls getting tortured and one of them, murdered, which would involve a lot of gore and scary scenes that some younger viewers might find quite disturbing to watch. Also, the results from our questionnaire showed that younger viewers, mainly older adolescents, preferred to watch horror films over any other films, so this is why we furthermore decided to aim our film at both males and females aged between 18-25, and it also showed that most people, males and females, over the age of 25, didn’t prefer horror films as much, but would still watch them.

We had mixed views on what certificate to give our film, and firstly thought of giving it a certificate of 15, but later decided that in our film, the masked man viciously tortures the girls and we decided we wanted to really capture the pain and fear the masked man inflicts on the girls, so later decided that our film would best suit a certificate of 18. Also, our film is better suited to an 18 certificate as props such as knives and rope are used to show the possibilities of how the girls might be tortured/die, which also further leads the audience to question what will happen to them.

Treatment For The Full Film - Slaughter Sisters

Synopses and Duration - 
Slaughter Sisters is a 90 minute physiological, horror/thriller production, revolving around the concept of two young girls being kidnapped and tortured to near death by the unknown character the ‘masked man’. The whole film is based around the torturing of these 2 girls Abby Johnson and Becky Anderson and how one of these brave girls risks her life to save the other, in hope that due to this courageous act the 'masked man' will stop the suffering being caused and let one of them survive. 
The film begins with the masked man entering the cellar, where he is hiding the two girls from the rest of the world and where he is ultimately torturing these girls for his own pleasure. We then cut between each shot of the man slowly entering the cellar to the girls tied up in fear of what is about to come. 
The film slowly progresses to shots of the 'masked man' inflicting such pain on the girls, to a point where they can no longer endure the pain this sick man is inflicting upon them. This expresses the 'masked mans' lack of emotion and lack of guilt he feels, due to these sick acts and how he finds enjoyment and power from causing such suffering.
As the film continues, we slowly learn that there is more to this 'masked man' than meets the eye. He hides these sick games from the rest of the world, including his wife and two children. Going by the name James Thomas, and pretending to be something he is not, we realise that in reality the 'masked man' wears more than just one mask to inflict pain.

Audience -

The target audience for Slaughter Sisters is that of mixed gender and between the ages of 18 - 25, with the age of the audience depending on the audience's interest in such horror films.
The results from our questionnaire suggested that younger people were more interested in horror films than the older generations and in addition to this the people that would consider watching our film, were interested in mainly action, horror and mystery films. However taking into consideration that mainly younger people would prefer to watch out film, there is still the possibility of older people who are interested in the horror and thriller genre to be interested in our production as it meets this criteria.

The certificate for our film, relates to the target audience as this limits the ages that can watch our production. After we researched into the certificate criteria, we had mixed opinions on what certificate rating our film would be, for example giving our film the certificate rating of 15, means that the violence included would be strong but not go into detail about the infliction of pain, which in contrast our film mainly concentrates on. Similar to this our film also uses lethal weapons such as knifes to inflict pain, which suggest that the content shown is certified as an 18 film rather than that of an 15. 

Creating A Practice Script

This is a practice script for our film. We decided to do a practice script first on paper to get a feel of what needs to be included in a script and if we decided to change any dialogue/actions later on, we could and then type up our final script on Celtx.

 

Creating A Storyboard Practice

In preparation for our creation of a storyboard for the first 2 minutes of our production, we looked at different types of storyboards and what sort of detail was needed in them. We were given a script which we had to read and then complete a storyboard of what we thought it would/ should look like. As a result we all created different sets of ideas and interpretations of what the film would look like. Also after watching the actual short story it was clear to all of us that there was no clear/ right way of interpreting a script and as a result all of the storyboards were different showing different levels of imagination and interpretation. Below is an example of the storyboard I created that was in relation to the piece of script I was given.

Idea Behind Film Title

When trying to think of a possible name for our film, we tried to think of something appropriate to fit the genre of what our film is, which is thriller/psychological/horror. We thought about the characters in the film, which are at the moment, Abby and Becky (the two friends/protagonists) and the masked man, and as the film is going to be based mainly around the two friends, we decided to make reference to them in the title. The characters Abby and Becky are best friends in the film, and are practically like sisters. In the film, Abby and Becky are kidnapped by the masked man and held hostage in his cellar, not knowing what will happen to them. The idea of torture, slaughtering and obviously murder, cross their minds, so we thought about using the word 'sisters' in the title to show their closeness and the bond they have. We then tried thinking of another term to use to describe what kind of genre the film is and what will happen to the girls, and decided on 'slaughter', which made the title 'Slaughter Sisters'. We are happy with this title as it uses alliteration, which makes it sound catchy and quite gory, and makes the audience wonder exactly what the film is about, who these 'sisters' are and what situation they get themselves into.

This is our final title 

Clothing Ideas For The Characters

We have decided for our film that the two main protagonists, the two girls Abby and Becky, will be portrayed as young, fun teenagers. Therefore, when considering what clothing they should wear, we decided on casual teenage clothes, such as jeans, t-shirts and hoodies to show and reflect their care free, teenage lifestyle in what they are wearing. We decided that as most of our camera shots would be either medium shots or medium close up shots of the girls, their feet wouldn't be showing, therefore deciding what shoes they would wear wasn't an issue for us. There was no inspiration behind what they would look like and because both of us are the same ages as our characters, we felt that not much thought would go into what the girls would wear, and felt that this was not a major aspect to think about.

However, for the masked man's character, we decided that obviously, he needed some sort of dark mask to cover his face and his identity. We decided that the masked man would wear a black scarf to cover his face, along with a grey hoodie and jeans. We also decided that the masked man would wear big, over-sized boots which would create diagetic sound when walking around, as the two girls would be able to hear the masked man coming closer to them in his boots, which would make them panic more knowing the masked man is slowly getting closer to them.

Abby's seen clothing

Becky's seen clothing

The Masked Man's seen clothing

Ideas Behind Character Names

Whilst deciding what to call our characters, we had some trouble thinking of suitable names. We thought of many different girls' names and possible surnames such as Amy, Lucy, Zoe and Claire, and thought of possible surnames such as Dobson, Wilkinson and Myers.

We eventually decided to call our characters Abby Johnson and Becky Anderson, as we felt these names were appropriate for our characters as they sound quite young and and teenage-like and felt these names suited our characters well.

When deciding on a name for the masked man, we thought of possible names such as Tom, Mark, Ben and James. We eventually decided to call the character of the masked man James Thomas, as we felt this name sounded appropriate for his character.

Research Into Certificate Of Film

The bounds within the 12 certificate are:

Theme: Mature themes are acceptable, but their treatment must be suitable for young teenagers.

Language: The use of strong language should be rare and must be justified by context.

Nudity: Nudity is allowed, but in a sexual context will be brief and discreet.

Sex: Sexual activity may be implied. Sexual references may reflect the familiarity of most adolescents today with sex education through school.

Violence: Violence must not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood. Sexual violence may only be implied or briefly indicated and without physical detail.

Imitable techniques: Dangerous techniques (examples include: combat, hanging, suicides) should contain no imitable detail. Realistic and contemporary weapons should not be glamorised.

Horror: Sustained threat and menace is permitted. Occasional gory moments only.

Drugs: Brief and occasional references to, and sight of, 'soft' drug-taking (e.g. cannabis) are allowed, but must be justified by context and should indicate the dangers. No instructional elements are permitted.

The bounds within the 15 certificate are:

Theme: No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate to 15 year olds.

Language: There may be frequent use of strong language; the strongest terms are only rarely acceptable. Continued aggressive use of strong language and sexual abuse is unacceptable.

Nudity: There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

Sex: Sexual activity and nudity may be portrayed but without strong detail. The depiction of casual sex should be handled responsibly. There may be occasional strong verbal references to sexual behaviour.

Violence: Violence may be strong but may not dwell on the infliction of pain, and of injuries. Scenes of sexual violence must be discreet and brief.

Imitable techniques: Dangerous combat techniques such as ear claps, head-butts and blows to the neck are unlikely to be acceptable. There may be no emphasis on the use of easily accessible lethal weapons (in particular, knives).

Horror: Sustained or detailed infliction of pain or injury is unacceptable.

Drugs: Drug taking may be shown but clear instructive detail is unacceptable. The film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug use.




Within the 18 certificate, there are no constraints at this level on theme, language, nudity or horror. However, the following content may be cut or rejected: any detailed portrayal of violent or dangerous acts which is likely to promote the activity. This includes also instructive detail of illegal drug use - the more explicit images of sexual activity - unless they can be exceptionally justified by context.