Location Difficulties

Here is where we had originally planned on filming:

This is the entrance to the woods were we were going to film our opening sequence, however as you can see in the picture it was too dark for anything in the image to be made out. This meant we couldn't use it to film in. We filmed in a location where there were street lights so we could actually see what the characters were doing, this was in a road next to the woods.

This is an aerial shot of the area we filmed in. The red circle shows the woods where we were going to film, and the yellow diamond shows the area were we ended up filming.

The reason as to why we weren't able to film in our first choice film location was due to the fact that our filming schedule got messed up because one of our actors was ill on the day we originally planned to film. This pushed us back in terms of time so when we finally were able to film, the early winter sunset of February put our original filming location in the dark; it would have been impossible to see what we were actually videoing. If we had had more time we might have been able to film the shot again when it was a bit lighter, but there was no other time when all of us were able to get together to film and by this point we needed to start putting together all our footage and start the editing process. 

Even though the stalker's attack wasn't filmed in our first choice location, we feel that the fact that the stalker attacked his victim in the middle of a busy road emphasises his mental state. He is obviously out of his mind since he is killing teen girls, but as he went to the extremity of doing it when other people were about it becomes more apparent to the audience of just how disturbed he is. 

Where we actually filmed our opening sequence: 

Casting Difficulties

The stalker in our film is supposed to be a middle aged man as this age group is more likely to be seen as creepy, as in a 'creepy old man'. However the stalker in our film is played by Charlie who is much younger than the character he is playing. We don't feel this made any significant change to our film though because the stalker is masked so you cant actually see how old or young looking his face is.

Our actors had to be happy with what we were going to ask them to do. Charlie was happy enough to wear the mask so it was an easy choice to pick him as our stalker for the film. Lucy was our second choice to play the victim character, but she was willing to be in the film for us and did exactly what we needed her to do and it worked out well in the end.

Location Shots

Location Shots

Our final film was set in a creepy basement and in the streets at night and we feel this adds a certain fear factor to the opening sequence. Within our area there are a variety of locations we considered that would all work well to film in.

Here is where our final filming took place:

The Basement a.k.a The Stalker's 'Den' 

We filmed the place of the stalker's 'den' in Sofia's basement. This was the perfect location for us to film these scenes in since it had a very creepy, eerie feel to it which we wanted because it would reflect the character of our stalker, and how we wanted them to be viewed by our audience. 

The pictures of our location above are screen grabs from our final film and behind the scenes video.

When we were actually in the basement filming we forgot to take any pictures. This is probably due to the fact that the basement was incredibly tiny and the ceiling was decorated with cobwebs so after we had set up the pictures on the wall and the camera on the tripod, we were ready to film and get out of there as fast as possible. It wasn't particularly easy to get down there either since it was down a set of ladders under the stairs.

The Street a.k.a Where the victim is killed

Although we originally planned on filming the stalker attacking his victim in the middle of a woods, we had to change this and film along the side of the road. 

Casting Shots

Casting Shots 

Within our opening sequence only 2 characters are shown; a young female and a male stalker. For these characters we felt it was necessary to choose people with the correct build and of course pick people who were willing to be featured in it.
Also in our opening the male needed to be bigger than the young female to portray intimidation.


Charlie Tossell as the stalker:


























Lucy Cranfield as the teenage girl/ victim:

Target Audience

Camera Shots & Angles used in Horror films

To create an authentic horror opening sequence we have chosen to research suitable camera shots and angles to give the best effects.




This shot is called Birdseye/high angle shot. These are often used in horror films to make the character that is low down look completely powerless and vulnerable. We like this shot because it portrays the weakness in the character just through a camera shot.






A close up in this genre of movie is used to show the reaction on the characters face. This is the shot that shows the most emotion from the characters. It can also be used to show detail in an important scene.









Tilt shots add a lot of dramatic tension to shots, and could simplify a supernatural being, for example, pushing or moving the camera. Its also a great way of getting a different shot of an incident across to the audience. Another effective way of using a tilt shot is to act as though the character on the floor is the victim looking up at whats happening.










A long shot are a great way to establish the scene in horror movies. They show the surrounding area of where a scene is set, and can put into perspective how deserted or creepy a location is.








Low angles can be very powerful in the way they emphasise how scary or intimidating a villain is. this shows to the audience how powerful they are, and how weak everyone else is in comparison.






Handheld camera shots are very often used in horror movies to create a sense of reality. It makes the audience feel involved and adds to the horror of the film as they feel like they are actually there. - An example of a film where this type of camera shot is used is in Paranormal Activity.





Point of view shots are taken from the point of view of the character. This is good to use in horror films because it makes the audience feel more connected to the story as they feel like everything is actually happening to them.






Over the shoulder shots are one of the best ways to build tension in a scene. They are often used in horror films to build suspense and show the character looking in the mirror, for example. It is also used a lot to show a figure stood behind a victim.

Production Logo Research

Researched Logos

In order to find inspiration for our production logo we searched for a variety of production logos. Here are a few we found:

This was the first logo we found. We felt this logo was effective as it is clear straight away that the company produce horror films. We wanted to show through our production logo that we were producing a horror film- in this example you can tell through the dark colours and font used for the writing.

We liked this logo as the words are in a different layout to most which sparks interest. This logo again uses dark colours and incorporates the image of an opening door- a generic horror feature in films. This shows an effective link between the production logo and horror films. 

The reason this logo stood out to us is because although it is simple, the font choice, 3D effect and colours all associate with a horror genre.

Our Logos

To create our production logo we used the programme Motion. The different Logos we researched gave us a range of different ideas which lead us to experiment with making a few versions before deciding on our favourite one:

This was our first logo name and style that we created, but we later decided to change the name to better fit our film. With this logo we liked the font of the writing but decided that maybe a different font would be better for our horror film.

After we decided that our first logo wasn't best fitting to our film genre we changed the name of our company as the meaning fits with our film- sinister and ghostly. We chose to add a fog effect below the writing as we felt it added an eerie element to the logo.

 After deciding this was the name we wanted to use we played around with different effects for the font and found a 3D look that worked well. We thought that the fog overpowered the writing so chose to decrease the size, so that the company name is the prominent component of our logo.

Evaluation of our Logos

The original logo we came up with was named 'Blue Moon Productions' because we thought it sounded professional and authentic,  we also felt it would be fairly simple to match an image with the name- a blue coloured moon. However we later decided to change the name as it didn't effectively portray the genre of the film, horror, which we feel is important. 

By our second logo we had decided on the name 'Eldritch Studios'. Eldritch means sinister or ghostly which immediately demonstrates the genre of the films that the studios will produce. We paired the writing with an image of fog as it mirrors a ghostly figure; we also decided to change the font of the writing. By our third attempt we added a 3D effect to the writing as we felt it was missing something and decreased the size of the fog. For our final logo we chose to keep the name 'Eldritch Studios' but changed all the other elements.  

OUR FINAL DESIGN

This is our final design. After creating our previous logos we still felt something was missing so played around with different background effects. We chose this background because it included the fog which we previously liked but in an adapted way. Also we changed the font of our title to a more suited choice. We then carried on to add audio to our Production Logo called 'Creepy music box' as it matches with the theme of our production logo. Overall although creating our production logo has been a long process we feel it has been helpful to experiment with different ideas in order to reach our final goal. It also helped us familiarise ourselves with the program Motion.