research into similar characters

Research into similar characters
seen as we are doing a zombie/outbreak type of film, it would be good to look into some of the other characters that dominate this category from the popular to the obscure. I will look into 5 different characters from 5 different films such as the shy survivalist "ohio" played by Eesse Eisenberg in ZombieLand or the tough as nails loner robert neville played by Will Smith in i am legend. All of these characters survive their little slice of hell in different ways so it could provide some insight into how we should adapt our characters to their situations.

Robert neville (I Am Legend)
Robert Neville is a scientist that tried to stop the spread of a man made virus but failed, he is now the only survivor in new york and the rest of the human race have been turned into nocturnal zombies hungry for flesh. He has his trusty companion, his dog "Sam" and has survived for three years looking to synthesise a cure to the deadly virus from his own immune blood. To stop himself from going insane he posts manakins all over the now desolate new york city, acting out scenarios to keep himself sane. He also posts a daily message trying to reach out to any survivors in the united states, after three years of trying he finally finds someone else who is still alive. This character is a protagonist and is portrayed as a strong survivor in need of help from nobody, he is also well armed and well trained, with a strict regime that makes sure he gets back to his armoured fortress of a house before sun down. He later makes the ultimate sacrifice when he lets a grenade off whilst fighting the hordes off so the other survivors can escape.

Ohio (ZombieLand)
Ohio is a college student far away from home trying to make his way back across the state to his hometown, whilst doing this he is pursued by an endless horde of zombies that want to eat his flesh. Although he doesn't have a companion to keep him alive he does have a set of rules to fill the space, each one of these rules is different and relates to a certain area of survival e.g. knowing your way out of a building for a quick escape or doing exercise to make sure the zombies don't catch you off guard. As he journeys back across the states he finds a gun toting badass named "Tallahassee" and two con artist sisters named "wichita" and "Little rock, each of them want different things but somehow the rag tag band of survivors make it work as a team and survive out the apocalypse. They are well armed, equipped with a vast armoury of long range and melee weapons meaning they can hold their own against the amassing hordes of flesh hungry zombies.

Shaun (Shaun Of The Dead)
shaun is a middle aged man who works at an electronics store, uncontent with his daily existence he tries to get the love of his life "Liz" back and what better time to do it than in the middle of a zombie apocalypse?. With his best friend and partner in crime "Ed" he carries out his rather pathetic survival strategy, which is to go down to the local and "wait for all of this to blow over". Deciding to bring his mum and his love interest's friends with him, they all wait out the end of the world in the Winchester. Everything is going fine until Ed alerts the zombies to their whereabouts and armed with only a shotgun, things don't bode well for this group. As everyone is slowly picked off, including his best friend Ed the army arrives saving Liz and Shaun just in time.

R (Warm Bodies)
This one see the classic tail of the flesh munching kind turned on its head, with the protagonist being a zombie this time we see the tale told differently. The zombie is known only as "R" because thats all he can remember in his undead state, he slowly traipses around feasting on humans until he comes across julies group where he eats her boyfriend and then endeavours to protect her, its this that sets him on a course to slowly regain his humanity. This course is then replicated by the rest of the undead population which puts them at risk from the advanced staged zombies know at the bonies, the humans and zombies then band together for the mutual good of both species, fending of the Bonies and learning to co-exist.

Martin, Roy and Erlend (Dead Snow)
Martin, Roy and Erlend travel into the wilderness to a shack in the middle of nowhere for some well deserved R and R together, when they are approached by a weird old man who tells them of the town that used to be there, the townsfolk revolted against the nazis and drove them up into the freezing mountains where they perished. The medical students dismiss this creepy old guy and carry on the festivities, drinking and shouting and drinking even more. That is until they start to notice mysterious figures amassing on the horizon, could the old man be right.... of course he's right. Which means the three party animals are gonna have to sprint across the snow covered mountain tops for their lives, barely amed save for a few power tools most of the surviving in this film is done by good old fashioned brawling or just running at top speed away from the hordes.

In conclusion there are quite a few different ways we could portray our characters before they are killed off, but most likely we arent going to portray them in any way apart from a couple in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Public Questionaire

Questionnaire

(Participants are briefed about the plot before answering the following questions:)

(Asking a minimum of 10 people)

1)     Judging by the plot, who is our target audience? ............................................................................................. ............................................................................................. ............................................................................................. .............................................................................................

2)     Judging by the plot, what is our genre? ..............................................

3)     Does our film conform to the generic conventions of   the genre? Why/why not? .................. ............................................................................. ............................................................................. ..............................................................................

4)     What could we improve? .............................................................................................. .............................................................................................. ............................................................................................ ............................................................................................

5)     Would you go and watch our film? ................................................................................

Treatment: Full film

Z-bola
(A combination of the word 'zombie' and the disease Ebola)

Duration: 97 minutes

Audience: 15-25 year old horror/ zombie enthusiasts. This target audience is also fitting to our age certificate of 15.

Distributor: Hammer Film's
This company specialises in the genre of our film, horror. The film also distributed a film titled 'The Plague of The Zombie', this film continued to inspire future zombie films, we therefore hope by using this distributor our film will go on to have the same success.

Synopsis of story:
A virus titled 'Z-bola' spreads through the UK infecting people through a transmission of bodily fluids. The film follows the post-apocalyptic life of protagonist Matt. Through his journey he meets a group of survivors on the way to a 'safe camp'. Within the group is Stella a pessimistic woman who takes convincing that life can be better. On their journey the two fall in love. Along the way they battle through shuffling hoards of 'zombies' and lose many loved ones.

Suggested elements:
The film will be non linear as it will feature flashbacks to life before the virus outbreak. It will also feature a montage in the middle of the film showing how the survivors have been travelling for days through different types of weather and terrain.

Treatment: First two minutes.

"Z-bola" 

Duration: 2 mins
Audience:
Younger viewers with an already established interest into horror films particularly the sub genre zombie thriller.

Distributor: Hammer films.
They specialise in horror films and are a small independent company.

Synopsis of story:
A new virus breaks out which causes people to turn into flesh eating zombies, because of this a young girl is watching the news which spooks her because her boyfriend is running late. He eventually arrives and she questions his lateness and is shut down and called paranoid. Just after this altercation he ventures outside for a cigarette during his break he is ambushed by a zombie. A scuffle occurs where he eventually wins but is left with a bite mark.

Suggested elements.

The film be non linear because it will make use of flashbacks and make use of montage sequences.

Investigation into distributors

Investigation into distributors
usually when a film is made its goes through a process of production which is the actual making of the film, distribution which is finding someone to advertise and make the public aware of your film, and exhibition which is the actual showing of your film in cinemas and other venues. I am going to look into possible companies that could distribute our film and how they would do it, i will look into 3 possible independent companies that distribute horror films because that is the overall genre of our film.

Brain Damage Films
since 2001 brain damage films has been one of the most respected distribution companies worldwide, they specialise in indie horror and shocking or disturbing films. Their catalog of hundreds of classics ranges from old shock films like "Traces of death" to newer, more high quality features. The way they distribute the films is through advertising for them, they then put the films on their site for people to buy. They are essentially an online entity that sells films, like netflix but smaller.

The film collaborative
The film collaborative is the first non profit website that is dedicated to the distribution and facilitation of movies, not just horror, but many other film categories too. They offer a full range of distribution, educational marketing advice and advocacy to independent filmmakers looking to reach traditionally unserved audiences. And best of all is they achieve these goals without ever needing breach the owners intellectual property rights.

left film 
left film's are a forward thinking distributor that pumps out great independent genre films for the UK audience, they work on the UK distribution of new independent genre films in cinema, on DVD and download. They also have an online presence on social media, advertising their products on Twitter and Facebook.

Research into horror- Generic Conventions

Research into horror

From the start our group knew that we wanted to do a horror film.However we realized that there are many different variations in horror.In order not to restrict ourselves by getting stuck on one idea we   brain stormed individually in order to come up with different concepts on horror.After sharing our idea's we decided that we liked the idea of a zombie horror.

Sub Genre: Zombie Horror

In order to research this topic I have watched many films in this genre and have found that there are recurring themes that allow the audience to identify that the film there watching is zombie horror.Therefore allowing them to decide if to continue watching or not.

Some of the more prominent reoccurring themes in Zombie horror are;

The story line;

The majority of zombie story lines rely on the idea that there is some kind of epidemic that affects the majority of the population in the film.You then have a few main characters,(maximum of 5), 

often loved ones eg; friends or family.The key characters are slowly killed or affected by the virus,leaving the main character isolated and left with the task of saving the city alone.Although,sometimes the main character finds comfort and companionship with a potential love interest.

Few survivors;

I have found that multiple zombie horror films only have minimal characters.This is done for a variety of reasons, the most prominent being to create a strong feeling of isolation.This translates to the audience,and allows them to empathize with the characters almost immediately.Also it intensifies the film as your focus is drawn to only a few characters, therefore your concentration is not diluted by numerous sub plots and different characters.

In order for a film to conform to a certain genre it often uses iconography to make it easier for the film to be identified and categorized as that genre e.g; Zombie horror.

The iconography for Zombie horror are ;

Blood and gore; 

In zombie films there tends to be an excess of blood,gore and violence.This is due to the nature of zombies and there cannibal instincts.Also as a result of them being un-dead, people/characters attempts to kill zombie's just results in limbs coming off etc.

Weapons;

In zombie films a helpless victim often gets attacked.Due to the nature of the attack the victim often defends themselves with a random object e.g ;plant pot.However as the film escalates the main characters carry weapons in order to defend themselves at any given time.This is where the more serious weapons are introduced to film e.g;knives and guns.

Examples

-Knives

-Guns

-Plant pots

-Baseball bat

-Axes 

Death related items;

These items often represent the strong presence of the un-dead and therefore set the scene for the zombies.

The mise en scene in the film is an integral way of identifying the genre of the film and often contain multiple generic conventions,for example;

Deserted locations;

The location in which zombie film's are set is often desolate.This is as a result of the zombie epidemic and helps demonstrate the scale of the problem.This again helps create the feeling of isolation,creating an atmosphere for the film to run with.

Low-key lighting;

Numerous zombie films rely on low key lighting to create a sense of anticipation and a scary atmosphere.The lack of lighting also lends itself to the idea of a deserted,unkempt town with no electricity for lighting.

Costumes;

The stereotypical dress of a zombie is everyday clothes,but they are torn,dirty and bloodied.The zombies themselves have messy hair and a vacant expression,with the blood of there last victim smeared across their face.

Music/sound;

The right choice of sound/music for the film contributes greatly to the films atmosphere.However in film of this genre sounds and music are minimal as it reflects the silence of the deserted city.When there is music it is often slow and quiet.This creates a sense of anticipation and foreshadows what is to come.

(Insert examples of this type of music)

Costumes

Costumes 

In order to reinforce a sense of reality and therefore verisimilitude we decided to wear costumes.Not only did this give the characters another dimension ; as our audience was able to see the characters personality expressed through the way they dressed,it also added to mise en scene.

All characters were dressed in casual,day to day clothing,including the zombie.However the zombie protagonist clothes, despite being causal, were covered in blood and were ripped etc. The zombie character also wore make up to enhance the reality of the character.

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Props

Props

In order to create a strong sense of verisimilitude in our film,we used a variety of props from a simple family photo to a fake leg.The props allow the audience to sustain their suspense of believe,as they validate certain situations.For example; if in reality a person was attacked by a zombie, you would expect the zombie to attack in an animal like manor ,therefore tearing limbs etc. The use of the fake leg as a prop allows the audience to remain immersed in the film as the scene co-operates with the audiences expectations of the situation.

     Props used

• Fake leg 
• Family photos 
• Plant pot 
• Backpack