Notional BBFC rating Revised 28/10/10

If I were to rate this film I would say that it uses no swear words, no drugs, no discrimination, no nudity. But it uses mature themes of death and mistakes, horror and frightening situations, gore and violence in short takes. Sex is implied but not shown. Therefore I would rate it at 12 [BBFC]

Exhibition, Distribution and Target Audience Revised 28/10/10

A cheap horror film such as donkey punch used the distributer of optimum releasing also. Hammer Horror used the distributer of J. Arthur Rank Film Distributors Universal Pictures and Warner Home Video. Twilight's main distributer was Summit Distribution though since my film has no budget I would use Optimum Releasing as in donkey punch.  

The title Mistake is polysemic so the image I use would have to be too to draw the audience in to find out the preffered reading. Twilight's image signifies love which attracts a female audience The ginger hair colour appeals to those that feel as though they are outsiders as ginger signifies this therefore signifies the narrative is emotional and relatable. The pale colours and red eyes of the man however  appeal to mainly men who are interested in gothic horror. The use of youthful characters appeals to a younger audience. A lot of films try to appeal to a younger audience because it is stereotypical for youth to be less sensible with their money. I will use youths and signify love similarly to twilight. However  I will also use the male gaze and blood in mine to appeal to a male audience. I also like the way this poster to the left has used red typography to signify the genre. Like Hot Fuzz did if I were to make this in the real world I might make a game, a website a madam tusaudes exhibit and distribute through deals with McDonalds.  The best way of drawing an audience in is through trailers If I were to make one I only show the pinnacle moments of the equilibrium disequilibrium and leave the resolution polysemic to create narrative enigma. I will have a female voice over and titles in a gothic font to signify the genre as horror/ romance. All the exposition would have to show vampires to appeal to a gothic male audience. Many cheap horror film's use television  nowadays to exhibit their product Zone Horror channel advertise a film a month with their Horror of the Month. The problem with television advertising is that the trailer would have to be re-made or put post watershed.

Alternative Production Company Logo Revised 28/10/10

Deciding a Vampire Image Revised 28/10/10

To start off experimenting with a vampire image I put just the fangs on. I found that the best facial expression was with the mouth just slightly open the more open m mouth was the more the falsness of the teeth was revealed. Also a low angle shows off more of the fangs. This image is too natural and not frightening or believable.

For the next image I I added grey, white and black makeup this made me look more undead and was scarier.

For the next image I added blood this is good because it focuses the audiences attention on the fangs and appeals to a male audience because it signifies violence.

For this next image to the right I wet my hair and spiked it up this signifies teenage well.

Slicking back my hair was like the vampires such as on Dracula but was not realistic or modern in appearance therefore not as believable I will probably use a vampire with dry hair, blood round their mouth, pale make up and red contact lenses.

Gothic Horror in Television Revised 28/10/10

Because TV is lower budget than film and more contained I will look at it to get more ideas for my opening.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 1 Episode 1 [IMDB]

• Begins with a panning long shot of a mansion with and it is dark to signify horror
• The high pitch piano notes are also a signifier of the genre
• The colouring looks slightly black and white to signify the authentic Dracula films and a flashback
• The camera tracks roun a classroom the baroness signfifies fearfullness the desks signify a classroom and the biological mise en scene forboades the narratives of blood thirst.
• The slow violins relax the audience
• The smaishing sound is unpredictable therefore frightens the audience
• The man comes through first which is a stereotypical representation of gender as men are powerfull and brash and signifies he is the protaganist
• The woman is blonde and has a low cut top to appeal to the male gaze
• The 2 are young which is countertypical of the genre and apeals to a younger audience
• They use the false scare of the trap door opening to mislead the audience into the preffered that the girl is a victim
• The girl is counterypically a powerfull vampire
• The red sans serif gothic title signify the genre and the rock music appeals to a teenage audience. 

 Young Dracula Season 1 Episode 1 [IMDB]

• The first shot pan's from the unconventional daylight sky to an english village which is countertypical of the genre and an american audience would not understand the preffered reading of it as it is not stereotypical britain and famous landmarks
• The use of a child's voice signifes it is made for children and the harp signifes a peacfull atmosphere
• The takes are polysemic shots of a village to create narrative enigma that become closer to the setting of the characters
• The binary oposites of Dracula's gothic horror car, the rural village, the harp music and the lightening sound create humour
• From the lightening sound there is a shot of the protaganists face saying "I'm a vampire" which is counterypical because it is a normal looking child
• The sound of a choir and low piano notes begins and wee see the special effekt of a castle with a storm above it.

True Blood Season 1 Episode 1 [IMDB]

• Begins with counterypical upbeat music and the shot of traveling up road at night
• Then a counterypical shot of a woman driving with a man sleeping the shot is a two shot signifying they are in a relationship
• The female is dressed in a low cut top, flirtatios and blonde to appeal to the male gaze she expresses her teeth a lot which signifies she could be a vampire
• A sexual activity is signified by a cut away shot of the bans face and woman smiling at him
• The use of a sexual actitvity and 20-30 year old actors signifies the inteded audience is 16-40
• The signify that the universe within the camera is fantasy by the use of a sign wich says "We have tru blood" and a news inteview with a vampire.

The Vampire Diaries Season 1 Episode 1 [IMDB]

• The man is stereotypically driving
• Conventionall it is dark and a mysterios object is stood in the road
• The use of the windscreen crach signifes it's high budget
• The use of 20-30 year old actors and violence signifies its for a 16-40 year old audeice mal and low class
• The music is rock music to apeal to a younger audience
• The use of a smashed windscreen signifies the production is high budget
• The music pitch lowers and slows as the realisation intenisifies
• The blolnde female stereotpycally cries and is a victim who stays in the car and calls for help while the male goes out to have a look
• The slow music settles the audience and get's them unready for the realisation the body is a vampire and is about to jump up and bite the male
• The vampireness is signified by a close up on the biting
• The titles are red and sans serif to signify the genre

Gothic Horror in Literature Revised 28/10/10

Gothic Horror began in the 18th Century as a genre of horror that combines both romance and horror. it is generally believed to have been invented by the English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel

The Castle of Otranto [WIKI]

• 3 people get married but the groom is crushed by a helmet that falls from the sky
• Another lord desperatly marries the bride becasue he believes the grooms death was a signifier of his own downfall
• The bride escapes to a castle with the help of a peasant
• The lord orders the killin of the peasant
• The peasant helps the bride escape to a church and as the peasant lifts his shirt to be killed the lord realises the peasant is his son
• They are interupted in the killing by knights who beg for the bride
• The lord  rushes of to free the bride from the castle where he thinks she is
• The lords daughter frees the peasant from being locked up
• The peasant goes to the church where the bride is
• The peasant hides the bride in a cave and fights on of the knights
• He wounds the knights who is the brides father
• The lord stabs the bride thinking it is his daughter
• The peasant is then revealed to be the true Lord of the land who marries the bride

The narrative is unlike today's gothic horror because the characters are all human. However it does invovle castles, churches and a sense of class and power.

The first use of vampires was used in WAKE NOT THE DEAD by Johann Ludwig Tieck but the first famous vampire story was:

The Vampyre by John William Polidori [WIKI]

• Aubrey meets the mysterious Lord Ruthven
• Aubrey accompanies Ruthven to Rome, but leaves him after Ruthven seduces the daughter of a mutual acquaintance
• Aubrey becomes attracted to Ianthe
• Ianthe tells Aubrey about the legends of the vampire
• Ruthven arrives at the scene and shortly thereafter Ianthe is killed by a vampire
• The pair are attacked by bandits and Ruthven is mortally wounded.
• Ruthven then begins to seduce Aubrey's sister while Aubrey, helpless to protect his sister, has a nervous breakdown.
• Ruthven and Aubrey's sister are engaged to marry on the day the oath ends. Just before he dies, Aubrey writes a letter to his sister revealing Ruthven's history, but it does not arrive in time. Ruthven marries Aubrey's sister, kills her on their wedding night, and escapes

As you can see male again dominates and hierachy is shown now the dominant figure is the vampire yet it still contains elements of love.

One of the most famous Gothic Horror stories is the story of Frankenstein.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelly [WIKI]

 Walton tells his sister the story of Victor Frankenstein and his creature as Frankenstein tells it to him. Walton sets out to explore the North Pole and expand his scientific knowledge in hopes of achieving fame and friendship.
Unfortunately, the ship becomes trapped in ice.
One day, the crew observes a being in the stature of a giant man in the distance on a dogsled. Frankenstein was in pursuit of his monster, when all but one of his dogs from his dogsled died.
He broke apart his dogsled to make oars to row an ice-raft toward the vessel.
Hours later they find Frankenstein, weak and in need of sustenance, near the ship.
Saved by the kind occupants of the ship, Frankenstein starts to recover from his exertion and recounts to Walton his story, warning Walton of the wretched effects of allowing one's ambition to push one to aim beyond what one is capable of achieving.

• Victor Frankenstein (a scientist) is raised by a wealthy family and has an interest in science
• He studies how life decay's and his mother dies from scarlett fever
• He makes the monster and brings it to life but frightened by its apearance he runs away
• His friend is murdered by the monster
• The monster becomes affraid of humans and lives in a cottage he becomes educated and realised his loneliness
• The monster seeks to befriend people even abducting a little boy for companytrying to silence him he kills the boy
• He demands Frankestein makes him a female companion
• Frankestein is unsure another monster could do more harm so the monster gets mad and kills somone else and Frankestein is imprisoned after prison he lives with his father
• The monster kills Frankensteins wife and with grief kills his father
• Frankenstein agress to pusue the monster untill one of them gets killed they end up in the Artic

This was one of the first Gothic Horror stories to include a character that was victim to their power. It's interesting that the narrative is often not known yet the monster is. It is because of the association of Frankenstein the Novel as including the unique significant monster that Frankenstein became known as the monster's name. With so many intertextual references of Frankenstein and Dracula the narrative becomes lost but the charaters remain.

Dracula by Bram Stoker [WIKI]

• Jonathan Harker travels to Count Dracula's crumbling, remote castle to get legal support to Dracula for a real estate transaction overseen by Harker's employer
• Harker falls under the spell of three wanton female vampires, the Brides of Dracula
• He is saved at the last second by the Count, because he wants to keep Harker alive to obtain needed legal advice
• He arrives on the shores of Whitby all of the crew are missing
• Dracula is tracking Harker's devoted fiancée, Wilhelmina "Mina" Murray, and her friend, Lucy Westenra
• Lucy begins to waste away suspiciously.
• Van Helsing immediately determines the cause of Lucy's condition
• Lucy and her mother are attacked by a wolf. Mrs Westenra, who has a heart condition, dies of fright, and Lucy apparently dies soon after.
• Van Helsing, knowing that this means Lucy has become a vampire stake her heart, behead her, and fill her mouth with garlic
• After Dracula learns of Van Helsing and the others' plot against him, he takes revenge by visiting—and biting— Mina at least three times.
• It is only possible to detect Dracula's surroundings when Mina is put under hypnosis by Van Helsing
• Dracula flees back to his castle in Transylvania
• Van Helsing's group, who manage to track him down just before sundown and destroy[3] him by shearing "through the throat" with a knife and stabbing him in the heart also with a knife. Dracula crumbles to dust, his spell is lifted and Mina is freed from the marks.

This is the most famous vampire and therefore although again not an origninal part of the plot this vampire became known as Lord of Vampires because of his fame. All these stories are written pre 20th century Twilight is a book written recently that induced the film.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer [WIKI]

• Bella who recently moved attracts a lot of competition over her from boy's
• On her first day she is sat next to Edward Cullen who is repuled by her and has to move away
• Bella is nearly run over but Edward saves her
• Bella wunders why he saved her and eventually workes out he is a vampire they fall in love
• James another vampire want's to hunt Bella for sport
• Before she is killed Edward rescues her
• Realising she is bitten Edward sucks the venom from Bella's hand Bella want's to be a vampire but Edward refuses

What made this appeal is because the story is set in a highschool and involves the sweet man vs an unpleasant man which is similar to the narrative of Rom Com's and is relational to a modern audience. Also it appeals to a female audience because the male is considerate about his dominance.

Revised Narrative Revised 28/10/10

Our second narrative was to have the male vampire stalking the girl chasing her and eventually catching up with her and biteing her. The girl wakes up out of a daydream in a classroom and sees the boy she bit on the other side of the classroom  looking embarresed about his mistake of going out with her. She is ashamed by her mistake she couldn't help biteing him but she does she is a victim to her vampireness like in Twillight.

Deciding a Title Revised 28/10/10

To decide a title we wanted something that would relate to our narrative and implies love and vampires.
We thought Love Bite but this was allready taken by many films and a song.
We though Blood Rage

• Bitten
• Eternal Love
• We looked on IMDB and searched for old horror film titles that are no longer in use we saw:
• Kiss of a Vampire
• Mark of a Vampire
• We searched on a name generator:
• Fang Fright
• Stake of destiny
• Stake of Death

Before eventually deciding Mistake as in Mi(stake) to relate to vampires and love.

Gothic Horror Sumary Revised 28/10/10

Gothic Horror Films tend to include darkness a gothic sans serif font and a fantasy villain with an exegrated flaw or power. They tend to be set in the past and to have older powerfull villains such as in Dracula. However more recent examples such as Twighlight have more noramal looking appearances and a victim to their vampireness this film was also countertypically set in the day. Fog, pale faces, blood, fangs and blue light all seem to appear in expecially vampire films. Often the horror play's on sexual and somtimes romantic desires many victims are female to appeal to the male gaze such as in The Satanic Rights of Dracula. Castle's, forrests and mansions all appear to be the settings for horror films although The Lost Boy's used a fun fair we chose a forest for ours because it is easiest to get hold of. Lightening, storms, moonlight and fog we will have to create to stay within the conventions of our genre.

Specific Film Opening Research - Even More Gothic Horror Revised 14/10/10

The Devil Rides Out by Terence Fisher 1968 [IMDB]

• Terence Fisher is an Auteur within this genre
• The film conventionally begins with the company logo
• The music is played over polysemic shots of satanic symbols to create narrative enigma
• The preffered reading of the snakes, the goats head, the cross and the stars is satan
• The use of red smoke signifies ritual
• The titles are in sans serif font this is typical of the genre
• The film opens with a long shot of a plane signifying wealth
• Then pans down to a two shot of the binary oposites of a rich man signified by his suit and hat and his servant signified by his grey overcoat uniform.
• The use of the old fashioned car and 1920's costumes signifies the past

Decadent Evil by Charles Band 2005 [IMDB]

• This film uses medium shot of a Vampire who has long black hair a black cloak a pale face  which is stereotypical of the genre however he is young and modern also he uses a sowrd which is counterypical of the genre since vampires don't need them.
• The vampires are also in a castle this is shown by a tilted low angle shot which also signifes their power
• The voice over signifies the ptoaganist and provides exposition
• Later on in this film the piece uses female vampires which is countertypical but apeals to the male gaze

Quatermass and the Pit by Roy Ward Baker 1967 [IMDB]

• This film begins with orchestral Music and a picture of a skull on a black background to signify death
• The sans serif white typography appears to the side to sginfiy a documentary style film
• The orchestral music is typical of films of the time
• The policmens uniform signfies the past though this preffered reading would have only have been understood by an english audience who know the modern uniform
• Foreign audiences may denote that the setting is London from the use of the sign "Underground"
• Presenting britain in the past is a stereotypical view of britain
• The use of fog and darkness is stereotypical of the genre.
• The begging shots use high angle shots to signify vulnerability

Props Revised 28/10/10

     To decide on our fangs we looked on the internet we want fangs that would look real and scary.So we reasearched over the internet. We will not need blood. We will need makeup which we can buy and possibly some paling makeup.

Adapted Company Animation/Logo Revised 28/10/10

While this may fit my production I will need to shorten it. A lot of people preferred the first so I may use it as it was. I also may remove the soundtrack to fit the atmosphere of the beginning of the production.

Company Animation Logo Revised 21/10/10

Revised Narrative Revised 21/10/10

To get the basic idea of a person having a vision we could do either of these:

• Have the protaganist having a nightmare
• Have the protaganist having a day dream
• Have the protaganist seeing things that aren't their

We decided to have the protaganist in a day dream and possibly use a medium still frame like in dawn of the dead and napolean dynamite but in ours she would have a loving look rather than a gormless look to signify romance and appeal to a female audience.

• Why a vampire and a female would be out in the middle of nowhere at night:
• We could either have them camping.
• Not have it at night.
• Or have it in a more commonly used area for a teenager.
• Perhaps theirs other people and it's a party.

We decided to use the camping idea so we could still have it at night and still stick within the conventions of the genre to frighten our audience.

• Why the vampire chases the protaganist.
• He loves her.
• He cannot help it he's a vampire.
• He's a rapist or totally evil.

We decided to include the use of love to appeal to a female audience and we decided to show the vampire as a victim to his vampireness as in Twighlight.We decided to go with a young countertypical vampire because it is easier to create.

Podcast 3- Revised Narrative Revised 21/10/10

Location Scouting Revised 21/10/10

Specific Film Opening Research - More Gothic Horror (Vampires) Revised 12/10/10

Dracula Prince of Darkness by Terrance Fisher 1966 [IMDB]

• The red gothic sans serif font signifies the genre 
• The picture is surrouned by a smoking frame this signifies that we are looking into the past the smoke also signifies magic and power
• The castle what we origninally see is a strong signifier of the genre often used as this is with darkness, storms and lightening.
• The castle also signifes this film is stet in the past
• The use of an orchestra is more commonly used in pre 1990 films while more modern films have a few intruments and commonly high pitch piano notes
• The orchestra chrashendo's as the action climaxe's
• The villain is stereotypicaly dressed in black, tall, male has slick backed hair, is pale and being male uses violence to control the situation which is also stereotypical.
• Dracula is signified as the protaganist because he is the first character seen.
• The voice over provides exposition.
• Religious imagery of a cross is juxtaposed next to the violence and gore as a shock cut religion commonly used in gothic horror.
• The film uses special effects that a modern audience would not believe because they're used to seeing special effect's that are more advanced. 
• The next scene begins with a female dead which appeals to the male gaze because she is attractive and the woman crying after her is also stereotypical and represents the view of woman at the time.  

Blood Rayne II: Deliverance by Uwe Boll 2007 [IMDB]

• This film begins with a slideshow of sepia images of the wild west 
• It focuses on train pictures and farming pictures to provide exposition although this is still polysemic to create narrative enigma.
• The warm colours and realistic cheerfull pictures is countertypical to the genre.
• When we enter the main set we pan down into a village. 
• They use the binary oposites of a scruffily dressed muscly  cowboy man in a cowboy hat and thick jacket and a suited  fat man with a birefcase and a bowler hat stepping in all the pudles. 
•  They past is signified by the use of sepia pictures at the begining, the use of candle light and their costumes which are formal and invlove hats.
• The use of a setting in the past and a dark candlelite setting is stereotypical to the genre

Twilight by Catherine Hardwicke 2008 [IMDB]

• The scene begins with a voice over signifying that they are the protaganist
• The voiceover is countertypical of the genre because it is a female voice which signifies rom com.
• The use of daylight is also countertypical of the genre but signifies the title.
• The use of a forrest is stereotypical of a genre.
• The dear is an intertextual reference to Bambi.
• The take to begin with is long and pans down onto the dear to signify vulnerability.
• The takes then become shorter as it is chased to signify action.
• They use a flash cut between this and the next scene to signify memory or a cut in time.
• The camera zooms in then on the protaganist in a mysterious setting of the destert.
• The camera pans over to the husband of the protaganist's mother as it's said to signify the camera is her thoughts.

The Satanic Rights of Dracula by Alan Gibson 1973

• It uses upbeat cocktail music to appeal to the audience of the time.
• The typography is sans serif and gothic to signify the genre.
• The trumpets crashendo with the title Dracula.
• The begining shots are of famous landmarks of London to clarify the preffered reading of the setting to a large audience.
• There is an editing effect of a shadow which increases in size.
• The first shot is a long shot of a mansion with a light with a blue filter shone on it to signify horror.
• The arial shot of people in cloakes stood around a star signifieas, satanicness, religioun and the past.
• However this shot is juxtaposed next a shot of a guy in a controll room to anchore that it is the present.
• In the satanic ritual involves a female victim to appeal to the male gaze this is stereotypical of woman and signifies it is for an adult audiecee because it contains nudity.

Brotherhood of Blood by Michael Roesch 2007 [IMDB]

• Begins in a cave to signify the genre.
•  There is a female victim whic is stereotypical and apeals to the male gaze because she is blonde.
• The candle light also signifies horror.
• The use of scruffy clothing signifies the villains are outcasts.
• The use of a blowtorch signifies power.

Casting, Costumes and Makeup Revised 21/10/10

Vampire Stereotype

• Fangs
• Pale
• Red eyes
• Deep voice
• Greased back hair
• 19th Century black coat
• Older
• Powerful and villainous

More Recent Representations of Vampires

• Teenage
• Fangs
• Pale
• Everyday modern clothing
• Red Eyes
• Sexual
  
• A victim to their Vampirism
• Outsider
• Atractive 

Werewolves

• 1/2 Man 1/2 Wolf
• Furry
• Growling
• Snout
• Sharp Teeth
• No Sympathy
• Large
• Angry
• Powerful

Horror Victims

• Blonde
• Atractive
• Useless
• Screaming
• Emotional

Revised Narrative Revised 21/10/10

We know that were going to have the protagonist having having a gothic horror nightmare or vision. It will be either a vampire or a werewolf chasing the protagonist.  The protagonist will wake up and the audience will find out that this vision is real from a bite or a scratch.

We will make it appeal to our teenage audience by having a teenage protagonist, we will appeal to a female audience by suggesting romance with the villain by having a photograph before the chase that shows the protagonist possibly a  female holding the hand of  a male the identity of this person will be signified by a watch which wee will see the villain having to signify the villain is the person in the photograph. The outcome of the chase will have lots of polysemy to create narrative enigma. The chase will be signified as a dream by unusual lighting or echoed sound. The protagonists bedroom will depend on the gender of the protagonist it will need a mirror so that they can find the bite or scratch to signify the dream really happened. The bedroom may also signify the protagonist as a romantic perhaps the romance was lost when the villain became either a vampire or a werewolf.

Our age-group are used to high budget films with lots of special effects so to appeal to our audience we would need to signify as much gore without spending much. Also on a site such as Youtube the most viewed hits are ones of stunts, humor, animals, babies, pranks and music. We may film some animals in the forrest if we can find them it may be insects or birds or a pet cat within the house. The chase may include lots of jumping,  hiding and tripping over. We may record a  non diagetic rock band as this appeals to teenagers too. Our genre appeals to predominantly males so to appeal to females to we have included a female protagonist and romance. Our audience of our original anamatic did not connote the preferred reading of the film as seriously as we hoped therefore we have made ours not silly but not  too dark.

Audience Response Revised 21/10/10

We first screened Biteing by me the audience understood the preffered reading of the narrative once I explained it. Vampire Horror has a large market recently with films like "Twilight" hence is appealed to our audience. However the narrative was not very subtle and could have been less cliched I thought about adding a modern twist such as the vampire has a virus that controlls his mind. I also thought about using a teenage vampire to apeal to my teenage audience as they responded well to this in the animatic. They found some eliments humorous hence I may make the narrative less dark and more beleivable. Another issue is that my origninal narrative is set at night, in a graveyard, in the dark and with a vampire which is both a makeup, setting and lighting challenge that may be hard to achieve.

The Vision by Jonathon Bailey was screened next the audience struggled to denote the preffered reading even once it was explained. They couldn't understand what the vision was of and how they came to meet the vision.

We thought about combining our ideas so that the Vision had a clearer narrative and Biteing had a more subtle narrative. We thought that we could include a teenage girl to appeal to our teenage audience and have her haviong dreams that she is being chased by a vampire. When she wakes she realises has been bitten because she looks in the mirror.