Thursday 29 September 2011

The 7th Victim (Mark Robson, 1943) Trailer

I thought this film looked interesting and relevant because of the way it mixes noir and horror elements.

Wednesday 28 September 2011

Another 3 Picture Story Breakdown

We have all done a three act picture breakdown to help get the basic story clear. This is basically the same as on the previous post.

Act 1 - Woman is Murdered

Act 2 - Detective is being haunted

Act 3 - Ghost of the woman gets revenge



3 Picture Story Breakdown

When it came to writing out our storyline we couldn't get the whole thing pieced together, however it seems so clear in our heads, so we decided to break the story down into 3 different images which made things a lot easier to get our heads around. 


Act 1 - Woman is Murdered

Act 2 - Detective is being haunted

Act 3 - Ghost of the woman gets revenge

Stroy Draft 1

This idea came from our research of Kate Morgan and was one of our first ideas, we felt that it was the most resolved storyline and it has great possibilities visually (the Victorian silhouette of the woman in black.)
More of the story came when we uncovered that there was speculation of her death being a murder which brought a crime investigation.

Draft 1

(1892)
A woman is raped and murdered in the hotel room, all that the audience see is parts of the attack through shadows and the scene ends with a gun shot.
(1920) aka ‘present day.’
Over the years the hotel has been finding guests mysteriously dying in the room 4589 every 7 years on the anniversary of the tragic death of Kate in1892 believed to be a suicide. Detective… finds an article in the news paper about the mysterious happening at the Hotel del Coronado and is curious about this case so he decides to go and investigate.
He requests to stay in room 4589, advised not to stay there by various members of staff he persists on his stay. Through various events he discovers what really happened to Kate and wants to help her unveil her murderer’s identity. He comes to find the culprit is the owner of the Hotel who used to work as a barman there.
The Detective confronts the owner and tries to get a confession, unsuccessful he fights him and drags him into the room.

Initail Story Ideas

  • Woman wanting to uncover her family history traces back to the woman at the hotel, she checks in the same day as the woman and over the stay weird things begin to happen and the suicide unveils as a murder.
  • Horror Spoof : Seance at the hotel and one by one they start dying from the awakened ghost.
  • Spoof Zombie attack, hotel turns out to be buried on an ancient burial ground.
  • Hotel was knocked down and rebuilt and a room that once existed in the hotel only appears to certain people concealing a secret.
  • The Hotel being the final resting place for souls and the room is the final doorway to crossover to the other side. (the Hotel is limbo)
  • Man visits the hotel on a business trip discovers the haunting at the hotel and is lured into the past thought dreams where the ghost woman will lead him to his death. 

Tuesday 27 September 2011

Classic 1960's Ghost Movie Trailers & Clips

 
Found out about a few cool ghost movies from the 60s and thought I would post them.
The Fall of the House of Usher (1960)


Tormented 1960



13 Ghosts 1960
(This one is hilarious lol)

Friday 23 September 2011

Research: Ghosts and Ghost Stories

As we are looking at having a paranormal feature within the story of our trailer I thought it would be ideal to have a look at some of the characteristics that go into ghost stories and the roles of ghosts in those stories.

Ghost generally tend to have several roles in a ghost story depending on what the story is about. These roles can include:

- the ghost acting as a sentinel/prophet of events to come
- the ghost acting out of aggression in need for revenge
- the ghost with unfinished business
- the ghost out to cause trouble and mayhem
- the ghost acting as a guardian

M.R. James

M.R. James, the author of Some Remarks on Ghost Stories notes five keys features present within typical English ghost stories. These are:

- Pretense of the truth
- "A pleasing terror"
- No gratuitous bloodshed or sex
- No "explanation of the machinery"
- Setting: "those of the writer's (and reader's) own day

Thursday 22 September 2011

Influence Map: Late 19th Century Furniture


'The Woman In Black' trailer




 I don't think I've seen a trailer as spine chillingly awesome as this, 'The Woman In Black'. The overall aesthetic shown in the trailer is great; dark, very creepy and the interior setting is just amazingly periodic.  And the ending is a fantastic finishing touch! I can see this being a great help for this project.

 

Wednesday 21 September 2011

Chosen Route

We have decided on the horror genre for our trailer, heading down a period style paranormal horror. The atmosphere we want to achieve will be dark, sombre and in a classical style (e.g Black Sunday.)


The story will be loosely based around the true story of Kate Morgan who allegedly committed suicide on the stairs leading to the hotel beach. Her spirit remains there haunting the hotel, she is a lonely spirt longing for her partner to find her. In her solitude she lures men to die.

We have decided to go for long continuos shots leaving the audience in a chilling suspense (e.g The Omen (2006) trailer.)


Were exploring the idea of having a gradual transition within the interior of the hotel going from present day to 1892 (the date of Kate Morgan's death.) Ending with the woman's silhouette standing on the beach. Our intention will be to make the change subtle for example changing the furniture/wallpaper etc... or even going from colour to black and white.  

Tuesday 20 September 2011

Horror Hotels

Film Poster for 1408

1408 is about a cynical writer of haunted places in search for a real paranormal experience. He receives a mysterious postcard that warning him not to stay in room 1408 at The Dolphin Hotel, ignoring the advice he takes the challenge and stays in the room. Upon entering the room he soon realises that there is something evil in the room that does not wish him to leave. Upon staying in the room he encounters more than he could ever ask for. The room itself goes through some changes for example turning to artic cold temperatures, even filling with water from a painting on the wall. The tale shows what is happening in writer Mike Enslin  head as he belives to be experiencing the trauma of the pervious 50 deaths that had occured in the room.

From a narrative piont of view the story can stay in the same place revolving around the room but still hold endless posibilities through a characters imagination. Therefore doing the same with our title 'the room at...' we could think outside of the box. 


Film Still from 1408



Retro Fest!

Here we are the second year of CG Arts and at the start of our first group project! In our Group we have Michael Holman, Kayleigh Dean and Samuel Tremain. Our Given title is... *Drumroll*

THE ROOM AT THE HOTEL DEL CORONARDO!

The first task was to uncover the Hotel Del Coronardo, a quick search on google and this is what we found...

Hotel Del Coronardo

Not quite what we were expecting visually, however there is more to this hotel than meets the eye. Reading more about the hotels history we came to find it has a hauted past and a couple of residant ghosts.

There had been sightings of a figure of a woman hauting the room 3327, believed to be the spirit of Kate Morgan from 1892,  she was 24 years old at the time of her death where she spent five days at the hotel, waiting for her lover, who never arrived... Intersting if you believe in ghosts, however her story is a useful starting point for piecing together a story, most likely heading down a Horror genre route or even a Noir crime tale of her death, with gambeling being a part of Kate Morgans life before her death.


Hotel Del Coronardo Hauting Reconstruction
On a more lighter note the Wizard of Oz was roumoured to have been written in this hotel.