Poster

One of the ancillary products I was required to make was a poster. Firstly, I needed to conduct some research and look at several posters and talk about the types e.g. teaser, billboard and what they generally contain e.g. credits, company logos etc. When I started to make the actual poster, I first had to make some rough drafts. I had two ideas - a teaser poster showing Slenderman standing in the woods all alone and a main poster based on the notes found in the game.

These first two drafts showed the poster ideas in their most simplistic way. It basically showed where the things in the poster went, simply saying what it is in a box.

 

These other two drafts were still the poster ideas, but this time drawn up, to see what they actually looked like. Obviously, on the first poster, it still says 'credits' where the credits would normally go. The reason for this is because I couldn't really be bothered to write out of the people's names and what they did, mostly because it would waste time.
 

This is the proper version of the poster, done on Microsoft Publisher. As you can see, it is based on the notes found in the game. What I did to do the tagline 'don't look...or it takes you' was that I used the 'scribble' selection on the shapes tool. I also did the same thing with the release date 'October 31'. The background was done using a texture already installed into Microsoft Office and the lines were just done using lines, split apart every 1.5 centimetres (or whatever it is). I also put in the Slender logo, which wasn't created by me, with the background removed and the BBFC rating (15) and what it contains.

I also made a variant of the poster, which wasn't really the intention. All I simply did was paste the original variant into Paint. But then, for the hell of it, I inverted the colours. I showed Adam what it looked like and he really liked it, saying that it looked it was written on a chalkboard. Everything is essentially the same, but the colours are just inverted, there have been no changes at all.

Credits font

As we all know, most film posters use practically the same font for their credits at the bottom. I think they might use this particular font so they can fit the credits at the bottom. The font I used for the poster credits is Steel Tongs.

 

 

There were a one font I did have look at called SF Movie Poster. I downloaded it at home and used it on my poster when at home, but it didn't actually look like Steel Tongs, so I didn't use it.

 

 

Film ratings

Obviously, our film needs to have a BBFC rating and the most common of these are the over-PG ratings 12, 15 and 18. Me and Adam have been thinking and we've decided to go for a 15 certificate, because despite the fact there is no extremely gory and/or s*xual content, if we did actually make a film lasting 90 minutes, there would potentially be a lot of foul language, e.g. f**k.

The 12 rating is a very uncommon certificate for horror films. Most genres that go towards 12's are action, thriller, teen comedies, mature cartoons (e.g. The Simpsons) and superhero films. In terms of mature content, sexual content can only be brief and discreet, moderate language can be used (strong language may be used only once or twice) and violence can be moderate, but not putting emphasis on injury detail. Blood can be used, as long as it's not extremely gory (for example, blood featured in the final Lord of the Rings film when Gollum bit off Frodo's finger). The only horror films classified 12 upon cinema release include Van Helsing and The Woman in Black, possibly because it didn't have much in the way of blood and the level of violence.

The 15 rating is a fairly common certificate for horror films. 15 rated films (whether it's horror or action) usually contain occassional bits of gore, for example, Hot Fuzz contains lots of gory scenes. Strong language can also be used, but the strongest forms can also be used, as long as it's appropriate. Horror films that are classified 15 include Drag Me to Hell, The Shining, The Ring and its sequel, The Ring Two.

 

The 18 rating is the most common certificate for horror films. 18 rated films show extremely mature content that is for adult viewing only (so that's appropriate for some of us). In 18 rated films, s*xual content, violent content and foul language will be very strong and frequent, but because our film would not have the first two of these if it was filmed completely, this wouldn't be the rating we would go for. Horror films that are classified 18 include The Thing (1982), Alien, Friday the 13th and its many sequels.

 

Filming plan

Me and Adam have decided on a filming plan. We planned that we will film Monday 29th October, Tuesday 30th October, Friday 2nd November and Tuesday 6th November. The following list is what scene we're going to film on these days:

• 29th October - quarry
• 30th October - car scene
• 2nd November - underpass
• 6th November - bedroom scenes

Storyboard

The following five pictures show the storyboard, which was created by Adam and a little bit of contribution by me early on until I was told to make the script. As shown, there are 10 boxes on each page, so 50 boxes had do be filled in. Adam had to draw what the shot was expected to look like and say what type of shot it is, as well as if there was any dialogue, camera movement and sound and how long each shot was expected to last. Usually, each box on a storyboard lasted 3 seconds (which, obviously, it doesn't have to) and 50 boxes means that it would last 150 seconds (2 and a half minutes). Of course, each box isn't actually going to be the exact shot; some shots may have to be different.

 

 

Script

After about four lessons, I have now completed the script, while Adam has finished the storyboard. Below is the script for the trailer. This was originally meant to be put up on here as a link so it can be viewed in Microsoft Word, but I don't know how to do that, so I thought I'd just copy the entire script in here.

Slender trailer

(DreamWorks Pictures logo in grey)

1 INT. DARK ROOM:

(a dark room with ‘DreamWorks Pictures presents’ overlaid; the door open ajar. Suddenly, a shadow passes through the light as the door closes. The door finally shuts completely. ‘A Parsec Productions film’ appears as the door shuts.)

2 EXT. TREES:

Part 1

(a girl runs through a tree-filled area, panicking, breathing heavily as she runs)

Part 2

(the girl standing in the middle of the forest looking fearful. The legs of a tall figure stand behind her*.) *When the girl stands in the middle of the forest, the camera pans around 720 degrees.

Part 3:

(the girl notices something by a tree. She sees a sheet of paper saying ‘don’t look…or it takes you’.)

Part 4:

(the girl is back in the forest, hiding behind a tree, shaking and breathing heavily. Suddenly, a hand grabs around the tree.)

Part 5:

(suddenly, the tall figure’s body peers around the tree. The faceless head lowers slowly and quickly faces the girl.*)

*Jumps to black as soon as the figure makes contact.

3 INT. CAR:

(On the phone, in the car)* (you don’t hear the boy) *This dialogue will be split apart to produce more than one part of the trailer.

GIRL (terrified)

Come on! Pick up, pick up!

 

BOY (unheard)

Hello?

 

GIRL

*exhales* I-I-I think I’m b-being followed.

 

BOY (unheard)

Wha’? What are you on about?

 

GIRL

I said I think I’m being followed.

 

BOY (unheard)

Whoa, slow down. You keep stuttering. What are you trying to say?

 

GIRL (calmer)

I’m being followed.

 

BOY (unheard)

Who by?

 

GIRL (increasingly panicky)

I don’t know!

 

BOY (unheard)

Wait, wait. Calm down. I’m home in a few days.

 

GIRL (slightly calmer)

Yeah. Yeah. Do you believe me?

 

BOY (unheard)

Umm…

 

GIRL

Do you believe me?

 

BOY (unheard)

Uh, yeah.

(the girl hangs up. Suddenly, the car swerves violently and the girl hits her head off the steering wheel.*)

*This cuts to black afterwards.

(After a few seconds, the girl starts to wake up. A shadow passes the car but the girl doesn’t notice as she’s stirs.)

4 INT. GIRL’S BEDROOM:

(the girl stands at her desk in her bedroom looking down at the notes she picked up from the trees.)

5 INT. CORRIDOR:
Part 1:

(the girl runs down the corridor, followed closely behind by a tall figure.)

(Suddenly, the girl stumbles and the tall figure leans down to grab her*.)

*During this scene, there are a lot of jump cuts to black

Part 2:

(The girl is still running with the tall figure getting closer.*)

*This jumps to black.

6. LOGO AND CREDITS:

(Slender video game logo wipes across with a glimmer of light in its usual sketched design. A huge flash appears, soon goes away and the logo reappears along with a zodiac symbol, as if carved into wood. The logo and symbol fades out)

(the film’s release date, URL and credits appear, along with the DreamWorks Pictures and Parsec Productions logos)

 

 

Production companies

Obviously, a film needs to have production companies to help out with the film. Of course, I already Parsec Productions, the company who do the game, as the production company. I just really needed to choose distributor(s), because a film isn't a film if it isn't distributed by a big name movie studio like Warner Bros. or Paramount Pictures.

The distributor I went for was DreamWorks Pictures. The main reason I chose DreamWorks was because of their logo. Over the last decade, film companies have changed their logos; e.g. Universal Pictures ditching the logo used since 1997 back in January in favour of a new one to celebrate their 100th anniversary. DreamWorks is the only movie studio that hasn't changed their logo, apart from odd little modifications e.g. bylines whenever they change owners or the owners are renamed. I could've also used Columbia and Warner Bros. for their logos but I couldn't find their distinctive print logos that I could use on the poster.

I also need to have Touchstone Pictures' logo on the poster, because, while Touchstone aren't the actual distributors of the film and DreamWorks are, they have been distributing DreamWorks films since 2010. Our film trailer will also have to have Touchstone's actual film logo at the end, because that's what trailers for DreamWorks films since Touchstone started distributing have done.