Locations Ideas

This is a mood board, demonstrating the types of location that I feel I would like to use for my film.
As I live in a rather quiet countryside community, I thought I would make use of my surroundings and base my horror film in the same sort of area. While most see Cornwall as the quaint, relaxing area it is, my film will show the locations from a different perspective; a horrifying, featureless, isolated land where no one can even hear you scream.

The first image shows Bodmin town. Though the town can be rather busy at times, I plan to shoot mainly in the quieter areas, with much more greenery and rather solitary country paths. Again, to add to the idea of isolation in a horrifying situation, I plan to avoid the more urbanised locations, such as the image shown.

The second image is of the primary church in Bodmin. Despite it’s being by a very busy main road, it is a location I am considering shooting due to its sizeable graveyard which, if caught with the right atmosphere, could work wonders with the horror of my zombie film.

Images three to six demonstrate well the sort of location I am looking for to shoot a lot of my film. The areas are vast, almost silent with dilapidated landmarks that really send a chilling feeling to those who see them. Also, the various jagged rocks in the ground could double up and old gravestones in my film, setting particularly terrifying scenes as my zombies rise from them.

The final image perfectly displays the sort of atmosphere and shots that can be achieved by these quieter setting when caught at the right time. Even if the filming does not go so well in terms of weather occurrences and such, use of editing can create the looks that I desire.

Film Synopsis

Synopsis

Dead Country is a welcome return to the classic zombie-horror films, with a spine-tingling twist! Composed in the style of the horrifying George A. Romero films, such as Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, but with the power of modern technology behind it, Dead Country promises to send audiences to the edge of their seat and beyond to hiding behind their seats!

The story begins in the country town of Penrywith, a small community sat far out in the hills of the Southwest. Oliver, a courageous teenage boy struggling to adapt to life in the country after moving from the city, finds that the community offers the one thing that scares him the most; Isolation.
Little does he know that his true fears are about to be realized as the terror of the dead begin crawling from their graves, hungry for the flesh of humankind!

With little help to be found in the vast fields of Penrywith, and the creeping creatures lurking around every corner, skulking in every bush and even raising from the ground to quench their thirst for blood, Oliver and his newfound friends must face challenges to test both their bodies and minds. But, the zombies aren’t the only monsters.

The classic style of the zombie-franchise rises from the dead, with outstandingly gruesome special effects, a powerful storyline and realistic characters that make the audience empathise with the terror on the screen. This heroic tale of heroism and cowardliness, trust and deceit, savior and sacrifice and, most importantly, zombies guarantees a blood-chilling experience for all that cannot be missed!

Joseph O’Hagan

Moodboard

This is a mood board of the ideas I would like to incorporate into my film. The first image is a fantastic demonstration of the look I’d like to achieve for the victims of the zombie attacks. As they are human they would not have the contact lenses shown in the picture, but the wounds and the state of the clothes are very similar (the clothes in particular differing to the zombies as they were not in fact buried and therefore there is not a great amount of rot or dirt in their appearance. Instead, good use of make up creates a nice wound and lots of brightly coloured blood).

The second and third images demonstrate the type of atmosphere that I’d like to create in my film. The pictures are shown in black and white (though I would like to use colour in my own film) and show good use of lighting to create the mysterious, eerily creepy feel. The zombies in the third picture are more the type I’d like to use, especially in terms of their movements; slow and unbalanced as opposed to the faster, more feral zombies used in modern films.

Though not particularly relevant to my film, the fourth image of Frankenstein’s monster also demonstrates good use of make up to create a horrifying look.

The fifth image shows the more modern attempt at zombie films, with more animalistic traits in the creatures and a much more frantic approach to their terror, as there are lots of zombies and they all move with speed, snarling and growling. Perhaps these are some ideas that I can incorporate into my film.

The eyes shown in the sixth image could be a fantastic idea to use in my film, giving my characters are much more inhuman look, making them more scary to the audience.

The seventh and ninth images demonstrate use of blood special effects; something that would need to be used a lot in my film trailer.

Image eight shows the sort of look I’d like to give to the zombies. As they were buried long before their reanimation, their skin is a much colder colour, with dirty clothes and make up used to create a withered and rotting appearance.

The tenth and eleventh images show the sort of setting and atmosphere that the characters experience. The tenth image shows the isolation and loneliness that my main character will live out in my film, while the eleventh demonstrates the typical spooky graveyard that the zombies will originate from. Both are settings I’d like to shoot for my trailer, and these images are a great reference.