Prop/Feature Mood Board

Horror prop/feature ideas

1. Cleaver - Cleavers can be seen as a common feature inside movies because they can be found in kitchens or butcher shops.
2. Axe - Axes can be a part of the theme of forests, a possible setting of our film because they are used cut down trees and are famous for being a weapon to attack characters in a film/series.
3. Demonic mouth ornament - A demonic ornament can be used to 'creep out the audience' since it has a disturbing appearance that is not seen in everyday lives. This would be an ideal prop to contain a demonic purpose in our movie.
4. Burnt/Dirty jacket - A burnt/dirty jacket can act as a suspicious and/or mysterious part of the costume because it causes the audience to wonder why the jacket is like that or who or what did it.
5. Pistol - A pistol is another common prop inside of many action/horror productions because it can be held by the antagonist or protagonist. The prop is ideal because it can be seen as symbolic for a tool for defending or a weapon for attacking.
6. Mask - The mask is used to add mystery to the production because it causes the audience to wonder what or who is behind it or what else they can be hiding. This can be used in movies to add a twist to the plot since the real character is not normally revealed until the end.
7. Eye colour lenses - The eye lenses can give a demonic effect and can make the production seem more real to the audience.
8. Hat - A hat can allow the character to look more like a police officer from the 1970s and it makes them look more mature since they were often worn by adult males.
9. Suit - A suit allows the character to look more realistic and professional, this gives a more believable effect for the audience.
10. Leather jacket - A leather jacket can make the character look rebellious and tough, these are commonly seen on teenagers/young adults.
11. Lamp - A lamp is a common prop used in interrogations because it allows the audience to identify who is being questioned and it gives a more threatening effect.
12. Cigar/Cigarette - A cigar/cigarette is another prop that shows maturity since they are used by adults and it could show that a character is calm or can feel stressed.
13. Shotgun - A shotgun is a large prop commonly seen in action movies and it can be used as an obvious sign of defence in a movie/series or a threatening weapon that intentionally used to look powerful, threatening and deadly.
14. Make-up - Make-up is an effective method/feature inside all productions since it can make the characters look more realistic and it can direct the audience into what they think of the characters, for example, the make-up can make the character look evil so the audience sees him/her as an antagonist or they can add make-up to make the character look brave or happy/friendly.
15. Ragged shirt - A ragged shirt can be used to reflect on the character's overall appearance since it could be a sign of being experienced in danger, work or being in a lower class position than the other characters. It could be more mysterious if the origins of the ripped shirt are not revealed to the audience.

We used the mood board we created as a basis to ensure that the microelements used in our film, mainly mise-en-scene, are up to par with common horror conventions we collected a few costumes that fit our movie plot specifications which were a 70’s detective style costume and found multiple trench coats, police jackets and plain shirts which we decided to import into Photoshop, we used multiple contrast editing tools and colour brushes to add tarnished burns and tears to the costumes and blood stains, the colours of the blood are effective in showing what a normal costume would look like when put under the conditions that a conventional horror movie costume would be shown in, the costumes we used in the mood board are not going to be stapled costumes in the actual movie and are subject to change and are more of a basis on what we want our costumes to look like to pair with the horror conventions.

After adding costume concepts and ideas we decided to add props to the mood board, a large majority of this majority of the mood board is composed of props that either the antagonist or protagonist will use, we used Photoshop on the props to add a tarnished and rusted/damaged look to objects to add a more crooked, uneasy and scary look which adds to horror conventions. We added props which the detective characters will use like conventional 70,s cigars and cigarettes that add a sense of class, sophistication and wealth to the main character so that he seems like a more respectable person in that time period. The weapons we used in the mood board ranged from guns to small cleavers and were all customised in Photoshop to make them more conventional and scary. A large portion of our two minute intro will be set in a small dark room lit by one lamp on its own so I decided to insert a basic lamp which was edited in some ways to make it seem darker, the lamp is pretty simple and there are no complex features apart from its purpose of being the only artificial light on our set and also served as a reminder when designing props and costumes that they should be coloured darkly and harder to see until they are lit by the lamp. We placed an image of the “demonic artefact” in the mood board due to its strange shape and look, this object will be naturally lit in an outdoor opening to show the audience it’s black and white colour as well as its grey tint, in reality the object was some sort of heirloom belonging to a member of our group. This has multiple features of a normal animal mouth but missing multiple features too leaving it in the uncanny valley which adds a very creepy unsettling feeling as it replicates a real life animal but also is missing many features to make it look fully like one.

Finally, we decided to add images of what the makeup will look like under certain lighting as well as how certain features like the contact lenses will look in our final piece. We inserted a picture we took of one crew member wearing black contact lenses, which are very conventional in the horror genre due to the creep look of the person not having a sclera but just a fully black coloured eyeball, we used a close up of a black contact lens on an eye to show exactly how it looks up close, and how light reflections look coming off of a black eye so we can see how it will look in dark light.