That's all folks!

All these weeks of prep finally led up to this one final product.
Without further ado, here is the movie opening "When We Keep Silent" (for best results, listen with headphones).

Thank you to everyone who followed us on our journey, and I hope you enjoy!
If the video is unavailable, use this link to view our project!

My CCR

Hello everyone! This is my CCR for my film opening!

My Reflection

Hello! My name is Andrea Angulo and I will be discussing the production of my film opening
“When we keep silent” created with my partner Ricardo Martiarena.

Our film is a psychological thriller set in the 70s. The main characters are Trevor Mazzanti which was
portrayed by Ricardo, and Trevor’s victim, Eddie, portrayed by William Pritz.  

For this movie, we drove inspiration from many different films, but most specifically Taxi Driver, American
Psycho, and Split.

Ricardo and I loved Taxi Driver’s style. The use of light, color, and aesthetics really spoke to us. We
attempted to recreate the aesthetic somewhat in our film. We stayed close to a red and brown color
scheme in order to immitate the 70s. However, we didn’t have the time or budget to completely fit in all the
visuals, but our mis-en-scene was largely inspired by the film. Trevor’s costume was similar to Travis’s
costume here, following the neutral- colored, jacket-and-pants outfit. We also attempted to have a dull
background to fit in with the 70s theme.

American Psycho was another one of the main inspirations for the bulk of the movie. Christian Bale’s
acting, especially in this scene, was what we wanted to model our script and actions based off of. In this
scene, Bale’s character, Patrick, is extremely energetic and happy, right before and during the killing.
Although Trevor isn’t necessarily enjoying the killing, it is modeled off of Patrick in the way that the
emotions of the killing are different from the violent nature of murder.

The film “Split” was also a main influencer in this movie- especially this scene. This scene is where you
learn about the main character’s “past”, and in some parts sympathize with him. This was extremely
crucial, because the whole plot of our story was to get the audience to somewhat sympathize with
Trevor. In the whole film, Trevor is portrayed as lonely and sentimental. The audience is made to pity him,
the murderer, the same way that we were made to pity the murderer in Split. Although Ricardo and I
did not get to film the entire movie, we were able to use what our intentions were in the entire movie to
plan and make our film opening.

One limitation was trying to convey so much in such a short time. Our movie, if taken only from the
context of the introduction, may not convey the entire plot we intended to show. We hoped to make
Trevor the antagonist and protagonist simultaneously, however, conveying this in two minutes would
be impossible if not rushed.

I felt that within the two minutes we were able to get, we did a pretty good job.

My personal favourite aspect of shooting movies is the set and costume design. It allows me to show
creativity and have a lot of fun creating a whole new character and a whole new world. Even the tiniest
detail such as moving Ricardo’s flower portrait from one side of the bathroom to another made a
difference. In order to get the 70s aesthetic, heavy research was done. People in the 1970s wore
neutral colors, and had very natural or puffed up hair. It was great that our movie focused mainly on
men, because men’s style has not drastically changed as much as women’s style had. We included
details, such as the glasses, that alluded to other very similar types of movies. The glasses were
similar to ross lynch’s glasses used in “My Friend Dahmer”. We knew we were spot on when Ricardo’s
sister, upon seeing Ricardo in costume, asked if he was portraying a serial killer because of his
resemblance to Ted Bundy.

In our movie, we portrayed Trevor as the typical representation of killers and loneliness. We showed
how loneliness could ultimately be destructive and how it could drive people to extremes to get out of
it. Trevor tried to befriend and sympathize with his victims to be friends and get rid of the loneliness.
He keeps the boxes as sentimental items to remind him of his “friends”.

In many ways, we both challenged and used typical conventions in our film opening.

Most movies like ours use low-key lighting to show eeriness and darkness. However, we strayed from
this. Our movie was mostly light and used natural-looking light. This represented a sterile environment,
and also showed how this was a casual affair for Trevor, an everyday event.

We also did not use any music in our film opening. Although music is great at creating moods and
adding suspense, we decided that silence would be even creepier. The silence is almost uncomfortable
to watch and bare, especially since it immerses you in the movie even more. Our camera movements
were also slow compared to the quick movements used in horror movies. We relied on the actors to add
movement and focused on their body language.

There are some conventions we did not stray from either. We stuck to the traditional “loner” and “weird”
serial killer trope. Our themes and characters are also trying to find themselves and their place in
society,and their relation to other people. This emphasizes the unstable or delusional psychological
states of our characters. The domestic setting such as a home bathroom makes it feel more personal.
It also makes nods to the many scary scenes that have occured in bathrooms. Lastly, the muted colors
and then bright colors draw a lot of attention and make it visually interesting.

Our film also stays true to the typical audience of psychological thrillers. Making the gore and violence
very hidden but implied makes it available to more audiences than just adults, but it still would not be
appropriate for children. Many horror movies are usually filled with jump scares, but this movie focuses
on one person and their psyche. If this was in theatres, it would be rated PG13 or R, depending on the
rest of the movie and how gory we are willing to go.

As far as distribution would go, neither Ricardo or I know large distributing companies. Therefore, it
would be best to submit to film festivals first and grow from there. Film festivals are becoming
increasingly popular and are a great way to get your film out there. Once many people view our film, it
would be amazing if a large company put our film on the big screen.

Throughout this journey, I learned several things. First, time management and planning ahead is
extremely important. We had to extend filming from one day to two days mainly because we had
ordered the fake cigarettes too late, and they arrived late. We had to postpone some shots just to
shoot it with the props. I also learned more about makeup and set design. For example, it is important
to underestimate how long makeup will last. I had spent half an hour creating a wound just for it to
melt off once we added the fake blood.

As this was the first time using a camera, I learned tips and tricks to help me get better shots. For
example, Ricardo kept stressing about the 180 degree rule, which was extremely helpful in keeping
fluidity and aesthetics.

Ricardo and I used a google drive to share ideas and information we did not want to lose.
We also collaborated on the script on writerduet.  Ricardo did much of the editing since he is more
familiar with the editing software, Premire. We used Ricardo’s camera, a Lumix G7 which was
incredibly effective and easy to use, even for me.

Overall, I would consider our film opening to be a success. It was so much fun to make, and I learned
valuable skills that I will use in the future of filmmaking.

Editing

We went waaaaaay over with time.
With all that we had to fit, it was extremely hard to cram our entire introduction in under two minutes. Therefore, we had to speed up, cut, and cram multiple shots in order to just reach our time limit.
So far, Ricardo and I only have the video together. We have to record sound over it and create Foley. This Tuesday is a Super Testing Day at our school, and it is not mandatory for Juniors to attend, therefore I will meet up with Ricardo to wrap up editing before I go to work.
Ricardo is using Premier in order to edit, which  unfortunately lags and crashes on Ricardo's computer.
So far, we have created our title as well. We placed it after Trevor walks out of the room and the entire screen is only white doors.  We are still discussing design and other important components.
However, Ricardo and I do have the visual part of the movie edited, with scenes cut and fitted into 2 minutes. We will also work on making sure nothing in the movie appears rushed, which may be a problem. Although everything may fit, it is hard to sacrifice the time for fluidity. Furthermore, future editing will consist of sound, checking fluidity, color editing, and much more.
I am excited to finish the editing process because after that, our intro will be finished. We have worked so hard and put a lot of effort into this project, and it is satisfying to see our hard work pay off.

It wasn't all smooth sailing :(

Although I believe shooting went relatively well, there were many problems we faced on set.
First, as previously discussed, the cigarettes arrived much later than was expected. this delayed our shooting by a day, and the day that we did shoot, Ricardo and I were both in a time crunch, and had to hurry production. The ashtray we used was filled with real cigarettes, which stunk up the room. The lit fake cigarette also ignited the dead ones, and after every couple of minutes, I would have to leave the room to have  breath of fresh air.
Our actor was also available to shoot for only a limited time. Therefore, we weren't able to get shots of him and Ricardo's character together, which was disappointing. The only shot we got was of Ricardo's hand reaching towards the wound.
Many times, shots were ruined by the lighting equipment accidentally getting into the frame. These takes, however good they were, had to be scrapped. It was disappointing as well as annoying as we had to keep moving the light around to avoid shadows and to get usable shots.
The fake blood we used, since it was made of syrup, messed up the wound makeup and made it look terrible by the time we shot it on camera. It also made almost everything on set extremely sticky. It was great in terms of aesthetics and realism, but terrible for practicality.
Another problem was that Ricardo couldn't cry. We tried multiple times for him to cry, but the tears just wouldn't come. Ricardo used onions and held them up to his eyes, watch the intro to UP, and put eye drops on his eyes in order to make it seem like he was crying. In the end of the day, we had him angle his head lower so people wouldn't notice his lack of tears.
We worked through all of the problems we encountered and I am excited to see the final result.

Shooting

Overall, shooting was a success.
It was a two-day process but we got plenty of footage. Ricardo and I fear we might have too much, but that will be fixed in editing.
The reason why shooting took two days was because we were waiting for a package to arrive, and we had to film the final two shots with it.
Our actor, who was from Orlando and attending the University of Central Florida, drove nearly 4 hours and shot all his scenes in a couple of hours. We also shot his scenes first so that he would not have to get back so late. This created a huge limitation as we couldn't get a shot of them together to show their relationship, which was such a big part of the plot.
Other than that, shooting was relatively smooth. The camera I found was easy to use, and I found creative ways of getting great shots. For example, in Ricardo's emotional scene, I first slid down the wall of the shower, and as he stood, then shifted to the other side of the bathtub. The shot ended up looking great, and I was impressed with my camerawork.

Makeup

I had spent additional money on makeup materials in order to make everything look realistic and amazing.
However, one error I committed which I completely regret is not using spirit gum.
I used Graftobian modeling wax in order to create the wound, as seen here:

I had used this wax before, but for some reason, it was incredibly hard to use the day of filming. The makeup took me half an hour because I had to keep re-doing the wound. The wax would stick to me, the spatula, or anything except for the actor. It became even worse when chunks kept falling off and I would have to keep re-sticking it.
At the end, once I had fixed everything, it looked pretty good! I had added texture and blended it into the actor's skin with NYX "Stay Matte but Not Flat" powder foundation. However, that did not last long. One the actor got into the tub, it all went pretty  fine until we put the fake blood on him. Then, the would literally fell off of his skin. It ended up looking like this in the final cut:

In my opinion, that looks absolutely terrible. However, we did not have time to re-do the wound. Therefore, before shooting, we kept putting more fake blood that was dark enough to cover it up. Although you can see it in the opening, it is not too noticeable that it is destroyed. It is also very much implied that there is a wound where the blood is dripping from. 

Next time, I will be more careful and buy spirit gum. I suspect the corn syrup we used in the blood may have caused it to slip off. 

Props

For filming, we spent most of our budget on props and had to manipulate or make many of them in order to make the movie complete. These props will be discussed in order of appearance.
The first scene includes bloody weapons, an ashtray with cigarettes, a book, and the shower curtain.
Ricardo and I made the fake blood from scratch following this recipe. We did this so that it wouldn't stain on clothes or Ricardo's bathroom. Nonetheless, we gave our actor an old pair of jeans to wear just in case it didn't wash out. The knives, scissor, and hammer were coated in this blood as well, to make it seem like they have been used. The sink also had some fake blood which was important for a later shot as well.
Ricardo had an old book which he was reading in the scene.
I believed that the cigarettes were an integral part of the character and fought really hard to have them in the movie. We even sacrificed time and money to fit them in. Ricardo found an ashtray with actual cigarettes that was placed in the bathroom in order to make it look realistic and also as if Ricardo's character had been there a while. As for the cigarette Ricardo himself was smoking, that was trickier.
I absolutely refused to have Ricardo smoke an actual cigarette as it can bring serious health risks and we are also underage. Therefore, we researched what movies use instead of real cigarettes. We came across the brand Honeyrose. It is a UK-based company that uses marshmallow extract and rose petals in cigarettes and does not make them with nicotine or tobacco. Many movies use this brand for their cigarettes on screen. We bought one pack of vanilla-flavored cigarettes and we were able to make a realistic scene.
The shower curtain we got from the dollar store  and worked really well for the scene. Although it doesn't scream 70s, it works awfully well.
Next, we had to get nails, teeth, and hair.
Ricardo had a haircut scheduled for the day after shooting anyways, so for the hair we ended up cutting an actual chunk of Ricardo's hair.
For the nails, I found a $5 package of basic acrylic nails from Walmart. We got plain white nails that were thicker towards the end of the nail. This was most similar to actual human nails. We had to buy a nail buffer as well, because the nails were too shiny to be real human nails- they looked plastic-like and fake. What I ended up doing was taking one nail that corresponded to each finger and filed down the square design to a more natural, round one. I then took the buffer and sanded down the nail to make it matte. We mixed it with blood in the last shot to make it even more realistic.
We bought the teeth from amazon. They were extremely realistic and the company even sent 2 sets! We also mixed it with the blood in order to make it seem realistic.
Lastly, we had to find boxes.
Originally, we planned to buy bulk boxes from Home Depot. However, they were not in store and had to be delivered. I accidentally forgot to order the boxes, and completely forgot about it until the day of shooting. Therefore, Ricardo and I checked several stores and ended up in Office Depot. Originally, we were going to buy boxes which would have added up to approximately $20. Then, we noticed several empty boxes near the binders. We asked an employee if we could take them off their hands, and they said yes. We got about 20 boxes for free! We still bought 3 boxes, however, because we needed one box with a lid in order to use during filming, which we could not find from the free boxes.

Setting up

So finally its time to shoot!
Setting up the set took a lot of time and carefully though out tricks. Technically, our shooting schedule lasted from 7am to 10pm, so we decided to block out the windows and use artificial lighting instead. We also changed the shower curtain and put different props (such as knives, weapons, and used ashtrays on the counter top) in sight in order to make the setting perfect. We also made our fake blood from scratch and had to create or modify a lot of our other props (such as the fake nails).

Here is a time lapse of the first part of our set up.

Hair and Costume!

So here comes my FAVORITE part of shooting anything ever.
HAIR AND COSTUME!!!
Ricardo deals with much of the shooting, and script writing,  but I excel in planning out and making everything aesthetically pleasing.
First, we thought of the hair. We looked at SEVERAL different options online, looking at men's magazines from the 70's, that 70's show, and looking at old band members from the 70's (like ABBA, Queen, and The Beatles). 
Here were some options that we experimented with:

Eventually, we decided to go with the second one (the side part). However, all these styles were made extremely quickly without proper tools or anything, just really fast and with a comb. 

But come the day of shooting, I am planning on using a round brush, dry shampoo, and pomade in order to make the hair look more voluminous and better than ever.

I also proposed the idea of a mustache prosthetic, which Ricardo quickly shut down because of money :( 

Aside from hair, Ricardo and I spent all day at Goodwill, trying to find vintage clothes. One thing I knew from the 70's fashion (for men), is that usually they wore neutral colors, such as beige or brown. If not, colors were not bright or flashy, and patterns were not over-the-top. This was our inspiration:

and this is what we ended up getting:

We are also looking for aviator-like reading glasses, which we can get at a relatively cheap price

Overall, I am extremely excited, because now we will begin to buy all the props and decorations!

Problems with our actors :(

We waited for a couple of weeks for responses to our post asking for actors and well they were.... disappointing.
Although we looked at many actors, we didn't see any that stood out or had the ability to act well enough for our liking. Here are some shots from our auditions:

None of them really fit the role and Ricardo and I were starting to worry.
Eventually, Ricardo and I decided that it would be best if Ricardo were the one to act in this. Although, he's not an actor, he's passionate enough to deliver the lines, and he has acted before. He's not too bad.
The problem is that now I have to be the person behind the camera, which I have little to no experience in doing. So now we have to take an extra day for me to practice, or risk production being slowed down.
Ricardo also doesn't know how to cry on command, which means I want to get a tear stick, but alas it would cost a lot more money :(

Location Issue

As Ricardo and I began to plan out our shots and schedule, we realized we had come up with a huge problem with the location. Since it is set in the bathroom, and we don't have an actual set to film it in, we will have to manipulate the camera and basically press it against the wall in order for it to work. 

Ricardo's bathroom, the one we are filming in, is long, but not wide at all. The main actor sitting on the toilet basically takes up most of the space already, and we don't have enough space for the cameraman and the camera to fit. 

We have approximately 3 feet of space from the actor to the camera; however, this is tricky to do well seeing as we don't have the equipment to maximize the space. Ricardo currently has a Lumix G7 with a micro 4/3 sensor size. 

The 2x crop factor cuts half of our field of view, so we cannot get the proper width of the shot we need. 

We tested out different angles with Ricardo's 14mm lens, and realized that it would only give us approximately 3.84 ft of width.

This is not enough space. 

We decided to approach the equation from a different perspective, starting with the amount of feet we need, approximately 4 and a half feet. From this, we found that the lens we would need is a 12mm lens. 

The only problem is that Ricardo doesn't own a 12 mm lens, and they are extremely expensive. 

Considering that this is about $150 over our budget, we need to find another solution.

Production Schedule

Unfortunately, Ricardo and I do not have much time to film this due to schedule conflicts. However, we are pre-planning, scheduling, and setting everything up perfectly so that come the day of shooting, we do not have to waste time that can be used for filming setting everything up. We believe that based on productivity of past projects and our extensive prepping, shooting itself should only take one day, maybe two.
Ricardo came up with a schedule for the day of shooting.

There was also the question of time management within the film itself- therefore, we planned out each shot precisely. We will try to stick as closely to this schedule as possible, and we will only change it if we absolutely have to.

Soon, we will start filming and I really hope this works out!

Problems with Casting

Although we have gotten some responses, our original post for casting required only a headshot. However, this was not enough information to determine whether or not those auditioning were good actors.
The introduction to our short film is basically silent, besides some small sounds and words of comfort. Therefore, it would be extremely hard for actors to audition with our own script.
Ricardo and I therefore made them audition with a scene from Revolutionary Road. This scene is extremely dramatic and emotional, that it would completely allow for the actors to show off their skills. It also allows us to see how these actors would portray Trevor's emotional nature as well.
This is the scene we chose. 
We narrowed it down to Leonardo DiCaprio's "monologue", since we are looking for male actors. This is what we provided for them to audition with.

And now, we wait...

Storyboarding

While we waited for the actors to respond to our casting call, Ricardo and I discussed the general idea of the introduction. Then, Ricardo storyboarded the scene.
Although it may be hard to follow, here its is:

This clearly outlined the scene and helped visualize it in our minds better. Now that it is storyboarded, I'm feeling a lot more confident and excited about shooting.

Getting Actors

Our film opening requires only two characters- Trevor and the victim. Nonetheless, we decided to get experienced actors and not use friends and family to act. Ricardo has used a website from the past that allows him to get multiple people who are interested in acting to audition for our movie.

 We used a website called "Backstage", which allowed us to reach beyond friends of friends. We also found an online coupon which helped with paying for this, since its not free.
We first filled out the details of the movie itself....

And then of the roles... 

And now we wait....

Title (no longer) Pending....

One component that horror/ thriller movies have is that ominous title. Usually its not too long and it serves as intrigue and mystery. For example, the movie Split has a one-word title and the movie technically is relevant to the title. However, the word "split" is ominous and does not give too much of the plot away. Short titles such as Saw, Psycho, and Scream all have ominous, and effective ways of striking intrigue in the viewer before they even press play.
The exceptions to this rule include The Silence of the Lambs, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. However, these titles still have a very ominous tone, and therefore are very effective. They also make use of usually frightening words such as "silence", "nightmare", and "Texas" "Massacre".
For our movie title, Ricardo and I decided to stray from the usual one or two sentence titles. Ricardo was heavily inspired by a poem written by Stéphane Mallarmé. This specific excerpt was where he drew the inspiration.

So we introduce to you our film...

When We Keep Silent

We believed this title was effective because although it was long, it still kept the ominous tone as other long titles did, and we even kept the frightening word "silent". It also was not too long, and overall became kind of catchy after a while. 

The poem touches on how it is hard to understand ourselves and the world around us. This ties in to Trevor's story perfectly because it is hard for him to understand his feelings, and it is hard for his victims to understand his unusual behavior.

Furthermore, this title, I believe, is a great fit.

Final Script

WE FIXED OUR SCRIPT!
remember the 5 page long script the person reading this probably skipped over? Now we have a two page script you can skip over!
Being two pages long will actually let us fit what we want to convey into the time allotted for our introduction. It also removed unnecessary things that did not fit into our plot.
Speaking of plot, this new script is centered around the plot we thought up and is a lot better because we actually knew where we were going with this one.
Without further a-do:

This script is the clear winner between the two.
Although Ricardo and I cannot definitely say that this will be the final script, we don't see any reason to change it.
The putting the boxes in the closet scene is such a crucial part to the story, however, that in the final product more emphasis and care will be applied.
This script is a lot better in representing our character, along with cutting to the chase. We show exactly the character, plot, problem, everything!
I think its pretty close to perfect.
It foreshadows a lot more of the movie and is overall more feasible to film. It also is very clear how writing out the entire plot focused and improved our introduction.
One thing I may change is instead of Trevor actually using the toilet, he would just sit on it and smoke, fully clothed. This is to a) make it slightly more PG-13 and avoid awkward editing, cuts, or shots, b) keep it true to the 70s when you never saw someone without a cigarette in their mouth and c) imply that he is nervous. Since cigarettes are infamous for calming people down, Trevor smoking one would imply its not easy for him to kill. We would have to find fake cigarettes that produce real smoke, though. No smoking allowed.
See you next time!

We planned out an entire movie for a two-minute intro

Yes, I know this is just an intro.

Yes, Ricardo and I planned the entire movie anyways.

Initially, only the plot of the movie was drafted, scripted, and thought out. However, this brought up many,
many problems.We had no idea where our intro was going and we had to idea what to make our
character do, since we didn't even know who he was. Since we had no end goal, and the character had
no story, it was hard to write with a purpose. In creating the entire plot, we were able to make our
introduction more authentic and make it better.

Movie introductions are usually made to hint at the rest of the plot, and many hide "easter eggs" that
relate to the entire movie later on. Therefore, we would not be able to make this introduction without
writing out the entire story.

Without further a-do, here is our story:

Set in the 70s, our main character, Trevor Mazzanti works as a projectionist for his local cinema. He
usually overlooks romance movies and loves to fantasize about his life as a main character in a romance
film. However, he is unable to attain love. We realize he is a pacifist, and heavily opposes the Vietnam
War. He is dating a politician's daughter, and the politician unfortunately approves of the war. However,
this does not create much of a problem with Trevor.

Trevor, whenever he has a victim, cherishes them. He is kind towards them and resents killing them. He
tries to calm and soothe them, acting as a loving figure. Once he does kill them, due to frustration of his
victims not returning the love he believes he feels, he keeps boxes full of "memories" of his victims. Each
box has photos, teeth, hair, and other gross stuff you would never want to find in a box.

After he kills the politician's daughter, he is caught, and goes to trial.

With this plot in mind, Ricardo and I have scripted a great introduction.

Our initial script

Ok Sooooooooo WE MADE A SCRIPT! 

Its really long, therefore it has to be cut down. However, it is a start! 

Ricardo wrote most of this script because he has more experience in screenwriting. However, I looked it over and contributed a lot to this. Ricardo often gets carried away with writing, and writes WAAAAAYYYYY more than he should. However, its better to cut than to have to add. 

This script that we have would probably translate to approximately 5 minutes screen time. Ricardo and I are working on a new, improved, shorter script. 

Anyways, here is the original script:

Apart from it being lengthy, this script strays from the Trevor Ricardo and I want to portray. This character is strange and creepy, borderline psychotic. The whole purpose of making Trevor the way we planned was to make the audience almost sympathize with him. The audience couldn't do that to someone who pretends to murder a mannequin. 

After much discussing, we also believed that the introduction should take less of a focus with his next victim (in this case, his neighbor, which we also changed), and focus more on Trevor. We had to make it seem like these murders weren't planned, they were bumps in the relationship. Therefore, this script was unusable unless we changed our entire movie. 

Now that we know our direction now, though, expect an awesome script by the next post.

See you soon!

Meet Trevor, Your Friendly Neighborhood Serial Killer

Who exactly is Trevor Mazzanti?
Good question.
Heavily inspired by the movie Taxi Driver, Trevor is an interesting character.
The main character of Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle, plans on "cleaning up the streets of New York". He plans, and kills, people that make New York "dirty". Basically, anyone who he doesn't deem fit to live in the city.
Although our character, Trevor, does not have the same intent, he is still based off of Travis (catch the similarity in the names, anyone?). He believes that people need to fit into the picture of perfect romance movies, and if they can't play the part, well then..... yikes.
Trevor doesn't have malicious intent, however. It is his mind that's all twisted and messed up.
As stated a couple of posts ago, Trevor is a lonely projectionist who mainly runs romance movies. He wants to live his life like one, but unrealistic to any human being on earth, he cannot come to terms with the fact that he cannot.
This love translates to him being unusually caring and comforting to his victims before he kills them. Its the only way he can be as caring and kind as a lead man, and maybe this will win him the love of his life.
The 30 year old keeps boxes full of "memories" of his victims, because he still quite loves them, in his own twisted way.
The audience is made to pity and sympathize with Trevor, which is what makes the movie so great. Usually, people don't look at a serial killer and think "awww poor guy". It makes the audience question their thoughts and moral compass. That is what we hope to convey through Trevor.

Planning

My partner, Ricardo, and I have been brainstorming possible genres and story lines for our film opening. Ricardo eventually brought up an idea months in development, which was a horror/ slasher film opening. We have since planned out the dialogue and the basic plot. We decided to follow less dialogue and rather talk through the film. Not only does the lack of dialogue create suspense, it also allows for mystery and audience interpretation. We are depending on the actions to tell the story.
Our script will depend mainly on actions, and we are hoping to use great symbolism in our opening to truly hint at the rest of the film. Soon, we will create our script and plan our scenes shot-by-shot. I am also looking forward towards creating visually pleasing shots, especially with great contrast and saturation. I believe that with time, effort, planning, and patience, we can create an effective and impressive film opening.

Genre: Psychological Thrillers

Psychological thrillers make us question and fear our own minds. They show how our minds can make us perceive the world and act in ways that we would normally never do.

One of the most interesting ways that psychological thrillers affect the audience is it skews our moral compass. Psychological thrillers usually focus on the character, and show or at least

Characters in horror and slasher films are usually separated into victim and killer. The killer is usually cruel, heartless, and indestructible. They are usually driven by revenge and anger. Many of them are supernatural or sociopaths. They are quiet and sneaky, and smart. The victims, on the other hand, are not so bright. They make silly mistakes that make the audience cringe. They are usually young, female, naive, and foolish.
The plot of slasher movies, although may alternate, follows the same tropes. There is the killer, victim, and survivor. The killer usually has a deep, tragic, backstory and the victim has usually committed some type of wrongdoing. The killer and the victim are trapped in a small area, usually, and it is inescapable. The victim and killer run around, but usually the killer wins and kills the victim. Many times, there is usually a sexual scene or relationship in the movie as well. Many films also have jump-scares, just to fuel the adrenaline rush in the audience. Sometimes, the killer re-emerges and comes back in the most unexpected way.
Many special effects are used in these films in order to show the deaths. Usually produced with cgi or makeup, they are bloody and graphic. They require special effects to pull these off on screen. Especially when the supernatural is involved, it is necessary for technology to play a part in creating the final product. Technology is necessary for the entire story to be pulled together and the audience the get the full experience of the story and the characters.

“Slasher Movie.” TV Tropes, tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SlasherMovie.
"Write a Slasher Horror Story / So You Want To.” TV Tropes, tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/SoYouWantTo/WriteASlasherHorrorStory.