First Shoot Evaluation

From our first shoot we realised a lot of problems with our shots and this was a big awakening for us. For example we had no shots that were useable for our actual final opening sequence and it was seen as a waste of time. However this was actually a good learning curve for us as we realised a lot of faults and things we need to change/do better next time.

For example we had terrible lighting and didn't realise this. It was extremely low key lighting and we couldn't see much of the scenery or what was actually happening.

Furthermore the lighting being like this made all of our scenes worthless and not useable which was a shame, because if it wasn't for this then  we would of been able to maybe use some of the shots.

We also realised that we had to make sure everything was set with our location. For example on our first shoot day Lauren's house was very busy and therefore other things were happening in the house which the microphone on the camera picked up. Consequently we now know that we need a completely free house for our shooting days to be successful.

We also tried to experiment with POV shots, however this was harder than we thought it would be and cause us to have a lot of un still and off balanced shots. Furthermore a few of our other shots were off balance due to a bad tripod. Therefore we now know that we need to make sure all our equipment is okay before as well as practising POV shots more.

As well as this a lot of our group kept laughing and not staying focused and this was hard as the film we need it to be completely silent and everything to happen perfectly otherwise it can ruin the entire piece. We now know that we can't laugh and make noise on camera because sometimes we might not be able to edit it out.

Opening's Mise En Scene Research

Mama:
Character(s): little girl about 4 years old, man in his 30's, baby

Costumes: black hat, coat. Black suit, white shirt and black tie.

Setting: large house down a private road with trees at the front and back. Car parked out the front with the drivers door open. Large child's bedroom with various toys and things to play with. Pink wallpaper with birds on. Dining room down stairs with crystal chandelier hanging above the table. Snowy woods with a small shack deep within it.

Props: teddy bear, cot, blanket


Psycho:
Characters: young man. Young woman. Two business men. Female secretary.

Costumes: long skirt, shirt, trousers, suit, tie, hat

Setting: big city. Cheap hotel. Office with individual desks

Props: thick pile of money, paperwork


Exorcist:
Characters: priest, 40+ year old man

Costumes: black trousers with a long black coat. White shirt, silver watch, red tie

Setting: rowing in a big lake with trees all around. Small town. Office in a house, many pictures of the same woman. Night time in small town, lots of fog, few street lamps on. Empty church, crosses, flowers, candles.


Angels and Demons:
Characters: priest, 4 men, hundreds of people, catholic leaders, pope, news reporters, nuns, vicars

Costumes: black priest outfit. Red priest outfits. Pope costume with a yellow hat

Setting: open area in Rome outside the popes church which has been set out into paths so they can carry the coffin down a certain way. Inside the church where there is a large cross with Jesus on it, candles, red drapes, benches.

Props: coffin, hammer, crosses, cameras, golden cup on a chain, silver chalices

Evaluation:
After looking through my group members research into the mise en scene in horror and thriller openings in now gives us an advantage in our own opening horror-thriller. We can now use this to help with our planning as we can use some of the reoccurring characters, costumes, settings and props in these openings to base within ours. Furthermore it gives us a bigger understanding of the mise en scene within these genres of these openings which therefore gives us a better insight.

Specifics of Props and Setting

When we met up to do our first shoot we took some photographs of the specifics in the scenery and props that we will be using. This included the likes of the fireplace, mirror, baby monitor, tv control and sink tap. These were some of the specifics that we were going to focus on during the opening to present tension and make the audience focus on to draw their attention. As when we looked at other openings we notices there were always stereotypical specifics like the ones we have chosen that are emphasised in the opening to create a ambiguous and mysterious start to the film or to create confusion with the audience. These can be seen as symbols within the opening or film that are used to present something.For example the dripping of the tap could be shown to show the silence and how noticeable to dripping sound is because of how silent it is, therefore presenting tension to the audience. Furthermore the fireplace, the monitor,  tv control and the mirror all have this same effect. We wanted to present some of these specific symbols within our opening to create tension in a stereotypical way as the audience would notice this and see it as a sign of danger - like a sign.

Reflection Testing

On our first shooting day before we set off with recording Matt and I decided to do some reflection testing in the mirror above the fireplace which we could incorporate as some type of shot in the storyboard of our opening. We thought that we could capture the protagonist exiting or entering the room from one of the following angles. Therefore by doing this we can also show someone else in the mirror  or in the background behind her which she cannot see. As after researching into mirrors in horror films we know that they sometimes present paranormal, souls and ghosts to be trapped in mirrors or a mirrors a gateway to seeing these spirits. For example the following picture:

Consequently we can therefore use this idea to present something in the background or imply that something could be there when there isn't to create suspense. The following shots show two of the shots we were thinking of using to show the protagonist exiting or entering the room and as she moves out of the view of the door she then reveals a figure or negative space to imply a supernatural presence or just tension. The following shots show this:

Our Setting

For our setting we wanted a slightly upper classed house hold so we could target our audience and bring the tension in the scene into the audiences houses and make it relatable by having a stereotypical household . Therefore as a group we looked at each others houses and came to the conclusion that Lauren's house was the best and almost perfect for what we wanted. This was because she had a nice spread out house with a kind of spooky surrounding to her house which can also add to the horror element of our thriller-horror. This is because her house is situated within black park and has a very open garden with trees surrounding it. Furthermore she also has other aspects of her house such as baby equipment, baby room, fireplace with mirror above and old fashioned kitchen. This was just what we were looking for. With this stereotypical slightly upper class house establishing that this family and surrounding should be safe and secure as stereotypically the rich white families in films and especially horror films are more safe than ethnic ones. On the other hand this is also stereotypical of other films with similar surroundings and allows the audience to prepare themselves for what the film is about in this opening scene with the use of any establishing shots. I think this surrounding and location is typical of the type of film we are trying to create and therefore reflects on what we want as well as create the scenes and tone that we are aiming for.

Shot List and Sound To Match Each Shot

Storyboard

Horror Questionnaire

Please can you fill out our Horror Questionnaire if you have the time. Thanks.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Hl_3IOKZr5p_J973ko0egFDMpKZd6SKRHwOPsd7nu7s/viewform

Research of Sound In Horror

Sounds in horror makes the audience to feel frightened,nervous and anxious as they get the feeling of anticipation. Sound in horror includes high and low pitch and tones of sound. These sounds create a sense of nerve as the audience are aware of what comes after these sounds.

low pitch music:
Low pitch music is used in films to create a sense of danger. In the film Jaws, low pitch music slowing building a higher tempo, was played to create a dramatic tone and to create a sense of danger. Every time this music occurred in the film the audience understood Jaws was coming and the characters where in trouble. This low pitch sound made the film thrilling and shows how sound can easily create tone. This sound is still one of the most famous sounds of movie history.

High pitch music:
High pitched sound are used in films to build fear and to create suspense and anticipation in the film. In the the film Psycho, the shower scene uses high-pitched string instrument notes with very fast attack to build the tempo, tension and to create fear.

Lullaby music:
Lullaby music has become more popular with horror as the sense of innocents and children singing is scary for the audience listening. Lullaby music can be twisted and altered to make the lullaby sound frighting. You can do this by changing the words in the song to horror related words such as death and die. This makes the audience feel scared and worried about the following scenes. 

No music:
Silence can also be used in films to create tension as the audience anticipate the next sound which is usually the next scare or a everyday sound which leads to a sudden scare which catches the audience off guard. 

Evaluation of Group Members Work:
After reading this research I can now compare these different common types of sound in the horror genre and compare them to those of the thriller genre which we have previously done. Furthermore I now also know more on what sound is actually used and what they mean as well as to why they do actually use specific sounds for certain scenes etc. We can therefore use this research to help with our planning as to what sound we can use for ourselves.

Our Ideas and Final Idea

For one of our ideas we decided that we wanted to situate it within a house in the night. What would happen is a teenage girl would be either babysitting for someone or either their own little sister. Then when she is downstairs sleeping on the couch or watching tv or maybe both the baby monitor starts to go static and make weird noise. She is then woken up by a loud bang or something along those lines. She then slowly gets up and starts to wander round the house getting something to eat. She then again begins to slowly explore the house where lots of stereotypical noises happen with lots of mirror reflections and shadows casted of a mysterious figure in the background. She then hears a massive bang and runs to the baby's room and as she runs to the door she hears noises from inside. When she gets closer she slows down and slowly goes to open the door. zooming in to the handle or the door knob and then when she finally opens it, it then fades to darkness where the title comes up and it ends with that as a cliffhanger.

However after thinking back on this and evaluating it we decided this gave too much away and was almost like a short film in itself rather than an opening as leaving it with a cliffhanger would be a feature of a movie when the opening doesn't necessarily have to have closure or make sense but just connote the correct ideas or themes of the actual theme.

Therefore we then discussed this as our final idea:

The teenage girl is sleeping on the sofa downstairs with the tv on while the baby she is baby-sitting is upstairs. While she is sleeping there is a baby monitor and it starts making static and weird/paranormal sounds. She doesn't hear this. There is then channel switch in the tv that causes her to wake as the tv gets louder. She wakes up suddenly and looks around the room and then at the tv. She then gets up and heads to the kitchen and gets something to eat/drink. After this she decides to check on the baby so she slowly heads towards the babes bedroom. When she is on her journey stereotypical noises and features are present such as reflections, shadows, doors etc. Then when she is tarted to get closer to the door of the baby's bedroom the music or beat begins to get louder. This is either static or a big beat or bang that gets louder to represent the tension. This then reaches its height when she opens the door and everything is silent. She then walks in to the room with the door creaking swinging slowly open. She then walks in and stops. The the door swings shut suddenly behind her and the big beat or static suddenly comes up again as a sound match. It then fades to black and the title comes up with the name of our title (which is currently not decided) and the big beat or static is presented as sound bridge after the door shutting and carries on throughout the fade and then slowly fades out as the clip comes to an end. Along with the title.

What Our Group Need To Do

This is a list of the things we need to do within our group. These are things to do with Research and Planning.

Idea Issue & Realisations

In the lesson the other day we started to talk about the idea in my previous post further and discussed in ways of which we could actually film and make this story as well as starting to come up with shot lists. However the further we looked into this idea the more issues we noticed with it.

First of all we began to notice how we would need a bunch of children to help us film this as we were planning on having some possessed children. This we then thought would be too hard to accomplish as only I had a younger brother. Furthermore we also realised that a lot of the shots and technical aspects of our story that we would want to do, would be very hard for us as we do not have the professional equipment for it. For example we cannot do a steady pan shot or tracking shot in the woods as there is no hard flat floor to balance the tripod on. As well as this we decided that having more than 2 or 3 people in the entire piece would be too hard as well as be too complicated just for the first 2 minute opening. We then started to discuss how having only 1or 2 characters makes the opening broader and more of a thriller with mystery so therefore we came to the conclusion that we had to come up with a new story idea.

We now know and have come to the conclusion that we only want 1 or 2 characters and for it to situate within a household to make it easier. As well as this we also realise that as it is a horror thriller it is good to be inside a home as it brings the danger to your home and makes it scarier and anticipating for the audience. Furthermore we want a very mysterious start with not a lot happening or a lot giving away as this will add to the tension and give the thriller the horror tone we want with the mysterious vibe. We also want to add to this with the loss of sound and when there is sound it is quiet so when something does happen it comes as a big shock which adds to tension. Furthermore we were thinking of using sound to sync with the editing. So when the beat heats or it gets faster the cutting syncs with this to add to the dramatic of the opening and create tension. I was inspired with this after watching and analysing the shutter island opening. We thought the sound could be incorporated with the editing to gain tension like a typical thriller and then maybe this beat or editing can get faster to heighten the tension or vise versa. Therefore we have learnt that before jumping to conclusions with ideas we must thoroughly see them through of how we can do it and if it is possible. I feel this was a very good learning curb and we now know exactly what we need to do.