The Watcher completed film opening

Film Opening

Preliminary Task

Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from its full product?

Question 6: What have you learnt about Technologies from the process of constructing the Film Opening?

Question 4 & 5: What would be the audience for our Film Opening & How did you attract your audience?

Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute our film opening and why?

Question 2: How does our film opening represent particular social groups?

Question 1: In what ways does your Film Opening use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real Media products?

The production of our film opening was influenced by a few other horror films that we watched during the Production Process. We studied different films, analysing the codes and conventions used. This included the opening titles, types of shot and the uses of editing to create different emotions and moods in the audience. 

One film that heavily influenced us was Se7en. We took notes on the opening titles, looking at the colour, positioning, font and transitions used. The opening titles of Se7en have create unusual emotions in the audience, due to the flickering text and distorted font and positioning. As our film is a Paranormal Horror, we used the flickering Text technique to create a sense of uneasiness and fear in the audience. We also positioned the titles in the corners of the frame. This also creates uneasiness, as titles are mainly positioned in the centre of the frame.

Our opening titles were also influenced by the film Scream. The opening titles of Scream used a false jump, to instantly create fear and tension in the audience. I found this very effective, as it creates fear in the audience early on in the opening. Because of this, we added a loud static sound in our opening, acting as a false jump.

Another heavy influence on the production of our film was Dead Wood. The first shot in Dead Wood is a panning shot, establishing the secluded location where the film is set. The character then runs past, stamping in a puddle as he passes the camera. This also acts as a false jump, and helps represent the urgency of the character and the danger that he is in. 

Construction: Sounds

During our editing, i was given the task to find sounds to add to our opening two minutes of our horror film, i had the inspiration to find Foley sound which we learned about in 'Importance of Sound' in a previous blog post. I used the website free sound which is a collaborative repository of creative commons licensed audio samples in which the audio files aren't copyrighted allowing them to be used freely by anybody. 

I started off by searching for generic key words that linked to particular scenes in our opening scene, so for this particular one i searched the clips that matched the sound of the undergrowth and the pace of which our characters are tracking through the forest, this particular sound clip was very useful for this scene, but it wouldn't be suitable for our chase scene due to the fact the pace of the footsteps wouldn't sync properly and it wouldn't give the desired effect. 

I also tried to use broad generic key words to search for our running scenes, however nothing that came up was particularly useful which is a downside to the user created clips of free sound. Luckily our running audio from the scenes where clear enough to be used and it created the desired effect which we wanted. 

Another audio clip we needed was a tinny sounding white noise, we tried to record white noise with the external microphone on the video camera itself but with too much background noise the clip wasn't very persuasive, so we opted to use free sound to find a higher quality sounding clip which we found in abundance. The reason for the white noise is that it is the link that associates our protagonist, the white noise will be used to indicate that 'He'  is close...

Construction: Filming and Re-Filming

Our first time filming was a disaster. On the day of filming we made sure to leave with plenty of light still left in the day, and before we knew it we where recording in pure darkness. not only this but the clips we captured and played back where unfortunately bad quality and shaky. Along side these clips which we played back on the camera looked usable, however imported on to a bigger screen we can spot even more issues with these clips pretty much leaving all our clips rendered useless.

First Filming attempt.

Our first few clips where different camera angles and movements of our Chase scene. This particular shot was a tracking shot following our character, on play back we though that the blur around the character that is in focus created a decent chase scene with the effect that he is running for his life, the distortion adds to the effect that he is being chased.

This was one of the upwards panning spin shot, it looked effective showing the trees towering over adding to the effect that this forest is isolated. However on second viewing the exposure and lighting was awful, the focus was too much on the sky and light rather than on the trees which we were hoping for, This could of easily been fixed if our camera had a manual focus mode to help change the exposure.

Out of all our footage, this still shot looked the most professional, the idea of the still shot just being to show how isolated and quiet this forest was before the disturbance. a few more of these would also be effective in being used to input titles for our opening sequence.

We also attempted more angles of our camp site, this particular one was a crane shot moving from the bottom on the right hand side of the tree upwards in an arch towards the top left hand side of the tree, this shot looked pretty good but the fact that it was shaky and it wasn't smooth no matter how hard we tried.

This was one of our last shots before it quickly went pitch black. This was a panning shot from the treelike down towards the entrance of the tent, this footage was where we would introduce our main characters.

Quickly you can start to see that our footage has become darker, which is very noticeable in contrast to our last scene. Another panning shot was used to frame this shot. It came in from an angle hiding the camp and slowly reviled the scene which i thought looked pretty effective.

However, as the sun set and it became darker our shots looked more menacing and more horror-esque. this particular shot was a point of view of our character locking their phone, the close up of the phone foreshadows the importance of the device at a later date.






Before we knew it, there was not enough light to capture the detail we needed, it's quality is also extremely poor along with the last few clips as it started getting dark, the footage was grainy and had so much noise that the floor looked like it was shaking which was not a desired effect.





Running Scenes Re-done

Since our filming was a disaster, me and Jake went out to film more running scenes, these were much better than the first ones in terms of the lighting and quality. We also got a lot of running scenes so we have a lot to work with shot wise so if we don't like a particular shot, we have another shot to replace it with. We also found it much easier to get the running scenes because we didn't have to focus on the other scene as well meaning we had more time to find a decent location, get a lot of different angles,movements and shots. Overall, these running scenes were much better and better quality because we took more time on these because like i stated before, we didn't worry one bit about getting shots for the other scene as well.

Construction:Fonts

Before we made our edit to our film, we looked at different font styles that we would like to consider for our opening of our film, i have got screenshots of different font styles that we may use and I will be highlighting the good points about these fonts and the bad points of these fonts as well. As you will be able to see, these fonts are very similar in terms of the background and the colour of the writing. This is because the white and black are very simple to do and they are very effective as well and looks more uneasy for the audience to watch.

This is the first font we though of using and this font is called Onyx. We may not use this font because it looks like it won't intimidate the audience and this font has no specific meaning, therefore we may not be using this one.



This second is called Nanum Brush Script. Our group really liked this font and this will be the font used in our final piece, this is because some of the letters look distorted and uneven, creating a unsettling mood for the audience; similar to Se7en.

This third font is called cambria and we thought just a basic font would look good but we decided that it didn't and is going to be the one we definitely don't use because just like the first one we had, this one creates no meaning for the audience and it won't affect them at all.






Our final font was called chalk duster. At first we thought this font was really good but looking back at it now, we are not too sure if we want to use this because it looks a bit too cartoony and not suitable for a teen horror film because the audience will feel that the film will not be scary because the use of titles doesn't make the film scary to watch.







We also looked at Art of the title as well to get an idea of different titles that we may use when creating our opening titles. By looking at famous film opening titles, we were able to make our decision based on this site. Particularly Se7en which our titles look like a little bit with the black background and white writing, we also didn't want to add any special effects such as moving because it may look unprofessional and not very good at all.

Planning: Potential sounds

Before we make our film opening, we looked at potential sounds we may use. We looked at a lot of sounds from the website Freesound. We used this site because all of the sounds are free to use and easy to find, we decided to find sounds that would be suitable to use.  Each of these sounds have a star rating out of 5 so we will be looking for some of highest rating sounds. All of these sounds have the name of the person that uploaded them as well as the date, how many downloads and how many comments. When picking a sound, we will look at the comments to see what people think of that particular sound. Next to the search bar, there is a drop down arrow with a lot of options to choose from such as if we want a long sound, we would select the longest first option, the image shown shows all of the useful filters.

We tried to find bird noises to resemble calmness and show the audience that the location is very isolated. As you can see from the screenshot, i just typed in birds and over 6000 different bird sounds come up as well as 230 pages meaning we have a lot to choose from. So this site is going to help us a lot in order to find particular sounds so we are not going to struggle.

Another potential sound we may get would be white noise, this is going to be really useful because at the end of our opening, there is going to be white noise on the phone to show that something eerie is going on within the area and that something is causing the phone to do that, making the audience feel nervous and uncomfortable as it is very confusing as what is going on. But unlike the bird sound, there are not as many white noise sounds but there are still enough that we can find to use.



We also wanted to use a heartbeat within our opening, this is because with our running scenes, the heartbeat will increase tension within the scene and make the audience feel as something bad is going to happen to that person, we are also going to resemble it as the runners heartbeat, when it is beating fast it can show that the runner is scared and wants to escape from whatever is chasing him.


One more sound we would like to use would be breathing, this is kind of the same reason as for the heartbeat to resemble the runners breathing deeply and this will show the audience that this person may be tired and even scared because when people get scared, they breath quite deeply because they have just been shocked.

Planning: Filming Schedule

Our group plan is to start filming in the February half term. This is because we will have a lot of time to get prepared throughout the day so we don't waste anytime when we come to the process of filming  and when we are going to be filming, we need to make sure that the lighting is suitable and doesn't ruin our opening. Also, since we have the whole day to film, if there was a slight error then we can fix it within a short period of time. I think it is good to film within the half term because if somebody was to be working, then we still have some days to get the filming done.

Planning: Shot List

A Shot List is important to the Pre-Production Stage, as it informs us clearly on what shots we need to capture when filming our project. This means that when we are filming, we will waste less time on shots that are unnecessary or will not be used when editing.


Shot 1: The Expendable character  crashes past the camera, stamping in a puddle. The shot will open with a Tilt Shot, panning down from the canopy of the trees to look at the floor. This helps establish the secluded location at where our opening is set, contrasting the peace of the area to the panic of the character in danger.

Shot 2: Establishing shot of Characters walking in a wood. The camera is focused on the nearby tree, which causes the characters to become out of focus. This implies that they are the lesser object in the location, suggesting that they are vulnerable and in danger. Sound and soft pan shows the calmness and tranquility of the setting.

Shot 3: Cuts back to the Expendable Character. A POV of the victim running away. Handheld shot to represent the urgency and danger of the scene. The unsteadiness and speed of the scene represents uneasiness and the characters fear.

Shot 4: Cuts back to the Characters in the woods. Character 1 throws bag on the floor, showing he is angry or annoyed. Another shot looking at the characters from behind a tree, suggesting they are threatened by the location, to being watched.

Shot 5: An Over the Shoulder Shot of the expendable character running away. Represents the 'killer' chasing him, exaggerating the danger he is in.

Shot 6: Character 1 drops Phone on the ground and gets up to look for a way out.

Shot 7: Final shot of the character running. The expendable character trips, and turns to face the camera, showing the fear on his face. The character screams.

Shot 8:  The scream bridges over back to the camp. The characters hear the scream, and turn in shock. As this happens, the phone dropped by Character 1 starts to create a white noise and shows a distorted image.


We had to slightly adjust the plot from our Storyboards, as on our first attempt at filming, we discovered that dialogue wasn't as effective as we wanted it to be. To solve this, we slightly changed the plot to be less dependant on dialogue, and more emphasised on actions of the characters and non-diegetic sound.

Planning : Mise-en-scene (props, costumes)

Our group's task is to create the opening two minutes of a horror film. With the genre being horror, there will be minimal props to keep a sense of realism within our scenes, and some makeup. Now that we are in the later stages of of our planning, we have a good idea of what sorts of examples of mis-en-scene we will need.

Character One Connor - This character is going to be the the one who isn't very active and unhappy with the fact that he has been asked to hike, this shall be portrayed in the clothing this actor will wear.  His look shall be casual and unsuitable to tracking through the woods, to enhance this they will be wearing casual jeans, Jumper (Preferably a grey and washed colour to go with the dark, washed colour scheme we want for our filming) flat shoes and a small rucksack to show that this isn't his typical sort of situation.

Character Two Matty -  This character is the exact opposite of our first character, his sports gear and thermals with a large jumper show he's active and thought carefully about what he wants to wear, he's more adapted to this sort of situation of hiking through woods and hover hills.

Expendable Character Rhys - Our expendable character shall have a thick rain coat to hide his features, along with this a black pair of jeans or waterproof trousers/Tracksuit will also be used to signify that this character's identity os hidden and mysterious, the only information you would be able to tell from the costume is the fact that he must of been hiking or camping in the first for a while due to the warm clothes and waterproofs.

Props

Other than suitable clothing for each of the characters to personify their persona. we need to look at props we could use to further create a sense of realism within our opening. Props we could use;

Bike- The abandoned bike shows that the character has ditched the bike in an attempt to get further into the first, away from what ever is chasing that person. The spinning of the tyre can show that it has recently been abandoned.

Lighting - We aim to shoot in daylight in order to get the most cheap light, however we try to film in overcast weather so that it has an erie effect pre production however in Premier pro we have much more mobility to play with the dynamic lighting.

Planning: Casting

Why is Casting important?

In my opinion, Casting is one of the most important processes in Pre-Production and requires a high amount of care when doing it. Casting involves running auditions from the potential actors, to find the most suitable person for your film. It is important that you find someone who is not shy in front of a camera, someone who will not burst out with laughter when filming, and someone who can create verisimilitude within the production.

To find suitable actors for our production, our group will run short auditions for the potential actors. We will give the actors short scripts to perform, and use these performances to decide whether they will be suitable.


Characters

Our film consists of 4 characters. These characters go camping, showing they are all outdoor,
adventure seeking people. My group and I evaluated the characters in our film, and what type of actor would be suitable for playing the part in our production.

Our first character is Peter. Peter was brought up by a single mother and he never met his dad, causing him to develop a wild nature, and rarely being at home. Peter is seen as the leader of the group, as he is brave and not scared to take risks. He is the loudest of the four friends, which gets him into a lot of trouble.

Elliott is seen as the weaker member of the group. He is two years younger than the rest, often resulting in him being bullied into doing things he doesn't want to do. However, Peter acts as an older brother figure over Elliot and sometimes gets protective over him.

Our third character is unnamed, as he dies early on in the production. This character is used to place the scenes of the other characters in the camp in juxtaposition, as he is running away from the 'Killer'.

Evil Steve is the villain in our production. However, Evil Steve is rarely seen. The film cuts between the group in the woods, and a Point of View from Evil Steve through parallel action.


Actors

This is Stephen, one potential Actor. Stephen gave a strong audition, but unfortunately he cannot look at a camera without laughing.

Another potential actor is Tom. Tom also has the same problem as Stephen,  he is very shy in front of the camera, shown by the crossed arms.

Planning: Location

It is important to have a good location when it comes to horror films because in horror films, most of the locations are secluded to create a sense of insecurity so that there is no escape and that the victim will struggle to get away meaning that the killer can easily single out people to kill and people will not know.

The first location is Bramble side woods and is a wooded area and is very suitable to film because  the location is quite big as  so there will be  more than one specific area where we can film. The large area is possibly the area in which we are going to film because there would be so many different areas to film in case one area isn't good enough. But this location can be quite bad because the main road is quite close to the area meaning we are going to be hearing a lot of cars go by. Also there is a wooded area behind the area near the main road but cars may still be heard but if we go further into the woods, the traffic won't be heard as much therefore we will most probably like to use this location just because of how close it is to where all of our actors live.


Our second location is is going to be in Corby, this is because there is an area that is wooded and would be good for filming in as well. Also Corby isn't too far away meaning that all of the actors will be able to get to Corby.  As you can see from the picture, there is a large area where we are able to film and is secluded as well meaning it would be a good location. But this location isn't very good because there are not many trees around meaning we can't really make the audience feel like it is a secluded location. Also the other bad factor about this area is that the area is a nature trail meaning there are going to be a lot of people there and we may be interrupted.

We have one more location  which is possibly the best one of the three as well which is also in Corby and is a much better location than the other ones because there is not a main road nearby and the area is very large as well meaning that we can film in more than one place. It is quite a secluded location as well meaning that we may not get interrupted when filming as much as we might in the other locations.

Planning: Storyboard and the importance of storyboarding

The importance of storyboarding

Storyboarding is very important in the pre production stages, this is because before the filming actually begins, the storyboard is a very good way to plan for what is going to happen in the film because of how simple the process is but how effective it can be. storyboards also cover a lot of different aspects  such as the shots, the movement, the angles etc. These are really helpful because instead of doing the filming without any planning, it will look quite bad because no thought has gone into it whereas if there is a plan such as the use of storyboards. The whole filming process will be much more easier and the production phase will be effective and done in a quick time as well meaning there will be no time wasted on one scene.