Props

Props we need to include for our film include the following :

• China dolls
• A bed
• Our chosen costumes- hooded cloak and shapeless garment for Zoe which camouflages in the environment  , pyjamas for me- perhaps a white nightie to contrast dramatically and symbolise purity, dark clothing for Hannah
• Bedside lamp
•  Towel
• Camera
• Editing software

Personality traits for our characters

Me:
controlling, sinister, sly
Zoe-:
controlled, evil yet helpless, possessed
Ana:
 innocent, controlled, posessed

We are planning to use this field as its a large and has long grass. This would be the perfect setting for our 'horror' type genre

Possible Names for our Characters

Ana's been searching for names for all our characters:
For Hannah- Hectate which means the goddess of witchcraft
Pandora - the bringer of evil
Adrianna - the dark one
Ambika - goddess of destruction
Zoe- Keres-evil spirits
Jezebel
Lilith
Me- rachel- innocent lamb
imogen -innocence
catherine- pure
Jasmine

Facial expressions and body language

Zoe:

• smiling broadly in a way which the audience will percept as frightening
• intense avid gaze which stares at the screen scarily
• teeth bared to evoke barbarity
• upright body posture to demonstrate her dominance over the subordinates
• confident walk to again establish her superiority
• Light, dainty movements to imply cunning

Me:

• Widening of eyes, capturing intensity of gaze
• blank expression otherwise to contrast against the avidity of the eyes
• hunched over
• shrouded by darkness so her appearance is vague

Ana:

• widening of the eyes to  demonstrate shock and horror
• slow smile when i become possessed
• trembling when i get chased to express my characters vulnerability and inferiority
• jerky jagged movements which are non-synchronized

Zoe Bransgrove

Ana De Jesus

We have been having a discussion on our ideas and this is what we have said;

• Heartbeat flash editing
• Backward reverse of all shots
• Charley's house - estblishing shot of outside
• School field - long grass hoping to get misty day
• Dining room darkened with just a lamp for light hannah over shoulder shot
• Sketch book on table with arty pencil scattered around sketch book
• Extreme close up of my eye
• Extreme zoom in of drawing then fades to black then comes out to action relecting the drawing
• Ana looking in mirror and see zoe as a reflection, mirror smashes and we see zoes eye in a shard of mirror
• Use of silence in some shots to create tension and supsence
• The sound of wind in field scences to show emptyness
• Zoe and Ana wearing no shoes in scence in fields to show wildness
• Zoe wearing big green cap with massive hood
• Canted angle of zoe arising from the grass with her head on the side and with a click she widens her eyes to the left side .
• Ehance the sound of the click

Location 2

Field (Therfield School) Will be using it for a shot where we can see Zoe running

Location 1

Charleys House (we will be using a pan of the outside to establish the location, we will also be using the inside of her house for one of our scenes)

Final Shortlist of names

• Bodies - Me
• Remember me - Charley
• Puppet Strings - Ana
• Tainted Ink - Zoe

Possible FIlm Titles

• The creator
• Tainted
• Puppet strings
• Possessed
• Trapped
• Remember me
• Taken
• Surreal mirrors
• Shattered
• The puppeteer
• Ink  
• Bodies
• Black notes

The Shining Opening Analysis

The Shining is a good opening clip to analise. In the opening scene we can see a car travelling down a road in an isolated area

Whats needed in making a good horror...

There are several things which will be needed in our horror film to make it more effective. Using these things will make the audience feel whats needed to help make it scary, without using these, the film may not have the impact we want on our audience;

• Camera angles - different angles gives us different feelings and different points (low camera angle, making something seem dominant in a scene, useful in horror films that could possible represent an attacker)
• Lighting - dark lighting will be used in our film considering our genre is horror, this will hopefully make our audience feel scared whilst watching it, and characters in the film seem more vulnerable
• Sounds - such as high pitched noises, normally associated with horror. The sounds in horror films are a nessecity to give it the full on effect to anticipiate to get from watching it
• Setting - dark isolated areas are the most common area to have in horrors, this could be because no one is there to help when vulnerable characters need it. It also puts the characters in one area to not confuse the audience and to make us aware of the area it's set in

About Horror

In horror films they are designed to make the audience feel unsettled watching them. The aim is to frighten and panic, to cause dread and alarm. The idea of horror type films is to invoke our hidden worst fears. These are often terrifying which shocks us but is still captivating and entertaining  at the same time in a cathartic experience. Horror films often center on the dark side of life. This can be shown as adventuring into the forbidden, with strange and alarming events that follow looking into the unknown. It deals with our most primal nature and it's fears: our nightmares, our vulnerability, our alienation, our revulsion's, our terror of the unknown, our fear of death and dismemberment, loss of identity, or even dear of sexuality.

Whatever dark, primitive, and revolting traits that simultaneously attract and repel us are featured in the horror genre. Horror films are often combined with science fiction when the menace or monster is related to a corruption of technology, or when Earth is threatened by aliens. The fantasy and supernatural film genres are not synonymous with the horror genre, although thriller films may have some relation when they focus on the revolting and horrible acts of the killer/madman. Horror films are also known as chillers, scary movies, spookfests, and the macabre.

Makeup in Films

The use of makeup is divided into three categories:

• Basic - designed to compensate for undesirable changes in appearance introduced by the television process.
• Corrective - designed to enhance positive attributes and downplay flaws.
• Character - which introduces major changes in appearance.





The Skeleton Key Film Poster

As our group are looking towards doing a horror film genre, I have decided to start looking at not only parts of horror films to analyse, but to also look at film posters. For my first example I have chosen to analyse 'The Skeleton Key' poster. We can tell this film is a horror/ thriller from looking at it. First the colour of the picture is quite dull. Using dark colours it makes it more apperent that the film is quite grim. There is little on the poster apart from the title of the film and an eye with a reflection in it. This tells us little about the film itself but we can see through the reflection of the eye the back of a wheelchair which faces an isolated house. Isolated areas are typical setting for horror films. The eye itself had been darkened to bring out the shadows. Making it seem a more scary type of film.

Psycho 'shower scene' Analysis

The Psycho  film was made in 1960's, so the film is black and white. Alothugh it had little colour there is the famous 'shower scene' where the audience feel terror from watching it. The scene begins with the non-diegetic sound of some soft tuned melody. We can know to expect something to happen as we focus on this one person in the scene but the audience can feel the tension rising. We come to a mid shot of her in the shower washing herself. Behind her we can see the shower curtain. We know that she expects she is alone, which the audience also do, but through the shower curtain we see the blurred figure of a person there which builds up the tension. As the shadow nears the shower curtain, we see him pull back the curtain quickly and using a low camera shot to make him seem dominant and powerful, we can see the dark figure of him with his knife raised. But what makes this scene even more terrifying is the high pitched music which is associated with horror films. After the attacker stabs her several times, we can see her attempt to fight back even though its pointless. We see the blood run through the water, which makes the audience feel a bit tense of what has happened and as the attacker leaves, we continue to hear the high pitched music andwe can see the hand of the woman against the wall slowly slide down, this symbolises her losing life from being stabbed several times.  As she desperately tries to cling onto life, she grabs on the shower curtain but then collapses from lack of blood, we see the water continue to run with her blood, which makes us feel sick and startled by what has just happened.  Lastly we come to the shot of her lifeless eye, which zooms out to show her face as the camera takes the attention elsewhere.
This Psycho film really makes the audience feel tense the whole way through, and as the tension builds we know something is about to happen which makes it even more startling when it does

First ideas for costume

Zoe

Very pale skin- for example we could use rice powder

Abnormal contact lenses such as a yellow cat eye appearance to establish that she isn't human

Thick black Kohl eyeliner bottom and top

Bright red lipstick to contrast against her pale skin

Green costume perhaps to blend in the environment- this could indicate that she is lurking in the shadows

bare feet that are perhaps dirty to show she is wild and has animal tendencies

Long black wig which is messy and backcombed to again show animal qualities

no jewelery to show that she is perhaps poor

A long pendant that all three of us wear to show that we are part of something

Ana

In the bedroom scene

In pyjamas to show that she is sleeping e.g nightie perhaps

Make up smeared to show that she is tired- for example we can use faint black eye shadow under her eyes to illustrate this

Her normal skin colour

In the dream sequence

Very pale skin to show that perhaps she is part of their unity

Face hidden by long , straight , black hair which gives a sense of mystery and makes you ponder as to what is happening

White nightie like in the sleeping scene but dirty and wet e.g. we could smear mud or dirty water on her

Barefoot- to make me seem non human

Pendant

Hannah

Exact replica of Ana perhaps to signify that she is not her own person - in the dream succession

Quick ideas

I had an idea of an over the shoulder shot with a single light on the pad of paper where i am

drawing Zoe the puppet doll. The drawing should be quite edgy and raw, unshaped - almost undecided.

Ana also had an intriguing idea where at the end we rewind the film back and then it ends with footage of zooming into my eye and she wakes up with Zoe next to Ana. Ana screams and the credits begin rolling.

I like the idea of the footage being sped up up until the shot of a closeup where it then slows down. This is exploited frequently in the horror genre to convey mixed emotions and it also creates suspense.

Ana also thought of the idea of a mirror where she is staring into it but my face looks back and the mirror smashes. If we decide to incorporate this idea there should be a closeup of this one shard of glass where Zoe's face stares back.

Location ideas

 Charley's house-

Easily accessible and ideal for the sleeping scene.

The school field-

As it is autumn this would be a perfect place to shoot the running away scene.

Woods-

a good place in terms of naturalistic lighting as we want our piece to be dark and gloomy. Alleyways - especially in the dark as it gives a sense of realism as Ana is dreaming at night.

Enclosed spaces-

This could be interesting if we want Ana to be trapped.

Near a Stream-

We want Ana to look dirty and dishevelled so perhaps we could find a shallow stream for me to walk through

Dark gloomy milieu-

To give an indication to the audience that it is a horror genre

Countryside-

to show a sense of isolation and desolation

Railway station-

if this is done at night it will most likely be deserted which can show Ana as a vulnerable character

A basement-

this would be good to show again Ana being trapped

Horror Films

As we have chosen to do a horror film for our piece of filming we need to look towars what makes films scary. In the horror film we will be needing to use dark lighting, this gives us a feeling of uneasiness, and we do not get a clear picture of what it happening. We can only see what the limited light is shown on. Horror films divide into several different categories: slasher, zombie, vampire, mainstream horror, Asian horror and revolting Eli Roth films. Often these type of films have small children in them who are often evil (The Grudge, The Exorcist, The Omen). The is often the high pitched sounds in the background which makes the audience feel very uneasy whilst watching it. Conversely, it is very rare to hear a baritone of heldentor on the soundtack of a horror film.
The best environment for a good horror film is in rural settings. With little around the characters in the film, it means we feel the isolation and its often hard to seek help when needed. Horror films also contain many scenes where if we see a door or a window where often a dark shadow quick passes by. The qucik glimpse of this means we know there is someone else in the scene, even if the characters in it are unaware of it.
It is always a bad idea to go to sleep in horror films, or accept a ride from strangers, or to respond to a personal ad. It is even a worse idea to get in an elevator. Being alone in a horror film is often a bad idea!

Our Film Genre

For a final piece we have decided to do horror/ fantasy. We want to make our audience feel tense while watching our film so we will be using dark lighting to make the mood more darker. We have put some thought into why we want to do it and we think it would be fun to experiment with.

The Ring Analysis

The opening clip of The Ring shows a mid-shot of a girl with a drink in her hand, however in the background we can see the light of the TV through the blurred glass turn on. Her initial reaction is to look around, we come to a close-up of her face so we can see her startled reaction and then is momentarily confused. She comes around the corner of the door frame where we see the blank screen of the TV in the darkened room. Using a mid-shot we see her look around the room to see if there is anyone in there, which there isn't. Taking the remote she turns of the TV and we see the back of her walk out the room. Before she completely exits, we once again hear the static sound of the TV. This increases the tension as we know that there is no one else with her at this point. Looking around knowing that she is alone, she comes to the fact that TV turned itself on. The suspense rises as the girl runs to the TV and comes face to face with it while she looks at it to see if there is any sign of it somehow turning on by itself. Knowing there is no possible way of turning on by itself, she pulls the plug out the socket in a attempt to keep it off. We then hear the eery sound of a noise coming from the kitchen. The camera pans round from the face of the girl to the blurred glass of the kitchen window, with a sudden burst of sound, it increases the tension further and makes us feel slightly uneasy, knowing something is not right. There is the creaking sound of the floorboards as she enters the kitchen. Looking into the kitchen we see the fridge door opening by itself. There is a sharp intake of breath of the girl as she rushes over to shut the fridge. As she leans against the fridge, there is a high pitched sound, which is typically used in horror film. This makes the audience feel as if there is another presence in the house which we do not know of which makes it more scary. We come to a high angle shot of the stairs which looks down on the girl, this makes her seem small and vulnerable. As we hear her footsteps go up the stairs, the camera angle changes and what we see is the bottom of her door with water pouring out from under. However this is not makes us feel uneasy but it is the non diegetic sound of a strange sound to us, the sound alone is enough to make us feel very uneasy, this is because high pitched sounds are generally associated with horror films. The to us is strange and something we don't hear or recognize very well, this could be why its so frightening to us. As her hand reaches towards the doorknob, she turns it and opens the door which reveals the TV in her room which is where the sound is coming from. The sound at this point is extremely high pitched and sounds almost like a scream, there is the quick shot of the TV and the girl, whose face changes which we do not know why. With the scariness of her face and the non diegetic sound of the TV, it makes it seem so much more horrific

Preliminary Task - Finished Result

Preliminary Task

We had to do filming and present a short video of our finished result. The purpose of filming was to show different camera shots and how they are used effectively to give the audience a clear sense of what is occurring, it also provides an emotional basis which makes the audience feel emotive.

For this task I worked with Ana, Zoe and Charley. For the preliminary task we all put our ideas together to create the short 2 minute video. Charley was the one who recorded the scenes whilst me, Ana and Zoe did the acting. We made our video quite confrontational where two characters walk into a room to see another character crying. To begin our video, we had an over the shoulder shot of Zoe's hand opening a door. This just lets the audience knows that the characters are entering a room. It then cuts to a long shot of Zoe and myself walking in, this lets us know what were wearing and to get our surroundings around us. As two of the characters enter the room it cuts to Ana's face where we see a close-up of her face and we can see her crying. We then know that something is right with this scene, when we see the character crying we feel uneasy and automatically presume something is wrong with her. However this could also mean that the audience sympathise with her just from seeing the quick clip of her. As Zoe and I reach Ana on stage crying we see a low shot of me walking. This makes it appear that the character I am playing is dominant and in control. When we reach Ana it curts to Zoes face who comforts the crying and, who in return shouts at her and begs her not to leave her with the dominant character. During this scene we used shot reverse shot, this was to indicate the conversation betweem them as the dominant character watches in the background. As Zoe's character leaves we see the long shot of her walking away leaving the two remaining characters to sort the problem out between them. It then cuts to my face which looks at the camera, which makes it seem I am watching Zoe exit. My face then turns to confront the crying character. There is the mid shot of Ana crying who begs the dominant character to forgive her. Using shot reverse shot to show the conversation, the dominant character shouts at Ana. There is then the over the shoulder shot of me, which shows Ana's crying face, imploring that the dominant forgive her once again. It then cuts to a close-up of my face, which shows my agression against Ana. After shouting something at her, the camera shot zooms out to a midshot which shows me shoving Ana towards the camera. This shows us the agression of the dominant characters face, and shows how weak and vulnerable Ana's character is at this point.

I think that at this point, the audience feels tense and worried for Ana's character. During the filming we used the 180 effect. This was used just to not confuse the audience, so we know where the characters are at all times. If we didnt use it, it would seem that the characters were changing sides when infact they werent.

I think the whole filming was fun, and I real enjoyed doing it for the first time. It was a good experience to experiment with camera shots to give the audience a feeling of what is happening in the scene. After we edited the short film, I believed it looked very good. It was a very good experience and hopefully it will help me in the future when we do more filming.

Second Lesson - Working with Camera Angles

We were put into groups where we had to focus on different camera angles. I was with Charley, Ana, Zoe, Kayleigh, Hannah and myself. The first scene we had to create was a disruptive classroom, which we recreated and took a low camera shot. This gives the person viewing it the sense that the people in the photo were dominant. Next we had the dentist waiting room, i think we achieved a good photo by using some of sitting down, as if we were in a waiting room, i was holding my mouth as if i had a tooth ache. Zoe was also in the picture walking towards the makeshift desk as if coming up for an appointment. The shot involved a lot of things to look at making it seem like a busy waiting room, i think our overall result was good. The busy office was probably the most hardest shot to achieve. We took a high camera shot making the people at there desks seem small and vulnerable, The shot wasnt as believable as the others due to the fact it looked to much like a classroom! This was probably my least favourite shot of the 4. The last shot was the romantic meal. This was most likely my funnest one to do, it was enjoyable. We had two people sitting opposite each other at a table in the background. In the foreground we had another two people opposite each, looking at each other lovingly. There was also someone who was 'taking our orders' in the background, making it look like it was a more believable shot. The shot was a mid shot, only involving our upper half of our bodies, it  was good as it looked believable. Either the romantic meal or the disruptive classroom were our best shots. Although I still enjoyed doing the romantic meal one the most! My least favourite was the Busy office, it was a hard shot to do and i dont think we did as well as we could have.

First Blog

In this lesson we were introduced to different camera angles. I was surprised to find out there were so many camera angles and how they were used to give the audience different perspectives on the film they were watching. We learnt these angles, and then we were given a video to watch called 'kidulthood.' There were many angles the short clip that we watched and we were analysing how they were used.