Filming - Day 3

During today we started filming the remainder of our plannned cult scenes, however through the day I came up with some ideas that we hadn't planned that I wanted to try, as I would rather have too many shots that not enough. This way we have more to work with when it comes to editing on Final Cut Pro X.


Here is a long shot that I filmed of one of the cult members dragging a spade across the floor. The spade being dragged across the floor is a good use of diegetic sound I thought and when filming I would like to heighten the noise the spade makes to make it louder. I will do this during editing on Final Cut Pro X. The source of the sound is coming from the screen so this makes it on screen diegetic sound.


This is a high angle shot, this shot is used to suggest vulnerability, which is represented by the subject (Maddie) being unconscious. This is one of the shots that I didn't plan, after filming near the stairs I thought of the idea so we tried it. Distress is created because the protagonist is lying unconscious, which is slightly worrying because we don't know what has happened to her. Then the shot takes a sinister turn when the antagonist appears, which adds enigma because we don't know what she is going to do.


Here is a long shot that I have done that then gradually turns into a close up shot of one of our protagonists looking very sinister. This shot is very scary because its dark, so originally she looks like a normal individual when she has her head down, then she gradually gets closer and is clear that she has sinister motives. Which adds enigma because we don't know what she is going to do, or who she is.


Here is a low angle shot of one of the antagonists walking down the stairs towards the camera. This low angle shot makes the antagonist look powerful and strong, which to the audience this is frightening because she is in the house and she is looking terrifying. What is she there for? This add enigma because we don't know. The not knowing is what keeps the trailer intriguing and continues to grip the audience.

Here is a close up shot of
one of our antagonists. 

Here is a photo of the shot I did of
one of our antagonists.

Filming - Day 2

For our second day of filming I started make up with Lauren who plays are character Delaney at ten o'clock and then everyone else cam around this time so help set up. We filmed throughout the day until late, we filmed until around six o'clock. This meant that we got a big amount of our filming completed. So here are a few pieces of raw footage that I filmed throughout the day.


Here is a mid-shot that I filmed of our character Elliot being pulled back, I have considered using this in our montage of images, this is so it is fast paced, with makes it scarier and will make Elliot look more vulnerable. A mid-shot doesn't fully show the body of the subject, it shows some, but conceals enough to add a sense of mystery. Enigma is added in this shot because we don't know who or what it is grabbing Elliot. Which is very daunting but intriguing because we want to know who it is.


This is a point of view shot that I filmed of Elliot with Delaney, it is hinted infidelity is occurring within this trailer, and it is also hinted that this infidelity is with Delaney. So this is a subtle hint to the audience. This shot is shown as them being watched. But by who? This adds enigma because we don't know who is watching. Or why they are being watched. This shot I had a difficulty with the clarity of the shot because we were filming during the day there was a lot of reflections in the shot, so I got some of my other characters to hold a large black cloth behind me to hide these reflections.


Here is an extreme close up that I did, this is of Elliot and Delaney. Elliot whispers to Delaney 'Our little secret', an extreme close up is usually used for dialogue so I wanted a close up of Elliot s mouth as he speaks to Delaney. This shot concentrates on the subjects details, and I wanted the audience to focus on Elliot's mouth when he speaks.

These are the two of the main characters Maddie
and Elliot. This was one of the shot that I filmed
during the day. 

Filming - Day 1

During filming today I have filmed various shots, so that we have a variety to make our clip more interesting. The videos below are clips that I have taken, so they have not yet been cut or edited, so they're all raw footage taken from today.

 
The raw footage in the above image is a low angle shot that I have taken our are protagonist Maddie and her partner Elliot. They are having an argument about a suspicious card that Maddie has found, possibly hinting that Elliot it cheating on Maddie. This low angle shot makes them both look more dominant and scary which fits with the current scene because Maddie is extremely angry, and this shot show her power. The purpose of a low angled shot is to make the subject look strong and powerful and I think that it makes the characters look powerful.



Here is a high angle shot that I did, in order to do this shot I had to position the tri-pod on the top on the car, so the audience could get a good clear view of her leaving the car, this is done to empathise that she is moving into a house. This shot also has a hidden message because by using this high angle shot I have made Maddie look vulnerable. This is the message I want the audience to get subtle hints that she can also be powerless.

Here is the kitchen where some
filming was done. 

Here is the special effects make-up that
I purchased in order to do the scars and blood
on the actors. 

Talent Release forms

This is our talent release form that we gave to our actors and actresses to sign for participating within our psychological horror trailer. We did this so that we have their permission to put any footage of them on-line. This is including out blogs and YouTube, we had to do this to ensure that they won't mind us using the footage.

Camera shots

Within our final piece I want to ensure that we include numerous shots of a variety within our trailer.

Extreme Close Up - One shot I definitely want to consider is an extreme close up shot because it empathises detail, this is the type of shot you would use to express someone's fear. This shot is commonly used within horror films to show the audience the fear of the characters. 

Long Shot - This is another shot I would also like to consider using also because this shot gets the scenery within the shot and you get to see the whole of the characters body. This would be good for sinister scenes scubas a character carrying a weapon and dragging it across the floor, this way it is visible to the audience. 

Two shot - This again is another shot I would consider using because you get to see two individuals, this would work when we have two characters interacting with one another, such as; talking, arguing. This is so the audience gets to see both people within the shot. 

Wide shot - This can also be known as an establishing shot, I want to consider using a shot like this for when I want to show the audience a setting or a large group of individuals.

Mid long shot - This is a shot from the knees upwards, this with show the character to the audience also. 

Long angle shot - This is used to make someone look powerful and strong, so if I were to use this shot, I would typically use it when filming the antagonist. 

High angle shot - This shot make the subject to inferior to the audience and vulnerable. If I was to use  an image like this I would us it on when filming the victim, typically a point of view shot of the antagonist looking down at their victim. 

Story Board

During our lesson today me and my group developed upon some ideas that we had previously thought of. Then we put them into a plan so that they are when we were filming we had something to refer back to, in order to check that we didn't miss anything out, because we wouldn't be able to memorise all those ideas and shot types that we wanted to incorporate. So after we had completed the storyboard I scanned the images into the printer and uploaded them onto my memory stick and put them onto the computer

. 

 On this part of the storyboard we have shots one, two, five, six, nine an ten. We have a variety of different shot types that we are considering using when we come to film our trailer.  we have over the shoulder shots, high angle shots, mid shots, trunk shots, point of view shots and a tracking shot. This plan is to ensure that we use a variety of shots. This is the equilibrium to the Todorov's narrative theory.

Here are shots three, four, seven, eight, eleven, and twelve. We again have a variety of shots including a trunk shot, over the shoulder shot, pan shot, point of view shot, and a close up shot. These shots are before the climax starts, this will be the chronological order part to the narrative. This is where the disruption to the Todorov's theory will gradually be hinted at. 

Here we have shots thirteen, fourteen, seventeen, eighteen, twenty-one and twenty-two. Here we have suggested using a point of view shot, long shot, high angle shot, action shot,two shot, and a mid shot. This is where more hints to the narrative of the trailer are shown to the audience. This is still part of the disruption in the Todorov's theory. 

This is shots fifteen, sixteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-three, and twenty-four. this is where problems start to arise, we are considering not putting this in narrative order. This is the realisation shots of the Todorov's theory. 

Here is the start of the home invasion shots, we have shots twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty-two and thirty-three. These are still included in the realisation of the todorov's theory, for these shots we are considering putting them into a montage and not having them in narrative order. 

Here are shots twenty-six, twenty-seven, thirty, thirty-one, thirty-four, and thirty-five. This again is the realisation shots of the Todorov's theory, that we are considering putting in a non chronological order into a montage. 

Here are shots thirty-six, thirty-seven, forty, forty-one, and forty-four. This is still the realisation of the todorov's theory and would be included in the non chronological order of the montage we are considering. 

Here are shots thiry-eight, eighty-nine, forty-two and forty-three. There will be a attempt to restore order in shot forty-two to fit with the Todorov's theory, because we have a detective interviewing one of the characters. 

Here  are a few ideas we came up with
along the way, but we aren't aware
yet of where we want them, so we
wrote them down so we
don't forget them. 

Scheduled filming time for the holidays

During today me and my group have all discussed when we are all free throughout the holidays so that we can start filming for our psychological horror trailer. We our filming the trailer at my home so we have to ensure that we do the filming mainly around times there will no-one in so there are no disruptions, however I don't believe this will be a problem. So we all mentioned what days we will be available to work.
We have decided to film on:
Dates/Times
Tuesday 27th October: 11:00 a.m - 4:00 p.m
Thursday 29th October: 11:00 a.m - Late
Friday 30th October: 11:00 a.m -2:00 p.m

Editing practice

Here is a video that I have previously taken using the slow motion effect on my iPhone. So me and my group thought it would be a good idea to practice our editing since it had been a while since we had used the software. We wanted to renew are skills and experiment with the different aspects in order to get ideas for when we come to edit our trailer. 

Here is the originals raw footage that I filmed, this is the original piece with no editing, transitions or effects to it. 

Here is an image where we were playing
with the speed of the of the raw footage
that I have filmed.

Here is an image where we changed
the amount of exposure that
the image received or didn't
recieve.

Here is another image where
I changed the transitions that were
used on the raw footage. 

This image shows the colour
change that was experimented
with. I thought this would
 be a good idea, because when
we come to filming we won't be able
to film in the same light. So we can either
change the colour, or colour match them,
if this problem occurs.

This video shows us experimenting with the different transitions. We decided to look at the different transitions under the light category, and we decided to try the bloom transition which is demonstrated in the video above.

I this image we again use a tradition, this tim with used the blurs category and we chose to use a simple blur. This footage has also had its exposure altered.

Character Profile

Delaney Mathews 

For our antagonist in our movie we have Lauren Hampson playing Delaney Mathews. Delaney is going to be portrayed as the antagonist within the narrative of our trailer. Her role is to play an emotional unstable character, she is going to be portrayed to the audience as deranged. This will make the audience feel on edge because they are unaware of what this particular character is capable of. This will also add enigma to the audience because they will want to know what she is capable of, although it's daughting they still crave to know. 

Character

Name: Delaney 
Age- 20
Gender- Female 
ABC- B
Nationality- British
Occupation- journalist 
Marital status- Single 
Religion- No religion

Psychographics 

Delaney is an outgoing character, who tends to go for a male who is in a relationship. She has very few friends and tends to be extremely nosiy, which comes with the territory of her job; being a journalist. She loves her job and takes pride in her work but there is an underlining issue she has not be resolved which could stand a chance to send her insane. She is also in a cult, these are the only individuals she spends time with but this influence could be fatal. 

Character Representations

Antagonist

For are antagonist we have Lauren Hampson playing Delaney Mathews, she is going to be representation as unstable, and very frightening within the trailer. But we intend to keep what her participation in the film is more of a mystery; this is to ensure that we add enigma and keep the audience captivated. My assigned role to research was make-up, so I intend to have Delaney with many visible injuries to get the audience curious to why she has them. Delaney’s character is going to be shown as frightening but then the audience with get the hint that she is having an affair with Elliot. 

Protagonist, Final girl, Male gaze

For are protagonist character we have Amy Doohan playing the character Maddie, this character will also have subtle hints that she is becoming unstable or she has previously been unstable. Her character will represent the innocence within the narrative of the trailer. Maddie character will also be associated with the male gaze, because she will be dressed to appeal to a male audience, and to be relatable to a female audience. Her character is going to hint at her being the final girl in the narrative of the movie, this is because throughout the trailer we are going to show her being attacked but she will still be throughout the remainder of the trailer, to show that she is going to be there until the end. 

Male 

This Sam Gaskell is playing our male character within our narrative of the trailer. He is going to be shown as the typical boyfriend, but as the narrative progresses he becomes less the typical loving boyfriend, as it will be hint that he is having an affair with another character. He will also be shown as vulnerable in some high angle shots, which will add enigma because we don’t know what’s will happen to him and why I have chosen to do this type of shot.

Assigned role - Location

For our location we have choosen to film our trailer as my nana's house, as it is very old and it has an eerie  atmoshpere to the house, so we thought it would be perfect to use this property to fit with the conventions of a psychological horror. One of the conventions of a psychological horror is to have a sinister looking house for example they do this is films such as; Sinister, The Others, The Haunting in Connecticut. So I asked her permission to use the property for our trailer and for me to take photos to put on my blog and she was very happy to help.

Focus group discussion further detail

From our focus group we have decided to create a psychological horror and use some of the ideas from the focus group in order to make an effective trailer that will appeal to our target audience and conform to our conventions. We are going to have a female protagonist character and her partner moving into a house.
The focus group said that they wanted a horror that messes with your mind, they believe that this will kept them more intrigued and guessing which will make them want to continue to watch it. They also suggested a lot of suspense building scenes to create an eerie atmosphere, they believe this will add enigma and keep them, gripped to the narrative. However they also suggested limiting the gore and violence prevented within the trailer, as this will not appeal to them.
For editing they suggested using cut away of the antagonist, they said this would be a good idea for hiding the antagonists identity. This would create mystery and also mess with the mind making you want to watch it more. Our focus group also suggested having vulnerability represented, and screaming to he shown or heard.
For character they said sticking to stereotypes is typically better however they would find it refreshing if they were challenged. They do expect the female characters to be over sexualised and for the victim to be shown as vulnerable and screaming. They said having a female villain is very refreshing and would make them more interested in watching it. However stereotypically they expect the male to be the antagonist, they believe the audience would be more shocked if the female was an antagonist.

Final idea

New film name

'Transfixed'

During our lesson I came up with a little blurb which you would usually see on the dvd casing of the product.

Narrative 

A young couple, Maddie and Elliot, inherit a house after Maddie's parents are tragically killed. Dishonesty and murder stand to pull her into depth of despair. Taunted by the dead, betrayed by those she loves, blood and murder stand a chance to send her insane.

Theories that we intend to use:

• Final Girl Theory 
• Male Gaze 
• Levi Strauss Theory 

• Equilibrium- Elliot and Maddie moving into a house, which Maddie inherited through the death of her family. 
• Hint of disruption- Possible montage of images that show Elliot is cheating, Maddie will be shown consuming drugs. 
• Disruption- Delaney is hell bent on destroying Maddie's life and will be represented as crazed.
• Restoration of disruption- Maddie continues to consume drugs, she is quickly spiralling our of control. Is she dreaming or is it reality, this decision is left to the audience to make. Then whilst Elliot is working away there is a house invasion, Elliot is seen dead, or close to death. But is it all reality or is Maddie going mad.
• New equilibrium- We are considering using a sting of Maddie being surrounded by a cult, this doesn't reveal too much to the audience as to whether she will be saved.

Assigned role - Make-up

My assigned role was to look at make for our psychological horror trailer. So I have recently brought some special effects make up and I have been practising using the make up. 

The image below is my finished result after I have finished doing my brothers make-up. I tried to make it look like he had been scratched/attacked, this would work well for our film trailer when making the characters look like they have been attacked.

Here is an example of make up that I did during our film trailer. I tried to make the character Elliot look liked he had been scratched across the face. Then to give it a more realistic look I put blood down his neck, this made it look like he was bleeding and I believe it made it look more real. 

In the image above I put blood on Elliot's hand. I also put blood on my hand and dragged it across the floor to make it look like he had dragged his hand across the floor, also this high angle shot makes Elliot look vulnerable to the audience.

On the above image is Lauren who plays the antagonist Delaney, I have applied make up to her face to make her look like she has been in a fight. This to the audience will add enigma because the audience will be unaware as to what has happened to her. 

Discussion after focus group

In our lesson today me and my group discussed the feed back that we were given during our focus group, to see what we wanted to change and what we wanted to keep the same. We talked about good points that were rose during the focus group and any new ideas that we may incorporate within our psychological horror trailer.
Our focus group rose some good points about the title name we had chosen which was 'Oppressed', the majority of them didn't know what it meant and others didn't feel that it fitted with our idea and the type of trailer that we are going to create. so one suggestion we were given was to change our name to 'Transfixed', which we have now decided to change our name to because we feel that its more of an appropriate name for our narrative and psychological horror trailer.

The focus group suggested 'Transfixed' because they feel that this describes the characters more for there role and Delaney's obsessive personality which will be hinted throughout the trailer. One individual associated 'Oppressed' with slavery so we don't want the name to put of our target audience, so we decided to change it so it more appropriate. We have changed it so that it will be more understandable to our audience because if a few individuals from our target audience don't understand it then it highly likely no-one else will.  

From questioning the focus group I have discovered that they find a trailer more gripping when identities are concealed more, they prefer this in a horror because it adds anticipation because you don't know who or what to expect. They also said they expect to see a lot of shots of the character but not expressing their identity, they would prefer that to be given away when they actually watch the film itself. So when we start filming I am going to try and do lots of close up shots and long shots. Close up shots because you get details and long shots because you see the subject but you cant tell who they're. 

They also expect the female character to be protected by a male protagonist, they expect her to be screaming and afraid. However some individuals did express that this is not how they want to see a female, and the majority all agreed that it would be more refreshing to have a female protagonist, in order to change stereotypes. They believed that having a female protagonist empathies strength and makes it more enjoyable to watch as it doesn't follow stereotypes. So due to this good feedback about having a feel protagonist we have decided to keep this, as that is what our audience says they would enjoy. 

When the focus group were asked who they expect to be the antagonist the majority of the group said a male character. Which when I think about it the majority of horror films have male antagonist apart from a few exceptions. So they said it would be more interesting and it would encourage them to watch it more because they would like to see it, as it isn't something that you see very often. 

The focus group also suggested that we have an attractive female protagonist, and I think this is due to the male gaze, females like to look at someone to look up to, and males like a good looking female character to admire.

We also asked the focus group what they thought about the setting being in a house, as this is one of the conventions of a psychological horror. They all agreed with each other that it was predictable, however we have decided to keep this because this is one of the conventions we as a group have decided to conform to. So we are still going to film in a house. 

Focus group for Horror narrative

                                               

Today we completed our focus group, we were given many good ideas that we may consider when we come to finalising our narrative for our trailer. One person raised some issues with our title name and they suggests another one to us which me and my group are going to discuss and then we will decide whether we are going to change our name. From having our focus group I have discovered that many people know what you would see in a psychological horror such as; mess with the mind, distortion. So tomorrow me and my group our going to analyse our focus group together and then develop from there to finalise our ideas.

Consent forms for our focus group

The images below are the forms that the individuals in our focus group had to sign in order to participant within the discussion. This is consenting to being recorded, and for us to put the video on our blogs and on YouTube. 

Antagonist and their costumes

These are a list of antagonist within horror movies throughout the years, and their costumes that they appear in within the movies. The majority of horror movies the antagonist always has their identity hidden away for example by a mask or by shadowing in the footage, this is done to add enigma. The audience will want to know who this individual is and will we ever find out who it is.

Michael Myers 

Mike Myers conceals his identity by wearing a mask, this creates enigma across the target audience, as they will want to know what or who is really under the mask. Is he disfigured or is he 'normal' looking, is it someone we  know or like or is it someone the audience have not met only heard of. Myers wears dirty overalls which suggests that he is in to manual labour, however the overalls are blue, and blue represents power. This foreshadows that he is a very powerful, and hints at that he could be immortal, for example he comes back for revenge in each of the ten films brought out. What make him so chilling, is the the fact that he doesn't run after his victims he walks, but powerfully and this links to the blue on his overalls. The idea of him walking after his running victims so powerfully suggests he can't be out ran. He also carries around a knife as part of his costume, this phallic symbol keeps us drawn in because were afraid of what he's going to do with it but we need to know. 

The Creeper            

The Creeper is more of a creature, this is his deformity, and this also terrifies the audience. I remember watching this film and thinking when are we going to get to see his face because it was always hidden by shadows. And then when I did see his face I was afraid but I kept watching because I wanted to know if he would be defeated. The creeper wears a black cape on top of his clothes this suggests fear and death and links to the events that occur within the movie. For example the colour black connotes death and he has a location where he keeps those he has killed. His costume is giving us subtle hints to fear him and to beware of what he is capable of. 

Andy Richards 

Sorority Row is another film where the antagonists identity is concealed, this is done by their long black hooded cloak. We never get to see their face until the very end. The black connotes death and fear and this links to the hypodermic syringe theory, because as the audience we are injected with the idea that every we see this robe is associate it with death and fear. But the disappointing part of when the identity is revealed its a character who we thought was nice and very attractive, this shows to the audience that looks can be deceiving. This character wears black to represent fear and death, and that is what the character represents through the film. They are a serial killer who goes round killing of everyone who knows a particular secret, the audience knows who was their on that night. So this creates fear for the characters because they don't know who is going to be next but neither does the audience, which adds enigma and makes us continue to watch. This individual carries around a weapon, its quite usually as their are four different types, but this represents that this character is ready for anything, and outcome, which scares the audience. 

Leather face

In the original film, Leather face wore three different masks: the "Killing Mask", "Old Lady Mask" and "Pretty Woman Mask". These were done to represent his different personalities. This also hides his identity. So again my group and me could consider having possible more than one way of concealing the identity of the antagonist. We are already thinking about concealing the identity of the antagonist; so I think that I might consider the idea of multiply ways of hiding the identity to represent different things to the audience. The mask is used to represent that there is no personality in there, it detached him from the reality of his crimes, and so the victims can't see him, but fear the idea of him. 

Jason Voorhees

According to critics on-line have been saying 'Since Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, filmmakers have given Jason superhuman strength, regenerative powers, and near invulnerability'. When creating our characters we need to consider possible representations that we want to make clear to our audiences. Whether we want them to look undefeated, or horrifying. Within the film Voorhees is represented as an unstoppable killing machine, and the fact that he wears a mask to conceal his identity suggests he may never be stopped because we don't know who he is. Jason haunts Camp Crystal Lake and the idea of his clothes being ripped says he never leaves and has no intention of doing so. The fact his clothes are so damaged suggests that he has been through some ordeal, which could hint at his drowning when he was a child.