Casting and Auditions

We organised auditions for the hooded stalkers and dead bodies last week, but our advertisements were lost so we are rescheduling for this week.
We already have a rough idea of who will play some of the characters, mainly the lead parts and one or two hooded figures. We have our letters of consent to be given to the participants and their parents to confirm that we have permission to film.
However, because most of the Year 11s have now left school we are unable to audition them this year, which means that we will have to audition 6th formers this year, and organis the previous choices next term.

Story Board, Photographs

This is our first photo storyboard, the first pictures were taken with Jo as the main protagonist, the later photos were of emmaline in different locations, the garages, alley, keys being dropped etc. These are the most important shoits as they lead to the transitions into falshes, and the unconcious/ dead bodies in the later photos represent some of the flashes.

Storyboard 2

Script, First Draft

This is the initial draft for the script, this will be used in the auditions, but a majority of the speech will be improvised, to give a more realistic effect. There is very little dialogue, most of film will be flashes of footage, and the audio playing in the background, emphasising the ambiguity of who is speaking, where they are, why they are crying etc.

*heavy breathing*
(muffled voices, loud door slam and the sound of a key turning in the lock)

*whispered*
female voice: fuck. Fuck…fuck…*slightly louder* fuck

*voice cracks* oh my *raises voice* God

*starts screaming/crying – panicking and hyperventilating, begging, spontaneous*

*sobbing* Let me out!

(key turns in lock again, dead silence, heart thudding noise? Door creaks open)

*whisper* no... please…please no…oh god *gets louder and louder*
(boots thudding across the room, echoes)

*screams, dies down to a humming noise*

Location Scouting

We have looked at and discussed several locations around Broomfield and have decided to use Emmaline's house for the indoor shooting, some rarely used garages and the quieter streets leading to the main locations. We chose them because they worked well in adding tot he atmosphere and mood of our film, giving a place of normality and safety like the home a sense of danger, isolation. Hopefully it will portray the the idea of the character(s) being trapped in their own home, isolated in the sense that they are unable to escape from the antagonist.
The garages we will be shooting in are scarcely used, and fairly rundown, giving more indication of isolation and adding to the suspense, though not making the plot to obvious, and avoiding stereotyipcal murder scenes.
The shooting will take place at night, so the pictures taken for the storyboard differ significantly from the way the lighting will effect the scenes in the filiming in January, as the darkness will be a very important part of the film.

Similar Media Works Slides

These are some of the slides created for our Similar Media Works Powerpoint. There are more to come, and we will probably improve some slides as we learn more about them. We worked together on the slides, but all contributed and learnt a lot about the subject in the process.
It improved my understanding of horror movies, the techniques used and how to use them. It has helped us improve aspects of our horror movie plan, as the research has given us better understanding as to what an audience really looks for, who we are trying to entertain and why.
We can also use the Powerpoint to refer back to if we need any tips or ideas when filming/ editing our movie opening.

Similar Media Works- Slides I contributed to.

Scream Opening Remake

due to the lack of time, we were left with very little time to complete our film, and had to edit within hours. The contiuity was poor, and due to the slightly broken dolly the camera was incredibly unsteady and made gave an overall poor effect, though some of this cpould not be helped because . Because we used some of the footage from a few weeks previous (the popcorn on the hob), the lighting and sound was different to the rest of the filming, which added to the poor continuity. However, the shots were very similar to the original film, and we tried to keep the scenery and props as close as possible...

Preliminary Task

Our preliminary task went well, our time keeping was good and we left enough time to edit properly, which was a good learnming ptrocess as we were just getting used to the software. Due to the size of our group, we had to edit two seperate Preliminary Tasks. for the filming we worked in a group of seven and this edit is split between Jade, Georgie, Emmaline and me.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv0dtNo9IUk&feature=channel

Elaboration of Initial Ideas

Today we added to our initial brainstorm, and added more ideas for the images and short flashes of film, of which there will be around 12. These included:

A shaddow following the main character (who is likely to be a young girl), a figure standing behind a closed door, walking past a window, a high angle shot of the figure walking past a stairwell, the figure emerging fromanother room, such as a bathroom. The flashes will build up to one sinal shot of a pair of eyes, which will be the last thing the audience sees before the transition into the titles is made.

We also discussed different shooting methods, such as tracking the character through a moving car window, and following their footsteps from behind, picking up what would appear, at first, to be unecessary details; eg. pauses, background noise etc.

The voice-over will be unclear and muffled, giving the effect of a telephone conversation, television recording or distant tone.

We now know the basic outline of our horror film, and will continue to add details and eleaborate on our ideas until we have a full and final idea that we can work from.

Initial Ideas: Horror Movie

Brainstorm- Horror Film Initial Ideas

Analysis of Donnie Darko- Opening Scene.

I am analysing the opening three minutes of the psychological thriller, Donnie Darko. I will cover aspects such as lighting, camera angles and costume and show how this affects the audience, and therefore their interpretation of the film. These techniques also help to emphasise how important the opening scene of a film can be, especially in the case of a horror movie.
Basic Details:
The film begins with a black screen, and distant sounds of thunder, other than this, there is silence as the opening credits are shown. This leaves the opening ambiguous, the audience is left to guess what the opening scene or camera shot will be.
As what we assume is thunder continues, the first scene fades into view and the camera pans around a landscape.
The thunder gradually fades out as the camera continues to pan, which still leaves the audience wondering as to where the place is, its significance and what will happen next.
The camera comes to a stop as a road comes into view, and the first extra diegetic sound is added, as music begins playing, which may not be noticed at first, as the attention of the audience is focused on the figure lying in the road.
The background sky and silhouetted mountains contrast with the dull grey tones of the road. Therefore the dark figure, placed in the centre of the shot is much more noticeable. The shape of the road also leads the eye towards the figure.
The camera remains at a wide shot as it closed in on the figure, panning around the body as it sits up. We are unable to see the face up until this point, when the camera pans round enough to reveal a medium/ close up shot of the figure.
As this happens, the light seems to lift very slightly, revealing more detail of the face as the camera pans away slightly once more.
No transition is used when the shot switches back to another wide shot of the surrounding landscape, which again seems slightly lighter than before, and pans six seconds, until the figure stands and the camera come to a halt.
The figure remains at a medium shot for around five seconds, then turns, and the dull lighting means that it is difficult to see any real detail of the face, until he smiles, when the first time the audience sees the figure as a real person, almost interact with the audience, though eye contact is not made with the camera.
The figure walks out of shot as the main titles appear and a flash begins the transition onto the next scene.
Lighting:
The entire opening is very dimly lit. It creates an early morning feel, and works well with the quietness, giving a sense of isolation, coldness.
The scene does seem to become very gradually lighter throughout, highlighting minor details, such as the figure, bike and facial features as the close up is introduced.

Camera Angles:
The initial shot is a wide shot of the surroundings, introducing the scene and panning to another wide shot of the road.
It the closes in, pans towards the figure until at a medium shot, which brings the audience gradually closer to the character, building the suspense.
Also, a medium/ close up of the figure introduces him for the first time, but the lack of speech, knowledge of the surroundings for both viewer and character continues the ambiguity.

Costume:
The figure wears what appear to be pyjama trousers, making the costume completely out of place, and leaving its significance to the film unclear.
Also, the white T-Shirt is often used to convey an image of purity, simplicity and innocence, which is reflected in the character’s personality throughout the film.
The character’s hair is untidy, and adds to the lost and confused mood of the scene.

Sound:
Despite the serenity of the opening scene, suspense is built with the thundering as the scene begins, which contrasts to the calm and very simple piano piece it fades into.
It creates a sense of tranquillity, but at the same time leaves the audience wondering what will happen, and leads almost to an element of shock in the transition, and the sudden music and change of sound takes place.