FS-Navigation Post

Evaluation
Question 1/2
Question 3
Questions 4/5
Question 6
Question 7

Planning
Animatic-Task 20
Titles and Typography-Task 21
Reflection on Shoot- Task 19
Audience Research- Task 17
Treatment-Task 15
Shot by Shot analysis- Task 14
Preliminary - Task 13
Wilderness Woods - Task 10
Sequence Analysis - Task 9
Concept Development - Task 8
Anlaysis- Title sequence -Task 7
Independent Horror Research - Task 5
Moodboard Prezzi -Task 4
Reading Source- Task 3
Picture Analysis -Task 2
Historical Context and Research-Task 1

JB: Navigation Post

Group 3 - 'Louisa'

Evaluation Posts

• Question 1 - Evaluation
• Question 2 - Evaluation
• Question 3 - Evaluation
• Question 4/5 - Evaluation (Group Task)
• Question 6 - Evaluation
• Question 7 - Evaluation (Group Task)

Planning Posts

• Reflection on Rough Cut
• Task 5: Still Frame Experimentation
• Task 6 - Institutional Context - Independent Horror Films
• Task 7 - Individual Deconstruction of an Opening Sequence
• Task 10 - Wilderness Woods (Group Task)
• Task 12 - Reflection on Preliminary Task
• Task 13 - Preliminary Task (Group Task)
• Task 14 - Shot-by-Shot Analysis: 'Cabin in the Woods'
• Task 15 - Treatment
• Task 17 - Audience Research
• Task 19 - Reflection on Shoot
• Task 20 - Editing Progress
• Representation and Ideology - Analysing a Horror Opening

Concept Development

• Task 4 - Concept Development Moodboard
• Task 8 - Concept Development
• Concept Development - Why do some audiences seek thrills vicariously?
• Concept Development: Why do people love zombies?

FS JB- Evaluation Q7

JB- Evaluation Q6

JB- Evaluation Q3

JB- Evaluation Q2

JB- Evaluation Q1

FS- Evaluation Q6

FS JB Group3- Evaluation Q4/5

FS- Evaluation Q3

FS- Evaluation Q1/2

Final Cut

FS JB Group 3 animatic

JB: Task 20 Group 3 - Editing - Progress

• As I was in charge of sound, I wanted to give the audience a true representation into the antagonists mind-set. I believe the sounds I have found connote the persona of such a demented mind such as the constant murmuring of whispers that appear to be very disjointed and playing with the antagonists head. We also added multiple layers by dragging sounds from Freesound.org by dragging and drop clicking onto the timeline. Although there is a significant amount of non-diegetic sound such as the whispering, we have also attempted to recreate a sense of diegetic sound as initially the recordings we took had no audio. We have tried to represent the continuity editing by overlaying sound and adding snippets of diegetic sound in chronological order such as at the beginning a creaking door has been added and then as the light switch turns on a flickering sound is present to connote the fact that the light if fairly old and that the room is fairly disused.

•  We added the sounds by firstly going through Freesound.org with a fine toothcomb and by adding tags of sounds we wanted to find such as ‘eerie’ or ‘scratching’, we selected and downloaded the desired files. This is done by clicking onto the sound file and downloading it, below the timeline, and then select to save it in my file ‘10blackj’ on the DataDisk, it can then be imported to the correct Adobe Premiere file.

 

 

JB: Group 3 - Reflection on Rough Cut

Feedback on Rough Cut
Strengths:
Key
-(1): the number of people who agreed with this point

·        Framing (2)

·        Clear plot (1)

·        Layering of non-diegetic sound [whispering] (4) [2] and of visuals (noticeable SE7EN style) (5)

·        Lighting and Mise-en-scene (5)

·        Range of shots (1)

·        Location (1)

·        Use of intercutting / Jump cuts (1)

·        Realistic (1)

·        Timeline of photographs (1)

·        Negative shots (2)

·        Polaroid is original and bares significance (1)

·        Titles (1)

Areas to Improve and our response:

·        No prosthetics at the beginning e.g. blood (1) – this may be an issue as it is slightly unclear as to whether the victim is alive or dead. Therefore, we are debating as to whether or not to use the drawn focus shot at the end. This may help with the problem as the shot is from the victims POV and would show that she is in fact not dead, simply been knocked unconscious.

·        Negative shots a weaker aspect of our film (1) – we are going to remove some of the use of negative effects as we now appreciate although some do look good, we may have over used them in aspects of our production.

·        Some shots go on for too long (1) – this is something we already knew we needed to do. We wanted the cutting rate in the preparation scene to be really quick, like SE7EN, so we knew that we wouldn’t be able to use the entirety of each individual shot and that we would need to cut some down.

   

 

FS JB: Task 19 - Reflection on shoot

Reflection on Filming

What went well?
·        The camera we used was of high resolution which led to us being really happy about the way our shots came out as we feel they looked professional and the quality will really help when it comes to editing.
·        We recorded lots of footage even though we were aware we wouldn’t be able to use every single shot. Although the filming process took a long time, we are really glad we spent so long on it now because we simply have so much choice over which shot to use. At first we were conscious that we wouldn’t have enough footage to fulfil the time of the opening so as we planned to have a very fast cutting rate in the mid-section of the opening. Therefore we recorded lots of filler shots. This has helped again as although we won’t use all of them we can use them in as a parallel line of action to set the scene.

·        The weather played to our advantage; on the day we recorded there was very rainfall, this connoted the unpleasant conditions the protagonist would be in through pathetic fallacy. There were some issues with this but on the whole we couldn’t have asked for more ideal conditions to film in.

·        The location of the filming, we think that one of the strongest parts of our filming was the strength of the location. We filmed in an old fashioned cellar in Ightam. The cellar was small, compact and dense but with lots of character. in one corner there was a ‘Priest hole’, connoting the house was actually traditionally more of an inn or perhaps a community area. However, due to this there were also engravings already on the wall of Christian crosses which were presumably done by the Priest. We were able to work around these and use them to our advantage as we felt they added historical value, going in time with the hieroglyphics shot and the persona of the antagonist.

 

Struggles we had:

As the camera we had sometimes had to be focused manually, some shots appeared out of focus, therefore, we had to rerecord these shots, many of these included close up shots of words which were slightly

·        On the day we recorded there was very heavy rainfall, to an extent this aided out filming as it created a sinister tone which made the protagonist look vulnerable, and the antagonist even more of a threat. This was helpful as it connoted the psychological subgenre, however, it also bought many problems too. Every shot we filmed outside, we had to be conscious the camera didn’t get wet, this was difficult when filming the chase scene as the filmmaker had to carry an umbrella as well as the camera.





FS: Task 21 - Group 3 Titles

• I have chosen the above fonts in an attempt give an insight into the antagonists personality and a connotation into the psychological sub-genre. The titles will be shown as the antagonist writes on a piece of paper with an old fashioned fountain pen. The rule of thirds will be applied so hopefully the audience will firstly see the flickering text, in a white, or black font with a contrasting background area colour and then encounter the recreation of plans being written by the antagonist.

•  We have already decided the font will be fairly untidy, serif and scratchy. This, along with the antagonist writing on the paper will aim to give an element of para-social intimacy as the font will be in the style of a stereotypical antagonists handwriting, therefore implying the titles are actually being written by the antagonist. I have chosen the above fonts as I believe they are stereotypical handwriting styles of a psychopathic antagonist. Also they all look as if they could have been written using an old fashioned fountain pen, which fits in with the antagonists persona. My favourite fonts are probably the first, (PsychoPoetry) and the last (Art Brewery),  as I believe they capture and enhance the characteristics of a psycho killer. This is because , judging by the antagonists thorough plans, one must assume the antagonist is somewhat of a perfectionist. I believe these fonts represent this but also imply an inner frustration which causes the fonts to be imperfect such as the letters not being joined up and such as in the fourth font (Flowery Death) which create a more irreverent and disearning trait.

FS JB: Task 17 Group 3: Audience Research

This represents how more males are likely to watch horror films, therefore, due to the binary opposition of males and heterosexuality, we can infer females must play an important role in our production.

The majority of respondents said they only particularly watch films once ‘every so often’, this is interesting as it represents how horror movies are a relatively niche market. This means people will only really watch horror movies which particularly catch their attention. Therefore, inferring the opening scene of our horror movie must be effective and appealing in immediately catching the audiences attention.

Out of all the horror films,80% had seen Saw, a massacre / slasher with supernatural attributes. Which is so popular because it is such a significant and established franchise. As a group we have taken most inspiration from ‘SE7EN’, which 40% of the viewers had seen showing the psychological genre is fairly influential and popular. This is interesting as it shows the genre we choose to use is generally liked and people find it interesting.

Shutter island was the most popular horror, due to its A-listers and its storyline. This is important as it shows the opening of Shutter Island must have been engaging, this is a good sign as we are going to try and perform close ups in our opening, as Shutter Island did so in its opening sequence, this was done to prevent the audience from establishing a known location creating a mysterious tone. Cabin in the Woods was also popular, this is interesting as we intend to use aspects from the opening of this also, such as the use of hieroglyphics to create a historical and engraved  attitude.

The respondents favourite horror genre was Gothic, this was quite surprising as it is usually a less significant genre. However, this is useful as there are links between the Gothic, and the Psychological genre, especially in our production as we have used symbolism such as religious crosses and the antagonist wears quite a gothic costume.

The majority of people rated the opening of SE7EN as ‘Very sinister’, this is influential to our production as we have based our filming largely on the style, precision and angles used in SE7EN with similar props. It is also useful as nobody, despite everyone’s differentiating taste, rates the opening as anything less than sinister, meaning everyone liked the style of SE7EN and will hopefully like the similar style we have filmed ours in.

 

40% of the respondents said it was important to feature a female protagonist which is a relief as we went to some lengths to recruit a female protagonist as we thought it was essential to have a female protagonist in our film, due to stereotypes that girls are meant to be more  fearful than men which may lead to the audience giving the protagonist more sympathy than if it was a male protagonist.

 

JB: Task 14 GG: Shot-by-shot analysis: 'Cabin in the Woods' (Goddard, 2012)

In summary, from this analysis I have learnt about the power of using a predominantly black screen to create effect. This came apparent as it was also used for the titles of ‘SE7EN’, as with the flashy, hypnotic white writing, the text was incredibly noticeable and direct even though the duration the text was on the screen was minute. The same type of shot was used in the opening of ‘Cabin in the woods’, the sequence I analysed. There was a black screen with a dark coloured, blood strain trickling across the screen. Although the blood itself was a rather dark colour, illuminations of orange , to reinforce the connotation of a fire-y themed hell was used against a black screen to create a similar effect. The titles in ‘Cabin in the Woods’ also stood out as a result of this. Although the titles were not particularly large, nor was the colour particularly noticeable as it was a dark red, the black screen gave the writing prevalence and made them constantly noticeable.

 The powerful use of colour was also present when opposite uses of the colour wheel were used to juxtapose each other. This occurred with an extremely quick whip pan at the end of the title sequence. The majorly orange and black screen quickly whipped to a light blue connoting a sky colour and white writing implying the ‘white wispy clouds’ in the sky. This gave the impression that the camera had rotated a full 180degrees. From a hell scene apocalyptic sight looking underground, to a heavenly seemed impression looking up at the sky. 

 

 

FS Task 7 - Individual: Deconstruction of Opening Sequence - Paranormal Activity

Genre:

·        This franchise of films are dominantly a hybrid of supernatural and psychological, this is due to the hauntings set within the domestic sphere, these hauntings however are not a visible character such as Freddy Kruger in a nightmare on elm street.

·        The opening conveys the family, shot through home videos and enables us to see them in a positive, happy light juxtaposing the events to come. This challenges the usual stereotype of a horror as there is no major scare in the opening scene, purely the title sequence along with the parasocial interaction of the family ‘pre haunting’.

·        This text neither conforms or threat the characteristics as the scenes shown are purely based on scenes that are not creating any visceral pleasure.

·        Most of the paranormal activity films conform to this opening, and has a greater build up to the disequilibrium making it more realistic.

Film Language

Camerawork:

·        One of the main characteristics of the paranormal activity franchise is the use and effectiveness of the handheld camera to make the audience feel present in the shot, this not only creates a realistic tone but adds to the verisimilitude created in the film, however in the opening this is just showing the couple together laughing, meaning the audience have more empathy for them when the haunting occurs.

·        the handicam again is used to portray a close up of the wife in a point of view (POV) to show the intimacy between the couple.

Editing:

·        continuous editing is used to convey no sense of urgency and a relaxed tone which is heavily juxtaposed later in the film with fast cutting rates. This use of continuous editing enables the audience to be in a peaceful state of mind before the hauntings occur, creating more visceral pleasure.

·        as the main protagonist is in control of the camera we can see what mood he is in and the tone created through his actions, in this opening the shots are relatively smooth and the cutting rate is slow.

·        there is a filter over the top of the shots composited on top in post-production to create a more realistic mood.

Mise-en-scene:

·        the fact that the opening is set in the same domestic sphere as the hauntings and the disequilibrium will occur in, make it more scary for the audience as there is such a contrast in tones between before and after the ‘hauntings’.

·        the simplicity of the set (inside the house) again makes it more realistic for the audience as they can relate it with their own home.

·        when their house is robbed the set is destroyed creating an enigma code making the audience question the reasons behind this attack.