More Film Stills

Here is another five stills from our footage, these are from the second day of shooting. These shots will be used in a montage at the beginning of the film opening to introduce the setting. At the time, the frost was horrible, but looking at these still image; the frost creates a chilling, scarier setting.

Reverse Time Lapse

Here's the footage we got today in reverse. The time lapse was created using the time lapse video setting on iPhone 6 and I used the 'Reverse Camera' app to play the video backward, but Imovie also has this reverse option. It's only a short clip as it will part of our opening montage which introduces the setting. The time lapse idea was inspired by The Haunting of Radcliffe which also begins with a collection of clips, they feature two short time lapses in their opening three minutes.

The idea to reverse this clip came from BBC's 'Remember Me', which was a short horror series which aired at the end of 2014. In the first episode the location was introduced with a shot of the coastline; yet the clip was much scarier than most establishing shots. The clip had been played in reverse which is why it was so chilling; the waves were moving outwards instead of towards the beach, it was a subtle change but still effective. Using reverse clips unsettles the audience and makes them feel uncomfortable as it is unnatural. We're hoping to create feelings of uneasiness for viewers when they watch our opening.

Here is the the first episode of 'Remember me', the first few minutes show the reversed beach shots and the water is obviously moving in an unnatural rhythm. There are then more shots of a figure rising up from the sand, the reverse effect makes his motions distorted and terrifying.

Filming Day 2

Filming is officially over! We managed to get 37 new landscape shots of our location, and spent part of the morning testing the time lapse effect.

The long scenic shots will be used as a montage in the very beginning of our opening, they'll be slow takes and our credits will appear over the top. The shots we got were from a variety of locations around Hilly fields, mostly pictures of tree tops and the sky line. I also tried to get shots of leaves/ branches in focus with a very soft background, this was to create a variation in composition and made the setting more interesting. 

We did attempt the time lapse of the tree tops, we were hoping for a clear transition of the clouds but the weather wasn't on our side. There was hardly any wind or cloud so there was practically no movement in the footage. We then tried a time lapse of stream that was running through our location, this worked much better and there was clear movement in the shot. Holly then suggested we reversed the successful time lapse,she took this idea from the 'Remember Me' clip we watched in class. I'll make sure to post another blog about reversing the shot and the inspiration behind it.

For  sub- zero temperatures I think we were pretty productive! 

Blog from the bus

I'm currently on my way to Holly's for the second day of filming. We were pretty certain last Sunday that we got all the footage we needed, but since editing we've been struggling with the continuity of the clips, they don't flow as well as we planned; so we have to reshoot. 

There's only a few parts that need to be refilmed so it will be a shorter day, but still freezing! I've learnt from my mistakes though, three pairs of socks and an extra flask of tea this time. 

We're also hoping to shoot more landscape stills as seen in the opening of 'The Haunting of Radcliffe House', their credits appear over a montage of long shots which we thought looked chilling and scary. We're going to try and replicate the technique with our own setting today.

While we're there we're also going attempt a time lapse on my phone.  Although we said we were going to scrap the idea, we want to test the effect and we might be able to include it in another section of the opening. 

Fragmented Editing

The last time I was in the media room I attempted to recreate the 'fragmented' technique that I spoke about in my last post. In order to create the 'flickering' we had to shoot two separate pieces of footage without adjusting the camera position. The first shot was of the field and trees in the distance, the second shot was exactly the same but the time Keeley was walking across the frame and into the trees.

With this footage, I began piecing the two together. I split the second one up into random 0.1 second long segments and then randomly placed it within the first piece of footage. When played; Keeley would appear and dissapear randomly as she moved towards the trees. For a first attempt I think it was quite effective but not professional enough. When used in horror movies, this technique is disorientating and there are dozens of overlapping shots.

Holly then began working from my first attempt and adjusted the randomly placed shots so that the scene flowed better. She then adjusted the saturation of some of the 0.1 second segments, changing them to black and white. This was a huge improvement to the scene as it created more mayhem and it became more manic.

We still need to improve this section of the opening but I will post a video of our practices soon. It would be easier for us to recreate this technique if we were able to shorten shots to below 0.1 seconds, this would allow us to have faster flickering, yet iMovie will not allow any shorter takes.

Horror Movie Editing Technique

Horror movies tend to recycle a lot of the same ideas, one technique which I've seen in many horrors is the 'flickering image'. This is when a person or object will continuously appear and disappear. It creates disorientation for the viewer, putting them on edge and it also creates a ghostly effect. The technique can be seen in use on the television screen as the girl 'flickers' as she walks towards the camera.

In order to create this effect; two separate shots need to be broken down into split second takes and pieced together. The fragmented result is effective but the editing process is time consuming. However it is an idea that my group is hoping to recreate.

Here's an example of a previous A2 group from my school, they mastered this technique in their music video, probably using 500+ separate pieces of film to create the 'flickering' in their final piece.

Saturation

I wasn't in school today but Holly was busy editing away in the media room. She sent me a few clips and pictures throughout the day; making me aware of the changes she made and asking my opinions.

She focused on Keeley's sections, so those are the scenes on the swing and entering the forest. Holly managed to change the saturation and colouring of these shots, making the scenery appear more vivid and Keeley much paler in comparison. It was important for us for Keeley to appear 'ghost like', we wanted her appearance to be chilling. In order to create this innocent, frightening character we dressed her in a white dress and applied practically white make up to her face. Now that Holly's changed the saturation/ contrast of Keeley's shots, she appears even more ghostly and I love the way the dress stands out from the background. 

Here's a short extract from the opening which shows the contrasting colours. The green is so vivid in comparison to Keeley and her dress.

Filming Evidence

iMovie

Holly has been playing around with her Mac book at home and has found some sounds on her iMovie that will be perfect for our movie. For the past few months we've been trying to find suitable audio, we were hoping for natural wind/ forest sounds combined with an eery shrill sound. Fortunately Holly's imovie has two possible audio clips that fit the criteria.

Also, I got a new phone yesterday, my parents surprised me with the iPhone 6 (I'm spoilt, I know). The phone comes with iMovie already installed, this should be useful if we need to make any quick additional projects; such as research or interview movies that I'd be able to edit at home without needing to use the school macs. Should be really useful for the rest of the media course. 

Starting Editing

Editing has begun. I've imported all of yesterday's footage and we've got just under twenty minutes of footage to play around with. My first job is to remove all of the diegetic sound from the clips, this sound will be replaced with non- diegetic music during the editing process, so I want to erase all the sound now; enabling us to focus completely on the image of the shot. 

Ten Movie Stills

The Location

We walked for, what seemed, hours to find the right location. I didn't realise Hilly fields was so big! But we finally decided on a location that was right for our horror, and I think we managed to find the creepiest tree in Enfield. As soon as we found it we set up camp (blankets and hot water bottles), then we securely tied our swing to lowest branch, it was so secure that we couldn't actually untie it, so we had to desert our 'Victorian swing' in Hilly fields post- filming.

Shoot day

Filming is finished! We managed to capture all of the shots today and we also managed not to catch pneumonia. It probably wasn't the smartest decision to film on the coldest day of the year. Keeley was fab and we're going to have to spoil her with sweets considering she was wearing a pretty summer dress in this kind of weather. Bonnie the dog was also fab considering she was completely naked.

It took us around 4 hours to film the whole thing, a lot of that time was spent drinking hot chocolate and huddling under blankets; but it was a long process none the less. While on location we got 82 clips of video that we can now begin editing and playing around with, we tried to film each shot multiple times in order to make the editing process easier and hopefully we will not need to go back out on location. We made changes to quite a few of the shots during filming today, the biggest change we made was to the time lapse; well actually we completely scrapped it. We'd originally planned to have a 10 minute time lapse of the tree tops and fast forward the clip to show movement of the clouds and a transition in time. But the weather was far too gloomy and we couldn't see the clouds moving on film. Also we struggled to pan the camera with the tripod so our pan to time lapse was too jerky and amateur- looking. So we've decided to forget the time lapse and we've instead shot multiple extra clips which will replace it.

Other than that, everything seemed to go to plan, all that's left to do is get editing!

Finders Keepers

Possibly the worst movie I've ever seen. It was on Sky Movies and the 'info' stated it was horror about a girl becoming obsessed with a doll. I thought I'd give it a watch because it had some similarities with our movie opening i.e. same genre and chosen props.

HUGE MISTAKE. It was terrible. Full of horror movie cliches and gore instead or chills. There was far too much blood and guts, so much so that it was hardly even scary, all of the slasher scenes had become laughable.

However, there was one good aspect to the movie; the fact that they had a young girl as the lead role.  The nine- year- old was the most convincing out of all the actors and constantly had a scary expression on her face. Her acting could be used to influence some of the directions we give to Keely on set tomorrow morning.

Canon Tutorial

DSLR

As a group, we decided to exchange the school's Panasonic video camera for my Canon. We initially thought of this while watching other A level opening films, there was one in particular that looked slick and professional, partly because of the chosen setting; partly due to the clear, detailed close ups.  Their access to expensive film equipment allowed them to create openings that didn't look amateur at all, definitely something we want to achieve.

I've not used the Canon much in movie mode, I only use it for photography class, so I've spent a lot of today reading filming tutorials. I'm fairly confident with the settings now but I still have one concern; the fact that filming in 1920x 1080 requires ALOT of battery life. I'm worried that the battery will drain and we will have to use the Panasonic as well, editing two different types of video together may look unprofessional, but hopefully it doesn't result in that.

The Doll

We've finally got a doll! We've spent so long hunting down an old fashioned china doll, our final prop. Nicole is allowing us to use her childhood toy and show it as an evil Chuckie imitation in our movie opening. She sent us a picture of the doll and it looks perfect, all we need to do is tie it with a ribbon to match the crimson ribbon Keely will be wearing. The inspiration for the use of a doll came from movies such as Annabelle and Chuckie, but also from the Woman in Black. The three girls in the opening of The Woman in black were playing with victorian china tea sets, so they appeared innocent; making their sinister behaviour even more chill ding. We thought it was important to use a delicate childish prop to make Keely even more innocent.

So now we've got all the props ready for shooting, excited to start filming tomorrow!

The Swing Set

Our main prop arrived. Filming can commence. Our own swing means we can choose a more appealing setting, so we will not be filming in a children's playground this time. The swing also makes the mise- en- scene less amateur as it fits in with Victorian time period we are aiming to replicate in the beginning.

The Theory of Everything

I've been wanting to watch this movie for the past week, mostly because of the raving reviews. It's already received nominations for the 2015 BAFTASs including 'best leading actor', 'best leading actress' and 'outstanding British film', so I entered the screen with high expectations, and it didn't disappoint! The cinematography was incredible. I found myself paying more attention to the camera angles than the story line as detailed close ups were repeatedly used to show Eddie Redmayne's expressions, several long panning shots were also used to show Cambridge University, the looked unbelievable with the framing and filming of these shots. I found the sound in the Theory of everything particularly interesting. In certain scenes all diegetic sound was removed and the audience were left in complete silence, giving them time to think and process. There was power in the silence, especially in Steven Hawking's diagnosis scene. I think the lack of sound is a technique that could be used in our media film as it will emphasise the emptiness of the setting.

 

The Costume

Our inspiration came from the three innocently dressed girls in the opening of the Woman in Black, Esther in the Orphan also wears a tradition, pretty dress with ribbons in her hair. 

Haunting of Radcliffe House Specifics

I watched the opening of this short Channel 5 film back and showed it to the rest of my group, because I think it's close to something we'd like to replicate. The opening is made up of several long landscape shots. They show an eery, almost completely- grey setting from different angles. There are shots from behind trees, behind fountains and behind windows, creating the idea that the audience are hiding or spying on the forest setting.

The very first establishing shot is 12 seconds long, and the following 8 shots are roughly 8 seconds long. The long takes allow the audience to look at everything in the scene, giving them enough time to notice the emptiness and lack of mise- en- scene. There are also two time lapses in the opening, this is something we had always planned to incorporate in our opening. In the Haunting of Radcliffe house, the time lapse emphasises the unchanging setting, for our opening; a time lapse would be used for the same purpose but also to show a dramatic change in time period.

I also think the written credits used in this film would be a good starting point for our credits. They are plain white names that slowly fade in and out. I think the fade transition of the words is quite chilling when used with the fading of the long takes. They are effective in this opening as they are subtle and do not distract from the long shots.

Woman In Black 2 Review

I saw it! I went with Holly the other day to see the first horror movie of 2015. It was terrifying! Definitely a lot scarier than the original, but the story line was not as compelling. The first 'Woman in Black' has become the main inspiration for our movie, it incorporates children (like we have) and the main focus is the eery setting (which we hope to achieve). There are very few 'jumpy' moments in the original, it really is a classic ghost story which is why we have been so inspired by it, as we're not planning to incorporate 'jumps' or 'thrills' in our opening two minutes, we're aiming to create a chilling atmosphere and heighten audience's anticipation for a 'jump'.

However, the sequel of the Woman In Black has endless 'jumps', I couldn't sit still because I was constantly screaming. I do like the shocking moments, but there were far too many and the story line was lacking. There was also less of a focus on the setting of Eel Marsh house in the second movie. I felt the house created all the fright before, but less so in the sequel. Although we saw less of the house, there was more mention of the sea fog which engulfs the island setting, I thought the use of fog was a clever way to create an eery setting. This use of pathetic fallacy added to the audience's anticipation as there was a lack of visual in certain scenes, the audience had to rely on their other senses and therefore put them on edge. I think this is something we can replicate in our own opening and dimmer lighting/ fog will make our forest setting even more terrifying.

The fog, which was so prominent in the second movie, also added to the grey colour palette. Throughout the entire movie, there was a lack of colour, possibly reflecting the wartime date but also adding to the gloom of the island. Practically every prop had been coloured grey or black, even the makeup used showed the characters with greying faces. The main character however was dressed in light blue throughout. With each costume change, she remained in a blue coat or dress, I think this was a clever decision from the director as it made her stand out from the dreary background and my focus was always on her. For our actress, we're dressing her in a white Victorian style dress, this will hopefully make her stand out from the grey setting but she will still look appropriate for the time period.

We've also bought crimson ribbons for her to wear in her hair. We're hoping the brightly coloured ribbon and our old fashioned doll will be the most important aspects of the mise- en- scene and a symbol the audience will remember, as the ribbon will act as an object of mystery later in our movie. This idea came from the Woman in Black 2 as there was a piece of red string which was symbolic during the second half of the movie. The length of string stood out from the grey colour palette and directed the audiences attention to a particular part of the scene. The camera and audience then both followed the red string, leading to a different room and a terrifying scene in the movie. I think using a symbolic prop is a clever idea to incorporate in our horror movie as it is a common horror movie convention. Some memorable props are the 'Annabelle' doll in the Conjuring and the video tape in The Ring.