Makeup Ideas

  We have decided to do the monsters make - up like a combination of the two ideas above as we believe that they will look best in the opening we are making. The two ideas combines will also look very creepy in certain lights like natural light and also additional studio lighting if we use it.

Prop Ideas

  One of the appeals of a horror films is that, unlike an action film that needs guns and cars, a horror film needs a very minimal number of props. The few props that we need for our scene are face paint, fake blood (both of which could be classified as makeup and not props), a lighter and most importantly to the story, a Ouija board.

Character Ideas

Setting Research

St. Peters mortuary, Chertsey, Surrey

The mortuary, built in the 1940’s, is a small, rectangular building on the outskirts of the main Hospital site and closed in April 2009 when the mortuary relocated to the main hospital building. It is located in Chertsey, Surrey and is an abandoned public place where anyone can go to and search. There is a bit of danger involved because when there has been lots of rain it floods and makes the building deteriorate quicker.

The shot on the left is of the hallway, shot from the front entrance and shows the body storage areas from when the mortuary was in service. The shot on the right is of the dissecting tables they used to extract organ donors organs.  The shot down the bottom left is the outside view of the mortuary which gives it the sense of being abandoned.

West park mental hospital, Epsom, Surrey

The mental hospital closed in the 90’s after its use became limited, since then it has become a place where the locals would go to trash the place. This has led to some complications because the place is not in the best of shapes. It would have been a good place to film our horror film with brain tissue and other personal items labelled and kept on the counter, as well as having a dead decomposing rat in the room will set the setting very well. However unfortunately as of January 2014 there is no longer any of the things which make the setting so perfect as the mental hospital was in a place due for construction so they have taken the first step to demolishing the establishment by removing all the props and items from the floor.

The top left picture is the outside shot of the mental hospital showing it is a rural area with lots of trees in the background which could have made it an eerie setting. The right picture is of the 3 storage bays for bodies because just like the last place it counts as a mortuary as well. The last picture is of one of the rooms where patients would stay once admitted to the mental hospital.

Cane hill hospital

Cane hill hospital was a hospital and mortuary used extensively throughout the late nineteenth century and early 20^thcentury. Since the 70’s it has been in constant decline and therefore the local government officials tried to make it into a heritage site. This however failed and in 2008 the scheduled demolition started and would be finished by 2010. However things took a turn for the worst when a fire erupted and burned down the original clock tower and the front of the entire establishment. This is why we can’t film here because even-though it would have been a good place to film, it is no longer there for us to film.                                     

Idea for Opening Two Minutes- The Summoning

-Ouija board   -zippo lighter -make up for ‘monster’

Genre:

 Horror.

Characters:

    -‘Leader’ – Brave. Jock. –Leather jacket, white shirt, black jeans, dark shoes.  –Matt.

    -Whimp/Geek – scared. –Geeky t-shirt, Jeans, converse, check shirt. – Billy.

    -Girl – preppy –Skinny jeans, cardigan, nice shirt, shoes. –Zoe.

    -Dark one – suggests Ouija board – Black jeans, dark clothing, dark shoes.– Conor.

    -Average – normal guy – jeans, sweater (zipper), casual clothes, Vans.– Bill.

    -Monster/ghost - Scary – Luke.

Title sequence:

    -Names of featured people.    –Names go with establishing shot.     –Logo: Independent Film Making (studios)

Music:

    -Discordant.    –Eerie.    -Creepy.    –Piano.    –Guitar.   – Goes with establishing shot.

Scenes:

    -Establishing Shot.   –Ouija Board.   –Lighter Scene.    –Title Scene.

Name Suggestions:

Initial ideas	Shortlist	Final idea
-          The Morgue	Darkening	The Summoning
-          The disturbance	Darkest fate
-          The mortuary	Candle Light
-          A game of monsters	A Ghost’s Game
-          Manipulation	The Forgotten
-          Dark script	Behind it All
-          The devils deal	Veil of Darkness
-          Blood haunting	Darkness Veil
-          The devils conjuring	Gateway
-          The spirit within
-          Possessors grip
-          The screaming flame
-          Boarderline / Borderline
-          The spirits influence

  We have decided that the film we want to make will be a horror. The appeal of the horror genre is that it is very unlike any other genre; when you see a horror film you instantly know it is a horror film. In a lot of ways, this makes a horror easier to film, as you have a distinct structure and idea of what you should be doing during filming. Further appeals of making a horror film are that you only need a minimal amount of props, so the price of production is kept low.

  When brainstorming our film we knew we wanted to strike a good balance between being faithful to the genre, but also have our own spin on things. The risk of sticking too close to genre conventions is that the film becomes cliché, and while being cliché is it’s self a convention of the genre, it is not something we want to include in our film. On the other hand, if we try too hard to be different and have our own spin on things, we risk the film losing touch with the genre.

Preliminary Task

  This is the second film we have made for media studies. Although having only one nine-second film under our belts, we all felt a lot more confident filming this than our previous one. There are a number of things that I feel we did well in the clip, but that's not to say there aren't things that can be improved upon.
  We'll start with the strengths. Overall this clip feels much more professional and polished. This is due to how the camera being held steadier, which is more smooth; the lack of background noise; and the cleaner and more natural cuts which make the clip seem like one continuous scene. We also used a number of rules of continuity, which you can see in the clip. When Zoe opens the door you can see a match-on-action shot which gives the audience something to focus on. When Zoe and Billy have a conversation the use of shot/reverse shot is evident. And finally, the camera never crosses the line of action, conforming to the 180 degree rule.
  The main weakness of the clip is that some shots last for too long. The first shot of the clip should ideally end just as Zoe reaches for the doorknob, instead it lingers for a second too long and makes the clip feel awkward and amateur. When Zoe walks into the room and sits on the chair it, again, feels almost uncomfortably long. To resolve this the long shot could be separated into two shorter shots; one from the angle shown of Zoe walking into the room, and one from closer up of her sitting down.
  Overall I am happy with the outcome of this film, and hope we can continue to improve as much as we have.

Rules of Continuity in Filming

  There are five main rules to follow during filming in order to create the impression of one continuous scene, and to not confuse and disorientate the audience. These rules are: the 180 rule; shot/reverse shot; the 30 degree rule; match on action and the rule of thirds.

The 180 Rule

  The 180 rule is the idea that the camera should never go past an imaginary line between the two main subjects in the scene, aka the line of action. This is to not disorientate the audience and to give them a sense of space in the scene. You can see this in the clip, as the camera never passes the white line on the floor.

Shot/Reverse Shot

  Shot/reverse shot is the basic idea of cutting between two characters during dialogue to make the conversation seem real and to make it understandable to the audience. It can also be used without dialogue to show what or who a character is looking at. In the clip it is used when the characters are looking into each other's eyes.

30 Degree Rule

  The 30 degree rule is the idea that, when returning to a similar shot, the angle should be at least 30 degrees different. This is to stop the new shot from looking like it is unsuccessfully trying to replicate the previous shot; and to make the repeating shots more interesting for the viewer. You can see it in the clip when the two different camera shots are used on the subject to keep it interesting.

Match on Action

  A match on action is when the camera cuts to a close up shot of something happening on the screen, such as the slamming of a door or checking of a watch. It is used to show the audience something important or give them a better sense of what is happening within the scene. In the clip it is used when the woman lights her cigarette.

Rule of Thirds

                                    

The rule of thirds is the idea that, to make a composition look good, the points of focus should be placed along one of the lines of thirds on the screen. This helps to make the scene look more natural and interesting to the viewer. In the video you can see how much better the image looks once the rule of thirds has been applied to the landscape.

Opening of a Romance Film- Silver Linings Playbook

 
  Sound is very important within a romance film to help set the tone mood and atmosphere; it often gives a first impression to the audience without them even realising it. The first sound in this clip is not non-diegetic music but the diegetic sound of Bradley Cooper's character monologuing. The use of diegetic sound without the images to go with it cause us to focus more on what the character is saying than we normally would, because of this we can assume what he is saying is important, and he is probably the main character.
  The first shot of the character is a slow zooming shot towards the back of his head. The slowness of the zoom implies a calmness or sadness and the fact that it is not showing his face gives an air of mystery. These are not things you would expect to see in a romance film, so it goes against convention.
  While the opening to this film may not have a lot of indications as to it's genre, there are some. Things such as the monologue from the main character and the upbeat non-diegetic music are both indicators of the romance genre.

Opening of a Romance Film- The Break-Up

  The first convention we get of the genre in the clip is the goofy best friend. We know this character is the archetypal character type because of his actions and appearance. He is overweight and bald, both things we see as comical. As well as this he acts in a wacky and humorous way.
  Other characters in the scene are the male and female leads. We know the Vince Vaughn's character is the lead because we are seeing through his perspective, for example when he looks over at Jennifer Aniston's character, the camera does too. He is also the first character we see in the clip. The reason we know that Jennifer Aniston's character is the other main character is because, quite simply, she is the only other character.
  It is interesting to note that, though a main character, we never get any close-up shots of the female lead. This could be for a number of reasons: we are following the perspective of the other character; we have yet to be properly introduced to the character; or even that we are not meant to sympathise with the character. A two-person shot is used of the two male characters to show that they know each other, and even though they are arguing, we can tell that they are friends. On the contrary, we can tell that the two leading characters are not close, and probably don't know each other because of the distance between them and the lack of two-person shots.