Shopping List for props

Here's a list of things I need to get before I begin filming...

• Halloween make-up
• Tripod
• Music Box
• Candle
• Cardboard boxes

Camera

I got a DSLR camera for christmas which is perfect for my trailer.

My camera is the Canon 100D, it's very lightweight which makes it good for me to use for my trailer as I can carry it around easily. The auto-focus on this camera makes it much easier than my phone to film moving things.

Here are some specifications which make this camera perfect for what I want it for.

This will be good for when I film my night-time shots

Obviously as I will be using the video more that the photo part of my camera, it's essential to have a high definition video camera.

Targets For The Next Few Weeks 28th December

My targets currently are to

• Create a shopping list of props which I need to get for filming, as now I have my camera- I am ready to film as soon as I get the props
• I also need to take new images for my poster/magazine with my new camera as the quality is better. 

Filming Update...

As christmas and new year are coming up I am going to take a break and start filming in the new year.

There are a few things I need to do before I begin filming...

• Character names
• Props/ Equipment
• Character profiles 

... which I will do after christmas/ new year.

Summary of Poster Focus Groups

I have made a Prezi of a summary from my focus group, I am going to improve the posters with this feedback and then show them again.

Did I Meet This Targets 18th December

I evaluated the small clips that I filmed last week so that I know how to better improve when it comes to filming and editing the real thing.

I also held a focus group on my draft posters, which I recorded, and now I know which of my posters to develop.

I have also been researching film magazines and already have a better understanding to prepare me for creating the real thing.

Breakdown of Film Magazine 2

Quantitative Results from Focus Group on Poster Drafts

I gathered all of my results together and made some graphs...

As you can see the preferred poster this one 

Around 54% of the 11 people I asked said this was their favourite, 5/6 of these people were between the age of 17-18 which I think is important as it shows that young people ie. my target audience found the scariest poster the best, thus emphasising why they're my target audience because it shows that most young people love horror.

Whereas 27% of the people asked said they preferred this one, 2/3 of these were my mum and dad who are obviously over 40 and again, I think this is important as it shows why they are not my main target audience. However, this could've meant that they thought the one with the black eyes was too scary and they wouldn't want their children to see it: so I asked my mum if she thought any of the posters were too scary to be put around public places where children could see them and she disagreed.

Finally, around 18% chose this poster as their favourite because they thought it looked original, however neither of them said it was particularly scary or prominent as a horror poster just that it was unsettling as his face is blurred.

Breakdown of Film Magazine 1

Other Poster Feedback

Aside from my recorded focus groups, I asked people what they thought without recording.

Victoria said that she preferred the poster with the black eyes because it looked unsettling and she immediately thought of the horror genre. I asked her if she had any improvement ideas and she said the same as everyone else in that she thought a brighter font was needed as it was hard to read, she also said that it would be interesting to put a sepia toned filter over the image to create an aged, creepy look.

To get a wider age range I also asked my mum and dad to tell me what they thought...

My mum said she preferred the poster with both Sophie and James because he looks very sinister and she thought it was the best picture. She said that it wasn't too scary and she couldn't really tell that it was a horror film whereas with the other two, she could. She said with the poster she preferred, she would use more make up to make James look scarier and also have Sophie staring towards the camera like James is and to make her look more like she's screaming. My dad also preferred this poster.

Focus Group on Draft Posters

Firstly I asked my media group as I knew they'd give me a more technical response as just like me, they are interested in films and have a good understanding of real media products.



And then I asked my friends who will be starring in the trailer because I knew they'd give me a more honest and critical response and it was good to get feedback from people who would actually be seeing the poster.

Evaluation of first clips

I'm going to evaluate the clips I filmed on the 5th of December...


The quality of the video is not very good as it was filmed on my phone, when I get my camera and film on that it'll be better.

Also when I get my camera I'll have a tripod which I can use to control my camera without it shaking from just holding it in my hand.

Targets For This Week 14th December

My targets for this week are to

• Evaluate the clips I filmed last week
• To do a focus group on my draft posters to see which one people prefer and then I can use this information to decide which to develop into my real poster
• I also want to research more into film magazines as I haven't done much research so far.

Draft clips from 5/12/15

This is my first draft scene from the trailer. Both the audio and visual aspects aren't very good because it was filmed on my phone which is why it's only a draft. When this scene has tense music on top of it it will be much more intense.

Fonts

I'm looking into lots of different fonts for my poster and I've added them all to my first draft poster...
(music box is my working title until I come up with my real one)

How I Did Draft Poster 3

I simply added a white frame to the picture to create the polaroid look.

I then added the 'dry brush' filter in Photoshop to distort the boy's face. 

How I Did Poster Draft 2

First of all I added a watercolour effect to the image to create a lot of contrast between the background and his skin.

I added an image of smoke surrounding the boy to create a creepy effect.

Next I filled his eyes in using the paintbrush tool in black.

I did the same technique of adding a drop shadow to all of the text, and for the title as I chose to do it in grey and it didn't really pop- I added some detail using the white paintbrush, 

How I Did Draft Poster 1

After importing the image into photoshop, I added a light grain
to make the image look slightly unclear.

I then made the image black and white and moved the yellow levels up to make the image appear whiter.

 I then added all of the text and added a small drop shadow to everything to make it pop from the page.

Using Photoshop

I've made 3 drafts so far on Photoshop. Here they are...

Afterlight

I used an app called Afterlight to try different ways to edit my photos before I properly edited them on Photoshop.

For this one I added a black and white filter and
a 'dust' filter to make it look old and creepy,

I added a red-based dust filter for this one and turned the
highlights up to make James look really pale.

This is the polaroid themed poster so I added a border.
I did the same sort of editing as with the others but I also added a 'flash' filter above
James' head to create the ghost time thing that 'you can see in pictures'.

Photo shoot for draft poster: Unedited

I got five different poses and I am going to use the app Afterlight on my phone to play with editing them before I use photoshop. James will be holding the music box in the real thing.

Did I Meet My Targets 5th December

My targets for this week were too

• Take some photographs for my poster - I did this and got a variety of shots for the poster
• Plan filming - I created a schedule and plan to film a draft clip of Sophie today

Filming Plans: Saturday 5th December

On saturday I'm going to film the scene with just Sophie in the living room, as this is practical for both of us. The quality will not be representative of the real thing because I'm filming on my phone rather than my camera.

Poster Shoot: Friday 4th

Tomorrow I'm going to get Sophie and James together and take some pictures of them for my draft poster, I'm going to ask them to turn up in their own clothes to make it look natural. and I will be using a better camera for the real thing.

Filming plans

I came up with a timetable of when me and my actors are all free to film during school time

As Christmas is coming up I am hoping to get a really good camera which I'll film on because at the minute I only have my iPhone camera which isn't the best for videoing.

So until then I am going to film some scenes on my phone so that I can get a better idea of what I'm doing and some practice for the real thing.

Targets For This Week 30th November

My targets for this week are too

• Plan filming- create a schedule which shows when everyone I need is free.
• I also need to take some pictures for my poster.

Did I Meet My Targets This Week 27th November

My targets for this week were to create a script- I did this and also included filming directions to help me know what I need to do.

Also to research more into filming styles and typical moments within horror films - I did this by looking into found footage horror films, montages within films and key moments and clichés within horror film. This had impacted the storyboard for my trailer and so I created an updated one.

Updated Storyboard

There are just a few scenes that I forgot to put on my storyboard so I've drawn them below and where they would be.

I know that when I start filming this will change a little bit and parts of the storyboard may not be in the trailer if it's too long or if they just don't fit. I may also include some new scenes but I'll post about those as I think about them...

Script

I've developed a script which I'll use when filming. I don't have a lot of dialogue in my trailer but this includes stage directions and camera angles etc.

 

 

Two Beginnings

After I did my research on found footage horror films, I really wanted to incorporate this technique into my own film as I have really enjoyed the found footage films that I have watched because they're quite creepy and it gives an interesting aspect to a film.

So with this in mind I have thought of a new beginning to the trailer and I have previously changed my original beginning so I'll talk through both of those.

Original:

The trailer begins with an establishing shot of the house, preferably in sunshine to create a contrast to a scene later on in the film where I will shoot the house in bad weather. The brother and sister are playing in the front garden in the establishing shot, as they are teenagers they will probably just be throwing a Frisbee or something like that.

In the contrasting scene at towards the end of the trailer I would film in the exact same place but show the sister alone crying and we see her brother behind her looking sinister but he isn't actually there as when she turns around he is gone.


Found Footage:

The trailer begins with the girl recording herself saying something like 'we've just moved in and here it is' as she gives a brief tour of the house. She is making the video for her friend who she left behind where they used to live. She then goes into her brother's room and makes him jump- a good contrast to the end.

I will probably film both of these just in case.

Found Footage

This is a technique used in some horror films and works well in capturing the victim's feelings at the start of the film as a contrast to the end. It's quite a scary thing to watch as it makes it seem as though the film is real.

I've found some examples of found footage films:

• The Blair Witch Project - filmed through a video camera

• the Paranormal Activity series - CCTV in the homes

This technique can work well for a 'documentary' style horror film where the protagonist is investigating someone/thing.


I watched 'The Visit' recently and the female victim was a young girl who was making a film about her family, she filmed it through 'her own' camera and her phone as well.

Montages

My teacher suggested putting part of a montage in my trailer so I did some research about them.

'Montage is a technique in film editing in which a series of short shots are edited into a sequence to condense space, time, and information.'

Montages are typically around 4 minutes long which is obviously too long for my trailer, so maybe I could just include a portion of a montage in my trailer.

Montages usually show the progression of a character or element in a film so I could do a montage of the scary events which keep happening to the sister with voice over on the top of it like I planned. Or I show repetition of the moment where the boy becomes possessed for my montage.

Key Moments/ Clichés

Here are some of my favourite horror film clichés which I might include in the additional scenes of my storyboard and trailer. When I was thinking about these clichés, a lot of them were from slasher type films where the victim is running away from a killer so instead I've thought about ones from ghost films. I think it's important to include some of these clichés because although they're sometimes annoying, they are vital in the horror genre and fans will appreciate them.

1. The false scare: where there is a build up of high tension music and so we think something really bad is going to happen but it's just something like a cat jumping out. Another example is in paranormal activity 1 where the woman is in the bathroom and we hear her scream so her boyfriend runs in and she's just screaming at a spider on the floor: it's not as bad as the things which happen to her later.

2. Parents don't understand: the victim's parents don't believe their child no matter how much danger they're in.

3. Dark: typically any scenes of horror occur at night time.

4. It's just the wind/power cut: before the victim realises what's going on, s/he dismisses any noise s/he hears as the wind and any flickering lights as 'something wrong with the electricity'.

5. Found footage: sometimes the footage is filmed by the victim and the whole film is from their handheld perspective.