Costumes and sets - P2.

Costumes 

As Frances was in charge of the costumes, she chose to keep what the characters wore rather simple and tried to convey certain points of their personalities through their clothes. 

For Simon, she decided to try and show that while he is an aspiring journalist, he also works a side job in an office - hence the choice of the bright button up, jeans and a rucksack. The colours of the button up also make his character stand out in his surroundings and it makes him seem like he is not supposed for. 

With Sam and Lisa's outfits she decided that it would be best just to use whatever the others had because it stayed true to the idea that all the living characters were still students at the time that the story takes place.

For the patients spirit, Frances used an old hospital gown and then dry brushed layers of brown and black paint onto the seems and around the bottom of the garment to emulate the idea of age and grime. This is meant to show that the patients spirit has been there a long time and possibly suffered before her death. This is also shown in how her hair has been pushed over her face.

The guards spirits costume was a pair of overalls and a cap. In some of the first drafts of our plans for the opening, she was also meant to have a broom that she would use to hit Simon with before he runs away as it was supposed to slow him down. 

Sets

For the sets, we decided to use the back of school as it looked more aged than the front which fit better with the idea of an abandoned asylum and because it would be easier to film there as there are always less people around and fewer things to give away the age of the location.



We also chose to film in the English corridor after school because it allowed us to use a larger range of shots, such as a tracking one as Simon walks down it looking cautiously through each of the doorways. We also chose to stick newspaper over the boards on the walls like what is often done to older building's windows when they become derelict and unused, and we also turned off all of the corridors main lights - only having it lit from the rooms that lined it.

Lighting and Shot Tests - P4.

Lighting and Shot Tests.

• So we could an idea of how to get the correct lighting for our film, we took multiple test photos using the various techniques including: 
• Backlighting 
• Rembrandt
• We decided that backlighting would be good for creating a dark and foreboding atmosphere. 
• In order to maintain a more ooky spooky atmosphere, we determined that backlighting would probably be best, as it gives more of a silhouette than an actual person with distinguishable features. This makes it seem more unsettling and uncomfortable. 
• Although we did experiment with other lighting, we found that none quite emphasised the horror aspect of the movie as well as backlighting did. 
• While we might not be able to use all the lighting shots we learned in our actual film opening due to the small amount of people in our group and the fact that we will mostly be filming in daylight or outside, we will still try to incorporate some of the techniques. 

Review.

Review.

One of our main strengths in our film would probably be the phone call scene. This was where we got one of our friends to call my phone and leave a voice message. The voice message gives a sense of mystery as my character was last scene being dragged through a doorway and therefore it makes us able to assume the death of my character. This scene was very good because it was the attempt to call me during the title scene. It worked rather well as if we had a shorter title screen but without sound it would sound too plain and generic. Another thing that I think worked well was the music, it was very basic but it worked well. When making it I used movies such as The Shining and Psycho as inspiration as most of the time their music is very basic.

When looking at the video, I believe that the worst parts are probably the death scene of my character (Simon) as it was originally be getting dragged straight through the door, then about two weeks later we decided to cut that and split the scene so that I still fall over. But then, there's a pause and a few seconds of me struggling, this is finally followed by my disappearance through the doorway. I believe this scene isn't too good because we weren't going to record extra bits until on the day the others decided we needed more, because it looked like I just slipped down. By that time, the shirt I was wearing through all other scenes is in my wardrobe at home and my hair was cut the previous week. This means that, I will not have the same features in this scene than in the previous scenes and the difference is rather obvious.

The opening started with Simons friends wondering where he is because it sets the story. It makes us as a viewer want to know where he is too. This is followed by Simon appearing and therefore, tells us the story of Simon. I believe this strategy was rather good because it was a small scene that points out where Simon is and what happened to him. This got followed by the phone scene which confirms his death as being dragged through a door can mean anything.

We used a variety of shots such as a close up shot when I was being dragged to get my expression and to show the struggle my character is going through. Then, in the talk between the two characters at the start (Lisa and Sam) we used over-the-shoulder shots and tracking shots as Sam enters the room. This shows importance and allows the audience to know that dialogue is happening between the two when they were both sat down with the over-the-shoulder shots.

Instead of using transitions we decided to use cuts. These were more effective for the style of editing that we wanted to use. This makes the scene much more sharper and sudden. It makes any jump scare that may happen seem more like a surprise as they're usually seen through cuts and not transitions. The idea of only using cuts allows the scares to be more surprising.

We chose the colours to be bright when it was based on the two friends talking about Simon being missing. The same goes for when Simon was outside with a slight hint of grey to suggest darkness and evil. But, there was a large amount of darkness when he entered to show that the place is rundown and hasn't been unused in a large amount of time. This gives the audience an idea that no one will be in the place so when my character (Simon) encounters two different characters he gets scared not only from their appearance and what they say, but that he's not alone. During editing I had to edit a large amount of colours such as at the starting scene with the two friends talking, one shot was drastically brighter than the other ones which meant we had to mess with the contrast and saturation within that scene. Later I had to edit scenes of me walking down the corridor so that some of the posters we didn't cover were not noticeable. Also so that when I entered specific rooms the lighting wasn't too bright, if the brightness is similar throughout this scene, the surprise of seeing Eves character is less obvious.

For the sound and music I went for an old fashioned basic music style. This gives more of an original feeling because most movies these days have complicated soundtracks and therefore, the music I added isn't as complicated to make the audience pay less attention on the music and more on the characters and movie. This allows the audience to get more associated to the characters and know them better as we get to understand who they are.

I believe we have created meaning by having my characters friends shown first wondering where he is. This shows that he has people who care for him, only for him to die later on. Although this death is only implied throughout the scene as this allows the opening to be more impactful and creates a setting for the future scenes as it gives the friends a reason to go find him and discover his fate.

When planned the movie we had to take so many factors into consideration. This included with how we had to film on school grounds. This made it harder for us because we had to make sure that the area was similar to a horror based area. If we chose to base our place in a school it'd be too generic as most other groups were working towards that idea. Although, we decided to use an insane asylum instead. When we started filming we faced a problem in filming inside the building, this is because there's so many posters in the building which are extremely bright and noticeable and tell the audience that this is a school. So what we decided to do for the scene where my character entered, we covered the posters and walls with newspapers. This created more of an abandoned effect, although was hard to put up as it was very time consuming,

Movie Opening.

Our movie opening.

Screenshots of us editing and editing techniques - P5.

We used many types of editing techniques, we did decide on not doing and transitions though. Instead we featured a larger amount of cuts. Frances and I spent a large amount of time getting these cuts to the perfect frame within the recording. Therefore, we could have our movie seem as authentic as possible. Frances and I also went through a large assortment of filters that out opening could use to make it seem dark and gloomy. Also, to make it so specific cuts don’t take massive gaps between contrast and saturation. As a result, we spent a large amount of time on these and shadows to try and get the perfect shades.

For the music and sounds I spent a short amount of time before recording on making these quickly on garageband. I decided to go for a more old fashioned horror movie route with the sounds taking inspiration from The Shining and Friday the 13th, two of my favourite horror movies that features very simple heavy beat sounds/music. This is to rise tension and give an idea of something ominous happening. I made around six different sounds/music to add within these so that myself and any present members of the group could decide what’s perfect. This was before we actually planned what would happen and I just took out stereotypes of horror movies such as suspense, chase scenes and scenery shots. I believe this was great because in the end Frances and I chose good places for the music to go with the opening when the editing began. 

When editing I also decided to make copies of the film along the side, this is so if we do mess up and accidentally save, we got a clean one that we can jump straight to without any problems. Finally, we used the colour pallet from Final Cut Pro X to get colours more precise along with the contrast, shadows and saturation. This allows all scenes to look perfect without any errors.

Editing images.

Sounds and music that were created.