Sounds to use in our Opening

Last Sunday we filmed the majority of our coursework film opening in my garage, our idea is about a possessed girl so we had to film a lot of scenes with my sister with her kicking and moving her body around a lot which we could then make look effective using editing techniques and adding in non-diegetic sounds. The type of sounds we are looking for are cracking and popping noises to make it seem as if bones are breaking, and be built up when the possession becomes more violent. I looked for these types of sounds I could use on the internet to see what we could possibly use.

I came across the website freeSFX.co.uk where they had a long list of different bone clicking, snapping, crunching and cracking available to download. I picked a few that I thought sounded the most effective and what I think we should use in our coursework.

 

 

These are the five best noises that I chose which I think we should use:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Editing the corner shots

Our task this week was to edit the 'corner shots' from filming. The shots are supposed to show a woman putting up a video camera ready to capture some of the possessive behaviour that she has been seeing, in an attempt to get some answers.







We took our original opening clip which looked like this and began exploring different ways to edit it so it looks like home made footage. We firstly tried a green filter to make it look like CCTV, but after trying that out we decided against it as we wanted it to look like a home video, not CCTV. In the image below you can see the colour we applied to the effect.

We then decided to use the camcorder effect on Final Cut Pro, which we felt made it look more like a home movie. We felt that this was more appropriate than the CCTV hue as it made it look more genuine.





We then added the effect 'Bad tv' but turned down the effect so it wasn't as noticeable and only gave the sequence a bit of movement, as seen in the two screenshots below.

The sequence that we made is below...

Evaluation

• We like the Bad tv and camcorder effect together as it looks quite genuine
• Could experiment with other colour hues though, not just green
• Happy with the final outcome as looks like an authentic home video
• When we come to edit the rest we should look to see how the footage looks with the other parts of the sequence and how they fit together.

Make-up for the film opening

 

 

 

                                                                             

      We have already began filming our two minute supernatural film opening, and part of the criticism we received was to make the actor who is my little sister look as though she is more injured as if she has been hurting herself as she is supposed to be under some sort of possession and is restrained to a bed. Firstly I put some foundation and dark eye shadow and rubbed it into her arms to look like she has been bruised by the ties that were restraining her.                                                                     

 

 Secondly I put some fake blood along her arms over the top of the fake bruises to look as though she has been hurting herself whilst she has been restrained to the bed. I think this looked effective, but would look better once the blood has fully dried as it looks as though they have been there for a longer time, so if we decide to use this in any more filming we'd have to apply the blood a while before as it takes a long time to dry.

 Lastly I wanted to add some bruising to her face so it seems as though she has knocked and hit herself whilst struggling to get out of the restrains. I used the same as what I did to create the bruises on her arms, using a dark foundation and rubbing it in along with a dark brown eye shadow colour, which I think worked well and looked effective enough for us to use in our future filming.

 

Mise en Scene and Lighting Checks

To prepare for the filming of our two minute supernatural horror opening I had to do some lighting checks for the garage which is outside of my house and we have decided will be the place we are filming, to look like a basement where the possessed girl is kept. I also had to find some scary looking houses from the outside which we could shoot using an establishing shot right at the beginning to make it look as though that is where it is being shot.

I took these pictures at about 3 o'clock before it got dark, I think this would be a good time to start our filming as in a video it generally looks darker than it actually is, and we still want to be able to see the room and what is happening. Also we can take lots of different shots so we would also get some with it being slightly darker so we can compare them to the lighter ones.

There is some work to do in the garage, we have to put some white paint over the smiley faces that have been drawn on the walls, tidy away some of the clutter that is around the floor and board up the windows to make it seem more closed in and also so that less light gets into the room so it seems more like a basement.

This is the first scary looking house I found which I thought would be good to film at the beginning of our opening, it is only round the corner from my house so would be easy to get footage of and also looks very creepy. It is called 'the long house' it goes back quite a long way, I think people live there but I have never seen anyone go in or come out and it is usually very dark and quiet. I took the picture at about half 6 which I think was a good time as there was still light from lampposts but it was dark so added a scarier effect to the house.

This is the second scary house I looked at for the beginning of our filming, it is also only round the corner of my house so would be easy to get footage of, and it has some distinct features about it that I liked which I thought would stand out for our work, such as the top arch shaped window at the front of the house and how it is shaped it is very slim and goes back quite far. It distinctively stands out from any other house on the street which would work well at fitting the convention for our genre. I also took this picture at about half 6 which I thought was a good time as it looked effectively spooky.

Production Company Practical

 

• The original video was filmed by Jake using a type writer he owns.
• We decided as a group to use the name 'Fright Films' as it has catchy alliteration and is also short and appropriate for genre.
• Jake gave us the video, and we cut the clip so it was 5 seconds long and less shaky.

• We then sped up the clip x2 so it was then 2.5 seconds long.
• We trialled many different sounds that had a spooky edge to compliment the clip.
• We decided on two different sounds which we layered on top of each other, after lowering the volume of the original clip.

This is an initial result.

  After having a lesson in Final Cut pro with Jack, we managed to re-do our production company sequence with a better speed and then edited it further in iMovie, here are the results:   Final cut pro:

This is how we changed the speed, instead of only have x2, there was an option to drag the speed so we slightly increased it.

On iMovie, we re-added the sound.

Evaluation

Overall we are pleased with the finished product as it looks professional. To start with we had trouble mastering the technical side of iMovie as we had few skills but we have managed to develop them in order to prepare us for when we come to edit the rest of our opening. Perhaps if iMovie allowed different speed levels below x2 we would be happier with the result as we wanted it to be slightly slower for effect, but still faster than the original. We could have also played around with more visual effects to add to the clip but at the same time we did not want to decrease the quality.

Then using Final Cut Pro, we managed to solve this speed problem and then go back to iMovie to re-add the sounds.

 
 

Actor Scouting

For our supernatural film opening we have decided on the idea of using a possessed girl, for us to follow through with this and begin filming as soon as possible we need to decide on the actor who will feature in it. I have four younger sisters who we could pick from so I took a couple of pictures of all of them to compare and see who would look the most effective in our project.

 My oldest younger sister Ffion is fourteen, we wanted to use a girl who looked older rather than really young as that is a more common convention found within possession horror films, so she would be good with fitting the stereotype and making our opening look professional.

Néve is nine, she is quite confident and would also follow instructions easily and do what we want, she is my second oldest younger sister so would still fit in with the convention of a slightly older girl, as Ffion isn't as confident so wouldn't be as willing for us to film her.

 

Laila is eight, she is slightly younger so probably wouldn't be able to stay professional and may get irritable when we want to film, although she is quite tall for her age and would follow instructions, she may not fit the genre convention as well as we want.

 

 

 

Joely is six and is my youngest sister, she is very confident but as she is still quite young I don't think she would be the best choice for our film opening as she would lose interest easily and be hard to work with, she is also only little so may find it difficult to do some of the actions and positions we will need her to do when acting possessed.
 

 

Overall I think the best choice out of these four would be Néve as she would be the easiest to work with in my opinion and still fits the genre convention that we need her to, but we will continue to scout for any more actors for our films we are still undecided on what exact age we want the girl to be, so we could choose someone from our sixth form around our age or any other relatives or friends that would be willing to get involved. But we do need to consider whether the person would be willing to film the hours we need them to and will be reliable enough to show up and do everything we need them to. That is why we thought it would be convenient for it to be one of my sisters as I can bring her with me to filming and make sure she is always there when needed.

 

 

Costumes for Possessed Girl

As we are looking at the idea of using a possessed girl in our supernatural film opening we need to explore every element to do with that idea including make-up, costume, special effects etc. I decided this week to look into costumes and what a possessed girl in a horror film is typically seen wearing so that we have an idea of how to dress our actor if we decide to go through with this as our final idea.
Firstly I did some research to see what was conventionally shown in films, this was what I found:

This is the little girl from 'The Possession' (2012). A young girl buys an antique box at a yard sale, unaware that inside the collectible lives a malicious ancient spirit. The girl's father teams with his ex-wife to find a way to end the curse upon their child.

 

 

 

The girl here is shown just wearing a plain grey t-shirt with wellington boots. This is effective as she stands out from any ordinary girl that age that would be expected to be wearing a normal outfit, it brings attention to the fact that she is possessed or has some kind of demon affecting her behaviour. It is also plain and simple, which suggests that is what we should aim to create for the costume of our girl in our opening.

Here are some more examples from films I looked at which featured a possessed girl including 'The Devil Inside' (2012) which is about a woman who becomes involved in a series of unauthorized exorcisms. 'The Exorcism of Emily Rose' (2005) which is about a lawyer who takes on a negligent homicide case involving a priest who performed an exorcism on a young girl. And 'Intruders' (2011) which is about two children living in different countries who are visited nightly by a faceless being who wants to take possession of them.

All of these films also show plain and simple costumes used, nothing has been used which stands out and most of them are something that you would go to sleep in, plain pyjamas or a nighty. After finding this out I then tried to create some examples myself that could be effective for when we begin filming ourselves.

 

 

I used one of my little sisters as the possessed girl, firstly I tried the idea of using a plain grey coloured t-shirt like they did in the film 'The Possession'. I think this was effective as it was large on her so did not look natural for her to be wearing it, it also brought more attention to her and her features rather than anything else which is what we will want once we have done the special effects make-up etc.

 

 

 

 

I then tried using plain some plain clothes that could be pyjamas or something she has purposely been put in to wear if she was being observed for example, such as the film 'The Exorcism of Emily Rose'. I think this was effective as it was very simple and again brought more attention to her.

 

 

 

 
 
 
 

 Finally I put in more pyjama styled clothing that looked more like something you'd typically see a little girl wear to bed, similar to the outfit the girl is wearing in 'Intruders'. I think this was effective as it adds realism to the scene that possession has happened to an ordinary child, there was also a rip in the trousers which I think made it look even better.

 

Deconstruction of Intruders

We are continuing to look at many different scenes from horror films to prepare us for filming our supernatural horror opening, this week I watched the film 'Intruders' (2011) which is about two children living in different countries who are visited nightly by a faceless being who wants to take possession of them. I looked at this specific scene from the film to deconstruct in terms of mise en scene, camera angles, lighting, and sound.


   Sound:

• The non-diegetic sound at the beginning of the sequence is very low and deep rumbling music, it is played quietly as the girl stands up from her bed.
• It begins to gradually get louder as she starts walking across the room, and a slight screeching higher noise is played subtly over the deep music to make a build up towards whatever she is walking to.
•  It continues to get louder until she reaches the cupboard with the mirror she was walking to, the music makes such an impact on the scene up to this point as it creates fear within the audience.
• When the cupboard door shuts and you see the girls face in the mirror all non-diegetic sound comes to a stop and there is silence.
• As she applies lipstick to her face the screeching music gradually begins again but not as loud as before.
• There is no diegetic sound within this scene but the non-diegetic music still has a big impact upon it, this is a technique we would like to use for our own opening to make it effectively scary without using any dialogue.

The scene begins with a POV (Point of View) shot from the demon who is hiding in the girls cupboard. The audience is shown the majority of her room from this angle, it fits the conventions of a little girls room within horrors, she has a white bed with fairy lights around the head and a matching white bed side table, she has a picture frame above her bed and classic girly bed sheets. Low key lighting has been used to show it is night time and create a scarier atmosphere.




The little girl is then shown with a close- up shot, she looks about twelve or thirteen, has long brown hair, is naturally pretty, and looks innocent and cute, these are all classic conventions of a little girl in horrors. She gets up from her bed and starts walking towards the cupboard we were shown in the first shot.

She reaches the cupboard and the door shuts showing a mirror and revealing her face but with no facial features anymore. This is only what we see from the mirror we do not get a shot directly showing her face from this point onwards. The audience instantly know from this point that whatever demon is in the cupboard has now possessed the little girl.

At the end of the sequence the girl applies purple lipstick to her featureless face which then shows demonic lips. It is shown from another  POV shot from the demon as it did at the beginning, which I think works well to show the huge contrast and change between the innocent represented by the girl at the start compared to her now she is possessed.