Using Lighting To Convey A Supernatural Horror Genre

To receive ideas for using effective lighting in my final piece, I have researched different types of lighting used in supernatural horror films. Below, I have taken some shots which denote different types of lighting, as a way of experimenting how and which lighting to use in my sequence.


• The shot above is from the film 'Insidious'. Low key lighting effectively helps to set a daunting, spooky connotation of the house. By looking at this, audience expectations would be raised, as an audience would expect to see spooky, supernatural movement occurring within the location.
• The time of day is at night, as seen through the pitch black background. The time of day therefore, can be an easy method in conveying a specific atmosphere. Below, are images I took of my Gran's house at night.



The low key lighting signifies a haunted house.

• I also received ideas from films such as 'Paranormal Activity'. A night vision type light is used from the camera's POV. 

 

• Below are shots I have taken, which use a night vision type visual effect. To apply the effect, after I took the shots, I used editing. The editing process was simple - after taking the shots from my phone, I applied an editing technique called 'process'. I also found that many visual effects can be found from many photo editing apps. As well as applying the effect, I ensured a source of lighting was used, as I found that without lighting, the image would be quite hard to see.

 

• Artificial lighting is another effective lighting technique. After conducting some research, I found that the use of lighting through candles for instance, is a good way in creating a religious atmosphere.

 

 Evaluation

Overall, my task went well. I concluded that the time of day has a huge effect to the lighting shown in the shot you take. The type of camera also has an effect. I used an iPhone, with a fairly good megapixel. Cameras with a megapixel of below 5, may not display your choice of lighting too well. One weakness I found however, was in the use of candles. Furthermore, the resulting shot would expose the candles hugely, as their brightness would tend appear brighter than normal. To reduce this issue, for my official piece, if my group and I wish to use candles, a better quality camera may help.

Final Opening Sequence Storyboard

This is our storyboard for our opening sequence. It includes camera shots, movements, special effects, any sound and anything else we need for our opening sequence. It will help us keep track with our filming and editing as we will use it as a guide. 

The Devil Inside Deconstruction On Possessive Behaviour

For my final piece, my group and I have decided to represent a possessed character. To receive ideas for possessive behaviour, I have deconstructed the following clip of William Brent Bell's supernatural horror 'The Devil Inside', 2012. 

 

Mise En Scene

• The audience denote a high angle shot of two women in a room. They are firstly separated, with one being at the other end of the room. The visual effect of the shot connotes a supernatural footage, relating to the sub-genre, supernatural horror.  

• High key lighting is used in order to allow audience to clearly see and understand the narrative.
• A medium close up shot denotes a middle aged woman. She appears to be staring into space. The shot helps the audience to identify her face, the audience see she has red eyes. An enigma is raised.

• An extreme close up shot is used to denote the woman's cuts on her arm. The cuts conform a convention an audience usually expect to see in a supernatural horror film.

• A close up shot is used to denote a symbol on the woman's inside of her lip. The shot encourages the audience to predominately focus their attention to the symbol, allowing them to examine it.

• Close up shots have been used to denote supernatural movement and action.

Camera Movement

• A panning movement has purposely not been used at the beginning, to establish the scene. This is because the Director may want the audience to denote the isolated location the possessed woman has been placed in.

• A zoom out movement is used at the end of the sequence, to denote the woman's possessive movement.

 

Sound

 

• Diegetic dialogue is heard of "I'm your daughter". The dialogue helps to create realism.
• The silence at the beginning helps to build the climax towards the end, of the high, screeching screaming.
• The audience hear on-screen diegetic dialogue of "connect the cuts". The audience are curious as to what this may mean. Therefore, a common convention is conformed, as in possession films, possessed characters tend to say unusual things
• An on-screen diegetic scream is heard at the end of the clip. The scream is incredibly loud, fulfilling audience pleasures, as the scream makes the climax very intense.

Editing

 

• Straight cuts are used throughout the sequence. The straight cuts are fairly spread out, helping the audience to receive a clear perception of the clip. 

Opening Credits

As part of our initial research we looked at opening credits, how they were displayed throughout the opening scene of a film, I looked at the film 'Skyfall' to get an idea of how many are used and at what times.

Deconstruction On 'Infected' Opening

Mise En Scene

• The audience first see a high angle shot of male's hand opening a car boot. The audience can denote the character is a male, as we can see a reflection from the window of a manly figure.

• Naturalistic lighting is used, creating realism and to also allow the audience to clearly see what is going on.
• The audience then denote a body being in the boot. This raises an enigma.

• A title is used to show the name of the film. The colours connote the opening has a negative plot, as black may signify death. The title of "infected" itself has negative connotations.

• The audience denote a low angle shot of a shovel burying the feet of the body. The shot makes the shovel look dominant. The audience also see a title card of the Director, at 27 seconds. The shoes are grey and therefore, may signify a grave.

• A high angle shot is used to show the audience a clear view of the location. The audience identify that the body is being buried in the middle of no where.

 

• Another title appears at 36 seconds. Note how the actor's name is placed above the actor, in order to anchor him.

• A title card is used to show the name of the Cinematographer at 43 seconds.

• A close up is used to denote the body re-awakening. The shot helps the audience to note the movement of the body. 

•  An extreme close up shot is used to denote the boy's eye opening. The shot has re-birth connotations.

• A tilt camera movement is used to reflect the body waking up.

• A point of view shot (POV) is displayed from 'un-dead' character.

• An extreme close up shot is used to focus the audiences' attention towards the movement of the keys. The shot helps to build an intense atmosphere. The audience denote the boy is struggling to start the car, and so audience pleasures are fulfilled.



• In terms of editing, straight cuts have been thoroughly used at this point, in order to make this part of the sequence pivotal. Furthermore, the straight cuts are very sudden and the audience denote the boy looking back and forth. The atmosphere therefore becomes very intense.

•  A point of view shot (POV) is displayed from the boy's perspective. The audience denote a hand being forcefully hit on the car window. The shot helps the audience to witness the terror of the blood and hand with a more clear perception.

 

Sound

 

• The audience first hear silence. The silence is complementary of the still atmosphere we denote outside. As a result, an equilibrium is straight away represented.
• However, once the audience hear non-diegetic music, carrying upset and dismal connotations, and denote the body, a disequilibrium is represented. The non-diegetic sounds therefore, helps to create a juxtaposition.
• The music is parallel to this part of the sequence, which is clear through the negative connotations it carries, being complementary of the footage being displayed.
• Diegetic dialogue is heard of "I'm sorry". The dialogue helps the audience to develop their initial understandings of the narrative.
• The on-screen diegetic sound of the shovel hitting the dirt is synchronous. Furthermore, the sound is on time with the action, building realism.
• Non-diegetic chiming sounds are used. The audience do not relate positive connotations with this sound, raising audience expectations.
• A non-diegetic breathing like sound is used, to help signify the rebirth of the murdered character.
• A diegetic roaring sound is used. The audience relate this sound to the sub-genre, zombie horror.
• Non-diegetic music is used, of guitars. The low note helps to make the sequence at this point more intense.

 



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.

 

Creating Possession Sounds

I based my work on a few different films and also 'real' exorcism clips from YouTube. I first researched the true case of Anneliese Michel, a German woman who underwent an exorcism and died. Many films, including The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Requiem are based off of her story. However, in reality Anneliese was epileptic, depressed, suicidal and malnourished. Nevertheless, her story is interesting and tapes from the exorcism are fascinating and helped give me an idea for our own sounds.

I also looked at The Exorcism of Emily Rose as a source of inspiration as there is a famous scene which uses some of the techniques I wanted to try:

I found that some conventions of possessed sounds are:

• Speaking in tongues / other languages
• Speaking backwards
• Speaking in Latin
• Saying Biblical things / referring to Demons
• Hissing, spitting, biting, growling
• Unnatural sounding, completely the opposite to whoever the possessed person is

Here is what I did and some attempts:

I used Audacity, as I did last time. This is one of the tutorials I followed and some early attempts:

These screencaps just show the program and how it looks whilst I was using it. It is a fairly simple software to use and I have used it before to create supernatural sounds.

Then I recorded somebody else speaking Latin and fiddled with the effects, adding in some growling sounds...

Evaluation:
It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be and so the results weren't really what I was looking for. I like the growling that I managed to implement in some of the sounds but it was hard to get backwards talking to sound legible. I think that if I were to try this again, I'd find a great audio clip of someone speaking in tongues and edit from there, as it was hard trying to find a good basis to edit from.