Final Film Opening

Sounds To Use

After further researching into legal free sounds, I found a website appropriate for what my group and I needed. The website I found is known as 'Incompetech', below is a step by step process of what I did in order to receive the ideal sound for my groups' opening.

I selected "Royalty-Free Music".

The website then gave me an option box which allowed me to select a genre - horror. The options also offered me certain "feel(s)" for my sound. I selected "dark, eerie, intense (and) suspenseful".

Here are the names of the sounds I received. "The House of Leaves " is the one I chose.

 

At 1.10s, the non-diegetic sound begins.

Evaluation:

• The sounds I found are more suitable with our opening. The sound my group and I used is effective in creating the suspenseful atmosphere we needed.

Target Audience + Genre Conventions research

Before we even started to plan our film opening in any detail, we had to decide on a target audience. As we decided to make a horror film, it was almost impossible to have the age rating as under 15 because horror films are almost always scarier and more intense than any other genre. As well as this, we looked at our sub-genre, supernatural horror and took inspiration from their age rating certificates.

Some of the big supernatural horrors at the moment and their minimum age ratings are:

• The Possession - 15
• The Conjuring - 15
• The Exorcism of Emily Rose - 15
• Paranormal Activity - 15

Clearly, a common age minimum is set at 15. This means our target audience ranges from 15-25, teenagers to young adults as this would seem most appropriate for our film genre. 

So what kind of content can we show and what can we do to attract the target audience? 

• As we have quite a young age group (15) it would be more appropriate for there not to be as much gore as a slasher film and also this would not be conventional for our genre
• We also have no swearing or foul language as this would make it age appropriate and allow the 15 rating.
• We also decided to use a little girl as the main character as this is conventional and would attract the intended audience. Another convention we stuck to is the use of a 'jump' at the end of a long sequence, to thrill and shock the audience, which is something the audience expects.
• We also decided to name our piece 'The Possessed' as this is clear and conventional, the article 'the' is a conventional word to use in the title for a supernatural horror and so it is clear to the audience the genre of the film.

How can we represent the social group (age)?

• We are using a young girl in our piece and so we wanted to think of ways to represent her. One commonly accepted view of little girls is that they are vulnerable and so need protection. 
• Clearly, a possessed girl shows huge signs of vulnerability and perhaps the audience will feel sympathy at first.
• But during our sequence we wanted to make it seem like she was no longer a little girl on the inside, so we used non-diegetic growling noises, non-diegetic bone clicking noises. This all helps the audience see the little girl as a threat and as dangerous instead

Research Into Un-copyrighted Sounds For Opening

After my initial research into existing sounds used for Supernatural Horror openings, I had to find un-copyrighted music, which would potentially be used for our opening. In order to ensure the music I found did not have copyright, I searched for "royalty free" music. Below are possible theme music choices which could be used.

This soundscape would be effective between the transitions of our existing title production companies. The sound has dark connotations, which would match the graphology in terms of the gloomy colours in our existing title production companies. The non-diegetic sound gradually increases in volume, creating suspense. This suspense effectively places audience in a position of fright.

The music box tends to be a convention commonly used in supernatural horror films e.g. "The Conjuring". The sound could be a signifier of a young age group, which would be appropriate for our opening, as we have a young girl as the victim of possession.



This sound clip uses the music box again but this one however, sounds more sinister. The sound at 0.22 seconds sounds rather eerie and would therefore be appropriate for our opening. 

 The following is an exorcist theme sound.







Evaluation:

• After carrying out my secondary research, I found it was quite hard to actually find un-copyrighted music.
• After compromising with my group, we agreed that we needed a sound more eerie. Now I shall go and find a website specialising in sounds.

Editing main title

The main title is a very important part of an opening sequence, especially those of films in the horror genre, as it acts as a bridge between the opening sequence and the main body of the film. It also acts as a conclusion to the opening sequence which is designed to pull in the audience from the start so they have interest in the rest of the film. This means that how the main title is edited and presented is crucial in how it carries the rest of the film.

For our main title, I decided to use the editing technique 'bad TV' on the Mac program Final Cut Pro. One of the main reasons I decided to use 'bad TV' was because I had to keep the aesthetics of the title very similar to the previous titles which show the cast and crew of our opening.

*insert screenshot of bad tv*

This use of bad TV makes the title seem mysterious and almost as if it is being possessed itself, conforming greatly to the supernatural horror genre.

I also decided to keep the main title visually similar to the previous titles which are shown during the opening sequence by adding different titles in different areas of the screen and showing them in rapid succession so they seem to jump around the screen.

*insert screenshot of multiple titles*

This creates a jolting and uneasy effect which makes it seem like the title is out of control which reflects the events and manner of the possessed character during the opening sequence. I found that adding the same title in different positions is a simple yet effective method to create an appropriate effect which conforms to the eerie and relatively disturbing conventions of the supernatural horror genre.

I also added the 'flashing' effect to the title which makes it seem as though the title is flaring up.

*insert screenshot of flashing*

Although this effect creates an eerie feeling and atmosphere, I feel that it does not quite conform to the supernatural horror genre with the same effect as the bad TV, for example. This is because I feel that the effect it creates is too soft and contrasts too greatly with other editing effects such as bad TV. This also means that the 'flashing' effect makes the title subvert from the conventions of the supernatural horror genre.

Titles

In a previous post we explored the titles and typography, in the end decided on a few effects and transitions to use. I put these into our opening. Here the 3 step title sequence can be seen. They all have the same name, but are positioned in different places with different effects on them. We changed the font to 'Trajan Pro' as felt this looked similar to real horror film titles. E.g. The Conjuring.

In this image you can see that the middle section is a lot shorter. In this part, the bad tv effect is increased to 100, and the text is repositioned in the opposite corner. This gives the text a jolty look and adds to the possessed theme.

These are the settings that the last segment has, in each of the names used. Bad Tv is on the original 'amount', 15.38 after being on 100, however another effect 'flashing' is used to give the burnt out film appearance which reflects some parts in our sequence where quick flahses of pale colour and symbols appear.

Here the 'lighting' effect can be seen fully and it would then transition out with a fade. All the titles are in different places with the flashes occurring in different positions also. The text is overlayed over parts of the opening where Mia is comforting Neve. 

This is what we originally made:

Here are the titles applied to the opening:

-insert video-

Evaluation

I am very happy with this style of title as it looks professional and very similar to the 'Whitechapel' title that we were trying to recreate. However, this will probably get moved around and the speed changed to fit the whole sequence once the sound and editing is completed. For now, the titles are in place but we need to re-jig the order. 

Editing

In the process of achieving our transitions, a shooting error occurred due to camera misplacement between two shots. We needed to figure out how to cover up this anomaly and so we decided to use a flash effect. The flash needed, had to be quick and bright so that the error was unnoticeable. After searching on Final Cut Pro for a good flash effect, we found that we had to use an existing one from a film. The trailer of "Sinister" had the flash we needed (at 1.39 seconds).

We used "KEEPVID" to convert the trailer from YouTube directly to Final Cut Pro.

We then imported the clip onto Final Cut Pro.

Afterwards, we bladed the clip until we were left with the flash.

Now that we had the flash, we could insert it between the two misplaced shots.

Evaluation:

• The flash we found was incredibly quick, which effectively covered up the error. The transition we made after using the flash, appeared out much better than before.
• The flash is also conventional to our sub-genre, Supernatural Horror.