Filming Day 1

Shooting Schedule

Filming Day 1 from jessfareymedia

Organising our actors to schedule

Behind the Scenes

We arrived at the bunker at just after 11 as planned. Early in the day, the weather was very foggy and added a haunting look to the area. 

We initially decided to film the scenes inside the bunker, to allow the rest of the day for the shots of the actors running across the field, which we felt would take the longest. We climbed down the bunker, having to be very careful handling the equipment from such heights, however when we were inside we realised we had not supplied adequate lighting for the shots that we needed. There was minimal lighting inside of the bunker and we had only provided a torch. 

The lack of lighting was obvious from outside
of the bunker

Initial reactions to the bunker

The view from inside the bunker- the main source of light was

from outside.

Passing down the equipment was a struggle from 20 feet high

We left the bunker to film the exterior scenes, beginning with shot six, as we were nearest to the bunker. The actors practised running up to the bunker and climbing down, however this took too long and didn't look effective on camera. We decided they would have to mime stepping up onto the ladder and crouch behind it, as shown below. From straight on, this worked well and we were pleased with the final shot.

Practising the run into the bunker

We had next planned to film close-ups of the actors running across the field to the bunker, however as we moved over to the field the weather turned to heavy rain, making the field muddy. Although we tried practising running in different areas, the pace they were able to run at to avoid slipping over did not look panicked enough for a horror opening. We decided that we would have to ask the cast to return next week to film when the weather was better. 

The torrential rain prevented further filming

Advanced Planning: Day 2

From filming this, we have discovered that we will definitely need to provide more lighting for the second day of filming, when we actually need to feature actors in our shots. We will look at different sources of light during this time, although we are limited in that there are not plug sockets for powerful lamps because of the age of the bunker.

We will also need to adapt our schedule to film the additional running scenes, and should check the whether in advance so that we do not have the same issues a second time. 

We are pleased with the quality of acting and how our costume/ make-up looked on camera, which we hope to continue with the next day we shoot.

Script

       Wide shot of the field with the caption “February 1941”. War sirens can be heard as Georgia and Robin run across it, the camera panning. They look panicked and breathless. They reach the shelter and climb down, into the bunker. After a few moments, their screams are heard. Inside the bunker their blood is splattered across the walls.

TITLES, CUT TO PRESENT DAY

Lewis: It was in the War sometime, an air raid apparently. A brother and sister fled to this exact shelter, to supposed sanctuary. Waiting inside was a much darker fate.
Julia: frightened

       But that was years ago, right? There’s nothing here now, is there?

Lewis: Who knows?

Robert: catching on to Julia’s discomfort

       I heard that the killer tore them apart, limb by limb, before leaving them to rot in the beds we’re in now…

Julia: crossly

       Why did you even drag us here? That’s disgusting. PAUSE. What do you think, Darcey? PAUSE. Darcey?

Lewis: pulls blanket where Darcey is supposed to be lying, her dead body falls out

Julia: screams as screen fades to black

Animatic Storyboard

Storyboard

Shot 1

Fade from black, tracking shot/ wide shot of Robin and Georgia running across a field in the dark.The digetic sound of air raid sirens can be heard in the background. This will be the establishing shot; the sirens and costumes should give context. We may add a caption to demonstrate this.

Shot 2

Straight cut to an extreme closeup, tracking Georgia's feet as she runs. This heightens the fear and chaos, as well as enhancing our costume choices. Loafers were a very typical style of footwear in the 1940's. 

Shot 3

Mid-shot of Georgia. As she runs towards the camera, this zooms into a closeup to highlight her facial expression, and show costume details, hair (victory rolls) and makeup. 

Shot 4

Closeup of Robin, looking scared to mirror the audience's own fear. The camera zooms out to a long shot to show his own costume. 

Shot 5

Two shot of Robin and Georgia running side by side. This again reinforces the hysteria of the scene. 

Shot 6

Jump cut to a high angle wide shot of the bunker. Georgia and Robin run on screen and scramble down a bunker. As they are no longer visible, the camera slowly zooms in on the bunker. The non-digetic music builds tension. A sharp scream is heard and the screen quickly fades to black. Implying their deaths instead of showing them provokes more curiosity from the audience. 

Shot 7

Title fades from the black background, to highlight the typography and colour and make sure it captures the audience's focus. 

Shot 8

Fade from black. Modern, upbeat music plays quietly, contrasting with the scene beforehand. The screen fades from black and shows a mid-shot of Lewis, who is telling the story of the brother and sister, linking the narratives. The mid-shot will show his modern clothes, signifying a different era. 

Shot 9

Two shot of Julia and Robert sitting on the bed. Their two reactions to the story conflict; conforming to stereotypes, Julia is scared whilst Robert is teasing her. Modern food is shown, again highlighting the change in time. 

Shots 10/11

Shot reverse shot using the 180° Rule as Julia and Robert discuss whether the story is true or not. There is juxtaposition between their tone, body language and expression. Julia asks Darcey for her opinion. 

Shot 12

Jump cut to a wide shot of Darcey, who is lying in the opposite bunk, apparently asleep. The lighting is glaring, and the fact she does not respond to this implies something is wrong. 

Shot 13

The same shot, as Lewis walks over, his shadow making the shot darker foreshadowing what is to come. The camera slowly zooms on his hand as he reaches for the cover. 

Shot 14

High angle shot of Darcey's body, having fallen out of the  sleeping bag. The high angle shows the fake blood surrounding her, implying her death. The gore is typical of the horror genre. The screen fades to black as Julia's scream is heard.

We have chosen not to include some of the interior scenes we previously discussed, for example a pan of the bunker to show the old cans and crates, as after timing the scenes we feel this would use up unnecessary time.

Costume and Make-Up

1940's Costume

Research into fashion and clothing in the 1940's, we will try and dress our actors in this style for a realistic effect

Male Costume

We looked at the types of costumes above to see how we could try and recreate this look. We also found images from the Chronicles of Narnia (2005) of the protagonist who is of a similar age to our own character during the same time period. This costume still looked authentic but easier for us to achieve than some of the more complex and costly looks above. 

We achieved this style ourselves by using a plain shirt, trousers and tried braces. We kept the hair quite natural and not in a particular style, as in the photos above. To ensure that it is clear our film is set in wartime, we made gas mask boxes to go with the outfit. 

This is the final outfit that we used in the film.

Female Costume

This was the harder of the two costumes to create because as we learned from the mood board above, there were a variety of different styles available for women in this time. We decided to try and create some of these outfits ourselves to see which looked the best, as well as giving our actress a chance to judge what she felt best in. 

The other difference was the hair and make-up, which definitely added to the feel of the costume. Our research into 1940's make-up was fairly simple, and we found that ladies tended to wear light eye make-up with a heavier lipstick. This was easy for us to recreate. 

 

The hair was slightly harder. Although most women would wear their hair in victory rolls, this was more complex and fell out easily during the running scenes. In the end we simply back-combed small sections and pinned them back, which still gave a retro effect.

This was the final look we achieved.

Modern Day Costume

Casual teenage fashion nowadays; we will use this as a basis for costume for our modern-day cast, to make them more relatable.

For the second half of our opening, the cast will needed to be dressed in contemporary style clothing. We put together the following mood board that covers lots of different casual styles that teenagers today follow. 

Obviously not all of these looks would be appropriate for the location we are filming in; we needed to consider comfort and practicality. We are filming during wintertime and being underground, the bunker is quite damp and cold. The clothing should also haven been appropriate for climbing down the ladder. 

Because we feel that the clothes our actors wear normally are fairly representative of their age group, we asked them to come in warm clothes that they felt comfortable filming in. 

These were the outfits they suggested, and that we were please with. These will be the clothes used in the final film. 

Male outfits

Female outfits

The make-up we used to achieve the affect of a dead body will be outlined in another post.

Questionnaire with Results

We created a survey so we could think about adapting our horror film to suit the audience's preferences. To make sure that the survey reached the correct demographics, we handed it out to our friends and other people we knew as well as promoting it on sites like Facebook and Twitter, where lots of teenagers and young adults (an estimated 2 in 3) have accounts. As well as printing copies, we posted the survey on SurveyPlanet.com, using cross platforms to reach as many people as possible. SurveyPlanet enabled us to look at all of the results online and made it easier for us to analyse as it automatically put the data on graphs. 

Online Version HERE

Results

Conclusion

From the survey we can conclude that; 

• We could consider using aspects of fantasy and action to appeal to a broader audience.
• Suspense frightens the audience more than what they can actually see (such as gore and violence) unlike older horror films with more traditional audiences.
• Slashers, thrillers and teen horrors are the most popular sub-genres. We could look at the key conventions in each one and try and use ideas and themes from each; frequent violence and death, building suspense, using a teenage cast in an environment typical of that group
• If we do reveal a villain, a young, male one would be the scariest. It is unlikely we would do this in the opening, however, as the audience feel more frightened when the identity is hidden.
• Surprisingly supernatural elements appear less threatening than a human antagonist. This could possibly be because it adds to the realism of the plot, and the audience are at just as much risk as the characters in real life.
• A young, preferably teenage cast would be preferable as it would be more relatable for the target audience, therefore making them feel vulnerable as the plot develops. 
• An isolated location would also be ideal, for similar reasons (there is no escape)- there are a lot of places locally we could consider for this.
• We definitely need music, and to build tension it should be slow tempo, low pitch, in crescendo created by layering instruments and played on strings.
• Similarly sound effects could enhance the hysteria.
• Lighting effects the overall look of the film, and to achieve a frightening aesthetic, dark lighting is better. It subconsciously provokes fear of the unknown in the shadows. We could achieve this by filming in dimly lit rooms indoors or using filters to make it look like night.
• If we were to distribute the film, most people would watch it through online services (such as Netflix) or more traditionally, at the cinema.
• Although the production studio is fairly important, it would not be what the audience focus on as they form their judgement of the film.

Our Production Company

Created with Padlet

From looking at corporate identity, we can see that the way a film company presents themselves aesthetically is important in attracting the right audience to a film. If Disney Studios produced a horror film, it would not likely be a commercial success because it does not share the same target audience as the majority of films it has made its reputation for. 

We initially cam up with the name "Charade Entertainment" for our own independent production company. We chose this name because using entertainment instead of studio or production connotes that the films produce would enrapture the audience and be of a good quality. Charade, being a game, links in with this idea and also could have the darker meaning of pretending to be something else, linking in with horror films. Like Twisted Pictures, we would want our studio to focus on one genre and get a good reputation for horror films such as the one we are creating. This would attract fans of the genre in particular. 

After looking further into film studios, we recognised the concentration of ownership in the media. It is in the hands of decreasing numbers of individuals (such as Murdoch) or organizations who have control, threatening independent media. This limits free exchanges of information as the owners control the values of the smaller companies. On the other hand it gives the smaller companies bigger budgets, resources and marketing opportunities. This is why we have created the parent company, PF. Using our initials makes the name more neutral, tying it to various cross media platforms, which we feel is realistic.  

Logos

These are the logos we have created for the film company. We chose to use plain, sans serif typography so there is no confusion about the brand, however the embossed edges give a 3D effect to make it more interesting. The use of the bright green lasers visually enhances the background and draw focus to the text, instead of distracting the audience. Green often connotes dark forces and evil, for example traditional monsters such as witches. This again links in with the idea of being a company that specialises in horror films, attracting the specific audience.  

Feedback from the target audience

"I think it's very eye catching and visually attractive. It creates a good atmosphere if you're about to watch a film"

"I think it's really good. It looks like a film company involved in modern, high tech films. The sound works well with it"

"That's really cool and dramatic. I liked the fact there were lasers and it fit in with the modern music. I liked the name and it looked really authentic"

Prop List

1940's

• Cans made to look like they're from the 1940's
• A sheet to cover modern equipment
• Old blankets and pillows to make it seem like a inhabited shelter
• Fake blood to splatter
• 2 Gas masks boxes

Modern Day

• Old pizza boxes 
• Cans and bottles of fizzy drinks 
• Sleeping bags 
• Smart Phones 
• Fake blood for splattering 
• Dusty remains of some of the 1940s props

Final Idea and Premise

A group of teenagers visit a bunker from the second world war, the scene of the murder of a brother and sister years ago.

Film Titles Brainstorm

We have decided that we will use the following title and font. Below are a static and animated version, which we will use for the final film. 

Location

Initial Ideas

Mind Map created by Jess Farey with ExamTime

Preliminary Task and Evaluation

Above is my final preliminary task. I have created this by editing the videos our group shot using Final Cut Pro. I have tried editing them in order to remain faithful to our initial script and have met the specification of a person opening a door, crossing a room, sitting down and speaking dialogue. 

Whilst we were planning and filming, we did face some problems. The final film does not follow the storyboard and script; this is because there were contrasting ideas in both. We also used different shots to the one we specified on the storyboard. This was partly because we were short of time to film some of them (like the establishing shots) and partly because we tried other shots on location which looked more effective (such as Jo's reaction to the scream). 

There are also continuity issues; because we had to shoot different parts during different lessons, the costumes are different for different parts of the film. We also filmed in a variety of classrooms because they were timetabled for lessons at the different times we were filming. We tried to disguise this by using different camera angles and shots. 

We had to re-film parts of the task because had broken the 180° rule and the different perspectives looked to choppy and unprofessional. We also added in an ending where both girls are tied up because after playing the film back, the ending looked too sudden.  

I am pleased with the variety of shots we managed to use and effects they have on the viewer; at parts it feels like Jo is being followed. When we do film, I will make sure to experiment with different shots to the ones I have specified to change the effect on viewer. I also like how the sounds have been picked up, specifically the sound of Jo's footsteps as she walks through the corridor. It is the only digetic sound and creates a sense of isolation. We achieved this by  holding a boom mic. near Jo's feet when we were filming.

To improve this task, I would add in some more shots at the end so it looks less choppy and the ending is less sudden. 

From this task I have enhanced my editing skills and gained experience on a more complex program. I will be using this to edit my final project. 

I was also able to try and use the different equipment, which creates a more professional looking film. I will try to use this equipment during the shooting of my own horror film to achieve the same effect. 

I have also learned to organise location and costume much more carefully, as if we do need to film on different dates there will still be continuity between shots.

Planning the Preliminary Task

For our preliminary task, we had to incorporate the 180° rule, match on action shots and shot reverse shots into a film where a character opens a door, walks across a room and says a line of dialogue. 

We came up with the following premise; Joanna is walking down the corridor when she hears a scream coming from one of the nearby classrooms. She goes to investigate, and finds Jemma tied up behind the desk. She unties her, and reassures her that everything is alright now, and she is safe. 

Storyboard

We created a storyboard using post-it notes to represent each shot. This was so  that if we decided we wanted to change the order of the shots we used, or replace them, it would be much easier. The drawings of the characters are not representative of who is playing them as this had not yet been determined. Below are more detailed descriptions of the shots. 

1. Establishing shot of the front of the school, clearly showing the sign with the name "The Knights Templar School"
2. Wide shots of the empty corridors
3. Long shot shows Jo from behind as she walks down the corridor. The camera follows her to mimic the feeling of being watched. 
4. Mid shot of Jo, continuing to walk down the corridor. As she passes a door a scream is heard. 
5. Shots 5-7; shot-reaction shot as Jo looks at the door in a panic.
6.  ″    ″  ″   ″
7.  ″    ″  ″   ″
8. The camera slowly zooms as Jo walks towards the door. 
9. Extreme closeup on the door handle, Jo pushes the door open.
10. Long shot as the door opens and Jo walks across the room.
11. POV shot; pan of the empty room. 
12. Shots 12-14; Jo walks towards the desk, and the camera moves away from her, panning round the other side of the table to show a Jemma tied underneath. Jo sees her and moves closer. 
13.  ″    ″  ″   ″
14.  ″    ″  ″   ″
15. Extreme closeup of Jo untying the rope binding Jemma.
16. Shots 16-18; Jo reassures Jemma that she will be okay. We will follow the 180 ° rule as the characters converse so the perspective remains constant. 
17.  ″    ″  ″   ″
18.  ″    ″  ″   ″
19. The two girls walks out of the room, the camera slowly zooming on them. 
20. Two shot of them standing in the hallway before they part ways. 

Script

The K Block corridors are empty, there is no sign of anybody else. JO is casually walking through the corridors; she is alone. 

A scream is heard from one of the classrooms as she walks past. JO looks shocked and worried. 

The camera shows a closeup of JO opening the door, to reveal a supposedly empty classroom. The walks in and POV shots show her looking around the room to see what the noise was.

Muffled noises come from behind the desk. The camera tracks JO running to the desk, and another POV shot reveals JEMMA, who is tied up. 

            JO: (Confused reaction, worried facial expression) 
                   What the hell happened? Are you okay? Who did this to you? Is it safe?

She looks around, panicked. 

           JEMMA: (Frustrated) 
                         Just untie me!

The camera watches the girls from a high angle. JO is looking around frantically as she unties JEMMA. 

          JO: It's safe now, you're safe!

POV shot from JO's perspective as she is untying JEMMA. A pair of hands with a blindfold cover the camera lens and the screen fades to black. 


Our group split into two to develop the storyboard and script, so the endings are slightly different as we had interpreted the plot differently. We will try and include the ideas of both groups in our final film.