KS : Progress Update

We completed a rough cut of our film opening, exported and presented to our group. Feedback was good, our peers thought visually our peice was great with particular sucessful editing techniques such as the mirror shots. However the narrative was not clear so we need to work on our order and cuts to help this, we must also re check all stills and footage are taken landscape. To make sure our narrative is clear set we aim to have flashes of the possessed girls face, how she was before the doll obsession, before each change of scene. This will allow the audience to keep relating back to her more stable state of mind. 

LH: Story Boarding

KS: Storyboarding

By storyboarding our film opening we were able to work out the order and each particular shot we will take. We could draw out the transitions we will use, the angles, duration and sound each still or film will be. Below our images of the graveyard/ruins scene, the wallpaper scene, the close ups and the dolls house scene.

Wallpaper

Dolls house, interior and exterior

Graveyard and ruins

Mirror shots and laughter

KS: Editing update

Todays editing went very well, we experimented with the editing technique 'mirror' which we chose to use for our playground footage, also picking out the colour red against the plain black and white footage and stills in our wallpaper scene using the technique 'colour pass' to draw attention to the blood as a horror connotation. Although some of the black started to come through the colour red, I think the footage still looks very good adding dimension to our piece. We experimented with the technique used in 'Black Swan' in the mirror scenes, where the figure turns yet the reflection of her in the mirror stays stationary facing the front. This however did not work as we planned, due to the fact we did not use a  tripod for this piece of footage, the still image and the film did not match up in the position of the mirror so we aim to re-shoot this in our final shoot tomorrow, 29th March, we will upload and capture this footage in tomorrows lesson and continue editing!

KS: Film research and ideas

To continue with our film editing and filming process I have researched further films based on the prop doll and the theme and genre of our film, psychological thriller. After finding an excellent site for film clips, 'movieclips.com' and using 'Youtube.com' for further research we were able to gather influences from previous films.


This clip from 'Saw' shows the prop 'Jigsaw' a very creepy doll with great use of voice over and montage editing, similar styles to our film opening. I particularly like the use of zooms into the face, and cuts from different angles of the prop to establish it but also create a disjointed sense. We previously never considered using stills as flashes cut during our movie footage, apart from just flashes of the dolls face, here however through the handy cam footage, stills have been edited in very successfully, a technique we should consider using. I also noticed when watching, the use of 'old film' editing effect has been overlayed throughout, we discussed using this for some of the footage, rather than all, however it has proven to significantly decrease the quality of the images.





'Child Play' is a similar thriller film based around the doll prop which torments people. I like how the is a static prop then suddenly turns to life, the movement in the eyes is something we aim to portray in our final shoot tommorow, 29th March.

Chucky Doesn't Run on Batteries

Child's Play at MOVIECLIPS.

After researching on 'movie clips' I also found the film 'The Shining' which has many of the same locations and props we chose for our film opening. This clip I found below shows very sinmilar footage to our 'wallpaper scene', a strong wallpaper setting with blood dripping down it. The costume used for the possessed style girls, rein-acting dolls are the exact style we aimed to create. The use of the jump cuts, so the girls progressively move forward is a technique we used for our 'Wilderness Woods-The Hooded' film, and a technique we will consider using as we continue to edit. The zooms, directional light and strong use of the prop blood are very sucessfully used both here and in our film opening. The flashes also work very well here, however we aim to speed these up, similar to how compression of time is used in the begging of this clip, as the young boy rides around.

LH: Call Sheet & Risk Assessment

Before we could go on our shoots we had to compose a risk assessment and a call sheet. For our shoots we only need two cast members (ourselves) so the call sheet was fairly simple. After deciding who would look after each piece of equipment we began looking at the risks that our chosen locations may have. We have to anticipate any possible accidents that could damage the equipment or ourselves. The main risk that we found was consistent at each location is that one of us would fall or drop the camera.

2 Weeks to go!

With two weeks to go it is important we assess our progress to ensure we know what point of our project we our at. Lilli will need to post up the mind map of ideas and the audience research and the risk assesment sheets. We will also need to upload pictures of the storyboard with a comment on why we did this and how it helped with our production.

In terms of checking blog posts to meet the deadline we must read through and spell check posts, ensure we have each commented on others' work, check there is enough pictures and those which are up are still able to be viewed. We need to check our clips and videos are embedded correctly to play on the blog.

We have filmed most of our opening footage, however next week when we continue with editing we will check if any scenes need to be reshot or if we are missing areas, for example we must shoot the dolls house footage and a few of the close ups and laughter of the doll early next week.

We must upload risk assesment sheets, and comments about actors. Our sound will be composed and edited to the final draft of the opening on saturday and sunday the 2nd and 3rd of march in which we will spend our last 3 days doing final edits and ensuring the sound fits.

KS: Evaluation of Eynsford Shoot

Todays shoot went well, although rushed in our time available there we were able to shoot appropriate and successful footage and stills for our film opening. We shot various angles of the 'possessed girl' around the castle ruins to emphasis her insanity and create a disoriented surreality about the setting. Again we had the issue of the public in our location however I think we over came this problem by not having any other people visible in our shots. Due to the weather the high rise ruins cast shadows over the scene, which in some areas worked to our advantage, but in others made shooting impossible as figures were just silhouettes. We aim to upload and capture our footage tomorrow to continue our editing process.

Stills from our footage.

KS:Ruins

EYNSFORD RUINS 

Found an excellent location whilst browsing the net, the Eynsford ruins just outside Sevenoaks, Kent. It is a large open space of medival ruins which would be perfect for shooting the possessed girl wandering around. The location will set a creepy yet dramatic sense to our opening so we aim to go on a shoot today, 24th March to film this particular scene for our film 'The Dolls House', stills of our shoot will be posted up later.

This hole in the ground we aim to shoot a birds eye view shot of the girl looking up into the sky, perhaps her crawling around in a anamalistic style trying to get out and escape. We will also use low angles from the floor to see the figure approach and to get a close up sense of her distress.

KS: Chosen Font

Our chosen font for our two minute film opening has been selected! After looking at medival style, calligraphy, distorted and destroyed fonts we have decided on 'A lolita Scored', a free download font on'dafont.com'. This font encorporates both our horror style genre and our dripping blood from the wallpaper theme. The swirls particularly on the 'T' give a girly 'doll' feel about the font.

KS: Progress

After 2 sucessful shoots, the first on the 19th March and the second on the 21st in a variety of appropriate locations, we were then able to upload and capture our footage on premiere to begin the editing process.

Our first shoot involved filming the 'possesed girl' at an orangery location, including establishing shots and mid shots. The location was particularly good as it had an old fashioned yet haunted feel.

The second shoot included the wallpaper scene, the mirror scene and extended footage of the playground scene. The wallpaper scene was particularly sucessfull, our mise en scene and props used created a dramatic and horror setting. We were able to use colour in our shoot accomponied with great use of costume and props. When we edit the footage we aim to use colour match were we will leave the stills and footage in black and white yet pull out the bright red of the paint, a dramatic film noir technique. We took various stills which we will use for our montage pieces and experimented with angles, close ups, tracking and zoom camera techniques to widen our use of effects.

The playground footage has also proved very useful however it was difficult to shoot with the public and many other children about. We attempted to film in areas where no other people were present, however this minimised our selection of props and locations.

And finally for the mirror footage we experimented with angles and reflections which we will later edit to create similar style footage used in 'The Black Swan'.  Again we used the doll props and took footage we will edit to create a sense of disorientation.

Below is a print scene of the first steps of our editing on premiere!

Preliminary Task Evaluation

By embarking in our preliminary task and creating a short continuity edited clip we were able to shoot and edit as if a continuous line of action. By creating a two way dialogue clip we were able to experiment and test out continuity editing before our real shoot. It was important we filmed the lines of characters dialogue seperately so when we edited it we could cut on action and create a smooth line of action. When editing we were able to look over our footage and edit it suitably with traditional horror conventions of the dramatic music and red colour wash. A continuity edited video means eyeline match is very important so the conversation feels real and doesnt jump between shots, a style we carefully aimed to create.

Although our location was very challenging to work in due to the size and the lighting we were still able to sucessfully create a continuity edited clip. The size of the location meant the tripod did not always fit in and so part of the footage was filmed in 'handy cam'. Although we tried to encorporate this into the film style the eyeline match wasnt perfect and the camera did suddenly cut and jar at parts. Particularly when Lilli steps forward to Kitty, the camera does not follow so it does not look like a continuous shot. For our real opening we aim to use directional light to create stark lighting and heavy shadows on the characters face, obsuring them into darkness, a film noir technique, however due to few possible locations available with mirrors in them we were not able to create this effect.

When editing we cut the footage on action to create a smooth line of action and experimented with both fonts and credits as research before our real film opening. We also used the 'Vertigo' style red colour wash which we particularly liked as it had tradition horror colour conventions. However we must now choose between the film noir style black and white, red colour wash or a warm sepia tone colour wash as seen in the openings of 'Se7en' and 'Vantage Point'. When it comes to shooting our film opening we will be using continuity edited footage to break up sequences of montage edited stills so it was important we tested out this particular type of shooting and editing.

Preliminary Task

KS: Shot test: kaleidescope

Taking influence from 'film noir' and shooting through frosted glass, I wanted to experiment shooting through a kaleidescope to create a disjointed surreality about the sense and a sense of disorientation, a particular convention of the thriller genre. Here are 2 test shots.

KS: PITCH

Film idea pitch on Prezi

LH: Sound Research

When thinking about sound we wanted to use in our opening sequence, we decided to take key elements from other openings we have seen. We will take our main influences from 'Se7en' and 'A Nightmare On Elm Street'. To fit and mirror with our montage editing, the sound will be disjointed and made up of a mix of different sounds all brought together under one beat.

Like 'Se7en' we will have a beat running through our sequence. We have decided to use a heart beat as it will help build tension and create an atmosphere for our piece. Another influence we are using from 'Se7en' is the use of strange mechanical noises such as humming and clicking. From 'A Nightmare On Elm Street' we will use children laughing and children singing songs such as nursery rhymes. To add dramatic effect we will warp their singing and fade it in and out.

LH: Nightmare on Elm Street

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbsAyWOsnXk

What I particularly like about this piece is the use of sound and text. I like the two layers of text for the credits; one animated and the other an image of a name scratched into a wall. With our piece, like in this opening, we could have snippets of sound of children laughing and singing. This would reinforce our ideas of child's play and dolls. I also like the use of old photographs and close-ups of toys in this opening sequence. Both of these shots might work well in our montage.