Film's Cool

Kate Coggins and Simon Brasse

We had a Film's Cool session with Kate Coggins, a film editor who has worked for many productions companies including Vertigo Films and Simon Brasse who was the editor for E4's Skins. Our Group spoke with Kate as she analysed our trailer. We received great feedback and some constructive criticism in areas that needed improvement. Kate said that she likes the whole suspense so far but it possibly needed so faster uptempo music in order to create the horror tension. She also said that it needs to tell the rest of the story as there is no back story just yet. After speaking with Kate we discovered where are key main elements of improvement are.

Film's Cool

Brendan Nelson

Brendan discussed to us what digital strategy was and how we could apply it into our own trailers. He talked to us how it would be relevant and suitable for our film production. He talked to us how would you get your trailer out there, known by people. What type of marketing would you use, social networking and YouTube where the strongest ideas considering our budget being extremely low. Talks of getting a Facebook Page and Twitter account in order to keep a constant connection between the target audience, getting feedback from them.  

Distribution

This is the logo for our distribution company for our horror trailer.

Production Logo

Editing

Final Cut Pro

Today I am editing the clips we shot together, my job is to make sure it appears seamless and fits the horror genre.

I have added this distorted CCTV camera effect onto one of ours clips. As you can see I have added in a variety of effects in order to play around and see which one suits best. I turned down the opacity at the start and the end in order to create a fast suspense mood to the trailer. The cut between black and then fading back in, allows me to change to a different clip.

Third Day Filming

Today we filmed the killers plot room, where he marks off all the people he has killed. The board contains pictures of the suspects and news paper articles about the incident. We used the pull and focus technique a lot in the shots today in order to create the binary opposition of Good vs Evil.

Second Day of Filming

Today we were filming a killing, we chose a small bridge of which was above some train tracks. For the fake blood we used thick food colouring, to create the effect of the stab we filmed the scene from two different angles. That way we could edit it into one whole shot.

First Day of Filming

Today was our first time filming, unfortunately the weather conditions were poor for our trailer. It was sunny causing some shots to be over exposed. However when I got back to editing I lowered the saturation and added a grainy effect in order create the sense of horror. Our biggest mistake was not bringing a tri-pod, as some of the footage was shaky no matter how hard we tried.  

Production Planning

Production planning:

Picnic set up-beginning scene
Mask- to mask the killer
Knife- this will be one of the weapons that our killer, Simon, will have
Bike- one of the gang members will be on a bike when Amanda is confronted by group


List of resources and locations:


Park- Hampstead heath
Boy’s bedroom- where one of the killing will take place
Estate- where the youth live
Bare room – where Simon will keep newspaper clippings ext of case etc and pictures of all the people responsible

Script

Synopsis

A romantic evening on the heath turns into a blood bath horror. A couple decide to have a picnic to celebrate their 1st anniversary. Whilst there, Simon realises that he has forgotten something and asks Amanda to wait while he runs to the shop. As he leaves he sees a gang of hoodies enter the park. Left alone, Amanda begins to feel on edge as she sees a group of youths in the distance. She decides to call Simon as it begins to get dark. She then decides to put her phone away as they begin to draw closer to her. One of the gang members (the leader) approaches her attempting to chat her up as she tries to brush him away another swoops in and tries to grab her. She begins to feel completely helpless and paralysed by her state of panic. Suddenly the rest of the gang approaches and commence there brutal attack. One agonising kick to the head makes her crash down to the floor. He rings her to tell her that he is coming back but she doesn’t answer. Frustrated he tries again as he is beginning to feel anxious. As he approaches the park he sees the same gang sprinting out of the park. He then sees her at a distance faced down on the ground. Simon knows he is too late, she is dead. Simon in a fixated rage leaves to avenge his dead girlfriend. Seeking for justice and vengeance Simon hunts down everyone in the gang responsible. Simon will travel to the ends of the earth to hunt down and butcher one by one the people responsible.

Production Logo

The use of black and white contrast well as it makes the logo look clean and authentic. However we will need to possibly improve the style of the font as it doesn't quite fit into the horror genre just yet.

Character Profile

Kelly

Kelly is an aggressive tomboy- school drop out with a bad attitude. She lives on the local estate with her mother. After not having a great start to secondary school, higher education was never an option. Her bad attitude has not helped her along the way and she often finds herself getting into disputes with authority whether it be the police or just adults in general. She likes to wear big gold tacky jewelry, patterned leggings and her hair slicked back into a tight ponytail. The kind of attire that you would associate with a Chav however referring to her as one could just about be the last thing that you do. Although she may have a tough exterior her loyalty to her peers doesn’t go to miss and she sees them as her family not such a great home life; her mother is a single unemployed and a raging alcoholic; Kelly does not know who her father is. She finds it hard to open up about her home life and frequently tells lies to make herself feel better and cover up the truth. The one thing that Kelly hates the most is seeing other people get deans attention because even though he sees her as one of the guys she has likes him for a while now. That is why when deans begin to try and chat up Amanda Kelly becomes extremely irritated by the whole thing. Other than this she dislikes because associated with being underclass and always like they claim that the rest of society misunderstands them. As she has so little attention at home and feel as if she has nobody she turns her emotions into anger and this sis why she is so angry at the world.

Character Profile

Simon

Target Audience

Target Audience 

Our target audience age is 15-18, this because it is a horror film aimed at teenagers that enjoy horror. The cast consists of all teenagers therefore our target audience can easily relate to the film and associate themselves with certain characters. Our horror trailer will not consist of any bad language as we want it to be advertised cross culturally on the web. Meaning their is no limitation on the promotion of our film trailer. We want our trailer to be known by everyone. The violence of our trailer is very graphic as it is a slasher horror. However it is done in a way that is scary with out having to physically see it. For example sound was a key element in our trailer, screams and the sound effect of a knife entering and existing were very scary. This leads to the suspense of the audience being unsure of what actually occurred. To question what they have witnessed, unsure if they had survived or were brutally murdered.  

Christine Blundell Workshop

A member of our group had the opportunity to visit Christine Blundell's make up academy. The purpose of this visit was to ask for any specific questions we had about the make up for our trailer. A member of my group told them about our idea and showed them the synopsis. Then showed them photos online of which we would like to similarly create. When talking to the people their she found out a cheap and easy way to create a fake wound or fake blood with materials that any one can easily buy. Using just cotton wool Christine ripped off a piece and moulded a piece into the shape of the wound. She then used some paint the blended the around the cotton wool in order for it to look as if it was coming out of the skin.

Camera Shots To Use In My Trailer

Breaking Bad contains strange character angles in order to give a different perspective on what the characters are doing. Breaking Bad shot, in our trailer we will use the techniques used in the show and enhance them. For our trailer we will have the protagonist stabbing the screen (the camera), as the camera signifies the person. The screen will then be covered in blood splatter, dripping down to cover the entire screen. This then enables the ability to change the scene/shot. The camera can also drop to the floor to represent the death of person falling.

Typography (Fonts)

Risk Assessment

As a precaution of going down into the Void an underground area in the school, we had to take a risk assessment as there are many hazards down their of which we needed to consider.

Chiaroscuro Lighting

As a class we went down to the Void a deserted area underneath the school. The purpose of this trip was to use the red and blue LED lights in order to create a chiaroscuro effect. This type of lighting is commonly used in horror films in order to create a clear difference between light and dark. We will want to integrate this type of lighting into our horror trailer as it can create certain shadows and create a suspense.

Audio Manipulation

Ideas For Location

The location is very important for our film trailer as it creates the dark secluded horror theme. In our media lesson we were given the opportunity to have a quick tour around the site which is located underneath the working department of the DT rooms. Its dark mysterious dirty state will be perfect for filming certain scenes for our film trailer.

Synopsis

Raphael lives an untroubled ebullient life with his long term girlfriend Skyler. Until one day he is betrayed and humilated to find her cheating on him. Distort and heartbroken Raphael wraths into a fixated rage. Raphael hunts down and butches every man that she has been in contact with for the past few weeks. Startled and bewildered Skyler begins to notice that all the horrific homicides are linked and is worried that she is being hunted.

Levi Strauss (Binary Opposition)

Levi Strauss suggested many narratives are understood by using the conflict of two opposite forces. These opposite forces include Good vs Evil, Love vs Hate and Light vs Dark. We can integrate this into our horror trailers as we can use the light vs dark to portray the antagonist and protagonist. Making one seem evil and the other good. We did some filming to get a rough idea of how it would look and it was also good practice on how to use the camera. When filming we wanted to portray a clear identification between good vs evil, to create this effect we had one person in front of the other person in focus whilst the other person behind them blurred. This created the Good vs Evil binary opposition as we had the antagonist blurred meaning the audience would not be able to identify them creating the sense of an enigma code.

Camera Canon EOS 550D

Focus Task

During todays task we learnt how to use focus and pull focus on a DSLR camera. This will help because during my horror trailer because we might use certain shots were the killer is in focus and the protagonist is not. In this video we tested this theory by experimenting with different shot types and characters.

Lyrics For our Trailer

She Drives Me Crazy - Fine Young Cannibals 

I can't stop, 

The way I feel, 

Things you do, 

Don't seem real. 

Tell you what, 

I got in mind, 

'Cause we're runnin', 

Out of time, 

Won't you ever, 

Set me free, 

This waiting' 'round's, 

Killeen' me. 

[Chorus] 

She drives me crazy, 

Uh uh, 

Like no-one else, 

Uh uh, 

She drives me crazy, 

And I can't help myself, 

Uh uh. 

I can't get, 

Any rest, 

People say, 

I'm obsessed, 

Every-thing, 

That's serious lasts, 

But to me, 

There's no surprize, 

What I have, 

Fatal last truth, 

Things go wrong, 

They always do.

Postmodernist Theory

Postmodernist Theory

PASTICHE: Often referring to and mocking films and the genre. Austin Powers is said to be an example of this as it has an influence from the James Bond films and references 60's culture.

TIME BENDING: Time travel which makes the audience think 'What if?' and shapes reality differently. The film Looper, leaves many answers unanswered and leaves the audience feeling confused and made to think about the film again.      

MORE HUMAN THAN HUMAN: This includes artificial intelligence and robotics that replace humans. I-robot, robots are capable of doing human tasks and even have emotion.

ALTERED STATES: This is the rise of social issues like drugs, alcohol or mental issues that provide the audience with a gateway to new internal realities. 'A Beautiful Mind' is an example of this as deals with schizophrenia and sees the main character have to fight one of his own creations.

HYPER REALITY: Technologically created realities that are often more authentic and desirable than the real world. An example of this is 'The Matrix': The film creates a world that in some ways can be more desirable.

FLATTENING OF AFFECT: Technology, violence, drugs and the media lead to detached, emotionless lives. 'Less Than Zero' is an example of a student that drinks alcohol takes drugs and goes from having everything to having nothing.

Film's Cool

Sinister Trailer

Hero - Dad, is on a quest to save his daughter and family

Villian - Bagul, the antagonist, the main horror villain

Donor - Nerd Guy in the video chat assisting him by giving him information

Helper - Same nerd guy telling him what to do on his quest

Princess - The daughter is possessed by the villain, is taken capture. She is the most vulnerable character in the group

Killers In Horror

Killers in horror from kaspianthylmann

Todorov's Theory

Todorov's theory has 3 different steps, these include Equilibrium, Disruption and New equilibrium.
Equilibrium Is the beginning of the movie when everything seems normal and calm. The atmosphere is relaxed. Disruption is when a problem has occurred and the protagonist has to solve it. New Equilibrium is the outcome of the film. This is where the audience sees the challenge/problem being resolved, therefore we see the new outcome. We see all the new changes in the environment and characters.

Make Up Experiment

          

  

We took the advise and skills learnt from Christine's session and applied them to our make up session. Obviously our group will be working on a smaller budget compared to what Christine normally works with. Although Christine showed us some important tips on how to make the best with what you have. She told us that we can create realistic cuts and burns and more to for fill the dramatic effect. That items can be bought from the supermarket such as red food colouring. This mixed with syrup creates excellent fake blood, also dark green and brown paint creates a great bruised effect.

Christine Blundell

On Tuesday we were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to meet Christine Blundell.  She had attended a session of Film's Cool to demonstrate the techniques and requirements needed for the best quality of make up.  Christine has worked on films such as Casino Royal, Sherlock Holmes and The phantom of the opera.

Burtons Theory

Film Distribution

BloodShed High Intro Podcast

Trailer Analysis

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What will make a good film trailer

A good film trailer will set a certain pace and tempo creating a specific atmosphere for the set genre. It will introduce character and dialogue. Will Identify the setting and surroundings and will make a clear justification on who the target audience is. This could be primary or secondary. The music include will have to be of which the audience can relate to and is relevant and suitable to the trailer. In certain trailers there will be an enigma code. Trailers will also apply recognisable conventions and also verify them.

Film Trailer Structure

Working with Voiceovers

I created a VoiceOver for a parqour documentary based on the introduction of the sport into the Olympic games. Having done this task has enabled me to use the experiences learnt and can now apply them to my horror film trailer. When doing this task I learnt it was a whole lot more beneficial to have a plan written out (StoryBoard). This allowed me to refer back to my work incase there were any hiccups. Having a VoiceOver creates a sense of realism and creates great dramatic effect. In my horror film trailer I would only have a VoiceOver as a narration to my sequence. I learnt that having a voice over is very powerful and effective as an audience member as it gives you more of an insight to what you are viewing. We looked at documentaries and how they use voice overs, we looked at Louis Theroux, a famous journalist for the BBC. When watching the documentary I learnt that having a voice over was like the voice of God as this plays a key part of the story telling. This will be extremely vital to my horror trailer as it will play a key part in telling the story.

Producing sound

Foley sound is sound created after the dramatic sequence. This sound is often created in a studio or is just added in by editors using audio presets. Adding foley sound enables great dramatic effect, an example of our group using this effect was creating a dramatic punch or slap. Foley sound is created after the sequence as the additional sound cannot be created during the filming as the environment may not be suitable or equipment is unavailable.  Having done this task was very beneficial as I can apply the foley sounds into my horror trailer as horror is a specific genre that consists of unnatural, mysterious sounds. The slapping sound in the video was created after using the imovie audio input microphone, we made a clear clapping sound with our hands in order for it to stand out.

The silent film about movie sound. 

This is a video demonstrating the use of foley sound and how the actors were able to create every single sound created on the screen, live.

Continuity Editing

Continuity editing is vital when creating a video sequence as the video must run smoothly together making the editing cuts seem unnoticeable. We had the task of editing together a car toppling over due to herd of sheep. In my sequence I used a variety of editing techniques and different camera shots. I used shot reverse shot between the driver and the sheep. I also integrated eye line match with this shot as it allowed the audience to feel the perspective of the driver. I used the tracking long shot of the car on the side of the road as this allows the audience to identify the setting and surroundings of the car and how fast it was going. For the toppling of the car I used a slow motion effect and a variety of different camera angles as this created great dramatic tension.

Another example of an continuiting edit was the beach, a girl walking towards a boy on his mobile.