Planning:
RESEARCH:
I then did my audience research and decided to change my idea based on their results. From my research I found what people liked in horror films, I then put this into a table (as shown on my research page) so it would be easier for me to find a frequency for each said thing. From question three, I found that most people liked suspense, sudden and unexpected jumps which was part of the thrill of watching horror films. This means that when I create my short film I have to have jumpscares and create suspense for the audience.
From question four, I could find out people's favourite horror films and I could see what they do that make them so popular, the top films include: Saw; Paranormal Activity; Insidious; The Exorcist; Cabin in the Woods; Woman in Black; The Conjuring; The Shining; Scream and Nightmare on Elm Street. However, some of these films have blood and gore to extreme, like Saw and because I don't have access to prosthetics or profession make-up artists I have excluded blood and gore containing films. I would rather create jumpy films rather than violent slasher films and so for this reason, also, I'm not including them, so I looked at the story lines for Paranormal Activity, Insidious, Woman in Black and The Conjuring as these films were popular and also I have seen them so I have an idea of what happens in them to make them jumpy.
Question six was about locations and settings within horror films, the most popular settings were: abandoned or old houses, woods and isolated areas. However although everyday houses were only said by four people I may have to use an everyday house, such as my own, as I have an access to it, where I don't to an isolated, abandoned or old house. I may try using special effects to create the look of old house. I live in a detached house so I may be able to film the house where by neighbours' houses aren't in view, for this I would have to experiment with the camera.
Question seven was about music and sounds within horror films. The most said music/sounds were: classical music, complete silence before a jump, children singing and sudden bangs.
I looked at four popular films and found out a synopsis for them:
Paranormal Activity: IMDB synopsis: After moving into a suburban home, a couple becomes increasingly disturbed by a nightly demonic presence
Insidious: synopsis on the back of the DVD says: Josh (Patrick Wilson) and Renai (Rose Byrne) are a happily married couple with three young children who have moved into their idyllic new suburban home. When tragedy strikes their young son, Josh and Renai begin to experience things in the house that are beyond explanation. Before long, their lives are turned upside down by demonic forces, hell-bent on terrorising their very existence. Forced to seek help and protect their family, they learn the terrifying truth – it’s not the house that’s haunted but something far worse...
Woman in Black: IMDB synopsis: A young lawyer travels to a remote village where he discovers the vengeful ghost of a scorned woman is terrorizing the locals.
The Conjuring: IMDB synopsis: Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse.
Internet Movie Database (IMDB) gave a short synopsis, but they've included the general idea. Most of these films are about the presence of a ghost/evil force and are paranormal themed, this means when I create my film I'm going to include paranormal beings.
I watch Insidious as I had this on DVD and I looked at what James Wan did and used his ideas when creating my ideas and writing my script. When I watched Insidious I found there were things like books on the floor which weren't explained, there were creaking noises and the sounds of pipes and wind, there were a series of unexplained events/things happening, when they first move in the mum can't find her Sheet Music and she then finds it in the loft. The camera builds up suspense by things like slowly zooming in on the bedroom door nob which suggests to the audience that something is going to happen, lights cut out and the home alarm system goes off. When the dad locks the front door and walks around the house, he gets back to the door and find it unlocks, things move alone in their new house, this happens when the mum sees a boy and goes to find him and the rocking horse moves by itself. The dad doesn't believe the situation, but he goes to the boy's room one night and finds the son's drawings which confirm what the medium said.
I watch Insidious as I had this on DVD and I looked at what James Wan did and used his ideas when creating my ideas and writing my script. When I watched Insidious I found there were things like books on the floor which weren't explained, there were creaking noises and the sounds of pipes and wind, there were a series of unexplained events/things happening, when they first move in the mum can't find her Sheet Music and she then finds it in the loft. The camera builds up suspense by things like slowly zooming in on the bedroom door nob which suggests to the audience that something is going to happen, lights cut out and the home alarm system goes off. When the dad locks the front door and walks around the house, he gets back to the door and find it unlocks, things move alone in their new house, this happens when the mum sees a boy and goes to find him and the rocking horse moves by itself. The dad doesn't believe the situation, but he goes to the boy's room one night and finds the son's drawings which confirm what the medium said.
IDEA ONE:
For my original idea I thought of a 13 year old girl was being stalked by a man and she was too afraid to talk to anyone about it but he was always there. Watching her in the park, at the school gates etc. Then her mum bought some photos down from the loft and she found one of the man and asked her mum who it was and it turns out it is her dead dad who was just watching over her, but I thought this idea would be too complicated to show in 5 minutes and I thought it might not be entirely plausible.
IDEA TWO:
A girl of 11 (Emma) has made a new friend (Emily) when she moves house with her mum (Sandra), dad (James) and older sister (Rachel, 15), her friend, however, isn't human and cannot be seen by the Smith family. Emily is a ghost who was killed by drowning in the garden pond whilst her parents weren't looking, the house was sold cheap as Emily's parents didn't want to be haunted by the memories (this is said on the phone by the estate agent when Sandra phones to ask what happen in the house, when she believes they may not be alone). Emily just wants to be friends with Emma as she died before her sister was born and never had anyone to play with, however she wasn't happy enough with having a friend, she wanted a dead friend as she was jealous of Emma living and enjoying the benefits of life when she couldn't and so she persuades her to kill herself, Emma being young and naive agrees as she doesn't want to lose her friend but the mum sees that she's started to act odd and is being more distant and so she gets advice from a spiritualist who says it's not just a ghost, it's an entity which is trying to take over her life. The spiritualist performs an exorcism and the demon is destroyed.
My idea two follows the Todorov theory of the five stages of a film's narrative structure.
1) This is where they first move in to the new house;
2) when Emily is first talked about;
3) when Emma chooses a horror because Emily wants to hear it;
4) when Sandra contacts a spirtualist;
5) when the entity has been destroyed.
When I came up with my short film idea I started to write a script, this is so I could film this and I and my cast would have something to follow.
My first script was very detailed and included lots of speech, I showed this to my teacher and she said my film may look quite cheap as I don't have professional sound equipment. So I cut some of the speech out. I then tried a script with no speech but actions but I thought this might be a little confusing, so I added some speech back in.
It took six attempts before I got my script the way I wanted it to be and to include lots of jump scares.
My first attempt:
Script two:
Script three:
Script four:
Script five:
Script six:
I had to change script five as there was a scene which I could no longer include as I had lost the clip of the washing falling down. I also had a Sarah character originally but I cut her out however she was still mentioned.
I had a problem with finding a male character and so I wrote in a brother and so I changed the script slightly:
When I'd finalised my script I had to work out where I would film and took wreckies and who would be my cast and created factfiles on them. When I knew where I was going to film I drew storyboards that would help me when I filmed as I'd have something to follow. Firstly I had to design a storyboard template:
My story board template didn't have 'SCENE' or 'ACT' but I added this on and then it would help me to know which order the film went and it would be more visual than looking at the script and having to read it to work out what to do.
I then drew all my scenes and filmed them.
Scene 1 and 2:
I chose my house as it is always going to be available to me, also as it is detached I can make it look like an isolated house either by filming cleverly and not including the neighbouring houses or with the use of special effects to blacken out the edges of the shot.
I have a long hall way which can be very dark when there is no lights and the doors are shut, I can use this as it can look very scary and eerie, even during the day.
Another place which is filmed is the front door, this leads on to the hallway. This is where the mum originally answers the door to the estate agent and then her sister (the spiritualist/medium).
I have three bedrooms all next to each other, one at the top of the hall which I thought to be Emma's room as I have a bookcase full of books and the mum has to pick one off the bookshelf at night. One to the right which I thought could be the parents' room because of the sophisticated colour theme (black and red, with some aspects of glass). The one on the left I thought could be Rachel's room as it is slightly more mature looking than Emma's, with the colour scheme of duck egg and pale brown/dark cream.
Emma's room is the only room predominately filmed, the parents' room and Rachel's room is seldom filmed.
Another room that was originally to be filmed is the kitchen. This is where Rachel is playing with the dog and the first supernatural encounter takes place: the washing falling down.
The dining room is filmed when Emma first mentions the ghost: Emily. This is where the family will be about to have their first 'dinner' and Emma mentions Emily.
Another room in the house that is only filmed for a brief part of the film is the lounge. This is where the mum realises the daughter is missing, the dad is sorting out tools and Rachel is listening to music, which is just before she calls the spiritualist/medium.
Now I know where I'm going to film and what I'm going to film, I have to work out who is going to be my cast.
I need someone to play Sandra (the mum), this person originally needed to look old enough to have 2 children; I need someone to play James (the dad, the same as the mum this person needs to look old enough to be a dad; I need someone who looks about 15 to play the sister, Rachel; I need to people who look about 11 to play Emma and Emily; I need someone to play Jordanna (the estate agent) this person needs to be or look about 20+ and I need someone to play Jordanna's sister, Ashleigh (the spiritualist/medium), this person needs to be or look about 25+. I don't know two female eleven year olds and so I messaged the school drama teacher asking if she could help:
I had a problem with finding a male to play James, but I came up with the idea of a single parent family with an older brother. I suggested this to my teacher and she said this would work, however she said she used an agency called Castcall when she was at university to help her find a cast and so I emailed their admin about finding a male character. I also asked about two eleven year old characters just in case I couldn't find two at the school:
As you can see from the emails that Castcall was unable to help. So I will have to use a male to act as a brother and not have a dad character present. I have messaged Showbiz Academy leader Tracy Osman and asked if she could help with two eleven year old characters to be in my film:
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I phoned Tracy and she said she was able to help, she had a Showbiz meeting on the Saturday and a Tuesday which she said I was welcome to attend to see if any actresses seemed to fit the part. However I was working through both meetings and was unable to take the time off, so I had to trust Tracy to find me two girls.
Through Tracy I had the two girls: Gracie Way and Holly Kearl.
I messaged my younger sister, Tayler and asked if she would play Rachel:
I also messaged my older sister, Ashleigh to see if she would play the spiritualist and the medium:
And then I messaged my mum, Tracy, to see if she would play Sandra:
I messaged Craig to ask if he would play a brother within my film, although he is camera shy he said he'd be in it. I will give him small parts but I think the film needs a man in order to look realistic, if it is all females I think it will look a little odd.
For Sandra I thought of my own mum as she would be willing to take part in my film and she (obviously) has had children and therefore would look old enough.
Name: Tracy Lydford
Age: 47
Role: Sandra (mum)
Experience: acted in my GCSE film as the mum character. - always wanted to be an actress
For Rachel I asked my younger sister, although she's 13 she is very tall and with slight use of make-up and with the right clothes I could make her look old enough to be the 15 year old sister.
Name: Tayler Lydford
Age: 13
Role: Rachel (daughter)
Experience: acted in my GCSE film as the daughter.
Name: Gracie Way
Age: 11
Role: Emma (daughter)
Experience: A member of Showbiz Academy
Name: Holly Kearl
Age: 11
Role: Emily (ghost)
Experience: A member of Showbiz Academy
For Jordanna, I thought of myself as I am available to do this part, it is small, so I can still do the camera work etc. It is easier if I did this part rather than finding someone who would play this role.With the right clothes and make-up I could make myself look the part. Luckily enough for my year 10 work experience I worked in an Estate Agent and there was a girl of 18 who knew one of the owners and was studying at Bournemouth Uni, she wanted to be an estate agent and so she worked there every Friday for the experience and so I know that you can work as young as 18 at an estate agents.
Name: Jordan Lydford
Age: 17
Role: Jordanna (Estate Agent)
Experience: none.
^ This character is no longer present ^ I took on the role of the medium as my sister didn't want to do it in front of the others.
For Ashleigh I asked my older sister, she is 22 but can make herself look a few years older when she uses make-up.
Name: Ashleigh Lydford (medium/spiritualist)
Age: 22
Role: Spiritualist/medium and Jordanna's sister.
Experience: acted in my GCSE film as teenage daughter.
^ My sister no longer wants to be in my film, however as I have decided to not use the estate agent character I can now step in and be the spiritualist/medium as this is only a small part and I can make myself look slightly older with make up and smart/casual clothes. However, when it came to filming, I decided to wear 'weird' looking clothes, so I wore a black dress, with a navy/purple jumper and rosemary beeds, I think a 'weird' spiritualist conforms to stereotypes and therefore making it easier to identify with who I was acting.
As the older brother I thought to use Craig, he is available at weekends along with Tracy, Tayler, myself and Ashleigh (when I thought she was going to be in it) and so we'd be able to meet up and film the scenes at weekends. The two eleven year olds are in school and are too young to be employed so they will be available weekends, even if they do something on a Saturday (like I work Saturday lunch), it will still be possible for them to be free on a Sunday for scenes they would be needed for.
Name: Craig Smith
Age: 19
Role: James (brother)
Experience: none.
When I had my story line I had to think of some different names to call my film, for this I created a brainstorm:
I didn't quite know what to call my film so I used an online thesaurus to help give me synonyms for ideas to help me:
I liked the word 'revenant', and so I am going to use this for my title.
I used dafont.com to look at the different fonts that I thought would look good for my poster and review page. I downloaded my favourite fonts and the ones that could be possibilities:
I then got rid of some that weren't my absolute favourites or the ones I couldn't see working. I got rid of the ones that portrayed blood dripping as there is no blood in my film and so it wouldn't look relevant, I also got rid of the font 'come with me' as this was a bit boring as it was just the letter 'r' that really looked like it had changed, I chose to get rid of 'horror sketch', I did like this but I think it's a bit hard to read as it is very thin, I liked lyncathrope but it wasn't one of my favourites I liked 'mystery forest' but I thought it looked a little bit squashed, I also thought the 'needleteeth' selection were very similar to one another, and I thought two of them looked slightly like dripping blood. 'Pieces of Eight' looks similar to the font used in Pirates of the Caribbean and it don't think it would look right for my horror. Slasha was similar to the 'horror sketch' and so for the same reason I'm not going to use it. After deleting these fonts it left me with:
I have chosen 'frisky vampire' as I think it is eerie and looks like a horror font but it is simplistic.
Next I create different layouts for my film poster and page review, I used my analysed posters/pages to give me ideas:
My poster layouts:
For the 'JVL Productions' logo I used Paint.Net and used font 'dirty features', I liked this font as it looks like a horror font but it is simplistic and easy to read, event when it is small. For the billing block I got a clear one of google:
and copied some of the relevant people, I didn't include an assistant director, special effects, co-executive producer, costume design, visual effects and a few others as these weren't relevant to my film. I did include a website link and a logo like this billing block had.
my review page layouts:
There is a continuity error on my poster and review page, on my poster I put from the director of Ghost House (my GCSE film) whereas on my review page I put 'new director', so I will have to change my review page when it comes to the final artifacts to make sure there is continuity throughout.
These are the two layouts I will use for my final artifacts:
I think the colours work well together, and I like the layout of everything. The fonts I've used look appropriate and the images I will use work. For the poster I am using a photo of the ghost putting her hand around the wardrobe door and the girl in front of it. This works as the wardrobe is featured in my film and is portrayed as the 'ghost's den', the first scary scene occurs with the wardrobe and when the night pan happens it is filmed then too. Also it is similar to Insidious and Amityville when the evil/possessed thing is outside the house. With my review page I used an image from the film (like the review pages I analysed did), this is because it is a code and convention.
After I created my short film I looked back on it and realised it didn't have a wide variety of shots and it had too much dialogue for a short film; I then came up with a different idea. I could still use some shots from my pilot short film, e.g. the mum sleeping.
I used less characters, a convention of a short film, and I followed the conventions of a short film with dialogue.
My pilot short film can be found on:http://youtu.be/sSjA4a-XLS8
The sound on 'Revenant' was to see if any could have been a possibility to use that is why there is so many on this film.
This is my new film's idea:
The '[X]' was my marking for when I had filmed that section.
As I changed my idea I also had to change the review page and poster, I just changed the photo and the names, and the "What's the story about?". I also changed the colour of 'Revenant' to white instead of a midnight blue as I felt like worked better as it would contrast more with a black background and stand out more if my poster was, say, on a bus stop and you were looking at it from a distance.
I also changed my logo as I felt the one I had wasn't very professional looking.
When doing my research I researched about films and short films, however I never actually analysed a short film. So this led to problems when creating my film. I then realised after creating my pilot copy that this didn't follow codes and conventions and so I looked on YouTube and found a short film that I could analyse. I analysed a short film called: Inside by Black Magic Cinema Camera, presented by Glass Eye Productions. When analysing this short film I looked at camera shots, transitions and non-diegetic and diegetic sounds, locations and characters. There was non-diegetic music throughout and not much dialogue present. There was only two characters, the female photographer and the man inside the house. The location was in a wooded area and the end of the film was inside a house (within the woods).
^Full analysis can be found on 'research' page.^
Considering what I have already filmed and the analysis of a short film I came up with a new idea in order to follow codes and conventions.
My new idea was: A girl (Rachel) is possess and one night kills her family and then runs off into the woods to hide, I thought I could still use the some shots from my pilot but I could also film some new clips and could produce a short film which really clearly follows codes and conventions.
Also I felt my original film wasn't very scary, and not really a 'horror' film. My new film has no dialogue except for the very end when the bodies are discovered. This follows codes and conventions of a short film and it is similar to the short horror film I analysed. Personally, I think my new film is scary with the use of music and I am proud with what I have done.
These were the images and clips I filmed for my new version of Revenant:
This is my planning of my poster, this was the original picture, however I felt black and white was better than the blue look. I looked at the posters I analysed and copied their layouts to help me with my poster:
When I came up with my short film idea I started to write a script, this is so I could film this and I and my cast would have something to follow.
My first script was very detailed and included lots of speech, I showed this to my teacher and she said my film may look quite cheap as I don't have professional sound equipment. So I cut some of the speech out. I then tried a script with no speech but actions but I thought this might be a little confusing, so I added some speech back in.
It took six attempts before I got my script the way I wanted it to be and to include lots of jump scares.
My first attempt:
Script two:
Script three:
Script four:
Script six:
When I'd finalised my script I had to work out where I would film and took wreckies and who would be my cast and created factfiles on them. When I knew where I was going to film I drew storyboards that would help me when I filmed as I'd have something to follow. Firstly I had to design a storyboard template:
I then drew all my scenes and filmed them.
Scene 1 and 2:
In scenes one and two the family move into the house and the ghost is first mentioned.
Scene 3 and 4:
In scenes three and four the mum reads to Emma and the first paranormal event occurs, it is also the panning scene of the family asleep and the pan into the 'ghost's den'.
Scene five:
In scene five it's the next morning and it's when Emma is 'missing' and her mum finds her drawing black pictures (apparently) alone in her bedroom.
Scene six:
In scene six it is the final scene and it is when the medium is called in, however nothing is performed as it ends with the door closing behind the medium and the daughter.
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| My house during the day |
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| My house during the day |
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| My house during the day |
I have a long hall way which can be very dark when there is no lights and the doors are shut, I can use this as it can look very scary and eerie, even during the day.
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| Hall with bedroom doors open |
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| Hall with bedroom doors closed |
Another place which is filmed is the front door, this leads on to the hallway. This is where the mum originally answers the door to the estate agent and then her sister (the spiritualist/medium).
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| This is the front door during the day |
I have three bedrooms all next to each other, one at the top of the hall which I thought to be Emma's room as I have a bookcase full of books and the mum has to pick one off the bookshelf at night. One to the right which I thought could be the parents' room because of the sophisticated colour theme (black and red, with some aspects of glass). The one on the left I thought could be Rachel's room as it is slightly more mature looking than Emma's, with the colour scheme of duck egg and pale brown/dark cream.
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| This is the parents room during the day with natural lighting. |
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| This is the parents room during the day with a camera flash. |
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| This is the parents room during the day with the main light on. |
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| This would be Emma and Rachel's room, for any scenes in this room I would move the desk and lockable box (which you can't see, but is behind the desk). This is taken with the bedroom main light on. Ignore my mess! |
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| For any scenes in this room I would move the laundry baskets and TV on the floor. This is taken with the bedroom main light on. |
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| This is taken with the camera flash on. |
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| This is taken with the camera flash on. |
Emma's room is the only room predominately filmed, the parents' room and Rachel's room is seldom filmed.
Another room that was originally to be filmed is the kitchen. This is where Rachel is playing with the dog and the first supernatural encounter takes place: the washing falling down.
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| This is the kitchen, there is no filming done in this room now, however it will be seen when doing some dining room shots. |
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| This is the kitchen from inside rather than the doorway, as you can see the dining room is in view which means the kitchen may be in view when filming the dining room scenes. |
The dining room is filmed when Emma first mentions the ghost: Emily. This is where the family will be about to have their first 'dinner' and Emma mentions Emily.
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| This is the dining room, the tableux shot won't be shot from this angle; I will put the camera by the window sill. |
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| This is the dining room from a different angle, however it won't be filmed like this otherwise you won't see some of the character's faces. |
Another room in the house that is only filmed for a brief part of the film is the lounge. This is where the mum realises the daughter is missing, the dad is sorting out tools and Rachel is listening to music, which is just before she calls the spiritualist/medium.
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| This is the lounge from one angle, with natural lighting. |
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| This is the lounge from another angle, with natural lighting. |
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| This is the fireplace which is in the lounge, there was a scene with this featured however me and my teacher decided it would be too complicated to film the scene and so we deleted it. However I am going to use this when the mum is dusting later on in the film. |
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| This is the TV in the lounge, this isn't filmed however it may be caught a glimpse of when the mum is dusting and Rachel is on the sofa. |
Now I know where I'm going to film and what I'm going to film, I have to work out who is going to be my cast.
I need someone to play Sandra (the mum), this person originally needed to look old enough to have 2 children; I need someone to play James (the dad, the same as the mum this person needs to look old enough to be a dad; I need someone who looks about 15 to play the sister, Rachel; I need to people who look about 11 to play Emma and Emily; I need someone to play Jordanna (the estate agent) this person needs to be or look about 20+ and I need someone to play Jordanna's sister, Ashleigh (the spiritualist/medium), this person needs to be or look about 25+. I don't know two female eleven year olds and so I messaged the school drama teacher asking if she could help:
I had a problem with finding a male to play James, but I came up with the idea of a single parent family with an older brother. I suggested this to my teacher and she said this would work, however she said she used an agency called Castcall when she was at university to help her find a cast and so I emailed their admin about finding a male character. I also asked about two eleven year old characters just in case I couldn't find two at the school:
As you can see from the emails that Castcall was unable to help. So I will have to use a male to act as a brother and not have a dad character present. I have messaged Showbiz Academy leader Tracy Osman and asked if she could help with two eleven year old characters to be in my film:
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Through Tracy I had the two girls: Gracie Way and Holly Kearl.
I messaged my younger sister, Tayler and asked if she would play Rachel:
I also messaged my older sister, Ashleigh to see if she would play the spiritualist and the medium:
And then I messaged my mum, Tracy, to see if she would play Sandra:
I messaged Craig to ask if he would play a brother within my film, although he is camera shy he said he'd be in it. I will give him small parts but I think the film needs a man in order to look realistic, if it is all females I think it will look a little odd.
For Sandra I thought of my own mum as she would be willing to take part in my film and she (obviously) has had children and therefore would look old enough.
Name: Tracy Lydford
Age: 47
Role: Sandra (mum)
Experience: acted in my GCSE film as the mum character. - always wanted to be an actress
For Rachel I asked my younger sister, although she's 13 she is very tall and with slight use of make-up and with the right clothes I could make her look old enough to be the 15 year old sister.
Name: Tayler Lydford
Age: 13
Role: Rachel (daughter)
Experience: acted in my GCSE film as the daughter.
Name: Gracie Way
Age: 11
Role: Emma (daughter)
Experience: A member of Showbiz Academy
Name: Holly Kearl
Age: 11
Role: Emily (ghost)
Experience: A member of Showbiz Academy
For Jordanna, I thought of myself as I am available to do this part, it is small, so I can still do the camera work etc. It is easier if I did this part rather than finding someone who would play this role.With the right clothes and make-up I could make myself look the part. Luckily enough for my year 10 work experience I worked in an Estate Agent and there was a girl of 18 who knew one of the owners and was studying at Bournemouth Uni, she wanted to be an estate agent and so she worked there every Friday for the experience and so I know that you can work as young as 18 at an estate agents.
Name: Jordan Lydford
Age: 17
Role: Jordanna (Estate Agent)
Experience: none.
^ This character is no longer present ^ I took on the role of the medium as my sister didn't want to do it in front of the others.
For Ashleigh I asked my older sister, she is 22 but can make herself look a few years older when she uses make-up.
Name: Ashleigh Lydford (medium/spiritualist)
Age: 22
Role: Spiritualist/medium and Jordanna's sister.
Experience: acted in my GCSE film as teenage daughter.
^ My sister no longer wants to be in my film, however as I have decided to not use the estate agent character I can now step in and be the spiritualist/medium as this is only a small part and I can make myself look slightly older with make up and smart/casual clothes. However, when it came to filming, I decided to wear 'weird' looking clothes, so I wore a black dress, with a navy/purple jumper and rosemary beeds, I think a 'weird' spiritualist conforms to stereotypes and therefore making it easier to identify with who I was acting.
As the older brother I thought to use Craig, he is available at weekends along with Tracy, Tayler, myself and Ashleigh (when I thought she was going to be in it) and so we'd be able to meet up and film the scenes at weekends. The two eleven year olds are in school and are too young to be employed so they will be available weekends, even if they do something on a Saturday (like I work Saturday lunch), it will still be possible for them to be free on a Sunday for scenes they would be needed for.
Name: Craig Smith
Age: 19
Role: James (brother)
Experience: none.
When I had my story line I had to think of some different names to call my film, for this I created a brainstorm:
I didn't quite know what to call my film so I used an online thesaurus to help give me synonyms for ideas to help me:
I liked the word 'revenant', and so I am going to use this for my title.
I used dafont.com to look at the different fonts that I thought would look good for my poster and review page. I downloaded my favourite fonts and the ones that could be possibilities:
I have chosen 'frisky vampire' as I think it is eerie and looks like a horror font but it is simplistic.
Next I create different layouts for my film poster and page review, I used my analysed posters/pages to give me ideas:
My poster layouts:
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| White has connotations of innocence and so I wont be using this colour for the background, also I only analysed one poster that had white as a main colour. ('Staring' is in green only because I need to add cast here, it won't be in green) |
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| With the red background it looks very angry rather than scary, so I won't use red as my background colour. |
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| I think red and black together work as a horror poster, most of the posters I analysed use black and Dead Silence used black with red writing to I am showing the codes and conventions of a horror film poster. |
and copied some of the relevant people, I didn't include an assistant director, special effects, co-executive producer, costume design, visual effects and a few others as these weren't relevant to my film. I did include a website link and a logo like this billing block had.
my review page layouts:
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| This was my first idea for a review page, however I felt white didn't give a horror feel as it has connotation of innocence. |
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| This was my second idea for a review page, to have black writing and a red background, however I think it looks angry rather than scary because of the connotation of red, although it is used in horror as there is so much I think it just looks angry. |
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| This is my third attempt and I like it with a black background and red writing, black has connotations of evil and with the red it gives the connotation of horror and danger. I have used the 'revenant' name in dark/navy blue as black and red is being used and it makes it contrast with the rest of the page, it looks different and eye catching and it suggests it is the most important part of the page. |
There is a continuity error on my poster and review page, on my poster I put from the director of Ghost House (my GCSE film) whereas on my review page I put 'new director', so I will have to change my review page when it comes to the final artifacts to make sure there is continuity throughout.
These are the two layouts I will use for my final artifacts:
I think the colours work well together, and I like the layout of everything. The fonts I've used look appropriate and the images I will use work. For the poster I am using a photo of the ghost putting her hand around the wardrobe door and the girl in front of it. This works as the wardrobe is featured in my film and is portrayed as the 'ghost's den', the first scary scene occurs with the wardrobe and when the night pan happens it is filmed then too. Also it is similar to Insidious and Amityville when the evil/possessed thing is outside the house. With my review page I used an image from the film (like the review pages I analysed did), this is because it is a code and convention.
After I created my short film I looked back on it and realised it didn't have a wide variety of shots and it had too much dialogue for a short film; I then came up with a different idea. I could still use some shots from my pilot short film, e.g. the mum sleeping.
I used less characters, a convention of a short film, and I followed the conventions of a short film with dialogue.
My pilot short film can be found on:http://youtu.be/sSjA4a-XLS8
The sound on 'Revenant' was to see if any could have been a possibility to use that is why there is so many on this film.
This is my new film's idea:
The '[X]' was my marking for when I had filmed that section.
As I changed my idea I also had to change the review page and poster, I just changed the photo and the names, and the "What's the story about?". I also changed the colour of 'Revenant' to white instead of a midnight blue as I felt like worked better as it would contrast more with a black background and stand out more if my poster was, say, on a bus stop and you were looking at it from a distance.
I also changed my logo as I felt the one I had wasn't very professional looking.
When doing my research I researched about films and short films, however I never actually analysed a short film. So this led to problems when creating my film. I then realised after creating my pilot copy that this didn't follow codes and conventions and so I looked on YouTube and found a short film that I could analyse. I analysed a short film called: Inside by Black Magic Cinema Camera, presented by Glass Eye Productions. When analysing this short film I looked at camera shots, transitions and non-diegetic and diegetic sounds, locations and characters. There was non-diegetic music throughout and not much dialogue present. There was only two characters, the female photographer and the man inside the house. The location was in a wooded area and the end of the film was inside a house (within the woods).
^Full analysis can be found on 'research' page.^
Considering what I have already filmed and the analysis of a short film I came up with a new idea in order to follow codes and conventions.
My new idea was: A girl (Rachel) is possess and one night kills her family and then runs off into the woods to hide, I thought I could still use the some shots from my pilot but I could also film some new clips and could produce a short film which really clearly follows codes and conventions.
Also I felt my original film wasn't very scary, and not really a 'horror' film. My new film has no dialogue except for the very end when the bodies are discovered. This follows codes and conventions of a short film and it is similar to the short horror film I analysed. Personally, I think my new film is scary with the use of music and I am proud with what I have done.
These were the images and clips I filmed for my new version of Revenant:
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| This is the photo I used for my double page spread |
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| This one looked scary because of the 'orb' looking mark on the actresses chest, however I thought it could have also looked like a camera fault and therefore not professional. |
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| The actress didn't appear ready for this picture and so I didn't use this |
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| Again, the actress wasn't ready |
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| I tried with just the 'natural' lighting (there is a street light directly above the actress) however, I didn't think this lighting looked right |
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| Here was the 'natural' lighting again, but also the actress wasn't ready therefore I didn't use this photo |
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| This photo is blurry, which is why I didn't use this one |
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| This photo shows the actor's bloody head well, however I felt the blood looked too dark and didn't look like he had recently been killed |
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| I felt this wasn't close up enough and so I didn't use this for my film |
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| I used this photo for my film as this shows the 'blood' looking red and 'fresh', suggesting recent death |
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| This photo has cut off some of the actress' face, therefore I didn't use it |
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| This is the photo I used as it shows all of the actress' face and you can see she has 'died' |
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| This is the photo I used as it shows the 'cut' wrist clearly |
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| I felt this picture looked a little blurry and so I didn't use this within my film |
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| I took this picture to see if it would work for my double page spread as it shows Sandra dead, however I think the cat doesn't work as this character has meant to have just died, and so it doesn't work. If it had been the morning when the avon lady found her it may have worked, but as this is when Sandra has just been killed it doesn't work. |
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| This is the picture I am going to use for my double page spread as it shows Sandra dead and it works for someone who has just died. |
This is my planning of my poster, this was the original picture, however I felt black and white was better than the blue look. I looked at the posters I analysed and copied their layouts to help me with my poster:
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