Filming issue

We were due to start filming on the 29th of December but our cast proved unreliable and non of them were available for service and we were forced to cancel, this made us reconsider casting and in the future there may be some changes in our casting team.
We had a long discussion on our Facebook group chat and a possible new candidate to replace Malachi may be brought in the future, a possible choice is our friend Ton Wentink, he would be a viable candidate due to his long term experience in plays and musicals and physical build which fits in with the role of "Jock"

Incidental sound track ideas

For a slasher genre of film incidental sound tracks and sound effects are crucial for creating atmosphere and tension, so we researched a variety of incidental sound tracks and sound effects that could inspire us for creating our own in the future.

We found some of these clips on;

http://incompetech.com/ (for the incidental music)

http://www.freesound.org/ (for the sfx)

Here is a collection of screen shots from these sites:

We also scoured Youtube in search of music ideas we found a few that inspired us, we specifically enjoyed the work of Kevin Macleod.

 We enjoyed this piece as its fast suspenseful tempo would work in a slasher film, however this too much to be considered a incidental sound track and feels more of a sound track in my opinion.

We liked the way this piece seems to get louder and rise, which would be a very good effect when trying to build suspense, it is also lower register then the first one and would be more suitable for an incidental score.

Finally we also enjoyed this piece, its much more atmospheric than the rest, and its high tones and changing tempo seem good for raising suspense, however In my opinion I feel this piece would suffice better in a supernatural sub genre rather than a slasher.

Typography reasearch

For our film we need a unique typography, that suits our target audience's liking and that is suitable to our genre and Sub genre of film.
So we looked around the internet for titles of horror genre productions and on copyright free sites for suitable styles of text, and we made a mood board with a selection of the best ones.

Script

For a good while now I have been creating many drafts, disputing and constantly changing my mind about the script, but now using Adobe Story a professional and free script making software, I finally made a professional looking film script.

Draft opening

Using the music piece i previously created i then used the agreed Title and made a draft opening for our film, the finished one will be in HD and will have additional effects, I simply put the title and music together on Final Cut Express.

The sound track I created is inspired highly by the original sound track used in the first Halloween film, the build up that appears when the titles start to approach sound somewhat like an approaching train which works well with the theme of our film.

Creating the theme tune

I decided to create a theme tune to accompany the opening title, i used garage band due to its large variety of instruments and because its very simple and easy to use, i used a mix of drums and techno pianos, i used this to make a intense and gothic style tune.

Job setting

After we finished our pre-production planning and as we are the eve of filming, we set ourselves tasks that would be ideal to complete before filming commenced.
We had a team meeting in lesson and assigned ourselves particular roles to complete.

I agreed to be tasked with creating a theme tune for the opening titles of our film.

Charlotte was tasked with researching and deciding a suitable typography.

Katie is to research and find a variety of incidental sound tracks to be put into the film.

Filming schedule

Will be updated to adapt to possible circumstances 

Name Change!

For a while now we have accepted the name "The Conductor" as a temporary name, but after much thought and discussion we have decided to change it to...

Tracks of Damnation

This name still works well with the theme of our film and sounds far more suitable to the genre, and it is far cooler.

Story Board

Recorded questionnaire questions

We read out questions (see in Questionnaire post) to other students regarding our film to find out what sort of target audience our film would appeal to.

land Permission

After doing some research into the land we're filming on I discovered it was property of the local council, so I sent an email to our local representative asking for permission to film on the land

I am currently awaiting a reply.

Costume

Equipped with a decent knowledge of our casts wardrobes we set about sketching what costumes we would want them to wear, afterwards we sent the actors a copy of this and requested they sent a picture of them dressed up.

Costume design for Malachi (Jock)

Malachi dressed in requested costume

Sophie design idea (drama queen)

Sophie in her costume

Joe's costume design (killer)

Joe in his costume (mask is currant being prodcued

Edward's original costume idea, this was scrapped as we believed it was too over the top

Edward in his chosen costume

The new costume is far more modern

Group Discussion

We decided to film us having a group discussion, in which we discussed ideas relating to the story board and its contents and to certain aspects of our film.

Filled in Call sheet

Call sheet (template)

In the future I will post some filled in Call Sheets but for now I have posted a blank template to be filled before going on set, Call Sheets are essential to any professional production and are very helpful when planning a film take before hand to make sure everything is in place.

Audition

We met up with our 3 cast members in order to get an audition from each of them to see if they fit their roles well, in order to express their full potential we let them improvise their roles so it was more natural.

Sophie did a performance based on her role of "drama queen" as you can see she was very convincing in her act, her act was very impressive as she seemed to fall into character almost instantaneously.

Malachi did his audition as "Jock" although he was unsure how to act so I had to stand in as a prop for him to express his anger, we are considering redoing his performance in the future giving him more time to prepare.

And lastly but certainly no least Edward did his "Geek" act, as you can see he fitted comfortably into this role and even managed to create a line which will be added to his performance in the complete production.

Film Mood board

Fake blood special effect

As i previously specified in my post about the age rating, with a 15 age rated film we are allowed to show low levels of gore, so we decided to create and use our own special fake blood, to make the body in our film seem mutilated, we found a easy to follow guide on youtube.

 This guide shall be fairly cheap to follow, how ever it will be fairly messy and will leave the actor its applied on feeling quite sticky, water and equipment to wash it off afterwards should be kept to hand on set.

Tester shot film

In order to present the variety of shots we have chosen to use in our film we took rough footage at our filming location following the narrative of our story yet lacking any form of acceptable dialogue (we spoke complete nonsense) and the editing was very rough but it was only to show we experimented with camera angles and lighting.

Unfortunately our actress was unavailable for this so i volunteered (regrettably) to impersonate her in an atrocious manor, we chose world war one as a topic to discuss to make the conversation seem natural as the script is a currant work in process.
Also the clip may seem too short to accurately represent our actual film, that is because we did not film all our ideal shots or narrative.    

Practicing with Premiere Pro (Paladin)

In order to familiarise ourselves with a variation of film editing software we used a different software (other than Final Cut Express), we were supplied with a selection of clips and sound effects that we had to cut, position and add in sound effects to create a film sequence.

Bruise effect

After doing some research my team mate discovered a simple effective make-up idea that can simulate a bruise.

Being in-charge of make-up and body effects my team mate experimented with this effect on a willing volunteer, the result being an easy very convincing bruise.

She used this equipment to make this effect.

Afterwards going above and beyond the call of duty she added the previously added fake blood effect and I think its quite realistic and compelling.

Risk assessment

Even the smallest of things have risks, our film opening is no exception, so we identified these risks in order to counter them, and in a professional manor we created a risk assessment.

It is a work in progress but it shall be updated in the future after a more thorough look into the location.

Communication

In order to plan out and manage our time well and also to have a place where we could share our thoughts and feelings in relation to the film we set up a Facebook group chat featuring myself and my 2 colleagues.

Screen shot curtsey of Katie Wright 

This chat is very convenient to access and all members are well informed when a query is received therefore any last moment changes and ideas can shared throughout the group.
Facebook also has a image share option, and is great for sharing links to the other participants making it a very practical and easy to use tool.

We use the student program Its Leaning for exchanging files (such as text documents and images), it is a simple emailing site, which also helps when communicating with staff members, and more importantly accessing help files.

In terms of physical communication, we often meet during school breaks to discuss ideas and progress, but conveniently me and my colleagues are good friends and are in each others presence on a fairly regular basis and we always make sure everyone's opinions are voiced before we engage in any film related activity.  

Target Audience group questionnaire

We have previously established that the official age rating of our film is 15, so based on this our target audience should range from 15 - 18 year old, to find out what certain set of people would enjoy our film specifically (E.g. gender, interests) I have created a questionnaire in order to receive the required information, I shall read it to a chosen person whom after being explained the idea of our film shall have their response recorded.

1. Do you think that the narrative is something along the lines of what you would conventionally expect from a horror or a Slasher film?

2. Would this film appeal to the target audience?

3. Please explain your answer.

4. In a horror film, what aspects are important to an opening?

5. After watching the opening to this film would it convince you to continue watching the rest of the film?

6. Would you want to see lots of gore and violence in this film?

7. What elements would you like to see in a Horror/ Slasher film opening?

8. Do you have any suggestions of things to include in our Slasher film opening?

9. Are there any elements of our film opening that you feel we should not include?

10. Whom would you recommend this film to?

11. Why?

After the results of this questionnaire are collected I will make a judgement based on people's answers to choose a specific target audience in the not so distant future.

Age Certification of our film

After researching into the BBFC official guidelines regarding age I have come to the conclusion that the suitable age rating for our film is

After careful assessment it is clear that the specifications of a 15 rated film match that of out film, I will only post the specifications that relate to my film.

The official BBFC site says this in regards to language:

"There could potentially be a great deal. At 15 there is no upper limit on the number of uses of strong language (e.g. ‘f***’).

Occasionally there may be uses of the strongest terms (e.g. 'c***'), depending on the manner in which they are used, who is using the language, its frequency and any special contextual justification. However, continued or aggressive use will not normally be passed 15".

This works well with our film as we wish to include some obscene language in order to make the situation more realistic, as in stressful situations people tend to depend of vulgar language.

For violent scenes the BBFC website states this:

"Yes, at 15 violence may be strong. It should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury, however, and the strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable.
Strong sadistic violence is also unlikely to be acceptable".
This sums up our film pretty well, there should be brief moments of violence and only a short viewing of gore.

There is also a specification which explains the 15 rated specification on horrror:
"At 15 there can be strong threat and horror as long as there is no sustained focus on sadistic or sexualised threat".
Our film contains no form of sadistic or sexual threats (much to our relief), but the general threat in our horror is undeniably strong.

Also there is a part dedicated to the films influence on teens and what they can imitate from it:
"We consider the risk of potential harm to impressionable teenagers. For example, dangerous behaviour such as hanging, suicide and self-harming should not dwell on detail which could be copied.
Whether the depiction of easily accessible weapons is acceptable will depend on factors such as realism, context and setting".
The film features the use of weapons but not directly being used by the teenagers, there is no form of suicide or self harm, or anything that can give teens the impression to do so.

All information has been supplied from the official BBFC website for more information regarding it follow this link http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/15 
  

Cast

Name - Malachi Dempsey-Clark

Role - "jock"

Background information - Malachi has the least experience out of the cast, but is playing a jock, which means little emotion needs to be shown, we chose him as jock due to his physic, although Malachi played a key role in my preliminary film and is reliable, and very eager and optimistic to work with.

Name - Edward Morgan

Role -"Geek"

Background information - Edward has performed man key roles in school musicals and is dedicated to his roles, also he lives close to the filming location and can be relied upon to arrive on time.
Currently working on his Drama A levels he is a very keen actor and often offers useful input and new ideas.

Name - Sophie Paul

Role - "Drama queen"

Background information - Sophie has starred in many out of school performances, and has played roles similar to the one we set her therefore will be able to play her role to a adequate standard, she is very open minded to new ideas and is very passionate about acting, also lives in the close vicinity to the shooting location and will be very reliable to get hold of.

Name - Joe James

Role - Killer

Background information - Joe has acted as the antagonist in other performances and changes his mindset the act out the role very well, also his tall and slender figure is perfect size to make an intimidating fearful killer.
Joe takes pride in the roles he plays and can be relied upon to arrive on set without delay and with an enthusiastic working attitude.

Lighting

We are planning to film in 2 locations in the same area, this is useful as the natural lighting will be at a similar level in both places.

Key :
Red - Path of characters 
Yellow - possible shooting spots
Blue - good level lighting 
Pink - low level lighting 

This plan shows the places where lighting equipment may be required, in the tunnel part of the filming area, perhaps in the last 2 filming locations on the trail, lighting would have to be quite primitive due to the lack of power supply and inconvenient terrain, primitive being a widespread torch without a direct obvious beam.

Dialogue ideas

As I was put in charge of writing the script I thought it sensible to write a post on possible ideas and themes the script shall hold.

The dialogue of the characters should reflect the stereotypical roles we chose.
For example for the "geek" character will speak in a intellectual somewhat condescending tone, perhaps his tone will be fairly quiet and timid, although the personality for this character will be more emphasised by his Mise En Scene.

By far the most over ruling speaker will be the "drama queen" her dialogue will be melodramatic and loud, her actions will be light hearted and will constantly be seeking attention whilst acting somewhat aloof to the reaction of others.

The jock's dialogue will make him come across as rather arrogant, using harsh words and harsh terms, attempting to make him look more masculine in the face of danger, perhaps to mask his fear.
His dialogue will have to juxtapose that of the Geek, as they are sworn opposites and this should be emphasised.

A smart idea i thought could be to have the characters on their mobile phones for the majority of the scene, as it is a proven modern stereotype that teens spend far too long on their phones and this can be exploited, for a mocking effect against the teens and makes them seem ignorant to the present situation.
 

Set Roles

Alfie -

- Script writing
- Location permission

Charlotte -

- Risk assessment
- Target group/research
- Classification

Katie -

- Special effects
- Makeup

Shared group efforts -

-Storyboard
- Casting videos
- Test footage
- Call sheet
- Communication

Props

(will be replace with actual image of the object soon!)

We are using a short 1 handed hatchet to be used as the weapon choice of the killer, an axe is a short, brutal weapon and is often associated with a slow gory death in slasher films, also the shape of the axe is very distinctive and easily recognised, the weapon is a representation of violent murder and vicious intent

Cost - N/A (already have an axe in my possession)

(will provide actual picture ASAP)

The train whistle will be worn around the killers neck as a iconic feature, it will also be used to create a non diagetic sound effect even before the killer appears.

It is a vintage style whistle and is a representation of the classic style and archaic ways of the antagonist.

Cost- N/A already owned

What could go wrong?

Organisation 

-The film set we chose may be privately owned.
-Equipment may be misplace on set after filming.
-Rented equipment may be lost which would result in fines.
-We may not meet our filming schedule and may return to school with a lack of footage.
-Actors or crew members may be absent at the last moment.
-unexpected weather could cause numerous problems on set.

Communication 

-My instructions may not be clear enough to understand.
-Me and other students may not contribute ideas to the rest of the group.
-Often with things like this, it is easy to loose patience with members.
-May be difficult to contact crew/cast members via mobile phone at essential moments.
-Unannounced changes can cause issues for members.
-Basic human needs such as rest/hunger may not be met resulting in a sap of mood.
-A lack of communication with teaching staff.

Technical Issues

-Equipment may not be charged and could die on set.
-A lack of knowledge about equipment may result in poor footage.
-Equipment may be put in the right settings.
-the lighting or sound quality may not be to a sufficient standard.
-an unstable landscape or wind may cause the camera to shake .
-Health and safety issues may not be understood by the equipment user.
-Attempting to force appliances into the camera could result in damage.

Group work issues

-Individuals negligence effecting the entire group effort.
-mixed opinions may lead to division in the group.
-distribution of jobs may be biased against some.
-lack of listening skills.
-The group being unwilling to compromise.
-Procrastination.
-Lack of support in the group.
-Being insensitive /rude to members of the group.
-allowing personal problems to effect filming.

Treatment

Our opening will be based around the stereotypically used idea in slasher films, that is a group of young people enter an ominous location (old train tunnel in this case) and they encounter something out of the ordinary (train whistle) and one member (in this case the "jock") goes of in search of the source, and the others later discover his body and also encounter the killer and it turns into a pursuit in which they all inevitably perish as well.

This should make the audience feel terror, terror at the horror faced by the characters and terror for the scenario, the killer's Mise En Scene will also cause terror to the audience as he will look intimidating and merciless (will go into greater detail on prop post).
The opening will also make the audience feel empathy, empathy for the hopelessness of the situation and sorrow for the unfortunate events occurring to these young people.

The narrative will have to sound natural, as if it was an ordinary conversation between three young people, this can range from talking about celebrities, news of the time and currant life events, while taking into account that some things may seem offensive to certain audiences.
The narrative could also be related to anecdotes from the characters, something that gives the audience an idea about their personalities, maybe even to give the audience an emotional attachment to the character that further increases their shock when they are murdered.
The dialogue will always be diagetic as the camera will track the characters.

We will be featuring 4 characters, a group of 3 young teenagers comprising of the stereotypical casting in a slasher film; a jock (a physically fit sporty man, over confident and often arrogant), a "geek" (a skinny physically weak, intellectual character, who would be the first to suspect danger and will be over analytical of the situation much to the annoyance of the jock) and lastly the "Drama queen" (a young girl who often exaggerates the situation and is the most potent to being easily scared, will scream often and will rely on the prowess of others for protection).
And of course the killer, the entire film will revolve around this character so it would be wise not to release too much information about him in the opening and to leave the audience in suspense to his identity as is commonly done in Slasher films.
The killers role will be to create the feeling of threat for the audience and move the plot forward, the killer will the be main variable that keeps the film going.

The film is set firstly in a open country field environment, in which we will do an establishing shot of the area, and introduce the characters, and then for a certain circumstance they are forcing to walk down a dark, long, over grown train tunnel (pictured in location post).

The lighting of the scene will have to be dimmed at certain points during filming, and a filter may be used to dim the scene in order to create a gloomy atmosphere, despite the colourful Mise En Scene of the characters, they should appear more grey and hopeless to create tension.

We want to use the camera to emphasise the panic of the event, as the plot escalates the camera angles will change more quickly, this is to exaggerate the panic and confusion and increase tension for the audience, this also highlights the emotions shown by the actors.

Editing will be used to combine all the different camera angle shots into one sequence that will seem very fast pace and to give the audience a better view of the Mise En Scene of the surroundings and scenery, for this Shot Reverse Shot will be crucial to set the scene and add the feeling of panic, along with an added incidental non diagetic sound track.

Location overview

For our chosen shooting location we chose an abandoned train track located in Chacombe a quiet and rural village, which will perfect as cars rarely pass by and there is little chance people will pass by causing interference during filming.

The filming location is located in the centre of the picture

  we took images of the location and possible shots, the area is fairly bright and may need a filter to darken the area to make it appear more ominous.

In order to test these shots we took small clips of possible takes in order to test how it looked on camera.
we firstly took a clip of the characters walking down a path, but the camera was inside a hedge to achieve the effect that somebody was watching them through a hedge, the shot was taken at a low angle and panned left to follow the characters.

Afterwards we took a shot from a low angle at the bottom of a slope, it panned to the right to follow the characters as they walk down the slope.

Film Pitch

Film opening - Initial ideas

Slasher mood board

Genre analysis - Jeepers Creepers

Film name - Jeepers Creepers

Age certificate - 15

Production studio - United Artists

Distribution company - Capitol Films, United Artists

Director - Victor Salva

Box office takings - $513,292

This opening started like the majority of Slasher films, with 2 young people unaware of the horror that they about the face, in this case the brother and sister are casually driving down an empty road, the emptiness and tranquillity of the scene would leave the audience uncomfortable as they would be aware of the events that may occur in this genre of film, the 2 are shown from a close up eye level view from the driver side of the car, in order to easily present the 2 characters in dialogue.

Things start to escalate when the protagonists notice something that they should not have, in this case a figure disposing of a body, shown from a extreme long shot panning from the left to make the impression the car is passing, the dialogue of the protagonists shows their realisation and panic as the scene begins to escalate, an incidental non diagetic classic slasher screeching sound track is played to raise suspense.

an extreme long shot of the killer panning to the right of him is shown, but the angle of the killer does not change as it rotates, this shows that he is staring directly at the protagonists and therefore straight at the audience, the Mis En Scene of the killer is rugged dark scarecrow style clothing which reveals no form of expression or emotion, which makes the killer seem dark and heartless to the audience, the van he is stood next to is a classic style van which is rusted all over and dark, this looks like some form of stereotypical murder vehicle, the brother and sister's Mis En Scene is that of a modern look, the girl wearing a modern sleeveless top, the boy in a t-shirt, the way they behave is stereotype of siblings which is bickering, even in the sight of the danger.

The mobile phone fails to work, technology failing to work or any device that could assist the victims is a common effect used in a Slasher film, often in a time of crisis where it would be desperately needed, this leaves a feeling of hopelessness to the audience.

The view switches to an extreme long shot of the van starting to pull out, at this point it is clear that there is danger present and a form of chase is imminent, along with the escalated incidental sound track this creates a great feeling of suspense for the audience.

The camera angle switches to a low angle stationary camera which shows the protagonist's car starting to travel at great speed, then to a similar angle but instead of the killer's car, this is to emphasise the idea that the killer is starting to gain and increases the suspense, which is a tool used in Slashers but more often on foot rather then a vehicle chase.

A front angle, eye level close up of the driver is shown as he grabs the wheel in assurance with a great level of fear in his eyes, this is to try and express the pressure put on the driver at this moment, and also show the killer starting to catch up.