Shooting - Overview

5^th February 2011: Shooting went fairly well (better in some areas) because inside the bungalow it was too dark and so made the footage very grainy when I came to editing it. The outside of the bungalow as a whole was good, but I found when editing that the cast seemed to not have a pause between their lines and so their dialogue overlapped each shot.

Before we started filming, Nathan and Eve wanted half an hour just to run through the script to make sure that they could 'get into character'.

12^th February 2011: I decided to re-film some of the footage (mainly inside and Grandma’s dialogue) because of the lighting. I managed to gain quite a few extra torches in order to brighten up the set; in order for the camera to pick up as much light as possible and still gain a intense mood.

To make the fake blood, I mixed golden syrup with a lot of red food colouring over a warm hob.

In order to have the camera facing directly down towards the board, I taped the tripod horizontally onto a stool.

Film Opening Draft

This is my draft for my film opening. However, I have not included the institution logo or sound effects (such as the door creaking shut) because some of the footage I was not happy about because the lighting wasn’t bright enough. Also, the section where grandma talks to the children was not included because the wind overpowered the words and shook the camera. I therefore am going to re-shoot most of the footage as soon as possible so that a second draft can be produced – and can be improved accordingly. The inside of the bungalow scene will be much longer because I am going to include shots of the interior of the bungalow – showing tools to make the mood more tense.

Mise en Scene - Costumes

Cinematography Research – Shadows

One of the techniques that I particularly want to achieve in my film opening is the use of the characters’ shadows in order to let the audience’s imagination tell them what is happening instead of actually having a visual of the situation. This effect will also be enhanced by the sound effects used and so I will need to think carefully about the music/sound aspect of the scene as well.

As research, I looked at the beginning of the film Van Helsing (2004) and when the vampire kills Dr. Frankenstein, their shadow is shown instead of themselves:

This adds drama to the scene and so I hope to use this technique when the witch kills the male persona ‘Dan’.

Feedback - Script/Call Sheet

Mr Ford and myself have discussed the script and some of the aspects I have thought over in order for the audience to understand as much of the opening as they can. This is my improved script and I am going to use it when filming on Saturday:

This is also a call sheet that I have produced (using the Star Wars Call Sheet as a guide). It just includes all of the necessary requirements that I will need on set and I can use it as a checklist when gathering what I need:

Developed Ideas/Script Development

After looking at the Supernatural Episode, I have written a draft of the script. I have changed my initial idea because I have decided to have the two main personas do a voice-over at the very beginning (so that you don’t see them until the bungalow is shown). This will hopefully create the feeling that they are lost because the audience will be expecting something negative to happen.

Supernatural - Dialogue Research/Mise en Scene

I thought that it would be useful research if I looked into the scene in the TV series Supernatural when a couple get lured into a house by a ‘harmless old lady’ and are killed by her. Before writing and creating a script for my cast members, I wanted to look at a similar scene in order to pick out the dialogue that specifically the grandma says in order to lure them in and make it more realistic for the audience:

The overall scene is clever because the audience can get a good representation of the characters before they even step into the house because of the mise en scene. For example, the grandma looks very feeble to the couple and that is why Ken says that she is a ‘harmless old lady’. I think that the colours of her clothing also have an impact on the general mood of the scene because she is wearing neutral colours (such as cream and pale green). This stereotypes her as being the typical kind grandma figure that we as an audience like to see in a film; purely because the audience knows that she is not what she seems.
    Also, the ‘Hansel and Gretel’ victims are shown as a stereotypical couple because they are always arguing and the female always blames the male for them becoming lost. This shows that the male persona has tried to become more dominant (by leading the couple) but has managed to get them lost and has failed. The clothes that they are wearing are casual and calms the tension that should be created by the scene. However, I think that the director has purposely done this in order for the scene to appear to be an ordinary meeting between them that turns nasty.