The photoshoot

Today we carried out the photoshoot with Jozefina for our poster. Below are some of the images that we took, including the potential images that I will be using for the actual poster.

Test shots - magazine front cover

Here are some images from today's photoshoot, Asha did my makeup which she will be doing again on Monday. The look that Asha has been trying to go for is from one of Empire magazine's addition featuring Daniel Radcliffe.

Poster update and general update

The following screen shots show what I have done today to improve the poster.

General update:

Tomorrow there will be a photoshoot carried out with our actress Jozefina (playing Annabelle) for the poster's image. 

The equipment and props that I will need are for the photoshoot will be;

• Makeup - to create Annabelle's mise-en-scene
• Annabelle's costume 
• A black back drop 

I will also need help from Asha and Beth, as their hand's will be in the shot, wrapped around Jozefina's face. To create this shot successfully, It will need to be a extreme close up, focused on Jozefina's eyes as this will create an eye catching image for the audience. In addition, Asha and Beth's hands will need some fake blood on it so it creates the illusion of how they are chained to Jozefina. 

Update - The magazine front cover

Our group memeber, Asha, has been in charge of the magazine's front cover. Below is a flat plan she's created for the magazine, which features the "final girl" Sammi, who I have played as for our trailer.

Flat plan that Asha has created

The magazine's front cover will also feature horror films that are coming out this year such as "The Purge 2" and "Devil's Due" which Asha has done research into. We well also an mid-shot image of myself, and have scheduled to take test shots on Friday, and take the actual images that Asha will be using on Monday 3rd February.

General update: Photoshoot schedules and key dates

31/01/14 - photoshoot with Jozefina in the studio (12.20-1.10PM) 

31/01/14 - test shots for magazine front cover with myself, Asha, Beth and Ellesha in the studio (11.20-12PM)

3/02/14 - photoshoot for the magazine front cover with myself, Asha, Beth and Ellesha in the studio (8.55-95AM)
7/02/14 - All productions should be completed, including trailer, magazine front cover and poster

Our group is now working towards the final week of production and so far everything is going according to our scheduled. Next week I will be editing the poster and then move on helping the other group member's with their productions. 

The trailer - having a go at editing

My group member Beth is doing most of the editing, but today I decided to have a go, and did the following to help her as our production deadline is soon approaching on the 7th February.

Poster production - the basics

Today I started off by looking through the different fonts that were available on Photoshop, which I could use. The chose font that I decided to go for is called "Perpetua Tiltling MT" which looks like this:

I decided to chose this font as I looked back at my poster research and saw that most fonts were plain and simple, which creates the main focus to be on the image. 

I thought it would be a good idea to get all the layers needed inserted on to the poster so that it is ready before the photoshoot with Jozafina. This would also make the production of the poster easier as I would just have to insert the poster's picture in later and change the colour of the text to adapt it with the colours on the image, as well as make sure that it is visible for the audience. To help me with the layout of were the to position some of the text, I used another horror poster for guidance.

This is where I am up to now with the poster. I have inserted all the different layers that are the conventions, and have booked the studio for this Friday lunchtime to carry out a photoshoot with Jozefina. 

Looking for fonts

Today I spent some time looking for potential fonts that we could use in our magazine and poster. I went on to a website called "dafonts.com" to search for horror related font types. I used the different categories to refine my search for the types of fonts I was looking for.

By carrying out this research I found the following fonts that we could use for the title of our films name, to put on the poster and magazine.

Poster flat plan

This is a poster that I found from a TV show I watch called “The Following”. Although it’s not directly horror, and is based on how a psychotic serial killer communicate with other active serial killers, I found the concept of this poster effective. The close up image of the psychotic killer is the main focus of this poster and shows how he is in contract with the other active serial killers as they have their hands covering parts of his face. This concept shows the meaning behind the programs title “The following” , as it illustrates the psychotic killer following, and contacting other serial killers, or in the meaning of the serial killers becoming attached to the psychotic killer. 

  Below is a flat plan designed with reference to The Following's poster. This is just a rough idea of what the poster will look like as the image will have color and from this the text color and fonts will change too. I have also used elements from my horror poster research which is added into my flat plan, such as the layout, and where the film's title usually is positioned.

Flat plan design that I drew

This

Producers of our film: Chained Souls

The final decision we came to as a group on the producers of our film are to choose 2, Vertigo Entertainment and Working Title Films.

Reasons for our decision:
Vertigo Entertainment - We chose to use this producer as we have used some of the horror films that are produced by them as inspiration for our film, such as The Woman In Black. Also, this producer creates similar sub-genre films of supernatural and is heavily ghost related (E.g. Dark water, The Grudge) which is similar to our film.

Working Title Films - This is a British film production company, and since our film is based, filmed and produced in the UK we felt it would only be appropriate to also have a British production company. After carrying out some research into other British film production company found out that Working Title Films is the main British producers and have decision to use them.

Poster research

Props, costume and equipment

Prop list:
A necklace - That Sammi wears to complete her mise-en-scene
Diary - Which Annabelle use to write in
Doll - Which use to be Annabelle's favorite childhood toy
Candles - for scene's we're done with Sammi reading the diary

What filming have I done?

We have finally finished filming and are moving into editing and the production side of our project. Beth and Ellesha will be editing the tralier whilst myself and Asha will be working on the magazine front cover and poster.

Here is a collage of shot that I have filmed during the past week which ranges from close up of a doll that Annabelle use to play with to Regina's (Asha) death scene.

General update

For the rest of this week we have decided to split the team up into 2. Beth and Ellesha will be working on editing of the trailer as Beth's strength within our group is using Premiere Pro and Ellesha's is with Apple software garageband where some of our music and sound effects will be edited. 

We are now working towards Friday 24th's deadline of creating a rough cut of our trailer which is set by our media teacher and on the day will be getting back valuable feedback to improve shots and edits that we are planning to use. 

Myself and Asha are starting on the poster and magazine front cover as our strengths are using Adobe Photoshop. Asha has made a flat plan of the basic structuring of our poster as shown on the right which we will be using as a guidance to place our main image and text. 

Before we could get started on the design of our poster and magazine front cover we had to decide on the name of our film and the iconic text font that we will be using, so that we can keep consistence between all 3 products. Working towards, myself and Asha started brainstorming relative words that came into mind whilst reading through our narrative. 

We used an online thesaurus to help us think of other relative words that linked with possession. We also looked at existing horror film names to gain some inspiration from as we feel that a good horror name plays a part in the marketing and campaigning to create its brand. 

 

Current horror movie names

After carrying out this research, we came up with 7 potential names which were:  

"Disturped soul"   "Chained souls"   "Where evil lives"   "Dead spirits"   "Dark possession"   "Demented soul"  "Eternal darkness" 

We did a group vote of picking 3 names that we most favored each which narrowed it down to 2 names:

"Chained souls" and "Eternal darkness" 

We finally decided on one which is: "Chained souls", we will also we carrying our further audience research and aiming to find out what our target audience of 17-25 year old's think of this film name.  

Creating a scene from The Woman in Black

Filming Regina's death scene

Our group member and actress Asha (playing Regina's role)

We decided that Regina's death scene would be on staircases leading up to an attic. For this, we found our location in the drama studio, where we were able to play with the lighting too to create a spooky, and scary look.

This shot was successful as we were able to take a high angle shot of Asha walking up the stairs too, which in editing we can cut in between to create a voyeuristic look.

Difficulties we faced:
Difficulties we faced whilst filming this shot was getting the lighting bright enough so that you could see Asha's face. To over come this we used the flash lights on my phone and kept one of the studio lights on to create a glowing atmosphere. Although we were filming after school, the camera was still picked up diegetic sounds caused by others outside and around, and so this was a challenge we faced too. Although, during editing we will have sounds playing in the background which will hopefully dilute the outside noise.

The teachers voice over

Here is the teacher voice over that we recorded yesterday, and will be using in our trailer when we start editing.

Edit decision list

Here is a copy of the clips that we are planning to use during editing. It shows the counter number of the clips so we are able to find them easily when we import them on to Premier Pro, but also a description of the shot and the type of edit that we may potential be doing to it.  

This sheet will be very helpful for our group editor Beth, as it will be easy to identify clips to edit together. I also found this helpful as it gives me an idea of what sort of usable footage we have. Overall, this part of planning for our trailer is useful as it narrows down the exact clips we will be using, as well as helps us to start thinking about the different edits that we will be applying and using. 

One member short!

As part of being in a production team, a challenge that we are currently facing is being one member short. Our group member Asha has been off sick for the last two days, which has resulted us in falling behind on some aspects. From this we have learnt that communication is important when working as a team, as we becoming depend on each other and sharing out responsibilities which need to be fulfilled by deadlines in order to meet required deadlines set by our teachers!
 

Filming a running scene

Wrapped up for filming in the cold and wet weather outside

In relation to our new narrative, we decided to take a shot of where Sammi (played by me) escapes and is running away from the house. Since we wanted to create a perfect the best possible mise-en-scene for this shot, we took it on a rainy day to add to the melancholy but threatening atmosphere.

Problems we faced: 
Obviously the main problem we faced was keeping the camera safe in the rainy conditions!

Running scene

This was challenge, although we did have an umbrella to keep it safe.

Another problem that we face was getting the framing right. Since we didn't actually film the "escape" scene from the house, just the scene with Sammi running, we decided to take the shot in the school field, which gave us the empty and deserted look but it was difficult avoiding the buildings in the background. As you can see from the picture on the right, the houses in background are viable.

Voice over and script - Annabelle

Script

The main narration of our trailer will be done through a voice over, that we got one of our friends to do as she has a quiet soft voice, and fits in with the character of Annabelle.We used the the software called GarageBand to record her voice.



We asked our friend (Harpreet) to repeat some of the sentences more than once so that we have a range of voice overs which we can use. When it comes to the stage of editing, we will be able to crop out the exact voice over that we want to use and insert in with footage.

Filming Laura's death scene

Laura's death scene consists of her being dragged by the spirits of Annabelle. We filmed this shot in the studio as we were able able to hide Asha (one of my group member) who was actually pulling Laura (Beth) behind a black back drop.

For this scene Ellesha did the makeup for Laura's look. As you can see, we  tried to make the actress (Beth) look like she had been crying a lot, and to make her seem drained and restless. In the background of the picture, you can see the black back drop which is where Asha hid behind to pull Beth's legs to create the dragging scene.

Was this shot successful?
After 4 takes of this shot we found that it was successful, but after watching it back on the computer we saw that there was a problem with the mise-en-scene. In the framing of the shot, towards the end where Beth is entirely engulfed into the darkness, we were able to see the the side poles of the stand which keeps the backdrop up. In result of this we may have to retake this shot, or during editing, make it fade into another shot.

Recording a voice over

Today we recorded a voice over that we will be using in our trailer. We decided to use a voice over in our trailer as it will provide the audience with some sort of content as to why these three girls are visiting a hunted house but also is a key element of our narrative. The voice over was done by a teacher and we provided her with a script as shown on the left hand side of the picture below. Using the software GarageBand to record it, it then allowed us to change some features, such as making the voice deeper, or speeding it up.

Shots we're not using

During filming, we aimed to find 3 different people to take an interview of, similar to the Blair Witch Project trailer, and gave them the dialogue of saying:
"I would never visit that house, its been on the news that you shouldn't!"
"I've heard that, once you go in, you never come out" 
"I don't even want to talk about the story of Annabelle and that house"  

After filming one person, we added it into the start of of tralier which Beth had started on, and we asked for feedback from our teacher. She said that it didn't work well it was handheld and camera wasn't stable. We thought of filming it again, but then realised that it didn't add a lot the narrative of our trailer, and so we decided to take this concept out.

shots of an interview

shots of an interview

Behind the scenes

 

Non-diegetic sound effect - breaking bones

We recording this sound effect that was created through squashing a water bottle, and will be played in Regina's (Asha) death scene. In editing we will need to change the speed of the sounds, and add effects to it so that it sounds more realistic.

Creating Annabelle's look

Towards the climax of our trailer, Annabelle makes an appearing behind Sammi as she is reading from the diary that she has found and blows out the candle light in her hand. A good friend of ours, Jozifina, fit into the charateristics we wanted Anabelle to have and therefore was able to play this role.

Our group member Asha searched into makeup tutorial's and images to create Annabelle's mise-en-scene and group member Beth brought in the makeup that was needed to successfully create Annabelle's ghostly look.

Our actress Jozifina and Asha doing the makeup

Jozifina's final makeup

Test shot - Necklace scene

Myself and Beth carried out a test shot of the necklace scene that my character plays in. This scene involves the necklace that I am wearing, lifting up and moving on its own.

Creating a non-diegetic sound effect

For one of the death scenes in our trailer will be of Regina becoming slightly possessed by Annabelle's spirit resulting in her neck breaking. To create this sound effect, we carried out online research and found this video.Will be using it as guidance by recording the sound and editing it in with Regina's scene without actually breaking any bones.

Update on our narrative

Today we rewrote our narrative with the changes we wanted to make and corrected anything we didn't want to include. 

The narrative of our film features a young girl named Annabelle, aged 15, who lived with her mother, father and younger brother. She loved to write, especially poems. Every day she would write in her diary; a new poem and a chapter about her day concerning her emotions and feelings especially about how she was tormented and labelled about having mental health issues as she would hear voices and see ghosts. She believed that she was being haunted by a ghost who she named ‘Guinevere’ (around the age of 5, but no one knows except herself) or otherwise known as ‘The ghost that lives at ‘134 Queens Road’, who manipulated and antagonized her constantly because all she wanted was someone to play with her and love her, like her mother never did. This eventually made Annabelle commit suicide; from a drug overdose, due to the constant hassle of people calling her ‘crazy’ and the continuous terrorizing from Guinevere. All she wanted was to be left alone. Guinevere was finally at peace when Annabelle died, as she finally got the friend she always wanted, now that Annabelle is in a spirit form.

When Annabelle died, all she left was her diary, and the mystery of her death unsolved. 17 years later, a group of friends are put together to research about something interesting within their locate area for a school project. Searching online they tremble up across an old article which tells them about a young girl called Annabelle committing suicide in this house. The group of friends consist of an innocent, studious and intelligent girl called Sammi (aged17) a provoking, attention seeking and promiscuous girl named Regina (aged 17) and an clumsy, foolish girl called Laura (aged 17). In search of this house, they ask a few people around the locate area if they have heard anything about 134 Queens Road and the story of Annabelle. They all receive negative feedback and are warned not to go there as the house is haunted by the deadly spirits of Annabelle. But without a doubt Regina insists on making a visit to the house as she finds this mystery of Annabelle intriguing and is determined to find out more for the school project set. On the other hand, Sammi disagrees completely and is constantly reminding Regina of what could potentially go wrong. On the 6th of March, around 5PM they make their visit down to the house, (having trouble finding it at first) they finally reach the old wooden gates. First in, Regina finds a back door which leads them in to the abandoned house, followed by Laura and lastly Sammi.

As they start to explore the old and dusty house, Sammi realise that something's completely wrong and tells the others to leave now. Now coming up to 6.30PM; after Regina's satisfaction of staying in the house and messing around they decide to leave, but Regina see’s a door leading to the attic of the house with she insists on exploring. She makes her way up stairs, and suddenly the door slams shut. The spirit of Annabelle kills her and the other two friends panic and run, reaching out for the front door, they hear it lock itself and jumped, left in complete silence.

Only accompanied by the spirits of Annabelle, things start to go bad really quickly. Sammi tells Laura to stay together but she disagrees and tries to find a way out. Second death happens to Laura as she gets engulfed into the darkness, and dragged to hell. Left alone in the haunted house, Sammi finds ways to escape but fails. She finds a dairy that Annabelle use to write along with her childhood toys, and discovers the truth behind it all. Speaking back to the spirit, she is tormented for a days until finds a way out and escapes from the house. The spirit of Annabelle is at peace through the killing of Regina and Laura, but this goes down as an unsolved mystery. The haunted house still waits for its next arrival, this time spirits of Regina and Laura will be after you. 

Cast profiles

We have decided to use our group members including myself to play the 3 different archetypes. Listed be are profiles of each character and who will be acting it. 

                                             The whore – Regina Parker

Our group member Asha was willing to play the archetype of the whore. In the narrative her name will be Regina Parker as we feel that this name suits her archetype best. Asha fits this character well as she has blonde looking hair, which is similar to what this archetype would normally have.

In addition to create her character mise-en-scene wise and build up the character profile of Regina Parker we decided that she would wear a vest top with jeggins (tight denim material type leggings. For her makeup we decided red lipstick and eye makeup of mascara would suit the character we were trying to create. 

The fool – Laura Hampton 

This is Beth, one of our group members, who is willing to play the archetype of the fool. Her name in our narrative is Laura Hampton and her characteristic consist of being slightly silly and stupid, always confused about things that are said to her or simple questions that are asked. 

To create her mise-en-scene, we have decided that she would wear a laced looking blue top with casual jeans. This builds up Laura’s character as she like to follow ‘tends’ set by Regina, but ends up looking stupid herself. The archetype of the fool is usually played by a male, but we have subverted this convention as we thought that horror supernatural movies lack the female characters that are in between the whore and virgin. Also, to fit in with our new narrative, a group of females with completely different personalities entering and exploring this house makes them seem more venerable. 

                                        The virgin – Sammi Marsh 

The archetype of the virgin will be played by me. In the narrative her name will be Sammi Marsh, we thought it was important to not name the virgin a really girly name, as usually their names are unisex and quite masculine. Sammi’s characteristics consist of being studious, smart and overall being the “virgin” referring to the inexperienced in any form of sexual actively. 

 To create Sammi’s character we decided that she would wear a white dress symbolising her purity as a virgin and innocence. In addition, to make her seem and look more loving and caring, we chose to have a flower headband as part of her look as it reflects on her kind nature. Although this could be argued as subversion as the mise-en-scene of a virgin in horrors can be seen to be quite simple. E.g. Laurie from Halloween (1978) wears a shirts and jeans throughout the film.