Inspiration for Locations

The cabin in 1981's "Evil Dead" was inspirational for other horror films like the recent "Cabin in the Woods" This was the original cabin, which was in the woods, and the entire film was inside this cabin, and we took inspiration from this by keeping the main parts of our scene by keeping them inside a cabin, and only seeing the outside in the later part of the opening scene towards the end, and just like Evil Dead, it was shot in two different locations, as Evil Dead manipulated audiences into thinking the cabin they used in the woods was the same cabin they used to film inside, which it actually wasn't, and we have done the same with the cabin being o where near the field that we used for the killer to run after the victim. The reason that we chose a small place like a cabin was because it would make sense for the killer's hideout to have some history with their family, just like Evil Dead where the owner was the owner of the book that could raise the dead, and their is unknown history with our killer and the lair that she tortures her victims in, which would of course be explained if this was actually a full film with an entire cast.
"The cabin burned down in 1982. All that remains is part of the fireplace, pieces of the tin roof and some of the foundation."

Transitions in our Student Made Opening Scene

In the post-production task of our student made production, the four of us worked together and took different tasks to get our production finished with all of our opinions on how it could be better in the mix. My task was transitions, and I think this task was an important one because it makes us feel like the character, especially in Point of View shots such as the opening one, where the lights flicker on, and the victim slowly opens her eyes. A blur fits well with her confusion to where she is, and how she has a concussion due to the head injury she sustained to get into that situation. There are many transitions to choose from, and we made sure that we put the right ones in, and at the right times. The logo for transitions are two triangles, parallel to each other with the tip of each on the right and left. They look grey too, and can be easy to differentiate from text, footage and sound. Transitions are put between the clips, and can be extended and shortened which includes the speed of the transition, making it happen faster or slower, and can help change a scene, which has been done in films with the famous "Lucas Wipe", commonly used to change scene in Star Wars.
 This is a screenshot of what all the transitions are, and what we used mostly was blurs and cross dissolves, but there are many more to choose from so we had to find the right ones.











 This is an example of the transitions, as the screen is noticeably blurry as it focuses on the victim's point of view for a POV shot as she just wakes up, making the scene more effective with its shaking camera acting like a moving around head, and the blur representing her tiredness and aching head.

Costumes in a Student Made Production

For our student made production we went with a self made mask, which was a bloody sack that looked rather creepy in dim light, but my original idea was for a mask I already had, but it is better that we chose a self made one, for it was not already made by a company and with a self made item you can chose what you do with it. The original mask idea from me was something that came with the graphic novel 'Death in the Family'. This mask would probably be copyright though, as the rights are owned by DC Comics and Warner Bros. The mask is of the character The Joker, when he removed his own face and stapled it back on for sinister and a "new me" purpose. The reason I had this in mind is because in a dark room, the fact that it is joker might not be obvious, and we can always remove the annoying light green hair and hair cap, and just keep the mask and its strap. The sinister wide lip grin could have gone well with the lighting, and the eyes underneath the face would have looked creepy, but we could not use it as it may have looked ridiculous to some, or it would have been copyright for material we do not own. It was also very sweaty to wear, as it had limited space, and seeing was not the best, and it would often slip.

Location for Student Made production

In our student made production, the ending of our opening scene starts in a field, where the antagonist chases the tortured victim who had escaped. I live a few minutes away from a field, and took some pictures, but decided that it would be the wrong place to film this scene for many reasons.

The first reason was that it is a public field, in which some activities are very out of place for where the characters were prior to this scene, which was implied that the killer's hideout was on a field, and there is no "hideout" on this field, just objects used by dog owners to train their dogs.

The second reason is that it is right next to a residential area of mostly old people and families, so a child or an elderly woman looking out of her window to see a girl bruised with makeup, running barefoot from a disguised girl wearing a bloody sack over her head whilst chasing the victim with a hammer would cause some alarms, especially to people that might not understand, and it being a public place. 

Another issue is that the field is thick with mud, so it would be hard for the actors to run when they get their feet, and boots stuck in mud, also the sound would be just squelching due to the mud. 

The field has a lot of area, but there is a building with every turn, and it has no turns, it is simply a flat field with nothing interesting, not even long grass or trees in the way, or a path. 

 There is a forest area down below, but to get there, there are lots of stinging nettles which wouldn't be good to go through because of the actor being in bare foot, and even when they are down there, there is not much down, it is a few trees together, but you can  easily see out of the trees to a hospital and other buildings, as well as a busy road. 

Sound in our Student Made Production Scene

Sound plays as an important factor within a film, and is included in the post production stage of film making. Sound can range from sound effects and music, and this can have four terms, parallel - in which it fits with the on screen images, which is what most films should do as they are trying to create something believable and something that is not ridiculous. Contrapuntal is where the sound does not go with the on-screen images, and usually ruins a scene with how the sound within it is different to the scene we are watching, unless it is done for comedic affect but done in a horror film would not work as well. Visible sound on screen is diegetic, and an example of this would be when the demon in Insidious listens to his recording of Tiny Tim's Tiptoe Through The Tulips, and in the same film, non-diegetic film would be the original score for the theme of the film which played during the title sequence as this cannot be heard by the characters and is not visible. When creating a student made film, we have to be careful not to use copyrighted material, including sound effects. We could not use music from famous horror films as the score created for those are copyrighted and not available to anyone who doesn't pay for the rights to use a certain song. For our student made production, we had to create an original piece of music for our film that we would use, or get a piece of music that is uncopyrighted and royalty free. We also need sound effects that we created ourselves, or sound that is not copyright and one that is royalty free because we do not want to have our production, if it was real, sued for copyright or taken down due to a copyright law that does not allow us to use a certain piece of music. Creating our own things also makes us more practical. We need to find sound with instruments that we think would fit parallel and non-diegetic with the on-screen images, and something that would not make a mockery of our production with wacky cartoonish and out of place sound effects and music added for dramatic tension that is turned into comedic keyboard sounds.

Deconstruction of Opening Scene Editing

Editing in a Student-Made Opening Scene

To get some inspiration for the type of editing we will need in our opening scene, I watched an AS student made opening scenes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43hA-PCtpgg

This one is quite different to our one as it uses slow paced shots with slow music to create tension. There are many close up shots of blood dripping on various surfaces, which we could have done in our opening scene, it is effective as it explicitly shows the genre of horror and implies death.

I really like how the music changed pitch and got more dramatic when the credits came up, and the sudden change made it more tense as it suddenly went from quite slow paced and quiet to a more dramatic soundtrack which connotes action. Watching this has given me an idea of how we can use different types of music to create a dramatic effect, we just have to find the right music so it fits with the editing as well as this one does.


The transition from a tracking shot with credits over the top of it and then to a close up behind a tree is very good and I like how it went blurry before transitioning as it made it seem more continuous. When we put the text into our opening scene we will make sure it transitions well like in this one and we'll edit it to make the text blend into the shot and not be so big that it takes the focus off the scene.


At 1:55, the shots become shorter and at the same time, the music becomes louder and is at a faster pace. Additionally there is a wider range of things shown in the shots such as broken down cars and a wall of graffiti.






I think that the editing done in this opening scene is really good and deconstructing it has made me more aware of the specific editing we need to add into our opening scene for it to give the effect we want it to.

Sound in Student made film opening

Analyzing Sound in a student made film opening

I decided to look on youtube for horror AS media film opening's in order to get an idea at what other students previously have done for their own music and to see how they might have made it themselves

A video I found of a short opening scene was Sleep tight:

This short opening has lots of good examples of what diegetic and non-diegetic music would be good for sound. As the scene begins there is almost instantly slow strings being played as a shot of the house appears, giving the impression of suspense. 

The camera cuts to the girl in the house, on her computer, diegetic sound used of the keyboard being used as the girl types away. 

The camera once again changes to outside as we see a person approaching the house. There is diegetic gusts of wind to suggest a change of location, outside. Also footsteps have been put in and have been made to 'grunch' against the gravel as the mysterious person walks towards the house. This enhances the sound and brings the audience's attention closer to it. Diegetic sounds such as the keyboard typing and footsteps are used to show realism. it would be made simply by recording the noise pre-filming in order to get the exact sound wanted without background noise and place it in during the editing process.

 The non-diegetic sound ends as there is a knock on the door to signify that the 'stranger' has reached the house, creating suspense as the audience is drawn in waiting to see what danger lies ahead. The silent noise after the knock is meant to create  sense of isolation for the girl who we presume is home alone with someone dangerous knocking on her door. 

As the girl approaches the door there is a jump-scare, which is typical in horror film opening's to remind the audience that it is a scary film. As the 'monster' jumps out at the girl the strings become high pitched to signify danger.

Slasher Opening Scene Locations - student made videos

Deconstruction of Locations in Student-made Opening Scenes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvtKlcxrntI 

The location of this opening scene is in a car park and then goes into a house. It is in the dark which adds to the tension and the run-down look of the area makes the victim seem more vulnerable.

This opening scene is located in woods with some shots of a field and a waterfall, it is very isolated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RtH0oiBerk 

This opening scene is also filmed in a woods/field area, but the victim is with another person so there is less of a feeling of isolation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7Ec1n4GJ40 

The scene is located in a park-like area with a lot of trees around, then the victim walks to a small building which also looks like it's in the same park. The lighting makes it seem like early morning so it is quite creepy.

Editing deconstruction - student made opening

I am deconstructing a student-made film opening for editing because it gives us a more realistic sense of how to edit ours. It shows us what we will and won't be able to do so that we can edit easily, not having to deal with anything extreme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUeDPezd8m8

 

This opening scene is about the army at war. As the war is happening, there shots are very short and fast paced, allowing the scene to seem like it is faster, and build intensity and excitement. The shots are handheld which also reflects this and adds urgency to the setting.
 

Jump cuts are used to establish another shot, which is edited using eye-line match. A character looks over to two other 'soldiers' and the camera cuts to them from where he is, so we can see what he sees.
 

There is one use of match on action when the main character is reloading the ammunition in his gun - it provides different angled shots of it happening. They made this look effective because they did it so the continuity was perfected, looking more professional.
 

Shot-reverse-shot is used between two characters when they're yelling at each other over all of the gunshot noises and explosions. This establishes our relationship with the characters and their relationships with each other, as even though you can't hear exactly what they're saying, their actions afterwards hint to what they said.
 

The use of special effects is amazing - they used CGI to edit in helicopters used in the army, and to add explosions. This is extremely effective in their piece as it creates excitement and makes it seem very real and dramatic. However, it would be very hard for us to create CGI images and we wouldn't have anywhere to use it that would make sense, and would therefore be pointless.

 

The editing proves to be very important because it creates different emotions that the audience feel, like fear and tension. Continuity is extremely important because it establishes the overall smoothness of the piece and if it isn't done correctly, can make it look unprofessional and messy.

Camera angles deconstruction - student-made scene

I am deconstructing a student-made scene because it enables us to see how effective others are at making the film look professional using camera angles, and to see how filming will be for us (if we can incorporate any effective camera angles that we see).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RtH0oiBerk

This scene opens with an establishing shot of the area to show where the scene will take place. The shot fades out into the titles, then back into a pan mid-shot of two characters as they walk together. This again fades into a screen with the two actors' names, building suspense as it cuts away from the scene. It follows them to a bench where the camera then tilts downwards as they sit down to keep level with them. There are a few shots of the couple together before it fades again, adding possibly more actors' names.
 

Paralleled with a sinister non-diegetic soundtrack, there is a point of view shot from the killer as he looks through trees at the couple from behind. This cuts to a shot of the couple laughing, adding a sense of danger and tension because this contrasts to what may happen to them. There is a mid shot of the two standing up and walking away from the bench / log they were on, and then another killer POV shot as they start to walk through the woods.
 

The killer's POV shots are handheld to make the shot look more natural like it is what someone is seeing exactly, and the shakiness makes the killer seem more unstable mentally. There is then a long shot of the killer in the woods, and we're unable to see him because of it being so far away and the branches of trees covering him up. This boosts the suspense momentarily as we see the killer.
 

Another still, long shot of the couple walking hand in hand, showing the setting again. The setting is calm and peaceful and the snow makes it look very clear, however it's surrounded by many trees making it look more isolated. There is a side-on shot of the couple as they look out over the lake which is full of ducks and birds.
 

Immediate suspense and dread is felt as there is another killer POV shot and he is right behind the couple, walking up to them slowly. It again fades to another credits screen like it has throughout, making us anticipate the next scene because it has cut away at the most suspenseful part. There's another side-on shot of the couple and the girl steps forward and out of the shot, then a very quick mid-shot of the boy and the killer right behind him about to kill him (which made me jump). This cuts away to the title of the film.
 

Camera angles are very important in this film opening as they allow the scene to establish so we understand what is happening and what may happen next. This shows us that they're very powerful to the scene so we will have to think about the specific ones we will use in our scene to make it as effective as possible.