Indy Mogul

I was doing some research on how to create realistic wound effects on the internet and I found the site www.indymogul.com it's really helpful with trying to make convincing effects on a low budget. It's easy to get hold of the materials they use too. Some of the tutorials on this site are very big-scale like making a 'swamp monster' costume or doing things for Sci-Fi movies so it takes a while to sift through that but there is a lot of interesting things to do such as decpitating someone or ripping their heart out if we were creating an extremely gorey horror movie.

Test Shoot - 24th November 2008

After filming the test shoot, the initial idea of having the killer having a very childish mind with not a lot of creepy habits etc. we looked at the footage and thought this seemed like a real cliche with it being exactly what the audience expect. We decided to change the killer and make him seem as normal as possible so he'd come in and be really friendly to the victim and treat him kinda like he'd in a hotel but then he'll have an evil streak and suddenly switch to being violent and aggressive... I personally really liked the location. The school basement was a perfect place for the shoot. It has a small window to the outside and can easily be made into pitch darkness. This is really helpful as, although we have limited space available there, the darkness is really easy to disorientate the audience so it can seem bigger and we can have more victims in different places. I also really liked the door to the basement, it was conveniently very dusty which gave a really nice effect with the blue light behind it. It made the door glow blue whichset it up really well for the shot with the hand banging against the window (above).

We originally saw our opening as being similar to the Saw films, being kinda gruesome with someone trapped knowing they are in a bad situation. I think it is still quite similar but the killer is much more accessible and easy to relate someone to. It seems as though it could be anyone that has a killer streak, you just dont know... So rather than having a distinctive characteristic like a mask or something, he is more like 'Dexter' from the TV series. Where noone ever suspects him of being a killer...

Preliminary Exercise Group 1 12E Stroppy Media Student

Scripting - Oceans 11

RUSTY
I need a reason. And don't say
money.

(beat)

Why do this?

DANNY
Why not do it?

Rusty stares at him: enough bullshitting around.

DANNY
Because yesterday I walked out of
the joint wearing my entire
wardrobe and you're colddecking
TeenBeat coverboys.

(beat)

Because the house always wins.
You play long enough, never
changing stakes, the house takes
you. Unless, when that special
hand comes around, you bet big.
And then you take the house.

(beat)

Rusty smiles.

RUSTY
You're been practicing that
speech, haven't you?

DANNY
A little. Did I rush it? It felt
like I rushed it.

RUSTY
No, it was good.

RUSTY
I wonder what Reuben will say?

I like this portion of the script of Oceans 11 (Steven Soderbergh, 2001) between Rusty and Danny. This is where they seem to be having a very serious conversation where it seems as though Rusty is doubting Danny. The first line 'and don't say money' shows they have a long history together and that they are obviously good friends as he can tell what Danny is going to say. This gives the audience an insight into their relationship. In the film they tend to finish eachothers sentences such as in here and tend to use eachothers words 'why do it?' 'why not do it?'. This really shows how they are so closely connected. The tension begins to build up at this point where Danny begins his speech about why they should do it. He begins by attempting to make Rusty feel sorry for him 'wearing my entire wardrobe', he then continues to say about the 'house' always winning. This is using language specific to the film as it is entirely about the casino robbery. This shows they are in the know about gambling and this kind of thing. This gives the audience some insight into how detailed the plan may be too. This bit, where Danny talks very seriously seems to slow down the pace slightly, as though he is making a real motivating speech but then this is all ruined when Rusty says 'You've been practicing that speech, haven't you?' obviously knowing him so well that he wouldn't come up with that off the top of his head. This creates some humour in the scene and shows the audience how these 2 characters are incredbily close and it'll take a lot more than that to come between them. When Danny replies with 'A little. Did I rush it? It felt like I rushed it.' he knew Rusty was going to say that and seemed to have been trying it out on him so as a way to convince all the rest of the team. This scene, being right at the beginning of the film, gives the audience a real insight into their relationship and just how close they are and why they are likely to succeed.

Costumes and Makeup

In horror films, costume and make-up is a necessity to make it convincing and continuing the suspension of disbelief long enough to create a shock for the audience. Most of the iconic horror movies have a very distinctive costume for the main character. In films 'The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973)' and 'Friday the 13th (Sean S. Cunningham, 1980)', the characters being so distinctive is what makes the film unique and different from other films. This gives the characters individuality in a genre that has the potential to have a lot of very similar storylines revolving around things like murderers, ghosts, zombies etc. Also, if in a film such as 'Dawn of the Dead (George A. Romero, 1978) where there a a large number of zombies, the audience wouldn't be nearly as terrfied as if they were just plain people acting in that way. The makeup and costume reinforces the impact the character is supposed to make along with the actual acting itself. There are some cases where costume and makeup is so extreme in a horror movie, just to create a terrifying effect. Although, these films are likely to cross over with sci-fi such as 'Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)' or 'Predator (John McTiernan, 1987)'. There are some films, however, where such dramatic use of makeup or costume isn't needed, inc ases where a character 'turns' bad or is supposed to look ordinary, an example of this is films such as 'The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)' or 'Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)' In horror films, there is usually a lot of gore

Preliminary Exercise Evaluation

1. Who did you work with and how did you manage the task between you?

In my group, I had Bisma, Charlotte, Mary and Nisha. We split the task up into the different jobs people had to do such as acting, directing, sound and PA. I was sound, Bisma was directing, Mary was PA and Charlotte and Nisha were acting. The main reason we did this and didn't split up is because we had a set amount of time and it would have taken a lot of time to switch over roles in between shots. This way we got more shots done in the amount of time we had allocated than we could have if we had done it by swapping round. Also, it was difficult to find shots for each of the actors to direct/do sound/be PA as there were very few individual shots of them. I felt our group worked fairly well as after every shot, we all stood round the camera and analysed it and discussed whether it should be shot again and what should be done differently, such as highlighted a problem with the sound, the framing of the shot or what the actors should do differently.

2. How did youn plan your sequence? What processes did you use?

In our planning time, we produced an easily understandable storyboard showing each of the shots. We also produced a shooting script. This allowed us to allocate our time much more specifically and enabled us to see clearly which actors were needed at certain points, where we needed to shoot and the logical order in which they should be done. When we were filming, we found that the place we wanted to shoot our initial shots (the corridor) was also being used by other groups. When we found this, our shooting script enabled us to move on swiftly to where the next shots should take place and we took all of these until the corridor was free. We also had a walkthrough of what we were going to do in the place we were going to do it, if there were any, this would have highlighted some immediate problems and would have let us change our location early on, not while we were shooting.

3. What technology did you use yo complete the task, and how did you use it?

When shooting, we used a Canon HDV30 camcorder with Mini DV, a tripod, an external mic and Sennheiser headphones. The use of an external mic enabled us to get better quality sound, while at the same time, allowing us to better focus on the direction the sound is coming from and not just have the action in front of the camera. The headphones we used to clearly hear exactly the sound that was being captured so we could reshoot if there was some unsuitable background noise such as a door closing, noise from behind the camera or someone talking elsewhere. The Canon HDV30 camcorder we used to shoot the entire sequence. The Mini DV made it easy to rewind and check our shots and then fast forward again to where we wanted to shoot from. When editing, we used Adobe Premiere. This makes non-linear editing possible. The program allows us to import our footage, take the shots and reorder them so they make sense. It also allows us to pick from a number of takes if some of the ones we thought weren't as good turn out to be better than the ones we originally liked.

4. What factors did you have to take into account when planning, shooting and editing?

When we were planning, we used storyboarding to construct an outline for what shots we needed and a rough idea of how it would look when it was finished. We also used it when editing so we knew what order the shots came in and how they would look next to eachother. We also had a shooting script. As we were able to use non-linear editing, we managed to shoot the shots in the most convenient order rather than chronolgically. We used this to plan what actors we needed when, what rooms we needed and how easy it would be to do these things. Also, with reference to the rooms, we had to make sure there was very little outside noise in the rooms so when we were filming in the classroom, we had a light on telling people how not to come in and tried not to catch anyone walking past outside the room. With this light, we had to keep it on when we took our shots in the hallway to keep in with the continuity. The hallway was another thing we had to organise. With there being a lot of groups filming in the same place, we had to organise who was going to film there and when.

5. How successful was your sequence? Please identify what worked well, and with hindsight, what would you improve/do differently?

I this overall, it was very successful with very few small errors. I feel the actual conversation itself was well shot and made sense with the right amount of gap between each person talking. The only things I can see that are wrong is that when she leaves the room, inone shot she tucks the chair in but in the next, the chair is out. We couldn't avoid this as we only realised this once we were editing and the alternate shots we had had bad sound and this happened to be the one that worked best. Another problem is the computer screen, in one shot there is a window open, the next there isn't and then there is. This is because for the conversation we used 3 different shots, an MS of the teacher talking, then an OTS then back to the MS. The very last thing I recognised was that as she walks into the room, from the outsoide, she pushes the door but from the inside, she has grasped the handle. This couldn't be edited any other way as this was the best shot we had of her walking into the room as it fitted well with the next shot of her sitting down.

6. What have you learnt from completing this task? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing the rest of your foundation coursework, do you think?

I think when we film our actual project, from this, I have learnt that finding an available location that other people aren't likely to be is vital as we wasted a lot of time we could have been filming, waiting for other groups to finish using the hallway. Although I feel we did well when it came to having enough shots, we could have given ourselves even more options if we had taken them again. I feel that the shooting script and storyboard were very helpful and in future, they can't be overlooked for the actual project.

Research Reading - Genre

I recently read a book titled 'How to make your own Hollywood Movie' by Ed Gaskett.

In the book, there is a lot of detailed writing on genre signifiers and how a director and a writer would look at them. For action, he explains how it is very easy for a writer as the film will be very visual driven but for a director, it is much more difficult as shooting these sequences requires a lot of forward planning and storyboarding is a necessity. He explains that for a successful action sequence, characters have to be even more connected to the audience and act the way many people would with instincts, such as trying to escape somewhere or survive something. They are never suicidal or apathetic unless given a good reason which the audience may understand. He also continues to say that with action films, the audience despises an unsatisfying ending and cheating. As if, the protagonist accidentally achieves his/her goal, it is considered unsatisfying. For creating suspense, he begins by saying that time is the real antagonist, either by being completely literal i.e. a time bomb or by being something less obvious such as a car not starting with someone chasing. It require the protagonist to act in a certain period of time. For horror, he explains that the odds are stacked unbelievably against the protagonist. It is based around basic instincts and natural fears. Horror movies only work if it is based around normal people and a normal world, his example is 'even a gory body horror movie won't be shocking with cardboard people in a cardboard world. With comedy, he explains there are a number of sub-genres such as slapstick (Happy Gilmore - Dennis Dugan, 1996), it is ludicrous with extreme visual gags. The next is taste-free (Anchorman - Adam McKay, 2004) which is when the comedy becomes totally politically incorrect with no restraint. Gentle comedy is the type of comedy found in rom-coms (50 first dates - Peter Segal, 2004). There often aren't many visual gags but it relies heavily on scripting to make it funny with likeable characters. Off-beat comedy is less obvious with characters being much less amusing straight away (Shaun of the Dead - Edgar Wright, 2004). It tends to defy typical genre stereotypes. It serves as more of a 'real-world' to audiences, in this way it is similar to gentle comedy but offers an opposite view. Black comedy goes ones step further, it is usually based around a particularly unpleasant storyline (In Bruges - Martin McDonnagh, 2008). It s very script central, this is about the audience seeing the 'taste-free' humour without gags but the humour comes from the vulgarity or brutality. The next genre he goes on to talk about is romance. He describes it as very simple 'boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl'. He says that audiences love to believe in the idea that we are all destined to love and be loved. He explains that this doesn't need to always have a happy ending, an unhappy romantic can be just as satisfying if the story requires it or if it is more realistic. This is true for other elements in the story such as the conflict. Conflict in romances is created usually by other characters the example Ed Gaskett gives is 'her Dad doesn't approve, he's getting married or there are class differences. Characters need to be believable too so they often have flaws and strengths i.e. shy but intelligent, bold but clumsy. In romance though, too much of the couple on screen together is a bit lethargic and can bore the audience he says 'conflict = drama' so they can have conflict between them which is the job of a good script. He mentions the conversations in Oceans Eleven (Steven Soderbergh, 2001) between Danny George Clooney) and Tess (Julia Roberts) 'Does he make you laugh?' 'He doesn't make me cry' or 'I'm not joking' 'I'm not laughing'. This conflict shows the emotion between the characters and with the way they deliver it, you know it must be love!

I found this entire book a very interesting read with lots of tips on how to create certain effects, write scripts, shoot and plan a film from start to finish.