Practical Task- PhotoShop Experiments- Charlotte Wilson

Practical of PhotoShop Experiments

We haven't exactly decided on a title yet for our film opening but one of our ideas was 'The Devil in the Woods' we liked this as it related to what happens in our film opening but feel its quite long when compared to other supernatural horror films titles. 

At the end our film opening the name will appear and we will need it to be effective with the correct typography and style, colour, font, etc. 

From this i went on to photoshop and type in the text ' The Devil in the Woods' i changed the font to which i thought worked with the supernatural horror being jagged and thing as shown below. 
I put the words ' the woods' on the line below and i didn't think it looked right on the same line.

                                 

I then edited the writing even further i decided to liquify the writing where i was able to drag letters down making some longer then others making it look different and uneven. I decided to keep the colour of the writing black as supernatural horror films don't often include a lot of colour as they involved dark colours such as black and dark greys and red as it related to blood. The black allows it to fit in the genre clearly, if a colour like pink was to be used it wouldnt work as youd assosiate it with romance. 
This is the result:

From doing these photoshop experiments i am able to apply my skills. When we do come up with the final name for our film opening and when it appears i will be able to help with the creation and design of it on photoshop. 

Shooting Script- Charlotte Wilson

Shooting Script 

This is the shooting script for when we film our supernatural film opening.

Details for the day

• We are meeting on Sunday the 20th of December at 9am
• Kings Hill forest and bunkers , i am going to be getting a lift off Georgia's brother with Georgia, her little cousin and Mehrabi, where we will arrive for 9am and meet Natasha. 

• I am in charge of bringing the prop which is a doll i created to use as Georgia's cousin will carry it into the forest.
• I will also be in charge of filming, making sure everything is in place and props. 

We will start our shots off with a low angle shot of the trees.

Which will then pan down to a long shot of the setting where we will see Georgia's cousin walk. 

We will then do a range of close up shots and tracking shots as the girl walks thru the forest. We will then do a shot from here as we are in the point of view of the Demond. 

We will do shots in this abandon building aswell where the girl may walk through and the Demond. 

Here is a picture of our story board which will guide us thru our shots. 

As you can see the first shot i have shown a picture of with the tress the second is a close up of the toy georgias cousion will be carrying which is now a doll. We will have long shots fro, different angles in the forest of her walking. The forth is the point of view shot from inside the abandond building of Georgias cousion playings and looking around. There will be many long shots where the black demond will appear and disappear, there will be shots in the abandond building aswel which i showed previously.  Finally ending on a close up of legs dangling and and black demonds face popping up on an extream close up.

Deconstruction of Genre- Charlotte Wilson

Deconstruction of Genre 

I looked at films in the supernatural horror genre i found the one the  conjuring good for looking at the genre as we want todo that for our film opening.
Conventions of supernatural horror movies are:
Includes a Demond or spirit
Children are vulnerable
Location usually a house 
Object or toy is used which has a connection with the spirit 
Religion of priest have a role
Symbolo is used 

In the conjuring there is an abandoned house which they move into to. Which looks creepy and old.

There is also a child which gets possessed. Being a convention of supernatural horrors.

There is also the evil Demond which is throughout the film where supernatural occurrences happen. The Demond is shown to be a women who is old and dressed in old fashioned worn out dress.

There is also an object which has a connection with the spirit or what it is in. 

From identifying these convenctions in supernatural horror films i am able to apply them to my own film opening so that people can clearly see that it is a supernatural horror film opening. We will used the convenctions which are shown commonly in supernatural films. 

Deconstruction of camera angles in Asylum - Natasha McGill

Deconstruction of camera angles in Asylum

Camera angles in Asylum are always so clear and they tend to be medium or long shot as it shows the mise-en-scene around the image, as shown in the image above its a long shot of the corridor as we can see the whole of it including the floor and ceiling but also within the image there are doors and rooms with a number of different arms reaching out into the open space, this could suggest a number of things some of which including they are trying to gain access to freedom or the fact that there are so many hands, it could suggest that there are loads of people cramped together in the rooms so they need space as it maybe very tight. This camera angle very effective because the fact that the image is also in black and white makes it looks old and unfortunate. Even though there are massive windows letting in light, it still doesn't bring brightness to the area.

 

This camera angle makes the girl look alone, isolated and lost. This is because of the way the camera looks at her, because she is the main focus in the image due to the fact she is the only one and she is standing in the middle of the shot. There is light at the end of the tunnel which could suggest hope and freedom but this camera angle is effective because it can hinder so many things and can make the viewer think different things about her.

 

This shot is very effective, with the use of black and white and the fact that the walls are all scratched, chipped and ruined suggests that the room is possessed and doesn't look like a nice play to stay. It has a murky atmosphere and the way the camera shot was taken as its looking from a side, due to the bed not being square the black writing on the wall adds to the eerie effect.

This camera angle is very effective, this is because the way the girl is tired up on the two posts that can clearly be shown through the long shot makes her look in distress as we can see she is chained up. Her facial expression makes her look possessed and vicious which could maybe be why she is in the state she is. The angle the camera was taken at allows the viewer to also see the mise-en-scene of the wrecked room where the ceiling is collapsing and the floor is scattered with rubbish and the broken furniture in the back ground makes it rather disturbing.

Deconstruction of editing - Natasha McGill

Deconstruction of editing

In most horror movies, editing is always very professional and always tends to be very fast paced and jumpy. This is too add in the effect of there being tension and to make it seem scarier. The Women in Black uses a lot of fast-paced cuts in the scenes that are jumpy and make the viewer scared. The use of camera angles in this scene as well adds to the effect as they are all different shots showing the man in the scene is worried as the shots are show this by making it fast and having jumping shots and changes of camera angles is very effective. This is also because the shots aren't calm and smooth to create ease they are fast and glitchy to make the viewer feel of edge. 

The sound is also effective as its like an echoing noise as it gets louder when it focuses on his face showing a reaction shot as well as a medium shot, showing the room he is in when the candle blows out so it goes dark to make it scarier. Shot-reverse-shot was used when he was laying on the floor after falling backwards from when she screams and comes closer, we see her silhouette which is very blurred then his face and it goes back to a close up of her face screaming as it looks at him.

In this scene, it starts off by using a small black figure, and uses fast motion to change the speed of how fast they run, this could show the supernatural powers and how usual and unique it is for someone to run that fast but also it could seem like they are sneaking and hiding from him and playing tricks on his mind. It then cuts to shots of the women hanging herself which would have been edited in some way as she wouldn't hang herself in reality. They could have used a fake body by making it out of various cardboard boxes and plastic bottles, as shown by the photo at the side, then edited her head in and mad it seem realistic by her moving and then hanging herself.   

 

Then various of different shots were used to show his fear and again they were all fast faced. These shots ranged from close ups of the Women in Black as she screamed in his face and then used shots of him dropping the candle finished with a clown laughing in his face hanging upside down which could indicate that he has been shaken up and has been turned around but in-between these different shots it went back to a reaction shot of his face. That was done through fast-paced editing which also suggests a lot is happening quickly and it does, so its effective because its jumpy and creepy.   

Deconstruction of mise-en-scene - Georgia Serrecchia

Deconstruction of mise-en-scene:

Props:

The props used in horror films are usually there to signify violence, pain, possession or death. It is common for horror film openings/trailers to show props which signify violence because violence is a big aspect of horror films. In supernatural horrors, it sometimes shows young children being violence whilst holding a violent object, which shows that they are possessed as it is not common for children to be this violent and they weren't that violent towards the beginning of the film.
In supernatural horror films, the prop used is normally a doll which is either already possessed, or becomes possessed throughout the film. There is also sometimes a religious book that is used in order to try and get rid of the evil spirits or demons.

This photo shows the props used in the film the 'Conjuring'. It shows the scary looking doll which appears to be very possessed looking, there is also some rope which is used towards the end of the film when the little boy tries to hang his whole family.The camera that is next to the doll is also used throughout the film, as every time one of the children is about to kill their family, they set up the camera in order to capture the scene.
In our film, we are going to use a doll or a teddy bear, in order to fit the representation of horror films, and it will make it seem more realistic if the little girl is holding a toy.

Costumes:

In most supernatural horror films, the everyday clothes worn by the actors are normally just jeans and a normal t-shirt in order to portray innocence within the characters. It is suggested that ordinary clothing portrays the thought that the characters are innocent but it is innocent people that find that trouble or bad things come their way.

In the film 'Saw', rough and dirty clothing was used portraying the thought of their social class and how less important the two characters are in terms of status, because they have been left in an abandoned room with barely nothing.

In 'Creep', you're unable to see the costume within the first few minutes because the images are being shown from a point of view angle. This portrays that the audience have not got a sense of what type of person this character is because you're able to tell a lot from what people wear e.g. wealth and their culture.

In the thriller film 'The Resident', costume is used to show the roles of the victim and the different stages of the plot. The actor wearing pyjamas evokes vulnerability as she is about to go to bed and not wearing much. Whereas in the final scenes, the victim is wearing blood-stained clothing, this shows the audience that there is a climax in the film as blood represents danger, death and violence.

Realting back to supernatural horror films, in the 'Sinister', it shows the family waring normal everyday clothing order to show innocence and vulnerability. Throughout the film the clothes become a lot more dirty and tatty and blood-stained, representing violence and death.
This image from the film shows the young victim wearing her usual night gown, however it is covered in blood and it looks rather old and ratty.




This image shows the woman from the 'Woman In Black'. It shows her dressed in all black with a black veil covering her face. Both these images show them wearing black which shows that the common representation of the possessed figure in supernatural horror films is that they are normally very pale, and dressed in very dark colours to portray darkness.





In our supernatural horror film opening, we are going to fit this representation and we are going to dress the being in all black clothing, accompanied by a black veil that covers their face. The young girl who is becoming possessed, if going to be dressed in pyjamas in oder to make it more realistic. However, these pyjamas are going to be ripped and have blood splattered across them.

Practical Task: Costume - Mehrabi Ward

Practical Task - Costume:

Below are some images of the costume that I had designed. I bought a simple grey t-shirt and some childish looking pyjama bottoms for the girl in our video to wear.

This image above is the front of the T-shirt. I decided to splatter blood across the t-shirt to give it more of a horrific look and so that when it comes to our opening scene and people see the girl wearing the t-shirt it will create a horrifying effect on the audience as we want to know why the child has blood on her and it doesn't look to be hers.

This is the back of the shirt. 

The way in which i was able to create the spattered effect was by using a paint brush which was covered in the fake blood combined with water, and threw the brush vigorously at the shirt which created the dotted line blood.

These are the pyjama bottoms that i used. I cut the bottom of the trousers to make them look more rugged and I also added in rips as the girl who will be wearing them will be filmed in the forest so it will make it look more realistic that she has ripped them whilst in the forest.

As a group we decided it would be best to dress the little girl who is part of our idea in pyjamas as it would convey her age as we were going to use childish pyjamas, to also portray her vulnerability.

Deconstruction of Mise-en-scene - Mehrabi Ward

Deconstruction of Mise-en-scene 

Costume:

This is the first image I found which is from one of the Paranormal Activity films. In this shot we can see that the girl is wearing what looks to be a long white dress. We usually associate the colour white to be pristine and to portray purity, however in this shot it shows the opposite, the dress looks to be worn away, rugged and also quite dirty. Which could suggest that as the dress used to be clean and 'pure' so did the girl, as in this shot she looks like she is possessed.

This image is from 'The Woman in Black'. In this shot we are able to see what the woman in black is wearing fully. In a way her costume almost looks like what somebody would wear to a funeral, and even in this shot as she is stood what looks like to be a grave, that supports my idea further. She is wearing what looks to be a long black dress with long sleeves and a high neck, so hardly any of her skin is on show. She is also wearing a hat and a vale over her face. This choice of clothing again means that we are hardly able to see what the woman actually looks like, we aren't even able to see the colour of her hair. 

Practical task - lighting checks - Natasha McGill

Practical task - lighting checks

The images below were edited using Photoshop. The brightness and the contrast was altered on the images to change it to slightly darker. This therefore would have a greater impact on the scenery as it would look better if it was darker because then it would portray a scarier scene. However when we film we need to make sure that we film during the day time because when we got to upload our footage on it will already look slightly darker and we can also edit it on the computer to make it darker anyway. All the images below were taken from my previous blog post of location hunting, this is purely because we are going to use this location in our film opening so thought it would be a good idea to see when it looks like slightly darker. The first two shots are of the staircase leading down into the bunker and what it looks like with a darker effect on it.
                                                                                                                                                                            

 

The photos below show the inside of the bunker as already shown in my previous post but instead of making this image darker due to it already being pitch black down there so instead I made the photo brighter and the contrast higher as well. This looks better because now the image can clearly be shown and we can see more of the inside. It will need to be well lit down there if we were going to film underground because the camera won't be able to pick up the movement otherwise. We thought of using candles and torches which could either be from our phones or battery powered torch.

This picture was made brighter as well because its underground so it shouldn't be made darker and by making it brighter we can clearly see how old and dirty the floor is because we are able to see bones from small animals. This could have an effect on the shots taken because by having rubbish and bones with metal that was used in the war all ties together to make it creepier.

The images below, I have changed the brightness and the contrast to make them slightly darker but I found with these that if it was to go any darker we wouldn't be able to see the photo so therefore I found that if we were to use these locations we will need to make sure we use them in daylight so they can be clearly seen.

Both photos were darkened but the first image was only slightly darkened whereas the second one has been darkened so it only the shows the blue writing on the brick wall which looks effective because the image is only focusing on the writing so it draws more attention to what it says and the fact that the bright torch light adds more effect.

Lighting is really key when we are filming as we have to make sure our footage will look good but also make sure that it can be clearly seen.  It will therefore be filmed during the day so we can see the footage and at a later date when we edit our footage to make it look darker which will have a scarier effect.

Deconstruction of Actors- Charlotte Wilson

Deconstruction of Actors 

I looked at actors in supernatural horror films as that is the genre we are doing for ours. 

Firstly I looked at the film Insidious, I found that the main character was a young boy. On the front of the poster he is on it and dressed in pyjamas and looks slightly possessed.

 

This the young boy who is the main character.

 

I also found that there was an evil spirit which had an connection with the boy, she's an old women who looks a bit like widow.

 I then looked at the film Mama which is also a supernatural horror. I also found that the main characters are young girls. On the films poster it is also a image of the child, looking as if she's holding a dead women's hand and also looking possessed again.

 

These are the two girl main characters.

 

There is also a evil sprit again which is a women in black and looks dead. Very similar to Insidious, I'm identifying a link between supernatural movies characters.

 

 

 Finally i looked at the film Sinister on the films poster there is a young girl again who is smudging blood against the wall.

 

In the film the main character is a young girl again who becomes possessed.

 

Just like in Insidious and Mama there is a evil demon/spirit who has a connection with the child. However in Sinister it is a man.

 

From looking at the main characters and actors in supernatural horror films we have decide to use a young girl for our film opening who will look slightly possessed with dark eyes, she will also probably be dressed in pyjamas to look more realistic. We have also decided to use one of us to be the evil sprit which will mainly appear in the background of our filming.It will be a girl and she will probably be dressed in all black with a cape, veil and dark make up. By doing this deconstruction of actors we have been able to see the common characters used and been able to decided on ours easily which will hopefully look affective as it will fit in with the genre clearly of supernatural horrors.

Actors - Georgia Serrecchia

Practical of actors:

The actors in horror films are usually common families with children, and one of the children is normally the one to get possessed by the demon/spirit.
The actor that we are going to use is my cousin, Zoe Wilson, because she is a young girl and these are normally the actors found in supernatural horrors. Even though she is 13, she looks and comes across as much younger, and therefore fits the age range for our film opening. She also can be quite scary and play the part well, which means she'll make it look realistic and not mess about whilst we are filming.
These photos below show some inspiration for our choice of actor:

This first image shows a young looking girl with blonde hair, I have added in this photo because it shows that we should have a young girl for our opening which is why we chose Zoe. This girl also looks quite cute, however scary at the same time.

 This photo shows a young girl with brown hair, in most of the clips from horror films that involve young girls, I have seen that most of them seem to have brown hair. This girls also looks very possessed with the red eye affect, so maybe we could add a red eye affect to Zoe in order to make her look more scary, we could also put a lot of powder on her face in order to make her look pale.

 This photo also shows a young brown haired girl, she doesn't look that scary however she looks like a common young girl from a horror movie. She also has quite a pale face and big eyes, making her look more possessed.







This image shows three females, one of them vein gut young brown haired girl that becomes possessed by the demon/spirit. This shows a reaction shot of them reacting to something that may have just occurred. This photo shows that she belongs to a normal family as it is normally the young one in the common family that being possessed.





This photo of Zoe, whom is going to be our actor, shows her standing with her family, showing that she is from a normal family. She has all the features that are normally found in girls in horror films as she has brown hair and very big eyes, which makes her seem more angry and possessive.


This photo to the right, also shows her with her brown hair and massive eyes, and she also appear to look very young. The eyes could come across as quite scary and possessive towards he audience and viewers.
This photo to the left, conforms to common girls in horror films because she looks very young, has brown hair, and young clothing. Also, the black and white affect I have added to the photo makes her appear more possessive as it makes her eyes a lot darker, and also it makes the photo come across as more eerie and horror like.
In our actual film opening, we will make her appear more scary and possessive by adding black backs under her hairs, putting powder on her face to make her appear pale and also we may add some fake blood to her face and body to make her look like she had been hurt/injured. She will be wearing pyjamas in order to make it more realistic and make her look younger.