Production Schedule

Date: 8th February

Location: Alderley Edge Forrest

Description: In this location we will be filming the flashbacks which feature in our opening sequence. This will give the audience snippets of the main characters life. As a group we have decide to start filing at 4:30pm, this will then allow us to use the lighting as our advantage. In this scene we only need to feel 2/3 shots. However, we want to get the best shots possible so will do each shot multiple times. To do this we will need a couple of hours to do so. 

Date: 18th February

Location: Sophie's House

Description: This location is where the majority of the scenes will be shot so we will need to spend most of our day here. The shots we are filming are the 'hospital' scenes and where all our characters will feature. Two characters will be wearing nurse outfits and the third character wearing the hospital gown. The room we are filming in is empty but we will add multiple props, for example a rocking chair, small bed like area and other props to make the room look more spooky. The lighting in this location will be artificial lighting but we will add a 60's like filter over the top so the audience understand this isn't the present day.

Talent Release

In order for us to have our actors permission and their managements confirmation we gave them talent release sheets in order for our filming to take place.

Shot List

After producing a storyboard for our opening sequence we produced a shot list.
This doesn't just break down our filming step by step but also makes it much more easier to follow.

Credits and Typography

The title of the film will appear after a few seconds after the opening sequence begins as you can see in my storyboard. Our aim for the enterance of the title is to scare the audience and make a loud enterance to the film and it's name, 'The Subject'.

In terms of transitions our ideas revolve around the idea that the title fast cuts on to the screen on a black screen in order for all the focus to be on the title of the film. I feel like the fast cut is a very convential way to enter the title and in some terms is seen to prepare the audience for the rest of the film. The inspiration for such an enterance is from the film 'Insidious'.

I personally found this opening to the title very interesting and suitable for the genre.

The names that will be displayed in the opening sequence will be actors names, studio name, directors name etc. We feel the focus should be put on the opening sequence itself so therfore feel like the names that are exhibited should fit into the scenes

 

We took out target audience focus group feedback on board and have decided on the right font.

As a group we also decided in order to create a recognised font for our film out name titles for characters and directors should also feature in this font.

The font connotes a tormented and broken effect which can be juxtaposed with our main charcter, 'The Subject'. Also it is almost like it has been scratch in therefore suggesting the character may be insane and troubled, this being the representation of our character.

Opening Sequence Storyboard

Updated Opening Sequence Idea

After searching a lot about psychological thrillers we have made some improvements on our initial idea.

This is an update on our ideas, with have made changes on characters, costume and makeup. We have also developed our opening sequence idea in general in order for it to make much more sense.

Filming Practice

  Within this task we included several different camera rules for example: 

• Match on action
• 180 degree rule
• Reverse shots 

By practice filming it allows us to identify the areas in which we need to improve our skills on.

For example, small shots were missing when attempting to create the match on action (00:11) which is an important issue I will definitely focus on when it comes down to filming the footage for our opening sequence.

Also we realised when editing that we switched the camera from portrait to landscape in the middle of the video (00:08), this must not happen when creating our sequence as this is a major issues we have found and putting a lot of focus on.

When looking back after editing we felt unsure on the match on action of the handle (00:07) and feel like next time we need to go over it plenty of times in order to get it perfect.

However, it gave me an opportunity to perfect the 180 degree rule in which I feel confident with filming now. As well as this we feel confident on our ability to create reverse shots and perfect them.

Music Ideas

From my research of many psychology horror films, I found that the majority of the music consisted of string instruments, most commonly violins. 
The music in 'Insidious' really appealed to me and really would fit perfectly with our ideas for our opening sequence.

The music 'Tip Toe' is extremely different and is not really a common type of piece you find in psychological horrors, I like this idea of going against the codes and conventions of the genre and would really love to incorporate this into my opening.

Focus Group 2: Target Audience research

In result of our last focus group we discovered that more individuals from our targeted audience were needed in order for us to get a much bigger range of feedback.

Also we realised much more planning should be done. I researched suitable fonts in order to show our focus group and get their feedback back on which font would be suitable for a psychological horror film.

These two fonts were the most popular and were decided to meet the conventions of the psychological horror genre. We will take this into consideration and decide which one will suit the storyline we are showing and fir our opening sequence best.

The  feedback we got from our costume and makeup were all really positive and we received the exact response that we were looking for. Our target audience liked our actors pale looking face and the costume as it suggested a hospital / asylum theme. All of our focus group liked the makeup and costume as it also allowed them to understand that the film was in fact a psychological thriller.

Opening Sequence research: Gone Girl (Sound)

This is a very short clip from the opening sequence of gone girl. It is very basic by just featuring a close up of the main character and a voiceover. The man in the voiceovers dialogue is very gruesome and violent: "I picture cracking her lovely skull" "unspooling her brain" this is an example of contrapuntal sound as the speakers voice is very calm and tranquil which is completely opposite to what he is saying.

Personally, I like the idea of a basic opening sequence as it sort of frightens the audience as they expect jumps and scares in a horror film. As this is a psychological horror is definately portrays this through this small section of the opening sequence. That is what I want to achieve in my own opening sequence.

Sound and Lighting research: Sixth Sense

The opening sequence mainly focuses on the titles for the first couple of minutes. However, features a creepy and daunting soundtrack in the sequence and contains no dialogue which makes the beginning of the film much more chilling. The music is easily described as empathic sound as it matches the psychological thriller conventions very clearly. There is no lighting when the titles are being played though the sound suggests a lot about the film already due to the fact that the tempo of the music continuously rises almost giving the idea of the narrative that there is something to figure out.

The instruments used in this opening sequence begin the layer up (2:20) which creates a disturbing atmosphere. Once the titles come to an end a light bulb begins to light and provides some direct light for the opening scene. As the bulb lights the volume of the soundtrack starts to dim, then there is completely no music. This is so we can hear the women’s footsteps (3:00) the synchronous sound of her walking is almost exaggerated to create more of an eerie atmosphere. Shadows are created through the natural lighting through the window (3:13). Harsher shadows are then created in the long shot from the side lighting created by the window.  

This certain opening sequence gives me ideas that I can imbed into my own work. For example, the use of no sound and no dialogue to create a very eerie atmosphere to begin the film. I will definitely try to use this idea when it comes to producing my own opening sequence.

Location Ideas

The final ideas for the location of our film involved a creeping forest and an old fashioned room. We felt this was appropriate due to the research myself and my group have done into other psychological thrillers. In order for our target audience to recognise the genre we will slightly mirror the location of films like 'The Blair Witch Project'.

Our location shots were taken in Alderley Edge. The natural lighting would be perfect to challenge the conventions of horror films and the shadowing from the trees would give us a creepy and mysterious element.