Behind the Scenes-Day 2

                    
     

On our second day of filming we were determined to film our remaining scenes, unfortunately this was a rather over ambitious plan, which was made worse by the weather during this . A majority of our scenes were filmed inside and we managed to complete these shorts, unfortunately the inside scene features different actors to the outside  scene so we had to schedule our actors for different times in the afternoon, this meant inside filming had to be done in the morning and the outside was scheduled for the afternoon, unfortunately the weather conditions in the afternoon were unusable as it was pouring with rain, which would have ruined the actors costumes and makeup and would probably not produce a very good piece of footage.  

When in the bunker we successfully shot all the necessary footage but had issues with lighting, we understood that there was minimal lighting in our location but had made plans to bring torches and lanterns to make the scene more atmospheric but we when the bunker had been filled with our four actors and equipment the light wasn't as effective and cast too many shadows making some of our footage unusable. 

Despite lighting issues we did manage to collect a reasonable amount of usable footage and will address our lighting issue by first trying to brighten the footage in editing or re filming with stronger filming equipment.

Our Institution Company

We chose this because we thought it was eye-catching, while incorporating the idea of modern technology and devices. The lasers and lights are slightly disarming and could potentially represent the supernatural and the future.

We chose to create a small, independent company as they are in our opinion more specialist and successful for the horror genre in particular. We named our company Charade Pictures, as we liked the mysterious element of the name. Since we felt a independent company would struggle for recognition, we also created a parent company, A PF Company, which is a combination of our surnames Pritchard and Farey. We chose this because we didn't wish to incorporate conglomerate input in our plot and ideas.

Feedback from our Target Audience

"I think it's very eye catching and visually attractive. It creates a good atmosphere if you're about to watch a film"

"I think it's really good. It looks like a film company involved in modern, high tech films. The sound works well with it"

"That's really cool and dramatic. I liked the fact there were lasers and it fit in with the modern music. I liked the name and it looked really authentic"

Behind the Scenes-Day 1

                    

On our first day of filming we aimed to shoot the entire first scene of our horror film opening, due to complications when filming we were only able to shoot half of our those shots as we had weather issues; at the start of the day we had ideal weather, while the fog caused the actors discomfort it added to the atmospheric setting we wanted for our establishing shots. 

A photo of the fog from our first day of filming.

Later that afternoon we had pack up our equipment and go to shelter as there was heavy rain and thunder, so we deemed the conditions unsafe and that it would be impossible to successfully film in anyway.

Despite our issues with the weather we did succeed in shooting decent footage, where the lighting was atmospheric and successfully builds tension and suspense. We are satisfied with shots that we did get and while we still need to shoot the rest of these shots, we don't think we will need to refilm some of the shots we have done.

Thankfully we had very few issues with equipment or our actors on the day, everyone came with the correct equipment, props, costume and makeup and our actors acted responsibly and continued acting with little complaint, which we are very grateful for. 

Questionnaire results

Our first question was regarding gender, we used this to establish which gender would be more drawn to the subject of horror films. Out of 21 answers, 11 were men and 1o were women, this could show that both sexes have an interest in horror films, despite the fact that all our research implies that horror films are generally targeted at men, not at both sexes; this influenced our decision of which sexes to represent in our horror films, we decided to have equal male and female characters to appeal to both sexes. 

Our Second question focused on the age of our target audience, our research implied that the primary audience of the horror genre was people under the age of 35 but we decided that we wanted to aim our film at a slightly younger audience as we are more likely to understand our own age group, to target this age group we used a lower range of ages ranging from 12-28 so we could understand which age exactly we should target.  While we received a few results of over 28 year olds, this is not the target audience we intended to focus on. 71.43% of our results were between the ages of 16 and 18, this was our ideal age for our target audience, as my group fits inside this age bracket and we understand it most. In response to our results we chose to make  5 of 6 characters within this age bracket and 1 character is in the younger age bracket which makes up 9.52% of our results. 

A majority of our results said that they enjoyed watching horror films, however 38.1% of the results said they did not enjoy the horror genre, when asked what genres they preferred, they mostly answered with lighter, happier genres like comedy or romance, showing that they were not the chosen demographic for this genre. 

When asked what they object to most in the horror genre, 28.57% of our results stated that they disliked sudden movements or shocks, 19.05% said they disliked violence or gore and 9.52% found human aspects of sociopaths or cannibals disturbing. A majority of our results answered other, which was a fault in the design of our questionnaire, which made the question available for people who said they enjoyed the horror genre. If I were to survey our target audience again, I would be careful to fix this design fault or use a different survey system to accommodate this. 

The most common answer was Apocalyptic horror, this is not a traditionally popular sub genre of horror, however a majority of the people answering the questions were between the ages of 16 and 18, the generation where zombies and vampires are generally most popular. Other popular genres are psychological thrillers, showing that a percentage of young people appreciate well thought out horror films, which make them think about the characters. Another treasured sub genre is slasher, showing that the younger age range is less squeamish about gore and violence than some preceding generations. Found footage subculture was also favoured, showing an audience interest in suspense and the possibility of the stories they see being true. The last large percentage is for Teen Horror, this shows that teenagers prefer watching people their own age, we will use this information in our horror film to attract out target audience by featuring teenage actors.

66.67% of our answers said they found a male villain more terrifying than a female, this could be because our society presents women as weak, feeble and lacking of authority, while men are presented as strong, powerful and menacing. This could also be because men present a further physical threat, that women do not. 

71.43% of our answers show that audiences find young villains more intimidating, this is likely due the physical threat element of the characters.  However 28.57% say that older villains are more terrifying due to their experience and knowledge making them more of an intellectual threat. 

Our results also state that masked/mysterious villains are more scary as the audience don't know which characters to trust and have less knowledge of events to come. We will use this information in our horror film opening, to create suspense and hysteria.

Our results also show that audiences respond to demons, ghosts and sprits with the most fear, however this is less relevant to our film opening as we do not specify or show our villain in our film opening. 

This shows that a majority of male audiences relate to young, handsome protagonists, even if unlike them in age or appearance, while women empathise with both innocent young women and older, more intelligent women, while men do not empathise with older, more experienced characters. 

This shows us that isolated locations are considered more scary for the target audience, as it leaves no opportunity for help or escape. We used this information in our location decisions for our horror film opening. 

Our Survey results regarding music show clear  majorities, with 100% of the answers saying that music is important, making suitable music for our opening essential.  Our results say that a slow tempo in a low pitch are more effective in building tension and suspense, rather than fast, high pitched music. Our results also show that layered instruments are more effective as they make a mysterious, haunting sound, along with this 66.67% of our answers said that strings were the most effective set of instruments for building tension. Our results also show that a crescendo or gradual increase in volume is the most effective in building tension. We hope to use this information in our music selection for the opening.

Our results clearly show that sound effects are vital with 100% of our answers saying sound effects are important, we intend to use this information to improve our opening, with sound effects to make the gore in our scene more dramatic and build suspense with the air raids siren sound effect. 

Similar results to the sound effects were received regarding lighting, showing us that we need to focus on how we light our indoor scenes and the time of day at which we should film our outside footage.

Dark lighting was voted as more effective by a majority, this could be more effective for building suspense as the audience cannot see what is coming building tension and suspense. When we asked why this was some of our responses were...

"Can hide baddies or things happening until the last minute. Human fear of the dark is fairly inbuilt!" "Associated with death" "Connotations of death etc."                                               These results show that they way we watch films are changing, less people are which films in the  cinema or on television and its more common for people to watch films online or on streaming  sites like Netflix. When asked if this would change depending on the horror genre, the most common answer was no because they wouldn't want to see horror in the cinema in any case.

     

When asked how much they value the production company of a film, the range was between 3 and 6 showing that, while it can help influence a person to watch a film, it would cause someone to see or avoid seeing a film. 

Call sheets for our actors

Our Film Script

Wide shot of the field with the caption “February 1941”. War sirens can be heard as Georgia and Robin run across it, the camera panning. They look panicked and breathless. They reach the shelter and climb down, into the bunker. After a few moments, their screams are heard. Inside the bunker their blood is splattered across the walls. TITLES, CUT TO PRESENT DAY
Thomas: It was in the War sometime, an air raid apparently. A brother and sister fled to this exact shelter, to supposed sanctuary. Waiting inside was a much darker fate.
Julia: frightened But that was years ago, right? There’s nothing here now, is there?
Thomas: Who knows?
Lewis: catching on to Julia’s discomfort I heard that the killer tore them apart, limb by limb, before leaving them to rot in the beds we’re in now…
Julia: crossly Why did you even drag us here? That’s disgusting. PAUSE. What do you think, Darcey? PAUSE. Darcey?
Lewis: pulls blanket where Darcey is supposed to be lying, her dead body falls out
Julia: screams as screen fades to black

Our Animatic Storyboard

Props list

1940s

• Cans made to look like their from the 1940s 
• A sheet to cover modern equipment 
• Old Blankets and pillows to make it seem like a inhabited shelter
• Crates to store supplies in
• Fake blood to splatter
• 2 Gas masks boxes 

We made a lot of our own props for the film, we created world war 2 gas mask boxes from old cardboard and relabeled some modern day cans with labels we found from the 1940s/50s. 

Making our Gas Mask Boxes

We originally planned to use a template for a gas mask using a template we found online but this required a great deal of cardboard, an amount exceeding what we had, so instead of buying more cardboard we decided for financial, practical and eco-friendly reasons to use old shoe boxes instead. this work surprisingly well. We cut the box in half and then used another box to fill in the side and top, which after cut did not have any sides, we then secured it with masking tape with a few layers so it would withhold our filming, which includes a fast run across a field while wearing it.  

We then wrapped the boxes in brown parcel paper to make them look authentic in comparison to those we researched. 

We then used the labels from our original template, and filled them in with the names of our characters as everyone would be forced to carry one of these around with them, especially in a air raid like which our opening is set in. We used PVA glue to stick these on, instead of a weaker glue because the props will be roughly handled by our actors during our opening. 

We then made to incisions on either sides of the boxes and threading in string and securing it with sellotape, on the other side we threaded on a label with the name and age of our characters to make it look authentic.

Our Final Result

Making Our 1940s Cans 

We used old cans found in the recycling to save money and because it is better for the environment . We used old labels we found online to make these look more authentic of a 1940s bomb shelter.

First we measured our cans so we could print of labels at the correct height so they would fit. 

We did this for all five cans, recording their height on post it notes so we knew which height label to use on which can. 

We then researched 1940s cans and found some of a suitable style and height for each of our cans. 

After printing our our labels we checked that they were a suitable height and length to fit our cans. 

We then cut our labels out and wrapped them around the cans to make sure they fit. 

And coated them with PVA glue so they labels would stick. 

 

We then wrapped the labels around the can and glued the tab on the label to make it secure. 

Our Final Result

2014

• Old pizza boxes 
• Cans and bottles of fizzy drinks 
• Sleeping bags
• Smart Phones 
• portable speakers 
• Fake blood for splattering
• dusty remains of some of the 1940s props 

Our Storyboard

1. Tracking Shot/Establishing Shot, tracks brother and sister across the field, we we use a filter in editing to make it look like the scene is set at night, but we will film during the day so it is safer and easier to achieve a clear shot. Non diagetic sounds of the air raids will be played with faint music underneath to build tension. This also succeeds in setting the location and establishing the scene.

2.  Low angle shot of feet, to show the chaos and emphasize the speed and determination demonstrated while they are running. This shot also shows off the costume well, showing our decisions about how to make it appear as if it were in 1942.

3.  Mid shot of Georgia running, this pushes into a close up as she runs, showing her scared facial expression. this also shows the detail of her hair and make up which we've designed to look typical of the 1940s. 

4. Close up of Robin zooms out to a mid shot, to show the tension and the 1940s costume. This will show the audience how the characters are feelings. 

5. Two shot from the front, moving backwards showing both of their expressions, demonstrating their feelings and emotions. This will also establish the setting a little more. 

6. Establishing shot of location, the characters will enter the bunker, then a few seconds of silence, followed by a sharp scream, signifying their deaths, this would build tension more than showing their deaths as one death at the end will be more effective than multiple. Title appears over this to make it seem more like an opening rather than a trailer. 

7. Background fades to black, making the title bolder and more effective, this then fades into the next frame the title fading as well. 

8. Mid shot of Tom telling the story, this is effective as it will be a clear comparison between his relaxed, joking expression and that of genuine fear that we saw in the previous scenes. 

9-11. Two shot of Lewis and Julia, this is once again mirroring the previous two shot, with contrasting emotions, they themselves will have different expressions as Lewis will act amused and Julia scared and concerned. This turns into the 180 degree rule to show their conservation respective reactions . 

12. Shot of Darcey's 'sleeping' body as she doesn't react, brighter lighting, not implying that something is wrong. 

13. Same shot again,this time with slightly dark lighting, foreboding something is wrong as Julia tries to wake her. 

14. Dead body revealed, covered in blood as if she'd been attacked, no diagetic sound of piercing scream and dramatic music.