Character profile for the Cloaked figure

• Name: Cloaked figure
• Height:6"3
• British
• Manchester
• Altrincham
• Of unknown origin
• Intimidating, imposing, psychopathic, fear mongering
• Race: unknown 
• Species: unknown
• Family: diseased
• Weightless
• Hair & eye colour: unknown
• Somewhat of a human skull shaped head
• Black mask
• Black cloak
• Black shoes
• Black trousers
• Concealed machete
• Inconsistent and illusive behaviour 
• No audible form of communication
• Use of physical acts to communicate
• The character has no noticeable emotional characteristics
• The strength of the character comes from the loss of the clock
• The character shows no form of social skills but is extremely confident when in the presence of others

Character Profile for Max

The victim in our opening title sequence will be played by Zak Almond Riley and he will be acting as Max, an 18 year old male student, with a part time job in order for him to buy things he wants as he is an independent, charismatic, self assured  person who doesn't rely on his parents to provide for his wants and feels guilty when he gets things he needs. He still lives with his parent, but only on a rent paying basis, in the country of Britain, the city of Manchester and town of Altrincham. He is currently studying animation and 3D modelling at college. An oldest child with a younger sister, however, he spends most of his free time working so does get to socialize often and so doesn't speak much to family and friend and due to this currently has no girlfriend. Strangely though whenever he does find the time to meet up with friends or go to party's he is a fun loving, free spirited, happy go lucky gentlemen.We have got him dressed in a coat, Jeans and trainers since he has just got changed where he works and is on his way home, it also represent what the majority of people look like from the teenage/adult age group in regards to his gender, size, accent and tone of voice. He is approximately 5"10, above the average height for his age and taller than one of his friends. Max's biggest weakness is how easy he is to scare and how unwilling he is to fight back. He is an intelligent, dedicated worker and want to be successful in life by inquiring a good paying job in an area he is interest in which is any form of media.  

Day 2 of Editing

Today, 30th of January, we started the lesson by importing all the clips/footage taken from our second day of filming, from James Lawleys'  USB stick, because we film on his camera and he wanted to edit the sound of the dialogue between the two characters Max and Jamie, as we thought it sounded a bit too quiet when listening to it on the night,and he has experience using a form of audio editing software called Audacity

After importing the clips onto the desktop of the Mac and then sorting them into out groups personal folder, Sam Warren and I opened up Final Cut Pro, accessed the event we made in the first editing lesson and began to add the last few clips of scene 1, which contained the two shot of Max and Jamie shaking hands, the shot reverse shots of the dialogue between the two characters, the low, tracking and high angle shots of Max climbing the stairs, the over the shoulder shot and long shot of him crossing the bridge and the start of his frightful journey home.

Though we had filmed a lot on day two, as expected we were unable to get through all of the editing and arranging of clips for scene 2 and the beginning of scene 3, but we did manage to chronologically order and edit the majority of scene 1. Sam Warren and I edited first while James Lawley and James Scott did some more research into the horror genre looking at ideas on how to make our title sequence stand out creatively in regards to radical positioning and movement of the camera and editing along with this.

Sam and I started off by using the arrow shortcut key to drag the clip of the two characters Max and Jamie, or as referred to in previous posts by their real names Zak and George, meeting into the timeline where we left off last time. This clip was quite short and didn't need much editing, however there was a long pause present at the end of which was cut out, in order to maintain the fluidity of the friendly, human interaction and conversation. We took it in turns to edit each clip we added to the timeline and gave each other constructive criticism when needed, if we missed something the other person spotted. Due to the long clips created by us directing them whilst recording, we were mostly cutting out parts where the actors were unready or we can be heard talking, with the exception of the tracking/follow shot clip, in which the camera appears for less than a second, around 40 seconds into the partly edited title sequence. We barely needed to edit anything extreme out of the clips we managed to get through in 30 minutes, which says that we have quite a good technique when it comes to filming and getting the shot right the first or second time, we rarely needed to take a shot again because we failed, but more so to see what it looked like in comparison to the other, and decide on the one that captures the moment better. Sam Warren and I finished our 30 minutes of editing, at the shot where Zak is being tracked and followed from the side by the camera up the stairs.

In the next lesson we have editing, I have planned and discussed with my group to try and finish editing the rest of scene 3 and, if we have had the opportunity within the coming week, to film scene 4 and 5, than we should be able to edit, at least, up to the beginning of scene 4.  

      

Day 1 of Editing

After our first day of filming on Monday the 12th of January, since we were using James' camera he took it home, connected it to his computer and saved the footage we had recorded onto his memory stick, so we could edit what we have filmed do far using the Apple Mac's and a type of professional video editing software called Final Cut Pro.

Later in the week, on Thursday the 15th of January, James Lawley brought his memory stick into school and before the lesson he plugged his flash drive into the USB port of the Mac and imported all of the recordings onto the desktop, which were than sorted into a folder we created, making it easier to identify our clips and to access them.

                                                        
After sorting all the clips into our personal folder, we opened up the  video editing software we are going to be using, which was Final Cut Pro, we created a new event then imported the footage we wanted to edit into it, scanning through them to help us remember the order they went in and analyzing whether or not we needed to re-film any of the camera shots or movements.

Due to there being four members in our group and there being little space for all of us to be sitting around the same Mac, we decided that we would take it in turns to edit the clips together in teams of two, half an hour for each two members to take turns editing our title sequence together each lesson we get a chance. While one pair is editing, the other two members would be doing more research around the horror genre as well as updating their blog.

For the first day of editing Sam Warren and James Lawley began editing first and James Scott and I did some more research, giving us some ideas of how we could improve the production of our title sequence. After 30 minutes, we reversed roles letting James Lawley and Sam Warren add to their blogs and research while James Scott and I added to the progress Sam and James L had made and trimming down moments in the clips where the characters were just standing around, or you could here the audio of us directing the actors on on screen. This was done by using the blade tool to cut sections of clip that were unneeded or unwanted, of which Sam and James Lawley had missed. As they had worked so quickly and professionally, there was very little that James S and I needed to do in regards to adding clips, however after sorting all the clips together in chronological on the timeline we noticed that it came to around 35 seconds, and the end title sequence must only be 2 minutes long. Considering that this is only our unfinished first scene we recognize that when completed, our title sequence will end up being a lot longer than 2 minutes and have decided that we will go through and shorten it down once we have pieced it all together at the end.

James Scott and I ended the first lesson of editing with Zak and George, Max and James, meeting up before the section of dialogue begins, as we were unsuccessful when trying to capture/record the audio on the first day of filming we had no more clips to add and had cut all we needed to from the ones already structured in the timeline. Also after improvising the script on the first day of filming, James Lawley took the time to write up the script for the two actors properly so they knew specifically what they needed to say, making it less likely they would get confused.

For the remainder of editing lessons we have we will stick to this rotating scheme of two people editing and two people researching as it seems to be very effective, helping us progress at a faster rate, which will give us more time at the end to refine it, letting us make sure it is to a good standard. For the second editing lesson, as a group we intend to finish editing the rest of the first scene, especially the dialogue and hopefully move on to editing the second, and if we need to we will arrange to complete the editing in any spare time we have.

The second day of filming 26/1/15

At the beginning of this week, Monday, the other three members of my group and I  met up with our actors at the filming location at around 6:00pm. Due to the problems we previously had with the recording of audio on the first day of filming, James Lawley took my recommendation of using earphones with a built in microphone, to create a makeshift  lapel microphone, to be recorded using an iPhone application, which could be discreetly hidden within the actors costumes, which were coats, making it a lot more easier to hide and look professional. The only worry we had was that the audio could sound muffled, causing the dialogue to be incomprehensible, or the audio would not record fully, with the added chance of the file becoming corrupted. On top of helping the actors with their positioning within each shot, I also assisted James Lawley with the placement of the makeshift lapel microphone and assessing whether the audio was intelligible or not. Due to it not being loud enough, James Lawley said he would take it home and increase the volume using sound editing software.

Keeping to our decision to rotate jobs consistently, so we would all have a chance of filming in each scene, Sam warren assisted in the filming of the shot reverse shots during the dialogue between the two characters as he was the only one tall enough to hold it steadily over Zaks shoulder to get George in the shot, James Scott filmed a two shot, medium shot of the characters feet walking in opposite directions out of the shot and I filmed and directed the high angle shot of the main character, Max, walking up the stairs, whilst using the lights on our phone cameras to provide a bit of light on the stair case, since without this added light it was almost impossible to see him. I also took photos of the filming process to provide evidence of each of the members of my group filming the different shot we assigned each other. Sam Warren helped Adam Ledger into the significant black cloak and latex mask of the antagonist, whilst James Scott, James Lawley and I directed Zak and George the shots we had planned and decided upon. Whenever someone else in the group was filming a shot, we would have two people planing for the next shot, and one person overlooking the other shooting a shot or movement, to ensure that we filmed it perfectly and precisely first time, decreasing the chance that we would need to waste time re-filming the shot. This structure of preparing and filming came in useful when I noticed one of the shot reverse shots, in which the camera faced George over Zaks shoulder, was obscured by Zaks hood from his coat, which went unnoticed by Sam at first glance and luckily I pointed it out before we moved on.

When we finished with filming the dialogue, two shot between George and Zak, we moved onto the stairs where James Scott filmed a low angle shot of Zak walking up the stairs, I filmed a high angle shot of Zak walking up the first flight of stairs to the first landing, Sam Warren filmed a tracking/follow shot of Zak walking up the stairs to the second landing at the top. After he had reached the top of the stairs and approached a bridge over the train tracks, James Scott again filmed a stationary mid shot of Zak walking past the camera to the left, which was bordered by the beginning of the bridge and the end of the railing of the stair case to the right of the frame.

After filming the shots of Zak on the stairs, it was now time to introduce and begin filming shots with the antagonist in, the cloaked figure, played by Adam Ledger. Sam Warren and James Lawley helped him suit up with the machete, black cloak and latex mask. Although there was a problem with the cloak as it had no fixtures on it to stay closed permanently which we learned from the first night of filming, of which we asked Adam to come along to as we felt it would be useful for him to get an idea of the surrounding, how he would compose himself and the victim he world have to intimidate. Since we had tested this last time James Lawley, being in charge of props and costume, came prepared with sellotape allowing the cloak to remain closed when acting, concealing the outline of his human body, causing him to remain somewhat of a mystery to the audience.

It was now time to film Zaks eventful journey across a creaking, bridge engulfed in darkness of which James Lawley filmed the majority of, specifically a pan and an over the shoulder shot and I filmed a long shot of Zak walking towards the opposite end of the bridge. Although I previously talked about how the street light were of somewhat a benefit to us, there was a certain flood light causing problems with the long shot by creating a lens flair and also engulfing the frame in light making it harder to see Zak directly and so we had to position the camera in a area where this blinding light could be blocked. The problem now was that it was too dark, so again we used the lights from our phone the light Zak up, making him a little bit more visible in the shot. We also had to take into consideration how well, clearly you could see the outline of the cloaked figure, Adam, in the background, otherwise the would not understand the use of this shot in conjuncture with the next, with Zak turning around to see nothing.

The last shot we decided to film of scene three was one of Zak, the victim, fearfully and swift-fully walking away down a slope at the end of the bridge, looking paranoid as though someone or something is following him and he doesn't want to find out what, so rushes home quickly, while trying to remain discrete. The long shot, pan filmed by James Lawley took two takes to get right, as Zak walked too slowly in the first take, failing to express how desperate Max, the victim, would be to get home. We ended the second day of filming hear and went our separate ways, planning to film the rest of scene 4 and hopefully scene 5 on Thursday, the 28th of January.

Being located near a leisure centre meant that we did have a few interruptions from late night gym goers, which caused us to take longer to film shots, by having to wait for them to walk passed, but once they had gone we carried on filming the shot or movement. This caused us to stop quite a lot of times but more so on the bridge, and since we have finished filming the scene involving the bridge, we expect that there will be a lot less interruptions the next time we film being because it is not on a particularly busy road and the last scene is mostly going to be shot around a house. Another problem is that when recording the audio separately we forgot to clap or make a loud noise to make it easier for us sync the dialogue up to the video which may prove to be a big challenge when  we come to editing it and if done poorly will affect the immersion of the viewer in a negative way. We ended up making the progress we wanted, by getting up to the scene where Max is rushing home, despite our worries about interruptions

  

A Brief of Filming Day 2 Completed

On Monday this week we planned to and did film the rest of scene 1 through to scene 3 of our title sequence, starting at 6:00pm, along with our actors, since we learned from the first night of filming that it would not take very long to set up the camera, tripod, props and costumes, so there was no need for the actors to arrive at 6:30pm and it meant that we could begin filming earlier, wasting less time and completing more shots and scene in the night. Although, we did not really need the shot list and storyboard, we had it with us anyway for reference, to keep us on track as well as deciding to improvise a few camera shots  to help with continuity and make out our title sequence stand out from the rest. A huge concern before filming was whether or not our makeshift lapel microphone would pick up the audio of the dialogue between Max, played by Zak, and James, played by George. We were also worried about how much we would get done, hoping to get up to the 3 scene, as we would be filming on a bridge that goes over a metro that is frequently used we might be interrupted quite a bit. Lastly, we were constantly checking the weather forecast to see how likely it was to rain or be misty.

Overview of the problems we have had with filming so far

We initially decided we were going to film the majority of our title sequence over the Christmas holiday, from 19th of December to the 4th of January, however we had to abandon this plan as filming was made nearly impossible due to the fact that the costume, make up and props had not arrived since it is a busy time of year, and even more so because of the fluctuating weather and the negative affect this would have on the continuity of our title sequence. There was also the problem of deciding on a day that we were all available to film, which wasn't possible as Sam Warren was visiting his family quite far away, James Scott, James Lawley and I were also meting different members of our family and friends due to it being a festive time of year.

Moreover, we rearranged our plan to film the majority of the first scene on the 9th of January, but again we were prevented as the weather was quite bad and did not match the weather we planned for our title sequence and it would have adverse affect on the setting by litter, and leaves blowing in front of the lens disrupting the flow of the shot. The high speed winds and rain would cause problems when trying to record audio and there was a possibility of the torrential rain covering the camera lens, obscuring the view of the characters in the shot, so we postponed filming until the 12th of January.

Successfully we managed to film from 6:45pm until 7:45pm  on the 12/1/15. It was successful because all the members of my group made it to the shoot, including the actors and we filmed the majority of the shots that we planned, as well as improvising and adding in a few more to maintain continuity throughout and removing shots that didn't look very good or aesthetically pleasing in practice, doing nothing to better the scene. However, it was somewhat unsuccessful since the boom microphone we wanted to use to record the audio was not compatible with the camera we are using and we had no other way, at the time, to record the dialogue between the two characters in our title sequence. Also, the context of the conversation between them is relevant and important to the films plot narrative, so we decided that it could not be cut out and we would film the dialogue shots of scene 1 the next night of filming.

We scheduled to film the end of scene 1 and at least up to the end of scene 3 on the 14/1/15 and the 15/1/15, but this was not possible as James Lawley was unavailable to film on the Wednesday and James Scott and Sam Warren could not film on the Thursday as they had an important mock examination to do on the Friday and so need this night to prepare and revise.

Again we rescheduled to film from between the 16th and 18th of January but the actors were unavailable as they had their own college studies to complete and did not have time to film.

Finally, we planned to film the unfinished scene 1 and to the end of scene 3 on the 26/1/15  

 

The role I had on the first day of filming 12/1/15

Since we delegated different areas such as, lighting, camera shots, location and costume/props, for each member of my group to research we decided that on the first night of filming we would fulfill these roles on set while also taking turns, by rotating responsibilities to ensure that everyone contributed in their own way to the production of the title sequence. I also talked previously about this on my shot list post, but to reiterate, we have assigned each of the members of the group to be in charge more heavily over manning the camera and making significant decisions on whether to keep or be rid of a shot, and if it called for it we would take a majority vote, on specific scenes.

On the first day of filming I was in charge of deciding the position of the camera in order to gain maximum effectiveness from the lighting we were receiving via the street lights around the location. Since it is a busy road and we are filming at night there is little we can do about the light, but it works in our favour, as we are creating a low budget horror film and do not have the funds to afford studio grade lights, it provides us with a source of low key, artificial lighting helping to create shadows, adding to the tension, creating a suitable ambience throughout the title sequence.    

Successful and Unsuccessful budgeted Horror films

How to Classify a successful low or high budget film

A successful low budget of high budgeted film is one that makes significantly more money than it cost to produce. The film will do this by having an entertaining and intriguing plot narrative accompanied with great special effects, sound and acting from both A list celebrities and those who are not that well known.

Here are a few examples of Low budget, successful horror films:

The Strangers (2008)                                                                  
Produced on a budget of: $9,000,000                                      
Made more than: $82,000,000                                                    

The Descent (2005)
Produced on a budget of: $7,000,000
Made more than: $57,000,000

Oculus (2014) - most recent
Produced on a budget of: $5,000,000
Made more than: $44,000,000

Here are a few examples of high budget, unsuccessful horror films:

Instinct (1999)
Produced on a budget of: $80,000,000
Made around: $34,105,207
It made a loss of: $45,894,793

Sphere (1998)

Produced on a budget of: $80,000,000

Made around: $37,020,277

It made a loss of: $42,979,723

Cursed (2005)

Produced on a budget of: $38,000,000

Made around: $29,621,722

It made a loss of: $8,378,278

The research I have done around the budgeting of horror films has reaffirmed my belief that a horror film does not need to have a high budget in order for it to be successful, and it is more to do with how efficiently and effectively you use the resources at your disposal to create the wanted affect of fear and terror within the audience.   

Text font research for title sequence

The research I have done suggests that the colour of text used in most horror film title sequences is white, red and/or black in complete contrast to the background it is put in front of making it stand out clearly, emphasising death, loneliness and fear. The different font colours can also be used together, to represent what the film may entail e.g. Insidious 2 use red and white to convey death, danger and loneliness or separation.

After watching a large amount of horror films growing up and for my research I have come to the conclusion that white is a very popular colour when it comes to editing fonts in titles sequences, and I believe this is because the majority of horror films involve the darkness and white, although conveys loneliness, also conveys the fact that there is still hope and acts as a light against this dark background. This poplar choice of artificial low key lighting in horror films makes it hard to see and uses people fear of the dark against them and allows the text to be the light in the darkness revealing the names of the people who helped produces the film and a slight insight into the psyche. The editors are extremely obsessive and make sure important things in the frame are not concealed from the audiences eyes.

The colour black is not used so much to fill the body of the text but the outline, either being part of the background itself or bordering it to help the text stand out in shots that use high key lighting, however the opposite can also be seen done in a few horror films. A rare example is this image:

I have also noticed that the fonts have a specific shape to them to help represent what type of horror film it is, is it gruesome, gory, brutal, hypnotising, or threatening. The editors do this by sharpening the edges of letters or giving them a more block like structure and it is also common that they are designed to be curvy or old English. Here are a few examples of fonts that we could use in our title sequence, i decided to print screen them for reference.

Source of image: www.fontspace.com

Lastly, as you can see above some of the examples make use of capital lettering on all or a few of the letters making them stand out  more and seem more important, catching the eyes of the audience and giving them a taste of what the film may entail. When editing we will make a collective decision on what font style we are going to use. It is also important to note that the font picked must be consistent throughout the title sequence and not vary drastically, but only in size. 

Here are a few examples of fonts in horror films I looked at:

Characters in our title sequence

In our title sequence there will be three characters present and so we will need three actors to play: the victim, the victims friend and the antagonist.

Max - is the victim we meet walking home from a long, hard day of work. It is extremely important that the actor playing Max shows his fear and disbelief effectively in order to convey how unprecedented the turn of events is and his lack of knowledge on how to deal with the situation. If the audience does not fully believe that Max's behaviour is genuine, the intended effect of the sequence, to strike fear and anguish into the hearts of the audience, will not be accomplished and therefore have failed to meet it's purpose. Body language is extremely important in this sequence as it will make or break the scenes. Max will have to show his momentary emotion such as: fear, happiness, contentment, confusion or astonishment effectively in order to receive the wanted effect on the viewer. The way he converses with his friend, Jamie, for a few shots will also be under scrutiny as if it seems to forced or unnatural, it will make the characters less relatable throughout the rest of the sequence causing the audience to care less about his impending fate.

James - is Max's friend in the title sequence and he to will have valid part to play in the creation of the bridge between audience and character, making the main character, Max, more relatable. It also allows us to use and show off some of the shots we used in the preliminary task, such as: the 180 degree rule, over the shoulder shot and shot reverse shot, as well as implementing some new camera movements and shots to help with continuity by making the transitions more seamless.

The Cloaked figure - is our films antagonist and by one of the words present in his name you could accurately guess that he will be wearing a cloak of some sort, but what it doesn't tell you is that the clothing he will be wearing will be entirely black, with the use of a latex mask to hide or human relatable facial features making him seem more monstrous. These clothing choices will make the antagonist less relatable to the audience. For instance, the mask hides any evidence of humanity or emotion due to it disguising key features such as eyes and forms of communication like eye contact, causing the audience to feel less sympathy for the villain. It is important that the antagonist remain silent throughout the sequence making him more imposing due to the anti social behaviour, also the silence can be deafening.    

    

Popular techniques used in Horror films

Framing

This done by only showing the reaction of the subject, specifically the victim in the shot and not whatever it is that is causing them distress or some form of psychical or mental anguish. By not revealing what or who the antagonist is in the film the fear remains within the audience at they struggle to anticipate what the scary thing is.

The use of wide spaces

This is done through the use of a wide lens to make a small spaces such as bathrooms, corridors, and bedrooms appear larger than they actually are. only noticed when the character on screen tries to move around the space with limited maneuverability, causing members of the audience to feel claustrophobic empathizing with the character, feeling like there is no place to escape to.

The use of an unexpected shock

In the many horror films that have been released, there are moment where a character opens a door, curtain or turns a corner and the villain/antagonist appears instantaneously, without warning causing unsuspecting members of the audience to jump involuntarily. However this has been overdone, and so if used in a horror film that is going to be released now, those producing the film must make the audience think a jump scare is going to come along and then not meet their expectation until they have forgotten about it and use it then, like at the end of the credits on a film, nothing usually happens at this moment so a jump scare would be extremely surprising.

The building of tension

This is usually created by stationary camera that do not move throughout the film, but are important for picking up frightening sounds and shadows of subjects which are out of the direct view of the camera.However, it can be created by handheld cameras when the characters in the film aim the camera lens facing to the ground or upward at themselves to towards the ceiling, when trying to build tension and suspense. Everything happens outside of the shot, relying heavily on the sound and the audiences imagination. to create a tense situation, of which the viewer cannot determine an outcome.

Classification of our Horror film amongst sub-genres

The purpose of horror films is to scare, however, how they scare helps sort them into different categories or sub-genres of horror. It is entirely dependent on the plot, setting and characters present in the film and their ability to create a certain atmosphere. Each sub-genre has a way of generating fear in its audience whether it through gore or paranoia. Examples of the sub-genres of horror are:

• Action
• Animal
• Body
• Gothic
• Gore
• Natural
• Psychological 
• Sci-fi
• Slasher
• Zombie

Our Horror film falls in both the psychological and slasher sub-genre of horror. An example of a psychological horror film similar to ours is "1408". This is because the man who stays in a certain a hotel room is tormented, angered and made to feel insane by paranormal activities that take place when he's not looking and he doesn't see the antagonist head on until near the end of the film. Mise-en-scene plays a heavy role in these types of films as well as sound, fluctuating lighting and a few editing tricks with the use of certain filters in some intense scenes. The reason our film also falls into the slasher category is because our antagonist also carries a physical weapons such as a machete. This weapon is a rare occurrence in horror films as Knives are always readily available, machete's are hard to come by in everyday life, and it causes some confusion with the victim as it is an arbitrary choice of weapon in an industrial setting.   

First day of filming 12/1/15

After all the problems we have had over the last three weeks we finally started filming and finished the first scene of our title sequence last night. We met up with each other and our actors at the decided location around 6:30 and after informing them on the roles they would be playing, we started filming at 6:45. Adam Ledger is acting as our antagonist, which he fits perfectly as he is taller than than the other two actors making him seem threatening, imposing and superior in comparison to everyone else that will appear on screen. Zak Almond Riley is acting as Max, our victim, because we believe his personally matches that of the character he is playing, being likeable, humorous and non threatening, these traits match the character well.George Craven was acting as Max's friend, James, and was only needed for a few shots in the first scene, so will not be with us for the rest of the time we are filming. James's role is to help Max feel like a valued and memorable person, due to him being an old friend of James and presents teen like behaviour making him more relateable to the audience.

The filming when quite well, although there were a few problems with the boom mic as it didn't fit the make of the camera we were using. We only need a mic to record dialogue in the first scene when George and James have a brief conversation but there was too much background noise of cars driving passed as it was rush hour at the time, and so we must film a few shots of the scene again by creating a make shift lapel microphone by taping a earphones with a microphone receiver to Zak and George's clothing. The problem wasn't the traffic as this fit the atmosphere well but it was the fact that were unable to record audio which was the problem.

We brought a trolley for a tracking shot in the next scene but did't make it that far in the title sequence as we took several takes of the same shot to make sure it was good as we could make it, which took up a lot of our time whilst also adding in some new shots that are not present in the shot list in order to show our improvisation skill and make it look more professional.

We finished our first night of filming at 7:45.

Problems with filming

As a group we decided that we would film our title sequence over the Christmas holidays, however the costume and props took a long time to be delivered, this was mostly due to the time of year when everyone is ordering things, and the location they were being sent from. Additionally, one of our group members, Sam Warren was away visiting family for most of the holiday, which added to our inability to film and on top of this the actors were also unavailable.  

In light of this, after finally receiving the costumes and props we planned to film on 9/1/15 however we were unable to and it has had to be postponed due to the bad weather in our area. Because most of our filming is outdoors, the rain and wind would be picked up on the camera and make dialogue impossible to be heard as well as causing smudges on the lens of the camera, impairing vision.

Film Practise: Camera shots and Movements

We decided that we needed to practise some camera shots and movements in school at similar areas that we are going to be filming our real title sequence e.g. Stairs, corner and a corridor. At the same time we didn't want to fall behind on finishing the storyboard of our idea, so we split up into two groups. Sam Warren and James Scot finished drawing out the storyboard and started filling in the shot sheets whilst James Lawley and I practised filming camera shots and movements we selected that we weren't confident with. By practising the shots it makes it less likely that we will mess them up when filming, decreasing the amount of time it will take us to film each scene.

The camera shots and movements we practised were:

• POV (point of view) - this lets the audience see through the eyes of Max and helps the audience to experience how he is feeling.
• High angle shot - this makes Max, our victim, seem extremely vulnerable and helpless as well as inferior and unimportant in the grand scheme of things.
• Hand held shot - this will be used to see from the perspective of the antagonist, following Max from the shadows creating suspense as the audience do not know whether the antagonist is going to catch the victim or not.
• Pan - this movement is probably the most important of all of them, as the movement has to be smooth or else the viewer will not be immersed if there is a constant shaking. Another potential problem is cold weather as it may prevent our fine motor function in muscles, making it harder to pan the camera. If we mess this shot up and notice when we come to editing the film, it will be extremely hard to re-shoot because of our lack of control and change of the environment. If we were to redo the shot continuity would be lost.
• Low angle shot - the low angle shot works well with the high angle shot, when Max is walking up the flight of stairs as it shows is destination and where he has come from. Also, it makes the villain seem more threatening and like there is no escape from his doom/destiny.

The reason for the two videos of the practise pan is to highlight the potential problems we may face when filming the real title sequence. The problem with the first pan was that there was a lot of shaking making it almost impossible to watch and this shaking created a shrill high pitched noise which be incredibly unprofessional and disruptive if it wasn't present in our final piece. We managed to get the pan right the second time with a lot less shaking, due to some adjustments we made to the tripod and how fast the subject was moving on camera.

Camera Shot type / Movement list for filming

After designing our storyboards for title sequence the we thought it would be much more helpful when filming to have a shot type list, making what we need to accomplish in each scene clearer and giving us something to help evenly divide the scenes up. We also won't have to think of the structure of the scene off of the top of our heads, keeping the flow of the film. Although, we may not completely follow the list because if the mise-en-scene at the location isn't how we planned we can alter it slightly showing the valuable skill of improvisation, of which some of the most notorious directors of all time have done at one point or another making the altered shot look a lot better than the original one they had in mind. 

We assigned each shot type list to a different member in our group, and since we have an odd number of scenes we have decided that we will each film a portion of the fifth scene e.g. 2-3 shots each. If a member of the team cannot make it to the filming day for one reason or another, we can just look at their list and rearrange the schedule for them to film a different scene on another day.

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Scene 5

Mood Board

The Final Girl Theory

Although, this theory and common convention of horror films is not relevant to our film, it gives us more of an insight into what the general public expect to be in a horror film and what makes the film successful if done correctly.

Carol J. Clover put forward the idea of the final girl theory, which states that the last female alive who is destined to confront the villain/antagonist is typically a virgin or is sexually unavailable for one reason or another, usually has a unisex name like Sydney or Georgie and sometimes has a history with the antagonist relating them somehow, either by being a relative or ex-boy/girlfriend. A good example where this theory is most prevalent is the Scream film series, where in Scream 1 the killer turns out to be Sydney's psychotic ex-boyfriend  and then again in Scream 3 the masked killer is proven to be Sydney's half brother. In the majority of horror films that follow this convention, the audience witnesses the gradual development of mental and physical strength in the final girl allowing her to confront her nemesis and end the reign of the tormentor once and for all. Since slasher films are usually very predictable, which is what people hate about them, we have decided that our victim will be male, making the end of the films plot less foreseeable to the audience.

Here are a few examples of Horror films where the final girl theory is present:

Scream 1 (1996) Sydney Prescott

Alien (1979) Ellen Ripley

Final Destination 3 (2006) Wendy Christensen

I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) Julie James

It is noticeable that by the end of these films the final girls seem to be more masculine with their appearance and actions, especially Ripley from Alien, covered in blood, sweat and dirt, protecting a helpless child in one arm and holding a large gun in the other.

After watching a lot a horror films I have noticed that there are very few in which the protagonist is a male and after watching three of the films which followed this theory, I could easily anticipate what would happen in the next few that I watched causing the films to become dull and boring, causing me to feel less empathy towards the protagonist and more good will for the villain, hoping that they would catch the annoying, unrealistically lucky victim so that the film would end. Now that I have researched this theory it makes me more certain that we should have a male victim in our film as it will stand out more in comparison to other horror film making it harder for the audience to anticipate what will happen next. This is why the final girl theory is useful for the creation of our title sequence and the narrative for the whole film.