Natural Vs. Possessed Make-up

Natural vs. Possessed 

The first look that I created was the 'natural' look that the girl will have when not completely possessed. I kept it simple so it looks like she's barely wearing any makeup, to keep her innocence and young age obvious.

Here is the finished result. I used a light concealer and powder to give a flawless yet not obvious look.  I also filled in her eyebrows lightly and added a thin coat of mascara to add a slight definition to the eye area without looking dark and heavy. 

Finally, I added some pink blusher to give a natural flush to the cheeks that is stereotypical of 'sweet' young girls and a slight pink to the lips. Overall the look is flawless yet is light to keep her innocence and just defines the features of the face.

Equipment used to achieve possessed look (girl already wearing make-up from 'natural look')

• Light-dark brown and black eyeshadows from the pallet 
• Very light pressed powder
• Eyebrow wax
• Various brushes

The eyebrow wax allows texture to be added to the look, and gives the illusion of a cut or some type of infection to the face, both of which are common conventions within possession make-up.

Here the girl has no make-up on, apart from the extra powder I have added to make her appear paler and more disturbing as the colour has been drained from her face.

Here I have added the different shades of eyeshadow to various points of the face and under the eyes, to make her appear darker and more effected by the possession that is overtaking her.

I have now added the wax to add depth and texture to the look, I placed it evenly arohnd the face so that the physical effect of the possession can be seen at any angle by the camera.

I added some of the eyeshadow to the wax to add depth to them, allowing them to look more realistic and therefore more disturbing, linking to the supernatural horror genre.

I also made sure the eyelashes, eyebrows and lips were very light as my aim was to drain all colour from the face to make the girl look extremely 'unwell'.

This is the overall look. I am pleased with the outcome as it looks realistic and disturbing, but to improve I could have added red to make the wounds look more 'fresh' and gory.

Editing Task: Church

Editing Task: Church

In this editing task I practiced my editing skills, in particular colour effects on the sequence such as black and white or sepia etc. I did this using iMovie, first I imported the separate clips from my video camera onto the software.

I used iMovie as it allows a wide range of effects and is easy to use and navigate. It allows the manipulation of clips and sound, as well as being able to add things or get rid of things that do not work or are not appropriate for what the user wants:

I selected the clips and imported them, I then dragged them down to the editing area to be manipulated.

The first thing I did was to crop the clips, as this allowed me to get rid of any parts of the sequence that I did not want or should not be in there (such as camera shakes or scenes that were too long and included elements that did not work.)

To do this I split the clip, which enabled me to delete the part of it that I did not want.

I then detached the audio and deleted it. 

This allowed me to get rid of extra sounds such as talking, background noise and wind.

I then chose the video effect that I felt would be the most appropriate for each clip. The different effects throughout the sequence such as black and white, sepia, dream and heat wave makes the overall sequence look more disjointed and disturbing, linking to the desired genre (supernatural horror.)

I then slowed some of the clips to add again an element of distortion to the sequence, again linking to the supernatural horror genre.

To allow the sequence to run more smoothly, I added the two transitions 'cross dissolve' and 'cross blur', so there were no sudden cuts between clips. I also added the 'fade to white' transition at the end as it linked to the 'dream' effect used in the scene before, and is a clean end to the sequence.

I added audio to make the sequence even more effective. The use of children singing, playing and giggling focuses on the idea of young children being used as it comes across as more errie and disturbing, which is a common convention of horror films.

Finally, I adjusted the volume so that the audio was not too loud and therefore did not overpower the clip.

This is the final outcome. 

What went well:

• The effects all worked together to create an overall disjointed and disturbing effect.
• The audio is specific to the classic horror convention of using young children as they create sympathy within the audience, and can also seem more creepy as they are so innocent.
• The church setting is effective and appropriate to the supernatural horror genre.

To improve:

• The sound and visual effects could have contained more conventions of the supernatural horror genre to have more of a distressing impact on the audience. 

Initial Storyboard

 The following images are our initial storyboard which we based on a young girl walking home when she feels she is being watched so she decides to run. Throughout, she has flashbacks(with each flashback increasing in extremity) of an exorcism which she has witnessed .





     









As the victim will be under the impression that she is being followed, as well as using research from other opening scenes, we could film some of the shots behind tree branches, as the leaves in the frame will emphasize this impression of being watched/followed. This links in with the first flashback as it will be an over-the-shoulder shot of a priest watching as she walks away.

As from the survey, most of our target audience said that they found the location of a family home the most frightening,  we have tried to incorporate this into our opening as we have decided to end the opening with our victim reaching her home, which is also where the antagonist will be. As a lot of our audience also said that they found woody areas the most frightening, the majority of our opening will be based in woody as well as other isolated areas.

Also when there is a flashback of the victim being tied down to a chair/bed, a high angle shot will be taken of this to emphasize their vulnerability. As we want to leave our audience scared, due to the genre, we have decided to end our opening scene with the antagonist jumping in the camera with the camera zooming into their eye until the title appears.      

Furthermore the extreme close up shot of a religious cross symbol will be to emphasize the religious aspect of possession.

Evil Dead deconstruction

Evil dead is a remake of the original 1981 film.

The book which sparks off the possession is stitched together which makes it look like someone has tried to destroy it and not succeeded. There is also warnings on the inside of the book which gives the impression that bad things have happened before. This effect could be easy to replicate as you could stain pages of a notebook to make it like this.

Lighting is very important as there are various shots which have limited lighting. This is because Mia the protagonist is shut away in the basement. There is also the use of torch light which has the common convention of being afraid of what you can’t see.

It is set in a lone cabin in the woods this means that everyone is disconnected from the outside world. This setting is also very creepy at night which add to the scariness of the film.

Some of the Camera angles used such as the mirror shots. These are very effective as you can still see the demon but it is from their point of view which makes the audience connect with the characters.The extreme close ups of Mia's face are very

There is a lot of non-diegetic sound used. There is soft orchestral music when the brother is contemplating killing Mia. This makes the audience sympathetic as he is looking at pictures of them growing up while sound is going on.

They use straight cut edits to think the audience think that this story is not fantasy and find it more realistic.

The special effects make up is very effective as it looks very real and the use of lighting can help with this as you do not have to the whole to tell that something is wrong with the girl.

 

This film also has the girl who is being possessed in an old style white nightgown. This could contrasts Mia's character as she is not innocent and at the beginning of the film she decides to not rely on drugs any more.

Editing Task: Demonic Possession

I filmed my sister doing jerky, un-natural movements at the top of the stairs. The low camera angle gives her more dominance, which she would need being the demonic character as they have the most power. 

I filmed my sister on a Sony Handycam and then uploaded the video onto my iPhoto, this way I could then transfer it on to my iMovie for editing.

I imported my video from iPhoto onto iMovie. iMovie is a great programme to use as it gives a lot of different options such as sound effects and slow motion which you can customize to create the desired effect to suit the purpose of your video. 

I filmed my sister as one long video, which I did not realise would make cutting parts out a lot more tricky. To overcome this problem, I simply split the clip in the appropriate places, which then allowed me to cut out whatever actions I did not want.

Next I decided to speed up the video using fast forward (20x.) This made the actions look a lot faster and jerker, which ultimately made them look more un-natural and therefore more disturbing.

I then decided to customise the speed of  the 'fast forwarding'. Using 20x was too fast and made the clips stop or jump, greatly taking away from the desired effect.

I changed it to 200% which was slower, but worked a lot better as the sequence was of an un-natural speed still but flowed continuously instead of skipping or jumping like before. I selected the speed for each clip, and decided to slow the end right down, to give a much more frightening impact.

I then chose to rewind the clip, which made the actions play backwards, appearing much more un-natural than before, making my sister appear possessed which was very disturbing and would distress the audience.

I then stabilized any shaky video, as the camera was handheld because I did not have access to a tripod. This made the video quality much better and more professional. 

Finally, I added two different sounds effects for ultimate impact. I added a deep droning sound over the first few clips, and then added a thunder clap at the end. I made the sound at the start quieter and the thunder clap louder, which built up suspense and then made the audience (the people I have shown) jump. I added a 'fade to black' transition at the end, so the audience can use their imagination at the end, what did the possessed girl do next? 

Below is my final video. I am very pleased with the way it has turned out, especially after seeing the responses from people. It provides a frightening and disturbing impact, which was the ultimate purpose and links directly to the supernatural horror genre.