The strangers deconstruction

At the begining of the sequence there is heavy breathing which puts the audience on edge as they know that the main character is scared. The diegetic clangs of metal which start at 0:09 get more frequent which heightens suspence as you do not know where they are coming from.  There is an eerie sound at 0:48 which builds in volume and foreshadows what is about to happen. It is suddenly a lot louder when she put the knife into the curtain which conveys danger to the audience. There are a few moments of complete silence which contrasts with the sharp metal noise which has been amplified and the scream. The hand banging on the window at 1:12 is contrapuntal to the scene. 

The diegetic music that turns on has a very old fashioned repetitive style which paired with the deep knocking is quite effective in freaking out the audience. The  noise of the locks opening at 1:23 plays on the audiences idea of safety and is very relatable. Before the door opens there is a very deep noise which could represent the dark nature of the being/person behind it. From 1:36 onwards the eerie music builds from earlier in the sequence. The knocking that you hear at 1:59 is a lot more human like and less mencing, but the audience would find it hard to differentiate between the two. The shriek in the main characters voice shows her despertness and want for normality. The music on the record player slowly increases in volume before abruptly cutting out.

Creating sounds

We could use the creaky chair as a diegetic noise in our film as we have the main character being tied a chair. The noise could show her struggle. The heaving breathing would be useful in the forest scenes as we want to show her to be very agitated. We could also use the wind blowing to give an eerie feel to the woods scenes layering the sounds over each other would work well. I would also like to use a high pitch sound but would need to find an online sound for this. We would also need to make sure that the sounds would be able to be converted from sound cloud into a format that final cut pro can use.

Walled In Deconstruction (2009)

Walled In Deconstruction

Costumes

The very beginning scene shows a little girl dressed in an animated night dress which highlights her innocence whilst causing the audience to instantly be sympathetic towards this character alongside a series of her scared facial expressions within harsh high key lighting and the high angle shot, which also highlights her vulnerability. 

In addition to this, the juxtaposition between Mary and Sam may cause the audience to be suspisious of Mary, who is initially portrayed as a "clean freak". She is well presented with her bright hair always being slicked neatly, her clothing is also neatly buttoned up, alongside minimal make up. She is also well presentation through her composed posture whilst talking to Mary. Her behaviour further causes suspision as she hints of a set of rules which Mary must get accustom to as well as not going to the top floor of the apartment, hinting that everything may not be as it seems.

Locations

The building has an eerie look through its gloomy grey colour, as well as the sheer size of the building, which brings across an isolated atmosphere. The building also doesn't look as though it is an apartment/hotel due to it's unwelcoming appearance. One reason for this is due to its desolated surroundings, which is juxtaposed with Mary's suburban home; its bright white colour alongside.  The power lines are in the shape of a cross which could be to symbolise death. Other icons within the opening is the image engraved in a wall, which mimics a sword; this could be to introduce a common theme within supernatural horror-violence.

Furniture

When Sam gets into her room, there is a further element of isolation as the room seems bare, which further adds to the audiences suspisions alongside the artificial lighting within the low key lighting in her apartment. Furthermore, within the room, there a few old, antique looking furniture. For example, centred in the room is a wooden rocking chair. The rooms are neatly kept which could be to further illustrate Mary's tendency to keep everything clean and well put. The glass cabinet could also be symbolic to Sam being forbidden to do what she wants due to the ghosts. Similarly, to the shelf and its objects, they are delicate (china doll) therefore they must be carefully handled.

Low Key Vs. High Key Lighting

At the very beginning of the opening, there are only scenes which have high key lighting, however after Mary's entrance into the building, generally, the scenes are of low key lighting. As well as this, after her entrance into the building, there are several mid and long shots with back lighting, which further adds suspense for the audience as a silhouette of an unidentified person is on screen. This is further emphasised when we see a sector of light as a silhouette walks across.

When Sam first enters, there is an instant juxtapositon as she stands in bright artificial lighting, whilst Mary stands behind the door in low key lighting, which further adds the audiences suspicions of Mary as the audience are left in the dark, which is symbolised by the pitch dark room which she initially comes from.

Realism

In the title scene, whilst the story is being set, there is an image of an "Official Coroner's Report", alongside pictures of former victims, which could be to make the film seem more believable, as it seems to add scientific facts. Furthermore, images of a newspaper article also adds realism to the film which may cause the audience to become cautious as well as more scared as the film goes on. Its creased and dark colour, alongside the serif font, all add to emphasise the sinister appearance as it makes the article seem quite old, which is necessary for the background story.

Editing: Woods Practice

My task was to practice the audio that we could use for the woods scene within our supernatural horror film opening. I selected some of the footage that we have filmed and will be using in our opening, and added the audio effects created before (see older sounds blog post) that I felt were quite effective. I used iMovie for this as it is a simple way to practice with audio effects and manipulation.

I uploaded the clips and trimmed them to delete anything that was not needed. After the visual looked like I wanted it to, I was then able to chose the various sounds that I wanted to use within the sequence. I kept the visual fairly simple as the main focus of this task is the sound.

For the first clip I used the Demon Haunting Sound, as used before. This set a distressing mood for the audience as the harsh un-natural sound of the demon growls against the visual of the innocent young girl is a disturbing contrast. I finished the sequence with an un-nerving scream which I manipulated and made louder in order to have a maximum disturbing impact on the audience. In the second sequence I used the manipulated audio of the young girl singing, which is non-diegetic sound as the audience are shown girls emotionless face in the low key lighting.

I finished both sequences with the fade to black transition in order for them to have a clean finish.

I am pleased with:

• The sound is relevant and well-suited to the scene and the supernatural horror genre.

To improve:

• Play around with the manipulation of the sounds, perhaps on different software for greater impact.

Exorcisms Deconstruction

This first clip is just a scene of possession, from the film Possession (1981.) It is interesting to note the classic features used in possession scenes, such as un-natural movements, voice manipulation and the leakage of bodily fluid (most commonly blood.) The scene opens with a mid shot of the girl looking unstable with the on-screen diegetic sound of her laughing loudly to herself. This continues with the audience watching her from behind throwing herself at the subway walls. The lighting is high-key due to the well lit walkway from the lights. The long shot shows her rolling along the walls laughing hysterically, before she starts screaming loudly and the long shot shows her violently spilling her shopping everywhere. She begins screaming in an un-natural voice with jerky and disturbing body movements before collapsing to the ground where there's a straight cut of her with fluid coming out of her mouth and she supposedly has a miscarriage.


This exorcism is taken from The Exorcism of Emily Rose. She is being exercised by the priest in the barn-house. The clip opens with a close up of Emily screaming, with low-key lighting due to the heavy storm, so she is very much in the shadows.  The priest is first shown in a close up, where the audience can clearly see by his dress (clerical collar, liturgical vestment and black robe) that he is a religious figure. The on-screen diegetic un-natural sound of her voice is very much distressing to the audience. The priest has a bible, in which he quotes out of in an attempt to rid of the demon that is possessing her. There is also a doctor present at the exorcism whom keeps an eye on her physical state throughout the exorcism, The priest tries to find out the names of the demons in a series of fast-paced straight cuts in order to get rid of them.


This is another exorcism scene from the film The Devil Inside. The scene opens with a mid-shot of the possessed lady, whom is on a treatment bed in a mental hospital in which she has been placed to look after and control her. Her physical state (red around the eyes, pale) and the distressing diegetic screech let us know that she is over-taken by a demon. The priests are easily identified again but the white clerical collar and liturgical vestment, which displays an image of the cross. They hold a wooden cross symbol over her whilst quoting lines from the bible in an attempt to rid the demon, The priests continue despite being physically assaulted by the woman, who is in an un-natural and distressed state. The woman escapes the table but is tied back be the persists, who try to find out the name of the demon in a series of frantic straight-cuts. The cross and vestment are placed on the woman whilst the lords prayer is spoken in a final attempt before the scene comes to an end.

Location Mise en scene

Location Mise en Scene

Unfortunately one of our planned locations for filming the flash back shots was not able for us to use.  We decided to find a different location so I thought that my garage would be a good location to use.  The garage is mainly dark colours and is messy and dirty, which fits with our supernatural horror genre.


The first video is showing the garage before I moved some of the objects that would not fit in with our film opening.  I took away the ladder, BBQ, bikes and plastic bags to create a better atmosphere for the opening.

The second video is the garage from the POV of the victim.  We plan to have her on a chair or sitting on the floor against the brown wall.  From her POV you will see the priest and some of the garage.  I feel that this location is suitable for the opening because it is bare and dirty which goes with the conventional horror location.  

Evil Dead Deconstruction

Evil Dead Deconstruction

The opening begins with the production companies, as usual the main large company goes first, in this case TriStar.  Next is the smaller companies of Film District and Ghost House Pictures.  Ghost House obviously specialises in horror films as it features a skull in the title.  The companies are shown again on a black screen with blood red, bold and worn out font, which is conventional for a horror film.

An establishing shot of the woods is in low-key lighting with silhouettes of the trees and thick fog. All together this creates a creepy, ominous atmosphere as the trees look very menacing and as there is limited light, the fear of the unknown is very apparent. There is a slight build up of non-diegetic, low, string music which cuts off when the opening begins which helps to build tension and suspense.   

A mid-shot framing the back of the woman's head is also silhouetted which creates a sense of mystery and the dark colours are typical of a supernatural horror.  There is silence for most of the beginning of the opening which is successful in conveying the emptiness of the woods and builds suspense.  

 A close up shot of the woman's feet walking increases the tension as the audience begin to wonder who she is and why she is walking through such a scary, strange woods.  The grass is dead and dark which connotes death and decay, synonymous with the horror genre.  Diegetic sound of the crisping grass under foot breaks the silence but makes the scene seem more realistic to the audience.

A close up shot of her hand, dripping with blood, is very ominous as it suggests previous violence and danger, key themes in supernatural horror.  The continual use of back lighting keeps the sense of mystery going throughout.

A mid shot frames the woman in the distance whilst a black figure rushes past the camera.  The speed and surprise of the shot makes the audience jump and increases the suspense and feeling of danger.  A parallel non-diegetic sound of something rushing past, almost like a quick, strong wind makes the audience jump and the tension rises. An accompanying diegetic sound of the woman gasping conveys realism within the scene to the audience.

An over the shoulder shot of the woman and a mysterious, silhouetted figure in the distance makes the tension rise dramatically as you still cannot see much due to the low key lighting and fog.  Diegetic sound of the woman breathing heavily conveys her feeling scared and threatened.  Non-diegetic high pitches string sound increases in volume and tempo as the figure comes into view.   

 A series of mixed close-ups and mid-shots framing the woman trying to run away are used using fast straight cuts and a sense of disorientation is conveyed using a shaking hand held camera.  A mid shot of the woman framed against a tree with a scared expression on her face increases the tension as the straight cuts slow down to lead up to a jump.  

 The straight cuts then speed up again as she is attacked by a rabid looking man wearing cut off dirty clothing to which shows he lives in the forest and is maybe not as evolved as the woman.  A mid-shot of the two of them struggling on the floor shows his dominance and violence. A loud, sudden non-diegetic sound of strings is made when the attack begins to make the audience jump and become scared.  Loud orchestral non-diegetic sound is played 

throughout the attack to convey the danger as the 

strings are very fast which is in parallel to what is happening

on screen. Diegetic sounds accompany this of chocking from the woman and grunting from the man to show there positions in the attack.

 The opening ends on a long shot of the two men hitting the woman on the floor.  The location is still scary and ominous with the dark trees and fog.  As the second man hits the woman to knock her out, a loud non-diegetic sound of high pitched string music plays to accompany the diegetic sound of the woman being hit to put more emphasis on the moment.

I feel that this deconstruction has inspired me with our own film opening as it takes place in the same location as part of our opening.  In the editing process of our film I will look back on this film and use ideas from both the diegetic and non-diegetic sound to put the best effects on our opening.

The film title

We decided to do a survey to our target audience (15-22 years old) to decide what the title to the opening of our film should be. All of the titles we had under consideration had some link with the supernatural element and/or religion. We looked at other supernatural horrors to gain inspiration and used the title to put in thesaurus.com. We posted it on social media with four options and were able to decide on a title from this. All the members of our group were happy with each possible option, this means that our film title is the ritual.

Woman in black deconstruction

The scene starts with a high pitch neighing sound of a horse which puts the audience on edge as a common convention of supernatural horrors is that animals have a sixth sense. You can see that Mr Kipps is agitated and the audience empathise with him. It is very dark in the house as it set at night, with only the the light of candles as in the time period there would not be electrical lamps. The fact that Mr Kipps has a axe with him suggests that he is afraid. His loud footsteps are parallel to the silence that you hear which makes them seem more pronounced and harsher.  The house is very large and quite dirty which is a common convention of supernatural horrors. 

The weather is contrapuntal to the scene as there are occasional booms of thunder and the rain reflects the emotions of Mr Kipps throughout the whole film. When the high pitch non-diegetic sound starts the sound of the rain decreases, this means that the audience focus more on this sound. It is unnerving because Mr Kipps can see something mysterious in the distance. 

The scream that you hear is not expected which makes the audience jump. The sound is very short but sounds quite pained. The heavy breathing of Mr Kipps also foreshadows this. As the figure gets closer the non-diegetic high pitch sound builds in volume.   

The barking of the dog is very worrying and keeps the tension high. The metal doorknob banging together is quite ominous. There is also a low pitched non-diegetic sound which adds to the drama. Mr Kipps tone of voice is very agitated. 

Opening Credits Practice

My task was to practice a variety of ways that we could have our credits during our final film opening. I put some clips together and added different credit styles to we could analyse what would look best. There is no audio as this is a small clip just showing credit styles.

I used iMovie as they have a variety of credit and title styles. I imported various clips that I filmed a while ago when we were searching for our locations as a basis for the credits.

As normal I split the clip to get rid of the large sections that I did not want.

I slowed a couple of the clips down in order to add some dynamics too the clip, and too see how credits looked alongside this effect.

I then detached the audio as there were un-necessary sounds such as wind and talking. I did not add any audio effects so that maximum attention could be paid to what is happening within the frame.

I added cross blur transitions and a fade to black transitions at the end so that the clip ran continuously and smoothly, with no jumpy straight cuts.

I then selected the credit styles that I felt would go best with our supernatural horror genre. I slotted them in throughout the clip to see how each of them looked as part of a sequence. 

They were placed on top of the clip so they appeared during it, not in between sections of the sequence.

I added the text 'DARF' as this is just as a practice, in reality you would have production companies, actor names etc. The font, colour and size can also be modified, which will be done during the final editing stage of our opening sequence.

I am pleased that:

• I was able to capture a wide variety of credit styles

I could improve:

• By adding more title styles, as there was only really one at the end that would be appropriate for this 
• Played around with the font, as we already know that to link well to our supernatural horror genre, the font will have to be gothic and either red, white or black

Burns Practical

Burns Practical

From my last make-up practical, I wanted to do another attempt to try and make the marks look more realistic. From my previous evaluation, I thought that to have a lot of blood and gore would'nt appeal to the genre very well, therefore I decided that it may be more beneificial to make burn marks, as they are quite subtle but would still be effective as our antagonist/victim could look "tainted" with this. I tried to use similar equipments which I used when trying to do the wound as when on set, we could be able to do a several types of wounds/marks.

Firstly I put a line of a thin layer of PVA glue on an area and left it to set until the glue was completely dry and see-through. After this, I put a black shade of eye shadow around the dried glue to make it look like dark burn marks. I paired this with a colour close to my skin colour to make the colours blend more effectively. 

After this was done, I removed the glue by stripping it away from the area which left a distinct line, which made it look like a burn mark. To emphasise this even more, I added a red colour to the area to the "wound" to make it look like my flesh.

Evaluation

Whilst I do think that this looked more realistic than my previous practical of a wound, I think that i could have done more to try and add texture to the wound. For example, by using moulding wax, I could have made it looked as though my skin was was falling off or by using shading techniques to make is look come across without having to use additional materials.  I also could hae experimented more with colours and added a purple/blue colour to make the surrounding skin looked as though it had been bruised. Furthermore, I think I could have also made the inside wound look more intense; as though it was heavily bleeding using fake blood. In addition to this, when doing the real thing, I would ensure that the eyeshadow which is used isnt glittery or has any other extra effects as this takes away from the realism.

A Nightmare on Elm Street Opening Credits

A Nightmare on Elm Street Opening Credits Deconstruction

0.0- American production company

0.4- Another American production company

0.6- Main actor starring as 'Freddy Kruger'

The typography of the credits is typical of the horror genre, using capital letters with pointed edges. The classic 'black, red and white' theme is also used, with the words being white. These features are followed all the way through.

0.9-Actor starring as 'Quentin Smith'

0.13-Actor starring as 'Nancy Holbrook'

0.15- Actor starring as 'Kris Fowles'

0.18- Actor starring as 'Jesse Braun'

0.25- Actor starring as 'Dean Russell'

0.31- Actor starring as 'Gwen' (Nancy's Mother)

0.36- Actor starring as 'Alan Smith' (Quentin's Father)

0.38- Casting director

0.46- Costume designers

0.50- Co-producer

0.53- Music composer

0.58- Editor

1.05- Production designer

1.10- Photography director

1.16- Executive producer

1.20- Executive producers

1.24- Executive producers

1.28- Characters former creator 

1.33- Production team

1.40- Story creator

1.43- Screenplay producers 

1.48- Director