set

 In our opening scene my group is creating a cultist massacre, this is because our scene is based around a demonic creature that was summoned by a girl, and the massacre will be the remains of this poor girls body, with pieces of her all around the place. This set will be based deep into the forest of Holmbury Hill. 

The materials we will need to archive this is fake blood, butchers meat including intestines and pig heads, in order to make the set more demonic. As well as symbols, these symbols will be used to create the sense of a cult summoning.     

The possible problems we could face are if it rains, or we leave the set too long, and it begins to become dirty or the fake blood loses its colour-way. Furthermore, our opening scene is strict on timings so we need to be aware of how long we spend on creating this set. 

What my group is picturing the scene to look like is a terrible terrible mutilation of a girls body, this will be made obvious by ripped up pieces of dresses as well as blood and loose multitude parts all around the place, as well as demonic and weird props around to signify the cultists presence. 

We are building this instead of just using the location with a 'dead body' because we are trying to create a environment of horror, and this is required in order to show a terrible event has taken place, this set needs to be created in order to startle the dog walker and create a big sense of horror, that the whole build up of the opening scene will eventually come too. 

call sheet

 

A call sheet is needed for my group in order to contact any of the crew/cast if a problem was to take place, in getting props and costumes and if a unfortunate last minute drop out, which could be due to a member being ill or injured.

shot list

Our group roles

 

 My role is editor, my job is to edit the final sequence of our opening scene, I will be responsible for adding sounds and editing all the recorded camera shots into one video. 

We have to prepare before the shoot to record what editing techniques we are going to be using as well as knowing our shooting time so we are not late. We also need to prepare to make sure we have all the props on the shooting day, in order for us not to be missing out on any items. 

The material we need are all our props as well as our phones in order to have access to our shot list and our story board in order to know all the camera angles we are filming as well as a step by step record of what we are actually going to be filming. 

My role is so important as I am responsible for the finished copy of our opening scene, this opening scene has an importance to my group as it is a big proportion of the course work, as well as we have been working on and preparing filming for over a month. 

The problems I can foresee on the shoot day is weather, this will be very challenging as it will be hard to setup the set of the massacre if rain gets all over our props, which includes fake blood being washed away. 

Foley Sound

Foley sound is the recreation of everyday sound effects that are added to films and other media in post-production to enhance audio quality. 

Foley sound is used to enhance the quality of the audio, to make the sounds more realistic. Foley sounds are often created in a recording studio during post-production, usually created with everyday objects that you would find around someones house. An example of creating foley sound is crunching celery to create a breaking bones sound effect, this video shows how this foley sound is created and very effectively also-

An example I have found is using an inhaler, the sound that I have used this for is a burst of smoke coming out of a pipe. 

Here is an example I made over the classic Jurassic park opening kitchen scene, here I used a belt and brushed it across my desk to make the big door opening and closing sound, I then tapped a shoe across a wood floor to create the running noise. I then used my shoe and hit it against a plant pot to create a crashing sound. Finally the last few noises were created from using the sound of a inhaler for smoke, and using a pen across a fan to create the weird creature noises.

Editing workshop

 The editing software which we used was Adobe Plus, Premiere Pro.

The reason there are four different video sections is to make everything in editing more accessible and easier to use. On the top left this is where all the footage is played, the bottom left is where all the footage is stored in files, and then the top right is total film, then the bottom right is the actual editing, the live feed of what is actually in the film.

The reason we have to constantly save is because we can't account for everything to go perfectly all the time and sometimes we may face problems, like the computer crashing or the software crashing, furthermore, it is just more effective to save all the time so you have backups if anything goes wrong

The footage is what you have filmed and the rushes is this film being inputed into the folder on the software, and daily's is the American term for rushes. 

The cutting tool is used to split the footage into two different sections, so the footage can be cut more precisely and you can take sections out in between. 

The cutting tool short key is I and the arrow shortcut key is V.

In and points is the first are the first frame of the clip that you want to be the sequence and the out points are the last frame of the clip that you want to be in the sequence. 

The + key zooms into the footage so you can see more of the film and so you can edit easier, the - key does the opposite and zooms out so you can see more of the edited footage.

The key we use to undo is CMD C 

The reason you need to be careful putting the footage onto the timeline because if you overlap footage it deletes the footage below it, and also the footage at the top of the timeline is always the one that plays. 

Our group storyboard

By Olly, Lola, Tom, Jemma  

This is our group story board 

As a group, we split up in order to cover different sections of the story board, this is because it gave my group an easier work load and also none of us take art, so we had to rely on each other instead of just one person. 

Costumes

For our opening scene we need one costume for our main actor, and we will also need a random dress that fits a little girl.

We are going to purchase our outfit from a charity shop, this outfit will be a dress for a little girl, this wont cost much and we will be splitting the price between all four of us.

For our backup we will bring in some spare clothes, or ask our main actor to bring in some throw away clothes.

The cost will be low, and we will split the costs between us to make it fair.

We need a normal costume to make the actor look like he’s just an ordinary man, walking his dog in the middle of the day. We need to get some normal clothes for him as we are going to be using fake blood and we don’t want to ruin not only the actor, but everyone else's clothes on set. Therefor we are also going to get all of us in clothes we don’t mind ruining, it isn’t certain that these clothes are even going to get anything on it but it is just incase. Furthermore, we will need a dress for a little girl to signify the death of a little girl, this will be a massacre so the dress will be needed because it will be ripped up to show she's been attacked by a supernatural creature.

Casting : Response

This is the response we got from Mike, this took a day reply but this means that we have a backup actor that we can use if need be.

Story board: My complete section

Story board the making

 

My design revolves around using a pencil and a pen, in some of these photos I use don't use a pen, this is because of the fact it is hard to shade with a pen and it looks a lot better when just done with photos. 

With the majority of these photos I used a reference in order to create the best picture I could possibly, most of the photos have taken me around half an hour each just making it look as real as possible and to show better what will happen when we film the real thing

I did in total 9 of the sketches this is because my group split our work into all four of us. 

During the making of my story board I managed to lose these two sheets of story board so I had to redo a few and I carried on the ones I hadn't done. 

What is a story board?

 A story board is a series of pictures that are named with a shot number, these shot numbers show the story scenes in order. 

These are the following that is included in a story board:

• Shot number 
• Location 
• Action 
• Shot/movement 
• Sound
• Lighting 
• Transition 
• Timing 

These following make filming a lot easier for directors, this is because they know what to film when on set instead of having to think of what happens on the spot, the only exception of a film director that doesn't use this technique is Speilberg. 

A story board outlines the camera composition and can be a direction on how to edit, composition includes rule of 3, foreground background and symettry, this is so important because this means the camera crew and director know exactly how and what to film on the day. As well as editors knowing the style of editing needed for the opening scene. 

This is very important for my group as we only have one day to film with limited time, the time we are given will be six hours, and this doesn't account for setting up the scene, setting up props and the journey to our location.
Therefor the storyboard acts as our plan and shows us what we will be filming, this will help with our concept because we have a complex story and to really embody the emotion and tension from our opening scene it is vital we have a full storyboard. 

Props

For my opening scene my group doesn’t have a set number of props, we are using anything that creates an eerie and scary atmosphere and all taking part in the pricing.

This is the list of the props we are going to need and possibly use, the list will be longer when we search for what to get, this is due to it being better to have more items then too little:

• Fake blood,
• meat,
• a little girls dress,
• other materials that make it look scary and weird like crystals weird rocks,
• weird sticks,
• spray paint

Most likely we are going to make the fake blood, because it is very expensive for a gallon, around 50 pounds for two bottles.

We can just let all these props from amazon, and just genuinely online. For the fake blood we will need materials like syrup, starch and different food colouring in order not to spend as much money.

 

Location : Issues

For our location there are a few issues we will possibly face some of these issues are: 

• Temperature, it could be cold on the day of our filming 
• Lighting, the weather could be foggy or dim which would cause our natural lighting to be obscured 
• Wind, it could be very windy which could lead to our props being blown away
• Power, we are filming in the woods this means that we won't have any access to power
• Weather, due to us filming outside we could face bad weather, this includes it being to cold or raining

These are a few of the issues that we will most likely face, but these can all be dealt with. Due to our location being outside space will not be a problem, this is due to us filming in the woods and we have the availability to film in most places. Furthermore, it will not be difficult to get to Holmbury Hill as it is located very close to Hurtwood House. 

• Some of the ways in which we can avoid these issues, is bring some extra clothing like gloves and coats to deal with temperature. 
• For the lighting there is not much we can do to avoid this, but the cameras we will be using can adjust to the lighting and create a better picture, even in dim lighting. Additionally, we will be filming in the day so most likely we will not face a lighting issue. 
• If it is windy on the day of filming there is not much we can do, but we can also dress in warm clothing, on the other hand, we are filming in the woods so we will be surrounded by trees making it not likely that this will obstruct our set.
• To deal with our power problem we can bring additional batteries for the cameras, and we can bring power packs also in order to charge other electronics. 
• For the weather, which would be our biggest issue this is due to if it rains the fake blood may start running off the body and it could lead to our set looking messy and not like a really murder scene. This can be dealt with if we bring umbrellas and we make sure our set is protected until we use it for filming.

Location : backup

 In our opening scene we are filming in the woods. This is why it is not that likely we will need to change location. But incase we face any issues around filming in Holmbury hill woods, we will use the woods behind Peaslake boarding house, this is due to these woods being easily accessible and it is a popular dog walking location. 

Location : Where

Our filming location is going to be located in the woods, this is because our whole idea is based around this, as are main actor will be playing the role of a dog walker, furthermore, the woods capture a more realistic horror location. 

The actual location we will be filming at is Holmbury Hill we picked this because it is easily accessed and it has the features that we need to create our opening scene to its best potential, additionally, another member of our group knows this location very well which will help substantially as he will know the best places that fit our opening scene.

Test shoot step by step idea of our opening scene

1.  start with establishing shot of trees
2. then establishing shot of location 
3. a blank screen with a sound of walking on leaves 
4. shot of mans feet with dog feet walking as well
5. shot of the legs higher shot 
6. shot of the person from behind their whole body 
7. a shot of him being watched from the trees 
8. close up of the mans face 
9. camera shot of above him 
10. camera shot of the side of him start to reveal the character 
11. then close up of the dog 
12. establishing shot of man and small reveal of the symbol in the background 
13. closeup of the pentagram which is on the tree
14. the man walks past and the camera stays in the same position focusing on the meat on the tree 
15. a shot of the man watched through the trees
16. Clothes up with leaves with blood on them 
17. then a pan down tree
18. close up of blood dripping down tree 
19. then the camera stays in the same angle 
20. and the camera follows the man as we walks past 
21. Shot of dog running through trees 
22. he sniffs around as if he smells something
23. then we can have a high angle shot of the meet hanging over the dog 
24. close up of the man shouting come on boy 
25. Low angle shot of the dog running towards the camera 
26. shot of man and dog walking through the wood
27. close up of the dogs face with blood on its chin 
28. the man then stokes the dogs chin not noticing the blood 
29. brings his hand close to his face after feeling something wet 
30. Looks at the his hands after noticing the blood 
31. then he starts to freak out 
32. dog runs away 
33. man calls and runs after dog 
34. camera only shows his reaction of the massacre
35. sees dog sniffing remains of the body 
36. Man being watched through the trees
37. close up of him turning around 
38. shot of camera going towards him fast
39. goes to black screen of him screaming 

Review of the test shoot

Our opening scene has turned out a lot better than we originally thought it would look in film, the scene is a lot more engaging than I thought it would be, and tension is created through the editing. The shots have turned out really well together, and it flows very smoothly, as if it was all one motion. But there are a few things that I understand we could've done better and will be changed in the real one. 

Our opening scene test shoot is just under 2 minutes, at 1:45, this is due to some of our scenes being over-run by one of us in the background. Furthermore, we had to cut a few scenes because we accidentally kept a third party in the scene. This is due to us not using camera directions affectively, we did not use the commands, like camera rolling, action and cut. This caused us to be unclear on whether the camera was filming or not. 

Looking at the opening scene we filmed I feel like that overall the pace could be faster, this is due to there being a lot of scenes that are quite slow. These scenes are just our actor walking through the woods and there is not much going on, reducing the overall pace of the opening scene. This could be changed in the real thing, by engaging the camera catching weird occurrences in the woods, like unnatural claw marks, more demonic symbols and overall more action. 

Overall I think that the narrative is both clear and unclear, this is due to the scene being a simple idea, of a man walking through haunted woods that contains a demonic creature, and he comes across a dead mutilated body. On the other hand, the scene is also somewhat unclear, this is due to the fact we couldn't use any blood, or have any symbols fully ready beforehand. In the real filming we will have this all set up meaning we will capture the reality of this idea. 

The editing creates tension, this is due to the non-diegetic soundtrack we used, this eerie soundtrack creates an unnerving atmosphere. This music stays the same throughout making the scenes unpredictable, furthermore, the editing too black after the starting shots creates tension because we as the audience are subdue to darkness. This darkness tells the audience that someone bad is coming, and that the main character is not safe. 

From the camera angles and movement we used, I feel like they were very effective, this is because I feel like we capture all angles of this old man walking through the wood. We used some creative filming techniques, like filming from some bushes. Me and Lola also used some high angle camera shots, to capture the reality of the situation, and how much danger the old man is in. 

From our test shoot I can see what we could've improved, this is what my group is going to take away from this filming. Our practice wasn't properly prepared, and this caused us to loose filming time, furthermore, this loss in time lead to us not having a two minute long scene and being 15 seconds short. 

Looking at the edited version of the opening scene I can see that the chase at the end hasn't worked well, this is due to us only having one or two shots of it, furthermore, there is not much clue on why the old man is running. There is a brief rustling in the bushes and then the man starts screaming and running, I personally think that the screaming comes across as sarcastic and it is not done in a serious manner, overall in the real filming this will be changed and we will have a more consistent and realistic shot of the old man running. Furthermore, the symbols could have been done a lot better, there was a lack of action throughout the camera focusing on the man walking through the woods, this will be changed in the real filming, more action will happen throughout the walk, there will be camera shots on weird objects and symbols around which the old man wouldn't see.

What went well in the filming is the overall timing, our opening scene has almost been filmed for 2 minutes which is the minimum, our finished shoot came out the longest out of everyone in the classroom. Furthermore, the editing went very well our opening scene is very effective at creating tension, this is only the practice, with the real thing I can imagine it will turn out a lot better. 

Overall the final edit of my opening scene came out pretty successful, it came out a lot better than I originally thought, although there are a few things that we are going to need to improve. Some of these things include having a 2 minute long sequence which we were 15 seconds off by, also have a faster pace to the overall scene, this is because theres a lot of filming of the man walking but not much else is going on. This is why my group have come up with a lot more ideas to add to the main filming, and capture the tension a lot more effectively. 

Casting : Backup Actor

Our backup actor is Mike, this is because he has a long history also in the media scene, he has been in multiple opening scenes for Hurtwood, and some of these opening scenes have won competitions for best filming and acting. Mike also has a beard which would really fit our scene because he would be taking the role of a middle ages man, Mike also has a dog and due to his past experience he is just as good as our first option. Mike is our second choice because Doug went to drama school and he has directed and been in professional films. 

This is me emailing Mike to see if he is interested in playing our role of the backup actor. 

Casting : Main Actor

For our casting of the opening scene, we are going to cast Doug and his dog, Doug is going to be our main actor for this filming. The role he will be playing is the middle aged man, this is because he has a background and experience of going to a drama school and he has been in a lot of filming before, furthermore, he has a dog which we can also cast. This is why we think he is the best fit for our scene, Doug is 42 and he is a teacher at Hurtwood which makes him more reliable as he is most likely not to be late. We are also currently waiting for Doug to reply to our email, to see if he is available to act in our opening scene.