Production: Filming Part 1

  Andd it's begun. We have officially started the filming process for our film. I thought this process was going to take a lot long time and be very gruesome. However, to my surprise, it wasn't. Me and my partner locked in and managed to get all of the major filming done in one day. We are though considering going back to our location and collecting more footage, just so we are certain we have enough.

So filming in Home Depot wasn't as bad as we thought, even though we were a little worried we weren't going to be able to get permission. But we did so go us! At some points it was a little bit embarrassing, people would walk by us and we would just awkwardly stop filming and they would stare at us and we would stare back. Yea it was weird, it's like people don't just casually see a horror film being shot on the daily. 

This is a blooper from our filming. The prop got stuck on the shelf, and both me and my partner started laughing.

I must say, you would think the hardest part of filming would be the legitimate filming, right? NOPE! WRONG! The hardest/worst part is getting lost in the location you are filming at. Imagine just two girls aimlessly walking around with a saw trying to find an exit. Yea it was not fun at all. However, I am really happy with all the footage we collected and how everything played out. I am also super excited to get to integrate our clips into our production.  

In this clip, we were following our actress around looking for the shovels.

Production #1: Permission

 Hiii, so before we started this project, I honestly thought the easiest part of this project was going to be getting permission to film. The way I was so incredibly wrong is not even funny. Thankfully, my lovely partner decided to take one for the team and do this process ( we divided and conquered, at this time I was working on the storyboard and her job was to get permission). So, im going to share her long journey on how she did it! ( if I had to hear the complaints, so do you).

  So, our location that we wanted to film at is Home Depot. We thought getting permission would be an easy process so we called and you'll never believe what they said?!?!?! No. Yea they said no, pretty hard set no. However, me and my partner don't give up easily, so we decided to go to our back up option of Loew's. Nevertheless, they were just as annoying. My poor partner was going back and forth between corporate and the store itself. So we gave up on them and decided to keep pushing for Home Depot.

This was us going back and forth, just calling the companies over and over again.

 Then the emails began between my partner and Home Depot. Basically, in the email, Home Depot said no, again. But my partner had faith that we could still get permission if we went in person. So that's what we did, we took a little field trip down to our local Home Depot. We walked in, talked to a manager, and explained we were doing a school project, and they let us film!! After being sent in circles, we finallyyy got the permission we needed. 

This is the email my partner sent to Home Depot. She mentioned to me that she claimed the email was "off" and that's when we got the idea to go in person and try asking for permission.

 Sooo I guess the point of this is to never take no for an answer, or if you push people enough they'll eventually give in. Just kidding! that might set people off. 

Audio

 Hiiiiii! It's time to talk about audioooo. Audio plays such a huge role in horror. Think about it like this, if you were to change the noises in horror films would they still be scary? No! if anything they would look quite ridiculous. The audio in films helps to tie together what the audience sees, and can make things appear much more intense. 

How it interacts with horror

 Creates tension: Audio can create tension within in a film by having long moments of silence. The silence makes the audience curious as to what is to come, which creates anxiety and tension build up. They also use sounds that create false ideas on an environment, which also increases that sense of tentions.

 Increases emotions: Things like a fast tempo or a slow tempo can increase excitement or panic, as well as create a calming and soft tone. Another detail is jump scares, jump scares startle the audience and triggers a response of unease. Also ubrupt silence can be unsettling, it also makes the audience really pay attention to what is happening in the film.

 Unatural environments: When specific sound are changed, like playing an audio in reverse, it can give the impression that something is "off" and misplaced. Hearing whispering or heavy panting from off screen, can create discomfort and make the audience parnoid. Another example is if a charcter has a pause in what they are saying, it makes the audience question what is happening.

How I can use it

 Unclear sounds: I can create sounds that are unrecognizable, such as muffled whispers. This will create the audience to question what is happening.

 Silence: Before something creepy is about to happen, the sound will be erased. The audience won't be able to hear anything, so that why whenever sound if brought back, it appears way more creepy and intense.

 Natural noises: Since a majority of our stuff is filmed outside, using diagetic sound, like feet against gravel, to create a creepier environment.

 Sound plays a huge role in horror, so if I am able to interpret it correctly, I can have massive control over what the audience is feeling.

Sources

BBC. (2015, October 14). Fright Night Shorts - The Science of Scary. BBC. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4cCsNLnjGKsXY7xRr80t4KC/the-science-of-scary

Academy of Edits. (2021, October 1). creating suspense in horror films – a video essay. Www.youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVz1mCMiaYc

For this video, I started watching at eight minutes and thirthy-four seconds.

Set

 Oh yea, oh yeaaaaa. Continuing on with planning the production, one key factor is the set/setting. I mean duh, it's where everything is going to take place and happenen, it's significantly important. Finding locations to film our project has been sort of tricky, but also equally as fun. I didn't realize all the location optiions I had, until I actually had to research it.

Hardware Store

 Okay, so first, starting off with the hardware store. This was actually a little difficult because we are filming in a store, we have to get permission. In any of the location we use, we would have to use the parking lot and the store.

 Our first option is Home Depot. We liked this place because of the vibe and aesthetic, I mean it's your typical hardware store. However, when it came to getting permission to film, they were quite difficult. They were having us call multiple places in order to get permission and it was a lot of back and forth. However, we do really want to utilize this place, so we are going to keep trying an get permission.

 Our second option is Lowe's. It the same thing, same hardware store vibe. Getting permission there has been much easier than Home Depot. Home Depot is just more local to film at rather than Lowe's, which is preffered since we want to try to limit the amount of driving around. 

 Our third option is a very very last resort, and that is one of our garages. My garage personally sort of looks like a hardware store. We have a bunch of tools and shelves, however we would still have to go to a hardware store parking lot, to give the impression we are filming in a hardware store and not someone's garage. 

Park

  In our film, we are using a park. We will have to use a public park, but trying to find locations has been quite simple, especially becuase there are a decent amount of parks in our area.

 Our first option is called Regional. We liked this location cause it was close to our houses, so not a whole lot of driving. There is also a lot of secluded areas, so we would be able to film in private without being interrupted. The only issue is, at night it can get crowded depending on the day. But as long as we go on a day where it's not to busy, we shouldn't have too many issues.

 Our second option is called Markem Park. It's a bit farther than Regional, but not by much. It's also a very open area. Not a whole lot a people go there, so if Regional doesn't work out, I think that Markem will work just as good.

Script

 Oh my gosh, scripts have got to be the most confusing thing to figure out. I have done so much research about how to put it together, layout, and don't even get me started on the font to use. At last though, I finally got it figured out, and present to you, my script!

Alsooo, this was my first time writing and working on a script! And it honestly wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. The website I used to get it into script format is called WriterDuet.

Link: https://www.writerduet.com/

Costumes

 Costumesssss, I love coming up with ideas for costumes. As a dancer, it has always been fun for me, its always my fav part finding out how im doing my hair and makeup for a performance. So when it came to doing costumes for my production, I was so excited to develop them.

Outfit

 Pants: For the bottems, I decided to go with a pair of jeans. We want her to be semi casual, so I didn't want to go with something to formal nor to lounge wear.

 Shirt: For the top, we are sticking to the semi casual theme, so we are going to have her wear a black shirt and to dress it up have her wear a grey colored blouse or blazer.

Shoes: For shoes we are having her wear a black pair of short stiletto heels with red bottems.

Hair & Makeup

 Hair: Our actress has short blonde hair, so we can't really do a whole lot of hairstyles. So we are going to have her keep it down and neat.

 Makeup: For her makeup we want her to keep it natural. Nothing to bold or too glam, just an everyday soft makeup look with the use of browns and golds.

Accessories

 For her accesories, we want her to have a bag so we decided on a plain black medium sized bag. Also another crucial accesory is her ring, it has a blue gem in the middle with other tiny ones surrounding it. 

Character Development

 Oh yeaaaa, time to start bringing our character to life! Finally, how we have imagined her can finally come true! Character development is such a big factor within the film. It can really draw in the audience as they become attached to the character.

Naming

 I must say, naming the character was probably the hardest part for me. We thought we could just come up with the name on the spot, which did not happen at all. We developed her personality prior to the name so trying to find a fitting name proved itself to be challenging. Soo we resulted to google, we pulled up multiple names and ran through them and said them out loud, and both of us agreed christina just seemed to be the best fitting for her. It's a powerful name, and is fitting for a character that does something irreversible. We did the same process for Christina's husband, Luke. However, he doesn't have as huge of a role as Christina. So his name wasn't as important. 

Christina's Personality

 Her personality prior to the diagnosis was very fun and bubbly. She wore a lot of light colored clothes and was usually super smiley. She offered to help people if they needed it, and she was very selfless. Always putting other peoples needs before her own. She was overall the picture perfect person. 

mood board: 

 After her diagnosis though everything changed. She became less talkative and kept to herself. Her bubbly personality diluted to just being plain and boring. She stopped wearing her fun colored clothes and turned more montoned. She was more depressed and got angry very easily. People didn't want to be around her and she didn't want them there. 

mood board: 

sources: Hanson, K. (2022, November 10). 100 Girl Names That Start With “C.” TODAY.com; TODAY. https://www.today.com/parents/babies/girl-names-that-start-with-c-rcna54093

Character Theory

 Hey, hey, heyyy, so for this blog my main goal was to pick a media theory I would like to include in my film. When it come to these theories, there is such a wide variety of options to choose from. However, for my genre of psychological horror, I decided to go with the Character theory.

What Is This Theory

 So to start off, defining the theory. Vladmir Propp states that characters can be classified into seven specific roles such as hero, villian, dispatcher, helper, donor, princess, and false hero. The hero is the one who goes on the journey ( ex. Harry potter). The Villian is the person who opposes the hero ( ex. Voldemort). Dispatcher sends the hero on their journey ( ex. James Bond). Helper assists the hero on their quest ( ex. Ron & Hermoine). Donor gives the hero something to help them on their journey ( ex. Dumbledoor). Princess the person who requires the hero (ex. Princess and the Pea). False hero is the one who seems good but turns out to be evil ( ex. Hans in Frozen).

How It relates To My Genre

 This theory can be applied to psychological horror by having the character be able to create fear and tension. It alters the way each role is seen, which gives the audience a whole new perspective. Also by changing the character types, a psychological horror film can have its narrative structured in a way that increases the sense of conflict, emotional feeling, which creates the story to be more intense and personal. Building the characters persona can be essential in horror as it gives the audience an idea of who they can trust and who they can't.

How I Can Use It In My Opening

1: I can use it to highlight the main character and her role in the film. I can do this all while not revealing too much about her so the audience still maintains interested.

2: I also can use it to build atmosphere. The way a set is designed can reveal a lot about a character and what goes on in their mind. A dark gloomy setting can represent someone who is depressed or going through a dark moment. While a light colored happier set can be represented a character in a better mental state.

 Since I decided to go with psychological horror, building character adds a lot the context of the film. We want to know the characters main motive and intentions, and their personality factors in a decent amount.

Sources

Propps Character Theory. (2014, September 29). AS Horror Opening. https://stcmmppp12a14.wordpress.com/2014/09/29/propps-character-theory/

Media Studies. (2020, October 25). Vladamir Propp’s 7 Character Types and Narrative Theory. Media Studies. https://media-studies.com/propp/

Plot Time!

  Omgggg, its finally time to reveal the plot!! So exciting!! Soo, my film is a psychological horror that is about a women who murders he husband. However, there is no huge action scenes, its all about the calmness that comes before the crime.

Opening

 The opening starts with a women in her car and we see her doing calculations,  but we are not sure what the reason for this is. She proceeds into a hardware store and purchases some interesting items. A knife, trash bags, duct tape, and a shovel. These items bought on their own, completely normal, however, putting them all together seems a bit suspicious. 

 She then proceeds to drive off into the dusk too a lonely park. We see a what appears to be heavy item in her trunk, but it is unclear of what it is. She then starts wrapping the heavy thing which outlines the image of feet. She starts digging in the ground, quickly and precise, she moves with intiative as she is trying to do this quickly. Finally she drops the heavy item into the hole, along with something else, her wedding ring. This gives the idea that the "item" is actually her husband.

 The main goal of this opening is too draw tention and attention without giving away too much.It should give off unsettling vibes while also provokin questions. Why did she do it? How did she do it? Was it really her? It is meant to be about the mind behind the murder.

Plot

 Christina is a 36 year old women married to Luke Moore and have a picture perfect marriage. They were highschool sweethearts, prom king and queen, and have been together since then. Christina has always wanted kids sinse she was little, howver, Luke was diagnosed with infertility. Even though it was a struggle for Christina to give up children, this tough time made the couple grow stronger together, while most couples fall apart.

 One random day, Christina started to get super sick, and taking pills became her comfort. They were just over the counter medications. She started to take more and more as her headaches got far more severe. Luke noticed his wife was suffering and suggested she go see a doctor, however, Christina refused and said she was fine. Christina started to act less and less like herself and her personality shifted. She would get upset easily and even fell into a depressive state. However Luke never left her side and stayed and tried to help her, even though she was struggling. The Christina that people knew and loved started to disappear as her headaches got worse. It got so bad and to the point where Christina would have these dreams, where she would see her husband cheating, and abusing her, but to her, they all felt real as if they were acually happening.

 So thats when she started her plan, she was goin to kill her husband. She couldn't take it anymore, the emotions were too much and she wanted it gone, she wanted him gone. The second he was sleeping, she stabbed him till he couldn't breathe and she was certain he was dead. She cleaned the mess and shoved him into the trunk of the car, and acted as if nothing had happened. She drove to the store and calculated the exact size of the hole she was going to dig. She bought all of her items, and drove off to the park. She wrapped up his lifeless body, dug the hole, and threw him and her wedding ring into the hole. She proceeds to cover the hole and drove off like nothing happened

 She went home and was completely normal, until she stepped in her house and passed out. Emily, who is a nieghbor and a friend of hers saw the door wide opened so went in to make sure everything was okay. she saw Christina on the floor and called EMS, while she was checking on her, she noticed her wedding ring was gone. Doctors diagnosed Christina with a brain tumor, which explains her personality change. The doctors asked if she had any family or a husband and she couldn't remember. Emily found her with no ring, so she made a guess that Luke had enough and left her. Christina agreed even though she knew the real reason. This shows her insanity and crazyness, making it seem like her husbands fault. 

Group Meetings

   This week during class we had group meeting with our peers. We got to exchange ideas and give feedback on what we think would make each others project better. This allowed for us to see what our classmates are doing, and help get a better idea on what we should add or remove in order to make our projects better. I worked in a group of five and here is an overview of how the meeting went.

Group Meeting Reflection

Me: My film is a psychological horror about who women who kills her husband but we're not entirely sure as of the reason why. I was reccommened to develop her character more, get a sense for why she decided to go through with the irreversible action. Also to figure out the whole plot of the story, like have the opening appear but really that be something that happened at the end of the film. They told me I needed to work on the reason for why she wanted to do this. I also had an issue with part of the film I want to film, because I want to dig a hole but most public parks dont allow this, they reccommned giving the illusion that the hole is beign dug, such as setting the camera at a lower angle or setting dirt on the side. I was alo suggested for when she throws her ring, to have her throw other memorabilia, such as phots or like a special figurine.

Ale: Her film is a drama, and is about a nerdy hispanic girl who goes through a major surgery to change little details about herself. She mentioned at the end she wanted to do a flatline scene, and we reccommened adding a voice over, to represent that she is really dead and to bring up the fact how we wish we could have known what made her do these things. We also helped her with a little bit of character development. We suggested making the girl seem really basic and plain, sort of like she doesn't have a outstanding personality. Another suggestion was because she wants this to be geared towards young hispanic girls, we suggested adding little lines of Spanish as they're speaking english.

Renn: His film is a western theme, and it is about how women are just as capable as men. We helped him com up with a little bit of the opening. We suggested having a women pretending to be a man, and her doing something heroic. Which then lead people to question who that is, just for her to reveal that she is really a women and not a man. 

Vicky: She is doing a dystopian theme, she got inspiration from the hunger games and is doing something similar to that. We helped her develop her plot. Two bestfriends get chosen with two other people get powers to fight for something. We have her the idea of doing a reaping, and one friend really wanted the powers while the other one wanted nothing to do with it. We also gave her the idea that after the opening seen the friend who didn't want the powers ranting to her parents about it.

Gaby: Her film is a coming of age film, it is about a girl whos little brother killed himself. We helped her with her character development. We suggested having her room be un tidy as the action took place about a year ago. We also suggested putting her in a bad place, such as her drinking alcohal at a young age. Another idea we gave is her hearing her parents arguing about the incident, and she gets upset and run out of the house.

Take Away

Personally, I found this expereince very helpful. It gave me a opportunity to get ideas from my peers rather than just my instructor. It also gave me the validation that our idea is able to be done. I look forward to applying the suggestions and ideas to my film to help create the best possible production.

StoryBoard

   Ohhh storyboards, me and storyboards have a love hate relationship. The love part, they are honestly quite helpful, they allow you to lay out your thoughts and it gives you a clear visual on about how you want to film your project. You get an idea of what type of shots and angles you would like to include in your production, which can be hard to think about on the spot. However, if you are not an artistic, and all you can draw is a stick figure, they might come across as a little bit challenging. Regardless, it doesn't matter if you are a mini Pablo Picasso, if you can draw semi decent stick figures, that will work! Besides, as long as you can understand your storyboard, that's really all that matters since you are the one creating the film. 

My Storyboard->

Above is the storyboard me and my partner created for our project. I am in no shape or way an artist so the best anyone is gonna get is a stick figure from me. But that's okay!! I now know though which shots I would like to include in my project and roughly what each scene is going to look like. 

Project Schedule

 It's schedule timeeee. Being in this class has taught me a lot, but one of the most important things is, when doing any sort of project you MUST be organized. For me, creating a schedule allows me to have a goal that I need to accomplish by the end of the week. Me and my partner came up with this schedule and are going to do our best to follow it so we can stay on track. 

Week 1: Two blog postings which include the transition into project and two possible genre choices. Our goal was to come up and hopefully finalize our idea for our project and decide on the genre. Week one has already passed and I can proudly say we did do both of these things.

Week 2: Four blog postings which include research/analysis/discussion on three film openings from chosen genre, research/analysis/discussion on three film opening credits from chosen genre, research post of your choice, and a blog illustrating your schedule. We begun our storyboard and have a rough idea of our script. We also decided on where we wanted to film and if we would need any permission. We also got a rough idea of our actors and the equipment we would need.

Week 3: Four blog postings which include reflection post about group meeting #1, research about one media theory we want to include in our project, post summarizing your idea for the project, and a post including your script or storyboard. We want to finish our planning and have our idea totally set as well as complete the storyboard. As well as begin character development, and really dive deeper on how we want our character to appear. Another thing we want to start is saving audio clips, this can take some time so we want to start this as soon as possible. If possible, we also want to start filming, but only if we our ready and prepared.

Week 4: Four blog postings which include planning post focusing on character development, two post about focusing on mise-en-scene element, and planning post focusing on audio. Our goal is too finish saving and analyzing all sounds. By this week, we should already started filming, but if we haven't, we will start this week. If our filming is totally finished, we will start the editing process.

Week 5: Four blogs which include planning post of your choice, and three production post of your choice. By this week, we want to have all of our filming finished so we can begin our editing process, which can take a long time to complete. 

Week 6: Four blogs which include production post of your choice, two post-production process post, and research for number one question of CCR post. This week is a buffer week to finish any filming if we have any and finished the editing if we have too. Ultimately we want to start the Creative Critical Reflection..

Week 7: Four blogs which include reaserch for question two for CCR, research for question three for CCR, research for question four for CCR, and a post discussing CCR production ideas. We want to focus on finishing our CCR this week and not have to do a whole lot of filming or editing. This week is the  week we want to wrap up the project.

Week 8: Four blogs which include post about production of CCR, a post about post-production of CCR, post about final reflection of project, and post with links to CCR and film opening. We will fully have our project finished and submitted by this week which is very exciting. We also can use this week as a buffer incase anything goes wrong or is unfinshed.

Body Bag Research

   Heyy, so for this post I got to choose what I wanted to research in regard to my project. Woohoo!! So, in our film, we want to make it look like we have a body in a trash bag to give off the idea of a murder. Obviously we can't use a real person body for this because of safety issues, so we need to know how to make it look realistic so the audience believes it. 

 1st Idea: So I found this video on YouTube, that suggest to use a extra large trash bag and cut down the sides leaving the bottom uncut. They used plastic bottels and containers and put them into the formation of what looks like a body. Finally, they wrapped the "body" and taped it with clear tape and cut off any extra trash bag near the head and feet.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Urw8tapvrfI&t=46s

 

 

 

  2nd Idea: Another video I found on YouTube, but instead of using plastic bottles, they used newspaper to form the body shape. They started by taking two full sheets of newspaper an forming it into a star shape. Then took a smaller sheet and wrapped it into a ball with a different sheets of full size paper and combined it with the star shape paper to create the head and neck and then taped it at the end. Next they rolled multiple pieces of newspaper together to create the arms of the body and taped it to keep them together. For the torso they rolled up some balls of newspaper, and wrapped larger pieces of paper and folded it over at the end and secured with tape. They rolled balls of paper on the side to create a ribcage figure and secured with tape down the sides. The legs they took rolled balls of paper and wrapped it in paper and taped it shut, they then rolled a tinier ball of paper to create the feet and attached it to the legs. Finally they took a large trash bag and put the "body" inside and wrapped with tape to emphasize the body parts. 

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6b5UDmG_A8&t=1377s

 

 

 

 

 

 Personally, I think the first option seems more suitable for the project. We don't have a whole lot of time and have to use our time wisely. Collecting the newspaper and creating the body like they did in the second option just appears very time consuming, where the first one we can just use items we have around our house. 

3 Credit Sequences

   This post has to do with analyzing the opening credit sequences of three psycological thrillers of my choosing. The three that I chose were Hannibal, What Lies Beneath, Gone Girl.

  Hannibal: Hannibal was released February 9th, 2001, and is directed by Ridley Scott. It follows and FBI agent as she tries to understand a cannibalistic serial killer before his first victim captures him. The credits have a creepy starting by using unsettling music to create a sense of dread. Visually, there is use of distorted images and silhouettes to represent a chilling nature. The use of the color red in the cinematography illustrates the violence throughout the film. This credit scene helps me to know how to establish the tone of the film from the very beginning. Using visuals, and certain sounds helps to create the unsettling mood which the audience feels throughout the film. The slow pace of the credits builds tension, which is progressively built upon throughout the film. 

  What Lies Beneath: What Lies Beneath was released July 21, 2000, and is directed by Robert Zemickis. It is about a woman who experiences weird activity in her home. This leads for her to find out secrets about her husbands past and a ghost who wants revenge. It starts off with words floating in and out of the screen and a high pitch sound screeching. This gives off unsettling vibes and puts the audience in an awkard and uncomfortable feeling. The pace of the credits is slow, which allows the audience to have a moment to sit in the awkwardness and soak it in. This credit scene helps me to know how to introduce the mood of the story without giving away too much of the plot. The simplicity of the credits proves that being able to draw in the audiences is just easy without using fancy pictures and editing. 

  Gone Girl: Gone Girl was released on October 3, 2014, and is directed by David Fincher. It is about Nick and Amy, a happy couple whos marriage goes to dust when Amy goes missing and Nick becomes the prime suspect. The emptiness feeling of the credits creates an uneasing feeling. The writing on the scrren fades in and out at a quick pace adds to the uneasy feeling that the audience begins to feel in the beginning. The sound as a sense of underlying tension mixed with the voice over of a man we can only assume is Nick. It gives the idea that there could be some hidden truths he has yet to tell the viewers. This can be useful for me to use in my project to hint to the audience that something is "off" from the very start. The bland background with just words, music, and a voiceover hints at an undisturbed emotion. The way he speaks is just so calm, which gives the audience the calming feeling while also feeling suspense. This credit scene teaches me how to engage the audience while lightly hinting clues that secrets might be hidden behind the surface.