Evaluation

For my A2 film studies coursework I decided to work in a group and create a short film. Almost immediately me and my partner decided to create a horror film. The main reason being we saw it as the easiest genre to make a short film from. We quickly came up with the idea of making our film about some sort of zombie outbreak. We wrote the synopsis within the first few days of deciding on the idea and then followed up with the script and storyboards (although both of these changed slightly over the course of the project) We set out to identify the conventions of the horror genre, Stuart learned the cinematographic conventions (Close ups to show emotion in characters faces, cantered angles to show disruption and long shots to distance the audience from certain characters (the villains)) I set out to find the conventions of editing. Quick editing to show panic and franticness, match on actions edits and long continuous shots. During the project we had a partner drop out which halted our progress slightly but we soon recovered from the loss and picked up his extra work and began to produce the film. Because I work weekends and my partner works weeknights, finding time to film was difficult. We eventually found a date were all the crew and actors were available but for reasons out of our control we had to cancel. Because of this cancellation we decided to get new actors. The new talent (Louise and Jack) were much easier to organise filming sessions with and we filmed the first half of our film in one after. We filmed in an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of town. We thought this was a good place to film because it is isolated, this connotes Jacks isolation from the outside world after he has begun his transformation into a 'zombie'. It is also deteriorating on the inside, much like Jacks mental and physical health. The building itself had been vandalised and ruined, this connotes what Louise has done to Jack. The mise-en-scene worked well as the inside was extremely cluttered with rubbish and had a pale green colour scheme. The colours worked well as it made the picture look cold and made Jack seem more inhuman and cold himself. We began by showing Jacks entrance to the building by having the camera focus on a still puddle just before Jack walks through it and towards the building. I think this works well because the puddle represents how the equilibrium has been disturbed. We then shot Jack walking into the building from several different angles in order to make a match on action. After this we mostly filmed clips that we could use to create montage editing in which we could show Jacks descent into madness and transformation. We filmed him walking around inside the building (which was to be sped up) a point of view shot of Jack running around frantically inside the building. With the final part of the match on action of Jack walking into the building he is seen looking around at the empty room, the shot then cuts to a point of view shot, creating an eye line match. Several tracking shots following a trail of blood on the floor to Jacks feet then tilting up quickly to see Jacks face. We also filmed scenes of Jack checking the bite on his neck. We uploaded all of this footage onto the computers to begin the editing. I was in charge of the editing so this was the part of the film I found the most interesting and comfortable with. I started to put the clips in the right order as we had a lot there were in the wrong place because of the fact we were filming things we thought of there and then. The main transition between shots is straight cuts, there is a match on action of Jack walking into the building which uses four different angles of him walking, I felt this was especially good as it showed the building from all different angles and the shots from inside the building were colder and darker than the other, connoting Jacks altered state. After this we waited a few weeks until we could film the 'date scene'. This scene was filmed much differently to the others. It was filmed inside Wykes 'Oak' building although we passed it off as a shopping centre. The scene involves Jack going to meet a girl (Louise) for a date and as they leaving being bitten by her. We filmed Jack walking into the building, again from several different angles so that we could later create a match on action, and walking towards the table that Louise is already sat at, the two hug and then sit down and talk briefly before deciding to go and get a drink. As they are leaving Louise snaps at Jack and then bites him, forcing him to leave out of anger. We filmed Jacks walk from the main door to Louise from in front of him using a backwards tracking shot, we achieved this by simply walking backwards with the camera, we then filmed him walking from the side and finally from behind with an over the shoulder shot. There is a continuity error as Jack enters the building as there is no shot of him walking out of the second door and into the main lobby. The only way I could try and get past this was to cut to the backwards tracking shot after he leaves the first door, the error is still noticeable but I think it was the only real way to fix the problem in post-production as it was too late to re-film. When Jack and Louise sit down we used over the shoulder shots to show their conversation as this is a conventional way of showing two people talking. When the two kiss over the table we filmed a medium two shot to show them both meeting halfway for the kiss. This was another error as there was no shot of the two standing up, I fixed this error by cutting to a black screen for a second then showing the couple walking back towards the door. Even though this editing choice was last minute and un-expected, I feel it works nicely and if I would of thought of it even if we had the shot I would've chosen to use it as I feel it cuts out the un-necessary shots of the couple getting their coats and bags on and standing up. We then again filmed their exit of the building from different angles to create another match on action in the editing process. We encountered another problem in this scene as the second automatic door wouldn't open in time for the two to leave, but this was soon overcome as a student was passing through the door as they left which made the door open quicker. This also made the scene look more realistic as it shows more people not involved in the story but still in the shots, this adds to the verisimilitude as a shopping centre would be full of teenagers not just have the one couple. We filmed Louise snapping at Jack with a medium two shot and filmed the hug and bite from different angles. The original idea here was to have Jack cover his white t-shirt by putting his black jacket on to connote his loss of innocence and transformation to something darker but we realised it was very unrealistic to be bitten then worry about putting your jacket on so we instead had him throw his jacket on the floor in anger as he pushes Louise away. We filmed Jack walking down the side of the building looking back in disgust at Louise and then filmed it from the direction Jack was walking in. These two shots worked very well together because as soon as Jack begins to leave the shot Louise looks extremely lonely in the shot as the couple both took up half of the screen and once Jack leaves Louise is stood alone watching him leave. In editing I made a match on action of Jack leaving which I think is extremely good because I edited it to the point were Jacks turning head was featured at the end one shot and the start of another. The screen then fades to black to show the passing of time (this is were the screen will then un-face and show the shot of the puddle). We have used the fade to black with the use of voice overs over the top as a motiff in our film. Because majority of the film is a flashback we decided most of the dialogue would be through an internal monologue in Jacks head narrating the events of the past few days. Stuart and Jack filmed a few more scenes and the voice overs a few days later at college and we added them into the film to go over the top of the fade outs (to create a sound bridge) and into certain other scenes in the film. Some of the voice overs were too short to be played simultaneously against the film so I had to use the razor tool to create gaps in the audio to make them last longer. The other scenes filmed were the parts were Jack is arranging his date and him getting ready. I made a montage of Jack getting ready and then faded to black as he left his house to show the passing of time, I thought this would be more convenient that showing him travel all the way to the meeting point. In the editing process I also made two flashbacks that Jack has, the first being a positive look back on the date he had been on days earlier. This flashback showed the couple kissing, holding hands and them walking away together. I also placed a colour matte on the timeline on the video track below and lowered the opacity of the clip to make the scenes seem lighter and therefor more innocent and pure. The second flashback was a negative memory of the moment he was bitten. This scene shows the bite from three different angles and in slow motion, the slow speed of the clips connoting how long this has affected him for. I used a fade to white to signify the beginning and end of the flashbacks, I did this because it is a convention of flashbacks. There was another error made during the filming of these extra scenes. In one shot Jack is shown holding a shirt ready to put on, in the next he picks it up and puts it on, because of this it wasn't possible to create a match on action so I faded between the shots quickly to show a passing of time, I think this works well because it cuts out the time it would take to watch Jack getting ready for his date. I think the most interesting editing decision about our film was the fact that during the first scene, the narrative is Jack explaining that he is turning into some sort of 'beast' at this point we use the tracking shot leading up to Jacks feet along with very quick cuts featuring Jack running around and destroying the building. We thought this worked well because the sudden cuts and frantic speed of the clips juxtaposed with the slow tracking shot and symbolised how extremely different he had become. This entire sequence is then played at the end of the film, without the cuts of the sped up clips, with the same voice over. This is played at the point in the film where Jack is actually narrating the last few days and instead of cutting to a flashback of the last few days it shows that Jack now intends to go out into the populated city and infect other people. There were also a few things we would've liked to include but with the change of actors found to difficult to do. We wanted Louise to be wearing a red dress and have red lipstick as this would of connoted a femme fetal character, an inspiration we drew from Film Noir, with the film being at college we found it difficult to have somebody come dressed like this because they would of looked extremely out of place surrounded by students who were dressed normally. We wanted Jack to give Louise a rose and for him to walk over it in the final scene, showing his love for Louise is gone. We also had several shots designed for the use of a car, but as Jack cannot drive these shots obviously had to be abandoned. We were going to stand on a roof and film the car driving past and make a match on action to show the urgency of Jack getting away from Louise. We also wanted it to be extremely dark during the final scene but because of the time of year we filmed, this was very hard to accomplish. The 'zombie' Jack turns into in our film is less of a traditional zombie (Night of the living dead, dawn of the dead, evil dead) it is more of a modern day interpretation of a zombie (28 days later, REC, the crazies) in the way that instead of eating humans, it makes Jack more aggressive, like in 28 days later. Our film was heavily influenced by '28 Days Later' Directed by Danny Boyle (2002) a and 'Rec' Directed by Jaume Balagueró (2007) We did not feature Jack spreading the infection as we thought it would complicate the story and would be too hard to condense into a 5 minute short film without rushing. Instead we left the fate of Jack ambiguous. I think that choosing the horror genre to base our film around was a good idea as if gave us the opportunity to create meaning using the conventions. We used the conventions in ways such as, dark settings, fast editing and alot of hand held camera work. The genre also gave us room to use the different editing functions such as slowing down or speeding clips up. Fading in and out of clips and playing voice overs over the top of separate video tracks. In the end we decided to call our video 'Infected' as it sums up the disruption in the film in a word.

Filming

We filming the second half of the film (All the scenes with Jack in the abandoned building) On a wednesday afternoon with Jack. We found the building we thought was best for the scene and used the storyboard and script to film in chronological order so as to keep continuitys like the weather and time of day. We filmed the scenes, then filmed clips that we could use to create a montage of Jacks 'transformation' These included; a long tracking shot leading up to Jacks looking up at the camera, a five minute clip of Jack stumbling around the main room hitting the walls and destroying what rubbish he could (to be sped up) This edit was inspired by a music video by the band 'As winter burns white' and finally a point of view shot of Jack frantically running around the building.
We filmed the date and bite scene in an afternoon at college, we decided that with the change of location (going from the marina to a college) the script needed changing slightly, we changed the script there and then. We didn't have time to film the very last scene of the bite so we filmed that one the following morning. Stuart and Jack recorded the voice overs and final scene of the film in an afternoon at Jacks house.

Film names

One of the things we left til the end of the video creating process was deciding the name. We came up with several names but did not pick one until the end. Some of the names we choose were:
Plague
Infection
Rage
Bitten
Virus
Violent
Virulent (A combination of both violent and virus, we thought this one would be especially good to use as we made the name ourselves)
Misanthrope

Animatrix

Prop & Cast list

Props list:

White V neck t shirt - We chose a white shirt to represent Alexs innocence, as the film progresses the shirt will become dirtier and blacker, showing his corruption and growing evil.

Mirror - Alex looks at himself in the broken mirror in the building, the mirror is cracked and will show his face several times, showing his changed and distorted personalitys.

Car - Alex drives to his date and later tried to drive home from his date in his car.

Flower - Alex takes Kirsty a flower for her on the date. At the end the film as Alex is walking towards the city centre, he stands on the flower, showing his relationship and love for Kirsty is over.

Red Dress - Kirsty wears a red dress on the date, we chose a red dress to show that she is a love interest and also to represent her dangerous side. We wanted Kirsty to come across as a 'Femme Fatale' character.


Cast List


Alex - The boy who goes on the date, gets bitten by Kirsty and turns into a 'zombie'

Kirsty - The girl who Alex goes on a date with, Kirsty bites him and turns him into the 'zombie'

Genre Essay

My film will be a Horror film, so I will need to look into and learn the conventions of the genre.

Horror films are created to create fear and fear in the viewer, this is done in a number of ways. Most horror films have a main or group of villains. Early horror films were based around gothic literature such as Frankenstein and Dracula, these ideas soon evolved into more modern takes on the originals, for example the film “Van Helsing” (2004) features both of these characters. After world war II, the idea to create films based on the insecurity of post war life came about. This created three metaphoric sub genres, personality defects (Films about “mental” and unstable people (Silence of the lambs)), the Armageddon, (Films about the end of the world (28 days later)) and films about demonic beings (More supernatural yet still realistic films (The haunting))

There is another horror sub genre called “Gore-shock” or “Splatter film” These often low budget films try to gain attention by exposing the vulnerability of the human body through an over use of violence and special effects. This genre was established along time ago with low budget films such as “Shogun assassin” but has been brought into the new film world with films like “Saw” and “Final destination”

In the early 2000’s a group of films became more self reflective of themselves, this increased the horror element as it made even the scariest of films seem more realistic and life like.

Remaking Asian films became a popular concept in film making after the success of films such as “The grudge” & “The Ring”

Lighting plays a big part in what makes a film scarier. A convention of horror films is to leave a lot to the imagination. In many horror films, the main villain is not explicitly shown to the audience until the it is absolutely necessary, this builds up the tension and allows the viewer to create their own envisioning of the antagonist, which in most cases is a lot scarier than the actual one. The most common way to cover up the villains physical appearance is through a lack of light. The victim could be looking the villain right in the face, but if there is no light in the scene, everybody’s none the wiser. A dim light, or no light at all is also perfect for creating an impossible to see event. For example in many films a victim will be dragged by the villain into another room and is only able to hear what is happening, this also lets the viewer create their own idea as to what’s going on, often increasing the fear in themselves.

Films such as Dracula & Frankenstein rely heavily on setting. These films are set in out of the way locations such as castles & caves. The sense of isolation creates a feeling that no one can or will come their aid & shows how alone and vunerable they are.

Cinematography is used in horror films to create an idea that throughout the majority of the film is more powerful than the protagonist. This is done by using high angles on the protagonist, making him or her seem vunerable and weak. The opposite is done for the antagonist, using low angle shots to make them seem superior and more powerful.

The narrative structure in alot of horror films is generally quite similar. The protagonist will have to embark on some sort of quest to beat the antagonist. Towards the start of the film the antagonist will usually be some sort of enigma, making him or her seem more mysterious and dangerous. A common convention for horror films is to break the stereotype ending of the heroes victory and have the villain come out ontop (Texas chainsaw massacre the beginning). I will be using some of these techniques in my own horror film.

The editing used in horror films is usually rather slow paced to build up tension, then juxtaposes to extremely fast cuts in the climax of the event. The fast editing shows panic and emergency and shows how in trouble the character is.

Music also plays a large part in building up fear and emotion in the audience. A quiet piece of minor music makes the scenes with slow editing and low lighting seem a lot scarier than if cheerful music was playing over the top. The music will normally match up with the pace of the scene and reach a crescendo just as the action begins to take place.

In conclusion, the most common and effective conventions of the horror genre are: Low lighting, a mixture of slow and fast editing, isolated settings, enigmatic characters, minor and scary music & high and low angle shots to show who has the power in the situation.

Synopsis

The story starts with Alex, sat in the corner of an abandoned building explaining that over the last few days he has been turning into something and that he doesn’t remember much apart from the day that the transformation began. The majority of the story is a flashback to that day. Alex is on the phone with a girl (Kirsty) He is organizing what time to meet her for their date. They agree to meet at the marina. Alex gets ready and leaves the house and drives down to the marina. He meets Kirsty and after a brief date and walk down the marina Alex receives a call from a relative telling him that his Dad has been in a car accident. Alex and Kirsty say their goodbyes and begin to kiss, during their kiss, Kirsty bites Alex on the neck. Alex pushes her away and angrily asks her why she bit him, she explains that she doesn’t know what came over her. Alex storms off to go and see his dad. He looks in his rear view mirror and sees Kirsty, he re adjusts it to see his neck, when he puts it back, Kirsty is gone. He feels bad for shouting at her and tries to ring her but the number is not recognised. As he starts to drive, he has a flashback in which he sees himself being bitten and pulls over and stumbles out the car. He staggers over to an abandoned building in which he spends the night. When he wakes up he tries to go outside but the sun is to bright and forces him to retreat back into the building. Over the next few hours he has several flashback to the date & to the moment when he was bitten. At night time, the opening scene is revisited and Alex explains that he is going to spread this disease throughout the city. The final shot is of Alex looking to the city, which then fades to black.