Casting and Auditions

We have been discussing our ideal actor/actress for our piece and the attributes we wish them to ideally have. We have discussed having a lead as a female actress who needs to be able to cry and become hysterical on que. We will dress our actress in light colours such as cream and white to portray innocence. Hair colour as it stands will not make much of a difference but we want our actress to look young and attractive to fit with the theme of the film. We also need 5 or 6 more young girls to be used as bodies for quick flashes on the screen, this will not require alot of acting but we still need to audition the parts. We will also need 3 quite tall/large males to stand as hooded figures during our piece. These minor roles will not require alot of acting but we still need to make sure we find the right people to give the neccissary effect.



We audtioned for our stalkers, although the casting was mainly appearance based as the stalkers did not need to act alot in our film. However for our lead girl we ideally wanted someone who could cry or panic on que. We found Louise Chic who we cast as our lead female as we felt she had the appearence of long blonde hair we were looking for ideally for our lead female and her audition was most convincing.

Similar Media Works

As a group we created a powerpoint presentation on similar media works to that of our opening. This involved researching into different types of horror and horrors that we considered to be similar to our own. I personally worked on the Storylines, Settings and Characters and Genre slides where a discovered alot of information on other horrors and our own. In this process i learnt a few more of the many different types of horror genre that i was not aware of before hand. Such as Body Horror and Humour Horror.

Similar Media Works

Scream Remake

We found this a good learning experience as through pratically re-creating this scene we were able to come across dilemma's and work our way around them or plan how we would in the future. One problem we found was the mise-en-scene. Due to our surroundings we felt that the scene may have been slightly more effective if we were able to film it in a similar enviroment, however this could be easily over come in the future and with more planning we could also make effective use of the lighting. Another problem we faced was continuity, as alot of the shots were consistant we found it difficult to find a fluent shot that worked well without mistakes. To repeat this we would make sure we kept our time well, so we had more time than neccissary and were not rushed. This way we would be able to take more shots and have a wider choice to edit from.
We did however feel that we shot the angles well and the timing of the shots were well planned. We felt the shots zoomed when appropriate and were well matched to the original Scream.
We have learned alot from our re-make and by having a first hand experience we are now prepared for our origianal horror and what we can improve on to give us the highest marks possible. We will be well aware of our time management and to make sure we have enough shots, so when it comes to editing we are left with enough material to create the best horror standard we possibly can

Story Boarding

We have began story boarding our opening sequence. Firstly by roughly sketching out our camera angles and shots we felt would be effective for our film. We then began taking photographs of the shots we have decided to use in our film. We took the photographs from the location we actually wish to film our piece however the time of day will be night time but it gave us a good idea of camera placings and inspirations of camera angles that would work well.

Before taking photographs we sketched out roughly the camera angles we had already discussed, such as opening with a wide establishing shot. This meant that we had a rough idea what we were looking for when it came to photographing our story board. We also plan to create a video of our photographs for a story board so that it will be clear the way we wish the shots to occure and plan out.

Storyboard 2

Film Brief

After brainstorming our ideas we began building up a plot for our whole horror film. We have decided to base our horror on a group of stalkers, who will eventually be revealed as not only pyschopaths but scientists looking to create their perfect being. However our horror will stick to more pyschological conventions rather than sci-fi. The perpertrators inflict torture on a chosen set of female vitims who's features they have identified as those that they wish to use in their creation. The horror will see 2 survivers out of the 6 original victims. The opening 2 minutes of our horror will example one of the victims attack, as she is followed home. It will also show body parts of unconcious girls marked with a black cross, hinting towards the story line of the plot however ideally creating suspense.

Preliminary Task - "Did You Bring It?"

For our preliminary task we created a scene from a script we were given. The aim of this task was to become used to the equipment and concepts of a film. During this we also learnt how to use the editing software. Our scene displays concepts such as "shot-reverse-shot" and transitions between each frame.

Media Evaluation


For our preliminary task we were asked to film a bar scene using different camera angles and shots. I feel that we demonstrated continuity well to a certain extent as the whole scene seems to run smoothly. There were times where we had to be careful to cut out parts, as background characters would suddenly appear and disappear at times where we had taken different shots and they had moved. But I feel we handled this well and erased this problem all together. However there is a stage right at the beginning of the scene where you can hear the door slam twice when the camera is on one of the actors. This is where we took different pieces of film and did not realise, but we felt it would be difficult to cut this without the scene looking jumpy and as the scene was in the bar we thought that more than one person may have been walking through the door. The door slams were also covered a lot by our backing track as at this moment in the scene it is quite loud.
I feel that that we demonstrated match-on-action well, as I did not feel that the scene seemed like there were seconds missing and it all seemed to run smoothly. We had to be particularly careful of this when one of the characters hands over an object in a bag and the shot goes from a long shot to a close up where the other character received it. We had to carefully cut the tape when the bag is the same distance away from the character in both shots. I feel we did this well and a difference is not noticed, but it could have perhaps been slightly more accurate. I also feel we demonstrated the 180 degree rule well as the cameras were all set to the same side of the actors and this did not change throughout the scene. This is so the audience do not feel confused by the conversation and the positioning of the characters and they were always filmed from the same side.
Our group as a whole worked well together, we completed our task on time and we all had ideas to add so the outcome was a result of all our ideas. However I do feel that some members did more in some aspects as they took to the program a lot more easily than others, but this was evened out in other aspects like the filming and I think that most people in the end played a quite equal role in the whole process.
I feel there are a couple of moments where the actor involuntarily paused in the shot that given the chance we could have cut out as well as the extra door banging at the start of the scene. I also would have made the mise-en-scene a lot more believable and given the time I would like to have made the filming area a lot more bar-like. Due to the lack of mise-en-scene the piece seemed slightly confusing to the audience as they were not able to recognise where the characters were and what was actually happening.
I feel the video was planned and thought through well. We generally knew which clips we wanted to use for each shot in the scene as we remembered which pieces were filmed smoothly and well which meant we were able to plan out which film we would use for each shot. However at times we did not use our best material I feel and if we had planned a little more then we could have perfected the piece more.
We felt it was important to use transitions with our piece to keep it interesting and running smoothly. When the characters spoke we chose to make them fade into one another which I feel looked good, but the program seemed to make the shade of the scene temporarily change which I feel could have been improved with more knowledge of the program or a change of transitions. We also added transitions before and after the subtitles, making the scene fade to black and then fade to white, this is because we felt that this would portray the darkness of it. We also had the whole scene in black and white because the colourful background of the area didn’t seem to give of the slightly threatening feel we aimed for, also by doing the scene did not seem to so obviously not be filmed in a bar.
The editing software was mostly self-taught by my group members and i; we learned to work out the basics by ourselves with trial and error as we started from scratch with no prior knowledge of how to work it. We also learned to accurately guess when to cut and past the pieces of film as at times the program didn’t work properly and this made it hard to see the piece running smoothly. This piece also taught me to use the cameras properly and the different ways I can use them to film.

Brainstorming Ideas For Opening Of Horror Film.

After watching and studying a variety of different horror films our group gathered, so we could brainstorm ideas for our horror. We're aiming to create an opening sequence of a film that can conform to typical horror conventions when necessary to provide the best effect on our audience. However we intened to make our opening sequence individual, breaking as well as complying with horror conventions.
We all added ideas and scenes which we felt would be effective and our group agreed that we would display a sequence of short shots that at first would slightly confuse the audience but gradually would become more clear as time passed. The effect of doing this we felt would hook the audience straight away and would allow the audience to interpet it how they chose. We idealised that the unknown would straight away scare the audience and will hopefully branch out to each persons individual needs to feel fear and suspense effectivly.