A blog to showcase our AS Media Studies coursework.
This was my concept design for the Victim in our film opening. Instead of dressing like a typical female victim, the girl would have the same qualities as the final girl, often the survivor of a typical horror movie. (Based on previous research, it would be more shocking if an innocent was killed rather than someone who's done wrong in the eyes of the killer.) Since I'm acting as her, my hair would be held in a messy ponytail, very minimal makeup (if any) and generally normal clothing (i.e. white and black shirt, jeans, and pink shoes, to further reiterate that the victim being killed is not a typical one). The only visual evidence of me as the victim would be obvious red/ purple bruises around my arms , neck and face, which can easily be achieved with SFX makeup, such as a bruise wheel.
This was my concept idea for the killer; I wanted him to have a Hannibal-esque feel to him, due to our plot, so he is wearing smart clothing, has neat hair etc. As I will be playing him, to make myself appear more masculine, I will make my side-burns thicker and wear a binder (which I already own). It is important to recognise the health and safety issues of wearing a binder - the binder should be an ACTUAL BINDER rather than tape/bandages around your chest which can cause rib fracture and serious damage. I have a vest binder which is safe to wear, so I will use that.
Diegetic Sound Research
Following my research on the use of sound in film, I've decided to test out Diegetic sounds/Foley work for our own film opening. Typical Diegetic sounds found in horror films are dependent on the sub-genre the movie is portraying, for example, when a scream is heard from the shower scene in Psycho, an effective sound bridge is used to make the audience feel that the victim's terror is legitimate. Together with Non-diegetic music, Sound plays an important part in creating a diegesis.
Here are some examples of good and bad diegetic sounds:
The difference between Old and New Horror films:
With today's technology, the different effects created within horror movies are more apparent. Reneisha Brooke says in her article titled " Modern horror films vs Older horror films" “Horror movies of today like Paranormal Activity are more technology and special effect driven, while older films like Poltergeist was focused more on the characters being scary.” Paranormal Activity is a movie that prides themselves on special effects and different background noises to make the film appear scary. It is also a newer movies compared to one like A Nightmare on Elm Street. A Nightmare on Elm Street uses old fashioned straight sound to describe their movies while watching newer movies like Paranormal Activity where they will constantly shake the camera or use newer technology that wasn’t created back in the 80s. Some people may say that the better technology helps make the movie more better then the classic horror films. Others say that newer horror films rely too much on "jump-scares" and not as much on sound, which is what most older horror films used to create some of the most iconic diegetic and non-diegetic soundtracks.
For our film opening, we wanted to create a scary slasher horror film without relying on "jump-scares" so that it's more memorable, which is why we practiced creating our own Foley- style diegetic sounds before and during filming. This was important, as some diegetic sounds became lost, and the need to re-record them in a studio booth became apparent, as well as keeping synchronous with the action and non-diegetic music.
Sound editing
For our film opening, the main idea was to have a non-diegetic piece which did not accurately reflect what is being shown on screen; A light-hearted piece of music against a horrific and gory visual would make the opening, disturbing and shocking to a target audience, and more likely to be confused and/or intrigued as to why everything appears to be "normal" Our intention was to make the whole scene uncomfortable and unsettling for the target audience, so presenting an aspect which subverts stereotypical features of a horror film, would be most likely to provoke a reaction. Horror movies generally need to have the right music at the right time, and in some horror movies, songs can be heavily juxtaposed with violent/gory imagery as an ironic aspect, or twisted in a certain way to make the scene foreboding. Some examples of this are:
'Lord of Illusions' is filled with the kind of bodily horror and dances with the dark side that one can expect in a Clive Barker film. To balance this out with a dose of happiness, the director taped Erasure to make a cheerful classic even more sugary sweet by covering this track originally made famous by Perry Como. The song plays as Harry D’Amour enters the Magic Castle, providing a jarringly pleasant break from the horror surrounding it.
This classic received new, creepy life in the Michael Myers franchise. Trick ‘r Treaters are woefully unaware of the terror that awaits them on Halloween night. The juxtaposition between such an uplifting song and the graphic murders within the movie becomes evident, making the entire scene more disturbing.
This song is already strange sounding to begin with, but that’s part of its charm. It’s the record of choice for a demonic entity lurking in The Further, the astral projection no-man’s land where Dalton is trapped. The cheeriness in Tiny Tim’s warbly, high-pitched vocals is a stark contrast to the evil that haunts the film’s family. “Come tiptoe through the tulips with me” now sounds like an invitation no one should answer. The lyrics themselves sound like a typical love song, but with the addition of a demonic scene, it becomes a strange/discordant/ creepy presentation.
I researched through the Classical music genre for music pieces which could be "light hearted" and able to build tension as easily as a stereotypical horror genre soundtrack.Based on my research, I narrowed it down to three pieces: Beethoven- Symphony No.7 in A Major, Opus 92 Mozart- Requiem Overture Coriolan in C Minor, Opus 62 Eventually, I settled for Beethoven's Symphony No.7 in A Major, Opus 92, Second movement (allegretto) as I felt this was the most dramatic and best at building tension.
The piece itself is almost 9 minutes long, so in Garageband, I edited and cut the most dramatic parts of the piece together, using a cutting tool and several other techniques such as phasing, to get the timings and fades exactly right.I had cut it down to just over 2 minutes and exported to iTunes, which will help us make our entire film opening parallel and synchronous.
> I added a pitch bending layer, which will diminish and bend certain notes to sound out of tune, hinting that not everything appears to be "normal" as the piece is trying to portray.
> Here, after cutting other extra arts out, I had to adjust the timings and place of all the parts of the piece, making sure they kept within 4/4 time. > From the original piece, I had cut: from(in order); 0:00-0:06, 7:51-8:24, 4:42-5:24, 6:23-6:51, 6:48-6:51, 8:24-8:28, 8:30-8:46. >With a precision tool on Garageband, I removed all noise from the background, isolating only the parts which were necessary.
> In the master track, I added some more effects, this is known as EQ (Equalisation) With this, I was able to increase the volume of certain points of the new piece, and accentuate the peaks of where the music reaches a high point.
> In Audacity, another sound editing program, I edited the finished piece using a Time-scale, which changes the pitch in certain areas which are highlighted in the picture below. Between the markers 1-7, there is a 3% pitch change ( Marker 7 has a change of 21%) allowing the key of the piece to change from A Major to A# Major then down to G minor. This makes those particular places warble subtly, creating an uncomfortable sound, as I intended for the piece to sound joyous as well as ominous. Within markers 8 to 9, I zoomed in and changed the sound wave itself using the pencil tool, which is used to edit samples. This was the build up to the climax of the edited piece, so with the pencil tool, I created new peaks and recesses so that by the time marker 10 was reached, there would be sufficient contrasts.
> I also boosted the bass and treble by a total of 8dB, which decreases any indefinite sounds found in the piece, which disguises where I've cut more effectively than just fading in and fading out.
> In Final Cut Pro, I tested out different panning presets. Panning is a technique which musicians use to change how you would hear the music. A good example of panning is Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody; when the words "Easy come, Easy go, Little high, Little Low" are sung, "Easy come" and "Little High" are panned towards the left speaker, so that you would only be able to hear it on the left side, the right is completely omitted. The reverse is true with "Easy go" and "Little low". With our edited piece, I decided to choose a circle pan, which, when heard , should reach around the listener's ears and eclipse them. This is to make sure that the piece is all they can hear.
Unfortunately, before we began filming the horn of the mask broke off; despite all our efforts the only thing that seemed to hold it was tape which we had to work with as a last result, though we used lower angles to conceal this. Here is the design we went with for the mask - the white variation of the Oni. After getting a base mask to use, I decided to sculpt with clay, as I already had a lot laying around. Looking back, I think it would have been wise to put wire inside the horns before adding clay over to make sure they don't fall off. I painted using acrylic paint before coating in PVA glue.
Basic Storyboard Explanation: A man (our killer) is cutting/preparing a heart as well as other meat to cook/eat, which is when he is disrupted by faint screaming; this soon becomes louder and more evident as he puts on his mask before getting the victim into the kitchen and kills her. At the end, it's also implied that the victim's heart is the one the killer cooks/eats.
Filming (Day 1)
This is Shanette, who plays the main victim in our film opening. Here, I'm seen from a close-up shot which would emphasise how much shock and panic would be on my face. Originally, in the storyboard, this would have been an extreme-close up shot, however, we decided to leave the Extreme close ups for later on in the film opening, when the victim is about to be killed.
This is Virginia, who plays the killer in our film opening. This particular shot was originally done with a tilt leading to a close-up shot, however, it was more effective when it was a medium shot from a lower angle. There were very bright lights where Virginia was standing, so the shadows created (before colour editing) made the initial result much more menacing.
Higher angles are used here whenever the Victim (Shanette) is seen being dragged and /or thrown on to the floor to convey the stereotypical attributes of a victim: helpless, physically inferior, scared etc. etc.
Medium shots are predominately used whenever the killer is seen doing something. Having the killer in the foreground rather in the background should emphasise his dominance over the victim, although that's more obvious toward the end of the opening. This shot was filmed twice, as it was originally shot with a zoom in. the second was with a slower zoom out
In our storyboard, close up shots of cut up meat are very important to the story line. We trialled several different camera shots of pieces of meat to find out which shots would be the most effective. This shot is a close-up which pans directly over the meat, almost becoming a birds-eye-view shot
In our storyboard, the only time where the action picks up significantly is when the victim is being dragged across the floor. It was had to get the right angle for the tracking shot in order for it to look good, so we shot several of this scene, and trialed different lighting techniques to make it appear more sinister
Extreme close ups were also important to our story line, which , paralleled with lighter, classical music would prove to be more uncomfortable to the audience. The inner arteries of a heart is shown here, with specific detail of open veins and arteries shown, to act as a foreshadow to what will happen next
Certain shots, like the one here were in our storyboard to remind the audience visually that all isn't well, contrary to what the non-diegetic music is suggesting. The edge of the horn on the "Oni" mask is in the foreground of the shot, suggesting that the mask (as well as its wearer) are attacking the audience.
This blog is run by the two of us (Virginia and Shanette) to showcase out media coursework in the making of out final film. To see our individual work, locate the Filter section of the menu above.
