CASTING

 Our Cast:

• Caeli C as EMMA

• Francesca as OLIVIA

For the rough cut we we thought about replacing Francesca with Ambre because Francesca suddenly couldn't make it although in the end she came so we left the casting as is.

Both of our cast members replies to an add Morgan put on his Instagram story, we checked if they had any acting experience either in film or theatre and both did which was important to us.

CHARACTERS:

Caeli portrays our scream queen, a feminine actress who's main role in a movie is to have a notable death. 

Francesca portrays our final girl/ killer, she seems like an innocent or slightly nerdy girl who isn't into partying or any devious behaviours, although she is reviled to be the antagonist of the movie and is quite evil.

Titles -ideas and inspiration

OUR TITLE SCENE

IDEA

For our title scene we decided to have our final girl character be carving a pumpkin but we don't see what she's carving, then at the end of our opening when our scream queen is being stabbed to death the camera pans to the pumpkin from the beginning being sprayed with blood  and it has the word 'CARVED' carved into it (our title).

FONTS

For fonts we wanted to go relatively simple so that 'CARVED' is as legible as possible.

Our inspiration was the night of the living dead title font because its quite an iconic horror movie as well as being legible:

We also considered going with a more gothic font such as cherry falls: 

Our original title:

Our original title, although our vision and likes by the majority or the audience was not as legible as we would have liked so we intend to change it.

Title names:

(Morgans work)

Regarding titles, we firstly looked at our company names (Fatcat, Smokey and Hollyhock) and added them before anything, with "in association with", "a [...] production" etc. Then we looked at several movie openings to see the key roles that are most often shown in movie opening titles. These included some basics such as "Directed by [...]" and "Featuring", to some less often seen "Executive producer" or even "visual effects supervisor". We then came up with a first list of names that we can use for these roles, but we chose rather random names, and after some feedback from our peers, we decided that some of the names were too obviously not related to indie horror films, so instead we looked at a specific example. We ended up choosing the opening title sequence of "Final Destination 4", a body horror film. We took the names from the opening sequence and added one of the roles to each of them

Weekly vodcasts

WEEK 1

Content:

- Shot types + transition to stop motion

- stop motion + editing

- Final cut

- conventions
- film equipment + editing
- individual pitches
- group pitches
- group pitches feedback and changes
- re pitches and ident

WEEK 2

Content:

- sample scene one (forest and kitchen scene)

- rough script

- blogged about industrie from Guardian article 

next week:

- second sample scene

WEEK 3

Content:

- Looking for cast through add on instagram

- Starting audience survey

- Audience blogging 

next week:

- Make screen play

- Getting props

WEEK 4

Content:

- Make screenplay and feedback

- Terms and theories advent calendar

next week:

- film rough cut

SHOOT 2 preparation and reflection

                                       Shoot 2 preparation

Props:

• Halloween candy
• Bowl
• Candles 
• Halloween decorations 
• Makeup 
• Duct tape 
• Kettle 

Clothes:

Scream Queen:

• Dress (new and different colour so the dirt and blood will show)
• Jewellery 
• Heals 
• Makeup (eye shadow, fake skin, fake blood, face paint)
• Hair down

Final Girl:

• Glasses
• School uniform 
• Skirt 
• White shirt
  
  
• Smart shoes

LOCATION: 

• My (Leila's) house

EQUIPMENT: 

• Phone
• Monopod
• Tripod

CAST:

• Caeli Colgan as EMMA
• Francesca Pisante as OLIVIA

Date:

• This shoot will be on February 1st

Sample scenes

SAMPLE SCENE 1

Our script:

We ended up being pretty loose with the script and using it as more of a reference.

We started off by shooting the kitchen scene which we filmed in the common room kitchen. we got some candy from the vending machine and put it on a plate we found to simulate a halloween candy bowl.  we took multiple shots from different angles so we had a lot of footage to work with. 

After filming the kitchen scene we went out to the woods near the school to film the outdoor scene. We also took multiple shots of Ambre running from being tied up to the tree.

we then cross cut the two scenes as a way to create tension for the viewers in final cut.

We had a few challenges during shooting, one was that we wanted to tie Ambre up with real rope so we went around the school to ask the art and P.E. teachers but there ended up not being any around so we used tape instead.

Feedback:

- In the real scene switch the rope from the tape so it looks harder to get out of (verisimilitude).

- Running needs to look more desperate, maybe speed it up?

- Use Gimble cam for running?

- Could replace candy with a Halloween cake

SAMPLE SCENE 2

for our second sample scene we filmed in the common room kitchen again for continuity even though the actual opening will not be filmed at school.

Peer Feedback:

Rough cuts

CARVED (first shoot):

Feedback:

• Floating blue light, smudge, crop out/be careful of
• Two titles one font, next two different font (for testing) can be screenshots
• Animation of fonts, horror, key frames
• Titles -> director first
• Upper case + lower case
• Add an ident + voice over and images for context
• Ambient sound, cars, no dead air
• Signify falseness in EMMA, puts on glasses for phone call
• Delay showing EMMA, more use of mis-en-scene 
• Even more mis-en-scene
• Change country “Italy” is blurred
• Pan up to Emma after knife
• Long takes, need reaction shots (knock)
• No paint in coming back to same shot
• Candles = shadows
• Panic needs to continue, continuous banging/cross-cutting
• Longer take = less convincing
• Lots of shots for panic sequence 
• Lamp for entrance
• Hinting someone is outside 
• EMMA looks around frantically/curtains down
• Panting after looking around (OLIVIA)
• Don’t have a dictionary 
• Avoid foreign book
• Too minimal dirt on her face
• Makeup on camera, testing (w/o cast)
• Start kettle way earlier
• Lighter dress for more dirt
• Show OLIVIA after murder
• Cut from shoe to back to shoe
• No diegetic titles, animated maybe 
• Maybe reveal motive in escape sequence
• Get footage for lighting and makeup
• Radio instead of phone call

Soundtrack

Our sound was made on GarageBand by one of the members in our team, the inspiration was from the soundtrack of Friday the 13th, Halloween and psycho. 

we decided to give it a subtle melody throughout the soundtrack and then to build up tension it would get louder.

Here is the link to our original soundtrack that we commissioned from some people in our school. It was made on garage band, we decided not to go with that soundtrack because it wasn't what we had imagined.

Intro and outro music:

(check out Ambres post for the original video)

SHOOT 1 preparation and reflection...

SHOOT 1 PREPERATION

PROPS, EQUIPMENT, SCRIPT

PROPS:

• Pumpkin
• Carving knife 
• Halloween candy
• Bowl
• Candles 
• Halloween decorations 
• Makeup 
• Gloves
• Kettle
• Rope
• Duct tape

CLOTHES:

Scream queen: 

• Dress
• Jewellery 
• Tights 
• Heals 
• Makeup (eye shadow, fake skin, fake blood, face paint)
• Hair down

Final Girl:

• Glasses
• School uniform 
• Skirt 
• Tie 
• White shirt
• Blazer 
• Bag
• Smart shoes

EQUIPMENT: 

• Phone
• Monopod
• Tripod
• Motorised stabiliser (Smooth 4) 

LOCATION: 

• Morgans house 

CAST:

• Caeli Colgan as EMMA
• Francesca Pisante as OLIVIA

Date:

• Our first shoot was on Monday the 19th of December

Reflection:

Floating blue light, smudge, crop out/be careful of

Two titles one font, next two different font (for testing) can be screenshots

Animation of fonts, horror, key frames

Titles -> director first

Upper case + lower case

Add an ident + voice over and images for context

Ambient sound, cars, no dead air

Signify falseness in EMMA, puts on glasses for phone call

Delay showing EMMA, more use of mis-en-scene 

Even more mis-en-scene

Change country “Italy” is blurred

Pan up to Emma after knife

Long takes, need reaction shots (knock)

No paint in coming back to same shot

Candles = shadows

Panic needs to continue, continuous banging/cross-cutting

Longer take = less convincing

Lots of shots for panic sequence 

Lamp for entrance

Hinting someone is outside 

EMMA looks around frantically/curtains down

Panting after looking around (OLIVIA)

Don’t have a dictionary 

Avoid foreign book

Too minimal dirt on her face

Makeup on camera, testing (w/o cast)

Start kettle way earlier

Lighter dress for more dirt

Show OLIVIA after murder

Cut from shoe to back to shoe

No diegetic titles, animated maybe 

Maybe reveal motive in escape sequence

Get footage for lighting and makeup

Radio instead of phone call

PRE-PRODUCTION OVERVIEW incl screenplay, shotlist,...

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY - draft

Our first screenplay lacked a lot of detail for example we didn't mention what type of jeans Olivia is wearing or what size the candy bowl is.

we also had the wrong format which made things a little confusing when reading it.

NEW SCRIPT:

SCRIPT FEEDBACK P2:

 

• Weird dialogue 
• She’s frantic, hysterical
• She says “help let me in”
• Falls and grasps at Emma 
• Desperateness has to be conveyed 
• Talking over Emma, struggling to be understood 
• Too much dialogue, more body language
• Wouldn’t give clear words
• Reframe how OLIVIA appears 
• Emmas annoyed at banging while on the phone 
• Crazy kids, not 70 year old though 
• Aggressive way of getting to the door, then shock
• Concerned Emma, to shock audiences
• Emma checks from side to side before closing the door
• Locking the door (lock in + lock out) 
• Spider web symbols, I acc fuck with that ADD PROP
• Blanket ADD PROP
• Coffee/Tea for cold ADD PROP
• SOUND SOUND SOUND
• Coffee may sound harsher (like screams)
• Scream overlay with coffee
• Living room means seperation
• Knife was in the pumpkin, no longer is during title sequence
• Comes back in to tell EMMA that she’s going home
• (OLIVIA picks up a weapon like object) 
• Candle holder ADD PROP
• Blow out candle SYMBOL
• Why not call police, dialogue 
• EMMA already called the police 
• EMMA is soft
• Play with focus
• Realistic human interaction 
• Denotation in screenplay

POST- ROUGH CUT SCREENPLAY:

 

THEORIES and KEY TERMS I've learnt

TERMS AND THEORIES

• BBFC - British board of film classification ( was censorship ) - statutory regulator (created though law being passed, crime to ignore)
• MPAA - voluntary regulator
• Dier - proposed star system ( marketing a film is based of star power)
• Elberse - blockbuster
• Production cycle- production, distribution, exchange
• Vertical integration- when a company does production and distribution by themselves
• Chompcy- propaganda model- 5 filters (media is supposed to keep us in ignorance) 
• Badikian - wrote ‘the media monopoly’
• WUS - Warner, Universal, Sony
• Intelectual property- Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce.
• 3D/ Max and home cinema
• ‘Specticle’
• Convergence - 
• Web 2.0
• Theatrical release (release of a movie in cinemas)- release window ( time period where a movie is exclusively in the cinema)
• Ddc - disruption, digitisation, convergence 
• mise-en-scene -props, clothing, weather...
• Denotation - stripping the details
• Audio bridge- When audio comes before the scene
• Serif/ Sans-serif - typer of fonts
• Signifier- a specific thing that is pointed out
• Co-production - 2 or more companies working together to create a film, very usual
• Auteur - the director
• Exposition - the background information the audience needs to know for the world of your story to make sense
• Narrative enigma - intentionally witholding information from the audience to create mystery
• Campbells heros journey - the journey that every protagonist will follow
• Anchorage - when you combine multiple signifiers pointing in one specific direction
• Preferred reading - how the text creators would like you to respond
• Polysemy - not being clear on what you mean (opposite of anchorage)
• Digetic sound - sound coming from within the scene
• Non-digetic sound - sound that is added to the scene e.g. music
• social realist - Refers to movies with a more realistic tone  and story which is meant to mirror society.
• Cross cutting - cutting from one sene to another
• Take - moment you start recording
• Verisimilitude - Creating a sence of realism
• Conglomerate - company that owns other companies 
• Counterype - oposite of a steriotype
• Architype - a very typical example of a certain thing
• Ellipis - a cut in time
• 4 quadrent strat - younger, older, male, female
• Male gaze - objectifying women, what a straight man would want to see (Laura Mulvey)
• Juxtaposition - two things contrasting each other
• Bechdel test - two or more women in a scene that have names talking about something other than a man.
• Normative - what is 'normal' e.g. a woman wearing pink or a man wearing a suit
• Counter- hegamonic - challenging normative ideas (Gramsci)
• Critic proof - if word of mouth is strong enough, it will overcome critic consensis
• Gant rule - a mainstream hollywood release will typically make 10 times the amount of money in the US box office than in the UK.

JOURNEY: EVOLUTION OF AN IDEA

My first idea:

Our joint first idea: 

Overview:

Our ideas definitely evolved and became a lot more structured when we tarted working together. we didn't end up going with this idea but it was a lot closer than my original.

From here we got to our sample scenes which then became our rough and final cut.

THE FILM INDUSTRY

Disney introduces first plus-sized female heroine in animated short Reflect

Disney debut their first plus-sized female heroine in a short film about a ballet dancer overcoming body dysmorphia and self doubt through channelling her 'inner strength, grace and power'. 

The animation artist Hillary Bradfield who had also directed 'Encanto' and 'Frozen 2' said her wish for the short was for the viewers to feel "more positive about themselves and the way they looked".

the film created some controversy and got mixed reviews online with some people loving it, with some saying how much they wished they had seen it when they were younger and how happy they are that things are finally changing, however some people criticising it for "promoting obesity" to their children.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/oct/28/disney-reflect-plus-sized-heroine

Smartphone camera films get new festival

In may of 2021 the guardian wrote an article on how smartphone film in 'no longer just a fun experiment'. Vanessa Thorpe of the Guardian wrote that although shaky phone images have fashionable for some time now smartphones are able so capture great detail and since the pandemic there has been a boom of smartphone feature making.

the article wrote that even leading directors have been drawn to smartphone filming, such as Steven Soderbergh and Paolo Sorrentino.  Some A list actors have also been in films shot with a phone such as Kristen Stuart and Sir Ian McKellen.

Shrine production company has also come out with 'A Very British Lockdown: Diaries from the Frontline'.

Mappelbeck the director of 'missed call' said, “I’ve been a self-shooting director for 25 years – my camera has gone from needing a bag the size of a small suitcase to fitting in my back pocket,” and “I love how it’s transformed my approach to film-making. It works in intimate settings, exploits grey areas of informality and allows for more dynamic and innovative shooting to bring out hidden and personal stories.”

Mappelbeck and Gee created a film festival around smartphones with the intention of showing that filmmaking is for everyone so matter their means of background. “We set up the festival around smartphone films because it enables greater access and diversity, as well as innovation,” Gee told the Observer. “Our competition categories cover all the genres, both scripted and unscripted. And there are no implications now about quality. You can have brilliant pictures and brilliant audio, and there are even new apps that give you more control, allowing for remote direction.”

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/may/09/films-shot-on-smartphones-herald-new-age-for-cinema-say-directors

Cats Film Overview

OUR TARGET AUDIENCE

Target audience survey

We had 11 responses total with 8 women, 3 men and 1 person preferring not to say. this means that the majority of our responses were from women.

Our age range was mostly 16-18 years old which is good because that was out target age range. we also had some over 18 year olds which is good for our secondary audience. we will try to appeal to this audience by having an older character for them to relate to.

 

Around 80% of the 11 people liked horror movies.

The overall top type of horror movie sub genre with most people picking it as their favorite was 'psychological horror'. Only 9.1% of people chose 'sci-fi' and 'gothic' as their favorite horror and the genre of 'slasher' came in 3rd place overall with 18.2% of people picking it.

Almost half of the people who answered chose 'body horror' as their least favorite genre.

100% of the people who answered recognised 'Scream', 'Nightmare on Elm street' and 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'. 45.5% of the people had heard of 'Terrifier' and 72.7% had heard of 'The cabin in the wood'.

For this question although a lot of people said that they liked different things, multiple people liked the different angles we shot from.

We intend to make it more obvious who it killing who when we re film.

Multiple people thought that the fact that there was no music did not reflect the genre

Multiple people wrote that they thought the title and font we used for the credits reflected the genre.

0ur target audience

Our primary audience as shown above is mostly teenage girls from the ages of around 16-18 years old. Our secondary audience is and older audience of anyone who was a teenager in the early 80s to 90s.

We incorporated aspects in our film opening to appeal to both, this was done through sound, mise-en-scene and cast.  

Sound:

- For our soundtrack we decided to mostly target the older demographic (secondary audience) by making a lot of references to older horror movies which would have been popular when they were teenagers.

our main soundtrack was based off Scream, Psycho and Halloween which were all classic horror movies of their time.

A way we incorporated our primary audience was by having a younger sounding band sing the cover of "Every breath you take" by The Police ,this also incorporates our secondary audience because the song was written in 1983.

Mise-en-scene:

- For mise-en scene we added a Scream mask in the background of the kitchen which would hopfully be picked up by our older audience.

Casting:

 

- Most of our cast were 15-17 year old girls so for the '3 years later scene' we had an older mane so that our older male audience could have someone to identify with (uses and gratifications theory, social identification).