ALL- Making blood

In our production we need to create blood. The blood will be used to stain the killers shirt to give him a menacing look and to signify that he has just killed somebody prior to this. We will also have blood dripping of the killers knife. Finally we will need blood to apply to our 'Scream Queens' face (Casey).

A link to a page for making fake blood

GG - Final piece of filming

Tonight we finished off our filming for our production. Overall  we are happy with what we have done, although it was hard getting some of the shots i think we have done well. Our male actor, James Crowther, did an excellent job playing the protagonist and our female actress, Megan Claydon, also did an amazing job of playing the 'scream queen.'



We managed to get all the shots we wanted, plus a few extra that we thought of when we were up there.       In all we have done 15 minutes of filming, which we need to cut down to 2 minutes worth.

We liked how our protagonist was dressed. We though he looked very scary and threatening. We were pleased that he looked like the man from 'The Strangers' because that is were we got our idea from for him.

We are all very happy with our footage taken tonight and look forward to editing it all down.

GG RH - Mask finished!

GG RH - Mask finished!

We planned to make a mask that resembled the one that the character 'Scarecrow' wore in Batman. We originally planned to make the mask in hessian however we were unable to find this material, so in the end we made it in black velvet.

George's Mum kindly agreed terms to make this mask for us. We thought this would be ideal as she is a textiles master. She had an image to work with and followed this design. We are delighted with the final outcome. When we decided to test our masks impact on audiences it went quite well. What we did was we wore the mask around the local, we knocked on house doors wearing the mask and studied the peoples reactions.

We've looked at using the mask with and without string around the neck. We came to the conclusion that the rope around the neck would look better.

RH - Final night of filming

On set with cast and crew

Tonight we were filming our car scenes in the countryside. We felt the filming went extremely well. There was a lot to organise before we headed up to our location such as; our knife, fake blood, mask, camera and transport. We got to our location and it was a bit light so we planned and got everything set up whilst we waited for the light to fade slightly.

Our first shot was of 'Casey' getting in her car. We shot this from two different angles. Our second shot involved myself in the boot of a car shooting 'Casey' drive up the road. This shot was very interesting as it enabled us to have a shot moving which was brilliant. This shot took us up the road to where the car crash occurs.

Preparing for our final shot

After this we had several shots inside the car and outside. We get several angles of our killer standing in the road wearing a blood stained shirt and holding a bloody blade. The car approaches the killer and then swerves off. We had to get round the fact that our actress doesn't drive so with clever camera shots we got round this problem.

Our Killer!

 To sum up it was a fantastic night of filming and we got plenty of coverage, there is a lot of material to work with when it comes to editing and we believe the soundtrack idea we have will go very well with the footage taken.

ALL - Mask feedback

HK: Filming Preperations

After a bitterly cold day of filming with all the cast and crew we managed to get some brilliant footage and all in all the day whent really well for Flatline Films, we arrived at location at around half 4 today, Sunday the 30st of January.

A lot of preperation whent into todays filming we had to prepare the fake blood for our killers shirt, the ingrediants for our grim, yet convincing formula were: Liquid Glucose, Flour, Red Food Colouring and of course everyones faviourite some old Tomato Ketchup, though these products pulled of local supermarkets shelfs worked brilliantly and looked like they were fresh of any hollywood blockbusters make up department.


Also, we had to make sure our gorgeous scream queen Megan Claydon was looking tip top for our filming so she spent a good twenty minutes applying the make up looking great for her first big acting break!                                                                                                                       Photo by George Gamble

GG - Filming our first few shots

We decided to film our opening few shots in an old and large house. With the house having an old feeling about it we believe this would signify a feeling of unsettlement to our film. The feeling that maybe the house is haunted. 

Our first few shots were taken from outside the house,signifying the feeling that someone is watching. We chose to film as the light was going to signify night was to come. We believe that when watching a film darkness always makes you feel moreuncomfortable and less safe. We also took some shots with branches hanging over the lens of the camera to make you think that the person 'watching' is trying to hide from them. 

Our next set of shots were done inside. It was of the 'couple' coming down the stairs after just having a romantic evening to themselves. You can tell this by the male only wearing adressing gown. 

We then have a match on action shot of the male opening the door for her. He then kisses her on the cheek and they say there goodbyes. With only few words exchanged it leaves the viewer guessing of what they have been up to.  

ALL - Vodcast, day of filming

RH - Vehicle Choice

In our production a big part of the opening is going to involve a car. The car will belong to our 'Scream Queen' who is a teenager, because of this the car cannot be an expensive Mercedes, therefore the car we will be using is a purple VW polo. This signifies that it is a feminine car and not to expensive so it fits in with the teenage stereotype.

RH - Continuity Errors

Today is our first day of filming.We will also shoot on Sunday, this raises the problem of continutiy errors. It is essential that there are no costume changes or a differant hair style etc.'Harry Knight' our producer imparticularly  will be looking out for these errors. http://harrytheknight.blogspot.com/

Luckily we will be filming on a differant location on Sunday which will mean the main focus will be on the character's apperances. As well as this the weather will be a contributing factor, although we cannot control the elements we have to film at the same time or slightly later on Sunday, because it would look poor if it got lighter.

GG - Feedback on our Initial Ident idea

We asked 10 people what their opinions were of our company Ident.
      The things they think we need to change are:

• The music didn't fit the genre.
• The name confused them.
• The music ended to early. 
• It was too short.

After taking all this into account we have now made a new company Ident which has been improved. We have changed the sound and increased the length of it. We will show it to the same 10 people again and re-ask for their opinions on it.

RH HK GG - A Group Discussion

GG - A group discussion

A problem that we had to overcome as a group was deciding on the opening couple of shots to our film. Both me and Roam had ideas that we wanted to use so we discussed them both. Then, we asked other people out of our work group on there opinions of the idea. We felt that by doing this it would help us decide on which opening to use.

Roams idea was to have more shots indoors. He wanted to give more anchorage to the idea that the couple had just had sex. We would have achieved this by showing shots of them both getting dressed etc... A disadvantage to this idea was that we are limited to only 2 minutes of filming. With a lot more to film as well we thought that fitting it all in would have been a tough challenge. 

George's idea was that we have a couple of long shots of the house signifying someones watching them both. We would then go to a close up of them both outside the front door of the house. The male would be wearing a dressage gown to help anchor the idea they had just had sex. They would then kiss each other on the cheek and she would go and get in the car. The disadvantage to this idea is that there is not much anchorage used to show that they had just had sex, making the viewer wonder why the 'scream queen' is about to be murdered. 

After a long discussion and speaking with others we decided to go with George's idea. We believe that with not much time to film we don't want to be rushed at the core of our production. When the 'victim' meets the 'protagonist.'

HK - Initial Ident idea

GG - 'Horror Zone' research

When looking at the book 'Horror Zone' we gathered research for our ideas for our production. 

There are similarities between aspects of Carpenter's horror and Bava's terror-thrillers: the use of a prowling or stalking camera, voyeuristic camera position, fluid camera movement.    Conrich [ed.] (2010) Horror Zone. C9, p.177.

This will help us when filming our production. It has given us ideas on different shots we can use and different ways of filming.

GG - Reason for using a knife

The killers' weapon of choice, in Halloween, remained relatively focused - a large knife.        Conrich [ed.] (2010) Horror Zone. C9, p.177.

Horror Zone - Amazon book


We used the film Halloween to help us decided on what weapon of choice to use. We believe that this is one of the best slasher films around. The knife is used in most horror/slasher films, we gathered this from analysing deconstructing films.

GG - Change in the Story

 We have been discussing what changes we can make to our production to improve it. So far we have changed the following ideas:

     We still have things a couple of things to discuss as a group.

• The opening set of shots.
• How we are going to introduce our credits. 
• What clothing the villain will wear.
• How the 'scream queen' will be dragged from the car.
• How our film will finish.

GG - Soundtrack

Our soundtrack in our production is very important. Everyone film needs both Non-dieetic and Diegetic sounds. Without sound in a film there is no tension and the viewers get bored. The soundtrack is key when making and finishing our Film.A link to a page on Soundtracks:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundtrack

Examples of films that use soundtracks which we have looked at:

• Halloween
• Cherry Falls
• Hell Night

When looking at these three films we watched them both with sound and without. This helped us see the importance of sounds in a film. We then took notes on the instruments used and the tempo of the sounds to help with our production. 

When making and deciding on what soundtracks to use in or production we have to look at three different things:

1. It has to be our own made music because of copyright. 
2. It has to fit the genre.
3. It has to follow the actioning. 

After looking at these problems we have come up with ideas on how to get past them...

1. We will use the software Garageband on the imacs to create our sounds and music. This is completely legal because it is our own music. The software is easy to use and we can fit it to our production how we want. 
2. Because we have what control over what sounds to use we can make the sounds fit well. we can decided on what instruments etc.. we want to use.
3. This will be a challenge but one as a group we believe we will be able to overcome. We will make the soundtracks after we have filmed our 'rough cut' because then we can make the sounds fit the motions a lot easier. 

Because our film is a horror/slasher we will use mainly 'string' sounds. A slow tempo at first but then building up to get the viewers heart's beating and create a nervous and tense feeling. 

GG - Soundtrack

GG - Soundtrack

Our soundtrack in our production is very important. Everyone film needs both Non-dieetic and Diegeticsounds. Without sound in a film there is no tension and the viewers get bored. The soundtrack is key when making and finishing our Film.
A link to a page on Soundtracks:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundtrack

Examples of films that use soundtracks which we have looked at:

• Halloween
• Cherry Falls
• Hell Night

When looking at these three films we watched them both with sound and without. This helped us see the importance of sounds in a film. We then took notes on the instruments used and the tempo of the sounds to help with our production. 

When making and deciding on what soundtracks to use in or production we have to look at three different things:

1. It has to be our own made music because of copyright. 
2. It has to fit the genre.
3. It has to follow the actioning. 

After looking at these problems we have come up with ideas on how to get past them...

1. We will use the software Garageband on the imacs to create our sounds and music. This is completely legal because it is our own music. The software is easy to use and we can fit it to our production how we want. 
2. Because we have what control over what sounds to use we can make the sounds fit well. we can decided on what instruments etc.. we want to use.
3. This will be a challenge but one as a group we believe we will be able to overcome. We will make the soundtracks after we have filmed our 'rough cut' because then we can make the sounds fit the motions a lot easier. 

Because our film is a horror/slasher we will use mainly 'string' sounds. A slow tempo at first but then building up to get the viewers heart's beating and create a nervous and tense feeling. 

RH - Christmas Evil opening (Lewis Jackson, 1980) aka 'You Better Watch Out'

'

In the opening of this film we get a extreme long shot of a house. We can denote that it is Christmas Eve because of the writing at the bottom of the shot, the date is also signified by the lights on the house. There is voice over whilst the shot slowly pans upwards to bring the full moon into the shot.
What we can learn from this as, there camera shakes and is not still, we will make sure that we don't make this mistake.There are also no opening credits or idents which we will include. However like our production our first shot is an establishing shot of a house, we will pan down from a tree, unlike this opening where they have panned up to capture the full moon.
This is a link to the IMDb page of 'Christmas Evil' 
Also in this opening the child comes downstairs only to see 'Santa Clause' and his mother together, 'Santa Clause' was on his knees grazing her leg, this signifies that they will have sex as she is wearing a silk red dressing gown and some lingerie underneath, this costume is very 'sexual' the colour red is significant for two reasons; 1) The colour red signifies love. 2) Red is a colour that you would associate with Christmas.

We can take inspiration from this scene as we need to signify that our two characters have just had sex, the costume worn by the women gave this impression straight away, as did the male behaviour to her. They used an ECU on her thigh, in this shot we saw the mans hand on her thigh and this also showed her lingerie. I think we could use an ECU in our production as it adds suspense and provides a different shot type.

HK: Company Idents... to be completed

For our production we need to create 2 company idents to put in the opening credits of our movie, we will be having one for the distributers ' Maroaders' and our producers, 'Flatline Film's'

A lot of thought must go into the company idents as they get shown before every film the company is associated with, so what we need for ours is something that fits in with the horror genre and if we get these right they can instantly set the mood of the film before the film has even started.

I had a look at previous work from Ilkley Grammar Media Students to gain inspiration on what worked well



http://idents.tv/blog/2008/05/18/the-idents-of-cinema-the-big-six-studios/

RH - Costume

The costume our 'Scream Queen' will be wearing is going to be an ensemble of a short skirt and a small top that emphasises her cleavage. She will get into her clothes after first appearing in less clothes to signify that she has just had sex.

The costume of the boyfriend of our 'Scream Queen' will be jeans and a t-shirt. He will be laying on a bed shirtless and only at the end of the scene will he put on his shirt. The reason for this choice is that it once again signifies he has just had sex will the girl. We have decided to use jeans instead of other bottoms because it's not smart nor is it too casual (shorts), it also signifies he is working class.

Finally our killer will be wearing a dressing gown (not fully decided) along with his cloth mask. We are thinking that he will wear this dressing gown, they did this in 'Psycho' with the character 'Norman Bates' to an extent however our very killer is very different. Also something we could incorporate by using a dressing gown is that within the scene that will be shot in the house we could have the dressing gown hanging on the door. This would make the audience think that the killer is the girls boyfriend, providing a twist. This could contribute to the drama in the opening.

GG - The Final Girl

  The final girl in a slasher film refers to the last woman or girl alive to confront the killer. A few examples of films where the final girl has appeared could be Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Halloween. 

The final girl is typically sexually unavailable virginal. Because our production is only the opening of a film we don't see if there is a 'final girl' at the end of our production. But we have set the opening up so it can easily lead to there being one. 

In our production the final girl that plans to be there at the end will be 'MeganClaydon.'She is meant to be a typical Scream Queen who is getting punished by the protagonist after a night in with her boyfriend. 

RH - Lighting in our film

The major issue within our production will be lighting. This is a problem as when we film it must be dark however it can't be too dark as the footage must be visable. The way we intent to get around this is by, firstly filming just as the sun is going down so we get some natural light whilst it being dark enough to keep to conventions of the genre. It has to be dark to create a threatening feeling. Secondly we will use non-natural light to provide illumination for some of our shots in the country side. Because our setting is in the countryside we will not have many street lamps, so we will rely on the car headlights as well as a lantern the killer shall be carrying. Overall I believe we can work around this problem and if anything use it to our advantage to give an eary, chilling feel.
A link to a website about the art of lighting in film

The Slasher Genre: RH

Published by RH

The slasher genre is a sub-genre of the Horror film genre, this usually involves a psychotic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphic manner. The murder weapon is often a bladed weapon such as; a knife, an axe and a chainsaw etc.
This is a link to a page on Slasher films

The first film that can be recognised as a slasher is 'Thirteen Women' (1932), however despite this being the first it was by not the most important.  'Peeping Tom' was released in (1960) and three months after that Alfred Hitchcock released 'Psycho' this was the first 'true' slasher film and is highly regarded as 'the mother of all slashers'. The famous shower scene was described as a masterpiece with a stalking camera technique as well as a chilling soundtrack. A knife wielding mentally disturbed killer was portrayed including a twist at the end of the film.
This is a link to the IMDb page of 'Psycho'

Many films came after 'Psycho' but nobody could replicate Hitchcock's masterpiece until the huge success of John Carpenter's 'Halloween' in 1978. This is the film that made slasher big! There were countless remakes of this film, and it was 'Halloween' that sparked a long succession of holiday related slashers. Such as; Friday the 13th, April Fool's day, Christmas Evil, New Year's Evil, My Bloody Valentine etc. 'Halloween' created many codes and conventions that are now used in slasher films today.

This is a link to the IMDb page of 'Halloween'

The most recent popular slasher films were the 'SAW' series, in this they created new gruesome ways of people getting killed.
Many characters that are famous for their killer roles are; Leatherface, Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, Jigsaw and Norman Bates.

From all these films we can take many codes and conventions and apply them to our production.

HK Deconstruction: Jennifers Body

Jennifers Body, Karyn Kusamn 2009
Published by HK
Budget: $16m
Box Office: Us 16.2m
                    Uk 1.2m


Starts with an extreme long shot establishing the location, blue tint has been used to add a scary and spooky effect and make it feel like something is not quite right.
The mise on scene in the establishing shot includes a tire swing, this signifies that children are present. 


The shot gradually gets closer like its through someone who's walkings eyes, this is what's known as a Point Of View shot. P.O.V
                                  
The first shot of a character is a boy picking a scab, this shows flesh ad gore, this could be a signifier of the nudity and the gore to come later in the film.


Another point of view shot is used looking into the window and now it has really come apparent that there is someone watching and looking inside the house, this point of view shot into the window is very similar to that in the opening scene of the revolutionary slasher 'Halloween'.

Mise-en- scene: RH

Published by RH

A link to information about what mise-en-scene is and how its used

In any film mise-en-scene is a crucial part of the effect that is given to the audience. In the opening scene of our film, clothing or the lack of clothing will signify that our two cast members have just had sex. This immediately provides anchorage for a slasher film genre as we will show a blonde haired girl (scream queen) being sexually active. The conventions of the slasher genre tell us because she is sexually active she must be punished (murdered).

A second piece of object that will contribute to mise-en-scene is the mobile phone.This will come in when our girl looks down at the phone while driving after receiving a text message. This is important as we will use an ECU to show the message on screen, this message will hopefully create fear for the audience combining with a chilling soundtrack.

Thirdly we need to carefully choose our murder weapon. The key conventions of slasher is that a knife would be used, however other weapons such as an axehave been used and this is something we have been carefully considering. An axe can look for menacing however there are more examples of knifes being used. This is something we will decide in the coming days.


Finally other mise-en-scene, we will not include any irrelevant objects on screen as we want to apply our knowledge and research into

our film. So we will choose additional objects carefully as we aim for each item to mean something.

A Nightmare on Elm Street opening (Wes Craven, 1984) RH

Published by RH

In this film opening the setting is cast in our final girls imagination. The initial opening is disguised as reality included in a dream. Although we can't many ideas from this opening, what we can learn from is key slasher conventions.

A link to the IMDb page of the film 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' 

Later in the opening when both girls and the boy are in the house 'trapped', they are drawn outside by a sound. In our production the girl gets out of the car after a crash, she is then taken, we aim to produce a sound effect to entice her out of the car. Also in this opening we can observe the character 'Freddy Krueger'. His character has it's own very specific style (knives for fingers), doesn't just use a knife, its original.Originality is something we want to signify when producing our film and we can learn from his character on ways to do that

Meet The Team: HK

This is the team of Maroaders Productions and the production team behind Flatline Films debut film Roadside.

 Name: George Gamble
 AKA: Gamble Lad
 Position: Director
 Age: 17
 From: Leeds
 Favourite Film: LOTR 3 
 Favourite Film Quote: ' For a moment there i thought he was going to rape me, he had the craziest look in his eye and and he said lets get on'

 Name: Roam Hamilton

 AKA: 'the boy with the tan'

 Position: Cinematographer 

 Age: 17

 From: Leeds

 Favourite Film: The Hangover 

 Favourite Film Quote: 

 Dad, we're men. That means a few things - we go to the toliet   with the door open, we talk about women, we go on riverboat             
                                                          gambling trips and make our own beef jerky'

                                                         ' We have literally done none of those things'

 Name: Harry Knight

 AKA: The Big Dog

 Position: Producer

 Age: 16

 From: Leeds

 Favourite Film: The Shawshank Redemption

 Favourite Film Quote ' But Dad, its shark week'