Evaluation- Question 1

"In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?"



Main Title
The title of our film is 'The Hanging', and we chose this name because it relates very strongly to the storyline in our film, about a girl who was abused by her father and resulted in hanging herself in the woods, only to return and haunt others. This title is suggestive but it also leaves many viewers on edge as to what may happen. We stuck to the theme of red and black because it represented the genre of the film efficiently. The text is bold and daring, and looks like blood on a dark background. 

Since our main title was partly inspired by 'The Descent', we used Live Type to make it into an animation and to make it much more interesting for our audience. We also wanted it to fit into our genre so we added a heart monitor along with the noises it makes to add suspense and the sense of increased pace to our opening sequence. We continued this theme at the end of our opening sequence with a flat line sound and thought this was really effective.           





Opening Credits
For our opening credits, we decided to include some of our main credits on black screens in between the shots of Izzie walking through the woods. We used this idea because it showed time passing by and it also showed the woods getting gradually darker.

We decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to use black screens between every shot so later on in our opening sequence we added our credits to the side of the screen. We kept the same font as it was essential we kept the 'horror' element and it had to be continuous. We also placed the credits at the same corner of the screen and within every other shot so that it wouldn't distract the viewer from the main film. This worked really well as it didn't

cut up our film and also meant that it kept the pace we intended. We got this idea again from the film 'The Descent', where we could see the opening credits appearing alongside the scene and we believed that this fitted nicely. It is also very well suited for our genre.

Genre
The film 'Orphan' inspired our film genre because it had a very dramatic and chilling story, and the main focus of the film was a young girl which we wanted to use in our opening sequence too. Another film that inspired our genre was 'The Ring', which also greatly influenced our main focus of the young 'innocent' girl who became evil and the location as she was drowned in a forest.

Costume/Make Up
'Orphan' also gave influences to the style of the girl, as in what she wore, for example she appeared very innocent with small pigtails in her hair and bows, then she wore a dress with buckled shoes and long socks. We interpreted this style into our work as we wanted our young girl to have a hidden identity, where she may look very sweet but has a very dark side to her. The contrast of costume and personality was a very important factor in our opening sequence and story, because we wanted to deceive the audience and make them believe that this girl isn't as normal as some may think. We also used the element of make up to  make her appear deathly and haunted, by making her face extremely pale with talcum powder and then adding some darker eye make up underneath her eyes to hint that there was something unusual about her, and also to imply she could be dead. 


Another inspiration for our costume was from 'The Woman In Black', since the opening sequence to this film shows three young girls, about the same age we wanted, wearing very old and Victorian styled clothing to make them appear well dressed hinting they were very well behaved. We wanted to give this impression so we used this style in our little girl's costume.

Location/Opening Set up

These establishing shots were used for the opening of the storyline and they set up the scene quite nicely because they showed a teenager walking through the woods on her phone who was about to become a victim, and these shots also allowed the audience to see where she was and how time was moving on with the credits. Since the woods was empty whilst filming and all you can see is the teenager and nature, there is a sense of isolation and fear as if something dramatic is about to happen. The music in this sequence also helps to emphasise this and adds suspense. The audience can tell from both these shots and the music combined that the genre is horror. 



We got this idea after watching the opening sequence to 'The Shining' and also 'Twilight', as both of these included establishing shots in different ways, and we thought this would ease the audience into the storyline and show a build up before something dramatic happened instead of jumping straight into a murder scene. It increased the suspense and made the audience much more curious as to what would happen, and it also allowed for credits in between the shots.






Flashbacks

In 'The Shining', we discovered there was a scene which included flashbacks of these two young, innocent looking girls being brutally murdered and covered in blood. After viewing these clips, we were greatly influenced to produce similar shots in our opening sequence because it would demonstrate to the viewers why the young girl is haunting the woods. It also added pace to our opening sequence. However, since we had to change our storyline as our young actress (Emma) could no longer be a part of our filming, we used a teddy bear covered in fake blood to demonstrate the girl being murdered, then we also shot the noose hanging from the tree to represent her death of her being hung in the tree. These small, fast pace shots add suspense whilst revealing some of the film and making the opening sequence more interesting to view, leaving the audience on edge and wanting to find out what actually happened to this girl.

Final Opening Sequence

Editing

Once we had finished our filming for our opening sequence, we uploaded all our clips onto the Mac computer and imported them into Final Cut Pro, where we could arrange the clips in order and cut them down to the correct lengths. This process was time consuming because we wanted the cuts to be exact and perfected down to the last second.
After cutting down our clips, we added in the titles which we made using Live Type, an editing programme. We decided to place the titles at the beginning of our opening sequence and also at the end, overlapping the scene. Doing these effects allowed us to discover new applications and ways to edit on Final Cut Pro. When the titles and clips were arranged, we realised it didn't look very scary, so we added in the music and sound effects. We learnt from this process just how much of an impact it has and a difference it can make to your work, because once sound was added it started to appear much more realistic and it fitted the genre better.
We finally had all of our clips organised and the music added, so the final process was the transitions and video effects. Between some of the clips we often used the 'fade to colour' transition because we found it fitted in really well and made the clips transfer a lot smoother. In the scene where Izzie is 'hallucinating', we edited the clips to give a fuzzy, unclear look, suggesting to the viewer that this could be the character's imagination and making them question the situation.
Overall, editing was a long process, but the options available to us on the software we used made a great impact on our work.

Filming Schedule

Above is our original filming schedule. However, we had to film on different days due to one of us being ill and the other at work. Then we had a casting problem, since Emma Winn could no longer be present in our opening sequence, we had to rewrite the ending scenes and change from the previous 'hanging' scenes into Izzie encountering a stranger. Below is our actual filming schedule.

Filming Problems 2

Unfortunately, Emma Winn (the young girl) changed her mind about the filming after our first session for unknown reasons. Due to this we now have several problems. We are unable to re-film any bad footage that we have of her. Also, we have had to change our ending. We came up with the idea of Izzie (the elder girl) running away and grabbing a stranger (played by Amanda Thompson), she informs the stranger that someone is in the woods and starts to receive hallucinations of the girl, a hanging noose and a blood covered teddy bear, when in actual fact there will be nothing there. This ending then leaves the audience in suspense as to whether Izzie is abnormal or the whether the young girls exists. It also still fits with the title 'The Hanging.' as we will still see the noose. We will re-film on Tuesday 5th March. 

Also, we have decided to have our credits on a black screen in between the opening sequence. This is because it shows time passing and we can show Izzie in different parts of the woods as it gets darker. 

Makeup

Filming Session 1

Our first day of filming does not include any of the flashback scenes so we don't have to go too detailed with the make up or use any of the blood:

To make our young girl character appear lifeless and weak we decided to experiment with make up to make sure she really fitted the role and to add an even more chilling effect to our opening sequence. We found that it was effective to cover her face and neck in talcum powder because it gave her a ghostly look and showed she was dead or ill. We then used dark brown eye shadow and put it below her eyes and heavily on her eyelids. We also did the same with her cheekbones, and this gave her face a very sunken and fragile look. To make sure her face was colourless, we also added a touch of pale liquid concealer to her lips to draw out any sign of healthiness in her face. For a finishing touch, we used pink blusher to faintly draw the outline of the rope burn on her neck from where she had been hung. 

We used make up on Emma, but not on Izzie. We did this because we want Izzie to look natural, like the surroundings of the woods. We gave Emma the make up to create her spirit-like features. it also makes her stand out against the trees and Izzie. The use of soft colours on her skin still reveal her childlike innocence and naivety to the audience. However, the excess use of soft colours against her face create a harsh, ill-stricken look. The talcum powder is also chalky and patchy. At first, we questioned whether it looked professional. however, once tested on Emma's face, we found it looked effective as her face looked worn away in certain areas in the light. 

Fake Blood: 

We discovered that fake blood can be very thin and sometimes look unprofessional. I (Amanda) tested the blood out on a piece of white clothing. Doing this, I found it can be thin, but resembles real blood well. It is not lumpy and even spreads out. However, it takes a while to dry as you can see in the last picture. 

Here is a few pictures on a sample: 

Opening Sequence Credits - Progress

We have used the same font for our credits as the film title. We did this to increase continuity, as we said in our previous post. We like this font as it is bold, yet mysterious as it has elements scratched out of it. Below, we have our font and our film title. We used live type to make our title because it has movement, looks more professional and is more thrilling than a still title.  The credits are included in our title video. However these are just initial credits, our final credits will be created in the next week. 

This is the exact font we were looking for. The fact that every letter is a capital letter makes the words seem more dramatic and important. We chose the credits to be white. We did this because our production company logo is Black, White and Red. Our title text is red. Our production company logo text is black. Having the credits white will mean we included all of our colours we wanted. This increases continuity and shows the fact we put thought into the little details of our opening sequence. 

As previously said, we want our credits to be: 

• Emma Winn
• Izzie Lattimore 
• Produced By
• Costume and Make Up 
• Edited By
• Music By
• Directed By

We won't have mine and Clare's name after every credit as it becomes boring. We plan to use our names separately  (for different credits). This way the credits won't be repetitive and boring.