Feedback from a focus group and improvements made

Our feedback made it clear to us that we needed to refine some of our previous ideas to make sure that the piece was as effective as it possibly could be with regards to the codes and conventions of the genre. Firstly, we had to ask people about the flashbacks, these were hard to integrate without it being unclear that they were flashbacks. At first we only had transitions of a few of them and the flashes weren't used at that stage. Feedback suggested that the flashes would be useful as they enabled people to understand that she was thinking back to previous events that had happened (e.g.: her eye makeup reminds her of the make up of the darker personality, as seen in the gif created below).
The toilet scene was used after we realised that our previous bathroom scene was ineffective in showing the narrative. Miriam suggested to us that 'it may be useful to present her using a more public toilet, to show her desperation and her vulnerability as she has to take refuge in a place where most people wouldn't consider'. As a result we then made the Danson Park toilet scene more prominent in the sequence.
Originally our actress was only seen running down the underpass, but again this didn't make the narrative clear on its own. Seen running down the park pathway we were able to show a continuous running pace that made the narrative clearer. Ria thought that, "by showing the running both in the underpass scene and now the park scene, it shows that despite her only running from what she thinks of in a mirror, the narrative is clearer".

Juliet told us that 'by having the scene where she rubs her smudged makeup off in the mirror, the sequence becomes similar to Black Swan, which helps to clear up the narrative'.

Final film title idea, working off of feedback

We had decided to call our film opening "Non compos mentis", which means 'not of sound mind'. We thought that this would be a good title as it would show off the idea that our main character was troubled and that the storyline would closely follow the title. However after feedback we found that many people either thought it wasn't the most fitting title and some did not know what 'non compos mentis' meant off of the top of their heads.

Miriam claimed, "Not everyone will know what the title means, thus leading to some confusion."

Rachel said that by having this as our title, we 'risk having the effectiveness of the opening compromised'.

Along with several other comments from fellow students that we showed the idea to, we decided that 'non compos mentis' was not the most effective title to use.

When we presented a group of our peers with the storyline of the film opening and a list of possible title names (mentioned in previous blogs), the vast majority decided that 'Psychosis' was both an effective and almost chilling film title.
To fit the title into our opening, we have placed it at the end, when the climax is imminent and the music has built up. We found this to be effective as the screen blacks out leaving a blank space for the title, we overlaid this title screen on top of a montage of clips that we had to carry on showing footage rather than having a still frame of the title. Psychosis is also a fitting title as the word means 'a severe mental disorder in which thought and emotions are so impaired that contact is lost with external reality'. This is an accurate title name as it is able to describe the mental state of our main character. It is also more likely to be understood as it has 'psych-' in it. When presented with this film title, people who gave feedback were able to more easily associate the storyline of our opening with someone who has a questionable mental state.

Refining Film Title Ideas

After completing our title research, we had around five ideas for what the title of our opening could be, according to the plotline. As we were putting our clips together though, we realised that to build our character profile effectively and to make the scene as obvious as possible, a split personality would be harder to represent. As a result we changed the idea of our opening slightly, now instead of a split-personality wherein our actress is haunting herself, she is now terrified that her twin who died prior to this event is following her around.

This led to us narrowing down our film title choices down to three candidates:

• Psychosis
• Idiosyncrasy
• Non Compos Mentis

Out of these three the one that stood out the most was "Non Compos Mentis" meaning: 'not of sane/stable mind'.

This is the title we have decided to use and we are going to overlay text of the title and the opening credits during the first longer clip of our main character crying. During this quick cut montage, we plan to have the name of the film appear in the centre of the screen and then as that fades out we will have the credits at the bottom of the screen during the entire duration of this clip.
We believe that this is more accurate to the genre of a psychological horror as the name in itself sparks an interest into what the film is going to be about, by having it at the beginning overlaid on one of our effective clips, it should appear creepy and engaging.

Plotline

Our film opening focuses on the genre of psychological horror, based on a single character who is followed by another, who, whilst not explained in the sequence, is her twin. The idea behind this was that her twin had passed away before this time and she is being plagued by the fear that her twin is haunting her and following her around, but only she can see her.
The sequence starts from her running into a public toilet and taking solace in there to wipe away her smudged eye make up. This changes to a running scene that then cuts to a running scene from an underpass near Danson Park, the combination of the running scenes at these two locations shows continuity and leads nicely into the scene where our actress runs into a house. (where both her flannel shirt from the innocent personality and leather jacket from the dark natured personality can be seen). Her need to 'wash' away this evil personality leads to her having a bath which then causes her to remember the thought of the evil personality that she refuses to accept is her and instead sees that persona as a nasty being that is chasing her, 'plaguing' her lifestyle.

Filming Day 1:

Day 1 of filming:
After having organised our storyline, we were able to organise the two places we wanted our filming to occur. The first place (house) belonged to one of the members of our group and we had to ensure that we had finished all of the filming before the new year. As our other location was a public area that wouldn't have changed much in the course of a couple of weeks we decided it was more important to film in the empty house (suited to our needs) before it was redecorated as this would not have been fitting to both the tone and the atmosphere we tried to create.

The empty house conformed to the conventions we needed with regards to mise en scene as it was darkly lit, completely plain and presented a blank canvas for us to film in. We set up the room and waited for our actress to arrive, to create the effects of hard high key lighting we used torchlights on both main and fill lights but positioned them in such a way that the shadow was created from the brighter main light to pick out features of the actresses face and make the tear more prominent in the scene.


The bathroom scene in the first chosen location was simplistic and darkly lit, we used this to keep to the codes and conventions of the genre as it presented a dark, dismal environment for our actress to take a bath in that she falls underneath. (similar to the bath scene in 'what lies beneath').

Editing -Tools/techniques

Whilst editing our main coursework project, we also were involved in editing a short montage film which allowed us to further develop our understanding of using Final Cut Pro and were able to use more complex techniques than just cutting the video clip down to make it fit to our 2-minute time frame.

In Final Cut Pro, there is a timeline where you drag your clips in to allow you to rearrange, add transitions and effects, change the timing of clips etc... this is where the editing of a clip occurs.

The first clip was a view of a light in a tunnel, the light becomes blurred towards the end of the clip but originally happened too quickly and didn't fit the tone correctly, to combat this, were slowed down the clip

Blading the clips was useful because it allowed us to keep all of a clip that we wanted but it meant that we didn't have to keep the whole clip as one extended clip, we were able to split it up and re-order the different parts of a clip to maximise its effect. This further enabled us to make quick jump cuts from one clip to another, along with the use of overlapping clips.
We also used overlapping the clips when there were an increased amount of peaks in our soundtrack, this enabled us to make a quick series of cuts between our characters, e.g.: when both characters faces are seen as a series of quick cuts, we used this as a contrast between the two characters, showing them both at a close-up.

Reversing our clips gave a creepy aura to some of them; Silvia, our actress, had done a great job of presenting our deranged protagonist/antagonist and when we reversed the clips e.g.: when she wiped her make up off her face, it became a lot more effective to have the clip in reverse, causing people to cringe and recoil away when they watched what they couldn't perceive as normal behaviour.
Alongside the reversed clip of Silvia wiping her eyes, the music speeds up at this point and we used this to repeat the clip in two quick cuts to the peaks of the music to further dramatic effect.
Viewer:
The program enables you to edit the clips that you have inserted into the timeline. There is a variety of different effects and transitions that can be applied. From this tab in the program, you can apply such things as: transitions, effects, sound effects, colour corrections, photos, text, intros and outros. The heading of the timeline allows you to change the duration/speed of the clip, either slowing down or speeding up the footage, you can get it down to a very precise measurement as there is a customisation of the speed change rate.



We were able to make the clips meet the beat of the music by slowing down and speeding up certain clips, to make the first clip be in time to the beat, we slowed it down for both the effect of sound and video within the clips was enhanced by doing this.

We reversed the clip of Silvia crying to make the tear go back up her face, we also sped the clip up, this helped us to fit all of tear's motion in the sequence without the clip going on for too long.

Mise En Scene Within Our Filming

We settled on two locations: a girls empty bedroom and a tunnel under an overpass in the local area.
These two areas attracted us for their appearances as they were suited to the conventions of the genre we were attempting to depict, this made them the best possible places for us to shoot the two main scenes that we have used in our film opening.

Chosen Location: The Bedroom
Location One and Character Positioning:
Whilst the view of the room is very minimal as you can only really see it in the background of the close-up of our actress' face, we chose it because our idea was based around psychosis and being mentally unstable; the actress' character completely believes that her twin, who passed away years before, is still with her and haunting her wherever she goes. The plain room is supposed to reflect the emptiness of the world around her and the fact that the main focus of her life is in fact herself, as this is both the main focus of the frame and where the most work went into how it looked.
Make up of the character:
Her make up in the room is a mixture of darker colours, the black and reds that make up her lip make up are used to show her disjointed nature, her inability to do her makeup in a way that is deemed attractive. The red lipstick under the black shows the inner evil of the character as there is a split personality trait already presented early on in the clip. Her eyeshadow and black eyeliner further helps us to express her fatigue from her sleeplessness nature and expresses a certain darkness around the character. We also bought two pairs of contact lenses, one which made our character have white eyes and one that blacked out her eyes, each representing a different persona of our actress, the white reflects the good nature and the black represents the dead twin.

Facial Expressions and Body Language:
The fake tear was created by putting an excess of eye drops on our actress, this enabled us to capture her 'crying' to help exaggerate her mental instability. We were then able to make this look more creepy by reversing the clip and the tear is now shown going back up into her eye.
Lighting and Colour:
We chose to spotlight Silvia's face when in the room and have minimal light behind her to make sure that the focus was on her, tied in with the close-up of her face we managed to achieve this one-to-one look between audience and actress.
The combination of key and fill lighting without having a backlight helped to give her a bright, ghostly look. Alongside this, her pale face from the torchlight allowed us to make her appearance colder than the rest of the darker coloured, dimly lit room.

Chosen Location: Underpass at Penhill Roundabout, Blackfen:
Location Two and Character Positioning:
The underpass was suited to the needs of our plot line as it was a closed space with an exit at either side that was had our actress run down as if she is being chased. This goes in time with our music as this part of the scene focuses on a physical viewing of the twin and a chase made by a series of quick cuts between the two at different points in the tunnel.
Makeup of the character:
 The makeup of both characters remained constant between both the house and underpass scenes to show continuity of the characters lifestyle as the only change we wanted to present was between the two personalities rather than changes each faces over the course of time.
Facial expressions and body language:
In this scene, the innocent personality of the two was to show more panicked emotions, crumpled facial expressions to present her fear and anxiety towards the darker personality that she is trying to escape. She shows a consistently crumpled body language that the darker personality combats by having an almost smug look on her face and strong, stood tall posture.
Lighting and colour:
The natural lighting created from both ends of the underpass created a sort of blue tint that was also mirrored by the dim yellow lighting of the tunnel lights. This made a contrast between the two colours that could be used to show that the blue could mirror the cold nature of the darker personality and the yellow shows the more mellow, overpowered nature of the innocent personality.

Chosen Location: Danson Park Public Toilets:
Location Three and Character Positioning:
In this final location we relied on the aspects of the park to create an atmosphere that people can easily relate to, we used the toilets in the park to show normalcy however by our actress running into the toilets and being positioned from long shots and extreme close ups we were able to show her panic.
Makeup of the character:
Her make up in this scene is shown to be smudged in the toilet mirror, her panic is further shown by her smudging of the makeup that isn't done cleanly and well cut. Her simplistic make up is still maintained in this scene.

Facial expressions and body language:
She is seen to be confused when she looks in the mirror and when she runs away her body language shows her to be in a state of panic and desperation. By running past a bush rather than using the pathway she shows her need to get away as soon as possible.
Lighting and colour:
The colour was created by white lighting within the public toilets, we kept this as the only light as it was enough to show off the actresses features. The natural light was useful for us as the time of day that we filmed in meant that the tint was blue as it was getting darker which helped us conform to the conventions of the genre.

Continued ideas for setting and location

To decide on a location, we had to come up with the plot for our film opening. Once we had the plot in place we built the setting and location around this idea and we have come up with the places that we want to film. Along the way we found that one location would not be as suitable due to it being a public walkway and busy throughout most of the day; alongside the aspect of it being crowded for most of the day, there was also a complicated process of getting permission to film there and insurance would have had to have been settled in order for us to go there. To combat this we found another area wherein the tunnel scene of our opening could happen, this area has turned out to be more suitable as there is already lighting there and there is a more close atmosphere to what we wanted from it.

As our opening comes from three scenes, put together by a series of quick cuts, we needed three available locations. these are a bath, a girls plain room and a tunnel. 

We have chosen to film in a house where the walls are plain without decoration, this will reflect the idea of the girls 'lost' nature and allow the audience to focus on the only two things in the scene that we want them to: the girl and her 'reflection'.

For the bath scene we will just use the bathroom of the house, we will likely have to use a waterproof camera and film above the actress to see her slip down under the water for the drowning scene.

Lastly, the tunnel we originally planned to use the tunnel in Greenwich that goes underneath the Thames. This ended up being more trouble than it was worth as we would only need it for a quick series of cuts to create a montage and one longer shot used in a running scene. We instead used an underpass located near Danson park, our other chosen location that we were able to film in during the day without much disruption from members of the public.

Mise en scene

Straightaway as a group we decided that the overall genre that we would cover would be horror. Whilst we were developing our knowledge on the genre to find out what sub-genre we would choose, we learnt about the different aspects of cinematography that make up an effective horror film.
Mise-en scene is a highly important aspect of making a good horror film,

Costume, Hair and Make-Up:
This makes up an important part of the characters overall display to the audience, through the use of these three areas a characters personality can be shown without them even having to open their mouths. It can also explain the idea behind the story, for example in American Psycho when Patrick Bateman kills Paul Allen, the make up after he takes off the rain coat depicts him as a split personality character.
In this shot of Bateman, the blood and his messy hair on the right side of his face shows his killer side of his personality. In this way, the idea of the movie is reflected as the film never concludes whether he in fact committed the crimes or he just believes that he did. The make up and hair used here is effective in achieving Bateman's crazed and psychotic look, whilst still allowing the audience to see that there is a split chance that this is in his mind.



Settings and Props:
Different props and settings can be used for specific genres e.g.: an axe murderer in an abandoned shack in the country side makes for a perfect slasher horror. Furthering on with the theme of American Psycho, there is a scene where the different men in the office are showing off their new business cards. The business cards are analysed each time and the intensity that the men compare and compete for the best business card helps to present the characters in the film with regards to their personalities.

Facial Expressions and Body Language:
The characters facial expressions and the way they use their body language heavily impacts the tone of their appearance and can allow the audience to connect/understand the true personality of the character, or sometimes e.g.: in a horror, the idea may be the lack of facial expressions and body language which can also tell us about a character.

Facial expressions can convey a range of emotions better than most over techniques. In this .gif from Quarantine, the character shows fear and desperation as she is dragged away, through the scrunched up and screaming facial expression and her arms reaching out for something to grab to hold onto.

Bateman's dancing before killing Paul Allen displays his madness and erratic behaviour. The body language here is used to contrast against the act of murder about to occur, which is horrific and bloody as this little dance makes it almost seem humorous.This further conveys the point that Bateman is a psycho and not of sound mind.




Lighting and colour:

Lighting and colour can be used to express a certain atmosphere and create tension and suspense in the horror genre.
In Resident Evil, the RedQueen is displayed in red light in front of a dark and blurred background. This is to make her more profound in the shot and to create the tension between her and the characters she is speaking to (project Alice).
Lighting provides the means to make a character stand out more or to seem more insignificant, it allows the characters to further present their personalities e.g.: a killer or a criminal in a film may have the fill light dimmed out more to show half of their faces in darkness to reflect the inner characters personality.
Colour allows us to explore a range of presentations of a character. In the .gif out of Resident Evil, the RedQueen, being red can reflect overtones of evil and deceit, allowing us to have our view of her before she needs to say or do anything else. Contrastingly, a character may be presented in all bright colours and be shown to be an image of purity. Angelic figures within films are often presented with bright white lights behind them and a strong tri-light on themselves, they also have bright white clothing on to reflect the innocence and purity of the character.




Galadriel from Lord of The Rings is shown to be this innocent, angelic figure dressed all in white with a bright shiny crown. Her clothing reflects the personality that we are supposed to see of her and then the lighting further expresses this as it shines from behind and onto her to keep her as the bright character in the shot.




Position of Characters/Objects Within the Scene:

The positioning of characters in the scene allows us to engage and evaluate the characters. In the opening scene from The Ring, the two girls are on/by the bed and are planning on watching a film. By being around the bed we view these girls as innocent, with the greatest aura of innocence coming from the girl who is lying on the bed swinging her legs behind her. This innocence can be contrasted with the idea of what film they are talking about and indeed with what happens to the people who have watched it.

Comparison of a film opening and a film trailer.

Film Trailers:
Usually within the first couple of seconds of a film trailer, the production logos will be shown e.g.: new line cinema, Dreamworks, universal studios, film 4.

This is to help the production companies out, if someone has previously watched and enjoyed another film that has been produced by New Line Cinema, then by seeing the logo come up on the trailer they may be more likely to be drawn in and watch a). the rest of the trailer and b). go and see the film.
Also, in most cases you can tell from the production company logo what type of film is going to be presented. It sets the tone for the film. For example if you see the Dreamworks logo, you will likely recognise that there will be a large budget for the film and it will be family-friendly e.g: Shrek.

The title of the film is in every film trailer, and this tells you what the film is called but more importantly it can reveal the genre of the film by the design and colour of the title.

This film title has a white background, bright font surrounded by a dotted heart. In this way you can tell that the genre of the film is more than likely a romantic comedy film.


Film opening:
Film openings need to quickly determine the genre of the film and set the tone for the rest of the film, this is achieved by accomplishing the relevant aspects of cinematography relevant to said genre.
The camera shots will each achieve a different meaning. For example, in 10 things I hate about you, the establishing shot of the college at the beginning with a present American flag allows to quickly assume that the film will be based around a group of students at the shown college. From the soundtrack that ties with the establishing shot we will then develop our assumption into a teen drama/rom-com film about the fore mentioned college students.

On the other hand, a film that opens with a close up view of a girls face with zombified make up and fake blood over her will give a very different image of what the genre is and what the film is about. This will instead give off the tone of a tense zombie horror film and put us in the action, as if the child is staring directly at us.
Following on from the idea of a zombie film, a technique that may be used (seen In the opening of 28 weeks later and zombieland) is a device called tracking. This allows the audience to follow the action as it occurs but also helps to put us into te position of  running alongside the person, trying to get away from the zombie threat. This is a close to medium shot of the person and the zombie and will often be done to show the camera moving erratically, rocking as if the running movement is happening to the cameraman.

Similarly, a pan can be used to show the chase of the survivor (similar to tracking) but this wider shot also allows some of the setting to be shown to allow us to grasp an idea of where the film is at that point in time (will include noticeably identifiable things E.g.: football marking of an American football field, a red phone box in front of white concrete buildings to show central London etc...

Conventions of Science-Fiction Horrors

What are Science-Fiction/Horror Fiction Films:
This type of horror sub-genre uses imaginative concepts involving pushing the boundaries of science to create things that seem plausible but we cannot be sure can happen, the result is a film that can leave the audience confused over what they've just watched and applies a scare factor that works off of making the audience question the film.

Focuses:
These films focus on aspects such as the following:

• futuristic setting
• faster-than light travel
• technology

In the Event Horizon, a group of astronauts are sent to a ship that has mastered the ability to travel from point A to point B the quickest, however this manipulation of science causes the captain of the ship to be possessed and the ship to be alive. The captain and the ship slowly start to pick off the crew.

• extraterrestrial life
• supernatural happenings and beings 

In Resident Evil Afterlife, one woman goes around to continue a fight against the umbrella corp and to round up survivors from the plague of the walking dead. When they hear about a safe haven in Los Angeles, they head towards with hope but all they find is a city infested with zombies.

Conventions:
Sci-fi horror films use a range of techniques to achieve the desired effect of making the ideas that seem too far-fetched to appear real and authentic.
They also use futuristic ideas and themes to stretch the bounds of the imagination to create a film that goes against what we expect to be real
The lighting used in space films is usually bright with a blue tint for the majority of a film, changing to red/green to show of the antagonists. This causes the audience to automatically know what side each of the characters are on and this identification allows you to keep up worth the action. Lighting can also be used for dramatic effect, for example in the Event Horizon, the core of the ship has many white lights on it which make it the more dominant object in the room and brings the audiences focus onto itself. The surrounding area of the room not lit up by the headlight on the space helmet results in the core of the ship gaining a position of power due to the contrast of light and colour in the room.
Often the reality in which the film appears will be in an alternate planet Earth, to give the film a familiar yet alien atmosphere
Main characters usually give some style of narration, whether it to be describing a futuristic element of technology used in the film or to exaggerate the relationships between characters or people's to fill in the audience with the relevant back story and bring them up to speed with the timing of the film (which also usually happens to be in the future, allowing for futuristic technology/architecture to be easily accepted).

Sound is widely used to accentuate the points being made/aspects of the film. Whether they are the ambient digetic sounds of a mad scientists heavy footsteps down the corridor to his/her lab or the non-digetic sounds of a heartbeat when faced with the enemy, sound is used to draw in a viewer to remind them of how everyday sounds can be manipulated for effect.

Pros and Cons of Monster Horror as a Sub-Genre

Pros and Cons of a Monster Horror:
The sub-genre of monster horror is open to interpretation, with different themes that can be used e.g.: zombies, vampires, werewolves etc... The good things about having a monster horror film is it is clear from the start what side are the protagonists and what side are the antagonists. Also with this sub-genre there is a broad selection of ideas that can be used when making the film as there are different beings that can be focused in on. Also the camera time that you see a werewolf for in a film may only be a split-second and this means that the acting is kept to a minimum.

The disadvantages of using this sub-genre are that there will likely be complications as to getting a suitable location e.g.: in the opening scene of 28 Days Later, Central London is used and as year 12 media students we would be unable to shut down several streets in Central London to get any footage from.
Another disadvantage is that the costumes used can either look effective or silly and this can change the film from being a horror to being a comedy if the make-up and costume looks as though it was done in 5 minutes. To make the costumes look authentic we would need to spend a lot of time working on make-up if we did vampires or zombies and time producing an effective mask that may only be shown for a split-second if we did a werewolf film.

Deconstruction of '28 Days Later' Opening Scene as a Monster Horror.

For me, the opening scene of 28 Days Later clearly demonstrates many of the key conventions that are expected from a monster horror. At this point the only backstory we have is a rage virus being released and after 28 days, a carrier patient (Jim) wakes up from a coma. I chose to deconstruct and break this film opening down to illustrate the concepts used when making a monster horror (in this case, the monster being zombies).
Sound:
In the background throughout this scene, there is a low and quiet soundtrack playing which helps to build suspense and give the film an ominous theme to it, this ties in with the genre as horror films need tension/suspense to foreshadow what is to come.
Jim's desperation is shown when he calls out and the echo that follows shows his loneliness from the world as there is no contact with anyone else at this point, this builds tension as no one would want to be in a situation where you are on your own.
Location:
Another technique of note is the location that has been used. In the vast majority of zombie horror films, the location will be either an isolated and empty cottage house/outback forest area where human activity is at a complete minimum. In this scene, Central London has been portrayed as trashed and abandoned. The contrast from a city filled with life and constantly being kept clean going to empty streets covered in litter. To carry this out, streets were blocked off and collected bags of trash were used to cover the streets.
Camera Shots:
A lot of the shots in this scene are extreme long shots apart from those used to show Jim's facial expression, which are all medium shots. By using the extreme long shots, thereby making Jim appear small and insignificant, the weight of the situation is expressed. By showing a now empty city, an ominous atmosphere is created and tense as we wait to see some other sign of life that we are deprived from in this scene.