Initial Practice Shots Video
Scenery Shots
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In my filming I used the graphical and rural area of Hempsted to achieve successful scenery shots which would allow me to create a peaceful and isolated atmosphere. This would allow me to give the town a lack of authority but also to make it look like a nice trailer at the start. Although I knew not all of the pictures would be used I made sure there was a selection of shots from the school, village hall and soldier memorial. I believed that these could show some of the event that the town have lived through and also the school could symbolise that there are children who are the main victims of this story. One of the pictures contains a sign of Ladywell Close and there are also two pictures of the well one with a killer and one without a killer. This could have given an alternative storyline to my trailer as Hempsted was once said to be a witches home and the well was the cauldron. However this footage was not used because I wanted to make my trailer more slasher than supernatural.
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Other shots that I capture had posters of missing people. This would have shown the audience that lots of different people had been going missing and that they could not be found. This would show them that the killer had been conducting these crimes for a long period of time and that he was able to get away with it without any suspicion. This would be able to give a sense of intelligence to the killer showing that to be able to stop him they would need a highly specialised team. This would be hard with the lack of authority showing that the characters living the town would need to escape soon or be able to find the killer. All of these effects would be able to give a physiological effect on the audience and make them want to find out what would happen in the movie without revealing too many details.
Running Scene
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These shots created a scene which showed a family running away from the park. This would have been in my trailer after the ringing of the bells to show that people feared the night time when the killer would come out. I used the same children in the park and their parents to create this scene so that I would be able to link it with some previous shots. I had them run around various corner and past different locations so that I could pick which of the areas I wanted to include for my trailer. I also added a first person running shot and also a first person slam of the door. If used the slam of the door would have been used to trigger a killer or the title to appear as was loud and violent. Overall none of this scene was used because of many different reasons. The first reason was that it was not scary enough. Although not all horrors need to have fear all in the trailer, this scene too up too much time and would not have been relevant.
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The other reason of why I did not use these shots were the quality. As it was hard to obtain the character I had to try and film all of the scene mid day. This meant that the scene were too bright for it to represent that it was late and that they were running in doors because night was coming. Even with lots of editing on final cut, I still considered the quality of light to look poor. Due to these reasons I swapped it out for a murder scene and then to relate the children in the park once again to the trailer I had the boy pick up the mask at the end which was hidden in the park under a pile of leaves.
Drug Murder Idea
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This was an alternative murder to just stabbing people to try and make my trailer more interesting and unique. Overall this murder was trying to use the concept of the killer breaking into people's houses and poisoning items such as drinks so that when they used them again it would kill them. The shots started with the victim walking down the road and then entering her house. A problem that I found with the house is that it was too modernly built and furnished to be in a rural town. When entering the house my favourite shot was the switching on of the light which created a disorientating effect for the viewers. However I could not include this without the rest of the scene which was not done to a high enough quality. After the victim had walked into her house I included shots of the killer. This was to show that the killer had drugged her rather than letting the audience think too much about what happened. This would also create a more gripping atmosphere as they would not want her to drink the Orange and would get linked in with the characters.
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When filming the shots of the killer I made sure that the clothes the killer wore was black so that they would be hidden within the shadows. I also made sure that they were wearing gloves so that there would be no trace of the killer except for the drug in the girl's bloodstream. These however came out a poor quality because of the lack of lighting within the room which lead me not to want to include it within my trailer. After this I had the victim drink some of the drink. The shot could have ended and faded away here which would have been better than the alternative idea which I also included. This showed the victim from low angle walking into the living room of her house. This shows that the victim had no power over the situation. After this I had the actress fall sleep on the sofa showing that the drug had been absorbed into the bloodstream and killed her. There was also a problem with this murder overall as the death look unrealistic, confusing for a minority of audience I tested it on and also did not give the same affect as a typical slasher scene.
Murderer Lair
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This were shots which I could have included within the trailer of the murderer's lair. These would have been used the same as the glove shots and masks shots that were included within the trailer however these shows the killer crossing off victim of which he had killed. Each of these shots however had problems which gave an alternative atmosphere to the trailer. The first shot of the killer crossing off victims on paper was well light yet too typical in horror trailer. Another problem with this clip is that it had a creamy white background. To make this shot be successful I would have needed the background to be a wooden or steal desk that had been aged which marks on. The other shot had lots of photos and an iPad on the floor with a light moving over the top of them. This was to show that the killer was looking over all of the victims which he was going to kill. The paper was going to symbolise the people in which he had killed quickly within the film and the girl on the iPad was the main character.
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This shot did not work although lit nicely due to several factors. The first factor was that like the other shot the background was a creamy white floor where it should have been an aged, wooden/steel desk. Another factors is that the light is moving where as if I was to use this shot it would flash up quickly. Another problem was some of the pictures in the missing posters not fitting the killers main targets and finally the iPad looking unrealistic and poor quality for the shot.
Grave Yard Shots
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When the church striked to symbolise the end of the day for the killer to come out I was planning on having several different shots. The ones that I did include in my trailer were quickly flashed in as images and were all close ups of tombstones. These are the other three images which I did not use. The first one is a shot of many different tombstones and the church in the background. I did not use this as I wanted the church to be an isolated area and give more tension to the scene and this shot provided lots of open space. This shot was also poorly lit with a bad iOS setting as the light picked up created a dull rather than scary atmosphere. The other shots I was were off the killer in the churchyard. One of him sat on a bench and one walking round the side of the church. This was going to be included to show that the killer used the bells to know the time to kill. These shot were not used in the final trailer because I wanted to speed it up and create more tension so I had a more limited time on the church so more time shown on deaths.
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Each of these shots also had different aspects that I thought made them look unprofessional. One, although trailer do not have contingency error, the killer was wearing a blue jumper within the churchyard as props were unavailable. This I thought created a problem as the killer should always be wearing black so that he blends in with the shadows. Finally, each of these shots also had poor lighting with the positioning so that little so the capture could be seen which would disorientate the user over created a scary atmosphere.
Alleyway Murder
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The last lot of shots that I conducted was an alley murder using the same victim as the drugging death. This sequence was the first lot of shot that I took in the Summer holiday of 2016. This allowed me to plan how I could kill someone, look over how to apply blood and also test the different camera settings such as exposure or focusing modes. Overall it produced me this sequence of shots which made many different issues that I later improved on in my later shots. Firstly, the lighting was very poor which no natural light, only a small torch and a poor iOS setting. I later improved on these different aspect in a different sequence using a better light and changing the settings. In this shot the killer is also seen where as in my trailer he is not. I wanted my killer to appear unknown to the audience until the end where the boy picks up the mask. This suggests that he could be the killer or it could suggest that he is going to be killed which would make the audience want to see the film to find out. This would not have been achieved if the killer had been seen too much throughout the trailer like in these shots.
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When the victim was stabbed there were several takes due to them not being able to concentrate. This was a poor choice of casting and made picking the footage harder. Finally, when the victim was on the floor the blood was poorly applied to her neck and was it dropped you were not able to see it due to lighting and also the focusing of the camera.
Conclusion
Looking over these shots I am happy with the choices that I will make within my trailer. Although these have not been used they have helped me create a storyline for the film and also practice my camera technique with using the different settings. I have also known where different props such as light comes in useful and also which focus (automatic or manual) should be used in different situation. Locations, backgrounds and casting are also important to evaluate before you start the shot because you want them to overview as scary rather than a creamy innocent and peaceful colour or a big house that would not fit in the isolated village where the story is based. These will all help me create better sequences of shots within the future and make the best trailer to my ability.
-BH