WORK LOG- FILMING

Once we were sure that all of our planning was in order, we set a filming date and eventually began filming our coursework.

Day one
We all met at Imogen's house as this was the first filming location. Here we did the makeup for both actresses, one being the sfx of the cut face and the other being the character make-up (eye shadow,lipstick etc)[see special effects makeup post]. We filmed the receiving of the text and the gathering of the possessions in the bedroom, which included close ups of the eyes, phone, and the items that the first victim gathers. We encountered problems with the lighting as it was somewhat a yellowish hue, in contrast to the darkness outside (thus we were unable to use natural lighting), however we resolved this by using extra artificial lighting. 

The montage of the character getting ready took many shots to film at first in order to get the match on action just right. Then we filmed the shots of her tying her shoelace and exiting the house to complete the 'getting ready' process. After completing the match on action shot with the front door, we left my house and walked across the road to the starting point of our next location.

Next, we filmed the walking shots of Katya as her character walks towards where she suspects she is receiving drugs. We had to use artificial lighting as it was very dark outside, and the street lights wouldn't provide enough lighting to make the character visible. Once this was filmed, we carried on to the overpass bridge which we would film the capturing scene. Luckily, the bridge remained unoccupied throughout filming, so we were able to complete filming the sequence quite quickly, although we were rather anxious regarding members of the public's reactions towards our mise en scene mask and camera equipment out on show.

By placing the camera behind a tree, we were able to film a POV shot of the killer looking across the road at the first victim. 

Additional filming
After we had reviewed all of our footage from the first filming session, we decided that we need additional footage to tie to the opening together. We felt that we needed more clips of the killer to cue the audience in to his motive, as it wasn't particularly clear as to what he wanted. To create the ideal atmosphere for the killer to be in- we filmed the additional scene in our school's dark room which contains red lights that we believe successfully convey the feeling of danger as well as adding to the whole 'blood and gore' aesthetic.

We made plans/blueprints of he mask that the killer would use as guidelines and we put them on the wall and put our killer in front of them. We filmed our killer holding the piece of flesh up to the plans, him putting on his mask, drawing lines on his victims face and finally washing his hands. The footage filmed here is (what we consider) as better quality than the other footage as the lens used was different and specifically for video in comparison to the previously used lens.

TYPOGRAPHY RESEARCH

To work out the most appropriate movie typography I looked at movie typography that I consider relate to our genre and premise.

Saw
The film saw is notorious for it's graphic body horror and immense amount of violence. The typography for the majority of the films (with the exception of saw 5) have the same font with something next to it which makes it have its own identity. The colour of the typography is dark and messily done, which reflects the gory and disgusting nature of the films and suitable for the content within the movie. This film relates to our opening as it shares similarities with the body horror violence.

Friday the 13th

The famous slasher film "Friday the 13th" has font that looks like it has been carved out of something which is suitable and Mrs Vorhees and her son Jason (in the later films) carve up humans with many weapons - most notably Jason's famous machete. The blood splattered 13th successfully shows the audience what kind of film it's going to be as there is a lot of blood within the movie. If we were to take an aspect from this typography and implement it into our typography we would use the blood as several shots of our opening contain blood.

Nightmare on Elm Street

The typography for "Nightmare on elm street" is blood red, which is suitable as the movie contains quite a lot of it. Unlike Friday the 13th the entire title of the film is in red so it stands out. The nightmare is in a different font to the rest of the title and it arguably heightens the appeal of the film as viewers will want to know what is so nightmarish about this film to have a title like that. We would, as I said in the Friday the 13th part, use the red of the title.

House of the dead

The house of the dead typography is of particular interest because it looks like it has been written with blood with it splattered along the bottom of the title. Just like the others it is suitable for the film. We would definitely take inspiration from this typography as I feel it would be suitable for our film opening.

FILM OPENING DECONSTRUCTION- SCREAM

One of the most famous horror films to come out in the last 20 years is Wes Craven's scream. Set in the town of Woodsburo, a murderer by the name of Ghostface is picking of members of the community one by one.

The film opens with title of the movie accompanied with the non digetic sound of a ringing phone followed by a loud scream. This informs the audience of the genre of the film they are about to watch, the scream connotes horror and violence.

The ringing of the phone is a sound bridge as it carried over to the next shot as we see a close up of a phone, thus the ringing becomes a digetic sound. The audience then see Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore) answer the phone. She is wearing white which usually connotes purity and innocence however, in the scene she gets into a semi flirtatious mood with the caller despite her having a boyfriend, something that can be seen as the convention of a . She is also wearing make up which may represents this sexualised manner. Wes Craven is credited with defying the regular conventions associated with horror with this film.

After hanging up after the caller dials her again the location of the opening is revealed to be a large house though the use of a long shot. Having the framed on its own and I the center of the shot creates a feeling of isolatedion . This contributes to the tension of the scene as Casey is all alone and a sense of helplessness begins to build.

The caller calls yet again, and they start talking about scary movies, which at the time, having characters within a horror film be self aware and start referencing horror films was unheard of. Which gives credit to Scream and Wes Craven revolutionising the horror genre. A zoom in shot with Casey's face framed in the center shows the concern and fright that is on her face. The non digetic sound of a dog barking perhaps alludes to the killer's presence outside and Casey begins to lock the door in response to this.

The killer begins to get more violent on the phone and the on screen diegetic sound of popcorn on the stove is getting louder and the bag is getting bigger perhaps to heighten the growing tension of the scene. The close up of Casey's face when the killer threatens to kill her shows the true terror she is feeling and the horror of the overall scene, Casey's mode of address begins to get frantic and scared conveying the sense of fright and desperation.

After the threat a non digetic drum beat begins to play and after a screech Casey runs and the drums beat faster to accompany the growing tension of the scene, and perhaps to show that the killer is getting closer. As Casey locks all the doors the music stops leading the audience into a false sense of security. The silence isn't there for long as an offscreen digetic sound of a doorbell is heard making Casey scream and jump in terror.

Then the phone rings again making her scream, the use of a long shot leaves her open and exposed so the audience are looking around her environment in case the killer is stalking around the house. Casey answers the call and a long shot of the door leads the audience to believe that the killer is on the other side. Then the killer reveals he knows the name of Casey's boyfriend and the background music of the string instruments stop playing, a close up of Casey's face shows how scared she is.

The killer demands she turn on the patio lights, the lighting is low key yet bright enough for the audience to see her boyfriends bound and gagged body, however at the same time not bright enough for the, to feel safe and secure. A close up of Steve's (the boyfriend) face shows that he has been injured and the audience now know that this killer is not messing around and is a very real threat.

The lights are turned off at the killer's command and after Casey gets one of his questions wrong he says that Steve is going to die. The darkness of the shot doesn't show the audience the killer. Then the lights return and the audience see his mutilated body. After more back and forth between Casey and the killer, then a jump scare with the sound of glass cracking is a sound bridge between a shot of Casey cowering and a shot of a chair coming through the patio door.

We finally see the killer from a P.O.V of Casey and a screech of non diegetic string instruments accompanies this. A chase ensues and a long shot shows the audience how the killer is right behind Casey, framed right in the center to show his close proximity to Casey. He manages to catch her and stab her in the chest with the phone still in her hand.

In a close up shot the killer then stabs her in the throat and destroys her vocal chords and her mode of address becomes gargled, as she tries and calls for help conveying the hopelessness of the situation . The audience can see the pain of Casey's face and endure this pain with her. She then tries and calls for her parents who have just arrived at the house however the dramatic irony that the audience know that Casey is in trouble but her parents don't creates a sense of hopelessness. Her parents come into the house and see the fire on the stove as a result of the overcooked pop corn and start to panic. Her mother begins to call the phone and in a close up shot we see Casey being dragged by the killer with the phone still in hand, the close up allows the audience to see the panic on the mother's face.

The mother exits the house and screams. This clues the audience into the fact that something has happened but they are not shown until the camera zooms in onto Casey's gutted body hanging from a tree. The zoom is fast paced and shows her body in gory detail making the audience very uncomfortable.

The opening is brilliant as it establishes the genre of the film and shows the killer in full force and shows what he is capable of. Drew Barrymore did a lot of the promotional material for the movie so to see her get killed off in the first few minutes of the film was a real shock to the audience. However, in my opinion- this opening peaks the film much too soon, as the killer doesn't really appear for much of the film until the ending and when he does it doesn't impact the audience like he does in this opening.

MOVIE TRAILERS VS MOVIE OPENINGS

In order to further our understanding in regards to how to edit our film opening, it was important for us to know the differences between a film trailer and the opening of a film.

Trailers
Trailer editing is about how you can condense a film into a 1-2 minute preview. A well cut trailer will have a flowing motion to it, a sense that everything follows one sequence to the next and the the viewer on a mini experience of the film. Trailers build up excitement and anticipation, and a keen sense of rhythm heightens those sensations. What plays a big part in the effectiveness of the trailer is the music used within it. Generally there are three music  cues, a basic formula of a trailer has been devised something like this: Act one; Introduce films' characters and environment. Act two; complicate the world act one has set up to overcome. Act three; intensify the conflicts and build up tension/excitement/humour(normally with a heightened pace and jump cut montage editing). There can be four acts but there also can be one it all depends on the material the editors have to work with. Most importantly; the editors never resolve anything within the trailer, this is because they don't want to give the plot of the film away at any point. A good trailer just reveals the movie's potential to be great. If the trailer has a seductive rhythm to it and an arresting structure the viewer will be more interested in seeing the finished product. Trailer editors, are disrespectful, they de-contextualise everything, the editors have to see everything  for what they are inherently, not how they function in the context of the film. They have to unpack the feature in order to repack it and turn it into a trailer. There are so many familiar editing tropes in trailers; dissolves, fades from black, fades to black, white flashes with slams, fast paced flutter cuts, double exposures, speed adjustments, audio rises, audio drones, audio stings. A romantic film for example, the editor will use dissolves and fades. In an action film, the editors will use fast cuts that crescendo in a metal door slam and white flash. The editors have to sell the story as well as tell it in its simplest form.

Depending on the studio and the project, the marketing work is often split between the studio's in-house marketing department and one or more outside agencies. These agencies are known colloquially as "trailer houses". A trailer is a condensed version of a feature, so it should be a collection of its greatest elements, lead with its merits. The genre of the movie will often determine how the trailer is edited, for example if its a comedy the editor will include som of its funniest moments, a good comedy trailer will include some funny moments without giving away the most hilarious jokes.

Openings
An effective film opening will have to grab the audiences attention straight away to make sure they'll continue watching. The film maker s will have to quickly introduce the characters briefly, with a couple of broad strokes and then throw them into the pit right away and over the course of the film let the audience see if and how they'll claw their way out. It should tell the audience the genre of the film right away and the setting/location. It should introduce one of the storylines and give the audience a taste of the narrative. Usually there is music and quick editing, particularly to create an element of suspense. The audience want to learn, in these opening minutes- the tone, the atmosphere, the stakes and what the characters have to overcome.

• Scream(horror)- In this brilliant opening the phone rings, a cute girl answers and a freaky voice is heard. The audience is given a few pieces of pop culture dialogue about horror films, the tension builds as the tension builds the killer begins to get more violent , her boyfriend ends up dead. Then the audience finally sees he masked killer. The girl (played by Drew Barrymore- who did a lot of the promotional material for the film) dies. The audience know the stakes ANYONE can be killed, now they're engaged.
• Star Wars (sci-fi)- The opening threw the audience into the world of the film. The star destroyer coming into endless view in pursuit of the smaller ship, the droids making their escape, the entrance of Darth Vader, his confrontation with Princess Leia where the audience learn about the pans, by the time the droids make their escape the audience know what they're in for and are engaged.
• Raiders of the lost ark(adventure/action)- In this classic opening the audience sees Indiana Jones, barely hear one word from him and learn next to nothing about his back story. He's a man of action, the audience learn about him by his actions and by the time he escapes from the natives and he film cuts to him wearing glasses and teaching a university class, the audience are hooked- where will this character take them next.