1. A young-ish child preferably a girl whom is around the age 6-11, who is possesed.
2. The little girl who died in a house fire haunts the new house enhabitants. Our main feature in the film is burnt letters in which the parents had wrote. These contained daunting clues as to what happened before they moved in. The little is playing the the corner with her dolls and as the other character turns the light on to see who it is she dissapears and only a letter is left behind.
3. The little girl dressed in burnt nighty with pale skin and dark eye make up with matted hair. Also with blood on her arms and legs perhaps showing her struggle to escape. The other character will be dressed in casual clothing.
4. The setting will be a house mainly shot in a small bedroom , the lighting will be natural however when the little girl appears it will be dim casting shadows.
We used Wordle.net and wikipedia to create a "wordle" for ghost films we have already seen.
Based on this wordle we could incorporate the idea of a house, possibly haunted. Also the idea of a curse is a main idea in The Grudge as it is in a larger font. Other words that are in a large font are mainly names of characters in the film such as "Kayako" and "Karen". Other words that we could use within our film could be "killed", "deaths" and "bodies" which show a threat is posed.
I used worlde for the film I watched which was Dark water. We went on to wikipedia and copied the plot into wordle and this creates a collarge of words and the the larger words are the most used. As we can see a key element of a ghost genre is names as "Dahlia", "Cecilia" and "Natasha" are the large words and as I stated name are a large part of the plot as they give us a sense of familiarity with the characters. Water is in a large font as the film is called dark water and the threat is the water so therefore we must show the threat.
Here is the wordle that I created on the film What Lies Beneath. The main key words used are the names of the characters so this doesn't give me much inspiration for our film. However there are some words in there that will help us, for example ghost, haunting, memory letters and bathtub. We were originally thikning of making a horror film that involves those 4 things anyway, but this has helped us out even more.
1. The institutional information we are given in the opening titles, that there is a single mum with a young daugther starting a new life and showing they are innocent. The weather is dark and dismal showing the looming event waiting to happen. The trees are used to hide the apartment and show perhaps what is to come. The lift shows entrapment and that they cannot escape. The close ups of the womens face shows fear and tention.
2. The titles are shown in rippling,dark and deep water to show you cannot see what is going to happen and that everything below you is unsafe. The text is large and in white and ripples like it was in water and this to me portrays the uncertainty after what is lurking in the water.
3.We see images of a lift and showing the lift moving up the floors but it skips 9, showing something is wrong with that floor this relates to the genre of ghost/ haunting because there is the element of the unknown and something must still be living up there. The damp patch in which is extremely dark and growing by the minute once again relates to theme of ghost as we cannot explain why it is happening and we cannot see how it is happening.
4. We can learn from this title sequence as we must include the threat of what is looming, show the threat but as it is a ghost we cannot give the ghost away in the film but just giving hints to show the back ground story. Our backgrounds of the title openings must relate to the theme of the film and the film name must be a huge part the sequence as it reveals some of the plot. It also includes hints and can give the audience a sense or forboding as for what they feel may come. The shots must usally be in a close up and capture the mention or details of the objects or the people. The images in the sequence must be short and snappy in order to keep the suspense going.
1. The instituional information we are given is that it is a video tape as there is static on the screen and then jumps to what seems a recording. The threat is eshtablished by a young girl saying "If you watch this tape you die after 7 days". This creates suspense as we want to know if this is true and what does the tape do for this to even happen!. The little boy shows once again the inncoent character whom is perhaps the solution. The rainy, bleak weather sets the tone as it creatse a dull, lifeless atmosphere and that the film has some event to change this tone. The close ups are once again very important in order to catch the facial expressions and fear in the actors state.
2. Although there is only one font it is bright white and this is assisoated with ghost's, the only thing which is shown is "coming soon". this leaves us in termoil as we know no information and we are left wanting to know the starts of this film or some clue as to how this event ends and if there is a solution. With there being no titles we are left to our own imagenation as to what we are ment to feel.
3. The element of the unknown is what is key to the genre as with ghost films we sometimes cannot see there movements and motifes. This is shown in the phone call becuase we can see that character only hear there chilling voice and this leaves us to think is it real or alive? The old, black and white theme is a part of the ghost genre becuase it is showing the character is most likely dead or as to why they are now usually haunting someone.
4. we can learn that we once again must keep the suspense by leaving the audience as to why this event is happen and that they feel the need to watch it and carry on. As I stated earlier the close up shots of the characters and objects allows us to take in every detail and create our own opinions of the story and what we beleive is going to happen .
Name: Rebecca Stonehouse
Film Name: What Lies Beneath
Sub Genre: Ghost Thriller
Certificate: 15
Camera Angles: The camera is used cleverly through out the film. Buy placing the camera in different positions and angles through out the film it creates a feeling of suspense for the audience. For example in one scene the actress is approaching the bath slowly and the camera is following her, because of the speed of the cameras movement it creates tension and makes the audience still stay engaged with what is going to happen next.
Lighting: In the film the lighting doesn’t make any tension or create a scarier effect. Mainly through out the film its just natural lighting apart from a few scenes where its dark as there’s a few scenes out side. With the dark lighting outside it does give the viewer a sense of fear, as dark lighting makes everything scarier.
Music/Sound: Like in every horror film there is some high pitched sounds to create a dramatic feeling for the viewer. When the ‘scary’ scenes came on in the film, taunting music tends to be played to higher the suspense for the viewers, and this was definitely used in the film. The music used in the opening sets the scene for the rest of the film for the audience, I think its important to choose the right type of music for the opening as you don’t want to give the audience the wrong type of assumption on what the film will be like.
Location/Setting/Props: The film was set in America. With a married couple living in a large old American style house. With a traditional fishing lake in the same grounds, and a forest type area within the area. This isn’t surprising as it is a typical horror film set. The house itself that it is filmed in is huge, which also creates fear as you cant see every part of it which makes you think about what could be there. Location and setting is the main concern when it comes to filming, as it is the main aspect that causes an atmosphere! There weren’t very many props used in the film to be honest, and the ones that were used didn’t really add to the atmosphere.
Genre/Fear: I think that our sub genre of ghost thriller is shown very well in the film 'What Lies Beneath' however i feel that it wasnt portrayed as well as it could have been. Even though the effects that they used were good, it wasnt very convincing and believeble. I think that the scariest part of the film was the scene where the main character is in the house alone and can see and feel the spirit within the house, possesing what she's doing. I think this is the scariest scene becuase the music and the way that its filmed makes it scary. Also there is a part where you can see the ghost's reflection in the bath and that is also a very scary part in the film!
We havent changed groups for our final coursework project, it's still Katie Bee and Rebecca Stonehouse! The film that we have decided to create is a ghost thriller. We have decided to pick this genre simply because we both like ghost horrors and because we did a ghost thriller for our practise film and know how to create a scary atmosphere which is also believable.
1) Use Of The Camera.
Through out our film I feel that our shot was steady and strong. This was mainly because we were using a tripod through out our filming, with no shaky shots!! In my opinion I think that we did manage to successfully shoot an appropriate shot, the main reason behind this is because instead of having the camera adjust to what we were filming, we managed to make the actors adjust to where and how the camera was positioned. I feel that we used a range of shots through out our film, and feel pretty proud! We were most happy with how our canted angle turned out. We filmed the character coming up the stairs shouting ‘JAMIE’ and we decided that for a better effect we would film this on a canted angle, and im glad we decided to do that as it turned out really well and added dramatic effect!! Not only that, but we also used a different range of shots to create a tension.
2) Use Of Editing.
Our finished work did have several problems with continuity the main reason that this happened was because our destination we decided to film at, was small and compact which meant we couldn’t physically shoot every single frame correctly which made the footage jumpy between takes. Even though what we did film and edit turned our great, we do feel that this didn’t make it look the best it could of! However this has made us think carefully about where and how we’re going to film our actual film so that this definitely does not happen again! I think that the editing effects that we used were perfect, because we didn’t make it look overly edited. And there wasn’t anything that was noticeably un realistic which by doing so made id look less jumpy. However we now know how to use more advanced techniques and not make it look un realistic so we are going to bare that in mind when it comes to the real thing!
3) Selection Of Content.
As a group, we decided that we did want the make up to be over the top and in your face. But not too much as we thought it would look overly fake. So personally I think that the make up we applied really tied in well with the look we were going for and did create a scary tension through out. However we feel like we could have made the other actors make up look so much better and realistic, one of the main reasons why we couldn’t portray this was because we didn’t have any fake blood to use which would have definitely made a whole lot of difference to the scary look we were trying to portray! When we first chose to film at my friends house we thought it would be perfect! But we then realised that we had limited amount of space due to narrow corridors. The original film had no specific costume for the actor so were fine with that but the ghost was wearing black but the actor ghost didn't have any black so we had to change it to white but this didn't cause to much trouble as we still got all the shots we needed. Personally I feel that the actors we chose were perfect for the roles!
4) Self-Assessment.
As a group be both put in a joint effort when it came to planning and editing the film. However, as Katie was being used as one of the actors for this experimental video I did do more of the filming but she did do some as well! But apart from that we both had an equal amount of work, as we both helped do the make up, costumes, set up and editing it at the end. I definitely think that the main improvement that we could make to our film was the continuity! Our end product did have certain times were it did jump from take to take and it was pretty noticeable! But we now know how to avoid this for our actual film! Also our location could have been better, obviously the location we did have was still great! But we had a lack of space and wasn’t able to film everything that we wanted too. Also I feel that the lack of costumes and props we had could definitely be improved on! When it comes to our final coursework, we are going to pick a larger location, focus more on the costumes and defiantly take the continuity rule into consideration!!
1 .Use of the camera
I felt we held a very steady shot as we used a tripod for our entire film and did not have any shaky shots. Also we achieved this by having the action came to the camera, not the camera going to the action. We managed to shot a frame properly in some scenes but in other we forgot the rule of thirds. This therefore sometimes made the person in the shot seem a bit out of place for example the bath scene the camera looks too static and doesn’t capture the facial expression that clearly. Although we felt very proud of our variety of shots because we used a canted angle in the scene where the actor is walking up the stairs looking for Jamie, we used a canted angle and this added the atmosphere of suspense and tension. Also we let the actor walk into the space giving us a clear, precise shot. Secondly we used a over the shoulder shot where the actor is looking to the mirror and the ghost appears behind them. Finally we used a high shot to create fear and a sense of being trapped.
2. Use of Editing
Our finished work did have several problems with continuity editing as due to the film area we couldn't do certain scenes so therefore some of the film didn't make sense as it jumped to several points of the story and places. So unfortunately it didn't flow according to plan and we felt this ruined our film as the other parts had great potential and overall the film could of been of better quality. We now know when we plan for our proper film we must check out locations and make sure that our idea's and scenes we want to film are compatible and so therefore we can achieve continuity. We did choose appropriate editing transitions because we kept it simple and added no unrealistic effects just a sharp transition from one to another and this worked well as it looked professional throughout and helped made the film flow when it could.
3. Selection of content
My group choose very appropriate make up as we followed the original films make up to the best of our ability with what we had ourselves. The make up we did on the ghost we felt added a huge element of shock but also it became quite scary as we filmed because it looked so realistic. The other actors make up wasn't in as much depth because we did not have any fake blood to use. Also what was a problem was the bath because we couldn’t fill it up with water for when the actor see's them self dead in it. This was because we simply did not have enough time and also it was hard to do as we had a young child who could not stay to long and get her clothes dirty. Overall we felt the make up was perfect for our genre of horror and we felt this was a main element to our films success. We did not use any props so we had nothing to worry about for example if it was in the shot. The original film had no specific costume for the actor so were fine with that but the ghost was wearing black but the actor ghost didn't have any black so we had to change it to white but this didn't cause to much trouble as we still got all the shots we needed. The location was really good apart from the narrow hallway and the doors being different to the original. The bathroom was spacious and had very good light to capture all the action and facial expressions. Also the hallway although as I stated it wasn't too big it still had very good lighting. The actors were good although as we couldn't find anyone to cast I had to act and this slightly back fired as I felt silly acting in front of my friend so It was not to the standards of the original. Also the ghost we felt was a bit too young and sometimes didn't understand what we asked her to do.
4. Self-assessment
I filmed a few scenes of the film but I mainly acted in it as I was the main character and couldn’t film myself!. I did do some editing but I prefer writing on our blog and explaining why we did certain things in detail and identify what went wrong and how we will change it. Rebecca mainly did the editing but I told her where and when to edit it as we both had to agree on what we felt looked correct and closest to the original. We could have made sure beforehand the location was more suitable for the film and that our actors could have been more prepared and comfortable. Our improvements could be that we once again need to check location and make sure we ask actors in advance and plan our story line in extreme detail.
