When I first started planning my 2 minute film opening I had a completely different idea, my first idea was a lot more complex than my final 2 minute opening. After lots of thought I changed my idea as I feel I would have not been able to portray it as well as what I wanted because of equipment issues and also my own experience in film making. However it did not take me long to think of a new idea and start preparing it. The planning of my film went well with story boarding and creating time lines to show the visionary and audio aspects I wanted to show in my film.
I feel that my 2 minute film opening was a success. I believe this because my film opening had good continuity, it flowed smoothly and did not look irregular at any point apart from one cut, which in my opinion was only very slightly out of place. This shot was the one thing I would of liked to change about my film if I had the chance to redo the scene. I feel that the main problem with the scene of my actor entering the forest looked irregular because I had to film the scene on a different day. I tried to use my editing skills to change the brightness however I could not change the brightness too much or it would decrease the film quality considerably, I feel that this was not a problem due to my editing skills but due to the equipment and software being used. Apart from this scene, I feel that the rest of my film opening was very good. I used a selection of techniques to achieve the effects that I wanted. As my film started with a long walk, continuity was very important as I did not want my characters walk to look irregular and if I did not follow the 180° rule then it would not be clear if my character was going in the same direction, the 180° rule was something that I previously learnt in the making of my first artefact and it is one of the most important things to remember in filming because the rule is not used then the film looks very irregular. The editing off my film was a more complicated process than the actual filming. When I was filming I filmed the same scene more than once in different positions and angles, I did this to make sure that when editing I had more than one movie clip to use and edit, this allowed me to always create the best scene possible. When editing I found that all my scenes for the walk at the beginning already flowed very smoothly and during editing I only had to cut small bits out, however I also had to cut some scenes out altogether and this meant that creating continuity was sometimes a hard task, luckily I feel I have achieved continuity in my film. When it came to editing the final scenes of my 2 minute opening it was harder than the first minute of footage. The final scenes were more complicated to edit as more was happening, I filmed scenes over and over again to get the desired effect. If I was to redo my 2 minute film opening I would start filming in the morning so that I could finish filming all my scenes before it got dark, also filming in the autumn/winter time was a downfall for me as it meant I had less time to film all of my scenes in one day.
The genre I chose to do for my 2 minute film opening was horror, I chose this genre because I felt that I would be able to portray this in my film well. I made my character in my film opening very shifty and mysterious looking with a black coat with the collars up to hide his face. The location I chose was the Downs Woods situated in Hunstanton and Ringstead. I chose this area because it is a very quiet area with muddy paths, fields and a woodland area. This location was perfect for my horror film opening. I used the muddy paths for my character to walk through, it had also been raining so there were puddles to be stepped in by my character, this created a very effective shot. I used the empty fields in most of my shots in the first minute of my film opening because they created an effect of being alone with no one around for miles. In the last minute of my opening I filmed my character in the woodland area of my location, this was a very effective are as it was dark and empty which created a good horror effect. In the woodland area there was a pit already dug in the ground which was originally for an old bike jump, I decided that this was the perfect place for the final scenes of my horror film opening. By moving a few leaves and twigs in the pit I had a suitable pit to have a body lie in. This pit created a realistic effect to my horror film, as I feel that having a body just lie on the ground would not be anywhere near as effective as having them lie in an actual pit, the pit in my opinion was a very good factor of my horror film. While filming the weather was wet and cold, this is perfect weather for a horror movie, as cold wet weather can symbolise being alone with no one around, my 2 minute film opening would have been far less effective if it was filmed on a sunny day.
I wanted to create a 2 minute movie opening that will attract an audience that enjoy horror films and are over the age of 15. I feel I have successfully done this with my 2 minute opening. I have delivered many aspects of horror into my opening and also some crime characteristics. My horror opening is in the form of a naturalistic horror, this means that the qualities of the film that make it a horror are natural and real, not a made up monster. In my film the object that is creating the fear is the killer who is a person and this is why my film would be seen as a naturalistic horror. I feel that a naturalistic horror would be the most effective horror film to create as the ideas in the film could actually happen, this will make the viewer even more afraid and this is the emotion I want to create with my film opening. With my audience feedback it is clear that I have successfully portrayed the horror genre in my film. When the viewer was asked what genre they thought the film was they said horror and when asked why most replied because the film followed many of the same characteristics of which a horror film has. As my film was a naturalistic horror I feel I had less symbolism to show, for example in other horrors such as supernatural the use of Gothic imagery can be used to symbolise the devil. As my horror was naturalistic I used imagery such as the killer was wearing a black coat and he was wearing it tightly and close to him as if he was tense. The way that the killer walked was very soldier like and serious, he did not have a spring in his step or was casual at all, he had something very important to do.
I feel that with the equipment available I made a good film. The film quality was not as good as I would have liked it to be and this is mainly down to the lighting and filming in the afternoon when it was starting to get dark. Although I know I did not have the suitable lighting to film quality footage at this time, I still did it as this was the effect that I wanted with my horror film, I did not want my horror to be in full daylight. I feel that the effectiveness and symbolism was more important than the picture quality of film.
In my film opening I decided to only have two characters and only one doing actually doing anything. The second actor who played the dead body was used more as a prop as I did not want to use a fake body as I wanted it to look realistic. By only having one actor for almost the entire opening I created an effect of the character being alone with no one else around, I feel that if I used more than one character then the horror genre would not be as clear.
I felt that props in my 2 minute opening were not a necessity to make the film effective, instead I only used a spade and a small tub of fake blood. I only used a small tub of fake blood because too much blood or gore would have a major effect on the target audience. I am looking to aim this this film at viewers 15 years of age and over, too much gore would have increased the age to 18 and over.
I felt that creating my 2 minute horror film opening had to be a little more rushed than I would have liked. This was because of having to change my first idea because of equipment and experience issues that I previously mentioned. As time was short I made rough versions of all my planning and then late made final versions, this meant that the rough versions helped me make the film and then later after the film was finished made a lot better quality versions of my work. I mainly did this because I feel that the rough versions were hard to understand by anyone other than myself and I wanted anyone looking at my work to be able to understand everything that I have done.
The technology I used for my media was all from my own home. I did this because it meant that I could always use it when I needed to, instead of sharing computers and cameras with other students. I used a Sony DCR to record all of my footage and this was a good camera to use, not because of quality of film but mainly quality of audio. The audio that was captured with the camera's microphone created a good sense of ambience and then eliminated the need to upload artificial sounds to my film. I used a Apple Mac computer to edit both artefacts, the software I used was IMovie and then also IDVD to burn the artefacts to disc. IMovie was very easy to use however I feel that sometimes it was not very flexible and seems to concentrate more on making editing an easy process. This is very good however it has it's problems when you want something to be exact and perfect as possible. The software I was using did not have any fonts that created a certain effect of horror. To get round this problem I went on to a website where you can legally download fonts that have been created by artists for free distribution, I also checked that all the artists were happy with anyone using there fonts that will be distributed in media. The fonts that I used all had horror and scary characteristics, this mainly included the use of blood.
I wanted to create a 2 minute opening of a horror film that would appeal to regular horror movie fans. I had no intention of creating a horror opening that a wider audience of all ages and genders would enjoy watching. My main target audience would be males of 15 years and over. With the research I did after my film was made, it is clear that I have achieved this, howev
er some females have enjoyed my film and also some males have not enjoyed my film.When creating my film I wanted to make it as creative as possible and also make the audience feel something. The first minute my opening is very basic, I have used long and medium shots to show the character walking, these scenes are used to create suspense and make the viewer want to watch more so they can see what happens. Further into my opening I have used more creative shots, for example I have used a shot that is very close to the ground when the character is picking up the spade, I have also used a shot from the view of the character walking towards the dead body. My ending scene is my favourite and involved covering the camera with a plastic bag so that it would not be damaged and then have the character shovel dirt on to it, this created a very good effect of being buried and also was the perfect ending to my 2 minute film opening. When planning my ending I also thought about how it would move on to the rest of the film, for this opening I would have the screen entirely covered in dirt so it is entirely black and then cut to the main good characters off the film who would be police men. Although thinking about how the film will continue after the opening is not completely necessary, I think it is important to do and helped me create my film.
When creating the music to my film opening I wanted a piece of music that was original and also resembled the film itself. As my character was walking on a muddy trail looking suspicious and mysterious I record a bass playing two notes over and over again to resemble someone walking. This bass line is repeated until the character arrives at the spade, I then play one note, a low open E, to create suspense, then silence as the character walks towards the pit, then I finish the suspense with a selection of high notes in a minor scale as minor scales are often used to create a depressed and scary mood. I then finished my entire 2 minute opening with low open E notes as the character shovelled dirt on top of the camera. I think that the music I created for my film was very effective and helped create the horror mood. I'm also glad I made my own original music. When adding the music onto my film I decided to keep the volume levels of the bass lower than the actual diegetic sound. This was because my actual diegetic sound was very well recorded and also very effective to create ambience. Also I feel that if I had made my non diegetic music louder than the diegetic then it would make my 2 minute film opening feel like a music video, this is a mistake that I have seen made on other projects that I have viewed.
I believe that my 2 minute film opening titled 'Don't Come Looking' was a success, as it portrayed everything that I wanted to show. From my audience feedback I can see that my film opening clearly achieved the effect that I wanted it to. Everyone realised it was a film of the horror genre however not everyone got the slight crime genre that was embedded into the film. Most people who took a questionnaire that I created thought that my film kept them interested throughout and the first minute created suspense, this is very important to me as I felt this first minute was risky as it would either create suspense or bore the viewer. The audience also thought that the film flowed well and did not notice the cut that I was not happy with. The last question of my questionnaire was about what age rating the audience thought it was, everyone answered with a 15 or an 18 years of age rating.
Although there were minor points to my 2 minute film opening I feel that these points were very minor. In conclusion I think that my film opening 'Don't Come Looking' went very well and the audience appeared to have enjoyed it as well. I wanted to create a horror as I feel you can be very creative with this genre and do not need a large budget or expensive equipment. When I decided on creating a horror film opening I also wanted it to be more complex so I also mixed it with the crime genre by having a man being the killer, this enables the police to also become involved later in the film. As the specific horror genre I chose was naturalistic genre I did not want to have anything in my film that was not believable so I made the killer a man instead of anything over the top or scary. I did this because although a monster that is created well can be very very scary, I feel that a human killer can be much scarier as there has been many killers like this is real life and not just stories like monsters. I have enjoyed making this 2 minute film opening however I feel that one of the hardest parts of the task is squashing all the material into 2 minutes. I had so many ideas for scenes and wanted to fit everything in that I wanted, however this was not the task so I only used the most effective scenes in my film opening. In my film I used minimal acting as good acting was very hard to find. Also too much acting or dialogue sometimes does not fit in a film opening and I think that there should be minimal in a horror opening.
I wanted my horror film to have some crime genre characteristics and that is why I had the killer burying the dead body at the start of the film. It is very common for crime films to start like this and a lot of crime films you know who the killer is. However in horror films they rarely start with a death, they usually lead up to one, this is why I wanted to mix these two genres so that I could play with these characteristics of both.
I enjoyed making my film opening and would do it again and would do some things differently. Although there are parts I would change next time, I still feel as if my film has turned out very successful. By using mise en scéne, music, style of camera work and editing I have created a 2 minute film opening that has kept the audience interested and also has been clear as to what kind of film it is. I am very happy with how my artefacts have turned out.
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