Filming the final scene



Example of wanted poster

Last Tuesday we filmed our final scene, which would be the last scene where the mental home patient would appear in. This scene show the patient running down an alleyway ripping down wanted posters from the wall, the scene will be a long shot so that we can see the whole of the character so that viewers are able to analyse her movements - the use of a long shot is important as we want the viewers to see her distressed expression but also they need to see her anger and frustration which is reflected through her actions. The scene leaves a cliff hanger for the viewers as we see Scarlets more innocent personality running away but they are not sure where she has gone - the scene that follows this one will show the villain walking towards the camera with the murder weapon so it seems as if Scarlet has ran away and returned as her evil persona. Both of the scenes leave an element of mystery that will really play on the viewers minds. To film this scene we had to create wanted posters, we took a photo of Scarlet holding the patient sign, last Thursday when we filmed a short scene showing the character holding the sign, we added text and Shona and Amy took them home and stained them with teabags to give them an old authentic look,this was done to relate to the year in which the film was set as we wanted every element to look quite old fashioned.
First we did Shona's hair and make up and she changed into her costume, we went outside to a nearby alleyway and tried to stick the wanted posters to the wall - this was very difficult to do as it was very windy and the posters would fall off the wall. So instead I had the idea to have an extra shot where I threw the posters and filmed them blowing in the wind, suggesting that Scarlet has already ripped them off the wall, we managed to keep two posters stuck to the wall so in the shot Shona was able to angrily rip them off the wall and storm off angrily, once we had solved the problem with the posters we were able to film the scene after two takes.
As this scene was a long shot, the viewers may not be able to see what Scarlet was ripping off the wall, so we added another shot where camera had zoomed into one of the torn posters. This allowed the viewers to see that Scarlet was on the wanted posters and that she was described as a threat, so she was never as innocent as she appeared.

Recording Sound

For our trailer we will have alot of speech in a voice over, so after getting the script finalised, the sound will now need to be recorded. As we will have a child singing a nursery rhyme in the background - which was inspired from watching the trailer for the remake of ' A nightmare on Elm Street' we needed to find a child to sing the nursery rhyme ' ring around the roses'. As Shona was the only one who knew a young girl readily available to be recorded she recorded the singing on Tuesday after we confirmed what she would need to record. I will now record the voice over which will be ready to put onto the trailer next lesson.
For the voice over I had already discussed my ideas with the rest of my group and I had recorded the sounds at home.

The first voice that I recorded would be from Scarlets perspective so the voice had to be soft and quite quiet, the first line was 'My whole life was taken from me. They are locking me away because they think I'm Insane.' This voice was recorded twice as I had to make sure that we had enough choice of sound when my group listen back to it.

Next I recorded the sound of wind - although we did not plan to have this sound in the script I thought that we could add it in where there is silence, to create this sound effect I just blew into the speaker, and added an echo-like effect to it via i-phone.

The next sound was the doctors voice, it was intended for this voice to be male, or to sound 'older' but I felt that I could not get the sound quite right so I filmed this dialogue numerous times.

Next I had to record a whisper saying 'she's behind you...' this would be played when Scarlet's sister is about to be murdered this would act as non-diegetic sound so the audience could hear what is going on but the girl about to be murdered cannot hear this would increase tension.

The last sound that I needed to record was a humming sound which will be at the very end of the trailer - as we will have the nursery rhyme 'ring a ring a roses' in the trailer to make this a continuous sound I decided to hum the tune so that it would run in selected parts of the trailer. The humming itself would create an eerie haunting vibe, which would show the sinister turn of the film.

Minute meetings - Tagline

As part of our poster we need to think of a tag line to have written across the front, we have decided to come up with tag lines as a group and then chose the one that we thought was the most thought provoking and effective.
Me and my team member Amy had a brainstorm of ideas and highlighted words that we thought were effective like, soul, darkness, mist, grave, death, Shadow, suffer, lies etc.
Below are some of the tag lines that we had both came up with:

'Those who deceive.Die'
I liked the sinister message this tag line delivered, it was very short and to the point and it does tell the readers some hints about the film - particularly its ending, it also gives off this sinister sense of reality, it would make the viewers feel that the main character could be a threat to anyone so it makes the character herself seem so much more real as this tag line would directly address the audience.

'To unlock the truth you must open your eyes'
I did not like this tag line as much as the first as it is not really scary or sinister, but both myself and Amy did like the theme of lies and deception and the work 'unlock' stood out to us.

' Dark lies will make you suffer'
This tag line stuck to the theme of lies, and I feel that it is quite thought provoking, this also delivers a message that lies can cause hurt and the viewers could assume that a lie could be what the film is about and someone in the film has suffered because of a lie that has been told. I like this line but as I had suggested that we use the tag line as the end line for the trailer I feel that it has to be something with a much stronger, scarier impact.

'Look into the mist and her sin is reavealed'
Amy had came up with this tag line and I thought that it was extremely effective as both a tag line and an end line for the trailer, the word mist stands out and sounds very dramatic and suggests that the film is about the unknown - the work mist makes us think of haziness and mystery. So it would make the readers curious and intrigued, which is exactly what we wanted.

'When she looks into your eyes, she sees your soul'
This tag line makes the character seem like a danger or threat to the viewer, it gives the character a sense of reality we liked the word 'soul' as it suggests death and relates to the horror genre, we would like this as an end line however we do feel that it may not relate to the image on the poster.

'If you tell a lie she will some back to haunt you'
This tag line gives off a sinister fairytale vibe, it makes Scarlet seem like a monster or something from a nightmare so it reflects the evil side of her very well. It also acts as a warning to viewers and would make the film and Scarlet seem more like a danger to them, it uses lies as a keyword, everyone lies, so it makes Scarlet seem like a threat to anyone, I think the message is very haunting and sinister and matches with the vibe that we are trying to create for our poster.

'Sinners will die. Scarlet lives on.'
I like this tag line as it relates to the theme of sin and deceit, it also makes Scarlet seem superhuman as it suggests that she cannot die which makes her seem much more dangerous and powerful, however it does not really portray Scarlets evil personality as it make Scarlet seem innocent, I like the message of the tag line but I think that our previous ideas were much stronger.

'Don't avoid the truth. She will come for you.'
This next tag line again relates to the theme of lies, it relates to our trailer as Scarlet had been lied to which is why she killed her sister so it does give slight hints to the viewer about Scarlets true nature - we liked the sound of ' she will come for you' as it was scary and mysterious and would frighten the viewer and make Scarlets evil persona more realistic and more of a threat.

'Look into the mist. She will come for you.'
This is our final tag line, after looking over all of the tag lines, we found it difficult to decide, so we chose our two favourites (one of Amy's tag lines and one of mine) and mixed them together, I think that our final tag line is very effective and quite thought provoking, the would make a viewer think who is the title referring to, it also has the eerie sense of reality that we were looking for as through the use of the word 'you' the viewers are put on edge as it makes the villain seem much more real, and that, she could 'come for' the viewers.

Filming

On Thursday we decided to film the a short clip for our trailer, we have chosen to only do one clip as we did not want to travel to both locations on the same day as it would ruin the actresses look.
We decided to film the clip where Scarlet is having her photo taken before entering the home, this will be shown at the start of the trailer so we need to have this clip filmed. We did Shona's hair and make up then went into an empty room to start filming.
At first we found the scene quite difficult to film as Shona was required to have a frozen expression while having her photo taken, we then decided to construct this scene as if she were having a mugshot - so we told her to turn to profile view and then turn to face the camera with an empty expression, we found that this worked perfectly and looked much more convincing, so after a few takes we managed to get the scene perfect, this scene would be a mid shot so that the viewers would be able to analyse the expression on Scarlets face and be able to identify her properly as this shot would be the first time that viewers are able to see Scarlets face, so the use of a mid shot was extremely crucial.

Creating the finished poster

 This is a snapshot of our final poster being created - in this image we had added the text onto the image that I myself had manipulated and put together. We used many conventions from Amy's poster, we used her title as I feel that the glowing effect is mysterious, intriguing and ghostly - a liquefy effect was used inside the text and a strong outer glow was added on the outside giving it the bold striking look that it has, we also decided to give our trailer a more professional feel we would add the names of the actresses above the title to emphasise their importance. I think that the film poster looks much better now that we have chosen the best parts from each members poster as we were able to combine ideas and make a much more effective and unique movie poster.

This second image is of the movie poster when it has all most been finished, the only thing that is left to add is the final tag line, which me and my team member Amy will brainstorm on. We have changed the structure of the billing block that I had created to make it look easier to read and less squashed together - we decided to have a continuous colour scheme of red, white and black and the use of red on our poster has made it much bolder and brighter, and really adds to the theme of horror and gives insinuations of the gory and sinister nature of the film.
We have used Shona's idea of writing a quote from a review at the top, as this will give the viewers a feel for others opinions of the film and it does give the poster a more professional feel as we have commonly seen quotes from magazine's at the top of film posters. We have written 'coming soon' and the date of our film at the bottom so that viewers are able to know when the film is out and also the words 'coming soon' create anticipation for the potential viewers.


Final Copy of Poster.

 This is the final copy for the poster with the added tag line that Amy and myself had come up with in the lesson, which is, 'Don't look into the mist...She will come for you ' I think that this tag line is effective as it is intriguing and sounds like a warning to viewers making them scared and curious. We chose to write the tag line along the top making it a main focus for the viewer and we chose the font colour of red, so that it would link with our continuous colour scheme of red, white and black.
Overall I am very pleased with our final product as I feel it promotes the film well, and makes a viewer curious - which is exactly the effect that I was hoping the poster would have, we have now chosen the final tag line ' Don't look into the mist...She will come for you', which me and team member Amy had put together we think that this does not give anything about the film away, but says just enough to make the viewers intrigued.

Scripting

For the trailer the scenes that we will show will have no speech, just natural sounds from the environments (for example children playing, the wind, swings etc).
However a voice over will be used, after I suggested that we have a line at the end of the trailer that really scares the viewer and gives them something to think about; something that will really stick in their minds. After me and my team member, Amy, came up with a list of tag lines we decided to use a tag line that we thought would have the biggest impact on the viewers - as there were lots of tag lines to choose from we found it hard to chose one that we agreed on, so we split two separate tag lines in half to make one. Our final tag line is ' Don't look into the mist....She will come for you' we liked this line so we decided to use it as the final line of the trailer, I had also had the idea that each word of the first half 'Dont look into the mist...' would be said by a different voice, this would represent Scarlets question for identity. Also I had suggested that the second half ' She will come for you' should be said in a whispered voice to add an eerie sense of mystery - I am happy with the end line as I think it will have a strong impact on the viewer, I had the idea from re-analysing the trailer for 'Dread' and noticing the chilling end line which I myself found extremely effective.
We also had to discuss the voice over that we had in our trailer, as me and Amy had so many tag lines we decided to mix some of them together to create our opening line. Our opening line is ' My whole life was stolen from me. They are locking me away. Because they think I'm Insane'. The opening line had to be descriptive we wanted the viewers to know what was going on otherwise the trailer would confuse them, the first line is from Scarlets perspective, but the rest will not be.
The next scene will be showing Scarlet having her photo taken - this will not have any dialogue.
The next scene will show Scarlet sitting alone staring at the screen - for this a doctors voice will be heard saying ' she hasn't moved for hours, she just sits there, staring' This would reflect Scarlets emotional state, it also makes her seem quite strange and unnatural which is how her character needs to be presented. Also I thought that by having a doctors voice in the background would let the viewers know where Scarlet is and that she is being observed.
In the flashbacks that Scarlet has there will be a nursery rhyme sung by children in the background - this would seem quite sinister if it is sung slowly, it would also reflect the young girl's innocence.  
There will not be anymore dialogue until later on in the trailer when the camera zooms in on a wanted poster of Scarlet - the the same 'doctor's voice' will say 'now she has escaped. no one is safe'. I like this line as it adds a dramatic serious tone to the trailer, letting the viewers know that Scarlet id not as innocent as she appears to be, the doctor voice will sound quite official we need to find a way to reflect the doctors role and status through the tone of his/her voice.
The final section of dialogue will be the tag line 'Don't look into the mist...She will come for you'.
Also I had the idea that there should be an eerie noise at end the trailer - like Scarlet humming a tune, Amy then suggested that Scarlet could hum the tune of ring around the roses, as it would link back to the rest of our trailer and sound very sinister rather than innocent.

Second draft of trailer - created on movie maker

This is the second draft of our edited trailer, we used movie maker to shorter clips and put them in the order in which we wanted to show them. This is how we have progressed in making our trailer, I feel that it is much better than our first draft through the use of costume, make up and locations, I feel that our final footage is much more scary and dramatic that the first draft. As this is only the second draft we have not yet added effects or sound to it but we plan to use a soundtrack and a voice over in the final trailer.
In the first scene we see the mental home patient walking down the hallway this clip is silent but we plan to add an opening line which we have discussed to be explaining what has happened to Scarlet. In this clip the way she walks is haunting and unusual highlighting the characters nature and suggesting that she herself is not normal, I feel that the scene is an effective opening scene, however as she is walking slowly the scene itself is quite long
making it last very long and as a viewer this may make them bored, so I think that making this clip shorter would be a good idea, also at the very beginning we had not noticed but you can hear my voice saying 'go' to begin the scene so this must also be removed.
The second clip shows scarlet sitting alone in a room this clip last for 4 seconds which we feel is much too long as the viewers will lose interest, we plan to change this clip to last around 1-2 seconds to ensure that our trailer does not run too long. The next clip is is black and white (we added the negative effect on movie maker by changing the brightness, contrast and exposure). it shows one of Scarlets flashbacks of a memory of her and her sister playing on the swings as children I think that this scene is effective because it looks very realistic - the flashback is shown in black and white to differentiate past and present, I like that the scene was filmed in the park as it has significance to the rest of the trailer as it is where Scarlets sister was murdered.
In the next clip we see Scarlet rocking back and forth in her cell, this was filmed from a high angle so it looks like a high angle surveillance camera which makes it look more realistic as it looks like a prison cell, the clip shows her reaction to the flashbacks she has while she is sitting alone. After looking back on this clip we have decided to make this clip shorter too as we only want the longer scenes to show the scarier more dramatic footage. After this clip we see another flashback which shows Scarlet and her sister chasing each other in a field of flowers, this is to show the children's innocence and it shows the viewer Scarlets memories this is also shown in black and white to make it look old and authentic.
The screen is dark when Scarlet is having a nightmare as it was shot in the dark, the scene looks fussy purposely and was done in most of the scenes showing Scarlets innocent side.
After this we see the empty chair, showing that Scarlet has left, from looking at this draft I have noticed that this clip is much too long - nothing actually happens in this clip so it does not need to be as long as it is, also the next scene is also much too long it shows Scarlet running into her old home and tidying up before noticing a mirror and then seeing her sisters reflection, I feel that this scene is still quite slow and needs to be cut. After this scene we see scarlet running and ripping down posters, this scene should be cut at the start as the trailer itself runs quite slow and does get boring, also I have noticed that when the ripped poster is shown to viewers the camera gets quite shaky so this needs to be resolved.
Next we see Scarlet's evil persona walking across the bridge - I think scene was extremely effective as Scarlet come right up to the screen with her face covered leaving the viewers unsuspecting - I like the flow of the last few scenes as I think that it is much more scary than the footage of Scarlets innocent persona, after this clip we see the murder scene, this is also show as Scarlets nightmare, but now the viewers see the face of the murderer and realise that it is in fact Scarlet. I think the final scene creates the most tension, the use of the pan is very effective as the landscape looks peaceful until Scarlet pops up and surprises the viewers I think that this scene is very effective and would make the viewers jump, I like this scene as it will leave the viewers feel intrigued and scared.
The trailer does not yet have sound so when we add the audio it will be much more gripping and effective. We also plan to edit the trailer more in the media suite to create our final product.




                                            









So far we have found that the trailer has ran very long, and at some points it can appear slow which may bore the viewer, so we have decided to cut some clips even shorter so that the trailer does not run past one minute and thirty seconds, we have decided that some clips are much longer that they need to be and we have not yet added into this second draft two scenes, which would make the trailer even longer, this two final scenes will be filmed in the next week and we will then have all of our final footage filmed. So far I am pleased with the footage that we have filmed - especially the very last scene as we feel that it gave the trailer the scary impact that it needed and it would make the viewers jump. Now we will begin to add sounds and effects to our trailer such as transitions, voice overs and we will also have children singing in the background which we feel will give the trailer an eerie vibe making it stick in the viewers mind.