FILMING SCHEDUAL

Filming Schedule for Opening Sequence

Date: 8th February

Location: Alderley Edge Forrest

Scene: On this date we will film the second scene and alternate setting which will be the girls flash backs in the opening sequence. We plan to go at about 4:30pm so the sun is going down therefor the lighting is low key but not too dark. We hope for the weather to be cold and white foggy to add to the spooky look however if this isn't the case then we will just add filters to our footage when it comes to editing to make it look more like this. We will probably need a couple of hours to complete filming here as we plan to film each shot 2-3 times each despite only having 2 scenes in this location. We will only need our main character to film at this location.

Date: 18th February

Location: Sophie's House

Scene: On this date we will film the main footage of our opening sequence. We plan to spend the full day here filming to make sure it is all to perfection and is of the best quality. We have a lot of shots at this location therefore require a large amount of time. We are using a room that is empty and putting in a chair and a bed and a few other props. This will be our mental institute patient bedroom. We will have all 3 characters needed to film at this location. Obviously the weather doesn't matter at this location but we still plan to have natural lighting and a 60s filter on the footage when it comes to editing.

SHOT LISTS+TALENT RELEASE

Opening Sequence: Shot Lists& Talent Release

Our story board sketches allowed us to create a detailed and specific shot list for each setting so we know exactly what to do on the day of filming.

We also got permission for our actors to be in our opening sequence including parental signatures, this is important for filming as in the real world, talent releases are required.

CREDITS AND TYPOGRAPHY

Credits and Typography

The title, 'The Subject',  will appear a few seconds after the ending of our opening sequence finishes as seen in our story board. This is purely for effect as we know it will startle the audience and this is entirely our aim. It is common for this technique to happen as seen in many horror films.

We plan to utilise fast cut transitions when doing this in order for all the focus to be on the title of the film. I feel like the fast cut is a very convential way to enter the title and in some terms is seen to prepare the audience for the rest of the film. The inspiration for such an enterance is from the film 'Insidious'.



I personally find this clip helpful to showing us how we plan to edit in our title into our footage and as Insidious has already inspired many of our ideas for our opening sequence, it only seems fitting to use its title and credits as inspiration also.
We will include all of the necessary credits in our opening sequence as the opening sequence happens such as actors names, director, producer, costume designer, make up artist, ect.

Our focus groups allowed us to find the right font to use for our Opening sequences title and credits and the one we chose fits perfectly with the conventions of our film as it appears scratched and this implies that the character could be psychologically troubled.

PLANNING

Opening Sequence: PLANNING

 Despite the poor quality of these images they are infact reflecting our specific plan for filming our opening sequence, including a sketch of each scene briefly, shot types and mise en scene.

These story boards have helped us as a group visualise what our opening sequence is going to be like in the actual final product. We now fully understand how it is going to play out, and by using these detailed story boards we are able to apply all of the camera angles and shot types so we wont have to focus on figuring out what to do when it actually comes to filming day. Having all of this planned will allow us to get filming done much quicker.

UPDATED OPENING SEQUENCE IDEA

Updated Opening Sequence Idea 

After finishing all of our research and planning for our opening sequence we realised that our initial ideas had changed slightly. We felt that we needed to establish the specific plan for our project. This video clarifys our idea entirely and has helped us understand more thoroughly what exactly we are going to be doing. It also allowed us to begin making our story boards and shot lists. 

LIGHTING RESEARCH

Lighting Research: Our Inspiration

We plan for our opening sequence to mainly be shot in a dim, low-key light with natural sun light so it appears to be the sunrise, but also some evening shots included to show the amount of time our character spent in the woods away from civilisation. Obviously our other setting is in a mental institution which is going to be lit with artificial lighting but edited with a slight colour sepia filter on it to reflect the time period of the 70's which it is set in.

We have looked at a few ideas which we can take inspiration from when filming our opening sequence from other psychological horror movies which are set in similar places.

I also adore the film footage filter from the decade of the 60's-70's because i believe that this decade is a huge convention of psychological horrors alone and it reflects a time period of superstision and insanity, which is vastly reflected in my opening sequence also if all goes to plan. These photographs are unrelated to our opening sequence however they have been taken with the timeless filter which reflects our desired time period:

 

Sound Research: music inspiration

Typical horror film music is quite always the conventional spooky and haunting melody which sets the mood of the film. My group and I have been looking into films which use the scariest and most haunting music soundtracks to find inspiration for our opening sequence.
Almost immediately, we came across quite a few peices of music which would be fitting to our ideas.

The film Insidious uses a song called "Tip Toe"

The high pitched vocals featured in this song are a convention of music which is usually featured in horror movies because it connotes a supernatural presence or alternatively a spooky old fashioned vibe around the film.

With a lot of thinking we decided that this song would be perfect for our opening sequence because like our idea, Insidious is a psychological horror film full of enigma which is exactly which we want to inject into our editing, so our final product is as thought provokingly frightening as possible.

However we want to experiment with layering sounds: having this song playing with the noises of screams and violins dubbed in to make it sound more twisted and scary. We also plan to speed the song up and slow it down as the opening sequence progresses to show the climatic points and the more sinister, haunting parts.

I personally believe that the soundtrack of a movies title sequence is extremely important because it can either reveal the films mood or deter the audience away from what they think it actually could be. For this opening sequence in particular I believe that this song with editing is perfect for our opening sequence.

 

Preliminary Task

Here is our footage from our preliminary task where the filming requirements were to include the following techniques:  * 180 degree rule; * match on action. As this was our second attempt at filming, we did struggle with filming from the right angles in order to create a realistic scene. We decided that we should have shot another angle of footage inbetween the transition of 11 seconds and 12 seconds to show another angle of perspective from where Kate is walking towards. This mistake has made me ensure that I wont allow it happening in my opening sequence.

 

Despite this minor self-criticism, I believe that we successfully edited the 180 degree rule and the match on action.

 

* Match on action transition @ 5 seconds

* 180 degree rule transition @ 15 seconds... for example these screenshots of our footage show how we have gone about utilising the 180 degree rule by filming from one persons left shoulder to the other persons right shoulder, to ensure the camera is kept along the imaginary 180 degree line.

Filming this preliminary task has really helped me grasp the rules and allowed me to apply them instead of just reading about what they meant which has given me a much fuller understanding of their necessity. I have picked up skills and knowledge which I can now apply when it comes to filming my opening sequence.

Location Research

As we have always been clear on our film being set in two locations: a spooky looking Forrest and an old fashioned, 60's style mental asylum, we decided on Alderley Edge Woods for the spooky looking Forrest. 

Many horror films also feature the typical derelict and dark woods, such as Mama, The Blair Witch project and Cabin in the woods.

The shots taken here by myself, include a range of ideas where we plan to shoot, although that may change due to the difficulty of approaching that area.

We plan to film in dim/sundown lighting so it's not fully dark and we can use the camera to the best of its abilty. 

The natural lighting here is perfect however we may require editing and filters when it comes to the actual film footage as we can't depend on the weather being the same when it comes to filming.

 

Psychological Horror movies also set in the woods: Inspiration