LOCKED

This is the finished version of our psychological horror opening sequence: LOCKED. I am very pleased with the end result and am glad that it is finally completed.

Completed!

Today we finished our opening sequence and I am so happy to see all of our hard work and effort finally completed. Overall I am very pleased with our end result considering the time and the footage that we had. We spent todays lesson touching up the credits and sound. However our sequence is still 3 minutes long and we did not put in Shotgun Productions logo due to the length of the sequence. Apart from this setback I think our sequence is good and it is nice to see all of the footage come together to tell a story.

 

This picture is of our group right after we had finished our sequence!

Group Progress - New Credits

The previous credits in our sequence had to be changed due to it looking to much like a 'essay' font. We changed it so that it  is smaller and each credit is in a different spot on the screen. The actual font itself has been changed to be more slender and creepy like:

 

 

It is more elegant but is also pointed which I think represents our opening. Everything might look normal but there are plenty of small twist and turns throwing the audience and character off-track. I personally like this font a lot more as it looks more professional and matches the genre which is what we were aiming for when choosing a specific font.

Group Progress - Problem

With only a few more edits to fix, in a study period today half of the group watched the sequence again and went through what needed fixing. We added in some extra 'boom' sound effects to create suspense and tweaked some of the credits (after being told that the font was to casual for out genre). However the main problem was that our sequence is 3 minutes rather than 2 but there was nothing in the sequence we could take out otherwise our character would jump from on scene to another. As all scenes link to each other so taking out one would take away something from the story which leaves us with a problem. The sequence needs to be shortened to meet exam criteria but there is nothing in the sequence that we can delete that will not make the sequence jump or ruin the story. To solve this problem the group will have to have a discussion about what to cut out and what to keep.

Group Progress - Close to Completion

In today's lesson (24/03/15) we completed the credits! We are close to completing our sequence all together and all we have left to do is add in a few more sound effects. We have also decided to change the music from violins playing repetitively to some royalty-free music called "Insidious". After spending hours on the music trying to perfect it but nothing seemed to work and after finding the royalty free music we thought it was just as effective and decided to use that instead. We have also chosen to have the last scene, in the media room, in silence. This creates a suspenseful atmosphere and puts the audience on edge. We have also added a heartbeat sound effect as it represents the fear that our character is going through the audience will be just as nervous as our character is. The last sound effect that we added today was a static sound but it is interrupted by speech. This plays when the death screen - "YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE THAT" flashes up. This sound effect is both haunting and creepy as it sounds like somebody is trying to talk to our character but fails because of the static.

Group Progress - Credits

With two members of our group learning how to add in credits and the other two touching up the music we have finally completed the music and learnt how to fade the credits in and out of our sequence! Following the credit order that is used in all films we have started to add in the credits. We also agreed to put our names into the credits somewhere - As I spent a long time editing the sequence in my spare time I was down as editor which I was happy about:

 

 

The font is a simple but bold text that stands out on the screen. As a plain, square font in white we thought it would represent our sequence. The horror is subtle and simple but creates a atmosphere and the text similarly is there before disappearing, like our protagonist. We also wanted the text to be a serif font as a font that was curly and pretty-looking would not match the genre and would make our sequence look girly and pretty rather than simple and creepy.

Group Progress - Costumes

Our main character is a everyday girl that has just attended a day at school so she is wearing comfy and casual clothes. Her clothes are neither girly nor masculine but the perfect in-between. This way she does not fall into the girly category or the tough hero woman. She acts and dresses the same way as other teenage girl when they go to college, this means that college students can relate to our character and is appealing to them.

 

She wear a simple white t-shirt and as white usually represents innocence I think it suits our character perfectly. Her trousers are smart jeans which shows that she is dressed under the dress code for a college of sixth form showing the setting through our character. After she leaves the science room she puts on a long black coat and as black is associated with fear or horror it shows that she is the next victim. We also included smaller details such as a ID badge for our sixth form. This shows where she currently is and it also confirms that she is a college/sixth form student.

Group Progress - Props

When re-watching our sequence I wanted to make notes on the props used in our sequence and was surprised to see there was not many. The character carries her bag throughout the sequence but she never really uses it. She does however use textbooks at the beginning of the sequence and she then uses her bag to pack up:

She also get out her phone in one scene. Her phone is modern which shows that the sequence is set in current times and that our character is a girl that can afford having a modern and current mobile:

 

We also use the computers and although this is not a prop  used by the character herself, she does turn one off and is aware that they are there. As the school she is in has a classroom full of computers it could show that she is in a school that can afford modern technology:

 

 

Group Progress - Editing + Music

Today we continued editing and changing the music which we had two hours to do. Going through the sequence again was good for the group as we all looked closely for any minor details that we might have missed the first time around. We also decided to change the music entirely and add more sound effects to make the sequence more realistic. So two members of the group played around with some new music to find something that matched our genre, another member and I continued to edit by making some cuts smoother so that they jumped less. Overall we got quite a lot of work done and we hope to start adding credits, which we will do by following the film credit order, and the music that was made next lesson.

Group Progress - Characters

In our opening sequence we only have 2 characters that are shown to the audience. One is the main protagonist, who we follow throughout the sequence, and the other is the antagonist who stalks her and tries to catch her.

 

Our protagonist is a female teenager that is dedicated to her work, which is shown through her staying late after school to study. Her clothing is casual and comfy which we thought teenagers in college or sixth form could relate to as she is not dressed up but is still in smart clothing.

Something notable about our protagonist is that she does not talk during our sequence - the only words she says are "No! Stop!" and several screams and gasps but she never forms a sentence. We thought this gave her a sense of enigma but it was also real to the topic as people do not usually talk to themselves. Something else that is quite unique about our character is that she remains nameless as nobody is there to say her name and, as mentioned before, she is unlikely to talk to herself. This creates a sense of enigma about her: Who is she and what is her name? Why was she studying so late after school? Does she know the antagonist?

 

 

Our antagonist wears all black to create a sense of mystery about them. Black also represents fear and horror which I think suits our antagonist perfectly. Their face cannot be seen and they continually disappear throughout the sequence.

Similar to our protagonist, our antagonist does not speak at all. They are silent and they follow her silently so that the protagonist never notices her stalker until they make themselves known.

The gender of our antagonist is unknown and it is never said why they are stalking the protagonist which creates a sense of enigma. During filming our antagonist was played by two different actors because there face was either far away or covered so their facial features where never seen.

We also have a point-of-view shot from our antagonist at the end of the sequence when they lunge at our protagonist, this is showing that they are always watching her - even when she least suspects it.

 

Audience Feedback

(Audience feedback post on the group blog)

 

 

After showing our first draft to the class we got some feedback and suggestions on how to improve our opening sequence. I also showed our sequence to a non-media student so that the edits would not be as noticeable and she would concentrate more on the story and whether it made sense to someone that didn't know what the story was. The feedback back we got was:

The packing shot at the beginning of the sequence is to long and needs to be cut down into several smaller shots to make a simple task more interesting to watch.

The ending was to sudden and ruined the suspense that had been created by the stalker suddenly appearing and killing the main character. It was also commented that the actor didn't have the face of a murderer making the scene less intense.

The killer/stalker should be added subtly to more shots to show that someone is following the protagonist but not in every scene as there still had to be an element of surprise when the figure did show up.

The shot of the protagonist getting grabbed but when she frees herself no-one is there was liked as it showed the audience what genre the film would be and would know what to expect.

Although it was mentioned in the feedback I noticed that the lighting was changing in the outdoor scenes so we will have to find a way to edit the lighting.

The scene with the static computers was also liked as although it was a ordinary classroom we had altered it to match the genre and create suspense. The high angled shot in this scene was also liked as it set the scene of the classroom and was a new shot that that been put into the sequence.

The non-media student said that the story was good and the voice-over helped her understand what was going on exactly. She liked the grabbing and static room scene and commented that she did not notice any of the edits which shows that our continuity editing was well done.

Since the feedback was given we have fixed many of the issues such as the ending and the packing shots as they have been re-filmed and edited into our sequence. All that needs to be done now is the last few pieces of editing and adding in the credits.

Group Progress - New Ending

Some feedback that we got on our first draft was that the ending was to abrupt and needed to be thought through to make the ending more exciting. Together as a group we discussed possible ideas and also looked at ideas for sound while we were researching. We finally settled on warning message on the computer flashing up before the killer lunges at the protagonist and supposedly killing her. We then put forward ideas on what the message would say and we all like the message "You Shouldn't Have Done That" appearing on the screen in a blood splattered-like font. I then commented that it reminded me of the creepy pasta "Ben Drowned" which is based off a video game the urban tale that a boy called Ben played the video game 'The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask" and later drowned. His spirit then went on to haunt his copy of the game and would flash up the message "You Shouldn't Have Done That" when ever the player did something wrong and would then kill the character in a endless loop. This linked into out opening and inspired us to include this in our opening as well as the sound we had agreed on.

Post on Sound for New Ending

 

UPDATE - This is the final shot of the death message on the screen.

 

 

Group Progress - Sound

When re-thinking our ending for our opening sequence my group and I decided that we wanted to set an atmosphere that matched the genre of our film. As a psychological horror silence is usually the best way to create a tense atmosphere however we were not sure whether that would work and needed some inspiration for our ending. We searched the internet for creepy horror films, TV shows and video games before finding a hugely popular psychological horror game called 'Silent Hills - P.T". This provided us with the inspiration for our ending and how to use sound effects alongside silence or music to make the footage more interesting. We also found that their were already many similarities between our opening sequence and the game such as the dark corridor scene in our opening and the dimly-lit corridor in the game. We now have a clear idea of our ending for our opening sequence that we think will match the genre and create a tense atmosphere.

 

GROUP BLOG POST

 

Our Opening Sequence

Silent Hills P.T

 

 

Group Progress - Sound Effects

We  have added several sound effects to our sequence to make it more interesting to watch and to replace effects that got drowned out during the recording. For example there is a seen when our character tries to ring someone and a faint ringing can be heard. This was added in to make the sound seem more real and the audience can hear everything our character hears. We have also added a static sound effect over the top of the original sound in the media room scene as it makes it sound clean and the sound no longer clips. The group and I have also discussed adding in a heartbeat or something similar to make the silence in the media room (after the static) a bit more exciting and once again the audience will be able to feel and hear exactly what the character is feeling and hearing.

Group Progress - Locked

When discussing names for opening sequence we struggled to come up with anything that we all liked. We knew we wanted our title to be only one word as we thought it would sound better. Some of the names we came up with were: Followed, Stalker, After Hours however we didn't like any of these names enough to make them our final name. When we started editing we needed to save the sequence so we needed a name. We spent a while thinking before typing in 'LOCKED'. We agreed to change the name when we come up with something better but the more we looked at it the more we liked it.

 

Eventually we decided to keep the name, it was a simple, one-word title just like wanted and it explained the plot of our sequence in one word: Our character was locked in school with no way out. We created a logo which is a simple white text on a black background so it stood out. To make our logo match the word we switched the 'O' for a lock which I personally think looks good as it is plain and simple.

 

Group Progress - What Makes Our Opening Unique?

As our opening is set in a school we needed to make it look creepy to show that we did not pick the easiest location to film and we put the effort into making the corridors dark and making it match our genre. This makes our sequence different as we waited for everyone to leave and turned the media room dark and creepy by putting static on the computer

Something notable about our character is that she doesn't talk. Although we will have a voice-over the character is never seen speaking in our sequence. She screams, gasps and mutters the words "Stop!" she never says anything more than one word. I think this makes our character more enigmatic as all the audience will know about her is what the voice-over tells them throughout the opening and most characters in other people's sequences have at least one line.

 

 

Many other media students use the theme of a stalker we wanted to make ours different by making the stalker keep disappearing and will only attack when provoked rather than killing randomly. We want our genre to stand out amongst the other horror opening sequences as a psychological horror. We have not seen another psychological horror so we think this could set us apart from the other sequences in our class.

Group Blog: http://shotgunproductions.blogspot.co.uk/

Group Progress - Continuity Editing

Ever since we showed our first draft to the class we have been touching up the editing making sure that it is smooth and no cuts are obvious. Continuity editing is important when telling a story through the footage, if it fades in out then the edits can be a little more spaced but when together the scenes need to match each other in order for them to tell the story. Our sequence needs the continuity editing to be perfect in the shot with the stalker. As the stalker disappears after grabbing the main character we need the shot to zoom out from before but match the other shot. I spent a while trying to get this as accurate as I could and I think I did a good job. Together, as a group, we watched this scene over until we were satisfied with the end result.

 

We decided early on that we would be using mostly continuity editing but we have used some establishing shots of the hallway and media room so the audience can see where the character is in more detail. As our opening focuses on only one character we had no reason to use parallel edits or a montage as we are simply following the character where ever she goes.

Group Progress - First Draft

Today we finished and showed our first draft to the class. I was quite pleased with what we had done in the time we had but I knew their where still many issues with the lighting, skipping shots, music and I was not happy with the ending. However the teacher feedback was positive and they offered some constructive criticism which will be extremely helpful when we resume editing again.

 

One of the main pieces of advice that was given was to include the antagonist more often but keeping it subtle. I think this is a good idea as it will show our genre more clearly in the opening. This way our audience would know what to expect during the film as an opening is suppose to prepare the audience and give them a hint at what the film will be like and this is what I want our sequence to do.

 

Group Progress - Editing

Today I had three study lessons in a row which I spent editing. The group and I had exported the footage together and decided that I would edit in my free periods and then show it to them so we could go over it together. I touched up some of the old pieces of footage and put in the ending and overall I think our sequence is quite good. However there are some slight issues such as the lighting in the outdoors scenes where they do no match and one shot that is missing so the character suddenly teleports to a different place. These issues will likely be changed after our first draft is shown to the class.

 

After showing our first draft we have to create the music and voice-over and learn how to do the credits as everyone in the group is unfamiliar with the program we have to use to make them. We will watch some YouTube Videos to learn the basics and follow the credit titles that are in all films to make sure that the order is correct.

Group Progress - Media Room

Today we filmed the last scene in our opening sequence which took place inside our media room. The plot behind this ending is: the protagonist runs into a media room to hide from the antagonist however when she enters the room around 15 computer screens are static. The sound overpowers the protagonist and she cries for the noise to stop and to her surprise it does. Except on which remains on. She goes over to this computer and turns it off. She sighs in relief but someone begins to approach her. This figure raises a pair of large scissors in attempts to kill the protagonist however she turns around just in time to see the figure. In attempts to get away from the figure, the protagonist runs but gets herself cornered and then the figure kills her. However the protagonist wakes up back in the science room where she started and the whole experience starts again.

The death of the protagonist is key to our opening as she needs to be able to wake up back where she started and she can not do this unless she is knocked out or killed. Our weapon choice is a giant pair of scissors. We chose this as a weapon it matches the school theme and is unique to our antagonist.

The static also worked out really well, each computer had the static video playing and it looked great both on and off camera.

 

Overall I think the footage looks good however the ending was rushed due to a class wanting the room for their lesson. Other than that everything else worked out well and we got many great shots, using many different camera angles to make our sequence more interesting to watch.