BN: Violent Scene

For the violent scene in our slasher film opening it has had to be changed three times just to create and get the effect we want and need to create a sense of realism and to make it more believable to the viewing audience.

Fast Pace Editing



Fast Pace Editing on Final Cut Pro



To create an authentic and real life effect within the violent scene the longer takes needed to be cut up and put into an order of which the flash backs and the real time could be made to fit in. Also the fast pace causes the audience to feel that but of tension and fear build up in this scene due to the editing



Heartbeat Sound on Final Cut Pro



Heartbeat Soundtrack



The heartbeat was used to build up the audiences heart rate along with the heart beat of the characters on screen, this gets the audience to sort of feel some of the emotion on screen with the charcters. Also the heart beat increases during the violent scene which raises awareness of what is happening on screen at the time

Slow Motion

We added slow motion to create more of an impact for when the chopping scene is intercut between that and the violent scene so that it doesnt show the violence however the significance of the chops incidactes or signifies that the violence has taken place but is being hidden by the chop.

 

BN: Editing Titles

At the start of our film we have put in titles, which have needed thought with the font and colour of them, Below are some of the few ideas we have been looking at and what thoughts we have had of why we should use them at the start of our slasher film opening.

This Font we used was the Capitsalsd font in Final cut pro and we used this font because it was a serif font and that signifies the sharp knife effect of the slasher genre with the little serif edges of the lettering and indicates the cutting edge horror. 

For this title we have again used the Capitals Font however in this one we have used a colour effect on the Font and this is the Scarlet effect which is a preset colour which has been applied to signify the blood and gore of the slasher film opening. We also feel that the chosen colour of this title has got some intertexuality to the film A Nightmare On Elm Street (Samuel Bayer, 2010) due to the red colouring of the title.


For this Font we have used a completely differnet Font where by we have gone with the Eccentric STD Font which makes the title look like that from the film Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978) showing some intent of intertexuality from this title example as well as the previous one.

Props Used in our Shoot

For our shoot we needed some main props to give our film opening the effect it needed to show any signs of success and to have a significance, these were as followed;



The Meat Cleaver we used in the film opening was used as an iconic piece of weaponry we chose this weapon due to its significance to the occupation of the killer and the relevance of it was to show his power and authority. This was chosen also to show some intertextuality with the knife used in the slasher film Scream ( Wes Craven, 1996)





The Apron or Piny of the killer was also a significant piece of prop work, this helped the audience pick up and know who or what the killer was and the occupation of the killer however it doesn't give too much away about the character other than a violent one due to chopping up meat.






The Black Boots were used to create a sense of power and authority with the sounds they made going down the stairs into the basement and across the basement floor this was also used to make and set a good image of the butcher uniform as apose to trainers or just normal shoes this was intertextuality from the film A Nightmare on Elm Street where by the Killer in that who was Freddy Cruger wore boots of a similar style and type

DE- Soundtrack

Soundtrack

To make the soundtrack for Black Nightmare we used a software called 'Garage Band'

Selecting software instruments for soundtrack

When making the soundtrack for Black Nightmare we used a ambient soundtrack of rain falling to emphasise the setting and also to add diagetic sound to the opening scene.

Using different types of soundtracks over one another

We also used different types of instruments such as stringed and drums. This enabled us to use long drawn out notes and also use fast tempo beat to build suspense and tension. By mixing the two various types of tempos and beats this added exaggeration to the scene and helped build the tension. 

When the killer walks down the stairs we used Leitmotif music which links to the killer when he is visual on screen or when he is about to make a appearance.

Leitmotif music for when killer is visual

DW- Stairs and Titles Re-Edit

Stairs/Titles Sequence To Be Re-edited

With this scene we need go back and edit it all because of the font used on the titles because it's not really a serif font or sans-serif font so we will go back and and apply a serif font to signify the slasher genre more as this is a common convention used is slashers. Also the audio is all out of sync because it sounds like the killer is dancing down the stairs because when it goes to a blank screen there's an overlap of footsteps and he seems to take forever to get down the stairs so we will go back and change this by cutting it and editing the audio so it sounds more realistic.

DW- Re-Shot Scenes

Re-shooted Scenes

Rough cut killer's wall

We planned to re-shoot our scene where we reveal the killer's obsession and how he stalks his victims and their houses, because when we first did it we didn't think about the mis-en-scene in much detail so when it came to filming the scene with just 4 photo's with them being neatly placed on a cork board it didn't portray the obsession that the killer has, whereas instead it just made him look like a tidy freak instead of an obsessive stalker who's been watching his victims.

Final cut killer's wall

So we went back and re-shooted the scene with more photo's to make it look like the killer has more of an obsession and that he's had more than just 4 victims, and also instead of pinning them up neatly on a cork board we just used nails and pinned them up randomly to look more scruffy. Also we included pictures of the victims instead of just their houses so it looks more targeted at the final girl and the scream queen in the film.

Final cut killer's feet

Rough cut killer's feet

This is a shot of the killer's feet and we were trying to provide narrative enigma for the character, however trainers don't give a good description towards a killer instead it seems more like a teenage boy, so when we next shot this scene we used old black boots instead to give a more realistic description for the killer to him being older.

In this next scene scene we were trying to reveal the final girl and the scream queen however we didn't do it well enough for the audience to distinguish who was who as we didn't plan it as we should of, we should of had the scream queen being blonde and the final girl a brunette , however here we have both scream queen and final girl bruntte so we need to re-shoot this and findnew casting for the scream queen. Also for the scream queen we needed to show her being sexually active and the final girl being the opposite and instead being more ecademic, so we intend to show this with the scream queen having a boyfriend and the final girl carrying books in our re-shoot.

And in our re-shoot we did include a scream queen's boyfriend and did a bedroom scene to signify that the scream queen was sexually active whcih is stereotypical of the scream queen, and to provide a binary opposite with the sterotypical final girl who isn't sexually active. 

DW- Shoot Planning

Shoot Planning

We have started the planning off by organising and buying various different props such as a mask and some fake severed fingers online and so with these being delivered at certain dates we've had to plan our shoots around these dates so we've decided to shoot on Monday the 18th. Also we've been researching online hot to make fake blood so we'll be making this on the day of the shoot as well.


Also what we have got is a meat cleaver which we are using to indicate the butchers identity and a butchers piny or apron. Another form of costume and make up we are using is the black hooded jumper or coat which hides the identity of the killer to create some narrative enigma.

Planning to do with the mise-en-scene is the garage and transforming it into a secret massacre den of which the killer lives and we are going to cover the walls with black tarpaulin drapes so that it looks like a scary and dark and delusional so it creates an atmosphere towards the audience. Also we are putting a cork board of pictures of houses on the tarpaulin to show where the killer has been and already killed, this is a signifier of where he will strike next.

We are planning on shooting the film at a few different places, these being Ben's House, Dom's House and Dom's Road. we feel these locations will benefit our film opening due to the way we will shoot the opening with the various shot types and angles also the point of view shots will prove key for this. 

DW- Mise En Scene

Mise-en-scene

The killer's costume is a vital ingredient to the mise-en-scene as it needs to signify the killer and also tell the story or motive behind the killer, and as we've chosen our killer to have a butching chopping obsession he'll be wearing a white apron. Also we'll use fake blood to stain on to the apron to cannote that when the killer is chopping up the meat that it's human meat and that he's actually killed someone. Also instead of just some trainers our killer should wear some old black boots to signify him being of an older age.

 . A prop that we're going to use with some mise-en-scene significance is a cardboard, because on it we're going to have pictures pinned up of the house that the killer has been stalking, which will act as a signifier for the killer being this stalker, and it'll also be the girl's house.





 .Also we're going to use an old butcher's block which is significant in our film opening for when the killer is chopping up the meat

. We're use tomato ketchup for the fake blood as it gives of the same effect and looks realistic.

. Then for the meat that is supposed to be the human meat we're going to go to the local butchers and ask for their left overs.

DW - Casting Locations and Settings

Location Scouting

For Black Nightmare we're looking for a house located in a normative neighbourhood so we can play with the hand of fate theory , where the audience feels like it could happen to anyone what is going to take place in our slasher. So we looked at Ben's house however it was too close to a main road so there were issues with recording as we'd have the constant sound of cars driving past, but also we wanted to do a scene where we'd have the scream queen driving down a road and then into her house but we couldn't do that at Ben's as it was too busy.

Black Nightmare's Scream Queen's house.

Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978)

So we then looked at Dom's house for the possibility of filming here as he lived more in a quiet neighbourhood so it seem more likely that we'd be able to get better audio recording and more chance to be able to get clean scene with no cars interrupting our scenes. Also it had a large window looking out on to the road which is what we were needing for our stalk scene when the killer is looking onto the house. So we've chosen to film at this location rather than the other. We looked at Halloween ( John Carpenter, 1978) for influence as the house in this opening was what would seem to be the normative for our audience, as it's a middle class house in a normative neighbourhood, and the house that we've chosen to use is also in a normative neighbourhood which also plays the 'hand of fate' theory in a way, because it makes the audience feel like it could happen to anyone even them.

DW- Treatment

DE- Schedule and Time Mangement

The timetable displayed below shows how we scheduled our time so that we were able to shoot and produce our movie Black Nightmare.



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