First shooting for the opening with the man dying: thursday 23rd June
First shooting for rest of the film: saturday 29th June
Sunday, 26 June 2011
Izzi preproduction evalutaion first draft
Pre-Production Evaluation- Director
1. My role in this production is the organiser, the initiator, the main decision maker, amongst many more. This means that it is my job to find the actors, to ensure they are up to the level that we require for the film. I need to find the location, and during the production it will be up to me to organise the shoots for a time that is suitable for both the cast and the crew. I will be the one, also, telling the actors what to do, guiding and advising them on how to improve, this will also mean that I have to be extremely clear in what I tell them to do, and have to know exactly what I want, before I tell the actors to do it. Further more, it’s up to me that the mise-en-scene is sorted out, we have the appropriate props, costume, make up, everything. It’s up to me to make this film believable. Finally, I need to be the one making sure that everything gets done; the script is written- and really the writing of the script is my responsibility, the storyboard and shot lists are done, everything. It is my responsibility that everything is getting blogged, and also any arrangements to meet up for planning, including walking through the film, taking headshots of actors, anything like hat; it’s my responsibility that they get done.
2. My idea came after watching ‘The haunting’ by Robert Wise, my family and I were having dinner and my dad was telling us how the doorbell kept on ringing in the middle of the night, waking him up. This got me thinking, seeing as haunted houses were fresh on my mind, that this could be a good starting point for our film. Then after watching other haunted house films particularly ‘The Orphanage’ with lots of shots of corridors, the idea for this film really started to develop and come together. And given that I have a good house for a haunted house, we thought it was the perfect type of film to do.
3. Robert Wise initially was my main influence because the way he built up the tension is very gripping, and the distorted angles that are used, along with the dramatic, erratic music and the use of dark shadows puts the audience on the edge of their seats, so I thought these were very effective techniques and I tried to write a script that would enable me to do this. Also Juan Antonio Bayuna’s use of long foreboding corridors, and long pauses, which really make the rhythm of the film not very fluid, are also elements of the film which really put the audience in suspense and I wanted to incorporate this in mine too.
4. The opening will be the audience on edge, and make them really quite uncomfortable, because there is no equilibrium, from the very start, someone dies, which is immediately uncomfortable for the audience, and puts them in good stead to be scarred later on. We use a lot of corridor shots and lots of shots from different angles, some tracking, lots of close ups, to make it feel like the couple are being watched, so hopefully this will scare the audience.
The threat is also a little girl which is very disconcerting, as normally, innocent little girls are the victim, so it shifts the perspective of the film somewhat. There are also instances where tension is being very built up, for example, when something walking up the driveway, the last time this happened, someone died. And leaving the opening with the inevitability that the couple will be haunted is a sure way of putting the audience ill at ease.
5. I have been very conventional on the whole, there is a haunted house, there is a threat (the ghost of a dead person) there will be lots of use of dark corridors and corners. Because it’s an opening we won’t show any haunting, but there would be in the rest of the film. The main unconventional element of the film is the little girl, but even nowadays, it’s becoming more conventional to have a child threat.
1. My role in this production is the organiser, the initiator, the main decision maker, amongst many more. This means that it is my job to find the actors, to ensure they are up to the level that we require for the film. I need to find the location, and during the production it will be up to me to organise the shoots for a time that is suitable for both the cast and the crew. I will be the one, also, telling the actors what to do, guiding and advising them on how to improve, this will also mean that I have to be extremely clear in what I tell them to do, and have to know exactly what I want, before I tell the actors to do it. Further more, it’s up to me that the mise-en-scene is sorted out, we have the appropriate props, costume, make up, everything. It’s up to me to make this film believable. Finally, I need to be the one making sure that everything gets done; the script is written- and really the writing of the script is my responsibility, the storyboard and shot lists are done, everything. It is my responsibility that everything is getting blogged, and also any arrangements to meet up for planning, including walking through the film, taking headshots of actors, anything like hat; it’s my responsibility that they get done.
2. My idea came after watching ‘The haunting’ by Robert Wise, my family and I were having dinner and my dad was telling us how the doorbell kept on ringing in the middle of the night, waking him up. This got me thinking, seeing as haunted houses were fresh on my mind, that this could be a good starting point for our film. Then after watching other haunted house films particularly ‘The Orphanage’ with lots of shots of corridors, the idea for this film really started to develop and come together. And given that I have a good house for a haunted house, we thought it was the perfect type of film to do.
3. Robert Wise initially was my main influence because the way he built up the tension is very gripping, and the distorted angles that are used, along with the dramatic, erratic music and the use of dark shadows puts the audience on the edge of their seats, so I thought these were very effective techniques and I tried to write a script that would enable me to do this. Also Juan Antonio Bayuna’s use of long foreboding corridors, and long pauses, which really make the rhythm of the film not very fluid, are also elements of the film which really put the audience in suspense and I wanted to incorporate this in mine too.
4. The opening will be the audience on edge, and make them really quite uncomfortable, because there is no equilibrium, from the very start, someone dies, which is immediately uncomfortable for the audience, and puts them in good stead to be scarred later on. We use a lot of corridor shots and lots of shots from different angles, some tracking, lots of close ups, to make it feel like the couple are being watched, so hopefully this will scare the audience.
The threat is also a little girl which is very disconcerting, as normally, innocent little girls are the victim, so it shifts the perspective of the film somewhat. There are also instances where tension is being very built up, for example, when something walking up the driveway, the last time this happened, someone died. And leaving the opening with the inevitability that the couple will be haunted is a sure way of putting the audience ill at ease.
5. I have been very conventional on the whole, there is a haunted house, there is a threat (the ghost of a dead person) there will be lots of use of dark corridors and corners. Because it’s an opening we won’t show any haunting, but there would be in the rest of the film. The main unconventional element of the film is the little girl, but even nowadays, it’s becoming more conventional to have a child threat.
Sunday, 19 June 2011
Pre-Production Evaluation- Editor
As an editor I am responsible for turning raw material into a finished product which is hopefully worth high marks. While the main part of my role will take place post-production, the planning stages are very important and it is crucial that I play a big part in making sure that what we plan will provide very good raw material for me to work with later on. I will have to work closely with the cinematographer to make sure the shots are of the right length so the audience do not get bored. In a horror film, the music must be perfectly timed otherwise it has no effect; it will be my job to make sure the music adds suspense, I will use Garage Band to do this. If my job is not done properly the film will not be convincing and the quality of the film will be compromised. The editors job is very important as the editing of a film can change the narrative and themes of the film.
We watched many films before deciding on the idea from our film. One film in particular which influenced me, as an editor was ‘The Orphanage’ that is shot in a big, old house. There is a scene towards the beginning of the film, which uses the corridors in the house in a really interesting way, something that I’d love to recreate in our film; therefore we are very lucky to be able to use Izzi’s house which is very similar to the one in the film. Also, ‘The Others’ is a beautifully edited film which uses light and dark in a really great way, again something which I think would be good to have in our film. ‘The Others’ also uses foregrounding, which I really like. These 2 films have given me ideas, which I have included in the shot list, about how to use different angles and shot types to make a normal house seems haunted. As they have both been very well edited, it is easy to gain ideas from them on how to make the film convincing as a horror film. Another film which I believe to be very well edited is 'The Sixth Sense' which also uses colours and the contrast of light and dark in a really interesting way. This film uses a variety of shot lengths in order to build tension throughout the film, some of the shots feel as though they are too long, this has been done by the editor on purpose to put the audience on edge. Both of these films that have influence me have children in them, this is where the idea of having a small girl as the antagonist came from. 
The opening of the film, a Point of View shot, will build tension because we can hear footsteps as the camera gets closer to the door, heavy breathing can be heard which is fast, this causes the audience to start breathing fast too. Also this scene will take place at night, so as the editor I must make sure this looks realistic, as we have decided not to shoot at night. We don’t know who the threat is, so this adds a sense of mystery to the opening scene. The first POV shot will be combined with shots tracking shots, which will show footprints in the gravel, I put these different shots into the shot list so that there is a variety and while still building tension, the audience will not be bored. 
The main convention of a ghost film that we have conformed to is having a small child as one of the main characters, examples of this in other films include Cole in ‘The Sixth Sense’ and Simon in ‘The Orphanage’. The antagonist in our film will be a little girl, whose innocence will be shown by her costume (white dress). Our film will challenge the innocence of young children. The setting of our film also conforms to the sub-genre, as it is a haunted house, like the house in ‘The Haunted’.
Merry Abbott
Monday, 13 June 2011
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