Coursework: Test footage

Lighting continuity has been a huge problem for our group. Our first two attempts at shooting were around 6 O'clock in the morning in late winter/early spring. Due to this, the sun rose quickly, and as you can see, the lighting changed dramatically over the course of our shooting. 

This is a still from one of the first clips

This is a still from a slightly later shot that we took

We tried editing the footage to a similar colouring on the video editor but the product was a grainy image that we felt didn't professional enough for what we would like.

As a result we filmed again, in a different location at a slightly later time, but still in the morning. This time we had continuity issues with the frost that covered the grass in the earlier shots, and not in the later ones. We also had an issue with the fact the second location was not typical for a horror, and so the supernatural girl just looked like a weird stalker, and not a poisoned ethereal creature. 

A still from one of the earlier shots, the ground has a slight grey coloration due to the frost

Here you can identify that this is a later shot due to the frost having melted

This is also one of the long shots that we took, it is evident that the location is not 'horror-like' enough

The make up of the ethereal girl is going to be developed because, as a group, we decided that the black veins were not realistic enough and looked almost comical. 

I also asked some friends what they thought of the make up and what the first thing was that sprang to mind when they looked at it. They said she looked too humane to be supernatural, and that the 'veins' didn't actually look like veins at all, they reminded one person of a tree without all it's leaves, which is definitely not what we were aiming for.

Taking this feedback into account, we are going to use white powder on all my showing skin, to give me a more sickly/dead look, and darken the eyes so that the white stands out. I am considering putting coconut oil in my hair as well to make it slightly darker and make it look less 'clean', for want of a better word.


As preciously mentioned, the location also needed improvement because Adam looked like he was being stalked, rather than a supernatural girl. As a result, we have changed location again to a grand house that a friend of Adam's family own, and we are going to attempt a haunted house style film opening. We are going to use similar concepts, in the sense that there is still a girl, except now the person acting her is me rather than Maya, as I have slightly longer hair. 

Inspired by The Grudge, the girl will have her hair messier and slightly over her face, and, hopefully, white-out eyes. She will be in a white dress and at the moment we are undecided as to her footwear/if she will be wearing footwear.

The lighting in the second location was much too warm for the atmosphere that we were trying to capture. The first location had cooler colours, which was almost perfect for what we wanted, but the lighting continuity has prevented us from using this footage. Consequently, instead of filming in the morning, we are going to film later, around dusk, as this time carries many connotations associated with horror.

Written by Maddie Davies