Coursework: Evaluation Question 1

Coursework: Casting

(this was all done by me, I've let my group use it as reference)

Coursework: Health and Saftey

(this was all done by me, I've let my group use it as reference)

Coursework: Costume and Props

WARNING- the presentation may move too quickly for the writing so pause the auto play and manually click through the slides

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Here is a shot of Adam in his final costume for our opening:

The outfit from the initial idea was a hoodie and jeans because he was just going to be a normal civilian but then when it came to the development of our storyline, the protagonist was of a high class and so we had to dress him accordingly.

Coursework: Brainstorming

 Brainstorming after some discussion:

As a group we went away and did some research on different aspects that will concern our project.

Naomi looked into different make-up kits that we could use, to make the blood look realistic, and Adam looked at music and went over our plot again to check it over.

Adam raised some concerns such as casting, he pointed out that some of the people we were looking at casting (if they agreed) may not be reliable due to their studies and as they're not directly involved in a way that will affect their grades, they might not take our project as seriously as we would like them to. As a result of this, we have changed the story a bit so that there are less people involved to avoid as many issues regarding convening as a group. Maddie suggested that we use her little brother as he doesn't have as much pressure work wise due to him being in year 9 and it will be easy to liaise with him. The other character that we are casting is the supernatural creature herself, who, at the moment, we are considering Ella Venermo, a friend of Maddie's, but that may change. It could potentially be Maddie, for practical reasons.

One aspect of our storyline that we have altered is the bounty hunter. Instead of the bounty hunter being revealed at the end, to make it more mysterious, we are changing it so that it is a serious of P.O.V shots as the bounty hunter so that the audience get the feeling that the other characters are being followed. This has made it so that we don't have to worry about casting the hunter and adds a thriller effect to the story, as it has turned out to be more of a horror.

Maddie said that it turned out to be more of a horror because in thrillers blood is not a key feature as it is more of a genre that is  more psychologically based, whereas horror is the blood and gore of the film industry. Maddie felt like that as a group that we would be able to have a better quality output if we are able to use a genre that has a wider range of codes and conventions available to use.

Coursework: Further Brainstorming

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