pre-production
iPhone
In our pre-production process, we used iPhone as a tool to support us in our research and planning process. Before our actual shoot day, we need to plan out all the shot we decide to shoot through storyboarding but did not have a chance to visualize and present all the shots we decide to do, therefore we need to use our imagination to visualize all the shots in our head. With iPhone as a succedaneum for our camera, it increases our flexibility to film all the shots within one lesson as it is easy to carry around and simple to shoot with, it provides us opportunity to display all the shots including high angle shots, panning, closeup shots etc. Then my teammate Savannah used iMovie on iPhone for editing of the test shoot, through all displayed shots we are able to spot different errors we made and reminders we need to be careful to maintain the continuity (e.g., Use the same hand to pick up the book as it is in previous shots.) and with this test shoot we did additional improvements.
We also used iPhones on one of the lessons the week before shoot day to test our final shot orders with all the props and on location. In our project, one challenging part is that we need to shoot the sequence in two locations due to safety issues so we had to remake the scenes so that they will be continuous, thus, the choreography of the sequence is really important, we need to make sure every member is super clear of the orders of shots, especially for the experiment part. Therefore, we used iPhone to do a wide shot extra test shoot following the rule of master coverage.
With this wide shot filmed by the phone, it clarifies to me and Jemma the process of all the experiments as we didn’t have a chance to see the procedure of the experiment in a lab, this provide us with a better vision on the shoot day; knowing what we are doing. On the other hand, we also sent this test shoot to our cast through the software WhatsApp, to provide her with an overview of what is it going to be like on the shoot day. Moreover, by using images taken by the iPhone of our location, we organised the ways we going to set the location on the shoot day (e.g. taking off the posters etc.) to fit our genre of the film.
youtube and Netflix
click here to access clip from the possession(2012)
YouTube and Netflix are two of the main online platform that supports my project’s planning and research process. Firstly. When we first came up with the idea of our opening title sequence it was just the word “possessed” but we struggled to find the ways we could imply and hint the audience with this concept instead of explicit display it, leaving enigma code and space for them to think. Then me and my teammates used YouTube to search for different films about “possessions” to find ideas that inspired us. (e.g. how one of the scenes in the film “the possession” include a mirror and weird rings that do not fit the characteristic of a teenage girl which imply normalness with the use of the color red and black) and all the ring look the ones that are used in rituals which inspired us to relate our theme with ritual.
Secondly, to promote an efficient opening sequence we need to know the conventions of horror title sequence including what shot type they use, what is the font of the titles and the ways they guide the audience in the atmosphere. This is where we used YouTube and Netflix as the main source to find the opening title sequence for paranormal activity, insidious, the Ouija: the Origin Of Evil, Candyman etc. (e.g. paranormal activity and The Ouija is available on Netflix while others could be found on YouTube)with these two platform’s wide access it provides us with enough evidence to develop into our project like the importance of soundtrack, the importance of using props to act as a connotation. Furthermore, at one stage of development, we have a lack of details of the ritual which makes the ritual seems unrealistic which could increase the possibility for the audience to believe the context of the film. This is where I use YouTube as a source by putting a keyword like “ritual” and doing an analysis of key conventions in ritual, it helps us spot how they use blood as an element in all rituals whereas they also include a key prop which the whole procedure is led by the props. This helps us develop our idea of using pestle and mortar while including the element of fire.
imovie
In our Research and planning process, we used iMovie as software to support us for a try of the editing process. Firstly, we used iMovie to edit our test shoot, similar to the procedure of premiere pro by selecting a shot, cutting its length and inserting the shots in the timeline. This process could help determine whether our planned editing orders make sense while at the same time, it could also help us get familiar with the editing skill, we were taught in workshops which could increase our efficiency in the actual editing process. Secondly, I used iMovie, to edit the titles of our test shoot, by designing the fonts and layouts of the titles. In iMovie, it provided different transition effect formats we could use, then through the process of trying different transition effects it also inspired us to apply some of the styles in our opening sequence as it welly demonstrate our theme.
One example is where the shadow of the title and title combined this could demonstrate our concept of possession suggesting to the audience that two spirits were combined into one. Moreover, it also provides us ways to change the fonts of the titles, as when I first select and tried the font “Human serif medium” it looks like there was a lack of scariness to attract the audience's attention when viewing the sequence but then “bold” and button “O” by making the font thicker and adding a layer of lines surrounding the font it looks exactly different. Therefore, it help us to develop skills we could use in the final editing process to make the font more attractive, and more closely linked to our theme. Furthermore, using iMovie, also helped us choreograph the position of the titles in each shot, just like how it demonstrated to us extreme closeup is not a suitable shot for titles.
amazon
Amazon is one of the key software we used in our pre-production process, props are one of the key factors in our planning and research process, make sure the props fit our theme and that we will get the props before the shoot day making sure all things were ready for the shoot. We used Amazon as a platform to find and purchase our props. The props we need for the shoot include pestle and mortar, different ingredients, church candles, red wires, ritual books etc. When finding the props like candles where we have special requirements, the candles need needs to be in different sizes depending on the location it was placed. For the candles, on the ground which will form a circle we need to make sure it is the same size, so on Amazon me and my teammates try to find candles that are in a package of 5 or 6 which will be the same in size. On the other hand, candle is also our main light source in the room, so for the candles that are displayed on the shelves it needs to be big and tall with long burning hours. Therefore, me and my teammate carefully read the description for some of the candles we think are suitable for our project they include specific widths and lengths of the candles, and then we used rulers to measure the size and interpret whether the size is suitable. In the process of using Amazon some problems lead to minor errors in our planning process, the image of the product was unreliable which leads to the mistake of us purchasing a printout version of the ritual book which just look like a novel which is unconvincing for the audiences.