Planning; Film Schedule

We completed our new location filming in two days and everything seemed to go as planned, and we had lots of fun!

Our first day of filming was Friday the 20^th of December, where we filmed from 9:00am till midday and completed roughly half our shots

Our second day was Monday the 30^th of December, where we finished the last half of the filming. I wasn't needed for these clips as we managed to complete all the shots with me on the earlier date of the 20th.

We were lucky with the conditions on both days, as they matched at first turning into rain as we began to film the scenes of horror helping us to create an anti-climax.

Planning: New Location; Shot Angle and Lighting Preparation

Planning: New Shot List

1. Medium shot- In the living room sat around laughing two on sofa one on the floor
2. Medium shot- Someone comes in with popcorn sits on the sofa
3. Medium shot- Nudge the person on the floor towards the TV and throws a DVD towards the TV
4. Medium shot- Chatting messing around one of the teens hits another with a pillow
5. Medium shot- one of the teens points at the presents chatting and smiling
6. Medium shot teens sitting and chatting (knock on the door) confused expressions
7. Close up- gestures for them all to go and answer
8. Medium shot- showing no one is at the door
9. Long shot- from outside the house showing the door being slammed shut (shadow in the living room)
10. Medium shot- present on the floor as the teens come back in
11. Close up- one of the teens looking confused then smiling (‘okay whose joke is this?)
12. Medium shot- the two girls knelt by the present looking wary (‘It wasn’t us’)
13. Close up- Bryony (‘My house my present!’)
14. Close up- Bryony’s hands opening the present
15. Close up- one of the others (‘well that’s rubbish there’s nothing in it’)waves hand dismissively
16. Medium shot- of Bryony transfixed staring in to the box, shakes her head and agrees but seems weird
17. Medium shot- Bryony washing her face, staring into the basin
18. Medium shot- of her looking into the mirror
19. Close up- Her face as if looking into the mirror rubs her eyes looks up with white eyes and jumps backwards
20. Close up- screws her eyes shut when she opens them they are gone again
21. Medium shot- in the dining room of Shanie and Jordan messing around making a cake
22. Medium shot- Bryony comes in acting weird and shouts at them
Titles fade in and out23. Close up- big knife on the counters, Martha's hand come into the shot picking the knife up (sharp eerie sound)
24. Close up- as the character spins round the camera follows her showing fear on their face, giving the effect that the character is about to faint
25. Medium shot- character running through the door tripping over the landing and slamming the door
26. Medium shot- match on action of the door
27. Medium shot- two characters together crying, looking at each other
28. Medium shot- character standing up looking down at them scared ('there is no escape')
29. Medium shot- character running through the room, in desperation
30. Long shot- antagonist walks down the hall slowly with knife in her hand by her side
31. Close up- character space crying and scared (shouts 'why is this happening?')
32. Medium shot- character peers around the corner, falls to the floor as if their feet have been taken from under them
33. Long shot- same character being dragged backwards with a rope
34. Medium shot- looking at character inside the car trying and failing to start the engine
35. Close up - of the character (still from the outside the car) showing them panting gripping the steering wheel
36. Close up- from inside of the car of the wing mirror showing the antagonist by the car (fast intake of air) flash and she is gone
37. Medium shot- male and female character behind a door crying trying to be silent, girl has hand over her mouth, Martha walks past all you see are her feet.
38. Close up- Christmas tree with sparkly lights which then flicker and turn off
39. Medium shot- character from behind banging on the front door frantically trying to get out
40. Medium shot- character on the floor scrambling backwards away from antagonist who is just outside of the picture frame
41. Long shot- Character backing away down a dark hall slowly
42. Long shot- the same character spins round (as a creak sounds behind her)
43. Medium shot- shows the character turn back around to come face to face with our antagonist
44. Long shot- Bryony in the garden
45. Longshot- same scene but character has moved closer and over to the left
46. Longshot- same scene again but the character moves even closer and towards the middle
47. Close up- an axe being dragged along the floor behind our antagonist, (camera at floor level only shows her bottom half)
48. Long shot- character sprinting through field (really dark)49. Medium shot- of the back door open50. Medium shot- female character curled up in the corner of a dark room crying, shadow goes over her (as if someone is standing over her, she looks up and goes to scream
51. Long shot- of the house at night
52. Close up- of antagonist (really short flash)
53. Long shot- of the house at night
54. Close up- of antagonist (really short flash)
55. Long shot- of the house at night
56. Coming soon
57. 31/10/14

Planning: Changes To Our Idea And Justification; Christmas Presence

Due to various reasons we have chosen to change our plot and remodel our trailer idea. Although filming in Oxfordshire went well and we were all fond of our first idea, due to reason out of our control we had to move our location to nearer to home, as it allows us to make quick plot changes if needed. Filming in Fetcham has allowed us to explore a wider range of angles and experiment with lighting, so this decision to move closer to home has ultimately benefitted us! With our new idea we have a better unique selling point as there are very few horror films based around Christmas as the two themes completely contradict each other.



Our antagonist:

The character changes we have made include only the antagonist, who in the beginning will be a typical annoying teenager who is stereotypical of the horror genre, however events will cause her to become unhinged and similar to our original idea for the antagonist. She will become cold and lose herself as she attacks her friends.

Costumes:

Again the only changes we have made to costumes is that our antagonist is going to be warning normal teen clothes, as in the beginning our character is normal like her friends. This character will however be warning slightly dark plain clothes so in the scenes of horror her attire does not take away from her now evil persona.
Our character will still wear the contacts for the reasons explained below.

Font changes:

We did consider using the same font for our new title as for Martha, but in the end we have decided to use a font related to Christmas as we really want to over play the theme as it makes it sinister. This is our new title design which I created:



We've decided to keep the colour scheme a simple shade of black and white because this would add a mysterious atmosphere for the viewers and doesn't give away too much information about the film to the audience. Keeping it black and white will add excitement and will intrigue the audience more. The title is clear and eye catching as this is what would stick in the viewers mind, making them not only remember the title but also want to go and watch it more.

Location:

Our new location is my house, not only is this location a lot more practical, but the interior strongly connotes traditional family Christmas’with over the top decorations and a big open fire place adding to the red and green of the carpet and furnishings. This constantly remind the audience of the theme of the film that contradicts the idea of horror so we can catch them off guard and lull them into a false sense of security.

Influences of production and sound track:

Are very similar to before with revenge based crimes ending in the death of a group of stereotypical teens, and emotion manipulating sounds that build tension up and releases it getting a reaction from the audience.

Planning: Copyright Details

We should link the copyright credits of our film into its theme, to round off our trailer and maintain continuity, and keep it scary. The aim of a horror film is to scare the audience by making the scenes appear real, so we need to make sure we don’t ruin this by reminding the audience that they are watching a fictional film.

Planning; Location Justification

   From certain angles the house appears completely on its own with only a long rural road leading up to the house. Again giving off the idea the house is all on its own which is very conventional. All these factors make the feel more likely to be successful within the industry.

The house looks very dated and old which links to the idea of a haunting, the area seems left behind and not up to date with technology making the case of the teenagers seem even more helpless.

By shooting scenes of the fields that surround the house we make the teens look abandoned and on their own, this makes it all more exciting as it seems hopeless. This draws from the common feel of isolation making many people feel alone, vulnerable and unprotected.

The swing again links with innocence and children; this follows the theme we have tried to create suggesting that our antagonist lingers in her past, suggesting the reason for her psychotic behaviour. Swings are often used in horror films as they can make characters seem sinister and uncaring.

We selected props that would link into the location and the dated theme of the house, such props are often included in horror films to strike fear into audiences. These props are very relatable to everyday life which makes the audience feel included in the film.

Film Planning; Schedule