Practical Task - Fake wounds

Fake Wounds

For my practical task I chose to practice creating fake wounds and cuts by following this tutorial on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgdpzgORzhU

All I needed was basic eye-shadow makeup, red pens, and a glue stick.

The first stage was to use a red sharpie pen to draw a thin red line as the base to work from.

The second stage was to apply eyeshadow. I was able to use very cheap basic eyeshadow and I first applied a dark grey. This set the base colour, and then I added red and brown.

The fourth stage required spreading a small amount glue along the red line. This was to give the effect of skin lifting up due to the cut. Once this was applied I waited a couple of minutes for it to dry.

Once the glue was almost dry, I then used red felt tip to colour over and in between the glue, defining the original red line. 

After this, I applied a bit more eyeshadow as some had worn away. This time I included a small amount of blue along with the dark colours and red. This gave the effect of slight bruising around the wound:

I then repeated these steps a few times for practice. This was my final result:

Evaluation:

I found it really useful following the YotuTube tutorial as a guide because it gave me clear step-by-step instructions. I was able to follow these well and successfully carry out my own with practice.

Specifically, applying the eyeshadow and blending the colours to give a bruised, wounded effect went well. I was successful in adding just the right amount of makeup and achieving an ideal balance of colours.

I particularly found it difficult to carry out the gluing stage. I think this because it was quite a messy task and I struggled to get the right amount of glue. The point of this was to create the effect of skin lifting up from the wound, but it took me several attempts to achieve this.

I think that if I got to do this again for my opening scene, I would take a lot more time to make the fake wounds a success. I would definitely need practice on certain stages such as the gluing and the felt tip, and I would also use a better brush to apply the eyeshadow for a more realistic effect. 

Deconstruction Task - Sinister

Sinister Deconstrction - Opening scene

This is the opening scene of Sinister on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf1S81eEqNQ

The film sinister is a supernatural horror film. The opening scene begins with a black screen whilst crackling diegetic sounds are played to create the fuzziness of an old fashioned projector. This immediately creates a mysterious and tense atmosphere, which us a common convention of supernatural horrors.

The scene is shortly cut to a rolling tape of four people hanging from a tree. The fact there are two adults and two children all seen to be wearing normal clothes suggests they are just a ‘normal’ family like the audience watching, creating even more suspense and the sense of a realistic film This indicates to the audience that the film is expected to contain violent or murderous scenes, again commonly found in supernatural horrors. This is so that the audience anticipate fear from the very beginning scene.

The use of colours in this clip subverts common representations because supernatural horrors usually consist of very dark scenes. However, it conforms again as the scene unfolds to be even more disturbing as the four characters are elevated above the ground and struggling for breath. Alongside this is the non-diegetic eerie music played in this scene to create fear and tension. This music and crackling sound of the projector starts to get louder as the characters reach their death.

The title ‘Sinister’ is then sprawled across the scene after the death of the four characters. It has been edited on and is in a messy, handwritten looking font. By this point, the audience do not know what is happening and suspension has really built up. This ultimately prepares the audience for the rest of the film which is about to start.

Preliminary Task - Editing Evaluation

What did we do?

After planning and filming our preliminary film, we uploaded the clips onto the computer and inserted them into Final Cut. This software on the Mac firstly enabled us to put all the correct scenes into chronological order by dragging them down to editing and then cropped any so that the film ran smoothly. We did this by cutting scenes into two and deleting the part which we didn’t need as shown below:

We then added in more effects to improve the video. We first inserted a music clip downloaded from the internet which played throughout, and added a slow motion effect on the final scene to enhance the quality of our film. We then added in a title which appeared on the opening scene, and credits that appeared at the end.

This shows the music file inserted into the clip and the title at the beginning:

This was our end product: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh2l3wNP-NQ

What went well?

We were all able to easily use Final Cut to insert, crop and edit all the scenes. This meant that when we watched the clip back, it ran really well and the match-on-action was very smooth. We also enhanced the sound on the speech scenes by increasing the volume which produced a clear sound quality.

This is the scene of the match-on-action shot where one of the characters is seen entering a room through the door:

Problems Encountered?

We did have a few problems with adding the titles to begin with, and it was challenging to make them fit with the film and look professional. We also had a limited amount of scenes to use which meant it was difficult to add in many effects without it looking too overloaded. Another issue was finding a music clip that went well with the film.

If you got to do it again?

If we had the chance to edit our preliminary again, we would add in a lot more effects such as a more professional title/opening and credits. We would also make more changes to the music like fading it out as the film ended. Another improvement would also be a variety of more effects, we only used slow motion for the end scene, but a lot more could have been used such as fast motion, CCTV effect, or filters. 

Preliminary Task - Planning Evaluation

Evaluation for Preliminary Task - Planning

What was done? 

Firstly we were told what we had to include within our filming task and we had to make sure that all of these were shown on the storyboard and were also in the film. After being told what our film had to include as a group we had to think about what are film was going to be about and how we were going to include all of the necessary requirements. As a group we came up with a plot line of a girl getting annoyed at her friend because she kisses her boyfriend. Then we decided after deciding on the plot how we would include with regards to filming and camera angles the match on action, shot reverse shot, 180° rule and an over the shoulder shot. In our storyboard we had also had to include how we would demonstrate the other things that needed to be included like opening a door, someone crossing a room, someone sitting down in a char opposite another character with whom he/she exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. After we had the plot and knew everything that needed to be included we started our storyboard. We did this by drawing out the characters and making sure it follows the plot line. Then once we had drawn out the characters with the plot line we made sure that it included everything that was in the brief and also focused on making sure the storyboard demonstrated the different camera angles. After completing we decided if any props were needed and no props were required for our filming we then also had to decide who was going to take part in the film because it had to be people from our group so we picked two people to be in the film (Louise and Hollie) whilst we planned that Ashleigh would then do the filming. After deciding upon that we had to decide where we were going to film our film in relation to what our plot was and what was shown on our storyboard. We decided to use a classroom within the school because it had to be filmed within school time so we used a classroom because it matched our plot and was suitable for everything we needed to include.

Below is the storyboard that we made in the planning stage:

What went well?
Within our planning the part that went well was that we made sure we were fully ready for filming we made sure that we had the location sorted that we were going to use and planned who was going to be in the film so that it saved time on the day and we also made sure that we had any extra props that we needed if we needed any. When we planned our film we planned the dialogue that was going to be said between the two people in the conversation so that didn’t have to be decided on the day. All in all our planning went well because we used the planning time to make sure that we had enough time to film and we had everything sorted for the filming so we had our full filming time. I also think another thing that went well was that when we made the storyboard we included the camera angles and shots that we were going to use.  

Problems encountered:

The problems that we encountered were that we had very limited timing and space that we could use was also limited, as it had to be done within school time.  If we had longer time we would be able to make the film longer as it was quite short and we would have been able to add more detail if we had more time. Also if we weren’t limited to the setting that we had to use we would have been able to choose a more interesting location instead of using a classroom.

What we would change if we did it again:

If we could do the preliminary task again the things that we would change as a group about the planning stage is making sure that the storyboard is fully detailed. We would make sure that the camera angles are fully labeled on the storyboard and that specific camera angles that needed to be within our film were clearly labeled so when we were filming we knew exactly when we looked at our storyboard what camera angle needed to be included in what part of the film. 

Preliminary Task – Filming Evaluation:

What was done?

After planning the plot of our Preliminary Task we began filming the various shots that we were including in our task. We had an hour to complete the filming for our preliminary task and were told that the video should demonstrate match on action, shot reverse shot, 180° rule and an over the shoulder shot. When planning we incorporated these shots into our storyboard and used it as a guide when filming. We filmed the task using a tripod and video camera in a separate room to ensure that there would be no other people in our shots. The tripod enabled us to reduce camera shake and make our film look more professional. In order to include the range of filming techniques we needed in our film we took a large amount of shots to create match on action and shot reverse shot scenes as well as trying to include a range of other filming techniques in our film to make it more interesting such as panning and tilting.

 

What went well?

When filming our Preliminary Task the majority of it went to plan. We managed to film the task within the set hour and included all of the set filming techniques that we were asked to demonstrate within the film. The match on action was filmed so that it could be easily edited together to show the person walking through the door as one fluid movement. This was also done with the shot reverse shot filming to ensure that when edited the shots were easily put together for the final film. We also ensured that we followed the storyboard so that we used the correct filming techniques and camera shots that we had decided to use when planning. We also used a range of different camera shots when filing such as a Medium Shot, Long Shot, Two Shot and a High Angle Shot. We also included a Pan/Track and Tilting when filming to make the film more interesting once edited together.

This is screenshot from the finished video showing the use of a long shot when filming.

 

These screenshots show the two match on action shots we included in our film to show the actress walking through the door into the other room.

This screenshot shows the scene where the actress walks across to room. This is also the scene where we used tracking to follow the actress as she moved.

This scene is where we used tilting and a high angle shot to show the vulnerability of the girl on the floor.

What problems did we encounter?

We didn’t encounter many problems when filming our Preliminary Task. The camera had full battery and the SD card had plenty of space so we had no technical issues with the equipment we needed to film our task. However, we did have problems finding an empty room and an area to film to video in as we wanted to ensure that we had no other people in the background when filming to make it look more professional. We also had to ensure that we didn’t distract other classes nearby when filming our task by making sure that we were quiet and didn’t cause distractions. However, as we were filming in an area where other classes were being taught, we had a problem with background noise as other people talking can be heard in the background of some scenes, in order to sort this we detached the sound in Final Cut Pro and deleted the sound all together as it wasn’t needed.

What would we do if we did it again?

If we were to complete this task again we would ensure that we focused more on the compositions of some camera shots as in the shot reverse shot scene the top of the actresses head was cut off in the frame, making the final seem less professional. We also decided that we would redo our match of action scene of the actress walking through the door into the room as we only included two shots. We feel that it could be further improved by adding more shots of the actress walking through the door by adding shots of her hand pushing the door open, which would also allow us to include more camera shots such as extreme close ups and a point of view shot.

This shot was from the scene where shot reverse shot was used and was the scene where we cut off the actresses head at the top.

Supernatural Horror - The Conjuring

Psychological Horror - Black Swan