Filming Log # 1

Production Schedule

Here is mine and Thomas' production schedule, these are the days on which we are planning to film on. Some of the days may change for the clocks go back on the 30th so we may need to change it ti weekend filming for the place we are going to film is generally a dark place and is in the woods. Filming after school would not be practical because it would be ark at 5 o'clock. Though our film is based mostly at night, we would like a few hours of sunlight, filming into dusk some get a range of footage. Also due to safety issues it wouldn't be practical to travel to the location in the dark.

Significance of Setting (Forest)

Setting is very important in film, and it doesn't matter what the setting looks like necessarily. The most important thing is what you do with it. Setting helps set the atmosphere and pans out how the scene will be, you can also gain inspiration and get ideas from your surroundings. And one of the most used settings in the horror / psychological genre is a forest. Now forests are supposed to be calm, tranquil places where one can go and forget about the harsh realities of the 21st century. Towering trees, sound of blowing leaves, green shrubbery and the sound of birds are things commonly associated with forests, and all these things are extremely comforting. This is why the woods is such a nice place to escape to. But there is still something eerie about the woods, a sense of unease and discomfort. A feeling that behind each tree there is something lurking. And this is why horror films like to take advantage of it. In the woods you are in the wilderness, far from quick response if anything goes wrong. In the woods no-one can hear you scream. So many horror films have taken place in a woodland setting, 'Friday the 13th' takes place in a camp in the middle of the woods, 'Cabin in the Woods' (self explanatory), and 'The Evil Dead' also takes place in the woods. There are just so many things in the woods that can give people the feeling of unease, the thought that someone can see you but you cannot see them. The trees that dwarf the passerby can even seem evil and un-welcoming. Especially at night, there is no more terrifying place at night-time, but still at the same time beautiful. A lot of the time when a scene takes place at night in the woods, you can always here crickets, faint sounds of insects, sounds of cracking branches and there is a rolling fog in the background, effecting visibility just enough that it creates a feeling of tension. Most of the time you do not even need to alter the visuals of the setting, just the never ending row of trees seems to go on forever, giving off that effect of isolation and that you are so far from the populated word. Dark, dead trees surround you like demonic relics and hang over you like crooked arms, waiting to consume you.

I thought it would be relevant to post my view on the significance of the woods in horror films for a lot of my trailer will be shot in a woodland setting, and it is just something to think about for I believe  one of the most important factors in creating a successful film / trailer is using your setting well, and also taking inspiration from it to benefit the story.

Problems with production

In class we discussed a number or problems that we could face during filming and planning, we also spoke about ways we could work our way around these issues and deciding whether to scrap the idea altogether.

Props in school:

• Objects could be banned in school
• Unable to get them to school (e.g to big)
• Could be seen as a threat to other students (Knifes, glass etc...)
• Could draw to much attention to you from other students
• Need permission from the school

Solution: Get all of your cast together (with permission from them) and film in a quiet place where you will not disturb anyone, a time before or after school, even breakfast or lunch.

Filming within school grounds:

• Child protection laws, safeguarding.
• Need permission from school to film on site.
• Lighting would be an issue due to the amount of reflective glass, also the general look of the school is different compared to other schools, has a more business center look.
• Live atmosphere we cannot control, need to find an isolated area.
• Could disturb teachers and students who are trying to work.

Solution: Find an isolated area of the school to film in that is also well lit, or if you cannot do that, wait until the day ends to film when it is quiet, or even before school before people arrive. Remember to have permission from the school to film.

Children on film:

• Child protection laws, safeguarding.
• Content of filming could cause emotional or physical harm to under 18's.
• Written consent would have to come from the guardian.
• Depending on the age they may not be self reliant and need someone to look after them.

Solution: Make sure you have gone through the correct protocol with the school, cast and parents. Try to film in the day in a safe environment. The content would have to be suitable for the age of the cast, unless you have consent from them and their parents.

Survey Results (Feedback)

This is pretty straight forward, this is just to make sure that the people who will be viewing our film are of age. Everyone is above the age of 15 so they are able to watch out trailer, for if they were below the age of 15 there would have to be consent from a guardian or parents. Our main audience are the people in our year and mainly in our class, not everyone would be 18 upon the release of our film so I think it would be best to make it a 15. Also there would not be any sexual scenes and I do not want to rely on blood guts and gore to scare the audience I'd rather rely on suspense and real tension.

Again this does not really give us much detail, it is just to find out the male to female ratio in our audience. Many believe that more males like horror films, but study's show that it is pretty much equal, just as many females enjoy to watch horror films. Perhaps to make it more accurate I could hand out questionnaires to the rest of the year so I can get a better boy to girl ratio. Besides whether it is a boy or a girl watching the film it would effect the plot.

Here we can find out how many people within our audience actually like watching films. And it is a bit of a mixed results, 3/7 people say they are die hard film buffs with another 2 saying they are very interested. So this lets me know that there is a big market, even within a small niche group. But also the ones who are slightly interested are still important, for I now want to make my trailer appeal to them and hopefully change their mind. This also allows me to play with the plot more, if there are quite a lot of people who are interested in film I don't have to necessarily make it easy watching. I can  play around with the trailer and make it more psychologically challenging for people who are fans of films would probably enjoy it more, a film that keeps them on the edge of their seat and makes them really think about it.

This is very interesting for our film is horror / psychological based. There is only one out of the seven who are very interested in the horror genre, the rest are slightly interested or quite interested. Now this does not mean there is a small market for the horror genre, not at all, but only within my small niche audience. But again this sets me a challenge, me and the cast will now want to change peoples mind on the horror genre and hopefully give them a new genre to watch. This allows a lot of room for maneuver, because it seems like a lot of people in the audience do not watch horror films on a regular basis, so i now want to take influence from all of my favorite film and directors, and combine them into my film to give them the best experience i possibly can.

This is some very positive feedback for me and my partner Thomas. There is a varied response here with three different sub-genres with multiple votes. Now our film is a bit of a mix between these three genres and has different aspects of all. This gives us a good foundation to start out film from for we can take the best and our favorite aspects from these genres, combine them and include them in our film to give the viewer the best experience. Also one of my biggest dislikes is the over use of gore in horror, and it seems that no-one else is interested also, so I will not have to over-do it in my film.

Again this is very positive feedback, for the majority said they liked suspense in a horror film. And this fits well with our film for it is the idea of 'heard but not seen' so there will be a lot of suspense and tension in out film, along with the odd jump scare thrown in for good measure. Also horror and fear has been chosen by many, which again is fitting with our film because the fear and horror really goes hand in hand with the suspense, we want to install all of these emotions in our audience for we think this is key for making a great trailer.

This shows that 85% of the class prefer big blockbusters to small indie films, good quality production. Which will be hard for us for we are filming on a budget of basically nothing. But I think being an independent company with no budget can help us for we are allowed to break classic conventions and go outside of the box to create our final product. Really challenging the audience. Though I do believe more people enjoy 'blockbusters' because they're much more easily accessible, what I mean is they're everywhere. Billboards, tv adverts, magazines, sides of busses, you can't get away from them. They're in the cinema so we just naturally watch them, and also because generally the production quality is better because they have millions to spend. But independent films don't have that kind of platform and we rarely get to view one, especially a good quality one. Take 'Paranormal Activity' for example still had a $15,000 budget but that's small in comparison to other films, now it is a global franchise with more than 4 films.

Questionnaire Results

Here are the results for my questionnaire. This has been very helpful in deciding the plot for my movie. For me, especially in horror films, finding the right balance is key. You don't want too much blood and gore and you don't want too many jump scares because then it just starts to look cheap and you begin relying on them to make your movie watchable. I want to use classic cinema techniques to make my films scary, relying on tension and suspense to give the audience a thrill. Looking at these results people agree with my statement about blood and guts (Question 2) so that's helpful. Also people don't need love and romance, that is one thing i believe that ruins horror films, romance and lovers and its inevitable a intimate scene is coming up. Other things like what people dislike in horror films will be a key focus also, the one answer I liked was weak narratives. I want to pot itself to be scary, not blood and jump scenes.

The one key thing to remember is despite trying to appeal to a target audience, don't base everything around them. I believe if I do it will not be my own product anymore, my aim isn't to make one persons perfect film. I must still stick with my natural instinct and do what I thinks best for the trailer. Question 8 reveals a lot also, we get to find out what everyones favourite horror film is. This means i can take inspiration from these films and combine different aspects from them to create my film, I believe it is important to look at many other films and take inspiration from them in order to create my product.

Health & Safety

There are various health and safety concerns for me to take mind of in my production. I have 4 separate shooting spots for my film, each requiring different health and safety precautions.
Our first location is the Everard arms pub. This is a chain pub situated in corby. I will be using this to film only a couple of shots for the introduction of my film, using the back room. The permission comes from the fact that one of the cast works there so we have full permission to film there. We will have to pick a time when it is either closed or not very busy to avoid interruptions and causing any issues. We will have to be careful with any probe or equipment due to it all being used in a small space. Due to the small amount of risk, this is a low level risk assessment.
Our second location is situated within the school, the Mac room. This is quite an isolated room and is one of the least busy areas of the school. This works well as it means there is little chance of interrupting any students in lesson. Secondly, we must also be careful of the equipment in the room as it is very expensive and it could possibly harm me or those around me if they were to fall and smash. I must also make sure that the glass reflections don't harm the shot and still allow me to get a good scene taken. I will also be using quite a lot of small props for this shot, so I will have to be careful not to leave the place messy incase somebody potentially trips up. This is also a low level risk assessment as we are in a safe and protected area.

Our third location is one of the cast members house. This is used in a planning shot before leaving for the mill. This is one of the safer places to film as it is within someones bedroom. Still, we must be careful of our surroundings and not cause any harm to ourselves or others. There is pets there so we must be careful for them incase anyone has any type of allergy that may be a risk. This is also a low risk area as we are at somebody's house and there is little possibility of an accident.
Fourthly, our final location is a concrete mill. This is an old shutdown concrete mill on the outskirts of town. It is potentially quite dangerous due to us filming here in the dark as well as there being potentially old machinery about. Because of this, we must not go in the mill and instead get shots around/outside it for safety reasons. We must stick together as it is quite a bit within the woods, incase one of us got lost. We have a trained first aider and will make sure to bring a kit with us incase of any small accidents. Finally, we will al come clothed appropriately to transverse the woods. This is a medium risk. It is quite out of the way and through a trek of woods, coupled with filming in the dark there is some quite serious risks here to be aware of.