Creative Media, Production and Technology
Storyboard:
Planning and Production:
In our short film, we start with a girl, Amy, walking down a corridor. We shoot this in a wide shot to get a sense of who is in this scene, who the main character of the story is and a sense of location. We then cut so the camera is positioned in the doorway, building on the idea that she is being watched and followed. We also add to this by using a panning shot. The stalker/killer then becomes the camera with a POV shot as he begins following her, also becoming a tracking shot. As they are following her, she turns and notices them. She begins running and trips. Just as the killer gets over her, the lights go out. They come back on and still in a POV shot the killer/stalker looks left to right and then the camera settles on watching Amy run towards the door and then begins to follow. We cut once again and Amy runs down the stairs and they aren't far behind they both stop and look at each other, creating a height dynamic to show who has power within this scene, the killer. when they begin running again we go back to the killer's POV. To add comedic elements Amy has stopped on the stairs to tie her lace. They then push her. We cut again to watch Amy fall down the stairs from the side, we used flashing lights to create a spookier effect. We then use a dolly zoom to focus on her dead body. Finally, we end with the Killer's POV as they walk from the crime scene.
Risk Assessment form:
Props and resource form:
Location images:
_JPG.jpg)
Location Reece form:
Storyboard:
As a part of the Production process we need to think of location, props and risks that may come with filming. (The images above show these factors) Our props were more costume based, so our group as a collective, volunteered items we owned that would have good colour representation for our piece, for example, white (innocent) and black (evil) hoodies and any red item to represent danger. With picking a location, we had to decide which would be the most practical and easiest to use to tell a story within under a minute. We decide on the hallway and the stairwell, as it wouldn't be occupied during class hours and easy to access with the camera. However, these locations as well as our story did come with some risk factors. Amy was the one most at risk to injury due to her scene falling down the stairs, running and tripping. we planned to avoid injury by taking out time with these scenes and aiming to take little retakes on these to avoid injury and harm the best we can. Caitlin also had a risk of falling while running and once again we planned to avoid harm by taking these scenes slow and aiming for little to none retakes. Even I had a risk behind the camera, when doing the POV scenes we took it slow and even when using the tripod we made sure everything was sturdy and the camera wouldn't be damaged in any of these takes.
Short Horror Film: The Stalker
At the very beginning of our short film you can interpret what the basic horror themes are that we included, even from the name of it. We included the theme of murder, stalker and even psychological fear (of being watched). You can tell this from the camera POV shots we used and even the acting where Amy is looking over her shoulder and running away. To further this (and the dead give away of our theme), when Amy is also kicked down the stairs we can understand and see these themes in more depth. Moving over to iconography, we used something as simple as colour to show the horror genre of our film. The Killer is in black clothing symbolising they are evil, the victim is in white to show her innocence, we even used a red ribbon in Amy's hair to show she is in danger, however this is no longer noticeable to the film now being in black and white to add an eerier feeling. We also don't show the Killers face or identity to play into the horror "masked" figure iconography. Furthermore, our full short horror film is a typical situation you would see in a horror film, the girl running towards the trip hazard known as stairs, not banging on the doors and trying to find help, stopping to look back at the killer and even stopping to do something as stupid as tying a shoe lace, which results in her death. Even the style of our horror film is very cliche. The music we use creates suspense throughout our film, we have long takes but fast cuts when jumping from the POV shot and any of the shots we use that aren't, we use blackouts to create even more suspense and even the black and white of the film creates a fear of the unknown. Moreover, this short horror film has a very typical location of a school corridor and staircase, which is seen in multiple slashers, apocalyptic and even super natural. Finally, stock characters, the two characters every film has, not even just horror films, the good guy and the bad guy.
