Somnium- Final Edit

Somnium from Rosie Chatterjea on Vimeo.

Somnium Poster

Here is our finished poster

Grande Films Magazine

Here is our finished magazine cover

Evaluation 4- Who are your audience and what have you learned from your audience feedback?

Evaluation 3- How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

Evaluation 2- How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Within media technology is essential; it is used in all corners of the industry through the entire media production process, from production companies to audiences. We used technology throughout the process of making a trailer, from construction to planning and research but also through these evaluation stages. I plan to evaluate these technologies and their contribution to our final production.

To conduct our planning and research we had to use several different technologies. The first being blogger, an online platform to express my ideas for the production, a way of communicating plans for it and a way of evaluating throughout. Blogger is convenient as everything is stored online therefore we are less at risk of loosing valuable coursework and planning than we would if we had to keep it in a folder. Blogger is also accessible on any device which means you are able to constantly update your blog. However this means we are solely reliable on the internet and if we are unable to access it, we can't update our blog.

Using PowerPoint I analysed the film trailer ‘Black Swan’ in order to gain an insight into trailer conventions and how to effectively use them. I find PowerPoint makes my blog visually more interesting for readers. I believe with PowerPoint you are able to make more clear and concise points without having huge pieces of information to read through. You are also able to visually communicate your ideas and embed photos; a way of thoroughly conveying your ideas to readers through all types of mediums.

Taken from my trailer analysis PowerPoint

When making my PowerPoint I had to conduct research through several related websites. The first being YouTube in which I found my initial trailer to analyse. YouTube has several features that aided my choice of trailer; the first being the like and dislike button which ultimately gives you an indication of how the public see a piece of media.  I could see from this feature alone that Black Swan was hugely successful and therefore a worthy piece to analyse as we could then take inspiration from the dark themes embedded and apply them to our trailer.

Black Swan YouTube summary

Other technologies we used pre-production included websites such as Facebook and twitter which play a huge role in the advertisement of new films, I wanted to see how this was done and how social media platforms essentially advertise and promote a film to the networking world. Production companies flock to these outlets as a means of advertising but often you find, particularly with films, fans freely promote the products themselves. Things such as hash tags and official production accounts allow fans to engage themselves in the advertising process and become engrossed in the buzz of it all by following these accounts and relaying the information the production companies provide which subsequently promotes the film to their followers and so on. The Hunger Games is an example of a film made successful through these networking platforms. Bearing this in mind we decided that considering our target audience (15-25) are prime users of twitter, we should take to twitter as means of advertising. We made a page for our film and using the hash-tag #somniumfilm gained an insight into people’s opinions of the trailer. I believe this was the perfect platform to advertise on as our target audience particularly engage in twitter frequently and therefore are more likely to see the film as we are trying to access audiences that perhaps don’t go to the cinema often. 

Word was used throughout the production stage for a number of things including permission letters and questionnaires. I find word particularly easy to use as it is familiar and using word can help with the professionalism of our production. For example handing out letters that we have hand written lack formalism, whereas using word allows for structure and those we are seeking permission from know that our company is legitimate and therefore will engage in the production. 

This year instead of using word for the script we used ‘Celtx’ which unlike word provided us with a proper structure and allowed us to produce a professional looking script with an automatic format, it also provides us with the script font that professional production companies would use it is a professional version on industry standard script writing software such as final draft. We used Scribd which allows us to upload and embed word documents to our blogs in order to keep the format, again allowing for a more varied and professional appearance. Similarly sliedshare is used to do the same but with PowerPoint presentations 

We used excel to produce our call sheets again it is a more professional and creates a layout using the grid system which is more understandable for cast and crew which then enables us to be more efficient when filming, as it contains information as to where everyone should be and at what time. 

IMDB (an online database especially related to films) played a huge role in our research. It allowed us to sieve through the successful and unsuccessful films and draw inspiration from them as to what genre we should go for. We could see, through IMDB, that horror was a widely popular genre with a lot of its films generating high ratings for audiences. We also looked to IMDB to see if our target audiences were alike to those that favoured horror genre this information we found proved they were and thus allowed us to market our film in similar ways in order to generate a similar interest.

For our titles we were largely reliant on dafont.com, as I personally found they had a huge range of fonts suitable for all genres from sci-fi to horror. We used horror in particular for our fonts and the fonts we decided on looked rather scratchy and distressed which is just as I hoped.

For editing and construction we relied mainly on Pinnacle Studios 10. Which allowed us to edit our film in a way that made it more appealing for viewers such as fast paced editing and special effects such as slow motion. However the editing process had us facing various problems particularly when changing the speed of shots. Ideally we would have used Avid software however I was thoroughly pleased with the standard of editing and although pinnacle bared issues they were easily overcome. Pinnacle had many transitions that added to the overall appeal of the trailer such as fade to blacks which had a mysterious and menacing feel which was extremely suitable for our trailer. 

Using the software Audacity we were able to alter Evelyn’s voice when she screamed 'get the girl' which originally sounded rather high pitched and girly which is simply not appropriate to our genre. As we had this line as a focal point to the trailer it needed to sound menacing and threatening. Experimenting with different pitches and tones we were able to lower Evelyn’s tone to achieve the perfect voice in order to shock audiences and also to tie in with horror conventions.

When filming we used a Panasonic full HD SD camera, the shots were filmed mainly hand held which allowed freedom of movement for example the end shot when Rosie runs down the alleyway we thought that a handheld shot would be suitable here as we wanted the shot to appear panicked and distressed much like Rosie. This was extremely easy to achieve and the camera was small, compact and light, so we could be rather creative when it came to the handheld shots. However the majority of filming was done using a tripod which allowed for more steady and professional shots. Some useful adjustable features of the tripod were that the camera was able to spin around on the tripod; this allowed us to film panning shots. Also, the tripod could be adjusted to allow the camera to tilt.

Post-production we used Adobe Photoshop to create a poster and magazine cover. I thoroughly enjoyed using this software as it allowed me to be creative with tones and fonts etc. I enjoyed altering the colours and blurring images in order to fit in with the horror genre, for example altering the font and background to give a more menacing and gory feel overall and also linked in with our main production to create a sense of continuity. 

Vimeo has been of great use to us throughout our production. Vimeo is extremely convenient as it is so easily accessible at both school thus making it an appealing option as it allows us to be more time efficient. In terms of uploading our production I preferred to use Vimeo as I find it has a cleaner aesthetic than YouTube, as there is less information surrounding the video thus allowing the readers primary focus to be on the video rather than what’s surrounding it.


However I have had some issues with vimeo for example there is a weekly limit as to how much you are able to upload this meant that for some of my videos I had to use fellow group members vimeos account to upload certain clips, like my final edit. Unlike YouTube where you can upload as many videos you like.

Evaluation 1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Directors Commentary from Francesca Roncoli on Vimeo.

Denis McQuail (2010), a theorist, talks of the commercial and industrial significance of genres and suggested that genre helps target an audience for producers to capitalise on the success of previous films as they may choose to see a film based on the genre. Identifying genres means you are then able to target your audience and try to cater to their likes, you are able to understand your market to the full and incorporate aspects the audience will enjoy for example, fans of horror may prefer to see gore and blood.  Ryall proposed the genre triangle which links the institution, text and audience. Genre films like horror are reliant on the success of other horror in which make money to produce more horror films. Bearing this in mind we used the success of other horror films to generate ideas for our own trailer.

Initially our group decided on a thriller, as our initial brain storm revolved heavily around the thriller genre as we had experience of this genre through past productions.  When Gabby joined the group and our ideas were merged we decided on the horror genre. This was convenient for us as a group as both group’s primary research indicated that horror was one of  the preferred genres people would choose to watch. Our primary research allowed us to not only identify the most popular genre, thus using Ryall’s idea of the genre triangle, but also what themes and conventions audiences would like to see. We particularly focused on the role of the antagonist and protagonist and found the majority of our target audience would prefer a female hero. This is often seen in horror films and in particular oriental horror where a lot of our inspiration was taken. This meant we were then able to cast a female protagonist whom in return would attract a particular audience. Our secondary research allowed us to identify the conventions of a horror and fully focus in on how they are used. I identified a number of conventions such as isolated locations often places such as mental asylums or lonely mansions, chiaroscuro lighting, and binary oppositions. We continued to plan the production ensuring we followed the conventions of the horror genre.

In many ways our production conformed to genre conventions; when looking at horror trailers I found ours to be extremely similar in terms of themes. We chose to focus ours around a paranormal entity who was trying to attack our hero through her dreams. Paranormal activity is often a recurrent theme in many horror films especially oriental horrors. The idea of the ghost is quite a symbol of Far East horror films such as ‘The Grudge’ and ‘Ring’ lending themselves to their eerie nature and the theme of the unknown. This is something we have adopted in our own trailer with the Propian villain character of Evelyn. In terms of lighting ours adhered massively to the horror convention of low key lighting which employed a theme of mystery and again that theme of the unknown. With regards to editing we varied the pace in order to intensify the scarier parts and create an air of complacency in the calmer parts to make the frightening parts more shocking. The music and sound effects used adhered to the conventions; the soundtrack used was slow and extremely eerie and this allows the audience to feel on edge throughout ensuring they become interested in the advertised film. Sound is extremely important in the horror genre as Daniel Blumstein found out as it is the sound that actually scares the audience. He stated that the use of loud bands and irregular chords ‘triggers a biologically ingrained response by making us think our young are threatened’. We included these kinds of sounds in our trailer to intensify certain parts to scare the audience for example the loud bangs used within the titles. The greys and black as a colour scheme follow horror conventions also as they connote mystery and create an atmosphere of fear and death.  On set we decided that using reflection as a theme could be extremely powerful. Reflections are symbolic of a distant past which is representative of Evelyn haunting Rosie’s life.

Vladimir Propp’s theory stated that each narrative will have certain character types. Our trailer employs these types our antagonist, Evylyn and our protagonist, Rosie. In many ways we challenge gender conventions by having a female antagonist as women are usually seen to be submissive and the weaker sex whereas Evelyn apposes these conventions by being dominating and threatening, however a female antagonist is rather common in horror films with films like, the grudge, woman in black and Alien. We used enigma codes throughout the trailer, these codes were proposed by Barthe we particularly focused on the symbolic code with the reflection. We also employed Strauss’ binary oppositions the main of which was good vs evil, which is seen in all horror films but also the oppositions of dream and reality and the alive and the supernatural.

Unfortunately we were unable to thoroughly audition actors although in a sense we did have a selection method in which we chose the most suitable actors. Overall I was extremely pleased with how professional and competent the actors were. They fit the roles perfectly and put in their upmost effort. They adapted well to the hair and make up process and this enabled them to really take on the role. Although we didn’t hold auditions we ensured that all our actors had a background in acting which then made them more apt for the role, in the future I would consider auditions however it is a question of time and I was thoroughly pleased with their performance.

I believe our trailer was extremely successful in adapting the conventions and making them evident. 100% of our audience recognised it was a horror which meant the conventions were clear. The majority said they would see the film in full if it were to be released and the minority who didn’t wouldn’t see it due to their dislike for the genre. Overall I believe our trailer follows the conventions of a horror and in return attracts a certain audience.

Audience Feedback

To find out if our trailer was successful in meeting it's aim, we conducted a focus group and asked them some questions in order to find out.

The main purpose of our audience feedback research is to draw upon respondents attitudes, feelings, beliefs, experiences and reactions in a way in which serves our purpose. We can draw on their reaction in a way that makes a positive contribution to the success of our film, for example from our audience feedback we can see that the part with Evelyn screaming 'GET THE GIRL' was popular with the audience therefore we can use this to help market our product for example, we now may make the primary focus to be Evelyn and her haunting face.  

Once we have gathered all the necessary information of what worked well and what didn't we will be able to use it accordingly. 

audience feedback (1) from Francesca Roncoli on Vimeo.

Here is a summary of the questions asked and answers given

Creating a Poster

For the background we wanted it to be dark but not fully black. We found an image that looked distressed with creases that made it look worn and decrepit, all of which is heavily symbolic of Evelyn's character. For the font we stuck to the font used in the title of the trailer. This is so that audiences create links between the two pieces of media and we subsequently create for ourselves, a stronger brand image. 

We wanted to make Rosie again seem vulnerable, so we decided to turn the brightness down on her which made her seem rather washed out and fragile. Whereas the original image was rather bright and didn't fit in with horror genre as it may have looked rather cheerful.

We then had to make the image fit seamlessly into the background we didn't want an obvious point where the background starts and the image ends this meant we had to use a blur effect to merge the two together to give an overall more professional look. The fact we photographed Rosie on a black background was imperative for the editing process as if we had used perhaps a white background we wouldn't have been able to merge the image to the background seamlessly and it wouldn't have looked as professional. 

From the poster I really wanted the horror genre to be made evident and having Rosie alone is rather ambiguous and could be linked more to a thriller genre. So keeping in mind the theme of binary oppositions (something prevalent in all horror films) we went with good and evil to connote the genre. We made Evelyn look faded with a shadow effect as if she was lurking in her thoughts and nightmares. 

We believed it was imperative for our poster to follow poster conventions, and for me personally I believe the credits on a poster are what make it most recognisable, keeping this in mind we looked at the poster housebound to decide how or fonts should look and drew inspiration from that.

For the final product we added some poster conventions, such as reviews from critically acclaimed magazines or critics, we also included information on the production company along with the actors names in the hope audiences will recognise them and encourage them to watch our production. We also included our production company logo again it creates continuity so audiences link our film to our company. We also included the blumhouse productions logo as again it creates a link for audiences as they will relate the logo to many of their successful horror films.  

Creating a Magazine

We wanted the magazine to be as professional looking as possible so this meant using an 'EMPIRE' magazine as a guideline.

We selected this one as we enjoyed the way the fonts varied, we found it made it more visually appealing for audiences. I liked the bold font EMPIRE uses I believe its instantly recognisable and helps give them a strong brand image, bearing that in mind we wanted a title that would have a similar impact. Empire means an exclusive group of states/countries being ruled over by a single monarch. This connotes dominance subconsciously when reading the title we as an audience believe it is the best and most powerful.

We also wanted our title to have a similar impact, we decided we wanted something that connoted power and dominance. We eventually came up with the idea of it meaning big, we decided on the name grande films grande in Spanish translates to big, large and great. This is exactly the kind of message we wanted our title to convey. 

After messing about with the fonts we decided to go on dafont.com to gain a more professional feel to our title. We wanted it to be bold and attention grabbing. The colour red connotes power and stands out well against the black background. It is imperative to remember that the colours should compliment each other otherwise they may distract from the text/focal image. When working with colours we decided we would only use red white and black, as black and white compliment each other and work to not distract from the red title which also contains flickers of white.

The skyline at the top is in a bold writing and usually contains information as to what will be in the magazine. We have used words such as 'greatest' again to add to the allure of our magazine, and give it an appearance of the biggest and best. The Jessabelle font we wanted to look rather old fashioned and ghostly using a serif font I believe achieved this look. Varying the fonts help to make each bit of text stand out. 

For the button, we had it in a bold red to tie in with the title we put the PLUS! in larger writing in a bold font in order to grab the readers attention. For the Jupiter Ascending font we really wanted it to fit in with the theme of space and again we believed would add to the posters appeal.We wanted it to look almost like a planet so using dafont we went with a sci fi font that was suitable.

For the final image we felt the the lighting was a little too bright and didn't fit properly with the magazines overall look, this however was easily sorted with the adjustment of the brightness and contrast. Turning the brightness down allowed for a more dulled down version of the image, making it appear more ghost like. 

Photo Shoot

When doing the photo shoot for the magazine cover we had to find a time for which Rosie and the crew were available, we decided that the school hall would be the most appropriate location as we could use the black curtain to act as a background. This fitted with my vision as the black is not distracting but at the same time it is powerful; connoting mystery and danger whilst helping Rosie stand out against it and amplifying the fear and terror in her expression.

For the make-up I wanted Rosie again to look distressed and frightened, this meant black make up running from her eyes to give the impression she had been crying and scraggly hair to make it appear as if she had been running or perhaps fighting with something.

Although you could see the pain and anguish through Rosie's facial expression  we weren't satisfied with the angles, we thought they either were too close or just didn't look natural. Overall I am extremely happy with the final images however the lighting is a little too bright and therefore not as serious or grave as I wish it to look, however this problem can be solved during the editing process.

Poster plans

When making our poster we wanted it to be very dark and ghostly with both the protagonist and antagonist present in order to create a sense of binary oppositions of good and evil. We wanted it to appear as if Evelyn was haunting Rosie as if she couldn't escape her, like in the film. We already had an idea of how we wanted Rosie's face to look, with regards to make up we made it look as if she had been crying again referring to the theme of her inability to escape her nightmares.

The title had to be the focal point in order to ensure that audiences instantly recognised our production through the title so we want to make it as big and as bold as possible.

The colour scheme we wanted to be dark and dreary to enforce themes such as fear and death. 

Magazine Plans

When working on the magazine plan we knew we wanted Rosie to be on the cover as Rosie has appeared in films before we thought this would attract audiences (star image and power) We wanted Rosie and the masthead to be the focal point, so both had to stand out in their own right. We knew we had to follow certain conventions of a magazine so this meant we had to include a date, a button, a bar-code etc. In the picture below you can see the draft layout we intended to work with. 

Where colours were concerned we wanted a bold red colour as it connotes power and will stand out against the other magazines. We decided black,as a background, against the red, would compliment it best and also it ties in with the professional look of the magazine. 

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Then working on the actual content of the magazine we wanted the text to include words that would catch the readers eye such as 'greatest' and 'world exclusive' 

The picture we used also had to tie in with the colour scheme we wanted her to reflect the distress and fear black connotes so we had her pose with a extremely frightened facial expression to further reinforce the genre of our trailer. 

Conventions of Posters and Magazine covers

The conventions of a magazine cover: 

There are many conventions that make film posters instantly recognisable as just that:

• The title typically written in the font as shown in the trailer titles. Here it is written in red and is bold and eye catching.
• The focal picture in the poster usually gives audiences an insight into part of the movie whether it be the characters or the setting etc. This is demonstrated in the inception poster as it reveals the two. 
• The genre should be be also clearly defined for example horror movie posters tend to stick to dark themes, with hints of red in which connote danger and death. 

• The release date is often displayed at the bottom which can either be specific or simply say 'coming soon' 
• Information about the production company and directors is often displayed again near the bottom, typically stating their previous films, this creates continuity for the audiences and if they like their previous films they are more likely to see this one
• Reviews from established film festivals, or magazine ratings are all used to entice the audience
• The tagline is often short and gripping and keeps the audience guessing

Flat Plan

Rough Cut

So far we are really pleased with how our film has progressed however there are many adjustments we need to make to achieve the high standard we want. The first issue we need to address is how well the film flows, we all agreed that at the moment, even though we are following the story board, the film looks rather rigid and when looking at other trailers we see the order is often messy, so rather than it being like a short story it is more fragmented and adds to the interest of it.

Another key issue is the lack of music, at the moment we are struggling to find the suitable music for our production we want a combination of rather eerie and chime like music alongside a hard-hitting and powerful soundtrack. As well as a soundtrack we want to use sound effects to make the scarier parts more alarming for the audience,  for example a loud crash will be put in to alarm the audience. We also plan on changing Evylyn’s voice using this software we aim to make her sound less high pitched and feminine we want her to challenge these conventions by sounding deep and domineering.

In terms of titles we have a long way to go we aim to use intertitles to narrate the story and help create suspense and mystery we debated with the idea of having a voiceover however we all agreed it isn't suitable for the genre and you’re more likely to see voiceovers in more action packed trailers. 

Here is our rough cut:


somnium from Francesca Roncoli on Vimeo.

Fonts for titles chosen

When deciding our fonts we had a very clear idea of what we wanted. The genre had to be evident through the font this meant extensive research into the perfect font. The website for this is dafont.com which has thousands of different fonts. Focusing souly on the horror section of the website we found our ideal font.

We drew inspiration from films such as nightmare on elm street. These titles are effective as they are sharp and gripping the blood splatters have a menacing appeal and foreshadow the danger to come. We liked the way in which these titles looked rather cutting and sharp.

However we really drew inspiration from the film se7en which like our poster background had a scratchy effect about it which connotes distress and entrapment all of which our main themes within our production. We thought the dark dim colours were less obvious than the harsh red titles in Nightmare on Elm Street but still were just as effective in conveying the genre of horror.

This is a picture of the font we decided on we were all extremely pleased with this font we thought it fit the genre perfectly and will be used on both our magazine cover and poster for it to become instantly recognisable with audience and therefore create a stronger brand image.

Film Rating

We feel our trailer is appropriate for a 15 certificate audience. On the BBFC website it details the following about what is acceptable for a 15 film:

What does the 15 symbol mean?

No-one under 15 is allowed to see a 15 film at the cinema or buy/rent a 15 rated video. 15 rated works are not suitable for children under 15 years of age.

Are there any limits on what sort of theme a work can have at 15?

No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

What might I see in a 15 rated film or video?

Any of the following:

•   strong violence
•   frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***').
•   portrayals of sexual activity
•   strong verbal references to sex
•   sexual nudity
•   brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
•   discriminatory language or behaviour
•   drug taking

Why would our film be a 15?

I believe our film is a 15 as there is a strong threat of horror although there is no sustained focused on sadistic or sexualised threat. However our film does contain menacing threats of horror whilst not psychologically disturbing still not suitable for audiences under the age of 15.

Looking at hypodermic needle theory we can see why these restrictions are put in place. Hypodermic needle theory states that media has a direct, immediate and powerful effect on audiences and can influence their audience and their behaviour. The theory suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and uniformly by ‘shooting’ or ‘injecting’ them with appropriate messages designed to trigger a desired response.

The theory states that media products can influence a mass audience by ‘injecting’ them with certain messages through media to gain a desired response. This theory works on the assumption that audiences are passive and therefore unable to resist the impact of media and its message. The passive audience have messages injected into their mind which ultimately leads to an influence over their actions.

This is why, particularly in horror films, there must be restrictions as children are much more susceptible to these messages. Looking at the murder of James Bulger hypodermic needle theory would state that the media (the film Chucky) has effected the minds of the audience and therefore their actions.

Overall we can see it is imperative that our trailer has a suitable certificate in order to ensure we are not affecting the minds of a susceptible audience (under 15's) 

Intertitles

Intertitles, are often used as a way of telling the story rather than a voice over, personally I find intertitles to be more effective for a horror movie as they are more eerie and create more suspense than perhaps a voiceover would. Intertitles are used in many horror trailers to narrate the story. This is seen in the movie Jessabelle:

I believe the use of intertitles has been extremely effective in our production we decided to use ‘what would you do’ ‘if your childhood nightmare’ ‘came to life?’ we were very selective about the words we chose as we didn’t want them to be too telling but enough to intrigue the audience. Ending on the words came to life I believe is extremely powerful as it almost involves the audience by asking them a rhetorical question they are left to ponder what if, which creates a sense of involvement for them.  

Music

When choosing our music we had to sieve through a lot of pieces to find one suitable for our production. We decided on two main pieces for our production both of which we were extremely pleased with. The first piece; Possession by Purple Planet Royalty free music,  in which opens the trailer, is quiet and chime like it is suitable as it almost reflects a nursery rhyme or lullaby which connotes the innocence of young Rosie. It is soft and mysterious thus making the more intense and fast paced music have more of an impact on the audience. We also incorporated this music at the end of the trailer in order to tie the production together and be rather symmetrical.

Purple Planet Royalty Free Music

The second piece of music had a lower and more eerie tones to it and was introduced at the point just after the audience saw the ghostly woman for the first time (this subsequently is the point where the trailer adapts more menacing and haunting themes)


We also used sound effects to add intensity. For example, we used loud bangs to scare the audience at points where they were least expecting it. Using high pitched eerie sounds at certain points in the trailer created a haunting/chilling affect for the audience. The sounds used for the sound effects were 'apprehensive sound by Mike Koeing which we found on www.soundbible.com

"Music adds to the emotional quality of the film. There is some empirical evidence to support this: fast and loud music arouses, slow and soft music calms. Motion and emotion are often entwined." -Meyer 1956

Changes to Shot List

We found when filming that we were rather ambitious with some of the shots and it was unrealistic for us to complete them within the time frame. This meant cutting out certain scenes that we felt were not as meaningful or exciting as the others. I personally feel by doing this we were able to focus more on the quality of the other scenes and making them to a high standard rather than cramming in as many scenes as we possibly could.

3-12-14 Production Diary

On this day we had to get film the classroom scene, however it proved to be rather problematic as we soon discovered that when filming a classroom full of year sevens not only can it be quite hard to manage, but we had to ensure that no child's full face featured in our trailer as that would mean seeking permission of not only them but their parents.

First of all we found a classroom which was suitable and after seeking the teachers permission to film, we began. The first challenge when filming was trying to calm the children down in order to ensure they didn't drown out Rosie's voice, we found the children to be extremely co-operative and spoke/kept quiet when necessary.

We then had to shoot from a few different angles to decide on the right one, we eventually agreed that a long shot was more suitable as it establishes the setting and we can really get an insight into Rosie's everyday life and therefore her caring nature.

 Overall I am extremely pleased with the scenes we shot on this day and I thought that the part where Rosie rights the title on the board is extremely effective and creates continuity by linking the text to the trailer.

30-11-14 Production Diary

Initially Rosie and Layla were supposed to shoot today however last minute we found out Rosie was unable to attend, this could have meant a wasted day of filming as it one of the only days everyone was available to film. So we had to use some initiative and decided to film the scenes with just Layla. To start with we had to get Layla prepared for the shoot, this meant hair and make up I had a specific idea of how I wanted Layla to look, working on this image I decided her scary look will be centred around her dark eyes and ghostly white skin.

As Layla is not exactly in the age range we hoped for we had to use certain techniques to achieve the 'scary old lady' look as best we could. Rosie and I worked on her look using my dark make up and flour for the skin. Wetting her hair to achieve a scraggly effect made her look even more haunting. Draping her hair in front of her face not only made her appear more threatening but also you could see less of her face which worked in our favour as it made her age even more ambiguous.

The scenes we then filmed were to begin with just clips of Layla stood still in a
shadowy setting, we plan on having a sort of 'blink' effect in which she quickly flashes on and off screen that will frighten the viewer as through researching other horrors we discovered this was incredibly horrifying. The next proper scene we filmed was of Layla walking up to the house, it was incredibly cold outside and Layla only had a thin dress on so I provided a coat so in-between filming Layla was able to get warm again.

The next few scenes involved Layla walking with a knife which could have been a potential health and safety risk however this was easily avoided by setting up a few guidelines in-between filming so no one was harmed. These were:
Carry the knife away from the body and never run with it in your hands. Always firmly hold the knife by its grip and walk with it facing away from themselves, especially if you're outdoors where you might fall. Also be conscious of other people around you.

The next scenes that followed were the nightmare scenes where Layla laughs hysterically in a menacing manner experimenting with the lighting we decided that using a bright white portable light because it was a dream scene the lighting could be unrealistic and scary. The flickering lights flashing on and off Layla's face gives of a incredibly disturbing effect as every time the light fully shines in her face you see the full effect of the scary make up.

I believe today we were incredibly efficient and used a lot of initiative with today's shoot this is noted through the bandage used to cover Layla's festival bands. As they looked childish and not scary a last minute decision was made to cover them with bandages and ketchup to give a blood stained effect.

To improve today's shoot I believe the scene where Layla walks up to the house could have been done much slower this comes down to an issue of doing a lot more takes with each scene to get the perfect one rather than rushing.