Our media project comprises the opening/title sequence of a film entitled Occult (2009) directed by Max Curnow and produced by Ella Melhuish and Holly Morley. Actors: Lucy Adams as the girl victim, me as the unidentified priest and Hugo as the father.
Primary task: Our primary task was to create a horror film opening/title sequence. It involves 3 characters within an interior set, in two different time scopes. There are flashbacks of a dead girl in the same interior as the two men, who are exchanging dialogue within a small cellar.
The piece is about a father who goes to see a priest for counselling about his daughter who we learn has been killed. The twist in the narrative is that the girl was actually killed in the same room in which they are speaking in, and that the priest is the murderer. The father is unaware of this. As the father begins to describe what happened to his daughter, a series of flashbacks appear on screen and the sequence of events leading to her murder unfold. We see short clips of the helpless tied down daughter, and flashes of her corpse covered in blood. The film concludes with the priest murdering the father. Using different types of camera shots, observed in various horror films, we tried to use the kinds of methods used by film makers used to create an atmosphere of brooding suspense. These techniques included hand held close-up’s, focussing in and out on the body, and medium shots, and in establishing wide shots we hoped to create a sense of dramatic movement within the confined room. Using the convention of the priest, as one of the male protagonists whose face is never actually seen, the idea was to develop a character who at first seems to be a person to be trusted (a conventional thaught process when looking at a priest). In using the isolated location and the cold, white-walled cellar, the plan was to further generate a feeling of menace. The religious aspect and dominant evil male contrasting with the vulnerable female victim who is seen tied up and covered with blood, brings in dark and even sexual undertones. The aim was to really emphasize the fear in the girl and the violence of the priest. This is also emphasized by introducing discordant sounds and long, dark pedal notes on the film’s soundtrack. Blood and death are main scary and shocking elements of the horror film, and we tried to exercise these notions in our sequence, hopefully to astound and intrigue a horror film audience. In films such as The Exorcist and The Omen the crucifix is used as a powerful symbol and we chose to use it also in our shoot.
Representations of social groups: We have challenged the representation of the priest in society as a good, peaceful, trustworthy and God worshipping person, and we have turned him into a mad, cold hearted killer who takes his religious views to the extreme. This we have done by concealing his identity, so that the audience is made uneasy by the unknown.
The social groups represented include the helpless, young female victim who wears a white gown to symbolise purity and innocence. The father is portrayed as an ordinary, working class dad, and this is depicted by his clothes, subliminal status and the language he uses. The priest is recognizable because of his particular dress which represents a member of a Christian organisation, and also his use of language which is religious and mostly filled with false reassurance. We never get to see his face which is an intriguing twist, and we soon find that he is a multi complex character. Listening to the characters speak we can hear them voice their emotions and even status, who is dominant and who is inferior in the conversation. The priest’s language is cold and blunt, and the father is distressed, helpless and at times, angry. The girl is full of fear, and although all we hear is heavy breathing, her physical gestures tell the audience of her restless distress and fear.
The body language used by the characters also gives us an insight as to how they are feeling. The priest acts in a supreme manner, straight backed and gliding around the room. The father’s hands are constantly fidgeting and he is hunched in his seat. The girl is distressed as she tries to free herself from the ropes that bind her. The stereotypes we have used could include the helpless young pure female, the serene priest and the concerned father. Shooting using close ups and medium shots so that we can see all of the characters reactions and facial expressions means that we can fully acknowledge and experience the character’s personalities and even their thoughts. We constructed the characters so that we had an evil villain and two victims. The audience is made uneasy from the beginning because of the lack of the priest’s identity, so we do not know his true intentions, which unbalances what could have been a balanced equilibrium. As the two innocent characters are killed off so quickly in this first sequence, we need to find out as much as we can about them before they are killed, in order to acknowledge the situation. The priest however is still a mystery, so the audience is drawn in by the unknown.
The sort of media institution that might distribute our media project would probably be mid budget companies. Arrow films for example would be a good distribution deal because of their wide selection of medium budget horror they have distributed. Financially the film would be medium expensive, nothing too extreme. The cast could include well known actors but nothing too huge, not at a Hollywood scale for example. The location too does not have to be too elaborate, i.e. no huge built sets, and no need for computer generated locations. Expertise for fine editing, special effects and set design (and more) will also be needed, again no one too high end though.Marketing would be standard mainstream like posters, TV trailers, sponsorships, merchandise etc. This would include advertising, press releases, cast interviews too. For these marketing aims, more expertise may be needed.If we wanted to change our Media Product into a mainstream category we could increase our budget, hire very high end actors and really professional well known expertise, use special locations and sets, marketing would be extended, possible viral marketing and even demonstrations/ handouts. European or even worldwide distribution is probably to be encouraged, as a wider audience means higher revenue.
Audience for our Media product: The certificate for our film would be BFI 18 or 15 because is probably too graphic and shocking for a younger watcher. 15 would be a preferable certificate so that younger people could watch the film, meaning a wider audience. Cinema release would be good at a 15 certificate but for DVD sales it could be raised to 18 as a director’s cut could attract more audience to the product. Standard marketing would be used as it is medium budget, such as soundtracks and competitions. Viral marketing is probably less appealing for this film, but tag lines and title images could be used beneficially.I have learnt a lot about the technology side of media during the making of our project. I feel I have become accustomed to using hardware like operating the camera correctly, setting up the tripod for filming, how to do position lighting and what shade/intensity of light to use and how to capture sound correctly, compressing the sounds and positioning. Editing too has been very useful, if not a bit difficult to get the hang of at first.
Software: Editing the recording.Shot logging: Learning to organize and piece together our project within final cut pro took some time to getting used to, but I believe that we all successfully managed to get to grips with the program. Bin construction and choosing the shots we were going to use took a lot of time, but soon we had all our clips organized by plotting in and out points, and using the razor tool to cut up the shots and modify the length of our sequences. After this we could start piecing them together and dragging/dropping them into the timeline.We used effects like making the shots opaque on top of each other, and linking shots whenever the priest walks in front of the camera, to go into shots of the dead girl. Synchronizing the audio with the video was a strenuous task but we managed to link the dialogue with the images well. We used dissolve effects between shots to make the changes smoother, and after we had pieced together the sequence and its audio, it was time to add the soundtrack.Soundtrack:I used Cubase SX3 to construct the horror soundtrack. I used dark intimidating sounds and long dark synthesized pedal notes to create an intimidating atmosphere, and some hard hitting distorted drums at the end killing sequence to represent this unbalance of the equilibrium, and add a whole new level of intensity. I used several channels for all of the sounds I used within hypersonic, and mixed it so that during the dialogue there were simple, low level and deep pedal notes in the background, but in the strangulation scene the dialogue cuts out and the music becomes relentless and brutal.
I feel I have learnt a lot about the organization skills needed when completing a project like this. I learnt about how valuable our time was on the shoot day, and how we must work to get the most out of the time and shots that we had. Working as a team was a useful experience, as we all had to work together and share ideas in order to create a good piece. Planning and developing the piece meant we all had to contribute evenly to make sure that we were all set for a good shoot. Writing up the script, contracts, story board and treatments was also a team effort, so we assigned each other different jobs in order to get the work done. The producer drew up the storyboards, I wrote up the script/treatment and the Co Producer organized company formation, and contract formation. We used the blog to log all of our progress with our media project and exchange thoughts over the network.
The shoot day went as planned, and we discovered the reality of a shoot behind the scenes. It was an interesting environment to work in, and we all learnt about using our time preciously. I was quite nervous about getting things right and making sure I didn’t mess up, so at times it was quite stressful, especially when I slipped up with my organization or timing when I was acting as the priest, but I learnt to recover from these situations and restore good feelings and energy within the group.The experience gave me an insight as to what it must be like working within the film industry, and it was hard work! Keeping up with a professional standard must be very tiresome, but I think we all got a taste of what it must be like to work in that environment.If I could go back and change things about our product I would probably organize my time better and spend more time analyzing and thinking about what to do on the shoot day in more detail. However I feel like this experience has been very beneficial to me and my group members, and I am looking forward to the next project I will work on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EstYr-AFuK4&feature=channel_page
Comments on Occult via Youtube:
rubymcowan (1 week ago)
I thought the lighting in this opening sequence was very effective especially the high contrasts created in the scene with the priest. In addition the cut-aways to the dead girl creating a sort of anxiety amongst the viewer; and obviously draws them in. I believe the target audience for this is around 15-18 and upwards due to the graphic images.
Exactly the response we were hoping to achieve from our audience
Anonynous
I really like how the title sequence is presented throughout the whole piece. I thought this was a good opening sequence with the very amazing shots using the effects of shadows from the use of lighting. The make up of Lucy is very effective as well.
Also what we were aiming for, so far we are provoking the correct reactions from the audience.
katywebb7 (1 week ago)
This sequence is very well put together. The contrast in colour palettes, of the priest who is shown in darkness and the dead victim who is shown in bright light was very effective. The shadow of the priest implies that he is hiding something, which is slowly revealed through, the effective cuts to shots of the victim, in between the priest talking
28katieread (3 days ago)
i though the lighting was very effective and the casting was also really good. the music at the end was really well used but the credits, apart from the final one, were not very clear.
Good constructive criticism, now I know how we could have improved the sequence for the viewer by having clearer credits, so I will know we will not make the same mistake again
hurtwoodhousemedia (3 days ago)
I really liked the use if shadows especially in the opening. Also the contrasting colours between the priest and the dead girl was really good.
We aimed the colours to represent subliminal intentions of the character, so the dark priest dressed in black and the innocent pure girl in white.
I think that looking at the comments we got, we managed to satisfy the intended audience. There was some useful feedback which we could use constructively for improving the piece next time, for instance making sure the credits are clear. The comments made appreciated some of the techniques and shots we wanted to achieve, so it felt good that we had got our shots right.
