attached below is the PMA for our horror film completed by both me and Antonio as a PDF
Category Archives: Director
horror movie proposal
attached below is the synopsis of what our planned story is:
Toby is an employee or a security guard working at this horrible place. The scene begins with Toby running from something unknown. Could have alarms going off like the beginning of stranger things where the doctor is running down the hallways trying to escape the building. Have Toby doing the same thing, trying to get out of the labyrinth of the Mirus Battery. Then as soon as he is almost out of the place and there is hope for the audience, he might trip or fall. Or the monster manages to make him fall. The monster at this point is unseen so the audience doesn’t know what it looks like at this point. When Toby falls and he weakly gets up and the audience might think he is okay, He gets jumpscared and dragged back into the Mirus Battery. Monster is still unseen atp. Toby screams and that marks the end of this scene where he gets dragged in.
BLANK SLATE- TIME JUMP?
New scene opens with a teenager- Rin who is a bit of a mischievous character and is a looter. It opens with Rin outside the Mirus Battery and is ready to go inside to find any good loot that he can steal and maybe sell. He looks very fearless and relaxed as their character has been doing this their whole life so isn’t very spooked. He has headphones in whilst he goes down into this creepy horrible place. He ignores any blood or just doesn’t see it because he is distracted. He goes into different rooms and loots random cool objects and puts them into his bag. He slowly begins to realise that things are not quite right around here but continues to loot. Things get more apparent that something bad is going to happen and Rin becomes more aware.
He begins to panic and so on…
shoot reflection 12.8.24
Shoot reflection 12.8.24
On the 12th of August 2024 all of us a group met up to shoot our opening sequence. This in my opinion was a successful shoot as getting the shoot at night time meant that not only did we get backlit shots we also managed to establish an ominous vibe. When we got to the trepied we met up with our actors and made sure that we briefed them on the different blocking and shots we hoped to create. As a cinematographer also I tried my best to make sure that we stuck to our planned out storyboard shots, however at times this was slightly difficult as time was of the essence and I wanted to make sure the lighting was the same in order to establish continuity for Izzy’s edit.
Due to the location however we had to make certain changes in order to establish the safety of our actors and follow our risk assessment. This therefore meant in the end our shots were varied however to begin with rather than have our actors sit down we had our actors standing up which worked out better as it meant that we had better shadows. Our cinematographer Izzy was also a huge help in this shoot as due to one of the actors being absent she stepped in which just proved how much of a team player she was, Izzy had come in in costume and blended in perfectly with the two other actors which was such a great help for all of us.
As the cinematographer of this shoot I made sure that I worked to the best of my capability to establish continuity and also good lighting. As Rin was our sound designer there wasn’t as much for him to do for this shoot so he was my helping hand when it came to lighting for our shoot. For our lighting it was difficult as obviously as our shoot was outdoors there were no power outlets, this therefore meant we had to attach a powerbank to our panel lamp to help make sure the light ran properly, both me and Rin also checked this prior to our shoot and it worked out well. The most difficult shot I filmed in my opinion were the ECU shots as due to the panel lamp being linked to a power bank it was harder to dim or brighten the panel lamp, in the end however with the panel lamp on a dim level we were able to get our close up shots successfully and our panel lamp did not die out.
Being a cinematographer for me is difficult as I have always found confrontation a difficult thing, however this shoot was really good for my confidence as all of us were joyful and if the actors were out of frame or focus Izzy and Rin helped me with moving them either left or right as I get them confused. However, with a few retakes and a few movements of the tripod we managed to get all 3 actors in sync and also in frame.
As said earlier I think that filming at night was truly what helped complete this shoot, not only did it create silhouettes and shadows but it set the spooky american horror story that we as a group were looking for, this shoot was all about improvisation and accepting when things may go wrong and it helped us bond a lot as a group.
I also as the cinematographer grew massively with confidence that day as it really broadened my ideas and taught me new lighting techniques. When filming the end shots of the trepied for our dip to black transitions we used a torch in order to create gloomy shadows which worked out really well and also the use of a torch on the day helped significantly with my ECU shots as well as it signified the difference between using a torch and a lamp. The use of a torch primarily was for the darker shots whereas the use of the panel lamp was helpful for the skipping sequence with the actors. Overall it was a good shoot and helped me grow my confidence in the role as the group’s cinematographer.
Attached below are different captures from our shoot to help visualise what is being discussed.
Priaulx shoot summary 20.06.24
Bel’s film writeup 21.06.24
For our day of filming we predominantly focused on gathering a range of shot sequences for our Priaulx interview. Due to unforeseen circumstances it was difficult as we were unsure if we would be able to do the shot due to me being injured, however after a group discussion we were able to arrange transport both there and back. For this shoot we had much more preparation than the first due to the fact we met over lunchtimes and also had thorough communication on our group chat, by the time we got there it was 9.45 so we worked on getting some of our retakes of our establishing shots and I made sure that they were perfectly framed up with the help of our editor Izzy for the lower angles.
Regarding our establishing shots, originally on the shot list we had planned to do the shot on the right, however due to lighting and also the colour grading we established that the shot on the left was significantly better, which is why I’m glad we framed so many different shots.
attached here is the original shot list, in the end however, our storyboard ended up quite different to it as we had to make sure we covered different scenarios and angles.
For the Priaulx shot,perhaps it went wrong due to the equipment. For filming these shots we primarily used the tripod with a phone mount attached in order to achieve steady footage. However, for a couple of shots, we instead chose to use the shoulder mount fitted with a phone one of which being the shot on the right, we thought that this would be better as it meant that we could easily go from the bottom of the sign to the top, but in the end due to the weather it just drained the footage and made it too bright, therefore we ended up using the shot on the left for the establishing.
After this we then entered the Priaulx library and were greeted by all the staff and our interviewee who was named Sarah Ferbrache. Sarah and all of us discussed how to sort out our shots and also the environment in which we were going to film in, Sarah was very understanding as all of us managed to adapt to making sure I could move around without hurting my injury. We then looked over our shot list and started unpacking our equipment and began framing up our shot angles with both of our tripods. In order to make sure we had the best quality for the interview we all had to cooperate together to get all of our equipment ready, Izzy and Rin were practising using the boom and sound recorder as we hadn’t used it for our previous shoot, we therefore then checked everything was okay and started our shoot.
Looking back at the footage we did however end up having some difficulties, especially with background noises such as traffic. Whilst filming on Rin’s camera it was difficult as when we looked back at the footage it was extremely grainy and was unable to be fixed which was a shame as the angle it was filmed at was really nice and helped establish the environment the interviewee was in.
With my footage also, it was difficult for Izzy to export onto Adobe as the colours on premiere ended up being strange,however with a bit of TLC and experimenting with tools we all fixed it together. With our different interview shots we did a few as testers but then once we got into the groove of it our interviewee was wonderful, I enjoyed this experience as a cinematographer as I learned many different things which I could do with a tripod, experimented with pedding and also made sure I listened back to see if any of our shots were useable.
After we had finished our interview we had a chat with our interviewee and looked over our shots to see if we had to retake any but in the end they were all wonderful. We then looked at different environments in Priaulx and redid our stained glass window shots using a shoulder mount and also filmed different artefacts that the library had. The grimoires however were the highlight of our visit, the grimoires were wonderful as they were from around the 1600s and we got lots of high angle shots and also close up shots of the drawings which I found fascinating and fun, doing our interview helped us with our knowledge and also helped us establish lots of ideas for shots which I will be filming at the trepied.
As we wanted to get as much shots as we could, the interviewee then took us into the grimoire room which is a restricted room full of old books. This was great to go to as it helped me add lots of different shots, one of my favourite ones being when we entered the room and had to unlock the door, which gave it more of a spooky vibe. I also managed to get some different shots of the different types of books in the Grimoire room and all of us found this interesting as it definitely fitted the vibe of our documentary.
In the end we then eventually went out of the library and filmed a couple of our shots, we had inspiration from the BBC and got a shot of Izzy and Rin both walking into the Priaulx, we also got our establishing shots of the Priaulx and then headed back to upload our footage to our drive folder. Overall our Priaulx visit was really beneficial and a wonderful experience for me to develop my confidence as a cinematographer.
My Elliptical Montage
Attached below is my Elliptical Montage
Attached here is also my Elliptical Montage Inquiry, Action and Reflection Page
“Production Report- Observational Documentary”
In an observational mode documentary, the filmmaker watches what happens in the world around them without interfering. The filmmaker stays out of the way while real-life events and people unfold. Cinema Verité, which literally translates to “truthful cinema,” is another name for this kind of film-making
Staff (2023). Documentary: What is the Observational Mode? – So The Theory Goes. [online] Available at: https://www.sothetheorygoes.com/documentary-observational-mode/#:~:text=In%20an%20observational%20mode%20documentary.
People may use observational documentaries in order to shoot a project in which uses mise-en-scene (setting), framing and composition to communicate a sense of place. Some observational documentaries e.g.. Baraka help the audience understand the place and also perhaps helps the audience feel more emotion and empathy due to it being silenced. In Baraka this is demonstrated due to the fact that it conveys themes such as exploitation of workers, religion and also faith.
-My Observational Documentary
3 shots in which I am proud of are these ones
I am proud of the first shot as it demonstrates the realities of sixth form and it is also an over the shoulder shot, meaning that it creates a sense of voyeurism.
I am proud of the second shot as it is a wide shot which also ends up panning a little, this also shows the rush of getting back from lessons which was my aim for this specific part of the documentary.
My very last example which is of the pipes was meant to create a sense of abandonment. My aim for the beginning of the documentary was to make the school look abandoned and also run down, which I think I did very cleverly with the black fade transition to the inside of the sixth form centre.