Title of the film:
Define Survival: a state of surviving; remaining alive.
I chose the name 'Survival' for the title of my film, this was because it highlighted the main outline of the whole thing, which was to Survive the mystery epidemic. I got the idea for this name from when I first wrote the script, one of the lines from Seth was going to be "it doesn't matter, its all about Survival" but I then later changed this to the "Just Go" as I thought it had a bigger impact. I think the use of the title is also slightly ironic as when you first meet the characters they don't look particularly healthy and do not look great, because of their bloodstained clothing and bruising. When the final title does come up at the end, you see the title style, I chose this style because it related back to one of my influences, Shaun of the Dead, it puts the point across and gives off the effect of the horror movie.
Setting:
Where I live, there is a massive country park behind it, with loads of trees and meadows, its a core spot for my landscape photography so I know my way around it really well. When I was planning it through, I knew where I wanted everything to be filmed, somewhere with quite a few trees and obviously a meadow where Elly's final resting place would be, the time of year also helped my setting look scarier, as their was no leaves on the trees, it made the set look quite barren and deserted, which is exactly what I wanted.
For the flashbacks, our setting changed slightly, because I wanted the flashbacks to look like happy memories for Seth, not scary, so we got the actors changed into clean clothes, got the makeup off their faces, and took them to the Children's park where the swings and bench are that are featured in the film.
Costumes and Props:
The costumes are a main part of my film, as it gives the audience a hint that something is not right. It was quite easy to prepare the costumes, as my idea sparked from the photoshoot I did back in October, so they still had their original outfits, which made things a lot easier and saved time, the basis of the costume was, (for the boys) skinny jeans, a ripped white t-shirt covered in fake blood and a grey hoody. For Elly it was a strappy top covered in fake blood with leggings and a cardigan, I tried to also keep it in theme with my photoshoot as it was a success. When I was planning out what they were going to wear, I also thought about how they would look, I couldn't have my actors dressed scarily without looking like they are in the middle of an epidemic. So I started to think about how I could do their make up to make it look like they had been beaten, chased and injured, but survived. I referred back to my pictures once again and thought up some ideas.
I decided on black eyes and cuts on Seth and Luke's faces, but with Elly, I decided on something emotional, because of her love for Seth in the film, maybe a close encounter where she almost lost him? So I decided on tear stained makeup down her face with bruised jawline and faint blood coming from a 'busted lip', with her eyes I also made them quite dark, to give off an effect that she had also been attacked, and also so that the technique we used to get her eye makeup down her face was successful.
I also messed up Seth and Luke's hair a little bit, by using hairspray, With Elly's, I used a small mass of hair wax and put it in her hair, just to make her her look dirty and give off the effect that their conditions have been like this for a while, then I just put it up into a ponytail. When Seth is going to find Elly, I made his hoody droop down his shoulder, to help give off the effect that he's worried, anxious and angry that he left Elly by herself and this could show he cant be bothered anymore and he is slowly giving up.
I didn't use many props for my film, I would say I only really used one prop which was twigs, to get the impression that something was chasing them or sneaking up on them so to speak, for example, in Elly's scene, when she is alone, Seth and Luke were behind the camera snapping twigs to give off an effect.
If I had kept one scene that I was going to use at the beginning, I would have used more props. I cut this scene out as it made my plot a bit confusing and I was worried my target audience wouldn't understand it.
Camerawork and Editing:
For my opening shot, when my two main characters are running, I decided to use a panning shot, this was so that I could get a decent clip of how they were running away from something, I also wobbled the camera a little bit when I filmed this so that I could capture their fear/emotion.
When we first meet them properly, they are standing in the bush, hiding, and Seth is keeping his girlfriend safe, they are shaking and breathing heavily in fear. For this shot, I used a steady medium close up, I didn't want to get too close as I thought this would spoil the scene, as emotions were running high and they didn't know what to expect next. I kept the Medium close up going up until Seth left her to save Luke.
For all of my hands and feet scenes, I used an close up/extreme close up, because I wanted it to look as scary as possible. I then made those short scenes look even scarier with the effect 'Solarize' on them, as it made it look really freaky and scary.
When it came to filming Elly by herself, I didn't really know which shot to use, I wanted to use one that would capture her true fear and desperation. In the end I went with another Panning Shot, but slightly distorted it so that it looked like the camera was what was after her, as she kept looking away from it and also at the end, highlighted that she was going to give up and Seth wasn't going to come back. When Luke and Seth returned to find Elly missing, I used a slight panning shot, with also a following shot. I followed Seth the most as I wanted to get his anger and sadness that his girlfriend had disappeared. I also added the 'Solarize' effect onto this scene too. I wanted it to be slightly distorted and I wanted the colours to be all weird and crazy so that it shows her fear of what is after her, but also what the mystery epidemic wants, and how badly.
With the next scene, which is when Seth tells Luke to go find somewhere safe to hide, for this conversation I thought it would be best and easiest to use and over the shoulder shot, except the last line, from "Just Go" I went into another slight Panning Shot with a Following Shot also. But this time I panned more as I wanted to show the audience that the two boys were going in separate directions and leave the audience questioning, will they ever see each other again? what's going to happen? who knows.
For the next shot, I used a reaction shot, with a following shot and a slight close up. I did this because I wanted to show that Seth was in pain, and he just wanted to know Elly was safe, I did this scene to give the whole film more tension and to highlight the emotions that were contained in it. When it came to editing, I put on a 'Color Emboss' Effect. I did this because I wanted to captured Seth's confusion and devastation, and this fitted perfectly.
I filmed the next scene as one long scene, but when it came to editing I then put a title in the middle, this is called a Cutaway, I did this to break this scene up a bit, to give it more tension and a bigger sense of rushing and panic. It also helped the scene move along quicker, he is running in this scene but the Cutaway helps dramatically. I didn't have a problem filming this, but I wanted to give the audience more tension, as their was a big ending, so I helped build it in this way. When he was running, on the day I tried using a proper following shot, but it was unsuccessful, so in the end I stood on the bank and filmed him running past, and zoomed quickly in and out to capture the drama.
When he discovers Elly's body (which is out of view to the audience) I used a gradual zoom out shot, I started out with him by the branch, and then as he walked over to her body, I slowly zoomed out and when he fell to his knees, I quickly transferred to a birdseye shot. I also did this for the scene after the flashbacks. When he is first walking over to her, for some reason it had come out really dark, so I tried to fix it with the 'Colour and Contrast tool' this worked at first but when it came to exporting, something must of happened for it go darker again.
With the flashbacks, I crosscutted them in so that it flowed a lot better, and so it looked like Seth really was reflecting on some of the happy memories him and Elly had together. Filming the flashbacks were a lot of fun, and for the bench and swing one, I just used a standard mid shot, I was fixed in one place just watching them, but with the walking hand in hand scene, I used a following shot. After it cuts back, and I used another Birdseye shot, it goes to the hand coming round the tree, for this I used a close up shot because it captured the emotion and fear that my characters might have. I added a black and white effect and a 'Roughened Edges' transition to make it look like Seth was having a flashback of the happy memories. This worked well and my audience knew he was having flashbacks.
Title Font and Style:
When it came to putting in titles, I looked once again on dafont.com but I wasn't sure on which one to choose, as you can see from my planning, I had three ideas, but I was stuck between two of them [ank*] and mark, I was undecided because they both set the effect really well and they are both what I wanted, I didn't want it to be a typical horror font. I wanted it to be scary but bold. I tried [ank*] out first but I decided it didnt really set the mood, it seemed too simple. In the end I went with 'mark' this was because it was exactly I wanted. It set the mood perfectly and helped me achieve the effect I wanted.
Story and how the Opening sets it up:
The story behind my play is quite simple, but has a horror themed twist behind it, basically, it is Seth and Elly, whom are in love and Seth's best friend Luke. They are running away from something, but you never find out what, they are terrified, but I purposely put them in blood stained clothing to highlight the mystery behind it, if my audience reads my influences, they may think its a Zombie attack, this could be the case but it could also be something else. When Luke shouts for help, Seth makes the decision to leave Elly and go and help Luke, as he as been caught and is moments from death. While Seth is gone, the epidemic takes opportunity of Seth's absence, by tormenting Elly and then eventually snatching her. When Seth and Luke return to find her gone, they searches for her but Seth soon becomes frantic. As his devastation gets the better of him, and then realizes it might be worse than anticipated, he dismisses Luke to find somewhere safe. He then has to quickly run away from his own fate when he discovers the body of his girlfriend, and gets quite upset, this then triggers flashbacks of all the happy times they had together. The ending is simple, but blunt, Seth hears something break, he knows there is something there and it ends with him looking up, which leaves the audience wanting to find out what happens.
This helps the film open up because if I was to make the rest of the film, my idea was to start at the end and go though, so probably go back to how it was before the epidemic and then the build up to it, maybe stretch it across a week or two, with rolling titles telling the audience what day it is. Like in my Opening Scene I could of changed it to "Day 15" or maybe "Day 28" to fit with the irony of my influences. But also to make it seem longer and more dramatic, to do this I could film maybe 20-25 scenes and skip the days to make it seem longer, and chop and change between normal days and the scary days, maybe relate it to stories in the script. For instance I could have Elly say in a Normal scene a week before her death, say something like (towards Seth) "Maybe we should just break up then!" and then make it ironic by her dying a week later. Going from the end back to the beginning would make my film more dramatic and would entice the audience.
Genre and how the Opening suggests it:
The Genre of my film is a thriller/horror, but I think there is also an element of romance in there too as of the obvious relationship between Elly and Seth. My opening suggests horror as they are all dressed in ripped, bloodstained clothing, with bruising on the faces of the boys, and also Elly's tearstained makeup. I put a lot of brainstorming into how they looked, costumes were not a problem as they were already made from my photo shoot. When my film was shown to my class, most of the comments were that they could guess it was going to be a horror because of the stained clothing. I also tried to make it seem like a horror with the snapping twigs and Elly's scene. I wanted it to be as tense and heart-racing as possible, leaving my audience wondering what happened and what was going to happen next. I also incorporated the lighting and location, to suggest they were in the middle of nowhere and facing the epidemic alone. I think one of the biggest clues is the hands and feet scenes, this gives off the idea that they are being followed wherever they went. I also made my actors have emotions running as the film went on, to give the effect off.
How the Characters are introduced:
When my film opens, it starts off with a title and then goes into Seth and Elly running from something, then goes straight into the dialog scenes, so my characters don't really get introduced, I did this because I wanted to raise the 'Guessing Game' barrier even higher, I wanted them to see that Elly and Seth are in love, this is why I incorporated the kiss and how high Seth's emotions were when Elly is found dead in the meadow, this is why I wanted my actors to act their best, even though it isn't necessary, I wanted them to be good so that the audience could understand who they were and what sort of relationship they all had with each other. I think the only way I could count them as being introduced is when Luke shouts "Seth, Seth" and then Seth replies "Luke?!" this also happens with Elly being introduced, when she goes missing and Luke and Seth are frantically searching for her, other than that it is pretty anonymous to who they are.
Special Effects:
For my final piece, I didn't really use many special effects, I mainly used Effects and a clip from a Sound FX Folder that was on my desktop. For many of the emotional scenes, like Elly by herself and Seth's desperation to find her I used effects like 'Colour Emboss' and 'Solarize.' I also used Solarize on the hands and feet scenes to make it look scarier and more effective, this worked well as it gave the film tension and gave the impression that something bad was going to happen. When I was working on the flashbacks, I had to think of a way in which they would look like flashbacks, I started off with black and white, as I would knew this would work, but I wanted something else just to polish it off, after experimenting with a few, I decided on 'Roughened Edges' which made it look like an old victorian film, but also gave the sense that the audience were in the past, when Seth was happy and Elly was alive. I think the flashback idea worked as it gave a good impact on the whole film.
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