EVALUATION ON PREZI.COM

Tuesday, 9 March 2010

Our Invitations for The Summoning Premiere


we printed blood finger prints on them too! :D

THE SUMMONING teaser trailer... enjoy

PHOTOSHOP CS3

PHOTOSHOP CS3

The Inspiration

OUR CHOICE

THINGS INCLUDED IN HORROR POSTERS:

• TITLE
• TAGLINE
• CREDITS
• RELEASE DATE
• AGE CERTIFICATE
• PRODUCTION COMPANY

OUR CHOICES


We went through all the photos which we took during filming and narrowed it down to the one’s which would be most appealing to the audience whilst hiding enough of the storyline to keep them speculating.

FILM POSTERS which caught my eye

Sunday, 28 February 2010

Text Step by Step

TEXT FOR TEASER TRAILER

Voiceovers are a common part of trailer’s which we wanted to subvert to by using text instead. We wanted to show a broken up sentence throughout the teaser trailer and came up with this:
- She brings with her... a chain of predicaments... murder... death... darkness
The word “predicament” was too long so we replaced it with “events” instead. I decided to think of a better way to interpret this sentence and finally came up with this
When evil takes over... death... destruction...and Darkness follow
I wanted to use alliteration to emphasise the words being very negative and frequent parallel to the storyline.

MOVIE TITLE

As our storyline is based on a mother who had been murdered and is back for revenge though her daughter’s body, we wanted to come up with a title which highlights the main concern in the teaser trailer which is exorcism and corruption. We didn’t want to over complicate the title as this would not look professional and may confuse the audience as to what the film may be about. The title “Unhinged” was one which we thought of but then realised had already existed in a 1960s movie. Another name title we liked was “summoning”. The term summon is to be called upon or to call into action. The character Elizabeth is being called upon by her mother in order to take revenge for her mother’s death. The word also has a religious tone as it is used in the bible, being another subject common in our film as Elizabeth who is Christian prays to her mother.
We began to work with this word and came up with a number of possible titles:
-Summoned
-She has been Summoned
-Being Summoned
-Summoning
-The Summoning

From this list we decided to go with “The Summoning” as it has an abrupt tone and is edgy.

THE EDITING PROCESS

Adobe premiere is video editing software which I was not familiar or confident with using as I’ve only ever edited still images on adobe Photoshop cs3. I spent a fair amount of time playing around with the new software, from using the TV channel effect to speeding up specific shots. Having a first glimpse at adobe premiere was terrifying and made me feel as though I’ll never get the hang of it. But once I familiarised myself with what certain tools and functions did, I actually enjoyed using it as I discovered some amazing ways to create more of an edge too our filming such as the ghost effect used when Elizabeth is screaming.
Our storyboard helped us to sort out all the footage taken as we had recorded depending on the location. We wanted our opening scene to show the antagonist Elizabeth open her eyes. Eyes are an important part of our teaser trailer as they reveal how she is possessed by something which is in fact quite evil. Eyes opening also symbolises the opening of the film showing how evil takes over a young women. The first scene was edited to go faster and then slow down as Elizabeth opens her eyes, highlighting the evil inside. This was done to grab the audience’s attention and make them wonder what has happened to her for her eyes to b so dehumanised. Straight after this scene there are birds flying into the bright sky which is a huge contrast to the corrupted eyes. Elizabeth is trapped and the birds are free and natural. However they look as though they are flying away from something, making the audience wonder what or who they are escaping from. The bird scene was something we shot by chance during the rains scene as we were curious to see if we could incorporate it into out trailer.
One scene which we took a risk on was of Elizabeth walking stiffly in the forest as we depended on the editing part to add more of a dramatic effect on it. This shot once speeded up looked very frightening as Elizabeth is walking very corrupted and zombie like which reinforces the idea of her body being controlled by something dark and dangerous. We also added cross cutting through each part of her walking closer n closer to the camera by adding a hand held shot of someone running rapidly though the forest creating more suspense and curiosity to the audience.
We decided to use a “dip to black” video transformation tool and fade tool in in-between each scene to give as we noticed that many film trailers used this style of editing to make them look professional and articulate.
We aimed for our last scene to make the audience jump so we added it at the very end of the title of the teaser trailer to make the scene more unexpected in order to scare the audience. We did minimum editing on this scene as possible as it was already scary enough and keeping things simple sometimes makes them look better. After the scene Elizabeth’s heavy breathing is still heard on the blank black screen. This is to symbolise that the end is not yet over and also that strange things happen when the lights go out. Darkness one of the main icons in all horror movies as they represent vulnerability to characters as they are unable to see in the dark and therefore may be in danger.

Monday, 4 January 2010

Storyboard (6)

Storyboard (5)

Storyboard (4)

Storyboard (3)

Storyboard (2)

Storyboard (1)

Editing on Monday the 7th December 2009

By Monday we had selected all the shots we wanted and put them together in Adobe Premier. The next step was to decide on what type of sound we wanted to use. We searched on a series of websites such as www.youtube.com, http://musicbakery.com, www.musicloops.com and www.moviedownloadmatrix.com. One sound track that stood out to us was “summon the demons” which included sounds of an orchestra, church bells and a piano. After looking at a few other soundtracks which related to “summon the demons” we decided to stick to it as we felt that it would fit in well with the scenes in our trailer.

Filming on Saturday 5th December 2009

We began our day by meeting at 10:00am in Norbury. The first location we set off to was Mitcham graveyard. As we drove through the graveyard we searched for an area which looked quite old. When we found the spot we filmed a tombstone which was the shape of a crucifix and was tilted to one side of the ground. Mariam (editor) and I (producer/actor) took a range of different shots including a panning shot, a rotating shot and a zooming shot. We did this as we hadn’t yet decided which would fit well with the other shots in the trailer. Once we felt confident that we got a good variety of shots, we headed for Sufia’s house.
Once we got to Sufia’s house we got the camera ready for the rain scene. In this scene Elizabeth (me) would be screaming out as loud as I could whilst moving my body frantically in order to show her suffering and frustration. We used a hose pipe as the rain and adjusted the nozzle to get finer droplets. The director (Sufia) stood on a high surface and held at an angle so the water goes downwards instead of going sideward’s. I wore the white nigh gown in this scene. We filmed this scene with a range of different angle just in case the original one didn’t look so good on screen. Before the rain scene we noticed a group of pigeons sitting on the roof so we came up with the idea to shoot them flying off into the sky. By scattering bread on the grass they all stood exactly where we wanted them to. As I ran towards them, they flew into the sky into one direction. This movement made it seem as though they were flying away from something bad.

Shooting Schedule for Saturday 05/12/09

Filming on Thursday 3rd December

Time was of the essence. We needed to film the car scene and also the prayer scene in a short amount of time as we had to go back to college on time. Having all the equipment ready was crucial as we knew we wouldn’t of had time to go back. Doing the car scene was difficult as I had some difficulty trying to imagine following a fast moving person outside the car. The frosty weather had fogged the windows which meant we were unable to film scene 18.
Our storyline is based mostly on exorcism which is why the prayer scene was a vital part of the trailer as it highlights religion which is often associated with spirits and demons. Once we were on location which was Sufia’s, the directors loft room, we began to setup the mis-en-scene needed in the room for the prayer scene. The first thing we did on set was to rearrange the furniture to make the room seem isolated. Earlier Mariam (editor) and I edited a picture of a woman who was to be Elizabeth’s mother who had died. We wanted to make the portrait look fairly old as a lot of horror films have portraits hanging up on walls which look abandoned in some way. To achieve this look we used adobe Photoshop and used a tool which changed the colour saturation and also one which would automatically distort the image. This portrait was then put in a gold frame and placed on the table in the scene. We also placed lots of candle on a white sheet in front of the table where Elizabeth would be sitting in the centre of. In the prayer scene Elizabeth would be praying to her mother in a dim setting with her eyes closed and then whilst the camera zooms into her face she would open her eyes which would glow in the candle light. In order to pan around Elizabeth (me) I managed to get hold of a dolly to attach to the bottom of the tripod. A dolly has wheels which allow you to move the camcorder smoothly on the floor, attaining a more professional finish. Mariam (editor) moved the tripod smoothly round Elizabeth (me) whilst Sufia (director) watched what was happening through the camcorder screen. This shot was harder than we thought as were not very familiar with panning on a dolly which was why we took a number of shots. This would permit us to get the best possible shot.