On the 9th of January i started the very scary task of actually filming my horror trailer… I started with the end of my trailer, as I am not 100% on what shots I should use to introduce Josh as a character I have started with my final couple of scenes. Here is the link to my storyboard for additional recollection:
Costume:
- black jeans
- t-shirt
- trainers
Props
- Window
- Fake blood
- Children’s toy
Locations needed
- A house
- A room with window
- A long corridor
- a woods -> Cornwall
Other characters needed
- Josh
- Person he kills (Me)
The first bits of shooting were dedicated to the last 3 pages of my storyboard… Preparing Josh (jack)… In order to make sure that Jack was in role of Josh I made him wear black trousers, black jeans and black trainers, once his costume was all set we left to go and shoot in the woods, the reasons for Josh wearing such normal clothes is because it shows the audience how ordinary people can look with schizophrenia thus creating more angst for the audience.
Door scene: I used the front door window to use for the scene when Josh splatters blood on the door, this is because the window if kind of frosty looking, as I want Josh to uphold his secrecy throughout the whole trailer (as stated in the story board) I made sure that you could only see his eyes. This scene is important as it builds up tension showing the audience that Josh is clearly not OK, along with the foreshadow of the bell ringing, Josh will then have a psychotic episode and this will be shown through his face in the window. To build the tension even further I followed Josh towards the door slowly moving the camera into a closeup shot of Josh’s face. One of the hardest things to do was to hold the camera still whilst walking, however this also be used to add tension to the trailer because its as though the camera is from another characters point of view.
The path scene: As I followed Josh up the path, he holds a child’s toy, the problem I found with this was that it was hard to get the toy on show, in order to stop this problem, when I followed Josh up the path with the toy I made him drop the toy and moved the camera with the toy directly in front of the camera and in the background Josh running away. However I shot this in portrait view therefore I am going to have to re-shoot the scene to make it into landscape view. This scene is important to execute it properly because it shows Josh as a vulnerable character (especially as he runs away), making sure that the audience are getting fully involved in Josh’s life. When I got the toy in focus, I used an extreme close up showing the blood on the toy, I want the audience to be able to see what he was holding as it is a representation of Josh’s psychosis.
Following Josh into the woods scene: Before being shocked by Josh’s presence in the woods I shot some footage of the surrounding scenery, a pan shot is done allowing the audience to establish the bearings before meeting Josh, a noise is made and I say ‘hello, hello, hello’ I am shocked, the camera stops on Josh, the pan is necessary as it builds up tension for when the audience finally meet Josh face to face.
Josh’s first killing scene: To show Josh’s destruction I have included a bit into a scene, to make sure that I could be involved as a character I laid the camera in the grass (this was definitely an experiment), the scene shows Josh running away from something through the woods though you cannot see his face yet. A low angle was used to view Josh, this was to make his character look more powerful to the audience and to scare them even more. After he is out of shot a girl drops dead in front of the camera, staring at the camera with a trickle of blood oozing out of her mouth, this makes the audience feel vulnerable and small by looking up at the character.
Finally seeing Josh face to face scene: An establishing shot is used here to again build up tension, Josh walks closer and closer to the camera. This builds tension because as he gets closer the audience are also getting closer to meeting the real monster behind all the destruction. And as he gets to the camera a close-up shot shows Josh’s face finally, and as he is at the camera he says ‘Where am I’, knocking on the glass of the camera. This makes the audience think that Josh’s reality is so distorted he doesn’t know what is what. (A camera to a door), and this therefore shows his overall confusion on whats gone on thus showing the audience that he has gone crazy…. and telling us that Josh doesn’t know what reality is.
Other pictures taken on the first day of shooting :
On the 16th of January the shooting continued!
Pictures taken today:
The path scene (x2): As I said before, I recorded some of my footage in portrait therefore I had to redo some scenes from the story board and film them in landscape this time.
Added snippets: As I had some inspiration from the location I shot a little extra footage rather than sticking to the origional story board I may add in a bit more footage of Josh’s psychotic journey, otherwise the trailer may not make sense, to add even more tension to the origional scenes I recorded some footage of the toy (Donald Duck) using close up shots of it. This may not be added into my final trailer but there is no harm in having more footage than needed.
On the 24th of January I continued shooting. As my original storyboard ended up being too minimal, there wasn’t enough material for me to create a trailer therefore I had to add in extra scenes. This is because I need the audience to build a relationship with Josh before the horror happens, as this makes the overall horror trailer more realistic. The clips that I had up until this point were too long and were not very explanatory of Josh as a character therefore I did some shooting of Josh in his normal habitat (in his room) – waking up, getting ready for school, making coffee to show the audience that Josh is normal. Adding in these scenes were absolutely necessary because a relationship with the audience needs to be created in order to highlight Josh’s psychosis even more and perhaps for the audience to be drawn into how normal Josh can be perceived.
Added props, costumes and locations: Props:
- A messy bedroom
- A bed
- A bed cover
- An alarm clock
- A light switch
- A coffee mug with toy story on it (to show Josh’s vulnerability)
- A kettle
- A mirror
Costume:
- Socks (shows that Josh puts the socks on in the original clip)
- Shoes (tying shoe laces)
Location:
- A bedroom
- A kitchen
- A house
Added scenes:
- Josh waked up, gets ready for school
- Josh sees things in the mirror
- Josh and Sarah meet, they talk.
In this added scene I have included a close up shot of Josh’s feet, this is to add tension and to increase the atmosphere and horror element of my trailer. Originally the proceeding scenes were filmed in the light, this was changed after realising that he was about to wake up… It just made more sense. Furthermore, the darkness of the scenes following increase the realistic element of my trailer, especially when Josh turns the light on its made clear to the audience as an extreme close up shot has been used. The fact that Josh is also sleeping and the camera shows just his feet adds tension and vulnerability to Josh because he has no power. The camera also looks as though someone is watching Josh sleep (this will add to the idea of a psychological horror as it may show the audience that Josh is psychotic.)
Secondly, this shot is a close up of Josh turning the light on, this again represents Josh’s normal personality. The short snippets of film building up to the main bit of the trailer includes this scene of Josh turning the light on, this again increases tension for the audience as at the beinning of the trailer the audience have no idea what sort of character they about to meet because he hasn’t been on camera yet.
In this scene it shows a close up shot of Josh turning the kettle on, because I wanted to add scenes in at the beginning of Josh in a more of a normal environment so the psychosis of Josh builds up throughout the trailer, the short scenes at the beginning of my trailer are necessary in increasing the tension for the audience. Furthermore the diagetic sound of the kettle boiling and the button popping signifying the water has finished boiling, increases the tension even further, this is because any noise could be unsettling for the audience to endure at the beginning of my trailer as not horror has yet been shown in my trailer.
The finally added scene was off Josh in the mirror, as the mise-en-scene use of a mirror is one of the biggest conventions of a horror trailer, i thought this would be a perfect opportunity to build tension and anx for my trailer (this was inspired by the film Donny Darko). This scene is when the psychological horror creeps in and it is an extremely pivotal scene for my trailer as it starts to shows Josh’s psychosis. He believes that there is someone staring at him through the mirror.