Analysis of The Music

The music John has composed for the piece is very atmospheric and ambient. I think this fits the ghostly and disturbing images of our film. The texture of the piece is very thin and sparse, this is good as it creates a feeling of loneliness and isolation in the audience. The sound is also panned which adds depth to the stereo field, this would give the audience a feel of an overwhelming desolate landscape.
The piece is also full of repetetive motifs which also gives the audience an uncomfortable and droning sense of impending doom. The use of repetition is heavily influenced by Steve Reich's minimalist compositions. The steve Reich influence can also be hard in the use of odd time signatures and dissonance. Both these things make the piece uncomfortable to listen to and therefore make the piece perfect for a psychological horror film. This is because odd time signatures dont sound natural and are hard to follow and latch onto. I believe this lack of a determinable structure and inability to latch onto the piece would keep listeners on edge throughout the piece.
The use of dissonance also sounds disturbing and can create a subtle inferrence of a human scream. I believe this is more effective than just including a human scream as it is usually used in horror films during intense points in the action such as a murder and as such i feel it would be innapropriate to include one during our title sequence. I also think subtle inferrence is more effective as sometimes the audience wont even realize what they are hearing until sudden realization dawns on them. This should slowly cause a sense of fear and discomfort to wash over the audience.

Third Day of Filming

On the third day of filming we filmed all our shots of the melting doll. The intention of these shots is to represent the degregation of innocence in the film. To melt the doll we used a heat gun in a well ventilated area. We decided to tape up the dolls hands and mouth as this represents a sense of helplesness and imprisonment, this would infer a recurring theme throughout the film.
We also burnt and melted a rose. I feel that a burning rose is a very strong image and has very strong oxymoronic connotataions with the juxtaposition of the beauty and life of the flower with the harshness and destructive properties of fire. This would suggest a theme of lost beauty and this is metaphorical for how the characters once ideal life quickly descends into chaos.
We also melted the rose as we thought we could show images of the rose becoming gradually more disfigured as the titles progress. I believe this would be a good feature as it would give the audience a measured visual guide to the characters sanity at certain points in the film.

Logged Shots from Day 2

Here are the shots we have logged from day 2:
3.35-3.45: PAN 1 YES
3.45-4.03: PAN 2 YES
4.03-4.09: PYLON SHOT NO
4.09-4.51: WALKING TO CAMERA YES
4.51-5.01: BACKWARDS WALKING YES
5.01-5.11: EMPTY SWING YES
5.11-5.35: SOPHIE SWING YES
5.35-5.47: SOPHIE TREE YES

Second day of filming

Second Day of Filming

On the second day of filming we shot exterior shots on a playing field and a childrens park. This was representative of the character regressing to her childhood memories.
We started with a long panning shot, starting on some skeletal trees and ending on Sophie, looking creepy. One problem we encountered was getting the pan smooth as the start of the shot usually jumped as the camera started moving. However, this can be fixed during the editing process. We attempted this shot three times until we were happy with the results.
The next shot we filmed was Sophie walking backwards, as though she is possessed. This is inspired by 'The Exorcist'. We feel this could be a succesful reference as it is one of the most succesful horror films of all time.
The next shot we filmed was an empty swing in a childs playpark. We filmed this shot from a high angle. This is effective as the angle would give the audience a sense of comfort and security, feeling they have dominance over the shot. However the swing still swings right at the camera which would shock the audience and hopefully break their comfort zone.
After this we filmed Sophie on the swing. I feel this is an effective shot as it once again shows how Sophie is trying to regress to childhood memories, and this in turn infers that their is something wrong with her current life. This would intrigue the viewer and hopefully make them feel uneasy, as they know that something is wrong but dont know what.

Logged shots from day one

Here is the logged shots from the first day of filming:


1.24-1.59: OTS MIRROR SHOT YES
2.00-2.12: OTS MIRROR SHOT LIPSTICK YES
2.12-2.20: OTS MIRROR SHOT YES
2.22-2.32: CU MIRROR SHOT YES
2.32-2.44: CU MIRROR SHOT YES
2.44-2.51: MIRROR SHOT NO
2.51-3.16: MIRROR SHOT YES
3.16:3.20: MIRROR SHOT MAYBE
3.20-3.25 HAND MIRROR SHOT NO
3.25-3.35: HAND MIRROR SHOT YES
3.35-3.49: CU OF EYE YES
3.49-4.06: BED SHOT MAYBE
4.06-4.19: SIDE OF BED NO
4.19-4.34: BED POLE YES
4.34-4.47: KNEELING SHOT NO
4.47-5.03: CU OF EYES YES
5.03-5.21: CU OF FACE YES
5.21- 5.50: CU OF FACE YES

first day of filming

We began filming footage for our horror film early January 2010. On the first day of filming we filmed the shots of Sophie putting on make up in the mirror. We decided to film in a dark environment and used the nightshot mode on the camera as this gave a grainy effect which creates a feeling of suspense. One challenge we encountered was positioning the camera to get a good shot but also not be visible in the mirror. We decided to use an OTS shot as this off center positioning allowed us to see all the action but also prevented the camera from being visible. We decided that Sophie should be wearing a nice dress as the juxtoposition of a stylish outfit with the dark foreboding connotations of the action would create an unsettled feeling in the viewer.