Looking back on the preliminary I feel as if my media skills have progressed when now looking at the full final product of “Elizabeth’s Diary”. In “Elizabeth’s Diary” I worked with the same people as those who I worked with in the preliminary task, as a group it is clear that in the time between them our media skills have improved a great deal.
In the prelimary task we where given the storyboard, the text, the exact shots we should do and told where to shoot. Whereas in the horror task we came up with all these factors ourselves over a number of weeks, putting together a project file. We also thought more about the cast for “Elizabeth’s Diary”. We wanted a typical female horror look; dark hair, pale skin and big eyes. We wanted her to have a reasonable level of acting ability and we also needed to make sure she was free the whole shoot day. Casting in the preliminary task was non-existent, we grabbed two people who where free in that hour session without though of gender, look or acting ability. When coming up with the story for “Elizabeth’s diary” I was influenced by other horror films such as “the ring” and “the grudge” but I wanted the main protagonist to be a female and I wanted her to be portrayed in a better light then the stereotype of teenage girls.
When shooting and setting the preliminary we just found a room which was not being used at that time, which was not very good for lighting or space. The room was very small and there was one window which even when we light the room still cast a shadow of the camera onto the set. We used the table and chair that where already in the room and the camera box as a prop. When choosing the location and set for “Elizabeth’s Diary”. We had lots of different ideas which included shooting in a barn, but finally we decided to shoot the whole thing inside the film studio as this way would have full control of the lighting and the mise-en-scene of the whole set. This took a lot of time and careful planning as we had to provide everything that would be needed to build a believable and effective set. We took weeks deciding the props that would be needed and who would be able to get them in advance. We also spent the day before shooting setting up the dolls. We also had to set the diary a long time in advance as this was the main point of our film and we wanted it to be perfect, we had an art teacher at our school do it for us off the ideas we gave him.
There was no planning done into the costume and makeup worn by the actors in preliminary task, they just kept on whatever they had put on that day. In “Elizabeth’s Diary” we already knew we wanted a typical ‘sweet but deadly’ horror look. So we chose a simple black dress, bought hair gel to give her hair a damp look and bought white foundation. As it would happen we only used a shot if her shadow and her feet but we felt it was better to be prepared.
In the filming of “Elizabeth’s Diary” we took a long time to set up the shot as it was one continues shot. This meant planning what we wanted to happen in advance, what we wanted the audience to see and at what angle we wanted them to see it. So to do this we drew up numerous storyboards before we came up with the one we thought would be the most effective. On the day of shooting it took a long time to set up the tracks for the camera to go on as we wanted it to run smoothly and to be effective. We decided to go with one shot because we wanted to get everything in the room in one shot, as if a person is walking around the room looking at everything. We felt that this would build tension as the audience would feel like they are in the room. In the preliminary task we where given the storyboard did that and only doing a few ideas of our own.
Comparing the two tasks it is clear that our ability to use sound and sound effects has improved. In the preliminary task we only used the diegetic sound that we had recorded using the small mic on the camera. We just recorded the dialogue between the two characters, dropping the case and the door opening and closing and none of this was altered when editing. These sounds where not bad quality but did not give much us most scope to be creative in editing. When creating the soundtrack for “Elizabeth’s diary” we sourced sounds and music from ‘sound cut pro’ and used sounds we had recorded on the day using a boom mic. A boom mic picks up a clearer and crisper sound than the small mic on the front of the camera. When creating “Elizabeth’s diary” we wanted the sound to build tension and convey a creepy atmosphere. We wanted there to be a realistic ambient sound for the room so we recorded the sound in the room for a few minuets after we had finished filming making sure everyone stayed silent. We also recorded the sound of the door opening, Petrie walking then climbing onto the stool, the rope being tightened, the stool rocking and falling and her feet twitching. We only used a few of these sounds but we wanted to make sure we had everything we might need available. When editing “Elizabeth’s diary” on final cut pro we removed all the sound to start from scratch so it could portray exactly what sound we wanted and create more profession feeling to the sequence. We found a piece of music that we thought would fit perfectly to our piece as it sounded creepy yet when listing to it, it built tension and suspense. When putting in sounds like the sound of a door opening and took time to make sure it fitting perfectly to the image so it looked and sounded realistic. We wanted to build more tension with sounds like the door opening, the chair rocking and finally the stool falling and the neck breaking. To do this we emphasized the sound and made it louder the music and ambient sound.
My skills on final cut pro have improved a great deal from the time when we edited the preliminary task. In the preliminary task we used very basic cutting and no after effects and even then we regularly needed help. Whereas when we where editing “Elizabeth’s diary” I have become a lot more confident and more tech savvy. We used some after effects, put in many sounds and changed sound levels. As our product was just one continues tracking shot there was no cutting needed but we had many different versions filmed to choose from to find the perfect one. We did use fading at the beginning and at the end of the sequence for an effective and more professional look. This was also so that the audience’s attention was drawn to the diary (the most important stimulus) as it is the first thing that comes into focus. At the end we fading into and out the title of “Elizabeth’s diary” this is so
that the audience get the feeling that the opening sequence is tied onto the rest of the film.
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