Main Task
The main task consisted of mainly experiments of our film ParaSight which eventually proved to be successful. We instantly chose Alexandra Palace as the place for the setting of our horror opening sequence due to it's flexibility in which we can represent both urban and rural environments, not to mention old and new architecture. We show in planning our brief reckee carried out before initial production.
Here is our first take on the horror opening sequence. This was inspired from our research and experimentation of the Silent Film technique. In the beginning scenes we decided to start off by using the generic narrative structure created by Izetan Todorov by creating an equilibrium with the uplifting non-diegetic music and sunlight. The use of cigarettes (Fake ones! Bought at a toy store on the day) created a sense of immorality causing the audience to begin to dislike the bullying female and possibly feel empathy towards the female who doesn't want to smoke. This creates a greater surprise to an audience when she is killed first and used as a sacrificial lamb. We decided to make our antagonist supernatural to instantly diminish the verisimilitude with the intense blue flares conflicting with the generic black and white scenes. We had the endeavour to scare the audience however we didn't think that this was effective as the supernatural effects seemed too unrealistic. We decided to use sinister font to create a further unease in the scene.
This is our second take of ParaSight in which we used colour rather than black and white. We delved into After Effects and experimented with many effects to represent our paranormal antagonist as menacing and extremely abnormal. As with the first sequence we believed this was not effective as the creature lacked realism and it was clear the effects were created in post-production.
We decided to change our plot and revert to the audiences opinion on who their favourite antagonist was - a serial killer as we thought that the supernatural being had its limitations in effectively scaring an audience as our skills in post production aren't sufficient enough to create a believable piece. If we had a larger budget; then we could hire an editor to edit our film but as we do not have the money we chose to film a sequence which would be more believable after the edit. We wanted to challenge the expectations of the audience by having an ordinary, innocent looking man do the dirty! He appears to be an innocent bystander however much to the surprise of the audience; he kills our sacrificial lamb.
In this blog we discussed our previous versions of ParaSight, contemplating what could be done in future productions. We also take a look at what horror means to us and comment on our favourite conventional characters in Horror movies and talk about why they appeal to us.
Final ParaSight Production
Here is our final take on ParaSight in which we made many differences to our horror film. Firstly, we decided to change from day to night as this appeals to the generic conventions of a horror film due to the low key lit mise-en-scene which we believe will create a sense of unease for the audience. We also emphasised the vulnerability of our sacrificial lamb by having her wear a shredded dress and bare feet in which we had to consider health and safety to avoid injury. The music used was taken from youtube, apart from the beginning titles which was a composition created by myself using 'Propellerhead Reson 5'. I used the piano to create the initial eerie piece then reversed it.
