"Birthday Party"

• Within our teaser trailer we are doing a 'Birthday party' scene where by the actors will be sat around a big table covered in food, just like a traditional child's birthday party. 
• We are hoping to get lots of different foods like crisps, cake, biscuits etc... of all different sizes and colour so that all the brightness will juxtapose with the basement they are sitting in.
• In terms of mise en scene we are hoping to have lots of balloons, streamers and banners across the walls so that it look very bright, colourful and fun.
  
  'Party Games'
• The party scene will hopefully also include traditional party games as well. The games should hopefully include things like 'Twister', 'Pin the tail on the donkey' and 'Bobbin for apples' however the games will have a twist to them. As our teaser is a slasher the games will have an element of torture within them.

Interior location

• This picture shows our interior location for our 'child's party' it has very plain white walls which will allow us to put up any mise en scene if necessary.
• The plain walls and piping also make it look neglected and will enhance the effect of it being a desolate place. 

The ladder which goes up to a locked hatch door makes it look like a basement, yet no way out, as it is locked.




The people sitting down indicate where a table could
be placed and it shows enough room. Both walls can be clearly seen and so is the ladder which again enhances the idea that is a neglected and desolate basement.                                                                                  

interior location test1

• This video shows the first interior location test we did in our school dungeon. it shows all different light sources, including main lighting. There are three sets of illumination (long stripped) lights which can be very bright, yet obviously the less that are turned on the darker it will be. 
• We also experimented with smaller sources of light, that being a lamp. This made the light focus on one area and could be good for a more intense situation, however the more evenly spread lighting methods prove better for camera work as the light doesn't stand out more in one place, and less in another.

Sound.

• As Amy is talking it is very clear with no echoing, this is due to it being a small room with no windows to make any sound. This will make it easier to film as any diegetic dialogue will be clearly heard and no background noise will be picked up.

Exterior Location - Night-Time Lighting Test

We decided only to use night-time shots for when a character leaves the pub because the amount of lighting actually allowed us to see the action but it still keeps the creepy atmosphere.

Make up testing - Face paint

• As a development from my smile make up research I have been testing different potential make up looks and methods that we could use in our teaser trailer
• Here I have looked more at a comical smile which still however provokes an eerie/creepy effect on the audience
• The photographs show the process step by step that I took to create this smile make up look

The process:

• In order to create this look I used red, white, black face paint, white eyeliner and black eyeliner
• Firstly I outline the smile shape using the white eyeliner which allowed me to ensure the both sides were even and provided a guide line to paint over
• Once I had done this I used white cream face make up to fill in the smile shape all with white paint, this was my base  
• I allowed this to dry and then began outlining the smile with red face paint to form the exaggerated lips 
• I then roughly drew on teeth using the black eyeliner, I painted over the lines with black face paint to define the teeth
• I began to shape the teeth more and making it look more like a toothy grin as I outlined them with black face paint
• Then I outlined the lips with a black line using the black face paint to make the smile more dramatic and bold 
• After this to add more depth, tone and shadow to the lips I blended the solid black line with the red lips which I think make the look overall more dark and sinister looking 
• Photographs below are the final result of this smile make up look - I think that the make up creates a creepy, disturbing looking face and the exaggerated smile looks forced and dominants the face

Amy Freeman

Families in Horror Films

We have developed ideas from our initial concept of young women being brainwashed by the media. Our first idea was about the media influence of having the 'perfect' body image. However, we felt that this is a very broad issue and has already been exploited by many media products. Therefore, we have decided to focus on the way that families are portrayed in the media and have our main protagonist obsessed the love and security of having a family. For research I have looked at victimised families in horror films for casting purposes to see if there are any conventions, patterns or categories that we could use when casting actors for our film...






The Orphan:

• The main physical differences that can be seen between Esther and the rest of the family are their blonde hair (children in particular) in contrast to her dark hair. 
• This could be because of the innocent connotations associated with blonde children or it could be to make a clear identification between Ester and the rest of the family to highlight that she is adopted.
• Also, her acquired vintage Russian dress style makes a clear differentiation between her and the family. Again, this could be to obviously highlight her cultural difference and disconnection with the rest or the family. Or, to create enigmas about the character and show she is 'different'. The less the audience know about her, the more creepy she becomes.

The Imposter:

• Because of the documentary style of the film and being based on a factual story, I was not expecting to find many connotations and conventions as some footage is real.
• The victim child who went missing was blonde haired and blue eyed, giving connotations of innocence.
• The protagonist and imposter looks very different, this could of been for the purpose of the film to highlight the physical differences between him and nick that were obvious to everyone, including his family.
• Although the film is based on the fact that the two people looked completely different, it may of been over exadgerated for the film. The imposter has olive skin, brown eyes and dark hair.
• He also has a european accent which again highlights the differences to show he is not the misising teenager and creates enigmas to make the audience more fearful of him because he is a forigen outsider.

• The family of nick that took in the imposter also have the same connotations of innocence and being older makes them seem more vulnerable and at risk to the actions of the imposter.

Paranormal Activity

• These films take a different approach as the protagonists are not the villain but are possessed/ followed/ haunted by a deamond and are therefore portrayed as the victims.
• However, the generally dark features connotations follow those of villains in horror films.
• By using young children and babies the characters seem more vulnerable and at risk as they may have difficulty communicating what they see or be ignored. 

Make up testing - 3D gel

• From my research into smile face make up I recreated the 'Chelsea grin' look which we are considering using in our trailer
• In order to create this look I used 3D gel (as shown in picture), fake blood, food colouring, concealer, powder, black eyeliner and eyeshadow
• I firstly built up the scar with the 3D gel which worked well having a base to work on top of
• After the gel had set slightly it still didn't blend with my skin as it was shiny so I used concealer to blend the gel with my skin, this achieved a more matt look
• The issue I was having with the gel is that it is quite sticky and so in order to prevent this I added powder, I also found this helped further with blending it with my skin
• I then filled in the gap I created with black eyeliner which gave a sense of depth to the cut
• I wanted the skin around the scar to look bruised so I used various shades of brown, purple, pink and red eyeshadows to give this impression
• Finally I used a paint brush to fill in the gap over the eyeliner with fake blood to give a congealed blood look and then dripped blood so it would look like the wound was bleeding
• The fake blood on its own was too bright and wasn't realistic enough so I mix a bit of red food colouring and brown paint with the fake blood to achieve a more realistic deeper blood red
• I am pleased with the outcome of the make up and the effect it has, I will continue my make up testing and research using different techniques and make up to decide which looks best and most effective

Amy Freeman