SoundtrackThe most important element of sound we had to focus on for the making of our final production was the soundtrack. We discussed as a group what points of our short film needed music and what we wanted the music to sound like. We mind mapped various ideas that we all came up with in order to help us create suitable music. From this we then gathered a good idea as to what sounds we wanted to include to compile our soundtrack. We went on GarageBand and familiarised ourself with the programme in order to use it as efficiently as possible. By spending time on this we managed to create a list of potential sounds to include in our soundtrack. We explored all the different sounds focusing mainly on the 'dark;, 'distorted' and 'piano' sounds as they were most fitting to what we wanted. Sound Effects- laughterOnce we had the soundtrack sorted, our next main focus was the sound effects we would be using in our film, paying most attention to the sound of laughter coming from Mercy the doll. The sound of her laughter is going to be a key element of the film adding to the fear factor and mysteriousness of our film overall contributing to the horror genre. The sound of a child's laughter becomes scary simply based on the context. When something as innocent as a baby's laugh is played in an unnatural setting it instantly becomes scary. I researched conventional sound effects of children's laughter typically found in films as well as children's laughter found in famous horror films. This gave us an idea of how effective the sound would be and where we wanted to include the sound effect in our film to be as effective as possible. After my research we then went back to Garageband and discovered the ' small child giggle' sound effect which we then edited to make it slower and higher pitched to make it as scary as possible. Sound Effects- VoicemailAnother key aspect of sound within our short film is the voicemail played at the beuinning of the film, triggering the rest of the narrative. The voicemail is from the mother who is an old woman. This meant we had to find a voice which would fit accordingly to the character. We tried and tested several people to see which would fit best. To decide we got audience feedback and asked our peers and teachers which voice they felt appropriate.
![]() We began filming at 4pm when it began getting dark so we had the right lighting for shooting our scenes ![]() To film the blood scene, we placed layers of cling film on the floor to ensure the blood (food colouring) didn't stain the floor. ![]() Once placing the cling film we used a straw to blow the blood, which in turn looked as though it was coming out of the dolls face. By using a straw it enabled us to make the blood flow without our hands being in shot. ![]() While filming, the only problem we encountered was the china doll breaking during shooting the throwing scene. However we managed to work around this having already filmed the shots we needed with the china doll's face in, so the doll breaking didn't affect any of our shots. ![]() We also worked around the problem by supergluing the face back together. This worked in our favour as the doll looked more creepy with a cracked face when filming the blood scene. ![]() Using a print out of our Production logo and a piece of black card with a rectangle cut out, our production logo was able to come to life. Using the conventions seen in other horror specific film production studios we identified that it is common to have a black background, white writing, some form of blood or the incorporation of the colour red and some appropriately suspenseful sound effects. So using garage band we made a short clip of music to be played over the top of the clip. I used two stools next to each other and stuck the black paper and logo so that it was across the gap in-between the chairs. Using a phone light I illuminated behind the paper and filmed from underneath while a friend dripped red food colouring across the logo. I used final cut pro to cut the clip and modify it so it was quicker and to render the music and footage together. This is the first draft of our short film, it has a basic outline as to what the footage will look like and the storyline of the short. It's not the complete story, but we have an idea of how to improve after showing it to our peers. We received feedback, stating that the camera work was alright but some shots needed reshooting and to framed better. The lighting and colours in the shots were good and muse-en-scene was appropriate. We decided to make a list of the parts that needed tightening up and reshooting. A key part in our short is the moment that Rose realises that the china doll is the child. To do this we're having some family photos framed on the wall and where the baby's face would be will be replaced with the face of the china doll. To do this I collected old baby photos from some volunteers, then I had Molly replicate some of the poses that the babies are in with China Doll, Mercy. I used Photoshop to edit on Mercy's face over the babies. I had to warp the photos so that they were regular rectangles and fitted the canvas space. Then I adjusted the exposure, brightness and contrast so that they were visible and looked normal.
The babies faces are in different positions, so Molly had to take a variety of shots that I could use. There was still lots of transforming needing to be done so that the dolls head fitted properly and didn't look weird. Then I had to adjust the colours and vibrancy of the dolls head so it matched the rest o f the photo. ![]() Our original actor who had been chosen to be in our short had prior engagements so we had to find another person to act. Luckily we were able to cast Tilly Compton-Stewart, she is a teenaged girl and has a similar appearance to our original actor- Celeste Denyer. Since it's a horror we decided to keep dialog to a minimum as sometimes it can spoil the mood if it's not appropriate or a slightly different tone to the rest of the scenes. Also not having any dialog leaves the audience to project their own expectations of the character so that they can emphasise with Rose more. We've scheduled to shoot our short on the 30th of november and the 2nd of november. Our film is set during evening/night time so we need it to be dark, luckily sunset is at around 4pm so we can film some time after this so that we get the low key lighting and darkness which is a common convention in horror films.
Preparations
This is a rough outline of the storyline and some of the key shots and framing of said shots that we'll aim to adhere to. Some of the scenes can be mixed about, when editing, depending on how it looks when we film. And some of the shots will be changed when filming as well since we may find that something else looks better or the lighting isn't sufficient. Our short horror film, yet to be entitled, centres a teenage girl attending a house to babysit a young child, however this no ordinary baby... Below, I have written a detailed synopsis of the short film in it's entirety. We thought this important as our choices and ideas regarding the narrative have changed several times, and now this is our definitive story.
A regular, naive teenage girl named Rose, around the age of 17, checks her voice mail to hear an eery woman's voice. The voice belongs to a mother, requesting Rose to babysit for her that night. The mother states that she is a friend of Rose's parents and has been told of her baby sitting duties. The mother asks Rose to arrive at 9pm and that her and her husband shall leave a key under the doormat for her. 'Mercy-Violet', the baby, will already be asleep so the mother informs Rose not to disturb her under any circumstances. Rose arrives at the strange house, confused as to why the parents would leave their baby unattended before their babysitter, whom they have never met, arrives. As she enters the house she is immediately startled as she trips on a rattle. She walks around the house, slightly bewildered at the weird interior, however goes to sit on the sofa and watch television. The television will only show a disturbing children's program, so she turns it off again and chooses a dusty book from the bookshelf. She begins reading the book and falls asleep, however is woken to the sound of crawling. Worried that the child has awoken, she gets up and rushes upstairs to check on it. Peering into it's room, she finds the child is not in it's bed; instead there is just a doll lying in it's place. Confused, Rose picks up the doll and calls out 'Mercy? Mercy?', believing the child to have escaped from her bed leaving her doll behind. Starting to panic more as the child cannot be found, Rose heads towards the phone to try and ring the parents in worry, however as she is walking down the stairs she notices something disturbing that she missed before when she rushed upstairs. There are several frames of 'family photos' - in which there is the mother, the father... and the doll that Rose is holding. No sign of an actual baby. In shock, Rose drops/throws the doll and jumps backwards in fear. Blood starts to appear around the baby and it turns its head to look at Rose. She screams and runs to grab her belongings to try and escape, however it is at that exact moment that the clock strikes midnight and the parents arrive home. |
AuthorsMolly Broad Archives
February 2016
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