The document summarizes several production experiments the author conducted to practice different filmmaking techniques for their final media production project. This included experiments with title design inspired by horror films of the 1980s, creating an eerie soundtrack using ultrasound frequencies, and filming short horror and science fiction scenes to experiment with color grading, shot types, and visual effects like lens flares. The author reflects on strengths like the cinematic look, but also weaknesses like overreliance on cliches and stereotypes of genres. They aim to develop more unique elements for the final project.

1. Experiments
JoshEastham

2. Process–Title cards

3. Process–Title cards
NameConcept
Inspiration from existingproducts
Thiswasone of the first production experiments I did. Tostart of I looked at fonts that someclassichorror films have
usedaswell ascolorsanddifferent styles. ThenI took the one I liked best andbeganexperimenting with different warp
andsizingeffects in Photoshopaswell asdifferent positioning of the letters. I eventually cameup with something
inspired by the StevenKingbook coversof the 1980s.Whilst I like this designits isn’t very original therefore I will likely
start againwhen it comesto making myreal FMP film in order to producesomethingeffective but original to myfilm.
Despiteall this researchI don’t want to spendtoo long on producing atitle card asit will literally be shown for only a
few secondsat the start of the film. When I actually compare it to these existing products however I do believe it
is similar enough to these existing products to successfully work in the genre without being a blatant copy. For
example I took mental notes when looking at these already existing title cards and notices I would have to
experiment with the styling as well as the font and colours. For example the visual effects on the text such as
different character sizing or warp effects on the text. When it comes to replicating this I believe I did a good job
of it and from this I learned about certain visual conventions of horror film logos enough for me to successfully
produce a convincing one for my final project.

4. Process-Introduction Soundtrack
I want my film to open with adream sequence asaresult I wanted my soundtrack to reflect
that by being eerie and creepy. Onething people said in my survey was that alot of horror
films these dayshave music that is all very similar and asaresult gets repetitive and
annoying. When I was researching soundtracks I found out that some of the best horror films
used ultrasound frequencies and low humming frequencies which would makethe viewer
feel uneasyand fearful without realizing. It does this by creating unnatural vibrations in the
listeners ear. This isn’t harmful to the person however it cause them to feel a sense of
uneasiness. Therefore this is something I want to incorporate into my film asI want it to be
different and not clichéd. Onething I may look at is documentary's on how different sound
effects are made for films and seeif I can get any ideas on how to create something good
from that. Thiswas the article I first read on ultrasound frequencies in horror films.
https://news.avclub.com/some-of-the-scariest- sounds-in-horror-movies-are-the-on-
1798253775

5. Comparison to existing product
I am comparing my soundtrack example to this copyright free piece by Kevin McLeod the
reason why I am doing this is that I took inspiration from this piece when creating my soundtrack
in the first place. For example note the low bass tones at the start of my soundtrack and this
one. I would say that the bass tones in mine were more pronounced and longer then the
Macleod one especially since the melody in the Macleod one starts almost straight away whilst
the one in mine doesn’t start until nearly a minuet in. Despite saying that I would say the
“melody” in mine isn’t so much a melody as it is in the Macleod soundtrack rather then sound
effects.
The reason I say this is because there is a definite tune in the Macleod track were in mine it is
really just a mixture of ghostly sounds overlaid on top of humming effects. This was intentional
though as I originally I wanted to avoid the classic horror trope of using a stereotypical type of
horror film music such as tense build up then chase like melody. The reason for this is because
when I was doing my audience research I had some people that said that they find horror film
soundtracks annoying because they all use the same type of music.
I will hopefully keep this in mind when I am doing my final product however I sometimes thing
that classic horror film music is part of the charm and so I may decide to use that type of music.
I could combine it with my idea and use unnatural sounding effects as a soundtrack in one part
of the film and in a later part I could use conventional horror music.
Kevin MacLeod -Anxiety

6. ScienceFiction Production
Experiment
Thiswasaproduction experiment I did to seewhat doing aScienceFiction film would look like. I
eventually decided to not do aSci-Fifilm asI thought it would be do difficult to convincingly portray an
alien planet however I wanted to seewhat futuristic type of effects I could do in premier. I usedalot of
stock footage of YouTubein an effort to create the effect of a futuristic HUDthat could be from the point
of view of some sort of robot drone perhaps. Toaccomplish this I looked at some of the footage I had
recorded but not usedand I againbeganexperimenting with color correction in Premier. I managed to
create avery alien and radioactive looking setting buy adding ared grading aswell asdust particles
floating around. For the HUDelements that appear on screenI found them asoverlay effects on
YouTube,I then put them on my video and then animated them sothey move acrossthe screeninto the
bottom corners using the scaleand position settings in premier. I found some free futuristic computer
soundson YouTubeaswell and added them on for atmospheric effect. Then Finally I added the text such
as“radiation detected” and “target acquired” using the premier texteffect.

7. Comparison to existing product
SENTiNEL (A Sci-Fi Short Film) –Film Riot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaiX1W8GjpM
My production Experiment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsED5OVqb8g
It is difficult to compare my Science Fiction production experiment with anything as
there isn’t really any plot to it. It is just a short demonstration of some different Science
Fiction HUD effects as well as a reddish colour grading which gives the feel of
something post apocalyptic. It is implied in my production experiment that the viewer
is looking through the eyes of some sort of robot hence the HUD. In order to compare it
with another product I therefore decided to try and find something with similar visual
styles. I eventually came across SENTiNEL a Sci-Fi short film produced by a company
called film riot which features a human being hunted down by some sort of robot. This
features similar visual elements to my production experiment as it features views from
a robots point of view and similar HUD screens.

8. Video production experiment-Horror

9. Tofilm my video I usedone of the collegesCannon700Dcameras with the standard 18 to 55 mm lensesand aclip on
video light. I also usedmy own tripod with the camera.I wasunfortunately limited with how I could film asI was the
only one in the houseat the time and therefore I had to makedo with what I had at the time, for the sakeof a
production experiment however I believe that It actually turned out ok. I practiced filming from different angleswith
different shot types. Forexample the zoomout shot from the door in this sceneand the over the shoulder shot of me
walking toward the door. Thisproduction experiment alsohad aheavy focus on me practicing different visual effects
and editing techniques. Forexample throughout this test video I wanted to have aconcise color grading with dark and
DEsaturated colors to makeit feel more cinematic. I alsowanted to have the letterbox aspectratio that all films have
sothey fit on the cinema screensbetter. Toachievethis I added black bars at the top by cropping my footage both at
the top and the bottom. I also experimented with other effects such asadding an anamorphic lens flare on to the light
coming off my phone just to seewhat it looked like. I actually like how it looks asin my opinion it gives the scenea
more polished look. Toachieve this I found alink on YouTubeto download some4k anamorphic lens flare overlays. I
did this not sureif it would work however I wassurprised at how natural they look in the sceneand how well they
blend in with my phone light and the color grading of the scene.It wasrelatively easyto do the positioning and
animation to make sure it moved with the light. The reason I downloaded an overlay instead of adding it using
premiers built in lensesflare effects is becauseit didn’t have the type of effect that I wanted on my film.
ProcessVideo
Tofilm my video I usedone of the colleges
Cannon700Dcameraswith the standard 18 to
55 mm lenses and aclip on video light. I also
usedmy own tripod with the camera.I was
unfortunately limited with how I could film asI
was the only one in the houseat the time and
therefore I had to makedo with what I had at
the time, for the sakeof aproduction
experiment however I believe that It actually
turned out ok.

10. ProcessVideo
Here you can seetoo examples of the sameshot the one on the left is the one with the
color grading whilst the one on the right is the shot without. Asyou canseeit makesabig
difference with the mood and tone of the shot asthe left one in my opinion really does
feel like it is from ahorror film whilst the one on the right is would feel out of place in a
horror film asit really does feel like raw footage. I think color grading and music is the
thing that sets the atmosphere most even more sothen other visual effects like CGIasI
otherwise I think if I had done this video without color grading the horror element would
feel really out of place due to the bright and saturated colors. Toachieve this effect I used
the quick color correction effect in premier and then added a slight blue hue then brought
the saturation all the way down to create this effect. It took awhile with playing around
with the settings to achieve different effects but I instantly knew when I had it right due to
watching other horror films aspart of my research and making note of the different color
corrections on some of them.

11. ProcessVideo
Thissequence usesstock footage from YouTubefor the paranormal girl. Thereason I did
this was due to having limited amount of time and because I wanted to practice overlaying
and ultra keytechniques aswell. I also thought it was agood idea to practice jump scare
techniques aswell. Thiswas actually probably the most difficult part of the film to edit
despite the fact that I used stock footage. Thereason for this was becauseI couldn’tdecide
which footage to useaswell asthe method of jump scarethat I wanted to have. I spent
several hours trying to edit one jump scare with different footage and then coming up with
adifferent better idea and starting again. I eventual decided on the paranormal girl effect
asthat made sensebasedon the fact that I was filming in my sisters bedroom after it had
just been repainted and therefore with the right color grading looked really creepy.

12. Comparison to existing product
I am comparing my horror film production experiment to the 2013 short film lights out. The reason I am doing
this I used this film to get inspiration for several visual elements in my experiment. For example lights out
features a scene set in a long corridor were the main character sees someone or something standing at the
other end of the corridor once the lights have been turned out. Whilst this isn’t the case in my film the
character is drawn to a room at the other end of the corridor and when I was filming this I decided that
showing the full length of the corridor and darkening the room would make the environment look foreboding
and creepy in a similar way that it does in lights out. Another think I took inspiration from is the appearance of
the monster as a some creepy paranormal girl as well as the quick jumps scare towards the end when she
suddenly appears really close to the main character. This was the main thing about this film that made me
jump so I figured it would be a good idea to try and recreate something like this as if I was able to do
something like this in my final project without outright copying anything. Then I would be able to successfully
scare my audience in much the same way a real horror film would which is my intention.
Lights out 2013

13. Reflection
Onething I defiantly be incorporating into my final project is the cinematic letterbox effect aswell as
the DEsaturated colour gradingasin my opinion it makesthe video footage look professional and
polished compared to the raw footage that the camerajust records. I do hope that I will be able to
figure out something better then using stock footage for jump scareslike I did in my production
experiment asoften doing this looksreally low quality and out of place. I also want my film to look as
original aspossibleand thereforeusingstock footage isnot agoodidea.
I mayreconsider the useof lensesflare effects aswhilst it doesadd amore polished look to the film
I’m not sure if it really suitesthe horror genre and that maybe it ismore suited to Sci-Fifilms rather
then horror films. In terms of the title card I like the designsI cameup with however asI previously
stated they were heavily inspired by other similar products therefore I think I may start againfor my
actual film and do my best to come up with anew idea instead of re purposing something that had
already beendone.
In terms of the strengths and weaknesses I think the strengths for the 2 videos are that I managed to
make it look cinematic especially in the horror one with the lens flare and the colour grading. In my
opinion this goes along way to giving the video atmosphere especially once the music has been added
on. I would say the music was successful and would be good at building tension in the audience if I
decide to use something like that in my final product. The reason I say this as it has in it a lot of features
that popular horror film soundtracks have in them. For example using different ultrasound frequencies
that are below the human hearing range but are designed to make the audience feel unpleasant and
uncomfortable due to the unnatural vibrations in the ear drums that the frequencies create. I did do a lot
of research into this and determined this was not harmful to human hearing and that a lot of successful
horror films incorporate this into there soundtrack. I like how the design of my logo turned out as it uses
a classic horror film font and style which people would instantly associate with this genre due to its use
in many other works of horror fiction.

14. Reflection
There is of course a weakness to this however and that it could mean that this font could be
considered stereotypical and overused and therefore might not peak peoples interest as
much as it would have used to. Another reason why I think this is because it is coloured red
as well and it seems like every horror movie ever does this. Therefore in my final product I
may change the colouring and maybe even the font and styles to make it look iconic in its
own way and that it isn’t something that is simply being reused.
I would also say similar things about the two films I created more specifically the horror one.
The reason for this is that a lot of horror films have the stereotype of having dark couler
grading which isn’t a bad thing as it is representative of the genre however it means northing
about it is really unique. I also think the lens flare effect is overused in films. The only reason
I incorporated into my production experiment is that I wanted to practice using the effect as I
was thinking about incorporating it into my final film to create a hazy blurry effect for the
dream sequence at the start of it. However I am not sure whether it will work as I intended it
to. Therefore I may wait until I am editing my final film to decide whether or not I will
incorporate it or not.
I defiantly think If I were to improve my production experiments for my final product I would
defiantly make sure that they were not just representative of me trying to produce common
effects seen in films. I would try and push myself further in order to try and develop some
things that are a bit more unique and would stand out more against other films.