4.
USE OF CAMERA TECHNIQUES
NOTES
The beginning part of our short film uses an establishing shot showing the location of the scene that will
be taking part. A few seconds later, you are able to see another shot being focused on a part of the gate.
The connotation of the rain sets the mood which it can be upsetting or frightening. If you compare the
use of rain/cloudy mood in horror/thriller like Orphan, it is the deriving action that is hinting us
something bad is going to happen that we should be expecting for the next couple of scenes. This is used
in order to build up tension and effect as it match well with the chosen diegetic sound used for the first
few seconds of the short film. A cut scene then appears after the previous scene as it focuses on the
leaves flying away with the wind in order to increase tension as well.
After that, a panning shot is used when the two main characters begin to make the first appearance on
the short film. Then, as the scenes play further we are able to see quite a few of camera techniques such
as, medium shot and full body shot when Diana and Shannon are conversing and laughing at people.
Also, extreme close up of the phone can be seen as well as low to high angle shot when it was time to
show Priscilla sitting down alone on the bench in the hall, where Diana sees her looking petrified
whereas, Shannon does not see it. This scene is shot using a medium shot because it shows both of the
characers body language, as Shannon is facing her back to the ghost whereas, Diana is standing the
opposite which she can clearly see Priscilla, the ghost, sitting down- where nobody else sees her. The
panning was used so it direct us to where Diana & Shannon's going, which was in Diana's locker.
In addition, the next scene cuts to the bedroom scene by using establishing shot of a house, referring to
Diana’s house as it shows what happens to her on the same day when she saw Priscilla sitting down on
the bench at school.
5. An eye bird view/aerial shot has been used when Diana has received her second message from the ‘ghost’,
which is known to be Priscilla in this case. This has caused Diana to shut down her laptop in frustration so
using an aerial shot would be the appropriate way of illustrating her sense of feelings in terms of violently
shutting down the laptop since Diana felt quite frightened and frustrated that someone is sending her
threatening messages.
Also, a low to high angle was used.
Moreover, an aerial shot was then used as the short film plays further when Diana spits out blood once she
had drank her cranberry juice that was already in her room that afternoon. She continuously spat out ‘blood’
and is been covered around her hands and arms as she grasped for air. This is the climax scene where the
tension builds up after Diana received a text message.
Then, it would cut into a medium close up shot of her face from a high to low angle (almost as if we are
looking down at her) style of angle as she is covered in her own blood after she read and received a
threatening message from an unknown sender. Diana’s body language signifies that she’s trying to get her
point across to the audience telling them that linking to the text message before, the ghost made her spit out
blood when she was drinking the cranberry juice as the text reads. “Karma tastes sweet doesn’t it?”
Moving on to the toilet scene 24 hours later, as stated on the short film, we can see a few extreme close up
shots used expressing Diana’s misery once she remembers a particular scene in the same spot in the toilet
before. She gets a flashback in her mind as it uses a high to low angle shot of a girl almost look like she’s
crying because Diana was continuously laughing and pointing at her, almost like she’s bullying and picking
on the girl who has her head down feeling depressed.
As the scenes run along, we are able to see the use of full body shot as well as using a point of view shot
when Diana and her best friend, Shannon is fixing their make up whilst looking directly at the camera,
which the camera is acting like a mirror at this point. This is to be able to engage the audiences since the shot
shows the characters features in depth.
Shot reverse shot is used in the toilet scene.
The use of mise-es-scene lighting that we used are mainly natural light from the sun throughout the park
scene and a few artificial light, for example, lights from the college as well as lam shade from the bedroom
scene. This will let us not set the camera ISO over 200 as it may appear grainy when we shoot using ISO 400
at night, it will appear dark.
6. This also shows the location of where we shoot the short film where it tells the audiences the
appropriate places to shoot a horror/thriller short film you see commonly, in horror movies. This
is the representation of location that you would expect a horror/thriller film would be shot at
such as the park as well as toilets, where nobody is around. Also, the use of medium shot
indicate the character’s body language, this could be when they two characters like Shannon &
Diana are talking or even making eye contact, a medium shot will be appropriate to use so the
audiences will get a closer view of the character’s appearance and engaging the audiences as well.
Next, the park scene can be seen on the short film. We, as a group have used a few hand held
camera shots. For example, when Diana has opened her eyes as she thought the ‘ghost’ which
was Priscilla in this case, she starts to slowly approach her taking light steps across the park
scene. The purpose of using hand held camera is to make it realistic as it will give a dramatic
effect based on the scene as the tension is at its peak and the use of camera would be able to work
well together with the choice of camera technique used. In addition, a shoulder shot is used in
this scene as well as the locker scene at the beginning of the short film as it indicates the view of
what Diana is looking at, which gives the audiences a view of what she is currently looking at
almost at the real time.
Besides, a low shot angle is used when Priscilla is walking towards Diana’s direction at the park
because it appears like the main focus is the ghost’s steps walking towards Diana’s direction,
making the audiences feel tension and heart beating since it is a scene where the victim meets the
culprit in the horror/thriller short film.
During the last scene of the short film, a panning shot as well as a high to low angle shot
technique is used in the park scene towards the ending. The panning shot is used because it was a
scene where Diana is standing before the person who has been sending her threats as she finally
meets her. As for the high to low angle shot, this is when the ghost strangles Diana in a sense of
her own revenge due to the bullying issue in the past.
7. At the start of the short film, we have decided to use an establishing shot for a few seconds and then it
cuts back to different scenes of the location, which was the focus of the gate, and the tree leaves scene.
The cutting rate was running quite fast because it establisher narrative action. This can be found in Levi
Strauss theory about how narratives should involve tension between the good and the evil characters
especially in horror short films. In this case, it is Diana versus Priscilla as the good and the bad. This
will be able to maintain the audiences attention and keep the tension going by having the cutting rate
faster to create dramatic effect and make them frightened and eager to know what is going to happen
next.
We have applied a fade out transition effect towards the beginning of the short film. The use of fade
out effect is to keep the scenes flowing naturally and not feel like it is a rush and also, in other
horror/thriller film- they used fade in effect in order to gradually coming out of the darkness, which in
our case, we have left a gap between scenes to get a black scene running for a few seconds to illustrate
on going to the next scene of our short film.
Another transition effect is used at the bedroom scene where Diana settles down in her bed with her
laptop as a cross fade dissolve is used because before, there was a jump shot between Diana heading
towards her bed and the next scene jumps into her being already in bed without showing how she got
in the first place. This effect was used appropriately in order to avoid any jump shots, which would
ruin the summary as well as plot of the short film, which would not make sense at all.
Also the use of the cross fade effect is used as a connation that is passing time, which makes the
audiences feel tense and breathtaking by how a scene fades from one to another. This will link to the
genre of short film, as most horror/thriller they tend to fade in and out scenes to create dramatic effect
of fear.
The use of Editing Notes
8. The bedroom scene where Diana discovers that she had spat out blood, we have added it in
a caption scene where it illustrate ‘24 HOURS LATER’ typed in the screen as we have
chosen an effect for the text to be like someone is typing on a typewriter. This was used
sensibly and efficiently because this will be appropriate for the audiences to let them know
that 24 hours, like a day, has passed through time in our film in order to reach the middle
part of the film.
The beginning of the toilet scene, a slight black screen is applied as we just left a small gap
between the previous scene where Diana tries to remember what had happened in the past
at the exact same spot that she’s looking at last year because it would seem appropriate as it
gives a pause effect of a slight second then cuts back into the flashback scene where it is
composed in black and white.
The flashback scene is applied in black and white to indicate what had happened before in
the same exact place and spot before when Diana stares blankly at the spot. This illustrate
and indicate the relationship between Diana and Priscilla encounter on each other and how
Diana’s true colours shows that she’s a bully and she picked and laughed on the same girl
that had came back for her revenge; karma.
The use of shot reverse shot is used to indicate the representation of the characters close up
facial expression because this will show the first encounter between the victim and the
suspect of the horror short film. It also shows the climax as well as it will rise tension
between the audiences that makes them feel thrilled and engage, eager to know what’s
going to happen next. Linking it to other horror/thriller film, production films uses short
reverse shot often to indicate tension between the two main characters of the film that may
lead to the resolution after the action/problem has been resolved. This will link to Todorov
equibilirium model where there is the beginning, middle and end.
9. The credit scene appears where the title of the short film reads, karma
typed in white. The effect added is the text to act like e a typewriter
which would link back to when the caption scene states ’24 HOURS
LATER’, which would seem professional to use the same house style, in
this case, the same text effect as it would be suitable and appropriate
towards the target audiences.
The final scene is where the credit name starts to appear from the bottom
of the scene. We have applied a transition effect for the text boxes to
appear from the bottom upwards and the cutting rate would be slower
by 4 times in order to slow the text box when having to read who starred
in the short film alongside who edited and produced and so on.
The use of fast forward and slow motion is used.
10.
The use of props that I have used in our short horror/thriller film is fake blood that we
hand made by using Golden syrup with red coloring then we started to mix it using a
plastic spoon, whereas, I have used a few fake blood from a shop since we began shooting
around October time, perfect time for Halloween.
The costumes that were represented in our film was modern and casual winter look since
we began shooting around October to December time, so it was a cold time. As you can see
from Diana’s costume she wears a bright pink coat alongside her scarves and black leggings
to protect her from the winter weather. This is also stereotypical of girls in college as they
are represented in wearing black leggings as the norm in modern day.
It also contradicts the use of costumer for Priscilla, which is the ghost or the suspect in this
case. She wear a long, black gown with her curly hair covered most of her face- almost like
she’s trying to hide her identity being exposed or shown to the world. This would also
show her true reflections based on her characteristics as hiding your face with your hair
indicates lack of personal confidence and having to not interact much with the world;
becoming an introvert.
The use of long black gown of the ghost resembles the representation of ghost in other
horror/thriller film such as The Ring, where the girl wear a long white gown covering her
face looking daunting which fits in the genre of horror as well as thriller; having to maintain
a darker look of the ghost to engage the audiences attention.
The use of Mise-es-scene Notes
11. The use of places as well as locations include in college, park and home. The college represents
how the relationship of both Diana and Priscilla have which is in this case, they are both
colleagues and go to the same college. Also, the college scene will be able to establish the
flashback scene in the toilet, where Diana was continuously laughing at Priscilla by making fun of
her for being different.
Linking back to some of the real films of horror/thriller, they use tend to use flashback scenes
where it takes us back to college times where they portray the past relationship between the main
characters and it tells the audiences past events that occurred to the characters that makes them
who they are in the present time.
Also, the use of park indicates the norm in horror/thriller films where the action or tension starts
to build up. The production or director of films often use places where it is isolated at cloudy
weather, which would tell the audiences something bad is going to happen when they least expect
it to happen.
This would also make the atmosphere appear awkward and haunting since an appropriate scary
track of audio should apply to create an even more dramatic effect by how barely no one is at the
park.
The use of house indicates a modern representation of a house in horror/thriller film to make it
look realistic. To be more specific, I have used the bedroom part of the house the most as it
signifies the modern bedroom of teenagers, in this case of Diana with the representation of how
girls are portrayed in society.
The use of college could link to the subject of bullying, as it is appropriate to use college as part of
our location because this illustrate how getting bullied often occur in school/college. The
representation of society of places.
In addition, the makeup used for Diana appear natural beauty as she only uses mascara and a few
lip balm to indicate how girls are being portrayed in society as they often use make up to hide
their imperfections. In this case, the lack of makeup could indicate beauty versus ugly in terms of
Diana looking down on Priscilla and may be picking on her in terms of looks.
12. The use of diegetic sound is used in our horror/thriller film as we used our own voice to record. In this
case, I have used an echo type of sound to indicate the flashback scene of Geneva’s laugh, which is me,
since we have looked at other horror films where they include a voice over of someone laughing in echo
as this makes the audience feel frightened and scared by how it sounds intriguing.
Also, I have used a few non diegetic sound as we have applied to our horror/thriller film as I have
chosen alarming soundtrack from past horror films like the movie Anabelle, as it is catchy yet effective
because the sound itself makes the audience feel nerve racking and chilling at the same time.
The climax scenes, such as in the toilet and park scene is where the use of audio will start to become
tense as well as build up. This is a way of telling the audiences of the horror elements of sound used that
creates tension and action where in horror movies, a problem has been detected and it should be
resolved. However in our short film, it does not as I will be linking to Roland Barthes theory of using
enigma codes.
Enigma codes is used onto our short film as this can be seen near the end where the ghost strangles
Diana in the park and then it cuts to a tree where there is blood dripping down. This would leave
audiences asking themselves, “Did the ghost killed Diana? Or did Diana fight back in the end?” The
audiences will feel thrilled and engage which keeps them off their feet as they try to guess what
possibilities may happened in the end since we did not show them a closure ending.
I have used ambient sound such as, students in the cafeteria talking in order to make our short film
realistic as you see at times in horror films, they apply real time sound to make the audience feel aware
and daunting.
The use of Sound Notes
13.
14.
15. The use of lighting appears to be quite dark as you can see, the right hand side of the photo appear
brighter with the use of being near the lighting compared to the left hand side, as it is less brighter. This
can contradict in horror film poster as the lighting is in full blast as they focus on showing the face of
the enemy as they place it in the center to be the main attraction for the horror/thriller film.
It is also a common thing where the lighting in horror/thriller is either full bright of the portrait photo
or having an effect where half of the face is brighter than the other half. It creates a dramatic effect of
fear as this could illustrate a split personality of something that has a good and bad side.
The composition of the photo focuses on centering the photo as it would appear in the middle of the
poster so the audiences would be able to focus and engage once they walk pass by. In comparison to
other horror poster, like Orphan, the photo is centered and is composed in the middle to get a better
looking of the main character.
The expression of the enemy used has her head down a bit where she uses her hands to reveal a little
sneak peak of her face but it still appear subtle to identify what the ghost, Priscilla, really looks like.
The use of blood on her hands, arms and mouth would link to some of the films of horror that shows
gruesome elements of blood as this would tell the narrative of the story that either the ghost has killed
someone or committed suicide.
Also, the use of black backdrop being used portray how in most horror posters, they use black
background to make it appear gothic and exorcist to the audiences so they would feel frightened and
taken aback. She’s wearing a gold bracelet as an extra prop of costumer of the ghost.
The use of makeup on the ghost (in the poster) blends well with the colour red and black as it would
link back to the whole concept and house style for the short horror/thriller film.
The use of Photography Notes
16. The use of aligning the photo in the middle of the poster is to illustrate to the audiences to engage with them as this way,
in most horror poster they place the photo in the middle of the poster to get a hold of the audiences attention.
Having to include the formal elements of creating a poster is to include the actress/actors name of the film in order to
interest the audiences more. In this case, I have included two of the actress name and placed them aligned either sides of
the A4 page, on top of the model’s head. I made sure it was aligned accurately so the layout structure of the poster appear
clear and easy to understand.
The use of tag line and caption of the poster is placed neatly as they are both aligned properly, leaving a gap between
them at the bottom part of the poster in comparison to other horror/thriller poster; where the tagline as well as the
production logos and sponsor logos are placed all the way at the bottom of the poster.
The use of types of font styles are used on to our poster in order to make it appear clearly so the audiences can read the
context and features of poster elements such as the premiere date of the poster so they won’t miss it.
The house style of the whole concept appear to be black, red and white which it links to the idea of Postmodernism of the
short film, mixing and matching different colour schemes but still repetitively using the same 3 colours in order to
indicate the genre of the short film, which is horror/thriller based.
The layout structure of the short film used simple yet professional as I have used various other film poster to give me
ideas on what featured elements I should include to make a film poster, especially for a horror/thriller based of film.
Bare in mind, I have used a darker shade of the colours red because this would make the audiences thrilled as the original
colour of red is too bright to represent an horror/thriller based of short film.
The use of leaving some negative spaces in between the slogan and the blurb, as you can see from the poster so the
audiences can focus on the photography used of photo.
Also, I have used a red outer glow effect towards the caption of the short film because this will create tension towards the
audiences as this makes them feel alarmed as well as intrigued by fear of the use of red glowing effect of the caption text.
The photo is applied with a scratch effect to indicate to the audiences that the enemy may had been cutting herself even
though she’s the enemy herself. This will make the representation of the genre more common and straightforward as the
scratch effect is used to create a dramatic effect of self harm.
The use of Editing Notes
17.
18.
19. The use of the colour scheme appear similar compared to the colour scheme used in the poster. This feature will add value to the short
film as it will seem appropriate as well as professional to keep using the same colour scheme in order to indicate the genre of film as
the colours red, white and black are representation in other horror posters.
Also, the use of black background would signify the audiences the genre of the short film, which would be horror or thriller because
black refers to horrifying and haunting genre based commonly.
The layout structure used is commonly well structured and easy to read which will work efficiently to the target audiences when they
read the context of the film review. The use of font style and sizes varies depending if it’s the context, sub heading or the main title of
the film review.
The title is placed at the bottom, right hand corner of the second page of the DPS of film review as noted from other similar genre of
film reviews that I have looked at featured in magazines.
The use of two still images taken from the actual short film appear appropriate as it will indicate the most horrifying scenes from the
short film so the connotation is to persuade the target audiences to watch the horror/thriller short film in terms of including gruesome
and tension scene cuts from the film.
In comparison to other horror film reviews, they often use still images that contain blood or a gruesome photo of the enemy making a
hard, emotionless expression which would freak out the audiences and makes them eager to watch it in the cinema.
The use of star rating as well as the cast, director, producer and so on is included on the film review. As well as the context and
journalism used, it appear easy and clear to red and understand as half of the context talks about the producer’s words on behind the
scenes as well as many sneak peaks of what goes on back stage. This will entertain the audiences, especially elder audiences in order to
keep them reading the film review page. The star rating being rated 4 stars our of 5, this will help the audiences know how good the
short film is based on an individual point of view so this will derive them to make them want to watch it, especially works on young
audiences as they will be keen about it.
The subheading used is placed over the 2 chosen still images and are positioned at the right, bottom corner of the first and second page
of the DPS. I have made the sub heading appear bold and stand out from the photo to give a significant attention which would link to
the still photo image. It will let the audiences aware of the sub headings so the perspective of the film review is thrilling as well as
entertaining so I can engage with them.
The use of Editing Notes
