The Wakefield Punishment

Feedback 

Each member of the group showed the opening to a number people who meet the requirements of our target audience. We asked them to share what they thought were it's strengths and weaknesses. The following are their responses:

Strengths -

• There was a very good use of sound effects and music to create the tense atmosphere
• The head slam effect and sounds were very impactful
• The profile shots looked unique and showed off the location well
• The practical effects were ambitious and well executed - The hair raising effect was particularly appreciated, apparently due to its 'different components'.
• The animated credits added value to the production. their placement, font and animation was good.
• The visuals were very strong (referring to use of lighting, camera movement, framing)
• One source said that the lighting was 'impeccable'
• We explored some effective camera angles
• The use of fog was a very strong positive asset to the production
• The choice of location was very good, providing a realistic and convincing environment for the events in the opening

Weaknesses -

• There is a noticeable audio cut when the protagonist gasps after the head slam
• The fading out of the church bells makes it obvious that they were added in post

My contribution to Editing

• The main editor of our opening sequence was Kurt however I did do some of the editing
• I did a large part of the editing for the skateboard scene where she is being dragged across. This one was particularly hard to edit as we needed to get the right cutting rate. Also much of the footage for this part was not so good as it was obvious that she was pushing herself across the ground. Therefore I had to really zoom in on the footage to get the perfect parts of the footage so it looked authentic.
• I also suggested to the group about cutting out a whole sequence of the footage where the candle was to roll on the ground and reach the protagonists foot. We had previously edited this part into our sequence however it did not look right and the continuity was not there. Therefore when I had a chance at editing I decided to take out that whole section to see if it would look better without it.
• After I did that, I asked feedback from the group and Kurt and Harry agreed it did flow better without the candle sequence. It also cut down time from our sequence which was good as it was over the time limit at this point in editing.
• Afterschool, I did some more editing with my group and we edited out some of the hair lifting scene due to feedback suggesting the cutting rate needs to be faster and she needs to react faster.
• We also replaced one of the shots when the protagonist is on the skateboard, this is because the current clip does suggest she is pushing herself, despite it being a fast cutting rate, however we cut this out anyway and put in a clip where there is no sign of her pushing herself.
• We also edited the sound that we are using for the hair lift scene, we had to edit it so we had the loud bang part we wanted. This however, was from different sections of the sound clip therefore we had to cut sections of it and fade-in and out to make the transition smooth.
• The diegetic sound from the screaming has also been inserted into our clip now. It took some time matching a scream to the protagonists mouth movement but we were able to do it in the end    

Risk Assessment Purpose

• The purpose of the risk assessment is to show awareness of the risks that are involved when filming on location. 
• The risk assessment our group filled in shows the most obvious risks that we were subject to when we were filming.
• When filming on location we did not get harmed as we thoroughly read through the risk assessment so we had a clear idea of what we needed to be careful of.

The purpose of a call sheet

• To have a clear idea on what shots we will need to shoot
• To organise the group effectively so each person knows what they have to bring
• To reduce time when we are on location. As we will be aware of what shots we are doing, we would not need to waste time on discussing what shots to film next

 

All fonts considered were downloaded from either http://www.1001fonts.com/ or http://www.dafont.com/

Potential Fonts

 1 - Chinese Rocks

• This font originated from the console game 'Red Dead Redemption' and holds a western sub - genre style.
• This style was inapporpriate for our production, ruling this font out as a possibility
• However it did have a rough, grungy style which fitted our intentions for the title.
• It holds connotations of suffering and hardship and seems like it would have fit a wood texture had we chosen to use and animate this font. It may have stood to resemble the wooden pews, cross or door from the church.

1 - Chinese Rocks

2 - God of War

•  This font featured the strong, blocky style we desired for the title after ruling out a handwritten style title. 
• The font has sharp corners and interesting bumps and additions to the letters, which could have allowed the text to be textured with a metallic texture if we had animated this font.
• The style suits our period setting, resembling the Victorian style iron bars featured in front of many townhouses and churches.
• We eventually ruled out this font as an option as we felt it overpowered its surroundings on the screen and would not have been subtle enough to fit the section of the opening sequence in which we desired to place them.

2 - God of War

3 - Heaven Gate

•  This font reminded us of the stick man logo from the Blair Witch Project (Myrick/Sánchez, 1999) and has connotations of the supernatural and evil.
• The font is very thin, which did not fit our intended criteria for the font, however this has allowed the font to display a very sharp and distinctly makeshift style, which fits our sub-genre of supernatural/paranormal horror. It also has some weak gothic links, although some the other fonts we looked at had a much stronger gothic style.

3 - Heaven Gate

Final Font Choice

4 - I Still Know

4 - I Still Know

• We  finally chose this font for our credits and titles as it fit all of the criteria we set for our potential titles. 
• These criteria included that the title must:

1. Be bold and blocky, not handwritten
2. Have a slightly grungy feel to it
3. Reflect the period setting
4. Reflect the gothic and supernatural sub-genres of our opening

•  The style of this font suggested it was run down, almost decrepit, shown by the cracks and holes in the letters.
• These cracks and holes allowed us to create a stone like finish during animation, linking them to the appearance of the church walls and the gravestones in the graveyard.

  

  Final Title Card

Diegetic sound

• We opened with a black screen and the sound of church bells, which Mia created herself. There are two layers, one simulating the gong hitting the bell and the other layer simulating the bell swaying after being hit and hitting the gong several times after with a lower volume
• This was accompanied by a wind effect that helps establish atmosphere before any shots are even visible to the audience and serves as a sound-bridge that leads into the opening shot
• A harsher wind sound is used in the shot outside of the camera pulling over the protagonist's shoulder and the sound of the bells stops. This gives the note and picture in her hand added significance through stopping sound for it and the harsher wind effect subtly hints at there being a darker element than merely the protagonist mourning her mother
• In the transition from the titles to the protagonist walking into the church we used a creaking door sound as a sound-bridge so that the cut is not too jarring, which is accompanied by the amplified sound of the protagonist's footsteps. The sound of Cat's shoes are the only sound we captured ourselves in this case, the door is one Mia found and edited to make the sound lower and more ominous
• There is a symbolic element to the silence used when Cat crosses her chest, which highlights the religious element to our production and gives it added weight
• There is minor ambience used in numerous shots of the church, which gives the church a certain presence and force in the production, which raises tension
• The sound of the candle falling is amplified and contrasts well with the eerie quietness of the church
• We added a cracking sound in post production when the protagonist's head is smashed into the altar in front for shock and brutality
• The sound of Cat's screams are amplified as she is dragged down the aisle at the end of the sequence to highlight her fear

Non-diegetic sound

• Fairly low volume music will be played underneath the sound of the church bells and the wind during the very start of the production which reaches it's peak when the bells and the wind end and the title is revealed
• We used music to anchor the scene where the protagonist's hair gets raised, it relies on grating and sustained notes that should raise the tension to levels that would make the audience uncomfortable

Our initial idea was that Mia would create the soundtrack for our opening. However, we have decided to not to do this anymore. The reasons for this are:

• The music she did compose for the opening did not create the effect we wanted
• The instruments on the software she used did not sound authentic enough
• Our horror opening is very much dependent on the soundtrack therefore, by using royalty free music that has the effects we want on it, it will give us the opportunity to make our horror as best as it can be

Mia's new role will be to find the music we want and edit it into the video

Feedback

We showed our film at a semi-complete stage to a group of our peers and recorded the feedback given to us on our film opening so far in post-production.

Positive Points

• The use of fog in the first part of the sequence was effective and gave the film the appearance of a slightly higher production film.
• The use of sound effectively creates a suspenseful atmosphere during the opening.
• The animated titles were very effective and fit the style of the film well.
• The hair raise effect was convincing and had a very creepy appearance. It's slow speed helped to build  up the tension in this part of the opening.
• The group particularly liked the low angle dolly zoom (slider) shot as the protagonist walks up the aisle.

Points for Improvement

• Of specific note to us is that most of the group felt that the hair raising section was either too long, or the cutting rate too slow. To reduce running time slightly and stop this section from dragging on we should shorten the clips or increase the cutting rate with the close up shots in this sequence.
• There is a continuity error between the candle falling shot and the close up of the protagonist after this. To fix this we should cut the close up shot later so that the protagonist's eyes are already looking forward and not down. 
• Another continuity error is present during the hair raising sequence when one of the close ups shows the protagonist's head moving and the next shot shows it still, and then it starts moving. Again we need to cut this clip a little later to remove the issue.
• Another significant point for us is that the soundtrack changes very little as the main title comes up, and the majority of the feedback group felt that there should be a change or growth in sound at this point to highlight the titles.

• We wanted our production to increase in intensity as it progressed and to slowly build up tension, so our cutting rate increases as the production goes on. It opens with a shot of over 10 seconds and has shots of less than a second in duration towards the end of the production
• The opening shot is the longest not only to give a somewhat emotional scene some weight but also to establish atmosphere in the fog and cemetery, and the period setting evident in the protagonist's costume
• By first introducing the church with a low angle shot of the altar, the location is immediately established as an intimidating and dangerous place, which first introduces the sense of dread
• The same shot of the protagonist looking at the note in her hand was used both inside and outside the church to create a sense of continuity between both locations
• Broadly we relied on long takes to build up tension initially. The most ominous shots with pivotal elements in them, such as the candle being whipped from the altar, are often longer than necessary to build a sense of anticipation
• By match cutting the mid shot of Cat's hair being raised with the tight close up of her of face showing her reaction, not only generated tension, but also gave the scene added significance by directly showing her reaction to what was happening. This was something we had not done up to that point in the opening, her previous reactions had been shown indirectly, such as her shoulders raising when the candle was pulled from the altar
• Towards the end, the main action shots, such as the protagonist being slammed into the pew in front, uses a very short take which is supposed to evoke a sense of shock in the audience and reflected the protagonist's sense of panic
• We had to debate how to cut the closing shot of Cat getting dragged down the aisle. Harry and Mia were in favour of cutting between Cat getting dragged and a close-up of her face that made the blood and her facial expression particularly visible while also masking Cat pushing herself of the pews to build momentum. I argued that the cuts between the close up of Cat's face and the mid shot of Cat being dragged was too jarring and looked cheap, but upon asking Mr Fiveash for a second opinion we decided on Harry and Mia's idea because the jarring cuts actually worked well within the scene and added to the tension

This is our timeline. Note: This is without all of the titles put in, only the title of the opening is here, the final cut is longer than the picture shown as a result of this.

On Monday, I brought in MP3 versions of the soundtrack I had created for our media project. I used the software Cuebase to do so. As a group we listened to the music and then inserted it into the project at the places intended. However, after doing this we agreed as a group that the higher notes that played the melody was not suitable for the type of horror we are doing but would be more suited to a horror that included children and dolls due to high pitch bell melodies. However, the lower accompaniment of these melodies was suitable and effective for our opening sequence. Therefore we have decided to only have music in a low pitch. I am currently improving on the soundtrack, taking out the high melodies and adding to the accompaniment to create the effect we want overall.

The screenshots below show the software I am using and the project the soundtrack is in. 

My biggest task over the past week has been to create the title sequence and video effects associated with this. After a few discussions we decided that a 3D animated title sequence would greatly aid the apparent production value of our opening and contribute to a better piece of work. We decided that the sequence should have a dark atmosphere to fit with the opening, and have some emphasis on weather and a sense of mystery or the supernatural.

Cloud and Lightning Effects

• I started by creating a simple radial optical flare in After Effects using a Video Copilot plugin. I edited the properties of this so that I only had the glow asset visible.
• I then applied a Turbulent Displacement effect to the flare, with a high complexity and amount of displacement.
• This created the cloud effect seen in the title sequence
• I repeated this multiple times, creating clouds in different places and of varying sizes and shapes until I had a large selection of clouds filling the screen (After discussions with my team we later made the decision to greatly reduce the number of clouds in the sequence)
• Next I applied an adjustment layer over the scene and used multiple instances of RGB colour curves and a glow effect to give interesting and varying colour to the sequence (Again after some discussion this effect was later tweaked to be much less colourful)
• I applied another adjustment layer with a glow effect on top of this to create a strong variation of colour in the areas with the most extreme highlights of tone.
• Over this I created a black solid, which I applied an elliptical mask to and feathered to create a slight vignette.
• As mentioned previously, the next step included applying a Hue/Saturation effect to reduce the saturation in the scene, making it more suitable to our darker tone.

Title

• I created the 3D animated title using Cinema 4D, which comes with the latest version of After Effects.
• Starting with a blank scene, I constructed the text. I chose to use a downloaded font called 'I Still Know' as after many discussions with the group we had still not come to a definite conclusion on the exact font we wanted. By using a font that I liked personally in the context of a completed sequence I managed to speed up our final decision on the font, with the group agreeing that it was a very suitable font.
• I extruded this text by 50cm and applied a cap to it to make it appear solid.
• Then I copied the text and extruded a second version, slightly larger than the first and placed this behind the original to create a stepped appearance to the text.
• While still in Cinema 4D, I key-framed the text to move forward towards the camera throughout the shot.
• Moving back into After Effects, I imported the Cinema 4D file into my sequence and sandwiched it in my layers of cloud so that it blended into the scene slightly and looked more authentic.
• At this point we decided to reduce the number of clouds in the sequence, so I turned off roughly 2/3 of the cloud layers. This made the sequence darker and more tense, as previously it had better suited a blockbuster film rather than a horror film.

Text Effects

• As a group we decided that the title sequence should resemble the development of the action in our film, slowly building from nothing to a menacing threat.
• To make the text warp and fade in, I applied a Turbulent Displace effect to it and keyframed this to make the text warp into clarity over time.
• The effect gave the text a pixelated look, so to combat this we key-framed a Gaussian Blur over it to smooth the particles and make it look more like fog.
• I then key-framed the opacity so that the text slowly fades in.
• I used the same technique to make the animated credits fade in too.

Final Adjustments

• By key-framing the brightness of the optical flares in different ways, I was able to make them flash and fade like lightening.
• This helped to create the slow development of the scene and also made the clouds look more realistic.
• I also key-framed the turbulent displacement effect on the clouds to evolve at different rates, giving an eerie warping effect to the light in the clouds, suggesting an aspect of the supernatural will be present in the film.

This week we have been editing our footage. We have now finished the initial editing of it. We may still make some minor adjustments but for now we have got the main structure of it. We are yet to have the music with our sequence however Mia is aiming to finish the music for it by Monday.

When editing our footage we did encounter some problems

• We found that we had too much footage so we had to cut down a lot which meant sacrificing shots that showed certain skills
• We ended up cutting out the whole candle sequence after it hits the ground. The reason we did this was because we didn't have enough shots for it to make the section look continuous and it caused the sequence not to look right. This cut down our sequence by a significant amount and we have all agreed as a group it does look better without it
• On Wednesday Kurtis was not in school so Mia and Harry finished off the last part of editing. The last part of editing was the skateboard sequence. Mia and Harry edited the sequence so the cutting rate was fast and there would be intercutting between our protagonist being dragged on the church floor and close ups of her reaction. When Kurtis came back to school we came to a disagreement on that section as Kurt at that time preferred if we did not intercut to close ups. We decided to ask advice from other students and Mr Five Ash. The outcome was that the original version Mia and Harry had edited was the best version for our sequence.

For Next week, our focus will be on the title sequence. We have started to look up fonts and would like to make our titles disappear in a similar way the Insidious titles do. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1e1feo4DUk )
We also are going to focus on music and sound effects.

Our shoot started at 10:00 am and ended at 4:00 pm on 10 January 2015, and we filmed in St Thomas a Becket Church in Capel, near Tonbridge.

Contribution:

• I was responsible for bringing the components of the track to the shoot for the establishing shot of the church which I filmed with Mia
• I helped set up the framing and operate the fog machine for our opening shot outside
• I operated the boom mic on several shots, such as the first shot in the church of the protagonist walking down the aisle
• I operated the steady-cam for the over-the-shoulder shot of the protagonist holding the paper and photo in the church
• I assisted with the hair-raising shot by operating some of the wires attached to Cat's hair with Mia
• I did a large amount of the behind the scenes filming using a separate camera, which is footage that will be used as evidence of our shoot

We followed the storyboard fairly carefully because we'd based our shots around the location, which meant they did not need to be adapted while on set. They helped us organise the shots we filmed considerably, and made sure we didn't leave anything out.

What worked well:

• The candle shot was particularly effective because the fog obscured the background and made the viewer unsure of what to focus on within the frame, before the candle was whipped off of the alter. The movement was particularly fast and snappy and should shock the viewer.
• The shot using the slider that showed Cat walking down the church aisle worked well. The movement was fairly smooth and the low position of the camera was particularly striking.
• The shot of the protagonist in front of the window is one of the best shots we have on a visual level. The sun came out while we had the camera set up, which gave us chance to create a shot with very impressive lighting. The light initially obscuring the protagonists face is also particularly eerie.
• The shot of Cat's hair being raised is one of the most technically complex shots to create, but the effect is very ominous and it was worth the time to set up

Challenges:

• The final shot of Cat being pulled down the aisle was particularly difficult as it demanded the involvement of everyone in the group, me handling lighting, Harry on camera, Mia pushing the skateboard and a strong performance from Cat that would make the character's sense of panic seem convincing
• Time management was a problem, with many of our shots being quite technical, they required a large amount of time dedicated to them being set up, and executed in some cases
• The fog machine's fog scattered when we used it outside, which makes it's presence in the opening shot look a little like smoke. It was difficult to try and get the fog to work as we wanted because it was so windy, but the final effect is still close to what we intended

How we could apply our knowledge to another shoot:

• Time management is one area we could have improved on. The key-holders wanted to close the church sooner than planned so next time we should check when we will need to leave in advance.
• More planning, possibly with a stricter time table, would be required, although this would be easier now we know how long shots like this would take to set up
• Practicing more with effects before-hand would have helped in controlling how to use the fog and blood, which we had little experience with

Time & Location

• We completed our shoot between 10:00 and 16:00 on 10th January 2015 at the St Thomas a Becket Church in Capel, near Tonbridge.

My Focus

• My role in the shoot was of the director, meaning that I took a leading role in the direction of our actor and in the setting up of shots.
• Due to this I was focusing on the majority of shots in the shoot, including the steadicam shots, shots of technical difficulty (e.g. hair raising, candle fall, shots with smoke) and the dragging sequence.

My Contribution

• My individual contribution to the shoot was of a director/producer role.
• This means that I was responsible for the management of most elements of the shoot, including equipment, setting up most shots and directing our actor.
• I was also responsible for the management of people and resources, in the case of our shoot meaning that I organised the location and timings of the shoot and ensured that all the required elements were provided.
• I also owned the majority of the equipment used on the shoot, so I was responsible for managing these and in some cases helping the others in the group to get to grips with them.
  
  
  

Storyboard

• We stuck rigidly to the storyboard, only straying from it twice for two different reasons.
• The first was to include a shot that would better show our actor kneeling before she sits on the pew, as was suggested by our actor who said it was a custom.
• The second was when we began to run out of time, we decided that some of the shots in the dragging sequence were not essential and could be removed without harming the sequence.
• Otherwise we attempted to follow the use of camera and framing exactly as our storyboard showed.

What Went Well

•  The shots that stood out to us the most as visually impressive were the graveyard shots with the smoke, one of the side shots as our actor reads the note in the church and the hair raise shot.
• These worked well because we took into consideration the range of equipment and visual features available to us on location when storyboarding, allowing us to plan these shots in advance and capture them quickly and effectively.
• We were also very pleased with the outcome of all our practical effect shots, which included the dragging sequence, hair raise and candle fall.

 Challenges

• The most challenging part of our shoot was time management. We knew from the planning stages that the timings were going to be tight as we only had a maximum of 6 hours at the location, including set-up time and returning the church to its original state after use.
• We encountered an issue at one point where the key holders for the church turned up to lock it at around 3:40pm, with us still needing to capture another page and a half of storyboard frames, including the very technical dragging shots. We made the decision to cut certain shots from the film that were not required and managed to complete the final shots and get our stuff out of the building by 4:00pm.
• This situation went much better than it could have, with our quick re-evaluation of essential shots saving us from missing out key shots that would have required us to go through the booking process for the church again, which would have resulted in us having to return the location 3 weeks later at the earliest.
• Another challenge of the shoot were the practical effects, which required time and patience to set up and film. 
• The most time consuming shot was the hair raising shot, which required us to construct the string and tape set up with our actor's hair on location. To maximise the effectiveness of our time management, I undertook this task with help from our actor while Kurtis and Mia captured establishing shots with the track outside the church.

How Will This Inform Our Next Shoot 

• Next time we shoot we will be more careful to manage our time and will book any locations for a number of days, not just one to ensure we have plenty of contingency time.
• We will also ask the help of more people so that we have enough hands to manage all our equipment and film while simultaneously setting up and preparing for more difficult and technical shots to reduce our time wasted.
• One of the positive points I will take from this shoot and attempt to use next time is the importance of near excessive planning, going into detail about every aspect of the shoot so that there are no nasty surprises on location such as an effect not working or running out of light.

We filmed out opening sequence at St.Thomas a Beckett church near Tonbridge. We arrived on location at 10 and left at 4. We started filming around 10.40 and began with the outside shots first.

Contribution

• The props I was responsible for bringing were the flowers that the protagonist would put down by the grave and the skateboard used for the last stunt 
• Gave the actress directions on what to do in the shot for example the shot where she has to look afraid because her is raising
• Set up the candle stunt and did the stunt for the shoot 
• Shot the establishing shot using the track with Kurtis
• Helped set up different shots
• Held the boom for some of the shots for example I held it for the shot when our actress is screaming. I also kicked the skateboard for this shot to make sure it went a good distance.
• I shot some of the shots. One particular shot I did was when using the slider and it was a shot where our protagonist walks up the aisle to a pew
• Lifted the hair for the hair raising stunt with Kurtis using fishing wire 
  
  
• As a group we all cleared away all the equipment such as the power leads,props,lights and camera equipment

The shots I thought that went well was the hair raising shot. This is because the position of the character was composed well. She was sitting upright, the shot was a side view and the hair slowly raised one piece at a time. This shot is very effective as the fishing wire we used for the stunt is not visible. Another shot which went well was the shot when the candle falls of the pew. This is because the way the candle falls off is very sudden and fits very well in the screen. 

Challenges we faced were:

• When shooting outside, using the fog machine, the wind was very heavy and it would blow in different directions. It was out of our control so to solve this problem, we tried using coats to fan the fog in the direction we wanted however it didn't work consistently. Therefore we had to wait for the wind to change which it eventually did.
• The actress had nail varnish on and we could not get rid of it. This was a problem because nail varnish would not have been around in Victorian times. To overcome this challenge when her hand was it shot, we made her curve her fingers inwards towards her palm so her nails were not visible.
• When I first tested out pulling the candle off, when the candle hit the floor it a section off the bottom broke off and therefore would not fit into the candle holder we had. To overcome this, I had to cut the candle to make it even and use cellotape to place it back into the holder. 
• As the day went on, the sunlight was less bright therefore the shots were too dark in certain places of the church therefore we used a phone torch which did work. 
• As the church open to the public throughout the day, there were people who would be  inside the church and outside. Luckily, the visitors were inside the church when we were filming outside and we did not have any interruptions while filming inside however when we were filming outside, visitors were in the background of our shots so we had to wait for them to move. This did not take up too much time. 

Overall, we stuck to the story board which the framing and shots. However we did decide to not film some of the shots that were on the storyboard. This was due to time as we knew we would not be able to get the main shots in the time limit we had if we included other ones on the storyboard that were not of high importance. When we were at the church, we also added some shots and actions e.g. a shot of our protagonist doing a catholic symbol before sitting down. We shot this from behind and also chose to shot it from the front view but at a long distance behind the big wooden cross at the front of the church. 

For the next shoot, we can make sure we have better time keeping as the key holders came 20 minutes earlier than we had expected causing us to hurry the last shots. We could have an extra person on set to help us set up and down as it did also take up a considerable amount of time.