My role in the project was director, which meant it was my job to direct the actors on what to do, and oversee everything else (the props, cinematography, script). It also meant that I would be the main person responsible for the mise-en-scene. The film extract we created was initially going to be a mix between the horror and thriller genre. However, the further into the planning process we got, the more it became clear that we were creating a horror rather than a horror/thriller, so we stuck to that and decided to make a horror instead.
When it came around to planning, as a group we came together and brainstormed several ideas, putting them all on paper and deciding together which ideas we preferred. Throughout the planning process, it was clear to us that the fact that we were doing a horror film meant we needed to create a sequence that made the audience as helpless as the protagonist in the film. Originally, our sequence was going to contain two parts. The first part was a party, where the protagonists drink is spiked and she is abducted and the second part was where she is being held captive. This being our goal, we went out and started filming to meet it. We used few props in our sequence, in the party we used cups, straws and drink and the second half we just used fake blood and a knife. Our locations for both the party and the part where she is held captive were right next to each other, which meant that we could do the filming in one session, which meant more time for editing. However, when it came down to filming the parts of the extract, we realised that at least two lessons would be needed. So, we decided to film part two first.
After a long group discussion, Becky was elected the victim, and I was to play the murderer. This meant directing the actors, as well as acting which would be a challenge. However, as the scenes involving the victim/protagonist were mostly just her, it meant I could give my input throughout the filming. The performance I expected was a completely believable one, one where you would see the character and not think ‘It’s Becky’, but instead believe completely that this character is real and she is being held captive against her will. This meant that Becky had to be completely in character. After a couple of takes, the victim’s character started to emerge, and before long we were satisfied as a group with the shots.
It was time to film the final part of the sequence: The party scene. This would be the most difficult to perfect, as we had to invite others to be in the film to add to the realism of the scene. There were a total of 7 actors, including three members of our group including myself. Before we got started with the filming, I told everyone what kind of shots we were hoping to achieve and how we should go about achieving them: The scene is a small, but conventional party. The location of it is not specified, but it has to be realistic. Therefore, everyone needs to forget that they’re on camera and socialize like it’s a real party. This means using the props supplied, and simply talking quietly and off camera about something unrelated to the project.
After a few takes, everyone was focused and knew what they were doing. There were a variety of different shots from several different angles. However, none violated the 180 degree rule and all of them were shot correctly. However, when the editing process began, changes needed to be made. Firstly, there were shots that didn’t make all the much sense, some weren’t realistic and some just did not work. We used several different techniques to rectify this, including using old footage from the first takes to fill in the gaps. We also cut and rearranged a lot of shots. For example, instead of the victims drink being spiked in the party scene; we used flashbacks in the captive scene to the party to show what had happened.
A lot of the changes were made after we received feedback from other people. We added jump cuts in the sequence to make the audience feel like the victim (everything is strange, doesn’t make sense. What’s happened isn’t made clear to either the victim or the audience).
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