Mise-en-scene: Performance!

The actors that I had chosen for this piece were highly professional and excellent to work with. Both study performing arts full time and it is clear that acting is something that they are extremely passionate about and committed towards; both memorised their lines almost instantly.

Leah Williams plays the role of Bonnie. Leah was chosen for this role as physically she fits it perfectly. With her long blonde hair, she is extremely attractive and would therefore attract a male audience to view this movie. As well as this, she is of an age that the target age group can connect with (18 years). Furthermore, her background as a dancer made her movement, particularly in scene 1, very graceful.

For this part, Leah had to portray many different emotions. For example, in the opening scene, Bonnie is so nervous about her first date that she accidentally slices her finger open whilst getting ready. I feel that Leah definitely portrayed this effectively, particularly through her believable facial expressions.

Both actors were to perform their lines while acting out the scene on camera and then once more for a voice over. This is to be dubbed over onto the video in places where air-noise becomes too loud to understand the speech. As Nate arrives at her front door, Bonnie has to act slightly shy, yet flirtatious. To portray this, Leah looked self-consciously down at her outfit and shoes as Nate commented on her overdressed appearance. She gives an awkward smile of embarrassment.

Leah also bites her lip, a nervous habit that many people posses.

As the two approach the old building, Leah acts out Bonnie's confusion and continues with her self-conscious behaviours. Leah is sure to trail after James, looking lost and out of place. I have many shots of Leah holding onto a strand of hair, another comforting habit (Leah performs this gesture in both the image above and below).

Leah portrays Bonnie's confusion perfectly with her perplexed facial expressions, looking up at the old farm house. The evokes sympathy in an audience who perhaps have had a first hand experience of a terrible first date.

Throughout James' speech Leah constantly reacts to his every word, making for very convincing two shots.

After a while, Bonnie's confusion becomes awe as she begins to fall for Nate and his endless knowledge of town secrets. Leah's convincing  softening facial expressions help to alter the mood of the scene. She breaks into a large grin as Nate offers to take her inside the crumbling farmhouse, portraying Bonnie's girly excitement.

Next, Leah walks timdily after James to portray Bonnie's unease. I wanted to make it very clear that Nate is in control. Bonnie is the damsel in distress; she is passive, a typical gender stereotype of females in film, particularly in the horror genre. Leah is sure to follow rather than lead and her body language, with raised shoulders, implies shyness.

Once the talisman begins to compel Bonnie, Leah changes her body language completely. She becomes slightly ridgid, her face blank with no expression. She moves forwards as if she has no control over her limbs and gazes at the necklace in awe. Here is the one shot I plan to use for this sequence. She nailed it first time!

Bonnie must appear defensive and overprotective as Nate attempts to prize the necklace from her fingers. To portray this, Leah flicked her head around swiftly and yelled out her line to imply panic. Bonnie then centres herself and leaves the trance. To represent this, Leah's tone becomes soft and appologetic. 

We move onto the most romantic sequence in the opening. I had been worried about creating chemistry between the two. However, I feel it was relatively sucessful. Leah was so cold she was eager to hug James anyway! With her gentle smile and tight hold, it is quite believable.

Finally, it is the bath scene. At first, Leah acts in a way that a female teenage audience can connect with. She relaxes in the bathtub, her head thrown back and her eyes closed. Beauty and relaxing this way are seen as stereotypically female interests. This is confirmed by Bonnie's small grunt of pleasure.

Leah then adopts an expression of confusion as the evil whispering returns.

The most challenging scene for Leah comes next; her death. Despite her fear of water, Leah had no problem with forcing her head underneath for the purpose of the film. Grabbing at the necklace, she attempted to imply the she was being strangled and suffocated by the chain. Paired with some voice over noises of being choked and we have some very convincing footage.
 

Leah also kicked her legs violently around the bathtub to imply a struggle.

Leah is known for having an excellent  abilty to portray different emotions through her facial expressions. Even when dead it seems. Leah's eyes manage to appear lifeless as she forces herself to sink to the bottom of the tub.

Finally, I asked Leah to place her limbs outside of the tub and hold them still and lifelessly. This managed to look very convincing and I feel the whole sequence will remind me a little of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho when it is completed.

Now onto James Walters' portrayal of the role of Nate. James was perfect for this role physically with his dark hair and typical teenage male fashion sense (he provided his costume himself). Furthermore, as a good looking young man, I can imagine his face on a film poster would draw many young girls (within my target age group of 16-24) into the cinema.

James immediately begins to portray Nate as nonchalant and carefree. He knocks on the front door casually, making it seem very unlikely that he felt as nervous as Bonnie about this date. 

The first time that the audience are presented with Nate on screen, they are expected to feel mixed emotions. Clearly, with his casual appearance, he has not gone to the same amount of trouble as Bonnie. To me, the facial expression that James chose suggests that he is awe of Bonnie's appearance, making him slightly more likeable. James took a step back to imply his shock...he was quite literally 'taken aback'.

  The mischievous expression on James' face implies that the character of Nate may lead to some sort of danger for Bonnie. Furthermore, I particularly like one shot that I took. James breaks the first rule of acting and looks directly into the camera from a shot of Bonnie's POV (point of view). This makes an audience slightly uneasy. Looking directly at viewers implies that this character has some power and, as a male, stereotypically, he should be an active character. Furthermore, his gaze may be appealing to swooning females viewing this film (the eyes are the window to the soul). 

Nate's easygoing persona is portrayed further through body language used by James. As the couple approach the abandoned building, James' confidence contrasts with Leah's unease. Nate takes the lead. When Nate comes to a stand still, Bonnie echoes him. As he comes to a stop, James places his hands in his pockets connoting a relaxed and carefree mood.

James also makes his character appealing to the female target audience by delivering lines in a flirtatious manner e.g. 'we are completely alone'. James pairs this line with a seductive half smile. 

To reinforce a comment made earlier, James also presents the character of Nate as active by remaining in control. With body language that suggests confidence, James grips Leah tightly by the arm and pulls her forwards towards the old building.

During the romantic scene, we see a soft and gentle side of Nate. James portrayed this through his soft speech and gentle movements as he placed the necklace delicately around Leah's neck.

Mise-en-scene: Lighting!

A long and eventful day of filming has finally come and gone. I am currently working on editing a little 'behind the scenes' video for you. Hopefully that will be up within the next few days. I had such a great day! 

All this hard work planning and researching has definitely been beneficial. For example, it made it much easier for me to decide on aspects of mise-en-scene, such as lighting, when thinking back to actual opening sequence that I have analysed. 

I attempted to keep my lighting mostly low key throughout the opening sequence. This is typical of movies of the horror genre, relating to the idea that bad things happen at night, in the shadows. 

For the scenes shot outside (the atmospheric shots for the opening credits and scene 2) I could do little to control the lighting, therefore, I will add colour correction and brightness effects in postproduction to create a dark atmosphere. However, I had chosen to shoot the film on a particularly dull and cloudy day, creating a negative pathetic fallacy (weather to reflect the mood).

Scene 1 is the first example of my use of low key lighting. I shot the scene using only my desk lamp as a back light, making sure no natural light was allowed in. This cast eerie shadows over Bonnie's face and helped to make the film visually appear conventional of movies in the horror genre. 

I was sure to shoot scene 3 once it was dark and all natural light had faded, once again using a low key lighting set up of just one light. This cast shadows, for example on the shot below, we see the shadow of the bath tap. 

Mise-en-scene: Chosen Settings!

For the most part, the settings for this film requires little imagination. For two of the scenes I will simply be using my own house! The mise-en-scene will create verisimilitude and cause my audience to connect with my characters. 

I will be using my bedroom as Bonnie's bedroom. This should work well as it is an authentic bedroom of a teenage girl!

 Furthermore, my living room will also provide realism as Bonnie waits for Nate to arrive. 

The bathroom is also perfect. I am very excited to shoot the bath scene! It's unlike anything I've ever attempted before. 

 Finally, we have the most important setting: the abandoned building. Luckily I have found the perfect one. It is very creepy and will be excellent for atmospheric shots. The red 'dangerous building' sign only adds to this effect (and again is in keeping with typical conventions of horror, using the colour red). However, I will be sure to only shoot outside of the building as to not injure any of my actors! 

Mise-en-scene: Bonnie's Make up!

So, recently I've been giving Bonnie's make up look for Talisman much consideration. In order to look glamorous and overdressed I can imagine giving Bonnie quite a sharp look. I am planning to go with a rather dark smokey eye (including blacks and greys to connote death and fear) as well as bright red lips (to connote blood and death). Red lip stick also connotes passion and desire relating the idea that beautiful characters like Bonnie become sex objects in horror movies. Here is an example picture of what I am imagining:

Mise-en-scene: Costumes & Props!

Today it was finally time for costume and prop hunting! I (well...at least I attempted to) made a vlog of my shopping trip. Luckily my Mother and boyfriend were kind enough to give me a helping hand. 

Here are some images of the chosen props...it's difficult to view them on video due to the lighting:

First of all...here is the lovely pair of clip on earrings, purchased from Claire's. They would have worked well for the film because black connotes death and fear. It is a conventional colour choice for horror movies.

However, since purchasing them I have decided to use a pair owned by Leah herself as they are more fitting for the sophisticated, over dressed, look. 

Next, after trying both dresses on, Leah and I decided that it would best for her to wear the New Look dress (£4.50 in a local charity shop!). The dress is once again black and very sophisticated. It is long and tight fitting, with very pretty ruffled net sleeves.

And here is the famous tube of fake blood! As I have mentioned so many times before...gore is a very common convention of horror movies. This will be used for the scene of Bonnie getting ready for her date, slicing her finger open with the pin of her earring. 

Behold! The talisman. By far the most important prop in the entire film. I am so grateful that my Mother allowed me to borrow it...it is perfect!

Oh, before I forget, here is a picture of James Walter's in his costume. He managed to make an outfit out of his own dark, casual clothing. He looks perfect for the role! 

Soundtrack ideas!

Music is of course, one of the most important elements of the horror movie. It works to create ambiance as well as to build up tension. Many people would agree that, without music, horror movies just aren't as scary.

Here are a couple of tracks from my favourite horror soundtracks which I believe would work well for Talisman. Once I have decided on which one to use, I can email the record label to ask for permission for use in my horror movie opening sequence. 

The first is the soundtrack for The Rite. The Rite is a supernatural horror movie, focusing on the story of a possessed priest. I believe that the slightly religious sound to this soundtrack (e.g. the sound of choir voices) would work well with my own movie idea. A talisman is an object often used by religious people. Furthermore, the necklace is a possessed object, relating to the idea of a possessed person. 

I have also considered using the soundtrack from supernatural horror movie, Let Me In.  The track below, Los Alamos (from around 1:15), would be perfect for the scene in which Bonnie is compelled to pick up the talisman. Once again we hear choir voices. Furthermore, many tracks on the Let Me In Sound track use screeching violin sounds and gentle piano music (this was highlighted as popular in my target audience survey). 

The Red Riding Hood score is also a potential option. The unusual sounds created definitely inspire feelings of unease and suggest something supernatural. However, in order to fit the mise-en-scene of this movie, the music does have a certain medieval quality which of course does not correlate with my own mise-en-scene. In addition, no strings or piano music is used. 

Finally, I do have the option of using music created by a friend. A fellow filmmaker from the USA spends her spare time creating original and improvised piano pieces. These would be very fitting for an opening sequence of the horror genre. However, with only one instrument, the music fails to create as much impact as the full orchestral soundtracks do. Stephanie Ann created the score for the short film below.

Having studied all of my options, I feel that the Let Me In sound track would be most fitting for my own opening sequence. The tracks have a lot of variety and inspire many different emotions. 

For example, I could use 'Hammertime' for my opening credits. With off-key strings the piece will immediately establish my genre.

Next, I could use 'Sins of the Father' for the scene of Bonnie preparing for her first date. The piece is mysterious and quiet but quickly becomes off-key with a crescendo towards the end. This would be perfect for the moment Bonnie slices open her finger with the back of her earring. 

'Peeping Owen' could work for both the sequence of Nate arriving at Bonnie's door and the couple approaching the old abandoned barn house. The quiet off-key piano music immediately implies that something is not right, creating unease within an audience without being over-dramatic.

'Los Alamos', as I mentioned earlier, is the track that I would like to use for Bonnie's discovering of the Talisman. Incredibly loud and creepy, this piece of music suggests the evil nature of the so-called 'talisman'. The choir voices also have connotations of religion, a common convention of the horror genre. 

For the rather romantic moment in which Nate places the necklace tenderly around Bonnie's neck, I could use 'Visitation Rights'. The slow piece of high pitched piano music adds a gentle and, of course, romantic air to the scene. The piece was actually used for a romantic scene in the movie Let Me In.

Finally, I could use both 'The Blood Flood' and 'The Back Seat Killer' for the bath scene. Both are off-key and scary tracks, inspiring fear. They also include a build up to a dramatic climax, perfect for the death of Bonnie.

Let's hope the record label allow me to use this music! Here is a screen shot of my email.

 Fingers crossed!

Shooting Schedule!

It's finally all worked out! We are almost ready to begin shooting Talisman and I am so excited. 

Here is a copy of our shooting schedule. We aim to complete the full film in just  one full day. While this seems like an impossible task, with highly professional and committed actors, I believe it can be done. Let's see how this works out! 

Shot list with times!

Now that the cinematography is finally all worked out... here is my shot list with (estimated) times. I feel that this will be very helpful to ensure that nothing is left out.