Film Production - Production Schedule

To organise our filming, we created a production schedule that summarised when everybody had free time and was able to film. We had to fit a lot of filming around when our main actor, Shauna, was available - but a lot of shots don't include her so it wasn't too hard.

Friday 11th December - First day of filming. We filmed in the lunch area when no children are present - during the media lesson. We also got some shots of Shauna walking around the school, which wasn't necessary footage but we wanted to film everything we could.

Monday 14th - Lucy and Shauna weren't here, so me and Eva went to take photos of our settings and ended up finding some better places to film than we originally intended.

Thursday 17th - Filmed Shauna walking through the trees we found on Friday. We had to cut the filming short, because she had to go to her lesson, and spent the remaining time finding music and fonts to use in our trailer. Lucy and Eva met up with Shauna after school and filmed her walking home at night.

Monday 21st - We met up outside of school and intended to film more outside shots but the weather turned bad and we had to cancel filming for the day.

We couldn't film anything over the Christmas holidays because we all had other things we had to do and were unable to meet up.

Monday 4th January - Lucy and Eva met up to film at Lucy's house They needed to redo all of the shots with Michael in because we changed the actor.

Wednesday 6th - This was the one day we could all meet up after school so our group - along with Matthew - went to the park to film some scenes as it was getting dark. Most of the time was spent rehearsing the scene in which Matthew pulls Lucy's hair because we wanted it to look realistic but didn't want Lucy to get hurt. We also filmed Lucy being 'dead' and decided to film a couple of shots at the nearby playground.

Thursday 7th - This was our final day of filming and we decided to do more shots at Lucy's house - mainly exterior ones such as the doorbell and alleyway nearby to her house.

Film Production - Changes to the Script

When filming, we changed the script slightly to make the conversation flow better and seem natural. We also changed the order of a few shots and made a few into just voiceovers because we decided they looked better when editing.

[film production logo fading to black]

[show scenes of Holly looking happy, with friends and family]

Holly (voiceover): Weird things keep happening to me.

[cut to black screen]

Amy (voiceover): What do you mean?

[fast cuts of bad things happening to Holly and her friends]

[cut to black]

[film title]

[institutional information]

[cut to Holly]

Holly (looking scared, talking to the camera): Help me.

[cut to black]

Film Editing - Initial Plans

When editing, we have some ideas for what we want our trailer to look like. As our film is very dark and also in the horror genre, we want to darken most of the shots so that they fit the typical conventions of the genre better. We wanted to film these scenes at night time but we were worried that the lighting wouldn't be good and the quality could decrease, which is why we decided to add effects post-production.

The trailer will consist of simple cuts that are fast-paced, along with a few fades to black. These are very simple to edit in so I'm confident that we can do this well. We won't be using any other transitions as they look unprofessional and won't make the audience take our film seriously - which would be ideal if our film was a comedy but it isn't. We will try to pace the shots with the music to emphasise the cuts and to build tension.

A voiceover will be the only sound in the trailer, but we are considering adding in the noise of twigs breaking or a scream to keep the audience's attention and to also further emphasise the genre.

Although nobody in our group is experienced with animation, I want to attempt to animate the production logo so that it stands out more and makes our company seem like it has a bigger budget. It will capture the audience's attention as they have not seen the company before and would want to see what their films are like. I also want to animate the film title so that the 'Shadows' part fades away and becomes elongated, like an actual shadow. I'm not sure how I would do this, though, so I have a backup plan of just italicising the font of the title instead - although this would not have as good an effect on impressing the audience.

Film Production - Risk Assessment

Before filming, we produced a risk assessment for all of the shots we wanted and decided whether they were safe enough to film. If we found there was any form of risk, we found a way to reduce this risk before we went ahead with it.

• Muddy hill - could slip and fall. We will go when it's less muddy or find a different route to the filming location.
• Working on rough terrain - could trip. Make the actress look for a safe route to walk on before we start filming and clear a path beforehand.
• Hair pulling scene. Make Matthew only pull her hair lightly and make them practice this plenty of times before filming. Lucy will have to over-exaggerate how badly her hair is being pulled for effect. We also need to make Lucy put her hair into a ponytail (partly for realism as muggers will target women with their hair up because it's easy to grab) so that her hair will be pulled less.
• Covering Eva's mouth. To avoid this we will make Matthew not actually put his hand over Eva's mouth and instead just put his hand in front of her face - which we will frame to make it look real.
• Twigs. We might need some noises of twigs snapping so we will have to break some to record the noise. Make sure nobody is too close because some of the twig might break off and potentially hit someone. There's also the risk of someone tripping over a twig as the area we are in has a lot of trees - like how we are going to avoid having Shauna fall over, we will walk to the filming locations slowly and look for safe routes to where we want.
• High angled shots. As the tripod only allows us to film at eye-level, we will have to place the camera on other surfaces to make the shots higher. We will need to ensure that the camera is safely on the surface and that it's stable. We also need to hold the camera ourselves - make sure everyone filming has the wrist strap on so that we don't drop the camera. Don't let anyone climb on anything to get a high-angled shot.
• Fire/candles. We will have to be careful when lighting the candles as somebody could get burnt. We also need to ensure that the camera doesn't get too near to the flame as it will get damaged. We will also put the candle on a stable table with nothing else on it so there's no risk of anything else being damaged or the candle being knocked off.
• Rain. Makes the floor slippy. Like when on muddy surfaces, we could slip while filming and injure ourselves, which could also damage the equipment.
• Filming in the dark. This would make us unable to see what's on the ground and we could trip on something. We will take torches with us so that we can light up the area beforehand to check for risks.
• Lucy being dead. The nettles could sting Lucy while she's lying in the bushes so we'll make sure most of her skin is covered to lower this risk. There also could be sharp things hidden in the leaves so we'll check the entire area before filming.
• Swings/park equipment. One of our shots will be very close to the swings and the camera could be knocked over. We will find out where is the furthest they can reach on the swings and then put the camera just out of reach.

Theorist - Barthe

Barthe's theory is about five codes that are "woven into any plot", although I will only be focusing on the 'action' and 'enigma' codes. The 'enigma code' refers to anything that isn't fully explained to the audience and becomes a mystery to them, giving them clues about what is happening but not fully telling them. The 'action code' refers to any action that implies a further narrative action - making the audience want to know what the outcome of the action is.

In my film, the action code applies to the bad things happening to Holly's friends, making it look as though there's a supernatural being behind it all. The plot twist in the film relies on the audience wanting to know what is causing everything and then, when Michael is revealed to be causing everything, they realise that the enigma codes all add up and it's been obvious that it's been Michael all along. This could make them want to re-watch the film now that they have a different perspective and the enigma codes no longer apply.

Film Production - Settings

Lunch hall - This is a social area that people will recognise as from in a school. These places are known for being busy and places where people gossip - there's a contrast with this idea when Holly and Amy are talking in the film trailer, alone at the table. This shows that this scene must take place during a lesson as there's nobody else around and connotes that Holly was desperate to tell her friend what's been happening.

Lockers - This scene connotes that the film is mainly set in a school and also suggests that the characters are of an age to be at school/sixth form. Like lunch halls, they also known for places of gossiping - as it's the only time people are separated from their cliques at school.

Class room - We decided to not use a typical class room as the students are older and would spend more time in computer suites.

Trees - These are typical of the horror genre and could be considered clichéd. We weren't sure if we would include this setting for that reason but decided that the trees added to the eerie vibe that we were trying to achieve. The trees provide a lot of shadows - which fits with the film title and add a sense of mystery - and we decided to film the shots near the trees when it was getting late so that the low sun gave us more shadows.

Bushes - There's a gap in the bushes that we decided could be used to hide something - which is why we used this as where Amy's body is found.

Playground - In our trailer, there's juxtaposition of friends having fun at park and swing by itself in the dark. This suggests there's something supernatural making the swing move but could also be seen as the girls disappearing suddenly from the park, or someone who has been following them.

Holly's house - This setting was used to add realism as teenagers tend to just spend time at home when they're not at school - which is why we made sure that these two settings were the most featured in our film. The familiar setting also adds to the idea of Holly not being safe in her own house and shows that the 'spirit' is following her not just at school.

The outside of the house is shown but the audience only see someone unknown pressing the doorbell in the trailer. The shadow that goes over the doorbell emphasises our focus of being 'in the shadows' but also connotes that whoever is there has bad intentions.

There are also scenes set in Holly's room to add a sense of verisimilitude. It's a typical teenage girl's room and would be where Holly feels comfortable - we contrasted with this by showing Holly having nightmares and waking up suddenly to emphasise to the audience that there's nowhere where she's safe.

Film Production - Actors

When deciding who would play Holly in our film, we chose our friend Shauna to play her as she is who we based the character on when we were planning the film. She also has experience of acting because she was the main character of a teen angst opening last year - and we needed somebody who is able to perform in our film professionally. Even though she isn't in many scenes of our trailer, the main problem with having Shauna as the actress is that it is hard to coordinate times when we are all available to film, as she had another lesson when we were media and we all had other arrangements outside of school.

Barnaby was meant to be Michael but could not meet our production schedule so we recast the role to Lucy's brother, Matthew, as he was available when Lucy was and it was easier to get footage including him - he's only briefly shown so we just needed him to be in the background of a shot in the trailer. Although he is too young to play the character, his face isn't shown in the trailer and he is tall enough to look like he's 17, so he was suitable for the role. He is an experienced actor but is only skilled in playing comedy roles, which is why we only wanted him in the trailer briefly.

Lucy and Eva play Holly's friends, Amy and Natalie. The clips of bad things happening to Holly's friends are only brief so the audience don't know much about these characters, so it doesn't matter that they are inexperienced in acting. An advantage of using these two as our side characters is that they are both in the group, so they knows all the details of the plot and how to film properly.

We didn't need an actress to be Holly's mother as she isn't shown in the trailer - although if we did need one, we would use Lucy's mother, as she would be available to film when we need her.