Movie Posters
These are the final movie posters for my short film, they are heavily inspired by Friday the 13th part 2 movie poster. I chose to be inspired by this particular horror movie poster because in my brief I explained that I will be inspired by 80s horror films such as Halloween and Friday the 13th Part 2 because these are two horror films I know well and can replicate the look of the posters with ease. Also in my opinion I like the design and look of the posters because it doesn't reveal much about the film and they have a unique look.
The Final Cut (A Short Horror Film)
Health and Safety Worksheet
Health & Safety
List the issues that arise from your project that could/would pose a health and safety risk.
The first health and safety issue from my project is the weather. I had to double check the weather a few days before the date of filming to make sure that the weather would be dry and clear. If the weather was raining then it would affect filming because the we were filming in a forest area, so rain would cause the ground to become muddy and unstable so one of the actors could slip and fall and seriously injure themselves. The second health and safety issue is the use of props. Certain props such as prop knives can be a danger if not used right. If someone is messing around with the prop it can injure another actor.
When using computers what Health and Safety do you need to follow.
When using a computer you need to take regular breaks because by constantly staring at the screen cause you to develop strain on your eyes and lead to further injuries. Another health and safety issue is back pain, if your computer chair is not set up to a decent height and the back is slanted at a funny angle it can cause you to develop pain in your back, to avoid this you need to adjust your chair to a position that is comfortable for you. With constant use of a keyboard you can develop strains in your wrist as well as carpel tunnel syndrome. The use of an ergonomic keyboard can help with this issue because the keyboards height can be adjusted. If you are sat with your wrists at an angle this is what causes the strain from constant typing. Another issue that can cause strain on your eyes is the brightness of the screen, if your screen is set at full brightness it can affect your eyes, the way around this is to set your screen brightness to a the setting which your eyes feel comfortable with.
List the issues that arise from your project that could/would pose a health and safety risk.
The first health and safety issue from my project is the weather. I had to double check the weather a few days before the date of filming to make sure that the weather would be dry and clear. If the weather was raining then it would affect filming because the we were filming in a forest area, so rain would cause the ground to become muddy and unstable so one of the actors could slip and fall and seriously injure themselves. The second health and safety issue is the use of props. Certain props such as prop knives can be a danger if not used right. If someone is messing around with the prop it can injure another actor.
When using computers what Health and Safety do you need to follow.
When using a computer you need to take regular breaks because by constantly staring at the screen cause you to develop strain on your eyes and lead to further injuries. Another health and safety issue is back pain, if your computer chair is not set up to a decent height and the back is slanted at a funny angle it can cause you to develop pain in your back, to avoid this you need to adjust your chair to a position that is comfortable for you. With constant use of a keyboard you can develop strains in your wrist as well as carpel tunnel syndrome. The use of an ergonomic keyboard can help with this issue because the keyboards height can be adjusted. If you are sat with your wrists at an angle this is what causes the strain from constant typing. Another issue that can cause strain on your eyes is the brightness of the screen, if your screen is set at full brightness it can affect your eyes, the way around this is to set your screen brightness to a the setting which your eyes feel comfortable with.
Evaluation
Research
For my research I chose to look at slasher films from the 1980s such as Halloween and Friday the 13th Part 2. I chose these films because the 1980s is a decade of horror films that I know really well and can be easily influenced by then due to the obvious cliches such as plots, characters and settings. To research more about these I watched the films Halloween and Halloween 2 and also Friday the 13th Part 2. The main influences from these films are the cliches, such as the settings. Normally in an 80s slasher they are set in the obvious setting of a forest, creepy cabin in the woods, haunted house, house parities and the home alone setting. This particular cliche helped me decide on the setting to base my short film, I decided to choose the creepy forest setting. This setting helps give the feeling of isolation like your main characters are lost in the middle of somewhere so when bodies start dropping it will take authorities a while to get there and they are alone with no help. Another reason that I chose 80s slasher flicks is because the majority of them have practical effects over SFX, this particularly inspires me because I prefer practical effects over SFX and this is one thing I want to incorporate into my own short films. The main use of practical effects is normally the gore and death scenes. However since I will be very low budget the look of my practical effects won’t look as good as blockbuster films. Another aspect that inspired me was the camera shots used in the films, the shots used were longer drawn out shots to help build up the tension of a jump scare or other things. Another thing that they used well was the music, during these longer shots the music would be a quiet build up that would normally people don’t notice or listen to but it’s the music that helps create the jump scare or death scenes. A famous example of this is the infamous shower scene from Psycho (1960) in which Alfred Hitchcock used a famous score to create a suspenseful beautiful scene. A scene from Friday the 13th Part 2 that inspired me was the ending battle where the final girl Ginny played by Amy Steel is corned by Jason Voorhees. This scene inspired me because the music that is used is suspenseful and it gives you the best look at Jasons current costume and the psychology of Jason that he can be easily manipulated by his mother. The costume heavily inspired the costume for my killer in my short film, with the hessian bag and ripped shirt. It was easy to replicate because it’s cheap and very homemade looking.
I wanted to create a silent, merciless killer who will just slash anyone he sees, the best inspiration for this type was Jason Voorhees because he is a merciless, brutal killing machine. This is one thing that the 1980s did well for horror films with such killing machines such as Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Chucky, Freddy Krueger, Pinhead and Leatherface. The mask was heavily inspired from Jasons from Friday the 13th Part 2 because of the cheap homemade look and the fact that it only shows the eyeholes, so the killers face remains a mystery, could he look as disfigured as Jason and Freddy or just creepy like Michael. It adds mystery to the killer and this is a concept that I think horror films needs to incorporate more because the decline of horror films ruin the mystery of who the killer is. Another aspect from the scene is that it shows the final girl defeating Jason, however this is an aspect that I want to take out of my short film because I don’t believe in the final girl aspect because usually in horror films it is a fragile scared young girl who steps up at the very end of the film and to me this isn’t as believable because they spend the majority of the film running away and screaming. I want to take this aspect out because in my opinion it can ruin the end of the film, I find it more believable when this huge brutal killing machine kills all the characters in the film because that is what would more believably happen. The script for my film will end with the killer brutally killing all of the characters. The music used in the final scene is the usual Friday the 13th type music with the famous ‘ch ch ch ch hahaha’ sound effect that is used in all the Friday the 13th films before Jason makes a kill or during a suspenseful moment. The music opens quietly and slowly builds up and gets louder till the part where Ginny swings the machete into Jasons shoulder. The music helps make the scene more tense and makes your heart beat fast because your unaware if the final girl will vanquish the great evil or if she will be brutally murdered herself. My inspiration for this is I want the music I choose to start out quiet and during tense scenes to slowly build up until the end of the scene where it slowly die down again.
Investigation
The primary source that I used were the films that were inspiring me, I watched Halloween, and Halloween 2 and Friday the 13th Part 2. I decided that the best way to be inspired was for me to watch the films again because this was I can review the films while I watch and see what camera shots I like and which ones could be better and be inspired by the setting. By watching the films it helped me learn the type of camera shots that are used in this genre of films, normally the typical suspense shot is a longer more drawn out shot that helps build up the tension. Another aspect that helps ramp up the creep factor is the music score, towards the start of the shot, the music will start off quiet almost like it’s not there, this is a good thing because if you are focusing on the film you never normally notice the quiet music but it is more of a psychological aspect. While your focusing on the film the music will slowly creep up on you and cause your heart to beat faster and build up the fear. When the music starts to build up and get louder, normally when the killer is moving in for the kill, the build up continues to build up the fear. Then when the killer strikes in a jump scare style, this is what causes you to jump and feel scared. The music is the key aspect to helping make a jump scare work, some films do this really well such as Lights Out (2016) directed by James Wan. In my opinion James Wan is a director that utilises jump scares really well because the best jump scares are the ones you don’t see coming, he builds up the music really well and creates some truly scary moments in his films. An issue with 80s slasher films is that due to the cheesiness of the films most jump scares you can see coming this can be due to a few reasons either it’s an obvious jump scare. This is an aspect that I don’t want in my film, in my film I tried to create a jump scare moment right before a death scene. I started the build up by using a shot from the killers POV. I decided to use this shot because I think it helps create a better shot because it can ramp up the tension as the victim doesn’t know he is being stalked. I took inspiration from the film Halloween for this because the opening act of the film is filmed from a POV perspective to help hide the identity of the killer. It is a very good aspect that I liked so I decided to use it in my film. I think that my POV style shots worked well in my film because it adds suspense to the film because you are unsure what the killer looks like and I like the mystery of this. John Carpenter used it well during the film because when the reveal of who the killer is shown, it’s a surprise that it is a young Michael Myers. I wanted to keep the mystery of the look of the killer till the initial kill scene because I think that if the killer is revealed too early it can ruin a chance of a good jump scare. The initial jump scare in my film wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be because the build up to the kill is in the POV style and during editing it didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped. However the shots that I used in my film worked well because I used the longer drawn out shots to help ramp up the tension. During some scenes it worked well especially during the first POV style shot because the main characters do not know that they are being watched from a distance by the killer. The characters are being unaware they are being watched and it helps build tension.
Initial Ideas
The ideas for my short film came from my passion for film, I was always influenced by films mainly horror films and action films. The ideas for my short film came from the cliches from 80s horror films, the most obvious ones from the concept of the final girl, to the obvious usual character cliches and the creepy locations. However for my ideas I wanted to change the cliches a bit mainly the character cliches and the concept of the final girl. I wanted to alter the character cliches because I’m not a big fan of the idea of the final girl because it’s an unbelievable concept. Normally the final girl spends most of the film running and screaming and suddenly towards the end of the film becomes a tough unbeatable machine. My idea for this was to have a cast of characters and have them all killed off instead of the usual one survivor left scenario, I was influenced by the ending to Friday the 13th Part 2 where the final girl Ginny defeats Jason Voorhees because it is a good example of the cliche of the final girl. During the film Ginny is a timid character who runs away from the killer but during the final act becomes a tough hardened character who is able to defeat the brutal and unkillable Jason Voorhees. I was gonna change this idea and create a film that has all the characters killed off in different ways. Another aspect from the film Halloween that has inspired me is the POV style shot in the opening act. It’s a unique style of shot because it adds mystery to who the killer is and shows a different perspective whereas normally the shots focus on the characters and not the killer. The POV style shots give you a glimpse at the killer, how he moves and acts while keeping his identity a mystery. A film that utilises this really well is Camp Sleepaway (1983) in which through the entire film all the death scenes are filmed in a POV style to keep the identity of the killer a mystery. It isn’t until the very end of the film where the identity of the killer is revealed. Halloween and Camp Sleepaway use the POV style shot really well and it’s an idea that I want to incorporate into my short film. I want to keep some mystery to the look of the killer and not reveal it too early so I’ll be using the POV style in a few shots, I think it will help create some tension as well as the character don’t know they are being watched or stalked and paired with a good music score will be able to create a creepy unique shot in my film. The music score from Friday the 13th Part 2 was composed by Harry Manfredini and has influenced me because the music creates quite suspenseful moments where Jason will be stalking a victim. My idea for the music score is to have the music play quietly during moments of non action or talking scenes, then when I need to create suspense I am going to slowly build up the music and towards the end of the scene have it slowly die down again instead of just suddenly cutting out. During scenes of conversation my idea is to either have no music playing or have some music playing quietly in the background, I think this would help build fear as I mentioned earlier about music being a psychological effect to help build up fear because your mind is focusing on the film while it the music quietly builds up.
Techniques/Workshops
One thing that was successful in my short film was the POV style camera shot. It worked well and fitted with the rest of the film. They stood out really well from the rest of the film and gave a unique perspective by showing the killers point of view. I wanted to keep the look of the killer a mystery until the first death scene where it will be revealed and the POV shot helped me do that. Also the POV style allows me to show the killers perspective, what he sees and how he acts while stalking his victims. He waits from a distance and watches before striking and taking down his victims. A way that I could develop the POV shots is to have the camera on a steady cam kit so while moving around with the camera it doesn’t shake about too much and gives a nice steady shot like in films such as The Evil Dead (1981) in which the director Sam Raimi strapped a camera to a plank of wood to give the steady cam look while the shot shows something flying through the woods. Another way to develop these type of shots, is that I can use a Go Pro with a head mount to give a nice look but also so the actor will have their hands free in the shots they don’t have to hold the camera giving them more freedom of movement for the shots. This will allow me to create death scenes in a POV style like Camp Sleepaway, it is a unique style that I would like to try replicate in a film. Another thing that was successful was the black/white contrast that I used. Due to lighting changes during multiple shots I decided to edit the film into black/white to give it a more of a unique better look. The black/white worked really well in a few scenes because the characters were wearing black or white clothing so it helps them stand out more. It works well during the opening shot where the characters walk through a tunnel. It worked well because it highlights the outside of the tunnel showing detail in the stonework and lighting the outside of the tunnel while keeping the inside of the tunnel dark, like something could be hidden in there lurking in the shadows.
Summary
Overall, this project has been successful. The filming and editing of the short film went really well and was really fun to experiment with new editing techniques and looks I could apply to my film. The film was an overall success and in my opinion worked well and on my next short film I know what things I can improve on what didn’t work well. The samples were also successful, the movie posters looked good and you can see the inspiration that I got from the movie posters for Friday the 13th. The horror photoshoot was successful, showing off the killers look with the homemade hessian mask, also the final edit of my sample looked really well and gave a creepy vibe especially when edited into black and white. So overall the unit was a success, everything links together and worked well and I know what I can improve on next time in the next unit.
For my research I chose to look at slasher films from the 1980s such as Halloween and Friday the 13th Part 2. I chose these films because the 1980s is a decade of horror films that I know really well and can be easily influenced by then due to the obvious cliches such as plots, characters and settings. To research more about these I watched the films Halloween and Halloween 2 and also Friday the 13th Part 2. The main influences from these films are the cliches, such as the settings. Normally in an 80s slasher they are set in the obvious setting of a forest, creepy cabin in the woods, haunted house, house parities and the home alone setting. This particular cliche helped me decide on the setting to base my short film, I decided to choose the creepy forest setting. This setting helps give the feeling of isolation like your main characters are lost in the middle of somewhere so when bodies start dropping it will take authorities a while to get there and they are alone with no help. Another reason that I chose 80s slasher flicks is because the majority of them have practical effects over SFX, this particularly inspires me because I prefer practical effects over SFX and this is one thing I want to incorporate into my own short films. The main use of practical effects is normally the gore and death scenes. However since I will be very low budget the look of my practical effects won’t look as good as blockbuster films. Another aspect that inspired me was the camera shots used in the films, the shots used were longer drawn out shots to help build up the tension of a jump scare or other things. Another thing that they used well was the music, during these longer shots the music would be a quiet build up that would normally people don’t notice or listen to but it’s the music that helps create the jump scare or death scenes. A famous example of this is the infamous shower scene from Psycho (1960) in which Alfred Hitchcock used a famous score to create a suspenseful beautiful scene. A scene from Friday the 13th Part 2 that inspired me was the ending battle where the final girl Ginny played by Amy Steel is corned by Jason Voorhees. This scene inspired me because the music that is used is suspenseful and it gives you the best look at Jasons current costume and the psychology of Jason that he can be easily manipulated by his mother. The costume heavily inspired the costume for my killer in my short film, with the hessian bag and ripped shirt. It was easy to replicate because it’s cheap and very homemade looking.
I wanted to create a silent, merciless killer who will just slash anyone he sees, the best inspiration for this type was Jason Voorhees because he is a merciless, brutal killing machine. This is one thing that the 1980s did well for horror films with such killing machines such as Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Chucky, Freddy Krueger, Pinhead and Leatherface. The mask was heavily inspired from Jasons from Friday the 13th Part 2 because of the cheap homemade look and the fact that it only shows the eyeholes, so the killers face remains a mystery, could he look as disfigured as Jason and Freddy or just creepy like Michael. It adds mystery to the killer and this is a concept that I think horror films needs to incorporate more because the decline of horror films ruin the mystery of who the killer is. Another aspect from the scene is that it shows the final girl defeating Jason, however this is an aspect that I want to take out of my short film because I don’t believe in the final girl aspect because usually in horror films it is a fragile scared young girl who steps up at the very end of the film and to me this isn’t as believable because they spend the majority of the film running away and screaming. I want to take this aspect out because in my opinion it can ruin the end of the film, I find it more believable when this huge brutal killing machine kills all the characters in the film because that is what would more believably happen. The script for my film will end with the killer brutally killing all of the characters. The music used in the final scene is the usual Friday the 13th type music with the famous ‘ch ch ch ch hahaha’ sound effect that is used in all the Friday the 13th films before Jason makes a kill or during a suspenseful moment. The music opens quietly and slowly builds up and gets louder till the part where Ginny swings the machete into Jasons shoulder. The music helps make the scene more tense and makes your heart beat fast because your unaware if the final girl will vanquish the great evil or if she will be brutally murdered herself. My inspiration for this is I want the music I choose to start out quiet and during tense scenes to slowly build up until the end of the scene where it slowly die down again.
Investigation
The primary source that I used were the films that were inspiring me, I watched Halloween, and Halloween 2 and Friday the 13th Part 2. I decided that the best way to be inspired was for me to watch the films again because this was I can review the films while I watch and see what camera shots I like and which ones could be better and be inspired by the setting. By watching the films it helped me learn the type of camera shots that are used in this genre of films, normally the typical suspense shot is a longer more drawn out shot that helps build up the tension. Another aspect that helps ramp up the creep factor is the music score, towards the start of the shot, the music will start off quiet almost like it’s not there, this is a good thing because if you are focusing on the film you never normally notice the quiet music but it is more of a psychological aspect. While your focusing on the film the music will slowly creep up on you and cause your heart to beat faster and build up the fear. When the music starts to build up and get louder, normally when the killer is moving in for the kill, the build up continues to build up the fear. Then when the killer strikes in a jump scare style, this is what causes you to jump and feel scared. The music is the key aspect to helping make a jump scare work, some films do this really well such as Lights Out (2016) directed by James Wan. In my opinion James Wan is a director that utilises jump scares really well because the best jump scares are the ones you don’t see coming, he builds up the music really well and creates some truly scary moments in his films. An issue with 80s slasher films is that due to the cheesiness of the films most jump scares you can see coming this can be due to a few reasons either it’s an obvious jump scare. This is an aspect that I don’t want in my film, in my film I tried to create a jump scare moment right before a death scene. I started the build up by using a shot from the killers POV. I decided to use this shot because I think it helps create a better shot because it can ramp up the tension as the victim doesn’t know he is being stalked. I took inspiration from the film Halloween for this because the opening act of the film is filmed from a POV perspective to help hide the identity of the killer. It is a very good aspect that I liked so I decided to use it in my film. I think that my POV style shots worked well in my film because it adds suspense to the film because you are unsure what the killer looks like and I like the mystery of this. John Carpenter used it well during the film because when the reveal of who the killer is shown, it’s a surprise that it is a young Michael Myers. I wanted to keep the mystery of the look of the killer till the initial kill scene because I think that if the killer is revealed too early it can ruin a chance of a good jump scare. The initial jump scare in my film wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be because the build up to the kill is in the POV style and during editing it didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped. However the shots that I used in my film worked well because I used the longer drawn out shots to help ramp up the tension. During some scenes it worked well especially during the first POV style shot because the main characters do not know that they are being watched from a distance by the killer. The characters are being unaware they are being watched and it helps build tension.
Initial Ideas
The ideas for my short film came from my passion for film, I was always influenced by films mainly horror films and action films. The ideas for my short film came from the cliches from 80s horror films, the most obvious ones from the concept of the final girl, to the obvious usual character cliches and the creepy locations. However for my ideas I wanted to change the cliches a bit mainly the character cliches and the concept of the final girl. I wanted to alter the character cliches because I’m not a big fan of the idea of the final girl because it’s an unbelievable concept. Normally the final girl spends most of the film running and screaming and suddenly towards the end of the film becomes a tough unbeatable machine. My idea for this was to have a cast of characters and have them all killed off instead of the usual one survivor left scenario, I was influenced by the ending to Friday the 13th Part 2 where the final girl Ginny defeats Jason Voorhees because it is a good example of the cliche of the final girl. During the film Ginny is a timid character who runs away from the killer but during the final act becomes a tough hardened character who is able to defeat the brutal and unkillable Jason Voorhees. I was gonna change this idea and create a film that has all the characters killed off in different ways. Another aspect from the film Halloween that has inspired me is the POV style shot in the opening act. It’s a unique style of shot because it adds mystery to who the killer is and shows a different perspective whereas normally the shots focus on the characters and not the killer. The POV style shots give you a glimpse at the killer, how he moves and acts while keeping his identity a mystery. A film that utilises this really well is Camp Sleepaway (1983) in which through the entire film all the death scenes are filmed in a POV style to keep the identity of the killer a mystery. It isn’t until the very end of the film where the identity of the killer is revealed. Halloween and Camp Sleepaway use the POV style shot really well and it’s an idea that I want to incorporate into my short film. I want to keep some mystery to the look of the killer and not reveal it too early so I’ll be using the POV style in a few shots, I think it will help create some tension as well as the character don’t know they are being watched or stalked and paired with a good music score will be able to create a creepy unique shot in my film. The music score from Friday the 13th Part 2 was composed by Harry Manfredini and has influenced me because the music creates quite suspenseful moments where Jason will be stalking a victim. My idea for the music score is to have the music play quietly during moments of non action or talking scenes, then when I need to create suspense I am going to slowly build up the music and towards the end of the scene have it slowly die down again instead of just suddenly cutting out. During scenes of conversation my idea is to either have no music playing or have some music playing quietly in the background, I think this would help build fear as I mentioned earlier about music being a psychological effect to help build up fear because your mind is focusing on the film while it the music quietly builds up.
Techniques/Workshops
One thing that was successful in my short film was the POV style camera shot. It worked well and fitted with the rest of the film. They stood out really well from the rest of the film and gave a unique perspective by showing the killers point of view. I wanted to keep the look of the killer a mystery until the first death scene where it will be revealed and the POV shot helped me do that. Also the POV style allows me to show the killers perspective, what he sees and how he acts while stalking his victims. He waits from a distance and watches before striking and taking down his victims. A way that I could develop the POV shots is to have the camera on a steady cam kit so while moving around with the camera it doesn’t shake about too much and gives a nice steady shot like in films such as The Evil Dead (1981) in which the director Sam Raimi strapped a camera to a plank of wood to give the steady cam look while the shot shows something flying through the woods. Another way to develop these type of shots, is that I can use a Go Pro with a head mount to give a nice look but also so the actor will have their hands free in the shots they don’t have to hold the camera giving them more freedom of movement for the shots. This will allow me to create death scenes in a POV style like Camp Sleepaway, it is a unique style that I would like to try replicate in a film. Another thing that was successful was the black/white contrast that I used. Due to lighting changes during multiple shots I decided to edit the film into black/white to give it a more of a unique better look. The black/white worked really well in a few scenes because the characters were wearing black or white clothing so it helps them stand out more. It works well during the opening shot where the characters walk through a tunnel. It worked well because it highlights the outside of the tunnel showing detail in the stonework and lighting the outside of the tunnel while keeping the inside of the tunnel dark, like something could be hidden in there lurking in the shadows.
Summary
Overall, this project has been successful. The filming and editing of the short film went really well and was really fun to experiment with new editing techniques and looks I could apply to my film. The film was an overall success and in my opinion worked well and on my next short film I know what things I can improve on what didn’t work well. The samples were also successful, the movie posters looked good and you can see the inspiration that I got from the movie posters for Friday the 13th. The horror photoshoot was successful, showing off the killers look with the homemade hessian mask, also the final edit of my sample looked really well and gave a creepy vibe especially when edited into black and white. So overall the unit was a success, everything links together and worked well and I know what I can improve on next time in the next unit.