My Chosen Brief

Brief 10

A short film in it's entirety, lasting approximately 5 minutes.
Together with a poster for the film and a film magazine review page featuring the film.

Film- 'The Return'

Film Poster

Double Page Film Review

Evaluation Q1

Evaluation Q2

Evaluation Q3

Evaluation Q4

Film Production 5

I decided to play around with increasing certain volumes of the sound clips, to add to the horror by making the audience jump even more. 

I believe that by increasing the volume for this clip, it did add to the horror as the audience are not expecting it firstly, for a masked man to be standing there and secondly, for the sound to be loud and intense. 

Film Production 4

I decided to have background music throughout the film to ensure that there was always a tone of eeriness, even when not at a sinister part. However, this then meant that I had to make sure that at the parts that were sinister I use a sharp and uncomfortable sound effect.

Here is an example, of background music being played and also the sound effect to create further horror.

This then meant that I had to edit the sound effects to dissolve in and out of the film to not make it seem as quite as blocky as they originally were.

Film Production 3

I liked the idea of the protagonist being pulled along the ground at the end, however, this was hard to shoot as not only was it muddy and wet, it would have hurt to be dragged across the concrete. This is when I decided to get the masked man to pull slightly so it looks as if he was about to drag her away. I then cut the scene quickly, so it looked more realistic that this was his intention.

I then edited the scene with black outs to make it seem more choppy and uncomfortable for the audience, implying that she has gone.

I then liked the idea of having the long take on the bracelet, which I felt finished the film on a sinister note, as it suggests that it is waiting for the next innocent child to pick it up again.

Film Production 2

I wanted to make sure that there were a range of different shots throughout the film. This particular scene uses a lot of shots, to make it look as professional as I could make it.

I started off by using the focus pull of the phone onto the bracelet.

I then used a low angle, median shot to show her going to pick up the bracelet.

Thirdly, I used a worms eye view of her retrieving the bracelet. This was particular hard to edit together as I had to make sure that the previous shot was cut as soon as she is about to pick up the bracelet and not a second before or after, otherwise it would show her picking up the bracelet twice.

I then used a long shot of her picking the bracelet up. 

Finally, I used a close up shot of her with the bracelet in her hand and then a further close up shot the bracelet, showing its importance.

Although all these shots used, made up only a small sequence in the film, I felt that it challenged my editing skills and I was pleased with the way it turned out. 

Film Transitions

I have recently been playing around with the different transitions available to me on the Premiere Elements. I particular liked the idea of using a dissolve transition to link some of my shots together, however, when I played around with these transitions, I felt that it didn't add anything to my film.

Instead, I felt that it made it look unprofessional and lacked horror, due to the smooth running of the shots and scenes. I therefore felt my film looked better without any transitions and instead features short, sharp shots and scenes which give it a bolder, almost uncomfortable feel and therefore suited to my horror genre.

Film Production 1

There was a part in the film which was very dull and lacked skill as it just watched the protagonist walk up the path. This is when I decided to split the clip up and have point of view shots throughout the long pathway. I feel like this engages the audience more, as it allows them to see it from her perspective. Which further heightens the horror. 

For every 3 seconds I added in a 2 second point of view shot. 
I repeated this stage two times, so that the film didn't look odd for her to suddenly be at the top of the crossing. 

Lighting

My initial idea was to film in the late afternoon, so that the lighting will be low key and dark. However, when I came to film, the lack of light meant that the picture quality wasn't great, as it would not focus and therefore produced a blurry image.

I knew that I wanted to produce a darker image to add to the horror of the film, firstly because it is very conventional to do so, but also because when carrying out previous research, I looked at a horror film that was set in the daytime, which consequently lacked in horror.

I tried filming on more bleak days closer to dusk but not quite dusk, yet this still didn't produce the sharp picture I was hoping for. I then decided to see if I could edit the film by changing the colour of it and play around with the brightness and other various tools the program offered.

After trying out various different combinations, I found that by using shadow/highlighting and tint, it produced the image I was looking for and therefore meant that I could film in day light; meaning that I could get a sharp, focused image and at the same time edit it to make it looker darker.

Poster Production 4

I wanted to incorporate the bracelet into my poster as it plays a big part in the film and I feel like it produces unanswered questions, enticing the audience to watch the film.


I decided to print screen a photo of the bracelet from my film and use that for the poster.

I started off by using the 'quick selection' tool to cut around the bracelet and get rid of the background.

I then re-sized the bracelet to fit into the protagonists eye.

I then made it seem more realistic by changing the opacity of the bracelet, so that it didn't look dramatic or draw the attention away from the rest of the poster.

Poster Production 3

I then decided to put in the title. Having already selected the font from the double page, this process was quick and simple.

However, I felt that it looked too plain and dull for it to be on a poster, as it is supposed to attract the public and by having just a basic font it did not do this. This is when I decided to add texture to the font to make it look like bark. This not only solved the problem of it being to boring, it also linked extremely well with the film as it is set in the woods.

I started off by choosing a photo I thought would work well on Google Images.

I then cut around the title using the magnetic lasso tool and uploaded the photo I wanted to use as the texture.

I then clicked the overlay button and 'create clipping mask'

I then played around with the opacity of effect until I was happy with the result.