Teenage Costume Inspiration

I decided to use the films "Blair Witch" and "Blair Witch 2" for my costume inspiration as both films star teenagers located within a forest. 

Within horror films located within a forest, teenagers are put into costumes that show their youth and also fit into the location. The costumes also establish their personality and their role within the film.

Check shirts are very common to use and fit in with the scenes.

They also wear costumes that are suitable for the environment, for example within this shot the character wears a hat and a coat. 

Dark colours are worn throughout.

This character shows her role within the film as she shows a lot of skin, therefore making her character more provacative than the others.

I decided to use these shots in order to inspire my own costume ideas. 

I stuck with the theme of check shirts as my inspiration as I feel that they are the current trend yet still comply with the teenager in a woods situation. They also look made for the outdoors. This outfit has dark blue jeans accompanying it and hat as a woods would tend to be cold and therefore the character must show this. 

The previous outfit could be adapted for a male character by adding thicker shoes and much darker jeans, also possibly a water proof jacket. 

A provocative character can still fit in with the theme but as pictured, more brighter colours are used to promote a feminine side and also the blouse is tied at the waist to show more skin.

A hooded jacket combined with the shirt would be good for a male character to use and the dark colours make this outfit appear much more masculine. 

http://messmediatownley.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/blair-witch-2-deconstruction.html

Children Used In Horror Films Inspiration

I decided to go into my local woods with my younger sister and see the different shots that we could create in preparation for our coursework. My sister reacted with the camera and I chose positions that are likely to feature within our 2 minute opening.

The character is hidden behind the trees to recreate hiding from protagonists.

Blair Witch 2 Deconstruction

This post links to a previous post about using a forest as a location.

Walking Through the Woods

• Tight framing used within the two shot to show the vast nature of the woods, and therefore the possible lack of escape. Captures the background within the shot.
• Hear them both talking to eachother, but you can also hear digetic sound of the animals and the leaves crunching on the ground as they tread on them.
• Continuity from one event (unloading the car) to them walking along in the forest, shows that time has moved forward and they've been walking for a while.
• Carry oversized rucksacks on their back, showing they are not going as a day trip. The forest appears dead and deprived, as not much green is used.

Filming

• Shakey close ups are seen with tight framing, emphasising the fact that the person filming belongs to the group,
• Which also links to the sound that can be heard on filming as it's a voice over.
• Cutaways are used to link the real filming, and the filming that is being percieved in the video, this interupts the storyline and switches back to a reality.
• Markings on the stones link to the story and have a meaning within the story, the clothes that they wear are quite preppy connoting that they are a group of older teenagers.

Tree Appearance

• Low angle shot used as if you as a viewer are also looking up at the tree. Tree is centralised in the shot showing it's importance.
• Creepy music beging to play as non diegetic sound to create tension, links to the tension that is being created by one of the main proganists questioning the trees appearance.
• Jump cut from person to person to view their responses and there is an eyeline match between them looking at the tree before we as a viewer also see the tree.
• Tree in the centre is shown as very big when they all look up. Lighting changes to the viewer can tell that normal filming has resumed.

http://messmediatownley.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/camera-perspective-from-villain.html



Forest Inspiration

• This photo interested me due to the use of colours and the way that the forest appears to go really far back and very deep, creating that element of mystery.

• From a floor POV, you can see the vast nature of the forest and would be good if being shot from a characters perspective, allowing the viewer to see the detail of the shot.

• Shots from above are very creepy and good to use, I like this picture as it shows that there is no escape due to the trees taking up the sky's space. You can also see crows in the trees that connote danger. 

•  As the day progresses, the forest becomes more dangerous, and emphasises on the fact that escaping from this wide amount of space would be hard for a character. 

Shroom Forest and Clip deconstruction

• This is an establishing shot of the woods.
• by using this shot it shows all the trees which create vertical lines. this conforms to the convention of strength because this is the location that the murder is at his strongest.
• the shot has an almost green tinge to it showing the audience the corruption of the murderer.
• the lighting is very low key to show that they are at a 'deep, dark forest'. this makes it more scary for the audience.
• it is an eyelevel shot to show what the people in the film would see if they were stood here.

• this is a close up shot of two characters in the woods.
• again the trees are create vertical lines conforms to the convention of strength because this is the location that the murder is at his strongest especially as there are two people in there now to kill.
• in this shot one of the trees also creates a diagonal adding tension to the scene.
• the blue hat that the character on the left is wearing subverts the characterisitcs of the character. the blue hat should represent masculinilty and calmness but the boy is acting quite child like as he is worrying about the murderer.
• on the other hand the black clothes worn by the character on the right conform to the situation very heavilly. for example both his hair and coat are black showing the mystery of the killer, the sufferignt hey are both going through or about to go through and the threat the killer has on their life.
• the characters are at a personal distance showin the audience they are friends and not alone.
• the framing in this shot is moderately loose showing the audience that it is possible to get away from the killer but it is very unlikely. 

• This shot is a medium shot of one of the characters.
• the lighting in this shot contrasts as there are parts where you can see just the sky then parts that have dark parts showing tradgey.
• the colour blue is used in both his top and hat which again subverts the characterisitcs of the character. you can also see that he subverts the convention of masculinty and calm by the expression on his face.
• the composition in this scene is very vertical. the character subverts the sense of strength by his facial expression.
• the character is show at the edge of the shot showing that there is nothing he can do about his murder and that he is insignificant as he cant do anything about it.
• this is an open shot to show the whole surroundngs of the woods.

Deconstruction of film opening - Haunted Forest

I am once again going to use a horror movie set in a forest for my deconstruction

http://www.putlocker.com/file/O2S1GIL60MS8G0#

Camera Angles

Firstly Establishing shots are used to set the scene and emphasise where this is taking place, within a forest, also these establishing shots help conform to the connotations of a horror film by showing how isolated the destination is, only a waterfall, rocks and stream is shown and little sign of life is there except for the trees and the man.

Loose fitting is used in this shot however it is not used to signify that this man as some sort of choice or whatever as it doesn't match the situation, instead loose fitting is used in this situation to continue to emphasise how isolated the place is, by using loose framing you have made the shot wider so it is even more visible to see the lack of life around him

All camera shots are generally low angles to show who this character is, at the moment he seems to be an eager traveller exploring the great outdoors, however, as soon as we are aware of this creatures presence, the camera angles will soon change to high angle shots as he is now the least powerful entity in the situation.

This extreme close up shot makes the dominant the colour red, the colour values of the colour red due to the blood basically mean danger, this shot isn't exactly relevant as the injury is minor, but by showing this you make the viewers anticipate danger for this lone man in the forest.

This close up shot is the first sight we get of the creature that is stalking this man, it is a powerful shot as we now can see that this thing is coming from underground which makes it a lot more dangerous than we first anticipated.

Most directors use the eyes of a way of making you sympathise with someone or making you fear them, by doing this close up shot and showing the intense look in the eye of this creature you take away any way of the audience sympathising with it and you immediately make it just a dangerous creature.

Editing

• A lot of eye line matches were used within the opening scene to show what was happening mainly through the victims eyes but sometimes through the creatures eyes, this made us see how much danger the man was in when he was unaware of it and also when in order to make us feel the anxiety he felt when faced with the creature we saw the situation through his eyes so we could feel his fear
• Match of action is used when the protagonist of the scene is looking at his injury then putting the stick out of his leg

Sound

• Most of the sound e.g. the backing tracks are non diagetic, as it runs through the entire opening scene
• The diabetic sound is the sound of the nature around him e.g. the small waterfall, his footsteps of the various terrain
• The swift noise that occurs when the creature passes the screen emphasises its speed as well as whatever power it may have
• The intense non diagetic sound that appears when the hand emerges from the floor, is designed to make the audience jump

Mise-en-Scene

• Shot within a forest
• Man in late 30s used as protagonist in the opening scene
• Grey looking monster used as the killer

Inspiration (Forest Location) - Seyi

For my inspiration I decided to use the forest scene from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 1 as in my final piece we wished to film within a forest, I wanted to see how forests can be utilised to create effect.

The use of tall trees can help represent power, by shooting in a forest, especially a well built forest where lots of tall trees are easily visible you therefore give the person in front of them some sort of power as the composition of the shot is mainly vertical and vertical lines in terms of composition represent power

By using the trees in the background you can make the framing of this shot more tight than if you used a tight framing shot without trees in the background, the trees reduce the amount of free space within the picture making the framing even tighter therefore enforcing the message that the shot is trying to come across, this is effective as you can easily use what you have been given e.g. trees and make it a powerful tool.

There is no need for eccentric lighting because all natural lighting can be controlled by the trees overhead, also the green leaves sets an interesting green colour in the shot, the colour green can signify nature and nature is being reinforced here due to the fact they are in a forest, however the shade of green is significant as it is a murky shade of green it indicates something is clearly wrong in the situation

The large amount of space within a forest means that a lot of action can be shot in one shot with the surroundings still being intact, within a dense forest a lot of space is still visible once you step inside it meaning that if you ever need to show a shot with two people and where action is within a shot you can easily portray all of these things easily within a forest.

Analysing Slender - Seyi

• The typography used is automatically used to create suspense, the brashness and the rushed looking nature of the text indicates that whatever this game involves is not a very pleasant thing to come across however by using a simple black and white colour scheme you take away any fears of a gory or gruesome scene.

• The isolated nature of this encourages you to feel alone, the only light source is the minimal lighting of the night sky and the torch that dims as time goes on, the never ending stretch of forest makes you feel as if you are never going to escape this forest with the captor after you, this is effective as it lessens your chances and ups your hopes for survival

• The random nature of the abandoned car makes you believe that you will not be the only victim here, the car makes you believe that  there has been others in your position in this forest and as the car is empty you know that who ever occupied the car has succumbed to the evil lurking in the forest

• Seeing the slender man in the background makes his presence known to you, as he is very far from you he holds a threat however it gives you a chance to escape, however now that you know he is that close he knows your whereabouts and can only get closer narrowing your chances of survival

• The concept of this man leaving notes for you is farfetched as he instantly becomes more dangerous due to the fact that we now know he is an intelligent being, therefore he can use intelligent tactics to capture us, if no writing were on these notes we would assume he was a beast or an alien but the writing makes us think he in in fact similar to being human, also the scary nature of the messages ensure you know that this man is out to harm you

• The narrow space within this corridor makes you feel even more vulnerable as if this slender man was to confront you within the corridor you would have nowhere to go, if compared to a tv programme or film this would be extremely tight fitting making you seem as if you have no choice at this moment in time

• He is now literally metres away from you, by making him appear closer you get the idea that as time goes by he only gets closer and closer to you giving you an indication that it is only a matter of time till he catches you

• You have now been caught, it was easily predictable as all the points i listed above lead to this final point

Seyi Daramola