Call Sheet

A callsheet is made to show the cast and crew date and time of filming, where they need to be, what they will be filming and equipment needed. This keeps everyone organised and on schedule

Call Sheet

Date: 18/11/17                         Time: 15:00

Film Title:	Infernum
Scene:	1
Location:	A forested area on the Brambleside estate
Cast:	Ellie Grey – MC
Crew:	Jadye Leung – Camerawork
Equipment needed and who is responsible:	Stabiliser/tripod and camera – Jadye Leung

Date: 25/11/17                         Time: 12:10

Film Title:	Infernum
Scene:	2
Location:	Field on the Brambleside estate
Cast:	Ellie Grey – MC Ellie Grey, Jadye Leung, Brooke Turnbull – Cult
Crew:	Jadye Leung  - Camerawork
Equipment needed and who is responsible:	Stabiliser/tripod and camera – Jadye Leung Shirt & miscellaneous – Brooke Turnbull Cloaks – Jadye Leung Scarecrow & dolls – Ellie Grey

Date: 02/12/17                         Time: 13:00

Film Title:	Infernum
Scene:	1 & 2
Location:	Forested area
Cast:	Ellie Grey – MC & cult
Crew:	Jadye Leung – Camerawork
Equipment needed and who is responsible:	Stabiliser/tripod and camera, rope, cloaks and water – Jadye Leung

Date: 9/12/17                          Time: 13:40

Film Title:	Infernum
Scene:	2 & 3
Location:	Field on Brambleside
Cast:	Ellie Grey – MC Jadye Leung & Brooke Turnbull – Cult
Crew:	Jadye Leung – Camerawork
Equipment needed and who is responsible:	Stabiliser/ tripod and camera and cloaks – Jadye Leung

The filming of 'Infernum' & filming log

We started initial filming on the 18th of November at around 3pm. At this time the lighting was starting to get dark, ideal for our film.

The scenes first filmed were just to get used to the location and some establishing shots of the character. We used a field around the Brambleside area as well as a nearby forested area. 

Here are some shots of the area. Coincidentally, and in the spirit of our film, there was a noose already in the tree which we thought was worth photographing for possible use in the poster or double page spread. It also looks incredibly eerie and creepy.

This panorama shot shows the setting - the forested area where some shots were taken, the costume of the main character and our 'cameraman'. This is where the first scenes were filmed, in the scenes it is mainly the character walking through the forest which
allowed us to experiment with camera angles and shots like long shots and low angles.

When filming our film we used a stabiliser for the camera. This means that the film shots will not look handheld and shaky as this would look unprofessional and not give the right impact for our genre of film as it would for a 'found footage' film, for example.

This picture shows how  we tried to achieve different angles when filming Here, we are trying to capture a low angle of the main character walking to show the ominous setting and because it adds texture to the film as having the same angles will look boring and repetitive.

A major aspect of our movie is the cult scenes. For this, we needed cloaks to retain the mystery and anonymity of the cult. The scenes were all long shots as to show the whole body and full length of the cloak and keeping the aspect ratio so that the body was the only thing featured in the shot

Filming Log

Production name: ‘Infernum’

      Producers:  Jadye Leung, Ellie Grey, Brooke Turnbull

Date	What was filmed?
18/11/17	Walking/ establishing shots of main character (MC) and setting
25/11/17	Hallucination scenes: -          Shots of the scarecrow scene -          Shots of cult scene
02/12/17	MC rope scene Hallucination scenes: -          Fire scene
09/12/17	Re-do of Cult scene Final shots of MC
16/12/17	Flashback of the MC dying father

Filming aspects

Shooting material

We decided to call our short film 'Infernum' This is the latin word for hell. It is a trope of horror to have a one word word title and for it to be related to death, hell, demons etc.

Plot: A young girl suddenly loses her father, she is then orphaned. She is driven to suicide but before she can carry out her plan, she experiences numerous, unexplainable hallucinations.

• Gothic and psychological genre
• Ambigous ending
• Still shots and close ups to show reaction and emotion
• Long shots and extreme long shots to set the scene 
• Dark clothing - Victorian style
• Majority is set in the field with the exception of the first scene which is set in a bedroom
• There will also be a dark filter over the top of the film to connote a sense of sadness and doom

Editing

• Filters
• Layering
• transitions
• a mixture of very long and very short takes for suspense

We want to experiment with the editing, try to explore different techniques to make the hallucinations look effective and impact the audience. Possibly using independent, experimental films like 'A Field in England' for inspiration.

Sound

• Moments of silence
• Enhanced sounds eg the wind
• Lots of string instruments

The music will be created via garage band on the macs so we can get an original sound that fits specifically with our film and add in extra effects to create suspense. 

Mise-en-scene for our film

Costume

For our film, we want the costume to be similar to Victorian clothing, this includes big dresses with large skirts and corsets, to fit with the Gothic theme.

The main character's clothing will be like this. For example,a long black skirt and a black blouse. We chose block as a colour scheme because it connotes death and sadness creating a sinister feeling for the whole film and is also a classic trope like in 'Woman in Black' The hair will also be in a
classic bun with natural
makeup.

Setting

The setting for the short film will be in a field with some forest area. Somewhere that looks isolated as this will create fear in the audience because we all have some fear of being alone. It will also be effective as the character is a young female suggesting vulnerability and creating a sense of dread as we can guess something dreadful will happen to her.A filter will also be added to the entire film to make it look dark and old. Possibly a                                       grey or yellow tint to the film

Gothic horror

'Gothic' is recognised for its obsession with anything and everything dark, mysterious, unknown or the unexplored side of reality and human experience. It is driven by anxiety and fascination, underpinned by the inevitability of death. Should we be scared of death? or what lays before us post mortem? This is what gothic highlights and aims to discover

Origins

Gothic horror is a sub genre of horror based on novels from the 1800's the most iconic in this genre are stories like Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' and 'Dracula' by Bram Stoker. These were then later turned into films in the 19th century. They were also influenced by Gothic architecture at the time. Gothic literature sought to reconnect people to the darker side of life, it occurred alongside intellectuals who showed that superstition was a thing of the past so people then rushed out to buy chilling novels to put fear back into their lives. 

Gothic combined horror with romance. They were tales of spine chilling mystery intended to create an emotional response rather
than a moral one and have a strong supernatural influence.
The first Gothic horror film is a short film called 'Le Manoir du Diable' (1896) by George Méliès. The film is only 3 minutes long but this was considered ambitious at the time. It featured the devil and other supernatural beings as well as a flying bat meaning that, by some, its considered as the first vampire movie as well. It is likely the be the very first film to deliberately use special effects to frighten its viewers.

Typical conventions of Gothic horror:

• Desolate/wild landscapes like graveyards and woods
• Low key lighting - dark look
• Gothic architecture - castles and abbeys with secret passages, winding stair cases etc.
• Doom and gloom
• Monsters, witches and ghosts
• Hero's and heroines in danger

The setting of a gothic horror has some kind of duality. This is where a character will go from dark to light. For example walking in a house to going down into the dark cellar and the character will go on a journey from light to dark.

Hammer Horror films

 A series of gothic horror movies made by British film company Hammer film productions from the 1950's - 1970's. The movies were adapted from earlier 30s and 40's movies like Dracula, Frankenstein and his Monster, The Werewolf and The Mummy. These  included putting them into colour and some new plot twists. Hammer horror was also known for using the same actors over and over again some even appearing in every movie. Hammer had assembled a collection of actors that audiences were willing to engage with, no matter the premise or genre of the film. Audiences came to see, among others, respected and revered actors such as Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, and Ingrid Pitt. The studio’s first major horror hit was The Curse Of Frankenstein, released in 1957. Directed by Hammer Films starring soon-to-be Hammer regulars Cushing and Lee, the film was a monumental update on not only the Mary Shelley novel, but also the original film from Universal Studio (this was lucky as universal threatened to sue hammer if the story was too similar)

Hammer realised that viewers wanted horror movies different to what universal had produced before, they wanted dark and gothic movies. 1958's 'Dracula' was a huge success starring Cushing and Lee. Lee's performance as Dracula is thought of as one of the best vampiric portrayals ever. He turned a character who was typically aristrocratic and stuffy into a monster dripping with sexuality. The vampire was scary because he was seductive relating to Noel Carroll's attraction/repulsion theory

Tim Burton

He is known for his dark and gothic films such as Edward Scissorhands, Sweeney Todd, Dark Shadows and more recently Miss Peregrines home for peculiar children as well as animated movies like Corpse Bride, frankenweenie and Coraline.

Burton is described as having a gothic sensibility which is shown in all of the stories he writes all of which are incredibly unique and individual to him - showing his fascination with stories that counter mundane realism. HIs films promote the beauty of the unusual and strange.








'Vincent' (1982)

A short film created by Tim Burton while he was at Disney. Based on a young boy who lives an ordinary life but internally, is obsessed with Vincent Price and Edgar Allen Poe and appears to fall further and further into his fantasy world until his mother attempts to drag him back out. Disney wanted Burton to recreate a happier ending but Tim believed that this would make the short darker saying " It felt more beautiful and more like what was in his mind, which is what the thing was about. It was about somebody’s spirit, and to make it literal was, I felt, making it darker" Vincent deals with the struggle between imagination and reality or the classic gothic trope of the light contrasting the dark.

'Corpse Bride'
This uses all the classic tropes of a classic gothic film. Firstly starts in black and white, Victorian costume and big dark houses and streets. Closely followed by the classic dark woods, huge trees, screeching crows and of course a hand rising from the grave.

Tim Burtons characters are the epitome of the ideologies of the gothic subculture. Gothic is made to disrupt reality and explore the unexplored, there is a huge fascination with death in comparison to life. In terms of Burton, The Maitlands in Beetlejuice live a typically ordinary life but when they die the afterlife is crazy and fun.

Horror Narratives

Todorov

Todorov believed that his theory could be applied to any film and all films followed the same narrative.

According to Todorov there are 5 stages that a narrative has to pass through:

1. Equilibrium ( Normality, beginning when everything is good or neutral)
2. An event disrupts this equilibrium (caused by a character or their actions)
3. The main character realises the equilibrium has been disrupted
4. Protagonist tries to rectify this in order to restore equilibrium
5. Equilibrium is restored but some parts may be different forming a new equilibrium

Noel Carroll

He refined Todorovs theory and applied it to horror specifically. He maps out the traditional structure in 3 stages:

1. Onset phase - Disorder is created, usually in the form of a monster
2. Discovery phase - Where the characters discover the disorder
3. Disruption - The characters destroy the source of the disorder and restore normality

Propp

Vladimir Propp studied Russian folk and fairytales and decided that all narratives have a common structure. He observed that narratives are shaped and directed by certain types of characters and actions.

He believed that there are 31 possible stages/functions in any narrative, they may not all appear but they do appear in the same sequence.

Propp believed that there are 7 roles a character can be in a story.

Villain - Struggles with hero
Donor - Prepare/ provides hero with magical agent or help
Helper - Assists/ rescues/ solves problem for hero
Princess - 'Damsel in distress' exists as a goal. Generally marries the hero and punishes villain
Dispatcher - Sends hero off
Hero - departs on an adventure, reacts to donor and generally wins the princess
False hero - Claims to be the hero but is not, often reacts like a hero

Claude Levi-Strauss

He observed that all narratives are organised around the conflict between binary opposites. This is how we make sense of people, events and the world in general, for example:

• Peace vs war
• Light vs dark
• Black vs White
• Feminine vs masculine
• Strong vs weak

Narrative structure is important because it provides a template for the film to follow. Without a typical narrative structure films would not be recognisable to audiences.

Stuart Fischoff PHD

Movie monsters, horror movies and spine tingling thrillers provide food for our imaginations nourishment. We consciously; deliberately put away the rich fears of childhood as we acquire knowledge and temper irrational fears with rational self talk.

We fulfill the adultified expectations of our adult peers, we relinquish many of our superstitions with science based explanations. However, it's argued that our imagination is diminished and tamed in blandness

Childhood fears never disappear and live as a subconscious archetype

Fischoff had several theories on why so many of us flock to the cinema to watch the latest horror

1. Lifestyle - The individual wants to be scared but have a safe scare, what happens in the movie will not happen to them in real life. We seek excitement and we need to have our brain periodically revving like an engine                                                                                                              
2. Personality factors - Sensitizers vs repressors. Sensitizers like to confront their fears whereas repressors like to avoid their fears                                                                                                           
3. Physiology - We have a need for stimulation, we are thrill seeking and enjoy the fear we get from horror movies. Numerous studies show how the more negative the effect was on the audience member the more they enjoyed the movie

The economics of horror

Paranormal activity = production costs $15,000 made $190 million at the box office

Blair Witch project = production costs $35,000 -> $245 million

Both films were low budget horror movies that made millions at the box office where as high budget movies like Pirates of the Caribbean: On stranger tides which had the highest budget of any movie ever at $378 billion and received negative reviews

Horror lacks family appeal and isn't considered an artistic film genre


We like to watch films that reflect our real life fears. Roughly contemporary films that deal with concerns over "Broken Britain" and a fear of "hoodies" are very popular. 
For example 'Harry Brown'

Backwoods and redneck movies are films were locals turn on the visitors in gruesome an horrible ways e.g. torture and death

• Eden Lake trailer
• Deliverance
• Straw dogs

 A low budget can help in the horror genre because it seems more realistic, it creates more fear as it represents the horror in their real life. Found footage movies are low budget movies that exceeded expectations in terms of box office success, the amateur videoing and lack of Hollywood stars makes it feel like it could happen to anyone. According to Henry Joost, 1/2 of the directing team that came up with paranormal activity 3 & 4 says that for a good found footage horror there are 3 simple principles:

1. Forget cinematography. Cameras can jump and story lines can jumble in found-footage movies. "The genre coincides nicely with the popularity of YouTube," Joost says.
2. Keep it cheap. "Don't spend more on video equipment than your character would," he says. "It needs to look homemade.
3. "Cut your makeup budget. "Make sure the boy's hair is a mess and the actress doesn't have on makeup," Joost says. "Pimples are good. Nothing takes you out of a movie like seeing a character get out of bed who doesn't look bad."

What's the key to a successful short film?

Conventions of a short film:

• Under 40 minutes
• Low budget
• One simple idea
• Unity of time and action
• Plot twist
• Easily recognisable genre
• Establish characters and relationships quickly

Some award winning/famous/ good short films:

Cargo - Zombie movie -  This short film is conventional of the zombie genre because it features the undead (couldn't have a zombie movie without the zombies) and the main character is bitten by a zombie, ultimately transforming into one. However, the short is very unconventional because rather than featuring multiple zombies eating flesh, its a moving story about parenthood and the parents protecting the child no matter what.

Human Form - Body horror - A typical body horror that features mutilation of the face but reflects the modern worlds need for perfection and uniformity to fit in and look beautiful

INSiDE - Psychological horror - This is conventional in that it features a plot twist at the end and focuses on a mental illness its not necessarily unconventional but is gripping even in a short amount of time

What makes psycho scary?

Psycho is the original slasher movie. It is what most of the common tropes of slasher are based on and many movies directly copy or are influenced by psycho. For example the classic music in the shower scene.

Before psycho, horror was mostly based on monsters and movies adapted from gothic novels such as Dracula and Frankenstein. These films, although scary at the time, lacked the realism that psycho delivered and this made it incredibly scary for audiences at the time and to modern audiences today.

Prior to this, most stories had that typical set up where the main character is protected or at least dies for a purpose. But not in this case. This is where Hitchcock changed the game. He killed off a female main character for no reason other than (spoiler alert! )the anger of Norman Bates. The thing with psycho is that the monster involved isn't from another planet or built in a lab, it is a normal person you could come across in the street. In 1960 the term 'serial killer' which is effectively what Norman was, wasn't a common term and the fear to audiences at the time would be like nothing they'd have experienced, it would hit them that anyone could be a killer.

You couldn't talk about psycho without mentioning the way the film itself is made. Firstly the whole movie is filmed in black and white, the first colour showing on TV was in the 50's although most homes didn't have a colour television till the mid-60's it still would've been possible for the movie to be made in colour. Black and white definitely has more of an effect on audiences now than at the time. Now we really only see newspapers in black and white which is where the real life horrifying stories of war and famine are present today and I think that the black and white in psycho reflects this.

Next the incredible score in psycho is something you feel down to your core. Especially in the shower scene, the high pitch squealing of the strings haunts you and is the epitome of suspense and terror. It forced the audience to feel the sheer terror that Janet Leigh felt. The composer of the arguably most famous piece of music, Bernard Herrmann, considered the music the 'communicating link' between the filmmaker and audience. He was able to watch the movie and write the score scene by scene.

To really understand the complexity of the movie, the layering of themes and subtle symbolism, multiple viewings are necessary.

The low budget movie was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best  Art Direction/Set Decoration at the academy awards sadly not winning any of these but remains one of the best films ever made, scaring people for generations (and definitely deserved those Oscars)

Theoretical approaches to horror

Noel Carroll
Attention/repulsion: Attracted to gore and violence whilst simultaneously being repulsed by it. We enjoy killer point of view shots yet we do not identify with them. We fear vampires but fancy them. We can't stand looking but can't stop looking.

Laura Mulvey

Male Gaze: The film positions us at the killers point of view spying on the woman, objectifying her but simultaneously empathizes with the victims on screen while still occupying the killers point of view.

There is a shift from seeing the world through the killers eyes to seeing through the final girls.

Cynthia Freeland

Graphic violence and gore are so over the top and exaggerated that the create a "perverse sublime" - making something so far fetched that we can enjoy the film on an aesthetic entertaining level

Freud

The uncanny: Something secret and disturbingly strange. It's what ought to have been kept secret but has come to light within the unconscious or subconscious mind. It is essentially the return of the repressed and it is projected onto objects, peoples and places. The uncanny valley is also important here this is things that are close to reality but aren't quite there.

Jung

The Shadow: The animalistic side of us, the 'evil' or 'bad' in us that we do not want to be and is projected onto an external figure like the monster of villain in a horror film.

Adam Lowenstein

Spectacle horror: Combination of special effects, camerawork, gore music etc is more important than the suspense and topic of the movie. For example, jump scares become a better way of creating fear

Carol Glover



Argued horror offers males a chance to revel in their feminine side and also claimed slasher movies were actually feminist . E.g. Final girl theory



Tzvetan Todorov

He studied classic fairy tales and stories and found that narratives move forward in chronological order with one action following the other

A clear beginning middle and end

He also suggested that characters would change through the narrative and this would be demonstrated in the resolution.

The steps:

1. Equilibrium - A happy start, the majority of the characters are content
2. Disruption - This is where a problem starts, disruption of happiness
3. Realisation - Everyone realises there is a problem and it becomes chaotic
4. Restored order - The characters attempt to restore order and repair damage
5. Equilibrium -  Problem is resolved and everything goes back to normal

Most episodes of Sherlock follow this traditional narrative structure.

1. Sherlock and Watson are relaxing at the start of the episode
2. then an action or character will do something that creates a case for them to solve
3. They begin their quest to find a solution and apprehend the villain.
4. The narrative continues until they confront the villain at the climax.
5. Once the disruption is resolved and the equilibrium is restored, Sherlock and Watson can relax again.

Unconventional narratives

A non linear narrative will move backwards and forwards in time, flashbacks and flash forwards

A circular narrative starts at the end of a story, the audience doesn't really know what's happening till the end of the film