top of page

This site was designed with the

website builder. Create your website today.Start Now

RIZWANA

ALI

CINEMATOGRAPHY

These are the 5 elements of Mise en Scène:

Settings and props
Costume, hair and makeup
Facial expressions and body language
Lighting and colour
Positioning of characters/objects within the frame

3 GENRE MISE-EN-SCÈNE ANALYSIS

The two different movie genres I have picked to talk about are horror and comedy and for this i will look at a still from each movie and talk about the Mise en Scène.

Sinister (Horror)

When looking at this still it is easy to realise from this one scene that the movie is a horror movie due to the location and lighting. In this still we can see that it is set at night in a rural environment. From what I can see there is a broken building of some sort, maybe a farm house and fences. There is also a lot of fog being shown which adds more of a scary effect. There are five characters in this still, all of them being children and they are all different heights. Their costumes look old and worn out and also look like something people from the suburbs would wear which goes with the location of the still. Also, the girl’s hairs look scruffy.

From their facial expressions and body language it is showing that the movie is a horror because some are faced slightly down but the eyes are glaring up and others just have a straight face and no expressions. One character has their finger placed on their lips showing the audience to stay quiet as if something bad is going to happen. I can see that the lighting is coming from the back shining on the characters creating a shadow in front of them all and the light is creating a bright outline of them all from the shoulders above. They are all positioned side by side in a line at the centre of the frame while the background is also being shown a little.

Settings and Props: In movies that are a horror genre the setting is generally in rural places, unknown locations and the horror scenes are set at night where it is dark and hard to see what is going on. The props used are masks, knives, axes, guns and so on.

This still is representing exactly what a horror movie consists of as it is set at night, in a forest and the character has a mask on to hide their true identity in order to be able to commit crimes and not be caught and is also holding a machete firmly in one hand in a position that seems like he is ready to hurt his next victim.

Costume, Hair and Makeup: For horror movies the makeup is usually really emphasised especially on the person who is meant to be the villain for example, they would have makeup on to show them being really fair and showing that maybe they haven't eaten in a while or are very unwell.

For example, in this movie we can see that the girl is probably shown to be as the ghost as she has a gun wound on her forehead. The makeup used also is making her very fair and is showing her veins. For the hair, it is down and looks like she hasn't been well groomed.

Facial Expressions and Body Language: In a horror movie the usual facial expressions seen are fear, the characters being scared of something spiritual. There are also facial expressions of anger, insanity, grief and shock.

In this still I can see that the characters facial expression is showing fear. I can tell this as her head is tilted slightly back away from the demon and her eyes are the main part of her facial feature which is representing the fear.

21 Jump Street (Comedy)

This still is set in a building, looks like it could be in a school as the characters are in casual clothes and have backpacks and one character who is shown shouting at them is wearing formal clothing with a shirt and tie. The makeup used gives the characters a glow showing that the movie is more of a happier theme. The facial expressions shown are anger, confusion, gazing, peering and also straight faced. The main characters are wearing bright colours which could show that they are the most humorous throughout the movie the lighting is also mainly shown on three of the characters and it is high key lighting. The entire frame consists of the characters and only a small amount of the background is being shown.

Costume, Hair and Makeup: In comedy the costume could be casual wear, could be actual costumes used for parties and so on. Makeup is used to have more of a glow for the character and to make them look happier and healthier and fitter for the role. However, the character could also be made to look completely different to that as each actor/actress is just made unique to the way the movie industry want them to be for the character played.

In this movie a male is disguised as a woman. I can see from this that there is an entire costume in place and lots of makeup is used in order to change this man to look like a woman.

Facial Expressions and Body Language: In genres such as comedy the facial expressions used are happy, laughter, confusion, sarcastic expressions and weird facial expressions. Typically there is a character who is awkward so their body language would be quite inwards while others have a good posture.

When looking at this still you can immediately tell that the movie is a comedy. The facial expressions here show straight away that the male character's tongue is stuck on a pole and the woman is trying to pull him off which humours the audience right away. The facial expressions here show the struggle of getting him off the pole which show the seriousness in this and makes it even funnier.

Lighting and colour: This genre has high key lighting as it creates a better mood. High key lighting tends to be cheerful and energetic which is what is often used in comedy.

In this still I can see by the lighting that it is a comedic movie as it gives off a joyful vibe. The colours of the boys clothing also give the sense that he is very mischievous and is the one to create laughter in this scene and there is evidence in that as he has a pen marker in his hand and the male character next to him has ink on his forehead, the boys facial expression also shows him laughing

STILL RECREATION

For the recreation I used a still from a horror movie called “Sinister”.

This is the original still from the movie:

Here is the photograph I have taken to replicate the original still:

To recreate this still I chose this location because there is a whole section of grass and in the original still there is grass there and there is a building in the background so in my still I made sure to have a building in the background which is a similar colour. I have five people to model for the shoot and for each of them I showed them the image and guided them and told them what position they need to be in, how their facial expressions need to be and where they need to stand. I made sure that each of them were very close to each other as that’s how the positioning of the characters were in the frame of the original still.

Due to the weather I was unable to get any natural sunlight to appear behind the models and create a shadow in front and no lighting was being used for this particular shoot so I wasn’t able to get the lighting correct in this still. In terms of the clothing as the shoot was just being on the day and I couldn’t plan ahead for my chosen models I had to just have anyone that I could find. As my chosen still is a very dark picture anyway the clothing didn’t matter as much.

Here is my final recreation:

As the lighting wasn’t correct for my photoshoot I had to do a lot of editing in order to make my still recreation look like the original still. I used the burn tool on most places of the image to make it look much darker. For example, as most of the grass was dark I made it all dark first and the parts that looked like they had no light on it at all I went over it to make it much darker. In order to create the shadow I went over it even more and created the outline of the models shadows and tried to make it similar to them and the original image. As the building in the background of the original image looked very old and broken I did the same thing with the burn tool on the building on some areas to make it looks old and burnt. I also lowered the brightness of the image and raised the contrast. I selected the quick selection tool and highlighted over the models and lowered the brightness of them also. I also changed the saturation so the colours are darker. I then used the dodge tool to brighten up the heads of the models to make it seem like light was shining on them from behind. The last thing I did was use the patch tool to cover up some of the models lanyards as they still had them on.

10 Things I Hate About You (Romantic Comedy)

In this still I can clearly see all the elements of the Mise en Scène being shown. In terms of the settings I can see that this is set during the day and is just set on the streets. The background is out of focus so it is blurred out quite a lot, which shows that within this still it isn’t very significant and only the characters are as they are the only ones in focus. The characters are in casual wear and have a few accessories on such as rings and earrings. We can see that the ring and the earring are the same colour and type of style, which could have a meaning behind it. In terms of their facial expressions I can see that the male character is smiling a lot at the female character while it looks like she is talking.

The body language is very closed as the male has his arms crossed, it look like the female is fiddling with her hands. The lighting is very high key and natural sunlight is used in this still. Their faces are glowing up whereas their clothing dims the light down a bit, which shows the romance between them two. The positioning of the characters within the frame show that this is a romantic film as they are very close together and to one side of the frame.

Now I will be analysing one entire genre and choosing stills from various different movies that are from this genre. My chosen genre is horror, which will be my inspiration for my own cinematic photoshoot.

DETAILED GENRE ANALYSIS

This is a still from “The Visit”, in this scene I can see that it is set inside a kitchen during the day. I can see that most of the area of the house is dark and only the characters have light on them and the oven seems to have a bit of light towards it also. From the angle it looks like the picture is taken so that light is coming from one angle or maybe window and going straight ahead. With the light being on the two characters and the oven it could suggest that this scene has something to do with the three. One character is also holding the baking tray and a cloth, staring at the other character who is at a distance facing away. The woman’s facial expressions show that she is waiting for the girl, looking very scary and with a little smirk on her face.

If I was to recreate this still I would also set this in a kitchen. For the props I would try and have everything that is used in the still, I would have the kitchen utensils on display and in the shot like in the still. In the still none of the lights are turn on so I would make sure that in the recreation the lights aren’t turned on so I will make sure light is only being shown from one direction on to the characters. To do this I will either position the characters in a way where there is a window and light is shining on them from outside or I will use the flash gun and reflector to get quite a soft light onto the characters. Regarding the positioning of the character and objects in the frame I will make sure that one character is very close to the camera on the right hand side and there is no focus on that character while the other character is at a distance from the character and is in full focus.

If I was to recreate this still I would position the model exactly the way the character is and have them look very scared to match the facial expression of the character. I would make sure that the light of the laptop is bright enough to shine on their neck and side of their face. I would have the camera focus on the model and slightly out of focus for the background. As the still isn’t that bright I wouldn’t have a lot of artificial lighting being used and would make sure that there is one tone of colour for the entire frame.

This is a still from “Hush”, in this still there is one character who is in casual wear on their laptop and on their sofa at the comfort of their home, in the living room. However, from the facial expressions shown I can see that the character is not safe or comfortable at their house at all as she looks scared and very aware of her surroundings. The character is only looking to the corner of her eyes which shows that she may not be sure if someone is there but is feeling as if there is and is too afraid to fully look. From the angle that the shot is taken it looks as if the way the camera is positioned is meant to be the perspective of the person who is actually there and is creeping around behind a wall or window staring at the character. I can tell this as the left hand side of the character is showing a wall of some sort which is out of focus which shows that all focus is on the character and the camera is positioned behind something. In the frame the character is taking up most of it and her surroundings aren’t shown too much. The lighting is quite dim as this is a horror movie.

If I was to recreate this shoot I would find a place with a brick wall and wood around and maybe stairs, I would find somewhere close enough to a basement and make sure that the place is dark. When using the torch if it isn’t shown to be bright enough I would edit it and make it brighter to show more emphasis on how dare the area is. From the still I can see that because of the torch there is light being shone on the front part of the characters shirt so I would use a LED and face it towards the model. For the clothing I would just make sure that the model is wearing a shirt and looking formal.

This is from a movie called “The Conjuring”, this is set in a basement where it is very dark and no lights are there so the character is having to use their own form of light which is a torch. From the brightness of the torch I can tell that the basement must be pitch black. So that the audience are able to see at least a bit, I think there are lights in the background being used. The facial expression of the character shows me that they are concerned and have maybe found something interesting.

To recreate this still wouldn’t use any specific location as you can’t tell where the location is at all. To make the photograph turn out like the still I would first try taking a picture of the model in the dark with only the candle being lit, then I would add a bit of a flash light onto the models face if the camera is unable to capture anything and if that doesn’t work out I would take a normal picture of the model holding the candle and then when editing I would use the burn tool to make everything apart from the model and the candle dark.

This is from "Lights Out", in this still the character is in a pitch black place holding a candle as the only source of light. The eyes of the character are wide open showing the fear, he looks very concerned and frightened at the sight of the only source of light. Due to the lighting the only thing being shown are the characters face and clothing. The character looks like he is laying down on the ground holding the candle. The camera is angled to that the fire and the characters face is in model and we can see that he is holding the candle but his hands are not in focus as his facial expression is key in this shot.

To recreate this I would have the location be a dark lit room with tables and chairs, I would have lights reflecting onto the characters only and lower the contrast and brightness.

This is from “Would You Rather”, I can see that this is set in a dining room. There are three characters in the frame and the room is dark with only the lamps as the lights. I can see that the characters have light on them showing that there are extra lights for the shot and everywhere else is dark apart from the parts of the room where the lamps are placed. By the look of the characters I can immediately tell this is horror as the characters hairs are messy, they are very closed up, the makeup on the female looks as if she has been crying. The facial expressions are showing anger, fear, sadness and also sympathy.

When recreating this I would use a plain white mask and draw on it to replicate the mask in the still. I would do this photoshoot outside on a day where the sun is out and use the reflector to make are more gold effect on the model. If the sun isn’t out then I would use the flash and reflector.

This is from “The Purge”, the location isn’t exactly recognised in this still as he background is fully out of focus and is extremely blurred out due to it. The light being used is natural sunlight going onto the character. Props that are used is the mask with writing on it to make it more unique. The makeup used on the mask is very messy, the writing isn't neat and the mask itself is very dirty which makes the mask look more scruffy and creep giving more of a horror vibe. This is effective because if the mask was clean and had nothing on it, it wouldn't be as effective and make the characters look creepy. Usually criminals would put masks on to hide their identity so the fact that the character is also doing this makes it more scary and relates to real life which could make the audience be more fearful. The character is positioned so that the entire frame is filled with only them.

This can be recreated by just being in the dark, outside, lights coming from behind to show the background slightly, lights on the characters from their right and making sure the models replicate the characters as much as possible.

Here I can see that the facial expressions and the body language are the most important attributes to this still. I can see that both characters within this still have wide eyes and both of them have their eyes wide open but one character is using their body to have the hand cover the mouth which expresses the shock even more. In a horror movie the facial expressions are what makes it horror, I think this because if the characters within a horror movie genre did not look scared and have big movements and have a much defined facial expression it would be hard to tell that it is horror. The whole point of a horror movie is to scare and show fear. If the characters don’t have the facial expressions to show they are scared it leaves the audience to feel the same way and lose the meaning of horror.

To recreate this I would find a place indoors where there is poor lighting, I would find a place that has an edge preferably if there was a staircase and the bottom or the side of it. I would take the image from a low angle as it seems as if she is looking down inside somewhere. I would also use a match stick and when editing make the flame much larger than it is. I would use an LED light and try to replicate the light to make it the same as the flame.

In this movie it is shown that the match stick on fire is the only source of light but as her whole body is showing in the light there is reason to believe that there must have been another source of hidden light to be able to show the character in the dark.

Here the lighting is very important in the still. I can see that there is light coming from the bottom, shining up towards her face due to the shadows created and this is very strong light on her face to be able to see her face clearly. There is also a very faint light on the character behind her so that you are still able to see her slightly. This creates a scary effect as it creates some tension and it creates a creepy feeling with someone just standing behind staring.

In this still it looks as if the girl is looking through a mirror because I can see that there are marks of dirt and so on which mirrors tend to have if not cleaned often. The camera also shows that she may be using it to record or help her see. To recreate this I would probably just try and find a window that is quite dirty and have the models be on the other side of t so that I can capture an image of them. I would use lights to try and reflect some light in certain positions to make it seem like they are just looking in a mirror. To recreate the lighting I would use a torch from a phone and have it held down, facing up, another light probably from the right side of the model to create a shadow on the face and also use a LED light at a low light at the model standing behind. To recreate the tears I would just use water to put near the models eyes.

If I was to recreate this I would set it in a house and would have the two models stand at the end of the hall from the third model. I would use LED lights outside the room and facing the two models from the left side and put it quite low down in order to create a large shadow behind them.

In this still I can see that the lighting is only on the two characters that are in front of the door. This could indicate that the horror is based around them. This is because their facial expressions and body language show so and there is also a shadow which is kind of creepy. Their body language and facial expressions are at a weird posture and slanted over a bit, the female character looks to be scarier as her facial expression is creepier due to the way she is smiling and staring. The lighting could be focused on them as they are the ones with the facial expressions and body language which shows that they are not scared and could be the ones that actually scare people, the lighting could make the audience feel uneasy because of this.

GENRE EXPERIMENTS

For this experiment my main focus was on the lighting and costume. I wanted to use a mask for this particular photoshoot because in most horror movies the character who is meant to be the villain wears a mask to hide their identity and not get caught for everything they are committing and for there to be more of a mystery of who could be the murderer for example.

For the location I was indoors in a place where there was barely any lighting, the only source of light was from outside and the windows were allowing the light to come through. I found this background which was a big board full of writing, I decided to use it ad there was all sizes and types of writing which made the whole piece look messy which goes with a horror movie. I told the model to sit on the floor under the staircase and I placed the board behind. For the lighting I used an LED light and a blue gel to create an effect. I got someone else to help out and hold the LED light in different places to have different shadows casted on the model. For me the pictures I think worked out were when the LED light was placed above the models head shining down and felt that created a more creepy effect. The gel helped out a lot and the fact that I used the colour blue helped also as it’s a colour used mostly in horror movies and the blue wasn’t a bright blue so doesn’t create any happy moods.

The other photographs that worked for me were the ones where the LED light was placed quite low on the right hand side creating a shadow of the model towards the left and making one side of the mask dark whereas the other side had all the light on it.

The models body language made the still look creepier as her head was tilted to the side. This is quite important for my genre as the posture of the villain in horror movies are usually out of the ordinary and is done so that it can make the audience feel uneasy by what they are seeing.

When editing the photographs I made sure to emphasise on the shadows the most and make the lighting very low as in horror movies low key lighting is used. To do this I changed the brightness and contrast of some photographs, the exposure, curves, levels and hue/saturation. For the exposure I changed around the offset and gamma correction in order to darken the shadows even more.

For each image I had to make sure that I cropped them all and made sure to include what I needed. When taking the photographs I made sure to include a lot of the surroundings and things I didn’t need in the frame so that when cropping I didn’t have to worry about cropping out a key element in the photograph. I had to crop these because for a movie the frame is meant to be 16x9.

I received feedback from my class and teachers and they preferred the photographs that showed more of the detail with all the writing in the background instead if me editing the images to make it darker because they felt as though the images with more detail looked scarier than the ones with dark effects.

I decided to edit my images again because of the constructive criticism I got and decided to edit my photographs much less and made sure that I can still see most of the detail in the images rather than making it darker because the colours that were already made by me while taking the photographs matched the horror theme enough already.

One thing I learnt after the second time when editing was how to crop the images precisely to 16 by 9 rather than just estimating how the ratio should be.

I preferred the photographs that I took that had the LED light placed above the model facing down on her because I felt as the lighting was much better and it looked like the light was already placed there.

Here are some pictures I have taken of some props which I put together. When positioning the props, I thought about the composition very carefully and how close it should be put together for the photograph to look good and for each object to be in the frame.

I changed the position of each object differently for each image so that there’s a variety of photoshoots being taken.

Unfortunately, when taking the photographs, I didn’t consider the framing of the images so that when cropping it would be a 16 x 9. For the images that I took as a portrait I had to crop it a lot and take a lot out which ruined the style of the images that I wanted because I didn’t think about the ratio that the photographs had to be in.

For these photographs I placed a black piece of paper underneath the props so that it creates a better horror effect and so that the actual background wasn’t showing as this was just set in my bedroom and I placed the objects on the floor. The reason I placed the black piece of paper there was because my intention was to make the images look like it was a police investigation and these photographs were taken for the investigations taking place.

Here are a few of the edits I did of the photographs. I edited them in different ways and colours because I wanted to show the different representations of horror.

When editing these images, for some of them all I did was crop it to the size it should be in for a movie. Whereas for the others I did that and used the brightness and contrast to brighten up the image slightly. I did this so that each object can be seen clearly in the photographs and in complete detail.

When I took these photographs, I positioned myself and the camera differently so that I could get different angles of the same composition.

I did this because my intention for each angle is different and I believe that having images in different angles can completely change the meaning of the photograph.

For this photograph I played around with the brightness and contrast first and when I was happy with what I got I used the quick selection tool to highlight the mask only and then I brightened it up because I wanted the mask to be entirely white, I wanted it to stand out as the main and most important element of the image.

When editing this, I went onto hue/saturation and changed the lightness of the image to make it look a little gloomy. I did this because in horror movies you don’t tend to see stills that are bright especially scenes where there are crime scenes and when weapons that have been used are shown so I wanted to try and replicate the same mood that is shown in horror.

This still has been edited so that this time there is blood stains involved in this crime scene. I first selected the mask using the quick selection tool ad used the exposure to brighten the mask using the gamma correction. Once I had done that I selected the knife, went onto hue/saturation, and set the hue to -17 to have a red colour to be displayed onto the knife to represent the blood of the victim. I also played around with the curves of the entire image because it made the red on the knife stand out, before that it looked a little pink and wasn’t too believable.

This is one of the portrait images that I had taken. When cropping this to a 16 by 9 I positioned it so that each object could be seen and identified properly. For this my focus was the knife. When selecting the blade of the knife I decided to only select a small part of it. Within this shot there were already parts of the knife that were showing darker parts, so I used this to my advantage and selected the darker bits but only at the top of the knife. I used the hue and saturation once again. The hue was set to -27 to set the colour and the saturation was set to +61 to darken and to add more emphasis to the colour.

Here I decided to experiment with colour within my editing in Photoshop. For this image I decided to create a sort of blue tone within the image, as this is the type of colour used in horror movies. To do this I went onto the hue/saturation and put the hue to -143.

For this image I decided to create a different colour, another one that is generally used in horror movies. These colours are used because horror movies don’t usually have warm colours so I wanted darker tones to represent horror. Here I used the colour/brightness and colour balance to play around with the colours without having to actually use equipment to create them. I first used the brightness/contrast and changed the brightness to -19 and then went onto colour balance where I changed the magenta to green to a +30 on the green end.

Here I took more pictures but using a different mask.

For this experimental shot I first changed the curves around a bit, I then went onto hue/saturation and put the lightness down to -20 and the last thing I did was change the levels. The reason for doing this was so that the colours on the mask could come out brighter and all the props could be more defined.

Here I decided to include more of the knife within the picture and the glove rather than the mask itself to have some hidden identity and I made the mask look lighter and the red not look as bright. I first went onto the exposure and changed the gamma correction to 0.93 and the exposure to -0.06. once I done that I set the lightness to -8 under the hue/saturation.

When doing this shoot again but with another mask that I have, I took the photographs at a lower angle but I forgot to consider the fact that I would have to crop the image to 16 x 9 which affected my images as most of what I wanted to be in the framing could no longer be part of it.

I took this photograph of all the props at a low angle and cropped it so that most of the main prop that a villain would use is showing. When editing this image I just changed the lightness down to -18.

This photograph is taken at a slightly different angle and is taken closer to the props. The main source of this image is clearly shown to be the mask.

For this image the black part around the eyes are clearly darkened and the knife is shown way more than any other image.

Here I have managed to include all the props within the image as it is taken horizontally. To edit the image, I just used the curves to darken the eyes and brighten the mask up slightly. When taking this photograph, I just used a flash as the source of light.

One key thing that I had to think about when taking these photographs and when editing, was anything that ended up being included in the shots such as my shadow or the floor. As these were laid on my floor some shots ended up showing my shadow because of the position had to stand in to take the photographs. I wasn’t able to use these photographs because the shadow ruined the effect of the image. The black piece of paper I used wasn’t exactly big and I had to stick with two A4 sheets because that’s all I had on me. I had to put the sheets together in a way so that my red carpet wasn’t showing and when I put the objects together on the sheets I had to position it in a way so that the line of the papers being put together weren’t visible. One of the A4 sheets had a small chunk at the corner which was ripped out, so I had to make sure that the objects weren’t too close to that or when editing, any crucial parts of the objects that I wanted could’ve been cropped out. When taking the photographs, in some shots a bit of the carpet was being shown on the sides which was quite frustrating because I wanted the images to be straight and for there not to be any mistakes, however, this mistake was easily adjustable as it was straight forward to crop out as long as I made sure that there was only a tiny bit of red showing and it wasn’t too out of place.

Here are a few of the images that didn't work:

The reasons for them not working well is because the line of the paper being placed together is showing, this could’ve been easily edited out, but my shadow is also showing.

The composition isn’t good because I didn’t consider the framing of a movie so a lot of the elements that I wanted wouldn’t even be a part of the shot.

And the last reason is because my carpet is being shown and the angle that I have taken the image in doesn’t allow me to crop it out in a way to still include everything.

With this experiment my main objective was to play around with the props, the angles and the composition. This was my intention as I wanted to see how everything would look and wanted to see what would be the best costumes and props to use within my final photoshoot. I found that experimenting with this was very useful as I was able to identify how to position everything in order to create effective photographs.

Here is the next experimental shoot I did:

This is the original image I have taken of one candle that is lit up and the following images are of the edits that I have made from this one photograph.

For this photograph I first changed the levels which made everything but the candle very dark. The candle was still bright and not as detailed as I wanted to I went onto brightness/contrast and changed the brightness to -50 and the contrast to 30 in order to make the candle and the wick that is burning as detailed as possible.

For this photograph I changed the brightness and contrast where I set the brightness to -81 which is why the background is pretty dark.

One problem that I found with this image was that I could see the label on the candle that is in the background which ruined the theme of horror as it has the scent and the place that it is from.

For this image I made everything dark apart from the flames that are lit up on each candle.

The focus here is the candle in front and the flame and I used depth of field to do this.

IDEA GENERATION

From my research I learnt that for horror movies, when there are scenes just showing the day to day life of the victims the lighting is very bright or it’s during the day and the mood is much more joyful. But, when the bad character enters, the lighting changes drastically and usually there is a colour such as blue, red or green in place which helps to change the mood and clearly shows the audience when the horror scenes are about to appear. It helps the audience to understand and identify the difference between the scenes. This helped me to come up with ideas for my experimental shoot as I decided to use different coloured gels for my photographs and I could clearly see the difference and was able to portray horror in my shoot just by adding colour.

This concept has helped me significantly to come up with ideas for my final photoshoot as I have come up with ideas to have my model, who is playing the victim, where they are showing their normal life and the life before the spirit gets involved and for these shots it would be taken during the day so that there is good lighting and the models facial expressions and body language would show them as a much happier and relieved person whereas when the spirit enters there is poor lighting and coloured gels perhaps to be used so that it is clear when the spirits scenes come.

When researching stills from horror movies I also found that costumes and props play a huge role in the genre. When researching stills from horror movies I also found that costumes and props play a huge role in the genre. In most of the stills that I researched they had some sort of weapon involved to kill the victim, so this gave me an idea to bring in props to my photoshoot and get a range of weapons to use that can be played to kill the victim.

Here is a mood board of images that I will be using as inspiration to help with my photoshoot. The reasons why I chose these images are because I wanted to include a range of weapons and masks to show that within my stills there will be these costumes and props used. I have used images of dark places that horror movies are set in because this is the type of lighting I will use and will have similar locations to this.

To develop my ideas, I have created a brainstorm showing my thought process and all my ideas in one place. Here I have included the genre, names, locations, synopsis ideas, ideas of the movie and the stills, props, costumes and so on. This is just all my ideas where some of them soon get developed into my actual plan but for now it is just all of my suggestions and intentions. I have also included a few notes after my brainstorm which could be a part of my plan for the final photoshoot.

Names of spirit/killer:

- Moonlight

- Raven

Name of victim:

- Annie

Models:

- Rijwana (Friend)

- Anisa (Sister)

- Rahim (Friend)

- Numan (Friend)

A person playing the killer and shots of them in a costume trying to kill the victim.

Options for model playing the killer:

- Rahim

- Numan

Options for model playing the victim:

- Rijwana

Location choices:

- My house

- Beckton Alps

- Pathway next to Beckton train station

- Park

Costumes:

- Cape

- Grim Reaper

- Mask

Props:

- Weapons

- Box

- Candle

- Book

- Fake Blood

Synopsis:

- Include location

- Name the killer

- What's inside the box

Film idea:

- Moonlight doesn't want the box to be opened. Could be because she needs it to be evil so that she can destroy evil villains but opening the box stops her from this.

- Moonlight and Annie could end up being friends at the end rather than the victim having to die.

Genre:

- Horror

Film Ideas

- Couple of shots at home which will include only props and a lamp as the light source

- Everyday lifestyle of the victim which would include pictures of victim in school uniform with friends

- Have someone big and tall play the killer

- Victim to be smaller than the killer

- Killer could have a mask on

- Try on a variety of masks on the villain and try out different weapon choices

- First few shots to be of the victim getting on with daily activities such as going to school, watching television or reading a book.

- The victim should then open up the box and then the next few shots are of the villain creeping up on the victim

- Last few shots to be of the villain actually trying to murder the girl

Here are some trailers from horror movies and some stills that have inspired me for my shoot.

This trailer is of "The Conjuring", which inspired me a lot for the costume and the idea of involving some sort of box.

When thinking about the costume for my character of the spirit I got inspired by what the demon here was wearing and came up with the idea of having my model wearing a long cape of some sort.

I decided that my model should wear all black as it looks much scarier and keeps it simple and for horror, black is a suitable colour rather than having bright colours.

For the props I liked the idea of involving a box. In "The Conjuring", a music box is used which helps the paranormal investigators to find the demon when looking through the mirror, which spins around. On the mirror there is a spiral on it and the actual box itself looks very old and ancient. This helped me to come up with the idea of involving a box which looks quite vintage.

In the scenes where the demon is involved the lighting is very poor and the room is shown to be very dark so when I am taking my photographs I will consider this and make sure to keep that in mind as I feel it is very effective.

This still is from a movie called "Hush" and this scene is of the killer standing outside the window of the victim and just standing there and watching her which has aspired me to come up with ideas of the spirit in my film to stand in some shots just staring at the victim while she is getting on with her daily activities.

AUDIENCE

SYNOPSIS

A small town in East London is infested with an evil that no one knows about until unsuspecting, young girl Annie comes across a suspicious looking box in her garden shed. Her curiosity gets the better of her and she opens it to find the heart of a three-thousand-year-old spirit called Raven, who is furious that her heart has been found and will stop at nothing to kill Annie. Now Annie must figure out how to escape the wrath of the all-powerful Raven and save herself.

When it comes to the target audience each movie goes through the British Board of Film Classification which means that each movie has a rating on it which determines the age group that can view the movie and who it is really intended for. At the start of each movie there is a sign shown such as U, PG, 12A and 12, 15, 18 AND R18. In the cinemas these are used to identify who can watch a certain movie and who isn’t due to what their age is and due to the content in the movie.

There are factors that are to be considered when determining the age group to show who is permitted to watch the movie. The factors involved are discrimination, drugs, imitable behaviour, language, nudity, sex, threat and violence.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/ [Accessed 26 Nov. 2017].

In "Insidious" the concept does the same where the demon is standing behind the victim without them knowing at all.

These stills have inspired me a lot to come up with similar ideas and to use it as a way to have the scenes introduce the spirit first without having the victim knowing.

Horror is usually rated as 15 or 18 but the classifications can vary depending on the movie itself. If the movie contains strong language and only a bit of violence, then the movie would be rated 15 but anything more than this it would be 18 and depending on all the factors involved. A movie with a lot of violence and threats and so on involved tend to be rated 18 as it is for adults and adults can determine what they like and are free to choose their own entertainment whereas if the same content was available to anyone under 18 it could cause a lot of trouble and cause a lot of threats as it could influence their minds in a negative way.

For my own film my target audience would be teenagers and adults. The classification would be 12 so that it is strictly for young children above the age of 12. The reason for this is because there is minimal violence involved but it is a movie that could scare children under the age of 12. This movie is targeted towards any gender and I wouldn’t rate it at 18 as there isn’t a lot of violence and nothing involved that could cause people to imitate the behaviour of the characters within the movie.

SHOOTING PLAN

My plan for the final photoshoot is to have two models, one played as the villain and the other being the victim. Within the photoshoot I will have a total of around 7 stills.

The costume that the villain will be wearing is a long black cloak with a black pointy end hood on top and black trainers so that it is a full black attire to match the spirit. The spirit will have a weapon which will be a type of sword and will have a skull on it and for the makeup she will have minimal makeup and a dark coloured lipstick in order to emphasise the one colour displayed out of the entire costume.

The young girl will be wearing a normal outfit to represent the role of a child. She will wear jeans, trainers, a jacket and a checked shirt.

The first photograph taken will be of the model playing the school girl. For this I’ll take a picture of the model in school uniform with a group of friends to show a brief idea of the characters story and who she is. Having a photograph in uniform will show that she is on her way to school with her friends getting on with her day and just enjoying everything around her. For this I will take a couple of shots in different angles and showing different views of the girls. It will be shot during the day to create a lighter atmosphere. I’ll be using a 18mm - 55mm for this entire photoshoot so that I am able to all sorts of angles in each shot and can easily take any close ups if I want to. My intention of this shot is to be able to portray the lifestyle of a young ordinary girl.

The next shot that I want to take is of the girl looking through her garden shed and finding a mysterious box and I would like a shot of her just finding the box first and just looking at it, curious to what it is. I would take this at night as I want to show that is where the horror begins. The trouble I may get from doing this is that if it is too dark outside the pictures might not come out right and I won’t get the right quality I want without there being a lot of noise. My intention for this shot is to be able to capture the shed which looks broken and old and show an old box in it that hasn’t been opened up in decades and to just show a young curious girl trying to find things out which ends up resulting badly.

The next still I would have been of the young girl opening the box up finally and there would be a beam out of it to emphasise how important the item inside is. The facial expressions shown on the model would show that she is shocked and surprised by what she has found and may even need to look away as it is too much to take in. To successfully do this I will use an LED light and place a green gel on top of it and this will all be placed inside the box facing up towards the model. The problems I may face with this is that the light may be too bright and not allow me to see any of the facial features of the model or I may be able to see the LED inside the box. To overcome that happening I will try and take shots at different angles making it easy to see the light on her face but not see any part of the LED. I intend to have this shot be a way to introduce the heart of the spirit which then leads to all the horror. I want to use a green gel because horror movies usually tend to have the colour green used.

After the box has been opened there will be shots of the model acting as the spirit introduced within the stills. The location of this will be at Beckton Alps at the top of the hill where there will be shots of the model in the dark and the body position will show the spirit attacking and angry. The facial expressions will support this as it will show the anger. I may also have a few silhouettes of the spirit as a simple way of introducing the character without revealing the face yet. My intention for this is just to have a couple of shots of the character alone and just to show that while the box is being opened up this is what is taking place. The background should show the view from the hill, showing that the spirit is soon going to take over the world and is already at the top ready to do what she can to get to the young girl.

The next shot will take place in a living room where the young girl will be in her house watching tv or studying, just doing what a normal school kid would do. But, the character playing the spirit is now at the window creeping up on her without her knowing a single thing just because the box has been opened by her. This will also be shot at night so that it makes it look much scarier.

The next scene would be of the young girl out late at night on her road, but the villain is right behind her following her every move and for this I will use an LED light again but with a red gel flashed onto the characters in order to show that something is going to go wrong. The body expressions of the spirit will clearly show that she is trying to capture the young girl and hurt her. The problems that could be faced are that the red light is either too bright or too low and the right amount of the light isn’t being shown on them or it isn’t in the correct angle.

The last scene I would have is of the young girl being captured and being strangled by the throat to choke her to death. The villain will be holding a weapon to show that the is going to be murdered. The point of this last shoot is to show that it doesn’t end well for the girl and to show that the weapon being at hand but the spirit only strangling could mean that after strangling her something else could happen to the victim. I will take a few pictures of close ups of the victim while she is being strangled to show the pain she is going through.

FILM PHOTO SHOOT

This first still is of the young girl playing Annie, this shot is supposed to be of her coming home from school. The reason for this is to show a little backstory of the young girl. I have taken this photograph this way to ensure that her uniform is shown, to show that she is on the road which indicates that she is clearly crossing it and to show the background and where this shot is set. It is set during the day as in horror movies that is how the beginning usually is and the lighting indicates that no horror is involved.

This next still is of the young girl doing her homework and she still has her uniform to show that she has just come back from school. Within this frame I have made sure to include the huge teddy bear at the back as a form to portray her age and show that she is just a kid.

Here I decided to take a few pictures of the actual location first to explore the setting before the actual discovery begins. Here I took a picture of the shed first that is in the garden and I used the LED light with a green gel to shine onto it to create a sort of gloomy effect. As the windows of the shed were actual just replaced as plastic and taped on I wanted to capture that and liked the fact that a bit of it was open and there’s a little gap. When editing I just changed the curves and made the shadows much darker so that the background is dark but the subject, the shed, is the brightest and most visible.

Here I took a close up of the shed and went up to the window part and decided to capture exactly how it is taped on and liked the fact that it was taped on roughly and there are no smooth edges to it. One thing I liked as part of the shot is that you can slightly see what is inside the shed itself but not quite clearly, so it makes it mysterious and makes you intrigued to know what is inside. When editing I ensured that any objects that are in the background aren’t visible in order to make it look pitch black.

Here is an image that I really like as you are able to see the shed as well as the window to a room. For the shed I used the LED light and tried to make everything outside appear to be green by using the green gel. But for the window you can see that it is all red I quite like this as it shows a sort of contrast and it also makes me feel as though something is going on inside and it is very dangerous.

These shots are when the young girl discovers the box from the shed and is examining it and trying to figure out what it is exactly. For this I told the model to make her facial expressions show that she is fascinated and curious to what the box is as it is a new object that she has seen. I used the LED light as a way to include some light that could be shown as a garden light.

In the next still, I captured this to show the young girl opening the mysterious box and finding a beam of light coming out which in the film is the heart of the spirit. In order to achieve this, I placed the LED light inside with the green gel on top and closed the flaps of the LED a bit so that not a lot of light is shining on the models face.

Here are a few pictures that didn’t work out too well as I didn’t close the sides of the LED slightly which causes all the light to appear on the models face and taking away all the features and all the background that is important away.

This is a silhouette like image that I have taken. In this picture the entire view of the city is showing, and the spirit is high above it all with body expressions ready to attack. I took this photograph at the Beckton Alps and told the model to stand on top of the hill so that the entire view can show of all the buildings lighting up. I like that the model is shown as a figure and the figure is created to be quite scary and the body is showing as well as the entire view. This is the first still that introduces the spirit, Raven.

This is a photograph of the spirit now creeping up on Annie and following her every move. This is where the spirit first follows her and is stalking her while she is in the comfort of her own home. The young girl is reading a book while the spirit is standing outside staring at her through the window. In order to be able to capture the two models I had to ensure that I took the photograph from higher up.

This is now where the spirit is inside the house without the young girl having no recognition of this whatsoever. Annie is watching tv while the spirit is standing behind her and staring at her. For this shot I haven’t done anything with the lighting and simply used the lights of the room as this isn’t where the horror begins.

This is now set outside on a pavement near the house and I am using an LED once again with the red gel and I have placed the LED behind the models and more towards where I am standing to take the shot so that shadows are created. In this still Annie is simply walking home and this time as the spirit is following her, she now has a weapon at hand ready to attack the young girl.

In this photograph the villain is standing behind the victim once again, but I have positioned myself so that the angle I am taking the photograph in captures the young girl while she is walking but we can also see the shadow of the villain in the background, showing that she is still being followed. By having the colour red shown portrays that something bad is about to happen to the young girl and the fact that the light is shining a lot onto her proves this even more and shows exactly how bad the situation evolves.

When editing I have used the burn tool to make the background darker as the car was very bright and shiny and took the attention away. One flaw with this image is that the cars are in the shot in the first place which takes the attention away from the model as she is not placed in the centre as well.

For this still the young girl has been captured and is held back by the weapon that the spirit possesses. The main intentions for this image is to focus on the facial expressions of both the characters. I took this picture close up to the victim’s face as it in an intense moment of the film. The spirit has made facial expressions which show exactly how serious she is about killing the young girl and is focused on what she has to do, and the victim's facial expressions show that she is lost with what is happening and is frightened.

For this shot the lighting on the model is purely red and this shot only focuses on her and is just a close up of her as the red represents danger and shows that her life is about to end.

This last shot is of the victim still being strangled but this time there is no longer any red light onto her as my intention is to try and show that now is where her life is ending. When editing I duplicated the layer and change the opacity and moved the duplicated layer slightly in order to create an effect and show that from the strangling the victim is starting to lose her consciousness and is starting to die.

bottom of page