The Importance of Music In Our Chosen Genre

The video above is a classic example of how sound can make anything scary, whether it's diegetic or non-diegetic, creepy music and the occasional loud scream or bang can make a horror film work. In the film "Paranormal Activity" the director limits the utilization of sound to the noises of the ghosts footsteps creaking as it walks across the hallway in search of the victim, the footsteps are incredibly well done, keeping an extremely slow pace creating tension for the audience making the final scare that bit more frightening and memorable. When it comes to dialogue, it is often more scary if the antagonist doesn't speak, I feel it gives the character a much more deranged approach, constantly making the audience wonder what on earth is going through their head, and example would me Michael Myers from "Halloween".

Considering the genre of our film is a horror, we draw influences from other films in this genre in order to make sure we know what they do right, and bring that into our short film. We take searching for the perfect music very seriously and are in the process of narrowing down a few which we feel would fit nicely into the film. One example of something we are looking for is a song that would go well with the conclusion of our film, a song which strikes fear into the audience and creates so much tension as the music grows louder in volume and faster in pace that the audience can relate to the emotions the protagonist is going through at the specific moment in time.

Initial Shooting Schedule

Thankfully, the entire group is able to attend the filming on this date and all are then able to have an input, due to the fact our entire day consists of only Media lessons.
Something that plays a huge part in our film is the weather, and something that isn't typical of a short film is for it to be shot in a snowy environment. Fortunately, winter seems to have kicked in early this year and after looking at the five day forecast we are in luck that snow is coming on December 1st.

Practice Shooting

Yesterday our group went to our location to do a practice shooting session and to show the rest of our group the location (as they were both absent from the previous lesson). The main purpose of the practice session was to test potential shots and to see if our location would work as well as we thought it would. Since Anthony Wilson was playing the main protagonist I decided that I (Jack) would film Anthony in some potential scenes. - Jack

As the main protagonist, I (Anthony) was immediately placed in the action, testing out different reactions within the initial wake up scene. Jack was extremely helpful in letting me know what worked and what didn't work within myself waking up in this strange place. Notwithstanding this we felt it would be good test out around 5 or 6 different shots within the space of around 10 seconds to decide which ones would fit well continuity wise. From low angles to POV's we needed to ensure it flowed, and that we would be able to perform it as good as, if not better, in the correct weather conditions on the day of shooting. Unfortunately, the cameras battery fell low so we proceeded back to the editing room where Jack began to edit the footage under my eye, giving out suggestions until we were pleased that this is in fact our perfect location. -Anthony

Overall I believe this was very successful as we all decided that our story/location was absolutely perfect and we thought of a lot of great camera shots and angles. While walking away from our location I thought of a great poster idea for our film and Harvey Young took the picture using his iPhone. After viewing the picture we all decided that it would be perfect for our poster. - Jack

Final Location

As a group we finally decided on the primary location of our film. We wanted to have a very creepy environment that would frightened our audience so we decided to brainstorm ideas one afternoon. After tons of discussion Anthony and I thought it would be a good idea to film in some woods behind the school. We planned on using this location last year for 'Deceit' however after discussing it further the group decided on not using it as it didn't really suit our storyline. However we feel this location is absolutely perfect for our production this time round as it is extremely eerie and we believe it will really help to scare our audience which is a task we are trying to accomplish because our film is a Horror. It is also very reminiscent of a location from one of our influences 'The Village' where the director (M.Night Shymalan) turned normal woods into a very frightening and haunted place.

Fortunately these woods are very close to all of our homes and each one of us can get there very easily. We will probably walk to this location but Michael can drive so we can get to other locations via his car if we need to. As stated before the woods are behind Shenfield High School but can also be accessible behind McDonalds. There are many areas within these woods that we plan on using for scenes which I have marked on the picture below.

Diary of Shooting Combined with Location Hunting

November 25th - Jack and I decided it would be a good idea to look at one of the potential locations of our film. Although local to the school we feel it is fairly remote and will in-turn create that creepy, isolated feel we are going for with our film.

After visting the location Jack and I were extremely impressed with the potential of shots we could use. I took multiple pictures using the camera on my phone in order to show the members of our group who were not present, and to also refer back to in giving ideas for potential shots.

Upon walking towards the location we were shocked at how creepy the thin pathway was that we were walking down, with a somewhat dark entrance into the woods. We thought that there is a lot we could do in this pathway and anything could jump out from anywhere. This is something we could use in our film, whilst it still being surrounded by trees meaning it fits well into the location and in turn wont confuse the audience.

When we finally arrived to the potential location we were pleased at how open it seemed, notwithstanding all the tall creepy trees where almost anything could hide and jump out from, giving us plenty of ideas. The branches also seemed to be at different heights, giving an uneven feel to the location and thus giving the audience the impression that something isn't quite normal.

Jack and I also noticed the high amount of changes in terrain, from completely flat surfaces to hills and multiple humps in the ground, there is a lot we could do with this. All this supported with the light coming through the trees and leaves giving the ominous feel to the shots we use, perhaps giving an impression that something is trying to escape this place but instead is trapped and surrounded by the barriers of trees.

I stumbled across a tree covered in barbed wire, I feel it worthwhile to use this as an enigma for our audience. It also reinforces the idea that the character is trapped, as you would be if you were trying to escape a place surrounded by barbed wire. Also, the fact that it's there could make the audience wonder if someone has been to this place before, and if so who tormented the people here with the wire.

Jack and I also stumbled across a piece of metal laying on the ground, we felt it a perfect object for the main character to wake up on. Our initial idea was to use a beaten up mattress but we feel this metal works well in indicating this is a harsh place providing no comfort or luxury, only suffering. Jack proceeded to willingly carry the metal up the hill and placed it in front of a tree, after viewing it from a different angle we noticed where it has been place looked somewhat like a tombstone, which in many ways supports the ending of our film. We look to use this exact shot and hope the audience notices this.

On the walk back we noticed a rather eerie looking stream at the bottom of a hill, the stream had a broken branch of a tree over it. Jack and I decided that we could somehow squeeze this shot into the film, with the broken branch it symbolises some sort of destruction in this overall peaceful area with the water trickling down. We could also create a shot using the reflection of the water and something subtlety walking past, without drawing too much attention to it we create a large talking point and something memorable for our viewers.

Overall, we were extremely pleased with this location and will think very seriously about making this the ideal location of our A2 Media Studies Film.

By Anthony Wilson

Discussing New Ideas

Jack and I decided to get together and record a discussion about what its like taking everything on board for a new film:

What sparked our idea

Initially we found it difficult to come up with our story. as a group we found that even after brain storming sessions we clearly had nothing at all, so we tried several workshop techniques in order to come up with a few ideas. One of those workshops was to do everything one step at a time, so we would go around in a circle just stating one location setting that could be considered interesting and noting it down. We then proceeded to make notes of random characters that could be our protagonist and then listed a few random props we could include. Although this workshop proved to be productive we were unable to actually come up with an Idea as the due date of the coursework stated to come closer and closer we realised we were now desperate for an idea so as a group we decided to all take the weekend to think of possible controlling ideas and once we had decided on that we would then go on to think about how we would work around and present the chosen controlling idea.

It was then we all reported back with several different ideas ranging from a zombie outbreak, post apocalyptic mission to a conscious state in which the protagonist is haunted by death. The final idea we decided to take up was the last one, the idea of a man trapped within his own consciousness possibly in limbo or some kind of conscious state in which he finds he has in fact passed away. It is difficult to describe the film because it would involve ruining the story which would truly rob the films final effect on the audience.

The film is constantly developing by the style in which we film, we may go out and film very short sequences then retreat back to the editing suite to perfect that sequence. During this process of filming and editing we are constantly coming up with ideas that we can add the the film so the final piece really is shaping up to be something special that we are all going to be proud of.

Planning Diary 1

Week 1
In the first week of blogging we straight away decided we were going to create a short film, and this affected our blog as within the first we had already completely two blogs based around the subject of short films one entitled "What is a Short Film?" which after reading through again had confirmed that this was the route we wanted to take, and we then began to incorperate these ideas into our blog by posting more information based on short films. Whilst Harvey took information on our AS blog in order to help make our A2 blog a much better standard.

Week 2
The second week consisted of more ideas based around short films, diving in deeper into research of short films, until we finally used our first example of a possible influence in "Pixar Short Films" of which we would discuss what they did well in order to make their films such an outstanding success. We then proceeded to gain some brief information on previous short films we have seen, for example "About a Girl" and attempted to put across more information about typical codes and conventions as they are used first hand in a short film. Through these blogs we came up with our first "Initial Ideas" post, something we can look back on and take influence from.

Week 3
This week we began to take down some research based around short film festivals, to give an idea where abouts our film would be shown and who would go to see it with our post on intended audiences. These two posts work hand in hand and are very helpful at giving more impressions of our audience. Another 3 posts were put on blogger this week surrounding influences, based on both short films and full length films. These posts help us in decided what genre we are looking to take for our film which led us into writ ting another post around initial ideas, with the influence of our previous post we decided to explore the genre of horror, a mood board is used to emphasize the post and confirm that we are currently basing our film around the genre of horror. Jack Windsor then began to analyse the AS film saying what we could do in order to create a better film this year and proceeded to write a post surrounding media technology, consisting with the idea that we would include HD cameras. This could be linked to Harvey Young's post surrounding the idea of visual art and sound.

Week 4
This week Michael and I took the ghost idea very serious and began to think up some more information on it, including locations and costumes. Jack then posted a blog based on the genre of the film, what type of music we would incorperate into it and then expanded on a possible idea for the location of the film that as a group we decided would work. After coming up with what would be in the film this lead me to write a blog on pieces of iconorgraphy we would incorperate into the film based on the controlling idea of ghosts.

After recieving critisisms on the ghost idea Jack came up with the idea of Limbo, something that our recent posts have been based around. After coming up with some ideas with Jack i proceeded to create a mood board of what we could bring in to the film and use such images to influence us. We then had a few issues based around the controlling idea, whether we would surround it around Limbo or Purgatory, two very simular themes which we blogged about the meanings of. Michael then created a Risk Assessement sheet to ensure we knew what we were getting ourselves into with the film.

How we classify our film

It was tough for us to determine exactly what genre our film slides into but after research into various other genres and hybrids I can confirm that our film is now classified as a horror. I looked into the controlling ideas and fundamentals concepts of our film and was able to compare them with other films to clarify exactly what kind of short film it is.
One of the films I compared it to was Donnie Darko which is a psychological thriller. One of the aspects that I thought linked Donnie Darko to our own film is the use of sound as well as the use of imagery. It is difficult to explain but basically the way the film uses the Rabbit “frank” is in an ominous manner, they don’t always make it obvious that he is on screen he is often subtly in the background.

The fact that you don’t quite see him at first makes it even more chilling when you finally realise he is there. That method linked up with the correct use of sound provides an amazing effect on the audience of both fear and tension much like the shocking sequences in Shutter Island.

Questionaire

Even though we pretty much know who are target audience are, we wanted to conduct this questionaire to find out how are audience could view our film. Because short films only have a small audience we thought it was crucial to find out in what ways our audience were prepared to watch our film.

By Jack Windsor

Risk assessment

Throughout this project we will encounter many safety hazards. We do not want to harm ourselves, others or our equipment. Therefore we will take makes to ensure the safety of each of those aspects.

By Michael Holttum

Costumes

For our main protagonists we decided that he should represent the every man. This will allow our audience to relate with the main character as he is not a macho man or something over the top, but simply just a everyday regular normal guy caught in a weird situation. Anthony Wilson and I discussed what the every man should look like and decided on a shirt and tie. One of influences "Shaun of the Dead" put the main protagonist who was just an average guy into a strange situation. We drew ideas from this film and liked that the main protagonist was wearing a shirt and tie showing that he was prepared to do his job but was put into an out of the ordinary situation.

While discussing the storyline of our film we came up with the idea that our main character can stumble across the Grim Reaper. The Grim Reaper is essentially Death personified and he can kill people by just touching them. His job is to bring newly deceased people to the afterlife. The Grim Reaper is essentially a skeleton who wears a black hooded cloak and carries a huge scythe. We believe this character will fit perfectly into our film as he will scare our audience and advance our storyline further. We all decided it will probably make more sense if we purchase a Grim Reaper outfit instead of making one as this will be a long process which could end up failing. We put aside a budget of £20 to find a suitable costume that hopefully will not seem hilarious to the audience.

Anthony Wilson and I stumbled across this site http://www.allfancydress.com/Fancy-Dress-Costume/12624/Grim-Reaper-Costume.aspx while looking for Grim Reaper costumes. None of them really drew our attention except for one which we thought could be quite effective. It is different from the traditional Grim Reaper where he is depicted as a skeleton as this costume is just a black cloaked figure. We feel this will be extremely effective when in used conjuctionwith the right lighting. Below is the costume that we are planning on using.

The choice between Purgatory and Limbo

Purgatory is the process of purification or temporary punishment in which the souls of those who have died are made ready to go to heaven.

Limbo is seen as the temporary place for those who died with a friendship of god, but may not enter heaven until redemption is given by Jesus Christ.

Although in context these two ideas are very similar, we need to come up with our controlling idea for our film. We need to ensure that we know exactly what we are getting ourselves into, as both ideas can certainly be portrayed in different ways, and if we aren't really sure what our controlling idea is, then the audience will struggle to understand the film.

After much consideration and many discussions the group and I have decided to go the way of limbo. The idea that our protagonist is damned in this place and is unable to leave until redemption is given, we feel there's a lot we can do with this idea and we would toy with it giving our own stamp on it with man twists and shocks to appeal to our intended audience. One thing that we feel really made limbo seem that little bit more interesting is the belief that it is possible that you don't know how long you will be dammed in this place and at any point you can be sent to an eternity in hell, something we will be taking note of when deciding the finale of our short film.

Anthony Wilson

Our Pitch

Below is a video that we made before production. We all explain to a certain extent the entire plan for our film. We describe the key foundation of the controlling idea and play with several other ideas in order to intrigue the possible investing entertainment company. Below is part 1 and 2 of the Pitch

A Pre Filming Discussion

Below is a video of me and jack just discussing various ideas we have for our film. This is an important video because it represents our initial ideas that me and Jack had for a film and we find it very constructive to look back at this and compare what we wanted to do to our final product.

Final story board - rough

This is a early stage and rough idea of our story board. It will not include individual shots.


Beginning - Anthony wakes up

- Anthony wondering around looking confused

- Anthony purchasing the drugs

- Harvey telling Ant what to do

- Anthony sees his own dead body

End - Loop of Anthony waking up again

I will uplaod storyboard later

More Short Film Ideas

After recieving criticism for our 'Ghost stories' idea, we tried to think of some more possible ideas. I (Jack Windsor) thought it would be a good idea if we set the story in Limbo. Essentially Limbo is where a good person goes after they die but have not been allowed to go to Heaven for a certain reason. We decided to base the story around this idea but still wanted to add a twist to the end like previously discussed.

We got our inspiration for the possible plot from films like 'The Sixth Sense' and from numerous video games. I told this idea to my group and they all quite liked it. Anthony Wilson came up with many great ideas for the plot after I told him about the basic premise and after further discussion Anthony and I came with a great twist ending. Although I personally like this idea I need to make sure that other members of my group also want to use this idea instead of ones that we previously discussed.

Below is a moodboard Anthony created:


By Anthony Wilson and Jack Windsor

Iconography That Influences Ideas For Our Film

Despite the fact that the clip above is real footage from a documentary surrounding The Real Amityville Horror, of which I viewed on television recently, I managed to find the clip I found quite startling and I feel as a group we can use this as inspiration to influence our short film, and create a piece of iconography surrounding ghost children, something that is seen by audiences as incredibly scary mainly due to the view of children being sweet and innocent. The idea links strongly to our controlling idea. This is an extremely bold move which we believe we can pull off with subtle scares, For example, a ghost peering out from a doorway directly into the camera, almost as if it is staring directly at the audience is something that we can used to full effect and have the audience frozen in fear.

Another piece of iconography we are looking to use is that of a flash light,the clip above shows how one of our influences, director M.Night Shymalan uses the prop in the film Signs. As a group we feel the way in which this is used is something we would love to achieve with our film. The use of the high angle shot showing actor Mel Gibson alone in the dark, eerie setting slowly scanning the environment with the flash light looking for anything odd creates tension for the audience and also gives off plenty of enigmas making the audience wonder what is out there. Also, the use of the first person perspective used with a hand held camera is something we are looking to use, as he shines the flash light on the point of the scare, making it visible to the audience supported by the high pitch of music causes the audience to react in a fearful manner.

By Anthony Wilson

Possible Location

We draw a lot of inspiration from films such as 'Paranormal Activity 1 & 2' and 'The Amityville Horror' and all of these are horror films set in a house. We feel like using a house has been used some much and decided against it in favour of filming somewhere original. Harvey Young suggested we use a warehouse or a shed and as a group we all took this into consideration. The strengths of using a warehouse/shed is that it is quite original and has really not been done before. However we would need to look for a rather large warehouse/shed otherwise it would be very cramped if we used a small one. We all discussed the possible of filming in the woods but decided against it because:

1. It felt very unoriginal and may make our film seem amateurish
2. Because we are filming in the Winter we haven't got enough time to film in the woods as it will get dark quickly and we won't really be able to bring our own lighting.

As a group we still haven't fully decided on a location however the warehouse idea is looking like the best option right now until we think of something better. Harvey Young suggested we use his Garden/Shed to film and currently we are looking into this. The advantages of this are that because a member of our group owns this piece of land we will be able to film there whenever we want and as long as we need too. Also if needed we could bring our own source of lightning as we are literally right next to Harvey's house. However we still need to take this location into consideration and is may not flow with our story.

Jack Windsor

Music

Music is a very important factor for us if we decide to go down the Horror route. This is because in almost all Horror films the music drastically enhances the tension and the overall feel of the scene/movie. Its also a huge contributor to making the movie scary. For example if you watch a Horror scene without the music it's not scary, however if you just listen to the music and don't watch the scene its still very scary.

For our production to be successful we need to make sure we use music that really does it job well and doesn't feel tacked on and sound cheesy. Someone in our group suggested we try to compose our own composition using a piano, however after discussion we found that this could be a long and risky task that probably isn't worth trying. This is because it would take many hours to create a piece of music that may just end up sounding ridiculous.

Most likely we will end up going with copyright free music from sites like www.freeplaymusic.com which we have use previously for last years media task. It is a decent website which is very user friendly and has hundreds of songs avaliable for free download. The website is sorted into different categories such as "Moody/Dark" or "Joyful" so it is easy to find music that will relate to our film. Last year we didn't really spend too much time looking for music and just used the first song that grabbed our attention. However this year we will need to comb through the website and try many different possiblities to make sure we use music that is most suited to our film.

Once we have found the right piece of music for our film there are also many techniques we can use to do things such as enhance the tension. For example if we were to have a murder scene in our film we could set the music to slowly increase in volume over time leading up to the kill. We could also mute the volume right before the kill and as soon as the killer strikes bring the music back in at a louder volume. There are many different possiblities for our group to try and we will need to experiment with a lot them to make our film as scary as possible.

Jack Windsor

Doodle Bug - Textual Analysis

Immediately the audience can see the title screen as it fades in stating the words "doodle bug", eyes appear to replace the two o's as they quickly shift around in a somewhat paranoid fashion, instantly making the audience wonder if these eyes belong to the main protagonist in the film, and whether the movement of the eyes relate to the man's feeling within the film. The darkness around the title begins to disappear as the camera slowly zooms out to show a man sitting in a room with extremely low key lighting crouched down looking extremely on edge. The close up on the man's face is apparent and in some ways suggests the idea of the enclosed setting that this man is in, giving a claustrophobic feel to the film. The sound track begins to grown in volume in an extremely dark and eerie fashion, giving away the genre of the film and suggesting that it is in fact a horror. Continuity editing is then used to show the man diving from the first long take onto the floor as he hears some diegetic scurrying across the floor, hit hits his shoe on the floor with a loud bang suggestion he is trying to attack something. This entire sequence gives the audience the assumption that he is trying to catch a bug of some sorts, relating the images on screen directly back to the title. The camera then proceeds to slowly pan around the room as he looks somewhat exacted as his facial expression suggest, until he reveals there is nothing underneath the shoe and he begins to looks worried.

The man then jumps up as the camera shows the man in a close up as it slowly pans around the worried man revealing a clock in the background. An extreme close up is then used on the clock as the diegtic sounds of it ticking appear much louder than the non-diegetic music within the film. Perhaps suggesting that the man is running out of time as the tension slowly begins to increase. The sound of a phone ringing breaks up the tension and relates directly back to the horror genre as it causes a scare for the viewer, a close up is then used to reveal the phone as he picks it up and places it back onto the table. As he faintly begins to hear a voice on the other end he begins to look afraid, so he proceeds to place the phone into a glass of water, almost as if he is trying to drown out the sound. The low key lighting is constant as the man begins to slouch over in a somewhat animalistic way, making his movement very primitive and violent. The camera then cuts back over the another clock ticking, once more relating back to the previous clock and suggesting time is running out.

The mise en scene of the man's clothing is extremely dirty, linking to his environment that appears to be just as unclean. His clothing doesn't seem to properly fit him suggesting he doesn't care about how he looks as he wastes away within this dark room. An extreme close up is used onto the phone once more, showing it within the water, as the camera suddenly cross cuts back to the man as he jumps over a dingy chair onto the floor, he proceeds to slam his shoe on the floor in a very violent fashion, linking him back to the point made previous   about his primitive movement. The man then proceeds to turn and face the camera as a long take is used showing him hugging his shoe in a way, suggesting he is becoming more and more emotional and is alone and has been for some time. An extreme close up is used of something which is shown rather unclear as it runs into frame and out of frame extremely quickly, the camera then cuts back tot he man with a shot from behind a chair, suggesting its from the thing that was running's point of view. The man runs over to it and violently slams his shoe against the floor as the unknown thing scurries through his legs covered by a towel, creating the tension more as well as enigmas, making the audience wonder what is under it. The position of the camera doesn't change as the man looks under his legs at thing thing running, this shot alone sums the character up as an extremely odd person, showing him upside down.

A high angle shot is shown onto the main protagonist as his lifts up the cloth suggesting the man is in danger. He then reveals a small man, the camera then cuts to a low angle shot of the main protagonist as he shows his power onto the smaller man and begins to attempt stomping on it, with the use of match on action. As the smaller man dives on the floor the main protagonist copies him, he then sees the small man crush something on the floor through an over the shoulder, a close up is used on the man's face as he pulls his arm back and crushes the smaller man from the over the shoulder perspective. As the camera shows the man smiling at his success a man's face appears into frame smiling until he finally proceeds to crush the main protagonist with a shoe, revealed by an extreme close up of the shoe itself, the non diegtic music begins to settle in an eerie fashion as the credits role.



The short film doodle bug has a controlling idea of a never ending cycle, the fact that the ending loops and that this man is trapped within this dark place as the kill is constantly looped is something that as a group we are influenced by, and look to achieve something alone these lines.

Potential costumes and props

For our film we were considering using a little girl in a red coat. This is because we think the colour red signifies danger, and in a horror film this makes things even scarier for the audience. It’s also a huge contrast for the audience as a little girl in a red coat seems very cute and innocent, and as it’s a horror the audience will know that something will happen to her.

Colour coding is very important in any film production for example, in a horror film there would stereotypically be low key lighting and dark colours, and this sets the mood for the audience helping understand our message.

Also for our film we are considering using a man in a black woolly hat. The mise en scene, colour coding this hat gives the character a mysterious and scary persona, it also gives the impression he has something to hide.

By Michael Holttum

Initial ideas for Settings and Locations

Throughout the blogging process our film idea has been constantly changing, causing the setting and location to change. An idea I myself find very interesting would be that of a film surrounding the theme of ghosts, and in order to make this a success the surrounding location has to be somewhat scary and haunting. One thing we most definitely are looking to achieve is that even in everyday life scary occurences can happen, we feel this will result in a much better reaction and hopefully make it stay on the audiences mind even after the film.

Considering we draw such inspiration from films that include the theme of ghosts, its clear to see that most films surrounding this theme are set in a house for example, The Amityville Horror and The Haunting. I myself feel that using a setting that everyone can relate to in turn makes the film that little bit more unsettling. By using a house, a place that is often seen as a place of security and safety we feel we will be breaking the stereotype of this, giving the audience the impression that they aren't even safe in their own home.

As a group a huge decision we have to come up with is whether we are going to use more than one location in our film. Something we are not looking to do is over complicate our short film mainly due to the fact that we do not have as much time to make everything clear, so by using just one location, i.e the house, we can insure that the audience is enticed into this one evil place, so the horror doesn't stop throughout, Paranormal Activity was able to put this across extremely well, keeping the audience on edge with fear. If we do in fact decide to use multiple locations and settings we will have to make the extremely relevant and in a way must link to the house, for example, the houses garden which could be extremely scary with the use of a flash light, only lighting up a small part of the screen, however, even with the flash light the lighting could be rather hard in a garden, especially as the film would take place at night time. If we do finally decide to go with the location of a house, we need to ensure that the film doesn't at all look amateur, and not like a low budget student film that isn't even remotely scary. We will need to use the lighting of the house to our advantage to ensure that the film is extremely creepy by the use of dim lit rooms, with the occasional scare which will be rather subtle, e.g the occasional bang or sighting of a ghost, supported by that slow and somewhat eerie music playing throughout until the films finale which will be both memorable and scary.

By Anthony Wilson

London short film festival

In January 2011 between the 7th and the 16th London will be holding its' 8th annual short film festival

There is a competition where anyone, a student or a middle aged man could submit their short film. The short films are then short listed and short listed again until the best one is found, how this is done is by letting the public and recognisable figures in the industry view them and criticise and enjoy them

The last short film festival in London (2010) was won by Tom Geens, he directed “You’re the stranger here”

2010 Facts & Figures

• Over 6000 tickets sold
• 42 events across 10 days and 10 venues
• 75% of events sold to capacity
• 8 major media partners and 16 creative programme partners
• Over 200 films screened

“The best short film festival in the world” – Guardian Guide

By Michael Holttum