Research and Pre-Production
Initial Aims – My idea was to make a Short Horror Film, it was heavily inspired by a shot film directed by David F. Sandburg called ‘Light’s Out’. I planned on changing some scenes included in the original, however I planned on reusing some of the shots as they worked very well for my idea. My Short film is called ‘Don’t Look’, the premise is the standard “Guy in room, alone minding his own business until a noise disrupts what he’s doing. Monster pops out of the shadows and kills guy.” It’s rather generic but for the limitations I have it works to my benefit. And as I previously stated it’ll act as a fun challenge.
Target audience – Due to having many different ideas I planned for my target audience to range from 13yrs and above, any gender but as I changed and removed ideas my target audience and age range changed as well, until I was decided on my final idea. ‘Don’t Look’. I landed on my target audience being any age 12 and above with any any gender too, as I believe that this would be the standard theatrical age rating for this project were it to be full length.
Pre-production – I recognise that the research I conducted was lacking some what, however I planned on remedying that by including Harvard References, which I did. Additionally, I provided a video link to the abovementioned short film Directed by David F. Sandburg called ‘Lights Out’. An aspect that I could have improved, on was the lack of video references, as I had only provided one, this being the short film mentioned above. I could have found similar shorts films to convey the overall tone and mood that I was trying to emulate. This may have provided a clearer picture of the overall end product I was trying to achieve.
Planning – I was able to develop my ideas though the use of milanote, a website that is used for planning out short films or bigger productions. With this website I made a mood board allowing me to draw upon different inspirations and allow me to establish an over all mood for the project. In this mood board I also added a lighting style that I believed would best fit the tone and mood the a horror short film. To help me further I watched a YouTube video by ‘Tomorrow Filmmakers’ that goes through and explains the nuances of how to best light a scene in almost any condition. In addition to the video, I also read through an article that explained in greater detail lighting techniques the use of colour and tone in relation to expressing the mood of different genres.
Storyboard – When it came to storyboarding, this is one part of the project that I found particularly enjoyable as it was something that I found relatively natural. It required me to draw upon my pre-existing skills, developed through my hobby of drawing, reading Manga and photography. I planned to use my storyboard as a reference point for both my crew and myself. This helped the crew and myself (director) establish camera placements and when to use different lenses for different shot and lighting requirements. This also helped me to compose and adjust shots as and when those adjustments were required.
Furthermore, referring back to the storyboard it enabled me to understand the perspective of both the camera and the subject of the shot, by visualising it from an outside perspective. I was able to adjust and keep tracks of changes as needed during both the production and post production processed, through the use of editing notes which I incorporated into the storyboard.
Foley – To help with the work flow I decide to gather foley first, using my own equipment as opposed to downloading the sounds and effects online, only downloading a two sound effects that being the opening rain sfx and the video audio. To gather the sound I used a Rode VideoMic NTG and connected it to my smartphone. All sounds that were used in the short are diegetic. An example of this would be the YouTube video that is being played throughout the short, the actual audio of it can be heard.
Location scout – Having lived in this house for 20 years I was able to identify the best parts of the house that I thought would make an effective back drop to my short. I was able to use my bedroom, easily with minimal adjustments and was already aware of the environment and how the room responded to different kinds of lighting. I already have a good understanding of the dimensions of this room and I kept this knowledge in mind when storyboarding the short.
The location was quite limiting, in that the room is very small and only a limted amount of physical space was available to use. I intended to maximise the utility of the room by utilising almost any and all free space I have available e.g. shelfs used as make-shift tripods. The involvement of limited crew on this project is largely due to the fact that I am not especially confident in asking others for large amounts of help and did not want to disrupt anyone else’s productions. Despite this I had the help of my brothers, all of whom were perfectly willing to help. Personally I found the challenge of using a restrictive location and limited crew as something fun. In retrospect, I regret not having made and shared the timeline slightly earlier in the process, as that would have helped me plan out specific days for filming. This way I would have been able to film more efficiently and in turn it would’ve helped with keeping the reshoots as consistent as possible in regards to shot composition, lighting and continuity ect. This also would have helped my brothers while they assisted me filming, as they could have scheduled their own time free time around my timeline to help. Despite this lack of foresight we managed to push through and complete the short with only a few hiccups.
Production and Post-Production
I had tried my best to make weekly updates. I would sometimes substitute them for video updates, of which I made two. This way I could demonstrate what and how I was able to do something. e.g. capturing foley. I have shown how I captured the door creak and the computer sounds. It was a fun way to provide evidence. I learned a surprising amount from gathering my own foley, an example of this, would be my learning how to ‘treat’ my surroundings. This means to do my best to dampen as much background noise as possible in turn removing any reverb. I did this by using my thick items of clothing and cushions, placing them around the microphone and the subject, making sure to hold my breath and record when the house was and everyone was quiet. If I or my family did make any noise I made sure to do another take as well as edit together the cleanest takes.
Problems – During the production process, there was an unexpected equipment malfunction, namely the arm of my tripod becoming dethatched and there being no way or reattach it.
This made it extremely difficult to make any kind of fast, smooth pans or tilts. I had to rework two of my planned shots around this, as they required a fast but short whip pan to the subject (me). I reworked the first scene so there was limited movement. My brother held the tripod by the quick release plate, using that as a holding point. This was changed from a moving shot to a static shot of my character. It was later edited to have a slow zoom in, as the lens I used was a prime lens and that type of lens doesn’t have zooming capabilities. I will discuss this in greater length later. I believe that despite the setback of the tripod arm breaking I managed to do a good job of finding a solution and making the original shots work.
Editing – I edited my project in DaVinci Resolve 18. During the process of editing the short I was able to further familiarise and develop my skills within the program, stepping out of my comfort zone and teaching myself previously unknown skills e.g. Masking, colour correction and audio editing. The opening scene is of an apartment building, it is stock footage that I found on Artlist.io, which is where I also found the opening music. This was a static shot, however the way I edited the shot gave it the illusion of being dynamic, editing the scene by adding a slight but noticeable zoom in, to add some tension. I timed the zoom with the crescendo of the music before the shot and scene changed, breaking any tension that was there and replacing it with a slight unease as my character closes the bedroom door. The sound of the door opening was edited to over pronounce the creaks and squeals of the door handle. I wanted the door handle and the creaking sound to be overwhelming and sudden to create an effect similar to a jump scare which would be an anti-climax. This way the audience would be on edge and have a false sense of security. For a horror short this is exactly where I would want the audience to be. I implemented quite a few J cuts throughout out the short film. An example of this can be seen in the scene of me standing up to close the door, as can be seen from 1:34 – 1:49 in the film. The diegetic sound of the video what the main character watches slowly builds up at approx. 4 seconds before the scene actually changes. This once again brings the audience back to that false sense of security. This may seem counter intuitive, to repeatedly undercut the tension. However with this being the second time that the main character closes the door conveys to the audience that something isn’t right. The POV (point of view) of the camera is supposed to be that of the monster, only for that specific sequence as referenced above. The lighting also helps to add to the overall tension and atmosphere. For that particular scene I was purposefully back lit, this obscured my face, creating a rim light around the back of my head. This specific scene has many examples of film techniques, that is way I am using that particular scene.
Monster – I had many ideas for the monster design but there was a key element that I wanted to keep throughout all the iterations, that being the glowing eyes. The main challenge in realising this design was finding a way to achieve the glowing eye effect. I know my VFX knowledge is very limited so that was not a realistic option for me in this project. Luckily however, there I was able to study a ‘making of ‘ video by the creator of ‘Lights Out’ short horror film from which I took inspiration. The breakdown showcased how the director achieved certain effects and the glowing eyes effect which I was emulating being one of them. David F. Sandburg’s glowing eye effect was purely practical, using reflective tape cut out into an eye shape and sticking it on the eyelids of the monster actor then using a dim flashlight to bounce light off the tape. I implemented this technique in my project and used some light use of VFX on top. The VFX included cutting out and tracking the reflective tape then adding a light ray and light trail effect, this enhanced the glowing effect. I was able to develop my skills in masking elements out, further increased my experience in the use of VFX, by portraying my own interpretation of the monster featured in the original short film.
Peer assessment
What was good about the Film?
Leon ‘I liked the Horror Elements because it showed the Effect of a short horror film’
Henry ‘I loved the simplicity of no spoken words in the script, while on a small budget you still managed to make the film scary enough.’
Shumona ‘The tension created was great and captures the audiences attention. It was a perfect short horror film.
What could’ve been improved?
Leon ‘Could’ve been longer, more of a story line.’
Henry ‘Could add more to the audio, more effects, more ambience.’
Shumona ‘Wish it was longer and had more story/ context’
How would you rate the quality?
Leon 8/10 ‘because the short amount of time gives it the horror effect but it could’ve been longer’
Henry 7/10 ‘the Camera quality was very impressive and you showed an understanding in film making and pure creativity
Shumona ‘Quality was 10/10 even if it was filmed in the dark, you can see film well and the audio was very crisp’
Viva
I confirm that the attached assessment is all my own work and does not include any work completed by anyone other than myself and sources have been appropriately referenced.