LIVE EVIL: The Tag-line

In total I came up with four different tag-lines for my movie. As partners me and Anika narrowed it down to only two, discarding the rest which were 'when life imitates art' and 'Keep your friends close but your enemies closer'.

Both of the tag-lines we decided on, in my opinion have their own positive aspects for example:

• Death is amongst us: This tag-line is short and snappy which allows it to be easy to remember. It also reflects what happens in the film since the killer is somebody that has always been around the victims, causing her to be somebody that nobody would suspect of. However in our film, the killer is never really seen amongst the victims, the audience is only given hints that they are friends and hang out together. This could cause the tag-line to serve as a warning for the audience and making them a part of 'us' instead.
• Keep your enemies away, but your friends even further: Unlike the previous tag-line this one directly addresses the cause of 
  disequilibrium 
  within the film, since it hints at the possible role the main character's friend might play in the movie. An additional positive aspect of this tag-line is that it gives a clever twist to the proverb "keep your friends close but your enemies even closer", it's meaning is transformed in order to make it more relevant to my film. 

http://www.tagxedo.com/artful/8926ae54bd504ba0 

So far we haven't made up our minds on which one to choose, but the second option currently stands out the most for us.
We will decided on which one to use after we hear how they sound on our trailer.

TRAILER: Sound Effects

Despite the FinalCut program providing me with a large library of sound effects, I decided to look online for other sounds as well that I can use not only in my film but also in my film trailer.
Http://soundbible.com/ was one of the websites I came across. Here I was able to find royalty free sound effects for my film that were eerie and matched my movie perfectly. One of the effect I found was the sound of ravens. Despite our microphones picking up a great amount of quality ambient sounds during the cemetery scenes, I could still use this for other scenes where the ambient sounds weren't that scary for example the walking scene where not much can be heard apart from cars.




Another sound effect I found was of a killer movie scene. I really liked how it builds up and ends with a 'bam' that repeats and fades. I think this sound would be highly suitable for the killing scene at the end of the movie, since the scene fades to black and the bam can replace the actual sound of the hitting.


An additional sound effect I found was called 'Poltergeist sound'. Despite this sound not  being very suitable for my film since it sounds very supernatural which isn't what my movie is focused on. The beginning can still be used to set the scene on my movie trailer since it sound eerie and distorted.

TRAILER: Initial Idea for the Trailer Script

KEY:  Movie extract        Voiceover          Sound effect

Beginning Version 1:

When a DVD of a film/a package arrives at her door,(sound of DVD passing through the letter box) from an unknown sender, Rebecca Lucky discovers that this was no ordinary DVD.....

This film was more than just a movie......

...It was her life sentence.

“What do you think is going to happen- they’re dead!” - Bob (followed by a scary sound effect associated with the killer in the movie)

Beginning Version 2:

There was a knock on the door (knock)

Nothing but a DVD was found (wind blows)

But Rebecca Lucky discovers that this was no ordinary DVD.....

"Oh no, oh no" - Rebecca

"Bob where are you" - Rebecca (dull thud)

"Kevin comeback" - Rebecca (foot steps)

This film was more than just a movie......

“What do you think is going to happen-they're dead!” - Bob (followed by a scary sound effect associated with the killer in the movie)

“It’s not funny where are you” - Rebecca

...it was here life sentence. (eerie music)

But is running really enough when your lost and alone (scary ambient sound in the background)

"Where’s Amber she’s supposed to be here?" - Rebecca

"Rebecca are you feeling lucky?" - Amber

"Ahhhhhhh!" - Rebecca .......(silence)

So.. do YOU feel lucky... in cinemas Friday the 13^th of July....[name of film said in a scary way] [Tag-line]

This is the initial script that me and my partner Anika put together. We decided to incorporate a lot of dialogue from the movie in order to allow characters in the film to tell the story and mirror what the narrator is saying. Additionally we wanted to provide the viewer with a more intense experience when listening to the trailer and allow them to create an image of what is going on using the sound extracts from the film.

POSTER:Analysis of my Initial Idea

This is the analysis of an initial sketch I did for my poster. Here I talk about why particular things are placed in certain places and the meanings the poster is trying to convey to the audience about the film and company.

POSTER: House of Wax Review

The house of wax horror film poster from mseabarbosa

One of the things I learned from analyzing this film poster is that sometimes less is more, meaning that the background doesn't need to be full of effects and images, it can just be a single colour and still create a dramatic and eerie effect.

Source 1 Source 2

POSTER: In Their Skin Poster Review

Poster Review from mseabarbosa

Before reviewing a film poster that appealed to me and my film I decided to look online for a film poster that was considered successful, and came across this website:www.impawards.com. A total of 5 film posters were nominated for the best horror movie poster of 2012 and the final winner was the poster for the film 'In their skin,' so I decided to review it in order to see why it was successful and gain some inspiration or tips.

Overall I found that this poster rather than presenting the viewer with  graphic images of what the film is about by incorporate horror film conventions such as expressions with fear, blood and some kind of supernatural creature.

It went for a more subtle approach that generates fear on the audience because of its  calm  and normal image appearance of the characters within it.

Final Filming Day in My House

Today was the final filming day for my film 'Live Evil'. The filming took place from 4:00pm to 5:35pm at my house and this time I had to complete the filming on my own without Anika because she had a doctor's appointment. However we still kept in touch on the phone, especially since I needed to know what her log in details were in order for me to get her part of the film onto the DVD.
We were unable to film these scenes previously because they required us to edit what we had already filmed first, since the footage would be used in the scenes when the characters watch the 'film'.
Today I encountered various problems when filming which required me to come up with quick solutions in order to prevent filming from stopping or going over the scheduled time.

These are the problems I had to resolve:
1) Burning filming onto a DVD: Since we decided that splitting up the editing between us would be a good idea since it would speed up the editing process, I needed to log into Anika's computer to access her section of the film in order to burn the entire film (what we have edited so far) onto the DVD. In this case the problem arised when I realised that the new iMac's didn't contain a DVD drive yet, so I decided to use the old iMacs. Unfortunately I was unable to log into my account since my user had been transferred to the new computers. This meant that I could no longer burn the film onto a DVD but filming still needed to continue somehow.
The solution I came up with for this problem was to save the film file onto a hard drive and make the characters in the film watch the 'film' using a laptop instead of a TV. This change would not have a big impact on the film overall since I could easily and quickly redo the scenes with the TV, since they were also located in my house.

2) Memory card with no space: The second problem I was faced with was that half way through filming one of the scenes, the memory card run out of space. At first I tried to see whether there were any clips from our previous scenes which were already saved on the hard drive, that could be deleted from the memory card. Unfortunately there were none. Luckily I remembered that my normal camera had a memory card with a lot of space available for me to film since it was 8GB. Finding my camera didn't take long so I was able to restart filming quickly.

3) Laptop with no battery: The last problem I had to resolve was that, since I had to make a last minute change from using a TV to using a laptop, I did not have time to charge my laptop enough for it to last the amount of time needed for the scenes it would be a part of. This caused the laptop to turn off during the filming for the shot where Rebecca is watching the film on the laptop. Despite having to restart that shot, no other problems took place regarding the laptop since the charger was close by and the shot could be redone quickly since it wasn't very long and included no dialogue.

FEEDBACK: Film Practitioner

Overall feedback and my response:
Pros:
+ Some shots allow the film to feel more realistic for example the shot of the feet walking.

+ Enjoyed the cuts from one shot to the other that follow Rebecca while she walks around the house.

+ Likes the voyeuristic feel present in the shots where Rebecca is being watched by something in the cemetery.

+ Liked the traditional dialogue found amongst found footage films which our film also incorporates. e.g "why are you filming for"," turn off the camera". (This is something I also noticed when I watched TBWP since the main character's friends got annoyed at her filming their journey through the woods using her personal camera in addition to the professional camera and kept telling her to "turn it off" and "stop filming!" ).
+ No problems with the sound.
+ Liked how we went into a bit more detail by applying the fake blood onto our main character.

Cons:

- The transitions made up of the 50s TV and static effect used to cut from one shot to the other works well with the film within the film but not with the film where hand-held camera isn't used.(I followed his advise and removed these effects from the shots outside of the film within the film. After doing this I found that the scenes flowed better and looked better as well. However I kept the effect during the close-up shot of the DVD in order to make the object seem lifeless, without colour and reflect how the DVD will bring death).
- Add more cuts instead of zooms to make the shot more awkward and create impact.

Modifying the Newspaper

After changes were made to the story-line of our movie, we needed to modify the news article on the newspaper present in one of the scenes. Since I will be re-filming my shot, I was given the task of making the necessary changes.

The news headline was the first thing I changed, before it stated that the teenagers were victims of 'death,' but this gave the idea that all three of them are dead which was suitable only for the previous story-line. However after the changes were made, I changed the title to 'mysterious attack' which broad and gives more room for interpretation.

The second change made was to the opening sentence of the article. The previous sentence claimed that three teenagers had been found dead, however since Amber is now the killer, the article needed to make it clear to the reader that she was still alive which is why the new sentence states that she is 'missing'.

'Two teenagers have been found dead and one remains missing after allegedly watching a homemade horror film'.

The third change I made was to the statement given by one of the victims' mother. The old statement was given by Amber's mother who expressed her thoughts on her daughter's death, but since she didn't die, I changed it to Kevin's mother instead, since he did die.

“It’s not just video games anymore, people have now began to turn film fiction into reality”- Ms Ahmed, 37, expressed her suspicions over the motive behind the murder of her son.”

The fourth change I made was to the character's surnames. The previous names (Reed and Taiwan) weren't very realistic since most of our actors are from an asian background and the surnames used didn't reflect that. We wanted to keep the first names because we already filmed the scenes where the characters address each other with them. Instead we fixed the problem by giving them asian surnames, with the exception of Amber who isn't asian and Kevin who's name was later changed to Bob as requested by the actor who played this role.
'Bob Begum and Kevin Ahmed’s body were found at the local cemetery.'

The last modification made was that I added the following sentence to the article: 'Amber Alves’s whereabouts has yet to be identified.' I did this in order to once again address the fact that Amber is missing and provide the article with a cliffhanger which ties in with the fact that the audience we find out what happened to Amber, what she is doing  and where she is.  

The final Newspaper

ACTORS CONTRACT: Another New Addition to the Cast

This is the contract signed by a new actress that has joined our film. Her addition was decided after a slight change in the script occurred as a result of Na'ilah Firdaws's withdrawal from the production. This change involves replacing the mother character with the sister character instead, which is the role that this actress will be playing.

FEEDBACK: Sample Audience

The first video shows my classmate reacting to the scenes I have edited so far. This is not the finish product so some of the shots are not in the correct order and some sound effects haven't been added yet.

The second video shows my classmate reacting to the scenes my partner Anika has edited.

Overall feedback and my responce:
Pros:
+ Liked the handheld camera effect and camcorder border- She was able to spot the blair witch project inspiration.
+ Complimented the actress for her acting when doing the handeld camera shot.
+ Enjoys the fact that the identity of the killer is left unknown until the end of the film. This allows the audience to be surprised and shocked when they find out that Amber is the killer.
+ The highlight of the film, which is the dragging scene worked well.

Cons:
- Beginning dialogue appeared to not be planned in advance as it did not flow. (The actors were required to improvise the beginning section, since we needed to create the image of them interacting with eachother.In this case the fact that the dialogue doesn't flow very well, will not effect the film since not the whole conversation will be audible.)
- The torches on the trees cannot be seen very clearly. It might be a good idea to add the spotlight effect onto the torches in order to focus the audiences' attention to where they are and make it easier for them to be spotted.

FEEDBACK: Sample Audience

Pros:
- Liked the scenes of Rebecca being watched by the antagonist since it showed "stalker-ish signs." This shows that when editing this scene I was able to successfully incorporate the voyeurism theory into my film using the POV effect.
- Thinks that there was a good use of sound effect in the shot where the antagonist turns his head. When editing this scene I tried to synchronize the sound with the movement of the antagonist.
- Shots were clear. They looked like they had been carefully planned out. When filming the walking scenes I knew that I would want to switch between the position of the camera in order to show different views of the character walking such as the side, back and front view.

Cons:
-The last killing scene isn't dramatic enough.