Friday 1 April 2011

Evaluation Part Two:After Completion of Film. Sancha

By Sancha O'Donnell

7. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?




This screen grab from GarageBand shows how we tried to allow the opening title sequence to grab the audiences attention. It's fast paced flashing images in the nightmare needed a lot of integrated noises to help enhance the intensity of the nightmare. Including church bells, recorded whispering from myself and Sarah, serena swirl, aura bells, orchestral strings, a jazz organ and a creepy little laugh. These clash together but work so well because when the video intensifies with the girl tossing and turning in bed, the sounds emerge more to become more stranger and surreal. With the orchestral strings and the jazz organ echoed slightly so that when she wakes up it's still very strange. The moment when she wakes up it was more intense to have it silent, as the contrast from all the noises in the dream is like a violent awake into reality, with only the genuine creaks of the floor boards she walks on.
Stigmata being our source of inspiration, in the trailer above it shows how they used various different eerie sounds with symbolic chanting, which captures the attention of the viewer with it's mysteriousness. Inspiring us to try and replicate the same depth with the same approach.

As the impact of the shots in the film are quite high, (like the image above a bloody dagger in a sink,) a vast amount of instruments are needed to create the same impact aurally.


The church bell links to the Biblical references that are made throughout the film, yet it creates an eerie feel with the desolate gongs. The technology of GarageBand allowed us to be more creative with the keypad facility as we could make it rhythmical in the scene. This is very realistic to how church bells would be rung in a church and thus more realistic in our film and intense.



The whispering of myself and Sarah is essential to bring us in as the threat at the beginning. Cleverly we are chanting the verse from  the Bible at the time she wakes up at,  which is Acts 10:38, combined with another Bible verse of Deuteronomy 32:17 as the chant needed to be longer and the words fit well with the religion and satanic imagery. We then used our whispering to add to the intensity.

Blogger allowed the group to keep upto date with one another during the planning process, improving our control over the film making process. Imovie helped us to be more creative, we could cut and edit the different shots as we pleased and add effects. The Imovie structured our film and each week it was clear to see what needed re-shooting and what bits of the film needed something more scary to happen.


9. Final Question- What was your contribution to the process during the planning, production and post production stages?

During the planning stages we all made an equal contribution to the sheets and how everything should be done, it was good because as a team we helped and supported one another. We had to change the idea of the film at the beginning and I was inspired by the film Stigmata and told the group about the little ideas that we could use from the movie to create our satanic film, including the crying blood statue and just the subtle satanic images throughout.
During the production I became the person who made sure the group was organised to come together to film. During the filming I used my knowledge as an actress to help give input into how our actress should act, directing her and giving inspiration to the way she reacts on camera. I especially liked working with the camera to capture a shot, whilst trying to capture the essence of the horrorific atmosphere that we had created. I also did the beginning sequence shots capturing the satanic clips, it allowed me to be creative with the chalk on the floor and the angel crying. Myself and Sarah, also did the make up on the actress' body as she has hieroglyphics on her arms, alongside doing our own make up and costume with the shots of us as witches.


 Post production stages myself and Sarah had focused upon the soundtrack for the film, we converged our recorded whispering with various sounds, whilst making sure that it went with the film. However I did give great input into how the film should be edited and what works and doesn't. Overall I believe my significant amount of input into the project really made the film look of an appropriately high standard.

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