Final Reflection

I am glad to have worked on the film opening for “Lost” with my partners Logan White and Felipe Marcan. When I was first given the option between a film opening and a magazine spread, I was initially considering the magazine. I had faith in my writing skills but I felt like I needed to challenge myself and stimulate my creative side, so I joined Felipe and Logan in their quest to create a film opening.

We first began doing research on various genres that we could have worked on within our film opening. I did research on the comedy genre and the horror genre. Although I found both intriguing the horror genre had clearer conventions to stick to, which would have better helped guide us through our filming process. While doing research on the horror genre, however, I encountered the thriller genre. Early on in the research process, we knew that we did not want to fall into certain cliches so we opted out of dealing with supernatural forces. After discovering the thriller genre, I found that it fit quite well with our ideas and intentions. The thriller genre is also very similar to the horror genre, as both types of films aim to create suspense and give viewers the adrenaline rush they crave. Because of this, we decided to incorporate aspects from both genres to give the film opening a unique twist that would still accomplish its purpose.

When choosing filming locations, we knew we wanted to film at Markham Park, a wooded area with dense trees and shrubbery; we felt like the ambiance created in this area was perfect. While we originally planned to shoot a film about a group of friends going camping, we came to the realization that the film would require too many characters and night filming, which were both major issues that stopped us from choosing this plot. Instead, we decided to create a film in which a boy goes mountain biking with his friend. When the inexperienced boy falls and crashes, he wakes up to find all his items gone and a scary message. We also filmed part of the opening in a vacant house in which nobody had lived before. The cleanliness of the house was able to capture the feeling of “too good to be true”, which is what we were going for. Paired with lowkey lighting and edits in postproduction, our film opening was able to generate suspense through its use of colors and setting alone. We also utilized various film and editing techniques to subtly build up suspense throughout the film as well. We used a lot of slow panning and tilting to establish an eerie vibe, made sure to include music and sound that exacerbated the scariness of the film opening, and also included no sound at all for some parts, as used in the film “Be Quiet”, to further establish a suspenseful and scary mood. We also shot some scenes from high angles, subconsciously implying that the protagonist, Chase, was inferior or powerless. Near the end of the film opening, we decided to use various dutch angles and camera unsteadiness to increase the effect of uneasiness and suspense, and to leave viewers questioning what they saw.

We decided to play around with various conventions of both the thriller and the horror film genre. A staple of the thriller genre, made famous through Alfred Hitchcock’s films, is the close-up. We made sure to include some close-ups throughout the film opening, especially when Chase realizes that he got himself into a terrible situation. We often paired the close-ups with lingering shots and long takes to emphasize that something may go wrong in the future, such as in the post-it note shot. We also utilized quick cuts to ensure that the audience can follow the action. When paired with an over-the-shoulder shot, it allows for an immersive film that is key in the production of both a horror film and a thriller film. A very common shot in the horror genre is the Dark Voyeur POV shot, where a scene is filmed through branches or trees to make a character appear more vulnerable to the threat. We made sure to include this when Chase makes his first encounter with the antagonist. While we opted to follow various genre conventions, we decided to challenge some as well. In a horror film, when a character has a mental or physical disorder it is almost always portrayed as a detriment to the character’s abilities and well being. In our case, we decided to use various subtle shots and angles, particularly the long takes, to hint at the fact that our character has OCD. As seen later on on the opening, what happens to Chase has nothing to do with his mental illness, although it may negatively affect him later on in the film, it is not portrayed as detrimental in the film opening. What we aim to do with a film like this is to discard the stigmas and stereotypes associated with mental illness. With the way we tried to do this, we hope to introduce the idea that one living with an ailment can live a day-to-day life in a subtle and almost subconscious manner. Another convention we decided to follow in horror films is that of authority. In our film, Chase finds himself in the situation he is in when his mother isn’t home. Usually, children and teenagers are more likely to try things out of their comfort zone when their parents aren’t around. In this case, that leads to a disaster. In the 2017 film IT, no parents were seen when the kids get into trouble, and parents are not a big part of the film at all. We decided to follow convention as we find it to be an important element of the genre that adds to its scariness.

We plan to release our product on various free video-sharing sites such as YouTube, Vimeo, and on my blogging site. We may also tease the opening on our Instagrams and prompt followers to watch it on one of the video-sharing sites mentioned above. In a digital age, it is important to have an important presence online, as 96% of 18-24 year-olds who use the internet also use YouTube. We believe that our produce appeals to this age demographic not only because it contains elements from both the horror film and the thriller film but also hosts young actors that the audience may be able to relate to. We made sure to gradually build up suspense through the use of long takes, close-ups, dutch angles, and POV angles to truly immerse the viewer into our film. The film also involves an action sport, mountain biking, which is not seen much in films today. Lastly, we hope that an increasingly open and understanding generation will be able to relate to the fact that those with mental illness can still live normal lives, and they should not be seen as outcasts.

My production skills have improved greatly on this filming adventure. I learned how to use a somewhat professional camera, a Steadicam, set up a tripod, and manipulate the focus and exposure of a camera to get the shots my groupmates and I wanted. Most importantly, my editing skills have improved greatly throughout the film. I learned how to manipulate the colors of a shot in post-production, and learned what contrast, saturation, and hue all were. While I learned some of this through YouTube tutorials and the internet, I found that I learned the most by experimenting myself. What I found very entertaining in the editing process was having to layer different bits of audio and getting them to match perfectly with each other and with the video clip. One thing I did have trouble with, though was timing the cuts. Sometimes I would cut a shot too early or too late, and it made the progression of the film opening seem unnatural and forced. The last thing that this whole experience taught me was how to let the creative area of my brain roam free. Early on in the filming process, I had the mentality that we needed to film certain shots at certain angles and then get out. As we became more accustomed to filming, we began to make minor tweaks, asking ourselves, “what if we film it from this angle instead”. I realized that the filming process is subject to change, and if you have a good idea for a shot, it doesn’t hurt to film it anyway, it does not mean that the shot will make it to the final product. It is for this reason that we played around with various shots and angles so that we could build up a “video bank” of possible shots for the same scenario. This made the editing process more dynamic and fail-proof.

The integration of technologies was essential throughout the entire process of the production of the “Lost” film. We used various different filming devices to achieve the shots we wanted. When we wanted a still, eerie shot, we used a Sony film camera mounted to a tripod that had three-way mobility. When we wanted to film POV shots, we either used a DJI OSMO, a gyroscopic “Steadicam-like” camera, or we used the Sony film Camera without the tripod. When we wanted an extreme close-up, where we can manipulate the focus, we used the iPhone 10’s high-quality camera. The extensive use of the internet throughout our project really helped us find out which shots made people more scared; we even learned a little bit about psychology and how the human mind gets scared. WeVideo was our savior when it came to video editing. The web-based video editing software allowed for my groupmates and me to edit on any device at any time. We were also able to work on the project simultaneously, which was a great productivity boost. Another resource that was of great use to us was http://audio-extractor.net/. This website allowed us to separate the audio files from the video files, as we filmed some scenes with a microphone attachment. Once the audio was separated from the video, we could manipulate it better and produce cool shots like the first one in the film opening. Although this entire journey was a bit rough at times, I actually enjoyed the filming and editing process; I felt like I was creating a product in which I had full control of. I felt almost like an artist, and I thought I hated art. This project provided me with another type of mental stimulation, different from the hours of math homework and reading about the mitochondria. I hope that one day I will be able to put my production techniques to the test and possibly create an entire short film or documentary.